#mass effect andromeda PL

[felassan]

[This recent video] by Mark Darrah on YouTube titled 'How 2017 Changed BioWare 1000 Ways' is worth a watch.

Vid description:

"For me, there have been 4 major moments in BioWare history: BioWare's sale to Elevation Partners, BioWare's sale to EA, Ray and Greg's departure, and 2017."

"Chapters: 0:00 12 Critical Months 0:22 Mass Effect: Andromeda 3:04 BioWare Reports To Someone New 4:35 Dragon Age Support 6:00 Casey Returns 7:10 A Prediction 8:20 A Message To Montreal 11:06 Anthem 12:01 Multiplayer Dragon Age 13:42 The Fallout 15:01 Is This a ME Problem?"

[watchlink]

transcript under cut.

Mark Darrah: "Okay, let’s talk about 2017, which I consider the most impactful twelve months in BioWare’s history. Or at least in recent memory. Actually, I’m lying, I’m gonna back up a little bit and I’m gonna start in late 2016, but I’m gonna stick to twelve months. We’ll just go to the later part of 2017, we won’t go all the way to December. In late 2016 we are reaching the point when Mass Effect: Andromeda is trying to ship. It has been grabbing resources from around BioWare for a while, but in this last push, we reach a decision that is different than anything we have done in BioWare’s history, at least in recent memory. And that is, I actually led this final team that came onto ME:A. If you look in the ME:A credits you’ll see the Dragon Age Finalling Team, DAFT, and I’m on that team. My feeling at the time was, the Dragon Age team was feeling jerked around, they were feeling like we were getting no support from BioWare or from EA, which was basically true, and that by me leading the group onto the project, I could then, when ME:A finished, lead that group as well as the other resources that were supposed to come back to Dragon Age back. That’s not ultimately what ended up happening, and we’ll get into that in a second. But what it was, how it was different, this was the first time where we had this leadership discontinuity where the person in charge of a project left that project to help someone else, some other project, while the project continued to run. In the case of ME:A, I don’t think the impact to Dragon Age was huge, it wasn’t very long. But it did set this precedent as this being a thing that we could do. And it’s not a good thing to do. It is incredibly dangerous to have a project run while it’s missing some of its core leadership. So we move forward, and now ME:A ships, and it doesn’t go well. BioWare had had a pretty good run of games that were pretty well-reviewed, pretty well-received, or if they, like Dragon Age 2, had some challenges, those challenges were easily rationalized away. With ME:A that got shaken. ME:A was shipped in a state that had quality bugs because of relatively small things that subsequently got fixed but really damaged the project at launch."

"In 2016 the part of EA that BioWare reported into changed. We went from, strangely, reporting in through part of the Sports organization, to reporting into someone new, and the result of that was that now, our EA leadership went from being benignly disinterested in us, I would say, not really understanding what we did, and being willing to let us do our best on our own, to someone that was hyper-interested in us, and really wanted to be involved in the day-to-day, in the decision-making, on the project. You can decide for yourself if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. It definitely was a dramatic change in BioWare’s interaction with the rest of the EA organization. One project they weren’t particularly interested in was ME:A, because they had little to gain from the success of ME:A and little to lose from its failure, so I do think one of the reasons why BioWare moved on from ME:A as quickly as it did is because the group that we reported into had very little stake in either the success or the failure of the project, and they had a lot more incentive for BioWare to move onto the next thing, that they could tie themselves to, and show themselves as having influence on the development of. Coming out of ME:A, I was feeling like Dragon Age was still not getting adequate support. We hadn’t gotten the people from Montreal that were supposed to come onto Dragon Age yet. They were still doing stuff with ME:A. And I went to Patrick Söderlund at the time, and said, I don’t feel like I’m getting the support from the organization that Dragon Age deserves. I don’t feel that I’m getting the support from the organization that Dragon Age needs. And from Patrick, as well as from Andrew Wilson, I got lots of assurances that Dragon Age was incredibly important, that we were going to get what we needed, what we wanted. In addition to that, I also got a large amount of stock to try to say, please stay, here are some financial handcuffs, to try to tie you to the organization. Around the same time that I’m getting these assurances from the greater EA org, that Dragon Age is really important, I have a conversation with the person that ran the organization that BioWare used to be a part of. And that interaction basically went like this: ‘I can’t believe you’re still at EA. Dragon Age still isn’t getting people. How can you deal with this?’ And, I guess in retrospect, yeah, that is a really good question."

"In the middle of 2017 Casey Hudson suddenly returns. I say suddenly because I found out that Casey was returning at the same meeting that everyone else at BioWare found out. Because there was worry about leaks, there was a meeting held where both Aaryn Flynn was announced to be leaving and Casey Hudson was announced to come back. And then the press release went out during that meeting. So there was literally zero time between when the people at BioWare knew and when the general public knew. You have to remember, I am the second-most senior person at BioWare. Casey was interviewed, and hired, and prepared to be brought back entirely without me being consulted in any way. Would me having been involved in the process changed the decision? No, I don’t think it would have. But there is an immense amount of disrespect involved in making a hire of this impact, in making a decision of this import, without involving the second-most senior person at your studio in any way. So I actually went from the meeting where it was announced that Casey Hudson was coming back to lead the studio to my desk and sent a couple of emails. And those emails said, essentially, I believe what is going to happen in very short order is that Casey is gonna convince the organization that Anthem needs all-hands on deck. It’s gonna starve Dragon Age out even further, and this goes against what we literally just talked about a few months ago. And the email responses that I got back were, no no no no, Dragon Age is super important, that is not what’s going to happen, we are committed to Dragon Age, we are committed to you leading Dragon Age. And, as we all know, that’s not what happened at all. In very short order, in basically exactly the way that I predicted, Anthem was seen as needing greater support, needing greater leadership support, and myself and some other very senior people, as well as a large percentage of the Dragon Age team, was moved onto Anthem."

