#there are some there not available anymore on Nexus and I NEED them

[raksh-writes]

Oh my god, I just got hit with Such a hardcore urge to do a fresh reinstall of Skyrim and rebuild my mod list from the ground up that it's making it Impossible to focus on anything else and I was supposed to be writing a paper for one of my uni classes today, like why, brain??? Why NOW??? 😭😭

Feels like Im not gonna be able to get my hands on anything else until I do it and it might as well take the whole day ahhhhowpghhiulaergnilaengnalg the fuck is this, help 😭😭

[theneighborhoodwatch]

It makes me sorta sad that people constantly overlook that Poppy is disabled as per her character description. It literally says her puppet is built in a way where other puppets end up being the ones doing most of the work on-set because it's difficult to impossible for her. Poppy isn't baking cakes; she's likely directing other her other friends in how to bake a cake because she's incapable of actually doing most of the labor involved (which is probably a lot more fun when you love in a children's puppet show, and probably becomes way less fun after said show ends). Her daily life likely relies on help from her loved ones. In this case, her friends. She's not just an anxious hermit, she's an anxious *disabled* hermit who probably needs to be checked up on so long as people are able to do that. And depending on what's going on in Welcome Home that might not be a thing that happens anymore. Being left to the mercy of your own disability mental and otherwise while the world falls apart. As a disabled person in a similar position, *that* is some frickin horror.

... OH.

well, now i feel very silly for not considering this earlier, given how much i've talked about how one's autonomy (and how their life is affected by the lack thereof) seems to be something that comes a LOT in both what little we've seen of welcome home proper and what's been alluded to in concept art and some posts scattered around clown's blog. i'd point out that her bio provides an in-show explanation for why other puppets often end up assisting her (i.e. Scared) but i don't think that even has to be mutually exclusive. that fear could be - and probably is - genuine, but like. i Remember both myself* and physically disabled friends scrambling for more "socially acceptable" excuses to get out of something we knew we couldn't do before we knew what was going on with us, and continuing to do so even after finding out because you either knew for a fact that the other person wouldn't take you seriously if you told them you couldn't do (x) thing because of a disability, or because you weren't sure if they would (thanks to the behavior of people who did not.) i'm not Saying that welcome home is aiming to reflect that exact experience, because there isn't nearly enough of welcome home that's publicly available for me to make that claim, but i was reminded of that while thinking about this ask.

i'm picking up what you're putting down is what i think i'm trying to say. i could say More wrt how this ties back into some stuff i've talked about under the "wh speculation" tag before, but i have a hard time putting it into the right words and i don't wanna take too much away from the ask itself. c'est la vie. * to clarify, i am not physically disabled or chronically ill. mentally though, it's a whole other story that i don't feel like getting into on my Funny Puppet Torment Nexus Blog.

[sapphim]

/ / nexus mods profile / / sapphimods tutorials / / tag directory / / character directory / / ko-fi / /

main: @vaxilmores

mod updates free of my bullshit: @sapphimods

faq ☆

↳ tag: #faq

↳ see also: #modding tutorial, #modders resource, #troubleshooting

Right now, most of my focus is on DA2 mods and modding tutorials. I am happy to answer modding questions, especially as they pertain my area of interest.

If you can't figure out where to begin with a mod, or if you have been following my tutorials and have gotten stuck at a certain point in the process, and you haven't been able to find a solution elsewhere, I may be able to help. All I ask is that you be understanding that this is something I volunteer to do with my free time!

If you need troubleshooting help with one of my mods, please do not contact me on anon! It makes it difficult and tedious on my end to get the information I need. Either leave a comment on the Nexus mod page (that is what it is there for!) or message me off-anon. I promise I don't bite.

☆ What's your opinion on Veilguard?

↳ I have none. I haven't been following development.

☆Will you be modding it?

↳ Nope! I hate Frostbite, and my graphics card is older than Inquisition, and also, I hate Frostbite.

☆ How did you/How can I get started modding?

↳ I got my initial start fiddling with others' mods that I had downloaded, fixing minor bugs or tweaking them for personal use, which introduced me to the process without having to start from scratch.

My general advice for getting started is to pick something small in scope to work on, where you will be able to start testing it in game in short order. Being able to see results from your work is key to maintain motivation. However, if this doesn't interest you and there's a bigger project that you're super enthusiastic about, go for it! It is all about the enthusiasm.

Just remember that modding is all trial and error. Sometimes you'll try something and it won't work and you'll have to spend a lot of time figuring out what went wrong. Don't get discouraged when this happens. The mark of a seasoned modder isn't that you stop failing, but that you get better at powering through the failures.

For Dragon Age Origins (and DA2) I have compiled some resources to get started here.

☆ What tool do I need to make mod [x]?

↳ I have a list of tools here that I have used for modding. However, I think often a better mindset to start is "how do I make mod [x]?" Once you know where to begin, you'll have a better idea of what tools will be required.

☆ Do you take requests or commissions?

↳ I do not take requests, unless I have specifically solicited requests for additions to a specific mod.

I am open to the idea of taking commissions for mods of the type that I usually post, but I would have to talk through the idea to get an idea of the scope before I could quote a price.

I do not create mods for Frostbite games anymore.

I will not accept commissions for mesh/model/armor mods, which seem to be the type of mod commission people most often try to solicit.

☆ I have a question about mods for Inquisition or Mass Effect or [other game]!

↳ I can try to answer general knowledge questions or give my opinion on a matter, but I haven't modded Frostbite games like Inquisition or Andromeda for years and I'm too out of touch to answer any specific modding questions.

These days, most modding discussion seems, for better or for worse, to take place on Discord servers, and that is imo your best bet for finding people available to answer questions. So I strongly recommend questions be directed to a server such as the Frosty Toolsuite, DAI Modding, or Mass Effect Modding discord.

For good measure, here's a link to the Dragon Age Origns Modding discord for Origins/DA2 mods.

☆ Can I message you off-tumblr?

↳ Yes, you can DM me on the Nexus, or if we are mutual members of a modding discord server, you should be able to find and DM me from there.

☆ Solas/Abelas/Fenris/Orsino is taller than the other male elves in the game, right?

↳ No. ♡

☆ Are you sure?

↳ Yes. ♡

[nani-nonny]

I honestly thought its up to you if you thought the question is good enough to be put in (BYMH).

1- If DMD were to fight again, will he keep using his old sword despite how old it is?

2- On normal days or when he go out; will DMD wear his arm? Or just leave it at the lair?

3- How much does DMD go out? And how far does he go? Like does he only take stroll on NYC rooftop? Or go far to hidden city?

4- scenario; Caesy is getting bullied at school, what does DMD do?

5- Does DMD still do karaoke? Especially with the kids?

6- I had this annoying hunch; did DMD finally told the rest - hamato family - that the couch he was sleeping on was small for him? If so how did they react?

Well, you’re not wrong about the BYMH part, but I have to see it in order to check if I want it in the peepaw interviews (that and I need a clear indication that it’s for the interviews otherwise I’d answer it for them). Maybe something like: [BYMH] *insert question here*?

And then I’ll save the question for the interview until I get a good amount to write it all out. Sorry for the confusion, I can see why it happened, my bad!

Anyways, answers!

Ooo, good one. I thought about this for a good hour once. And I’m still debating over what I think he would do. I’d think if he were to fight again, he would want his brothers by his side (and by that I mean fight with his old sword) or he would retire the old sword and just fight with whatever is available. But overall, he just isn’t much of a fighter anymore. Sure he fights for Big Mama in the Battle Nexus, but he sees it more as an outlet/helping out his mom because he loves her. If the kids were in some fight, it would have to be wound-inducing for him to jump in (maybe a small cut is his limit), but he trusts in their skills. Other than that, most of the time the sword is hung up in the atrium for him to see whenever (for peace of mind mostly, and for the family to know he’s staying with them).

He never takes it off, or at least tries not to take it off. He’ll only take it off when phantom pain gets too much, and when it comes off he kind of loses balance since it’s such a weighty prosthetic. It doesn’t help that he doesn’t have an arm per say, it’s just his shoulder. So he keeps it on majority of the time, even on normal days. Even after healing, he can’t bear to part with it, not for a single second.

I would say he doesn’t go out often in the first year or so since moving back into the lair. He’d only go to Big Mama’s and back, maybe Draxum’s too if he feels like it. After the first year (and some healing), he’d get the guts to go sightseeing. He’d traverse on rooftops to compare everything that was lost to the war, reminisce the small moments in between battles. Even find the places where his family died. His family didn’t all die in the same perimeter, so he would go pretty far out of NYC. Once, he went too far and didn’t want to come back home right away so he slept until night which caused quite a panic back home. He’d bring Casey with him sometimes to show what was missed out on, point out some old memories, and tell Casey to enjoy everything. He wouldn’t go too far into the Hidden City, especially with the citizens knowing what he looks like. He’d be feared but also surrounded by fans so that’s a no from him.

I would say his first instinct is to pummel the poor kid. But then reasoning would take over and he’d ask Casey if he should get involved. Casey would brush it off, but he’d follow in the shadows and see how Casey would handle it. And Casey is a strong boy, so he wouldn’t have to worry about it when he sees Casey throw a nice jab in the the bully’s cheek. Sure it would cause a small ruckus between the parents and Mama O’Neil but it would ease DMD’s heart that Casey learned to handle himself in this new environment. He’d bring Casey out to the Hidden City for sightseeing guarded by Big Mama’s men as a reward, all expenses paid by Big Mama (and by guarded I mean the crowd would be pushed away at a safe distance from the two.)

DMD wouldn’t participate in karaoke nights at first. Mikey was the first one to ask him if he wanted to join after some time back in the lair. He would push it aside and watch the kids have fun, provide some light snacks as he did, and root for them when they get a high score. It’ll take a a good number of karaoke nights for him to finally join in on the fun.

Mentioning the small couch would be a slip of the tongue, resulting in Draxum’s ass being handed to him in the form of harsh words. Enough for Lil Leon to call Big Mama on the phone to ask her if she knew, which would be a no, “why was I not aware of this treatment by that bimbally fool, my turtley-boo?”, and she would promise to send DMD a luxurious bed and couch to match. Draxum would be forced to sell the couch and replace it with a better one, a bigger couch to fit DMD nicely. Although, it wouldn’t be used by DMD since he lives in the lair. DMD’s new bed and couch would require Lil Leon’s portals to get into the lair.

I really liked the couch question, I honestly hadn’t thought about that! DMD spent a lot of time in Draxum’s apartment, and I had written that he’d wake up with pain all over his body from how uncomfortable it was. He would have forgotten about it too if he didn’t have a loose tongue and mentioned it to the family.

Thank you for asking questions! I’m hoping the answers make sense since I’m not proofreading them hehe

[pixiedurango]

actual HELPFUL Skyrim mods

I’ve been wanting to post about modding my Skyrim experience for a while now. Only the sheer amount of installed and running mods made it an overwhelming endeavor which I couldn’t handle as we speak of 200+ mods as of today. Now I decided to break it down a bit to make it a reasonable post (or a bunch of) that might provide something helpful for the ones that - like me - love the casual game and attempt to find things that help me focusing on the story experience. (If any of you considers those to come cheating, probably it is but I do I and you do you and I wish you all the best. Bye.) I’m going to link to the nexus so everyone can find everything easily. (Also: Power and happiness to all the modders out there. You guys are awesome! 1. LockpickPro just as simple and functional as it sounds. Never want a game without it. I simply lack any patience of the vanilla lockpick system. Also saves a lot of perks you simply won’t have to invest into the lockpicking skills-tree.

2. Simply knock Have you ever known the struggle coming to a house at night, where the guy who sent you on a quest is sleeping and you have to wait for them to wake up? Or being a righteous character who has to get something from somewhere and the door is locked all the fucking time and you have to lockpick the door to get in do fulfill your quest? Worry no more. Simply knock and any friendly npc is most likely to get up and open the door for you whenever.

3. Barenziah Quest Markers Really Bethesda? 24 stones without a single clue? It’s like the equivalent to the dreaded shard search in Inquisition and it sucks just as much. I refuse to go without that markers anymore.

4. Convenient Horses I rarely do horse riding in Skyrim but when I do, I just don’t want my horsey to follow me everywhere through fast travel. Hence I use this handy mod to switch off that annoying feature.

5. Valuable merchants Simply rises the amount of gold to trade for up to 10.000 gold for every merchant in Skyrim.

6. soulgem crafting No link here because I obviously use a mod that is not to find anymore on the nexus and I can’t recommend any of the many current mods because I don’t know about how they work because they do different things than mine which basically just lets you upgrade soul gems at a forge y the ratio 2:1 -  BUT I can highly recommend the Acquisitive Soul Gems Multithreaded mod that will prevent lesser/tinier souls to jump into your valuable grand/black soul gems. Each soul will only go into a fitting soul gem and I find this is very neat of them.

7. Run for your lives is a handy mod that makes civilians flee into their houses or seek shelter anywhere in case of a dragon attack instead of running into the way, getting themselves killed and involuntarily raising your dragonborn’s bounty.

8. Enchanters Merchant Sets up a merchant stand in Whiterun where you can buy every vanilla enchantment via random items. This is probably really close to cheating but getting started with enchanting early in the game is always essential for me so I know I can buy the “carry weight” and “fortify sneak” enchantment (and anything else that comes in handy) early on. Of course you’ll need some (a lot) gold so its not THAT easy peasy anyway.

9. Ars Metallica Smithing mod. I actually use one called smithing 2.0 which I can’t find on the nexus anymore (it seems to be available on the steam workshop though) but it does basically the same things so I think I might link this one here.

