#alterous shepard love

[veshialles]

Was there a tipping point for Hyacinth, one decision that really sent her story crashing?

Or was the point that she was always going to end up here? That it wasn't just one big thing, but the culmination of a thousand little cuts?

~Jasper

It was a bit of both, truth be told! My original thought processes when building her as a character were: "what if I made a girl who Gets Worse™" and "Oh shit what if she was a space witch also!" But I have a lot of details about how it all went wrong. Anyways! time to psychoanalyze my own OC

So, Hyacinth's upbringing definitely brought with it a thousand little cuts for sure; orphaned in a traumatic shuttle crash at a young age, growing up in the slums of Marseille, France, feeling alone and abandoned, ending up forced to do morally questionable things just to survive and get enough to eat, fell in with a local street gang that had connections to a larger criminal empire. And, well, when you spend so long "just trying to survive", you might find that the mental switch for your fight or flight response could get permenantly set to "Fight", especially if your circumstances have you trapped in an environment that reinforces and even rewards your aggressive reactions and you've never sought counselling in your life because you didn't have access to those resources (and later because you think you're above "all that mushy crap".) Such as the case was for her, unfortunately.

When her biotics came in, Hyacinth (by then already well immersed in the crminal underbelly of Alliance and UNIN territories) began to make a name for herself as "La Sorciere de La Viste" and suddenly that scared little kid, tired of being pushed around, decided to become something to fear. Taking part in shakedowns, heists, smuggling rings, extortion rackets, hit jobs, the lot of it; doing whatever she could to gain an edge. A reputation which served her gang well, but soon caught the attention of the Alliance Military, who sought her out for questioning (and recruitment). They offered to clear Hyacinth's extensive criminal record if she signed a plea deal, in exhange she would get 3 full meals a day and consistent living arrangements, and while it took some intense prying on their part because of her "authority issues", she eventually accepted the offer and betrayed her old gang.

No less than a month later, the Alliance shipped her off to Jump Zero "Brain Camp", where their trainers honed Hyacinth's biotic powers into a deadly weapon, and she chose to specialize in Vanguard tactics. So now, all that rage and pain and hurt was being concentrated into raw mass effect fields with one goal: cripple the enemy with overwhelming force. She showed such proficiency in this that, after some years of dedicated service, Hyacinth was recommended for the N7 Program. Her hardheadedness served her well in some tests, and caused her to nearly fail in others, but eventually she did pass, through sheer force of will. Clawing her way up from a scrawny street rat to a fully fledged biotic warrior.

A few years later, Alliance Command shipped her off to the front lines of their conflict with the Batarian Hegemony, where she saw some of the bloodiest battles she would witness until the Reaper War. Which, as desensitized as she was to violence, did obviously leave her with even more physical and psychological scars for sure (not that she would ever honestly admit it, of course). All of this culminated to Hyacinth being put in charge of the final assault, where she ordered her unit to mercilessly pursue the Batarian forces stationed there, wiping them out at the cost of most of her unit's lives. There were rumours that her terrifying display of biotic power during the firefight could have created a "friendly fire" situation when she tore those Batarians to shreds, and while it was never fully investigated, she earned her unofficial title, The Witch Of Torfan.

The final tipping point though, in my opinion at least, was when Ashley died on Virmire. Because although her ruthless tendencies were alive and well in the pursuit against Saren, when Hyacinth was travelling with the Normandy crew, she finally had some sense of "normalcy". She didn't exactly "soften up" but she did allow herself to get closer to her crewmates than she normally would have on any given mission, because before she figured there was no point to it. The places she got assigned to were usually temporary posts, with temporary CO's and temporary squadmates, most of whom might probably die in the field anyway, so she tended to think "what's the point?".

But, over the course of her Spectre-authorized investigation, Hyacinth got very close with Ashley, who became someone Hyacinth could let her guard down around and actually have a (fairly) open dialogue with. Although they didn't agree on everything, they got along well and had some inexplicable raw chemistry, and Ashley even took to calling Hyacinth "Skipper" as a flirty nickname. (thank you modding community 💕)

If things had turned out differently, maybe she would have done at least some healing, or maybe she would have stayed the same. But when the fateful call came in, and Hyacinth was forced to make a choice, she ran back to the bomb-site. Not to save Kaidan, but to defend the team's main objective and ensure the facility's destruction. She hoped Ashley by some miracle might make it out alive, having seen her resourcefulness in the field first-hand. And when Ashley didn't make it back to the Normandy, instead of facing her grief and loss and taking responsibility for the call she made, Hyacinth chose instead to turn around take out all of her rage on Kaidan, lashing out at him in the conference room after the mission, in front of everybody, starting the bitter rivalry between the two of them that will likely never truly end. (yes he just survived the Cerberus Attack in my pt, and yeah she's a kinda pissed about it)

Hyacinth's loss on Virmire was what really "cemented" her ongoing train-wreck of harsh choices, because it was at that point when Hyacinth began to truly believe, whether she realized it consciously or not, that she was unworthy of "having good things" and "being the better woman", and that just maybe she was incapable and/or undeserving of changing her ways, and that the universe was an inherently cruel place as she had always believed. And by reinforcing that narrative in her mind, Hyacinth spiraled into a self-fulfilling prophecy, and would continue to make terribly harsh choices under this justification, with each Renegade action hammering this belief ever further into her psyche.

While Hyacinth did eventually find love and understanding again in Jack - a woman who, like her, had lead a similarly harsh life of violent crime, was hardened by it, and even understood what a life with biotics could be like - their tender connection borne from common struggles still wasn't enough to turn Hyacinth away from the path she was on. (At least she was a good influence on Jack?? Somehow??? something something cautionary tales I guess idk. thank you again, modding community💕)

I guess, in a way, the other major reason why she is Like That™ is because, at her core, Hyacinth never really stops being that scared little kid, struggling to eke out an existence in one of Earth's many forgotten gutters. She is still reacting to every potential threat and problem like a hammer to a nail, still willing to manipulate and betray her "allies" if she thinks it would give her an advantage (oftentimes without fully considering the full implications, and later on simply not caring about the long-reaching effects). Because she's simply never learned how else to operate.

So yeah, long story short; Hyacinth Shepard's unhealed trauma and apathetic/pessimistic worldview informs a LOT of her decision-making. And even though her regrets and sins will haunt her to the end of her days, she holds onto the core belief that she deserves to be haunted by what she has done, and the belief that she doesn't deserve to get better. And that's the tragedy of it all. Because like, it really didn't have to turn out like this. She was handed so many chances to do differently, to make a better choice, but when you take all of those events combined, it acted like some kind of horrible cascading domino effect for her, and because of that, it probably couldn't have turned out any other way for Hyacinth, sadly :(

[sky-scribbles]

There are a lot of things to love about the SSV Normandy. It’s a symbol of cooperation between two species historically at odds. It’s a miracle of engineering, a technological masterpiece that could alter every pattern of space warfare. Its crew is the highest calibre that the Alliance has to offer, bolstered by multispecies allies: an emblem of flying hope.

It also has far, far too many flashing lights. Everywhere.

One hand pressed to the wall to keep himself steady, the other pressed against his forehead as if that’s going to do any good, Kaidan shuffles down the hall toward the med bay. Every light panel and display interface feels like a laser drill boring directly through his eyes, sounds reverberate against the inside of his skull, and his sense of balance is a distant, pleasant memory. Kaidan sucks in a tight breath between his teeth. It’s going to be okay. He can do this. He’s done it before.

He drags himself the last few feet, and the med bay doors slide open. Kaidan opens up his omni-tool – god, why are those so bright, too? – and does what he’s done a hundred times, scanning the medical interface so that the med system logs him. Doctor Chakwas isn’t here, which means she’s on her rest shift, but that’s fine. The med system will alert her if there’s a problem.  

Kaidan, turns, so ready to collapse into the nearest med bed – except he can’t. Because there’s someone already in it.

‘Oh,’ he says. ‘Hey, Tali.’

‘Hey, Lieutenant.’ She still seems shy about using his first name. Maybe it’s a habit from being raised on board ships, or maybe she’s just not sure if she’s allowed. ‘Are you okay?’

‘I will be once the pain meds kick in.’ Kaidan makes it to the next bed along and finally, finally lies down and shuts his eyes. ‘Doctor Chakwas is just… pretty strict about me coming here whenever a migraine kicks in. Just in case it’s a sign of something going wrong with my implant.’

Through the fog of everything hurts, it finally surfaces in his brain that Tali in the med bay is… that’s bad, right? ‘What about you? Are you, you know –?’

Okay, he’s not sure how to finish that sentence. There’s probably not a polite way to say hey, are you here because you’ve picked up a fatal illness?

He cracks one eye open, just enough to see her looking glumly at him. He’s not sure how he can tell that she’s glum when all he can see is her eyes, but yeah. She’s glum. ‘You know how I took a hit on Feros?’

‘Yeah.’

‘And how I disinfected it, and used my patch kit on the suit breach, and told Shepard I was fine?’

‘Yeah.’

‘I was not fine.’ She slumps down miserably. ‘My throat is full of painful slime, my sinuses are on fire, and my halesh –’ Okay, that’s obviously some piece of quarian anatomy – ‘is more gummed up than I can describe.’

