I think Jack and Shepard have been smiles and cuddles too long... this is going to hurt, folks (and tip you a wink or two) -
Meanwhile, back in Shepard's Quarters...Shepard enters his cabin, absently reading something on a datapad. The room looks empty, though there is an open packing carton on his desk. A bottle of scotch sits uncapped on the surface, and scattered here and there are wrappers from various candybars. One lies on the floor, the sweet junk still half-eaten within its plastic coating. That's when Shepard hears the unmistakable sound of someone retching in the bathroom. He lifts a hand to the door - it refuses to open; it's locked.Shep: Jack?
He hears coughing and spitting from inside.Shep: Jack, are you ok in there?
Jack: I'm dealing with it, ok?
Shep: Do you need -
Jack: No! Just f*ckin'... just leave it, ok?
Shepard settles against the desk and waits for her to come out. He bends down to scoop up the candybar from the floor; he turns it over in his hand, reads the white and gold label, smiles to himself. He sniffs at the bar inside - nothing seems to be wrong with it. He shrugs to himself, takes a bite, then puts it back on the desktop. He looks up as he hears the toilet flush. The door hisses open and Jack steps out; she's dressed in a pair of Shepard's shorts and nothing else. She completely ignores him to pick up the bottle of booze; she takes a swig from it, sluices it around her mouth, and ducks back inside the bathroom to spit into the sink. She comes back out again and takes a long tug on the bottle, wincing after swallowing.
Shep: Are you alright?
Jack: (tersely) Yeah. Fine.
Shep: I see you found my mother's care package... you didn't eat all my peanut butter cups again, did you?
Jack: No. I just thought I'd try a few things.
Shep: Guess something didn't agree with you then?
Jack: What can I say? You eat crap.
Shep: I would if I could get near it anymore...
Jack: (reticent) F*ck you, Shepard.
Jack shoves Shepard away from her and pads over to the bed. She sits on the foot of it, then gets up again. She takes two steps towards the couch, stops, locking her eyes on the floating prothean relic on the table. She gives a frustrated huff and thumps down onto the couch, staring daggers at the silver sphere; bottle still in hand, arms folded over her chest.Shep: Jack... what's wrong?
Jack: Nothin'... I...
Shepard walks around the cabin - he has the half-finished candybar in his hand.
Shep: You don't like these? I always loved them when I was a kid...
Jack looks at the candybar as though it is responsible for all the trouble in her life; as though she could will it out of existence. Shepard simply meets her stare, willing her to come in to land. Her anger slowly seems to evaporate, just leaving her with a tired expression on her face.Jack: They changed the packaging.
Shep: Yeah, they used to be black and green. Did you used to eat them?
Jack: Sometimes... didn't recognise the colours and I bit into it. That taste... just made me remember someone.
Shep: Anyone you've mentioned before?
Jack: No. Never found out what her name was.
Shep: Someone from a prison?
Jack: Kind of... my first friend.
Shepard sits down on the steps leading down to the lower part of the room and looks over at Jack expectantly.Shep: You want to tell me?
Jack: No. But you'll just give me the f*ckin' eyes until I do. Besides, remembered it all already, what's one more recap?
Jack takes a noisy slug from the bottle.
Jack: You know the ship that picked me up when I got out of Teltin? Well, had a crew of eleven... traders working out of the helium orbitals in the Terminus. They'd bring in food, water, drugs, iridium, sh*t like that. They'd be spaced months at a time; just looking at the same eleven faces... things would get nasty every so often. Fights. They were on one of their long hauls when they picked me up; this wounded, half-starved little girl. I was just happy to see other faces, you know? They cleaned me up, fed me, got me something to wear that I hadn't pissed in...
Jack smiles ruefully and shakes her head. Jack: We were a happy little family for a while. Jobe was the guy who did the loading; little guy with a cheap cybernetic arm, even I was taller than him. There was a squint called Scavek did the navigation... mean bastard used to belt me round the head whenever he saw me, kept to himself though 'cause he couldn't stand working with humans. Liskan was the ship's medic... when he wasn't cranked up on red sand. Derril was commander. And there was
her...
Shep: Who was she?
Jack: She was a few years older than me... maybe seventeen, eighteen. No idea what she did on the ship, 'cause she never did anything involved in the day-to-day. She did cook though, so I guess that was what she was. Always had a bruise of some kind. Black eye one week, split lip another, ring of fingermarks around her wrist, sh*t like that. Derril told her to make sure I was happy, to be my big sister, you know? She'd brush my hair, tell me stories, hold me when I woke up crying. I liked her. I wanted to like her. I called her "Sis"...
Jack snorts and drinks a little more.Jack: Anyways, one day we pull into this station and their onboard security boards us. Me and Sis had to hide in a smuggler's stow under the deckplates with a can of water and an oxygen bottle to let us breathe. We had to do that whenever we hit a human station, I never understood why. Sis would say it was because we weren't on the crew roster, and that Derril would get into all kinds of trouble for taking us aboard. I just bought it. A couple of hours later Derril lets us out, and he says he has a present for me. He gives me this box and I look in it, and there's new clothes inside - a dress. I had no idea how to put it on, so Sis helped me. She made my hair pretty and Derril brought me my evening meal... it was like being a real kid, you know? I had a sister, and a father... I was
happy. For the first f*cking time ever, I was happy.
