#alec ryder

[nesonkin]

Sometimes it makes me feel insane knowing that "the reason Alec made one of his kids a Pathfinder is not because he wanted them "to see the process through" but because his SAM cannot be safely integrated into anyone who doesn't carry his genes" is not common knowledge because I doubt many bothered to read Mass Effect Initiation

[city-of-heavenly-heartbreaks]

*puts Ryder in her dead dad's N7 armor to add to the crippling imposter syndrome*

[inkstarillustrates]

The Human Pathfinder

My best girl~

[birdylion]

Reading the Cora Harper novel. Very interesting, also regarding Alec Ryder. Spoilers ahead.

He used to complain to his friend and colleague about "what's wrong with the children"

The only reason he hasn't done that in months is because he hasn't seen them in months

He misses Ellen because she's not there to take care of him

Going on a vacation with Ellen is framed as "she forced him to go on vacations"

When confronted with the question if he ever visits strip clubs he points to his ring and says he's a married man

He wants SAM to obey him in all circumstances, not just in combat situations

He doesn't like being called out by SAM on his behaviour

He once assaulted the 2nd director of the Andromeda Initiative by flinging him over a table, which burst, leading to the director being hospitalised

His comment about that incident towards SAM? "He fell". (To which SAM says sth like "excuse me, he fell and you accelerated his landing with military combat techniques")

He knows he wasn't a good father and husband and says he wants to do better

When he realises that for all he knows he sent Cora to her death, he feels bad because sending soldiers to their death is what the Alliance military did and in the AI it's supposed to be better

When faced with the choice to help evacuating a whole lot of people from an impending explosion, or go 'evacuate' the SAM node, he still chooses to go for SAM while Cora evacuates the people (and he risks almost dying and would have died and still lost SAM if Cora hadn't saved him)

He rationalises that the rest of the work can be saved, but they can't lose SAM

His end goal for the AI is that every human (!) has their own SAM implant, but each connected to the processor of his SAM, which I understood to mean his SAM can get all the data from the other hypothetical SAMs connected to/dependent from him, which has nightmarish implications about privacy

By the end of the story he comes to the conclusion that he can only transfer his SAM to someone with high genetic compatibility, which means he knows before leaving the Milky Way that Cora is never going to be Pathfinder.

He knows he has to decide who of his children is going to be his heir as the Pathfinder ... which may mean that his decision in the game to die and make the player character Pathfinder might not just be because he wants to spare Ellen the pain of having lost a child once she wakes up, it might also be because the other twin is in a coma at the moment and it's uncertain if they're going to wake up, so the player character is the only one available who can become humanity's Pathfinder in the future? Not that I think that was his only motivation, but going by how his perspective was written by Jemisin, it certainly fits

[mass-effect-anonymous]

CONFESSION:

The only positive thing I can say about Alec Ryder is that he at least acknowledged in one of his recordings that he was a horrible parent/father. The majority of shitty parents in real life never do.

[anakliro]

they loved their children equally

[assassins-wasteland]

I’m imagining an AU where Alec survived Habitat 7 and remained the Pathfinder. If Alec survived chances are he’d end up with the same exact Tempest crew + the Ryder twin. Like, imagine Alec being the one to have to babysit them and the resident grandpa and the chaos that would ensue.

Example scenarios under the cut

Alec: “Why is everyone still awake? Lights out was three hours ago?!”

Cora: “I tried to tell them we need to go to bed but Liam found a twenty season long anime and they’re marathoning it.”

Liam: *visibly tired* “Just one more episode Alec!”

Alec: “��� Regs say you’re supposed to refer to me by my formal name…”

Liam: “Sure thing, Alec!”

-

Alec: “Liam… Ja’al… Where are your clothes?”

Ja’al: “Liam and I are just teaching each other about our people and cultures.”

Alec: “Okay but why do you have to take your clothes off for that?”

Liam and Ja’al: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

-

Alec: “Ryder, get out of the Nomad!”

Ryder: “You’re not my dad.”

Alec: “Get out of the fucking Nomad, I am your dad!”

Ryder: “You’re not my dad!”

Alec: “I am your dad, get out of the fucking Nomad!”

