Garry Karian (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
chickenselects) wrote2013-09-01 12:58 pm
chickenselects) wrote2013-09-01 12:58 pm
(no subject)
Under 18? If yes, what is your age?: Nope
Email + IM: altanachan@gmail.com + CLU2flynn
Characters Played at Ataraxion: Howard Stark
C H A R A C T E R I N F O R M A T I O N
Name: Garrus Vakarian
Canon: Mass EffectEmail + IM: altanachan@gmail.com + CLU2flynn
Characters Played at Ataraxion: Howard Stark
C H A R A C T E R I N F O R M A T I O N
Name: Garrus Vakarian
Original or Alternate Universe: original recipe
Canon Point: Just a nudge or two into Mass Effect 3, shortly after Tuchanka.
Number: RNG please!
Setting: Space. The outer space sort. Basically the same universe we live in but eventually humanity discovers ancient jump-to-warp-speed-mister-Sulu tech and uses it to advance society by leaps and so on and so forth. There's also a bunch of different aliens, but they like to sit around all day and make bad decisions so that pretty much covers the entirety of the series.
Just in case you want more, though, have a wiki link
Enter one Garrus Vakarian, military-bred turian (alien raptor-cats) looking to follow in his father's footsteps by enlisting in C-Sec with the not-so-lofty goal of wanting to take out the the proverbial trash. Given the population dwelling on the Citadel, the amount of traffic passing through every day in trade and politics, there was more than enough crime to make that idea a reality. Or at least there ought to have been, but after doggedly pursuing every criminal in his path, he'd almost always find the barrier of rules and regulations, red tape, political immunities and agendas-- the fine, dirty details that keep legitimate law enforcement from ever being an effective means of control. Something that wound up drawing something of a line between Garrus and his father; a man who thought there was, and could never be an acceptable alternative to doing things the right way: by the book or not at all.
Garrus met Shepard while at the end of his C-Sec tolerant rope, in the middle of chasing leads on a rogue Spectre (military enforcers that work outside the law) named Saren and decided that-- as she was also pursuing evidence to condemn Saren with all the freedoms of a fellow Spectre-- he would leave C-Sec to finally get a chance at a little real justice.
It's a quick bond, the one he and Shepard build. Friendly, straightforward, but one that doesn't come from much more than the common tie of having the same goal and the same idea as to how to achieve it. Over time, through loss and a multitude of missions that shake everyone's beliefs and perceived security right down to the core, that attachment grows into admiration. Appreciation for her having his back both on the battlefield and off in a way that inspires a sort of loyalty he's never really had for anyone-- or anything-- else.
Saren inevitably was caught. A tool for creatures more powerful than anything sentient space had previously thought possible: Reapers. (They kind of look like if fleas and squids had babies. Babies that are the size of Evangelion robots. Maybe Voltron.) Reapers that were apparently responsible for wiping out all advanced civilization approximately 50,000 years ago. (And before that, and before that, and...you get the idea.) So after one mad dash across the galaxy, both Saren and the Reaper controlling him wind up right in the heart of the Citadel where the usual sort of dramatic boss fight ensues. Shepard uses the power of
The Reaper-- named Sovereign-- does not stop its assault on the Citadel, however. And not even Shepard & co. is enough to take out the hulking machine on their own. The Alliance fleet, on the other hand, is another story, but in holding back long enough to strike at the exact moment required to ensure that Sovereign does not survive, the Council's flagship is destroyed; space UN biting it for the sake of keeping the Citadel alive.
Hooray. Job well done, space sort of slightly safe aside from the fact that the collective government is kind of temporarily under re-construction and also the Reapers are still out there. Shepard knows better than to rest on her heels, but her efforts are cut short when a ship of unknown origin and make quite literally blows her ship right out of the sky.
With her on it.
The crew (having been shoved off on escape pods because Shepard is a capital 'T' True Hero) go their separate ways, knowing Shepard's death marks a definitive end to any hope of convincing the galaxy that the Reaper threat is still out there. Aimless and frustrated at the thought of returning to a life of rules and regulations, Garrus makes his own RP OC and heads to a section of the galaxy where crime is king and there are no laws at all: Omega. One floating hunk of asteroid turned space station; the perfect place for someone looking for a fight to go. Using the alias 'Archangel' (original character do not steal) Garrus assembles a team of crime fighting vigilante
It makes him a lot of enemies. Pretty much all of them, actually. Two years pass, and Shepard is rebuilt like the bionic man by the pro-human (and pretty sketchy) corporation known as Cerberus. Cerberus instructs Shepard that they believe her story about the Reapers, and she will need a team to fight them. The name Archangel is one of her potential crewmates.
