#jaal seems popular

[zerogravity-photography]

Unique Arabic Mehndi Designs Every Bride Would Adore

Introduction:

The popularity of Arabic bridal mehndi designs has increased recently. It gives the traditional mehndi patterns new life with its modernity and creativity. Arabic mehndi incorporates floral art and geometric motifs to create stunning, striking patterns.

We come across fascinating mehndi patterns every day based on creativity. Arabic mehndi is preferred by modern brides since it is less time-consuming to apply and requires less downtime. Because it was easier to create, it had a very clean and sophisticated feel. We have gathered a few breathtaking Arabic mehndi patterns to wow you. Time to write down some creative concepts!

Henna Design in Great Detail:

We appreciate how this design balances open areas with intricate embellishments! Despite being little, it appears fuller than it actually is. The mehndi is simple, but your hands will stick out.

The impression of Leaflet:

Looking for a roka mehndi design in the Arabic style? In either case, we’ve got the best choice for you. A lovely depiction of leaves and dots permeates these patterns. This pattern will appear quite rich once the colour has been taken, as Arabic designs often incorporate thick mehndi.

Minimal Wrist design:

Who said you have to constantly have Arabic Mehndi designs covering your entire hands? Take a look at this! The wrist patterns are just stunning! If you don’t want to have henna on your hands, you’ve found the perfect substitute. It’s also really simple to create!

Jaali Arabic Design:

The traditional jaali designs are well known, but this one seems more organic. There are no further complementary designs included, allowing the beautiful jaal details to take center stage. Jaal designs that imitate the Arabic henna designs give the appearance that the hand is covered with lovely stones.

Motifs Design:

The focus of this design is the elaborate patterns that highlight the hand. Finally, a fascinating design that is undoubtedly stunning. This detailed and lovely minimalist Arabian mehndi design is undoubtedly a go-to for the contemporary bride.

Palm Cuff Decorative Design:

Palm cuffs were really popular a few years ago! We chose to include a mehndi pattern that resembles that jewellery item as the craze has faded now. We like the grace with which this one displays patterns like greenery and lotuses. Keep in mind that your fingers will be freed up by this Arabic henna pattern so you can hold the wine glass!

Geometric Design:

It’s a gorgeous Arabic mehndi design with geometric motifs that resemble tribal tattoos for the hands. is more attractive when created with black mehndi. Because of the bracelet on the forearm and the structures that mimic beads on the fingers, this Arabian mehndi design is one to bookmark.

Butterfly Mehendi Design:

Being the most recent Arabic mehndi art design, one cannot but attempt it.. Owing to its exquisite beauty!

Rose Arabic Design:

Flowers don’t just have to be used as wedding décor; using them as motifs in your Arabic henna design can also get you accolades. If you want to avoid going crazy with the Mehndi design and have a modest wedding, any of these are the best choices for you.

Floral Mehndi Design:

An Arabic-inspired mehndi pattern for a floral shower? Who would have thought that a mehndi pattern with only one motif could seem so seductive? The broad floral designs on the hand are simple yet lovely.

Lateral Arabic Design:

Like this one, simple mehndi patterns don’t necessarily have to be dull and unconventional. Even if the pattern is a typical floral one, the bottom of the hand is where it is constructed! As a result, if you dislike trendy fashions, this one is appropriate for you.

Unique Finger Designs:

Since few brides think that their hands should be totally covered with mehndi, they could pick this straightforward Arabic henna design. Although this one is rather straightforward, it would look stunning for nuptial rituals like raka, engagement, and more! Detailed fingers but sparsely ornamented palm. Rich appearance, yes!

Mandala Bridal Mehndi:

Here, a lot of beads are used to creatively construct the design. The design has a magical quality thanks to the mandala, and the two together make it one of our favourites. Modern brides are becoming increasingly enamoured with the traditional mehndi design, which was only a mandala drawn in the center of the palm and on the back of the hand.

Ornamental Arabic Design:

A flowering vine connected with dotted threads that extend from the wrist to the index finger gives the piece an ornamental appearance. Despite being simple, it is really striking! Your hands will be a sight to behold when this Arabic henna pattern is combined with a delicate haath phool!

Full Hand Mehndi Design:

This mehndi is ideal for you if you love Arabic patterns but also want it to be incredibly detailed.

Mehndi Designs That Reflect Your Cultural Identity:

Personalized mehendi is the most popular coming-of-age mehendi design at the moment. Although it appears beautiful in a typical mehndi pattern, Arabic mehndi makes it stand out and seem neater. The ones that were previously discussed are cutting edge and feel modern.

Minimal Arabic Design For Feet:

This is the perfect design for you if you’ve always enjoyed simple mehndi for the feet. It has a traditional feel thanks to the mandala with lotuses!

Glitter Designs :

Glitter in Mehndi hasn’t been used by many weddings, unfortunately! Even if it’s just temporary, it would at the very least be visually pleasing. You may also match the same with the colour of your lehenga, secretly.

Modern Feet Mehndi:

The feet of brides who appreciate having intricate Arabic henna designs on their wrists wouldn’t want to be overlooked. Do you prefer intricate foot mehndi designs? So why not try these suggestions? A deeper coating is applied all over the feet and ankles, making it even more alluring.

Don’t you think those Arabic mehndi patterns are amazing? Unable to help falling in love! Therefore, there are many fashionable alternatives available to bridesmaids who have a mehndi ceremony to attend. Furthermore, if you’re getting married, how about holding an Arabic mehndi ceremony? Innovative is an understatement.

[weaverstory]

Colours of Blue: The Weaver Story Must-Have Blue Banarasi Sarees

The stunning expanse of sky and never-ending depth of the ocean; the gentle chirping of birds and the calming breeze of nature; all that lovely about this world mirrors a shade of blue. People from all over the world wear blue a lot because it is perfect for making a lasting impression at business meetings and for effortlessly rocking any special occasion.

The fashion industry has been making the most of this colour by creating masterpiece outfits that are not only runway-perfect but also suitable for weddings, formal events, casual wear, and other occasions. Blue seems to be replacing black. It is the color that serves as its close opposite and is less aggressive than bold black. The tranquillity, self-assurance, steadfastness, and success that this shade represents

Blue is a fashion color that represents a compromise. It finds some kind of harmony between both the tasteful and dreariness of dark as well as other dynamic, self-important tones. Every piece that makes you stand out from the crowd is important to Weaver's Story. How could we overlook one of the most striking colours, blue, when we have the largest selection of one of the most prized handicrafts in the world—the Banarasi saree? Not 1 or 2, we have plenty of Blue Banarasi Sarees you will very much want to add to your wardrobe. You are guaranteed to stand out from the crowd with these blue hues; Let's have a look.

Powder Blue: Women who want to win hearts with subtlety and simplicity will love this shade of blue .  It exudes pure elegance and unrivaled charm Powder Blue Handloom Pure Katan Silk Banarasi Saree. This Banarasi show-stopper is a customary staple including an eye-getting region of gold and silver zari jaal, which gives this saree its particularly beguiling appearance. This delightful blue Banarasi saree will demonstrate an ideal pick for unique events like your dearest companion's wedding after-party or maybe even your own. You can wear it with a heavy, statement necklace set embellished with diamond or moissanite polki stones and the equally elegant blouse piece it comes with to add a touch of drama and glamour to its beauty.

Navy Blue: This shade of blue has long been popular and will continue to be so. Despite the constantly shifting fashion trends, navy blue has remained one of the most adaptable colors for a wide range of silhouettes.

One of the most exquisite items of clothing, the Navy Blue Handloom Pure Katan Silk Shikargarh Banarasi Saree perfectly combines traditional and contemporary fashion. A striking Shikargarh design of horses, elephants, tigers, peacocks, flowers, and deer made of intricately crafted dainty zari work adorns this exceptionally appealing navy blue Banarasi saree. It is suitable for both traditional ceremonies and contemporary parties due to its lustrous finish and unparalleled charm.

Pale Blue: Only a select few Banarasi sarees can truly leave an indelible mark on an individual's heart.

The Handloom Light Blue Unadulterated Katan Silk Banarasi Saree With Scalloped Meenakari Line and Pink Pullover would be your smartest choice assuming that your expectations are anyplace nearer to taking hearts and leaving everybody around you feeling amazement propelled by your stylish allure. This pure Banarasi saree, which is incredibly elegant, is just right for a Gatsby-like cocktail party or maybe even a lavish Diwali celebration. You will look absolutely stunning in this pale blue saree, which is designed to be elegant and simple.

Dark Blue: Albeit each Banarasi handloom is impeccably recognized from the others, their capacity to be remarkably rich continues as before. The divine Dark Blue Handloom Kora Silk Banarasi Saree with Silver and Gold Kadhwa Booti hails directly from the holy city of Banaras and is a distinguished masterpiece.

Sky Blue: The Sky Blue Handloom Pure Katan Silk Banarasi Saree With Jangla Design is ideal for women who are used to getting attention. It reminds them of the most picturesque skies. This sky-blue Banarasi saree has a gold zari Jangla all over it that was carefully crafted. This is the perfect item for you if you want to stand out like never before! You can add to its ethereal fascination by matching it with a delightful choker neckband and the similarly exquisite shirt piece it accompanies.

[timeladyjodie]

So I finished MEA!

Thoughts below cut. SPOILERS. 

Firstly, I want to say that I tried to make this post so it wouldn’t go into tags. If it does somehow end up in the mass effect tags, please don’t send me angry messages on how you disagree. This post was meant for my followers. 

I’m going to get the controversial stuff out of the way. We’ve all seen the drama about the facial animations, the MLM romances, Hainly whatever-her-name is. TBH, I’m not that offend since Bioware announced they’re going to fix it all in updates? Like, no one ever takes responsibility for mistakes anymore (look at fucking Trump if you want an example), good on Bioware for saying “We fucked up, there is no excuse, we’ll be fixing it in a patch.” In this age, I deeply admire anyone who is willing to admit when they do wrong, apologize, and try and make up for mistakes. And they’ll be fixing things in updates they won’t even be charging us for?? Like when people criticized Square Enix for not including female party members, SE just went on about how they wanted a game about the male experience, and well “There will be guest female party members!” Such condescending BS. Honestly, I’m just relieved to see a gaming company who cares about their consumers enough to listen to feedback and strive to improve, instead of having Square Enix’s attitude of “Fuck what the customers wants! We want our media to be how WE want it to be, and we’re not changing it for anyone!1” Honestly the reason why I am a loyal customer to Bioware those days, but couldn’t care less about modern SE. And honestly, I would rather a company fuck up trying to include representation than not bother at all. Trying and fucking up says your intentions were in the right place, but something went wrong. Not trying says you don’t give a crap to start with. Fuck you SE. I guess to me none of this is a dealbreaker since they’ve apologized and are going to fix it. 

That said, I enjoyed the game a lot despite the problems ^. The storyline was a huge improvement on DAI! I felt like the stakes were bigger. Like the climax wasn’t just “got to defeat this mad loony.” It was “Oh HELL NO. This assclown has my brother PREPARE TO DIE.” Like my heart was breaking so much for Scott. He was so strong and brave fighting the Archon! I wish there was a hug narrative interrupt after the final battle, lol. Anyway, I felt like Ryder had plenty to lose. Scott, the worlds she’d worked so hard to make habitable, her friends, hell I was even anxious when the nexus crash landed on Meridan because “Ryder’s mom is in stasis on there! Holy shit! Are the folks in stasis OK?!” 

Anyway, Corypheus was just a mustache twirling villain, but the kett? Like to me they’re interesting because they think they’re doing the right thing. I mean, exaltation is basically how they reproduce, right?  I saw an email from Lexi (Or maybe it wasn’t Lexi?) at one point saying they have no reproductive organs. And I mean, reproducing by committing mass genocide is obvs evil, but I guess when you look at it from their POV, they don’t really have a choice. IDK, to me it was just more interesting  and complex that crazy-ass Corypheus. I have a lot of questions about the Kett, and the Jardaan, but hopefully they’ll answer those in later games. 

I loved all the companions! Unlike DAI, where I like... Care about half of them and then don’t care about the other half. Like this crew felt like a family. After DAI, everyone just splits up and does their own thing, goes back to their own lives. But I don’t feel like your Tempest people would just leave you to go back to their old lives. Also, please don’t be angry at me for this, but in the original trilogy... Honestly, I only care about Kiadan, Tali, Joker, EDI and that’s pretty much it. But I LOVED LOVED LOVED this cast. 