-

Alec: “Excuse me, I don’t remember giving anyone clearance to-“

Drack: “Ah, let the kids be, Alec! I told em they could, they’re fine!”

Alec: “Why must you always undermine my authority…”

-

Alec: “Vetra, where the hell did you get 30 boxes of Blast-ohs cereal?”

Vetra: “… Extranet.”

-

Alec: “At least you listen to me and do your job like you’re supposed to.”

Cora: “Will you adopt me?”

Alec: “… I’m going to bed.”

-

Suvi: “Pathfinder Ryder, I licked a rock again. 🧍‍♀️”

Alec: “I just want to know peace in this life…”

-

Alec: “Peebee, if you don’t keep your pet remnant in your room I’m airlocking it!”

Peebee: “Poc just wants to explore!”

Alec: “Poc will explore the vacuum of space if you don’t put him where he belongs!”

Peebee: “Ugh, fine!”

-

Alec: “Kallo, apologize to Gil for snapping at him.”

Kallo: “but he-“

Alec: *Dad stare™*

Kallo: *grumbling* “I’m sorry…”

Alec: “Like you mean it.”

Kallo: “Fine. I’m sorry for snapping at you, Gil.”

Alec: “Good. Now Gil, apologize to Kallo for not respecting his ship.”

Gil: “But I was just-“

Alec: “One… two…”

Gil: “Alright, alright! I’m sorry for not respecting the Tempest.”

Alec: “Now you two better find a way to compromise or so help me.”

-

Alec: “I didn’t think Pathfinder meant babysitter.”

Lexi: “I didn’t think Doctor meant babysitter either. And yet, here we are.”

[ziskandra]

One-Shot Tag Game

Thank you to @carnalapples for the tag! As far as I can discern, the rules of the game are to hype up a one-shot you've written in the past, and given I'm still rotating Alec Ryder in my head like a rotisserie chicken after my self-recs post last week, I present Between the Lines, yet another Alec/Ellen fic, this time in the format of a canon-divergent AU where Sara dies instead of Alec during the game's prologue.

No parent ever wanted to bury a child, but Alec Ryder must.

When the time came, he dug the hole the old-fashioned way. He dug with little more than a shovel, elbow grease, and the sweat of his brow, wrung out of his aching limbs by the harsh light of the sun. The rest of the team gave him a wide berth, which was just the way Alec liked it. They might question his judgement, but not to his face. He heard the whispers, and knew what everyone must be saying. It was exactly what he'd think, if the situation was reversed: why should they accept the leadership of someone who couldn't even protect one of his own kids? 

Others would have more practical considerations. Death and all the assorted ceremony around it varied across cultures, even within humanity itself. And yet, despite his dishonorable discharge, Alec Ryder was an Alliance man, through and through. What did it matter if the Systems Alliance hadn't shown him the same loyalty in return? The fact of the matter was his life had been irrevocably shaped by his time as a marine, and Alliance protocol was to always bring the body home, when safe to do so, and it seemed a waste to have gone through all that effort only to cremate his daughter's remains. 

He'd never been a particularly religious person, and neither had Ellen, although her beliefs leaned more spiritual than his own. She'd want Sara buried, and so that's what Alec had done, traditional six-feet-under and all. The marker he'd placed atop the mound was simple, too. There was enough about their strange new home they didn't understand, and he didn't want to disturb anything unnecessarily, any more than he already had.

Even after resting his weary muscles and drinking plenty of water, there was a tightness in his chest he couldn't quite dissipate, and his body shook whenever he tried to move. His tongue stumbled over once-familiar words; they caught in his throat but he choked them out anyway. There's work to be done. There's work to be done. There's work to be done.  The refrain drowned out the words he could barely bring himself to think, let alone speak aloud.

Ellen, I'm so sorry. 

There might still be hope for his wife, but had it been worth the cost? (Read the rest on Ao3; 3,359 words total) No pressure tagging: @gallows-into-oblivion, @choccy-zefirka, @chocochipbiscuit and anybody else who may see this and want to do it (feel free to tag me so I can see as well!)

[fleshofmensis]

holy shit.. mensis talking about something not (directly)bethesda or fromsoft?

