#I just love the N7 armor a lot

[katiemakena]

[swaps55]

Do you have a Mass Effect recommended mod list?

You bet!!!

First, here is a really excellent intro guide on modding Legendary Edition, which includes a list of recommended mods for each game, split out into spoiler-free changes that are friendly for a first play through, and spoiler/heavy content changing mods. There are a LOT of mods on these lists, but it's a good place to look and see what's out there and what piques your interest.

If you want to see my own mod loadout list for each game, I've included it under the cut!

LE1:

This is the order I install this mod list in, as LE1 is a consistency/patching nightmare. Several mods include patches for other mods, so mods like Casual Hubs and Same-Gender Romances, which require lots of compatibility patches, need to be installed before a lot of other mods.

Make a backup of your game before you add mods. Restoring to vanilla if something breaks is very quick and easy if you have a backup, and it is easy to do with the mod manager.

Notes:

The LE1 Community Patch is a must (as it is for all three games). It is primarily bug fixes, and most every other mod for the trilogy is built on community patch framework.

Alliance Uniform Consistency/Casual Hubs/Same Gender Romance Mod are staples for me. Even if you are not doing a same gender romance playthrough, SGR mod will eliminate ninjamances, among other delightful tweaks.

The N7 Leather Jacket for male Shepard is now known as Ported Casuals for Male Shepard (I just haven't updated that one).

The LE1 Diversification mods is amazing, but requires the Halcyon Hair Pack and Advanced Weapons Models for LE1 to work. I prefer the original weapon models in general, so when I am not on the Citadel, I install everything but those mods. I have tried turning them off and it doesn't work (the textures for the original guns are no longer there), so I vanilla the game and re-install my core mods when I leave the Citadel.

Pinnacle Station is the big mod I haven't installed here, so I felt the need to mention it.

To get Shepard in their LE3 armor in ME1 you actually need two mods (if you are not a soldier who can wear heavy armor): 1. Iconic Fashion Party, in which every armor you equip becomes the heavy Onyx armor. 2. ME3 N7 Armor, which makes the heavy Onyx armor the LE3 armor.

I am still on the fence on the Private Message Terminal/A Little Help From My Friends mods - I love the added functionality of the message terminal in LE1, but I always do all the fetch quests on my own, so I almost resent the help. I have a feeling most people do not resent the help on mineral gathering. XD (If I am really ambitious one day, I might dive into the guide for the message terminal and see if I can make a mod that delivers messages from the 'Yang crew throughout the game....)

LE2

This is my mod list for LE2. I spend less time modding it, since it is generally the game I am most anxious to speed through, so this may not be the best example of a comprehensive recommended list.

Notes.

Flycam is a non-Nexus mod I made following this tutorial. It is necessary if you want to use the LE2 Less Restrictive Pause Menu & Photo Mode.

LE2 Less Restrictive Pause Menu & Photo Mode is INCREDIBLE for photo mode, but it's buggy. If you are not interested in using photo mode/screenshotting cut scenes from different angles in fly cam, you do not need this mod.

I believe Sheploo appearance consistency project is necessary for a lot of casual clothing mods, because for some reason LE2 Sheploo is cheeto-colored.

If you are using EGM Armors for LE2, be aware that when you first wake up, Shepard is in their skivvies, and will be until you select a casual outfit. Which you can do on Minuteman Station, and if you do not, this happens, and you're welcome. (Either that or this happens if you install EGM Armors after Minuteman - either way it's incredible).

LE3

Notes:

Like LE2, Flycam is a non-Nexus mod I created myself, following this tutorial.

At last check, Unlimited Fuel ME3 was not compatible with one of the other core mods, and doesn't work (you can give yourself gobs of fuel via a save editor, however).

The same caution on LE3 Less restrictive Pause Menu & Photo Mode applies here as it does to LE2. Here's a fun look at one of the bugs (which I see as more of a feature, honestly, and you can mostly avoid this bug if you are not using a controller during conversations).

Shoot With Your Mouth Closed is a fucking incredible QOL upgrade that gets rid of the dumb battle grimace Shepard wears in combat. There are two versions, one or the other should work. If you are using photo mode at all during combat, I highly recommend this mod.

I think Anderson's Final Conversation Restored is a mostly redundant mod if you're using the Happy Ending Mod. I just haven't cleared it out of my library.

Expanded Galaxy Mod is huge with an almost overwhelming amount of added content - I highly recommend it as a must-have.

A very important mod that is missing from this list because I have not played LE3 since it came out is Project Variety (LE3). I cannot even begin to touch on everything Project Variety does - look at the mod page to see for yourself. This mod is not compatible with the LE3 Diversification project - you need to choose between the two of them.

Same Gender Romance Mod is not out yet for LE3, but if you are doing mShenko, the romance flags will carry over, and there are only a couple of minor hiccups that are easy to overlook.

There has been a bunch of neat stuff out for LE3 since I last played it, so I am sure there are some great mods missing from my current list that I need to investigate. But this is what I have right now.

I'm sure there is a ton more I could say, but I think this is a pretty decent summary. Holler if you have any questions! I have next to zero knowledge on how to create mods, but I've gotten comfortable installing them and understanding some of the quirks.

The Mass Effect modding community is absolutely phenomenal. The fact we can mod the games at all is due to the dedication and hard work of a lot of fans. The toolsets they've created are incredible, and there are some REALLY amazing things being done right now with these games.

[captainderyn]

4, 15, and 33 from the Shepard asks!

Thank you for the asks :D!

4. Is your Shepard any good at poker?

Gut instinct is telling me absolutely not lol. Much like her dancing I think she absolutely sucks at it :P She may be good at bluffing in high stakes conversations but she absolutely cracks in a game like Poker or anything like that. Reads like a goddamn book once you learn how (start questioning her and she immediately goes red and flustered). If she's off duty her brain is absolutely out the window, checked out, no strategic input is firing from those neurons.

I also think she's like a dad where trying to teach her how to play games is a nightmare. Like, reading rules or whatever and I think her eyes start to glaze over xD

15. What colors does Shepard prefer for their armor?

~basic bitch black, red, and white lmao~ yeah no I keep her in the classic N7 armor xD for awhile it was black with the deep red but I didn't like it so she's back in whichever armor set has the white and red stripe down the arm. Not related to color but she does keep her armor in pristine condition. Cleaning it and caring for it is meditative for her so she spends a lot of time on it when she's decompressing from missions. Eventually Garrus gets brought into this ritual.

(I can't not show of sbeep's art of her okay I'm obsessed still)

33. What skills do they have that are a surprise to the people around them?

Okay so I think people see Ryn and think she's just some meatheaded grunt because she's a military brat and jacked as fuck. So first and foremost I think people are shocked professionally when she's very diplomatic, very well spoken, and a master at diffusing instead of escalating conflict. People also don't expect her to be as skilled at repairing and modifying her armor on her own as she is.

Outside of military though, hmm, I think people are a surprised to learn she's a rock nerd. Girl loves rocks. She's a geologist or something in a different life (hm..maybe not, I don't think Ryn would be enough of a math gal to make it as a geologist). But let her look at cool rocks. Hell yeah let her see the rock cores they collect to study. She sits there and reads the bios of every planet they scan. She loves to learn even if they don't always have time for it.

Post-war and recovery I also think she'd get into hiking and rock climbing and be rather good at the latter even with her physical limitations. Gives her a bit of the adrenaline thrill the past several years has unwillingly addicted her system to while still being safe. Plus she can take her future dog on hikes :D

[shesquaredpodcast]

This is where the proposal happens if you’ve romanced Liara all the way through the series (which is how we just have to do it every time).

The way they fumble around each other in 1 until they finally give in and admit they want to be with each other.

The way the comics show that Liara was responsible for finding Shepard’s body and handing it over to Cerberus because “I couldn’t let you go”.

The pining in 2 is heart wrenching. When Shepard tells her that she thinks in the future they’ll be married and have a “lot of little blue children”? 🥹

How in 3 Liara is working herself to the bone trying to help as many people as she can all day every day so that it isn’t all on Shepard’s shoulders just shows she’s a perfect partner for her.

The way Shepard merely says Liara’s name in that way that spouses do when they know you’re being ridiculous about something and Liara immediately gives in with “Oh, fine” and goes to talk to the father she’s never spoken to.

We love these two so much. To see the moment when Shepard has to leave her in 3 to save her and get to the Crucible and Liara keeps her hand out reaching for her? The way the last face Shepard sees in her mind before the explosion is Liara’s?

The way Liara won’t put her name on the wall of the lost because she knows she’s alive? When Shepard takes a breath at the end?!!

The next game having Liara holding an N7 armor piece, a physical embodiment of Shepard even if not her own, says a lot. They deserve their family and here’s hoping the figure teased on N7 day is their daughter and that the new trilogy follows her story.

That looks like an Asari helmet and then add the N7 stuff?? Perfect blend of them to us.

Omigod look at these two dorks in love!!! The slow burn is so satisfying!!!!! Mah heart!

[aceghosts]

Ahhh!! For the fifty more shep questions: 1, 9, 18, and 48 please! :D (n yes to your tags!)

Thanks for these!

1.Where would your Shepard go back to play tourist? Are they going alone, or bringing someone(s)?

Rooney would love to explore the planets they’ve been on but haven't been able to fully explore. Part of the reason Rooney joins the Alliance is to see new parts of the galaxy. They would also love to see the homeworlds of their friends, especially ones they’ve never seen before. Thessia, Rannoch, Tuchanka, Kahje, and Palaven are all planets that Rooney would like to see.

If they’re visiting anywhere their friends are, Rooney is dragging them along. In a Thane Lives AU, I absolutely see Thane and Kolyat (sometimes) coming along with them.

9. What does Shepard like to wear when they’re out of the armor?

On the Normandy, Rooney wears their boots, cargo pants, N7 T-shirt, and N7 hoodie. They will also wear it on the Citadel occasionally.

Otherwise, Rooney tends to wear a lot of black. It’s rare to see other colors, but the most common colors are white, grey, or royal blue. They tend to wear a lot of skinny jeans, t-shirts, or button-ups. Rooney also wears a lot of simple leather jackets. Their favorite is still their N7 leather jacket. In terms of shoes, Rooney likes to wear boots, especially lace-up ones.

I have a Pinterest board for Rooney's Everyday wear here if you’re interested.

18. Obligatory gang beach episode! What’s Shepard doing?

Reading under an umbrella. Or getting into a game of beach volleyball, which turns competitive very quickly because Rooney has no chill. (The other team is going DOWN!)

I could also see them going for a swim, but they would not be amused if someone tried to dunk them.

48. What kind of a sleeper is Shepard? Sprawl out, hog the covers, octopus…. How many hours do they normally sleep?

Rooney is not a great sleeper. They toss and turn, and can't sleep through the night. Rooney doesn’t have a set number of hours they normally sleep, just whatever they can. Also, I imagine Rooney fighting in their sleep, kind of like Ron Swanson:

[50 More Questions for Commander Shepard]

[spookyvalentine]

i am in shepard/shiala hell

i made a shepard just so i didnt have to say goodbye to mercy in-game yet and then i got overinvested and have terminal shiala brain rot 

set in me2, right after they help w baria frontiers

“You know, Shiala,” Stellan says, liking the way her name rolls off their tongue, “I’d—we could use someone with your skills for this mission.”

There’s a pause as Shiala considers them and the tips of their ears start to warm before she smiles faintly.

“I thank you for the offer, Shepard,” she says, and Stellan savors how her low, raspy voice rumbles through the air between them. Instead of sounding stilted, her formal speech is magnetizing. “I cannot leave Zhu’s Hope. It is my home, and its people are my family. I do not fight any more—my biotics now help them build. But they are not fighters, and should harm come to them, I must defend them. That is why I am here, as you know.”

