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a-still-small-vox · 4 months

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Fics written in 2023, and their word counts:

The Bridge • FFXV | Promptis | 5,116 words | FTH gift

You and I Kaleide • FFXV | Promptis | 12,626 words | Promptis exchange gift

My Only • The Witcher | Gerlion | 1,714 words

A Ring for Dandelion • The Witcher | Gerlion | 1,798 words

Petals On Your Tongue • The Witcher | Gerlion | 2,954 words

Sleeping Bastard • FFXV | Promptis | 3,658 words | FTH gift

To Last Your Whole Life Long • The Witcher | Gerlion | 2,590 words

Hear My Cry • No. 6 | Nezushi | 794 words

Like The Wind • No. 6 | Nezushi | 1,980 words

One Dance • No. 6 | Nezushi | 694 words

A Quiet Evening • No. 6 | Nezushi | 889 words

Lost & Found • No. 6 | Nezushi | 1,320 words

The Spark & The Storm • No. 6 | Nezushi | 899 words

The Wanderer • No. 6 | Nezushi | 1,689 words

Why Do You Like Me? • Mighty Nein | Widomauk | 1,803 words

RE-ROLL • Mighty Nein | Widomauk | 12,354 words

The Moonweaver's Child • Mighty Nein | Widomauk | 6,567 words

grab your things, I've come to take you home • Mighty Nein | Widomauk | 4,231 words

See Through • FFXV | Promptis | 2,834 words | FTH gift

Welcome to the Polycule • Homestuck | KatNepDaveJade | 2,036 words | Homestuck Secret Santa gift

The Siren • No. 6 | Nezushi | 2,493 words | No. 6 Secret Santa gift

Unreleased fics:

Window Of The Soul • FFXV | Promptis | 5,341 words | Book Club Discord Exchange gift

Masquerade Heist • Critical Role | Widomauk | 5,316 words | Tealeaf Tavern Secret Santa gift

Long Shadows • Critical Role | Widomauk | 66,461 words | Super secret upcoming longfic, in beta~

Translations:

Petit fics pour la Semaine de Kaidan 2017 • Mass Effect | multi | 445 words | original by BardofHeartDive

Petit fics pour la Semaine de MER 2020 • Mass Effect | multi | 476 words | original by BardofHeartDive

Le Club des Maris Morts • Mass Effect | Kaidan/m!Shep | 1,347 words | original by BardofHeartDive

Récupération • Mass Effect | Kaidan/James/m!Shep | 1,618 words | original by BardofHeartDive

Fragile • Critical Role | Kimallura | 2,246 words | original by BardofHeartDive

La muse accidentelle • The Old Guard | Andy/Quynh | 2,422 words | original by Saltwaterselkie

Les cicatrices qu'elle portait • Black Widow | Natasha Romanov & Clint Barton | 2,485 words | original by Saltwaterselkie

14,000,606 • Avengers: Endgame | Steve Rogers & Bucky Barnes; Steve Rogers & Tony Stark | 4,120 words | original by BardofHeartDive

Toutes mes lignes invisibles • A League Of Their Own | Max Chapman & Clance Morgan | 2,319 words | original by Saltwaterselkie

La Teuf d'Halloween de Billy Batson • Shazam! | Billy Batson & Batman | 3,478 words | original by Saltwaterselkie

Total fics: 24 + 10 translations Total word count: 150,147 + 20,956 (translated)

Specifics:

Best/worst title?

Best: You and I Kaleide, Hear My Cry, Like the Wind, RE-ROLL, & grab your things, I've come to take you home

Worst: See Through, One Dance

I think a lot of the titles were uninspired this year, but those two are the least aesthetically pleasing to me.

Best/worst quote/passage?

Best:

Brighter, richer, a window opening to a world Prompto has never known, a dimension unfolding before him. He is experiencing something for which he has no name, has no language and no words and can’t describe. It isn’t just the visual phenomenon. It is the way his heart, too, is opening. As easily and as freely as a door swinging wide.

The simplest explanation, which is no real explanation, is colour.

And the colour is blue.

And the world is breaking apart, fracturing and wheeling and turning in a glorious, shining ballet. Yet Prince Noctis’s face somehow remains the same, an anchor and a harbour and a refuge. There are new colours in his face and colours in his hair and colour dancing around him which he’ll only later know how to name, peach and pink and black and grey and blue, more blue; pure, vast blue of sky.

(You and I Kaleide)

Why?: Writing the descriptions of the magical kaleidoscope moment in this fic gave me the opportunity to be very creative and artsy. Honestly, I probably could've pushed it even further than I did. But I think this is the fic with the most unique visuals this year.

