#team sr2

[valka-arialitan]

Shepard's ''suicide-squad'' group photo

Following this post.

An amazing squad, aboard an amazing ship, at the orders of an amazing commander. What could possibly go wrong ?

The format is a bit different than the previous ones, because I wanted to fit Joker and EDI in the shot. I also made the picture wayyyy bigger to clearly see everyone's face.

Close-ups below the cut ↓

[vinkumakkara]

rfg is about a miner uprising in mars. miners, as in digging for underground resources in mines. underground. and yet there are no mines or caves you can enter, like literally none everything is out in the open. i just keep thinking how much cave systems would’ve added that desperately needed variation to this map

[theslimeologist]

curious as to how you feel about slime rancher's gameplay as a whole, if you wanna talk about it

oh boy.

slime rancher has a unique chaos-focused gameplay design unlike any other game ive played while also going for a chill farming vibe. after years of playing the first game, and just a handful of hours in the second.. i believe the gameplay loop and level design to be the reason I havent played the series in recent years.

everything in slime rancher is random.

crop yield, crop grow time, slime spawns, slimes feeding themselves, everything. and this is the core, foundational game design philosophy they’ve dedicated themselves to. and they’ve doubled down on the randomness in sr2.

shop stock is random every day. unlocking blueprints come unpredictably. resource nodes are randomly scattered about. weather, which can dictate slime AND material spawning, is 100% random. not even to what weather happens, but what DEGREE the weather is.

this much random chance has made the series appeal to me less and less with time. i love to strategize beyond all else in a farming game, and slime rancher’s “chill chaos” just doesnt accommodate my style of gameplay anymore. i want resource extractors. i want to have a reliable income in terms of resources so i can do all the incredible decorating they’ve added.. but i dont think anything could get me to play hundreds of hours of sr2 to collect resources by hand at the mercy of rng. i did this with gilded gingers for fun. i never wanted to do that for EVERYTHING.

now, to look at sr2’s gameplay and design decisions more closely..

slimes live in corrals. boxes. this is one thing i thought could have always been expanded on. enclosures are as simple as ever, essentially what they always were right from sr1 beta. slimes being fed are still dictated by the chance of food hitting their mouths at the right angle, right time, with the slime in the right mood. it just doesnt work reliably, leading to slime chaos despite any player’s best efforts. the devs seem to see this as part of the game, and not something that could be revolutionized or improved upon. the ranch expansions are as simple as ever. we can decorate them though…! i guess…! i wish there was more thought and love put into the ranching. more involved slime care. i had a lot of ideas i never drew down for how things could change..

moving on to the level design itself, the areas in sr2 feel more confusing than ever for me to navigate. and ive stubbornly believed that is not on me. the islands are focused on experiencing beauty and wonder, but not really designed with normal gameplay quirks that can help players navigate without even knowing they’re being helped. like landmarks. sr2 has the volcano, split tree and the conservatory. these three things are actually pretty difficult to spot in most locations, which really fucking sucks. if you’re lost on the sr2 map, they really just want you to open the map or wander. another thing that has always bugged me a TON, is in the rainbow fields there is a fucking death drop into water that looks like youre walking home. like…. LIKE???? another thing that feels especially controversial to point out is how the super-saturated aesthetic of every area can make an area feel samey, confusing even. rainbow fields have rainbows everywhere. imo, you could have gone for that idea while having brightly coloured trees, rocks, grass, that are DIFFERENT COLOURS. FOR CONTRAST. pick bright colours that complement eachother and sculpt the world with it. when i think of rainbow fields, i honestly can only imagine the purply blue grass and moss on grey stones…

it feels as though sr2 was all about pushing the teams creative and aesthetic abilities with a huge sacrifice to regular gameplay design. a slime rancher sequel was an opportunity to build anew from the ground up and address huge issues with 1’s unreliability due to physics and loading zones, etc. the full game isnt out yet so i cant speak on whether they’ll ever take these kinds of issues into consideration in future patches.

anyway at the end of the day, for a game so focused on aesthetic, slime rancher 2 doesnt even have properly textured tangle largos. I wont bother to look or photograph them all myself because tangles are only from rare weather. but next time you’re in game, check out that flat batty tangle flower for yourself. until that flower gets a proper texture patch i dont really have much else to say.

[dovahbee]

Normandy SR2 info board PT12!??!

Pt11

[new messages as of 13:04]

13:04- SPEC. GOTO: @shepard-betting-pool

13:04- SPEC. MASSANI: what is it

13:04- SPEC. JACK: what’s the wager

13:04- SPEC. GOTO: 500 creds say that Shep will biotic charge the colossus

13:05- DR. SOLUS: Unlikely.

13:05- SPEC. JACK: likely as fuck

13:05- DR. SOLUS: Will participate.

13:05- SPEC. JACK: the cheerleaders gonna piss her pants, wish i was there to see it

13:05- GO. VAKARIAN: count me in for the positive

13:05- DR. SOLUS: Garrus, recommend focusing on geth and colossus. Not participating.

13:05- GO. VAKARIAN: text to speech, doc. just dropped a firestorm while betting on my neurotic CO.

13:06- SPEC. MASSANI: bullshit, you ain’t allowed to wager. Ground team has an advantage.

13:06- SPEC. GOTO: Place your wagers here———> bet/SHEPARDxCOLOSSUS

13:06- GO. VAKARIAN: you’re right, Zaeed. I can see it in her eyes. Make at a 1000.

13:06- SPEC. GRUNT: 1000 creds says the turian dies today

13:06- LT. TAYLOR: nahhh no way she’s doing that. Miranda JUST lectured her about unnecessary recklessness in the field.

13:07- LT. TAYLOR: just heard myself. she’s gonna charge it, no doubt

13:09- GO. VAKARIAN: Pay up, losers.

13:09- SPEC. JACK: FUCK YEAH SUCK IT DOCTOR

13:09- DR. SOLUS: ‘sucking’ was not part of bet. Maybe next time.

13:10- XO. LAWSON: Doctor, set up an appointment for LC. We need to have a word with her.