Stellan is, selfishly, disappointed—and enchanted.

Shiala continues, “This may be… frivolous, in the face of your work, but I—” she rubs the back of her neck. It’s such a human action. “I have a garden, now. I… Arcelia acquired bulbs from Earth—dahlias? They are supposed to be quite large. I very much want to watch them bloom.” Her smile widens to reveal bright teeth.

“Oh,” Stellan breathes, feeling something unfurl sweetly against their lungs, “oh, I. Um,” they are stammering and can hear Tali snickering behind them. “No, I love—I respect that.” Their cheeks are heating and they spare a moment to despair their Maman gave them the curse of blushing easily. 

Shiala’s eyes brighten—green as grass, glowing like sunlight filtering through new spring leaves—as she takes a step closer. Even through the sterile burn of Illium, oh help, she smells like jasmine. 

Can she hear their heart pounding?

“I love gardens,” Stellan blurts. “I um, I grew up on a farm. You’ve probably got a lot of folks in agriculture already, but, um,” they are Commander Shepard, dangit, N7s do not have weak knees. “You could have my comm? If you want. I love dahlias.” 

Tali at least has a shred of kindness left in her cruel little body and wanders off to laugh over the vista, dragging a smirking Miranda with her.

“I would like that, Shepard,” Shiala murmurs.

“Stellan, please,” they say, a little desperate to stop gawking at the curve of her mouth. “Is me. My name, I mean.” 

They are going to take a running jump off the balcony. Anything would be better than listening Miranda and Tali cackle like the ghouls they are.

“Stellan, then,” Shiala says, taking in their red face with—they hope—warm amusement. 

They can see the smooth little scales across her cheeks and tracks the beautiful pattern crowning her brow, oh, wow, there’s barely a foot between them, when did that happen—and then Shiala reaches out, a soft touch that Stellan is certain they can feel even through their armor.

“Perhaps, when you have fulfilled your mission,” her hand skates down their arm to cup their elbow and Stellan knows she can feel them tremble. 

She smells so good. Her eyes are so green. Her lips are so—Stellan sways even closer, dazed, almost, get a grip, Shepard—

“You could visit. I could show you the dahlias.” Shiala’s hand, very gently, sweeps down to catch their own and oh there must be someone looking out for them because Stellan is still wearing gloves and they would absolutely die of embarrassment—even more thoroughly than they are already—if she knew their palms are sweating. 

“Yeah,” Stellan squeaks out. And then, after hurriedly clearing their throat and please, please, with more dignity, they say, “I’ll do that.” 

Shiala squeezes their hand, takes a measured—reluctant?—step back, and graces them with slow-burning smile that makes their heart skip. “I look forward to seeing you again, Stellan.” 

 “Me too,” they say. “Seeing you again, that is.” Why are there never snipers around when they need one? “Take care, Shiala.”

It’s hard to walk away—but Stellan manages to stagger over to their terrible, no-good squad.

“Nicely done, Shepard,” Tali says, and Stellan doesn’t even have to see under her mask to know she’s got a shit-eating grin. 

“Not a word,” they say, pressing hands against their hot cheeks and groaning miserably. Their steps are light, though. There are butterflies still dancing in their stomach. “We’ve got an assassin to catch.”

[felassan]

Mass Effect development insights and highlights from Bioware: Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game Development

This is the Mass Effect version of this post.

[In case you can’t read it the subtitle in the bottom left logo above is “Guardians of the Citadel”]

Note: Drug use is mentioned.

Cut for length.

Mass Effect 1

ME began its life in a vision document in fall 2003

Codenamed “SFX”

Conceived of by Casey Hudson and a core team from KotOR. Its genesis was the intention to create an epic sci-fi RPG in an original setting that BioWare owned (so they could have full creative control), and in a setting that was conceived of first and foremost as a video game

Initially players could control any squadmate, but they wanted it to be about Shep and for players to be focused on Shep being a battlefield commander, rather than on switching bodies

By the start of 2004 its story was shaping up. Initially humans landed on Mars in 2250 and discovered evidence of an ancient alien race and a powerful substance, Black Sand, which rapidly advanced tech to the point that FTL travel was possible. (My note: obviously now the Prothean artifacts on Mars & associated mass effect force tech enabled this in the final canon, but I wonder if aspects of the ‘Black Sand’ naming-type & powerful substance stuff was rolled into red sand from final canon) Humans were suddenly capable of travel to multiple star systems and made contact with a multitude of other species. At the start of the first game, these species together with humans had a fragile peace, with focus placed on the political center of the galaxy, a hub known as Star City, later renamed the Citadel

Multiplayer was a vision for the series as far back as 2003. The plan was for ME1, an Xbox exclusive at launch, to take advantage of the platform’s online components. Early designs saw players meeting in one of the central hubs to interact and trade items in their otherwise SP adventures

By 2006 it had the name ME and the story was more specific, with the theme of conflict between organic and synthetic lifeforms. The story’s scope now stretched across 3 games and included scope for full co-op MP

They tried to do MP in every game, discussing it from the get-go, but it always just fell by the wayside. “When you’re trying to build something that is a new IP, on a new platform, with a new engine, you’ve got to really focus on the core elements of the game.” 

The conversation system prototype was made in Jade Empire, and some of ME’s earliest writing was done in an old JE build. At first there was no conversation wheel. Paragon was “Friendly” and Renegade “Hostile”. In the prototype Shep was a silent unnamed Spectre. Many conversations in the prototype about the player’s choice in smuggling a weapon through Noveria made it into the game

In said prototype a merchant referred to themselves as “this one”, though the word hanar never appeared. The PC in it also had the option to end a conversation with “I should go”. In the prototype also, Harkin was voiced by Mark Meer

An early version of the Mako got used as the krogan truck in ME2

Early concepts of the Citadel were drawn in pencil by CH. A piece of concept art of its final design was painted based on a photo of a sculpture near Aswan, Egypt

As with any new IP naming it was a struggle. They put out a call to all staff for ideas, did polls, made a name generator that combined words that they liked in random ways and made pretend logos of ones they liked in Photoshop to see if they could make themselves love the name or find visual potential in it. (Some of these names are in the pic at the top of this post.) CH liked “Unearthed” as it was a reference to Prothean ruins dug up on Mars and humanity’s ascendance going away from Earth. They knew the game would have a central space station featuring prominently so some of the ideas were based on that - “The Citadel”, “The Optigon”, “The Oculon”. “Element” was another one they had in mind due to the rare substance in the game 

CH: “I was a big fan of John Harris’ book Mass, which had epic-scaled sci-fi ideas, so that was a word that came up often. Many of the names came from the idea that the IP featured a fifth fundamental physical force (in addition to the known four of gravitational, electromagnetic, strong nuclear and weak nuclear) so the word ‘effect’ came up pretty often.” Ultimately none of the ideas really felt right. One Monday morning they were going over the names and Greg Zeschuk said he had an idea on the weekend: “Mass Effect!” CH: “I said, ‘I don’t hate it’, which in the naming process is a high compliment. And it stuck!”

CH on Shep’s Prothean vision from the beacon: “It was hard to imagine how we would do this. CG was - and is - really expensive. Instead I wanted to try doing it through photography and video editing. So I went to a local grocery store and bought a few packages of the weirdest looking meat that I could find. Then I set up a little photoshoot in my basement, complete with some electronics parts and some red wine for juicyness.” He used these props to create a video sequence where the photos were rapidly cycled and blurred, along with production paintings, to create the scary vision an organic/machine experiment on the Protheans. These mashups were also used as inspiration for concept artists and level designers who were working on these themes

Tali used to be called Talsi

On the licensing side they often joke that they’re licensing N7 not “Mass Effect” due to N7′s popularity

There was a confidential internal guide to the IP in 2007 to help devs along and summarize/synthesize the vision etc. Some excerpts from it are shown in the book and this is the first time the public have ever seen them

Early versions of Asari had hair

Asari were designed as a nod to classic TV sci-fi (with human actors wearing obvious makeup and prosthetics to play aliens)

The turian design guideline was “we want them to be birds of prey”. They also wanted a range of alien types, some close to human like Asari, while others were to be a lot further away, like turians

BioWare patented the conversation wheel, which was a first for them. CH had been frustrated with reviews of Jade Empire that said that the actioncentric game was too wordy [with its list dialogue]. “I’m like, story is words. [...] What is it about our games that is making people feel like they’re wordy?” Then he thought “In a game you kind of need to feel like you’re continuing to play it. Maybe you should continue feeling like you’re playing it actively into the dialogue.” “[The wheel] kind of gave a new experience with dialogue when you did start to react based on emotion, and that’s ultimately what we’re trying to bring out in our games”

The original krogan concept was based on a bat “with a really wide squidgy face. We just used its face on top of this weird body and it kinda worked”

Geth musculature was based on fiber-optic cables, with flexible plates of armor attached

The vision for the IP was 80s sci-fi inspired space opera

The concept art of Saren lifting Shep by the throat inspired a similar scene in-game. The staging wasn’t planned til designers saw that art

A squadmate with Shepard on the way to meet Ash in an old storyboard was called Carter. Early name of Kaidan or Jenkins?

Bono from U2 was kinda instrumental in bringing us ME lol

Finding the right cover art for ME1 was notably tricky

Matt Rhodes got his start drawing helmets for ME1, including one which would become Shep’s “second face”. He estimates he drew between 250-270 different ones

Some of the sounds in-game were people smashing watermelons with sledgehammers and sticking fists into various goos

The audio team had fun trying to slip the iconic main theme into unexpected places throughout the MET. “We were very aware of how powerful that track was for the fans and it was tempting to overuse it for any moment we wanted to make really emotional”.

The theme was creatively repurposed in ME3: slowed down and reworked as the ambient sound for the SR-2. “If you listen to it for a really long time, just stand in the Normandy and listen, you’ll actually hear the notes change slowly. It doesn’t sound like music, it sounds like a background ambiance, but it’s there.” (My note: Well no wonder the Normandy feels so much like home?? 😭 sneaky..)

