#and is actually looking for other avenues in racing cause teams see the potential in him even after Williams fucked shit over

[ynbabe]

A man today broke my heart in a bar (my guy best friend wouldn’t let me argue with the annoying fuck who called Logan talentless)

[choicesaddictionwriting]

Hope | Ramsey x MC (Kendall Archer)

A/N: I know this sucks but I’ve been having a lot of trouble writing for this blog and just write for my other one. So when I got this idea I just rolled with it. I hope you enjoy. 

Summary: At a meeting with the Hospital Board of Directors Ethan announces who he wants on his diagnostic team.

Hope | Ramsey x MC (Kendall Archer)

“I have decided to nominate Dr Archer for the fellowship,”

“Dr Archer…” A board member repeats right after him, Ethan didn’t know his name nor did he want to know but he knew his face.

“Yes,” Ethan nodded in confirmation, briskly, his eyes glancing over Harper, whose eyes were wide in surprise at his words before looking back at the five board members he was addressing.

He knew who Harper wanted him to pick. She had even told him who to pick. And maybe he should have just listened and perhaps before he met Kendall, he simply would have followed her instruction. Hospital bureaucracy wasn’t something he cared for, it was something he avoided, only indulging in it when he was forced to or when absolutely necessary.

But he was different now.

Everything was different now.

“We were under the impression that you and Dr Emery were in agreement as to who would be nominated for the fellowship,” Another board member, piped up.

“Clearly not,” Ethan stated, still standing at the end of the table, biting back any distaste.

“Well then Dr Ramsey, make your case,”

“I’m not disputing that Dr Aurora Emery, Dr Emery’s selection would not do well in the position and I agree that she has both consistently ranked highly and undoubtedly would be capable of taking the position…but,”

“But…” A nameless board-member encouraged much to his annoyance as he took a sharp breath and collected his thoughts.

No more thinking was needed.

“But,” He continued, his stance strong, his voice stern, “Dr Archer is different.  She has every attribute a good doctor or someone with the potential to be a good doctor should have. Compassion, empathy, perspective and curiosity, And these qualities are more important than the superficial high ranking of interns.  She didn’t come here thinking she was the best or already knew everything, she came her wanting to learn, to be better. Her only competitor herself and the limits she set. During her time here she has consistently shown an ability to handle the harsh realities of working here. She has made mistakes of course but she only makes them once. She has learnt that actions have consequences and that you can’t help everybody. But that doesn't mean she won’t try her hardest anyway. She is a dedicated individual whom I believe would exhaust every avenue three times before even considering giving up. And even then she would try something else. Which is the main reason she is my nomination, being a senior fellow on my diagnostic team means exhausting every avenue no matter how obscure to reach a diagnosis. Her ability to see beyond what is in front of her, think of ideas and make connections, as well as her extensive medical knowledge, is what will help her in this position.”

“Dr Ramsey,” Dr Emery called from down the hallway, causing Ethan to turn around in surprise, stopping as he waited for the Chief of Medicine to catch up.

“Dr Emery,” He acknowledged professionally, in the bustling hallway, “What can I do for you?”

They began to walk in step, everyone making way for them as they made their own way down the hallway to the children’s ward.

“Your intern, Dr Archer?”

“What about her?” He responded, his heart involuntarily racing at the mention of her, though he remained unfazed outwardly.

“She came up to me this morning asking me to manipulate a government subsidiary to provide care for a patient without insurance,” She relayed before explaining the situation fully to him.

“And you’re telling me?” Dr Ramsey questioned nonchalantly, expertly hiding all his emotions.

Impressive job, Rookie, he thought to himself.

“I need you to keep an eye on her for me,” She instructed, “I don’t want her getting the idea that she can go around saving everyone. Someone needs to put her in her place as her attending Physician. I’m giving you that job. You can’t save everyone, make sure she knows that,”

They had continued to walk, stopping at the glass doors of the children ward.

“You want me to stop her from finding unique ways to help people?” He countered, raising an eyebrow at her suspiciously.

“And what happens when she comes across the next patient that doesn't have insurance and she can’t find a way to help? I need her to be realistic and so do you if you want her to stick around,” She stated, before leaving him abruptly to catch up with another doctor down the hall.

Ethan sighed before turning around to the sight of the hectic Children’s ward. His eyes then widened at the sight of Dr Archer, doing a cartwheel for an audience of children all lined up in their beds. He watched for a second before swinging open the door.

“Dr Archer,” He called sternly.