So she goes to Omega, finds Garrus pinned down in a desperate firefight, and saves his alien butt from the combined efforts of the three most powerful gangs in the galaxy, and learns (mid fight) that his entire team was betrayed from the inside by his second in command: Sidonis. They were also all murdered, as Garrus is the only one left. But before they can finish swapping stories, they're attacked in a last ditch effort by a mostly operational gunship. He's shot along the majority of the right side of his face and torso, falls unconscious, and is rushed back to the ship for immediate medical attention.
But he's okay! Badly wounded, sure, Hot Topic level miserable from the loss of his companions and trusted friends, seething from the betrayal that led to it all but really, he's fine. Fine enough to consider Shepard's offer of joining her in her fight to see why human colonies at the edge of space are disappearing entirely without stopping for a second to balk at the thought of working for Cerberus: he helps Shepard. He trusts her judgment. If she thinks it's the right move to make, then fine, he'll lend a talon wherever it's needed.
The team's reassembled, new and old alike hopping from point A to point B across the galaxy to solve the mystery of just what is happening and discovering the Reapers are to blame. Indirectly, anyway. The race they'd previously thought destroyed-- the Protheans who lived 50,000 years before-- had been devolved into nothing more than mindless slaves to the Reapers. A group of creatures known as Collectors, capable of immobilizing and kidnapping entire cities, had been harvesting humans all along; keeping them alive to be melted down into genetic goop, injected into the veins of a larval, half constructed human-Reaper.
Cerberus proves itself suspicious as anything throughout their journey, and when-- after surviving an almost certain suicide run that presses them to the far edge of space where no ship has ever survived to tell the tale-- Shepard and crew defeat the Collectors and have a chance to obliterate the entire Collector Base + Larval Human Reaper creepy baby thing with a bomb, the leader of Cerberus begs her to leave the base be and turn the technology over to humanity; that with Reaper tech in hand humanity could not only destroy the incoming threat but assert dominance over galactic space. She declines.
Base goes boom, the mission ends, and Shepard is grounded by the Alliance military. Despite being a hero, she's also dangerously driven towards something that no one actually believes exists. Her crew, once again, is dismantled. You know, until the Reaper threat actually happens and almost all major galactic homeworlds are bombarded with monstrous technological creatures they have no chance against.
Garrus had gone home once Shepard was sent back to earth. Finally understanding that if no efforts are made, Shepard or not, the universe will be in dire straights. Returning to his home planet of Palaven, Garrus convinced his father of the Reaper's imminent arrival, and through so much hard work was assigned a small Reaper task force. Something more handwave than progress, but something none the less.
Naturally, when it all goes down, a miniscule group of well-trained turians isn't enough to fight off a countless fleet of Reapers. He does his best, but by the time Shepard arrives and asks him to come along to figure out their one last shot at taking out the Reapers, Palaven is a lost cause.
And because this is Mass Effect where play-throughs dictate history, here is a concise list of decisions made:
Saved the rachni queen
Rescued Kaidan Alenko on Virmire
Chose to sacrifice the Council
Destroyed Maelon's data
Kept Wrex alive on Virmire
Chose to destroy the geth heretics
Destroyed the Collector Base
Survived the suicide mission with 12 squadmates
Failed to aid Grissom Academy
Successfully administered the genophage cure
Failed to stop the bomb on Tuchanka
Personality:
"It’s something turians are taught from birth- If just one survivor is left standing at the end of a war, then the fight was worth it. But humans want to save everyone. In this war, that’s not going to happen."