Bug report: “Mako Tornado”. There wasn’t enough friction between the tires and the ground, causing testers to lose control of the vehicle and send it spinning into the air like a tornado. “As it turns, the front end comes up, and then it starts spinning and spinning and spinning and spinning faster and faster and faster until it just flies up in the sky” (My note: Sounds like a regular day in the Mako to me)

Cerberus originally had a bigger role in this game. It was cut but they had a whole explorable outpost. “I called it Misery,” says Mac Walters, “It was this planet with a little outpost that said ‘Welcome to Misery’”. Everything on the outpost was shit - dirty worn stuff, no windows, no kitchen, the vehicle bay was open to the elements etc

The Reaper sound is literal garbage. Some audio designers went on a recording trip to a national park. One of them got fixated on a garbage can, “a metal bear-proof receptacle with a heavy lid that creaked horribly when opened”. “It was like, ominous, spooky, tonal and almost musical. I decided to throw a mic into the garbage and record it moving. I didn’t know what it was going to be until later”

They were making lots of noises to record like throwing logs and rocks around. An old couple peered at them through the window of their camper van in the woods and must have called the cops because then the cops showed up, pulled them over and told them to stop. The cops towed their car (the driver’s plates were Cali plates and expired), drove them to Edmonton outskirts and then the audio producer Shauna got a call and had to go pick them up “like three little boys”. “We got a stern talking to”. Once back they were playing around with the garbage sound, editing it etc. Casey heard it and proclaimed “That’s the sound of the Reapers”

Preston Watamaniuk: “There are things I could have done to Mass 1 to make it an infinitely better game with better UIs” and some simple cuts and changes. “But when you’re living with it, it’s very hard to see those things”

BioWare Labs

As social media and smartphone games exploded, BioWare dedicated a small team dedicated to exploring opportunities here - BioWare Labs

Mass Effect: Galaxy used a unique graphic art style and static visual presentation common in visual novels. It has the distinction of being the only iOS game BW have made during their first 25 years

Scrapped ideas were a 3rd person space shooter called Mass Effect: Corsair and 2 DA titles - a strategy game and a top-down dungeon crawler starring young Wynne. (My note: Maybe the corsairs stuff was rolled into Jacob’s backstory in 2, the Alliance Corsairs)

Corsair was a very short-lived project that never got its feet under it. It was a spin-off on Nintendo DS featuring a behind-the-ship perspective and branching dialogue. At one point it had MP. The idea behind it was basically “ME: Freelancer” - fly your ship around, do missions, get credits. It had a limited branching story but was a gameplay-centered experience intended to fill the gap between ME1 and 2. That gap ended up being filled by Galaxy

Galaxy and Corsair’s smaller screen allowed concept artists to use bold colors and a simplistic character design style to help those games stand out from Shep’s story

Nick Thornborrow did some art for Corsair but was worried his art style didn’t fit ME. He moved to DA where he feels his art style fits better

Lots of BioWare VAs and even a lead writer and the VO director are drawn from Edmonton’s local community theater scene, which is vibrant. Think this is how Mark Meer got involved

Mass Effect 2

Player choices carrying over was a first for BW

Dirty Dozen-inspired plot

Its plot is a web of conditionals (see Suicide Mission)

Was more of a shooter than anything BW had made since Shattered Steel

There was 2 camps on the team, those who wanted to push combat and systems forward and redefine the ME experience and those who wanted to make a true sequel, with the same gameplay and systems but a new story. Karin Weekes: “I think it ended up being a good push-pull. It felt like a pretty healthy creative conflict”

“ME2 was a game you could hold up to someone who argues that games aren’t a serious medium and go ‘Oh yeah, then why is Martin Sheen in this?’” Sheen was their first pick for TIM

The idea for TIM came from a mash-up of concepts CH had collected over the years. The name “Illusive” originally came from his pitch for naming DAO’s Eclipse engine, a word inspired by Obi-Wan’s line “It’s not about the mission, Master. It’s something... elsewhere. Elusive”. “I thought, what if we called our next engine 'Elusive', but used an ‘I’, and then it’s like ‘Illusion’. [...] I still really like the word with an ‘I’ and what it conjures”

When ME1 DLC was in production, CH had been watching a lot of CNN, specifically Anderson Cooper. “How is one guy travelling to all these places and never looking tired and always being able to speak with clarity?” CH says it seemed almost superhuman. “What if there was someone who is the absolute maximum of the things you would aspire to be, but also the worst of humanity?” Cooper, though not evil, became an inspiration for TIM down to the gray hair and piercing blue eyes

Inspiration for TIM’s behind-the-scenes role pulling political strings came from Jack Bauer’s brother Graem in 24. Graem “can call up the president and tell him what to do and hang up, because he’s so connected and so influential”. Sheen had played a president and his performance brought gravitas and wisdom to the role. He had quit smoking, but the character smokes. He didn’t want to fake it, but he also didn’t want to smoke, “so he actually asked for a cigarette” to hold so he could stop his words to take drags with natural cadence

Writing was still pushing to write and revise lines hours before VO started. A series of problems like injury and some writers leaving for other opportunities left it so that Karin, Lukas Kristjanson and editor Cookie Everman hand to land the story safely, with PW helping where they could. Lukas: “We took over the writing bug and task list, and I can’t stress enough how much [Karin and Cookie] did to get ME2 out the door. There’s no part of that thing we didn’t touch”. Karin: “That was the most dramatic 2 weeks of my life”

Initial fan reaction when they started promo-ing ME2 was very negative because people didn’t want to know about new chars like Jack and Mordin. “[fans were like] ‘Get them out of here. We want our characters from the first game’. But then when they played them, those became some of the most popular chars [of the series]”

Concept art of Thane has an idea annotation saying “Face can shapeshift?”

At one point when designing Thane concept artists sent multiple variations of him to the team asking them to vote on which was the most attractive

Most of the Normandy crew was written by lead level designer Dusty Everman. Lukas gave him advice in the evenings between bugs

BioWare Montreal made ME2 and 3 cinematics

CC for Shep was based on tools used by char designers to create in-game chars. Under the hood similar tools existed to create aliens

Aliens were much easier to animate than humans. When something is human it’s very difficult to make it look realistic and you can see all the mistakes and everything

Over the holiday period in 2007 CH worked out a diagram on a single piece of paper that would define the entire scope and structure of the game. The diagram is included in the book

Bug report: “I shot a krogan so hard that his textures fell off”. At one point shotgun blast damage was applied to each of the pellets fired, and shot enemies ended up with just the default checkerboard Unreal texture on them after their textures got blown off

Blasto was meant to be 1 step above an Easter egg but his fan popularity prompted them to bring him back in ME3

They rewrote chunks of Jack 2 days before she went to VO. She was the only one they could change because all the other NPCs were recorded. They redesigned her mission by juggling locked NPC lines and changing Shep’s reactions by rewriting text paraphrases to change the context of the already-recorded VO

Lukas snuck obscure nods ito ME2′s distress calls. In the general distress call for the Hugo Gernsback, there’s BW’s initial’s and Edmonton’s phone number backwards. In a fault in a beacon protocol there’s the initials and backward phone number from Tommy Tutone’s “Jenny”. In 2 other general distress calls there’s initials and numbers from Glenn Miller Orchestra’s “Pennsylvania 6-5000″ and initials and numbers from Geddy Lee and Rush’s “2112″ respectively 

Mass Effect 3

“The end of an era marks the beginning of another”

ME3 “marked the end of Shep’s story”

Saying bye to Shep was as difficult for devs as it was for players

JHale’s final VO session included Anderson’s death and romanced Garrus’ goodbye. “We were in the session and we both just started crying”, Caroline says. “I couldn’t come on the line to give her notes because I was crying, and she was crying. And so there was just this minute-long pause of like, nothing, nothing, nothing - just silence through the airwaves. And then I came on and just told her that I was crying and she said ‘I’m crying!’” They talked about these anecdotes also here on the N7 Day reunion panel

The Microsoft Kinect voice support required devs to teach Kinect hundreds of commands in a variety of accents across multiple languages. The result was useful but made for some awkward moments. Numerous players accidentally said “geth” or “quarian” while making a particular decision and accidentally killed Tali

MP chars were voiced by cops and military people

The helmet on one of the MP chars was originally designed for cancelled project Revolver

The payload device at the end needed to attach to the Citadel while essentially serving as a giant trigger. “It ended up becoming quite the engineering feet just to visualize how this thing would move and connect to the Citadel”

Concept artists explored creating an anti-team, where Kai Leng was almost an anti-Shepard essentially, with an elite squad to counteract your team. This idea never went beyond concept phase

ME3 Special Edition was released on Nintendo Wii U exclusively. This exclusive version of the game includes Genesis 2 (a sequel to the original Genesis comic) and unique gameplay features that took advantage of the touchscreen GamePad. For years Sonic Chronicles: Dark Brotherhood had had the honor of being BW’s only game made for a Nintendo console

FemShep regrettably didn’t feature in major ME marketing til ME3. Later releases like DAI, MEA and Anthem have taken increasing care not to gender their protagonists in cover art

To capture combat sounds they took a trip to CFB Wainwright, a military base southeast of Edmonton. They got a big tour of it and were allowed to record anything they could find. The tour ended with them getting to drive and shoot tanks (real shells). The force of doing that sent waves through Joel Green, he felt his whole chest compress when it went off; the perfect sound for the Black Widow! After the trip the soldiers let him keep the shell he fired and it’s been passed on like a torch to various devs since

Kakliosaurs began life as a joke in the writers’ room after John Dombrow placed a Grunt figure on a t-rex toy he had on his desk. Lore was brainstormed to justify the mash-up before someone asked, “Why don’t we put this in the game?” They loved it so much Karin had custom coffee mugs made

Bug report: For a while Tali’s final romance scene would fire when she was supposed to be dead

“Balancing combat: how designers in ME3 entered an ‘arms race’” - the solution to players feeling OP vs players feeling frustrated by really strong enemies is to find a good middle ground, but for designers Corey Gaspur and Brenon Holmes, it was war. Brenon designed enemies, Corey designed guns. Corey “was obsessed with bigger, heavier guns. We had this sort of informal competition where he’d make this crazy overturned gun that would just murder all the enemies, and then I tuned some stuff up to compensate”

Brenon had to invent new ways to “stop Corey” and this led to the Phantoms. Corey had in turn designed consumable rockets that could wipe out entire waves of enemies. He must’ve figured this would make short work of Brenon’s space ninjas, but Brenon had other plans: “I had just added the ability for her to cut rockets [when Corey was playing MP and he was watching]. She cut the rocket in half... Corey just turns and looks at me and is like: ‘Really dude? I just shot a rocket at this Phantom and she’s fine? Not even damaged? Zero damage?’” 

This friendly rivalry helped elevate ME3′s gameplay. Corey had a knack for making a gun feel so good to fire it had his fellow designers scrambling to keep up. It was his version of balancing. Before Corey sadly passed away he mentored Boldwin Li in all things weapon design and the arms race continued

Corey designed the Arc Pistol. It was causing problems for enemies because it was too powerful. It seemed hell bent on staying that way, Boldwin would tune down all its stats and it was still doing 3x the damage it should have been doing. “I was like ‘What the hell?’, and then I looked closer. It secretly fired 3 bullets for every pull of the trigger! Corey, you sneaky jerk”

The day it launched there were midnight launch parties across North America including one near the BW building. Numerous devs sat at long tables greeting fans and signing autographs as the fans picked up preorders. When midnight struck the line was long enough that it took several hours for some fans to get their game. One particular fan is remembered: “It was 3am. Some guy drove up from Calgary with his friends. He was like one of the last people in line. I think he was sort of tired-drunk. He threw himself across the tables, pulled up his shirt and shouted ‘Guys, sign my abs!’ And like I did, because he waited so long. It felt impolite not to. So I hope he enjoyed his copy of ME3″

For designing Protheans concept artists had free reign to design something that read as ancient

Before the concept art team had the story of the game to work toward, they explored wild ideas of their own including an image of the crew stealing back the Normandy to go after the Reapers

Jen Cheverie was testing scenes and was initially excited to be testing Mordin scenes, til she saw she was testing the Renegade version of his death. “This is even before like all of the audio and everything was in, so you didn’t even have the sad music. I remember sitting at my desk and my hands just went to my face when I saw that the gun Shep pulls on Mordin is the gun he gives Shep in ME2. I burst into tears and was crying for the rest of the day. People are waving to me as they walk by and I’m like, ‘It’s ok, I’m just killing my best friend’” 

There’s a segment called “Shepard’s story ends”. Casey on the ending: “There’s a whole bunch of things that come together to make it incredibly tense and emotional for players. I think the biggest one was the sense of finality, that whatever it was that happened in that very last moment... was it.” 

