#in the end they’re all species I can ship each of them with a different Meowscarada

[fierykitten2]

What’s the best Meowscarada ship? MeowscaradaxDelphox, MeowscaradaxCinderace, MeowscaradaxQuaquaval or MeowscaradaxCeruledge?

[yaut-jaknowit]

Aboard a communal ship with many different species (lots of humans though) A human fed up with her yautja partner always comparing her to yautja. Gets drunk at the bar and does karaoke to Human by Christina Perri. Prompting all the human at the bar to sing to lol

Am same anon that asked for the mechanic story with the trio of bad bloods. If it's okay with you, my color can be a blue diamond 🔷️

I'm Only Human

Pairings: Zaikeh (Female Yautja) x Fem!Reader

Word Count: 2986

Summary: With your patience stretched thin, you burst at the seems. That was the last time you could handle being compared to a Yautja. You are human. There's no ifs, ands, or buts about it. So, you take yourself to the nearest bar on the communal ship and drink away your problems. Your only three friends come to cheer you.

Author Note: Welcome back, Blue Diamond! I love your idea with the mechanic! It's been a huge hit. Thank you for nicknaming yourself. I can't wait to see what else you throw at me.

Masterlist

Ao3

Time in, time out. It’s the same thing every day. Despite the very fact you know you aren’t as strong or as mighty or as fit as the weakest of Yautjas, Zaikeh tells you this. Every. Single. Time. Can’t reach a bowl? A Yautja could. Can’t lift a box? A Yautja could. It’s grown old but the pain was fresh everything time she points out the difference.

At first, you tried to bring it to her attention that it wasn’t nice to say that to you. Yes, you know that you are incredibly weaker than her every sense of the word. Females were stronger, more intelligent than their male counterparts. While you are simply not.

The two points didn’t connect in Zaikeh’s mind. Each time, she would brush it off. Feelings and emotions for a Yautja aren’t as well developed compared to humans. They react more on instinct than what they feel. Unless that feeling is mating.

Your feet paused just shy of the front door of your shared quarters. Your hand rests on the door frame as you peeked over your shoulder at Zaikeh. The large, black female Yautja sat in the living room, on the floor. One of her many weapons in her lap, sharpening the blade.

“Hey Zai, I’m going over to A'jiadh’s,” you announced. A’jiadh was part of the trio alongside with Mai’tuiudh. The three of them have settled on this communal ship for the time being. Until an enforcer finds them and sends them on the run again. They’re famous for how well they invade and kill any enforcers their kind sends after them.

The black Yautja picked up her head and cocked her head to the side. “Why are you going over there?” she grunted then returned her attention to the weapon sharpening. Zai was meticulously about her cleaning of both her weapons and armor anytime they get dirtied. A'jiadh lacks this skill. Mai’tuiudh lies closer to Zaikeh than A'jiadh.

You could swear you had told her earlier in the week. “To hang out. He’s going to help me with some language practice and sparring.” While being on the run, it’s best to be prepared. This includes knowing how to fight off an enemy.

If you were to be captured by an enforcer, god only knows what they might do to you once learning you willingly live Bad Bloods.

Zaikeh hummed and inspected the sharpness of her blade. “Any Yautja would know how to fight by your age.” Your nails turn white as they press into the metal door frame. You refrained from speaking the retort that sat bitterly on your tongue. How does she not see the hurt in your eyes at her words?

“Well, I can still learn, can’t I?” The words came out harsher than you were aiming for. The months just building up to a point you couldn’t hold it back anymore. She just huffed and continued to perfect the blade a little more. And that hurt.

Once the first crack in the dam raced up the wall, there was no stopping it from spiderwebbing out.

The first sting of tears crowded your lash line. A lump began to grow in your throat. “I can’t take it anymore!” you shouted and spun on your heels to face who you thought would be the end.

Everyone has a boiling point. Where it spills over the edge and creates a bigger mess in the end.

“Why do you constantly compare me to other Yautjas?! I’m not like them. I’m not a Yautja. I’m not like you!” Tears poured down your face as the first of your sobs broke free. The dam crumbling in your hands, far too late to stop it. The water gushing and taking you within its storm. “I’m human. I don’t think you’ve realized this yet.”

All the pain in your voice was evident.

She raised her head in surprised when you first yelled at the top of your lungs. Your voice echoing back at you in the limited space. Her forest green eyes were focused on you now. Not missing the way you cried with a flare of anger and sorrow filling your scent.

“I’m only human, Zai,” you whimpered and drew back into yourself. Defeat washed over you. It weighed down your shoulders as you looked upon your mate with hurt. “I’m only human.”

Then, you about faced and scrambled out of your shared quarters. This life will never be the same afterwards. She’ll come after you in a bit, letting you calm down from your outburst. First though, before you could allow for that to happen, you were going to skip A’jiadh’s and head to the nearest bar. You needed something to wash down the pain of the afternoon.

Though the alien words rolled over your head, you could understand the country feeling it gave. Species of all different kinds mingled both at booths and tables and on the dance floor. You, on the other hand, found roost on the darkest corner, place to sulk. A heavy, strong drink resting on the wooden table before you.

Condensation builds up on the glass, creating a ring on the coaster. You picked up the drink and took a mouth of the throat burning liquid. A buzz was beginning to build up by this point. It wasn’t to the degree you wouldn’t remember the next morning, but you’re steps wouldn’t the straightest. So, you stayed hold up in the corner, drinking away your reoccurring issues. One who was too oblivious to see the issues before her very eyes.

If you could, you would slap the Yautja silly. Maybe knock some sense into her with the way she’s been acting as of late. It’s only gotten worse. You don’t know if the other two had something to do about it. But, they seemed to endure your presences at least. Why else would A’jiadh invite you over to spar and whatnot.

Said Yautja must be confused on why you hadn’t shown up. Oh well. He’ll shoot a message over to Zai and she can be the one to explain her misdeeds.

You used the back of your hand to wipe the evidence of fresh tears away, gone from sight. Just in time too.

Three bodies slid into the booth before you. People you know. As much as you wished to pull a smile on your face, the alcohol and sorrow that filled your veins prevented that. You kept a blank expression on your features and just stared at the dark wood.

“Uh oh, trouble in paradise,” one of the aliens teased and nudged you with her elbow. You held your tongue and just lightly shrugged, uncaring of any of their words.

On the other side of the table, one of them ‘oo’ed and gave Vincy a look. “She’s truly in trouble if she’s pouting this bad,” Cog snickered then sat back in the booth, arms thrown over the back of the couch. Lestgawnt, the only one not to poke at you, butted his foot against your ankle. You only drew your limbs into your torso and turned to face the wall.

The group silenced themselves. Vincy placed her hand on your shoulder. “Hey, what’s wrong? What happened? Is Zaikeh still comparing you to her species?” she questioned with a softer tone time around. You sniffled and rubbed at your running rose with the back of your hand before nodding timidly.

Cog huffed and shook her head. “I can’t believe her! Does she not see you’re not a Yautja. I sweat, Yautjas are so full of themselves!” she muttered mostly to herself then leveled her gaze on you. “You know you are more than welcome to stay with one of us and get away from her. Clearly she doesn’t appreciate you the way you deserve.”

That tugged a smile onto your lips. You appreciated her. All them actually. Living with three aliens that knew little about humans was difficult. Until they landed here. There may not be many humans here but the two you found were great. Then there was Lest, a Jakor. He was cool to hang around with.

You glanced at each of them. All of their eyes were on you, even Lest’s. “Thanks but no thank you. I-I don’t want to leave her. I just need to get her to understand this comparison hurts me. Yautjas… they’re fucking stubborn.” Your curse and true words brought upon laughter amongst the table.

“I don’t know why you don’t just leave her ass. There are plenty of options around here. Like…” Vincy leaned on the table with her elbows and pointed into the crowd. “Like her. Damn, I want a piece of that.” More laughter bolstered into the air. You followed her finger to find a random alien that you didn’t even know the name of. Yes, she was attractive but Zaikeh had your heart.

Everything else about her was fine. She protected you, clothed you, sparred gingerly with you, taught you things you never thought were in existence. This was just the one thing she slacked on. You downed the rest of your drink and slammed it down on the table.

Your eyes met Cog on the other side of the table. “Let’s dance or sing. I need to get off of my ass. I need to get her off of my mind.” You couldn’t just sit in this corner for the rest of the night before you had retire back to your shared quarters. And face the Yautja after storming off. You dragged a hand over your features at the thought then shooed Vincy from your side.

The woman scooted out and offered your hand which you gladly took. She hauled you out of the booth and up onto your feet within the span of a couple of seconds. Lest and Cog moved out as well and guided you towards the dance floor packed with other bodies.

Vincy gave you a goofy look before rocking with the beat of the music. You couldn’t the small giggle that broke your tense shoulders.

With the alcohol in your system working its magic, you began to dance out your heart. Everything that’s been weighing on you as of late started wash off of you. It was relaxing to feel all your troubles just leave. You laugh and giggled and danced alongside your three friends.

From being on the run with a trio of Bad Bloods to cultural differences between you and Zai, to dance away the night was what you been needing. All it took was a few cups of alcohol to get you dancing. To feel the beat of the music draw you in and let the worries of your life wash away. You couldn’t help giggling every so often and bumping into any of your friends. Your steps are a little wobbly.

A couple of more drinks down the hatch had you standing on the only stage in the bar. One of your arms is slung over Vincy’ shoulder as she keep you standing. A microphone like device held in your hands as you sung out your heart.

Out of the billions of songs they had, you found the one you needed to let loose your frustrations.

Human by Christina Perri.

The lyrics appear upon a transparent screen but you didn’t need them. Not when it was sung from the depths of your heart. This song was heavily connected to your life at this very moment. It was fate to find this song when all your troubles began.

Eyes of many watched as the words, the lyrics poured from your lips like a waterfall. Every word pronounced with all the hurt you’ve had building up.

