#Kal’Reegar

[ghostryders]

your honor that man is an american

[unfair-water-plane]

So one thing that has always made me chuckle in ME2 is the fact that Kal’Reegar is a marine in a Quarian suit. And he fits in with Shepard easily, the same attitude and headspace and cadence (for mShep at least). And I’m sitting here at work and the thought just hit me.

What if that’s because he is a marine in a Quarian suit?

Hear me out. Kal is older than Tali, or at least gives off those vibes, and so he would have been on his pilgrimage a while ago. Like maybe right after first contact. And here are these brand new people who came out of nowhere and had apparently enough fire power and attitude to give the Turians a very brief pause. The whole galaxy wants to know more. And humanity has no idea who is out there, but surely they can’t all be like the creepy bird people?

Cue one very curious Quarian in Shanxi, just as curious an out humanity as humanity is about everything. Meeting with early alliance brass, giving them information common palace to any kid with an extranet feed but wholly new to humanity. He explains that the Quarian don’t have ground forces because they don’t have a ground, and is honest about the geth, and is like ‘so how did you make the Turian Hierarchy freak out?’

And somehow ends up observing basic training, and falls in love with it. To the point where he actively asks to go through marine boot camp in Hanshan, and is just earnest and endearing enough to be allowed. So he goes through it, puts in the work and the blood and sweat and tears and makes the kinds of friends that you sort of have on the Flotilla, but everyone also knows you are all going to separate ships eventually and getting attached is hard.

But the humans will pack bond with a robot vacuum without issue, and when they meet a Quarian who wants to learn and thinks it’s amazing that they stood up to the biggest military in the galaxy running on old fashioned rocketry and spite? The marines adopt him as one of their own. They are brothers, something most single child Quarians have no experience with, and Kal gives it back in spades. He talks like them, fights like them, jokes and learns and is like them.

And when it is over and they graduate, it’s hard to turn down the offer to stay. But humanity respects the loyalty to his people that takes him back to the fleet, and it almost brings him to tears when his graduating class passes a cap for his passage back to the fleet in more comfort than sitting on a box in a volus cargo ship.

It actually brings him to tears when his drill instructor informs him that while it might not be in great shape, Arcturus has authorized them to gift Kal’Reegar with a battered but space worthy corsair and an official greeting from the Systems Alliance to the Migrant Fleet.

The SSV Jarhead is perhaps the best gift anyone is his age range can give to a future captain, though his practical military experience is a gift to the whole fleet. It catapults him through the Quarian military, from for soldier to instructor to commander, and somewhere he hopes that his brothers and sisters are as proud of them as he is of every transmission that makes it back to him.

On Haestrom, that training keeps him alive long enough to watch his squad die, and that cuts like nothing else. But he can’t stop, because the principle is still depending on him, and until his suit gives out he has to fight to her.

But then the voice cuts through the chatter of his own mind, and he *knows it*. Knows the cadence and the phrasing, knows how a human mouth forms the phrases that he has spent years trying to teach. Commander Shepard might not be a marine, but they are a human combat specialist and the fraternity is there.

Maybe it’s just three more people who are going to die for this fools errand, but somehow Kal doesn’t think so. There are two bone deep beliefs that he will carry it’s him to either the home world or the afterlife, and it has always felt appropriate to him that they rhyme. That they sound similar, when he breathes them into the air.

Keelah Salai. Semper Fi.

[messydiabolical]

Nihlus, Jenn Shepard and Kal'Reegar, whom shall herforeto be known as Shreegalicious, having a cute moment! <3 For @stormikins

[calli-sa]

My beloved Kal’Reegar 🥰

I’m sorry it took me so long to finish this!

[gemsbokk]

For the emotion wheel thingy— Kal’Reegar and infatuation??? Pretty please??

He was told to stand down and he did. What a good boy. Thanks anon

also i love drawing quarians because like how the hell do you show emotion without showing the face. fascinating

[the color thingy below in case you wanted to request a character too]

[bed-wed-behead-your-fave]

Kal'Reegar from mass effect

[stormikins]

WIP Wednesday

I’m a week late but hey it’s Wednesday! I was tagged by @swaps55 thank you very much!

