City of Ariel app

[forgivetheinsubordination]

→ OOC
□ Name: Jackie

□ Contact: AIM: tadandader || Plurk: Nadat
□ Journal: Nadat
□ Do you play anyone in Ariel?: No

→ IC
□ Name: Garrus Vakarian
□ Journal: forgivetheinsubordination
□ Series: Mass Effect
□ Canon point: After killing Kai Leng during Priority: Cerberus HQ, about 7/8ths of the way through Mass Effect 3.
□ History: http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Garrus_Vakarian
□ Personality: Garrus starts off as, in his words, a bad turian. What that means is that unlike the obsession of most of his species (turians) with duty, regulations, and rules, Garrus likes to avoid red tape and simply get a job done. He’s direct. Why offer someone a chance to explain, or take them in for the legal system to handle, when a bullet can do the trick quickly and finally? His personality lends itself very well to his aptitude with the sniper rifle; keep the issue at arm’s length and eliminate it with one shot. This take on things changes somewhat over the course of the three games, as he starts to realize that while he can’t fix the whole galaxy, he can control his own actions and how he deals with what comes up. He still hates red tape and rather enjoys flouting it, as evidenced in ME3 when he takes the player character, Commander Shepard, to an area no one’s supposed to be in (there are 137 regulations against being there) for an impromptu sniping competition, but now he can also accept its existence and purpose. Most of the time.

Continuing on the sniper theme, Garrus tries to keep people at a distance. It’s not too surprising. He’s fought most of his life with his father, his mother is dying of turian alzheimer’s, and he and his sister are even on the outs for a good part of the game as he can’t tell her what he’s doing or why he’s not visiting. He loses his entire hand-picked squad between the events of the first and second game. Garrus has learned it’s safer to put up walls and barricades. Nonetheless, some of the crew of the Normandy (the spaceship the player character commands in all three games) have slipped in there, especially its commander. He’s not going to be quick to open up and let others in, not after losing so many, but with time and respect he’s willing to try opening up. His relationship with James Vega is a good example of this - Vega doesn’t join the series until the beginning of the third game, but a little over midway through Garrus can be found in the mess hall with him, swapping stories, bragging, and finally letting on that he appreciates the human just a little, even if ‘Jimmy Vega’ sounds like the name of a pole dancer in his opinion.

That leads into Garrus’ favorite way to communicate: sarcasm. Whether he’s remarking on the Commander’s distinct lack of dancing skills or sharing human and turian jokes with the human pilot of the ship, Garrus is most at ease when there’s something he can snark about. He gets very serious when things come down to it, though. In the final game he has to make a call for his people on where they stand and defend, and calls it the calculus of war - 10 million die here so 20 million can live over there. It’s a difficult call, but he’s matured to the point that he can make it. He does make it.

Vengeance and justice are key sticking points for Garrus. It bothers him when things go unpunished, when things slide through the cracks, and he’s very eager to go after people and make things right. Rather, make things right the way he thinks they should be made right. This is demonstrated in the first game with Dr. Saleon, someone who grew and harvested extra organs from people desperately in debt, and then in the second with Sidonis, who betrays Garrus’ squad. All he wants is to hunt these two people down and put bullets in their head, an action which he can take or be stopped in by the player character (Commander Shepard.) The third game is far more focused on the central conflict as opposed to any personal side-quests, but when you encounter a space-ninja-assassin-jerk who killed a former squadmate, Garrus yells “I’ll tear his head off!,” a stronger reaction than any other enemies in the game receive.

Garrus is also entirely loyal. Shepard earned his respect and he follows his Commander. This is demonstrated clearly in the second game, when Shepard has to go into an area dealing with a plague that kills everything except humans and vorcha. Garrus doesn’t hesitate to follow Commander Shepard in. Shepard’s on a suicide mission, working for a time with a terrorist organization that wants to put humans above all other races and Garrus is there no matter what, evidenced also near the end of the third game when the Commander states “there’s no Shepard without Vakarian.” Should the player stop Garrus from making the two kills (Saleon and Sidonis) there are questions, but Garrus deals with it. He even, after some time, understands. Once someone has earned his loyalty, Garrus cannot be swayed away from it.

For all of Garrus’ attempts at being the snarky, suave, tough turian, he’s also a bit vulnerable. He’s lost a lot of people in his life and at one point says Shepard’s his only friend left. The third game shows that he’s actually got a few others, but as the galaxy’s at war everyone’s at risk of losing people. In fact, for about half of the third game he has no idea if his father and sister have made it to safety. It’s implied that his mother has passed away, and depending on player actions at least four teammates have been lost along the way by the point I’m taking him from, possibly more. It’s taken its toll. There are cracks in his armor, but he tries very hard to keep them hidden. He’s also really, really bad at pick-up lines. And flirting in general. So much for suave.




□ Age: Approximately 31.
□ Gender: Male
□ Appearance: Garrus is approximately 6’11”, coming from a very tall and lean, raptor-like race. He is grey with fringe on the top of his head, fringe on the side of his mandible, blue eyes, a flat nose, and blue tattoos on his face that are clan markings, typical for his race. He has three digits on each hand and two toes on each foot, as well as a large spur on the back of either leg. Toes and fingers all have claws, though he keeps his trimmed. His waist is very narrow but his hips jut out sharply. Turians also have a distinct keelbone and a rather large cowl that sweeps up from it and around his back.

