This is my creative blog, which will feature art, writing, and musings that I want to share to tumblr. I do not take commissions, but I will take requests from time to time. However... Anything I post on this blog is not free to use or repost unless given consent by myself. -Tyvani
On another day she had chosen to wander the castle, Tatiana decided to open doors she hadn’t seen behind yet, curiosity driving her. She found broom closets, cupboards, entrances to the servants hallways that she had not used, herself, yet…
Then Tatiana came upon a storage room in an out of the way part of the castle, one that was seldom tread by the court or the staff. Sheets of cloth covered a number of old furnishings and boxes full of old garments and trinkets. The Queen pulled the sheets away to see the things hidden beneath, finding a particularly lovely music box stashed away in a forgotten, dusty corner. Another sheet revealed a dress form sized for someone she couldn’t put a finger on, given the somewhat unique body proportions. Yet another sheet revealed a number of paintings she had never seen before, and she pulled a few out to see what beauties had been hidden: A scene of a central town square, a forest grotto, an old portrait of Lucian in regal attire. Though there was a different name identifying the figure, she recognized her husband clearly. Another painting showed him with someone else.
Tatiana paused.
It was Serena. She was younger, but she could see it. Tatiana’s face fell, and she moved onto the next painting, only to find a portrait of Serena by herself, dressed in beautiful silks and bearing the Queen’s crown upon her head. The same crown that belonged to Tatiana.
Behind that was another portrait of Lucian and Serena together, and behind that was a portrait of a few different women she didn’t recognize in the same crown, then more again that she did recognize. Tatiana pulled out one painting after another, many of them hidden in different stacks, but each and every one had the exact same crown and each and every one of them had a portrait together with Lucian. Too many were of people she didn’t have a name to, but had to guess were the ones who did not choose Lucian’s offer of immortality. Tatiana knew that records of them still existed, but they were almost never spoken of by Lucian’s curated consorts.
Creeping up into her heart was the whispering demon eating at the hole there. She couldn’t help but chastise herself for knowing already that she was not Lucian’s first love, or even merely his first Queen. But there was something else to it. Something that wondered why these few were never discussed.
Is that why it pained her to see this?
Perhaps it was the quiet desolation of the storage room, far from where anyone would expect to find her, but she sat down on one of the old sofas and stared distantly at one of the nameless queens’ paintings until tears rolled down her cheeks.
Did any of the others wonder where she was? Why they might not find her? Was there really a point in her being Queen when every one of Lucian’s other unliving wives were just as capable? What purpose did Tatiana really serve beyond just a figure to stand and make things in the castle appear normal? What purpose did Tatiana truly serve at Lucian’s side?
There was no need for her. None at all. In fact, this only cemented a growing thought within her: She was going to be replaced.
Had she been so foolish? So truly in love with Lucian that she just ignored it? Pushed it all away until there was nothing but her and Lucian’s affections? And once his affections left her, what was she left with?
Sure, the others were not bad company, but they were not hers. They belonged to Lucian just as much as she did, and they craved Lucian’s attention far more than they did hers. Tatiana was the strange, lonely child, reading books, playing with dead insects, and admiring dead squirrels. Her favorite pet was a reanimated dog, and her closest friends were merely her parents.
The thoughts swirled and swirled around her in the darkness of the room, and Tatiana had no idea how much time had passed until her eyes flicked over to the diminishing candle, barely a couple inches tall now. The woman stood and wiped the drying tears off of her cheeks, put the paintings and furniture back where they had been, and crept over to the door, listening for the absence of people on the other side before slipping out and returning to the rest of the castle.
She slept in her bed that night, alone until Lucian surprised her by asking to sleep with her. She pulled the covers away to let him in and buried her face in his cool chest. The woman did not say anything, made no sign of her upset beyond her desire for comfort, and Lucian merely pet her hair as they fell asleep together.
In the morning, Tatiana rose before him, and laid in bed watching him for a while, wondering what she should do. She had truly fallen in love with him, and had been so happy to enter into this relationship with him. He was beautiful, kind, caring, and wise in ways she wasn’t. He wanted a large and flourishing kingdom, and knew well how to balance keeping the people happy and in line. When people came to him with problems, he was determined to solve them to the best outcome. He was cunning and charming, and while he knew just how to convince the few humans who knew his secret to not let it out, the people actually cared about him in return because he cared about them.
Lucian was magnificent. One of a kind, in Tatiana’s eyes.
But she would be pushed aside before she knew it, and whatever distance was growing between them already would pull them further and further apart.
And Lucian was perfectly willing to let it happen. Lucian knew this, expected it. It was all a part of his grand scheme to outlive every other ruler around him and slowly, but surely, expand his kingdom.
Lucian knew. Lucian knew he would push Tatiana aside one day for another. Take the crown from her and give it to someone else. Take what was left of her life and keep her as part of his collection forever.
Lucian knew.
So Tatiana had to, as well.
