#the Reaper leviathans still scare the shit out of me and I don’t know if I can overcome the fear dhdhdhdj

[halfd3af]

me, starting a modded second playthrough of Subnautica: I won’t be as scared this time!

also me: *refuses to dip 5 meters below the surface on the way to the Sunbeam pickup location so I don’t have to think about Mabel patrolling near the QEP*

[septnautical]

The situation was not looking good. It was supposed to be a simple scrap pick up mission. Find the base, find some materials, warp back. How were Jackie and Marvin supposed to know they had traveled into some primitive precursor anti-warp zone? How were they supposed to know there was a very hostile ghost leviathan out here out for blood?  

It had come out of nowhere. Marvin was concentrating, trying to figure out where this invisible anti-warp field ended but it was impossible to tell. Jackie’s arms were getting tired from holding both their bags of scraps but he could tell Marvin was beyond frustrated and he didn’t want to add to that. Then he saw a flash of lavender light. He saw a ghostly face. His blood ran cold.

“Marvin!”

Jackie tries to charge to his brother’s side but he’s too slow with the weight he’s carrying. Marvin turns and is greeted by the torn face of a giant ghost leviathan that roars at him before chomping down on his arm. Marvin screams and tries to pry himself out but the creature shakes the merman in its jaw before tossing Marvin away. The warper soars through the water before crashing into the abandoned metal hull of a long forgotten base and plummets to the seabed.

Jackie is filled with rage as he springs out his mandibles and roars as loud as possible at the ghost leviathan. The Goliath does not look phased and roars back in challenge. Jackie pales, not sure he can take this thing in a fight alone. The battle scars on its face are warning enough.

Jackie swallows and quickly hightails it back to where he saw Marvin fall. Marvin is struggling to get back up with one arm out of commission, tears streaming down his face from the effort. His arm is a ruined mess. It’s dripping blood, the water around him a thick red cloud. It’s bent at an unnatural angle and Jackie tries not to vomit when he thinks he sees bone popping out.

Jackie dumps the scrap and picks Marvin up, careful not to jostle his arm. Marvin whimpers out anyways, not knowing how to hold on to Jackie.

“Don’t panic Marv, we’ll.. We’ll get out of here okay?” Jackie quietly assures the older brother as he moves the two to hide behind some of the taller coral. They can hear the ghost leviathan roaring above, searching for them. Marvin shakes with fear against Jackie, or it could be from rapid blood loss. Jackie sets Marvin against the coral and whips off his hood. He apologizes before covering Marvin’s mouth and pushing the fabric against his wound. Marvin screams against the cloth and bites back tears but otherwise stays still. Jackie quietly apologizes over and over as he tries to stop the bleeding. After a while, he tries to wrap the wound up as gently as possible so hopefully, it’ll slow down until they can get help.

By the time Jackie is done the cries of the ghost leviathan seem to have quieted. Jackie peeks his head out from their hiding place and sighs in relief when he sees no sign of the giant beast. He heads back to find Marvin fighting to keep his eyes open, tears still flowing through the water. Jackie lightly taps on his cheek.

“Hey buddy, stay with me okay? You gotta stay awake so we can warp outta here.”

Marvin slowly nods and tries to sit up and winces. Jackie quickly gathers him up in his arms, princess style, and starts to speed outta the area before the ghost bitch can find them again.

Jackie’s heart is in his throat with how much he’s panicking. Marvin’s arm… would Danan even be able to fix it? God, he hoped so. What would happen if Marvin fainted? Would he…? Jackie swallowed. He couldn’t think like that.

The merman sped through the ruins as fast as his tail could take him. Marvin’s head wavered and fell against Jackie’s chest as he struggled to stay awake.

“Don’t pass out on me now, we’re almost there,” Jackie urged, even though he wasn’t sure. “You gotta let me know the second you feel like you can warp again okay Marv?”

“O-Okay…” Marvin whimpered, his eyes starting to look glassy.

Jackie bit his lip spurring his tail to go even faster, not liking how pale Marvin was looking. They were leaving a huge trail of blood through the water as Jackie tried to remember how they even got down here.

Then suddenly a blue and green creature popped up in front of them, its wings flaring out and warping the water into beautiful colors.

