Bourne:
There was at least good thing about Ty- he was only human, meaning that he needed as much sleep as anyone else. Whereas I only needed a few hours worth, and could get some time away from him.
And from Stripperella. I thought as I rubbed my cheek where she'd slapped me. And then had told me in no uncertain terms that if I didn't like my rank, I could get off the ship. Via the airlock- and not when we were docked either.
I shook my head to focus myself as I choose a program for the shooting range. It was labeled 'sniping practice'- which for Raptor had meant a pair of charging Krogan from 6 feet away. I was hoping that's what Cecelia meant by it as well. I sent my pistol into my hand and hit the start button.
I was suddenly face to face with the Krogan, and rather than trying to dodge, I threw a lift field that sent them both into the air. Two point blank explosive rounds were more than enough to finish them off- a second before the time limit ticked to zero.
I took no small satisfaction in having beaten it this time- when I had accidently used that program what felt like years ago, I hadn't even managed to take down their shields. It was a measure of how far I'd come since ending up there.
Except this isn't the same world I landed in. I've got Ty, an irritating "User", a renegade version of Raptor that seems bent on punching us as much as possible, and some all knowing AI trying to keep us alive, but at the same time make our lives living hell.
I angrily scrolled through the programs again, and choose one labeled "Onslaught."
I was greeted with the sight of a few hundred Batarians, and I let out a sound of pure rage as I charged into the middle of them. I battered them aside with biotics, I absorbed bullets with my Barrier, I shot them with whatever guns I took from their corpses- as Ty might have put it, I was in the Zone.
Finally, they managed to wear down my protection and one got a killshot. I was knocked to the ground, surrounded by the carnage before the holoprojectors shut off.
I lay on the ground a moment, letting myself recover.
Well, that was a workout. Might need to actually grab a biotic ration pack in the morning. I sat up, cracking my neck. Or possibly now.
Though my heart was pounding, and I was drenched in sweat, I felt more relaxed than I had in ages.
I glanced over at the treadmill, and shrugged as I got to my feet. I stripped off my armor and I set it for a slow pace, cooling off as I thought. It was the first time since waking up that I'd been able to be in utter solitude. The hum of the treadmill became background noise as I ran mechanically.
Alright, so the big question here is if I can trust Ty to release Hero, without also setting Iron loose. Apparently, the latter is coming no matter what, but if he managed to take over Ty's body, he'd be nigh unstoppable.
But the idea of having Hero back to back me up was not an unpleasant one. The extra power she could provide would definitely come in handy if the AI ramped up the difficulty- and considering the Krogan that had replaced the Salarians, I got the sense that it would do just that, and more often than I'd have liked.
And maybe she'd have some tips on how to avoid Cecelia's wrath. Or on how to deal with Ty. Or...well anything.
I stopped the treadmill, feeling my breathing speed up. I'd managed to avoid certain thoughts, but they'd started to pile on all at once.
Virmire, the Council, the Thorian, Benezia, every other thing I'd been forced through last time. I knew they were coming again, and I knew I wouldn't be able to avoid them either.
The knowledge that Ty would be there did little to help- it actually made it worse in a lot of ways. Half the reason I'd been able to make it through was reality warping in my favor- making me a Spectre, keeping Tali alive until I arrived, ect. But according to Danny, it could work against Ty, like back on Eden Prime.
Or the reverse was also possible, where the world would become all digital, and I'd be the outsider in Ty's matrix of a reality.
He'd all said that if we didn't work together, then the galaxy was doomed. Yet if we did work together, our different natures of existence might very well doom it just as surely.
"Do you need a paper bag or something Bourne?"
My nerves were on edge, and I instantly had my pistol pointed in the direction of the voice. I lowered it as soon as I realized it was Cecilia.
"Or are you just sleepwalking?"
I glared at her as I stored my gun. "I need a lot less sleep than a typical person."
"And is that why you were about to hyperventilate?" She asked sardonically.
"You know what, I'm not in the mood to deal with this." I went to move past her, but her arm slid smoothly in front of me as she smiled.
"What's the matter? Does the truth hurt?"I looked at her a moment before yanking her arm down and storming past her. "You know, if you are going to be a little bitch about it Bourne. You can always just quit."
