#but in the end. it's gonna be shepard. and if it's not.. it's not shepard. i love people's oc shepards that take the character and use her

[pumpkinsy0]

here to hassle you again. what if i asked very nicely for some papercut interacting with curtis gang/ponys brothers. what then? (aka i miss soda and curly fucking with each other while pony just sits there and darry shakes his head solemnly in the background)

ur wish is my command🧟‍♀️🧟‍♀️

•the gang uses whipped cream a LOT but after curly comes over and took the whipped cream into the room him and pony were hanging out in, literally nobody wants to even take the can anymore, assuming theres whipped cream LEFT. the gangs swears they gotta b licking whipped cream off each other which look, they arent WRONG but its nothing CRAZY its just off each others arm or something, but the gang wont hear pony out💔💔on the bright side more whipped cream for pony!!!

•if curlys gonna b sleeping over like hes part of the gang hes gonna get “part if the gang” treatment. the first and only time curly slept on the floor was when pony slept w him cause they were watching a movie on tv and fell asleep, the gang took each end of the blanket, and lifted them up to swing them around. curly was so mad he aint even stay for breakfast, he wasnt gonna stay for it anyways but he wasnt gonna stay ESPECIALLY then🙄🙄

•as much as soda would love to b nosey and see what theyre doing in ponys old room, yknow practice his older brother right, when he brought girls over, pony would leave him alone and so he gotta grant pony his own privacy as a “thank u”

•darry likes bringing them snacks believe it or not, but when hes preparing em he can bear some of the things they say and it physically makes darry stop doing what hes doing bc like??????what the hell r u guys on about??????

•nobody else makes curly stop paying attention to pony like dally does, w everyone else, curly messes w them to make pony laugh or if he does pay attention to them fully, its not for long!! w dally tho?? it doesnt matter if dally wasnt even talking to curly, curly will talk his shit and get all in dallys face, most of the time curlys hatred will always run deeper than his love for others i fear

•johnnys the exact opposite, hes the one curly ignores the most, curly will casually forget johnny was even w them and hes the one that actually hangs out w pony and curly the most

•dating someone whos related to soda and darry means u get free repairs on ur car and home, curly constantly jokes that pony is his insurance contract. soda hates to admit it,,,but its a lil funny,,,,darry chuckled at the joke he can give curly his flowers

in the scrapbook darrys continued from his parents, soda and darry make an effort to include curly in it, if their partners have been in it, so does ponys, ESPECIALLY his first relationship. so darry and soda do make an effort to include curly in on their small trips, for their parents sake

•speaking of parents, ponys worst moment was when him and curly partially partially made out in his parents/darrys room. only darry knows about it cause the sheets were rumpled up and pony couldnt walk pass that room without giving it a look😭😭. nobodies brought it up and it will stay that way.

•pony being w curly ALSOOO means that the curtis gang has more street cred and their members wont get jumped bc ppl will think twice about messing w a gang that has closer ties to the shepard gang, curly being around doesnt allwaayyyssss have to mean doom and gloom🙏🏽🙏🏽u get semi scary m/unhinged dog privileges

[that-wildwolf]

and on the topic of my love for shepard, it is also part of my love for mass effect and what it is as an rpg. i play a lot of RPGs and similar adjecent genre games, and mass effect stood out to me for many reasons but mostly because of Shepard. I'd never before played a typical RPG where the player character has such a distinct personality and is a character in their own right, a character I can enjoy and root for as much as the NPCs, a character who stays true to their personality no matter how you play the game. It really is a testament to how well she's written. In most other RPGs, it would be ridiculous to say the player character is OOC in a fanfic, but in mass effect it works because Shepard is— Shepard. A person. A character so many of us love. This kind of thing doesn't happen often. Not a self insert, not a blank slate, but a person with their own story and character.

idk I just love shepard a lot

[favoriteblogonthecitadel]

Bastó mirarte, volver a amarte Para perderte de nuevo.

[quillkiller]

maybe i should make a sideblog for all my other hyperfixations

[frenchy-and-the-sea]

Early morning I-can't-sleep-for-stress-over-a-medical-procedure thoughts: Well, OBVIOUSLY I have to make my weird Mourn Watch Rook something like Moritani so that her nickname can be Mori. Obviously.

