#garrus is my bestie

[psin-314]

a bit of silly text memes.

ru ones under the cut

[everyoneonthenormandyisgay]

the virmire survivor "but how do I know you're really you Shepard!"

Garrus five minutes after seeing them again "wow you haven't changed at all I'm so happy to see you"

[copiasthighhighs]

honestly just mass effect art dumping…. ily ashkii shepard + my drell and turian oc’s…

[choccy-zefirka]

Genuinely fascinated by folks that go out of their way to prevent viddy gaem Blorbo from starting a background romance with another character in playthroughs where Blorbo is not the LI. How do you make friends in the fandom knowing that they have OCs that also romanced Blorbo?

[nxtyrfinalgirl]

I love making up fake drama in my mass effect games just for like rp purposes

[pinkfey]

they r all friends :] (psd used) (inspired by these templates done by @trashwarden 4ever ago!!)

[perkeleen-lavellan]

As a buck teeth haver I really appreciate how they gave Miranda, a character who was literally genetically modified to be as attractive as possible, buck teeth.

[ratasum]

Me vibrating regarding Qirri being there for at least a little bit of the research in this since she's the krewe chief of the Dragonwatch Krewe.

[zeynatura]

It's kinda wild that my brother is playing Mass Effect as male Shep, can't spoil him that he can only have a gay romance in the 3rd game 😭

He's on the 2nd game now and at least he saved Kaidan

I was also so not used to hearing male Shep's voice lmao

Not only did I play fem Shep but most of the fandom loves and plays fem Shep

The only romance option I'm sad is locked for male Shep only is Tali

[xoshepard]

some machine in this plant sounds exactly like some of the collector ship/base ambient noise and it is so distracting dhsjdhdj it’s not even scary, just. makes me wanna go home and play mass effect.

[brekkie-e]

I think the reason that the lack of multi-dimensional relationships within the party, and for Tav, is eating away at me so much recently is because it’s significantly affecting BG3’s replayableness for me. It’s a huge game, and I’m ever guilty of taking a completionist approach. Now, there are many branching narratives in BG3 which means there’s endless new content to explore by taking different approaches. Personally though, that’s not quite enough of a reason for me to want to keep revisiting a story. I don’t feel compelled to replay hundreds of hours worth of content just to see what happens to Sazza if you rescue her in Act 1 instead of leaving her in the cage. But if I’m invested in a story and the characters in it- I will replay a game 10,000 times just to rewatch my oc become ride or die besties and trauma bond with their companion. Thinking of Liara’s relationship with an unromanced Sheperd in ME3. Tali declaring herself Tali’zorah vas Normandy?? Gut wrenching. Garrus taking you out on a friend date and making fun of your go to catch phrase in the process? Iconic. Varric writing Cassandra a book to bury the hatchet between them? Unforgettable. Solas and Varric co-parenting a kid together? Can’t get enough of it. Those are the interactions that keep me coming back to replay a game over and over again. Seeing the effect my character has on the lives of their friends, and the effect their friends has on them. Absolutely, I adore the romance aspects of these kinds of rpg’s. It is also a reason I will replay a game. But I don’t want to replay a game as massive as BG3 if the only real significant connection my character develops during it is with their love interest. There’s too many hours that have to be invested to just be playing for a couple of scenes with their boo.

Same goes for trying different romances! If I want to try out the game taking a different approach, and exploring a different character’s romance- I’m dedicating a significant amount of time just to get a handful of scenes over the course of the entire game that focus on an emotional connection for my character. If replaying the game with a different oc meant that I could explore their friend dynamics differently as well? Heck yeah. But as it stands, it just feels like you pick your romance option and then have to stand awkwardly while you’re surrounded by acquaintances who want to bang you.

[bunabi]

wyll's voice actor brought so much heart to the character, and he has such a lovely shakespearean type of cadence of speaking that really gets across that this is an 18 charisma guy, with a mild obsession with heroic tales. and he's very handsome irl too, he deserves more love ;^;

i think wyll had like... the least cutscenes and dialogue of any companion, by far, which is just sad. it made me like the whole game less once i realized i hadn't just accidentally missed some of his cutscenes, they straight up didn't give him any for large swathes of the game...

Literally. Like Wyll is fine. I only experience BG3 through osmosis + my bestie's streams — maybe there's something I'm missing — but fans usually go wild for this archetype. He's giving Alistair. He's giving (the only endearing parts of DAI) Cullen. I even feel a little Garrus in him. So where the fanworks at?

[To the eight folks asking what happened: here]

[everyoneonthenormandyisgay]

the virmire survivor "but how do I know you're really you Shepard!"

Garrus five minutes after seeing them again "wow you haven't changed at all I'm so happy to see you"

[ersatzpenguin]

BioWare Artist 1: And all the female characters will have thigh gap. Because thigh gap is sexy, and players want sexy.

BioWare Artist 2: Yeah! And so will the Turians! But like, even bigger, and gappier. Like, we’re talking thigh canyons. Especially Garrus.

BioWare Artist 1: Wait—why?

BioWare Artist 2: Uhhh… Be—because they’re aliens of—of course. 😳

BioWare Artist 1: Oh. Yeah. Duh.

BioWare Artist 2: Ye—yeah. Duh. Haha. 😅

Don’t mind me—finally playing Mass Effect Legendary Edition, enjoying a ride in the elevator with my besties, and thinking about BioWare’s character design choices.

