#Sense and Salarian Ability

[arts-butthound]

Sense and Salarian Ability, phase 1

I did it! I fricken did it. Finally...Don't mind me if I go collapse into a heap. Maybe get in a good cry. But the last two chapters are done, after six months.

Chapter 19 and the Cresendo

I leave my friends to your speculation. I ask for my readers forgiveness.

see you in phase 2

[omniblades-and-stars]

Aelin leaned up against the door jam, his tight smile remained. Aelin cocked his head to the side and crossed his arms. He made a disapproving tutting sound, feigning pity. “I know I’m pretty, but there has to be a better way of getting my attention, Tanlin. It’s almost the kiddies’ bedtime after all. You’re just embarrassing yourself now.”

From Sense and Salarian Ability

Portrait I did of Aelin, @arts-butthound's wonderful brain child. Go read her story, I am demanding it!

[sparatus]

Sparatus? 🙂

🥺👉👈

Sexuality Headcanon: painfully bisexual. somebody please stop surrounding this old man with hot people his heart can't take it. also very much not xeno in the slightest

Gender Headcanon: turian gender stuff is complicated and doesn't fit into human binaries, so while he's generally understood to be and is fine with being perceived as a cis man because he's perfectly happy with the body he was born with, a closer approximation is masculine nonbinary, just... not the way humans understand nb to be

A ship I have with said character: i mean. [gestures vaguely to entire internet presence] do i even have to specify teia at this point.

aside from the obvious, sparatus/quentius is also a fave, i do so love boss and loyal dragon dynamics, and the two of them are that plus a flip side out of work where they're just best mean girl friends hanging out being catty old men together. plus for bad end it makes it so much juicier that not only was sparatus quentius's friend but also a sometimes-lover, bad end hurts but it's so so deliciously messy

plus also @thetrashbagswasteland put sparatus/desolas in my head and it bops around from time to time, just like, suave but chaotic military man with the personality of a mob boss "you wanna fuck me so bad it makes you stupid" vs prickly by-the-book law boy "i hate that you're actually as charming as you think you are you charismatic asshole" i think it would be fun okay someday ill write it teia and abrudas can also get in on it for fun or they can bang on the side it's fine

A BROTP I have with said character: sparatus & quentius, for reasons listed above. the more i dabble around the more sparkyteia and quentilea are becoming just a platonic polypile, oopsie, they're all good friends. also quite fond of sparatus & saren, because saren is very well-trusted and the council's golden boy and not every spectre is going to have shepard's experience with the council so it only makes sense for saren to have that sort of loyal right hand kinda dynamic with sparky. sparatus & valern is also fun for my usual political intrigue reasons but we don't have time to get into the complicated bullshit fueling the turian-salarian alliance rn

A NOTP I have with said character: sparatus/shepard, for reasons i should hope are obvious by now. guys idk how to explain this but sometimes characters just hate you without secretly wanting to fuck you. he has legitimate criticisms of shepard and ill die on this hill, there's no ust he isn't into you and mad about it he just doesn't like your fucking attitude. and you can't convince me your shepard somehow turns it around into genuine love, i don't fucking believe you, it's ooc some characters will simply never grow to truly Like you more than respecting your ability and that's fucking okay and normal

also sparatus/saren, because while i adjust saren's age in my work to bring him up to 70 in me1 (and closer to sparky, 76) the main works i know of for that ship have sparatus more than twice his age (in his 60s while saren was EIGHTEEN) and taking advantage of the age gap and saren's emotional turmoil after his brother's death to groom him into the perfect partner, which... oh my god no. and it was presented as romantic! as saren's first real love before nihlus!! i am calling the police!! and pretty much everyone ive seen who talks about that ship got it from that fic so. yeah that author is my parasocial enemy

A random headcanon: despite how closely they have to work together, and sparky being a prosecutor pre-politics (thus allegedly on the side of the cops), he and pallin have a rather... antagonistic relationship, mostly because of how sparky responds to pallin's complaints about spectres ("i'll let them know" which usually means nothing will be done and the spectres will continue treating civil misdemeanors and traffic violations like a game) but also because sparky himself has personal beef with like 7 different prominent cops, is from a "fuck the cops they're imperial shills we can police ourselves" background, and is so so good at being pedantic and annoying when he's feeling petty which is any time pallin isn't talking about an actual serious issue. he wants pallin to stop bothering him about traffic stops. pallin wants to fuck the smug look off his face. they're not allowed to have face-to-face meetings without quentius present because they WILL go straight to childish squabbling.

General Opinion over said character: he's my grandpa. he's Me. nobody in this fandom deserves him y'all need to remove the main character pov blinders and think about shit from his perspective and stop just assuming he's racist and stupid because he tells you no. the man has his position for a reason, and if you listen to what he's actually saying he's DEEPLY empathetic and concerned with how the public at large will be affected, he fucking cares about people it's canon it's canon it's CANON he literally goes behind his colleagues' backs to try to help you save palaven and stop the war right away that's not what a selfish heartless bureaucrat who only cares about his own small circle does i have ESSAYS dammit

.... oops i care about this old man So Much

send me a character

[melanie-ohara]

Hey could you please tell us about your OC Dela?

I don't want to give away too much of her backstory because a lot of it is spoilers for The Story, but here's what isn't classified:

In 1975 (Systems Alliance Calendar), an abandoned shuttle was discovered by salarian wildcat miners orbiting the planet Raisaris.

There was nothing left on board but a crib containing a screaming infant asari. The salarians took her in, naming her Dela Raisaris after her unofficial homeworld, and she lived with the family for two salarian generations - over 60 years - and then moved to Illium to work first as a security agent for a transportation firm and eventually as a dancer in one of Nos Astra's many bars.

In 2076, Dela was involved in a [REDACTED] and left Illium with [CLASSIFIED]. They travelled together for half a century, during which time Dela expanded her biotic skills, her impressive piloting ability, learned to fight with a traditional asari sword, and [REDACTED].

After the tragic [REDACTED], Dela became a mercenary/sex worker, travelling all over the galaxy in search of purpose; or failing that (in her own words) 'a good fight or a good lay'.

In 2177, she was working with a small asari mercenary band subcontracted by the Eclipse Mercenary Corporation to fight in the Anhur rebellions against a consortium of batarian and human slavers known as the Na'hesit. When she learned that her companions were planning to switch sides for better pay, Dela assassinated their leader and sabotaged their ship. In exchange for a clean slate, she gave their location to an asari huntress team and traded in her mercenary identity for a military uniform.

After basic, she was assigned to the Council Demilitarization Enforcement Mission in the krogan DMZ as an interceptor fighter pilot. Only her unusual surname suggests there's more to her story than any other maiden serving on the turian ship THV Severum, but nobody asks and she doesn't tell.

Dela Raisaris is sharp-witted and funny, with a bawdy sense of humour that gets her reprimanded by her superiors, along with her cheerful disregard for protocol and preference for reckless flying. Quick with her affections, both emotional and physical, Dela is very popular with her crewmates - though her open sexuality often sees her entangled in love triangles. Despite her platonic love for her friends, Dela has had very few long-term relationships and nothing more serious than flings since she joined the asari military.

- REPORT FILED BY VERAPIA BESCUS, ST&R, 2184 -

[rawliverandcigarettes]

Ask Game : ALL OF THEM !!!!!! Or, perhaps slightly more realistically, 💭 ! 👓! 🚀 ! 💥! and/or [INSERT PREFERENCE HERE] ! (they're all free choice, answer as many or as little as you like)

Hahaha yes that would be maybe A Lot (though I did have fun, these are good asks! I might answer more at some point!!)

I have already replied to some of them here!

💭 What inspires you and your writing?

I always found the "inspiration" questions to be really hard to answer, because I'm not always 100% sure what qualifies as inspiration to be honest? If I had to answer beyond the obvious (just living one's life, watching others live theirs, get involved with other people's art, learn cool facts about being alive and how we made it obtuse and complicated), I think my thing is to notice intersections, heighten them and push them in a direction that I can then observe? I think it's why I really like fan creation: there isn't the arbitrary part of making things up that could be literally anything, it's more about reckoning with particular feelings and exploring where they come from and what they mean. I think I create in a very... reactory way, if that makes sense? Which sounds awful put like that, but oh well!!!!

👓 What helps you focus when you write?

Two things!

Music and a drink of some kind (generally tea or coffee, but can be a nice cold something, or even alcohol in rare occasions)

NO INTERNET.

This second part is so crucial. As time goes by, I think I have a fairly decent amount of suspicion that I fall somewhere on the ADHD spectrum, and so the internet simply murders my ability to focus. I didn't use to be so bad, but two burnouts before hitting 25 years old will mess up a brain real good, and now I need my way out of the interwebs to do anything remotely productive.