10. Armored mage robes I fairly often play mages and it always bugged me that their robes are not armored at all. So this mod fixed that. In the same light I love to use JS Armored Circlets because no matter what I play, warrior or mage, I HATE helmets... I mean I spend 5 hours in the CC what do you expect? Hiding my pretty baby under an ugly helmet? Nope, don’t think so.

11. Glowing Ore Veins 300 - Is a life (and time) saver for me. I think the ore’s glowing is super helpful without being too bright. But I remember before running this mod even in mines I had difficulties to find the ores to mine. 

12. Arrow Conversion Spell - Is this cheating already? Maybe, but its actually super convenient to simply use a spell to upgrade all your arrows into the highest arrow class you have in your inventory. At some point you’ll end up with way too many arrows to ever use and you can go and sell them to make easy gold. I think most of them mods are pretty common and well known but maybe there are peeps out there who are still new to modding and can make some use of this. Also, if people have more recommendations in that light of usefulness, be my guest, reblog and ad.

Also check out my post about my favorite armor mods

[lunartonehana]

After losing the inital title I used for the past year and a half, I decided I’m just gonna put my idea out right now before development for the first release is finished to potentially avoid anymore major losses :’)

Pokémon Gem Nexus

Pokémon Gem Nexus is a story-driven Gen 3 styled game made with Pokémon Essentials v18.1 in RPG Maker XP.

Welcome to the Cosmos Region!

The Cosmos Region is a place known for it’s order and drive to always improve the quality of life for its citizens. You play as an upcoming 16 year old trainer, and apply to the Cosmos League with two of your childhood friends. Cosmos has been without a champion for a decade, and it’s finally time for someone to step up to the plate! However, the mysterious evil organization Team Psyche threatens the peace that’s been upheld for so long and it’s up to you and your friends to stop them.

The Gem Phenomenon

The Gem Phenomenon has existed for thousands of years in Cosmos, but it’s still shrouded in so much mystery. From what is currently known, Pokémon experience some type of mutation within the shrines scattered across the region that causes them to adorn gems and change typings. In order to access shrines, you must defeat “Gem Holders” that act as the Gym leaders in Cosmos. As you compete and gain more badges in the Cosmos League, more shrines and gem formed pokémon will become available for you to access!

Features:

A brand new region, Cosmos, with many places to explore and find the secrets too.

All the starters, Kanto to Galar, are available to choose from.

Regional variants classified as “Gem Forms”

18 Gyms (2 planned for the first version)

HM Items! Society has progressed past the need for HMs.

Hard Level Caps! Suffer.

Hangout Events! Get to know your friends better and develop a bond with them.

Quests! You can help the people of Cosmos and get rewarded for your good deeds. Who knows? Some might alter the path of the story…

Your Choices Matter! Throughout the game, the player will have to make choices that impact events in the story.

This is currently a solo passion project, so development might progress a bit slow.

[gayliensav]

Oh, Baby, I am a Wreck When I'm Without You

I need you here to stay.

Post-canon, Adam and Michael get the ending they deserved.

Read on AO3

Staring down at the key in his hand in disbelief, almost with a little bitterness too, Adam Milligan let out a laugh.

“It’s not a joke, Adam!”

Adam looked up at his brother, Sam -his only living brother at this point, apparently- blue eyes swimming with tears, “You think this is funny ?” he snapped, “You think giving me this is going to fix anything?”

Sam took a shaky breath, “I’m not trying to fix anything with you, I know that’s not possible. But I...I can’t stay there, not without Dean, or Cas, o-or Jack. I can’t do this anymore. And...you’re John’s son too, you have just as much of a right to the bunker as we do. You might as well use it.”

Adam stared down at the key again.

“Do you really have anywhere else to go?” Sam asked bluntly.

Adam glared at him, “I would if you idiots didn’t let Michael get killed.”

“Michael let himself get killed by going back to Chuck!” Sam yelled at him, “Get it through your head! The minute you were gone, he went back.”

Adam gripped the key tightly then, shoving it in his pocket, “Thanks,” he snapped, “For the place. But I’m not talking about this with you,” he said, starting to stalk away.

“Adam,” Sam called after him.

Adam stopped, but didn’t turn around.

“For what it’s worth...I’m sorry for your loss,” Sam called to him, “And...for everything else. I know it’s not worth anything, but I am.”

Adam pulled his coat tighter around himself, “Yeah...you too,” he mumbled, hurrying away.

.............

Adam turned the light on in the bunker, listening to the place start up again. A part of him wondered how long it had been off before Sam finally tracked him down, but the other part of him didn’t really care what his brother was doing anymore.

He couldn’t bring myself to care about much anymore.

“What’s happening, Michael?”

“I...I think my father is destroying humanity. Adam, I-“

“It’s getting dark.”

“Adam, I’m so sorry, I love you.”

“Mike-“

“Adam!”

.............

Adam stared at himself in the bathroom mirror. He didn’t look like himself, not anymore. He’d spent the few months before Sam tracked him down just drifting from place to place without any real destination in mind. He didn’t have anything now, at least before he’d always had Michael.

He had dark circles under his eyes and his hair was grown out slightly and it was a mess. Adam swore that his hair lost a little of its brightness without Michael.

A lot of things lost brightness without Michael, actually.

Adam felt his eyes sting with tears again and he gripped the sides of the sink, taking a few shaky breaths to try to stop himself from crying. It was useless though, he found himself crying at least once a day.

He felt so empty, so lost. He didn’t know what he was supposed to do without the archangel who had been with him for what felt like over a thousand years.

This wasn’t supposed to happen. They were supposed to have a life together, out in the woods in a small house away from anyone that could find them. They were supposed to have each other.

Adam felt a sob rip from his chest and he slammed his fist into the mirror.

................

Adam was lying in a bed -alone, per usual- he’d claimed in an empty room in the bunker. He was staring down at his now-stitched and bandaged hand, cursing his sudden humanity that gave him injuries.

That really stung.

So did humanity, really.

Adam closed his eyes, despite knowing that he wouldn’t get more than an hour of sleep.

..............

Adam was unsure of the actual timeline of his relationship with the archangel Michael. They’d talked, on occasion, while they were in the cage. He knew it was probably around the hundred year mark before they actually got more in-depth with their talks, until Michael was more curious about him than Adam was about the archangel.

The two hundred year mark, Michael was falling. He was calling him “love” and “dear” when he spoke to him and they held hands all the time. Holding hands with an archangel’s smaller version of a true form would seem weird to most people, but not to Adam. He clung to the light of the archangel like a lifeline and Michael did the same.

The three hundred year mark, Adam was quite enjoying himself, for it being Hell. At least he got an archangel boyfriend out of his shitty deal with Heaven. He spent most days with his soul wrapped in the warmth of Michael’s Grace, listening to stories about the beginning of everything.

“Your soul is so beautiful, love.”

“When we get out of here, we will be together, dear. It is only a matter of time.”

“I will keep you safe, my love.”

“My Adam.”

“I love you.”

............

Adam’s eyes snapped open and he stared up at the ceiling. He glanced over at the clock and sighed.

Yeah, he was right about that hour of sleep  

...........

He ended up in the bunker’s library, surprised about the sheer amount of books in it. He looked at the titles in various different languages, his hand stopping on what he recognized as Enochian.

Being bonded with an archangel for a thousand years at least had some benefits, he had time to learn the language.

Adam pulled the book from the shelf slowly, going over to one of the chairs and cracking it open. The spine cracked as it opened, making Adam think it probably hadn’t been opened in years.

His eyes drifted over the text, absorbing the Men of Letters findings about angels, most importantly the archangels.

It seems archangels require someone descended from Cain and Abel to actually have a vessel able to withstand them. All other reported vessels have deteriorated over the years.

Adam’s breath caught in his throat as he got lower onto the page.

Angels are not sent to Heaven, Hell, or Purgatory after their deaths. It is reported they are sent somewhere else, somewhere Empty. Below is a spell that has worked on many occasions for a vessel to awaken an archangel, specifically. Do not attempt this without knowing what you’ll possibly unleash by doing this and do not attempt this without a proper vessel available.

You’ll need the following: Salt, blood of a nephilim biologically related to the angel you are contacting, your own blood, a cloth, and something to start a fire.

Adam stared down at the page, his hand shaking a little.

“I have a nephew, apparently. His name is Jack.”

“How do you know?”

“I can sense him, that Lucifer had reproduced.”

Jack. Jack had to still be alive, right?

Adam flipped through the pages rapidly, hoping he could find something on summoning a nephilim, but it didn’t give him much other than some details on nephilim.

“Okay,” Adam took a shaky breath, “Okay, fine,” he said before closing his eyes and praying.

“Jack, I...I hope you can hear me. My name is Adam, I was Michael’s vessel. I need your help,” he peeked an eye open, “C’mon, man, Heaven owes me at least that much.”

There was the sound of a rush of wings and Adam opened his eyes to see a teenager standing in front of him.

“That was easier than I thought,” Adam mumbled.

“I...usually keep a line of communication open to Sam, in case he needs anything. I must have accidentally left that line open to any relatives following Dean’s death,” Jack said quietly, “How can I help you, Adam?”

Adam grabbed the book quickly, stumbling a little as he did. He walked over to the table, putting the book down and opening to the page, “I’m going to bring Michael back.”

“I...do not know if that’s a good idea,” Jack said softly.

“He had trauma, Jack, he was abused by his Father for eternity. Please,” Adam choked out, “He made a mistake, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t deserve a chance at life.”

Jack stared at him, tilting his head, “You love him.”

“So much,” Adam whispered, “I genuinely...don’t know what to do without him,” he smiled weakly, “We were going to have a life together, you know. A normal one, with a house just to ourselves,” he felt his eyes fill with tears again, “He’d probably loved to have been able to actually be an uncle to you.”

Jack suddenly waved his hand and conjured up a knife as well as a bowl, “Here,” he said softly. He cut his hand and Adam watched in shock as he dropped the blood into the bowl. The wound closed up after a few moments right before his eyes.

Jack smiled, “Everyone deserves a second chance, Adam Milligan...my uncle included.”

“Thank you,” Adam choked out, “Jack, thank you so much.”

Jack nodded and smiled, “If you ever need anything else, you know how to contact me. Good luck, Adam.”

Then he was gone.

Adam stared down at the bowl for a moment before quickly snatching it along with the book like it would disappear if he left it for too long.

.......

So that’s how he ended up here, making a circle of salt on the floor of his new bedroom on the floor. He was moving carefully, checking back at the book every few moments to make sure he was doing everything perfectly.

Adam set the bowl down then, along with everything else that had been on the list. He kneeled down, glancing over at the book that was sitting beside the circle as he did.

Adam grabbed the knife, wincing as he cut his own palm, watching his own blood drip down into the bowl. He quickly wrapped it in a bandage after to stop the blooding.

He dipped the cloth in the bowl Jack had used before putting the now bloodied cloth into the metal bowl and sitting it down, looking down at it.

“Well,” Adam whispered, lighting the match, “Here goes nothing,” he said before dropping it onto the cloth, watching the bowl light up almost immediately.

He closed his eyes then, starting the spell. It was long, he had to look down at the spell in the book a few times for help and was almost sure his poor pronunciation would ruin the spell.

He took a shaky breath as he finished up the spell, “...qui dormiunt, ad dominum formosum. Nexus noster, restitutus est. Surgas ex abysso, in lumine existas!”

The fire went a little brighter and then a rift opened on the wall, to Adam’s shock, making him fall back a little. The black void opened and light started to glow.

“Michael...Michael, it’s me, it’s Adam,” he said quickly, recognizing the archangel’s true form anywhere.

A misshapen hand, one glowing blue, reached out to him. He almost stumbled to get to him, linking his hand with his form almost immediately.

Nothing happened.

Adam took a shaky breath, “You actually need an official yes again, halo? It’ll always be a yes for you.”

Then Michael’s form slammed into his body and the portal closed. The human stumbled back, falling onto the bed as he felt a familiar warmth go over his entire body. He got dizzy and he knew it was because Michael was so excited.

“Adam...my Adam.”

“I’m here,” Adam breathed out. His vision was sharper again, like he could see the dust particles in the air, and he could hear the lights buzzing, but didn’t mind it. He was used to it, he was used to being a little not human while being Michael’s vessel.

“You’re here,” Michael repeated in his head, his true voice just a little too loud in Adam’s head out of his excitement, reminding Adam of an oversized, overpowered golden retriever.

“I am,” Adam laughed, wetness stinging his eyes again.

“My Adam,” Michael said, curling his Grace tightly around Adam’s soul, trying to get impossibly closer than he already was, protectiveness radiating off of him, “You’re here. You’re alive. ”

Adam pushed back a little with his soul, like he was trying to wrap around Michael’s Grace as well and Adam felt more happiness radiating from the archangel.

“My love,” Michael whispered, “It’s so good to see you again.”

“Never do that again, okay?” Adam asked, “We’re never separating again. Ever.”

“Not for the rest of eternity,” Michael agreed, “And maybe a little after that.”

[davids-cartoon-corkboard]

I know we’re all losing our minds over the idea of Rise ending too soon, but I don’t think we should panic panic unless we get confirmation from a crew member. The “omg they’re gonna cancel the show!!!” scare popped up in the Steven Universe fandom every couple of months and never amounted to anything. Some folks just like to stir up drama. And those in the Gravity Falls fandom know that creators aren't above trolling their fans! As for the episodes themselves...

1. “E-Turtle Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: The turtles must enter Splinter’s mind when a powerful foe returns.” 

The Shredder doesn’t have the mind-control collar on in the gif DVE posted on twitter. And it looks like he’s saying something, instead of just making animal screeches. He’s officially back in Evil Samurai mode, y’all!

