DIRECT HARBINGER LOVINS NECESSARY.
anonymous
May 29 2011, 02:03:36 UTC
I WILL TEAR YOU APART. THIS HURTS YOU. YOU STRUGGLE AGAINST THE INEVITABLE.
Because who can't say the guy's creeper lines weren't sexually motivated? D:< Okay, so yeah. IT isn't a guy. It's a huge ass flying spaceship. But but but, there must be /some/ reason Harbinger seems to have so much more (-molestative dialogue-) 'emotion' (Pffft, that doesn't belong in a Harbinger sentence.) than Sovereign did. Aaaand, he can control Collectors. ;) Okay, so collectors are just ugly bug humanoid things. And since their digestinal tracks and stuff were replaced with tech, they probably can't reproduce either. So, I'll make you a deal. There need not be any Harbinger sexins. (Unless you somehow figure it out. Of course I would /never/ complain. <3
( ... )
Swarming [1/4]
anonymous
May 29 2011, 19:21:02 UTC
There are few things that can unnerve Isla Shepard - it's part of her military training where she got used to the most foul stenches and vilest sights: she's trained to be able to cope, and so far, two months post-resurrection, she's done an amazing job at exactly that. Nothing she's seen has been able to faze her, and she sleeps at night - with the help of heavy medication, one should note, because she's lost all ability to maintain a natural sleep cycle, completely deprived of any actual physical needs. It took a week to work it out, but she has a schedule (it makes her snort, programmed into her omni-tool, beeping to remind her to eat, to sleep, sometimes even to blink) and she follows it religiously.
Small abnormalities aside, she's relatively normal. As normal as they come after having crawled out of the grave, anyway. Not a lot of precedents for that, and no handbooks available to guide her - though So You've Come Alive Again: How To Handle Life 2.0 probably wouldn't be something she'd dig into, since she's never been a
( ... )
Swarming [2/4]
anonymous
May 29 2011, 19:21:57 UTC
Pitiful.
This is not the time for a clip to jam.
Under tense moments, she can perform miracles with minimal resources, like annihilating an entire batarian troop with a single bullet. This moment, however, is beyond tense. The stress makes her pulse race to the point where her trauma unit begins administering emergency dosages of sedatives - an invention of Mordin's due to Cerberus concerns of logs where she spiked high enough to endanger her nervous system of overloading. It doesn't put her out - just smoothens out the most prominent curves.
For the same reason, she has a cool-down program installed in her bio-amp to hinder her from performing too many straining biotic attacks in a row. Shepard complained when it was revealed, saying that she was being punished for coming alive rather than allowed to savour it. ”No,” Miranda corrected, adjusting the programming via her omni-tool, ”we're just putting in measures to keep you alive, since you've lost certain... Boundaries.”
The word she was looking for was human. Human boundaries
( ... )
Swarming [3a/4] (screw character limits...)
anonymous
May 29 2011, 19:23:28 UTC
Its other hand comes up to cup Shepard's chin, turning her head sharply to meet its eyes, lit up so brightly that they nearly blind her in their intensity.
The glowing hand closes around her throat, but instead of choking her she feels something different. She feels... Odd. There's no way to describe the sensations stirring, her body responding to the contact in a way that's definitely not natural. She can feel the intricate circuits under her skin lightt up and practically hum, as if in communication on another level.
It feels like a vital communion, beyond the skin and flesh, past anything she has ever experienced.
Well, there's the initial visceral reaction, as if the Collector - I am Harbinger it says to her, as if she spoke aloud, or even more worrying, that it hears what she is thinking - is peeling her apart, layer by layer, and penetrating past it all to tap into the essential core of who she is
( ... )
Swarming [3b/4]
anonymous
May 29 2011, 19:24:12 UTC
Why do you resist?
Then it withdraws as suddenly as it came in, and instinctively Shepard tries to follow, but the pain in her spine intensifies, and she realizes that the suit integrity has been breached, a warm trickle going down her skin. The trauma unit shorts out, overheated, her omni-tool beeping warnings. Yet, in the midst of the chaos of the two of them battling high in the air, it has retreated an inch, and a modicum of control returns to her, and she makes a snap decision.
The seams of her skin crack as her fingers sink through the carapace and tears it apart, the head bursting open with light that burns and then it is nothing, ash, spreading in the gusts. In the choice between following onboard the cruiser and plummeting to certain death and skull split open on the ground, she picks the free-fall.
The ground approaches in a blur of green and gold rushing ever closer, and somewhere beneath the ear-deafening roar she hears it.
OP's not a puddle anymore. :O
anonymous
May 30 2011, 07:13:15 UTC
This. This was magnificent! Everything I wanted. <3 I love that you made it a longer fic. I love that only Shepard could hear Harbinger calling to her. I love that you made it dark, ripping her cheek off without any remorse. I agree with the other anon. I knew I had a thing for mindfuckery, but I never understood just how much. Thank you so much for crafting this together in such short time. "It's an attempt at a joke, but the humor falls short in his voice." This was so sweet. When I got Garrus, I chose the "You were always ugly anyways" joke. It was nice to see the comparison when it's /not/ funny, and it makes it all the more depressing. x3 I love the sort of... defeated ending. Lovedlovedlovedit. Not knowing how to cope, even Kaidan stepping back from her, unable to express how she feels and what happened. Beautiful.
