Garrus Vakarian Character Info
Player Information
Name: James
Age: 29
AIM SN: RoninIBE
email: yojimbo@realityfelon.com
Have you played in an LJ based game before? Just this one.
Bonus: How did you hear about Siren's Pull? I play in it! Tifa and Samus FTW!
Character Information
General
Canon Source: Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2
Canon Format: Both RPG video Games
Character's Name: Garrus Vakarian
Character's Age: Not mentioned in Canon. Attitude and general wold weariness suggests to me early to mid-thirties.
What form will your character's NV take?
The half-visor Garrus wears at seemingly all times. It's a blue glass arc that sits over his left eye, providing data. It will be able to do video of him or his surroundings, as well as holographic displays and audio only communication.
Abilities
Character's Canon Abilities: Garrus is proficient withw most firearms, having trained extensively with both Assault Rifles and Sniper Rifles. He's competant with electronics, capable of basic hacking and information retrieval, but he's even better with larger machines. He's often seen calibrating weapons or running repairs. He's had specialized C-Sec (Police) training, and dialogue indicates he's a skilled investigator. He was also enrolled in the Turian military, where he was considered one of the best at hand-to-hand combat, and recieved honours for marksmanship.
He's also extremely tough, shaking off potentially life-threatening wounds in a matter of hours. After recieving a high-velocity round to the head that damaged most of his face and neck, he was upright and functional only a day or so later. Healing takes much longer, but he seems to be able to put aside the pain and discomfort to focus.
Garrus Species is Turian which is described in the Mass Effect entries as "exhibiting the characteristics of predators rather than those of prey species. Their forward-facing alert eyes give the impression that they possess outstanding eyesight and their teeth and jaws mimic the structures possessed by apex predators such as crocodiles or ancient, carnivorous dinosaurs. Needless to say, their talons on both their feet and hands seem capable of ripping flesh. Their slender bodies also seem to suggest that they are also capable of moving at high speeds".Turian's also have a slight resistance to radiation.
The drawback to his species (for this world anyway) is that Turian's are Dextro-Amino based, which is an unusual biology that differs so much from other species that Turian's can becoe extremely ill or die as a result of eating food not based to their specific needs...which is only manufactured on Palaven (Their Homeworld) as I recall.
Conditional: If your character has no superhuman canon abilities, what dormant ability will you give them? I'm going to follow my predeccesor's lead here and ask that his supernatural power be the ability to ingest normal food, medicine etc so he can survive in the game world. If possible, I'd like his ability to further make him a "Null". The simple explanation is that powers just don't work on him, but the details make it more complicated. What it means is that Garrus is unaffected by any "powers" that would make someone super human. If you try to lift him with telekenesis it fails, if you try to reattach his arm with regeneration it fails. If you try to punch him with super strength you still punch him...but at normal strength for your size. You can't use a forcebolt to rearrange his insides, you can't re-write his brain with dominate and you can't choke him with Force Choke.
However, the drawback is he's immune to all powers, even the helpful ones. He cannot be healed or cured in any way that isn't modern medicine. A particularly harsh drawback given the lack of medical facilities for someone of a totally different physiology, at least at first. On top of that his ability only extends to him. So although you can't shoot him with a forcebolt, you CAN shoot the ceiling he's standing under so that it falls and crushes him.
Weapons: None, I'd actually like him to have to make due with what's available in Sirens Port.
Character History: Garrus childhood is mostly glossed over in the game, but for the fact that his father was a highly-decorated officer for C-Sec (Citadel Security). Turian culture places a heavy emhpasis on duty and honour, so it's implied that he enrolled into the Turian Military to honour his father, eventually finishing out his tour of duty and joining C-Sec alongside his Old Man. During this time he was selected as a possible candidate for a Black-Ops military organization run by the Citadel, called Specters, but never was able to take advantage of the special training.
