#but otherwise she just... looks like a volus

[c-rowlesdraws]

and she’s single!

[n7inky-fanfics]

Shore Leave

CW: mention of suicide, injuries from gunfight

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"Shore leave, always an adventure." Kaidan says as they exit the Normandy. This shore leave has definitely been an adventure. After all, it began with Hazel Shepard being shot at in one of the best sushi restaurants on the Citadel and ended with taking back the Normandy from her clone, who promptly committed suicide by allowing herself to fall from the ship. The friends exit the docks and begin their shore leave again, hoping that they can truly enjoy the rest of it. After Joker suggests a party, Shepard sits down on the couch with a beer in hand. She'll definitely need a stiffer drink to process this all later, but for now she wants time to think and rest relatively unimpeded. Kaidan was right, shore leave is always an adventure. She snuggles into the couch and recalls the first shore leave she took with Kaidan.

--- --- --- --- --- --- ---

They had just left Feros when they got the order from the Alliance. After the stress and strain of that mission and all it involved, the Alliance thought it best for them to take a weekend of shore leave on the Citadel. As the ship flew back to the Citadel, the crew was abuzz with excitement and plans for their weekend. As someone who spent the past decade in the Alliance and planned to spend many future decades serving, Shepard had learned to take shore leave whenever she could get it. Despite this, she felt a little unsure about taking even a weekend off from trying to find Saren. Despite what the Council and Udina thought, she knew the truth. The galaxy depended on her to save it. That's a heavy burden to bear, and at the time it was one she was inexperienced with.

The Alliance could make her dock her ship and send her crew on shore leave, but she could spend her weekend improving her singularity in biotic training centers and researching Saren and the Reapers using her Spectre access to open otherwise classified files. She planned to take anything she'd need with her, just in case they tried locking her off the ship to make her take a break. She had just finished packing her bag and was heading to the mess for dinner when she was approached by Lieutenant Alenko and Gunnery Chief Williams.

"Hey, skipper. What are you planning on doing once we hit the Citadel?" Ash asked, a large grin spreading across her face. Kaidan looked nervous and glanced at Ash like she was torturing him.

"Ah, just planning on getting some work done over the weekend." Shepard shrugged.

"You going to dinner, Shepard?" Kaidan asked.

Ash looked to him, surprised, then smiled and added "If you are, you should join us!"

"Sure, sounds good." Shepard said. Some time with her crew sounded nice. They'd already seen a lot together. Their journey to stop Saren led them to rescue Liara from Therum and later to save colonists on Feros from both the Geth and an ancient, sentient plant. Shepard knew, even then, that their journey would lead them to more impossible and mind-blowing things. The bonds you build over experiences like that can last a lifetime, if you let them evolve.

They trio walked to the mess together and got their plates. As they sat down, Ash shoved Kaidan lightly with her elbow and looked towards Shepard. Kaidan cleared his throat and said "So, Shepard... You're not going to take any time for yourself?"

"I'm glad the crew will get a chance to rest. It's definitely necessary to keep everyone at their best. But, I don't think the whole ship can be off at once. Not while we're trying to stop Saren."

"C'mon, Skipper. You need a rest, too!" Ash smiled.

"You could come to Flux with us the night we arrive. After, you'd have the rest of the weekend to get work done." Kaidan said.

"Or to relax some more. " Ash added with a laugh.

Hazel laughed, too, as she said "Alright, alright. You've got me. I'll go with you."

And so, after an "enjoyable" Alliance-standard dinner and an uneventful docking, they went to Flux for a late drink. As most Alliance soldiers do, they went in their fatigues because it's all they keep on the ship. Doran gave them a table near the dance floor and Jenna told them their first round was on her as thanks for getting her out of Chora's Den.

One drink and pleasant chatter turned into two and then three drinks. Shepard hadn't been able to relax like this since before the Normandy left on her shakedown run, and she hadn't laughed like this since Akuze. It was a wonderful night. Eventually, Ash dragged the three of them out onto the dance floor, only to sneak away so that Kaidan and Shepard were dancing alone. When Hazel realized, she blushed bright red and excused herself to the restroom.

She was falling for him, and she knew she couldn't let that happen. Kaidan was great, and be had so much potential. She knew that anything between him could stand in the way of his career as well as hers. She stood at the sink and splashed some water on her face in the otherwise empty bathroom, or at least she had thought it was empty.

Suddenly, broad Turian arms were around her. One was pinning her arms to her side, while the other was against her throat, joking her. She flared her biotics as she threw her weight backwards, driving the Turian into the wall with a thud. That's when she saw the gun trained on her from the vent in the ceiling. She raced out the bathroom and a bullet ran through her right arm at the shoulder. Instinct drove her, and she firmly pressed her hand to the wound as she fled.

She must have been quite the sight when she emerged from the bathroom. Despite the noise and flashing lights, her companions almost immediately spotted her. They stood quickly and ran to her side as she found Doran.

"We need to evacuate, now." She said.

"We can't just evacuate, what about-" Doran began.

"I just got attacked in you bathroom and was shot. Your customers are in danger. Call C-Sec and evacuate." She used her patent "Commander Shepard" voice. Even through the suite, she could tell that she scared the Volus a little. "Williams, help Doran get everyone out of here through the shipping entrance. Alenko-"

She stopped as she saw the Turian who had attacked her from behind making his way towards them. Whoever had hired him didn't want collateral damage. If it hadn't been a concern, he'd have been shooting at her by then. This worked well because it was one less thing to worry about. "No time! Alenko, Williams, follow me!" She ran through the club to the main entrance. They followed suite. The merc was joined by two others, and soon they were on the hunt. Despite her best efforts to contain the bleeding, Shepard was leaving a bloody trail right to them. There was no way they'd be able to lose them like this, and Shepard didn't think she'd want to lose them, anyways. She headed to the alleyways behind the market. "Alenko, Williams, go get C-Sec. We're going to need guns."

"What about you, Commander?" Kaidan asked.

"I'll hold them off. They're going to be on us no matter what. I'd rather be somewhere a stray bullet won't hit a civilian. Go, get C-Sec. That's an order."

They ran towards C-Sec as Shepard began prying open crates of merchandise for the market. She found nothing of use, so she positioned herself near some crates just as her pursuers arrived in the alley.

"What do you want?" She asked, her voice steely and calm.

"Saren sends his regards." The Turian merc sneered as his companions chuckled. Shepard used her biotics to throw the man against the wall. The idiot hadn't worn a helmet, probably because he was being cocky. He hit his head against an emergency light sticking out from the wall and his body slumped to the ground. The moment of shock gave her an advantage, and she dove behind a crate as the other two opened fire. The idiots didn't even time their shots well, so she had a small break in the fire as their heatsinks overloaded. She took the opportunity and shot out a large singularity field. They both dropped their weapons as they were pulled into the field, crying out in pain. Now, she would usually give herself a moment to recharge before using her biotics again, but she didn't have that kind of time here. As soon as the field dropped them, she threw them against the wall, hard. The impact finished them off. The three mercs lay dead or unconscious in the alley.

With the immediate threat past, the adrenaline quickly began to wear off. Shepard became aware of the pain in arm and how exhausted she was. She'd pushed her biotics too hard too quickly, and the effects of forcing that much dark energy to move at once were taking a toll on her. She leaned her back against the wall and slid into a sitting position. Her arm was still bleeding, and she used what little energy she had left to keep pressure on the wound.

Kaidan and Ash came running in then along with several C-Sec officers. The guards moved to check out the mercs while Kaidan and Ash ran for Shepard. "Shepard, are you alright?" Kaidan asked as he dropped to her side.

"Nothing some medi-gel can't fix." She chuckled weakly. She must have been really pale, because Kaidan and Ash both exchanged worried glances.

"I've got some, Commander. Let me patch you up." Kaidan said. Shepard just nodded and let him work. He cut away the sleeve of her fatigues, which at this point clung to her with sweat and sticky blood. She'd definitely need a new shirt. She winced as he cleaned the wound and applied medi-gel. The sealant worked quickly, but it wasn't the military grade she was used to. It didn't pack the same punch.

The C-Sec officers confirmed that all three of the mercs died upon impact with the wall. They began the lengthy process of collecting evidence. Shepard felt a little bad that their encounter had spanned the distance between the Flux bathroom and the alleyways. The size of the crime scene alone made it lot of work. As Kaidan finished patching her wounds, he said "Wait here a moment. Dr. Michel will be here soon with a chair and an IV to get some nutrients in you."

"Nah, I'll be fine." Shepard said. She moved to pull herself to her feet with the help of a crate, but Kaidan gently held her down.

"All due respect, Commander, but you're in no condition to be walking anywhere. Between the blood loss and the overused biotics, you need to rest." Kaidan looked her in the eyes. God, she could get lost in the warmth of his deep brown eyes. She chastised herself for thinking about that at the time.

Kaidan and Ash walked with them as Dr. Michel transported Shepard back to the clinic. Dr. Chakwas met them there.

"Dr. Chakwas, it's good to see you." Shepard said, flashing a shit eating grin.

"Lieutenant Alenko informed me that you overused your biotics in your latest encounter. I came to make sure you get a good lecture about safety while we get some nutrients in your system."

"Doctor, I couldn't have planned to be attacked while on shore leave, without any weapons or armor."

"Maybe, but you still worried me. Don't do that again." Dr. Chakwas smiled gently at Shepard.

"I love shore leave." Ash smiled and patted Kaidan on the back.

"Always an adventure." Kaidan added.

[desolascommander]

Disaster at Akuze

@mindthemuse

---

It was his first time off-world.  First time in a ship, except for when he had been young.  It was a first for everything, really.  Desolas could feel the heat bearing down on him as he dropped from the carrier, the visor of his helmet shielding him from the beating sun.

From torrential, hot downpours to endless sand…things around him were different.  He had learned about the colony of Bostra in school; learned that it was mostly desert.  This reminded him of those images of Bostra.

The details of the mission were vague; just that they were responding to a turian distress signal.  A signal that had come from a human colony.  This was a strange notion; the humans were the newest species to the galactic community, after all.  Desolas did not know much about them.  He wondered if they would encounter any.  Desolas came from Palaven, but he'd never seen anything but turians.  Not even volus, though he was sure there were some on the planet.

