92 Chapter 91

The Entertainment Center is like a nice home theater room, but instead of the crappy movie theater chairs, there are couches and recliners. Suki had selected to get a library of media to do with this room. I skipped the movies and web directly to the video games. It was nicely sorted so I found Mass Effect very quickly. The only problem is I only found Mass Effect 1. I looked around a bit more depth and found a lot of sequels we're missing. This is incredibly annoying, but I'm guessing all missing sequels correspond to potential future jumps. Seeing shelves full of shitty horror franchises has never made me so happy.

I set up Mass Effect on the big screen and brought Toph and Suki over to the couches to watch and play so they could get a better idea for where we're going. Toph unfortunately didn't get the full experience, but the game was dialogue heavy enough for her to still get what was happening. Suki also helped Toph by explaining things in terms that they both understood better.

Even with it being the only thing we did for most of the day it still took a full week to play through the game. Mass Effect is a long game normally but add in that Suki and Toph have never seen a video game before and they asked questions about almost everything the beating the game took significantly longer.

"Wait that's it what happens next?" Toph asked

"There are two more games in the series. The second one isn't as important as the 3rd story-wise, because that's when the Reapers fully invade the galaxy."

"So we just appear somewhere as the game starts?" Suki asked

"No, we start 2 years before that in one of a handful of locations"

"So, we don't get to pick when and are only able to pick and a handful of where. What do we get to pick?" Toph asked with a bit of annoyance.

"We get to pick the who. What race we are, what background we have, our talents, abilities, and class"

"Wait we get to pick race?" They both excitedly questioned.

"Um yeah..."

"I call Krogan! I'm going to be krogan"

"Toph..."

"Kroooooooogan" Fine Toph wants to be Krogan.

"Suki any idea what you want to be?"

"Ooh, I'm torn. I really like Asari, but Tali was super cool."

"This might help you make a decision. Quarians are very human-like under their suit. They're slightly paler with very dark black markings on their skin, but besides that and the 3 claw hands, they are basically human. Another thing you might want to consider is that Asari are all super old. If you get some of those memories they might change you, but if you don't get those memories you might have a hard time acting like someone who is 500 years old."

"That did help I'm going to be Quarian what about you Silva?"

"I'm going to be an AI"

"Like the Geth?" "Like the Reapers?"

"Yep like them" I confirmed ignoring their looks of uncertainty "So now that we've got a general idea of what we want let's do this. I say while pulling out the packet

"Okay, first things first is backgrounds. I'll be a drop in. That's the only real way for an AI to make sense"

"I'll be a Quarian scientist"

"Krogan soldier"

"Alright, next is location and we will be starting on Illium. It's an Asari controlled merchant planet. After that is race which we've already decided. Now it's time to pick perks. There are race and background perks. You can pick outside of what you chose to be, but it will be more expensive.

As an AI I will take the perk that lets me know when I'm being restricted, the perk that gives me a humanish robot body, and the perk that make me Reaper Tech."

"Umm... Alright, I'll go next I'll take the perk that lets me leave my suit without getting sick and the one that makes me a genius inventor."

"Now me. I'll take Redundant Nervous System? It lets me enter a blood rage and ignore pain. I will also take Okeer's test subject. Whatever that means."

"It's from..." I started to tell Toph but she cut me off.

"I don't care it sounds cool"

"Fine then next is background perks I'll take having a really nice sounding voice, becoming an expert pilot, proficiency in a 2nd class, and Specter training. Specter training gives me access to a third class, mastery over all of my classes, and improves all of my gear."

"I'll just take the free perks that make me prettier and smarter," Suki says with a bit of sass.

"I will take looking better as well, the perk that makes me more mentally adaptable, and I'll also take specter training even though I won't be getting a second class."

"For classes, I'll take all 3 of the biotic classes Adept, Sentinel, and Vanguard."

"I'll just take Sentinel. It might help me with techy stuff, but I also don't want to completely miss biotics."

"For me, it's going to be Vanguard a mix of pure combat and biotics. I'm really interested to see how I can mix biotics with earth bending. Oh, the rocks I'll be able to throw." I hadn't thought about that combo, but gravity control and earth bending seem to fit together unexpectedly well.

"Just two more parts. First is the actual stuff we can start with..."

"I'm done I'll just grab the free stuff. " Toph added immediately.

"Fine then you get a language translator chip and some casual clothes. We all get the language chip for free, Suki you also get a VI, and I get something called a Cipher. Which is somewhat vague but allows me to what shepherd did at the beginning of the first game without having my brain scrambled. It does other things but I'm not sure how far they extend. The final thing I'm going to get is a space station and I'm going to import my vault into it. Which will make it more like a research facility and make it more self-sufficient.

"Wait you said you can do the thing Shepard did? Well, then I'm going to get a beacon that should help. Maybe?"

"Thanks that sounds interesting, but now we have the bad part. We all broke our budget so we need to take drawbacks to bring us into the positives. I will take a personal assassin trying to interfere with me, facial scarring, difficulty sleeping, and the Reapers can now use any races for husks. Oh it looks like that last one applied to both of you as well, so neither of you needs to take any"

"Sweet sounds good"

"Wait!" Suki exclaimed as she grabbed the packet. " Okay, I'm going to take another inconvenient assassin. Not that any assassin is convenient, but... Uhh. Right with those extra points I'm going to take two extra racial perks. First I'm going to take the Rachni perk that makes me physically and biotically stronger. Then I'm going to take the Drell perk which improves strength, speed, and acrobatics. With that alone, I'll be one of the strongest and fastest Quarians"

"Oooh, that Rachni one sounds good. These drawbacks go away at the end of the jump right?"

"Yep"

"Fine, then it looks like I'll be taking a few more things. We now have a third assassin, I'll be having trouble sleeping, and will have some facial scars. Then I'll take the same two Suki did plus the free racial perk I skipped originally. It makes it so my scars are attractive to other people."

"Wow. Okay then is everyone sure about what they selected?" I asked. I saw them nod resolutely. "Then let's start."