#for all you Shakarian shippers out there

[striderincosmos]

Mass Effect Shower Headcanon

As time and technology has advanced on, medical aids of various kinds have advanced along with them. Joker's service in the Alliance military, despite what would otherwise be a crippling genetic defect, is the most shining example of this. However, consider:

The humble hearing aid has likely become both unobtrusive enough to be an otherwise invisible part of a person, and advanced enough to allow someone to hear in a range of frequencies (with some adjustment for the brain to recognize what it's hearing).

Hearing things just out of the range of regular human hearing... like turian subvocals. I trust you can do the rest of the math.

[crescentbunny]

Haha okay so fuck this!

Ignoring the fact I ship them for a hot sec

They just copy and paste Kaidan's fucking codex entry while Garrus, eVeRyOnEs FaVoRiTe(ha! No actually) good ol' garrbear here gets his own personalized spiel

Like what the fuck "Shepard's favorite"?! No! this is what I'm talking about when I say bioware is perpetuating the "Kaidan vs Garrus" bs the fandom has going on for some reason or another 🙄

I'm still waiting on a legitimate answer on what makes sooooo Garrus amazing because I have yet to see it.

Who the fuck approved these? Because they're all horrible(I just picked these two because this is my specific corner of the fandom, rip me)

This is just stupid, like dead ass, I'm not surprised certainly lmao but uh it seems to me like every human squad made gets sidelined next to Garrus for no actual reason?

[meggannn]

shepard/garrus?

oh boy, sorry for the late response! I always end up posting these things and then going to read/take a nap/play a game or something. anyway writing this up took two hours, i hope it is even slightly interesting to read. cut because this is looooooong

What made you ship it?

I think I was interested in this ship before I even played ME. I was just like “I know Shepard is a character and an alien named Garrus is a character, and people draw porn of them together.” because I think it’s reasonable to say it’s one of, if not the most, popular ship in the fandom, or at least in ME’s tumblr fandom? and the way people talked about it, I knew their tropes were #banter, #battle couple, #partnerships, and... and as we’ve learned from royai, I am a bit weak to those tropes (assuming I like both of the characters). the way people talked about them also from a “best friends” angle—which is sort of forced in-game in a way that seems strange to me now—was also a plus in its favor at the time. (if they get together, I do see their friendship/companionship, in whatever form, in some ways integral to their romance—unless you’re playing full far-right renegade who’s like a xenophobe and hate-fucking Garrus, I guess?—but Bioware also kind of shoehorned Garrus into that best-friend role and that’s a topic for another day.)

What are your favorite things about the ship?

(my friend will hit me if I say “partnerships” again) I’m gonna talk about the way I play my Shepard now, because so much is dependent on the unique Shepard. for Lydia’s journey over the series, I see a large part of her journey as basically a study of her (often self-inflicted) loneliness. and she never entirely breaks her habits of self-isolation, but the events of the series force her to be vulnerable in a way she would prefer not to be in front of a crew, or, y’know, ever. Garrus becomes an integral part of that story to help her break her out of these bad habits (all of the crew does, particularly also Ashley for my Shep), but to my eyes, the story of “Shepard and Garrus’s relationship” is also one of mutual respect, burden-sharing, and sanity and morality checks.

I don’t think of their “mentor” relationship in ME1 very often mostly because I don’t think it was done particularly well, but for all its faults, I do like how naturally the jump from “subordinate” in ME1 to “ally” in ME2 felt; once you meet Garrus on Omega you feel more on the same footing as two friends greeting each other because you’ve both recently been through trauma and the sight of a friendly face in a station full of hostiles is so unexpectedly welcome that it lets them both hope things will be okay for a minute. starting from that moment, Garrus becomes one of the few people who can see “under” her mask, I guess: partly because he’s one of the few combatants from the SR-1 who knows Shepard well and sees who she is both on the field and onboard the SR-2, with the ability to compare both to the times of “before you died”; partly because he has trauma response training and recognizes it in others even if he doesn’t in himself; partly because his loyal personality makes him sensitive to wonder how she’s dealing with being resurrected; and also partly because they’ve both gone through similar things. namely, getting your squad killed and blaming yourself for it, and it possibly being your fault (BioWare is inconsistent on what Shepard’s role was on Akuze, but in ME1 she has the chance to reply that she was responsible for getting them out safely, and failed).

necessity forces Shepard to adapt to things like being effectively forced to work for terrorists; being isolated from her support system; being resurrected and feeling like a stranger in her own body; later, getting decommissioned for making an incredibly difficult call to save the galaxy; watching your homeworld burn; being forced into a political role negotiating high stakes you don’t know how to play; being told you’re the spearhead of a galactic war; doing all of this without a full crew complement; the list goes on. those are all, on their own, incredibly isolating, traumatic experiences, and my Shepard’s not emotionally sane at the best of times. (emotionally stable, perhaps, only in the most literal of terms, at least on the surface. she’s like a rock when shit hits the fan. emotionally sane, no, for that reason and more.)

the tables have turned, and Garrus ends up becoming a large part of helping her regain agency in most if not all of those things: in ME2 he was a former crew member she trusted, and he was eager to work for her and be distracted from his failures on Omega. over in the battery, he is himself recovering from a major injury (like Shepard) and going through the aftermath of a bloodbath he feels responsible for (like Shepard), working on a crew that holds him at arm’s length, that he also... arguably... didn’t have much choice in joining (like Shepard—I’m assuming he wasn’t held hostage and joined voluntarily after waking up, but lbr this is unconfirmed). their reasons are different and varied, but they don’t realize until much later that they have found each other at the most opportune time, providing a sense of stability for each other, and also, frankly, sanity and morality checks.

in ME3, he steps into this role more fully because he’s become more disciplined, is doing work firmly in his wheelhouse, and paired up against Shepard struggling with their positions somewhat reversed from ME1: him more confident and her now completely out of her element, floundering with her place on a galactic scale. without Garrus—and Chakwas, and Joker, and Tali, and later the loyalty of the entire SR-2—the story of ME would be a tragedy, and it would end shortly in ME2; it’d be the story of how my Shepard slowly went insane being forced to fight boogeymen under a terrorist banner. Garrus isn’t, like, the keeper of her sanity, but their ability to check each other, and see themselves in the eyes of each other, provides stability and occasionally a bit of a wake-up call to both of them. when they’re both vulnerable, they both feel most seen, and most understood, by an alien that listens.