What did a human look like, he wondered.  What did it sound like?  Humans were an enigma; a mystery to the cabalist who wasn't even allowed to look these things up on the ExtraNet.  And now, their boots were on human soil.  Or sand, rather.  Were humans a desert-dwelling species, Desolas wondered?  Capable of withstanding sweltering heat?

There were twelve of them, for they were missing a few.  A couple of Cabalists had been wounded in the last fight and were still recovering back on base.  That was okay.

Ankus landed beside him.  He was but a youth, having just completed his own training.  He, too, had his face obscured by his helmet, but Desolas could tell he was terrified by his tremble.  The taller turian placed a talon upon Ankus' shoulder, and the younger turian looked up at him, steadying a bit.

They were clad in black and white to distinguish themselves from the non-biotics.  Such as their handlers, who wore black-and-gray armour.  Desolas remembered seeing soldiers like them when he was younger; wanting to be like them.  Wanting to be like his father.  He was still a soldier, now, but a different type.  All because of his power.

Their orders were to stick together.  They were to investigate the source of the distress call, and deal with whatever they encountered.  It was probably a crash, and there were likely to be survivors they would need to take care of.  They were equipped to do so, provided these survivors were turian.  Given this was a turian distress signal, it was figured to be so.  But in case they were to encounter anyone--whether human or turian or otherwise--their handlers and the Kabalim were to deal with it.  Alasius knew what to do, and they trusted him.

Their loyalty to Alasius was absolute.  And his loyal to the Hierarchy was absolute.

"Elvira," Alasius said, "I want you to scout ahead.  Make sure the path to signal is clear, and report back."

"Yes, sir," she replied, and in the blink of an eye she was off.

Desolas saw something moving off to his side; he went to investigate it.  Something poking up out of the ground and moving.  But as he did he was thrown off-balance by a sudden earthquake.  Or was it?  The ground was trembling.  Something with a thick hide burst from the ground; there was shouting and gunfire, and Desolas was scrambling to his feet, trying to get back to his fellow Cabalists.

Something hit him square in the gut, and he went flying.  If it wasn't the soft sand dune he landed in, he might have broken a bone or something.  He found himself falling down that same tall dune, however, rolling under he hit the bottom.  Disoriented, he rubbed the sand from the visor of his helmet, and listened.  He couldn't hear shots or gunfire anymore, and sand was still blowing around him.  His keen turian hearing did pick up footsteps, however.

[ramblinganthropologist]

MER Week Days 3 and 6

Prompts: Midnight Rendezvous and Break my Heart

Eh heh heh... I’ve been wanting to do this one for a while. >:3c

Summary: What’s left behind when Commander Shepard dies? Not a lot for Bo to hold onto. It’s hardest at night, and it’s not easier with what remains. But sometimes it helps. Setting: Between 1 and 2.

---

-June 23, 2183-

Bo wasn't sure what she hated more: the sound of military music or her formal uniform.

Both were grating on her nerves as she sat there in a green field covered in headstones. Most of them were small. After all, in that day and age they rarely got a whole body back. At best, ashes were buried there under the names and dates. Sometimes... well, the less said about the larger plots the better.

For her, there was nothing left.

She clenched her fist tight as she stared down at the small plot of ground that had been marked out for the Citadel's savior. In plain dates, “Commander Alistair Michael Shepard, 2156-2183” was spelled out in heavy black letters. Nothing but the basic facts about the man who was anything but, even if she had said otherwise.

“Fuck.”

The ceremony had been over for a while now. People had tried to give her sympathy but it had bounced off her like bullets off her armor. Bo had just stood there, staring at the ground. Maybe she was numb, maybe she was pissed. It wasn't every day she got to watch her best friend memorialized.

The priest was an asshole; Al wasn't Catholic anyway.

“Excuse me, Commander Shepard?”

For a brief second, Bo didn't move. After all, someone that polite would have been for Alistair. It took her a second to remember that he wasn't at her fucking side where he was supposed to be, fielding comments for her. Her buffer was gone now, and she had to face it alone. So, she turned to face them, not really looking.

They had a box in their hands and an Alliance uniform on their back. She didn't really notice the rank or the face. Details like that didn't really matter lately – someone would probably say that was depression. Honestly, she was just tired. Some asshole with a degree would probably say that was depression too.

“Yeah?”

They didn't shrink back from the bite to her voice. She had to give them that. “We recovered this from the crash. As next of kin, it's yours.”

They handed the box over without another word. “All we found was some armor and his pistol. I'm sorry we couldn't give you more.”

And then they left Bo alone with the little box that held the one possession Alistair loved almost as much as his hamster. She would have laughed, but it just wouldn't come out. Instead, she just stared at it, frowning. Then she gave the box a shake – too much rattled around for it to be in one piece. Given the Normandy had blown up, that was to be expected.

Disappointing... he had always liked that damn little gun. Even when there were better models, ones that maybe accounted for his shitty aiming, it was at his side like a little red nightmare. Dead eye, dumb gun. That had been her brother.

And now it was all she had left.

“Fuck.”

That was all Bo could get out as she turned to walk away from the empty grave, broken gun in hand. What else could she say? It wouldn't bring Alistair back if she suddenly developed his ability to speak to people, nor would it make her feel any better. All she could do was just keep walking and hope she figured out the rest later.

Stupid Alistair... he had to get himself blown up for his own damn pilot.

-December 11, 2183-

Explosions were what shot Bo out of bed that morning.

None of them were real – she would have been moving faster if they had been. But she heard them all the same and saw the Normandy exploding before her very eyes as she sat there on the edge of her bed, sweat pouring down her face and her chest heaving from the effort. It took every  effort to remember she wasn't in space, and the only thing that was threatening to explode was her heart. Even after a few seconds of staring around the dark room, it didn't calm down.

So it was going to be one of those nights, huh?

“What fucking time is it?”

Somewhere off to the side, her computer glowed. “The current time is 02:30.”

The pleasant voice that came from the speakers had a thick Irish accent that hadn't been reproduced well. Where vowels and consonants came together, the awkward electronics showed themselves. It wasn't a person.

It wasn't Alistair.

Bo took a deep breath as she looked over at the computer again. Even in the darkness, she could see the little hologram standing there, projected by her screen. The voice had come from a VI she had picked up her last time at the Citadel. The man selling it had cowered and given her a deeply discounted rate. He should have – the damn thing was broken half the time.

She sat down at her desk, not really looking at the little projection of her brother in his fatigues. He hated wearing those – something about them never fitting right in the legs and causing him to trip if he didn't roll them up right. It had been his curse of being so damn short.

“Anything good?”

The Shepard VI was as cheery as always. “You have 74 unread messages and one missed vid call from Admiral Anderson.”

Bo rolled her eyes as she briefly scrolled down. Nothing she gave a fuck about. “Delete them and remind me to call Anderson later.”

“Can do.” Then the VI switched to its deletion message. “I get rid of you on the way to real problems.”

She had to laugh, but it was like there was broken glass in her throat. It was her words in Alistair's dumb accent like some fucked up fusion nightmare. The real one would have never said anything like that. Hell, he probably would've offered to fix his own damn VI if he were around to see just how buggy it was.

Something about that was so wrong it had to make her laugh, but damn if it didn't hurt when she did it.

“Those volus patching you need to get off their asses and fix the personality. Did they get us mixed up again?”

Pleasant Alistair VI was back. “Sending a note to the development team. Thanks for your feedback, you make the galaxy safer.”

Nerdy; that was closer. Bo shook her head as she looked at her empty inbox and the pending call. Part of her – she swore it had an accent – was telling her to pick up her omni-tool and give Anderson a call. Then it was telling her to put on pants and go do something outside. All were sensible, yet horrible ideas and she didn't want  to do any of them.

“Fuck I don't even know.”

Her leave was almost over, and then it was back to who even fucking knew. The Hong Kong wasn't around to take her back – even if they had loved her. Like the Normandy it was smashed to a thousand pieces and just as useful. Maybe the Council would want her to do something. Those fuckers owed her one after all.

A couple ones, but she would settle for one. Just... something. Anything.

Something wet trickled down her face – maybe the ceiling had finally sprung a leak due to her dumb ass neighbors upstairs. Bo didn't investigate it. She just kept staring at the damn VI, half hoping that it would do something other than read her messages for her. But it just stood there, waiting for her to give it a task to complete.

And the ones she needed it couldn't do. She had learned the hard way that a VI couldn't hug for shit.

“Maybe I should go back to bed.”

Her bones creaked as she started back over towards her unmade bed. Sometime during the struggle, her pillow had wound up on the floor. Grumbling, she bent to pick it up. That was when she felt it in her lower back – a dull pain throbbed to life.

“Fuck!”

She slapped her hand over it just as a similar burning ache stabbed its way through her lower leg. Bo fell back on the bed, half expecting gunfire. When she pulled her hand away there was nothing there, though. She wasn't bleeding – shit just fucking hurt.

“Are you ok, Commander Shepard? Do you require medical attention?”

Now that was fucking Al. Maybe the volus were finally on to something.

Bo blinked back surprise as she looked down to the source of pain on her leg. It wasn't anywhere she had been injured before as far as she could remember. Instead, it was centralized around a band of pinks and reds inked into her skin. Even in the dark, her fingers found her way to the tattoo and rubbed against it.

“Commander Shepard?”

Another throb, this time from her lower back and right where another tattoo was. Bo's eyes went higher than the VI, to a shelf she hadn't touched since she had installed it. On it rested a dusty box, marked down “personal effects” in ink that hadn't started to fade.

“Can't be.” but it was hurting right where her N7 tattoo was inked into her skin, as bad as it had when she had first gotten it with Alistair on the Citadel. He had had a matching one inked in the same spot on his own skin, though he had complained about it the entire time it was healing. For a medic, it was almost funny.

It had always hurt when either of them were about to do something stupid.

A strange smile crossed her face as she managed to get back into bed. “See if there are any available shuttles out of here in the morning.”

“Can do, Commander. Remember to get at least 8 hours of sleep a night for optimum efficiency.”

