Garrus Vakarian (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
somecalibrations) wrote2012-04-02 04:09 am
somecalibrations) wrote2012-04-02 04:09 am
Entry tags:
Multiversal Application
Out of Character Information
Name: Diorae
Username: N/A
Are you over the age of eighteen? Yes
Current characters in Baedal: None
In Character Information
Basics
Character Name: Garrus Vakarian
Username:somecalibrations
Fandom: Mass Effect
Played By: N/A
Canon Character Section
Physical Description: Garrus is reasonably tall by human standards and cuts a rather imposing figure, particularly when encased in his heavy combat armor. He possesses a metallic carapace like all turians, an evolutionary trait developed to deal with the long-term, low-level radiation exposure found on his home planet of Palaven. His plate-like skin is hard to the touch and obviously a bit more resistant to blunt trauma than anything with softer flesh, but a turian's thick skin does not stop projectiles and directed bolts of energy -- something Garrus has discovered personally. The right side of his face is marred by scars and pitted areas where chunks of carapace were lost.
Turian features are largely avian and distinctly predatory. Two long, thick fingers and an opposable thumb on either hand are tipped in curving talons, a matching set on either two-toed foot. His jaws are lined with a respectable set of pointed, needle-like teeth, which have a tendency to peek out at times due to the set of mandibles around his mouth, which are highly mobile and often shift in time with his expressions. He also has a bony, rigid fringe atop his head that curves back like the crest of a bird.
He has bright blue eyes, which seem to be complimented by the dark blue pigment of his facial markings. These markings are quite angular and have obviously been tattooed on, rather than existing naturally as part of his colouration. He seems to be completely inseparable from the visor he wears over his left eye, which serves a variety of purposes.
A minority in the galaxy, turians are one of two sapient races whose biology is based on dextro-amino acids rather than the levo-amino acids all other species (including humans) are based on. The food of humans and most other creatures will at best pass through turian systems without providing any nutrition whatsoever, and at worst will trigger an allergic reaction that can be potentially fatal. Interestingly, turians also have dark blue blood.
Sexuality: Garrus is heterosexual, according to canon, but has been shown as quite an open-minded person. The barriers of cross-species relations be damned, as he was more than willing to seek out company from a willing non-turian, though awkwardly.
History: Like most turians, Garrus had a military upbringing since childhood and full training by the age of fifteen. He grew up on Palaven with both parents and a sister, though his mother fell ill with a rare disease, which she fought continuously for many years. He was targeted as a potential Spectre candidate, but his father blocked him as he despised Spectres for their freedom to work outside the law. Garrus eventually chose to follow in his father's footsteps, leaving the homeworld for the Citadel, the massive space station that serves as the capital of galactic Council space. There he signed on with Citadel Security, working diligently for several years and eventually becoming a part of C-Sec's Investigation Division.
In 2183 CE, he was responsible for the investigation of Saren Arterius, the Council's top Spectre operative, after the Human Alliance claimed that Saren had gone rogue. Despite being told by C-Sec's head operative Executor Pallin that the investigation was over, he decided to defy the order and pursue further leads on his own. Eventually Garrus joined Commander Shepard's team aboard the SSV Normandy, helping to defeat Saren and the geth synthetics allied with him, revealing the Reaper threat.
After the mission to handle Saren was completed Garrus departed from the crew with plans to reapply for Spectre candidacy. His time with Shepard had been inspiring as well as a valuable learning experience that he didn't want to go to waste. A month later the Normandy was attacked and the Commander was declared "killed in action", at which point his plans shifted drastically. He began operating out of the Omega station in the Terminus Systems, a den of filth and corruption that served as a haven for criminals, terrorists, and malcontents. He briefly lead a squad who worked to unsettle the various criminal empires that made their home on Omega, and did quite an impressive job of it. Garrus ultimately managed to unite three powerful rival mercenary groups with the common goal of hunting him down. He acquired the name Archangel during this period.
Garrus was reunited with a newly revived Commander Shepard in the midst of a final stand off between himself and the merc groups. Garrus had followed Shepard's example and created his own squad to enforce their own version of justice on Omega, leading to the predicament he then found himself in. Shepard's team assisted in taking out the various mercenaries, whom Garrus had managed to hold off for some time thanks to a useful strategic position. Before the battle ended, Garrus was attacked by a Blue Suns gunship and suffered multiple wounds to his face and upper torso. Dr. Chakwas, the attending physician aboard the Normandy, saw to his recovery. Some cybernetics were used to save his life as well as repair his face.
