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Jules of Nature
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he wasn't even looking at me and he found me
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$LAYYYTER
YOU ARE THE REASON
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@littleorphanalice
“Maybe you’re right. Maybe we can’t win this. But we’ll fight you regardless! Just like we did Sovereign. Just like I’m doing now! However insignificant we may be. We will fight! We will sacrifice! And we will find a way! That’s what humans do!” - Commander Shepard
when your girl knocks you on your ass and you’re into it ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Looking predominately for a Garrus, may consider others? Like for starter, message for plot.
Give Me the Stars [AU]
Williams looked like she was turning green at the mention of hills and Alenko was chuckling softly as Alice watched him, glaring good-naturedly.
"I have to get used to how everyone operates, and there's only so much room in this beast." Alice smiled a little, snapping her helmet into place. She fidgeted with something on the side and when she spoke again, it was slightly distorted by the helmet's speech box. "No time like the present, Andrews."
When the new guy asked his question, the three of them used to the Normandy laughed a little. Alice looked at Alenko and snorted, "What's a Maw, he says."
"Hopefully you won't find out any time soon," Alenko smirked a little, strapping his helmet in before moving to his seat. Williams followed suit, the Commander taking the wheel.
She glared despite her smile at the lieutenant, shaking her head. "You've just doomed us all, Alenko. Maker save you if we find one. You'll be on latrine duty for a month."
Give Me the Stars [AU]
"The way Shepard drives, you'd think it runs on fear," Kaidan joked as he stood at ease beside the ground vehicle. "Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko," he offered a salute and then extended his hand for a shake.
"Is that you I hear, Alenko?" Alice called, coming around the corner in full light armor with her helmet tucked under one arm as she adjusted the pistol on her hip with the other. "I'll make you ride shotgun if you're not nice." The tone she used was still teasing but held more of a commanding tone; like she was willing to play nice until she wasn't.
"Gunnery Chief Andrews, this is Gunnery Chief Williams and you met Alenko." Alice shifted her eyes at her crew, suddenly missing a few faces more than she expected. Others had gathered but she waved them off. "I'll be taking Alenko, Williams, and Andrews ashore this time." The other armed men and women, dismissed, acknowledged their commanding officer with an "aye, aye, ma'am" before dispersing.
"Ready to go planetside?" Alice asked, surveying the group. "A missing shore party seems to have sent a distress signal. Alenko, you were with me the last time this happened."
"Aye, ma'am. Watch out for Maws," he cracked, grinning just a little.
Give Me the Stars [AU]
"Aliens? Well, I've got a few friends here and there." She smiled fondly thinking of those that had helped save the galaxy the last time around. And probably all of existence. "Aside from the Council, I'm sure we'll run into a few. If you don't like 'em, just wait until your back on board. Williams shares a distaste, talk to her about it."
She watched him curiously, a smile still on her lips but her eyes focused on his movements. "It is a rather mundane mission. But that's half of what we do, when no one is trying to tear the universe apart. Trust me. Sometimes it's nice to breathe."
"I imagine you'll make a lot of friends," she leans forward a little, elbows on the table and coffee cup dangling from the fingers on one hand. "Just remember, I believe in fun when appropriate but this is still an Alliance military vessel. Rules still apply."
She sat back a little and tossed the rest of her coffee down her throat before setting her cup down and smiling. Alice stood fluidly and quickly, "We'll see about the parties. And the-"
"Commander, Alliance Command on the line," Joker's voice interrupted her and she smirked a little, shaking her head.
"On my way to the conference room," she replied, saluting half-heartedly to Chris before she scooped up her cup. She made a basket in the trashcan as she passed, jogging up the stairs.
Several minutes later her voice came over the entire ship's communication system again.
"All right, ladies and gentleman. New orders. Rescue mission. Everyone ground-ready, meet me by the Mako in ten. Shepard out."
Give Me the Stars [AU]
Alice had an easy smile on her face when she settled into the open seat across from him, setting her cup down only to pick it up again. She nodded a little as he spoke, green eyes focused on his face to show a level of rapt attentiveness that Alice made a habit of offering everyone - subordinate or otherwise.
When he mentioned his skills, her smile shifted a little to a playful quirk of her lips but she bit her tongue and resumed her earlier expression. She knew many of the people aboard the ship well enough to gauge how to interact with them - this one, though, she hadn’t fully gotten a read on yet. Best to tread lightly until she found out who she was dealing with.