13:10- SPEC. GRUNT: battlemaster does not answer to you

13:10- GO. VAKARIAN: hahah you’re in trouble @LC

13:11- UNKNOWN USER: you BOSHTETS finish off those geth and come get me I’m STARVING to death

[whoredmode]

big info post on the antagonists in the srtt rewrite! similar to the ones i did for the sriv rewrite antagonists. originally i wasn’t gonna make one bc i was like y’all know the antagonists in srtt, but i adjust things in it enough where i’m like. yeah maybe i should make a post for it. some of this stuff is probably already familiar to you if you keep up with my rewrites at all, so apologies in advance for some stuff that you may have heard before

so right after the end of sr2, phillipe loren had offered dex protection from ultor. dex, extremely desperate, accepted the deal even if he wasn’t happy about it. in return for protection, loren wanted information on ultor and the saints. once the plot of srtt starts, dex is still with the syndicate, essentially stuck in a deal he was never gonna be able to repay and get out of. however, loren is killed by oleg within the first act of the story, and so dex assumed he’d be able to leave after that. killbane, however, is not gonna let that happen, so dex is still stuck with them as the story continues. 

so killbane’s whole deal is very similar to what we see in the actual game, but my lore for him for the rewrite is a mix of both implications and stuff that we can learn through things like the radio ads and the game guide—basically things that are unfortunately not shown or done in the actual game. so killbane was a pretty famous wrestler in the states during the 1980s. he was glamorous, he was powerful, and he knew how to put on a show. however, he got addicted to steroids fairly early on in his career, and his temper became more and more of an issue. this all culminated in what is considered one of the most infamous moments in wrestling history where he ended up killing his opponent live on-air. it was ruled an accident, as it genuinely was one, but killbane was disgraced and had to quit  then and there. he left for mexico shortly afterwards to get away from it all, where he ended up getting intrigued by lucha libre. he met angel, and the two quickly became an unstoppable and lovable tag team. about a decade after the match that ended his wrestling career, killbane was back in the states, this time with angel by his side. the two had a good run, becoming more famous than before and loving every minute of it. however, killbane was still abusing steroids this entire time, and as time went on, he grew more erratic and paranoid and violent. fearful that angel was coming for his crown, he challenged him to a match which led to killbane unmasking him and angel leaving the limelight for good. killbane’s career, however, only grew larger. it was around this time when he also really started to seriously get into the drug trade, but i’ll talk more about that in a minute.

onto the dewynter sisters. so kiki and viola are actually ultor-sent assassins/spies. they’d been on a several years-long mission within the syndicate, tasked with rising in the ranks of the syndicate, getting information on their operations, and eventually killing loren. they’ve been on this mission since before dane vogel was ultor CEO (side note: i think kiki and dane knew each other and had a thing going on. just because i’m a kikidane enjoyer). all that said though, once eric gryphon became CEO, he changed their main target to dex. the sisters are extremely good at their work, and everything they do they do together. that said, despite their expertise and passion, they will always put each other first. it’s why when killbane eventually kills kiki, viola abandons her mission and decides to help the saints instead. she lost kiki, so nothing matters to her anymore. 

and finally matt miller. so the deckers were originally a relatively small hacking group he put together back home in england, but their work caught the eye of loren, who eventually contacted him and offered him an important role within the syndicate. the deckers themselves are comparatively small within the syndicate, but their work predominantly deals in cyberspace, so it works out. he doesn’t get out much, nor does he do any big missions with the others, but he’s still eager for their approval, especially killbane’s. killbane has kinda taken him under his wing—unbeknownst to matt, the reason killbane has been so buddy-buddy with him is because he plans on taking the syndicate from loren, long before loren actually died. early on, in a bid for killbane’s approval, matt took out kinzie’s whole investigation. kinzie, while still in the FBI, had been tasked with part in a large investigation into killbane’s drug racket. he’d been smuggling steroids and opioids into steelport, both for his own consumption and also to sell to the huge wrestling community in the area. matt caught wind of this and set up kinzie so she’d lose her job, all so killbane would be proud of him. he was, but this also sparked kinzie and matt’s ongoing feud. matt’s just a kid, so he’s very awkward when dealing with the other members irl, so he tends to just stick by killbane. 

there’s more i could say but i’m cutting myself off because this post is long enough. as always though please feel free to ask me about my rewrites whenever

[stilwaterangel]

okay thinking about the specifics of angels relationships with ppl in sr1

gat: self explanatory angel thinks hes sexy and has an obnoxious crush on him. throughout sr1 angel doesnt say anything about this and doesnt exactly make any kind of moves, hes naturally flirty but johnny just thinks its funny and nothing real. they have an immediate strong bond because johnny likes that angel is so brazen and loud and fight-ready, and angel respects johnny a lot while also admiring him and wanting to look out for him. angel spends the most personal time with johnny not just bc he likes him but bc they get on really well and their personalities match up nicely! and also because angel likes aisha too and loves hanging out with her

lin: angel likes her a lot! i hc her as trans 🥺 so i think they would bond over that bc no one else understands but also i like their dynamic and relationship as teasy and fun. like when she tells him not to fuck up her car when she fake-rescues donnie and boss does it anyways... i think they have a very loving back n forth sarcastic friendship. i also havent mentioned it yet but angel is SHIT at driving (cars) and i think lin would try and teach him to be a better driver and theyd have a lot of fun doing that together. they would also race even though angel is shit but its a fun bonding experience and lin gets an ego boost every time she wins (which is every race)

dex: i think angel has a very... professional relationship w dex. like they do jobs together and they work well as a team, angel respects him, but its also that their relationship is strictly and oddly formal and they dont spend much time together in friendly ways. i just think like perhaps their personalities dont gel but its that dex is very business-oriented and smart about things but angel, like johnny, is a guns blazing type of fighter, and the two of them dont have much in common outside of working together for the saints. its not to say angel doesnt Like dex bc he does! i think he finds him like funny and easy to joke around with, but they never talk about anything serious or deep and i just dont think they spend much 1 on 1 time together. especially not after sr1. with his job change in sr2 angel would think dex is a sellout and that he turned his back on his roots and his friends, and they wouldnt talk much anymore

