Crow didn't exactly make it to the med bay.
He almost did, but Joker hobbled out at what must have been his personal top speed and they nearly collided.
"Do not go in there yet, Ed of the dead." The pilot warned, making as if to steer him back to the elevator. He'd cleaned up, but there were still specks and smears of blood visible on his uniform. "Jack's getting solvents and whatnot for her mess, and Crazy Kelly is waiting to ambush you."
"Ambush?" He didn't know who 'Crazy Kelly' was, but any sentence containing 'Jack' and 'ambush' couldn't have good implications. "Why?"
"Not here! Elevator, before she gets done with Jack and comes for us!" He gave Crow a light shove, and the Hunter, not wanting anything to do with Jack or ambushes of any sort, complied.
"What is she after you for? Shepard said I should eat." He protested. He still didn't know what to make of Shepard, or her assertions that meals weren't a privilege on the Normandy. He still had half of the sandwich from earlier, and he was starting to feel hunger biting again. He wanted to believe her, but the hidden food was his habitual safety net, and he was reluctant to sacrifice it. He was familiar with hunger; he could wait.
"Crazy Kelly is the ship counselor. They have therapists in your reality, right?" Joker looked both ways before shuffling hastily into the elevator and frantically tapping out the commands. "Kelly Chambers might have a psychology degree, but she's creepy as hell about it, and she has even less respect for privacy than an actual licensed shrink. Anyway she comes in there trying to shrink my brain about watching yours get blown out, then Jack comes in looking for some doohickey for the blood, and then it just got disturbing. There are some things a man just shouldn't hear!"
Does he ever come up for air? From what he'd experienced today, Joker might be one of those 'extroverts' Glint had told him about. The elevator stopped, and opened up to a part of the ship he didn't recognize; the floor between the Crew Deck and the Captain's Quarters, he realized. Joker adjusted his hat, dislodging what looked like a fragment of bone, sending it tumbling over his shoulder and onto the floor. Crow let him leave first, and hastily picked it up, hiding it in his pocket so he could get rid of it later
"S-sorry, about the whole... dying, thing. My instincts warned me, but I wasn't fast enough." Shepard might insist on 'no apologies' but the man was covered in brain matter.
"Yeah, that sucked. It was insane." He shuddered slightly as he led the way around a massive display of what seemed to be the entire galaxy. "But I'd rather see it again than listen to Kelly shrink Jack."
"Okay." For lack of anything better to do, and sensing that exploring the ship on his own might end badly, he kept pace with Joker. "What... exactly do I do now?"
"Give it an hour, and hope they're done or at least move it to another room by then." The other man shrugged. "Meanwhile, how'd you do that crazy thing with the armor?"
"Glint can encrypt and decrypt known matter." At least it wasn't as complicated a question as Shepard's were. Their session of questions had made him feel exhausted, and at this point he was tempted to find a vent or maintenance shaft to sleep in, since a bed was apparently out of the question at the moment.
"Matter encryption is purely theoretical." EDI commented.
"So is a timeline where you were part of this conversation but hey, it happened." Joker shot back at her as they came up the helm. "Richards, out of my chair!"
"Is that blood, sir?" 'Richards' asked uneasily.
"Yup, now scoot. It's your lunch shift." The bearded man made a shooing motion with his hands. Richards got out of the pilot's seat, saluted, and set off the way the two of them had come while Joker lowered himself into the seat gingerly. Glint materialized, and Crow marveled at all the sensors and interfaces they were now surrounded by. Glint looked this way and that, shell spinning, obviously trying to decide what to scan first.
"There are a lot of chairs in here for one person." He commented. Glint finaly settled on scanning the panels of buttons on the ceiling.
"They only need manning in combat or stealth mode, I can handle her alone the rest of the time. What's Jiminy Cricket up to?" The bearded pilot eyed his Ghost suspiciously.
"My name's Glint. I like scanning things." Well, he could never say his Ghost was dishonest.
"It's just how he learns." Crow adds. "And there's... a lot to learn about."
"Yeah, I figure. Just don't let him mess with my ship." Joker reached under the console, and Crow is nearly hit in the head by a wrapped granola bar while he's looking out the window. He fumbles with it, but manages not to drop it as the pilot splits open a bar of his own. "Bon Appetit, new guy!"
"Um... thanks?" he isn't sure how to respond to this. On the Shore, if you were stupid enough to share your food with someone, you quickly learned better. That wasn't even the worst way you could be made for a sucker and an easy target. This isn't the Shore. Maybe if I just go with it I'll get used to it? That was how he normally operated. Things tended to work out best if he just kept his head down and went with the flow, perhaps he could adjust to all these new normals with the same strategy?