one angle of this ship that highly interests me at the moment, along with the above, is that while it’s not illegal for them to be together, it’s still... a really bad fucking idea lmao. (I could make the argument that it’s a bad idea for Shepard to be in any relationship with their crew but I think there are a few ships—Garrus, Tali, any Alliance crew at all—that realistically would be huge political clusterfucks.) so overcoming personal insecurity and fear of the unknown to acknowledge interest in each other, and the desire to become an item, getting roadblocked by a reality wake-up call with the fact that 1) she’s his boss, 2) Garrus comes from a society where station matters, like, sort of a lot and it even determines your job and how much legal power you have, 3) the potential political blowback (which would be ENORMOUS because lbr the hierarchy may not care about what turians do in off-hours but they WOULD care about the superior/subordinate thing, the human thing, the fact that they’re doing this while a war is going on. basically one of their best agents is on the Normandy to negotiate their interests and they’re basically at the whims of their relationship the whole time)... it’s a lot! all of that sort of makes it tragic, but I’m curious to see how they’d overcome it.

anyway, all of that is where I’m coming from when I think or write about this ship, but there’s a lot more I’m not mentioning here. there are a lot of juxtapositions that in my head that I’ve either added or extrapolated from canon that also interest me about this pairing. Garrus is a former cop, as is his father; Lydia is a poor kid who used to be in a gang out of necessity. Garrus is a turian with often traditionalist thinking; Shepard is a human who has much less sociopolitical power than him, even if she is his superior on the Normandy. both of them are roughly as old as the First Contact War, when their people were at each other’s throats not thirty years ago. Garrus idolizes Spectrehood while Lydia hates it, feeling it was forced on her. they can’t eat the same food. and yet despite all of that, and the fact that they need translators to communicate, they manage to understand each other when a lot of the world around them doesn’t.

god this is not even the full list of it. anyway I could go on but I’ll stop there lol.

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

oh jesus, so much. I’m a grouchy and picky shipper, be warned.

pining can always make my ships more interesting, and imo it’s a consistent part of any ship of Shepard’s, considering it’s wildly inappropriate and unprofessional for her to be fucking any subordinate, so I think more consideration could be given to shakarian in the “we shouldn’t be having a thing and oh also you’re an alien and I’m kind of scared of both your government and your body” angle! I hope to explore that a bit with a fic I’m writing (if I ever finish it, god).

I hate the flavor of fandom!shakarian where Shepard romanced Kaidan in ME1 then felt “betrayed” when he’s confused and hurt on Horizon, so she gets with Garrus as like... revenge? idk. and then Garrus usually develops this bias against Kaidan as a sort of author mouthpiece (which is inconsistent with his characterization cause Garrus is nothing but pleased to have Kaidan back on the SR-2 in ME3!) and takes up the anti-Kaidan crusade cause K ~questioned the commander~ (since when does Garrus fall over himself defending a superior from criticism?) like, idk. I think Garrus can be sensitive to the fact that that reuniting must’ve been painful for Shepard, but also be aware that it was also really painful for Kaidan because all of Kaidan’s complicated feelings about Shepard’s resurrection were, realistically, things Garrus should’ve felt too! this trope is very popular but just feels like manufactured drama for drama’s sake, idk, I’m also not big on love triangles so. I would much rather people just rescue Ashley on Virmire and avoid the whole thing rather than have previously-romanced Kaidan around in ME3 for the sole purpose of forcing him to watch Shepard/Garrus being happy together tbh.

I think full goody-goody paragon Shepard is too preachy to make a good partner for Garrus and full shoot-anyone-in-my-way renegade Shepard encourages and emboldens his worst tendencies (and Castis Vakarian is right to disapprove of them). most people end up playing some combination of both, or if they do settle in one camp or the other, usually there is some sense of realism where Shepard doesn’t play nice/naive or play mean all the time, so it’s rare I see either of those kinds of extreme Shepards depicted, but in general if there is a Shepard that is so far in one direction it seems illogical to me that they ever stay together.

I think wanting a mShep romance for Garrus is a pretty welcome idea in fandom, but adding onto that, I think Garrus should’ve been romanceable in ME3 for players who changed their minds on other romances or want to play slow-burn romances! we had it for Kaidan—and should’ve had it for Ash—so (pounds fist on desk) Garrus too imo!

I hate the canon get-together because Shepard walking into the battery and asking “do you want to fuck” feels very tailored to the players who want to romance Garrus, not to who Commander Shepard is, imo. it lacked all of the subtlety and depth of some other romances—until the scene of Garrus coming to her cabin with a wine bottle, at least, cause I do like that scene, but anyway, I dislike the actual get-together.

just in general, I’m a stick in the mud, so my favorite iteration of this ship is where Shepard is resolutely professional, and the challenge of it becomes him getting her to open up, not the other way around. like, I think on some level every iteration of Shepard is a bit of a lunatic/eccentric, because you have to be to do the things they do, but I like to see their flirting with less of her calling him “big guy” (not sure where that came from, is that in canon? I must’ve missed it, but personally I don’t like it) and more of Garrus making wisecracks in the canteen while he’s talking to Joker, but he’s looking at her out of the corner of his eyes and he really said his joke with the aim of making her laugh, and as she’s reading her datapad she hears him, and even when she wants to chuckle she stops himself and just smirks cause she doesn’t want to give him the satisfaction of a laugh, but he sees her lips twitch and feels his heart flutter. that. I want more of that.

oh lastly, I hate “Shepard takes Vakarian clan markings” in any iteration. there is no canon relation to turians being poc—in fact I’d argue they have sociopolitical privilege real-world bipoc do not—but the concept of social face markings, face tattoos, etc., is rooted in non-white cultures and with the fact that 1) turians had a literal civil war over the territories those markings represent, 2) we don’t even know if marriage is how markings are shared or if non-turians are ever invited to wear them in the first place, 3) most of the art of this trend, lbr, is of mostly white Shepards in wedding dresses and blue face paint... all that combined just makes me frown and scroll faster every time I see it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bipoc Shepard with Vakarian face markings in fic/art, and that to me is very telling (not because they should have them, but because bipoc fans who make bipoc Shepards usually recognize when a racially-coded trope is uhhhhh not so great to appropriate for someone not of that group).

[sinsbymanka]

Writing Tag Game

Okay listen I’m on vacation XD hence why I’m ignoring everyone’s tags/taking forever to respond. But I’ve been tagged in this A LOT and I really liked it/wanted to do it so thank you to everyone who tagged me (oh my god I’m so sorry if I missed one of you there were SO MANY): @noire-pandora, @in-arlathan, @thevikingwoman, @morganlefaye79, @elveny, @kunstpause, @pikapeppa

I’m not tagging anyone because I’m tagging everyone since I’m too lazy to find my tag list (I’m on VACATION). If you’ve not gotten tagged and wanted to do this, say I tagged you. 