Kaidan shuts his eyes again. ‘Well, my skull feels like it’s slowly contracting and crushing my brain, so… I sort of feel you.’

She laughs weakly. ‘I should have run an extra med scan once I got back to the Normandy. I just – I wanted to help with the engine maintenance today. And there’s this combat drone design I’m working on. And now…’ There’s a sound of movement; Kaidan gets the impression that she’s gesturing at the med bay in angry helplessness.

‘I feel that too.’ And he does. He really does. This isn’t the worst migraine he’s ever had – he can actually hold a conversation, which some days would be beyond him. But it’s… it’s not great. And he had things to do. Ash was running a drill and wanted him to look over her plans. He had a cleaning shift at fourteen hours. Shepard wanted to talk strategy for Noveria.  And yes, he knows he has a right to take time off for a medical issue. He knows he’s no use to Ash or Shepard or anyone when he can’t even walk in a straight line. But knowing that doesn’t quite get rid of the squirm in his belly, the one that feels like letting people down.

Tali’s quiet for a minute, aside from the ever-present, barely-audible hum of her suit systems, and the occasional sniff from behind her helmet. Then she says, unexpectedly, ‘I’m just… I’m so tired. You know what I mean?’

Kaidan’s head throbs. He swallows. ‘Oh, yeah.’

The constant vigilance. Always having to be careful about where he goes – is this room too bright? Is this one too loud? – in case something triggers another bad spell. Taking hits to the head in a fight that anyone else could just shrug off, but that for him mean another trip to the med bay to make sure his implant isn’t damaged. Trying to do his job and suddenly finding, no, he can’t, because his body has decided that today’s the day he just doesn’t get to function.

Tali… she must go through the same awful deal, just in a different flavour. Always being careful, so careful. Someone else’s minor injury being her okay, let’s get a med check to make sure I won’t die. It’s not the same, of course: Kaidan can eat food without filtering it, touch people without protective layers, see people’s faces without a tinted mask. Still… there’s a tone in her voice that he knows from his own.

There’s a heavy silence. Then Tali says, ‘You know what’s really stupid? I left my datapad in my cabin, so I can’t even watch vids.’

Kaidan smiles. He’s seen her down in Engineering, a few times, hands flying around over the machinery, rocking back and forth on her heels. Idleness obviously doesn’t suit her. ‘You can borrow mine, if you like.’

‘Really?’ Her voice is already brighter. ‘I mean – won’t the noise will make you feel worse?’

‘Nah, I’ll be good.’ He’s not just saying it; there’s a blissful numbness creeping through his head which means that his meds are finally getting to work. He fishes the datapad from his pocket, taps in his passcode, and hands it over. ‘What kind of vids do you like?’

Her whole being perks up – tone, body, everything. ‘Oh, all of them.Any genre, any species. I mean… asari vids can be a bit long. I mean, they’re made by people who can spend a decade making a vid and a whole day watching it. Turians… their vids can be a bit depressing. There’s a lot of ‘this war ended with almost everyone dead, but one turian is still standing, so it’s a victory!”

‘What about quarians? What kinds of stories do your people tell?’

A small laugh echoes inside the helmet. ‘Quarian vids are pretty limited by environment. We don’t have a lot of varied sets to work with. So we tell the best long-running dramas. There’s one ship in the Flotilla that’s been hosting the same series for over eighty standard years now. Following the crew as they change over time, that sort of thing.’ She taps the base of her helmet. ‘It’s pretty good, but… I think if you watched it, you’d think there were a lot more explosions, murders and shipwide romantic entanglements in the Flotilla than there actually are.’

‘Human dramas are like that too.’

Tali laughs. ‘Quarian dramas make human dramas look relaxed.’

Kaidan finds he’s actually able to grin. ‘So what do human vids tell you about us?’

Her helmet tilts as she considers. ‘That you’re very individualistic. I mean, not every human culture. But you put a lot of focus onto characters and personal journeys.’ She scrolls down the datapad screen – looking through vid lists, presumably – then stops. It’s hard to tell, but Kaidan thinks she might be frowning. ‘I did notice… in a lot of human media, the biotics are…’

Another insistent pulse of pain through his temples. Kaidan sighs. ‘Crazy extremists?’

‘Yes. Do you… do you mind if I ask why that is?’

‘No, it’s fine.’ Kaidan turns onto his back and stares up at the dim ceiling. ‘A lot of the early generation of biotics, the ones who got the same implants as me… let’s just say I got off lightly. Most ended up with much more serious medical conditions. And when people found out about the side effects of the L2 implants, the media got the bit between its teeth and –’ Yeah, no, that wasn’t going to translate. ‘Sorry. Human saying. They got a certain impression, and they ran with it.’

Tali’s quiet for several seconds. Kaidan twists his head to face her, and sees the pale eyes behind the mask giving him a long, steady look.

‘I’m sorry,’ she says. And then, after a moment, ‘They tell lies about us, too.’

Kaidan holds her gaze, and feels terribly, achingly sad. ‘Yeah,’ he says. ‘I bet they do.’

 The way people look at Tali as she walks through the Presidium… it’s familiar. Not quite the same. There’s a note of scorn in the looks they give to Tali – but there’s suspicion, too, and that’s something he knows. All the times back on Earth, after he got back from Jump Zero, when he shook someone’s hand or opened a door, and their eyes found the implants. They way they stared at him like he was a loaded gun. All the documents he had to fill out to do anything, the knowledge that any government he lived under would always be hovering a few steps away, keeping tabs, making sure.

Remembering Rahna – remembering that obvious, instinctive fear in her eyes – is an old memory now, the kind that’s a faded scar. But he remembers the shock of it, back when he was seventeen. When no one had looked at him like that before, and it was dizzying and new and felt like a hole in his gut.

He bets Tali has that hole in her gut all the time.

Kaidan pushes himself up a little – which makes his brain spin, but he manages it – and gives Tali a smile. ‘Well. Let’s look for something that gets us both right.’

‘Definitely.’ She flicks through the options for a minute more, then pauses. ‘Have you ever seen Fleet and Flotilla?’

‘I think I’ve heard of it.’ There’s a faint memory of seeing an ad for it, maybe, and thinking it was the kind of thing he’d have loved as a kid. Space exploration. Justice. Love. ‘The… war romance, right?’

‘Yes!’ Tali’s legs bounce. ‘It’s – keelah, it’s so good, it’s – it’s about this girl, Shalei, who’s on her pilgrimage. And she’s interested in the geth, because she’s got this dream of finding a way to defeat them and take back the Homeworld, right? And when she finds something, she goes to the Citadel for help, but no one will listen except this one turian called Bellicus –’

‘Hold up. Wasn’t that… exactly what you were doing when we met you? Minus the turian, I mean.’

Tali ducks her head, suddenly shy. ‘I… I really, really like the vid.’

No kidding. Kaidan smiles. ‘So let’s watch it.’

His head still feels like a bombsite, and when he thinks about all the things he wants to be doing for his crew and isn’t, the rest of him hurts too. But maybe he’s still doing something for his crew, sitting in the med bay with his sick squadmate – his sick friend – and sharing her favourite vid with her. Maybe he’s doing something for him, too. He doesn’t do that too often.

Tali props the datapad up on the table between their beds, her whole body one big smile. ‘You’re going to love this,’ she promises, and presses play.

[xamiipholia]

okay y'all seemed to like the last one so here's a few more Horizon 3 thoughts:

Aloy won’t die. It would completely upend the series’ themes and just be really nihilistic.

Since Nemesis is a gestalt entity I think it’s a safe bet that we’ll see Sam Witwer, Carrie-Anne Moss, etc again. I’m curious how they’re going to do it because at least structurally, it’s basically a reaper. Maybe it’ll use different Avatars when communicating like the Leviathan in ME3. 

It's gonna take some work to make a flashback/dream/vision not contrived but I would love to see Varl and Rost again. I think we deserve that.

Minerva is gonna have its work cut out for it blocking access to both the dormant Faro Swarm and the ZD terraforming system. 

I wouldn’t be surprised if Nemesis has some sort of corruption function that becomes the equivalent of the corruption in HZD. It would be a really fun tech showcase if GG uses Zenith nanotech for machine corruption and leans into mechanical body horror.

If we’re going to Ban-Ur I really really hope they do the work to make the Banuk less problematic and more fleshed out as a culture. A quasi-Spartan society absolutely would not survive in an extreme environment, *especially* without megafauna to hunt. The Banuk characters are lovely and well-written; they deserve a society as well thought out as the Utaru or Carja. I’m honestly fine if there’s retcons or revamps to the cultural lore because the whole “outsider barges in and becomes chief” is rooted in racist, colonial tropes and we just don’t really need that imo.

The most recent footage of Death Stranding 2 (also running on Decima) has me SO excited for the visuals. GG’s gonna knock it out. The facial rendering and animation that Kojima Productions are doing looks industry-peak and I’m sure GG’s gonna match that. Aloy’s Gay Panic™️ scene on the beach in HBS is already top-tier nonverbal storytelling through animation. Digital Foundry actually just posted a really cool tech breakdown of the current Decima engine. I’m especially excited about the environmental stuff. The ocean simulations in HFW are already incredible and I hope they increase verticality in the world. I can’t wait to see the Sacred Lands in current gen graphics. 

