#krogans....turtles?

[sol-consort]

The quarian world didn't have bugs, so the plants made their pollen beneficial to them to spread it around. Likewise, other diseases adapted to benefit them.

Technically, that makes them a bug.

The quarians' home did have one species of bugs. It was the quarians.

[hellt00th]

sighs dreamily.

[omniblades-and-stars]

Are there any adventures in Crash's long life, either on Tuchanka or when she left, that she hold particularly dear or exciting?

I'm definitely not making this up right off the cuff.

Anytime Crash gets to make a lot of noise, she lives for. I mean, she's a giant dinosaur/turtle woman who wears purple armor. She doesn't live life sneaky.

Once upon a time, one of her friends was captured by slavers, and well, that just won't do. So Crash sends out the call for help. And of course, some folks who are up for a little bit of mayhem and a krogan style bit of carnage answer.

Let's see, her neighbor, a batarian woman named Kolea, brought the tech powers. An asari named Heliy, they brought centuries of biotic training and a "fuck around and find out" attitude. And a quarian fellow, Ren, brought just like .... a lot of grenades.

Now, if you were a two-bit slaving operation and your front door blows inward out of nowhere and a krogan woman with the biggest shotgun you've ever seen rushes in through the smoke shouting things about "krogan hospitality" and promising turn your sorry ass to ashes, you'd probably be pretty scared, right?

Anyways, they rescue her friend, and a couple of other people who happened to be there. All in all, a very successful rescue mission.

There were a lot of explosions. Many of them were probably not strictly necessary.

[wishingstarinajar]

Since rewind doesn't like humans, what are his opinions on humanoid creatures and beings? For example: The teenage mutant ninja turtles, an enderman, or even aliens

I'm starting to feel like a broken record about this subject x'D But here I go:

The Ninja Turtles don't look remotely human. They are anthropomorphic turtles.

Enderman doesn't look remotely human. It's a black and purple cube with arms, legs and eyes.

It depends with aliens; plenty of human-like alien designs are out there (Twi'lek, Vulcan, Asari, etc) while other designs are more Eldrich, monster and/or animal-like (Xenomorph, Krogan, Neimoidian, Wookie, etc).

As I kind of explained here, if a species/character looks like a human wearing ear, nose, cheek prosthetics, animal ears or tail, horns or some tentacle wig, Rewind will probably have an issue with them.

And before someone asks about Gaster or Mettaton/Napstaton ¦D ... he knows both are monsters and has lived with both present in his life for a long time. They don't trigger his, well, trauma involving humans.

[ramblinganthropologist]

Writober 2023 8 - Toad

Summary: So... do krogan look like toads or turtles?

(this is stupid and set during ME1)

---

Nothing like surviving a shootout with krogan Battlemasters to make you really appreciate being alive.

Also, nothing like surviving a shootout with krogan Battlemasters to make absolutely everything fucking hurt.

“I see you broke another rib, Commander.”

“Sure feels like it, Doctor.”

At that moment, Alistair was out of armor and on one of the beds in the med bay. Above him, Chakwas was scanning him with her ever-so useful x-ray machine, checking to see if he had broken something.

Judging by the look on her face… looks like he had to add to his total.

“Once again, the compression caused a fracture.” Her tone was matter of fact as she put the scanner aside. “Actually, it caused three.”

Three at once? That had to be a record for him…

He would’ve smiled, but everything fucking hurt so he just lay there. “Joker’s going to be disappointed I’m pulling ahead in the broken rib leader board.”

It wasn’t exactly a big match – just himself and his pilot. Between the man’s brittle bone disease and his binder, it was neck and neck. Or should he say rib and rib? Whatever was the right term, he was pretty sure he was currently winning.

What did he win from it? Nothing but broken ribs and the pride he was a fucking mess.

“Commander, I once again have to recommend top surgery for you. You’ve broken your ribs far too many times.” She paused. “But I know your answer – you don’t have the down time needed to recover from the procedure.”

Alistair nodded, wincing. “That and the whole Saren Arterius teaming up with the Reapers to destroy the universe thing. It’s kind of putting a hitch in my plans.”