Garrus met Commander Shepard during her investigation and pursuit of a Rogue Spectre named Saren, which fell into line with his own pursuit of the same Spectre. Due to security prolocols he was unable to present any hard daty suggesting Saren was a criminal, but also unwilling to absolve the other Turian of guilt. Shepard uncovered evidence of Saren's guilt, and Garrus temporarily left C-Sec to help her pursue the Rogue Spectre across the stars.
During their pursuit, Garrus was able to re-open an old case involving an illegal Organ Cloning operation run by a Dr. Saleon. Garrus had been unable to apprehend Saleon the first time, but with Shepard's help he was hoping to track the Doctor down without worrying about Orders or Regulations to get in his way. Shepard convinced Garrus to spare the Doctor and only arrest him, but was forced to kill Saleon herself when he opened fire. When a frustrated Garrus demanded to know what the point was, Shepard explained that killing was not always the way, most often a last resort. It seemed to stick in his mind, solidifying his bond to Shepard.
Garrus was instrumental in the take-down of Saren, when he launched an attack on Citadel Station with his army of Geth, intending to use it to summon a wave of mechanical "Reapers", scourges of all intelligent life in the galaxy. Shepard's team saved the Citadel, but political interfearence prevented the Council from being able to identify the real threat behind the assault. Garrus signed on full-time with Shepard's crew and followed her in system Patrols, looking for remaining Geth.
During one of these patrols, Shepard's ship (The Normandy) was attacked and destroyed by an unknown vessel. Commander Shepard herself was spaced in the battle, listed as KIA. Most of the rest of the crew survived, but without Shepard to hold them together the crew and her team drifted apart. Garrus returned to C-Sec for a time, trying to bring himself to terms with the fact that she was gone for good. He was unable to remain long, seeing corruption and chaos everywhere he looked. Resigning in frustration, he set out for Omega a known "hive of scum and villany".
Once on Omega Garrus followed in Shepard's footsteps, assembling his own team and attempting to too out corruption and crime. Being a station that thrived on it's criminal underground, Omega reacted violently to his presence and he quickly made enemies among all the major players on the stations, even having one-on-one duels with some of the leaders of the Mercenary gangs. These activites earned him the nickname "Archangel" among the downtrodden of Omega, a name that stuck, despite his embaressment over it.
Sadly his team was betrayed from the inside by another Turian, a man Garrus trusted. By the time he was aware of it, most of his team were already dead, and the few that survived didn't make it long. He was alone and surrounded, pinned down inside his headquarters, doing as much damage to the gangs trying to kill him as possible. He was rescued, of all people, by the resurrected Commander Shepard, whom he quickly resumed taking orders from. During the ensuing struggle Garrus was badly wounded, having been shot in the neck and face by a gunship. He managed to recover, though the encounter left the right side of his face scarred and heavily bandaged.
Much as with Doctor Saleon, Garrus eventually tracked down the Turian who betrayed him, a man named Sidonis. He went to the Citadel with the intention to kill Sidonis and lay to rest the memories of his slain team-members. Shepard delayed him once again, drawing the full story out of Sidonis; That he'd been threatened with death and torture if he didn't betray Garrus, and that the memory of that betrayal haunted his dreams every night. Garrus chose not to take the shot, once again talking to Shepard about the possibility that sometimes a gunshot doesn't solve anything.
Though they'd been two years apart, Garrus and Shepard remained as close as ever, and before their final assault against a new foe, Shepard invited Garrus to her quarters. Although his confidence vanished and left him bumbling and awkward, Garrus expressed that he'd always ruined everything and he wanted to make this relationship right. Despite being different species, he and Shepard consumated their love before the final battle.
Shepard's team destroyed the human Reaper that was being built to destroy humanity, while Garrus and his fire-team held the reinforcements at bay. With the Reaper destroyed, Shepard sounded the fall-back and the whole team broke for the Normandy to make a retreat. Garrus never made it there, somehow he ended up in Sirens Pull.
Point in Canon: Just after the destruction of the Human Reaper (essentially the end of the second game), before being able to regroup on the Normandy with the others.
