Author's Note: Hello you wonderful and sexy people. I have a few things to mention before you decide to read this fiction, so please bear with me. First, I have rated this as M, because of the flagrant use of "adult language" and violence. I am not a smut writer, but there will be a dash of that in future chapters. It will not be graphic and I have written with it considerable caution. Mostly though it's a lot of cussing and violence. Secondly, the main character, Charlie, is Jewish. If you have a problem with Jewish people, I do not recommend this fic. If you are very devout and orthodox, well I hope you will forgive me. I am not and neither is Charlie. We are both of the Reform-borderline Atheist variety, though I must stress that there are no political/religious statements made in this fic. It's simply a fact about her personality and heritage. Anyways, the last thing I would like to mention is that this is definitely not a self-insert. Charlie is a character who has been rattling around in my head for a while now and I finally put to paper. There are certain similarities, but that's only because I'm writing what I know. And I know a lot about growing up in a loud Jewish family in Florida. :) So I hope you enjoy and I will gladly accept any criticism or comments, as this is my first piece to be shared with the world and I am well aware of my literary failings.
"Son of a bitch", Charlie swore, "That fucking little demon kid … and his stupid fucking face."
Charlie stared at the small child's stupid fucking face.
Correction, she thought, His stupid fucking holographic face.
Charlie was tired or, for the sake of being completely accurate, she was exhausted. She truly had no energy reserves left. Nicotine had run out, as had caffeine. She ran a hand through limp greasy hair, exhaled explosively, and took stock of her current physical condition. Her back felt bowed and stiff, her hands were permanently curled and cramped, more than small movements sent pain scorching up her arms, and her eyes (Oh god her eyes) were swollen, red, and gritty she could barely even see anymore. Charlie hip was stiff, but not painful. However she was well aware that it would make her pay for it later.
Shit, her attention snapped back to the child, he's still talking.
Well, at least, I can finally get some answers.
Charlie listened to the child, well Catalyst, drone on and on. And. On.
Yes, yes, I figured most of this out already. Just get to the good stuff.
When the stupid-demon-Catalyst-child finally finished talking, he left her with three options. None of them were particularly appealing and this definitely felt like a "lesser of two or three evils" decision. Control, Synthesis, or Destruction; they all had major flaws, not the least of which was that they all ended with her demise.
So I'll pick the one that causes the least bad. Synthesis. At least the geth and EDI will get a happily ever after.
"Brutal Calculus." She whispered to the room.
"Shit, Calculus!" A quick glance at the clock confirmed her suspicions of the impending doom of her Advanced Calculus exam.
God forbid I'm late, Tim will wet himself.
Snickering at the thought of her best friend's panic attack, she directed her character to middle of the room and watched the scene unfurl.
"Well that was properly dramatic." Charlie quickly saved the game and slowly stood to crack her back.
She had about ten minutes to change and hit the road. She wasn't exactly in a hurry though. Feeling strangely accomplished at finishing the trilogy of games, Charlie stumbled around the room trying (and failing) to quietly put clothes on. Charlie had never been accused possessing grace though. Her attempt at putting jeans on ended with her just barely managing to catch herself on the metal bar attached to the wall.
Well that could have been a lot worse.
She eventually did manage to get her pants and leaned over her not-really-conscious boyfriend and gave him a kiss.
"Hey sleepy" She whispered, "That's some rank morning breath."
Justin's undoubtedly eloquent retort was somewhat hindered by him forgetting how to speak.
"Indeed, love, but I've really got to go. I'll see you tonight … at some point … when I get out." Charlie's sentence was broken by disgusting yet sweet kisses from Justin.
Justin attempted speech one more time before latching on to her arm and pulling her into bed.
Now running completely late, Charlie started her van's engine with a silent prayer and backed out of her driveway. Thankfully Justin had wiped away all thoughts of Mass Effect and that left her brain to quietly turn over memorized theorems most of the way to class. She pulled into the driveway of Tim's apartment complex and gave him a call. He had actually called her a few times already, but Charlie really hated to answer her phone. As someone who was perpetually late, she didn't like to give accounts of her whereabouts. It was much easier to just drive little faster or forgo a shower to make up lost time.
"Tim, darling, you've got five minutes to get that sweet ass out here. I'm not stopping, just slowing down a little. Move it, soldier!" She giggled at Tim's flustered and indignant yelling at her and chucked the phone onto the passenger seat without hanging up. She parked her van in front of the apartment stairs and looked sweetly at Tim's enraged face bouncing down the steps. He opened the door and threw her phone at her without looking down at the seat out with the ease of habit.
After he slammed the door and Charlie had started driving again he turned to her, "Where have you been for the past two days?"
Charlie grimaced at the road. "Uh … studying?"
She fixed him with a wry grin, "You know that there this a test today … right?"
Tim shook his head, closed his eyes, and said, "Which game?" He had known Charlie for far too long to not know the only reason she would disappear for days, especially if they were weekdays.
She gave him a look. "I didn't get a game. I was working … I uh got called in. You know that goy manager is always on my ass."
Tim's head snapped to her with a look of smug satisfaction and chuckled, "You should never play poker. You cuss all the time, but you don't hide behind the torah unless you're lying."
Charlie's face scrunched up and had an accusation of Tim's antisemitism on the tip of her tongue, when he cut her off.