Despite the fact that he suddenly found himself allied with a known human-focused terrorist group, Garrus remained loyal to Shepard and again served on her team. Garrus and Shepard grew closer during their mission to destroy the Collectors, the latest threat to galactic safety. He had always respected her as a leader, but their mentor-protegé relationship began to grow into something deeper by the end of the mission, spending one night together before the entire team embarked on the 'suicide mission'.
Following the successful completion of the task with only minimal casualties, Garrus and Shepard again went their separate ways. He still had family back on Palaven to attend to, as well as a need to determine what he might like to do with his future. The peace didn't last long, as only a few short months later Shepard was placed under arrest and taken to Earth to be tried for destruction of a large batarian colony. The batarians continued to have a rough time of it, as theirs was the first system to go dark and soon several others followed. Reports began flooding in of communications blackouts in the Terminus Systems, as well as massive amounts of batarian refugees flooding nearby colonies, including those belonging to turians. The batarian movement was so large that initially it was believed that they were invading.
Not long afterward the Reapers attacked Earth as well as Palaven. Garrus' particular expertise in dealing with Reaper forces made him a valuable asset to the turian military, and he was deployed to the moon of Menae to consult on resistance operations. It was at this point that Baedal seized the opportunity to snatch him up. The burden of leadership was resting heavily on his shoulders and he still had his doubts about his ability to be a leader. Ten of his twelve-man squad on Omega were killed when another squadmate, Sidonis, betrayed them, and though Shepard had helped Garrus settle that score he still harboured reservations about leadership. At no point in Garrus' life was he ever wishing so strongly for a different world, a different place; though showing up in Baedal would certainly not be what he had in mind.
Powers: Garrus has no particular 'powers' to speak of. His increased speed and strength (at least compared to the average human) and fighting abilities are derived from the fact that he is a turian or simply due to his many years as a soldier.
Talents/Abilities:: Garrus is quite skilled with technology. He is capable of hacking systems and decryption, as well as complex programming. As engineering is concerned his specialty is weapons, and he is known to have the skills to calibrate the hell out of a ship's main gun, squeezing every bit of deadly firepower out of it. He also possesses incredible skill in marksmanship. He's a great shot with just about anything, within reason, but get a sniper rifle in his hands and he'll "make it dance", as he has put it.
Personality: Garrus is generally very courteous to those he respects, calm and reassuring to those who need it, but utterly ruthless when fighting. He has a strong sense of justice and the attitude that it doesn't matter how you do it; just get it done. He becomes particularly frustrated when restrictions and regulations get in the way of that justice.
He has a sense of humour and manages to be rather light-hearted even in the worst of situations, generally to mask his own feelings. He is reserved when it comes to his doubts and concerns and has a tendency to throw himself into work to take his mind off of it. He actually feels quite alone in the galaxy and that much of his life has gone wrong, due to poor decisions or just bad luck.
While he has lead in the past, it seems to make him uncomfortable. He describes himself as lacking a certain "ruthless calculus" that would allow him to make decisions involving the lives of others without doubting his decisions on hard calls, but doesn't seem to be bitter about it. Rather, he admires this trait in others and eagerly observes those leaders he respects. He would like to view things plainly as either good or bad. Anything muddled in between that seems to make him hesitate. In his own words, "it's so much easier to see the world in black and white. Grey? I don't know what to do with grey."
Garrus has been described as "a hothead who thinks he can change the world". He is capable of being argumentative at times. He has half-joked that he doesn't think he's a very good turian since he lacks the discipline expected of him. He feels that it's simply not worth blindly following bad orders. The frustrations that eventually drove him to his work on Omega coupled with Sidonis' betrayal fanned the flames of his anger, making him more willing to resort to violence quicker.
In matters of romance or flirting, he is quite awkward, with an unfortunate habit of saying all the wrong things to comedic effect.
More in-depth and spoiler-ridden information can be found here.
Object: His fully customized M-92 Mantis sniper rifle with a single thermal clip.
Reason for playing: I've always loved Garrus. Lovelovelove. Mass Effect 3 just reminded me how much I love him. There are so many things in Baedal (and things not in Baedal) that would just drive him nuts, and because I'm a mean mun I guess I'd like nothing more than to be along for the ride while he tries to figure it all out.
