#timeline: me3

[incorrect-mass-effect-quotes]

Shepard: James, it's the middle of the night! Did someone glue you to the fridge?

James: No...

Shepard: James... Did you glue YOURSELF to the fridge?

James: ...Yes.

[anderwhohn]

"Haven't I done enough?!" Isabela snaps in frustration, an ominous aura of dark energy flaring around her, her hands clenched into tight fists at her side as she clearly struggles to hold herself back even as she shouts. "I’m sick and tired of being the one who has to make the sacrifices! The only one sacrificing anything - and everything, it seems! I have literally died in my efforts to protect the galaxy, and you would think that meant I'd finally get to rest, but no! I get brought back to life - against my will, I might add - by a fucking human supremacist terrorist organisation that was the very fucking reason my entire unit died on Akuze and I'm supposed to just be okay with it? And be grateful, even?!"

"And in an oh so shocking turn of events, the Alliance fucking abandoned me, disbanded my crew, censored their communications with each other, and had the audacity to defame me after using my image for months for recruitment ads after they decided I wasn't even useful for that much anymore! All the while pushing out statements of how my claims of the Reaper threat were proof of my mental instability caused by the events of Akuze and every other traumatic mission I've been on since then, and Eden Prime was just what finally made me crack!"

[encontrole]

“I mean, who says exactly what they’re thinking? What kind of game is that?”

"Heh, yeah." Kaidan laughed nervously as he punched the button to activate the elevator. "Crazy, right?" Leaning against the wall, he crossed his arms. Tried to keep himself from fidgeting as they were lifted to the Presidium from the Docks. Tried to keep himself from thinking about how often he had said exactly what he was thinking.

And how much it had gotten him in trouble.

Shepard... remembered, right? There was no way she didn't. It wasn't like he never spoke up. It wasn't like he'd never told her exactly what he was thinking. But with luck, she was so mad about someone else that she'd forget that he... well. He played that game all the time. "I mean, you know. You're damned if you do and damned if you don't, anyway. It's a risky game for everyone involved." He picked at a loose string at his elbow. Literally everyone. Especially them.

[c-rowlesdraws]

Funnily enough I prefer YOUR Tali over bioshocks in ME3 I think? She actually properly looks like an alien from a planet where they didn't adapt an immune system

thank you! (and lol I'll assume you meant Bioware-- although a steampunk-aesthetic Tali is a very cool mental image.)

some things about how my Tali looks are definitely a result of living nearly her whole life sealed inside an exosuit and dealing with regular bouts of minor illness (at one point she mentions working while having a fever like it's something quarians just deal with). Pre-exile quarians, and post-canon quarians who have had some time to get re-acclimated to their home planet's ecosystem, would look a bit different. I did a couple lil sketches to hypothesize about some differences between my Tali during the games' timeline, and a post-canon Tali who's spent a few years on Rannoch:

there's no place like home.

(the spots of pigment on her face are made more colorful, and even softly bioluminescent, by harmless symbiotic bacteria found only on Rannoch. After the quarians fled into space after the Geth War, the bacteria died out in a generation; for over two hundred years, the only quarians with colorful faces were ancestors in old vids and pictures.)

[tealenko]

Tons of tag games

I gonna catch with tags from 3 months (sorry for the spam XDDD)

Here's the 1st:

WIP Anytime!/WIP Whenever

Literally lol XDDDDDDDDD Tagged by: @sillyliterature @vela-ad-astra

Thanks a lot for the tag, and sorry it's taken me so long to reply 😅

Just spent 5 months writing the last chapter of my fic (just posted it) so I haven't written a lot of my next chapter, but here are all my notes I guess XDDDDDDDDDD

Didn't Have the Heart ch.10 - Notes

⬇Keep reading to see it⬇

Ch10: The Next Time

Recorded notes

Potential flashback moments

In the Kodiac, back to the Normandy, with Legion / Kaidan / Garrus

Garrus (could be Tali, but I don’t think she’s been present for all of it in ME2 [project overlord] and ME3 [Grissom Academy], consult the timeline) freaks out a little

Recalls project overlord

Kaidan is like: yeah, I kinda agree, but Shepard is gonna do Shepard things.

He’s also processing all the new info like: wow…

He loves/hates her courage 

Perhaps Legion’s comments that they wouldn’t endanger Shepard.

G to K: “Aren’t you gonna say a fucking thing about this!?”

K to G: “What do you want me to say? I have no power to stop her from being that way. I’m a mere spectator here. Just doing my best to process everything while helping.”

G to K: Thanks for the help man.

G: I’m more affected: after all these years of suicide plans and all the Cerberus shit.

S to G: I appreciate the sentiment, Garrus, but I’m fine, as you can see.