[deep-space-lines]

I've realized the main reason I romance Garrus every time (apart from the fact that he's cool and I love him) is because he's the only one my demisexual ass can tolerate tbh

Liara and Kaidan are trying to smash from day 1 and I keep coming around to liking them by the time I finish a playthrough, but then when I replay ME1 again I HATE THEM AGAIN I'm like bitch I'm just trying to be nice to you STOP trying to get in my pants I swear to god I WILL TURN THIS CAR AROUND AND TAKE YOU BOTH RIGHT BACK TO THE CITADEL DO NOT TEST ME

Jacob speaks for himself

Thane? It's not even because he dies (or is a man), it's that I physically cannot bring myself to romance him because the option to do that comes right after him talking about his dead wife and I just can't, dude, I just can't. That's weird to me. Guy just told me about this traumatic experience he had and how his wife was killed and he's never talked to anyone about that before and I'm supposed to sensitively reply with "wow dude so sorry that happened to you! anyway. i want you" I CAN'T DO THAT!!! WHO DOES THAT!!!

Samantha's cute as hell don't get me wrong. Finally a gay woman who isn't Liara! But the shower thing caught me so off guard I was genuinely looking forward to playing chess with my new bestie & she decides to shoot her shot by showering in her underwear with the door open, like I gotta respect it but girl what 😭

anyway shoutout to Garrus for being the only romance option that doesn't make my ace ass even vaguely uncomfortable, if he wasn't in there my Shepard would be getting No Bitches

[misseffect]

7 snippets, 7 mutuals

Thanks for the tag @otemporanerys!

Tagging a lot of people who have already been tagged: @diaphanouso @helila @dispatchwithlove @kalliesa @angry-jager @dwarrowdams @serendipitys-teapot

All of these are from my Mass Effect F1 AU: Flashpoints

+++

Singapore Shower

One moment Garrus is holding her by the arms, water rolling over his shoulders – there's a knotted look on his face; his mouth is moving but no sound is coming out, which is weird – and the next she's lying on her back on the shower room floor.

"Shepard? Hey – c'mon."

Garrus is kneeling beside her, pinching her arm gently, holding her legs in the air with his shoulder. She feels heavy, like her bones are full of syrup, and the thumping behind her eyes is keeping time with the fuzz crowding her vision.

"Shit."

"It's alright." He sounds further away than he should, and so does the water still beating down on his back. "You passed out for a second, that's all."

+++

Shepard Does An AMA

probinguranus6969 - Would you rather fight 20 duck-sized Jokers or 1 Joker-sized duck?

janeshepard54 - I know your reddit handle joker

probinguranus6969 - damn it

+++

FaceTime Antics

She fishes another biscuit out of the packet while Garrus props his phone up on the side and heaves his suitcase onto the bed. It’s a nice enough room from what little she can see: old-fashioned, like the rest of the place, but in a plush, cared-for sort of way.

“Oh, by the way–” Crunch. “–you don’t happen to know how the dark web works, do you?”

He unzips the case and flips the lid. “Not really. Why?”

“I got called up for drug testing at Paul Ricard and my sample went missing,” she says, chewing glumly. “Joker’s winding me up about it; thinks someone’s selling vials of my piss on the black market.”

+++

Normal Thoughts To Have About Your Bestie's Car

The second he starts to ask the car for more, everything changes. 

It feels familiar – in fundamentals, sure, in throttle and steering output – but there’s something else, too. It’s more pliable than the Hierarchy car, more predictable than anything Omega or Archangel could give him; it's unlike anything he’s even driven, but somehow he knows it. Like catching a familiar smell in a place you've never visited.

And then it hits him.

It's not the car. It's her.

He knows Shepard's driving style almost as well as his own – reactive and twitchy, nose-heavy, late-braking, all faith and guts – and this thing lives and breathes it. It takes everything he's got to give, the good and the bad, and amplifies it tenfold. It grins and says c’mon, I dare you.

It’s not just a car designed with her in mind. It’s like wearing her clothes.

+++

Not To Be Dramatic But I Would Die For Mr Blobby

Shepard rounds the corner into the kitchen to find Mr Blobby loitering by the back door like a pair of cow-coloured slippers.

“He’s in a time-out," Hannah calls through the open window, paintbrush in hand.

“Aww, Blob.”

Mr Blobby makes a mournful rrrr sound. There’s a dab of brown paint on the end of his tail.

+++

Shepard Has PTSD Probably

It's not a nightmare really. Sure, it wakes her up every few hours, sweaty and unrested, and when she closes her eyes again, it drops her right back where she left off, but it's not scary. She's not being hunted or chased. She's not standing at the front of class with no clothes on. Nobody's dying.

Shepard's driving a road car on suburban streets - shifting, nebulous streets; faintly European but also faintly not - and somewhere in the distance, there's a fire.

There's a fire and she has to reach it.

She can see a column of black smoke in the distance, catch the odd lick of orange between buildings, but every turn she takes feels wrong and by the time she doubles back, the smoke isn't where she thought it was. It's in her rearview mirror, or out to her left when it was on her right. Sometimes a fire engine blasts past her in the opposite direction, the wailing siren fading before she can follow.

+++

Everybody Hates Conrad

Mathematically Shepard could win the Championship as early as Japan, five races before the end of the season, and it shows. Media seems to come naturally to her in a way it never has to him, but still; he’s never seen her so relaxed this early in the year. Al’Jilani can’t draw her in with pointed questions about Anderson giving her an easy ride and she doesn’t even bother taking a bite out of Conrad Verner.

“Any comment on rekindling your relationship with Thane Krios?” he asks, his big square face expectant.

Shepard scratches under her chin. “Why am I always the last person to find out who I’m dating?”

There’s a ripple of laughter. Emily is checking her watch and people are starting to shuffle their belongings around.

“Are you going to answer the question?” Conrad calls, but by then there’s enough ambient noise for everyone to plausibly ignore him.