And one thing I loved about your Tempest crew, is that I still felt important to people even if I wasn’t romancing them. Suvi still gives me her milky way tea, Cora still lets me plant flowers with her. Gil will still want me to met his BFF Jill. Like on the other hand, in DAI... Solas only removes your vallaslin if you’re in a romance. Cullen only gives you the coin if you’re dating, etc. Basically, I feel like DAI had those subtle undertones that like... Friendship is okay, but romance is the ultimate way of caring about someone. And as a grey-aromantic person that just... Kinda offends me, lol. 

Combat was pretty good. I love hit people with biotics. :D 

I liked my Liam romance! At first in the flirting stages I was like “eh, okay nice” but after you lock in? SO AWESOME. I don’t want to spoil, but Liam knows how to make a date romantic. :D And he’s probably one of the more ready-to-commit Bioware romance options?? Like yes!! I love his personality. Such a bright-sunny-idealist. <3 

What else.... This game was fairly easy to advance in compared to the original Mass Effect trilogy. Honestly, I rage quit both of the first games and just watched them on youtube because I would get to a certain point after about 19 hours of gameplay, realized I’d done something wrong or had triggered something too soon, and .... yeah. I feel like if I’ll ever want beat the original trilogy, I’ll have to use a walkthrough, but this game I cruised through. :D Everything was more... Straightforward and easier to figure out, I guess. I shouldn’t have to seek out a walkthrough just to beat a game. Maybe to figure out one puzzle or one boss, but not because I made such a colossal mistake I have to basically start over.

Also, I want to close this by saying that this review might make it seem like I hate DAI, but I don’t, lol. I love DAI! If anything, I feel like this review just makes it clear that they improved a lot from their last game, which is great!

[dgcatanisiri]

The thing about playing Mass Effect Andromeda is that it is reminding me of how much I love BioWare games and want another one, want to play others. Hell, it’s making me want to play Inquisition again, and... I’m on record as disliking a lot of what Inquisition chose to be.

And it’s not even just about the queer representation stuff - lord knows I’m not playing the PS4 generation games for that, given how bad they screwed the pooch on that count as far as I’m concerned, in both games. It’s not that I love playing them for being able to play a gay protagonist, I LEGITIMATELY ENJOY these universes, these settings. I want to play more in them. I want another game in these series - yes, even Mass Effect, the franchise I said I couldn’t in good conscience continue to support given how shit they are treating queer men.

I just... I really do love these settings. They’re part of what has given me hope and grounding over the years.

But the frustration is that I have to keep bending them out of shape to actually find personal satisfaction in them all the same. They refused to fix the Shepard trilogy to let me have a full trilogy romance with Kaidan, even though it was entirely within their means. I just don’t warm to Zevran as a romance. And Inquisition thinks I’m fine choosing between “after school special or BDSM” and doesn’t explore anything further as options. In seven games, only TWO leave me satisfied. (And don’t start me on The Old Republic, where there’s not a single base game same-sex romance, and, at this point, it’s the M/M options who all end up being potentially killed off in the course of the expansions, FUNNY. THAT.)

I mean, I could also complain about the story-level frustrations within these games and all, but... I really could let them all slide if I could just walk away feeling like I got to give my player character a happy ending with the man he loves. And instead I spend most of my time in these universes without that.

Y’know, it’s the message I GET out of them, whether or not it’s the message INTENDED. It’s a choice - do I get to be able to play a queer character, have the hero of the story be explicitly queer... or do I get to have the love story? I HAVE to pick.

And... I’m tired. I’m exhausting. And... I’m hurting. Because this choice is cruel. And it’s the worst kind of cruelty - the kind that gets waved off, because “well there ARE choices, you’re just CHOOSING not to take them, it’s not BioWare’s fault that they can’t cater to YOUR SPECIFIC INDIVIDUAL DESIRES.” Which is... not unfair of a criticism of my criticism, but... still misses the fact that this is so much a part of my experience that it’s reached a point where I NEVER feel seen. 

And, by all accounts, so far as I’ve seen... The kicker is that I’m the minority. We had Dorian fully embraced by people at large, which just makes me worried about what’s going to come - more active homophobia in the next Dragon Age, especially since we’ll be in Tevinter proper? Y’know, since his story established it being a thing there, and so it’s now something to acknowledge? Oh joy. The Trilogy Remaster is widely popular and, as I pointed out many times, NO ONE SEEMED TO CARE that it was perpetuating the homophobia of the games’ original release by not implementing the Male Shepard/Kaidan romance in the first game. And on the Andromeda side, while I understand why M/M players want to dismiss Gil, because his writing IS a homophobic trashfire, it doesn’t change the fact that I find Reyes absolute sleaze who I WISH I could make Ryder take a headshot aim at during the culmination of that storyline and Jaal just... doesn’t WORK for me as a romance, that the lock-in scene happens in a situation that trips all my anxiety buttons and makes me uncomfortable.

That I keep being in situations where, in order to have the romances that I want, it’s not just that they’re not an option, but that I would actively have to roll a PC who is not my gender... It says that I can’t have the story that empowers me without giving up a part of my identity. And that KEEPS. BEING. THE MESSAGE.

And it’s killing me.

[dr-ladybird]

O/bro/notp: Benezia/Saren, Jaal/Ryder, Lexi/Drack, Mshep/Garrus

Benezia/Saren: well, it’s effectively an OC/OC ship so it all depends on how you write them. I do like the more sympathetic versions of Saren and I would like to see more of the romantic pairing, either as a fairly supportive relationship till Sovereign got involved or as a train wreck.

I think I prefer BroTP though - something where she knew him as a child and still feels slightly responsible for him. Maybe she was his biotics tutor. Maybe she was married to one of his ancestors and still keeps track of the family. Now that’s a fanfic angle I’d like to see more of!

Jaal/Ryder: BroTP or OTP, not fussy, brilliant fun either way. The romantic pairing’s popular for a reason, but it’s so very very popular that I sometimes feel like it’s stealing the limelight from Ryder/Vetra or Ryder/Peebee, both of which I prefer.

NOTP if Jaal’s being characterised as a wide-eyed teddy bear with a penis (wtf he’s been fighting against genocidal aliens his entire life), if his family and culture are treated as 100% perfect and loving and flawless (I’m sure they’re nice but that’s not how families work in any galaxy!) or if it gets too “babies are always good, more babies, there is no downside to babies, babiesbabiesbabies”. I’m fine with them having a few kids one way or another, but I wish fans would knock it off with the BABIESBABIESBABIESOMGBABIES thing.

Lexi/Drack: BroTP, could see OTP but I wouldn’t write that myself.

MShep/Garrus: BroTP or OTP, it’s all good. To me personally it’s almost exactly like FShep/Garrus - I don’t care that much about Shepard’s gender, particularly not in a pairing that’s extremely reproductively incompatible anyway, and it seems odd for Garrus to be fussy about his lovers’ gender when he’s so unfussy about their species. I slightly prefer my action heroes female or NB when that’s an option, but not fussy.

NOTP if the author’s doing the “Garrus is perfect and is everything and their love is the truest love of all time” thing, or if the yiff bits go into untagged dubconwerewolf territory. (Both at once is worryingly common!)

[rpgwrites]

5 Questions for Writers

I was tagged by @mrscullensrutherford, @obvidalous, @ljandersen, @mordinette, @natsora, @alyssalenko, and @ooachilliaoo a while ago. Thank you all for tagging me and sorry for taking so long with this. 

I’m not sure who did this before but I’ll tag @wickedwitchofthewilds, @gremlinquisitor, @that-wasnt-so-bad, @starsandskies, @naromoreau, and @kenshi-vakarian7, with no obligations. Only if you want to do this. 

1. Do you have a favorite character to write? Who and why?

I do love all my OCs very much and I love writing them. But my favourite canon character to write? There’s a couple. There are some characters I love to write out of a platonic perspective. I do realize I do that a lot with Cora from Mass Effect Andromeda. Reyes is one of my favourite characters in MEA. But he was a very very tricky character to get a hold of. Even now after two years when I write to him I’m not always sure if I get his characterization right. But I do love writing him. 

2. Do you have a favorite trope to write? Or one you want to write?

I don’t really have favourite tropes. I really like to write in Angst, Whump, and mystery categories. I haven’t explored mystery really far. But there��s a reason for that. Mystery is like my all favourite category so it’s something I want to be perfect. But lol, of course, that’s impossible. It’s definitely not one of the most popular genres in the fandom so I’d love to contribute to that. But the next mystery I’ll post I probably finish it before posting. Just to make sure it’s mysterious enough for my taste. And I love mysterious things. 

3. Share your favorite description you’ve written?

Descriptive writing isn’t something I’ve done a lot. But it’s something I want to practise. So I’m going to share this bit that comes from Chapter 14 of The Path We Take, there’s some dialogue in between as well though. 

Sometime later Jaal made his way to the Pathfinder quarters. The Tempest halls were getting quieter. Everyone was getting ready for bed. He decided it would be best to check on Ryder now.

At dinner she wasn’t her usual self. She was trying her best not to snap at anyone. He saw the signs. The way she took a deep breath before answering. The looks she shot at others when they said things she disagreed with. Her eyes said more than her words could.

Her blue bright eyes were usually full of energy, but tonight they were bleary and unfocussed. She rolled her neck too many times. Her hand was either touching her temple or neck at every possibility. As if it needed support.

Ryder had left abruptly, saying she had too much work to do. Her movements were slow, as if it took everything out of her to move her legs.

"What's up with her?" Peebee asked when the Pathfinder left.

After swallowing her food Cora shrugged, "Probably just a long day. We all have those off days."

But it was more than that and it was impossible for Jaal to ignore it.

"Ryder?" he asked softly. He didn't want to disturb her if she was sleeping.

After a few moments silence was his only answer. "SAM, is Ryder sleeping?"

"No Mr. Ama Darav."

"Will you ask her if I can come in?"

"One moment please."

The door swooped open. But darkness met him. It confused him. "SAM please switch on the lights."

Not a second after Ryder spoke the room was filled with light. The first thing he saw was datapads scattered on the floor. Three empty water bottles were there as well. Her terminal was still on, but Ryder wasn't at her desk.

Her back was against the wall, she was sitting on the floor. Her blonde hair was loose from something Cora called a pony tail. The thing that usually holds her hair together was on her wrist. Fingers were digging into her hair.  And when she looked up her eyes slowly blinked, he could tell the light was stabbing her eyes with its sharpness. It was hurting her.

One thing was clear to him, she didn't care who saw her like this. Scenarios ran through his head. Was her sugar high? Was it low? If she wasn't feeling well, why wasn't she in bed?

4. Share your favorite dialogue you’ve written?

I’ve shared this before and I’m sure there are other dialogues that are my favourite, but each time I have to think of the favourite dialogue I’ve written this scene pops into my head. 

Chapter 1 of The Path We Take

Ryder, Jaal, and Peebee were suiting up. And then something really weird happened. Ryder sneezed.

Jaal and Peebee stopped with what they were doing and looked at her as if she did the craziest thing in the Galaxy.

Peebee gave her a weird look and it was clear that Jaal had no idea what happened.

“What just happened?” Jaal asked.

Not taking her eyes off Ryder Peebee answered with a smirk, “Ryder just sneezed.”

“Ah,” Jaal said as understanding kicked in. “Cora mentioned sneezing before. So this is what it sounds like.” He seemed to consider this. “Interesting.”

Ryder shrugged and picked up an Assault Rifle, “So I sneezed, it’s not a big deal.”

That’s what Ryder thought at the time. Later it would turn out she was very wrong.

“When was the last time you’ve sneezed?” Peebee asked.

“Hmm…” Ryder wasn’t sure. When was the last time she sneezed? She equipped the Assault rifle and answered with a shrug.

“Peebee,” Jaal started, “Why does that matter?”

It was the first time Peebee turned her gaze to Jaal, “Because that could mean our dear Pathfinder is having a cold.”

“I’m not having a cold. I feel fine,” Ryder said defensively before Jaal could even ask what a cold is. “It could also mean I’m allergic to something.”

“Like what?” Peebee challenged her.