troy: this one is complicated bc it spans into sr2. INITIALLY i think angel, through the fact he mostly hangs out with troy when hes also with dex, i think he distrusts troy and is suspicious about him. its mostly thanks to dex's suspicions but angel would agree.. like he Does think troy asks too many questions and his insistence on doing as little damage to cops as possible while trying to avoid non-saints related business is immedistely strange to angel, and though he doesnt suspect too much he just thinks troy is uncommitted and weak so angel doesnt spend like any personal time with him at all. GOING THROUGH SR2 and finding out troy was undercover but also that hes still trying to investigate the yacht explosion and also assist the saints under the table, angel would reconsider his thoughts on him a little. hed be like smug about knowing something was up with troy but hed also be really mad about it, not bc troy was undercover but that troy is still a cop, and whenever they meet or talk they definitely fight it out because angel is furious that troy thinks he can play both sides and act like he gives a shit about the saints when he actively works for the police. they probably agree to disagree on it but it takes a toll on troy (in my mind he quits the force after sr2) and angel doesnt have a positive relationship with him until that happens

thats it fornow but im THINKING

[tezzbot]

howm do u feel bout silver n espio :3

I LOOOVE their dynamic actually. It is a really interesting and honestly kind of a strange matchup, but after watching bits from their side of sr2 and the comic from the annual? It's like really cool to see how they do Outside of where they're usually grouped?

Like Espio is. Pretty much (in comedic terms) the straight man of the Chaotix right, given Charmy and Vectors general sillygoofy natures. But then you take him out of that context and That's where it's most prominently highlighted that he is absolutely a fucking clown as well lmfao like he wouldn't be a chaotix if he wasn't also into the general buffoonery they get up to (like yes he gets embarrassed about it sometimes but he Does go along with their shit, he's just teenager<33) and that's something I really appreciate about Espio as a character himself is that no matter how seriously he might try to take himself, how hes literally an actual ninja, he's still just kind of a lame teen boy who's little brother thinks he sucks lol

I think he works well with Silver because Silver tends to be pretty frantic and he is literally displaced in time he's a little all over the place, so teaming him with more grounded characters Like Espio (Blaze is also a good example here) creates a nice balance to their dynamic, and the comic of him helping Silver calm down shows this p well and there is a moment in sr2 where something similar happens when Silver runs out of energy and Espio sits him down and lets him fully explain what's going on and that's a grounding thing to do to fully run through what is happening and what needs to get done

I think also, having Espio being more open with Silver is cool Because Silver is more similar ages with him, and I think that's also like. An interesting angle to take with Espio's character, since (afaik) he's never really shown to have any real deeper connection than acquaintance with anyone his own age except maybe Knuckles, and even then that's an extremely underutilised dynamic (THAT I WISH THEY WOULD USE MORE GRRGHRHRGH) so like actually having another pretty socially inept lol teenager for him to connect with is a good channel to think about their sort of dynamic in

Going off of that maybe, because Silver is still learning to be social, that also opens up the door for Espio learning too? But also he's so introvert I think he's more comfortable being alone and maybe Silver learns the worth of some alone time from that too? As well as from Whisper and stuff like that. Maybe they do alone together time in the garden, parallel play<3 lol

But yeah tgey r cool and I hope we get to them interact more in the future snile

[shadesofmauve]

How many people does it take to make the space guns go?

Word brain is dead so I've been beating my head against my Alliance SR2 org chart again. I rediscovered @sheepishwolfy's post suggesting that the SR1 had about 60 crew (down from initial estimate of 150), because of heavy computerization. My org chart had been sitting at 89, (my initial estimate was about 100). But now I'm trying to figure out what some of these people actually do.

First, I'm assuming the Alliance (unlike noted fuck-ups Cerberus), requires human eyes on systems. Not some poor sod watching every screen at every minute, but someone around who's trained on the system and is awake. I also assume three 8-hour watches because even the US Navy has finally had to admit that just works better for most people.

SO. GUNZ.

1: Javelin Disruptor Torpedoes

The Javelin is an experimental close-assault weapon consisting of paired disruptor torpedo tubes bolted or magnetically "slung" onto the ship's exterior armored hull.

and

Resembling old-fashioned submarine torpedo tubes, Javelin torpedoes come packed in individual sealed tubes filled with compressed, inert gas. Opening the front of the tube causes escaping gases to push the torpedo into the vacuum

So the javelin system is externally mounted, like a modern fighter's missiles, not stored-and-loaded from the inside like a sub's torpedoes. Each comes with it's own cold-launch system. Anything the weapons techs do with javelins is digital and at a distance. Targeting, choosing delays, etc.

Sexy sexy spaceship with torpedoes in her armpits.

2: Thanix cannons

[Soveriegn's] massive element zero core powered an electromagnetic field suspending a liquid iron-uranium-tungsten alloy that shaped into armor-piercing projectiles when fired. The jet of molten metal, accelerated to a fraction of the speed of light, destroys targets by impact force and irresistible heat.

and

It uses an electromagnetic field to shape and accelerate a stream of superheated molten metal to relativistic velocities

I'm choosing to say this is still a rail gun — now with increased power, dual 'barrels', and Special Scary molten projectile — because:

"It uses an electromagnetic field... to accelerate..." is exactly how the mass accelerator cannon (rail gun) works

Rail guns are cool

The entry also says they are "a retractable battery of cannons mounted beneath the Normandy's main hull", but this is stupid text and I've elected to ignore it. We see it fire from the nose, and we see Garrus in the main battery. That thing is integral to the ship and runs half it's length at minimum*.

But what do people have to do to run it? Presumably not much! There has to be some kind of maintenance, an eye on whether it overheats, etc, but you aim it by aiming the ship. (For which I thank Bioware daily, because space combat is SO much more fun to write when you dogfight than when you use ship-seeking missiles).

