#hanar !! nicee

[margoteve]

Normandy Album 1

Ch. 1. Proof of life

Summary: Javik gets into photography.

Ship: Tsovik, Shakarian

Available to read on AO3, Inspired by this post by @luosaugury

Next chapter: Joker wishes to troll Shepard and Garrus. With tactical use of Grunt.

Enjoy.

The first camera was a gift.

After Admiral Hanna Shepard's funeral the Commander wanted to go through all the storage lockers and the attick containing all the Shepard family legacy. The old Normandy crew volunteered so it wasn't just Vakarian and Shepard. Even the Prothean, taking a break during the 2nd book writing with Liara decided to help. 

The camera was old. Javik scoffed at it grumbling his usual 'Primitives' line as Shepard explained what it was and how it worked. It belonged to a long gone relative who took it up as a profession. There was also a photo album containing their work in the same box. Javik flipped through it at first in a mildly contemptuous curiosity but as he studied the photos - seconds of life captured on a square piece of plastic - he found himself drawn to it. The grainy quality of the pictures, memories of life long gone, people that once lived and left a small mark captured in this photo album. The world after Reapers was still loud, too bright for him but these old photos sparked something in him. In a way, in a very primitive way, these were like Echo shards of his people.

Shepard noticed the contemplating look on his face.

"You can take it," she said, nudging the box containing the photography equipment and albums. "Better it goes to you than gathering dust here."

He bristled at first trying to cover up his emotions and opened his mouth to sneer at the 'primitive technology' but he noticed Liara behind Shepard's back giving him a hopeful smile. He instead nodded, closed the box and carried it outside the storage warehouse.

It was a bit of a hassle to figure out how to actually work the camera. Even more to learn how to make the photos look how he wanted. Liara encouraged him. She happy that he found an interest other than guns when he wasn't by her side uncovering new Prothean relics and trying to claim the tools they found as 'worship objects' while they were simply a nose pick or toilet seat. Good thing he was good at dodging the projectiles she'd throw at him for trying to troll her.

Those were his first photos. Angry Liara, exasperated Liara, Liara annoyed. Happy Liara, deep in thoughts Liara, Liara with her mouth stuffed with some sort of dessert and panic in her eyes as she realized he captured her image. There were also his private Liaras, the ones he wouldn't share with anyone. Some of the photos were shit of course - blurry or with a sun flare, random finger in the lens. But he got better, learned from his mistakes. Eventually he expanded his subjects to citizens of colonies they visited as well as Citadel. Hanars were more than happy to pose even when he didn't want them to.

Though, Tali Zorah would still give him grief over the photographies of himself.

"You take selfies like a grandpa," she teased him.

"I do not see the point in them," he gruffed, brushing her off.

"It would be a nice change of pace though if you included yourself a bit more in these," Liara added quietly, browsing through his latest work. "More proof you have been here..."

His eyes lingered on her and she blushed turning her head away from him.

He invested in better tripods and studied carefully how to take proper 'selfies'. He didn't like the dronesand VIs so all his cameras were purely mechanical. His Liara collection now increased in photos with him in them.

The ultimate test came from Shepard again.

"I want you to do some photography at my wedding," she told him.

"Won't the combined Allience and Hierachy broadcast the whole thing?" Javik looked at her skeptical.

"That will be the 'official' one. We want to do a small, candid ceremony before the circus one. I want something genuine," she said.

"We thought since you really can handle the whole thing, you'd be perfect fit for it," Vakarian added.

"It just has to be genuine, Javik." Shepard smiled softly.

He agreed.

He did it. Captured the laughs of his past comrades, the slackjawed awe of Vakarian when he saw Shepard walking down the short aisle. The dancing, drinks, the party. As he was developing photos after the reception, looking through photos of Jack making out with Miranda, Grunt catching the bouqet, Wrex completely covered in krogan toddlers and kids, mournfully watching others being drunk he noticed a few photos he didn't take. Photos of him, toasting with James, swapping stories with Joker, attacked by krogan children, holding Liara's hand. He stared at them for a long while. He was there, he lived. He will be remembered.

[imakemywings]

Mass Effect Femslash Recs

Happy February 4th! For Femslash February, a nice collection of femslash fanfic recs! Asteriks by personal favs (★‿★)

* after the flood, all the colors came out by madamebadger - f!Shepard/Tali - Tali has nursed a crush on Shepard for years, but there was never any indication--any at all--that anything could come of it. And she has plenty on her plate with the rebuilding of Rannoch. But the truth is that the heart is not so easy to quiet. Especially when Shepard comes back to visit.

Almost Like Being in Love by Urdnot_wrekt - f!Shepard/Liara - As with any new relationship, Shepard and Liara can't seem to keep their hands to themselves.

Between Us by @anneapocalypse - f!Shepard/Tali - While the war rages all around them, what was between Tali and Shepard remains.

* building mountains in your memory by @chocochipbiscuit - f!Shepard/Liara - Liara spends two years mourning Shepard's death before Cerberus brings her back.

Cardamom and Cloves by wolframbeta - f!Shepard/Liara - Liara takes the night off from her duties as an information broker on Illium to share a meal and quiet conversation. It doesn't go according to plan.

Expiation by supernovasooth - Jack/Miranda - Miranda tries to apologize in her own way.

Faithfully Faithless by Settiai - Ashley/Liara - War and faith didn't exactly go hand-in-hand

For the Living by DrJekyl - f!Shepard/Samara - Samara's relationship with death has always been complex; her relationship with life and love even more so.

Grasping at Straws by Settiai - f!Shepard/Ashley - Ashley kept getting the feeling that she was missing something.

The Great Cabin Conspiracy of '73 by DrJekyl - Aethyta/Benezia - Two matriarchs somehow get stuck in a chilly cabin with no security escort and no extranet access.

Kiss and Get It Over With by ziskandra - Jack/Miranda - Faced with the end of the universe, old differences are set aside.

Motion by SomethingProfound - f!Shepard/Traynor - Sam Traynor's life would be a lot easier if Marines could keep their shirts on. Or: a new friendship aboard the Normandy between the ship's comms specialist and her Executive Officer blooms into something else as the war rages.

nights, by the light of whatever would burn by madamebadger - f!Shepard/Tali/Garrus - In every life, you have to make trade-offs. Shepard has always been at peace with what she's given up to be who and what she is, mostly because she's focused her attention on everything but her own personal life. Even her dearest friends know that she will always, to some degree, hold them at arm's length. But the war has a way of burning everyone down to their most essential selves, and in the end even Shepard can't help seeing, finally, what she wants, what she needs--and what she may have lost.

Purple Shadows by Settiai -Ashley/Liara - Ashley hadn't even considered that the Shadow Broker would be the best person to help clear her name. She'd reacted on pure instinct. It probably said more than she'd like it to say, that her first thought when in trouble was that she needed to find Liara.

* Rakhana by DrJekyl - Aethyta/Benezia - The revelation that the hanar are conspiring to uplift a newly discovered species, the drell, sends shockwaves through the galaxy and right into the T’Soni household.

A Recommendation by YourLocalPriestess - f!Shepard/Ashley - Ashley and Shepard haven't spoken more than a few words to each other since Ilos, and more importantly, since their kiss beforehand. But it had been over a week, and a recommendation leaves Ash with room to doubt what they have.

* Silent days, violent shades by acrosspontneuf - f!Shepard/Aria - ‘There’s profit in survival,’ Aria says, later, an offer masked as a parting shot as Shepard starts to walk away. They both know that Shepard can’t run, but Shepard allows herself the illusion for another stolen moment. The thought of disappearing is tempting - she could discover other galaxies, let this one save itself for once. She could live without being so intrinsically aware of how close she is to the end of it all.

something more comfortable by xenosaurus - f!Shepard/Tali - The first thing Tali does after Rannoch is move all of her things into Shepard’s quarters.

* Stolen Goods by DrJekyl - Aethyta/Benezia/Shiala - Benezia returns home early from a work trip and finds that Aethyta and Liara are up to minor mischief, with Shiala as their willing accomplice.

An Unexpected Pleasure by BlackJackKent - f!Shepard/Traynor - Shore leave is a time for cutting loose from the day-to-day protocols of military life, and after a few drinks at Purgatory, Sam Traynor finds the courage and motivation to try flirting again with Commander Shepard. She's fairly sure Shepard is interested in women too, and her intuition doesn't lie -- the only trouble is Shepard hasn't quite realized it herself yet.

Worth It by Pigeon_theoneandonly - f!Shepard/Traynor - In the midst of the reaper war, Shepard finds a pocket of normalcy for Sam.

