#OriginalBlackwatch!Au

[crassussativum]

Day 5: Peace

(  @bronzeagelove told you I was gonna wiggle in a bathhouse somewhere. Didn’t go into as much detail as I’d have liked but I’ve never been to a bathhouse, it’s just not a thing here, and didn’t know how to describe it, so it’s kind of more a set piece than anything else) 

Typically being ordered to enjoy a mandatory shore-leave would have gotten on Crassus’ nerves. Being ordered to spend his free time getting to know his new partner in an off-duty setting would have annoyed him. It still did to a lesser degree but it was hard to feel anything negative when in one of Palaven’s more private bathhouses and sitting in chest deep water of the perfect temperature. Just... perfect.

Crassus almost couldn’t see Mavic through all the steam rising off the water but he knew the smaller turian was there across from him. Likely sitting as he was with his head leaned back on the edge of the low pool in all his naked glory. Water up to his chin, little thing that he was. Crassus had peaked when the clothes had come off, just curious about the physicality of the small agent with the big and deadly reputation. He wouldn’t call all the honed muscles on those ropey limbs impressive, not compared to himself, but he could still appreciate how they looked. Especially framed by Mavic’s extensive colony tattoos that covered nearly every inch of him in artful fashion.

Alright so he’d done more than just peak. He’d actively looked. Checked out. Whatever the current nomenclature was, he’d done it. And caught Mavic looking in return. Crassus knew what he looked like. He stood head and shoulders over most other turians and towered over Mavic. His muscles were bulky but honed in the same deadly way as his partner’s and he wasn’t near as decorated. Crassus only had half his colony tattoos thanks to his missing mandible and a fight that had gotten out of hand fast. 

Compared to Mavic, he wasn’t good-looking, but compared to him, Mavic wasn’t strong. That was all just surface shit and didn’t deserve more focus than Crassus had already given it when Commander Voynik wanted them to get to know each other. So here they were. Sharing shore-leave in an expensive, privately owned Palavenian bathhouse paid for out of pocket by their CO.

And Mavic, sunken into the water up to his mandibles, was purring. Crassus let himself sink a little deeper, legs stretched out comfortably. He wasn’t purring, not yet, but the feeling was there. He didn’t often get to come to bathhouses like this one. They were usually more functionality than decadence and he’d certainly never gotten into one of the private rooms before. He wondered what their CO had had in mind, exactly, with this outing. He stared at Mavic a little more and found one bright eye peaking back at him.

“What?”

“Nothing.” Crassus answered immediately. It wasn’t that Mavic made him nervous, not when he could easily -probably- snap him in half. It was that any agent that had survived being stationed on the edge of Terminus space for years and had outlived more than a few partners deserved a wary approach. Rumor- very quietly whispered -that Mavic had weeded them out one by one.

Mavic hummed and closed his eyes again, head back on the edge of the pool and exposing his throat. Crassus could just barely make out a line of scarring there. He had almost as much of that as he had tattoos.

“You just gonna keep starin’?”

Crassus blinked slowly at him. “You’re in my line of sight.”

“Turn your head then.”

His mandibles flared along his jaw and he bit his teeth together. Crassus shifted his head slightly and his gaze with it. He wouldn’t be the fourth partner Mavic lost in as many years. He wasn’t going to give the man any reason to leave him dying on some no-name rock. 

#august 2021 writing prompts #single word prompts #writing #fanfiction #Mass Effect #day 5 #OriginalBlackwatch!Au #Crassus Sativum #Mavic Virim

[crassussativum]

Day 9: Luck

Tiberius was absolutely not going to tell his dads about this. This -specifically- being the shattered faceplate of his helmet and the missing chunk on the side. And his still crossed eyes and pounding head even as he was now sitting on the shuttle back. Spirits, it was hard to wrap his head around how close he’d come to not having a head. And by obvious extension, not being alive. He had almost bit the big one.

His helmet was ruined and barely intact and wow. Just... wow. Tiberius couldn’t take his eyes from it now, he had to touch it and keep touching it to make it real. Because it did not seem real. And he couldn’t believe how lucky he’d been. 

