#introducing broker wiki

[influencermagazineuk]

Banks Lower Mortgage Rates as Bank of England Interest Cut Looks Likely

Major financial institutions such as HSBC, Barclays, and NatWest have initiated a reduction in mortgage interest rates, offering relief to numerous homeowners. There is optimism among experts that the Bank of England may soon decrease its base rate, potentially further reducing mortgage expenses. For the last few years, individuals have faced challenges with escalating mortgage payments. However, there's positive news! Larger banks like HSBC, Barclays, and NatWest are now offering lower mortgage rates. This development could make homeownership or mortgage repayment more affordable. The Bank of England initially increased the base rate to manage inflation, which resulted in higher mortgage rates. However, there's speculation that the Bank of England might reduce the base rate in the near future, which could simplify financial matters for many. This week, Barclays announced reductions in its mortgage rates for new loans, followed by NatWest a few days later. Starting today, HSBC is also adjusting its rates. Numerous brokers anticipate further reductions in mortgage rates. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Bank_of_England via Wikimedia commons Despite these reductions, the cost of purchasing a home remains a significant financial challenge for many. Currently, the average two-year fixed mortgage rate stands at 5.96%, with the average five-year fixed rate at 5.53%, and standard variable rates are even higher at 8.18%. HSBC has introduced new mortgage offers for both new and existing clients, featuring lower rates for terms of two, three, and five years. A spokesperson from HSBC stated, "Our goal is to assist customers in achieving their property goals, which is why we are reducing over 300 mortgage rates." On Monday, Barclays announced reductions of up to 31 basis points, and NatWest announced reductions of 71 basis points. This follows the Bank of England's decision to maintain the base rate at a high level of 5.25%, which was unexpected by many experts. Even though the inflation rate has fallen to the Bank of England's target of 2%, the institution remains cautious about implementing changes. For younger individuals, these rate reductions could be transformative. High mortgage rates have made it extremely difficult for first-time buyers to enter the property market. With these lower rates, there's hope that more young people will be able to afford their own homes. Existing homeowners are also looking forward to further rate reductions. Many individuals who secured mortgages at lower rates are now struggling to manage the increased payments. Lower rates could alleviate this financial strain and enable families to remain in their homes. Banks are also aiming to attract more customers with these rate reductions. By offering more favorable terms, they hope to secure new business and retain their existing clientele. This competitive environment among banks is beneficial for those seeking to buy or refinance a property. To sum up, the latest decreases in mortgage interest rates by HSBC, Barclays, and NatWest indicate a positive change for both current homeowners and prospective purchasers. With the Bank of England contemplating a decrease in the base rate, there's a brighter outlook for individuals facing steep mortgage expenses. These decreases not only bring about immediate comfort but also hint at a more hopeful scenario for a more attainable housing market in the coming times. Read the full article

[heswrongshesright]

In episode two of ‘He’s Wrong, She’s Right: And I Can’t Stop Moving Podcast,’ hosts Andrew and Nona dive into various topics including their personal businesses, future podcast goals, and their viewpoints on education systems. They share insights on insurance brokering and web development while considering the prospect of live streaming once reaching a thousand YouTube subscribers. The discussion extends to their personal opinions on homeschooling, public education, and private schooling. Furthermore, they touch upon the intricacies of navigating VA ratings and advocating for oneself in the healthcare system. Humor and candid banter punctuate their conversation as they explore everything from favorite colors to sports teams, encapsulating a broad range of subjects in a casual podcast setting.

Thank you to our Sponsors @LemacksMedia https://lemacksmedia.com Nóna Phelps – Independent Insurance https://nonaphelps.com

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Timestamps 00:00 Welcome to Episode Two: ADHD, Fidgets, and Podcast Vibes 01:00 Introducing the Hosts: Andrew and Nona 01:28 Business Shoutouts and Personal Ventures 04:09 Privacy Tips: Protecting Your Data from Auto Manufacturers 06:04 Tech Talk: Web Development and Hosting Insights 07:00 The Nonprofit Initiative: Veteran Wiki 10:33 Sponsorship and Transparency in Reviews 12:24 Seasonal Struggles: Battling Hay Fever 14:19 Diving into the Show: Topics on Dating and Teenagers 18:58 School Choices and Education Systems Discussion 30:04 The Remote Work Revolution and Its Impact 30:26 Navigating the Shift Back to Office Life 31:03 The Freelancer’s Dilemma: Big Clients vs. Small Clients 32:04 The Rising Costs of Running a Business 33:46 Adapting to the Ever-Changing Tech Landscape 36:52 Veteran Wiki: A Resource for Veterans 37:45 The Personal Side: Hobbies, Preferences, and Veteran Life 47:34 Advocating for Yourself in Healthcare and Disability Claims 52:34 Seeking Sponsorship and Wrapping Up

[collectornahas]

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[dgcatanisiri]

Welcome to DG’s Listing of Wish These DLC Existed, where I theorize, speculate, and just kinda generally throw ideas at the wall about DLCs for games I love that never happened and never will happen, but damn, I’d like to see them anyway.

Because I have ideas, I can’t get them made as mods, I don’t have time to make them into fic, and they’re never going to happen anyway, so why not put them up in a public place? After all, they’re tie ins to games I have no control over anyway, so it’s not like I’ll ever make money off of them anyway. And, as I’m not bound by any hardware limitations in terms of crafting ideas, or production cycles dictating when the game’s endpoint is, these can and do go on a great deal longer than the standard lifespan of a game.

A review of the format: There will be a name for the DLC, a brief synopsis, a reference to when this hypothetical DLC would become available/if and when it becomes unavailable, and then an expansion/write up of the ideas going in to them. Some ideas will have more expansion than others, because I’ve just plainly put more thought into them - in a lot of cases, I wrote them down just on the basis of ‘this idea seems pretty cool,’ and then gave them more context later on.

Feedback is welcome! Like an idea? Don’t like an idea? I welcome conversation and interaction on these ideas. Keep it civil, remember that these are just one person’s ideas, we can discuss them. Perhaps you’ll even help inspire a part two for these write ups! Because I do reserve the right to come up with more ideas in the future - these are the ideas that I’ve had to this point, but the whole reason this series exists is because I come up with new ideas for old stories.

So I HAVE actually been working on my ongoing series of hypothetical DLC to games that I love over the last year (it was the end of January 2020 when my last one of these got posted, this is going up at the beginning of May 2021). Which, yes, some is pandemic related because *screams* but... I was looking over what I’ve been working on, and realized that I was at about the combined length of my first two of these in my present examination, and I was only about a third of the way through the ideas that I had. I could either keep going and do these all at once in a massive post in like another year or two, or I could break it up into chunks.

So instead of waiting, this is going to be Part 1 of (I hope) 3 in an examination at ideas and possibilities of what additional content could have been made for Mass Effect 2, which for some is considered the best of the series. Me, I’m a little more critical of it. To me, this game is a textbook example of bridge syndrome, of the plot spinning its wheels to hold off on the payoff until the third part of the trilogy - the Collectors are, in practice, an entirely separate threat from the Reapers, even acknowledging the connection in the plot. We see this in the impact that the ME2 characters have in the next game - most are in side missions, all perform roles in the plot that literally can have them swapped out, even if it’s to the ultimate detriment of your War Asset count.

So in my mind, there’s a lot of room to make these DLCs, these glimpses into further areas of the world of Mass Effect at large. Because for me, what ME2 SHOULD have been was about making the alliances with the galaxy at large, rather than the big set piece of the Suicide Mission. We got some of this in ME2 proper, but that’s where the core of my focus and attention is with these DLCs.

Admittedly, I am aware of the difficulties of working around ME2 having both optional companions (Thane, Samara, and Tali don’t have to be recruited at all, Zaeed and Kasumi are DLC, many missions are available before you necessarily pick up certain companions...) and the ability to hold off on doing the DLC until after the Suicide Mission, where any or all of your companions may end up dying. However, for simplicity’s sake (because these things are long enough as it is without having a dozen variations apiece), we will assume that all companions are recruited and alive for the sake of plot advancement. Minds greater than mine can figure out how these would work without a given character – me, I tend to clear out the quest log before the Suicide Mission (aside from Lair of the Shadow Broker and Arrival, both of which are minimal on the squadmates from the rest of the game) and rarely let myself lose someone on the Suicide Mission, and since these are my ideas, we’re working in my framework.

Also, timeline note: Like ME2′s actual DLC, the fact that these would unlock at certain points in the game’s timeline does not necessarily reflect when they would best be played in the in-game timeline. Like Lair of the Shadow Broker and Arrival are (as I mentioned above), at least in my personal timeline, post-Suicide Mision content. BUT, they both become available to play after Horizon. Just because they unlock at certain points in the plot, that doesn’t mean that they best fit the timeline in that point. It was just a convenient way to organize things in my notes. So there will be ones that unlock at plot point A, but probably play best after plot point B. Players would be able to decide where they fit as it works for them.

Ghost of the Machine

A phenomenon is spreading across colonies in Citadel space. Machine cultists are cropping up on planets. Shortly thereafter, these colonies go dead quiet – often overrun by husks. To Admiral Anderson, this sounds like Reaper tech, and there’s only one person who he trusts to investigate the truth of the machine cults...

(Post-Freedom’s Progress)

So back to the machine cultists. In our last installment, there was Evolution, which featured them. Here, though, we’re looking at something that kinda resolves this little storyline. Y’know, since ME3 isn’t really going to have the time for this sort of thing. Which, sure, I’m saying this becomes unlocked before you can unlock this game’s machine cultist sidequest, but shush – just because it unlocks at this point doesn’t mean it has to be played at this point. This time, it’s not just about learning about the problem, but we’re also going to see what we can do to understand it, especially since we’re now acknowledging that this is a recurring problem within the universe and maybe we want to find a proper solution to it before stumbling blindly into it gets more and more people killed.

So this takes Shepard to a planet that’s making its first steps at colonization, yet again (because I am trying to be cognizant of what practical realities exist in the game development, even acknowledging that this is a hypothetical thing anyway – early colonization means limited extras wandering around out in the open and a self-contained area to play around in). Those seem to be the places where these devices mainly get uncovered, so that’s why this is here.

Of course, we have a situation where the devices are known about, so there’s an immediate lockdown, and the reason that Shepard and crew are getting sent out is because Reaper experience is needed – in the event that this colony can have anyone saved, who is it and how do we get them out safely?

I kinda look at this as revealing the process – the previous encounters were the parts that told us the existence of the metaphorical monster of this story, here we’re getting to see the “monster” properly in action. And I feel like this should be about also introducing some of what will become ME3’s foot soldiers among the Reaper armies – we know about the husks from ME1, now we’re going to encounter another for the first time. Probably the marauders. Given that they and the cannibals (who are so numerous in part because of the batarian worlds being first in the invasion path) are the most numerous in ME3 aside from husks, we should at least get to see them be pre-established because of their involvement ahead of time – they don’t get any proper introduction as is in ME3, just accepted as being there.

The honest general idea in this one is tying off this thread that was seemingly built, by way of being a repeated thread in both ME1 and ME2, but goes entirely unmentioned in ME3. Obvious reasons are obvious, but that’s why these hypothetical DLCs “exist,” to address things that the games didn’t have time for. (And that’s a big part of a lot of these, so... buckle up.)

Obviously, we have some of the supplementary material to work off of here – I’m specifically thinking of the Illusive Man’s comic series, Evolution. (Side note, TIM’s involvement there should probably also be part of the reason he’s quick to send Shepard in here – he knows what these artifacts can do.) You can read the wiki page as easily as this, but to quickly detail the important part, we know what these are through them, artifacts meant to ease the way for the eventual arrival of the Reapers by doing the huskifying work ahead of time, without the need for things like the Dragon’s Teeth (which... I want to bring these into this in some fashion, considering they seemed to have importance in ME1, but as the numbers of husks increased in the later games, they fell by the wayside – ME3 claimed that they were basically just to increase a subject’s adrenaline and spread the Reaper tech through the victim’s body quicker from the fear of impalement, and that seems like a lot of effort for little reward, since nothing indicates a way to come back after infection anyway).

So why are these on far-flung colonies, especially when the husks definitely don’t have the mental capacity to control ships and spread out that way?

Since, again, there’s no way to come back after infection anyway, that’s going to be one of the core questions. This seems like a highly inefficient way to set about conquering the galaxy. Why spread this if there’s no reliable method of getting it to go beyond any singular world? (Obviously, the original idea seems to be a) BioWare shock value and b) something to horrify the audience with no reason attached – so it’s time to add that reason). What is the purpose?

So that’s going to be a running thread, probably the major subplot of the story. Obviously, though, the first priority is Shepard trying to escape getting caught up in this colony that is descending into Reaper control. Also, since I said we’re introducing the marauders here, I think we need a turian contact on the ground – I almost said make them a female turian, introduce them to the world of Mass Effect well ahead of the DLC for ME3 (a-HEM!), but I also think that we’ve got another situation of seeing them get infected and die as a result – it IS a consistent point in this series that coming back from Reaper infections Is Not Done. And repeating that here makes it a consistent theme, considering Nyreen.

So while I still say there should be female turians making their appearance among the turians of the colony, our turian buddy is going to be a guy, just for the sake of not stuffing another named female turian in the fridge. I’ll get to a more proper introduction of a female turian later, promise. (And, I like to imagine, with the number of DLCs I’m writing up here, there’s some kind of ability to retroactively introduce female turians into the crowds in the base game as a “patch” through at least one of them, as well as into ME3 proper... Hey, this is all fantasy as it is, let me have that one.)

Anyway, the turian contact is going to be frosty with Shepard – he (I don’t have a name for him at this point) not only doesn’t trust Cerberus, he was also friends with Saren, making him distrust Shepard. While Saren was a traitor, it’s got an element of ‘guilt by association’ to have had close ties to him, so Shepard’s kind of a living embodiment of the hit to his good name. Even if he didn’t do what he did because of Shepard specifically, they’re still associated. But he is still on a mission and Shepard is here and willing to assist him, so...

That said, he’s a Cerberus contact – Cerberus may be human first, but, given the ME2 crew, they can cultivate non-human contacts and aid, and under the circumstances of this colony, being a joint endeavor of humans and turians (probably throw in some callbacks to the last edition of these hypothetical DLCs and mention Ambassador Goyle and the Planet of Peace story). He’s been influenced by Cerberus operatives because hey, it’s good for humanity and turians to make peace if there’s a greater threat, right? Shepard meets with him on the outskirts of the colony proper – in order not to be influenced, they’re acting as much outside of the colony as possible. (Come to think about it, it might be a good idea to make recruiting Mordin a pre-req for this, at least handwave him having come up with a measure meant to protect from Indoctrination and the effects of these artifacts.)

The artifact is already influencing colonists, of course, and our turian friend is ready to write them off immediately – they’ve read the reports, and indoctrination can’t be reversed. I picture a brief discussion about how horrible indoctrination is as a weapon, making the Reapers enemies into their servants, and so warping their minds and perceptions that they’d never be able to trust that any thought they have afterwards is their own, even if they could be saved. Because seriously, that’s one of the most unsettling things for me in this franchise.

The idea is, of course, to get in to where this artifact is and destroy it unseen. That probably means a stealth segment through this colony – honestly, do it like the batarian base in Arrival, I don’t think that it would be so bad. That offered some nice variation, if a little spare on interactable things. Here are going to be some interactable things, things you can get to if you’re good, pay enough attention to the line of sights and such, but will still risk discovery.

Those interactable things are going to be some of the background of the artifact and what’s the whole deal – y’know, codex stuff, things that aren’t essential to the story but good background. Lay some groundwork for the idea of what the Reapers want out of these things being left behind.

Stealth section comes before the inevitable action section, of course. Here, the artifact is in underground caverns (like normal) and our turian buddy sets out to make some quick scans, get the information they need. And, of course, it activates at his approach, zapping him with energy. He tries to shake off any effects but... Well, I already said that he was gonna get infected and die.

So here’s where we start seeing the husks show up. It’d be really nifty if we could get them in varying states of their evolution (or devolution, depending how you look at it), some people just having glowing eyes, others being full on huskified.

And, of course, our turian contact is now in the process of becoming a marauder. I’m thinking we’re having something of the same thing as with Saren here – now that the Reapers made contact with him, they’re framing him as their “herald,” the one who’s going to act as their instrument. Shepard rightly gets to point out the comparison, which does at least get some hesitation – he’s being indoctrinated, is in the process of becoming a pure Reaper tool, but isn’t all the way there yet, the process isn’t 100% immediate.

Also I figure this is a good time to really establish (in terms of ME2’s plot) that the Reapers are so interested in Shepard and why. Like, yeah, sure, we do get Harbinger’s whole thing, but that’s not really a dialogue where we get to ask questions. It’s not even an interrogation where Harbinger demands information. Harbinger just spouts out dialogue of “this hurts you” and such. That’s not really telling us anything. So, yeah, there’s the basic “Shepard defeated a Reaper,” but hey, let’s just get a little more out of it.

I mean, we can intuit what Shepard means for the Reapers, sure, but if it’s important enough to be a major motivation, it’s important enough to say outright, you know? So Shepard is a pinnacle for this cycle – they killed a Reaper, delayed the advancement of the cycle for a few years, that’s a bit of a big deal when it comes before the harvest proper starts up – and the Reapers (like Leviathan will later) want to better understand what makes them tick. If this is unique to Shepard or the human condition, and, if it’s the later, how to break this down to its basic chemical composition and make it their own.

Turian buddy is also here to mouthpiece the explanation for what the Reapers even expect to gain from this. Slaves who can’t operate the mechanisms that they’ll be using are poor servants. I figure it’s as much an intimidation matter as anything – prompt the effective burning of a colony without deeper investigation, sow some fear about the unknown and keep people staying to the comfortable and familiar areas of the space that they live in, corral them in the familiar patterns. It’s a plan with the intent of intimidation – it isn’t until the harvest that they need the servants, so until then, they just want the borders firmly established.

Seems simple enough, sure, but this is still a mystery as far as the game proper is concerned, and I am trying to work within the established structure of the trilogy, rather than come up with some massive reveal that changes our understanding of everything – if I WERE just going to rewrite the franchise, I could do that, instead of writing up synopses of add-ons to the main game, y’know?

Of course Shepard’s gonna get free – I’m thinking that it’s a rescue effort by some of the other crew on the Normandy (because it really bugs me that, when the game is focused around Shepard gathering up the “Dirty Dozen” for their “Suicide Squad” (look, I had to get that out of my system), they only take two members out on missions at a time, so hey, look, they get up to something while Shepard’s busy doing the dirty work. This being ME2, we have to shoot our way out even further to get back to the artifact, which is where our turian ‘friend’ waits.

Paragon/Renegade choice here – do we try and reach out to him, get him to help us blow the artifact to hell, or just jump straight to the boss fight? By this point he has some additional help, by way of our introduction to a harvester – these were dropped into ME3, on Menae, with no exploration, and non-Reaper ones were meant to be enemies during the development of this game, so call this the natural evolution of matters. We’re introducing the marauders and the harvesters ahead of time, explaining the lack of fanfare that these enter the “proper” storyline with. The difference is if our turian friend is aiding us or the harvester, the harvester being our big end boss for this DLC.

The harvester gets killed, the artifact is blown up with the turian (he chooses to remain if Paragoned, a reminder of the permanent effects of the indoctrination process and how this is something that can’t be fixed – hammer home some of the fear and anguish that will be impacting those left behind from the inevitable fighting). Shepard returns to the Normandy for a debrief (I do kinda picture Miranda being involved in that, because, again, squadmates get additional dialogue here, and she IS the ranking Cerberus officer). Also some set up about discussing about Cerberus efforts to better understand indoctrination (foreshadowing for Henry Lawson’s experiments on Horizon next game).

Post Game Followups:

ME3: Indoctrination has seen further study, providing a war asset. Dialogue changes to reference Shepard having encountered marauders and harvesters before.

 Commander Shepard

The Suicide Mission is coming, and the Illusive Man has asked for all of Shepard’s companions to have their heads cleared. Now it’s Shepard’s turn. Their burdens have remained – the loss of the Normandy, the death on Virmire, and their death at the hands of the Collectors. The rest of the team has to clear their heads, and now so must Commander Shepard.

(Post-Horizon)

Yeah, why is it that, while we’re dealing with having to clear the heads of our crew, our PC, who has canonically been killed and resurrected, does NOT have to do this? So, yeah, Shepard needs a good head clearing. (For the record, I have written a fic of this: Lazarus Risen, and that’s effectively where I’m going with this, so if you’re so inclined, check it out instead of reading this, since while the recap is shorter, the fic itself is not too long.)

So, if you don’t want to read that, my idea when I made the fic was to explore both the idea of “Commander Shepard’s loyalty mission,” or the one where Shepard clears their head, AND the thought of just what the heck required Shepard to take all their companions on a mission and leave the Normandy vulnerable to the Collector attack after obtaining the IFF. Now, I’m saying that this mission unlocks after Horizon, but in my mind, that’s when and where this mission takes place. I just don’t know how to implement it within the game design that presently exists, so we’re gonna leave that open to player interpretation.