Splinter actively ran away from the “destiny” the Hamato clan foisted on him. All those starlets he dated and discotheques he danced in were probably attempts to forget his austere upbringing. Now that he actually needs information about the Shredder, he just can’t consciously remember it. So what will the turtles do to look into his subconscious? The prefix “e-” usually stands for “electronic”, like in the word “email”. Donnie’s the “e-turtle”, and the one who most needs to develop his mystic abilities. Perhaps his first step will be to combine some machine with the already established “mind meld” technique, allowing them to sift through Splinter’s memories? We’ll definitely see some scenes from his childhood, though I’d also like a look at some moments with Big Mama or the turtle tots.

2. “Shreddy or Not: The Turtles find a new ally when they meet Splinter’s distant relative.” The episode title sounds like “ready or not (here I come)”, referencing the game of hide-and-seek. Soooo yeah, the turtles and co. are all going to be running/hiding from the Shredder. Fun! 🙃 But how does Splinter’s “distant relative” factor in?

Splinter destroyed the scroll that let him contact the Hamato clan ancestors. It wouldn’t make sense for a new character to show up with no foreshadowing. Therefore, the relative must be the woman who allegedly defeated the Shredder five hundred years ago. (I’m assuming her name is Karai because, once again, you can pry the theory that Foot Recruit is Casey Jones out of my cold, dead hands.) But I don’t think the turtles will be actively searching for her. It’s a little hard to meditate onto the astral plane or whatever while a world-ending demon is actively hunting you down. And I don’t think Karai will be actively searching for them, either. Otherwise she would have shown up with the Hamato ancestors when Splinter used the scroll, or manifested in somebody’s dreams, or used ghosty powers to knock stuff over in the lair until someone took notice.

I think the Shredder swallowed Karai’s soul five hundred years ago. I think she’s been trapped alone inside the Armor this whole time. I think she’s given up.

I don’t know if the Shredder will need to take a new host, but it could be a useful way to hold one of his enemies hostage. Y’all know I’m banking on Raph: he’s the biggest, he’s the strongest, he’s the leader, he’s the eldest son. But if that happened... Karai wouldn’t be alone anymore. She’d have someone with her to fight the Shredder. She’d have hope again. And hope makes someone a valuable ally indeed.

3. “Anatawa Hitorijanai”, according to Google Translate, means “you are not alone”. The Shredder is going to have a hard time containing two souls at once, so he’ll pull some mindscape shenanigans and try to trap them in memories of when they felt alone and helpless. Karai and Raph will have to help each other stay grounded in the present so they can keep fighting. Karai’s memories would involve her strict upbringing in the Hamato Clan, and how horribly her attempt to become powerful via the Armor backfired. And we know something awful happened to Raph to give him such an extreme fear of being alone. He straight-up has dissociative identity disorder, which only forms after a young child undergoes serious long-term trauma. The Shredder forcibly digging up painful memories that probably only “belong” to Savage Raph and spilling them out onto the rest of the alters is probably going to have some negative consequences on down the line. But in the short term, such a strong mental shakeup could awaken every alter (perhaps we’ll even see someone new?) and get them to muster the full force of their soul to take back control of their body.

Occasionally we’d cut to what’s happening on the outside as the rest of the cast attempts to free Raph and minimize damage to the city.,

4. “Rise”. This episode title doesn't give us a lot to work with. "Steven Universe Future" was an epilogue series for "Steven Universe", maybe "Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" is a prologue series for "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles"? It at least sounds like it'll be the end of a story arc! I still don't think the turtles can beat the Shredder in an outright fight, so what can they do to stave him off?

I imagine Raph’s gonna be knocked tf out after they free him from the Armor. And when Raph isn’t available, Leo steps up. He'll create the longest-reaching portal he can, and boot the Shredder out into space (this will set up a future space arc, maybe the Triceratons or the Kanabo find the Armor and decide to check out what else Earth has to offer.)

But Leo would no doubt already be injured from the fight. Perhaps the Shredder straight-up chucked him through a window, as has happened in previous iterations. Creating such a powerful portal would put his body under a massive amount of strain. When Leo said “win at all costs” back in “Air Turtle”, he was being egotistical and selfish. It would be delightful for that line to reprise in a self-sacrificial context. Ironically, the episode titled “Rise” will end as Leonardo falls to the ground, and doesn’t get back up. Cut to black. Roll credits.

(What’s a measly little coma to a Battle Nexus Champion? He’ll be fine... right?)

[annakie]

After starting my new job in the fall, I have uh.. upgraded my rig a bit.  I joked on Twitter the other day that it’s name is now “The Wind, Baby!”

Boring computer talk and some stats under the cut.

I have the same case, but I’ve swapped out nearly every other component of my machine in the last couple of months... including the video card.  Look, I know that the 3090 FE isn’t technically a “Gaming Card” (even though it was advertised as such) and Gamers Nexus tore it to shreds for the claims, but I’d been trying to get a 3080 for MONTHS and I was actually able to find a 3090 FE at retail price (on Best Buy’s website and picked it up in-store), it was the only thing available and I was tired of waiting so uh... yeah.  It took me awhile to justify pulling the trigger and I almost didn’t go pick it up. 

It’s not the card I wanted, but I decided to keep it, and I’m now happy with that decision.

I justified it to myself by telling myself I’m gonna skip the 40XX series all together so really I’m spending the same amount on this card as I would have for two XX80 cards.  Plus I sold my 2060 that I had before to offset the cost a bit more.  The pricetag was still insane for a single piece of hardware but... welp.  I can have a little insanity, as a treat.

Setting literally everything to ultra and getting amazing framerates is really nice, though, gotta say.

My biggest regret is that the FE series don’t have RGB.  Like, it looks very sleek and high end, and yeah there is that little bit of white lighting, but I really would have liked pretty lights like my 2060 RTX had.  I know I could add a light strip or something but it’s not the same.  Also worried that I may need to buy a brace, though most people say you don’t need it.  IDK.

Also, I need to buy other fans for the front case fans, which you can’t see in the pics because the ones I have were pretty nice fans when I bought them, but they’re also just like, static purple LEDs (which are invisible to the naked eye but the purple is clearly visible in those pics) and I’d like to be able to control the colors a bit more.

I set the lights (and entire case) to a Tom Servo theme for now though, and I’m happy with it, but eventually I’ll probably do other things with it.  Maybe need to dig up a few other small toys that won’t obstruct airflow to theme it out with.  Why isn’t there a Kaidan action figure!? 

Putting this here more as a reference for myself when people ask what my hardware is so I don’t have to go back and pull the list from where I bought them anymore:

Motherboard: MSI MAG Z490 Tomahawk Gaming Motherboard Processor: Intel Core i5-10600K Desktop Processor CPU Fan: Cooler Master Hyper 212 RGB Black Edition CPU Air Cooler RAM: Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 3200MHz C16 LED Desktop Memory - Black (I replaced the fan with one of the ones below.) GPU - GE Force RTX 3090 FE Case: NZXT H500 - Compact ATX Mid-Tower Case PSU: CORSAIR - RMx Series 850W ATX12V 2.4/EPS12V 2.92 80 Plus Gold Modular Power Supply - Black Fans: 3x (soon to be 5x) Cooler Master MasterFan MF120

Monitor 1: ASUS TUF Gaming VG289Q 28" HDR Gaming Monitor 4K Monitor 2: ASUS VE278H 27" Full HD 1920x1080 2ms HDMI VGA Back-lit LED Monitor Headset: Logitech G935 Wireless DTS:X 7.1 Surround Sound LIGHTSYNC RGB PC Gaming Headset - Black, blue Mouse: Logitech G600 MMO Gaming Mouse, RGB Backlit Keyboard: Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 for Business - Wired (It’s not cool but I don’t care, I love me this keyboard and have bought many of them over the years and need to find a backstock of more of them.)

Storage:

C:\ Samsung 840 Series SSD 250 GB for Windows and misc. programs installed, and one day when I’m not lazy this one is going away and my C:\ will be moved to this one here below...

1x WD_Black SN750 1TB NVMe Internal Gaming SSD

B:\ 1x WD Black 2TB Performance Desktop Hard Disk Drive - 7200 RPM SATA 6 Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5 Inch  - WD2003FZEX   (Slow but reliable storage for pictures, media, backups of stuff from old hard drives, general file / archive drive.)

G:\Games - Samsung 850 EVO 500TB SSD for video games… only about 50gb free on this one.

M:\ (M for MassEffect) - another 250gb Samsung 840 Series for all 4 Mass Effect games + Mods, also all three Dragon Ag games and The Sims 4 are on there too.  I’d move The Sims off if it wasn’t such a hassle.

S:\ - Samsung 860 QVO 1TB SSD… More gaming storage

V\: Video Games - 1TB SSD for EVEN MORE Video Games…  I think this is also Samsung, but not 100% sure.    Actually filled this one up with Fallout 4 mods last week and had to... delete games. 

Yeah I’m not upgrading a damn thing for like 3 to five more years.  Except maybe going up to 32gb RAM. :p

And of course, the second game I’m playing with this beast is Fallout 4.  Still, heavily heavily modded with 4k textures and other big mods and it’s been running smooth.

The first game was Cyberpunk 2077 and no regrets.  It was freaking beautiful and I can’t wait til it gets patched up and some more content added so I can play it again.  I had decided to preorder the game (I let myself preorder one thing a year, this was it for 2020) and blacklisted the game both here and on twitter so I didn’t see most of whatever controversies people keep talking about.  Game ran decent for me on my 2060 with RTX on, and runs amazing now. Honestly the prettiest game I’ve ever played, and I had a lot of fun with it.  I still log in and just drive around sometimes to see all the pretty.

REALLY hoping the Mass Effect remaster has RTX.  Can’t wait to see the game in 4k, maybe looking even better than ALOT makes it look.

And that the modders can make their mods work with it, too.

[beautifulterriblequeen]

What if moonshadow elves lost knowledge about themselves?

Hello, hope you have a nice day ! :D

(wait, is it day, for you?) hem! Anyway.

I was analylzing Moonshadow elves again and now I’m asking myself something, wonder what you would think about it:

Remember my “epiphany about the moon arcanum”?, when I said there’s maybe another side of their arcanum Moonshadow elves don’t know about? Something more life-light related:hope.

At first I said “they don’t know about” without really thinking about it. But, what if it’s true? I mean, what if there truly is a part they don’t know about their arcanum, or maybe forgot along the years? What if the war made Moonshadow elves focus so much on death-kill and all they kinda…. lost some of their knowledge about themselves? 

(I think I remember one of your old analysis (I think it was you, I can’t find it anymore), where you compared “young ethari” in the endcredits to the actual one. Where we saw him first doing jewelry, full of hope about life, and the actual one who let that aside to focus on the war) 

Add to this their community is described as “really close-knit”, which means more or less isolationism and so a stagnant, unable to evolve society. A society where the same rules were applied for centuries and so inevitably lost their deep meaning with time. 

I thought it was maybe exaggerated to think this way, but then I remembered the creators said there is 5000years of history in TDP. Even with longer lifespan, there’s no way elves didn’t forget some things with time. (I compare this situation to another one: some discoveries were recently made in egypt, and we learned that a few thousands years ago egyptian themselves re-discovered things they had discovered several centuries prior and forgot)

So I tried to find proof in the show and the novelization, and guess what? We have some! (or, well, it’s more my HC, but as I said, it’ just a theory)

I think this way especially because of Runaan, who was so sure there was “only one way to release”. But then, Zym came and cut Rayla’s ribbon. My personal HC on this is that only the life who was supposed to be avenged can release the assassin from the binding. It would make sense when you know Moonshadow elves “take life but they do not take it lightly”. But even if I’m mistaking, the central fact is that there is more than one way and, clearly, Moonshadow elves don’t know it (if the leader of the assassins doesn’t, then who could?)

What I find interesting here, is that Runaan recites this ritual at the beginning, about how precious life is, like a litany but the way he insists (especially in the novel) about killing Ezran even after he saw the egg, could be the proof it’s just that, a ritual. A ritual whose words lost all their sense, their deep meaning for his people.

Ok, it’s not much, but I think the combination of isolationism, stucking to rules without understanding them deeply and time, is the perfect recipe to lose your way, no? 

Oh, and a crazy other point in between these two theories about “hope” and “lost knowledge” woud be: If there is another aspect of the moon, other elves more hope-related (like Ethari or Rayla), why not another form?

Like sunfire elves have heat and light-being mode, Moonshadow elves could have something else too?. It’s probably stupid, I’m only thinking this way because of how Rayla feels while in moonshadow form in the novelization. It’s not that she hates it or something, but it makes her feel dizzy, as if she wasn’t suited for this. And if not, maybe it’s because she’s suited for another form? 

(sorry, I hope I’m coherent on this one, I’m a little exhausted and my thoughts are a little messy ^^’)

______________

Okay, @lily-lilou​, just let me catch my breath, this whole thing is a ride and I loved it. We definitely vibing here, fam.

whew

Okay, from the top, because I’ve had a lot of these thoughts myself and I’m so stoked to see someone else independently coming up with them!

Yes 100% to Moonshadows losing a part of their own history. (And yeah, I do have a post somewhere on Ethari’s evolution. Probably called it that iirc) If we’re right about Moonshadows having lived in Katolis before the lands were divided, living right near their own Nexus as the Sunfires still do, then when they packed up and left, it’s very possible they literally couldn’t bring everything with them.

I have a quirky little hc that there are still, to this day, Moonshadow villages hiding behind ancient protection spells in Katolis, and that people wander past them every day and have no idea. But it’s one thing not to be able to pack up your actual village. It’s another to leave behind records of your people’s past, their accomplishments and dealings and discoveries.

*eyes Lujanne’s truly massive library, with its huge walls covered in runes and books* This is where the full history of the Moonshadow people probably is kept. And no one has access to it but her.