“Yes, Dr Ramsey?” She responded before jumping and turning to look in his direction.

“This is a hospital, not a playground. What are you doing?” He instructed.

“Proving I can do a cartwheel,” She replied, nervously, looking at the kids who were all giggling under their sheets.

“What are you even doing here?”

“Checking up on Ellie here,” She informed, gesturing a small blonde girl no older than seven, “She came into the ER earlier and I promised I would check in,”

“And that involves a cartwheel in the middle of the ward?”

“No,”

“Get back to work, Rookie,”

“Oh, I’m on my break actually. I start again in,” She explained before glancing at her watch, “Five minutes. I should go, kids,” 

“Bye Kendall,” They waved off almost in time as Kendall waved back before slipping out the hard down the hall.

Offering him an embarrassed smile as she brushed past him and began to sped walk back to internal medicine.

And Ethan couldn't help but smile to himself as he watched her go, despite his better judgment.

“And besides that, she has an excellent bedside manner. She knows how to talk to people, patients, everyone. She is a pleasure to work with and has been a pleasure to mentor. She has the capability to mould herself into a truly fantastic diagnostician. She has all qualities to do it as well as some that put her potential above everyone else's. She comes to work every day with the belief that day will be a good one. She has infectious optimism which may not be the first thing you think of when you think you good doctor but it’s what all good doctors should have. She has belief, hope that everything will turn our right.  And she makes those around her believe it too. Not just patients but other doctors. Doctors who haven’t given a damn in years come in with this new found energy to help people. And it’s because of her. I know it because I too have felt it…”

“What about you?” What kind of doctor do you see yourself being in ten years,”

He watched intently as her face creased in momentary thought. Even in the midnight darkness her eyes still lit up as she spoke.

“The kind of doctor who could…make a difference in patent care,”

Ethan smiled in spite of himself, thinking of all she had already done, “More than you do now?”

“I’m only an intern! I do barely anything now,” She dismissed, her signature smile sad in spite of her carefree tone.

“Not true,” Ethan insisted, with a lot more passion than he intended but he made no attempt to restrain himself, “I’ve seen how hard you work for your patients. Even if they don’t always value it, you do make a difference.”

“But not enough,” She persisted, her positive demeanour diminishing with every word that was clearly coming from her deep-rooted insecurity which Ethan knew what obstructed her ability to see her own true potential, “I helped one uninsured patient receive care, but I can’t find loopholes for everyone,”

“Why not?” He demanded, knowing what she needed to hear.

“Because, because,” She almost stuttered, surprised by him, surprised enough that she thought hard about what to say, “Because the entire system needs to change, and I want to be a part of it. I’m going to be a part of it,”

She smiled brightly, any insecurity dissipated, as she radiated optimism…belief.

“And I have no doubt you’ll find a way,” He grinned back at her, any internal resistance he felt dismissed as he allowed himself to be completely armoured with her hope to the point that he could feel it himself.

No matter the unlikeliness of it and no matter what happened next she had made him believe that things could change, even if it was only briefly or for a moment which he knew wasn’t true. He was hopeful that she could do it, do what no one else could. She could change it all, she made him believe.

She made him hopeful.

“She doesn’t use patients as vessels to prove her worth or how impressive she is like Dr Emery and the other interns.” He persisted, the memory fading, “And that’s because she doesn’t need to prove it because she just is impressive. And I’m not referring to her impressive resume, of volunteer work and graduating top of her class at John Hopkins or even her medical knowledge and capability as a young doctor. She is impressive because she walked into these doors wanting to do good. And that is a desire that hasn't wavered.

Med school and inevitably this job train us into forgetting what are patents actually are and why we all because of doctors in the first place. The patients and our desire to help them. They are not cases to judged on the rarity or complexity of the condition they have. They are people, human beings, often in a there most vulnerable state when they come here. And much as they need capable and knowledgeable doctors, they also need another human being to depend on, to trust, to believe in. They need hope that they’re going to be okay and everything is going to be okay.

And Dr Archer gives them that.”

“I’ve exhausted every test, Rookie, what about that do you not understand?” Ethan demanded, getting up and raising his hands in frustration, “I don’t know what else I can do,”

“It’s going to be okay, Dr Ramsey,” She promised, Ethan could feel her eyes on him, despite his best efforts not to look at her, as he looks out the window of his apartment instead.