#September 2021 writing prompts #single word prompts #writing #fanfiction #Mass Effect #day 9 #OriginalBlackwatch!Au #Tiberius Voynik #(I know these have dropped in quality and depth and idk why #i did go back to dayshifts and i'm not writing at the same times anymore and maybe that's what's fucked it up

[crassussativum]

August 2021 Writing Prompts

So during the months of October, November, December of 2020, and of January and July 2021, I posed to you all daily single word prompts. It’s been a few months since then and I have personally really missed writing so here we are again for August 2021.

Now, as always, the point is to have fun. Don’t stress about missing days or falling behind or feel like you have to make up anything you missed. This isn’t school/work, it’s just something I’m doing for fun and I hope you’ll do for fun too. So don’t stress because I won’t ^_^. Just have fun. And with all that said, this will be the same format as before, a single word prompt for all 31 days of August picked with a random word generator and ordered with a random number generator. I’ve done my best not to have any repeating words from the last several iterations of this but I make no promises!

Anyone can use this. In fact, I want you to! Go wild, write, draw, whatever creative thing it is you do! Pick and choose your words, your order if you want to! No need to tag me in creations unless you want to, I highly doubt I’ll be sharing other people’s works here because this is primarily my roleplay blog. The point is that you have fun.

Have fun! _Gadget )

1 Alarm

2 Float

3 Lush

4 Ash

5 Peace

6 Mysterious 

7 Fierce

8 Basement

9 Creepy

10 Torrential

11 Prickly

12 Limbo

13 Wreck

14 Hidden

15 Fancy

16 Ghost

17 Ship

18 Misfit

19 Exhausted

20 Scorched

21 Overgrown

22 Triumph 

23 Key

24 Obligation 

25 Gigantic

26 Bait

27 Dig

28  Collect

29 Hum 

30 Transport 

31 Impress

#august 2021 writing prompts #single word prompts #writing #daily prompts #I liked my guardian!au but it was too domestic for me #I'm going back to my original iterations of Crass and Mav for this #but still basically starting over with them again #gonna call it #OriginalBlackwatch!Au

[crassussativum]

Day 21: Overgrown

By the Spirits, he was arm-pit deep in neon-yellow grass, the pillowy and fuzzy baubles at the tips swinging back to wack him in the face every time he pushed one aside. They tasted bitter and sour at the same time and Mavic wished he didn’t know that. Crassus wasn’t having near the same issue, the grass only as tall as his waist and easily parting around the bulk of him. He wished he was half as big as his stoic partner. It was just like it had been wading through that river last week, only he wasn’t soaked to the bone too. Overgrown bastard. Mavic ground his teeth together. Usually being so short didn’t bother him, he was used to being shorter than the majority of his peers, but at least he was as tall as most folk’s shoulders. He barely came up to Crassus’ chest and he was always having to hustle to keep up with him. It was varrenshit-

Another fuzzy bulb swung backwards to invade his mouth and Mavic sputtered as the damn thing burst open into hundreds of tiny fluffs on his tongue. It was a real fight to spit it all out before it clogged his throat and a struggle to get the canteen open to help with that process. Crassus at least had the decency to wait for him while he picked cottony seeds or whatever they were off his tongue and teeth. 

“It could be worse.” Crassus said over his shoulder as he continued forward again. “We could be on Invictus. Those thousands of microscopic seeds you just inadvertently swallowed could be poisonous or otherwise toxic. You should induce vomiting just to be on the safe side.”

Mavic stared at his back with his mandibles tucked in, unsure if he was joking or not. He sure as shit wasn’t going to make himself throw up just for kicks. “I really doubt a plant is gonna be what kills me.” He hissed instead, trying to catch up to the giant. More and more of the grasses smacked at him and soon he had bits of their fluff clinging to his fringe as well as everywhere else. It was going to be a real pain to clean his armor later.

“I’m sure a fair few people have thought the same thing.” He murmured.

“Not like you have to worry ‘bout it. Fuckin’ giant.” Mavic said, batting away more of the bulbs as he stomped after his partner. A few burst open as his hand connected with them and he let out a string of colorful curses.

“By the Spirits, will you quit whining?” Crassus demanded, shooting him a glare.

“I’ve got plant seeds exactly everywhere!”

“You could have worn your helmet.”

 Mavic ripped one of the bulbs from the stem and threw it at him. He was beyond surprised to hear Crassus laugh. 

