*****The Broken Reaper*****
Chapter 19: Awakening: Interlude: Well Deserved Downtime
AN: New and hopefully improved format for chapter titles, times, locations, etc. Guess we'll see how it works out. Now then: reviews.
Blaze1992: Huh. Looking back, it does seem rather similar to the matrix trilogy in basic premise. Guess I'm secretly a genius. *shrugs* Anywho, I'll leave the ideas for those three (might be more, might be less; my memory sucks) fics we discussed at the bottom for everyone to voice their opinions about. Also: does this count as romance for them? I'm just going to say maybe, because honestly, even I don't know for sure (my own fault for having the burn be so slow it's a toddlers crawl compared to most others).
Tom712: *opens mouth to angrily say something and points his index finger straight up* *pauses and closes his mouth while folding his finger back down; a thoughtful look on his face* *repeats this twice* *eventually settles on grumbling* No comment.
Bit of a filler chapter with this one, but hey, that's kind of the whole point of interludes. Well, can't think of anything else to add here, so enjoy! Oh, right! Small tidbit: just think Pacific Rim during the following couple scenes. If you don't know what that is, then just think Evangelion except live-action. If you still don't know what I'm talking about, you have a very sad life.
Also, the bottom AN is…well, I may have gone a bit overboard with it. You'll see what I mean when you get there (and hopefully read).
Day 5 of the Vacation.
"Mountain climbing?" she asked.
"Did that two days ago." he responded.
"Deep sea exploring?"
"We did that yesterday though! I mean sure, it's beautiful, but I want to try something new today; being the second to last day of our little vacation and all."
"Hmmm…we haven't tried riding the whales Orchestra put in, right?"
He thought over it a moment, barely a millisecond in reality, and shook his head. "It might be fun, true; but at the same time, I was thinking something a bit more exciting than that." They both paused to think, and he eventually snapped his fingers as an idea came to him. "Say, what about an extended combat session?"
She raised an eyebrow, the patch of skin a slightly darker white that was almost a light grey when compared to the rest of her body, her strands shifting minutely in the simulated ocean breeze, also a near grey color; and he found himself appreciating the original form of his 'other half' all the more for it. I'll admit, it's nice to walk around with our real faces' for once, even if we aren't REALLY walking around. Although….that is a rather…interesting…outfit she has on. God a-er, Spirits, it certainly doesn't leave much to the imagination, does it? How come I don't remember seeing any of the women in the resistance wearing that? Was I simply too focused to notice at the time?
She wore a thin, skintight bodysuit that was normally used for casual activities on any beach by their kind: comfortable and durable enough to run, exercise, and swim in, but also easy to put on and take off as it was a simple matter to stretch the material whenever needed. He wore something similar, albeit thicker and designed more for daily life, but still conforming to his nigh perfect physique. After all, a life spent training followed by a century of near constant warfare forced anyone to shape up, and fit wasn't even beginning to describe his well-earned build; and though it wasn't as obvious for Ocean, he could still make out the defined muscle underneath the more revealing, but still practical, suit covering her.
He caught himself staring for a moment too long and decided to find something interesting on her face to look at, like her bright, sapphire blue eyes and how they twinkled with mischief in the midday sun, or her cream white skin practically glowing under the light. As foreign emotions once more threatened to show themselves, and he experienced the odd sensation of an involuntary burning sensation in his cheeks, he then decided to try and locate a decent spot for the proposed activity on the surrounding beach.
The fact he intended to use such a romantic veranda as a massive sparring ground was lost on both of them, with the first part not even registering in either of their mind's.
"Something wrong?" she asked after noticing his nervous behavior.
"No, it's nothing; I was just thinking is all." he brushed off as convincingly as he could manage, and she shrugged. He turned back to the beach and folded an arm over his chest, the other one propped up on it while scratching his chin; and he completely missed the repeated glances the other person leveled at his ever-present muscles as he moved. "So, like the idea?"
She blinked to clear her own thoughts, and hummed for a second. "It has its merits I suppose. A nice, calming, vacation is well and good and all that; but Goddess does it get boring."
He raised an eyebrow at the alien terminology, but had to remind himself of why it was necessary. *sigh* Life is strange at times. I wouldn't be surprised if before too long it'll become totally normal in my mind to talk like that; who knows, I might even be able to adapt to new phrases and cultures like it was second nature. Wonder if it has anything to do with my thought processes being altered mechanically, or if I change them through organic means by actively making myself use different terminologies?
He forced himself back to the present, internally berating himself for so easily losing focus as if he wasn't yet used to the raw thinking power he possessed, and replied after the seconds he'd wasted in pointless speculation had passed. "Agreed. So, any special rules or situations you had in mind?"
She hummed again, but this time, he knew it was fake, as she gave him a playful smirk. "Wellllllll, I might have an idea or two from some vids I found on Wetube."
"Such aaasssss?" he gestured for her to let it out with a flick of his hand.
Rather than respond, she merely pointed behind him, and he followed the direction she indicated: it being out on the ocean proper. Two massive, towering, mechanical people, for lack of a better term, slowly rose from the ocean depths. Temporarily confused, he then examined them more closely: one was painted a dark grey with bright orange highlights and appeared to be a mirror image of him with his internal armor equipped, bar the colors that belong to his turian armor that is, while the other was bright blue with purple highlights, combined with a lean build and rather obvious bulges on the upper chest, making it look similar to Ocean in her preferred asari armor.