Kaidan leaves them arguing and talks to Legion for a while -> last oportunity

Shepard picks Garrus on the mission because she wants to prove him wrong, but then she cannot help herself and adds Kaidan to the squad -> She sends him as leader of the 3rd mission because she’s kinda mad that he’s right -> back to back missions (just as they did with Cerberus) -> so the order is Korris/Geth dream/Filler mission

Admiral Korris mission related stuff

They talk as they get on/off their armor (alone)

Talking to the quarians / mission report

And now I have to go talk with the quarians, which I’m honestly dreading way more

 “That would explain the outfit”

She huffs and tries to stretch out the fabric arround her neck: “As if talking to politicians wasn’t torture enough…”

“Try not to punch anyone this time around…”

 “I won’t make any promises…

Things I really want to feature in this fic

There’s a cot in Starboard observation (Kaidan’s room) -> It’s Kasumi’s old cot

Have her mention the amount of reports she has to do

I’d like to add the ring thing -> nightmares (maybe I can show a little on the ME2 beginning when she gives it to Kaidan)

Actual Timeline

2 missions

They send another squad to the third one

She’s like: I should go get some sleep -> fluff moment

We do here the “smut path” 

She goes to her cabin

Tries to sleep

Sees her formal uniform in a puddle

Flashes of her table fantasy in her mind -> fuck it!

She goes to his room

Have her mention the amount of reports she has to do

And smut happens -> against the window?

She falls asleep on the sofa

And we do the “nightmare path” here

She has a nightmare

Mention the ring here perhaps

Flash to the bar chapter in LBIG?

She wakes up less shaken than usually -> Bittersweet moment of mourning the dead but being comforted by spending some time in their company, even if it’s on her dreams

Wakes up

Finds him sleeping, he’s done all her work

She hesitates, almost leaves, but doesn’t in the end

And we end with fluff

She joins him in the cot

He hugs her and smiles

She reprimands him for not following her orders (waking her up to do the reports and doing her job instead)

We end the chapter as he replies: I didn’t have the heart 

Fic timeline / Narrative order

Start at the entrance of the starboard port? -> Flashback

Decides not to enter -> Flashback -> Make it a tough one

Goes to the port observation 

Is about to serve herself a drink -> flash/expl. that she doesn’t drink alcohol when she feels like she need it 

Goes to the kitchen instead -> Flashback

Drinks water/coffee -> Flashback

Goes back to the room -> Flashback

Enters. -> The rest happens

Fluff to spicy banter

Smut

They spend a while talking on the sofa

She falls sleep

Nightmare

When she’s woken up she sees him passed out on the cot, surrounded by datapads -> she pulls all that stuff on one of the tables and checks that he’s done indeed all her job (informs and all that stuff)

Grabs a blanket and covers him

She’s about to leave but remembers his words

[dragonflight203]

Mass Effect 2 replay, Zaeed’s loyalty mission:

-Now’s a good time to contrast Kasumi and Zaeed.

They’re both DLC companions. Kasumi is paragon aligned, Zaeed is renegade aligned.

This is reflected in their loyalty missions – Kasumi’s is to infiltrate the scum of humanity to retrieve the memento of her murdered lover.

Zaeed sets fire to a refinery full of innocent people he was hired to save so he can pursue revenge.

-What’s most notable here is Bioware breaking from the dichotomy of male paragon/female renegade that they’ve had with prior pairs of human companions.*

As others may have raised, it’s possible that with the prior human companions the assumption was women were more likely play paragon, so their love interest (Kaidan, Jacob) should be paragon as well.

Men were assumed more likely to play renegade, so they’re love interests should correspondingly be renegade (Ashley, Miranda). Jack can also be thrown in here, although she’s not paired with another male human.

Since neither Kasumi nor Zaeed are love interests, they’re not obligated to follow the established pattern.

*I’m not including Liara, Garrus, or Thane in this discussion as they’re non-human. However, it would be interesting to dive into more detail about how mshep in ME1 has a paragon and renegade love interest, but femshep only has paragon love interests.

-Ah, the joys of planet scanning in ME2. It makes me wish I played on PC so I could install the mode that retrieves all minerals with one probe.

-Blue Suns are essentially the de facto government of Zorya as well.

Between this and Omega, I take it they’re a mercenary group aspiring to go into politics.

-Zorya looks like your average forest.

While I love that the quests in ME2 have unique environments, I mourn how all the worlds are very Earth like.

ME1 had many unique, alien settings. ME2 settings typically look like they could take place somewhere on Earth.

-Aaand it has pyjacks. I think by the end of ME2 they can be considered as invasive a species as tribbles.

Also, pyjacks are definitely what the food stall on Omega was selling. But how did it find pyjacks so big? Many were human sized; the in game model is a small monkey.

-It’s obvious the loyalty missions were not designed with a second companion in mind. In some the second companion has only one or two lines, in others none.

I took Garrus with me the first time I did Zaeed’s loyalty mission. Do you really think Garrus would remain silent as Zaeed talks about being betrayed by his men? Or that Mordin would be chill with leaving the refinery works to burn to death?

