#thane/irikah

[messydiabolical]

I've been going though all my old documents of drell worldbuilding and such, so expect various snippets and rambles over the next few days! Kolyat Krios' early memories of his first home.

He was barely out of toddlerhood, and it was before his eidetic memory had fully taken hold. The memories he could recall from this time were hazy, there but hard to grasp. A lot like how the humans and turians seemed to describe their own memorisations.

He could see their first home in fragments. He knew it was small, cluttered, ramshackle. It was also very loving. An odd word to describe a building perhaps, but loving is how he remembered it.

 Mother bathing with me in the tiny shower, cursing when the hot water suddenly went out, then laughing it off. ‘Well that’s one way to really wake up and start a day!’ she waggles her eyebrows theatrically as she tickles my cold body through a towel, making me giggle, forgetting the chill. Her subvocal song trills in joy and I try to copy it, stuttered bursts of happiness in a staccato beat to her soothing tones.

 The neighbourhood was noisy, full of life and interesting, questionable smells.

Children were always outside, playing in the streets. Groups of teens and adults would also gather and mill about, though in retrospect, probably not for such innocent pursuits.

In the apartment upstairs someone was learning to play what sounded like an entire orchestras worth of instruments, taking a jack of all trades, master of none approach to the enterprise. They were very fond of practising late at night, the ceiling thudding with the beats.

A neighbour below them would watch Kolyat in the days while mother and father both worked. She was very old, saggy scales and eyes clouded over like the stormy clouds out beyond the dome walls. He adored her. She’d cook delicious soups that he’d gum and gnash at with his sprouting fangs, getting more all over his face and clothes than actually in his mouth. She’d just laugh in delight, rub his face with a cloth while he blew soupy raspberries in protest. She also loved to read storybooks, putting on funny voices for all the characters. Sometimes Kolyat would sleep over, and she’d make him a blanket fort on the sofa. Kolyat loved her very much.

‘Please Orla, I must insist you take some credits for your time.’ Mother shifts me on her hip. Her frillrings sparkle in the sputtering, broken hall light. I reach out with a pudgy little hand to play with them.

‘Now now dear, how many times must I insist. you keep those credits for him’. A wrinkly, gentle hand reaches over, stopping me before I grab too harshly on my silver hooped quarry.

Mother and father worked a lot. Mother seemed to like her work, exhausted as it left her. The same could not be said for father.

Father would come home from work dirty, dejected. Mother would rub his shoulders, kiss his cheek and put me on his lap, and he would melt a little. Kisses on my brow and a whispered promise. ‘I’ll make things better, do better for us’. Holds me a little tighter.

Kolyat can’t recall the exact words exchanged, but he remembers the night his parents fought, the first time he heard anything but loving devotion between them. The apartment only had one bedroom, so he usually slept in a crib he was vastly outgrowing, squeezed in next to his parents' bed. They had waited until he was asleep before bitter whispering began, then moved to the living room when it was clear things were escalating. It didn’t do much good; Kolyat had already woken up and the apartment had thin walls. It was a long night.

The next morning Thane was gone and Irikah, usually so positive, so determined, seemed to have lost a little spark about her. Usually when she made breakfast she would play music on her omnitool, singing off key and dancing as she moved.

That morning was too quiet, mothers movements too stiff and precise.

It was a Kalsef, a drell weekend day. Kolyat had begun to recognise patterns in time, knew that this was the day daddy always took him to the temple after breakfast while mummy got some me time.

‘Where daddy?’ the little drell asked, confused by the change in routine.

“He’s-” She pauses, looks side to side, runs her hand across her brow. She looks back up, leans across the table, strokes my cheek.

“He’s away on business Kolyat”.

Away on business. That was the first time he heard it. It would not be the last.

Three, perhaps four full Kalsefs passed, and father finally came home. He was dressed in sleek, fancy clothes, nothing like the overalls he’d worn for work before. He was smiling wide, rushed to Kolyat and swung him up in the air. Kissed mother and told them both he’d missed them so. Mother was all smiles too, but something was different. Something felt off to Kolyat. Like they were too eager, too desperate to seem normal, natural, which only served to make it feel unnatural.