I am so worried about the inevitable moment where my old phone dies and I *have* to get a smartphone.

🚀 Do you like to outline your fic first or create as you go?

It mostly depends on the story. If it's a short piece, I either don't outline or outline in extremely broad strokes.

When it comes to longer pieces, I do outline pretty extensively! I have developed a method that works extremely well for me and involves some sort of table that recaps what's going on in a given chapter, but also notes any crucial information we're supposed to learn regarding main character arcs, main plot and subplots. I only get to the table phase once I have a seriously good idea of what the story will be, which usually takes several notebooks to iron out.

Even then, the outline is pretty loose, and I know I will make adjustments while putting the actual words on the page --there's always something I forgot to take into account, or a narrative opportunity I didn't realize was there to begin with.

(also sometimes I forget what I put in my outline and remembers too late oops)

💥 What is one canon thing that you wish you could change?

Oh nooooooo this is so hard!!! And what is hard about it is to only pick one!!!

So I'm trying to pick the one that would have the most positive impact overall, and that reflects my arbitrary bias the least (it still will, but I'm not picking something like "more salarians", which for sure would be great for me but wouldn't do much to enhance the story as a whole)

So. I love Mass Effect 2, I really do. It's my favorite of the trilogy, mostly thanks to its bold narrative design that was pretty revolutionary at the time, and its cast of amazing characters. But... I think the main plot kind of makes very little sense, and its connection to the rest of the trilogy is tenuous at best.

The thing I would change is that instead of Collectors reaping out humans colonies to make a Super Human Reaper, which is pretty stupid, Collectors are still there (and maybe still kidnapping colonists why not), but they are used as an inside job inside the Terminus Systems to stirr trouble and mess things up between different factions, increasing tensions between Council Space and the Terminus Systems before the invasion strikes. We can keep the whole game pretty similar, except that the danger is less in humans disappearing (which... ok mary sues why is it always about you) and more in "we are eating our own instead of being united against the Reapers when they do arrive". We could get a great peak of who are these people opposing the Council and why, and get a sense of the "dark" side of the Milky Way --which I think was always the intention, though it got a little muddied-- and why it still deserves to be saved. We can keep everything: the suicide mission, us being allied with Cerberus and questionning the Alliance, the diverse perspective of all these suicidal outcasts... And!!! That would justify giving depth to batarians, I did it, I made batarians part of my change without making it seem as if the one thing I would change is to write batarians in a better way!!!

(my other pick for those who are curious would be to rework Priority: Thessia and make it less sexist. I really think just reworking this mission would make ME3 overall less weirdly bitter --though toning down the sexism in the entire game also works)

And I'm throwing a wildcard generated by a number generator for good measure:

🎁 Have a piece of a WIP you want to share?

That one's pretty easy! Here's a snippet from The Empire of Preys, from the perspective of the one and only, our favorite eugenist, racist and misandrist space frog: Dalatrass Linron!!!

(it's not edited, first draft, etc, thread with caution --also Dalatrass Linron's first name is Nemore)

Nemore ignored the alien’s brutish sturdiness to return the salarian his defiant gaze; a pastel shade that looked like a discreet blush, an unbecoming secret. He was young, his clothes baggy and practical and unkempt; used to run away from the local city watch, his angles sharpened by the toll of constant revolt, or the streets, or long-term overdose. She wondered whether his mother knew where he was, if she knew about the imprint that krogan claws left on his skin and how it was now overpowering the imprinting on her; whether these claws ever dug deep enough to soil her son’s blood.

She clenched her teeth. Her crusade had never been about saving everyone –especially not souls desperate to sink themselves back to lower cycles. The Salarian Union was a collective struggle, but collective didn’t imply all-encompassing. Nemore was well aware of the sacrifices left to make. All those wayward girls and motherless boys; tragically lost, incapable of being saved.

She wrenched her attention away from the nauseating pair, and back at the crowd chanting her name.

“They’re too close,” Nemore murmured to her security chief. “Get them away from my people.”

Thank you so much, those are really fun!

From this ask game!

[luciferbecons]

So I wrote my first fic. It’s a shakarian fic filled with angst. Thank you to @that-wildwolf for beta reading it.

CW: hospitals, depression and death.

But no words came

I had never seen Garrus like this before. He seemed desolate and hollow. As we sat in the shuttle on the way back to the Normandy, he just sat there. Leaning forward, his elbows resting on his knees, his hands trying to hide his face. But I could see. I could see the dead pan look on his face, totally devoid of any emotion.

But I knew that emotion all too well. When you’re so overwhelmed that your mind just… stops. Stops emotion, stops thinking, stops living. You become robotic. Going about your daily routine as if on a timer. Just so you can get to the end of the day to try to sleep, but each day is the same. Wake up, eat, mission, eat, paperwork, eat, sleep.

But I could see something else in Garrus in that moment. I could sense anger. His mandible twitching ever so slightly. He did it always when about to curse someone out.

But no words came.

I think that was the worst part: the silence on the journey back. Just the sound of the shuttle’s engine humming.

I decided to give him space for the rest of the day. We had a debriefing and then paperwork. I was hoping during that paperwork he would just unleash that fury that I saw twitching to get out onto his mattress or pillows. Anyway, I had paperwork to do too. Miranda always asked us to write the mission from our perspectives for the reports, and wasn’t going to get on her bad side. Only a fool would do that when she reported back to the Illusive Man.

- - -

As I put down my pen I realised the time. Shit, I was late for dinner. I didn’t bother tidying, what’s the point. I wasn’t one for company, and a clean desk always seemed a little too clinical.

I scanned the room as I entered the mess hall, looking for someone easy to talk to.

Mordin, no, too cerebral, a conversation with Mordin made my brain short circuit before a word ever left my lips. Second guessing everything, I was about to say to make sure I didn’t look dumb or not staying caught up with the Salarian’s speech pattern. It had always been an issue. The lack of filler words made my brain want to fill them in so I was always running a few words behind.

Maybe Zaeed, pass, he gloated about his military operations in the Terminus Systems. The glory days. Those days seemed to be mostly behind him now. His reactions were still as sharp as his aim, but on his down time you could see time catching up with him. While not old, it seemed like desk life was slowly getting nearer. He’d been one hell of a merc and it was taking its toll. Knowing Zaeed and his dislike of paperwork though, he’d be a merc for the rest of his life.

Then my eyes fell on him. Garrus, sat all alone in the corner, pushing his food around like a kid forced to eat their vegetables.

I hadn’t even looked at what I had selected for dinner.

I looked down at my tray. Some form of creamy rice with uneven cubes of meat and thick slices of mushrooms. The chef had clearly tried to mimic a risotto, and it certainly looked better than his previous attempts.

“Food not good?” I said, sitting down opposite Garrus. He didn’t look up, instead grunting a sound that could be taken as confirmation. I put a spoonful of risotto in my mouth. Damn, it’s crunchy. Can’t even cook rice right. It’s not that difficult to tell if it’s done. But The Illusive Man didn’t hire him for his cooking ability.

“What did you get?” I asked, trying my best to break the silence. Not that the silence was an issue, we’ve shared silences deeper than conversations. Raising his head a little, his eyes met mine. And in that moment, I saw his emotions laid bare. The eyes of a broken man who couldn’t even comprehend how broken he truly was. I wish the world was kinder to you. I wish your past had been easier. I hope I can make your future something to look forward to. Hell, I’m going to give it my best shot.

Garrus’s omnitool beeped. I knew that sound all too well. His calibrations were done.

“Follow me,” he growled. We scraped our trays of food in the bin before we left, it seemed many others had the same idea. We knew better than to leave our trays on the table, Gardner would try to serve it to us again.

We walked in silence to the battery. Thankfully, the majority of the people who normally would be milling about, that would interrupt us, were in the mess. As we got to the battery, Garrus started typing away as if I wasn’t even there waiting for an answer.

“You know you can talk to Chambers if you’re feeling depressed…”

“To be clear, I’m not depressed. I’m reacting appropriately to the world around me,” Garrus snapped.

“And what world is that, Garrus?” I snapped back. “I’m sorry, but I can’t stand to see someone I care about so hurt. Please tell me what’s going on. Maybe I can help?”

“No. No one can help, that’s the problem. No one knows what it’s like, okay? I’ve got to deal with this alone.” His voice trembled, on the verge of breaking.

“Maybe I can help, we won’t know unless you share it with at least someone. Please, please, I just want to help,” I begged.