Life's not going to be a picnic for him, and that's part of the draw. I've never played a character like him outside of his own universe (or at least an AU where aliens are about), so the various interactions that would arise simply due to being completely strange are appealing! I welcome the challenge of trying to work a literal alien in with a bunch of people hailing from all different times and places and all the good and bad and potential drama that could arise from it.
I could see him fitting right in with Hellsing or any other organization that fights bad guys or generally tries to maintain order. He has experience in that! I think he'd fit right into the themes of the game. The Mass Effect universe is by no means a place where everything is rainbows and unicorns.
.. It does have giant pink jellyfish, however.
Gods: Eliandre, definitely. He has a 'whatever-it-takes' attitude about things, but always a strong sense of justice. Perhaps Gediron as well, for the warrior aspect.
Writing Samples
First-Person Journal Post:
I keep turning all of this over and over in my mind but none of it makes sense. For awhile I thought I was dead. Not just dead, but damned as well. If this was the afterlife, it's nothing at all like anything anyone in their right mind would hope for. I also considered that this might be hell simply because I'm hungry and hell really would be a place where you can starve in a room full of levo food..
Oh. And let's not forget the tech situation here. It's.. nonexistant? That's a nice way of putting it. I know I used to annoy Shepard with that.. always busy working on something. I regret all that time wasted, all those opportunities now lost; pushing her away for a few more lines of code. But it was relaxing, at the time, what with Sidonis and a suicide mission looming ahead. It was necessary. Or so I'd like to tell myself. There was order and peace in all that programming and mathematics. It was a challenge to test the bounds of the machinery as well as the bounds of my own ingenuity to get just a little more out of it. I think I'll miss that the most.
That and.. Shepard.
I'm sorry. When it all goes down, it should've been me watching your back against the Reapers. Damn this place.
Third-Person Arrival Post:
It was the silence that woke him.
Garrus had gone to sleep surrounded by the cacophany of an active warzone. The sound of constant gunfire was actually somewhat comforting. It meant there were actually still soldiers left alive to fight. The turian awoke with a start, hand groping about at his side for a weapon that wasn't there. The gun was missing. As was his rack. As was everything else, apparently. He climbed heavily to his feet, leaning a supportive hand against the green-tiled wall until the wave of dizziness that rolled over him passed. He moved toward the only noticeable thing in the room, the table, and the quiet was ever more punctuated by how loudly each armoured footfall sounded on the tile. He was surprised to find his favourite gun, and even more so to find it waiting beside a small pamphlet and an alien device he'd never seen before.
He picked up the weapon, finding comfort in the familiar weight of it in his hands. He raised it to his shoulder, the modified stock fitting flush against the heavy durasteel armor, swinging it around to direct it at the door. Shooting it was a tempting idea. Tempting, but stupid. He didn't suppose that whoever brought him to this place would make it that easy..
Or maybe that's part of the game, he thought, eyes narrowing as he lowered the rifle and took another look around the room. Observe me and see what I'll do. But.. why?
Experience and sound military training told him to err on the side of caution. There was no immediate threat, so he might as well wait and see. The rifle folded into a more compact shape with a few mechanical clicks and he swung it back over his left shoulder to holster it and he felt that much more secure with it there. His attention shifted to the only other object on the table and he picked it up to weigh it thoughtfully in one hand. It was clear from the looks of it that it was some sort of communication device or datapad, screen switching on after a few cursory button presses. He couldn't help but smirk a little, one mandible twitching in turian fashion; it was a completely antiquated design. He'd seen images in the past of similar objects kept in collections for nostalgia's sake, but was fairly certain no one bothered manufacturing such low tech devices anymore. Not with Kassa Fabrication on the bleeding edge of tech innovation, cornering the market on omni-tools..
He shrugged, snapping out of the little technical tangent his mind had wandered off on, setting it back down on the table before picking up the pamphlet. "Finding Baedal: A Settlers Guide to the Wondrous City," he read aloud, before slowly lowering himself into a seated position. "Spirits.. where the hell am I?"
Third-Person Action Post:
Palaven was burning and Garrus was thankful for all the diversions his post provided him because it didn't give him much opportunity to look up. The angry, fiery wounds across the planet's surface had only grown larger over the last half a day since the Reaper forces had descended into turian space. He knew that if he'd had sufficient time to study it, he could have put names to those massive swathes of flame. Names and faces and statistics. Figures of exactly how many turians were depending on him, on his knowledge..
