Garrus application

[officer_garrus]

[nick / name]: Arwing
[personal LJ name]: arwingyoshi
[other characters currently played]: Gin Rummy :: The Boondocks :: classywigger
[e-mail]: onslaught352003@yahoo.com
[AIM / messenger]: arwingyoshi

[series]: Mass Effect
[character]: Garrus Vakarian
[character history / background]: The game takes place in the future, when humanity and many other races have discovered a way to travel through space and meet with other life forms. This is thanks to the various races discovering the technology left behind by the protheans, an ancient race that mysteriously vanished without a trace millions of years ago. The galactic capitol is a giant space station called the Citadel, politics are overseen by the Council, and select soldiers are allowed to become Spectres, which are agents of the Council who can go in and solve problems with no restrictions. Also, Mass Effect is one of those create-your-own-protagonist games with lots of choices for how the story plays out, so I'm going with choices I made in my last playthrough, since no choices or paths have been confirmed to be canon.

Garrus was born on the turian homeworld and is the son of a very by-the-book C-Sec (Citadel Security) officer. Like all young turians, Garrus was in the military and he chose to become a C-Sec officer once his service was over. Garrus even received an offer for Spectre candidacy, but his father talked him into turning it down, since he did not want his son fighting crime with no boundaries. One memorable case Garrus had was tracking down a salarian named Dr. Saleon, who was growing organs inside his employees and then selling said organs on the black market. Garrus almost had him, but he got away due to C-Sec regulations. Had Garrus been able to act on his own, innocents would have died.

One day, a turian Spectre named Saren was suspected of orchestrating an attack on a human colony with the help of the geth (a race of robots) in order to obtain a prothean beacon. Garrus was in charge of the investigation, but was unable to obtain real proof because he was unable to access Saren's files. During the investigation, he met Commander Shepard, a human soldier who had been exposed to the beacon and knew about Saren's involvement. Soon after their meeting, Garrus heard that a doctor on the Citadel who had some clue to finding proof on Saren needed help, and went to her aid. Shepard and her allies soon showed up to lend a hand. After getting the information, Garrus joined Shepard's team. After raiding a local strip club and meeting a quarian named Tali, they were able to obtain evidence that Saren was guilty. According to the evidence, Saren wanted to usher in the Reapers, ancient machines known only to legends, using a mysterious artifact called The Conduit. Thanks to a vision from the beacon, Shepard knew that the Reapers were the ones responsible for the extinction of the protheans. Shepard was granted Spectre status so she could stop Saren and was given her own ship, the Normandy.

At one point during their travels, Garrus told Shepard about his run in with Dr. Saleon and that he'd managed to track the doctor down. Shepard promised to help track him down. They infiltrated Saleon’s ship and Garrus wanted to kill him immediately, but Shepard convinced him to let the doctor stand trial. Garrus saw it her way, but Saleon then tried to kill them, and they were forced to kill him in self defense. The mission taught Garrus a lesson: he wasn't angry at the doctor for hurting people, but for getting away the first time. Garrus also learned that innocents shouldn't have to be sacrificed in the name of duty. He decided to reapply to C-Sec after they caught Saren.

After gaining more information from different worlds, the team went to Saren's base on Vermire and made a shocking discovery. Saren's ship, Sovereign, was a Reaper, and the true mastermind. Thanks to Reaper Indoctrination, Saren had been brainwashed into serving Sovereign from the start. Sovereign revealed that once the other Reapers were brought to the galaxy, all organic life would be wiped out, just like the protheans. After escaping Vermire (and losing one of their teammates in the process), the good guys found out that the Conduit was on the abandoned prothean planet, Ilos. However, Ilos was located outside Council space, and sending a ship out there risked an intergalactic incident with the races living out there. Thus, Shepard and her team were put on lockdown. Defying Council orders, they flew to the planet and found a prothean artificial intelligence, Vigil, who revealed the true nature of the Citadel and Conduit. The Citadel was a giant mass relay built by the Reapers that would bring them to the galaxy, and the Conduit was a small mass relay made by the protheans that led right to the Citadel, which could be used to bypass all the security. By the time Shepard and her team used the Conduit, Saren and the geth had done massive damage and were preparing to open the relay. Shepard managed to get through to Saren, and he committed suicide before he could help Sovereign further. However, Sovereign took control of Saren's corpse and used it to fight the good guys. After the body was destroyed, Sovereign was weakened due to exhausting itself through the connection and it was destroyed by the Normandy's pilot, Joker.

