#courtesy of the galaxy's best single space dad

[halzore]

15. The biggest, warmest hugs with Sinker? ❤

Okay hi! Welcome to my headcanon that as much as Ahsoka loves the 501st, the 104th are like her other side of the fam. Again, the spelling/grammar is probably not top notch. But like Yolo i guess

“Calm down Sinker, for Maker’s sake.” Sinker punched Boost in the arm.

“Just because you can play it cool, I’m just excited.” Sinker was very annoyed with his brother.

“Like I couldn’t tell,” Boost gestured at the pillows and blankets and holo-projector set up in the 104th barracks.

Sinker looked incredulously back at Boost. “What was I supposed to do, do nothing for our favourite Commander?”

“Don’t let Wolffe hear you say that.”

“Don’t let Wolffe hear you say what?” The Commander of the 104th walked down the hall towards the barracks, his helmet tucked under his arm a small smile gracing his face. A small orange togruta, draped in an oversize cloak was walking out in front of the man.

“Little ‘Soka!” Sinker began to run towards the girl, Ahsoka starting her own pace to meet him in the middle. She leapt up into him, her arms clasping round his neck. Sinker held her in a tight hug.

“Oh I missed having you around little’un.” She pulled him in a little tighter.

“I missed all of my favourite Wolfpack.” Ahsoka replied.

Sinker held her for one more moment, aware that both Wolffe and Boost were just standing there.

“Come on kid, I got something to show you,” He guided Ahsoka the small distance down the hall and into the barracks where the holoprojectore lit up the walls. Other Wolfpack members were already snuggled up in the mess of bedding on the floor, pthe smell of popcorn wafting through the air.

Ahsoka settled in between Wolffe and Sinker, using the force to snatch the popcorn off Boost. He scowled.

The opening of her favourite rom com began to play on the screen, and she made a mental note to come up with more excuses to hang out with Master Pro and his very awesome Wolfpack

#clone trooper sinker #clone trooper boost #commander wolffe #ahsoka tano #star wars imagine #the clone wars #tcw #halzore writes #physical affection prompts #this is platonic #sinker and ahsoka #plo koon #I'm obsessed with the idea that the wolfpack does the best movie nights #and generally just domestic family life a bit more than other battalions #courtesy of the galaxy's best single space dad #JEdI MAsTEr PlO KOoN

[vaguely-concerned]

Some Alec Ryder Meta

So since I couldn’t find the screenshots of Alec Ryder’s dying ‘thoughts’, I went and got them myself!* And I am uh way closer to crying than I thought I would be, Alec sort of surprised me here. Let’s go! 

I was NOT prepared for his literal first thought to be of his children. And notice -- this is not his children being impressive or special or idk ordered/obedient. It’s them being happy and safe and playing and chaotic. I uh did not expect this, frankly.

I’m guessing this is where they used to live when the kids were small! (Would this be before or during their time on the Citadel? The timeline there is so hazy to me haha, I can never quite remember how that works)

Baby Scott on the swing ;______; I wonder if Alec is ‘there’ off screen in this scene, pushing him, since we start off with a shot looking over Scott’s shoulder like that 

Can I just say how quietly charmed I am by the fact that in Alec’s memories Ellen isn’t captured when she was ~*young and beautiful*~ or whatever nonsense -- she’s a mature woman, the same age as himself. It feels like there is something sweet and telling in that, like they were partners/equals in his mind. (This also makes me very uncomfortable to think he didn’t ask her/didn’t get her consent at the last moment on her death bed to put her in stasis, after the twins left the room at least; he seems to have respected her so much, if he went against her wishes that’s... such a breach of everything she seems to have meant to him and really should have been addressed more because it would essentially be his big sin as a character. So I choose to believe for now that when the kids left he did one last ‘give it this one last shot and I promise that if I find nothing within a certain time I’ll let you go and grieve like a normal fucking person’ sales pitch, possibly with prepared Science to back him up because they were both kind of weird like that and I think that if anything could have worked that would. ‘But think of the scientific implications tho babe wouldn’t you want to be able to find out how worked?’ ‘...You’ve got me there’)

More confirmation that Ellen had probably come to terms with her death and Alec Really Hadn’t lol. (Ellen might have just been grateful she lost neither of her children to the eezo exposure, actually -- she would have understood intimately how phenomenally lucky they were that both the twins survived and were healthy to boot) If I were to hazard a guess I’d say that Alec probably was in pretty bad need of space therapy even before his wife got ill, she was just his emotional support and he was intelligent and driven enough to hide most of it until that stability came under threat

:( this is upsetting. It doesn’t come across as well without the movement but he’s bowing his head and putting his face in his hands. Either Ellen when she’s really sick or when she uh ‘died’ 

I’m fairly sure that’s Ellen’s eyes -- and crucially they’re opening again. 

