#i feel like after this i could go back to me and romancing thane would feel fun compared to this

[perilegs]

i'm physically unable to cry despite having such a strong urge to cry i feel like i'm going to throw up. yes i'm having fun romancing karlach

[whotaughtyougrammar]

Ask game: Henry/Darryl to switch it up, but I know nothing about Mass Effect(?) so dead husband guy and his partner would also be interesting to hear too

Oakson: I ship it!

What made you ship it? What was the line? "I silence his dumb ass with a kiss?" Darryl feeling love for the first time in a long time? IDK if they didn't want us shipping Oakson they shouldn't have leaned so hard into it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

What are your favorite things about the ship? Is it bad that I'm blanking on my favorite things? I do think a lot of it comes down to Will and Matt having a really good dynamic and really good chemistry with one another. I think if it wasn't for that I could have easily just been "Yeah I don't see it!" I do actually really like the argument they had with each other before everyone decided on going to the Pyramid, I think it's a good sign that even after what was frankly a pretty serious discussion they could both set it aside and still have the same rapport as they did, same as ever. Of course there were other, bigger things to worry about after that, so......

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship? LMAO oh boy, now, it's been a long time since I did a relisten to the early episodes and I've only listened to the ending arcs once on account of me hating them so much so I'm going off half-remembered bits, but I don't appreciate is how they absolutely played into it the Oakson dynamic as the podcast went on, only to basically pull back completely and stick with a "just friends" sort of deal, which, IDK it leaves me feeling some type of way.

--

(OMG poor Thane, forever known to my non-Mass Effect mutuals as the 'dead husband' guy 💀💀)

Commander Shepard/Thane Krios: I ship it!

What made you ship it? I'm a sucker for a cold, hard badass who is soft with their loved ones and surprisingly gentle and reserved. It's just A Thing and OKAY LOOK, if you had asked me like 5 years ago what my type was, I definitely would not have said "neglectful single dad with a dead wife who also fucking gets killed in a very stupid way whoops" but like the facts don't lie and I am feeling some type of way about it.

What are your favorite things about the ship? I like that Thane finding a second chance at love even after having given up on it, of learning to live again even when (probably especially when) he's dying of a terminal illness. I love that he calls her Siha, a warrior-angel, and like the parallels between Shepard and Irikah both being warriors in their own way and that's what Thane is attracted to? Chef's kiss. I love that when he goes to Shepard on the eve of their suicide mission, he can cry and confess that he once again feels afraid of dying, and I love that when he does, Shepard takes his hand and asks him to "be alive with [her] tonight."

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship? I will be completely honest when I say that I am not opposed to Thane dying, I just hate the way it happened (he JUMPED on a SWORD), and I especially hate the way everyone just sort of glosses over his death, even Shepard if you romance him and that is because the writers LITERALLY FORGOT he was written as one of your romance options!! I also think the Citadel DLC memorial was terrible, but hey at least we can say that Thane's last words to Shepard were the only thing that canonically makes (a Thanemancer) Shepard cry. So there's that.

[rhyske]

oh my god, Belphie is such a sweetheart! I love the little black spot on his nose and it looks like he has eyeliner and that is too cute! oh so when i called him escape artist i wasn't too far of huh? haha

I have 3 cats and one was an accident. My mom wanted a ragdoll so we got Tex, and we also got Slinky (a black house cat) so she would have a friend. Then I found a grey stray in my village and I took him in and named him Totmes, my baby. the girls don't like him very much (eww boys!🤢). Totmes and Slinky love the balcony but especially Totmes, he'll be there all day in the sun and I worry the sun will melt his brain or something.

So far Mass Effect is all right but I think I've come to the conclusion that I like fantasy more than sci-fi but maybe I am wrong and I'll be obsessed with it in a minute. The romance options for ME1 are... not great but I am planning to romance Liara in the first one at least and see how it turns out and then I might pursue someone else when the options open up in the second game. My brother played femshep and romanced Garrus so I want to do something different than that even tho he's so cool. For roleplay purposes I'll have Garrus as more of a best friend character to my femshep.

that's how I approached it in dragon age too. Varric was Hawke's bestie and Fenris was OBVIOUSLY the romance option cause he's just that good imo. In inquisition, Dorian was Lavellan's best friend and Solas was her romance option because of the DramaTM.

I try to play my characters as separate from me so sometimes I choose the mean option and I'm just like I'M SORRY I DIDNT MEAN TO BE MEAN BUT SHE WOULD SAY THAT AAAA. Lavellan was pretty grumpy at the end... well the beginning too because she never wanted to be the inquisitor.

ANYWAY mass effect has been difficult because the full dialogue isn't really what i expect from the little text option. sometimes it feels like the choices doesn't matter? idk but i'll figure it out!

this is the first time I've properly played D&D so it's a bit of a learning experience for me! what did you use to play as? ^^ 💜

He's precious 🥰 Haha, yeah, no, literally half an hour after I responded to you I found the front door open and him nowhere to be found. He's safe, he realized we found out and came running back 😂

Does Totmes have a lot of brain cells? Could be they are actually melting. I joke that Belphie killed his last brain cell when, the first day we got him, he forgot cars have windows and tried jumping out, only to smack his head into the window. I love when cats kinda choose you as their owner and not the other way around 😆 Your cats sound so precious 💕

I definitely think ME1 is the weakest of all the games. I wasn't super invested in it my first time around (and it's still a bit more of a chore to get through whenever I replay), so I don't blame you there. Just hold out until ME2, it's the game that made me fall in love with the series. Yeah the romances...are very lacking in 1. They branch out so much in 2 and 3.

GASP YOU ARENT GONNA ROMANCE GARRUS??? As someone who is a rabid Shakarian fan and can't romance anyone but the dumb turian boy, I am obligated to say you are making a mistake 😂 But if Garrus didn't exist, I'd probably romance Liara so 😆 Thane is also a good contender, you'll meet him in 2 😏

Dorian was my Lavellan's BFF too! I always imagine one going to the other like "GIRL GUESS WHAT." Tali/Liara always end up being my Shep's BFF. I imagine them having girl nights and gossiping a lot 😆

I didn't like how Inquisition just....ignored your origin. Like, when you play as a Lavellan, you don't follow the Maker. You might not even know how most shemlan cities operate! And you want me to be your religious idol??? No thanks! But nothing is ever done about it and it's frustrating.

I always tend to play as if I was in the MC's shoes. And it's helped me learn a lot about myself, tbh. But I can't be mean to most characters cause it makes me feel bad 😭 Unless they deserve it.

Choices do matter (: You'll see your choices echo through the games, in what ways you can approach missions (Paragon vs Renegade) and how people remember you (if you were rude or polite). How much attention you put into your teammates is a big mechanic in 2, for example. It's hard to see how your choices change things until 2, since y'know, first game and all. Keep at it!

I played as an elf rogue my first, and only time, playing DnD. That was my first ever exposure to DnD, so I knew nothing. Now that I know a lot more, I wanna play again and really lean into the roleplay and the shenanigans. Who are you playing as? :D

[dalekofchaos]

What would you say are the biggest mistakes Mass Effect 3 made?

Okay this is going to be a long one, but these would be the biggest mistakes ME3 ever made in my opinion

Choosing Cerberus over The Reapers. The thing that annoyed me most about ME3 is the fact that Harbinger is not the main threat. The Illusive Man is. Harbinger has been built up as the big bad since ME2. "YOU HAVE FAILED. WE WILL FIND ANOTHER WAY." He says as he discards the Collectors. Then his speech to Shepard as the base blows up. "Human, you've changed nothing. Your species has the attention of those infinitely your greater. That which you know as Reapers are your salvation through destruction. You will surrender your potential against the growing void. We return, and you will rise. We are the harbinger of your perfection. We will bring your species into harmony with our own. Your species will be raised to a new existence. We are the beginning, you will be the end. Prepare for our domination. Prepare for our coming." Then in Arrival, he came pretty damn close to unleashing quick subjugation and harvest upon an unprepared galaxy. Upon Shepard foiling his plans. "Shepard. You have become an annoyance. You fight against inevitability. Dust struggling against cosmic winds. This seems a victory to you. A star system sacrificed. But even now, your greatest civilizations are doomed to fall. Your leaders will beg to serve us. Know this as you die in vain: Your time will come. Your species will fall. Prepare yourselves for the Arrival." The perfect final villain right? Unfortunately, Cerberus was more focused on than The Reapers. My problem with Cerberus and no Harbinger is Too many Cerberus, too few Reaper forces in plot. We fight Cerberus more often than the reapers. Hardly any boss fight and the one with Reaper Destroyer on Rannoch was more an interactive movie than fight. During the Horizon mission in Mass Effect 2, Harbinger was solidified as the Big Bad. It was menacing and ominous, with just the right amount of annoying. It taunted us throughout the game, telling us how insignificant we were, and how our actions were pointless. It was willing to posses drones through the Collector General to fight us personally, and when we killed the host, it tossed them aside. Harbinger even gave the typical “You haven’t seen the last of me!” villain rant. It made any fire fight frustrating, and that made me want to kill it even more; I hated Harbinger. Many games fail to do that. Harbinger was an enemy which I looked forward to defeating. I had the desire to annihilate. In Mass Effect 3, I got a codex entry and a cameo. Harbinger just swoops in at the last second and blows my friends and I to hell(and lets the Normandy save them), then flies off. Personally, I would have loved to hear Harbinger’s menacing monologue, it drove me on. I would have felt a deeper motivation to take the fight back to Earth if it told me how much destruction the Reapers were causing, how many lives were lost. I felt cheated when I got to the final mission, only to suddenly realize it was largely absent from the game. Harbinger has been replaced. Replaced by the Illusive Man and Kai Leng. The former is an old acquaintance, albeit one now controlled by the Reapers. The latter is a space ninja from a terrible book. What would've been amazing is if Harbinger IS the Catalyst. Harbinger taunts and haunts Shepard throughout the game He uses the memory of that child to haunt Shepard as a symbol of humanity lost. After Shepard activates the Crucible. Harbinger appears. He explains to why and how The Reapers were made. the AI Leviathan created to solve the equation is Harbinger all along, Harbinger manipulated The Leviathan into giving it Reaper form and birth at first it did what it commanded and what they asked of it was to look at the dark energy building up which back then was only an anomaly that Leviathan was concerned with but then the first harvest began and Harbinger and The Reapers were born. Funny enough, Leviathan reminds me so much of FMA:Brotherhood. The Intelligence tricked Leviathan to create the Reaper is very similar to how the Dwarf in the flask became Father. So what I think should have happened is it would've been revealed that Harbinger is the AI that convinced the Leviathan that harvest was the only way to survive and justifies the harvests not because organics and synthetics can't coexist, but because of the dark matter crisis. Throughout the game we would have more confrontations with Harbinger. Have him "ASSUME CONTROL" during fights. Give us a voiced confrontation between Shepard and Harbinger. Make it clear that Harbinger chose The Illusive Man and convinced him of together they could uplift and empower humanity over the lesser races. The Illusive Man is to Harbinger, as what Saren was for Soverign. Then the Crucible will grant us the choice to Destroy or Control The Reapers or Harvest this cycle to survive the Dark Matter crisis. You could either. Destroy Harbinger and The Reapers, while the united races would discover a way to stop the dark matter problem. Give in to Harbinger to harvest humanity to save the galaxy. Control The Reapers to stop the harvesting and to work together to stop the dark matter crisis.

Choosing to have a smaller crew than ME2 and focusing solely on the ME1 characters and screwing over or ignoring the ME2 crew, especially romancing Jack, Miranda and Thane. If it were up to me, this is what my ideal ME3 line up would be Ashley/Kaidan EDI Garrus Liara Tali Javik Jack Miranda Thane(EA forgot about him and simply chose to kill him off, I think Thane could’ve rejoined the crew and even had a mission where we find a cure for Thane and Kolyat) Grunt Mordin(you'll see how later) Legion(You'll see later) Balak or any Batarian Squadmember. Ideally it would be someone who survived the Bahak system or even a Batarian freedom fighter who puts his people’s survival over the pride and prejudices of the Hegemony. His sole goal is to liberate Khar'shan and save his people. But for a more memorable person, Balak would be the squad member. I would make killing Balak not an option. The last high ranking officer in the Hegemony. Instead of causing deaths on the Citadel, he seeks Shepard out. It’s an enemy of my enemy is my friend. Over time, Balak would show remorse for his past actions as a terrorist and for the Hegemony’s past. Shepard and Balak learns to overcome their differences and see each other as friend and works together to destroy the Reapers. We would get a Priority Khar’shan where we could liberate the planet and the Batarians would be in a fighting force.

Keeping James alive. I like James, but he added absolutely nothing to the game. We already had an Alliance character. Ashley Williams/Kaidan Alenko. James should have been the Jenkins/Wilson of the game. He should have died in the crash to take out Eva and Ashley/Kaidan should have been with us from beginning to end. James is a character we barely know. We’ve waited a long ass time to see Ashley/Kaidan and it was downright disappointing that neither Ashley nor Kaidan did not get to interact with Garrus on Priority Palaven and Wrex during Priority S’Urkesh.

Mirandafying Ashley Williams. Mirandafying Ashley Williams for Mass Effect 3 was shallow and unnecessary. Wearing loose and long hair and skimpy clothing? Ashley Williams is a by the books soldier. She would not look like this. She would not grow her hair or let it down like this. I mean, it’s not that they changed her face so much, but they just tried too hard with the makeup, hair and outfit. Ashley didn’t need to be model-sexy and run around in heels and showing cleavage. She was already sexy as hell in her own way. All they needed to do was give her the Alliance Crewmen outfit as her casual look and the Phoenix Armor and the current Alliance type armor she was given in ME3, as well as a unique Spectre armor. It's not just the shallow Mirandafying. It's the fact that Ashley has little to no interactions. Ashley barely has any interactions in the game. Compared to Kaidan, Ashley is not interactable. I don't like that Ashley barely has any interactions and just feels...hollow. Ashley should have crew moments with Joker, Adams, Ashley at the monument mourning those who died with the original Normandy, Liara, Tali and Garrus. Was it so much to ask for simple interactions? And really, Ashley in the first game had a personality, Ashley in ME3 feels hollow.

Choosing Diana Allers over Emily Wong and Khalisah al-Jilani. Emily and Khalisah are two reporters we actually know and respect. They earned their place on the Normandy. Emily reported on crime and traffic controllers. Khalisah gave us hard hitting questions and actually cared about reporting on what the fuck was going on in the galaxy. They earned their place on the Normandy as far as I'm concerned. Compare that to Diana Allers. What has Diana Allers done to deserve a spot on the Normandy? Nothing. They created the Battlespace to make her seem like a hip and cool Alliance News Correspondent. Allers looked, weird and she just comes off as annoying and she's a waste of space on the Normandy when we could've had a whole new or returning squad member. God, I WISH Javik could throw her out the fucking airlock. You had TWO perfectly great reporter characters and you did jackshit for any of them. Just so you could have an excuse to hire Jessica Chobot.