I wonder if at one point the assumption was the loyalty missions would only be you and the squad member, but later in development they let you take another companion to keep the fights more manageable.

-As numerous others have said, Zaeed and another human starting a galactic wide mercenary group twenty years ago, less than a decade after first contact, is ridiculous.

For the sake of my sanity, I will treat this like humans creating medi-gel. Zaeed and Vido started a chapter of the Blue Suns together. Maybe the first human chapter, and that’s why it’s so notable.

(I also have issues with the fact that all three notable mercenary groups in ME2 and ME3 were started quite recently in the Mass Effect timeline, but we’ll come back to that when we get all the codex entries for them.)

-Once again batarians are all villainized as evil. Vido hired them because they were cheaper; Zaeed called them terrorists.

I wouldn’t mind this treatment of batarians so much if the game ever played with it. Yes, treat a group as one dimensional at first, then later on show how they’re three dimensional. Make the protagonist face their own prejudices and move past them.

Or in a game like Mass Effect, fail to do so – and make that have consequences.

Neither happens, other than a possible minor loss of war assets in ME3.

As others have said, given the huge roster in ME2 the lack of a batarian party member is a missed opportunity.

-When confronting Vido, the framing of how Zaeed looks at the gas valve is similar to how the game frames an object just before giving you a paragon/renegade interrupt for it.

And just like you can when given the option, Zaeed takes a strong renegade interrupt.

-There’s another line of auto dialogue from Shepard when Zaeed blows open the gate.

-As others have noted, this mission is similar to the mission Anderson and Saren went on when Anderson was considered as a spectre.

Do you blow up a refinery and let innocent people die for your own gain or not?

You have the option to tellAnderson that you would in Mass Effect 1. He says that you would have a good reason to do so. If he learned that you let these refinery workers die to gain Zaeed’s loyalty, would he consider that a good reason?

-Since I’m not interested in listening people burn to death – done that once before to see the alternative mission path, not interested in repeating it – save the workers it is.

Honestly, the most baffling part if Shepard chooses this route is that they let Zaeed come with them. Considering how driven by revenge and ruthless he is, why is Shepard willing to trust him? How do they know Zaeed won’t put a bullet in their back so he can chase after Vido?

You should have an option to send him away like you do Liara on Noveria. Could be an autofail – if a paragon/renegade check fails, Zaeed tries to kill you and you’re forced to kill him.

-There’s no combat as you move through the burning refinery. No surprise; the mercenaries don’t want to burn either.

-That battle at the end is always difficult. Almost made it through with a few charges on my first try, then died to the mech.

Finally made it through, surprise surprise, by playing as a cover shooter.

-Neither of the paragon options with Zaeed at the end are compelling in my opinion. Obviously I went upper left to gain his loyalty, but the game doesn’t sell me on it.

Go upper right, you tell him you’re too much of a badass for him to kill in your sleep. You don’t gain his loyalty, but you do get grudging respect.

Go upper left, you threaten with a gun and tell him he’s part of a team.

The best is neutral, where you tell him he’s crazy but you need crazy for your current mission. I still don’t like it, but it feels more genuine than the others.

Normandy – Shepard’s Inbox

-Email from Talitha, the formerly enslaved colonist you talk down if you have the Midnoir background – One of her doctors works with Ceberus (because of course Cerberus has people everywhere) and that’s how she gets you the message.

The end is such emotional blackmail I question if TIM faked it:

The doctors say that other people are getting taken like I was. I hope you can help them like you helped me.

If it’s genuine it’s very sweet. If it’s not, I want to shoot TIM again.

-There’s also an email from Sha’ira the Consort which feels a little too on point:

When you fought Saren, only your resolve was tested, but now I fear you cannot rely only on your own strength. Take whatever steps you must to ensure that those battling at your side fight with clear minds and glad hearts.

Points to the game for encouraging you to complete the loyalty missions for the good ending. Points to Sha’ira for being more helpful than she was in ME1.

I’m docking points from the writers for not working that in more naturally.

-Dr. Michel wrote the winning email today, where she very blatantly is writing you because she’s hoping you can get her in touch with Garrus.

Girl has a massive crush on him for saving her, and he’s completely oblivious even after she gives him turian chocolates in M3.

[comfort-in-space]

ME Andromeda. I am enjoying it but i can’t ignore the fact that this games lore and where it fits in the universe/timeline.

Andromeda would make a hell of a lot more sense and just be more enjoyable to people who played the trilogy - if it the initiative left after the events of Me3.

And I’m talking a couple hundred years afters.

Like after the events of the reaper war everyone was so shook and scared of the possibility of it happening again that the Andromeda initiative was created to give life a shot in a new galaxy. Created in collaboration with all races and maybe Ai (if you didn’t destroy them)

Plus if it took place after the events of the original ME trilogy you could see the consequences of all your actions. ME3 especially with the final choice and how that played out.