A few days later they were packing up their meagre belongings. Emptying the apartment. A lot of it they didn’t bother with, too broken, not worth keeping. Father assured them they could get better things at ‘the new place’.

They travelled then, taking a skycar and then a shuttle, higher in the sky than kolyat had ever been. He clung fiercely to Thane when they looked out the windows, the vast oceans so far below, the islands and domes little specks on the surface.

“Fear not my son, we are quite safe. We’re going somewhere wonderful, you’ll see”.

Their second home was a lofty apartment at the very top reaches of the dome of Da’quin city.

The view out of the floor to ceiling windows made Kolyat feel sick. He had his own bedroom now, and he’d pile up toys against the glass planes, building a barrier between him and that fathomless fall. His new big bed accommodated his rapidly lengehtening limbs, but it felt so many miles away from mother and fathers bed. You couldn't hear the neighbours from the apartment. Never seemed to meet them at all; they could have been completely alone up there for all he knew. There were certainly no Orla’s in this building. He never saw her again. His second home was lonely.

[aceghosts]

Character Moodboard: Irikah Krios

for @irikahkrios

[If we’re mutuals, send 🎂 and I’ll make you a treat

[irikahkrios]

*thane voice* things haven't been the same since i lost my wife.....yes, we were at the grocery store. irikah walked off while we were in the frozen foods aisles, and i couldn't find her for almost twenty minutes. thankfully she eventually messaged me that she was waiting at the checkout line, but ever since then i've had so much anxiety whenever we go out together. to clarify, my wife is not dead.

[astorythatwritesitself]

Kicking down the door. Any ship with #20

OK so this may get like - expanded? reworked? Something later idk anyway I WANTED this to be part of that other scar kiss/exploration thing I've had simmering for a few weeks but uhh Someone Had Opinions.

He flinches, but doesn't pull away, when Irikah traces a finger along the band of sickly yellow scales around his wrist. What happened here?  Thane knows she's spoken. But he draws back, draws his hands to his chest and held so the scar is hidden; held the same way he's always done since he was a child, the same way he always does when he makes a mistake - She doesn't need this, he tells himself.  Tells her, it's nothing.  But his voice trembles, just the slightest bit, and it's all he can do to not step back as she draws closer. She doesn't speak - just looks at him. There's no anger there, and somehow that hurts more than if there were, than the phantom pains in his arm. No anger - but disappointment? Thane, she says, reaching out, and he allows the touch, if only because it takes some moments to process her tone as not one of disappointment. Not condemnation of any sort, even when he flinches as her fingertips brush the back of his hand.  He knows it doesn't hurt, but it should. Contact is synonymous with pain - correction for poor behavior, for failing an exercise, is consequence of poor planning or a botched job that turns into a physical brawl - The words flow before he can stop himself. The blade is heavy in my hands; the exercise has carried longer than those I have experienced before. Master speaks, both light and sound, but I do not wholly hear its words. I am tired, growing hungry, I have only to make the final target and then we will be done, yes? I raise my hand -  “This one regrets that it has not made itself understood.” The knife falls to the ground.

I am older and wiser - More disciplined. I am tired and hungry, yes, but I focus on that one's words as it lists my targets for this exercise. I fire the rifle - three times, I hit true. But my hands falter - one slips. The shot pulls to the side. Euangelion says nothing, and kindly guides my aim. I cannot feel my hand - but the fifth shot lands, nonetheless.  I -

Feel the faintest brush against his wrist.

Irikah draws back, and for the first time in the months he's known her, she looks - she seems hesitant. Doesn't meet his eyes, and her grip on his hand loosens, she seems ready to pull away. For the first time, Thane draws her close.

[drelldreams]

one thing that fascinates me so much about drell romance is the fact that they remember everything about their partner. every argument they’ve had with them. every accusation they made. every lie. every fuck up. every embarrassing moment they’ve seen.

and yet they love their partners.

[drellvenom]

thinking a whole lot about this bit in thane's comic. about how much he looks up to irikah, puts her on a pedestal, and then we see this.

