#octopipeline

[swaps55]

Guess who just had a terrible idea!!!! (and is also a little bit drunk please excuse me)

What if Kaidan had died during the destruction of the Normandy, either before getting to an escape pod, in the escape pod, or after getting to the rescue ship because of his injuries.

I neeeeeed to know how Sam would react. He woke up after having died, and Kaidan is dead?? They should have just left him dead!!! Who broke the news to him? Was it Joker or Dr. Chakwas or someone else? Did he stumble upon it while looking him up?

I LOVE terrible ideas!!!

Okay, so we get a glimmer of what he's like when he wakes up and doesn't know. When he wakes up with Cerberus he doesn't know what's going on, where he is, and what's happened to his ship and his crew. But admitting how much he doesn't know and what/who's important to him would give the enemy the upper hand, so he puts on the angry face and demands information without being explicit about who he wants to know about (he demands to know who the casualties were, but doesn't ask about Kaidan specifically).

When Miranda gives him some names, his reaction isn't grief over who died - it's relief that Kaidan's name wasn't on the list. But it's not until Joker confirms it - the first person he talks to he can trust - that he actually believes it.

So let's imagine he gets the worst case scenario instead. He likely finds out from Miranda. Jacob can't tell him the casualty list, but Miranda knows, and Sam isn't going to get off that shuttle until she gives it to him.

There are a lot of scenarios where Sam loses Kaidan and wants to tear the world apart, and hate everyone and everything that still gets to live in it. But I don't think this is one of those scenarios.

I think with this scenario...he's just beaten. Sam didn't lose Kaidan. Kaidan wasn't taken from him. They both died. They didn't die together, but they both died. Neither of them were going to have to live without each other. Sam could accept that and be at peace with it. Only Sam wasn't allowed to stay dead. They brought him back and forced him to grieve.

And at first he'd do what Kaidan did - hide it. He's in damage control crisis mode. Just like Kaidan had to keep it together to lead the surviving crew and get them rescued, Sam would have to keep his shit together until he could get a handle on what the fuck is happening.

But he's got no fight in him. The Sam we see in Mezzo is making his way through shock, detachment, and eventually rage, but the Sam who dies with Kaidan and then is forced to keep living just has nothing to drive him. He doesn't even have the threat on Kara's life to keep him moving forward, because with Kaidan dead, she isn't on Horizon.

When I initially tried to storyboard a ME2 fic, oh, a decade ago, I imagined the heart of Shepard's arc (at the time, not Sam) was going to revolve around taking control of his life back by choosing his own death and making it stick. For him, the suicide mission was going to be a suicide mission - he was going to go through that relay intending not to come back, and Garrus was going to stop him from bringing that plan to fruition. I'm pretty sure this is exactly what would happen to a Sam who gets brought back when Kaidan doesn't.

In my original concept for a Shepard in ME2, Shepard would then get his shit together and forgive Garrus.

Sam wouldn't.

[pinetreevillain]

ARE YOU SAYING THAT DONNIE WOULD PUT TIM OUT OF HIS MISERY IF HE WAS MUTATED??!

I’m saying if Timothy got mutated into this

And lost all higher brain function and processing capabilities,

Yes he absolutely would

[quackysmackk]

You can really tell Jeremy is from the 80’s, he’s got the blowout /j

He’s really rocking it tho ✨

[vivipokedex]

gothorita for @sixtysixdragoonedface, perrserker for @ultranyan-z, and spoink for @octopipeline. thank you so much for commissioning me :)

[lieutenantbiscute]

@octopipeline

Ahhhh the PJO/GOW one, here ya go!

Note: it can only be read by those who have an AO3 account!

Biscute im shaking you aggressively whats the fic

The fic I’ve been drawing fanart for? It’s a God of War bad timeline fix it fic called Lie by Omission

If you’re asking about another fic you’re gonna have to be more specific homie

[anglerflsh]

What was Wik’s reaction to finding out that everyone with a sigil was supposed to die, and, more importantly, that Hunter was supposed to die?

