She hadn't noticed at first what he wanted to show her, too preoccupied in watching to make sure 575 will at least try to stomach her offered food as well as finally putting some food on her empty stomach. It isn't until Garrus had his open hand shoved as far under the wall as he can go, position and angle very uncomfortable, the little gift on his palm.
Is she doing that on purpose? Doesn't she like it? He thinks with a deep and nervous hum in his throat, finally making her look up.
"Oh," Jane says, her wide and surprised eyes narrowing a bit once confusion sets in. "Is that my earbud? I was wondered where that went." She smiles and takes it from the three fingered hand, more at ease with the clawed hand than she would believe. "Thanks, 575."
Pocketing it, she nods again in thanks and wonders what all the fuss about being so cautious and vigilant around the alien visitor. As far as she's concerned, it hasn't done anything to give her the impression of being in danger. Seems like people are watching too many horror movies.
Did she just…? Wh… he groans in frustration, mandibles hanging as he looks at her. Your pocket? For real? Spirits… all that for nothing? He looks at her, eyes pleading, hoping she might understand. It takes him a second before he tries about the last thing to do, at least the last he can think of. He taps at the glass to get her attention.
Blinking in confusion at the clear attempt to gain her attention, her chewing slows. "Hmmf?" She swallows her bite and motions to the untouched food. "You aren't hungry? It's not that bad, promise."
At least now she's looking at me. He flicks his mandible at her question and points to her pocket and then to his ear canal, praying that she understands what he's trying to tell her.
"What?" She tilts her head, just something she's picked up from spending too much time with the specimen than others. Maybe I should get out more. Starting to use alien mannerisms over human…
She can't be that dense… really? He groans in exasperation, shaking his head as he points to her pocket, showing with his fingers what he means. Small thing in your pocket… come on Jane, it's not that hard! Please…
His frustration grows as she's just looking at him, not a clue what he's trying to say. Pocket, ear. Spirits, I don't want you to cure the genophage…
Blinking, she sees the repeating gesture and something clicks. "Charades? Um...well, okay…" She takes a moment to watch him and starts listing out. "Okay. Floor?" A shake of his head. "Me?" A heavy sigh and another shake of his head, patting his thigh right, and moving his hand like he's reaching in a pocket. Come on! Think!
"Pocket?" He trills in relief and nods, making her grin in success.
"Awesome," she whispers to herself. "Okay, pocket. What else?" She watches him point to his head and it starts to make sense, or at least if 575's anatomy is anything like a human's. "Ear? Are you pointing to your ear?" He shakes his head, pointing to his ear and then to her. "My ear…"
Pocket and my ear… she thinks, reaching into her pocket and pulling out the only thing in there, the tiny earbud. She raises a brow and looks up to the silvery alien, its eyes intent on watching her sort through what it's trying to say.
"What do you want with my ear plug?" she asks with a confused frown on her face, slightly holding it out so it can be seen in her palm. "Is this what you want?"
Yes! Yes! Finally, good. Now just put it in your ear… please. He sighs and points at the ear plug, to his ear and to her, looking in her eyes pleadingly.
"Um… o...kay…" She chuckles a bit and stands up, figuring 575 wants her to listen to her headphones, for whatever reason. "You know, if you wanted me to just shut it and listen to music, just say," she jokes as she brushes off her butt, heading to her locker to grab her other bud and radio.
She digs around in her bag for the hand-held radio and solitary earbud she thought would forever be alone and without its match. Using her hip to nudge the locker shut, she turns on her radio to the soft crooning of the King and puts first her left, then her right ear piece in her ears. No clue why it was so important I did that, but I guess 575 just wants to eat alone.
She shrugs at that and heads back to the cell, crouching down to grab her food. If it wants privacy, she guesses she can understand, but she can't deny that she would have hoped they could give each other company, even if she can't understand a thing it's saying. Guess this is its polite way of saying, 'thanks, but no thanks for whole warning about being cut open. You can take your companionship and shove it.'
