A/N: I wrote this for all LiS-fans (even for those, who don't know ME). The sci-fy game was mostly an inspiration for the background and lends some of its names and inventions. Therefore all ME-references and character backgrounds will be explained at the end of every chapter (marked with '*').
None of them will be that important, that they don't explain themselves, anyways, though. The only one, worth mentioning right away is the following:
In this story Chloe is an asari*
This lets the usual Pricefield become an interesting, different relationship, only possible in the ME-universe.
If you're interested, be graciously welcomed to proceed...
Parts of featured content belong to Bioware/EA and Dontnod/Square Enix
Mass Effect is Strange: 'Common Memories' pt.1
"The commanding officer is signing off from duty. X.O. Chase..., you have the deck."
Chloe watched how Max ended her call without waiting for an answer from her Executive Officer. The Brunette moved away from the speaker and crossed the small room whilst stretching and bending the muscles of her back and neck. She could feel the burdening weight of the responsibility of command drop off from her while she approached her blue companion. The latter still lay stretched out comfortably on their shared berth and observed the younger one stooping down at the other side of the bed, in order to pull off the boots of her uniform. Her dog tags dangled eagerly from her neck in the process.
"I can't stop being astonished by how much you have grown up." The asari remarks to Max. Her left hand gave her head a slight upward tilt so she could take a peek at Max. She smiled as she catched a look at the human's face while the woman lay down to Chloe's right once again. Max actually tried to hide from her that her face had lit up reddish by a blush, so common to humans when they are sheepish or feel embarrassed by anything. Chloe usually found this reaction awkward: Why do they suffer high blood pressure in their faces when confronted with these things? But when it happened to her young friend it seemed kinda adorable. In secret Chloe was proud of herself to still possess the power to make the now Commander of the Systems Alliance* blush.
"Now stop being that way already!" Max replied with a shy giggle, but still looked away towards the starboard window and into the stars outside.
"What!?" Chloe asked obliviously keeping the smile at her companion.
"Well,..." Max started as she now stared at her own feet "...It sounds weird when you say things like that... It's almost as if you were a distant relative to me, like my grand aunt or sorts of." she explained slowly.
"Heh! What's that supposed to mean?" The blue girl tried playfully to sound offended. "I might be older than you, but I'm pretty sure we two are not related. Goddess, we don't even look akin."
Max rolled her eyes but couldn't help but giggle at the last obvious statement. She looked back at Chloe's even increased smirk now and asked with a lifted eyebrow:"Older than me? Chloe, I think you're even older than my grand grand parents! You're literally not even from this century! And also not from the century before this one!"
"So?" Chloe asks slightly bewildered by the last word.
"Like, ... your birthday was 1994..." Max paused after emphasizing this date like it was a terribly improper number"...and today is the year 2183. These are even two completely different millennia. I'm not even sure if digital media was already invented back then..."
Max finished her illustration still with a sheepish grin on her face. She turned her head at her neighbor now in expectance for an answer, which she got:" Well, not by your people anyways... But what's it to me, when you guys smashed each other's heads with wooden clubs, while I could enjoy holodeck entertainment and holiday voyages to the citadel*?"
Max finally couldn't hold her delightful laugh back at the imagination of Chloe's accurate interpretation of the prehistoric Homo Sapiens. And vice versa the sound of her laughter also improved Chloe's already immaculate mood.
Once the Commander catched her breath again she added "I don't think it was that bad on Earth* back then." Afterwards she resumed her view out of the window together with Chloe this time. Her right palm gripped her dog tags while her other rested on her stomach.
For a few moments they both just lay there next to each other, gazing out of the window and into the passing by stars. The Blackwell* slowly continued her orbit as the planet below them came in sight. On the dayside they could see just how much ice and snow covered the enormous pole caps of this heavenly body, merely beeing able to differentiate ice from clouds. Only towards the equator climate reached temperature levels high enough to allow dozens of dark blue seas and lakes to scatter the vast green-brownish forests so typical for Arcadia*.
When the ship shifted into the night cycle of the planet they were able to observe the spectacular scene of the aurora from high above. It shimmered beneath them in bright green and much farther southward than it could be seen back on Earth. It effectively embraced the entire upper third of Arcadia's northern hemisphere, dancing back and forth to a melody both of the observers could only divine, out here in the endless vacuum of space.
As the planet shifted even further underneath them, they finally could spot the only evidence of mankind's existence on the otherwise serene and peacefully untouched surface of this heavenly body. It lay next to the largest ocean almost exactly on top of the equator, where actually reasonably mild temperatures were achieved throughout the year. Once the city of Arcadia was easy to make out during nighttime, since it always had been the only spot on the entire planet that was permanently lit up by artificial light. But today the city had shrunken down to a mere shadow of its past brightness, barely recognizable as a tiny yellow dot in the otherwise complete blackness, which covered up the rest of the planet.
