@khrysopos // cont.
" CAN'T TELL. DID THE PROTHEANS HAVE POKER? shame if you didn't — with that face, you'd have a hell of an upper hand. " ... were they on better terms, shepard might consider this a terrible slip of the tongue. the words came much too caustic ( spoken with a sharpness as though the teeth they slipped through were primed to bite ). the second they left his lips, shepard snapped his mouth shut and tightened his jaw. he might have regretted the jab... were they on better terms.
as it were, he stands his ground, arms folding and lips pressed thin as he surveys the prothean in the dim of the room. first grunt, now javik: it seems the cargo hold has been designated with squirreling away things that reek of hazard and of a brutish, but cunning, sort of hostility. ( ordinarily, shepard would say, people tailored exactly to his taste. but he doesn't know where he stands with javik. ) shepard's shoulders tense lightly at the flicker of a growl in the less-than-amused response. despite shepard's poor verbal restraint, he knows very well not to take javik lightly.
shepard came to make light conversation — though he isn't yet sure if that's possible with javik — to make attempts to know javik as a soldier and as a member of his crew. but it's not so easy to wash away the bitterness that still sits heavy in his chest.
' those who share my purpose become allies. those who do not become casualties. ' finally. someone with equal resolve. though, should shepard expect anything less from the protheans' embodiment of vengeance? ' then i'd say you've found an ally. the goal of this ship is to wipe the reapers from existence. ' that was the least that shepard could offer, wasn't it? vengeance — for the death of a people and of an empire. ' but how far are you willing to go to achieve that goal? ' javik had turned to him then, had drawn closer, and shepard remembers fighting the momentary urge to step back. few people have ever unnerved him to such a degree, but javik was, and is still, an anomaly. a physiology incomprehensible to this cycle, a face completely ( for lack of a better word ) alien, his capabilities yet unknown. if javik is to be believed, then evolution has been nowhere near as gracious to the current cycle as it was to the protheans. and shepard believes him. he knows a hunter — an apex predator — when he is face-to-face with one. he had felt it in the strength of javik's hands when the prothean had snatched him twice by the arms; shepard's skin still crawls with the unexpected touch ... with the terrible thought that someone has been inside his head, has read his every thought intimately. he had stood firm. perhaps leaned back in the slightest, wary of another attempt at making contact, as javik loomed closer. but javik had kept an arm's length between them this time. shepard watched as his nostrils flared and all his eyes slid shut. ' ... i do not believe you, commander. lying is a biological marker. there is doubt behind your words. ' ... what the hell was shepard supposed to say to that? but his silence was evidently answer enough for javik, who had stepped away as liara then shifted the conversation to the shard. and all the while shepard had stood, the words still ringing in his ears.
... shepard drags himself back to the present, breaking the long seconds of silence with a quiet sigh. his hands grip at his upper arms where the prothean's fingers had pressed as they drew out visions of the beacon. the fractured memories shepard had fought to stifle.
" ... sorry. you said you'd fight with us. but it didn't seem like you were taking our efforts seriously when we first spoke. "
he does his best to manage the undercurrent of resentment in his tone. fights the instinct to snarl, too, and to accuse in turn. maybe in another world ... when he was just a bit younger, just a tad more hot-headed. it would be stupid to lash out over this — showing insecurity over javik's prior words would only speak to what the prothean perceives to be their lack of resolve.
" understand that i mean to stop the reapers. at any cost. "
