#mass effect engineer

[roguesscribbles]

Sorry I've been so dead recently! I've got a little project going on that's taking up my art time. Hoping to unveil it soon!

In the meantime, here's my new OC! I made her for a Mass Effect DnD group I'm joining! Her name is Raina Akiyama, she's a human engineer that abandoned her smothering military life to explore the galaxy, settling on Illium following the Reaper invasion.

You can read the full backstory under the cut:

Raina Akiyama was always destined to join the Alliance Military. From the day she was born on an Alliance ship to two parents with a decent military ranking, she spent the majority of her formative years on various Alliance ships or bases following wherever her parents were stationed.

At the time, she could count how many times she has been to Earth on one hand. Her father was from Japan and her mother was from Britain, so she had been to visit family members that she doesn’t remember the faces of. Her upbringing was lonely at times, her parents were busy working and other children were not that common. However, with the absence of people, she found her love in the mechanical instead.

She could always be found tinkering away at some piece of tech she found, sneaking into the engine room to look at the inner workings or pelting the engineers with all sorts of questions. And the Alliance were happy to support these dreams of hers, educating and pushing her towards a career as an Engineer.

There was just one problem, Raina didn’t like the way the Alliance ran things. She was never a fan of the authority, of the training exercises and the expectation to give it everything she had, with instructors and crew members who were always a bit too strict with a child, most likely already seeing the soldier she would become. She always felt trapped, forced into enlisting, because where else would she go? She was raised here, with a line of family all expecting her to join as the next generation as they once did, and she knew very little of the habited planets that dotted the galaxy.

Eventually, when she turned 18, she enlisted officially as an Engineer, continuing her training and enhancing her skills. If there’s one good thing she can say, it’s that the Alliance provided her with almost unlimited funding to tinker with whatever gadgets were put in front of her. She became intimately familiar with both the massive hardware of the Alliance vessels to the weapons and armour the troops relied on. She never fully felt like she belonged, but she could at least surround herself with the things she loved.

Things changed about 2 years later. She was stationed on a small base with an equally small squadron. Something that was meant to be safe, somewhere to train her and other recruits. For the first time in her life she felt like she had friends, people she could rely on and actually talk to, who had her back. Things finally started to fall into place, and she started to feel that yearned-for feeling of belonging.

Then, the raid happened.

A group of bandits attacked the base in the night, where there was minimal activity. They wanted the equipment that they had in storage. It wasn’t even very much, they most likely saw them as easy pickings, and they weren’t entirely wrong. Almost all of her squad was killed in the incident, though in the end Raina’s squad managed to barely win. During the scuffle, a confrontation with one of the assailants left her scarred after they slashed her face with an omni-blade. When she came to in the medical wing of an Alliance vessel, she found herself blind in her left eye.

Her entire world came crashing down. Almost all her friends were dead, that belonging ripped away from her in an instant. She was back to the cold, sterile vessels with people who saw her as little more than an asset, who wanted her back up and running as soon as possible as if a great tragedy hadn’t just occurred. As soon as they were able, they installed a cybernetic eye in the one she lost, patching her up like a broken piece of machinery.

Not even her parents were here. They contacted her as soon as they knew she was awake, but neither of them could leave their post to see her. Something in Raina just snapped. She needed away from this place, away from the military. She expressed her concerns to her parents, but they disapproved, encouraging her to just get better and push on. This was the family way. That just made the need to leave even more prevalent.

She was able to push for her to be medically discharged, quoting physical trauma and PTSD. She sent one final message to her parents telling them she was leaving and not to contact her. She grabbed all her belongings and money that she saved, grabbed the first civilian shuttle she could and started exploring the galaxy.

Over the next few years, she moved from planet to planet, exploring and experiencing and just living. She met so many new people, made new friends and went on her own adventures. She used her skills for work, either taking on odd jobs or temporarily joining a crew, which improved her abilities even further. She began to discover herself more as a person, get better at social interaction and just breathe for the first time. Life was good.

Then, the Reapers arrived.

