#Avitus X Macen

[mass-effect-anonymous]

CONFESSION:

As a gay guy I can't help but feel that the Avitus/Macen mini arc was created for the sole purpose to con us to believe the developers do care about creating content for us.  And while it was a nice attempt it only accomplished two things for me. First, it made me naturally assume The Turian Hierarchy is homophobic,  And secondly (I'm embarrassed to say) it did bring out the juvenile side of me and my guy as well and all we ended up wondering is how they do it.  Bioware  really needs to do better.

Mod Note: Hey confessor you have everything off (which I can understand) so I am replying here. First thanks for your submission and there is nothing offensive about it. Its a valid confession and I showed it to my bro and bro in law and they had similar thoughts so you are not alone. My brother actually refers to it as a "placating gesture". I'm sure many others who follow this blog will feel the same way. Thank you again for your submission.

[embryhallowed]

What I really need with all my heart is a mod that allows Avitus and Macen to live happily ever after and nothing bad happens to either of them :c

[teamdilf]

hurt/comfort prompts: 9 and/or 10 for whoever you feel like? >:3c

Have some Avitus/Macen!

Macen is home - or as close to home as they can get for now, which is a two room apartment on the Nexus. He’s in a wheelchair (Avitus makes a note to tear someone a new asshole for not bothering to make these spaces friendly for those with mobility challenges), and isn’t feeling up for doing much more than eating or sleeping.

Marius is more relaxed than they’ve been in a long while; content to recharge on their dock inside of the mobile charger next to the bed.

Why isn’t he fucking happy? Why does it feel like something is sitting on his chest all the damn time? Macen is getting better!

He’s fine. This is stupid, so he makes dinner - a pasta dish Macen likes, which is good because pasta seems like the only fuckin’ thing they have in abundance right now. That’s another fight he’d like to pick: who planned the diet for the obligate carnivores and decided pasta was a great idea?

Dumbasses.

A thousand times he’s made this stupid dish, but today he forgot to buy the herbs he needs and burns the meat before he can add the sauce to it.

“Fuck!” he cries, punching the kitchen counter, which refuses to crack under his fist, leaving him with the ache without the satisfaction of property damage. “So fucking stupid!”

“Avi, you can’t keep it bottled up forever,” Macen says, his tone gentle, but not the infuriatingly gentle tone of a therapy-voiced fuck. Just the tone of someone who knows his lover is hurting and wants to fix things.

He’s spent decades keeping shit bottled up; stuffing it away in the empty bottles of liquor he’s drunk. Therapy has shown him that he’s got a problem with alcohol; the sort of problem that can only be solved by abstinence.

So, he burns pasta now. Fuck.

Slowly, Macen stands up off the bed and he rushes over to help him, holding him up while they walk to the couch.

“The burner is still on and dinner’s already fucked,” he says.

“Why don’t you tell me what has you so upset that you’re taking it out on the noodles?”

“On the meat and sauce, actually,” and Macen gives him a look indicating he doesn’t feel like dealing with pedantry as an avoidance technique.

It’s not about the pasta. It was never about the pasta and Macen knows it because he can tell what he’s thinking with little more than a glance.

“It’s OK to cry,” Macen says, prodding at his invisible wounds as if looking for the infection so he can lance it.

He’s already cried more than he has this last year than in all the years combined since losing his parents.

“I don’t want to fucking cry!” he snaps; immediately regretting it like he always does when Macen is the target of his temper. He takes a breath and forces himself to speak more calmly. “You don’t need to be dealing with my pathetic weeping. This shitty apartment isn’t made for someone using a wheelchair; I need to carry you into the fucking shower…”

“Correction: I get to be carried by my handsome bondmate, who then puts his hands all over me while he helps me shower.”

Always looking on the bright side of life. Only Macen could nearly die and look at the fact that he needs so much help as an excuse to enjoy a grope.

“I can’t fix you. You’ve lost your career and your asshole bondmate is doing the job that was meant to be yours and you should be mad, biscuit. You should be so fucking mad but you aren’t so I need to be mad for you,” he says, with a sob that he cannot suppress, but not for lack of trying.

“I am mad, but not at you. Never at you,” Macen says, wrapping his arms around him and pulling him close. “I just show it differently, and when I feel mad, I remind myself that I’m lucky to be alive and that by taking this job I was able to save the two people most important to me. That helps.”