#august 2021 writing prompts #single word prompts #writing #fanfiction #Mass Effect #day 21 #OriginalBlackwatch!Au #Mavic Virim #Crassus Sativum

[crassussativum]

Day 26: Explode

In a bar on one of the inner colony outposts, Crassus was drunk. Fermented pyjack level of drunk. Head in his hand and sipping at ice water after all the horosk made no difference to the way his vision bounced or his stomach sloshed. He should have eaten something beforehand or skipped the drinking all together. But when on shoreleave... and however the rest of that saying went. He couldn’t recall at the moment.

If he hadn’t had so much to drink -or just hadn’t been drinking at all, he pointed out to himself again- he wouldn’t have engaged that inner colony punk about his outer colony paint. Invictian purple was a fine, if still loosely associated with separatism, color. His homeworld was one of the two that had held out the longest in the Unification War and some would argue the last holdout. Taetrus was still very much considered a nonconformist world. Not like Aephus. They’d surrendered in the first week. As Crassus had been all too pleased to point out to the sky-blue painted cadet less than half his size. Also drunk, just like him.

Crassus would give it to the little shit though. He packed a decent punch and some perfectly sharpened little talons. And, also, a broken nose for his efforts. And, in a way, Crassus was grateful for the horosk. Without it, he’d be able to really feel how much his severed mandible hurt. 

#September 2021 writing prompts #single word prompts #writing #fanfiction #Mass Effect #day 26 #OriginalBlackwatch!Au #Crassus Sativum

[crassussativum]

Day 25: Summer

The summer was always terrifying. Stuck inside while the storms raged with strong winds and heavy rains. Come fall, the village elders would be doing all they could to repair the roadways, to siphon water from places it had no business being, and searching for those that had gone missing. As they did every year because there was always someone stupid enough to leave their home when the storm reached its misleading zenith. 

Taren wasn’t fooled by the clear sky above her own home, the cease of rainfall and the silent jungle. The wildlife always knew when the storms were truly done. They would wander the edges, climb down from their trees and out of their burrows. They would chitter and howl and sing. They were still silent. The sky had been clear for nearly an hour and the wildlife were still hiding.

The stillness outside made Taren unbelievably anxious, left her pacing to every corner of her home to make sure the weather-proofing was holding as well as it was meant to and sealing up even the minuscule gaps. She found a family of small, plated rodents huddled in the basement beneath the stairs. Ferocious little pests, they’d only squeaked and trilled and tried to appear smaller when they’d spotted her. Taren had sealed the basement door behind herself. They were a problem for another day. Right now, they deserved to survive the storm as much as she did.

And it was coming back finally. She heard the roar of the wind in the distance, felt the charge in the air seconds before lightning struck the ground outside and what had been a clear sky turned an angry purple with the rain that fell like the appearance of a solid wall. 

#September 2021 writing prompts #single word prompts #writing #fanfiction #Mass Effect #day 25 #OriginalBlackwatch!Au #Taren Sativum

[crassussativum]

Day 24: Survival

“I dunno if I can do this anymore.” Mavic said. His mandibles hung limp and he had that far away stare in place.

Crassus glanced back over his shoulder to the outpost they had both just cleaned out. Smoke spilled from the front door. There had been a group of slavers inside and Mavic had done what he always did whenever they came across slavers. He’d toed his own personal deep end until he’d slipped over the edge. His face was streaked with blood and his gun was empty. Crassus had already taken it from his hand.

“Clean up?” He asked.

Mavic shook his head. “Blackwatch.” 

He didn’t know what to say to that, so surprised to even hear the words leave Mavic’s mouth. Crassus shifted on his feet and then showed the smaller turian his palms. Mavic’s stare shifted and locked onto them. Crassus saw him swallow hard.

“I’m afraid I’m gonna go too far.” He muttered. “That I’ll cross a line I forgot I put there.”

Crassus inclined his head in understanding. It was something he worried about too after every brush with some Terminus scum. Or one of their few survivors like Mavic. He seemed to take finding them more personally. “What do you think you should do about it?” He asked. “Before you do cross that line.”

Mavic swallowed hard again and tore his eyes away from Crassus’ hands to meet his own eyes. “I think I should leave.” He blinked a few times. “But... but I can’t do that without you.”

“You could.” Crassus said at length.