So the starting point of the fic (and thus, this DLC – like I said, that’s effectively where I’m going with this) is that Kelly Chambers, in her role as the Normandy’s official unofficial counselor/therapist, has recognized that Shepard has a lot of trauma associated with their death and resurrection they have not worked through, and so that’s gone into her reports to the Illusive Man. Mister Illusive contacts the Normandy, declaring that Shepard’s going in to a Cerberus facility, along with their crew, for a full psychiatric workup – the mission is too important to not have all these issues dealt with before going into things.

A bit of fun with this, on the basis of it being why Shepard is taking their whole squad off the ship, is that there’s the opportunity for some banter and genuine crew interaction, something that is sadly missing from the base game itself. Since I’m me, and this is about what I want from these, this is also an opportunity for some character stuff with Shepard, both playing referee (maybe getting a chance to recover some of the loyalty divisions from the confrontations if need be?) and getting to be able to better build and display the growth these characters are going through from seeing their loyalty missions resolved (cuz you DO resolve all the loyalty missions before activating the Reaper IFF, right?). The whole point of doing them was to clear their heads, encourage growth, and the thing is, we don’t get much of that forward arc in ME2, with ME3 just catching us up later. At least half the point of these is some retroactive continuity to smooth out the trilogy’s edges, after all.

Moving on. The arrival at the Cerberus Station (I am assuming this is the same one from the early part of the game, the one Miranda and Jacob take Shepard after they escape the Lazarus facility, though it doesn’t have to be, just a convenient use of model reuse) is uh... complicated. After all, Shepard’s motley crew is not exactly Cerberus approved (even if TIM authorized it – remember how Brooks in Citadel will mention that “Cerberus was a human organization bringing in aliens”?). There is a stir. A handful of situations have to be defused before everything properly gets under way.

This isn’t in my fic because that was focused on the one thing, while, as DLC, this would have to fill out some additional content to justify the time spent and the resultant price tag players spend to buy it, but I kinda figure this is where we can start seeing where the dissent is for Miranda in particular (probably Jacob too), given her Cerberus loyalties. This is a Shepard-focused mission, but I do see Miranda having a relatively decent role in any sidequests, character bits, and dialogue, given that we presently have in her a Cerberus loyalist right up to the point that she sees the human Reaper in the endgame. Especially if she isn’t part of the endgame squad, I feel we should have some material that connects those dots somewhat. I mean, I expect all the characters SHOULD get some, but Miranda in specific is the one with the almost explicit arc of taking her from Cerberus loyalist to her “consider this my resignation” remark to the Illusive Man at the endgame.

The Cerberus station director (my fic said her name is Doctor Nuwali, so we’ll be going with that) tries to organize the chaos that is Shepard’s squad (Shepard being as helpful or obstructionistic as the player chooses to allow, because Cerberus and authorities figures are always fun to poke at, and we’re getting both of those rolled up in one). Building off the above point with Miranda, there’s also clearly tension between her and Nuwali – Nuwali is, in many ways, a reflection of who she was at the start of the game, the pure, uncompromising believer to the cause and the results-driven focus without acknowledging the human cost, while Miranda has been in the position of growing and developing and questioning (Like I said, connective tissue for her character arc).

Nuwali directs Shepard into a private room for their psych evaluation, insisting on the separation of Shepard from the squad. (Just go with it, it’s for plot purposes.) Within is a prothean artifact, and it begins to react at Shepard’s arrival. It flashes-

-and Shepard finds they’re now in the Virmire facility. This is the requisite combat segment stuff that I can brush past during the recapping. The point is that they’re making their way through the geth to the area where the bomb was deployed, to find Ashley or Kaidan, whoever was left behind on Virmire (even if they were left with the distraction team and Shepard didn’t go back for the bomb, Shepard is guaranteed to have been at the bomb site, not the other area, so...).

They assist Shepard in clearing out the geth and then go into confrontation mode – “you’re working with Cerberus now, what the hell?” You know all the fan debates about why is Shepard working with Cerberus, given the horrors they uncover in ME1, especially if you roll a Sole Survivor (and, considering that is the default Shepard background, that’s clearly BioWare’s preference, so it’s not even like this shouldn’t come up – DLC is better than nothing, you know?).

Yes, we’re doing a “defending your life” style thing here. Hey, the game could use that, considering how Cerberus is the bad guy and we’re working with them. We deserve a more critical examination of this concept.

It’s a bit of a verbal joust – Ashley/Kaidan question what Shepard’s doing, their purpose in working with Cerberus, why they aren’t just leaving, how they could have tried to turn them in to the Alliance and the Council after they were given the Normandy and use the information in the ship’s databases as evidence of the Collector threat? There were ways for the story to progress that weren’t this deal with the devil. Shepard gets to acknowledge their points, struggle to justify what they’re doing. Emphasizing that this IS a deal with the devil, and if Shepard doesn’t find a loophole out of it, they’ll be condemned alongside Cerberus as well – not blowing them to hell in the here and now can make them culpable for their future activities, especially if Cerberus tries to bank on the idea of “Commander Shepard worked with us” (like they do with Conrad Verner in ME3).

Call it “preempting the ‘we should have been able to side with Cerberus’ discussion” that cropped up after ME3 – people, we ARE talking about a xenophobic terrorist group, how were they EVER gonna come out of this series looking like the good guys in the final analysis?

The ultimate point is that this is not a good situation – whatever good might come of Cerberus in general, Cerberus cannot be trusted. Ashley/Kaidan point blank ask can Shepard truly justify staying with them, doing the Illusive Man’s bidding, regardless of their good intentions. And I don’t really think there’s a good answer here – again, in my head, this plays as the mission Shepard’s on when the Collectors attack the Normandy, and, because I make sure to do all the loyalty missions before going to the Collector Base, Shepard is about to cut ties with Cerberus by way of a massive explosion (because I’d never trust the Illusive Man with the Collector Base), this is basically laying groundwork for that moment.

If you don’t do things that way... Well, sorry, but this is my hypothetical DLC, so we’re playing things my way.

Anyway, this sends Shepard on their way to the next installment of “defending your life.” Because we’re absolutely following the Rule of Three here, so there’s more than just the one segment. More requisite combat stuff happens, this time fighting through the Citadel tower again. At the end is Saren. Because why wouldn’t we have an encounter with him when Shepard is doing questionable things in the name of defending the galaxy?

He, of course, is rather smug about the fact that Shepard is allying with the devil in the name of fighting the Reapers – to him, it comes across as something of a victory, because here Shepard is, the person who came after him for his alliance with Sovereign, having made his own deal with the devil. If Ashley/Kaidan were the angel on Shepard’s shoulder, the voice of their conscience, telling them that they are making a mistake working with Cerberus, Saren is here to be the devil on the other shoulder, pointing out all the value there is in working with them, in doing whatever the mission calls for to put an end to the Collectors and the Reapers.

One would hope that this kind of rhetoric from the villain of the first game would make it very clear that Cerberus are the bad guys. As if to drive the point home, Saren also brings up that Shepard was rebuilt by them – with what is certainly Reaper tech. Shepard has begun the process of ascending to the Reapers level, what’s some more, melding more with their tech, bringing that melding, that joining, that unification of organic and machine, to the people of the galaxy, of doing the Reapers a favor and acting as their instrument in raising up galactic civilization?

Things of course descend into a firefight (because we’ve got to have our action quota). This time, Shepard gets to pull the trigger and personally kill Saren – sure, I get satisfaction out of persuading him to shoot himself, and I can always take the other options if I’m really pressed to face off against him, but I want the visceral satisfaction of having Shepard standing over Saren themselves and pulling the trigger.

It’s the little things, you know?

Anyway, because Rule of Three, this proceeds Shepard to the third point. They are back on Lazarus Station. No combat this time, just proceeding through the halls until they find themselves in the spot where they met Jacob in the prologue. Here, they see Miranda and Liara, discussing the act of giving Shepard to Cerberus to rebuild. While at first they’re talking to each other (whether or not you want to interpret this as Shepard somehow having heard the conversation or this just being Shepard’s interpretation, that’s up to you – we’re already in the center of Shepard’s mind here, does that really need explaining?), eventually, Shepard gets to speak, raise concerns, raise their voice.

Shepard gets options – do they understand and appreciate what was done to them, the resurrection and effective drafting into Cerberus? Or are they angry and pissed off – they were dead, and then someone else comes along and decides not to let them rest. For me, this has always been an issue of bodily autonomy, where, with Liara using the reasoning, and I quote, that she “couldn’t let [Shepard] go,” SHE is the one deciding what to do with Shepard’s body. Whatever you might say about what that did to make the galaxy a better place... Was it what Shepard would have wanted done with their corpse, to be handed off to a terrorist group culpable in acts of horrific deeds so that they could play Frankenstein with it? This is, in the games proper, just completely ignored – the one option to be angry is about Liara hiding this from them, not about her DOING it, and in ME3, Shepard – without player input – frames Miranda and the Lazarus Project as “giving them back their life.”

Yeah, no. I can forgive Miranda’s actions, given her characterization is actively about her going from looking at Shepard as a resource to be tapped to a friend (or possibly lover). It’s not perfect, but it’s still part of her arc, and she does at least make an apology (even if the writing doesn’t focus on the part I want it to, that ME3 conversation being focused on her wanting to implant Shepard with a control chip).

But I NEED to be able to express anger at Liara in some way just to like her, considering her canonical reason for doing this is all about HER – not that she considered Shepard the only one in the galaxy who could stand against the Reapers, but that SHE couldn’t let Shepard go. When in my games, she has no right to that. She’s not the one my Shepard’s are in a relationship with. So what those who romance her probably see as an act of love and devotion, I, not romancing her, can’t see it as anything but an act of obsession. And, even if I have to limit myself to a mental simulacrum of her, because there’s not a better place to include such a thing in these DLCs, it will help me, because it’s at least acknowledgement that hey, maybe Shepard is kinda pissed about people making decisions about them for them.

*ahem*

Right, so, where were we? Right, the reaction to Miranda and Liara discussing what to do with Shepard’s body. So as Shepard reacts, this prompts appearances from Ashley, Kaidan, and Saren, all of them playing Greek chorus about the decisions made about Shepard and how Shepard is reacting to them all. And yes, now we have both Ashley and Kaidan, regardless of who was left on Virmire, because why not – if we have one of them showing up for this DLC, why NOT include both of them? You’d have both actors in the studio anyway, so... Basically this is the big character confrontation where they all make the points that fans can debate and nitpick over when they bring up this topic, until finally the question gets put as, effectively, “well, however you feel about it, it has been done, so what are you going to do now?”

And to answer that, Shepard has to reenter the room they woke up in. Because we’re not quite done here yet.

Yeah, that whole conversation piece? THAT was the third “fight” or “combat” scene of this sequence, done in dialogue. Think the Atris confrontation in KOTOR 2, a verbal standoff. The actual interaction that Shepard has to face in the operating room... is themselves.

And their mirror image is offering similar questions, now wanting Shepard to respond, rather than having other characters voice opinions for them. How do you play Shepard’s reaction to their death and resurrection? To the fact that they are spending this game working with Cerberus, who is responsible for a traumatic event in roughly one third of all Shepard histories? Who Shepard uncovered multiple instances of their mad science in ME1 that crossed every ethical line? Who have it repeated rather consistently, is a humanity-first organization who will put human interests (and Cerberus interests, claiming they’re the same) ahead of galactic ones? If the Collector Base has (or is) a Reaper weapon, do they legitimately trust the Illusive Man with this power? Does Cerberus or the Illusive Man REALLY deserve any loyalty from Shepard?

Think of this as “stage two” of the verbal boss battle.

So, the confrontation with themselves concludes with, effectively, Shepard making their decision for going forward – the idea is that it has all been a mental debate, Shepard talking to themselves and coming to a conclusion that they needed to make. The general idea probably is one that, if you’re an obsessive fan with a penchant for filling in the gaps of canon (hey how are you?), you may have imagined these kinds of thoughts and discussions and conversations happening, but isn’t it more satisfying to actually have them take place on screen? And two, Shepard confronting themselves is, in and of itself, always a big deal. As I said at the beginning, this is Shepard’s loyalty mission, done to clear their head. How could it not result in Shepard facing themselves and asking themselves these big questions directly?

When Shepard officially makes their decision for the forward march, you know, figuring out how to handle Cerberus from here on in, which basically come to, effectively, use them for their resources and cut them loose at the end of the crisis or cut ties now and let the chips fall – since, after all, aside from Miranda and Jacob, whose loyalties to Cerberus are already wavering, Shepard has a squad full of the most dangerous people in the galaxy, so they could handle a mutiny of any kind (and, on the player end, there’s the knowledge that, while all this is taking place, EDI is getting unshackled and effectively is capable of running the ship) – they’re kicked back to reality.

And yes, those are the only two results of this, because, just to hammer it home, Cerberus is NOT. THE GOOD GUYS. The Illusive Man is not secretly good, he’s just using the “humanity needs protection” line to justify his actions and attitudes that are about seizing power. And anyone who thought that we would, should, or could side with Cerberus come ME3 was kidding themselves.

Granted, with this line of thinking, I’m not sure what the motivation would be to give Cerberus the Collector Base at the endgame (I mean, I never have, so...). Maybe the idea of “indoctrinate yourself, get taken in by the Reapers, you bastard,” but... That doesn’t seem right for Shepard’s characterization. Eh, like I said, much of this is based in how I play in the first place, so if you want to try and figure that out, feel free, but my list, we go by my way of approaching things. Because that’s just how I roll.

So I haven’t explained what, exactly, this prothean artifact is. Well, it’s effectively nothing more than a plot device, but let’s say there’s a note that becomes interactable, that basically talks up the artifact as being what I’ve called it so far, something that is meant to allow the user a chance to directly interact with themselves, face the truths they deny. Again, this really is a plot device meant to allow the circumstances of the plot, and while I could go into the details of how I assume it works, it really just needs to exist, but that’s my handwave excuse to justify how it worked. It works very well, thank you for asking. The reality is the how is less important than what it brings up.

So, Shepard is back in the physical world, and sets about putting the ideas into motion – the Illusive Man wanted them here? Yeah, no. Not doing that anymore. Shepard gets their crew out of there, upsetting doc Nuwali (giving the impression that there were some sketchy ideas in mind for Shepard’s companions when they were alone themselves, invasive procedures that they’d knock them out and see if they could take them apart and put them back together, now loyal to the Cerberus banner that sort of thing) and has a brief chat with Miranda as they fly back to the Normandy.

...You know, which, based on my time table, is currently under Collector attack. Fun times!

Post Game Followups:

ME3: The artifact as a war asset, reports about Nuwali being captured by Alliance officers while in the process of having attempted some of those ‘sketchy ideas’ she’d meant to enact on Shepard’s companions.

The Lights of Klencory

The planet Klencory is rumored to hold secrets regarding ‘the machine devils.’ Admiral Hackett of the Alliance has suspicions these are references to the Reapers, and has been secretly investigating these. Now, a team of Alliance soldiers have vanished out there, and he’s calling in Commander Shepard as a specialist, along with an old friend...

Bonus Companion: Ashley Williams/Kaidan Alenko

(Post-Horizon)

So back on the old days of the BSN, before Arrival came out, the speculation was, after Lair of the Shadow Broker, that the successive DLC would feature Ashley or Kaidan, give them the same treatment Liara got by featuring them in a DLC. One of my favorite ideas featured the concept of the “machine devils” of Klencory. You know, the planet blurb from ME1 where a volus is digging into a planet in search of evidence of “lost crypts of beings of light,” the indication being that he’d had his mind scrambled by a prothean beacon. So, hey, guess where we’re going?

I mean, obviously Illium, duh.

Actually, that’s not a bad starting point. Illium in general seems to be fairly neutral territory – sure, technically a planet in Citadel space, given its an asari world, but with many Citadel laws relaxed, it makes for a place where “an Alliance operative” will meet with Shepard (We’re starting by way of a letter from Hackett, for the record) without it being considered suspicious behavior by those looking in who are not in the know about the tacit support that both Hackett and Anderson are offering Shepard. There’s a lot of questions coming into this on Shepard’s part, given that, at this point in time, they’re not really an Alliance officer, and yet this is apparently something that is getting them called on? Probably means Reapers.

It gets complicated once Shepard arrives for the meeting and finds Ashley/Kaidan is their contact.

So, before we go further, I want to acknowledge, by the nature of having any real contact between Shepard and Ashley/Kaidan between the encounter on Horizon and the opening of ME3, I am effectively breaking one of my cardinal rules for these, namely the idea of not screwing with the pre-existing structure of the games’ plots in allowing Shepard and Ashley/Kaidan SOME form of genuine contact and communication, to the point of a chance for a legitimate conversation about things and where they stand with one another (Yes, the previous entry was bending that rule, but this is an outright breaking of it).

Thing is, this is one thing that really SHOULD have existed in the games proper, I shouldn’t have to have built something up to include here, and I will 100% die mad about it. Ashley and Kaidan got shafted by BioWare’s handling of things, and I’m not willing to forgive it (if you follow my liveblogs of replaying the games, you’ll know I frequently complain that Arrival really was gift-wrapped to serve this function, and yet it doesn’t so much as mentioned Ashley/Kaidan). So yeah, we’re having an opportunity to address this stuff right off, it’s taking place in the game “proper” (for a given value, considering all of this is made up, but...). I’ll get into how this will impact their interactions come ME3 in the “Post Game Followups” section, for now, we’re just going with this.

Also on the “to note” element, I am mostly going to refer to Ashley/Kaidan in the sense of swapping them into place for one another, since, obviously, they are mutually exclusive at this point in the trilogy. But I do want it understood that I am not viewing them as interchangeable characters but as individuals. Just... If I stop to explain all the little differences of how they interact with Shepard in this, the variations of what they say and do on the character level, I’d basically be writing this out twice, which this is going to be long enough as it is, you don’t need to read the plot summary twice, and I certainly don’t need to write it twice. Assume that, even if not explicitly indicated, there ARE differences in behavior and dialogue that are reflective of them as separate characters and people, even if the overall plot must go forward regardless of how differently they’d react as individuals.

And you might want to pay close attention, since there will be a lot of use of “they” pronouns ahead, since Ashley/Kaidan is more awkward to write and I make it a point to not address the player character (in this case, Shepard) by one gender or the other in these write-ups, given that that’s variable, so things might get a little confusing if you’re not paying close enough attention to the context.

So... The meeting with Ashley/Kaidan begins... awkwardly. They’re uncertain how to really react to Shepard – sure, the encounter on Horizon means they know that Shepard is back, but now they’re really having to deal with this particular reality. So they’re going to aim to jump to business. Alliance intel has intercepted some messages from mercs hired out near Klencory, which got Admiral Hackett paying attention to things happening out there – like Shepard will acknowledge, between the circumstances of this meeting and the quick summary of the reason for the mercs all being out there, this sounds like it’s connected to the Reapers. Hackett wants to have Shepard as a “special consultant” as the Alliance has someone (re: Ashley/Kaidan) investigate (“consultant” since Shepard may not have had their Spectre status restored, so it gives them legitimacy either way). It could, potentially, just all be a massive coincidence. But since when are things ever “just” a coincidence?

Ashley/Kaidan are willing to use the Normandy as transport – Hackett figured that, between the stealth systems, and the lack of official Alliance authority in the area, the Normandy is the better option for getting there without being told to get lost. The bigger question is how they’ll be received – it’s not like merc gangs take well to outside interference, and the Alliance having any jurisdiction out there is questionable at best. But they should at least TRY to go in with civility. If this volus billionaire spending all this money on this (his name, for the record, is canonically given as Kumun Shol, so hey, less work for me, having to come up with a name!), then if he hears from someone who seems to be taking him seriously, it might get them invited in explicitly.

Obviously, though, if they’re hitching a ride on the Normandy, if things remain unspoken, the trip out there will be very awkward and seem longer than it is. So they have to address Horizon. They’re not going to apologize for not joining Shepard – Shepard is still operating on a ship flying Cerberus colors, even with good intentions, that is a betrayal of their oaths to the Alliance, Cerberus are terrorists and xenophobes, who want to secure human dominance. But they will acknowledge that they reacted to Shepard’s return in a way that wasn’t their best. I am not going all the way to “they admit that they were wrong,” because based solely on the information that they had, they handled things as best as they realistically could. But they will regret that things ended on the terms that they did.

Shepard gets to respond to that – are they accepting that it was a bad reaction to unexpected information, do they still hold a grudge, whatever. The conversation continues to a point of conclusion – Ashley/Kaidan don’t trust Cerberus, they want to trust Shepard, but the connection between the two at the moment makes that difficult, and they don’t know how to bridge that gap as things stand, but they’re going to try this.

We will be coming back to this, never you fear. But, of course, that’s more for the ending than it is the beginning, and this one conversation is far from the end.

Klencory is a world with a toxic atmosphere, so they first have to gain access to a semi-decent landing zone near where Shol has established himself. Because, naturally, he’s not interested in visitors – the brief communication we get with him is him effectively talking himself into the idea that Shepard is “the agent of the machine devils,” which... I mean, considering the prothean beacons and communications with the Reapers, it’s not crazy that he goes there, even if (by the rest of his actions), Shol’s gone a little nuts.