And as it happened it was the place both of them, Max and Chloe, called their home. For each of them in a different way. But they both knew it would always be their home. Because of the enchanting and most beautiful memories, that were founded within this very place. For Max anyways since she was born here, but even so for Chloe as she -so it felt like for her- came first to life here as well...
"Max?" The asari broke her gaze and the silence after quite some time watching.
"Hm?" Max slowly turned her head also letting loose of her stare and looking in Chloe's blue eyes instead.
Chloe reached up to Max's hand and held it in hers while she said: "Do you, um..., do you remember the first time we met?" She could tell Max was surprised by this question out of the blue.
"Um..." The brunette had to clear her throat before she continued "Actually... no. Now that I think of it..." for her Chloe had always been part of her life. It felt like she was like an old sister, one to whom she could look up to and could expect support anytime she needed. And that since ...ever, basically. At least until Max left Arcadia heading for Earth.
"Well... I do. Would you like to hear it? Chloe asked quietly with a nostalgic looking face Max never had been seeing until then."It would just, I dunno, explain my 'awkwardness' from before."
"Why would I not wanna like hearing that story? It sounds like the most important detail in my life." Max replied with an encouraging smile towards her childhood friend.
"Er... I dunno, it's just... we never actually talked about this 'important detail'. Chloe winked to her mate while citing her." So... you know I was journeying a lot before I ended up on Arcadia, right?" She waited for her auditor to nod before she continued "Well, the last thing I was doing was travelling with a bunch of Quarians* on their pilgrimage and uh... It was just around when you humans settled in on the citadel so... since I got sick of those masked geeks anyways, and I had already seen most of the other species' homeworlds, and Batarians* fucking freak me out, I decided to hit on Earth." Her staring wandered through in the whole room, never resting on one place for too long especially not Max's eyes, while still holding her hand and resting their both palms between them on the mattress.
Then she put on a little grin looking at the woman next to her again and playfully teased: "You know, saying 'Whazzup!' to the earthlings from outer space. Those strange unknown beings that -foresightedly as they are- thought, it would be a good idea to attack the galaxy's largest military apparatus, with previously mentioned wooden clubs they used on themselves before?"
Max let out a sigh of amusement at Chloe's joke*, but remained silent since she knew well Chloe was distracting.
As the latter realized Max wouldn't retort to her taunt she continued: "Erm... so basically I tried to hop on the next best cargo liner headed towards this new 'Alliance space', only to finding out its destination was the outmost human colony at the time - if not still today. A place literally nobody went that time, except those, who never planned on leaving again and wanted to stay there the rest of their lives." She paused for a second repenting what she just said before she continued a little quieter "Aaand...-as you might have noticed- exactly that kind of nobody was what I became here." Chloe trailed off after that, staring at her feet in deep thought and not being able to look Max in the eye.
"So?" Max asked slowly after a while pulling Chloe out of her stare "And how did we meet? That must've been more than twenty-five years by now?"
Chloe got out of her thoughts looking at Max shortly, who still listened patiently. She gave her a slow nod at the latter question before she continued with a sigh:" So I basically stranded in a dead end street: I still had credits* left, but obviously nobody would accept them, and even if, I would have had to wait until the next opportunity to leave again days later. In my desperation I started walking down the new budding colony, basically knocking on every door for a place to stay for a while."
"-And then you ended up at our door..." Max continued with barely more than a whisper, remembering the neighborhood of Arcadia City during her childhood. She realized that she also had begun staring at nothing now just like Chloe did before.
"You know it." Chloe agreed "Your parents were the first -and probably only ones- to welcome me into their home. Me! An absolute stranger. And an alien to them on top." Chloe's eyes got damp at the remembrance of Ryan and Vanessa, but still a smile on her face manifested.
She remembered how warm their home felt when they invited her in. A feeling she could not recall having had anytime before then. She couldn't believe how lucky she was that she found the supposedly one household on Arcadia, which had a single child, yet a house designed for a family with two children. Because they were just pre-built that way for easy transport and construction.
"And then there were you..." she continued with noticeably damped voice. Blinking away the wetness that had blurred her vision she looked over to Max once more. The woman still stared wholes into the ship's hulk. Her mouth slightly agape in the dreamy way Chloe always used to adore.
She pulled both their hands up closer to their faces and added her other palm as well, cupping Max's in both of hers now. She gazed at the backside of Max's hand in hers, again beholding how much she had changed during the last years. At least on the outside. In fact Chloe wouldn't see the brave warrior and strong leader, on whose side she had fought earlier these days, and rather this incredibly fragile and eager, little and pinkish being she tried to put in words right now.
