#N7 day 2024

[ashalle-art]

[point-maitimo]

A little late, but Happy N7 Day to you guys! And while my thoughts and time are now completely consumed by the new Dragon Age, Mass Effect will also forever hold a special place in my heart 💙

[briarfox13]

Happy N7 Day everyone!! ❤️💙

[keriweird]

Happy N7 Day!

Well, maybe not so happy for Major Coats in the fight for earth.

This year I've been thinking about the untold stories of those that held the line on Earth. And my love for a very under utilized character, Major Coats. Man, the terror of seeing your comrades fall and knowing every husk you take down might very well be one of your own, nevermind one of those you're sworn to protect...? Someone you ate with, lived with, and fought alongside through this nightmare? Oof. Thanks @threewhiskeylunch for the inspiration. And thanks to my friends for cheering me on to get this piece done in time.

Coloured pencil on 160g mixed media paper

Based on the Mass Effect 3 trailer version of Coats, of course.

[ooachilliaoo]

Mars

Their battlefield rhythm was all wrong.

He felt it in every step they took on Mars, in every word, in the tight, clipped, tone of her voice, and in the way that she never quite met his eyes. He felt it in the fact that almost everything she said was an order, and in the absence of their usual banter. He felt it in the way that she had to explicitly state every formation, every movement, in that by-the-book way used by all marines, and finally, he felt it deep in the core of his being.

It was wrong, all so wrong.

He knew it was a defence mechanism, this distance between them. Her defence mechanism. What he didn’t know was what she was defending against.

It could just be because of Earth, but it could also be because she didn’t trust him, or wasn’t sure if he trusted her. It could be because she didn’t want to risk bringing up the past in front of James. It could be any number of things. Once upon a time, he would have been able to look at the set of her shoulders and know.

The fact that he couldn’t anymore was tearing him apart…

And then there was Cerberus.

Here. On Mars.

She said that she didn’t know why, but Anderson’s warning was ringing in his head, and somehow he couldn’t bring himself to trust that she didn’t know why.

Besides, if she wanted to be all business, then he could do the same. He was supposed to be doing the same. This was, after all, his job and the war was too important for him not to do it properly. At least, that was what he told himself as he demanded a straight answer from her. But maybe what he’d really been looking for was a glimpse of the old Shepard. The one he had loved.

He saw her later, his Shepard, when she smiled at Liara. Not him. Liara. It was Liara who made her shoulders relax. Liara who was forgiven for not visiting with a shrug and a smile.

He hated that she wasn’t that Shepard around him anymore, and yet he was glad, because the difference made his suspicions easier to justify.

Read the rest on AO3

[afragmentcastadrift]

On many an N7 day, I've tried to post something positive, something hearkening to the hope for a better future. It's a harder note to hit this year, for many reasons.

What I have learned though, not just from the stories that thrill and inspire, but from years of observation and just getting through shit, is that humans are profoundly capable of accomplishing great things, of being kind, of building community, of being creative and innovative and above all, stubbornly courageous. In looking to the future, it may be challenging to see the days ahead as illuminated, as promising, but the future is not set, and with rolled up sleeves, with grit and gumption, with friends beside us and stories to savor, we can move forward and be an unwavering force for something good.

I lack the eloquence (and the spoons, frankly) to craft something to assuage all the fears and uncertainty, but I do believe we can and will get through the darkness.

Happy N7 Day. Keelah Se'lai.

[argentasterdisaster]

Happy Belated N7 day! It's N7+14! Galaxy Nova 💙💙💙

[silurisanguine]

Late N7 day post. But this game series, for all the issues I have with the ending of the original trilogy, brought me into a fandom where I have made so many friends and allowed my creativity to grow.

Through cosplay -

Through fanart-

Also in written form - The Hidden King Upon his Mountain - Reyes Vidal / Aeryn Ryder fanfic.

