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[airraid]

Player Info
Name: Tsu
OOC Journal: dickbiscuit
Over 18? Yup.
Email/IM/Plurk: aim: techburst | plurk: sensesgaveway
Current characters: None

Character Info
Name: Flt. Lt. Jeff "Joker" Moreau

Canon: Mass Effect

Age: 31 as of the events that take place in Mass Effect 3.

Canon/AU/CR AU: Canon.

Reference: Joker on the Mass Effect wiki, as well as a reference for the Mass Effect 3 setting.

History: His history is mapped out pretty well on the wiki, but if you have any additional questions or need anything clarified, lemme know!

Major decisions from all three games are noted below.

mass effect
→ paragon male shepard
→ romanced liara
→ sacrificed the council, saved the fleet
→ talked saren into suicide
→ destroyed saren's husk
→ nominated captain anderson to the council

noveria
→ convinced qui'in to testify
→ anoleis arrested
→ rachni queen released
→ destroyed the hot labs

feros
→ aided the colonists of zhu's hope
→ rescued lizbeth
→ killed jeong
→ rescued colonists
→ killed the thorian, saved shiala
→ colony saved

virmire
→ talked urdnot wrex down
→ ashley williams sacrificed
→ kirrahe saved

mass effect 2
→ all dossiers completed, crewmembers recruited
→ all loyalty missions completed
→ defeated the shadow broker
→ destroyed the alpha relay
→ romanced tali
→ rescued everyone in the normandy's crew that had been taken (no missions completed before traveling to collector base.)
→ suicide mission completed with entire squad intact
→ destroyed infant reaper

mass effect 3
→ cured the genophage
→ allowed legion to complete the data upload, quarians called off their attack on the geth
→ geth achieved individuality
→ shot udina instead of allowing kaidan to do so
→ aided jack and her kids at grissom academy
→ discovered the origin of the leviathans (and recruited their help in the war)
→ helped aria retake omega
→ romanced kaidan
→ lost mordin
→ lost thane
→ krogans and turians united (god finally)
→ rachni queen spared (again)
→ prothean javik found on eden prime and recruited
→ synthesis ending

Canon Point: After Shepard helps Aria retake Omega, and is then on the way to assault the Illusive Man's base.

World Information: (So, you'll notice that this section is pretty much identical to the setting written for the game itself. Before you reject me outright – I already checked with Larissa and she said that I could use it because I wrote it. She did do some editing, and I took out what she edited and reworded it myself, and I added a few things because I have a tendency to vomit words everywhere, but it's still pretty much the same. Any questions, holla.)

You're in the future. It's 2186. The human race has only just recently become capable of intergalactic travel, and are working on expanding their horizons. As such, there are many alien races - such as the turians, asari and krogan - to be dealt with, all of which have something to offer. Whether it's information-gathering, technology or just pure muscle, chances are that whatever it is you're looking for, there is a species capable of helping you. Technology as a whole is on the up and up, giving rise to the use of things such as omni-tools - used by both civilians and military personnel for a variety of operations - that are useful when things like decryption, hacking or repair are needed. The preferred method of travel is either by shuttle of ship, depending on the distance being traveled, which is where the mass relays come into play.

Faster-than-light travel means the use of the mass relays, which allows travel between neighboring systems much simpler and faster than it would have been in previous years. The relays themselves operate by utilizing a core of element zero, allowing for pretty much instantaneous travel between systems that would have otherwise taken years or even decades. The mass relay network itself is supposedly the work of the ancient Protheans, and is considered their greatest achievement. It connects every system in the known galaxy. (Talk about one hell of a network, huh? Sheesh.) Except you know what really happened? It was the Reapers that constructed the network long before, and the Protheans were simply the ones to discover it. But we'll talk more about the Reapers later. They're not that important right this second.

There are many governing bodies, though the most well-known of them has to be the Citadel Council, being the sole body in control of the entirety of Citadel space. While the Council does consist of ambassadors from the asari, turians, salarians, and humans, all three of them have separate governments on their homeworlds - as do many other species as well. There are also the Spectres – agents chosen by the Citadel Council to provide a variety of services, up to and including the security of lives all across the galaxy. They answer only to the Council, and are given pretty much free reign over anything else they choose to do in their missions. This, of course, only covers the legal government agencies - which is where the human-based paranilitary group Cerberus as well as the Omega station come in.