Hopefully, someone else was hurting as much as she was, because Bo wasn't going to be getting any sleep that night. But as a plan formed in her head, she couldn't say she minded much at all.

-April 11, 2184-

“You have two missed vid calls from ID “Bonecrusher” and “Demonslinger” and three unread messages from the Alliance.”

“Tell them they can suck it I'm busy.”

The bruises from last night's fight were still healing and it hurt to move. Bo really should have been resting or at the very least swimming in medigel. Instead, she was at her desk pouring over a bunch of dumb, stupid pieces.

In front of her, oh so careful dissembled, was a pistol. Half the pieces were new, bought or fought for during her time on Omega. The rest, the more beat up looking ones, were the originals she was trying to build around.

It didn't help Alistair never fucking cleaned his guns right. Fuckin' southpaws.

“I have informed them you are busy.” VI Alistair popped up in front of her. “Do you require assistance?”

Bo scowled as she held a piece up to the light – this was a new one, to help fit in the clips the pistol was being modified to use. “Pull up the Stinger maintenance manual again. I think I got this damn thing on backwards.”

The diagrams popped up large enough for her to read without her glasses on – yep, the damn thing was backwards AND upside down on top of it. She scowled and turned it right side up, then clicked it back into place. That sound was becoming oddly therapeutic in a way only knocking Krogan skulls in had been as of late.

They had always said she had laser focus back in school. Once again, she was proving them right.

Alistair VI glowed for a second as she continued to work. “Update: the part you ordered has come in. You can pick it up in the morning.”

“Great, make sure that asshole isn't trying to short change me again.” Bo grabbed her glasses from her forehead and pushed them down onto her face in order to inspect the next part. “Otherwise they're going to be my 13th win in the ring next week.”

The little VI of her brother flashed for a second – there were those damn bugs again. “Confirmed. Your message has been sent. Do you need anything else?”

“I need the full diagram for the Stinger firing system again. Damn thing looks like it needs another part.”

Maybe at this point it would've been easier to just get another a fucking gun. It wasn't like the Stinger pistol was particularly hard to find. Maybe a little rare on Omega, but that was more personal preference than scarcity. The mercs there liked flashier models that had a shotgun's kick to them. She could appreciate a good shotgun as much as the next person, but it wasn't her taste in consideration.

Besides, it was a pain in the ass to modify any fucking gun to be left handed. Why couldn't her dumb brother learn to shoot right handed like a normal person?

Alistair VI worked quietly, but he talked while he did it. “Searching. The Stinger pistol is a favorite of mine.”

“I know it is, that's why I'm fixing it.” She held a piece up to the light and then slid it in. “You're going to need a working gun when I find you.”

Maybe it was wishful thinking or maladaptive coping or just plain denial, but tattoos didn't lie. Hers especially didn't. Somewhere, she knew deep down in her gut that the dumb ass who owned the gun she was working on was going to want it back. And hell, she was more than ready to give it to him and then some.

The VI flashed its error message. “Request misunderstood. Could you please repeat?”

“Ah, forget it.” Bo reached for another tiny tool in order to work on the grip. “Play my workout music, 60% volume.”

Loud, high energy music began to pour into her apartment as Bo lost herself in the work. If she was lucky, she'd finish her modification on the Stinger's grip before she had to square off in the ring again. If not... well, as long as they didn't break her arm she'd be good to go.

And hopefully, it would be good to go with her modifications when she saw Alistair again. With any luck, that asshole would appreciate having a gun that shot a little steadier the next time she saw him. That would be after she kicked his ass for dying, of course.

After all, that was just rude. Who went off as a big, stupid hero without saying when they would be back?

[chancelipscomb]

How to Win Back Andromeda

Wide-Open, New Worlds

With the canon of the Heleus Cluster being a ravaged wasteland, Bioware gave us an explorer’s playground with lots of space for expandable content. Critics argue that it was empty space, but it was an investment on future installments. We’ve settled into these decimated worlds and created a Milky-way friendly biome on them. To capitalize on it, simply do what settlers do: expand. DLC drop a new, post-game settlements. To facilitate a low-budget, fast paced schedule and reconcile fans of the series, I outlined a plan for modular DLC drops.  

1st DLC New Neighbors           $5-10

This one’s relatively cheap to produce. There’s not much new content and almost no new asset production, but it will give you an estimate of people willing to come back to your story.

Eos has its exile faction that wanted to mine the natural gas. If you helped them with the hammer, they’re underway. If you didn’t, they start stripping parts from the one you placed less than a kilometer away. Use pre-existing level assets, like Kadara & Elaaden’s caves, to build out a base for Ryder to explore. Drop a few hints with the exiles about the Benefactor’s assassin and leads to Kadara, for a bonus. Script out a peaceful and hostile solution for those settlers to build upon in future games. Key question: do they fold in with the Initiative, get blasted, or operate autonomously?

On Kadara, the assassin’s trail goes cold, but you learn that the Shadow Broker also has agents in Andromeda. They have new items to buy, and promises of quid pro quo. For the port itself, you simply see how your new power dynamic is playing out. Sloane or Reyes may have work hunting down the other faction, with Reyes having romance dialogue if courted. The Doc and bartenders may have some quests involving supply runs. Utilizing Vorn can tie Elaaden and the Nexus to the itinerary.

Not much has changed on the Nexus, H-047, or Elaaden, as newly awoken crew are funneled to settlements. The water crisis on Elaaden hasn’t changed yet, despite the vault and shipments from Voeld. New enemies in the Flophouse, and idle chatter over Okeer’s notes. Maybe spend some time reanimating Krogan fighting techniques.  

2nd DLC Voeld and Havarl       $15

As a two-for, this price point will be a little higher, but it has more content. With proper handling of the Eos pack and its nature, fans will be more eager.

Voeld and Havarl offer their own opportunity. Rather than new maps, focus on story expansion and lore here. The Angara have learned their origins and the truth about exaltation. In both places, they’re dealing with this. The Roekaar are leaderless, so address whether someone will fill the power gap or if they’ll be welcomed back by Evfra. Tie in the Glory Seekers here for added effect.

Use these stages to flesh out the body gestures for the existing dialogue system. This’ll draw attention away from stiff animations angst and give your developers better tools for future content, including DA:4 and other Frostbite titles. I haven’t seen your pipeline, but if this isn’t part of an art/animation workflow suite, you really need to hire me Bioware. I can make your life, and your fans, much happier.

On Havarl, expand upon the Mithrava lore and the ancient stellar maps we saved. Build some context around this new species. Crafty players now have access to shared scientific research thanks to the coop. That’s an opportunity for weapon/armor/item packs, not to mention ferry quests for flora to the Nexus and less fruitful planets. Use Jaal and his family to deepen our understanding as well. That’s a great place to flesh out angaran relationship culture. This’ll address fan feelings about the race and any animosity over Jaal’s romantic preferences.

For Voeld, pick up on the yevara poacher quest. These beasts will require modelling and animation, but your script made them a crucial bit of angaran history. We have evidence of living creatures on “The Lost Song” side quest. Since the Kett still have that huge fortress in the hills, prepare to drive them out for good. Organize the hunting party with the resistance. Now, get ready to drop the bomb: en route, you find a pair of Quarian escape pods. Since Voeld is now an ice planet, it makes sense they’d head there to limit foreign bacteria exposure. Thaw them out to reveal the fate of the Keelah Si’yah. Connect their audio log event to the assassin and Benefactor, implying their designs trace back to the Milky Way. It doesn’t have to be the core cause, but it’s important to keep that thread alive.

3rd DLC Quarian Ark    $5-10

Not going to lie, I want this to be free but it is content-heavy like DLC 2, so despite being an olive branch to fans, it’ll take money to make. The low cost still rewards fan loyalty.

Do not shortcut this one. Use the ME 2 assets to marry quarian style to the Initiative tech. Build the tertiary races like elcor, hanar, and drell… even if we only see them briefly. It’s both an investment in the franchise and rekindles that wonder and nostalgia from the original trilogy.

Not sure what the writers have in store, but based on the multiplayer additions, I’d say involve the Batarians and the Salarian pathfinder from the outset. With neither having a squad mate spot in Andromeda, there’s a huge opportunity here. Both have multiplayer and game models to source for single player inclusion.

If you followed up on DLC 2, let players pick the male or female Quarian escapee they want to party up with. The other will play a support role, like sibling Ryder. Vary their move-set if possible, but the story elements should be the focus of their addition. Build franchise characters like Tali so that their returns exceed development costs, and match accents with the original trilogy.

Now the rest depends on the plot direction scripted so far. If the Reaper-Geth or Reapers themselves followed the Initiative, there’s a much longer conversation I’d need to build this story. Open to chat, Bioware. I’ll even pitch it to EA for you. If the Benefactor, Kett, some malfunction, or Scourge are the culprit; tie up those loose ends here.

Kett: make it big and challenging. The Archon, like Corypheus, was a bust for a boss. Fighting the Architect in confinement was a nice touch, but if players tackled them already, it cheapened the experience. Craft an intense, unique battle that they’re eager to replay this DLC to repeat. The Primus is the perfect candidate, flouting that the Archon lost his way, and offering an ulterior motive to pulling their forces from the final battle. Since they aren’t present, even missing “Dissention in the Ranks” doesn’t upset the quest line. Finally, set up travel to Kett space or an invading armada for the true sequel.

Benefactor: Jien Garson’s body never turned up, and paired with Alec and SpecTRe agents seemingly littering the Initiative… they all point to the first-time game reveal of the Illusive Man’s identity, and his connection to Cora. You’ve laid out the dots connecting the Harpers and fans are clamoring for impact on their decisions. Make them wreathe. Does this shatter the pathfinder team’s core leadership, or will Ryder and gang be able to look past her heritage? Did she even have a relationship with her father? Could she be the assassin? That’d take some work to spin, but she was awake before Ryder and likely has special resources if so. In any case, it explores her character and the relationship to the crew. It ties two large settling points of the game plot together. Based on the outcome, you may even weave an enemy with very intimate knowledge of the crew into sequels. 

