multiversallogs

Entry tags:

[Open]

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"I'm used to things being a bit more utilitarian," And, you know, being in a giant cave filled with bats, but she definitely doesn't miss the latter part (they smell).

"How are you settling in?" She knows how fortunate she was to have Babs and Tim already in the city, it would've been a lot harder to find her feet if they hadn't been there to help.

"So am I," Shepard admits, giving Steph a bit of a smile, then a shrug as she begins working on her calf muscles.

"Not bad. Garrus found some food he could eat, so that was a relief. And it sounds like Hellsing might be willing to take us on, so we'll have something to do and a source of income."

Steph can imagine - she's never seen a military facility up close, but she doubts they have things like juice bars and yoga classes (not that she's knocking yoga, it's a good way to limber up).

"Hellsing are good people, from what I know," Except Alucard, that jerk, "I've got a couple of friends who work for them - I'll tell Martel to go easy on you, if you get him for your initiation."

Haha. Ha. As if Martel would listen to Steph.

Shepard smiles a little - but shakes her head. "I'm glad everyone seems to think so highly of them. Back home - I found myself backed into a corner, having to work for an organization that didn't have the greatest methods. But they were the only ones willing and able to help me do the right thing, or what I thought was the right thing, at the time.

"I kinda came to regret that decision."

Steph gives a sympathetic wince - while she hasn't been in a situation like that, she can understand how awful it could get.

"I hope you got outta there eventually," Steph thinks so, considering the way Shepard is talking about it, "And I don't think you need to worry about that with Hellsing. My friends that are involved - I can't imagine them staying if Hellsing was shady, you know?"

Jim Kirk is like the male, space version of Steph, and if he works at Hellsing they must be The Good Guys.

"I did, but that doesn't entirely rule out guilt by association, you know?" Shep shrugs, thinking about Ash. It bothered her, that Ash didn't believe she'd really severed ties with Cerberus, but at the same time, if the situation was reversed, she's not sure she wouldn't have the same feelings.

She shakes it off, then. "Anyway, everyone involved with Hellsing here - and people who aren't, which may be more important - seems to think that Hellsing does good. So I'm willing to give them a chance, if they are."

"Guilt's a hard emotion to shake. I think the best you can do is try to make up for it, in whatever way works," Steph is an expert on guilt, it's part of what drives her - trying to atone for her role in starting the gang war.

Steph nods, not answering straight away because she's finished her sets on this machine and moves to a nearby leg adduction machine so she can keep talking to Shepard, "I'd got for it. Though you'll have to live in Sobex Croix."

She doesn't know if anyone's mentioned that part.

"Oh, trust me, I was. Not that it matters anymore, now that I'm here," she says with a sigh. Stupid kidnapping city.

"Sobex Croix?" Her head tilts a little. "I'll admit, I haven't been apartment hunting yet, so I don't know the different neighborhoods all that well. But as long as I can find a clean place, with reasonable rent, I don't suppose I'll mind that much." She thinks about it another moment, then pauses in her leg crunches. "Are there a lot of, uh, xenians there?"

"It's a forested area, near the south-west edge of the city. From what I've heard, Hellsing agents are encouraged to get a place there, 'cause it's near their HQ," Steph had done quite a bit of digging about Hellsing when she first got here, but eventually decided that being on an official force limited what she could do against the militia.

As for the latter question, "I'm not sure. I don't think there's a lot of people in general."

"Forested? Interesting." Shepard isn't used to forests, but then again, she isn't really used to living anywhere besides on a space ship, in space. So her experience isn't really going to have much bearing on things.

"I only ask because of my friend, Garrus," she continues after a moment's thought. "We'll probably be looking for a place together, but he kind of... stands out among humans."

"Yeah, it's kinda creepy," Steph is nothing if not honest. (Also fuck Alucard, seriously).

"Oh right, I've seen him on the network," Apparently not bothered by the fact he's an alien, but she's bros with Hellboy, so Steph is used to nonhumans - she was before she got here, really. "Mafaton has the biggest Xenian population, but it's mostly cruorvores."