Wrapping up the story was a massive feat. In a way all of ME3 is an ending. Its final moments were the players’ last with a char they’d been with all the way from Eden Prime

“And while the critical reception of the game was extremely positive, many fans were unsatisfied with the ending, which became one of the most controversial in the history of games.” CH: “We were, on one hand, at the end of a marathon trying to finish the game and the series. But as devs we also knew that there would be more. We knew that we would continue to tell the story. In retrospect, we didn’t fully appreciate the tremendous sense of finality that it would have for people”. He envisioned an ending that posed new questions, something in the tradition of high sci-fi that left players dreaming about what that particular galaxy’s future could hold. “Frankly, there’s a lot more that we could have and should have done to honor the work players put in, to give them a stronger sense of reward and closure”

AAA games are massive undertakings with a million moving parts. Somehow they come together but even the best-planned projects don’t turn out quite like devs hope. From start to end video game production is a series of compromises. It’s rare if not impossible for devs to ship a game they’re entirely happy with. “I think that people imagine that when you finish a game, it’s exactly the way you wanted it to be. But whether people end up loving or hating the final result, we work hard to finish it the best we can, knowing that there’s a lot we would have wanted to do better. I think that’s true of any creative work”

As the dust settled after the initial reaction to the ending and later its epilogue, meant to show the wide-reaching ripple effects of Shep’s final choice, “players emerged mostly asking for one thing”. CH: “Now, most of what we hear, after both ME3 and MEA, is ‘Hey, just go make more Mass Effect’. And that to me is the most important thing. Knowing that players want to return to the ME universe is what inspires us to press on and imagine what comes next”

Mass Effect: Andromeda

By creating a new ME in a new galaxy the team was challenged to put their own visual stamp on the game while keeping it true to the franchise

Being the first ME game on a new gen of consoles meant for more detail

“Massive transport ships called arks populated with salarians, turians, humans, asari and quarians” made the risky jump to the Cluster

MEA was the first time BW had truly codeveloped across 3 studios: Edmonton, Montreal and Austin. The bulk of the work especially early on was done in Montreal, which was composed of a handful of Edmonton expats and heaps of experienced devs who joined from elsewhere specifically to bring a new ME experience to life. Series vets in Edmonton then came on to contribute writing, cinematics, design and QA, along with leadership from creative director Mac Walters and the core Production team. Austin writers and level designers also joined the fray

“It took a new team to take ME beyond the Milky Way”

Mac: “A lot of people in Montreal joined BW as fans of the franchise, so they just had this passion, and it felt like it was more like the days of Jade Empire, where a smaller younger team gets to do something for the first time. Even though it wasn’t necessarily a new IP for me, it felt fresh and new because of that. The team was just super excited to be working on it”

Early plans had the player exploring hundreds of worlds, procedurally generated, allowing for a nearly infinite variety of experiences. But as development wore on, it became clear that the game narrative required more specific, hand-touched level design on each world to keep the story focused and the experience engaging. “The plan was to give players numerous uncharted worlds to explore. Designers worked hard to come up with procedural elements that would make such planets special. Eventually the team made the difficult decision to abandon procedural planets in favor of more memorable hand-touched alien worlds, each with a specific story to tell”

One challenge was defining what ME meant without Shep. Care was given to include many of the MET’s key species. “Ryder recruited turian, asari, krogan and salarian followers”. Like Shep Ryder represents humanity’s hope for a peaceful coexistence among aliens who had long operated without human contact

Beginning with MEA the team decided that with few exceptions vehicles in ME have 6 wheels. Early Nomad concepts were bulkier. Later ones focused on its ability to move over its ability to protect itself from hostile fire, underlining the themes of exploration

German concept designer and auto-motive futurist Daniel Simon was contracted to create the Nomad and Tempest. The Tempest’s final design took inspo from the Concorde 

Concepts for angaran fighter ships have the following notes: “Two doors swing open, wings rotate down to function as landing struts, the landing struts split open. It has a spinning turbine engine 

Despite being set a galaxy away and some 600 years after Mordin’s death, there was a time when he had a cameo. It wasn’t cut due to running out of time however, it was cut due to drug references. John Dombrow explains: “One day I had to write a small quest for Kadara. I thought it’d be amusing if these 2 guys living way out on the fringes in a shack were growing plants for uh, medicinal purposes, and needed Ryder’s help with it. It occurred to me, wouldn’t it be amusing if Ryder had the option of actually trying ‘the medicine’ to see what would happen? And I thought, what if it turned into some hallucination that somehow involved SAM - like maybe SAM would sing? But why? How could I motivate that? Then it hit me. Who else in the ME game sings unexpectedly? MORDIN. As a nod to him I wrote SAM singing Modern Major-General. It got even better when our cine designer John Ebenger wanted to take it even further. Bless him, he came in on a Saturday to do a special hallucination showing Mordin himself. It was great. Til the fateful day we were told MEA had already been submitted to the ratings board. That’s when you declare things like drug references in your game. Mordin fell under that category which meant it was a no-go. We were too late”

Ryder’s white AI armor contrasts Shep’s iconic dark armor (intentional design)

Concept art for Ryder involved experiments with cloth (cloaks, ponchos, capes - “Pull here to release cloak”) and asymmetrical design elements

For alien design, there’s a few exceptions but humanoid figures are the ME standard and this persisted into MEA

Kett and angara concepts explored striking lines and textures 

– From Bioware: Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game Development

[legionofpotatoes]

10 17 and 22 for the art asks :)! also re one of your answers to this: if you enjoy writing, you should do it. i absolutely encourage it. doesn't matter if its not "grandiose" or "important" - the thing thats important is YOU getting to have fun Doing Stuff. :3

Hey you! Thanks for these ☺️

10. Favorite piece of clothing to draw

It's the one I draw most often I guess. The 2012 N7 armor variant 🙃 otherwise I like capes. Or drapes. In that sexy art nouveau way.

17. Do you eat-drink while drawing? if so, what

Not while I'm drawing, no. I take breaks for lunch, but I can't be chewing on something in the process. That would mess up the focus! I do keep a water bottle around (a redundant statement. my home is dotted with half-empty water bottles, always at hand). There is an enormous chasm between the mess my productivity was back when I spent entire days focused on nothing but drawing, to now when I keep my meat suit hydrated. It's night and day. Water is the real deal, folks. Cannot stress this enough, drink up.

22. What physical exercises do you do before drawing, if any

Nothing before; lots of stretching and wrist-rolling during. I know this is something I need to get better at, especially as I keep pulling longer hours in my thirties. It's on the agenda, he said, and probably lied.

I also like to hold my pen in a way that dents the side of my middle finger... trying to work my way around it to no avail so far. I have big-time problems here, gang. My fingie has ouchies when I draw for more than three straight hours.

Regarding the whole writing thing - I didn't mean it like I hate to express myself in writing or even in longform rambles every now and then because of some stuck-up ethical reasons - I honestly don't care about that and you will have to pay me ungodly amounts of money to get me to shut up, just in general. I am extremely lax on what "meaningful" means, and a 24/7 fun train outta these stupid brains absolutely counts.

What I did mean by my answer was storytelling, and specifically storytelling done through writing. You know - that thing that is all about articulating parables through narratives and worldbuilding and meaning-making, which is something I admire but will probably never seriously dabble in. I am keenly aware of the type of creator that I am; I'm still a consumer first. I genuinely revere storytelling, and my "creativity" or whatever is fully transformative and usually stems from my need to prop that other thing up even higher for others to see. Probably why fan art is most of what I do.

And I can (and do) write a lot in that meta sense of how storytelling sometimes does and does not work - anyone following me here knows that is my main weapon to wield against your tired eyeballs. I love understanding both the humanity at the core and the delivery mechanisms around storytelling mediums and how we're all just trying to say the same things over and over again through convoluted yet effective and novel packages and it's all intimate and grand and gorgeous and terrifying and flawed and fun and meaningful and transient and heartbreaking and silly and different yet always somehow the same. And I am extremely aware of the type of gas one needs to have in the tank to actually tap into that semiotic dance and squeeze out a piece of writing that engages and tells a story that is both an escape and a mirror.

This isn't me bootlicking some esoteric auteur culture either, I have my own reservations with the word "talent." I've studied enough of storytelling to know that its raw craft is a crucial delivery system for its core ethos, and it can be built up and improved by anyone, given time and discipline. But it's that ethos I'm talking about, the payload itself. There is something else you need to have present in your soul for that. Something circumstantial, painful maybe, a wound that yearns both to heal and to share itself with others, adding to the tapestry of the zeitgeist in a way that enriches that moment in time instead of tearing it down with ignorance. And I know I make this all sound grandiose and mythic, but meaningful storytelling to me is literally some self-insert fanfic that lulled you into a bittersweet calm after a teenage breakup, or the romcom that made you laugh on a shitty day, or even a fucking poem scribbled on a wall that you completely took out of authorial context yet found some corny meaning in for no more than five seconds. It's the essence of those things, and I have trouble explaining exactly what I mean by that, but I know deep in my bones that it's something core to them that I don't have. I don't have that need to share my lived experience in that way, for reasons internal and external, and I think that is okay! More than anything else in the world I want to cheer on the people who do. I believe in them, and in storytelling, more than in most things in life, exactly because of how privy I am to its healing effects. So I'll do it in my own incessantly annoying ways, don't you worry about that.

I mean look at all this writing I did just now. That's something I like to do. And again; you will have to pay me to stop. Big money. I'm talking six figures or above straight from James Tumbler

[anderwhohn]

I need to try to remember to make 'visage' banners at this point... Probably should just ensure that all my standard tags for muse 'about' stuff has a banner, even if it's rarely used. Not that this stayed simply a visage post once I got rambly, but still. Anyway...

Gotta love the customisation available through modded gameplay. I discovered I could layer visors with certain helmets, so this is Izzy's new look in ME3. (Also gotta love the fact that there's an increase in Spectre gear, finally, since yeah, the N7 stuff is great, but all the Alliance branding for so many things is a bit exasperating, especially when a Shepard isn't loyal to the Alliance.

The dialogue in ME3, especially, is enough to make me want to learn how to create mods for ME3LE, just to be able to change all the instances of "Commander Shepard, Alliance Navy" to "Commander Shepard, Council Spectre" and whatnot.

There are a lot of lines that would need to be changed - I've probably not even come across all of them myself, even with the repeated gameplay (I still remember recently-ish discovering new dialogue paths in Dragon Age: Origins that I'd never encountered, and I had like 800 hours in the game at the time) - but it would be worth it for me, at least, to have the option to not hear Shepard introduce herself as Alliance but as a Spectre. I miss having the choice, like was often available in ME1, especially since you don't get to use your Spectre status anywhere near as often as you should be able to.

mods used in screencaps:

BETA Appearance Modification Menu LE3

Some Armors for Shepard I (MELE3)

[ramblingcj]

Ok, I've been having fun but I have to get this off my mind because it keeps bugging me. Especially since I've been seeing a lot of complaints about the fact that Bioware didn't fix the m/m romances. Don't get me wrong, that is a valid complaint but there's so much more. As someone who recently played through the Legendary edition, there are a few things that annoyed me. Things that Bioware could've fixed.

Some examples: Shepard is called 'sir' in some scenes even if you are playing as female, though mostly in ME3 towards the end. There are huge sections of the Omega DLC where there's no sound or the characters sound like they are in a cathedral for some reason. Aria is on the Citadel after Omega which makes no damn sense. Conrad Verner will accuse you of pointing a gun in his face in ME2 no matter what you did in ME1. The fcking boob armor! Also, they could’ve given you the multiplayer armor to use in the game. Or let some armors carry over from all three games (the N7 armor from ME1 is actually my favorite). 

These are all things present in the base games that they could’ve fixed in ME LE, but didn’t bother. There are also things they could’ve done to make the ME1 gameplay easier, like tell you which systems you’ve looked at or just give a little notification, like they do with the main story missions and like in ME2 and ME3. Scanning the system in ME1 is a pain because you (and by that I mean me) will forget just where the hell you’ve been. 

Also let me skip or pause all cutscenes ffs!

They made a big deal of removing the butt shots, but kept Miranda in that damn asscrack catsuit. Jack still has that fcking nipple belt. Samara still enter some scenes boobs first.

But they gave Liara bigger boobs in ME1 'cause that's clearly something that needed to be fixed...

