aceouttatime

[aceouttatime]

An anon once asked me “what would’ve happened if Knockout had died instead of Breakdown?” This is my answer.

(also, in case it’s hard to see, these are supposed to be Vehicons holding Breakdown back, I messed that one up badly, sorry)

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Rising from the grave with another sci-fi franchise to obsess over. Very new transformers fan and very novice mech artist. May I present to you: SD-227

———

He was named Steve by a human who found him in their barn. An ex-decepticon seeker drone, Steve's (originally SD-227) a clone of the same base model as thousands of similar 'bots. He's got a fucked-up looking face and wears a battle mask most of the time, if he's not using a holoform (basically a projection of a human to blend in w the natives). He's supposed to be a stealth/recon drone but is extremely clumsy, in part due to major system damage that has yet to be entirely repaired on grounds of lack of resources.

Still working on his reason for defection, but I'm leaning towards being left for/assumed dead after a battle. Damage to some of his core systems made him unable to communicate/share location with other 'cons. The main Decepitcon warship on earth (Nemesis) is notoriously difficult to track, and he'd had extensive damage to his wings anyhow, so he was in no position to move around, let alone transform and seek his allies. Something something he has to rely on another, a non-decepticon, alien, of all people, learns to become his own individual, and develops the suppressed empathy that was always a part of his programing.

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OC Codex prompts. #1 for Caasin'xes?

Thank you for the ask!! I struggle with dialogue, so this was a fun exercise to flesh out how the crew perceives Caas :) ::ADMINISTRATIVE ACCESS GRANTED:: Automated Security Footage Transcript CSV Revenir, near destination Illium (3.28.2166 appx. 17.78 GST)

Two figures reside in the small kitchen aboard the Revenir: the first, asari engineer and artillery technician Kelekau Pracis, sits at the folding table with remnants of both a late-night snack and the grease from earlier repairs apparent where she rests her elbows. The other, turian biotic specialist and executive officer, Iterius Ascensus, takes up a space leaning against the counter with a dextro ration.

IA: (Muffled conversation) -es. He's been straightforward, for how little I've actually had the chance to speak with him. Moreso than the rest of our lot was as 'Deen, and I first brought you on. Granted, there were some things he didn't share and I didn't ask. I didn't want to make any assumptions. Thought I'd ask you about it. Is he not...older than most quarians taking their Pilgrimage?

KP: Caasin's a, uh, special case. And he's as old as he said he was. I've known him for years--we were on the same repair team back when I contracted on some of the colonies in the Traverse--and apparently, he's not returning to the Fleet until he makes this big political gesture in the name of the quarians getting over their own pride and settling somewhere.

IA: Political gesture? (His fringe perks). And he's desperate enough to go to the Broker for it.

KP: (She shrugs). Dunno. I've come across messages between him and one of their Fleet admirals- Zaal'Koris. Mentor, sponsor, family; I'm not sure. Quarian internal affairs are kept pretty hush-hush, but this guy Koris is a real divisive sort. The Board thinks he's soft on the Geth.

KP: Caasin wants stability. He's probably told you the same thing about claiming a sustainable colony world, or even just a territory, to bolster the Fleet's forces.

IA: (He hums agreeably). That came up a number of times. Enough to be concerning. This ship's got no room for martyrs.

KP: Mmm. He's just passionate. Old for a Pilgrim but young enough to hope the parts of the galaxy he hasn't stepped foot in have greener grass, y'know? And his skills are versatile. I wouldn't have recommended the kid if I thought he was gonna be a liability.

IA: Well, I'd hope not. Letting Aradeen follow through with her airlock shtick will just go to her head.

KP: She wouldn't do that. She's a diplomat.

IA: Sure, and I'm a Hierarchy Cabal.

KP: And you've both fallen from grace horribly. Now, I need to go clean the engine gunk out of my pants before I become an actual safety hazard for Caas. Please get some sleep. We all need it.

IA: I'll sleep eventually.

KP: Like shit. 'Night Teri.