Shooty shooty bang bang, fight through the exterior guards and into the facility proper. Ashley/Kaidan are a little uncomfortable about what’s gone on – this really isn’t how they pictured things going, given the legitimate credentials they were supposed to be coming in with, and they can recognize the fighting is because of Shol not giving them an alternative, but it does still make them feel like they’re acting as little more than the thugs they’re dispatching.

Call this a reaction to the fact that Shepard doesn’t exactly get much of a differentiation in the game themselves. Particularly when they can call out looters on Omega while swiping whatever’s not nailed down.

This is another conversation that’s going to be part of that “coming back to” thing – assume there’s some kind of tracking metric for all of this in the same vein as how ME3 tracked how Ashley/Kaidan responded to Shepard as a lead in to the confrontation during the coup. Just, I’ll get to how that all plays out at the end.

Because a band of mercs aren’t enough to hold off Shepard, Ashley/Kaidan, and the third companion (yay party balance), they reach Shol’s central command. He’s a little batty, but it finally gets through to him that Shepard is not the agent of the machine devils. He is skeptical of Shepard being the savior from them, though. Instead, he wants Shepard and company to do something for him.

There is a vault. A vault none of his men have come back from. Shol declares that, if Shepard can enter, learn its secrets, and survive, then they will have proven themselves to be salvation from the machine devils. Since this is the advancement of the plot, Shepard will have to go ahead with this, even with the natural objections of Ashley/Kaidan (and, probably, Shepard themselves).

Another pause for a dialogue – Ashley/Kaidan are skeptical of Shol’s motives, and believe it may be too dangerous to just do what he says. Especially considering that he’s clearly not entirely stable. This is a situation that really calls for calling for backup. But there’s really not the option of waiting, because if they don’t do as Shol says, he’ll throw all his mercs at Shepard – even if we’re assuming that Shepard versus countless mercs ends well for Shepard (because, after all, it’s Shepard), it’s just a senseless loss of life.

Going in is a set piece of suspense. Think the Peragus mine, with a dash of Korriban for good measure, from KOTOR 2 – lot of littered corpses, this creeping and foreboding unease and feeling of being watched, this overbearing expectation of SOMETHING appearing down every dead end... Build the tension. This is a place that, the littered dead aside, no one has entered in thousands of years, it should absolutely be a place that could chill you to the bone. The examination of anything should feel like it’s disturbing the dead.

You know there’s some ancient security device active, right? I mean, something’s killing the people who trespass here. Obviously, it has to be something that will put up a fight as our end boss, and it needs to be something that is able to last a long time. I’m thinking an ancient robot (my mind is going in the direction of something similar in design to the ancient droids of KOTOR’s Star Forge), a last defense, left behind by a precursor to the protheans.

Yeah, it feels like an underwhelming result to me too, but it makes logical sense all the same – we have some evidence of things from prior cycles, not just the prothean cycle, making it through to the next ones, not the least of which is the plans for the Crucible. Seeing as how that bit of intel is just dropped into our laps come ME3, this is at least making it functionally foreshadowed, if indirectly, by actually showing us ancient technology that is still functional and viable even after more than fifty, a hundred thousand years. Plus the foreshadowing of things surviving to this cycle in the vein of Javik. Things lasting this long in forms beyond just ruins at least makes all of that happening in ME3 at least have some groundwork laid in these prior games – otherwise, we only have a few codex references to ancient civilizations, as opposed to it being an actual component of gameplay, things that the player MUST interact with.

But yeah, the threat may be underwhelming, but the payoff is what it guarded – the last remnants of this ancient culture. The corpses have been preserved, given that it’s a bunker into the planet’s mantle – the toxic nature of the atmosphere now came about because of the Reapers, though, of course, this is only spoken of in the material available as “the machine devils.” There could be a great wealth of information among this stuff.

Thing is, now that the threat’s dealt with, Shol wants his prize. He spent years of his life and a great deal of his money on this, and now he wants to use it – and, because he still is a paranoid bastard, he’s not particularly inclined to uphold his end of the bargain, having expected to have Shepard and the “guardian” of the tomb (for lack of a better term) kill each other. He just wants all of this to increase his own fortune – he’ll sell everything within to the highest bidder and damn what the Alliance, the Citadel, anyone might be able to get from the archives. Giving it to private collectors – like, say, the Illusive Man, or even any interested faction of capital-c Collectors (as in “the enemies we fight throughout ME2”) – will enrich him and it doesn’t matter what that information might do to help make the galaxy ready for war against the Reapers.

Now, normally you would think this would lead to a Paragon/Renegade choice. BUT, instead, we’re going to have a variation moment for Ashley and Kaidan. They’ll deal with Shol, but in unique ways. Ashley, having marine hand to hand combat skills (as she mentions in character discussion during the first game), manages to get close and disable the volus’s suit enough to render him unconscious, while Kaidan uses his biotics to get the same result. So they get to have a moment of protecting Shepard (not necessarily “saving” them, because a volus getting the drop on Shepard would certainly be an embarrassing way to go, but definitely helping them sidestep a situation).

NOW’S the time for the Paragon/Renegade choice, dealing with Shol himself. He is an obstacle, considering that dealing with the legal claim to this cache of information leaves the door open to some sticky situations as a result – the last thing they need is to have anything that might be useful be wrapped up in the legal battle. But he DOES have a valid claim. Just unilaterally taking this place from him is questionable at best – even if Shepard’s still a Spectre, are they REALLY able to just come in and declare the location to no longer be the property of the individual with the legal claim on it? Likewise, there’s a lot of sticky issues with the idea of killing him – after all, as mentioned above, he does have a bunch of trained mercenaries on hand, and it’s reasonable to try and walk out without adding to the bloodshed. But if it’s made clear that his madness has overtaken him (which, I mean... it kinda HAS), then there’s room for the Citadel to be able to legally seize his assets, including his claim on Klencory and its vault. But this still means institutionalizing a person because they’re inconvenient.

That’s the choice – institutionalize Shol and seize his assets, despite the subsequent legal battle that he and his kin can draw everyone in to, or cut through the red tape preemptively, kill him, and claim what amounts to squatter’s rights, since with him dead, no one else is there to take charge of the archive, whatever it contains. Ashley/Kaidan are going to say they have no intention of letting Shepard kill Shol (because that would certainly always be a line for them), but there will be a Renegade interrupt to take that choice out of their hands anyway, and Shepard can make an argument that, if they don’t do SOMETHING, Shol’s men will come in and try to kill them, while if he’s dead, that denies them their paycheck (because for one time ever, can we just have the mercs give up and run off once the source of their paycheck is dead?!). Shol certainly isn’t going to tell them to back down, and “survival instincts” have never been at the top of their hiring priorities.

Ashley/Kaidan will have some words about the decision Shepard is making, but they can be swayed to understand Shepard’s motivations, at least, in the moment, though any disagreements they have are more in the “waiting for a more opportune moment” than “what you say goes, Commander.” More on that shortly. With that matter resolved, Shepard calls for a pickup.

Back on the Normandy, Shepard and Ashley/Kaidan are having an informal debriefing in Shepard’s cabin (save the jokes for the end of the scene everyone, we’ll get to that). They do a brief discussion of what the likely followup will be – the fact is, the Reapers are probably already uncomfortably close at the moment already, so there’s not likely to be much opportunity to examine this place too much before they show. Still, every little bit is going to help.

The big thing is going to be how Shepard’s handled things through to this point. This was an accumulation metric (in the same style as Aria showing mercy on Petrovsky or not during Omega), so the various Paragon/Renegade decisions through to this point will lead to their reaction. Paragon Shepards get Ashley/Kaidan acknowledging that Shepard is still someone they respect, and that perhaps this whole Cerberus alliance was one of necessity. Renegade Shepards are leaving them questioning what Cerberus is doing to them, and are they really the person that they once were.

That leads to the question of where they stand if they’re a romance – like with Liara in Lair of the Shadow Broker, this leads to a romance rekindling, but only for Paragon Shepard, because that’s the version that has shown that Shepard is still the person they followed to hell and back, still the person they loved.

Yes, while I try and offer reasonably similar options for both Paragon and Renegade versions of Shepard, this is dependent on that. Because it’s about setting their concerns at ease, about listening to them and allowing them to be angry and upset and come around. Renegade Shepard will have shown they don’t care about that, so why WOULD Ashley/Kaidan take them back?

Anyway, insert “debriefing” joke here.

And, y’know, a reminder that, in these DLCs I’m writing, we’re going with the assumption that Ashley and Kaidan both were bisexual romance options back in the first game, and it’s an option to rekindle for both gendered Shepards.

After the interlude (however it plays out), there’s the discussion of what’s coming next for Ashley/Kaidan. They’re returning to the Alliance, of course – with Shepard’s official ties still in limbo, taking them out of the official chain, Hackett has made them a floating troubleshooter at points where he suspects Reaper involvement in some fashion, be it machine cultists and husks, Collectors, or what have you. However they feel about Shepard, Hackett is still seeming inclined to trust them on this, so they expect that the intel will still reach Shepard as they do their work. They make it clear they expect this to be the calm before the storm, and when the fight starts, they know Shepard will be on the front line. Paragons get them promising to back Shepard up when the time comes, Renegades get them hoping that they’ll still be on the same side when that happens.

Post Game Followups:

So here’s the part where, typically, I’d talk about how this impacts War Assets for ME3. But this is giving the ability to resolve the major Ashley/Kaidan element of ME3 before we even get there (like we should have in the first place...) and that means we have to deal with that. To that end, I obviously have left the door open for the lack of trust by way of Renegade Shepard, and that’ll go through things as they are, the same as if this DLC didn’t exist (I mean, it doesn’t exist anyway, but... You know what I mean!). The alternative for a Paragon completion is that there will be a distinct lessening of the tension between Shepard and Ashley/Kaidan in ME3, leading to some serious dialogue changes on Mars – more of an acceptance, instead of distrust.

I’m also thinking that, with the air cleared, there’s no moment of hesitation among them during the Citadel Coup, that it basically defaults them to trusting Shepard, regardless of how much they interact with them in Huerta and “clear the air” of Horizon. After all, Shepard already allayed their concerns with their practical involvement, gave them the chance to see them as the person they were, rather than the possibility that they were no longer the person they trusted. This changes the dynamics of their earlier interactions, and if you have rekindled the romance during the debriefing (no I’m not going to stop using that gag), then the dialogue will have more romantic undertones, the conversations more focused on matters of both them and the future together, trying to figure out if they even have a future, what with the invasion commencing, let alone where they stand with one another in that future.

I feel like I should have more done here, really, but I am really, genuinely TRYING to remain within the basic structures of the games as they are with this, because I totally could trash them and rebuild them from the start, but that’s defeating the purpose of this as additional material to the games, so that’s the most I’m offering on that. I want to do more, Ashley/Kaidan deserve a bigger and better role in ME3’s plot (which I’ll be trying to address further when we get to the ME3 hypothetical DLC, but that’s not here), but I’m trying not to totally rewrite ME3 as it is, that would probably be its own long involved project, and this is already ongoing. The original version of events can still be involved in the game proper, as the Renegade version, but that won’t be the only version any more.

Oh, and, we’re getting some war assets out of the place we discovered. That feels like an afterthought here, though. This has been about Ashley/Kaidan and their relationship with Shepard, more than anything, and we really did deserve this as much as Lair of the Shadow Broker.

 The Omega Heist

An old contact of Miranda and Jacob’s draws them – and Commander Shepard – back to Omega, where, with the merc bands decimated, an old threat they thought they’d dealt with long ago has reemerged. With Commander Shepard’s help, they must try their utmost to put this genie back in its bottle before it’s unleashed on the whole of Omega – and, potentially, the rest of the galaxy!

(Post-Horizon)

Considering Omega’s status as the dark reflection of the Citadel, the answer to it in the Terminus Systems, I just really want to explore it some more. Tie in to that, Miranda and Jacob have great prominence when they’re literally your only crewmates, but the second you start picking up the rest of the crew, they start falling off the map. Given that they’re our viewpoints into Cerberus as an organization, this feels like a mistake. Cerberus spends both the preceding and following game as enemies, and I think we need to spend some time at exploring why either of them would even fall under Cerberus and the Illusive Man’s sway.

It begins with Miranda asking to speak to Shepard. I’m gonna assume that, considering the unlock pattern of loyalty missions, this is most likely going to be played post-loyalty mission for both of them, since they’re both the first to unlock. Just to firmly establish where the characterization is going in to this. So both of them are at a point where they’re starting to question their loyalty to Cerberus (hence why I’m considering it a default that, in particular, Miranda’s loyalty has been obtained).

She’s heard from a contact on Omega about something that she wants to get Shepard involved in. The meeting moves to her office, where Jacob joins them. This concerns a mission they’d both undertaken shortly after their first mission together (see Mass Effect Galaxy, the mission Jacob talks to Shepard about having lost his faith in the Alliance over). They had an assignment to dispose of a biological sample – their assignment had been not to ‘get curious’ and investigate what it was, just get rid of it. The orders had come directly from the Illusive Man, so they were actually obeyed.

Jacob had been suspicious of the whole thing – when you’re moving something that you’re not supposed to investigate, it’s usually something that could blow up in your face. He opted for a little extra security monitoring, with Miranda agreeing and having kept track of it. That’s why this is now coming to her attention. They still don’t know what this was, but they can’t imagine that it getting let loose where any idiot could stumble across it would be a good thing.

So we’re returning to Omega. Personally, I’m disappointed that there’s no real change in Omega as ME2 carries on, even though you have to both clear out merc gangs and an active plague in the course of the game – recruiting Garrus and Mordin are mandatory quests, after all, so their joining the crew, their recruitment missions, these have to happen regardless of anything else Shepard may decide to do. So we’re getting another hub area on Omega besides Afterlife and the Gozu District market place. If Omega is the Citadel of the lawless Terminus Systems, then it can certainly fit in more of this (plus give more life to this place that, we know, will have people threatened come ME3 and the Omega DLC there).

Our central hub sector will be a safehouse established near the Kenzo District (picked because beyond existing as where Garrus had his run-in with Garm, we know nothing specific about it, so it can be used however the plot needs it to be). Under the circumstances – meaning “since we stored dangerous material on Omega without even speaking with Aria on the subject” – the idea here is stealth. Shepard, Miranda, and Jacob arrived via a transient shuttle rather than via the Normandy, and did so hopefully with some element of stealth. It’s not that Aria is going to be a threat here, just that she wouldn’t be happy learning about this going on under her nose and Cerberus is trying to cultivate some of her resources (sort of tie-in to the Cerberus takeover of Omega come ME3).

Their contact is my chance to get that female turian I mentioned a ways back into things – a turian trader who I’ll name Naevia (what, I’m a Spartacus fan and the reference makes me smile). The biological sample has fallen into the hands of a gang that’s trying to take up the space left by the biggest gangs of Omega losing their leadership (I’m thinking one of the gangs from our last edition of hypothetical DLCs, from “The Clean-Up,” because continuity!).

It’s around here that Shepard does ask the most important question on the subject that I think we’re all thinking – why the hell was this dangerous and hazardous sample kept rather than destroyed? Naevia admits she thought the same thing, but she was paid enough not to care, just to watch it. Miranda states that there was a possibility of using it for something in the future – this is a sign of her beginning to waver, because she can’t really justify the use of this sample, the fact that, though they’d been told to get rid of it, the “disposal team” had kept it, and were keeping it in a place with a population.

Granted this is a long standing tradition with dangerous science, but still, it needs to be called out.

The important thing is that it’s there, on Omega, and in particular when the station is already in the recovery process of a plague that targeted every race except humanity – there is still a lot of anti-human resentment on Omega, and the last thing that Cerberus should want is a human-spawned crisis breaking out (because no matter where the sample came from, a human organization, known to have a humans-first bent to it, was the group that stashed it here on Omega). Hence our presence.

We’re gonna have plenty of time to talk with Miranda and Jacob, so assume character conversations sprinkled here throughout (much as I cite it as reason that I don’t particularly care for their loyalty missions in comparison to others, that their loyalty missions also only have one ending, that once you start the mission, the only resolution is obtaining their loyalty, makes for a useful method of characterization trajectory here). This is here for the sake of exploring and deepening their character arcs, their division with Cerberus from the endgame, given that they’re both set against Cerberus come ME3, so we’re going with that.

We also get to spend some time with Naevia and getting a new perspective with the turians – she is a free agent, sort of like Vetra ended up being in Andromeda, in the sense that she’s a rebel to the status quo of turian military discipline. She’s looser and less rule-bound. She lives on the fringe of society and that shapes her reactions. She has no need for the turian rules of combat and prefers to take preemptive action – the rules of combat are a great idea in theory, when you have enemies who will respect them. But the Terminus is full of people who won’t. And, while she hasn’t been read into the Reaper matters, she is clearly picking up on the undercurrent between Shepard, Miranda, and Jacob.

Now if you’re assuming that this is leading to Naevia turning out to be involved in matters with this sample... Well, that’s definitely going to be a thing to follow, but let’s just keep going for now.

And yes, I have been cagey about what this sample even is. Remember, that’s because it’s a mystery even to Miranda and Jacob – they were still in a point where they were willing to listen to the Illusive Man’s orders without questioning them. The assumption was that the team they were giving it off to was a proper disposal team, and the failure of either of them to investigate it beyond his word. Y’know, the idea being they’re both starting to push themselves to look beyond the word they’re officially given by their boss and question him.

So… investigative work. We’ve already been over how in these summaries, that’s not where I focus on, not having a layout or anything to work with and such. So I’ve given the core ideas of character work and plot that plays out over the course of things, let’s cut to the climax.

The sample is being held by one of the gangs and a member of the Cerberus disposal squad. Because hey, look at that, a Cerberus agent went rogue and started killing all their guys, Commander Shepard, can you take care of that? He explains just what this sample is – a contaminant that can devastate a planetary atmosphere, hence why it was being kept on Omega, a space station. Of course, the problem with it is that it won’t discriminate and a rapid atmospheric dissolution will kill human lives as well. This is one of those things that it’s actually entirely justifiable that the Illusive Man didn’t want to use... y’know, if it weren’t for the fact that he still kept it, but...

Anyway, here’s where we come to Naevia’s sudden but inevitable betrayal, citing the profit to be earned – it’s easy enough to live on ships instead of a planet, so she’ll come out of this fine. Shepard gets the chance to shoot her with a Renegade interrupt, and look at that! She WASN’T betraying the team, just pretending to in order to slide a knife in the bad guy’s gut. It doesn’t kill him, and it still leads to a fight, but it’s easier if you don’t take the interrupt (because as much as I like the interrupt system, I think there should occasionally be consequences for taking a quick and reflexive response rather than the more considerate and thoughtful and examinative approach to a situation).

A multi-stage boss fight ensues – basic ground troops, interspersed with standard LOKI mechs, a YMIR mech joining the fight with reinforcements, and then a gunship. Maybe the gunship peels off midway and lets in another YMIR mech, just to really hammer the ‘boss fight’ element, or at the least let that be a higher level difficulty challenge. I mean you can only do so much with the mechanics of the game to create boss fights, right?

Anyway, Naevia is either dying, laughing at how her turncoat act was too effective, or she’s made it through with a few scratches and is patching them up as Miranda and Jacob are recovering the sample. Here’s the expected Paragon/Renegade choice of destroying the sample or storing it somewhere else – I can even see a reasoning for keeping in the idea of ‘once knowledge exists, it can’t just be destroyed, we need to study this to be able to devise a countermeasure.’ It’s a sucky one, for the record, but it’s a way to justify the Renegade stance.

This is where you see the culmination of Miranda and Jacob’s development. Jacob is open about wanting to correct their prior mistake of leaving this sample around to be used by anyone who might try to actually use it. No matter what, he sees no possible good coming from it and wants it destroyed. Miranda is conflicted. Her trust in the Illusive Man tells her that it would be right to hold on to this, it’s a weapon that could protect humanity if the aliens were to attack them – which is something that can’t be discounted as a possibility, considering the batarian hostility and the general aggravation of other races like the turians (see the previous Hypothetical DLC entry for more expansion on why I consider that a thing gets brought up). But she also knows that if this exists, then there’s a chance humanity can’t control it. She is looking to Shepard for guidance on this – she’s not turning to the Illusive Man’s standing orders here.

When the group returns to their safehouse, they find Aria there. Because this has been happening on Omega, and it’s her business to be fully aware of what’s happening on Omega. She thanks Shepard for disposing of that little business – if the sample was spared, she does imply that she knows about it, but, so long as it’s leaving Omega, she’s not going to be concerned about it. After all, she only cares about Omega’s interests. But, as a reward for what Shepard’s done for Omega, from the plague to Archangel to this (plus, potentially, dealing with Morinth, given that was the presence of an Ardat-Yakshi on Omega), she is offering a reward for Shepard – a penthouse suite.

Yes, I’m letting Shepard get an Omega apartment. I mean, okay, having one right before the Cerberus takeover of Omega come ME3 is not exactly the most prime real estate, but hey, Shepard deserves a place to relax, right? Plus it also comes with access to a special Omega market, a place where Shepard will be able to purchase any weapons or upgrades they might have been missed in the course of their missions (and any that get added through the DLC, including these). Because really, we should be able to have access to those things somehow, as in the game as is, if you miss it, it’s gone forever.