[not-a-newt]

The love-struck expressions that Thane and Irikah make at each other when they first started dating <3 <3 <3

[angstyastro]

wait im new to mass effect and am romancing thane for hot dilf reasons pls tell me all about vakarios, i only ever see people talk about garrus not thane

Oh BOY anon you’ve got a big thing coming on my vakarios brain rot Okok SO sit back and lemme just word dump on you on why and how I just really love me vakarios so much:

SO first things first don’t get me wrong I am a huge sucker for thane/Shepard, garrus/Shepard and specifically thane/shepard/garrus because i have personal headcanons etc and my canon is always Shakarios BUT vakarios is my thane/garrus part of all this

I love the idea of garrus/thane realizing they have a lot of parallels to eachother and thane seeing a bit of himself in garrus:

Example:

Thane talks about being in battlesleep for 10 years after the death of his wife Irikah where he basically went on a revenge quest and killed everyone involved in her murder. He comes to realize he made a mistake in terms of not staying with Kolyat and ultimately revenge not giving him the fulfillment he needed.

Garrus can be labeled as a man who is going through his own battlesleep after Shepard dies. For 2 years he basically said fuck it and went to omega to “clean up” and seek Justice against the criminals that he couldn’t take down in c-sec. It’s implied that he was devastated after Shepard died no matter if fem/bro shep and then it just snowballs when he’s betrayed by Sidonis. Garrus falls into his own small form of battlesleep given you can’t really talk to him much as Shepard until he tells you about his revenge quest for a loyalty mission.

I like to see the Normandy crew in me2 as a ragtag group of people who come together and become something of a family so they all get to see the ugliest and best sides of eachother and I love the concept thane and garrus would become good friends based off being snipers at first but then relating over the histories they’ve had. Thane is able to relate to Garrus’s seeking of revenge and has a different perspective over it.

Now when you play as Shepard and you go the route of stopping him from killing Sidonis consider that you’re kind of replicating the whole thing that thane went through with Irikah. Irikah stepped in thane’s way to stop him from killing someone and Shepard is doing the same for garrus.

It’s not until after this that Garrus will begin to see things clearer and differently and I love the concept of both thane and garrus realizing they have so much in common. This also can happen if Sidonis is killed. Garrus may be filled with that void of it not really helping him solve anything. He killed him via battlesleep and is barely coming out of it with the help of Shepard and crew.

Another thing is Garrus isn’t a stranger to losing someone close to him because of illness. His mother becoming sick etc has him as one of the only people on the Normandy who would probably know how to care for and make things as relaxing/comfortable for someone going through something similar (thane w his keprals) and like consider them just bonding over this in general.

And last but not least thane and his dry fuckin humor would make him and Garrus really close.

All in all I am a fan of every ship/crackship/rarepair etc because It’s fun to pair characters so i know vakarios isn’t for everyone but hell it makes me happy and lots of possibilities for it so :3 thanks for letting me ramble anon.

[azranox]

I’ve been experimenting with short drabbles around my Shepard, Thane and Garrus. This is a short one exploring a relationship that starts Shep/Thane and evolves into Shakrios. Specifically this is a moment in Shep’s cabin while the rest of the crew finishes up their business on the Citadel post their two loyalty missions. I’m not sure what is said before this yet but this is how it concludes.

“Siha, I do not blame Garrus. Remember when I told you of how I met Irikah? ‘Smell of spice on the spring wind eyes defiant in the scope’ Garrus had the same moment with you” Thane smiles has he sees the realization spread across Shepards face.

“I didn’t even think about that.” She muttered, confusion contorting her features. “I just knew if I let him take that shot it would hurt more in the long run...”

Thane decided to take the leap, and took Shepard’s hand in his. “You should know, drell will occasionally take multiple partners, we understand the soul will find those it cares for, and for some there are multiple. While my time with you is short, Garrus can be by your side once I am unable. Do not lose something because of me.”

‘Wait he knows I love Garrus too, she thought to herself.’ Shepard stares blankly at Thane, “You’re, you’re okay that? I know you’re not human, but I was somehow still expecting you to be like men from my past, incredibly jealous and possessive…” she trails off, thinking about how to tell Garrus, having made up her mind the moment those words rolled out of his mouth.

