#or Garrus saying anything about Marauders

[tenleaguesbeneath]

I feel like ME3 kinda leaves the revelation on Chronos Station hanging when EDI is like “oh yeah Cerberus is Indoctrinating civilians and augmenting them with Reaper cybernetics, that’s why they treat their soldiers’ lives so cheaply”

It comes really late in the game, after Shepard’s walked over a pile of Cerberus bodies. Maybe part of that is that by the time she has a chance to rest after having it confirmed, she’s done fighting Cerberus for good. But then, it’s pretty heavily foreshadowed. Grissom has datapads saying they plan to make Phantoms out of the biotic students if they can take them. Eden Prime has a thing where they’re pretending to the civilians they’re occupying that the people they’re kidnapping are being taken away for forced labor and hiding that they’ll never be seen again. fucking Mars has you see their Reaper-cybernetic-altered faces, though you don’t find out about them not being willing volunteers until later. Liara seems to be aware of this given her convo with Aethyta.

I’m not sure if it’s my copy of ME:Legendary or something else but sometimes when I throw them they get stuck ragdolled in a corner with hit points remaining but they’re not getting up, and finishing them always feels kinda grim.

The version of Shepard they portray who has no comment on either doing that or finding out that she’s been doing that to people who were taken from their families against their will and mind controlled is, like...

it says disturbing things about how inured she is to violence. the entire squad, really.

[hellt00th]

Man. You know what I appreciate about Garrus? He isn’t audibly horrified by the marauders the way Liara is by the banshees and he IS upset about Palaven but again, not in the way Liara was about Thessia. Her reactions can kinda be a slap in the face towards a grieving Shepard who saw her world burn, Palaven burn, and then Thessia burn. I don’t think a paragon shep would necessarily say anything bc yeah the war is finally real for Liara now but damn girl. Where the fuck was that horror and disbelief when Shepard or Garrus were seeing their own kind turned into horrific monsters and sent after them?

[shizuu-chann]

It's hard for me to feel bad about the fall of Thessia when they had MONTHS to jump in and help.

Except they didn't.

They waited until THEY needed help, then asked Shepard to help humanity and the rest of the galaxy by helping the asari. Don't get me wrong, I do feel bad for the asari civilians, but High Command and Councilor Tevos can kiss my ass.

"Maybe next time the Alliance could spring for air support," Liara says as you're getting swamped by cannibals and marauders. Or maybe they should have jumped sooner and we would have had an easier time getting to that beacon, like maybe BEFORE the Reapers even arrived in asari space. Instead they tried to maintain their supremacy by consolidating their power instead of aiding their allies, and ultimately doomed their homeworld because they were too proud.

It's ironic that Councilor Sparatus spends the first two games being an aggressive passive-aggressive ass, but by the third game ultimately sees that working together is the only way they all get what they want in the end, which is to fucking survive and defeat an incredibly powerful enemy for good. Tevos is great at lip service and then not doing anything, and Valern feels like a yes-man to Tevos, tbh. I like him a little more than Tevos, but it really does feel like he just defers to whatever Tevos says, but I've already made a post about that.

A different but related subject: No matter what anyone says, the fact that Cerberus knew where Shepard would be (RE: the beacon on Thessia) and beat her there in the first place will never. Make. Sense.

No one except the asari councilor/High Command, Shepard, and a select few of the Normandy crew even knew about the beacon's potential to know what the Catalyst was. Even if you could claim Cerberus agents were embedded in High Command or had agents who knew members of High Command, there was no reason to wait for Shepard to show up to activate the beacon. They'd been using the beacon for centuries to make sure they kept their edge and superiority, so they clearly knew how to operate it and obtain information from it (they just never found info about the Catalyst because no one knew they needed it; plus, the beacon's VI was programmed not to even reveal that info until the Crucible was completed).

You could make the claim that whoever tipped off Cerberus about it didn't know how to work the beacon, and thus couldn't have told this mystical agent anything other than that it existed, thus Shepard HAD to show up to unlock it--but I just don't buy that. I don't, and I refuse to.

And THAT filters into Kai Leng being a terrible and poorly written antagonist, I guess. 99% of all the issues I have with ME3's plot involve Kai Leng (the other 1% is the whole "salvation through destruction" nonsense). All of his scenes and "victories" require the plot and previous character development for Shepard and her companions to twist themselves into pretzels to make sense.