The hell do I know? I'm no expert. I had a gun in my hand and Shepard told me where to aim it. That was all. I don't know any more about taking these bastards down then any of the rest.. Damn war..
His mandibles flared as tension set his jaw, hands flying over the keys of the terminal he was working on. He needed to finish, and quickly. Comm buoys were going dark all over the system, making these quantum entanglement communicators the only way to get information on and off the moon.
"How's it going?"
The soldier who had asked did so as politely as possible, but his tone betrayed how he really felt. The location wasn't secure and they could be set upon by the enemy at any given time.
"Nearly there," he replied, distracted. "If I had to venture a guess, I'd say no one's touched bothered to touch this thing in years.."
"Never thought we'd need to," another of the small squad cut in. He was older, his flanging tone gruff. "Not with the buoy network and every turian fleet in the galaxy ready to jump if anyone so much as looked at it wrong. Who was going to fuck with us?"
"The Reapers, obviously.." Garrus drawled. Can't say we didn't warn them, right, Shepard?
"We've got contact!"
The Husks were upon them before he even had time to fully assess the situation. The others were beating them back with the butts of their guns, taking shots wildly whenever they had the chance. Garrus drew the assault rifle from his back, swinging around just as one of the creatures leapt at him. The force of the blow to the Husk's head would have been enough to kill anything else, particularly with the way he'd caved in the side of its skull. But it pressed on, leaking some kind of foul, viscous fluid from the wound, clawing wildly for his unprotected face. These things lacked tactics or strategy. They were raw, feral energy and that was what made them terrifying. But it also made them vulnerable, when they so eagerly presented their weaknesses, assuming you had the presence of mind to take advantage of it. He'd seen too many soldiers fall simply because they couldn't hold it together, dying pathetic, undignified deaths; shitting themselves as the little bastards tore them apart.
Well. He wouldn't be one of them.
His armor blunted his talons, but he still had grip. His fingers buried themselves in the husk's throat with a satisfying pop of rent flesh and he grinned savagely as he knew it had really felt it that time. It writhed, nails scraping over his armored forearm before he slammed it to the earth with substantial force. He'd stunned it, perhaps even ended it, but he wasn't done. No, it wasn't truly finished until he'd crushed its skull beneath his boot, spraying blood and gore and whatever passed for a brain across the ground. Satisfying. A number flashed in his visor's HUD, and a cursory glance to the upper right revealed that another kill had been added to his count, and it was the only number in this war he enjoyed watching go up.
Another came at him with a hiss and tried to flank him, but he put it down with a spray of bullets, the ammunition ripping it apart at such close range. Once the sack of lifeless guts had fallen away, he used his opening to help pick off the others. They seemed to have gotten lucky, at least in that the amount of husks had been finite. Manageable. But they hadn't come out of the brief encounter unscathed. Two of the four man cell had gone down, overwhelmed and overpowered as they brought the mass of husks down with them. They were the only reason that only two of the creatures had made it through to Garrus. The third turian was still with him, ragged but alive, slapping medi-gel on the flesh wounds he'd sustained. Garrus turned back to the console, setting his rifle down beside him. He was eager to have it completed.
"I hope you finish there soon or we're fucked.." It was the old soldier who'd survived and Garrus suspected it had a lot to do with his superior experience. It was men like him who ought to be in command, not--
"Done."
That was it. That was what those men had given their lives for. For a few more keystrokes. If he'd been able to work just a little bit faster they might have avoided the entire thing. Seconds had just destroyed two lives. It was a fine example of just how bad this war was, and how much worse it was going to get. He felt sick over it and he gathered that it showed on his face because the other turian clapped a hand down on his shoulder.
"That was their duty. Play defence until we got that tower online. You take every casualty to heart like that and you aren't going to make it through this war. You lived, I lived. Let's just make sure we both live long enough to give it back to 'em double next time.."
Garrus stayed silent, settling his rifle into the crook of his arm as he started off toward the forward base, alert for any more ambushes. Of course he knew the soldier was right. It was that same attitude, the very same that Shepard had tried to teach him.
He looked skyward, staring up at Palaven's burning face. For that one moment, he felt the hopelessness threaten to overtake him and he faced it. He let it in and then he crushed it, burying it down beneath his resolve. They would win this war. Never flinching in the face of ridiculous odds was another one of those lessons he'd gotten from Shepard, and he knew they were going to send those Reaper bastards back to the hole they'd slithered out of.