"Between Casey returning and the everyone on Anthem, we lose everyone in Montreal. This happens really shortly after Casey returns. Casey’s return was announced on July 18th and the loss of the Montreal staff was August 1st. So it’s only two weeks between the two different events. The people in Montreal had been told some stories. They’d basically been lied to, and told that Dragon Age didn’t want them, and that they were going onto other parts of the EA organization because BioWare couldn’t keep them anymore. And, from my perspective, that is a complete fabrication. When this started to happen, I spent 100% of my time trying to force Dragon Age through one of its gates. And the reason for this is that going through that gate theoretically would have allowed Dragon Age to get much larger, would have allowed Dragon Age to keep those people. Politically I don’t think there was any way that that was going to happen. I, there were very senior people on the ground in Montreal who wanted those people, and proximity is a powerful tool, and I don’t think there was any way I could make the argument to keep those people. But I tried. So if you are someone who’s been mad at me since 2017 because you feel like I abandoned you in Montreal, know that that’s not what happened. Know that I fought with every tool that I knew how to wield to try to keep you. But the organization had no interest in that occurring. Were there backroom deals happening between BioWare and the rest of EA at that time? If there were, I was not involved in them. I was definitely fighting tooth and nail to keep everyone in Montreal on Dragon Age. Because we were ready to start getting bigger. I certainly hope there were no backroom deals. Given the timing, given how early Casey was in his role, it seems unlikely that he was brokering such a deal, and it seems unlikely that Aaryn would have brokered such a deal in his last days. I suppose it’s possible for either of them to have done so, but I think what’s more likely is that leaders on the ground in Montreal were taking advantage of the relative leadership vacuum at BioWare to take those people away. But, like I predicted, that’s not what EA was interested in. What they wanted to see, is they wanted to see Anthem. That perfectly-crafted story that was told back in 2012, 2013, continued to hold immense sway within the organization. And now that Casey was back, it was stronger than ever."

"You can see in this time, my trust in the EA organization is being constantly hammered, constantly challenged. Additionally, in this time period, Mike Laidlaw leaves, because he sees the same things that I see. And while I end up going on Anthem, he sees a lot of frustration in the future for Dragon Age, and he decides that it is better for him to look for opportunities elsewhere. Which is certainly understandable. So part of the excuse for moving people off of Dragon Age was this pivot from a singleplayer game into a multiplayer live service. I believe that a large part of that pivot was done entirely as rationalization, as a reason to make it make sense that we were taking everyone away from Dragon Age. There’s no reason to have all of these people on the project because they are going back to the drawing board, because we are making a live service game now, right? So we can start over again. I wish that had never happened, I wish that pivot had never occurred. But that’s what happened. EA said, make this a live service. We said, we don’t know how to do that, we should basically start the project over. And thus, Joplin became Morrison, and myself as well as other very senior members of the team, moved on to Anthem. And we enter into a second, much longer leadership discontinuity on Dragon Age. Project runs until Anthem ships without its EP, without its senior development director. This ends up causing massive amounts of changes to the project, to the team structure, to the culture. In this time, Dragon Age is pursuing a goal that ultimately it doesn’t want to be pursuing. But it does its best, and in doing its best, it changes the nature of the project in fundamental ways. So as we come to the end of 2017, we are in a state where almost everyone is on Anthem, but Dragon Age, now Dragon Age Morrison, is running without most of its core leadership. And in the process of this change, EA and BioWare have dramatically damaged their relationship with myself, but also with a lot of other more senior members of BioWare, because they’ve said things are going to happen, that didn’t happen, they’ve made assurances that did not come true. As we come out of 2017, BioWare is a different thing. It is focused on making a live service in Anthem, it has lost one of its studios in Montreal being taken away, and now it moves into the future in this new state."

"I talked a fairly long time ago about how EA buys studios and then consumes them and they start to lose their culture into the overall EA culture. To me it feels like 2017 is when EA finished digesting BioWare, which they had bought nine years earlier in 2008. You may be looking to this and saying, I don’t know if I buy your story, I don’t know if I believe that this twelve months is as impactful as you are making it out to be, it sounds more like these things are things that affected you personally. And I think there is truth to that, I think that a lot of these things are things that hurt me, are things that damaged my trust with the organization. I guess the argument I would make against that is simply that, given my position within the organization, damaging the trust, damaging the relationship between the second-most senior person at a studio and that studio is going to have consequences. Special thanks to my members. They provide the resources that this channel needs to keep running. If you’re interested in becoming a member, there’s a link to that down in the description. We also have a Patreon if you are more comfortable supporting the channel in that way. Both Patrons and channel members get access to our Discord, so if you are looking for a way to interact with me and the community to a deeper level, that’s a great way to do it. This may end up being a little more personal than I meant it to be, but I do think that when you step back from BioWare’s history, really far back, there are some major pivot points in BioWare’s history. There’s when BioWare got sold to Elevation Partners. Then there’s when BioWare got sold to EA. There’s when Ray and Greg left, and then there’s this period in 2017. Do you buy that? Let me know down in the comments. I will see you again soon, thank you."

[source]

[vaguely-concerned]

thinking about reyes vidal and the fact that if you turn down his offer of a drink in your first meeting with him, he just shrugs gamely and slams both drinks back himself before talking business. and crucially, magnificently, he still runs off leaving you with the bill at the end. hmngh. I miss him like one would air and sunlight

[crqstalite]

if yalls shepards/ryders went to university before or during alliance service, what did they major in?

(for ref, koda [shep] majored in astrogation studies while talis [ryder] majored in interstellar studies w/ a focus on alien biology)

[arcanapansophical]

i mean fuck bioware and ea and the way they treat their employees but that N7 coat with the collar is SO HOT and i hope whoever designed that will accept a lil universe kiss from me

[heartbreakincident]

M!Ryder/Reyes Vidal Two Andromeda-bound strangers meet for a single night in a dingy bar on Omega and then part, never expecting to see each other again. But that would be too easy, wouldn't it?