I wheeled around, biotics flaring."Let's get something straight here- I don't quit. And I certainly don't let myself be lectured by someone like you." At that point, I was honestly hoping she would try to hit me for that- in my current state, I was sure I'd actually be able to block it if she tried.
She pulled a green bottle out from behind her back, "Relax, I just came down here to talk to you. Honestly, it is the first time we can talk without me having to keep up the hardass act."
I considered her words a moment before powering down, sensing she was genuine. "Any particular topic in mind?" I asked, trying not to look at the bottle. Assuming that Ty hadn't gotten to it, I could fake drunkenness while she actually lost some inhibitions. Which- assuming she doesn't start stripping or something- might mean I could get a real sense of her character.
She walked over to a crate and sat the bottle down on it. "Do you think we have a real chance at this?"
I tried to get a sense of her own opinion from her tone. She didn't sound pessimistic, but she wasn't all that confident either. After a moment, I walked over to where she was as well. "Well, that depends on how you define success. Because if you expect help from the Council... if they actually believe that a bunch of ancient synthetics are coming back to wipe them out before just that happens, I'd probably drop dead of surprise."
Smiling she replied, "No, I meant drink this bottle without Ty finding out and coming to join us."
I couldn't tell if she actually meant it, but I decided to go with it. "Depends on how fast we drink it." I said with a smile.
"Well, I figure we have some time since Garrus and Ashley are interrogating him in the medbay."
I didn't allow my surprise to show on my face- nor my worry, since I didn't even want to admit to myself that it existed. "About what?"
Shepard made a surprised face, "Oh, I'm sorry. I guess you missed him turning into a giant with a suit of magic armor."
"Back on Eden Prime, you seemed to just go with it. Hell, when I confronted you about it, your response was to swing at me." I tensed slightly in case she suddenly decided to actually pay me back for that.
"Again, hardass act. If I show any weakness, then most of the crew will start to lose moral. If that means someone can help us, I accept their help but have my gun ready for anything. What's the expression? Keep one hand armed and the other for a handshake."
I glanced at the bottle- some of it was already missing, and I had a fair bet where it'd gone. "I guess I can see where you're coming from, but I think that moral might also be affected by the fact that you can come off as-"
"As a crazy murderous bitch?" She said, mocking my words from earlier.
"Well...yeah, pretty much."
"Bourne, nobody cares if I am a crazy murderous bitch. They care that I am the crazy murderous bitch that is in control. Like that one guy from the movie series about pirates from the millenium years."
I chuckled. "You know, it's crazy how much you remind me of this other N7 I knew, yet are so completely opposite in other ways."
She smoothed her hair back and gave me a very outrageously sexy look. "Which one of us looks better?"
"I plead the fifth." That's another sign that I'm not as stupid as I used to be.
A chuckle came to her as she snatched the bottle off the counter, "I can still belt you one if you don't tell me, you know?"
I shrugged. "I didn't really look at her that way- she was more of a friend...also, she didn't exactly swing my way, if you catch my drift." Not like it's really private if its an alternate version of her.
Shepard began to laugh hysterically, "Ha, you got friendzoned by a lesbian?! How did it hurt when you realized she wasn't into you? Were you sad?"
"I was already in a relationship at the time, so it's not like I was after her. I was more surprised than anything because she started using an Asari as a pillow when she didn't realize I could see." I chuckled. "The funniest part was that she insisted that Asari only had the one gender, so they weren't technically women, and every time someone called her out on it, she went red as a tomato."
She cracked the bottle and took a swig, "Ha, they have hips, lips and everything in between. There is no way they are anything other than women."
"I said something similar." I gestured to the bottle, and she handed it over. I took a swig and laughed. "The funny thing was that someone else actually got friendzoned. You know, she was just being polite and he misinterpreted it, then someone spilled that the two of of them were already in a relationship...let's just say it didn't go well." My mirth faded as I remembered the aftermath of that conversation, and I took another swig, trying to keep my hand away from the scar Tali's knife had left in my arm.
Shepard leaned against the box and sat on it, "I know someone like that. Put him in his place yesterday to make sure I wasn't sending him the wrong messages."
It didn't take a genius to figure out she was talking about Alenko. Unless- "Yeah, maybe I should warn you that when Ty was looking up a few things about you, he may or may not have stumbled across your dating profile..." I hate to- okay, I really don't mind throwing him under the bus, but if he keeps acting the way he has, she's going to murder him.