Best/worst first line?

Best: Caleb knows he’s smart, but he would need a major in psychology with double minors in tiefling and carnie to figure out why Mollymauk pays him as much attention as he does. (Why Do You Like Me?) Why?: Most of my first lines are pretty serviceable. This one is actually clever.

Worst: “H-hello?” (The Wanderer) Why?: Conveying emotion through adding a letter to indicate a stutter is a bit of a cop out. The runner up to this is "“We need a miracle,” Ignis muttered." (See Through) because I feel like that's a cliché thing to say.

Best/worst last line?

Best: Cradled by the arms of his living friend, who time had returned to him, he finally fell asleep. (RE-ROLL) Why?: None of the last lines from this year really stood out to me, but this one is definitely the most interesting.

Worst: Then they dashed out of the alleyway and back into the fray. (The Spark And The Storm) Why?: My last lines tend to have at least some emotion in them. This line doesn't really have any. It's pretty weak.

General questions:

Looking back, did you write more fics than you thought you would this year, less than you thought, or about what you predicted?

I wrote way more than I expected. I would never just expect to write 150K, aha. I especially didn't expect to write one fic a day for a week (which is what I did for No. 6 week), nor did I expect to write a novel-length longfic, which is what Long Shadows turned out to be.

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted last year?

Last year I didn't know I'd get into the Witcher games or the Mighty Nein in 2023. I already had a vague interest in the Gerlion/Geraskier ship, but I didn't know I was going to start actually engaging in the fandom beyond having read one novel. And I've always had a vague awareness of Critical Role thanks to my other mutuals, but never had the intent to get into the fandom myself. That one happened, I think, because I got a chance to play my first game of DND this summer, and got interested in other DND stuff in consequence.

What’s your favorite story this year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest.

As always, it's a bit of a toss-up, but I think Long Shadows fucking rocks. I can't wait to share it with everyone. The Bridge, You and I Kaleide, and RE-ROLL are all really good too.

Okay, NOW your most popular story.

You and I Kaleide is my most popular by hits. The Bridge is my most popular by kudos. (Both in the FFXV fandom.)

Story most underappreciated by the universe?

It's kinda sucky to roll up to the Critical Role fandom like five years too late, especially with such an investment in Widomauk. The CritRole fandom also doesn't seem to comment much, and never really seems to have done so, which is a shame. But I feel like people do like my stories, even if they're not very vocal about it. ;3;

Story that could have been better?

All of my No. 6 week fics were made via writing sprint, so they're not necessarily the best thought out stories I've ever written. I think they're pretty good for what they are, though.

Sexiest story?

Long Shadows /eyes emoji

You can look forward to TWO sexy scenes in that one~

Saddest story?

The Bridge and Sleeping Bastard have some sad moments. RE-ROLL is kinda about a twenty three hour long panic attack, lol. And Long Shadows has a VERY angsty opening, woof.

Most fun?

Welcome To The Polycule has the most banter and silly lines in it. It's kinda unavoidable with Homestuck fics, because that's just how the characters talk.

Story with single sweetest moment?

Probably You and I Kaleide, which is just romance all the way down. But you could also make an argument for one of the fics in my Witcher 1 series. (My Only, A Ring For Dandelion, & To Last Your Whole Life Long)

Hardest story to write?

RE-ROLL, You and I Kaleide, and Long Shadows had the greatest effort put into them. I took copious notes on episodes 26 and 27 of the Mighty Nein campaign in order to be able to write RE-ROLL. You and I Kaleide has a pretty complicated structure that it took me a few tries to get right. And Long Shadows is a longfic, so of course it took more planning than just a one-shot. I've already written an author's note explaining my process for it, which will be released when the fic is fully posted.

Easiest/most fun story to write?

The writing sprints for No. 6 week were all pretty easy. Come up with an idea in five to ten minutes, then write for half an hour. Maybe a few minutes more or a second sprint. Done.

Did any stories shift your perceptions of the characters?

I wrote Why Do You Like Me specifically to explore why Molly would like Caleb. I can see why Caleb would like Molly. Molly's great. But early-campaign Caleb is, well. An anti-social asshole with purposefully poor hygiene who gets reprimanded multiple times for being dishonest and selfish. Yet, there must be something special about him that's obvious to the people around him and not just to the audience, otherwise this ship wouldn't be as popular as it is. The question I had was what, and this fic helped me explore that.

Most overdue story?