I really love Kotallo’s DIY arm and it’s so so important to his development but Beta and Gaia now have access to Zenith nanotech, maybe give your buddy a sick upgrade hmm?

Speaking of, I can’t wait to see Beta come into her own. She’s one of the best parts of HFW and Aloy’s character absolutely shines in a sibling dynamic. 

I wouldn’t get your hopes up for a romance mechanic. Everyone’s feelings on that aside, it would be really odd from a game development perspective to just overhaul part of how the narrative develops Aloy’s character in the last act of the story. Yeah, there are flashpoints but I would argue that the presence of choice in Horizon is smoke and mirrors- cosmetic at best. Kentucky Route Zero (which you should play) does something similar where the player is given a certain amount of control over the substance of individual conversations and scenarios and it does absolutely nothing to alter the plot, by design. I think it’s the same here - this isn’t really a choice-based RPG, the flashpoints don’t really affect anything plot-wise or for Aloy’s character development. Olin is still out of the story, Nil lives, Regalla still dies one way or another. Aloy’s character development is pretty firmly on rails (think Jin Sakai, not Shepard - you get to guide some momentary character reactions but that’s it). I don’t think HBS is a testing ground either - If they were gonna introduce a romance mechanic I think they’d just do it, and not spend two years making a direct continuation of HFW’s main quest and establishing a specific romance hard-baked into the plot, complete with multiple leitmotifs for the character relationship (which is something they haven’t done before afaik) just to introduce a side quest mechanic coming in 5 years. I genuinely can’t think of any game or dev that has beta tested a major alteration to upcoming game mechanics that way - it doesn’t really make any sense in terms of developer resources, and these games are extremely time-consuming to make. I know this is a thing a bunch of people want and I can totally empathize with that! I just think it’s probably not on the table. 

I would bet money the series will bookend itself and the epilogue will involve a) the naming of Zo and Varl’s kid and b) Lis’ pendant. 

Mostly I'm just looking forward to being surprised. One of my favorite things that Horizon does is use carefully established elements in the world to pull the plot in unexpected directions and keeping the world grounded while they lean into speculative science fiction. I can't wait to see what Guerrilla is cooking up

[genericpuff]

I'm not sure if you've answered this question before but what were some of the things that made you interested in Lore Olympus in the past and at what point did you lose interest?

I adored the art in the beginning, and just like, the really warm-feeling romance that just had me feeling so giddy reading it. There were some red flags in the beginning like the age gap, but I kinda fell for the same mindset of "well they're gods so what does it matter" (obviously I can't in good faith use that argument anymore because if the age gap didn't matter then it either wouldn't exist or wouldn't be brought up in the first place lmao but it took me a while to realize that).

Now, to be fair, LO was also one of my first introductions to webtoons as a format, prior to that I had read mostly manga and left-to-right indie webcomics (i.e. comics that were hosted on their own site) and I was still in the early years of my own development as a writer and artist (I still feel like I'm early in that development tbh) so of course there were undoubtedly a lot of obvious flaws that went over my head (and I was younger and inexperienced so I wasn't as critical of what media I was watching / reading as I am now) but that's been half the fun of catching them now - it's given me a lot more perspective and helped me hone my own skills in my writing by analyzing what's wrong with LO and brainstorming on how those problems can be avoided.

But then there was the Act of Wrath plotline and I was completely sold on it being gold. Anyone who's read my original work knows how much of a SUCKER I am for "dark alter ego" plotlines, I eat that shit up like junk food. But what I like about the dark alter ego tropes is when they're used to explore the subconscious, question one's morals and true identity, etc. That was what I was hoping for and expecting with the AoW plotline in LO - that her "dark self" was gonna be a reflection of how she felt "held back" by her circumstances in the Mortal Realm, and her wrath being something she could use for retribution (in a "do no harm but take no shit" kinda way). Especially with how naive and innocent she was in the beginning, I loved the idea of her slowly coming to terms with her "darker" side and learning not to suppress her emotions until they had nowhere else to go and exploded (which was how I interpreted the AoW).

So when it didn't do that, or even explore an ounce of nuance regarding her relationship with her wrath, I was very disappointed to say the least. When Eris was revealed to be the one who "blessed" her with wrath, that was when the rose colored glasses started to fall off and I realized "wait, does Rachel not have an actual plan for this whole Kore vs. Persephone thing???" And now her wrath is literally just there to... give her the power to bully people?? It just feels so disheartening to see such potential squandered.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not gonna chastise a story if it doesn't go exactly where I want it to go, there would be no fun in that anyways (and that's what fanfiction is for lmao). But when a story is leaving very interesting but connectable breadcrumbs that are VERY clearly leading you somewhere and then just... doesn't, that's when it's disappointing and unsatisfying. LO feels like a "creator vs. the reader" story in the worst way possible, where it's constantly leaving breadcrumbs, getting pissed when the audience "figures it out", so then it overcorrects and tries to "subvert" itself to keep the readers "on their toes"... but the problem is that all it really does is punish the readers for paying attention and investing themselves in the story by giving them a worse story. It's like Rachel's getting mad at people for figuring out a story that she's writing and hinting towards.

And this has been going on for YEARS now, it's like a Shepard tone where it sounds like it keeps getting higher and higher in pitch but then doesn't actually resolve so your brain is just scrambling trying to figure out what in the world it could be "building up to".

There's nothing. It's not building up to anything. It's just constantly putting down new plot threads that are slightly altered versions of previous plot threads and expecting you to keep following along while it makes a mess of itself. It feels like you're going somewhere but you're actually still just running in place. It's just Rachel never learning how to progress past the middle school writing level of "and then this happened and then this happened and then this happened". Not only is it disorganized writing, but it's just... it's so boring. Nothing's exciting or interesting anymore when it keeps distracting itself with shiny new plotlines and characters that never get resolved.

It's like when you were a kid and thought "man , when I grow up, I'm gonna eat nothing but chocolate cake and ice cream every day forever!" and then you get older and you realize you were being silly because eating nothing but chocolate cake and ice cream every day 1.) isn't good for you and doesn't feel good, and 2.) the appeal and novelty of it wears off if you can have it any time you want, it doesn't feel as special anymore as it did when you were a kid and having those things was a treat.

To compare this back to LO, none of its "reveals" feel like treats anymore, they feel like just another half-assed attempt to keep people interested. It's clickbait.

And don't get me wrong, you CAN totally subvert the breadcrumbs you put down for your audience and go in a completely different direction than where the audience was expecting, but it takes a shitload of skill and thought to do it well. Attack on Titan is one of the best recent examples of a story appearing to completely throw out its original script halfway through, only for that script to actually still be relevant in a very complex and thought out way. Especially when there ARE hints towards the big "twist" that make you go back and rewatch it and realize "WAIT, THEY'VE BEEN GIVING US THE ANSWERS ALL THIS TIME?!?!"

(it would be TWO MORE FUCKING SEASONS before this ending would make sense, that's fucking GENIUS foreshadowing and in the CREDITS SEQUENCE LIKE ?? IT'S SO BLINK AND YOU'LL MISS IT HOLY SHIT-)

Evidently Rachel does not have that skill and is not willing to put in that thought; maybe she could some day, but I don't think she's learning it on the job as well as she thinks she is.

And it's disappointing as fuck because it could have been so much better than this. Rachel is literally the only one getting in her own way of LO being something truly great.

[lilmissnatcat24]

i know it was meant to be a bit more slapsticky in humor, but shepard punching khalisa across three games will never not be hilarious to me

because she's the first human spectre. it's not like it's just a promotion. this was a huge deal and the council and udina all knew it was a huge deal. they knew shepard would become a household name, instantaneously. and they never ONCE think it's a good idea to give her some media training? like i get she's on a mission, but not even a crash course of hey, don't spill your guts to the press please? they just send her on her way, and the first motherfucking thing this woman does is punch a slightly annoying reporter in the face. it's so funny. like at the beginning of the game, udina and hackett and anderson are like pleading that shepard gets the nomination for the spectres. you can tell so much politicking went into that. they were like yeah, shepard is awesome. we love her. you'll be happy, i promise! and then her first official spectre interview, she fucking decks someone.

and then in me2, cerberus is in control. and they make it very clear that the ideal of shepard is just as important as shepard herself. she has a mystique around her that other people naturally rally behind. so surely this time, we'll give her some media training lessons? im sure cerberus has modules and stuff she can watch in her cabin? but no, shepard fucking books it to the citadel, doesn't even wait for khalisa to finish asking one question, and then promptly knocks her tf out. absolute comedy. if tali and garrus were at all concerned that cerberus altered her and wasn't the same shepard from two years ago, then her punching khalisa would dissuade any doubts faster than anything shepard could possibly say to them.

and i get in me3 it doesn't matter as much. like, we're at war. whole systems are falling. media training is the least of anyone's worries right now. but at least that has to be a bit of a consolation to people to see that while, yes the galaxy was falling apart, but at least shepard is still out there attacking reporters for asking mildly probing questions. pure comedy. shepard is truly ungovernable.