“Shit-!” Jackie exclaimed, trying to back away but he could already hear the little pest of a mesmer worming its way into his head.

Come closer little ones, come closer… I can take care of your little injury… just trust me… come closer…

Marvin’s eyes started to echo the color of the mesmer’s wings as he slowly tried to float out of Jackie’s arms. Jackie cried out and tried to grab Marvin, almost grabbing his injured arm. Stopping himself was a bad decision though because then another mesmer swam in front of him, trying to capture Jackie now in its trance. They must have been drawn here by the trail of Marvin’s blood. A whole swarm of mesmers started to surround the boys.

“Shit-Shit-!” Jackie whispered, trying to fight the pull. He couldn’t let Marvin suffer any more injuries from these fuckers, but it was hard enough fighting off the influence of one of them. Jackie could feel himself slipping. The reaper mermen tries to swim backward, tries to get away, tries to find Marvin in the quickly fading space around him but soon all he can hear is the mesmers’ call.

Jackie feels the sting of one of them biting into his flesh, but another keeps him entranced. Another bite, two more. Jackie tries to whimper out Marvin’s name but he can’t. His mouth won’t form the words. He can only think about the beautiful colors of the mesmers. He can feel himself sinking through the water.

Marvin makes his way to the original mesmer as his brother is surrounded by the others. Not that he notices. The mesmer draws him close, way to close and Marvin is happy to follow after it. But instead of biting at his face, it goes for his injured arm. The pain is so intense, Marvin is broken out of the trance with a painful scream. He shakes off the shock and grabs the little menace and throws it into a nearby rock with his good arm, satisfied with hearing the sickly crunch. Then he hears the other drones behind him and sees Jackie falling through a swarm of almost a dozen mesmers.

“Jackie!!” Marvin gasps, adrenaline masking the pain as he dives through the swarm and swats away as many mesmers as he can to grab Jackie. They try to get Marvin back under the trance again and Jackie is too far gone to hear him. Marvin grits his teeth and concentrates, knowing he can’t fight them off like this. He almost cries with relief when he feels the familiar pull of his warp powers in his gut and soon him and Jackie are whisked away back to the shallows.

The boys fall into the sand is a clumsy heap after warping away so suddenly. A couple mesmers got dragged with them but the shift spooked them enough that they hightailed it out of there. Marvin blinks stars out his eyes, the fall jostling his injured arm. He felt like throwing up but he knew he had to keep going. He quickly turns over and tries to get back to Jackie.

Jackie is laying face up on his back, the effect of the mesmers still lingering. His eyes still reflect the colors of their wings as they gaze out at nothing. Marvin swallows, shaking off the feeling of deja vu having seen this before with Schneep. He drags himself over to Jackie and quickly slaps his tail against his face, trying to wake him up.

For a scary moment, nothing happens. Jackie’s head merely just jerks to the side and stays there. Marvin fears the effect of that many mesmers at once might have really screwed Jackie over. But then Jackie blinks and slowly the colors start to fade from his eyes.

“What…” Jackie slowly slurs, before he jerks up and panics, “Marvin!” As soon as he sees his brother he relaxes, tears springing to his eyes. “Oh my god…”

Marvin forces back tears too as he grips his injured arm and gives Jackie a shaky smile, “Don’t scare me like that…”

Jackie springs to Marvin and wraps him in a tight yet careful hug, burying his face in Marvin’s shoulder. Marvin gives him a one-armed hug back in return. Marvin almost cries again as he sees up close the chunks the mesmers had taken out of Jackie.

“Let’s never go down to that horrible place again,” Jackie mumbles and Marvin can’t help but laugh.

“Agreed, hopefully, these injuries will be argument enough for Danan.”

Marvin suddenly feels everything shift around him and he swallows the urge to throw up again.

“Um… speaking of which… Can we hurry back to the base before I pass out…?” He asks with a shaky laugh. Jackie quickly lets go and apologizes, grabbing Marvin in his arm again and speeding them back off to the base. Marvin smiles and closes his eyes, letting himself rest against Jackie’s chest.

Yeah… never going to that place again.

But hey, maybe these would make some badass scars. 

[thorne93]

Inexplicable Fate (Part 4)

Prompt: When a blinding pain overtakes you at work, what will be in store for your life when you run into the Winchesters and learn Lucifer’s son is about to be born?