Cerberus is a group led by The Illusive Man, whose general belief is that humanity deserves a greater role in the galactic community. They're just about as anti-alien as you can get without being an outright racist about it, and with their seemingly endless cache of resources, they can do pretty much whatever they want. Here, as well, basic morality doesn't play much of a part in any decisions made, and is the reason both the Citadel Council and Systems Alliance - the Alliance being the representative body of human space - have declared them as nothing more than a terrorist group and will prosecute any known agents as they see fit.

Omega is a force all on its own. A haven for criminals and terrorists and the like, the only government on the station itself is that of the asari Aria T'Loak. It's the galaxy's "dark side," so to speak -- any illegal service or merchandise you might be looking to find, you'll find it on Omega. Need somebody offed without the trail coming back to you for blame? All you need to do is hire one of the many mercenary groups for the right price and they'll do anything you like. Have a need for some red sand, or possibly a weapon mod that you can't find anywhere else? You bet your ass you'll find it on Omega -- just be ready to pay for it.

Needless to say, the universe as a whole is up for exploration. If you have a ship, and a crew, you can travel as far as your resources will take you - but there's just one more thing that needs to be taken into consideration. The galaxy is currently in danger of being wiped out by an ancient race of machines known as the Reapers, and they threaten everything - and we do mean everything - that you may hold dear. They don't give a damn about any organic life beyond wanting to exterminate it all, and that puts a damper on things, doesn't it?

There were also the Collectors, but .. yeah, thanks to Shepard, we don't have to worry about them anymore. Which you should be thankful for, all things considered – because they're not pretty to look at. They're not very nice, either. But then again .. you can't really say something that used to be a batarian and is now a mutated mess of gross tumor-looking things coming up to eat you is very nice, now can you?

Spoilers: nope. Anyway.

Basically, all you really need to know about the Mass Effect universe is that there are aliens. And really awesome technology. And hanar/asari porn. And a race of sentient machines that want to end all organic life as we know it and start a whole new cycle. Pretty simple, right? Of course it is. If you have any questions, please direct them to the nearest Avina terminal. She'll answer any questions you may possibly have.

Personality: Contrary to his nickname, Joker was not a very happy, smiling kid when he was growing up. In the beginning of the first game, he is very quick to make sure Shepard takes note of the fact that all of the commendations he earned during flight school were not just given to him because of his illness. While it might sound like he's bragging when he rambles on about surpassing all of his peers and even some of the flight instructors, he really is just telling the truth. He didn't want to be the kid that everyone felt sorry for, didn't want to be known simply as the sick little kid that couldn't walk, and so worked as hard as he could to make sure everyone would remember him for the things he'd done. He is not the type to ever take anything for granted, or to take what he thinks as hand-outs just because he's not as healthy as the other members of the Normandy's crew.

While the fact that he is quick to boast his skill makes him come off as arrogant, that is actually quite far from the truth. He has never seen the merit in embellishing, though he never has had to - because he really was the best of the best while he was in flight school. The fact alone that Shepard places so much implicit trust in his abilities says a lot, and Joker takes it to heart when his commander says something about believing in his skill to get them where they need to go, or to make sure nothing will happen to them while he and his squad are away from the ship on a mission. Joker takes great pride in his abilities, honing his skill to the sharpest that he can, just so he'll be able to do all the things his commander expects him to be able to do, and to not let him down in the process.

Joker isn't, all told, the most personable member of the Normandy's crew. He can be quoted as saying that Shepard should "ask .. a people-person" with regards to crew morale and things like that, and it's more than apparent that he is much more comfortable staying in the cockpit and watching the controls on his console than with dealing with people on a regular basis. This doesn't mean by any stretch that he can't deal with people - just that he prefers not to, most of the time. He would much rather work solo, if given the choice, which might have been a contributing factor in his decision to go to flight school in the first place, but that is all pretty much up to speculation, since we don't know much about his life prior to his joining the Alliance.

He is very quick-witted, and has a very sharp tongue. On more than one occasion in the second game, he can be heard making rather cutting remarks with regards to the ship's new AI, EDI. (He doesn't even acknowledge the AI as more than an 'it' until he has to go to all the trouble of completely unlocking her controls when he needs her help to take the ship back from the Collector invasion.) More often than not, he would much rather give a sarcastic quip in response to a direct question unless it somehow involves how the Normandy is peforming. He normally isn't very chatty, but he's very quick to give his opinion on certain things, one of which being the various crew members Shepard picks up along the way with the dossiers The Illusive Man gives him. (He makes offhand comments about Jack being crazy, says Jacob is way too nice for how many ways he knows how to kill people, so on and so forth.) And even given the fact that he previously gave his loyalty to the Alliance and all that it stood for, when he takes up with Cerberus, it seems he develops a bit of respect for them - or at least the operatives that were involved with the Lazarus Project to bring Shepard back from the dead. (Perhaps, though, this tells more of his loyalty to the commander himself than anyone else.)

