#opus!art

[swaps55]

Cover art by the utterly phenomenal @legionofpotatoes!

Mezzo

Pairing: mshenko | Rating: M Tags: Canon-typical violence, trauma, dealing with your problems poorly, body autonomy struggles   Summary: The twists and turns of ME2, through the eyes of everyone but Commander Shepard. Chapter Summary: Death was the only way

Chapter 1: Stars | Read on Ao3

At first, you think you can survive this. Your ship is in pieces, your momentum catapulting you away from the wreck, the planet you call Alchera watching serenely as your life burns. You tell yourself, you’ve faced worse. The first time you fought death was the first breath you took, into lungs that weren’t ready, in a body too small and fragile to survive on its own. You struggled for days in a vessel adrift between our stars, an insignificant speck of heat in our cold universe, determined to burn as bright as a sun. When your mother finally held you for the first time, she showed you to us and asked if we were what you were in such a hurry to see for yourself. You have always been ours. You were ours when your father sang you to sleep while we gleamed through the shutters. You were ours when you rose for the first time on unsteady legs because you wanted to see us. You were ours when you felt our power come to life under your skin and understood that we are part of you in ways you’d never imagined. How many times did you palm the glow of dark matter in your hand and imagine you were one of us? But no matter how bright you burn now, it won’t be enough to save you. There is fear, now, but you swallow it back.    The second time you fought death it wasn’t your life you were fighting for. You begged, pleaded, to march into the unknown and rescue a father who didn’t come home, and when no one listened, you turned to us in the dark and begged to take his place. That was when you learned we could be cruel.   We felt your pain, we heard your anger, we wi ditnessed your tears and did nothing. And you forgave us. We wonder if you will forgive us now.

Read the rest on Ao3 | The Mezzo Playlist

[swaps55]

Pardon me while I fangirl until I die from it.

Wanted to share this on my own too - so incredibly honored and proud to have made this cover for Mezzo, a new story from @swaps55. A fitting reveal for N7 Day, and one of my favorite things I've done to date!

The fic, by the way, rocks.

[spicyraeman]

my most self indulgent drawing yet - hick Lae'zel + human ver

inspired by this post

[commandertartarsmoocher]

Who is ready for The Grand Festival ?

Hey, wait a minute... who invited this guy?

[swaps55]

I'M NOT NORMAL OH MY GOD.

Like quarks.

I'm completely normal about @swaps55's Fugue, thanks for asking ☄️

[dead6ite]

i spent, literally all day on this. and i am praying to bill cipher that it does well

three separate ciphers used here, feel free to decode and comment what you found!

but seriously, this is like my magnum opus here. please give him love!!

i’ll be posting a monochromatic version after this

[lemonomelette]

i present you soytarn feel free to use :)

[bacchuschucklefuck]

soon it'll be dawn again

transcript under the cut ⏬

page 01

Fig: no way? - you're still up?

Riz: Wh– yes?

Riz: Why'd I not be.

page 02

Fig: I me~~ean - that took.

Fig: whole day.

Riz: Yeah?

Fig: 'm beat.

Riz: you should sleep.

page 03

Fig: nah. my guy's still up

Fig: I wanna hang out.

page 04

Riz: That's really nice.

Fig: Hah! - Nobody ever expects an Archdevil rockstar to be nice.

Riz: … yeah. - 's just budget work tho. (the stuff I'm working on) - I've heard it's boring.

page 05

Fig: yeah, but you do it…

Riz: It keeps things going, right? - Nothing happens if nobody sits down and - does the thing.

Fig: That's right… - though. Yeah.

page 06

Fig: sometimes it's someone else who - doesn't want the same thing to happen.

Riz: … - mm.

page 07

Riz (off screen): …It took me a long time to get that not everyone likes doing what I do. - 's probably because you guys are so nice– - or. - kind.

Riz (off screen): to anyone too, not just. - the people you /love/.

page 08

Riz: that's not how it is elsewhere. - The world's– not. hostile. - but 's not like it's kind.

Riz: So I'm doing as much as I can now… 

page 09

Fig: Hey.

Riz: ?

