To say Crow was starting the feel the emotional exhaustion of getting a bomb pulled out of his Ghost, going shopping for clothes that he liked for the first time, eating out in an environment that didn't include a Councilor staring him down, and having a new cloak sprung on him, would be an understatement.
But then Shepard said the word 'arcade', Joker got an almost feral grin spreading across his face, and he thought, what's the harm? Apparently, Shepard and Garrus had found some fancy casino in some place called Silversun Strip, and it had an arcade across from it. Crow liked games. Glint liked games. Shepard hoarded the good consoles in the captain's cabin though, so he had never played with other people on the ship. He was so new to the multiplayer omni-tool games, he didn't want to embarrass himself until he was at least passably good at them.
But the games the others described, the arcade games, sounded fairly simple. And... he wanted to do something fun. The shopping had been okay, but it had also been a necessity. The food had been good. But this was just for pure fun. So, he collected himself, insisted that no, he didn't need a few minutes to get over the shock, he would very much like to visit the arcade if they would have him.
So, he reluctantly lets Glint put away his armor and new cloak (his new cloak!), and they make their way to a bus. It was too far for transmat. Thane opts to go back to the Normandy, and Shepard and Garrus confess halfway there that they'll probably break off and hit the Casino instead. Tali looks torn at this, until Gabby insists that she can hang out with her 'door-kicker' friends any time she wants; it was only due to extenuating circumstances that the entire daytime engineering team had shore leave at the same time.
Thus, Crow ends up standing in the front entry of Castle Arcade, trying to figure out what to do with himself. These don't look like any game I've seen so far.
The place is loud and noisy, and smells like food. He can't pinpoint what, exactly, but it makes him thirsty just catching a whiff of it. He sips at his soda, taking in the flashing lights, the people, and the sounds of various games all around him.
"So, how do we do this?" he asks, feeling a little silly that he doesn't know what to do.
"Well, you just go find something you like." Joker shrugged. "I guess we find your game."
"'My' game?" he inquired, casting another look about.
"Yeah, everyone's got the one arcade game they're really good at, totally addicted to." The pilot tells him. "Ken and Gabby have Shattered Eezo."
He hadn't even noticed the duo had left them, and only did when Joker pointed them out. They were looming menacingly over a pair of teenagers at one of the games, 'waiting' for their turn.
"We won't be seeing them until we get back to the ship." Tali commented. "So much for all Gabby's talk about hanging out."
"You know they can't help it." Joker said. "Anyway, let's hit the racing sims."
"Why those?" Crow asks as the pilot limps ahead.
"Those are mine, and we need a baseline." he explains. "Also, you need humbling. Everyone needs humbling there first arcade run."
"So, you just want to kick my butt?" Crow snickers. "Why the long-winded excuse?"
"Because Glint might accuse me of being mean." he waved his hand nonchalantly. "Hey Tali, want to swap out with one of us each round?"
"Sure." the quarian shrugged. "I've only been to one of these things once, I don't have a game yet either."
"This is supposed to be shore leave!" Joker sighed in mock tiredness. "Why did you give me more work to do?"
"There, there." Crow hesitantly pats him on the shoulder. He was still a bit unsure when it came to getting physical with the others. He's learned quite a bit just by observation, but it doesn't change the fact that he's not as well-learned in the language of physical contact as the others. And that wasn't even taking into account cultural differences between all the species on the Normandy.
Trying to use it in tandem with an attempt at humor was, as of now, the bravest thing he's tried with physical contact. If either of the others notice, they don't show it.
They also don't show mercy, he soon discovers. He was an okay pilot with a jumpship at his command. And apparently, he could fly a skycar under pressure. But for the life of him, he couldn't fly a fake ship without crashing it into literally every obstacle along the flight path. After two races against Joker and Tali each, he decided it was better to let them have at each other than let them keep kicking him while he was down.
As revenge, he decided the next thing he was going to try would be the one thing in the arcade he knew Joker wouldn't be able to compete in. Served him right. Besides, from what he observed of other Guardians from afar, it should be something that come naturally to him. Hopefully.