He was told about those plans by the Collector right as it begun, so, he couldn't do much about it. It did certainly fuel the desire for revenge he has towards Belos to find out that his own cousin was supposed to be killed - especially when he himself didn't have a working sigil

[bonefall]

“okay, i’m so sorry! but its not working lol”

@octopipeline​

Don’t worry dude, no big deal

do you submitting posts enabled? i could try to do the poll for you!

Ok, I think it's on now, faffed around with it in the blog settings, fire away

[swaps55]

Other than literally the entire story, what do you think would change if Kaidan had been the one to touch the beacon instead of Sam at the beginning? Obviously for plot reasons the main points would be the same, but what about the little things?

Oh man, this is fun to think about.

So, this is a little thing that quickly came to mind. Sam handled the beacon nightmares by just refusing to tell anyone but Liara about them. He brushed off their importance, he hid how much it rattled him, and for the most part, he got away with it until Sonata because everyone is used to him being a stubborn, opaque, brick wall.

Kaidan would try to do the same. BUT.

Sam is extremely observant. Not that Kaidan isn't - but Sam takes it to another level. He puts people - especially people he cares about - under a microscope and pokes and prods them to his satisfaction. He does this constantly. He drives people insane with it. And if something stumps him, he becomes unbearable until he gets his answers.

He would be acutely aware that Kaidan starts struggling after the beacon. There is nothing Kaidan could do to hide it, because Sam reads his every expression, his mannerisms, his body language, his moods, and is a walking textbook of what they all mean. So when Kaidan tries to tell the lie that he's fine and it's nothing he can't handle, Sam would become the galaxy's Most Obnoxious Person until Kaidan coughs up the truth.

So please imagine a stressed out, anxious, exhausted Kaidan who is now also extremely annoyed at this asshole he's in love with doing the equivalent of poking him with a stick every five seconds and asking why he's being so weird until he explodes, and admitting the way he feels in an angry tirade where he's telling the love of his life to fuck off already so he can be miserable in peace.

Probably on Eletania, surrounded by space monkeys, because Sam just stuck his finger in a prothean electrical socket for no reason and almost died.

[pinetreevillain]

Since we know that Donnie is dating Tim, & (f!redacted) is seeing (redacted), do any of the other brothers (or April or Casey or CJ) end up with partners? in either the future or present day?

I’m gonna be honest, I haven’t thought about it very much. I don’t wanna put everybody in relationships Just To Put Everybody in relationships! I want them to be meaningful and significant.

That being said, i HAVE entertained Mikey having multiple partners!

[swaps55]

What sort of inside jokes would the Yang Gang have? (Please tell me that Kaidan's acting debut is one of them, as well as Sam's infamous hatred of bugs & weather)

Would Sam or Kaidan ever catch themselves saying them on the Normandy(1)?

GOSH there are probably so many.

I think the infamous 'phone number' incident I have alluded to multiple times but never written is a long running joke.

I wrote a short ficlet I call The Pasta Incident that I have no doubt spurred an ongoing game of "what can we get Shepard to eat?"

I bet they quote lines from Heartstopper all the time.

They make bets constantly. Over the dumbest shit you can imagine. 'What can Aslany sleep through?' is probably one of them.

The "what N level did he learn that from?" absolutely continues after the Quarantine Incident.

I fully believe there have been multiple incidents in which Kara informed a complete stranger who took issue with Sam, "excuse you, he's a fucking delight."

After finally learning about he Paper Umbrella incident, Sam probably requests a paper umbrella in every drink he orders, whether it's appropriate or not, which probably gets him some really weird looks from the ME1 crew and anyone in Flux or Chora's Den.

(actually, hang on, this gave me a terribly wonderful idea that I can still pull off and is now totally your fault THANK YOU)

They all no doubt make constant running jokes about goats.

There is an untold story I have mentioned a couple of times that happens on the planet Mavigon, the details of which are very vague but involve Sam fucking up and the Yang Gang having to spend the night in freezing temperatures in a powerless Grizzly. This definitely comes up on Noveria and Sam definitely doesn't appreciate it and no one understands why it's funny.

