#fyme3mpcharacters

[phoenixrenegade]

Origin Story: Daniel Tanner

(aka: the origin story for the ex-Cerberus Vanguard ME3MP/RP character I created ages ago as I stumbled into a group of lifelong friends entirely by accident.)

Porsgrunn is a shithole. Humanity found the solar system, found the Relay, found the stars. Found the fucking Turians, which went great. Humanity found the Citadel, and the galaxy.

And of all the colony worlds humanity chose to take for itself, the Tanner family chose some backwater shithole in the ass end of the Terminus Systems. Mom, Dad, and little David, off on their great adventure into the unknown so they could make their fortune. That went great too.

David was doted on as the eldest. The one with the most promise, they thought, showering him with the best schooling and tutors and books. Then came Daniel. He was more energetic where David was reserved, playful where David was serious. Everything their parents said compared the two against each other instead of encouraging them to get close, so they bickered, then argued, then fought. Petty words turned to shouting matches, turned to fistfights. Split knuckles and stitches, that defined their relationship.

Hannah was an accident. Oops, they knew they should have taken care of that right away after Daniel. Now in addition to a brilliant son and a pain in the ass, they had a baby to look after.

David wanted little to do with her at first and when their parents were busy working Daniel was the one who got stuck with her. That suited all of them just fine – the boys weren’t fighting, and that’s all they cared about. As she grew older, insatiably curious and wanting to explore, it took both boys to keep track of her. They struggled to keep up with her desire to learn, to know. David pulled out his old books, the videos, games, puzzles. Daniel took her on hikes, climbing trees, boulders, chasing each other through the hilly woods near town.

David graduated high school. He had a scholarship to the best universities, on Earth and elsewhere, and pissed off his parents by rejecting all of them in favor of joining the Alliance military as an engineer.

Daniel was left to take care of Hannah, so he gave her as much love as he could manage. Bandaged up her knees when she fell, answered questions he didn’t entirely understand himself, made sure she ate. Hid her when the batarians attacked, again and again, wanting to take away from the humans the world they didn’t even want for themselves.

Daniel listened to the people in the town square while Hannah climbed trees with the other kids. Heard them talk about protecting humanity, doing what was necessary, since the Alliance was too busy kissing Council-race asses to care about the backwater colony worlds. Hardworking colonists deserved protection too, they said, and someone had to step up. Would he be one of them?

He started teaching Hannah other things. How to patch up her own skinned knees, look up the answers to her questions, taught her how to cook. How to talk to their parents so they’d actually do something for her.

‘I don’t want you to go!’ she whispered one night, as he tucked her into bed. She was too old for it, really, but they both enjoyed the ritual of it.

‘Whatcha talking about, bug?’

‘You’re gonna leave, like David.’

He’d taught her too well, he supposed. ‘Yeah. There’s a group, soldiers. They protect people like us. Humanity. They always need strong kids like me to join them.’

‘Can I come with?’

He booped her nose. ‘You’re too little. When you’re older, like me, you can make your decision. Until then you need to stay here, stay safe. It’ll be okay.’

‘...okay.’

The day he graduated high school he skipped the ceremony. His parents weren’t there anyway, they’d already celebrated their star child’s graduation from the Alliance academy and were ‘too busy’ to attend. He didn’t care. His bags were already packed, and he headed to the spaceport after a tearful goodbye with his sister. He wrote her two letters before arriving at his destination.

The station sucked. Tests, tests, more tests. Blood samples, physical endurance activities, aptitude tests. Biotic abilities. Porsgrunn had a small amount of eezo in the atmosphere, and that was apparently enough. That was an exciting day, or so he was told, and he was moved to a different wing of the station; one with a huge, stylized phoenix emblazoned on the triple-bulkhead entrance door.

‘Welcome to your new life, kid,’ his escort said as he was brought to yet another medical office for yet another round of tests.

[gabriel-patterson]

X

Gabriel let out a snort, giving the two of them a look. “When don’t you have a fucking boner, Maddox?” he asked, voice rough and eyes challenging.

Then he paused, insecurity flashing across his face. “... Should I go..?” he asked. ‘Yes, you should,’ immidiately flashed in his brain. This was dangerous. He’d rather fight a banshee. 

Yet he stood there. Waiting.

[phoenixrenegade]

It started off, as most things involving Daniel did, as a joke.