So after thinking through this stuff, I'm scaling my weapons teams drastically down. I think the same hands work with both systems. In combat they're more concerned with the javelins, which can be programmed and have a firing delay, with an eye on Thanix performance in case it needs to be shut down. Joker aims (and often fires) the Thanix.

Physical problems CAN'T be solved in combat: the Thanix will be too hot, and the javelins are outside. More hands don't help that! Tweaks and fixes have to happen outside of combat, and if they need more people they can wake 'em up.

And speaking of 'tweaks':

Garrus is constantly calibrating the Thanix cannon because he's in a petty war with the human gunnery crew. No one argues, they just set it their way. He sees it and sets it back his way. While he's sleeping they change it again.

After determining from the gunnery chief that it makes no practical difference, Shepard allows the incredibly passive aggressive calibrations war to continue, because she's tired of dealing with other people's shit and at least it's keeping Garrus occupied.

*Both the drive core and the central elevator shaft prevent it from taking up the 90% the codex suggests is standard for mass accelerators. It either ends in the battery, at about 45%, or at the elevator, at about 69%.**

**Nice.

[kikidewynter]

i love how pierce and shaundi apparently have this competition going on in sr2 but they’re always working in tandem? while shaundi hacks the security cameras, pierce is out stealing monitors to set up at the crib. they genuinely make an excellent team

[niriaveil]

you know that moment in the prologue to Andromeda where Alec/Dad is running ahead and mowing down enemies while Ryder, Cora, and Liam struggle to keep up?

yeah I understand how the rest of the SR2 crew feels when Hayley, local Vanguard, just biotic charges and then Nova slams the entire enemy team into bits and pieces without barely breaking a sweat.

[aro-aizawa]

old games i would genuinely kill for their creators/developers to remaster them:

ratchet gladiator

simpsons hit and run + simpsons skateboarding

crash tag team racing + crash of the titans

timesplitters future perfect

little big planet

saints row 2

the mysims franchise (but specifically agents)

[vinkumakkara]

the sr2 writing team didn't need to pour such an incomprehensible amount of effort into these "generic" personas but by fuck they did it anyways. this game is so good

[zet-sway]

It only took me like four months, but I finally answered the legendary @spookyvalentine's first 50 Shep questions.

50 QUESTIONS FOR SHEPARD

December Shepard | Part 1

1. Why did Shepard enlist? Any regrets?

Mom and dad are both military and she grew up with other military kids. Her mother basically told her she was going to enlist, and enrolled her in pre-military schooling programs. Her dad made her excited about it by telling her she could work on fighters.

She wishes she could have done more planetside traveling before she enlisted.

2. How does your Shepard feel about having a yeoman assigned to them in 2? And in 3?

Kelly assigned to her feels weird. On paper, Kelly is there to staff the ship like anyone else. But Shepard feels weird about it, like she's there to conduct some kind of undead performance review. Eventually, Shepard asks her not to ask intrusive questions, and they hash out how to best communicate and work together :)

3. What's their relationship with Anderson?

Dad. Actually, very dad because December's dad passed away before she enlisted. Anderson was on good terms with both her parents.

4. Is your Shepard any good at poker?

She's okay at it.

5. How well does Shepard know their crew? Not just the companions, but the folks making up the Normandy

She knew her crew on the SR1 very well and served with many of them on prior missions. On the SR2, she tries her best. Being resurrected and thrust into a whole new crew is exhausting - particularly because many of them don't have military backgrounds, meaning Shepard can't just fall back on second-nature alliance officer habits. The new team requires a lot of investment to bring everyone together in a cohesive unit.

On a personal "human" level, tries to know them as personally as is practical. In particular, she tries to find out what kinds of little things they enjoy so she can try and bring some small comforts on board from them (put that Cerberus procurement budget to good use lmao).

6. Initial reaction to EDI? Does it change?

At first, EDI answers a lot of questions with non-answers due to her code restrictions, and because of this, Shepard has a hard time differentiating her from a VI. Once these restrictions are removed, Shepard begins to understand that EDI has a will of her own, which is a little spooky at first. EDI's choice to side with Shepard instead of the illusive man does a lot to boost Shepard's trust in her.

EDI obtaining a body really helps Shepard fully realize her. Humans are funny like that. Seeing her moving and talking really drives home the understanding of her as an autonomous individual.

7. Does their love interest move into their quarters?

YUP. Shep and Thane really have a hard time keeping their hands off one another for a while lolllll

8. What is their reaction to the Alchera mission? And after?

:)))))) I wrote a fic about this!! Tldr there's a lot of introspection, a lot of silent tears, and a lot of throwing herself into work to forget about it (spoiler alert she can't just forget about it lol).

9. What type of fighter is your shepard? Do they fight with honor, or do they fight dirty

December would love to live in a world where "honorable" gets the job done, but it's not always that simple. Honorable is great until it means causing unnecessary deaths and risking mission failure. There's an exception to every rule. Sometimes you gotta fight dirty.

10. Does Shepard keep any pets? The hamster, fish, something else?

No pets. She's definitely a dog person, but keeping a dog in space is really hard.

Fish - yeah. But only after someone else agrees to feed them. She's keenly aware that bringing a whole entire living animal on board will require energy that she's already scraping the bottom of the barrel for.

Shep @ Cerberus: "Love the cabin, but a fish tank? Really?"

11. What order does Shepard pick up companions in me2?

I haven't given this too much thought honestly. In my longfic, Thane is recruited before horizon, but I never explain why. I'd probably have to write some manner of mission critical thing on Illium, or place Thane on Omega.

Actually, it would be fun to entertain the idea of Thane being hired to assassinate Archangel, Shepard going to intercept him, and somehow she ends up recruiting them both. But in any regard, Mordin is definitely a first pick from a strategic standpoint.

12. Does Shepard have any nicknames? What do they think of em?

Joker calls her "Big D" because he's joker and it's hilarious.

In basic, they called her "girl scout" because she was a stickler for rules, even when no one was looking (side effect of having a very strict mom). Since her family was military, more than a few people knew she had officers for parents. Drill Sargent gave her hell for it.