The Queen slipped out of her bed and started her morning with a bath, then a meal, and then when Lucian still wasn’t awake, she playfully teased him by tickling his face with his hair.
“Wake up, Lushenska…!”
After a moment, he awoke with a smile, and they exchanged a sweet kiss before Tatiana said she’d meet him in the Council Chambers. The Queen moved through the day with a new thought in her mind, one that she had to hold close. She played her part the same as always, and when Lucian, as expected, parted ways with her to visit one of his lovers for the evening, Tatiana took his hand, kissed the back of it, and told him to enjoy himself.
If she would spend her evenings without her husband, then so be it. But she would be damned if she would have her power taken from her while he got to keep his.
You've been acquainted with your symbiote for a little while now, and somehow managed to dodge the issue of intimacy. When it finally comes up, Dark is more than happy to accommodate you. (NSFW)
Mirror links: AO3 | Wattpad
There were times where you could almost forget that you were never alone anymore. Almost. It was always when there was long periods of silence, when Dark seemed to simply have no commentary on anything, and your mind would actually start to wander like it used to before you started worrying about having your own thoughts judged. You actually hoped the symbiote might be asleep so you could be free to think whatever without worrying about Dark’s snark.
You spontaneously remembered a number of sexual fantasies you had as you spaced out on the bus ride home, all born from a desire to experiment and a lack of anyone trustworthy to do so with. They featured a plethora of interchangeable figures with interchangeable roles that varied based on your mood.
This time? Your mood was submissive.
With a distant look, you recalled scenes of kissing one of these figures, playfully teasing each other before they pinned you against the wall, kissing your neck. It drifted right on to the bedroom, where they pinned you down, teased you, and fucked you hard. The ghost of a smile touched your face when you imagined having fun banter with your partner. Imagining the ecstasy they’d give you… You could feel your stomach flutter with excitement at the thought.
Then you remembered the symbiote, and the scene fizzled out. It was already hard for you to get intimate with others before you had an alien bonded to your body. How would you explain that to a partner? How many people that even got that close would even be okay with it? Would he be watching? Would he start chatting in your ear in the middle of it? Would he… participate?
A new scene popped into your head trying to imagine it, and you quickly cursed your brain. You realized you were glaring disturbingly in the direction of another passenger and let your surprise cross your face before looking down at the floor.
Did symbiotes even have needs like that? You wondered. You had no idea how they worked beyond sharing your body’s resources and lending its own. As far as you knew, Dark only hungered in the literal sense, but that didn’t stop the image from continuing to cross your mind, straying right back into the concept of him trying to participate in your own escapades. Quick flashes of feelings crossed your mind before you could even put words or forms to the concepts: The intoxicating sound of someone in your ear, someone who’s linked body and mind, who would know just how to-
You mentally screamed at yourself. Stop!! Stop making this weird!! The thoughts fought in your mind as, like a Freudian slip, the concept refused to leave, even though you desperately wanted it to. It was a can of worms, and they were digging into the earth of your brain all over the place.
You can be so loud, you know.
The symbiote’s voice startled you, and you froze in place, a heat growing over your face.
Don’t know what you’re worried about. Already know this.
Alarm seized you, though you realized afterwards maybe you shouldn’t be so surprised. You wanted to respond, to question what it said, but you held back, not wanting to look like you were talking aloud to yourself.
The blue tooth was a good idea. Should have gotten one.
This time you made a face, just a bit offended by the sass of his voice. “Shut up.”
The person two seats down from you glanced up at you, and you gave them a sheepish look. “Sorry.”
Six more stops.
You rolled your eyes up and sighed. “Not soon enough,” you mumbled.
So what did you want us to do?
You froze again, not wanting to believe he was talking about-
Don’t know why you’re embarrassed. We know humans are like this.
“L- Like what?” you muttered, trying to keep anyone else from hearing.
Hungry, Y/N. For things that aren’t food.
It was impossible not to be embarrassed. You’d never shared your most intimate desires with anyone, especially not your most depraved ones. Even knowing Dark was in your head and knew your thoughts didn’t make you feel comfortable letting it out. It just didn’t seem right. It… “It… That isn’t something we talked about…” you said quietly, knowing he needed to know that in plain words. “That’s…”
As the bus hissed to a stop, Dark laughed, his deep voice rich in your mind. It would have been a menacing, terrifying sound if you didn’t feel the fondness behind it. You don’t realize what our bond meant, do you? he said in a tone somewhere between gentle and snarky. You are mine, and I am yours. We are one, Y/N.
“Maybe I… don’t know what you mean- meant by it…” you said, slumping in your seat. With a sigh, you turned to look out the window and added, “We need to talk when we get home.”
But we have so much time- Your mood changed immediately, and you would’ve turned to glare at him if he were sitting next to you, but Dark cut himself off as he sensed this. Very well.
Five more stops, then. Five more stops of not talking about the sudden elephant in the room. In the time it took to get to the next stop, you couldn’t take sitting with nothing to do and pulled out your phone, opening up your social media feed and being greeted with the sight of an explicit picture featuring two people and a length of rope. Dark’s amused laughter filled your head, and you slapped your phone down on your leg as your face went red.