::END TRASCRIPTION::

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OC Codex Prompts

I’ll be honest, I’m mostly writing this because I’m trying to come up with codex entries for my ocs and this gives me a good way to think about what kinds there are.  but hey, reblog, ask for a number and an OC?  or add your own.  whatever floats your boat.  written with Dragon Age OCs in mind.

an overheard conversation about your OC

a letter written by your OC’s family member

a report written by your OC’s teacher or mentor

a letter from your OC to their love interest

letters between two of your OC’s companions about them

someone describing a time your OC helped them

someone describing a time your OC hurt them

your OC’s doctor/healer talking about their injuries

a future historian’s account of your OC’s actions

a description of your OC by someone who hates them

your OC’s description of their game’s events

your OC overheard while drunk

transcript of an interview with your OC

your OC talking about your favorite quest

a letter to your OC from a companion they haven’t seen in a while

a conversation between your OC and their best friend

a description of your OC’s family by a future historian

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your tumblr experience is not complete unless you follow:

the great beast

strange transgenders

the depressed gamer

prolific but unmarketable artist

1 old white guy who posts shit like: photo of vinyl record collection, photo of breakfast, photo of beautiful fat woman, photo of cigar

extremely niche interest

robosexual

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Commission for @pandamaniacuwu of their gorgeous turian, Tecus! Thank you again for the pleasure of drawing this absolute flirt of a man!

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To my coworkers, to my family members, to my neighbors who are celebrating, I hope you know that there are people you care about who woke up today mortally fucking afraid. When Trump lost, there was violence. When Kamala lost, there was fear.

Your tax breaks should not be more important than our right—as people of color, as queer people, as immigrants, as disabled people, as people in poverty—to exist.

So shut up, sit down, and give a damn about someone other than yourself.

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idc if it's not a person. if your icon is a sunrise, you're a sunrise now.

poll about swapping with prev's icon here

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Wow that was fast. Commissions are closed up now! Thank you all so much! <333

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Commissions Slots OPEN! ✧ ˚ 　· 　　 .

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Tagged by @daisywalletchains thank you <3

A man’s phone camera roll is a graveyard of all the things that made him laugh at one point or another. Almost as sacred the Ao3 history tab

I may have gone overboard lol

Tagging @who-is-riley @korblez @capt-biglou @omniblades-and-stars <333

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is somebody gonna match my freak (unmedicated adhd)

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a look into my process. currently in Lineart Hell.

anyways. two of my turian characters: bi disaster space cowboy (Iterius) and scary lesbian information broker (Aradeen).

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26 29 45 50 for your Shep!

paine! thanks for the ask!!! <33

26. Does Shepard have a Twitter account?

-> Whatever the galactic version of Twitter is, Shepard probably has one. While he genuinely doesn't have much time for it, he thinks it's important to stay up to date on galactic issues. Granted, when he does have free time he doesn't want to have to deal with petty, online issues when he's actually out there doing things about the state of things, so it's a delicate balance.

I'm sure he gets told by all kinds of sources, news or otherwise, what to post, so he's got an official account that's partially managed by a team on the Citadel that corresponds with him when he's on duty. He may have multiple important people in the Alliance muted in his DMs.

Shep keeps it professional, mostly commenting on the state of the galaxy or what other important political figures put out. But that's absolutely not to say his omnitool isn't full of memories of the crew on shore leave, and cute pictures he snuck of Garrus asleep next to him, and videos from That One Time Everyone Had Their Asses Handed To Them playing poker against Cortez and Vega.

He'd be one of those people that would gravitate more towards facebook/instagram to keep up with the lives of close friends, if he was living a civilian life, but as it is, Space Twitter is accessible and easy to put away when he needs to.

29. Does the alliance use their image for propaganda/recruitment? Did they agree to/want it?

-> This is very much in the same vein as the social media thing. The Alliance has made a figurehead out of Shepard, boosting their influence, funding, and numbers, often by cherrypicking things he's said on tape as part of whatever their current pro-Alliance propaganda is and riding off of the success of his bravery during service and induction into the Spectres. They made him their hero, their golden boy, and then discarded his autonomy in the matter when he no longer fit with that image (see: Cerberus, claims of a Reaper invasion, Arrival DLC).

Shepard himself has very little say over the matter; he'd practically signed his life away to the Alliance after the raids on Mindoir, back when he was a traumatized teenager latching on to anything stable. Even during his training and service, he disliked the media attention wrought by important events like graduation ceremonies, ballroom dinner parties, and political events, most of which were not all that optional. He felt out of place--he wasn't a politician, he was a soldier, and for a long time, he floundered during things like that, not having ever needed to learn those sorts of intricacies. So he continued being unabashedly straightforward and saw much of the socio-political nonsense for what it was: a game he had no place in.

By the era of the trilogy, Shepard held a deep dislike for the way his image was warped to further ideals that were not his own. But they fell in line with what the Alliance needed, what the Council expected, and what kept the suits of the galaxy placated.

So he tries to let his actions speak for themselves because it is too late to reverse the distortion of his public image.