---

Oh look I'm publishing a fic. Story is completely finished (~50k words), releasing weekly. Check it out, if you want!

[nevemancer]

[ID: A black silhouetted figure in front of a sunset. Chains and shackles connect their wrists, though they raise them triumphantly as if to break them. Text added reads: "how it feels to go back to your old hyperfixation." End ID]

[brother-genitivi]

bashing my head against the wall rn I need a game to play bc uni has burnt me out and I can't decide which one to so pls... decide for me <3

[novella-writers]

21+ writers, novella (2 discord messages minimum pls).

Looking for some Mass Effect rp's! I finished the original Trilogy and am now on Andromeda! I have several Commander OC's! I also have a Ryder but haven't finished that one yet! I also wrote as Liara T'Soni, Tali, Jack, and practically any female from the original Trilogy. I also have several OC's outside of a Commander role. I require a writing sample!

Pairings I'm looking for include:

Fem!shep x Liara

Fem!shep x Tali

Fem!shep x Jack

Fem!shep x Miranda

Fem!shep x Samara

Fem!shep x Morinth

OC x OC

I had an idea of bringing in the concept of Andromeda where we are looking for habitable planets, etc and mashing it with maybe some Halo or Star Trek or Alien vs Predator characters and lore. Even just their species concepts!

Like/message if interested!

[wooriid]

Heya! I am curious- you have any other OCs in any other fandoms you want to share? Lilith is sweet so I was wondering!

Thanks!

Hello there!

first of all thanks for the question - and I am happy that you seem to like Lilith <3 Well, I have a few 😂 I won't give you all of them and if you wanna know something specific about the one or other just ask :) I am guessing the question mainly aims for their looks ^^

My very first and still very beloved ones were for Bioware games - Mass Effect and Dragon Age in particular. So meet Blue Shepard and Numin Lavellan ^^

I dearly love these characters and both series will be among my favourite of all time. The Normandy and Skyhold will forever mean HOME for me. I really am one of these epersons who also enjoyed ME Andromeda and I also have an OC there - but she simply isn't as dear to me as the two above (sme goes for DA 1 and 2)

I have quite a few Star Wars characters (in fact I have a legacy - generations constructed from the old republic until the new republic - I even have a Clone OC ^^) but since it would be too much for this post I give you Iego - one of the dearest OCs I have ever created, my little Sith monster of whom I am really proud of. A LOT. (to this point one might see that I have a thing for color coding. Iego is like Lilith an albino. Most of my chars are color coded white or black.... I simply cannot change my taste xD)

I love this Nautolan Bitch way too much - he has a freaking great playlist and he is the OC to whom I turn quite regularly to to be honest. For years now. He is pretty different from the rest of my squad and is pure fun to play with. The only one of my dorks who has a whole homepage btw. I have so much fun writing him - even quoting him. He also might have the greatest backstory in my opinion.

The newest additions to the flock are my Baldur's Gate chars - Ares Lucien Brouillard and Eloise Moisissure - him being an Oathbreaker Paladin worshipping Myrkul, her being a Druid of the Spore. I have a Necromancer thing in DnD without ever playing a true Necromancer and I am a sucker for Myrkul and mushrooms - so there we go. Do not get me started on the color coding again xD! By the way - Eloise was at first created with the thought of "what would Lilith play in Baldurs Gate" and I simply loved her way too much and she and Ares shared a story very quickly ^^

Last but not least - I am into MMORPGs for about nearly 20 years now, so I guess you can say my oldest OC by my side for all these years is my WoW character Phyrok:

The second MMORP in my life is TESO and here I have a Khajiit skooma dealer as main - and a sweet little Dark elf guy with the longest name in forever :P

There are more - as I guess we all have way too many of these beloved characters, but these are the ones dearest to me. I guess you might say they are family ;)

Thanks again for the interest and sorry for the long post xD If anyone wants to share their OCs as well (or you want) pls feel free (also to tag me so that I do not oversee it) <3 It is always a joy to see the OCS of others from the different fandoms <3 (or even the very same)

[felassan]

Mark Darrah video: 'Dragon Age: The Veilguard Has Shipped. Now What?? #/masseffect'

Video description:

"Dragon Age: The Veilguard has shipped. What happens at BioWare now? BioWare structurally finds itself in uncharted territory as it only has a single Project (Mass Effect) active. Chapters: 0:00 Veilguard is out, now what? 0:22 BioWare Structure and History 1:57 Growth 4:45 Consumption 6:28 Sustain 7:27 Contraction 11:14 Leadership Discontinuity 1 12:48 Leadership Discontinuity 2 14:14 One Project At A Time 16:33 Mass Effect 18:50 Will The People Be There? 22:18 FOCUS"

[source]

Key notes from the vid and the comments underneath:

"Up front I should say that I have every confidence that Mass Effect [5] is in fact being worked on and that that project is going to receive all of the support from EA that it might need."

Slowly and painfully BioWare is figuring out that it simply can't do more than one project at a time anymore. It's now a single-project studio. Mark Darrah expects that both Edmonton and Austin will be working on ME5 together

ME5 effectively paused production for 15 months in order to help DA:TV ship

Right now other than some DA:TV clean up/final patches, everyone at BW is working on ME5

However ME5 isn't yet ready to suddenly have a team of 250-300 people working on it, so while some DA:TV devs moved onto it, some DA:TV devs were moved to/are moving to other parts of EA instead. The ME5 team started, but there is a long way between "start" and "ready to scale" up

The ME5 team is figuring out what ME5 is going to be & its structure, then will get ready to ramp up to a much bigger team size

"BW, for the first time really ever, is able to singularly focus on a single project, is able to put everything it has towards a single goal, which is making the best ME it possibly can."