“You don’t know that,”

“And you don’t know that it won’t be,”

“I can’t let him die, Kendall,” He confessed, quietly, returning to couch, “And I also can’t break his trust. If anyone finds out the truth, he’ll fly to that beach, and I’ll lose any chance I have to save him. I don’t know what to do. I’m only what to do,”

Ethan then proceeded to hunch forward. He could feel her watching him again as he attempted to steady his rapid breathing. Then all of a sudden he feels the ghost of a hand on his knee and then the actual sensation. It was delicate and caused him to tense and stop breathing simultaneously. Though he recovered quickly, finding comfort in such a small act of intimacy.

“I’m here,”

“I know,”

“You’re going to get through this. We are going to solve this,”

“We?”

“I don’t know how much I help I’ll be but perhaps a fresh set of eyes or even a sounding board may help you. But I’m here if you need me, even if its to talk. I know you can do this,”

“You sound so certain,” He scoffed, downing the last of his wine.

“I am certain. I know you can do this. I believe in you,”

“Why?”

“Before we met I probably would have just said because you're the Dr Ethan Ramsey…”

“But now…?” He probed.

“Because the Dr Ramsey I know does everything he can and then some, especially for the people he cares about. You know he even went hunting for a stuffed frog in a storm drain,”

“Did he now?” Ethan almost chuckled, giving a small smile.

“He couldn't have done without me though,” She winked.

“This has never been a competition to her. In fact, she didn’t even want to compete at first and the only reason she did that was because joining my Diagnostic team meant that she would have the opportunity to help the people who need it the most and benefit the most from her knowledge and capability. Not because it means she’s the best intern or for the prestige of the position.”

“Rookie?”  Dr Ramsey questioned, as he switched the light for the supply closet to find Kendall sitting in the corner, her head in her hands.

“Dr Ramsey,” She spluttered, standing up quickly, straightening out her jacket and rubbing her eyes in quick succession, “I was just looking for…”

“Rookie,” He said sternly, repeating himself, not breaking eye contact whilst, picking up her bloodshot eyes, and tear-stained cheeks.

She looked determined for a second longer before she sighed and turned away.

“Okay, you caught me,” She gave in, already defeated, “I was crying in the supply closet,”

“That was obvious,”

“This isn’t a regular thing,” She insisted, taking a deep breath to compose herself,’“ I haven’t cried in here since my first day,”

“Is that what we deem impressive nowadays?” He countered, characteristically, observing carefully, “Your ability to hold it together?”

“No, I just…” She started before sighing and plummeting back to the floor again, heavily.

“Kendall?” He asked, taken aback.

“Dr Ramsey, I’ll be ready for you to lecture me about my lack of emotional control in half an hour but right now…I just can’t,” Kendall whispered, “Can you just please leave me alone,”

Dr Ramsey nodded, before closing and locking the door to ensure they weren’t disturbed. He walked over and sat down on the floor beside her. She had put her hands once again.

“What happened?” He probed, gentler now.

“What are you doing?” She asked, raising her head a little to look at him sideways, her eyelashes damp and she blinked away fresh tears.

“You’re upset,” He stated, pointedly, handing her a handkerchief from his pocket.

“Why do you care?” She snapped, uncharacteristically to the point that she didn’t even immediately apologise after.

“As there is a high chance that you’ve done something that effects me, as your attending Physician, given how upset you are. So what is it? Have you given a patent the wrong medicine, misdiagnosed them or killed them?” He paused for her to answer, but she didn’t, “ I also care about you…”

“You do?”

“Yes,” He responded without thinking, before quickly scrambling to find something to add, “Like I care for all the interns,”

“Right,” She accepted, wiping her eyes.

“So?”

She sighed once again, “Someone turned off my pager,”

“Oh,” He nodded, he had already heard what had happened from a colleague.

“You heard?” She picked up.

“Your carelessness has been a hot topic today,”

“I didn’t…”

“I know,”  He interrupted you, “I’ve seen you quadruple check your pager on multiple occasions,”

“Didn’t do me any good today though,” She brushed off.

Ethan felt his chest tighten at the sound of her feeling so defeated. Her brightness was dimmed and he could feel it physically. He hadn’t realised how much he had started to depend on her positivity to feel good himself.

“This completion isn’t worth it,” She suddenly said, shaking her head.

“Kendall…”

“Someone could have died because I decided to enter this competition,” She continued, breathing heavily, “And it would have been my fault because I decided to chase a dream over doing what I’m supposed to,”

“How could you possibly reach that conclusion?” He questioned, for the first time baffled by her ability to connect things together over amazed.