Tears sting your eyes, on the verge of crying in front of the crowd. Yet, you were in your own world. The music and alcohol working its magic on you. It loosened up your tense emotions, letting you be free.

When the first tear rolled down your face, you opened your eyes when you felt a familiar stare. Instantly, your gaze darted to the entrance to find Zaikeh, standing there, a little out of breath. Her stance was tense, eyes pinned onto your trembling frame held up by Vincy. Her mandibles drew in tight to her face as she straightened her posture and watched the door.

“But I’m only human,” you sun directly in the microphone, hoping the words finally hit Zaikeh in the heart. Anything to get it through her thick skull that her comparison is hurting rather than helping. There’s nothing you could do to change yourself into what she wants.

“And I bleed when I fall down. I’m only human.” These lyrics meant a lot to you. It was not just the song but words you meant deep down. You can only be, do so much until you hit your limitations. The brick wall you couldn’t get passed or it would kill you.

You cried, shoulders sobbing and shaking. Vincy held you tighter, afraid you were going to topple over at the slightest breeze. “And I crash and I break down. Your words in my head, knives in my heart. You build me up and then I fall apart. ‘Cause I’m only human.” Zaikeh kept her eyes locked onto your form, watching as every tear fell and stained not only your cheeks but the metal floors as well.

The Yautja was glued to her spot and could only see the pain in your face as the words hit her. Vincy pulled you into a straighter position and off the stage as the song ended. You buried your face into her shoulder, body shaking with each heartbroken sob. Each one striking the black female straight into her heart.

Instantly, she was pushing her way through the crowd towards the group. Some of the members glared up at the Yautja only to realize who and what she is and backed off.

As she moved towards you, Lest and Cog saw the incoming danger and put themselves between you and Zaikeh. A scowl on each other faces. Cog crossed her arms and was ready to face down Zaikeh if it came down to that. Vincy kept tugging at you waist to get you away from the trouble about to rise. You latched onto her and stumbled with each step to keep up.

The human and Jakor didn’t stand a chance against Zaikeh and shoved the two of them out of her way. Cog slammed into another person while Lest was knocked into a wall. Vincy was the only one that stood in her pathing. She marched up to her, ready to pull you from the human. Vincy shoved you behind her and bared her teeth up at the Yautja in aggression.

“You aren’t allowed to see her! You fucked up and aren’t allowed to be around her,” Vincy snarled and pointed an challenging finger up at her. Zaikeh just stared down at this girl who barely reached her waist. She quiet literally grabbed Vincy by the head and picked her up.

Vincy screamed a war cry and swung and kicked at the Yautja, looking like a kitten trying to fight its mother. Zai simply dropped her off to the side then roared straight into the human’s face. The brown haired woman froze, stunned at the loudest of her roar.

This silence the rest of the bar. Everyone’s eyes on the two of you now. You picked up your head and found Zai’s attention had returned to you. She crowded your space and pushed you against the nearest wall. Your hands were grabbed and pinned to the hard surface she trapped you to. It was pointless to even attempt to fight this massive beast who owned your heart.

A whined built up in the back of your throat. A new fresh set of tears falling down your cheeks. You hiccupped, head tilted all the way back to expose your throat to her without meaning to. The alcohol in your system doing wonders.

It was heavy on your breath. Zaikeh could smell it. A huff sounded from the lumber giant. She reached down and easily tossed you onto her shoulder. On her heel, she spun around and marched out of the bar, not giving your three friends a look.

Not like any of them could do a thing to save you from your mate.

In the confides of your room, she set you down on the cool tile. At this point, you come to realize that this wasn’t your shared bedroom. This is your space on their ship. What was going on? There’s A’jiadh and Mai’tuiudh too. With all of their stuff packed up. You whined and clutched onto the arm Zaikeh offered you. Otherwise you would’ve been head over heels in the worst way possible.

“What’s… what’s happenin’?” you slurred, wobbling a little. There wasn’t a clear thought in your mind right now.

The Yautja looked down at you and held you to her thigh. “We are leaving,” she answered. A’jiadh and Mai were moving supplies into the ship. A human sounded from you.

“Oh, nice.” It didn’t register inside of your brain what was happening or what that meant. You were in your own la-la land, happy as can be. She must have realized this and huffed before carrying you into your original bed. It felt like heavy to lay on.

She tucks in the blankets tightly to your body. A waterskin was set off to the side, within reach. You hummed and tried to reach up towards her. Something inside of you felt angry towards her but you couldn’t place your drunk finger on it.

A soft kiss was placed to your forehead. You were out like a light. A morning full of fun surprises were going to meet you the next time you woke up. One including a raging hangover.

[mychlapci]

Ok imagine smol medic first aid who works at the research center getting to fuck all the big scary wrecker merformers to knock them up. (This gonna be a bit long sorry :<)

I kinda just imagine the wreckers being a pod of different whale like merformers and maybe springer being a hybrid of land dweller tarantulas and merformer prowl (or other way around). First Aid has been studying this specific pod for ages. All of them seem to be outcasts of their species so they formed their own lil group.

Their nickname „wreckers“ is because they tend to wreck ships that enter their territory.

They had to be captured due to being too aggressive and were put into the research center.

Aid notices that they were all pretty sexually frustrated cause no one will mate with them, since they all have either some slight deformation (for example impactor‘s missing arm, springer already being a hybrid) or are socially inept (or both) and that kinda causes other mers to stay away from them. So Aid wants to help them and tries to pair them up with other inhabitants from the center, which does not end well for most of them, especially impactor and megatron, who despite being the same species are trying their very best to kill each other (their salty exes).

So first aid was like: if you want something done right you gotta do it yourself

and starts performing mating rituals on them.

At first they were all confused and but slowly got charmed by first aid‘s surprisingly accurate attempts at courting them (he do be doing his homework on mating rituals). Eventually they all let Aid spike them and all of them get knocked up but now first aid is stuck with a whole pod of giant merformers who are desperate for his transfluid and are also very much needy and attached to him but only him and they won’t let any other staff members near them or the shit ton of sparkling they produced.

oOoho this is good food. 

The “wreckers��� are really just a mismatched pod - whereas most pods are made of reproducing mers and their offspring, the wreckers seem to be “rejects” from the mating pool… First Aid is the researcher watching them and he feels pity on them, especially when he sees some of them sneaking off periodically to try and rub their slit against any solid surface, unable to relieve the frustration…. The thought of claiming them all for himself pops into First Aid’s mind immediately, but he stalls it for a while by trying to pair them up with recently released mers… but he’s absolutely thinking about pounding those fat, swollen slits the entire time. He’s secretly glad when the breeding program fails and he can take things into his own hands. 

I can absolutely imagine First Aid turning all those giant, strong mers into squirming sluts, big claws clinging to the little land-mech as those poor, neglected valves are filled with so much transfluid that they’re all just lounging around at the end, no longer aggressive. They’re happy little swollen carriers, first and foremost <3

oh, they push out so many pups. They go from a small, aggressive pod of antisocial mers to a big, big pod of (semi)docile carriers and their little stud...

[chevelleneech]

of course your friend will think jkk are dating since she doesn't have a clue about skinship in korea. How about you show her videos of other ships and see if she'll still has the same answer.

I didn’t show her a video at all, but the point being made is not that she thinks they’re dating. It’s the fact that people constantly say there is no reason to think they are or that Jikookers see what we want to see. Of course people can ship other things, but the fact of the matter is, there is still a foundation for Jikook as well if unbiased people see them and think something is up.

That said, Koreans are not some alien species who interact with one another differently than other humans around the world. There are plenty of cultures that are far less caught up in what touching means than Americans, but the way y’all talk about Koreans is ridiculous. I’ve watched Korean people themselves react to Jikook and say their dynamic isn’t the norm. Who’ve said JK takes on a hyung role or they end up at a loss for words because they can’t explain away what they’re seeing.

I’ve also watched other groups participate in skinship as well, and they have both similar and different ways of interacting. However, acting like these groups can’t or don’t have queer people in them, is stupid. I don’t know what JM and JK are to each other, but I do think it’s very unlikely they’ve never crossed an intimate line. Which can be said for plenty of Kpop duos, because queerness is not a foreign concept to them just because they’re Korean. And the fact that so many of you prefer to pretend as if queerness doesn’t exist within their pop industry, and any same sex pairing who acts sus is strictly doing it for either money or because that’s how best friends act in their country, is beyond ignorant.

Because that’s the rebuttal to every other ship in Kpop, real or not. “That’s how Koreans are!” No, babe, it’s not. It’s not. They’re people too, and they have intimate relationships with the people in their lives too. Including celebrities. Skinships existing within high profile friendships do not prevent said friendships from crossing into romantic or sexual territory. Whether we ever find out or not.

[storytellering]

Love your art and I'm generally curious as to what the appeal of Dante/Vergil is to you? Do you have any hc that you're drawing from or is it just personal preference? I struggle to imagine the right conditions for them to be involved in that way and would like to know what inspires you.

I will premise this by saying, that I’m actually not a MASSIVE fan of just DV for its own sake, if Nero isn’t also included (or like, with the assumption he will, 100%, be included once he’s in the picture). To me it’s kind of a baseline pairing?

As in, I don’t even have to think about it. Of course they’re in love, of course they’re together, of course they’re fucking. It’s almost an afterthought to me, the way the married parent couple of the protagonist in a story inherently are. It doesn’t necessarily interest me by itself, that fact, it’s just a certainty, it just is. I guess, for me, the interest in DV specifically comes more out of what other people make of it, because for me I’m almost always approaching first from the perspective of Nero being there also, haha.