Five more stops it is.
In doing your best not to let your mind wander, you managed to make it all to way to your stop and began walking the two blocks to your apartment.
Is it necessary to wait until we are home?
You took a deep breath, turning your head to see if you’d disturb anyone by talking aloud as you walked. When you realized nobody was walking alongside you, you faced forward, picturing yourself addressing him. “This is a kinda personal talk. So, yeah, I’d prefer to be at home, but… well…” You glanced around once more, noting the lack of people again. “When you said you wanted to bond with me completely, I thought it was, like, to the point where we were in sync. Just two people sharing a body.”
Yes?
“So…” You couldn’t help but wring your hands, and you could feel how much he wanted you to just spit it out. With a choked back groan, you continued, “I don’t- I don’t consider this a- a single-body kind of thing. Not… knowing you’re here. All the time.”
So... you do not think of us as one. You do not see us as we.
You made a frustrated noise. “Not in this case. This is different.”
How is this different? You have needs, and we agreed to take care of them together.
You stopped in your tracks, your mouth flapping as your words failed you. Your face felt hot again as the image flashed in your mind again and then was quickly banished again. “That’s… not a need,” you said, and pressed on, turning the corner to get to the next block.
Then why do you care at all?
This time you whined in indignation. “Because I… want it. Because I like it. But we didn’t talk about that being a part of… us. I don’t even know if it’s something you care about! And I don’t want you doing that just because I want it. That’s just not right!”
If we weren’t bonded, I wouldn’t care at all. But we are bonded. If you want something, we will do it.
You came to a stop at a crosswalk, not seeming conspicuous when the sentiment hit you like a truck. The images slid back to the forefront of your mind and quietly shuffled themselves together, knitting into a collective thought that you put less effort into trying to hide.
It means more to you than other things, Dark said.
“Yeah…” you responded, looking down at the ground. “It’s not really something that… means nothing to me…”
The light changed, and you continued on.
Everything means something to you, Dark said, and you could hear the eyeroll in his voice.
“Hey! Not everything!”
‘Don’t eat this human! Don’t destroy my stuff! We can’t jaywalk in front of cops!’
“That’s only a handful of things that are extremely important. Or... I mean… maybe not the jaywalking, but I’d rather not piss off the cops for walking across the street.”
He didn’t respond to that, choosing to stay silent instead. As you passed by a food cart, the smell of hot dogs commanded Dark’s attention, though he didn’t pipe up to tell you. Not that you needed him to. You stopped several steps past the cart, turned around and bought six. They were a bit much to carry, but Dark helped you grip onto them without alerting anyone else to it. And although he didn’t say it, you could feel his joy at the prospect of eating so much delicious food.
At the far corner of the block was your apartment, and you made your way inside and plopped down on the couch to dig in. It didn’t sate Dark as much as live meat did, but he was still more than happy to eat something so delicious.
When you were done, he wasted no time.
What do we need to talk about in order to continue being one?
It wasn’t a conversation you felt prepared for, even with the time since the bus, and it was hard to even try to prepare for it when the other party was able to sense your every thought. At this point, you were at a loss for words.
“How much… do you even know about this stuff?” you asked.
Your brain has more than enough information for me.
Heat rushed to your face. “Right… Then, uh…”
You know this is normal for humans, he stated factually.
You made a noise, not exactly wanting to acknowledge that he was right, but not able to object, either. “Yeah…”
Then this is normal for us.
“I mean… it’s not. Not… yet, anyways…” The idea of it being normal was… insane. Out of this world. But you remembered a question you’d thought earlier. “And I don’t even know if this is something that’s normal for you.”
Symbiotes don’t do this, he stated, and you felt guilty. Alone. But we adapt to our host and its needs. Good bond means we are happy together. Can do more. Will do more.
“You’re… okay with that? Uh, I mean…”
We like to be happy, yes? His voice was like a purr in your ear, and it stirred something in you that made your face hot.
“Y- Yeah…” Your eyes turned towards the floor, trying to avert from the invisible gaze you felt.
So… did you still want to be pinned to the wall?
Your chest tightened at that as you couldn’t restrain yourself from physically covering your face and whining.
Dark chuckled. Thought we didn’t notice.
“I was hoping you didn’t…” you whined from behind your hands.
But you still want this.
The thought of it twisted you up inside, and you tried to picture what that would even entail. You wanted desperately do feel another body against yours, touching you, kissing you, loving every inch of you, and there would be no greater partner than one that could sense exactly what you wanted. “I do,” you finally answered, partially pulling your hands away. “But… what would that mean for us…?”
It makes you feel differently. You think we will be different.
“Yeah.”
You are afraid this is a bad thing.
“Yeah…” Your shoulders drooped, and your fingers curled up against your mouth.