No pressure tags: @jtownnn @commander-krios @yellingaboutmasseffect

A little blurb for what I’m doing for Kal’s loyalty quest. It’s been a good exercise to come up with a whole ‘level design’ since I don’t have anything in the game to go off of. Eventually, I’ll figure it out lol

It’s also been fun coming up with Kal’s backstory and figuring how he operated as a bounty hunter

—

The music of the bar washes over them as they enter, lit by low lighting and neon accents along the walls. It’s crowded with people of all species, though she notes there aren’t any other Quarians. Kal leads them through the masses, and after several moments people start to part for them. Stare at them. At him. She resists laying a hand on her pistol.

“They’re staring at you,” she murmurs to him.

“Yeah. It’s been a while since I’ve been back.”

“How long?”

“’Bout five years.”

“And they still remember you?”

He looks over his shoulder at her, and she barely makes out the curve of his smile. “I leave an impression.”

Yes, you do.

[everyonebl00ms]

who is your favorite minor character from Mass Effect and why is it Kal’Reegar?

[lightlykilled]

Kal’Reegar by @herrshepard

[sockodot]

Chapter fourteen is up!! We got Kal realizing his feelings

[sakorb]

“Fight well and fly safe kid”

[dragonflight203]

Mass Effect 2 replay, recruiting Tali:

Illium

-Salarian reproductive contracts are interesting. Good call on Bioware’s part that an asexual species would be pragmatic in reproduction. Of course it’s centered around politics.

-With that said, why did the salarian have his family’s reproduction information in Nassana’s building anyway?

He said that he had just had it restored after a tech attack. Nassan’s buildings are under construction, so I presume the restore did not occur there.

Ergo, he was most likely a worker for Nassana. Considering that the data is vital to his family, why did he take it to work???

-Seryna’s moved on, but left behind a message for you. What’s odd is that the option to delete the message is on the left side of the dialogue wheel, but listening to it is on the right.

The left side of the dialogue wheel is normally for extending conversations. So why have delete on the left?

For that matter, why have the option to delete it at all? Why not just have the option be to listen to it or not?

-Also, this message just once again makes Nassana’s death sound personal to Seryna. Why does Seryna hate her so much? This hatred is too intense for your average shitty boss.

It feels like Seryna’s role was initially different, and the rewrite is why so much around her is odd.

Haestrom

-Going by the planet description, the quarians specifically settled this world to observe the odd behavior of its sun.

So I take it that quarians have always been scientifically inclined. They didn’t just observe it via ships, they settled an entire colony. Not a small investment.

-This is the only quarian architecture we see in the series, and it’s a massive disappointment. It’s just numerous concrete buildings. No interesting shapes, no decorative art, no unique interiors.

Unless the takeway is supposed to be that the quarians are a strictly utilitarian species, this is missed opportunity.

Bioware, please at least try.

-It’s interesting to consider this mission from the geth perspective. They presumably don’t know why the quarians are here, and probably assume they’re scouting the world with plans to retake it. So the geth’s actions are defensive – they’re protecting their home from invaders.

Except, why Haestrom? It’s said repeatedly that Haestrom is deep in geth space. The geth must be so baffled – why are the quarians here and not making a grab at one of the outer worlds or Rannoch?

Then Shepard shows up. Shepard, who Legion is supposed to be keeping an eye on. What is that independent platform doing??? Why didn’t they warn the geth collective that Shepard was coming?

And, well, the geth don’t want to kill Shepard because Shepard is opposed to the Old Machines, but like every organic ever Shepard is shooting them so they need to take Shepard out to defend themselves.

Except, oops, that didn’t work.

And then… the quarians and Shepard pack up and leave.

Do the geth ever learn why the quarians were there? Do they send reinforcements to Haestrom expecting the quarians to make an attempt to retake it?

The geth already consider organics baffling. I’m sure this did not help.

-When you first speak to Kal’Reegar, the renegade subtitles don’t match the spoken dialogue. What caused that difference?

-The geth dragging itself along the floor when you make it past the pillar is sad. And no one even mentions it.

I’m assuming that there are servers on Haestrom so none of the geth truly “die”, but that was still a pitiful sight.

