Reaper Queen of the Citadel

"There's nothing we can't do if we work together and talk things out; failing that, guns and a good team haven't failed me yet."

[stillhadtrustissues-deactivated]

"I hit you really hard in the head."

"Yeah, I can feel it. I may just feel it for, oh, the next month and a half."

[actual-livshepard]

"Good, it'll remind you not to touch things you don't know what they are."

[actual-livshepard]

"Love is for children."

"Hmm…  maybe. I suppose that makes us both a bit childish, then."

[stillhadtrustissues-deactivated]

John scoffed and shook his head. “Hey, I’m single. You’re the one dating the lizard.”

[actual-livshepard]

"Yes, and?" Liv pursed her lips. "You can't tell me there's no one you care about, John Watson."

[actual-livshepard]

"Love is for children."

"Hmm...  maybe. I suppose that makes us both a bit childish, then."

[fortheaskbox]

That guy’s brain is a bag full of cats. You can smell crazy on him.

He’s adopted.

What’s the matter, scared of a little lightning?

There are no men like me.

Apparently I’m volatile, self-obsessed, and don’t play well with others.

Love is for children.

I’m Russian… or was.

I’ll have that...

[inboxideas]

Send me "Switch" and I'll draw our characters wearing each other's clothes.

submitted by canterburystyles.

[stuffrpstuff]

Send "It was all fake. I never cared about you." for my character's reaction.

[actual-livshepard]

Why aren’t you running?

I…  hadn’t realised there was a need to be?

…

Why are you running??

[spoilersandguns-archive]

River ducked behind one of the nearby barriers next to Liv, peeking over it at the oncoming creature. The other ones, more humanoid ones, were far easier to kill, giving her little to no trouble. That one didn’t seem to react to bullets.

"Armor plating? Great," River grumbled, flicking through a few settings on her gun. Perhaps an Alpha Meson blast was close enough to incendiaries to function the same. It seemed to be quite effective against the Silence, so perhaps it would work again.

She jumped above cover, firing a few rounds and grinning as they seemed to be far more effective, ducking again to keep her gun from overheating before firing again. It didn’t take long for the creature to fall between their dual fire. She sighed heavily. “Mind explaining to me what exactly that thing is?”

[actual-livshepard]

Olivia continued firing at the Brute, hoping to take it down before it charged at their position. River seemed to have found an incendiary setting on her gun, so that worked out quite well. The Brute fell, and she scanned the area for enemies and came up blank. Good. She hated drawn-out firefights.

She fought down her knee-jerk reaction to River's question and instead supplied the actual answer the woman was probably looking for: "Synthetic-organic Reaper ground forces, derived from krogan and turians." How they were derived, she purposely didn't say; even Liv wished she didn't know that. (Between Mordin and EDI, she knew far more about the Reaper tactics than she really wanted.)

[actual-livshepard]

I can’t feel my legs!

Olivia walked downstairs into her living room at the sound of Alternis’s voice, wondering what exactly was going on - she hadn’t heard him come into the apartment, but it was possible he’d done so while she’d been asleep, since she’d only been up for about an hour and he hadn’t yet been back when she’d gone to bed. Upon seeing the young man sprawled out on her floor, she had to bite back a laugh.

"That’s probably because there’s a drell on them, Alt," she said. "…Is that Kolyat?"

[thatglowingthing-blog]

“Lick a—?" As the realisation struck, Alternis wish he could kick Kolyat a little farther away from him. He accepted the water and—what had she said these were?—the small pills gratefully. "I didn’t lick Kolyat.”

He thought for a moment before adding, “and getting him off my legs would be appreciated.” 

[actual-livshepard]

She tried not to laugh at his expression the exact instant he figured out what she meant. "Only making sure," she said. "I've done worse things while drunk."

She gave Kolyat another nudge, then lifted him up by the shoulders and dragged him off of Alternis and onto the couch. She put another glass of water and more aspirin on the side table, where the drell was unlikely to knock it over upon waking, then looked Alternis over.

"Think you can make it to bed on your own, or do you want some help getting upstairs?" she asked.

[actual-livshepard]

Why aren’t you running?

I…  hadn’t realised there was a need to be?

…

Why are you running??

[spoilersandguns-archive]

"Please, there’s always a need to run for one reason or another." River frowned, looking at the rather large creature that had been following her. "For instance, that thing is a pretty good reason right now. What the hell is it and why don’t bullets work?”

[actual-livshepard]

Thing? ...Oh. How had she not heard that coming up?