Not letting us see Tali's face on Rannoch. Legendary Edition fixed the mistake by finally showing us Tali's face, but it's still exclusive to Shali romancers. What should have happened was we see Tali's face when she unmasks on Rannoch. If we don't romance her, she unmasks and gives us a smile. If we romance her we see her face and kiss her. Something simple like that. It would've been great to see

Not having the ME2 squad members join in on the Citadel DLC. I mean for fuck's sake, it's like they want us to know "fuck you, ME1 squadmembers only" Again, why? Why wasn’t Jack, Miranda, Grunt, Samara, Jacob, Zaeed and Kasumi not added? If we romanced Jack or Miranda, why didn't they come to save us when we were being hunted? Why not REALLY making it feel like Team Hammerhead by actually adding the ME2 Squad members to the Citadel DLC before the party? There was no reason why you couldn't include the ME2 squad members in the Citadel DLC

Making Cerberus the villains instead of uneasy allies, when The Batarians were the perfect allies for The Reapers. This might just be me but I think Cerberus should have been on our side in ME3 and The Batarians should have been fighting for The Reapers. Makes sense Cerberus has just been a rouge organization doing what the job no matter what the cost(even if the cost is atrocities) and instead of indoctrinating themselves they could of studied it to make themselves immune to indoctrination and The Illusive Man's goal was to use any means necessary in order to destroy The Reapers. I also like the idea that you know you can't trust him, but he does get results. The Council and The Alliance are desperate, so they accept a partnership with Cerberus. The Batarians have always held a grudge against The Alliance, The Council and would have wanted revenge for Bahak/ Viper Nebula. The fact that there are no consequences for what we had to do in Arrival from The Batarians just doesn't make any sense and you'd think this would give The Batarians the motive to turn to The Reapers. Hell in the Terra Nova DLC in Mass Effect 1 it seemed to me that Balak was already indoctrinated and Balak’s revelation of the “Batarian rebellion” makes it seem like they would be the perfect tools for The Reapers. Balak will be the new Saren figure. If you killed Balak, then The Reapers would just bring him back. The first act of war for the Batarians was the destruction of the Viper Nebula, so their retaliation was killing Udina. Prior to the Reaper invasion of Earth, Udina would go to Omega to make peace talks with Aria. The Batarians attack and gain control of Omega, Aria is ousted(but saved by General Petrovsky) and Udina is executed live for the galaxy to see. Because of Udina's execution and Anderson leading the resistance on Earth. The Illusive Man is now the Human Councilor. Miranda and Kai Leng would be squad members. Depending on if you gave TIM the Collector Base or destroyed it, he will either keep you in the dark or help you at every turn. Just think of the Cerberus War Assets Cerberus Scientists General Oleg Petrovsky Collector Base Cerberus Fighters Cerberus Phantoms Cerberus Engineers Project Phoenix We would get a big mission to deal with the Batarians, Priority:Khar'shan. If you do not deal with the Batarians, there will be major casualties. However half of the Batarian forces are not indoctrinated and just want to end the mistakes of their government and live. Balak wants to kill the rebellion of his people. Ironic. Somehow Balak has placed enough bombs on the planet to destroy everyone who is resisting Reaper indoctrination. We can either. Talk Balak out of it. Telling him to resist and fight for your people(which WOULD gain Balak as an ally) or talk Balak into killing himself. Or the true Renegade option is to kill Balak and order a strike that wipes out the Batarian forces, but sacrificing the Batarian Rebellion. By the time we get to Priority Earth everyone is on the same page and united against the true threat, The Reapers. And it is Harbinger who is the final boss

Not having Maelon be there with Mordin in ME3. This isn't really a problem, but I had a thought. If we spared Maelon and kept Maelon's data for the cure. Maelon should have been on board to help Mordin with the cure. If we warn Mordin and Maelon about the sabotage, then Maelon would choose to sacrifice himself to save Mordin. And after that, Mordin would choose to join Shepard's crew.

Legion's "death" is pointless. He....is software. He could easily copy and paste The Reaper code without sacrificing himself in the same manner when he was broadcasting the Reaper signal to all Geth. Or he could've disseminated himself after he made a copy and transfer that copy over to his platform. I just get the feeling that they didn't want to keep Mordin, Thane or Legion alive....for reasons.

[mythomagic29]

Mass Effect Legendary Edition - 30 Day Character Challenge

I've made a Character Development Challenge for your Shepards. I've taken inspiration from a bunch of different challenges. I love fleshing out my characters. Giving them a History, figuring out their feelings and thoughts. It really helps me connect with my character. Hope you enjoy expanding on your character! Day 1. Introduction· Name/Sign/Gender: Where does your character stand with their morality? Anything else you want to include? Day 2. Appearance· Hair color/cut - Eye color - Notable scars? How did they get them? Any tattoos? What do they represent? Day 3. Preferences· Favorite color?· What kinds of food do they like?· What is her Fashion Sense? What type of environment do they prefer spending time in?· Favorite type of music? · Genre of books? Vids?· Anything else that needs mentioned? Day 4. Service Record· Pre-Service History (Spacer, Earthborn, or Colonist): Psychological Profile (Sole Survivor, War Hero, or Ruthless): Training (class)? What made them pick that? Why did they join the military? Day 5. Personality· Overall summary of their personality Character strengths?· Character weaknesses?· Does your character grow at all during the game? Does anything change? Day 6. History/Character· Outside Game Canon, Did you expand on Shepard’s Past? What Language(s) does your Shepard speak? What Interests do they have? What Skills do they possess? Day 7. Fear· Does Shepard have any trival fears, like spiders or clowns?· What about more complex fears, like losing someone?· How do they deal with their fears? · Do they have any nightmares? What about? Day 8. Mass Effect 1 Squad· How does Shepard feel about their squadmates? Garrus- Tali- Liara- Wrex- Ashley- Kaidan- Day 9. Normandy SR-1 Crew What about the rest of the crew? Joker- Chakwas - Engineer Adams - Navigator Pressly - Jenkins- Day 10. Mass Effect 1 Romance· What’s your Shepard’s sexual orientation?· Who did they romance? What type of relationship is it/how do they handle the relationship(s)? Does Shepard and their romance have any interesting kinks?· What drew them to each other? What do they talk about? Day 11. Citadel· What were their initial thoughts about the Citadel? What is Shepard’s Relationship with the Council? What was the initial impression and future impressions of the people below: Anderson Udina Conrad Day 12. Mass Effect 1 Decisions· Did Shepard Recruit Everyone to her team? Did Shepard Save or Shut Down the Colony on Feros? Did Shepard Save or Kill the Rachni Queen? Did Shepard Save the Hostages or pursue Balak on the Asteroid? Does Wrex Live or Die on Virmire? Who did you save on Virmire and why? Did you Save the Destiny Ascension or Focus on Sovereign? Who did you Appoint to the Council and why? Day 13. Mass Effect 1 Reflection What was Shepard’s favorite Mission? Worst Mission? What was Shepard’s hardest decision? Favorite NPC? Day 14. Cerberus What were their initial thoughts about Cerberus bringing them back? What were their thoughts about working with Cerberus? How did Shepard change from when they were in the Alliance as a Spectre to working with Cerberus? What was Shepard’s relationship with the Illusive Man? Day 15. Faith and Death Does your Shepard believe in a religion? Why or why not?· How devout are they to their faith? Or how militant are they with their atheism?· How does Shepard feel about dying twice? Did they see anything? Day 16. Mass Effect 2 Squad· How does Shepard feel about their squadmates? How was their Reunion if from ME1? Garrus- Tali- Grunt - Thane- Jack- Miranda- Jacob- Legion- Samara &/or Morinth- Mordin- Kasumi - Zaeed- Day 17. Normandy SR-2 Crew How does Shepard feel about the rest of the crew? Joker- Chakwas - Kelly Chambers- Kenneth Donnely & Gabriella Daniels- Mess Sergeant Gardner - EDI- Did Shepard take care of her Fish? Were they able to keep them alive? Day 18. Old Squadmates How did Shepard feel about seeing their old squadmates? How was the reunion? Liara Kaidan or Ashley Wrex Day 19. Mass Effect 2 Romance· What’s your Shepard’s sexual orientation?· Who did they romance? Was there a love triangle? What type of relationship is it/how do they handle the relationship? If they romanced someone different, how do they feel about their old partner and what made them end the relationship? Does Shepard and their romance have any interesting kinks?· What drew them to each other? What do they talk about? Day 20. Mass Effect 2 Reflection What was Shepard’s favorite Mission? What was your favorite Loyalty Mission? What was Shepard’s hardest decision to make? Favorite NPC? Day 21. Mass Effect 3 Squad· How does Shepard feel about their squadmates? Garrus- Tali- Liara- Ashley or Kaidan- Javik - James Vega - EDI - Day 22. Normandy ME3 Crew What about the rest of the crew? Joker- Chakwas or Chloe Michel - Samantha Taynor - Steve Cortez- Engineer Adams - Diana Allers Day 23. Mass Effect 3 Romance· What’s your Shepard’s sexual orientation?· Who did they romance? Was there a love triangle? What type of relationship is it/how do they handle the relationship(s)? If they romanced someone different, how do they feel about their old partner? Did your Shepard have a hard time choosing between partners? Does Shepard and their romance have any interesting kinks?· What drew them to each other? What do they talk about? Day 24. Mass Effect 3 Decisions· Did they pick Destroy, Control, Synthesis, or Refuse? How did they feel when making their decision? If Shepard could leave any last message, what would they have said? If they pick Destroy and Lived, what happens to Shepard? Day 25. Mass Effect 3 Reflection What was Shepard’s favorite Mission? What was Shepard’s hardest decision to make? Favorite NPC? Day 26. Beliefs & Opinions What are Shepard’s opinions on the Genophage? What are Shepard’s opinions on the Quarian/Geth Conflict? What is Shepard’s favorite Alien Species? Day 27. R&R Does Shepard relax, or are they itching to get back into action?· Do they have any hobbies or talents?·. How often do they take a moment when they go to different planets? What do they do in different cities to relax?· What is Shepard’s alcohol tolerance? What does Shepard like to drink? Favorite way to relax? Day 28. Personal Style· What do they wear when they’re on duty? What about when they’re not? How do they decorate their cabin? · How do they dance, if at all? Are they clean or messy? Favorite Place on the Normandy? Favorite City? Day 29. Fighting Style· What was their favorite skill? Least favorite?· Favorite gun/guns?· How are they in hand to hand combat?· Do they tend to rush in or stay back and dictate action? Day 30. Mako Was your Shepard a good driver?· Favorite driving terrain? Least favorite? What Squadmates hated or loved traveling in the Mako Day 31. Ending What happens to your old companions after the final decision? How does the Day of the Final Decision go down in history? What was Shepard’s saddest or most difficult moment? Day 32. Face to Face How much of your Shepard is based off of you? Where are you alike? Where do you differ?· Would you get along with your Shepard? What would you do if you spent the day together? Day 33. Playlist· Find any number of songs that you feel fit your character, their relationship with any of their companions, or a specific moment in their story. List them here.

[octerminal]

Hi there! I'm a first time Mass Effect OT player thanks to the Legendary Edition. In relation to your post about avoiding the romances in Mass Effect 1 (which I bookmarked for reference,) I was wondering if you also made posts for avoiding romances in the other two games as well, and if you had, where I could find them? And if not, do you have any general advice for not triggering the romances? Thanks!

Hey! Thanks for the ask.

I’m sorry, but I haven’t made a guide for the other games. This is mainly because ME1 is the only game where it’s easy to accidentally trigger the actual romance, by which I mean the game now acts as if the two of you are in a dedicated romance and it will automatically proceed to all the major romance points, like the locker and en route to Ilos scenes. ME2 and ME3 still have issues where Shepard can accidentally trip flirtation (or be forced into it, depending on the LI), but it’s much harder to trigger the actual romances because in both games they're scenes where Shepard or the LI will point blank say, “Hey, wanna go out?” or some iteration, lol.

That being said, I still have plenty of tips I can give you to avoid those issues, sure! I can probably guess which LIs might’ve brought this question on since there are a few “main offenders” - if we want to use that term lol - but I’ll try to address what I know about each LI. Please be aware that this won’t be as specific as my ME1 guide because I don’t have any handy transcripts available so I’ll be working purely off memory.

If anyone has anymore specific knowledge on any of these LIs, or thinks I have made a mistake on any of them, please let me know. Thanks.

ME1 LOVE INTERESTS

General note: If you are not romancing Liara, whoever your VS is will always seek you out in the ME2 prologue. This is not romance specific. It is only romance specific with Liara.

Kaidan: I addressed how to avoid his flirtation issues in ME3 in my ME1 post because he is one of the aforementioned “main offenders” people complain about the most frequently, and all of his issues are easily fixed once you know how to do it.

Ashley: I don’t really have any data on her for ME3. I’ve only ever done Ashley-as-VS-with-mShep saves when I also romanced her in ME1. I don’t believe she’s similar to Kaidan in that she will always proposition you if you’re not locked into a romance (because I believe Kaidan does that for a variety of reasons that are purely mechanical/dev signalling in nature, which are irrelevant for Ashley). I would imagine that if you don’t want her to be romantic with you in the hospital, the same rule of thumb of “tell her the romance is over on Mars” would work, but I haven’t personally tested it.

Liara: There is not really any way around a lot of her scenes. A lot of her romanced content is shared with unromanced Shepards. Even in places where it’s not, Shepard is usually more intimate with Liara than they are with other squadmates. (Example of this: I’m pretty sure when you meet on Illium in ME2, every Shepard will hug her, but only romanced Shepards will kiss her.) This means wishing your Shepard didn’t hug her on Illium, or that she didn’t have your Shepard’s armor in LotSB, or certain banters of hers that trigger in ME3, etc., are impossible to avoid because it is not the game having her flirts easy to trip. It is the game just straight up making very little effort to make a distinction between romanced and unromanced Liara.

That being said, if it really bothers you, being renegade toward her when the option is available helps balance it out. For example: at the end of LotSB, Shepard is not forced into comforting Liara or hugging her; they can just let her cry and move on. Things like that.

ME2 LOVE INTERESTS

General note: When speaking to Kelly about any of these characters, it doesn’t hurt to go neutral or renegade. I think being forced into a discussion about how attractive you find these LIs is really only an issue for mShep and it’s fairly easy to avoid for femShep.

None of the romances can be properly triggered until after the LI’s loyalty has been successfully completed. No amount of flirtation negates this. So at the bare minimum, you really only need to be vigilant after completing a character’s loyalty.

All of these characters also do not really have any wonky mechanics going into ME3, because to have a romance with any of the ME2 LIs in ME3, you have trigger it in ME2 first.