“I don’t know,” Ryder answered too fast. ”Point being I’m not having a cold. It’s just one sneeze. There could be numerous reasons why I’ve sneezed.”

5. Scene you haven’t written, but want to?

There’s so so many. I’m so excited to begin the sequel of The Path We Take. Which I can’t talk about at all, because then I’ll just spoil the ending for The Path We Take lol. But there are so many other things I want to write and I hope I get to it all. Exploring stuff for my new Shepard, my two Dragon Age OCs. Maybe even going into Avery’s story. I also finally began rewriting my Benefactor fic and there are so many scenes there I can’t wait to write. 

[starlightwrites]

10, 25 and 34 for Cress and Liam

Hi @leafkisser! Thank you SOMUCH for asking!!! You don’t know how much it brightened my day that you askedabout Cress and Liam!

 For the ship ask meme!

10) Whodrives? Cooks? Does the handiwork? Cleans? Pays the bills? Handles the public?

Drives? Cressida Ellen Ryderis not the type of woman to let anyone drive her Nomad. Anyone. When she first clamberedinto it, she barely allowed Gil to show her how it works. Household stuff ismore Liam’s game. He can cook a fabulous meal with nothing but a packet oframen and some frozen vegetables over a camp stove, and he’s learned to repairjust about anything from all his time as a responder. Spend enough time incamps with limited resources and you get pretty handy and learn some really helpfulwork-arounds.  They go back-and-forth onwho pays the bills, though, because they both tend to be idea/big-picturepeople, and they both very easily lose track of little things like Cress’medical bill from that time she broke her leg jump-jetting off the Tempest and had to have it set whileLexi was away on the Nexus for a study she was conducting.

When it comes to who handlesthe public, this is a tricky one. Cressida is supposed to handle people, as thehuman Pathfinder. It is part of her job. That said, she started out prettyinsecure and that lack of confidence made public speaking a nightmare. Liam wasconstantly behind the scenes helping her pull her thoughts together and hypingher up, even before they were dating. He is her secret weapon. He believed inher enough for the both of them, so really, they both handle the public, intheir own ways. Liam has also given interviews, though mostly to the slew oftabloids who want to meet the Pathfinder’s boyfriend.  He tends to take the piss out of theinterviewers for asking invasive questions.

25) How much time do theyspend together? Do they share their feelings, or hold things in?

They spend as much timetogether as physically possible. If she’s groundside without him for longperiods of time, they tend to chat through their internal comms when they can.Aboard the Tempest, they spend a lotof their free time together and with friends, as they are both really socialpeople. The crew is pretty close, so it isn’t uncommon to see everyone piledinto the lounge or Cress’ quarters for movies and what Cress affectionatelyrefers to as “sleepovers” (everyone passing out on her bed mid-movie, becausethis is one super tired crew), but after everyone disperses, Cress and Liam alwaysstay up together to clean up and talk before bed. Moreover, they never seem torun out of things to chat about. The folks who thought this was peakhoneymoon-phase behavior were sorely mistaken. They have showed no signs ofshutting up, ever.

And when it comes tofeelings? They are textbook sharers, particularly with each other. On day one,Cress was nearly crying on Liam’s shoulder. They are both veryemotionally-driven people. Two recklessly compassionate lovebugs. As a positiveside-effect, their arguments are usually very considerate, since they havelittle reservation talking about what bothered them and why. On the downside,they will both unabashedly cry during movie night, and that gets Jaal going, andSuvi gets dragged in, and then somehow Vetra is crying, and then poor Kallo andGil feel like they’re in hell.  

34) Do they have any pets?

OH BOY DO THEY. Cress has Button,the stowaway Pyjak. He is her baby, always curled at the foot of her bed orhiked up on her hip like a child. Drak has threatened to eat the littleintruder at least eighteen times, though everyone knows to treat Button likethe little prince he is. Liam took to playing something akin to fetch with himin the cargo bay. She also has Cookie, the hamster. Also a stowaway, also herbaby. She carries Cookie around the Tempestin the pocket of her hoodie. Kallo was less than thrilled to have a rodenton his pristine ship, and Cookie was not super popular when she found himsnacking on their already somewhat limited rations, but she adores him all thesame and would fight anyone who suggested jettisoning him. That one time hemanaged to get out on Kadara was enough of a nightmare.

Liam, meanwhile, has beentrying to goad the crew into adopting a Manta, but the logistical issues areastounding (eg: how the hell would we even fit it aboard the ship???). He seemsundaunted. That is one pet Cress did veto. He has been keeping his eyes peeled,however, for other Helius animals that might make good pets, hoping that his insistenceon taking in a Manta will give him some bargaining room. Always aim big, theysay.

[avaquet]

Writer’s Reflection Meme

@astraielle tagged me, thanks!

This tag meme is an opportunity for writers to reflect on (and promote!) our own writing, but also to hear about the work of our fellow writers and to find something new to read! Rules: answer the following questions about your own writing, whether fanfic or original. If you can’t/don’t want to answer a question, just put N/A. If you don’t have that many posted works, tell us about your WIPs or individual chapters/drabbles or even your ideas! Then tag as many writers as you like :)

AO3 name and link, if applicable: Avaquet!

What’s your most popular fic, by whatever metric is most relevant to you (hits, kudos, comments, reblogs, some other trait)? Jaal and Sara Ficlets and HC - it’s just a collection of random drabbles I wrote for the Andromeda fandom. It is explicit, be warned.

What’s your favourite fic that you’ve written? She’s not complete yet, but I’m pouring my damn soul into Merely Dream, and I hope to actually finish the bish

What’s your best fic, and is it different from your favourite fic? Yes, but only because it’s actually uploaded: A Pen Search was just overall really fun to write, even if it was a one-shot, and my first fic into the DA fandom on AO3.

Do you have a fic whose popularity surprised you? Popularity tis a strong word here, but honestly my angst one-shot called The Interview, I was trying out a different/new to me style of writing which is transcript style. It was mostly like, to me anyways, akin to a throwaway card one would play in CAH. That it got any positive feedback surprised the shit outta me.

Do you have a fic you wish more people would read? N/A, because Merely Dream isn’t posted yet.

Is there a ship or fandom you haven’t written, but really want to? I think someday I might write some self-indulgent one-shots or whatever for The Elder Scrolls. I do however, want to write things for the Mass Effect Trilogy at some point, because did ya know, a long time ago when I first started writing fic, I was a freshman in high and it was for the ME fandom? I regret deleting them all off every site I posted them on because I cringed at my own writing, but I wouldn’t mind trying again.

Tell us a random fact abut your writing process: I wing what I write with a general idea of what I’m going to do but I don’t actually have like anything planned out per se. What I’ve seen with myself as I write Merely Dream is that I chapter hop, a lot. I write the angst chapters or sections when I’m in an angst mood, even though I haven’t written up to that point just yet, or fluff when I’m feeling fluffy, or smut, or whatever when I’m inspired to write that kind of content. It seems like nothing is getting posted only because I’m writing sections out of order. (I put them in order, polish them, etc later. It all flows together nicely.) Another thing is, I act out the characters a lot. Like, it helps me write the dialogue, but it’s not uncommon to find me pacing my kitchen or some shit, talking to myself, usually in accent to differentiate the characters, and then going to write down notes. I will physically act out these bishes sometimes, too, not all the time, and tbh it sounds like the verbal form of a draft. Like I will repeat lines, still acting, because the tone or wording didn’t sound quite right. It probably looks and sounds really weird from an outside perspective but hey, works for me /shrug

I tag! @dirthara-mama @veridium-bye @inquisitorsmabari @ohthe-bliss @ironbullsmissingeye  and anyone else who wants to do the meme!

[noctvrnis]

So, I played Mass Effect: Andromeda...

...and I CANNOT understand how it got this ridiculous amount of hate.

To be honest, I was disappointed myself when the game released and I heard all those negative things about it but that was mainly cause I had only gotten into the Mass Effect franchise around that time. I entered the BioWare fandom about two years ago with Dragon Age: Inquisition and back then I thought I had found my favourite game of all time. But then I gave Mass Effect a chance because of how popular it was after all these years and I have to say, (sorry Dorian, I love you) it’s the best video game series I’ve ever played. Even a year and a half later, I still think about Shepard’s story and the ending of the games, especially cause they got me through a very rough patch of my life. 

I’ve played quite a few different games since then, like Overwatch and Destiny 2, (which both went to hell in the past few months imo) but I still sometimes feel like going back to the trilogy even though I’m lacking the freetime for it. So, when I was desperate for a new experience cause the games I’ve been playing for a while just weren’t enjoyable to me anymore, I checked out Andromeda. Cause even tho it probably had one of the worst releases in gaming history it was still a Mass Effect game. So when I actually found it for 8 bucks, which looking back is more than just ridiculously cheap, I was like okay why not. To be fair, I didn’t expect much at all but after 10 hours into Andromeda I somehow already knew I was gonna enjoy it. And I did. Hell, it’s not the trilogy but I absolutely loved the game and I do not, not even the tiniest bit, understand HOW it got THAT much hate?!

Don’t get me wrong, it had its flaws, a lot of them and I probably don’t even know the full extent of it because I didn’t play it around the release but the stuff I read online is mostly just an absolute shitshow of dumbass arguments of why the game is apparently so bad. The worst part is, it looks like a stupid ass trend to me. Hating Andromeda was a trend. It’s so obvious that such a huge amount of people who shit on the game didn’t even fucking play it. 

I understand disappointment, especially after the trilogy but painting it as the worst game of 2017 when it is definitely NOT feels like a bad joke to me. Yes, I prefer the original games as well, but I actually enjoyed Andromeda more than the first Mass Effect. But hey, Mass Effect 3 was my favourite and I actually enjoyed the ending so maybe that’s just me having unpopular opinions, hah.

Anyways, yes, I like Shepard a bit more but I absolutely adore Ryder as well. They were actually a bit more relatable to me because Shep is just this amazingly skilled N7 guy, who knows what he’s doing and even tho he’s an ass and a huge dork sometimes, he’s still this born leader, while Ryder feels more all over the place to me. Maybe that’s because they are younger and you get just thrown into all of this, Shepard does too, but Ryder seems more helpless to me a lot of the time, I don’t know. I definitely enjoyed both of them. Especially because they were both sarcastic idiots but in totally different ways. Both of them had their own humor, their own sarcasm and I loved it. 

The characters, your squad from the original trilogy are more interesting to me, yeah. But I can’t really say I adored them as much after the first game already as I did after finishing all three. It all came with the journey. I can see why people think that at first the Tempest crew isn’t that fun but after finishing Andromeda, I can say that they all grew on me a lot and I actually loved their loyalty missions and those cute as hell friendship cutscenes at the end. 

When it comes to gameplay I can’t really complain at all because I enjoyed it A LOT. I don’t exactly prefer it over the other Mass Effect gameplay styles cause I think I liked them equally. The combat felt very dynamic to me and that’s probably what I loved most about it and playing as a Biotic was definitely awesome.

Storywise it’s a bit complicated. I DID enjoy the storyline and I don’t think it was nearly as bad as people made it out to be. One of the main things I have to say about it is that it felt, much like the first Mass Effect, like the beginning of something BIG to me and it’s pretty damn obvious that they had a lot of stuff planned for Ryder and the Andromeda galaxy. If we’ll ever get a sequel after all of this... and that’s probably the thing that pisses me off the most. I don’t really think people realized that they basically helped digging Mass Effect’s grave with that absolutely ridiculous amount of unnecessary hate. 

Overall it’s just? I don’t get it. Hell, BioWare (or more like EA, big fuck you for that one by the way, you deserve all those Worst Company awards) fucked up and the game did have a lot more potential and I totally understand that compared to the other Mass Effect games it isn’t as good but god damn it, Andromeda is NOT a bad game. Because fuck no, tons of fetching missions, which literally exist in every single RPG out there and some weird facial animations don’t make a game awful. 

The thing I appreciate the most is that they listened, they tried to fix the stuff we were mad about, worked on the animations, gave us bi Jaal and that’s more than most companies do nowdays. It doesn’t excuse the fact that they released an unfinished game or that the DLC got cancelled but it’s not exactly the teams fault when they got disbanded and didn’t even have a chance to release any new content. 

I loved the vibes of Andromeda, the graphics and visuals were awesome (apart from some facial animations), the soundtrack was great, the planets just looked absolutely stunning, I adored playing as Ryder and to me it just felt like the start of something big, something amazing. And I want more. 