But it remains to be seen whether BW will be able to get its people back when it needs them and is ready for them. There are a few reasons why this might prove difficult. Alternatively, on the flipside, this degree of focus might be exactly what BW needs to move it into the next phase of its life. "Maybe EA is going to prove to be incredibly effective at moving people around and when ME5 looks to start to grow maybe there will be no troubles".

We will probably have hints of what's going on [with ME5] within the next two years. "I have high hopes for ME. I think that once they figure out staffing, BW being focused on one game at a time is probably great for the studio" (though there may be growing pains to get there)

Does Mark Darrah foresee similar issues in the ME5 dev cycle to what DA:TV had? No, because ME5 hasn't had the same two big directional shifts, and it has had no leadership discontinuity (ME5 paused when they went to help DA:TV i.e. it didn't continue without a leader). But we should only really start counting ME5's dev cycle from today. "It really hasn't been that long with a significant team"

The ME5 teases in recent N7 Days were made by a "very small team"

There are still lots of veterans at BW

Mark Darrah doesn't expect to be involved in what BW makes next

More under cut due to length.

BW has existed in different ways/structures through its history. We're currently entering into an "unprecedented time" for BW

The purchase of BW by Elevation Partners, the purchase of BW by EA, when Ray Muzyka & Greg Zeschuk left BW, and the year 2017 in general are the 4 most important events (not including shipping games) that Mark Darrah feels have affected BW the most in its history

BW's strategy over time could be seen as having had 4 different phases: grow, consume, sustain, contract. In the contract phase, though BW maybe didn't realize it yet, the number of projects it was capable of running simultaneously was decreasing slowly/gradually. Why? Projects were getting more expensive, requiring more people/resources/time, and by this point BW had essentially burned off all its 'reserves' from the growth phase i.e. there was no longer any fat left to burn off

After DA:I shipped, Mark Darrah experienced that it was very difficult to find resources if your project wasn't the next project that was due out the door

DLC is a safety valve for processes and staff; a place for devs to work when other projects aren't quite ready for them yet; a place for the next gen of leaders to be grown. These things disappear as DLC does. Mark Darrah is pretty sure that the move away from DLC is coming from EA

In the contract phase, in 2013-14 Anthem was starved out by DA & ME:A. ME:A was also somewhat starved out by DA. Then when ME:A was in the driver's seat, it consumed most of the resources

In late 2016/early 2017 during the push to ship ME:A, as part of that BW began to experience leadership discontinuity. As the DA leader, Mark Darrah led a team of DA people onto ME:A to help it ship (the Dragon Age Finaling Team) for a few months. this sort of thing had happened at BW before but this was the first time when senior leadership moved off the projects they led to do this. this caused a change in philosophy in terms of the way that projects were run

When ME:A shipped and Casey Hudson came back to lead BW, there was then a much much larger leadership discontinuity with Anthem. The Montreal studio was supposed to move over onto Joplin to help kickstart it but it ended up getting taken away and given to the leadership in Montreal. but even if this had happened as it was supposed to, BW may not have been able to be in a place where it was going to be able to ship Anthem and Joplin simultaneously

Three quarters of the senior leadership on Joplin moved to Anthem or left BW. DA continued and became Morrison. The discontinuity had massive consequences for DA4

In 2021/22, this happened again in the opposite direction. The leadership team moved onto DA to help it ship, though rather than leaving some of the team in place, everyone moved. The other project (next Mass Effect) effectively ceased to exist for 15 months in order to help DA4 ship. In 2023 for the first time since 1995 BW was only working on 1 project (DA:TV) & there was nobody working on ME5 or remasters or side projects at that time. Now that DA:TV has shipped, apart from some people on cleanup and final patches, there is no plans for DA:TV DLC and "there is only Mass Effect". "Everyone at BW will be working on Mass Effect."

DA:TV being a 'direct sequel' would have been an unlikely path

With BW now focusing on a single project, Mark Darrah does worry that EA will get "itchy"

It'll be a [long] while to DA5 [hypothetically speaking, if it gets made]

MELE involved a lot of external devs

Shadow Realms was BioWare Austin and was due to: "partially places for people, partially a desire for Austin to get something new."

Mark Darrah expects that the devs are hearing everything being said about DA:TV

BW focuses more on consoles because of sales numbers

Unreal Engine 5 (which ME5 is on) is moving onto other EA projects as well, which may help

There are reasons why DA:TV is the way it is

BW has had external consultants on leadership and structure over the years

Mark Darrah expects that the next Dragon Age will once again be pretty different to the last iteration

BW Austin were brought in to help make Anthem. "What didn't happen (that should have) is that they should have had more directional control over the live service direction."

BW has had difficulty learning from previous games because at least one title was too far along TO learn. but a single game leads to staffing issues

Mark Darrah pitched a dev structure back in 2016/17 which would have had "3 fast follow games then a period of retooling"

EA doesn't really sell IPs

Chance of DA:TV DLC? "That's an EA question. And I expect EA's answer to be no". "I don't think we will see DLC. A new DA would be in the future."

"DA has been looking for larger audiences in every iteration. EA has never understood the franchise"

Remake DA:O or ME1? "While I think it would do well, I don't expect it to happen at any time soon. Also the skillsets required don't really over lap"

"The 3 previous games DAVe was are leaking through in places"

Diagram from the video which shows the flow of people throughout BW's history, made by a member of Mark Darrah's community.

[source]

[vaguely-concerned]

I can't believe I have 100%ed mass effect andromeda multiple times and it just hit me that the jardaan are named that b/c. y'know. jardin. garden. because they're gardeners of life/their whole deal was to create the we are as space gods slash mad scientists sci-fi equivalent of the garden of eden. I may be a bit slow on the uptake in some ways

[crqstalite]

[1] so much (for) stardust —

I feel like something bad has stretched out over and over again Until I'm creased and I'm about to break down the middle Split me right down the middle, right, right down the middle, yeah

In the aftermath of Meridian and the fight against the Archon, the crew of the Tempest finds their footing in Andromeda. Being pathfinder never came with a manual, but with six races depending on the young Talis Ryder to find them all a home, she wishes for one more every day. Not to mention trying to keep them from being at each others throats, a whirlwind romance, a brother who's turning out to be more trouble than he's worth and a plot against the Nexus, something's got to give.

