#specrecs2022

[theoriginalladya]

Spectre Requisitions 2022

I was lucky enough to participate in the 2022 Spectre Requisitions writing exchange this year, and so very fortunate to have been given one of my dear friends @mallaidhsomo as my giftee! She provided me a list that had SO MANY OPTIONS from which to choose, many of whom were clammoring in my head with ideas when I first read through it! But the ONE that stuck with me most is a completely NEW pairing for me, and one I will likely be writing more for now that I've gotten a taste of it!

Kaidan Alenko/Reyes Vidal

I have no idea what this pairing would be called - Keyes? Reyenko? - but oh my goodness, was it FUN to write!!!!

I wrote two stories for her - Bait and Switch and Luz De Mis Ojos - and now I can share them with you all!

I'm so very glad you enjoyed them, my friend! And thank you for introducing me to yet ANOTHER rare pair! :)

EDIT: A SUPER HUGE THANK YOU to @shadoedseptmbr for betaing for me! She helped me get Reyes' voice just right!!!! Thank you so much, my friend!!!!!

[ghostxofxartemis]

I had the privilege of participating in Spectre Requisition this year and boy are there ever some good ones this year.

I strongly encourage to go and read them if you have not! I'm still going through the list myself.

You can find the collection here!

I will post my favourites when I finish reading the stories.

With author reveal upon us, I'm finally able to share my work with you all. And boy have my fingers been twitching to post this.

Without further a do....

My first story was for my good friend @theoriginalladya.

LadyA, it was truly an honor to receive you as a giftee! I felt blessed when I saw your name be dropped in my inbox, it made it easier knowing your style and your preferences; it truly took some weight off my shoulders after coming back from a brief hiatus after October being that was the last time I posted and written anything.

I had a great blast writing Gianna Parasini and Kaidan Alenko working together to take down a master criminal in Breach Of Protocol. I wish I could have digged a bit deeper in the plot, but with Kaidan and Coats not cooperating during the first month, I regret to say that I ran out of time. However, I do hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. I took the pairing and ran with it when they started telling me their story.

Who knows, maybe they'll share part 2 with me to share with you at some point!

Also, in the last 48 hours, I managed to write a little treat for both @theoriginalladya and @mallaidhsomo, with some Kaidan Alenko/Major Coats in Sixth Time the Charm!

This was my first 5 +1 (5 times they didn't and the 1 time they did) trope that I've ever written. These two idiots drove me nuts! Every time they were so damn close to kissing, but didn't, I yelled at both of them!

But err, Tommy Coats and Kaidan Alenko may have stolen my heart because they are so mushy and adorable!

I hope you both very much enjoyed it!

[andersonsbiceps]

My Works for SpecReqs

me: I wrote three works for SpecReqs last year, which was in fact too many. I will write fewer fanfictions this year because I am more busy and do not want to burn out

me@me:  you’re going to write four works this year. only half of them will be in the collection. good luck.

proserpine for @theharellan​: So, proserpine is my actual assignment, taken from the prompt (paraphrased) “bittersweet vibes for Shepard/Samara”. Which, of course, is my jam, so I was very excited to get this as my assignment.

proserpine is about the asari outlook on mortality, how they cope with their own deaths and the deaths of shorter lived species, especially the ones they love/are reproducing with. proserpine is about Samara, who hasn’t had a friend in centuries, trying to figure out what to do with herself when she isn’t lonely. proserpine is about Samara figuring out how to live when her life is more than a pile of grief and regret.

and, perhaps most importantly, proserpine is a single, gigantic excuse for me to make a thousand metaphors about spring, flowers, and blood blooming like crimson petals. I love writing Samara’s internal monologue, it gives me a great excuse to try my hand at being pretentious and poetic. 