[sol-consort]

Wait until the other species find out that the only thing preventing Earth from being pummeled to death by the asteroid belt is the gravitational pull and orbit of Jupiter holding the belt and other space rocks back. (Sometimes Jupiter lets one slip tho and flings it right at us or the other inner planets. The dinosaurs got the last rock that Jupiter threw at Earth.)

that's just Jupi being in a silly goofy mood <3 such a diva sometimes i swear

I know there is this trope of "Earth is actually a deathworld" in the human space orcs prompts, but Earth is genuinely the closest to a heaven you can get naturally from a planet.

The other species would envy the humans for getting such a starting advantage. Turians had to adapt to a radioactive planet after their ozone layer fizzled out, quarians became the disease carriers in their world for the lack of bugs to spread pollen around which completely shattered any resemblance of immune system they could've had.

Compare it to our Earth that's impossibly diverse, the rich evolution history it gave humans. It's not normal for an animal to have such a varied diet as us! So many of the stuff we are able to eat would kill them. Our bodies have biological clocks that sync with the day and night cycle. Our hands have fully articulated 5 fingers, and one of them is a thumb! Having a thumb is so vital to creating/using tools that it's a miracle species without it even managed to get through the stone age. So many of the aliens have fewer fingers, paws, or claws.

Our hands are insanely complex, not even counting the unique per-person fingerprints. Each finger has 4 joints, totalling 20 joints per hand. Allowing us extremely precise movements and the perfect limb to grab any shape whatsoever with. We wouldn't have had any of that wasn't it for the long line of ancestry we hold, we would've probably ended up as another aquatic species wasn't it for Earth developing the ozone layer and allowing us to go on land + plants and actually liveable wide areas of land.

So back to earth—Not only is the ozone layer and the Earth magnetic field constantly protecting us, but so is the moon! So is Jupiter! So are the remaining planets in the outer rings that filter out all the large asteroids. Jupiter flinging one asteroid at us once a couple millennias is so much more preferable to the shower of asteroids we would've been heralded in every single day.

Or how convenient Mars' existence is to us. So close by, mineral rich and ready to be explored, the perfect test planet to attempt to integrate into. A clear set goal for the future. How humans in Mass Effect got handed all the advanced space travel technology from the remains of Prothean bases there, ones previously used to observe us. Did the other species get the same? Asari, sure, yeah, but salarians and turians had to actually work to master space travel.

9 planets and 181 moons. Our solar system is even located at the outer edge of the Milky Way, where it's nice and less crowded. We're literally living in the suburban housing equivalent of planetary systems.

Earth is genuinely a haven, the perfect cradle to nurture sustainable life. All the other species have problems and mutations caused by their less than ideal planet environments, which they had to overcome with science—even the asari, don't forget the glaring problem of how reproducing with each other can results in Ardat Yakshi— Meanwhile, humans can be suited up and ready to go.

Our faulty expiring spines and only two sets of teeth pale in comparison to salarian bodies needing extreme support for each joint, drell breathing diseases, and hanar inability to carry their own bodyweight. Humans' bodies are very adapt, even in space, your brain starts adjusting the blood flow and regulating it's own pressure.

We might not have 4 eyes or other advantages like the protheans, but we definitely can get a passing grade in space survival with little to no modifications, only regular exercise.

That's why the theory of "unique earth" is so popular. Even when we do find an earth-like planet, it's rarely in a suitable star system. It's bare and defenceless with nothing to protect it. It's only a matter of time before it's flattened by asteroids or melted by radiation.

The sharks on earth are older than the forming of the literal north star. If that's not proof enough of Earth being perfect for propagating and maintaining life, then I don't know what is.

[c-rowlesdraws]

Sorry, unsolicited ME3 discourse, I see it crossing my dash and it's like a cat with a laser pointer. What gets me about the ME3 endings is that they completely ignore that multiple times within the text, we get shown that symbiosis isn't just possible, but it really just requires basic mutual respect and communication. Not space magic fusions or anything like that.

The fact that they built up to that with the Geth-Quarian resolution, the Leviathans, and EDI, and then fumbled it into the completely incoherent and disconnected Synthesis ending at the last minute, never fails to hurt my brain. The rest of the story has plenty of problems but they almost had a really cohesive ending that spoke to an actual thesis.

Personally my headcanon flavour of ending is just Shepard making silent fixed eye contact with the Catalyst's avatar while in the background out the window the ridiculous fleet you assembled wipes the floor with the Reapers until they pinky promise to be nice, and then everyone goes out for yiros.

As far as I understand it, not just Synthesis but all of the endings felt last-minute because in a way, they were last-minute— the whole overarching plot of the series was changed midway through production from one having more to do with the use of mass effect technology accelerating entropy (and the Reapers destroying galactic civilization to stop that) to one focused on an existential conflict between “synthetic” and “organic” life. There are still plot threads pertaining to the old storyline that just don’t go anywhere now, like the whole thing with Haestrom’s sun aging prematurely in ME2.

I’m publishing this ask because I respect ur thoughts and I think other people will also find them interesting, but also I meant what I said about not wanting to get into ME ending discourse, lol. If anyone wants to continue the discussion or anything in the replies/reblogs, I will be reading but not engaging. Ask me about hanar strip clubs or elcor gyms instead or something if you want to get my engine revving.

[dragonflight203]

Mass Effect 2 replay, Thane’s loyalty mission:

-Bailey says they don’t get many drell.

Logical enough. There aren’t many drell to start with, and presumably many stay close with hanar. Considering hanar are aquatic, how many enjoy traveling to terra based societies?

Those that visit the Citadel are likely on political business and would go to the presidium.

-“Duct rats” are a nice touch in world building. Of course the poor kids would play in the vents, and of course there are numerous ways for that to kill them. But who’s going to force them to stay out of the vents?

-Why do keepers maintain protein vats? Bailey just casually throws out their existence… Is that the raw material used to clone more keepers?

-I’m not fond of Bailey, but I respect his willingness to assist Thane because Thane is trying to save his kid.

-Thane: You didn’t tell him that kolyat plans to assassinate someone.

Renegade Shepard: I also didn’t tell him what you do for a living. Do you normally discuss assassinations with the police?

Good line.

-Mouse: I got some quarians that can strip the copy protection.

What’s the story here? Quarians on pilgrimage? Quarians on the fleet with a side hustle?

-Mouse turned around and saw a known assassin and the dead savior of the citadel. That would strike fear in anyone.

-The renegade interrupt is pretty brutal. You just go straight to beating the information out of him without even trying to talk him into it.

Given his history with Thane, that’s pretty shitty.

-There’s an extra layer of tragedy in that Mouse got Kolyat the assassination job as a favor to Thane, and that he refuses to tell you how he knows Thane because Thane hasn’t told you.

Mouse is far more loyal to Thane than Thane is to him.

-I’d argue that the upper right option to persuade Mouse is better than the blue paragon.

Blue paragon leans on his fondness for Thane to freely give the information.

Upper right, you pay him so he can get off the Citadel to somewhere safe.

-Mouse thinks Kelham will kill him for telling. He’s probably right.

If you go renegade, he asks Thane to kill Kelham if Thane has any fondness for Mouse.

And Thane… Never takes any additional steps to help Mouse. Considering the lengths Mouse goes to help him, you think he could repay him by pulling some strings to get him better work or the like.

-Bailey is so damn corrupt. Of course he takes bribes.

He acts tough and world weary and insists you need a strong hand to police a ward, but he doesn’t have the conviction to follow through.

-The interrogation room has a torture chair. What kind of “interrogations” does C-Sec normally perform?

-The whole interrogation is silly. Shepard should lead with that they’re a spectre. That should not require a high level of renegade.

I suppose it can be argued that the Council told Shepard to stick to the Terminus space, so they’re trying to avoid using their spectre status on the Citadel.

-How does Khalim not know what a spectre is and that they can operate outside the law?

That seems like criminal 101. He should be actively avoiding spectre attention.

-Renegade Shepard: I’ll cut your balls of and sell them to a krogan.

Another really good line.

-Khalim uses the insults frog and tadpole for drells.

-The reasons for anti-human sentiment that Bailey gives probably work better in a run where Shepard killed the Council.

Why did a human fleet guard the Citadel for months? Are you telling me the turians couldn’t divert one of their fleets to do so?

The increased number of humans in C-Sec is also a baffling. The presidium was attacked in the Battle for the Citadel; do you expect me to believe that’s where most C-Sec recruits come from?

Recruiting after the battle should have been normal for any post-crisis situation. The only reason I can come up with is that prior to the battle the number of humans on the force was restricted, and that was removed/relaxed after.

-I dislike paragon Shepard’s line about Talim being elected: If a majority votes for him, like it or not, that’s how the system works.