"Creepy, probably. I don't care too much for any place that has a lot of line-of-sight obstructions," Shepard admits grudgingly.

"Cruo - what?" She raises her eyebrows in confusion. There's an alien name she's never heard before.

Steph... pauses in what she's doing to make a little vampire fangs gesture with two fingers. (She is a mature adult).

"Vampires, or other things that eat bits of people. Cruorvore is the preferred term," She avoids Mafaton for that reason - she has nothing against vampires one one one, but being in a canton of them is a little terrifying for a baseline human, Bat-training or no.

"Oh, right. I'll remember that."

It's kind of weird, thinking about vampires being real, but it probably shouldn't be weird to Shepard, given all the alien species she encounters on a regular basis.

"Well, Garrus isn't a blood-drinker, so we'll probably stay out of Mafaton," she comments with a shrug.

"Fair enough, it's open to other Xenians too, the vampires just tend to be the overwhelming majority."

Steph knows facts. Or, more accurately, Batgirl needs to know facts so she doesn't stray somewhere she isn't welcome.

"Either way, if you end up with Hellsing they'll probably help you find a place."

"I'm not sure how comfortable I'd be there," Shepard admits - she and Garrus are a package deal, is her point. Steph can take that as she will.

"I can handle myself, but that doesn't mean I necessarily want to be sleeping in a place with people who are actively hostile towards me. So if Hellsing has a recommendation, I'm sure we'll accept it, if it seems like a good one."

"I don't think they'd be actively hostile, I mean - Yeah, they drink blood, but most of 'em do the bagged stuff from what I've heard," Hence the Gore tax in that canton. She's not really sure why she's sticking up for vampires.

Shepard makes a face that falls somewhere between 'grossed out' and 'weirded out'. A healthy mix of the two.

"Well, I suppose that... cuts down on violence," she says after a moment's thought.

"I don't think they'd last long if they were feeding fresh," Not just because the militia might have something to say about that, but a lot of the regular citizens are the type to fight back.

Steph, admittedly, does not keep a stake on her person, but maybe she should.

"Yeah, I imagine it saves them a lot of trouble, in the short- and long-term," Shepard says thoughtfully. "If you think about it, it never really makes sense, all those vampire novels that have them just feeding off unsuspecting humans for centuries."

Steph shakes her head, "It makes sense if they're clever about it."

And that's all she says for a moment, before climbing off the machine to roll her shoulders and stretch out. Then she starts again, "The city I lived in, people vanished off the streets all the time. Either they got mugged and murdered, or they ran off in the hopes of finding something better. But -- No one gives a shit if they're poor, or if they're sex workers, or black or latino. So that's how a vampire could do it, as long as they got rid of the bodies."

She has a lot of feelings about crime, minorities and the justice system; Gotham might be better these days, but there are a still a lot of gaps in the system.

Shepard thinks about that for a moment, then nods. "You have a point. Where I come from - well, it's no utopia. If there isn't as much discrimination based on skin color, it's only because we have aliens to hate now.

"But there are still haves, and have-nots. Or there were, before the Reapers showed up. Pretty soon, none of it will matter."

"Seems to be pretty much the same everywhere. Even here," The classism is rampantly evident when you go to the Spatters, and although Steph hasn't seen any systematic racism, she wouldn't be surprised if it's there.

"I'm guessing the Reapers are your big bad?" They sound like it.

"Somehow, I'm not surprised that kind of system replicates even in an alternate universe," Shepard says wryly. "Humanity used to have some utopian ideal of what alien life might be like, too. When we finally met them, they were way more like us than we ever thought they would be."

The talk of Reapers gives her pause. "Yeah, I guess so. They're pretty big. And definitely bad."

"We have Superman, who's an alien and like, literally the nicest guy ever?" Steph really isn't even exaggerating, she has met Clark, he was the nicest guy ever, "But when the rest of his species turn up, we tried to blow 'em out of the sky, 'cause they weren't all like him."

God that was - such a fucking disaster. For everyone. Steph is embarrassed on behalf of the human race.

"I hope you manage to beat off the Reapers, if they really are the bad guys."

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