The Mind-fuck Of Ages
Inside a small transport shuttle docked in a large space station, a man named Jason had dozed off.
He was having a nice dream about wrestling with a miniature version of Sovereign.
Until Sovereign roundhouse kicked him in the face with one of it's tentacles so hard he woke up, that is.
He found himself in a completely unfamiliar place, with a batarian who seemed to be furious at him.
„Off. My. Shuttle."
Jason felt a warm liquid going down his face. He smudged his fingers with it and saw that they were covered in blood. He realised the batarian was the one who actually punched him. He stood up quickly and started to back away from the alien. It only seemed to anger him.
„Wrong way, human. Get off my shuttle. Now."
Jason ran past the alien, who was muttering something along lines of „Damn humans," and quickly exited the small ship.
When he made it outside and saw all, that was around him, he was completely baffled. He was entertaining the possibility that this could be some elaborate prank, but quickly threw that thought away. Why? Because he knew that there is no way in hell, that anyone could possibly replicate Omega, straight from the Mass Effect universe.
The more he looked around, the more he became sure of it. It was simply too detailed. He was on a catwalk supported by rusty beams. Next to him was the shuttle that he was kicked out of, and all around him were buildings , and some of them were even hanging upside down from some unseen ceiling.
Everything was dirty, and smudged. There were large fires in the distance, and holographic signs flashing their advertisements.
It was a mental list he had made for himself. Though the most important aspect of Omega, that most definitely confirmed that he truly was on Omega, was the amount of garbage... And smell.
He hadn't even notice himself cringing from it until now.
After Jason was done taking in the sights, he decided to get off the catwalk, and explore a bit of the station.
He started walking, his steps full of purpose.
Until he tripped over a discarded pistol, and fell face-first into a pile of someone's waste.
Jason was now striding through the streets of Omega with an angry scowl on his face, gripping his new pistol and pointedly ignoring the amused stares he was given, constantly muttering at the same time: „I'm gonna kill whoever took that fucking dump over there."
He had been walking in random directions for half an hour, trying to hide the brown smudges on his face.
His relief was almost palpable when he saw a small secluded alley.
Jason quickly went over there, and sat down to contemplate his situation.
He started making a list of things he needed to do.
Jason had been in the dark alley for 10 minutes, when he was about to get up to go find some money for food, or food itself.
Until a quarian got shoved in there. The quarian stumbled past him and fell to the floor, obviously pushed by someone.
Then an asari walked in, swaying her hips in a superior manner.
Very soon, she noticed Jason sitting, staring at her with a raised eyebrow.
The asari started smirking.
„Well, well, well... What do we have here?" she asked, amused at the sulking human.
„Someone, who's day is fucked up enough as it is, without some crazy tentacle monster trying to rape me, or something," Jason replied with an almost non-caring tone.
The asari laughed briefly, and then shrugged nonchalantly.
„I don't plan on raping you. This quarian though... She got in my way, and I decided to see what they're like. Oh, and also take her credit chit after I'm done. And you are here too, so I can get double the money!"
Jason briefly glanced at the female quarian, who was obviously terrified, and frantically looking around for any possible ways to escape.
Then the asari started walking towards Jason.
He frantically jumped up and was about to raise his pistol, when the asari put him in stasis.
„Tsk, tsk, tsk. Who's a naughty little boy?" she asked him in a mocking tone. Then the asari patted him on the head, and said: „You wont go anywhere until I'm finished with her, right? Good."
She strutted over to the quarian, who was now hiding her head between her knees.
The asari grabbed her hands, lifted her up almost without effort, and slammed the quarian against the wall.
In the excitement though, she apparently forgot about the Stasis she put on Jason.
The constricting field disappeared around him, and he raised his pistol.
The asari heard the movement though, and moved her head to look towards Jason just in time to receive mass accelerated round to the face, which shredded her head to pieces.
The quarian's visor, being the closest to the asari, was now covered in blood and brains.
Jason slowly walked over to the body, and searched it's pockets for anything valuable. He found quite a hefty amount of credit chits, but each of them only containing about a 100 credits at most, though.
The quarian, being silent so far from sheer terror, suddenly spoke up.
„Keelah... I just came to Omega to earn some credits, maybe buy a ship... I had heard stories of returned pilgrims, but... I never believe it to be this bad..."
Then she wiped most of the organic matter off her visor, and looked at Jason gratefully.