That is beyond naive. Plenty of elected officials have down awful things.

-I’m not fond of this part the catwalk part of the mission. I’d like to see all the outcomes to dealing with Kolyat, and that requires replaying the entire section.

-One of Talim’s campaign platforms is C-Sec corruption.

Since the Shin Akiba enclave opened, there’s been a 24% increase in racial crimes despite 116 more officers being assigned. Most of those are human, and human officers will turn a blind eye to human crime. Don’t expect a captain to behave any differently.

Khalim runs the Shin Akiba enclave, and he bribes Bailey to turn a blind eye to him.

Corruption does inspire more corruption. Even if Bailey treats everyone equally – and we have no proof that he does or does not – watching him take bribes sends a message to his people that ignoring regulations is okay.

-And of course, we immediately learn afterwards that Talim is also corrupt.

I wish he wasn’t. That dilutes the impact of his criticisms of Bailey. Which is probably the point.

-Why does Talim sprint at one point?

The section from the krogan intimidating the human shopkeeper to the bar where the barkeeper is shaken down is bizarre. There’s no reason for Talim to run through the ward. What message does that send to voters?

-Does Kolyat have any kind of plan? It looks like he positioned himself to shoot Talim in the back then make a run for it. That’s awful. The krogan bodyguard could just shoot him.

-No matter how you handle Kolyat, he’s obviously not an experienced criminal.

He’s very lucky Thane came to save him. The prison system or the underworld would eat him alive.

-You can feel the spite and anger when he speaks to Thane. Good voice actor.

Why did he even want to become an assassin? That’s never said. He’s furious at Thane; did he become an assassin to spite him? In hopes he might run into him if they’re both in the field?

I don’t think he wanted to be like Thane. At least not consciously.

-A running theme through this mission is that Thane is tired of violence. He’s not happy if you beat up Mouse, he’s not happy if you beat the target’s name out of Khalim, and he questions the morality of killing Talim to prevent Kolyat from doing so.

Thane’s comfortable with violence in his life, but he wants better for Kolyat. Part of that is keeping him as far away from it as possible.

-If you go renegade when speaking to Kolyat, he asks what right Thane had to kill all those people.

Thane: I was six when the hanar began to train me. I didn’t know any better.

Still insisting that you have no responsibility for those murders, Thane?

The cracks are starting to show.

-Thane admits to killing his wife’s killers in front of C-Sec.

Not the best choice, Thane. There’s going to be enough of an uphill battle getting Kolyat off the hook without adding you to the fire.

-I appreciate Bioware repeatedly stating that this does not fix the relationship between Thane and Kolyat. It’s a start, but they’ll both have to keep working to improve it.

-You can lean on Bailey to keep Kolyat out of jail.

Not the most moral choice, but nothing about this mission has been.

Normandy

-Aria gave Shepard’s email address to Diana, Nif’s mother

I am amused that she keeps giving all these random people Shepard’s email address. How does that go? Does she have them brought to afterlife? Does an email with the information arrives in their email box? Does she have a courier send them a datapad?

And they just go, Welp I guess I have to send an email to Shepard now. Don’t want to find out what will happen if I don’t…

-How did Irikah come to terms with Thane being an assassin?

He was still taking work when they were together, so he didn’t quit.

Was she okay with it as long as the targets were only bad people?

-Thane accepted death when he was 12.

That’s also the age where he first killed someone.

I’d love to hear the story of how those two are related.

-Shepard tells Thane that by his own rules he doesn’t need to feel bad about killing his wife’s killers since he was on autopilot.

Thane insists he is responsible since he made the choice to hunt them.

Apparently, the same does not apply to making the choice to accept a commission to kill someone.

Those are some thin lines you’re drawing, Thane.

-Hitting on Thane right after he explains to you how his wife died is rather creepy. I wish Bioware had handled that better. Maybe they could have left the option out of this conversation and given Thane an additional conversation where starting a romance was an option.

-Samara fought Nihlus because he killed an unarmed civilian.

Nihlus eventually got away be creating a situation where she had to choose between letting an innocent die or pursuing him.

Nihlus was definitely a renegade spectre.

-Samara also respects him for using her code against her so well.

There’s a running theme with Samara where she respects strength even if she disagrees with morals.

She regards Morinth the same way.

-As a mercenary Samara killed the rest of her band to prevent them from turning slaves over to collectors.

Samara has always been firm in her convictions and unwavering due to personal connection, even prior to becoming a justicar. It’s probably one of the reasons she made it through the training.

-She also lectures the slaves on strength and the ability to defend oneself, then gave them supplies and released them on the Citadel.

This makes me snort every time. These slaves were probably deeply traumatized, and then this asari who murdered all of her companions gives them weapons and armor, tells them to get stronger, and dumps them on an unprepared city. That must have been an experience for everyone. Did she even warn city officials?

I’m sure there are societies set up to help former slaves adjust to freedom. Samara probably could have found one with chapters in her system if she had run an extranet search.

[brinteylovesaliens]

HC for FemShep that @sarahsmiles1991 and I came up with today...

Shep: gods first a turIan wants me to be a spectre, another wanted me to join with him as a slave to sovereign, then another turian wants me captured so he could live like a king, and then they want me to do things for them like save their planet, son and a head of a geth,what is it turians DON'T want from me?

Garrus: ... to die, we don't want you to die

Meshep: as sweet as that is, Sare-

Garrus: Siren was being brainwashed by a reaper, believe me many turians would kill to be in my position.

Victus: the Turian Hierarchy received a request to officially recognize Commander Shepard as a Turian citizen. I've also received requests for marriage requests from many families for the Commander.

Wrex: yeah? Well she's already officially a Krogan and has had breeding requests.

Tali: yeah, well she's already a Quarian Captain and can link suits with literally anyone she wants!

Geth: consensus was reached by 99.99999999999993% of all Geth that Shepard-Commander is Geth. She has entered our consensus space twice and survived. And is nice to us. We.. like her.

Balak: All Batarians want her dead

Bray: not me

Balak: except Bray

Bray: I'd marry her of she wanted

Balak: he's a bad Batarian

Aria: she can be my co-Queen.

Balak: Batarians want her dead

Batarians: nah, we're cool with her

Balak: but..

Batarians: she can hold her own word us. She's badass. And doesn't kill us just for being Batarian

Balak:

Bray: she kinda threatened me once. It was hot.

Balak: ... okay maybe I was turned on when she said she would hunt me down BUT I STILL WANT HER DEAD

Balak: she blew up our solar system!

Bray: yeah, for a good reason

Balak: PEOPLE DIED!

Bray: yeah, and billions lived because of it

Balak: ffs

Bray: I wish to make babies with her

Hanar: this one would also like to say that Shepard has been requested to mate as well for bringing back one of the enkindlers, along with the drell of course.

Elcor: Shyly excited, we too have accepted her as one of us after saving us

Volus: .....yeah I guess would make a good mate if she wanted us

Morlan: she is welcome in my shop at a 90% discount

Salarians: while one old bitch doesn't like the fact that she cured the genophage many has asked to send thier ancestor genes to her if she would be interested [we then discussed hoe Salarians swap genealogy stuff..]

Asari: ... ya no we want her we want many shep asari

We'll need to add more as we go..

[outpost51]

Find The Word Tag

tagged over here by @writernopal (tysm!!!!!)

my words: falter, leap, faith, leaf, sky

tagging: @uraniumwriting, @sam-glade, @sparatus, @fenrir-kin, @comeoniwantacoolname

your words: pitch, aid, brother, relief, ceiling

falter

from Blinding Neon, Shades of Grey, Chapter 6: Catch

Bonnie’s grin does falter at that; his ears droop with a quiet whirr. “What made you look into your dad?”

leap

from Between a Rock and a Hard Place, Chapter 17: How to Mistakenly Assume You Have Everything Under Control

Yeah, not likely. I narrowly dodged an undulating blue wave that caught an unsuspecting vorcha in Stasis. “I’ll go home when I’m ready!” I shouted, rolling behind a trash bin Citrio Lifted like it was fucking nothing. I swung myself around the corner into the alley and quickly climbed up the closest building’s maintenance ladder. It had been a while since I hopped my way around rooftops, but after stumbling twice, I fell back into the rhythm: vault the artigrav generator, slide to the other end, grab the edge, hang down, kick off the wall, grab the next ladder, climb, vault over the edge, roll to the other side — step by step, leap by leap, I carefully calculated my jumps, dodging the flashes of blue cast up at me from the ground. I knew he wouldn’t follow me up there, former street kid or not. His talons were too nice. Torch probably would have followed me, though, and suddenly I was even more grateful she’d given up when she did.