**But this would make you happy, and your happiness is mine. **You could feel him shift around you, and it almost felt like arms wrapping around you from behind. If he had a shoulder, you knew you’d lay your head against it.
“Don’t tell me you’re a romantic now…” you mumbled to him jokingly, and you felt his laugh. But you mentally retreated back, and paused to think before quietly adding, “I think pinning me to the wall would be too much right now…”
He shifted around you, this time daring to move against your sides and brush over your hips, but minding the boundary you saw in your mind and retreating again. It was a tentative touch, and you felt him ready to give you more should you just ask. What will we do?
Your hands drew off of your face, one hugging yourself around your waist while the other stopped at your chin, fingers brushing against your lips as you leaned your head back against the couch. “Would you kiss me?”
He rose up, forming part of a body from your chest that weightlessly hovered before you. Though his sharp teeth flashed between his lips, they didn’t dare hurt you as he pressed his lips to yours and pushed his tongue into your mouth, making your breath catch in your throat. Dark’s hands pressed into the back of the couch on either side of your head, and you couldn’t resist reaching up to rest your hands on his sides, feeling his smooth, almost-yielding form beneath your hands as you kissed him back.
Truth be told, you didn’t even realize how desperate you’d been for this until you were resisting the urge to press yourself against him. But Dark knew you didn’t want to resist. He reached an arm around your waist and pulled you to himself, solidifying his chest so you wouldn’t sink into him. The feeling of a body against yours was all too welcome, and you started rubbing your legs together as you felt your excitement and eagerness growing. Then he rumbled, a contented sound, and it made you melt.
He broke the kiss and spoke barely an inch from your mouth. “You enjoy this a lot.”
“I’ve missed this a lot…” you said in response, opening your eyes to look at him.
His face nuzzled against your jaw. “Still think you need someone else for this?”
You blushed at the mental image of being sandwiched between your symbiote and another human being and averted your eyes. “Maybe not need, but…”
Dark chuckled at the possibility. “You sound very hungry for this.”
“Ah… How much have you seen this in my mind again?”
“Enough.” His tone was amused, but he grazed his teeth over your jaw and lapped his tongue beneath it, eliciting a soft noise from you as you closed your eyes to the sensation again.** “More?”**
“Yes…” you breathed, and his tongue glided over your neck before he kissed it and traveled down to your collarbone.
The farther he went, the more you wanted, and you couldn’t stand to keep your shirt on anymore, interrupting him to pull it off over your head and toss it to the floor. Dark’s hands ran down your sides, gripping onto your waist for a moment before sliding back up and over your chest where he kneaded his fingers into your breasts, mindful of his claws and only letting them go as far as to graze your skin. Your hands moved up and over his back, one stopping at his shoulders while the other moved to cradle the back of his head to keep him close to you, not that he would ever think to pull away with how eager he was to please you. Tendrils of his form moved over the rest of your body, like shapeless hands touching you. They moved along your back, down your sides, against your legs, dancing around where your desire was. You weren’t sure if you were prepared for it yet, already enjoying where his attention was now.
Without needing to give him the direction, he finally unclasped your bra and tossed it away, immediately pressing his face right into your chest and trailing his teeth teasingly over the sensitive skin of your nipples. As his mouth closed gently around it and sucked on it, a claw from one of his hands lightly stroked circles around the other. Your chest pushed out, and you moaned softly. The more he made you feel good, the more you wanted to reach between your legs and start rubbing yourself, and no sooner than you thought this than did his tendrils slip beneath your pants, grabbing your ass and tugging your hips to him as he started to tease over your cunt. You rolled your hips as he brushed himself right between your lips and against your eager clit, biting your lip and lifting your head to look down, and then up at him. The next touch came firmer and more devoted to your clit, and you gasped at the sensation and half-closed your eyes as your body rolled into it.
You wanted the rest of your clothes off, and Dark obliged, tugging your pants and your underwear off for you, but then he molded himself around your body, consuming your form in his and standing you up. The question in your mind existed for barely a second as you realized he was taking you to the bedroom. His form squeezed around you more than usual as you walked, unable to resist embracing your whole body, but his attention on your pussy didn’t wane, eliciting a whine when he rubbed you particularly hard before laying you in the bed and pulling away from you again. You spread your legs for him, and saw him form even more of his own body this time. He crawled over you, hands on either side of your body while his form continued to rub your clit and even began probing your entrance. But you watched him, trying to keep an even breath, and reached out to pull him to you and kiss him again. It was hard not to moan into his mouth, to show your appreciation in a probably excessively human way for him, but you felt his happiness with yours anyways and it only made you want to hold him tighter.
“Would you give me more…?” You breathed against his lips finally.
A smile split across his face, and he nuzzled into you. “Yes.”
A new shape coalesced against your cunt, and you knew exactly what it was meant to do. You reached down and took it in your hand, guiding it to your hole where he immediately plunged it inside of you, pressing his hips into yours. Your gasp turned into a pleasured whine. The size was too perfect, but you made a noise when you felt the shape shift inside of you, pressing against your walls in such a way as to make you moan.