"Actually I don't care. Did you get to problem 13.4?"
"All done with the banter then? It's been two days since I've seen you, Tim. You know I need this."
"Char", Tim said sharply, "The test is now … we'll banter later."
Charlie sighed, "Fine which one is 13.4?"
The campus was beautiful with landscaped lawns and architecturally stunning buildings. Charlie, however, rarely walked the beautiful paths and tended to stay in the back corner of the campus where the tiny Mathematics department was sandwiched between the even smaller Physics department and the slightly larger Computer Science department. The school was primarily an Art, Music, and Liberal Arts university. Though the Engineering department was gaining some steam. Charlie unrepentantly referred to majority of student's degrees as MRS degrees, with the superior smugness that comes with having personally chosen a "hard science" degree. Pure Mathematics with a double major in Computer Science (which she claimed she only like for the theory classes), Charlie may be intelligent, but she made no effort to hide her smugness about it.
If it wasn't for the fact that she would schedule bi-weekly study sessions with more than half of her classes in attendance and the fact that she made every effort to make sure they all passed, she may have taken more grief for her attitude. However, she was surprisingly friends with most of the people she met, even though her "banter" with friends frequently bordered on abusive.
Charlie had not had many friends before she got into college and was a borderline recluse in high school with a single exception. Rugby. She put a gross majority of her time into the sport during her teen years and between work outs and doing increasingly immature things with her mates she was not quite sure how she graduated at all. However, Florida has never exactly been the shining star of education in the states. Charlie would give a lot of things to continue playing the sport, but after a particularly hairy injury involving a 300 lb beast of a woman and her shattered right hip that wasn't much of an option.
Charlie had politely declined the leg brace, but was then politely told to stuff it and it was forced on her anyway. Even with the pronounced limp and the more than just a little muscle mass turned to soft tissue, she was still impressive looking. At 6'1, she didn't really look up to many people. Charlie's overall build was due in large credit to her grandfather's German heritage, with her broad shoulders, long legs, and blue-gray eyes. However, she quite happily had stolen her Jewish grandmother's light olive skin, black curly hair, and obscenely large eyes. Okay she had gotten the nose as well, but with so much damage the poor thing had taken over the years; that was hardly genetics fault.
Charlie awkward gait through campus came to a slow in front of the building. "You go ahead. I want to finish this." She said to Tim, as she took another drag.
"Nah I'll stay here." Tim shuffled about nervously staring at the building.
Charlie laughed her friend's duress and plopped rather ungracefully on the bench. She turned her attention to staring at whatever new monstrosity shamelessly art called by some senior student, had found its way to the courtyard. At first she was convinced that it was perfectly hideous. At least twice her height and made out of some solid black stone. The stone was buffed to a perfect sheen. It was just a pillar, a large triangle prism. There was something so wrong about it, though. Charlie didn't know exactly what it was, but it bothered her.
Maybe the dimensions are wrong?
She hobbled over the structure to solve the mystery, because she knew that there was no she was going to focus on her exam if she didn't figure it out. When she was just a few feet away from it, she stopped. She heard a buzzing like a hum, but more aggressive. Charlie's skin prickled as it felt like the sound was permeating her flesh. It wasn't loud enough to be causing this feeling, she knew that. Charlie had been in enough bars and stood in front of enough bass speakers to know that there was no way her body should be reacting this way to such a soft sound.
"Maybe this is something from the Physics lab? Soundwave blah-blah-blah machine?" She whispered the words or maybe she didn't even say them aloud. Whatever this was it was intoxicating. She took another step forward.
Charlie didn't think she moaned, but it was entirely possible. The force should have knocked her over, but it felt like it was supporting her, helping her. It wasn't obtrusive or constricting, it was soothing like being carried by a warm ocean. The thrumming was more intense here almost violent, but she found that she loved it. It was getting difficult to feel her extremities, but "Fuck it" she thought it was bliss.
"Shit!" Charlie yelped as her fingers were burnt. She quickly dropped the cigarette and stuck her fingers in her mouth. The pain didn't make the thrumming stop, but did force it to the back of her mind. She shook her head and decided to reexamine the pillar. It definitely didn't feel wrong this close up, it felt decidedly right. It was odd though. She could not figure out what it was made of. Definitely not stone as she first thought. It might have been metal, she mused as she slowly circled the pillar, but no there are no seams .
I don't care how good of a welder you are … you can't build something so … perfect.
She stopped abruptly. Charlie stared at a portion of one the faces, it looked ever so slightly dulled. There was a pattern to it, as well. As if a hand had deliberately traced a looping calligraphy.
Charlie hesitated only for a second before moving her hand to follow the tracing. She was surprised to discover that the metal was warm to the touch and that the tracing was actually a slight groove in the pillar. It wasn't carved in, but it was as if it had been worn down over time by a much larger hand. As she followed the grooves the thrumming shifted and instead of what could be considered background noise, it suddenly gained a rhythm almost like music. She tried to drag it out, to slow her hand so that the music lasted for a longer time. She knew when she reached the end that it would stop and she was positive that her everything would end. The desperate madness took her mind and then was eased slowly away by the thrumming. There were no thoughts, no self, no Charlie, just this just the music. As her fingers finished their delicate dance across the surface, she knew that she moaned then. When the blackness took her, she welcomed it.