It took him a whole two seconds to figure out the purpose of them, and he couldn't stop the face-splitting child-like smile that formed over his features, nor did he want to. "Don't tell me those are what I think they're for!?" he half asked, half said; his voice being incredibly giddy while doing so.
She smiled herself, and not even what she said next kept him from anticipating the soon-to-be gigantic, both literal and metaphorical, brawl he was already imagining. "Those will just be the primary bodies. I'm thinking we should each be given an army by Orchestra to have some fun here on the beach too; no direct interference from the big boys, but we're allowed to try and multitask via possessing any of the smaller troops. Just don't complain if you lose because you were distracted in one of the smaller fights."
"They have swords, right?"
"*pfft* Of course they do! I'm not a barbarian!"
"Have I mentioned how glad I am that you know precisely what I love doing?" he said with a bit of drool unknowingly escaping the corner of his mouth at the potential large-scale (pun intended) battle.
"Hey, this is going to be a blast for me too, so don't think you're the only one getting something out of it. Oh, and if it wasn't obvious, the blue one's mine!" Without another word, her body fizzled out of existence, and he shook his head in amusement at the childish tone, entirely ignoring his own actions up to that point. Not wanting to lose before it even started, he did the same; and just as promised, a sizeable army formed itself on opposite ends of the beach they'd just left.
When he settled into his new skyscraper sized form, he took a moment to appreciate the view offered by the ludicrous height advantage. For no reason other than an irrational impulse, he then proceeded to slam his gigantic fist into the palm of his other hand in front of his chest: a satisfying and near deafening *CLANG* coming from the impact.
"YOU READY YET, MUSCLEHEAD?!" Ocean yelled over the machine's external speakers, the sound echoing for miles in the digital space.
"BRING IT ON, CODE-FOR-BRAINS!" he yelled back, the rumble of their voices causing sizeable ripples in the surrounding water.
Immature, yet partially accurate insults having been traded – just like any proper fight in a situation like this – they ran towards each other with quite literally ground shaking steps; and were it not for an invisible barrier protecting it, there would've been numerous tidal waves crashing onto the beach where the opposing armies clashed. Before too long, they'd both be hopping between the 'big' and 'little' fights that followed; turning the former paradise into the far more familiar and almost nostalgic scene of constant, raw, and unadulterated destruction they were used to from their past.
In other words: they were having the time of their infinitely longer lives.
Meanwhile, in another sim.
"You always were the lucky one." he grumbled out.
"Not my fault you skipped the marksmanship classes in basic." she told him smugly.
"I did that once! Once! And I got so chewed out for it I never did it again! Have you been secretly training with Calvatia when I'm not looking?" he asked in suspicion.
"What? No! Spirits no! I mean she seems like a nice person when you get to know her, but when it comes to anything related to sniping…" Salonia shivered ever-so-slightly. "Let's just say she can be scary."
Setherus nodded in agreement, remembering how frighteningly efficient the scarred woman was during their 'training sessions' against Reaper ground troops. "So, now that you've thoroughly trounced me at the shooting range, want to go see what the others are doing?"
She shrugged non-committedly. "I guess. We…we won't be stopping by Drutus' sim, will we?" she asked in more than a little dread.
This time he was the one to shiver, remembering in perfect detail the particular scene that they walked in on. "Nope."
I mean I know this whole place was built with relaxation in mind, but to think it also includes that particular type of 'relaxation'..…if I never have to see so many women of so many different species' in those types of positions again for all my remaining days, I'll be a happy turian.
She let a breath out in relief, obviously glad for his answer. "So, who are we seeing first then?"
He spent a moment to think about it, quickly arriving at a conclusion. "How about the squids? Last time we saw them they were exploring some sort of ocean world, weren't they? Maybe we can join in on whatever it is they're doing now."
"Say yeah; that might be fun!" she told him energetically, lightly bouncing up-and-down like a hyperactive child. He shook his head and chuckled in amusement at her nigh boundless energy, and when he did, she blinked repeatedly; soon followed by an embarrassed blush when she no doubt figured out why he was chuckling.
"Are you sure you're really 15?" he asked in good humor, and she crossed her arms and pouted; refusing to answer. "You look so adorable when you get angry."
"Adorable? ADORABLE!? I'LL SHOW YOU ADORABLE YOU UGLY, HALF-KROGAN,-" he tuned out the rest of her rant while walking to the 'shuttle pad' located in every sub-simulation attached to the primary resort, as it acted as the method for going between the various sims. Go inside, pick a destination, sit back and relax, and a minute or two later you're in an entirely new world. Have to say, while some of the sims could definitely use a bit of work, I'm impressed at how thorough the three of them were in designing the various pieces of background information. I couldn't even tell the difference between the actual Citadel and the one they had built in here! Well, I mean the 'people' were a little too generic, and there were some areas I couldn't go to like the Citadel Tower, but that's to be expected I suppose. Guess not even those two were allowed to go in there for no real reason.