“I can’t. I don’t wanna. Not even to try it.”

Crassus inclined his head again and Mavic slipped his hand into his. 

#September 2021 writing prompts #single word prompts #writing #fanfiction #Mass Effect #day 24 #OriginalBlackwatch!Au #Crassus Sativum #Mavic Virim

[crassussativum]

Day 19: Trick

“...so stupid. Sometimes I find myself wishin’ you’d hold me down and-”

Crassus’ mandibles jerked in tightly. “I’m not like that.”

“I know. I’m glad, yeah? I just wish I was gettin’ over this shit as fast as I wanna.”

“There’s no trick to getting over this.”

In the dark, Mavic sighed. Crassus felt his chest rise high and fall flat against his arm.

“I know there’s not.” He murmured. “I know. I wish there was. I’m so... tired of strugglin’ with this. It. Whatever.”

Crassus rubbed their fingers together in return, gently, carefully. “I know.”

“It’s not even bein’ naked with someone, y’know?” His voice was quiet. “Naked I can do. Touch, I can do. Took me forever to kiss you, but I can do that now no problem.”

He smiled wanly. “You’ve already accomplished so much.”

“Thanks...” Mavic said at length. “It don’t feel like much.”

“I don’t think it ever does.”

Mavic rubbed his chin against Crassus’ shoulder. The silence between them stretched for long minutes before he spoke again. “I don’t get why it’s so hard when it’s somethin’ I wanna do. I want to and then we’re half way there, y’know,? And I can’t. It’s like a switch flips in my head and I can’t.”

He rubbed their fingers together again. “What’s your therapist say?”

Mavic snorted. “To be patient with myself.”

“She’s not wrong.”

“No shit.” He sighed heavily again. “Crass, I don’t have a third of your patience. I dunno how you put up with me. With the stop and start, stop and start over and over. I must frustrate the fuck outta you. I frustrate the fuck outta me.”

He chuckled quietly. “You don’t. For the record.”

“How? Really, how?”

Crassus slid his fingers between Mavic’s and rubbed circles along his palm. “I don’t know. You just don’t. I mean, I do get frustrated with you, yes, but not about the big things. You need time to process all that happened. That’s understandable and it will take as long as it takes and I understand that. I’m here for as long as it takes and as long as you want me here.” He squeezed Mavic’s hand. “I don’t understand, however, why you think it’s perfectly acceptable to put the toilet paper on the back of the toilet and not the holder. That’s frustrating. I know you were raised in a barn but come on.”

Mavic laughed and squeezed his hand back. “Asshole.”

He chuckled and rubbed his eyes with his opposite hand. “I love you, too.”

“Spirits know why,” He murmured and kissed his shoulder. 

#September 2021 writing prompts #single word prompts #writing #fanfiction #Mass Effect #day 19 #OriginalBlackwatch!Au #Mavic Virim #Crassus Sativum

[crassussativum]

Days 14 & 15: Putrid & Crimson

Cato wrinkled his nose and drew his mandibles in tightly against his jaw. The smell was awful. Sour, sickly sweet and metallic like.. Like he didn’t really have a comparison. He’d never smelled anything like it before. And he didn’t like how just smelling it put a slimy sort of film on his tongue like that taste right before throwing up. Beside him, Septimus cleaned all the bright red off his talons one by one.

“He wasn’t Cabal.” Cato said at length, in his tones, a careful question as to why the human had to die.

“He was Alliance.” Septimus told him simply as though it should answer the question.

It didn’t. Cato bounced a little on his toes. Looked around the alleyway he’d lured the human into. He’d lured a person to their death for no reason that he was certain. Alliance was only human military. It wasn’t Cabal, it wasn’t even Hierarchy. It was just human. And humans bled a lot. Cato backed away from the swiftly spreading pool of blood so much brighter in color than his own, so much more vibrant. Steam rose above it in the cold air. He whined in the back of his throat, staring at Septimus and waiting for an answer to his question.

Septimus stood and adjusted his hood to cover his eyes but the back-lit glow of eezo was still visible. Cato felt his mandibles vibrate in emotion he couldn’t name. 