Headstrong, determined, unflinching and unwavering when he's fighting for a cause, Garrus is as passionate and dedicated as the turian ideal. Admirable traits on the surface, but in action much less so; someone like his father-- someone dedicated to dignity over the outcome-- would know where to draw the line between ends justifying means. Garrus never seems to quite fully grasp it. He jumps at the chance to put a bullet through the skull of a criminal beyond redemption (chomping at the bit to mark a definite end to the deplorable Dr. Heart, after he managed to escape the Citadel when C-Sec refused to open fire on his vessel due to the hostages it held inside. Garrus argued they were already dead, they just 'didn't know it yet' and that failing to take out that ship cost more lives in the long run. Technically right, morally upsetting.) wants nothing more than to kill the former partner that betrayed him and his men on Omega (when most would prefer to be the better man (turian?) by letting him live) and admits that a corrupt, extremist group of jailers might be toeing the line, but that they're also keeping millions safe in the process. He deals in black and white, thinks with logic that the average person would consider cold, but is, ultimately, more concerned and passionate about keeping the innocent protected and alive. And if that means cutting a few corners? Bring it on.
There is something interesting, however, about the influence Shepard has on him that stays nearly consistent whether the game is played through with good, moral choices or bad ones. He takes her suggestions as if they were his own, only combating her decisions for a split-second (mildly, at most) if they truly sit on the opposite end of the spectrum in the most extreme circumstances, and still admits in hindsight that she makes the best possible call. In the Lair of the Shadowbroker, where the truths and secrets of almost every being in known space are kept, Garrus's write up states that he is a natural leader, but that his potential is eclipsed by Shepard's presence-- and it's true. He relies on her abilities, relies on her Spectre status to bypass laws and limitations, relies on her counsel and trusts her decisions no matter what the circumstances might be. And when he fails on Omega, in a fledgling attempt to follow in her footsteps as a leader who stands outside the law, he blames himself for a situation that was ultimately unavoidable.
It's not until the end of Mass Effect 2 that he has a chance to make up for that loss, serving as one of only two possible teammates capable of consistently keeping the second fire team alive during the suicide mission (the other being Jacob, as Miranda is only valid for the first portion, not the second). He flourishes there when it counts, barking both orders and praise with enough confidence and courage to keep everyone alive in dire straits. It marks the beginning of the final portion of his growth as a character, where he returns to Palaven, returns to his father as everything he was never intended to be ( a failed member of C-Sec, a vigilante, the aide of a Specte) and finds a way to bridge the gap between them enough to take talks of the Reaper threat to the turian government. Something he would have previously thought impossible without Shepard hammering the argument home.
His personality shifts there into something with all his usual sass still intact, but he's more focused, more decisive, more likely to make somewhat serious, cynical remarks about the bottom line rather than a witty one-liner if things are starting to get heated. He speaks to Shepard as an equal; someone he's come to know as his closest friend through their numerous adventures, but someone that also gets weary from time to time and might need a little one-on-one advice from him instead of the other way around. The conversational cutscenes on the ship are a different breed of creature when Shepard looks worn thin for a change. And though his pats on the back are grounded in logic (finding his comfort in solid evidence rather than pretty, pointless speeches) they're never patronizing. Never without something he doesn't already believe in.
Abilities, Weaknesses and Power Limitations: Garrus is an A+ marksman (we're talking A+++++++ here) and was proven to be one of the top ranked hand to hand combat specialists on his old ship back in the day. Given that he's capable of fighting the worst the galaxy has to offer, it's safe to say he's pretty damn good in a fight. Weakness-wise, he's got a knack for wading right down into morally grey territory in full force, but he's not allergic to the color yellow or anything. The cold bothers him, he can often times be an idiot-- oh, right, and in a human body he'll be basically useless for a while.
So there's that.
Inventory: One useless set of turian armor that will take up more space than it's worth and is useful to absolutely no one, his sniping headpiece that is also useful to no one and has the sad added bonus of having the names of his dead brosephs carved into it, one M-98 widow sniper rifle that he won't be able to use for a long, long time because his balance is off and his weird, stubby human fingers are good for literally nothing. (Seriously who evolves like this???) Also one container of turian brandy that he can't drink because it's toxic to humans. Fun times.
Appearance: For the sake of having new opportunities for CR that doesn't run along the usual lines, I was hoping to have Garrus's entrance get a little mixed up. Body-wise, at least. So that instead of stepping in as the towering space lizard-cat creature that he normally is, he'll be residing in one shiny, brand new space Nikolaj Coster-Waldeu.
Age: appx early to mid thirties
AU Clarification: NA
S A M P L E S
Log Sample:
And he thought Noveria was bad.