The recovery of Earth, and the rest of the galaxy, was in full swing. The rubble was cleared, the slapdash emergency shelters to keep safe civilians needing to hide from the elements and eezo storms replaced with semipermanent housing, and businesses started popping up.

Daniel wanted nothing more to do with war, and thankfully Renee was in agreement. Once he was back on his feet he worked construction, part time and then every moment he had to spare once the doctors cleared him, but as rewarding as it was he couldn't quite manage the heavy duty work needed for the more permanent structures. So he had a few quiet talks with his girlfriend, his fiancee, and his wife.

They bought a truck, a barbecue, and a steel canopy. Within a week someone donated three tables and chairs to sit at. Supplies just appeared - napkins, plates, water jugs. They tried just giving it away but soon accepted donations and, finally, putting actual prices on the chalkboard menu.

Then they upgraded to an honest to god diner with a real kitchen. Renee ran the front, because for some reason she loved being a waitress, and Daniel worked in the kitchen. They had to hire a few people and chose to work with employment services for underprivileged refugees, veterans … orphans. A kid of twelve, an art prodigy, painted a gigantic mural along one wall that told the story of humanity's survival. Business leveled off at an acceptable, but not quite comfortable, level.

And then Daniel had an idea while watching the first reboot season of a lip-sync show.

So in a hairnet, apron, and whisk in hand he worked up an omelette while Renee recorded. A couple days later he made a cheeseburger. But the cake… that's what got everyone's attention.

Like, everyone.

He worked with an animal shelter and borrowed a little dog with an ‘ADOPT ME’ bandana. He wore one too, just for laughs and because Renee told him he was an adorable dumbass. He slung ingredients and measuring cups around the kitchen, Renee pieced it together and put it on the ‘net, and the rest was history. Any time there was a new recipe, when a charity needed funds, or Daniel just got too bored there was a new video. He even did a six-hour long livestream one day when some mouth breathing dingbat tried to say the videos were fake and he probably made his wife do all the real work, dancing along to old twenty first century pop songs while flipping pancakes in the air like a seasoned pro *just to prove the haters wrong*.

He still volunteered construction time, once he had enough cooks he could trust to run the place right. He still made sure to spend a lot of quality time with his sister, his wife, his son. Sons. And daughters too, eventually. Even his damn brother, faking at being civil and then cordial and then friendly and then finally getting along after a few decades of fistfights.

But damn, Daniel just loved to cook.

[gabriel-patterson]

(Just dusting off an old friend.)

Sometimes Gabriel was certain he was going to die alone. 

Good things never lasted, everything came at an end. With the Reapers breathing down their necks, Gabriel was even more certain than ever that this was mere facts.

Martin was gone a long time ago.

Liev ended as quickly as it had started.

Levon... that one hurt the most, but he couldn’t blame the man. He knew he was difficult, had moodswings and was just unpleasant to be around. He had tried to change, to be better, but the scars ran deep, the habits even deeper and in the end... It was for the best.

People like Gabriel didn’t deserve a happy ending, not with the amount of blood that stained his hands. Not with the amount of people he had hurt.

Archer, the Kitten.

Maddox, the Pup.

Peter the lunatic and his too sweet husband.

Amir and Ander

Eileen.

Scooter.

Marie.

Caleb.

Mason.

Nico.

Erik.

Zain.

Mikael.

Luca.

Lance.

Muffin.

These were names of good people (even if Muffin wasn’t exactly a... person), people that had touched Gabriel’s life in one way or the other.

And he was so desperately envious of all of them. Of being to reach out, be vulnerable, of trusting, of needing and taking their comforts. And because he couldn’t find it in him to just be happy with what he had, being jealous of what he didn’t and couldn’t have... that made him a terrible person. 

It was why he made the call. He had to leave.

[ssv-gabriel]

Intro

The SSV Gabriel is a Human Systems Alliance vessel, home to the special forces team N7 ANGEL. An elite search-and-rescue team, they travel the galaxy, evading Reaper and other threats, locating distress signals and Alliance squads in peril. With Commander Shepard fighting to save the galaxy, the rest of humanity must do their part in this war.

This blog is all about the crew of the Gabriel, the six members of N7 ANGEL, and their missions during the events of ME3 and ME3MP. I have a fanfic in writing that will be showcased here in segments. I am also considering RPing one or two of my N7 OCs, if I especially bond with any of them during my writing. For now, my muse is Bethany Kitani, the Fury Adept of the team.