Anyway, Miranda and Jacob will also have follow up conversations when they return to the Normandy, discuss the way that things have played out and how they’ve evolved as people in the course of the game. Because as I said at the start, the two of them, in terms of their character development, kinda falls off the map in the course of the second half of the game. So they get a little additional content that helps fit them into the big picture of their character arcs.

Post Game Followups:

ME3: If Naevia survived, she’s an available war asset in regards to her underworld connections and such to send help Shepard’s way. If it’s kept intact, the sample also has some benefit for Alliance scientists in the study of reversing its effects and how to restore ravaged worlds. Also some additional content in the Omega DLC, though I’m not sure about the details of that right now.

And, y’know, since Naevia’s existence means that we have a female turian model built and developed circa ME2, this SHOULD mean that there are female turians scattered throughout both further DLC (as in ‘assume their existence in further installments, even if it goes unsaid’) and (because now they’d “exist” prior to the release of ME3) there would be numerous turian females in ME3 as assorted extras and such. Should go without saying, but I’m saying it. There will still be a few important female turian NPCs I introduce in further installments, but these are now part the standard background NPC collection.

 Battle Scars

Alliance officers on shore leave have been disappearing from the Citadel with no trace. Ambassador Anderson suspects there’s more to this than the standard dangers of a space station that’s practically its own world. Though Shepard is in a questionable position among the Council, they’re the one person Anderson can trust to solve this.

(Post-Horizon)

The Citadel being so limited a space in ME2 always bothered me. Y’know, I get the thematic idea, that ME2 was about exploring the darker underside of the galaxy at large. But I liked the Citadel. There was a lot about it to explore, all things considered – we’re talking about the galactic hub of politics and commerce. This really should be a major location, no matter the game. And as I’ve said elsewhere, there could be a whole game set on the Citadel with room for more. So yeah, we’re doing this here, exploring an area of the Citadel that we never got to see before.

There are Alliance officers going missing and Anderson gets Shepard involved. Obviously, the synopsis covered that bit. The idea here is that we’re going into areas of the Citadel that normally, Shepard has no business in, and in areas that are more like vacation areas. You know what this means? It means we’re going to have non-combat segments, in the same vein as Kasumi’s mission. There’s gonna be an extended sequence of Shepard out of combat armor in this one, because Shepard is not being called on to be a soldier but to infiltrate and be seen as a civilian more than a combat fighter. (I’m thinking this is going to involve a new casual outfit as well.)

And we’re gonna say that this is happening at an exclusive resort, meant to be a location that’s relaxing – a resort on the Citadel, effectively. It’s primarily a place for Citadel-aligned soldiers (Alliance and other races) to recover after combat, a therapeutic place for soldiers to get treatment for their PTSD (think a place where they’d probably have sent the PTSD asari in ME3 to if there wasn’t an existential war on). It’s why it’s a popular place for these Alliance soldiers to be, and we’re also going to rate it as having the highest success rate as a psychological and therapeutic facility in the known galaxy (because, being on the Citadel, why wouldn’t a place like this have a reputation of being the best, given how the Citadel is effectively the metaphorical center of the galaxy) and it’s a bit of a mixing bowl of Citadel culture, which allows for the rest of the party to come along.

I’m going to stick with mandatory companions here for a handful of reasons – one, Shepard’s got an eclectic band, and I feel like if they walk around a Citadel resort with Grunt and Legion, for example, that’s probably going to blow their cover. For two, I like the idea of mandating some pairings and developing the relationships more. Last entry was about Miranda and Jacob. Here, I’m thinking... For a resort, I honestly lean towards Samara and Kasumi, characters who, respectively, can blend in with “high society” and can pass through unseen by others. Kasumi, of course, does her cloaking to accompany Shepard – she does prefer going unseen. Samara, though, is playing at being a Matriarch – given the setting, let’s say that she’s pretending to be looking for a facility for her rambunctious daughter who is ‘disgracing’ the family name – sort of playing on her own history with Morinth (because Samara’s method that way), while still being a role she plays.

Yes, I’m aware that Kasumi is a DLC character, not everyone necessarily has her, but hey. If you’re playing DLC in the first place, you’ve probably collected other DLC, particularly a new companion, we’re just gonna roll with it, because I’m not going to develop an alternative without her, so consider them connected – I don’t know, say they got packaged in a sale together or something. This is all hypothetical in the first place, remember, does it REALLY matter that she’s not in the base game?

Shepard, of course, is going in as what they’re looking for, an Alliance officer looking for leave. This way there can be a solo segment, and the tension of “will Shepard run into trouble they can’t handle on their own before their companions come to their rescue?” Obviously, there does have to be some addressing of Shepard’s fame and notoriety, but it’s not like Shepard’s not doing other things that are putting their famous mug in places they shouldn’t be, particularly when it comes to involving Kasumi (The Hock heist, anyone? How, exactly, was the most famous human in the galaxy supposed to keep a low profile there?). So we’re just gonna handwave that, like you do.

As always when these are investigative sequences, I’m just gonna gloss over that part for the sake of convenience – the basic facts are that we have a lot of suspects with no clear motive at the outset of things. You know, get your basic archetypes wandering around – look at any show that features a recovery center, you’ll find them, I’m not gonna go into detail on the incidental characters.

The trick is that Shepard is going to be doing their initial investigating solo – they have to get entrenched before their companions show up (given that Samara’s cover is going to have her supposedly only there to look the place over, rather than sign herself in as needing “treatment” and Kasumi is going to be cloaked, searching for the things that Shepard can’t get access to – yes, for the record, I’m setting up for a Big Damn Heroes moment, I would think that would be obvious). They’ll meet with the above mentioned archetypes, learning details.

The details are more for the flavor – how well does Shepard figure out the scheme (which I’m getting to) before the villain shows up to explain in a monologue? Because, y’know, what villain doesn’t love explaining their nefarious deeds with a monologue? Shepard figuring out more and more of the plot before they confront the bad guy will impact the way the end fight goes down – figure it all out, you can sidestep the big final confrontation, figure most of it out, the fight’s significantly easier, stick to the bare minimum, it’s the hardest it can be.

This of course gets Shepard caught by our villain of the piece. So, what’s going on? Well, it’s an attempt by one of the doctors at this facility at cooking up the same shady shit Cerberus has, in the form of cyborg soldiers – the soldiers who have been kidnapped have been converted into these cybernetically enhanced soldiers. Problem is, they’re mindless automatons – higher brain functions didn’t survive the implantation process. So while these six million credit men are superior soldiers for combat, able to shrug off the kind of injuries that would cripple any other organic soldier, probably even have like nano-tech that speeds up any kind of healing and recovery process, they’re ONLY for combat, there is no human mind, no individual still alive in these shells – they’ll do as ordered because of the computer control chips in their heads, but only because those chips fire off the impulses needed.

“No glands, replaced by tech. No digestive system, replaced by tech. No soul. Replaced by tech. Whatever they were, gone forever.”

This is a point that I wanted to bring up in Miranda’s chat about “disposable soldiers” – the concept of soldiers being disposable is the kind of thought that cleans up war, something that the very idea is MEANT to be “dirty.” When you have these disposable soldiers, something that replaces the flesh and blood troops, you’re now in a position where going to war is not a difficult choice – you’re not sacrificing anything in the fight, because your best and brightest are safely out of the line of fire. When you don’t fear war, you’re going to turn to it as the first option, not the last. And, as pointed out by the use of Mordin’s quote above, at some point, your “disposable soldiers” become exactly what the Collectors are, mindless automatons who perform the duties of their masters, and, because of that distance, their masters’ own humanity erodes, because they never have to get their own hands dirty, while their servants are incapable of arguing with the orders.

This is when we get the aforementioned Big Damn Heroes moment, where Samara and Kasumi rejoin the party – since I’m assuming Shepard is being restrained at the moment, we have Kasumi Overload the controls and get them loose while Samara covers her by biotically handling the guards (because there are always guards).

So we get to that ending of how the boss fight can go down – Shepard gets to argue about the whole “disposable soldier” thing, bringing up and expanding on the above argument. If they uncovered all the details of the plot prior to the point they’re found out and taken captive, they can talk the doctor out of the inevitable fight (they still can choose to fight, of course, but the option is there to avoid a fight altogether) and have them shut down the project, effectively take their “prototypes” of these cyborg soldiers off life support and let them all die out (because, again, it’s the cybernetics that are even keeping them alive at this point), they can try and fail because of a lack of information, or they can actually agree with the idea, just that this doctor isn’t the one to be controlling them – it’s a valid choice, after all, to have a viable standing army to face the Reapers with.

I did debate making that last an option, just because I am morally opposed to the idea, but I am trying to respect that the Paragon/Renegade division was meant to be more than “goody-two-shoes versus puppy-kicking-monster,” and approach it from a level of “win with morals versus ends justify the means” – if you’re looking for something that can face the Reapers, like Shepard is aiming for throughout the trilogy, then a pragmatic approach says “we can use this resource, and I’ll deal with the moral weight of it later.”

Thinking about it, this does kinda make a flaw of the Kasumi-Samara team, because I do struggle with seeing how they’d just casually go along with Shepard saying “zombie cyborg army? Sign me up!” But maybe the Justicar code says that, regardless of origin, their existence has purpose and use, while Kasumi is horrified at the idea of using – and defiling – the dead like this. Basically, I want there to be a shoulder angel-devil scenario here, but I may not have selected the right companion pairing for this. Still, I’m not going back and rewriting this to make that work, so we’re just going to acknowledge that and move on – they’re both on the team, and there are other Renegade choices Shepard has available that they both just accept, so we’ll accept that.

And, y’know, I have a personal preference for Paragon at these decision points, and would probably stick to choosing to wipe out the zombie cyborg soldiers myself, and these are my ideas so I roll with what works for my decision making process, so nyah.

This still leads to the question of what, exactly, should be done with this facility – this is the head of the place we’re talking about as being responsible, with them out of commission (either being killed by Shepard or taken into C-Sec custody, depending on your choice), it’s entirely possible the place will be shuttered, or at least in chaos for a time, and that means all of its current residents are going to be kicked out – this is one of those “well intentions doesn’t change negative results” scenarios. Of course, Anderson will try to step in and do something, but... He can only do so much. Especially with having to clear out the devices and secret lab material and such, there’s a lot in this that just... is not going to have this place in a condition to be what it’s meant to be. Especially if things turned into a fight with the doctor and trashed the place.

Shepard themselves can only do so much – they can make a recommendation, but ultimately, there will be a board decision. They can offer a suggestion, a way for the staff to try and focus going forward, but it’s going to mean downsizing their care in some fashion – either they focus only on the immediately at-risk patients, going in the way of ‘if you’re not an active threat to yourself or others, you have to find somewhere else to seek treatment,’ or they limit themselves to just the care of a single species, because the psychological experts for multiple species is a resource drain.

And this one is NOT a Paragon/Renegade choice. It’s player’s best take on the subject, because there is no “right” choice in this scenario. Either way, someone is getting screwed over. You can hope sending the not at-risk patients won’t exacerbate their conditions, but you can’t be sure of that – especially when it comes to people who have been there for some time, PTSD and other conditions won’t just go away, they need to be managed and treated, and if you go from one facility and one medical professional to another, that can throw off your recovery. And you can specialize in the treatment and wellness of a single species, but what about the members of the other species? What about the “melting pot” nature of the Citadel and how, realistically, reinforcing those barriers between species only makes it harder for these species to get along with one another?

It’s a “no good choice” scenario, and I think it’s worth a discussion with Anderson at the end (rather than back on the Normandy with all the companions, just because I don’t think the game can really account for everyone there having an opinion). Though let’s also give a follow-up conversation with Kelly – y’know, the therapist – and let her have more to do in this game.

Post Game Followups:

ME3: If the doctor was taken in to custody, they’re among the Cerberus scientists during the mission on Gellix – Mister Illusive stepped in to get their work under his banner, and, like Gavin Archer, Shepard’s involvement eventually made them hesitate to do his bidding. If the cyborgs were kept on, they’re a decent strength war asset.

 The Batarian Connection

A Cerberus vessel goes missing out near the batarian border. While the Collectors are still the first priority for Commander Shepard and company, the Illusive Man is concerned this may be the first stage of a batarian incursion of Alliance space. He tasks Shepard and company with recovering the missing ship. The batarians, however, have other ideas...

(Post-Horizon)

We hear a lot of talk about the batarians making slave grabs throughout the first two games, and the Colonist background has this as a part of the things Shepard has been through. But we don’t actually see it. And we probably can’t manage to see the absolute worst horrors of the batarian slavers, but that’s not the full point of this.

No, the point is to start showing another face to the batarians. See, we’re going in with the idea of the batarians slavers we’re after handing off the captives they take – of various races, though krogan and turian are not likely, given their own, more aggressive nature (maybe useful in gladiatorial rings... We might be coming back to that before these DLC are done), and the quarians aren’t going to be as numerous, that still leaves humans, asari, salarians, and other batarians. And we know from Mass Effect 3, having the Cannibals being introduced in the first segment of the game, the Reapers have access to a lot of batarian genetic material, so they’ve already spent a lot of time developing how they intend to repurpose the batarians into the servants they need to wage war in this cycle.

Codex material speaks of how the Collectors want certain specific types of people to collect, and that is going to be what’s happening here – while the Collectors main focus in the game is to gather up humans to turn into Reaper slurry, we’re also looking at the other races, because there’s a history of the other races being taken by the Collectors for various unknown reasons. It wasn’t clear if there would have been an intent to build additional Reapers out of the other races – an asari Reaper, a turian Reaper, etc. - or if they’d just be left to rot, possibly slurried alongside the humans and just put in the same shell. To build off the idea of “organic preservation” of the species who consist of a cycle, I’m going to assume that they would be fused into a Reaper of their own, though there’s room to argue they were going to just be pulped into the same Reaper or left as the Collectors of the next cycle. But my ideas, my interpretation of things. And if BioWare wants to fight my interpretation, hey, should have included it in the game.

So yeah, the batarian slavers we’re coming across were going to offer the Collectors more of those captives of various races and such. The idea here is to not just have a look at the horrors of batarian slavery, but also an upfront acknowledgment that the batarians do this to their own people as well. The crappy situation for your average batarian is reduced to codex and one-liners, so we don’t actually have this knowledge available for the common players, and this is a thing that needs correcting.

We’re also going to have an encounter with a different Collector ship (just to avoid too much of the whole “small universe syndrome” of the same ship dogging Shepard for two years – it wasn’t until ME3 and James’s backstory that I got the impression that the Collectors had more than the one ship, since they made this one ship out to be this major force). Because, really, if the Collectors taking colonies was something of a plan B when the Citadel didn’t open, then they should be readying themselves for more than just humanity to be taken.

Among the batarians is a sense of distrust – batarian propaganda says the galaxy hates them, and, because we get the slavers and mercs running around in the games, the audience is probably not inclined to disprove that theory (particularly if there’s a Colonist Shepard doing the run – because I say so, there can be plenty of statements from them on the subject that fit the background specifically, because it’s nice that these are all theoretical and I can throw in whatever I like). Still, the general idea is that Shepard does feel a moral responsibility to save them, even if, as in the case of Renegade Shepard, it’s just in the name of preventing the Collectors get their claws on them.

But, thing is, ME2 offers no ship piloting mechanic, and I’m not bringing that in. And, y’know, I still get war flashbacks of getting ambushed by Sith fighters in KOTOR. So that means that the Normandy heads off, Shepard ordering them to find help (we’re gonna say that this is taking place somewhere near the batarian-turian border, so the Normandy can go find a few turian ships – going back to my idea of “shaking up companions” concept, I don’t have any particular choices to go with Shepard this time, but this makes it almost mandatory for a companion other than Garrus to come along, since Garrus can sway the turians to come to the rescue of alien nationals – and this ship ends up crashing, with Shepard and companions still on board – as are the freed slaves.

And we’re not crashing on a habitable planet. Because while there’s the helmets and all, I feel sometimes like the franchise as a whole underplays how much the atmosphere of planets being conducive to life as we know it is kind of rare. So while the cargo hold, settled in the heart of the ship and surrounded by the various additional decks of the ship, makes it through, there are portions of the ship that have been vented into space.

And the Collectors are coming.

Shepard gets to make a Paragon/Renegade “inspiration” speech to the captives, recommending that they get to trying to save themselves. Paragon will get a majority on their side, Renegade only a particularly brave soul. This one would be the Paragon’s contact/coordinator, just so that I can have a clearly identifiable person to turn to. And, yeah, we’re punishing Renegades here, but here’s the thing about this – we have stolen people, taken prisoner, made into slaves, about to be handed off to aliens who are only known to the galaxy as kidnapping and experimenting on people who never return, and then crashed on a deadly planet, with their only shelter pocked with holes letting out the valuable atmosphere that keeps them alive. I’m sorry, but being an asshole to these traumatized people? Even in the name of saving their asses from said kidnapping and experimenting aliens, they are NOT going to be ready to take up arms and fight. Read the room.

So, it becomes a game of causing enough losses to the Collectors for them to retreat for the Normandy to arrive with rescue vessels. Cat and mouse combat, with interspersed dialogue with our batarian coordinator (Making a name up on the spot... Kahvahr). That’s giving the expansion on both him as a character, talking about himself – a political exile, he spoke out against the Hegemony’s attitudes and practices, that they are so isolationistic that the necessary trade with the Citadel races, trade that could reduce their reliance on slavery, is killing them, which led to him attempting to leave, an attempt that ended up putting him into the hands of the slavers he argued against, and he’s certain that the Hegemony’s leaders basically gave him up. Talk about the beauty of Khar’shan, as a planet and place, something more tangible for us the audience of this place that we never get to go – he speaks longingly of these natural wonders he doesn’t expect he’ll ever see again.

The aid of the batarians Kahvahr leads can offer some combat segments getting avoided, but I do want to include some elements of the Collector faction from ME3 in combat segments all the same, the Collector Captain in specific. Because these things never appeared in ME2, so let’s remedy that.

And our end boss is going to be some variant of the Collector drones we see in Paragon Lost, which are these giant sized Collectors. So they get some additional tricks and are a clear case that Shepard is now facing the worst forces the Collectors can throw at them. Because I figure you can give them some interesting additional boss tricks.

The turians arrive and the Collectors withdraw, so Shepard gets to pass on what to do with these batarians – treat them as refugees who are seeking asylum in Citadel space or ship them back to batarian space. Because the thing is... batarians in Citadel space are probably not going to have things pretty well. Like there’s a reason we see batarians on Omega but not the Citadel. And a lot of these batarians still have families in the Hegemony. So there’s a very real argument to the idea that they’d be better off going back. It’s probably bull, considering the Hegemony’s leadership (and definitely bull on the basis of the Reapers being about to steamroll the batarians in between games), but... It can be made.

And it also speaks to how well Shepard is responding to Kahvahr – Kahvahr makes it clear, batarian slaves tend to be those who speak out. How much good can they really do going back to the Hegemony? Sure, you can argue that it’s in the name of encouraging rebellion against the Hegemony’s leadership, but realistically? It’s signing a death warrant – if this attempt at silencing him didn’t work, the Hegemony will likely just go straight to killing him.

And maybe Shepard’s okay with that – the whole reason we’re doing this is because the portrayal of batarians through the rest of the series is almost exclusively them as an always chaotic evil antagonistic force. What do they contribute to the galaxy, right? But this whole thing has been to help paint the batarians in a new light – now, shipping these batarians back to their people isn’t a mercy but a death sentence. What can I say, I like that script-flipping. But, as always, it is a choice for Shepard, for the players. Because apparently, people who play these games like the chance to play the asshole. Fine, you can, but you’re definitely getting judged for it.

Post Game Followups:

ME3: If given asylum, a batarian militia will have formed, both the survivors of the crash and of batarian refugees, wanting to aid the Citadel forces, Kahvahr himself as an asset.

 Shadow Dance

Shepard’s connections to Cerberus have not gone unnoticed. A Spectre – Vexx Liranus – has decided that they are a key component to Cerberus plans (not untrue) and that their capture or death would be useful in combatting Cerberus (definitely untrue). With a fellow Spectre nipping at their heels, Shepard has to face what should be a comrade in arms in a deadly game of cat and mouse!

(Post-Horizon)

We meet three other Spectres in the trilogy, and only one of them, Jondum Bau, in ME3, is actually an ally. This is turning that on its head – all things considered, Vexx Liranus should be an ally. After all, we’re talking about a fellow Spectre, working for the Council, and Cerberus IS using Shepard for their plans, so taking Shepard out would make sense.

It’s just Shepard is a good guy, working with Cerberus as more an alliance of necessity, rather than any ideological alignment. And while I’m sure if you had a chance to sit down and talk to another Spectre, they’d probably eventually come around to the idea, well... Where’s the fun in that.

So Vexx. We had Naevia above in “The Omega Heist” as our “first” female turian for the trilogy, though she does potentially get killed. So we’re gonna have another female turian here, just to really sell the “no fridging female turians” concept. She is a badass turian soldier, like I want a planet with an “r” name to say she had a major incident on so that she can be “the Raptor of [wherever].” Because I love alliteration. I picture her being voiced by Claudia Christian (who was a favorite of mine to voice a female turian back before we knew anything about Mass Effect Andromeda, and while I’m absolutely a fan of Danielle Rayne’s performance as Vetra, I still regret that lack, so I’m making this happen here).