Personality: Garrus likes to do things his way, having little time for the complicated machincations of superiors, or the overly complicated regulations they may have put in place. He sees the solution to problems as very staightforward, preferring to take the course that makes the most sense, even if it ruffles feathers. This sometimes causes him to "tunnel vision" in on his intended target; He once ordered Citadel station to open fire on an escaping criminal ship, despite the presence of hostages. After the fact he argued that the prisoners were already dead, or soon would be. Although it can seem very callous, this single-mindedness comes from a strong sense of right and wrong where the good guys catch and kill the bad guys, keeping them from hurting others. Garrus doesn't intentionally seek to put innocents in danger, and will avoid it when possible...but there was a time when he would not hesitate to take shot, even when hostages were involved.
That same clarity of purpose can be a brutal double-edged sword for Garrus, as he is his own harshest critic when he fails. His inability to catch Dr. Saleon before he escaped with hostages, his inability to save his team from death on Omega, they both represent personal failings for him. Thought cetrainly not afraid to assign blame to traitors or bureaucrats when they deserve it, he always places the lions share of the fault straight onto his own shoulders. These failures pile up as a weighty sense of regret that gnaws at him constantly, driving him to seek out some kind of redeeming action or situation, often involving the death of the other person at fault. In both of the above cases Shepard prevented Garrus from killing his target, possibly pulling him back towards the light, but in both cases he was willing to pull the trigger without thought to the consequences.
Despite being one of the most lawless stations in the galaxy, Omega was good for Garrus in the beginning. He felt as though he were finally making a difference since Saren's death, finally doing some good in the galaxy. Life-minded individuals flocked to him, and a thankful population named him Archangel in honour of the good things he'd done. Life on Omega was more of a black and white scenario for Garrus, with most of the criminals who ran the station falling snugly into the "black" category, and the downtrodden underclass easily being the "white" side that required protection. At one point he confesses to Shepard that he prefers it when the galaxy is like that, saying that "Grey is...difficult". This stems from that same straightforward way of doing things that leads to his tunnel vision. When the good guys are easily identified and the bad guys are as well, it's much easier to know who to kill and who to save.
Garrus idolizes Commander Shepard, seeking to essentially follow in her footsteps. He alludes to the fact that he tried to join the Spectres -because- of Shepard, hoping to continue her crusade to protect the Galaxy. Her death affected him deeply and he was unable to complete Spectre training for a second time, or even to stay at his job with Citadel Security. He chose instead to find the most corrupt spot he could find and recruit his own team to fix it, much like Shepard had. This idolatry is equal parts respect and admiration, and eventually even a sense of love. Garrus is, however, extremely awkward when it comes to personal relationships. Although he can speak easily and readily to Shepard and to others he's come to trust, he more often comes across as distant and even aloof. When things break down and he has to admit to feelings he becomes painfully awkward, looking more like a 15-year old boy about to ask out his first girl than the cooly competant demeanour he normally exudes.
The awkwardness seems to come from the fact that Garrus has "seen so many things gone wrong", alluding to both his failure as a Spectre and his inability to protect his own team. By staying cool and keeping to himself, he doesn't risk ruining any of his personal relationships, but doesn't take the chance they might become more either. He says to Shepard that "I want something to go right for once, just for once..." before they become romantically involved. By keeping a distance from his friends, he prevents things from going wrong around him, even if he also inadvertantly keeps things from "going right" as well.
Character Plans: I'd like Garrus to be very active as a Vigilante within the city. He'll start out small, targeting hoodlums and thugs, maybe leaving them tied to lamp posts spider man style, with a photograph to remember. Eventually he'd move up to heavier targets, slaving operations, slave hunts, SERO abductions, etc. He'd check out bounty hunting at first, but then abandon it when he realized what it was really all about.