The station's beautiful, of course: gloss-slick floors and high, well-lit ceilings filled to the brim with the sort of amenities he'd been hoping to find and subsequently ferret away to store in his room on the Tranquility. But smooth sheets and finely manufactured niceties don't offer much in the way of comfort when frost is quickly forming in frothy, white waves to cover almost every last object in the room (himself included) and when the front door that'd just minutes ago popped open to grant him entry is now snapped shut so tightly it'd take a fully grown krogan to rip it loose from its track.
It's hard to judge if he's faring better against the cold in his new, obscenely fragile body versus the one he'd been forced to leave behind, but cold is cold, and he can feel the rime right down to the bone with every attempt he makes at cracking open the wall panel to see about potentially hacking his way out. There's also the problem of unsteady, unfamiliar hands but when you're freezing to death, the option of sitting on your heels is just making the conscious decision to lay down and die.
He's never been the sort for that.
Plus, Garrus figures, jamming a shaking palm against the panel latch and dislodging enough ice to finally get a glance at the circuitry beneath, if he's going to die, he sure as hell doesn't want to go out via freezing to death.
Comms Sample:
[It's a noisy, fumbling start to the feed when Garrus's comm clatters loudly to life, spitting out indiscernible images of black, fuzzy shapes shifting into blurred motion and light before honing in on-- a foot. Specifically a boot. Unlaced for the most part aside from the bottom where a blatantly pitiful attempt has been made with a tangled mess in place of results.
He doesn't bother to stoop over and pick up the device.]
Seeing as how I've dropped this damn thing more times than I can count, I'm going to just leave you with this view for now. Which brings me to my next point: [There's a beat. A small shift in stance from where he's seated on what's probably a bed.] Look, I'm not usually this uncoordinated, but this is my first time dealing with-- all of this, actually.
I don't know if you people have some sort of diagram to refer to or something because all I've seen are a bunch of before and after shots and it's not really getting me anywhere. [Fast, at the rate he's going.] And before you ask, I figured the rest of this clothing out already.
Mostly.
Headstrong, determined, unflinching and unwavering when he's fighting for a cause, Garrus is as passionate and dedicated as the turian ideal. Admirable traits on the surface, but in action much less so; someone like his father-- someone dedicated to dignity over the outcome-- would know where to draw the line between ends justifying means. Garrus never seems to quite fully grasp it. He jumps at the chance to put a bullet through the skull of a criminal beyond redemption (chomping at the bit to mark a definite end to the deplorable Dr. Heart, after he managed to escape the Citadel when C-Sec refused to open fire on his vessel due to the hostages it held inside. Garrus argued they were already dead, they just 'didn't know it yet' and that failing to take out that ship cost more lives in the long run. Technically right, morally upsetting.) wants nothing more than to kill the former partner that betrayed him and his men on Omega (when most would prefer to be the better man (turian?) by letting him live) and admits that a corrupt, extremist group of jailers might be toeing the line, but that they're also keeping millions safe in the process. He deals in black and white, thinks with logic that the average person would consider cold, but is, ultimately, more concerned and passionate about keeping the innocent protected and alive. And if that means cutting a few corners? Bring it on.
There is something interesting, however, about the influence Shepard has on him that stays nearly consistent whether the game is played through with good, moral choices or bad ones. He takes her suggestions as if they were his own, only combating her decisions for a split-second (mildly, at most) if they truly sit on the opposite end of the spectrum in the most extreme circumstances, and still admits in hindsight that she makes the best possible call. In the Lair of the Shadowbroker, where the truths and secrets of almost every being in known space are kept, Garrus's write up states that he is a natural leader, but that his potential is eclipsed by Shepard's presence-- and it's true. He relies on her abilities, relies on her Spectre status to bypass laws and limitations, relies on her counsel and trusts her decisions no matter what the circumstances might be. And when he fails on Omega, in a fledgling attempt to follow in her footsteps as a leader who stands outside the law, he blames himself for a situation that was ultimately unavoidable.
It's not until the end of Mass Effect 2 that he has a chance to make up for that loss, serving as one of only two possible teammates capable of consistently keeping the second fire team alive during the suicide mission (the other being Jacob, as Miranda is only valid for the first portion, not the second). He flourishes there when it counts, barking both orders and praise with enough confidence and courage to keep everyone alive in dire straits. It marks the beginning of the final portion of his growth as a character, where he returns to Palaven, returns to his father as everything he was never intended to be ( a failed member of C-Sec, a vigilante, the aide of a Specte) and finds a way to bridge the gap between them enough to take talks of the Reaper threat to the turian government. Something he would have previously thought impossible without Shepard hammering the argument home.
