squadgoals: (more like mass ERECT am I RIGHT)
ʟᴄᴅʀ Jane "ᴵ ˢʰᵒᵘˡᵈ ᵍᵒ" Shepard ([personal profile] squadgoals) wrote in [community profile] thisavrou_log2016-05-11 04:15 pm

[closed] sorry bout it

Who: Commander Shepard [personal profile] squadgoals and Zam [personal profile] backsassin
When: April 30th
Where: The bar!
What: Shepard apologizes for being a bitch, Zam tells her not to, they both drink.
Warnings: Alcohol in copious quantities, if we play our cards right.



[True to her word, Shepard shows up the following evening, and slides into a seat near the end of the bar. If they're going to sit and chat, it's better to be at the lower traffic end of things. She shoots a quick text to Zam to confirm her arrival, and waves down the on-duty staff for a drink.

When Zam does arrive, Shep gives a quick wave, a whisky on the rocks already half-empty on a coaster in front of her. She pats the seat next to her congenially.]


Hey. Hope you weren't waiting too long. [She reaches out her hand to shake Zam's] Let's try this again. Nice to meet you, Zam.
backsassin: by <user name = sousaphone> (that you'd never been born)

[personal profile] backsassin 2016-05-11 11:05 pm (UTC)(link)
[Zam arrive shortly after she receives Shepard’s text, quickly singling out her crewmate at a quieter corner of the bar. She glances at Shepard’s already half-empty drink with a slight smile. Looks like Zam’s already behind.]

Not at all. [She shakes the proffered hand. Another difference Shepard might notice? The man who greeted her coming out of the Ingress only had one arm. Zam has two.] A pleasure, Shepard. [She takes the seat next to her and flags the bartender. She gets a nod in return before they start working on her drink. Clearly she’s been here frequently enough that they know her order without having to ask.

She turns back towards Shepard.]
How’s the Moira been treating you? The first few weeks can be rough for newcomers. [Especially for someone like Shepard who, as Zam suspects, may have not parted with her own world on the most settled of terms.]
backsassin: by <user name = sousaphone> (and i'm gonna make you need me)

[personal profile] backsassin 2016-05-23 02:59 am (UTC)(link)
[Zam chuckles.] I know the feeling. [“Lots of surprises” is putting it mildly.]

I’ve been here about six or seven months now. I thought this place was the afterlife when I first came through the Ingress. [A shrug.] I guess it is, but turns out it’s pretty much the same as living. [A slight smile.] Just living weirder, really. It takes some getting used to.
backsassin: by <user name = sousaphone> (that you couldn't shake off)

[personal profile] backsassin 2016-05-25 07:32 pm (UTC)(link)
The daily grind with occasional bouts of insanity, [she says with a smirk.] Sums up this place pretty well if you ask me.

[The bartender brings over her drink, a pale green concoction smelling of fruit and spice. Zam takes a drink, aiming to catch up with Shepard’s head start. The taste is slightly off -- it’s not authentic daranu, but it’s as close as they can get given what they have on the ship.]

Yeah, I did. When I said I wasn’t having a good day when I arrived here, well… I meant it. [A shrug.] But I figure I’m lucky -- the people who get zapped here when they’re still kicking leave their entire lives behind. Not like I’m leaving much at home besides a handsome corpse. [It’s far from the view she originally held when she arrived here, but seeing her crewmates’ desperation to return to homes and families they can still live to see has given her some perspective.]

When I saw your armor, I figured you might be the same. If something did that to metal, I’d hate to see what it did to you.
backsassin: by <user name = sousaphone> (and i'm gonna make you need me)

[personal profile] backsassin 2016-06-01 02:03 am (UTC)(link)
[Zam shrugs.] Call it a necessary adaptation. [She had been a fairly optimistic person even before arriving on the Moira, though dying had put a considerable dent in that trait when she first arrived.

Zam gives Shepard a half-impressed, half appraising look at their story.]
You must be one tough barve. [She takes another swig of her drink.] What kind of weapon was it? A fusion cannon? [Even if the exact term is unfamiliar to Shepard, it’s clearly said in jest.]
backsassin: by <user name = sousaphone> (i could be the joker)

[personal profile] backsassin 2016-06-04 09:58 pm (UTC)(link)
[Don’t worry, Zam doesn’t understand the technical jargon anyway. It isn’t until Shepard provides the layman’s definition that her eyes widen.]

And you walked away from that? [Zam’s almost inclined to believe that the woman is embellishing her story, but usually when people exaggerate, they still try and keep things at least somewhat believable. Zam chuckles and shakes her head.] Well, I think you’ve pre-emptively one-upped my own cause of death story. I just got shot.

[And not with any magnetohydrodynamic artillery either.]
backsassin: by <user name = sousaphone> (and i'm gonna make you need me)

[personal profile] backsassin 2016-06-11 05:33 pm (UTC)(link)
[Zam nurses her glass while Shepard talks -- daranu’s not the kind of drink you knock back in shots, though the effect’s about the same thirty minutes in.]

Oh? And what kind of job was that? [The armor says soldier or perhaps mercenary, and a very determined one at that.]
backsassin: by <user name = sousaphone> (and i'm gonna make you need me)

[personal profile] backsassin 2016-06-16 09:49 pm (UTC)(link)
[The response gets her a blank and then curious stare. Zam remembers Shepard mentioning the Reapers when they first met, though she herself still doesn’t know what the word could be referring to.]