“I wouldn't be a target if I had joined this stupid fellowship race,”

“You aren’t a target because you joined, you’re a target because you have an actual shot of winning,”

“But it shouldn't be about winning.” She insisted, strongly, “It should be about doing our jobs to the best of our ability and someone earning it honestly, not cheating, sabotaging and putting patients at risk just to win. It’s not worth it. It defeats the whole purpose of doing this job,”

“You’re a good person, rookie,”

“You think I’m weak, don’t you?”

“No,” He corrected, “I think you’re a little naive to think that any of those other interns wouldn't step on your back to get to the top and if it were anyone else I’d say you need to get your act together and deal with it.”

“Then why aren’t you saying it?”

“Because your naivety or should I say your belief that everyone is good, your refusal to accept your position in the rat race to be the best, makes you who you are. And it’s what makes you the best intern, it what makes your competition. You don’t overthink, scheme or sabotage. You just do what you need to because your desire to help people is stronger than any of there desires to be the best. You’re a good doctor, Kendall…,” He responded, before adding despite his better judgement,

“You’re a good person,”

“So what should I do?”

“What you think is right. And don’t let them get to you again.”

“Ethan...” 

“Dr Ramsey,” He corrected, looking away. 

“Right,” She nodded, quickly, “I’m sorry,” 

“Don’t be, I’m sorry for...everything,” He apologised once again.

“Don’t be, I don’t regret it either,” She finally smiled. 

“The only question now, in my opinion, is are we going to be the hospital that fostered the potential of one of the most capable doctors that’s ever walked through our doors or are we going to be the hospital that missed out on that opportunity.”

With his conclusion, the room remained silent. A couple of board members had begun nodding in consideration of his words but no one spoke as they contemplated everything they had just heard.

“Well, Dr Ramsey, you’ve given us a lot to think about. Since there are now two final candidates we’ll reconvene same time tomorrow,” The head announced as everyone stood up and began filling out the room.

Soon only Ethan and Harper remained in the Board-Room.

“What the hell was that?” She demanded.

“My nomination,” He stated, cooly, “I think I made a pretty good argument,”

“We had an agreement,” She reminded, walking over to him with all the command and authority that made her Director, “I thought we agreed…”

“We never agreed, you told me who to nominate,”

“Because she’s always been at number one,”

“In a number ranking, you designed and manipulated,” He breathed, meeting her eyes.

“I would never…” She began to defend, getting slightly in his face.

“Not directly no,” He agreed, “But you ensured she got every opportunity to get there and stay there. She is a good doctor undoubtedly but she would be in the same position as all the other good doctors we have if she wasn’t your niece,”

“Do you really think they’re going to side with you over me after that long waffling speech of yours?” She questioned, her eyes intently staring into his, looking for a weakness or anything that would give him away.

“I’m hopeful,”

“You should know better than to be hopeful,” She scoffed. 

“You should know better than forgetting to be,”

[bioware-meta]

Companion Study: Jacob Taylor

I know, I know. Jacob Taylor? You’re writing an essay about Jacob Taylor? It’s fairly uncontroversial that he’s the least interesting of Mass Effect 2’s otherwise stellar cast. Even the Shadow Broker doesn’t seem to think he’s very valuable (if you haven’t brought him along on Lair of the Shadow Broker, the difference between the comments on him and everyone else are astonishing). But that’s why I wanted to write about him – almost no one has. But I think there’s a lot of value in analyzing why this particular character fell flat with the majority of the player base, and if you’ll bear with me for a few paragraphs, I think you’ll agree.

While doing research for this essay, I discovered that Jacob Taylor was a pretty major character in a couple of the Mass Effect books. I grappled for a bit about whether or not to consider his actions and characterization in those books in my analysis here, but ultimately decided against it. For one thing, I don’t own and haven’t read the books, and there’s only so much insight you can get out of summaries. More importantly, though, I had no idea these books existed when I played ME2, and neither did most players. A video game series that prides itself on storytelling can’t rely on external media to support its story, so I will analyze Jacob Taylor in the form that the majority of the player base experienced him.

 So, with the limits of this analysis established, let’s dive right in to the problem of Jacob Taylor. I want to briefly note what an honest-to-God shame it is that this character fell so flat. He’s one of the only people of color on Shepard’s squad, and one of the only significant black characters in the game. As a white person, it’s not my place to analyze Bioware’s issues with race in detail, but it felt important to touch on. He’s also a major contributor to fem!Shep’s lack of romance options. He’s a thoroughly unappealing option to most players anyway, but to also have him cheat on Shepard and break off their romance in ME3 is a real slap in the face to the few people who were interested. Having characters whose lives don’t revolve around the protagonist and whose romantic relationships don’t work out is an interesting idea, but it’s a problem that it only happens to female protagonists, who also have a romance option unavoidably die. M!Shep, on the other hand, can always steer their romances to happy endings. That’s a problem.