And Talis is afraid it might be her.

A collection of stories about Pathfinder Ryder as she discovers herself and the cluster amid the political upheaval of an adolescent galaxy.

[set post-mass effect andromeda.] [female ryder/jaal ama darav, male ryder/cora harper]

chapter specific warnings: vomit mention, general sickness. whump.

-

February 25th, 2821 [1 year and 11 months since arrival to Andromeda] - Nexus Wards.

Logs: Mateo Sirius Ryder-Lucero

Mateo has thought about how this conversation would go at least three or four times since he left the Nexus nursery center, and it’s weighing him down more and more the closer he gets to Talis’ apartment. He only really has so many options and so far, the lint in his pockets and the hair product sticking to his fingers do not hold the answers that he needs. She’s pissed at him (rightfully so), as far as he knows, still hasn’t spoken to Cora after she overrode her order back on Voeld (arguably rightfully so), and the lack of having emotional stability through Jaal being gone had everyone on the Tempest walking on eggshells.

(He cannot wait for his future brother-in-law to get back. The sooner he can either get to her or get her to visit Lexi for a psych eval, the sooner everyone would be happy -- Talis included)

Whether he disagreed with her or not (he did) right now he needed to apologize. Just so he didn’t make everything worse than it already was. So after he'd dropped Ahri off with one of the attendants, he'd quickly made the trek out to the Nexus Presidium, considering both exactly what he was apologizing for (probably for insubordination and generally being a bit of a dick), and considering how she'd respond (probably not well). Little fires everywhere that he'd been ignoring for too long, too quick to get off of med-watch to realize his sister was drowning in responsibilities she wasn’t prepared for. Almost two years out from when they'd arrived in Andromeda, and regardless of her titles, Talis was still only twenty four. Same as him. Neither of them with any major 'leading' experience (they'd both held jobs on the Citadel like any other teenager, but. Well. False equivalent), and neither of them had done anything like this. The only other Pathfinder that had the necessary experience to be leading anyone was Raeka (he thinks that was her name), but everyone turned to his sister for help.

Talis only had so much help to give. Only had so much advice lying around before she was forced to say she didn't know, and if there was one thing his incredibly driven sister was horrible at, it was saying she didn't know how to do something.

Her newly discovered short fuse however was likely the direct consequence of this. He remains unsurprised, but her blowing up at him after the Tempest had rescued him from Voeld was new. And he wasn't exactly sure if he liked this new side of her. He was glad she wasn't as shy anymore, probably a good trait to shed as a Pathfinder, but perhaps he was just a smidge afraid of her now.

He probably hadn’t helped adding to her mounds of problems and causing her a shitton of stress on top of it. Who knew most people didn’t enjoy high stakes rescue missions in the middle of blizzards to find their twin brother when he wasn’t ever supposed to leave the station?

(According to Cora, most people knew this already. Go figure.)

When he buzzes the door to her apartment, she doesn’t answer immediately. Unusual for her, she usually came to the door as soon as she was able or would buzz him in at least. Frosty then. Ok. He could work with frosty.

(He should've brought food -- his mother would hit him upside the head with a sandal if she were awake.)

He rocks back and forth on his heels, considering whether he should come back later. She could still be in her meeting with Kandros and Addison from earlier, God knew those usually ran long. But he didn't really want to run all the way back to operations, and he imagines he'd look horribly pathetic waiting for her outside her apartment door like a lost puppy.

Which...is a weird way to refer to himself. Still the mental image works, but if he has to play the part of pathetic younger brother to get back on her good side, then so be it. He wasn't exactly above it at least.

He waits a few more minutes, checking the time, shoving his hands into his jacket pocket. He reaches the end of his hoodie string into his mouth, typing off a message to his sister before his SAM implant buzzes to life in his ear.

“SAM?” He asks around the endcap, “Where’s Talis?”

"Talis' implant has been dysfunctional for some time now. I have been primarily focused upon keeping her both conscious and stable. While my systems did not go dark, I am in a brief moment of human 'clarity'."

"What?" Mateo chews on the fabric, heart stopping and starting again as he processes the information, "Why would her implant be in the fritz? I mean, I know she took a hit or two on Voeld, but --"

"Mateo, we do not have long," SAM continues, and while he's incapable of changing his tone of voice, Mateo does not like the way he's enunciating his words, "Talis has been made gravely ill. Her interior systems are deteriorating as we speak."

"What?" Mateo asks again, this time spitting out the hoodie string, "Injured? Shit, SAM where is she?"

The door slides open before him and he rushes inside. He does a sweeping glance of the apartment, the kitchen empty and almost barren, her bedroom empty with only a few scattered pieces of clothing to even clue him in she may be home somewhere. Not in the bathroom, though the medicine cabinet is strewn open, with a bottle of painkillers left uncapped on the counter. A bucket lies on it’s side on the tile, water spilling out of it. Considering it hasn't dried yet, this was still recent.

His heart is racing as he doubles back, scanning the ground. Tile, tile, tile. He's beginning to hyperventilate almost, calling her name a few times. She doesn't answer, and he runs around a corner into her office fast enough to smack his hand against it. No one. Then he darts into the living room, catching a glimpse of the dirty blonde hair of his sister laid out in the middle, curled in on herself.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit..." Mateo mutters under his breath, pushing the coffee table out of the way, dropping to his knees to roll her over, carefully cradling her in an arm, "SAM--?"