„Thank you... If you hadn't been there... Keelah..."
Jason could see her shaking. He slowly walked over to her, and patted her on her shoulder. After that, he walked out of the alley.
But before he dissapeared, the quarian could swear she heard him say: „Goddamn tentacle motherfuckers... They fuck anything that has a pulse..."
Soon after, Jason had found a small shop that was selling home appliances, cleaning agents being among those, and water, so he could finally clean his face up.
Having done that, he was now sitting on a bench next to a bar that was blaring extremely loud music, looking at his pistol from different angles.
He was reconsidering his entire list of priorities. After a few minutes of thinking, he came up with the most important thing to do: Be a badass.
The best way to start? To get shitfaced and save pretty ladies from criminals, he figured.
Jason purposefully stood up, and strutted over to the bar.
He stepped in, and immediately noticed the strangeness of the patrons. There was an unusual amount of krogans and turians around. Half of them seemed to be conversing with each other, and quite politely, too.
He sat down on a free chair next to a bunch of krogans, and signaled for the bartender.
When he lumbered over to Jason, he asked: „What'll it be, human?"
Jason pondered for a few seconds, and then decided: „I'll have something light first, see where it goes from there."
The krogan gave him a weird look.
Then he spread his arms wide, obviously proud of his bar.
„You're going to go for something light? In my establishment? Boy, if you haven't noticed yet, we serve nothing but the strongest stuff for the toughest of people!"
Jason looked around, and noticed the other patrons were staring at him now.
And then he thought, that badasses drink nothing but the strongest stuff, and changed his order.
„I'll have ryncol, actually."
The bartender started grinning.
„Are you sure? That stuff hits your intestines like ground glass."
„But it doesn't kill me?" Jason asked.
„Nope, at least not the first glass," the krogan answered.
Jason nodded. „I've made my decision. I want ryncol."
The bartender only shrugged, and went to get a glass.
Jason settled in to wait. But then a turian suddenly slapped him on his shoulder, and sat next to him.
„If you survive that first glass, you can be proud of yourself! And you'll also be welcome among all of us here," the turian said cheerfully.
Jason looked at him, and nodded with a smile, already affected by the turian's cheerfulness.
„But be careful. He knows his drinks. His drinks are always the highest quality stuff, and by extension, the strongest stuff on this entire station," the turian added as an afterthought.
Then Jason looked ahead slightly fearfully, and started re-thinking his plans. It was too late though, as the bartender already came back with a glass filled with a green liquid.
„Here you go. Make sure you down it all together for the best effect."
Jason looked around only to see every single patron looking back at him, waiting expectantly. He looked at his drink, and gulped.
Suddenly, a krogan on his left spoke up in a joking tone: „If you're having second thoughts, we can always feed it to a turian and demonstrate what happens."
Jason glanced at the krogan, and smirked. Then he suddenly picked up the glass and downed it as fast as he could swallow. The ryncol felt like it set his throat and intestines on fire. His eyes were watering profusely, and he was ready to cough his insides out.
When the last drop was gone, and he lowered the glass back onto the counter, the bar exploded in cheering.
They all clapped and whistled, yelling congratulations words at Jason, who only waved and smiled, proud of his accomplishment.
After most of the noise had died out, he noticed something strange: He had felt nothing after the initial burning sensation in his guts.
He looked at the bartender questioningly, who only replied with a shrug: „It might take a while to kick in, depending on how long it takes for your stomach to start processing that stuff."
He only nodded, and stood up. He was about to walk out of the bar, when he turned back to the krogan, and asked: „Don't you want any credits?"
The bartender smiled.
„Nope. You downed that ryncol like a champion, only hesitating for a few seconds before. That's an accomplishment for a human. That drink is on the house."
He smiled back, and walked out of the bar.
With every passing moment, he increasingly thought that leaving the establishment was a terrible idea. The world was spinning around him, and he could barely walk.
He wiped an occasional trail of drool off his chin.
He had been staggering through Omega for a while now, with barely anyone in sight. He thought that most were asleep at this time, even though a consistent day-night cycle around here seemed a far-fetched idea for him.
Then he heard some noises. Noises that sounded suspiciously like talking.
He slowly stumbled towards the source, only to find two batarians trying to corner an asari.
„Come on, pretty. You know, I got a lot of credits, and a nice little apartment..."