Those who headed east would only know what they carried with them, and what was handed down orally through the generations. But see, if my headcanon about the Moonshadow assassins being created at that time ends up being true, then that’s probably bad news for history and truth. When you create a whole new class within your culture, you need to bolster it with ideology. You use myth, cultural norms, and current events to make it seem important.

You tell everyone that being an assassin is the most honorable job there is. And then it’s suddenly cool to be an assassin. 

If there were no Moonshadow assassins before the humans were booted out west, then everything Runaan says to Rayla, everything he believes, is pretty young compared to his people’s full history, which he may not know, at least in its true and undistorted form. It’s an illusion. Rhetoric. Propaganda meant to hold soft elves who deeply value life to the hardest task they’ll ever undertake: taking that life from another, for a cause they cannot turn away from, a purpose they are culturally indebted to. Because their people, their princess (?), was the one who asked for the humans to be spared, and so every mistake the humans make from that point on is the Moonshadow elves’ duty to handle.

Runaan was wrong about how many ways there are to release. Has Zym truly been the only victim who wasn’t actually dead, in a whole thousand years? Honestly, probably not, knowing how politics works. But see, if you have an elite squad devoted to serving Xadia, and you tell them that their hands will literally fall off and they will die if they don’t do their jobs because there is only one way to release the ribbon they’re honor-bound to wear, they will take their target or die trying. And if you maybe exaggerated reports of the victim’s death for political purposes and actually have them in a dungeon, or they fled to the human lands as a refugee, or any number of other squirrelly options that Moonshadows aren’t naturally inclined to consider, then you can literally get away with murder-by-proxy. Or containment. Or intimidation. Or whatever your purpose is in taking out a human target who may or may not even be guilty of the crime you allege against them. It might not even be Zubeia and Avizandum’s fault. Unless they can detect truth and lies, they can be deceived by someone unscrupulous with an agenda of their own.

Long paragraph long, there are a lot of problems with the existence and practical duties of Moonshadow assassins. They’re kind of like the War Doctor: born form conflict, and thus only able to serve it, instead of peace. Yes, we all want Runaan to get his happy ending, retire, go home to his soft husband. But really, the whole institution of the assassins needs to go. It was born of war, and if Xadia and the human lands make peace, truly, then the assassins should be dissolved. As I said in one of my fics, Moonshadow assassins are Xadia’s dark magic, turning death into power. It’s gotta stop on both sides.

One of my oneshots for January’s Ruthari Week played with the idea of Ethari having a moonform instead of a shadowform, because yes to elves having two kinds of forms in each culture! I would love to see that for all the elves. And if we use Sunfire elves as a kind of roadmap, with “sun” and “fire” being the heat- and light-beings, then maybe the other elves get their two forms from their names as well. Or so my headcanon went for that fic: a moon form to balance the shadow form, where the elf’s body can glow like the full moon. I didn’t really touch on what that form’s ability would be, but I suppose, logically, it would serve as a portable full moon, powering other nearby Moonshadows even when the moon was down, or new, or a small crescent.

Okay, that’s just fun. I like that idea a lot. The only time “just stand there and look pretty” can be used as a battle tactic!

I can see Rayla getting to have the rare Moonshadow power. That would make her a good balance for Callum and his unusual arcanum as a human. Part misfit, part superpower. It would also probably be a power that puts her closer to Ethari’s soft and protective attitude, no matter what the power really is, since the assassins in Moonshadow culture have clearly adopted their natural shadowy form as a mission tactic, attacking specifically on full moon nights. Literally any other kind of power is probably going to be softer, lighter, more lively and bright, in concept if not literally so. Maybe the other power kicks in on new moons? or is available at any time? I really hope we get a second Moonshadow power of some kind. I am down for all the extra worldbuilding!

Thanks once again for your thoughts! *fist bump* Moonshadow elves. You get it.

[niqhtlord01]

Humans are weird: Super Villains

Humanity’s technological progress had increased steadily at the turn of the 21st century; some even arguing that more advancements were made in various fields within two decades than the last hundred years. That paled however to the first year after first contact with alien species.  Within roughly a year human technology was augmented by other species and skyrocketed to what was once thought of as science fiction. Power cores that could generate enough energy for a hundred story building the size of a lunchbox, cars that could fly with the push of a button, robotic prosthetics that could lift cargo containers, and the piece de resistance, a functional jetpack that didn’t singe your legs or mess up your hair.  The wonders now available and easily affordable allowed numerous human inventors exceed their wildest imaginations. For all the good that came with these new technological marvels, there were those that turned their eyes to darker prospects. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Far from the human core worlds lay the world of Vunus, a prosperous trading world that had become the center of intergalactic trade in the region as it rested on a nexus of three heavily populated systems.  Naturally many of the trading organizations, guilds, and corporations all wanted a stake on the planet to show their wealth and power to not only new clients but also their competitors. The most wealthy of these would base their headquarters on the planet and would house the vast wealth of their enterprise inside their vaults.  One such conglomerate was the Orion Foundation, arguably the most wealthy group on the planet. They had established certain monopoly's for ship building metals, through legal and questionable means. Now if anyone wanted to build a ship bigger than a fishing boat they had to make a deal with Orion, and the deals were always in their favor.  Their headquarters was in the capital city of Vunus, a monolith of polished steel so large that it took up roughly nine city blocks and reached all the way to the stratosphere with antigravity generators held at every other floor to keep the structure from tipping over.  The lobby alone was so richly decorated it was worth the sum of a mining colonies yearly revenue. Adorned with gem encrusted statues from all over the known galaxy, furniture made from the rarest of animals with the softest furs, with tiled floors made from solid ruby.  To a tourist or new client it must have looked like the pinnacle of society, but to Shlivek the front desk concierge it looked like gaudy taste. It may have been because he spent his entire work day looking at it, but to him it appeared as if it was rich people thought wealth looked like, regardless of actual taste.  Day in day out he would watch the same routine of clients walking in to be greeted by specialized handlers and be taken on a tour of the structure before being whisked away to one of the higher floors with a dynamic view of the surrounding area to sign the deal.  As he looked up from his terminal he saw yet another group approaching. Today the lobby was only populated by a few dozen individuals, mostly tourists, and some security personnel standing around the edges of the room. The approaching group navigated between the passing crowds as a representative exited a nearby elevator and went to meet with them.  As they got closer Shilvek began noticing some oddities about this new group. They were all wearing black robes that obscured their appearance. The one in the front was the smallest of the group, but from the manner of their stride and how none of the others outpaced them they were clearly the leader.  As the group approached the representative some of them broke away and began walking in different directions. The representative had reached the group and held out a hand for the leader to shake. The robed figure looked down at the hand then back up at the representative, an awkward silence descending before the representative withdrew their hand.  Shilvek couldn’t hear what they were saying but looking at the face of the company rep he could tell that they were uncomfortable for reasons he did not know. The reps were trained to handle different culture clients, but something in their demeanor made it obvious something was wrong.  As they ushered the group forward to the elevator, Shilvek noticed some of the guards begin moving towards the group. The moment the rep had turned their back to the group things flew into action. The leader shouted something and all of them aside from their leader dropped to the ground. The Short leader grabbed hold of their robe and flung it off their body revealing a strange sight to Shilvek.  The leader was wearing a body glove of intricate triangles with two massive gauntlets on their hands. His head was covered with a strange eyeless helmet with a black screen where the mouth would have been. As the guards began dashing forward to grab them the leader raised a gauntlet and pointed at them.  With a thunderous clap something invisible shot out from the gauntlet, pushing aside furniture and tourists like rag dolls, before hitting the guards. The guards were flung backwards violently and smashed into the gold walls, their bodies slumping to the ground leaving a crimson stain of blood on the wall.  One of the tourists screamed and things moved rapidly from there. The other robed figures threw off their robes revealing similar pattern body gloves with the addition of projectile weaponry. The remaining guards were cut down before they could react as the leader slowly began walking to Shilvek.  Shilvek reached under the counter and hit the panic button. Sirens began blaring and metal grates fell down over all the exits to the lobby sealing the room while a protective shell of reinforced glass fell around Shilvek’s counter.  He saw some of the tourists desperately grabbing the grate now blocking the front door before being dragged away by the armed thugs. All the guards were now dead, but the intruders were trapped in the room and a warning had been automatically sent to the police. Shilvek knew they’d be here in minutes as a private agreement had been set up ensuring their protection first and foremost.  A tap on the protective glass brought Shilvek back to the moment and he looked down to see the strange helmet leader tapping on the glass with their gauntlet. There black screen had a red line that was rising and falling like a wave and Shilvek assumed that this criminal was speaking, but there was no opening for him to hear what he was saying.  The criminal must’ve realized this as they began using hand movements gesturing that they wanted the glass shell to go back into the ceiling. Shilvek shook his head and the criminal once again motioned for it to be retracted. When he shook his head once again the criminal placed the gauntlet flat against the glass and gestured their men to stand back.  Shortly after placing their gauntlet on the glass Shilvek could hear a faint vibration sound growing in intensity. In his horror he saw the glass beginning to crack and break in an ever growing web from the point of contact and with a loud shattering roar the shell quickly crumbled and fell to the floor forcing Shilvek to duck under his desk.  “Much better. It’s hard to have a conversation when neither can hear the other.” Shilvek was cowering under his desk but could hear the voice clearly. It had a strange synthetic tone to it.  “It’s also hard when one party is hiding under a desk. Why don’t you stand up?”  Shilvek didn’t move.  “I just shattered reinforced glass meant to stop plasma rounds with the palm of my hand. You really think a wooden desk would protect you any better?”  At that Shilvek didn’t need anymore prompting and slowly rose.  “Now, why don’t you lift the security lockdown.”  Shilvek looked down at the leader then around at the rest of the lobby. The remaining tourists that had been unable to escape were now all huddled together in a corner and surrounded by armed thugs. The bodies of the guards had been dragged and placed in an opposite corner.  The leader tapped the desk and drew Shilvek’s attention. “It’s rude to look away when someones talking to you. Now, remove the lockdown. I won’t ask again.”  “I-I-I-I can’t do that.” Shilvek stuttered. “Once it’s engaged only the police can remove it.”  The leader craddled their chin with one of their hands and paced back and forth for a bit. They stopped and looked at Shilvek before outstretching a hand.  “It just occured to me that I haven’t introduced myself. You can call be Sound Byte, and you are?” Shilvek unsteadily reached out with his own hand and shooked Sound Byte’s. “Shilvek.” “Shilvek, what an interesting name; rolls off the tongue like a lyric.” Sound Byte remarked as he kept shaking his hand. Shilvek tried to let go but Sound Byte’s hand would not budge.  “Well Shilvek, I must say it’s rather disappointing that you can’t remove the lockdown for me.” “I told you,  I can’-” Sound Byte shook his head. “Oh no, I understand that you can’t do anything for an automated system. It’s just that I’m disappointed that a man such as you with your rhythmic name now no longer has a reason for me to keep you alive.”  Shilvek felt the gauntlet’s  grip dig deeper into his hand. “Tell me, did you know there’s a sound frequency that makes your species blood vessels violently explore like a popped balloon?”  Before Shilvek could utter a word he felt a tremor run through his clenched hand and radiate throughout his entire body. He tried to scream but his throat was now choking on his own blood. He vision became dark but he could see blood dripping from every pore in his body as if he was overflowing with it before he collapsed to the ground.  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sound Byte dialed down the frequency generator and let go of the dead man’s hand. He glanced down at his bloody hand and motioned for one of his henchmen to come forward. The thug quickly trotted over and stood at attention as Sound Byte used their uniform to wipe the blood off his hand.  He was in a bad mood now. He was telling the truth that he had hated killing someone with such a musical name, but the man had brought it upon himself by activating the security lockdown and impeding his robbery.  “Get the data spike setup. You’ve got two minutes.”  The same thug from before hopped over the counter and nudged the dying mans body aside as he inserted a strange device into the terminal as Sound Byte went over to the sealed elevator doors and placed a palm on them.  Golden doors, Sound Byte thought to himself and chuckled. Perfect example for the rich and powerful. Impressive to look at, but shatters if you know where to push. Altering his gauntlet’s frequency he began vibrating the doors until the gold began to fall away in chunks exposing an empty elevator shaft. Rather than attempting to climb up to the security vaults near the mid section of the building, something impossible for the time constraints, he sound blasted the opposite wall in the shaft creating a crater and revealing another elevator shaft.  Unlike the first one which was for clients and office workers, the second shaft was for freight to be carried between floors and was the key to the robbery. The main elevator would lockup during a lockdown, but Sound Byte had learned that the freight elevator, which was far less technical in design, had not such lockup features and was still operable.  Taking half his crew sound Byte jumped into the second shaft and continued with what was to be the greatest crime of the century.  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “We are deeply saddened by the loss of our employees. Here at Orion, our employees are our family and today our family has grown smaller and we will never get over this tragic loss.”  “That was Orion CEO Lusdiv giving a press statement shortly after the unknown criminals fled the Orion headquarters. Authorities are still searching for the wanted criminals as a planet wide alert has gone ou-” Lusdiv turned off the news monitor and took another swig of his drink.    “We will never get over this tragic loss.” He chuckled at his remarks. We’ll have those positions filled by the end of the week. His office sat at the very peak of the Orion headquarters building and as he turned around from behind his desk he saw the sun slowly fading over the horizon setting an end to this day.  While the criminals had been able to reach the vaults, they had only been able to grab hold of a small amount of the vast fortunes stored there before being forced to escape by approaching police forces. In truth the damage done today had already been recouped exactly half a minute after the criminals fled. Such was the income and power of Orion.  Lusdiv shook as his phone rang and startled him. He pushed down on the intercom and contacted his secretary.  “I thought I made it clear I was not to be disturbed.”  The intercom was silent save for the faint hissing of static.  “Volca, I said I made it clear I was not to be disturbed. I’m not taking any calls.” The silence continued.  “Volca, are you there? Volca”  No response. He sighed and finished his drink before picking up the phone.  “This is Lusdiv, CEO of Orion. Who am I speaking with?”  “The man that robbed you.”  Lusdiv pulled the phone away from his head at the sound of the synthetic voice.  Slowly, he pressed the phone back to his ear.  “If this is meant to be some sort of pranks I assure you you will be brought to the authorities and punished.”  “Tsk, tsk, tsk. Don’t believe me, eh? Would you like me to list the contents of your vault boxes we took? I’m sure you already have their records on your desk by now.”  Lusdiv looked down at his desk. There, strewn across it were the files detailing everything that had been taken. Calmly, he activated the security panels of his windows which instantly shut behind him.  “It’s adorable you think your security can still stop me.”  “I have no desire to be spied upon by criminal scum like you is all.” Lusdiv remarked as the shutters clanked shut behind him.  “No need to fret, I’m not watching you.” Sound Byte remarked, “I could hear them closing behind you through the phone. As for the documents, well, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out.” “One which you clearly are not.” Lusdiv retorted, “Otherwise you would have brought the proper gear to break into our more valuable vaults.” He leaned forward over his desk, his hand tightening around the phone. “So listen punk, because I’ll make what happens next very easy for you. I’m going to have you tracked down like a wild animal and brought back to me in chains so I can strangle the very life out of you with my bare han-” Lusdiv’s stopped talking mid conversation. His jaw was twitching up and down but the words would not leave his mouth.  Not just my mouth, Lusdiv thought, I can’t move my entire body!  “I hope I have your attention now,” Sound Byte’s voice came in through the phone still held to Lusdiv’s ear, “because now I will tell you how things will pan out.”  “Your mistake was that you thought we were after your material valuables when really we wanted your more.....questionable, documents.”  “When I arrived I had a data spike planted into your system which has been transmitting your dirty secrets to me this entire time. You were so busy going over the gold, jewels, and other contents of your vaults that none of you thought to check your firewalls.”  Lusdiv’s eyes went wide in horror.  “Imagine if the Vunus government found out how you really obtained Harlod & Co’s mining rights, or what really happened with the Jovian Merger deal. I’m sure the public would find your cave in resolution for miners owed several years worth of back pay after they threatened to unionize most interesting as well.”  Every dirty and illegal deed that had been done to get Orion where it is today ran through Lusdiv’s head and he began to sweat buckets.  “So here’s the deal. I have big plans, plans that will need a considerable investment of funds and materials which you will provide. In exchange these damaging files will stay safe in my pocket, far from prying eyes. I will send you a shopping list for your first set of generous donations to me in the coming days.”  Lusdiv shuddered realizing his blackmailer had left him no way out. He slowly felt the feeling returning to his limbs and he was able to move again.  “Oh, one more thing.” Sound Byte cut in before ending the call.  “If you ever speak to me in that tone again I will vibrate your brain until it drips through your eyes in a grey mush. I can paralyze you with sound even through a phone call, it’s not even a half step up to murder you.”  The line went dead and Lusdiv was finally able to move his limbs freely again. He sat gasping for air as he contemplated what nightmare he had just been dragged into. 

