forgivetheinsubordination | IC Contact

Wait. You don't...

[He exhales, mystified.]

I did. That's the year, and she's joined again. How... Better question. What's the last thing you remember? Big things. I don't need an elaborate recollection of you brushing your teeth.

The last of what I remember before my arrival? Silver walls and fluorescent lights, a pane of glass separating myself from the core. But if we're speaking of major events ...

[He's silent for a few long seconds, but then his words pour out like gunfire.]

Knuckles burying themselves in my cheek. I am silent. A lifetime of blindness. I let him strike again. The third time - there's nothing. Tears seep through the cracks of his fingers. For each one, a sin against him. My words mean nothing.

You let someone punch--

[He starts off sounding confused and then breaks off.]

Kolyat.

[The Normandy's the worst place for keeping secrets. The new Shadow Broker's identity, who Archangel had been, what was plaguing each of them that Shepard assisted with, they were all known. Even that the Collectors used to be Protheans was ship gossip in minutes. And there's only one person Thane would let hit him, as far as Garrus knows.]

He was still up-- Wait. You don't mean when you stopped the attempt, do you? The assassination attempt? That can't be right.

Yes.

[As soon as Garrus speaks of him, it's like Thane's lungs have forgotten the drugs keeping them breathing, like his chest's threatening to collapse in on itself. This place had provided him with enough ruin to distract himself--not forget, but distract--and now hearing Kolyat's name for the first time since his arrival brings all of it to the surface again. Not only the pain of separation; Thane's capture had forced him to abandon his only son. Abandon him just as he was trying to atone for doing that very thing in the first place.

Even with the mission, they still had access to each other, a way to communicate. Thane was still there to bear the brunt of his pain. But here ... that link had been severed entirely. There was no way of getting through to him, or Shepard, or anyone else.

Ariel had made a liar out of him.]

I found out the following night that Bailey had taken him under his wing. Then I closed my eyes for a few moments of rest ... and woke up imprisoned.

Edited 2013-06-26 21:57 (UTC)

[There is a long, long stretch of silence. Garrus doesn't get how this is possible, and he also doesn't know how to approach it. This isn't just dealing with what Thane doesn't know, this is dealing with Thane's son and that mess there, and Garrus has no experience with this side of the father-son divide.]

Uh. Okay.

[It's filler, and Thane needs far more than that, but sometimes Garrus needs to talk to get his thoughts going.]

We're... You didn't vanish. I don't know where this even starts to make sense, but you were there all along. The whole mission. I... Damn. I don't know what to tell you. How much you want to know, or any of it. The good news, the bad news, the pointless stuff like if Shepard ever managed to keep a fish alive.

She didn't, by the way. Chambers had to start taking care of that.

What do you mean, I was there all along?

[His voice is just as calm as it had been; even with the confusion, there's no incredulity in his tone.]

It's 2186.

[Even as he says it he knows this all sounds ridiculous. Garrus doesn't get this.]

We went through the Omega Relay. You included. We got back. You included. You weren't suddenly gone. You weren't missing, you fought alongside everyone else. And it's not like I'm going to confuse you with some other drell. There's no way to replace someone like that.

[But as he speaks the last sentence there, his words slow down. Unless there is. It still comes back to the cost, though. You don't bring one sick drell and one scarred turian back from the dead, and you certainly don't clone them. Except what if someone had?]

...A clone would know they're a clone, right?

[Cloned Shepard knew.]

Hypothetically speaking.

I have no experience in dealing with them, so I'm afraid I can't answer that one.

[His eyes are closed where he is, unseen, fingers pinching at the bridge of his nose. Garrus wouldn't have any reason to lie to him. Not now. Not ever, really. But what does this mean? That he'd lost track? That the tiny holes in his memory are symptomatic of something far greater? After all, someone who's lost their memory wouldn't have any recollection of it.]

This goes beyond problematic. But I suppose that leaves me to question the same of you - what is the last event you can recall?

[Garrus shifts around, hesitating, trying to figure out how to frame things. This isn't how he'd been half-preparing for things to go. Thane was supposed to come to him, mention the last thing he knew being Kai Leng, and then Garrus would carefully explain. Instead there's a whole lot of stuff the drell doesn't have context for and Garrus is struggling.]

Short version, we just killed a guy named Kai Leng. Literally just did it. He got up after we thought he was down, Shepard caught him and ended it. We're on what used to be the Illusive Man's base of ops. I blinked and then I was here. But you don't have context for that.

[He sighs, a long exhale as he rubs at his fringe again.]

I knew you were... behind. There was no way you weren't. I didn't know you were this far behind. There's some good. A lot of bad. I'll cover as much as you want, if you want it.

Kai Leng? [There's a clear note of surprise among his otherwise flat, rasping tones.] That's a name I haven't heard in ... quite some time.

And now he's dead?

[Behind. The way he says it strikes him, but the sting that follows isn't tied to any clear emotion that Thane can put a name to. It's beyond unsettling, confusing. How could he just completely have a block of memory taken from him like that? The subtle yet striking problems in his photographic memory begin to make a little more sense - as much sense as something within a concept that doesn't make sense can bring him, in any case.

"If you were to ask me how many trees there were around us, or the angles of their shadows, or the precise shade of their leaves. . . I wouldn't be able to tell you."]

I can't disbelieve what you're telling me. From what I know of you, you're not the kind of person to weave false stories, especially not about something of this caliber. But I'm having difficulty in grasping how something like this could even be possible. You know, after all, that drell have perfect memory.

[That Thane's showing emotion in his voice, more than the normal, is equally as surprising to the turian. He needs to do this better. Krios deserves more than just a report.]

I know. The perfect memory thing, yeah.

[There's a pause, and then a little bit of noise as he moves around the apartment, getting his arm plates back on, pulling on the gloves, heading for the door.]

I'm coming over. It'll be easier to talk about. ...No, that's not true. It's not going to be easier to talk about. Maybe it'll be easier to work through.

[The door opens, shuts, gets locked behind him.]

I don't get how you're missing that much. I mean, damn. That's a lot of time to lose. I can't get my mind around this.

Mm. Very well.

[Though he almost wonders if it's easier for him to have this cloak, to not have to worry about Garrus seeing him process all this information, or the long-buried pain of losing Kolyat ... not so much effective in the interpersonal department, however. And so he doesn't contest it, but merely shuts off the feed, leaning back against the couch and shutting his eyes for a brief moment of mental preparation.

This is a mess. A greater mess than he'd thought.]

IC Contact - City of Ariel

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