 So what caused this character to fail so utterly? To understand that, let’s take a look at what the developers were hoping to achieve with this character. We’re introduced to Jacob Taylor as a friendly face in a confusing environment, a casual and collected man who offers up the truth of the situation to Shepard out of moral conviction. That’s a decent introduction. Between that and the first few conversations Shepard has with him on the Normandy, I think we can piece together pretty clearly what Jacob’s character is supposed to be. First and foremost, he’s supposed to be a sympathetic voice. He defends Shepard against Miranda, commiserates with them over Cerberus’s spotty track record, and talks about his service with the Alliance. He’s presented as the voice of reason relative to Miranda and TIM. He’s like Shepard, working with Cerberus because he doesn’t see a better option. And that’s the second thing – he’s like Shepard. He shares a similar career path and went through a similar arc of disillusionment and frustration. He’s supposed to be relatable. Third, he’s a good soldier. He’s dutiful, professional, shows great respect for the chain of command, and a solid combatant. And finally, he’s presented as a voice of reason. He frequently advocates for the “logical” and “morally upstanding” choices. His biases show through rarely. The information he provides to Shepard about the galaxy is meant to be very reliable.

 However, this collection of traits fails to make him interesting, for a variety of reasons. Let’s examine why one at a time. He fails as a character sympathetic to Shepard primarily because he’s set up in opposition to Miranda’s fervent belief in Cerberus. The dichotomy between the two makes plenty of sense in the first mission – one pro-Cerberus, one anti. But this falls apart very quickly thereafter, because absolutely no one else you recruit likes Cerberus. The best you get is indifference from people like Zaeed and Kasumi, and far more often you get burning hatred. The deep vendettas of Jack and Tali against Cerberus burn brightly, and Jacob’s mild dislike for them fades out in comparison. This is especially bad for him because his character concept is grounded in the contrast between his reluctant partnership with Cerberus and Miranda’s conviction in their methods. It’s simply uninteresting when compared to the rivalry and outright hatred between Miranda and Jack.

 His failure as a sympathetic ear for Shepard is, surprisingly, almost completely unrelated to why he fails as a target for Shepard’s empathy. This failure boils down primarily to a failure in the writing of his one-on-one conversations. He’s given a backstory that somewhat mirror’s Shepard’s, but there’s no emotion or color attached to it. We know very little about his feelings about his time with the Corsairs, or the names of his fellow servicemen, or any of the conflicts they engaged in, or the hardships they overcame. Compare to Garrus, who talks at length about the team of vigilantes he put together and the tight scrapes he fought his way out of and the burning sense of purpose that sustained him through his ordeals. Jacob was instead written to be almost completely impassive, private, cutting off any conversation as soon as it ventures anywhere potentially emotional. This can be interesting, done correctly. The majority of the companions begin somewhat emotionally closed-off. But Jacob never opens up. The writer’s attempted to make Jacob seem professional and controlled, but instead they robbed him of interiority. This is especially apparent with his personal mission, which fails to advance any central conflict in his personality or resolve an issue that has clearly been affecting him personally. Even the climax of that mission barely brings any of his emotions or character traits into the limelight, and when Shepard tries to dig into his feelings after the mission, Jacob completely shuts down that line of inquiry, never to be reopened.

 Jacob isn’t helped by the fact that he’s also basically the most ordinary combatant to ever be a permanent member of Shepard’s squad. Mechanically, his powerset is very bland, with only Pull and Incendiary Ammo to start off with, and his unique power is functionally interchangeable with two other unique powers, simply extending the user’s shields. And within the game’s story, his abilities are just as ordinary. He’s not a vigilante sniper, a dying assassin, a genetic experiment, or a biotic engineered into the ultimate weapon. He’s just a security officer who happened to not die in the opening level. Simple competence as a combatant looks a lot less valuable when everyone else on the team was recruited because they were extraordinary. In ME1, Kaiden and Ashley had each other to bounce off of, keeping either from looking like the weakest link in a party consisting of fascinating alien experts, and by ME3 neither of them could be considered ordinary soldiers by any stretch of the imagination. But Jacob is just clearly the weakest link of ME2.

