This is a series of shorts, mostly written for various challenge prompts at the ME challenge comm on Livejournal. All of this fits in with "Joker's Wild" and its continuations.

You Will Be Over There
(Grunt learns something not in his imprints)

"Your hair is funnier than the other humans,' Shepard."

"Funny?" Dylan couldn't help the impulse to run a hand over the top of his head. Okay, so he was the only one on the ship with a blatantly military haircut...and the only one with red hair...and would probably still stand out like a giant flare in a crowd of red-heads anyway, he wasn't really sure if that meant he had really good genes, really bad genes, or just really odd genes. Still. "How is it funny?"

"None of the humans in my imprints have that color." Grunt sounded like he took this very seriously. "Is it because you're biotic?"

"No," Dylan sighed.

"Must be a terrible biotic, then."

That got Dylan more interested in the conversation. "Excuse me?"

"What kind of power doesn't leave a mark or a sign?" Grunt's vague finger-pointing made it clear how important he thought this was. "If it doesn't even scar you, it can't be all that powerful."

Wondering whether he should chalk it up to Grunt's immaturity, insane krogan logic, or both, Dylan made a face. "Did Okeer leave an imprint that shows you what it's like to be knocked across the room?" He raised a hand, willing enough of a biotic surge out through the eezo dotting his nerves to flare light up from his fingers. "Because I can do it with my brain."

To Grunt, this was nothing more than a challenge. "Just try."

Dylan didn't throw his hand out or up, didn't try to negate Grunt's mass to send him floating into the air. No, Dylan Shepard did not do things half-assed, especially things like proving to growing krogan that size wasn't everything.

Mass, of course, was everything, and when he drew his arms in and buckled down, hurling himself straight at Grunt with biotic energy, Grunt learned this firsthand. He went sailing right by his tank and hit the bulkhead so hard, his hump left a dent.

Mass-effect fields fading away, Dylan saw every moment, every glorious moment as Grunt went flying, the entire thing over as soon as his boots hit the ground like he'd stopped from a run.

For a moment, Grunt didn't move, and it was just, just long enough for Dylan to wonder if he'd overdid it, if he should've maybe thought this through more, if he'd seriously hurt him or...

Grunt bounded to his feet, ecstatic. "That was great! Do it again, Shepard!"

Well, Dylan thought, At least he stopped insulting me...