He takes a deep breath to calm his nerves and pops his neck. "Jane? Can you hear me?" His heart is hammering in his chest, throat dry as he's praying to whatever entity out there to make this work.
Jane stops, like hitting a wall, and even makes a soft grunt of surprise. Though a resounding 'what in the bloody heck was that?!' is more accurate to describe her thoughts at that moment, at a voice drowning out a song she knows doesn't have a call out to her. Eyes wide, she stops and rewinds the song over that part, trying to see if she really just heard what she thought she heard or if the long nights must finally be getting to her sanity.
"It wasn't your music…" He rumbles, excited and happy that it obviously works. "It was me." The tall form stands upright in the cell, right behind the glass wall, flaring his mandibles. Now this will be an interesting night after all.
At the sound of movement in the cell behind her, she turns to the massive alien. Her thoughts running a mile a minute, at the only possible explanation that could be for the voice in her ear - because she is very, hopefully, positive she hasn't gone crazy. She is frantic to turn off her music, to make sure there isn't any interference or chance for her sleep deprived brain to misinterpret.
"Y...you?" Her voice is, embarrassingly, weak to even her own ears as she stares up at the suddenly very frightening extraterrestrial. Is this its supernatural ability? Can this alien make people go crazy, hear voices? Holy crap!
He chuckles and nods, tilting his head with a frown at the expression on her face. "Yes, me." She gasps and her eyes widen even more, mouth falling open. "I… I turned your ear piece into a translator… so… you know, uhm we… can talk?" Why am I stuttering like a complete idiot?
Her mouth works for a moment like a gaping fish, no words coming from her frozen vocal chords until she forces herself to swallow against a dry throat. Trying to calm her racing thoughts, she raises her hand to her right earbud, the supposed 'translator', and removes it.
"Talk again," she asks, never even seeing 575 move its mouth but to drink and now suddenly speaking, and in her own language too.
He growls and purrs, chuckling as he knows she doesn't understand any single thing he's saying. We done playing?
"Oh crap…" she gasp as she puts it back in. "Say something." Prove I'm not crazy or something… please.
"I asked if everything is okay… You seem freaked out a bit." He says with a flick of his mandible and a low hum.
Barking out a laugh, hysteric and disbelieving, Jane paces a few steps, hands running through her hair. "This can't be happening...you can't be talking… you just…"
She stops and rushes to the door, suddenly needing to be somewhere, anywhere, but the lab that seems to be closing in on her like the reality that's shattering around her. Slumping against the wall of the hall just beside the now closed lab door, she lays her head in her hands and takes deep, slow, breaths to try and calm her racing heart and thoughts.
That didn't go as planned… He sighs and sits on his bunk with a hanging head, face buried in his hands and groaning as he curses himself. You fucking stupid turian, you really thought she would want to talk to you? He leans back and rumbles followed by a disappointed trill. There goes the only friendly human…
She doesn't know how long she is out there, just staring at a smudge on the floor and hands clenched in her hair as she tries to come to terms with not only there being an alien - which is still a bit of a shock even after day-in and day-out working a mere few steps away from it at all times - but that it's also able to speak… and that it would speak to her, of all people.
"Okay… you can do this," she breathes out as a sigh, lifting her head back to stare at the ceiling. "It's just an alien, that can talk, that messed with your earphones so you could understand, so it could also talk to you, because… who the heck knows why…" She huffs a puff of air that flutters a strand of messy hair over her forehead.
So getting cut open it is… Never thought I'd go out like this. Gonna be a real fun time from now on because you, fucking stupid turian, scared off- He looks up as he hears the well known 'swoosh' of the lab door.
"Okay," she starts, not yet looking at him as she removes her unmodified earbud and sets it on the counter. "So this is crazy… and I hope I'm not just going crazy or that this is some weird symptom of alien proximity or some other weird sci-fi thing, but…" she takes a deep breath and looks to the grey being on the other side of the glass, sitting in that strange bedding from the mattress it made. "I'm ready to listen."