Scourge and Technical difficulties: The Quarians took on a lot to bring all those other races to Andromeda. For a sabotage angle, the original showed us that Reaper agents were embedded everywhere… even the Hanar, and by de facto, the Drell. Imagine fighting an indoctrinated version of Thane, or an enraged elcor. What if they were preventing the wake-up procedures? Have they evolved over the 600 year trip? What if the Volus simply seized the ship as an opportunity to create their own hierarchy, sick of their status in Council Space? Finally, as a technology based race, the Quarians face unique trials when it comes to the scourge, which wreaks havoc on any technology, even if it only actively seeks Rem-tech. This is pre-geth boosted immunity, but if the Krogan used their travel-time to adapt to the genophage, perhaps the Quarians did the same.

Overall, address what time their ark left the Milky Way and what that means for Mass Effect 3’s endings. Determine whether or not any more travelers are en route, friendly or otherwise. Even if these two aren’t enacted immediately, they’ll guide future scripts. And just for feels, let’s see some of Jill’s handiwork. Nothing says invested like newborn babes. If she and Gil had one, show him revealing to Kallo that they named it after one of the Tempest engineers. Show Cora tending sprouts in a garden, even if she’s now an enemy. Let Liam try an angaran sport on Aya. Show Vorn, Kesh, and Drack teaching Lexi Fire Breathing Thresher Maws of Doom in Vortex. Have Peebee, Jaal, and Suvi tinkering around the monoliths. Have Kallo and Lisana T’lesso, the ice runner from Voeld racing through the Scourge with new pilots.  

[anunquenchableflame]

3. Did your Shepard agree with Kaidan’s belief that humans shouldn’t have a seat on the Council until they were ready for one? Did your Shepard try to persuade Kaidan otherwise?

Thank you for the ask!

Mass Effect 1 asks - Send me a question!

Rani wasn’t exactly sure they were ready for a seat yet: first contact was within her lifetime and there were plenty of people who still couldn’t accept that they were now part of a galactic community. Seeing things like Terra Firma campaigning right there in the Wards did make her wonder if maybe they should sort their own shit out first. It didn’t make humanity look very ready.But then what would “ready” look like? She knew that they needed a seat if they wanted any say at all in their future. If they didn’t push for it the council would be deeming them “not ready yet” for centuries and then it would be “well you’ve done perfectly well without a seat so far” and they never would get a human councillor. She didn’t want humanity to be the next Krogan- used and then tossed aside, or Quarians- treated as no more than a nuisance, or Volus- walked all over and ignored despite their contributions. She could see the human colonies were already being used as a buffer zone for council space.

She never really set out to change Kaidan’s mind on the subject, though they did discuss it a fair bit. Their differences in opinion were very much down to their differing temperments- Kaidan being cautious and Rani pretty bullish. It wasn’t like he thought they shouldn’t have a council seat at all. They just had different ideas about how and when to pursue it. I think after they’d met with the council a few times he did start to see what she meant.

[jt-boi-n7]

“I’m telling you. I’m haunted.” for any pairing/verse you want!

Here ya go! Have some post-ME3 fluff. Because MY Shep survives and you can’t tell me otherwise. 

“I’m telling you. I’m haunted.”

“I think you are being a touch dramatic,” Liarasaid lightly, slipping an arm through Shepard’s.

I’m serious.” Shepard’s frown deepened, but shepulled Liara closer as they navigated the crowd.  Of the entire Citadel, Zakera Ward was theonly ward that had survived the firing of the Crucible mostly intact.  The rebuilding effort would take generationsupon generations, but in the wake of the Reaper War the process was steadilyunderway.  Members of all races bustledthrough the burgeoning commercial zone: turians, humans, asari, volus,salarians, elcor.  It felt heartening tobe around such activity.  If Liara closedher eyes, she could almost pretend the war hadn’t happened.  Almost.

Shepard let out a soft grunt, shifting herweight subtly as they walked slowly back to their apartment.  Sitting for two hours hadn’t done the formersoldier any favors, and Liara knew Shepard would most likely be sore for theremainder of the evening.  Liara’s griptightened around Shepard’s arm, filled with gratitude that her bondmate hadalso, miraculously, survived mostly intact. Even if their spontaneous date night hadn’t gone exactly according toplan.  

Shepard was still muttering to herself, and Liaraleaned over to kiss her cheek, lips brushing against deep, craggy scars. “Honestly,darling. It was just a film.”

“A film about a killer clown that eats children!”Shepard threw up a hand. “It was terrifying!”

“That was the point,” Liara said. “I thought it was quite well done.”

Shepard finally turned to look at her, eyesunnaturally blue and shining due to the ocular implants.  She arched a brow. “Sometimes I wonder aboutyou, T’Soni.”

Liara chuckled, then pulled Shepard into her.Just before their lips met, she whispered.

“We all float down here…”

Shepard leapt a meter into the air.  

“Dammit, Liara!”

[thunderheadfred]

Red Streak [5.1]

Chapter 05: Surefire [Part 1 of 4. Revised August 2017]

Read the complete fic on AO3

Jane Kithoi Ward, Citadel Summer Shitstorm ’77

Less than a week had passed since that joke of an award ceremony at Alliance HQ, but according to Shepard's gut-tight internal clock, linear time was a bygone irrelevancy. Whenever the words Star of Terra entered her mind, several millennia would blur past all at once, reducing her memory to static. 

Five days previously at a hasty press conference on Arcturus Station, a visibly uncomfortable Amul Shastri had pinned the Alliance’s most prestigious military decoration onto a woman raised by an extraterrestrial war criminal. Just like that, at the pleasure of two-dozen swarming tabloid reporters, Second Lieutenant Jane Shepard's comfortable anonymity had been shot straight to hell.

After a funerary receiving line of stiff, bruising handshakes, Shepard had been evacuated to the relative neutrality of the Citadel by her oldest mentor and only remaining friend in the Alliance: Captain David Anderson. Hidden away in the Captain’s private apartment, she was to spend an entire month’s mandatory leave keeping her head down, goddammit. Anderson had immediately returned to Arcturus HQ, where he was currently going far beyond the call of duty on Shepard’s behalf, kissing enough asses and pulling enough strings to prove that the Lieutenant was not - and never had been - acting on behalf of alien interests.

Now at the bleeding end of her first night of compulsory leave, Shepard was already blind drunk. Hazy and lethargic amid the neon-painted shadows of Anderson’s glamorous abandoned apartment, she drifted with smoke-gray apathy, finally crashing knee first into a desk. With the yelp of a woman shot, she succumbed to her wounds and fell on the spot, taking the Captain’s personal console down with her. After it landed dangerously close to Shepard's head, the console flickered weakly and then went dark. Another man down. 

Best to stay right here, she thought. Best to die honorably beside a fallen comrade, a pitiful chance to absolve herself of Torfan.

Thus relieved, Shepard spent her first night on the Silversun Strip sleeping face down on a polished cement floor. It was the best night of sleep she'd had in months.

The next morning, after she’d vomited enough alcohol out of her blood to see straight, Shepard did what she could to straighten up the mess she'd made. Luckily, Anderson’s console had survived the fall unharmed. Less luckily, when she managed to boot the system again, it was only to receive a patronizing lecture.

Hey Kid,

Don’t slack off. I can squeak you into ICT, but after that, it's up to you. Do whatever you want at night, just don’t break my furniture. During the day, your ass already belongs to those instructors in Rio de Janeiro. Use this time to prepare. Proving your worth at Vila Militar is going to hurt like nothing else [...]

The message continued, in no uncertain terms, to spell out exactly how much pain she was promised. Doom and gloom included, it was still good news. If she spent a month quietly avoiding any further media spectacle and forcing herself into the best shape of her life, Shepard might be allowed to exchange the very last shreds of her military reputation for the opportunity to be eaten alive at Vila Militar. All she could do now was ready herself for digestion.

Every day cycle, she ground away dutifully, slowly but surely losing herself in a numbing cycle of PT. Hours spent running on Anderson's treadmill were matched by repetitive weight circuits in his cold, echoing living room. To keep herself sane in the middle of the third… fourth… fifth round of burning reps, she surfed through alien television and tried to avoid catching sight of her own face.

The turians obstinately refused to talk about it. Hierarchy-affiliated channels aired nothing more titillating than the occasional bottom-line crawl: human sources claim excommunicated traitor Albacus Regidonis lived among their own and attempted to raise a human child before dying in exile.

Occasionally a turian military analyst would drop Shepard's name along with a grudging acknowledgment of the Star of Terra, but for the most part, Shepard endured little more than endless, droning isolation. Watching TV and lifting weights, she gained five pounds of muscle and learned more than she ever cared to know about Palaven's water crisis.

She lasted half a month cooped up in solitary confinement before she cracked.

She started small, sneaking out to a declining aquatic recreation center a few blocks from Anderson's. The place was well-maintained but otherwise unfashionable, patronized by rheumy-eyed salarians and one or two ancient, wrinkled hanar. Given a wide berth in this mostly-empty pool, Shepard brought a pair of combat fins and swam daily, going as long as she could take it. Back and forth, back and forth, until her ankles threatened to crack.

Just as the retirement home was losing its appeal, the keepers went belly-up and all hell broke loose in Kithoi. Overnight, the ambient temperature rose by twenty degrees, and by the end of the next day cycle, every pool complex on the ward was packed to capacity, including the unfashionable ones.

To keep off the radar, Shepard drifted ten blocks further from Anderson's apartment. There she found a hole-in-the-wall volus arcade that offered zero-g free-fall and untethered target practice. Good exercise with no background checks and minimal safety restrictions. Fun, for a minute or two. But it wasn't long before the constant drug hand-offs in the lobby started to get on Shepard's nerves. Time to move on.

Her last week brought her as far afield as she dared. Armax Arena was thick with trigger-happy turians and not a few Alliance meatheads. All of them, including her, were looking for a fight. She kept her helmet on and spoke to no one, but the first time she got a funny look, her stomach lining curdled.

Fresh meat, that glance had said. Nothing more.

She chose Eska as her pseudonym on the public scoreboards, and remained undiscovered. Gradually, so as not to draw attention, she blasted through enough combat sims to earn two honorable mentions on the board - and brought home nearly five thousand credits.