“Come siha let’s go see him together.” Thane whispered, pulling her towards the door and to the elevator.

[messydiabolical]

When a drell comes of age, they choose for themselves a ‘radosi’, a life stone. It marks the first step in the drells’ journey moving from childhood through to adulthood. 

Though named a stone, the material a radosi can be composed of varies greatly. Jewels, glass, stones, metals or even woods and shells have all been chosen for radosi. As long as it can withstand being cut into several times and is large enough to yield multiple smaller pieces it will suit. How and why the piece is chosen is deeply personal. Drell younglings are encouraged to spend time and meditative thought on what they will choose, and why the radosi speaks to them. Radosi can be naturally scavenged, an object taken as a gift, or even bought. Many drell markets will have special trinket tables with all manner of items to appeal as radosi. If the drell have given deep thought as to why the chosen object appeals, purchasing it is not taboo. This said, the majority of radosi are usually come across in a more organic manner. With a trusted persons’ guidance, a piece of the lifestone is carefully removed and mounted onto jewellery known as Oste Te’Dral, ‘the gift of self’. What form and bindings this jewellery take varies, often influenced by family tradition or the drell’s cultural heritage. For example, many old gods worshippers heralding from the South East of Rakhana prefer an intricate head piece, with the stone designed to lay over the rafak (the pentagon in a drell’s forehead). Many modern drell who grew up in Cnidaria City instead opt for a sleek cuff that can be worn on the upper arm. The Oste Te’Dral is first worn at the coming of age celebration ceremony. It is then subsequently worn by the drell during ceremonies and special events throughout their life. The remainder of the radosi is kept safe by the drell, many choosing ornamental locked boxes or intricately woven pouches for such purpose. Throughout their lifetime, further pieces of the radosi are removed and used to celebrate significant life moments. For example: A drell that has passed Amonkira’s test might mount their bow or blade with a piece of the radosi Weaving a piece into ceremonial gowns for graduation

Wearing a piece over a baby bump, then hanging it above the baby’s crib once they are born. It can later be mounted into the child’s first piece of jewellery. Perhaps the most common use for radosi, (after the coming of age jewellery), is for engagements. When a pair or polycule of drell wish to declare their intent to wed, they exchange pieces of their radosi. Many drell will add their significant other’s radosi onto their oste te’dral, at which point it becomes known as oste tu’quodak, ‘the gift shared’. ~*~

Thane’s radosi is a piece of petrified driftwood that washed up on the shores of his favourite beach meditation spot, somewhere he would have moments of peace in between compact training. Tree’s being exceedingly rare on Kahje's few attols, the wood is a special find.

Irikah’s radosi was a bag of sea glasses that she’d been collecting since childhood. Colourful, eclectic and utterly unique, Irikah did things her own way. Kolyat’s teen years were not a happy, settled time. The family he was left with were quite strict and conservative, and adamant he not travel away from Kahje. He dreamed of getting away from it all, and was drawn to all things alien and exotic. He chose for his radosi a geode, grey rock on the outside with brilliant blue crystals within, similar to his own scales. He claimed that he chose it because it was from another planet and represented getting away from Kahje, though to himself he can admit the appeal of the rough, prickly grey outside veiling a vibrant, beautiful inside called to him.

Feron never went through the coming of age ceremony as he ran away from his unloving family and left Kahje at just 12 years old. It was when Kolyat and Thane came into his life that he began reconnecting with his cultural heritage. In a belated but highly celebrated coming of age ceremony, Feron chose to declare a hunk of his ship Mina’s hull as his radosi, a piece of vibrant silver-purple metal that can be melted and reformed as needed. Mina was his first real home and his sanctum, and later became the home he shared with Kolyat.

[dirtybiowareconfessions]

Confession: I wonder if Thane has only been with Irikah before Shepard. The idea of Irikah being Thane’s first is so sweet. Awkward assassin has to be taught..