#September 2021 writing prompts #single word prompts #writing #fanfiction #mass effect #OriginalBlackwatch!Au #Cato #Septimus #day 14 #day 15

[crassussativum]

Days 12 & 13: Instinct & Secret

Mavic couldn’t get his breathing under control. It came as shallow and rapid little puffs, little gasps. Crassus’ hand moving across his back in circles felt like a branding iron through his shirt. Intensely hot and leaving a mark. Mavic put his head between his knees and tried to force himself slow. He tried to focus. Here, now. The air smelled like exhaust fumes, ships and shuttles, cars. Their sounds encompassed him. The solid thump of active drive-cores and the whir of basic engines. Foot traffic. A woman’s heels, a soldier’s boots. The deep bass of Crassus’ whisper. Breathe. Take your time.

The fabric of his pants was more starched and stiff than he’d noticed when he put them on. Scratchy. Mavic dug his talons in. They were sharpened. The fabric parted. He felt his own skin. Cool, clammy. Spirits, he was covered in sweat. His breathing accelerated.

“It’s alright, Mavic.”

“You’re gonna get tired of sayin’ that to me.”

“I won’t.”

His breathing slowed. Evened. Crassus pressed a kiss to his fringe. Mavic keened. He couldn’t keep doing this. Hiding away from everyone but Crassus so he could break. He’d cut his fingers open again and again on his own pieces. He’d cleaned the blood from Crassus’ hands when they touched him so gently.

“It’s alright, Mavic.” 

“I love you.” He was so tired of breaking. 

#September 2021 writing prompts #single word prompts #writing #fanfiction #Mass Effect #day 12 #day 13 #OriginalBlackwatch!Au

[crassussativum]

Day 11: Launch

“THS Tarsos, you are clear to launch.”

“Copy that.” Eros flared his mandibles in a grin. 

There was nothing like that first flight. Across the board, his instruments read green, the drive core thrummed and he couldn’t even feel the vibration through the haptic interface. Spirits! She operated so smoothly he hardly had to do anything. And here his parents had cautioned an old ship was a waste of money.

Eros laughed to himself. It wasn’t about the money. It was about being one with the stars, traveling along their wavelengths, seeing them as up close as one could. You just couldn’t do that outside the pilot-seat. And Eros considered himself a damned good pilot. 

#September 2021 writing prompts #single word prompts #writing #fanfiction #Mass Effect #day 11 #OriginalBlackwatch!Au #Eros Voynik #(hate this one but I'm so fucking tired of staring at it and starting it over again and again

[crassussativum]

🌾 Describe your OC through the eyes of someone absolutely head-over-heels in love with them

For Mav/Crassus

He'd been through so much, and Crassus was one of few people that knew exactly how much. The first time Mavic had reached for his hand, he'd been so surprised that his fingers had spasmed on the way to closing around his. That first hug, Crassus had felt his heart stop as Mavic's thinner arms wrapped around his middle and he'd held so tightly... His own arms had been gentle, careful, like grasping the petal of a flower. Mavic was no flower. He was sunset colored eyes and a crooked smile, he was a quick trigger finger and a moral compass. He was still healing but he knew the importance of small steps, of far placed foot prints that were hard to see at a distance but there nonetheless. They slept beside each other nightly, Mavic's hand clasped securely in his own.

#ooc #blindfaithnisha #originalBlackwatch!Au #Mavic Virim #Crassus Sativum #(thaaaaank yoooouuu

[crassussativum]

Day 10: Camp

Mavic let the pack slide from his shoulders with a long groan. He’d let himself get out of shape, somehow, if carrying it for a few hours had already stiffened his shoulders and put a rod where his spine had been. Ridiculous, what a little time off and without routine could do to a body. Aggravating too considering how winded he was. Crassus seemed barely touched by the long trek and he had already gathered wood for the fire they would need to stay warm tonight. Hell, he’d already gotten the thing lit. 

Mavic fluttered his mandibles and dropped down beside him.

“You doing alright?” Crassus asked softly.

“Outta breath.” He muttered. “But okay. Been a long time since I’ve been campin’.”

The giant Invictian inclined his head once. “I try to go once a year while not on assignment.” He said. “My sister loves this.”

Mavic leaned back on his hands like stretching out his torso would help him breathe easier. “I... don’t get why folks do this for fun.”

Crassus flicked him a single mandible smile. “What part of this isn’t fun? There’s clear skies and fresh air. We’ll cook over an open fire. Maybe I’ll catch us a fish for dinner.”