There’s also the fact that I have a lot of hc about just like, the way demons function as a species, I guess. I took a lot of things dmc canon gave me and went like, “alright, time to project this into the most self indulgent, non-human society but humanoid looking species I can think up in my brainhead”. To me a lot of the appeal comes from it being not necessarily a predestined thing as much as like, a biological inevitability - (going to speak in definitives about my own hc from here on, so not making any statement about canon dmc lol) demons mate with their kin, and with whoever deems worthy - and twins from the same litter would inevitably end up being the other’s first partner, their first choice, their other half. In a sense, to me, they’re soulmates - though honestly I prefer to think of it more as two halves of the same soul, following the implications in 3 and the 3 manga that them being twins comes from the spawn of Sparda being too powerful to just be born in one body. That might sound like I’m just saying they’re soulmates in a different way, but not really - to me, if I had to go the soulmate route, Nero would be both of their soulmate - because the two of them make one single soul, and the match to that would be Nero’s.

I kind of just go off of the assumption that they are in love and have been since they were in the womb, you know?

That colors the way I see their every interaction. To me, in their fighting, their squabbles and their feuds, there’s always love at the source. Familial, yes, but romantic and sexual as well - and to me, when I think about them, it’s all one and the same. To love each other like family is to be intwined, is to be mated, is to be a pack and is to be one.

That’s the more deep thoughts I have about it, I have more shallow/surface thoughts (and specifically ship dynamic thoughts about like, what appeals to me about them sexually lol) but if I had to quickly sum it up that’s what I would say, I think. 

[discordiansamba]

Still working on the Voltron/Pacific Rim Crossover, but i decided I’m keeping the different alien species

so the Galra lost their planet (and king and queen) to the kaiju, Altea barely kept their planet and they’re working to help other planets.

they find earth and Altea geeks out because Earth has the same plan as they did with the jaegars (though Altea only has Voltron and finding five people compatible with each other and the lions is more difficult than they expected), and are quick to help fix the brain frying problem.

there are differences in how each species can drift, but solo piloting is a bad idea for anyone regardless of species

alteans can drift with anyone with no consequences, but there are exceptions (Coran can’t, much to his frustration, he managed exactly once with Alfor but can’t repeat the process) and Altea isn’t going to risk their princess, no matter how much she wants to fight.

humans need to be drift compatable, but can recover from losing a partner. they are a bit more prone to chasing rabits compared to the other species

galra are only drift compatible with one partner, and losing that partner leaves them unable to drift with anyone else. those that lose their partner become part of the blades, a unit of Galra who are on earth to help monitor the earth’s rift and fly small ships to support the jaegars in combat. Krolia loses her husband and keith’s father and is the only galra who is stubbornly retesting to see if she can become drift compatible with her son if something happens to Shiro. (there are also concerns about Keith, which makes his ability to connect with others not Shiro a surprise)

the exception to both Galran and Altean is Lotor, but unfortunately, it’s not a good thing. he’s had multiple partners but they all break it off if they don’t get killed. his last partner before story was Romelle (here a cousin to Allura), who when kind describes him as all take and no give in the drift. when ticked off she’ll call him a royal brat, which everyone finds a bit rich given her new partner is her younger brother who is a brat to everyone that isn’t her. (her partner before Lotor was her older brother, but he went mia after a bad battle ripped their jaegaer in two)

Lotor takes his leave in roughly end of the begning start of the middle of the story, giving up on earth and doing something with the druids he says will stop the kaiju for good. He takes his jaegar and a few other hybrid Galra with him. unsurprisingly this ticks off everyone including the blades who remain on earth.

it later turns out he and the druids were making robeasts, and Romelle and her little brother both get angry when they realize Lotor used their mia older brother to make one, while lotor fails to read the room and explains the use of kaiju sized warriors is better than jaegars and voltron, and seriously damages the galra’s relationship with other races

still working on exactly what happens when, but our paladins will be sealing the rift on earth and taking voltron to help other planets under attack by Kaiju (and Lotor’s Robeasts who aren’t helping matters) and title is still tbd

[allstartrekgames]

Star Trek: Resurgence

Original Release: 2023

Developer: Dramatic Labs

Publisher: Burner House

Platform: Xbox One/Series, PS4/PS5, PC

Star Trek: Resurgence is a story-based “choose your own adventure” type game from Dramatic Labs, a developer made out of some ex-Telltale staff, who have been doing this kind of game for a while.

While a few known characters do show up, this game is focused on a unique cast of characters on the science ship, the USS Resolute. You play as two members of the crew: Jara Rydek, the ships new first officer, and Carter Diaz, a lower decks engineering crewman. They’re both very likable, and the dialogue options let you have some sway over their personalities – for example, Jara can choose to fully trust her captain, or can fight to do what she thinks is right.

The rest of the crew range from likable to immediate dislike but grows on you (or you end up feeling sorry for them). Most of them are well written (the only exception is the the tactical officer, who goes psycho later on), with their characters flaws serving the story and your choices in some manner. the ship suffered a disaster before Jara was brought back on board, so you have to deal with the comradery that came out of that experience.

Due to an intense ion storm, the Resolute was picked to transport an Ambassador to the Hotari system, where previously peaceful races, the brutish Hotari and the militaristic Alydians, both species with great designs that look like something that could still be achieved in live action. The Alydians have provided technology to the Hotari, while also using them as a labour face to mine the dilithium rich moon of Hotari Prime. However, this is interrupted by the emergence of an ancient and powerful civilization. I’ll leave it there for details of the story, but it was one that I loved the entire way through the game, with lots of stunning locations that you get to visit.

As for the gameplay, it changes a lot throughout the course of the game to meet the scene’s requirements. Most of it is spent on foot, walking around then pressing dialogue options and quick time events when prompted. Sometimes you’ll have to use your tricorder to scan, swapping between different modes to further analyse components, or a phaser, which is used for non-combat reasons during the walking sections.

There are some shooting sections, but in those you’re behind cover (and can occasionally swap cover), popping out to take shots. Other action sequences include piloting a shuttle and stealth sections. Some parts I absolutely loved was interacting with consoles, including a brilliant segment where you get to use the transporter, having to counter interference. It’s a really great depiction of what a transporter chief actually does during difficult transports.

While the gameplay itself is simple, it all helps the game feel immersive and works really well with the world. I’ve always disliked Telltale’s story games due to a “stiffness” about them that Resurgence manages to avoid. It’s a joy to experience the Star Trek Universe in this way and there are some meaningful references to a few episodes – even using a very disliked episode of The Next Generation in a great way.

I absolutely loved my first playthrough of Resurgence. The characters and story are extremely enjoyable, with lots of great different moments. The characters definitely make the game and I think it helps that this isn’t the “best” ship in the fleet – it gives a wonderful insight into Starfleet. You’ll also be given insight into how each character reacts to your choices, showing approval, disapproval or indifference, and I do like that it mentions that the character is a bit confused if you do flip-flop.

I did play again immediately after and the flaws of the game do show up – although it’s more the flaws of the genre. As the main story beats have to be consistent, some of the choices don’t matter. Plenty of them make smaller changes, including which characters you interact with, some character deaths or injuries and how some of them treat the main two. If you did your second playthrough after a break, it would be a better experience. Although I do think that the game should be better at punishing you – some of the actions you take can be pretty bad, but the consequences are very mild.

Resurgence is a brilliant game that captures Star Trek extremely well. It has engaging story and characters, and the gameplay, while simple, helps to compliment it all. It’s a wonderful way to experience a slice of the Star Trek universe.

[writingsofwerewolves]

Here's something I was suddenly inspired to write...

(not edited or anything so sorry if it sucks)

Tharzaroth wasn’t planning on getting a new pet. The ship was small enough with the crew occupying it. He didn’t need another mouth to feed. That didn’t stop him from surreptitiously scanning the cages of pets for sale. They were overcrowded, as usual, with many different species. Some Tharzaroth was familiar with, some he had only heard rumors of, and some he couldn’t recognize. They were all filthy, covered in mud and other substances that stung Tharzaroth’s nose. Still, he strode slowly past the cages, taking in each creature within them.

He had just reached the end of the row of cages, about to turn away and follow his crew to his ship, when some movement caught his eye. Within the final cage, there was a scuffle. Several hulking creatures were gathered around something smaller, excitedly chattering to each other as they roughly handled it between them.

Tharzaroth’s ears twitched as he heard a high pitched sound come from the middle of the commotion. A cry of pain and distress. Without thinking, he turned and approached the cage. Though some of the creatures within it were large, Tharzaroth still towered over all of them, so when he cast a shadow over the cage, the occupants cowered and backed away from the bars, revealing what it was they were harassing.

A tiny fur-less creature was curled up on the ground in the fetal position, its body shaking with sobs. Tharzaroth tilted his head as he took in the creature’s appearance. It wore dirty rags over its slim furless body. No, not completely furless… There was some short fur atop its head that looked like it had been shorn recently.

“Hmm,” he grunted.

“Can I interest you in one of these fine specimens, Captain?” the petmonger asked as she approached, “They’re newly caught, so they’re cheap, but I examined each one meself. High quality stock, they are.”

Tharzaroth raised a furry finger to point at the pitiful scared creature, “Tell me of that one. Species?”

“Unknown, sir,” she admitted, “Healthy, far as I can tell. I was gonna take it to an expert to get it identified, but last time I did that, it turned out to be a shaved Rumgung. Not worth the trip for me just to maybe get a few extra pence outta it. If you take it to get identified on your travels, maybe you could resell it for a pretty penny later.”

Tharzaroth grunted his acknowledgment at her words, his eyes still firmly locked on the tiny thing.

“How much?” he asked after a few moments.

She rubbed her spiked chin thoughtfully, “How ‘bout… ten pence?”

He faced her for the first time, ears and an eyebrow raised, “For something that could be a shaved Rumgung?”

“Or could be an as of yet undiscovered species,” she pointed out, “It’s a mystery box. A gamble. But could be worth the risk.”

“Not for ten pence,” he turned and began to leave.

“Okay, okay,” she exclaimed and he paused. “Eight pence, but not a cent less.”

“Seven and I don’t report you for the overcrowded and dirty cages,” Tharzaroth returned.

The seller’s throat spikes vibrated as she gulped anxiously, “Seven pence. Deal.”