“The mission we’ve been sent on isn’t a particularly exciting one; we’re just headed out to the Armstrong Nebula to gather materials. Kind of a waste of this baby, huh?” she grinned a little, patting the table as if soothing imaginary hurts the ship had at being sent on such a banal mission. “I imagine we’ll get a call from Command or the Council soon enough, however.” She grinned again, her hand pausing halfway to her mouth with her fingers wrapped around her coffee cup. “No rest for the wicked, as they say.”
After drinking in both the coffee and the man in front of her, his question fresh on her mind, she set down her cup and shrugged her thin shoulders. “I wouldn’t know what else to do with my life now. This is home. As much as anywhere ever has been. Leading, though?” She snorted a little, a teasing smile on her lips. “What gave you that idea?”
She waved a hand dismissively, “The only time I wear my Commander hat is when I’m in the CIC or on the field, for the most part. There are only a few rules. Don’t be an unbearable ass, don’t openly hate aliens, and listen to me. I’m sure I’m missing something.” A lopsided grin pulled at her lips before she took another sip of her drink. “I can’t and wouldn’t want to tell you what to think or feel. We just have to all pretend we get along, at the very least not openly hate each other. I would prefer, of course, that we all love each other and have parties when we’re not almost-dying but, you know, what’s a girl to do?”
Give Me the Stars [AU]
The crew was on their way, shortly to pass through the Mass Relay, and find their way to the Armstrong Nebula. A fairly innocuous search-and-research mission until they were given alternative orders. Alice was waiting for Joker's voice over the comm to tell her she had a message from the council or Alliance command. She had learned to expect as much.
She made her way through the ship, greeting old crew members and new alike. Finally, eventually, she found herself in the mess.
Procuring a cup of coffee, she surveyed the room full of faces and uniforms. She greeted a few by name before a new face caught her attention.
She approached Chris at ease, on hand down by her side and the other holding a cup of coffee.
"Gunnery Chief Andrews, isn't it? I don't think we've met yet. I'm Commander Shepard. What brings you to the Normandy?"
She knew. She read all the files of all of her crew members. That was how she recognized him, of course. But she knew all too well that files often only held half-truths.
Gunnery Chief Williams and Lieutenant Alenko milled about the mess, waving a greeting. Alice smiled but didn't engage them; she'd have time later.
Give Me the Stars [AU]
@portpharaon Alice stood at ease from beside the door to the Normandy in full uniform, bright red hair pulled high and tight into a bun. She surveyed the crew they boarded, smiling and nodding a greeting to those finding their new home away from home. With the immediate threat of Saren neutralized, she was resuming her command of the Alliance ship. Still a Spectre, her missions - and by extension, all of theirs - could take them farther than a normal ship. At the moment, they had simple orders but Alice didn't expect it to last long. She waited until the last crewman boarded before entering and finding her way to Joker. With a hand on the back of his chair, she raised an eyebrow as she looked down to her favorite pilot. Not that she would tell him. "How's she looking, Joker?" "Good as ever, Commander. Everyone aboard?" "It would appear so. Let's give it a moment for everyone to settle into their places and I'll make the announcement." "Have you met the greenies?" he asked with a smirk. "Most, in passing at least. I'll make the rounds once we're in transit. It's about three hours out, I think." Joker nodded, the coordinates already displaying for him. A few minutes passed before Shepard took the comm. "Good morning everyone. Glad to have you aboard. This is your Commander speaking. I'll be coming around to personally introduce myself. We have a three hour transit to our destination. If you need some coffee, I'll see you in the mess. Shepard out." Joker saluted half-heartedly before Alice held her arms behind her back and made to branch out onto the ship.
Looking for more threads for Alice! Open to pretty much anyone, could even do cross-universe/fandom. Like for a starter, message to plot.
Night Without Stars [Vakarian]
Alice found that she liked the relative silence that came without being understood. When words failed, gestures took over. She found herself paying close attention to the way Garrus moved, whether stoic or animated with speech.
When they reached the other turian - so many! - Alice bowed her head a little in greeting and kept her small smile steady. She had paid attention during her Alien Etiquette training at the base on Earth; enough attention to glean truth from propaganda too.
Sure, there were plenty of humans and turians alike that would dredge up nothing but commentary on the First Contact War and the uselessness of the opposition. But Alice wasn’t that sort of human and if any of the turians she met were that sort of turian, she wouldn’t have been able to guess.
