Re-Alignment App.

[calibrates_big_guns]

Player Information
*Name/Alias: CJ
*Your Journal: N/A
*Age: 19
*Contact Information: [Bad username or unknown identity: The_Ranging_Nerd=plurk.com]
*Characters already in the game: N/A

Character Information
*Character Name: Garrus Vakarian
*Character Canon: Mass Effect
*Age: It's not specified, but he's about 3-5 years younger than Shepard
*Race: Turian
*Timeline/Pull Point: Garrus is coming from after the end of ME2, but before the Arrival DLC. The Collectors have been stopped, everybody lives, good times are had by all. Personally, Garrus has had his issues with Sidonis and what happened on Omega resolved, and is recovered from that as much as anyone can be.

*History: http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Garrus_Vakarian

*Personality: Garrus is a wise-cracking ex-cop who is very cynical towards authority, having watched so many crooks escape justice because of red tape, loopholes, and corruption. His attitude was much different when he was younger, thinking cops like his father (a C-Sec officer) couldn't do anything wrong. After his military service he followed his father’s footsteps and joined C-Sec. He was happy doing good, but as time went on he became more and more frustrated with the system as he watched people dance their way out of trouble. He started to believe he could do more good without the rules to stop him from doing what it takes to get the job done.

After the Collectors destroyed the Normandy and killed Shepard, Garrus struck off on his own, heading to Omega. When Garrus decides to do something, he gives it his all, and soon his reputation, skill, and desire to do good attracted a squad of like minded individuals, who tried to clean up Omega. They were loyal to Garrus up until they were betrayed and killed from the inside by a turian named Sidonus, which Garrus blames himself for not stopping. Shepard helped him come to terms with that. One of the many, many reasons he loves her.

Even before his betrayal by Sidonus, Garrus had a black-and-white sense of justice, which boiled down to good people deserve protection, bad people deserve whatever comes to them for what they've done, and the truly despicable deserve to be put down. However, even though he'd do almost whatever it takes to get the job done, he wouldn't go down to their level. After his betrayal, he was a much harder man, harsher, and a lot less forgiving, especially when it came to going after Sidonus, going as far as to threaten to break a criminal's neck if they didn't cooperate.

While Shepard has largely helped him return to his usual self, there are a few things that are going to be with him forever. He still has a much more jaded world-view, and will go farther than he used to make the bad guys pay for what their crimes. He also has a very self-depreciating sense of humor, and when he talks of his accomplishments, he has very dry tone, as if to say "It's not like this really matters, anyway." Beyond that, he doesn't seem to place any great value on his own life, although this has changed for the better thanks to his relationship with Shepard.

Despite all his skill and prowess, he's socially awkward. If he’s uncertain of something, you’ll know it in his speech and the twitch in his mandibles. It's most noticeable when he’s off high-alert, but once you get to know him it’s obvious he’s still very much a softy on the inside, albeit a softy who can kill you without you ever knowing was there. He wears his doubts on his sleeve, whether he’s intimidated by you or trusts you, he’ll share those issues. And crack a few jokes.

His relationship with Shepard, both in the working and as friends sense has had a huge impact on him, both in life, and in her temporary death. When she died, it shook him to his core, and changed his black-and-white world view to something a little more grey. The galactic hero, dead on what should be a routine mission. Good people die, but he was unable to process something like this. Having her back was the first step to him feeling like a whole person again after the destruction of the Normandy, and Omega. She’s his best friend and soul mate (though neither of them knows it yet, at least for this game), and inspired him to be better in many ways, but there’s one thing that she taught him above all else. You don’t need to be ruthless to do the right thing.

*Powers/Abilities: As a turian, Garrus has claws, and is more resistant to radiation than most other races thanks to their metallic exoskeleton, a trait evolved due to their homeworld receiving more solar radiation than Earth.

Garrus, like most turians, is damn good in a fight. Between his father's training, his time in the Turian military, and Citadel Security, he's become an exceptionally skilled soldier, and a specialist in hand-to-hand combat and the use of a sniper rifle. If you need him to infiltrate an enemy strongpoint, or take it out, he can do it. He knows how to use, maintain, and repair virtually any military hardware of his time, and has a knack for calibrating them for maximum accuracy and efficiency. During his time in C-Sec, he's become well-versed in police procedure, taking down an enemy non-lethally, and digging up information, be it through over or under the table methods. Beyond combat, Garrus is also a capable technician, who can repair or bypass systems remotely via his omni-tool, bolster his own shields, or overload other systems. He possesses a knowledge of first aid, able to stabilize most major races from his galaxy, although he is by no means a doctor. Garrus is also a talented battlefield leader, able to make solid tactical decisions and stay cool under fire.