"You… Came back?" He stands up, trying to hide his excitement and happiness, not really believing it. "I thought… I don't know, that you might like to be able to talk. So… well, I modified your ear piece so you can understand me." A soft and friendly, yet still very audible purr echoes through the cell.
She frowns in confusion and lifts a hand to said ear piece, the lack of the other drowning out sounds letting her hear 575 speak in two languages. "How did you make it so I can understand you?"
"Prothean tech… I don't know how it really works, but that's how our translators work. We wouldn't be able to be a part of the galactic…" He looks at her face, seeing nothing but confusion there.
"What-ean?" she asks, hearing the rest, but not able to understand when she can't help but get stuck on that one word that doesn't sound right.
"Uhm… What?" He tilts his head, surprised that this is the thing she really wants to know. "Well… Prothean. An old species. We don't know much about them but their tech helped the galaxy."
"There are more of you?" Her eyes widen as she steps a bit closer. "Aliens, I mean."
"Yeah… there are a lot more out there." Garrus offers a smile and a warm rumble. "I'm a turian. We have the asari, the salarian, krogan, quarian, volus, hanar… and that's not all of them."
Frowning at so many - and none of them, not surprisingly, being called 'Martians' as all the scientists and governments now call those who must have left behind what they found on Mars - she shakes her head to clear it. Better to worry about the alien at hand and not the many that are 'out there', as 575 says.
"What species made the writings on Mars? The ones they always show you to try to translate?"
He chuckles. "Well… that was the Protheans… all I really know is that they went extinct fifty thousand years ago and left us a lot of tech behind. Like the Citadel or the Mass Relays… Or the translators." He smiles and motions to Jane's ear.
Whether it is the lack of sleep or the massive amount of information being thrown at her from this, until now thought to be completely mute, alien visitor she can't decide, but she can only shake her head and rub between her brows. "Okay… the what and the whats?"
"I'm sorry. I forgot that this is all new to you." He trills apologetic, reminding himself to keep the flow of new information as low as possible right now. "The Citadel is where the galactic government is and the Relays… well, they basically allow us to jump across the galaxy."
Jane sighs in too much information, information that seems to be stuff only in the movies, and paces a bit. "You're telling me there's something other than the space travel we're learning about from the Mars ruins?" Such speed of travel was already thought to be the greatest discovery since the knowledge that travel into space was even possible.
"What did you learn from those ruins?"
"Well, I only know what they say on the news. That there could be a way we can travel faster than light. I don't know if the military knows more than that, or if they even think it's possible and how."
"It certainly is possible… otherwise I'd still be on my way from the Citadel and probably would arrive… fuck, I don't know when." He laughs.
"So, that's how you travel?"
"Long range travel, yeah. That's how I ended up here… something caused a malfunction in my drive core… My visit, or whatever you want to call it, wasn't intentional."
Chewing the inside of her cheek in deep thought, trying to work everything that she's being told together with what she's been led to believe here by Earth's own leaders, she taps her fingers on her thigh before looking back up to the tall alien. "So you came from the Citadel, right?"
Garrus flicks his mandible in one of his smiles, nodding softly with a hum, for the first time really not feeling alone here. "Yeah, I'm a… I come from the Citadel." He decides to keep her from drowning in all that information by just sticking to the basics.
"And you're a turian, who can travel long distances through space faster than light because of the Protheans, who we call the Martians, and use their technology they left behind and that's why we can talk to each other…"
"As unbelievable as it sounds… yeah. That pretty much sums it up."
She exhales a deep breath, finally feeling like she's found a least some solid footing in all this. Looking 575 over, she steps closer. "There's at least one more thing I want to know… at least until I can get my head around this whole Twilight Zone, X-Files, thing that's happening."
He blinks confused, his vocals a bit higher pitched, now that he has no clue what she's talking about. "Uh. Sure, yeah… What?" He decides to keep his own questions to himself and ask them later.
"What do I call you?" She smiles with a soft chuckle. "I mean, I figure 575 isn't really what you'd have chosen."
He chuckles with a soft hum and a smile. "My name is Garrus. Garrus Vakarian."