Once more her world came crashing down, but this time it was different. She wasn’t alone. She had been staying on Illium when the news spread, and it wasn’t long before the Reapers made their way to them. Raina sprang into action, helping wherever she could to help the planets militia fend off the invasion, as well as help the people who had been displaced and evacuated to the planet. It kept her busy, and when the Reapers eventually fell, her positive presence put her on a lot of people’s radars as someone who was reliable.

Following this, she decided to take up a more permanent residence on Illium. They may have fended off the attack, but there was always work to be done. Plus, as a mercantile hub, other planets more affected turned to them for aid. She never found herself short for work, and she was keen to continue to improve her skills with the variety of machinery and tech that passed through. She dreams that one day, she can open her own mechanics shop, and make her role on Illium that much more permanent. Because she belongs.

[ampdraws]

[hellafluff]

Underutilized character dynamic: Tali and Kasumi. Kasumi is a snoop who knows the deets on everyone around her and Tali herself says quarians are always getting involved in each other's business because theyre a social people. They're also both tech people with cool hoods.

These two could gossip for days.

[ghostryders]

if he has no fans i’m dead

[gameguy20100]

One thing I hate about Mass effect is that the narrative always treats Shepard as if they’re a Soldier when that’s easily the most boring class to play.

My man shep is a grease monkey to the core and is proud of that fact.

My Femshep is a biotic powerhouse that can charge a krogan without flinching.

Neither of them are dumbasses who can’t function when their gun overheats.

[waspgrave]

i'm like 5 loyalty missions and IFF away from the suicide mission in me2 but my god she's so pretty, i love her

[mjwproductionsandfilm]

Those of you that may know me from Ascension Props may remember a short series I started to make called Mass Effect: BOUNTY (first part here)

Well, I'm happy to tell you that, come hell or high water, I am finishing this thing! Check out today's progress, and stay tuned for more updates!

[echthr0s]

there's a banter snippet in ME3 where EDI asks Liara if she ever finds dinosaur bones on her expeditions and Liara starts to explain the difference between archaeology and paleontology and then stops and goes "wait. you're joking." (and EDI says, "jokes have structure. what I'm actually doing is 'messing with you'" snrk)

but what I actually think is that nothing brings EDI more pleasure (as such is defined by an AI) than hearing the Normandy crew go on at length about their pet projects and interests. before she was a physical entity she was the ghost in the machine listening as Garrus muttered to himself while doing some tricky calibration or Liara read some bit of research out loud in sheer delight as pieces fell into place or Mordin rubber-ducked* for a while about something he was trying to untangle and this was how she got to know them all, and how the value of curiosity was developed in her, how she came to prioritise it so highly

so I think she would probably ask leading questions like that all the time and the thing is that she's learned enough from listening that she knows exactly which kinds of questions would send the querent on the most delightful infodumps (eventually she learns the "chinhands" mannerism from Joker, who does it at her a lot, and it immediately becomes a signature gesture of hers)

also... I just think while some of the stuff she says is funny, they went a bit too hokey with all the AI-humour bits imo :V

*and yes Adrian (who'd learned about the concept from a hot engineer he tried to pursue back in his training days) did eventually get him an actual rubber duck, to Mordin's immense confusion

[nesonkin]

I like the visuals showing us the Ark Parking Lot but I gotta wonder... where were they supposed to park the quarian ark? The situation sorted itself out with the turian ark being left dangling in space but what was their plan for the quarian one? Was it supposed to become the Migrant Fleet 2.0?

[baejax-the-great]

I definitely was the cliche kid with the marine biologist phase, but on god I am still in my xenobiologist phase it is the dream it is the dREAM I want it so bad

[zeb-mod]

Mass Effect 1 Legendary Edition | Varada

Hair is Invu by Moood converted by Spiderbabes in Assorted Femshep Hairstyles (LE1)

[vulpixelates]

Cozying up in the engineering deck

Bonus: why does everyone do their funny business near the mass effect core?

[edains]

[norvitodraws]

Been replaying Mass Effect, and had to draw one of the best girls. It's Tali just, checking out the engine. That's all there is to it.

[death-rebirth-senshi]

Shepard in the arena: I dedicate this next match to my boyfriend Steve!

Shepard: *completely wipes out*