[gabriel-patterson]

From here 

Gabriel wanted to flail. Wanted to punch. Wanted to get Maddox off of him, away from him, but in the end, he stayed. A warm arm wrapped around him, pressed against an equally warm body and an air of unknown between him and the adept that had almost been an enemy just a few short months ago.

When had things changed?

He had stayed, he listened. He listened to the words, to the man breathe and, if he payed very close attention, the heartbeat. If it was Maddox or his own, he couldn’t honestly say.

Then Archer came. Stood in front of him and just as he wanted to say something, just as the moment seemed too tender, too much...

His cheeks got squished in.

“What the shit, kitten,” he growled, lifting his hand in a half-hearted attempt to get the slayer’s hands away from him. Then they are gone, as quickly as they were there, and it hurts almost as much as the touch itself. but in a different way.

“Look,” he sighed and pushed away from Maddox, taking a step away so he could get some sense of control. “I know I am preaching to the choir here. You know the shit I’ve seen, the shit I’ve done because you’ve done it to. I know you get it. Your hands are just as stained as mine. And don’t get me wrong, or do, maybe I deserve that, but do you know how much it fucking hurts to fucking fuck up every olive branch that is handed to you?” He let out a pained sigh and pinched the bridge between his eyes hard. “When this war is over and we somehow ain’t dead... I got nowhere to go. I got nobody. This bullshit out there... The fighting, the killing... It’s all I have. And it’s killing me.”

He closed his eyes, felt his heart hammer in his chest. Ah, so he was still alive and human then... He had never felt so... open, so... raw before. “You get me, Kitten. Hell, maybe even you do, Pup. But you are killing me. Because I don’t know what to do with you. And when this shit is over...”

He swallowed. Didn’t want to to say it, but couldn’t prevent himself from thinking it.

‘So will this end.’

[phoenixrenegade]

Post War

((Where Daniel and Scooter snuggle under a tree in Dan’s backyard while the kids run all over, because Dan just does that with his friends.))

Scooter poked Daniel’s arm to get his attention.  ‘Do you ever miss the old days?  Before the war?  Maybe before Cerberus?’

Daniel shrugged.  ‘Sometimes.  Feels like it’s a galaxy away.  A few lifetimes, a lot of bullets and regret.’

‘It wasn’t all bad though?’

Daniel lifted his arm and brought it around Scooter’s shoulders, pulling him in.  Scooter burrowed into the embrace and rested his head on Daniel’s chest.

‘Nah. Some of it was pretty all right.  Sometimes it hurts to think about that stuff...’

*

‘Danny. Daaaaannyyyyyy.  Wake up.’

‘Ugh.  Ben, I’ve been back for four hours.  I’m tryina sleep here.’

Ben ignored the Vanguard’s protests and flopped onto the bed.  ‘Danny, it’s movie night and it’s an Earth classic and we’re gonna have popcorn and you won’t believe me but we talked Nico and Parker into making a blanket fort for everyone.  And Ethan got me this new shampoo, it’s supposed to smell like...’

*

Daniel sighed.  ‘Times like this, Little Cat, I just try to remember what I have now.  Like us sitting here, eating ice cream, and watching my kids run around like the holy terrors they are.’

Scooter nodded.  The branches of the tree swayed in a light breeze, not strong enough to drag the eezo currents over town and force everyone inside.  Years after the war and Daniel still kept his omni-tool close at hand in case of weather notifications for himself and the others in the neighborhood with small children.  Renee told him about three times a day that he worried too much, and maybe she was right. Okay, she was definitely right.  But Daniel like to think that in the grand scheme of post traumatic stress, having no less than fifty alert notifications set up for various things was pretty tame.  Some of his family, blood and otherwise, had come out much worse.

He buried his face in Scooter’s hair, hugging him tightly, and let himself feel sorry for both of them for a moment.  He felt awful about what happened to Ben and Scooter, guilty for not being there when the kid needed him, for all the little moments when he let his friend down.  He sniffled so his nose didn’t drip into Scooter’s hair and caught a whiff of … mango?

It was enough to drag his mind out of its dive into self-loathing.  The sniffles became a laugh and he hugged even tighter.  ‘Scooter, you turd, were you into Renee’s shampoo?’  Muffled giggles served as enough of a reply.

Yeah, sometimes it was a galaxy of regret.  Others it wasn’t so bad.