(And yes, proserpine refers to Proserpina, the roman equivalent of Persephone, because titling this fic Persephone would be a little bit on the nose, even for me.)

erinye: man, it’s gotta be awkward to meet your mother’s new girlfriend when that girlfriend is literal centuries younger than you, helped your mom to kill your sister, and was involved in the one time your other sister and the people you’ve lived with for centuries all got turned into monsters and died. pour one out for Falere, whose problems are only beginning. it’s also an excuse for me to think about ace vibes wrt asari, and how that would work with ardat-yakshi.

this is lowkey a sequel to proserpine, if you would like to believe that that one has a happy ending. 

what do you MEAN nobody wrote f!shali for @keita52​: ok. look. ten people offered to write tali/female shepard for specreqs this year. zero tali/female shepard fics got written. there’s only one possible response to that, and the response is:

so, I wrote 3.5k of fic in two hours and posted it with zero regrets, as one does. 

by necessity (i.e. the player character is invented by the player and not the game), all the romances in Mass Effect are somewhat one-sided. you care about their problems, they can’t get involved in yours. I wanted to explore the other side of the Tali romance with this one - we all know what Tali gets from Shepard, what does Shepard get from Tali?

so, relatedly, Tali starts off being interested in you because you save her life and you look super cool doing it. I wanted to write something about the (extremely bumpy) transition between Tali being in love with the idealized hero Shepard she met and Tali being in love with the human being Shepard, who is a hero, but also has less emotional intelligence than a sea sponge and more issues than the entire Spider-Man comic series. 

and thus, this fic, in which Tali and Shepard, after an attempt at a relationship in ME2 which ends in tears for everyone, start to slowly figure each other out and get to a place where they might be able to for real have a functional love affair. good times.

and, finally, the one you’ve all been waiting for:

she broke your throne and she cut your hair (1/2) for @ferusaurelius​: the time-travel fix-it sequel to i looked over it and i ached, my Shepard/Saren Shepard-roleswaps-with-Anderson-and-canon-ensues AU that I wrote for SpecReqs last year. if you haven’t read that one, read it first, it’s great. but, you know, mind the tags. canonical character death ahead :)

after a lot of screeching in the comments and a lot of brainstorming with the lovely @ferusaurelius​, I figured I’d write the fix-it fic for my own fic that I had to come up with in my head so I wouldn’t chicken out of killing Saren in the ending.

this one is about two dysfunctional assholes with zero compunctions about murder trying to figure out how a “relationship” works. it’s about getting another chance at his life and trying to fix your mistakes and about the difficulty of figuring out what those mistakes were in the first place. it’s about hope in the face of impossible odds and having faith in the people you fight for. and most importantly, it’s about Saren realizing that possession by giant evil space squid was really only responsible for half of his interpersonal problems.  

and man, i’ve written like, five-to-eight fics with the same Shepard. maybe I should write some meta on her...

[spectre-requisitions-exchange]

Pinch Hit #1

Please send an ask through Tumblr or email specrecs@gmail.com to claim. This pinch hit will be due Sunday, March 27th at 10:00 PM EST.

EDIT: CLAIMED! Thank you, generous pinch hitters

The requested pairings/combinations are: Saren Arterius/Nihlus Kryik (Fanfiction), Charr/Ereba ( Fanart, Fanfiction), Lantar Sidonis/Solana Vakarian (Fanfiction), Nyreen Kandros/Aria T'Loak (Fanfiction), Female Shepard/Tali'Zorah nar Rayya (Fanfiction), Macen Barro/Avitus Rix (Fanart, Fanfiction), Kaetus/Sloane Kelly (Fanfiction), Vetra Nyx/Female Ryder | Sara (Fanfiction)

Request 1 by Velasa Saren Arterius/Nihlus Kryik, Fanfiction

G to NC-17.  I'll take fluff, I'll take drama, I'll take angst, I'll take smut, anything as long as they're portrayed as the capable men they are in a mutual relationship built on respect (though Saren is likely somewhat emotionally unavailable in account of the shit he's been through.  He's better with Nihlus than he is anyone else though)