Three days away from Vila Militar, Shepard won her first major score at the Arena. No use bragging about it. As usual, she collected her winnings in silence, then rushed into her favorite low-traffic alleyway, the only place she might remove her armor unobserved.

She had just finished clumsily shoving her practice armor into a duffle bag when she saw him.

Standing in the middle of her getaway route was one of the Arena’s regular spectators, a retired turian general named Oraka. Something of an eccentric local celebrity, he was in the habit of shaking hands with promising newbies and doling out bits of archaic battle strategy to anyone who would stand still long enough to listen. Always courteous, even to humans, but always a little bit drunk.

Today, he was sober.

“Excellent shooting,” he called, clear-eyed and deliberate. He stepped closer, keeping his empty hands raised, turning his neck just enough to show he was no threat. “Very sharp with a rifle, aren't you? But the pistol... that's where you truly shine.”

"What do you want?"

Slowly, his eyes drifted to her clenched fingers, to the red lacquer on her thumb, obvious as a bullseye. Staring at her, he adopted a look of baffled recognition and opened his mouth to speak. Several times he tried and failed, biting back every comment but the last.

"There are few things I love more than being right," he choked.

She stood her ground, but felt her hand trembling on strap of her duffle.

Using a thin, tremulous sub-vocal that held more meaning than she could parse, he softly added, “I always told Alba he would make a fine patrem.”

That night, on the arm of a general, Jane Shepard visited her first turian dive bar.

Considering her chaperone, the choice of ambience was pleasantly unpretentious. The general himself made for thrilling company for the first half hour, answering every question Shepard asked. But before long he grew maudlin and weepy - and very, very drunk.

The next night she returned to the bar, alone. Despite being the lone human in a heavily populated dextro dive, Shepard was permitted to sit at a small grungy table and drink herself numb, completely unmolested. The turian patrons were preoccupied with rubbing up on each other; they had little interest in a rubbernecking culture tourist. Aside from a few bored once-overs, she was invisible.

Finally, her last night arrived, sudden and rude. The slim, waning hours of precious anonymity before Camp Militar came for her blood. After tonight, it was perfection or death.

Knowing that, Shepard bought a short, cheap skirt and returned to the bar.

As before, nearly all of the locals ignored her. The only trouble came in the form of a persistent, flirtatious drug runner who kept insisting that a monkey in a skirt was adorable, and that everything would look a lot brighter if you took one of these and danced with me, mellia.

Three hours later, everything was tangled up in blue.

[aliensmoocher]

SO! here’s some thoughts on ME:A now that I’ve finished it, spoiler heavy, not totally complete as I have a lot of thoughts and I can’t hope to remember them all in one sitting. 

Some things I liked about it: 

Many of the characters in your squad were likeable(which is a personal opinion and I could totally see why others would feel otherwise). (I think Drak got the most attention that actually felt worthwhile, and his story was the most enjoyable, kudos to his writer.) 

Most of the initiative leaders were also fairly likeable (this is very personal opinion based, wasn’t the biggest fan of Addison -but I don’t think you’re really supposed to like her. I don’t think you were supposed to be a fan of Tann either, but I like him in a love to hate him sort of way. It wouldn’t be the same without him.) I think the Initiative leaders were more memorable then some of the squadmates as far as dimensionality goes, but we’ll get to that later. 

I didn’t think I would like the open world they were going for since DA:I was sort of overkill with how many sidequests and places you could explore, but they handled it a lot better here in my opinion and I did enjoy the feel to it. 

Callbacks to the original series weren’t too heavy handed, but were enough to give me a smile every so often, remembering the characters from those games (I hope Liara’s voice actress was paid well lmao, and props to her for coming back to do so much voice work when her character wasn’t ever actually shown.) 

I romanced Vetra, the romance scenes with her (though there were not many, as is the way with the ME series) were pretty cute and enjoyable. 

The sibling dynamic introduced was a new spin! It’s pretty cool and I like that you can customize both siblings -even if the Dad will only really look like one of them(the player) if you design them very differently. 

The epilogue was a bit long, but much better than just ending it with the ending (because....we’ll get to that too). 

Speaking of the epilogue, as a Krogan Stan™, getting to be (one of) the proud godmother(s) of Kesh’s beautiful children is a dream come true and Ryder is living up to Jo Shepard’s expectations and she would be proud. I mean it’s not godmother and beloved savior to all little krogan babies, but it’s a start. Good job Ryder.   

Also as a Krogan stan, you know I took every god damn opportunity to stick up for the Krogan. (Not getting a pathfinder? Are you serious? The Krogan have gone through enough) 

The designs for the environments, 9/10 were beautiful and the lighting was great. 

Quarians, Drell, Hanar, Elcor, and Volus made it to Andromeda post main story, but are in distress and their pathfinder advises to not rescue. Worrisome, but at least they’re planning on bringing these species back if they make a next game. (Also, does every species get a pathfinder or just one? Given that for some reason they all seem to be on the same vessel.) 

Some things I wish weren’t in this game at all and I’m so mad about I’m not even going to bother going in depth with them: 

That queerbaiting lmao

The deadname drop, which was corrected later 

The Kill Your Gays Trope. Really? Come on now. 

The fact they didn’t even finish the visuals before releasing it. Fuck the game industry. I’m not spending another 50 hours just to see how you polished your game when you should have just done it in the first place. 

Some things I dislike (character based): 

Generally, as was typical in the previous games and something I would hope they would improve for this one, there was a limit on character interaction+dialogue. There was an obvious favoritism toward certain characters. ON THAT NOTE: 

For some reason Gil had an absurd amount of dialogue and reactions to situations but his romance is *fart noises* really short and from what I’ve heard forgettable. I really liked Gil, but some of his story was uncomfortable as in: I a gay lesbian couldn’t help convince my gay friend that he didn’t have to have a baby or that maybe it wasn’t the best time for that. Gay men having babies with their straight female friends is a nuanced issue, one that kind of needs a lot of care when you’re trying to tell the story; and honestly I don’t feel like it was given that care. It says in the character file in the codex that my Ryder “tried to convince him” but she got a line of dialogue, he said he’d do it anyway, and she said “okay! i’m happy for you then!” which is uh, not convincing anyone of anything. I don’t know, it was just, uuuuuncomfortable. 

Kallo got practically nothing toward the middle onward unless a salarian was involved. Which was a bummer, b/c I really liked Kallo and would have liked to hear....any of his opinions on....anything that was happening. Suvi practically always reacted, and thank god for her b/c if she wasn’t there to fill my life with her and Kallo’s banter I don’t think Kallo would have been heard practically at all. 

Vetra practically never had any reactions to situations. Which, considering she was a romance option and was a pretty cool chick imo , I wish she did. (Sid? is awesome and I love her. Her loyalty mission was great. But the lack of interactions was disappointing) 

Common complaint is that PB is a Liara clone. They do have similar motivations, but their personalities differ enough. PB gets more likeable as the game progresses but I didn’t like her at first. Sort of wish they introduced her ex seperately from PB so that you could actually hear both sides. It’s very obviously “PB doesn’t like her so you shouldn’t either! Oh wait, but she does care....” Which is boring. Speaking of, the loyalty mission was kind of *fart noises*. 

Jaal was momma’s favorite and you could tell. Seems very forcibly trying to get f!Ryder to date Jaal which wasn’t my steez thanks. 

Liam and Cora are both Straight and I am still amazed. Cora is fairly one dimensional. Liam is fairly one dimensional. They both have their “thing”. Out of the two I think Liam is more developed. Cora is ???A failed experiment at being progressive while cutting all possible corners to make it not progressive and I’m not sure what they were trying to do with her other than be clearly !!! SEE NOT ALL GIRLS WHO HAVE THIS HAIRCUT AND FEEL LIKE OUTCASTS AND WERE SHUNNED FROM THEIR FAMILIES AND SOCIETY ARE QUEER !!!! THEY CAN BE STRAIGHT TOO !!!! which like, yeah i guess thanks bioware

No complaints about Drak. I loved him. 

My dislike of Alec Ryder and the continuing attempt from the game to make you like and sympathize with him nearly caused me to not complete the mission focusing on his memories. The only thing that made me continue was being spoiled about the ending and wanting to make sure my Ryder was aware that her mom was alive. I didn’t like his character and no amount of in game “see, he did really love you and your brother, he cared about your mother! he sacrificed himself for you!!!!” can negate the fact that he just....didn’t raise his children or really give a fuck about them at all until it was too late!!!!!!!

Let me change Scott’s name please. 

The twin dynamic was interesting but offered nothing until the very end of the game. I got the same sort of thrill from playing as Scott during one of the final missions as when I played as Joker in the original series. (I would have preferred if Scott was saying Oh shit as much as I was given he had one grenade and 1 shotgun and I’m more of a biotics and sniper woman myself, but it’s fine). Would have liked to see the twin dynamic explored more in game or had more interactions even despite circumstances. But at least he played a part in the end. 

I constantly found myself being interested in what Kandros, Kesh, and Tann were up to -sometimes moreso than what my squad was up to. Which is a problem. I think your squadmates and the main villain should be the ones you are most interested in chatting with. But there is just a lot more appeal to me in the shady politics and in fighting between the 4 of the initiative leaders that was just always more interesting to me. (I didn’t play the dlc with the other Kandros and just found out they were related so that’s a sweet little shout out and something I do like) 

The archon had a bad face design homeslice. It’s just bad Jim.

The Archon felt so detached from everything that happened in the game to me. It never felt like -despite being the main antagonist -that i was fighting him. With the reapers, with Saren, it always felt like you were fighting someone specific. That through all the taking down of this foe or that one, the person in control WAS The Reapers (or...or Saren I guess in the first game despite the fact he wasn’t -but he was being controlled- whatever it’s....) Compared to trying to make the planets liveable for the people who risked their livings going to Andromeda as well as creating relations with the Angara : The archon felt like such an afterthought. Not in writing or development -but in the context of Ryder’s problems. The kett? Totally an issue! Absolutely a problem! But they’re still going to be a problem even without the Archon, that’s clear from the ending. Bring me the real leader of the kett -I don’t have time to deal with your shenanigans sir. -No I mean the REAL leader, the one back home, the one who’s clearly actually in charge. The Archon here struck me as just a leader of this fleet of Kett. Not an actual leader of the species. But one that had to be respected b/c of his title here in this area of the universe. 

tl:dr for the last part: Archon sucked as a villain and his death made me feel nothing. Saren’s death had me crying I felt so bad I couldn’t help save him from the Reapers. The reapers destruction made me feel victorious even if it was a hollow victory given the -hmmmmmm uh....- “ending” of Mass Effect 3. Give me something to feel toward the defeat of a or THE major villain, Andomeda, PLEASE. 