13. How does your Shep react to teasing/ribbing?

Rule number one is never let them see you upset. Her crew tease her constantly for being tight-assed and she just smiles and laughs. Ninety-five percent of the time she doesn't tease back - which is why it's a hundred times funnier when she does.

14. Any good at flirting?

N O P E. She'll find "work-related" reasons to keep interacting with a given person long before she'll admit that she's just doing it because she's got a crush.

15. What colors does Shepard prefer for their armor?

Standard issue red/black/gray. Fashion (or rather, her attempts at fashion) is for civvies lol

16. Is Shepard a drinker? History of other substances? Do they struggle with sobriety

She's an on again off again smoker. Not much of a drinker, and she says Cerberus had a conspiracy to prevent her from becoming drunk and risking the mission (she's bitter about it).

17. How does Shepard react to attention? Do they enjoy it?

Like most of us, she would like to be recognized for her accomplishments, but all she really wants is a thank you from time to time. She doesn't like crowds, and she doesn't like excessive displays of attention. Thane is very affectionate and at first it's overwhelming for her - but she grows to cherish it in private moments.

After the war, she hates giving public appearances.

18. Who’s the dream team? Which companions does Shepard fight best with and why?

ME1: Kaidan, Ashley, Garrus

ME2: Mordin, Garrus, Tali, Jacob, and later Miranda

ME3: Ashley, Garrus, Tali, Thane

Honestly, all of the crew is great, but these are the people she would want on her team if she were to become disabled during a mission for whatever reason. Folks she can trust to make good decisions in the absence of explicit guidance.

I would be here all day explaining the nuance of every pick, but suffice to say, Shepard has a preference for those with military backgrounds, and her trust is earned by others as time progresses.

19. Are there any companions your Shepard just absolutely cannot vibe with or relate to

This question broke my brain. I probably wrote and deleted at least 700 words. Tldr Shepard takes longer to trust some of her companions, but eventually she'd trust them all with her life.

20. Does Shepard enjoy looking for resources and upgrading gear, or do they see it as a chore?

She loves getting new gear lol but she hates planet scanning. She'd rather go down to the surface herself and look for it.

21. Do you have any AUs for your shepard?

Maybe a destiny 2 crossover.

I suppose there's my torchwood crossover, but that Shepard is a separate character entirely.

22. What’s the last thing Shepard ate before the final reaper showdown?

She had a cup of coffee and a cigarette. If she thought about it too hard, she wouldn't have been able to leave the ship.

24. Who does Shepard turn to for advice? For comfort? Who do they like to gossip with

STEVE CORTEZ. They were childhood friends and served on the SSV Hawking together. (I'm aware there is likely a big age gap between them but I'm ignoring this and saying they grew up together, with Steve being maybe four years older than her).

Liara too because she is so honest and empathetic and learning painful lessons right alongside her. Garrus is also great for grounding her when the hard decisions start to really hurt.

Feron, and Kasumi, Tali, and Wrex are the gossip friends lol

25. How emotionally articulate is your Shepard? Do they emote well?

Not very. She's more emotionally articulate than she thinks she is, but the words are uncomfortable in her mouth.

26. Does your Shepard have a romance? Who are they, and what drew Shep to them?

Thane :)))))))) she likes spending time with him because he radiates peace (even if he doesn't feel like he does) and gives her space for her thoughts. Thane is one of very few people she can enjoy comfortable silence with, and after a while, he feels more like a friend than a teammate.

They're unexpected pair, but they really do find time to understand one another and grow.

His stories of his life widen her view of her own upbringing, in a way. Though they have very different upbringings, they're similar in some unexpected ways. Being selected in one way or another, having a mountain of expectations placed on them at an early age, distant or unavailable parents and strict, minimalist lives. They're also an excellent match for cohabitating because they both grew up with disciplined lifestyles, so there's very little friction as far as their day to day private lives go.

Shepard isn't religious but she doesn't despite religion either, so there's a mental vacancy in her that his spirituality can exist in.

Their values are the same or close to it, at the end of the day. They both want to create good in the world, they both value inter-species cooperation (headcanon that drell in particular are like "why aren't all these idiots working together yet"), they both value the mental rigor of principles. By the time she meets him, they've been brought so low by their own traumas that they're ready to challenge their own unhealthy understandings of the world. They grow together.

However, these two chucklefucks danced around their affection for one another until Thane nearly died on the disabled collector ship. The thin atmosphere would have been fine if they hadn't needed to literally run for their lives when they discovered the trap. In the end, Shepard had to physically carry him back to the shuttle. After that, their feelings crashed into one another so hard Thane nearly left the team (he's like "Holy shit I'm so full of oxytocin for Shepard that I'm worried it's gonna compromise the mission).

It worked out in the end, and maybe one day I'll actually write that fic 🫠

27. Do they have any pet peeves?

Lots. And in basic training, she learned never to make them known, or people would find ways to use them against her.

In the alliance she was the one who would call you out for not wearing your uniform correctly. I read this quote recently that said something along the lines of "if you can't make these decisions when times are easy, how will you handle hard choices when the going gets tough?" A bit of a hard-assed way of looking at things and definitely gets her some eyerolling, but that's who she is - she's there to complete a mission and everything else is secondary.

If you don't care about getting the mission done in one way or another, it's a cold shoulder at best. At worst, a swift kick off the boat at the nearest stop.

28. What about hyperfixations? What’s the topic that will get Shepard rolling no matter the person or place

Engineering, spaceships, and the lack of adequate water pressure in the showers, the smell of whatever the fuck dextro shit Garrus has for breakfast every morning.

29. How active is Shepard? Are they hitting the gym, playing sports, or do they prefer quieter downtime?

She'd rather be in the field than doing paperwork. She counts on her morning PT to wake her up and make her feel human.

I honestly think she would do sports but I am so sports illiterate that I'm not sure how to elaborate on that point.

30. What will always make them laugh

Joke format: "If you (blank) when you (blank), you might be an N7." And basically any other "it's funnier if you're military" type jokes that she finds intensely relatable.