[notjuststardust]

One Piece Monster Trio +Law and Ace: What kind of dog breed would they be?

Monkey D. Luffy

American Pitbull Terrier

-In general terms american pitbull terriers are often misconstrued as something they aren't because people want to sugarcoat what their original purpose was, dog fighting.

-THIS IS LITERALLY LUFFY'S PLAQUE THROUGHOUT THE SERIES.

-DOESN'T MEAN THEY ARE MEAN.

-Just means their inner goofball comes out when they are doing terrier things.

-LIKE LUFFY BEING A CAPTAIN.

-Though they're silly, loyal and more intelligent than people give them credit for, a purpose driven life with people that understand that insane drive and appreciate a velcro dog are best for these dogs (ahem, Zoro, ahem)

-LOVE TO EAT.

-Also their big gaping smile reminds me of Luffy too.

-Above pictured is Dino, a dog at my local shelter who has been looking for a home all his life. I have hung out with him and can vouch he is dog friendly, people friendly and an overall great pup. He is now with a foster home to care for his very specific allergy needs. I would take him home and rename him Luffy if I could, please check out his adoption page and share so he can find a good home!

New Bern, NC - American Pit Bull Terrier. Meet Dino a Pet for Adoption - AdoptaPet.com

Roronoa Zoro

-ANATOLIAN SHEPARD

-Yall thought I'd say pitbull.

-Absolutely not because Zoro has PRESENCE and that comes with a livestock guardian breed.

-These dogs are intense.

-Bred to take on wolves and coyotes and to be willing to die for their families.

-The Anatolian shepard specifically is a very quiet livestock guardian dog hence why I chose this over the great Pyrenees.

-ALSO THEY WERE SPECIFICALLY BRED FOR THIS COLOR TO STAND OUT TO SCARE THE WOLVES OFF AND I FEEL LIKE THATS SO ZORO.

-Though they're MASSIVE they have athleticism similar to big cats because they were originally bred for the fields of Turkey.

-Y'all can't tell me that the level of athleticism Zoro maintains while being built like a tank doesn't make this match.

-Good head on their shoulders to access threats and work well within their job and independently.

Vinsmoke Sanji

-Dachshund

-HEAR ME OUT

-I'M SERIOUS.

-Dachsunds are go getters, HOUNDS.

-They're independent, drivey and WILLFUL and like who they like.

-They're meant to work alongside terriers (Luffy) to trap the badgers so the terrier can take the threat out.

-Literally the goat of hound dogs.

-EXPLORERS.

-EVERYONE SEES THEM AS SOMETHING THEY'RE NOT.

-Distinguished little velcro dogs who will recklessly fight for their person despite the threat to themselves (SANJI'S SELFLESSNESS??)

-Not actually breed specific but literally every dachshund I have ever met has a love for women.

Trafalgar Law

-Siberian husky

-I'm going to get really specific and say a husky that pulls lead on the sled.

-These dogs will work themselves until they die.

-They're so stubborn that their drive and need to work literally has altered their metabolisms to adapt.

-Thats definetely what happened to Law's brain.

-ACTUALLY (Their metabolisms are biologically different than other breeds, able to practically slow and speed up at will)

-Not to mention they are meant to be working together at all times BUT are incredibly independent unless forced to work together.(LUFFY AND LAW).

-Smarter than you.

-Also, the markings on them just look so Law to me.

-Don't do well when they aren't working.

-Will easily fall back on anxious behaviors when separated from their jobs.

-Also, I can so imagine Law doing the quiet grumbling that these dogs do when they 'complain'.

Portgas D. Ace

-ROTTWEILER

-It is in their blood to be silly (not a fact, just speculation pls don't cite me for a college paper)

-Drive for food and play is high.

-Originally bred as herding dogs but due to unforseen circumstances of their size and perception were forced to become protectors of the families of sheep they herded (ACE WITH LUFFY AND SABO).

-THEIR SMILES ARE THE SAME.

-Smart but dumb.

-CLINGY. LITERALLY JUST CLINGY.

-Threat perception and self preservation is skewed just because of the herding breed in them so it can make them a little too brave sometimes.

-Originally bred to be a family herder and fated to be an independent guardian, close to work but far from family.

[wilfywarfy]

Dynamic Exploration!

Today, the wheel has chosen...

Google and Silver Shepard!

---

Google didn't like Silver at first. Then again, Google doesn't like anyone when he first meets them. As someone who's secondary objective is to destroy the world, that's his default emotion towards all humans.

But also, Silver, in his eyes, just wasn't that likeable. He was rather idiotic, running around in his hero costume (If you could even call it that), sobbing over the fact his girlfriend was with his alter ego. Seriously, how slow can you be?

Silver didn't exactly like Google either. He thought he was horrifying when they first met. So monotone and, well, robotic. The kind of behavior you'd see in someone who's brainwashed or something.

Their goals were also dead opposite. Silver was a hero, Google wanted to destroy humans. Basically it was like water and oil with them at first.

It was Silver putting his own life at risk that made Google a little less hostile.

Seeing Silver come home, battered and bruised, after risking his own life to save others. He nearly died saving all those people. And as soon as he stepped foot into the manor, he collapsed.

Waking up on Dr. Iplier's table, he says someone very unexpected carried him in just in time.

Silver loved humanity so much that he was willing to die for it. And Google... Could respect that. As stupid as it may be in his eyes.

Silver can respect Google dedication, and knows that even if the droid won't say anything that shows more than the cold android he's supposed to be... he cares. Some part of him cares.

[pumpkinsy0]

What abt hcs for the Shepards in Halloween wether it’s w their own culture or js in general the American way

OoOoOo anon u have blessed me w this ask!! ily 4 this,,

•when they first moved to the us, the def didnt celebrate halloween, it wasnt celebrated in haiti and their mom was a hardcore “its the devils holiday” typa girl, sooo they just never did!!

•doesnt mean that they werent interested in celebrating it, they def were, however they were still trying to find themselves so celebrating it was NOT on the top of their list

•buttttt, what they were doin for halloween was preparing for fèt gede!! (haitian day of the dead/festival of the dead) it takes place mostly on the 1st n 2nd of november

•this is more so a vodou holiday, bjt i think the shepards would dabble into the tiinniest bit of vodou, but they arent full on practitioners of it, and usually there r carnivals but there r things u can do at home!! like making an alter which is rlly the only thing they focus on

•for those 2 days, they wear purple bc thats an important color for the holiday

•NOOOWWWW for halloween, they usually gotta hide the things they have for that bc they dont want their mom to use the alcohol tim bought OR for her to flip out

•angela lovessss dressing up but sometimes tim has to say “go change” but sometimes its like,,,girl ur gonna get cold put on somethin more we aint in haiti no more

•i dont think curly would mind incorporating body oaint in his costumes, he would love it, for celebrations in haiti he would do it a lot and angela would help him do it!!

•what if they dressed as haitian mythology creatures,,,like zombies,,, lougawous,,,bakas,,,cmon now,,,

•they will ALL steal all of the candy in a bowl of candy thats just left outside, they got sweet TEETHS, not sweet tooth

[holedaemon]

ASS RESPECT 3: Garrus and Wrex go to White Castle

It's done. We did it. This weekend Ari (@freakpatrol) and I finished the Mass Effect trilogy. The third game is... massively flawed. There's *a lot* about it that I did not like, but despite that, it had some really profound aspects that I won't soon forget.

THE GOOD

MISCELLANEOUS

Shepard can run much longer now

They brought back weapon mods

The armor system is pretty decent, allows for a lot of customization

You can heal in battle using medi-gel again

Garrus is able to be romanced

ENEMIES

There are three factions you go up against in Mass Effect 3. Primarily, the Reapers & their forces, Cerberus, and to a lesser extent, the Geth. I'm here to talk about the Reapers' forces. In terms of design & background, they are peak. BioWare really went all out with them. They essentially took the idea of the Husks and how they are genetically altered, cybernetically enhanced humans, and applied that to most of the other races seen throughout the series. The process leaves them as former shells of themselves, the origin race barely being distinguishable. It's the perfect body horror and totally up my alley. A few of them that really stood out to me:

Cannibals

Harvested Batarians. They have a tendency to eat corpses they find on the battlefield, hence their name

Brutes

Unique in that they are a combination of Turians & Krogan. They remind me of the Tank from Left 4 Dead. Very fun to rip apart with a shotgun

Banshees

Harvested Asari, possibly specifically Ardat-Yakshi? Wasn't really clear. They resemble the Spitter from Left 4 Dead and function similarly to the Summoners from DOOM 2016. Ari HATES these things. Every time one of them screamed I'd hear "Oh I hate that noise"

SQUADMATES

The only new squadmate that really matters in 3 is Javik. You find him on a colony planet that's been overrun by Cerberus. He's a Prothean that's been in cryostatis for the last 50,000 years; when the Reapers last attacked. This is our first time SEEING what the Protheans looked like, and honestly they're pretty cool. Prothean society draws heavy inspiration from Rome & its structure, so you can imagine what Javik is like. He's a soldier; very cold & calculated, carries a lot of baggage knowing he failed his mission & his people perished, which manifests as him being a total dick, but we like Javik, so he gets a pass. The only thing I find disappointing is how he was included in the story, I'll elaborate on that later.