Not that he had been actively planning to get top surgery at that point. What with his Alliance duties, he didn’t really have the time needed to sit and let his chest heal. Now that he was facing the possible death of everyone he knew and cared about, he had even less time.

Also, he was kind of leading a ship now. Who didn’t love responsibility?

“Yes, I would think that may cause a problem.” Was that a quirk of a smile on Chakwas’ lips as she shook her head. “Please remove your shirt and binder and I can get started fixing your ribs.”

That made the man make a face almost jokingly as he struggled to sit up. “Come on, you know I only wear sports bras when I have the armor on, binders and active duty are a no-go.”

Besides, he was usually in armor for more than 8 hours, and binders kind of had a time limit.

At any rate, Alistair winced as he managed to peel off his shirt and the aforementioned sports bra. Topless, he lay back down, resisting the urge to glare at his chest as he did. Damn thing always caused him problems, even if he didn’t facture in the dysphoria.

“As always, stay still while it’s working and try not to jump up when they pop back into place.” Beside him, the good doctor was setting up the program. “It should take about an hour due to the fact one is cracked in two places.”

Two places – that was a multiplier. He was definitely ahead now.

Alistair nodded as he laid back, closing his eyes to block out the lights from the lab. Nobody would be coming in – he was the only idiot who got hurt on missions on a regular basis. So he had nothing to do but just listen to machines beep as they fixed his ribs.

At least until he heard someone settle in to his left.

“How many did you break this time?” Bo sounded almost amused as she ripped open her bag of chicken nuggets to replenish her energy after using her biotics. “Joker’s sulking in the cockpit because he thinks you beat him.”

He would’ve shrugged – but again, couldn’t move. “I got a double break multiplier, so… add 6 to my total.”

His adoptive sister let out a low whistle before she commenced the KT carnage on her dinosaur shaped nuggets. “You’re ahead by 3. We’ll be lucky if he doesn’t’ throw himself against the wall to catch up.”

Nah – Joker hated getting his  ribs fixed almost as much as Alistair did. Neither of them were exactly looking for intentional breaks. This was more a tally of their bad luck and bad genetics than self-harm.

At least it was for him. He couldn’t speak for Joker, but he was pretty sure he knew the man well enough to figure they were on the same page.

“I’m still amazed you didn’t break more after that guy slammed you into the wall.” Bo was still munching. “You bounced like a superball.”

Alistair winced at the memory – the battlemaster had tossed him like a rag doll. “That makes two of us. I got off lucky with just three ribs.”

“Next time, just dodge the nice toad with the assault rifle.”

Bo’s voice was flat there. She was starting an old argument between them, one that would probably never have much of a conclusion. They were entrenched in their sides to say the least in what was probably the dumbest argument they both refused to let go.

“They don’t look anything like toads.” Alistair shook his head. “Besides, they can tuck into their humps. They’re more like turtles.”

That made his sister snort, as it often did. “Turtles don’t pack heat.”

“Toads aren’t exactly packing biotics either, Bo.”

Another snort. “They might on Tuchanka.”

Yeah, he was pretty sure there were no biotic toads on Tuchanka, partially because he was pretty sure they only existed on Earth and Earth-created settlements. He’d never seen a toad anywhere else – weird alien frogs sure, but not toads.

“When you see an alien toad, you let me know.” He rolled his eyes as he winced. The familiar popping had begun, letting him know that soon he would be shifting into the healing process after the reconstruction.

This was his least favorite part – it made his bones itchy.

“We don’t because they evolved into krogan. Tuchanka made them develop biotics and killer trigger fingers.” Bo sounded so sincere and serious in her spurious assessment of the krogan evolutionary process that he almost believed it for a second.

He would’ve said more, but a heavy footstep entered the room.

“Shepard, the turian said you would be in here.” Wrex sounded impatient. “How long are you going to lie there?”

Thank the Lord he hadn’t showed up earlier…

At the same time, Alistair blushed at the thought the krogan was seeing him without his shirt on. He doubted Wrex cared – no gender in his species had breasts after all – but it was still embarrassing to be caught with his shirt off.

