Mass Effect: Glorious Shotgun Princess (ME/Exalted)

Stabbing Krogans in bar fights most likely.

She's dead so she isn't getting tapped to become a Spectre, that's probably going to happen to Kaiden.

“What is that?”

In the past few days, Tali'Zorah vas Neema nar Rayya has concluded that she has been asking this question far too much. Whether it is the giant spider in the shuttle bay, or the spider girl who seems to like hugging her, or the varied other things she has seen which may involve spiders, she is asking this question. A lot.

In this case, she is directing this question to the large brass globe hovering in front of her. Arms retract into the eye of the thing, with a sound that does, indeed, sound like a welding torch entering a very squishy eye.

“It is a project of mine, Tali,” Autochthon volunteers, “I have concluded that there are not enough automatons on this ship, and wish to correct this. Additionally, these will serve to supplement security forces in case of a ship to ship boarding.”

Tali tilts her head. Automaton, yes. But not obviously synthetic except for the golden skin. It is quite lifelike, and quite human, and quite...appealing, she will admit. Well muscled, handsome, tall and regal. She can see exposed circuitry on its armor like pectorals and biceps which are bigger than her head. Keelah, she's staring at it.

She can't help but stare at it. It reminds her of many people, she will admit. Especially the face. Chiseled, handsome, but not young. And not old. Fatherly and brotherly at the same time. It reminds her of her father, it reminds her of Alenko. It reminds her of Garrus, of all people. It even reminds her of Shepard.

“Okay, better question,” she says, “Who is it?”

Autochthon turns back to her. The brass ring of his iris spins. A habit, she has noticed, that he does when he is thinking. “It is an old friend of mine. A project I once worked on, that was taken by my kin and made into something greater than I intended. A reminder that, when we were at peace we could create wonders.”

Tali nods. She rocks back and forth on her heels, glancing at the synthetic and back at the god. “I see. A friend of yours? Anyone we ran into on Deus?”

“No. We would not have. Shepard may have seen him when her exaltation activated, however. He would always send visions to the Zeniths, even if he wasn't aware if they were in Creation, or not. He was always like that.”

Tali blinks.

“Wait.” She glances at the incomplete figure, then back at Autochthon. “That sounds suspiciously like he was connected with whatever Shepard's magic bullshit powers are.”

“Yes. He is. Not the source, but more the initial activation.” A pause. A burst of steam escapes the orb with a sound similar to a sigh. “I may have misspoke, though. I believe our relationship was less that of friends, and more that he would probably not have had me killed.”

“That doesn't sound friendly.”

“In all fairness, I was at best thoughtlessly inconsiderate at the height of my power.” A whirring, and the orb drops. Tali's omnitool flickers, and the holographic orb appears. “I am trying to change that. I am not very successful, though. Arrogance is a necessity when one is as brilliant as I.”

Tali blinks. “Yes, you do need to work on the arrogance.”

“Tali, I will remind you that I am an architect of reality. I drew up blueprints of causality and fate and connected reality to them. Not this reality, but another one. So no, I don't.”

Tali rolls her eyes, glancing at the golden synthetic. “Fine, we'll leave it at that. Did your friend have a name?”

“Yes.” Tali walks, the doors to this corner of the once-crew quarters shutting as Joker announces their arrival at the system. “He was named Sol.”
-
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Chapter 9:
Of Infinite Numbers
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As I know almost nothing about Exalted, please tell me that he is not the model that humanity is based off of.

And is really enjoying the fact that everytime I've gotten online this week there has been an update just posted.

Sweet yummy story goodness.

Also given the higher state of Reaper-Tech in this story will they be showing up en-mass earlier than in Canon?

Hey, who said military service for citizenship wasn't already implemented?

There is a thing in psychology where gradual exposure to fear stimuli will gradually remove you of that fear.

So yeah, giant spider girl hugging Tali will cure her of arachnophobia.


What does the giant spider girl look like anyways?

Wait a minute. "These." Not this. Oh goodness.

...Well, I imagine you could make a pretty good Luna out of the nightmares of the thousands of races DM has encountered over the eons...

And of course replicas of the Maidens are likely to just show up without any obvious origin.