Warning: Language, pain, angst, violence, fighting (verbal and physical)…fear of insanity??

Word Count: 2186

Notes: This is for @roxyspearing gif challenge. This is like a slow burn?? Idk. It’s a Jack x Reader fic (so Season 12 and 13 spoilers…) It’s LONG. So buckle in. It is slow-ish at first. But things will build to a head…Promise ;P

Beta’d by the ever fabulous @like-a-bag-of-potatoes

Forever Tags: @capsmuscles @cocosierra94 @essie1876 @magpiegirl80@letsgetfuckingsuperwholocked @iamwarrenspeace @marvel-imagines-yes-please @superwholocked527 @missinstantgratification @thejemersoninferno@rda1989 @munlis @thefridgeismybestie @bubblyanarocks3 @random-fluffy-pink-unicorn @hardcollectionworldtrash @igiveupicantthinkofausername@kaliforniacoastalteens @feelmyroarrrr @kaeling @friendlyneighbourhoodweirdo

IF Tags: @iamafishandigosplish @myfamilysincarolina @ilovemyangelforever @kazuha159 @bisexualdolphinthings @mysteriouslydeliciouswerewolf  @justiceiswater

Dean Winchester: @akshi8278 @mogaruke

Sam Winchester: @mogaruke @lenawiinchester

Castiel: @lenawiinchester

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next morning, the boys were already up and ready for the day. You brewed some coffee and made them breakfast, seeing as you were starving as well. While the three of you ate breakfast in a comfortable silence, a knock came at the door.

“That should be Cas,” Sam informed as he got up from the breakfast table to let him in.

He opened your front door, but from your position in the kitchen, you couldn’t see the man they claimed was an angel. A large part of you, the rational, logical part, didn’t believe any of this. You were hallucinating, you were still at the hospital, or your voices had taken a turn for the worst...but there had to be an explanation. With skepticism in your heart, you felt you needed them to prove without a shadow of a doubt that this Castiel was in fact some sort of all powerful being.

“She’s right in here,” Sam informed as he came around the corner, gesturing to you. In tow, a man in a khaki trench coat, black suit pants, and a white button down behind him. He was...handsome. He was just as handsome as the other three. But there were no wings, no halo, no glowing light, no Heavenly look about him. He looked like a normal man…

Dean got up and hugged his friend, who returned the gesture before they turned their sole attention on you.

“So what do you think Cas?” Dean asked. “Is Y/N here coocoo for cocoa puffs or is she something else?”

Castiel frowned, tilting his head slightly before walking over to you, narrowing his gaze as he lowered himself to look you in the eyes.

“I can’t be for sure...She looks human enough. I’ll have to touch her soul,” he stated.

“You what?” you asked, peering at him.

“Your soul, I need to touch it,” he repeated.

“No, I got that but….Can we just slow down here? How do I even know this is legit?” you asked. “I mean, so far, all I’ve had to go on is some pretty elaborate stories, but no concrete evidence. So I think before this goes any further, I’d like to confirm that you’re a real angel,” you demanded, wondering how you sounded so sane...so...calm about telling someone to show you they're an angel.

“What would you like me to show you?” Castiel asked, a kindness in his voice.

“I don’t know. What...can you do? I mean, what can you show me?”

Castiel thought for a moment before walking over to your butchers block, pulling out a knife, and without much warning, jabbed it into his chest. The action made you jump back and gasp loudly.

“What is he--What are you doing?!” you demanded, your voice loud and shrill.

He pulled the knife out and opened his coat. “See? No wound. I can only be killed or hurt with a special blade.”

Slowly, you nodded, taking a few steps closer to him, examining the area for yourself. The coat, the shirt, both ripped, but underneath there wasn’t even a dot of blood. The knife wasn’t a trick knife because he pulled it from your kitchen.

But it still didn’t seem like enough. Illusionists did things like this all the time. So you thought. What could be something that would prove his powers or ability without question.

“Sam and Dean said you can heal people. Can you still do that?” you wondered, knowing they had explained after Castiel had fallen he had lost some of his abilities.

“Yes. I might not be able ot bring you back from the dead, but I can heal most wounds,” he informed, stoic and monotone.