People need to get those sticks out their asses and stop being pressed about the fact that it’s not like the trilogy because it was never supposed to be. Shepard’s story is over and I’m glad it doesn’t feel like an imitation of the original BECAUSE even tho it doesn’t, it still feels like a Mass Effect game to me. Yes, it could’ve been better and like I said, it had a lot more potential but that doesn’t mean it was a bad game. The community needs to see Andromeda for what it is: something new. I still believe in the potential of the series and I hope we’ll get a sequel and even after all of this, I trust BioWare and hope that the next Mass Effect will satisfy people the way the trilogy did. 

Mass Effect: Andromeda was a good RYDE (hah, I hate myself). 

For anyone who has actually read this far: Thank you for taking your time and I totally don’t understand why you did this to yourself but I appreciate it.

[natsora]

The Cetus Arc - Chapter 68

Heskaarl

AO3 | FFnet

The fight was over as soon as the other angaras joined in. Ryder kept back, making sure none came close enough to attack Kiba or Esmus. Her right hand pressed against her sore shoulder as she watched the anagaras mopped up the rest of the Remnant quickly and efficiently, more so than any Roekaar or Resistance team she ever saw. 

Within minutes, the Remnant were all defeated. Ryder eyed the entire situation warily as Esmus greeted the sniper. “Levine,” he called out. “I’m glad you intervened when you did.”

“Esmus,” the female sniper returned the greeting after dropping back down to ground level. 

She turned to face Ryder and inclined her head. “Are you all right?” she asked. 

Ryder straightened and dropped her hands back down the side of her. “It’s fine.” Her answer ready on her lips. 

Levine smirked. Ryder frowned. “Evfra wasn’t wrong,” she laughed knowingly. 

Ryder’s eyes narrowed. What the fuck is going on?

Levine and Esmus shared a look between them. Ryder bit back a ready remark. Her eyes scanned the other angaras. All of them dressed in a variety of angara armour. Their stance loose and relax but deceptively so. Their eyes were constantly searching out for danger. One of them caught Ryder watching, and he struck a pose as he grinned. Before she could decide whether to react, he returned to the vigilant watch of their surrounding. It was a mode very familiar. Ryder had seen her father doing the exact same thing. The relaxed state to conserve energy but alert to move in an instant. 

All of them had an identical insignia on their armour. Some had it on their arm, others their chest. It was familiar but Ryder couldn’t quite place it. 

“Like what you see?” Levine asked. 

Ryder flicked her eyes over to Levine, she was obviously in charge. Her insignia was a black and gold, while the others were a white and silver. “Levine?” she said.

“That’s Chief Levine to you,” the sniper replied. “Well, that’s if you accept.”

“And what is it I’m accepting.”

“Your placement to train as a Heskaarl,” she replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Come on, I’ll tell you more about it. Let’s get out here. I wasn’t expecting your evaluation to go this way.”

Ryder’s eyes narrowed. Why do I feel I’m being manipulated?

Esmus grabbed his pack and handed her hers. The First Sage was obviously in a hurry to get out. The other angaras fanned out scouting ahead and bringing up the rear. Ryder turned to look for Kiba. She found Kiba eyeing the others warily, keeping her distance. Glancing back at the others, they were already moving on without her. She had no intention to hang around. Slapping her hand against her thigh, Ryder followed the others. Kiba came running and flanked her. 

Eventually Ryder was guided to the centre. Kiba pressed close against her leg. She had already almost stumble trying to avoid stepping on Kiba’s feet. “Damn, Kiba,” she cursed. “It’s ok. It’s going to be ok.”

Ryder could feel the amusement radiating from Esmus and Levine. She rolled her eyes and petted Kiba to assure the dog. Levine walked confidently, her rifle holstered at her back. “So where was I?” she asked. 

Before Ryder could open her mouth to answer, Levine went on, “Right, your acceptance for Heskaarl training.”

Ryder bit the inside of her cheek and waited. “Well, you see every trainee has to be endorsed by one of our own. There are no exceptions. Angaras can be recommended but they have to be evaluated by one of our own before we extend the invitation.”

“And I was recommended I assumed?” Her curiosity piqued. 

Levine nodded. They were nearing the exit. She watched as her squad took the gravity well up. “Yes, by the Moshae herself,” she confirmed.

The Chief smirked when she saw Ryder frowning. “Well technically, via Evfra and before him, Jaal.”

“Jaal…” Ryder repeated, her tone dangerously innocent. “I seemed to be very popular then, huh?”

Levine laughed. “Oh I know that tone, Jaal’s going to get it, huh? Anyway, you’re one popular girl," Levine said, levelling a pair of finger pistols at her. 

“Who taught you that?” Ryder couldn’t help exclaiming, Kiba growled a little in response.

“What? Did I get it wrong? If I got it wrong, I’ll kill Roaan!” Levine growled. 

“The bartender at Tavetaan taught you to do that?” Ryder spluttered incredulously through her laughter as she kept her hand on Kiba to calm the diog. 

“Ugh,” Levine groaned. “I knew something wasn’t right, ancestors!”

Tears welled up in Ryder’s eyes as she wiped it away. Laughter bubbled up again as she tried to calm down. Levine eyed Ryder and did the finger pistols again. That sent Ryder into another round of uncontrollable laughter. 

“Here I thought you’re all sharp edges and hard words,” Levine laughed. “If I knew this odd gesture is all it takes to make a human laugh, I’d use them more often.”

Levine gestured towards the gravity well and Ryder stepping into it with Kiba. She laughed her way up. By the time Ryder got solid ground under her feet again, she was in a much better mood. Taking a deep breath, she asked, “So what? The Remnant was some sort of test?”

The other angaras sniggered. Ryder cocked her head. Levine shook her head. “That was ahhh... a mistake. We were supposed to watch how you handled yourself in an unknown situation. Maybe a Rylkor or two, not the whole damned Remnant army,” her voice grew louder towards the end as she eyed one of her squad members. 

The others sniggered louder. “Fine, then so I passed?”

Levine nodded. Ryder whirled around to Esmus. “And you knew this?” her finger stabbing towards the First Sage. “And you didn’t think to tell me? And this is a good idea why?”

Esmus lifted his hands up in mock surrender. “I was merely doing a favour to Armud, to give you a chance to rest and recover.”

Ryder blinked. She did do that at Mithrava. Six months away, in an angara style Zen retreat ended with her feeling lighter. Her breaths came looser and freer than before. She didn’t have any expectations when she arrived on Havarl. The place that ripped her to shreds, the site of contention between her and Tann, was now also the place she regained some kind of normalcy. 

Ryder had figured Havarl was just to shunt her off to somewhere else. Nobody had time to babysit her. The Moshae’s claim of healing was all mumbo-jumbo. Well, Ryder was glad to eat humble pie. It helped. If nothing else came of this trip, Ryder was glad for the experience. 

Levine tapped at her omni-tool. “So what will it be? You’re actually the last of the trainees we are inducting this year.”

What do I want? Training?

“I’ve seen you fight. You are good at what you do,” Levine said, folding her arms across her chest. Her eyes did the up-down flick over Ryder. She couldn’t help but straightened and stood at attention. She was being apprised by a superior after all, a potential one at any rate. 

Do I want this?

“I’m not talking about your technical skills or those weird blue powers you have,” Levine went on. “I am talking about your willingness to defend, to protect even when you are barely armed and not armoured.”

“My biotics can do a lot.”

“True, I’ve seen some of it but it’s a losing battle.”

Ryder nodded, conceding the point. 

“You’re good at what you do. And you can be better at it.”

“If I join you.” Ryder completed Levine’s sentence. 

The Heskaarl shrugged. “If you complete the training, sure. Many wash out all the time. The Heskaarl’s training is not to be taken lightly. You will be inducted among the elite,” Levine said, turning to look at Ryder. 

Can I really do this?

Her yellow cat-like eyes meeting Ryder’s brown round ones. “You will be the first human Heskaarl ever.”

It had a ring to it, but Ryder wasn’t interested in titles. Her shoulders ached from the ones she had already acquired. “And it would be quite something for the Spear to be a Heskaarl too,” Ryder said, searching Levine’s eyes. 

“Sure, maybe. That’s the politician’s game. But I know a warrior when I see one. You’re nobody’s pawn when you have the Heskaarl at your back,” Levine pointed out. “You get to do things the right way - your way.”

Ryder blinked. 

My path was paved with my mistakes. Mistakes that cost so much to learn.

Her eyes turned inwards and truly asked herself. Putting aside abilities, what exactly did she want? Was stepping into the fray what she wanted? The dark space still pulled at her heart. She missed being useful, knowing that her actions mattered. 

Maybe, just maybe, I can make sure my mistakes will never be repeated. Never again.

Ryder scoffed at herself in her head. 

Really? This is pure hubris. Can I even have Kiba with me? What military training let you have a pet along? Fuck, can I do this on my own, without Kiba?

The thought brought fear rising up her chest. Ryder felt her breath quicken as her heart started its telltale gallop but her hands held steady. She forced herself to take deep breaths. Her focus narrowing down to the air she was taking in through her mouth, down her throat, expanding her chest and out again. Rinse and repeat. Bit by bit, Ryder felt herself back under control again.

Ryder flicked her eyes over and saw Kiba watching her. The dog now calm. gave her a couple of lazy wags of her tail. She sighed and looked up. Levine was watching. The angara nodded at her knowingly. 

“Do you accept, Ryder?”

Scott sighed. He missed his sister. This was worse than when she went off to boot camp without him. It was worse than the time she was stationed light years away. They exchanged mail every week or so then. Now, not so much. Scott understood Sara’s wish for privacy. The events of the past year and a half were too much for him to process let alone Sara. His protective instincts fought with his desire to respect Sara’s wishes. And look what leaving her alone did, she ended up pushing everyone away. Thank fuck that Dex and Wrench were keeping an eye out for her. What would have happened if it weren’t for them? Scott shuddered and pushed the thought out of his mind. 

His omni-tool beeped. It was a vid-comm request from Sara. 

When they first dropped her off at Aya, there were some sporadic messages from Sara. Mostly it was how things had changed around Aya. Sara almost never talked about her treatments. 

“What’s there to say, Scott?” He could feel the frustration behind her mail. “Nothing has changed. It hurts, and it still hurts. It’s all just a matter of degrees.”

Scott didn’t press. 

Lexi and Dr Paran conferred endlessly over Sara’s treatment while she was on Aya. She went through rounds and rounds of trial medication. It was only with their continued efforts that Sara had anything resembling a treatment for her pain. Scott was grateful for the lengths Lexi went for Sara. The asari doctor had always been looking out for Sara. 

Then, Scott got a message. “Hey, I’m heading to Havarl.”

He frowned as he tapped his reply. “Why?”

What could be possibly on Havarl for Sara? Some new treatment that’s available there? 

A beep pulled his attention back to his omni-tool. “Some sort of Zen retreat with the Sages at Mithrava,” came the reply.

“Hey Cora,” Scott called as he spun around in his chair to face her. 

“What’s up?” Cora was watering her plants. “Is it Sara?”

“Yeah, she’s heading to Havarl. Something about Sages and Mithrava.”

Cora frowned. “Well, it’s this giant tower in the middle of the jungle where well…”

“Sara’s not going to like this Zen retreat at all, is she?” Scott asked. 

Cora laughed. “Sitting still isn’t what Sara does best right?” 

It was months of flying around, putting out fires the power shift had caused since the news broke. Things settled into some sort of routine. Cora was more or less resigned to keep working as Pathfinder though she would hand it back to Sara in a heartbeat as soon as Sara asked for it, the Leadership be damned. They still had Sara’s original Pathfinder implant after all. Scott was sure Harry would be more than happy to help if it came down to it. SAM would be happy to have Sara back too.

The debate and flame wars between conspiracy theorists about Tann’s departure and Sara’s pardon had gone from mainstream news to the domain of the extranet. Not everyone believed Cora’s and the crew’s version of events. Ryder was still the Bloody Blade for the vocal few. It irked Scott to no end. There were people still speaking ill of his baby sister. Despite everything said and done, Scott realised the truth never truly won.  

Cora was trying to line up a trip to Aya so they’d get to see Sara since she was due to be back there. Six months was a long time to go without seeing her dorky face. T’vera unknowingly thwarted their plans. 