"I have briefly relinquished control of her bodily systems to make contact with yourself and Dr. T'Perro. Most of my primary attention has been diverted onto keeping away the worst symptoms, but her illness is progressing faster than I can keep up," SAM answers in his ear, "She needs help, Mateo."

"I...I can see that, SAM," He says. Okay, as much as he’s panicking right now, he has to do a rudimentary status report. Talis is burning up beneath his fingers, barely clothed in a damp Initiative tank top that clings to her skin and shorts that are stained with what he thinks is vomit. He really hopes the few red stains are old as he brushes the hair that sticks to her face out of the way. She's flushed and somehow shivering under his touch, breathing labored. Her eyes flutter open for a moment, auburn orbs unfocused and glassy. She's not all there, and doesn't answer for a moment if she does recognize he’s here, head lolling to the side into Mateo's abdomen, "Tali, can you hear me? Sis, what happened? Are you okay--?"

She squints her eyes closed again against the light of the Nexus’ day cycle, voice crackling and rough, "Dad?"

Mateo's blood runs cold at that, and his voice creeps up an octave, "SAM, what's her base temp?"

"Her temperature spiked to almost 40 Celsius this morning, though I am working to lower it," SAM reports, "Hallucinations and confusion are not uncommon with fevers this high and consistent."

"Yeah...yeah that definitely sounds about right," Mateo squeaks out, glancing around for water, her freezer, whatever he thinks might cool her down, "What happened SAM? She seemed fine a couple days ago and now she just collapses middle of the day?"

"I am recognizing it as a toxin, though I am unsure of what origin, but it has damaged my reach over her physiological systems. With that, it has begun poisoning her, targeting organs and threatening to shut them down. Regardless, it seems the more I try to take back my control, the more I am pushed out. A virus perhaps, created specifically to target me and fatally wound the pathfinder."

"That--I don't...when did it even happen?"

"I am unsure. I can trace when symptoms began in earnest to about two days ago, but I could not pinpoint when exactly she became ill. Originally her symptoms seemed to have pointed to the common cold or influenza, but as they continued to worsen and become more severe, this became less of the case. If this virus is capable of shutting down the parts of her body I can control, then her body likely will end up in shock without my major involvement.”

Mateo’s head is spinning, and he barely understands what SAM is spitting back at him. He’s not a doctor, never has been, but he does understand that his twin is on the wrong side of ill. Poisoned, he can’t even begin to wrap his head around that one. Four days ago they’d been on Voeld, when the Tempest had come to rescue him. They’d only spent minimal time in one of of the raider camps, convinced they were friendly (or at least neutral) at the time. But…

Talis has been the only person he hadn’t had an eye on the whole time they were there in the ice shelf. But then again, they’d been taking care of something on Kadara prior to that. Elaaden even before that. All places that’d make sense if they’d hurt her with the concentration of exiles and possibly left over Roekaar. He has more than enough questions about that, but he can go over those concerns with Lexi when she gets here. If she gets here in time. He gently lays her back down to scuttle to his feet and rustle through her freezer for ice or water, fingers stinging against the cold shock and pulse throbbing in between his ribs, “SAM, ideas? When’s Lexi going to get here?”

“ETA 12 minutes, she is bringing a small emergency team with her,” He answers, “It is not advised to cool her down too fast, Mateo.”

“I know, I know,” He says. SAM’s right, he needed to cool her down but not shock her. He'd do more damage that way, and the last thing he needed was to put her in any more pain than she already was in. He learned that much in basic. He drops the ice in favor for a cold water bottle, shutting the fridge and quickly walking back to the living room, “Other ideas then? Did she take anything for it before this happened?”

“She had been lucid up until an hour ago. I requested she take a form of acetaminophen for both her fever and bodily aches, she said she would soon. Unfortunately, her fever spiked and she began vomiting again soon after — she had been laying here for almost fifteen minutes before you arrived. I had contacted Dr. T’Perro, you were already on your way,” SAM says. That answered why the pills were on the counter abandoned, and Mateo’s starting to put together a rough chain of events, “I have running theories upon what may be ailing her, but symptoms are not consistent to what I have already been aware of. I have concerns it may be Andromedan in origin or perhaps entirely synthetic.”

Mateo tilts her head up enough to laying against his shoulder when he kneels down again. She groans as he parts her lips, sitting her up to be careful to keep her from choking on the water he’d found, “Is it contagious?”

“The crew aboard the Tempest reports no symptoms, alien and human alike. While I am not directly patched into you, I have not detected any of the same symptoms or changes within you. No reports of endemic level infections on any of the planets she had visited in the past week either. This was likely deliberate, and targeted. Considering the pathfinder’s more recent activities on Kadara, her immune system was already compromised. If I did not still have some extensive control over her and was actively suppressing the worst of this ailment, she would likely already be—“

“Okay, thanks SAM, but I really don’t want to think about that right now,” Mateo cuts off the AI before he can even mention the idea of Talis being dead or dying. Three times was enough in his opinion, and he wasn’t around for those times, but he’d rather not be around for the fourth. Mateo refused to admit to being scared of a lot of things, but losing his sister again was definitely one of them.

Talis is at least capable of sipping down a few gulps of water before beginning to cough. And with her coughing comes her retching onto the rug beneath them after turning her head away from him. Barely a glance and he can tell its tinged just enough with red and bile that whatever she’s working with is doing far too much for him to fix on his own right now. He considers going back to her medicine cabinet for an antiemetic, but then again he’s not sure if he’d do more damage that way.

Goddamn it, he was never sure about these things and right now, he really wished he was, “Have you called Jaal yet?”

“Jaal is still out of contact, though I have pushed a message through to his omni tool. Likely he is still on his mission and will be unavailable for some time.”

“Great. That’s just great.” Mateo responds sarcastically, biting down on his lip. He really needed someone who was more resourceful here.