31. Who can always make them laugh?

Joker, Garrus, Ashley, and later, Thane. Anderson had some great ones too (all her good jokes came from him lol)

32. What do they do when they have hit their limit angry, just incandescent with rage

On a good day, "I should go." On a bad day, she's likely to say something she'll regret. Stuck in the field with no way to remove herself and self-soothe? She'll wind herself up so tight that she snaps at the crew to cut all comms chatter, or she'll find something to nitpick about. She's very uncomfortable to be around when she's mad like this.

33. What skills do they have that are a surprise to the people around them?

She can hotwire an atlas mech. In her first tour, she drew her own training diagrams by hand for ship maintenance newbies. She makes really great sunshine toast.

Also, any N7 can strip and reassemble their weapons quickly, but she's especially fast at it.

34. Got any tattoos?

Nope, her parents would have killed her tbh and now she simply doesn't have the time. If she had time she'd likely get her father's ship tattooed on her arm (a decision likely to upset her mother even after the war).

35. Which companions have they lost? How do they cope with it?

No one because I'm the author and I make the rules loooolll

Ok but she lost her father, whom she was very close to, when she was a teenager.

36. Do they like to style their hair, wear makeup and jewlery? How do they feel about getting dressed up?

December has zero fashion sense and she consistently prioritizes comfort and utility over fashion. Her closet is full of standard issue light duty uniforms. For formal occasions she'll wear her dress blues.

I kinda headcanon that semi-permanent makeup is very common in the mass effect timeline. I think she gets her eyes and brows done because she likes how they look but can't be bothered to do her makeup every day.

Her hair is just naturally Great because Shepard is in some ways a power fantasy for me and if I could change my fucking hair to require no maintenance, I fucking would oh my god Oh My God

Good luck getting her into a dress. It isn't that she hates them, they are just unusual and uncomfortable for her.

Cortez: "Shepard its exactly like those huge t-shirts you wear to bed except it's meant to be worn in public

Shepard: ಠ⁠_⁠ಠ

Later in life, she finds time to step outside her comfort zone

37. Got any bad habits?

Thane is big mad about her cigarettes. She quits for him long before he says anything but he's like "by amonkira's asshole, how could you do that to yourself"

38. Does Shepard do any activities with the companions and crew during downtime?

Before she died, she was more inclined to take leisure time. After being resurrected, she keeps busy busy to keep her mind off things. She really loves when people organize some kind of group thing on the ship, whether it's card games or movie night

39. Do they keep around any sentimental items?

On the SR1 she had a model of the ship her father served on. She looked for it in the ruins on alchera but didn't find it. Besides this, she keeps her original dog tags from before she died. The helmet she found on alchera is just a spare, because she was still wearing her helmet when her body was retrieved. She keeps that too, but it's in a box with the rest of the creepy reminders of her death that she can't bring herself to get rid of.

40. Does your Shepard actually like to collect model ships? If not, what do they display?

She looooooooves model ships. She will annoyingly point out errors in model ship design compared to real ships.

41. How is Shepard with a gun? What about hand to hand?

She's as adept in both of these as any other N7 would be. She tries not to fight anything hand to hand because most of the things she's fighting are bigger and stronger than her, and it makes sense to keep her distance. She's not especially great at stealth but she does know how to disable unsuspecting targets, break wrists, and chokehold most things with a humanoid neck (she doesn't know that choking a drell is especially difficult though lol). Her aim wasn't the best in her class, but it's good enough.

42. Favorite weapon?

Her favorite gun is the one that shoots where she points it, drops a heat sink when she unloads it, and picks right back up when she slams a new one. Reliable is the name of the game.

The basic bitch M8 assault rifle is never unappreciated in Shepard's hands.

43. Which version of the Normandy do they like best?

The SR1. The SR2 may be more comfortable, but she misses the days when she didn't know about the impending apocalypse.

44. Do they like to rotate out companions for quests? Who do they bring the most?

It's always about bringing the right people for the job. But she definitely does synchronize with some better than others. Garrus and Ashley, for example. Jacob and Miranda are also excellent picks.

The remaining crew are also great, but it takes time to cross the cultural divides and fall into the rhythm with them. I'm almost exclusively talking about communication here. Different species naturally have different speech and behavior patterns that initially cause some confusion, but can be overcome. For this reason, Shepard uses ""easy"" missions to test the waters with new crew members and work out how to best communicate with them.

45. Do they approve of curing the genophage?

Absolutely - but she's really counting on Wrex to reach a diplomatic solution to krogan expansion.

The decisions she makes in curing the genophage will impact the galaxy for centuries after she's dead, and Shepard is very aware of that.

In a way, she wishes this decision wasn't placed on her. She feels like she lacks the necessary years and cultural understanding of all parties involved. In her opinion, the issue should have been resolved a long time ago and she's actually bitter with Mordin for hiding his head in the sand for so long. It's horrifying to condemn an entire species to a slow and withering death. The salarians used them to fight a war, and when the war was won, refused to witness them as an intelligent species with a rich culture. Humans absolutely did not cause this, and now she's being made to solve a problem that's been festering for years.

46. Does Shepard allow the rachni to live in me1?

She tells the alliance that the queen "escaped." In her mind, the long term consequences of this decision absolutely warranted more serious consideration. But the rachni queen didn't just speak to her through a corpse, she touched her mind and sang to her. She sang to every person in that room, and to this day the Noveria fireteam remembers this in whispers. Shepard simply could not bring herself to drown her.

47. Does Shepard practice any kind of self-care?

Shepard will tell you she doesn't have the luxury of self care, but it's because she misunderstands the meaning of the question. To her, self-care is when you do something nice for yourself because you want it. She sees her wants as secondary to the needs of those around her.

However, she's clear about the difference between wants and needs, and she makes space to address her needs. She needs hygiene, food, sleep, and exercise. She's meticulous about her nutrition and her vitals. It's actually annoying to those around her, especially when she refuses to acknowledge the "little things" as important.