When the updated version was applied, Alice smiled meekly. “Testing?” She grinned and thanked the requisitions officer profusely before promising to warn the others, send them down, and inform her superiors of the issue.
“So Officer Fumbles,” she smirks at him, glad to have her voice back but still trying to pay attention to his mannerisms. “…Don’t blame me, you never gave me a name. And it fits, you have to give me that.” She absolutely grins at him, resisting the urge to nudge his side with her shoulder. “Say, can turians blush?…I’m mostly joking. But. I have a copy of the roster in my mail, with contact information for those aboard should you need to reach them. Would that serve? You’ll just have to tell me your address.” She stops, grinning more. “I promise to behave.”
Something had switched between when he had first introduced himself and those moments; some part of her decided that he was safe enough to pester, that she wasn’t risking a second war with the species by gently harassing him.
Night Without Stars [Vakarian]
Alice was a fit of giggles despite thr fact that she felt like it might be inappropriate to laugh so openly at the distress and antics of a C-Sec officer. The way she laughed, though, was good-natured. Not that she found his discomfort or frustration amusing, just that it seemed like a comedy of errors.
She waved off the offer of sitting with a smile and a polite, "no thank you, sir...no inconvenience for me, really." She checked her Omni-Tool for the time and was glad to notice she had enough.
The "words" spoken by the younger officer, who's name she still didn't know, and the resulting glare from the older one made her bark a laugh. She quickly tried to cover it with a cough and a hand over her mouth.
Her eyebrows furrowed as she looked at the officer when he asked about her abilities, nodding yes as he continued to speak. Understanding the situation for what it was, Alice flicked off her translator. She motioned to her ear and then pointed at Garrus' mouth. It would be easier for her to understand him when he followed; her speaking until they got her better-fitted for a translator that wouls cooperate wasn't necessary.
Then another idea struck her and she brought up her Omni-Tool again, falling in step with the much-taller alien.
She typed quickly, despite having to pay attention as to not bump into him or anything else.
After a minute, a computerized voice in a poor but mostly intelligible version of the Turian dialogue sounded from her wrist.
"Me understanding you is better. Sorry about my badness." She frowned and typed something again, seeing her English word translated from Turian back to English and not being what she meant. "Wrongness." She huffed and jabbed furiously at the hologram screen. "Stupid." She snorted a laugh and threw her hands up in the air.
Night Without Stars [Vakarian]
Alice had no idea what to think about the turian in front of her; she, unlike a lot of humans, didn’t hold prejudice for those that were either directly or indirectly involved in the First Contact War. She didn’t know much about turians, by and large, except their general history. For example, she had no idea that the man (ish) in front of her was around her age, or even “young”. She liked his lines; both the lines of his body and the blue on his face. He cut a good figure, even if it wasn’t entirely human. Was he supposed to be an attractive turian? What made turians attractive? Was it the fringe at the back of their heads? The carapace, mostly hidden by his uniform? The slim waist? The rumble of his voice? Alice was getting distracted, she realized; too much musing. But he was so tall! She could have climbed him like a tree, literally. She smiled at the thought, not quite laughing.
Alice shrugged a little, “Everyone deserves respect. But...I’ll just offer you a handshake next time?” She smiled again a little, one thin-fingered hand sliding beneath her hair and scratching at the port for the implant at the base of her neck. She ran through how she could get to the roster and show him the luggage. She was going to have to escort him through the whole ship, wasn’t she? For the rooms. Or did he mean the barracks? He had to mean the ship.
Alice faltered when his translator clicked off and reached out, attempting to catch any of the papers he had dropped without getting in his way. There was a whole lot of him to get in the way of so, after managing to catch only one paper mid-air, she lifted her hand out to him for half a second before she realized he was distressed.
She watched the way he moved when she couldn’t understand what he was saying; the flicker of his mandibles, the movement of what she would consider ‘lips’. The sounds he made reminded her of animals back home, though not quite. She had never heard anything like it; she wasn’t sure if it terrified her or amused her, but it was definitely interesting. She wondered if there were Turian bands that didn’t use translators. He would probably know.
Alice tried not to laugh when he swore; it wasn’t funny.
It was funny. She smiled apologetically but couldn’t stop the light giggles. She stopped when the older turian - she could now tell that he looked older than the one in front of her - approached and she stiffened, holding her hands at rest in front of her torso. She bowed her head a little in response to his greeting, “Sir,” she offered in greeting, grinning just minutely.