[kaidanalenkosprmanager]

THE BEST OF THE NORMANDY SUMMIT

Featuring: Cmdr. Sophie Shepard, Primarch Adrien Victus, Dalatrass Linron, and Urdnot Wrex With: Comm. Specialist Samantha Traynor Commander, you need to keep Cerberus at bay- I can't overstate what a victory a treaty between the Turians and the Krogan would be for the Alliance. We need all the help we can get... Mass Effect 3: Legendary Edition (2021)

[one-little-nerd-stayed-home]

Ok. Yeah. So basically the only other game that has ever made me get teary was Ghost of Tsushima

and I cant in good conscience say that Fucking Mass Effect 3 has it beat. but goddamn that fucking hurt.

[coridallasmultipass]

I have TWO where I've written the ONLY fanfics for the pairing. (Also, just fair warning, these are Adult Only fics lol.)

1: Mass Effect - Commander Shepard (Nonbinary)/Mako (the vehicle used in Mass Effect). Shepard's gambling problem runs their budget dry and they have to get creative to fundraise for more supplies. Shepard decides to cam it up since they're a famous hero now.

2: Homestuck - Dirk Strider/Dammek ('Antler Troll' before he was named). Shipped solely for the fact that they both wear sunglasses, soon after Dammek's appearance (only his appearance) was announced. He wasn't even named, so that was something I had to work around, along with giving him a blank slate personality. Dream bubbles make anything possible.

This was written after I already pulled notes for my lightning fast Antler Troll cosplay 1 hour after the announcement was made where he was shown. I love having a claim to fame.

Honourable mention: I was the second person to write Borderlands - Claptrap/Reader, but since then, the tag has exploded to a whopping 6 works. You'd think there would be more.

Reblog and put your rare pair in the tags/comments! I want to see the depths people will go to create, for the most random two characters in the most obscure media.

[ramblinganthropologist]

...

Al, I'm sorry...

But you're gonna have to do this to distract a rogue AI.

[inkywarden]

Clarke✨

[eff-plays]

Ok fine you guys twisted my arm (I say to a completely empty room) here's why I think Mass Effect 2 worked and Veilguard tried to copy it and failed.

First up is the complexity of the goal/plot. In ME2, the end goal was simple: Stop the Collectors from harvesting humans. Blast off through the Omega 4 Relay and probably die. Take down as many Collectors as possible before you die. Basically, shoot stuff until it explodes. It made sense that half of the squadmates were just "legendary badass", "legendary badass (green skin version)" and "legendary badass (huge tits version)." You need to kill dudes, so you pick people who are good at killing. There are a few who are better at tech or science, but they use tech and science to, you guessed it, kill dudes. Then you have a few who join due to aligning goals (Legion) or loyalty to Shepard (Tali, Garrus) or humanity/Cerberus (Jacob, Miranda), or they're literally getting paid to be there (Kasumi and Zaeed). But all of them have reasons to stick around, of various importance.

The specificity of the main plot is also relevant here, because everybody in the galaxy is like "oh humans are getting kidnapped? sucks to suck dude rip in piss ://" so it makes sense to recruit whoever you can get. You need help for an issue that (according to everyone who would otherwise help) only concerns you. So you're like "hey are you good at killing? and do you mind dying?" and most of those freaks go "yeah lmao whatever." They're self-selecting, because the cause is so specific and explicitly suicidal.

The suicidal thing also helps explain the loyalty missions, btw. They're not presented as "hey can you umm help? or I'm gonna be distwacted 👉👈" but as "hey man, these people are willing to die on your command, you should probably help them with their unfinished business at the very least." And yeah, the mechanic of "if you don't help they'll fucking perish" remains the same, but the framing is different. In ME2, you're basically helping a bunch of professionals to do this final thing before they die for your cause. It's both a sign of respect and of consideration for them as people, and strengthens your bond with them and their loyalty to you. The way it's framed means that you don't have to do this in order for them to do their job, but doing it helps strengthen their belief in you.

And because the stakes are relatively low (as far as everyone knows), of course the squadmates will respect and appreciate a Shepard who takes care of them more. Of course it builds loyalty. This person isn't just using you as a meat shield for their pet crusade, they're genuinely trying to do what's right and don't want you to die for nothing.