[irikahkrios]

truly feel that irikah is a NOTORIOUS clothes thief in relationships. she will sleep in your t-shirts, she will steal thane's jacket periodically, in the context of irithaneshep she will wear shepard's n7 hoodie around the normandy like a cheerleader wearing her football boyfriend's varsity jacket

[astorythatwritesitself]

There Will Be Time

Fandom: Mass Effect

Rating: Gen

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Pairing: Thane Krios/Shepard

Additional tags: Prompt Fill, Memory Loss, Post-Reaper War.

Excerpt:

It’s been six months, since the war’s end. One, since the prognosis. ‘A matter of weeks,’ the doctor had said. 'Two or three months, if you’re very lucky.’ Adrian had taken it fairly well, all things considered. Vanished for a few hours, along the beach trails near their home, but there had been no tears when she returned. Hardly even a tremor in her voice, when she’d said: 'we always knew we were on borrowed time.’ Thane is simply grateful for each day that passes without incident.

Yeah, the AO3 version turned into a whole other thing lol. Original answer/draft is still up for posterity though, just no longer in the ship tag lol.

(Brief excerpt of The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, by T.S. Elliot)

'She could be wrong, siha-’ Thane starts. Starts, but the words catch in his throat as Adrian presses closer, arms tightening around his waist. Her lips brush his shoulder - or so he chooses to believe. He can’t bring himself to look, to see if she is crying.

‘You can rebuild a lot of things, but a brain’s pretty high up there in ‘experimental’,’ she replies, only the faintest of tremors in her voice. ‘I'd… always wondered. If it wouldn’t burn out fast, or break down - and that’s on its own, being around that much Reaper crap? If they were trying to indoctrinate me or anything…’

That’s as far as the conversation goes. The next day - week, ultimately - will be for shoring up what she’d prepared during her arrest, handling any other affairs. What remained of the night was simply to be enjoyed, to commit to memory all they could, before the chance passed by.

----

It's little things, at first. 

A misplaced item. More notes around the house - reminders of appointments, when to feed the fish, where things were. Tasks left undone. Dropping things, because her hands won't cooperate. Things that are easy enough to overlook - even laugh about, if it's a good day, things that could happen to anyone and mean nothing. He helps her clean up, she releases a statement that she is tired and done, and would like to enjoy some time with her husband, anyone looking for information can ask any of the other survivors of the war. 

Which is true enough.

That she's unable to completely recall the orders of events, or what even happened, isn't information the wider media needs.

----

There is still time, Thane tells himself, when he awakens to find Shepard still asleep. Some mornings he does get up - catch up on messages, let the others know how things stand. Sometimes he meditates, often he walks.

Sometimes, he writes, when it's too much to bear.

More often than not, though... he lingers. There is time, and he knows better, now, than to risk letting it slip away. Knows to enjoy the warm weight of her arm around his shoulders now, the soft, even sounds of her breath, and how lovely it is (all else aside), that she is able to sleep peacefully at last, old nightmares either forgotten or distant enough to no longer matter.  Things that will, yes, be only memory - but how often had he regretted every moment denied, with Irikah and Kolyat? Moments lost before he even knew they were there? 

Not again. 

---------

Four months along, and there are more notes, fewer models, more muddying of when something did or should happen. Longer pauses in conversation, where she struggles to find her words.

He asks (only partially from the doctor's suggestion) if she could share a poem with him - he loves hearing her recite, no two ever quite alike. Remembers from their time aboard the Normandy, the hazy warmth in her voice as the words flowed, swift and clear, her love for them sweeping him along even when they didn't translate so well.

The words do come. Slow and faltering and in a hollow, clipped tone - 

“And would it have been worth it, after all,

Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me,

After the cups-

“No-" She shakes her head, biting her lip and drumming her fingers on her thigh.  "Wait, no that... that goes the other way around, doesn't it.”

Her voice trembles - breaks, just the slightest bit, on those last words.

"It's a long one, siha," Thane says. "You've stumbled on this one before, it's-" 

It's nothing to worry about, he wants to say, but can't. Adrian rests her head on his shoulder, eyes closed as if they could stop the tears trailing down her face. She's stumbled before, yes... but would that provoke such a reaction?