By now she just spat out, what she remembered from this fateful first encounter: "You were all over me, from the second we first met, looking up at me in this childish awe... After all, I was the first alien you ever saw." she had to laugh a little at the last phrase even though it kinda felt more like a sob in retrospect." I remember you reached your hand up at me shaking mine as you introduced yourself to me, like it was the most normal thing in the world. Vanessa was totally baffled when you just dragged me along with you to your room to show me your toys." Chloe just kept on talking not able to put off this mushy smile, while her eyes just continued watering until they finally flooded over. "I didn't know how to react back then, but I know today, that I actually started to fall in love with you back then, in this moment... with the little you, always pulling me into your adventures with your spaceships and -pirates and -warriors." Chloe laughed, her tears rolling down her face right now, when she noticed that a flat palm was gently sandwiched between her own two. Unconsciously comparing the size of their hands just like they used to in the past..., only to realize that Max's seemed to have become slightly larger than hers since they last checked.
"So you stayed..." Max summarized absent-mindedly. She knew the ongoing story from there. All the time Chloe had talked she just stared here and there while so much of her childhood memories flashed back to her. And they are all wonderful memories. Max thought as she slowly intertwined the fingers of her hand with the ones on Chloe's right, effectively creating a beautiful pattern of alternating light-blue and peach-colored fingers. She wanted to calm Chloe, but had to restrain herself from tearing up as well by now.
"Well..., where should I have been going afterwards?" Chloe responded. Her voice got a little louder as she barely could hold up her voice from sobbing "I had no home, no family..., nowhere to go!" She had to force these words out at this point as her sobs and tears from all the years before her safe haven broke down on her. All those disappointments, all those denials and all those banishments! And she never actually thanked Ryan and Vanessa enough. For holding onto her, giving her this safety, this deep trust to even watch over their beautiful daughter, giving her this feeling like some needed her. This feeling like... home.
She continued, yet angrily now "And now I have nothing again... except for this shitty... frozen and... ruined pile of a planet!" She waved towards the window with her left as her strength to hold up what little attitude she had had until this point broke up in her crying.
"You still have me..." Max gently whispered shifting over to Chloe and taking her into her arms. She could feel the pain and the hurting her old friend suffered.
The asari gratefully accepted the embrace and buried her wet face into the shoulder of her friend's uniform, who balmily cradled her sobbing body.
Over Chloe's shoulder she could still observe Arcadia outside. With a new day starting it slowly lit up again leaving the darkness of the night behind. All the while Shambhala, Its sun, rose behind the awakening planet once more, shortly blinding her with its warm brightness, and flooding their intimate togetherness with light.
Max continued, whilst gazing into its rays with tearful eyes; soothingly but all the more determined: "You still have me! And we still have Arcadia! And we will save it!"
Mass Effect-references + explanations:
*Asari: A quite powerful species and people of blue, elegant and cool-headed 'women', living up to a thousand years. Pretty much the exact opposite of our Chloe, and the reason, why she wasn't accepted by her kind :( Also: asari resemble humans in such a great degree that their anatomy won't have any consequeces for this fic at any point.
*Systems Alliance: Aka. all humans/human government
*Citadel: Aka. enormous space station/city; 'capital' of the interstellar community of most aliens+humans (almost like High Charity (Halo), only in cooler ^^)
*Earth: A quite decent place, I bet you know it ;D
*Blackwell/Cruiser: For this story the SSV Blackwell is a veeery small, but still barely cruiser-classed spaceship ( I plan on adding a codex article )
*Arcadia: check out the codex-article i wrote about Arcadia for this one. You can (and honestly should) read it; it's going to be important for this story. ;D
*Quarian: More space folk, basically
*Batarian: Even more space folk; There's actually quite a bunch of them in ME ;D
*Chloe's joke/First Contact War: humanity's first encounter with aliens ended up pretty bloody... for the humans...
*Credits: I think you can guess what this is: MONEYZ!
Chloe's problem here was, that -I assume- no human colonist would accept the interstellar currency of a 'credit' back in 2158. Just guessing tho. Actually in a first version I wrote she simply didn't have money left, but then I came up with this litte fun fact ^^
All the above mentioned terms (including 'Arcadia', but excluding 'Blackwell' or 'Chloe's joke') can be looked up on the official ME-wiki anytime; or just ask me via review/PM, if anything remained unclear ;)
This is approximately the first half of the one-shot 'Common Memories'; There is a greater story behind this scene. It is covering, what is already going off on Arcadia, behind the scenes at the point of this one-shot. I'm not sure though if I'm going to find the time to publish the entire story. :/
I want to point out, that the cover-image for this fiction, is not my own: It is called 'Leaving Thessia ME3' by WolfCryi (DeviantArt). I feel terrible for using it, because I don't have a permission by its creator. But since I didn't get a response on my inquiry and have no other way of contacting her -and it just fits so DAMN well in this scene DX - I had to use it.
So, please, if anybody, by any chance, knows said artist or wants me to take her picture down, because it's not legally mine, let me know. I don't want to take credit for anybody other's work, even if they seemingly don't care about their awesome stuff anymore :(