Tharzaroth gave a firm nod and the seller got to work collecting the creature. The seller used a stun rod to get the other creatures out of the way as she went inside the cage. She grabbed the tiny creature by the arm, dragging it to its feet, and pulling it from the cage.

Once she and the creature were out, Tharzaroth pulled the money from his pouch and held it out to her.

“Pleasure doing business with you, Captain,” she told him as he dropped the money into her scaled palm before shoving the creature towards him.

The creature lost its balance and fell against Tharzaroth’s furry body. It yelped in fear as Tharzaroth wrapped a giant hand around its upper arm and it tried to pull out of his grip.

“No returns,” the seller told him, “Good luck.”

He let out a displeased rumble and began dragging the creature down the street, towards his ship.

“What have I done?” he muttered to himself, looking down at the pitiful thing as it continued to struggle.

It was even smaller than he had assumed, barely coming up past his waist. Its arm was tiny and he had to be careful not to hold too tightly while still keeping a firm grip on it without breaking anything. Seven pence was still probably more than it was worth and he didn’t want to instantly destroy his investment by handling it too roughly.

“What’cha got there boss?” one of Tharzaroth’s crew, Quil, questioned as he approached the ship.

“New pet,” he grunted.

Quil came to get a closer look, frowning at the whimpering creature, “Looks like an Olduin without feathers.”

“Could be. The seller didn’t know.”

“Huh,” Quil mused, “Looks tasty, whatever it is.”

Tharzaroth let out a low growl that had Quil pinning his ears back.

“Sorry, sir. Your pet.”

Tharzaroth gave a nod and continued into the ship. No one else questioned the presence of the creature as he made his way through the bridge.

“Take us out of here, Sarsh,” he told the pilot, “We need to get to Ardro as soon as possible.”

“Yes, sir,” Sarsh agreed.

Tharzaroth left the bridge, his hand still wrapped around the arm of his new pet, and went to his quarters.

His room was the largest on the ship, out of necessity. None of his crew needed as much space as he did. Even so, it was cramped with his bulk. His bed took up most of the space, with storage compartments taking up the rest except for just enough room for him to walk between the objects. Adjoined to his room was a washroom of equal relative size. The bathing area had needed to be customized to accommodate him, but it was large enough for him to bathe comfortably.

Tharzaroth pulled his pet into the washroom and released its arm so he could take off his equipment and set it aside. Almost instantly, the pet tried to squeeze out and flee. Once his hands were free again, he grabbed the back of its clothes, much like scruffing a misbehaving kit, and pulled them back into the washroom.

“Now now,” he tsked, “None of that, little one.”

The creature sobbed, yipping out desperate sounds of fear, its eyes large with pleading as it looked up at him.

Tharzaroth purred softly, hoping the sound might relax the creature somewhat as it often did his own species. But over his pets’ blubbering, it didn’t seem like the creature heard him. He heaved a sigh of resignation and moved the creature into the bathing basin.

“It’s alright,” he murmured, his large hands gently directing it, “This won’t be particularly pleasant but you smell awful so it must be done.”

With as much care as possible, Tharzaroth pulled at the clothing covering his new pet’s body. When it realized what he was doing, the scent of panic filled the air and it started thrashing and fighting harder against him. Tharzaroth tolerated the misbehavior for a few moments, hoping it would pass and the creature would calm. When it didn’t, he had to take action.

He lowered his massive head down to eye level with the creature and pulled back his lips, letting out the softest snarl.

It froze instantly, its heart pounding loudly in its tiny chest.

Tharzaroth gave a nod of satisfaction and resumed undressing his pet. It didn’t struggle or make a single sound as he pulled the shirt off over its head. Once the shirt was removed, though, it used its arm to cover its chest. It’s teets, Tharzaroth noted. So definitely a mammal, he acknowledged.

Next was the pants. He carefully hooked a claw under the waistband and eased them down. As he did, the creature didn’t move but made some whimpering noises directed at him. He ignored it. With the pants removed, the creature was completely bare, trying to hide its chest and genitals with its hands.

Tharzaroth gripped its arms, holding them out of the way so he could appraise its form. Mammal, yes, but he wasn’t yet sure if it had a cloaca or vagina. Either way, its genitals were tucked away. It would require more investigation to be certain of its anatomy, but that wasn’t his concern yet. In addition, he noted that the creature wasn’t fully furless. In addition to the shorn fur atop its head, it had light furring on its belly and quite a bit around its genitals. It was still much more furless than he was used to seeing, though. It made him uncomfortable to see so much bare skin. It didn’t seem like any of the fur besides what was atop its head was purposefully removed, so he had to assume that it was natural.

Holding its arms carefully in one hand, he used the other to start the water in the basin. The creature jumped at the sudden noise of the water spray. Tharzaroth carefully adjusted the temperature, trying to make it neither too hot nor too cold for the pitiful furless creature. He tested it on his wrist to be sure it wasn’t too extreme before letting the water spray the creature’s leg. His pet jumped a little at the contact, but it didn’t seem like the temperature was an issue so he began carefully rinsing down the creature.

As mud and other substances ran off its furless body, it seemed to relax a little, so Tharzaroth let go of its arms. On its own, it began scrubbing away the caked on grim. Tharzaroth gave a rumble of approval which caused it to look up at him with concerned eyes before resuming cleaning itself.

Once all the mud was off, Tharzaroth stopped the spray of water and retrieved a towel, wrapping the creature in it and gently patting its furless body dry. The creature seemed to want to complain or struggle against his care, but thought better of it and remained still.

“Good, pet,” Tharzaroth rumbled, gently stroking its cheek with a finger, “Much better.”

With all the mud gone, he could see the damage his pet had sustained. There were cuts and bruises all over its body. Nothing he would think serious, but certainly things that would have made it worth less than seven pence had he seen it sooner…

“Hmm…” he ran his hand down its body, touching the injuries.

The creature flinched at the contact and started to move away, but he gripped its arm and held it fast as he examined the wounds. Holding it with one hand, he reached for medicated ointment he kept in the washroom. He hoped it would be compatible with his new pets’ biology, but it was a choice between letting the wounds become infected or hurting them with the medication.

“This will sting,” he warned his pet, knowing it wouldn’t understand but feeling better about saying it regardless. He made sure he had a good hold on its arms as he sprayed the ointment into the cuts.

The creature let out a wail of pain, fighting against his hold.

“Shh,” he rumbled, “I know. It’s alright.”

He muttered words of comfort, wincing at their sounds of pain and fear, knowing that it didn’t understand that he was trying to help it not hurt it.

“All done,” he said, making a show of putting the ointment away, “See? All done.”

The creature whined and still tried to pull free of his hold.

“I know,” he murmured, drawing the creature into his lap and wrapping his large furry arms around its struggling body, stroking comfortingly down its back, “I know, my pet. Shh. It is alright.”

The creature’s struggles and sobs slowly ceased.

“Good,” he cooed, “Good, pet. Now come. I’m sure you need rest.”

Tharzaroth moved out of the washroom, pulling the creature along with him. He pressed a button on the wall and said, “Wake me when we get to Ardro” before moving to the bed.

The creature’s eyes were wide with fear, but it didn’t struggle as Tharzaroth pulled it into the bed with him, wrapping his arms around it and forcing it to lay against his chest.

“Rest, little one,” he said, stroking down its back.

It whimpered softly against his fur.

“I know you’re scared,” he cooed, “It will be alright.”

He continued murmuring words of comfort, and attempted to purr to calm the creature, until he heard its breathing slow as it fell into a sleep.

[heloflor]

After getting into Mario with a more “fandom” kind of mindset, and more specifically getting a bigger interest in the RPG games, something that amuses me a lot are the people in youtube comments trying to argue that the Koopalings aren’t Bowser’s children.

Like, don’t get me wrong, I know Miyamoto retconned their link to Bowser. But the funny thing is, even to this day, Nintendo themselves are still writing those kids as if they were related to Bowser !

Seriously :

- In New Super Mario Bros Wii and Wii U, the Koopalings are attacking the castle along with Junior/Bowser, thus putting them on the same level of importance as Bowser and his son. The ending cutscenes do the same thing, especially the one in Wii U that just screams “they’re a family”. Plus, all the Koopalings serve as world bosses, which was kinda Junior’s role in DS, yet again putting them on the same level.

- In New Bros U, they all have their own ship. The only character to have a ship with their face on it before had always been Bowser.

- As I’ve seen someone point out in a comment section, the Koopalings are different skins of Junior in Smash Ultimate, again putting them on the same level as Bowser’s son. They might also be skins of Junior in Mario Maker 2 but I’m not sure on this one.

- In New Bros 2, they’re using a giant clown car, which is implied to belong to Bowser as Bowser and Junior are the only ones with a recurring clown car and Junior’s is too small. I doubt Bowser would let just about anybody use his car.

- On top of that, each has their own clown car in Smash.

- You know that icon/logo of his head thing that Bowser has (the one we see in games like 64 when we die) ? Bowser Junior had had one for a while now and more recently each Koopaling were given one (I think you can see them at Nintendo World in Bowser’s castle ?).

- Since they were originally created as Bowser’s children, they’re the same type of Koopa as him, and that fact hadn’t been changed in recent years. Hell, outside of Ludwig in Mario World and the fights in Superstar Saga, the Koopalings are never shown to breath fire, yet in the remake of Superstar Saga, they chose to keep the fire breath (except for Ludwig ironically enough). They could’ve easily removed the fire breath to make them more similar to Boom Boom, especially since Boom Boom has recently been shown with spikes on his shell, but they chose to keep this ability. Granted their shell plastron is different from Boom Boom, but that’s another design change Nintendo could make to set them apart from Bowser (giving them the same shell as Boom Boom to make it seem like they’re the same species, instead of keeping them as “Royal Koopas”).