How many works do you have on Ao3?

147 - I have 145 linked to my profile and two in the anonymous collection. 

What's your total Ao3 wordcount?

1,468,248. Almost 1.5 million!! 

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Of Miracles and Heroes (FenHawke, Cadash/Varric, Varania/Blackwall): 269

Interspecies Relationships Have Their Ups and Downs (Shakarian): 145

Don’t Make it Hawkeward (Varric/Hawke): 135

The Ambassador’s Vices (Josephine/Adaar): 111

The Girl with the Arrow Tattoo (Cadash/Varric): 101

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I do (but - to be honest - it takes me FOREVER). I love comments. It’s so much easier to not leave comments than leave comments, so every time someone leaves one I’m blown away. I feel like - for leaving me a comment - you’re definitely owed an answer! I do apologize that it takes me awhile though - I am very bad at answering because they mean a lot to me and I get easily overwhelmed by the AO3 inbox I don’t know why. Blame anxiety. 

What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

I’ll be honest, I don’t like angsty endings so I don’t have many of them. By far the angstiest ending I have is Flowers, Lies, and Forgiveness. This is a Bianca Davri/Varric Tethras fic set during the final act of DA2. I wrote it from Bianca’s POV - showing Varric unraveling under the pressure of Kirkwall and Bianca’s complicated feelings about infidelity to her husband who clearly cares about her as well. I wrote it for @hollyand-writes who always lets me lean into the tragic “fucked upness” of the pairing when I’m feeling like making Varric suffer.  

What's the fic you've written with the happiest ending

I prefer happy endings so almost EVERYTHING has a happy ending. My favorite endings, so far, are for Cheating the Dread Wolf, which is my Varric/Cadash/Solas polycule (or as I like to refer to it - Solas has a dwarf kink) and The Viscount’s Mistress which is my Hurt/Comfort Cadash/Varric Trespasser bullshit. 

Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the craziest one you've written?

I have not written crossovers - but I am very into AUs in another setting that belongs to a different fictional universe. Most recently I got back into my Downton Abbey bullshit and wrote Flappers for Fen’harel which is basically a Downton Abbey AU Solas/Cadash and I’m not taking comments about the outrageousness of it. 

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Yep. Honestly though? Over the two years I’ve been active in Fandom, the shitty comments can be counted on one hand and usually came from the same people over and over again, who are easily blocked, and should stop seeking out clearly labeled content they don’t like. Me and my work are not for everyone - that’s REALLY okay. I’ve blocked people for no other reason than making things I don’t like - that doesn’t mean they’re bad people. 

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

GOD DO I.

I am extremely sex and kink positive. Because of this - a lot of my work involves sex in some way or another. I think sex is a beautiful part of many (although not all) relationships, and that it’s frequently glossed over in mainstream media (particularly queer, kinky, and polyam sex). 

This ranges from sort of vanilla slow burns (My Cole/Bea fic, Compassion for an Assassin, has smut which hasn’t been posted yet. It’s Cole’s first time and is fairly vanilla and romantic, and occurs approximately 40k into the fic) to some pretty dubious consent near 24/7 dom/sub dynamics with BDSM kinks (I’ve written JUST as much of the Sereda/Gorim problematic smut as @jarakrisafis has in our series Forced Moves). 

There’s very few kinks I’m not willing to touch at least to try out - even if I end up not liking them. And the ones that aren’t for me are 100% allowed to exist and I will fight for them to the bloody end. My only recommendation is CLEARLY labeling your shit and not being afraid to add a tag if someone asks you to. 

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I’m aware of? I’ve seen ideas I’ve tried on picked up by other people - but I don’t consider that stealing and it’s hard to trace “who has been inspired by who” because we ALL have been inspired by thousands of other people and frankly more stuff for me when I pull you over to my weird AUs and rarepairs. 

I also think that’s a huge part of not getting stolen - I’ve got so much weird niche shit that only a couple people read that stealing from me is going to most likely be caught IMMEDIATELY the audience is so small. 

Have you ever had a fic translated?

I don’t believe so!

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes! I’ve got some co-written secret smut with @blarfkey which almost nobody has seen, I’ve borrowed @tightassets Hawke, Lavellan, and Shepard for fics that she has illustrated, borrowed @tuffypelly‘s Adaars for some great fics, and my most ambitious project - the Forced Moves series with @jarakrisafis. It started out as us just exchanging gifts back and forth but we’ve wrangled it into Gambits and Countergambits, an Aeducan-origin prequel, that I’m VERY proud of. 

I love co-writing very much, but it’s very important to find the right partner and for it to be someone you trust completely. 

What's your all time favourite ship?

This is a stupidly hard question because I am, at heart, a multi-shipper. 

I love Varric/Hawke and Varric/Cadash. I’m also a sucker for Solas/Cadash. My fandom pool noodle is Varric/Cadash/Solas which I adore, and I’m very fond of Cole/Cadash. 

Most recently I’ve been DEEP in Aeducan/Gorim Saelac, Bhelen/Rica/Vartag, and Aeducan/Brosca feels. Dwarf origins are the best origins in my opinion and those characters are PERFECT. 

What's a WIP you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

I fully plan on finishing everything. My writing style changed a lot, for the better, in a short period of time. I need to integrate my old style/new style and had to get a pep talk about how to do that. Now I’m ready to try as soon as I finish Compassion for an Assassin. 

What are your writing strengths? 

I write very sexy, hot smut. I also really like playing with character voice and making sure I get them “right” so I do a lot of experimenting before publishing a new character for the first time. 

I struggle to write action scenes - it’s like pulling fucking teeth - but people really LOVE my action scenes and they read well. So that’s something I’m proud of even if it feels like doing fucking pull ups. 

What are your writing weaknesses?

I never learned anything. My experiences with English and writing teachers were overwhelmingly negative. I’m unsure if I’m just not cut out for classes or if they were that bad, but I always left feeling like there was one “right” way to do it, and everything I liked was “bad”, so what was the point of “learning” anything? 

It turns out there’s this very pompous, pretentious thought process in writing where people “assume” things must be done, but GOOD writing teachers teach you the rules and then how to break them. I either never had a good writing teacher or got too intimidated to give them a chance before bouncing. 