I know some “fans” will use the  “uh, Bioware has a history of being LGBT friendly excuse and so on. Kinda like how everyone said that CDProjektRed was "for the fans" until Cyberpunk 2077 was released. Their image was so good in fact that when reports came of devs being overworked at CDPR, fans jumped to their defense. That’s the power of a well-cultivated image. 

Bioware, like CDPR, has cultivated that image of being "for the fans" and, in Bioware's case, being for the gays. Again I say, it’s an image they’ve cultivated and it’s even an image they’ve hidden behind at times. 

But at the end of the day, it’s just an image. An image doesn’t always reflect reality. Remember that Joss Whedon was hailed as a feminist at one point too. Not saying it’s the same here, but it’s still food for thought. A well-crafted image is a powerful thing.

Even if you love Mass Effect, it is obvious that this was a cash grab and an attempt to win back some goodwill from the fans. Which I honestly do understand given how Bioware’s public image has sunk in the last few years. Especially since I want to play the next Mass Effect and Dragon Age as I adore these universes. I do get it, but I still wish they has fixed some of the basic things.

[ramblinganthropologist]

MER Week Day 4: Mass Effect + Mass Effect Andromeda

Summary: 2179. What should have been a normal shore leave on the Citadel leaves Alistair and Bo Peep Shepard in a place they’ve never been before: teachers. What can these battle hardened biotics teach young Kitty and Dick... and why do they look so damn familiar?

---

“Well… we’re here. What do you want to do?”

“How about anything other than getting shot at?”

Now that was something Alistair could agree on as he stretched out as far as he could. His body was still sore from the last mission, the lack of sleep, and the ride to the Citadel. Honestly, he was amazed his bones weren’t cracking to bits as he walked along, taking in the artificial sunshine of the space station. Given what he had just been through, it was a true surprise he was still one piece.

Well, maybe that was to be expecting. After all, he and Bo were N7. They were supposed to be tough.

“Could always head to the Tea Cozy, unless you wanted to save that until tomorrow.” He threaded his arms behind his head as he walked, definitely not the picture of a military officer by any means. “Or we could check out the hamsters at Citadel Critters.”

Above his head, Bo rolled her eyes. “Last time I was there, you forgot I existed when you got too deep into discussions on how fucked up the breeding lines at the gift shop are.”

“Well, they are. I don’t know what they think they’re trying to pull…” His voice trailed off. Bo was giving him that look. “Right… specialist knowledge, general application. I’ll stop now.”

She gave him a nod. “That a boy. Honestly, I could go for chicken nuggets that come from a fryer instead of a microwave. It’s been too long since we’ve had real food.”

Real food sounded great right then, especially if it involved a milkshake. Just thinking about them made Alistair’s stomach growl. Judging from the noises coming from his sister, he wasn’t alone in the assessment. Easy enough – lunch it was. Lucky for them, they weren’t too far from one of their other favorite spots.

A few moments later, and the pair were seated by one of the many fountains that dotted the Citadel, their food spread out in front of them. For most people, it would have been a lot. For them, not so much. When it came down to it, they both just needed to eat way more food to keep their biotic systems operating at peak capacity. There was a term for it, and Alistair knew it, but he wasn’t thinking like a medic then. Instead, he was cradling a large paper cup happily, the sleeves of his jacket insulating his hands as he poked in the straw into the bright green concoction.

Nothing like Citadel Burger’s Shamrock Shake. Was he being a bad Irishman that he loved them? Probably, but it wasn’t like he was born in Ireland – that was his parent’s problem, and they were dead, so they really didn’t have anything to say on the matter. Until they managed it, he was content to put a hurting on the milkshake as he started to nibble on the straw.

“You’re supposed to use that to drink, you know.” Bo snickered as she started on her first order of nuggets. The first dip of the day was barbeque sauce, or at least it smelled that way. “You look like Fluffytail like that.”

He would’ve stuck out his tongue, but that would’ve been messy. Instead, he just kept drinking his milkshake and swinging his foot that didn’t quite touch the ground. What could he say, the benches were designed for aliens, and he wasn’t exactly designed for playing basketball. It was something he had… mostly… come to accept.

Mostly.

“I won’t bite through this one.” He leaned back to watch the crowd in front of them. Then downside of Alliance life was being absolutely surrounded by humans. Even back on Mindoir, there had been aliens around, even if they had been far less numerous than the space station. It was why he liked coming to the Citadel – it helped remind him they were part of a community. Of course, that community wasn’t all that fond of humans yet, but they were getting there.

Speaking of community… off the distance, Alistair watched a C-SEC agent picked up the pace. He looked rather upset about something, but it wasn’t clear what. Or, rather, it wasn’t until the blast of light knocked them into a bush.

“What the fuck.” Bo shot him a glance as she got up, bringing her nuggets with her. “Was that?”

She didn’t need to finish the sentence – Alistair had felt it too. It was the telltale tingle of human powered biotics, as if their amps were ringing out in response to the activity. More than that, it was uncontrolled as hell. That left only a few options – someone who was clearly about to melt down, or they were a kid who had no idea what they were doing. Neither were circumstances he trusted a C-SEC agent to handle, and from the looks of things he wasn’t alone. So, he picked up his milkshake and followed behind his sister as they headed over.

The officer, a young turian with blue face paint, was groaning in the bush. His armor was a bit scuffed, but he hadn’t sustained any permanent damage. He wasn’t alone either – in front of the bush, a teenager was laying spread eagle, dazed and confused.

“Human cannonball’s a classic… so who launched them?” Alistair glanced from human to turian. Neither looked badly hurt, but they probably had some scrapes that medigel could fix. “Bo, want to go?”

But she was already gone before he could finish the statement, heading off in the direction of a nearby park. That left him alone, shaking his head as he activated his medigel dispenser. Lucky for him, he had just refilled it before getting off the ship.

Medigel – never leave home without it.

“Alright, so who wants medigel?” He glanced towards the turian, who was already starting to come to. “How about you, Officer- “

The turian stood up, wincing a little. “Vakarian. I’m fine, just a little rattled. Some human kids…”

His voice trailed off. One of the human kids was still groaning at his feet, clearly the loser in the fight between the species. Honestly, they were kind of pathetic, laying there in a lump, half hidden by an oversized sweatshirt that was clearly a few sizes too large.

Boy, was that a reminder of his teenage years…

“I think they need this more than you.” Alistair knelt down to assess the patient. “Hey, are you able to focus?”

Green eyes slowly focused on him – good, no concussion. While he was shit at gauging ages, they couldn’t have been older than 17. More than that, the metal jutting out of the back of their neck was new. Most kids that weren’t him got that at puberty and spent time after that practicing so they didn’t blow shit up. Clearly, someone was still in the blowing shit up phase.

So… he’d put them 16 at best.

“Y-yeah…” they groaned, holding their head. “Where…”

Officer Vakarian filled that in for him. “In the Presidium. You know you’re not supposed to use biotics here, Dick.”

He looked around, towards where Bo had run off. “Did Kitty cause it this time?”

Dick and Kitty… well, Alistair was in no position to judge anyone’s names Still, at least the officer knew his would-be patient. That would make getting them back on their feet easier, especially if he had access to their emergency contacts.

He wasn’t really used to using those while people were still alive… so this was going to be a new one for him.

Dick shook his head, and then instantly seemed to regret it as he started to groan. “Maybe? It’s kind of a blur, Officer Vakarian…”

He looked up at Alistair, frowning. “Was it that bad you brought the EMTs in?”

Alistair chuckled as he waved his hand. “Don’t worry, I’m just a passerby. I can fix up your scrapes, though. It doesn’t look like you’ve got a concussion. Still getting used to your biotics, I see.”

He offered his hand, and the boy took it. Much to his quiet relief, Dick was still shorter than him. It was a little petty, but the marine took his small victories when he got them. Besides, the boy would outgrow him in a year or so. They always did.

Maybe he had been kidding about being mostly ok with his height… he was only human.

“Yeah… I got my amp six months ago.” Dick touched the back of his neck, frowning. “How’d you know?”

Before Alistair could answer, his attention was drawn by a flash of pink. Bo had returned, and at her side was another teenager. This one shared Dick’s face and green eyes, but the hair was blue and there was a bandage over their nose. At least they didn’t seem too put off by his sister, though the sight of Officer Vakarian caused them to blanche.

Ah. He knew an instigator when he saw one. Somebody was busted.

“We were totally not in the common area, Officer Vakarian, I swear.” Who he assumed was Kitty held up her scraped hands – yep, those were going to need medigel. “Dick and I were just…”

The turian shook his head. “Just using your biotics outside of a registered practice zone. That’s the third time this week. I left you off the last time, but now I’m going to have to call your parents on this one.”

The two teenagers winced at the thought, and Alistair felt a pang of sympathy. While he hadn’t been as young as them when he’d first gotten his amp, he remembered the early jitters of new biotics and the need to get them working. Of course, he had never launched a C-SEC agent into a bush, but… well, hormones and biotics were tricky.

“What if my sister and I talked to them about it?”

All eyes were suddenly on him – the hopeful gaze of the two would-be criminals, the mildly confused glance of the turian agent, and his sister, looking amused by this. Talk about a tough room to work. At least sweat didn’t bead on his forehead. Maybe he was getting used to public speaking.

And maybe the hanar would get into rodeo. No way he was ever talking in front of people…

“And… what would that do?” Officer Vakarian cocked his head to the side. Most people would take that as instigating, but there wasn’t the tone to his voice. Instead, he sounded curious. Maybe he wanted to see how this would play out.

Smart man – maybe he’d be the lucky one to make it to retirement.

Bo was the one who answered for him. She motioned to her neck, allowing the metal to catch the light. Unlike the two teenagers’, her amp had seen some action. It was scuffed and starting to look a little dull. His probably wasn’t much better, but it wasn’t like he could see it. After all, it was on the back of his fucking head.

“We’re biotics who got past the unintentional blow shit up phase.”

Emphasis in her case on unintentional.

Alistair nodded though, keeping his eye on the turian all the while. “Plus, I think two N7 level marines could give these two a worthy lecture. No need to get their parents in on this, Officer. You’ve probably got a hundred more important things to do, right?”

Nothing like giving someone an out and reminding them of the work piling up to get them off your case. He could practically see the gears churning underneath the face plates and face paint. Just a few more seconds of contemplation…

Officer Vakarian sighed and shook his head. “Try to keep an eye on your sister, Dick. I’ll let you both off with a warning this time since these two are going to vouch for you.”

The twins visibly relaxed at this. Not long after, the turian departed – probably to go write a parking ticket or mess up someone else’s day. This left Alistair and Bo in a weird quasi state of loco parentis that definitely made him sweat a little as he eyed the two teenagers in front of him.

Maybe he should’ve thought this one out better.

“Well, I’m getting back to our food before the Keepers clean it up.” Bo glanced over her shoulders at their new friends. “Follow me if you don’t want to get arrested, squirts.”

Back to the food it was then. Much to Alistair’s relief, the Keepers had left it alone. Of course, that didn’t matter much – there were mild injuries to be treated. More importantly, he realized he was getting a rather dirty look from Kitty as she glanced over at him.

Was it something he said?

At least Dick didn’t seem to mind as he settled into the bench. “Thanks for saving us… I don’t think you said your name.”

“Alistair, and that’s my sister Bo.” She nodded her head at his introduction. “Not a problem. Who wants the medigel first?”

Kitty shot him another dirty look as she tugged at her brother’s sleeve. “Thanks for the save, but not int- “

Contact with her scraped palms was enough to make her hiss. Alistair shook his head as he motioned for her to come over. She fought it briefly, but soon she was seated across from him, holding out her hands as he applied the medigel. Maybe in a few years she would be a proper badass like Bo, but she still had a ways to go. Still, not bad for a 16-year-old, especially one so new to biotics. There was hope for her yet.