Garrus also has a prominent, partially healed scar covering the right side of his face from when he forgot he was a sniper and fleshy and stood up against a gunship. A rocket to the face does surprising amounts of damage. Or maybe the damage is only surprising if your name is Vakarian.

His skin is rough, plating in some areas that’s well-suited for the radioactive planet the turians come from, leathery in more vulnerable areas like the neck, forearms, and waist. Turian male genitalia is internal until they’re aroused, also due to the planet they evolved on. As BioWare doesn’t go into any detail other than the internal thing and that they’re compatible with humans in the right position, I’m going with popular fandom interpretation as to how things work with turians - when a turian male starts to get aroused his plating shifts, revealing a slit. When aroused enough his penis emerges fully. Due to turian blood being blue, it’s a grey-blue. The head is triangular as opposed to round, as that fits with what anatomy is shown in the official art, hard angles and lines.

Incidentally, a turian tongue is also blue for the same reason, blood coloring. And while we’re on his mouth, Garrus has very sharp and pointy teeth. Turians are pretty clearly evolved from predators.

Garrus prefers to wear armor almost all of the time. Turian culture is fixated around the military - all turians enter military service at the age of fifteen and serve in some way until they’re at least thirty. Garrus worked for what’s essentially a police for a time before joining the Normandy and Commander Shepard and fighting alongside its crew. As they’ve encountered numerous enemies and been ambushed in many places he doesn’t go without his armor often. His is blue-and-silver as of the third game. He’s also never seen without his visor, a piece that straps around his head and goes over one eye with a translucent blue screen.

If not in armor, turian civvies consist of a sort of ugly, long sweater-thing that flares at the waist, and leggings with covering for his leg spurs underneath.

As these can be a little difficult to picture, have some images for reference:
Without clothing - http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100203000850/masseffect/images/a/a5/Turian_without_armor.jpg
In armor with visor: http://th08.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/f/2012/072/3/1/garrus_vakarian_07_by_johntesh-d4sm7h0.jpg

In canon turians are dextro-amino-acid-based lifeforms, which makes them unable to eat the food of levo-amino-acid-based lifeforms like humans. At best, the food passes through their system without giving any nourishment, at worst it triggers a serious allergic reaction. Many levos can’t handle dextro food or... other substances... at all. If I read the mod reply and FAQ correctly, then it’s an option whether or not to keep this allergy issue. After talking with a few people who know the series (and my likely castmate) I’d like to drop it. I’d like him to be adapted and able to eat the food. Obviously he’ll have no idea this has been done, so he’s going to be very confused at first, and this would be fun to play with.

□ Abilities/Powers:
Natural Abilities:
-Sniping/shooting - Garrus is arguably one of the best shots with a sniper rifle, precise and skilled through many years of training. He held a base on his own against three mercenary companies for a full day with the use of a sniper rifle, due to it being approachable only by a long bridge. He’s also skilled with assault rifles and other weapons, but Garrus shines when sniping.
-Hand-to-hand combat - Not only do turians train from childhood to serve in the military, Garrus sparred for nine rounds against the hand-to-hand trainer on one of the ships he served on, having to settle for a tie in the end. While he often wears gloves over them, his clawed digits can be useful for this as well.
-Calibration - Garrus knows how to modify, improve, and maintain weaponry systems. He improved the guns on the Normandy and keeps them in tune. He can also be called on to repair other systems you encounter throughout the games.

Powers:
-Overload - This is a tech ‘power’ that can be hurled forward, shorting out electronics, shielding, barriers, armor, and even harming living beings. It also serves to make some weapons jam up for a time. If the weapons are tech-based, like the flamethrowers used by some enemies, the device tends to explode.

□ Personal Items:
One suit of heavy turian armor, in blue, silver, and black
One visor based on Kuwashii design but modified, able to enhance targeting with magnification and tracing, play music, monitor biofeedback, and a few other things, detailed in the bottom section of this page: http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Shadow_Broker_Dossiers/Garrus_Vakarian (I understand if this doesn’t work until he’s leveled up some.)
Two civilian outfits, an overlarge flaring sweater, pair of leggings, and set of shoes each, since turian clothing is likely to be hard to find
One assault rifle, as a sniper rifle would be too large and that’s his secondary weapon - The M-15 Vindicator: http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/M-15_Vindicator#Mass_Effect_3
One omni-tool with no weapon function - http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Omni-tools (I understand if this is locked too)
One copy of the picture from the party at Commander Shepard’s apartment.
One picture of his family.
One bottle of cheap dextro wine

□ First Person Sample:

[The feed shows a rather grimy street. The viewer’s a bit higher up than normal, actually perched on a rooftop looking at the people and shops below.]

So.

[His voice echoes a bit. There’s the main part of it, but then there are subharmonic undertones. The main tone of the voice is fairly easy to read - dry amusement.]

Let’s say you can’t wear most of the clothes around here because they’re not going to fit, you can’t eat most of the food around here because you’re allergic, and not even the chairs are all that comfortable. Do you conclude that the people who set this place up are racist, or just not all that bright? I’m leaning toward not all that bright, seeing the mess the city’s in, but I’d like the opinion of a few others who have been here long enough to know more than I do.

□ Third Person Sample:

From the Test Drive Meme: http://theloonybin.dreamwidth.org/6301.html?thread=2582685#cmt2582685