You nodded, picking up the same steak knife he’d just used on himself, taking a deep breath. This was crazy, absolutely crazy, but you needed answers and you needed to be sure this was real.

Taking the blade, you dug it into your hand as deep as you could bear without just utterly screaming out, but at least making a deeper cut than a paper cut. After a moment, blood starting to spill out from the severed flesh.

“There. Can you heal that?” you asked, holding your hand out.

Castiel said nothing, he simply held your wrist in one hand, and put his hand on top of yours, a gold light and warmth coming from your palm. Within two seconds, he let go, and let you examine your hand. It looked as if you’d never even touched it. It felt great, no stinging, no pain.

Your eyes went back and forth from your palm to the man before you, and back again, over and over as disbelief washed through you and you stumbled backwards. HEaring the stories from Dean and Sam was one thing. Meeting a being who...an angel. An angel was standing in your kitchen. This meant...everything you’d ever believed in was real. God. Hell. Heaven. Angels. Demons. Satan...All of it, true….Walking amongst everyone.

“Y/N, are you okay?” Sam asked as he reached out for you from the other side of the table.

“I...I...I just... I need a moment,” you said as you turned  to walk out to your backyard.

“She appears to have nausea, dizziness, and confusion,” Cas informed as you started to walk by him. Frowning, you looked at him and shook your head as you escaped the madness inside your house.

This couldn't be real. It was fun to pretend. It was neat to think that all of this was really real. But now...it wasn’t what you thought it would feel like. Knowing angels existed, it meant that demons existed. Knowing God existed, it meant Satan existed, and now he had some demon child about to be born into the world, wreaking Lord knows what havoc.

You’d always thought that when you learned the Divine truly did exist, it would feel joyous, happy...but now, every light must have a dark. Every evil have a good. So where there were good people, there were bad….A Heaven meant a Hell…

Not to mention all the monsters Sam and Dean had told you about. They sounded like bad dreams, nightmares come to life, something from a wicked movie...And of course, they sounded unbelievable. But now...now it meant they were real, that innocent people died from monsters everyday, all over the world. It meant that at any moment, they could kill you. Life as you knew it was...different.

You heard a door close behind you and you knew it was one of the guys coming to check on you, most likely Sam, as he seemed to be the sensitive one in the group. But when Dean appeared beside you, it surprised you.

“You okay?” he asked, staring straight ahead, and again that inkling of a feeling that he didn’t do well with emotions came bubbling up.

“Yeah. I just...I needed a minute…” you said in a soft voice. “I’m sorry,” you apologized. “I probably seem like a total idiot. I’m telling you I hear voices and I’m having a mental breakdown from meeting an angel. I’m sure you think I’m sort of backwards.”

He shrugged. “Like I said before, you were a little too chill about the whole thing. Some people need to see it to believe it, and you’re probably like that,” he informed.

“I suppose so. I felt you and Sam were telling the truth. There was just too much that was too detailed for you two to be making up or to be crazy...But to actually...to actually see him stab himself and then heal me…” You wanted to go on, but for some inexplicable reason, you wanted to cry. Probably because you were beyond your wits end. You had no idea what to think of feel right now.

“Believe me, I get it. I’ve been in this...business a long time. Since we were little, and I never cease to get the shit shocked out of me. Hell I thought I’d seen it all with my Dad. Disgruntled spirits, a few demons, run of the mill stuff. But then...well, we met a reaper, we met Leviathans, we met God. Let me tell you, that was a doozy. I mean, you keep thinking ‘This is it. This is as big and as bad as it gets.’ But then something comes along and just kicks you in the balls and teeth and...and it’s hard to accept it. So I don’t expect someone who’s never seen anything weirder than a computer virus to take this all without some sort of meltdown.”

A smile pulled at the corner of your mouth at his comment.

“I just thought...I thought learning of God and Heaven and angels would be a good thing. You know? I always thought that if I ever had an experience or when I died or whatever...I always thought I would be thrilled. I mean, who wouldn’t be? You’re learning life’s great mysteries. But now…”

“Now all you see is the evil?” he finished, turning to look at you with a stone face.