“It’s…” He cleared his throat. “It’s my mother, Shepard.” I knew what words were coming, I could tell from the trembling in his voice, but I knew he had to say them. It was part of the process his mind had to go through. “She’s dying,” he managed to squeak out.

“Garrus…” I lifted a hand towards his cheek. “I’m so sorry.” He turned his face away from my hand. “I know the pain of losing a loved one, Garrus. I know your pain.”

“No Shepard, you don’t know, your family were killed. Mine is slowly slipping away in front of me!” Garrus screamed. All I could do was stand there bewildered. Garrus stared at me, my face must have shown my shock at the boldness of his statement.

“Spirits, Shepard, I’m so sorry. I don’t know what came over me.” His face showed his humiliation. “I’m so sorry, that was uncouth of me.”

“What’s wrong with her?” I managed to say in an attempt to move on.

“Corpalis Syndrome, they say they can treat her. But it’s not going to be cheap and it’s not guaranteed…” His voice trailed off.

“To work?… Garrus, if there’s a chance, we have to try.”

“Shepard, I appreciate you trying, but I can’t afford it. That’s the problem. I have no choice, not on a vigilante's salary. Not to support myself too.” The pain in his voice was deafening. “My family lives reasonably comfortably but these treatments are expensive…”

“Then let me help. If you won’t let me pay toward treatment, that’s understandable, but let me make sure that you have the means to pay for the treatment and not worry about anything else.”

“You would do that for me, Shepard?!”

“Of course, Garrus. You’re my…” I wanted to say the word, but I couldn’t bring myself to say it. “My friend…”

“I’ll pay you back, Shepard, I swear.”

“You can pay me back when she’s better.” I didn’t want to give Garrus hope where there’s almost none, but I couldn't let the mood slide again.

- - -

The smell of bleach burnt my nose as I entered the building. It felt so cold and lonely even though there were a lot of Salarians bustling about around me. The Foyer was large and full of shops selling everything from food to gifts for your loved ones that you are visiting. I didn’t have a positive connotation with hospitals, but I had promised Garrus to come and visit his mother. Maybe he thought a visit would show how my money was helping him and his family. But that meant nothing to me. I just wanted him to be happy and not to have to worry about his family while he was out on missions. It wasn't that I didn’t care what was happening at the hospital. But I knew Garrus and that he would have done extensive research for the best care for his mother. I knew I didn’t have to worry. Whatever the outcome, he would know that he gave it his best shot. Even if the guilt of not doing more still lingered in his heart.

“Should we get her a gift?” I asked.

“Shepard, your help has been a gift enough.” I could hear the tremble of nerves on his voice. I don’t know how long it had been since he had last seen her, but he had never mentioned visiting her in the years that I had known him.

“Tough, I’m getting her one,” I retorted. As I looked through the gifts, I realised I knew nothing about her, let alone what an average Turian would like. Buying gifts for Garrus was different, he had a fascination for everything, especially human technology. He always ended up trying to upgrade them. I ran my hand over the items on the table, trying to make it look like I was making a decision.

“You have no idea what to get, do you?” Garrus inquired. “Let’s just go to her, she’s waiting.”

Defeatedly, I followed Garrus. He didn’t even stop to ask for directions at the information desk. He had purpose in his step and seemed impatient to see her.

As we turned corner after corner, the walls became less and less bare, and covered in pin boards of posters about diseases and viruses. It became less and less institutional and more and more compassionate.

Garrus stopped abruptly. “We’re here,” he uttered, his hand hovering over the door handle. I didn’t know what to expect but if Garrus’s demeanour was anything to go by, it wasn’t going to be good.

I knew nothing about Corpalis Syndrome, but I knew that people never survived it. While they were ill, they wouldn’t be able able to work or pull their weight due to neurological degeneration and to a Turian that would be worse than death. It was only recently that the Helos Medical Institute proceeded with testing on a possible new treatment. Garrus was lucky to secure a spot.

“She’s waiting,” I prompted Garrus. He hesitantly opened the door. Inside, I was greeted by cables and machinery beeping. The whir of pumps connected to IV bags of purple liquid that I had never seen the likes of before. All these wires and tubes led to the same place. The bed. She lay there, looking frail for a Turian of her age. The toll of the disease on her mind had drained her body too. She barely stirred from her slumber as we entered.

Garrus perched on the side of the bed and held her hand, and gestured for me to approach.

“Mother, this is Shepard.” Garrus stated, trying to keep his voice strong and his emotions in check. “My… friend.” He gave me a look as if to say, ‘this is pay back for earlier.’

“Mrs Vakarian, it is such a pleasure to meet you.” My voice didn’t hide my anxiety very well.

“Please, sit,” she managed to mumble.

“Here, let me get you a drink,” Garrus stated as he poured his mother a glass of water from her bedside table and lifted it to her lips.

“Thank you, Garrus.” She coughed before continuing “I’m glad you have come to see me. I wondered if I would see your face again.”

“Mother, please, this treatment will work. Then we can make up for all those lost years of missions taking up all my time to see you.” He could hardly keep his composure.

Garrus’s mother laid her hand on Garrus’s shoulder. “My dear, look at me.” Garrus lifted his head to meet her gaze. “It isn’t about all the time we’ve lost. It’s the fact that you’re here now that means the most to me.” Garrus closed his eyes in an attempt to hide his sorrow. “You’ve been through so much…” she raised her hand to brush Garrus’s scars briefly, “but I know the stars would be so proud to to know their atoms created someone like you.”

“Mother, I’m not…” Garrus tried to speak, but the lump in his throat stopped him.

“You are amazing, Garrus. You’ve made me proud and you’ve brought honour to the family name. The spirits must have blessed me to have a son like you.” The rasp came back to her voice and Garrus promptly gave his mother another sip of water.

“Look out the window, Garrus, what do you see?” Garrus’s mother said firmly. She turned her head towards the window.

I hadn’t noticed it before, I had been distracted by all the machines trills and beeps. But there before me was probably the most colourful sunrise I had ever seen. The sun rising slowly above the mountains in the distance slowly shedding more and more light onto the stony plains stretching for miles in front of us.

“The sunrise, mother, but I have seen thousands before. Thousands of sunrises, lots of the same suns. I guess this one is just as pretty.” Garrus had barely turned his head to look. His focus was adamantly on his mother.

“It’s no fault of the sun if the eye cannot see its beauty,” she replied as she raised her hand to Garrus’s face once again, her thumb stroking his cheek. Garrus’s mandible twitched and a faint wail of sorrow could be heard through the crack in his veneer.

There was barely a knock on the door before a Salarian doctor came barging in. “Out, out, must do tests now, very important, can’t wait.” His hands ushering us out. Garrus kissed his mother and stood up, the Salarian almost pushing him out the door. “You too please,” the doctor asserted.

As I turned and slowly left I heard a voice from behind me. “Promise me you’ll look after him for me, Shepard, when I’m gone. I know you will, but promise me that you will.”

“I promise.”

- - -

Showers always seemed to calm me down. The sound of the water reminded me of rain, oh how I missed proper rain. The feeling of the hot water on my back soothed my aching muscles. It was getting out that was the worst. I had to come back to the real world. This time was no different, but for some reason I felt at ease. I put on my little black dress, ready for a relaxing evening with Garrus. He seemed better recently, happier. He had been telling me about how the doctors have been messaging him. That she was feeling much less lethargic but her appetite had decreased and she was confused and hallucinating. But that wasn't to be worried about. She was in the best possible care.

As I exited the bathroom, I saw him in the doorway. I must not have heard him knock. “Hey, I brought wine. Best I could afford on a vigilante's salary.” That line had now become something like a running joke between us whenever we bought each other gifts. He made his way to the stereo and switched it on, not even bothering to change the track to a more suitable tone for the evening we had planned. But I didn’t care, I had Garrus for the evening and nothing was going to interrupt us. After all the missions we’ve done together and all the scars we’ve gained. We earnt this time together. And I wasn’t going to waste it.

I sauntered up to Garrus. I just wanted to kiss him then and there, but I restrained myself. I liked to see him embarrassed and uncomfortable. His mandibles twitched ever so slightly when he was uncomfortable, not like when he was angry, but a happy twitch. Like a smile that you can’t hold in.

“If you were Turian, I’d be complimenting your waist or your fringe. So your… um… hair… looks good. And your waist is very… supportive.” If a Turian could blush I would bet good money he would be right now. “Hopefully that’s not offensive in human culture-” I cut him off trying to save him further embarrassment.

“Whoa, consider me seduced, smooth talker! Now shut up and stop worrying.” I turned off the music, it just seemed like too much now. Unnecessary noise when all I wanted to hear was his voice.