In Veilguard, you're literally told multiple times that you have to do their dumbfuck busywork or else they're gonna throw in the towel. Hey man can you do this thing? Or else I'm not saving the world :3c The stakes being SO HIGH while their issues are SO NOTHING makes most of them look really immature and incompetent, which clashes against the whole "gang of experts" thing. You're telling me this couldn't wait? I have to go into Lucanis' mind and figure out his traumas or else he won't ... hold a knife good? And that will doom the world because he's the only guy who can hold a knife? Okay???

ME2 presents everybody as professionals and experts in their field, but at the end of the day, they're just there to kill stuff. Remove one, and another will be found. The mission is (as far as everyone in power knows) not galaxy-threatening yet, so finding new guys to help would be easy. That's why Shep taking the time to solve their final issues means something and why it earns their loyalty. It shows that Shep cares about them as people.

Veilguard presents these people as experts in their fields, too. They're considered irreplacable in this conflict. And the conflict is saving the whole entire fucking world. And YET, that has to take a backseat to them figuring out what happened to a work colleague or Lucanis' grandma, because none of these experts can take a fucking chill pill to SAVE THE WORLD.

ME2 offers "low" stakes for the conflict and high stakes for the characters, so when it focuses on the characters' stories, it makes sense. You get the impression that it's character drama with a common goal that brings them all together. Veilguard offers high stakes for the plot and low stakes for the characters, but still focuses on the characters, so you get the sense that we're fucking around playing therapist while the world is on fire in the background, and it's presented as totally logical, because these guys can't save the world without a clear mind!! Despite being ... experts in their fields.

That's why, to me, Rook feels like a therapist while Shep feels like a leader.

Anyway, this is the formal end of the post but I wrote more on the specific character motivations of the Veilguard and why they don't work/feel trite to me and how that adds to Rook feeling like they're a therapist but it didn't fit with the rest of the post so under cut.

Another thing is that, while sometimes the problems of the Veilguard are technically higher stakes than the problems of the ME2 squad, there is a sense of "Hey do you actually need me for this?" And that I think is in part to the lacking motivations of the Veilguard. It's so unclear why some of them stick around that it becomes difficult to justify why they wouldn't just leave to fix their own issues.

(For example, Garrus asks us to help kill a guy. The guy isn't dangerous, he's not out there killing people or in possession of a superweapon ready to destroy a city. He's just an asshole and Garrus wants revenge. He could, technically, leave and just kill the guy himself. He knows where the guy is, so what's holding him back? Well, the job is. And Shepard is. Garrus wants Shep's help, because he doesn't trust himself to finish it on his own. He needs somebody to rely on, but he also knows that he can't just leave without Shep's permission, and that Shep needs him, too. Everything is on Shep's schedule, and there's no real time limit. His revenge can wait until Shep is ready to offer their help.

Neve is hunting an old rival who is a blood mage threatening to enslave her favorite city in all da world. It's pretty damn high stakes. But in my playthrough, Neve wasn't counting on Rook's help at all. In fact, she explicitly mentioned several times that she didn't. Yet, she still sat around and waited for their help. She didn't leave to deal with this on her own, didn't even consider it. But why not? What about Rook or this cause is keeping her there, especially since there's canonically time before the next big move and the issue is so high-stakes and pressing? People will die if she doesn't do something, yet she's sitting on her ass waiting for Rook, whose help she isn't counting on, to step up? What???)

Neve is introduced as being hired by Varric to find Solas, which she does. In the tutorial mission. She sticks around after Varric dies because ... she's in too deep now, I guess. She has to help save the world, you see. Even though all she wants is to go back to Minrathous and protect the people there. She wants your help to. Figure out some stuff. The famous big city detective needs the help of a person who's introduced as somebody who "thinks in straight lines" and whose nickname is probably a play on "rookie." She is not getting paid for this. She's doing this out of the kindness of her heart, even though most of her time on screen is spent dreaming of her favorite city in da world. She's not an expert in anything that has to do with the current plot, so she's in-fiction not really vital to keep around. Her role as a mage is made entirely pointless by the existence of Bellara and Emmrich. Supposedly her area of expertise is in blood magic ... despite hating it and not actually practicing it, on account of it being bad and evil. So she's an expert in killing blood mages, then?