• If you destroyed all Ai, it would make sense that SAM is a controversial addition to the pathfinders.

• The Synthesis ending would work perfectly with the andromeda initiative. Alec even believes being one with Ai is life’s ultimate end goal.

IM JUSG SO UPSET - THE POSSIBILITIES WERE RIGHT THERE

MASKLESS QUARIANS apart of the initiative!!!

Krogan free of the genophage looking to continue the life of their people in a new galaxy

MAYBE a return of protheans as cloning became more advanced. restarting the race idk

Shepard and the crew of the normandy being honored in some way on the arks for their contribution to life.

A united front of all species working together looking to put the past behind them to do something new and grand.

——

I had expected to see the consequences of my actions from the og trilogy and I’m disappointed.

Im still enjoying the game but I can’t help but think if what it could’ve been.

No spoilers for Andromeda please <3

[legionofpotatoes]

Theory time! Correct me if I'm wrong on any of these counts:

The 314 number. Relay 314 was the back end of the Shanxi incident, no? Then Arcturus? As of most recently, human-controlled space?

The date indicates November 7, 2190; four years past ME3. Fits the timeline of rebuilding post-Reaper War.

Liara is heard arguing/conversing with a geth, that much is certain. Aligning with human interests, expecting blowback from the Council. She's in cahoots with the quarian-sounding captain of the Relay installation maybe? Bankrolling it in order to re-establish communication with Alec's ark, let them know to turn back?

The Relay itself is evidently no longer based on Reaper design, and is being built in human space, probably violating tons of council laws in the process (most notably the post-rachni declarations).

The geth being here doesn't necessarily indicate a canonized ending. The Andromeda Initiative mapped the sister galaxy by using salvaged geth sensors that the latter built out of a mass relay. No one's asking why the geth were looking at Andromeda in the first place, but if they were, it's not a stretch to assume some of them... went there. And that sensor? Do we know how old it was?

(this ties into a greater theory I have that geth really have been in Andromeda for much longer and are actually the progenitors of the jardaan and largely responsible for seeding life in and terraforming the heleus cluster, and possibly are at conflict with the kett empire. but this is neither here nor there)

Whatever the case, it seems like we're picking up post-ME3, and bulldozing a bridge to Andromeda with Liara leading the charge. The framework of the plot falls somewhere around those lines!

[cr-noble-writes]

2023 Mass Effect Fic Recs

As we approach the end of the year, I want to shout out some really fantastic fics I've read this year. Some of them were posted this year, some of them were posted earlier, but I found them this year so they're going on the list.

Some of these deal with some pretty heavy issues, so mind the tags!

Natural Fissures by happychica

The necessities, the demands, and the endless pressure that is war finally crack the foundation that is Commander Shepard. Forced to face his demons, John is reminded once again that the people he fights for are willing to defend him, even from himself.

This fic is an ongoing longfic set during the ME3 timeline, and it is an absolutely incredible piece that follows not only Shepard, but the rest of the crew in their personal journeys alongside the crisis of The Reaper War.

Fugue by Swaps55

A few minutes more and they wouldn’t have even been on the ship. The Mako was scheduled and ready for drop, both of them suited up and ready with the final checklist completed.

A few minutes more, and they would have watched the Normandy burn from the surface of Alchera.

But they didn’t get those minutes.

Alchera, and the two year gap.  

Really, I recommend the entire Opus series, and everything related to it (really, anything that Swaps has written). Fugue is an absolutely beautiful depiction of the journey of grief and hope, and I honestly still don't have the words to express the things it made me feel.

Phoenix by mallaidhsomo

Shepard went down with his ship, only to wake two years later and find out the love of his life had gone down, too. Or so he thinks.

First off, I am an absolute sucker for Subject Zero!Kaidan. This fic is an incredible depiction of that, and I may be slightly just a little bit mildly in love with Sidney Shepard.

Descent by mallaidhsomo

Leo Shepard makes a promise to Ashley Williams that he intends to keep.

Or, relationships are complicated.

I adore Leo Shepard. I highly recommend reading all three posted parts of the Us Against The World series. The relationship building in this fic is just so good, and I have found my new favorite side character in Bolts the Drone.

An Unfortunately Sexy Man by missjlh

Jarun Tann is an obtuse fool. Unfortunately, he's an obtuse fool that Addison, Kandros and Kesh all have a crush on. The three of them get together to offer one another moral support through what is clearly the very worst thing to have happened thus far in Andromeda.

This fic is so god damn funny. I love it so much, and when I am having a particularly bad day, I go back and read it. It's such a well written comedic piece.

Volta by DanDenbo

At the outset of the war, Kaidan Alenko wonders about his path - whether to become a spectre, whether to rejoin the Normandy, and what to do about his feelings for Shepard. During a mission on Chalkhos, he finds his answers.