Also, while it does seem that he is outwardly callous, ornery and generally difficult to deal with on occasion - he did build something of a bond with the SR-1's crew. When they lose a crewmember on Virmire, he deals with it in his own way, becoming more introspective than anyone is sure to have ever seen him, saying that he needs some time on his own to grieve the loss. It might come as something of a surprise that he is actually a caring individual - but rarely allows anyone to get close enough to him to see that side of him. (In that respect, he is a bit like Jack, but his defensive tendencies in that respect come more from not wanting to be coddled just because of his disease when he was younger; not being mistreated, as it was in her case.)

One of the largest things that has shaped him as a character (at least recently, with regards to his canon-point) has to be the attack on the SR-2 by the Collectors when Shepard and his crew are off-ship on a mission. When EDI informs him that there was a virus in the IFF that ends up transmitting their position and a Collector ship shows up, at first he blames the AI for not being able to detect and wipe it out from the very beginning, keeping the whole situation from happening in the first place - but he sobers up quickly enough when the AI tells him what he needs to do to allow her to retake the ship. (Even if he balks at the idea of giving her complete control, he knows that it's what needs to be done.) Watching his fellow crewmembers fall at the hands of the Collectors making their way through the ship really does a number on him, but he manages to get EDI the power she needs to purge the Normandy of its unwanted guests. When she tells him that no crewmembers remain, he can't help but feel there might have been more he could have done to save them, even if ultimately his mission is seen as a success. At its end, when EDI asks him if he is feeling all right, there is a defeated look that flickers across his face as he makes his way out of Engineering. The fact that he flatly replies with "no" gives insight to just how hard it was on him, even though he managed to save the ship.

There is one good thing that comes from the Collector invasion, though - given all the trouble Joker had to go to in order to give EDI control of the Normandy in the first place, he discovered a newfound respect for her along the way. At the end of the encounter, he can be quoted as finally calling the AI "her" and "she" instead of "it." Joker is much more open to having her in control of the ship now, even if Shepard wonders if his pilot is worried that she might end up replacing him, as she has in the absence of the rest of the Normandy's crew. Joker has no problem at all with sharing the responsibilities, since he's found out that they both operate better when they work together. They even go so far as to joke with one another, where before it wasn't much more than pranks pulled from either side.

All told - yes, sometimes Joker can be difficult to deal with. He's sarcastic, blunt and doesn't usually give much though to what comes out of his mouth before it does. (Whether in regards to himself or whether or not it might come off as .. a little too much for someone else.) He takes his job aboard the Normandy very seriously, will execute every task to the best of his ability, but he does know how to let go every once in a while and amuse himself. (Usually, it entails messing with EDI, participating in an ongoing prank war between the two of them.) He is extremely loyal to anyone he deems worthy enough - in this case, his loyalty lies with Commander Shepard and the decisions he makes - and it takes a lot for him to lose that faith. He may have a few qualities that make him come off as more than just a little obnoxious from time to time, but he is a good guy underneath it all - even if his sense of humor tends to lack in some cases.

There is a small change – or maybe it's more of a shift – in his personality as far as the events in the third game go. While he forges something of an alliance with EDI in the second game, when the AI gains the use of a robotic body In the third, he comes to see her as even more of an individual instead of just an AI. They build something of a relationship and, taking into consideration what Shepard tells either of them on the matter, either follow through with a romance or remain friends. This little tidbit doesn't however, change his core personality.

Abilities, Weaknesses, and Power Limitations: First and foremost, Joker is an excellent pilot. Having been able to surpass both his peers as well as some of his instructors in flight school, he boasts being the best pilot in the Alliance Fleet - and given the maneuvers he pulls off even just in the first game, such as dropping the Mako from the Normandy onto Ilos with next to no landing space, it could be said that it's not just his ego that gives him the confidence to say that about himself. (Never mind that he was able to get the Normandy through the entire confrontation with Sovereign with barely any damage taken at all.) Given his health, most of his abilities are centered around piloting, and thus he stays on the Normandy's bridge - though he is rather skilled with an assault rifle, as is seen at the end of the game when he takes it upon himself to defend the ship as Shepard and the rest of his squad make their way back from setting the Collector base to explode.