“I just… I’ve seen so many things go wrong,Shepard. My work at C-Sec, what happened with Sidonis…” I kept eye contact with him. I knew him by now, just by making his emotions known took a great deal of pressure off his shoulders. And he knew that I would support him any way I could. I had proven that to him time and time again.

“I want something to go right. Just Once. Just…”

My hand instinctively caressed his cheek. I hoped he knew how much I cared for him. How much his flaws weren’t flaws to me. But proof that he was more real than anyone else out there. And that it was his flaws that made him perfect in my eyes.

As I lowered my hand, his head bowed to meet mine, and we had a moment of understanding and unity. His hand was clutching at my arm, I felt safe and warm, unlike the world on the other side of the bedroom doors.

It felt like hours had passed when we left our trance, but in reality it had only been about 10 minutes. Enough time for my calves to start complaining about standing so long in these impractical heels. I followed Garrus to the sofa and sat on his lap. He liked the pressure on his legs. Knowing I was there and safe, but most importantly real. One hand holding onto his forearm and the other around his Carapace for support. “Shall we move this to the bed?” I suggested seductively.

Just as we were about to sit down, Garrus’s Omnitool beeped. He opened the message without a moment's hesitation once he saw who it was from.

“It’s from the doctors…” Garrus collapsed onto the bed in a heap. “I can’t believe it…” His mandible twitched, but this time it didn’t seem like anger or embarrassment or happiness. This was something new.

“She’s…” His voice was somehow more coarse and gruff than I’ve ever heard it before. “…dead.”

The room went silent. I couldn’t even hear the engine hum like I usually could. Garrus was still sitting there statuesque. Probably frozen in fear of what came next or if this was some horrible dream as a result of buying some bad wine. Either way, I knew no words would heal this pain. There was nothing I could do, no matter how hard I tried. I wrapped my hands around his shoulders and held him tight, pulling him down to a more comfortable position laying on the bed. We just laid there, wondering when the other was going to speak.

But no words came.

[omegastation]

What do you think a salarian biotic would be like? I know they're super rare (allegedly) and probably strictly controlled and observed by their government. I think the easy thing to picture them as would be like... Spectres. But in actuality, what if they're incredibly weak?

Forced to stay on the homeworld. Too rare to train and dispatch as agents. Something like that.

Honestly anon, I owe you a serious apology. Tumblr has been the worst with warning me of new messages, but I think you sent this one a few days ago and I’m only responding now. Sorry 😕

I did a quick search of the blog hoping to find previous discussions on the topic, but I can’t find anything. Weird, because that’s a fascinating topic and I’m sure salarians and/or biotics fans would have a lot to say!

In general, I would say that since they have a shorter lifespan than most species, they have less time than most biotics to master their abilities.

If they’re really good at it, it could be because they have a natural talent for it or they have received intense training. If they’re bad, their powers are really weak or they don’t have the time, space and proper training to become anything other than okay and/or mediocre.

But the fact that they’re rare is canon, used mostly in specific units and/or as intelligence officers.

Now that I think about it, I would think the biotic salarians would have even less possibilities than most others of their species to make their own choices AND would be probably be used in experiments, either ones having to do with advancing a specific political agenda OR, the worst for me, ones to make them better as biotics - perhaps not experiments using red sand, but maybe amplifiers? Kind of a “oh, so we have less time to master it so why not amp it up to the max?” test - which could be a disaster.

I also think the training is interesting here, either from salarians to other salarians (which to me could imply a life-long bond and mission), or like the humans did, using other species to teach them.

IDK, does it all make sense? If it’s bad, someone correct me pleaaase

[imakemywings]

Mass Effect Trilogy Tag

Let’s spread some positive vibes by remembering what we love about the trilogy. Fill in and tag your friends. Feel free to add your own categories to this survey.

Tagged by @illusivesoul

I've been a fan since: Summer 2019

Favorite game of the series: 2

MaleShep or FemShep?: Femshep all the way

Earthborn, Colonist or Spacer?: Spacer

Paragon or Renegade? Renegade

Biotics or Tech? Ooh that’s hard! I think they’re both cool.

Favorite class: Vanguard

Favorite companions: Thane, Tali, Samara

Least favorite companions: Vega, Zaeed

My squad selection: I really try to change it up so I feel like they’re all getting enough exercise

Favorite in-game romance: Shrios TT_TT It breaks my heart but I love it anyway. I love later-in-life romances which is the feel I always get from this one, especially with Thane having already had a long-term partner that he lost. Also, I feel like he asks some important moral questions for Shepard.

Other pairings I like: Second place goes to Shiara just because they really do have an epic 3-game romance after Liara arguably falls for Shepard very early in the first game. I would love to do Tali or Ashley’s romances but tragically I’d have to play as mShep which I don’t want to do. I do have Samantha queued up for my paragon run though!

Favorite NPC: Can I pick the biotic god volus? No? Aria then! She’s terrible but she’s interesting. Urdnot Bakara is also a really neat character, love getting to talk with her.

Favorite antagonist: Sovereign. Meeting Sovereign is when it really hits home how serious this whole situation is and I feel like they bring an excellent sense of foreboding in that even when Sovereign is dead, you can’t shake the fear of something worse coming. Also, I feel like Sovereign does a better job of being neutral about the mission which is how the reapers really should operate--Harbinger crosses into malice at times which seems to counter the notion that the reapers are just carrying out protocol to the best of their ability and don’t understand why what they’re doing is wrong.

Favorite mission: Oh man, I know I’m going to forget a bunch. Tali’s loyalty mission in 2 was really well done though and there’s a great blend of both the terror/horror of what you’re seeing combined with your pain for Tali.

“Acquire the Reaper IFF” in 2 is also a great one; the defunct reaper is so creepy and the hints along the way of the previous workers going insane from being inside it is great. I wish they’d played a bit harder on the unsettling factor vs. getting swarmed by husks, but subtlety is not really ME’s forte XD

Favorite loyalty mission: See above. Jack also has a great loyalty mission.

Favorite DLC: Lair of the Shadow Broker was pretty well done, although I knock points because if you didn’t get it you have no idea how Liara ended up becoming the Shadow Broker in 3 and I don’t think that kind of key information should be relegated to a DLC.

Control, Synthesis or Destroy? Fun fact: the first time I completed the game I chose “none of these” because I thought there would be some like, secret 4th option (and I thought Shepard might be resentful about getting this far only to be presented with 3 questionable options)...there isn’t. The galaxy was destroyed by reapers. Good thing Liara made that history USB.

That said, synthesis or destroy, for sure. I’ll still do a control run just to see how it turns out but honestly I don’t think anyone should have the kind of power Shepard would have in that position.

Favorite weapon: I’m counting biotic charge as a weapon. Also, that salarian gun you can get in 3 that shoots gel bullets or wtv at people that one’s cool

Favorite place: I love Omega

A quote I like: “I’d rather gargle acid after chewing on a razor blade “ -- Femshep after a dude in Flux asks her to have a drink with him.

Tagging: @sad-mage-central @irikahkrios @clarevoience anyone else who follows me and is into ME I forget who is

[birdylion]

under the burning sun

MERweek2021, day 1

Prompt: Describe or draw a fun (or not so fun) day out at the seaside. It could be an earthly type beach, or a tropical planet. Is this a new experience for them? Does the day out go as planned? Who knows what could happen after all...

***

All in all, it’s a fruitless idea, Shepard knows that. But he set course anyway – the Council is reluctant to deny him anything so soon after he saved them, so getting permission was easy. Shepard knows that it won’t last forever. Rather than going rounds that ultimately won’t help with the threat of the coming invasion, he should focus on the next step. It isn’t over, no matter what the Council likes to think. But instead of doing something about it, he’s here.

He let the team decide if they wanted to join him on this. Once he’s done here he’ll make the trip back to the Citadel, so any crew member who didn’t want to see the place again so soon afterwards, or ever, is on extended shore leave. If you can call it shore leave. Shepard knows that Tali, for example, is doing her best to help with the repair efforts on the Citadel.

Now Shepard is here, only Alenko with him. The rest of those who came to see the place are content to do so from orbit. Shepard isn’t sure if Alenko wanted to see the ground for himself or if he somehow sensed that Shepard would need someone like him by his side. Both, perhaps, Shepard wouldn’t put it past him. Shepard has gotten the impression that Alenko is quite good at this kind of stuff.

The place looks fundamentally different than the last time. The biggest change, obviously, is the big crater, or rather, the edges of the crater pushing through the sea. There is no mistaking the perfect circle of stone and rubble they saw while flying in as anything else than a bomb crater. The murky water inside doesn’t look much like the tropical sea Shepard somehow still expected in this place, and the ground around it is barren, just so above sea level, and covered in a thick layer of mud.