Well, no. That's Lucanis. He's the resident mage killer ... who we find in an underwater prison, guarded by blood mages. I get there is a reason for why he was defeated, but the optics aren't great, ya know? We don't really free him as much as we lightly distract his guards, so he can bust out of the prison fully clothed and armored. He's suuper eager for revenge, but he's also been forcefully possessed. But that's okay, because we need his expertise for um. Killing mages. Which is what the Evanuris are. So this random possessed human guy will know better than anybody else how to kill the Evanuris. Sure. He decides to stick around on account of ... the Crows always finishing a contract. Who is paying him? Who is paying the Crows? His gam-gam ordered him to stay, she's basically offering us his services for freeing him. Guy is an indentured servant but acts like it's his choice, like it's an honor thing and not his grandma putting him in the toilet. And when it's time for him to show/offer his expertise in the field, he says "How am I supposed to fight a cloud?" which is fair enough, sure. But have you not fought mages before? Do you not have any reference for them doing weird shit at all? Do you not know how to disrupt rituals, break barriers? In the end, all he can practically do is hold the special knife and attempt to stick the pointy end into his target. Which my rogue Rook or Davrin or Taash chould've done. But gam-gam says to sit so he sits! It's not a very compelling motivation for this epic expert mage killer to just kinda. Stick around out of obligation. It could've been interesting, if he chafed against it or had to be won over, but he's just fine with it. It's treated as natural that this dude, who isn't even slightly an actual expert and is just a glorified knife holder and who isn't practically useful in any sense of the word, is still in the group. It's treated as natural that Rook has to go out of their way to help him clear his mind so he can hold the knife better next time, instead of just finding another guy to hold the knife. Maybe the spirit in him makes him stronger and more capable of fighting mages? No, the spirit is what made him miss in the first place, actually! So you have to help him figure it out or he'll miss again. DON'T ask somebody else to hold the knife though. It HAS TO BE Lucanis. Because he's the mage killer expert. Who missed. And can't handle mages.

Then we have Taash, who we need to kill the blighted dragons. They're the only dragon hunter around and have an encyclopedic knowledge of said dragons. Unfortunately the blighted state of the dragons that are actually necessary to kill are behaving in unexpected and different ways from normal dragons. They're literally manipulated by the Evanuris to be harder to kill. Making Taash's expertise moot. I didn't even have them in my party when I took on two dragons at once, and in fact the only dragons that Taash is presented as capable of killing are ones that they want us to kill. So this expert we recruit mostly introduces more dragons for us to kill that aren't actually threatening us in any way. The main time Taash has to show off their knowledge is when we use the dragon trap ... which was fashioned by Wardens. Who are all trained specifically to fight Archdemons. Who are dragons. That are blighted. Do you uh. Do you see my problem here. Taash also sticks around the Veilguard for inexplicable reasons. Mostly it seems they don't want to go home to their mother, which is fine, but this is a whole-ass adult, supposedly. They could go back to hunting dragons for the Lords, because they're written as too self-absorbed to really care about stepping up to the fight just for the sake of it. So despite them not really being useful in any way to the overall plot, we still have to help them figure out their gender identity, or else they won't be able to ... fight the blighted dragons. Which they couldn't fight. On account of the blight. Cool cool cool.

Then we have Emmrich, who is a professor and has shit to do. He is also presented as a Fade expert, while Bellara is somehow not, despite doing most of the Fade-related and artifact-related magic on-screen. Emmrich joins the Veilguard on account of um. Well we asked nicely, and he's a good guy, so he has to help save the world. Despite the fact that he's terrified of dying. Which he's far more likely to do after leaving his job. And the thing is, yeah, "the world might end so we need to stop that!" is a valid motivation, but if we accept it as the motivation of a central character whose plot we must find compelling, then why is it that it's only a few guys trying to save the world? This conflict is prestented as bigger than all the previous games combined, bigger than (the) Inquisition, which had literally entire armies and different branches and infrastructure for it's "smaller" conflict, and people were still volunteering and joining in droves, but here we're 8 guys? Are we meant to believe Emmrich's willingness to join the Veilguard is somehow unique to him, and that nobody else in the world would volunteer to join? When Harding exists, on the same team?