faith

from Stellar Parallax, Chapter 5: A Matter of Pride

Valern and Tevos shared a look, then she spoke up. “If humans are to join with Council space, regardless of where we draw the border, their territory will be touching the Terminus, and the wholesale slaughter of a colony is… a rather slippery slope. What’s to stop them from escalating if we don’t show these attackers that the humans are under our protection? What faith would the volus, the elcor, and the hanar have in us then? We can spare an agent or two to help them in the wake of this tragedy.” She nodded to herself. “At the very least, the presence of Spectres will be a sufficient deterrent.”

leaf

from Between a Rock and a Hard Place, Chapter 19: This is Everything I Never Wanted

Pudge came thundering into the clearing with more gusto than I thought such a round beast was capable of — his claws gouged deep furrows in the soft earth beneath the leaf litter as he also realized he was going far too fast and tried to throw on the brakes. He, too, hit a tree trunk with a harsh crack, but shook it off just as quickly. Leaves were still raining down from the canopy as another creature emerged from the shadows. It was then I remembered there was a second shatha, as if one notorious killer in the household wasn’t enough. This one was far slinkier than Pudge, sleek and skinny and crawling low to the ground.

sky

from Between a Rock and a Hard Place, Chapter 20: Dissent/Descent

“Dumbass,” she chuffed and finally looked away, watching the clouds roll across the sky. “Snuck out of the barracks every night just in case you showed up.” “Why?” “Because I like you, dipshit, why else?”

[cramenjoyer]

hello may i ask what the deep mass effect lore is? i've played the games but now i'm wondering if there's stuff i dont know. have a nice day

probably not that deep lol but i guess a lot of stuff i think of as lore is more interpretation of dropped plots, comments, and little details. indoctrination/enthrallment of the rachni mimicking some of the symptoms experienced by normandy crew members, which points to indoctrination (shepard's "oily shadow" dreams, the droning sounds in their dreams, and james asking if anyone else hears a humming sound). how the geth were altered by indoctrination to the point they stopped thinking like geth (desiring individuality in me3 when that was their worst nightmare in me2). shaira the consort using soldiers and politicians to learn secrets and manipulate galactic politics. the reapers made the mass relays and designed the FTL engines all species use, and put in failsafes so ships can't be used as FTL bullets--- like that scene in one of the star wars sequels where someone goes lightspeed at a star destroyer. the eletania vision, the hanar religion and the beacon on thessia suggest that protheans weren't just watching but actively manipulating younger races to develop along preferred paths. all the dark energy plot stuff and the original ending where the reapers were trying to prevent the big crunch aka the death of the universe, which i think is cool in concept but would've sucked to play. the asari government hides the true number of ardat-yakshi because they use them as soldiers, suggested in me3 by the veteran who killed joker's little sister. idk its a big game series lol

[ask-de-writer]

WIND MEETS THE ROM : Part 21 of 27 :

MLP Fan Fiction

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WIND MEETS THE ROM

Part 21 of 27

by

De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)

Cover art by @wind-the-mama-cat

54212 words

© 2023 by Glen Ten-Eyck

Writing begun 06/01/18

All rights reserved. This document may not be copied or distributed on or to any medium or placed in any mass storage system except by the express written consent of the author.

//////////////

Copyright fair use rules for Tumblr users

Users of Tumblr.com are specifically granted the following rights. They may reblog the story provided that all author and copyright information remains intact. They may use the characters or original characters in my settings for fan fiction, fan art works, cosplay, or fan musical compositions.

All sorts of fan art, cosplay, music or fiction is actively encouraged.

///////////////////////

New to the story? Read from Part 1, here!

///////////////////////

Wind replied, “Thank you, Mama Dragon. I have already learned that I am not yet ready for swords.”

Hanar chuckled, “I was there! No, sweet love of mine, no swords. If you tell me what it needs, I will make you a staff of Rom Blackwood. No wood is stronger than Blackwood.”

As Wind was thanking Hanar for her offer, Mama Dragon pushed back her chair and said, “Marchhare, I must thank you for your excellent care of my Kitten. Now, I fear, it is time for me to go.”

She was starting for the door in the front of the caravan when Wind took her arm and told her, “Not yet, Mama. You need to stay until the fair opens. The wood miners have found a big ancient maple with burls. The burls and some of the other wood have opalized. Think of the lovely maple burl grain patterns in opal.”

Mama Dragon's eyes closed and her lips pursed in a near ecstacy as she pictured the burl grain in opal colors. Recovering, she looked down at Wind and ruffled the hair between her ears as she rumbled, “Thank you, Wind. You have saved me from a grave error.”

Turning to Hoof Dancer and Black Lotus she said contritely, “It appears that you will have to make more carnivore breakfast, my dears. How soon will the wood miners get here?”

Marchhare giggled but replied, “Fairly early after sunrise. They will need to set up their sales booth. How do I compete for opalized burl wood with a dragon looking to increase her hoard?”

Mama Dragon's grin bared all of her impressive fangs as she retorted, “You don't!” Her grin morphing into a smile, she added, “Fear not, I will leave some for both you and Rose. In fact, I would love to buy one of her boxes made from this opalized wood.”

Breakfast was the usual madhouse of Rom grabbing pastries, pies, tea and scrambles. Mama Dragon surprised everyhorse there by taking a place beside Wind in the serving line, speaking perfect Gyptian to the rest.

The three of them, Mama Dragon, Wind and Hanar found a nice shady spot to eat their breakfast. Hanar was brimming over with questions about Wind's home world as they sipped big mugs of tea.

Suddenly Hanar's magic gathered all their breakfast dishes and utensils and sailed them unerringly into the soaking tubs! She pointed, dancing with excitement! “The wood miners! That is their cart on the midway!”

There was a small stampede of Rom and a dragon toward the cart in the midway! Wind, far ahead of the pack, stopped by the cart and politely asked, “How can we help you to set up? We have some horses and a dragon who all want your special woods.”

“We'd be glad of some help, um, Mam. We have some heavy things to off load and our tables have to be real stout, so they are heavy too.”

Wind pointed, “So, those trestles and boards on top are your tables? No problem at all. If I am counting right, you want four trestles under each table, right?”

Wind just hopped up onto the wagon, calling, “Hanar! They want four of these under each table!” She casually began tossing the dozen stout wood trestles off the wagon!

Hanar's magic caught the sawhorse like trestles and set them neatly into a big U shape. Boards sailed off from Wind's hands but were caught and placed with precision by Hanar's magic. In short order, the booth tables were ready.

Mama Dragon and Marchhare stepped to the front. Mama Dragon, leaning forward in a slightly predatory posture, politely asked, “I hear that you have some opalized maple burls. I am most eager to see them. I will buy one if they are anything like the report that I heard.”

Stepping back with trepidation from the dragon in front of him, the leader pointed to three stout square cases on the wagon. They are right there. It takes two of us to lift each one. We will get right on it . . .”

His words trailed away as slight seeming Wind picked up the first of the indicated boxes and handed it to Mama Dragon, who took it, balancing it on one hand and transferring it to the table. They repeated the task with each of the other two. Wind hopped off of the wagon and joined Mama Dragon, giving her a hug.

Mama Dragon returned the hug with hands that were rough scaled on the backs but scaled as smooth as the belly scutes of a snake on the palms and undersides of her fingers. The sheer comfort that Wind radiated showed all who could see that she was happily at home in Mama Dragon's arms.

Mama Dragon extricated herself from Wind and asked politely, “May I see the burls?”

The lead miner nodded, “Sure can. If you want to buy one, we will take a Secure Gold Transfer or cut it down to a size that you can afford.”

“Oh, that won't be necessary. You do take gold coin don't you?”

“Yes, Mam, we do. But this is thousands of gold bits we are talking about here.”

“I did figure that out, Sir. Equestrian gold bits are 2% copper for durability. I have coins that match that purity in my hoard. You do have a trade scale to weigh them, don't you? Of course I expect you to test my coins for purity.

“May I see your burls now?”

Mutely he nodded and unfastened catches at the lower front corners of each case. He folded back the front and top to make a display box of each case.

He apologetically explained, “We only got them cut free of the trunk two days ago. Didn't have time to polish the faces but you can see, they are top quality.”

Mama Dragon picked up one and asked, “May I shine them for you? I promise that it will not be hurt by it.”

He nodded, “If you can without hurting them, go ahead.”

Cradling the stone in one solid arm, she breathed a gentle wash of pale blue flame across the burl while rubbing it softly with the smooth side of her other hand. In only a few minutes, she put the burl back in its box. Its face was now perfectly smooth, revealing to all the brilliant reds, blues and greens in the wonderful swirled patterns of the burl's original wood now replaced by pure opal.