She just waved me off and snatched the bottle away, "No worries, I like Ty. Seems to always look on the bright side. I can break his cheek and he will just be happy he has two."
I thought back to Chora's den, when he'd found out that he would have to do it all again- I was glad we'd finally found time to discuss exactly what "all" was. "I think in a way, he's putting on a mask too. You try to- scratch that, you completely succeed at seeming a hardass, and he tries to put a positive spin on things. Underneath that though, it's another matter."
"What? Never seen Ty's deepest darkest secrets? I'd expected you two to share a brain with how much you have talked in the last day and a half."
"Ugh, please never even joke about me sharing a brain with someone like him." I almost found the thought of having Iron back in my head more appealing.
Shepard took a long drink and then handed me the bottle. "You know, I think I like Ty better than you."
"What can I say? I'm a hard guy to like." I took a swig, though it was pretty clear I might as well have been drinking water for all the effect it was having. "I keep most people at a distance, I don't take shit from anybody, and hate dealing with idiocy. Plus, the whole 'no expression' thing tends to weird people out."
She looked at her omnitool, "Well, I guess that's all the time we have. I need to get back to sleep and make sure Ty hasn't killed anyone."
"If he did, it'd be by accident. I don't think he's in the same vein as you or me when it comes to killing. If we had to kill someone in cold blood-" I snapped my fingers. "But I'm not so sure that he would."
She looked at her omni-tool again, "Let's hope so, cause I just got a message from Chakwas and Garrus isn't going to be up in time for Therum."
I sighed. "I can't wait to hear what that dumbass did this time." Though at least it was Garrus he took down- no loss there.
Ty:
I stood across from Ashley, holding a syringe in her hand that she had been trying to stab into me just moments ago. Luckily, I had woken up before she did and fended her off. Now, Garrus was tazed and knocked out after he tried to help and she was ready to make a move.
"Hey, Ashley, got a poem for you. There once was an alliance bitch/ who tried to fight with someone wrong/ She didn't last long/ She is in now in need of a stitch/ Too bad for the alliance bitch."
She just shook her head, "That was the worse poem I've ever heard."
I activated my omni-tool and fired a cryoblast at her hand. It caught and froze the syringe, making it shatter in her hand, "Well, then go away. Or I will use more bad poetry."
She pointed her pistol at me in response. "The commander wouldn't be happy if I killed you, but that doesn't mean I can't wound you and have Chakwas patch you up."
"What am I even doing here? Why were you and Garrus carrying me? Where's the pie I have been craving since yesterday?"
"Shepard wants to know exactly how you keep warping your armor into something else. And she decided to have us bring you down here to talk about it." She shrugged. "I'm not really going to argue with her."
I deactivated my omni-tool and put my hands out, "The ability I have is incomprehensible to you. It would be like trying to explain to a dog, how to use the toilet. I just can't... Well, actually, I haven't tried that. I wonder if I could manipulate a dogs code and teach him. That would be something... but where would I get a dog?"
"Do I look like I'm in the mood for this type of crap? I already sent a message to Shepard, so she's probably on her way here. So it'll go a lot faster if you just start talking."
I sat back against a bed and looked at her, "How about we talk about you? I'm completely uninteresting and could use a distraction. Tell me about yourself, love, siblings, interest in poetry even. I can wait until Shepard gets here."
"If you're trying to flirt with me, you're failing pretty badly."
I put my hand to my chest and made a fake gasp, "Huh, me flirt with you? Never! Honestly, I just wanted to talk. I never got a chance to talk to you before..."
"Yeah, I wonder if that has to do with the hypnosis you used on Alenko and I. If it were up to me, you'd have been spaced as soon as we took off- or at least left there to for someone else to deal with."
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, "Okay, that's the problem Ash-can I call you Ash?- you guys were going to leave us there so I had to think quick. Can you blame me for self preservation? You after all were living by that for a few hours before Shepard arrived."
"You're comparing killing Geth to giving someone short term memory loss?" She shook her head. "You really should have just let Bourne handle it- he at least seemed to know what he was talking about."
"You don't even remember. Alenko was going all power crazy, just two seconds after Shepard was out and you weren't doing anything to stop him. I did what I had to do to get off that rock and live another day."
The doors slid open, cutting off her reply as Cecilia and Bourne walked in.