STORY BEATS

Okay, so let's be clear here: the story in the third game more or less sucks major balls. Turns out that's because the lead writer for the first two games left to work on fucking Star Wars: The Old Republic??? That said, there are some really profound moments throughout the story that I absolutely adore, even if they break my heart.

The first being summoning Kalros to fight the Reaper destroyer on Tuchanka. Before you run in to the arena to set off the hammers, Wrex stops you to say

You've been a champion to the Krogan people, a friend of Clan Urdnot... and a sister to me. To every Krogan born after this day, the name "Shepard" will mean "hero!"

HANDS DOWN my favorite Wrex quote.... Just. Gah. I love his development throughout the trilogy. Going from a grumpy merc with no purpose to the fearless leader of the Krogan people. It fills my heart with joy. He also calls Garrus his friend............ THEY HATED EACH OTHER IN THE FIRST GAME!!! NOW THEY'RE FRIENDS REMINISCING ABOUT THE OLD TIMES. I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!

Still on Tuchanka, this next moment hit me HARD. I can't remember the last time I cried at a video game, but this fucking got me.

Kalros has defeated the Reaper by pulling it fucking underground. We're at the Shroud ready to disperse the Genophage cure across Tuchanka. Except the Shroud has been damaged, it's coming down, and the STG (basically Salarian armed forces) has sabotaged it to prevent curing the sterilization plague. Mordin walks into the elevator leading up to the top of the Shroud, his final conversation with Shepard goes

Shepard: I'm sorry Mordin: I'm not. Had to be me. ... Mordin: Someone else might have gotten it wrong.

Hundreds of feet in the air, amid explosions, Mordin hums the same Salarian scientist tune he sang to Shepard in the second game. He pauses, the sabotage has been overridden, the cure is being dispersed; the scientist looks out over the Tuchanka skyline and smiles. Peace has been made with his fate, he can die happy knowing his wrong has been corrected. He picks up singing his song, but before he can finish the verse, the top of the Shroud explodes. That's the last we see of Mordin Solus.

Compounding the loss of Mordin, during a conversation prior to the events of Tuchanka, he tells Shepard that the Genophage needs to be cured. He does not relent that it was the correct thing to do for the time, but the circumstances have changed and it needed to be stopped. Shepard also asks him what he plans to do after the war had been won. Mordin talks about spending his final days on a warm beach, collecting seashells. The commander retorts saying he would go crazy within an hour, the Salarian responds saying he might run tests on the seashells.

I was really torn up about Mordin for a few days following this LMAO. He really grew on me over the course of the 2nd and 3rd game, hands down one of my favorite characters. Seeing him go sucked a lot, but I'm glad he was able to do it on his own terms. Curing the Genophage was the right thing to do, and I think it really added a lot to his character. He gave up his life so many, many Krogan could live. I love that a lot.

There's one last moment that really stuck with me.

The team is on Rannoch, the Quarian home world. They just defeated a Reaper that was transmitting a signal to control the Geth. Besides controlling the Geth, the Reaper transmission was also upgrading the synthetics. Their consciousness was on par with that of an alive being. Legion reveals to Shepard that he still has this code running in his systems. If he were to upload it to the Geth collective, the entire race would be upgraded to become fully sentient & alive. The commander agrees, telling him to get started, and asking Tali to delay the impending Quarian attack on the Geth. After some bickering with the Quarian admirals, the fleet hold their fire. Legion says

Legion: Error: copying code is insufficient. Direct personality dissemination, required. Legion: Shepard-Commander, I must go to them. I'm... sorry. It's the only way. Tali: Legion, the answer to your question... was yes. Legion: I know, Tali, but thank you. Legion: Keelah se'lai.

Legion falls to his knees in front of the Rannoch sun. In his final moments, he achieved true sentience, evident by his use of "I" instead of "we," as well as calling Tali by her first name. He was an equal, he was a person, he was truly alive. Through his actions, Legion brought on a new era of peace between the Geth and Quarians. In the days following his death, the Quarians had returned to their home planet and started to rebuild with the help of their newfound allies. The Geth's assistance was speeding up the rebuild exponetially. Processes that would have taken years, were taking days to weeks. Some Geth also volunteered to upload themselves into the suits of Quarians, to kickstart their immune systems. This would make the environmental suits the former nomads wore irrelevant in a few short years.

Losing Legion hurts A LOT. He was my precious baby boy. Everything about his death compounded the loss tenfold. The fact that he achieved personhood; the way he fell in front of the sun; his uttering of keelah se'lai as he keeled over... just. UGH. Much like Mordin, his death was not in vain. Had he not done what he did, the Quarians would have been wiped from the galaxy by the Geth. He managed to save two civilization and end a 300 year conflict. This has really, really stuck with me. Genuinely one of my favorite moments & outcomes in any video game, period. I love Legion, I love the Geth, I love what they all stand for & represent, and how they grow over the course of the series. It's fucking awesome.

THE BAD

That's about all I have in terms of good things, now onto the bad.

ACCESSIBILITY

Mass Effect 3 took a step backwards from 2 in terms of accessibility. The second game was perfect; menus were simple and concise. I actually knew what I was doing & where to go. That's not true of 3!!! Shit's back to being convoluted & confusing!!! I look at a menu and say "what the fuck is this?" It sucks!!!!

The other thing is the galaxy map. On the map overview, it tells you the description of missions in certain systems, not the name!!!! So you'll just have shit like "go to Anderson's apartment" appearing over nebula & shit, like what???

Your journal is a disaster too. Missions, both main & side, were grouped together in one tab, so you can't easily decipher which is which. They also decided to remove mission details, rather only giving you a vague description of what you needed to do??? Extremely frustrating.

GAMEPLAY

The movement sucks. It's like halfway to where it needs to be. I gotta give them credit for trying to make it good, but they just fucking floundered. Everything is done with the space bar, and so fucking often when I tried to interact with stuff, Shepard would take cover or do a fucking roll in the wrong direction instead of doing what I wanted her to do. It got genuinely annoying.

Another big issue were missions. For some reason, BioWare decided that missions should expire in this game, except they don't tell you when!!!!!!! SO YOU JUST HAVE TO GUESS!!!!!!! COMPOUNDING THAT, THEY GIVE YOU SO MANY MISSIONS. Literally I had like 20 missions at one point. Most of them were just fetch quests too. The formula for fetch quests is basically as follows:

get mission from random NPC

go to system

ping map to find scannable locations

uh oh, you probably alerted the Reapers. Which means you can't scan in peace without doing a mission.

if you can somehow avoid the Reapers, scan location for random junk until you find your fetch quest item

take it back to random NPC

rinse & repeat 100,000 times

Not a big thing but they... got rid of all of the minigames? There's no more hacking minigames, rather when you need to access an area, you just interact with the door & stand there for a few seconds. Again, not a big deal, but definitely a step in the wrong direction. There's also no resource collection, which I really enjoyed.

Again, this one is less of a problem but just kinda weird. The game is fucking easy. I died less than 10 times in combat. I didn't even know you could heal with medi-gel till the finale. I barely ever had to take cover, I could just run & gun and be fine. Compare this to 2 where I was dying left and right. My performance in the prior game was so dogshit that I think Ari was starting to get annoyed by it, so often would they say "BABE TAKE COVER," meanwhile I'd look like this

SQUADMATES

I was really kinda disappointed with the squadmate selection this time around. The last two games had so many different characters that I really jived with, but 3's selection was pretty lackluster. So as soon as I could, I took Garrus everywhere with me, and would switch between Javik & Tali for the secondary. Not bad, but not ideal. I don't really like human squadmates, so I never picked James or Kaidan. James is just too dude-bro military hot head for me; Kaidan's a whiner & got really annoying. Giving EDI a body was unnecessary, but cool I guess? Her relationship with Joker was cute. Never really cared for her much as a squadmate though. Liara was also just kinda... meh. I think I was really just spoiled by having Wrex and Legion as options in prior entries.

THE CITADEL

Okay this is a quick thing: you spend WAY too much time on the Citadel. This kinda ties back into my complaints on missions, but, I swear a huge portion of the game is spent there, doing side missions. It's fucking boring, man. I really did not enjoy any of the time spent in between priority missions. The citadel is novel at first, but by the end of the game, you've spent at least a few hours just running between the same 4-5 floors picking up quests, turning quests, listening to NPCs. GAH.

THE STORY

Okay, so like I said, Mass Effect 3 has some really good subplots that I enjoyed a lot!!! Overall though, dude, the story is just... weak, the ending especially. Ari and I spent some time reading the Wikipedia article detailing the controversy surrounding this game, and it makes sense. Like, once BioWare lost the aforementioned writer for the first two games, everything just went to shit.