They don't start a relationship until after Nihlus finishes his Spectre training.   Saren is from Palaven and was raised by his brother after their parents died, and Nihlus is very serious about his job but quite good natured on his own time.  Kinky is fine but nothing gross/freaky, and absolutely no feral turian stuff or violent bloody sex.  Saren is bi (turians and occasionally asari), Nihlus is pan.  Smehur and the Misfireanon's works are my Kryterius bible so if you make references or take notes from their stuff I will love you forever.  I am game for angst-o-rama post Eden Prime Saren having a breakdown about having to kill the other person he loved more than anything for the sake of the mission.

Request 2 by Velasa Charr/Ereba (Mass Effect), Fanart, Fanfiction

G to PG-13.  All of the happy ending fluff with the two of them raising little tomboy twins Shepard and Rose on Tuchunka after the war.   PG13 at most if there's some cursing.  Fluff is the best, there can be a little drama as long as everything ends well.  They're both pansexual.

Request 3 by Velasa Lantar Sidonis/Solana Vakarian, Fanfiction

G to R.  I am here for all of the AUs of these two being a thing because it is glorious.  Solana meets this nice, short, cute, somewhat awkward, timid guy with a sense of humor and has a thing for him.  Lantar sees her as this goddess of a woman who's clever and sharp and compelling and falls head over heels in love before he realizes what's happening.  They are both cute as fuck and everything is beautiful.

If we're talking post-ME2 canon then Garrus is a giant dick to his sister about it, but she's never let <i>anyone</i> push her around and that includes him.  Possible arguments: she's an adult and her brother has no business policing her vagina, Garrus <i>forgave</i> Lantar and that should be the end of it, he's paying back his debt to society now and is a good person, the Archangel thing was insane and suicidal in the first place (and you barely even fucking called what the hell Garrus I had to take care of mom and dad all by myself and mom was dying you bastard) so he needs to get over that it ended badly, and technically by turian standards Garrus was Lantar's commander and it's <i>his</i> fault for putting a soldier in a job they couldn't handle.  Garrus may not be happy about it but he's not gonna win this argument.

Solana has an iron will and is a crack shot and an excellent goddamn soldier.  Lantar is a colony kid from the ass end of Invictus who dropped out of the service as soon as he finished basic.  Sex is fine but would prefer no hardcore smut (Sol is totally the dom though).  They're both bisexual and usually prefer men, turians only.

Request 4 by Velasa Nyreen Kandros/Aria T'Loak, Fanfiction

G to R.  I want their relationship before things went bad; Nyreen questioning herself for compromising her morals working for a dictator, and Aria hating herself for every moment of weakness she shows to this woman she wasn't suppose to fall in love with.  Sex is fine but would prefer no hardcore smut.  Angst over the relationship is great.  Fluff would have to be very small and subtle because Aria doesn't do fluff.  Nyreen is a lesbian, Aria is pan with a female focus.

Request 5 by Velasa Female Shepard/Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Fanfiction

G to NC-17.  I'd prefer silly, cute, sweet stuff, drama that ends well, or happy loving sex with much kissing and running of fingers through hair and boundless affection.  They can get kinky and a little freaky but none of the really Out There stuff.  A little angst is ok but not too much.  They are both stupidly in love and it's honestly embarrassing to watch.  After the war they move to Rannoch and Shep builds her a house and everything is good.

Request 6 by Velasa Macen Barro/Avitus Rix, Fanart, Fanfiction

G to NC-17.  I want to know more about them!  What we see in the tapes shows an incredible gentle affection, pet names and teasing and big romantic gestures.  I'd prefer the fic be about when both of them were alive but would accept something set afterwards with Avitus still missing his husband but mostly ok and recovered.  Will also accept fix-it fic where Macen survives his ordeals and is in recovery while Avitus takes over Pathfinder duty.  Sex is fine but should not be the focus of the fic, and nothing kinky.  They're both gay and focused on turians.