His doubt increased tenfold when the game became unoccupied. Should I really do this? I already sucked at one game... What if he was wrong, and it wasn't a Guardian thing, and everything he'd observed was some weird fluke?
"Bosh'tet!" Tali swore as she undoubtably lost again. "You know what, Crow has the right idea. I don't think this is my thing either."
"You were enjoying it against the pleb from another universe." Crow commented dryly. Tali rolled her eyes so hard he actually noticed it as she climbed out of her seat in the simulator. "Maybe all we have to do is find another pilot to pit him against..."
"Good luck." Joker scoffed. "I know I'm the best. I was flying circles around the Flight Academy instructors, and some of them were L7's."
"Are you L7? I don't think you ever mentioned your MVC." Crow prodded, truly curious. He knew the N7 designated Shepard as Special Operations, with the highest level of training and stress testing the Alliance could perform. He hadn't really thought about others.
"Duh." the pilot rolled his eyes. "I'm pretty sure all the officers on the SR1 were sevens, except for Pressly. Anderson hand-picked a literal dream team. Well, except for me; I broke in."
"So, Chakwas is a... what's the MVC for her?" he really ought to read up on MVC's later.
"D7." Joker told him, leaning out of the sim slightly. "You guys sure you're done?"
"Don't pout. It's beneath an L7." Tali chided, to which Joker whined and stuck out his bottom lip in an exaggerated pout.
"I was wondering about that one over there." Crow pointed, and Joker's expression turned distasteful when he saw what it was.
"That?" he asked. "Seriously?"
"It looked fun." the Hunter shrugged. "And you said you can't do that kind of thing, so there's no chance of you kicking me into next week on it."
"I can still make fun of you if you score high." the pilot seemed to actually pout now.
"You could stay here and beat some poor shmucks high score; you don't have to come with us." their quarian companion pointed out.
"'Us'?" Crow echoed. Given the choice of sticking around to be beaten by Joker repetitively, and hanging out with Crow, he would have expected her to choose Joker, who she at least liked even if he was lording his skillset over her.
"It's Joker in a flight racing sim, there's no competition." she told him dryly.
"It's a dance machine, I can't dance. Where's the competition in that?" Joker pointed out.
"There is none, that's the point." Tali said. "We'll be even."
"But, um, if it really bothers you that much, I saw this thing in the corner." Crow started nervously. "I think it was called 'Towers of Hanoi', looked unoccupied-"
"Dude no; just do the dance machine."
"Keelah, not that!"
"Okay." he acquiesced to their twin expressions of horror. "Okay! Dance machine it is!"
"Right. But I get to beat Glint after." Joker jabbed a finger in his direction. "And no cheating!"
"I would never cheat!" Glint protested through the Link. "But I would love to play a few races."
"Glint says he's cool with that." Crow passed along. The pilot reluctantly peeled himself away from 'his' game, and Crow led the approach to the new one anxiously. Please be a Guardian thing!
Shepard had gone from staring into her empty glass as she wondered about how real she was if it took twice as much of the strong stuff as it did before to actually get her drunk, to watching Garrus stumble his way through a conversation with a female turian. It only caught her attention because it was painful to watch.
'I imagine anyone who does is probably an alcoholic', really buddy? She's starting to think that rocket blasted away what little he had for a brain-to-mouth filter. Then again, she really was one to talk when it came to impulsivity. Like how she impulsively grabbed a drink from a harried passing waiter and slid it over to her friend in pity.
And then tackled him to stop him from drinking it when she realized it was levo.
"Whoops." was all she could really say. At least the other woman found it amusing, and humored Garrus' oddities (by turian standards; apparently, he was a really weird guy) for the rest of their stay. At least, Shepard thought she did. Things got a little blurry following the message from Joker.
It was a text with a video file attached to it.
Joker: Mission accomplished. Congratulations; it's a Dance Dance Revolution prodigy.