“The buoys the Nexus science teams had you placed out at the edges of the scourge last year are picking up disturbing readings. They have deemed it urgent enough to send one of their own with you,” T’vera said.

Scott watched as Cora took a deep breath and nodded. Her shoulders bowed a little more at the new emergency. T’vera’s face winked out. “How does Sara do it?” she groaned.   

En route to the ass end of Andromeda meant tons of time to think. Scott played with the tiny velvet box in his hand. His finger pressed the button at the bottom of the box. The lid flipped open. Inside, a simple silver band made of a precious angara metal, shaped like overlapping waves. His hand shook a little as he pulled it from the satin-like bed. 

“Shit!” 

His fingers slipped. The silver band glinted against the artificial light inside the Tempest as it tumbled towards the floor. Scott twisted and caught it before it hit the floor. He collapsed on the chair, heart racing. Gripping it tightly between two fingers, he lifted it to look at the inscription inside. 

“My forever, my always."

He huffed. It was cheesy, but it was heartfelt. Then his omni-tool beeped. He stared at the blinking vid-comm request. 

“Hey Sara,” he greeted as he accepted the call after making sure the ring was tucked back safely in the box. 

“Hey Scott, I’m not heading back to Aya. I’m on my way over to Voeld.”

Scott frowned. His eyes was studying in the view behind her. It was enclosed and confined. Some angaras were walking in the background and there was a constant rumble in the background. “Why are you going to Voeld? Is this some tour of all the angara planets?”

Sara laughed. His shoulders relaxed at the sound. It hit him how much he missed it. It’s been too long. She lifted her head and looked at him after getting it under control. Scott could tell she’s changed. Maybe it was just having the time to heal, maybe it be the treatment at Aya, maybe the Sages at Havarl, maybe all of it all made a difference. The weight across her shoulders wasn’t gone by any means, but it sat better now. The dark cast over her eyes lighter. Scott returned the smile. 

“Now that you mentioned it,” she said. “Yeah.”

“You’re heading there for more Zen treatment?”

“Not really,” Sara replied. 

Scott nodded and bent forward to get a better look of the background. “Sara, are those Resistance fighters behind you?”

She turned around, and it gave him a better view of the background. It was clearly a military vessel. “Ryder, are you done? The squad wants to meet you properly. The inside of a Remnant Abyss is no place for a proper introduction, Spear,” a female voice spoke from off-camera.

Sara groaned. “Just give me a minute,” she said as she turned back to him. 

“What were you doing inside a Remnant Abyss?” Scott asked, his eyes narrowing. 

“I just unknowingly auditioned for the Heskaarl. And they decided to endorse me for Heskaarl training,” she said, her eyes darting about, not quite meeting his. “Well, at least I can take on the training, who knows maybe I’ll wash out.”

Training? Is she in any condition to do it?

“Heskaarl’s the equivalent to the Alliance’s N7 right?” he asked. 

Sara nodded, raising her prosthesis to rub her head. He huffed a breath. Of all people questioning her ability to do things, he shouldn’t be one of them. Since childhood, Sara had always worked harder and trained smarter. Despite setbacks, obstacles and resistance, she smashed through them all. Hell, Sara conquered the Archon and foiled Perseus’ plans, she would be able to do this, no problem.

Sara dropped her prosthesis awkwardly when she realised he was staring at it. 

“You’ll do great.”

Sara blinked. For a while, neither spoke. A grin split her lips, the tentative edges of confidence reached her eyes as she nodded. “Yeah, maybe I'll be.”

Then she looked down, her hand reaching down under the desk she was sitting at. “You want to see Scott too?” she asked. 

Scott frowned. Who is she speaking to?

“Come on.” Sara still had her eyes down while her prothesis banged against the desk as she slapped her palm against it. Then a flash of white surged up from below. It was Kiba. Her tongue hanging out, in a lop-sided smile. 

“Hey Kiba,” he greeted, waving a little at the screen even if he felt a little stupid for doing it. 

The dog cocked her head at him. Sara turned back to face the screen, a smile plastered across her face. “Anyway, I’ll have to go radio silence. It’s boot camp all over again. Wish me luck.”

“Good luck but when will you be back?”

“They are telling me 20 weeks give or take a little if I don’t wash out. This is the first time they are accepting human trainees. Maybe it would pave the way for the APEX teams to train with the Heskaarl?”

Scott nodded. Amazed that she was already thinking about how this would open doors for the Nexus. Once a Pathfinder, always a Pathfinder.

He pulled the box out again. "Sara, I-"

“Ryder, are you done?” a voice asked off-screen. 

Sara frowned at the person. “I’m talking to my brother. I’ve not talked to him in six months!” she chided. “Can’t you just give me a minute?”

“What is it?” she asked turning her attention back to him. 

“Nothing, it’s nothing.”

She narrowed her eyes at him, reading him as easily as a book. “It’s not nothing. I can tell. Spit it out,” she growled. 

It didn’t have the bite it used to have. Her claws were sheathed now. Scott pulled the box into view. Her eyes widened instantly. “Is that what I think it is?”

Scott shrugged. “What do you think it is?”

Sara snorted. “You know if I could, I’d hit you right now.”

“I know.” Scott laughed as he opened the lid. 

Sara gasped. “It’s beautiful. When are you going to ask her?”

It was Scott’s turn to look away. “I don’t know but soon.”

“Don’t fuck this up, Scott. It’s the most important mission you have,” she said, her eyes shining with pride and joy. 

Scott spun as the door slid open. He scrambled and quickly push the box behind a pile of datapads. 

“I won’t,” he assured with a grin on his face. “Got to go, it’s Cora.”

Sara nodded. “Don’t have the wedding without me!”

The screen went black. 

Ryder shouldered her pack. The Heskaarl weren’t playing around. She was given four set of leathers, two light ones for regular wear, and two heavy sets for training since she arrived with nothing good enough for Voeld’s weather. She shivered as a blast of cold air tore through the barracks. Even Kiba was finding the weather not to her liking. 

“Fuck,” she cursed. “Didn’t I activate the vault here? Why is it still so cold?”

Kiba’s only answer was to curl into a ball on the cot she had claimed. “Nice, Kiba,” she said, seeing how much space Kiba had taken up. 

Upon arrival, Levine deposited her with the quartermaster to see her situated. And since the other trainees weren’t due to arrive until the next day, Ryder was a loose end Levine didn’t need. “The real work starts tomorrow,” Levine said. “It will be hard but it will be worth it.”

Ryder snorted. “Is that your idea of a pep talk, Levine?”

Levine frowned. “That’ll be Chief Levine to you tomorrow.”

“Yes, yes,” Ryder drawled lazily as she threw her new clothes onto a cot and claimed it. Her hands made hasty work of the packaging around her brand new leathers. Ryder shrugged out of her thin shirts and pants and pulled the leathers on. “You’re training us?”

“That will be Andraknor’s job. My job is to evaluate you.”

Ryder blanched. “You’re the Chief. And there’s only one Chief I assume.”

Levine smirked. “Fuck, this is either very good for me, or very bad.”

The angara shrugged and turned to leave. She paused at the threshold. Ryder stared as she slowly pulled her arms up to chest level. Her fingers formed pistols and levelled at Ryder. “You decide,” Levine said. 

Ryder buried her face in her palms. I can’t laugh at the Chief now, can I? 

It was her last night of freedom before plunging into the crucible that’s Heskaarl training. The quartermaster took pity on her and gave her a rudimentary rundown of the Heskaarl training. 

There were five levels of Heskaarl training. Level one was six weeks of hell. It was all about conditioning the body, making sure every recruit was able to keep up with the training. In addition to that, it was also developing the body for extreme conditions. Level two, five weeks of hand to hand combat and techniques. Level three, five weeks of weapons proficiency and marksmanship training. Where all the skills honed before were physical and  muscle memory, Level four saw the honing of the most important weapons of all, every recruit’s mind. It would be four weeks of field exercises. Finally, Level five took anywhere between a single day and a week. It was a real mission, sometimes against the kett, sometimes against Roekaar.

It was an honour to even be considered for training. To be a full Heskaarl like the squad she arrived with would mean fulfilling the full 20 weeks of training. The quartermaster showed her the two different colours of Heskaarl insignias. Levine’s black and gold one was only meant for the Chief, she commanded the 50 members strong platoon of Heskaarl. White and silver meant the bearer had completed all five levels of Heskaarl training and was a full-fledged member of the Heskaarl. If she was going to do this, she intended to finish it. 

That night, she hugged Kiba as she steeled herself for what was to come. Arranging a pick up for Kiba was the hardest thing she had done in a while. 

Ryder waited for her vid request to be accepted. Her hand rest on Kiba’s back, her fingers raking through her fur. Pretty soon, Dex’s face popped up on her omni-tool. 

“Ryder?” Dex said. “Is that you?”

She smiled and nodded. Her stomach was tying itself into knots. “Hey, how are you?” she asked. 

Dex’s mandibles tightened over his face. “What do you want?” he asked. 

Ryder chuckled. Ahh the little boy has grown.

“I need a favour,” she confessed. “I need you to come to Voeld and pick Kiba up, bring her back to Kadara.”

“Why?” he asked, dragging the word out. 

“I’m going to be training to be a Heskaarl.”

Dex cocked his head for a bit at the strange word. Ryder had to explain it. Eventually his mandibles flared in a grin. “You’re back,” he said. “I knew you will be back. Nothing can keep you down.”

Ryder smiled. The confidence Dex had bolstered her. She looked down at Kiba, the dog stared back at her. The trust she found in Kiba, the faith Dex had was humbling.  

With a little discussion, Ryder got transport arranged for Dex to come pick Kiba up and bring her back to Kadara. Her chest clenched, her stomach churned but Ryder was determined to see this through.

She was nothing if not stubborn. This was her crucible. Ryder needed to know if she could do it, alone. The nights spent staring at the stars at Mithrava reminded her how much she missed it. 

Ryder stretched out on her cot, trying to get comfortable to get some sleep. Kiba squirmed and rested her head against Ryder’s chest. 

“It wasn’t all bad,” she whispered, her breath made Kiba’s ear flicked a couple of them. Her prosthesis ruffling through Kiba’s fur, music playing from her omni-tool. 

'Cause it's not too late, it's not too late I, I see the hope in your heart

Ryder was realistic enough. Failure was a very real possibility. “But don’t try, don’t know, right?”

And sometimes you lose it, sometimes you're shooting Broken arrows in the dark But I, I see the hope in your heart

Kiba pushed her snout against her face. She laughed and obliged with a belly rub. The white dog rolled onto her back, four paws raised into the air. 

Ryder knew she didn’t feel ready. She’d probably never feel ready. Aresa and Esmus had taught her so much, helped her so much. It was something Ryder had to find out for sure, eventually. 

If she could survive Heskaarl training, then maybe… maybe rejoining the crew wasn’t a dream. 

“Maybe,” she whispered into Kiba’s fur, one of the husky’s leg clawed at the air.

Lyrics Taken from Broken Arrows by Avicci

[rayne-storm]

AUgust 25 - Time Travel

Title: SPACETIME IN POTENTIA

Fandom: Mass Effect Andromeda

F!Ryder/Jaal/Evfra , M!Ryder/Gil

((AU where the Angara were not *SPOILER* a created species))

This was just kind of something that wrote itself as I was wondering what the hell I was going to do for this prompt. Bittersweet.

When the Humans discovered that they could time travel with the help of Angaran technology mixed with Salarian scientists, it's all they ever wanted to do. When it was discovered that a group could go as far back as the age of their eldest member, things became insane.

Of course, Kadara Port became the center of these "Extra Far" tours, and old folks had never been more popular. It didn't quite work with Asari or Krogan (not well enough to do what they wanted, anyways) so humans became even more of an exotic treat.

Then the Pathfinder, of all people, learned (on accident or so she said) that humans were even better. Because she flipped the dial a little too far at one point, and found out that their time asleep counted, but it seemed only humans managed to gain that extra perk. Something about the way they were cryo-slept, scientists guessed. No one was sure why, but suddenly they could go back an extra 600 years. 600 years before that fucking scourge, to see what Andromeda looked like to the believers. 600 years, and what felt like an entirely new galaxy.

Ryder, in particular, was fond of sneaking away to the planet that took her father's life. To see the paradise that he had died chasing. She didn't resent him so much when she could see the beauty of the plant life, the crystal clear waters and gentle breezes.