[juniper-tree]

Disaster Recovery

Rating: Mature for dirty talk (but very immature)  |  4577 words

Mass Effect: Andromeda - Sara Ryder x Tiran Kandros

Link to AO3 - thank you for reading

When Kandros and Ryder's private email exchange ends up in the wrong hands, everyone is embarrassed.

Having some fun torturing Ryder & Kandros (my loves), and also doing a little head-hopping and generally being a goof.  

Warning: mention of reproduction & reproductive issues near the end. Just a head's up. <3

The message went astray somehow. The cause must have been an errant keystroke, or a clumsy jerk of the hand—the careless, one-handed typing of someone, flustered and hot, with more indulgent things on their mind than precise data entry.  

Someone who was distracted, imagining the quickened pulse and hard swallows of the person meant to read their words. Imagining how quickly that person would close the email if they were in public, lest prying eyes happen to see. The things they might do when they read it again, in private.  

Someone who was too distracted to see they'd accidentally put an extra name in the "Send to:" field.  

---

Cora rubbed her bleary eyes and tapped the datapad awake. Her morning messages scrolled up the thin blue screen.

The coffee on her desk did not send graceful spirals of steam into the air to entice her, or transmit any It's time to wake up! signals to her brain. Instead it sat there, flat and heavy—hot, but not very excited about it. That made two of them. She drank it anyway.

It was bad. They would have to find something new in Heleus. A native substitute. There had to be one. This Milky Way coffee was over 600 years old, and tasted like it.  

Yawning, Cora swiped her finger across the screen in a sluggish rhythm, trashing a dozen useless messages. There were copies of copies of intel reports from every corner of the cluster, useless ads from Nexus merchants, and more insidious emails from Kadara black market traders.  

These were not-so-carefully disguised as personal notes, to trick a sleepy, or distracted, brain into reading. The family holos you ordered are in! or You'll never believe how good this synth suit looks on me... They weren't usually pornographic—the Initiative's system filters were surprisingly good at blocking those—but they were illegal, and annoying.  

Like this one, at the bottom of her list. Re: Last shore leave. "Oh, please," she muttered at the screen, rolling her eyes. These days, Cora's shore leave activities consisted mainly of waiting for shore leave to be over, so she could get back to work.  

But the trick still worked, because her eyes drifted down toward the body of the message. Then her eyes widened. Now she was awake.  

Every time I leave you, I can't stop thinking about the last time I touched you. The last time my hands found their way under your armor. I hate your armor. I never want to see it again. That's an order. I only want to see you, naked, beneath me.

"What the—" Cora could see her disgusted expression reflected in the glossy screen of the datapad. These ads were getting... creative. What were they trying to sell, some awful serial, like the ones Dr. T'Perro kept leaving in the bathroom?

Do you think about my hands spreading your thighs? How it feels when I lick my tongue up your—

That was enough. Cora huffed an angry sigh and scraped her chair against the floor as she stood up.  

In the research room, an equally sleepy bunch of crewmembers bent over their screens, making notes or checking their own morning emails. Vetra yawned, and her mandibles wiggled. That set off a chain of yawns from Liam, whose loud groan echoed off the metal wall, to Suvi, who squeaked and shook her head, her choppy red hair fluttering.

Drack never seemed to yawn. He said that when you were as old as he was, you were never not tired. No one believed him, based on the available evidence.

Cora stomped out of the bio lab and up to the round console in the middle of the room, holding her datapad up in one hand. "So is everybody else getting really filthy ads break through the email filter, or am I the lucky one?"

"Let me see," Liam mumbled, turning to take the pad from her. After a quick scan, he snorted a short laugh. Then his shoulders shook while he repressed a fit of giggles. Soon, he couldn't help himself, and laughed wildly. "Wow," he said, his free hand scratching his brow. "That's... really something."

Peebee, who seemed to have extra-sensory perception for anything indecent, ran into the room and up to Liam. "Ooh, let me see, too." She grabbed at the pad.

Liam held his hand, and the pad, straight up above his head and out of her reach. He calmly sipped his morning tea with a smug smile, while Peebee jumped around him, trying to take it. He was taller than her, and his arms were considerably longer. She grunted, frustrated, and then a devious look flashed in her eyes. Her hands, fingers clawed, moved to his ribs, tickling mercilessly.

He yelped and backed away, spilling tea onto the floor. "Just listen, ok?” He cleared his throat and put on a sultry voice.  

“Tell me what to do. Tell me where to put my fingers, how hard to grip. Tell me to go fast or slow. Tell me you need me, because I need you, everywhere."  

Everyone laughed but Cora, who folded her arms tight against her chest and looked at the floor, and Jaal, who did the same. There was a reason they got along so well.

With Suvi and Peebee looking over his shoulder, Liam scrolled through the email, which was one of a chain of dozens. "It just goes on and on," he said.

Suvi squinted at the pad. “It doesn't look like an ad to me."  

"Oh, shit." Liam pointed to the expanded data of the email thread. "This was supposed to go to Sara," he told Cora.  "Somehow you got tagged on this.  I'm going to assume that was an accident."  

"Good assumption," Cora said sharply. Liam didn't feel he deserved such a sarcastic tone, but he was, sadly, used to it.

"So the question is, who sent this to Sara?" He thought, for a moment, it could be a crazed stalker. As the Pathfinder, Sara Ryder suffered near-constant exposure to, and messages from, strangers throughout the cluster, especially after she led the attack on the Archon. It wasn't hard to imagine some nutter would get a strange idea in his head, and send her email after email of the worst dirty talk he'd ever read.

Not that he'd read a huge amount.

Peebee tapped on the pad in his hands excitedly. "Uh, you're reading it backward, genius. This is a conversation. The last one is from Sara."

Suvi gasped. "Ryder!" she said, with glee. They all looked at each other in stunned, but mostly amused, silence.  

Except Cora. "You know what?" She held up her hands in a grim surrender. "I don't want to know anymore." She shook her head and walked back to the lab.

"Who's she writing to?" Suvi asked.  

"Who do you think?" Drack answered with a grunt.

Vetra and Peebee gave each other a knowing look and answered in unison.

"Kandros."

"I mean, who's surprised?" Vetra asked. "She was more into the Turian flexing in Last of the Legion than I was."

They continued to scan the thread for more choice quotes to read aloud, now in ridiculous approximations of Kandros and Sara's voices. Everyone had to admit that Peebee did a pretty good Kandros.

“Let me be clear: the next time I come to your quarters, I will dig my fingers under your clothes and pull them off you, slowly, piece by piece.  Then I’ll drag my talons softly across your naked body until you shiver.”

She was appropriately boring with just a hint of apathy. It made his words sound deeply unsexy.

Kallo padded up to the group, his steps soft but anxious. "Suvi," he said, like an exasperated teacher at the end of the term, "we really should begin that trial run of the ODSY drive core overload procedures."  

Suvi, giggling and wiping tears from her eyes, didn't even turn to look at Kallo when she shushed him and waved him off.  

He looked around at just how many of the Tempest's crew were gathered here, and sidled up to the console. "If something's going on," he whispered, "of course I want to know about it." There couldn't be gossip on the ship that he was unaware of... at least not for long.

Vetra gave him the rundown. "Sara and Kandros from the militia office have been writing dirty emails to each other, and we're reading them out loud."

"Oh," he said. He considered, briefly, whether this was interesting to him, decided it was not, and walked back to the bridge, leaving them to it.  

To Kallo, this was nothing compared to Gil's latest attempts at sabotaging the Tempest's perfectly calibrated systems, which he would discuss with Sara at the earliest opportunity. She always seemed sympathetic. If she wanted to spend her free time with the Turian and send him... love notes, he supposed they were—well, it was not something he understood, but he hoped it made her happy.  

"This does explain a few things," Liam said to Vetra. "Like why we never see her anymore when we dock at the Nexus. Even if it's only a day, she's gone."

"If this is news to you, you haven't been paying attention," Vetra said. "Why do you think he comes aboard to debrief her every time?  In her quarters?"

"Debrief is right," Peebee said with a wicked smile. "I walked past the door once. On accident, of course. I had no idea status meetings involved so much moaning."  She held a hand to her chest, as though she were honestly shocked. "And grunts. So many grunts."  

Jaal had maintained his position, staring down at the floor, arms folded, though now there was the distinct air of a pout in his expression. "I do not find this humorous," he said in a low, sad voice. "If Ryder has her own"—he sighed—"romantic attachments, that is her business."    

Peebee elbowed Liam in the previously tickled ribs. "Jealous," she whispered, loud enough for everyone to hear.  

A large, friendly hand patted Jaal on the back. "Don't worry about it, kid," Drack told him. "She'll get tired of him eventually."    

Everyone else looked at Drack, and subtly shook their heads. Drack shrugged. What did he know, anyway? He was only five million years old. From what he'd seen—and he'd seen a lot—some stars burned out hard and fast. Unless there was something else to it, something like love, all the fucking in the galaxy wouldn't make it last.

If anyone thought this wouldn't end in the worst way, they were wrong. It ended when Sara jogged into the room.

It wasn't a large ship, and she would have come past here on her running route eventually.  It just so happened she ran by while everyone (except Jaal) was still laughing.

She was all smiles, catching her breath and pulling down her headphones to hang around her neck. "What's up? Having an all-hands without me?"

The laughing stopped. To call what followed an awkward silence would be a sincere understatement.  

Everyone suddenly found themselves busy with... something far from the research room. Everyone but Liam. If no one else would tell her, he would.  He could handle it. Crisis management was his thing.  

"I think this is yours," he said softly, and handed the datapad to her. "Bad routing on the email. Got mixed up."

When she realized what was on the pad, her face stiffened. Her whole body stiffened. She did not look up. All she could do was stuff the pad tightly under her arm, and take herself back to her quarters on legs which were suddenly very bad at walking.  

Everyone knew her secrets now.  Everyone knew about her relationship, the dreams and fantasies she could sometimes barely type, much less say aloud.  They were things she would never have shared with anyone, except Tiran.

Sara was not hurt, exactly, and not angry, exactly, though she was not not those things. At heart, she was supremely, profoundly embarrassed. The only cure for that, she knew from painful past experience, was time. But a shower and a stiff drink, and some quality time with Benny the hamster, might help, too.  

Maybe a holo call to Tiran. He would make her feel better. He could also send a Strike Team to obliterate her entire crew. He wouldn't, but he could. Perhaps they hadn’t considered that.            