A short time after Sovereign's death, the Normandy was attacked by a mysterious ship belonging to the Collectors. The ship was destroyed, but most of the crew was able to escape. However, Shepard was killed while saving Joker. Garrus went back to C-Sec, but after seeing the Council cover up the details of Shepard's death and refusing to let the public know that Sovereign was a Reaper, he left once more, this time for good. He went to the crime-ridden space station, Omega, and became a vigilante known as Archangel, hoping that he could at least do some good there. He soon got his own team together, but they were betrayed by someone in their midst, Sidonis. After leading Garrus away, Sidonis told a group of mercenaries where their hideout was, and the other team members were killed. Garrus swore revenge on Sidonis for his betrayal.

Two years after the Collector attack, Shepard (having been revived by the shadow group, Cerberus), found him and offered to let him join her once more. During a battle with vengeful mercenaries, Garrus was severely wounded. The Normandy's doctor saved him, but he was left with scars on his face. After that, he joined Shepard once more. This time, Shepard was recruiting a team for a dangerous mission to take out the Collectors, who were abducting and killing humans for reasons unknown at the time. Garrus told Shepard about Sidonis, and found out that he was living on the Citadel. Garrus wanted to kill him in order to get revenge for his fallen comrades. Right as he was about to kill Sidonis, Shepard talked him out of it, since Sidonis was forever haunted by his betrayal and it would be a more fitting punishment for him to live in agonizing guilt than die. After that incident, Garrus and Shepard grew closer and fell in love. The night before the big mission, the two spent the night together. Shepard and her team infiltrated the Collector base, discovered that they had been using the abducted humans to make a new Reaper, and destroyed the entire base. The second game ends with everyone preparing for the slow but inevitable arrival of the Reaper fleet.
[character abilities]: Garrus is highly proficient with firearms and is an expert sniper. While the gameplay never lets us see him fight hand-to-hand, a few in-game conversations indicate that he’s good at that too. He’s also good with electronics and computers. He can hack terminals, overload robots with his omni-tool (a holographic device on his forearm that almost everyone in the game has), and bypass security systems. He’s also good at calibrating weapon systems.
[character personality]:Garrus is very much a “cowboy cop”, especially at the start of the game. He can be hotheaded sometimes and believes in doing whatever is necessary to get the job done. He doesn’t have patience for C-Sec regulations, especially if they keep him from doing his job. One thing he hates above all else is if a criminal gets away due to a technicality or because regulations won’t allow him to go after them. He believes that the end results justify the means, even if innocents have to be sacrificed. However, he does go through some personality changes as the game goes by. He learns that innocents shouldn’t have to be sacrificed in order to get the job done and some of his hothead tendencies are reduced. The lesson doesn't stick completely, though. He still prefers to get the job done without any red tape getting in the way. Garrus can be vindictive sometimes, believing that anyone who's wronged him or others should pay, either through death or bodily harm depending on how serious the act was. He would prefer it if morality was black and white all the time, since it would be easier to justify killing or sparing someone. He becomes excited in battle, relishing the thrill of battle and taking down bad guys. Garrus wants to feel like he’s making a difference, be it taking out mercenaries and criminals who take advantage of the innocent, or helping save the entire galaxy.