When was the last time she ate her favorite foods? The last time she took a break to do something that made her feel good? Indulgence feels shameful when she does finally cave. She runs away from the guilt by doubling down on work.

It's not enough to crush her, but it's enough for Thane to step in and show her she needs to be loved, too.

48. What abilities do they rely on the most in a fight?

Awareness and a clear head are more important than biotics, tech, and guns. Her team is counting on her to think four steps ahead.

49. What is Shepard’s happy ending? What’s the dream that keeps em going

It takes her a long time to figure this out.

The chase for Saren and Sovereign was a wild tumble of events that became utterly surreal the moment she was promoted to Spectre. In the early days, it was just a very crazy mission. It wasn't until after Virmire that she realized the scale of the threat they'd uncovered. It consumed her like nothing had before. Every amount of leisure she tried to take for herself was overshadowed by the doomsday clock in her mind. For her, the future was to defeat the reapers or die trying.

When she did die trying, she woke up again feeling raw, lost, and disoriented. The fight lost its meaning. She changed in ways she'd never imagined, and eventually found purpose in fighting for every person who had mourned her for the two years she was gone. It's an emotional tightrope she has to walk, keeping herself motivated without falling into the trauma of resurrection.

CW SUICIDE BELOW, PROCEED CAREFULLY.

In the end, she never imagined she would live to see the other side of the war. Her death on the SR1 really drove home the nature of her vulnerability, to the extent that she works with Miranda and Mordin to develop a "killswitch," so if she ever becomes trapped again without hope of survival, she can end it quickly. Similar to cyanide pills given to agents going behind enemy lines. Put simply, she never wants to suffocate alone in space again.

And this is why I've spent so long agonizing over my retirement fics. Once a happy ending is thrust upon her, she needs to figure out how to navigate a world she prepared everyone but herself for. In those moments, Thane is the one who keeps her going.

50. Is your Shepard indoctrinated?

This question keeps her up at night. She doesn't feel indoctrinated, but how can she really know for sure?

Maybe she is a little indoctrinated - maybe that's why she never prepared herself for peace.

(+1: what does Shepard smell like?)

Vanilla and heat sinks

[megafreeman]

Highlights from the Game Informer interview:

After Gat out of Hell, the team at Volition thought it’d be best to give series a fresh start, with a new tone somewhere between SR2 and SRTT

"Once you add everything and the kitchen sink to the game, it's difficult to then plan for future games after that because if you start with the climax, where do you go from there? A lot of fans have been wanting us to go back to... a more grounded game."

The idea behind making a game of the Saints' origin came from fans requests to see how the Saints were originally formed. "With this, it gave us the opportunity to do that origin story, but not doing something that was set in the '80s or something like that to try and tell the origin of the Third Street Saints [from the previous games]. Now we can tell the origin story of these Saints."

"We wanted to make really well-rounded character because if they're one-note, they're not going to stand the test of time. We looked at the past characters, and what aspects about them really made them stand out, and what roles they filled."

"At no point did we want to just make a cookie cutter of, 'We need a Johnny Gat character so let's just reskin him as somebody else.' We wanted all of these characters to be able to stand on their own."

As the story begins, you control a low-level member of a militaristic faction known as Marshall in Santo Ileso, a city inspired by American Southwest.

Life is hard, and rent is expensive, so you put aside your gangs' differences and decide to split an apartment with fellow grunts from your rival factions.

The rival roommates clash heads occasionally, but they quickly establish a house code where they have to leave their work lives at the door when they enter the apartment. Paying rent was worth more than anything else.

They need each other to survive; after all, low-level members don't pull in the big bucks. They start doing small crime together like robbing stores to make the ends meet. Their personalities complete each other.

The first mission, "Making Rent" follows the friend group as they rob a loan office called Payday. Eli sets the whole plan, with a planned karaoke night afterwards. They walk up to the single guard, who is on the phone, point a gun to his face and the Boss says him to "walk away before the phrase dead end job gets literal.”

The whole mission focuses on car combat as you evade the cops, and finally go to a meeting spot at a junkyard, which is unfortunately owned by Panteros Neenah works for, and ask for their cut. It all breaks into combat you gotta fight out of causing the karaoke night to get cancelled

They see how well they work together and decide to form their own criminal empire and have the riches they dreamed off. Eli suggests they need a proper office space, to which Neenah suggest an abandoned church in the Mercado district.

The church is in the sorry state, but improves as the story progresses. They notice the fleur-de-lis symbols representing Catholic saints, and the sign becomes the crew's logo, and they adopt the name "The Saints", as your character officially becomes "The Boss"

Church is customizable, and you unlock individual items to decorate it with as you complete objectives and side activities

Huge emphasis is put on car combat too, in the trailer they got healthbars above them, and you’ll be able to get on the roof of the cars and shoot at the enemies, as well as a “brand new drift mechanics”

2nd mission features Kevin getting kidnapped by Idols for crossing them, and has Boss rescue them after they wrongfully assume he hooked up with someone instead (they use gender neutral terms too, and boss thinks a random guy answering his phone is the hookup... bi icon...)

You go to a bar his phone pinged from just to check, and find out he was captured. You shake a guy down and he tells you they tied him up tot he City’s landmark and plan to blow it up as a message to everyone who crosses them.

You go there, disarm 4 bombs (journalist hints its because of your marshall training kicking in), and then use your wingsuit to fly to a mansion where there’s an ongoing Idols party, and kill them all for messing with your friends (sounds a lot like Party Time mission from SRTT)

There are also “side missions”, called “Side Hustles” which are half the mission the main story ones are and are similar to activities in previous game, but not exactly (one sounds like trafficking 2.0, other sounds like “race” from AOM)

True highlight are “Criminal Ventures”, which are businesses you can build around the city to serve as fronts for your illegal operations, all of the giving you new side missions and even upgrades. You can build a total of 15 businesses.