Name: Diorae
Username: N/A
Are you over the age of eighteen? Yes
Current characters in Baedal: None
In Character Information
Basics
Character Name: Garrus Vakarian
Username:
somecalibrationsFandom: Mass Effect
Played By: N/A
Canon Character Section
Physical Description: Garrus is reasonably tall by human standards and cuts a rather imposing figure, particularly when encased in his heavy combat armor. He possesses a metallic carapace like all turians, an evolutionary trait developed to deal with the long-term, low-level radiation exposure found on his home planet of Palaven. His plate-like skin is hard to the touch and obviously a bit more resistant to blunt trauma than anything with softer flesh, but a turian's thick skin does not stop projectiles and directed bolts of energy -- something Garrus has discovered personally. The right side of his face is marred by scars and pitted areas where chunks of carapace were lost.
Turian features are largely avian and distinctly predatory. Two long, thick fingers and an opposable thumb on either hand are tipped in curving talons, a matching set on either two-toed foot. His jaws are lined with a respectable set of pointed, needle-like teeth, which have a tendency to peek out at times due to the set of mandibles around his mouth, which are highly mobile and often shift in time with his expressions. He also has a bony, rigid fringe atop his head that curves back like the crest of a bird.
He has bright blue eyes, which seem to be complimented by the dark blue pigment of his facial markings. These markings are quite angular and have obviously been tattooed on, rather than existing naturally as part of his colouration. He seems to be completely inseparable from the visor he wears over his left eye, which serves a variety of purposes.
A minority in the galaxy, turians are one of two sapient races whose biology is based on dextro-amino acids rather than the levo-amino acids all other species (including humans) are based on. The food of humans and most other creatures will at best pass through turian systems without providing any nutrition whatsoever, and at worst will trigger an allergic reaction that can be potentially fatal. Interestingly, turians also have dark blue blood.
Sexuality: Garrus is heterosexual, according to canon, but has been shown as quite an open-minded person. The barriers of cross-species relations be damned, as he was more than willing to seek out company from a willing non-turian, though awkwardly.
History: Like most turians, Garrus had a military upbringing since childhood and full training by the age of fifteen. He grew up on Palaven with both parents and a sister, though his mother fell ill with a rare disease, which she fought continuously for many years. He was targeted as a potential Spectre candidate, but his father blocked him as he despised Spectres for their freedom to work outside the law. Garrus eventually chose to follow in his father's footsteps, leaving the homeworld for the Citadel, the massive space station that serves as the capital of galactic Council space. There he signed on with Citadel Security, working diligently for several years and eventually becoming a part of C-Sec's Investigation Division.
In 2183 CE, he was responsible for the investigation of Saren Arterius, the Council's top Spectre operative, after the Human Alliance claimed that Saren had gone rogue. Despite being told by C-Sec's head operative Executor Pallin that the investigation was over, he decided to defy the order and pursue further leads on his own. Eventually Garrus joined Commander Shepard's team aboard the SSV Normandy, helping to defeat Saren and the geth synthetics allied with him, revealing the Reaper threat.
After the mission to handle Saren was completed Garrus departed from the crew with plans to reapply for Spectre candidacy. His time with Shepard had been inspiring as well as a valuable learning experience that he didn't want to go to waste. A month later the Normandy was attacked and the Commander was declared "killed in action", at which point his plans shifted drastically. He began operating out of the Omega station in the Terminus Systems, a den of filth and corruption that served as a haven for criminals, terrorists, and malcontents. He briefly lead a squad who worked to unsettle the various criminal empires that made their home on Omega, and did quite an impressive job of it. Garrus ultimately managed to unite three powerful rival mercenary groups with the common goal of hunting him down. He acquired the name Archangel during this period.
Garrus was reunited with a newly revived Commander Shepard in the midst of a final stand off between himself and the merc groups. Garrus had followed Shepard's example and created his own squad to enforce their own version of justice on Omega, leading to the predicament he then found himself in. Shepard's team assisted in taking out the various mercenaries, whom Garrus had managed to hold off for some time thanks to a useful strategic position. Before the battle ended, Garrus was attacked by a Blue Suns gunship and suffered multiple wounds to his face and upper torso. Dr. Chakwas, the attending physician aboard the Normandy, saw to his recovery. Some cybernetics were used to save his life as well as repair his face.