Liv ran. "That," she said once she fell in stride with River, "would be a brute, and armour plating is why." She fiddled with her omnitool, then ducked behind cover and fired off an incinerate round.

"If you have any incendiaries, now would be an excellent time to use them!"

[actual-livshepard]

I said enough!

It’s a dinner invitation, John, not the end of the world. If you would just say ‘yes’, I could stop asking you about it.

[stillhadtrustissues-deactivated]

"It’s not happening." John said gruffly, absolutely adamant. "When I said no, I meant hell no.”

[actual-livshepard]

"Oh, come on, John, please?" Olivia said. "I can't show up alone, I'll likely be shot at if I bring Garrus, and I'm hardly about to ask my brother." She let out a huff of annoyance. "We eat dinner, spend an appropriate amount of time at the reception, and then quietly leave. What's the worst that could happen?"

[thatglowingthing-blog]

You said she'd never hurt you.

"She wouldn’t!" Well, that wasn’t entirely true, obviously. "It was…"

He put his head in his hands. He had taken a lot of time to think about his last conversation with Edea. He had confessed to her, practically proposed. He didn’t know what he had expected, but hearing her dismiss his feelings as “rubbish" hurt. 

He had spent a pathetic amount of time after his fall feeling sorry for himself, moping uselessly around Olivia’s apartment and the C-Sec offices. After checking out of that particular pity party, he had a lot of time to ruminate on his life. Well, past life.

And he didn’t like what he found.

“I hurt her,” he whispered. “It was my fault.”

[thatglowingthing-blog]

Alternis wasn’t sure he wanted to talk about it just yet. 

Not just because of all the mistakes he had made up to that point, but also the deaths that resulted from them, his failures as a Dark Knight, and a Council member, his failures in protecting the girl he loved, and his family. It was also a rather long story.

"So many things pile up," he started after a long silence. "I dedicated my life to the Grand Marshal; I fought for the things he fought for, protected the ones he protected. And Edea…" he paused again, resting his chin on his linked fingers. He didn’t look at Olivia, he couldn’t.

"I…she was my reason to live, I cared for her life more that my own, and some how." He expelled a heavy sigh, putting his head down again. When he spoke again, it was barely louder than a whisper. "Some how it developed into a lack of trust, and I wasn’t there for her when she needed me."

[actual-livshepard]

Olivia was keenly aware of the ten years between the two of them; she almost wanted to fold him into a hug, but doubted it would be appreciated. Instead, she carefully added this new information to what she already knew about him.

It didn't add up to much. He was a seasoned soldier, and had served on his own world's Council. The Grand Marshal he mentioned had been a mentor to him; Edea was the Grand Marshal's daughter, and was several years Alternis's junior. Olivia knew he had cared about her, but had thought it was more brotherly. Now, she wasn't so sure.

Something in what he had said rang wrong, but she couldn't quite place her finger on it. "Was there a fight?" she asked softly. It wasn't quite the question she had wanted to ask - if this Edea had known how he felt - but it did seem slightly more pertinent.

[actual-livshepard]

I can’t feel my legs!

Olivia walked downstairs into her living room at the sound of Alternis’s voice, wondering what exactly was going on - she hadn’t heard him come into the apartment, but it was possible he’d done so while she’d been asleep, since she’d only been up for about an hour and he hadn’t yet been back when she’d gone to bed. Upon seeing the young man sprawled out on her floor, she had to bite back a laugh.

"That’s probably because there’s a drell on them, Alt," she said. "…Is that Kolyat?"

[thatglowingthing-blog]

"Why would I start seeing things?" Alternis did his best to roll Kolyat off his legs without actually sitting up. With unfortunately low success. "Oh shit, are the drinks made out of something weird?"

Not as eloquent as he usually was, but he blames it on the headache. Kolyat was still on his legs, passed out, and his head seemed dead set on combusting itself; Alternis had assumed that the drinks were regular alcohol. An obvious mistake.

[actual-livshepard]

"No? ...Probably," Olivia said, placing a glass of water within his reach. "How should I know what you drank? If it were anything dextro, you'd already be reacquainted with it and your stomach lining, but nobody in the Strip would actually serve you anything dextro, so."

How to say it tactfully...? "Unless you got drunk enough to lick a drell, you should be fine."

She set a couple of aspirin down next to the glass, then nudged Kolyat with her foot. He groaned softly.

"I think I can carry him to the couch easily enough, if you like," she offered.

[actual-livshepard]

I said enough!

It's a dinner invitation, John, not the end of the world. If you would just say 'yes', I could stop asking you about it.