So I’m exceedingly self-taught. I lack the vocabulary to discuss plot structure, characterization, grammar, etc. I instinctively know most of these things based on trial and error and reading, but I didn’t learn them and I miss a lot of nuance in the rules, but until recently I was still too intimidated and unsure of myself to admit that or take it seriously. 

So - my defense mechanism is NOT taking ANYTHING seriously. If my writing is a joke to me, it’s gotta be a joke to everyone else, but that’s been a shield to hide behind instead of being thoughtful about things. I’m here to have fun, yes, but there’s nothing wrong with learning a technique to the art. 

I’ve learned - mostly thanks to @blarfkey who is an amazing person and a wonderful teacher - that I am a good writer based on my self-teaching. And being intimidated of people who throw around impressive sounding words is a weakness that I am working on. 

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic? 

Use sparingly and with good reason. It should be short and explained later or clear from context. 

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Harry Potter on message boards back in the fucking day. Thankfully none of it exists anywhere anymore. 

What's your favourite fic you've written?

This is such a sappy answer and I’m so sorry. My favorite things have been written for and because of people I love and care about. When I read them, I’m not just reading the story, but remembering the relationships I’ve made and how important they are. 

So, my top three fics for THAT reason: 

1. Cheating the Dread Wolf - written for @blarfkey who inspired the idea and ruthlessly encouraged me to make it happen. This fic was so healing for me because it heavily features Fatherhood within it - and I lost my father in June 2020. I don’t know if I’d have been able to do it without her and it was so important for me to do. 

2. Gambits and Countergambits - written with @jarakrisafis and the culmination of a years worth of gifting shit back and forth and crafting a shared universe. The worldbuilding, smut, relationships, EVERYTHING about this fic is so deeply and passionately cared about by both of us and to our knowledge it is completely, totally unique.  

3. Relentless, Ridiculous, and Rakish - one of my only primarily gen-fics focusing on a forming brother/sister relationship between Maria Cadash and @tuffypelly‘s Otsar Adaar. I very much enjoyed writing it for her <3 

And then my overall favorite fic: 

The Viscount’s Mistress: I have a lot of opinions about how fanfiction treats the anchor’s meltdown and the aftermath. It’s one of the things in DAI that resonated with me SO much as someone who lives with chronic pain and a disability. I loved the fact my OC was in the same shoes and STILL saving the world. This is very much a fic that explores all the dark sides of trauma, pain, and the mental health effects of it. But it ends on a happy and hopeful note.  

[vasiktomis]

i dont mean to be too bold (and ignore if i am), but do you have a shepard oc? your other characters are so great i'd love to hear any thoughts you have

Thank you so much for asking! My characters are so unworthy of your praise and I appreciate it!

Sadly I never made too much of a developed Shepard because I’ve always been quite intimidated by the skill level that comes out of the ME fandom.

All I can really share is Lena, a vanguard who went the colonist/war-hero path. She’s mostly paragon, but only after meeting Talitha does she realise that she has a disproportionate amount of violence bias toward Batarians and may be carrying more trauma than she thought from Mindoir. She’s still more scared of Husks than any other enemy, just because looking at them hits a little too close to home for her liking.

Her FC was Noomi Rapace from her Lisbeth Salander era (sans the piercings)

And who would I be if not a Shakarian shipper?

[keita52]

A Primer/Refresher on Me

Hello! I haven’t been using Tumblr much recently, and I know I picked up some new followers since starting to post Critical Role drabbles. So here’s a little bit of information on me and my primary fandom stuff.

RL Info: She/her/hers, mid-30s, Librarian/Archivist, living in the Mid-Atlantic USA, married, and mom to a beautiful, amazing little girl (born mid-2019).

Fandoms I Write In: Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Person of Interest, Critical Role.

The Critical Role Thing You Might Know Me From: Parallels, where I thought about, er, parallels between C1 and C2 characters that weren’t just comparisons between the same player’s characters. Note that I wrote this relatively early in C2 - aka in the Molly era, where a lot of secrets had yet to be revealed. 

Long-Term Writing Projects: I have a bunch of WIPs, but the ones that I’m most likely to continue are my two Mass Effect Giant Crossovers of Doom.

No More Gallifreys: Mass Effect x Doctor Who (2005). Main characters: Female Shepard and the 11th Doctor. Eleven joins the Normandy mid-ME2; clashes with Shepard at first, makes friends with Mordin and Tali, and learns a surprising truth about himself and his connection to the ME universe.

In retrospect, large-scale crossover was not a great choice for my first foray into fanfic, and I got discouraged for a while - but there was a moment recently where I genuinely wanted to continue, so I ended the 2.5 year gap by resolving one cliffhanger and introducing a far less dramatic one.

Exodus Into Fire: Mass Effect x Battlestar Galactica (2003). Main character: Kara “Starbuck” Thrace; secondary important characters: Female Shepard, William Adama, Sharon “Athena” Agathon, Galen Tyrol, and likely others as the story goes along. The Earth that Starbuck guides Galactica to mid-S4 turns out to be Shepard’s Earth at the beginning of ME3. With Earth not the safe haven they'd hoped for, a multi-species conflict raging around them, and the enemy Cylons still a threat, the Colonial Fleet and their Cylon allies struggle to make a place for themselves in this new universe.

At one point, I’d intended to complete No More Gallifreys before starting this one. Hah. There’s an alternate universe where I had the Mass Effect romance be Male Shepard/Tali instead of Shakarian. Female Shepard was a main character at the start, but Starbuck is now the linchpin. I learned from my previous mistakes and chucked ME canon out the airlock sooner, or kept it offscreen if it wasn’t changed by the presence of BSG characters. I’m determined to fit a crossover romance in there somewhere, besides Starbuck hooking up with Septimus Oraka at Afterlife (why? Because she could).

Fandom Exchanges: After creating an excessive amount of spreadsheets for them, @acequeenking asked me to help moderate the two Bioware Rare Pair exchanges that she started - Spectre Requisitions (Mass Effect) and Black Emporium (Dragon Age). Running these two exchanges has turned me into a serious multi-shipper, and I have fun with both of them every year. 

Doing those two also inspired me to create the Exchange of Interest for Person of Interest. This one’s for any and all POI relationships. I love this show so much - the lore is amazing and incredibly detailed, and it has some seriously badass characters that are easily some of my favorites ever. I’m grateful to @livenudebigfoot for co-running with me and look forward to Year 4 in Spring 2021!

Stand-Alone Works: Because of the aforementioned exchange participation, I’ve written a LOT of stand-alone ‘shippy stories in the past few years. Here’s a highlighted one from each canon.