He hates feeling powerless, unable to diagnose and unable to help. He can clean later but right now he holds his sister close as she still mumbles for their father. He wishes someone else was here to tell him what to do, someone tangible. Someone like Suvi might know what plant or whatever might’ve caused this, someone like Cora would have some sort of plan in place already, but Mateo doesn’t know anything. Even Jaal might've been better, it might give some comfort to his sister knowing her partner was at her side.

But no, he was gone for a few more days on a Resistance operation.

He’s been out of the outpatient medcenter for maybe two months at this point and arguably, he’s already been tossed headfirst into the fire. He was barely a private by the time they left Andromeda, and his inexperience is shining like a badge as he leans the cool bottle against Talis’s forehead. She leans into his touch, not unlike a child, and whimpers. He needed someone else here, literally anyone else who might know what his next move should be. Even Talis would likely know what to do, and she was the one who was currently out of commission.

(Oh why didn’t he just go into biotech like his mom wanted him to?)

“Please, please, please, just stay awake Tali,” Mateo begs, moving the water bottle back to her neck when her eyes shut for a moment. That seems to bring some more coherency back to her briefly as she relaxes back into the cool comfort of it, though her eyes are threatening to flutter back closed, “C’mon Tali, at least stay awake until Lexi can get here.”

“Mm, Dad, I’m — still here. Don’ go.” Talis’ voice is small and weak, weaker than he’d heard her in years, “Don’ leave me.”

“I’m not going anywhere, I promise.” Mateo answers back. To some extent, he’s curious what she’s seeing, what she’s thinking about. But the other part of him that’s terribly superstitious at times does not like what it implies, "I'm here, I'm here, I'm here."

Lexi arrives sometime later, he isn't sure how much later, the door to the apartment sliding open and Mateo jerking himself and Talis by accident, the latter of whom retches again onto the rug. Lexi’s not alone at least, with two others who carry a stretcher behind them. Her expression is already grim, brow bones furrowed and a deep frown across her face. She kneels down next to the pair, Mateo instinctively holding her closer.

“SAM already filled me in on my way here. We’ll take her to the Garson Memorial facility and contact some of our Angaran ambassadors — her scans don’t make me believe that whatever she ingested was Milky Way made,” The Asari confirms, waving her own scanner over Talis while a human and Turian come around his right, "Talis, can you hear me?"

When she doesn't immediately, instead squeezing her eyes shut against the light of Lexi's scanner, Lexi sighs. The Turian picks up the coffee table and discards it into the kitchen, while the human lays down the stretcher in it’s place. Mateo freezes in place, unsure of what to do next while so much goes on around him. A beam extends from the side of the bed, the human EMT quick to prepare what he thinks is an IV to hook up to Talis. Mateo hesitates to let go of his sister, in his right mind he knows they’re here to help and knows she’ll be fine but the last time he let her out of his sight…

So much has gone wrong. And he wasn't there for any of it to help. And he's about to be again if they take her away.

“Iz that—mom?” Talis warbles, her head turned towards Lexi. Her distress is more evident now, every wheezing breath she takes accompanied with the quivering that’s beginning to shake them both is scaring him more and more. Now that she can’t even differentiate between the ship’s doctor and their own mother, can’t differentiate between himself and their father, he just wants to know what’s happening. Wants SAM to shut her down again and just reboot her good as new, as much as that’s a pipe dream and would just as likely kill her outright, “Mom?”

“Mateo,” Lexi’s voice snaps him out of his panic, her cerulean eyes pinned on him. She seems to ignore Talis calling for her, though her stern look is starting to bleed into concern, “We’ll stabilize her and keep you updated on her condition, but we need to go now if we have any intention of getting her to the med center before she gets any worse.”

He allows himself one more second, cupping the side of her face with his free hand before relinquishing his grasp on his twin. The EMTs are as careful as they can be with her, the IV inserted and a monitor with her vitals appearing on her side when they attach it to her. The rest of the time that Lexi and her team are there blur into mush, as they ask questions and roll her back out of the apartment. Mateo does his best to answer with SAM filling in a lot of the major gaps, and makes a mental note to do his best on cleaning whenever he gets back, make sure to take care of what he can.

He walks alongside them as their brisk pace, an ambulance waiting for them and a small crowd beginning to form in the complex hallway. She’s rolled into the back of the skytruck, and one of the EMTs offers him a hand to pull him up. He takes it, hands shaking as he sits to her right.

Lexi is quick and efficient, attaching monitor after monitor to her. SAM assists her, rattling off reports. The sound of the EKG is what he thinks will haunt him after this, though. Talis had told him once that her prior two deaths were quick, like moments of being unconscious. She couldn't tell that she'd died, that she was dying. SAM had only given her a brief warning beforehand the second time, the third was quick and unable to have been predicted. The first, the first had been what had startled him most when she recounted it to him, her legs pulled up to her chest and almost at a whisper when he'd asked in the medbay.

She had been panicking. Had been terrified out of her mind.

Once the heart monitor is attached, the rapid and erratic beeping fills the back of the truck. Lexi glances at it, knitting her brows and quickly administering more medication after that discovery. He can't quite swallow around the lump in his throat, wondering if she's panicking now in her own mind. Wondering if she was, alone in her apartment and barely able to breathe. Likely hunched over a bucket, incapable of deciphering which was up or down or even who was right in front of her?

Why hadn't she called him? Texted him that she wasn't feeling well?He would've come running, even though he knows that thinking about this now wouldn't change the past. He knows the real answer, and doesn't like it much. Wish Talis stopped believing it.

Only SAM had known about this, and likely Talis had sworn him to some degree of secrecy. Mateo knew better than anyone Talis hated having people worry about her.

"God, you gotta stop doing this, Tali," Mateo whispers, throat scratchy and eyes burning, taking hold of her hand in between two of his own. Lexi diverts her eyes, carefully attaching an oxygen mask to her, "Gotta stop scaring me, gotta stop pulling the shittiest parlor tricks."