More than once she had toyed with the idea of trying to save him, but it seemed that changing things didn't stick. Not even for her. And usually meddling didn't even bring about a change then.

It didn't stop her from trying, on bad days.

Just like it didn't stop anyone else from saving their loved ones a hundred thousand times.

Sometimes she would just watch. Would watch him save her life, and then die in the dirt, and she could see a smile on his face. She would see the confusion on Then-Ryder's face (and everyone else's) when she would intervene, and she would sit them down and tell the story of the future.

Then-Ryder would always ask the exact same three questions:

"Are We happy?"

"Will it hurt badly?"

"Does our brother make it?"

She always answered yes.

She would take to Then-Ryder about everything. About Jaal, and Evfra, and Reyes Vidal, about Liam and about Gil and their Brother, how they were aunties in the future, about their mom being alive…

That always got Then-Ryder excited. She would take her Past-Self to their mother's pod, and even though both knew it wouldn't last, they could share the joy and relief a moment.

On really hard days, when the pain started to become too much, she would fly out as far as she could, to try and make it to their ship before they encountered the scourge, to wake up her dad, and talk. About everything and nothing.

He never seemed surprised to see her. When questioned, he'd just shrug and say that he knew her too well, that he could see the gray hair she hadn't had the last time he saw her, and if he could time-travel, he'd likely do much the same.

Her lovers could always tell when she'd talked to Alex. She looked wearier, but also the tracks of the tears on her face were happy. They would sit and ask what wisdom the old man had imparted, though it was rarely anything amazing. It meant a lot they thought to ask anyways.

Exactly once she went back to before the kett invaded, to see what the Angara were like.

They were so happy, so peaceful.

She spotted a young man she recognized as Evfra's father from faded pictures, and immediately burst into tears.

That she was comforted by Jaal'd dead grandmother only made it worse.

She never told them, though they asked sometimes if she would ever think about going back that far. She always said it was extremely hard to make it anywhere very populated by the Angara, that the bioelectricity of the planet made her skin feel like it was on fire.

If they thought she was lying, they never pressed.

There were multiple debates on the ethics of having sexual encounters in the Past, and no one could really agree whether or not it counted as cheating, but the Angara in Ryder's bed gave their express permission that should she want to fool around with younger versions of them, or anyone else in the past, they wouldn't mind, so long as she didn't talk about it (if it wasn't them she was doing things with). She knew it was because they could tell she'd wanted to fuck Reyes Vidal that one night on the rooftop. Their reasoning was that it didn't make her love them any less, nor did it change the fact that ultimately she chose them.

She tried once, and vomited. She was sick for days from the guilt. Despite their reassurances. She couldn't make herself forget the hurt of his betrayal in the moment. Or the feeling she was some harlot stepping out on two wonderful men.

If they felt swells of pride at that, they never said so directly.

One thing she learned, though, was that she couldn't live in the past. No matter how much she wanted to. Some folks did, spent their days back way back when, for years at a time it seemed, and half of the missing persons cases were ruled as likely being those who couldn't live in their futures.

Luckily, she didn't have that problem. She had love and family and a bright future, and though time was tricky as ever, she was grateful for what she had.

[antagonistchan]

i started playing Mass Effect: Andromeda yesterday.

i got a download code for it for christmas like two years ago and just finally redeemed it.

now, for years, i’ve been saying this: “i know that people don’t like Andromeda- it’s very hard to avoid that- but i’ve done my best to avoid looking further into why people don’t like Andromeda because i want to form an opinion for myself. lots of people don’t like Mass Effect 3 either and i fucking adore that game. based on the fact that most people don’t like Andromeda and consider it a total joke but i do see that it has its fans in the Mass Effect tag, i expect that it’s gonna be bad, but i’m gonna like it anyways, though not as much as i like the trilogy.”

and i was absolutely right. so far at least.

it’s definitely not the worst. i mean, unless the question is “the worst Mass Effect game”, in which case, yeah, it is the worst. but that’s not saying much considering the other three are collectively my favorite game of all time.

so, Mass Effect: Andromeda is an extremely flawed game. but it’s not completely worthless like some people say (though i can totally understand why someone would dismiss it as worthless).

it’s pretty ugly (it’s got good lighting, but the animations and textures and human models all look really.... off. and the original version of ME1 was also pretty ugly, but in a charmingly primitive 2007 kinda way; Andromeda’s ugliness lacks that charm, especially since the aforementioned good lighting makes it fail to feel particularly primitive). speaking of the animations, aside from them looking off, a lot of them are extremely stiff and borderline unfinished.

the Angarans as a species are also pretty ugly imo, but 1: that’s extremely subjective, i’ve definitely seen people who are thirsty for Angarans, and 2: that’s also not necessarily a complaint. Angarans just Look Like That. who says these aliens need to conform to our ideals of prettiness. and they’ve got cool stuff going on. Jaal’s neat.

i do like the Remnant. they kinda give off that same precursor vibe as Prothean/Reaper tech without feeling like exactly the same thing again, and it’s pretty interesting that they only disappeared within the last few hundred years rather than 50,000 years ago. and there’s a lot more left of them. they’re somewhat derivative of the Forerunners from Halo, but not too extremely.

now, the aliens i do have an issue with are the Kett. they are so extremely derivative. not only are they derivative of things outside of Mass Effect (i know next to nothing about Warframe and even i can tell that they’re visually a total ripoff of Warframe, and also to an extent Halo), but they’re derivative of things Mass Effect already had, too (gee, an evil race that creates its soldiers by corrupting members of other races? no, that’s not like the Reapers at all).

the game’s writing is mostly fine. nothing’s struck me nearly as hard as anything in the trilogy had this far in (for any of the three games), but the story hasn’t offended me too badly and there’s been stuff i’ve liked. Alec Ryder’s a cool dead mentor character and i did emotionally resonate with him sacrificing himself to save my character’s life, Andromeda manages to bring back a lot of the hard sci-fi elements that ME2 and ME3 both scaled back on from ME1, and i really like the whole disaster scenario that Andromeda inherently presents, and how it makes space feel really big and dangerous in ways the trilogy liked to hint at but never fully explore.

not sure how i feel about the combat yet. largely because of the game’s pacing, and there’s a complaint. the trilogy was pretty good at keeping you on your toes, balancing the combat/exploration gameplay with the downtime gameplay. Andromeda... doesn’t really. it’ll spend way too long on the combat/exploration stuff so i’ll easily start getting bored with it, and then it’ll spend way too long on the downtime stuff so i’ll easily start begging to actually try out the new combat/exploration stuff i’m getting during the downtime, and on top of this, it also means i’m having a really hard time adjusting to the combat. i’m not really having that much fun with the combat yet, but i feel like there’s a very good chance it’s because i just haven’t gotten the hang of it yet (especially coming right off the tail of another playthrough of the original trilogy, a series of games i replay literally every year and have since 2013 so i know them like the back of my hand). the idea of Profiles is interesting, at least.

the Tempest is a cool ship. i had it introduced to me as “a shitty version of the Normandy” and that’s not really fair. yeah, the Normandy’s cooler, but the Tempest is cool too. honestly, i found myself comparing it more to the Normandy SR-1 than the SR-2. It has a much more similar vibe (i mean, hell, you don’t need to go through any loading screens to see the entire ship, and it’s not all centralized around a single elevator). the windows are really really silly from an in-universe perspective but i can forgive that, especially since it’s finally fulfilling the promise that i mistakenly thought some vague blurry ME1 art made years ago- a central ops chamber with a full window view of the top part of the ship. and it’s pretty. Ryder’s bedroom is a lot nicer than Shepard’s, it’s a bedroom that’s much more my speed. i also think it’s funny that they had to rename the Tempest gun so the names didn’t conflict.

and then there’s the characters, and.... i mostly like them.

i’m a little mixed on Cora. she seems a little passive-aggressive. Drack is just store brand Wrex, but that’s not really a bad thing. i mean, could you live up to Urdnot Wrex? no, you couldn’t. so Drack doesn’t offend me, i like him. Tann absolutely sucks but he’s clearly supposed to suck.

but then you’ve got the characters who are on two opposite ends of the spectrum of likability: Vetra and Peebee.

holy shit Peebee sucks and i don’t want anything to do with her. she was one of those things i wasn’t able to avoid hearing about and yeah she sucks just as much as everyone said she does.

Vetra, meanwhile? i adore Vetra so much. i love her. the moment i met her, i just HAD to look her up on the wiki to see if i could romance her, and i was so elated when i saw she was an available bi romance.

and for that matter, i was soon pretty happy to discover the game’s selection of romances: three exclusively straight romances (Cora, Liam, Avela), two exclusively gay romances (Gil and Suvi), and five bi romances (Jaal, Vetra, the witch, Keri, and someone i haven’t met yet named Reyes). that’s a pretty solid mix! especially when the two straight romances are two humans and an Angaran, the two gay romances are both human, and the bi romances are two Asari, a female Turian, a human, and another Angaran. i think i’d adjust it slightly by making one of the straight romances bi, but aside from that, that’s... kinda perfect! this feels really well thought-out, like they tried to make the mix perfect (hell, making one of the Angarans exclusively straight but another one bi feels like they were trying to provide a serious cultural clue for them- namely, that sexual identity is a concept they have)! it’d also be perfect if everyone was bi, but perfect in a different way (pro: you don’t have to worry about sexuality at all, con: it’s kinda boring).

anyways, back to Vetra. it’s a little early to say, since i’ve barely even explored her romance, but........ while probably not my favorite romance (it’d take a lot to dethrone that current champion, Traynor, let alone the other high scorers Garrus and Tali), she’s probably pretty high up there. sassy Turian lady who plays dirty to get things done? hell, i love the Garrus romance so much despite being a lesbian, so i’m absolutely all for my character romancing a Turian with a dark side, and now we get someone other than Garrus to fill that role, and a lady at that! ME1 and ME2 didn’t have any female Turians and ME3 didn’t have nearly enough, and then ME:A just has so many. the same goes for female Salarians, too, actually, but it’s more understandable in-universe for Salarians considering how Salarian gender works. anyways, there’s more that i love about Vetra besides “she’s Garrus 2 but a girl now”, a lot more actually, but that core idea is really enough to get you on board with her, really.

(speaking of Garrus though, he was also the focal point of one of the game’s stupidest moments: at some point Ryder says “An impatient rookie, frustrated with procedure? That's overdone.” which like..... that’s clearly supposed to be making fun of Garrus?? who’s like, the literal most popular character in the franchise???? i’m sorry??? what??? it’s like they’re trying to piss the fandom off intentionally, and “creators intentionally trying to piss their fandom off” generally don’t earn much respect from me unless they’re indie, and even then it’s a tough sell)

but that Garrus thing is cancelled out by another cool thing: the Nexus. the core idea of the Nexus seems to be “the Andromeda Initiative decided to build their own Citadel”, and that’s really fucking cool. it’s interesting to see the challenges of getting something like the Citadel actually up and running, and the Nexus itself is pretty interesting, especially in comparing and contrasting between it and the Citadel. also it has a room dedicated to teaching any local species about the various Milky Way races, and it’s all technically accurate but also a little overly generous in how positive some things are (“Turian culture is proof that peace will always win out!” “Humans may be diverse, but we choose to celebrate that diversity rather than let it divide us!”). and also i love that they actually let you listen to the info about humans as if you weren’t a human yourself because one of my favorite things about ME worldbuilding is how much it feels like humanity is just another one of the races that exists in this world, and humanity are really only the “protagonists” of the story because Shepard/Ryder is human.

[thelivenewz]

Best Bride Simple Mehndi Design for Legs | Mehndi Design for Legs

Henna or mehndi holds a huge significance in the Indian ritual and applying mehndi does not mean applying henna only on hands, it equally holds the importance of applying it in feet too. 

By applying henna on feet it looks equally gorgeous. It not only gives an elegant look it also acts as a coolant during those busy wedding days. Applying mehndi on both bride and bridesmaids is known to be a sign of good luck.

Today I would like to discuss the 10 simple mehndi designs for legs, which are easy and trendy at the same time. 

Keep it simple:

When it comes to the design of mehndi on feet it’s quite difficult to maintain as you might have given a lot of time and effort to your palm’s design. But don’t worries you can even go with this simple design and look. This look is simple and easy to do when you have no time left.

