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six months after deciding to reboot this blog, i am almost done with athalia's google doc. to be fair to me, it's seven pages and i really pulled out all the stops so you guys can't be mad it took this long. once it's ready i'll post it and this blog's very first promoooo

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That made sense. Fish were a primordial companion, and scientists on Earth had theorized for centuries that all sentient life on the planet had evolved from the water. Shepard leaned her head back against the seat and pushed idly on the floor with one boot, twisting the chair back and forth.

"I could really go for some fish and chips, though I figure protheans probably didn't eat chips." But hell, what did she know? There was probably some version of a prothean potato fifty thousand years ago. Why not? She'd heard of weirder things. "I dunno, they just strike me as too posh for that sort of thing, but they had to have a lower class-- every society does-- so there must've been protheans who wore gaudy jewelry and chain smoked cigarettes and set their boyfriend's shuttle on fire when they found 'im shaggin' the neighbor's wife, right? Life's the same wherever you go."

There was something reassuring in that, but also something horrible. "D'you ever bum yourself out relating to people who've been dead for thousands of years? 'Cos I've been relating to protheans for about five minutes and now I'm depressed."

LIARA ABSOLUTELY DOESN'T MIND , there isn't a time she doesn't mind shepard in her space , actually. she just also sometimes doesn't give up on whatever she's working to formally acknowledge the commander. they've all been through too much to pay attention to rank formalities anyway. not that it particularly matters in her case , she's a diplomatic ally.

... but the word protheans were used and liara almost stopped dead in her tracks to answer that question. RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF HER SCANNING ENEMY DATA and breaking into archives. fingers stop typing. fingers continue typing. a few more seconds , then she has an actual stopping point and some very stolen information from a pro information broker.

" fish , " liara starts , simple and precise. she turns towards shepard , blue eyes flicking across the woman's features. she had a whole explanation on as to why or why fish continue to be one of the species the reapers never reap. BUT THAT WOULDN'T QUITE BE A DISTRACTION , WOULD IT ?

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Mass Effect Squad Stencils

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WHAT ARE YOU THE PATRON SAINT OF?

patron saint of heartbreak. not of comfort. not of condolences. there is a heart and there is a fissure, a fracture, something that starts to splinter and break open. you're the patron saint of the way a heart is rent open. the way it tears itself apart. patron saint of the rift. patron saint of the gash. when they say to "open your heart" to somebody, you are the patron saint of bleeding out.

tagged by: @teltinsurvivor tagging: whoever wants to do the thing

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surprise starter for @torntruth.

She's splayed herself haphazardly in the seat behind Liara rather than wait for her to turn around formally. At this point, Athalia didn't feel the need to stand on ceremony with her, at least not this far into the mission. She had come to trust Liara, to confide in her. It was easy to be honest about how you were feeling with someone had already looked inside your brain, seen what was in there, and still found you... interesting. Still, she's polite enough to wait for the asari to finish typing before speaking.

"Tell me something that has nothing to do with anything. Like, what did Protheans eat for lunch on a Tuesday? I need to think about anything that isn't Saren or I'm going to lose touch with what little sanity I've left."

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Equinox Yoga

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closed starter for @teltinsurvivor .

She's watching closed circuit footage, although it's surprisingly clear quality for what it is. At first, the feed is showing the interior of some sort of gatehouse. It's empty for the first ten seconds or so, then armored figures step into frame, weapons drawn. As they pass through the frame, the camera changes to another feed, and Jack sees them entering what looks like some kind of establishment. There are pre-fabricated buildings in the distance, and she can see the wind whipping up sand in the negative space between them. The feed changes again. The teams go into one empty building after another, but they don't find what they're looking for. There are no people, even though some of the buildings are clearly residential and people's things are moved in like they still live there.

After they've cleared several empty buildings like the first one, the team rejoins with a larger group. An exterior security feed records them setting up camp. It's hard to see what's going on as the suns both set, although it looks like they built a fairly large camp for the night. Then, the camera mode shifts to thermal vision, and the dark outline of tents is replaced by the soldiers in them. This is when it becomes apparent that the soldiers are not alone. The camera pans out, and there are heat signatures moving underneath the camp, big ones. They approach with inhuman speed, and come up from below the unsuspecting soldiers. For many frames, there is just chaos. The feed switches angles, maintaining focus on the worst of the violence. At one point, a human-shaped heat signature is rendered in two. The soldiers are scattering, some of them are running. A group of them are heading towards the camera.

There's hours of footage of just that night. Documentation of death after death. When the feed switches back to day vision as the first son rises, the camera feeds zoom in on what survivors are left, and there aren't many. At this point, Jack might have recognized Shepard from the handful of people who made it to the comm tower. It's a group of about ten soldiers, only a fifth of those who had initially walked the colony. They're vigilant but clearly in shock. Some of them aren't dressed to be in combat. They're low on ammo, but it doesn't matter because there's nothing to shoot at. With the sun, the thresher maws have retreated back into the sand dunes beyond the colony walls. They drink water out of sink faucets and look through cupboards for rations, but there isn't much. Comms are down.

When the first sun starts to set, there's an altercation. A male soldier gets in Shepard's face, clearly screaming at her. She doesn't back down, doesn't move or shrink back from him. Her answer is much calmer than his. Eventually, he steps away from her. She and two soldiers leave the group, and the vid switches camera feeds to follow them as they ascend to the roof of the comms tower. They take up defensive positions, trying to put as much space between themselves as possible. When the second sun begins to set, the feed switches to another group, who have since left the building and found shelter elsewhere. The switch back to thermal vision is very similar to the first. Small people-shaped orange blobs sitting still or moving slowly until the big shapes move towards them. Some of the feeds cut out before it's clear what even happened, the static indicating some kind of equipment damage.

Dawn of day two only left three splintered teams alive: Shepard and her two soldiers, a pair of two who were down from four the previous night, and one lone marine locked in an agricultural shed. By day three, Shepard's team is down to her and one other marine, the second team is down to one man with shaky vitals, and the corporal in the shed has lost contact. Sunrise on day four, the camera switches out of thermal mode and does a close up on Commander Shepard. She is covered in dirt and sand, and there are dark trails smeared across her cheeks. She has her rifle beside her, her arm looped through its strap as she sits against a support beam. As the camera pans in, it's clear she's holding her squadmate's hand, but their body isn't moving beside her. The footage no longer flips between camera views, presumably because there are no other survivors to film. The footage fast forwards through most of the morning without much movement, and in mid-afternoon jumps back to normal time, panning out to show reinforcements making contact. The feed speeds up again, and it's clear it's because Shepard wouldn't leave until they took her dead squadmate away. Once she steps out of frame, the vid file ends.

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     emily ratajkowski

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Adèle Exarchopoulos in Wingwomen (Voleuses, 2023) dir. Mélanie Laurent

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Emily Ratajkowski photographed by Sebastian Kim for Vanity Fair (2021)

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#IINFILTRATOR ——— independent commander shepard of bioware's mass effect trilogy. earthborn, sole survivor, paragon. canon ships are shiara and shali. established august 2014. rebooted in april 2024. anti-bioware. partners must be 21+ (minors please do not interact). written by chaya (30+ she/her). low activity. 

this story is an exploration of: heroism through unwavering faith, equanimity in the face of monstrosity, dispensing justice and equality above all else, healing the universe while others seek to destroy it, and most importantly, shielding those who cannot protect themselves. 

LINKS.   i. refresh. ii. askbox. iii. google doc. iv. threads list. v. pinterest. vi. blogroll.

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emrata 20/20

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Lazarus Project    └Choose Class Enhancement Procedure 2/6        └Infiltrator