When talking with others, like friends or commanding officers, he takes a friendly and formal tone. When talking with victims, he's comforting and makes sure they're okay. He has a dry sense of humor, using a deadpan tone when making a joke. He knows how to remain stoic, though he can still get emotional under the right circumstances. He was even stoic during the realization of Sovereign’s true identity and during his reunion with Shepard when they got to speak for the first time in two years. He can fumble his words when he feels awkward or nervous, but he’s never been shown scared or panicking in a tight spot. At most he’ll just raise his voice a little and swear. When it comes to romance, he's awkward and clumsy, stumbling with his words or accidentally making double-entendres. This is especially true when it comes to his courtship of Shepard. He tries a bit too hard to be romantic, but this is only because she is one of his only friends left and he doesn't want to screw things up with her like he had with other things in his past. He's a good leader, having experience with leading a band of vigilantes and it shows when he successfully leads a diversion team through the Collector base. Like most turians, Garrus has a strong sense of honor and will not lie willingly.
[point in timeline you're picking your character from]: Right after Mass Effect 2

[journal post]:
[The camera shows a very non-human being looking around in a confused manner.]

This is… not the Normandy. [He speaks in a slow, careful tone. Obviously he’s used to keeping his emotions in check.]

[He lifts his arm and a yellow, holographic device appears on his forearm. He taps it a few times, and it makes some beeping sounds. He looks even more confused and his voice starts to reflect that confusion.] What the..? This can’t be right. These coordinates are blank.

[The device vanishes and he puts a hand to the side of his visor.] Shepard, do you read me? Joker, EDI, you there? Is anyone reading me? Dammit, no comm. frequencies either. What the Hell going on here?

[He starts pacing and then notices the device.]

Huh, what’s this? [He approaches the device and picks it up. The screen changes angles as he turns the device over and examines it. The screen faces him once more.] How… outdated. Still, it’s better than nothing.

Shepard, are you getting this? Is anyone from the Normandy getting this? Hell, I’ll even take Cerberus getting this. Unless you put me here in the first place, then you better home Shepard or I don’t get ahold of you!

[third person / log sample]:
Garrus could safely say that last mission was the most dangerous and thrilling thing he’d ever done in his life. They’d gone right into the Collectors’ territory and risked everything so humanity would not be wiped off the face of the galaxy, and they’d blown them away. Garrus had suggested they take the Illusive Man’s suggestion of keeping the Reaper technology, but Shepard had refused to let such technology fall into the hands of Cerberus. At first the turian wasn’t so sure his commander had made the right choice, but looking back, he trusted Shepard’s decision. If anyone could find a way to beat the Reapers once and for all without resorting to using such horrid technology, it was her.

Ah, Shepard. Best friend, commander… lover. That woman had changed Garrus, possibly in more ways than he thought. She was the one who taught him that sometimes regulations weren’t always a bad thing, and helped him conquer his own demons, from Dr. Saleon to Sidonis. Her death had shaken him badly. He guessed part of him had always seen Shepard being invincible, and nothing would ever slow her down. Seeing her tumble through space from the escape pod window, seeing her actually vulnerable and nearing her own death, was too much for him to bear. He’d gone back to C-Sec, but was utterly dismayed when the Council had refused to tell the public just how she had died, as well as cover up the truth about the Reapers. It was a disgrace to Shepard’s memory. Leaving C-Sec was not entirely his own choice, but the turian didn’t think he’d stay much longer anyway. Omega was one of many places he considered going, but that was the one place that sounded like it needed the most help.

Seeing her alive again on Omega made him think he was seeing a ghost. Even though he would never consider working with Cerberus under ordinary conditions, he allowed himself to be recruited to the new Normandy because of Shepard. He was loyal to her and nobody else. Plus, he couldn’t pass up a chance to save the galaxy and fight the bad guys once more. If humanity was in danger, who was Garrus to say no? A lot of turians were still prejudiced towards humans, but Garrus wasn’t one of them. That was one thing that had pissed him off about Saren. Well, that and being a barefaced and honor-less disgrace of a turian. Garrus wasn’t sorry he was dead, slave to Sovereign or not. Shepard was proof that Spectres didn’t have to be ruthless and cold-blooded to get the job done.