 His final and weakest central character trait, acting as a general voice of reason, actually works the best out of any of these. It simply fails to be impactful because the previous three failed so significantly that the player has no real interest in him, so his opinion is unimpactful.

 Having laid bare the flaws in Jacob’s character design, what have we learned? What was the primary factor that created such an uncompelling character, and how could he have been done better? In my opinion, the prime cause of the failure of Jacob Taylor comes from what role the writers wanted him to serve. They intended him to be Shepard’s number one, the friend and confidante that Shepard sees themself in. This was an ill-conceived idea for two reasons. First, there’s player behind the character of Shepard, and that means there is no one-size-fits-all most sympathetic best friend and supporter character. Everyone is going to see it differently. Second, this was a bad idea because there’s already a character returning from a previous game who had this effect on the majority of the player base with astonishing effectiveness, and that’s Garrus Vakarian. Other have written more and better than I could ever hope to on what makes Garrus such a great character, so I’ll leave that alone for now. Instead, let’s talk about what Jacob should have been, instead of trying to fight for Garrus’s role.

 First, I would make Jacob a true believer in Cerberus. As it was, Miranda was the only one who really backed Cerberus – for good reason, the organization was completely mistrusted by outsiders. Making Jacob a true believer would go a long way towards making the presence of the shadowy group feel more immediate, rather than confined to Miranda’s room and TIM’s video calls. This would also open up more avenues to compare and contrast him with Miranda in ways that aren’t better filled by other characters. Preserve Jacob’s general friendliness and moral conviction but put him in control of it. Make him the honey to Miranda’s vinegar, doing his best to gain Shepard’s confidence and exert Cerberus’s agenda over them. Don’t necessarily make him good at it – he’s not a spy – but put that barrier of distrust up that justifies his emotional distance from Shepard. Make him a professional – but this time, he’s not working for Shepard, he’s working on Shepard.

 Naturally, this substantially shifts the nature of his interactions with Shepard. Now Shepard has to not just assess him as a person, but try to shift his loyalties away from Cerberus, just as they must do with Miranda. Likewise, Jacob would have pressure to open up a little more, to try to earn Shepard’s trust through emotional intimacy. This allows us to maintain Jacob as a deeply private person while still letting the audience get to know him through those anecdotes and emotional drives that are so sorely missing from his actual conversations. I’d also consider moving him from the Corsairs to N7. This would shave off a bit of exposition on an element that never seemed to go anywhere, as we never directly interact with or are influenced by the Corsairs in the games. And of course, his personal mission needs to be much more grounded in his issues. We could even preserve most of the basic structure of the mission that appears in game if we provide some crucial background. Have Jacob early and often credit his father with his morality and dedication and, position his disappearance as something that Jacob blames the Alliance for. Don’t make this the inciting incident for Jacob’s defection, we should avoid reducing his morality to a product of his personal suffering, but certainly make it a bitter mark against the Alliance. This allows Jacob’s euphoria and subsequent disillusionment with his father’s survival to have a much more profound impact on his beliefs as it throws him into a crisis over whether his choices and moral compass have come from a worthwhile place – and with the previously established emotional intimacy between him and Shepard, the player can actually see this crisis, unlike in the actual game. I can see a few different trajectories that that could send his character on that could have a substantial impact on ME3, but that would basically be an essay in itself, so we’ll leave it alone for now.

 Next, make him more than just an average soldier. Give the player a reason to think he’d be a good person to have on the team. Maybe instead of being station security, he could be a military expert there to evaluate Shepard’s mental faculties once the Project is finished. Or maybe he could be positioned by TIM to watch Shepard and assassinate them if they go off the rails. The specifics don’t necessarily matter – just present him as being someone who could be taken seriously as a choice for your team when you could pick an ancient asari warrior or the greatest master thief in the galaxy instead.

 Finally, drop the only sane man angle entirely. ME2 is entirely about Shepard corralling dysfunctional superpowered idiots into a workable team. Let Jacob express strong opinions and clear biases for the player to consider and grapple with. Let some personality through the professionalism.

 Maybe you disagree with me. Maybe you think Jacob Taylor is fine as is and I’m going on a ridiculous rant. Maybe you’re right. But to me, and to many others, Jacob Taylor failed as a companion, which is a damn shame, because there was so much that could’ve been done with him instead.

[didanawisgi]

Inflammation has become one of the hottest buzzwords in medical science, pointed to as a culprit in causing or aggravating conditions ranging from allergy to autism to Alzheimer’s disease.