So, instead - he draws her close. Closes his eyes, focusing first on keeping his own voice steady as he picks up where she left off, then as she joins in, as he guides her through the rest. Better that, than leaving it silent and incomplete; and the shorter ones come to her quick as they ever have. 

----

He’s steeled himself as best as he can, to spend no time mourning now. Not while she's here, when there’s still more good days than bad. More days than they’d dreamt of having when they’d first met, more days than seemed possible, during the war.

A day like this, where Shepard is already awake, taking over the kitchen table with her latest ship model, and Thane almost believes that their future stretches out far and away, beyond anyone's predictions. Her hands are steady, and he can almost forgive the faint, burnt odor lingering in the air, because it means she’s remembered to eat on her own. He sits beside her, and they talk for a while - about Vega’s upcoming visit, the inaccuracies of the Normandy model strewn before her, Kolyat’s last message; and all the while, her words come without trouble, with no grasping or fumbling to recall this detail or that.

----

“We don’t have anything else going on today, right? I was thinking, maybe we could go to the beach,” Shepard says after a while, as she starts cleaning up her workspace. “It’s beautiful out there, today.”

Thane hums a brief agreement from where he stands, just behind where she sits, clearing up the last of the dishes of his meal. “That would be lovely, siha,” he replies. Sets the plate aside and turns, resting a hand on Adrian’s shoulder. Is about to say something, when she looks up at him, a faint and fretful half-smile on her lips.

“I think my translat-”

Her expression falters - confusion and then a slow, horrified comprehension.

( ’I think my translator just glitched. What did you call me?’ )

She grips his hand as if it were the only thing keeping her tethered to this world. He leans down, pressing a light kiss to the top of her head, all the while reminding himself, there will be time to mourn later, there is time together now.

But gods, it's growing short.

[drelldreams]

oh my

i just found out

thanirika is the goddess of gold and an angel

thanirika

that sounds just like a mesh of thane & irikah!!

only it is missing an h

my official ship name for them is thanirikah now <3

maybe it’s a coincidence but that’s just so beautiful. irikah has sunset colored eyes (close to gold), and thane sees her as a warrior angel. it’s quite fitting 💛

[dragonflight203]

Mass Effect 2 replay, Garrus’ loyalty mission:

-Bailey thinks someone is feeding Fade inside information and that’s how he’s avoiding C-Sec. This is the first hint that “Fade” is Harkin.

-In the warehouse, you immediately meet “Fade” (really his contact) who asks you who needs to disappear.

This feels like part of the mission is missing. Why is Fade’s contact here? Why does he assume someone needs to disappear?

I suspect part of the mission to trigger this contact was cut. I’m curious why. Garrus’ mission is already short.

-If you don’t take the renegade interrupt to shoot them, the krogan bodyguards just leave.

That’s pretty funny. The game clearly wanted you to shoot them.

I have the impression one of the developers asked “So, what do we do if the player doesn’t shoot?” and another said, “Eh, for now just have them walk away. We’ll come up with something later.” Then they didn’t.

-The contact mentions that Harkin is helping Blue Suns infiltrate organizations and businesses on the Citadel.

Why are they doing so? They’re a mercenary group.

This is the first and last time it’s mentioned, so add this to the tally of hooks ME2 provides that ME3 doesn’t use.

-And Harkin is conveniently at the entrance of the Factory District when Shepard and co show up out of the blue.

Their timing today is amazing. That made it easier to find the right factory. Can you imagine how long it would have taken if Shepard had to check each factory to find Harkin? Or if he was at home that day?

-Garrus says he’ll give Sidonis an easy death compares to what the rest of his men received. It’s implied they were tortured.

No wonder their deaths are haunting him.

-In Thane’s mission, Shepard chooses (or not) to beat up Mouse for information. Thane would prefer the mission was nonviolent.

In Garrus’ mission, Garrus beats up Harkin for information. Shepard chooses whether or not to hold him back.

Thane’s at the end of a long and bloody life and making what peace he can with it. Garrus is essentially having an early mid life crisis about the direction his life will go.