What kind of woman doesn’t have an axe? (ME) - Female Shepard/Aria, with FemShep being basically an expy of Rosa from Brooklyn 99. Set during the Omega DLC for ME3.

Acceptance (DA) - Male Inquisitor/Vivienne, soulmate AU which is really more of a character study of Vivienne (who gets way too much hate).

Straight into the late night (POI) - Carter/Zoe/Shaw; as my recipient put it, Three Women Fix Things Then Make-Out.

So What’s Next?: Another round of Spectre Requisitions starting shortly after the new year; and hopefully more progress soon on my Giant Crossovers (I say that every time. Sometimes it’s true.)

[imamesseffect]

Hi! Hope this finds you well. For the question meme, 001 Shakarian? Thank you and sorry to be a bother.

Don’t worry, you’re definitely not a bother. I love getting asks, and I am the one who reblogged the ask meme after all!

when I started shipping it if I did: Oh definitely right when I started playing ME2 and I realized Garrus could be a love interest. I want to say around 2015 or 2016? I was also influenced by my bff who introduced me to the game, and was a hardcore shipper of them.

my thoughts: Wow I just love them. Their dynamic, their dialogue, it’s all amazing! I know that only femShep is canon, but you can’t tell me Garrus wouldn’t feel the same way about a male shep. It’s just THEM, not their gender.

What makes me happy about them: I love how playful they are with each other, and how they’re each other’s light in the darkness. They’re always there for each other when they need it.

What makes me sad about them: That a happy ending only really exists in headcanons and people reaching for the implied maybe survival of Shep in the destroy ending.

things done in fanfic that annoys me: Uh I don’t read a lot of ME fanfic tbh but don’t like it when Garrus is too suave or he gives in to Shepard too much. Shep is not the boss of him, except in combat situations :/ Also Garrus being so protective that he doesn’t let them do anything, which is just as bad.

things I look for in fanfic: When I do read ME fanfics, definitely a happy ending, but I am sooo for the angst so giving them realistic issues is great.

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: Honestly I love most of the ships with Shepard, but I particularly think that Kaidan is a cute love interest for Shepard. I also like Liara! Honestly don’t really have any LI that I couldn’t see for Shep. I think Garrus is absolutely so cute with Tali, and I would love if there were more poly fics with Shep/Garrus/Tali. I do love me some healthy poly relationships!

My happily ever after for them: Retired, relaxing on a beach somewhere with a hoard of children. Until they both get bored and have to figure out what they do now. 

who is the big spoon/little spoon: Sometimes Shepard wins and ends up the big spoon, but because they’re smaller and squishier and Garrus tends to be protective, it’s usually him who’s the big spoon.

what is their favorite non-sexual activity: I don’t think sparring counts when it always leads to sex lol. I think they’d both be rather into board/video games, especially strategic ones, and they probably have little competitions all the time just for fun. 

[painterofhorizons]

Question for the Kaidan folk

Mass Effect folks, please help me out.

On my first and so far only complete play through of ME1-3 fShep romanced Kaidan in ME1 and Garrus in ME2+3. Now I consider for story writing purpose to have Shepard not romance anyone in ME1 and Garrus in ME2+3. How does the Kaidan part change in 2+3 with not romancing him in 1? Especially: how much of the drama and trust issues does he still give in ME2+3 if not romanced (speaking of the hospital scenes among others)? I really liked the version of Kaidan in 1 and Garrus in 2+3 and also Kaidans reactions in 2+3 and only consider this for realizing Reda Shepard ain’t a very relationship type and would not fraternize during 1 - but I kinda wanna 2+3 stay the same in gaming because I enjoyed that.

So... How much do the Kaidan dialogues change?

(Honestly I have no idea who of you is a Shenko shipper because I’m knee deep into Shakarian, so I’ll just tag folks and hope one of you knows the answer. :D Also if you know and were not tagged please still feel free to answer! Also also this is not supposed to become a discussion over the one romance option or the other or about characters at all - I just ask from a technical how much in dialogue does change question, okay? Please no drama. I’m on vacation. Also this is a drama free blog. @thievinghippo @guileandgall @tarysande @swaps55 @citadelsushi @cm-primus @theoriginalladya @vorchagirl)

[cassandra-pentughasst]

Controversial shipping asks: 😑💩💣💘

💚💚Ship that you’re indifferent to: 😑I literally can’t think of anything? Like I see Mei/Zarya, Bull/quizzie, Shakarian. etc and like I’m not mad at it. Its just not my thing.Ship that you find disgusting: 💩Oh boy. That Star Wars one with the emo Kyle and the girl that is light years out of his league. Anything Incest like Anna and Elsa, or Kara and Alex from Supergirl (no they’re not biologically related, but they were raised as sisters you sickos)Ship that pisses you off: 💣See the aforementioned Star Wars shipControversial answer though is Solas and Lavellan. I find it to be emotionally manipulative and in my opinion kinda abusive for Lavellan’s because they really only gain his approval if they agree with a lot of what he says, and I feel that he makes choices for them and violates their boundaries on multiple occasions (I’m operating under the assumption that he visits them in their sleep (something that is pretty fucked up if you ask me) more than once. I find it romantic the same way I find Twilight and 50 Shades romantic - not at all. (I don’t think my opinion of this ship is helped by the fact so many racist and hurtful people I’ve encountered in this fandom have been shippers of it either)Ship that is unpopular but you still like: 💘All of the Leliana ships with everyone. I need more Lelimancers in my life. Pentiliyet. Cassandra/F!Inquisitor - that small ship I write for 

[forlornmelody]

Mass Effect for the ships thing! ♥♥ Including or not Andromeda as you wish!

OTP: Shenko is my default, but I have many favorites.

Favorite Canon Pairing: Talibrations

Worst Pairing Ever: Looking at you, all you Lawson incest shippers. 🙄

A Pairing You Want to See More: More safe, sane, consensual femslash please. Any pairing.

Guilty Pleasure Pairing: Femshep/Her Clone

That Pairing Everyone Likes But You're Like "lol no": Shakarian. Sorry. It seemingly comes out of nowhere and the game plays it off as a hookup turned romance. Not my cup of tea.

Favorite Non-Romantic Pair: Femshep & Vega. I see James as either ace or gay, so I don't really see him with Femshep romantically, but I do read Shega on occasion.

Send Me A Fandom

[annakie]

Continued Notes on a Blog Cleanup

I started doing this a couple of weeks ago, I’m still doing it even though I’ve now passed the place I was trying to get to to find a thing awhile ago.  