Speaking of, Harding is a character who can really get away with "I wanna save the world", because her joining the Inquisition is literally how she got into the plot in the first place. She's a joiner. She joins heroic causes. So her having this sort of bare-bones but noble motivation works. Same with Davrin. Bellara seems to join out of both curiosity and guilt, which are interesting enough reasons and come through visibly in her subplot and characterization, but more importantly, she doesn't have anything holding her back that might take priority until she finds out her brother is alive. Her sticking around also makes some sense because she's ya know. An elf mage Fade expert. Or sorry an elf artifacts expert.

I'm not saying "somebody's gotta do it!" or "it's the right thing to do!" aren't valid motivations, they clearly are, but there's gotta be more to it, especially when it comes to characters who have something to lose like Emmrich. My guy is terrified of death but he's such a good dude that he jumps into this life-threatening conflict without a second thought? But then gets so "distracted" by his wacky scientist former colleague that he needs our help figuring it out? Huh???

Um. I didn't have a conclussy for this part of the post so. bye

[gynoidgearhead]

[image caption: two books, one very thick and one very thin. the first is "the plot of mass effect 1" and the second is "the plot of mass effect 1 if the n7 armour had a helmetcam". end caption]

my mass effect hot take ((fuck the council))

[alittlebitofloveliness]

"You good, man?'

“I’m fine,” Dally scoffs, spitting a string of bloody saliva into the dirt, and wiping his mouth with the back his hand.

“See I would believe that,” Two-bit drawls, lounging against the hood of his car, “but you gotta goddamn knife stickin’ out of your leg, so.”

“Huh?” Dally looks down, apparently noticing the handle sticking out of his thigh for the first time. “Oh. Shit.”

“Yeah oh shit. C’mon, I’ll drive you to the Curtis’. ”

Dally snorts. “You’re drunker than I thought if you think I’m about to bother Darry with this.”

“Dal. You got a knife sticking outta your leg.”

“So? Ain’t like its the first time.”

Two-bit opens his mouth, about to ask for more details on that particular flippant statement, before deciding he really doesn’t want to know.

“Just…tell me somewhere I can take you where you won’t let yourself bleed out in the street in the name of being’ tough.”

“Take me to Shepards.”

“You mean the to the house of the guy who just put that knife in your leg?”

“Well he’s gonna want it back.” 

He says it likes it’s reasonable. No wonder Ponyboy’s been getting wilder lately, since he started spending so much time around him. If he was Darry listening to this whole spiel, Two-bit thinks he’d probably have an aneurysm. Luckily he ain’t Darry, so instead he just finds it all kinda funny.

“So, what? You show up, knock on the door, and when he opens it you pull the knife outta your leg and bleed out on his porch?”

“He ain’t actually mad.”

“He stabbed you.” Two-bit feels the need to point out. Just because it doesn't seem to have sunk in yet.

“Yeah, but not in the chest.” Dally snorts, “hell, this is practically a declaration of love comin’ from him.”

“I ain’t takin’ you to Shepards. End of.”

“Fine,” Dally huffs, “just bring me back to Buck’s then.”

“Fine.” Two-bit agrees, knowing full well he isn’t going to do anything of the sort. 

Ten minutes later he pulls up outside the Curtis’ house, and Dally lets loose a string of curses that would’ve earned two-bit the spanking of a lifetime from his ma not too long ago.

“You no good, lying’ dirty-“

Two-bit just grins, seeing the way Darry’s already crossing the yard towards them, those uncanny mother hen instincts of his having told him already there’s trouble afoot.

“Relax Winston,” Two-bit tells him, “ain’t none of us gonna ruin your street cred, and besides, you got be all fixed up when it’s time to return that knife tomorrow.”

Dally doesn't fight quite as much after that.

[kaidanalenkosprmanager]

THE BEST OF PRIORITY: TUCHANKA (PART 1)

Featuring: Cmdr. Sophie Shepard, Urdnot Wrex, and Urdnot Bakara With: Dr. Mordin Solus, Primarch Adrien Victus, Dalatrass Linron, Urdnot Wreav, and Comm. Specialist Samantha Traynor This will be the defining moment of Krogan history... Mass Effect 3: Legendary Edition (2021)

[johnathan-pastry]

Dear fanfic writers :

Tim having to be a dad AND mom to curls and angela cause their parents wouldnt.