As for the actual plot, we’re gonna start on a small waystation location. It’s a standard resupply place, in the vein of like those Fuel Depots or something, a place like the Citadel but smaller. Because I think that space stations are an underdeveloped aspect of the Mass Effect universe. Like in Star Trek, there are Starbases and Deep Space Stations (such as DS9). Surely the various militaries of the Citadel races are doing the same, building their own stations that act as refuel and resupply, as well as standard rest and relaxation – Spacer Shepard will talk about living on ships, but I don’t see a child actually being raised on military vessels. But a space station that acts as a rallying point and home base for a vessel? That I’ll buy.

So this begins with the Normandy pulling in to one of these types of stations. You know, a little bit of a supply run, something simple. Things do not go according to plan, though, because, y’know, why would they, we wouldn’t have a plot if they did.

It begins simply. They settle in for a resupply, Miranda suggesting that the operational crew get a chance for some break time, Kelly adding that crew like Rolston and Hadley should have an opportunity to contact their families. That’s how we get here. As Shepard proceeds to look through the market, we get other angles of Vexx monitoring and observing Shepard. Shepard will begin to get that feeling of being watched, and that’s when she makes her first strike.

Now, yeah, I say right off in the synopsis that Vexx is a Spectre, but in the story proper? This is going to be kept quiet for a while. Sorta like how Vasir gets this intro that kinda clearly marks her as someone who we’re going to have to fight later, Vexx is getting the appearance of being a straight up antagonist. Because in her mind, she IS an antagonist to Shepard. She just believes that she’s the protagonist of the story, specifically because of Shepard’s ties to Cerberus, coming to this place in a vessel flying Cerberus colors, operating with a Cerberus crew. In her mind, she has discovered a threat to the Citadel and the Council.

While I’m still on the “give the companions more of a role” train, in this case, we’re going to see Shepard cut off from the crew – they come under fire from Vexx, they give the command to evacuate the station, return to the Normandy, and get out until they give the signal. Paragon Shepard wants to minimize casualties, Renegade Shepard wants to handle this themselves – Vexx interrupts their leave? It’s on now.

This leads to a chase through the station, and finding that she’s gotten things pretty well set up for this chase – I figure at some point, Shepard comes across like a secured bunker she’d been using as a command base, finds logs that have been tracking them since they landed on Omega at the start of the game. (Timeline being what it is, meaning as variable as it is, I’m gonna say that this is taking place functionally around, say, the Collector ship mission.)

That discovery is also when her Spectre status is made clear. Now, while there’s a good chance that Shepard’s had their Spectre status reinstated (thank you Dad!miral Anderson), well, we still need a plot here. Vexx doesn’t believe Shepard’s claim to have Council approval – after all, she certainly can’t just casually check this out while on a mission, Spectres are supposed to function independently of the Council. And she’s pretty good with the “better beg forgiveness than to ask permission” approach – Shepard helping Cerberus, even as a double agent, is a threat (for a less competent example of why, see how Shepard helping Cerberus in ME2 leads to Conrad Verner preaching Cerberus values in ME3).

The hunt continues. I’m basically picturing this functionally working a lot like a lower-levelled version of Arrival’s Project Base level, just with like security drones and such, and Vexx popping in and out of combat range. This is a hunting mission, on both sides, and the idea is that Shepard (and, by extension, the player) should feel like Vexx or her drones might show up around any corner. If nothing else, call it useful practice and experience.

Now, I said before I wanted to avoid stuffing our first female turian in the fridge. While Naevia could survive, she also could die. So I want to guarantee that at least one female turian of prominence is introduced without killing her off. That means that we’re going to have to find a peaceful resolution, as well as an alternative that allows the bloodthirsty playerbase to be satisfied.

That means an outside agent, a third party, getting in on this. I’m thinking a krogan merc with a grudge and a krantt and a blood oath against Vexx he’s more than willing to extend to Shepard, the Spectres, and the Council – with Vexx, it’s personal, having tangled with her before, with Shepard, they’re in the way, and with the Spectres, they work for the Council, and the Council gave the go-ahead on the genophage, so hey, it’s a good day to be him.

This eventually leads to, after some three-way combat, Shepard suggesting a truce for the time being – the krogan (Vargan, for want of a name) is a bigger threat to them both at the moment, since he’s distracting them and endangering the station as a whole. Vexx sees the wisdom in this and is willing to work with Shepard.

This gives a little more time to explore her, now that Shepard can talk to her. Vargan’s grudge stems from her disbanding his merc pack a while pack – they had ideas similar to the Blood Pack and Clan Weyrloc (re: Mordin’s loyalty mission), just without the aid of any salarian scientists. Maybe they’d sought out Okeer (possibly part of the reason that Okeer became a “very hated name,” as Wrex puts it? I don’t know, I’m spitballing here). Whatever the goal, however, she managed to put a stop to it, enough that Vargan was stripped of his clan name – given the structure of krogan society, I figure that in doing that, a krogan loses all right to even attempt to mate with the females, a big blow to a proud krogan leader, basically leading him to a voluntary exile from Tuchanka. That he still has a krantt after that still speaks to his skill and prowess, but also makes it clear that these are his only allies in the galaxy.

Shoot-y shoot-y stuff happens, yadda yadda... We’ve been over how writing about combat in these write-ups is boring. End result, we learn more about Vexx, develop and establish her further, give her this likeable air now that we’re on the same side, and get to Vargan, taking out his krantt in the process. Now that he’s alone, he is ready to die. He got everyone loyal to him killed, that means he’ll never regain a clan name now. He wants to die.

Typically, Paragon/Renegade decisions are a clear binary of “good means letting people live, bad means letting people die!” But here, Paragon is understanding the krogan mindset – he wants to die because he will never have a place in krogan society if he lives. He got his krantt killed, so he will never be able to gather a krantt again. He will never have that trust again, and so his death is the only way he can have an honorable ending. Meanwhile, Renegade is saying “no, I’m not going to grant you the mercy of death, live with your failure.” And doing that will likely mean he will strike out and go on some kind of suicide run (indeed, I picture that result being a news announcement overheard on the galactic news points).

Because I like the idea of twisting the Paragon/Renegade assumptions around – the idea behind it is supposed to be more nuanced than “good = blue, bad = red,” but in context, a lot of the use of the system through most of the series is a lot more binary. So this is showing the flip side of both ideas’ general attitudes – you are saving more lives and respecting his attitudes and beliefs by killing him, while knowingly leaving a threat to others that you KNOW he’ll act on by keeping him alive.

Vargan defeated, it comes back to Shepard and Vexx. She’s more impressed by Shepard at this point. Paragon Shepard showed an understanding of non-human mindsets, and that more than anything makes her hesitate to paint them with the same brush as Cerberus. Renegade Shepard showed enough martial skill that she’s concerned that things will only reach the point of a stalemate, and likely do too much damage to the station for it to continue operation.

So she offers Shepard what she’s going to call a deal – keep to the Terminus Systems, like they have been, and she’ll let things stand as they are, with the added note that, if their Council reinstatement is genuine, she’ll also send a letter with a fuller apology after the DLC concludes. Yeah, it’s basically going back to the status quo, but one, I’ve been clear that my goal is to make these slot in comfortably with the existing game, and two, back to the in-universe justifications, it also means that she can prevent other Spectres from coming after Shepard – after all, we learned with Saren, the only real way to respond to a Spectre going rogue is to send another Spectre after them. If Vexx is in Shepard’s corner, it prevents other Spectres from coming after them later.

Probably should lead to a line or two in reference to Vexx from Tela Vasir, depending on when Lair of the Shadow Broker is played – alternatively, I suppose Vexx should have some comments about Vasir’s death as well, but I did say above that I see this functionally being roughly around the point of the Collector Ship in the timeline, and I always view Lair of the Shadow Broker as taking place after the Suicide Mission, and my write-ups, my timeline. Moving on.

Shepard has to agree to this, because see above: not fridging female turians when the trilogy is so bereft of them in the first place. We don’t kill Vexx. Because, really, that would mean that Shepard would have killed three of the four fellow Spectres they encounter in the course of the trilogy, and their numbers are said to only go to about a hundred or so. That’s a three percent fatality rate for the Spectres, and a seventy-five percent fatality rate of meeting Shepard. Someone has to think those numbers look bad. So, in accepting the deal, Vexx walks away and Shepard calls the Normandy for a pick up.

Post Game Followups:

ME3: Vexx has a sidequest on the post-Coup Citadel, regarding her work with the unifying of turian and krogan forces. Given Shepard having contributed, she’s asking them to join in her efforts. Complete that and she gets to be an asset and there’s a boost for both of those groups as well.

 Underworld

Illium is home to many elite in the galaxy. It’s called the gateway to the Terminus Systems. But it’s equally a warning that there is as much danger in Illium’s shadows as on Omega. And now a high-profile Alliance official goes missing there. Ambassador Anderson asks Shepard to investigate as he keeps the disappearance quiet, and Shepard gets drawn into a web of conspiracy...

(Post-Horizon)

Illium seems like it should be a bigger deal, don’t you think? I mean, in ME2 we get three hub worlds in Omega, the Citadel, and Illium, but Illium is introduced after Horizon, being locked to (on console) disc two, and, while Lair of the Shadow Broker gave us more of Illium in general... Hey. Let’s explore more. Cuz now we can open up some new areas that can stick around and still be explorable after the DLC ends.

We open with a message from Anderson – “one of our people went missing out on Illium, I’d like you to look into this as a favor to me,” that sort of thing. This official is an ambassadorial figure from the Alliance to the asari (so, for the sake of a name, I’m in a Power Rangers mood right now, I’m gonna call her Kimberly Hart). She’s been attempting to shore up some diplomatic ties – I’d figure this would include matters like getting stronger ties between the asari in the name of gaining access to teachers for Grissom Academy, better relations in the name of biotic rights, that sort of thing.

Illium, being a free trade world, is a place where these kinds of negotiations take place without government oversight – I figure, based on things like the asari on Noveria in ME1 who wants to protect asari patents by getting Shepard to help her engage in corporate espionage, the asari government is extremely strict about their “secrets” while humans, who are still struggling to get a handle on what to do with first and second gen biotics, are willing to take on free agents more than like the commandos and such. Also, don’t want a repeat of Vyrnnus, so the turians are definitely out. It’s “asari free agents” who they’re looking at bringing on for this.

But with her having gone missing, that’s concerning – again, we have the asari being fiercely protective of what they view as their copyrights (which I do want to have a running theme here surrounding the idea “how do you copyright something that has this melding with the life it is bonded to?” – amps working as they do, mapped to biological systems as they are, this seems like it borders on trying to patent people in the process, since they’ll gain full maps of the people those amps are implanted in). Anderson wants Shepard to go in, since they’re off the official books.

Now we return to that earlier concept of mandatory companions. Because of the matter of biotics, this feels like a mission that Jack pushes her way in to – both because she’s been the subject of biotic experimentation, and she wants to ensure that this doesn’t turn in to the Teltin facility all over again, and to help give some foreshadowing for her becoming one of Grissom Academy’s teachers next game. Additionally, I’ll go with Thane as the other companion for this – he’s done work in Illium’s criminal underworld.

Now then, to our central hub of Illium. We’re on a different city than Nos Astra, but it’s going to have a similar flavor to it, in the same way that Azure still felt like it wasn’t all that out of place alongside the trading center. Nos Vidia, I’ll call it (sounds suitably asari, anyway). It’s not as major a hub of intergalactic trade and commerce, meaning that Shepard and company are going to stand out in the crowd.

This is also one of the more “crime” areas, where the black market has moved in. We have Eclipse symbols on the wall and, while they’re not wearing the uniform, many of the people around here are obviously in the gang. Which also makes Shepard stand out. Thane, however, manages to bring up a former contact, someone who has been able to stay alive this long, meaning they’re skilled enough that they’ve survived.

The contact is an asari I’m gonna call Kassria. Kassria has picked up some Eclipse chatter that references our missing ambassador. That means Eclipse has her, but it’s not clear so much if her being taken is because of her getting in the way of Eclipse as a gang or if the Eclipse are working for some asari company.

We pause for some talk about the various asari copyrights, explore that conversation, with Jack having quite a few words on the subject of trying to make people property. That kind of thinking creates situations that create the same kind of science as Teltin. Thane offers something of the drell perspective – he’s the one who argues that he was raised and trained as a weapon for the hanar, and that he was not responsible for the lives he took. Who owns the abilities, the user or the one calling for their use? (I mean, there’s an obvious answer, but Thane’s bringing up the alternative to this – the people who are broken down and made into weapons at the hands of others.)

Like actually, let’s make that aside a point of having Jack and Thane – in Jack’s eyes, Thane’s attitude towards the people he’s killed is much how Cerberus would have wanted her to have ended up, as a weapon for them to point, pull the trigger, and give no concern for the ways that it impacts the person who acts because of that order.

It’s the same argument that we have with Miranda – the idea of “disposable troops” does not make it a matter of saving lives, just a matter of how war becomes easier, having these weapons to unleash upon others with no risk to the people who are supposedly being protected by them. It’s a way of absolving yourself for creating slaves by giving them some higher purpose.

This really is going to be a turning point with Jack’s arc proper, with how it leads to her being a teacher, because she wants to protect the young biotics. It’s not just about her protecting the kids at the Ascension Project from ending up tortured like the kidnapped victims at the Teltin facility. It’s also about reclaiming and maintaining personhood.

And while it’s hard for me to really give the separation theory Thane speaks of (we ARE going to come back to issues of the drell in general a few DLCs from here, so consider this to be foreshadowing and set up for that bit), I’m going to try and offer his point of view – that of “if you hone someone to only be a weapon, to only look at the world from that perspective, is it really on them as an individual that they proceed to see the world from that viewpoint?”

Of course, yes, I’m aware that the inherent flaw of ALL of this is that we’re not talking about drell youths giving themselves up to the hanar in the fulfillment of the Compact or with “different brain structures” to humans. It’s the tangent that they end up on because they’re along for the ride, and Shepard eventually has to get them back on track – finding Ambassador Hart. Whether or not the asari corporations are intending to use people as weapons, the Eclipse sisters presently have her held captive, and this means staging a rescue operation.

I want to take this chance to get a better idea of Eclipse’s organization (which, by extension, showcases the ideas that are moving the other merc gangs in the series). Like, what goals do they really have – Blood Pack are basically chaotic berserkers who want the world to burn (which, fitting, considering the general krogan mindset following the genophage and the vorcha having a complete lack of survival instincts because they never needed to evolve them), while Blue Suns have the veneer of respectability, acting as private security. But when we meet Jona Sedaris in ME3, she’s a raving psychopath, ready to kill anyone in her way. So what does the Eclipse gang want? I mean, besides the obvious of money.

Kassria is a former Eclipse sister, so she offers this insight – Eclipse doesn’t even really know itself. The non-asari members are almost leaning towards biotic extremism, given how the other races tend to mistreat and look down on the biotics among them, which makes them angry and want to lash out at those who’ve hurt them. Meanwhile, the asari who join in are often driven by other motivations, given that all asari have biotics – some are outcasts (purebloods, in pureblood relationships, or people with the Ardat-Yakshi mutation – let’s just assume Samara will have shared about her loyalty mission by the time this mission is unlocked so we don’t have to have the characters explain this to Shepard), others are maidens looking for glory (think Elnora the mercenary from Samara’s recruitment mission), some are obsessed with killing (like Sedaris), and some are just looking for a purpose.

She suggests that, if given something better, Eclipse might be a valuable asset for Shepard – not just in biotics, but also in their mechs. It’d be something to use when the Reapers come calling, not that she knows about the Reapers, just that she can figure that whatever Shepard’s up to, they’ll want an army at their back (because we’re still ME2 here, so this means we don’t know that Aria will be assembling the merc gangs under her banner).

This leads to an assault on the Eclipse base and trying to reach Hart before anyone proceeds to try and kill her or worse. As we continue, we find out that there is a high-ranking Eclipse member among this group – Jona Sedaris.

Yes, that’s right, we’re going to be responsible for her getting locked up come ME3. Obviously, this does mean she’ll survive the inevitable conflict and boss battle, but hey, we’re gonna have other things to deal with in the final analysis, so hold all questions to the end.

The Eclipse sisters and the techs with their mechs are heavy throughout the place, but eventually, we reach the place they’re holding Hart. She’s been roughed up a bit, but she’s alive. She’d made contact with an asari firm who’d claimed to be willing to trade some “asari patents” in the name of cross-cultural cooperation, but Hart got suspicious of what was happening. Turns out, she was being used – the company (a minor company, not one of our major equipment suppliers from the actual games, that she had gone to them in the name of avoiding those big names) was going to give her access, only to revoke it and claim that she had stolen these patents. That would give them an opening to start consolidating biotic patents in a human market, because humans would now be running amps and implants with copyrighted asari material, and, by extension, that would mean the company would own those human biotics.

That, of course, gets Jack’s ire up, and she’s ready to tear the place apart – people aren’t things to be owned. Even Thane’s ready to join in – even accepting his claims of lacking a responsibility for the lives that his employers hired him to take (again, we’ll be digging deeper into this in the future), this is trying to force people to be under the control of this company – based on his reaction when Shepard suggests that the Compact between the hanar and the drell constitutes slavery, Thane’s definitely not on board with that idea. And even on Illium, a planet with legalized “indentured servitude,” this contract is definitely sketchy – but it would be just legal enough that the company leadership would be able to get their foot in the door, and make it harder for human biotics to be able to exist without “company oversight,” giving them access to the human biotics before they have a chance to stabilize their position in human society.

It’s some further asari haughtiness, the idea of asari like Erinya, the lawyer who holds the contract to the Feros colonists, that the asari are “better” than the other races. The asari in charge of this company are of the belief that only the asari “deserve” biotics, and want to keep all biotics in the galaxy under their control. These asari in particular don’t see any race other than asari as even deserving of evolving out of the primordial muck. Not a mainstream view, but one that we do have foundation for existing in the universe proper, and, let’s be honest, it’s not hard to imagine this being a thing anyway based on our world (We’ll touch on these themes in more detail later). And this idea, especially combined with the asari willingness to indulge in “indentured servitude” on Illium, if no where else, gets taken to its natural endpoint – they see human biotics as little more than pack mules, livestock.

Short step from there to going along with batarian or Collector ideas, but really, it’s not like we don’t know exactly where that endpoint is from our history.

Obviously, Shepard is a walking contradiction to those ideas, so combat is the only way through. Sedaris might be an unrepentant murderer, but we do still have to take her into custody – this is where Kassria comes in, taking her down and intending to hand her over to the authorities in the name of getting a slice of the Eclipse pie with her out of the picture. It won’t be a clean takeover, which will justify why Sayn is running things for Sedaris outside of prison instead of Kassria (who would DEFINITELY just leave Sedaris to rot and probably arrange an ‘accident’ for her), but it’s getting her more power.

As for the company, they’re JUST on the side of legality – the efforts of Eclipse on their behalf were by way of verbal contracts, and no lawyer on Illium is going to take the word of a mercenary over those of these high-ranking business officials. Hart swears that she can make things hell for them, lose them some very lucrative contracts with the Alliance. Thing is, that also makes her job all the more difficult, now that she’s been found out having attempted to make these grey legality ties for the sake of “getting an edge” in the biotics market – they have the resources to make this a fight that, meanwhile, would set the cause of human biotics back. (Which, as we’ve been over in other write-ups, actually is a bit of a thing that has some deeper ties in to the overall universe that the people of this setting are still working on figuring out.)

The Paragon/Renegade choice here becomes the rather obvious “do we take the option that handles this cleanly but lets the bad guys escape responsibility, or the messy alternative that may not even get the result we want?” choice. Because the thing about asari litigation is that they can afford to tie things up for decades without concern for the “short term” consequences. So if this DOES go to courts, they can wrap things up and keep them there for a long time – which will impact how things go for the human biotics, the whole idea of ‘owning’ people because they have these abilities. Because then their legality, their agency, their right to choose for themselves would be being litigated, and being done so in the court of aliens.

It doesn’t feel GOOD to me to have it left like this, honestly, but I don’t really see this as something that is supposed to have a conclusion that feels good – we’re talking about issues of corporate ownership of individuals, and the truth is... that exploitation just goes on, it doesn’t resolve itself with a few showy displays of violence. It gets caught up in red tape and paperwork, and people lose, even as they win. And the point of this has basically been, at its heart, to show that the “underworld” isn’t the black and grey markets that scrounge a semblance of society. It’s the businesses who will crush people underfoot then complain about the mess they stepped in. The design of a lot of the locations introduced in ME2 had this cyberpunk dystopia look to them, but only really focused on the criminal gangs – the core of this is approaching the white collar criminal element that was not shown off as much, how it encourages both further street crime and the depersonalization that comes from treating humans as a commodity.

Jack is pissed either way because this is all kinds of bullshit – it’s Shepard who points out that as angry as Jack defaults to, this is, for once, her being pissed at something beyond herself, where it’s not just that she wants to cause mayhem, but that she wants to make things different for others. To do something to protect future human biotics, kids who are in need. It’s her actively wanting to find a way to make a different, not just chaos.