[natalyelle]

Happy N7 Day! </3

[strawberrykidneystone]

IM JUMPING OFF THE WALLS IM SO EXCITED FOR N7 DAY

[litlunacy]

I don't have anything finished for N7 Day, but I do have this wip I've been chipping at for a while. Takes place immediately post Destroy ending. ~1200 words

It's deathly silent.

The quiet settles over her like a heavy blanket, thick enough to be suffocating. Though, that might be because the last time her world was this dark and silent she had been gasping for air in the vacuum of space. She remembers how her lungs had burned while she thrashed uselessly, panicking in a way she hadn't since she was a teenager watching her brother get shot in the face.

That same panic is lurking at the edges of her mind now, waiting to take over. But she won't let it. She can't let it. There are too many people waiting for her to come back. Friends, people she cares about and who care about her. A lover who would follow her to the end of the world, and practically has. A wild wrecking ball of an adopted son she has to keep pulling out of trouble. 

She is Commander Lorelei Fucking Shepard, and she did not save the whole damn galaxy just to leave it behind.

So she keeps calm. She takes slow, deep breaths to keep her heart rate steady. The wound on her side is still oozing blood between her fingers, and she tries to keep pressure on it as best she can. Her entire body hurts, but she's slightly more concerned about the parts she can't feel. Maybe they're just numb from blood loss, or maybe she actually lost them in the explosion, but she tries not to think about it. 

Instead, she thinks about her crew, her strange little family that she's built for herself. She thinks about Liara's gentle smile and Jack's rabid grin. Grunt's throaty laugh and Wrex's bone-crushing hugs. Traynor's babbling and her frightening dedication to strategy games. She thinks about Joker, and knows that he got them all out, somehow. She thinks about her hamster. Somebody better be feeding the little furball. And the fish.

But most of all, she thinks about Garrus. She thinks about his icy blue eyes, and the way they go all soft and warm when he looks at her. She thinks about the feel of his talons gently carding through her hair. His wry, sarcastic humor. His voice. The feel of his keelbone pressed against her spine, his thrumming subvocals lulling her to sleep. 

God, what she wouldn't give for that right now. She's so, so tired...

But she can't sleep. Not yet. Somebody will be looking for her, and she needs to stay awake. As long as she's awake she can remind herself to breathe. As long as she can breathe, she can get back to her people. Her family.

So Commander Shepard lays there in the rubble, and she breathes.

***

Most of the krogan teams were still on Earth when the Crucible fired. Wrex had been hip-deep in husks, blasting one to bits only for three more to take its place when the shockwave had rippled across the galaxy. 

And all the husks had dropped dead.

It's now too many hours and one cramped shuttle ride later, and Wrex is leading the search team combing the wreckage of the Citadel. Officially, they're searching for any survivors. People who were on the station when the Reapers had dragged it to Earth. Civilians, officials, even the damn Keepers need to be saved if they want any hope of getting the Citadel up and running again. 

But personally? Wrex is looking for Shepard. Wrex is only looking for Shepard, and anyone who has a problem with it can talk to his fucking shotgun. 

Thankfully, nobody has a problem with it. 

When he finds a corpse, he ignores it. There's nothing to be done for the dead and not enough time to waste on them. When he finds someone alive, but not Shepard, he calls for a medevac and moves on. There aren't many alive. 

He digs through piles of rubble, shifting hunks of metal and stone that other races would need machines for. There's smoke and the smell of blood in the air. The joy of victory is soured by the still-rising body count.

But he hopes. He has to. If anyone could survive this, it's Shepard. She's already come back from the dead and survived what should have been a suicide mission. His friend is still here. She has to be.

"I hate this," comes a grumble from behind him. Wrex knows that it's Shepard's whelp without even turning around. "It's too quiet. Makes me antsy. Like I wanna kill something, but there's nothing left to kill."

Wrex snorts. "It's called worry, kid. And it'll eat you up like fear if you let it, so stop worrying and keep looking." He moves some twisted hunks of metal out of the way and walks through the new hole. Grunt follows.

"Krogan don't worry. We shoot things, and then we die. We don't worry. We get angry. We get violent." He kicks the discarded scrap of metal as if to prove his point.