“God, I can’t believe you…” you said, awe-struck by it all.
Dark swelled with happiness. “And I’m all yours.”
You strained to open your eyes to look at him, not expecting the statement. “And I’m yours…” you said back.
Then the cock inside you returned to its original shape, and he started rocking it into you. You held him close, pressing your face into his shoulder. Though he thrust himself inside you, his tendrils never ceased their own actions. In fact, where he was no longer giving your breasts attention, the tendrils spread up to do exactly that, alternating between rubbing against your nipples and massaging your breasts. His form still squeezed around your ass, gripping it and helping you rock your hips right back into him at his delectably slow pace. His touch on your lips and your clit, however, retreated partially, until it was nothing but ghostly teasing. You wanted it back, but the feeling faded as the two of you slowly increased the pace, rocking your hips together, plunging his cock deep inside you again and again. If he kept touching you so much in every spot, you wouldn’t last long, and you didn’t want it to end too soon.
You panted and whined into his shoulder, enjoying every thrust he gave you. He turned his head to lick your jaw and your neck some more, even biting down on your ear and growling sweetly into it as he wrapped his arms around your waist to hold your body against his again. For a moment, he stopped and ground himself into your cunt, making you moan and press your head back into the pillow.
“So many good noises,” he commented in your ear.
You bit your lip and breathed a laugh. Before you could respond, he started thrusting again. “‘Cause you’re… making me feel good.”
“Us,” he corrected you.
But it took you a moment to process as you were too focused on how much he was fucking you. “Wh- Uh- Does this… make you feel good, too?”
“Yes,” he purred, slowing down for you. “Your brain tastes so good.”
You furrowed your brow, but smiled and chuckled. “Don’t tell me you wanna eat me now.”
“We could do that,” he said, flashing a grin before swiping his tongue up one side of your face from your neck to your forehead.
You laughed, wiping away the excessive amount of drool, and then moaned loudly as his tendrils squeezed around you and rubbed hard against your clit. Your fingers dug into his shoulders as your body tensed against the intensity of the sensation.
Then Dark was back in your ear, growling sweetly once again, “We want more.”
You breathed hard as he rubbed your clit more. “Oh yeah… Oh yeah, we do…”
At that, he returned to thrusting hard into you, causing you to gasp audibly. One noise after another cried from your lips as he went all out now, giving attention to every spot that excited you. Even in the midst of it all, he kissed you again, slipping his tongue into your mouth and letting you moan against it. There was so much pleasure. Too much. You couldn’t even maintain the kiss as you had to open your mouth to breathe, and he merely turned and planted wet kisses along your cheek and your jaw and your neck. You whined and wrapped your legs around his waist and lost all focus to the feelings: Dark massaging your breasts, rubbing your nipples, your clit, pounding into your pussy. You were so wet, and could hear it in every thrust. Within moments, your legs started to shake, and your moans increased in pitch as it all mounted and you finally came on his cock with a cry, holding onto him for dear life. His movements slowed, but he moved against you enough to prolong the height of it, making your whole body twitch into him more than a few times before finally withdrawing and letting you relax. Dark disappeared as you lay there panting and dazed, but you immediately felt him squeezing around you, embracing you. When you felt him on your hands, you squeezed back, smiling and lifting your hands to your mouth to kiss where he formed around them.
“Did you… really enjoy that?” you asked, still just a bit skeptical.
Yes, he said in your mind again. Did not think we would like it this much.
“I’m glad.” Your smile only grew at that. “Thank you.”
We will be glad to do it again.
You chuckled at that, rolling onto your side and pressing your face into your pillow. “I think we can save that for another time.”
With the experience leaving you surprisingly exhausted, you didn’t even realize you were falling asleep until the sheets were being pulled on top of you. Dark formed enough of a body for the two of you to cuddle, and you drifted away in his arms.
Wait a minute, if Charlotte’s planet is supposed to be really dark, especially at night, then should a lot of things adapt bioluminescence? That would mean, if Charlotte’s species have eyes adapted to such extreme low light conditions, creatures adapting a very bright luminescence would have an amazing defense mechanism
I’m actually having a soothing time working on this rn, but I’ll have to sleep soon which will ruiiin my motivation, but at least have some nice, relatively clean lines for now :)
I haven’t drawn an asari in a super long time, let alone drawn at all, so I started to draw Serana’s face using a reference (since I honestly just wanted to use the same asari face in-game as her face so I could have plenty of references), but I wasn’t too happy with it so I just decided to trace it for asari practice. Soo we’ll pretend this is a general reference for how Serana appears in her early days. I really wanna draw something like this with her hand at her scalp over what would be her missing “tentacles,” but I guess I’ll save that for another time. Anyways, I used this image by elyhumanoid for the basis.