But now I’m in March of 2013, closing in on two years of blog cleaned up.

I’m on page 1811 of 2968 (working backwards) with 15 posts per page.  My guesstimates are that since I started posting the blog cleanup I’ve generated about 100 posts, that’s probably a little on the low side, but it’s a workable number.  When I started I had 3021 pages of blog, so adding in about 7 more pages worth of blogs since then, that means I’ve deleted about 60 pages worth of my bog, or somewhere around 900 posts.

Sounds about right.

Anyway, here’s a bunch more thoughts on tumblr in general, this blog cleanup, and a Doctor Who Nostalgia Rewatch.

What’s crazy is that about 1/3rd of my entire blog was done in the first 18 months of its creation.  It’s now over 8 years old, but I hit the 2000th page back around November 2012, when the blog was made in May, 2011.  

I’m just now getting to the point in the blog where I kept a pretty full and steady queue in the first few months of 2013, so things move faster now instead of like 100 posts per day untagged like the early days.  And I didn’t post at all for most of the last couple of months of 2017 and early 2018 so, there’s a few-months gap there, eventually. But I figure... why stop the nostalgia tour now.  Mostly because I’m finding things I want to organize better.  I’m also finding a lot of  edits or personal posts I made and didn’t tag properly in the time period I’m covering right now. 

When all this is done, I’ll probably do a mass blog export again, now that I’m happier with the contents.  Tumblr ain’t gonna be around forever, y’all.

Still, deleting a lot of stuff.  Posts are being deleted for

Being out of date, like “Hey this game is on sale, go buy it!” or “SIGN THIS PETITION AGAINST CISPA!” or “The new season of Parks and Rec starts September 23rd" (of 2013 or whatever).  

Sometimes for being a reblog of a thing that I only marginally ever cared about and no longer do at all.  

Things that have now been proven false, or false alarms, or things we no longer have to worry about for whatever reason.  

“Hoooo boy it’s 2019 and now THAT sure turned out to be a bad take!” (”Guys, this new show called House of Cards is on!  It stars the AMAZING KEVIN SPACEY, I LOVE HIM!”  OK that wasn’t verbatim but close, and Yikes.)

Still, the cringiest of the cringe.  But there’s a lot less of that now, which is nice.  I at some point over the beginning of 2013 started doing a lot more tagging of my own posts so the tags are a much nicer place to look than some of the terrible other-people’s tags.  Although I’m still only tagging at like 60 - 70% of the time.

Observations:

What takes the longest is adding tags to posts.  So for the most part tags are only getting added to things I made.  About 45% of which are personal posts, and about 45% of which are mass effect creations posts, so far.  About 10% are things I think I may want to find again someday, though a lot of those things are being put in the “reblogging really old stuff” queue.

The blog is like, 30% Doctor Who, 40% Mass Effect and 30% Psych/Elementary/Leverage/Misc now.  It’s better.

I JUST started getting really to the part where I contributed a little more to the ME/DW fandoms besides yelling at hate-taggers.  Still.  Mid-2013 me is still doing that on occasion.  Although now it’s sometimes about Kaidan Alenko instead of just Martha Jones.  I’m still kind of torn about how I feel about all that now.  I’d say that it’s funny how there doesn’t seem to be a lot of it on tumblr these days.  Now it feels like we all have more important things to fight about.  Also, tumblr is, you know, on life support.

It feels like my blog liked and watched Supernatural longer than I did in reality?  It felt like a short flirtation to me, there continues to be supernatural content on my blog for over a year now.  Pretty sure I stopped watching mid-season 9 so maybe that’ll stop soon.  Still, way less than the general population of tumblr it felt like at the time.

People with names like 221BTardisImpala really were the worst about tagging their hate and other stupid stuff.

I’d somehow forgotten about that terrible, gross post twisting Kaidan into an “abuser” for stupid stuff like “He brought a bottle of alcohol (you know, the one Shepard bought him?) to Shepard’s quarters!” and “He did a bad thing at 17!” (and clearly the person we are at 17 is the same person he was at 34.) and and just the most asinine reasoning applied, and tagged.   The whole “I gotta tear down characters other people like to make my fave the REAL WINNER” is just... ugh.  I got back to that post and honestly, am still thinking I should have deleted the whole thing.

I’ve picked another few tags on controversial characters that I love like Jacob Taylor and scrolled through, and like I posted earlier about Martha Jones, hate tagging in general seems to just... not happen that much anymore, even after scrolling back a year or two in those tags.  That makes tumblr a nicer place to be. I know we still see the occasional like, shitty shakarian shipper in the Kaidan Alenko tag (and again, that is a very small % of overall shakarian shippers) but it’s nothing like what it used to be.

It won’t be long until the WTNV explosion happens on tumblr, or maybe it had already started at this point.  It took me a few months to catch on.  And then I’m gonna listen to it and love it, and ask for rec’s for more podcasts, then I’m gonna get into Thrilling Adventure Hour and the blog is gonna become a much more positive place.  Looking forward to getting to all that.

Does anyone know if there’s a theme or script that lets you add tags from your dash or main blog page without editing a post?  I’d go back and do this again to tag some more good reblogged posts, I think.  I’d probably have also deleted more stuff if I could have done it from my blog without going into editing. :p

Seriously though, tumblr feels like such a different place now.  It’s... quieter.  It feels almost like empty nest syndrome around here.  Or maybe I’m just curating my own experience so much better.  But again, when I do go look at other people’s blogs from posts I’ve reblogged, like almost none of them are still active.  Although it’s also surprising the number that died just like, in the last year.

Another interesting thing has been... watching the rise and fall of a personal friendship through the first few years of the blog.  Back then there were a few people who I was really close to, mostly online.  I can feel the main friendship I had with that person slipping away as their life changed significantly starting the previous few months from where I am in that blog.  And honestly, I did my own part of leaving them behind when I gained a whole new group of close friends from TAH.  We’re still like, facebook friends, but it’s a reminder of how fluid online friendships can be.  

Doctor Who Rewatch Thoughts:

I am going to catch up on my blog before I run out of Doctor Who to watch, I think.  Considering things are starting to take a lot less “grooming” now on the cleanup.

I’m now about to embark on Silence in the Library.  Am I ready to see River Song die again?  No.  I am not.  This will be the first time I watch these episodes in years, probably since Matt Smith was around?  Definitely since The Husbands of River Song.  This... will be difficult.