45. Do they vote?

-> Yes! Shepard casts his vote in at least the most important/largest issues affecting Council and Alliance space. He's technically a citizen of Mindoir (a colony of the United North American States--economically pretty reliant on, and thus fairly politically controlled by, them), but he also has citizenship on the Citadel itself, which functions a little differently than how human citizenships typically work, most notably in the taxation and legal departments (but I won't get into that just now). (I talk politics a little here--if that bothers you, please feel free to skip to the end of the blue section <3)

Politically speaking, Shep values more socialist internal policies like accessible healthcare, a well-funded and standardized education system, and workers' rights. He believes that the material, economic, and societal profit of a governmental system should primarily benefit and be controlled by the means of production: the everyday people that keep the system running.

He also has strong opinions on the rights of individual colonies, states, and nations, as he values national identity and the preservation of culture, natural resources, and history. While he sees the benefit in a centralized government for both each specie and the galaxy as a whole, he believes that the systems put in place before the shift towards interconnectedness should not be written off as arbitrary, outdated, or inefficient. There is a balance that must be struck between overarching governmental systems and lower ones, and that balance will be different for different peoples, whether due to biology, psychology, economics, history, culture, etc. He believes that a higher government's main duty is to defend the people and systems beneath it in a way that respects their freedoms, and therefore puts a lot of importance in national defense (as a victim of terrorism, a career-long Alliance soldier, and a man who pays close mind to the turbulent state of the galaxy in places beyond Council jurisdiction, like the Terminus systems).

Socially, his opinion is left-leaning, though he has some opinions that do not fit within the mainstream ideology. Shepard is a proponent of equality as a concept: racial, gender, sexual, etc., and equity where equality does not suffice. He puts value in individual freedoms like bodily autonomy, marriage rights, protections for minors, the right to carry, voting rights, minority rights, and privacy protections.

50. What was the last thing (non-email) Shepard read? Book, play, poem, essay etc

-> The most recent undertaking is, Vuigaris Ro'tana Dime (Folk Devils), a collective biography of a number of non-asari biotics that explores the stigma, state of infrastructure, medical issues, military training, and psychology regarding biotics and being biotic in different species and cultures. Some of the highlights are the experiences of a retired turian Cabal officer, a woman who worked on the development team for multiple L-series implants, and a salarian diplomat who faced political fallout after developing late-onset biotics.

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17, 27, 37 and 47 from the shep questions if you’re taking em!

howdy, spooky! i see it's a 7 day for you lmao--thanks for the ask! <33

17. Have they done any interviews? How did the first one go? And the most recent?

-> I answered this one here! He doesn't take shit. He WILL walk away. He will embarrass you, but very politely.

27. The last time they were rude to someone:

-> I answered this one here! Short answer: recently, and yes, it was Garrus, because of course it was.

37. What is their favorite way to eat potatoes

-> Potatoes were a huge staple in Shep's diet growing up in a rural colony on Mindoir--they grew them where he lived! Potatoes are decently resilient crops, don't require nearly as much fertilizer or chemical additives as a lot of other common ones, and they use less water as well, which was important for an up-and-coming colony that relied mostly on well water and rainfall collection.

He enjoys a good plate of cajun fries. Every place seasons them a little bit differently, especially when you're out of the Sol system. The Citadel has a variety of restaurants that specialize in human cuisine, of course, and when shore leave allows, he's not passing up the opportunity to eat something other than the glue-paste Alliance MREs. One of the places that serve more authentic (or at least decent imitation) southern United States of N.A. food, is a mom-and-pops sort of place in Kithoi ward run by an older asari and her wife, who grew up in New Orleans. Best place for cajun fries, if you ask Shep, and they have a killer shrimp po'boy.

47. Do they let others take care of them?

-> No. Shepard is infuriatingly stubborn when it comes to accepting help, especially when that help comes with showing emotional vulnerability. He holds fast to the comfort of being self-sufficient, of distancing himself from others. He's lost too much to trust that he won't be caught in the eye of another storm, forced to watch as the world around him collapses, knowing there is nothing that his gun, his hands, his voice, can do to challenge the wrath of nature.

Part of it's that profound fear of loss. The other is the guilt-addled discomfort of bearing his weaknesses to those he cares most about. Shepard feels like he has to be this sort of rock for those around him. If that rock is not firmly grounded, emotions under wrap, self-assured and invulnerable, then Shepard feels he's betrayed that promise.

No one can live like that forever, though. It's an unhealthy, impossible standard. It leaves him deeply stressed and isolated. As time goes on, from the raid of his home, to the years of military training under the Alliance, to accepting the mantle of Spectre, that tension builds. In the final years of his life, under the weight of a dying galaxy, he at last begins to see the people closest to him for who they are: his friends, his family, and his partner--his second half.