Example? I don't know about you guys, but my typical Citadel Coup Squad consists of Garrus and Javik, and obviously Shepard. That puts three highly trained soldiers with previous experience fighting Reapers and their minions in the same place at the same time on the same team. Indigo is an infiltrator, thus there are two SNIPERS and then three overall EXPERT MARKSMEN on this team. Then you have Thane: the trained ASSASSIN since he was six years old.

You're telling me a master assassin with biotic capabilities, an ancient career soldier with a literal lifetime's worth of Reaper-fighting experience and biotic capabilities, an ex-C-Sec officer vigilante famous for being a master sniper, and the literal fucking Hero of the Citadel, Spectre agent, N7 Special Forces operative who's also a master sniper and career soldier all forgot how to aim and hit a target at point blank range? Or forgot they had biotics capable of killing? Bull. Shit.

And that pretty much goes for any squadmates you can bring with you onto the Citadel! Ashley/James/Kaidan? Career soldiers. Tali? Not a career soldier, but still a good shot. Liara? Pure biotic! She could have lifted Leng or slammed a chair into him hard enough to incapacitate him a la Vasir on Illium. EDI? Programmed to be an excellent shot, presumably. Like.

And don't come at me with "well, Kai Leng was also an N7!" Don't care. There is no way you could convince me that Kai Leng was a worthy adversary. His temperament alone puts him at a disadvantage to Shepard. Cool, level-headed Shepard literally gets a rise out of him at Cerberus HQ when she tells him he's a coward bc all he does is run away. He tells her to shut up rather aggressively, which in this context shows his immaturity and incompetence. The only reason he "won" on Thessia was plot armor, and not even the good kind. Saren had good plot armor on Virmire; he wasn't supposed to die yet, so the plot was that he saw that he was going to lose that krogan breeding facility no matter what, and booked it to fight later on Ilos and the Citadel. KL's boring, pathetic, whiny, and childish. Furthermore, him being on Thessia makes no sense, and that whole priority mission was a mess.

[dearophelia]

turn on your favorite nightlight

long live :: nine of wands :: turn on your favorite nightlight

Hannah partakes in that gold match from combat, i’m ready for combat. It goes about as well as you can expect.

It’s three weeks before Liv’s back on the Citadel and schedules line up for their gold match. Hannah’s spent most of those three weeks pointedly not talking about it to Zaeed, but spending a little extra time at the shooting range. If he notices (and there’s no way he doesn’t), he doesn’t say anything.

After a warmup bronze match against geth that earns Hannah her first kill medal, Hannah watches the three of them load up on gear in a way they haven’t yet. They’ll be on gold, but given how they’re gearing up for this (and that Olivia programs a missile launcher for each of them), Hannah thinks she could’ve gone her entire life without knowing her daughter soloed something called platinum. More than once.

Liv hands her a handful of mod chits to plug into her gear slots on the match configuration board. The board beeps and displays the mod name as it registers each. A pistol amp, armor-piercing rounds, shield power cells, and a shield booster, all maxed out at level five. Hannah swallows.  

“Map preference?” Garrus says, flipping through the choices. “Giant, Rio –”

“Fuck Rio,” Zaeed and Olivia say at the same time. Hannah wonders what the story is there.

“– Giant, Vancouver, Goddess, Hydra, or Dagger?”

Olivia checks the sights on her shotgun. “I’m too short for Dagger. And, you know,” she says as she slams her locker shut, “maybe not Goddess.”

There’s a twinge of pain in Olivia’s voice. Earth’s never been home for Olivia, but Thessia was for a while. Probably still is.

Garrus nods. “Any objection to Hydra?” Hearing none, he selects the map, sets the enemy, and challenge.

The board flashes HYDRA – REAPERS – GOLD and then begins a countdown.

Ten seconds to back out.

“Breathe,” Hannah says to herself.

***

A barrage of grenades explodes at the other end of the map and it’s a lot of effort not to sit down in a corner, cry, and just let something kill her.

Gold is loud. Gold is chaos. Gold has too many enemies coming from too many directions at once. Gold is overwhelming. She’s gone down four times and hit a grand total of zero targets.