Smoke fills the apartment and he curses, rushing to turn off the burner and take the now-ruined pasta sauce off the element. That’s one way to avoid eating pasta, Avitus supposes. Food is expensive as shit, though, and now they need to figure something else out.

“Why don’t we have a cry together and be mad together, and then order delivery? I got a flyer for a pizza place that caters to dextros as well as levos,” Macen says.

He hates crying. He hates crying in front of others even more, but the temptation of Macen’s arms is too great, so he curls up into a ball, rests his head on Macen’s chest and sobs out the anger and the rage he’s been holding inside since waking up in the jungle. Macen cries too; his own sobs more subvocal than anything. Even at his worst, Macen manages to be dignified.

He wishes he could be so dignified in his sorrow.

“You need a home you can be comfortable in,” he says into Macen’s chest. It’s a small point of pain in a wide ocean of agony, but it’s the problem he feels most able to solve right now, and he needs to do something for Macen.

“Be nice to the person who assigns living quarters, Avi. That’s all I ask, because it’s not their fault these spaces weren’t built to accommodate wheelchair users.”

“I’m always nice,” he lies, because he’s about as pleasant as a knife to the dick.

“Why don’t you send an email now? I can proofread it, and then we’ll handle dinner together,” Macen says.

Drafting the email clears his head and when he hits “send”, he feels the weight lifting. He did something to make things easier for Macen. He cried. He’s going to order them dinner so they don’t have to eat fucking pasta.

He’s made things better and it’s only late in the night that he realizes Macen figured out how to best fix one of the thousand tiny cuts littering his body and gave him a way to feel useful.

Instead of being irritated, he leans over and nuzzles Macen, who lets out a soft grumble in his sleep, but leans into the touch.

“Thanks biscuit,” he whispers, and smiles when all he receives in response is a snore.

[outpost51]

Lost/Found

For @thetrashbagswasteland for the N7 Exchange 2022 (I know I'm late)

Macen promised once he'd never go where Avitus couldn't follow.

Rating: Explicit

Word Count: 8,969

Warning(s): violence, explicit sexual content

Preview below the cut.

{READ HERE ON AO3}

“Pathfinder Rix?”

Avitus glanced up at the small, quiet voice interrupting his brooding. Because that’s what it was, wasn’t it? Brooding. Knees tucked to his chest, turning the Pathfinder badge over and over in his hands, letting the corners poke into the pads of his fingers as it reflected the light back into his eyes. His ass had long since gone numb from sitting on the hard floor of Pathfinder HQ for some indiscernible amount of time. His neck hadn’t been spared the same mercy, as he found out as soon as he’d turned his head towards Ryder. Ryder, the girl one, not her brother. Sasha? Sable? Sara.

“I’m not the Pathfinder, kid.”

[sparatus]

WIP Masterlist

... because at this point I have enough running projects I should probably make a proper list instead of just the one post for ExDiff, huh?

Hiiiii!! It's-a me, NoisyNoiverns, your friendly neighborhood niche Mass Effect author, most famous as "that one dude who built the entire Desolas/Abrudas tag from the ground up" and the turian councilor's defense attorney who made up an OC for his wife and... also the entire clan, and then accidentally convinced some people she's canon, oops? I've got multiple longfics and series going now, so I figured I should put together a proper list, lol.

Current Longfics

In the Land of Giants: Fic 3 of 10 in Exponential Differentiation, "ItLoG" for short. With Hislop dead and Terra Nova safe, Shepard and Nihlus continue the hunt for Cerberus. A friend's disappearance and a clue from a mysterious message both point them towards Omega, where they encounter a surprising new ally... who seems to know more than she's letting on. [AO3]

The Weight of Memory: Companion novella to ItLoG. While Shepard and Nihlus gallivant off to Terminus, Saren returns home to Palaven to rest, recover, and get used to his new leg as he adjusts to retirement. But the galaxy isn't done with the Arterius clan, and their problems are getting too big to hide from... [AO3]

Make Less the Depth of Grief: After the fall of the Destiny Ascension in the Battle of the Citadel, the galaxy is in shambles, and the hunt is on for Alexander Shepard. In order to find him, Ashley Williams consents to be interviewed about her time on the Normandy. But the more she talks, the less sure of her answers she feels... [AO3]