They can’t leave the Mako, the radiation levels are too high for their suits to manage for an extended period, but Shepard doesn’t know why they would do that anyway. He doesn’t recognise the place and he’s not sure if that’s good or bad. He says as much to Alenko as they push through the mud towards the edge of the crater.

“Why are you here?” Aleko asks in response.

Shepard is a marine. He’s trained for quick thinking and working out solutions for impossible to solve situations. He’s trained to protect his people, he’s trained to kill the enemy. He’s less prepared to handle death. Akuze still follows him into the present, and he doesn’t need Corporal Tooms with his stories about Cerberus for that. It’s always there, somewhere in the background. But on Akuze, they all fought together against an enemy that came looking for them. They went where they were sent, but they didn’t pick the fight. He didn’t send his team to their death like he did this time. “To make it real,” he says. “And you?”

The rocks that used to sculpture the landscape are gone, blast somewhere else or straight up melted, Shepard doesn’t know. There are no trees, no debris. Nothing that reminds him of Saren’s breeding facility. Seeing the barren landscape really drives the point home: There is no way Williams could have magically survived the blast.

“Survivor’s guilt,” Alenko says. “I’m trying to deal with it, you know, to make my peace.”

Shepard has always admired Alenko’s ability to put what he’s dealing with into words. Plain and simple. Honest.

“I didn’t choose you over her,” Shepard says. He pushes the Mako up the slope of the crater. “I chose the known combat area about the unknown. I chose the less defended area over the one that had an entire team of salarian infiltrators on site.” He glances sideways at Alenko, who is looking out the window. “Before, I needed the soldier to go with the team that expected heavy fighting, and the engineer to go with the bomb.” It feels unexpectedly good to put it into words. “It was not about you or her.”

He doesn’t know if that helps. Alenko is silent for a couple moments.

“Thanks, Shepard.”

Shepard is glad Alenko didn’t went for ‘Commander.’ They are Commander and Lieutenant, of course, but … not here. Here, at the place where they lost Williams, they’re just Shepard and Alenko.

The Mako pushes up the last few meters and Shepard jams on the brakes just at the right moment. They stand still at the ridge of the crater. The sun is burning down around them and makes the murky water sparkle. The contrast is exactly how Shepard feels.

“I miss her,” Shepard says. He can’t put into words how much. It’s not just that he lost a soldier, or even that he sent a soldier to her death. He lost a friend.

From the corner of his eye, Shepard sees Alenko nod. “Yeah. I feel like we didn’t get to know her half as well as she deserves.”

Shepard thinks of the conversation he’s had with her. About religion, about family, about duty. About finding humanity’s place in the wider galaxy. She’s always cared so much, and while he didn’t agree with her conclusions, he’s valued her input and opinions all the same, or perhaps even more: he’s always liked to surround himself with diverse viewpoints, and getting to hear her reasoning has always been interesting.

It’s really not the same without her, and here atop the place where she died, under the tropical sun of a planet that could have been a paradise but instead is a place of loss and tragedy, Shepard lets himself feel that.

He looks at Alenko and nods, an acknowledgement, a silent thank you for coming with me. Alenko looks back, returns the nod.

Shepard drives the Mako back down and tells Joker they’re ready for pickup.

[felassan]

🔍👀 Ok, what are we looking at here? Concept art for the next Mass Effect game? I don’t remember ever seeing this image before.

Planetary exploration not unlike what we’ve done before in the Mako and the Nomad, only with a bigger than usual vehicle (well, more like shuttle). Alternatively, our ship this time around is smaller than the Normandy and the Tempest were, and it lands directly on explorable planetscape surfaces like the Tempest did in MEA. A squad of 4 (or 3+PC), or a crew roster of 4?

The image filename says that the vehicle is a “mud skipper”. The environment looks like mud flats or maybe salt flats, but it’s hard to guess what they intend the surface the figures are standing on to be due to the size of the right-most celestial body. The mudskipper has “XT8″ emblazoned on the side - Normandy SR-2, ND1 Nomad... Mudskipper XT8 / XT8 Mudskipper? Mudskipper could be a ship name or a class/type of ship. Mudskippers irl are amphibious fish that can survive both in and out of water. They live in swamps and estuaries and on mud flats and are noted for their ability to climb, walk, and skip about out of water. I wonder if this ship is also amphibious in capability?? I’m reminded a bit of the underwater chase scene in The Phantom Menace. “XT8″ doesn’t seem to bring anything to mind or bring up anything on the Mass Effect wiki etc, though I did find some non-ME-related telescopes [irl] with XT8 in the name (e.g. Orion SkyQuest XT8) which, while probably a coincidental thing, is interesting as the space connection is self-explanatory.

Picked my astronomer friend’s brain bc I couldn’t resist (@breezytealy. thanku!!! ♡) and they think that: from left to right the celestial bodies look like a moon, sun, and planet (possibly a gas giant) respectively. The planet looks too big in the sky when taking realism into account, so its size is likely a function of artistic license etc (as in like, it’s the artist’s impression of a planet in the sky, it’s big because it looks great that way). The figures then seem to be standing on another moon. If the big planet is big enough, it could be a double planet system or triple planet system that we’re seeing here. And if the big planet is a gas giant, the moon could be an Earth-like moon; a gas giant with a habitable moon is a sci-fi trope, like Pandora in Avatar and the forest moon of Endor in Star Wars. I wonder then if there are any known systems in the Milky Way or Andromeda which have a gas giant with 2 moons or a gas giant with 1 moon and 1 inner planet? For an Earth-like moon, if it’s following irl astro ‘rules’, we’d be looking for a Saturn- or Jupiter-sized planet in the star’s habitable zone. It could be that the moon is tidal-locked, so the planet hangs in the sky, but as there’s likely a second moon maybe not. Looking at the planet size it’s like if Jupiter was where the moon is from Earth. There’s some issues with this we think as there’d likely be strong tidal forces which would cause massive volcanism, especially if there’s a second moon, but artistic license.. I feel some ME wiki-crawling coming on, in case there’s any potential candidates for matching these kinds of criteria.. Breezy is leaning towards gas giant with two moons. 👀 (Hope this paragraph makes sense because I’m pretty sure I’ve garbled Breezy’s explanations)

The right-most figure is definitely a Salarian. Next to them it could be a drell. I’m less clear about the other two. The Salarian and the drell don’t seem to be wearing helmets so perhaps the atmosphere is breathable, survivable? Jack-style breather-facemasks are a possibility though, we probably wouldn’t be able to see the outlines of those from the perspective we’re viewing the figures at imo.

Overall this image has a smaller-scale-story, ‘exploring frontiers’-type feel going for it, as opposed to something massive and galaxy-saving in terms of stakes and scope like the Reaper War. It kinda reminds me of the Serenity and its crew from Firefly actually.

[arts-butthound]

SIX SONG SOUNDTRACK GAME

@omniblades-and-stars I know you didn't tag me- but I saw the post and went "*GASP*....I have a playlist for that." (In fact, I have several.) And because I'm in my feelings for this character again, I had to do it Aelin the Salarian (no clan affiliation)

An event that defines your characters past

By the age of four, my boy needed to burn his whole world down to start again. And boy did he do a decent job at it. 2. How your character sees themselves

This man will beat himself bloody if it means making a kid feel safer than he ever did.

3. How others view them

The devotion his siblings feel for him is probably the strongest pillar in their lives. He's saved all of them in one way or another. They'd be lost without him.

4. Their closest relationship (platonic or romantic)

Aelin and his asari sister, Veyenne, go way back, having made a family in each other when he was 3 and Vey was 24. Running around as duct rats of the Citadel, and going through what they did, glued their souls together and tied them up in an unbreakable knot.

5. A major fight scene

From chapter 8 of my story, Sense and Salarian Ability, when Aelin goes head to head against the local gang lord that's been threatening the safety of Aelin's family more than usual lately...maybe head to head is a poor phrase to use in this instance.

6. End credits song

But which end?

[blackjackkent]

♥ and ☮ for your Sheps. :D

♥ - family headcanon

Jenna Shepard:

Jenna never knew her parents, or how she came to be living on the street separated from them; her earliest memories are of falling in with the Reds as a very young kid. Liara has asked several times if Jenna wants her to use her Broker contacts to determine who they were, but Jenna does not want to know; she feels it would only add complexity and pain to a life that is full enough of both already.

Unbeknownst to either of them, Miranda does know; during the Lazarus project she conducted private research using Jenna's genetic information to track down their exact identity in case it would have any bearing on reconstructing her. However, she has not divulged this to anyone.