"It's Shepard's lunch shift, too, with luck she'll drag Jack and Chambers out of it." The pilot said as he brought up various haptic screens. Glint gave Crow's granola bar a brief scan out habit, and gave a nod of 'safe', before returning to his examination of the helm. The only other person here was Joker, whom he guessed would be slow to rise if he wanted to grab the Ghost, so he decided to let Glint wander for his task.
The granola bar wasn't half bad. But who was he to judge? His highest standard for food was 'edible', which included things that ought not to be considered as such.
Conversation with the Normandy's pilot dried up in the meanwhile, since Joker obviously had a job to do, and just sitting against the wall in the helm felt awkward; it didn't help that, in the silence, his thoughts kept drifting to either Uldren, or how upset Shepard had been by the history of his and Glint's reality. He'd rather think of neither.
EDI's announcement that the coast was clear after only five minutes of awkward silence was a relief, and Crow bid his bearded guide a hasty farewell, to which Joker responded by tossing a haptic glove his way and telling him to experiment with the omni-tool Garrus had lent him. Crow hadn't really given the bracelet much thought since receiving it, but when he asked if it should be returned to it's original owner, Joker told him it was 'throw-away backup for weird cases like you', and that Garrus had probably already replaced it.
He made his way back to the elevator, trying to ignore the occasional crewman staring at him, and managed to select the right floor for the crew deck. Feeling slightly victorious that he hadn't gotten lost, he tried his hand at the omni-tool. It lit up in a startling orange color, encompassing nearly his whole forearm.
"Ooooo!" Glint breathed, thrilled and obviously rearing to interact with it.
"No messing with it until you tell me why you antagonized that shirtless lady." Crow told him. He'd never seen Glint lose his cool like that, and it worried him. He didn't want his Ghost to mouth off to the wrong person, they had only just been 'freed' of Spider.
"I've been thinking about my role as a Ghost a lot lately." his companion admitted. "And looking back, I really should have been more assertive in... certain situations. Friends are supposed to stand up for each other, and I've been doing an inordinate amount of hiding."
"Glint." he said slowly. As touching as it was..."You're small."
"Yes, I know."
"Very small."
"Yes I know that, too. It shouldn't matter." His Ghost's focus remained fixed on the shining lights of the omni-tool as the elevator doors opened.
"Everyone who's ever beaten me to a pulp is fifty times your size, and would have killed you, too." he pointed out, stepping off the elevator. "Spider would have pulled the trigger on you and stuck me like a pig if either of us mouthed off like that to him. I know you like helping, but I need you to be more careful. We don't know these people."
"I know, but-"
"Glint, just hide when I tell you to. Please? For my sanity?" he lowered his voice, so hoping that none of the crew present in the mess(Shepard among them) noticed him as he slipped into the med bay.
"Fine." his Ghost sighed dramatically. Dr. Chakwas was busy at her computer, but when he entered, she looked at him, and pointed to a tray of food set on her desk.
"Eat up." was all she said, clearly occupied. He approached hesitantly; he'd never seen some of this food before, and he could count the number of times he'd used a fork on one hand.
"Thanks." he said anyway, taking the tray to the corner bed. The omni-tool was still on, and Glint looked ready to explode. "Oh, go ahead you little nerd."
His Ghost made an excited squeaking noise, and got to work. Soon, the omni-tool was switching colors, making noises, and occasionally vibrating as Glint messed with every setting he could get his little (hands?)code on. He almost forgot to scan Crow's food(the declaration was 'safe, try the potatoes, they're extinct on our end'). I can't remember the last time I ate this much in a day! He only managed to eat half of what was there, and he tucked it under the bed for later as Glint 'oooed' and 'awwed' at whatever it was he'd found on the 'extranet'.
Occasionally, there was a yelp of alarm and a series of 'nopes'. Crow was curious as to what his companion was finding, but for now he was content to let Glint have his fun. The more Glint learned now about their reality, the less questions the two of them would have to ask, the less awkward and lost they would feel.
He remained unaware that a wandering Thane had overheard what he'd said as he left the elevator.
Shepard's plans to talk to Garrus didn't go according to plan. He'd gotten a lead on Sidonis, and it had set him on a warpath she wasn't certain she could pull him off of. Seeing him like this, especially after her conversation with Crow, brought forth a gut-twisting level of anxiety and despair in relation to the mental state of her crew. How am I supposed to defeat the Collectors if I can't even bring a friend out of a spiral?
This Garrus was nothing like who he'd become by the end of their mission to stop Saren; the wit and sarcasm were still in place, and he was certainly better about thinking things through before he acted, but this man was jaded, vengeful, and bitter. One minute it would be like she was talking to the old Garrus, but then he would say something borderline sociopathic and she could see it all boiling to the top. It seemed to get worse the longer the mission went on.