"What did you do this time?" Bourne asked, almost resignedly.
I smiled and shrugged, "Bourne, you remember what I told you happened last time I was held captive in a cell... by a turian." I finished by pointing to Garrus laying against the wall in a daze.
I doubted that he was really upset by that- saying he and Garrus hadn't gotten along was an understatement.
"You know, if you'd just explained it earlier, you wouldn't be-" He stopped, and turned to look at Shepard. "What is it about you that somehow makes me end up being good cop every bloody time? I should just be threatening him with severe violence if he doesn't wise up, not trying to talk him down or calm him down."
Shepard opened her mouth to say something but closed it immediately. She covered her mouth and did what looked like a hiccup before replying. "Don't worry, I got this."
She walked right up to me and I flinched, waiting for a punch but nothing happened. Instead, she pulled me in close and planted one right one my lips. It caught me by such surprise that I spilled everything about my powers.
"I am a being from a reality where this is a video game. The armors I use are ones from other games. The reason you see the energy that looks like ones and zeroes is because it is the matrix code for the game that I am manipulating. Wooh, I said too much."
Bourne facepalmed- hard. "You know, it's times like this I wish alcohol actually had the same effect on me that it did on other people." He glared at me with novas for eyes.
I put my finger up and called over to Bourne, "I can fix that."
Looking around everyone else was looking at me with their mouths open or like I was stupid. Except for Garrus, the floor was all he was looking at, with a lot of drool coming down the side of his mouth.
I pointed over at him and pointed. "Um, I think you better help him."
"Ty, I think you're the one that needs help. Serious mental help." Bourne's biotics flared along his arms.
I put my hand up and flipped him off, "Thanks for your support buddy."
He smiled sarcastically. "Any time. Shepard, give the word and he's out cold. "
Shepard shook her head and pointed at the door, "Everyone out, Chakwas needs to look at Garrus. And I need to sleep. We can continue this in the morning when I am not about to pass out."
I waved at everyone and walked to the door, "Bye, and I am going to lock my bed in a way that won't allow me to be carried off and injected by a syringe this time."
I made it to the pods, but just when I thought I was in the clear, Bourne appeared out of nowhere and bitchslapped me across the face. "Are you completely batshit fucking insane? Even Iron wouldn't have pulled something like that!"
I punched him in the gut in retaliation- though he barely reacted beyond clenching his fists and glaring. "I was carried off by a Turian and your girlfriend, I might have already been injected with that syringe, and I was controlled by a woman for four years. So excuse me if I screw up. Now, can I go to bed?"
His expression darkened, and his eyes blazed a moment, before both went back to normal. He took a deep breath, and finally nodded. "Alright. But we're going to talk about this in the morning- and for both our sakes, we better hope we can convince them that what you said was due to tiredness, or a head injury, or maybe the drugs." He turned to a nearby pod, opening it. "And if they don't... then we better hope you really are a god, because we're both going to need one hell of a miracle." He climbed in and reached up to close it.
I snapped and pointed at him, "Never said I was god."
"Then I guess we better start praying." He said, closing it before I could reply.
I just walked off toward the cafeteria and said just under my breath, "Sweet dreams, prick."
I grabbed a food portion out of the box and opened it. It was lasagna, or at least I thought it was lasagna. The side of the package said cheeseburger but inside the cheese burger packet was something resembling lasagna. I just shrugged and ate away.
I ate the entire bag, the side that came with it and was down to the pudding when one sad lieutenant came around the corner. "Hey."
My mouth was full so I raised my hand in pause to swallow. "What's going on Alenko?"
He sat down at the table and began to rub his head, "Damn headaches again. I'm a L2 and-"
"I know, you get headaches but it's not that bad if you consider your power output to the frequency and pain of it."
He wiped the sweat on his forehead and covered his eyes, "What I wouldn't do for some tinted shades."
I held a finger up and pressed down on one of the bags. It changed shape into the pair from Jack's alternate appearance, "There you go."
Kaidan picked up the glasses and slid them on, "Wow, this works perfectly. How the hell did you do that?"
Leaning back in my chair I replied, "It's a User thing."
Tali:
Tali watched the fifth scrub program scan through all the files. She couldn't believe that she was now on the most advanced ship in the galaxy and working on it. Even the job of running scrub programs seemed fun.