In Retrograde: When a rescue mission goes horribly awry, turian soldier Axilus Madelivio and quarian Pilgrim Thie'Haasn nar Olyna are thrown together, their fates inexorably intertwined by the biotic explosion Thie set off to save their lives. Now Axilus's latent biotics have been activated, and Thie's Pilgrimage has been thrown wildly off track. In order to escape Axilus's impending transfer to the Cabals and earn Thie's place in quarian society, the two of them are going to have to work together - for better or for worse. [AO3]

Sentiment and Reason: Fic 2 of the Dead Parents Club Murder Mysteries. A visit to an old friend of the Arterius brothers goes awry when the friend in question is found dead in his own home, and Special Tactics are asked to investigate. The problem? Saren is too recognizable, and the late general's neighbors aren't talking. It's up to Avitus Rix and Macen Barro, posing as newlyweds, to infiltrate the neighborhood and find the killer - while coming to terms with their own old rivalry and new feelings. [AO3]

Overarching Series

Exponential Differentiation: No-Reapers AU, DMAB nonbinary Shepard. "ExDiff" for short. After a mysterious all-human team attack Eden Prime and destroy the Prothean beacon found there, Shepard sets out on a grand adventure to hunt them down - and gets in so much deeper than they ever thought possible, uncovering a massive terrorist organization and facing impending war with the Hegemony. Nihlus and Saren join the crew, as well as several OCs including additional Normandy crew, new Spectres, and the batarian Resistance. Also a lot of worldbuilding for alien cultures, especially turians and batarians. Primary ships are Kryterius, Desabrudas, Garrus/OC, and Shepard/Jack.

Series on AO3

Detailed masterpost

Completed: Broken Mirror [x], Blood in the Water [x], Where the Wind Rests [x]

Currently In Progress: In the Land of Giants [x], The Weight of Memory [x]

Upcoming: Belly of the Beast, Straight On Til Morning, Towards Peace, The Distance Between Us, A Most Dangerous Game, Entwined, Jack Harper Must Die, Once and For All

Uneasy Lies the Head: Also referred to as "Bad End" for short. Canon divergent, male Shepard, past mShenko. The Destiny Ascension was left to die, and now the rest of the galaxy is paying the price. While Shepard is hunted down for high treason and terrorism, everyone else has to pick up the pieces he left behind and try to move on. The Normandy crew and the Alliance are insisting it was a necessary sacrifice, but was it really? Examines the consequences of Shepard's actions, both for himself and for the galaxy at large.

Series on AO3

Currently In Progress: Make Less the Depth of Grief [x]

Upcoming: Come What Come May, But a Walking Shadow, A Necessary End

Dead Parents Club Murder Mysteries: Exactly what it says on the tin. Series of mission fics featuring Saren, Nihlus, and Avitus, with occasional guest Macen, and other friends such as primarchs, Councilor Sparatus and his wife Aediteia, and various canon characters loosely associated with the trio (say hi, Benezia and Hannah!). Main pairings are Kryterius and Barrix. No-Reapers AU for ease of timeline sorting and not having to factor in indoctrination or Andromeda, because I don't want to.

Series on AO3

Completed: To Catch a Rabbit [x]

Currently In Progress: Sentiment and Reason [x]

Upcoming: Through the Bars, An Immodest Silence, untitled Spirian + Quentilea guest star

Celestial Interference: OC-centric series following Axilus Madelivio and Thie'Haasn nar Olyna as their lives are thrown wildly off-course and inexorably twined together. Mostly against their wills. Axilus wanted to be a historian, dammit. Co-written with xMidnightSun. Rewrite of the "Rise & Reign" series, ten years of writing skill improvement and so much character development later.