And the way he talked about killing Sidonis... it felt like a terrible threshold that she shouldn't let him cross. She wasn't sure what she could do, though; she'd lost two years, and sometimes, trying to help him, trying to convince him to go about this another way, felt like talking to a stranger.
She asked him for details about how he found Fade, hoping to find an in to talk shop as they loaded up their food trays. At this point, she just needed to decompress with a friend, was that too much to ask? One, measly conversation about backdoor code or firewall workarounds?
Garrus' mood didn't budge, and she'd never seen anyone eat with that kind of fury before. She narrowed her eyes at her potatoes, trying not to think about Crow's worrying assumptions about how Normandy was run.
'Earn' food. She really hoped it was a cultural thing. That, she could handle, even if that culture was the reason for his emaciated appearance. She held out hope that she wasn't working with another tough case, but those scars on Crow's arms had looked deliberate. Not 'suicidal' deliberate, none of them looked right for that, and Jack's bullet hadn't left a mark. Who was to say they weren't from before Glint 'found' him?
"Don't you normally like potatoes?" Garrus decided to startle her by saying something completely unrelated to Sidonis, Fade, revenge, or murder. She realized she'd just been picking at the mashed tuber, and chewed her lip. This was her 'in' to talk about Crow at least, she supposed.
"Joker showed Crow around today, and it... ended badly." She started, before finally taking a bite of her potatoes.
"How badly?" The sniper asked, stabbing at his meat thingy and probably imagining it as Lantar Sidonis' face. She swallowed before answering.
"Jack shot him." Garrus fumbled his utensil, looked at her in horror, and she realized she needed to clarify. "Crow, not Joker. She'd be dead if she shot Joker."
"Why isn't she dead now?" The turian attacked his food even more furiously. There went that part of him. She would never actually execute a crew member, if anything she was more likely to hand Jack to the Alliance, and Garrus knew that. Or, at least, she thought he did.
"By grace of the fact Crow is unkillable." She took another bite, but had trouble swallowing when she saw the awoken himself crossing from the hall and into the med bay. "Him and I spoke a bit afterwards. Kind of wish I could forget it."
"Oh?" The turian prompted. He had nearly cleaned his plate by now.
"Humanity fell in his reality, there's only one city left, and he let slip some implications I didn't like." She glared at her lettuce, stabbed it, and realized why Garrus found inflicting violence on his meal cathartic. "Stupid shit about how he hasn't 'earned' food, while he's standing there looking like a skeleton."
"Cultural thing?" Her turian companion guessed as Thane approached their table, though he sounded doubtful.
"I don't like it. It feels wrong, there's no way any culture would starve it's best assets. If I had unkillable soldiers I'd keep them well-fed." Just thinking about the 'other' possibilities made her gut-twisting sharpen... and the look on Thane's face as he sat down across from them didn't help. Oh, please don't have daddy issues to solve or a traitorous turian to kill, please, Thane, I'm begging you...
"Well, you do have an unkillable soldier, and I have the feeling he'll he just fine with Chakwas mothering him." Garrus pointed at the med bay window; Crow was chowing down on the furthest bed, but his omni-tool was on. For a moment she though he didn't know how to turn it off, but it was flashing a myriad of colors, and Glint seemed to be the culprit. Crow didn't seem to mind, he just kept eating.
"You worry for our latest addition?" Thane guessed. He looked tired, and she wondered if Keprals affected his sleep, like apnea did.
"Yeah, just hope that it's nothing." She shoved some more salad into her mouth, and Thane shook his head.
"I am not sure if it is my place to tell you of it, but I heard something that troubled me when he came off the elevator just now. In combination with something he said in the tunnels on Eden Prime, I find it highly alarming." The drell admitted. "After it was clear he was trapped here, Crow seemed to happy to be rid of some individual called Spider; he gave me no details, but it sounded as though Glint was in some sort of danger from him."
"So they were in trouble with this guy?" Made sense that Crow would be glad to be rid of the problem.
"And what did you hear that has you worried?" Garrus inquired. Thane sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, a habit he'd probably picked up from humans.
"As I told you, I'm not certain if it is my place to say." He repeated, clearly conflicted. "It was clearly a private conversation, between himself and Glint, and I am certain that if he wants to discuss Spider with a member of the crew, he will do so when ready."
"You don't have to give specifics, but if you think something's wrong- really wrong going on with him, I need to know." Shepard pressed. The alarm bells were silent now, like they already knew what the drell was going to say. She lowered her voice, and gave Garrus a pointed look. "It won't leave this table."
