#again sorry for the lighting i need to fix my lighting mod badly

[relatabletrait]

it's finally nearing the end of her third trimester so april is a little nervous. she decided to go on a nature walk to clear her head (and maybe induce labor).

[annakie]

An Annotated Mass Effect Playthrough, Part Five

Will we make it off the Citadel in this update??

List of Posts: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Flux is my favorite bar in all of the first game, I know there’s not many to choose from, but I like the music best, everybody’s clothed, everyone’s having a good time, there’s slots upstairs for entertainment, there’s dancing, and plenty of space to chill out in.  Also the color scheme is great.  It looks particularly great now with the graphics mod improvements.  

Doran gets a nice glamour shot here.

I’m a tattle tale who always turns this guy in.  I agree with Kaidan...

Also I really love Rita’s quest with her sister.  She loves her sister, Jenna  wants to be helpful, even Doran’s like “Hey I’d love to give her her job back.”  Everyone here is pretty wholesome.  And Jenna gets one of the best surprise appearances in ME3 if you do things right.  ME1Recalibrated fixes the bugs with her quest, too!

Speaking of bugged quests, Hello Conrad!  ME1Recalibrated fixes Conrad’s bug, and even if it doesn’t, ME2Re does.  The only bad thing about that is it makes his apology for accusing you of something you maybe didn’t do make no sense.

Everyone else was sure Conrad would turn out to be evil, too, right? Instead making him into just a big lying dummy with an advanced degree was a great move.  I was kinda hoping he’d show up in the Citadel DLC.   

Harkin is JUST the FUCKING WORST.  I’m always tempted to let Garrus cap him in ME2 because what a waste of air he is and doesn’t learn his lesson.  

This is also maybe the most overt place where FemShep experiences sexism.  I mean, don’t get me wrong, there’s some pretty shitty sexism sprinkled throughout the games (as discussed a bit last post) but ugh this guy, if I could shoot him this game, I might.  At least on renegade playthroughs.

Speaking of Garrus...

Finally, an alien who wants to hang out with us.

As primarily a Kaidan-romancing gal, who tends to keep up with the Kaidan Alenko tag, especially back in the heyday of tumblr, for a while, loving Garrus was... difficult.

In October, when I was finishing up my latest ME3 playthrough and also cleaning up my blog, and also rewatching Doctor Who and thinking a lot about Rose Tyler and Martha Jones, I posted a long thing in a post about Kaidan and Garrus and badly behaving fanbases, which I don’t feel like typing again.  Here’s the whole thing, but I’m going to pull a part of it into here.

I love Garrus, so much.  And I was thinking with this whole parallel DW rewatch / Mass Effect replay think I’m doing right now how both Rose Tyler and Garrus Vakaraian are characters that were ruined for me for awhile due to their respective… overly enthusiastic fanbases who a small percentage of were dicks to people who loved other characters.  The Kaidan tag (and from what I understand Thane got some of this too, but not nearly as bad) was a pretty hostile place for awhile (and yeah I used to regularly check the Garrus tag too and there was a small amount of tag-invasion there but uh, like 5% of what the Kaidan tag got) which made loving the character of Garrus a lot harder for awhile.  But when actually watching seasons 1 & 2 / the end of 4 of Doctor Who, or actually playing the ME games, those characters are awesome.  

Fanbases can be amazing or terrible, and time and time again I think you start to realize that no matter how great a fandom is, there are going to be a few people who can only enjoy themselves by feeding on drama, or on lifting up what they love by stomping on other people/characters/plotlines.  

It’s not fair to characterize everyone who loves a popular thing as someone who does this.  It’s also hard to avoid completely because there will always be jerks, or young/new people who don’t realize what bad form they’re showing.  I did learn by trying to fight it for a year or two, that responding might help that one person not do it again, but it’s not going to stop overall.  

Anyway, don’t be a dick about the things you don’t like.  

It’s sad that even thirteen years past the release of ME1 and eight years past ME3 some people still need to have this fight online.   It’s basically impossible to enjoy like, any non-curated Mass Effect space online because of pissing contests or people spouting the same boring opinions.  Which they’re entitled to.  I’m just real tired of “Kaidan is boring!” “Ashley is a racist!” etc with no further depth of thought being given.