It’s wave three. Of eleven. And this is what her daughter deals with every time she jumps out of a shuttle. Crying seems like a really good idea.

It doesn’t help that she’s been split off from the others. She’s hiding at the very corner of the map under a ladder, hoping nothing notices her.

The others aren’t together either, but they know what they’re doing. Their comm chatter has been heavier this match – amidst calling out shots and swearing, there’s still an astonishing amount of banter – and none of them are as scared as she is.

Which makes sense: they’ve all been doing this a long time and they did it together for a year and a half. But it doesn’t make her feel better.

Something slides down the ladder and lands in a crouch next to her. Hannah startles and whips around so fast she loses her balance. She comes face to face with Olivia.

Liv peers out of cover long enough to scan the immediate area. Finding nothing worrisome, she taps her comms. “Massani, Vakarian, keep the shit off us,” she orders. “We’re in the back corner by the dam. Back in a minute.” She switches her comms to silent and then reaches out, tapping the same control on Hannah’s gear.

“Liv,” Hannah starts, but she doesn’t know what comes after. She wants to be brave for her daughter, but she’s fucking terrified.

“Mom,” Olivia says, as steady and collected as Hannah’s ever heard her. “Number one, none of this is real. Remember that. Safety protocols are locked on and there is no such thing as friendly fire. You cannot get hurt.”

Hannah nods. Olivia’s voice is calm and comforting, soothing amidst the gunfire and fighting.

“Number two, we’ve got you. Zaeed, Garrus, and I. We know how to do this. We will get you through this.”

It’s the nightmare voice.

Hannah used this exact tone with Olivia and Mark when they were small and had a scary dream. She doesn’t know how she feels about Liv using that same voice back onto her, but that’s a problem for later. Right now, the nightmare voice is exactly what she needs to hear.

“Good air in, bad air out,” Olivia says.

An uncomfortable mechanical noise whirs nearby. Liv pops up, scopes in on the marauder, and blows its head off.

A little medal appears in the corner of Hannah’s HUD: Olivia Shepard – 15 Headshots.

“Mom,” she says, drawing Hannah’s attention again. “Good air in. Bad air out.”

It’s an order.

Even if she could argue, Hannah wouldn’t. Not with that tone to Liv’s voice. Hannah takes a deep breath.

“Do you need to stop?” Olivia asks, brow furrowed deeply in concern.

Yes.

“No,” she says firmly. “I want – I need to finish this. And then drink. Heavily.” This is her daughter’s life. All this fighting, all these horrors, and Hannah can’t do a goddamn thing to protect her from it.

A brute goes down on the walkway above them (Garrus Vakarian – 25 kills) and the metal structure shakes, grating and shrieking against itself.

“Well, Zaeed lost the headshot bet in the warmup, so drinks are on him tonight.” Liv’s smile drops and she throws two grenades at an influx of cannibals in the courtyard before they can get any ideas. “I’m right here. And I’m staying right here. If you want to park it next to me in cover for the rest of this, that’s alright. I’ve got you.”

They’re in armor in a combat simulator on the Citadel, not barefoot in a chilly cornfield on Mindoir, but for a moment – it’s suddenly eighteen years ago. Only this time, Olivia’s saying Hannah’s words.

“I’m right here,” she whispered, holding her daughter close as withered corn stalks rustled in the wind. “I’ve got you.”

Hannah exhales. Bad air out.

“Okay?”

“Okay,” Hannah nods.

There’s that smile again, reassuring and solid. Olivia gently clasps her shoulder. “Good hunting.”

Hannah offers a half-hearted smile in return. She swallows. “Good hunting.”

[n7inky-fanfics]

Leviathan

"Well, if that's what we have to do let's get started." Shepard says, standing and moving over towards the shuttle with Cortez.

Kaidan hits another husk, killing it, and turns to face Shepard. "Wait a minute here. Are we seriously considering-"

"First, we'll need to restore power to get that cargo door open." Steve says.

"How?" She asks, furrowing her brow.

"I guess we are." Garrus says.

"These old Ballard-class ships are equipped with exterior power sockets. They use 'em for emergency repairs. We can strip the cells from the shuttle and use those for juice. Hang on, and I'll get you started." Steve pulls out a power cell and hands it to Shepard as more Reaper forces drop from the sky.

