multiversallogs

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Who: Shepard and YOU!
What: Various wanderings around Baedal. Specific threads for Kincaid's and the Arena.
Where: VARIOUS PLACES.
When: Various times, sukkardi/shundi.
Notes: All CR is welcome! I'll be putting up a couple of open thread starters but if anyone has ideas, just let me know and we'll get something going!
Warnings: Possible violence of the sparring sort in the arena; I'll update if anything else comes up.

Shepard is the kind of person who prefers a somewhat regimented kind of life - so it's no surprise that she quickly falls into a bit of a routine in Baedal. As long as she's not worrying about the basics - food, shelter and clothing - it's a matter of finding her way around and thinking about higher-order things - like keeping in shape.

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Shepard knows about the ancient Romans. Even in the 22nd century, with deep space travel a matter of everyday life, humanity still learns things from the Roman military.

Still, she never expected to be walking into an honest-to-god Roman coliseum. She'll be wandering around, scouting the place out for a while. She'll watch a few fights, to get a feel for what goes on here. Shepard is just that kind of person. She has to have as much information as possible before putting herself in a potentially dangerous situation.

By all rights, Irene should look out of place here, even absurd, sashaying on high heels (but not teetering, exactly- any fear of falling tends to be on the part of her audience of casual bystanders) and smoothing down her skirt, dressed completely impractically for the terrain and her surroundings. Somehow, though, she doesn't. Perhaps she stands out, but there's something about her movements which suggests that this is where she's supposed to be, thank you very much, now go bother someone else.

Anyway, the thing about the elegant, high society ladies she's half-mockingly imitating is that they don't usually look so curiously hungry while watching people take part in gladatorial combat. Arguably nor are they quite so adept at cutting through crowds, whereas Irene-

"Oh, excuse me."

-walks through the bustling masses of people like they're so much fog.

It's by coincidence that she ends up next to Shepard to watch the fight playing out in front of them, but she recognises her from the Network, perusing the posts for spare scraps of detail being a hobby of hers. "What do you think?" she asks casually, unprompted and without a greeting or an introduction. "The one with the axe, or the one with the daggers?"

Shepard regards the stranger with a certain amount of wariness - and sizes her up the way she does everyone she meets. It's pretty obvious she's not here to join in the sparring, so a spectator then.

Why is she here? Does she just enjoy the fights? Bodies in motion? Does she enjoy the thrill of danger? Does she have a financial or personal stake in any of it? Her relaxed (albeit watchful) posture leads Shepard to think that, at least in the current match, she probably doesn't have much more than a friendly bet.

Still, not knowing someone's motivations can be dangerous, and Shepard keeps her guard up, even as she answers the stranger's question.

"It's tough to say - they're pretty evenly matched. The axe is a powerful weapon, but heavy. Tiring. I think our axe-wielder is getting a bit worn down by those quick-moving daggers."

"Yes," Irene agrees. "You have to take stamina into account. Not that I'm gambling, of course."

She sometimes does, but it's not her kind of thrill. Which is what she's here for- excitement. A slightly worrying visceral appreciation for violence. It's almost like voyeurism.

She wonders if the other woman is here for the same reason, but there's something a little less eager about her demeanour; she looks calm, serious, watchful, like she's soaking everything in. Anyway, Shepard's posture and general appearance speaks of something no nonsense and hard.

"That and Yaga-" She nods to the one with the daggers, because she makes a point of knowing everyone she can get her hands on and Yaga has found her way into the private rooms of the Vault with Irene more than once. "-is an incredibly dirty fighter. Just watch- ah."

A cry goes up from the axe-wielder's supporters as Yaga's foot catches him almost as if by accident and he crashes to the ground. There's a visible spark of interest in Irene's eyes, and she stands up a little straighter, smiling widely.

Dirty fighter. Shepard watches Irene's smile and then turns back to the spectacle in front of them. There are various nuances, and dirty rather depends on the person, she's found.

"Some might just call that being observant, knowing your opponents weaknesses and exploiting them," she comments mildly, applauding Yaga's win.

"Then again, I've never fought in a situation where there were rules to follow and spectators watching. I take it Yaga is a friend of yours?"

With her usual confidence in her own opinions no matter what, even in spite of the fact that the woman she's talking to is fairly obviously better-versed in physical fighting than she is, Irene says, "Oh, it counts as dirty--"

She breaks off, and tosses Shepard a quick smile. "But I think people call most things they don't expect dirty, somehow. She's an acquaintance."

Irene, acquaintances do not require safewords.

"When have you fought- or dare I ask?" she inquires. For once, she keeps her questioning tone free from any sense of demand; she sounds wryly interested instead of challenging. She has a bad habit of asking personal questions like she already knows the answer and is just testing her conversational partner's knowledge.

"If you say so," Shepard says, looking vaguely amused. She's never really considered the line between 'clean' and 'dirty' fighting. There's sparring, which is more of a workout routine for two people than an actual fight, and then there's fighting for your life on a battle ground - when you do what you can to survive, and don't really think about whether it conforms to any kind of rule set.

Irene's question earns a raised eyebrow, and then a shrug. "I'm a marine. I've seen a fair amount of action, though I can't say I've ever seen anyone fighting with a... spear, outside of vids." Her eyes followed the people below, preparing for the next match.