I'M SORRY I HAVE TO.. i've been really into mass effect andromeda and the outer worlds lately and i'm so so distraught with all the shit those two games get???

i actually enjoy them both so very much. i just love space games done right .. AHEM.. not starfield. and i'm not sorry for saying that lmao starfield is so dogshit??? ANDROMEDA AND THE OUTER WORLDS IS WHAT STARFIELD COULD HAVE BEEN .. AND THOSE TWO GAMES WERE INCREDIBLY RUSHED FROM WHAT I KNOW, AND THEYRE STILL BETTER

the main problem i'm seeing from everyone with andromeda is like "ohh it's not like the main trilogy" NO SHIT?? ITS A DIFFERENT GAME?? AND THE MC IS NOTHING LIKE SHEPARD AND DOESNT HANDLE THINGS LIKE SHEPARD 😔 poor ryder, bro was just tossed into being pathfinder and is doing the best they can

i will admit, in some places the dialogue can be .. wonky or cringe but oh well?? i think the companion chrs are so personable and fun and likable (except cora.. i wanna throw cora into a volcano) AND THE CHRS ARE SO GOOD OH MY GOD.. i have a few in mind right now that i just ADORE

—

i will throw hands for the outer worlds.. i think it's so so fun and looks great.. esp the salty petty "from the creators of fallout" in their ads UHHH YES? you go obsidian

yeah sure some things are unfinished or not. continued but that's fine? i loved the story and i feel it progressed fine enough. i haven't played the dlcs but i really want to ughhhhh AND THE AFTER END CREDIT SCENE? SOBBED

it's a beautiful game that actually has INHABITED AND FUN TO EXPLORE PLANETS ahem.. STARFIELD TAKE A HINT (sorry i'm so.. i dislike starfield so bad. i feel like i wasted time playing that game lmao)

that's all for now.. might blab about my favorite chrs from andromeda later byeer

[aymayzing]

So... are we gonna talk about how fucked up it was for Alec to freeze his dying wife without telling her or their children?

[fiendsandfangs]

The 2024 Fiends & Fangs Fanwork Exchange blessed us with a trove of monster fanworks. Here's a fic we think you'll love. 💕

Bottle Episode

by @teamdilf ※ Ao3: Missjlh

Mass Effect, Mass Effect: Andromeda ※ Urdnot Wrex & Castis Vakarian & Adrien Victus & Alec Ryder ※ (2,261 words) ※ Mature

Summary:

Adrien Victus, Castis Vakarian, Alec Ryder and Urdnot Wrex find themselves trapped in an elevator on the Citadel. All react to the situation as mature adults would.

✨ Check out this work on Ao3! ✨

[ssv-raven]

Really love my Ryders

[city-of-heavenly-heartbreaks]

Trying out a new game for once.

I won't lie - ME3 is an emotionally taxing game, and I finally needed a break 20 hours in. I was planning to start Mass Effect Andromeda once I finished the Trilogy, but since the stories aren't connected, there's no harm in starting early. As I understand, this one has a controversial past, but all I care about is having fun with whatever I'm playing. So far, I'm optimistic.

It has the unfortunate drag of an open-world map, but that was all the rage in 2017. I also don't mind Ryder as the MC - I've seen complaints about them being too young and not having the respect of their crew, but I'm pretty sure that's the point? They're not like Commander Shepard, who was already a ranked officer by the time we met them. Ryder still needs to earn their place, and I'm hoping to see that as the story progresses.

[violasarecool]

he was proud of you, says a voice in the back of my head. he never taught me pride, i say. but shame, that i know well.

—stranger who wears my face

[nesonkin]

this set of characters. sorry if this makes no sense to you

[mass-effect-anonymous]

CONFESSION:

Why was Ryder so obsessed with their absentee father figure? Their mother raised them, was there for them through thick and through thin, and barely gets mentioned. No "Oh it's Mom's Birthday today", no "Damn I wish I could eat this with Mom, it was her favourite meal", no playing Mom's favourite music while driving around. Just "Daddy Daddy Daddy" the whole time. The man left the family behind in another galaxy so he could play advanced scout for the Pathfinder mission. Like, yeah he went back for them but to miss half your kid's adolescence? Harsh. Super harsh.