Despite the fact that he suddenly found himself allied with a known human-focused terrorist group, Garrus remained loyal to Shepard and again served on her team. Garrus and Shepard grew closer during their mission to destroy the Collectors, the latest threat to galactic safety. He had always respected her as a leader, but their mentor-protegé relationship began to grow into something deeper by the end of the mission, spending one night together before the entire team embarked on the 'suicide mission'.
Following the successful completion of the task with only minimal casualties, Garrus and Shepard again went their separate ways. He still had family back on Palaven to attend to, as well as a need to determine what he might like to do with his future. The peace didn't last long, as only a few short months later Shepard was placed under arrest and taken to Earth to be tried for destruction of a large batarian colony. The batarians continued to have a rough time of it, as theirs was the first system to go dark and soon several others followed. Reports began flooding in of communications blackouts in the Terminus Systems, as well as massive amounts of batarian refugees flooding nearby colonies, including those belonging to turians. The batarian movement was so large that initially it was believed that they were invading.
Not long afterward the Reapers attacked Earth as well as Palaven. Garrus' particular expertise in dealing with Reaper forces made him a valuable asset to the turian military, and he was deployed to the moon of Menae to consult on resistance operations. It was at this point that Baedal seized the opportunity to snatch him up. The burden of leadership was resting heavily on his shoulders and he still had his doubts about his ability to be a leader. Ten of his twelve-man squad on Omega were killed when another squadmate, Sidonis, betrayed them, and though Shepard had helped Garrus settle that score he still harboured reservations about leadership. At no point in Garrus' life was he ever wishing so strongly for a different world, a different place; though showing up in Baedal would certainly not be what he had in mind.
Powers: Garrus has no particular 'powers' to speak of. His increased speed and strength (at least compared to the average human) and fighting abilities are derived from the fact that he is a turian or simply due to his many years as a soldier.
Talents/Abilities:: Garrus is quite skilled with technology. He is capable of hacking systems and decryption, as well as complex programming. As engineering is concerned his specialty is weapons, and he is known to have the skills to calibrate the hell out of a ship's main gun, squeezing every bit of deadly firepower out of it. He also possesses incredible skill in marksmanship. He's a great shot with just about anything, within reason, but get a sniper rifle in his hands and he'll "make it dance", as he has put it.
Personality: Garrus is generally very courteous to those he respects, calm and reassuring to those who need it, but utterly ruthless when fighting. He has a strong sense of justice and the attitude that it doesn't matter how you do it; just get it done. He becomes particularly frustrated when restrictions and regulations get in the way of that justice.
He has a sense of humour and manages to be rather light-hearted even in the worst of situations, generally to mask his own feelings. He is reserved when it comes to his doubts and concerns and has a tendency to throw himself into work to take his mind off of it. He actually feels quite alone in the galaxy and that much of his life has gone wrong, due to poor decisions or just bad luck.
While he has lead in the past, it seems to make him uncomfortable. He describes himself as lacking a certain "ruthless calculus" that would allow him to make decisions involving the lives of others without doubting his decisions on hard calls, but doesn't seem to be bitter about it. Rather, he admires this trait in others and eagerly observes those leaders he respects. He would like to view things plainly as either good or bad. Anything muddled in between that seems to make him hesitate. In his own words, "it's so much easier to see the world in black and white. Grey? I don't know what to do with grey."
Garrus has been described as "a hothead who thinks he can change the world". He is capable of being argumentative at times. He has half-joked that he doesn't think he's a very good turian since he lacks the discipline expected of him. He feels that it's simply not worth blindly following bad orders. The frustrations that eventually drove him to his work on Omega coupled with Sidonis' betrayal fanned the flames of his anger, making him more willing to resort to violence quicker.
In matters of romance or flirting, he is quite awkward, with an unfortunate habit of saying all the wrong things to comedic effect.
More in-depth and spoiler-ridden information can be found here.
Object: His fully customized M-92 Mantis sniper rifle with a single thermal clip.
Reason for playing: I've always loved Garrus. Lovelovelove. Mass Effect 3 just reminded me how much I love him. There are so many things in Baedal (and things not in Baedal) that would just drive him nuts, and because I'm a mean mun I guess I'd like nothing more than to be along for the ride while he tries to figure it all out.