His personality shifts there into something with all his usual sass still intact, but he's more focused, more decisive, more likely to make somewhat serious, cynical remarks about the bottom line rather than a witty one-liner if things are starting to get heated. He speaks to Shepard as an equal; someone he's come to know as his closest friend through their numerous adventures, but someone that also gets weary from time to time and might need a little one-on-one advice from him instead of the other way around. The conversational cutscenes on the ship are a different breed of creature when Shepard looks worn thin for a change. And though his pats on the back are grounded in logic (finding his comfort in solid evidence rather than pretty, pointless speeches) they're never patronizing. Never without something he doesn't already believe in.
Abilities, Weaknesses and Power Limitations: Garrus is an A+ marksman (we're talking A+++++++ here) and was proven to be one of the top ranked hand to hand combat specialists on his old ship back in the day. Given that he's capable of fighting the worst the galaxy has to offer, it's safe to say he's pretty damn good in a fight. Weakness-wise, he's got a knack for wading right down into morally grey territory in full force, but he's not allergic to the color yellow or anything. The cold bothers him, he can often times be an idiot-- oh, right, and in a human body he'll be basically useless for a while.
So there's that.
Inventory: One useless set of turian armor that will take up more space than it's worth and is useful to absolutely no one, his sniping headpiece that is also useful to no one and has the sad added bonus of having the names of his dead brosephs carved into it, one M-98 widow sniper rifle that he won't be able to use for a long, long time because his balance is off and his weird, stubby human fingers are good for literally nothing. (Seriously who evolves like this???) Also one container of turian brandy that he can't drink because it's toxic to humans. Fun times.
Appearance: For the sake of having new opportunities for CR that doesn't run along the usual lines, I was hoping to have Garrus's entrance get a little mixed up. Body-wise, at least. So that instead of stepping in as the towering space lizard-cat creature that he normally is, he'll be residing in one shiny, brand new space Nikolaj Coster-Waldeu.
AU Clarification: NA
S A M P L E S
Log Sample:
And he thought Noveria was bad.
The station's beautiful, of course: gloss-slick floors and high, well-lit ceilings filled to the brim with the sort of amenities he'd been hoping to find and subsequently ferret away to store in his room on the Tranquility. But smooth sheets and finely manufactured niceties don't offer much in the way of comfort when frost is quickly forming in frothy, white waves to cover almost every last object in the room (himself included) and when the front door that'd just minutes ago popped open to grant him entry is now snapped shut so tightly it'd take a fully grown krogan to rip it loose from its track.
It's hard to judge if he's faring better against the cold in his new, obscenely fragile body versus the one he'd been forced to leave behind, but cold is cold, and he can feel the rime right down to the bone with every attempt he makes at cracking open the wall panel to see about potentially hacking his way out. There's also the problem of unsteady, unfamiliar hands but when you're freezing to death, the option of sitting on your heels is just making the conscious decision to lay down and die.
He's never been the sort for that.
Plus, Garrus figures, jamming a shaking palm against the panel latch and dislodging enough ice to finally get a glance at the circuitry beneath, if he's going to die, he sure as hell doesn't want to go out via freezing to death.
Comms Sample:
[It's a noisy, fumbling start to the feed when Garrus's comm clatters loudly to life, spitting out indiscernible images of black, fuzzy shapes shifting into blurred motion and light before honing in on-- a foot. Specifically a boot. Unlaced for the most part aside from the bottom where a blatantly pitiful attempt has been made with a tangled mess in place of results.
He doesn't bother to stoop over and pick up the device.]
Seeing as how I've dropped this damn thing more times than I can count, I'm going to just leave you with this view for now. Which brings me to my next point: [There's a beat. A small shift in stance from where he's seated on what's probably a bed.] Look, I'm not usually this uncoordinated, but this is my first time dealing with-- all of this, actually.
I don't know if you people have some sort of diagram to refer to or something because all I've seen are a bunch of before and after shots and it's not really getting me anywhere. [Fast, at the rate he's going.] And before you ask, I figured the rest of this clothing out already.
Mostly.