On the SR-1, there is no question Stabby gets frequently referenced and no one knows what either Sam or Kaidan are talking about.

I imagine the Normandy crew is frequently baffled, and probably a little intimidated, at how much of the way Sam and Kaidan communicate is just their own language no one else understands. Some of it is just them - like the biotics - but some of it is definitely the way Kaidan casually mentions something like 'you just never see the laxative coming,' and Sam doubles over laughing, or Kaidan smacking his CO in the back of the head for saying the word 'mylar.'

EDIT: THE BUGS. You bet your ass they rake Sam over the coals when it comes to bugs. Someone - either Garrus or Kara, could be either one of them - at one point tapes a cutout of a spider on the inside of a lampshade in Sam's room, probably post war. The screech when he finally turns it on is legendary.

[swaps55]

Is Sam named after Sam Carter? (asks person who doesn't know anything about Stargate)

He is not! Though what a worthy namesake. Sam isn't named after any particular Sam, though part of why I picked it is because of how amazing it sounds when Frodo yells it. :D

I wanted basically a very common name a lot like John, but not John, because I wanted to differentiate him from Default Shepard.

You should DEFINITELY watch Stargate SG-1!!!!!!!!!!! It's an excellent found family squad of brilliant weirdos a lot like the 'Yang, with phenomenal characters from an era of television that wasn't afraid to take risks and swing for the fences.

There's Cool Science, time travel, body swapping, time loops, alternate futures, the multiverse, in-universe televisions shows making fun of the television show, Daniel Jackson dies something like 14 times and still makes it work...basically Stargate has everything.

It's GREAT.

[swaps55]

Silly questions incoming! What are the GC names on the Yang, SR1 & SR2? Does anyone use unique usernames, or do they just stick to their names? Do Kaidan Aslany & Pendergrass still use the old Yang one, or did they make a new one so they don't have to see Sam & Beaudoin in the user list?

I am so disappointed in myself for never thinking about this before. What a fantastic question. It’s not silly; it’s fun, and silly/fun questions sometimes wind up telling you amazing things about characters. The ask about which poptarts everyone eats is still one of my favorite questions, because the answers were such beautiful encapsulations of each character.

The ‘Yang Group Chat:

Beaudoin is the one who makes it originally, as a way to herd all of his cats. It took ages of work and goading and reinforcement to get Sam to ever think to look at it. He’s a face-to-face kind of guy; he wants to look you in the eye to talk to you so he can learn from what you are saying – and what you aren’t. This form of communication doesn’t come naturally to him. Once he understood its importance to the others, however, he read every word of it religiously. He says the least in it of everyone in the squad, but the group chat taught him you actually can learn a lot about someone with non-verbal forms of communication, because a different side of them tends to come out.

Like with Aslany. She is much chattier in the group chat than she is face to face. She still doesn’t give you much about herself, but she’s much more comfortable when she isn’t being directly perceived. The version of Aslany in the group chat is softer, jokes more, and laughs more. Beaudoin is the opposite. Words are more permanent when they’re written down vs spoken, which unsettles him a little more than he realizes, and as a more people-oriented person (for very different reasons than Sam) he struggles to express himself in a group chat vs. hanging out in the lounge.

Kaidan is the most articulate one, who spells everything out, doesn’t use extranet-speak or shorthand, and proper punctuation. He responds to everyone, even if he has to go back 50 messages to do it, but rarely starts a new topic unless it’s to summon everyone to the mess when the food is ready. (Something Sam notices and fixates on a lot.) He is the one most likely to ping a squad member with an extranet article he thinks they’ll enjoy.

Kara is a menace with even less filter in the group chat than she has in person. Beaudoin is constantly afraid she is going to commit intergalactic felonies in the group chat, which she renames (Beaudoin originally titled it ‘Squad’) on a whim, so you never know what it will be when you open your omnitool. Past examples include:

Karma Pirates

Catastrophic Consequences

The Sink of Friendship

Justice for Stabby (in response to being told it couldn’t have a knife taped to it)

BOOM

TELL ME HIS NAME

Poker Face Rejects + Alenko

Fuck [Insert latest FUBAR mission]

The Heartstoppers

The usernames:

Sam: N7LCShepard. The N rank changes according to what it is at the time. His icon is originally the default Alliance logo. He only changes it when he makes N7…to the N7 logo.