Non-binary Shepard/Kaidan battle couple. I feel like that honestly is enough of a recommendation. This is an incredibly well written piece. Shepard and Kaidan's relationship, and the complex nature of it, is just so well done.

Life Behind Enemy Lines by Otempora

The Illusive Man leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers. “We humans have a saying. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

Shepherd was familiar with the phrase, but turians didn’t think that way.

---

Species swap AU, Human!Garrus/Turian!Shepard. ME2 retelling. Not a standalone.

I would kill and/or die for Shepherd and also for Gareth. An incredibly well done, intriguing, and captivating species swap. Shepherd is such a complex character, and she makes my heart hurt.

There are honestly a billion more fics I would recommend, but it would end up being the world's longest tumblr post, so I am gonna call it here for now.

Please enjoy!!

[ezrisdax-archive]

fic ideas I had for things but never finished or started properly (also a lot of these I came up with with other people):

b7

fake dating au

accidentally got married au

 mutual pining whoops we're sleeping together anyway

ace attorney au

 seven as the one in shattered instead of chakotay au with maquis!b'elanna in janeways spot

future fic from naomi point of view about her gay aunts

dragon age au with warden!b'elanna and morrigan!seven

kes stays and is sick of them flirting and locks them in a closet au

 the coffee shop au I never finished which became a whole world anyway

 help desk support b'elanna dealing with ext 709 on the phone every day

hades game au

stuck on the holodeck and have to act the parts out to get out

utena au

xena au

troisha

expanding on the au I had where alternate reality tasha ended up in prime timeline instead of going to the past

xena au

roommates at starfleet au which I think I may have also done? so like...a different better one

 tasha didn’t die but ended up in some limbo form and deanna keeps seeing her as a ghost

kiradax (either dax)

reverse au with ezri as the dax host before jadzia and jadzia in season seven

mass effect au with asari!jadzia and human!kira

dragon age au with hawke!jadzia and mage!kira

au where kira stays on ds9 at the end of season six and is able to get to jadzia in time to save her but jadzia has to leave for trill for healing for a while and they write each other

chlodine

time loop au where they're looking for atlantis and whoops its got a funky artifact that has nadine looping

au where they meet much much sooner

office au where nadine is night security and chloe works late and keeps forgetting her badge and breaking in

wilenko

the au where one of them gets the beacon instead of shep

winter soldier cerberus au where they show up instead of sheps clone in ME3 or take kai lengs place in ME3

tim hortons vs starbucks au in niagra falls listen I'm canadian

stargate au

grissom academy instructor kaidan but ash on the normandy still

 pacific rim au

star wars au with clone soldier ash and jedi kaidan

vetryder

never went to andromeda au and ryders dig site needs supplies and she finds vetra

the typical au where sara isn't the pathfinder but calls dibs when she wakes up and meets vetra anyway

were dating pre andromeda but vetra thought ryder died when the hyperion didn't show up

misc star trek

seven/ezri where seven ends up on ds9 by the borg attacking the defiant and them getting seven from it look it wasn't fully fleshed out

divided we fall rewrite (ezri/lenara)

on an away mission together leading to fake dating (joann/keyla)

the kes stays on voyager, tom leaves au with kes, harry, b’elanna, and seven shenanigans (gen)

ezri and harry bffs serving on captain geordi's ship (gen)

misc

 ichiban time loop au (yakuza, gen)

au where korra doesn't fully get her memory back in season two but thinks her and asami are dating (lok, korrasami)

seong-hui keeps texting saeko and this leads to a relationship (yakuza, seong-hui/saeko)

tifa finds aerith at shinra hq where she’s been locked up for a while (ffvii, aerith/tifa)

tifa dead all along based on the latest trailer and technically a ghost but aerith drags her back to living anyway (ffvii, aerith/tifa)

rei begs susato to dress up again to get out of dating other guys (ace attorney, susahao)

franmaya star trek au with romulan/vulcan fran and trill maya (ace attorney, franmaya)

[anderwhohn]

"I thought you were dead forever once, and it almost destroyed me. I could not bear it if you died again, not when I could save you."

[drelldreams]

Liselle T‘loak headcanons (Warning: Spoilers under cut)

- Liselle doesn‘t go by Liselle T‘loak to keep her identity hidden. Her alias is Liselle R’aova.

- In the timeline of ME3 (yes she‘s alive, I‘m ignoring anything BioWare says on the matter) she is 314 years old and slowly approaching the Matron stage. Her birthdate is August 16, 1872.

- She was born on Omega and while Aria was there for her as often as possible, she was often put into the care of a trusted asari nanny. This asari is one of the very few individuals Aria truly trusts. Still even this nanny doesn‘t even know that Liselle is Aria‘s daughter.

- Liselle is specialized in intel gathering/espionage and infiltration. She is well traveled and has a huge amount of influental contacts across the galaxy.

- Like most asari Liselle is bisexual like but she favors women.