Jack wipes at her eyes with the back of her hand.
Jack: That was the first night Derril f*cked me. Think he put something in my food, made me feel sleepy. He said I should lie down... he helped me get out of my dress, and... it didn't hurt as much as some of the things I'd been through. Sis helped me wash all the blood off. Told me that it was because Derril loved me he that he did it. It was how he showed his love, and that it was ok. Next morning I was so sore I could barely sit, and Derril comes by with this big candybar... black and green paper on the outside. Says it's my treat for being such a good girl... and that's the way it was - he'd take me to bed, and in the morning I'd have candy.
Jack looks at Shepard's horrified expression and smirks.
Jack: And you want to know what's really f*cked up?
I believed it. I thought that sh*t was love. Sometimes he'd be rough with me, make me do things I didn't want to at first. I'd come out with bruises, he'd slap me about a little, but I'd tell him I loved him too. When you spend your whole life being cut open and stitched back together again, something like that seems more like love than anything you've known. Sis said it was ok, and I believed her... I guess she was just happy it wasn't her anymore, you know?
Shep: Did they know about your biotics?
Jack: Yeah... a kid my size eating the way I did, it wasn't too hard for them to figure it out. Liskan would put supressants in my food, and I never really showed them what I could really do back then.... it wasn't like I had reason to. They were my family. Anyway, one day, I see Sis coming out of Liskan's room, she was all beat up, clothes torn. He'd tried to rape her, she'd put up too much of a fight for the fat f*cker. I was too stupid to understand, so I asked why he'd beaten her. Sis just glared at me; just burned f*ckin' holes in me, and said that she'd been me once... Derril's favorite. And one day, I'd be Sis to some other kid.
I wasn't special, I'd just be replaced. No-one really loved me, least of all her. She shoved me out of the way and limped off. I cried for hours that night... not because it was all a lie, but because I lost my Sis. Something I'd done had made her angry.
Shepard gets up from his step and sits next to Jack. She takes a tug from the bottle again, then offers it to Shepard. He takes a drink too - he looks completely shellshocked. Jack continues - Jack: I just wanted my Sis back. So when Derril came in the evening after that, I refused. I hit him, I screamed, I cried. And I told him why. He said it was all a lie, that Sis was just jealous of how much he loved me. He'd talk to her, make it all right. Yeah... he talked to her. Broke her f*cking arm and beat her so much her eyes were closed for days. I went to see her in the infirmary. She wouldn't talk to me. Liskan was all smiles though... pudgy face with piggy eyes and purple teeth from all the red sand... he had his own toy now, one that couldn't fight back. Wasn't long before Sis was better and out from under him, so when Derril was away he'd try to convince me to show him some love too... Sis had told him how well-trained I was... he got me to take red sand with him one time, then while I was spaced out he tried to pin me over a table and screw me. His mistake. Canceled out his precious suppressants. I shoved the fat f*ck into a ventilation shaft that was about a foot and a half square. Just kept slamming him until he went in... he was all over the walls, the floor, the ceiling. They sold me not long after that. But up until they did, they were f*cking terrified of me. No-one came by to see me. Derril even stopped coming. I knew then. All that talk about love? All bullsh*t. Just lies to get me to do what they wanted. No different to the bastards back at Teltin. No more visits. No more hugs and smiles.
No more candybars...Shep: I... I'm sorry.
Jack shrugs, rubs at her glistening eyes again.
Jack: Nothing you can do about it... you get what you get in this life.
Shep: Do you remember what the ship was called?
Jack tries to smile.
Jack: That's nice, but Derril's dead. Think they all are. When I was running with that pirate clan, we took down his freighter. Derril did't recognise me at first, but I made him remember. I got to show him how much I still loved him. Sis wasn't there... don't know if she got away, they sold her, someone killed her, or what. Guess she got lucky, 'cause there was no way I was gonna forgive her for that sh*t if she'd been there then.
Shepard tries to put his arm around Jack, but she shrugs his arm off and moves away from him.Jack: Don't. I just need some space to myself now. I should go.
Jack stands and moves to leave.Shep: Wait - look, I'll go. Stay here. It's comfortable. I'll go.
Jack: Throw you out of your own room? We ain't married, Shepard. It's ok. I just need to get this sh*t out of my head again. Get that taste out of my mouth. I'll be downstairs if you need me, but... just let me deal with this my way, ok? No more talking... not till I'm ready.
Shepard opens his mouth to say something, but Jack's face tells him it isn't open to debate. He gives a resigned little nod and remains silent. Jack tries to force a smile for him onto her face, but her expression is on the verge of breaking. She simply picks up her halter and overalls and walks swiftly out of the cabin. Shepard slumps back into the couch, takes a long hard swig at the scotch bottle, and then realises the half-finished candybar is in his hand still. He looks at it for a moment, then throws it viciously at the far wall.
Modifié par Mondo47, 27 août 2010 - 03:20 .
Guest_JohnnyDollar_*
I don't have a problem with the catsuit that she wears, either. I think someone at Bioware has lousy taste though. If the character creators were going for a look to show off, by putting her in a catsuit and revealing her figure, as well as various camera angle shots, they could have done a better job making her more attractive. Plain and simple. If that's what you are going for in a character, then make her look hot and attractive for crying out loud.
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