"Crow's words implied that they served this 'Spider', and that talking back to him would have resulted in violence against their persons. The tone and context did not imply exaggeration, and he mentioned separate instances of violence." Well, there went her appetite. A wave of nausea passed over her and she looked over Thane's shoulder. Crow was smiling at Glint, clearly amused by the latter's antics with the omni-tool. She didn't have to glance at Garrus to know he was watching the awoken as well.
"Well, this 'Spider' guy sounds like a bastard." He commented, glaring at his empty plate, clearly rearing to stab something else with his fork.
"Okay." Shepard breathed. This is way worse than I thought. In a horrible sort of way, it made sense; if you were a horrible person, and you could hurt someone and leave no physical evidence, if you could get away with it because their 'Ghost' would heal the consequences, you'd do it, right? Someone like Crow was every sadist's dream come true, an aisle for torture that they could wipe blank every time they used it.
It painted a sick picture in her mind, and she had the sudden urge to go to the med bay and ask more about Guardians. Were they oppressed or taboo for being unable to die(she could think of a few societies that would view it as a curse, or perhaps demonic)? How did one oppress something like a Guardian in the first place? Or was Crow a unique case that fell in with a bad crowd and lived to regret it?
"Whatever... went on, whatever his situation was, it's over now." She sighed, rubbing her hand down her face and just wishing she-and her crew- could catch a break. "Don't press him on it unless he seems willing. I'm not going to lie, I don't know what to do, knowing this."
"In C-Sec, abuse cases were all about patience." She tried not to flinch when Garrus said the word she was thinking out loud. "Slow, steady, say the right things, hope you don't send them running back 'home' to die."
"That obviously won't be a problem here; there is no way back, and he seemed glad of it at the time." Thane pointed out. "Though taking it slow with him does sound like the best course of action."
"I'm not sure the mission will let us do that." Garrus shook his head. "His physical shape already bad enough, the Normandy might not be the best place for him if he's got other issues."
"It's not a question of 'if' at this point." Shepard cut him off before it could go further. "He does have other issues. You're the one who said we should bring him along, Garrus, and you were right. Maybe this isn't the best place for him, but I'm sure as hell not turning him loose in the galaxy like this. They'd tear him apart."
"Yeah." The turian said quietly, twirling his fork in his hand before collecting his plate with a sigh. "I need to prepare for Sidonis, let me know when we're at the Citadel."
And it's back to Sidonis again. Shepard could only nod, faced still buried in her hand. She glanced between her fingers at Thane. "Thanks for bringing it to my attention. Anything else you need? Revenge, puberty Rite, unsolved daddy issues, maybe a high-stakes heist?"
"It can wait, you seem occupied. Unfortunately, yes; I suppose it would count as a... 'daddy issue' of sorts." The drell winced. Shepard let her head drop to the table with a groan, the metal cool against her forehead.
"No offense, but why can't we just catch a break? Why me?"
"Unfortunately, you are my ride."
"...True. True."
Whether we wanted it or not... Joker is now a fixture in this story. I just can't get rid of him. I thought about having him play a bigger role than he does in ME2, but now the plot genie's just gotten out of the bottle and there's no going back. Sometimes you give a character an inch, and they take a mile, am I right? I'm a bit ahead and he keeps sticking his nose into scenes he has no business in, but it's so organic and I just can't stop.
edboy4926: Pretty sure it's fanon, there's nothing I can find in Ghost-related lore of it.
Ebuc: Yeah, paracausality is literally the only reason the vex haven't won. You know, there's actually a bit in the Ghosts Stories lore book that mentions Guardians can, aparently, get 'Super Bugs', in addition to the radiation as a slow means of death. There are a few things that can get Guardians sick, but they're all things that would probably only be found in a lab.
KINGREADER: Crow is the least violently inclined character in the game second only to Glint. Even our Ghost has a mean streak.
evattude: Glade you liked it!
*What this authors note looked like yesterday morning*Season of the Angst is getting pretty interesting, not gonna lie. Each passing week sees me hating Mara Sov more and more, she's like an over-possessive control freak egoist. She's all pleasant to Crow up front, trying to convince him she's nice and the Dreaming City is, too, but in back she's just a manipulative, scheming a$$ with no regard for how he feels or who he is in the present moment.
I'm in favor of the theory that he'll find out the truth, reject ALL parties involved(Savathun, Mara, the Vanguard), then Saladad will get ahold of him at some point and send him to live in the Kuiper Belt with Efrideet's Angles.**
*The new one* '_' Sooooooooo... that thing... it happened... can we get Mithrax's homies in here, please? They may be needed? I like that the Hunter vibes were SO strong in the message to Ikora, though.
Let me know what you all think of the fic so far, now that it has some meat on it, I live off feedback.
Fare Thee Well!