The program just finished and everything was finally falling into place. she just typed a few more commands and she was done for the night. Tali walked over to engineer Adams to tell him.
"Hello Adams, I just finished the scrub."
He looked over at her and then back to his console, "Okay, next in line will take over from here. Go catch some shut-eye before it gets too late."
She nodded and headed for the elevator that lead to the upper levels. Upon entering the bay, she saw the shooting bay at the far end, where Bourne was currently taking on two holographic Geth prime and coming out on top. Tali checked the time and saw that it was barely 6:00 in the morning- much earlier than she'd have expected anybody to be up.
He seemed to be trying to do something specific with them, since she saw a few opportunities where he could probably have taken them down. Instead he just kept dodging their attacks and keeping ahead of them behind cover.
As one of them got close, he stood up and hurled a singularity at it, keeping it from getting closer. Then he turned to its friend, and started glowing blue. Tali only saw a blue flash, and suddenly he was in front of the Geth, knife in either hand, stabbing it in the torso and ripping it open.
She felt a slight chill at the sight, though it passed a moment later, and she didn't know why she'd felt it in the the first place. He shoved his hand into the hollow torso, and Tali heard metal warping as he drew his hand out, turning back to the other one.
It seemed to try to follow him, but it stayed motionless as it slowly collapsed inward on itself before finally going offline with a loud crash.
It fell to the ground a moment later, leaving Tali unsure what exactly he'd done to it. She turned to see what he'd done to the other one, right as something exploded, and her visor darkened to protect her eyes from the flash.
When she could see again, the holograms had faded and Bourne was apparently looking for another simulation to run.
"I don't know how it works in Quarian culture, but with humans it's generally a bit odd to stare at someone for that long without saying anything."
She jumped slightly as his head turned towards her, having apparently been aware of her presence. "Uh, hi."
"Tali, right?" He asked, turning to face her. "You're up early- or late, depending on how you look at it."
Tali forced herself to calm and found her reply, "Late, I just got off duty at the engine core."
"Might want to take a book if you're taking the elevator up to the sleeper pods." He glared past her down the hallway that lead to the device in question. "I swear, it's like that thing's designed to take a century to get anywhere."
Tali tilted her head, "Uh, a century? Do humans have a different way of measuring time?"
He chuckled and shook his head. "It was a figure of speech- or metaphor, I never understood the difference." For some reason, he seemed a bit...on edge. At least going off his body language- his face never twitched.
"Something bothering you?"
He glanced over at her. "Let's just say Ty rarely seems to think before he acts."
"Sometimes, thinking before you act is the best way to act", Tali replied remembering some of her father's lessons.
He nodded in agreement after a moment's thought. "I suppose there are times that's true. But other times it's the best way to get someone killed." By the way his fingers twitched towards a fist, she gathered Ty's had been the latter.
Tali thought back to how many times they had an eezo core go critical and how many had died because of it. "Bourne, people die. Sure we can try and lessen the toll but people always die."
He allowed a hint of surprise into his expression. "Believe me, that's a lesson I learned a long time ago." His face darkened. "What I'm talking about is creating a risk where none existed before." He shook his head. "I don't want to bore you with my problems."
Tali shook her head, "No, it's okay. I am enjoying this talk. Did you ever think that maybe he tried to think it out and he ended up getting more people killed than if he would have just acted?"
He was silent for a moment. "Perhaps. But from what he's told me, he's done a similar thing before- not exactly the same circumstances, but not all that different either." He looked down, thinking. "I generally think things through, and it usually works out."
"Are you sure that he has instincts like yours? If a machine is hardwired to act one way, it can be a difficult feat to try and reprogram it."
He laughed. "I can be all but certain that he doesn't...and I suppose there's been times I've overthought something." He added grudgingly.
Tali gestured to him, "Then there it is. He's not like you, he works a different way than you do. If you keep trying to have Ty be on your level then things won't work. You need to learn to fight on your level and let him fight on his."
"Yeah, great idea. Minus the fact that being around him keeps dragging me down to his level."
Tali began to lose her confidence at Bourne's constant pessimism, "Uh, well, ever think that you are not on his level but a level in between? Like you actually bring him part way to yours and he brings you part way to his?"