The design focuses on the circle pattern. You can even grab the attention and, at the same time, you have done a design on your feet. This simple mehndi will definitely be a perfect choice if you are a bridesmaid.

 Read More: Simple Mehndi Design for Full Hand

The flower never goes off the style:

When you think of flowers, it not only stays limited up to hands and palms but you can easily do these flower designs on your feet too. Just make a circle around the feet, fill it with flowers, leaves, and lines, and keep following the pattern for both feet.

The basics of this design consist of curves, lines. This design is easy as well as gorgeous at the same time. This simple mehndi design is attractive as it covers the sides of your feet.

The tattoo style:

If you have focused all the attention on your hands, you can go for this tattoo design that is easy to do and can be done in less time. This type of style is fun and can be done quickly so you can also pair these types of designs with western outfits as well as the traditional ones.

The simple legs design mainly consists of the simple dots and jaal as the attraction and mainly focuses on your heels.

The jewellery style:

This simple mehndi design for legs seems to be heavy but looks perfect when you want all the attention to be grabbed on your feet. The style is kind of bridal but who doesn’t want to be a little extra by doing a little heavy look.

By doing these types of designs you might even skip jewellery on the big day. The design has got a simple and clear connection to do on both the legs and resembles jewellery style.

 Get ready for the big day:

Brides are always seen in a heavily designed mehndi and a heavily designed drawing even suits the attire of the bridal look.

This design consists of peacocks and traditional Indian patterns which can never be heavy as it covers the whole look of the bridal avatar.

The design is mainly based on patterns and drawings. The chain format covering the feet is a unique touch to the design. This simple design for the leg covers the toes perfectly.

The flower and net pattern:

This solo look can itself manage your whole look very efficiently and the design itself is very stunning and cool at the same time.

The design is done by drawing small flowers in the middle of the foot and to keep it neat and simple is the liner pattern of lines in the form of net. The design does continue to the tip of the nails of the toes giving it a very complete and different look.

 Also Read: Best 10 Simple Mehndi Design for Bridal

  The flower can itself manage the look:

This look is based on the flowers and leaves which is quite popular in the modern days and can be easily carried if you are attending any auspicious function.

This simple design does not cover the whole feet and gives a neat and minimal look by the adjoining flowers. The look is about a little less design but the net joining pattern slays.

The all in one look:

The mehndi design is perfect for any d-day look for a bride as it contains all the patterns spirals and flowers. This design might not be heavy but at the same time it covers the look and joining this design at the end of the toe itself is amazing and perfect to cover the look.

The peacock pattern:

This simple mehndi design is easy as it only focuses on the peacock and does not have any other design or pattern in it, the design is different and unique and the feathers of the peacock captures all the view.

The jaal talk:

This mehndi design will carry the look itself and the net and the simple dots joining the pattern do the whole talk. And the flower in the centre of the criss-cross pattern takes the look to a different level. 

These were the 10 designs that I have discussed. They are simple, fun, easy and will do all the talking on any auspicious occasion.

[omegastation]

What are the most popular ships in MEA, what do you think?

Well looking at the tag here & the fics on AO3, the five main popular pairings seem to be SisRyder/Jaal, SisRyder/Reyes, BroRyder/Reyes, SisRyder/Vetra, SisRyder/Liam

[dgcatanisiri]

Tried to make a brief summary of the issues of Mass Effect Andromeda’s handling of queer men and how it relates to why we’re (broad use here) upset with the Legendary Edition failing to provide better representation than the originals, and it kinda turned in to what amounts to an open letter for BioWare.

So, what the heck, here it is.

A little personal background. I spent my high school life completely in the closet. After graduating, I had a new computer and the opportunity to play a new game. The game chosen was BioWare’s Jade Empire. Still a fairly recent release, and I was a big fan of Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, also by BioWare. So, being a young gay man, still uncomfortable and uncertain of who I was, I was very excited when I got to play this game that would allow me to play a gay romance, a romance that featured two men. I burned through two playthroughs of the game within less than a week, enjoying that rush of acknowledgement that yes, gay guys could be the hero. It was a massive affirmation for me at the time, something that said that my sexuality was not going to prevent me from being the hero, which legitimately was a message that I felt like most media was giving me to that point, because gay men barely appeared in anything other than guest roles for an episode or two on a TV show, but certainly not in video games. That game, that experience... I’ve said for years that it had cemented me as a BioWare fan for life.

If I say that now, it is a statement with a few caveats.

The history of the failure of Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect 2 to provide any male/male romances is well documented. I was excited, very eager to romance Kaidan Alenko in Mass Effect 3. But even then, I noticed that there were things that were lacking in the romance. It was noticeable, for instance, that the basic dialogue between male Shepard and female Shepard was unchanged, if either was starting a new romance with Kaidan. The thing that always felt... WRONG about that was that if I’d had the option to begin a romance with him in the first game, I would have. Yet there’s not even a bit of dialogue that even references that inability, no comment of “I didn’t think you were available,” or anything of the sort, nothing to say that, say, Shepard was interested in Kaidan at the time, but didn’t believe he’d be receptive, didn’t want to damage their friendship, something of the sort. There was even a cut in the romance scene, where female Shepard will sit in Kaidan’s lap before being lifted up and carried to the bed, but with male Shepard and Kaidan, just fades to black. And then in the Citadel DLC, while all the other pairings walked in to the casino arm in arm, male Shepard and Kaidan are leaving plenty of room between them. There’s also the absence of any cuddling as they return to the Normandy.

To say nothing of the lack of Steve Cortez during the story segments of Citadel – he is not part of the big team entrance to the apartment, just spontaneously appears in the lounge room. He doesn’t participate in the briefings, and he is not a casino date, despite being part of the assembled team. Cortez also suffers from the fact that his romance spends so much time on how he needs to move on from the death of his husband, Shepard can come across as predatory towards him, trying to push him out of his grief and his pants. Due to the lateness of his arrival in the story, in game three, as opposed to game one or two, there is significantly less time to establish him as a person – beyond his past as a pilot and the death of his husband, we gain almost no concept of his personality or personal history.

I bring all of this up to help set the stage of what was expected when Mass Effect Andromeda was nearing release. Mass Effect had been full of problems of representation of queer men specifically (not that they were perfect on the count of female/female relationships either, because there’s plenty to talk about there, but as I’m not a lesbian or bisexual woman, I don’t feel comfortable talking about their experiences for them). While there were flaws, Dragon Age, what is often considered Mass Effect’s sister franchise, HAD managed to provide male/male romances in every iteration of that franchise.

In fact, considering that Dragon Age’s most recent installment, Dragon Age Inquisition, had been put out with a lot of fanfare about the first gay male companion, who was considered rather popular in the fandom, and the game itself receiving the Game of the Year award that year, indicating that, if there was any risk in the business sense of providing representation of queer men, it was negligible at most in the bottom line of that game, the attitude of a lot of gay men in the lead up to Andromeda’s release was some variation of “okay, Mass Effect has been flawed, but BioWare’s learned from their past mistakes, and they’re coming off the heels of a hugely successful game that had a gay character whose gayness was front and center in his storyline... We can expect that things will be fine, and we don’t have to worry.” That was the dominant attitude I found in a lot of my queer-oriented spaces.

But we started getting uncomfortable as the developers remained cagey about romance options in Andromeda – there were Twitter responses to “we’re concerned about Mass Effect’s history of gay representation, we would like to know about the options” that came out as “we checked and yep! They’re there!” These responses came across as flippant and even tone-deaf – the reason that the question was being asked was because of prior failures to be included, and not simply a desire to get all the details before launch.

As the trailers started coming out, the questions continued from the fans, and the response from the developers... continued to be uncomfortable. When asked directly for a listing of romances prior to release, the response was that the developers wanted players to learn as they played, that “the fun is in experiencing it!” This was a specific response when it was learned that the romance options could be flirted with regardless of orientation, but they would shut it down. Despite the fact that the trailers DID include content from certain romances – specifically, the male Ryder/Cora and male Ryder/Peebee romances.

This was uncomfortable for a lot of queer players like myself because it spoke to a lack of consideration of what it is like to be queer. In many places, it is a serious question of safety to even put yourself out there to find a partner, to flirt with someone openly unless you are already certain that there is a chance for a positive response. There are places where a queer person flirting with the wrong person can get them harassed, assaulted, even killed for doing so. Even in the safety of a virtual construct of video games, these are honed instincts that queer people have developed. And no matter how many times we would say this to the developers, no one seemed to understand. Likewise, the fact that the trailers felt free to show off heterosexual romances, but not queer ones felt... questionable.

Then, finally, firm details started coming out, and... There were problems. Early data-mining said that there was an even split of romances between orientations. But there was a bit of discomfort around the reveal that the gay characters, Suvi and Gil, were limited to the ship, rather than being companions who would accompany Ryder on missions. There is a history of companions being given more involved storylines and involvement than secondary characters. It also didn’t help the disappointment from queer people who’d been eager for Cora or Liam as romances, who were firmly established as straight (Cora herself had a popular lesbian following).

That discomfort increased when it came out further that, ACTUALLY, Jaal would not be available for Male Ryder. This caused a lot of upset. Now it was a case where there was NO M/M squadmate romance option. This on top of the group of fans who were uncomfortable with the idea that, in a sci-fi series, gay men couldn’t romance an alien, while this had become a staple of the series, considering Liara, the character from a species described as equivalent to Star Trek green-skinned Orion girls, had been available for straight men and lesbian/bi women from ME1, and straight women got in on the act with Garrus and Thane in ME2, on top of straight men also getting Tali.

This got worse when the achievement listing for the game was released and there was an achievement for “romancing three different characters.” Meaning that it was absolutely impossible for a gay man to play the game and get this achievement without playing a sexuality other than his own.

This is why I led with my experience with Jade Empire, why it was so affirming to me. Because to hear all this, ten years later, to see what had been so affirming to me a decade prior be functionally dismissed, be shown to take a secondary position at best... It hurt.

And the game proper did not help that feeling at all.

So first we meet Gil Brodie. Engineer of the Tempest. One of the first things we learn about him is that he has a close friendship with a woman named Jill. And then he immediately tells us that one) she is a fertility specialist, and two) she “says [he’s] part of the problem” because he won’t have kids the natural way. This is immediately setting off red flags to me – I can think of plenty of my friendships where we give one another grief for various things, but I would never think of introducing any of them to someone else with that fact. So my reflexive thought in this situation is “what kind of a friend is this really?”

And then, as the game goes on... This is the only thing that Gil’s conversations involve, the prospect of having kids. We do not learn much more about him, just have him talking about considering the idea. The lock-in for his romance requires Ryder to meet Jill, who Gil again says that she will talk his ear off about his “civic duty” to reproduce, a fact that makes those earlier red flags wave higher and more furiously, because who DOES that to a total stranger? And this is passed off as being “charming.” This leads to the culmination of the romance, where Gil says that Jill has decided she wants to get pregnant and she wants Gil to be the dad.

There’s... A LOT going on here, so let me work through this. First, one of the few things Gil says as a bit of establishing his character is that he is impulsive, that he joined the Andromeda Initiative, the journey from the Milky Way galaxy to the Andromeda galaxy without really thinking through what it would mean, that it was a one-way journey with no way to back out once he’d gotten there. So this is already saying to me that this is not a person who really SHOULD be a parent, at least at this point in his life.

We also get a couple of emails from him in-game that paint him as putting in thirty-six hour workdays into the engines on the Tempest, that he cares about and puts a lot of time into those engines. So when I think about him as a father, I see him having to give up something he’s deeply passionate about to do it, because the Tempest is certainly no place to raise a child – they can’t exactly put a playpen in the cargo hold, for example.

This would be one of the first things that I would think of as a discussion element, but... it’s not there. All that we get is a couple of casual comments about how Gil should know that bringing a child into the world is a big thing, something that shouldn’t be done lightly. But this is framed as Ryder questioning Gil’s fitness to be a parent at all, rather than questioning if he’s thinking this through and having considered this enough to be ready to take on this responsibility, or if it’s even something that he even wants.