As she was following behind him, Salonia continued her angered yelling for another minute or so before calming down. Either that, or she ran out of breath.
"Feel better now?" he asked her with a hint of sarcasm.
"Yes, you ass, I'm good." she told him irritably.
"Glad to hear it, Little Sal." At the mention of her least favorite childhood nickname, she grumbled several rather rude insults under her breath. She eventually stopped the grumbling before speaking up again around a minute later; however, rather than continue along her previous verbal route, she surprised him with the way she sounded.
"If you're going to use nicknames instead, then just call me Graduate." she told him in an oddly level and almost detached tone of voice compared to her usual brash temper.
Setherus, not expecting the sudden shift in attitude from his normally easy to provoke younger sister, blinked dumbly; turning around to stare at her in mild shock. The temporary mental shutdown lasted only a brief moment before his now vastly enhanced – and partially artificial – mind essentially forced itself to reboot, but it was long enough for her to notice.
"What? Did I say something weird?" she asked, once more with her typical energy.
"No, nothing like that; I just…never mind. I was simply surprised you're actually willing to let me call you that now. I mean I thought you weren't a fan of the callsign." He was lying through his rather sharp teeth, but she didn't seem pick up on it. Almost reminded me of our resident sniper there for a second. Probably just imagining it.
"Well, in hindsight I've come to the conclusion that it's not that bad in reality. I mean compared to the one's given to most of the group, I got off easy. You got Kid," his eye twitched a little in a habit he picked up from a certain white-skinned undead alien, "Calvatia got Ice (which makes sense when you think about it), Drutus got Newbie, heck, even Premalon wound up stuck with Boss; which I still don't understand why he dislikes, but the point stands. Although Lavaeus seems happy with Gramps, and Miss Entral'inon didn't mind being given Sub-Com when I asked her." she finished with a slight shrug, and he found himself agreeing with her; though he had to do a double take when he heard the last name mentioned.
"Wait, 'Miss Entral'inon'? And that issss?"
She tilted her head in confusion, answering him like this was something he should already know. "As in the Sub-Commander, who else?"
"You mean Ocean? I thought her real name was Sern'peduay?"
As they continued speaking, he barely registered the landing platform appear in the distance, still a good few minutes travel away in the mixed countryside/forest they were walking through.
"Well yeah, but that's just her first name. Don't tell me you never asked for her full name." He could only respond with a confused stare, and she stared back in disbelief. "Wait, seriously? You never stopped to think she would have more than that?"
"Uhhhh, no? I mean her asari alias is Cerhn Perdweigh, so I just assumed her actual name worked similarly."
Salonia groaned in frustration, though he couldn't figure out why. "No, you thick-plated doofus! Tre'scari names are always a mix of words, and can contain anywhere from four to eight of them; no more, no less. They are given only their clan name, otherwise referred to as their family name, upon birth; and only get a name unique to them when they learn to speak, and it will almost always be based off of their personality or something they managed to do before then. I spent a few hours talking to the two of them about their race, and from what I could tell, they were ecstatic that someone was asking. Honestly, how insensitive can you be? Don't you realize just what they've been through?!"
"Whoa, whoa, calm down, I get it; Spirits! You feeling alright, Sal?" he asked worriedly.
She looked at him furiously, only for her gaze to soften upon seeing his genuine concern, and she took in and released a ragged breath. "I…yeah, I'm fine; sorry about that. Guess I got more worked up than I thought." Salonia told him half-heartedly, and he hesitated to call her out on it.
"It's alright, it can happen every now and then; but if you want to talk, I'm right here you know. I mean what kind of big brother would I be if I ignored my favorite sister's problems?" he asked rhetorically with an exaggerated expression of being affronted on his face, trying to ease the sudden tension.
"I'm your only sister, you big moron." she told him with an eye roll, but he noticed the slight smirk her mandibles were forming.
"You sure? I mean last I saw Mom, she looked like she was packing on a little weight; and with her and Dad being as…active, as they are, you never know when we might be getting another sibling."
She gagged at the mention of the word 'active', and he noted with a mix of amusement and relief that he defused whatever problem was bothering her. "Ewwww, gross! I mean I don't even want to…blaaaggghhh!"
"Hey, you're at that age yourself now. Who knows: you might catch the eye of some muscular, loyal, and intelligent young officer looking for a good wife. I'm sure he'd do wonders for your attitude given a few years of nightly 'stress relief'." he told her with a massive grin, and her mandibles appeared to be doing their best effort of dropping to the floor.
He laughed at her reaction and started running, causing her to chase after him; yelling some rather colorful expletives along the way.
"Hey, my mother is your mother too last I checked, so if I'm a son of a bitch, what does that make you?!"
More cursing ensued, and he enjoyed a good bout of 'stay away from the angry Salonia' as they made their way to the waiting shuttle; her hot on his spurs for most of it, at least until she ran out of breath a few minutes in. Noticing this, he jogged back to where she was laying and heaving on the ground; a shit-eating grin on his face the entire time. "Awww, is the wittle Graduate all tired out?"