The ability to mute / block people and get away from the worst of it is one of the reasons I’m still on tumblr.  Especially always mute/block “confessions” blogs.  Yeesh.

---------

I’m glad Garrus is here, and I’m glad he’s on the team.  What’s funny though, is that people tend to forget that Garrus like, wasn’t really all THAT popular of a character before ME2.  I know I was only in the fandom for a year before ME2 but I dug in pretty deep in that time.

It wasn’t until he gets his face blown off and starts talking about Old Times that a lot of people started to REALLY like him.  He’s still great in ME1, but not like, elevated to god-tier that so many people did post ME2 release.  But in ME1 he IS neat because he’s really malleable.  Probably the companion who can have the biggest personality shift depending on your choices.

Also, I remember a time when the people who wanted to romance Garrus were like... outliers?  I remember thinking “GARRUS?  As a romance?  That’s... weird.  Who would do that!?”

OH HOW I WAS WRONG.  But that was before reach and flexibility.

Hey I even have a Shep that romanced Garrus in ME2 and ME3.  And I loved it!

Were I to replay a different Shep, she’d be my first choice.

So yeah, I love Garrus, I keep Kaidan in the squad all the time in ME1 and the other spot I try to rotate everyone else somewhat evenly, but you’ll see plenty of him.  Then ME2 he’s by my side most of the way.  And an awful lot in ME3, too.  But I’m happy for him to get crushed on by Dr. Michele and glad to see him and Tali find happiness in ME3.  SO that’s the path we’ll be going down if we get that far here.

I love the Destiny Ascension flyby moment on the Citadel, and it’s so easy to miss.  Also really hard to get good screenshots of.  Thanks Flycam.  Don’t pay attention to the untextured wall in the first pic, just look at the pretty lights!

Let’s go get another squadmate!  This time, a not-as-initially-friendly alien!

What an amazing entrance for Urdnot Wrex.

“Do you want me to arrest you?”

“I want you to try!”

Hell.  Yeah.

Here’s where the somewhat in somewhat evenly comes in.  I probably do favor Wrex and Ashely in the squad in ME1 a little because... well you know what’s coming for Ash and Wrex you get the least amount of time with by far of the other companions.  Also, he’s just... great?  A tank, with some biotics and a shotgun... okay well so am I as a vanguard, but Kaidan has just enough tech powers for us to muddle through where we need to when Wrex is in the squad and he’s so much fun to have around.  His “Fuck you, I don’t care” attitude is great, and his growth story throughout the trilogy is one of the best arcs a character gets, imho.  I just really love Urdnot Wrex.

This is a real nice flight control office you’ve got here, C-Sec.  It would be a shame if someone planted a bug in it later, since literally anyone can just walk on up here uncontested.

This entire area really is so pretty though.

I always pump points into Paragon as much as possible from as early on as possible, and saving these poor guys’ lives is one of the big reasons.  They don’t need to die.

Ash usually still stays in the party up to this point, though sometimes it’s Garrus.  Fist is still a dick in ME2 but he doesn’t need to die here, sorry Wrex.

...raise your hand if you still occasionally forget to pick up Emily Wong’s evidence and have to reload.  I remembered!  ...once I was almost out of Chora’s Den and had to turn around this time.

Kaidan?  Kaidan my love?  My darling... perhaps YOU shouldn’t be the one standing in the middle of the corridor with no barrier or protection?  (I suppose I could scooch over but then I’d look less badass for these screenshots.  Naaah.)

It’d be a shame if someone properly lit the corridor so we could see what’s going on.

But hey... TALI!  Tali Tali Tali!  The first quarian we see, and only one for... awhile?  Is there another quarian in this entire game? I’m trying to remember and seriously can’t think of one.

Anyway, I love Tali, but another character you really need to ignore their most rabid fanbase portions of.  Yikes, Talimancers were really something back in the day.  The biggest problem I have with Tali being in the squad is that normally she’s REALLY useful against Geth and... not so much against just about anything else.  She gets sidelined on my team more than I wish she would.  Especially since she doesn’t show up until very late in ME2 and late-midway through ME3.

Finally, the proof we need.  And the game continues to introduce new concepts to us with the Conduit and we hear the word Reapers for the first time.  We also get a loredump on the quarians and the geth.  