“He’s got three ribs to heal, Wrex.” Bo was digging into her bag of nuggets. “The big guy bounced him against a wall.”

“You’re lucky he didn’t shatter your bones.” Wrex didn’t sound impressed. “When does this finish?”

Oh… judging by how itchy his ribs were… probably about 15 minutes.

At least he managed to open an eye. Just like he thought, Wrex wasn’t impressed at the sight of the Normandy’s commanding officer flat on his ass in the med bay. At least he wasn’t staring – though that might be due to species difference.

“We’re halfway through. I can’t move until then.” He winced as his rib popped into place. “Did you have a chance to check the armor we brought back?”

Might as well have the meeting here… with his tits out… life or death required sacrifices sometimes.

At least that seemed to satisfy the krogan. “He was from a small clan, one of their few Battlemasters. Now that he’s a smear on the wall, they’ll fold.”

He nodded to Bo. “The headbutt wasn’t bad, Shepard.”

Bo beamed as she finished off her nuggets. “Just needs a bit more work and I’ll be knocking you guys on your asses in no time.”

Right, that was just what they needed – a krogan in human form. He would’ve groaned, but that would have just hurt his healing ribs. Instead, Alistair just mentally sighed and hoped she didn’t break her neck.

Maybe he would order her a stronger helmet or neck protection… she didn’t have a krogan’s hump after all.

“I’ll believe it when I see it.” There was a hint of challenge there – Wrex probably wanted to face off with her. If he didn’t know his sister was a lesbian, he would’ve wondered if there was something other than battle love between them.

Thank the Lord – he wouldn’t want to walk in on that.

“Also, what’s a toad?”

Oh, fuck.

Alistair felt his face color as he realized he perhaps hadn’t gotten as lucky as he thought with their conversation. He would’ve apologized immediately, but a large pop caused him to yelp with pain. He saw stars for a moment – healing took no prisoners.

“It’s a type of…” Bo turned to him. “Is a toad a frog, or is it its own thing?”

Through his teeth, he managed to grumble. “Sub-class of frog. One on land, one on water.”

He had needed to look that up two years prior for this very argument, so it came to him easily. He would’ve said more, but… oww.

“Is it vicious?” Wrex sounded interested. “Some of you humans keep calling me a toad when they think I can’t hear them. I might as well know what it is before I start cracking skulls.”

Fuck, he was going to need to talk to the crew if it was happening on the Normandy… but that would come after he was able to put his shirt on.

“You can get high if you lick some of them.” Bo had looked that up too. “Some get big as fuck too, I saw one the size of a dog once on deployment.”

Wrex snorted. “You humans compare everything to those ‘dog’ things.”

True – there was even a TV show about it that was popular on the Citadel. Alistair didn’t exactly watch it – he had the unfair advantage of knowing what a dog was after all – but he had watched in when he had worked at the nursing home in his late teens.

“We got a lot of them, what can I say.” Bo snickered. “And if Al was up to it, he’d probably be telling you he’ll talk to the crew so you don’t have to break any skulls.”

“But that’s the best part.” Wrex almost sounded disappointed. “Can’t we space him and make you the CO?”

Gee, didn’t he feel the love… then again, Bo and Wrex got along well with such a short amount of time. Maybe it was only natural that he would prefer his favorite Shepard to get the top position on the Normandy.

“Fuck no, I don’t want the responsibility or the paperwork.”

In the end, that was what it had come down to – Bo balking at the amount of paperwork she would have to do. Well, that and Anderson recommending him. He would’ve taken the responsibility either way, but still.

“Yeah, I guess he’s got his purpose.” Wrex looked bored as he stood. “Once you can sit up, we have more to discuss, Shepard.”

Alistair resisted the urge to nod as he felt the program reach its final course. “I’ll see you soon, Wrex.”

And then the krogan was gone, leaving him with itchy ribs and a clearly pleased sister. She was unbearable smug in that moment as she leaned over, arm on her knee and her head in her chin like she had just won an award.

“See? I’m not alone with the toad thing.”

He had to resist the urge to groan. “You’re ridiculous.”

“And you’re a sore loser.”