The older krogan heaves a tired sigh. "You've got a lot to learn, kid. Don't pull this tough-guy bullshit with me right now. You're worried about Shepard."

"Shepard is fine. She's here somewhere, and she's fine. Why would I be worried about her?"

Wrex whirls around and grabs him by the headplate. "Because we're all worried about her! I am worried about her! She's my friend--"

"And she's my Battlemaster!" Grunt shouts, wrenching his head free and throwing an angry punch that Wrex easily catches.

"Then you need to channel this worry like you do your battle rage. Focus yourself so we can find her." He shoves Grunt's hand away and keeps walking. But the next words out of the kid's mouth make him stop cold.

"And what if we don't find her?"

Wrex doesn't answer right away. He balls his hands into fists, biotics fizzling as he resists the urge to throw the tactless youngster. Of course he's aware of the possibility. He's not stupid. But he also knows that what-ifs won't help anyone right now. This is a rescue mission, not a retrieval, and this whelp had better get that through his head.

"We will find her," he growls, though his traitorous brain adds an unbidden dead or alive in his head. "And when we get back to Tuchanka, we'll build her the biggest fucking monument the galaxy has ever seen. Now let's go."

"How can you--"

"Shut up!"

Grunt narrows his eyes and makes to grab Wrex by the shoulder. "You can't tell me to shut up, you old fossil."

Wrex slaps a hand over his mouth. "I said shut up. I thought I heard something."

Grunt grumpily shoves the hand off his mouth, but stays quiet. He turns his head, straining to hear...anything.

The dead silence is unnerving. It reminds him of the tank. If Shepard were here, she'd be making noise. In all the time he's known her, Shepard was always making noise. Humming to herself, tapping her foot, muttering under her breath as she scoped out a target with her sniper rifle. The woman even made noise in her sleep.

Grunt hates this silence. The ash and dust floating in the air. The smell of burning and death. They just won the greatest war in galactic history, but this wreckage smells like loss.

[commanderalenko-ao3]

Next to him, Wrex sniffs. His lip curls. “You’re worse than a couple’a pyjak in mating season.” Kaidan closes his locker harder than he means to. “I don’t know what you mean.” “Yeah, you do. I can smell it all over both of you,” Wrex huffs. “Could you take it outta the shuttle bay at least?”

[7classyantiquestores]

Seatbelts everyone!

Happy N7 Day from me and the Frizz, my scheduled replay of Mass Effect but this time I'm modding it and taking absolutely nothing seriously.

(I owe the idea to a rather unhinged tiktok video I reblogged awhile ago, so, props I guess.)

[keriweird]

For anyone interested, this was my process for creating my coloured pencil N7 day piece of Major Coats and his old squaddie.

I like sketching in procreate for ease of adjustments and edits. Then I print and copy it over to better paper with then old school improvised light box (taping the paper to a window during daylight hours and tracing that shit). I was feeling inspired to start the husk first, then I expanded from there. Once I had the majority of my colour laid down, I went in blending with mineral spirits and qtips. Then I decided to force myself to do a background and I still don't love it but I was ready to be done hehe. Then I finally stopped putting off doing the rifle and slapped that in. Touched up the white in procreate because I didn't feel like rushing out last minute to pick up a white gel pen.

[itsacuriousthing]

happy n7 day pals! ❤

i used to try and make something every year for n7 day, whether it was art or a sappy post or something, but i've had...no energy lately so i've got nothing chief

it is, however, worth noting that baby 18 year old me picked up this series for the first time 10 years ago (almost to the day), and it truly blew my mind, put everything i'd learned up until that point into question, and i came out of it still confused but 100% more gay

i met my partner 7+ years ago and the thing that got us talking in the first place was mass effect

now we live together and have a cat

live your gay bioware dreams friends <3 i wish many more N7 days and mass effect playthroughs to people like me who might be questioning themselves and for it to give them the kick they need

[marie-ao3]

ready for N7 day !