“Best to clean these up before they get infected. Biotics mess with heal rates and germs can get trapped underneath the skin.” He motioned to Bo. “Ask her if you don’t believe me.”

Next to him, his sister bristled. “That was ONE time…”

And once was enough for him.

“Yeah, whatever, thanks.” Kitty pulled her healed hands away, almost as if she was burned. “Can we go now? I get enough N7 bullshit at home, I don’t need it from two randos on shore leave.”

She sent him a withering glance. “Especially not from the boy scout over here.”

Well, wasn’t someone a fucking delight…

“Kitty, they’re just being nice…” Dick frowned as he turned towards the pair. “Sorry… we uh… don’t really get along with our dad. He’s N7 too.”

Huh. Now that Alistair was getting a good look at them, something did strike him as vaguely familiar. It wasn’t exact, but he’d sworn he’d seen those eyes somewhere before, it just was hard to put his finger on it. Maybe it had been someone he had been in training with? It was going to drive him nuts… damn name was on the tip of his tongue.

“Most of them are bastards except for me and the boy scout.” Bo, always the fountain of truth. “What’s his name? Maybe we kicked his ass for you once or twice during training.”

At the mention of her father’s ass being kicked, Kitty brightened. “God, I hope so. He’s such an ass… but his name’s Alec Ryder.”

…

Oh, fuck.

Alistair felt his eye twitch as he looked from one teen to the next. He could see it now, in the defiant set of Kitty’s jaw and the pointed accuracy of Dick’s gaze. Normally, he saw those features combined and set into the face of an old man he wanted to blast into a fucking wall. Maybe the outright lack of assholeism was enough to make him temporarily forget the face of the man he hated more than anyone else.

Who the hell had taste bad enough to marry Alec Ryder, and where could he send his condolences?

“That asshole is your dad?” Bo snorted. “Al, I think you just found someone to beat you in the shittiest father competition.”

Oh, how he wanted to agree… but was it wrong to badmouth a father in front of his children like this?

Dick must’ve been a mind reader, because he smiled awkwardly. “It’s ok if you don’t like him, we think he’s an asshole too.”

“Oh, thank God…” Alistair sighed in relief. “I didn’t want to talk badly about him in front of you if you liked him.”

So sue him, he didn’t exactly put much stock in father-child relationships. After all, his fucking sucked. Judging from the looks on the twins’ faces, they knew exactly how he felt. And how could they not – they had Alec fucking Ryder for a father. The man was a blowhard douchebag on a good day; Alistair didn’t even want to think of what he might be like at home. His poor wife…

Nah, he was definitely divorced. No way anyone stayed married to that man for long.

“Well, at least we know other Alliance people hate him. Guess that means we’re not crazy.” Kitty seemed visibly cheered by this as she grabbed for one of Alistair’s fries – he let her; she was a growing biotic. “So, what about that little lecture you were planning? Can we skip it if we promise never to do it again and don’t cross our fingers this time?”

At that, Alistair shook his head. “No, we do need to talk about that. You got lucky this time because your strike was off. Full force could’ve really hurt Officer Vakarian or your brother.”

Dick’s head picked up very slightly at that – and as the pieces fell into place, his heart went out to him. Kitty on the other hand just looked mildly annoyed at the assessment of her aim as she stole some more fries. Lucky for him, he’d gotten extra.

“I didn’t even dent his armor…”

Bo snorted. “Not with a strike that weak. If you really want to put some force into it, you need to generate a little spin before you strike. It makes it hit harder.”

“It does?”

Oh, no. He could see where this one was going… best to nip it in the bud before Officer Vakarian got launched out the airlock with their next practice attempt.

“You need better control before you attempt something like that.” He sipped absent-mindedly at his milkshake. “And better separation of your attack styles. That felt like a half warp, half singularity to me. I would focus on getting each move down first.”

It was an argument that often fell on deaf ears, especially if they belonged to teenagers. He could just tell from the look on Kitty’s face that the kind of practice he was suggesting would bore her to tears. On the bright side, at least her brother looked interested. Dick actually had his omni-tool out and was honest-to-God taking notes.

Kid like that was an ego boost and a half… talk about having a favorite.

“That works fine for defense, but if you’re interested in front line assault, you need power. Sometimes it come down to who can hit harder.” Bo cracked her knuckles for emphasis. “I’d start lifting weights honestly.”

He shot her a look over his milkshake. “You’re going to turn them into berserkers, Bo.”

“What, it’s a valid strategy. You teach yours your way, I’ll handle mine.” Bo motioned for Kitty to get closer. “Now… the key to a good smack…”

Alistair was left groaning as he gave up – he knew a lost cause when he saw one. At least there would always be a future for them in destruction. On the bright side, he still had an attentive pupil, eager for more information. He could work with that.

“Well, since they’ve decided to go blunt force, we could discuss defensive maneuvers…”

“Sure, sounds good!”

Music to his ears… now, where to start?

---

“Thanks, Bo! I’ll let you know how the weightlifting goes!”

Kitty’s voice carried over the Presidium as she and her brother waved goodbye. Apparently, it was time for them to go home for dinner. This left their two impromptu instructors standing by the fountain, watching them go.

They were good kids, if a little green.

“Kid’s going to be killer when she gets older.” Bo chuckled, clearly pleased. “How about yours? We got another brick wall in the making?”

Alistair nodded as he worked to clean up their trash. “Dick has promise if he works on controlling his barriers. The new amps are great for fine motor skills. I can’t wait to see what they come up with as their hormone levels even out.”

With any luck, he wouldn’t see either of them in the Alliance anytime soon. As much as he appreciated them helping to keep his brain for overheating, the last thing he wanted was for a young biotic to think their only option was the military. Things were getting better now, or at least better than they had been when he was their age. Maybe with luck, they’d avoid it altogether.

That was at least his hope for them.

“Kitty said she’s going to send me some vids when she makes progress. She’ll probably slide the string bean in there too.” The sight of the clock in the nearby square caused Bo to wince. “Shit, it’s really that late? We were talking to those kids for two hours…”

No wonder his throat hurt so much…

“Guess we just got excited.” The pair started walking back to where they were staying, plans still on their mind for tomorrow. “Though, hard to believe they’re Alec Ryder’s kids.”

Bo snorted at that. “Yeah, they’re actually hu- “

She stopped, and then started to snicker. “Damn… can’t believe I didn’t pick that up until now.”

Alistair cocked his eyebrow as he watched his sister chuckle. If there was a joke, he wasn’t getting it. Of course, maybe he was just tired from the explanations. Either way, it be nice if she let him in sometime.

“What?”

“Their names are Dick and Kitty Ryder.” Another snicker. “Dick Ryder, come on…”

…

“Come on, Al, you know you’d have gone there too if you were in his shoes. Don’t hate cause the kid picked a better name than you did.”

He wasn’t hating… he was appreciating the balls it took to run with the joke all the way to legal documents. There was a difference.

“I would’ve gone with Knight or Ghost personally, but we all know my opinions on riding dick.” It was a miracle he kept a straight face at that.

“He had to, you already got Kitty Ryder. Gotta complete the set after all.”

Bo was grinning like the cat that ate the canary, and honestly, he wasn’t doing much better if the shake of his shoulders was anything to go by. At least he managed to keep walking, though a thousand jokes were still bubbling up with every step he took. He pushed them down – didn’t want to overdo it after all.

“Come on, let’s get back before we find some more biotic children to mentor. I want to watch Forensic Files VI tonight.”

“Ugh, you always want to watch Forensic Files…”

What, it was like the only thing available in like every system. So sue him.

Still, Alistair got a good feeling about the future as he walked with Bo by his side. If the new generation of biotics were like the pair in the park, maybe things would turn out better. Hell, maybe one day he’d hear about the Ryder twins making their own history.

Of course, that was for another day.  At the moment, he had more pressing matters in mind – like beating Bo back so he could wrestle away control of the remote for a few hours. That was a fight he was willing to go to the death on.

Ah, nothing like shore leave. Why wasn’t it always this enlightening?

[catpaw-fanfiction]

What about Halbarry going to space and getting in space troubles like black holes, wormholes and aliens! : D

Did someone say Mass Effect? (These are just short stories. Otherwise these wouldn't really work as warm up for me. Sorry.)

When Hal Jordan finally left the close quarters of the SSV Gotham, after six long months in space, he couldn't have been happier to finally have solid ground under his boots. Or at least as solid as the ground of a giant space station such as the Citadel could be. Hal loved being on ships, he had practically grown up on one what with his father being the captain of the SSV Star City himself, but nothing really beat coming back to this center of the known universe. The Citadel was a place of marvel, a melting pot of all the cultures and species of the Milky Way and the most beautiful thing Hal had ever seen. Maybe because he didn't have such a close connection to his own home planet, this space station had kind of become his substitute for it. And it certainly helped that his family now lived on the Citadel as well so he could actually see them whenever his ship docked here. And maybe Hal was also a bit curious about how the cute C-SEC guy from last time was doing.

Speaking of C-SEC - they seemed to be quite busy right now and Hal saw a salarian exchange heated words with a blond human that was definitively the cute guy from Hal's last time here.

"I'm sorry, sir. But I definitely need to talk to my superior Commander Bailey first."

"This is an outrage! The salarian councilor will hear about this!"

"I'm sure he will." the C-SEC officer muttered as soon as the salarian was out of ear shot.

For a moment, Hal wasn't sure whether he should approach him at all but quickly decided that this was still his best shot.

"Hey."

He must have imagined it but Hal could swear that the other man had just rolled his eyes.

"Hello Spectre Jordan."

Hal would have loved to return the courtesy but the other man had been gone before he could ask for his name last time around.

"Careful. I almost thought you didn't want me here."

"Oh no what would we do then?"

The sarcasm was so incredibly dry that Hal had to pause for a moment to actually think about it.

"Wow. Someone woke up on the wrong side of bed today."

Blondie rubbed his forehead in a circling motion with forefinger and thumb before he sighed.

"I'm sorry. That was unbecoming of me."

He shot Hal an apologetic smile.

"It's just been a lot lately. Even without some hotshot Spectre trying to get into my pants."

The last part must have slipped out because his eyes suddenly widened and his head turned a shade only rivaled by the red streak on Hal's N7 armor.

But Hal had to grin. So he had noticed last time around. Hal hadn't been sure if he'd been obvious enough and he didn't even know this guy's name. That had to change.

"I'm Hal, by the way."

"I know."

Hal squinted at him, not really sure how he should take this answer. Of course a C-SEC officer knew about the famous human Spectre Hal Jordan. He wasn't the first or the second - these honors went to Commander Shepard and Kaidan Alenko - but he was still pretty well known. Or more like infamous for his unusual methods and headstrong behavior. But Hal didn't really care. He knew he was the best and had the record to prove it.

"I wanted to know your name."

"I know."

This conversation was so not going in the direction Hal had expected it to go in his cabin half an hour earlier. He kind of liked how Blondie didn't take his shit though. Who would have thought that such a harmless face hid such a personality?

The other man grinned at him in return but seemed too nice to keep his act up for too long.

"It's Barry Allen."

Barry. A pretty ordinary name in the middle of space - not that Hal had much room to judge being called Harold and all.

"Well, Barry, how about going on a date with me?"

Barry seemed to think about it for almost a second before he loudly declared "Sorry but I'll have to decline that. I don't date jerks."

Okay, so maybe Hal hadn't been on his best behavior the last time they met or even today but he was sure to convince Barry otherwise.

"So go on a date with me and I'll show you how much I'm not a jerk."

This time around, Barry really did roll his eyes.

"You're really not endearing yourself to me by being pushy."

Hal made a face like a small boy that had been called out by the girl he liked. Barry was right, sure. But Hal didn't like admitting it.