But it’s far from clear that standard anti-inflammatory drugs, which have been around for decades, will help patients with those conditions, especially since they often come with dangerous side effects. So in labs across the country, scientists are trying to puzzle through the basic biology, understanding how inflammation leads to disease — and whether it’s possible to develop drugs that could interrupt that process.

The latest evidence of inflammation’s broad role in disease came this past week, when a global clinical trial of 10,000 patients who had previous heart attacks showed that an anti-inflammatory drug from Novartis reduced their risk of further heart attacks or strokes. A surprise side effect: The drug also sharply cut the risk of lung cancer.

That finding still needs to be confirmed with more research. But lead investigator Dr. Paul Ridker, a cardiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said he saw the trial as a clear indication of inflammation’s role in spurring cancer growth. The results, he said, turn “the way people look at oncology upside down.”

Although inflammation has been studied for decades, there’s still a lot left to learn about this complex physiological condition. It’s basically an unnecessary state of hyperactivity in the body,  in which the immune system’s reserve capacity is thrown into overdrive. This excess immune activation sends the wrong cellular signals to various parts of the body — and can wind up worsening conditions like diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and potentially even cancer.

“Inflammation wastes your energies and wastes your [immune system] reserves, which are usually needed and required and restricted for acute situations like injury and infection,” said Dr. Irini Sereti, chief of the HIV pathogenesis division at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

But preventing disease isn’t as simple as quelling inflammation.

Anti-inflammatory drugs have predictable and dangerous side effects, which showed up in the recent trial of the Novartis drug canakinumab in patients with cardiovascular disease. Some patients involved in the trial wound up becoming more susceptible to serious infections, such as the bacterial skin infection cellulitis, the deadly blood infection sepsis, and even tuberculosis. That’s because a the body relies on inflammation to trigger the immune system to fight such invaders. Tamp it down too much and the immune system may not leap to your defense.

“The problem is if you block inflammation, you’re blocking a primordial mechanism by which we are protected from the organisms that share the planet with us,” said Dr. Clay Semenkovich, chief of endocrinology, metabolism, and lipid research at Washington University in St. Louis.

Yet another hurdle: Every individual responds differently to anti-inflammatory drugs, based in part on their genetic makeup. And each drug targets a different aspect of the many inflammatory pathways in the body.

Some work like “sledgehammers,” ratcheting down inflammation across the board and thus leaving the patient more susceptible to infection, said Dr. Sanjay Jain, director of the Center for Infection and Inflammation Imaging Research at Johns Hopkins University.

Others, like canakinumab, work on a more targeted portion of the inflammatory pathway — focusing specifically on interleukin 1-beta, a cell-signaling protein that helps kick off the immune response. Those proteins are made by macrophages — white blood cells programmed to attack infections and other foreign bodies. The drug prevents these cells from going into overdrive, but presumably leaves the remaining immune system intact.

“What’s exciting is that we’re starting to see a diversification and specification of treatments that go after these inflammatory pathways,” said Dr. Alex Marson, an immunology researcher at the University of California, San Francisco.

Here’s a look at a few of the conditions where inflammation plays a key role — and how researchers hope to tackle them.

HIV: BITS OF VIRUS TICKLE THE IMMUNE SYSTEM

People who have HIV and are being treated with standard antiretrovirals are often extremely successful at keeping their infection at bay. All the same, residual bits of virus continue to float in their bloodstream — and constantly “tickle the immune system, increasing chronic inflammation,” Sereti said.

Over time, this inflammation causes excess blood clotting — and ultimately doubles their risk for cardiovascular disease.

NIAID is conducting a pilot study in primates, using a drug derived from tick saliva meant to prevent the blood from clotting. (Ticks and other such insects have natural anti-coagulants in their saliva to make it easier for them to drink and digest the blood they rely on for nourishment.)

The research, just published in Science Translational Medicine, found that the drug managed to tone down abnormal blood clotting and immune activation. Researchers now hope to test this tick saliva drug further, to ultimately create a drug that might not only be useful for the clotting and inflammation seen in HIV, but in a number of other diseases — such as the hemorrhaging that takes place in Ebola.

DIABETES: TREATMENT IS A TRICKY BALANCING ACT

Diabetes is thought to be a consequence of chronic, low-grade inflammation, which appears to change the way glucose is absorbed by cells.

Anakinra, a biologic anti-inflammatory drug, has been found to improve some diabetes symptoms by blocking the cytokine protein Interleukin-1 — a key instigator of the immune and inflammatory response.