Appearance/PB: http://johntesh.deviantart.com/art/Garrus-Vakarian-03-157836305 or if that doesn't work: http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/103691488/30023808
Name: James
Age: 29
AIM SN: RoninIBE
email: yojimbo@realityfelon.com
Have you played in an LJ based game before? Just this one.
Bonus: How did you hear about Siren's Pull? I play in it! Tifa and Samus FTW!
Character Information
General
Canon Source: Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2
Canon Format: Both RPG video Games
Character's Name: Garrus Vakarian
Character's Age: Not mentioned in Canon. Attitude and general wold weariness suggests to me early to mid-thirties.
What form will your character's NV take?
The half-visor Garrus wears at seemingly all times. It's a blue glass arc that sits over his left eye, providing data. It will be able to do video of him or his surroundings, as well as holographic displays and audio only communication.
Abilities
Character's Canon Abilities: Garrus is proficient withw most firearms, having trained extensively with both Assault Rifles and Sniper Rifles. He's competant with electronics, capable of basic hacking and information retrieval, but he's even better with larger machines. He's often seen calibrating weapons or running repairs. He's had specialized C-Sec (Police) training, and dialogue indicates he's a skilled investigator. He was also enrolled in the Turian military, where he was considered one of the best at hand-to-hand combat, and recieved honours for marksmanship.
He's also extremely tough, shaking off potentially life-threatening wounds in a matter of hours. After recieving a high-velocity round to the head that damaged most of his face and neck, he was upright and functional only a day or so later. Healing takes much longer, but he seems to be able to put aside the pain and discomfort to focus.
Garrus Species is Turian which is described in the Mass Effect entries as "exhibiting the characteristics of predators rather than those of prey species. Their forward-facing alert eyes give the impression that they possess outstanding eyesight and their teeth and jaws mimic the structures possessed by apex predators such as crocodiles or ancient, carnivorous dinosaurs. Needless to say, their talons on both their feet and hands seem capable of ripping flesh. Their slender bodies also seem to suggest that they are also capable of moving at high speeds".Turian's also have a slight resistance to radiation.
The drawback to his species (for this world anyway) is that Turian's are Dextro-Amino based, which is an unusual biology that differs so much from other species that Turian's can becoe extremely ill or die as a result of eating food not based to their specific needs...which is only manufactured on Palaven (Their Homeworld) as I recall.
Conditional: If your character has no superhuman canon abilities, what dormant ability will you give them? I'm going to follow my predeccesor's lead here and ask that his supernatural power be the ability to ingest normal food, medicine etc so he can survive in the game world. If possible, I'd like his ability to further make him a "Null". The simple explanation is that powers just don't work on him, but the details make it more complicated. What it means is that Garrus is unaffected by any "powers" that would make someone super human. If you try to lift him with telekenesis it fails, if you try to reattach his arm with regeneration it fails. If you try to punch him with super strength you still punch him...but at normal strength for your size. You can't use a forcebolt to rearrange his insides, you can't re-write his brain with dominate and you can't choke him with Force Choke.
However, the drawback is he's immune to all powers, even the helpful ones. He cannot be healed or cured in any way that isn't modern medicine. A particularly harsh drawback given the lack of medical facilities for someone of a totally different physiology, at least at first. On top of that his ability only extends to him. So although you can't shoot him with a forcebolt, you CAN shoot the ceiling he's standing under so that it falls and crushes him.
Weapons: None, I'd actually like him to have to make due with what's available in Sirens Port.
Character History: Garrus childhood is mostly glossed over in the game, but for the fact that his father was a highly-decorated officer for C-Sec (Citadel Security). Turian culture places a heavy emhpasis on duty and honour, so it's implied that he enrolled into the Turian Military to honour his father, eventually finishing out his tour of duty and joining C-Sec alongside his Old Man. During this time he was selected as a possible candidate for a Black-Ops military organization run by the Citadel, called Specters, but never was able to take advantage of the special training.