See Through was based on an idea I had in like 2018. You and I Kaleide was also a prompt I had sitting around for a while. This is why I hoard all of my good story ideas - I never know when I might bust one out to write it for some gift exchange - or just because!

I also have been saying for many years that I ship KatNepDaveJade, but I never put my money where my mouth is before to actually write the ship.

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?

Lots, actually. You and I Kaleide had a very complicated structure. RE-ROLL used real dice rolls to direct the plot. And Long Shadows starts off with just a huge chunk of unapologetic angst, which is so not my normal wheelhouse. Then there were the writing sprints I just posted. Then The Bridge and Window Of The Soul have premises that are a little risqué, as they deal with themes of suicide and burgeoning sexuality. So yeah, I had a lot of fun flexing my creative muscles this year.

What are your fic writing goals for next year?

EDIT AND POST LONG SHADOWS!!!

Work on one of my currently unfinished fics (Perchance to Wake, OFF-Script, or Fateswap Beyond)

That’s all, folks! If anyone else wants to do this wrap up like it’s a meme and tag me, go right ahead. Happy New Year!

#writing #vox news #2023 #writing wrap up #writing wrapped #new year's #new years

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sol-consort · 3 months

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I was so upset when I thought Grunt died because I was like “I’ve seen him in different cutscenes though what’d I do wrong???” Luckily Grunt is the goat and lived because he’s Grunt. Wish I took him on missions more but you can’t beat the Tali/Shepard/Garrus combo I rocked the entire Trilogy

I love my fatass son even if he blocks 60% of my shots by walking directly in front of my camper Shepard just right after I pull the trigger then yells at me for friendly fire WHEN HE WAS THE ONE TO WALK IN FRONT OF MY SNIPER.

anyway so, I love him so much! I was a few seconds away from opening the task manager and force closing the game bc I thought for sure he died and I didn't want to finish the unskippable cutscene. I would've kill a that rachni queen a thousand times over if it meant Grunt got to live, zero hesitation.

Thankfully his bloodied limbing body emerged eventually and I have never felt happier in my life.

I wish him and Eve had an interaction since the two of them were in the medbay during the same time but oh well. She would've definitely fell hard for my glorious beloved son and forgot about dusty crusty Wrex!

Also his email after he recovers is so

OF COURSE MY BELOVED SON, I WILL SEND YOU ALL THE SHARK VIDEOS IN THE WORLD. SHARKS ARE VERY SMOOTH SKINNED AND MISUNDERSTOOD CREATURES WHO ARE CURIOUS BY NATURE JUST LIKE YOU MY SON. I AM GLAD IT IS NOT DOLPHINS YOU HAVE AN INTEREST IN SINCE DOLPHINS ARE DEVILSPAWN SOCIOPATHS.

it is super adorable that both the animals he is obsessed with are from earth just like Shepard, dinosaurs and sharks.

Wait are turians dinosaurs who survived their own meteor radiation-

Anyway! Here is more on the game report so far. I am falling asleep as I type.

Story plot

So far enjoying everything, the story writing is amazing and the dialogue is pretty hard hitting at times. Sometimes bloated but oh well. Tuchanka felt like such a big pay off to a huge build up since the first game, the quest delivered a full course meal.

Especially the reaper fight oh god, you get to feel powerless for once with a brute after brute after brute being thrown at you and no obvious spare ammo laying around. You just have to gun it (Ha) to the controls and avoid getting sqaushed like a bug by the reaper or charged by the brutes like a football.

Cloaking is a god sent gift that spared me so many times, I pray the brutes never develop thermal vision or the braincells to employ technology that uses it.

Mordin's death hit hard man, it was so right tho. It felt like it was meant to be, I wouldn't have cared for a random salarian. But Mordin? Oh no.

The fact he sings the model of a salarian scientist during it is the knife twisting in the back after the stab.

It's so clear he is doing it to calm himself down, to not mess this up.

It's a reminder of how much he has given to science, his whole life, identity and hobbies. His music, youth and great mind. So many of his beloved students too.

And he dies correcting the mistakes of superiors playing politics who let fear cloud their judgement.

Wrex calls Shepard his sister in it, Wrex has not hit on me once, I am unbelievably thankful for his writers and so overjoyed with this lovely platonic relationship between them.

Because yes they do feel like siblings!

Still, ME1 Wrex now feels like a different person in comparison to ME3 and I am not talking about believes.

I mean he used to be less open with us, less animated and more shut on himself and brooding. Now he laughs, makes jokes and gets excited, I'm really happy for him! It's like he found his true purpose and passion in life.