---

One week later, Liam Kosta strolled past Nexus onboarding security and made his way to the tram terminal. A few days' break for Tempest repairs meant he could not only get some overdue work done here, he could get some fresh, non-ship air. He could go to the Vortex or anywhere really, but preferably the Vortex, and see some faces that were not the same ten faces he saw every day.

For now, he was on an odd, but hopefully short, mission. He was headed to the militia office, to see Kandros.

If Tiran Kandros had a temper, if he was the kind of guy who would get violent when slighted or embarrassed, he wanted to know about it now. Sara was his friend, even if he had messed up and hurt her. She didn't deserve what he—or any of them—had done, but she also didn't deserve some idiot with more fists than brains.    

Besides, if he was going to get decked, or worse, he'd be prepared for it.

Kandros stood in his permanent spot. Militia officers buzzed from terminal to comm around him, but he didn't move. There were probably dents worn into the floor from his feet. His ever-present aide, Lt. Sajax, stood nearby, giving harsh orders to her omnitool in a soft, light voice.  

Liam could have sworn he saw a flinch from Kandros when he approached.  If it had been there, it vanished quickly.

"Kosta." Kandros hardly looked at him, but Liam felt the quiver in his subvocals. He wasn't especially angry, it seemed. More like embarrassed. Both of them knew what both of them knew. But Kandros wasn't about to acknowledge it.

Timidity. Not what Liam expected, but it was better than a three-knuckle sandwich.  

"Hey, Kandros," he said, keeping his voice high and friendly. "Good to see you."

He didn't know if Turians could, physically, roll their eyes, but the withering look he received from Kandros was close enough.  

"Ryder come aboard with you?" Kandros asked, with calculated, and transparently false, disinterest.  

"You don't know?" Liam teased.

Kandros didn't answer, but he shifted uncomfortably, without moving from his spot.  

"I believe she's still on-ship," Liam said. "You could email her."  He smiled at Kandros, a bigger and more obnoxious smile than he'd given anyone in a long time.  

He wanted to test him, yes, but it was also entertaining.  If anyone knew Liam Kosta could be an ass sometimes—well, first in line would have been his mum, but close second was Liam himself.    

Kandros didn't punch him, or curse. Not even a subharmonic growl. The biggest reaction Liam could see was that his small round pupils narrowed just a bit further, and his mandibles twitched once. Then he pushed past Liam without a word.

That must be Kandros at Level: Pissed Off. Not bad. As long as it didn't all explode out of him later in an uncontrollable rage, Liam guessed he was probably an all right sort of guy. He passed the test. For now.

“Touchy.” Sajax sighed and shook her head. “But he’s been that way lately.”

“Oh, I deserved worse,” he said. “We found a bunch of… intimate correspondence between the chief and the Pathfinder.”  

Sajax groaned. “Gross.”

“She must have told him we found it. I feel bad. A little, anyway,” he said with a sheepish grin.  

“Only a little?” Sajax laughed, and her laugh was softer and higher-pitched than he might have guessed. It was lovely.  “I may not want to know the details, but I’m not sure why they thought it was a secret. In the early days, every time she came by, we had to mop up the drool.”

“Hers or his?” he asked.

“Both. I hope it didn’t take them long to figure it out. If it did, they’re both clueless.”

Liam laughed, recalling all the times Sara, in the middle of a firefight or exploring a vault, would turn to him and say, I really have no idea what I’m doing, you know? Never. Not a clue.  

“That wouldn’t surprise me at all,” he said with a smile. “Sounds like they’re made for each other. We should all be so lucky.”

“Aw,” Sajax said, her subvocals humming. “That’s really sweet.”

He leaned in closer. “I can be, sometimes.”  

She looked him over, and it seemed to him like a positive appraisal. “So you’re the one who pissed him off, and made my life hell for the past week?”  

“Is he that bad?” Maybe his test method was all wrong, and Kandros wouldn’t show his true colors around Liam, if it would get back to Sara.    

“Nah,” she said with a wave of her hand. “You saw him. Grumpy and miserable. Nothing I can’t handle.”  

“Grumpy is still a pain in the arse. Let me make it up to you?”

“And how do you propose to do that?”  

He pretended to think it over, as though it had not been in his mind the moment he stepped into the office. “Buy you a drink at the Vortex later?”

“That’s a start.” Her purple markings crinkled in a kind of smile. “I’ll be there at 2100.”

“Roger that,” he said, walking backwards out of the office. “Looking forward to it.”

2100. After he finished up a few errands, he’d have just enough time to swing by the ship, and change into something a little nicer for her.  

---

We, the undersigned crew of the Andromeda Initiative Survey Ship Tempest and others, while in support of the freedom of both Pathfinder Sara Ryder and Nexus Militia Chief Tiran Kandros to pursue a life in their off-duty time, are nevertheless distressed by the lack of opportunity and means for these individuals to keep their private discussions just that.  

We ask that the AI Communications Steering Committee extend the budget for holovideo conferencing to include two room-to-room comm devices for the aforementioned personnel. The benefit of this outlay would well exceed the cost of not only the devices themselves, but the mental cost to the undersigned from hearing, or seeing, anything of a personal nature between our respective leaders.      

Cora Harper Liam Kosta Pelessaria B’Sayle Nakmor Drack Jaal Ama Darav Not Of The Tempest Crew Permanently But For Now Gilbert Brodie Dr. Lexi T’Perro Vetra Nyx Dr. Suvi Anwar Kallo Jath  Suvi, I did not sign this.   Lt. Popitina Sajax, Nexus Militia

---

Kallo found her in the galley, alone, drinking coffee. Sara had been so quiet on the ship lately. That whole email thing really made her clam up, as they say.  

Clams. He wondered if there were any clams on Aya.

He pulled a tall glass from the cabinet and filled it with water from the filter tank. It was time for his daily algae juice, which he had every afternoon at roughly the same time, in the typically empty galley. Except today, it wasn’t empty.

“Do you mind if I sit with you, Sara?”  

She gestured to the empty space on the bench seat beside her. “Be my guest.”

He spooned in the dried algae powder and it bloomed in his glass. Reconstituted, never his favorite, but working on ships for years allowed him grow accustomed to it. At least back home, there was always the opportunity for fresh.

Here? Only powder, not even tank bred. Unless…

Clams on Aya. If there were clams, there could be algae. Natural algae. He filed the idea away to ask Jaal about later.  

He took the seat next to Sara and set his glass on the table. She stared down into her coffee, her hands wrapped around the cup. Her face was blank, which was unlike her.

Perhaps some conversation would cheer her up. He always enjoyed their chats on the bridge.

“So,” he began, “seen anything fun off-ship lately? I never seem to disembark these days,” he said with a laugh.

She thought for a moment. “Well... last week on Voeld I counted twelve frozen, snapped-off toes in the snow. Most of them were Angaran. Their toes are long. That’s how you can tell.” She sipped her coffee and grimaced.  

So much for small talk. He gulped down half his algae juice and glanced anxiously toward the door.  

“This is bad,” Sara said. She sounded so dejected.

“Are you all right?” he asked.  

“Oh, I’m fine,” she said. “I just meant the coffee.”

The problem was, she didn’t sound fine, and he wasn’t sure what he could do about it.  

That wasn’t true. There was one thing he could do, one uncomfortable thing, but he had a feeling it was the right thing.  

“Sara,” he said, “I’m sorry your private emails were read by everyone and I’m sorry everyone laughed at them.”

She turned to look at him, to really look at him, he thought, for the first time since he entered the galley. “Uh… thanks,” she said, a slightly bewildered smile on her face. “But I didn’t think you were in on it.”  

“No, not me.” He found himself looking deeply into his own drink. “I didn’t find it very interesting. We—Salarians, I mean—don’t have those kinds of relationships. It’s really only about procreation for us.”

What he wanted to say is that he found everyone else’s preoccupation with sex to be dull in the extreme. Unfortunately, most species took offense at that notion. For them, it seemed, mating was the center of their universe. To him, it was a family duty, and only as exciting as that sounded, which was not at all.

She nodded in acknowledgement. “Are you… looking for someone to procreate with from the Paarchero? Or on the Nexus?” she asked with a small smile.

Sara meant well, he knew, but she could only see such things through her own lens, her own cultural experience. It was not a fun process, or a love match. In fact, family negotiations were very fractured here in Andromeda, because there were so few intact families.    

“No, not yet. I suppose I will look for someone to make a procreation bond with soon,” he said. “It would make my parents happy, if they knew.”

“It probably is weird to you,” she said, her brow furrowed.  “I mean, I can’t… um, procreate with Tiran, but that’s not what it’s about for me.”  

“Not weird,” Kallo answered, and he meant it. “Just different.”

“I’m not ruling out procreating with someone else,” she said, almost to herself, as if she’d never thought this through before. “Although with everything I’ve been through, I’m not even sure I physically can—”

A pained look came over her face, and she held her hand in the air. She always did this when the AI in her brain interrupted her.

“Thank you, SAM, but I truly do not want a real-time update on my reproductive system. Don’t need to know how many eggs I have. Let’s keep it a mystery, ok?”

She sighed and sipped her coffee, though she seemed to instantly regret it.  

He couldn’t help but ask. “Humans have eggs?”

Sara held her eyes shut tight. “Yeah, we have eggs. The point is that for me, there’s a lot more to it than all that. And—”  She laughed, and looked surprised by it. “It’s not about what was in those emails, you know? I care about Tiran. He cares about me. I—”

She looked up at the ceiling. “I love him, I guess.” Then she laughed more.  

Kallo had never been more grateful to be spared this overly complex and difficult cultural ritual. Love was simple—immediate family, close friends, those who were good to you. Whatever Sara was experiencing looked painful and… confusing. He hoped it was worth it.

“And, honestly,” she continued, “kids or not or whatever, my legacy is set. I’ve made a difference.”

Now here was something that made sense to him. Something that had only been a fleeting idea to him at first, but had settled in his mind more recently.  

“Actually, I do understand,” he said. “I don’t feel the same pressure I might have back home to continue my family’s line. Despite how few of us there are here,” he said, an acknowledgement that made him feel guilty. But he could not change his response to that.

There was so much he had done to be proud of. He had helped build the Tempest and come with her on this long voyage, to see what he had built come to life. He had helped Sara and the others defeat a terrible threat, and saved so many lives. He had made friends, and seen new worlds.  

“I will still try to make a bond but… I feel much the same as you, Sara,” he said. “I have made a mark here. And that’s important.”

“Yeah,” she said with a smile. “Exactly.  Cheers to that.”

She held her coffee cup in the air. He held up his algae juice. He didn’t think he’d ever been in a “cheers” situation before. He was not sure who was supposed to initiate the clinking, or if it was a simultaneous clink.

Sara clinked for him, ever the leader.  

---

>> ENCRYPTED COMMUNICATION RECEIVED

>> CONFIRM PATHFINDER COMM ID - ***.****.***

>> AUTHORIZATION CONFIRMED>> RUNNING DECRYPTION…

APEX mission on Eos - your report

Pathfinder,

Spirits know you’re busy, but can I get a little more detail on this Eos report? I appreciate brevity—in official comms, anyway—but “your guys took care of it” isn’t going to cut it. And “my guys” aren’t being very forthcoming.

What happened down there? Something I should know about?    

Kandros

PS - I’m sending all of my messages to you encrypted from now on. Just in case.

____

>> ENCRYPTED COMMUNICATION RECEIVED

>> CONFIRM NEXUS MILITIA COMM ID - ****.***.**

>> AUTHORIZATION CONFIRMED>> RUNNING DECRYPTION…

Re: APEX mission on Eos - your report

Tiran,

Nothing happened, really. It was a very boring mission. They walked in, did the job, and walked out. The only details I left out are personally embarrassing to me and don’t need to be in your status files. I don’t even want them in an email. For obvious reasons. Your team is doing me a favor.

You know, if you want to teach me the proper way to write a mission debrief, you’ll have to give me a hands-on lesson. Of course, I only have time late at night…

Sara

____

>> ENCRYPTED COMMUNICATION RECEIVED

>> CONFIRM NEXUS MILITIA COMM ID - ****.***.**

>> AUTHORIZATION CONFIRMED>> RUNNING DECRYPTION…

RE:  Re: APEX mission on Eos - your report

Honey,

I know how to get you to talk. You say all kinds of things in my bed… I’ll find out sooner or later.  

Make it sooner. I can’t stop thinking about you whispering in my ear, your breath against my hide…

Can you do a holocall tonight? I’m off duty at 1800 Nexus time.  

____

>> ENCRYPTED COMMUNICATION RECEIVED

>> CONFIRM NEXUS MILITIA COMM ID - ****.***.**

>> AUTHORIZATION CONFIRMED>> RUNNING DECRYPTION…

Yes

Need to clear the meeting room... I’ll just tell them the pyjak peed in there again. Worked last time.

[kala-hira]

That Anon certainly has no business calling them selfish, but I’ve never understood pulling all your content as a reaction to these kinds of things. Future work, sure, I’m not going to miss anything I’ve never used. But with existing stuff that was previously publicly available, you feel rather helpless. A majority of users respect TOUs and appreciate the modders work, there is a positive relationship there and you’d hope that still counts. But all it takes is 1 asshole to ruin it. It’s a shame.

First off thanks for being civil and polite with your anon message it is much appreciated :)  All the below is stuff I have come across and in no way do I speak for all modders. I can barely speak for myself somedays lol. I am going to assume you are not a modder just from your post if this isn’t true then I apologize.

I will agree for the most part there is a positive relationship between modders and users but you would be amazed by the amount of people I see using my mods who have never taken the time to comment or endorse my mods. I spent hours making that mod that they will enjoy for hours and they didn’t even take a few seconds to say thanks and endorse it. I try to respond to every comment I get on the Nexus (sometimes notifications do not always work) as it is one of the few times we get to interact with the users. It can feel like a very one sided relationship and how are we to know that they appreciate it when they don’t take the time to say it? (for an example one of my older mods has 11,920 downloads, but only 24 comments from users and 396 endorsements) Even a simple thanks for sharing! Awesome work :) Love it! can go a long way in making a modder know you appreciate their work I am not asking you to kiss my butt to the sun and back. 