Some more dislike things: 

The ending was okay. As I said above. I didn’t feel anything toward the death of the villain. Which is,, an issue for me. When I was playing the mission, sometimes the activation of certian things in the gameplay just didn’t activate properly -glitches basically. Which was rough considering it was supposed to be a high stakes moment. 

If you’re going to do a fade to black sex scene for some of the characters, do it for all the characters. Blue ball all of us or none of us.

 The Angara designs are Uggo (unless it’s a female angara in a certain color, for some reason color makes a world of difference for this species. Jaal’s okay I guess but uh..nah... if he’s ur type that’s fine but NO THANKS)

The Kett designs are Uggo 

Nothing wrong with uggo alien designs- I, in fact, encourage them, but they didn’t go far enough to ugly town and not far enough to pleasant town so they’re just uncanny valley ugly and I’d appreciate if they would make up their mind which one they wanted thanks. 

Kept expecting a Kett squad member ala Legion being a Geth squad member. Another game maybe. 

The creaure designs are cool -but I’ve heard they recycled a lot from DAI which is a bummer and I didn’t notice. Given that in Credits it had stuff from the DAI time, I guess that’s true. 

[akatsukichelsei]

idk I just really like the idea of my Ryder twins (Lann and Drake) being gay together like Lann comes home one day looking really distraught and rushes to her room and ofc Drake feels the concern bc Twins. So he goes to talk to her and Lann is like "bro I told Casey I liked her face and she rejected me" and Drake is like "omfg is that what this is about like you don't see me dropping everything whenever​ Daniel does something really straight to throw me off get a grip girl" But then they both realize this is the first conversation they've had where they're openly talking about the people they like and have a "wait you too?" Moment. They become a bit closer after that. Coming out to their parents was hilarious bc they both just brought their girlfriend/boyfriend home one day and their parents assume the hetero assumption and then Lann is like "okay so Suzy and I here have been dating for like 3 months and idk why Drake brought his current boy toy they've only been together for a week". Alec and Ellen are confused at first then just go along with it. The only time Alec and Ellen get concerned is when Drake brings home a nice Drell boy one day. They hear there's toxins when doing "stuff" (they like the guy otherwise). Lann gets all up in his case bc she always brought home "nice, non-toxic girls like Asari and Turians" then Drake holds up his blackmail of "that Volus you hooked up with once" and Lann shuts up. I also just really like the thought of them at the Citadel pride parade being hella gay and holding signs like "I SUPPORT MY GAY BROTHER/SISTER" bc I feel like they really love milking the gay twins thing. Fast forward to Andromeda and Drake wakes up and Lann is telling him everything. Then she ends with "well I'm sorta kinda dating this scientist girl she's really cute and licks rocks" and Drake is like "listen sis I know you have a thing for dorks but" then she tells him how she told Suvi she liked her and Drake just facepalms. Drake starts dating Gil (bc at time of this headcanon writing Jaal is still Tragically Heterosexual) and Lann keeps getting on his case about how happy their mom would be that he found "a nice Jewish boy" but then Suvi pops in that she converted and the twins realize they somehow got the best outcome their parents would have wanted. (Lann came close once when she dated that Jewish Turian chick but when Ellen realized she couldn't try her famous chicken soup they kinda pushed the two to break up bc chicken soup is Serious Business) Finally, I just love The Ryder Twins Joint Jewish Gay Wedding complete with glass shattering, lifted chairs, a big ass hora, and lots of booze.

[burnouts3s3]

Mass Effect: Andromeda, a review

(Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit unprofessional blog post written by an unprofessional blog poster. All purported facts and statement are little more than the subjective, biased opinion of said blog poster. In other words, don’t take anything I say too seriously.)

Just the facts, cause you're in a hurry.

Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price (MSRP):  59.99 USD

How much I paid: 69.99 USD (Plus 4.99 for EA Access).

Rated: M for Blood, Nudity, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, Violence

How long I played: 37 Hours (20 for initial playthrough, additional hours for sidequests and exploring alternate romance options).

Microtransactions: Sadly, yes. Since Bioware realized they could milk their multiplayer fans for all the extra cash, there is a plethora of microtransactions throughout the multiplayer. Microtransactions can cost up to 100 USD. Be advised.

What I played on: PC.

Performance Issues:  Hoo, boy. Mass Effect: Andromeda can be beautiful to look at times and just embarrassing the other moments. There are situations where the shadow flickers, the textures pop-in, the various characters and animations clip, the game stops and resumes when you're boosting in the Nomad, pixelated shadows and yes, the facial animations are ATROCIOUS here. There are also instances where the game hasn't finished loading levels and I fall through the floor. Other times, NPCs don't respond correctly and I have to load to a previous save. The framerate is all over the map. While it ran at a (mostly) steady 60 fps when I was in combat, I was getting odd drops to 50 and 40 when I was having conversations with my crew. And this was AFTER the Day 1 patch was installed.

My Personal Biases: Yeah, I've been a dedicated Bioware fan/apologist since 2003. We've had our ups and downs with the franchise, and I the loyal Biodrone (Bioware Drone) that I am, I've kept buying these products again and again and again. Mass Effect, Dragon Age and the Old Republic, you name it, I've been there.

My Verdict: Mass Effect: Andromeda feels like a game that needed one more pass to get right. There are moments of absolute gorgeous beauty here while other times there are massive technical issues that need to be addressed. But, even more so, the main quest line just never seems to pick up. Even if the characters have amusing banter (they're okay, the best one is Drack), it just never builds up the momentum the previous Mass Effect titles did. Hold off until the inevitable patches/fan fixes come through.

Mass Effect: Andromeda, a review

Bioware wants to ask one question: Is the Mass Effect IP still valuable after one of the most controversial endings of their series divided fans, critics and everyone else apart and rages on to this day?

Set 600 Years into the future and lightyears away from the events of the original Mass Effect trilogy, you are part of the Pathfinder Initiative. Led by your father, Alec Ryder. But when one of the Golden Worlds, planets marked for settlement, turns out to be hazardous and costs Alec his life, he passes on the role of Pathfinder to you. You are tasked with finding new worlds, settling them and ensuring whatever threat remains is dealt with as you are now the Pathfinder.

Playing Mass Effect: Andromeda on the PC brought several glaring bugs and glitches to my attention. From companions floating in mid air, to unresponsive NPCs to constant pop in textures every which way, this has got to be one of the most poorly optimized games on launch. Granted, other Bioware titles have had their share of glitches at launch, but the bugs found in Andromeda are so prevalent and numerous, I have to ask what happened in Quality Assurance.

Mass Effect: Andromeda looks like a joke compared to polished games such as the Witcher 3, but even compared to Bioware's other works, it's clear something has gone horribly wrong within the production. Even Dragon Age: Inquisition (which I remind you came out in 2014, 2 and a half years ago) with it's Lego hair and stiff faces did not look nearly as bad or as shoddy as Mass Effect: Andromeda. It'd be one thing if the game were going for a different aesthetic, by way of Dragon Age 2 or even The Old Republic MMO, but the game insists on using the Frostbite engine to the point where the contrast is to amazingly jarring.

The game's facial animations have already become memes in their own rights. Eyes constantly dart around while the middle of the face stands still and the mouths flap out. When looking at the environments, backgrounds or a Turian, a Krogan, the Angara, or Salarians, your jaw drops in amazement only to have that amazement be replaced by repulsion when looking at a human or Asari. No Hanar, volus, drell, quarians or geth appear. (Which is odd. You'd think for a game that had trouble rendering human faces would get the races that DIDN'T require faces first and foremost).

But, if the flaws were purely technical, if the flaws were just in the animation department, that wouldn't bother me. One of my favorite games is Fallout: New Vegas, which had several immersion breaking bugs. Those flaws can be patched (or modded by a really over eager fan. Bioware seems to be taking way too many notes from Bethesda). But, the one thing patches or mods can't fix is the game's story never really reaching its heights.

Even at Bioware's weakest story telling moments (and believe me, there's plenty to choose from), they've always excelled in emphasizing the characters, the relationships and the companions first and foremost. So, it breaks my heart to say these are the weakest group of companions to date, in terms of character interaction.

Say what you will about Bioware's objectively worst game, Dragon Age 2, at least those companions 'had' distinct characterizations and personalities (even if they bordered on the unlikable and wholly inconsistent from the previous game). A good portion of the companions here are easily my least favorite coming from Bioware (and this includes of roster of Carver Hawke, a whiny penulant child, Skadge, an cold blooded serial killer, Javik, an on-disc DLC character locked away through a paywall and Carth Onasi, a paranoid pilot who really needs a therapy session when it comes to his dead wife and missing son). Andromeda's character's are not even unlikable, but painfully generic, as though a focus group gave various notes on undesirable personality traits and told the writing staff which parts to remove.

Drack is easily the best of the companions. On paper, he's no more distinctive from any other Krogan, but he makes up for it with a strong personality and a spectacular voice performance by Stanley Townsend. There's so many times that Drack takes an ordinary line but adds so much his spin on it that it more than makes up for the writing flaws. His arc concerns what it means for a Krogan to get old and trying to help his granddaughter. He, of all the companion characters, feels the most complete and the most polished.

Vetra Nyx is the first female Turian companion to join you. Instantly, Vetra is extremely likable. We see how she's willing to bend the rules to get tasks done, but also how she's willing to help a lot of people. Her character never goes beyond a smuggler with a heart of gold, but the easy personality goes along with it. Her arc concerns making sure her sister, Sid, is safe and wants nothing more than for Sid not to get herself involved in the trouble Vetra's in. It's too bad then the game doesn't know what to do with Vetra and she's made utterly peripheral to the events of Andromeda.