Kaidan

I forgot how sappy and adorable he is, when sorrounded by badass characters with edges so sharp it could cut a paper, you get so used to them and someone awkward like Kaidan easily stands out.

He's unsure, confused and just so very human. He's still trying to do the right thing while looking at Shepard for guidance. The fact he doesn't think twice before refusing Hackett's offer to have his own ship just to be with us again.

I don't think Kaidan feels complete without Shepard. In his romance he is so sappy and adorable too, earnest and speaking from the heart. Since the first game he was one for romantics and rarely relied on sexy flirting but rather love confessions are more his forte.

I mean look at this man my heart

I he is just so fjkwkcbaoxjs <3333333 he is the softest person in this whole trilogy, even Tali and Liara are more jaded than him at times. But he still acts as if we were his first love, as if he is a schoolyard boy giving his crush flowers and asking their favourite color.

Femshep

You mentioned only playing as maleshep so I'm not sure how different our experiences are, so I will mention the things I think are exclusive to femshep here.

In the reconcile scene in ME3 where your ME1 romance takes you back after you romanced someone in the second game, they accuse you of cheating.

Apparently maleshep can say it isn't cheating because they broke up with you on Horizon. But femshape has to apologise for cheating??? It's very weird idk dude.

I installed a mod that just let me have the maleshep dialogue instead.

You can also hit on Joker when he asks you about EDI.

And have a full conversation on him being with you instead.

He rejects you and says he's not Kaidan (ouch) and doesn't date crew, he will follow you into hell but not into your quarters.

EDI doesn't wear a uniform so he feels okay dating her.

Can you hit on EDI as maleshep?

Talking about EDI, it's making me really uncomfortable how openly the game is being inappropriate about her. I get she has a hot body and that's perfectly okay, but why does every other person feel the need to comment on it and sexualise her? Like she's an object or something.

ME1 had this problem with femshep where antagonists would hit on you to show them being trashy or whatever and the paragon option is to swallow it down and keep talking while the renegade option is to call them out on it.

And in ME2, someone calls you a stripper, and a turian npc asks about your boobs.

I thought they fixed it in ME3, and true, so far, femshep doesn't get these weird comments.

But instead everything was turned on EDI and the game keeps bringing it up and it's just gross my dude. At least Shepard could tell them to fuck off but EDI can't.

James Vega is a character I really like! I loved his bro relationship with Shepard so much. Even as femshep he still says "hey man" or things like that.

But it is weird when he hits on you out of the blue without any prior interest indications. I envy the platonic bro relationship he has with maleshep, really wish femshep could have the same one.

He isn't even a romantic interest, you don't flirt with him or anything. He just hits on you sometimes. Because. Woman. Ig.

Eve opens up to you more as femshep, that was nice and made me feel better. She is one of my favs too, I love everything about her.

Thane

The Thane romance broke me oh my god.

He calls you Siha when he warns you about the citidal attack. In his romanced ending, his last ever act before dying is to literally pray for you, not for himself but for you. For his goddess to forgive you and grant you eternal love and peace, his son even joins him.

He says your heart is pure despite all, that's the goddess should keep you by her side and make you a companion to her much like you were to Thane. The moment is so touching and genuinely emotional I actually cried.

The voice actor for femshep is phenomenal in this too. You get used to Shepard's harsh and commander voice tones and suddenly it's all soft and quiet, whispery and on the blink of tears and it literally cracks your heart open and makes you realise how this big strong commander is crumbling watching the love of her life die in front of her.

And the dress looks so out of theme i know but the context to it just makes the scene even more sad.

I didn't know the citidal mission would start, I didn't know about any of this when I finished tuchanka. I just picked the prettiest red dress I could find because I was excited to see Thane again and wondering if he'll kiss Shepard again because he mentions he can't do it much bc of his sickness and would need some rest so I assume a mission or two will reset it.

So in my mind, I'm getting ready for this cute date with Thane, dolling my Shepard and all excited and happy walking to the citidal. Thinking about him and looking forward to his dialogue and make I'll take some pics with him in this pretty outfit.

But it's...he doesn't get to see it. He doesn't get to see Shepard in her pretty dress that she wore for him because she had to change into armour for the mission. Then he gets stabbed and you can't even stay by his side after he saved you from an assassin.

Btw that assassin scene was so fucking cool, it's easy to forget how badass Thane is and how deadly he can be even while dying.

By the time it's all over, Shepard had to go see him in the same red dress for their date because If I went to the Normady to change he would've already died. There is no time. This outfit that was supposed to celebrate their love has become the dress for his funeral instead, the date on his deathbed and it's squeezing my heart painfully.