Until you put yourself into that modder’s shoes I do not think you can understand what this really feels like. In the past I have hidden mods as it is a knee jerk reaction to everything that is going on. It is the quickest and easiest way for a modder to control their mods. Which is completely fair as a creator it is our right to control our creations. 

You have to remember that modders are real people with real feelings. They put their time, heart and soul into these mods and when someone disrespects their decision or their mods it is like a knife to the heart. I know that seems dramatic but we spend hours working on and tweaking these mods they become important to us especially if we make them with a specific character in mind that is special to us.  

You have no idea what that modder is dealing with in their real life, life has a tendency of kicking you down and then continuing to kick you when you are still down. If hiding their mods allows them a bit of respite from all the crap and stress in their life then it is a smart decision otherwise you get burnt out really quick. I have been there and it isn’t pretty. A person’s mental health is much more important then any mod every made. This is supposed to be a fun hobby not a crappy part time job but with time it starts to feel like work and instead of being a stress relief it becomes a source of stress.

You are just seeing this one instance but it isn’t just 1 asshole a modder is dealing with. You haven’t had to deal with getting rude, disrespectful comments from users. You haven’t had to deal with people being nice/friendly to you just to get them to make you a specific mod, then ditch you or say rude shit about you in the future. You haven’t had your work stolen or reused in other mods without permission. You haven’t had anon hate sent to you just because they don’t agree with a mod you made or have people talk behind your back about a mod you made. You haven’t had to deal with people comparing your work to others and telling you that the other modder’s work is far superior to yours. You haven’t spent hours troubleshooting something that has nothing to do with your mod but you are getting blamed for it. You haven’t had to deal with people harassing you over if you are going to share a mod and if you are when is it going to be released. You haven’t had to deal with people requesting changes to make it fit their character. You haven’t had people complain that your images are not good enough to show off your mod and that they won’t try it until you post more images. You haven’t had youtubers steal your images and use them as click bait for their videos. You haven’t had your free work stolen then “edited” a bit then put behind a paywall by another modder. All these things add up and you become tired, jaded and hesitant to release anything. We are just human we can only take so much. So to you it looks like 1 asshole but it’s much more then that, it is a bunch of little things add up until we get to a tipping point and we can’t take anymore. Everyone always says you need to grow a thicker skin on the internet but sometimes it feels like you have to become bulletproof in order to come out unscathed. 

If you love a mod that much and feel helpless when it is removed then treat it like a limited collector’s edition when you download it and keep a backup or multiple backups. I myself tend to hoard mods, I buy external HDD’s and store tons of mods on them. I have them on multiple drives now as I had a shelf incident (my cat broke the shelf and all my hdd’s fall off and died, RIP). Some of my all time fav’s I have even saved digital copies of just to be safe. Or you can try your hand at modding I can point you to some free programs and some great tutorials to get you started. Many modders myself included are willing to help and share their knowledge. 

I agree it is a shame when a modder feels like their only choice is to hide a mod. It is not an easy decision to make as you can see you face backlash and hate for doing it. This is a huge reason why modders just disappear and I don’t blame them. I feel like doing it all the time, the older I get the less time & patience I have to put up with it all.

Hope this helps explain a bit more from a modder’s perspective. I do get your point of views and before I started modding myself I felt the same but now that I am on the other side of the fence I understand. 

I appreciate you taking the time to send this message and then talking the time to read my novel of answer.

Happy Modding! 

Kala

[acradaunt]

Etrian Odyssey Nexus Playthrough - Week 1

I thought it would be a fun idea to record weekly my progress through EO Nexus. Why? I enjoy reading people's experiences where multiple options are available; what they chose, and why, and how exactly that turned out for them. It's something this EO has more than ever before, and it's such a central concept to my own work on DR, so in its own way, it's research. And since there is a need for people to have 100 QR codes, it serves a purpose there, too.

I'll try ultra-hard to avoid any form of spoilers, so expect me to be vague as hell about stratum or FOE names. To make the most of all these fun class options (and the extremely early Memory Conch), I'm rotating characters around as I see fit, but mostly in accordance with when conditionals are needed or interesting weapons are available. I mean, that kind of class-switching has been the norm for things like Final Fantasy since III, so why not do it here? Between these two things, I'm going to be writing about how characters are faring and where they shone, rather than going on about each stratum.

Couple general notes before character remarks; I'm playing on Expert (which is the norm for EO), and I just punched into the fifth stratum. On that, things are really coming together, as I'm now seeing enemies from three different regions of III and IV at the same time. Lush Woodlands was so aggressively a carbon-copy of its EOIV incarnation it made me really worried. Those fears seems fairly quashed at this point. Also, um, character remarks in Read More, because they're actually kinda long.

Imperial / Arcanist / Harbinger / Shogun / War Magus / Nightseeker - None of these have seen any use yet. Of 19 classes, some just might not fit in a first playthrough. The first three definitely'll show once subclasses come along, but right now aren't super-appealing for various reasons; Imperial's ridiculous TP requirements make it sound like a non-starter in early game, I don't trust turn-end heals when most random battles last 1-3 turns, and, well, I feel it'd be wrong to use my #1 Harbinger without also bringing along a certain Dragoon (Hero) and Masuaro (Ronin). That debuffer role has also lowkey been stolen by Landsknecht, of all things.

Klein the Hero - Klein has been absolutely devastating in random battles, but has generally floundered during bosses and FOEs, with Hero mostly being about multi-target attacks and a bit of a TP-hog. After netting the 3rd stratum boss' weapon, his damage output has been fairly ridiculous, and Shock Strike is nothing short of amazing. He's definitely not going anywhere, but I wouldn't say he's irreplaceable, either; that sword's nutso damage is innately amazing in anyone's hands. In a lot of ways, Hero is a remix of Dragoon, and while I definitely didn't like Dragoon at first, it grew on me quite a lot.

Iris the Protector - Iris came in strong against the 2nd stratum boss, and only got better with that boss' weapon able to shoot cheap line-piercing Fire attacks that could sweep most of the 3rd stratum. Ultimately, circumstances made her not very appealing for the 4th stratum, and I haven't seen any remarkable new spears, so she's mostly waiting for that. Or a Boss/FOE where Taunting is effective to return to the forefront.

Terra the Highlander - Terra was off-and-on for the early part of the game, trading said spear with Iris as was convenient. Veteran Skills haven't been particularly kind to her, but Master or Subclasses might still change that. She's certainly strong and sturdy enough to handle the frontline, and there's something to be said about how tricky it is to shatter a three-person front-row that doesn't need to rely on Protectors.

Stella the Zodiac - One of my starting five, Stella repeatedly died in one shot in the 1st stratum and burnt through TP way too fast, and performed similarly poorly in a brief stint in the 3rd stratum. I considered bringing her on again for a specific FOE, but ultimately didn't. After Warlock's same-turn Charge and Runemaster's Runes, this class just feels tremendously disappointing.

Coral the Landsknecht - Easily the most all-around reliable, if never the shining star. Extremely burly and with a diverse array of skills at hand, she's always useful. Primarily though, she shield bashes to cripple foes with Debuffs then Links away when they can't possibly do enough damage to kill anyone.

Erika the Ronin - Absolutely the core damage dealer for the 2nd's Boss and the 3rd stratum, primarily due to an incredibly good Katana you get midway through the 2nd Stratum. She was all about Air Blades from the back-row, then dashing to the front-row to regain her stance, drop offenses, or go for a strong arm-bind. It's a really fun class, all around. However, getting caught by a single good attack, even when in the back, is usually a death sentence for her, so it's a bit tricky, too. That said, she still came through big-time in both the 2nd and 3rd Strata Bosses, which were more endurance matches and about conserving TP more than anything, so there's something to say about that.

Laura the Medic - Not a ton to say here. Medics heal and revive; lifesavers when things get hairy during FOEs/Bosses. What is no joke is her Star Drop's ability to ruin defenses. Like Erika, she did occasional row-switching when things were safe. Not something you'd expect from a Medic. During initial planning, she was gonna be a Medic/Landsknecht, for high-speed Star Drops, but Star Drop is a normal debuff now, not a one-turn affair like it was, so I'm not too sure what her endgoal is anymore. I'm considering swapping her for Adam, who's designed to be a Medic/Zodiac, so I would at least have SOME form of normal mage (not to mention cheaper TP for heals via Free Energy). Laura's a dumbass though, and I love her for that, and right now, the Medic is hitting stuff in her free time, not casting, so she fits the bill better right now, especially as conserving TP is still a huge deal. STILL can't buy Amritas.

Juri the Survivalist - Probably the overall MVP for the first four strata. Blinding Arrow was vital against most Lush Woodlands FOEs/Bosses, and doubling all harvesting for a single skill point is nothing to scoff at. Add in cheap on-field healing, and she was good enough to kick Laura out for the whole 3rd stratum (until FOE/boss time). She's definitely starting to feel like she's falling off, though. Veteran added some nice moves for random encounters, but Master skills sound very lackluster, with only Disabling Shot sounding appealing (though Disabling Shot [Add Leg Bind to ALL Bow Skills] is VERY appealing). Master's still a long ways off though.

Yai the Pugilist - Yai wound up coming in for some conditional-drop hunting near the end of the 3rd Stratum, and with another great fist from a FOE on the World Map (making it a... WOE? MOE?), has stayed around off-and-on since then. Binds can always completely swing the flow of a fight, but they're not super-reliable, and she suffers from Erika's frailty, with none of the row-swapping tricks to keep her alive. She isn't terrible, but she's failing to live up to her EOV self. That said, she actually combos amazingly with Coral this time, as opposed to last time where she was the only one who DIDN'T play into Coral's pierce-a-thon.

Olga the Gunner & Leon the Sovereign - Neither have seen significant use but bear mention. When Bind conditionals first came up, it was an immediate coin-toss between getting Olga or Yai ready. Yai won because the current array of Guns failed to impress. However, with Yai's questionable performance and Juri's waning damage, a solid Gun could easily make Olga a mainstay. Leon, likewise, is basically waiting for more Skill Points and a weapon with a decent Skill to use to come in on. Leon definitely hasn't felt as sturdy as he did in III, which is also holding him back a bit, as I'd prefer him to be a part of the front-row wall-of-steel. Still, using the same gear as Klein and Klein's own iffy performance against bosses means he'll probably push through for the 5th or maybe 6th's Stratum bosses.

Kagura the Ninja - Brought in for a bit during the 4th stratum, when I was wondering if I was overlevelled, as upon first arriving, I was seeing yellow FOEs. I don't think I was. She actually served pretty decently in random encounters, essentially being able to mass-sleep an entire wave of enemies, which came in major handy, as the 4th just loves throwing 4+ enemies at you at once. Having her mother's (now retconned to being her sister, I guess) badass Katana to swap to definitely eased her entry into the group. Not material for FOEs, though; her overall damage output remained quite poor.

Kahna the Landsknecht - It's no secret that I'm a huge sucker for Landy's Links and especially Fencer's Chains as a primary form of team synergy. I'm seriously considering the possibility of running TWO Landsknechts; Coral on Shield Bashing debuff duty, and Kahna as a high-speed Linker. Truth is, Coral spends so much time with the shield keeping foes down, she has little time to lift herself up, and Landsknecht has no shortage of damage buffs, to boot.

[dingoat]

The Right Way | Part Thirteen

[ previous | the beginning | next ]

In the timeline where Crow turned right, he knew he’d eventually have to face up to his past.

Even though he’d lost all contact with his former comrades, he’d managed to pick up on the murmurings, here and there. Nothing on Nines and Lyrisal themselves, of course… but there were whispers of a breakout at one of the less secure Republic facilities. A place where Crow was reasonably certain some of the lower ranking Deserters had been held; recent recruits, civilians who had not abandoned their army but rather been disillusioned by their former lifestyles, ordinary people seeking a different status quo.

“Come on, are none of you out on this fething frequency anymore? It’s me. Crow. Don’t tell me there’s nobody listening…” But if there was someone listening, they weren’t responding. He’d started trying to contact them again a few weeks back, but to no avail. And with every unanswered signal, he grew increasingly certain that his comm was purposefully blocked, and he knew why.

Coward. For years he’d tried to push it out of his mind, the way he’d fled, the terror he’d known.  No matter that he’d tried to turn things around; no matter that he’d turned his ship back to the fight, it had all come to naught, as they were eventually rounded up and marched into their cells… without him. Because he’d abandoned them. Because he’d been afraid of exactly that. And if the Free People’s Army was mobilising once more, if they were finally breaking themselves free… oh, Nines would never suffer his cowardice to go unpunished.  One way or another, she’d get to him.

He turned his weary blue eyes to the co-pilot’s seat, where Nela was curled up asleep.

Nel.

The only thing that had kept him going all these years. His only reason for being. High paying jobs in his line of work were either extremely dangerous, or deeply unpalatable. She was the reason he’d opted more for the latter, in recent times. Better to do unsavoury work and be able to see to her dinner the following day.

But now… well. It was all going to catch up with him. And he knew he’d have to make sure her future was accounted for before it did.

***

“Well! I think it’s time we pitted our newbloods against one another, get a look at their hand-to-hand skills.” The toned zabrak warrior, chieftain of his clan, turned his eyes to the two newest recruits of Aliit Motir’ang.