"So how about I give you my contact and you call me?"

"I'm not going to call you.", Barry said as he started walking away.

"Oh come on!"

[n7initiative]

Mass Effect: Legendary Edition

So, I’m not going to lie. I’m torn on this entry. It’s the same games that I know and love with slightly improved graphics, much needed bug fixes, and almost all of the DLC content (Pinnacle Station, the least important “story” DLC, is missing because the source code for it was corrupted), but it doesn’t really change much else.

So let me break down the changes

1 - Bug fixes. This is the the biggest and most important change, marking the first time I’ve ever actually been able to see Peak 15 in the original Mass Effect without shutting off the lighting engine, and the first time I’ve played through Mass Effect 2 without having any game breaking glitches that I have to restart the level or game or perform some sort of surgery on the game files to correct. Not all of the bugs are fixed however. In Mass Effect 2, there were a ton of lines that just didn’t finish properly, models being weird, and the usual Bioware glitches.

2 - Graphical upgrades. The graphics are improved nominally. Mass Effect 2 and 3 look a little more polished, and Mass Effect 1 looks about as good as Mass Effect 3 did at launch, so nothing much to complain about here.

3 - Improved models. This one is a bit of a misnomer, as I didn’t really know what else to call it. Assets from DLCs are worked into the base games, and Mass Effect 3′s classic Fem-Shep is now a default option in the other two games, albeit looking a little off. Also, Kelly Chambers in Mass Effect 2 looks a lot closer to how she does in Mass Effect 3, which didn’t look as unique.

4 - DLC weapons and armor now have to be found in levels or purchased from vendors (or researched in Mass Effect 2) and aren’t given to you from the start. Bioware did this to improve immersion and game balance, but as someone who has played through these games lord knows how many times, I just want to use my favorite weapons and armor from the start, please and thank you.

5 - Added content? The optional lines from Ish in Mass Effect 2 if you completed Mass Effect: Galaxy, linked your Google Play or iTunes account to your Origin account, and then spoke to him with Jacob and Miranda in your party, occurs so long as you just have Jacob and Miranda in your party.

6 - Rebalanced credits in Mass Effect 2 to account for DLC weapons and armor, and rebalanced galactic readiness in Mass Effect 3 to account for there being no multiplayer this time around.

7 - Fewer shots of Miranda’s ass. Not “No shots of Miranda’s ass.” Less objectification is a good thing. If you’re complaining that there’s not enough of her ass, leave.

This means that there was no cut content reintroduced, no content that should have been in the games themselves but wasn’t (the Collector Assault Rifle, Sniper Rifle, and SMG in Mass Effect 3 were multiplayer only DLC weapons and should have been available in the story, and the fact that they weren’t added in in the Legendary Edition is CRIMINAL), and this isn’t a complete collection of the story as Pinnacle Station, Galaxy, Mass Effect: Infiltrator, and Paragon Lost, aren’t included. If Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster could include both games, a novella, AND a movie TWO WHOLE CONSOLE GENERATIONS AGO (that one released on PS3 and Vita for crying out loud), Legendary Edition should AT LEAST have Galaxy and Infiltrator (and I would not mind them throwing in Paragon Lost).

If you’re new to Mass Effect, this is the best way to get into it. If you already have the original Trilogy, you only really need to get this if you’re a die hard fan like me, desperately need to experience the promotional DLC armors from ME3 that you missed out on like the N7 Defender Armor and don’t want to use a save editor or can’t because you’re on console, or you just hate Pinnacle Station that much.

Regardless of my misgivings on the Legendary Edition, it’s a perfectly fine collection. Fine. It’s a great way to get new players into the series and ports it to the second newest generation of consoles (though you can get any PS4 game on PS5, so technically the newest too). This is going to be my default way to replay the series from now on because of the bugfixes. Though I can’t help my disappointment over the lack of new content and, what I feel, are missing entries that would truly make this Legendary.

[x]

[theoriginalladya]

December Challenge #13 Confessions for Lachlen/Kaidan

from this prompt list

On AO3 here

Thank you so much for this!!!  This one is set post-War and they’re still in Scotland.  Enjoy!!!