-Why are Tali’s journals scattered all over the place?

Yes, this area was quarian’s base but these logs seem like something that would be stored on omni-tool. Instead Tali’s just… leaving laptops scattered around for no explicable reason. Why does she have multiple laptops?

And they’re not set to autolock after a period of inactivity. Considering that this is a geth-controlled world, you’d think all the tech devices would be set as secure as possible. Maybe to auto wipe if there are too many failed access attempts.

I take it all back. Clearly, the geth learned what was up by just listening to the logs on these laptops.

-Tali specifically asks Shepard to keep “Reegar” alive. Not Kal’Reegar, Reegar.

The two must be close. I would have liked them to get together if you don’t romance Tali.

-And here’s yet another mention of dark energy. It’s destabilizing the world’s sun.

If ME3 had done anything with dark energy, this would have been fantastic foreshadowing.

Instead, it’s one of the most frequently mentioned dropped plot threads I hear about for the series.

Another prime example of how ME3 chose to make ME2 irrelevant. ME2 provided plenty of plot hooks for ME3 – ME3 just disregarded all of it.

Normandy

-Tali assumed Shepard was undercover and is upset to learn they’re not.

Me too, Tali. Would it have killed Bioware to have that as option? Meet Anderson, he tells you to stick with Cerberus and report to him on all you learn?

-She also mentions the experiments Cerberus did with the thorian creepers rachni.

That is such a relief to hear. The first part of ME2 is full of Cerberus apologism, but the cracks start to show the further you go in the game.

Unfortunately, that apologism is so extended (and out of character for many Shepards!) that this criticism comes too late for me to ever feel comfortable when I start another ME2 playthrough.

-If you go paragon, Shepard says they want Tali because Tali is not Cerberus – they want someone they can trust.

This is similar to what they tell Garrus when Garrus is recruited. Shepard is much less comfortable with Cerberus than they let on at the start of the game.

-Jacob’s actually pretty professional through this exchange. Tali makes it very clear she does not like Cerberus, and Jacob acknowledges that she has reason not to and hopes that will change with time. If you go paragon, he offers to get her access to the ship systems.

The infamous exchange when he tells her to introduce herself to Edi does not come off as malicious to me. It’s said in the same tone that he says everything else, and Tali should know the ship has an AI before she leaves. Given the history of quarians with AI, that’s something Shepard should have told her before she agreed to the mission.

For comparison, Jacob can do malice – he was intentionally insulting to Thane when he said he doesn’t trust mercenaries. At worst, his comment to Tali about Edi was thoughtless in its delivery.

Normandy

-The quarian Admiral Board emails Shepard to let them know Tali has officially transferred to their command.

They note that as Shepard is Tali’s former captain, they may have significant influence over her.

Good to see at least one organization in Mass Effect acknowledge the concept of power imbalances.

-Another use of the “just like old times” line comes from Joker. I did not realize just how many times this phrase was used in the series.

Joker: It’s great to see Tali onboard, commander. Just like old times.

-Thane made his first kill at 12. That’s fucked up.

The drell live into their 80s, so I’m assuming their 12 is comparable to a human 12.

As much as Thane says the hanar valued him as a person as well as an investment, they did not value him enough. The compact’s been in place for two centuries; they can’t be so hard up on personnel that they need a 12 year old to go out killing.

And if they are so hard up – maybe the hanar should reconsider what they’re asking from the drell? If what they’re asking is reasonable, why can they find so few drell willing to give it?

-Supposedly anyone can refuse to serve the hanar as part of the compact.

However, Thane started his training at six. Can a six year old really consent?

You can say his parents consented for him. Fine. However, Thane made his first kill at twelve.

Can a twelve year old consent? Is becoming a murderer something your parent can consent to on your behalf?

There was some abuse going on. Only question is if this particular hanar was shady or if it’s institutional.

-Thane emphasizes that the hanar are at a disadvantage because they’re aquatic.

On the surface, that makes sense. The other sapient species are land animals, so the hanar are quite literally fish out of water in society.

However, you know what other space faring species is aquatic?

The leviathans. And they ruled the galaxy for a damn long time. So how did they pull it off, and what do they have that the hanar don’t?

