//------------------------------// // The Pilot // Story: Mass Effect: Element of Kindness // by CommanderApplejack //------------------------------// Chapter 29 The Pilot Apologize to Joker 50% Although Fluttershy contemplated calling Shepard, she ultimately decided against it as there was a good chance the commander would be busy tracking Liara’s mother. So, with that option not available, she chose to head up to the cockpit to see a certain pilot whose ship she had slightly damaged. To be honest she hadn’t really spoken to the flight lieutenant yet and other than the few jokes she had heard him make, didn’t know anything about the human. The CIC seemed to be as busy as ever as Fluttershy trotted through it, none of the working officers really batting an eye at her as she passed. In the cockpit, Joker was sitting in the pilot’s chair tapping buttons on the holographic displays. Fluttershy opened her mouth to announce her presence to the man but before she could say anything the chair was already turning around. “Finally come to apologize?” He said, his tone of voice clearly betraying that he was not amused at the pegasus’s presence. Fluttershy realized that since Joker had access to every system in the Normandy he had probably seen her coming from a mile away. “Yes,” Fluttershy answered, Joker mockingly acting as if he were thinking. “Accepted, now get out of my cockpit,” He said with a sneer, Fluttershy flinched back but didn’t turn away from the pilot. “Why?” Fluttershy questioned. “You’re clearly angry at me.” “Because you don’t have a clue of the kind of things a cripple has to do to get respect for anything!” He shouted, Fluttershy looked him over but didn’t see anything that would indicate the pilot was crippled. Sure he wasn’t as impressively built as Shepard but nothing truly seemed wrong with the pilot, although maybe a part of his body was dysfunctional? “Uhm, crippled?” she questioned, Joker groaned in frustration. “For fuck sake… I have something called Vrolik syndrome, it makes my bones so brittle that if I put too much force on them then SNAP!” Fluttershy flinched back. ”They break like a twig. But that’s not the worst of it, even though I’m the best damned pilot this side of Arcturus station every time you achieve something some asshole comes forward and says you were given it because of your condition because-” “-you would be too weak to do it yourself,” Fluttershy finished for the pilot, “They write you off as someone who’s too fragile to do anything and leeches off the sympathy of others without having to work for your achievements.” “Yeah,” Joker said stunned. “How did you know?” “Story of my life,” Fluttershy sadly replied. “There are a few ponies that know I’m not as fragile as I look, but even so, they still act if I’m about to shatter. Yes, I might be really shy but I stand up for what I believe when it counts.” “You don’t seem so shy now,” Joker noted. “Liara… ‘helped’ me get to the bottom of why I’m so shy. I’ve been dealing with it for the first time in my life,” Fluttershy told Joker. After having the old memory resurface and standing up for herself, she didn’t feel as burdened by it anymore. “Guess that’s nice.” Joker stated, “But that brings me back as to why I’m so angry. You damaged my baby, the only ship with a crew that values me for my skill as a pilot and doesn’t write it off as charity. Look I really don’t want to be angry at you and I know you usually don’t act as stupid as you did because I’ve seen you over the security cams. How about we start over, you don’t damage my ship and I won’t hold your mistake against you.” He offered, holding out his hand, Fluttershy smiled and shook it. “Well, I’ve got to get back to work here. Shepard’s apparently going to need the MAKO soon and I still need to get it cleared and out of the Normandy.” “No problem, I’ll see you around,” Fluttershy said. Joker turned his chair back around to face his consoles in the cockpit. With the conversation over, Fluttershy turned around and made her way back through the CIC and into the crew section of the ship. Without anything she could really do and almost everyone interesting she could talk to off the ship Fluttershy decided to go back down to Tali. The quarian had been about to teach her about cover before her screw up after all. As she reached engineering she didn’t find Tali standing at her usual spot at the console close to the drive core. As Fluttershy also hadn’t seen the quarian in the crew section of the ship she made the educated guess that she was probably in the workshop. Since Fluttershy didn’t have access to the workshop in particular she walked up to the wall and knocked on it. “Tali? Are you in there?” she asked, hoping that the wall was thin enough to allow sound through in the first place. To the pegasus’ relief the wall slid open, revealing Tali tinkering with her disassembled shotgun. “Hi Fluttershy, what do you need?” Tali asked while she continued inspecting a part of the shotgun for any flaws. “Well are you still up to teach me about cover usage?” Fluttershy asked, Tali stopped to look at the pegasus. “I guess I could do that,” She said, putting down the shotgun part and starting to quickly reassemble the device. “But we could also try to work out how you could effectively use those omni-blades on your wings or I could teach you how to use your omni-tool in an offensive or defensive manner,” Tali told Fluttershy, the pegasus thinking for a moment. I guess figuring out a way of using the omni blades would be useful or how to use my omni-tool to maybe hack? Though I’d still have to learn about cover at some point. 1. Learn to use cover 2. Practice with omni-blades 3. Learn how to use [Tech] [Vote link]