Matty Shepard:

Matty's younger brother, Simon, is also in the Alliance Navy, and while lacking Matty's prestige and charisma, he shares his brother's attention to detail and ability to read and understand people. After the firing of the Crucible, during the painful few weeks when it is not certain whether Matty will live or die, Simon is the first to figure out that Ash's relationship with him is more than simply fellow officers, and he is a critical support to her during that period, as she doesn't want to reveal anything to his parents until it's certain Matty will survive.

Philip Shepard:

Philip's relationship with his mother has been strained and difficult for quite some time; she withdrew emotionally after his father died when he was a teenager and never fully reconnected, and for his part he has never fully reconciled (with himself or her) over how alone it left him feeling during that period of grief. However, there is still a part of him that is desperate for her approval, and the comm conversation that they have during the Citadel DLC, so soon before everything ends, fills a hole in his heart that he hadn't acknowledged was empty.

Tali comes back to the apartment and finds him sitting on the floor in full emotional catharsis, sobbing. ☮ - friendship headcanon

Jenna Shepard:

Jenna's friendship with Liara sneaks up on her. She and the asari start off on fairly bad terms, in fact - Jenna doesn't trust her much in ME1, and also finds her naive and young and is all too aware of the hero-worship crush Liara has on her. Their re-introduction in ME2, however, changes things.

Liara has grown, first of all - the two years that have passed have hardened and aged her, and Jenna respects that. But more to the point - she is glad to see Jenna, even when she would have plenty of reasons not to be, and is a face out of the past when everything seemed to make a lot more sense.

I think it's the moment during the skycar chase, when Liara comments "You're enjoying this!", that the friendship crystalizes for Jenna. She is enjoying herself, and is glad to see Liara, because Liara has earned her respect and her trust.

And once Jenna reaches that point with anyone, she never lets it go.

Matty Shepard:

Matty and Mordin are basically inseparable throughout much of ME2. When Matty isn't doing other work, or sleeping, he's very often in the lab talking about biology and chemistry and whatever other intellectual stimulation happens to be on Matty's mind at the time. He gets the sense that to a certain extent, Mordin is humoring him (Mordin's expertise after all goes far beyond Matty's own, which is mostly the product of extensive reading in various Alliance bunks over the past twenty years), but also that the salarian enjoys the conversations as much as he does.

Post-war, Matty and Mordin establish a biotechnology firm and work together to research and develop advanced prosthetics for war veterans.

Philip Shepard:

Philip is fascinated by Legion right from the start. The combination of machinery and sapient intelligence is something that he's always been curious about in the geth, and getting to experience it firsthand is incredible. But more than that, Legion's conversation and thought processes are always intriguing, always surprising, indicating a way of looking at the world that is far more than the sum of its parts, a collective consciousness and understanding.

What Legion thinks about him is always a little more vague. Does the geth have a concept of friendship? Certainly Legion always seems pleased to see him when he arrives, and follows up on threads from their earlier conversations. And when Philip enters the geth consensus and is surrounded by the minds and thoughts of all those consciousnesses, he feels a strange sensation of coming home, or being welcomed.

These interactions, these experiences, play a definite part in the eventual choice that he makes at the Crucible.

[swaps55]

Mass Effect Tag

I was tagged by @pip-n-flinx and @ghostxofxartemis. Thank you!!!

I have seen several people do this, and don’t know who’s been tagged and who hasn’t. Uh... @tackals, @mai-nonsense, @pyritea, @joking611, @th3morrigan, if you have not and would like, no obligation!

I am a fan since: November 2007. I still have my receipt for the purchase of Mass Effect 1.

Favourite game of the series: Mass Effect 1. It is my happy place. My comfort food. It has a sense of wonder and discovery to it the other games don’t have. It’s where the world felt the most real and had the most depth, with endless possibilities.   

Mshep or Fshep?: I imprinted on mShep, something I constantly feel guilty about, because I feel like a traitor to my gender. Femshep is such an important, iconic, and groundbreaking character for women in gaming, and yet…mShep just has my whole heart.

Earthborn, Colonist, or Spacer? Spacer. Because thinking about all the normal things you experience on a planet that would be really fucking weird to a person who has lived their whole life in space is one of my favorite things.

Biotics or Tech? Biotics. All the biotics. I live for biotics.

Paragon or Renegade? I’m a helpless filthy paragon, no matter how hard I try to be a renegade. I can’t be a dick to pixels, apparently.

Favourite class: Adept & Vanguard. The only thing better than space magic is smashing your face into the enemy with space magic.

Favourite companion: Kaidan, Mordin, Miranda, Liara, Garrus, Wrex, Tali… 

Least favourite companion: Jacob and Thane. Not their fault. I just didn’t connect with them. Jacob’s struggles as a character are well known, and it’s such a shame. 

My squad selection: I change it up a lot across all three games. In ME1 I tend to cycle through everyone but Ashley, not because I have anything against Ashley, but I micromanage everyone’s power usage and I don’t find her skillset interesting to play with. In ME2 it’s primarily a mix of Mordin/Samara/Miranda/Garrus because it can be kind of hard to find a ME2 squad with abilities that can handle anything over Normal difficulty. In ME3, Kaidan, Garrus, and Liara get the most playtime.

Favourite in-game romance: Kaidan. After all this time puts me on the floor every single time. 

Favourite NPC: Every single salarian. Every single one. In the original trilogy, there is not a single salarian I do not love.

Favourite Antagonist: Shepard’s clone. The clone storyline is hokey and gleefully hilarious, and that boss fight is the most fun I’ve ever had in single player.  

Favourite loyalty mission: Mordin’s.

Favourite mission: Virmire. It is such a perfect microcosm of all the things that make Mass Effect great: player choice, consequences, world building, epic storytelling, character depth. All right there in one mission. But if I were to look at each game in the trilogy, it would be:

ME1: Virmire

ME2: Suicide mission

ME3: Priority: Tuchanka

Favourite DLC: Citadel DLC, and it’s not even close. The runner up, also by a daylight margin, is Lair of the Shadowbroker.

Control, Synthesis or Destroy: Fuck the endings. I end with the Citadel DLC.

Favourite weapon: As a biotic I often forget I have a gun, but in single player my babies are the Hurricane, the Carnifex/Paladin, and the Piranha. In Multiplayer, add the Valiant.

Favourite place: The Citadel in ME1, Virmire (it’s so pretty!!!). Eletania. Many, many of the planets you can explore in ME1.  

Favourite Quote: “Had to be me. Someone else might have gotten it wrong.”

[sciencefictionismyjam]

Mass effect comics review Part 1.

DOCTOR OR DESTROYER?

It is a fitting if a bit blatant title to the fascinating backstory of Mordin Solus’s time in STG working on the Genophage modification... I say “Fascinating” when Mordin explains it to you through in-game dialogue, and not here (for the most part). In true ME comics fashion little time or energy is devoted to exploring the scientific perspective of the Solus character, rather his more “badass qualities”.

MASS EFFECT comics prioritise action over meaty science fiction story telling almost 95% of the time, so often we are “treated” to scenarios that exist mainly to show us how WICKED COOL our heroes (and sometimes villains) are in these brief story windows often resulting in climatic EXPLOSIONS!!!. Dont expect much in the way of discussion, or real insight into how the modification was developed, and those pesky ethical concerns related to its existence because that process is only one page long here using cliché visuals and dialogue to convey the narrative.

We are then almost immediately THRUST into the deployment mission, where only minor character development takes place and the Salarian military is portrayed as a team of Iraq war era marines rather than a highly trained special forces team who value stealth and espionage over direct combat intervention. Spouting/shouting chest pounding military jargon with squashed expressions...

You wont learn much about Maelon, you wont learn much about Chaleen, or even Kirrahe. They are just kind of... There.

Atleast Mordin still talks and behaves like Mordin here, (For the most part)

The art.

It is quite messy and inconsistent to say the least, but way more appealing on high quality print than on a digital display... A lot of this was never intended to be seen at such a large format. But even when given the benefit of the doubt for that technicality, there are some truly unpleasant sights to behold. Mainly related to the way the characters are drawn, given the story is about Salarians you would expect them to look like such... But most of the time they resemble something more akin to a mummified corpse.

The Krogan home world is rendered gorgeously though, with a lot of attention to details that really give you the sense of the artistic majesty of the species lost to time and nuclear devastation. Similar to that wonder you felt exploring the underground ruins of Tuchanka in ME3 that same emotion can be felt here too.