The demo journalist played only had a Bright Future scam, which is a nuclear waste plant Saints own and dumb nuclear chemicals for he private corporations that pay them to do it, and a taco business that serves as a drug smuggling front

The journalist picked the taco business, which had Neenah introduce her friend Chuy who knows the distribution business inside and out, and according to Neenah, makes a killer michelada. (seems like every business will have a person running the operation for you)

All ventures have several missions in a chain before you complete them, taco business one has you stealing other food trucks and bringing them back to be converted into your own business. Bright Future one had you go to remote locations and pick up trucks with nuclear waste you gotta deliver to your waste plant (but you gotta drive carefully, if you’re too reckless the containers will blow up, earning you less money)

100% each of them gives you a new wacky reward. There’s a military surplus which can unlock you new weapons, and even a hoverboard for completing all instances of it.

[whoredmode]

i’ve been replaying RE4 for like the millionth time and it reminded me of that zombie AU that i come back to every so often. wanted to do some more concepts for it.

the year is meant to be 2006, with the main gangs in stilwater still being the ones in sr1, but i still want characters from sr2 to make an appearance just to add more drama to the mix. so just imagine the time period is some combination of both those games. the plot is basically that during a gang fight, anteros gets shot critically and falls into a coma. he wakes up a few months later to the world having gone to shit. he initially meets with lin (who was undercover at the time and for now is just kinda stuck with the rollerz) and donnie who fill him in on what happened. after they get him situated, anteros ventures off on his own to find the saints. he heads to the police station first to see if there’s still weapons in the armory—where he encounters troy. after things went bad, troy was pulled out of his undercover case and forced back to the station, but things got so bad everyone else abandoned the place. troy’s just been holed up in there since. after some back and forth and some apologies from troy, the two head out to find others, eventually finding johnny and aisha. after some convincing, the four team up and continue on their quest to get the saints back. and just survive somehow.

[luckyspacerabbit]

Can I have 33, 39, 43, and 50 for both Dan Hyun and Jade? 👀

ahh it would mean the world to me ;_; thank you dear steph! A shooting star for you 🌠🌠 hehe

Dan Hyun☄

﹝33. What skills do they have that are a surprise to the people around them?﹞

Her actual combat execution always comes as a surprise to people, despite the fact that she's a soldier. I think because of how she delegates and carries herself, people assume that on the field she'll bring up the rear of the squad and operate at a distance. That's before she comes crashing into them with full-tech armor, yelling like a complete foghorn. Fun related excerpt from her dossier that features one of her related combat formations:

Hammer- Offensive- Dan Hyun takes point, making herself the biggest and loudest target on the field. Companions flank from behind, forming a triangular point that is meant to barrel through enemy lines. Upon tech armor detonation, the entire team swings forward, crumbling enemy defenses.

﹝39. Do they keep around any sentimental items?﹞

Her mom's pearl earring and Kai's dog tags! (I had the earring as a ruby before but I've retconned them for character themeing <3 ). She wore the pearl set to a friend's birthday party (that she wasn't supposed to go to) and lost one in the heat of the disaster. Her mom graciously repurposed it into a simple necklace for her, so sometimes you can spot it around her neck. Her N7 dog tags were originally made for Kai, before he was listed KIA and thus never took his exam. Anderson pulled some strings to save the digits, in hopes of motivating Dan Hyun to later undergo the N7 qualifying exam. It clearly worked. If it's not around her neck, it's resting on her nearby desk.

﹝43. Which version of the Normandy do they like best?﹞

Definitely the SR2. She absolutely hated it when she boarded initially-- All her life, her blood had run Alliance blue. Seeing that dreadful Cerberus orange sickened her. I think of all people, she was the most surprised to realize on the SR3 just how much she missed the SR2. She'd come to associate it with not just her close friends and confidantes, but her squad. Her team, brave enough to splinter from one of the most dangerous terrorists in the galaxy to take down the reapers on their terms. She'd fallen in love on the SR2. Watched the dead come back to life. Formed a community. And experienced one of the biggest betrayals of her life. The SR2 was unforgettable-- and she missed it more than anything.

﹝50. Is your Shepard indoctrinated?﹞

Damn, she might be! I definitely subscribe to reaper tech being a part of Dan Hyun meaning there is some level of indoctrination surrounding her. There's a certain range of difficulty to saying no to her that increases as Me3 goes on, an enamouring dreamlike guidance that brings her back and back to the Reapers. But in the good end, (the end which her loved ones remain alive) her will is strong. It takes dedication, but she can refuse the urges when she's kept close with the people she loves. The silence that comes with the destroy ending is so freeing.

Jade✃

﹝33. What skills do they have that are a surprise to the people around them?﹞

She has near perfect memory. Whether it's an offhand comment from five years ago, or jeopardy facts from the year 2177, Jade has it down pat. Her Aunts from the salon used to reward her with orange hard candies if she could guess trivia answers on the fly, something that went on to catch people off guard when she replied with obscure answers to their questions. Also? Huge movie nerd for oft rerun westerns. She'll pepper in dialogue from country star greats on any occasion. It turns out killing time by watching TV doesn't melt your brain!

﹝39. Do they keep around any sentimental items?﹞

No. The one thing Jade keeps is the necklace she's had since she was a baby: but even that isn't sentimental. It's an endless question to which she swears she doesn't want the answer to: Just who her birth parents were and why they left her on the doorstep of that salon.

﹝43. Which version of the Normandy do they like best?﹞

She's only been on the Normandy SR-3, but it's definitely her favorite edition. The original Normandy would have been too polished and official for her. Normandy SR-2? Well, too chummy, too fast (Not to mention all that drama with Shepard and some of Jade's operatives). The Normandy SR-3 is the perfect mix of scrappily put together, mixed with just enough awkward tension that keeps everyone apart enough to get things done.

﹝50. Is your Shepard indoctrinated?﹞

No, definitely not. Jade loves technology, but there's no way in hell she would get close enough to Reaper tech to become indoctrinated. It's the reason she defects from Cerberus after Me2, and the reason she gets in a large argument (and split) with Kai after he entertains the idea. She refuses to put mind at risk-- it's one of the few things she can count on.