"Just…" she managed between gasps for air, making his grin grow even further, "just pick me up…you damn tireless cyborg…"
"Now, now, you forgot to ask nicely." he chided her playfully, earning a glare for his efforts. As he didn't move to help her, she growled in anger before relenting.
"Fine…please…help me up…"
"You see, now was that so hard?" She flipped him off, making him start laughing again.
Deciding to take pity on her, he leaned down with his back facing her and let her clasp her arms around his neck while he grabbed her legs, standing up again when he was sure she wouldn't fall off. [I won't do this often, but just to clarify: yes, he's giving her a piggy-back ride. I just didn't say that's what he did because, well, this is from the mindset of a turian. In other words: "What is this strange piggy creature you mention?"]
"Huh, did you lose weight? I don't remember it being this easy to carry you since before we were teens."
"Did you already forget you're as strong as a krogan now?" she asked him tiredly.
"Oh. Right. I am, aren't I?"
"I'm starting to see why you were given Kid rather than something more special; but if I had the option, you would've been stuck with doofus." She emphasized this by flicking his forehead with a talon, lightly chuckling when he narrowed his eyes at her in annoyance for the action. "Come on: we have a pair of incredibly ancient, near godly, super AI to check up on."
Bringing his mind back on track, he focused on the reason they'd set out in the first place. "That we do."
They eventually reached the shuttle and, so that Salonia could be more comfortable, he put her down in a seat to properly catch her breath.
"I still think it's unfair you don't even need to sleep anymore." she muttered after he did, just barely loud enough for him to hear.
"Trust me, it's not all that nice in reality. I mean, I can pretend to sleep and just let my mind wander, sure, but it's just not the same as closing my eyes and slowly drifting off on a comfortable bed. I can't dream, either. Well, I suppose being able to travel into digital realities' such as this makes up for it a little, but, once again, it's just not the same-" He caught Salonia looking at him in a mix of pity and…sadness? Why is she sad right now?
Worried he might inadvertently cause her to go into whatever mood she was in earlier, he cut himself off and cleared his throat. "But I suppose it's not all that bad, really. I mean like you said: I never get tired, am stronger than pretty much every other turian in the galaxy (barring Drutus and Lavaeus, of course; but even then, we're basically equals), and a bunch of other stuff I haven't even spent much time experimenting with just yet. Why I might even-" this time she was the one to cut him off rather than himself; her raising a hand in the middle of his rambling.
"Seth?"
"Yeah?"
"Whatever it is you're trying to do to with all that? You suck at it." She told him in perfect deadpan, and he came up short when he attempted to formulate a response; opening and closing his mouth repeatedly, causing her to chuckle. "Ahh, all that buffed-up brainpower, and I can still catch you off-guard without even trying."
"Hmmph!" was his indignant, and oh-so-very eloquent reply, making her snort in amusement.
After he picked the destination from the cockpit – it being fully automated in terms of actually going there – he went back into the passenger cabin and sat down. The pair of siblings passed the short journey in silence for the most part, only paying attention to the shuttle breaking atmosphere and entering FTL after it did. Deciding to break the silence, the younger Kalnen commented on it. "You know, this reminds me of a game loading screen for some reason. Now that I mention it, a lot of this feels like a sort of game."
"How so?"
"Well, the whole 'every planet has fast travel' in the form of point-to-point taxi aircars, the conveniently placed food vendors and shops operated by NPC's with a little more personality than the standard pedestrian, and then we have the fact that we can't permanently die: we simply pop up just outside of the last town we entered and go from there."
He took a moment to skim over his own memories of the past several 'days' they'd spent traveling across the various sub-sims, along with the Citadel sim they spent a fair chunk of time exploring early on in the vacation – as it was the resort sim proper, the rest were added for more variety according to what he was told by Ocean – and he arrived at a conclusion near identical to Salonia's. "Huh, never really thought about that. Now that you mention it though, this all does seem oddly game-y in design; at least when you discount the raw realism everything aside from the 'people' and 'revival mechanics' display. Think the squids have something planned for the future?"
"No clue. I'm just speculating is all." she said with a shrug, and he decided to simply nod before going back to enjoying the peace and quiet.
The 'trip' lasted another minute before they came out of FTL, the sight of a large ocean world with sporadic islands in front of them as they were now in the cockpit. "Still, it's pretty damn impressive how detailed they made each of these planets." Salonia idly commented after she noticed a pair of storms in said planet's lower hemisphere, one of which looked to be growing into a hurricane.
"Agreed." he said when he noticed the same thing, watching the swirling clouds down below as they spun around a steadily growing spot in the center.
As the shuttle headed towards the local landing pad, they went back into the passenger compartment to wait for the expected jolt to tell then when they landed. Upon touching down, Setherus opened the door, which allowed the blaring sounds and scenery in front of him to temporarily overwhelm his senses. His sister didn't fare much better, but unlike him, she lacked the inbuilt ability to forcibly adjust her body to rapid changes in the environment. After said changes took effect, he picked up on the sounds of countless explosions, electronic screeches, and nigh endless pops of small arms fire. While he did this, he noticed the tattered form of….something, limping it's way over to them. When it was close enough for him to get a good look, his eyes widened significantly. Is that a turian husk? Ok, first off: why is it missing it's left arm, most it's right foot, and the top half of it's head? And second off: why is it coming to us?