Garrus isn’t an assassin, but he has chosen to kill many men in cold blood. I think he’d benefit from speaking with Thane.

-Garrus is only reflective on this mission if Shepard challenges his decision to kill Sidonis.

If they do not, Garrus accomplishes exactly what he sets out to do and closes that part of his life. Nothing forces him to think more deeply about it.

Given that most of the loyalty missions are meant to drive character growth, I assume that Bioware expected players to go the paragon route.

-Shepard has a lot of faith that Garrus won’t shoot them. I’m sure he has bullets that can go through more than person.

-Even after you tell him that you’re blocking Garrus’ shot, Sidonis keeps moving. He decides to lean over a railing!

That’s the clearest evidence that he has a death wish.

-What finally convinces Garrus to not shoot Sidonis is Sidonis saying there’s nothing he can do to make his actions right.

I think that’s what Garrus really wanted – to hear Sidonis take responsibility and admit that he fucked up.

Turians take personal responsibility very seriously, so that’s probably what showed Garrus that Sidonis had some chance of doing better.

-The mission summary says that Cerberus has operatives in C-Sec. Lovely. And a bit of foreshadowing for the Citadel Coup in ME3.

Normandy

-Thane says that when he married Irikah, the hanar let him leave their service. He chose to continue to freelance.

The lengths this drell is willing to go to deny he has any culpability in the assassinations he’s performed is impressive.

Also, I wonder how Irikah felt about it?

If nothing else, the assassinations kept Thane from home. Did she ever wish he’d quit and take a job that let him stay with the family? I’m sure he could have found something, even if it didn’t pay as well.

-After killing his wife’s murderers, Thane was passively suicidal until he met Shepard.

Understandable. He’s said repeatedly his wife is what connected him to the world. Without her, he was adrift.

He should have reconnected with Kolyat, but I can understand why he’d feel that Kolyat was better off without him. He did mention in his loyalty mission that he checked in with him after killing his wife’s murderers, but decided to stay away.

-Samara has two conversations after her initial post-loyalty dialogue. Unusual, except for Mordin.

-Unlike everyone else, attempting to initiate a relationship with Samara is renegade.

-She lets you down very gently. She seems genuinely attracted to Shepard but resolute that she is not going to pursue it.

-If you stay renegade throughout, she implies sex without emotion is common for maidens. She’s only interested in sex with a connection.

-The entire point of this conversation is to establish that Samara is not a romance option.

It’s actually pretty funny that Bioware felt this required its own independent conversation.

I’m happy they did so – Bioware leaned hard on asari being “available” in ME1. It’s a good counterbalance to have an asari squadmate that isn’t interested.

-Garrus believes that Shepard will win but they’ll definitely lose people.

I look forward to proving him wrong.

-Good turians follow bad orders and know their place. Garrus is a rebel because he argues against bad decisions.

Garrus in fandom is often considered a “yes man” because he always goes along with Shepard’s decisions. Yet his willingness to question Shepard until his concerns are appeased are what make him a bad turian.

Turians that don’t fit in because they argue too much are probably fast tracked for command or tapped for special operations, such as spectres.

-Turian ships have more operations discipline but greater personal freedom.

I’m curious about what this like. How is operation discipline tighter? What personal freedoms do they have?

I don’t know much about miliatry operations. I suppose they’re given less leeway on how tasks are performed.

For personal freedoms – less strict uniform requirements? Able to take drugs while off duty? Fewer restrictions on relationships?

Give me examples, Bioware! I enjoyed those ME1 info dumps.

-Turians are implied to be highly active. Their ships have training rooms for exercise, combat sims, and they engage in full contact sparring.

I’m left with the impression that one of the responsibilities of their leaders is keeping them busy so they don’t find their own distractions. Like how you need to give a livestock dog a job or they’ll find their own. :) Turians need ACTION and will provide their own if not given any. If you want the ship to remain intact, make them burn off that energy.

-When speaking about the scout he sparred with, Garrus casually says the “betters” in the room were not pleased that they kept drawing.

The choice of the word “betters” is telling of the Hierarchy mindset. I bet Garrus casually uses the word “lessers” too and doesn’t mean it as an insult.