Mom and the twins :’) I think it’s pretty clear Alec did that thing some people (especially men) do where they sort of organize all their feelings through their partner -- “Your mother would have been proud of you, of both of you” JESUS CHRIST ALEC JUST TELL YOUR CHILDREN YOU’RE PROUD OF THEM LIKE YOU ACTUALLY MEANT TO SAY, THEY ALREADY KNOW THEIR MOM LOVED THEM FOR GOD’S SAKE YOU ARE THE UNCERTAIN ELEMENT HERE

ETA: actually this might also have something to do with how convinced he seems to be that the kids don’t need him -- that his love and attention and regard doesn’t matter or count, or would even be seen as an imposition (he consistently refers to himself pretty self-deprecatingly in connection to them, their ‘old man’ coming in and messing up their lives, like he considers his absence to probably be the best he can do for them? He certainly devalues his own impact massively, positive or negative). Meanwhile Ellen’s place in all their lives is a clear and uncontested positive so maybe that’s why he goes for her pride and her love like that. Again: who the fuck raised this weird dysfunctional man to be like this and how did he get away with it for so long haha

Alec and adult/at least teenaged twins! a) I suspect going to another galaxy with them to explore might honestly have been his idea of how bonding works, which... well and b) Sara is right behind him, leaning in like she’s listening and interested in what he’s saying and maybe even speaking too, and Scott looks to me like he’s sort of stranded on the side, looking in but not quite able to connect the same way. (This might be coloured by what I know about their respective relationships from the rest of the game, granted)

The same memory as before BUT interestingly --

the camera is turning around, like Alec is trying to get a look at his children’s faces and can’t :) this is fine and not at all illustrative of his entire deal *everything in my heart is on fire*

sOME observations: 

- These flashes give you more emotional insight in him than all the unlockable memories put together, and you’ll literally never see most of them unless you’re a freak like me, painstakingly frame by framing your way through it. That... seems like a waste?? 

- Despite his numerous flaws and shortcomings as a parent and as a person, literally every single thought he has at the end is about his family -- and not only his wife, all of them. There’s no place for his work here at all. That doesn’t absolve him of anything, of course, but it makes me sad that he never found a better way to show it, or to emotionally connect with his children, which he seems to have a real wish to. (”Maybe six hundred years can change a man”) Bioware... Bioware sequel pls don’t leave it like this ;_________;

- He himself does not figure prominently in his memories, and when he does he is faceless and vague -- except for when he is completely alone with his grief and Ellen is gone. I think there is something to be said about the fact that he makes all these huge inspiring speeches about the unknown and exploration... and yet his actual motivation is so firmly rooted in this immense fear of the unknown and of himself, of not knowing who to be without his wife, of not knowing how to go on living, of being alone. I wonder to what degree he knows this himself. (From what I’ve read so far of Mass Effect Initiation he certainly isn’t as idealistic about the whole thing as even the game portrays him, where he’s show to be pretty clear-eyed about the Initiative already -- or maybe he sort of is an idealist, under the fear and the jaded exhaustion. Either he genuinely believes Andromeda will hold answers and that science can achieve the impossible or he’s just too scared to consider any other outcome. Oh Boy tm)

- Ellen’s illness is such a cataclysmic event for him that I really have to assume he was never that stable to begin with. And as we’ve seen: When a Ryder goes off the rails they do so in STYLE and drag thousands of people with them to an uncertain fate haha

- My personal headcanon is that Alec used to be a better dad before Ellen got ill and when the kids were still very young; when all they really needed was to be held and loved and made to feel safe, and then became more and more distant as his work with SAM progressed and the children’s emotional needs grew more complex and demanding. Sara remembers this part of their father better (or clings to it more desperately, depending on your point of view) and is also more like him in general, being driven, competitive and intensely intellectually engaged (no matter how you play her in-game, Sara is always presented as vastly more A Nerd than Scott is -- its own can of worms of course but it’s there in the text). Meanwhile Scott has reached a resigned sort of ‘It’s perfectly plausible my dad would not be able to pick me out from a crowd’ place about it and given up on expecting anything more a long time ago in self defense. I think they’ve both hit on different parts of the truth there lol

(Also Sara and Alec seem to have bonded over making fun of Scott a little bit and considering him the underachiever of the two and like Not Cool guys!!! :( ) 

- Anyway Alec Ryder is a very interesting and immensely flawed character and killing him off and never meaningfully engaging with him again seems like throwing away a golden opportunity. Sequel where ‘Ghost Riders’ takes on a new meaning when??? I just want the twins to be able to either yell at him or connect to him better, as appropriate to the feelings of the individual player (I totally get why people would want to give their Ryders a chance to straight up hate him)

I think where it really hurts for me is that he clearly has these feelings, the capacity for it. There’s a wealth of affection and... tenderness? reverence, nearly? in these memories. None of his outward hardass needs-everything-to-be-under-control persona. And yet he could find no way to express this or even really meaningfully stay with his own feelings and his children suffered for it. It’s just all so fucking sad

*Courtesy of DanaDuchy’s youtube channel, which is truly one of the marvels of the internet; please check it out if you have any interest at all in Bioware games or indeed RPGs/games in general, there’s SO much content and it’s all neatly organized! If like me you want to listen to all the banter of every game... this channel’s got you covered

#mass effect #mass effect andromeda #meta #alec ryder #is a real SOB but the more I learn about him the more grudging confused affection I have for him lol #this must be what it's like to be the ryder twins #today in the 'I know no one asked for this but my brain won't shut up about it' report lol

[meapistrash]

More Sheith S/omething In The Rain AU! 

flight instructor!Shiro, office worker!Keith. They met each other in high school and reunite after 18 years, during which Shiro had gone abroad. Ryou is Shiro’s younger brother and Keith’s schoolmate in high school.