She quietly went down the table repeating the feat. The rare treasures of the wood miners held every horse and pony there spellbound.

Mama pointed to the first one that she had polished and said cheerfully, “I will take that one. Now, the gold. You do have a scale don't you?”

“I do. That one is 32,000 bits for the whole thing.”

He put out a scale with a stand and two sliding weights. He set the weights and pronounced, “There. It's set for five hundred bits weight. You going to have some, um, horse go get your gold?”

“Not necessary. I have it here.” Mama Dragon opened her belt pouch and reached impossibly deep into it. She pulled out a large hand full of huge golden coins.

His eyes bugged out at the sight of them! “I have never seen coins that big! They must be near two inches across!”

He drew one across a testing slate, leaving a streak and applied the test acid to it. “These are pure gold! I'd be robbing you of 2% to take them. Let me re set my scale to give you fair value.” He fiddled with an adjustment screw on his scale. “There. Now it will read honest for you.”

Stacking coins on the scale until it balanced, he set aside the stack. Cheerfully he commented, “500 bits. Only sixty three more stacks to go!”

One of the other wood miners put out a largish box for Mama Dragon to pile her coins in and started keeping a tally as his boss weighed stacks of coins.

Mama Dragon's huge supply of coins coming from a seemingly small pouch drew nearly as much attention as the opal burls!

Finally the last stack was weighed and the last of the gold loaded into a coffer. “Do you need a receipt, Mam? Help with carrying your purchase?”

“I think that I can manage it.”

Mama Dragon took the pouch off her belt and pulled the opening wide. She stretched it over the box with her opal burl, working it around the box like a snake swallowing a large prey. At the last she tipped it up, letting the box fall inside the pouch, which resumed its original small belt pouch size. Mama Dragon attached it to her belt, and gave Wind another hug.

“I really must go home now, Kitten. I will see you again when you can properly wield Soulblade. I love you.”

“Love you too, Mama. I will miss you. Take good care of your world.”

The crowd parting in front of her and closing behind her, Mama Dragon went into Marchhare's caravan and closed the door behind her.

With Mama Dragon gone, the crowd became the usual somewhat unruly collection of ponies that anypony with brains expects around the wood miners booth. Their goods, as usual, were first rate.

Marchhare managed to get his hooves on a whole burl too. Wind and Hanar helped him to carry its box to his caravan. Wind noticed that Rose had obtained a nice plank of beautifully grain figured maple that was subtly infused with the lovely opal.

As they were opening Hanar's booth for the day, Wind wanted to know, “Hanar, you said that you might make me a staff out of Rom Blackwood? I would really appreciate that. I have not been able to work out with any weapons since I got here. I do need that discipline.”

“Then you shall have it, Wind, my love. But not until this evening, after the fair closes for the night. How big around and how long should it be?”

Wind took the time to measure out one of Hanar's woven Broadweave fabrics for a customer. The customer, a pleasant faced yellow pony with a bow in her forelock, was surprised when Wind sheared off the fabric on the cutting board. She held it in her new metal hand and sliced it free of the bolt with a claw sprung from the index finger of her flesh hand.

As she took her neatly folded purchase, a little wide eyed, she asked, “That was amazing! Do you need a knife or scissors at all?”

Hanar looked up from where she was twining more thread on her spinning wheel and replied with a grin, “Only if she needs to cut something really big! Those claws of Wind's are really sharp!”

As the Sky Dancers first tune struck up, Wind went to high alert! Her keen eyes scanned the crowd for any sign of surreptitious magic use that might endanger the performers.

What she saw instead was indeed sneaky use of magic, all right. Some pony was sliding coins out of a merchant's coin box while he was distracted by the ongoing dance in the air!

She was over the counting board in a leap! She was silently charging through the crowd of fairgoers, dodging or leaping over ponies as needful!

The first that the thief knew of his trouble was Wind landing astradle his back! Her clawed metal hand was gripping his horn! Her right arm was around his neck, claws sunk solidly into his skin, just over the major blood vessels!

Using his horn for a lever, she pulled his head around! A few coins fell to the ground, along with the surprised blue green unicorn!

Wind shifted position as he fell and landed solidly across his neck! Conversationally, she commented, “If you try to get away or use magic, I rake your horn and you won't ever use magic again. Clear?”

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[ezrisdax-archive]

oriana lawson/kolyat krios

send me the rarest pair you can think of and I'll tell you if I ship it and how I think it can work

oh I love this pair! I've written for them before even, I'm a huge sucker in the idea of the "younger" generation of ME people knowing each other (Rodriguez, Kolyat, Oriana, Sarah Williams, Veetor...) and I found this ship one day and it just works for me. like Oriana is out here helping every planet rebuild after the war anyway so for sure she ends up on the Hanar homeworld to help the Drell and meets Kolyat and WILL flirt with him that's nice Miranda I know you're reading my mail still, I'm doing this type deal.

[whumpfessional]

Monologue

Final chapter before things finally loop around to the first part of the story I posted! Things are moving. Things are churning.

Balak is still a sadistic bastard.

CW: slavery, minor whump, reference to injuries, death reference

She must’ve fallen asleep. It was the only explanation for how she jolted upright as the door hissed open and Balak stepped into the engine room. 

His eyes caught hers. Two eyes wide with panic met four eyes calm with delight. His smile glowed.

“Hey, kid.” He turned and smoothly shut the door, cocking his head back towards her to catch her expression once more. The two lingered in this stillness for a moment before Balak stepped lightly into the room.

No command was given, so the girl stayed perfectly still. Ghorek. What happened with him? Segar went to tell Balak. All her fault. She didn’t shine his boots. 

Balak stood next to her seated form now. His eyes roamed. The girl felt a tug on the back hem of her shirt as a solitary finger lifted it up, exposing her back.

Silence. Then a low whistle escaped Balak’s teeth.

“Use to be I could look at this and remember each one of these marks.” The girl felt a cold finger tracing along the ridges of scars criss-crossing her back. “After Tristana, I thought for sure I’d come back here and see a biiiig fucking scar that I could point to and say ‘ohh yeah, I remember that one.’” The girl felt her shirt drop back down, the fabric clung to the skin, scrunched up about halfway up her spine but she made no move to fix it. “Instead all I see is a mess.” 

The sleeping mat shifted as Balak sat down beside her, his hands clasped together in his lap. Her eyes flicked to him, despite her best instincts. He stared straight ahead, his expression was unreadable. 

“My people have a great many traditions. From what I’ve read, your people aren’t so different. Neither are the Asari, the Turians, Salarians, Volus, blah-blah-blahblalblah. The thing is, the rest of the galaxy looks on my people as monsters. I wouldn’t expect you to know this. Hell, the other day was probably the first time you’d ever seen an Asari in your life. They are something else, aren’t they?” His head swerved toward her, a devilish grin creeping across face. “Don’t think I didn’t catch you looking. Who could blame you. Just nice to know there’s something still inside there that might feel… well, fucking anything.” His eyes lingered for another moment before he returned to staring straight ahead. The girl’s face lay flat, unreadable but her heart was pounding so heavily she kept glances up at Balak, seeing if he detected it. 

He continued: “I digress. They call us monsters. The reality is, as far as traditions go, we’re no better or worse than anyone of them. There’s only one, teeny, tiny, little detail that’s different. My people call a spade a spade. We’re slavers. Always have been. Slaves have been an essential part of our way of life since long before we took to the stars. It has been essential to our advancement as a species. Progress, innovation, marvels, all accomplished because there were those that we keep lower than the ones who matter. 

“So, they call us monsters. Because we understand the cost of our advancement. But somehow, what no one else in the damn galaxy seems to understand, is that their advancement stems from the same exact thing. They just don’t call it that. The Asari, highest examples of diplomacy and grace, have ‘indentured servants.’ A nice little rebranding, don’t you think? Turians force their own kind into mandatory military service. The Salarians enslaved the Krogan to fight for them before they and the Turians nearly wiped them out for rebelling. The Krogan in turn, enslave their women to bear offspring for them. The Hanar enslaved an entire species, the Drell, under the pretense of saving them and made them their assassins and soldiers. The Volus enslaved the Turians by cheating them with capital to the point now where the Turian slave soldiers will guard Volus space for free just to pay off their debts. Even the Quarians built robotic slaves for themselves because they were too weak to force anyone else to do their bidding.

“And finally,we have the Humans. Your people. Half of your tourist destinations are monuments built by slaves to honor their masters. The economies of your leading nations are built on the foundations of slavery. Your kind is almost as bad as the damn Volus when it comes to financial shackles. And around all of your systems and planets are factories and camps filled with workers earning their way towards an early grave all to fatten the pockets of people like the Illusive Man.