No, he was just sore thank you very much. At least once he was healed he could put his shirt back on and ignore this argument ever existed. It be back to work chasing Saren and the geth in the hopes of saving the galaxy, krogan included.

…

And if you asked him, they were all insane. Krogans clearly looked more like turtles or tortoises. His crew was fucking blind. Maybe he should ask Chakwas to administer vision tests…

[p4w]

mass effect team: so lets talk about the species we made. theyre called the krogan. and as you can see , theyre based on bats

*camera pans to the most Snapping Turtle looking guy ever*

[legionofpotatoes]

✨ Mass Effect will continue ✨

prints [x]

[keroa]

wrex studies

[your-fave-is-bi]

Im so proud of my son

[a-krogan-skald-and-bearsark]

More Mass Effect Evolutionary Biology thoughts. Krogan today.

Eyes on the sides of the head, in terrestrial organisms, is a sign of prey species. Because a wide range of view is more important than depth perception. (this may help to explain the Krogan preference for close fighting.)

A similar thing goes for their crest/carapace. There are very few carnivorous species with that sort of ornamentation. Oh, you get some species with exposed bony structures that will eat meat, but few if any are obligate carnivores. And speaking of, Krogan don't have the dentition for carnivores. Their teeth, what we see of them are broad and flat. Grinding teeth, not cutting or tearing teeth. Conclusion? Krogan are a prey species.

Further evidence? There's a Codex entry that claims that prior to the invention of gunpowder, the most common cause of death in Krogan was animal attack. What information we have on pre-genophage reproduction rates in Krogan suggests they are also an R-selected species, that is to say that the reproductive strategy of the species is to multiply rapidly regardless of circumstances, relying on a high repopulation rate in order to survive fluctuations in environmental carrying capacity.

It also helps to explain Krogan behaviour, if we look at social herbivore behaviour. Bison for example. Whereas Carnivores tend to be fairly docile unless actively hunting or something is done to piss them off, large herbivores tend to operate on the basis of "a potential threat is not a threat if it's paste."

Which also explains the headbutting (a form of dominance display)

[spratwurst]

do krogans have a tail and most importantly can they wiggle it?? 

[sol-consort]

TALI!!!!! Also they should give Krogans cats I feel like Krogans would like their vibes

yeah it's very cute to think about Krogans cuddling with cats and being best friends!

But realistically... look at their treatment of pyjaks and varren. Nom nom nom or fighting rings. Cats often steal food from humans, yet we don't go blasting them off with military grade rockets... At least I hope we haven't, someone check the history records rq.

That side mission segment never sat well with me in ME2. Especially after that ME1 Pyjack mission where you have to search for important datadisk stolen by a pyjack, having to abandon the mako so you don't accidentally hurt them, carefully search one after another, doing whatever you can to avoid harming these cute monkey-like animals.

Sure, some krogans do keep them as decently treated pets, but those are rare and few in-between. It's a nurtured habit rather than something ingrained in their nature, krogans used to be in the stone ages before they were forcibly "uplifted" by the salarians. As their society develops and gets comfortable with safety, animal cruelty will become a thing of the past... hopefully.

Currently, krogans haven't been big on animals. Cats wouldn't like Tuchanka either, too much radiation and sand storms. Krogans might find snapping turtles adorable, however.

Hanar hold very high empathy to animals, animal fighting rings, and anything unsavoury are forbidden from all of their planets. Believing in every creature having a soul, etc. Cats would abhor their slimy squishy texture—like how they have mysterious beef with cucumbers—but hanar might find them extremely adorable.

Elcor and cats share the trait of subtle body language and highly complex communication that has to be "watered down" for the other species to understand. I feel like they'd get along, cats would love napping on them, they're a big soft heater to them.

Lastly, a portion of our love of cats comes from them literally infecting us with a brain parasite, Toxoplasma gondii. It's meant for cat-prey to get infected, but humans' immune system is far too strong for it to do any harm besides slight flu symptoms at the early stages of the infection. After that, it remains dormant in our brain. We are a dead-end host, offer zero benefits to the parasite, we were never meant to be its target.