"Go, we'll fend them off!" Kaidan shouts, opening fire. Together, he and Garrus keep the husks, marauders, and brutes off Shepard long enough for her to get the cargo bay open and hop into the mech.

"Artillery incoming!" She shouts over the comms as she unleashes rockets on the hoard. Within minutes, the monstrosities lay dead on the ground.

She guides the mech over to Cortez so he can inspect it. "All right, Commander. Let's get you out of there and I'll do a systems check."

As Steve moves around the mech with his omnitool, running scans, Kaidan heads towards Shepard. The part of him that is usually so keen to follow regulations and be a good, obedient soldier is thrown out the window by the fear growing in him. This is a crazy risk. "Shepard, I've got to say... I'm not too crazy about this plan."

The hatch opens and she's there, staring back at him. Her gray eyes are fixed on him, filled with determination. Somewhere behind them, he detects a hint of understanding. She knows what he left unsaid, the worry that he feels right now. "We've come too far to stop now. The way home is through Leviathan." she replies in her classic Commander Shepard tone.

"Okay, seals check out. Oxygen pressure is normal. Systems are a go." Cortez says, walking back towards the front of the mech. "It's as ready as I can make it."

"Let's go." she says, setting her jaw and gripping the controller tightly.

Every fiber of his being screams. This is a bad idea. We have no idea what's down there. The mech could fail, she could drown or be crushed under the pressure. If she finds Leviathan, who knows how many ways it could kill or harm her. And if, by some miracle she manages to disable the pulse and get away safely, she'll still need the mech to hold up long enough to return her safely to the surface. Damn it, he's not going to back down so easily this time. He's not going to let her charge off into danger and leave him behind like she did over Alchera. He opens his mouth, prepared to let everything flood out, to say anything to convince her to stay, but all that comes out is "But Shepard..."

"I'll be fine." she interrupts. She looks him directly in the eye. All at once she's his Commander and the love of his life. She's ordering him to stand down, to let her go, while simultaneously reassuring him that she will come back to him safely. He feels his duty to her as a soldier and his love for her as her partner. The battle inside him ends and he reluctantly nods, stepping aside.

"Closing hatch." she announces. She checks the systems and guides the mech to the water. "Commencing dive in 3, 2, 1." The mech hits the water hard, splashing and then sinking into the murky depths.

He listens as Cortez checks the comms. For a moment, everything seems fine and he finds himself relax slightly. Then, he hears Steve's voice rise in pitch. "Commander? Commander, can you hear me? Commander Shepard?"

"What's going on down there?" Garrus asks. Kaidan tries to swallow the lump rising in his throat.

"The comms are out. We can't reach her anymore." Steve replies.

Kaidan doesn't have much time to worry because more Reaper forces drop to the ship. All of his fears are pushed away as he slides into command. "Incoming! Cortez, get the power cores back in the shuttle. Garrus, take up a position near the shuttle and we'll cover him."

Fending off the Reaper forces proves to be a neverending task. Short moments of relief are interrupted by more forces landing. Steve gets the shuttle fixed and mans a pistol from just outside it. In one lull, Kaidan checks the time. She's been down there for over an hour. Kaidan swallows his fear and tells his friends "She'll be here. And when she gets back, we'll be ready to go." They nod in affirmation and load their supplies.

Defending the shuttle from the Reapers is beginning to truly be exhausting when suddenly the mech breaches the surface. His heart soars. The mech stumbles forward and the hatch opens. All hope plummets as soon as he sees her. She's ghostly pale, maybe even gray, and bleeding from her nose and eyes. She falls forward out of the shuttle and hits the ground, right by a pack of brutes. She tries to stand, but hits the ground hard again. Shit, she's defenseless! In that moment, one of the brutes stops, staring blankly for a moment before turning and attacking it's companion. Now's his chance! Kaidan runs over to Hazel and helps her to her feet. Although she's now supporting some of her weight, he's practically dragging her along to the shuttle. "Shepard's back! Cortez, talk to me!"