“Now, why am I telling you this? Because I think it’s important you understand what has happened to you. You have fallen, or rather been dragged, down a path that millions upon millions before you have gone down. Submission. You have slotted yourself into the mindset of the weak. You will be brought low so that those who matter can advance. That is what you are. And at first, you resisted it. I know you did, I was there, you and I were young but I could see it in you. You didn’t want the tattoo. You didn’t want to hold the cup. You wanted your mom, or your dad, or to go home.”

Balak’s little finger traced the scar across the bridge of her nose. The girl was frozen in place, feeling her pulse in her throat.

“You wanted to fight.

“This one has always been my favorite scar. It reminds me of that day. We kicked the shit out of you for what you did. Three-on-one, and still, you had something in you to fight back.” A silence hung in the air. The girl had never heard him speak this way before. There was no venom in his voice. No bite. No pleasure in causing her pain. She didn’t understand. She was wrong to fight back. She was wrong to disobey. It’s easier to do as she’s told. It would be worse if she didn’t.

Finally, Balak broke the silence once again.

“I don’t know when that changed.” He looked down at his hands. Tapping his thumbs together. “Ghorek’s nothing. A mechanic. But you needed him to… Segar has a knife in his belt. You know that, right?”

A question. The girl nodded. She was more than aware of the variety of weapons Balak and his seconds carried on them.

“Why didn’t you take it?”

A question. The girl froze. Was she suppose to? Is this a test? What would she use the knife for? She could never. It was Segar’s knife. She had nothing. Nothing was hers. It was her fault he hurt her. She forgot to clean his boots. Or she didn’t clean them well enough. It doesn’t matter which one. It was her fault either way. 

Balak’s eyes bore into her. He wants an answer. ‘Why didn’t you take it?’ What kind of question is that? No. There’s a reason for it. This is a test. She can’t take it. She should have been punished. It was her fault.

“-I -I’m sorry I forgot to clean his boots. Please. Forgive me.” The girl bowed her head and shut her eyes. She braced for the strike, the boot, the threat, the laugh, anything. She felt the bed shift as Balak stood. The sound of his feet clanking against the metal grate flooring as he moved in front of her.

The girl cracked her eyes open. Her feet, toe to toe with large metal boots. A sudden orange glow flooded the view. She felt the air pass her hair as Balak moved his arm to answer his glowing wrist device.

“What is it, Icarek?”

“We’ve got eyes on a quaint little human vessel floating out in the middle of nowhere. Freighter, looks like. Probably ran low on power. You want it?”

“Yeaaah, why not. I need something fun right now.”

“Copy.”

The orange glow vanished. The boots moved away. A few paces and the door hissed open. Balak paused at the door.

“Ghorek’s dead. I thought of doing it in front of you, but we’re past that now, aren’t we?” Her fault. She raised her head. He would be smiling. He always smiled when he punished her. But as the girl’s eyes met the Batarian’s, all she saw was anger. “I’m putting Segar in charge of watching you, from here on out. No one else is going to step in when you fuck up. No one else is going to stop him stomping your head to dust. No one else is going to fight for you, kid.”

He took a step out the door.

“Clean out the supply closet. I want it spotless when I get back.”

The door slammed shut.

And the girl was alone again.

In this room.

For the last time.

TAGLIST: @annablogsposts

[teltinsurvivor]

Jack's criminal record

Note: Some of those crimes are canon. Some are headcanon.

‒ Arson: Burned down a Cerberus facility. Burned down someone's skycar.

‒ Assault: Didn't get caught most of the time, but she's assaulted police officers and got charged for it.

‒ Bribery: Bribed a police officer. That was fun for Jack. Caught through an investigation of another officer later.

‒ Credit card fraud

‒ Drug possession: She didn't take any, but possessed drugs in order to smuggle them and earn some money.

‒ Drug smuggling: Jack actually regrets that.

‒ Extortion

‒ Identity theft

‒ Intimidation: Threatened some officers and was charged for that crime.

‒ Illegal underground fighting: Never caught with it, but some establishments that hosted such fights weren‘t too happy with Jack‘s use of biotics during a fight and considered it cheating. Anyway, it wasn‘t legal.

‒ Kidnapping: Kidnapped multiple gang members, some with big names. Kidnapping is one of the crimes she was charged with.

‒ Manslaughter/Murder: Jack has done this at least ten more times than she got caught with. Including mass murder, since she wiped out whole gangs and went on a killing spree in Purgatory prison.

‒ Piracy

‒ Robbery: Done a few times, never caught during bu eventually charged for it.

‒ Shoplifting

‒ Theft of military craft

‒ Vandalism: Crashed that spacestation into a hanar moon and left them a nice, huge crater.

[sol-consort]

Hopping onto First/solo human on the ship idea and just, everyone on the crew has been wary of the Prothean ever since they joined the crew a year or so ago. Always had this air of superiority about them when talking to anyone, always acting like their so much better than everyone (they only stay on the damn team because they are good at what they do) only to watch with jaws agape as the Prothean just melts around the new human in the team. Chatting with them, even letting them hug them when they want and God forbid, even gushing to the rest of the team about the human just doing the bare minimum of their job.

Or something 💦

Protheans and their emotional support humans are a classic

They keep bringing up the other species embarrassing history, reminding the salarian that his people used to lick their own eyeballs, talking to the asari how her kind owe everything they have achieved to protheans uplifting them, they're practically a god to her people so she should learn her place.

One thing about them is that they rarely, if ever, addresses the crew members by name, constantly adding their species at the end as if it's a suffixe. Maybe it was common during the prothean times? Being at the top of the hierarchy, protheans just had to remind the other species of where they stood all the time.

Dealing with the prothean was just part of the job at this point. No one liked it–maybe except the hanar–but no one could refute how useful they were.

Luckily, the prothean saw all of the crew unfit for socialising with, resulting in them keeping to themselves most of the time unless prompted or on a mission. They are....very intimidating, even as they sat quietly at the end of the couch during movies night, not saying a thing but silently judging everyone in the room, making the air temperature drop several degrees, the asari straightening her back, the salarian nervously fidgeting with the remote, the turian's raised talons twitching on occasion.

When you—a lovely human with curious eyes—joined the ship, the crew would be lying if they said they didn't worry about your invetabile meeting with the prothean.

They've heard your kind tend to have fragile egos, easily tugged heartstrings. There is a reason the "loudest human in a room" has quickly become a cliche stereotype spread through the galaxy. When something roars, rather than shut up, humans roar back ever louder. The first contact war is evidence enough of the whole "eye for an eye" human believe.

The prothean leaving would be devastating—especially with how scarce their kind is. Only a few hundred intact pods managed to be unearthed ever since Javik's whole revel to the public. But the crew simply couldn't stand and watch a poor human get their dreams crushed! What kind of advanced civilisation would they be if they didn't look out for the newest addition to the galactic court?

They took turns to watch over you, keep you away from the prothean as much as possible. Diverting your attention whenever you'd ask about them, adjusting the schedules so you and the prothean never meet.

And they almost succeed...or so they thought. Until several months later, the salarian came into the kitchen to acquire more of this "coffee" you've brought with you to the ship–a drink he's grown very fond of–only to hear a high pitched sound coming from inside the kitchen?

Oh! yes, human laughter! He is delighted you're having a nice time, but who could you possibly be with at such an hour when you're supposed to be asleep.

Nothing in the world could've ever prepared him to see the prothean towering figure, in an apron, standing next to you. A damp cloth in your hand as you carefully wiped the white powder from their face, an opened bag of flour next to where you were sitting on the kitchen table, a bowl with pancake mixture to its right.

You were giggling while offering lighy-hearted apologises, claiming you didn't mean for the flour bag to explode when you opened it with a little too much force.

The strangest thing in this whole situation was the prothean's relaxed expression. The salarian has seen them angry and frustrated before, trust him it's not a pretty sight.

Yet the prothean he's looking at was placid at your casual attitude and touches, serene almost. If anything...and if the salarian research proved fruitfull, the prothean physical cues indicate...happiness.

The salarian didn't stay hidden for long, courtesy of the prothean 4 eyes providing a wide peripheral vision.

The prothean seemed agitated at the uninvited guest, making him feel as if he was intruding on their privacy rather than using the communal kitchen.

...Maybe the salarian can just make his coffee later, yeah.

-

What the alien crew was unaware of is that you've met the prothean ever since the first day on the ship. They unpromptly came into your room just as you finished unpacking.