- Having grown up in Omega she cares relatively little around the whole pureblood stigma. Asari in asari spaces are more prejudiced towards it where the population of Omega more often has a zero fucks given attitude towards a lot of things.

- Liselle speaks five languages fluently; Bavtar, a batarian language and one of her past lover‘s native language, Puron (salarian language), Viunene (a Thessian language), Ljadapi (asari language, her native tongue), and Galactic Standard. She cannot produce the sounds, but she can understand most of the turian language Rinvitt.

- Liselle resembles Aria somewhat, but not as extremely much as Morinth and Samara look alike. She inherited her mother‘s icy blue eyes, tall height, as well as her cheekbone markings. While Liselle is blue, she has a violet tint to her skin. She has gotten herself very different tattooed facial markings from her mother so they look less alike.

- Her father is an asari Spectre Aria had an affair with. Liselle was raised by Aria alone; her father was not involved. She has various half sisters from her father‘s side but she hardly knows them.

- Much like mom she has an affinity for black clothes, night clubs and leather jackets. She‘s also a fantastic dancer.

- Liselle has a few tattoos, including a deadly and fierce animal from asari mythology. She also has natural markings across her collarbones and shoulders.

- Her superficial charm and ability to read people of various species allows her to easily gain intel. She‘s extremely skilled at subterfuge and lying and deceiving comes as natural to her as breathing.

- Councillor Tevos is her aunt, and sister to Aria.

- Liselle is a bit of a picky eater and a snob when it comes to the quality of hotel rooms or wine. She got that from her mother.

- She‘s a bit less ruthless than her mother, but she does have a vindictive streak, and while she is more polite than mom, she can be just as bossy and arrogant. Liselle has a kind and warm side and is generally forthcoming, but she is definitely hardened due to her upbringing.

[nonuel]

something that has always puzzled me is how, exactly, miranda is a biotic. and this is a bit of a tricky question when i try to explore it seriously, because i basically have to decide whether or not it was intentional on bioware's part or if they just forgot their own lore. considering mass effect lore (including its timeline) is frustratingly inconsistent across the board, it's not really outside the realm of possibility that the writers didn't put that much thought into it, but anyway...

my confusion stems from the fact:

biotics are supposed to develop from in-utero exposure to element zero

humanity didn't discover refined element zero until 2148

(it's unclear to me if this means humanity had access to eezo before 2148, just not in a refined form? or if there is even a significant difference between "refined eezo" and just simply the "eezo" most people mention in game)

the first known mass eezo exposure occurred in 2151 at the singapore international spaceport

biotic tendencies didn't start manifesting in any of these exposed children until 2156

humanity didn't understand what was happening in these children until 2158

miranda was born in 2150

this means that miranda was not only created by her father before the first generation of human biotics were even born, but created before humanity en masse even understood biotics were possible in humans and how it's achieved

now, miranda doesn't typically go into explicit details of what her childhood was like and she speaks more in generalities. we do see firsthand in ME3 what henry lawson is like for ourselves, and the type of experiments he is willing to participate in and fund. between the few lines miranda does give us about her father (most notably, "i wasn't the first one he made, i was just the first one he kept") and what we see for ourselves in ME3, human experimentation is pretty much canonical for henry lawson. further, we do know that he was specifically interested in creating a perfect specimen to preserve a legacy (his "dynasty"), not unlike okeer with grunt. "perfect" in this instance is technically subjective, but given the genetic qualities that henry lawson included in miranda, it can be presumed "powerful" is included in his definition of perfect.

so if this is intentional on bioware's part, it can mean two (maybe more; these are just the two i've currently thought about) things:

miranda was, in fact, born with biotics, and she just predates "normal" human biotics because henry was already experimenting with creating biotics in humans because of his own ideal of what a perfect human being entails

after the discovery of human biotics, henry experimented on an already-alive miranda to try and find a way to make her a biotic, and succeeded

i think of the two, #1 is more likely, because i can't recall any sort of canon precedent that makes #2 possible or sustainable. and considering it's also canonical that henry had children before miranda, it's probable one of the reasons they are no longer alive is because all his prior experiments before miranda were failures. it is canonical that only 10% of those exposed to eezo in-utero actually develop biotics, and the rest either have no side effects (i.e., develop normally) or develop terminal cancers.

the main issue here is that there's only a two year difference between the discovery of refined eezo and miranda's creation. assuming test-tube babies in the 22nd century still need to gestate for ~nine months, that's not a lot of time to see any actual results - the codex gives five years between the singapore exposure and biotic tendencies developing, and one year between the singapore growth and cancerous growths developing. unless miranda had siblings into early childhood, and if we assume henry started immediately experimenting in 2148, it doesn't seem likely henry would've seen any positive results until 2153 at the earliest. but even some of the negative results (cancer) seem to take a bit to manifest, which means at a realistic minimum there were two children before miranda who developed cancer and died. of course, it's also entirely possible a lot of the children didn't even make it to term and died in-utero from the experimentation, which means the amount of test subjects henry could've gone through before miranda is unknowable.