The video was of Crow and Tali at a dance machine, Tali stumbling along and Crow tearing up the dance floor to Speed Over Beethoven. At the end of the song, Tali leans on the machine and lets out a breathy giggle.
"Keelah, I'm awful!" she laughed.
"You're not that bad." Crow pats her shoulder, the movement hesitant as though he isn't sure whether his touch is welcome. What little the video captures of his face shows a splitting grin, face flushed dark with exertion, and he looks so damn happy. You would never think someone had shoved a bomb in his friend, or that he'd had an emotional roller coaster of a day.
"So, when you lose to me, I'm a bosht'tet, but you're actually happy losing to Crow?" Joker's voice cuts in from behind the camera.
"Crow is humble." Tali points out, as the aforementioned awoken turns his head to face Joker, eyes widening when he undoubtedly saw the omni-tool recording.
"A-are you filming this?" he exclaims, sounding disbelieving and maybe a little embarrassed, but somehow still looking happy.
"I told you, I can still make fun of you if you're good at it." her pilot explained haughtily. "Besides, people take pictures when they do this kind of thing. Outings, I mean."
"Whatever you say." the smile is back, and the video ends.
Shepard shares it with Thane and Garrus, then decides she needs another drink. She brings it to her lips as another video from Joker pops up. To her eternal regret, she opens it mid sip, and ends up snorting brandy through her nose.
It's a sneaky shot of Ken and Gabby reaming each other over a Shattered Eezo machine, their explicit shouting reaching even the distant camera man. It briefly moves to show Crow with one hand over his mouth as he listens and watches, eyes wide and looking torn between laughter and discomfort. Tali isn't nearly so composed; she's leaning over a bit of railing, bent double with her shoulders shaking as she tries not to lose it completely. She can hear the barely constrained wheezes of all three of the on looking crewmen.
Shepard is too busy trying to expel unwelcome alcohol from her sinuses to appreciate the situation beyond the initial laugh that got her into this mess, but she's sure she'll be able to enjoy it later.
Guardians were reborn to dance, change my mind. know this one is short compared to the last, but it was too long to be just 'part' of a chapter, and the last one was better left off at the cloak burning. It was also pretty chonky already, as is the next one. Also, making it part of the next one would set the wrong tone. I'm entering the lead up to the Collector base, I need my chapter tone consistent as one of anticipation.
NotLeviathan: Joker got the basic rundown of the situation as a member of the 'Bomb Squad' tech nerds who helped study the bomb. Honestly, I'm not doing the whole 'mystery mission' thing, I'm doing what arguably should have been done in the first place, and is something I've seen done in several fics; just have the abduction play out during a regular outing. They should have kept the whole 'we need to load the whole squad on the shuttle', but introduced the concept during the IFF meeting. Then, after playing one mission you forget about... but after you finish a second one... BOOM, the ship is being attacked, and you're playing as Joker all the sudden. I think that would have elevated the abduction experience(and given us more time with Legion).
edboy4926: Imma be honest; I don't have the current season. I forgot the season pass for Lightfall, so now I have to buy my seasons separate, and I'm trying to save money.
JGThorncross: I'm glad it lived up to expectations!
Knightwolf1875: That there's an arcade.
Ebuc: I wish I could draw worth a damn so I could get the 'SR2' armor set idea out of my brain. I don't know what exactly it would look like, but at least I would be able to experiment. Also, I don't really like Crow's canon armor. White, to me, just doesn't look good on him, and the perfect horizontal cut of the front of his cloak bothers me so much, considering that pretty much 80% of Hunter armor has asymmetrical design. They should have stuck with the same shape as Uldren's cloak and the Spider one. Don't worry, Thane and Crow still have some biotic/Light experimentation to do, I've been wanting to play with warp/vortex grenade interactions for a while. :)
Louis: I have no plans to punt any more Guardians through space/time. Also, I don't like using OC's, I find working with existing characters much more gratifying.
So review replies just added 400 words alone, I better quit while I'm ahead.
Fare Thee Well!