It was a little awkward at first, making space for themselves at the end of your bed, almost cornering you against the headboard, their intense gaze focused on you, asking to touch you—explaining it's to read your emotions.

But hey, you came into an alien ship willingly; you knew what you were signing up to. What's a little alien weirdness if nothing out of the ordinary?

They visit you every day at night, not much of a talker but occasionally inquiring about your species progress. About the sports, the arts, and music. Asking about your interests, sitting beside you as they observe you play videogames or indulge in your bobbies.

Asking to listen to human music, curiously going through your personal items, attempting to read the history embedded within each one.

Getting you more and more used with their skinship until you're comfortable enough to sit on their lap, back leaning against their chest.

Subtly training you to seek their lap out of your volition by making it the most comfortable seat around. The way they enjoy feeling the texture of your hair, gently massaging your scalp, fingertips moving in small circular motions.

You've very quickly become their source of relief. The prothean picking you up from whatever you were doing—much like one would pick a cat in their arms—before taking you to their private quarters.

Venting to you about these "annoying primitves" who keep failing to meet their expectations. Petting your hair as you cuddle against them, half listening, half scrolling through your phone.

It's become a routine at this point. You've been going to sleep in their embrace more than your own bed as of lately.

Disregarding all the things you've read and heard about protheans being hostile and cold. Sure, they might have a slight superiority complex, but they way their eye colour hue shift when you pepper their face with kisses is the most beautiful thing you've ever seen.

They let you trace the markings on their skin, ones that looks like maps of galaxies and supernovas, you've voiced that thought to them and they seemed at a loss for words, downplaying how much it effected them yet you've noticed them admire their skin in the mirror afterwards, a thoughtful look in their eyes.

Enjoys listening to you talk, no matter the subject. It's like the sound of your voice alone puts them at ease, your laughter akin to music in their ears.

Finding it extremely adorable when you yawn or sneeze, even stretching your arms or body is enough to get their lip corners to curl upwards.

They like spending time with you through all of your emotional stages, be it positive or negative. With a simple touch, they're able to experience your entire day, cupping your face peering into your mind.

It's comforting in a way, knowing at least they fully understand. You don't have to use words or fear being judged, despite all of their long speeches about emotions being a weakness to the other aliens, not once did the prothean shame you for yours.

The prothean seems to know your body better than you at times, as if information about humans and which spots are the most sore/hardest for us to reach is common knowledge to their kind.

They're keen on befriending you, despite their grumpy attitude and seemingly harsh demnour. They literally melt once you hug their arm.

Your mere existence is endearing to them. You might not be aware of it, but ever since you've joined this crew, you've drastically imporved the quality of their life. Living on this ship away from their own kind, surrounded by primitive weaklings, became much more tolerable ever since you arrived.

One time, you swore you heard a slight clicking sound coming from them as your head laid against their chest, resembling purring in a way.

Blatantly playing favourites without shame. Letting you get away with occasions of being a lousy roommate while they treat it as treason if any of the other aline attempted to neglect their chores. Praising you for doing the bare minimum at times.

And to think their kind used to observe humans from mars all those millions of years ago, they themselves remember clearly following the progress of your species, the article that went viral amidst all ranks once humans finally discovered fire.

The prothean is really glad your species is still around, if nothing else, you don't seem to have changed much which is a delight. The one remnant of the past that helps soothe their worries away, that this universe wasn't robbed from all the beauty yet.

That at least one species didn't disappoint them... they held so much expectations for the asari, even the salarians somehow fell in comparison to their ancestors' legacy.

Yet you, humans, you managed to survive, to thrive in this world especially designed to kill you. Earth was a cradle, a utopia, it had one in a trillion chance of existence. Coddled by the rest of your plants, protected from everything and with the most diverse fauna and rich flora.

Not a single one of them thought you'd ever make it to mars, that's why they never bothered to cover their traces or hide the technology they left there.

You were beautiful creatures...to see you come into your own clever beings is a refreshing sight.

[thequeenofsheba-blog]

Japan Trip Jan-Feb 2023

Part 3- Tokyo Restaurants

MEAT

Dinner at Yakiniku Jambo Hanare was good, but it really doesn’t stand up to Sumibi Nakahara- two key differences, one is the atmosphere which is much better at Nakahara, but the other, which is more important, is the lack of use of coals. The meat is grilled on a gas grill, and that means you lose out on that lovely smokey flavor. That said, his steak rice pot is the BOMB, and the other bits were all super tasty.

Tonkatsu Narikura(Minami-Asagaya) is probably serving up the best Tonkatsu out there, but you really need to know which cut will make you happiest in order to order right, and we were unlucky that Tokyo X pork wasn’t available on the day we were there so the meal was good, but not spectacular. That being said, it was still the most juicy and well-prepared pork I have ever had.

TEMPURA

*Mikasa in Kanagawa is a real gem, and in the end it isn’t that far from Tokyo. We had a fantastic tempura meal here, and what wowed us was the creativity of the chef, who served us the most creative tempura we have ever had- things like a tempura walnut, lemon peel, and a slice of scallop sandwiched between two slices of yam. It was really, really excellent.

We had lunch at Fukamachi and I am frankly quite surprised at how highly it is rated on tabelog- it was a pretty average tempura meal in my mind.

SUSHI

***Sushi Kimura- dinner here was spectacular. His plated dishes were some of the most creative bits we had all trip, and while his rice and shari, and therefore nigiri bites, were not out favorite, the overall meal was spectacular and I did love the al dente cook of the rice. He also has a lovely demeanor, and really enjoys having foreigners at his sushi counter, which isn’t the case at many other

Dinner at Kanesaka was good. The space is very nice, and some of his bites were very tasty. I didn’t love his rice and shari, nor the crowd, but all in all a very solid Tokyo sushi experience.

Dinner at Sushinanba Hibiya was bad, something I never would have expected based on the sushi chef’s tabelog rating. We booked the dinner through tableall, which didn’t tell us that the foriegners that they get bookings for are seated in a back room at the end of the sushi counter, with a door separating them from the main room. Yes the chef did come into our little room to serve us the nigiri, but the room looked more like a storage closet, with a messy vacuum and boxes in the corner, and being enclosed and cut off like that from the main room was very unpleasant. In addition, we didn’t get to see any of the fish being cut, it was cut by the sous chef in the main room, and came to us pre-cut. Given that seeing the chef and watching his knife skills is core to the sushi experience, this really limited our enjoyment of the meal. And none of the dishes or bites were the best of the trip. It really makes no sense to me why this place is so highly rated, even for guests who are in the main room. There is nothing spectacular about the rice, shari, or fish here in my view.

NOODLES- RAMEN

***Nakiryu- spectacular tantamen ramen. WOW!

Hachigo- I appreciate that the chef is making ramen that more resembles a beef consommé, and his toppings are admittedly spectacular, but I think the broth is more intereresting for a Japanese audience and less so for a western one. If you didn’t need to wait an hour and a half I would say it would be worth a try, but given the crazy line, I really don’t think its worth it.

***Kagari Echika- I was so worried the tori paitan ramen here would have gone down hill once it became a chain restaurant with multiple locations, but I was wrong, it is still spectacular, and specifically the original broth, not the shoyu one. It is stunning.

NOODLES- UDON

We had udon at Kamachiku and the noodles are superb. Their chop and bounce is unparalleled in my view.

***Maruka- while the noodles here are the faintest hair less good than at kamachiku in my view, here you can get your cold udon (which is the best way to get it if you want the udon texture to be at its best) with egg, yam, and wasabi. The frothy deliciousness that is that bowl of udon really is the best bowl of udon one can get in my view.

OKONOMIYAKI

Okonomiyaki Fukutake- The okonomiyaki here is good, and the proprietress who makes it for you is really awesome. But she uses very few ingredients, essentially cabbage, egg, and then whatever protein you pick and some pickle, but I thought that without the yam, it lacked that yummy batter flavor you hope to get from an okonomiyaki. Wouldn’t be my go-to, but in Tokyo I am not sure there is a better option, given my disappointment at other top spots I have tried.

PIZZA

Pizza Studio Tamaki- yes its expensive for pizza, and very slow, but wow, it is delicious. The ingredients are superb but what really stands out is the dough, which is heavily salted and umami and really is totally addictive. Not sure if this is the best pizza in the world, as some claim, but man its delicious

CREATIVE Den Kushi Flori- I really like the French Japanese fusion concept, and the space, but I think that the dishes were a mixed bag with some being excellent and others less so. The great dishes were GREAT, and I do think that with some time they will be able to hit their stride and have a menu where each dish knocks it out of the park. 