Hoo boy Voyage of the Damned was bad, I’d forgotten how bad.  Not Fear Her bad but, pretty bad. Though I was amused that there was a character named Foon.  For some reason that word had always triggered something in my mind when they called the world that on Hello From the Magic Tavern and now I know why.

Martha Jones, still awesome in Season 4.  Donna Noble shines brightly.  Although I’d forgotten how much weaker the first half of her season is than the very good second half.

That was the first time I’d watched The Fires of Pompeii since Capaldi took over.  Funnily, I felt like his character got more Twelve-Like as the episode went on somehow.  The long scene between just Ten and Capladi’s character was neat to watch in retrospective.

[alienshepard]

Like honestly I know I'm ranting again but how come shakarians can make posts and fanart and whatever about killing Kaidan, about him being a pathetic jealous loser, an abusive stalker and what not, crosstag, make posts that are not about their ship about their ship, deny that they were the favoured romance in ME3 and shenko shippers have to suck it up all the time but when a few bloggers say that shakarians are annoying all hell breaks lose and people are suddenly making posts about "the fandom has to be a safe place for everyone"?

you stopped making the fandom a ""safe place"" for everyone the second you made other people's favourite characters out to be abusive stalkers and even rapists and you continue making the fandom an unsafe and unpleasant place by posting essays about how you want to kill other people's favourite characters and posting it in their fucking main tag. And don't come here and say "but those are only a few" because first of all, its a lie and second of all I never saw any actual "nice" Garrus x fShepard shippers calling that shit out

[tristinai]

Ship Meme

I was tagged by @mordinette to do this shipper’s meme. Thanks bae <3!

First ship you ever read fic for: Mimato, back when I was 13. I fell pretty deep into the Digimon fandom.

First ship you ever wrote fic for: Mimato. For my own sanity, I am not linking the dumb shit I wrote as a teenager. The internet never forgets!

Ship you write the most now: Way too much Cullrian. I feel like a single, lonely ship sailing on the empty seas.

Ship you read the most now: Recently, Simkus. But I also have very little time to read fanfiction so it’s only been the odd 1-2k fic every now and then.

Newest ship: Simkus. This is what happens when I do the pacifist!Markus playthrough.

Rare ship you wanna read more of: Luther/Kara. They’re pretty much canon but get so little love. For Mass Effect, I’m always itching for more Tali/Kal.

Your taboo ship: I’m guessing this is the most controversial thing I ship. in D:BH, the canon Markus/North pairing gets way too much hate. Since my first playthrough was violent!Markus, I thought him and North made a lot of sense (and yeah, I ship these two destroying the shit out of Detroit together and dying in a blaze of glory). But I wouldn’t think of this as taboo, just an unpopular pairing.

My most taboo ship, the one I am embarrassed about liking and that is problematic af, would be Nyreen/Aria. Aria is emotionally manipulative and most likely used Nyreen but I can’t help but cry over what goes down on Omega.

They never met in canon ship: I shipped Bela/Jo back when I was in the SPN fandom. And I used to write Jelsa. Those two have also never met.

Your unexpected ship: Cullrian was very unexpected, especially since I don’t like mage/templar pairings. In general, I just don’t like mages and I think outside of Dorian, I don’t really ship mages with anyone in the Dragon Age series.

The ship you always forget to give love to: Tali/Kal’Reegar. I don’t come across as much content for them.

Ship your OC with a canon character: I’d ship my OC Leone with either of the Ryders in ME:A

A ship you’re embarrassed to ship: Oh god, I just thought of one pairing I have been sneaking glimpses at content for and sort of like, even if it is problematic Reed/Connor from DBH

Your most romantic ship: Shakarian. The canon for it is superb and given the less than stellar writing for some of the canon romances in the Bioware games, this is one of the few I can’t complain about.

Your sexiest ship: Dorian with ANYONE. Seriously. You try and out-sexy that Altus

Your most tragic ship: Anyone my Warden/Hawke/Shepard tries to romance because ya’ll know I love sad endings and want my heroes to go down in a blaze of glory (I apologize to Fenris, Zevran, Alistair, Garrus, Traynor, and Isabela who have all had their S/O die on them)

A ship you want more content for: Tali/Kal’Reegar

I’ll tag @redxluna @cap-sweet-and-salty-sadness and @meliciousintent. Anyone else who follows me can try this!

[tarysande]

The headcanon I came across was in relation to Liara and the final "gift" she always gives Shepard at the end of M3, stating that the "gift" was Liara promising to carry on Shepard's legacy via a baby in case they didn't make it. I'm not sure yet myself so I was wondering what your thoughts on this headcanon may be? I mean, I'm Shakarian shipper all the way myself, could you imagine Garrus finding out about this/the kid!

Thank you for letting me talk by the way. I’m a nervous potato who has to be on anon and I appreciate it! Hope you have a nice day :)

Hello, nervous potato. Pull up a chair. I don’t bite, I promise

I’ve never heard this headcanon, actually. It kinda touches on something I’m not sure I’ve ever completely wrapped my head around, which is the melding=sex (OR DOES IT), since Shepard always has to meld with Liara in the games and the whole conflation of sex and brain magic stirs up some questions about consent and willingness. My personal headcanon is that melding is not the same as sex, although sex can be involved if both parties are fully-consenting.

I like Liara, and my Shepard likes Liara, but they aren’t romantically involved in any way. I’ve got a whole bunch of characterization for my Shepard that speaks to that (she’s not really comfortable with biotics, in general; the misunderstandings about romance in ME1, since she wasn’t interested, affected her relationships with both Liara and Kaidan; the misunderstanding–that came from a game glitch–that Liara’s dad thought Shepard was into Liara in ME3). 

To make this headcanon work, for me, a few things would need to happen: 

It would absolutely 100% need to be consensual, not just between Shepard and Liara, but with Garrus fully aware of the situation and on board with it. That’s because in my interpretation of Shepard and Garrus’ relationship, they are wholly committed to each other by the end of ME3, and rule number one of a committed relationship is that you don’t go making life-altering decisions (especially involving MANY LIVES) without discussing it with your partner. So, the question of Garrus “finding out” about the kid would happen WAY BEFORE any kid was even an idea. If he had reasons for being opposed to the idea, it would be something between him and Shepard to figure out, unless this was a Shepard/Liara/Garrus situation (at which point Liara would also be part of the conversation). 

It would need to be very clear what the situation was regarding the future of that child, should everyone survive. Is Liara acting as a surrogate for Shepard and her LI, with no other strings attached? Or is she expecting to be an equal parent figure? I’m sure that for some Shepards that could work. It wouldn’t with mine. 