Jacob: Jacob is also a frequently complained about “main offender” because it’s easy for femShep to flirt with him. He is also one of the few LIs in ME2 where you can kind of kickstart his romance in ME2 by expressing interest and having a few conversations about that before Horizon, but this does not actually trigger the romance. You are not locked into it if you do trip into this scenario with him, because it’s completing the loyalties that allow for you to actually trigger a character’s romance. You cannot romance a character properly if you either don’t do their loyalty, or you do it but you failed to secure their loyalty during it.

If you tripped into this scenario with Jacob, you can just simply not continue it going forth, or you can do an organic “breakup” after his loyalty where you continually try to press him to unpack his feelings about what just happened with his father. He will end things with a Shepard who does this to him.

As for avoiding the flirtations at all: it is possible and I do it all the time, but I have no transcripts available so I can’t exactly show which dialogue options to pick. I want to say neutral and renegade dialogue options are your friend here, though some of those can still be flirtatious, if I recall correctly.

When he talks about leaving the Alliance, don’t pick the options that sound like it could be about his body/fitness. When he mentions that Cerberus rebuilt Shepard, don’t have her pick the options that seem like she’s asking if he likes what he sees, etc. Unfortunately, I remember the actual lines better than I remember what the dialogue wheel option was. I recommend saving before talking to him and going through all the dialogue options and reloading until you find the ones where femShep doesn’t sound flirty. (That’s how I found them.)

Or, if you play on PC: you could simply just wait for someone to re-release the mod that gets rid of the flirtatiousness between Jacob and femShep. There was one like that for original ME2, though I never used it so I’m not sure how it actually worked.

Garrus: It is really hard to both accidentally flirt with Garrus and to accidentally trip into his romance. He has little content before his loyalty, and after his loyalty, you have to take a very specific dialogue option to trigger Shepard’s proposition. Even after that, the game still gives you a way to back out if that was, in fact, not what you expected to happen.

Thane: Considering that Thane isn’t even available to recruit until after Horizon, his mechanics are also fairly “safe” compared to, say, Jacob’s. That being said, there is the infamous “I want you, Thane” option on the dialogue wheel, but that one is fairly...obvious. I recall most of Thane’s dialogue options seeming fairly obvious and thus easy to avoid if you’re not wanting to flirt with him. If you’re having trouble, neutral or renegade is probably the way to go. He also always calls femShep “siha” once loyal (I believe that conversation happens after his loyalty, anyway); there is no way around that outside simply not talking to him. Him calling femShep “siha” is not indicative of a romance being triggered.

Jack: Jack, like Jacob, is one of the characters who you can start a flirtation with before Horizon. Again, this doesn’t actually trigger the proper romance. To my knowledge, Jack will also always proposition mShepards. This also does not trigger her romance - in fact, if you accept, it locks you out of her actual romance because she no longer trusts you. Unfortunately, if you want to avoid the proposition entirely - I don’t know or remember if there’s a way to do that.

Tali: I recall Tali’s main issues being the conversation with Kelly after recruiting her (but this is hazy, sorry) where I think Kelly always implies Tali has a crush on you. If this is the case, I have no idea how to avoid it. The other main issue is after you successfully complete Tali’s loyalty and you get to the conversation where she talks about linking suits. It is very easy for mShep to accidentally trip into a romantic conversation with Tali here, and thus be forced into turning her down afterwards. I am pretty certain it’s possible to avoid this, and it likely involves not taking the paragon option. If it isn't possible to avoid though, then all you really have available is to turn her down when she brings it up.

Miranda: I don’t actually recall anything egregious with her mechanics. I am fairly certain that she is not like Jack and Jacob where you can soft start her romance before Horizon, because I remember noticing that when I did her romance recently. After Horizon, I want to say that her romance dialogue options are fairly obvious, but I could be wrong. Either way, the same as all the other LIs would apply: you’d have to complete her loyalty to begin with to even get access to those conversations, so you really only need to be vigilant after her loyalty has been completed.

Samara and Kelly: They are not “real” LIs, which means you don’t get a romance achievement for them and they have next to no content. Kelly’s romantic dialogue options are similar to Thane in how exaggerated they tend to be, and thus are easy to avoid. Samara is only receptive toward paragon Shepards to begin with, but also puts a hard stop to any flirtation attempts regardless, so tripping her “romance” is not really an issue.

ME3 LOVE INTERESTS

General note: Just lock into your preferred LI’s romance first. I am serious. That will solve nearly every issue. Locking into your LI’s romance is not Shepard still expressing interest when they first meet again unless your LI is Tali, whose lock-in is her cabin date right after she comes aboard for the first time. Otherwise, the lock-in moment for most of the LIs are their Citadel dates that happen after the Coup.

James: Technically, he’s not a love interest. I’m including him because he always flirts with femShep. There is no way around this, sorry. The best you can do is to not allow him to call femShep “Lola”, which happens after the sparring match you two can have in the cargo bay. He still flirts with femShep outside that however, and there are a few times where femShep unavoidably flirts back. If you don’t like this, you just kind of have to plug your ears and pretend it’s not happening. Or just not speak to him at all, lol.

Hopefully with MELE’s new modding capabilities, someone will release a mod that fixes this since James’ conversations with mShep are more normal.

Allers: She is similar to Kelly and Samara in that she is not a “real” LI. I believe you can’t even trip her “romance” until after you finish Rannoch anyway, since it’s tied to the interview you do with her. There can be an awkward moment after Tuchanka or the Coup (I don’t recall which, or if it’s both) where she might sound flirtatious and you’re forced into flirting back or turning her down, but nothing comes from this. If it does happen after the Coup’s interview, you could try pushing it off until you lock into your preferred romance, but it’d have to be before you complete Rannoch since I imagine the Coup one would expire and be replaced with Rannoch’s.

Traynor: Traynor’s romance is actually easy to miss if you play renegade. I know this because I finished her romance a few months before MELE came out and I had to redo twenty hours of gameplay before that because I got locked out of it for being too much of an asshole to her. (Absolutely hilarious in hindsight, incredibly annoying in the moment.) After some digging, I found some old forums detailing that you apparently cannot be renegade toward her about her toothbrush in your first conversation and when she tells you about Grissom academy or else she evidently decides you are too mean and/or not interested in her. (Whether or not this is true, I have no idea. I didn’t bother risking it and went straight paragon with her in all of our conversations until I was able to lock it in.)

What this means is that if you want to avoid her shower scene entirely, just be renegade toward her until you get her cabin date, because you straight up do not even get the option to offer your shower to her if you were renegade enough.

If you're roleplaying and your Shepard wouldn’t take those renegade dialogue options, follow the advice in the general note: lock into your preferred romance before doing Traynor’s cabin date. Like Kaidan, this does mean that if you romanced Jacob or Thane and don’t wish to move on to anyone else, you’re a bit out of luck if you want to avoid the option triggering entirely.

That being said, even if you are doing a paragon Jacob, Thane, or no romance run, and thus still get the shower option, just...simply don’t let her in your shower. Problem solved.

Cortez: Cortez’ romance does not have any egregious romance mechanics that I’m aware of. To my knowledge, he never flirts with Shepard first before his romance is locked in. In fact, if you do flirt with him but you had a pre-existing romance from ME1 or ME2 (or I think if you are already locked into your romance with Kaidan as mShep) he will make a mention of that romance when you do try to flirt with him. This is all to say: to my knowledge, there is really nothing to avoid with Cortez. You have to go out of your way to flirt with him and lock in the romance. That being said, if there is something I’m missing, the same “lock into your preferred LI’s romance” rule of thumb should apply.

Hopefully some of this helped! If you have any other general questions about this issue or about a specific LI, let me know. Please note that I am also basing all of this off my knowledge of the original games, but I’m assuming nothing has changed in MELE.

[zet-sway]

@the-wip-project day 35:

I don't know what today's question is but I gotta write a wall of text about what happened last night because holy shit

I was on the verge of falling asleep and, like I usually do, I decided to hunt for some spicy fanfics to read on my phone. I found one.

All my posts are long but this one is real fucking long. CW for touching on dub-con and injury mentioned in the type of context it probably shouldn't be.

It's time for me to admit that not only am I a oneshot writer, I'm also a oneshot reader. I am drawn to short fanfics. If I click on a chaptered fic, it's (usually) because it's rated E for smut and I'll go in with every intention of skimming it for the spicy bits. I'm not proud of this. I've avoided saying this for years because I don't want to disappoint people who work hard on their very long and well thought out chaptered stories. I have a short attention span, and I know what I want.

But anyway, last night I clicked on a fic with 5 chapters and some amount of words, around 30k? Long, by my standards, but I was tired and I just wanted something to read while I dozed off.

This particular fic hooked me in, though. I still skimmed it, but the writing was so unique in a way that made me writhe with writer's envy and admiration. Whoever wrote this had their own language - nothing borrowed - their own vision.

I guess I should tell the good people who read my posts (ya'll, seriously, thank you) that the fic in topic is called Fault Lines by Recidiva on AO3. I would link to it but uhhhh I may be using my work PC for "extracurricular purposes" right this moment ^^; so maybe when I get home I'll remember to add it.

I skimmed it - like I said above - for the spicy parts. It generally follows the plot of Bioware's canon. Thane begins as possessive and manipulative, likely uncomfortably close to dub-con for a lot of people. He kisses her and knows full well that his kiss will make her willing but intoxicated, and how he will use that to fulfil himself. But as the story progresses, he falls in love. Their relationship is what I'll call "edgy." Both of them are renegades. There's a scene where they get down in the shuttle after a fight and they're both still injured and it borders on downright unrealistic but fuck it, it's fanfic and I bought it. However their relationship develops a certain heart-wrenching tenderness. She asks him what Siha means over and over again, and eventually tells him she thinks "bitch" when he says it. But in that moment they have a playful banter, he knows full well she's probably already looked it up on the extranet, and they fall into bed together. The smut is mind-boggling.

By the time it gets to Shepard's arrest, he's taken up a place on Earth and visits her, breaks into her house arrest. There's a scene where they see each other for the first time in a while, she tells him how much she's missed his mouth and how it's not right how bad she wants him, and wants him bad enough to smother him with affection. She says something to the effect of "if you're looking to die, I'd volunteer to be the cause," implying that her lust is powerful enough to endanger his life. And it was at this moment I realized I fucked up.

It's established that I live in my own headcanon and I'm not burdened with considering the end of Thane's life as part of my fics. And the suspension of disbelief was such that I forgot he doesn't make it. So at this moment in the fic, chapter 4 out of 5, I realized "Oh shit this isn't going to have a happy ending." I skipped to the end right away, I wanted to confirm my fears.

In their final exchange, she asks him to lie to her - something that's repeated in other chapters of the story. I forget what he says, I was reading desperately, but he asks her in return to tell him something true. She kisses him and tells him she loves him, and he breathes his last breath with the lingering tingle of their kiss to carry him to the other side.

I was so entrenched in the depth of their relationship up to that point. The level of fathomless love the author conveyed, unlike anything I've ever managed to write before, but more realistic to my own understanding of love as I've experienced it. Not because they're renegades, but just the selflessness with which they feel, communicate, banter, and make love.

When I read that last paragraph, something inside me broke. That sounds dramatic but that's honestly how I would describe it. It felt like waking up from a night terror, when you bolt up in bed from a dream so bad you immediately get up even if it's 4am because nothing feels real and you're so terrified you have to get up and do something - literally anything to take your mind off it, to ease you back into reality. I put my phone down and stared into the darkness of my bedroom and told myself "it's just a fanfic, no need to get upset." And then I started to cry and I didn't stop for 30 minutes.

My husband was downstairs watching Bohemian Rhapsody and I went down there and wrapped myself around him so tight and cried. Bless this man, from the bottom of my heart - bless him - for his unfathomable kindness. I felt like a fucking fool because I was crying over fanfiction but he paused his movie and just listened while I tried to articulate how it wasn't exactly about the character death, or the characters at all, it was just the writing and how it wormed into my brain so convincingly. I felt the loss like it was my own loss. I am terrified of losing my husband. So many feelings coalesced and I realized one day I may be in that situation, kissing the man I love goodbye for the last time, never to hold him again. I'm at work right now and I'm tearing up because it's so hard.

I tip my hat to the author, but I genuinely wished I hadn't read that fanfic. And isn't it kind of funny after that grandstand I took yesterday about not wanting to write the pain of loss and grief, that I ended up reading it instead and probably fucking myself up just as badly, if not worse, than if I had tried to write it myself?

It gets worse, too. Because it got me thinking about my own writing, and how I could never hope to achieve what that author did. So I sat there crying out my painfeelings while simultaneously feeling like a shit writer and like nothing I put out matters. I got up from the couch, sat down at my PC and picked up where I left off in the Omega DLC in ME3 because video games are great for taking the mind off things. It didn't exactly help with the intensity I'd hoped for, but I managed to fall asleep, by 3am.

Fast forward to this morning. I dragged my sorry ass out of bed 4 hours later and drove to work. By some fucking miracle, no one is here right now except our field director. And I'm stewing in how this one fic really fucked me up bad, reconsidering everything. I feel like I've been put in my place.

So what changed?

Yesterday I posted about how I'm struggling to write a plotline. I know what happens, but I'm not interested in the little bits that tie it together. I want to write the romance. I think there's a way to write the plot and the romance at the same time, but it's damn hard.

I started doing this because I wanted to grow my skills as a writer, and I knew it might be more than I could chew. I'm at that moment now where I'm about ready to give up.

Even if I felt like a shit writer last night (and still kinda do this morning), I know that the stuff I've put out has value. We can't all write these epically tragic smut-romance-renegades-to-lovers tales, we'd all be sad all the damn time. There's a time and a place and - I would argue - even a need for lighterhearted fic out there. There are really no rules. I'm confident in what I know how to do.

But the plot. Fuck it, man. I think maybe I'm trying too hard to be something I'm not. I'm trying really hard to write like other people. I may have mentioned before that I saw a post about how many artists spend their time pining for the skills of others, thinking "wow, when I can draw like that, I'll have made it as an artist." That same post cautioned against this, basically saying you already have your own unique style, it's just harder to see through the lens of your own eyeballs. It's fine to challenge yourself but try to acknowledge what you do that sets you apart already. I feel like I have that something - maybe not to the extent that I wish, but I have something.

So what's the point of the plot? Why do I need to tell my readers how I cured Keprals? I'm asking myself important questions here. I like to think I've come up with ideas that no one else has, but as I said above, I don't read a lot of chaptered fics. I very well may have come to the same ideas as other writers and I'm not even aware of it. I don't know if my ideas are unique but I still arrived at them all by myself.

The challenge here - the thing I'm struggling so much with - is how to put them together with the same elegance of my fellow writers. I'm looking at you, shrios fam (yeah I'm calling you that, yall know who you are). I know I can write words, but it's like I have a bunch of pieces from completely different jigsaw puzzles and I'm struggling to make a new picture out of them. I struggle with the transitions between them.