Steve is already in the pilot's seat, pulling the shuttle back around. "We're good to go! I don't know what the Commander did, but the pulse is offline!" Garrus covers them as Kaidan loads her onto the shuttle. As they take off, he vaguely notes that the brute is still attacking other Reaper forces.

Kaidan helps guide Hazel onto her back on the shuttle floor. Steve shouts about a Reaper incoming. Shit! It's right in their path! He tries to maneuver underneath it, but it opens it's terrible arms and charges it's beam. Before it can fire, it suddenly disables and crashes into the ocean. What the hell did she find down there?

He turns his attention back to Shepard. She's not moving or responding. Damn it, Hazel! "Shepard! Can you hear me?" She doesn't respond. He reads the data from her suit on his omnitool. It's not looking good. "She's freezing!"

She coughs suddenly and violently, jolting upwards. The coughing fit continues to wrack her body as she tries to sit up and brace herself against the seat. He watches her vitals recover some. "You okay?"

"Yeah... yeah, I'm fine. Hell of a headache." Her voice is raspy and weak. Her pulse is still somewhat erratic, but it looks like she'll be okay.

Fear and concern quickly evolves into anger at the risk she took. "Never do that again." he says firmly, rising to his feet.

She looks up at him, her eyes rimmed with red. She's exhausted and in pain, but she's here and she'll be okay. She came back to him. He relaxes, letting go of his anger and instead bathing in relief for just a moment before he asks "So, what happened down there?"

"We found it. It's real and a lot more than we ever imagined." She rises to her feet.

Cortez turns back in his seat to face her. "So, was it worth almost dying for?"

"I don't know, but we proved it can't hide anymore... that it's a part of this war, just like us. And it's going to help fight."

As they ride back, Shepard calls Dr. Ann Bryson to tell her about what she found. Kaidan knows no one will get the full story out of her until later, but even the broad explanation is amazing. When the dock back on the Normandy, she immediately locks herself in her cabin to write her full and detailed report, brushing off any requests to check in at the med-bay.

Kaidan finds himself waiting outside her door with a cup of coffee. Dr. Chakwas stands next to him, leaning against the wall with her med bag on the floor. Eventually, the door unlocks and they both go in. Hazel sits in her desk chair, still in her armour. The submission confirmation for her report is still displayed on the terminal.

"Hey, guys." She smiles weakly at them. Kaidan sets the mug on her desk and offers her an arm. She takes it and pulls herself up, then slowly peels off her armor. Chakwas guides her to sit on the couch and begins checking her over.

Eventually, she rises and closes her bag. "You're looking alright, Commander. Take this for the pain. Get yourself fed, hydrated, and warm. I'll be taking my leave now. Have a nice night." She smiles and walks to the door, stopping just next to Kaidan. "Keep an eye on her, Major Alenko." She smiles and exits the room.

Kaidan brings the mug with him and sits down next to Shepard. He hands her the coffee, which she sips as she leans against him.

"Nice to have everyone back on dry land, so to speak."

"Mm-hm." She responds.

"You scare the hell out of me with those risky stunts, Shepard, but I guess it's also part of what I love about you." He whispers.

"I'm sorry I scared you. To be honest, I scare myself sometimes, too. I've already pushed so hard, given so much of myself for the mission, for the galaxy. I lost it all once, and sometimes I wonder if some part of me wishes I had just stayed..."

Kaidan pulls back and looks down at her. She looks so small and timid sitting here, curled into herself. It's a rare moment where he might even call her vulnerable. "Stayed dead..?" He asks quietly. She nods meekly. "Hazel, having you back has been a lifeline. I missed you, more than I could ever express."

"I know, and I'm sorry. I just... I came back only to throw it all on the line again and again. And in the end, nothing I did even mattered. The Reapers still arrived, and now we're fighting an impossible war."

"And we'll win. We'll win because of everything you've done to make that possible. I believe in us, Shepard. I believe in you."

"You really think so?"

"I know so." He smiles gently and pulls her into his arms. She curls up against him and slowly relaxes. He can feel her falling asleep, so he takes the mug from her and sets it on the table. Carefully, he scoops her up into his arms. She mumbles sleepily about more work, but doesn't protest as he tucks her into bed. He kisses her forehead and turns to leave, but she grips his shirt tightly. She wants him to stay. He takes off his boots and crawls into bed next to her. She shuffles closer to him, resting her head on his chest, and quickly falls asleep.