The first thing that really irked me is the child Shepard sees die and his subsequent use throughout the story. Sure, alright, seeing someone so young die is traumatic, but why does it hold so much weight?? Shepard has seen thousands die, personally, she has taken the lives of at least 300,000 people, why does a single kid she never even spoke to for more than a second keep popping up? There's zero substance here. Keep the trauma, keep the dream sequences if you must, but use the people that really matter. Mordin, Legion, Thane, Ashley, I guess, even her fucking parents or squad on Akuze! USE ANYONE BUT A RANDOM CHILD!

Now, let's address the elephant in the room: the ending. That travesty blows shit out of ass, dude. Why is the aforementioned child there? What do you mean there's this intelligence that was created to solve a problem? What even is the problem?? Oh, it's that synthetics and organics don't really truly understand one each other? Okay. Why is that just now becoming the overarching problem of the series? Where was that concept in the first two games? The introduction of this intelligence, the Leviathans, and the "problem" really diminishes the story. It explains away the mystery of the cycle. It diminishes the Reapers a lot! Before, they were these mysterious, almost god-like machines from beyond the veil of reality. Their purpose was unknown & said to be incomprehensible to a normal mind. Turns out they just harvest the universe because it "solves a problem?" Like, fuck off, dude lmao. Giving any context whatsoever to the Reapers and their motives was a bad idea and really killed the magic that they brought.

Anyway, as you finish up talking to the child, you are giving three choices

Control the Reapers

Destroy the Reapers & all synthetic life (EDI, the Geth)

Use your DNA as a template for life to combine & share the same DNA between all species, organic & synthetic alike. (AKA the Synthesis)

Ari & I chose the last option, as it's allegedly the "true ending." Well, when you do that, Shepard jumps in the crucible, turns to mist, a huge explosion of green energy crosses the galaxy through the mass relays (breaking them in the process??), and everyone becomes cyborgs & "understands each other." Reapers & their forces stop fighting and begin to help rebuild the galaxy. Everybody glows green now? It's not well explained and even if it were it's stupid as fuck. Besides that, you're also violating the bodily rights of the entire galaxy?? Forcing change at a DNA level without anyone's consent?? Kind of a weird way to resolve a war. Furthermore, what about the Reaper's abominations? They're all sentient now! They're not fighting anymore! What do you do with them? What they once were is barely even recognizable!!

THE DLC

Alright, last talking point: the DLC. DLC is not a new concept in the Mass Effect games, and while it was not a big deal before, this time really bugged me.

Before I start: the DLC involving Aria & taking back Omega was really fun, I enjoyed it a lot. Anyways.

First off, JAVIK IS DLC????? THE PROTHEAN CHARACTER THAT IS SO VITAL TO THE STORY IS DOWNLOADABLE CONTENT THAT COSTS EXTRA???? REALLY AWFUL DECISION BIOWARE.

Second, the Leviathan DLC. I love the Leviathans, they're really cool creatures in design & concept. But again, their introduction and involvement in the story just Ruined the Reapers pretty much entirely. It sucks. I wish they were better utilized. Also, again, to put something so """important""" to the story in a DLC??? Fucking lame.

Finally, the house party DLC. It was fucking AWFUL. The entire mood of it does not fit the game ONE BIT. Every other sentence is some weird, unfunny quip. Brooks as a character is just fucking annoying. You're running around chasing your clone??? Then YOU HAVE A PARTY??? The dialogue throughout the party is just fucking awkward and forced. Kasumi and Saeed are there for some reason?? It just sucked. I could go on for hours about it but I'm just burned out even talking about this shit.

Overall, a really, really disappointing end to an otherwise fantastic series

Fuck this

[thefloatingstone]

Mass Effect mod list

Ok I said I'd make a list of the Mods I have installed for Mass Effect. Sorry it took me a while.

All my mods are just tweaks and adjustments, nothing that actually changes vanilla in any meaningful way or alters what the core experience is like.

This list is spoiler free

First off, some pointers;

You will need the Mass Effect Mod manager. It works the same as the Mod Manager used for Skyrim, but this one is specific to Mass Effect. You can find it here

For textures, the Mods and Tweaks manager has automatically included the program needed to mod textures for the game. I don't need to teach you how to use these programs as they have built-in tutorials and on screen instructions that walk you through everything.

I learned this the hard way. Only change textures AFTER you have added all the mods you want (that are not texture based). If you change the textures and then want to add more mods, the mod manager will stop you because this confuses how it applies the mods + textures. So make sure to do ALL your mods before you add texture changes.

Whatever else mods you add, make sure to add the LE1 Community Patch, the Unofficial LE2 patch, and the LE3 Community Patch. These are general patches that fixes bugs. That's it. They just fix bugs. But they are essential.

Ok! With all of that out of the way, here you go! No "read more" thing, we die like men.

1: Default Femshep Retexture.

This was actually one of the main reasons I wanted to mod my game. This mod's texture doesn't change Jane Shepard's iconic design, it just uh... makes it better. Mostly because a bunch of game dev dudes are not the best to understanding things like.... make up.

This texture makes Shepard look less like a straight guy's idea of a drag queen and more like an actual person who knows what they're doing would. It also gives her freckles better placement and makes her eyebrows.... less like that.

I love this mod to death. I nearly cried when I saw how good she looks in-game

2: Iconic Femshep Hair Fix For LE3

For reasons unknown, Bioware did not give Jane Shepard her iconic hairstyle in the third game. (Probably for the same reason nobody has the right blood colour in the third game either) This makes sure she has the right hair style in the finale.

3: LE1, LE2 and LE3 Garrus and Turians - Face and Eyes Textures

I'm only linking the first game's but make sure to get the same for the 2nd and 3rd game.

For whatever reason, the Turians often get shafted in the texture department. There is also a bug which has apparently been fixed in the Legendary Edition where Garrus' texture will load in super low res.

This just fixes some resolution issues, fixes their eyes, and just improves the over-all skin texture. Again, this made Garrus and the other Turians look so good I almost cried.

4: Immersive Emails

When the third game launched, there was an app you could get for your phone (irl I mean) where the characters would message you depending on decisions you make in the game itself. Including getting messages from whoever you decide to romance. Sadly the app was never available in my country, but the screenshots were circulated a lot.

(He's asking if you wanna fuck)

Anyway, with the app now defunct, this mod adds ALL the messages into the game itself to appear in your in-game emails instead.

Highly recommend not only for the romance ones, but because in one of the best DLCs in the final game, you get to hear everyone essentially yelling at each other in the Normandy Discord chat, and I imagine that's basically what these messages kinda are.

5: Some mods that restore things that were accidentally removed in the Legendary Edition

Admiral Daro'Xen Restored Kirrahe Makes Good Missing Codex Restored (ME2LE) BUGFIX Genesis Intro Dialogue Undo Mod - Legendary Edition

6: Kasumi Dress ported to Citadel DLC

You get a cocktail dress in the 2nd game as part of a mission which has also become rather iconic.

This ports it over to the third game for a specific mission which required formal wear.

This mod isn't essential at all, I just like the 2nd game's dress a lot

7: Casual Underwear for Femshep

For reasons I'm sure will forever remain a mystery to us 🙄 Shepard's default underwear in the game is like.... lacey and frilly and shit?

That's fine if you like that sort of thing but it really clashes with her personality as well as like... it doesn't make a lot of sense? And in the modder's own words: "I discovered the butt window on femshep's underwear today which sent me into a spiraling modding frenzy (that and fuzzy memories of how awkward the ME3 cutscenes-)"

Anyway this mod replaces the horny game devs' underwear with something that's more in character for her.

(also low key Athletic underwear is a lot sexier imo)

8: Casual Hubs for LE1

The Team Mates wear their casual outfits while on the Normandy or on a non-threatening world like the Citadel. I like this one because I always felt it must be uncomfortable for them, especially when Shepard is allowed to wear her casual outfits on the ship.

There is also this mod for LE2

The casual outfits for some squadmates in the 2nd game are optional, such as Jack wearing a prison uniform on the ship which I personally would not put her in because she's too chaotic to keep that sort of thing on.

The woman was gonna be walking around topless for the 2nd game until EA told Bioware "no" ffs.

9: Cerberus Ladies Wear Cerberus

Bioware never patched the 2nd game so that the Cerberus women actually wear Cerberus uniforms. This fixes that.

10: LE3 Opening Remaster

in the modder's words:

"LE3 Opening Remaster aims to improve the opening cinematic of Mass Effect 3, using remastered footage from an early ME3 Xbox 360 demo, as well as diversifies the opening text scroll if the Arrival DLC was completed."

11: Apartment Additions

In the 2nd game you could invite Shepard's SO to her cabin to hang out. Someone made a similar mod for the 3rd game 👀

12: LE3 Prologue Outfit Customization

The third game's prologue is weird if you have a specific casual outfit you like to put Shepard in (it's the hoodie... we all know it's the hoodie) and she doesn't wear it.

This mod let's you decide which outfit she should be wearing in the opening to better match how you've been dressing her in the 2nd game.

13: Garrus with No Visor and New Outfits (LE2)

Gives Garrus some more outfits he can wear rather than just his green one and optionally removes his visor when he's wearing his casuals (or always if you just dislike the visor).

The visor is lore important so I keep it on him most of the time... but I have it removed for when he's wearing his casuals because it's just kind of awkward for him to have it when he and Shepard start sleeping together.