When it was within hearing distance (that is: thanks to the unending noise of warfare nearby, directly in front of him), the thing that should've been a corpse twice over started to speak. "Greetings, network guests. Do you wish us to inform Premalon and independent program registered 'Ocean' of your presence in this server?" it asked in a deep, emotionless, and echoing monotone; telling him who, or rather, what, was controlling it.
He took another glance at the flashes of light in the distance, seeing a pair of towering forms that he somehow knew were the ones they came to visit seemingly dance around each other inside a haze of smoke with, of all things, swords in hand, and watched as numerous missiles of various types flew through the air in the direction the husk came from. He then proceeded to look back to Salonia to get her opinion on it, only to notice she was still clasping both hands on her ears to block out what was undoubtedly deafening noise for any normal person. Having done this, he reached a decision rather easily. "No thanks Orchestra, we just wanted to see what they were doing." he told the machine.
"Affirmative, registered guest 'Setherus Kalnen'. Is there anything else we can help you with?"
"Again, no thanks. Like I said: we just came here to see what they were up to. Now that we have, I think it'd be best if we let the two of them have their fun." A piercing clang of metal impacting metal rang out in time with the word 'fun', followed by an increase in explosions from what he assumed was this island's beach, further encouraging him to leave. "Well it was nice talking to you I guess. See ya later!"
He turned around, not noticing the curious head tilt from the thing he had been talking to, and closed the shuttle door as soon as he was back inside with Salonia. Now that the Spirits blessed silence came over the interior once more, he waited until she recovered before saying anything. "Sooooo, guessing we should probably look out a window next time before jumping into whatever it is they're doing."
She winced at the slight pain she was still recovering from, and managed a weak glare his direction. "You think?" she asked rhetorically.
"Sometimes." Annoyed grumbling obviously ensued. "Come on, let's head back home. Figure that's as good a place as any to end our little vacation."
A grunt of agreement was the only reply she gave him; and so, they went back to the little slice of Palaven they'd lived on for the entirety of their childhood.
1st month, 1st day, 1028 CE, 8:97 GST, Councilor's quarters inside Hierarchy Compound, Citadel Presidium.
The first thing he felt upon waking up was a massive headache, followed by a lump of warmth next to him on the bed. Oooohhhhh, that's a hangover. What was I doing again last night? Something to do with painting, spanking, my two bodyguards, my secretary, and throwing a New Year's party….I think?
The memories were too foggy for him to recall most of the details, but, much to his satisfaction, he remembered the moments leading directly up to his current position next to who he now identified as Valora Sederis. As the partially blurry scene played out in his head, he found himself appreciating the…ingenuity she'd shown the previous night. I've experienced Matriarchs, Dalatrass', a female quarian and asari Spectre (separately and simultaneously; I think they were trying to play counter-espionage for their respective governments and completely missed how much I was enjoying it), and even a female krogan once. For all their vaunted strength, the women of the species' are surprisingly gentle…well, in that she didn't break any of my bones during the process at least. Although, she was rather submissive compared to the stereotype, so who knows if that's what the rest of them are like. Ahhhh, I suppose there are a FEW good things about my job. Still, even with all that taken into account, Valora here easily ranks in the top…mmmmm…15 I'd say. Maybe top 10 if I'm being honest. Considering how young she is for her kind, I'm rather impressed at the experience shown.
While he went through the memories of his innumerable conquests (not that he was bragging; he had, in fact, long since lost track of the number) and compared them to the sex he'd enjoyed the previous night, he almost didn't notice the light groan that escaped his most recent partner. She shuffled around under the covers and stretched, an almost cute yawn let out to accompany it, and Herieus noticed, with a certain level of appreciation, that she lacked any articles of clothing. He already knew he was in a similar situation, but decided he felt comfortable enough without getting dressed; at least until he needed to do so for when he was inevitably forced to leave and attend to his other responsibilities.
She turned to look at him, still a little bleary-eyed from just waking up, and yawned a second time before speaking tiredly. "What time is it?"
"Just before 9. And what, not even a thank you?" he asked sarcastically in a low pitched voice, not wanting to agitate either of their headache's.
"Why? Last I checked, you enjoyed it just as much as I did." she replied with a small smirk and a bit of her own sarcasm, and he copied the expression.
"That's not what you said last night. Something about how 'I never knew turians could be so amazing! Please, more, more, mmmoooorree!'"
She scoffed, clutching her head after she did and grumbling something under her breath, eventually responding with her own comeback. "Is that how you remember it? Because from what I heard, there was an awful lot of pleasured squawking coming from your end. I mean at least I managed words during all that."
He huffed in defeat at losing the battle of witty 'after-action commentary', though he chuckled immediately afterward, and Valora followed suit; although their respective hangover's cut the period of mutual amusement short when the damned thing's made themselves known in response to the louder than acceptable noise. Note to self: keep from drinking too much in the future.
He thought about it for a second and decided to add another mental note on top of it. Also note to self: don't make a promise you can't keep.
Oblivious to his thoughts, Valora stumbled out of bed in the direction of the bathroom directly attached to his bedroom. "You have a shower in there?" she asked around halfway between the bed and her intended destination.