Well, besides some form of indoctrination… I’ll give that to the hanar, mind control is a huge advantage.

Still, the hanar could probably take some lessons from the leviathans on how to get by.

-Tali repeats what’s said frequently through her recruitment mission: Getting the data was a huge sacrifice, and it had better be worth it.

And it’s a damn shame, because in game it’s not. The data makes no difference at all. You don’t even get war assets from it.

This was such a huge missed opportunity in ME3.

-The first investigate option with Tali is to explain what the admiralty board is. It mentions that they deal with major crimes, like treason.

Good to see Bioware laying the groundwork for Tali’s loyalty mission early, if a bit clunkily. ME3, take notes. Foreshadowing is good!

-Love Tali calling bullshit if Shepard says Cerberus is working for them. Explain those listening devices and tracking beacons, then!

Tali has a zero tolerance policy for Cerberus, and she has my full support.

-We finally get some background on the quarian/Cerberus beef, and it is woefully insufficient. And probably long after most players have forgotten it was ever mentioned.

I maintain they could have added a Codex entry for a more detailed explanation.

-If you go paragon, Shepard says they expect Cerberus to betray them. If you go neutral or renegade, Tali warns you that Cerberus will betray you.

The writers upped their game with Tali. Everyone else is getting character focused writing, but Tali’s out here with character AND plot development in her dialogue.

-If you go renegade with Grunt, you can skip getting his loyalty mission entirely. Interesting – if I recall correctly, doing so with others still gives you the mission.

-Prior to puberty, Grunt enjoyed violence but did not feel the need for it.

Now that he’s hit puberty, he apparently craves it.

And krogans… never lose that. They just learn to direct it. However, older krogan generally seem far more chill.

If this is triggered by puberty, I like to think that it’s hormonally driven. Krogan hormones go wild in puberty, and it makes them excessively violent. As their hormones settle down, they mellow out.

-Krogans don’t trust doctors after the genophage.

Reasonable. Look at what Mordin gets up to. If that were my experience with doctors, I’d let them know the bare minimum too.

Although realistically speaking, the salarians undoubtedly have all the information they learned prior to the krogan rebellions backed up in multiple locations.

-If you go neutral, Grunt says that the krogan doctors don’t leave Tuchanka.

Again, reasonable. Still, given that most krogans offworld are mercenaries, I’m sure krogan doctors offworld could find employment.

Codex:

-The fate of the drell’s homeworld Rakhana has obvious parallels to Earth. Industrialization led to environment issues which eventually resulted in it being unable to support the drell.

When you speak to Thane, he implies that humanity was close to the same fate, but since they achieved spaceflight they were able to create colonies and narrowly avoid it.

-Many high ranking hanar are supposedly inseparable from their drell servants. I presume this is a retcon, as we see many hanar on the presidium in ME1 but no drell.

-Interestingly, I don’t recall seeing any hanar and drell together in ME3 either. We see a lot of the presidium and Citadel night life, so you’d think there could be a pair or two in the background.

-Do the hanar not have any colonies? All references to them are them being on their homeworld, Kahje. Drell are supposedly there or integrated into the society of other species.

If they don’t have colonies, why not? There must be some worlds out there with oceans that meet their needs.

Do they not have enough political capital? The elcor are minor, but they have colonies. Is it a religious thing? I presume some hanar live on the Citadel.

-If the hanar don’t have colonies, I think it’s safe to say the drell don’t. Which is a shame, because even one would probably make a huge difference to their future.

[messydiabolical]

Happy lovey smoochy requests, all in one edition! Lots of Mass effect loving (and one sneaky star wars). Thank you to @bluerose5 @angstyastro @stormikins @jtownnn @spookyvalentine @jadevakarian @yellingaboutmasseffect Aritier and Kiba for entrusting me with your Sheps/headcanons <3 A couple notes: Tali design based on requesters headcanons and my interpretation of those. (I haven't actually made my own headcanon yet- maybe one day!) Bottom right are both Shepards! metaverse baybeee

[thievinghippo]