Also he just looks better in blue than green ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Mods I couldn't install because I had already installed textures :(

LE1 and LE3 Diversification mods.

"A project designed to diversify LE1 through increased population count, better species' population balancing, outfit/appearance diversification and overall breathing more life into the world."

This includes adding female turian NPCs to the first game (they were only given a model in the 3rd game because something something video games) As well as giving the Elcor their walking animation.

The Diversification project is busy being worked on for the 2nd game as well but for now is only applicable to Omega.

I'm only linking to the first game's mod but you can find the third game's from the same creator.

Please note; Diversification mod and Variety are mod are TWO DIFFERENT MODS and may cause clashes if you install both.

I want this mod so bad..... I might risk breaking my game just to add it I swear sldjfsdklfjksd

And that's everything I use!

Before anyone asks, I don't have the "ALOT of textures" mod installed despite it being really good for no other reason than it replaces the signs into english text and that just bothers me for some reason. Especially since the most common spoken language by all species is "Trade". So having signs in english just doesn't make sense to me.

Shepard is an Alliance marine. She would know how to read Trade.

There is also a mod to improve lighting to an insane degree but I haven't messed with it because it requires a seperate program to introduce modern lighting engines to older games and I am too intimidated by it to try it.

Anyway I hope this helps!

[theearlgreymage]

I am beyond ecstatic to be able to finally present this collaborative project to the world! This is a COBB Project that myself, @shrekgogurt, and @artsyunderstudy have been working on together!!

This is a Magical-Zombie Apocalypse AU inspired by HBO's The Last of Us. (Specifically Season 1 Episode 3) ❤

Read is here on AO3

Chapter 1 |

Chapter 2 | Accompanying Music by ShrekGoGurt

Chapter 3 |

Chapter 4 |

Chapter 5 |

This work is a part of the Carry On Big Bang 2023 Event (@carry-on-big-bang)

Summary and Additional Information can be found below the cut.

Please be mindful of the rating/tags.

Fandom: Carry On | Simon Snow Series - Rainbow Rowell

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death

Relationships: Tyrannus Basilton "Baz" Pitch/Simon Snow, Tyrannus Basilton "Baz" Pitch & Simon Snow

Characters: Simon Snow, Tyrannus Basilton "Baz" Pitch, Penelope Bunce, Shepard (Simon Snow), Mordelia Grimm, Gareth (Simon Snow), Marcus (Simon Snow), Fiona Pitch, Malcolm Grimm, Vera (Simon Snow), Daphne Grimm (Simon Snow), Sophronia "Sophie" Grimm, Petra Grimm, Swithin Grimm

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - The Last of Us Setting, Zombie Apocalypse, Magic, Minor Character Death, Character Death, Growing Old Together, Angst, Pining, Healing, Building a family, Love, Sex, Fanart, Fan Soundtracks, Other Additional Tags to Be Added

Summary:

When the Humdrum’s destruction emits a near nuclear blast, the altered magickal atmosphere causes catastrophic consequences for Normals and Mages alike. However, as society flounders, Baz Pitch is driven by only one question: is Simon Snow still alive?

[wetcatspellcaster]

people i want to know better (the knowerrrr)

I was tagged by @eraserspiral via my main account, but using context clues I think this might be better here! Thank you for tagging me, it's nice to write something today that isn't a job application :)

1. Favorite Ships

Tav/Astarion (bg3) Spike/Buffy (BtVS) Jude/Cardan (The Cruel Prince by Holly Black) Howl/Sophie (both film and book incarnations for different reasons!) Garrus/Shepard (Mass Effect)

...I think these are the top 5? I could go on forever though lol.

2. First Ship

The first media pairing I went feral for/ first thing I read fanfic for was Spike/Buffy, but my first ship that I remember fundamentally altering my brain chemistry is Kaye/Roiben from the Tithe series by Holly Black (shout out to Roiben for being my first sad tortured man with white hair, we all have to start somewhere).

3. Last Song

Pretty Girls by Renee Rapp

4. Last Movie

Oh my god this is so cringe, yesterday I watched 'Ticket to Paradise' (the divorced parent film with George Clooney and Julia Roberts) to try and cure the black mood depression (very fun film tbh, so not *that* cringe!)

5. Currently reading

Last week I finished my mindblowing/soul-cleansing reread of The Wicked + The Divine Comics by Kieron Gillen. I sobbed my little heart out, fell in love all over again with both the art style and the insanely good worldbuilding concept.... i'm not currently reading anything, bc I'm still processing the high of binging all 9 in 2 days.... not to be dramatic, but it was like mainlining cocaine.

6. Currently Watching

Look, I *was* watching jjk for the first time and had just reached the Shibuya Incident before I got my bad news this week... and I have therefore made a very sensible, sane, and self-aware decision, and swerved wildly into watching the v. cute 'Sign of Affection' instead :')))))))

7. Currently Craving

I am about to go eat Thai food with a friend and just need to walk to her house BUT OH MY GOD I'M SO HUNGRY AND HAVE BEEN SINCE 4PM. so... 'thai food', I guess. as well as, idk... some fucking rest plz god plz.

tags for pals and mutuals: @violacae, @imscissorbladez, @pricemarshfield, @blarfshnorgull, @dededrabbles x

[maythedreadwolftakeyou]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Spread the self-love ❤️

<3 Ooohhh ok hm... honestly i do not post much fic (checked AO3 and only 18), for the amount that i start writing and then leave in various stages of completion in drafts on my computer, oops. Unfortunately at least 1 favorite is in that category, but here we go!

Fallout from the Fade (Dragon Age: Inquisition): Hawke is left in the fade during the events of DAI's Here Lies The Abyss, but manages to fight her way back out. However she's left to recover from the severe side effects and trauma that come along. Ok my confession here is while i have not updated this fic since 2020, i have in fact written more of it. But since i kept going so long (months... and then years...) between chapters I decided it'd be better if i just finish writing the rest myself (at least roughly) so i know how much more there is to go and can update it on a more regular schedule in the future when i start posting again. Alas i am very slow at this bc of grad school and also bc i get distracted easily and... have less motivation to work on it when not actually getting feedback as i go. So i may change my mind about this approach eventually but it's where the fic stands now.

Like Teeth Against His Heart (Dragon Age: Inquisition): After Solas wakes up from uthenera, he has many conversations with a variety of spirits over the course of DAI. Sometimes they tell him what he wants to hear, and sometimes they don't. I typically like the recent things I've written the most and this is that. It's a prose-poem style that plays with formatting, aka its kind of Weird, and weird is my favorite. I wrote it for a charity zine which also meant i had to have a Final Version rather than endlessly tweak it forever which was irritating at the time but also good for me.

Unposted, No-Finalized-Title fic, with the file jokingly named 'Sam I Am' (Mass Effect: Andromeda): pre-Andromeda and game timeline but from the perspective of your ship's AI, who also lives inside your character's brain, and in the game admits to altering your brain/body, and hello??? the game did NOT let me respond to that to the degree I desired? One of my literary obsessions is the combination of AI (the sci fi kind not... generative art etc) plus human augmentation... what that does to both parties sense of self, their relationships, how they view and function in the world, etc. In the vein of Silently And Very Fast by Cat Valente, Imperial Radch by Ann Lecke, Murderbot by Martha Wells... and I spent soooo much time wishing Andromeda had gone deeper into that angle/thinking about it myself I wrote. Quite a long fic about it. But i only played the game once and there wasn't much fan love/fanworks for it so I never posted it or any other Andromeda stuff I wrote, it was more just for myself. I'd like to go back and finish this fic but I estimate it'd be in the 40-70k word range and i'd need to replay the game to refresh my memory so it's like, a project for when i have a bunch of free time at some point in the future, since it's mostly just for Me.

the people you love become ghosts inside of you, and like this, you keep them alive (Mass Effect trilogy): Snippets of a variety of Garrus' thoughts and memories of Shepard, and a growing realization about the nature of love like theirs. I don't expect anyone to love this one but me, because it's just a self-indulgent thing I wrote specifically to figure out the flavor of grief involved in the relationship between my personal Shepard and Garrus. It's not as poem-formatted as my Solavellan one but the prose leans hard in that direction, and they came from the same place for me. I wrote it after finishing the trilogy because I (unlike a lot of fans, i know) felt very adamant that the correct ending for my Shepard is that she is dead now, and not coming back, and needed to cry some more about that.

like the leaves after a long winter (Dragon Age II): It's the first Christmas/Satinalia since Leandra's death, and Hawke is not in the mood for festivities -- until she realizes that everyone else will be spending it alone and finds herself hosting a party without even meaning to. I'll be honest #5 spot was kind of a toss up between this one, Less A Man Than A Wild Cat, and Grief. But I've decided on this one because 1. it covers my favorite thing to write about aka grief, but is actually written as a story/proper narrative unlike others i've already put on this list. With fanfic the most important thing to me before anything else is self-indulgence. While I love writing for prompts (like this one was!), my specific joy in that is taking an idea from someone else and figuring out how to cram all the things I care about into someone else's plot summary. Fanfic for me is like... it feels weird to call it 'writing exercises' because that implies i don't care about the final project when i very much do. Writing challenges? Maybe? Idk i just really enjoy having limitations to work within. Having NO boundaries is where I do my original content writing, so writing within the bounds of an existing franchise already means there's some limits (like keeping to characterizations, plot, etc) and then adding more on top makes it a fun experience and keeps me engaged.