You nodded, biting your lip. “Yeah...But that’s part of who I am. I’ve always been cautious, scared, worried. I mean, as a kid, I was always afraid of strangers, thinking they would kidnap me. As an adult, I don’t go into dark alleys, I don’t get into my car until I’ve looked in the back. And nothing’s happened to me to make me paranoid like that...It was just always part of me...So now, I learn all of the good stuff is real, my mind can’t help but go to the bad too. Great, so there’s angels, does that mean my neighbor is a demon? God exists? Great, but now Lucifer has a little bundle of Hell on the way, trying to get him ready for...whatever...It’s just not the fairytale I always imagined, ya know?”

“Yeah, I do. I also know...it won’t get better,” he said, wisdom in his tone. “I’m not gonna sit here and lie to you and tell you that you shouldn’t see it that way, or there’s more good in this world or any of that hippie junk. Because there’s not. Good might win, most of the time, but it comes with a hefty price. It’s never easy.”

He stopped, and your eyes cast down to the grass on your yard as you nodded.

“Now, you also don’t have to go through with this. It’s up to you, and knowing what you know. No one’s gonna force you to go through this. I will say, whenever we head back in there, my friend Cas is gonna search your soul. He’s going to put his arm in your chest and touch and feel your very soul to see what’s going on with you. Now, I don’t know what he's going to find. Maybe you’re psychic, maybe you’re just crazy...Maybe it’s nothin’ at all and he can heal you. But once you find out, we’re gonna have to make a choice. To either go down the rabbit hole if it’s some sort of freaky power and embrace it, which means this life we live will be your life. Or you can take the knowledge and just live with it. You can take what Cas tells you and move on with your life and forget we ever met. But just so you know, once you’re in this life, you can’t get out, and it’s not easy.”

“From what you and Sam told me, it doesn't sound easy, any of it. Losing your dad or getting your mom back, losing friends and family….You two have lived a harder life than anyone should,” you remarked softly. “I don’t know what I’ll do, to be honest. I guess it all depends on what he tells me, but thank you for telling me. You’re a good man, Dean Winchester,” you noted with a smile.

“I’m just a guy who saves people and hunts bad shit for a living,” he said with a shrug.

“You’re so much more than that, and the fact that you either don’t see it, or won’t admit it, means I’m right,” you said before kissing his cheek and walking back inside.

Castiel and Sam were sitting and talking at the table, their chatter slowing and quieting when you approached them.

“Okay, I’m ready. I want to find out what’s going on inside my head,” you stated.

“Very well,” Castiel said as he stood.

“Can we go somewhere private?” you asked, not comfortable doing this in front of the boys, or your kitchen. For some reason, you just really wanted the comfort of your own bedroom, surrounded by all the things you loved.

“I’ll go wherever you like,” Castiel said, bowing slightly.

You nodded, giving the boys a goodbye glance, a small smile from both of them in return as you escaped into your bedroom, the angel following you before you shut the door.

[meggannn]

andromeda review

I finished the game Monday night so I’ve had a few days to think over my feelings. No major plot spoilers in this post but putting behind a cut anyway.

I want to rip the bandaid off, so I’ll get the bad news out of the way first.

THE BAD

It’s clear what influence Frostbite -- and by extension EA -- has had on Andromeda, and it’s not always good. It’s a big world, which was kind of what they signed on for by setting the stage in a new galaxy: if it wasn’t big, people would complain we never got to “really see” Andromeda. So they made it big and pushed the exploration thing. It’s not as big as Inquisition, thank god, with not nearly so many pointless fetch quests, but there are still enough sidequests to deter the average player and don’t really move the plot further. I’m actually the kind of dedicated idiot who actually doesn’t mind collecting pointless shit across seventeen maps if it actually gives me more information about the lore or characters, but when it just comes with XP and a check mark, it irritates the living heck out of me. Andromeda has a fair amount of both types.

In the long run, this is a very minor complaint, more about what Bioware doesn’t put in the game than what they do, but I was let down in the lack of… creativity? In the new Andromeda species. After finishing the game however, for plot reasons, I can see why there are several reasons why they would keep the bipedal humanoid alien design, but it’s still a little disappointing. Lore-wise, I think traveling to a new galaxy would be the perfect stage to design more mind-bending aliens like the Leviathans or rachni (the Reapers controlled the direction organic life evolved in the Milky Way, but not Andromeda, right?). Aliens with different types of societies! Aliens that are bigger or smaller in scale than us! Aliens that have different ideas of the word ‘intelligence’! And we got only two sentient species, one of which actually has some form of settled home in Andromeda, the other of which we try to slaughter when we’re within fifty meters of each other.