I haven’t drawn an asari in a super long time, let alone drawn at all, so I started to draw Serana’s face using a reference (since I honestly just wanted to use the same asari face in-game as her face so I could have plenty of references), but I wasn’t too happy with it so I just decided to trace it for asari practice. Soo we’ll pretend this is a general reference for how Serana appears in her early days. I really wanna draw something like this with her hand at her scalp over what would be her missing “tentacles,” but I guess I’ll save that for another time. Anyways, I used this image by elyhumanoid for the basis.
@femsev replied to your post “I would like to touch you.”
Oh nice, so very few people seem to think of the Cipher when they ship Shep and Javik. This is lovely!
I guess it’s just tricky to make use of. Bioware never really touched on what all information specifically was relayed with the Cipher (besides what I assume is at least the language), so the writer p much has to brainstorm the rest. But thank you for the compliment!
tbh there’s no way I’m getting any more of this to a “publishable” state anytime soon, so just have the first part of the Shavik thing I started on forever ago and maybe I’ll actually try to finish the rest of it later
The party was going well. Shepard was happy to see how many of her crew had come, and how many were actually mingling and having fun. They recounted all the missions they fought together, the arguments they had, and just had a chance to laugh about everything they thought they’d never overcome. And then there was drinking. Lots of drinking. But it was okay if it got everyone to relax. That’s what they needed, anyways: To let loose and take their mind off things. And even though she wasn’t letting herself be seen much, Kasumi was enjoying herself just as much as the others.
Shepard leaned her elbows against the kitchen counter, hands folded together in front of her as she watched the group now gathered in the living room. She activated her omni-tool and turned her translator off and just stood watching them, a small smile on her face hearing the alien words mingling with the human languages. Ashley, Garrus, Liara, Tali, and Wrex were reminiscing. She was happy that Ash looked back at it now with nostalgia and not with the same apprehension for the aliens she had before. Shepard wasn’t sure what they were saying exactly anymore, but she didn’t care.
“Commander,” Javik’s distinct voice addressed her. He came up beside her and looked at the same group she watched.
“Hey, Javik. Enjoying yourself?” she asked.
“I believe so,” he replied.
Her smile widened at the answer, though she was a bit surprised.
“They speak highly of you,” he said.
She cocked a brow and glanced back at them. “They’re talking about me?”
“You haven’t been listening?”
“I have, just... I turn my translator off sometimes,” Shepard answered. “I like hearing the languages. It’s interesting to hear the difference and how they still understand each other.”
The corners of Javik‘s mouth pulled down thoughtfully. He spoke again, but not in English. “My people never needed translators. Everyone spoke Prothean.”
She chuckled and said, “Nice try, Javik. I can still understand you.”
“I do not believe you,” he said, eyeing her from the corner of his eye.
“Believe it,” she replied.
“Then how is it you understand Prothean?” Javik turned his head towards her and leaned his hip against the counter.
Shepard turned in full to him, crossed her arms, and leaned against the counter. “It was the Prothean cipher that the Thorian gave me.”
Javik narrowed his eyes, and switched back to English. “I have heard tell of the Thorian, but I know nothing about this cipher.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve heard of the Thorian. It lived on Feros, and your ruins were all over the place. But the cipher was kind of like the knowledge and viewpoint of you guys. It gave me a... cultural context for your beacon.”
“You needed a cultural context?” he asked, narrowing his eyes again.
“Yeah, we barely understood it. And even having the cipher didn’t help much. I used two of your beacons, got the cipher, and I still didn’t know what Saren wanted from-”
“May I touch you?” Javik interrupted nonchalantly.
Shepard gave him a confused look. “Uh, you do realize I was in the middle of explaining something, right?”
He stood up away from the counter and held out his hands. “I should believe it would be easier to just show me what happened.”
Shepard eyed him suspiciously, then stood up from the counter, as well, uncrossing her arms. “All right. Go for it.”
He grabbed her biceps as he had when she’d welcomed him to the ship, but not as forcefully. It was a gentle touch. He closed his eyes and dropped his head forward, focusing on her memories. She didn’t know if it helped, but she tried to think back to her first mission on Eden Prime, bowing her head to focus, too. She realized he was looking back to when she was first briefed on the mission and what was really going on. As if capable of unlocking her memories, they played back in her mind vividly. He rolled through the most important parts, the mission on Eden Prime, the beacon, her confusion on what she’d seen, her presentation to the Council.
“Your council is useless,” he said, still in the memory.
Shepard scoffed. “I had to work with them, though.”
He parsed through recruiting everyone on the Citadel and the second Council presentation. Recruiting Liara, killing Benezia and getting the location of the Mu Relay, and finding the thorian and getting the cipher. Then he ran through her memory of Virmire, activating the other beacon, speaking to Sovereign, blowing the facility up. And then how the Council tried to stop Shepard from going after Saren on Ilos. The moment he saw Shepard speeding away with the Normandy, though, he broke contact and started laughing.
“You are funny, Shepard!” he said, a smile on his face. “You said that nobody is allowed to steal your ship, not even you, and yet that is exactly what you have done before!”