In short, the Koopalings’ design wasn’t changed after the retcon, making them, Bowser and Junior the only members of that specific type of Koopa, thus implying they might be related. It’s also not helped by them having magic (which only Magikoopas and Bowser have) + being high-ranked members of the army. They might also be the only minors in the army, which raises a few eyebrows as to how they got the job (why would Bowser hire a bunch of children/teenagers to put in charge of his army ? Granted some like Ludwig, Roy and Wendy might be adults by now but I can’t bring myself to see Lemmy and Larry as anything other than teenagers).

- Saw a video of the bosses in Paper Mario Color Splash, and the minions (paratroopas) address Ludwig as “your evilness”, which is pretty reminiscent to how Bowser is called by his army, most notably by Kamek (“you grouchiness”, stuff like this)

- Baby Bowser and Bowser Jr are referred to as “young master” by Kamek. In the RPGs, the Koopalings are sometimes called “master [name]” (and “mistress Wendy”) when talked to individually. Note that both this point and the previous one are for the English version tho, not the Japanese one (no idea how they’re called in Japan).

- There’s that one Super Mario Adventures comic made in the 90s that was apparently re-released a few years ago (something like 2017-2018 ?), aka well after Nintendo retconned the kids’ relationship with Bowser (around 2012). Yet, in this comic, at least in the English version, the Koopalings are explicitly said to be Bowser’s children, with him saying he wants to marry Peach so they can have a mom + the kids calling him dad. And I don’t think they changed this dialogue in the re-release ?

- Bowser Jr’s Journey. Just, Bowser Jr’s Journey. After seeing all the cutscenes of this game, it is a crime that those kids aren’t related ! Hell there’s literally a moment where Junior pulls out the “I’ll tell dad !” card on Roy ! And let’s not forget stuff like the interactions between Junior and most notably Ludwig/Morton/Roy, Junior saying “us Koopalings” at some point thus including himself amongst that group, or stuff like him singing “I’m the one who wears the crown” making it sound like he’s saying “I’m the one chosen amongst the eight of us”. Then there’s the “family drama” vibe in the first half, the cute moments etc (Also unpopular opinion but after seeing that game, Ludwig should still be the heir of the throne. He has what it takes to be a fantastic king ! Granted Junior is still extremely young and could learn and mature.)

- Also about Jr’s Journey, the main conflict actually works a lot better if you imagine the kids to be siblings, with the Koopalings talking down to Junior because he’s the baby of the family + they resent him for taking the throne from them, while Junior is tired of his siblings babying him + he’s that kind of kid who orders the older siblings around because he thinks he has the power to do so. Them being siblings also justifies why Junior changes his mind so easily during the beach scene and then is quickly shown to be strongly attached to the others (getting happy when Iggy gets his memories back, ordering Ludwig to stay with him from now on, that whole adorable scene with Morton etc).

Meanwhile, if you see the Koopalings as nothing more than high-ranked underlings, it’s weird why they would have such an issue with Junior, the son of their king who is also their boss, and likewise it’s weird why Junior would take such issue with them only to have such a quick change of heart. Idk, I feel like if they weren’t siblings they probably wouldn’t spend that much time together, making both their whole conflict and strong bond a bit weird. And in general their interactions in this game read more as people who are widely different and wouldn’t usually be friends yet still love each other, which is the kind of dynamic many siblings tend to have (isn’t there a poll going around about whether you’d be friends with your siblings if they weren’t your siblings, and the option winning is “we wouldn’t be friends” ?)

- According to their page on the Mario wiki, during an interview revealing them in Mario Kart 8, Miyamoto used a word that means either “underlings” or “adopted children” when mentioning their relationship to Bowser (btw I know it’s the most popular headcanon anyways but them being adoptive children is just perfect. It would explain why 1. Some might be young adults while Bowser is younger than 40 depending on how old you see him, 2. Why they look so widely different from Bowser and each other, 3. Why Junior is the rightful heir).

- Also according to the wiki, the Italian and German versions of Mario and Luigi Paper Jam has mentions of them being Bowser’s kids, which I find hilarious. The translation teams didn’t give a fuck !

So yeah, when it comes to the Koopalings not being Bowser’s kids : who’s gonna tell Nintendo ?

(Side note about the whole idea of “Bowser clearly likes Junior more and neglects his older kids” : what if instead it was just that the Koopalings are teenagers/young adults now so Bowser is giving them their space + have them busy with royal duties, hence why he doesn’t spend that much time with them ? Plus, in all the examples that put the Koopalings on the same level as Junior, it’s pretty evident that they have the same privileges)

[spocksbrainworms]

New trek’s problems literally all stem from the shows’ insecurities. They don’t trust in the fans to tune in because they don’t have faith in new ideas. They use nostalgia and love of the same characters as a crutch.

The only reason Michael Burnham is in any way related to Spock is because they didn’t trust fans to want to watch a black woman captain. Then when they finally realized the show could stand on its own they wrenched away that story line and basically made it not matter.

SNW is the absolute definition of this problem in full force. They want more TOS but we can’t just write more but what if it’s a prequel but what if they’re all totally different because they’re not them yet but oh wait they’re still them when it’s convenient but no you’re never allowed to speak of this trauma again and that’s why it’s never brought up later. LOOK! ROMANCE! YOU GUYS LIKE THAT RIGHT? Like Jesus just pick a thing and be that. Not to mention how much Spock is being flaunted around in Season 2. It’s almost like it’s his show and not about the enterprise and not even about Captain Pike for that matter. They rely too heavily on peoples love of Spock so they don’t do anything else.

Lower Decks even relies on Boimler to not just be a goofy little guy, but functions as a self-insert for most fans because of his own obsession with Starfleet’s past.

Not to mention why have we literally only had shows about Starfleet ships? Why don’t we have a show yet where humans aren’t the main cast? We end up with these formulaic cast set ups where it’s mostly humans and then one or two aliens thrown in every single time. We know other species have their own ships but we don’t know how they work!

When will I get a show about a science ship full of Vulcans and the small crew of crazy human engineers stinking up the engine room??? What if only two Vulcans work on a ship of humans orions and betazoids and those two Vulcans fucking hate each other but no one else can tell so they assume they’re friends.

What about betazoids? What would a ship be like and how close would a crew become if literally all of them were telepaths. And how would they interact differently with a new Klingon security guard? Or a Vulcan who literally always has their shields up! OR AN ORION THATS MAYBE JUST AS OPEN AND EXCITED FOR INTIMACY AS THEM!

Instead of the only dark and gritty storylines coming from war maybe make a show about Orion pirates or slave traders who literally despise themselves for what they do but have to in order to survive.

We’ve moved passed the point where the one trailblazer opens the gates for their race to join Starfleet but what about the other way around? And what about big ships with small communities of aliens instead of just one. Like that one corridor is where all the Vulcans live next to each other so don’t go down there unless you wanna sweat. Or remember a sweater when you come to the Andorian potluck tonight, they keep it chilly in there.

I’m tired of talking about humans. Let’s get crazy with the scifi whimsy again and not just use Star Trek as a vaguely familiar vessel for the same plots over and over.

[smallfrogpleasedtomeetyou]

It’s going to be a fic and some of the characters may seem under developed at first it’s because I want to build them and not have them confined to “helpless princess” or whatever lmao

Belle: Astrid

“Beast”: Hiccup

Gaston: Eret son of Eret

LeFou: Gustav

Miss Teapot: Heather

Chip: Dagur

Chadswick: Tuffnut

Cogsworth: Fishlegs

Belle’s Friend: (hear me out) Snotlout

(O/c?) Castle Staff: Ruffnut

Before you ask, yes I can explain them. (And am open to constructive criticism)

———

So the main ship would be hiccstrid and while hiccup isn’t a “beast” per say the difference is,

“the chief had made a horrible mistake. He had tried to cut down a light fury. She was freyja in disguise and cursed all the riders (except Astrid and snot loud tbe later) as kids to be trapped in a castle (where they befriended dragons) until someone could learn to love a dragon AND the chief’s son genuinely…” (not the light fury trying to get hiccup a date lol)

snotlout is the best friend and only friend of Astrid and he likes hearing her tell him stories and they protect each other like siblings! Especially against Eret son of Eret, the self proclaimed “promised child” of berk. Man picked up a sidekick (Gustav) and is trying to get Astrid to marry him lmao

also the relationship between heather and David would be brother and sister, not mother and son.

the second ship would be a bit of a slow burn rufflout that comes to fruition by the song “evermore” or “tale as old as time”

the village plot is to “kill the beasts” they’re after all the dragons in the castle but mainly Hookfang and toothless because of their species…

I chose cogsworth for fish legs for obvious reasons, being very smart and mistrusting of Astrid and her nature at first but eventually warming up to her.

and tiff it as Chadwick…. I mean COME ON! Man is dramatic as shit! Also the whole “be our guest song with him singing it is just… *chef kiss* (ha I’m funny)

oh and valka is kinda x-x

but hey! She can still talk to him! Through a life sized mirror!

I’m also thinking about giving Eref a last minute redemption arc at the very end… when a certain rumblehorn saves his life…

so anyway… that’s my idea lmao

oooo i love that idea actually, the riders just getting trapped in a dragon-infested castle while astrid and snotlout try to figure out what is going on

also my boy eret being a bit of a cocky bastard with gustav running around behind him is so funny to me (I hope u go with the idea of a redemption arc cos he really would need it lol)

this has a lot of interesting ideas to play around with especially for all the character dynamics (ahhhhhh I cant wait for the dynamics (can you tell))

im really excited for this now i cant wait for you to start posting it :)))))

[dragonflight203]

@n7cloacadestroyer Thank you! You raised a lot of interesting points, and added some additional context I didn't know.

-Good call with how communications work. I always forget to take into account comm Buoys. Given how reliant the Shadow Broker appears to be on operatives, if there aren’t people that can be tapped it’s more likely to slip through the cracks.

-I haven’t played ME3 multiplayer, so that’s very good to know.

I’m curious if the goo is unique to the Collectors or something the Protheans could create as well. It would have been a nice touch if Javik’s room got goopier as ME3 went on.