Jason, even in his current state, understood perfectly, what the batarian was suggesting.
The other batarian grinned, and nodded.
The asari was not amused.
„I'm not interested in your... Proposition. Now leave me alone, before I splatter you on the ground."
The other batarian spoke up.
„Oh, look at that. The pretty thing has a mouth on her. We could help you put it to better use..."
Jason thought that this was a perfect opportunity to save a pretty lady from a bunch of asswipes. But even with his very few active brain cells left, he knew he couldn't aim for shit with his current pistol. So he decided to whistle.
„Hey, you two there! Leave her alone, ya' good-for-nothing varren fodder!"
The trio looked at him, surprise evident on their faces. Seeing the state Jason was in, the batarians started grinning again.
„Or what? You're going to kill us?" one of them asked mockingly.
Jason staggered forward. „I might as well, you son of a motherless vorcha!"
Then the batarian he was addressing started walking towards him angrily.
„Nobody talks about my mother that way, human," he said just before throwing a punch at Jason.
Jason tripped over a loose floor tile at the right moment, and fell over right under the batarian's swinging fist.
He stood back up as fast as he could, and right before the batarian kicked him with his foot, Jason pistol-whipped him across his face. The batarian staggered back, cupping his cheek, only to receive a punch from Jason.
Jason then shot the batarian in the gut. Before he could finish watching the alien slump to the ground, the other batarian he had forgotten about suddenly came up from behind him, and wrapped his arms around Jason's neck, and started squeezing.
He attempted to pistol-whip the batarian behind him, but ended up punching himself in the face. His face snapped back, only to accidentally headbutt the batarian. They both fell over with Jason on top of the batarian. The alien was coughing from the sudden blow to his front forcing all air to leave his lungs, and Jason saw it as the perfect time to push his arms off him.
He stood up as fast as he could, and shot the batarian, before the alien could also get up.
Jason just now noticed that the asari was clapping slowly.
„That was a very admirable feat you just achieved, especially for a human drunk on ryncol," she commented.
„How do you know I drunk ryncol?" he asked.
Then Jason could swear he saw her smelling him.
„The... Aroma... Gave it away."
He chuckled, and gave her the best answers his shitfaced brain could come up with „Well, you've got an admirable nose, lady. Anyways, glad to help you."
Jason pulled off a half-assed bow, before falling over.
He heard the asari chuckling, and saw her standing over him, her arm extended.
„Here, let me help you. It's the least I can do for you."
He graciously accepted the help, and got back up quickly.
Then he asked: „Who were those clowns anyways?"
„Oh, just some sex-starved morons following me ever since I left Afterlife," she answered with a smirk.
Jason only nodded, unable to think of anything else to say.
The awkward silence only lasted a few seconds though.
„Say, why don't you come over to my apartment. It's a nice place to crash after a day like this," the asari said, while gesturing towards the two dead batarians.
He only nodded.
„Yeah, sounds like a perfect idea. Let's go."
Jason was sitting on a leather couch, looking at the apartment's interior. It wasn't very spacious, with just one large room that was a living room, a bedroom and a kitchen all in one, with all the appropriate furniture. What made the apartment interesting, were all the strange things scattered all over the place. Weird pieces of art, swords, and tubes filled with stuff he was pretty sure were illegal anywhere outside the Terminus Systems.
He was having a hard time figuring stuff out by that time though, what with being drunk on ryncol and also a nice addition of Hallex.
He looked over to the asari, and felt some sort of pull towards her. She seemed like the most beautiful being to have ever existed. She seemed very satisfied with something.
After a while of simply sitting there in quiet, the asari suddenly pulled him into her arms. It felt nice, warm, he thought, and snuggled deeper into her arms. Just before falling asleep though, he asked: „What's your name?"
He could almost feel the asari's smile.
„Glad you asked. It's Morinth."
When she pushed the empty shell aside, Morinth started pondering. The human felt extreme amounts of euphoria from the meld, she knew that. But why, then, did he yell at her to choke on his brain juices right before he died?
Here's another chapter of Arrivals In Effect!
The entire idea goes to Endrius, from the arrival on Omega, and the ryncol, up to the mindfuck by Morinth.
I hope you liked it! I enjoyed writing it ;)
Tell me what you think in the reviews, and if you want to, point out stuff I could improve on.
Have a nice day, and I'll see you in the next chapter!