Tali’s voice doesn’t have quite as heavy of an accent in ME1 as it does in 2 and 3.  I guess we can assume she’s lost part of it while on her pilgrimage?  Picking up the local dialects a bit?  The next two times we see her she’s just spent a lot of time with her own people.

Tali’s suit and omnitool look SO GOOD with the updated textures.

I swap Ash out and Tali in at this point, and usually finish up a few more quests along the way.

Ah, Septimus.  You lovesick fool.

Honestly, the very best thing with Septimus is to bring Garrus here if you’re gonna romance him, have Garrus laugh at him for coming undone for love and then... well, ME2 and especially ME3 happen.  But still.  Septimus... always needs a kick in the pants but will get around to doing the right thing.

Hey here’s a cool thing ME1Recalibated does -- Morlan carries a Squad Iconic Armors stock, so you can always find tier-appropriate default look armor for you and all the squad.  Very cool of you, Morlan.  You are currently my favorite store on the Citadel.  Now stop sending me spam, I didn’t sign up for your mailing list.

Look, I have questions about what exactly Xeltan told the consort and how... all that... works... but... I don’t think I actually want to ask them.  Just.. let’s all shut up about all of it, it’s over now.

BTW, according to one of the novels, Councilor Anderson finds Ambassador Cayln super annoying.  I need to re-read that book.

OK fine... I’ll go talk to the Council.

Coming at ya with Actual Proof and a quarian tagging along to back up the claims, the Council is ready to listen.  And while not surprising that it’s finally time to become a Spectre, the actual ceremony is really well done.  With the swelling theme music blaring, and all three councilors stressing what a big deal this is and what will be expected of you, you really feel the weight of this moment.  People take notice.  Although apparently later, Kaidan or Ash get an entire televised event around becoming a Spectre, I guess there’s no time for that right now.

It definitely feels like the game so far has been building towards this moment, not only with POUNDING it into your brain about who Spectres are and why they’re so important and letting you know you’re being evaluated... but it feels like there’s been a shift in the game after this moment.  It’s A Big Deal.

I didn’t finish all the sidequests on the Citadel yet, they can wait, I’ve been here long enough.  Let’s go check out the new cool stuff we can buy.

ME1Recalibrated adds in this Spectre Armor.  Eeehhhhh... no thanks.  We’ll stick with Onyx.

I did cheat myself in a bunch of credits and picked up Spectre weapons though. This ain’t no tryhard playthrough.  

Well OK, we can finish ONE more quest.  Thanks, startlingly loud and triumphant music queue that’s never used again!

Man, this would be SUCH a good pic of the Normandy if... the airlock didn’t go straight through the ship.

We’ve got a ship of our own!  And most of our squadmates to put on it!

Sucks for Anderson to be sidelined, though.  We already love you, Anderson!

It’s cool to get a bit more of the Saren & Anderson backstory here for real.  Still, I enjoyed the book more.  Maybe I’ll do a re-read of all the ME books here soon.

Udina... just keep being you, I guess.  

WE HAVE A SHIP!!!

Okay, whew... we made it off the Citadel.  Now I gotta actually play some more to have more updates to post.  Might be a few days.  Have to actually go back to work tomorrow. :p

Let’s probably do like one sidequest then go get us an Asari!!

[imagineyourstars]

Since Christmas is coming up (yay!!) how about some headcanons where Leo, Adonis, Izumi, Tsukasa and Koga are caught underneath the mistletoe with their s/o who's a bit shy? (I live for fluff and i live for Christmas okay) Thank you!

woops I misread this request and kept it for newyears since here mistletoe is usually kept for new years eve…  so it’s a little late, but it’s stillhere !! i hope you like it ! - mod mademoiselle

Leo :

Leo didn’t give a damn about theparty the school was holding, and only came for the promise of free food andseeing his friends. That included you, and you ended up getting stuck with himfor a while, nodding politely while he was telling you about another of his“theories”.

He never actually noticed themistletoe. Busy as he was telling you a grand tale of aliens and conspiracies,he lost track of his surroundings. Nothing unusual there. Until you pointed outyou were standing right under it.

Leo just stayed there, gawking, eyeswide and fixed on the mistletoe. That left you ample time to regret telling himabout it. Maybe that was taking it a bit too far ? What were you even thinking? You were about to just shyly change subjects or apologize (you didn’t knowwhich), but he suddenly shook out of his daze.