But it slightly increases our dopamine, which is nice.

it still has negative side effects, that's why pregnant women are told not to handle cat litter boxes; the parasite resides in cats' digestive system.

If you see a rat being playful with a cat or running towards them, chances are the parasite is well developed in the rat's brain. That's literally what it does, makes you seek cats.

it's why infected people start noticing their cats smelling nice like "baby powder" and have this urge to smooch their fur. In rats, it makes cat urine smell unbelievably good, so they go running towards it.

It just happened that this behaviour in humans translates into a feeling of love, euphoria, and elation when petting a cat, wanting to pick them up and smoother them in hugs and kisses.

Approximately 30% of the human population have toxoplasmosis, chances are if you ever owned a cat and cuddled, you have it. So yay I'm infected, you probably are too.

That alone might deter any alien species from ever interacting with cats. The "crazy cat lover" effect might amplify in species with weaker immune systems, aka quarians, or simply different proteins structures, aka turians.

But eh, it's probably nothing, Sid—a turian—is shown to love cats lots. Infected humans can't spread the parasite to others either—the infected host needs to die for it to happen. The immune system can't exactly enter the brain, only monitor it from outside the barrier for any signs of danger. So the parasite is kept imprisoned and gets bonked on the head whenever it tries to leave.

Btw cats aren't actually infected by their own parasite, they have sort of a symbiotic relationship with it. Toxoplasma gondii has two life cycles. One starts as they're born inside a cat's bowels, they are harmless and mostly beneficial to their original host.

The second cycle starts after they're thrown out in the litter box. Now they seek a new "prey" host to infect the brains of. Releasing chemicals and slightly altering your perspection of things. Increasing your risk of schizophrenia. Subtle agitation in the eyes.

You can also get it from uncooked meat or unwashed vegetables, so it's not that scary or dire of a parasite. It's just that cats are its most successful symbotic host to this day.

But if your immune system experiences a major failure and shuts down for a prolonged amount of time, the parasite will break from its cage and start spreading.

Congestive faculties start shutting down, eye blindness in some cases, until it eventually kills you.

That's also true with any sort of bacteria or parasite you catch while your immune system is down, it's easy to set a village ablaze with nothing but a single match once the castle walls crash down.

Toxoplasma gondii isn't special; anything can kill you! Without your immune system, you're just a bag of flesh and blood, susceptible to rot and being cannibalised by the air particles themselves.

But don't worry! this is normal for your body... sometimes. Only 43% of the human body is actually...uh human. The rest are foreign bacteria, microbes, fungi, some parasites, and other things that we collect throughout our journey of life. We even trade bacteria with other humans we meet all the time without realising it.

The majority of you—the physical you—is in fact, not you. You—cells you create—are a minority in your own body ecosystem.

Why do you think humans are so deadly to turians? We are a walking swamp, A living breathing extremely diverse bio-ecosystem. A dormant parasite or a two is nothing.

[prider-parker-imaginations]

A Wrex doodle to match Tali and Pennywise.

[acrosc]

drew this a thousand yrs ago when i was wondering if krogan could pull their head back into the hood like a turtle

[c-rowlesdraws]

i saw some of your mass effect posts, and wondered what you thought about Krogan? i think they are kinda neat, and slightly prefer the version from the cartoon because they have sharp teeth. wonder if any of them can swim? they Do like eating fish..

I think the krogan are cool! Wrex is like a fun violent alien uncle, Grunt is a joy, and Bakara and her story is one of my favorite parts of ME3. I've never seen the cartoon, but I have to say that as much as I like sharp teeth on a creature, I also really like the stubby, kind of squared-off teeth they have in the games-- they seem like a more unexpected design choice than sharp teeth, and it helps make the krogan look unique. They're not my favorite species, since I don't tend to go for loud brutal warrior-culture types or big stompy reptilian designs, but I feel for them (the genophage was an atrocity, #JusticeForTuchanka), and I do like their top-heavy silhouette, their wedge-shaped turtle-dragon faces, and their little stubby tails.

[nifty-drifty]

after owning the new mass effect for months now i’m finally playing and????? no one told me there were so many girls......... wish i had more hands to hold their hands