I picture Macen as a tall, broad turian with deep brown plates and forest green tats from a well-off Hierarchy world.  He's former Blackwatch and very professional on the job but when you see him in civilian life with his husband he's so sweet it'll make you ill.  If you'd like to see my take on him for inspiration you can go here (https://archiveofourown.org/works/30083091/chapters/74092053), but that's not required because He's Free Real Estate.  If you already have your own Macen feel free to go for it!

Request 7 by Velasa Kaetus/Sloane Kelly, Fanfiction

G to R. Two people with rough edges facing impossible choices in a new world find each other again against all odds and are deeply in love.  Work makes things hard some times; Sloane needs to be deeply guarded about shows of weakness but he's fine with it as long as he can be useful and be near her.

Sweet stuff in moderation, some angst and drama are good but it ultimately ends well.  They're not really the fluffy sort.  Sex is fine as backdrop to other emotional content but would prefer no hardcore smut.  Sloane should survive the encounter with the Charlatan.  Genuinely have no thoughts on their sexualities save being compatible with each other.

Request 8 by Velasa Vetra Nyx/Female Ryder | Sara, Fanfiction

G to NC-17.  Ryder's a formal bookish science kid who's completely tongue-tied over this stunningly gorgeous, incredibly tall goddess of a turian woman and fell head over heels in love with her from the start.  Vetra's sweet despite her hard exterior and as the relationship develops she opens up with her affections and teasing.  It's genuinely embarrassing being around them after a while they're so cute.

They're very playful romantically and I would prefer any smut was fluffy in nature (light bondage and strap ons are fine but nothing wilder than that).  Drama in moderation, not really looking for angst.  If Ryder can be a Korean adept who's always very professional except for with close friends that would be amazing.  Ryder and Vetra are both bi.

[dr-ladybird]

Specrecs Letter 2022

Feel free to combine any of the pairings I’ve asked for, to create friendship groups or poly relationships.

Any time I’ve offered or asked for female versions of Shepard or Ryder, I’m happy with male or NB versions instead - I’m only specifying a gender because the site makes me.

If I’ve asked for romance, I’d also like a platonic version of the same relationship.

Likes:

Focus on friendship and support.

Ensemble casts (background pairings are fine).

Humour.

Angst without hopelessness.

Action scenes.

Alien biology and culture.

Interesting, non-anime-elf quarian designs.

Genders other than 21st-century Western cis male and cis female (SF or real-world).

Consideration of the setting’s politics and economics.

Human characters with cultural backgrounds. (Any cultural background. Sure, minority representation never hurts, but “I’m an Anglo-American from New York I’ll write Shepard is an Anglo-American from New York” is a perfectly good background.)

Religious characters.

Coping with disability.

Transhumanist/body horror themes.

Fic that repairs canon plotholes.

Destroy Ending AUs with EDI and the geth surviving. (Shepard surviving in one piece is good, Shepard winding up disabled and having to get a new job is good, Shepard dying nobly is also good.)

AUs in the canon setting.

Stories about rebuilding after the Reaper War.

No Reapers AUs.

Porn likes:

Treatment of sex as a fun collaborative thing, and not taking it too seriously.

Necks as an erogenous zone. Also ears, if the character has external ear flaps.

Cuddling and massage.

Admiring partner’s body (regardless of whether they’re conventionally attractive).

Non-idealised sex, and things going wrong without ruining the sex.

Safe sex (whatever that means in context… contraception, avoiding fluid-bonding for disease prevention or due to allergies, being careful about using your fangs on soft squishy aliens, being careful when using your electricity powers on any kind of alien, being careful when tying up your partner to make sure they don’t sprain something, quarian issues…)

Light BDSM (particularly wrestling, spanking or biting). Focussed on fun for everyone involved, and nothing too hardcore.