miranda's line about not being the only one is a bit unclear on whether she knows this because she did have siblings into early childhood that later died, or just because she knew of her father's previous experiments. she does talk about growing up with no friends, so that's why i specify "early childhood." still, i think it's probably more likely all of the dead siblings happened before her creation was complete, and the reason she succeeded is because of the data henry collected from their deaths - not unlike what cerberus was doing with the other children at pragia. there is an issue here in that her surviving to term and not developing illnesses didn't guarantee she'd develop biotics, but i'll get to that in a bit.

a different issue here is that, again, i'm unsure if "refined eezo" and "eezo" are the same thing. if humanity already had access to eezo before 2148, then this means henry had a lot more time to experiment with biotics. on a similar note, it is not incredibly farfetched to make the assumption eezo has something to do with biotics, given that asari are naturally biotic and their homeworld is "eezo-rich." biotics also exist in virtually every known galactic species, which means it is a known fact that eezo exposure causes biotics in other species outside asari. it's a lot more realistic that the reason humanity was slow on the uptake is more to do with lack of verified proof and legitimate peer reviewed studies about biotic manifestation in humans, rather than a complete incognizance of what could be causing it the way it's presented in canon. also, we do know for a fact alliance politics played a role in how the alliance handled biotic development in human children as well, per dialogue with kaidan.

the other issue is that oriana is meant to be miranda's genetic twin, but seems to show no known biotic abilities. this is difficult to discuss meaningfully for two reasons: (1) because mass effect has a track record of telling rather than showing a lot of the time (e.g., all human biotics supposedly having an implant scar on the back of their neck unless they get cosmetic surgery to remove it) so oriana never being shown to have biotics doesn't necessarily mean she doesn't actually have them. but also (2), biotics don't even seem to be genetic anyway - so oriana being miranda's genetic twin doesn't mean she inherently has the eezo nodules in her nervous system, because henry needed to expose her to eezo in-utero for those to develop. it is also possible that she was exposed to the eezo in-utero and she's just among the 60% that had no side effects.

to return to #2 and the issue of how henry could "guarantee" biotic development in miranda post-birth, we do know it's possible for biotics to manifest in non-biotics (such as with the use of red sand or minagen x3), but this always seems to be temporary. more importantly, cerberus' experiments at the pragia facility also specify "biotic potential" children, which seems to imply none of the children had actually yet manifested biotic abilities but theoretically had the ability to do so and this is what their experiments were focusing on, with the ultimate goal being to gather intel to ensure jack developed powerful biotics. this still implies to me that they were likely exposed in-utero and were either taken at birth before any outcome was known, or they were already part of the 60% where no side effects had occurred, but the eezo nodules were still in their system and were just inactive.

in summary, #2 seems unlikely to me mainly because it seems for biotics to develop permanently, there has to be an in-utero exposure first. if miranda was never exposed to eezo whatsoever until she was already born, i don't know how possible it is she could actually have the permanent, let alone powerful, biotics she does in canon. but it is possible that henry kept exposing miranda to eezo after her birth to ensure she'd develop biotics. semi-relatedly, but given that henry lawson was a benefactor to cerberus before miranda's defection to them, it's actually entirely possible cerberus was using the intel from these theoretical experiments as a launchpad for their own experiments at pragia.

overall tl;dr: miranda was probably successfully experimented on as both a fetus and child after the death of an unknowable amount of other fetuses and this is how she's a biotic before "normal" human biotics were born. or in other words, henry lawson continues to be fucked up, news at 11

anyway, this is all assuming any of this was actually intentional on bioware's part. while i incorporate a lot of this into my own canon, i do actually fall on the side of bioware not intentionally putting as much thought into it as i have here, especially because they more or less completely abandoned human biotic lore after ME1. but who knows?

[jacensolodjo]

after talking to @mirandaputsherbestbuttforward about Shane's hair timeline I decided I finally need to do it so.

Teens until boot camp it was this. (also how she looked for the most part)

Boot camp (OOHRAH!)

Boot to Akuze (grown out slightly but still a regulation masculine Marine style)

Post-Akuze (This is a time where she was in, ahem, the looney bin. She never talks about it, will never talk about it except with Jack and maybe Ash. References it to Chakwas. Anderson knows about it obviously. It will be repeated below because honestly it shows about the level of care she has about her hair. Both are times she doesn't give a fuck about her hair as she is, essentially, being held against her will and supposedly for her own good. lmao)

SR-1 (It kinda looks like Jack's ME3 hair, just a lot shorter. It's not quite how I envision Shane's hair but it's close enough. I don't think she actually has a top knot esque thing though. I think it's actually a flat kind of plait.)