And Darry having to take up care of his kid brothers in his early adulthood.

Tim doesnt wanna sound insensitive to it but he's been takin care of his siblings since he was a kid himself. Around 5 years old. He changed their diapers when their mom was to drunk too, he tried his best to feed them even when he was too young to know how, and when things got too bad he took em too bucks.

Growing up he skipped meals and stole for them so they could eat, he'd take the left over books and supplys at the end of the year so they'd have school supplies, he taught angie how to fend for herself and always made sure she had a weapon on her, he was the one who did their hair and picked their outfits.

So when when the curtis parents passed away and he saw darry takin care of his brothers at first he had this bittersweet feeling. Like kinda awe someone like me but then 19 year old tim shepard watched a 20 year old darry get more support than he ever got.

Miss Matthews dropped off food when she could, their neighbors helped dar fix up his truck, the curtis parents friends helped pay for the funeral, his boss gave him as many hours as he could.

And on that went. tim felt like that 5 year old caring for two newborns alone all over again while a whole community came to help this grown ass man take care of two self sufficient teens.

And the worst part was, his parents werent gone, he's gonna go home a mother who couldnt give less of a shit if he stopped feeding curls and angie or driving them to school and a dad whos probably drunk in some ditch somewhere.

He thinks they'd be better if off if their parents left like the curtis's.

(now make it tarry agnst /opt)

[vaultedoverthehorse]

“Curly, this is really dumb.” The little nine year old stood looking up at his older friend, who was attempting to climb up a telephone pole. The friend in question looked down with a confident smile.

“I’ve got this, Ponyboy. I’m halfway there already!” Curly hoisted himself up higher on the pole. This whole ordeal would’ve already been stupid, had it not rained the night before. In the early morning, the pole was slicker than it should be.

“Curly, I really think you should get down.” Always the over thinker, Pony was terrified his friend would bust his head and die if he fell. But at the same time, he was Curly Shepard, the tuff ten-year old who was already getting into fights and winning. He could get hurt.

Pony was about to be proven wrong. “C’mon, Ponybaby, don’t worry-“ Curly’s had slipped, and he couldn’t catch himself before he fell down and landed hard on the soggy grass. The dull thud made Pony slightly queasy. He just stared for a moment, completely terrified.

“Curly, are you dead?” He asked quietly, his voice squeaky.

Curly sat up, his face pale. His eyes were wide with pain, and he looked like he was trying not to cry. That’s bad, Pony thought. Shepards never cried. Was the world ending?

“I-I’m not dead,” he said quietly. Pony was even more terrified by how he was holding himself. Curly was always overconfident, risky, and excited. Now he just looked defeated. “I just - hurt my arm. It’s not a big deal, I’m - I’ve had worse.” He had not had worse. His voice sounded sad, like he was trying to convince himself of what he was saying.

Pony took a glance at his arm and instantly regretted it. Were arms supposed to bend that way? He didn’t think so. Maybe they could, he was only nine and he hadn’t seen much. But if they were supposed to bend that way, Curly wouldn’t be crying.

“Um…I’m gonna go get Darry.” That’s the only thing Pony could think of doing right now. His parents were at work, and Soda was running around with Keith and Steve. Plus, Darry plays football. He knows what to do with injuries.

Pony ran as fast as he could to the Curtis home. Luckily he’s always been a good runner, able to outrun Soda by a mile. He banged through the front door, finding a, annoyed Darry doing homework at the kitchen table.

“What, Pony?” But the sick look on his little brother’s face made his annoyance shift to concern. “What happened?”

“Curly’s arm is facing the wrong way.” Pony ranted out the whole story, barely stopping to breathe.

Darry groaned, heading for his jacket. “You kids are gonna be the death of me…Tim needs to get his brother under control.” He rubbed a hand down his face, then pointed to Pony. “You call Tim, I’ll go get the troublemaker.”

A week later, Curly walked around school, telling some tale of how he’d gotten his arm broken by three senior Socs but he managed to fight them off one-handed. Pony rolled his eyes. He would’ve been telling everyone the whole story, had Curly not let him draw something small on his cast as payment. The real story only existed between Pony, Curly, Darry, and an extremely drunk Tim. And Curly got to carry around a drawing of a horse for six weeks.