He didn't reply for a while, and she wondered if he'd heard her. Just as she was about to say something else, he spoke up. "I guess you have a point. Though I'm starting to wonder which of us brings the other up, and who brings the other down. Mostly because I'm not so sure it's me doing the raising anymore." She didn't know if he was aware of his left hand going to his upper arm, tightening around it.
Tali made some headway and stood a little taller, "What do you mean? Seems like you would be pulling him up."
He glanced over at her, then suddenly realized where his hand was and yanked it down. "It's not exactly something I like talking about. The short version- I lost control, and I nearly killed a friend- several actually."
Tail brought her hand up slowly and patted him on the shoulder, "Hey, it's okay." He tensed at the contact, and his arm twitched slightly- as if to move her hand. "We all lose control sometimes. With some it's our emotions and others the situations we get into." Tali started to think back to the Crescent Nebula and her now dead friend Keenah.
He took a step to his right, away from her. "Doesn't make it easier to forgive yourself."
Tali felt her blood pulse, "No, but you have to get over it. Or else you will slowly lose yourself to it."
He turned his head towards her, then back away. "Sometimes, what you regret can be what defines you." He paused for a moment, and sighed. "God, that sounded so much less emo before I said it out loud."
"Emo?" She questioned the unfamiliar word.
"Really old earth term." He shook his head. "Thanks for the pep talk, but I doubt this is something I'll be getting over anytime soon. So if you'll excuse me, I have a few dozen holographic Krogan to brutally take out."
He activated his omni-tool, activating the holograms again and stepped back onto the range. Tali took that as a sign to leave and turned to go to take the elevator. She felt like they had a good talk but no progress had been made. She wasn't sure that he wanted to make any progress- or why she wanted to help him make it.
She also didn't know why she kept getting these odd feelings around him. It was like she'd met him before- or else someone a lot like him.
^You know, I am partially offended with how little you knew me at this point. Seriously, 'in the zone.'? We don't live in the nineties. And the words 'it takes a century' is a metaphor.^
T117: Just wait- it'll get worse.
)Yeah, thanks a lot.(
(Raise your hand if you actually died in the last story. I keep getting the short end of the stick everywhere you look.)
)...( *Wordlessly points to his face.
(Yeah, I know, it sucks, we're supposed to look like Trebor.)
^Oh, shit, you got burned.^
~Alright, I'm here. Star is finally asleep.~
*Maybe we can actually get something done then.*
^Alright, lets start with simple stuff thus far. Like how we all plan to abuse Bourne.^
(Can I just say that that guy is kinda a dick? Seriously, does he just not get- god, I don't even know where to start with that moron.)
)Ugh, I know, right?(
^Okay, so I have a question? Can we have Soul Edge in the fic or does it count as a person since it is a living sword?^
)...What, are you going to suggest bringing Shao Kahn in next?(
*Might make Iron look less ugly by comparison.*
^Well, if we bring in Shao Kahn then we got to bring in Akuma and have them duke it out.^
~Ty, you just… Stop talking. You are like a hundred times more attractive when you aren't talking.~
^Huh, I just got to answer one more question. This one is straight from Starspike7's inbox. Why you hate quarians?^
~Oh, I can answer this one. He doesn't hate quarians. Just Tali.~
(Finally! Someone else who understands! I mean, the temptation to just grab a knife and- and do exactly what Bourne just did to me. That is probably going to need stitches.)
)So's this one.(
(Ow! Come on, I liked that kidney!)
S7: Hey guys you are making a ton of noise and... What the fuck!? Why would you tell the internet that I hate Tali?
^Because it is true.^
S7: That isn't something that you tell people. It's like saying that you are gay in Russia. Everyone is going to stone me now.
(Hey, blame whatserface- that bitch that stabbed me. And I don't mean Bourne.)
~Iron, I'm taking away your ability to talk.~
T117: Vetoed/Overruled.
(...) )...( *...You're kidding, right?*
T117: What? Half the funny stuff comes from him.
(...I do nothing but insult you people... Except for trying to stab Bourne with his own knife.)
)Emphasis on trying. Seriously, I could've countered that strike with my eyes closed.(
(Yeah yeah. Does anyone have a bandaid?)
^Okay, next question that we have gotten a question/review on and probably a lot of SI writers that are reading this probably want to know. Would you ever consider adding another SI?^
S7: It's honestly a coin flip for me. On one hand, it could make for funnier coincidences but at the same time you gotta be caught up to us and we have to like you. Also, we would have to like your story and that is no small feat to get him and me to like your story.
