Liara T'Soni can embrace eternity (theshadowbroker) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2012-08-13 06:22:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, liara t'soni, miranda lawson |
Who: Liara T'Soni and Miranda Lawson (narrative)
What: Discussion of dreams. The Illusive Man strikes the first blow.
When: Today-ish.
Where: A café somewhere.
Rating: Let's go with R, to be safe. Discussions of death, the Lazarus project, and also an actual explosion.
Status: Complete, narrative.
Miranda Lawson wasn't exactly a name that Liara had come across in her dreams, as of yet. When Shepard had mentioned Cerberus, though, that'd been another thing altogether – she'd seen the horrors they'd created whilst travelling with her, and that alone had inspired a rather deep hatred of them.
Their pro-humanity nature didn't help things, of course. How could they torture and murder other species with a clear conscience, when humanity was so close to taking their rightful place amongst the Council?
There was probably no point asking. It wasn't like the dreams were exactly clear on the motives of the absolute nutcases they seemed to attract on a regular basis.
They'd agreed to meet in a café in Irvine, fairly neutral ground for the both of them. Miranda had arrived well ahead of time, just so she could prepare properly. She'd written down what she could remember out of the dreams, a lot of things noted with question marks – Jacob Taylor, Archangel, the slums of Omega and all those gangs...
It was a bit strange that she remembered so little of what'd happened before it. Oriana was an obvious link back, but even with her, she only knew a little: her sister, her identical sister, 'born' when she was a teenager, the result of her father's unrelenting search for a 'perfect' heir.
When Liara arrived, it took a moment for Miranda to recognise her. Who'd have thought that her not being blue would make such a large difference? ...Actually, on second thoughts, that was a ridiculous thought. She stood up, leaning to shake her hand. "Doctor T'Soni, I presume?"
"Miss Lawson." Liara was honestly only here because Shepard had suggested it. Maybe it'd fill in a few unfortunate gaps... especially since the last dream she'd had seemed to end in Shepard dying. It'd taken a long time for her to calm down from it, and more than a little help from Shepard herself. "What was it you wanted?"
"The dreams. I'm sure Shepard explained at least a little." If she didn't, she was going to punch her for making things harder. "I have a rough idea of what's going on, but... she suggested you'd be able to help fill in at least a few gaps."
Liara took the seat across from her, accepting the notebook that Miranda handed her. Some of the things were completely unfamiliar, but others... "Oh, you've dreamt of Garrus too? I keep meaning to speak with him about it, but..."
It was just a little awkward. It'd been awkward enough to tell Shepard that she'd dreamt of her that first time, and they'd actually met beforehand. She'd only occasionally run into Garrus, so it wasn't exactly... usual ground for her.
"We've worked together once or twice," Miranda offered that much with a slight shrug, idly playing with the pencil she'd been writing with. "Seeing him like that was certainly something new, though. Like a pineapple and a lizard got caught in a cloning machine together."
Liara laughed, shaking her head. "I think that's putting it mildly..."
There were a few more familiar phrases in the notebook. Cerberus (Liara shuddered to think of the experiments they'd found, of what they'd done to Admiral Kahoku), the Normandy... she'd never heard of the Illusive Man, which was likely unfortunate, but she was sure it wouldn't mean much.
"We could make this into a regular thing," Liara suggested. "The more we dream, the more likely it is I'll be able to... fill in the gaps. Like this Lazarus thing – I think I can tell you how Shepard died..."
It seemed so wrong, on so many levels, to even think something like that. Humanity's greatest defender, and the love of her life, felled by a surprise attack out of nowhere. It was almost like it'd all been planned out, all arranged to bring them to that one spot. It'd only been due to Shepard's heroism that most of them had survived, no doubt.
"She certainly came in as a mess. I'm amazed we ever managed to piece her back together." They honestly hadn't been sure if it was Shepard to begin with, as the body'd become so badly damaged that it'd been damn near impossible to tell whether it was a man or a woman. "Definitely glad we did, though. Incredible woman."
The smile on Liara's face couldn't have been more obvious, which amused Miranda perhaps a little too much. "She's impossibly amazing. She's a hero, a saviour, a lov--"
"Stopping you right there." Honestly, the less Miranda knew about Shepard's sex life, the better. "As much as I want to learn, I don't think I need to know exactly how good Shepard is in bed..."
Not that the woman wasn't attractive or anything. She wasn't typically attracted to women, but... she was one of those rare exceptions. "Anyway. Yes, we should do this more often. Just know that any talk of your sex life will mean I'll have to shut you up. By any means necessary."
Liara rolled her eyes, attending to the fairly minor bill they'd run up before getting up. "Shepard would pout, you know." And for a hero of the galaxy, she was strangely adorable when she did so.
Miranda wasn't even going to entertain that thought. Glancing outside as she stood, she couldn't shake a certain sense of foreboding. She could almost swear she felt the energy of her biotics staring to spike... maybe she was getting too 'into' the dreams. There was no way she could ever have powers like that.
It was as if something had sparked off at that thought alone. That car had seemed suspicious from the start, and now... it was years of instinct that made Miranda tackle Liara to the ground as the explosion ripped forth. She knew it was largely pointless, that they stood little-to-no chance with something as close as this but... damned if she was going to let Shepard down.
When the smoke and dust cleared, there was no telling whether they'd survived all not. The only movement from within was the briefest of bright blue flickers over Miranda's body – God only knew what'd happen from this point on.