But that curiosity is short lived because after only a few lines of dialogue, the shooting starts. The salarian team starts blasting its way through hoards of angry Krogan trying to stop their deployment of the new genophage, so if there is one thing you will learn about Salarians in this comic... Its that they leap around like frogs in comical fashion. Mordin also performs some rather insane acrobatics seen here in his prime, killing Krogan with a casual professional detachment. We can see that his status as a deadly combatant is well earned next to his scientific abilities, but this reckless near suicidal behaviour eventually results in grave injury. It is an interesting piece of character development showing us that dark violent side of his character further explored in the games.

In the end without spoiling much, we find out how Mordin loses his horn and why he has to adopt cybernetic prosthetics in ME2. After a lot of action the new Genophage is deployed but not without leaving Mordin conflicted in the end about the ramifications of the mission, the ramifications we will eventually help him tackle in his loyalty mission through to ME3. For all its pomp and faults we do see a small glimpse of character development here, but in a way its mostly a repeat of what we saw before just shown to us in a pulpy way. We get no post mission storyline to see how the professor copes with these thoughts, or emotions... The comic just ends. 

The format of MASS EFFECT comics simply does not allow for complex narrative, its short to the point and pulpy. Perhaps in the spirit of cheap 80s scifi comics of the time.

[melanie-ohara]

Dela Raisaris

Asari Adept

See also: Avery Sirin

The following information is classified. Spectre status required.

PERSONAL HISTORY

In 1975 (Systems Alliance Calendar), an abandoned shuttle was discovered by salarian wildcat miners orbiting the planet Raisaris.

There was nothing left on board but a crib containing a screaming infant asari. The salarians took her in, naming her Dela Raisaris after her unofficial homeworld, and she lived with the family for two salarian generations - over 60 years - and then moved to Illium to work first as a security agent for a transportation firm and eventually as a dancer in one of Nos Astra's many bars.

In 2076, Dela was involved in a [REDACTED] and left Illium with [CLASSIFIED]. They travelled together for half a century, during which time Dela expanded her biotic skills, her impressive piloting ability, learned to fight with a traditional asari sword, and [REDACTED].

After the tragic [REDACTED], Dela became a mercenary/sex worker, travelling all over the galaxy in search of purpose; or failing that (in her own words) 'a good fight or a good lay'.

In 2177, she was working with a small asari mercenary band subcontracted by the Eclipse Mercenary Corporation to fight in the Anhur rebellions against a consortium of batarian and human slavers known as the Na'hesit. When she learned that her companions were planning to switch sides for better pay, Dela assassinated their leader and sabotaged their ship. In exchange for a clean slate, she gave their location to an asari huntress team and traded in her mercenary identity for a military uniform.

After basic, she was assigned to the Council Demilitarization Enforcement Mission in the krogan DMZ as an interceptor fighter pilot. Only her unusual surname suggests there's more to her story than any other maiden serving on the turian ship THV Severum, but nobody asks and she doesn't tell.

EQUIPMENT

Asari Interceptor Fighter (not pictured)

A standard asari fighter has significantly less armour than a Heirarchy or even Alliance model to prioritise mass drive efficiency, speed, and agility. Designed for ship-to-ship combat and missile screening duties.

M-4 Shuriken machine pistol

A standard issue light sidearm featuring a three-round burst firing mechanism. Dela occasionally carries a matched pair in combat if she expects to encounter a large concentration of shielded enemies.

Kapesh-Ardat duelist saber

A finely balanced, high-tensile tungsten carbide sword used by practitioners of the ancient asari martial art that shares its name. Assisted by biotics, Dela's blade can pierce most modern body armour. Kapesh-Ardat focuses on defeating enemies greater in strength or numbers and takes several decades to master.

SKILLS

Dela is a proficient biotic, pilot, and hand-to-hand combatant. She uses biotic blinks to cover large distances, while her backlash field absorbs and redirects enemy fire. While she prefers to use her sword in ground operations, she can use a lift field to immobilise enemy combatants to finish off with her sidearm, or a powerful biotic lance.

PSYCHOLOGICAL PROFILE

Dela Raisaris is sharp-witted and funny, with a bawdy sense of humour that gets her reprimanded by her superiors, along with her cheerful disregard for protocol and preference for reckless flying. Quick with her affections, both emotional and physical, Dela is very popular with her crewmates - though her open sexuality often sees her entangled in love triangles. Despite her platonic love for her friends, Dela has had very few long-term relationships and nothing more serious than flings since she joined the asari military.

In combat, Dela shows a single-minded focus and tenacity rare in asari maidens. In a cockpit, Dela is a competent fighter but relies more on advanced evasion and pursuit techniques than combat showdowns. In contrast, during ground operations her aggression and independence are second only to a krogan, and while this results in a large number of enemy casualties it can also expose her allies.

- REPORT FILED BY VERAPIA BESCUS, ST&R, 2184 -

[satashiiwrites]

Tonight’s output

Actually really trying to put a dent in the next chapter of AAT.  Reyes wasn’t cooperating so focusing on Scott’s part.  This chapter is also going to be a monster in length… because we’re saving the Salarians. 

Yeah you heard that right… time to sneak aboard the Paarchero. 

From: An Andromeda Tale, Ch 59 Scott

Fandom: Mass Effect Andromeda

Pairings: Eventual MReyder. (I swear they’re getting there…. Eventually)

Warnings: first draft

He fell asleep somewhere  in the report about mining resources on Eos and their strategic relevance for manufacturing and awoke sprawled on his couch with a crick in his neck. The fact that he could feel the ache in his neck told him that SAM had guessed he was beyond weirded out about the AI’s ability to modify his senses.  Scott assumed if SAM could alter his pain input then it wasn’t much of a stretch to assume SAM had control over his other senses.  Was this why he’d noticed how strong and good Reyes’ cologne smelled first thing in the morning?

Scott tabled that thought for later.   

From the faint vibration of the engines that was transmitted through the floor he could tell they were underway.  SAM informed him that they were estimated to reach the signal origin in a few hours as they’d made good time and hadn’t had to go too far out of their way through the Scourge. 

He’d slept longer than he’d thought. No wonder his neck hurt from sleeping so long in such an awkward position. 

Stretching his arms over his head and making his boxer briefs ride low on his hips, he dropped to the floor and started his usual yoga routine to warm up his muscles and get rid of the lingering ache. The deep breathing and routine act of the poses as he worked through sun salutations and standing poses before dropping to a plank and doing a few floor twists. 

He was almost done when Cora walked in after a brisk knock and sat on his recently vacated couch. “You mind sharing where we’re going?” She asked, expression stony. 

Shit.  She’d been in her lab last night and he’d been so tired that he’d headed directly for the shower rather than update her. Untwisting, he sat up on the floor and turned towards her.  “Peebee struck gold in her scavenging.”

One perfect blonde eyebrow rose. “What kind of gold?”

“A Kett transponder.  Jaal spoke with the Moshae and Evfra and they requested that we follow the signal.”  He proceeded to give her a quick rundown of their new mission and let her ask questions—the same questions he’d had last night. 

Leaning forward, resting her elbows on her knees, Cora stared at her hands with her bangs falling forward to obscure her face. “This is going to be,.. difficult what they’re asking us to do.”

“Unfortunately I don’t think we have any other options.”

Cora snorted inelegantly. “No I don’t think we do.”  The silence stretched between them and he thought she might get up and leave when she spoke again. “What are your impressions of Kadara?”

“You’re going to need to be more specific,” Scott did a handspring to get to his feet and moved to grab a bottle of water and tugged on his hoodie that was hanging off the coat hook by the door. 

“The politics. Sloane Kelly isn’t universally beloved but there was a lot of chatter about the Collective and the Charlatan.  Did Vidal let anything more slip? He’s just Angaran Resistance right? “

Scott took a swig from the bottle. “I don’t know if he’s only Resistance.  He definitely has deeper ties than he says he does.  The way they kept picking him up…” Scott trailed off as he thought. There was something there about Reyes and how the angarans had responded to him but what was really sticking out was how that victim had acted like Reyes had a lot of authority and had given a command for him to tell Scott everything about the attack. Just who was Reyes? 

“You spent a lot of time with him—a lot of time alone,” Cora observed, one fawn colored eye visible from behind the curtain of white blonde hair as she regarded Scott, thinking out loud. “Are you sure he didn’t let anything slip?”

Scott snorted. “He’s got connections and he’s very… curious about things.”

“That’s one way of putting it.”

Scott gestured with the bottle in a what-can-you-do motion. “He answered most of my questions as long as they weren’t focused on exactly what he does. Or if they’re just harmless details about him like music preferences.”

“Was there any slant you detected to his intel?” Cora tapped one finger against her chin, chewing on her lower lip. 