Ahuska gulped. Life had certainly taken an unpredictable turn in the last few weeks. She’d never had much hope for being invited into another clan; and especially not now, after the Eternal Empire had rained its blows across the galaxy and soldiers, warriors, tried and proven fighters were all that any rebuilding clan was after.

She’d met Alor Scottrys and his rallymaster, Sydica, doing a simple fodder delivery, overseeing the transport of a crate of live nuna from Dxun to Tattooine. She’d had no idea at the time that their clan were dedicated beast handlers; trappers and trainers both, and in sore need of more hands at that. They didn’t have to watch her handling her sleek silver varactyl long before they extended the offer to join them, and just like that, she found herself telling her old mentor Mirshko’vlk the news, packing her things and getting ready for a whole new life.

Though he was sad to see her go, his pride was undeniable, and the thought of trying to keep her back unthinkable. “Bout time you got yourself off the ranch and out into the galaxy” he’d said, shuffling into her room with a squirming ball of fur and teeth bundled in one arm.

The look that the young Bothan shot him; wide blue eyes, soft and sincere and struck with sudden concern, just made him laugh. “Oh, don’t even think about it, Hus’ika. Don’t you dare think of sticking around on my account. I’ve got Reyr to help around the place, and I’m sure there’s an ad’ika or two down in the Vale that would be happy to earn a few extra credits if she’s not enough. I’ll miss you, sure. The beasts will miss you doubly. But you deserve the chance to make something more of yourself.” The little thing he was carrying revealed itself to be a ten week old Nexu cub with a yowl and a wild flailing of her gaping jaws, at which point Mirshk’ deftly grabbed her by the quills and offered her out to Ahuska. “Here. I know you always wanted one. Something to remember the place by, hm?”

“Oh. Oh shab. Shab! She’s beautiful!” Ahuska scooped her up in an instant, and already those eyes of hers were brimming over. “Vor’e, Mirshk! Vor’e!”

She’d been so busy in the following weeks, she hadn’t even taken the time to settle on a name for the little cub, that now squeezed its way up from her lap and onto the top of the bar at which she sat with her new clanmates. Just a few days prior she’d helped them reclaim their old stronghold, having learned that they’d been forced to abandon it during the galactic conflicts and it had since been settled by a tribe of Sand People. That had been somewhat confronting; as brief and mild as the firefight had been, it was the first time in her life that she’d turned a blaster on another sapient being. But she had handled rifles before, was a reasonable hunter and had been forced to defend herself against dangerous animals before.

This, however? A fist-fight? With a complete stranger? This was something new. And in its own way, completely terrifying.

The man who sat a little way down the bar had to be at least a decade older than her. He’d been lounging there, wise-cracking, making cheeky remarks toward Sydica like he’d known her for years as opposed to having been pulled out of the Hutta swamps and invited back to the clan base only a couple of days ago. Ahuska had been too deathly shy to say anything to him just yet, but now she stared at him, at his bright blue eyes, the brightest she’d ever seen… his shaggy mop of slate grey hair, the rough stubble that accented his jawline and the striking tattoo that coiled its way up the right side of his face…

And then he was turning his broad, toothy grin toward her, and she found herself suddenly shaking her head. “Fight? No… I don’t… I mean I don’t really know how, I’m not sure I’d be any good to… to go up against…”

“Come on,” he said, getting up to his feet and motioning to the door with an incline of his head. For all that he’d been cracking wise and smarmy a moment ago, he now looked so utterly warm and encouraging, Ahuska started to feel herself unravel. “You’ll be fine.”

With her new Alor and rallymaster urging her on, Ahuska followed her roguish new clanmate down to the compound’s arena.

He knew what he was doing; she did not. The fight was short, finished when he delivered a blow to the end of her snout that took her so by surprise she wound up flat on her rear, doing all she could to stop hot tears of pain springing into her eyes. She was hurt, she was embarrassed at her own miserable ability, but she was overjoyed in an utterly inexplicable way.

“I’m going to have to go check in on Nela,” he said, after helping her up and clapping an arm about her shoulders. “But if you want a few pointers some time, I’m pretty sure my tent is right down from yours. Ahuska, was it?”

She nodded, flustered, with her hands pressed to her nose to try and stem the blood flow.

“I’m Crow, not sure you caught that earlier. You did great.” He gave her arm a gentle nudge before heading on his way, and Ahuska felt her heart swell like it never had before.

---

In the timeline where Crow turned left, Ahuska’a knew she’d crossed a line.

One very late night, when she’d successfully completed a hunt that only required the return of the hapless target’s head to receive full payment, she’d set up her camp out in the plains of Dantooine where she’d finally tracked the being down. A pirate of some sort, deserted his crew or double-crossed them or something, she didn’t particularly care about the finer details. Or even the greater details.

He was now just chunks of meat that she was carving up to feed her Anooba, old Rayshe’a, Resol and gangly young E’tad. It was blessedly late, and she was tired, and not looking forward to heading back out to find some game for herself. And so, while stoking her small fire, she came to the conclusion that she wouldn’t. What difference did it make, really? He was already dead. He was about to be devoured anyway. She could go out there and shoot down some animal; some lovely creature that had never crossed her, never done the galaxy a bad turn… or just share the meat with her dogs, a filthy criminal who the galaxy wouldn’t miss.

She knew she crossed a line that night, and felt just enough shame about it that she knew she’d have to keep it from her Clan, distant as she was from them these days. But not enough shame to stop herself.

***

It was a few months later that he tracked her down.

“Ahuska’a Ga’ihlr.”

She looked up from her patch of shade at the man who approached her in the bustling marketplace. A fairly unimpressive looking fellow, old but lean and spry in that way Sith often were, for Sith he surely was, judging by his eyes. “Mmm?”

“The Bothan Butcher?”

“Heh, that what they calling me these days? Easy, E’tad.” She placed a steadying hand at the nape of the young Anooba’s bristling neck. “Who d’you want me to shank, then?”

“Oh, no, no. If it were as simple as that, I’d be quite capable of handling it on my own. I’ve come with more of a… ahhh, business proposition, if you will.”

“Don’t need no partner. ‘n why would you need me if you’re not after a kill?” She spoke with the blunt confidence of one who trusted her reputation to keep her reasonably safe, in the right neighbourhoods.

He was equally to the point. “I need a Bothan. Preferably one with as few scruples as yourself.”

“Hrm?” The look she shot him was equal parts suspicious and curious. “Dunno if you’ve noticed, but I hardly fit the regular mould. Y’ haven’t thought to try Bothawui or Kothlis first?”

“Mmmm, no. I’d rather someone I could trust a little more to actually be on side with me. And, frankly, if you know anything about your own species you’d know why a Bothawui citizen would be less than ideal.”

“Hmf. You’re not really selling yourself, though. Gimme one good reason to hear you out.”

“I’ve watched your career, the last little while. You seem hell bent on punishing the galaxy. Would I be right in assuming it’s because the galaxy took something precious from you, some time ago?”

Ahuska’a stood abruptly, launching into the silver-haired man with a fierce kick to the guts that sent him reeling back a step. “Go feth yourself,” she snarled, pressing forward while her Anooba growled and bristled at her heels. “Before I set my dogs on you.”

He backpedaled swiftly, throwing up his hands in a gesture that was part surrender, part threat, as the dancing flickers of electricity crackled about his fingertips and made it plain he was prepared to defend himself. “What if I told you there was a way to undo that?”

Ahuska’a froze. A bewildering emotion seized hold of her, and it took a few long, furious moments for her to recognise it. Hope. How dare he give her hope. “You’ve got five minutes to convince me before I let my dogs eat you just for suggesting that.”

And so it was that Ulfran brought Ahuska’a on board on his hunt for the Tempus Shard.

=====

Aaaaaaa okay this segment is a little dear to my heart, because not only do we see the moment where Ahuska and Crow meet for the first time... but also the RP where I met @humanrevolt for the first time, too. And what a damned brilliant ride it’s been from that point!! I hope my memory serves it well.

[antivanruffles]

Love Trap

Sara Ryder/Liam Kosta, Mass Effect Andromeda, Warnings: just some good old fashioned UST and mild suggestiveness. Also available on AO3

[Sorry if the formatting looks weird, xkit is having issues. If you hit read more it goes back to normal]

If she didn’t look, it wouldn’t be a problem.

Except it was a major problem, and no amount of cajoling or rationalizing would change that fact.

They had been trapped for nearly three hours, the unfortunately small elevator on the Nexus had jolted to a full stop, sending them both flying against the walls with no warning. It seemed no matter what maintenance tried, nothing could get it going again. Even SAM hadn’t been able to figure out the source of the malfunction. In a fit of ire Sara had told SAM to keep quiet and leave her alone. She wasn’t at all surprised to find SAM had obeyed her.

If that wasn’t bad enough, around the two hour mark it seemed the environmental controls had gone out as well, and now it was hot.

God, it was so fucking hot. Like the ass end of Elaaden in the middle of summer. First it had gotten stuffy, just a little uncomfortable, like piling into the Nomad after a scuffle with kett in the sun. Except there was no reprieve, no excess armor to remove or environmentals to fiddle with until cool air blasted across your grimy face.

Only mugginess and discomfort and the fact that Liam was right next to her, radiating even more heat as the smell of their sweat started to grow stronger and mingle. Really, she should find that unpleasant. Of course she found his personal blend of pheromones nice. Of course she had to be tortured that way.

Next came the real torture though, because the bastard had removed his damn shirt in an attempt to get cool. Honestly, did he have an aversion to them? Was Liam Kosta simply predisposed to disliking shirts? Or was she just unlucky (or lucky) enough to always find him without one?

She wasn’t certain anymore. Either way it was annoying.

Sara was pulled from her thoughts as she became dimly aware of Liam stretching out next to her, long legs straightening until the soles of his boots nearly touched the opposite wall.

“Imagine, we come all this way only to die in a lift.”

“We’re not dying in here, Kosta.”

“You say that now, but I’ve seen plenty of thrillers that start off just this way.”

That earned a heavy sigh from Sara. “We’re not living in a vid, Liam.”

“I don’t know, there’s already a low budget vid about the Pathfinder going around. Ryder: saving the universe and punching kett in the face.” He swung out in slow-motion, like it really were a vid, and laughed. That carefree, infectious laugh that she always found more than a little distracting.

“You can’t be serious.” She turned toward him, only to realize he was still shirtless and sweaty and laughing, and immediately regretted everything.

“It’s real, want me to get a copy?” he asked, looking at her with bright eyes. Obviously he was thoroughly amused by the whole thing. She was glad someone was, at least.

“I thought we were dying in here?” She arched an eyebrow at him, and crossed her arms.

“Yeah, well, gotta have some hope. Besides, the more I think about it, the more I realize something.”

Against her better judgement, Sara found herself playing along. “Oh, and what’s that?”

“If anyone has a shot of getting us out of here alive, it’s you, Pathfinder.” Liam nodded, the corner of his mouth quirking gently upward. “Go on then, find the path out.”

“You suck and so do your pathfinder jokes.” She laughed despite herself, none too gently nudging his leg with the toe of her boot.

“Not true.” Liam shook his head. “We all know I am your favorite.”

Sara snorted, hoping to play it off. Liam didn’t need to know he was indeed her favorite, nor did he need to know about her ever growing, annoyingly persistent crush. No one needed to know about that. Not even SAM.

“Mmm,” she hummed, pretending to think it over. “No, pretty sure my favorite is Drack.”

“You just like the getup. Bet if I talked to his bone guy I would once again reign supreme.”

“He does not have a ‘bone guy’.” Then again he was krogan, if any species had ‘bone guys’ it was probably the krogan.

“Nah, I’m pretty sure he does.”

“If you’re going to believe everything Drack tells you in the nomad, then I have a bridge on Sur'Kesh to sell you.”

“One, ha ha.” He laughed mockingly. “Two, that’s not the correct saying.”

“You still got it.”

“Whatever.” He gently shoved her shoulder, and Sara dramatically tipped over sideways with a giggle.

“So how long do you think we’ll be trapped in here?” she asked once she collected herself.

“Dunno, how long has it been now?”

Sara brought up her omni-tool and made a whining noise. “Closing in on four hours. At this rate we’ll be lucky if the kett haven’t taken over by the time we get out.”

“Well, that’s shit. But let’s look on the bright side, we could be stuck here with Drack and his getup.”

“What?” Sara tried to look affronted, hand on her chest. “I would love to be trapped with my favorite right now.”

“Then you’d be packed in here like a sardine, there’s hardly enough room as it is.” To illustrate his point Liam leaned in closer to her, crowding her against the wall. Had it been any other time, or any other person, she might’ve decked them for it. In fact she was sure had punched Scott for less in the past.

At that moment though, she could only sit in a daze, struggling to breathe as his face drew closer. Time seemed to slow down, and Sara became hyper aware of everything Liam: the way his own breath hitched, how he felt through the fabric of her clothes, how his eyes seemed to darken.

Most importantly she was aware of how it looked like he was going to kiss her.

The air around them seemed charged, like it was crackling with energy. As if someone were going to set off a biotic charge. Sara held her breath and waited and then… the elevator lurched and started moving again, a blast of cool air shooting out from the environmentals.

Liam’s eyes were wide as he sat back, putting as much space between them as he could. In a matter of seconds they were both on their feet, Liam had his shirt on, and Sara wasn’t sure how to feel.

The elevator coasted to a gentle stop, the doors sliding open to reveal several people from the maintenance crew and a worried looking Cora.

“Are you both all right?” she asked, looking them over with concern.

“Yeah, fine,” Liam mumbled, head down as he brushed past Sara.

Sara nodded her assent, eyes locked on Liam’s quickly retreating back. She only met Cora’s gaze once he was out of sight.

“Couldn’t have waited five more minutes?” Sara tossed up her hands, and brushed past a highly confused Cora.

She needed a cold shower.