[paxveraque]

FICLET: A Study in I Love Yous (2/2)

Part I here (and now also on Ao3)

She doesn’t admit that she loves him. Not aloud anyway.

She ignores the warnings on Omega, when her heart sings at the sight of him--when, for the briefest of moments, it seems as if everything is right in the galaxy. She almost hugs him, almost falls to pieces in the arms of her old friend. But Cerberus is watching, and she cannot let them see.

She denies it on the Normandy, when she stalks outside the med bay for hours. Miranda is incessant, but Shepard doesn’t want to give her answers, doesn’t want to explain how she did what was necessary to get him off that station in time to save his life. You lied to me about him, she accuses, with more anger than she intends, so I don’t owe you anything.

She keeps denying it through Sidonis and the Collector Base and all the stolen moments in between. She knows the line between friend and more has long since blurred, but she can’t quite figure out when she lost track of it. She can’t determine the precise moment when her harmless attempts to make him blush became intentional flirting became--whatever it is she feels the night he comes to her cabin.

She tries not to question it when she grabs his omnitool as he sleeps. She has run through every possible strategy for their attack on the Collector Base, every way she can keep him at her side. Every plan fails except the one where he leads the second fire team, but the thought--the nightmare--of them separating drives her to distraction. Their comms could be cut, he might not reach the rendezvous point, they might have to leave when he’s nowhere to be found. She cannot stop running through every horrific possibility, and so in those final twilight hours, she links his omnitool to hers. She gives him full access to her most jealously guarded possession, so that she can track his biometrics and geolocation. Mission be damned, she will not leave him behind.

She doesn’t know where that falls on the line between “just friends” and more, but it is decidedly Not Casual. She supposes she shouldn’t be surprised, though. As she nervously teased him the night before, she is nothing if not intense. She has never once managed to do anything casually. Never really wanted to try.

She hopes he understood her hints.

Menae changes everything. She hasn’t heard from him in six months. She nearly gives up hope of ever seeing him when she sees the state of Palaven. But there he is, standing tall on that besieged moon, and the sight of him, alive and in command, fills her with unexpected pride and admiration. She wants to embrace him, to tell him all of the fears she’s kept inside for the past half year. But just like Omega, there are too many eyes. So instead, she shakes his hand. It’s proper and it’s formal, and rattles her in a way that makes her start to question whether this Not Casual thing she feels is actually Love. She wonders, and she fears, whether he feels the same.

The answer, of course, is obvious--when she finally pays attention. He never actually says he loves her. Not aloud at least. But he tells her every day.

He tells her when she arrives at the war room only to discover that the petulant diplomats have resolved their unnecessary disputes. He tells her when she enters her cabin well past zero dark thirty, exhausted and frayed, only to see that her mountains of paperwork have been completed in triplicate. He tells her when she finds herself in bed, boots removed, though she’s certain she fell asleep at her desk over a pile of work. And he tells her when, despite the galaxy crumbling around them, he still finds a way to make her laugh.

He tells her in all the perfect ways only he can, and sometimes she hates it. She hates that she should find something that makes her so happy while so many others suffer. She hates that they found each other in the midst of all this chaos. She hates that she sometimes wonders if they could be happy together without all the carnage.

But then he takes her to the Citadel on the most perfect date, and she’s tired of denying herself the things she feels.

Reapers be damned, she’ll steal whatever slivers of happiness they can find. “I love you, Garrus Vakarian,” she admits, to herself and to him. She knows it’s a long time coming, and the truth floods her with relief.

But he doesn’t return the sentiment. He mentions something about Joker’s vids, and she knows he’s flustered. He stutters, like he did when she first mentioned blowing off steam, and she realizes he thinks she’s still just trying to make him blush.

She doesn’t say it again.

The words are not enough, and she’s not sure what is. She obsesses over the question, keeps a mental list of a thousand ways to tell him, but she lacks the subvocals to convince him of the depth of her feeling. He deserves perfect, and she can never give that to him. So she says nothing. She doesn’t want to screw it up again.

But of all the perfect things they have--friendship, trust, respect--time is not one of them. It never has been.