And who -- or what -- are the Reapers?
backsassin: by <user name = sousaphone> (i'm gonna be the drink)

[personal profile] backsassin 2016-06-24 10:47 pm (UTC)(link)
[...Shepard, why does your life story seem to get crazier and crazier the more Zam learns about it? Zam stares disbelievingly at her] All sentient organic life? You mean they wipe out every single person?

[For a moment, you can practically see the gears turning in Zam’s head as she tries to process the implications of such an event. Just as you can very clearly see the moment when she decides to shut the door on that particular train of thought. She knocks back the rest of her drink and the grimace on her face has nothing to do with the taste.]

Damn. And I thought my galaxy had problems.
backsassin: by <user name = sousaphone> (19)

[personal profile] backsassin 2016-06-30 11:36 am (UTC)(link)
Ugh. Sounds like a horror holo. [The comment may be flippant, but Zam looks legitimately disgusted. Zam’s not a pacifist -- far, far from it -- but even she can feel disturbed by the thought of so many lives being snuffed out like that. A planet had been bad enough. She can hardly imagine a galaxy.]

Pretty sure we already have a reigning champion somewhere on the ship. [Zam says as she waves the bartender over for a refill.] You’ll have to take it up with them. As for my own galaxy… [She shrugs, eyeing her glass as the bartender fills it with the same drink as before.] It wasn’t like we were having an apocalypse or anything. Just a lot of bad politics and a reigning government with too many pilots to steer straight. [The bartender nudges Zam’s drink over to her. She picks up the glass and takes a slow sip.]

According to some of my uh, colleagues here, things boiled over just a little while after I bit it. A galaxy-wide war, a government coup, a secret clone army--

[Zam stops, seeming to remember something. She looks at Shepard, expression gone sly.]

Ah, that reminds me: have you run into your sister here yet?
backsassin: by <user name = sousaphone> (and i'm gonna make you need me)

[personal profile] backsassin 2016-07-06 01:39 pm (UTC)(link)
Can’t believe it either, but I would too. [War was just apart of life when Zam was growing up. Not that she wasn’t glad to get away from it, but if it were galaxy-wide, she could cope. A race of ancient machines bent on wiping out organic life? That wouldn’t be so easy to endure.

Shep’s answer about her “sister” gets a surprised blink.]
Ah. Well. That explains it. [Strange. There had seemed something more to it than that. But Zam supposes that explanation serves as well.]

I have to say, she doesn’t really act like you. At all.
backsassin: by <user name = sousaphone> (19)

[personal profile] backsassin 2016-07-06 02:27 pm (UTC)(link)
That… also explains a lot. [Zam grimaces and takes a drink. Sounds like nasty business.]

She didn’t seem to have too much trust in the non-humans on the crew. Took issue with my habit of taking different faces. [She flashes Shepard a small smile.] Which you seem to be politely avoiding mentioning at all.

[Not that it bothers Zam. She’s seen some of the worst responses imaginable to her abilities and neither Shepards’ even come close.]
backsassin: by <user name = sousaphone> (that you'd never been born)

[personal profile] backsassin 2016-07-09 06:50 am (UTC)(link)
[Zam chuckles.] Don’t worry, whatever you would have ended up saying, I’ve almost definitely have heard worse. [Not counting Shepard’s alternate universe twin, the crew at large has been surprisingly tolerant of Zam’s abilities. She hasn’t heard one whisper of “two-faced” since she got here.]

I’m a changeling. Definition’s probably obvious by now, right?
backsassin: by <user name = sousaphone> (well i'm gonna make you love me)

[personal profile] backsassin 2016-07-12 01:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Why thank you, [Zam says, with a slight giggle into her drink. Yes, the reactions she gets to her abilities here are definitely very different to the one’s she’s used to at home.]

Depends on the questions. [Despite what people may assume, Zam’s pretty difficult to offend. They just don’t like to completely show their hand if they can help it.] How about this: I don’t mind you asking questions if you don’t mind me maybe not answering some of them. [A crooked smile.] Or not answering them truthfully. Sound fair?
backsassin: by <user name = sousaphone> (and i'm gonna make you need me)

[personal profile] backsassin 2016-07-16 01:29 pm (UTC)(link)
Probably. I’m just being especially nice by actually stating the terms out loud. [And now that the daranu is starting to kick in, Shepard might get especially honest or especially dishonest answers depending on Zam’s already capricious whims.]

Any form I choose. [Partially dishonest answer number one, motivated mostly by Zam’s desire to brag.] Humanoids are the easiest though. Usually don’t even have to push any organs or bones around to get it right.

No animals though. [She wrinkles her nose.] Not if you paid me a million credits.
backsassin: by <user name = sousaphone> (i could be the joker)

[personal profile] backsassin 2016-08-09 03:02 pm (UTC)(link)
Simple reason: I’m not an animal. [And she won’t pretend otherwise, for any price.]
backsassin: by <user name = sousaphone> (and i'm gonna make you need me)

[personal profile] backsassin 2016-08-22 01:09 am (UTC)(link)
[Zam wrinkles her nose. That sure is a lot of big words from one mildly intoxicated person to another.]

Mm. If they’re sentient, what’s so animal-esque about them?