Shepard has to want a kid. Seriously. Liara cannot borrow Shepard’s DNA to make a “legacy” baby without Shepard’s consent (um, the way Liara kinda uses Shepard in her time capsule without her express permission), because that’s super-duper not cool (again, for consent reasons, and personal agency reasons). My Shepard didn’t think she was going to have kids (until the ones she adopts showed up). She didn’t even know if she wanted them (and she’d never bring an unwanted kid into the world). She’d have been offended if Liara even asked her, to be honest, because a) she wouldn’t want a kid to grow up without her and b) she’s not sure at that point she wants her DNA floating around and c) I think she’d be worried about the kid being used as a political pawn/not being safe/having to live up to some dead hero’s legacy. (She doesn’t even like living up to her own legacy, most of the time.)

Like my Shepard, I would not personally be okay with (knowingly) entering into the situation of having a kid who would never know her mother. I can absolutely see how this headcanon could become a narrative for other Shepards–both deftly-handled and less-so, though. A lot of it comes down to how the kinds of questions/situations I raised above would be answered by the author, I think.

SO. TL;DR: Fully, 100% consensual: personally not for me (I’m pretty sure), but okay. Unknowingly having DNA harvested in the form of a baby Shepard (and her LI) may not know about or want to have her “live on”: WOW. NO. N .O.

[theravenofwynter]

Ship meme for multi-shippers

not nearly as multishipper as the lovely @commander-hot-pants​ but I’ll make do :P

Its perfectly okay to use the same ship for multiple questions~ Just fill it out as best as you can. Link your own content wherever you can!!

First Ship you ever read fic for: I think it was Remus x OC???? it’s been so long ago now. that or Sakura/Yue from CCS (I was maybe 14??????????? Probably younger!)

First Ship you ever wrote fic for: Saint Seiya with Shu x Athena, thus started my rare pair hell.

Ship you write the most now: Shakarian, with a healthy side of my OT3 <3

Ship you read the most now: Shakarian, most things involving Nihlus (no, I don’t add Saren in the middle thank you) and Sparatus...

Newest Ship: I’ve got an inkling for Kaidan/Tali???? Idk where that one came from.

Rare Ship you wanna read more of: Jack/Miranda, damn it I love relationships that start disfunctional as hell, also Tony Stark/Happiness <3 Eddie & Susannah Dean (Dark Tower series (not a rare ship because it doesn’t exist, more that I never find fics with them!))

Your taboo Ship: Taboo as in... need more of, or no-no ships? the first, Jackanda, jesus... the second................... anything with Reyes, he just rubs me the wrong way.

They never met in canon Ship: does a 5-minute meeting count? Because that’s all they had: Tony Stark/Loki.

Your unexpected ship: Squall/Seipher (FFVIII) I’ve *no* idea where that came from. also Ash/Joker

The ship you always forget to give love to: Squall/Seipher, to my eternal amusement, because I like those dorks together!

Ship your OC with a canon character (if applicable): does my Shepard count? Because both Sophia and Antares are amazing in their own right.

A ship you’re embarrassed to ship: Kaidan/Tali, there’s only me and one other person on this ship.

Your most romantic Ship: Shakarian, you’ll rip them out of my cold, dead hands, maybe not even then.

Your sexiest ship: OT3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Shepard/Garrus/Nihlus, sexy in ways I wasn’t expecting!

Your most tragic ship: I can turn anything into angst, don’t test me on this.

A ship you want more content for: Ashley Williams/Jeff Monroe ;)

Tagging: @perseus-huntress @garrus-vakarus @elynight @kay-mika @excessiveturianflexing @horns-of-mischief @arvensis5 

[toolatetofall]

I was tagged by @mordinette​ (Srsly, you’re the best <3) to answer some questions about Mass Effect! 

 Favorite Character? I can’t pick just one! I love Garrus of course (shameless Shakarian shipper), but there are so many good characters in the series! Thane, Legion, Mordin, Samara, Joker, and Tali are probably among my favorites. Of the non-squadmates, I also love Anderson and Bakara. And Victus. I just love everybody, okay????

Paragon or Renegade? I’m so paragon it’s not even funny. I’m currently playing through my first and only renegade playthrough, and it’s so sad, because I’ll get to these moments, and I’ll chicken out and pick the paragon option because the renegade choice is just so bitchy. So my only ‘renegade’ playthrough, my morality bar is like 1/3 paragon. My eyes aren’t even completely red. 

Favorite class? Normally I’d say vanguard or infiltrator, because those are the first two I played as, and I loved them, but I’ve developed a new appreciation for engineer. (Soldier’s fun too.) 

Spacer, Colonist, or Earthborn? Errrrgh.....Depends on the head cannons for that Shep. Usually go with colonist though 

Favorite alien? The Krogan! Especially in ME 3 when you realize how cool their society was before they were uplifted. It’s just so sad, and I love them so much. Plus Wrex, Grunt, and Bakara are amazing, so that helps.

Favorite planet/location? Omega, mostly because it’s home to my two favorite missions; recruiting archangel (duh), and Samara’s loyalty mission (I like that there’s no shooting involved. It’s intrigue...y.)

Favorite DLC? The Citadel DLC of course! It really was a great way to bring the players even closer to the characters in the series, and it helped with the serious atmosphere of ME3 (which was good, but it was nice to have a break before the final battle)

Favorite weapon? The paladin, because if you mod it right, that pistol is basically a mini sniper rifle. 

Favorite Shepard/OC? I don’t have one, I think. At least not one of mine. There was this fic that I love, called Cathedral. I really like the way that Shepard was written (or maybe its just that the writing is amazing; Idk, its one of my favorite fics of all time). Mostly, I just love the Shepards that struggle and show weakness and seem human. 

Favorite mission? I actually really like the Thessia mission in ME3, just because of the way it’s written, and how it kind of breaks your pacing and forces you to remember that you’re not always going to win. I really like the team’s reaction to it, and the convo with Joker after. Not sure if it’s my favorite, but it’s definitely a good one. 

Favorite track? I have 3 ME songs on my Spotify, so I guess those are my favorites: 1, An End, Once and For All (Mass Effect 3), Das Malefitz (also ME3, though I feel like something similar was in ME 2), and Warning Signs (from Paragon Lost, not sure if that counts)

ME1. ME2 or ME3? ME3!

SR-1 or SR-2? The SR-2 in ME3!

If you managed to read that whole thing, then I tag you! (if you read this, and don’t do it, I’ll know, and I’ll be very sad)