Currently In Progress: In Retrograde [x]

Upcoming: Slingshot Trajectory, Extraorbital, Perigee/Apogee

[thetrashbagswasteland]

For the ask game 2, 23, and 25 :0

2. a compelling argument for why your fave would never top or bottom? oh ho ho starting strong here with this - now, this is a hard one bc most of my faves are quite contented switches depending on their partners/the point in time/mood (even if they tend to have their preferences), but the one I'm gonna have to go with is Macen, who's the least likely to bottom. It's not about being in control, per se, but he dislikes losing control and always feels like he's not proactive enough bottoming; he wants to take care of his lover, not be taken care of - which suits Avitus' preferences just fine too. 23. ship you've unwillingly come around to? I won't exactly say unwillingly bc like, that's not really how I work but believe it or not until a fair way into sunseeker + meeting the right people I wasn't a massive kryterius fan - primarily because I encountered a lot of tropes that were really not my thing and... it's hard to vibe with a ship when your first introduction to it isn't something you like. I'm feral for it now tho 25. common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing? Oh man so so so many things but first and foremost almost every "X alien character isn't romanceable". Like, yeah, we're deffo lacking a romanceable krogan (or ace-but-romantically xenophilic salarian, bioware, please, can we rectify this with the next game maybe?) and I will not deny that, but especially in Andromeda, there's a reason a great number of the alien minor characters aren't romance options and it's not just bc Ryder is a hell of a lot younger than them.

[mtreebeardiles]

❛ don’t you know what you’re doing to me? ❜

An actual one-shot this time! Hopefully ME:A is cool, and weirdly this resonated with a ship I don't write as often as I'd like.

Thanks for the prompt! Full piece over on AO3

Avitus Rix hadn't been home in nearly a decade and nothing made him more keenly aware of this fact than a party.

A soiree, if you wanted to get fancy, and considering the abundance of glitz everywhere he turned he was fairly certain it was meant to be just that. Fancy. Formal. A social networking event, politics up close and personal, and it was easy, sometimes, to forget that the Hierarchy could be like this. The other half of the coin, military discipline giving way to posturing of a different sort, and his mother insisted it all followed the same rules but he wasn't so sure. Military was a matter of action. Decisions, sure, the higher up the chain you went, but the merits were easy enough to trace. 

Here, though? Not so much. 

Campaigns and fundraisers and he'd only been partially listening when his father had explained the purpose of the gathering. Whatever his parents liked to say was never really what something was, at its core. Listening to the undercurrents, an ear open to the gossip, and it was hard not to surmise that he was being put on display. 

Meritocracy, he'd learned at a young age, didn't mean things like bloodlines and family names held no value.

"I heard he was keeping his son from the training course --"

"--really? What's wrong with being a Spectre?"

"Oh, he's never liked them…"

Avitus tuned this conversation out, swiping a glass of wine from a nearby tray and making his way deeper into the house that had never felt like much of a home. 

His parents had outdone themselves with this one. A variety of food was made available to their guests, dextro naturally in abundance but some alternate options for the few groups of Asari and Salarians he saw ranged throughout the main hall. A Council event, then, or at least that's how it was being dressed up. No wonder they wanted their Spectre son to put in an appearance. 

He tugged impatiently at the collar of his suit, lamenting the more comfortable clothing his father would have lambasted him for, and wedged himself into a corner near the first floor library. Smaller than the one upstairs, this collection had been curated to appeal to a broad range of tastes -- meaning it had little substance, packed with prose so purple he half wondered if the authors in question had ever even traveled to the places they claimed as inspiration. 

The world-weary traveler makes his way home at last, his sister would've said. How's the galaxy been treating you?

And he'd respond that it was horrible and that he was a grumpy old man dreaming of retirement and they'd laugh at the blatant lie. Only now he was here and she wasn't, and things were horrible and maybe he didn't want to retire in so many words but Spirits he could go for a change. Of scenery, of pace.

Of company. 

The same things that had led Maeven to leave, to run off with the girl who'd stolen her heart, heedless of the rifts it had left behind. 

You always were braver than me, weren't you? 

[jtmarx]

I really hope whoever is in charge of the Mass Effect books writes something about Avitus and Macen.  

[angelwingsl3]

Thanks to @palavenmoons for the amazing art commission, and @s0me-writer my lovely beta reader.

[shekissesturians]

Shout out to my fav gay beb for Pride Month.

Bless him with happiness! T.T <3

[dr-ladybird]

behold, an awesome fanfic

Hey, everyone, look at this absolutely brilliant Avitus Rix/Macen Barro fic someone wrote me for Spectre Requisitions! Mmm delicious poetic angst! Mmm Scott and Avitus getting drunk together and trying to emotionally support each other! Go and admire it!