“Can I try something ? It won’thurt, promise !” Now that was suspicious. With how brightly he was grinning,you weren’t sure you should trust him. And he apparently sensed yourhesitation, because he started whining. “Pleeaase !” Oh, fine. Not like youcould refuse anything when he asked with those huge puppy dog eyes of his.

“Alright, you ready ? It’s gonna begreat !” You nodded, unsure of how to react. Leo smiled widely again, before hestarted counting down. You were a bit afraid he was just going to pop a crackernear your ear again, but decided togive him a chance regardless. “Three… two… one… uchuu~ !”

You squeezed your eyes shut,mentally bracing yourself for the loud noise of the cracker going off, butinstead Leo’s lips brushed against yours. You felt his eyelashes battingagainst your cheekbone, before he leaned into you and pressed his lips harderagainst yours. Before you could even react, it was over already, and he wasgrinning as happily as before.

You think you heard him mumbling“Take that, Izumi !” before he went away sauntering, but you’re still not thatsure about that part. You were still dazed from the kiss, after all.

Adonis

That poor boy was practically a lostpuppy. The end of year party was a bit too loud and flashy for him, so he endedup hiding in a corner near the buffet. When he spotted you in the crowd, hemade a beeline for you immediately. And he followed you around for a while, too.

Adonis is not the best at makingsmall talk, and he was mostly nodding at your shy attempts at holding aconversation. He did seem to be listening, so it wasn’t going too badly. Youwere slowly getting the hang of it when he interrupted you.

“Look, above you.” He spoke quietlybut you were startled all the same. You followed his gaze and spotted themistletoe, hanging insolently over the two of you. Adonis was just staringintensely at you, visibly waiting for a reaction.

“Looks like we have to kiss now !”was the only thing you eventually managed to stammer out. You were alreadycursing yourself when Adonis nodded gravely, seemingly lost in though. “You’reright.” Wait, what ? He was going along with it ?

His cheeks were the faintest bit ofpink as he leaned down, and he ended up closing his eyes. Maybe he was gettingshy too… His lips barely even brushed against yours, eventually settling at thecorners, like he couldn’t pick between kissing your cheek and your lips. Eventuallyhe slowly leaned back, but his eyes were still staring deeply into yours.

Adonis was about to speak when Kogainterrupted. “Damn bastards put fuckin’ mistletoe everywhere…” Perfect timing,as usual. You couldn’t help but glare at him, slightly annoyed he just bargedin and ruined your moment. “What ? Whatcha starin’ at, huh ? Did I fuckin’interrupt something ?” To your surprise, Adonis spoke up.

“It’s alright, Oogami. Maybe… we cando that again later… ?” His voice died out in a whisper, but you’d heard himjust fine. Even as he was looking away, cheeks reddish, his fingers had foundyours and were gently squeezing them. Maybe you’d have to thank whoever put thatmistletoe up…

Tsukasa :

Thank god for Tsukasa. That’s whatyou were idly thinking, as he was was masterfully holding the conversation andmaking sure you were having a good time. You were a bit nervous about coming tothe school’s party, but any and all worries were forgotten now.

You didn’t even notice you wereblindly following Tsukasa around the room until he gallantly offered a seat. “Please,sit down. I should go and fetch some drinks as well.” And with that, yourdashing knight was off, coming back shortly with two glasses.

You’d gotten absorbed in hischatting and ended up eagerly discussing art with him. He knows so much, despitebeing so young ! You let yourself be swept in his enthusiasm, that is, until heseemingly changed subjects. “Now may not be the best moment to mention it, but…I have chosen this seat with utmost care.” When he realized you didn’t seem tobe following him, he brought himself to explain. You couldn’t help but noticehe was blushing slightly.

“W-Well, that is to say, I picked itbecause of the, ahem, decorations.” Nope, you were still not following him.What was so different about it anyway ? Weren’t all the seats the same ? Your lipsparted, and then closed immediately. You’d just noticed it. The mistletoe.

Tsukasa himself seemed to be at aloss for words for a moment. He eventually shook out of it and inched his facecloser to yours, innocently peering at you. “… May I ?” You just nodded, and thenhis lips were on yours. His boldness surprised you, just like his eagerness intasting you. Too soon you were both out of breath and parted, eyes wide andcheeks red.