"Yeah, I do, just be sure to use the shampoo in the blue bottle, not the green."
"Let me guess: green is dextro, blue is levo?"
"Yup."
She nodded and continued on, and he debated whether she'd mind the additional company while taking a shower. Hmm, probably not a good idea right now. I mean sure, we've already had sex…how many times was it before we passed out from exhaustion? Well anyway, even with that, we're barely friends at best, and at worst simply acquaintances who let our hormones and alcohol riddled brains take over for a night; never mind the hangover getting in the way of things at the moment. Oh well, one step at a time I suppose.
Deciding to do something to pass the time while he waited for the opportunity to clean himself up, he reattached his omni-tool from the nightstand it was left on when he removed it in preparation for the previous night's activities and used it to turn on the holoscreen built into the opposite wall from the bed. Let's see here…crap…crap…outright lies…already watched the vid five times…more crap…commercials…unconfirmed gossip that I already know to be false…*sigh* Which one was it again? Ah right, channel 177!
He switched to the channel in question and was greeted with a familiar tan and white face with forest green markings on their mandibles, causing him to grin at the memories the other turian brought up. "I'm Tasia Laelin, Hierarchy Hourly News, bringing you the updates for any ongoing stories. As I'm sure many of you know and possibly even participated in: last night, parties were thrown all across the Citadel to welcome the new year. While there were a few instances where the celebrations got out of hand, there have yet to be any reports of issues beyond excessive littering and the occasional overcrowding of bars and nightclubs resulting in minor property damage."
Party…party…wasn't there something like that that we attended?
His thoughts were interrupted as the woman continued. "One odd detail, however, was when a pedestrian came across some rather unusual graffiti near the base of the Citadel Tower." Herieus blinked at the information due to it sounding familiar all of a sudden, and he paid close attention to what she said next. "It is unknown who created the artwork as the local cameras were all somehow deactivated for a period of nearly ten minutes, but C-Sec has assured HHN that they're looking for those responsible. I should warn my audience members: the following image may be considered vulgar and/or unsuited for minors. Viewer discretion is advised." she said mechanically, obviously having long since memorized the line.
When the image in question was put up, Herieus felt the air leave his lungs in momentary shock. It displayed a nude asari (blurred out of course) being held over the knee of a turian with her rear pointed towards the camera (also blurred out, though he unconsciously replaced it with what he knew to be behind the blur) and being spanked by the turian, her head tilted in such a way that it showed only half of her face; the expression on it making her look like she was experiencing some form of ecstasy. To top it off, there was a salarian painted off to the side that seemed to be examining the whole scene with curious eyes, as if he was watching it in fascination.
All of this wouldn't be too shocking by itself, stranger things have happened in the aftermath of previous New Year's celebrations, but the thing that made it special was who each of the people in the artwork closely resembled: the salarian looked vaguely similar to Councilor Bezom in his kind's favored diplomatic robes, the asari rather close to Councilor T'Loris (bar being completely naked, of course), and the turian was a near perfect match to Herieus' own face and typical daily outfit. When he put it all together, he felt bits and pieces of a memory resurfacing out of the fragments from the previous night involving paint, some type of system hack, and lots of snickering. The fact he knew he held quite a bit of skill as an artist (even a Councilor like him needs a hobby) played a rather large role in his conclusion of who was responsible, so he quickly decided to turn it off in favor of getting up to grab a cheap salarian knock-off of a turian beer from his fridge in the kitchen. Pausing to remind himself of exactly what put him in this situation, he settled for a bottle of purified water instead.
When he came back into the bedroom, still lacking clothes and bottle in hand, he was greeted by the sight of a dripping wet Valora, also still 'in the buff', digging through one of his closets in search of something. As he wasn't trying to be stealthy, she noticed him coming in and turned to face him, switching the 'scenery' she provided accordingly. "Where the fuck are the towels?"
"Did you check under the sink?"
Blinking, she cursed under her breath and went back into bathroom, the bounce in her step making other 'things' bounce along with her; not that he was complaining. She came back out around ten seconds later while drying herself off with a bland white towel, uncaring of the lingering stares he sent her direction as she'd often do the same to him.
Deciding that the reciprocated ogling had gone on long enough, he spoke up: asking a question that he was rather curious about. "I've been wondering: did you actually manage to record the meeting we had with T'Loris yesterday?"
"That I did. Looking for some mood music?" she asked with a lustful grin.
"Something like that. Although you have to admit, the look on her face when we dropped it all on her out of nowhere was first-class material." He told her with a smirk, turning it into a grin of his own when he continued. "Besides, I cleared out my schedule for today to have the opportunity to 'celebrate' with a couple 'acquaintances' of mine. Figure I won't need to do that now, if you're willing of course."
Her eyes lit up in anticipation, and she surprised him with her next words. "What race are they, and could you still invite them over?"
"Uhh, a quarian and turian escort that I've known and employed for a few years now. You'd be surprised at how useful they are when it comes to gathering information on political rivals and relieving…tension, from my job." He added the second part absentmindedly. "You sure you wouldn't mind the extra company?"