The point here is I have to find my own way. And I have to stop taking myself so seriously. In fact this level of "seriousness" is one of the things that got me into so much angst over World of Warcraft over the last two years. At least I know how to recognize it.

I have to find my own way. I have my own things that are worth sharing. The author I read last night had a language all their own, and I have a language all my own too. Their wordplay was actually more choppy than I would ever write. I've talked before about how I'm scared of starting too many sentences with pronouns, how I maybe write too many run-on sentences, whatever. This author did that with reckless abandon. It worked for them. So if they can make that shit work, I can make my own shit work.

I have to find my own way.

My most current WIP is Thane and Shepard's first time. I've been working on it pretty nonchalantly because I hadn't intended to publish it until I built up to it. It takes place further into my timeline, and it would probably ruin the point of a slow burn if I put it out there now. There are some really memorably moments in this WIP, and there are other moments that need to be smoothed over as well. I never knew what I'd really imagined for their first time but I think I've mostly developed something that's unique in its own right, and I think will be fun for people to read.

I'm just so fucking torn over what to do with it. I feel guilty for working on it. I should be writing "other shit" leading up to it but I don't fucking want to. I actually wrote probably 2-3k words this weekend, which is a pretty staggering amount by my standards. Some of it was for this smutty WIP and some was for something I just threw together, Thane observing Shepard on Horizon and the emotional toll it takes on her. He's seeing her humanity. I don't know if it's worth it to continue but I wrote a lot of it and the words are more precise than usual for a draft, I don't know. I have so much fucking insecurity. Fuck dude. I want to write this longfic, but I don't want to write it. I want to skim to the spicy bits like I always do.

I am wracked with insecurity, of my own making. I know what I can do but I feel compelled to see this idea through. Somehow I have to find my own way.

TLDR I feel like if I don't publish something soon I'm going to burst and I don't even know what the fuck to work on first and fjslfjsojoiejrj

I would be really down for, like, a bunch of hugs and a bowl of ice cream shared over memes and fanservice.

[slothssassin]

OC/Shepard as a companion

So ages ago the lovely @alyssalenko tagged me to do this, thank you, and sorry it took so super long! Originally this is a meme for your Shepard, but since I wanted to add a new OC to my Jules Shepard's story, I did it for her. Hope you don't mind!

Tagging @liaorban @starsandskies @playstationmademe and @galacticnug but no pressure of course, and feel free to do this for your Shep and not for an OC!

Picrew is here!

THE BASICS:

Full name: Tori Robin Royle

Class: Engineer

Pre-service history: Enlisted to basic Alliance training when she was 18 in 2175. After she had finished school, she traveled around for a while, performing at different places, planning to start her career as a singer. All in her family are active Alliance soldiers though so Tori felt the pressure to enlist as well.

Psychological profile: Unlike the rest of her family, Tori wasn’t meant to be a soldier. During her basic training, where she also met Commander Shepard and became their protegé, it became clear quickly that she wouldn’t be able to fight at the front line. The Alliance encourages her to improve her tech skills though, and with hard work (and help from Shepard) Tori becomes an Engineer. While she’s not a powerful fighter, Tori can quickly oversee the battlefield in combat and debuff enemies with her tech skills, actually becoming one of the most valued Engineers in her unit. Still, Tori never really felt at home in the military and didn’t stop dreaming of a career as a musician. While Shepard oversees other young soldiers as well, they developed a special connection with Tori, reassuring her to go her own way, even if that meant leaving the Alliance. To her own surprise, Tori gets assigned to a unit that hunts down batarian pirates in 2179. During an attack she gets heavily wounded though and loses her right arm. After she spent months on her recovery, she finally decides to leave the Alliance. Not much is known about her life after that - but she did become rather well known on the Citadel, finally working as the musician she always wanted to be. The Alliance loosely keeps track of her as she’s still in contact with Commander Shepard.

Rest is under the cut :)

MASS EFFECT 1:

When/how are they recruited: She won’t be recruited in ME1. She’s 26 at this time (2183), and left the Alliance in 2180 after she couldn’t get over her accident in 2179. Tori used to play the guitar in a band, but in 2182 she started her solo-career. She’s not really a celebrity but has made a name for herself as a singer, mostly performing at bars. Shepard can meet her at the Flux where she performs on Wednesday nights with her “Oldies” show - heavily influenced by 1950s Earth music.

Where are they on the Normandy: At the Citadel. She can be found at the Flux when she performs or at the Presidium

Are they romanceable: No

Personal quest: If Shepard visits her at the Flux they can talk about their common past. Tori will ask Shepard to check on her parents who she hasn’t heard from in a few months - which is not uncommon, as they aren’t close, but she started to worry. Shepard can then check the last known coordinates for the spaceship Tori’s parents worked on and find out that there was a major technical problem. The crew was trapped on the Carrier with no means to land and no way of contacting anyone. If Shepard does the mission and saves the ship, including Tori’s parents, it will contribute to Tori and her parents getting closer plus you get to see Tori perform. If Shepard doesn’t visit Tori or doesn’t do her quest, a Turian ship will save the Carrier and Shepard will hear about it in an elevator on the Citadel.

Who are their friends: Shepard is her friend, and she would get on especially well with Liara, Joker and Kaidan.

MASS EFFECT 2:

What does their dossier say: Tori Robin Royle, or Robin Royle aka RR when she performs, is a seemingly harmless, popular singer on the Citadel. But, behind the mask of a performer, she’s a retired but very capable Engineer. She has ties to Commander Shepard, could be easily influenced to help the mission, and, as a friend, might improve Shepard’s mood and thoughts about working with Cerberus, if she is recruited.

When/how are they recruited: She can be recruited in Act 2 after Shepard went to Horizon. If Shepard was in a romantic relationship with Ashley or Kaidan, Tori will send a message to Shepard, telling them she heard what happened and is there to talk whenever they want. The Illusive Man will encourage Shepard to visit Tori on the Citadel and ask her to join as she could be a valuable asset - hinting heavily that he has the means to end Tori’s career if Shepard doesn’t ask her.

Where are they on the Normandy: Either in the Mess Hall on Deck 3 or in the Starboard Observation.

Are they romanceable: No. If Shepard doesn’t romance Thane she’ll be in a relationship with him though.

How do they react to the PC returning: She will be incredibly surprised, but happy - after all, they had been friends and Tori had grieved for them. She’d be unsure about their connection to Cerberus though, and worried that Cerberus rebuilding them might have changed them. Tori would ask Shepard some personal questions, but would stop quickly as she’d feel like she’s invading their privacy. Only later on, on the Normandy, they would talk again about how Shepard feels about working with Cerberus, their cybernetics, and their personal history.

Personal quest: Tori approaches Shepard after she gets a call from her parents. If Shepard did Tori’s assignment in ME1, she will tell them that she got a bit closer with her parents, even though they don’t see each other often. If Shepard didn’t do her quest she’ll say that her parents wouldn’t contact her if it’s not important. Tori’s brother Andrew, a rather high-ranking Alliance officer, has gone missing and the Alliance wasn’t able to investigate or didn’t share any information. Shepard and Tori will meet with the Shadow Broker, aka Liara, to get information on Tori’s brother. They will discover that the Alliance did investigate but couldn’t find out what happened to Andrew either, and that his last coordinates are somewhere on a planet in the Horse Head Nebula. After following the coordinates and finding some clues they discover that Andrew had formed a small unit to hunt down a gang of Turian pirates. The pirates got the better of them though and Andrew and his unit died - their bodies can be found inside a factory, seemingly killed in action. Tori will be devastated, even though she wasn’t close with her brother. Shepard can assure her they will hunt down the pirates (which would lead to another side quest) and that they’ll do her best so the Alliance honours his death - this will cheer Tori up a little, but it’s not necessary to gain her loyalty.

Do they fight with any other companions: She has companions she’s not very close with due to them being rather different - like Miranda, Jack or Zaeed. However she rather keeps her distance than to engage in any fights.

What files does the Shadow Broker have on them: Her personal history, information on her family and video material of some of her performances. A list of songs she wants to cover, an extensive shopping list and the history of her watched videos. If Shepard hasn’t romanced Thane, then he and Tori get close - there will also be some files of songs she wrote for him (and changed frequently) and some emails they exchanged.

Can they die in the suicide mission, and how: She can die if she’s left behind as a defender as her combat skills aren’t the best.

MASS EFFECT 3:

When/how are they recruited: After the suicide mission she takes some time off. First, she visits her family and grieves for her brother. Then she goes back to the Citadel, planning to continue working as a singer. If she’s with Thane she spends less time performing and puts all her energy into helping him find a cure. She can then be convinced to come back to the Normandy after Thane dies (or for those like me who refuse to accept that Thane dies: They both come back after the Coup). If she’s not with Thane she will still join the Normandy Crew after the Coup.

Where are they on the Normandy: Mostly in the Starboard Observatory or the Mess Hall, just like in ME2.

Are they romanceable: No. If Shepard didn’t romance Thane she’s with him.

Citadel meetup (during the game, where do you meet them on the Citadel and what do you talk about): She can be found on the Silversun Strip, happy to get the chance to perform again. Other times she’s seen with the refugees, talking to them or playing the guitar for some children. If she’s with Thane, both can also be found at the Presidium. She and Shepard would talk about their past, how things have changed, and their hobbies. If she’s with Thane Shepard can also talk about his sickness (and recovery) and how they spend their time together.

How does the PC relax with them in the Citadel DLC (ie, buying gifts with EDI, watching the game with James and Vega, etc.): Tori would invite Shepard to watch one of her performances. She’d also suggest some firearms training as she feels like she needs it. Alternatively they would go to a bar or a restaurant to talk, or go shopping for supplies (and maybe more fish).

What do they say to the PC before the final battle: “I can’t believe this is it.. I’m scared Shepard, but I’ll do my best to assist you. And please, know that whatever happens - you’ve been a true friend to me, always helpful, always supporting. I’m thankful I met you all those years ago. Now let’s go. We’ll get out of this. We’ll see each other again, I know it.“

[puppy-phum]

thank you once again @yibobibo​ for tagging me ♥ even if, like I said, this is pure torture. I have so many sons that I’ve given up on counting them sigh but here goes.

favourite male fictional characters.

I took it that this meant ten so am going with that (tho am not gonna try and put them into order). am also sticking to all the characters I loved this year. and gonna ramble and add gifs so cutting it here. 

1. Liu Sang

The Lost Tomb Reboot/Reunion: The Sound of The Providence

I have so much love for this boy it’s not even healthy. it’s a bit funny tho bc once I started tltr, I didn’t really like him and almost forgot about him as the first season ended. he just felt so annoying and bitter in what I saw him, even if I did get that he had a Tragic BackstoryTM (I felt for him but well. tltr really made him hard to like at first). but then they brought him back in the second season with his sad puppy eyes and inability to handle his thoughts on wu xie and being all touch-starved and pitiful and whatnot and baam, I had the adoption papers ready. he’s wonderful and so strong and so smart and amazing. and liu chang as his actor has been wonderful (and he’s so pretty my god, have you seen him??)

2. Shen Wei

Guardian

never did I expect to just. fall into this hole after a year? I remember what a mess I was when I first watched guardian over a year ago, right after finishing the untamed. I was in shambles even as I knew how it would end. and now I’ve done this all again while also reading the novel and. my love for shen wei, especially bc it’s zhu yilong acting as shen wei? astronomical. I want to write poetry about him and his stupid responsibilities that he chooses to carry silently and his devotion to zhao yunlan and his love for his ppl and his didi and. I hope that one day I manage to write weilan bc I have this one idea and you can come pry it from my cold, dead fingers if it doesn’t get out there (am also super happy about the edit I made bc my god does he deserve at least that)

3. Cloud Strife

Final Fantasy VII

ok so stepping into the video games territory now. I was waiting for the remake like crazy and it was everything to me once the quarantine hit during spring. the game is so beautiful and I felt like I looked at this gorgeous boy once and was ready to give him my heart (tbh am quite sure he owned my heart before I even learned to know him). he is tragic in so many ways (I’ve only scratched the surface of all of his pain I know) and I wish I could just. hug him a lot. he is kind and cares very deeply even if he hates to show it and I love it how remake showed him also just being a human disaster (some of his scenes are just. peak comedy). I would kill for his smile (I have already cried for it a dozen)

4. Geralt of Rivia

The Witcher (The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt)

if there’s one grumpy, brickwall of a man I love, it’s geralt. I affectionately call him “papa wolf” while playing witcher 3 and his voice in it does things to me (I am just so fond of him ok, begone you dirty fuckers). I got introduced to him through the books and adored him in them bc he is so prickly and sarcastic and still so full of love even if he will never admit to it. he is the father figure I wish I could have in real life. (and yes, I’ve seen the tv series (or at least a couple of the first episodes) and it looks stunning but. this is my version of geralt and that’s the hill I will die on)

5. Xiaoge

Zhang Qiling, Daomu Biji (The Lost Tomb 2)

(wow finding a gif for him was a pain, apparently I gotta learn how to gif or?) ah, my dear boy who I’ve ended up just calling xiaoge bc he seems to prefer it over his real name/title/whatever zhang qiling really is. I got introduced to him through tltr where we really didn’t get to know that much about him bc he was just... there. huang junjie was absolutely stunning tho and his soft smiles made me super fond, but only in the lost tomb 2 did I really fall in love with xiaoge as a character. I was surprised tbh bc I didn’t expect it to be this drama? I had so many doubts about the cast in tlt2 but they all delivered! and I think cheng yi’s xiaoge is now my favorite bc he somehow captured that softness and the pain of him? (and we do not talk about that buxun storyline tyvm) tho now that ultimate note is on the way, I gotta say that xiao yuliang does a wonderful job as xiaoge too!