Kaidan: EarthlingExplorer. His icon is art of a tiny astronaut whose helmet is Earth. This was a nickname given to him by childhood best friend Cate. She drew the art. He uses some variation of this username in every facet of his extranet footprint, with this icon.  

Beaudoin: Paloma_Pamplemousse. His icon is a photo of his most recent paloma, if it was photogenic enough to take a photo of.

Aslany: -WyldRse- . Her icon used to be the cover of her favorite Gerbilsica album, but she eventually replaced it with a candid photo Beaudoin took of her. It was from an away mission where they spent a night planetside and had a campfire. The photo he took is Aslany in profile, deep in thought staring at the fire, face lit up against the dark. It is her favorite photo of herself.

Pendergrass: Her username and icon change as frequently as the group chat name. There are no boundaries.

They don’t use the group chat after the destruction of the ‘Yang. The final message in it is from Beaudoin. It was in response to plans to meet up with Aslany on Arcturus. It reads, “First round’s on me. See you soon. Can’t wait.”

[swaps55]

How would Sam have reacted if instead of Pendergrass, it had been Aslany or Kaidan taken on Horizon?

The same. Getting them back would consume his entire existence.

But if it were Kaidan, he'd be a lot more frantic, think less clearly, and be more likely to make a mistake. He is better able to turn Pendergrass and Aslany into an objective and detach himself from the emotional piece of it in order to do what he has to do. He can channel his love for them into that ruthless nature of his, and make his pursuit of them impersonal while it still being very personal, if that makes any sense.

He can't do that with Kaidan. He can't be rational about it, he can't be tactical about it. When Kaidan is in trouble, he will throw his face at the problem until the problem ceases, even if throwing his face at it is not the optimal solution.

[swaps55]

What are the most self indulgent crossovers you would shove the Yang Gang into? (Sam would hate ACNH, weather & bugs are both prominent features)

I think it would insanely fun to cross the Yang Gang with Stargate SG-1.

Can you even imagine the chaos that would ensue when Sam Carter learns that Sam Shepard can break physics? It would be a Sampocalypse.

Teal'C and Aslany having the best time teaching each other combat techniques, watching campy movies and exchanging occasional 3 word sentences.

Kaidan and Daniel Jackson bonding in helpless exasperation over their respective squad's batshit insanity, before devolving into some of the nerdiest conversations you have ever heard.

Jack O'Neill teaming up with Kara Pendergrass. I mean.

General Hammond on the verge of a full aneurysm while Clay Beaudoin calmly mixes him a drink. When something explodes off in the distance, he makes it a little stronger.

[swaps55]

Just reread Mezzo, and I started thinking about the fact that Cerberus tried to recruit Pendergrass. If they had told her about Shepard, would she have gone with them? Would she ask them to give her a day to think about it, then discretely talk to Kaidan and Aslany? If she went with Cerberus, what would change? Would Shepard be more trusting of them because Pendergrass was there? Would she be able to get him in contact with Kaidan before Horizon?

This is an excellent question and I am delighted you asked it.

If Pendergrass had still been working at R&D when Cerberus approached her, she'd have said yes without even knowing about Sam. Cerberus would have offered to let her do cool shit she really wants to do: put her intelligence and creativity to good use and make things explode, without a lot of oversight. Her intention would not be to work for an evil organization, but it's easy for her to wind up doing that on accident because they dangled a shiny thing in front of her and she simply didn't ask any further questions. She is not big picture thinker - she is at her best working with what is right in front of her.

But she did say no - because she was working with her squad. She is loyal to her people. So the question, "would she have abandoned Kaidan and Aslany for Sam" is a really fun one to think about.