DESSERT

***Azuki to Kouri- this is the best kakigori I have every had, and the skill that has gone into designing each of their concoctions is really stunning. So delicious, and their French toast is also incredible. This really was TOP.

[dragonflight203]

ME2 replay, Illium part one:

Omega

-Detour to Omega first to wrap up the sidequest from recruiting Garrus, however.

-There are two sidequests here, actually. The datapad where the mercenaries groups plotted against Aria and the one where Ish asked you to pick up packages.

-The datapad sidequest is frankly disappointing. All you do is pick up the datapad and give it to Aria. No options in how to complete it, no extra lore or character development.

With how many times I run into the mercenary groups in ME2 I feel I should have the option to blackmail them with the information.

This is unfortunately typical of many ME2 sidequests. They’re just fetch quests.

-Aria “rewarded” me with the coordinates for a mission I’ve already completed (N7: Eclipse Smuggling Depot). You’d think the game would check to see if that mission is finished or not and update the dialogue accordingly.

-The Ish sidequest is more interesting. It’s a pain to go to the Citadel or Illium to pick up the package, but at least I have options in how to complete it. Give it to Ish, give it to Anton, blackmail Anton…

I went with warning Ish this time around that he’s in over his head. I still feel I should get paragon points for that choice, but the extra credits are nice.

-And of course the traitor in Aria’s organization is the batarian guard. How shocking: In Mass Effect the batarian is the villain

Illium:

-Illium goes a long way to redeem the asari for me. I’m always unimpressed with them by the end of ME1 – stop being mind controlled! - but Aria and Illium give them much needed depth.

-The Concierge says that Illium is an asari world, and you’re as safe on it as the Citadel.

The planet description specifically says that Illium is officially not an asari world.

If you speak to Garrus, he’ll tell you that Illium’s just a prettied up Omega, i.e. very dangerous.

-The Concierge also says that most standards are relaxed to remain competitive with the Terminus Systems.

This reminds me of how Anhur abolished the minimum wage to remain competitive with the batarian’s slavery practices. This resulted in slavery on Anhur (somehow) and a vicious civil war that the planet is still recovering from.

I don’t think it’s an accident that you can learn about Anhur well before going to Illium.

-Mass Effect 2 is being surprisingly subtle in its criticisms about lack of regulations in this scenario – both of the above have gone right over my head in prior playthroughs.

-The Concierge uses “her” as a default pronoun, rather than “he” or a neutral “they”.

Nice touch, since she’s an asari and asari don’t do gender. I presume she is using an asari pronoun (presumably genderless) and the translator is translating it as female.

-According to the Nos Astra shuttle schedules, flights to human colonies have been delayed due to security concerns.

I suppose colonies just up and vanishing due warrant a level of concern, yes.

-Illium broadcasts are the first time you hear about Blasto, the first hanar spectre.

This reframes part of ME1: Humanity has been part of C-Space for less than 30 years and bitched about the unfairness of not having a spectre. The hanar have been a part of C-Space for who knows how long and still don’t have one.

Not saying it’s fair that some races don’t have spectres, but the humans were not being specifically ostracized by not having one.

-The rachni messenger conveys a message from the rachni queen that Shepard is hunting the one who soured the song of their mothers.

The obvious explanation is that they are the Reapers, and this is discussed. However, it’s left open that it might not be the Reapers. And if not them, than who?

Shame ME3 completely drops this and does absolutely nothing with it.

-The rachni messenger says she isn’t mind controlled, and if she is she doesn’t mind (pretty sure she’s not of sound mind to make that decision if so...).

She certainly sounds mind controlled. And the rachni queen wiped part of her memories (the rachni’s location) and can restore it at any time. So I’m going with it’s debatable if she is or not.

Also, can we please go back to the part where the rachni queen can manipulate memories? That sounds pretty important. Just me?

-Gianna Parasani mentions that lots of people are suddenly interested in dark energy, so her bosses are having her look into it.

Again, it’s a shame that ME3 does nothing with this.

-In defense of ME2: I know it’s criticized that ME2 can be skipped over, and players can go from ME1 to ME3 with losing very little plot critical information.

However, that’s ME3’s fault, not ME2’s. ME2 throws out many plot hooks like the one with the rachni and the mentions of dark energy that ME3 does nothing with.

Even the main plot had potential – there’s no reason that ME3 couldn’t have the Omega-4 relay critical to its plot. Maybe this cycle was the first to find a way through it and that’s what would have made it possible to take down the Reapers.

ME3, however, chose to completely ignore the groundwork ME2 laid and went off in a different direction. That’s why ME2 feels so isolated.

It’s a shame, because all these points from ME2 being dropped make the trilogy as a whole feel disjointed. It’s baffling that this is the case when the games were made back to back with mostly the same key staff.

-Also: If ME3 had made half as much effort to foreshadow its own endings as ME2 does to foreshadow a plot ME3 didn’t even use (dark energy) the outcry against the endings would not have been as bad.

Part of why the reactions to them were so strong is that they came out of nowhere. If ME3 had little nuggets here and there suggesting synthesis as a possibility and that controlling the Reapers was a viable option the same way ME2 name drops dark energy, having them as choices for the endings would not have such as controversial.

-There’s an advertisement for moisturizer that says “they’ll never know you hit the matron stage”.

I’ve always assumed that the asari’s maden/matron/matriarch stages were psychological. Is there a physical component? Or is this just an ad playing on the fear of growing old?

-Love that if you go paragon, the asari bar owner suggests you could kill the trouble making human (Conrad) and she’ll cover for you.

Ah, Illium. Yes, I’m seeing that corruption. Although to be fair I think such behavior can be found in most cities.

-And here’s the bachelor party that has caused so much discussion in Mass Effect fandom: Do the Asari mind control people to see them as attractive or not?

I suspect the developers included this as lamp shade hanging, and as commentary on the ridiculousness of asari being blue human women.

Frankly, I agree with that. However, it is so absurd that I appreciate anything that makes it slightly less so. What I personally go with is pheromones – I believe even Mordin mentions these at some point.

Asari aren’t intentionally mind controlling people, but influence them as a natural side effect of their biology. The pheromones cause everyone to be attracted to them; how much depends on how affected you are by the pheromones. So they do look like human women – enough to share armor with them – but not quite as much as we see in game.

Is this canon? Probably not. Do I care? No.

-Oof, that turian with the quarian. I can’t tell if she’s reciprocating or not. At first it appears not, but she does tell him about the vibrator built into her suit…

And kudos to the quarians for having those, by the way. Very practical. Do the volus?

-If you go full renegade with Conrad, he never tells you he spoke to the weapons merchant. You get the quest anyway.

-I love Aethyta. She’s fantastic. And forward thinking too – building Mass Effect relays would be a very good investment.

Doubtlessly they’d be expensive as hell, but the Asari are supposed to be known for their long term planning.

She should have taken it to the salarians. They’d build one in a heartbeat. Probably already are, in a deniable research base.

-At one point she says “Your figure’s gotten matriarchal”. Hmm.

Another hint that there are physical differences to the maiden/matron/matriarch stages, but again this could just be related to aging.

-Illium is too big to not have fast travel. And that middle portion is irritating – it’s only there for Thane’s recruitment mission, but you have to travel through it to get to rest of Illium’s shops. And the entrances are set up to maximize travel distance. Why.

-The symptoms of the Zhu’s Hope colonists are strange. Why did they vanish after the Thorian died, only to reoccur now?

I’m still holding out that the Thorian isn’t as dead as everyone thinks, but I’ll concede that a reasonable scientific babble explanation can probably justify it. Dormant spores triggered with season changes or something.

And to keep the counter going: This is third plot hook on Illium alone that ME3 could have used and chose to ignore. And no, I’m not counting an email as “using” a hook.

-Speaking of, ME3 should have brought Shiala back. Maybe made her a companion – it would have been a fantastic example of branching choices. You can kill one of the ME3 companions as a minor NPC in ME1!

She also would have been a good love interest in ME3. You save her life in ME1, you save her people again in ME2, she canonically crushes on you… An even bigger slow burn than a mShep/Kaidan romance.

-Damn, paragon Shepard goes for the throat with Erinya. “Do you think they would want you to do this?”

She had earned it, but damn. Make sure she’s not left alone for the night.

[sparatus]

you ever think abt how fucked up it is that like. kepral’s syndrome did not exist until the drell were moved to kahje. kepral’s developed as a response to an environment the drell are not meant for. kepral’s is kahje attempting to kill them. and the hanar’s response is. oh we’re working on a genetic adaptation :) so they can still live on Planet That Wants Them To Die but they won’t get Incompatible Biome Lung Disease anymore :) like idk guys i’m pretty sure there’s a much easier solution here