Weird alien genitalia. Let’s get creative!

-particularly interested in knotting, tentacles, or cisgendered male characters who have some sort of sensitive sperm-producing orifice instead of a penis.

Quarian porn where they keep their suits on, and nerve-stim programs in general.

I like the idea of mating cycles, but only if everyone keeps all their mental faculties, everything stays 100% consensual, and the biology makes sense.

Dislikes:

Serious romantic jealousy as a central theme.

Infidelity. (I’m fine with Shepard re-partnering after Horizon – I’ll count Horizon as a breakup.)

Mundane or "historical genre romance” AUs.

Suicide, unless the context is someone sacrificing themselves for a good cause or as a final defiance.

“My true love died - this means I will spend the rest of my life mourning them, and can never love again!” Or any other variation on “you can only have one true love, ever.” Especially if it’s played as alien psychology!

Anything soulmate-related or “mating for life” related.

Batarians being innately and inevitably evil.

Turian society being male-dominated.

“Most salarians actually do have sex drives - they just pretend they don’t because their society is so repressive and anti-sex.” (I’m happy with individual salarians having sex drives, as long as it’s an odd individual quirk.)

Generic-feeling, “blank slate for the reader to project on” Shepards or Ryders. (The default names and character designs are fine, I just want a personality.)

Interspecies reproduction, unless it’s the canonical asari variety.

The sort of kidfic that acts like children are rewards for getting married/the inevitable next step after marriage, rather than their own people.

I’m OK with Shepard having a sexual assault backstory, addiction issues, or infertility angst - but only if they’re coping fairly well with it and it’s not the focus of the fic.

Porn dislikes:

Humiliation/degradation type kinks or anything adjacent.

Taboo roleplaying – eg doctor/patient, police officer/criminal or teacher/student (especially if actual doctors or police are involved).

Dubcon or noncon, unless you’re deliberately going for “this is messed up and horrible”. Rape roleplay is OK, as long as it’s clearly roleplay in-universe.

Porn that feels like an X-rated parody of canon.

A/B/O or seme/uke stereotypes, in either slash or het.

Turian romance dislikes:

Female humans being objectively better in bed than female turians, or male turians as objectively better than male humans. (I’m fine with characters who prefer aliens – just make sure it’s played as “this character has a weird kink,” not “the aliens are objectively better”).

Implications that they “mate for life” in a way humans don’t.

Implications that they’re innately violent during sex or that they don’t understand cuddling.

Anything portraying them as mentally/emotionally savage and animalistic, or implying it’s OK for them to lose control and do things their partner didn’t agree to.

I’m generally pro-biting, but can we please treat it under BDSM rules (eg, only if your partner wants to be bitten)? And if there’s blood or permanent scarring, then unless it was an accident and the next paragraph involves first aid and a lot of apologies, that’s too hardcore for me.

[keriweird]

SPECRECS2022 gift for the lovely @ghostxofxartemis of her badass Commander Reagan Shepard and Major William Coats. I might go back and rework her tattoos eventually.

[theoriginalladya]

Writing Roundup - March 2022

March ended up being a very good month of writing considering I didn't get to write the last five days or so because of being out of town for my father's funeral. Here's the summary:

Total words - March = 43,957 (goal: 25,000)

Year To Date words = 116,010

Highest Day = 3366 on March 20

Average number of words per day so far this year: 1,289

Projects worked on: SpecRecs2022, SpecRecs2022 treat, Caleb Shepard, Caleb O'Connell, Aubrey, Werewolf Effect, Becca Shepard, Rhys Shepard

By far the biggest two projects I had going in March were SpecRecs and the Hallmark AU series with @happychica. LOTS of good writing done there! Also, Aubrey showed up and his flipside, John A. Shepard. Aubrey is my Camp Nano in April project, so he'll be my main focus for the next few weeks, but others may sneak in too. We'll see how it goes.

Onward, writing!