6. Wu Xie

Daomu Biji (Ultimate Note)

(sorry we have to go with a pingxie gif now but maybe it’s only fitting) tbh it’s hard to choose my favorite version of wu xie. I think all of the actors for him have done amazing job showing wu xie in different parts of his life (all of them are very distinct but still feel like the same person) but currently zheng shunxi takes the lead. I really wanted to put the reboot version of him here (bc I love that mature, relaxed and somehow very soft version of him and the angst is phenomenal and the thoughts he has about death... yeah) but I already have zhu yilong’s face here once so :’D wu xie is just one of those characters you cannot not like. he is so strong, so kind, so stubborn, so wonderfully stupid sometimes and in need of careful protection. I also adore it how smart he is and I could listen to him spew history facts for 10 hours straight (even if it was in a tomb full of blood zombies) ♥

7. Jiang Cheng

Jiang Wanyin, The Untamed

my darling boy! my beautiful angry grape! I love him beyond words. I love him in all of his raging, misunderstood, stupid, sassy, constipated, abused, tragic, bitter, big hearted glory. I could write novels about him (and I did and am still writing oh boy) and his love for ppl and his inability to show that love and his loneliness and his issues. I could also write another novel for all of his outfits etc. bc damn, what a fashion king. he is just so great. he owns my soul. he deserves happiness and in this essay I will

8. Isana Yashiro

Adolf K. Weismann, K Project

I rewatched k project this spring bc a) it’s one of my favorite animes ever (it just looks stunning with all the colors) and b) I love yashiro to bits. I remember falling in love with him when I first watched k project many years ago bc he was just so kind and bright. this time though, I ended up seeing another side of him and my god did I cry. he is... so sweet. he cares for others so deeply and is ready to sacrifice so much for them and his love for his two clansmen... yeah. I think I finally saw the tragedy of him too, all the pain and loneliness and insecurity he decides to hide behind his smile and obnoxious personality. he reminded me a lot of myself and watching him made my heart bleed in a good way

9. Qi Tiezui

Ba Ye, The Mystic Nine

(wow am going to riot for the lack of all the gifs hhh) yes, we’re continuing with the dmbj universe that sucked me in big time this year. the drama of the mystic nine wasn’t probably that earth shattering for me as it somehow got boring more than once but I did love ba ye to bits. he was just... so nice? I got it that he was somehow this “comedic relief” in the drama with all of his funny scenes and ridiculous mannerisms but I could see the brilliance of him. he is warm and smart and kind of a romantic too and he cares for all of his friends so deeply? it was also sweet how protective of him his two zhangs were (does that run in the family? the tendency to imprint into one smart but disastrous man and keep him safe? maybe) and I really hope I knew more about him bc he seemed to have a lot of knowledge and a lot of impact to ppl’s lives (I yelled when they mentioned him in ultimate note, I miss him ;;)

10. Dorian Pavus

Dragon Age Inquisition

(yes I’ve been replaying DA:I this year, this counts!) another darling boy! my lovely sass master son! I have so much love for him and his story in DA:I. he is my favorite companion (and his romance is my favorite too, probably obvious in the way am currently romancing him for the third time) and he has given me a lot of strength. the way he stands up against his father, how he’s ready to reform his homeland instead of walking away, how he’s so caring for those he sees struggling... it’s very warming and I feel like I’m safe with him. it feels a bit silly to say that but he really is that comfort character I will seek out when I just want to know am doing fine :’) (and I am so excited to see him again in DA4! probably?)

+ 11. Li Cu

Tomb of the Sea

yes I cheated a bit (with my own rules lol) to fit li cu here. I didn’t really expect to like him or tomb of the sea as much as I did once I started it? I’ve seen leo wu elsewhere before this (battle through the heavens, nirvana in fire) and his face always makes me think about a sad puppy so maybe I just grew fond over li cu instantly bc he was... so hurt? the first episode really slaps you in the face with all of it, showing him being abused, wounded, kidnapped, tortured, used and then just very, very scared and broken. he continues being that throughout the whole drama and I feel like tomb of the sea (or sand sea or sha hai idk) is the darkest and angstiest story in the dmbj universe. I know it deserves to be bc this is a dark time for wu xie but... my darling li cu. I wish him only happiness ;; he was so strong and smart and wonderful in this and it was just so amazing to watch him grow and find his own place in the world just bc he did something himself (even when he got dragged into all of this bc of wu xie) also I support the wu xie adopts li cu -agenda

Honorary mentions: 

Zhang Rishan, Xie Yuchen and Hei Xiazi from DMBJ universe. The Twin Jades of Gusu and Ouyang Zizhen from The Untamed. The Iron Bull and Fenris from Dragon Age games. Thane Krios, Kaidan Alenko and Jaal from Mass Effect games. The whole lot of Assassin’s Creed protagonists (especially Ezio Auditore and Shay Cormac). Adam Parrish and Ronan Lynch from The Raven Cycle. Neil Josten from All For The Game. Eduon and March from The Smoke Thieves. Qiling from L.O.R.D. Critical World. Luo Fei from Detective L (played by Bai Yu). 

well, with this I can really see that I have a thing for those who are tragic :’D I have a thing for grumpy, prickly and antisocial guys or those who hide their pain behind a smile. maybe it’s bc I am somehow both, even if I can’t show my anger or be mean to others and even if I feel like my smile never sticks either. I just find kinship in all of the characters who are on this list. and I feel like I aspire to be as strong and as kind and as loving despite all the pain I’ve been put through.  

thank you, this was so much fun! and sorry I made this so long and so complicated ^^’ but well, there are just way too many male characters I love haha

at the end I want to tag @i-am-just-a-kiddo​ @ashenwren​ @kholran​ @tiesanjiao​ @lan-xichens​ @aheartfullofjolllly​ @manhasetardis​ and @lzswy​​ ♥ feel free to do this in your own way or not at all! and thank you if you managed to read through my rambling :’D

[revasnaslan]

6, 7, 22, 23?

6. Which squadmates introduced in ME2 would you have most liked to see return as squadmates in ME3?

ohhhhhh um... that's a good question 🤔🤔 like this is kind of difficult to answer because there's a few companions i think would have worked, thematically, such as miranda. i don't think i've spoken about this in detail before, but during my last playthrough, i was kind of struck by how her interest in horizon leads to that entire mission feeling more like a loyalty mission of a character who should have been a companion. but she's just not really included in the roster and it feels like a missed opportunity??

my self indulgent answer is thane 😔😔 although i mostly wish he hadn't gotten shafted by the writers so bad, i would've also taken him as a squadmate because I Heart Him and it would've been interesting to see how he was dealing with all the shit going down in the galaxy. or maybe examine his trauma and the compact, give my boy kolyat some actual screentime........ and it's not even like you can use the excuse that oh he couldn't have been recruited until after the coup because both tali and kaidan/ashley can't be recruited until after then either???

7. You can undo three canon deaths in the series. Which ones do you pick, and why? What futures do you see for these characters in the version of canon where they lived?

1. Mordin - this is a wholly self indulgent answer because thematically his death works just fine, but i am attached to him and his death is the only time i actually got choked up playing these games. i understand that he dies fixing what he broke, but i do kind of wish he had gotten to live to see the krogan flourish again... idk what he'd do honestly, but his friendship with eve is very cute, so i think it'd be interesting to see how they interact now that the genophage is cured.

2. Thane - again, i don't actually have a problem with him dying, because he was kind of terminally ill from a chronic illness and i think magically fixing him is kind of a cop out, but i do think the way his death in canon was framed is kind of cheap :/ i would prefer it if he lived and we got to see him and kolyat continue to work on their relationship and heal from what's happened to them... and maybe take on the compact *cough*

3. Virmire Victim - okay so this is based on a plot bunny that my friend mae and i were throwing around about how interesting it would've been if they had brought the squadmate who died on virmire back from the dead to serve as a kind of winter soldier-esque assassin in 3. like loyal to cerberus, brainwashed, doesn't really recognize shepard but kind of feels familiarity to them. and you wouldn't know who this assassin was until the coup, when it's revealed that they're the squadmate you left behind on virmire. it has so much potential for shepard having another opportunity to do right by them, possibly save them from mr illusive. and you can't even say that cerberus couldn't do it because they literally brought shepard back from the dead Let's Fucking Go!!!

22. If the games had allowed you to choose which squadmates you were close with, which squadmate (not counting your love interest) would you have established as your Shepard's best friend?

so, answering for my girl hester. her best friend (even before garrus, who is her romance) is actually thane. they really click and i kind of have joked before that they're kind of like that one meme from scrubs and garrus is just off to the side being like Maybe Someday She'll Love Me Like That because they're just really close. i've kind of been playing around with the idea that drell have a very nuanced view on soulmates that includes completely platonic ones because from what thane says about their beliefs, they place a lot of emphasis on the soul and body, so the idea that they believe souls come together for different reasons and may be drawn together because of that is very intriguing to me.

he's there for her following grunt's adulthood rite because she goes into shock afterwards due to Trauma As A Sole Survivor. she specifically requests his presence from my mshep nic who was the other squadmate to go along. he still calls her siha, too, even though there's no romance between them (and zero inclination either, they're actually kind of annoyed whenever someone mistakes them for a couple), because i do not think there is a single name he could call her that would showcase the respect he has for her more.

23. What's one piece of character or species lore that never made sense to you? How would you fix it?

the genophage being treated as a Woman Problem. it really reminds me of good ol' henry eight, and how he blamed his wives for being unable to produce heirs, even though it's much more likely that he was the problem given his myriad of health issues (especially towards the end of his life). i make this comparison because it is never suggested in game that the the krogan men might have sperm issues. maybe the genophage makes some women incapable of ovulating or has something to do with the strength of shells, but i highly doubt that only the women are affected by this. plenty of krogan men likely don't have viable sperm (either they have lazy swimmers or their sperm is just completely inert), which is yknow, kind of important since that's also a zygote that's necessary for conception. so to frame the genophage like it's solely the "fault" of the women is really fucking stupid and i hate it (:

[ghostxofxartemis]

Prologue of my Fanfic Complete.

I’m just too excited, I want to share. I’m hoping to get an invitation to Archives tomorrow to post the First chapter, as I just completed it. But I don’t want to give too much right away! But here’s my complete prologue! 

Author’s notes: Hi everyone, welcome to my first fanfiction for Mass Effect, my all time favourite game! My canon Shepard, is default Shepard, Earth Born, War Hero, infiltrator class, paragon with a few renegade options, like kicking the merc out the window in Ilium and killing Kai Leng with that renegade button quick for Thane. Chose to destroy the reapers, and survived. He also romanced Ashley, and I wanted to delve into their story a bit more. However, most of the story will revolve around their daughter, 25 years later. I believe Shepard’s story is done. But that doesn’t mean that another Shepard can’t come and continue his legacy. Everyone survived except for Mordin while dispancering the genophage cure, Thane while chasing Kai Leng, Legion and EDI. However, EDI will be back (I can’t kill her off completely!) 

Another note, I always preferred to write in first person. I know it technically goes against all rules of writing, but I will be switching from John Shepard’s and Alex Shepard’s Point of view.

Also still brainstorming Titles.

Prologue

“The war is over. The Reapers have been defeated. 

Against all odds, and in the face of the greatest threat this galaxy has ever known, we survived. 

We suffered many losses. The relays are severely damaged, but we won. 

This victory belongs to each of us... every man, woman, and child. Every civilization, on every world. Now, as we take our first steps toward restoring what we lost, we must remember what it took to win. This wasn't a victory by a single fleet, a single army, or even a single species.

If this war has taught us anything, it is that we are at our strongest when we work together. And if we can put down our grievances long enough to stop something as powerful as the Reapers, imagine what we can achieve now that they are defeated. 

It will take time, but we can rebuild everything that was destroyed.

Our homes, our worlds, our fleets and defenses. All of this - and more. 

Together, we can build a future greater than any one of us could imagine.

A future paid for by the sacrifices of those who fought and died alongside us.

A future that many will never see. 

And while we still have many challenges ahead of us... We can face them together. 

And we will honor those who died to give us that future.”

Gasp. My lungs filled with air, I felt pain, everywhere. In all my years in my career, all those shots I’ve endured couldn’t compare to this. All I saw was rubble. Did it work? Did the crucible fire? Or did I just imagine that? “Shepard!” “Shepard, where are you?! Come on Commander?!” “Shepard?!” I recognized those voices. Samara, Jack, Miranda? But they were on the other side of the battlefield. I tried to move, but movement shot pain all over my body again and I saw stars in my vision. I was on the verge of slipping in unconsciousness. I knew if I did, I may never wake up again. All my medigel was dispensed during the final push, I had to stay awake until someone found me at least. Then they can take care of the rest. I tried again, slowly this time, I moved my head around, looking for something that could alert them where I am. I shot the tube didn’t I? Back at the crucible? Think Shepard, your pistol must be around! With great effort I started to feel around me, God this rubble is heavy!  There! I felt the pistol. I aimed in the sky and prayed there were still a couple shots left in the thermal clip. I squeeze the trigger. Bam Bam. Two shots that's it, I hear the empty click. They should have heard that, they must be closed otherwise I wouldn’t have heard them. 

“Get down!” “They’re not shooting at us.” “It’s Shepard!” 

“Shepard, stay with me, we got you, we’ll get you medic” Miranda’s face appeared in my vision as she spoke, her omnitool bright orange, I started to feel light headed but my pain was slowly diminishing, for now. How much medigel did she give me?! Oh, why does it matter, she knows what she is doing, she put me back together after all!  “MEDIC, OVER HERE! IT’S SHEPARD!” I heard Jack yell, before my vision went black. 

“Stay with me Shepard!” Miranda again, I was on a gurney, they were running with the medics, Miranda had her omnitool at the ready. Looked like she was scanning the damage, her face, didn’t look right...worried? “Miranda…Ashley?” I tried to reach for her. “Shh, save your energy. Just stay with me okay, you’ll be okay! The Normandy made it out on time, you did it Shepard” I didn’t know whether she was telling the truth about me making it, but it didn’t matter, all that mattered was that Ashley and my crew...my friends, were safe. All went dark. 

I woke up again, who knows how long I have been out, and heard beeping noise around me. I searched my surroundings, and noticed a heart rate monitor, tubes in my arms. I’m in a hospital, still alive, well at least I think so? Miranda’s face appeared in my vision, as well as someone else, don’t know who they are though. “Hey Shepard, you got some broken ribs, your left arm is broken, we’re keeping you under a coma for you to recover faster. But you’re going to make a full recovery.” I heard Miranda say to me before she turned around to the other man in the room and said “give him a dose, a bigger one this time, trust me he’ll be fine.” I couldn’t help but chuckle and I saw Miranda’s lip quirk up, I knew she got the same sense of deja vu: the first time I woke up in the Cerberus lab when she rebuilt me. But I knew I was going to be fine, after all Miranda would know best. All went dark again.

I woke up again, and I heard some rustling beside me, and I hand touched mine. “Hey Hero-Man, glad to see you finally awake.” I didn’t need to see who it was, because I would recognize her voice anywhere. A smile spread on my face, I never felt so much joy in my lifetime. Ashley was okay, and she was here beside me! I turned to face her, and tried to speak, but it almost felt like I had no voice. “Shh, shh, you’ve been out a while, just take it slow Skipper.” I had to say this though, and I squeezed her hand, cleared my throat, and with pure will I muttered a raspy “I love you,” she smiled and said “I know” and I fell asleep again. 