Pendergrass is a chaotic neutral who doesn't exactly think things through. At all. So she wouldn't do the sane thing and ask for time to think about it, nor would she tell Kaidan or Aslany. She'd probably go AWOL and jet off to Cerberus without a word, with the intention of seeing whether or not Cerberus was made of bullshit, giving zero consideration over what that would do to Kaidan and Aslany, because in her mind she's doing something helpful. The fact that no one else knows that because she didn't say it out loud wouldn't occur to her. She'd be shocked that they were angry and hurt over it.

God help Cerberus if she worked with them. She would be impossible to win over to their "side" because she doesn't have a side. She's with the Alliance because they offered her a better deal than living on the street, but she isn't exactly invested in them. She would insert a level of unpredictability and chaos TIM would not exactly be prepared for.

Sam wouldn't trust Cerberus because of her, but her presence would trigger a strong need to protect her from anything Cerberus wants to pull, which would engage him with the crew and the mission in ways he isn't right now with Mezzo. Her natural effusiveness and ability to shake off stress like a dog shakes off water would make things feel a lot more normal than they are. She has an emotional intelligence of 0, so she wouldn't do what everyone else does and walk on eggshells around Sam. She'd drag him to the mess for meals and force him into card games and make him be a person, because she expects that from him and wouldn't understand why he wouldn't. And because she's Kara, it would work.

During the events of Mezzo, Sam trusts Kara on a deeper level and in a different way than he does Garrus. Mezzo is where Sam and Garrus become "No Shepard Without Vakarian," but they aren't there yet. But Kara is someone he knows inside and out. He'd trust her to sweep his cabin and make it free from bugs. He'd ask her to help him get in touch with Kaidan and Aslany and she would.

(Kara would have a blast with EDI. She'd give no thought to the morality or ramifications of developing a full AI, because EDI is cool and the rest isn't important.)

It would be really fun for me to have Kara on the Normandy during ME2 because she would stand everything and everyone on their heads, but really terrible for all the dramatic tension because she would fix so many things without having any idea she was doing so. XD

I love her so much.

[swaps55]

What are some of your favorite moments/scenes from Opus that you've unfortunately had to cut?

What a FUN question!! I'm a pack rat with my writing. For each Opus story I have a "Leftovers" document where I drop anything I delete from the fic. They look like this:

Cantata: 23.8k words

Sonata: 16.1k words (though that's ultimately misleading, because I threw out the 32k word first draft almost in its entirety)

Fugue: 28.4k words

Mezzo: 17.5k words (and growing)

What's kind of interesting, to me anyway, is how rare it is in all those words for there to be a truly cut scene. Most of what's there changed and morphed into different versions of their original concept. If you were to read through those leftover documents you'd recognize a lot of what's there. It's a lot of false starts or scenes that began in one place before getting cut and moved somewhere else, or re-contextualized in a different way. Usually, a good idea was stubborn enough to find a home somewhere, even if it wasn't where I initially thought it would be.

But that said! There are a couple, which I will put under the cut!

When I was young and naive and thought Fugue and Mezzo were a single story, I played with the idea of using a framing device as a prologue, in the form of Liara looking back on the events of Alchera from a point in the future. They were the first words I wrote for Fugue, and I really liked them. But I discarded the framing device almost immediately, and I do not at this time ever see these paragraphs showing up somewhere else.

I swear I have actually posted this to tumblr before, but I couldn't find it when I looked, so here it is, complete with bracketed notes, lol:

It’s that last smile Liara remembers so vividly. Early morning in the mess, Shepard had greeted her with a grin that was unguarded and genuine, framed by eyes free from the dark circles that had plagued them since the day she had met him. He’d sat in his chair like someone had poured him into it, a [asari version of a cat] basking in the sun, mug of coffee in hand. Shepard had always struck her as someone born old, with wisdom far beyond his short years. But that morning he’d seemed so young, carefree, with so much in front of him waiting to be discovered.    Memories change in some small way every time they’re recalled. She’s recalled this one so frequently that she no longer has any idea how much of it is real and how much is manufactured by her own mind. Sometimes she wishes for the eidetic memory of the drell, others she is grateful not to have it. Perhaps it would help ease her own grief and guilt to remember the smile as a painfully ordinary one, though nothing Shepard ever did had ever been ordinary. She does not regret her role in the aftermath of the events at Alchera. Shepard, after all, is the one who taught her that the galaxy needed people who will do what is necessary, no matter the cost. Defeating the reapers was necessary. Without Shepard, they would have failed. Without Shepard, the cycle would have continued. So she did what was necessary. But she regrets taking away his choice. She regrets that her refusal to let the hopes of the galaxy die with him cost him - and those who loved him - so much.   My life was never really mine, Shepard told her once. Shouldn’t come as a surprise that my death wasn’t either. Centuries later, she still thinks about that last smile. She never saw it again.