He is very smart, very quick-witted, and can make decisions on the fly if he needs to - though he prefers to be able to think things through. (EDI also claims that he works better under stress, much to his dismay.)

As far as his limitations go, he does have Vrolik Syndrome - which means his bones are basically hollow and prior to receiving an upgrade in the second game, he could only get around with the aid of crutches or his leg braces and even then, he couldn't get around very well. With the upgrade he can get around under his own steam, but he tends to move very slowly. Walking is still rather difficult, but at least he doesn't have to use the crutches anymore. (Don't ask him to dance unless you enjoy the sound of shattering shin bones. Seriously.)

Inventory: One (1) Alliance-issue uniform (complete with those standard-issue shorts that he hates so much. sorry, kiddo. cerberus ain't funding you no mo'.)
One (1) hat that covers his terrible bedhead (or may just be the cause of it, who the hell knows.)
One (1) credit chit with 427 credits on it (because let's face it – kid ain't good at saving money.)
One (1) issue of Fornax (.. no comment.)
Pocket lint
A zest for life
A charming personality

Appearance: Nothing spectacular – just like a guy in his thirties with a beard and a hat. Except this is the best picture ever. Of all time.

Samples
Log Sample: "We can save the Normandy, Mr. Moreau, but you must help me.

Give me the ship."

"What? You're crazy!"

His heart was racing. Even with the constant thrum of background noise behind him in the CIC, the only thing he could focus on was the sound of the blood pounding in his ears, an angry, erratic rush of sound matched by that of his heart. A glance over his shoulder, and then another, and he could see the other members of the crew standing at the ready, prepared to defend the ship with their lives -

He needed to move. Just take a deep breath and go. You're a fucking sitting duck if you stay here.

Okay. Okay.

One - Christ, those goddamn things are ugly. Scions? That what they're called? Wonder if anyone's ever tried telling them they need to moisturize. Bet that's what started this whole thing in the first place. Somebody got offended and decided to take it out on humanity. Jeez.

Two - Kenneth still owes me a hundred credits from that last poker game we played .. huh. We make it through this, and I'll let it slide this time .. but I'm never trusting one of his bluffs ever again.

Three - Goddamn it, Shepard, you're supposed to be here to help me fix this. What the hell made you think it was going to be a good idea -

Fuck it. Just run.

In his case, running meant limping as quickly as he could through the tech lab. Even through the bulkheads, he could hear the sounds of the crew's gunfire, the answering inhuman screeches and the subsequent screams as the echo of bullets hitting their targets and ejected thermal clips hitting the floor faded to nothing.

He was dragging himself through the mess that had been made of his ship, barely managing to put one foot in front of the other, and it had gone quiet again. All except for the intermittent warnings from EDI that he was getting too close to being spotted.

It was too damn quiet, but his heart was pounding in the back of his throat, and the shadows creeping across the walls as a group of Collectors passed through Engineering above him had his stomach dropping straight through the damn floor. Breathe. Breathe, goddamn it. They're counting on you to save them.

So save them.

When EDI took control of the ship, the relief that washed over him was immediate. And consuming.

When she told him that the entire crew had been taken, it was right fucking back to square one.

.. Well. A heavy breath in, even if it didn't feel right. Didn't sit well in lungs that wanted no part of it. And he couldn't let it go.

It felt like he was very slowly suffocating.

You did what you could. It was all you could do. At least you got the ship back.

It wasn't until he was safely back in his chair in the cockpit that he could finally let that breath go. Its shaky exit gave the tremors that followed entrance, and he was damned if could stop them. His body ached, his chest was too tight, his mind was so profoundly fucked -

.. oh. Shepard was standing behind his chair. Well.

Time to pick it up, Moreau.

Can't let them see you like this.

Another breath in. This time, he couldn't hold it.

Network Sample: [this is a place he's seen before. and truth be told, he'd really rather be in the afterlife bar, watching the asari dance on tables than looking at what remains of a residential district after the cerberus invasion. but then .. things never really go the way he wants them to, and it just so happens that this fuckin' figures are the first words to cross his mind as he looks at the wreckage.

aria really knows how to welcome her guests, doesn't she?

all he can do is shake his head, scratching at the edge of his jaw as he peers into his omni-tool, a faintly bemused expression sliding across his face.] Think Aria would mind if I passed on the cleanup duty? I'm kinda not in the mood to snap any bones today.