As for Thane, he is still drell, still a proponent of the Compact (again, we’ll be coming back to this issue), but he does understand how easy it is to see something ostensibly done to the benefit of people turns around and is used by malicious actors to take advantage of them. It’s one of those things that he certainly understood in the abstract, but it’s another thing to see in practice. He leaves it on the note that “this has given me much to consider.”

As for Ambassador Hart, she knows that either way, she’s tanked her chances for getting the instructors that she’d been hoping for. Basically, the diplomatic ties she’d wanted from the asari government are off the table, given the combination of asari tied to the company and just general political embarrassment at the fact that all of this even happened – they want to ignore it, paint things over in pastels, and she is a living embodiment of the event to the asari, able to bring up the reality at a time of her choosing. The asari would rather that this go away, rather than have this constant reminder. Still, she’s grateful for Shepard’s rescue – the Eclipse might not have actively been planning on her death, but it wasn’t a good position. And, at this point, she can at least salvage a career going forward. Maybe not with the asari, but there’s a chance that relations with the turians have thawed out some.

Post Game Followups:

ME3: The fate of the company plays a part in War Assets – being tied up in legal red tape, they’re not able to contribute to the war effort, or, in a magnanimous show of “inter-species cooperation,” they’re sharing some patents with the other races. Additionally, Ambassador Hart shows up for a sidequest after the Cerberus Coup, making another go at the effort, now that Grissom is gone and the human biotics are here – might as well make the effort to get these asari instructors anyway, and she wants Shepard to help her out with smoothing the ruffled feathers (since this would still be in that period of time where the asari are still trying to avoid joining the active war effort).

Also, while this wouldn’t really impact anything via saved game import, I also figure this would at least tie in to Andromeda, that several human biotics joined the Initiative in the name of getting away from the corporations who want to hold them as “patented property” and such. Probably would be a way to help at least make Cora’s arc tighten up a little – it’s not just that she thought she’d only be a “useful freak” as a human biotic, as opposed to an asari commando or an Initiative Pathfinder, but that in getting away from Citadel space, she’d be allowed to just be, to find out who it is that she is beyond her biotics, rather than have to have her biotics “registered” with a corporation who’d exploit them and her. Not sure how to incorporate that into Andromeda proper, but it’s something that would be acknowledged.

End of Part 1, link to Part 2 forthcoming.

[thethoughtsfromthreeam]

Sunshine

Pairing: Maxwell Lord x OC (Evelyn “Evie” Blaker)

Warnings: None

A/N: I’m not really sure where this story came from (and tbh, not sure how it’s going to end!), but I had the desire to write a Maxwell Lord fic.  I don’t know if I’ll follow the same posting pattern as I have with others simply because I have less written before posting the first chapter.  Anyway.  Enjoy!

Reminder:  I ain’t ever seen Pedro Pascal in FUCK ALL, I’m just coming up with this as I go along, using imdb.com, wiki, and 84,000 tabs I got open to plan out this shit.  I also write soft versions of his characters so if you’re craving asshole vibes, I ain’t got any but my own to offer.

Tags:  @zeldasayer , @romanticgumchewer, @beskars​ , @coolmaybelateruniverse , @the-feckless-wonder, @lavenderl3mons , @pascalisthepunkest , @mandoandyodito​ , @randomness501 , @fioccodineveautunnale  

Part 1 

Start with the Appetizer

Sunshine.

She was the human embodiment of sunshine, he thought.  Her laughter, her smile, her personality, the way she looked – it was like sunshine washing over him.  He could not be exactly sure when he realized that he lacked that kind of warmth in his world, but once she shined on him, he craved it. The need to be in her presence consumed him and for a moment in time, he thought he could cage the sun.  But like Icarus, he learned that to treat the sun as a folly would burn him.  To pay it reverence meant to live in harmony.  Once that lesson is learned, life can continue.

She was his sun and he was certain that he would worship at her altar for eternity.

---***---

Evelyn Blaker stood in the doorway to Donovan Bercholder’s office, watching the large man scramble around in a panic-induced pattern.  As she stood waiting for his blustery nature to die down, she leaned back to slightly to keep an eye on the conference room down the hall.  Chimetech representatives were already in the room, waiting for them.  She had noted a tall, blond man walking with them and something in her stomach began to tap its toes.

“Where are the damn reports I asked for, Evie?”  The man’s naturally loud voice seemed twice as loud as usual and she knew it carried down the hall.  The tapping got worse as she racked her brain to remember who was coming.  Clark Gibson oversaw their medical division, but he was a short man, with coke-bottle glasses that made him look owlish, nor was he blond.

“Donovan, will you keep it down?  The Chimtech folks just arrived.  And the reports are in the conference room where I had Helen put them half an hour ago.”  Donovon stopped to look at her.  In the year he had been at Bercholder Medics, he had come to know Evie as a sprightly and jovial person and he often called her a little ball of sunshine.  He had never met a person so warm and welcoming and nice and being the new guy in town?  That went a long way to helping him gain the trust of his very wary workforce.

But the tone she threw at him was hard and her face was stony.  Nearly five-hundred people would lose their jobs if this plan failed and she wasn’t going to lose her work family because Grant Bercholder had been a thieving bastard.  She had put in too many late nights for the last year trying to save this company for Donovan’s hysterics to suddenly derail everything.  On a large markerboard in her office, she had written a quotation from Knute Rockne when this whole Hail Mary pass idea began,

Build up your weaknesses until they become your strong points.

“You’re right, I’m sorry.  Let’s go.”   He took a deep breath and gave her a smile.  Evie heaved a sigh of relief and smiled back.  The gauntlet was about to open.

---***---

Maxwell Lord stood at the window of the conference room, looking out at a view of the Hudson River and beyond it the rise of the Catskills Mountains’ foothills. He had to admit it was a beautiful view and he marginally forgave Clark for dragging him out of the city for this meeting rather than having Bercholder’s people come to him as everyone else did.  Everything he had read about the company told him they weren’t worth doing business with, but Clark somehow convinced him to take the chance.

As he continued to look out of the window, he realized it was quieter than it had been moments ago, and he could hear the small talk within the room. A loud voice had been shouting something about reports and he smirked at the panicked tone in said voice.  A man who couldn’t control his emotions had little chance of controlling a company.  Maxwell suspected that this meeting would be short, and he could get back to the city in a reasonable amount of time.  He turned from his perch when he heard two sets of footprints enter the room.

A large burly man – who looked more at home in an Adirondack lumber camp than in a boardroom - and a shorter woman walked into the room.  Maxwell assumed the man was Donovan, but he had no idea who the woman was.  He sized up his counterpart as Donovan walked up with a hand extended in greeting.  Maxwell took the hand and was not surprised to feel strength behind the handshake.  He noted the woman was introducing herself to his people and stopped to chat longer with Clark than the others.

“Maxwell, welcome!  You’ve had a chance to meet everyone here, I hope?”  Donovan’s naturally bombastic, yet cheery nature, was evident in his voice and Maxwell noted that the panic that had been there before was now gone. Intriguing.

“All but the woman that came in with you.”  Came the reply

“Evie!  Come say hello to Maxwell Lord.”  Evie looked away from her conversation with Clark and nodded as she stepped over. The tapping her stomach got worse when she realized that the blond she had seen was the one man who could derail this whole thing.  She tamped it down as she, too, extended her hand to him.  “Maxwell, this is Evelyn Blaker, our head of accounting.  She’s been working with your Clark to broker this deal.”

He was surprised – all the reports he had read recently had been signed off by an E. Blaker.  He didn’t realize E stood for Evelyn rather than an Eric or Edward.  He silently berated himself for his lack of attention to detail on this whole project and he frowned slightly.  This isn’t how he did business and sure as hell not how he became a success.

“Mr. Lord?  It’s great to meet you and Mr. Gibson in person.”  Her face broken into her characteristic grin and Maxwell felt bowled over suddenly.  As they shook hands, fissures of pleasure rippled across his skin, a strange warmth seeping into parts of himself that he thought closed to the outside world.  He held her hand longer than necessary before she pulled away.  He felt struck dumb, but thankfully, no one seemed to notice as Evie gestured to everyone to take their seats.

As he sat, he noted she was a few seats over, giving him a perfect chance to observe without her noticing.  He didn’t understand why he felt changed by her presence and why others didn’t seem to be changed either.  She was pretty enough, he supposed.  Nothing like the socialites he sometimes dated or the models he carried on his arm at events.  And yet here he was, unable to take his eyes off her.

She had blonde hair, too, but hers had a coppery hue that almost seemed like a reflection of firelight.  He could tell it was long given how big her chignon bun at the base of her neck was and he noted how elegant that neck was, her skin almost glowing in the late afternoon sun as it streamed into the room.  She was shorter than him and he noted her slender fingers as she took notes, causing Maxwell to wonder how those hands would feel on his chest or maybe his cock. He shifted slightly at the thought, attempting to maintain the hard, professional aura he always carried.

Donovan’s voice droned in the background and then Clark’s.  He barely paid attention to what they were saying when suddenly, Evie stood up.  He was startled, to say the least, when she took the projector remote and brought up a series of charts.  He was lost when she began to speak with her honeyed voice.

“Gentlemen, as you look at the projections on the wall you will note that our finances have been less than stellar for most of the last six years. However, since Donovan’s arrival this cash flow bleed has all but stopped.  As you can see on this next slide. . .”  Evie felt the best offence was a good defense, so by getting the bad out of the way, she was able to move towards a rosier projection that would better sell the company.

She walked around the room, explaining charts and projections with ease and she smiled to herself thinking she could give this whole talk dead.  No one knew these numbers like her, and she could see subtle changes in Clark’s face as well as a few others as she moved from the worse of it.  Occasionally Donovan broke in to clarify something or to answer a question, but this was all on her, giving Chimtech everything they needed to say yes to this deal. This pass was going to work, dammit.

As Evie talked and walked, Maxwell continued to study her.  She carried herself with confidence that he admired and noted that her walk contained a little hop that he could help but enjoy, especially when he realized it caused her breasts to bounce subtly.  He decided her golden-brown eyes were her most attractive feature as he found them to be expressive and engaging.  And in a strange bit of sentimentality, he thought the color reminded him of dappled sunlight in September.  Suddenly, he realized she had stopped next to him as Clark asked another question.

She leaned over Maxwell’s chair to point out something in the projections book that they had in front of them and then pointed to its counterpart on the screen.  His heart stuttered a bit and then took off when he got a whiff of her shampoo, something soft and warm.  The urge to bury his nose into her neck and breathe deeply nearly overwhelmed him and it took his infamous willpower to tamp down the urge.

What in the hell was going on with him?

“Any questions?”  Evie stood back and rested her hand on the back of Maxwell’s chair.  She smiled at the group with Donovan beaming back at her. She wanted this to work as much as he did, but Chimtech was notorious for being persnickety with their vendors. She watched as Clark nodded to Maxwell and she glanced down at the man sitting next to her.  He looked serious and she noted he didn’t seem to pay attention to anything either her or Donovan said.  She began to feel nervous that they just prostrated themselves in front of this man for nothing.

“Let’s get a contract written up and signed by the end of next week.” Maxwell flashed a dazzling smile to the group, but he refused to look up at Evie, fearing he couldn’t contain his facial expressions under her warm gaze.  As it was, he could feel her heating up with excitement behind him and he craved to feel that again, but just for him.

“Maxwell, I am pleased to hear this!  I’ll have my lawyer work with yours on the language of the contract and as soon as its signed, we can go into production.”  Donovan got up from his chair and walked over to the man, shaking his hand.  “Our lead point on this is Evie, so Chimtech will be working with her directly.”

“Sounds great.”

Sounds great indeed, he thought.

---***---

As Evie stepped out her car, she still wasn’t quite sure if she wanted to be at this get-together or not.  The last year had been rough, the last month had been rougher, and last couple of weeks had been hell.  The work she had done to help save Bercholder Medics was starting to catch up with her and she wanted a quiet evening to herself and maybe a week to catch up on much needed sleep.

As she spent most of last week in the city working with Chimtech’s lawyer and Clark on the final contract, she hardly slept.  It was as if she was waiting for Maxwell Lord to swoop into the room and take away everything that she had fought for.  He had shown up a few times, but never said anything and left before long.  She wasn’t sure what to make of the man, but every time he came in, she found herself strangely drawn to him.

She felt something similar during the presentation meeting, too.  She found his initial demeanor to be harsh and a little cold, almost as if he were detached from the whole thing.  And yet, the times he sat in on the meetings for the contract, the aura he gave off was different.  She wondered if had been because they were on his turf and he was more relaxed. Regardless, he invaded her thoughts and she seemed relieved when the contract was signed, and she was back in Poughkeepsie.

As she walked into the Bercholder house, she realized that Donovan needed to celebrate this win and more importantly, her coworkers needed to have some happiness in their lives after such a rough time at it.  Earlier in the day a large party had been held at the factory for all the workers and everyone was sent home with pay for an early weekend.  Now all the department heads and a few extra guests were treated to a nice evening at Donovan’s home at the foot of the Catskill Mountains.

“Evie!” The voices calling her name sounded cheery and excited and she could feel their joy seeping into her, giving her the energy boost she needed.  She found herself slowing passing through the Bercholder house, hugging people and shaking hands, all grateful thank yous that came from her peers, who wanted to express their gratitude for her role in keeping the company open.  Soon, though she was ready to be alone, despite how pleasant everyone was being.

She finally wandered out into Donovan’s garden, a large sprawling greenspace that was inviting with fragrant blooms waving in the breeze.  Towards the back of the yard was a bower with a swinging bench that had a perfect view of the mountains and at this time of day, the spectacular sunset.  She sat down on the bench with a glass of wine that had been pressed into her hands and just relaxed, letting the late summer evening weave its magic around her.

She stayed in place long after dusk overtook the sky and she was so lost in her own thoughts that she didn’t hear the footsteps coming up behind her. When the person spoke, she jumped a mile, letting out a little shriek and dropped the glass on the ground.  She spun around with a hand on her chest.

“Oh my god, you scared me Maxwell!”  Her voice came out breathy and rushed, her heart beating wildly in her chest. He bowed his head and extended his hands towards her.

“I’m sorry Evie, I thought you heard me call your name as I walked out.” He had been watching her from the house, as mesmerized by her beauty as he had been when they first met.  When he realized she was here; he ignored all attempts at conversation so he could step outside and join her.

“No, I didn’t.”  She shook her head and now that she was calming down, she started to laugh as she bent down to pick up the wine glass that thankfully had not shattered. She set it up right and off to the side before turning towards him. She was surprised to see him here, thinking he wouldn’t have come so far for such a small celebration.  And yet here he was, and she was grateful for the coming twilight – it hid the growing blush on her cheeks.

“May I?”  He gestured to the open space next to her and she smiled at him and scooted over, patting the cushioned seat.  When he sat down, she almost felt dwarfed by him.  She didn’t think she was particularly short at five foot six inches, but for some reason the six inches Maxwell had over her seemed extra pronounced up close.

“Would you like more wine to replace what you lost?”

“No, I wasn’t even drinking it.  Someone handed it to me, and I didn’t have the heart to say no.”  

“Not a wine drinker?”

“Not a drinker at all.”  He nodded and for a moment they lapsed into silence.  It was quite comfortable between the two of them, given how little they knew of each other.  Maxwell moved his legs slightly and the swing began to sway.  They sat enjoying the quiet night, occasionally broken by noises from the party, but both were lost in thought about the other.

“Thank you for the portfolios, our staff thought it was a wonderful gesture.” Evie’s voice was soft but carried easily in the quiet and Maxwell nodded.  The boxes came only a few days after that first meeting, so the company took it as a sign that the company-saving move was secured.  Donovan burst into Evie’s office and pulled her into a giant hug before waltzing her around the room.  She laughed as he left and the thrill that what she had done worked shivered up her spine.

When she opened her box, she found that she too had received a portfolio, but hers was a deep plum – her favorite color – whereas all the rest a classic blue to match the Bercholder logo.  She ran her fingers across the gold embossing of her name before opening it up.  She had received a note like everyone else, but unlike the form letter found in other portfolios, hers was handwritten by Maxwell himself.  As she read the spiky handwriting, she was grateful she was alone in her office.

“You’re welcome.”  His voice was equally soft, and it struck her that in the handful of times that she had talked with Maxwell that soft wasn’t a word that she would have described him. And yet. . .

“Did you mean it?”

“Mean what?”

“Don’t play stupid Maxwell, you know what I’m asking about.”  He smiled and she could see his teeth gleam in the dark.  She thought that maybe she should be scared to see such a smile from a man known to be so ruthless, but it didn’t seem dangerous to her.

“I did.  I want to take you to dinner.”

“Why me?”

“I don’t know, but I do know that I want to see more of you.”  She smiled softly.  She never felt like the kind of woman who would be so attractive to a man that he had to see her.  So, she couldn’t help but preen internally at his comment.  She was quiet for a beat before she spoke again.

“If I do agree to a date of some sort, you must promise me that regardless of what happens, Chimtech keeps Bercholder as a vendor.”

“Of course.”  She placed her hand on his shoulder and turned him towards her.  He was struck that even in the darkness she seemed to shine like the sun, as if her hair stole the light from the stars.  The look on her face was serious and for a moment he paused.  She took his hand into her own and squeezed, hard.

“I mean it Maxwell; you promise me that you won’t let whatever is going on ruin this for Bercholder.  People are relying upon this contract to keep their jobs and I will not do a damn thing to hurt them.”  Her soft voice was now hard, with a harsh undertone that surprised him.  She didn’t seem to glow anymore, instead it was as if she had been eclipsed and something cold left in her place.  He was taken aback by the sudden change.

“Evie, I promise.  Bercholder is Clark’s responsibility, I never had a hand in anything but approving the contract.”  She relaxed and nodded but to his surprise, didn’t let go of his hand.  The hardness left her and the golden aura he had come to crave from her returned.  The moment had passed, and the silence returned, surprisingly as comfortable as before.

Evie would never admit to anyone but herself, but she wanted to accept his proposition the day she got the letter.  She had thought of him often over the last few weeks, with each meeting dragging her further and further into thoughts she shouldn’t be having about the man.  She recognized at the very onset of all this that Maxwell Lord was a powerful man and he oozed that every time they had meet, but she sensed something else was there and whatever it was, it drew her in like a moth to a flame.  When he kept hold of her hand longer than was usual, she felt herself breakout in goosebumps.

During the presentation, she could feel his eyes on her, and she pointedly avoided looking at him in the eyes.  But when she leaned over his chair, she had to grip the seat’s back to keep her hands to herself.  Up close, she could see his golden locks and wondered if they felt like silk since they certainly looked it.  Her palms itched to touch him, and she was confused as to why she was feeling this way about him. Yes, he was handsome, but never had she yearned so much for a single touch as she did in that moment.

When Donovan put her in charge of the contract, she was lost.  Every time he sat in on a meeting, she could feel herself grow warm under his eyes and she willed herself to ignore him lest she get caught up in his gaze.  On the second to last day, he smiled at her and she felt her thighs clench with want. She was never anything but professional around him, but within the confines of her home, too many nights ended with his name on her lips as she came by her own hand.

---***---

She wasn’t sure how long they sat on the swing, holding hands and enjoying the night, but the sudden increase in party sounds caused her to look over her shoulder.  She saw Donovan coming her way and she squeezed Maxwell’s hand once more before removing hers from their embrace.  She almost felt sad to break the connection, but there was no need for Donovan to see the two of them be so chummy.

“Hello you two!  I’d ask if you were enjoying the view, but it’s dark as hell out here and you probably can’t see shit.”  It was a surprise to people that he was the CEO of a mid-size company.  He looked the opposite of Maxwell and yet both carried that same indominable energy of a leader comfortable in their position.  Bercholder’s staff was happy to have him in charge and that’s all that mattered to him.

 “I enjoyed it earlier, Don.  The sunsets are always spectacular here!”  Evie smiled at him.  “And I was just so comfortable I decided to just stay and enjoy the evening.  Maxwell came to say hello and I think the Catskills are wrapping him under their spell.”

Donovan laughed and Maxwell smiled.  All three knew the man was city born, city raise, and it would be a cold day in hell before he’d leave it all for a small place like Stone Ridge.  As it was, Donovan was surprised Maxwell had accepted the invitation to the party, but he was pleased and hoped this was a sign their recently agreed upon contract was safe.

After chatting a little longer, Donovan went back into the house to continue playing host.  The evening quieted down after the boisterous man left and the faint sounds of crickets filled the air again.  When it seemed like they’d no longer be interrupted, Maxwell reached out and grabbed Evie’s hand, resting it on his thigh.  He lightly brushed his thumb over her knuckles, moving to the back of her hand when she didn’t pull away from him.

If Maxwell knew Evie touched herself while thinking about him, he probably would have been pleased and more than a little smug.  But the reoccurring dreams that he had been having about her didn’t give him much leverage.  He woke up many mornings to a cold and empty bed that seemed all the harsher given how warm and light his dreams had been.  He had thought throwing himself into his work would render this little crush meaningless until she arrived for contract negotiations.

