𝙳𝙾𝙶 𝙾𝙵 𝚆𝙰𝚁. — deliveranse  .          𝚂𝙷𝙴𝙿𝙰𝚁𝙳  .       ❝     ...

^{deliveranse  .          𝚂𝙷𝙴𝙿𝙰𝚁𝙳  .}      

❝      𝚍𝚘𝚗’𝚝  𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚝  𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜   𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑   𝚖𝚎 ,   𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚖𝚜 .   𝚒  𝚖𝚎𝚊𝚗  𝚒𝚝 .      ❞      ^{here i am  :  the casualty revoked from the grave ,   battlefield in reverse .   but there are pieces missing   –   lost to the void ,   &   now  there’s a rawness to williams i’ve never seen before ,   a life twisting underneath her skin .   we used to share it ,  pulse to pulse ,   palm to palm .   but we are no longer the same ,   human  :  machine  :  human .    to play at god is to shuck the flesh from the bones ,   to bleed into something other .   &   here i am  :  your result ,   your facsimile creature  ,   carved from the rib  &  the blood  &  the wire .    &   williams ,   she is alive with her humanity ,   but i cannot bend back into woman .   &   so i pry her fingers from my wrist ,   bone groaning beneath my grip .     ❝      it’s not reaper tech ,   before you ask .      ❞}

_{@gunnerychief .} 

❝      𝚂𝙷𝙴𝙿𝙰𝚁𝙳  —      ❞     ^{&   her hand catches the roll of her commander’s wrist ,   a frantic devout kind of plead   —   or perhaps it only feels that way ,   when she breathes her name .   like she can find all the wounds ,   scuff her palms up into the arch of shepard’s ribs   &   reset the bones ,   wring the ache from them both until it no longer hurts to breathe .   this thing between them ,   it festers  &  rots from within ,   a no man’s land ,   &   they are killing each other slowly .    love as an act of betrayal .   &   she played her role ,   she spoke her lines ,   her own hurts were laden with razor - wire ,   &   she drove the knife in ,   she cut the ties .   pain shoots up her palm ,   but she doesn’t flinch ,   doesn’t even breathe ,   teeth grinding behind a snarl .   she raises her free hand to curl about jane’s other wrist ,   a refusal to play a role in her self destruction .      ❝    stop it .   i don’t care about the cybernetics like that   —   i just wanted to know you made sure cerberus didn’t put in some kind of  self - destruct button if you went awol on them the way you did .    the way i know you did .      ❞      &  guilt catches on the last breath ,   quieter ,    a confession  &  a promise both .   i know that now .}