The first crack in his facade was the particularly nasty aftermath of a week-long mission, tracking an indoctrinated former Hierarchy black ops unit in the jungles of Invictus. The defectors possessed the whereabouts of a dangerous surveillance device in Council space with ties to the Reapers. Shepard, Grunt, and Garrus, as well as temporary allies from one of the few colony ports near the tropical belt, Lusa-Visdivias, faced guerrilla ambushes from pirates, deadfalls set by the traitors, and the unforgiving wilderness of Invictus.

Despite taking all possible precautions to defend against the planet's natural and unnatural dangers, as it was notorious for early colonists to succumb to diseases and toxins wrought by Invictus' wilds, by the dawn of the fifth 30-hour day, an attack by a pack of sehkuin (large, plated apex predator, "Invictus' six-legged giant varren"), left Shepard with a half-destroyed enviro-suit and concerning gash through his abdomen. Infection set in soon, and despite his commendable protest, Shepard had to rely on Garrus to keep him from bleeding out in his delirium.

He did some things in that haze that he shouldn't have: there was the roll of salty tears down his dirty face, the way his hand held on to a three-taloned one for too long, with too much weight. There was the warmth of a strong pair of arms, the soothing song of sounds that didn't translate, and the care of those that did.

Shepard doesn't remember all of it, just bits and pieces before they were able to make it to a safe house for the shuttle back to the Normandy, and Chakwas got ahold of him. Garrus does, though. They didn't get the data, but he learned much more than he expected.

Maybe that's when Shepard's defenses started going downhill. I guess we'll never know, hm?

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7 and 10 for the shep game? :-)

Thanks for the ask Mars! <33

7. How approachable are they?

-> Pre-Lazarus? He's got a very severe case of resting bitch face, though not much more so than your average traumatized serviceman. I'm tempted to say not very approachable on that front.

He's decent at sussing out people's intentions, but generally gives them the benefit of the doubt, so once he's actually talking with you, he's less 'unknowably annoyed and terrifying.' I've mentioned before that his eyes are unnerving. Both how he's constantly shifting his gaze, like he's checking corners where there are none (whoops, paranoia), and the way that just-too-bright green bores into a guy when he's look at 'em. As far as body language goes, he's partial to leaning against walls and railings like he's cool (back issues) and doing the old 'crossing your arms and jutting a hip' type deal (also back issues).

Post-Lazarus? Downright unsettling, uncanny valley, kind of unapproachable. Even if you didn't know who he was or that he was supposedly missing in action for about two years, he has a presence about him that's not quite right. The angles of his face are too sharp, like the features were meticulously pieced together and ripping along the red-scarred, patch-worked seams of his body. When he moves, he moves like he is overly aware of his body, or like his body isn't in sync with his brain. He seems sensitive to even the lightest touch or sounds outside the range of what his hearing should be. It's most noticeable when he uses his biotics--he hadn't had them before Cerberus' intervention. He's the juxtaposition between a fawn finding its footing for the first time and an old god as assured and aware as the earth beneath its hooves.

'They came back wrong' is my favorite way I've heard Shepard(s) in general described, and that absolutely applies to Sylvan. This post sums up my thoughts so well.

10. How do they handle a teammate being badly injured during a mission?

-> A stranger would be different. Even a squadmate he has been able to stop himself from becoming emotionally vulnerable to, no matter how much he values them, would be different. But if someone close to his heart is injured in a life-threatening way, it impairs his judgement, and he'll take more fire than he should because of it. It can leave other forces vulnerable, and it's not yet been enough to entirely compromise a mission, but enough that his actions don't align with how he acts under other sorts of heavy pressures he's forced under.

It is a weakness that has been exploited, and it is one that has been attempted to be beaten out of him. It's the major one that almost made Nihlus keep hold of his recommendation of Shepard for the Spectres. He had planned to force Shepard to compensate for his deficiency.

Shep's had good conversations with Anderson about it, as the captain has faced similar lapses in judgement. It's a sensitive subject for Anderson too because of his past with Saren and the major difference between their modes of working being their regard for collateral. "That's our humanity, Shepard. You can't change it, I can't change it, shouldn't, really, if we don't want to lose it. It's almost selfish, that we're these vehicles of our own morality; Spectres are not. It's a numbers game for them. For you, now."

It's part of why he keeps up so many walls, and it's a byproduct of Akuze and Virmire and all of the other losses he's faced, but above all, Mindoir.

He's proficient in battlefield first aid, and he will laser-focus on that task if he's in that more panicked mindset. He's followed squadmates into the medbay more times than he should.