Thinking about what Reyes had said for a moment, Scott shook his head. “Not for the most part or no more than what I’d think was normal. He actually tried to be neutral but you could tell when it was his opinion not just a fact.”

“Like?”

“He doesn’t like the Oblivion trade and by extension the Outcasts.”

“But is that just because he hates drugs and authority figures or is it because he’s pro-Resistance?”

“Or pro-Collective,” Scott added. “No—or at least he didn’t say much about the Collective just the Resistance.”

This made Cora sigh.  “We got a lot of listening done in the marketplace. There’s been a lot of action lately putting pressure on the Outcasts.  A lot of extra tax collections and what sounded liked purges.”

“So Sloane Kelly’s Outcasts aren’t angels.”

“You met the woman,” Cora had a distasteful grimace on her face. 

Lifting an eyebrow, Scott wondered if… “Did you know her from before?” it would make sense given Sloane Kelly had been the Director of Security that Cora could have met her previously due to being the Pathfinder team SIC. 

“I met her briefly… I didn’t really understand Jien Garson’s reasons for hiring her then and I think my first impression was right.”

“Which was?”

“She has problems with authority?”

“Hers or someone else’s?” Scott half-joked which got a snort out of Cora before she frowned. 

“Both.  The reports from the collision and then the uprising don’t do her any favors.”

“No they don’t,” Scott agreed, fiddling with his water bottle. The unredacted report that Kesh had sent him had been at the top of his reading list last night and whoever the original author of the report had dryly noted that the decision to wake the krogan and use them as brute police force had caused huge rifts and two mass exoduses in close succession when promises were broken. 

A lot of talent had been lost by those decisions and while Scott could theoretically understand Kelly’s decision it still stank of running away from her bigger responsibilities to him.   He didn’t know what he would have done in her shoes but he knew he would have tried everything he could to have prevented what had happened. Losing almost a third of your awake resources and then almost all of the krogan had been very damaging. 

“So what do we know for sure?” Scott asked, wanting Cora to summarize her thoughts.

“There’s at least a two way power struggle going on but there’s little said about the Resistance openly so they don’t seem to be making it a three-way.  Which means… I think they’re either sitting back and waiting to throw in with the winner or they’re supporting the Collective quietly in the background.  I don’t think the purges make them friendly to the Outcasts—too many angara have been caught in them.”

Scott nodded in agreement. “I don’t know which of those it is but I’m thinking either is a possibility. What does Jaal have to say?”  It hadn’t escaped his notice that Cora was spending a lot of time when she wasn’t on his ground team with the angaran. 

“He hates the whole atmosphere in Kadara Port.  Thinks that it should have been given back to those that lost their homes in the Kett invasion.  He was watching those old movies of Liam’s and called it a den of iniquity. ”

“So does he dislike the Outcasts or the Collective or both?”  Scott tried not to laugh at Jaal’s description of the port as the mostly lawless wild Wild West it seemed to be. Den of iniquity indeed. He wondered which movie had taught Jaal that saying. 

Cora cocked her head but gave a small negative shake. “Neither.  I’m not sure he discriminates that much between different groups of Milky Way travelers that aren’t us. He mostly just sees his people displaced and it frustrates him.”

Ouch. “Was he able to make any contacts?”

“A few were willing to talk to him and he passed along what they said.  Most of the angaran merchants were more than willing to sell to us and took credits.  Vetra got some great trades for fresh rations before we left.  Even some more strawberries for you.”

Finishing his water, Scott asked one last question. “So the big question is… would we get a colony out of the Outcasts or the Collective or neither?”

Cora shrugged. “I don’t think right at the moment either of them are going to let us have Addison set up a colony in their backyard… but give them time to sort out their own power struggle and then maybe?  I don’t know.  Sloane Kelly doesn’t seem to have any love left for us.”

“And we don’t really know what the Charlatan thinks.”

“Other than whoever they are they’re sending courting gifts,” 

“What?” Scott asked, confused. “What courting gifts?”

“Those strawberries you seem to love so much?  Forget about them?  Pretty sure that the only place they’re coming from are the Collective’s hydroponics farms. We heard that much from the marketplace.  If you come across strawberries assume that whoever has them is somehow tied to the Collective.”

Reyes had made that comment… about how he had connections with food but he’d never seen the man with strawberries… but there had been a few on someone’s plate in Tartarus he’d noticed when he was waiting for him. But he didn’t recall Reyes specifically ever mentioning strawberries. 

Their presence in Tartarus was inconclusive. Just because Reyes seemed to live out of the back room didn’t mean anything…did it? Surely it was a coincidence that Scott had been given those first strawberries as compliments of the Charlatan just after being introduced to Reyes. 

Scott kept those thoughts to himself.  No reason to tell Cora that since he had no proof. Reyes was for sure Resistance but that didn’t mean that he didn’t do business with the Collective. The man’s insistence that he had to work for a living meant he probably crossed a lot of political boundaries day in and day out. 

“I did forget about the first batch of strawberries,” he admitted to Cora. 

Her unimpressed look spoke paragraphs about what she thought of that. “So we wait?” She finally asked. 

He slowly nodded. “I think that for right now we wait and see. The political situation is still evolving and we need to be careful.”

Giving a single nod, Cora straightened up then reclined, trying to get more comfortable, arms stretched over the back of the couch to spread out as she crossed her legs. “So… then,” she asked, faking casualness. “What is it between Vidal and you then?”

“He’s a developing asset,” Scott placed the empty bottle next to the faucet where he could wash it, taking a moment to hide his expression from Cora. “I think that long term he might be valuable.”

When he turned back towards Cora, her expression was pitying. “Really.”

“Yes—really.” He silently asked SAM to stop him from blushing.  If there was any benefit to having SAM so hardwired into his body this had to be it. 

Cora watched him for almost a minute before letting him off the hook. “Fine.  Keep telling yourself that.”

Scott didn’t rise to the bait. “Well, I suppose we both have work to do before we get to those coordinates.”

Taking the hint, Cora stood with a small huff and clapped him firmly on the shoulder as she walked towards the door. “If that’s what we’re calling it,” she teased over her shoulder as the door shut.  “Go easy on that right wrist—the bruising looks painful.”

Glancing down at his wrist he could see a nice deep purple bruise that ran up his forearm that was bigger than his hand. What was Cora…  “I’ll take that under advisement,” he managed to squeak out as the door shut, not stopping him from hearing Cora’s guffaws. 

What was his life that his SIC had the temerity to imply he was going to jerk off over… over Reyes?  

C’mon he had a little self respect—he’d wait until he was either in the shower or in the quiet safety of his bed at night to indulge a little. Cora didn’t need to know anything about who he thought of in his private times. 

Even if her implication about who he had certain dreams about lately was mostly true.

Reyes was hot—he was only a simple man and could recognize hotness when he saw it. 

So sue him. 

***

Getting to the bridge just as they were entering the system the signal was coming from, Kallo informed him that he was doing everything he could to run silent.  This meant that their speed was greatly reduced as they didn’t have great maps of the Scourge in this system.  Tefano had, according to scans four planets of which only one had a moon.  There hadn’t been any indication of a golden world in this system so it’d been marked low priority. 

“Engines to half power,” Kallo spoke aloud as they slowed even further as they allowed the Tempest’s long range scanners to passively do their magic. 

Suvi was working away at her station, muttering under her breath about the readings as they came in. Suddenly she let loose a quiet yelp. 

“Suvi?” Scott called, moving towards her workstation.  “You okay?”

She had sprang into a flurry of motion, her fingers dancing across the keys as her typing speed accelerated. Readings scrolled across her screen as the map of Tefano began to fill in with more details. “Pathfinder… you’ve got to see this!”

Leaning over her shoulder, he tried to catch the rapidly scrolling information. “What am I looking for?”

Her hands froze and then she tapped on a section that zoomed in at her command to reveal two small objects that were in a synchronous orbit around the moon of the gas giant which was the third planet in the system from the center star.  She continued to manipulate the screen, zooming in even further until the screen was filled with those two objects.

Scott’s mouth hung open in shock. “Is that?”

“It’s an ark!  The Paarchero!” Suvi’s excitement was bubbling as she continued to examine the scanner results.

There was indeed an ark-shaped object on the screen but what was more concerning was what it was visibly attached to—the Kett mothership. “Suvi… that’s… Isn’t that the ship that tried to….”

Suvi twisted in her seat to look at him, expression falling and brow furrowing in thought.  “The Verakan.”

“The what?” Scott reached out to tap the data stream on the side to slow it down so he could read it. 

“The ship that tried to catch us before Aya—it’s called the Verakan.  It’s the Archon’s flagship.”