Garrus met Commander Shepard during her investigation and pursuit of a Rogue Spectre named Saren, which fell into line with his own pursuit of the same Spectre. Due to security prolocols he was unable to present any hard daty suggesting Saren was a criminal, but also unwilling to absolve the other Turian of guilt. Shepard uncovered evidence of Saren's guilt, and Garrus temporarily left C-Sec to help her pursue the Rogue Spectre across the stars.
During their pursuit, Garrus was able to re-open an old case involving an illegal Organ Cloning operation run by a Dr. Saleon. Garrus had been unable to apprehend Saleon the first time, but with Shepard's help he was hoping to track the Doctor down without worrying about Orders or Regulations to get in his way. Shepard convinced Garrus to spare the Doctor and only arrest him, but was forced to kill Saleon herself when he opened fire. When a frustrated Garrus demanded to know what the point was, Shepard explained that killing was not always the way, most often a last resort. It seemed to stick in his mind, solidifying his bond to Shepard.
Garrus was instrumental in the take-down of Saren, when he launched an attack on Citadel Station with his army of Geth, intending to use it to summon a wave of mechanical "Reapers", scourges of all intelligent life in the galaxy. Shepard's team saved the Citadel, but political interfearence prevented the Council from being able to identify the real threat behind the assault. Garrus signed on full-time with Shepard's crew and followed her in system Patrols, looking for remaining Geth.
During one of these patrols, Shepard's ship (The Normandy) was attacked and destroyed by an unknown vessel. Commander Shepard herself was spaced in the battle, listed as KIA. Most of the rest of the crew survived, but without Shepard to hold them together the crew and her team drifted apart. Garrus returned to C-Sec for a time, trying to bring himself to terms with the fact that she was gone for good. He was unable to remain long, seeing corruption and chaos everywhere he looked. Resigning in frustration, he set out for Omega a known "hive of scum and villany".
Once on Omega Garrus followed in Shepard's footsteps, assembling his own team and attempting to too out corruption and crime. Being a station that thrived on it's criminal underground, Omega reacted violently to his presence and he quickly made enemies among all the major players on the stations, even having one-on-one duels with some of the leaders of the Mercenary gangs. These activites earned him the nickname "Archangel" among the downtrodden of Omega, a name that stuck, despite his embaressment over it.
Sadly his team was betrayed from the inside by another Turian, a man Garrus trusted. By the time he was aware of it, most of his team were already dead, and the few that survived didn't make it long. He was alone and surrounded, pinned down inside his headquarters, doing as much damage to the gangs trying to kill him as possible. He was rescued, of all people, by the resurrected Commander Shepard, whom he quickly resumed taking orders from. During the ensuing struggle Garrus was badly wounded, having been shot in the neck and face by a gunship. He managed to recover, though the encounter left the right side of his face scarred and heavily bandaged.
Much as with Doctor Saleon, Garrus eventually tracked down the Turian who betrayed him, a man named Sidonis. He went to the Citadel with the intention to kill Sidonis and lay to rest the memories of his slain team-members. Shepard delayed him once again, drawing the full story out of Sidonis; That he'd been threatened with death and torture if he didn't betray Garrus, and that the memory of that betrayal haunted his dreams every night. Garrus chose not to take the shot, once again talking to Shepard about the possibility that sometimes a gunshot doesn't solve anything.
Though they'd been two years apart, Garrus and Shepard remained as close as ever, and before their final assault against a new foe, Shepard invited Garrus to her quarters. Although his confidence vanished and left him bumbling and awkward, Garrus expressed that he'd always ruined everything and he wanted to make this relationship right. Despite being different species, he and Shepard consumated their love before the final battle.
Shepard's team destroyed the human Reaper that was being built to destroy humanity, while Garrus and his fire-team held the reinforcements at bay. With the Reaper destroyed, Shepard sounded the fall-back and the whole team broke for the Normandy to make a retreat. Garrus never made it there, somehow he ended up in Sirens Pull.
Point in Canon: Just after the destruction of the Human Reaper (essentially the end of the second game), before being able to regroup on the Normandy with the others.