The next time I woke up, I felt much better. I couldn’t say how much time had passed, I figured maybe about a few days. Next to me Ashley had fallen asleep, she had her head on the bed all the while sitting in the chair she pulled up. I gently ran my fingers in her hair, and I felt her stir under my touch. “Hey pretty lady” I whispered, “Hey” she said back at me as she slowly lifted her head off the bed “You’re awake”. “Just woke up myself. How long have I been out?” I asked her. “Hmm, just about a month now, Miranda’s been looking after you until we could get the Normandy fully functioning again and back into orbit. We got back to Earth as soon as we could and got here. Dr. Chawkas took over your care after that” she replied. A month?! I took a moment to process that, I thought I had been out a few days, but a month?!  I was in shock. Normandy fully functioning? What the hell happened?! “Ash...what happened? After I got to the crucible? What happened?” I reached for her hand and squeezed it. I needed to know what happened after everything went dark. “The crucible shot red beams of light, and all synthetic, the Geth, Edi, even the Reapers, they all went dead. The Normandy was hit, we sustained a bit of damage before hitting the relay, we landed on an uncharted world. The crew worked all together to get the Normandy back up. Took us about 3 days, and then 2 weeks to get back to earth. But you did it Shepard - you destroyed the Reapers, the war is done. But there’s one more thing… Admiral Anderson..” she started saying, I nodded my head “I know, I was with him.” “I’m so sorry Skipper” for the first time ever, I saw a tear run down Ashley’s cheek. Throughout everything, Kaidan’s death, even when she was in the hospital and waiting for news on her family, Ashley Williams never cried, and here she was shedding a tear. I took my free hand and placed it behind her neck and brought her forehead to my lips and planted a kiss, and I held her there. She pulled away, and whipped her tears, “I should get Dr. Chawkas, I’ll be right back,” she stood up and walked out the door to get Dr. Chawkas, and I leaned back into the bed and sighed. I felt relieved that the Reapers were truly destroyed. But cords pulled on my heart. Edi had truly died. I was supposed to be dead. I had hoped that the catalyst had lied, but it hadn’t. Now Joker had lost the love of his life. 

I heard the door whoosh open again and turned my head in it’s direction, Dr. Chawkas looked at me, a smile spreading ear to ear, and behind her was Miranda. I could see Ashley talking to Admiral Hackett and James leaning up against the wall. I guess I could expect a huge welcoming party after speaking to Dr. Chawkas and Miranda. I was pretty sure there were others there that I couldn’t see. “Glad to see you awake Commander. You’re looking a lot better. I’m just going to run some scans here. I have to say, I’m impressed with Miranda’s medical skills, it was touch and go there for a while” she was saying as she lit up her omni-tool to do her scans. 

“Well, if anyone would know my body inside and out, it would be her, it wouldn’t be the first time either” I chuckle, and heard Dr. Chawkas chuckle as well, while I swear, Miranda’s cheeks turned beet red. “I suppose you're right. Scans look commander, you’re healing well. You should be good to go to physical therapy in a few days. But first we should probably get you some food,” she cocked her head in the direction of my stomach, as it made a growl, I swear everyone in the next system heard. “I’ll go get you something to eat, in the meantime Admiral Hackett would like to speak to you,” she turned on her heels and made her way out the door only to stop to speak quickly to Admiral Hackett “he’s all good Admiral, ready to see you” she nodded and Hackett give her a nod back “thank you Dr.” and made his way towards me. “Shepard, I don’t still don’t know how you pulled that off. That wasn’t short of any miracle” he reached out with a hand and I took in my own to give him a hand shake. “I don’t really know what really happened myself, tell you the truth Admiral” I replied. He pulled his hand back and clasped them behind his back, taking on his usual casual stance. “Tell me what you remember.” 

“I don’t know where to start Admiral. I reached the beam, and landed somewhere in the Citadel. Somewhere I’ve never been before. They were collecting human remains, and looked like they were gathering them to make another Reaper, maybe. I don’t know.” I pause to sigh and bring my thumb and forefinger to pinch the bridge of my nose for a moment, deep in thought. When I pulled my hand away again, I recollected myself to continue my debrief. “I made my way to the control panel, and Anderson had already reached it. He was trying to open to the Citadel arms. But the Illusive man was controlling him, stopping him from accessing the controls.” Hackett made a noise that sounded like a hmm. “So he managed to learn how to control humans, and not just husks?” he asked. “Yeah...thought he was implanted with reaper technology. He managed to get control over me as well. I tried to pull him out of his revelry, but he made me shoot Anderson, before he pulled the trigger on himself.” I sighed at the memory. I felt guilty, and it must have shown in my expression, for Hackett immediately interjected “It wasn’t your fault Shepard,” “It doesn’t make it any easier, sir”.

It must have taken me about a good 10 mins to explain everything, from the catalyst to the destruction of the Reapers. Hackett had agreed that taking control of  the Reapers would have been too much of a risk, what if down the line I would have become indoctrinated and started up another war? Rewriting human DNA is unethical. Destruction was the only way to go, even at a great cost. Peace between synthetic and humans is possible, as I had managed to prove to the galaxy with brokering peace between the geth and the Quarians. 

Hackett thanked me for the briefing and wished me a speedy recovery. I knew I would be out for a bit, but thanks to my cybernetics, it wouldn’t be as long as a normal person. Something I was grateful for, to be honest, even after everything that just happened, I still wasn’t ready to retire. 

After Hackett left, Ashley came back in followed by James, Traynor Carrying a vase full of “get well flowers”, Garrus, Liara and Cortez. “I brought you some flowers Commander, I’m glad you’re doing better commander, everyone has been worried about you” Traynor said as she placed the vase on the bedside table. “Thanks Traynor.” 

“Just couldn’t help yourself from destroying the reapers with a bang, uh Loco?” James chuckled, I just rolled my eyes at him and shook my head. No doubt I’ve just earned myself more “Loco” points. “S’cuse me” Dr. Chawkas was shimmying herself between the crew with a tray of food in her hands, and when she reached me she handed the tray and I reached out and grabbed it and placed it on my lab. I scrutinized what was on the tray, military rations albeit not being the best and tastiest of food, certainly looked more appetizing than the clump of goo that was sitting in front of me. I looked up at Dr. Chakwas, eyebrows raised in a quizzical look “what is this supposed to be?” She shrugged and her expression  turned sympathetic, no doubt not wanting to be stuck with this goo and feeling horrible about handing it over to me. “It’s supposed to be oatmeal. Something soft but not too solid yet, have to slowly introduce food into your system. You’ve been out a while Commander.” 

I picked up the spoon, scoop up a spoonful, only to purposely drop through the goo back into the plate. “I think I lost my appetite” I grumbled. “We’ll leave you to it commander” Traynor gave a sympathetic look  towards my way before gesturing to the others to do the same. Miranda lingered behind a bit “I’m glad your back Commander” and turned towards the door to follow the others out. Only Ashley remained behind. I moved myself a little closer to the edge of the bed and pat the empty spot beside me for her to sit down next to me. She was more than happy to oblige, her smile spreading across her face. She lay down and leaned her hand on my shoulder. “I know it’s not appetizing, John, but you should eat” she said. I sighed, “I know, I just didn’t want to make faces in front of everyone” I replied, and she snorted. I sighed again and took another spoonful and slowly, the food made its way down to my stomach.

The few weeks I spent in the hospital and physical therapy had been slow and excruciating. Not in the sense that my body hurt, it was mostly all healed up at this point, thanks to my upgrades. But it was the fact I was stuck there and hadn’t gotten the all clear yet to get back into the field. Ashley thought I was crazy, that I had more than earned some shore leave. But I wasn’t one to just sit around and do nothing.

I also had ceremonies to attend. I had been given more awards for my part in the war. The Normandy crew had been granted the Galactic Unit Citation for their part in helping win me this war. I had been awarded my second Star of Terra, along with the Star of Sur’Kesh, Silver Dagger, and Nova Cluster. My recognition in this war had gone with plenty of notice. 

Eventually I was given the all clear to head back and command The Normandy again. Hackett wanted the Normandy's help in patrolling  the system, making sure no one went rogue. With the government in chaos, and the Alliance in scramble right now. And with all the repairs that needed to be done to the mass relays, he wanted to make sure no pirates or mercs decided to attack anyone at random. The Normandy was to escort fleets to other systems so that we can start making the repairs on the mass relays ASAP. I was more than happy to comply. 

The welcoming I received was heartwarming. Everyone was glad to see me up on my feet again. New armor had been sent to the armory to replace the one that had been scorched in the final push. Walking up the ramp I plot our first trip to Arcturus Stream for our first escort. “You got it, Commander” was Joker’s voice coming through the speakers. I couldn’t help but smiled as I turned around and headed to the elevator up to my cabin. It was good to be back on the Normandy, and quite frankly, I was looking forward to a night alone with Ashley. 

[rubyredsundae]

Mass Effect Trilogy Tag!

I was not tagged by anyone, I just really wanted to join in. If you see this and want to as well, please do! I've been loving reading through everyone's :)

I am a fan since… 2011ish? Definitely at least a year before ME3 came out. I remember watching my brother play ME2 and thinking it was so cool. While he was away it was a huge comfort for me to play it in his room, kind of like a bonding or cathartic experience for someone who wasn't there at the time.

When ME3 came out, me and him went to the midnight release at a gamestop like 40 minutes away or something, wearing clothes we threw together to kind of fit the N7 color scheme. Even though we don't talk anymore, those memories are still really precious to me. Also, the nostalgia of playing ME1 after-school or on the weekend, running to get my easy mac from the microwave during a cutscene, stuffing too hot mouthfuls while speeding the Mako towards the conduit on Ilos.

Favorite game of the series: It's a tough call between ME1 and ME2, but I'd say ME2. It's the game I get the urge to replay the most.

MaleShep or FemShep? Femshep all the way. I only play MShep when I want to do his exclusive romances. No offense to BroShep, but ME was the first game I ever played that let me not just be a girl, but customizable. Not just to be the already generated token girl character in a pack of boys. And not only can you play Femshep, but every game you are surrounded by smart, funny, tough women as squadmates. It was such a huge deal to me, and still is. Femshep represents so much. As Jennifer Hale put it, FemShep was a military grade boot to the video game industry glass ceiling.

Earthborn, Colonist or Spacer? I personally tend to lean spacer in-game, but I tend to use Earthborn when I'm writing fics.

Paragon or Renegade? Usually Paragon, but Renegade playthroughs can be really interesting, especially if I have a detailed background about why Shep is the way they are. My first Renegade, Krystle, is pretty bigoted and anti-alien until she meets Liara. Krystle is naturally guarded and quick to anger, so meeting someone who seemed to accept her and listen to her without judgment really opens her mind.

By the 2nd game, she wakes up in the cerberus lab with new biotic powers, having previously been a regular foot soldier. This makes her seeth, having someone completely take her agency, agreeing with the illusive man on the surface but plotting against him the entire time. She starts to lean more Paragon, if only to piss him off. She has the biggest smirk on her face when she blows up the collector base.

Biotics or Tech? Oooh, this is hard. Maybe biotics just the tiniest smidge because of Jack/Samara biotic bubble throw during the suicide mission. I don't know if we'll ever get a screen adaptation but THAT is a moment I would pay to see done with a big SFX budget behind it.

Favorite class: Sentinel! I don't know how much this reflects on my class preference in gaming in general, but I love the 'jack of all trades'ness of it. By the time I get an assault rifle, I don't really feel the need for anyone else to make up for something I lack. Also, tech armor in ME2? Where your shields regenerate automatically when it breaks, and the cool down is when you initially active it, instead of when you detonate it? Chef's kiss. I understand why it was nerfed in 3 but I'm still mad.

Favorite companion: Ho boy. This is obviously very difficult to choose but I'm gonna say Miranda. I've always loved and identified with her character, I love the accent, and she's always useful on missions. I was so happy when I learned she could be a squadmate in the armax arena.

Honorable mention to Ashley in ME1. Her character is rarely used to exposition lore, so she just gets to have her personality fleshed out. I don't always agree with her but she does seem genuinely willing to listen. ME3 tosses her out the airlock though; partially because her content was bugged and never restored, leaving her inclusion feel half-baked, and partly because Ash and Kaidan have to be able to serve the same plot function as each other and it negatively affects her character more than his. This could also be intentional on bioware's part, to try to flesh out kaidan's personality and tone down Ashley's as a response to criticisms of them from ME1.

Least favorite companion: Also difficult, because I don't really hate anyone as much as I am just less interested in some. I didn't like Zaeed for a long time, but I think he's much better and really funny in ME3. James was pushed on me too much at the beginning and it made me really dislike him, but I think he's greatly improved and also pretty funny in Citadel DLC. I'm also pretty indifferent to Jacob; I don't think he's a bad character, just disappointing because there was a lot of potential.

Not that every character has to go on and do some grand quest to be interesting, but I don't feel like Jacob every really got a big hero moment like everyone else. He is a very calm and introverted person (imo) who doesn't really share his feelings, so it's always been hard for to to connect with him on anything.

My squad selection: Depends on the game, but it usually involves Garrus lol. Typically it's Liara/Garrus in ME1, Miranda/Garrus for ME2, and Liara/Garrus again in ME3. I am very boring and predictable! If you have any suggestions for me to try out and mix things up, let me know!

Favorite in-game romance: Also depends on the game. ME1 it's Liara, hands down. It was the first game, really the first piece of media, where I was told two women could fall in love and be happy and that was okay. The amount of enlightenment and comfort in figuring out that I was bi these games brought me is kind of wild to look back on.

ME2 is a toss-up between Garrus and Thane. They are both wonderful but in completely different ways. I tend to now romance Thane on characters I don't plan on importing to ME3, or if I do, to just have a really depressed fucking Shepard lol. I hate how much Thane was brushed off, especially if you romanced him.

Other pairings I like: l love Miranda so much, but I'm a gay girl so I ship her and Femshep. Same goes for Tali, Jack, Ashley... damn I'm just really gay for straight girls huh :/

I don't really have any other ships for non-Shep related pairings.

Favorite NPC: Shiala is really cool to me, I wish we got to see her in 3. Emily Wong is also cool, also wish we saw her in 3. There's probably a lot more that when I come across them next I'll be like, "you! I love you! You're my favorite."

Oh also Joker! And EDI! But not together. Idk I feel like ME3 threw a curveball at me with "do you support organic/non-organic relationships?" Like m'am please don't ask me, I accidentally drank turian liquor last year, I'm not qualified to be an expert on this.

Favorite antagonist: Tbh I really dig Saren. I think his reasoning is super fascinating, both to set up how someone who's indoctrinated can rationalize to themselves that they are still in control; and as a foil to Shepard, to show what can happen when you become too isolated and the ends justify the means. I think his VA does a great job of walking the line between desperate survivor and madman. He's also the only antagonist in the trilogy that we ever fight 1 on 1 (ignoring squadmates) and it feels more personal. I think he's such a fantastic foe for the first entry in a trilogy and I don't think he gets enough credit.

Favorite mission: Is it cliche to say the suicide mission? It's honestly close to perfect. The stakes, the sequencing, the cinematics, the score. Everything works so well.