Mass Effect fics I desperately want to read but will never write

Engineer Adams/Karin Chakwas slow burn romance - they become fast friends in ME1, bonding over being the ‘adult in the room’ and making fun of Pressly. Then share their grief over Commander Shepard’s death. Followed by a schism. Chakwas joining Cerberus was a line Adams can’t cross. To meeting up again on the Normandy at the beginning of ME3. Supporting each other all through that game, then finally getting together before the final mission

Zaeed/Jack indifferent friends to friends with benefits to ‘aw fuck I caught feelings’ - I picture Jack walking into Zaeed’s room during ME2 and basically being like ‘wanna fuck?’ And Zaeed going ‘Don’t have anything better to do, why not?’ Then they start making fun of everyone else on the Normandy especially Garrus and Shepard because those two nerds deserve each other. Then losing track of each other when the Reapers invade. Jack realizing that she really misses Zaeed but tells herself that it’s just because he’s not a bad lay. Zaeed realizing he misses Jack, but decides it’s just because she keeps things interesting. Then during the Citadel DLC, after they’ve sobered up, at like 5 in morning when it’s quiet and no one else is awake, they hold hands to watch the sunrise and are both incredibly embarrassed about it

Kal’Reegar/Tali’Zorah epistolary fic with bonus mistaken identity - After Tali joins the Normandy in ME2, she and Kal continue to write messages. Some short, some long. After ME2, she joins the fleet, and they’re able to spend a bit of time together. They fall in love, and after the Reapers invade, link suits for the first time. Once Tali rejoins the Normandy in ME3, they write more messages. Tali is absolutely heartbroken when she hears of Kal’s death only to learn several months later that he’s actually alive. Yay!

Helena Blake walking away from crime and setting herself up as a social worker on Omega. Does she deal with Archangel at all? I want to read about all of this

Reyes/the other Ryder in fake!dating and revenge becomes true love - Reyes Vidal is determined to get to get revenge on Pathfinder Scott Ryder after he lost Kadara to Sloane Kelly. So he decides to get close to the other Ryder, Sara. Sara wants to show the Initiative what she can do after humanity settles on Meridian. Somehow they meet cute (on purpose, totally planned by Reyes) and he starts to woo her. Somehow, his meticulous plan goes awry when he realizes that he’s truly falling for the other Ryder

Vorn/Kesh love at first sight and proving worthy of the one you love - I picture Vorn falling HARD for Kesh when they first meet. But he wonders why would she ever look at a botanist? Especially with so many warriors interested in her. So he courts her the only way he knows how. With science

Needless to say, if you know of a fic that meets any of the above criteria, please send me a link. :D

[max--phillips]

Kal’Reegar can still get it

[jtownnn]

WIP whenever~~

@shivunin tagged me in WIP Wednesday but time got away from me, so here is a section of the next chapter of my garrus/kal'reegar fic --

tagging @stormikins / @zombolouge / @zet-sway / and YOU, the person reading this <3

The part of Garrus Vakarian that had once been Archangel would have called his new attitude  “giving up”. 

Archangel had taught him a lot of things. How to survive, at first, when the days had been agonizingly long and the nights were good for nothing but sharpening his anger into a knife that he couldn’t stop from biting into his skin. Later, when survival had morphed into the closest thing that Omega offered to stability, Archangel had taken that knife and pointed it outwards. He had given Garrus a righteous mission, a spirits-given reason to roll out of bed in the morning and stay out of bed until nightfall. 

He was starting to think that Archangel was a little bit of an asshole. 

Because the more time that passed away from that hollowed-out shell of a rock, the more that Garrus was able to recognize the value in the things that Archangel had deemed extraneous. His team had always been more than something to protect; they were his friends. Real friends, who showed him trust and generosity when he had been able to offer up little more than cold loyalty and an occasional home-cooked meal. 

And then there was Sidonis. In spite of the way it had ended – that precarious journey from one time lovers to uneasy friends had been agonizing – it had been worth it. It had all been worth it, every single moment of laughter and levity, no matter how loud the voice in the back of his mind tried to cry out that he was giving in to distractions. 

Garrus thought the distractions were worth it. There was more to life than the bare minimum, it turned out. Giving up, giving in, surrendering — it didn’t matter what it was or what he called it. The truth was, it was much more enjoyable to be Kal’Reegar’s friend than it was to be his enemy.