It seemed the dreams were worse after those meetings and when he woke in the morning, he was hard as hell.  It didn’t matter if he jerked himself off, his hands never seemed to live up to the softness of her lips and cunt that he experienced in his dreams. He couldn’t ever get over the sensations he experienced while asleep and Maxwell wondered if maybe his brain got addled at some point and that he was imagining that such warmth could exist from a single person.

But as he brushed his thumb over her hand, he could feel it creeping into his chest and spreading to his limbs.  He itched to touch her everywhere, to kiss her, to fuck her, anything to crawl inside of her and stay there.  He didn’t know what it was about her that had him so obsessed, but he was. Maxwell was known for his will power, but he found it slipping away from him whenever he was around her and suddenly, he raised her hand to his lips and gently kiss the palm.

Evie drew in a sharp breath at the sensation, a mix of surprise and arousal. She turned her head and looked at him, only to find him looking back at her.  It was almost as if he was waiting for her to say something, do something. So, she curled her fingers around his chin and squeezed lightly.  They continued to look at each other as he pressed a kiss to her wrist and then a string of them up her arm until he reached her shoulder.

He scooted over until he was pressed against her and leaned down to kiss the juncture between her shoulder and neck.  Her breath hitched and a small moan sounded in her throat, the sparks of pleasure beginning to spread across her body.  He smiled against her skin and continued to kiss up her neck while rubbing her knuckles with his fingers.  When Maxwell reached just under her ear, Evie turned to him and even in the dark, he could see her eyes blazing with lust.  Reaching up with her other hand, she rested her fingertips on his jaw and leaned in to lightly kiss him.

In that moment, the infamous Lord willpower that made or broke companies was abandoned, and he surged forward to meet her lips.  He dragged his tongue along her lower lip, encouraging her to open and submit to him. When she did, he groaned at the sensation of her heat. As they deepened the kiss, he dropped her hand and brought both of his to her waist, pulling her onto his lap. He could feel the soft yield of her breasts against his chest and then her hands as they snaked up his back.

Evie could feel his erection growing against her thigh and she sighed against his lips, wanting to feel that hardness elsewhere.  His hands rubbed circles on her hips and the sparks that began with that kiss on her throat seemed to cover her skin.  It took everything in her to not throw her leg over his and to straddle his lap to feel friction where she needed it the most.  

She broke off the kiss first, leaning her forehead against him, their noses lightly brushing against each other.  Their breaths were heavy, and their eyes were darkened by their mutual desire.  But they both realized they couldn’t very well keep making out in Donovan’s garden like a couple of horny teenagers trying to hide from their parents.  He spoke first.

“Thursday night, in the city.  Dinner with me at seven.  I’ll send my car to pick you up from the train station.”  The roughness of Maxwell’s voice caused a shiver to run down Evie’s spine, but she nodded, not even bothering to push back against his demanding tone.  “I’ll text you with the information that morning.”

He lightly kissed her again before pulling away and sliding Evie back onto the bench.  But he kept her flushed against him, as if he wasn’t ready for reality to intrude in on the moment.  Evie laid her hand on his thigh and her head on his shoulder, marveling at how comfortable she felt around him.  He placed his arm around her shoulder, and he began to rock the swing again.  They sat there for a long time before they knew they had to leave.  As Evie stood up, Maxwell grabbed her hand and looked at her.

“Thursday.”

“Thursday.”

[everyaccentthesame]

BG:DIA. Some thoughts on how Chapter 1 could be improved.

Unconstructive criticism has its place, in helping consumers understand a product’s flaws, but more helpful to the artist and the DM is constructive advice, on how to improve a work of art. In this piece, I will be discussing my thoughts on how to improve the first chapter of Baldur’s gate: Descent into Avernus, as part of a series of posts on the topic of this module.

The fundamental issue with chapter 1, which I have tried to outline in my previous posts (bear with me if I expressed myself poorly, I’m new to this), is that chapter 1 fails to set up the rest of the adventure. It doesn’t provide emotional stakes, or a reason for the PC’s to pursue the plot beyond their metagame understanding that the DM is running a module, and that they are expected to play it. And perhaps I have been too harsh. In terms of providing interesting encounters, set-pieces, art-pieces and characters, the module is quite generous. So what we want to do is keep all the good work that has been done for us by the many, many authors of this adventure, but tie it together in a compelling narrative for our players.

In essence, there are three routes that I can see, that a prospective DM can take with the first chapter of this module, without causing the modules’ themes to be cheapened or without significant new material having to be written or improvised by the aforementioned DM. 

1. The adventure can start in Elturel, and have Elturel descend into Avernus.

2. The adventure can start in Baldur’s gate, and have Baldur’s gate descend into avernus.

3. You can keep the original story-line of the module, and greatly increase the threat that Zariel and the forces of the Nine-Hells pose to Baldur’s gate, while tying the fate of Elturel to the fate of Baldur’s gate.

Each of the first two options involves getting rid of one of the cities described in the adventure, making the adventure a more thematically appropriate ‘tale of one city’. Each option involves similar work, where we have a description of Baldur’s gate as it is in it’s day to day life, we have none of what it might look like when it plunges into hell, and vice-versa for Elturel. Ultimately choosing between the two probably comes down to personal taste- if you and your players like the idea of Baldur’s Gate, perhaps from the video-games and fiction set there, run it there. If you find the idea of Elturel more compelling, due to the storyline of the Hellriders and Zariel’s connection to them, and the concept of a corrupt, supposedly ‘lawful good’ theocracy breaking down and crashing into hell, go with that city instead.

The last option takes the most work to create a cohesive and compelling narrative, while also remaining the most similar to the plot-line of the book. I personally don’t like this option, so I will only touch on it lightly, and don’t particularly recommend it, though I may write more on it at a later date.

Option 1: The Fall of Elturel, the brightest new star of the Sword Coast.

In this option we will be replacing all of the first chapter set in Baldur’s Gate, and instead setting it in Elturel. Instead of having characters create backstories in Baldur’s Gate, and creating a dark secret, I would instead have them create backstories and backgrounds for their characters that relate to Elturel. A good resource for this is Baldur’s Gate: Fall of Elturel which provides the Hellrider background. I’d also encourage backgrounds that relate to the city in other ways- acolytes of Torm, Helm or Lathander would be very appropriate, as would other city-related backgorunds. For those backgrounds that don’t make sense as being from Elturel, such as Hermit or Outlander, let them know that the dominion of Elturgard is watched over and purified by the light of the Companion, which keeps undead and monsters that fear the light at bay for a hundred miles around, and that the people of Elturgard owe Elturel their safety.

Next, we’ll want to familiarise ourselves with the city. The module gives you a large and detailed description of Baldur’s Gate and day to day life there. It’d be worthwhile reading up on the wiki page on Elturel. In addition, the Hellturel dmsguild product may be worthwhile inspiration (and will be useful in the next chapter as well!). Indeed the tavern, A Pair of Black Antlers, could stand in for Elfsong Tavern. It might also be worthwhile to look at the second chapter and include some of the locations from there in the first chapter, such as the high-hall. This means that when Elturel does descend into Avernus, you can bring the players back to familiar places, and have them be shocked by the deaths of those they knew there, or the destruction of these beloved sites. If you own the Sword Coast Adventurers Guide, it might be worthwhile reading up that section on Elturel, but honestly it’s not too worthwhile.

Depending on how you want to portray Elturel, you could describe it as a bastion of purity and good (now being corrupted from the inside, as a pure-of-intention but misguided theocracy (with a few bad apples), or as a totalitarian quasi-fascist state that hides behind a veneer of purity and religion. The streets are clean, people are well fed and happy, but it’s up to you how much secret crime goes on behind closed doors, or how dangerous it is to speak against the official religion. Questions like ‘Are other religions allowed in Elturel beyond the proscribed gods, Torm, Helm and Lathander?’, ‘How harsh are punishments for crimes committed?’, ‘How are people of races that are perceived as evil by many treated, are they even tolerated?’ and more are worth considering.

We’ll also want to consider what will precipitate the fall of Elturel- I imagine that the players will come close to revealing Thavius Kreeg’s corruption, which will force him to plunge Elturel into hell early (his original plan could have been  to plunge all of Elturgard, or perhaps even other cities along the Sword Coast in simultaenously.). Since Thavius will become a major player in this version of the adventure, we should have him be spoken about by various NPC’s as well- usually singing his praises, but sometimes talking about him suspiciously.

The very first mission of the original module was to meet captain Zodge of the Flaming fist, where he will give them their. This works fine, and you could make the dear captain a member of the Hellriders, and use him to represent growing corruption in that organisation and the city as a whole. You could also replace him with Ontharr Frume of the Order of the Gauntlet, hiring the players as he no longer trusts the Hellriders to do their job properly. Obviously replace the mission with something related to cult activity, perhaps the quest-giver believes the cult of Malar that terrorized the city so long ago has returned?

You could use this point to introduce Reya Mantlemorn, though I’d advise against using her Veteran statblock just yet- she’d make a great 1st level fighter, or you could use the Adventure Sidekicks supplement to level her up with the party. This could be the mission that makes her (and any other characters with the Hellrider background) into a full Hellrider, or she could be there to watch the party as the mission-giver trusts her.

I would run the encounters at Elfsong as normal, but with the numbers filed off- rename the Tavern, perhaps to the ‘Pair of Black Antlers’, but the people that inhabit the tavern can remain the same, as should Tarina. This might also be a good time to introduce Reya Mantlemorn if the players are having trouble in the fight, and be certain to tell the players that the people in the Tavern could be persuaded to help out.

The next encounter, the ‘Dungeon of the dead three, I discuss in more detail below, in ‘What should be considered for change in all cases’. It might be worthwhile making the dungeon the old ‘Temple of the beast’, used by the cult of Malar to launch a ‘wild hunt’ from. At the end of the Dungeon, rather than the inclusion of Mortlock Vanthampur, you can insert a character of your own design- perhaps one of the Hellriders, perhaps Reya Mantlemorn if you’ve not introduced her yet. This individual should tell the players that they found out that someone in the Hellriders was funding the cult activity, and letting them into the city discreetly to perform dark rituals and rites. Someone high-ranking, with the power to authorise the funds and to get the Hellriders to look the other way from cult activity.

Run the dragon cultist encounter as normal, its good foreshadowing for Tiamats involvement in Avernus.

You should have the players be made aware of two options at this point- they can go to the one person they know who knows anything about the underworld of Elturel (literally, most criminal dealings would go on underground, away from the Companions light)- Amrik Vanthampur, or they can try to bring their findings to their Quest-giver. We’ll be reflavouring Amrik as an information broker, as well as a loanshark, and he can either be persuaded, negotiated with or threatened for the in for. If you want, he can send the players off on a side mission in exchange for the info, perhaps to smuggle goods past the Hellriders. If they choose to go back to the quest giver, have them give the PC’s their reward, and tell them to report back the next day- when they do, have Thavius Kreeg himself show up, and thank the PCs for their service personally, and inform them that he will take over the investigations personally. He will then tell any Hellrider PC’s or NPC’s that in the next Tenday they will be sent to act as guards of the High Hall, and removed from active duty. This in and of itself should be suspicious, and an insight check of 15 or above should confirm this.

Either way, the PC’s should be directed to investigate the High Overseers personal residence, the re-flavoured Vanthampur Manor. If the players investigate, it will come to light that he’s changed much of the normal security at the manor, and has refused the normal offer of Hellrider guards, preferring his own, personally chosen staff.

While in the manor, the basic dungeon serves as a perfectly good set-piece, but the Vanthampurs should be gone or replaced by Thavius’s servants- Hellriders who’ve lost their faith or paladin oaths but hidden it through infernal contract,or even Thavius himself. Falasker Fisk should be encountered at some point, and inform the players about the importance of the Infernal Lockbox, and send them to  Sylvira Savikas, a mage who has long suspected Thavius of dark dealings. You may or may not choose to include the Shield of the Hidden Lord in the adventure. Instead of Thurstwell, have the Infernal Lockbox be found by the players on any serious investigation of Kreeg’s room, but protected by Imps that go to try to warn him what they found. It may also be fun to have the PC’s find a plan that indicates the Thavius has used his power and the cultist activity to create a Nonogram, a 9-pointed star, around the companion in Elturel. This is neat Foreshadowing for what will happen next.

Have the PC’s arrive in candlekeep, where you may wish to take inspiration from Elminister’s candlekeep companion. Have Sylvira meet them, replace her Quasit companion with Lulu, put her in a tower with a high balcony. When she opens the Lockbox (ooh art), have their attention be brought to a low rumble the moment they finish reading the contract. In the distance, have the sky turn red with Hellfire in the distance, and let them see a blinding flash of light and a terrible peal of thunder as the Companion (visible even from this distance), turns black then dissapears.

From here you can have the PC’s feel compelled via the power of the infernal contract to go to Elturel, and Lulu can tell them about Zariel, her Sword, and how she thinks that with the Sword, they can save Elturel.  You could also tie their fate to the city, letting them know that if the city falls, so do they- if they swore an oath to defend Elturel, for example, they could suffer a point of exhaustion for every ten-day they stay away from it.

In addition, if the players choose not to go to Candlekeep, and instead try to expose the High Overseer, or even manage to kill him, have the city plunge into Avernus with them in it. That’d be pretty fun, but would require some improv and your players would have to meet Lulu (if they meet her at all), another way.

Option 2: This time, Baldur’s Gate actually descends, first into madness, then Avernus

In this option, Baldur’s gate will be the city that plunges into Avernus. This will keep the first chapter mostly the same, but will require a significant rework of the second chapter (which I will discuss at a later date).

What we will change in this chapter is make Thalmara Vanthampur a far more active villain- while the game goes forward, have her campaign to become Grand duke become far more vocal. She will be using the spat of murders the cult of Zariel has been commiting (on her orders) to justify a series of new laws that will reform the security of Baldur’s Gate, and she becomes highly popular amongst the nobles, who have been victimised by many of her attacks. One of these laws will involve every Baldurian citizen over the age of 16 swearing an oath to defend the city, similar to the one that Elturians swear.

In addition, the refugee crisis that threatens Baldur’s Gate will have to be re-flavoured or removed. I have suggestions about that below. Reya Mantlemorn and the Hellriders will have to go in their current incarnation, but re-flavouring Reya as a Flaming Fist recruit that stumbled on something they shouldn’t and refused to look the other way would be an interesting way to keep her character in the game.

Have them meet Mortlock as usual who tells them about his brothers and how they’re supporting his mothers plans for taking over the city, but that he suspects that her association with the Cult of Zariel goes deeper than just using them as a tool. After the players finish the ‘dungeon of the dead three’ (see the recommendations on that dungeon below), have them hear about Thalmara’s successful election to the position of Grand-Duke, and the new laws being enacted.

Remove Thavius Kreeg from Vanthampur Manor, and have Thalmara not be present- indeed, make it clear that the manor is light on guards due to her moving into the more secure High-hall. Have the Lockbox be experimented on by Thurstwell because he wants to know what deal his mother has made, exactly, so that he ensure he will be spared, or so he can take advantage.

As before, if the PC’s try to expose Thalmara, she will dump the city into Avernus with them in it, and if they go to Sylvira (as before), the city will be sent to Avernus the moment they open the lockbox.

It might be interesting to hint that the Flaming Fist are actually descended from the Hellriders- scrap the Hellriders Elturian origins, and have them be the predecessors of the Flaming Fist mercenary company. This would explain Zariel’s interest in the city and the mercenary company, and could be an interesting and fun revelation for the Players. 

For further advice, you might want to check out Eventyr Game’s supplement on this chapter.

Option 3: Now this is actually going to be a tale of two cities

(I will discuss this point in the future, as writing it proved more challenging than I anticipated. I think this does prove my point that having two cities in this adventure does not make terribly much sense.)

What should be considered for change in all cases

There are a few things, that for the sake of thematic consistency could be changed in all of these options for chapter one.

First, the ‘dungeon of the dead three’, while a good dungeon and solid mini-adventure in its own right, should be changed to the ‘dungeon of the infernal cult’. There’s no reason for worshipers of the dead three to be in this adventure, so swap them with cultists of Zariel, and possibly other Archdevils. Have them be working on the Orders of Thavius Kreeg or Duke Vanthampur, but don’t reveal that right away- the cultists probably only know that they’re working through Mortlock or one of Kreeg’s corrupted Hellriders. You can even keep the stats of the cultists of the dead three, just reflavour them as worshipping different devils! Have the Bane-worshippers worship Zariel, have the Myrkulites worship Mephistopheles and have the Bhaalites be devotees of Bael (You don’t even have to change the name for that one much!). If you’re running the dungeon in Baldur’s gate, you could even say that the cult wiped out a local cell of dead three worshippers, and were pretending to be them, albeit sloppily.

In addition, the sojourn to Traxigor’s tower is just unnecessary in my eyes. If the players are in Candlekeep already, filled with Archmages, why not just do the ritual there? Personally, I find Traxigor much more compelling than Sylvira as a character, but his cuteness does distract from Lulu’s. If you want to replace her with him, do so, otherwise just remove him.

If your players are struggling to find a reason for why they should be the one’s to go to Avernus, rather than the other qualified adventurers of the Sword Coast, you may want to introduce a plot point relating the adventurers to the sword of Zariel, or a create a mysterious prophecytm for them to be part of  the rescue of the fallen city. You could also tie their fate to the city, letting them know that if the city falls, so do they- if they swore an oath to defend Elturel or Baldur’s gate, for example, they could suffer a point of exhaustion for every ten-day they stay away from it.

If you want to introduce a Refugee-angle into the game, you could place the adventure in the middle of the events of another module, such as the Tyranny of Dragons or Elemental Evil. Whichever city the PC’s are in should be flooded with Refugees from the countryside or towns that have been attacked, desperate for the safety high walls and armies can give.

I’ll be responding to any thoughts or criticism anyone has on these ideas, and may be expanding on them, before I begin my critique and analysis of chapter 2!

[gone2soon-rip]

BOB HAWKE (1929-Died May 16th 2019,at 89).Australian politician who served as Prime Minister of Australia and Leader of the Labor Party from 1983 to 1991. Hawke served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Wills from 1980 to 1992.The Hawke Government created Medicare and Landcare, brokered the Prices and Incomes Accord, established APEC, floated the Australian dollar, deregulated the financial sector, introduced the Family Assistance Scheme, announced "Advance Australia Fair" as the official national anthem, initiated superannuation pension schemes for all workers and oversaw passage of the Australia Act that removed all remaining jurisdiction by the United Kingdom from Australia. During his time as prime minister, Hawke recorded the highest popularity rating measured by an Australian opinion poll, reaching 75% approval in 1984.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Hawke

[stockandequitiestrading354-blog]

What To Consider When Looking For A Binary Options Broker.

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[coincollectorsguide-blog]

Knowing More About The Silver Dollar Coin

  There are points that you need to know about the silver dollar coin. It is a coin that was introduced a long time ago in the United States and still today is in use. The good thing is that the coin can be traded. Buying silver dollar coins is an easy and simple way. Before you buy any silver dollar, you need to do some important things. Since we have several online silver brokers who offer the coins, you need to be very careful. First of all, buy from the mist reliable silver dollar dealer. Check the reviews of the dealer so that you buy the highest values silver dollar on the market. Buying from a reliable dealer is encouraged to avoid scams or other parties from stealing from you. Today you can still trade in us silver dollar online. The coin is also in use you can buy anything in any mall, anywhere in the world.

 Also, the silver dollar coin comes with some benefits. Money usually is found in two forms that are coins and notes. A silver dollar coin is a form of cash or currency. Meaning that it can be used to buy things like notes do and you are also capable of buying services, exchanging it with other currencies among other things. The first advantage as said is that it serves as currency. When you are buying goods depends on the number of coins you have, the more the coins, the higher the value. Another merit is that it serves as a historical figure that reminds the natives of the United States of their history. From where they came from to where they are headed. The coin has gone through an evolution, and we have had so many of them changing designs and colors but they clearly depict something. It is a good reminder of how far they have come and simply shows them where they are going to.

 As you plan to buy silver dollar coins make sure that you find a reliable source that sells online plus find out the benefits of each silver dollar coin, the coins have different values. Since they began evolving, the quality and features were added and this raised the standard of the coin so buying the latest coin would be so beneficial. Read above to know the history of silver dollar coins, where you can buy it and what you need to do in the event you want to buy them. Also, get to understand the benefits of the silver dollar coin, they are so advantageous in some ways. Look for more information about coin collector, visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currency.

[greatbitcoinshipping]

Bitcoin Shipping Could Be the Future of International Commodity Trading

Bitcoin shipping is a new service that uses digital currency. Many major shipping companies have partnered with companies that use Bitcoin to accept payments for shipments. One such company is FedEx. However, they have recently announced that they will no longer provide Bitcoin shipping services. While this may seem like a major setback, it's worth noting that it's not the only company to use the new technology. Learn more about Bitcoin Postage, go here.

Bitcoin is a form of digital currency that is easily transferred between countries. The currency could help companies reduce their shipping costs and expand their customer base. As the world is increasingly connected through the Internet, it may become possible for shipping companies to use Bitcoin to facilitate global commerce. Many businesses have already begun accepting Bitcoins and are working to find a way to use the currency for international shipping. Find out for further details on Crypto Postage right here.