Peebee is most often the 'face' of Andromeda. (Ha ha ha). She takes the place of the Asari archeologist Liara was in the original trilogy. Often willing to leap first and think later, she's an archeologist wanting to find out more about the Remnant. Even so much so, she's willing to take extreme risks and put you and the crew in danger to do so. She might be the most annoying of the companions (and the one most likely to get knocked out in a fight), but outside her arc, there's just not much to her.

Jaal feels the most like a missed opportunity. He is part of the Angara, the new race introduced to Mass Effect. We're told that the Angara are this overly emotional race. What we're shown is someone who reacts normally to otherwise jarring situation. Nothing really ever prompts an emotional outburst as all the emotional outbursts feel justified. Also, Jaal slips too easily into casual slang. First, he seems to think Humans are strange, setting him up to be another Javik or even Sten from Dragon Age, but the next, he's using slang and idioms as easily as Cora or Liam. While the voice actor does a great job voicing him, the lack of oppurtunities for him to have emotional moments really hampers his character.

Liam Kosta is an optimist, one of the few characters to leap in head first to the Initiative. He's constantly impatient and wants to get things done, even if his rashness might cause more problems than fix them. But, his characterizations never match and as a result, he just feels like a mess of a character. They Keep giving Liam "funny" dialogue and "funny" situations, but the lack of finesse on the writing and the voice actor never really gel.

Cora's a bit of a problem as well. Your second in command, Cora likes to keep things in order and while she grouses how she would've made a better Pathfinder than you, she accepts what has happened. On missions, she can't help but come off as painfully generic. Her voice performer doesn't really have any distinctions in her voice, and nothing Cora ever says is anything beyond the obvious. Even her Loyalty Mission only barely gives her any sort of dimension. Cora was trained to be an Asari Huntress because she apparently is so good at biotics. When the Asari ark is missing, Cora asks you to help find it. When it turns out her superior that she looked up to did something horrible, Cora must find a way to resolve it. Also, she likes plants. That's apparently important somehow, but I can't for the life of me figure out why.

I know Human squadmates tend to rank low on the general favorability scale (I personally think Jack is one of my favorite companions, but that's just me), but Cora and Liam just do not stack up. Contrast that with Ashley William's controversial faith and racism, Miranda Lawson's ice queen attitude, Jack's psychosis and James Vega's masculinity. Liam and Cora make Jacob Taylor and Kaidan Alenko seem exciting.

In addition to party members, your ship, the Tempest, also has several NPCs that do not join you but stay on the ship.

Gil Brode is the ship's engineer and is only romancable to Male Ryders. His main arc concerns his friend, Jill, who really wants Gil to procreate. Since this is the future and artificial insemination exists, the game comes up with a very contrived reason for Gil to want to become a father while not just becoming a donor. (Bit on the nose there, Bioware? The only homosexual male in the crew and his arc concerns reproduction?) Gil also likes Poker. Because this is apparently as important as Cora's love for plants.

Lexi (who's voiced by Natalie Dormer who plays Margaery Tyrell, which would be more impressive if I bothered to keep up with Game of Thrones) is the ship's doctor and a young Asari who constantly checks up on you and the crew. She's characterized as this dower person who takes things too seriously and doesn't know how to have fun, (Peebee constantly teases her about it), but it never really becomes an issue. It's a quirk. Even when you meet her outside the ship and she's uncomfortable about relaxing, it never becomes a problem.

Suvi Anwar (voiced by Katy Townsend, who Fallout 4 fans may recognize as Cait), is a member of the Nexus' science team and is often at the bridge with Kallo. She is, I kid you not, a believer in God and Intelligent design, insisting that her love of science somehow doesn't contradict with the idea of an all knowing God (No, really!). Throughout the game, she comments on how those two connect and having good spirited debates about such things. But her spirituality is told to us, rather than shown to us and there's never really an opportunity to explore that. She's only solely romancable to Female Ryders.  

Kallo Jeth is the new Pilot, a Salarian who wants to find where the Salarian ark went. While he's on the bridge making banter with Suvi, he also argues on the intercom with Gil with what changes need to be made on the ship. Since Kallo was there when the Tempest was made, he expresses concern with the adjustments Gil makes.  I actually liked Kallo quite a bit.

When Kallo remarks on how Salarians photogenic memory contrasts with human memory, as though his lost friends are right there with him,  I thought that was a particularly striking character moment as well as a world building nod that was missing throughout the game. Sadly, it resolves too quickly with Kallo and Gil getting along with little input from the player (binary decisions that I disliked), but it did give me a glimmer of hope.

And the Ryder family members don't add much either. Look, again, rip Dragon Age 2 apart all you want, but at least that game's family members were interesting. At least Leandra, Uncle Gamlen, Bethany and Carver had characterizations and distinct personalities (even if those distinct personalities were those of complete twats). Mass Effect: Andromeda expects me to care about a father who's a compete and literal mystery and a twin sibling who's comatose for a majority of the game.

But the biggest casualty in the game is the main character of Ryder. There's always been debate on the quality of Bioware's writing and how much agency the player truly has, but the one thing they excelled at was giving the otherwise blank slate a distinct personality and background. Whether or not the game was good or crap, I could at least tell you who my Spirit Monk, my Shepard, my Warden, my Hawke or my Inquisitor was and what their background, their choices and their relationships told you about the character. Ryder is simply everything. Ryder can be all things and do no wrong. Ryder's background is the same throughout all the playthroughs and their interactions have little to no effect. I probably made a total of 3 (5 if you count gender and romance) distinct choices in the game that felt like they had any significant impact whatsoever). Even if something from a modern Bioware title, Dragon Age: Inquisition, had few story choices, gave them the weight of impact so the illusion of your choices mattering remained. There is no such weight in Andromeda.

Bioware has somehow taken their trademark Bioware Blank Slate and made them even blanker.

The Kett themselves are pretty boring villains. Visually, there's nothing really unique about them and once their grand plan is revealed, it's just so blase and generic, you're surprised none of them twirled their mustaches.

Even the loyalty missions don't do much. I know there's dispute on Mass Effect 2's otherwise paper thin plot and whether or not the Collectors were anything but filler villains, but at least they were a threat. Doing a loyalty mission was literally a battle between life or death. Here, it's more of a suggestion as all it does is allow you to unlock the final tier for squadmates powers and lets you continue having conversations with squadmates. I didn't do a single loyalty  mission on my 2nd playthrough, only for my mates to come out a ok. Conrad Verner would be more of a threat than the Kett.

The Paragon/Renegade system might have been old hat, but at least it gave my Shepard a voice. The new dialogue system doesn't give Ryder any sort of distinction in terms of roleplaying at all. There's nothing I could do to alienate any of the characters in Andromeda because Ryder doesn't say anything controversial. There were points where I was envying Dragon Age 2's dialogue system!

And since all the skills are made available to me from the beginning, there's no point in rerolling a new character, unless I desire to change what my Ryder looks like.  (And in a world of save editors and DLC releases that change character creator, even that desire is non existent) . Cards on the table, I think it was a HUGE mistake to give Ryder access to all skills and profiles. It makes replayability almost none and makes save scrubbing all too viable. The character creator itself is painfully limited. There are so few options that my Ryders began to look like one another.

Since you can only map 3 skills per profile, there's really no point in putting them anywhere else, unless you feel like experimenting. You can assign 3 powers to profiles, classes you unlock throughout the game and profiles give you benefits to certain skills, such as improved Biotics or lower cooldown on tech skills. But since switching between the 4 profiles also means putting said activated skills on cooldown, even if those skills were unused, there's little to no point.

Also gone is the power wheel, in which players could pause the game and direct companions what to do and what powers to use. Instead, Ryder is at the mercy of the various enemies while your companions do whatever the hell they want with the points assigned to them. I would use a power, only to have Liam constantly leap in and smash the ground or Drack use Incinerate when I think it would be needed against a heavily armored enemy.

(Or, Lord Help Us) Bioware put more emphasis on the multiplayer scenarios. What's weird is that of all the elements, the Multiplayer feels like the most polished out of all the gametypes. It's almost as if (and this is pure speculation on my part) the mode and it's many microtransactions were geared to keep the player base strong.

Strike teams can either be deployed in the game or through a companion app. When I'm away from  my computer, I can use my phone to deploy strike teams and manage them. You can get rewards in single player from strike team missions.

The game's vastness and scope is one of the game's selling points, but an attempt to emphasize said scope, Bioware has decided to take odd design choices. From traveling from planet to planet, the game zooms out from your location and takes an unskippable 20 second transition to zoom into another planet. Scanning through the window uses Mass Effect 2's scanning tool and makes it even slower to scan.

Planetside isn't much better. You'll land planetside only find the Golden Worlds nonviable for settlements and have to do various tasks to increase that viability. This can be done by setting up Forward stations (fast travel points), doing side quests and restoring the environment by accessing Remnant vaults and solving puzzles. Sudoku puzzles. Which somehow exist after 600 years into the future and lightyears away from the milkyway. (Don't worry; all of the puzzles have been solved online already.) If you increase said viability enough, you can set up an outpost, and earn even more AVP points (Viability points) so that you can unfreeze certain segment populations to grant you benefits such as increased inventory space, more weapon slots, credits or materials at intervals.

Also new is the scanning tool, in which Ryder deploys a screen to help him/her locate potential quest trails and know where to advance. It's been stated that Bioware wants to imitate the Witcher 3's sidequests, and I have no doubt they were genuine when they said that. What they meant was using a specific scanner to follow a trail. It's too bad that the scanner is painfully limited, slow and annoying to use. Scanning various items can unlock research points used to unlock and develop weapons. Developing weapons requires materials found in either scanning materials planetside, through the ship or through multiplayer.

But, the exploration aspect never feels genuine. It feels mandatory. It's busywork to unlock new perks and said perks or gear aren't needed when I can just farm Strike Teams and they can send a plethora of credits, gear or materials to Ryder. And since there's no level requirements, there's really nothing stopping me from blitzing through the story.