And before she knows it, he is injured and he cannot go on. His mandibles flare in desperation when he realizes she intends to leave him behind, and some quiet part of her whispers that this might be her last chance.

“I love you, Garrus Vakarian,” she says, and she knows it’s not enough. “And I always will.”

She catches the droop of his jaw, the frighteningly short moment in which he realizes she’s never been joking, and she melts at his response. She takes his armored hand in hers and, for a second, she is tempted to bask in this final captured moment. This sliver of time they stole from the chaos around them.

All too quickly, the screech of Reaper fire and the chattering of husks shatters that stolen moment. It’s not enough. She can’t remember drawing her weapon, but the sounds of the Reaper forces fueled something selfish inside her, and it powers her forward.

They deserves more than stolen moments in a firefight.   

He deserves more than two hastily spoken I Love Yous, only one of which he believes.

There may not be a perfect way to say it, but he deserves to hear her try. A thousand times and maybe more.

She leaves a trail of carnage, a scattering of husks and Marauders in her wake, and as she reloads her heat sink, still drunk on fury and selfishness, she promises herself that this is the last moment she will allow the Reapers to take. The rest will be hers, to cherish and enjoy. She will make the time to tell him that she loves him in each of the thousand ways she imagined.

And may the galaxy have mercy on the poor soul who tries to stop her.

[flytehwire]

Fandom ask: Mass Effect

How I entered/learned about the said game/show/movie/etc of that fandom

I found ME2 for the PS3 at ten bucks and I was like ‘huh, I heard that game was good’.

I was so hooked I practically beat it in three seatings (Not my proudest moment.). I’ve never felt such levels of awe ever since.

Fave character

This is the hardest, because everyone is so awesome and so great in the series, every character has some sort of quality that makes them complex that is hard to pick (excluding Kai Leng of course.)

I think I’ll go with the waifu Tali. So many people look at her cute moments and how she reacts around Shepard, but completely ignore she pretty much was a naive barely-an-adult who was sucked into a end-of-the-world conspiracy, turned into a badass with practice, proceeded to kick ass in all sort of ways, suffers tragedy past tragedy, goes past her prejudices, and grows to be more assertive and stand her ground through the course of the series, all within the span of three years without ever becoming jaded or dark like all other ‘veteran’ characters do. She isn’t a character who goes to the forefront nor leads, but she is every single bit a hero despite having no training whatsoever (Liara might have this on her favor, but how that development was handled was quite meh for me.).

Least fave character

‘Least Fave’ as in the one I could care less? Cliché, but it’s Jacob. Now, who I despise the most? Kai Leng, literally no redeeming qualities.

OTP(s)

Shakarian, Shali in vanilla standards, although I wish both Garrus and Tali were Bi :(

Not-so-rare pair: Garrus-Tali-Shepard polyship. But it’s really hard to find fics where such is portrayed in a romantic way :/

Pairing that everyone likes but I don’t get

Thane and Shepard, sorry Speedy :P

Fave thing about the fandom

How passionate it is, whatever you say about ME3′s ending, it showed how much the players care about the universe and what happens within, that a great deal of the negative shit that came from it was born from the desire to have ME be a better game than just empty hate, and even so it lead to some good things like the Cupcake Protest ("No matter what color you choose, they all taste the same ;)") (they were donated by Bioware a orphanage if I recall) and the donations to charity it brought.

Also, the quality of the art. Many fandoms get much more fanart, but Mass Effect’s artists tend to be just great. For some reason it pulled into a bunch of professional artists who spend hours at breathtaking images and great comics (Marauder Shields anyone?)

The most despised thing

I really find it hard to hate the ME fandom, and that’s mostly to the memetization of the issues of the games. Facial animations are wonky? Now it’s a fun meme, jokes are made, and people move on. What’s left are trolls falseflagging vitrol trying to generate flak against the game because it has a little more sexual diversity, but they are not part of the fandom truly.

If there is something I would change from said game/show/movie/etc., what would it be.

To be honest, I’d change a bunch of stuff of ME3 than anything else. Remove Kai Leng, add neutral dialogue options back, cut down AutoShep, and change the ending for something that makes sense and is hinted at from the beginning (Dark Energy Ending or even the Indoctrination Theory.).