Life's not going to be a picnic for him, and that's part of the draw. I've never played a character like him outside of his own universe (or at least an AU where aliens are about), so the various interactions that would arise simply due to being completely strange are appealing! I welcome the challenge of trying to work a literal alien in with a bunch of people hailing from all different times and places and all the good and bad and potential drama that could arise from it.
I could see him fitting right in with Hellsing or any other organization that fights bad guys or generally tries to maintain order. He has experience in that! I think he'd fit right into the themes of the game. The Mass Effect universe is by no means a place where everything is rainbows and unicorns.
.. It does have giant pink jellyfish, however.
Gods: Eliandre, definitely. He has a 'whatever-it-takes' attitude about things, but always a strong sense of justice. Perhaps Gediron as well, for the warrior aspect.
Writing Samples
First-Person Journal Post:
I keep turning all of this over and over in my mind but none of it makes sense. For awhile I thought I was dead. Not just dead, but damned as well. If this was the afterlife, it's nothing at all like anything anyone in their right mind would hope for. I also considered that this might be hell simply because I'm hungry and hell really would be a place where you can starve in a room full of levo food..
Oh. And let's not forget the tech situation here. It's.. nonexistant? That's a nice way of putting it. I know I used to annoy Shepard with that.. always busy working on something. I regret all that time wasted, all those opportunities now lost; pushing her away for a few more lines of code. But it was relaxing, at the time, what with Sidonis and a suicide mission looming ahead. It was necessary. Or so I'd like to tell myself. There was order and peace in all that programming and mathematics. It was a challenge to test the bounds of the machinery as well as the bounds of my own ingenuity to get just a little more out of it. I think I'll miss that the most.
That and.. Shepard.
I'm sorry. When it all goes down, it should've been me watching your back against the Reapers. Damn this place.
Third-Person Arrival Post:
It was the silence that woke him.
Garrus had gone to sleep surrounded by the cacophany of an active warzone. The sound of constant gunfire was actually somewhat comforting. It meant there were actually still soldiers left alive to fight. The turian awoke with a start, hand groping about at his side for a weapon that wasn't there. The gun was missing. As was his rack. As was everything else, apparently. He climbed heavily to his feet, leaning a supportive hand against the green-tiled wall until the wave of dizziness that rolled over him passed. He moved toward the only noticeable thing in the room, the table, and the quiet was ever more punctuated by how loudly each armoured footfall sounded on the tile. He was surprised to find his favourite gun, and even more so to find it waiting beside a small pamphlet and an alien device he'd never seen before.
He picked up the weapon, finding comfort in the familiar weight of it in his hands. He raised it to his shoulder, the modified stock fitting flush against the heavy durasteel armor, swinging it around to direct it at the door. Shooting it was a tempting idea. Tempting, but stupid. He didn't suppose that whoever brought him to this place would make it that easy..
Or maybe that's part of the game, he thought, eyes narrowing as he lowered the rifle and took another look around the room. Observe me and see what I'll do. But.. why?
Experience and sound military training told him to err on the side of caution. There was no immediate threat, so he might as well wait and see. The rifle folded into a more compact shape with a few mechanical clicks and he swung it back over his left shoulder to holster it and he felt that much more secure with it there. His attention shifted to the only other object on the table and he picked it up to weigh it thoughtfully in one hand. It was clear from the looks of it that it was some sort of communication device or datapad, screen switching on after a few cursory button presses. He couldn't help but smirk a little, one mandible twitching in turian fashion; it was a completely antiquated design. He'd seen images in the past of similar objects kept in collections for nostalgia's sake, but was fairly certain no one bothered manufacturing such low tech devices anymore. Not with Kassa Fabrication on the bleeding edge of tech innovation, cornering the market on omni-tools..
He shrugged, snapping out of the little technical tangent his mind had wandered off on, setting it back down on the table before picking up the pamphlet. "Finding Baedal: A Settlers Guide to the Wondrous City," he read aloud, before slowly lowering himself into a seated position. "Spirits.. where the hell am I?"
Third-Person Action Post:
Palaven was burning and Garrus was thankful for all the diversions his post provided him because it didn't give him much opportunity to look up. The angry, fiery wounds across the planet's surface had only grown larger over the last half a day since the Reaper forces had descended into turian space. He knew that if he'd had sufficient time to study it, he could have put names to those massive swathes of flame. Names and faces and statistics. Figures of exactly how many turians were depending on him, on his knowledge..