“My own fault for not learning Turian?” she offered, her lips quirking up in a weak smile,suddenly disappointed that the younger officer wouldn’t be able to understand what she was saying. She wanted to ask him about the blue on his face. Paint? Tattoo? She tried not to stare at either of their faces, which was beneficial as it was going to put a crick in her neck.
“Anything I can do? Can’t say I’m much good with computers. Do you want me to-” she stopped, realizing again and repeatedly that the younger turian didn’t have a clue what she was saying. She extended her hands out, offering to take his things long enough to free him to do whatever he might need to. She still held the one paper she had managed to trap in her hands.
She was curious, after listening to him speak in his native language, if that was what she sounded like to him, when his translator worked? She didn’t believe she could have that same resonating effect - she knew what it was called, she thought, but couldn’t remember when she tried. Sub-something? Sub-melodics? No, that wasn’t right.
Harmonics?
Sub-harmonics?
Maybe.
And the man that was helping - when he spoke to the one with the broken translator, did the younger hear garbled nonsense that was English or was there an incredible amount of subtext to the Turian language that Alice didn’t understand?
She suddenly couldn’t wait for the translator to be fixed and to steal this officer away, under the guise of getting his job done only to barrage him with questions. Curiosity glittered in her eyes as she waited patiently for something to work, or something to do. She likely could have left them to get the roster but she was too busy watching them and listening. Generally she was more subtle than all that, but she couldn’t be bothered at the moment to mind all that much.
Night Without Stars [Vakarian]
Alice heard the footsteps behind her; they sounded strange somehow, but she wasn’t sure why. She hesitated for a moment, feeling the urge to spin on her hands and drop forward over the railing, shoving her feet in the air.
She smiled when she thought of it but instead thrust herself back a little and landed with a light sound and slightly bent knees. Turning on her heel, she looked for the man that had spoken. The other Alliance recruits, trainees, and officers were making their way through customs already. Or trying, she imagined.
Captain Anderson, Alice’s favorite person in all of the known universe despite the rumors, was still back on the ship with the pilot and XO. Alice stopped short of calling to the C-Sec officer when she turned to face him. His voice caught her off-guard; something about the way it resonated, even through the translators.
She had to practically bend in half to look up at him so she took a half step back for a less dramatic angle. She hadn’t actually met an alien yet; Alliance was human, through and through. She had seen vids, read books.
“Well, wow,” she breathed, mossy blue eyes wide as saucers as she looked up at him. She shook her head, readjusting the look on her face to one of calm and professional, the hint of a smile tugging her lips. She lifted her arm in a salute, not entirely sure of the protocol. Best to be polite, she decided. “Private First Class Shepard. What can I do for you, big gu-…officer? Captain is on the ship, if you’d like him. But I can see what I can do.”
Well, mostly polite?
Night Without Stars [Vakarian]
@all-around-turian-bad-boy
Alice was a liar. She had been a liar for as long as she could form thought in any coherent manner. She lied to herself, first, when she suggested that her parents would come back. She lied to everyone when she made up stories – where they were, who they were, when they would return – and even when she claimed the name ‘Shepard’. She couldn’t remember her last name, younger than three when her parents disappeared. In truth, she couldn’t claim that she had ever met them – one or both – as she had only the faintest recollection of a memory of a scent, and the color blue.
Alice had gone through much of her life without a last name, in fact. It wasn’t until she wandered into a library, not looking to learn but finding the desire to regardless, and they requested her last name for her library card. She was sure she had one, but she couldn’t remember – so she made a quick, subtle scan of her surroundings. Books everywhere, names of authors mostly too far to read.
She saw a sheep dancing along the cover of one of the children’s picture books towards a man with hair like hers holding a curved staff and scribbled down how she thought the word sounded. She had no formal education and only mildly more training; at nine, she could read but only barely and her handwriting would forever be atrocious.
The girl lied so much that she got better at it; she talked her way into school, briefly. She made excuses for her parents that didn’t exist, or if they did they didn’t matter. She had spent so many years devouring every book at the library; she knew plenty but didn’t know how to do a lot of the things that a formal education would have given to her. Her informal education of all things street gave her little patience for formulas or tests and so she disappeared three weeks after enrolling herself in the institute of learning she had chosen.
Alice was a smart girl, or more she was a clever girl. She may not have known the Pythagorean Theorem, how to spell ‘antidisestablishmentarianism’, the chemical compound that made up water, or who led what revolution when. But she knew how to charm a snake, she knew how to talk around questions she didn’t want to answer, she knew how to shoot a pistol, and she knew how to pickpocket. She knew a few other things, but best not to put all of one’s cards on the table right away.