Personality: Garrus likes to do things his way, having little time for the complicated machincations of superiors, or the overly complicated regulations they may have put in place. He sees the solution to problems as very staightforward, preferring to take the course that makes the most sense, even if it ruffles feathers. This sometimes causes him to "tunnel vision" in on his intended target; He once ordered Citadel station to open fire on an escaping criminal ship, despite the presence of hostages. After the fact he argued that the prisoners were already dead, or soon would be. Although it can seem very callous, this single-mindedness comes from a strong sense of right and wrong where the good guys catch and kill the bad guys, keeping them from hurting others. Garrus doesn't intentionally seek to put innocents in danger, and will avoid it when possible...but there was a time when he would not hesitate to take shot, even when hostages were involved.
That same clarity of purpose can be a brutal double-edged sword for Garrus, as he is his own harshest critic when he fails. His inability to catch Dr. Saleon before he escaped with hostages, his inability to save his team from death on Omega, they both represent personal failings for him. Thought cetrainly not afraid to assign blame to traitors or bureaucrats when they deserve it, he always places the lions share of the fault straight onto his own shoulders. These failures pile up as a weighty sense of regret that gnaws at him constantly, driving him to seek out some kind of redeeming action or situation, often involving the death of the other person at fault. In both of the above cases Shepard prevented Garrus from killing his target, possibly pulling him back towards the light, but in both cases he was willing to pull the trigger without thought to the consequences.
Despite being one of the most lawless stations in the galaxy, Omega was good for Garrus in the beginning. He felt as though he were finally making a difference since Saren's death, finally doing some good in the galaxy. Life-minded individuals flocked to him, and a thankful population named him Archangel in honour of the good things he'd done. Life on Omega was more of a black and white scenario for Garrus, with most of the criminals who ran the station falling snugly into the "black" category, and the downtrodden underclass easily being the "white" side that required protection. At one point he confesses to Shepard that he prefers it when the galaxy is like that, saying that "Grey is...difficult". This stems from that same straightforward way of doing things that leads to his tunnel vision. When the good guys are easily identified and the bad guys are as well, it's much easier to know who to kill and who to save.
Garrus idolizes Commander Shepard, seeking to essentially follow in her footsteps. He alludes to the fact that he tried to join the Spectres -because- of Shepard, hoping to continue her crusade to protect the Galaxy. Her death affected him deeply and he was unable to complete Spectre training for a second time, or even to stay at his job with Citadel Security. He chose instead to find the most corrupt spot he could find and recruit his own team to fix it, much like Shepard had. This idolatry is equal parts respect and admiration, and eventually even a sense of love. Garrus is, however, extremely awkward when it comes to personal relationships. Although he can speak easily and readily to Shepard and to others he's come to trust, he more often comes across as distant and even aloof. When things break down and he has to admit to feelings he becomes painfully awkward, looking more like a 15-year old boy about to ask out his first girl than the cooly competant demeanour he normally exudes.
The awkwardness seems to come from the fact that Garrus has "seen so many things gone wrong", alluding to both his failure as a Spectre and his inability to protect his own team. By staying cool and keeping to himself, he doesn't risk ruining any of his personal relationships, but doesn't take the chance they might become more either. He says to Shepard that "I want something to go right for once, just for once..." before they become romantically involved. By keeping a distance from his friends, he prevents things from going wrong around him, even if he also inadvertantly keeps things from "going right" as well.
Character Plans: I'd like Garrus to be very active as a Vigilante within the city. He'll start out small, targeting hoodlums and thugs, maybe leaving them tied to lamp posts spider man style, with a photograph to remember. Eventually he'd move up to heavier targets, slaving operations, slave hunts, SERO abductions, etc. He'd check out bounty hunting at first, but then abandon it when he realized what it was really all about.
Appearance/PB: http://johntesh.deviantart.com/art/Garrus-Vakarian-03-157836305 or if that doesn't work: http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/103691488/30023808