The hell do I know? I'm no expert. I had a gun in my hand and Shepard told me where to aim it. That was all. I don't know any more about taking these bastards down then any of the rest.. Damn war..
His mandibles flared as tension set his jaw, hands flying over the keys of the terminal he was working on. He needed to finish, and quickly. Comm buoys were going dark all over the system, making these quantum entanglement communicators the only way to get information on and off the moon.
"How's it going?"
The soldier who had asked did so as politely as possible, but his tone betrayed how he really felt. The location wasn't secure and they could be set upon by the enemy at any given time.
"Nearly there," he replied, distracted. "If I had to venture a guess, I'd say no one's touched bothered to touch this thing in years.."
"Never thought we'd need to," another of the small squad cut in. He was older, his flanging tone gruff. "Not with the buoy network and every turian fleet in the galaxy ready to jump if anyone so much as looked at it wrong. Who was going to fuck with us?"
"The Reapers, obviously.." Garrus drawled. Can't say we didn't warn them, right, Shepard?
"We've got contact!"
The Husks were upon them before he even had time to fully assess the situation. The others were beating them back with the butts of their guns, taking shots wildly whenever they had the chance. Garrus drew the assault rifle from his back, swinging around just as one of the creatures leapt at him. The force of the blow to the Husk's head would have been enough to kill anything else, particularly with the way he'd caved in the side of its skull. But it pressed on, leaking some kind of foul, viscous fluid from the wound, clawing wildly for his unprotected face. These things lacked tactics or strategy. They were raw, feral energy and that was what made them terrifying. But it also made them vulnerable, when they so eagerly presented their weaknesses, assuming you had the presence of mind to take advantage of it. He'd seen too many soldiers fall simply because they couldn't hold it together, dying pathetic, undignified deaths; shitting themselves as the little bastards tore them apart.
Well. He wouldn't be one of them.
His armor blunted his talons, but he still had grip. His fingers buried themselves in the husk's throat with a satisfying pop of rent flesh and he grinned savagely as he knew it had really felt it that time. It writhed, nails scraping over his armored forearm before he slammed it to the earth with substantial force. He'd stunned it, perhaps even ended it, but he wasn't done. No, it wasn't truly finished until he'd crushed its skull beneath his boot, spraying blood and gore and whatever passed for a brain across the ground. Satisfying. A number flashed in his visor's HUD, and a cursory glance to the upper right revealed that another kill had been added to his count, and it was the only number in this war he enjoyed watching go up.
Another came at him with a hiss and tried to flank him, but he put it down with a spray of bullets, the ammunition ripping it apart at such close range. Once the sack of lifeless guts had fallen away, he used his opening to help pick off the others. They seemed to have gotten lucky, at least in that the amount of husks had been finite. Manageable. But they hadn't come out of the brief encounter unscathed. Two of the four man cell had gone down, overwhelmed and overpowered as they brought the mass of husks down with them. They were the only reason that only two of the creatures had made it through to Garrus. The third turian was still with him, ragged but alive, slapping medi-gel on the flesh wounds he'd sustained. Garrus turned back to the console, setting his rifle down beside him. He was eager to have it completed.
"I hope you finish there soon or we're fucked.." It was the old soldier who'd survived and Garrus suspected it had a lot to do with his superior experience. It was men like him who ought to be in command, not--
"Done."
That was it. That was what those men had given their lives for. For a few more keystrokes. If he'd been able to work just a little bit faster they might have avoided the entire thing. Seconds had just destroyed two lives. It was a fine example of just how bad this war was, and how much worse it was going to get. He felt sick over it and he gathered that it showed on his face because the other turian clapped a hand down on his shoulder.
"That was their duty. Play defence until we got that tower online. You take every casualty to heart like that and you aren't going to make it through this war. You lived, I lived. Let's just make sure we both live long enough to give it back to 'em double next time.."
Garrus stayed silent, settling his rifle into the crook of his arm as he started off toward the forward base, alert for any more ambushes. Of course he knew the soldier was right. It was that same attitude, the very same that Shepard had tried to teach him.
He looked skyward, staring up at Palaven's burning face. For that one moment, he felt the hopelessness threaten to overtake him and he faced it. He let it in and then he crushed it, burying it down beneath his resolve. They would win this war. Never flinching in the face of ridiculous odds was another one of those lessons he'd gotten from Shepard, and he knew they were going to send those Reaper bastards back to the hole they'd slithered out of.