For people who have played the original trilogy, it becomes kind of obvious they’re retreading familiar ground, and sometimes it gets predictable. Not just with their themes -- which I expect -- but their plot twists. I’ll avoid spoiling too much. There are also moments it feels as though they’re trying to ‘top’ the trauma Shepard went through in the original series by putting Ryder through worse, so much so that when Ryder’s in serious danger it feels a bit like they’re crying wolf. They somehow managed to do this without making Ryder feel like ‘the new Shepard’ -- which is a good thing -- but still, it’s a bit odd and disconnecting. It’s like you can see the talks at the tables when the creative director said “and then we’ll do THIS” and nobody considered if it was, um, logical.

With the writing, there was occasionally a lot of -- for lack of a better phrase -- telling and not showing, or in some other cases, stretching the limits of lore believability just to create conflict for the player to fight. I tend to hate when people use “show don’t tell” as a criticism because I think they’re usually overlooking something, but this is a common theme with BW games and in Andromeda it happens pretty consistently. We are constantly told that the angara are always “free” with their feelings and rarely if ever hide their emotions from the world, yet aside from Jaal’s consistent emotional vulnerability (who I thought was great btw), angara mostly tend to speak and talk and walk exactly like us. Having a conversation with an angaran NPC felt exactly like an asari or human NPC, except, you know, in how they looked.

((MILD PLOT SPOILERS: If you’ve reached Aya you’re probably fine to read)) I’m obviously relieved Bioware didn’t go in the colonization direction -- something I didn’t want to have to worry about the first place -- but instead there’s an undeniable white savior (or “human savior”) theme instead. (It became especially prominent later in the game.) This is difficult to document exactly because it’s not as explicit as other classic examples -- in MEA, Jaal has a large presence and is actively involved in protecting and saving his people; the Initiative/Ryder has to work their ass off to prove their intentions are peaceful and even then the angara are portrayed to rightfully still be skeptical -- but at the end of the day, the angara are a POC coded culture and ~only a stranger can save them~. The angara have also become Mass Effect’s elven equivalent from Dragon Age, in terms of how much and how often the story throws them into the mud. At least unlike the elves, they don’t argue that it’s the angara’s fault, but after a while it feels like slow and cruel torture of a native species that’s already been through hell.

The Chosen One narrative is how Bioware operates, I get it. But I’m getting tired of people treating the Pathfinder/Inquisitor like a hero-in-the-making before they have the chance to prove they’re even a person. (Sorry to keep bringing DA2 up, but this is why I liked Hawke so much -- you worked to Championship from the ground up, and everyone knew it.) What is so freaking special about the symbol of Pathfinders that makes everyone flock to you when you first step onto the Nexus? Did the Initiative really pin all their hopes on scouting landscapes and settling colonies in hostile or extreme environments on the shoulders of four people?

The disappointing LGBT romances are already well-documented, but I have to give a particular call-out to how they handled the only mlm’s storyline, because it was terrible. (It’s honestly astounding how it passed the desks of multiple people and nobody thought to say hey, maybe this is offensive?)

After watching Jaal’s romance… I’m still not convinced aliens should ever be straight in any circumstance, but I don’t think just a patch would solve this one -- I think Jaal’s romance employs a lot of you’re-the-girl-of-my-dreams tropes that were meant to specifically appeal to women, so swapping Sara for Scott in this case might feel lazy or contrived. Liam’s romance, though -- which I LOVED and I highly recommend people watch if they have a few minutes on Youtube -- is completely free of any sort of gender stereotypical tropes and would work just as well with any Ryder.

Okay now onto the good stuff, which was fortunately most of it.

THE GOOD

Despite all of the above, I really, genuinely, enjoyed this game and think both old and new Mass Effect players would enjoy it. There are some growing pains -- Ryder asks a few dumb questions for exposition that most ME fans know by heart and other times an NPC comments on this or that lore reference that new people wouldn’t understand in the slightest, but it doesn’t ruin the experience. I finished at around 75 hours and 97% completion with most of the remaining activities the ‘no lore included’ fetch quests I was complaining about earlier. And despite my whining about the sidequests, I actually did genuinely like them, for the most part. They gave me more information about each of the worlds and how people live there, often because the same people would give me multiple quests, or reference each other, so the locations felt like real places that people lived in.