Here's another one I know I have not posted anywhere. It's from Cantata. The chapter "What We'd Been Given" is a favorite of mine, but I struggled a lot initially to figure out how I wanted to structure it. The initial idea was to create a sort of, "The Things They Carried" vibe - to explore Sam and Kaidan through their habits, routines, gear, etc., and use those things to create a deeper character study. But it was a really tough idea to try and realize.

I came at it from several different angles and threw a lot of spaghetti at the wall trying to get something to stick. One of the spaghetti-slinging exercises was how to handle N6, since that was something I wanted the chapter to cover. I started writing a scene in which Shepard returns to the 'Yang after earning N6. It was fun and I liked it, but ultimately it just didn't fit into the overall concept and never found another home. Looking back at the Leftover doc, it's clear I tried re-package it a few times, but never succeeded. Still, a couple of lines were stubborn enough to find their way into Cantata in a different spot.

“They planning to space ya?” Pendergrass asks over their first game of cards in the mess. Three months without Shepard and they have to remember how to play five-handed Horse, but they don’t forget where to sit. Pendergrass automatically goes back to sitting across the table with Aslany and Beaudoin, and Shepard sits next to Kaidan like he’d never left. “They spaced me for eight weeks,” he replies, chewing on a stick of uncooked pasta until Kaidan gets up and puts a pot of water on the stove. “Ran out of new ways to do it.” Aslany raises an eyebrow as she scans her cards. She’s going to horse. She never looks up when she’s got a good hand. “Was it fun?” “Yeah, kinda.” Beaudoin chuckles. “Why don’t you just cliff dive like a normal person?” “I did free-fall for N5. Does that count?” “You’re a freak.” Pendergrass whistles for Stabby – apparently the bot responds to whistles now, which is definitely cause for concern – and sends it over to Shepard’s feet. Her latest cross-stitch drapes over its casing. It’s a cartoon spaceman giving the finger with the words ‘Going to Space’ stitched in a half-circle. Shepard picks it up with a grin. He hadn’t done any grinning after N5. He’d come back from SERE hard and unwilling to bend, until it nearly got him killed on Benning. But twelve weeks training in vacuum for zero-G put him right where he wants to be – in the stars. And it was probably a lot more pleasant than what they’ll do to him for N7. What he’ll volunteer to do for N7. With only one more step between him and the thing he’s wanted his entire life, the Alliance would have to throw him in a brig to keep him from getting it. Kaidan lets the others do the talking for most of the night, though every time Shepard’s gaze shifts in his direction it burns a hole. Once they’ve called it quits, Shepard stays seated at the table, still picking at the remnants of the impromptu pasta while Kaidan puts the pot away. “You were quiet tonight,” he says when Kaidan rejoins him. “Contemplating how many ways there are to get spaced.” Even when he tries he can’t avoid that directed-energy stare. Doesn’t stop him from trying, though.

There are a couple of others. My true favorite is a scene between Clay and Aslany that I still hope to use in a one-shot I really need to write. There is another one that was set during Head Full of Angels in which Clay sits Kaidan down for a chat and calls him out for having thoughts of transferring. I liked the idea of it, and believed Clay was perceptive enough to clock it, but the next chapter was going to have a big focus on Kaidan thinking about transferring. Therefore I wanted to steer this chapter away from that idea, so I cut the scene.

Thank you so much for asking! It was fun to skim through all these docs. Except the Sonata ones, haha. I don't look at those. I don't want to remember that terrible first draft. XD