*Inventory: An assault rifle, A sniper rifle, a heavy pistol, and an Omni-Tool. He has his armor of course, as well as Concussive Rounds (contact explosive rounds that deal additional damage, and can stun an enemy), and Armor Penetrating rounds.

*Starting Polarity: I feel like Garrus could go in line with Prima. He has the potential to be a leader if he can get over his own insecurities about command.

If AU, how does your character differ from canon?: N/A

Writing Samples

*First Person Sample:

[Feed opens on a rather ... well, it's hard to get a read on the turian's expression, and not just because they're not necessarily the most physically emotive species. His mandibles are twitching, which could mean uneasy, annoyed, uncertain, or any number of other things. Still, those three were a good start, given he doesn't know where he is or how he got there.]

Anyone getting this, respond. This is Garrus Vakarian, serving with the SSV Normandy.

[He pauses, waiting for a response, and surprise surprise, he's getting nothing. Everything seemed to be in working order, but still, no chatter, meaning he was probably on his own. He sighs, shaking his head, because this was not good, even by the usual standards he finds himself in. A finger moves closer to the screen to tap at controls on his omni-tool that are just out of sight, adjusting the message to go out wider, covering more frequencies.]

If there's anyone out there, and hopefully I'm not just broadcasting to empty space here, anything would be appreciated. I'm not entirely sure how I got here, or where exactly here is. ... Or if I can actually eat anything on this planet without it killing me.

[So, all-in-all, things are just great.]

If you get this, please respond. ... Thanks.

[He sets the message to repeat. Let's see how this goes ...]

*Third Person Sample:

When he was younger, Garrus wanted to follow his dad's footsteps. He wanted to be a cop, and a damn good one. It only made sense to go in to C-Sec, just like his dad. At first, it was everything he wanted. Protecting the good folks, making sure the bad ones got what was coming to them. You can imagine his surprise when things started to go sour. Suddenly, suspects were walking, jumping through holes in the red tape that he couldn't follow. When he tried to make sure the job got done, the system fought back.

It was frustrating, and for the longest time, it drove him crazy. His father always said, 'Do something right or don't do it at all.' But what's the damn point of playing it this way when the rules stopped him from doing his job? Why work like that when all it did was let monsters get away? Naturally, when he got the chance to leave, and go with Shepard, he jumped at it. He thought it'd be a good change, and it was.

For the first time in a long time, he felt like he was actually making some kind of difference, that he was helping people instead of fighting the rules. But that's not all that happened. She, ah, ... she taught him a few things. He'd gotten so worked up, so frustrated and angry that he'd been making this fight about himself. About his own pride, and desire to get back at the bad guys in the galaxy rather than doing it because it was the right thing. She showed him that, and showed him what it actually meant to be a hero. She stopped Saren and the Geth, and saved the galaxy from the Reapers, and she did it because it was her job, because it's what needed to be done, and because of the trillions of lives it would save, not out of any hatred for Saren.

She was his hero as much as the galaxy's, and that's why watching the Normandy get eviscerated by the giant ship they'd run in to was the most painful thing he'd ever felt in his life. Because he knew she was still in there. He saw the last pod get off, but he knew, and when the Normandy went up in flames, he felt it like he was in the middle of that fireball. He wanted to scream out in pain and rage. As he pounds uselessly on the viewport of the pod, beating his fists raw he wanted nothing more than to tear the bastards in that ship out of whatever dark hole they call home and make them suffer, because there is no justice in this fucking world if they get away.

But they do. The ship leaves as soon as it came, and leaves nothing in it's wake but crushed souls and twisted metal. ... He couldn't have done a damn thing. He couldn't have saved her. Shepard was gone, and nothing he could have done would change that. Garrus has never felt so useless, so worthless and powerless in his life. In minutes, his whole world has come crashing down around him, and the weight of it all sinks him down to the cold metal deck of the pod, his arms dropping to his sides as he sits against the bulkhead of the pod. He couldn't pull himself up even if he tried.

He learned something else that day. Heroes die.

Final Notes: The third person sample I had originally was something I'd written for another app a while ago, which I can link if you'd like. It was pointed out to me how freakishly similar it was to an existing ME comic I hadn't read at the time of it's writing, so I decided to do something new, hence the change if you guys had been looking at the app before the re-write was finished.