Favorite loyalty mission: Kasumi's and Tali's are really cool, as we all know. Samara's is also cool because it is entirely non-combat based. Shepard has to prove they can accomplish what seems impossible without a gun or biotics.

The confrontation at the end with Morinth always haunts me a little, because they are both right in their own way. Morinth's final line, "and they say I'm the monster", as you let Samara kill her, watch her scrambling backwards in fear... I know that she's a remorseless killer, but it gets me every time.

Favorite DLC: It's Citadel, obviously. Turns out what I really wanted was quality time and a party with all my friends. I love mass effect for many reasons, but simulating friends and affection when I had none has always made me bond to this series like other games don't. Is it sad? Sure! But I don't think love and affection for fictional characters should ever be shameful until it makes you hurt other people.

Control, Synthesis or Destroy? I'd say destroy. If the other options were presented earlier and we had time to stew with it, maybe I'd be more split. But all of this in 5 minutes? It's not like the collector base where the implications are obvious and the choice is just down to what Shepard believes. The 3 choices all seem like space magic out of nowhere, and none of them seem to really offer any insight on what Shepard should believe. So I say destroy, just because it's what Shep has intended and is most consistent with their character and their admiration of Anderson.

Favorite weapon: The spectre level assault rifle in ME1. Never have I felt more powerful.

Favorite place: Idk why but I just thought of the creepy lab with all the scientists during the leviathan DLC. I really love when Mass Effect leans into the Lovecraftian horror aspect of things. Talking to Sovereign and Vigil in ME1 gave me goosebumps my first few playthroughs.

A quote I like: I have hundreds, but the one off the top of my head is, "After time adrift among open stars, along tides of light and through shoals of dust, I will return to where I began." I have a poster of it up on my wall right now!

[nulfaga]

Super curious- if you don’t wanna answer obviously ignore this- but how would you rewrite Jacob’s romance like in broad strokes? I really liked him but never played through it and went and watched it and JFC you were right :( awful

it’s just not good at all is it :(( i was in the same situation as you, i like jacob a lot and i hadn’t seen the romance but i’d heard bad things and...ugh it lived up to my every awful expectation

(JESUS THIS GOT SO LONG)

i think the biggest thing i’d change is just how COLD he seems throughout the entire romance? when you meet him in me3, brynn has to tell you that jacob (still) loves you. she has to tell you, because at NO point in either me2 or me3 do we receive any evidence of that. there’s even that line where jacob “playfully” refuses to say ‘i love you’ back to femshep (”not if you’re fishing for it”) but like. that sort of ribbing falls completely flat if there isn’t an undercurrent of affection and appreciation. which there isn’t, with jacob.

he’s pretty much pushing back against femshep’s advances from the get go, insisting that he wants things to stay professional, and when femshep pushes and pushes him, he concedes that he’d like a relationship with her as long as it stays casual, ie no stakes. there are other romances that do this to a certain extent (garrus being a little iffy about shaking the sheets with a human, thane being...a dying man) but having worked past these initial bumps, both of them are strongly and consistently interested in shepard. there seems to have been no effort to make that transition happen with jacob. he keeps her at arm’s length (i’d argue it’s actually more like he’s beating her away with a broomstick) and if not for brynn’s line about “he still loves you”, we would have absolutely no reason to believe that shepard meant anything to him.

but having said all that, let me start over. i think rewriting jacob’s romance in a satisfactory (and non-racist) way would require almost rebuilding his character from the ground up. he has a few solid character beats - wanting a family and being good with kids (see me: foundation and his scene in the citadel dlc); having left the alliance in order to ‘make a difference’ without the red tape (similar to garrus’ reasons for leaving c-sec); having done some pretty heroic shit ie. saving the entire citadel from a batarian bioweapon and having received no recognition for it whatsoever; BEING A SHAMELESS ROMANTIC (his plan to propose to brynn where he wants to take her on a picnic under the cherry blossoms before popping the question???)

- as well as a few elements of his backstory that definitely should have come up more in dialogue: his longstanding relationship/friendship with miranda; his frustration at the way commander shepard was ignored by the council and her efforts for humanity quickly forgotten

so that’s the stuff i like/i think has potential. as far as the glaring problems...

1) like i said, his coldness - the way he will absolutely shut down if you try to get him to open up to you. that’s fine at first, but what a missed opportunity for a romance arc where he allows himself to be vulnerable around you. instead he remains a brick wall for the entire time you know him

2) everything involving ronald. WHY would they waste dave fennoy like that. bioware said “let’s give our only black squadmate a deadbeat dad. not only that, let’s make the deadbeat dad the leader of a backwater sex cult”. ok.

3) the lack of reciprocity in the relationship. maybe this is a rehash of point 1, but watching the romance back it just gets to me how jacob never initiates a single...like..thing...ever...he doesn’t ask how you’re doing after tough missions, he doesn’t get you gifts, you never get a single word of affirmation. there’s those lines “when you look at me, you’ll know how i feel about you. i don’t think i could hide it at this point” and “i won’t have to say it. you’ll feel it in everything i do”....which i think are genuinely very sweet, except that there’s nothing whatsoever backing them up. we keep getting lip service about how much he cares, but nothing to demonstrate it. shepard will just have to learn telepathy i guess

4) do i need to say it? the fact that out of every romanceable squad member across three games, he is the ONLY one who will actively cheat on you (under certain definitions of the word), and not only that, he will be expecting a baby with brynn. and he will tell you about the beautiful proposal he has planned for her. and brynn will want to name the baby after you. every planet has aligned, all the fates are spitting in your face for ever being a big enough idiot to romance jacob taylor. it feels like punishment on the part of the writers and there’s absolutely NO need for it. not to mention that since jacob IS the only black squad member in the trilogy, him being the only one to step out sends a VERY pointed message.

so - like you said, in broad strokes - how i’d plot out the romance is probably something like this

I. you meet jacob on the station; not much is different. he’s mostly concerned that shep is up and walking around before she should be, tries to be as reassuring as possible given that this woman barely knows where she is or what’s happening. nothing really divergent from canon yet

II. shepard’s first few visits to him in the armory are pretty much just preamble; he’s convinced she’s only really doing status checks on her crew out of a sense of duty, so he’s cordial, but distant. he starts to ask shepard about her personal history (whether that’s akuze, mindoir or the skyllian blitz); admits it’s weird being around her in person after knowing her from vids and headlines. he’s not comfortable talking very much about himself at this point

III. eventually he starts to tell shep about his time as a corsair (essentially a black ops unit for the alliance) and the mess on the citadel with the batarian bioweapon; she can react with admiration, say something like he should be famous in his own right! and he’ll shoot her a half-smile, “i’m good, shepard. i don’t want to see my face on any alliance recruitment posters anytime soon. but thank you.”

IV. i think it’s still appropriate for shepard to be the one to eventually express interest, given that jacob is on his guard re: the whole cerberus thing, and her being his CO - and he could still prefer to take it slow, offer to go out for drinks, but i think it works better if he responds with more enthusiasm, instead of acting like he’s signing on for a tedious mission.

V. i want a lighthearted scene of jacob and shepard actually getting drinks on the citadel, or even just in that weird little bar on the ship, and to learn something about him. not his service record. something silly like he really vibes w this obscure asari country-dubstep fusion band fuck if i know, or he secretly sings, or he misses having real food on board because he loves baking, like. SOMETHING. shepard has the option to confess something equally ridiculous back to him like... she ate an entire thing of elmers glue at age 8 and liked it. i just. cannot stress how badly the jacob romance is lacking for silliness.

VI. his loyalty mission - yeah his dad can come along for the ride but ronald taylor is not a runaway father and he most ASSUREDLY is not the leader of a sex cult, he’s just like. a dad. done. but idfk, i think the conflict itself should be something that deeply affects him, like they attempted in the game, but no weird sex cult nonsense. idk. maybe he has an old L2 biotic friend who committed suicide after the whole debacle about reparations for L2s? i know theres more than enough biotic angst in this series already im just spitballing. but it’s not a loyalty mission if it doesn’t give the character something to brood about and lay the foundation for a juicy dialogue tree back on the ship

VII. when you come back to the normandy, jacob is obviously upset (and i think he’s allowed to show it; idk why they had him be so emotionally repressed when they had adam lazarre white who is more than capable of handling whatever angsty lines they might have written), and a romanced shepard/one with high approval has the option to hug him. please let me hug him bioware.

VII. the next time shep comes to the armory he doesn’t say a word. he stops what he’s doing, crosses his arms and looks at her with that same inscrutable half-smile. obviously shepard is like, “...what?” and he chuckles to himself. “i spent two years guarding you while cerberus rebuilt you - sometimes i forget what a goddamn miracle it is that you’re walking and talking and laughing.” and then he’s not smiling anymore. “...and i think of how much it matters to me that you keep walking, and talking, and laughing.” he’ll keep waffling (here might be where he says that stuff about, “the guys in boot camp used to say the first one to drop the l-bomb loses”). shepard will have a paragon QTE to interrupt him with a kiss.

VIII. before the suicide mission he’ll come to shepard’s quarters, and whatever dumb thing he confessed in scene V is going to come back to bite him in the ass, ie if he told shep about his love for the asari dolly parton tribute band, shepard will have a tape of their greatest hits ready, or if he said that he sings, shep will ask him to sing something, etc etc. there’ll be a lot of laughing. after a while jacob will go quiet and shepard will have the option to nudge him.

“hey,” she says.

-”what?”

“i love you.”

-”oh. hell,” he’ll say. “hell. i guess that means i win.” and, laughing, he’ll add: “you do this shit on purpose, don’t you?”

(probably that segues into the obligatory sex scene with a double entendre about ‘winning’)

IX. after the suicide mission, if you find him again in the armory, the first thing he says is “you too.” shepard is like ??? and he clarifies: “i love you too. it would have killed me if one of us got hurt and i hadn’t said it.” AND (i actually think this should have been a discussion you have with every romance option) you discuss what’ll happen now, maybe not specifically that shepard intends to turn herself in, but her going rogue and working with cerberus was never going to go unpunished. also that MESS in arrival... so i think there should have been a “what does this mean for us” convo in there somewhere - where shepard can ask her LI to stay with her, or say that she can’t clip their wings like that when she doesn’t know what’ll happen. all the me3 fuckery could have been avoided that way.

X. ok if even miranda couldn’t get to shepard while they were under house arrest, i doubt jacob would be able to either, and i think he knows that. but when you meet him in that me3 mission where he’s helping to evacuate the ex-cerberus scientists, he’s so pleased to see shepard again...my dramatic ass wants a reunion kiss when he’s sitting in the base recovering from the gunshot wound, where he’s reassuring her that he’s all right, he’s had worse. he still decides not to join the normandy crew tho and to keep working with the scientists and brynn (as a friend)

XI. a scene where you meet him on the citadel, maybe on the presidium, near the fountains, or somewhere peaceful, and you catch up, get him to tell you in more detail what the past six months were like - maybe you talk about earth? maybe he had family there? and from there he talks about wanting to settle down after the war and have a family, something real, something stable. shepard can ask if there’s any room in that future for her. THIS is where i wanna put that “it’s you. it’s all you” line, as in “you are that future”. renegade shep can tease him and ask what he’d name their kids. he knows exactly what names he wants, either for a boy or a girl, but refuses to tell shepard. maybe after this thing is over.

XII. the arcade scene from citadel is cute as is. i wouldn’t change it except to make it longer and add more schmoopy moments, like maybe shepard can express her surprise at how good jacob is with these kids, ask if there’s anything she can do to help out. a bit at the end where they hit a quiet restaurant together and just sit in each other’s company? im a simple man with simple needs. before shepard boards the normandy that final time, he tells her firmly that she’d better come back, or she’ll never know what he wanted to name their kids.

XIII. ok i have this same gripe with miranda in that shes not there with you in that crucial moment before the final mission. can we have like a video call or a hologram moment or something. i feel like this would be such a good place for a cheesy dialogue like, shepard is breaking down (i can’t win, i can’t be to these people what they want me to be, no one is that strong) and jacob can tell her that he used to see her as this larger than life figure too - he knows where all those people are coming from, but he also knows that shepard is only a person. but this thing is bigger than her; he’s seen it, seen everyone come together to build the catalyst. they’ll win. she doesn’t have to worry, she just has to do her job for one more day and then come home.

XIV. adding onto that, i want a jacob hologram on earth before the last push to the catalyst, and he says it a second time, “i love you,” with just this little telltale crack in his voice.

“i guess that means i win,” grins shepard.

“yeah, you’re going to,” laughs jacob. “jesus, there’s no having a moment with you, is there?”

“we’ll have all the moments you want when i get back.” and she blows him a kiss and shuts off the holo.

[irikahkrios]

okay i’ve been thinking about this nonstop for the past two hours and i just gotta say,,,, bioware didn’t need to kill irikah off for thane to have the same character development as in canon,,,, 

like, picture this. irikah is still attacked, and almost dies, and she’s fucking pissed. after years of being patient with thane as he grew more and more distant and was around less and less, after years of trying desperately to get him to really connect with kolyat, after trying her best to look the other way when he went back to killing people so they could make ends meet, this is the last fucking straw. she’s not going to allow herself and her son to be put in danger. so she takes kolyat and leaves. thane still gets the Angst of “oh my wife and son aren’t in my life anymore because i fucked up and failed them,” but irikah has actual agency in the narrative, she has motivations and does things and gets to be an actual character instead of just an object that existed only to give thane redemption with her love and then die for his pain. she gets to be complex, she loves her husband and truly doesn’t want to leave him, but she refuses to put herself or her little boy in harm’s way by staying with him and feels that this is what she has to do. she’s tired of waiting for things to get better and for thane to decide to change. she can’t take it anymore, and she doesn’t want kolyat to have to either. so she leaves. 

so basically instead of Sad Widower thane in me2 we get Sad Divorcé thane who opens up to shepard about how his wife left him ten years ago, taking their young son with her, after he was a fuckup of a husband and almost got her killed. it’s irikah who messages him in a panic that kolyat is on the citadel trying to follow in his father’s footsteps to vent his confused anger, and shepard and thane meet up with her on the citadel and it’s the first time she and thane have seen each other in years. they end up trying to talk kolyat down together, and it’s really emotional, and when thane tells kolyat that he’s terminally ill and doesn’t have much time left irikah is shocked, because she had no idea either. anyway things end well (if you play the mission correctly lmao), and thane slowly starts to reestablish contact with both of them. 

from talking to him about irikah and seeing their interactions on his loyalty mission it’s very clear that he still carries a torch for her (side note i’m not sure if thane would still be a romance option in this au), and i know this is gonna sound out-of-character for me since thane/irikah is literally my mass effect otp but they don’t end up getting back together or anything. i think it’s actually very important that they don’t. it shows that some things can’t be fixed completely; thane has his ex-wife and son back in his life, and they’re going to spend time with him throughout the time he has left (supremely awkward new mexico family vacation!!), but things are never going to be the way they were. he and irikah aren’t going to get back together, and his relationships with both her and kolyat are still going to be strained. that’s just the way things usually are. but they love him, and they’re both by his side when he dies in me3. 

my only real issue with this au is that knowing how a large chunk of the gaming community treats women, i can definitely see Gamer Dudebros missing the point completely and probably saying some gross things about irikah. i can already see the Hot Takes being written online about what a “frigid bitch” she is, or whatever misogynistic bullshit they would probably say about her. but like. i would honestly take this over her just being Sad Dead Wife Plot Device any day. i dunno i just!!! i love irikah with all my heart and i don’t want her to be dead!!!! and bioware didn’t need to have her get violently murdered in order to give thane a satisfying character arc!!!!!!