This crew is getting more and more interesting, whether it likes it or not.

Other way around. Sol choose that appearance after the War to honour humanity.

-------------
Epsilon

Get the various glories of the most high exalted books. They're really cheap and really, really good. They give a wonderfully good look at what the various incarna are like. Sol, Luna, the five maidens. Humanising them at the same time as they make them "holy fuck" terrifying.

Well then, the conversation between Tali and Autochthon will not be as weird as I expected...
It will still be...interesting...

Could you PM me with what I should look for, because I tried my local game stores and there was nada,

Of course I live in a middle of nowhere called Idaho......

Sol's true form is basically an infinitely radiant ball of boiling, roiling, glowing (etc) magma, which nobody but Luna has ever directly looked at without suffering damage from it.

The four-armed, impossibly manly human is just a necessary disguise.

On a related note, Autochthon actually does need to learn of humility now, because he is no longer Autochthon the Primordial. He is no longer the Architect of Reality, but his memories. Similarly, Deus is not Autochthon and similarly not entitled to such arrogance. HOWEVER, old autochthon? Yes, he is free to be arrogant. For when he and his kin were lost, he created a bridge to Nowhere, so that he and his kin would know where to go - anywhere but along the bridge.

And on that bridge to nowhere is a traveler.

(And do you know what things are synonyms for 'traveler' and 'nowhere' in Exalted? 'Viator' and 'Nullspace'.)

The Firefox extension DownloadHelper to get the video, Pazera Free Audio Extracter to pull the music out of it, and from there I dunno.

Or get the album 'Invincible' by Two Steps From Hell, which is where the track is from.

Can you pm me the titles of these too? :3

That helps, almost everything so far I have been able to pick out from context in the story, but this kinda surprised me.

Oh, and I think just quadrupled my posts on SB so far this year, all of which have been on this thread

Edit: Doubled them, sorry

So. Is this Autobot remaking his old pet project..after Theion stole his tool cupboard together with the prototype previously?

Glories Of The Most High.

It should be noted that a considerable number of the smaller Exalted books are PDF exclusive. Glories is one of them.

So there's now a squad of four-armed golden robo-Jacobs acting as internal security on the Normandy.

Something tells me Kasumi doesn't mind at all and that EDI will at some point ask if Auto can make something similar for her.


As for the whole "drunk Shepards and the Doctor", I hope someone is recording all of the intercom chat. Hello blackmail/shaming material.

On the other hand, attempting to blackmail a Shepard is usually not conclusive to good health and a long lifespan.


Another bit for Shapeshifting!Garrus
*****************************************************
Mordin: "... scale itch."

Shepard: "Scale itch?"

Garrus, looking rather ashamed and embarrassed: "Look, you get weird impulses when you shapeshift, okay?"

Mordin: "And miss Chambers?"

Shepard: "Kelly too?"

Garrus, scratching the back of his head and grinning: "I may or may not have eaten an Asari merc at some point."
*****************************************************

In all fairness, Autochthon's insane scheme of downloading his memories into a god basically means that the old Autochthon did survive in any way but the most basic. This god has the memories, personality, and drive that was the old Autobot. So he did survive his fetich death by being insane, inventive, and not considering whether or not something should be done.

In essence, by being Autochthon.

Miranda Lawson: Heroic Mortal?

You know that Quarian with Autochton in her Omnitool? ...right. That's more Tony Stark grade, I think.

And the spiderbot girl who is just so darn enthusiastic, you can't help but be endeared to her.

<.<
>.>

I'm pretty sure that Sol Invictus is purely a fanname.

Something tells me what Auto will really enjoy extranet access if/when he stumbles on all the science-fiction, giant robot fiction and similar material online.

"Terminators? Nice concept! Less to worry about design aesthetics and adds psychological warfare elements. Covering it in meat is a touch of genius too! Must talk to Wuffles."

Doubt it. All that stuff was his every day life.

I figure his technical title is Ignis Divine, his job title is the Unconquered Sun, but his nickname is Sol. Which makes Shepard wonder why this other-universal sungod has the same name as the latin name for the Sun.

Because some things are universal. Like catgirls. *nods*