(I vote that only if it's a chick.)
T117: I ignore Iron's vote and cast my vote as maybe. Like he said, I'm a hard man to impress- At this point, I'm going to say the odds of putting another person in this story are slim to none, but if we did a sequel to UiaWoF/ SaWoF/ Whatever the sequel to Users: Prime is, then I'd at least be willing to consider the option.
S7: Well, I agree with Iron. Don't want this becoming a sausage fest. We need a girl. A non-Shepard girl.
~Excuse me?~
S7: Okay, anyone that can impress me and Trebor. And just as an example of how much of a toss in the air I am. I hated Mass Vexations but like Stuck in a World of Fiction.
T117: I don't read many SIs other than mine or his, honestly- not unless I'm intrigued by the concept or idea behind it- however you want to word it.
)I think the other big criteria- no Mary Sues.(
^Well, sorry Bourne but I guess that you are out. Or original you is out.^
T117: Yeah, that's why I rebooted the series...that and the writing style, descriptions, ect. Made me want to set my eyes on fire so they'd stop hurting.
)There were also some minor plot holes you noticed when you went back- decided to fix those.(
*And ME3 wasn't out yet when you started writing, so you had to take in the new info.*
T117: That too.
S7: And you're one to talk Ty. You are the same and that is why you are getting a rewrite.
^I like to think it's more of a second draft then a rewrite.^
T117: Anyway, considering that if we did do a sequel with that, it'd have to come after Prime's finished, the sequel to that is finished- which I don't remember if S7's actually said- and SaWoF. So it's more going on the back burner for now.
S7: The sequel is called Users 2: glitched and more like the back most burner. I'm talking this is like a ten burner stove too.
T117: Whatever.
^Quick shout out to DarthXayri for saying I would win.^
)To be completely one hundred percent honest- I'm kinda amazed that the majority have said the opposite. Granted, they may have been biased if they found out about your story/crossover via SiaWoF, but still caught me off guard.(
^Yeah, you would think when I have to ability to turn your powers off like a light switch that people would vote me better.^
)Uh, reality warping would undo it.(
(Oh my god, not this same damn argument again!)
*I don't even have a perfect memory and I could name all the arguments these two have thrown at each other!*
^Dude, could just hit you with a format strike and watch you disintegrate.^
)Again- reality warping. It corrects crap like that. And how would you be able to aim when I've got you floating around in a singularity?(
^Easy, I just turn my armor into something that can't be held by a singularity! Like a Space Marine!^
)Wow, and you were saying I was the mary sue.(
^Hey, takes one to know one.^
(Make it stop!)
~Can I take away their abilities to speak?~
*Please.*
T117: Yeah, go ahead.
S7: Well, without them all we have is a psychopath, a farm girl that is also a genius and a woman that looks like a lesbian.
(...What, someone invited Raptor to this shindig?)
~You did not just compare me to his Shepard Iron! I am going to fucking kill you!^
(What? No, not the farmgirl part. I was talking about the lesbian thing.)
*She means me, because someone gave me a shaved head.*
S7: You know, I never realized how similar Raptor and Layla's backgrounds were. Granted very miniscule but they were both technically farm girls.
(Yeah, but Raptor's anything but a tech genius, judging by how often Bourne have to rip the containers open.)
~That kinda sounded like a sex thing. Like, 'hey baby, want to go into the back room and rip the container open?'~
(That sounds more like a euphemism for stabbing or cutting them open or something...Yeah, guess it is a sex thing then if I were doing it.)
~Oh, when did you become a girl and get hit on enough to know what they sounded like?~
(You don't want to know.)
T117:...I don't want to know what he's talking about either.
*Seriously though- what is with the shaved head?*
T117: What? I gave all three of you shaved heads. Ty has a shaved head too.
S7: Well, his hair actually grows. It's shaved because of all of the debris and stuff that got in it at the end of Users.
(Also, you didn't originally give Bourne a shaved head in the original version. You added that later.)
S7: Okay, well, I am tired so we better wrap this up. 1473I2.
(Seriously dude- you are a fucking nerd.)
T117:...So am I, I just hide it slightly better. Anyways, Sayonara.