-Hmm, I’ve always assumed that the Collectors are sterile and more are created via cloning or maybe vats. Similar to how more Keepers just appear out of nowhere. I can’t see Reapers wanting them to waste time on raising children.

-Ah, I’ve also assumed Harbringer has been awake all this time and directing the Collectors. He didn’t assist Sovereign because the Collectors were retconned in for ME2 because they had different purposes or didn’t get along.

If the Collectors have been acting independently that certainly changes things… Although it still leaves the question why Sovereign didn’t recruit them for help. Maybe they didn’t fall under his domain.

-It could be that every cycle is expected to end in a new reaper, but on rare occasions they don’t. The leviathan may not have wanted to get into the nitty gritty and left it at broad strokes.

Or was wrong. We don’t know how closely the leviathans have been monitoring the reapers. What, do they count how many there are each cycle and track how many die?

Personally, given how long the reapers have been at it I assume they can work with whatever they’re given and did create a reaper from the Protheans, than recycled the remaining ones into Collectors. Waste not, want not.

-Honestly, that jives with Shepard showing minimal interest in other species until they’re standing in front of them within questioning distance. I’ll take it.

-I’d been assuming it was just because the Collector Ship was the halfway point, but that makes a lot of sense.

Maybe it would have been that almost definitely cut mission to get a Collector bug for Mordin to use to create the antidote to the Collector swarm. That would have given the player weapon training before Horizon.

-Oh, that would explain some of the changes to the Prothean DNA and why they look so extremely different. I’d been hypothesizing that the reapers had activated some latent genes and done some tinkering to make them more insect like.

Another option for the ship is that given how varied human architecture is, it could just be that the ship was made by a different offshoot than what we see elsewhere.

-I’m wondering if Harbringer planned to indoctrinate Shepard and make them an agent for the reapers, similar to Saren.

Given that TIM resurrected Shepard, I’m sure Harbringer could do something similar. Or failing that, create a convincing clone.

As the hero of the Citadel, Shepard has a lot of influence and would make a useful puppet. If Shepard’s mind is intact, they’d also make a terrifyingly effective agent.

-I’d completely forgotten the Leviathan of Dis. Yeah, the reapers aren’t the type for funerals.

I suppose one could argue it’s because even in death reapers serve. Organics that come into contact with dead reapers become indoctrinated, laying a trail for the next harvest.

So the surviving reapers could see leaving their corpses behind as one last act of duty.

-That is fascinating and I have never seen it before. Thank you! Yes, with that context the IFF makes far more sense.

I’ll also note that scene is from ME3. :) So I wonder if others were left with the same question after ME2 and it was added to ME3 to answer them.

-I’ve heard that the recruitment missions were originally available in any order. I hadn’t considered that that the plot missions may have been immediately available as well, similar to ME1. If so, that would explain only Mordin being present.

-Damn shame that was cut, it adds a lot of depth to Grunt and his relationship with Shepard.

A while back I read a post that speculated that an interesting addendum to Grunt’s loyalty mission would have been Wrex questioning if Shepard respected Grunt as a person or not, and include an option to let Grunt stay on Tunchanka or insist he come with them. Wrex would have alluded to Shepard viewing krogans as tools if they insisted on the latter.

Seems like the writer had caught onto some of the intended subtext for the mission.

-I can respect that. Building relationships are hard, and rebuilding them is even harder. Thane shows a lot of humility and courage in his actions with Kolyat. I can see where other would find it appealing.

Also, as you said Shepard doesn’t make everything better. They help Thane but don’t rescue them. That does make the relationship feel like they’re on more equal footing than it can feel with Tali or Garrus, where Shepard can fix everything.

Mass Effect 2 replay, Collector Ship:

-Canonically, helping Liara become the Shadow Broker must occur after the suicide mission. If she were the Shadow Broker already, Shepard could call her up and confirm that TIM is bullshitting them.

-On the Collector ship, why are there occasional drips from the ceiling? That’s can’t be good for maintenance.

-And more generally, what is up with the ship design?

It’s frame is clearly metal, but it’s covered in some kind of goo. You can see the metal frame through cracks of the goo.

What’s is the point of the goo? Does it make it more homey for the Collectors or something?

-And why is the ship such a mess?

There are pods and bodies scattered all over the place, not just the pile Miranda speculated may be a control group. (And if it is a control group, why discard them haphazardly? What, the ship can’t fit a furnace to burn the bodies?)

Considering the Collectors are taking these people to create a human reaper, you’d think they want to package them up carefully for transport.

-Why does everyone assume that just because the Collectors have a quad DNA structure that they must be protheans?

The galaxy is huge. Only a fraction of it has been explored. It’s entirely possible that there’s another race out there with a quad dna structure.

On top of that, it’s been 50,000 years since the protheans went extinct. Again, another species with quad dna could have evolved or died out during that period.

-Edi’s further analysis that the dna matches known prothean records confirms the match. But that initial speculation was still a leap.

-Why does Shepard obtain weapon training at this point?

In ME1, the specialization training obtained during the UNC: Rogue VI mission had some grounding in reality. The mission was level locked, so you could assume the specialization was Shepard honing their skills.

But the Collector Ships always triggers five missions after Horizon, whether those missions are recruitment/loyalty/the firewalker DLC to kill time. And it doesn’t explain how how Shepard suddenly learns how to use a sniper rifle or an assault rifle. The specialization was Shepard improving their skills, this is Shepard gaining skills out of nowhere.

I’m certainly not complaining about it – that assault rifle was very helpful during the platform sections. But it is out of place.

-So this is the same ship that killed Shepard two years and followed them to Horizon.

This is treated like a Big Deal, but I don’t think anything comes of it.

I hypothesized at one point that it meant the Collectors have only one ship, but I vaguely recall ME3 mentioning others?

-Is this ship prothean or reaper?

I’m leaning towards repurposed prothean technology. Maybe even a captured and retrofitted prothean ship. The open air sections fit the prothean and collectors having wings and being able to fly around.

If it were reaper, I’d expect it to be more advanced. And less gooey.

-Okay, the sections with the platforms is as awful as everyone says. There were quite a few deaths involved.

I actually used medi-gel to revive my squad mates for the last wave. I never do that.

-Aaand Tali called it. The turian distress signal was fake. TIM sent everyone into a trap. Shocking.

What baffles me is that it possible to identify as fake. The reapers are how many millennia old and Harbringer can’t mimic a distress signal from a recently space faring species? Is that just him not giving any fucks?

Pssh, those plebes will never notice the difference. This is good enough.

-Also: What is the point of this? To get rid of Shepard once and all?

This was an awfully risky means to do so, and it permitted Shepard to gain valuable information on the Collectors.

I’m just saying, a sniper could probably take Shepard out pretty easily next time they’re chilling on Omega or Illium.

-Harbringer says during fights that he wants Shepard’s body if possible.

Again, why? What are the Collectors planning to do with Shepard’s body?

-Was it really necessary to include a praetorian and more scions? Really?

-Tim bullshits that he had to keep it secret that it was a trap so Shepard wouldn’t give it a way, but I’m not buying it.

If the Collectors want Shepard dead badly enough to permit them onto their ship, they’ll let Shepard on to wander around even if they’re acting a bit suspicious. And what was TIM’s backup plan if Shepard died?

Indoctrination: Bad for your planning skills.

-It sure is convenient that this is where Shepard and co learn that the Reapers use IFF, and TIM already has a team exploring a derelict Reaper.

It would have been a bummer if Shepard had to take the initiative to find an IFF, instead of being carefully strung along by TIM.

And why the hell have the Reapers not collected it? It’s been dead for so long there are no records left from the species that killed it.

The Reapers sweep the galaxy at the end of each harvest so the species in the next cycle have little to work with. But they’ve missed this dead Reaper for how many cycles?

The derelict Repaer just screams trap, but it’s not one. Shepard will get on, get the IFF, and get off supposedly unmarred.

The indoctrination theory may not have been intentional, but Bioware foreshadowed it more than they did any of the real endings.

-And why do the Reapers never update their IFF? Again, it’s been how many cycles since that Reaper died?

They must know it’s dead! And they know Shepard is gunning for them. But they don’t update their protocols?

Talk about shitty CyberSecurity policies. This is why organizations require you to change your password on a regular basis.

-Why is Mordin part of the conversation with Shepard, Miranda, and Jacob?

I’m not complaining, but it’s weird that he’s here and no one else is. Garrus is also a mandatory squad member by this point, and he’s a huge tech nerd. He could contribute to a conversation about IFF.

Normandy

-If you go renegade with Grunt, he says that purpose is what makes the difference between feared soldiers and animals. It’s the job of the Battlemaster to provide purpose.

Good to see that while he’s embraced violence, he’s still thinking through what it means to be a krogan. That’s quite a philosophical statement.

-Huh. If you go paragon with Grunt in the first dialogue wheel, you don’t get the second one.

Same general concept, however. Battlemasters provide purpose.

-Like with Grunt, you can skip acquiring Thane’s loyalty mission if you go renegade.

Why do only these two have this option?

-I am baffled why Thane is such a popular romance option.

He’s open that he was an absent husband and father while his wife was alive, and then he completely abandoned his son after she died.

Yes, his self awareness about this is good sign, but I’d still be leery of him treating me better. It certainly doesn’t make him attractive.

-Did he at least send child support for Kolyat?

I’m leaning towards no. His knowledge of what happened to Kolyat after he left seems minimal.

-I’ll cut Thane a little slack that his own, unacknowledged trauma probably played a role in abandoning Kolyat.

Up until now, Thane has insisted that’s he’s fine being an assassin and feels no guilt.

But he emphatically does not want that life for Kolyat. And why would he feel so strongly about it if being an assassin is fine?

Because it’s not. But Thane wasn’t ready to grapple with that, and he didn’t know how to be anything else. And he was afraid, on some level, that if he raised him Kolyat would grow up to be just like him.