Shepard laughed at the realization. “Oh, man. How could I forget that? Anderson even told me how he punched Udina in the face to unlock the ship. I’m still jealous I wasn’t there,” she said, smiling as much as he was. Shepard was happy to see him laugh, especially as heartily as that.
“You are truly a trailblazer, Shepard,” Javik added with a lingering smile before taking her arms again and seeing the rest of the memory. Their trip to Ilos, the console in the security room that only she could understand, then the race after Saren, and speaking to Vigil.
Javik paused to let go again, looking thoughtful. “There were other Protheans who survived the war.”
“Not enough, though. And not for long, either,” she said.
He grabbed her again for long enough to breeze through the rest of the memory, jumping through the conduit and following Saren, her decision to save the council and Sovereign’s defeat. He finally released her and leaned against the counter again.
“I see how you can understand my language now,” he said finally. “I have not heard you speak it, though.”
Shepard leaned against the counter again and crossed her arms, deep in thought. His words before had rumbled and rolled through him, but even when she listened to Vigil all that time ago, she just… didn’t notice. It was normal to hear, as if she had always known it. She could just barely tell when she was hearing Prothean, could hear the foreignness of the sound in her ears, but her mind just thought so easily of what it meant that she just didn’t think of how it sounded. Now, however, she thought about trying to say something, and she wasn’t really sure how, but the more she thought, the more she felt something guide her in how to speak, like a voiceless instructor.
“It never occurred to me to try,” Shepard said slowly. She looked at him and saw a quiet surprise on his face.
“You sound just like a Prothean,” he said in a gentle tone.
She couldn’t help but stare at him, not sure what to think of his response.
“Shepard,” Liara’s voice said, the asari approaching them.
She started talking, but Shepard quickly gasped and frantically started waving for her to stop. Reactivating her translator, she quickly said, “Okay,” and let the asari whisk her away to mingle with her other guests.
Katzarra breathed deeply. She’d spent decades now feeling through the fabric, the bounds of this universe. It had been so hard to notice before, long ago when she first found this place and learned of what her people had tried to do, but with a few moments of her time, she could feel the world on the other side, sense it with her mind.
Yet it was the fear of failing that held her back.
Her claws dug into the vines sprawled across the floor beneath her. She looked up again at the imperfect image of the hologram before her, sputtering through the centuries-old console. The face of someone like her, skin as dark as night, eyes as sharp as a blade. Those same eyes were not as cold or dismal as those she enountered now, though, and their face wasn’t recovering from scars or even fresher wounds. Behind them, in the hologram, the wall wasn’t even overgrown. It was clean and solid. New, perhaps, but completely untouched by time and history. On a part of the wall, a surface held words written by the voryin‘s hand, vaguely noting the subject they had been speaking of, but they were not words she recognized. It was something about the planet and flight. Instead, she knew the subject better by the verbal explanation in the hologram, having watched it over and over again. It was her only real connection to the old world.
Katzarra pulled herself away and approached one of the cloudy windows overlooking the city, soaking in the sight of the smooth metals and carved stones peeking out from beneath the vines and trees growing wherever they pleased, or the sight of the buildings collapsed into each other, doing their best not to completely desintegrate. And beyond, where their star’s light was beginning to touch the horizon, was the miles and miles of jungle covering the land. It was the place that had brought her nothing but fear and pain and vicious hatred for over seven hundred years. And she bared her teeth at the thought of returning again.
No. Failing could never be worse than staying here.
She set her gaze and turned to the hologram again. With a firm hand, she powered it down, and then sat back. Her eyes closed, her hands pressed flat against the cracked tiles, and her mind fell silent as she focused. Katzarra slowed her breath. She thought of her body and it’s vibrations, and moved to the vibrations of the air around her and the ground beneath her. She focused on it until she could think of nothing else.
And then she pushed. Her mind sought to go past it, looking for the place beyond. It brushed against it, giving her a taste and reminding her of where it was. Katzarra pushed again, and she could glimpse a flicker of something in her mind. Again, and she heard a hum. Katzarra breathed deep and pushed harder, and her mind connected. It was right there, buzzing all around her. If she focused even more, she could see a bare sidewalk next to an unmarred building, and even a pair of voryin walking by.
Her face scrunched together. Katzarra collected the cells and the atoms of her body, snapping them out of the world and shooting them through that fabric.
Within an instant, she reconstituted, the breath voided from her lungs, and she staggered forward. Her hands met with rough, neatly carved stone as she caught herself. The sidewalk. Katzarra lifted a hand to examine it, finding the same one she’d always seen without a wrinkle out of place, and then she quickly put it back down as she felt her limbs growing weak. She checked her surroundings, and saw faces like hers staring back. On their bodies were coverings she’d only ever glimpsed in the videos and holograms.
One of them spoke to her in a tongue she didn’t understand, bravely stepping forward.
Katzarra smiled and gave a chuckle of amazement. And then collapsed.