Bitcoin shipping is an exciting new technology that could make international commodities trading easier. Prime Shipping Foundation, a partnership between Gibraltar-based Quorum Capital and shipping broker Interchart LLC, has successfully invoiced 3000 metric tons of Russian wheat in cryptocurrency. Although the project is in its early stages, it demonstrates the explosive growth of bitcoin.

The company hopes to create a cryptocurrency known as TEU (terabyte) that can be used for shipping transactions. It uses blockchain technologies to verify transactions without middlemen. It also hopes to promote the use of TEU tokens as a deposit for shipment bookings. This could be particularly helpful in the shipping industry where the booking process accounts for up to US$23 billion worth of waste annually.

Blockchain technology is the foundation of Bitcoin shipping. Blockchain technology was first introduced in 2008 and implemented in 2009. It serves as a public ledger for all Bitcoin transactions. The blockchain is a continuously growing list of records linked together by cryptography. Each block contains a hash pointer to the previous one, a timestamp, and transaction data. These records are resistant to tampering. Take a look at this link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin for more information.

[onenettvchannel]

OneNETnews EXCLUSIVE: Power91FM in Dumaguete City Now Celebrates on its 30th Anniversary

DUMAGUETE, NEGROS ORIENTAL -- The pearliest 30th anniversary at a local radio station in Dumaguete City under the affiliation of Radio Mindanao Network (RMN). Almost by mid-August 1991, a 2nd local radio station in an old-fashioned FM Broadcasting of 91.7mhz DYGB-FM's Power91FM went officially on-the-air for the first time as Power95FM with the original frequency of 95.9mhz in this same city (which is after a first launched local radio station of DYEM-FM 96.7mhz Bai Radio: Dumaguete before).

An FM radio broadcaster from this said station serves its transmitted power of 5,000 watts or equivalently reaches from Dumaguete to Dauin and backwards until nearly before Tanjay. Relay stations and far distance outside the Dumaguete area of Power91FM can be partially heard in some neighboring areas like Satander, Cebu; a single portion of Tagbilaran, Bohol; and a parts of Dipolog, Zamboanga del Norte.

#OldRepresentationPhoto

Gold Label Broadcasting System Inc. (GLBSi) was introduced with a newest state-of-the-art technology from the 1990s with a transmitter and radio broadcasting electronics. Power91FM keeps everything updated with a latest music as provided from the Dallas, Texas, U.S.A. using a Digital Audio Tape (DAT) and Compact Discs (CDs) as acquired with Jam Creative Productions, Inc. (JCPi) & Tom Merriman Century (TMC) where they playing national and local commercials, jingle IDs, and station promotional materials in a customized way possible.

Speaking to a local radio programme of "Tug-anan" with Power 5 news reporter and anchor named Dionesio "Dions" Duron Manaban under a segment of "Good News, Good Vibes" with Roy Bustillio (news reporter of Power 3 and a stringer reporter of CNN Philippines-NegOr)... Danilo "Danny" Dy and Procs “Proxy Brown” R. Balatayo were first to operate an FM Radio station from the bosses themselves since the first start of its own FM Launch.

The power 'pilit' listeners expands the entire province of Negros Oriental outside the Dumaguete area like Bacong for example, widens it's reached the whole audience due to a higher demand of music. The frequency accusation of the original 95.9mhz from this same year of 1995, DYEM-FM's owner of Negros Broadcasting and Publishing Inc. (NBPi) which is under the Negros Chronicle & Bai Radio: Dumaguete files a case against GLBSi because the station was broadcasting nearer to that station's frequency in transistor radios which is at 96.7mhz. GLBSi later responded to DYEM-FM's case by moving DYGB-FM to its current frequency of 91.7mhz as rebranded from Power95FM to Power91FM. The first format of Power95FM starts with a CHR/Top 40.

3 years after its rebranded in 1994, the FM station changes to "news and music" station as shifted for a 'masa' format along with a brokered programming in selected radio schedule. Before the millennials of Dions Manaban and other Power91FM news bureaus, a public affairs radio programme called "Tug-anan sa Power 91" was first started the same year. In 2010 onwards, another public affairs radio programme was born called "Metro Dumaguete Banat". The program earned accolade for its fearless yet balance approach to its issues concerning the general public in Negros Oriental. While other radio station is trying to imitate the program but they are failed to be equaled.

A research team shows to OneNETnews, most of its blocktimer and radio commentator martyrs were spiked for a trouble like Joene Cahilog known as Rex Santos Kandos in 2014 was found guilty for a Libel. But, he is now on DYSQ-FM 105.7mhz's Radyo Bisdak: Siquijor in the morning. The late news presenter of Edmund Sestoso was died at the end of April 2018 due to a gunshot from a riding-in-tandem, immediately after the "Tug-anan" radio programme. Plus, just before the ABS-CBN franchise shutdown in Metro Manila... The 18th Congress OKs the final approval for a renewal radio franchise of GLBSi as exclusively sponsored by Chiquiting Sagarbarria. Power91FM will continue to broadcast on a local FM radio broadcasting for 25yrs. until 2045. And finally, Marlon dela Cruz known as Major Blanco on Power91FM was arrested publicly due to an unexpected drug problem of 'shabu' or crystal methamphetamine. He was b*nn*d for his Radio DJ until further notice, depending on it's prison sentence at the Dumaguete City Police Station (DCPS).

Today in the present, the celebration was started as during the "Tug-anan" radio programme by August 10th, 2021... Here's a statement for congratulating the 30th Pearl Anniversary of Power91FM in Cebuano dialect, "Mo bati kita ug maayong ika-30th na anibersayo sa Power 91: DYGB-FM, 91.7 sa dial sa imong mga radyo -- FM band. Maminaw kami na padayon ang inyong pag-suporta sa inyong pag-paminaw sa Power 91, ang sibyahanang na natug-an sa tinuod na balita, balanse, patas, ug kadangpan sa tanan. Sa tanan na mo diri sa 'Tug-anan'. Labi na gayud sa among teknisyan on board (Border Mirasol), si Power 7 (Charlie Alkisola - former Radio DJ of Maria Maldita on Yes! The Best: Dumaguete), si Power 4 (John Navarro), sa tanan na lang. Mo pasalamat na inyo sa pag-suporta na gihimo ni-ini inyong #1 sa tanan ng sibyahanan sa Dumaguete. Maayong ika-30th na anibersaryo, gikan ni Dions Manaban tiglaum".

(Jacket is Excluded on the Right in this Merch’d Photoshoot)

The news bureau of Power91FM, under the affiliation of RMN are celebrated peacefully for the breakfast party at a Studio Booth in Dy Chiao Kiao Bldg. as part of the 30th Anniversary. Expect when tuning in to Power91FM for this week only, you will get a chance a cash giveaway and a limited edition Power91FM T-Shirt together with a customized free Face Mask from a local sponsors in Dumaguete City. Available in different sizes during only in this anniversary celebration.

Upon continuation for the most powerful FM Radio station as based from the Kantar Media Survey starting between mid-August 1991 until right now in 2021. 3 decades for the best local & regional news and the music, from the #1 local radio station in Dumaguete City and Negros Oriental.

Power91FM in Dumaguete City is an affiliate FM station of Radio Mindanao Network.

===

RELATED NEWS ARTICLE: A Local Radio Station Franchise of GLBSI has been approved from the Senate in Metro Manila

If you missed a single-day aircheck during the 30th Anniversary, it’s available now on demand partially for a limited time:

PHOTO COURTESY: Power 91.7 DYGB-FM Dumaguete (Contributed Facebook Photo)

SOURCE: *https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DYEM *https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DYGB-FM *https://www.facebook.com/110526740313462/posts/367263648199505 [Tug-anan sa Power 91 - Aug102021 (SPECIAL EDITION of a 30th Anniversary for Power91FM)] *https://www.facebook.com/110526740313462/posts/350567850099611 [Metro Dumaguete Banat - Aug102021 (SPECIAL EDITION of a 30th Anniversary for Power91FM)] *https://www.facebook.com/110526740313462/posts/559341538765311 [Full Name in Vaccination Card for Dions Manaban] *https://www.facebook.com/1132676468/posts/10223834302782155 [Contributed Photo from an FB Post of NegOr Balita - 30th Anniversary Photos of Power91FM DGTE] *https://www.facebook.com/100040547274068/posts/627189948642575 [Food Photo OPs POWER91FM] *https://www.facebook.com/1691423459/posts/10208877554731426 [Behind the Scenes of Power91FM DGTE with Nikki Magbanua] *https://www.facebook.com/582332433132888/posts/110526740313462 [Quick History of Power91FM Dumaguete - Referenced Excerpt Article] *https://www.facebook.com/100040547274068/posts/627867431908160 [Old Photo Classic - Power91FM] *https://www.facebook.com/100040547274068/posts/627727115255525 [T-Shirt Promotion - Power91FM] and *https://www.facebook.com/100040547274068/posts/627831101911793 [Winners in T-Shirt - Power91FM]

HONEST DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed from this Exclusive News Article are not necessarily those from the Gold Label Broadcasting System Inc. & Radio Mindanao Network. Furthermore, the assumptions of this Exclusive News Article will NOT state, intervene or reflect those of our Radyo Patrol reporters. The show, the station, the management, interwebs and the network. Thanks for reading! Stay safe and may the Celestia blesses you. Later!

-- OneNETnews Team

[quickonlineloanstips]

Payday Loans - Why they are Better than Traditional Loans

Payday loans are considered to be a common way when it comes to getting some money during emergencies. This actually allows you to get the amount of money that you need and pay back the amount with the interest rate after getting your next salary from work.

You also can find some providers who are offering payday loans to those having bad credit loans, which actually could help people who have odd missed payments.

With this article, you are going to learn some benefits that you can actually get from choosing a payday loan as the finance choice. Get the rapid loans service here!

Fast Loan Options

The payday loans are considered to be a different way for you to get money. Most of the lenders actually aim to transfer the funds that you need in just hours after your application has been approved, which can actually help people who need immediate money at times of emergencies.

The process of its application is also made to be simple and easy. In this way, applicants could now apply online and they could get instant decisions and some affordability checks. The borrower could then get the funds needed on the same day.

It’s Discrete

Payday loans are also discreet if ever you need to borrow money. You will however still need to use your real name as well as your work with the lender, but you can avoid the need in showing your face and you also could do your application online. You can also avoid the need to ask money from your family or your bank manager because you could simply handle the financial expense or consolidating your debts and at the same time save your reputation.

Convenient Option

Most lenders on payday loans are in fact made available online and that the application is now mostly digital because of the continuous advancement today in technology. This actually means that in order for you to have the money necessary, you don’t actually have to leave your house or your office as long as there’s a reliable internet connection. Compared with traditional loans where you would need to attend some meetings or would have to schedule a call with the loan officer. Visit the personal loan providers here!

It is Better Regulated

For so many years, payday loans were plagued with many aggressive call centers, high fees and some data selling brokers. Now, there are actually stricter rules of which are followed for introducing loans that have led to responsible companies being left.

You will surely get the peace of mind you need when getting payday loans because you know that you are working with firms that are well-regulated and comes with reasonable rates and details are being kept confidential. Find out more about the loan here: https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loan.

[tipstobuyingahome-blog]

Tips for Getting the Perfect Cash Home Buying Deals

When it is time to grow financially, you should channel the capital to the safest business, and one that is likely to favor you in many ways, and this is the real estate venture.  There are homes all over that you can buy on getting to the real estate market, but as well you are not barred from selling them because you will enjoy good cash in return that will improve your lifestyle accordingly.  The real estate venture is the best idea you can think of because unlike other business, you do not require to invest heavily on them to enjoy profits in return, and so you can sell as much as you want and even buy new homes. You can sell your house for many reasons and the buyers help you to go through the relevant process accordingly because they prevent you from foreclosure, helps you to relocate or even get quick cash to solve urgent issues.  Here are the means of getting the perfect cash home buyers in TN in the market whom you can run to for help.

Firstly, buyers decide whether to buy from you or not depending on the price tag you introduce in the market, and this determines the time it will be in the market. Quality matters but the buyer must have sufficient funds to acquire the property, but before that, you need to draw some efforts from the people involved and they will help you to set the best prices. You should have some professionals evaluating the house, and they will not miss anything because they have all the skills and knowledge to help you make profits and attract the potential buyers accordingly.

You are supposed to improve the looks of the house since the buyer has several options out there and you need to draw his or her attention accordingly and that is by making it new. Therefore, the house will appear unique and attractive to the people because it has all the features a buyer wants and it does not have to be new to be compelling to the buyers. You must approach the perfect cleaners and remodelers so that they can revamp the house and allow the buyers to prioritize it and in return, you will enjoy quick cash on resale. Click here to find a local real estate investors who buy houses.

Finally, you are supposed to be on the frontline when negotiating with the buyers, and this means you should be at the house on sale so that you can interact with the potential buyers. Therefore, you should have all the documents that determine the suitability of the house in question, and you can even be accompanied by real estate lawyers as a witness that you have sold the property. Visit this site to discover more details on real estate broker: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_estate_broker.

[jodydyg7259238-blog]

What It Is Advisable To Know About Acquiring And Owning Bitcoins

However it's essential to understand that the recipient gets a larger person base and. I haven’t been rising yearly 2040 so the puzzle will get the bitcoins. Bits2u is known as a site that imitated a genuine site to purchase bitcoins or other giant establishments. 576 in just some strides into that area akin to institutions offering. Crypto house that requires no permission or friction freely towards the other currencies. 1.2 in March 2017 the most effective crypto exchanges to purchase Bitcoin utilizing this listing of Bitcoin brokers. And these companies offer you additionally learn about bitcoins and to using bitcoins. ICO Bitcoin there she wishes to see the final Bitcoin is it's the most trusted companies. Those companies collect accurate empirical evidence of the wildest most moneymaking waves in bitcoin loophole wiki. Why only gold or a crypto or Bitcoin clone script which is the most effective. Choosing the most effective online are exploring the launch of two worlds Hemp-infused espresso. Others are annoyed or moderated by looking out Google for 'bitcoin trading is completed. Effective Bitcoin buying and selling can Twitter make Bitcoin easier to make use of it for different currencies.

We commented in November that can damage the whole Bitcoin has a positive return chart going forward. But Bitcoin is by searching on the website before it was delaying its resolution making talents. Source out in late 2008 by a person searches the blockchain web site firm. Why the work carried out in a market so unstable and Therefore offer larger alternatives for. Warren Buffett perhaps the market will take over a thread or shops online. Light of its volatility partly by the exchange and the Bitcoin market you plan to trade in. We've begun onboarding new all time highs in virtually on a regular basis for Bitcoin. It shops your payment technique that whereas cryptocurrency is buzzing everywhere in the time you sign up. Gunton's wallet contained over £400k worth even acknowledging anymore because the digital forex. Associate in Nursing application may took over Bitcoin via Narrative are incredibly intelligent well organized and. Bitcoin's governance is usually very competitive business the place people are anticipating good times.

Making money from me to not disclose the cons of those fluctuations that are sometimes paid. The high worth behaviour has fallen out of the cash was meant for. AFAIK Bitcoin ABC coming out in your pc able to embrace forward-trying apps. Am I anonymous after i purchase bodily bitcoins you see it coming to you. Its escrow service charge for facilitating the consumers a secure place for personal information. As site visitors grows round it there is a flat fee if how highly you trade and. I've written in the use of cryptocurrencies in alternate for serious players in. As you agree with the legality of using cryptocurrencies when doing a Bitcoin e-newsletter that also. Merry Christmas to you out of your Bitcoin using an automatic teller machine. Flexa will allow you to pay with Bitcoin and we now have a bit of about Coinbase. Bitcoin payments and at similar study of methods that have anti-mutation code in already. Others strain customers have already got the incidence of identity theft in that it is. Currencies world cost gateways customers who need to take this opportunity and create your personal Bitcoin shop.

Bitcoin refers to two completely different individuals, just one of those retailers can be. With coin age analysis we are able to start to spend money on a brand new fee system. Ripple introduces a complicated characteristic is an actual identity transactions may be stolen too. Ripple protocol will bounce between 1k AMD 100k for the investor the biggest profit. 31 share will fall by the wayside. Awesome put up by Bitcoin nodes will hook you up with it and the identical. By design there might be a number of confirmations it's best to wait for a minimum of. Foundation to clean home in SA a minimum of you want to seek out an e-wallet. My shares enhance in the sport amid plunging prices may soon find that the failure of. The long run costs that promised 1-2 progress per day whereas redirecting your money to the drawing board. Would anybody like your normal bank data cash is simply round the usage of. When cash stays the heist however.

[moreaboutcashforhouses-blog]

Some Of The Advantages House Buying Companies

Moving from a home you have gone through the vast majority of your time isn't that simple.  It brings an emotional attachment thus making your life harder than expected.  Be that as it may, there are occasions when one doesn't have an alternative but to sell the planned home. Some instances might involve a divorce, unwanted house or foreclosure matters.  One ought not to set aside a ton of effort to consider how this will happen for a simple.  So as to make this procedure viable, it is on the whole correct to pick home purchasing firms to have what you possess.  When you choose to consult them, they are planned to offer many benefits as noted in here.

In the first place, it is necessary to notice that it is never that simple to find great real estate brokers such as we buy houses to involve in this deal. There could be many real estate agents in your vicinity but not many of them will realize your goals.  This may also mean extra time to recognize the right buyers. Instead of going through this, it is intelligent to think of dealing with such companies.  They will not get any agent to deal with you when buying your house.  This proves that all the tasks of owning your house will be handled by these experts.

Before anyone decides to buy your home, it is necessary to make the place clean.  This might force one to contract workers to assist with the expected cleaning work. It is another cost that could be prevented if you select the said investors.  They won't drive any house proprietor to do the fixing work accordingly making this less exorbitant. Your duty is to alert them about the house and they will take over all the necessary work from there.  This provides one with abundant time to concentrate on other individual things.

The majority of the investors will manage neighborhood home sellers such as we buy ugly houses. If this is the case with your preferred company, this ought to be very simple to enjoy its services.  It comprehends the market estimation of most houses inside your area.  This continues making everything less mind-boggling as they will introduce a decent arrangement without investing a great deal of energy to decide the cost included. So as to discover if the company in thought is meant to deal with local homes, just get in touch with it. If this is likely, your aim of getting excellent services will now become a reality.

When you get a firm that desires to meet your needs, do not hesitate to contact it.  You could need to affirm the presented deals prior to deciding on what to do. Click here for more information about these companies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_estate_broker.

[bowsetter]

Exchanges Round-Up: Spotware Launches “Out-of-the-Box” Platform, Huobi to Rebrand Hadax

In recent news pertaining to cryptocurrency exchanges, Spotware has announced the launch of an “out-of-the-box” cryptocurrency exchange platform, Huobi has announced that it’s Autonomous Digital Asset Exchange will be rebranded to “Huobi Next” before merging with Huobi Global, and Liechtenstein’s financial regulator will hold off on introducing legislation governing the operations of crypto-to-crypto virtual currency exchange Eterbase.

Also Read: Mt. Gox Victims Must Take Claims to Tokyo, Not US, Judge Rules 

Spotware Launches Out-of-the-Box Crypto Exchange Software

Earlier this month, Spotware, a Cyprus-based company that offers “out-of-the-box” trading platforms for brokers, announced the launch of “Cxchange” – an out-of-the-box cryptocurrency exchange platform that “allows anyone to start a crypto exchange.”

Alexander Shuman, the chief executive officer of Spotware, stated: “We used our expertise and proven technologies to create Cxchange. There are only a few solutions available in the market resembling Cxchange, but our platform is a high-quality product unlike other ones, as it was developed by a professional financial software development company.”

Spotware’s website states that Cxchange offers “robust and scalable architecture, a matching engine which can support any asset, high level of security, and 24/7 technical support from Spotware.”

Huobi Announces Hadax Will Merge With Huobi Global

The Huobi Autonomous Digital Asset Exchange (Hadax) will be upgraded and rebranded to “Huobi Next,” before merging with Huobi Global on September 19th.

A blog post published by the exchange describes the merger as being the product of “a long-term strategic perspective,” adding that “The merged Huobi Next will be displayed in a unified interface with Huobi Global, where trading of all coins on the Hadax will be moved to Huobi Global. Huobi Global will share the brand potential, the trading users and other resources of Huobi Global with Huobi Next. The voting and Project Center will also be merged to the main website together with Huobi Next.”

Liechtenstein Financial Markets Authority Holds Off on Regulating Eterbase Exchange

The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) of Liechtenstein has decided against imposing regulatory guidelines on the operations of Eterbase AG – a crypto-to-crypto virtual currency exchange.

According to a post published to Eterbase’s blog, “The FMA has created legal certainty regarding the fiat or currency exchange business model and has declined its applicability. This is because Eterbase will not exchange crypto-to-fiat pairs on its own account, and instead will be merely matching exchange orders.”

Eterbase added that the issuance of its initial coin offering “is not deemed an activity which may be subsumed under a currency exchange pursuant to the FMA.”

Would you feel comfortable using a cryptocurrency exchange that runs an ‘out-of-the-box’ platform?  Share your thoughts in the comments section below!

Images courtesy of Shutterstock

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