But there’s a tricky balancing act here. Commonly prescribed steroids, such as prednisone, are among the most potent anti-inflammatory drugs on the market — but they have been found to spike blood glucose levels, and chronic use can even meddle with a body’s ability to use insulin over the long term. So they’re not feasible to use as a treatment for diabetes.

So Semenkovich has been exploring how diabetics break down fats and other lipids. Most diabetics don’t metabolize lipids properly — leading to fluctuations in lipid levels that can spur inflammation.

One tantalizing clue: Macrophages seem to encourage inflammation. So when Semenkovich’s team interrupted the ability of mouse macrophages to make fat, “it actually strikingly suppressed its ability to carry out inflammatory signaling,” he said.

Such work contributes to the basic science understanding of diabetes, but drug development based on this work is still far off.

ALZHEIMER’S: TANTALIZING CLUES, BUT STILL NO ANSWERS

Labs across the country have been racing to unravel the role of inflammation in neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS.

One possible hint comes from work done at Columbia University by neuropsychologist Yian Gu. She found last year that certain nutrients can work to protect the brain, while one — cholesterol — seemed to accelerate brain aging. Gu’s team found greater signs of inflammation in patients who ate fattier diets.

“We found that people with more pro-inflammatory nutrient patterns have smaller brain volumes and worse cognition,” she said. (Her subjects were healthy, with no signs of dementia.)

Other studies implicate a buildup of immune cells in the brain, saying the subsequent inflammation causes neurological dysfunction.British researchers last year found that a drug blocking the production of microglial cells — which are part of the immune system — had a positive effect on brain function, at least in mice. Scientists at the Salk Institute in San Diego also found this year that the genes linked to neurological diseases are turned on at higher levels in the microglial cells.

But while this may seem like a promising avenue for drug development, there are inherent risks in targeting the immune cells in the brain.

Exhibit A: The case of natalizumab — a biologic drug used to treat both Crohn’s disease and multiple sclerosis. It effectively prevented inflammation of the central nervous system by blocking certain immune cells — such as T cells and natural killer cells — from making their way into the brain.

But it had an unintended side effect: It made patients far more susceptible to a deadly virus that lies quiescent in the brain, kept in check by the immune system.

“If you block the ability of these immune cells to get inside the brain, you might medicate some of the problems of multiple sclerosis,” said Larry Pease, director of the research center for immunology and immune therapies at Mayo Clinic. “But those same cells regulate viral infection — and caused some serious unintended consequences.”

DEPRESSION: A SURPRISING LINK TO INFLAMMATION

Depression is a surprising focus of study for brain inflammation, but a battery of recent studies have shown that these patients often have high levels of inflammatory markers in their system. As an example: A pro-inflammatory drug once used for hepatitis C was found to cause depression in some 40 percent of people who took it.

Johnson & Johnson recently sponsored a large clinical trial, enrolling patients with major depressive disorder to test out an experimental biologic drug, called sirukumab, which blocks an inflammatory protein.  The drug, initially tested for rheumatoid arthritis, showed an interesting side effect in clinical trials: It seemed to improve patient’s moods.

A major caveat, though: Sirukumab was snubbed by a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel this summer; arthritis experts on the panel voted 12 to 1 against approving the drug because it led to several deaths from cardiovascular disease and serious infection.

That finding again underscored the risk of targeting inflammation: These are complex pathways and will take extraordinary fine-tuning to make sure medical treatments are as safe as they are effective.

HEART DISEASE: A DRUG SHOWS PROMISE IN A GLOBAL TRIAL

Still, there are other promising trials underway that more closely examine inflammation — particularly in the cardiovascular space.

Ridker, who conducted that 10,000-patient trial, has a second related trial underway — testing out a long-used immunosuppressive drug, methotrexate, in tamping down inflammation in heart disease. The rationale? Canakinumab, which has shown some impressive efficacy, is a costly medication, running about $16,000 for a course. Methotrexate, by contrast, costs about $120 when used to treat arthritis.

In this second trial, patients who previously had heart attacks are given low doses of methotrexate, and evaluated to see if its anti-inflammatory effect will lessen the recurrence of cardiovascular disease. These patients will also be tracked to see if lowering inflammation will decrease their likelihood of developing cancers.

“We have no way of knowing whether methotrexate or canakinumab will do better in trials,” Ridker said. “I just wanted two swings at the bat for my inflammation hypothesis.”

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