He arched a brow. “You fish?”

“With a spear and a net.” He answered. “The village elders taught us all how to do it.” 

“Huh.” He flicked his mandibles back. “I reckon doin’ it that way could be fun.” 

Crassus smiled at him and it made his green eyes so bright. “I’ll teach you how.”

#September 2021 writing prompts #single word prompts #writing #fanfiction #Mass Effect #day 10 #OriginalBlackwatch!Au #Mavic Virim #Crassus Sativum

[crassussativum]

Day 7: Shadow

The Void whispered secrets at the edge of Septimus’ hearing. The hum in his ears answered. Biotic discharge collected along his skin. In the dark of his cell, Septimus mediated as he did every day. Eyes closed, hands resting palms up on his knees. His breathing slow and even. He resembled a sleeping figure but he was listening to the hum, to the whispers of the Void behind his eyelids. Little spots of light danced there, perhaps the glow of his biotics through his eyelids, and perhaps something else. It didn’t matter. 

At the periphery, a shadow took shape and without opening his eyes, Septimus looked at it. Took its measure and cataloged its shape. Indistinct, he determined after a moment, and moving, shifting. Hard to follow. It always revealed itself when his eyes were closed and Septimus had never looked directly at it. He knew other Cabal that had, that had lost their minds when indistinct shape took solid form. The Void didn’t like to be seen for what it was. Whatever it was.

Septimus slowed his breathing and let the shadow pass him by. A chill traveled along his skin in its wake and he lost concentration. He opened his eyes and stood, knowing better than to linger too long where the shadow could see him clearly and where whispers became words. He didn’t want to become as fanatical as the others.

#September 2021 writing prompts #single word prompts #writing #fanfiction #Mass Effect #day 7 #OriginalBlackwatch!Au #Septimus #(okay so i'm tossing in some cosmic horror just for fun #and for more exploration of turian belief systems #and for my own little bit of world building

[crassussativum]

Day 6: Expectation

“I don’t know what I expected,” Cato mumbled, his head a little low as he looked around them. Kahje. There were almost no other turians here, just drell and hanar and asari. And it was all ocean. Not like how Parthia had been with its scattering of islands. All of Kahje’s inhabited areas were beneath the waters. The hanar called it the Encompassing and Cato could see why. He felt very, very small as he looked out the viewport of the shuttle taking them lower and lower. His ears ached.

Beside him, Septimus stood at ease with his hands clasped loosely behind his back, his head a little low beneath the lip of his hood. “You expected Parthia.” He said knowingly.

The boy sighed. “I guess,” He said. “I knew that it wouldn’t be. I just thought...”

“These oceans are older. Deeper. A part of the Void.”

Cato didn’t want to think about the void or about the emphasis Septimus put on it, like it wasn’t the terrible thing that drove the Cabals mad. Septimus spoke about it like it was a real place and Cato wondered if he’d seen it during his meditations. He wondered what it looked like, what lived there, and knew that he didn’t really want to know.

He fidgeted where he stood, glancing up at Septimus, and felt a visceral discomfort at his smile. “Why here?” 

Septimus shrugged and turned away. “It called to me.” 

#September 2021 writing prompts #single word prompts #writing #fanfiction #day 6 #OriginalBlackwatch!Au #Cato Fedorian #Septimus

[crassussativum]

Day 2: Frayed

Kneeling uncomfortably on gravel, Crassus said his name again to no reaction. Mavic simply stared vacantly ahead with his mandibles hanging loose along the line of his jaw. Crassus had seen the behavior a few times in the handful of months they’d been partners but they had been episodes of sleep walking and waking nightmares. Never had Mavic done this in the field and he couldn’t figure out what had caused it.

“Mavic.” Crassus didn’t dare touch him, never entirely sure how the smaller turian would react, and his hands twitched uselessly. His instinct was to reach out, to put his hands on Mavic’s shoulders and shake him back to awareness but he still held his gun and his finger rested along the trigger. Crassus flexed his single mandible and opened a comm channel to the Commander.

“Sir.” He wasn’t certain what he should say about the situation and he was even less sure about what he should do. Mavic wasn’t a defenseless civilian he could just haul to safety, he was a skilled combatant same as Crassus was and he had a big thing about being touched. He was dangerous and in the right moments, he was deadly.