She shook her head vigorously, only to stop when she undoubtedly felt her hangover rising up again; although it seemed like it failed to decrease her enthusiasm. "Nononono, I wouldn't mind it ooonnneee bit!"
He shrugged, this not being a first time for him even if her sheer excitement at the prospect was unusual from his perspective, and instead began replacing his bedsheets with clean ones, even though he knew he'd need to repeat the process soon enough if the growing libido he felt was anything to go by. "I'll send a message asking them to come over tonight."
She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively and picked up her omni-tool from a nearby pile of clothes, immediately connecting it to the holoscreen and beginning to play the ten minute recording of the two of them tearing into the asari Councilor like a couple of sharks that smelled blood in the water; forcing T'Loris into more than one agreement that made her visibly seethe in silent rage. "And, pray tell, what are we going to do until they get here?"
"Whatever we want." he replied huskily, signaling to them both that a continuation of their previous activities was soon to follow.
"Well aren't you an eag-" He didn't let her finish, instead continuing the 'conversation' via other means; and because of it, it took him another hour to finally send that message off and take a proper shower.
Well then, this has at long last been completed. The two Reaper's have a combat fetish (been hinting at this for a while now), the Kalnen's get some sibling bonding time as well as a lesson to always look before you leap, and Campascus and Valora are just being themselves. Kinda debating if I should switch one of the labels to humor instead, considering my writing style. *shrugs* Food for thought.
Sooooo…..blah blah blah, delays, blah blah blah, sorry, blah blah blah, I'll try not to repeat it in the future, you get the picture. Anyway, onto more important news! While it may have taken a while for me to update this, I do have a good reason, two of them in fact: I made a second chapter in the side story of fellow author ThePilotArchangel's main fic, A Ghost and a Spectre (good story, check it out, you know the drill), as well as finally posting the first chapter of that Halo/ME crossover that I've been working on! It's name is An Old Machine's New Home, and it's somehow already gotten half as many favs and follows as this….is it possible to feel both happy about the attention it's receiving and also sad that it'll probably surpass this as my most popular story soon enough? I mean I did sorta expect it to skyrocket in popularity compared to this (Halo/ME xovers have a tendency to be super popular after all), but it still surprised me with the frankly humongous growth in the first week or so.
Anywho, that aside, I've been going over several other story ideas with Blaze1992 in PM's, and agreed to let you guys see if you think they might be interesting. (WARNING: Not everything you're about to read will remain as is in the final draft; this is just intended to give a decent taste of what they would be like.)
Grunt SI: I go to sleep one night after a few quick rounds of team deathmatch in (insert generic FPS here) and find myself dreaming that I'm covered by some strange liquid. I can't see anything but I can breathe without any problems, so I don't panic at first; this isn't the weirdest dream I've experienced, but it's certainly more realistic than most. Then, suddenly, I hear a flushing sound and feel the liquid slowly disappearing. Confused at this development, as I don't remember ever being able to feel inside a dream, I become even more confused when the tube opens and I'm nearly blinded by light. I fall forward to a knee and cough up some of the translucent material I'm positive I used to be surrounded by, standing up after I did. Is everything supposed to look so tiny? The first thing I notice is that I'm definitely not in my bedroom anymore. The second thing I notice is a man with a buzz cut that I vaguely recognize from somewhere watching me warily, as if he expects me to do something; and I idly note that whoever he is, he seems almost...small, from my perspective, like everything else I can see so far. Frail. Weak. Prey. I don't have enough time to properly realize how unusual this trail of thought is, however, as the third and final thing I notice before my body switches to autopilot for an unknown reason is that I finally recognized my surroundings as well as who the man is, and, with a brief glance behind me, the tube I came from as well. In the end though, those thoughts quickly become unimportant background information as all I want to do IS SMASH SOMETHING IN WITH MY BARE HANDS BECAUSE VIOLENCE IS AWESOME! RAAAHHHHH! All-in-all, not the best way of introducing myself to Shepard, but hey, at least we had a good laugh about it later; although I think Edi is still a bit upset that I "ruined a perfectly good stack of crates" with my rampage, and that the costs to replace them would be removed from my salary. Oops. Do krogan super-soldiers get hazard pay from a human terrorist organization?