Author!anon *is* a puddle
anonymous
May 30 2011, 08:21:07 UTC
*blush* I am so happy you liked it, I wasn't sure if I was making it too dark and serious and was considering just scrapping it for something cracky with Harbinger infiltrating the Citadel in a suit and fake moustache. Which would have been fun but I wanted to get this idea out of my head at least ^^; (Except it's still in there going what you doing what you up to hey hey hey Harbinger is going to meet Shepard again hey hey heyhave you thought about that huh? so if you excuse me, I am off to beat a plot nugget with a stick. Grr.)
Re: Author!anon *is* a puddle
anonymous
May 30 2011, 09:23:09 UTC
Hehe, I'm not Harbinger or Morinth, so I won't /try/ to manipulate you. But, if you ever get bored and the little plot bunny manages to escape unscathed... and you feel the need to chase it... and update me... constantly. You know, I wouldn't mind or anything. *GRIN.*
THIS HURTS YOU.
YOU STRUGGLE AGAINST THE INEVITABLE.
Because who can't say the guy's creeper lines weren't sexually motivated? D:<
Okay, so yeah. IT isn't a guy. It's a huge ass flying spaceship. But but but, there must be /some/ reason Harbinger seems to have so much more (-molestative dialogue-) 'emotion' (Pffft, that doesn't belong in a Harbinger sentence.) than Sovereign did.
Aaaand, he can control Collectors. ;)
Okay, so collectors are just ugly bug humanoid things. And since their digestinal tracks and stuff were replaced with tech, they probably can't reproduce either.
So, I'll make you a deal.
There need not be any Harbinger sexins. (Unless you somehow figure it out. Of course I would /never/ complain. <3 ( ... )
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Small abnormalities aside, she's relatively normal. As normal as they come after having crawled out of the grave, anyway. Not a lot of precedents for that, and no handbooks available to guide her - though So You've Come Alive Again: How To Handle Life 2.0 probably wouldn't be something she'd dig into, since she's never been a ( ... )
Reply
This is not the time for a clip to jam.
Under tense moments, she can perform miracles with minimal resources, like annihilating an entire batarian troop with a single bullet. This moment, however, is beyond tense. The stress makes her pulse race to the point where her trauma unit begins administering emergency dosages of sedatives - an invention of Mordin's due to Cerberus concerns of logs where she spiked high enough to endanger her nervous system of overloading. It doesn't put her out - just smoothens out the most prominent curves.
For the same reason, she has a cool-down program installed in her bio-amp to hinder her from performing too many straining biotic attacks in a row. Shepard complained when it was revealed, saying that she was being punished for coming alive rather than allowed to savour it. ”No,” Miranda corrected, adjusting the programming via her omni-tool, ”we're just putting in measures to keep you alive, since you've lost certain... Boundaries.”
The word she was looking for was human. Human boundaries ( ... )
Reply
The glowing hand closes around her throat, but instead of choking her she feels something different. She feels... Odd. There's no way to describe the sensations stirring, her body responding to the contact in a way that's definitely not natural. She can feel the intricate circuits under her skin lightt up and practically hum, as if in communication on another level.
It feels like a vital communion, beyond the skin and flesh, past anything she has ever experienced.
Well, there's the initial visceral reaction, as if the Collector - I am Harbinger it says to her, as if she spoke aloud, or even more worrying, that it hears what she is thinking - is peeling her apart, layer by layer, and penetrating past it all to tap into the essential core of who she is ( ... )
Reply
Then it withdraws as suddenly as it came in, and instinctively Shepard tries to follow, but the pain in her spine intensifies, and she realizes that the suit integrity has been breached, a warm trickle going down her skin. The trauma unit shorts out, overheated, her omni-tool beeping warnings. Yet, in the midst of the chaos of the two of them battling high in the air, it has retreated an inch, and a modicum of control returns to her, and she makes a snap decision.
The seams of her skin crack as her fingers sink through the carapace and tears it apart, the head bursting open with light that burns and then it is nothing, ash, spreading in the gusts. In the choice between following onboard the cruiser and plummeting to certain death and skull split open on the ground, she picks the free-fall.
The ground approaches in a blur of green and gold rushing ever closer, and somewhere beneath the ear-deafening roar she hears it.
I will find you again.
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You will regret your resistance, Shepard.
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I love that you made it a longer fic. I love that only Shepard could hear Harbinger calling to her. I love that you made it dark, ripping her cheek off without any remorse. I agree with the other anon. I knew I had a thing for mindfuckery, but I never understood just how much.
Thank you so much for crafting this together in such short time.
"It's an attempt at a joke, but the humor falls short in his voice."
This was so sweet. When I got Garrus, I chose the "You were always ugly anyways" joke. It was nice to see the comparison when it's /not/ funny, and it makes it all the more depressing. x3
I love the sort of... defeated ending. Lovedlovedlovedit. Not knowing how to cope, even Kaidan stepping back from her, unable to express how she feels and what happened.
Beautiful.
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But, if you ever get bored and the little plot bunny manages to escape unscathed... and you feel the need to chase it... and update me... constantly.
You know, I wouldn't mind or anything. *GRIN.*
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I think this will give me nightmares. I really do.
Well done, anon.
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