All you ever wanted was someone to truly look up to you

[fightyourfoes]

Shepard is sitting in one of the sunrooms in her apartment building with her journal, frowning deeply about something. It's not frustration, really. More.... anxiety.

The comm unit on her armour buzzes with static for a moment before a mezzosoprano voice states, "Commander, some of the others are starting to look a little peaky. I think they might

Comments

[thepizzalord]

Harry hasn't quite finished planning his replacement containment spell yet, but he's getting mentally fatigued, so he throws the leather-bound journal onto his rumpled bed and walks out to get some air.

He doesn't notice Shepard until he's almost right behind her. "Oh... sorry, I didn't see you there." He hopes his footsteps were loud enough that she isn't about to spring up and kill him on reflex like a ninja or anything.

[fightyourfoes]

Shepard leans back so that she's looking up at him from her chair. "That's alright, I didn't see you coming," she responds. It's a lame attempt at a joke. Don't mind her.

"How goes the circle modification?" She asks, hoping for some good news.

[thepizzalord]

"Slowly," he says, easing to the chair next to her. "The hardest part is just trying to match the perfect objects to anchor the power of the spell, since the Rift doesn't have very many common household items associated with it. But it's mostly boring technical stuff, and my brain was about to leap out of my ears screaming, so I'm taking a break."

He looks over at her and sighs. "Truth be told, I'm feeling kind of useless right now. I'd much rather be blasting the shit out of some monster."

[fightyourfoes]

Shepard snorts. "Same here. But unfortunately there are no monsters to be had." With a small smile she adds, "You have a good sense of humour, you know."

She sighs and states, "Sully said some of the crew are starting to look ill. I hope they haven't come down with it. Some of them are Supernaturals, but some are just vanilla humans who were aware of the whole Angels and Demons thing."

[thepizzalord]

Harry winces. He hates it when normals get mixed up with supernatural business - not because he's prejudiced against them, but because they don't have the same knowledge and abilities to fall back on. It just never seems fair. Although, speaking of which... "And how about you?"

[fightyourfoes]

Shepard shrugs. "I feel fine. I'm worried though. Those guys are at least useful to me and I'd rather not lose them."

She adds, mostly thinking out loud, "Sully's the most useful to me, really. She can talk to machines. And unlike in my time, none of the machines in this time are supposed to talk. But the others have abilities or skills that come in handy."

[thepizzalord]

Harry nods. "Gotta protect your assets, so one day they'll save yours." He hesitates for a moment, reminded of something she mentioned when they first met. "You mentioned you could do something called... Biotics? What does that mean, exactly?"

[fightyourfoes]

Shepard frowns, trying to think of the best way to explain it. "It means, basically, that I can alter an object's relative mass, allowing it to move in ways that it wouldn't ordinarily be able to. Like, if I lower an object's mass, I can throw or lift it. Raising it disables them, pushes them to the ground and holds them there. Sometimes I can warp them, make their mass fluctuate so much that it hurts them. I can also put up a barrier around myself that will stop projectiles, like bullets."

[thepizzalord]

"Wow." That sounds remarkably twisted and yet, very useful. "Is that something all your people can do, or are you just one of the lucky ones?" He wonders where you would go to learn that sort of thing, anyway. Some kind of special school for Mind-killing 101?

[fightyourfoes]

"One of the lucky ones, so to speak. Biotic abilities are caused by exposure to a substance called Element Zero in-utero. Most of the kids who were exposed die of Cancer. The only species that were able to do it naturally, without Eezo exposure, were the Asari. It came to every one of them naturally."

[thepizzalord]

Harry's eyebrows raise. So, Biotics are more like Russian chemical roulette. Not the best system in the world, in his opinion, but he's not in charge of it and what's done is done anyway. "In-utero... so you were, uh, specifically raised for this sort of thing, then." He doesn't want to push too hard - they've only known each other for a few days - but he's curious to know more about this oddly compelling stranger.

[fightyourfoes]

Shepard chuckles. "No, most of the exposures are accidental. Ships crashing nearby, that sort of thing. Though some people believe that there were some intentional exposures that some companies did just to see what would happen. A lot of Biotics have medical problems because of the nature of Eezo. It's a bit radioactive. I'm one of the lucky ones there too. The most I get are headaches."

[thepizzalord]

"No kidding. I should have you pick my lottery numbers," he says, smiling back. "What was it like, growing up with powers like that?"

[fightyourfoes]

Shepard shrugs again. "You can't do anything with them without training and an amp. I didn't have either until I joined the military. So all I had were the headaches. I was an orphan anyway... living on the streets. A local gang adopted me, though, so it wasn't all bad. I wasn't aware I was Biotic until one of the drill sergeants told me at Boot Camp."

[thepizzalord]

Harry nods. "Yeah, I know what you mean. My parents died when I was young, and ended up being mostly raised by a warlock. He taught me some important things, though not necessarily all good. He's the one who guided me in discovering my own powers, although he was really trying to eventually enthrall me."

[fightyourfoes]

Shepard grimaces. She knows all about enthrallment, from dealing with the Thorian on Feros, and with the Reapers' indoctrination ability.

"I'm not the most moral of people, but enthrallment? Completely, totally wrong," she says, almost snarling. "I've dealt with people who were enthralled. It's not pretty."