(Thane was raised as an assassin since he was six. He started killing when he was twelve. What does he know of raising a regular boy? What damage would he cause if he treated Kolyat like he was raised?)

So he left his son with people he trusted, and distracted himself with revenge.

Except, whoops. Turns out abandoning your son gives them different trauma. And now he has to face at least part of his past.

So kudos for Thane for having the courage to go after Kolyat now. That must take a lot of guts.

[solar-plant-princess]

Some people seem to think they aren’t canon, but I will simply state that they’re missing the point that they don’t need to explicitly say it.

“”The themes speak for themselves, and make it clear what the intent is. In this actual mini-essay I will actually talk a bit about why focusing on ships being “canon” is wasting the potential of queer representation, in particular reference to Lycoris Recoil.

Lycoris flowers represent a lot of different things, most famous is that red variants symbolize death and final goodbyes. However, of that same species are also a pink variant which symbolize love, passion, and … ahem “feminine beauty”.

There are also yellow and blue variants in other species of Lycoris plants. Yellow represents cheerfulness, courage, and cherishing what you have. While blue represents being calm and dependable, but also freedom.

It hardly gets more on the nose and it’s clear how these apply to the characters and the themes of their arcs. And how the story overall is at the intersection between love and death.

Plus there are literally multiple homages to pieces of media where the characters have been thought of as gay in the story or by audiences. In particular the scene in Stand By Me where the characters kick each other, which the animators made the deliberate choice of copying the overall mannerisms of to draw a direct parallel.

The story is about a hell of a lot more than just a romance, and that is a good thing! I don’t need every piece of representation to be about just romance. And you’d also have to be joking me if you don’t see them using the term “partner” even after retiring from being Lycorises to describe their relationship, as being tongue in cheek about how there is so much media where the characters are obviously but not explicitly queer. Throughout the show they are constantly making references to other ambiguously queer media, and using common language that is unclear about the exact nature of their relationship. Like, everyone wants their confirmed representation I get it, but could we also not call the show doing the most on the nose and tongue-in-cheek queer coding of their main characters “queer baiting”.

The creators have clearly purposefully evoked when not just directly referencing other media where the characters have been queer coded, or queer audiences have resonated with the experiences of the characters. This isn’t subtext that went nowhere, this is a deliberate choice to code the leads as queer by reclaiming things and phrases that have been used as subtext. And then, this is the important part, actually reframing the context to emphasize when they are doing it. See no further than the picture below this. “Partner” has a long and storied history of being used ambiguously, because how we use it slots between purely romantic and purely platonic, and can mean either depending on ... that’s right the context. Now let’s imagine you’re a restaurant employee, two women come in and order drinks. When one of them gets up to pick up their drinks and brags about the other woman being her “partner”, and reiterates the point. Now what sort of meaning can we imply from that context? Because if it was a straight couple, nobody would for a moment doubt that partner is in a romantic context.

Like c’mon people, they aren’t hiding it, but they don’t have to look directly into the camera saying they’re a couple for it to be obvious they aren’t “just besties”. Also I don’t even have time for going to go over how all the official art that’s come out since, and the fan art by the creators hasn’t been at all shy about showing them being more intimate than you’d expect from “just friends”.

Or that the season ended with them vacationing in Hawaii of all places. Or that the whole show had a rather open ending clearly hoping for more seasons, and this probably isn’t the end of their story together. Or that one of the original writers who was behind the entire idea for the show, and was a lead writer for the screen play has publicly stated on twitter he’d love to make them official, and told fans asking if the show would end up being a yuri show to “stay tuned for future stories“

Update: and behold, literally new art and products just got released of them literally in wedding dresses together. It’s more than obvious what exactly their intentions are with these characters. So please, please, understand that queer baiting is not just when a relationship you wanted doesn’t happen on screen. Queer people don’t only start existing once they’re in a fully intimate relationship. And queer people not ending up together at the end of what will probably be the first of multiple seasons is not the same as queer baiting. Especially not when the creators have clearly taken a lot of time and effort to consistently code them both as queer, in high effort and direct references to other media. (In a country like Japan where acceptance of queer people is certainly rising, but is also let’s be frank, far from in a good place and there are clear pressures to not show genuinely good representation for fear of upsetting a bunch of weirdos from the publisher’s perspective) (Yes I know the new Gundam show has lesbians in it, that’s also one of the biggest, most profitable, and longest enduring cross-media franchises in Japan, which is in a lot safer position to risk alienating bigots in their audience than a fully original animated show that didn’t get manga or light-novel deals until after the show was already being released and doing well. And an update since this was posted: the publishers of Gundam literally tried to retcon their queerness. This is my point, if you are expecting a country that hasn’t even legalized gay marriage yet to give you explicit queerness consistently you are barking up the wrong tree. They’ll literally try to walk it back if they think they can make more money off of retconning an explicit gay marriage out, you can’t rely on profit-driven corporations to actually care about making and keeping explicit queer relationships in their media just because it’s the right thing to do)

[theshadowrealmitself]

I have more ocs but this is my extremely self-indulgent default Human/Vulcan pairing (without names because I can never think of names)

Vulcan: Peak Vulcan™️, logical to the point of being the second coming of Surak if Vulcans believed in that, and as emotional looking as a wall (I usually think of this character with he/him pronouns, I think because of the mental comparison to Surak, but like all gender stuff with me it switches around)

Backstory: Mentally incompatible with every Vulcan they’ve ever met, was never able to get bonded as a kid, feels isolated from other Vulcans because of that and because they’re all a little bit intimidated by this extra logical Vulcan

Human Backstory: Was working on a spaceship pre-first contact, found their captain trying to kill everyone (first by knocking them all out with poison) so he can go back and make up a wild story about being attacked by aliens (he was previously a famously known captain that had become irrelevant over time and he was not handling it well), the captain tries to murder them with his bare hands but they fight him off

I usually change it up here, but I’ll talk about scenario a) different day:

So b): Oc fights off captain who then escapes into the escape pod, only to ironically be killed by the Borg, making his story of “being attacked by aliens” real, Oc then convinces the Borg that they’re the only ones alive (as everyone on the ship is passed out, making it look like they’re dead/dying on the Borg’s scanners), they then go into their own escape pod, taunting the Borg to follow them through a wormhole, so that they’ll leave the ship with the crew alone

They go through the wormhole and end up crash landing on a planet that’s dead center of some space version of the Bermuda Triangle, all spaceships in this area have failed and have either crashed onto the planet or are now drifting aimlessly through space

Oc works to try and fit all these different spaceship parts together to try and make it home, becoming immersed in different alien languages and cultures by what’s left of their softwares and ai’s that survived the crashes

Eventually they put together a working badass ship after who knows how long, it’s a conglomeration of different types of alien ships wildly different from each other out together in a way that actually works (after completely disassembling each part and practically making everything from scratch)

Once they finally make it back into space, they find that they are crazy far from earth, and in fact none of the aliens they encounter have ever even heard of that planet or humans, they also find out that much of the technology they found and the cultures they learned are from ancient species long wiped out (from either the Borg or other happenstance) leaving the only remnants in that Dead Zone that no one dares to go into because no one is able to return (until oc managed it)

After all that trauma of almost being murdered, being stuck on a planet for who knows how long, surrounded by no one, and only hearing audio from computers of alien origin that spoke in languages long gone of planets that aren’t even a memory as there’s no one left to remember them, oc gets to have fun space adventures

They go traveling through space meeting species beyond anything they could’ve imagined, gaining friends and enemies and a reputation as they head in the direction they hope Earth is in piloting their kickass spaceship that’s better than anyone else’s before they encounter a Romulan which eventually helps get them back to earth

(Can never settle on if they’re enemies are if this dude is just in awe of this technology this person has and doesn’t dare to get on their bad side just in case and they become friends)

They get back to earth just to find out it’s long past when they disappeared and everyone they had ever known has been dead for centuries, and they don’t know how to explain their journey and they don’t want people to take their spaceship, so they fake a new identity (with the superior technology they now have) and just quietly rejoin society

Anyways it’s something about isolation from being too much like what your species is working towards and being isolated by being a forgotten remnant of your species and coming together

[thewildwaffle]

Humans are Weird - Helium

It's been a while since I got a new story up. I'd been working on some other projects, then had some pretty unhappy life events happen. I am doing fine, so don't worry. Hopefully, now my muse is back and will stick around a while :)

This story is from a prompt ao3

*** *** ***

When you bring together a wide variety of races from different planets and environments, you tend to have an equally wide variety of needs that need to be met from species to species. Ships were typically staffed by a food and nutrients safety team. Custodial teams were careful about residual chemical and oil cross-contamination between particular races. Sections of hab suites had controlled ventilation systems that could be set to various atmospheric needs. Outside the hab suites, at work stations or in communal areas, some species have to be fitted with atmospheric filters. Over the years, these devices have gotten less uncomfortable, thankfully. They weren’t the best, they were a bit bulky, noisy, and in some cases obstructive to the wearer, but hey, being able to properly breathe on a ship with beings who had different atmospheric needs than you was more important than comfort. When the humans joined the galactic community, the newer filters started becoming noticeably smaller and less obtrusive. Many were concerned that the changes would make them less effective, but leave it to the humans to tinker around and invent the impossible when they really wanted to. The latest models were supposed to be so small and comfortable, you could sleep with them on. Heck for some races, you could barely tell they were wearing an atmospheric filter at all. Not only that, they were up to 40% more effective at filtration and gas delivery for many species. This opened up crew rosters for ships. Species who couldn't reasonably be stationed in the same ship due to the gases they breathe being dangerous to others, or vice versa could now be on the same crew.