“I-I am sorry. This was truly… Iapologize.” You’d never seen Tsukasa as red-faced as he was now. It took quitea bit of cajoling to make him understand he did not in fact assault you, andthat you didn’t hate him. At least he seemed relieved now… and judging from howclingy he was to you for the rest of night, the sudden kiss left him feeling quiteamorous as well.

Izumi :

To be fair, you thought spendingyour evening with Izumi at a party would be tense. It turned out surprisinglyokay, which was a huge relief. Izumi even ended up monitoring what you ate andmaking sure you got enough calories and nutrients from it. Maybe that was hisway to show he cared…

Well, he did complain quite a lot. “Seriously,forcing us to stay here tonight is so annoying. I need to go to sleep early, we’vegot a job coming soon.” You were just nodding empathically, and bravelylistened to his ranting. Wasn’t it a sign of trust if he ranted to you, anyway? “I can’t believe their buffet either. Do they want us to get fat ? Ugh. Thisis making me sick.”

You weren’t really listening anymoreand were in a daze, until you noticed he’d been awfully silent for a momentalready. He seemed to be avoiding your eyes, and looked rather uncomfortable.You shyly asked what was wrong, but he refused to tell. He did glance quicklyupwards, though… Curious, you did too and your eyes fell on mistletoe.

Suddenly, you could hear the otherstudents snickering. You could even feel the weight of their eyes on you. Well,that was embarrassing. Izumi pointedly ignored you for a short moment, eventuallytaking a sharp breath and looking at you straight in the eyes. “Hey. Are wegoing to kiss, or what ?”

You just blinked awkwardly, not surewhat you should answer, until he impatiently clicked his tongue. “Let’s justget this over with.” Next thing you knew, his fingers were tilting your chinupwards and he was over you. His lips pressed hard into yours at first, butbecame increasingly gentler, and you even heard him stifling a sigh as he letyou go. He looked like he didn’t want to part from you for just a moment…

Soon enough, the usual Izumi wasback. “What are you staring at me for ? It’s just the tradition. No big deal.”You weren’t sure you should believe him. Especially not with how pink the tipsof his ears were getting.

Koga :

“Fuckin’ hell… Why do I gotta bestuck here with you ?!” Hey, now. You weren’t such bad company, were you ? Thisparty sounded promising enough, until the other UNDEAD members ditched you togo talk to friends. You ended up staying with Koga, mostly because you didn’tdare get up and walk away.

“I just wanna go home ! End of yearparty, my ass !” Yeah, he was in a bad mood. You were just staring at yourhalf-empty glass, trying to find a way to deflect the conversation to somethingmore light-hearted. Strangely enough, he didn’t thwart your awkward attempts atsmall talk and grunted in response. That was going better than planned.

The conversation was clearlyone-sided, but hey, at least you got him to stop whining ! Sure, he only evergroaned non-committed answers, but at least he wasn’t ignoring you. You were soabsorbed in your victory over your shyness that you didn’t notice he got eerilyquiet. At least, not until he interrupted you. “Hey, uh… I think we’re gonna havea problem.”

Koga was looking up, a strangemixture of horror and shock on his face. You anxiously looked up as well, andfroze when you noticed the mistletoe. It wasn’t here earlier, was it… ? Koga wouldprobably think you brought him there on purpose, now… You were franticallylooking for a way to explain things weren’t what they looked like when youheard Kaoru howling with laughter in the distance. At least someone found thesituation funny.

Koga shook his head vigorously, butstill looked rather dazed. Or maybe embarrassed. You weren’t too sure. “So, uh…We gotta kiss now, I guess.” Oh boy, he wouldn’t fool you. Not with hownonchalant he was trying to act. And especially not with how he motioned toslip an arm around your shoulders but gave up at the last second. Thankfully,he never noticed you weren’t quite buying his whole detached act, busy as hewas checking no one else was watching.

He only leaned in when he made surethere were no eyewitnesses. You were about to comment on it but he pressed hislips to yours, shyly at first, then with more confidence. He even sneakily biton your lower lip when you got distracted enough, chuckling softly when youhummed in protest. Too soon, he was away from you, eyes glinting happily.

“So ? ‘Twas great, right ? I’ll haveya know, I have great technique. Ya won’t find many guys who kiss like thegreat me— oi, what did ya roll your eyes for, huh ?!”