Post-Lazarus (I imagine no one is really bothering much with making a coma patient's hair look quite that luxurious or highlighted or anything we're really only focusing on length. They keep it at that kind of shoulder length, maybe clipped where her biotic amp is for medical purposes. Hygienic, easily maintained, but not in the length Shane would prefer if she were conscious)

Before and After Meeting Jack (Shane desperately sawed off her hair as soon as she could. She saw Jack, Jack looked at Shane. They kinda came to terms enough for Jack to do Shane's hair into the mohawk)

After Being Under House Arrest for 6 Months (she didn't give a fuck about her hair okay) ((I wasn't gonna do an in-game version but I happened to find one that was a close approx while searching for proper short hairstyles to have fun with when looking for good ones in ME2 to approximate post-Lazarus but pre-Jack))

Seeing Jack Again Then Rest of Reaper War (*whispers* yes that means Jack does Shane's hair. No, I don't know why it looks different from the ME2 version other than the fact it piggybacks from James' texture even tho it ALSO DOESN'T LOOK LIKE JAMES' MOHAWK. But also fun head canon is that Jimmer Jams totally thinks Shane mimicked his haircut and she kinda lets him live thinking it because it makes him happy with his harmless kind of hero worship. A recurring gag is Shane constantly muffling Jack when she tries correcting James when he brags about how he and Shane are mohawk twins but he did it first. "Yeah, the Commander totally copied me." "But, Muscles, Shepard already--" "Shh!")

Post War (Grown out, shabby, but still kinda cares that it stays short and ready just in case??? Jack teases sometimes how finally she has something to grab onto during sex. It flusters Shane. It (Sex) is the only thing that flusters Shane. This delights Jack to no end which makes her say it more. Rinse. Repeat. Somehow Shane never retaliates about Jack's hair being longer technically.)

[tealenko]

i'm ultra tired, but worth it...

Wooooo!!! Finnally finished planning my fic (cost me a while to find the right order to tell everything T-T)

So yeah... Tomorrow I'll start writing the last chapter of Didn't Have the Heart. Wish me luck!

🔽NOTES🔽

Looking at the drinks at the bar -> 1st flashback -> she took a nap on the kodiak -> nightmare happened -> she does direct to port observation

Pours the drink, has a deep moment staring at the gin and then changes her mind -> she needs it, and she has learned to never drink when you feel like you need it (cause ME2)

Instead she looks at it one more time, toast to the air and leaves to go to her room.

Lies in bed -> cannot sleep -> 1st flashback -> the kodiak, back to the Normandy, with Legion / Kaidan / Garrus

Garrus (could be Tali, but I don’t think she’s been present for all of it in ME2 [project overlord] and ME3 [Grissom Academy], consult the timeline) freaks out a little

Recalls project overlord

Kaidan is like: yeah, I kinda agree, but Shepard is gonna do Shepard things.

He’s also processing all the new info like: wow…

He loves/hates her courage 

Perhaps Legion’s comments that they wouldn’t endanger Shepard.

G to K: “Aren’t you gonna say a fucking thing about this!?”

K to G: “What do you want me to say? I have no power to stop her from being that way. I’m a mere spectator here. Just doing my best to process everything while helping.”

G to K: Thanks for the help man.

G: I’m more affected: after all these years of suicide plans and all the Cerberus shit.

S to G: I appreciate the sentiment, Garrus, but I’m fine, as you can see.

Kaidan leaves them arguing and talks to Legion for a while -> last opportunity

Back to reality, in bed, keeps turning around

Sees her uniform -> #distracted

Goes to see Kaykay

Stops at the door -> receives message from admiral korris (to tell he’s already saved lol) and when she is about to knock decides not to -> goes to the kitchen instead

Maybe a short conversation with Chawkas??

“Mayor Alenko was looking for you not too long ago?” + the I know look on her face -> that’s all she needs to return to her og plan

Goes back to the room ->Have her mention the amount of reports she has to do -> hesitation followed by a fuck it!!

Enters. -> The rest happens

Mention that there’s a cot in Starboard observation (Kaidan’s room) -> It’s Kasumi’s old cot

Fluff to spicy banter

Smut

They spend a while talking on the sofa

She falls sleep

Nightmare

Mention the ring here perhaps

Flash to the bar chapter in LBIG?

She wakes up less shaken than usually -> Bittersweet moment of mourning the dead but being comforted by spending some time in their company, even if it’s on her dreams

Or maybe I can show a little on the ME2 beginning when she gives it to Kaidan

When she’s woken up she sees him passed out on the cot, surrounded by datapads -> she pulls all that stuff on one of the tables and checks that he’s done indeed all her job (informs and all that stuff)

Grabs a blanket and covers him

She’s about to leave but remembers his words -> She hesitates, almost leaves, but doesn’t in the end

And we end with fluff

She joins him in the cot

He hugs her and smiles

She reprimands him for not following her orders (waking her up to do the reports and doing her job instead)

We end the chapter as he replies: I didn’t have the heart