The companions and their relationships -- including romances -- are really good. Like, not to call it leagues better than Inquisition, because Inquisition had great companions, but unlike the Inquisitor I actually felt like Ryder had a place on the ship. I knew what their job was, sure, but I also know who they were when they interacted with people, even allowing for the freedom of player choice. The Initiative isn’t military, and neither is your ship, though plenty of the squad have professional firearms and crisis training, which is a great shift from Shepard and the Normandy -- it comes with more casual banter, but it also has its downsides, because there will be fights on your ship between people, because many of them are not professionals, just highly skilled expertises, and they aren’t used to working with others. It sucks because you have to mediate the arguments, but it’s also realistic.

The animation is fine, and yeah the CC sucks and I wish it were better, but it’s hardly the end of the world. Mass Effect always did better with aliens than it did with humans, so it’s hardly a surprise, and personally I think if people are going to throw a fit over their PC not having the right kind of eyebrows or a glitch where a character holds a gun backwards that happens once in a 70+ hour game, and that ruins the entire experience for them… they might want to pick another hobby.

I’ve seen people complaining that the writing is shit, and it’s true that occasionally I’ll hear a cheesy line and think a fifteen year old could’ve done better, but the largest majority of the time, I wonder what those complaints were smoking. The writing is great. I feel like these are all real people -- and I especially feel Ryder is a real person, a real sister/brother, a real twenty-something thrown into a million problems they’re unequipped to handle.

I was surprised to actually be… impressed by the way they handle angaran relations. The white savior thing is still true and will always be true, but I appreciate that Ryder has to work their ass off to prove they’re trustworthy, and even then, the angara that still openly distrust aliens aren’t wrong for it, and Ryder has to respect that or risk their respect. They’re wary, and they have every right to be, and the story doesn’t punish them for it. (Even the Roekaar are slightly sympathetic in a way, because a majority of them are fighting because they’re scared.)

Open world games are usually something I dread, but I didn’t mind the open landscapes for the most part, because the Mako -- I mean Nomad -- gets you around pretty fast, you’ve got banter to listen to in the meantime, and the upgrades really helped whenever the terrain became challenging. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes it’s really too much, but for the most part, I honestly didn’t mind, and I was surprised I didn’t.

The journal prioritization system reminds me of DA2 in a good way; compared to previous ME games, and even Inquisition, MEA makes it a lot easier to tell which quests are worth doing/plot relevant, and which would just amount to my dicking around in the wilderness for XP or loot.

The combat is excellent -- not to rag on the original series’ system because there wasn’t anything particularly wrong with it, but I can definitely see major improvements in creativity and flexibility. It’s fluid, much more mobile, and the jumpjets let you get so much more creative. Letting people mix and match powers is a little far-fetched, but you can handwave a lot of with SAM’s profile implant, so I don’t really mind. The only irritating thing is that you’re limited to three powers at once, but since you have about a million powers available to you in the first place and can equip four favorite profiles at once, it seems a fair trade. (I’ve found a way around this anyway -- instead of bringing up the HUD and going to favorites, if you pause the game in the middle of combat, you can fool around with your skills AND change profiles and resume combat with no cooldown.)

It felt like ME1 in all of the best ways. Like I mentioned above, it’s true they’re sort of treading familiar ground in their themes and plot twists, but there were certain parts of the final mission in particular were most definitely purposeful references to/love letters to the original trilogy. It makes it feel like the start of a new journey; I told a friend when I finished that I felt exactly like I had when I finished ME1 for the first time, excited and scared and pumped to start playing sequel.

My overall experience was a great one; I’m planning on starting my second playthrough as soon as I can, probably tomorrow. It was familiar to old fans who loved ME1 for its newness and strangeness, it’s friendly to new players, and I think it’ll be remembered strongly in the future if it is the beginning of a new series like I expect it to be. (LBR, if it isn’t “part one” of a new story...... it makes no sense. It’s practically screaming for more.)