Their first dinner after 18 years:

They had dinner at a pasta place downtown because Keith wanted something saucy and Shiro wanted something with noodles – Altea had deprived him of noodles for far too long and Shiro was taking every chance he could to make up for the noodles and pastas he didn’t get in the last eighteen years.

(Keith laughed at that joke, which made Shiro’s inside dance in a strange way. Shiro blamed it on being married to Adam for so long that even the smallest thing could set him off.)

“So? What’s your story?” Keith said as Shiro had just shoved a giant mouthful of spaghetti into his mouth and almost choked on it. Keith laughed and handed him a tissue.

“What story?” Shiro wiped his mouth.

“The story of the past - I don’t even know how long? When was the last time I saw you? Your high school graduation?” Keith cocked his head in thought. “Oh my god, that was like… almost twenty years ago!”

“Yeah, I’m getting old.”

“Come on, life is only just getting to the interesting bits.”

“Your definition of interesting sounds very different from what I’ve been living.” Shiro chuckled.

“That sounds like a story to tell, Shiro. Come on, what have you been up to since I last saw you?” Keith looked at him expectantly, chin resting on his palm in an entirely too cute manner that made Shiro want to spill his entire gut. But then he remembered the recent events that lead to where he was now, and held his tongue, if only to preserve whatever good image Keith still had for him.

“How about you tell me about what you were up to? I’m sure you already heard a lot of stuff about me through Ryou and my parents.” He offered instead.

Keith pouted dramatically for a second before he relented, speaking a bit softer than before. “Well, it’s not as glamorous as yours, that’s for sure. After high school, I went to uni, got a degree and started working. Been at the same place ever since.”

“That sounds like a giant oversimplification for the most interesting twenty years of a person’s life.” Shiro pointed his fork at Keith accusingly and watched as Keith laughed, if a bit dryly. “Ryou said you went to DPU. Management, was it?”

“Yeah.”

“I was actually surprised when I heard that.”

“How come?”

“I don’t know. I always thought that you were aiming for something a bit different...” He bit his lips, wondering how to ask the question without sounding offensive. “I just didn’t think you’d end up with a desk job. That isn’t to say that Management isn’t a great degree to study, though.”

“Yeah, I get what you mean. Lots of people have said that to me,” Keith replied a bit dryly. “I did try, at first. I was doing paramedicine, but then… well, Dad died – I’m not sure if Ryou ever told you about that.”

Shiro nodded somberly. “I heard. I’m sorry I couldn’t come back for the funeral.”

“No, it’s fine. You weren’t the worst offender at the time,” Keith waved a dismissive hand at him. “But it was ages ago, and I changed to a different degree – something that gave me a more stable job. I was kind of losing my passion in the first place anyways, so it was just logical.”

“And how did your sister react to you doing that?”

“Romelle?” Keith bit at his fork. “Well, she didn’t say anything, honestly. She was just getting into high school, so she didn’t really care much for what I did. We weren’t as close back then. The one who gave me a bitching was actually Ryou.”

Shiro chuckled. “He does tend to bitch a lot doesn’t he?”

“My god, he does. He understood my intentions, he just didn’t approve of my methods. But things worked out in the end, so it wasn’t all for nothing.”

Shiro nodded. “And are you guys still living in the old house, or…?”

Keith shook his head. “No point in staying there, honestly. Me and ‘Melle live in District Four. We got a small apartment each in the same building.” It was one of the districts that experienced a large popup of apartments in recent years, as Shiro had learnt. It was closer to the CBD and was generally more cramped as they tried to shove giant apartment complexes where there were previously the old apartment buildings that were only a few stories tall. They were more popular with single people or couples without kids. Shiro had searched for a place there before deciding to stay with his parents for a while first, because while money wasn’t the issue, Shiro couldn’t find himself living alone after having been cohabiting with someone else for so long.

“Wow, that’s pretty good. And you say your life isn’t glamorous.” He whistled. “Makes me and Ryou sound kind of pathetic for living at our parents.”

“Oh please Mr. I-got-into-one-of-the-best-space-research-program-in-the-galaxy-with-the-IAA.”

 Shiro scratched his neck.  “Well, as you can see: I got in and I got out.”

 “Sorry, I didn’t mean to…” Keith cringed and took a bite of his food to stop himself from talking. Shiro didn’t miss the barest glance to Shiro’s right arm – or the chunk of metal that was now his right arm. It remains one of Altea’s greatest medical feats, and Shiro was perhaps one of the luckiest people in the universe to have a state of the art prosthetic, courtesy of one Allura King.

That story was a popular one that had ran on the news for weeks straight back in Altea. 

#sheith #sheith fanfic #vld fanfic #vld keith #keith kogane #vld shiro #takashi shirogane #meapwrites #sitr au