(warning: not a fixfic)

https://archiveofourown.org/collections/SpecReqs2019/works/18053432

[nonprodigalchild]

“He’s the only one who calls me that.”

[teamdilf]

May I ask for 7, 12 and 26 for Barrix and/or 4, 25 and 26 for Castis and Ceci for the couples character development questions please?

7. Do they (or would they) pursue the other character’s affection, and if so, how? Do they tell the other character how they feel? Try to earn their admiration? Woo them with romantic gestures? Flirt with them, skillfully or otherwise?

Avitus never would have pursued Macen - he enjoyed the flirtation during the mission where they met, but had Macen not actually asked him out, nothing ever would have come of it. For Macen, he did a quick search and found a photo of Avitus, realized he was attractive, and was at a point where he was feeling pretty lonely and decided it was worth inching back into the dating world. Macen has a pretty good read on Avitus from the beginning, and recognizes his tendency to self-sabotage (arriving late on their first date, wearing clothes that don't fit so he looks messy and not put together, etc), so accommodates for that.

12. How much independence do they prefer in a relationship—do they want to share their lives as much as possible with their partner, or do they prefer to mostly do their own thing and let their partner do their own thing?

They want to share their lives as much as possible! Avitus doesn't quite know how to ask for that early on - it's what he wants but he isn't even able to admit it to himself, because he's so used to being alone and afraid of losing more people he loves, in addition to his self-loathing, but Macen can see this and works through it as best he can with him.

26. They have an argument with their partner—what is it about? Do things stay respectful, or is there some shouting and accusing going on?

Macen isn't the sort to lose his temper or raise his voice, so on his end it's more a charged conversation. Avitus does lose his temper and has yelled, but Macen knows when to step away from an argument to give them both a chance to cool down, so they can come at it with a fresh mindset.

And for Castis and Cecilia!

25. They accidentally hurt or upset their partner. What happened? How do they respond? What do they do to make their partner feel better?

For Castis, it would either be related to his challenging relationship with Garrus (so a heated argument between them, for example), or something coming up that would prevent him from being able to message Cecilia before bed, causing her to worry that something happened to him.

With the former, Castis can be stubborn and resistant to Cecilia's urging that he "meet Garrus where he's at" and not assume their 12-year-old son will become a lawless criminal because he happens to find Spectres fascinating (and is a fan of "those damned Blasto vids").

With the latter, Castis feels terrible and messages her as soon as he's able, with a profuse apology. While he can be obtuse in some ways, he's very aware of her anxiety disorder and the impact it has on her life, and works hard to structure their life together to accommodate her needs. Life sometimes happens - they both know that, but he tries so hard not to cause her more anxiety.

26. They have an argument with their partner—what is it about? Do things stay respectful, or is there some shouting and accusing going on?

Almost all of the time they fight fair - the two of them love a good debate, so when they wind up arguing, they keep it to the conflict at hand and do not bring up past issues between them.

Sometimes there is yelling when things get particularly emotionally charged, though.

[avitusxmacen]

happy pride macen is alive and well and him and avitus get married settle down somewhere nice and adopt like six kids and a varren

[omegastation]

I want your face to be the last thing I see in the Milky Way 

See you soon

why;;;;

[sparatus]

get to know me

tagged forever ago by [checks notes] @dandenbo​ @commander-krios​ AND @korblez​ oopsie sorry you know how it is with spoons,

Three Ships: okay trying not to do all m.e. ot ships. desolas arterius x abrudas (mass effect), avitus rix x macen barro (me:andromeda), blackstar x littlecloud (warrior cats, shut up)

First Ever Ship: oh lord uhhh boy that goes way the fuck back. death the kid x liz thompson from soul eater i think??

Last Song I listened to: The First Soldier by Sabaton

Last Movie I watched: Hereditary

Currently reading: The Woman Who Would Be King by Kara Cooney (audiobook, biography of hatshepsut)

Currently watching: whatever keeps the cat calm atm, vet says no zoomies til his sutures come out, somehow this means asian food videos?? they’re like asmr for his tiny doped-up brain. he’s a weird cat man

Currently consuming: uhhhh bepis

Currently craving: [checks wall of snacks] apparently flavored popcorn if this mass of food i bought but was too stressed to eat is any indicator

too lazy to tag anybody so if you wanna do it then go for it and say i tagged you ilyyyyy