The thing she struggled the most with at first was the blue glow at the edge of her vision, which grew into a sort of humming in her head. One morning, when she was still very young, her vision shifted and all she could see were dots. Her eyes focused on the dots faded but were still there, though not really. Her mind was projecting what her body felt; nodes of Element Zero encasing reality around her. When Alice realized she was a biotic, she didn’t actually know that word or what it meant. She spent a goodly portion of her young life trying both to hide and control the pulsing in her nerves.
As an orphan discarded with the morning newspaper, Alice had no papers – no form of identification. She wasn’t sure if she had even been registered as a person at any point in her life. She found a guy that knew a guy that knew someone that could get her papers. She organized their payment and swung her feet over the concrete edge of a broken Earth building while she waited. She was just shy of sixteen then, but when the beanpole of a guy settled down beside her at their meeting spot and slid a manila envelope under her thigh, she wasn’t any more.
“Why’d you want to age up?” he asked, voice reminiscent of an old New Jersey accent.
“What’s it to you?” Alice’s face pinched in irritation. “I paid you, didn’t I?”
“Shit, kid. It’s just that most women want to be younger.”
“Gotta be eighteen to do anything on or off this stupid planet,” Alice grimaced, heel kicking back against the concrete and bouncing off again. “You sure this is legit, Sam? I can’t risk it.”
His eyes narrowed and he rubbed his forehead a little head cocked to the side. “You paid for the best. You keep your cool and tone down on the ‘stupid’, you’ll pull it off. Whatever it is you intend to pull off, that is.”
Alice jumped down, landing on the ground in a cloud of dust, and reached back for the envelope with one hand and waved with the other. It glowed blue, just briefly, and she smiled like a shark. “It had better.”
It worked. She thought it worked partially because she had studied other recruits for days, hanging around the military station to watch their movements, their actions, and their words. When she strutted into the office and offered herself as a recruit, the woman behind the counter barely batted an eye when she claimed she was eighteen.
Their willingness to take her may or may not have been relevant to the discovery of her biotic abilities; she knew she was special or something, but she didn’t know it was that big of a deal. She was terrified and angry when they told her about the implant. She hated the way she itched after they put it in. She felt chained and that feeling didn’t fade, even when she made it to the Citadel a year later.
It was difficult for Alice not to stare, wide-eyed at the aliens on the space station. She had been fighting the urge to gape out the porthole of the ship her entire trip to the Citadel. She took hurried glances at the stars around her whenever she was sure no one was looking.
When offered a few spare minutes to herself before reporting to the Alliance barracks, she stood slack-jawed at one of the many too-high windows in the Presidium. She was in a relaxed uniform, the black-blue pants on her lower half clearly Alliance and the gray t-shirt obscured slightly on the front by her dog tags and the back by her mass of bright red hair. She had enough time to gape at the stars before she scampered off to put on full uniform and be prepared for her first evening on the base.
“Look at me now,” she smirked to herself, lifting a freckled hand to push hair away and back. She was fortunate and happy to know that she could keep her hair, as long as it was kept up in a regulation hairdo while in uniform. She was disappointed, however, that she could not continue to paint her nails until she made a higher rank. In a year of training, development of her abilities, and adjusting to the L3 implant that itched at the base of her neck, Alice had made Private 1st class. It was still a far cry from her dream of Admiral, but she wasn’t upset. Yet. Without Sam’s help to fudge an education history, she would’ve started at a great disadvantage – her lack of formal schooling could have been her undoing but she had had a lucky break, with the years spent in a library and the type of testing they provided to discern one’s aptitude.
Alice let out a sigh and relaxed her shoulders, lifting her hands to set them on the metal railing in front of her. She leaned over, balancing almost all of her weight on it and almost pressing her face to the glass. Her body, short and thin from being at first underfed and then from the exercise of keeping up with those in her class, balanced precariously on long-fingered hands. She had heard a lot of things throughout her years and was surprised at how closely the barracks on Earth resembled the streets in the prejudice against curves. She had no business in uniform, she had heard; she would be better served on a pole with a figure like that. She convinced herself the men and women of that opinion were merely jealous. And she was too happy that it all worked out to care.
“Damn beautiful,” she grinned, speaking entirely to herself and not caring a fig if anyone overheard her.