Conclusion: I enjoyed Mass Effect: Andromeda, but I can also see that there are a lot of problems that need to be addressed. If someone asked me if I regretted purchasing this game or paying 60 USD for it, I would say no. However, I can also look past my own biases and realize there's a lot gone wrong here. For a game requiring not only 60 dollars to play in addition to having a current generation console or a gaming PC that requires a Nvidia GTX 660 and a i5 3570 intel processor (these are not cheap, by the way), for a game to look this unpolished cannot cut it. And to claim that all the criticism laid against the game is a product of racism, sexism or homophobia is dishonest. There are genuine problems with the game.

But you can patch the technical issues. What you can't patch is the story momentum not going anywhere, companion characters that never grab you and a climax that never reaches its heights. At least Dragon Age: Inquisition had a point of no return. At least Dragon Age 2 had the potential to see companion characters lost or dead. At least SWTOR had specific classes asking you to reroll to unlock other traits. There's just no teeth with Andromeda.

I really wanted to love Mass Effect: Andromeda. I really did. But, it never just did it for me.  

Verdict: Sale or Rental.

[strawberrygirlie555]

Mixing Traditions 2

Part 1

The restaurant isn't too crowded, maybe a little more than half the tables are filled. In a corner booth sit two people- Leo and Garrus. Leo bounces his knee, his nerves kicking in full gear. Garrus places his hand on the human's knee and squeezes gently.

"You're okay, he has a soft spot for you."

Leo manages a shaky smile, "Thanks. You know how I am."

The turian nuzzles his smaller lover's head, "You're doing amazing."

An asari waitress nears the table, a man following behind. Leo bites his lip and waves at Zaeed. With a grumble, the older man slides in across from the two and asks for a beer in his gruff way. The asari nods and leaves.

He looks at the younger couple, "So what do you want?"

Garrus squeezes Leo's thigh again, "I... wish to ask for your ah, blessing. To marry Leo."

Silence.

"Are you fucking with me?"

Leo shakes his head, "To turian tradition he needs my parents permission, ah, their blessing and, well, you know. You're the closest thing to a parent I have. I've always seen you as a father figure. I guess because we're both Australian? We want to do both traditions and I had no one else, because Jane was the only other family figure I had and-"

"Leo."

The younger human stops.

"You see me as a father figure?"

He nods, "My dad was shit. He... wasn't a good person."

"God damn."

Zaeed leans back and runs his fingers through his thinning hair. The asari returns with his beer, as well as Garrus' beer and Leo's soda. Zaeed doesn't waste any time and downs half of it.

The turian speaks up again, "I love Leo. I want to spend the rest of our lives together. To my traditions, I need your approval."

With another swig of his beer, the older human groans, "Look. If you're both happy, go for it-" His volume drops to a mutter - "I did not fucking sign up for this."

Leo simply beams, "Really?"

"Of course. You're fucking happy, aren't you? Garrus is... a good turian."

Garrus laughs, "You don't need to force yourself to compliment me."

Zaeed lets out a strained breath, "Thank god."

The smaller human relaxes into the booth, a soft smile on his face. He absentmindedly rubs a finger along the blue paint on his cheeks. The two other males pick up a conversation on rigging up 'security' measures on the apartment.

One down, one to go.

The two young lovers had decided to visit Palaven to formally meet Garrus' father, Castis, and his sister, Solana. As the ship approached the planet, Leo starts to fidget with his enviro-suit. Tali had helped find one to fit the small human.

Garrus holds his hand, rubbing circles onto the back of the covered hand. 

"Can you hear me okay?" Leo's voice slightly echoed from the enviro-suit.

"Just fine."

"This feel really weird..."

Garrus chuckles, "Don't worry, you should be fine when we're indoors, so you can at least take off the helmet."

Over the comm, the captain alerts the passengers that they would be arriving in just a few minutes. Leo pulls his backpack over his shoulders as Garrus grabs their shared bag. While he's leaning forward, Leo bumps his forehead to Garrus'.

The world is different, Leo notices. He hadn't had the chance to see many planets during his time on the Normandy in detail, either confined to the ship, or rushing through with his life on the line. Palaven is the first world he's actually been able to see in depth.

With a bounce to his step, Leo walks out hand in hand with Garrus, his eyes wide and taking in everything he can. It's not like the Citadel in the aspect of diversity- most of the people here are turian or volus. Garrus leads him to a vehicle (what would be a taxi in his time) and gives the driver directions to his father's home.

Leo sits at the window, watching the sights whizz by. Castis lives out of the city of Cipritine a ways, the drive going through some if the natural scenery of the planet, as well as the city.

After the war, Palaven was rebuilt and many turian families moved back to their home planet, those including Garrus' family. It is their home after all. 

The vehicle stops at a house outside a small town. Garrus had explained to Leo prior that his father decided to move into his grandparent's old home, since the city home they had was near destroyed during the Reaper invasion. Otherwise, they would have been living in the city.

Leo steps out of the vehicle, thanking the driver softly. A turian stands outside the home and when they see Garrus come around to the human after paying the driver, they start to wave and run over.

They practically leap at Garrus, wrapping their arms around his neck.

"It's so good to see you again! I missed you so much!"

Garrus laughs and hugs back, "You too, Sol. I missed you too."

Solana drops from Garrus and turns to Leo. Despite her being Garrus' little sister by several years, she still towered over the tiny human male.

"You must be Leo! Come on inside, so we can get a look at you."

Garrus puts his hand on Leo's back and walks with him behind Solana, who rattles off about anything she can think of. Once inside, Leo fiddles with his helmet, trying to get it off. He huffs, annoyed at the small clasps he can't reach well.

With a chuckle, Garrus kneels down and reaches to help, "You got stuck in your own helmet? What would you do without me?"

Leo sticks his tongue out at Garrus, though he can't see it. Garrus gets the clasps quickly and gently pulls the helmet off of Leo. The human shakes his head, his firey hair mussed up and messy. The turian smiles and presses his beak to Leo's lips for a quick peck, before standing at his full height again and stiffens.

Castis stands at the doorway. Leo feels a cold shiver spread through his body.

"Um, hello!" The human waves nervously.

Castis stands still, looking down at the tiny human before him. Leo notices that he's taller than Garrus, and much more intimidating.

"Hey, dad. This is Leo," Garrus places his hands on the human's shoulders, "The one I talked about."

Castis makes no move, Leo gets increasingly more and more nervous. Garrus can feel the tiny human's trembles.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, sir," Leo stammers out.

Castis finally moves, striding forward and raising a hand. Leo flinches, and Garrus shoots a look at his father. The older turian clasps Leo on his shoulder and his mandibles move in what Leo has come to know as a smile.

"It's nice to finally meet you too, Leo."

In Garrus' hands, the human near deflates, letting out a trembling breath. He sends a shaky, but bright smile up to the older turian.

"I'm Castis Vakarian, if Garrus never told you. It's good to see you too, son."

Castis turns and leads them further into the house, Garrus keeping an arm around Leo, who is still a little shaken up. The two catch up, though it's obvious that Solana is much more talkative than their father. Speaking of her, the female turian pops up behind Garrus and Leo suddenly.

"Come on, dinners almost ready and you both must be tired. We got something for Leo that isn't dextro based like you asked, Gar Gar."

Leo glances up at Garrus, "Gar Gar?"

His mandibles spread, then slap tight against his mouth, "Shush."

Solana laughs, more boisterous than Garrus, but still as deep. Garrus swipes at his sister, who ducks and flicks her mandibles.

"Children, please," Castis says, exasperated.

Garrus sets the bag down, and Leo places both his backpack and his helmet next to it. Garrus leads him into a kitchen, the table already sat and Castis and Solana putting the food down.

"Here, Leo, this is for you," Solana says, putting down some food that Leo recognises.

"Thank you," Leo takes the seat, Garrus sitting down next to him.

Castis sits at the head of the table while Solana sits across from the two lovers. 

"So, what are you two doing on the Citadel?"

Garrus nudges Leo, the human sputters a little, "Ah, I'm an art teacher at the local highschool, and Garrus works on calibrations."

"Whoa, art? That's cool! What kind?"

Leo lights up at being able to talk about what he loves, "Just Art 1, so it's a bit of a mix of everything! It's what's required before going into a specific art like Drawing or Ceramics. I majored in Illustration, though."

"Oh wow! That's amazing!"

Leo blushes, his face red under the blue paint.

"So, are you going to tell us why he's wearing our paint?" Castis asks, looking towards Garrus.

Under the table, Garrus wrings his hands. Leo reaches and pulls one into his lap, rubbing soft circles into the thick skin.

Garrus clicks his mandibles, "Leo and I... wish to marry."

Silence spreads through the room. Garrus continues.

"We've dated for years, since the end of the Reaper War. We had been... pining for each other even longer."

"Have you already asked for his family's blessings?"

Garrus shifts, "In a way. He has no family, so I asked a father figure to him. He gave it to us."

Castis hums, a low rumbling noise, coming from deep in his chest. The human gently squeezes the turian's hand, worrying his lip between his teeth. Solana glances between the two male turians, her mandibles twitching.

The older turian stares Garrus down, the latter not backing down amd returning the stare. With a huff, Castis lowers his head, his mandibles forming a smile.

"You two do seem happy. I will not get in the way, Garrus. You deserve something good after all that's happened. You as well, Leo."

Garrus' shoulders drop and he releases the breath he was holding. Leo grins and bounces a little in his seat, clutching Garrus' hand in his much smaller hands. The turian gazes down lovingly at his human fiancé.

A cough brings them both back to the table. Leo's cheeks light up and he drops his gaze down to his and Garrus' hands.

"Did you not expect me to give you blessings?"

Garrus rubs the back of his head, a habit he's picked up from Leo, "In all honesty, I didn't know what to expect."

"Yeah, and I had only talked with you in video message. You're a lot more intimidating in person," Leo laughs nervously.

The rest of dinner passes peacefully- Solana telling embarrassing stories of Garrus, Leo laughing at those stories, Castis asking about their life. The small human felt at home and safe with the turian family

Laying in bed that night, Leo snuggles up to the warm turian. Garrus wraps an arm around the human, nuzzling his head. Leo wraps his arms around Garrus' middle and kisses his mandibles.

"I love you so much Garrus."

"I love you too Leo."

AO3