I thought it would be a good way of showing this power off, using the first time she ever did it. A hint of “Why would you want to leave your own universe?” with plenty of “What would it even be like?”
Katzarra breathed deeply. She’d spent decades now feeling through the fabric, the bounds of this universe. It had been so hard to notice before, long ago when she first found this place and learned of what her people had tried to do, but with a few moments of her time, she could feel the world on the other side, sense it with her mind.
Yet it was the fear of failing that held her back.
Her claws dug into the vines sprawled across the floor beneath her. She looked up again at the imperfect image of the hologram before her, sputtering through the centuries-old console. The face of someone like her, skin as dark as night, eyes as sharp as a blade. Those same eyes were not as cold or dismal as those she enountered now, though, and their face wasn’t recovering from scars or even fresher wounds. Behind them, in the hologram, the wall wasn’t even overgrown. It was clean and solid. New, perhaps, but completely untouched by time and history. On a part of the wall, a surface held words written by the voryin‘s hand, vaguely noting the subject they had been speaking of, but they were not words she recognized. It was something about the planet and flight. Instead, she knew the subject better by the verbal explanation in the hologram, having watched it over and over again. It was her only real connection to the old world.
Katzarra pulled herself away and approached one of the cloudy windows overlooking the city, soaking in the sight of the smooth metals and carved stones peeking out from beneath the vines and trees growing wherever they pleased, or the sight of the buildings collapsed into each other, doing their best not to completely desintegrate. And beyond, where their star’s light was beginning to touch the horizon, was the miles and miles of jungle covering the land. It was the place that had brought her nothing but fear and pain and vicious hatred for over seven hundred years. And she bared her teeth at the thought of returning again.
No. Failing could never be worse than staying here.
She set her gaze and turned to the hologram again. With a firm hand, she powered it down, and then sat back. Her eyes closed, her hands pressed flat against the cracked tiles, and her mind fell silent as she focused. Katzarra slowed her breath. She thought of her body and it’s vibrations, and moved to the vibrations of the air around her and the ground beneath her. She focused on it until she could think of nothing else.
And then she pushed. Her mind sought to go past it, looking for the place beyond. It brushed against it, giving her a taste and reminding her of where it was. Katzarra pushed again, and she could glimpse a flicker of something in her mind. Again, and she heard a hum. Katzarra breathed deep and pushed harder, and her mind connected. It was right there, buzzing all around her. If she focused even more, she could see a bare sidewalk next to an unmarred building, and even a pair of voryin walking by.
Her face scrunched together. Katzarra collected the cells and the atoms of her body, snapping them out of the world and shooting them through that fabric.
Within an instant, she reconstituted, the breath voided from her lungs, and she staggered forward. Her hands met with rough, neatly carved stone as she caught herself. The sidewalk. Katzarra lifted a hand to examine it, finding the same one she’d always seen without a wrinkle out of place, and then she quickly put it back down as she felt her limbs growing weak. She checked her surroundings, and saw faces like hers staring back. On their bodies were coverings she’d only ever glimpsed in the videos and holograms.
One of them spoke to her in a tongue she didn’t understand, bravely stepping forward.
Katzarra smiled and gave a chuckle of amazement. And then collapsed.
Sure, the damage the stake had done made her black out, but she definitely wasn’t dead. And she definitely wasn’t a vampire. She couldn’t blame the townsfolk for thinking that, but now it had cost her a meal and gotten her buried six feet under in a space that was obscenely smaller than what she needed. Maybe it had been at first, but not anymore. Now her limbs were pressed up against the walls, a lithe tail curled up and around her, and the stake ground into her wound with every movement.
With a thought, the ground melted into shadows, though you wouldn’t know it in the darkness of the coffin, and she sank into it and crawled out of the plot of land above her. The creature sat back, taking the stake still lodged in her and ripping it out with a pained snarl.
Someone screamed, and started running. “Demon! There’s a demon!”
An irritated groan tumbled through her throat. Another mob was exactly what she needed next. It was reasons like this that she hated ending up in the old world.
Haha Not always, no! She’s gets in a lot of trouble, albeit she causes most of it! But she’s a borderline supernatural alien from another dimension and can end up in all sorts of variant timelines and worlds. 😅
Sure, the damage the stake had done made her black out, but she definitely wasn’t dead. And she definitely wasn’t a vampire. She couldn’t blame the townsfolk for thinking that, but now it had cost her a meal and gotten her buried six feet under in a space that was obscenely smaller than what she needed. Maybe it had been at first, but not anymore. Now her limbs were pressed up against the walls, a lithe tail curled up and around her, and the stake ground into her wound with every movement.
With a thought, the ground melted into shadows, though you wouldn’t know it in the darkness of the coffin, and she sank into it and crawled out of the plot of land above her. The creature sat back, taking the stake still lodged in her and ripping it out with a pained snarl.
Someone screamed, and started running. “Demon! There’s a demon!”
An irritated groan tumbled through her throat. Another mob was exactly what she needed next. It was reasons like this that she hated ending up in the old world.