She doesn't acknowledge what he says, but her eyes are still open. Still flickering around the truck. They land on him briefly, lidded and dark, but at least he can live with the peace she's alive. She's still alive. And for all it's worth, will stay alive.

Because God knows he doesn't know what he'd do without her.

-

Rewinding...

[2] October 2nd, 2820

Logs: Talis Meissa Ryder-Lucero (Ark Hyperion Pathfinder)

[not-a-newt]

Pls. Would you ever write a fix-it for Calix 🥺

Spoilers for Mass effect andromeda & nexus uprising below v

I spent a lot of time thinking about how I would un-gank calix and I think I've settled on the hc that he DID get shot in the head BUT didn't die and was left in critical condition (bonus points for sloane still thinking he'd been killed?) then was consequently shoved back into cryo because 1) They didn't have the resources to fully treat a serious neurological injury like that and 2) they didn't have the judicial/penitentiary resources to handle that serious of a criminal even if they did manage to get him patched up — because you cant, you know, exile someone who's unconscious?

Then, AFTER the events of the game (where Sloane may or may not survive depending on how angsty I'm feeling?), paragon Ryder pushes for exiles to be universally pardoned for crimes they committed in the name of survival (theft, insurgence, etc.) but not "actual" crimes (homicide, cannibalism, nonconsensual and inhumane sapient experimentation, sabatoging life support operations, etc.)

Whereupon Calix gets revived, gets treatment, begins a regimen of intense, morale-breaking physical therapy, and is then given some kind of house arrest/indentured servitude punishment ft. major angst and dissociation from getting knocked unconscious during the middle of an explosive, blood-drenched rebellion, then waking up to a new utopia where everything is suddenly clean and perfect again but (MAYBE) finding that the one person who had his back and who he was maybe starting to feel a deeper (more than platonic?) connection to is dead? Or maybe she isn't dead, but she's changed? Maybe she went pirate and was complicit in the deaths of countless innocent civilians on Kadara and had becomes warped into something unrecognizable to him, fueling the disconnect between his already broken mind and the reality around him?? Ouch!

"And—oh, by the way, while you were out, we successfully waged war against a highly intelligent, yet genocidal race of aliens that we just happened to run into out here, plus we discovered and conquered this ancient, more-advanced-than-prothean technology to terraform all of those world's that were supposed to be garden paradises that turned out to be desolately uninhabitable, so they actually are habitable again... also here are the angara, they're our buddies :) "

I don't know if I would ever get around to actually writing this... but that's the way it exists in my head. It's not so much saving calix, but rather forcing him live so that he can suffer longer because I like to play with my blorbos like someone who uses the sims to design prisons <3

[do-i-love-jaal-today]

Can we please have more mermaid ryder hc please!!!!!!

From this ask! Not gonna lie, I’m still not sure what more I can offer...but I will try!

After befriending you, one of Jaal’s favorite topics is cultural exchange. Learning new things- studying in general- is openly one of his favorite things to do, and getting to do so with you is deeply enjoyable for him! (He deeply hopes you enjoy knowing of his culture, too.)

He’s full of questions, but you rarely get tired of it. Even when you do, he’s more than happy to stop and give you some space... If not first seeing if he could help ease your stresses any!

...Jaal may also try to ask permission to watch you sleep. Yes, even at friendship stage/before dating. It’s a weird request, but he’s as honest as ever...and better to ask than not?

Honestly, it’s kinda why he’s so likeable; it’s hard to not be fond of the guy who will bluntly ask any question, with the open understanding he’ll listen and back off if you’re uncomfortable.

However, if you let him watch you fall asleep (whether you can sleep with him knowingly watching or ask him to mull around elsewhere for an hour, then come back), just... Prepare for more questions.

...Which turns into him helping you be better situated for sleeping?! Depending on your preferences, Jaal puts a sudden, large amount of work to ensure you will get the best sleep possible.

If plants help you feel safe, he offers plants from Aya and extra samples from Voeld. He is...unsure when you may be able to travel- or if you can at all- and wishes to further incorporate you into his life. (This is, essentially, the start of his courting phase.)

Each plant is carefully vetoed; ensuring it won’t change your tank’s structure too much and continue to keep you healthy. (There’s definitely at LEAST one plant that does it better than any from Earth, leading to those on the Initiative to work their asses off to adjust your tank around this better specimen.)

He also brings in potted plants. You’re in awe of their glorious coloration...! Some of them even glow!!!

If you have water-safe cloth, he may try to hand off the cloth to his mother, requesting she aid him in making a rofjinn for you.

Nude or jewelry only? He, as always, works with that; expect many new pieces, both as courting gifts and random expressions of his love. Hair pieces were the trickiest to figure out, but Ryder, the other humans, and even Vetra helped out.

Sahuna can’t quite visit at the moment...but she’s absolutely in love with you. She pesters Jaal and Ryder for every crumb of information she doesn’t yet have. (It makes him laugh, if also terribly shy at his mother’s excitement.)

Other angara also tend to stop by to visit, since you’ve got Jaal Ama Darav so starstruck! Some are...a little hurtful with their honesty (“I don’t see what the deal is, really,” one mused out loud), but others are fun and sweet! You try to keep the latter in mind, more.

...This is partially because you made the sincere mistake telling Jaal about one such comment. He proceeded to straighten up, a serious look in his eyes, and asked for details of this angaran. Realizing he was about to fight the mf who talked shit, you had to hurry and cover for a random person’s ass. Less Jaal throw hands about it.

(Alas, he probably did find that angaran while mulling about the Nexus. Hands were indeed thrown. A funny problem to have, all in all...and the realization angaran relations would need extra work, going forward.)

[trisexyual]

ah yes. the three Mass Effect games: one, two, and thr *looks at scribbled out hand* the Citadel

[maudus1]

Ryder then: I don't have time for romance, too many people rely on me and the mission must come first. Besides, I'm not intere-

Ryder now: Well, shit.