Because that’s the other big thing here – this is not Gil’s idea. This is not something that he makes clear is his desire. No, it’s Jill who has decided that she wants to get pregnant and use Gil’s sperm. For all that he matters in this whole thing, he might as well be a turkey baster. He’s basically an accessory in his own story, because he goes in to this with all the passion of a math equation: “The Andromeda Initiative is a colonization effort. Therefore, the idea is to have babies. Therefore, I should find some way to reproduce.” This isn’t him having a passion or desire to have kids, just it being “something you do.”

This is, genuinely, a failure to understand the character who was being written. Gil’s writing reeks of having been written by someone who does not know what they are talking about. There is an element to the gay experience that is not innate but learned. When we realize that having children is not a thing that will just happen, that if we want this to happen, it will require a lot of additional steps, there are many who will simply say “this isn’t for me, this is more work than I’m willing to put in to for this.”

Now, Gil could have been someone who had decided it was worth it, but that butts up against the idea of him being impulsive, that he doesn’t think things through. There is no time given to focusing on the reason he decides this is the right choice for him, to the point that many players felt that this was not Gil’s decision but something that Jill was pushing, that she expected him to jump on her command. Because we have so little of Gil, as a character and an individual, but plenty of him talking up her, this “friendship” feels toxic to many.

Just about everyone I have ever spoken with about Gil is deeply uncomfortable that literally, the only way that he will not have a child at this point is if a romanced Ryder stops him – if I am playing a game where I don’t romance him, I actively just stop interacting with him at a certain point so that this never comes up, because this does not come across as happy. It comes across as forcing a gay man into a heteronormative experience to satisfy some traditional idea of “man and woman, raising kids.”

And, as the cherry on top, if you do tell Gil that you’re not comfortable having kids – a very real thing, whether gay or straight – then, unlike other romances, Gil and Ryder do not share a kiss at the finale of the game. And, during the last conversations on Meridian, the only thing Gil even brings up is Jill being pregnant, whether or not it’s his child.

This is what “representation of gay men” amounted to in Mass Effect Andromeda. A homophobic story that was about a gay experience written by someone who is not a part of this community and does not know or understand the experience personally, going through the motions of development when really, all that is cared about is the end result. To say that most of the gay men I know who have played this game find this homophobic is to undersell the point.

It doesn’t help that, of all the Tempest romances, Gil also clocks in with the least amount of romance exclusive material – a few flirts, the romance lock in and scene, and being able to stop Gil from having kids. Other than that, his friendship and his romance are virtually identical.

Speaking of, the romance scene consists of a make out session that fades to black, before coming back in with Ryder and Gil, shot from about shoulders up, briefly wrapping up their conversation that preceded the fade to black. This is noteworthy when the heterosexual romances between Ryder and their human love interests, as well as Peebee and Jaal, the former having a similar body model to naked human women, just blue, and Jaal, who is naked at other points in the game, have much more involved romance scenes – Cora’s in specific received special attention.

All of this, individually, may have just been reflective of time crunch and other external pressures – we all understand the realities of game development, that for all the ambitions that go in, when the deadlines are nearing, something has to give. But taken collectively... The kindest question is to ask why all of the “give” happened in regards to the gay man?

The end result with Gil honestly feels like he was written in response to the bad faith arguments that had come up in the period after the name for the game was revealed and it was made clear that the game would follow a colonization effort. There were a contingent of people who said that “there shouldn’t be gay people coming along, a colonization effort needs to reproduce.” This is a bad faith argument from homophobes, trying to justify why they don’t want gay people in “their” games. In answering their question, the question they only “ask” in order to explain why they don’t want to have gay people in the game without saying that, it comes across as catering the gay content for a heterosexual audience. It should go without saying that this is a bad position to take.

So, that’s Gil. What about Reyes? Well, Reyes himself is bound to a single planet, which, again, points to a minimizing of how much content he will even get, since his content can only be accessed on this single planet. Likewise, Reyes, as a character, is someone who falls in to several old, tired tropes with regards to bisexual men – he is a shady, untrustworthy character, in this instance literally a criminal, meant to be evocative of the “dashing rogue” archetype. This is a characterization that has often been BioWare’s go-to with regards to bisexual men, because we see this archetype drawn on in Jade Empire’s Sky, Dragon Age Origins’ Zevran, Dragon Age 2’s Anders, and even elements exist in Dragon Age Inquisition’s Dorian (even if he is a gay man). It’s a well that BioWare has frequently tapped when it comes to a romance option for queer men, to the point that it starts to feel like BioWare in general believes that this IS what queer men are.

There’s also the questionable portrayal of Reyes that leads to a description of the trope “the depraved bisexual,” an explicitly bisexual character who uses sex and sexuality as a manipulative tool, that they treat others as simply there to be their toys. Over in Dragon Age Inquisition, one of the romance options was specifically NOT made bisexual in order to avoid this trope, but Reyes himself seems to be a candidate for that trope all the same.

All this, and, again, the romance options for gay men were unequal to those for everyone else. This prompted the campaign #MakeJaalBi – Jaal was, notably, the character initially assumed to be the bisexual male companion, and on release, his romance was heterosexual exclusive. But datamining revealed that there was code for him to be romanced by male Ryder. Indeed, on release, it was noteworthy that Jaal could not even be flirted with by male Ryder. Liam had a distinct turndown for male Ryder, a couple of them, depending on when Ryder flirts with him. Jaal had no such turndown.

And this worked. BioWare released the patch for Andromeda that gave Jaal a bisexual romance. However, this was the only change that Mass Effect Andromeda received in regards to the issues of the romances before support for the game ended. While it was seen as an improvement, it was also questioned why this was the only change, when... Well, I spent the better part of two pages outlining the problems of Gil’s portrayal.

(I feel I would be remiss to not mention there was also a character, Hainley Abrams, who would, upon interacting with her, proceed to deadname herself to Ryder, as if that is the only way to establish that a transgender person is trans. This was also changed in a patch after the trans community complained, and, in conjunction with the above, led more than a few people to wonder if the Andromeda script had been looked over by any queer sensitivity readers, given the earlier issues with Gil. This does go out of the scope of everything else in this discussion, but it is worth mentioning.)

When Mac Walters says players will talk about how Shepard is each of theirs, that every individual player approaches Shepard as being “their” Shepard, he isn’t wrong. He says the characters, and the relationships we have with the characters is the heart and soul of the series, he isn’t wrong. And yet... When I play the trilogy, my heart and soul are being torn apart, because I do not get to see myself in the trilogy. I am not there in this story, at least for two thirds of the way. And in that third that I am there, I feel like I am cared about less than my counterparts who are heterosexual.

The idea that “making” characters available for same sex romance changes them is like saying that there is some inherent difference in a person because of their sexualities. While it’s true that the experiences of queer people does offer different perspectives on matters, it does not fundamentally alter the person, the individual that we are. It does not change our heart and soul. Restoring the bisexuality of characters like Jack, Jacob, Ashley, Thane, or Tali is not changing who they are. Making Kaidan bisexual in ME3 did not change who he was, and restoring a romance between him and male Shepard in ME1 would not change him either.

Every game has some cut content surrounding queer content specifically, and a great deal of that content is specifically for gay players like myself. I said at the beginning that I once thought of myself as a BioWare fan for life, but that now comes with caveats. The caveats are pretty simple – while the games produced by BioWare once felt affirming, now they feel like they’re only grudgingly allowing me to be there. That if I must be there, I should just take the scraps I’m given and be content with that, rather than being treated as an equal.

I like to think that this is not the message that the people at BioWare wish to impart to their players. I like to believe BioWare’s statements of wanting to be an inclusive and welcoming environment for their players, regardless of gender, race, sexuality, orientation, whatever identity and label one chooses. But based on the experience of the last four games, of the Legendary Edition perpetuating the homophobia of over a decade ago... I have a hard time believing that.

BioWare games once made me feel like I was equal to the straight heroes across my media. Unfortunately, I don’t feel that way about their games anymore. Not when, after having the opportunity to restore the bisexuality of Kaidan – of multiple characters, really – in the Legendary Edition, I am still being told that offering representation for people like me is something that only comes grudgingly.

And if that’s what I see now... What does it say about what the future of the franchise will offer? If every game in this series involves fighting for content that, in particular, heterosexual players will see offered as the rule, what motivates me to want to continue to be invested and involved in this franchise?

[inkspot-fox]

1-5 for the salt meme?

I’m gonna do all three fandoms because why not! =D

Dragon Age

What OTPs in your fandom(s) do you just not get?*

Hawke/Merril. Their relationship reads very, very “older and younger sibling” dynamic to me. Carver even calls out a mage Hawke on it. Even knowing that Merril is a canon LI, I just…. errrrgh I don’t see it.

Are there any popular fandom OTPs you only BroTP?*

Hooooly shit yes. Can someone say Hawke&Varric? Because Hawke and Varric. 

Have you ever unfollowed someone over a fandom opinion?

For specifically the DA fandom? Nope. That award goes to the SWtOR fandom.

Do you have a NoTP in your fandom? Are they a popular OTP?*

Diiiiiiiid you guess romantic Hawke/ Varric? Because it’s romantic Hawke/Varric. Also romantic Varric/Inquisitor. And, you know, I’m a big one for “ship and let ship”. It’s fiction. So this wouldn’t bother me so much if the shippers weren’t so fucking entitled about it. They act like Bioware owed them a Varric romance. Coincidentally, the vast majority of these people also loathe Bianca/conveniently forget that Bianca exists. 

Has fandom ever ruined a pairing for you?*

Fortunately not really. Although they seem to be doing their damn hardest to with Cullen/Inquisitor or Cullen/Surana. Fortunately, I am made of spite.

Mass Effect

What OTPs in your fandom(s) do you just not get?*

You know, nothing comes immediately to mi–wait I lied, romantic Joker/Shep. Hahaaaaaa nope, nope. Nope. Mostly, I think, because EDI is literally perfect?

Are there any popular fandom OTPs you only BroTP?*

There’s the aforementioned Joker/Shepard. Maybe Shep&Jacob? I used to only BroTP Cora and Ryder, but then I saw the romance and it’s phenomenal, so there goes that. ….also if Drack/Ryder is a thing then that also counts.

Have you ever unfollowed someone over a fandom opinion?

Not in the mass effect fandom. I also interact very little with the mass effect fandom, because I already know I’ll loathe 95% of the people in it.

Do you have a NoTP in your fandom? Are they a popular OTP?*

If I had to pick one, I think I’d go Shepard/Jacob, because that poor man is so obviously uncomfortable with Shep’s flirting, he makes it clear he isn’t interested, and Shep acts like a fucking predator when she pushes him until he caves. I am also undoubtedly influenced by the legions of people who think their ~agency was stolen from them~ when Jacob ditches their ass in ME3. I’m firmly of the opinion that Jacob should have been given the agency to say no in ME2 dammit, but the writer changed between 2 and 3 and I’m glad his writer in 3 gave him that agency, even if it did come far later than it should have.

Has fandom ever ruined a pairing for you?*

Nope! I don’t think I’ve really ever hard-shipped anything other than Garrus/Shep, m!shenko, and Ryder/Jaal though. And those are all popular ships.

SWtOR

What OTPs in your fandom(s) do you just not get?*

Romantic Inquisitor/Darth Marr. It’s hugely popular, too, and I just… nope. No thanks. I also really don’t get romantic Lana/Theron. Just. Nah.

Are there any popular fandom OTPs you only BroTP?*

The aforementioned Lana/Theron. Brosbrosbrosbros. 

Have you ever unfollowed someone over a fandom opinion?

Ahahaaaa yes. I’m sure you can even guess who, too. I have a huge problem with purity wankers, especially hypocritical purity wankers (which, let’s be honest, most of them are gigantic hypocrites). That’s probably the most notable example. There was another instance that… probably only technically counts, because the unfollow reason wasn’t really a fandom reason. They happened to out themselves as someone who hates multiethnic ships, and uh, yeah that’s a hard fuck you line for me.

Do you have a NoTP in your fandom? Are they a popular OTP?*

Consular/Nadia. And like… I know it can be done if you use a super young Consular, which the Consular would have to be. But… god. Nadia acts so young and student/teacher ships are a squick for me. I’ve also seen way too many male consular characters running around with their Nadias in the slave girl/skimpy dancer outfits. 

Also Corso/female smuggler because NO. I mean, ship what you want but dear god do I ever not want to see it.

Has fandom ever ruined a pairing for you?*

In SWtOR, not really. Though the Scourge fans seem determined to try.