(under cut because, as usual, it got looooooooooong! lol)

~~~

“I have a confession to make.”

The rug in front of the fireplace has become their evening ritual.  Every night for the three months they have been in Scotland, Lachlan lies with his head pillowed on his good arm, staring into the burning blaze in the fireplace while Kaidan works the kinks out of the aching and still healing muscles and scar tissue of his hips and shoulders.  He knows full well he could be suffering from worse things, has in the past at times, but like most nights, he is nearly asleep, the last bit of consciousness hanging by a thread.  Still, Kaidan’s words are enough to startle him back to full awareness.  

Blinking sleep from his eyes, Lachlan pushes himself up enough to glance back over his shoulder.  Around a yawn and in a raspy voice, he asks, “What?”

Whiskey-amber eyes meet blue with a hint of mischief. A flutter of unease works through him, and in that moment, Lachlan knows he’s been had.  “You bloody eejit!” he hisses, then flops to the floor once more, muttering beneath his breath.

“What?”  Kaidan leans forward and presses a kiss to the tattoo between his shoulder blades, murmuring, “I do, you know.”

Lachlan huffs. “Like hell!  That glint in your eyes says otherwise.”

“You don’t believe me?”

Another yawn sneaks in, encouraged as Kaidan’s hands still work around his bad hip.  “I believe,” Lachlan says after the yawn passes, “you’re attempting to … what’s the expression?  Pull my leg?”

Kaidan snorts softly and sits back.  “Now there’s an idea.”

Lachlan rolls his eyes, cautiously using his prosthetic hand to scratch the side of his nose.  It’s … strange to get used to and an even bigger challenge to get used to when playing his cello; but given the widespread destruction as a result of the war, even he, the Savior of the Galaxy, has to wait his turn for a cloned limb to be grown as a replacement.  This, at least, is something to help him get by.  Thankfully, the fingers have some semblance of individual mobility, but he learned early on not to take things too quickly lest he poke his eye out in the process.  

His thoughts get interrupted when Kaidan’s hand wraps around his left ankle and tugs.  Hard.  “What the …?” He rolls onto his hip, sitting up fully this time as he bats the prosthetic arm at the man.  “What is with you, tonight?”

“I told you; I have a confession to make.” Kaidan sits beside him again as he uses a towel to clean off his hands.  His tone becomes more somber as he adds, “Kind of an important one, too.”

A flutter in Lachlan’s chest reminds him of a swarm of butterflies and his breath hitches. Gulping, he stares at Kaidan. “You … this isn’t going to be like that time on Arcturus, is it?” he asks, the hint of worry and hesitation clear in his tone.

Kaidan frowns. “Which time?”

“When you made me think you wanted nothing more to do with me and then you turned around and proposed instead.”

Kaidan sighs heavily and leans forward until their foreheads touch lightly.  “No, this isn’t anything like that.”  Before pulling back, he ghosts a quick, reassuring kiss across Lachlan’s lips.  “I promise. Now lie down so I can finish, hmm?”

The kiss doesn’t last long enough as far as Lachlan is concerned, but he lies back on the floor without protest.  As Kaidan’s hands move to his lower back, gently massaging up his spine, he asks, “Well, what is it?”  

“What is what?”

Lachlan groans. “You really enjoy this, don’t you?”

Kaidan laughs at the accusation, taking the opportunity to work a particularly tight section of Lachlan’s shoulder area with a bit more enthusiasm than is strictly necessary.  “You’ll have to be more specific.”

“What?”  He starts to sit up again, but gets pushed right back down before he can even prop his elbows beneath him and gain leverage.

“I’m never going to finish this if you don’t hold still.”

Lachlan mutters some more beneath his breath, settles back down, and finishes with, “Don’t think for one moment I don’t know that you’re doing this on purpose!”

“Doing what?”

“That!”

Kaidan’s lips twitch.  “What exactly do you mean by ‘that?’”  

Instead of sitting up this time, Lachlan rolls onto his right shoulder and uses his good left arm to grab the collar of his husband’s shirt and tug him down close.  “Acting all cagey like.”  Since he has him close and Kaidan isn’t fighting to break away, Lachlan kisses him thoroughly before he releases him.  There are times when Kaidan likes to tease him; Lachlan knows this well, and in all honestly enjoys it as much as the other man does.  But tonight, it’s bordering on the nonsensical, and it’s driving him insane.  

“Okay,”  he murmurs, rolling over so he can slide both arms around Kaidan’s shoulders, “so, this confession?”

“Mmmm.”  The laughter is still there, but gets lost between them for several minutes.  “Confession?” he mumbles as he breaks the kiss.  “What confession?”

Sighing, Lachlan’s head falls back to the rug with a soft thump.  “You, sir, are a menace.”

Kaidan swoops back in for another kiss; Lachlan ducks to the side to avoid it, but Kaidan ends up connecting with his cheek instead before shifting to lie on the floor beside him.  He loops an arm around Lachlan’s waist, laughing softly as he snuggles against his back, bringing his chin up on his shoulder.  “So, do you remember how last year for our anniversary, I told you the gift I had for you would have to wait?”

Lachlan freezes a moment in panic, calming once he realizes they aren’t anywhere near their anniversary on the calendar.  As it then bleeds out, leaving him just a bit weak in the knees, he replies, “You said you left it at the apartment?”  Which, realistically means it was destroyed when Arcturus Station was destroyed at the beginning of the war.  

“Mmm,” Kaidan agrees.  “Well, I think I’ve found a replacement gift for you.”

Lachlan’s chest tightens; every time he turns around, especially of late, he finds yet another reason to love this man even more than he does after all these years. Last year was their tenth anniversary, unless you didn’t count the two years he was dead, and Kaidan had been disappointed how things had played out.  Lachlan, of course, reassured him at the time, just as he does now.  “I have you, I don’t need anything else.”    

“Not true, and you know it,” Kaidan insists.  He pushes to his feet, grabs the towel and takes a moment to wipe off remnants of the lotion he’d used on Lachlan’s shoulders before handing his partner his shirt.  

Lachlan manages to tug the t-shirt on with minimal effort now – it’s taken time to learn how to do that, but with Kaidan’s help and practice over the past ten months, it comes easier each time.  He accepts the hand Kaidan offers to help him to his feet.  “Kaid, what’s going on?”

“You’ll see in a minute – .”  A soft beep at Kaidan’s wrist cuts him off.  “Or, right now, I guess.”  The twinkle returns to his eyes as he grins and squeezes Lachlan’s hand.  “Trust me?”

Lachlan squeezes back, even though he is thoroughly confused.  “Haven’t I always?”

“Stay here.” Kaidan heads over to the door to their rented house and opens it.  The chill of the winter air gusts inside almost immediately, and Lachlan cannot stop a soft giggle when the blast is accompanied by a burst of snowflakes that settle over Kaidan’s dark hair.  “Going a bit grey there, don’t you think, Alenko?”

Kaidan chuckles. “No thanks to you!”  

It takes a few minutes for the chill to start actively fighting against the warmth in the room, but even Lachlan notices the temperature dropping after a bit.  While Kaidan continues to wait, his attention focused beyond the door, Lachlan nabs his N7 hoodie and tugs it on, complaining, “Just remember, you’re the only Canadian of the group, all right?”

“What’s the matter, Shepard?  Can’t stand the cold?”

“Not without my armor, no.”

The door creaks a little as Kaidan pushes it open further just as Lachlan turns back toward him. Lachlan opens his mouth to add onto that comment but finds he has no voice nor breath as a familiar towheaded face steps inside the house.  Unable to move, eyes widening with each second that passes, Lachlan’s heart lurches inside his chest.  “Iain?” he croaks.

The younger Shepard is thinner than he recalls, perhaps a bit frailer than the last time they saw one another well over a year before, but Iain still manages to lunge toward his brother.  Lachlan grasps him tightly, holding him in a fierce hug.  Only when he releases him some moments later, wiping a few tears from his eyes, does he notice the other new arrival.  “Coats?  You … you found him?”

The dark haired man nods.  “Took a while,” he admits with a rueful smile, “searched damn near every hospital in England for him, but … yeah.”  Coats’ gaze drifts back and forth between the two brothers.  “You Shepards are a stubborn lot, I’ll give you that much.”

Iain grins back at the man.  “Just gives you a long term goal, Paddington.”  He turns back to his brother, eyeing him a bit more closely now.  Cautiously, he reaches out and touches the prosthetic hand. “Can you … can you play, Lach?”

Using his good arm, Lachlan pulls Iain back in for another hug.  “Aye.  It’s a bit complicated at the moment, but it works for now, don’t you worry.”  This time when he releases the younger man, Kaidan and Coats have joined them.  “So,” he says to his husband, “this is your confession, is it?”

Kaidan grins. “The confession was that I found a replacement present,” he corrects.  “Think it’s worth it?”

Lachlan smiles. “Most definitely worth it.”

[rubyredsundae]

Mass Effect Trilogy Tag!

I was not tagged by anyone, I just really wanted to join in. If you see this and want to as well, please do! I've been loving reading through everyone's :)

I am a fan since… 2011ish? Definitely at least a year before ME3 came out. I remember watching my brother play ME2 and thinking it was so cool. While he was away it was a huge comfort for me to play it in his room, kind of like a bonding or cathartic experience for someone who wasn't there at the time.

When ME3 came out, me and him went to the midnight release at a gamestop like 40 minutes away or something, wearing clothes we threw together to kind of fit the N7 color scheme. Even though we don't talk anymore, those memories are still really precious to me. Also, the nostalgia of playing ME1 after-school or on the weekend, running to get my easy mac from the microwave during a cutscene, stuffing too hot mouthfuls while speeding the Mako towards the conduit on Ilos.

Favorite game of the series: It's a tough call between ME1 and ME2, but I'd say ME2. It's the game I get the urge to replay the most.

MaleShep or FemShep? Femshep all the way. I only play MShep when I want to do his exclusive romances. No offense to BroShep, but ME was the first game I ever played that let me not just be a girl, but customizable. Not just to be the already generated token girl character in a pack of boys. And not only can you play Femshep, but every game you are surrounded by smart, funny, tough women as squadmates. It was such a huge deal to me, and still is. Femshep represents so much. As Jennifer Hale put it, FemShep was a military grade boot to the video game industry glass ceiling.

Earthborn, Colonist or Spacer? I personally tend to lean spacer in-game, but I tend to use Earthborn when I'm writing fics.

Paragon or Renegade? Usually Paragon, but Renegade playthroughs can be really interesting, especially if I have a detailed background about why Shep is the way they are. My first Renegade, Krystle, is pretty bigoted and anti-alien until she meets Liara. Krystle is naturally guarded and quick to anger, so meeting someone who seemed to accept her and listen to her without judgment really opens her mind.

By the 2nd game, she wakes up in the cerberus lab with new biotic powers, having previously been a regular foot soldier. This makes her seeth, having someone completely take her agency, agreeing with the illusive man on the surface but plotting against him the entire time. She starts to lean more Paragon, if only to piss him off. She has the biggest smirk on her face when she blows up the collector base.

Biotics or Tech? Oooh, this is hard. Maybe biotics just the tiniest smidge because of Jack/Samara biotic bubble throw during the suicide mission. I don't know if we'll ever get a screen adaptation but THAT is a moment I would pay to see done with a big SFX budget behind it.

Favorite class: Sentinel! I don't know how much this reflects on my class preference in gaming in general, but I love the 'jack of all trades'ness of it. By the time I get an assault rifle, I don't really feel the need for anyone else to make up for something I lack. Also, tech armor in ME2? Where your shields regenerate automatically when it breaks, and the cool down is when you initially active it, instead of when you detonate it? Chef's kiss. I understand why it was nerfed in 3 but I'm still mad.

Favorite companion: Ho boy. This is obviously very difficult to choose but I'm gonna say Miranda. I've always loved and identified with her character, I love the accent, and she's always useful on missions. I was so happy when I learned she could be a squadmate in the armax arena.

Honorable mention to Ashley in ME1. Her character is rarely used to exposition lore, so she just gets to have her personality fleshed out. I don't always agree with her but she does seem genuinely willing to listen. ME3 tosses her out the airlock though; partially because her content was bugged and never restored, leaving her inclusion feel half-baked, and partly because Ash and Kaidan have to be able to serve the same plot function as each other and it negatively affects her character more than his. This could also be intentional on bioware's part, to try to flesh out kaidan's personality and tone down Ashley's as a response to criticisms of them from ME1.

Least favorite companion: Also difficult, because I don't really hate anyone as much as I am just less interested in some. I didn't like Zaeed for a long time, but I think he's much better and really funny in ME3. James was pushed on me too much at the beginning and it made me really dislike him, but I think he's greatly improved and also pretty funny in Citadel DLC. I'm also pretty indifferent to Jacob; I don't think he's a bad character, just disappointing because there was a lot of potential.

Not that every character has to go on and do some grand quest to be interesting, but I don't feel like Jacob every really got a big hero moment like everyone else. He is a very calm and introverted person (imo) who doesn't really share his feelings, so it's always been hard for to to connect with him on anything.

My squad selection: Depends on the game, but it usually involves Garrus lol. Typically it's Liara/Garrus in ME1, Miranda/Garrus for ME2, and Liara/Garrus again in ME3. I am very boring and predictable! If you have any suggestions for me to try out and mix things up, let me know!

Favorite in-game romance: Also depends on the game. ME1 it's Liara, hands down. It was the first game, really the first piece of media, where I was told two women could fall in love and be happy and that was okay. The amount of enlightenment and comfort in figuring out that I was bi these games brought me is kind of wild to look back on.

ME2 is a toss-up between Garrus and Thane. They are both wonderful but in completely different ways. I tend to now romance Thane on characters I don't plan on importing to ME3, or if I do, to just have a really depressed fucking Shepard lol. I hate how much Thane was brushed off, especially if you romanced him.

Other pairings I like: l love Miranda so much, but I'm a gay girl so I ship her and Femshep. Same goes for Tali, Jack, Ashley... damn I'm just really gay for straight girls huh :/

I don't really have any other ships for non-Shep related pairings.

Favorite NPC: Shiala is really cool to me, I wish we got to see her in 3. Emily Wong is also cool, also wish we saw her in 3. There's probably a lot more that when I come across them next I'll be like, "you! I love you! You're my favorite."

Oh also Joker! And EDI! But not together. Idk I feel like ME3 threw a curveball at me with "do you support organic/non-organic relationships?" Like m'am please don't ask me, I accidentally drank turian liquor last year, I'm not qualified to be an expert on this.

Favorite antagonist: Tbh I really dig Saren. I think his reasoning is super fascinating, both to set up how someone who's indoctrinated can rationalize to themselves that they are still in control; and as a foil to Shepard, to show what can happen when you become too isolated and the ends justify the means. I think his VA does a great job of walking the line between desperate survivor and madman. He's also the only antagonist in the trilogy that we ever fight 1 on 1 (ignoring squadmates) and it feels more personal. I think he's such a fantastic foe for the first entry in a trilogy and I don't think he gets enough credit.

Favorite mission: Is it cliche to say the suicide mission? It's honestly close to perfect. The stakes, the sequencing, the cinematics, the score. Everything works so well.

Favorite loyalty mission: Kasumi's and Tali's are really cool, as we all know. Samara's is also cool because it is entirely non-combat based. Shepard has to prove they can accomplish what seems impossible without a gun or biotics.

The confrontation at the end with Morinth always haunts me a little, because they are both right in their own way. Morinth's final line, "and they say I'm the monster", as you let Samara kill her, watch her scrambling backwards in fear... I know that she's a remorseless killer, but it gets me every time.

Favorite DLC: It's Citadel, obviously. Turns out what I really wanted was quality time and a party with all my friends. I love mass effect for many reasons, but simulating friends and affection when I had none has always made me bond to this series like other games don't. Is it sad? Sure! But I don't think love and affection for fictional characters should ever be shameful until it makes you hurt other people.

Control, Synthesis or Destroy? I'd say destroy. If the other options were presented earlier and we had time to stew with it, maybe I'd be more split. But all of this in 5 minutes? It's not like the collector base where the implications are obvious and the choice is just down to what Shepard believes. The 3 choices all seem like space magic out of nowhere, and none of them seem to really offer any insight on what Shepard should believe. So I say destroy, just because it's what Shep has intended and is most consistent with their character and their admiration of Anderson.

Favorite weapon: The spectre level assault rifle in ME1. Never have I felt more powerful.

Favorite place: Idk why but I just thought of the creepy lab with all the scientists during the leviathan DLC. I really love when Mass Effect leans into the Lovecraftian horror aspect of things. Talking to Sovereign and Vigil in ME1 gave me goosebumps my first few playthroughs.

A quote I like: I have hundreds, but the one off the top of my head is, "After time adrift among open stars, along tides of light and through shoals of dust, I will return to where I began." I have a poster of it up on my wall right now!

[felassan]

Choice snippets from AWR in the recent AWR Q&A:

Comments on the process of finding her Inquisitor’s voice for her performance: “Who is she? [...] It was thinking about, how do you keep her grounded, or how do you destabilize her, because she’s not always grounded. She’s flustered and she’s young and she’s learning”

Recording took 1 year. She feels it was an incredible acting job which had a lot of breadth and scope

She was proud to be involved with it due to the inclusivity/inclusion. “Hopefully if you’re a BioWare gamer/fan you’re not too much of an arsehole”

Sam Traynor’s voice is “much younger and much more London” than the Inquisitor’s. The Inquisitor speaks with an RP English voice which is a lot closer to AWR’s natural voice

[light-hearted comment] “I thought the most important question everyone wanted to know was about DA4 but I guess I’m wrong”

“I remember recording all the stuff with Solas and being like ‘[big gasp] noooo...!!’ and Caroline being like ‘[nodding] yeah... yeah I know’.” She remembers that romance because of how it all ends

Iron Bull’s and Solas’ romances are probably her favorites because there’s lots of drama to them and lots to play with in that regard. She also loved IB’s for its hilarity and Solas’ for its heartbreaking-ness 

“Allegra Clark is basically a Disney princess in real life”

“Iron Bull’s safeword, I was like “ka-whatnow”? Sorry, do you mean like ‘banana’ or something?”

She was really glad that the things she said on diversity and inclusion in the N7 Day Cast & Crew Reunion panel touched so many people, because 1) she means it and 2) it’s really important to speak up about this stuff

The 4 Inquisitors didn’t have to stick to the same direction, but they probably did have to stick to the same timeframe. She had initially assumed that the 4 would be quite similar and just the male/female and American/English being the distinctions between them

Voicing the Inquisitor was the biggest role she had done at the time, the first lead-lead role in a triple A-game

Speaking elvish is really hard and takes a very long time to do. She extolled having a patient director for these parts

The angry “Can one thing in this fucking world stay fixed” speech was one of her favorite things to record. She was remembering where she was in her life at the time - really low, struggling with depression, pissed off, angry at the world. “So I came into the booth and saw the text and it was like someone had just ripped off my armor and my bullshit and the text just connected with me. It landed in my guts. Actors are very self-critical when we go back and watch things, but that is like the one thing that I stand by, that I like my performance in that section. It still resonates with me, I think because I was struggling so much at the time. I felt like that as Alix, so to play that as the Inquisitor was really powerful. It was really a moment that hit home for me”

[source]  <-- current rewatch link