Fig: Go dig some dirt with me.

page 10

Riz: [blank speech bubble] - oh you meant like - actual dirt. (not incriminating information)

Fig: o yea.

Fig: there's clay in the backyard soil. - sometimes when I'm sun deficient or something I go touch dirt for a bit.

page 11

Fig: here u go

page 12

Riz: uh

Fig: now we make a thing! - 'm pretty good at freehanding a bowl.

Fig: I'll show u

page 13

Fig: just– yep, flatten that out as evenly as u can, then–! - actually ur nails'd be so good at cutting out the strip. [larger than usual space] wait. - wait. wait u can carve patterns with them! we HAVE to try

Riz: uh - What. do I carve?

Fig: anything!!!

page 14

Fig: and– yep just seal the inside uh. seam?

Fig: yep that works - okay time's up! all contestant hands up

Riz: [blank speech bubble] - okay - wh. what's next?

Fig: haha - watch this.

(sound effect text): FWOO—MP

page 15

Riz: WH– DON'T JUST DO THAT???

Fig: Now it's fired!

Riz: THAT WAS NOT SAFE

Fig: (actually it's just dry. if u add water rn it'll dissolve)

Fig: ok catch!

Riz: [blank speech bubble] - careful!!

Fig: dw no need haha

page 16

Riz (thought bubble): oh - it's warm…

Fig: now I want you to throw this.

page 17

Fig: u gotta do it - c'mon

page 18

Riz: wh– - It's like 3AM right now

Fig: oh it's not /fired/ fired it's not gonna make a loud noise

Riz: And then just? leave a pile out here?

Fig: pour water over it & it'll be gone I told u

Riz: but

page 19

Fig (off screen): RIz.

page 20

Fig: I've done all this before.

Fig: Can you trust that at least?

page 21

Riz: no, I– - I do. - I trust you.

page 23

Riz: okay what happens now

(sound effect text): glob

page 24

Fig: we do it again!

page 25

Riz: wh. [larger than usual space] What do you mean. (this clay's too wet also)

Fig: see! you're already learning

Fig: [blank speech bubble] - there are flows that are futile to fight. - The world changes.

Fig: Things change.

page 26

Fig: I've learned my lessons with "forevers". - But - as an artist

Fig: I can give you one thing: - You can always do it again.

page 27

Fig: most of everything depends on the rest of the world, - but this. - making new. - that's yours as long as you want it.

page 28

Fig: So?

page 29

Riz: Yeah. - Yeah! - let's make another one.

[swaps55]

Kaidan Alenko, circa 2184. For those of you who read Fugue, there is a special detail about his uniform that @eluvisen was kind enough to work in.

Both Anderson and his father wear their dress blues, Anderson’s sporting the same black chain that Shepard used to wear in place of the standard-issue gold. The same black chain Kaidan’s father will pin to his uniform when they call his name. The chain that identifies him as an N.

He looks incredible. You are magic. Thank you so much!

Commission for @swaps55 of Kaidan Alenko!

[knockknockwhosthereartistism]

Share with your dead lover who historians will call your bestie>>>

[swaps55]

The gravity well roars, Shepard’s corona burning to life like a collapsing star. Too late, Kaidan understands the true danger in the room.

And it’s not the pirates.

x

Commission from @xla-hainex of Sam Shepard, my biotic badass!!!!! Thank you!!!

[jennamhauser]

6h 19m

lather the blood on your hands romeo

[swaps55]

This scene is one of my favorites from Cantata, so I will be flailing about this for the rest of TIME.

It's such an intimate moment in a big, wide galaxy full of wonder, and you NAILED that feeling. This is incredible. Thank you SO MUCH!!

Kaidan gazes back out at the valley. Shepard swats at a bug.

“You came out here for me?”

“Don’t make it weird.”

Tiny postcard inspired by @swaps55 's incredible work (Catana. Read it.) Sam and Kaidan catching a view on Nodacrux.

[gert-the-disaster]

sum dark harvest stuff for ye

[k9effect]

MAVERICK

[Click for better quality, reblogs and tags highly appreciated]

[marigoldendragon]

I drew the boys as scrumply as I could. Some could stand to be worse