While these are my top 5, I definitely don't think most of them are what other people would pick as a favorite from my (admittedly very limited) amount of posted writing, Fallout from the Fade being the exception. I think my friends probably like the one where I turned Fenris into a cat best (and that was VERY fun it's just also more lighthearted which i struggle to write sooooo bad), and then every one else is in my inbox about the single Solas x F!Travelyan fic I wrote largely as an experiment in writing sex scenes. sorry to everyone who read that and then tried to read my other fics and discovered its mostly blood and loss and Yearning...

[necroneol]

introjectism aside, what was it about the source characters of your fictives that made you so attached to them? like, what is it about Noctis, Shepard, Hiccup, The Alices and so on that made you think "This is me!"

to be honest, im not /entirely/ sure. there isn’t necessarily a unifying trait, unless you count like…being traumatized? and physically disabled in game/movie canon?

noctis is very different from shepard, and shepard is very different from hiccup, and hiccup is very different from the alices.

alice is a bit of a different case, as she has likely been here since we were very young, where as others formed later. this is due in part to. well. the simple fact that the media they are from came out much later in our life.

but anyways. no surprise (i have mental and physical trauma, memory loss, depression, severe anxiety, ptsd, ocd, did, on and on…) but i do not have a very solid sense of self. so playing games has always been a way for me to feel like a person. like im whole. even if it doesnt wnd in an alter, playing games is and always will be the most powerful and immersive experience i can imagine. so really im not too surprised that the games most important to me ended up creating a new alter.

(i should also not that i have a tendency to split very often, it honestly doesnt take much. im sure this contributes.)

ALL THIS TO SAY. everyone has something we found inside ourself. i guess?

shepard is strong, confident, yet fragile and real. he may react explosively, or withdraw when someone gets too close. he is war torn, and complicated. we had many family members we were close to who served in some way, and we grew up seeing the effects it had. i do believe that o ur family history has something to do with shepard being so close to home.

noctis (hiii) is awkward, socially struggles. but he is, under all the deadpan deliveries and fumbling, kind, helpful, and caring. he gave up his life to save his friends and his people. he is reliant on his friends, dependent on them.

riku has also been here a VERY long time (maybe almost as long as alice) and he is sort of the same. dark, brooding, troubled and lonely and terrified. but he cares so deeply for his friends. all he does is to protect them, wven if its the wrong way. his growth into someobe brave and strong is a very personal thinh for us.

those are just some. im sorry for rambling so much haha. i hope i was able to answer your question. thank you for asking and for your time^^

i love questions like these! anyone is welcome to ask whatever they want.

[alittlebitofloveliness]

3, 4, 7, 9 (outsiders asks)

EEEEE thanks for the ask anon!

3. Favourite character outside the main seven

Tim Shepard! I feel like Hinton threw mentions of him and Curly in there as a sort of foil to Darry and Ponyboy's dynamic but I have SOOOO many headcanons about him (and Curly and Angela too).

PS. The only reason I said Tim and not Angela is because she's not technically mentioned in the book. Angela is my favourite outsiders universe character ever and since theres not enough content for her I've decided I have to make my own lmao

4. Rank the main seven

OOF omg ok this was a hard one

First, Steve. Probably seems really random and unpopular but I feel like theres so much depth to his character that there just wasn't enough book to provide. We know he has a rough background and a soft spot for Sodapop and that Ponyboy's narration of him is biased since he thinks Steve doesn't like him. Tbh tho I think Steve really does care about Ponyboy in his own way, it's just hard for Ponyboy (and probably a lot of younger readers to see). My love of Steve was kind of an evolution but I can firmly say he's my favourite out of the gang atp.

Second, Darry. My man was a 20 y/o whose parent died who had to give up on his dreams to raise two younger brothers who he loved so much the feelings bled off the page. He NEVER should have hit ponyboy and it was such an out of character moment for him- AS IT WAS INTENDED TO BE. I have a LOT of thoughts about him but as someone who has grown that I'm almost the same age as him I cant IMAGINE having gone through what he went through and dealt with it as well as he did. My man needs more recognition.

Third, Ponyboy. He's such a dumbass and a weirdo but so reltable and sarcastic and profound. He's a main character who never gets in the way of other main characters and he's so quintessentially 13 that reading his story when I was that age fundamentally altered my brain chemistry and I haven't been the same since.

Fourth, Johnny. He was the gangs favourite for a reason and such a good friend to Ponyboy. I feel like the fandom infantilizes him sometimes, which is partially due to Ponyboy's narration, but the book makes it clear he's a really tough kid who looks like trouble but isn't. He's such a prime example of how the lottery of birth can fuck up someone's life. He is so tragic to me because he never had a chance.

Fifth, Sodapop. I know he's a fan favourite and I'm not saying I don't like him, but he's just kind of...boring? imo. Like, not much there, and not as much depth as some of the other characters. maybe its because we see a lot more of him in Ponyboy's thoughts but I'm not curious about him the way I am about some of the others.

Sixth, Dally. He's not likeable- but he is, as johnny said, gallant. I know it was by design that he's mysterious but I wish we got more backstory for him. I've just never connected to him the way I connected to other characters.

Seventh, Two-Bit. Again, probably unpopular and I know he's a fandom favourite but to me his issues have always jumped out more than his redeeming qualities. His alcoholism is a hallmark of his character, and i think at one point Ponyboy mentions he's a dead weight on his family's finances. He also has a little sister that's Ponyboy's age thats mentioned like once? I just feel like he's kind of a deadbeat for his family if that makes sense.

7. Favourite non romantic relationships. i could (and probably should atp, whoops this got long) make a whole other post about this but:

darry and ponyboy's relationship

johnny and ponyboy's friendship

steve and sodapop's frienship

johnny and dally's relationship

9. Favourite scene/moment from the book?

When Ponyboy runs directly into Darry's arms as soon as he sees him at the hospital. Gets me right in the feels every time.

Bonus: the moment when that guy tells Ponyboy he shoudn't smoke and he's all confused, like why? theres not a no smoking sign? and the dude is just like uh? but youre a kid? it's just such a stark reminder that while Ponyboy has grown up sheltered in some ways he has absolutely not been in others and his background is really rough and agh it gets me every time its such a clever scene.

ANYWAY this got longer than i meant it to, whoops. Thanks ever so much for the ask :)

[you-remind-me-of-the-babe]

Happy weekend! The sun is finally coming out and it is starting to properly feel like spring. 🌞

I’ve finally updated one of my WIPs! Depth of Reason chapter 6 is now live. Here’s a bit that tells you the main plot of this chapter:

It was mostly Penny’s idea. She agreed to have lunch with me and Baz shortly after he said he was willing to fight his charges. She was reluctant at first, reminding me she thought I’d crossed enough boundaries for him. But I was like a dog with a bone, and I eventually got her to cave.

It took her a while to warm up to him. She spent the first half of the meal staring at him with calculating eyes and interrogating him on things that very clearly had less to do with his case and more to do with his relationship with me. I love Penny but Merlin she can be protective sometimes. I guess I spent so many years talking her ear off about Baz plotting that she had to see for herself whether he was.

But once we got to the details of Baz’s probation and the particulars of the charges against him, Penny’s compulsion to solve a problem kicked in.

Which is why we’re heading to Watford today. She suggested that, in order to build the case that Baz is an upstanding magickal citizen, he should collect a variety of glowing personal references.

And one more snippet, which is an altered version of something I shared recently. I had to change it a bit, as I needed the overall tone to change to make it work, and I moved it to a little further in the chapter than I had it before:

“I keep thinking about what you said earlier.”

I stare at him, confused.

“When you said helping people was all you’re good for.”

Ah.

“I just wanted you to know that you’re cared for. Just the way you are.”

I wonder if he’s been stressing about this the whole drive.

“You sound like my therapist,” I say, laughing a little and trying to lessen his worry. “I know,” I say, bobbing my head, “I’ve got Penny and Shepard. Gran and Uncle Jamie. I had Ebb.”

Baz clicks his tongue. It’s dark and his face is thrown into shadow from the street light behind him, but I can imagine the eye roll that comes with it.

“I was talking about me, you numpty.” His voice is gentle, yet determined. “I care about you.”

Thanks to everyone who has tagged me recently!! Here’s a bunch of tag backs and a few extras 💜

@fatalfangirl @cutestkilla @blackberrysummerblog @valeffelees @rimeswithpurple @facewithoutheart @aroace-genderfluid-sheep @forabeatofadrum @letraspal @palimpsessed @artsyunderstudy @theearlgreymage @ebbpettier @shrekgogurt @hushed-chorus @thewholelemon @imagineacoolusername @ic3-que3n @sosoapi @whogaveyoupermission @martsonmars @shemakesmeforget @ivelovedhimthroughworse @aristocratic-otter @larkral @captain-aralias @yellobb @toonysart