That included duibs like Marvi who breathe large amounts of helium. She’d been serving aboard Galactic Coalition ships for more standard solar rotations than many of her fellow crewmates had been alive. It helped that duibs were long-lived, of course, and in her time, she’d seen many new technologies come and go. If you pressed her hard enough, she’d likely say that the atmospheric filters the humans developed were by far her favorite. Being able to safely and comfortably pass through different atmospheric biomes was an important ability when you had a long list of custodial and maintenance duties each rotation. Marvi huffed a deep sigh as she rounded another corner. Lighting beam replacements weren’t heavy, but maneuvering them around corners like this was a bit of a pain. “Need a helping paw Marvi?” Marvi turned to see a dark gray priso steadying the end lighting beam she was carrying. The furry face was relatively expressionless, but a clear look at his flicking whiskers and triangular, alert ears and bright eyes told her that he was holding back laughter. He must have just come up from around the other corner and seen the small duib struggling. “Oh, hello Aurrin. I definitely would appreciate some aid, though I would understand if you are busy right now,” Marvi replied politely. Honestly, the help would be very nice and she hoped the offer was serious. “I’m waiting for Human Karl, I can help until he gets here,” Aurrin rose to his back paws awkwardly and grabbed the ends of the light beams in his dexterous front paws. Priso were normally quadrupedal on flat ground, but the forested terrains of their homeworld meant they were at least somewhat adept at grabbing and climbing. He followed along, holding on to the light beams and kept them away from the walls and corners as the pair walked. “I was actually just installing something by the hab suites over there,” he tilted his head back to gesture behind them, “I’ve got something I wanted to test before I go off duty. After that, I’m looking forward to two whole cycles of rest and whatever I want to do.” The corridor here was darker and Marvi stopped walking. This was where she needed to replace the light beam. “Two whole cycles, huh?” She set down the light beam carefully, Aurrin following suit. She pulled out a tool from her hip pack and started working on opening the control panel. In order to open the panels to install the new light beams, she had to make sure power was redirected for safety. “What are you going to do with your time off? Any fun plans?” “A few plans. They might change depending on how my experiment goes.” Marvi worked quietly, waiting on the priso to expound, but other than chuckling to himself, he didn’t say anything more on the topic. Well, Marvi supposed it was not really her business, so she changed the subject and chatted cordially until the new light beam was installed and she rerouted power back to the panel. The darkened hall was filled with bright, cheerful light and Marvi let out a satisfied sigh. “Well, that’s that. Another task down.” The old light beam would need to be taken back to her shop for a repair and gas exchange, or refill, or whatever it ended up needing to get it up and running again. “Thank you again for your help. I should be able to get these back alright myself, I don’t want to take up too much of your time if you’ve still got your experiment to run.” From around the corner of the corridor, the distinct sound of a hab suite door opening was followed by approaching footsteps. A light on Aurrin’s comm device flashed and the priso’s long tail flicked excitedly back and forth. “No worries, it looks like my experiment is already underway.” Marvi felt the frills all along her body perk in curiosity, but before she could ask anything else, Human Karl rounded the corner. He grinned without showing his teeth, as it would have been a sign of aggression to many species on the ship, and gave a small wave as he approached. “Hey Karl,” Aurrin started. Marvi only partially listened as he started in on a spiel about his upcoming off-duty

plans. Instead, she was more interested in a quiet hissing noise and was trying to pinpoint where it was coming from. It sounded like… well it sounded almost like an atmospheric filter, one beside her own. Hers was in light operation since she was in a sector of the ship that was tuned to a generalized setting, but this noise sounded like a filter at full power output. Did Human Karl hear it? Could he hear it? Surely Aurrin could? She studied them, they didn’t seem to notice. The noise had started when Karl arrived, did that mean…? Her suspicions were confirmed the moment Karl opened his mouth to reply to Aurrin. “I’m actually on my way to…” What. The. Frewan? Human Karl’s voice, which was usually a calming deep tone, was disturbingly high and unnatural. The surprised expression on his face made Marvi’s core freeze. That meant this vocal change wasn’t some weird human thing? What was going on?! “I, woah,” the squeaky voice stuttered, “is this… helium? What is this? What’s going on?” He looked at the comm device strapped to his wrist and pulled up the readout. Sure enough, it was an increase of helium output from his atmospheric filter. The skin on his forehead wrinkled as he looked from the readout to Marvi and Aurrin, his eyes finally locking on the latter who was fiddling with something on his own comm device readout. “You punk! How did you do this? Change it back!” Karl started laughing a bit, Marvi wasn’t sure if it was directed at the ridiculousness of his voice or if it was because the helium was affecting his cognitive functions. She worried it was the latter. Panicking, Marvi approached to see if there was some sort of override. She had to act fast! Humans didn’t breathe helium, he could die! Before she could do anything though, Aurrin spoke up while trying to muffle his laughter. “Okay, okay, hoooo… I’ve deactivated it, you’re good. Keep talking though while your voice turns back to normal, you’re hilarious.” Karl gave him a look that Marvi couldn’t interpret. “What was that? How did you do that?” His voice was already back to normal and it sounded like a mix between annoyed, intrigued and amused. “When you came out of your hab suite, you passed a sensor I set up that overrode your atmospheric filter controls. My latest invention. Imagine this: a ship gets attacked and boarded. Normal defenses prove insufficient and the crew is in grave danger. As the hostiles pass hidden sensors, their atmospheric filters are overridden and they fall asleep, get loopy and confused, or simply pass out before they can get to and harm any crew.” Marvi and Karl blinked in unison while Aurrin’s tail swept side to side proudly. Marvi was the first to find words. “Your… your experiment?” Marvi glanced between Aurrin and Karl worriedly, “Is this what you were experimenting with? You ran it on a crewmate?!” “Well,” Aurrin’s ears pulled back slightly, but his whiskers still kept their amused look, “I say experiment pretty loosely. This was more of a field test. I ran all the actual experiments long ago. I knew exactly what would happen. And I did research on humans and I found out what effects helium has on them and I had to see it for myself. That’s why I was waiting for Karl.” The human in question was still laughing a bit - of course, a human would be able to laugh after nearly being asphyxiated, they’re crazy - before he ran his hand over his head to compose himself. “So this was a prank?” “For science.” “Of course. For science.” Karl’s smile suddenly morphed into a thoughtful frown. “Wait. Is this payback for the soap thing I pulled on you last week?” Aurrin’s face was statuesque and solemn as he stared silently at the human for a moment. “Yes.” “You’re the worst.” “Thank you.” “Want to go do this again in front of Aylin? She and Maruti-kar would think it’s hilarious.” “I had been planning on it. But only if we can get video evidence of it.” “For science?” “Naturally.” Marvi watched, hearts still beating rapidly from her panic, as Aurrin and Karl deactivated and retrieved the sensor to reenact the stunt she had just been a witness

to. Almost reflexively, she started tracing the side of her atmospheric filter. The quiet hum and hiss were calming. Helium to her was life. She’d thought it was toxic to others. And yet Aurrin thought it fine to use it on a human, and Karl was not only unworried about it but found it funny. Was it not dangerous?! And his voice? Why did it do that? She pulled up a search screen on her comm device and searched in the human database. Helium. Breathing. Voices. Apparently, helium took up space in their lungs that normally would be filled by oxygen, so yes, it was dangerous because they could asphyxiate. It also amplified higher-pitched tones of their vocal tract while simultaneously dampening lower tones because of the gas’s low density. That explained the voice change. And for some reason, the funny noise was enough of a reason to play around with deadly materials. Well, if anything, she supposed humans did keep to their MO pretty well. She picked the spent light beams back up and headed back to her shop, careful to not hit the ends on any walls or corners.

[herbgerblin]

Okay I have a burning question about the star trek au: has anyone told Barry about the hand holding? Or does he genuinely think its Just That.

I think at first Barry has the vague knowledge that Vulcans treat intimacy with greater sensitivity than humans (when you're the science officer for an elite starfleet there's only so many galactic cultural biographies to memorize! He has experiments to run! That's the diplomat's job!) But he accidentally internalizes it as Do Not Touch At All.

So when he meets Lup for the first time, he avoids touching her in any way— despite the fact that she and Taako are quite used to interacting with other species, having grown up moving from one space station to another, and developing a higher tolerance than most of their people. They also lack a lot of rigidity in their emotional control, so what would read as perfectly neutral or even cold to humans in their behavior could be a whole range of emotions to Vulcans.

All this to say: Barry admires Lup’s intellect and level-headedness and talks with her about all sorts of things. Despite being very different people, they both prefer each other’s company when running the ship. Those moments start to rack up and after a lot of missions Barry is Very in love with Lup but does not say :0! Only pines from a distance :0! (The distance being two computer screens down from her's at the helm. Taako sits between them and he is >:( because they are both acting illogical!)

Lup also has deep feelings for Barry that she defintiely tries (and fails) to supress because that’s very un-vulcan-like of her to want to wax poetic over this sciency nerd every solar cycle. This effort is not helped by the fact that she is definitely getting A Vibe off of him a la telepathy, but she wants to know exactly what he’s thinking! She eventually cracks and ends up making the first move by gently touching the back of his hand when he’s focused on his work. Barry is mildly suprised by the initiative, meanwhile Lup is extremely suprised because Oh!!! He Loves Her!!! OHHH!!

She gets little overwhelmed by this and has to run off and get a hold of her emotions and Barry is like D: I messed up!!!!!!! He thinks he’s crossed a line!

Fortunatey later, when Lup has calmed down a bit, she's like LUP'S GOOD OUT HERE ACTUALLY! She submits herself to the mortifying ordeal of being known by asking Barry if she can touch his hand again. Barry doesn’t pick up on the fact that she’s essentially asking to kiss him and he’s like yeah of course we can even hold hands if you want to.

Lup is like :0 yes I want to. ( internally: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <3333 !!!!!!!!!!!!! )

They do and its cute and they just make a habit of it after a while! Neither of them do anything further than that though, to respect each other’s boundries. Lup kinda neglects to inform Barry about the levels of affection they’re allowed to go to after becoming a couple. To her it’s already pretty self evident. It takes probaby another good year or so before Taako takes Barry aside like—

Taako: you know we do kiss right? like humans do. we’re okay with kissing

Barry: you WHAT