I love Turians, I cannot lie!
(if anyone’s curious, my top faves are Nihlus, Garrus, Saren and Kandros)
(there’ll be a part 2 with the rest of the turians I didn’t manage to draw yet)
I’ve seen lots of people talking about the whole “turians from the same family SHOULD have the same markings but Bioware ignores their own lore” stuff, and most of the time they’re right.
But I CAN see a reason why Vetra and Sid would have different markings. Not because its how its meant to be, but rather how Vetra wanted it to be. I like to think that Vetra purposely made sure that her sister got different markings than her so that any enemies she may make in her work as a smuggler wouldn’t actually recognise them as being related- if that makes any sense.
Its a further precaution to protect Sid from her work. Idk I think its a kinda plausible explanation for in game stuff. Even though the chances are high that it was indeed just Bioware being lazy/not knowing their own damn lore.
Tagged by the forever awesome @jeannedarcprice. Have another excerpt from the Days Gone AU I’m working on. This is a part of one of Gil’s memories that’s going to appear at some point in the fic (I don’t yet know where, though.)
~Start of the “freaker virus” outbreak, Boston, Massachusetts:
It was meant to be a two-week visit to America. Two weeks to visit my friends and more importantly, to spend time with Meri. Then Vetra and Suvi’s wedding was meant to be near the end of it, then they’d get on a plane to their honeymoon while I caught my flight back to London.
But to Hell with all that, of course.
All flights were grounded mere hours after my arrival. That was when Jill really began to worry. Meri picked up on it, I know she did—kids aren’t stupid, after all. I did what I could to try and soothe them both—probably used some sappy drivel or something about how this all couldn’t last. Doesn’t matter, because it didn’t really work, anyway.
The next day, Vetra calls. She and Suvi were moving their wedding up to that afternoon.
“She’s terrified,” Vetra had told us on the phone. “She’s convinced that if we don’t do it as soon as possible, then we may never get to. And I think she’s right.”
Suvi knew a preacher that was willing to perform the ceremony at the last minute. So it was just the preacher, his wife, me, Jill, Meri, and Sidera at the preacher’s house. We’d all tried to get in touch with everyone else who was supposed to be there—some weren’t answering their phones, and some were just too far away to make it in time. We all tried not to think about it, honestly.
Then the news just started getting oh-so-much-more cheery. That the hospitals were already beyond capacity wasn’t new. That the dead were starting to number in the millions wasn’t new either. That those who hadn’t died were turning into cannibalistic monsters also wasn’t.
What was new was that the ones who were turning were gathering together into what they were calling “hordes,” and no one seemed to know how to contain them. So they were running rampant everywhere, invading entire towns and killing whoever couldn’t run away from them fast enough. They’d stopped keeping track of the number of infected people, so many were getting sick.
Then the hordes started overrunning the large cities. Evacuation orders started going out. I think it took about two days before the news channels all stopped broadcasting. Then phone calls stopped going through.
I think that was the point where I knew that shit was seriously fucked now.
Meri had started staying closer and closer to me, her hand sliding into one of mine at random times. I could tell she was trying to not be scared. I wanted to tell her it didn’t matter, because we were all scared.
I had always thought she’d been so small for an eleven-year-old. When I would look at her, meaning to reassure her with some ridiculous and pointless platitude, it would die in my mouth.
My daughter was afraid, and I had to help her to not be.
So all I could do was hug her and hope it was enough.
I think it was about the time that the cellular towers stopped working that Vetra, Suvi, and Sid came over. They were leaving Boston, and they wanted us to come with them. Jill and I only glanced at one another. Decisions like this never really called for a debate between the two of us—we both always knew when we were in agreement with one another. Meri, smart girl that she was, seemed to know what the decision was before either of us had said anything and ran straight to her room to begin packing.
We followed their example; one backpack each containing a change of clothes and the barest essentials, with the hope that we could get more wherever we were going. Jill didn’t even bother locking the door when we left. She never said anything, and no one else bothered mentioning it, but that was when we all knew that we weren’t coming back. And several of her neighbors had had the same idea about leaving—several of them were packing their vehicles, others were walking like we were.