[ivisite]

 DRAGONBORN 30 DAY CHALLENGE

Day 7 - Relationships

Sexual orientation:

Straight

Did your character marry? If so, who is their spouse?:

Eventually she does, but not until she’s at least 54. Brynjolf, after years of the two just being lovers, finally gets too old to crouch around the sewers and takes a knee for her, much to her playful picking. He’d be about 60, I’d guess.

“You know lass, Ragnar is doing so well with the guild, I suppose I could step back a bit if you’d fancy some company in my golden years…” Brynjolf said, trailing off a bit all while a playful smile dared to tug at the corners of his mouth.

“Oh aye? Took you long enough, you old codger. Finally feeling a day over 25, are you?” Saoirse cooed back, keeping to brushing out a matted bit of fur on the old family dog. She smiled, too, but did well to have her back to him so he wouldn’t see the joy that twinkled in her eyes.  Across the way, leaning against the sturdy fence post now, the now-greying red-head chuckled heartily. Gods, how he loved her.  “To say the least, Saoirse. I might dare say I feel…26 now.” He chirped.  “You’ve gotten used to a belly full of mead and crawling into a warm bed with me at night, is all this is~” Saoirse said, finally standing to turn to him, leaving the old mutt to bask in the warm sun near the cow pen. 

“You have done well to seduce an old man, lass. So what do you say, hm? Would you marry an old crook?” His eyes stayed pointed at hers, staring deeply into the dark blue seas that had always haunted him since he first met her as a younger, more naive man. 

“Why…I don’t know Bryn, seems rather sudden. And the farm…” She playfully cooed, opting to dusting off her shirt and glancing around the property.

His brows furrowed in concern.  “Now lass, I just asked a very serious question. A man deserves an answer and-” He started to whine, the green of his eyes reflecting what was left of the one fiery red in his hair.  “-Oh you old codger!~ Stop your whining, of course I’ll marry you.”

How well do they get along with their spouse?: 

It evolves as they do, so to speak but they always have a bit of a playful rivalry/cheeky sort of energy about them, regardless of the years. 

Upon being acquainted, when Saoirse is 20 and he’s likely 26, at least, the two have a whirlwind of a “relationship” while she runs around with the guild, initially. Constant cheekiness, not being able to keep their hands off the other for too long- they’re quite the matching set, two peas in a grass pod, so to speak. Their youthfulness has a heavy hand in it all and that also goes for the naivety of it all. They’re both far too smart for their own good and both end up falling far too hard, far too fast and in gets out of hand until they both get scared and start to shut off, in a sense? He starts stealing from her and she eventually finds out and runs off with his things and a bunch of the guilds’ job trinkets/money as a result. Young love, am I right?

 When she comes back around after finally deciding to tie up loose ends and go do the dragonborn stuff, she decides to go to Riften and try to work off her debt. Immediately, the two have their guards up, bickering and arguing often to the point that Delvin has to step in to get them to stop. It’s rocky at the beginning, the two having to learn to open up again and have to discover each other again through various jobs Delvin insists they go on together (he ships it-). They break down eventually after bickering to the point that they kiss and then go get really drunk and open up to one another. After that, and around the time the Goldenglow Estate job lines up is when Bryn starts to see her differently. She’s matured and is the freakin’ dragonborn, that’s cool and he starts to grow an unprecedented respect for her. While the guild is in shambles and she’s probably going to almost die fighting Alduin eventually, they are comforting figures for each other. They’re still cheeky and playful, but more maturely now. 

When they’re old gits, they’re the ultimate old couple goals? Like it goes from him sneaking into her room in the night and romancing her and checking in on their son for years, to him getting spoiled and sleeping in all day and whining about it being cold. Real cute, real spicy. 

Do they have any kids?:

While Saoirse has 2 children, the two are only half-siblings but the eldest, Ragnar is Brynjolf’s. Once she returns to the companions after saving the world and repaying the guild (by saving it, they’re welcome), she finishes where she left off at in the Companions plot, taking out the Silver-hand and curing Kodlak and etc, eventually becoming Harbinger and all doing so while unknowingly pregnant. Everyone assumes it’s Farkas’ considering that her and Farkas as Shield Bros with Benefits™ but Ragnar comes out with red hair (like his father) and blue eyes like Saoirse. Farkas sort of steps up and helps her raise him (And the two accidentally have a son together, whoops) but they aren’t ever more than platonic with some benefits? He respects her for saving himself and his brother and with the two being shield-siblings, he just steps up to help out being a “Father” figure to both kids, despite only being the youngest’s actual father.

If so, how do they feel about their kids?:

Brynjolf, being fond of children anyways, was overwhelmed but happy? I’d imagine he low key knew it might happen before he sent her back to Whiterun, but didn’t invest much in the thought until she showed up a few months later with a red headed baby that had his nose. He loves the little lad and always looks forward to Saoirse bringing him to Riften while she “shops” and asks her “old friend” if he minds watching Ragnar for a bit. Ragnar takes an immediate interest in Bryn, of course and the two are rather close despite the distance. Ragnar even runs off once he’s 17 or so on his own adventure to “find himself” and goes and looks for work in Riften on his mothers’ advice and lands himself as his fathers’ second in command in the guild. 

Best friend:

Ria, for sure, but Athis and Farkas are up there, too. When she’s away from Whiterun, however, she leans more towards Iona and Niruin. Ria is her bestie, though. 

Follower (or followers):

Iona, the Honeyside housecarl. She refuses to stay in the sewers once she goes back to Riften and takes time out of her week to become Thane just so she can by Honeyside. Iona comes with it, of course and the two become bros. Iona is rather protective of Saoirse and if any thieves guild members come to honeyside, she watches them like a hawk and keeps a really close eye on Brynjolf, in particular- almost amusingly so. 

Role models:

She doesn’t have one? As she journey’s, she decides that she wants to be the type of person her younger self could look up to and tries to be her own role model. She thinks it best to better yourself for yourself rather than to be like someone else. Now granted, she’s no hero but she takes her morally light gray, chaotic neutral energy and makes herself the best Saoirse she can be. 

Who else would you say your character gets along with? Or doesn’t?:

She’s not fond of the Black-Briars, Maven in particular. She knows a powerful woman when she sees one and the two often dance around with words whenever they have to talk. 

She really likes the Khajiit Caravans, too. All of them, Khajiits in general, to be honest. She grew up with a caravan and really appreciates the race as a whole. She might even offer to go sale their wares in cities if she has the time and they aren’t camped too far out. 

WOOt let me stop before I ramble anywAYS heres my child and her cheeky eventual husband. Things I learned include: making old people look old is hard and hair graying is hard to color but also LOOK AT THAT BACKGROUND!!! I drew that, I’m so proud ; u ; 

[crqstalite]

video game questionnaire :)

tagged by @greencrusader13 ! might be a little disappointed because anything i’ve posted recently (ME, DA + SWTOR) are the only games I’ve ever played. i know, i’m a gaming baby but i’m getting there lol.

Rules: Fill in your answers below and tag some buddies!

Games

First game you ever played: I want to say World of Warcraft. I was born a few months after it was released [it’ll be 16 before I am :( ] and my parents absolutely loved it throughout my childhood. They stopped playing retail a while back, but they got me into it back during Mists of Pandaria. I don’t play it anymore (no real reason other than that except for one time, I’ve been locked to free to play since I picked it up)

Favorite game: If you mean game I go back to just for the hell of it when I’m sad or bored, SWTOR.

Game you’ve played through multiple times: ...SWTOR. I have quite a few toons that are honestly just copies of each other. It isn’t perfect, but besides WOW it’s a game from my childhood. Been playing since beta (okay ‘playing’ is a rather complex word for wandering around and not knowing what the hell to do at eight years old)

Game you hated at first but now love: I’m usually willing to give most games a chance, even if I don’t like it. See: MEA. Can’t say I love it, but some of the characters I like.

Game you used to love but now hate: Overwatch. I used to be really into the competitive scene but the highest rank I ever managed was bottom of the barrel silver. They make it rather difficult to rise in rank, and I gave up a few years ago. Still play when I need a little bit of chaos in my life but it’s not on my list of games to love anymore.

Your favorite game atmosphere/setting(s): Mass Effect 1. Now saying I’ve been through the whole trilogy and then some, I like the setting of the calm before the storm. Shepard + co. know something’s up, but without real proof they can’t really do anything. It’s a little unnerving, really.

Game with the best group/companion(s): Mass Effect 2. With the largest crew in the trilogy, it’s impossible not to get attached to them. Except for Jacob. I will never be attached to Jacob.

A game with your favorite ending: I might be too hard on games, but I legitimately can not think of an ending where I went ‘wow! I worked really hard for this and my characters prospered because of it!’. Except for ME2, where I was flying by the seat of my pants at first, entirely unaware of how the ending system worked and honestly, probably only managed the best ending because of mutuals (you know who you are ;). Made it all the more satisfying seeing all of my squadmates at the end.

A game with the WORST ending: MEA. I didn’t like the entire game to begin with, and the Meridian stuff honestly flew over my head like a damn jet. I always liked the Tempest’s theme, and that gave me chills over the ending, but it was rather anticlimatic. Unlike the two games before it, there’s really no risk factor in the ending. And Ryder 1 was a poor excuse for a culmination of your work. I did not spend a majority of those 65 hours on that game to not get another cutscene or epilogue with my 100% viability.

Best character customization?: I’ve been told DAI has one of the best. However, I personally like MEA’s, the realism is nice but a little jarring when it’s animated in-game.

Hero and Companions

Your favorite playable character: The Inquisitor and Trooper from SWTOR are my favorite classes to play. Shepard is pretty great too.

The funniest playable character: Currently, the Smuggler from SWTOR.

Your favorite companion(s): Elara Dorne, Andronikos Revel, Doc, Theron Shan, Lana Beniko + Gault (SWTOR), Alistair and Morrigan (DAO; I know, it’s early but they’re fun!), Garrus Vakarian, Kaidan Alenko, Tali’zorah nar Rayya vas Normandy + EDI (ME OT), Vetra, Drack, Jaal + Kallo (MEA)

Companions you could live without: Skadge, Jacob + PeeBee. I would’ve said James, but he grew on me during ME3′s campaign. Liam and Gil are sort of climbing up there, but I can see where MEA tried to grow their characters so I’m giving them a pass for now.

Relationships

Favorite game friendship(s): Shepard + Garrus. Sorry these two snip at each other so much of you let them, and that line ‘There is no Shepard without Vakarian’ kills me every single time. None of my Shepards have actually romanced him but it’s cool to see a female/male friendship that isn’t dependent on a relationship to back it. On that note, Joker + Shepard as well. He doesn’t have that big of place in the game, but he obviously really cares about them. He’s omnipresent in the series too, and one of the few characters that can’t die in the game. Hell, Anderson even asked him to watch over their stress levels, and he was obviously serious about it too. And Tali + Shepard. While that can also be a romance (apparently was even a bi one before it was cut entirely, thank you modders for restoring it), the friendship you can have with her is undeniably sweet. She feels like a completely capable younger sister that you watch grow up through the games, from a young Quarian on her pilgrimage to an Admiral who was ready to do what was right for her people.

Favorite game relationship(s): ...Shepard/Kaidan (ME3, specifically. I mean you guys you’ve seen my blog), Shepard/Garrus, Ryder/Jaal, Ryder/Reyes, F!SW/Theron, F!Consular/Felix, F!Trooper/Aric

Favorite companion banter: ...you guys play games with banter between companions? I kid, but I like the banter between Ashley and Kaidan in ME1. And Morrigan and Alistair’s in DAO.

A relationship you loved but went bad: Malavai Quinn and a female Sith Warrior. I loved the way it was going during the vanilla story, but then the betrayal hit and he disappeared for six years and two expansions. A double whammy if you ask me. This kind of goes for all the vanilla romances, especially Vector for me.

A relationship you weren’t sure of but loved: Jaal and Ryder, and then Thane and Shepard. I did Jaal’s with Fia, and have yet to do Thane’s with Shepard. Jaal was unbelievably sweet if you did romance him, and he has a living family you visit in game. Thane’s is sweet, but also heart wrenchingly sad because you knew he was going to die in the next game but you’re still entirely willing to go after him.

A character you wish you COULD romance: Joker. Sorry, I am not sorry. I mean apparently there’s even a line where he alludes to if there was an alternate universe, he’d quote on quote “Rock your world”. Bioware, lock away the good romances why don’t you. I can just imagine how quickly the conversations in the cockpit would turn on their heads...and Zenith. Zenith I wanted as an option. I feel like the Consular would’ve worked rather well with him.

A minor character you wish could be a companion: Nihlus. I know next to nothing about him, but the fact he was killed off so fast is annoying to say the least. Skavak from SWTOR as well, I know he was an antagonist for a whole chapter, but I mean, we chased Jaesa down for a whole Act, so Skavak should’ve been fair game too.

Fun

Shoutout to a random NPC: Green took mine, but yes, that officer from the Citadel in ME2, “Sir Isaac Newton is the deadliest son of a bitch in space!”

A game you love watching playthroughs for and want to play: Left 4 Dead. I know, it’s an old game but I love zombies. I would probably have nightmares for a while but the universe fascinates me at least.

Love watching playthroughs but won’t ever play: Walking Dead (Telltale; not even for the zombies but because the story telling is not as great as it could’ve been), Dead by Daylight (yet again, the universe is cool, I just don’t like other people)

Online gaming or solo?: Solo. Up until recently I’d only ever played with PUGs during FPs and that was rather frustrating. It got so bad that I ended up just running them to level and do the story quests at higher levels, especially for classes like the Inquisitor that I’d run plenty of times before. Still, some new Discord mutuals fixed that for me, it’s actually fun to do FPs now.

Why do you play video games?: For someone who grew up rather sheltered (and is still sheltered, shhhh), video games were my escape from kids who liked the sun and animals a little too much. So I played video games. It distracted me from my other problems in real life and gave me something else to focus on, like saving the galaxy a few times over.

tagging: @sheyshen , @the-sith-in-the-sky-with-diamond , @roguescarlett