[actual-livshepard]

Why aren’t you running?

I...  hadn't realised there was a need to be?

...

Why are you running??

[thatglowingthing-blog]

The Mighty Fall || actual-livshepard

It was bright and his head hurt.

What had happened?

His head felt fuzzy, and hurt like a D’gon was sitting on it. He didn’t remember where he was, or what he had been doing other than—oh! He was headed to the Holy Pillar, as per the Grand Marshal’s orders.

His vision began to clear. He was surrounded by tall cliffs, sheer and shiny; they seemed to be reflecting light. The ground was shiny too, and he could hear water. He rubbed at his temples trying to focus, suddenly realising his helm was gone.

He had been wearing it when he left Eternia, where was it now? He was missing his blade, also. That would be bad, should he have to fight the Vestal and her companions. Perhaps, though, it would be better to ascertain his own location before worrying about his mission.

He was sitting on some kind of solid white surface, very smooth, and very shiny. It wasn’t long after that something touched his shoulder.

“You can’t sleep here, son.” Alternis nearly jumped out of his skin. There was a man there, much older than him, in some kind of uniform.

“Who are you?” Alternis asked, shortly before he realised there were more important questions. “Where am I?”

“The Presidium, kid.” The man turned to address someone behind him. “Another drunk, call it in, would you?”

“You come with us, ok? Which ward are you from?” He turned back to Alternis, but the blond hardly noticed. He was up and stumbling away from the man and his “companion”. The companion in question was tall, with rough skin (was that even skin) and dead black eyes.

The man and the creature both reached to their sides, probably for weapons; Alternis was sorely unprepared. However, there were benefits to his position.

“Stay away from me,” Alternis warned, scanning the area quickly; there were more people than he originally noticed, and the place was packed with different creatures. “Should you not, you’ll sure regret it.”

The creature spoke to him in some sort of garbled language, still poised to draw his weapon. Both the creature and the man took a cautious step forward.

“Keep back!” Alternis shouted, voice rising. “I’ll not warn you again.” Alternis dropped into fighting stance and his two opponents drew their weapons. A mistake, on their part, but that was not his problem. He braced himself for the impact and shouted.

“Black Bane!”

[actual-livshepard]

Olivia sighed as she left yet another shop on the Citadel empty-handed. At this rate, all her mother would be getting for mothers' day was a card reading IOU, and her brother's efforts at distraction would be wasted. She opened up the list on her omnitool and crossed off the shop she'd just been to, then looked over the other options.

"There's always... armour... I guess?" she said.

Even as she said it, a better option formed in her mind, such that it probably came from someone else. Her mother couldn't wear any weaponry that she couldn't easily hide on her person, which ruled out most of their collection; why not requisition a piece for her from the Spectre offices? Humanity's councillor deserved the best of the best, after all.

Nodding to herself, Liv put away her omnitool and mentally plotted the best path from the commons to the Spectre offices. The shortest path would swing her dangerously close to the Citadel Tower, but if Oliver was doing his job properly, she figured it would be safe enough.

So, naturally, she inadvertently stumbled upon a major scene near the Tower, right in front of the Conduit. It appeared that a small explosion had gone off, and several C-Sec agents were crouched behind cover. Several metres ahead stood a man in black armour, the make of which Olivia couldn't quite identify; she hadn't seen anything like it before.

She ducked down into cover next to the agents and asked, "What's the situation?"

"Thought he was a vagrant," said the human agent. "He acted intoxicated, so we were going to drop him in the drunk tank, then..." He shook his head.

"Then that," his turian partner finished. "It looked like... some kind of biotics, maybe? He seems otherwise unarmed; didn't reach for a weapon before firing that off."

"Got it," said Olivia.

She mentally chastised herself for leaving the apartment without a gun; even a shock pistol would be better than nothing. Still, she wasn't entirely unarmed; she had her omnitool, so she could cloak or use the blade. She'd survived worse with less.

"Right," she said. "I'm going in, going to see if I can take him from behind. Don't engage unless he puts me down - and then, shoot to incapacitate."

"Yes, ma'am," said the human agent, followed only a moment later by his partner.

Olivia activated her tactical cloak, then went in.

[sifladywarrior-deactivated20131]

Happy Munday! For every ✫ in my inbox, muse will tell one fact about the mun.

[thatglowingthing-blog]

//be prepared for wildly uncaring (and probably inaccurate) responses from Alt

[thefightingnaturalist-archive-d]

Reblog if your muse has scars.

[archiveoftaijiyakohaku-blog]