We wound up at the NERO refugee camp just outside of Boston. And it turned out we’d left just in time; word had begun circulating around the camp that they’d given the order to evacuate the city. People would be flooding the place within hours.
And they did just that. It didn’t even take a day before they had to start turning people away. The rumor was that they were being diverted to other refugee camps (were there any others to go to? Assuming they could even make it…) but some people had their doubts.
There was another rumor going around that NERO had executed a bunch of incoming people in their cars.
Vetra, Suvi, Sid, and I would find out later that that one was not a rumor, but a fact.
We’d all been at the refugee camp for a rather uneventful couple of days when shit went from bad to worse. Vetra was off somewhere trying to negotiate information out of anyone that would talk to her, and Jill had started working with the NERO scientists at the camp who were trying to come up with anything to try to help treat the people that were still getting sick. Suvi and I were trying to keep Sid and Meri entertained with a game of cards when we’d started to notice Meri was looking more and more pale and listless.
“I’m fine,” she said when I asked.
It was Sid who’d reached over and felt her forehead. “No you’re not, you’re burning up,” she pointed out.
I’d never truly felt that feeling of pure dread creeping down my spine before. First time for everything, I suppose.
The cards were forgotten as I picked Meri up and the four of us went to the medical tents. She was immediately put in a bed and hooked up to an IV. And Jill and Vetra had appeared from wherever they’d been.
The doctor diagnosing Meri with the virus was pretty much a formality. A cruel one, at that.
I wanted to punch him.
It wouldn’t have helped anything.
I held Meri’s hand instead. Jill held her other hand.
I don’t know how much time passed before the two NERO soldiers suddenly appeared, but I think it had only been a few hours. Meri had passed out not long after her diagnosis, and slept fitfully the entire time. But next thing I knew, there they were, armed and everything.
Then they told Jill that they were flying all of the scientists to another location, and demanded she come with them immediately.
“Hell no!” she’d protested.
“We don’t have time to argue,” one of them said. “Besides, your kid’s either gonna turn or die soon, anyway.”
“She said no, you prick!” I said. I could feel Suvi’s hand on my shoulder.
“She doesn’t have a choice,” the asshole argued. I hadn’t seen his partner move, but suddenly they had Jill by one arm and were tugging her away from Meri’s bedside.
“You fucking son of a—“ I started forward when they’d grabbed her, but was immediately cut off by the two rifle barrels suddenly pointing at me. I could feel Suvi clutching at my arm now.
“Turn loose of the girl and come with us,” the other asshole ordered, “Or I shoot your friends.”
“Gil, Suvi, it’s okay,” Jill said, pressing a kiss to the back of Meri’s hand and putting it down, and I could feel a surge of rage welling up at my helplessness to stop any of this.
“We’ll stay with her, we promise,” Suvi said, and before we could do anything else, Jill was ushered out of the medical tent.
I hadn’t realized that complete silence had fallen over the medical tent until I heard Vetra snarl “Motherfuckers” after the NERO guys left with Jill.
“Where are they taking mom?” Meri suddenly asked, and that was also when I realized she’d been awake for most, or all, of that confrontation.
“I don’t know, sweetheart,” I answered, taking her hand again. That was when I realized a third, then a fourth, thing.
“Where are all the doctors?” someone at another bedside said.
“They’re all leaving,” Sid answered the tent at large. There were gasps and denials, and several people ran outside to confirm what she’d said. I glanced up at her and Vetra as they arrived at Meri’s bed, and that was when I noticed they had all of our backpacks.
“It’s true,” Vetra said. “I heard one of them mention that there was a massive horde headed this way. We have less than ten minutes to get the hell out of here.” More gasps and denials went around. Then someone came back.
“She’s right,” the woman said. “All the NERO people are gone and I just saw the last helicopter take off.”
“What the fuck??” someone else shouted.
“Where are we supposed to go?” a third person demanded.
Not that anyone had an answer, of course. Suvi reached down and started unhooking Meri’s IV, and several other people started moving around.
And then
“HORDE INCOMING!!!! HORDE INCOMING!!!!!” a man ran by the tent shouting.