Ardat-Yakshi SI: I come home, tired from a long day at work, and collapse on my bed; only sparing the effort to wrap the covers around me. The last thing I hear before drifting off is some sort of strange, almost childish, giggling in the background, but I ignore it as I assume it's the neighbor's kids getting rowdy. When I open my eyes again, I need to squint them due to the oddly bright sunlight coming from my window. My suddenly very large, very curtain-less window, giving me a view of nature that's not quite normal when compared to what I'm used to, along with the fact that it's definitely not the houses, street, and nearby city park I should've seen when I looked out from it. Blinking, I look around to try and figure out where I am, and my eyes land on a man laying next to me in bed, him being completely motionless; not even his chest rising and lowering to intake air as it should have. Aside from that helpful piece of information my still drowsy mind didn't manage to pick up immediately, WHY IS THERE A DUDE IN MY BED, AND WHY IS HE NAKED?! A sudden yelp escapes my throat in surprise when I first see him, only for it to come out closer to a near shriek instead. A very high pitched shriek at that, which, considering I've had a low pitched and fairly normal voice for a man my age for my entire life, worried me almost as much as the dude I woke up next to. As this thought registers, I quickly put a hand over my mouth, only for it to instead smack into something hanging on my chest; causing a surprising amount of pain. I look down to see what it is and feel the blood drain from my face. I have boobs. And they're blue! What the hell's going on?! In hindsight, the answer was pretty obvious even if it was utterly ridiculous to actually comprehend at the time, and it wouldn't be the last time I heard that cursed giggle before something extremely bad for me went down. As it stands, I hate playing Mass Effect in first person, and I miss being a normal guy with a normal life….but mostly, I just miss being a guy in general. It gets weird being the alien equivalent of a super model all the time, never mind the uncomfortable stares literally everyone and their mother sends my way. Seriously, she looks too old to even contemplate that sort of thing anymore, and I can tell that even without being able to properly judge a turian's age! Oh, and Justicars are a thing, because apparently, a massive and ancient army of murder robots bent on galactic genocide wasn't bad enough for my health; noooo, I ALSO have to deal with an order of space monks who all wield the more sparkly version of the force, and happen to be dedicated to either locking me up in a prison/monastery for the rest of my life (which, as it turns out, IS PRETTY FREAKING LONG NOW) or turning me into a particularly messy smear on the wall. Yeaaaahhhhh. Have I mentioned how much I hate my life right now?
And last but not least, a story that may change in time period if not basic premise (hence why I don't mention precisely when it takes place); but the thing that truly makes it special is that depending on the reaction it gets it could become either an independent story all on it's own (if a short one), or it could join up with the timeline of this down the road to derail canon even further. Oh and apologies if it seems I'm playing favorites with the length, but once I started it more or less wrote itself.
Potential AU or partner story for Broken Reaper: A scout ship is sent to explore new relays in preparation for a planned increase in colonies from the Council. The crew, three salarians, two asari, and a pair of turian guards just in case, head out in high spirits at the possible discoveries they could make. As they were given permission to do so (under strict guidelines to escape to FTL if they discovered a species advanced enough for space travel), they pick a relay believed to exit somewhere between salarian and batarian space. It ends up being a relay hub, much to their glee (while they don't know it, the name of that hub will eventually become Arcturus), and while the hub system itself doesn't have anything more interesting than a few uninhabited planets, they take note of the abundance of mineral resources ripe for mining. Deciding that to return after such a short trip would be a waste of the opportunity given to them, they pick another relay at random to travel through; the salarians in particular wanting to explore further. They do so, and end up in a system of eight planets evenly divided by a large asteroid field orbiting a healthy yellow star, and take note that the relay on the receiving end is in the process of breaking from a thick casing of ice; proving that no alien race has used it in thousands of years at the very least, to their relief (no one wants another Rachni War after all). Thinking that they hit the jackpot; the dwarf planet that the relay orbits around was unimpressive, however, the next two planets they discovered were extremely promising for future helium-3 mining, and one of the larger gas giants had a moon or two that might become viable colonies if terraformed properly; their next discovery was like a dream come true for the explorers. The third planet from the local star showed signs of vegetation, and, not detecting anything that even resembled spacecraft in orbit in spite of the obvious signs of habitation from the night side, they began approaching it to get a more thorough scan on the technology and various other topics of the most likely primitive species they had just discovered. Sadly, while passing near the asteroid field, their small exploration vessel experienced an unexpected meteor shower; and the miniscule shields were easily overwhelmed by the space rocks flying by, doing serious damage to the engines and sending them on a collision course with their intended destination. Due to the damage, the escape pods were almost completely destroyed, and their communications array took a hit as well; meaning that unless they underwent serious repairs, they were very much so stranded. Preparing for the worst, they strap in and hope the impact wouldn't obliterate the vessel outright. The ship hits the planet with slightly less speed than the meteors that put them in this situation, leaving a massive crater and drawing the attention of the "locals" for miles around. The sole survivor of the crash is an asari with severe head trauma, to the point of her not even remembering her own name, and ends up being found by a nearby farmer – as he happened to own the field the ship crashed in – who, upon seeing the strange and heavily bleeding woman – even her blood an unusual color, never mind her skin – decides to nurse her back to health as best he could. The situation from then on would massively change the future of this fledgling race only just starting to grasp the concept of visiting the stars, and would lead to a vastly different humanity stepping foot off of Earth from what would have been.
Well then…that turned out to be longer than intended. Aannnyyywaayysss! If you have thoughts on any of them, whether you might be interested to read them, think they could be adjusted to make more sense, don't think they're interesting enough by your standards, or even if you just want me to get off my lazy butt and stop distracting myself with other projects, I'd love to hear it! Reviews are an author's proverbial morning cup of coffee: it might not taste all that good (at least I don't think it does), but you still want it every chance you get as it gives you enough energy to push through even the hardest jobs (or in this case: a particularly long bout of me simply not working on this like I should). The point is, please review! If you don't, for all I know I could be making stuff that a drunk monkey would think is garbage. Ok, that's exaggerating a little, but you know what I mean.
As always (say it with me folks!), I hope you enjoyed and I'll see you next time!