Irene gives a low chuckle at the mention of spears, watching the combatants assemble with a curiously thoughtful expression, her hands on her hips and her head to one side. "Oddly enough, me neither."

She glances over and turns that same thoughtful stare on Shepard, before sticking out a hand (black leather gloves). "Irene Adler," she says by way of introduction, with a smile on her features which looks slightly more genuine than the affected mannerisms she usually puts on. (It's not, really, because Irene can't do anything which is genuine).

She takes Irene's hand, giving it a firm shake, as would be expected from a longtime soldier. "Shepard," she says simply, smiling too, but still a little wary of the other woman. Old habits, and all of that.

"Such a pleasure," Irene replies. Her own shake is surprisingly firm, not quite the grip one expects from someone so carefully put-together. "So- here for entertainment? Must be different watching it as someone with actual training and experience in the matter."

--in which Irene paints herself as someone who would be dreadful in a fight. It's not completely true.

Shepard tilts her head slightly. "I'm not exactly here for entertainment - I heard about this place and I was curious about how it works." She glances back down at the arena. "They all seem very experienced. Practice sparring, or fighting in an arena for sport, it's totally different from actually being in a battle. I think most of these people know that difference."

Nope. This totally did not qualify as stalking. Even if he kind of, sort of, maybe tailed her. A little.

But Garrus was curious and bored and one thing history had taught him was that Shepard seemed to have a knack for finding the most interesting of situations.

This place was fascinating in that it was so clearly one of those pieces of architecture that read as completely alien to him in design. Armor seemed appropriate in the atmosphere of this place, but the sort you saw in old, classical turian art predating space travel and not the sort of state-of-the-art getup that was still his day-to-day attire; at least as far as wandering the streets was concerned. He wasn't sure if he'd ever feel truly comfortable breaking that habit.

The crowd seemed more than willing to part for him as he pushed his way through, which he did at somewhat of a leisurely pace. He was right that following Shepard had indeed brought him to something interesting, and he was as much curious about exploring and observing the fighting as he was finding her. Eventually, however, he caught sight of her and made his way over.

"Planning on participating?"

Shepard was watching the proceedings carefully, trying to decide how she felt about the whole thing. She wasn't at all surprised when Garrus showed up at her elbow - though, he wouldn't have had to follow her. He knew very well he was always welcome to come along with her when she wandered the city.

Aside from the simple fact that the two of them together were more formidable than each alone, she also did just enjoy his company rather a lot.

"I don't know, yet," she said honestly. Another thing about Garrus - she could just tell him what was on her mind, no need to put on a performance or pretend to feel anything other than what she really felt. "On one hand, it might be good training, to get a feel for some of the skillsets of the more experienced fighters here. On the other hand, I'm not sure I want to condone what's essentially a blood sport."

People watching other people fight for pleasure - for fun. Shepard had a hard time wrapping her head around that concept. It was one thing for children and adolescents to watch schoolyard brawls, but something else entirely for grown-ass adults to cheer while two people beat the crap out of each other.

"Are they fighting to the death?" He continued looking on at the combatants. They were armed, but it didn't necessarily mean one of them wasn't walking away from it.

"If not it's.. heh, well.. nothing we've never seen before."

He, at least, was well acquainted with the idea, but kept in mind what Shepard had told him of the Alliance military. They were all a bit more rigid and reserved when it came to ideas turians thought nothing of. Simply a matter of biology, perhaps. You get enough worked up turians trying to coexist and you ended up with worse than a little blood spilt.

"But I see your point, though I can't say I'm not a little curious, Shepard. I've seen you fight.." He smirked, looking aside at her. "But this is a little different."

"No, I don't think they are," Shepard conceded, watching him as he watched the fight. They may have been dropped here from the same universe, but they were still coming from very different cultures.

Which made it even more ironic that she was still more comfortable talking to Garrus than any of the actual humans she'd met so far in Baedal.

"There is professional boxing, and martial arts, but they don't involve weapons and they're a lot more structured than this." Not that she would know much about those structures - her military training was much more practical than that.

"Plus, I'm not sure how my biotics would work against someone else."

"I wondered about the rule sets. If they try to evenly match the fights. What's comparable to that here? Magic?" Once again, he couldn't help but say the word with some amount of disdain. He'd get over it eventually, but it was still too new and troublesome. He hadn't actually seen it yet in any official capacity, but its presence did make it difficult to work with the CiD as he had been lately. The code would alter it, but not exactly as intended. It was quite annoying. That was enough to keep him snarky about it whenever it came up.

"Maybe they just don't allow you to use particular abilities, considering how even the people in the cohort vary. And that doesn't account for the rest of the city."

Shepard shrugged a little. "I've been told they try to match people up with similar skill sets, but I can't imagine the kind of headache that must be, what with so many people from different universes - or different incarnations of the same universe."

She shoved her hands in her pockets, part of her itching to try her biotics here - somewhere. Another part not sure she should, just yet. She wasn't really worried about her implants - she had enough cybernetics in her body to know that even with the primitive technology here, everything was still operational.

Still, that didn't rule out the possibility of her biotics being more difficult to manage, more tiring, or having other side effects. She would need a more controlled environment than what the Arena afforded, anyway.

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[Open]

The Arena - sukkardi

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