“I’m listening, Sativum.”

“Virim isn’t responding.”

“Do you have eyes on him?”

“He’s sitting on the ground here in front of me.” Crassus answered.

The Commander was silent for a long moment. “Mission status?”

“Incomplete, Sir.”

“Shit.” Commander Voynik sighed. “I’ll send another team. Get Virim out of the area however you need to. The medics will be waiting for him.”

“Yes, Sir.”

He cut communication and stared at Mavic as the smaller turian stared through him. However he got Mavic out of here, he’d have to take his gun away first. Crassus rubbed a hand over his fringe and shifted his weight. The only way to safely take the gun away was quickly and he could envision how that might go.

“Remember I’m your friend, alright?” He muttered and struck, shoved Mavic to the ground with one hand and his longer reach while grabbing the gun with the other. 

It got the predicable reaction. Mavic came back to himself with a snarl, his teeth bared and his omniblade-

“Mavic!”

Crassus could feel the heat of the omniblade centimetres from his throat and Mavic’s weight on his chest. He had no idea how he’d been able to get the upper hand so quickly when he’d been all but catatonic sitting flat on his ass seconds before.

“Mavic!” He showed the smaller turian his empty hands, the gun tossed away from them in the mad scramble and he’d never drawn his own. “I’m not going to hurt you. Just relax, please.”

He growled but pulled the omniblade away. “What the fuck Crassus.”

“By the Spirits.” Crassus let himself flop back on the ground with an expulsion of air. “You scared me, alright?” 

“Scared you? You scared me, you bastard.” Mavic climbed off him, the omniblade fading away as he paced a tight circle around his prone form. “The fuck you thinkin’ jumpin’ me like that? I coulda taken your head clean off.”

But he hadn’t, he’d stopped in the last crucial second and Crassus was beyond thankful for that. He pushed himself up to sitting, leaned back on his hands. “You went all...” He didn’t know how to explain when he didn’t know what had caused the episode or even what it was. “Distant. You were just sitting there staring off into space and you didn’t respond to me at all. I thought... I don’t know what I thought. I called the Commander and he said bring you back.”

“You called the Commander?” Mavic hissed. “Fuck, Crassus.”

“I didn’t know what else to do!” He scoffed back at him, rising to his feet. “By the Spirits, Mavic. It was like when I found you wandering the compound. You were completely gone and I have no idea why.”

“Fuck.” He hissed again, running both hands over his fringe repeatedly. “Fuck I... I dunno what happened either.”

“Clearly.” Crassus retrieved their guns and faltered on giving Mavic’s back. He didn’t think that was a good idea. “The Commander ordered us both back. He’s got the medics waiting for you and another team coming in.”

Mavic gaped at him. “The medics? Nah, fuck nah.”

“Yes.” He stared back. “What would you have had me do, Mavic? If you had found me like that, what would you have done?”

“Slapped some damn sense into you and dragged you to your feet.”

Crassus flared his mandible. “You would have taken my head off if I had done that to you.”

“I...” Mavic’s mandibles fluttered and he looked away. “...okay probably.”

“No probably about it. Mavic,” He heaved a sigh. “I know what you’ve been through, alright, and not that long ago. I don’t think reactions like that are abnormal but they are dangerous when my whole job is to keep you covered in the field. I can’t have you resisting me when it puts us both in danger.”

“I know.”

“Look at me.”

Mavic lifted his head and Spirits, his completely open expression had Crassus swallowing hard. What had happened to him in the Terminus lay unspoken between them, all the damage it had caused that was starting to show itself in force. Crassus felt an almost overwhelming urge to reach for him, but again, he didn’t dare.

“I’ll give you a signal.” He said and pointedly showed Mavic his opened hands, watched his eyes zero in on them. “Whatever you need in those moments, I’m receptive to. If you need me to listen, I will. If you just need me to be there, I will be. Whatever helps you, alright?”

“Why?” His voice wavered and cracked with suspicion and something else buried in the tones.

“Spirits Mavic, you’re both my partner and my friend.” 

#September 2021 writing prompts #single word prompts #writing #fanfiction #Mass Effect #day 2 #OriginalBlackwatch!Au #Mavic Virim #Crassus Sativum #Ignatius Voynik