Like that is the oufit of someone who thought they had more time, of someone who didn't realise how close tragedy came by.

#☆Thane

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mlm-writer · 2 years

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Execute the Homophobes (Mshenko ft. Grunt)

Pairing: Kaidan Alenko x Male Shepard (trans-friendly) ft Grunt who is sort of Shepard’s son For the pride prompt: Explaining gender/sexuality to an non-human sentient being who has no concept of gender/sexuality Rating: Teen and Up Words: 1113 POV: Third Summary: Grunt sees commander Shepard and major Alenko ‘courting’. He has questions and also Okeer said no to gays. Notes: Happy Pride! See all works for pride 2022 here. Is Grunt Shepard’s son? We all know the answer. Tags: canon typical mild body horror, crew as a family, Shepard sees Grunt as his son, which makes Kaidan Grunt’s papa, domestic fluff I guess??? and Okeer was a homophobe, but are we surprised?

There was so much loss in this war that every survivor felt like a small victory. However, Grunt was anything but small. Shepard thought he lost him, thought that was one more name to add to that goddamn memorial wall on the Normandy. And then Grunt stumbled out of that cave, covered in Rachni guts and his own blood. It was glorious. It was art. It was a huge victory.

Carrying Grunt into the shuttle was exhausting, but Shepard did not want to let him go until he got him in the Normandy’s medbay. Grunt immediately started bantering with Chakwas, while she scanned him. For a short moment, things were like old times, back when Shepard found peace in knowing where the end was, the suicide mission. But of course as fate would have it, he was destined to suffer more, before he could go kick the bucket.

Judging by how Grunt was still able to jab at the doctor, Shepard figured his Krogan son would be fine. “Shepard!” The commander turned around to see his boyfriend come running. Before he could warn him about the guts, Kaidan was already looking him over. “Are you okay? This isn’t all yours, is it?” Shepard chuckled and carefully put some distance between them.

“Careful there, major. I’ve been decontaminated, but this stuff is still gross. Most of it is from the Rachni. The rest, mostly from the guy who killed them.” Shepard pointed over his shoulder to Grunt. “Our boy is all grown-up,” he joked.

Kaidan blinked at him, then looked over to Grunt, then back at Shepard. “Our… boy?” Shepard then realised he never mentioned Grunt to Kaidan. Not because Grunt was an out of sight out of mind for him, but there was a lot that had not been discussed between them yet. This war left little time for just talking. After getting together, every moment together had been savoured and milked out, for it could be their last. Things went fast, but there was no time or room for slow.

Shepard promised to explain and then asked Kaidan to help him in the showers. Everytime Shepard referred to Grunt as his son, he was only half joking. Grunt was fine-ish, but needed further treatment against all the Rachni guts he ‘accidentally’ swallowed, so Shepard happily made a detour to the Citadel. It was a delight to have the Krogan back on the Normandy. Shepard could hear him banter with Garrus in the mess hall. Just like old times.

“Should I be jealous?” Shepard looked over his shoulder as Kaidan joined him in the hallway. Shepard had been looking at Garrus and Grunt banter for a while now, but it was a nice intermezzo. These moments between fights reminded him what he was fighting for. Sure ‘the survival of the entire galaxy’ was hard to forget, but it was too abstract. This, however, he could burn into his brain and access while getting shot at.

Shepard chuckled and shifted his back away from the wall so his boyfriend could sneak an arm around him. “I thought I lost him too. It is a shame his squad did not survive, but - this is going to sound so selfish - but I just wanted him to make it. Is that bad?” Shepard rubbed his forehead, words not really coming out the right way.

Kaidan kissed his cheek, somehow still understanding what he was getting at. “Shep… we see so much death in a day, I think we - especially you, actually - are allowed a little selfishness every now and then.” Shepard hummed and turned to drag the major somewhere more private. They ended up in the lounge, cuddling in front of the stars.

A little while later, Shepard found Grunt back in the medbay. His condition had its ups and downs. One moment he claimed to be fine, the next he was puking Rachni and his own guts out. “You know, the ‘mess’ in ‘mess hall’ does not mean you can make a mess there,” Shepard joked as he took a seat next to the bed where Grunt was moping.

Grunt let out a grumble and sat up. “Shepard, I have a question,” he said out of nowhere. Shepard gestured for Grunt to go ahead and crossed his arms. This oughta be good. “Are you and that major… courting?”

From all the questions Shepard had thought Grunt would come up with, that was not one of them. “Uh… You could say that,” he answered. “It’s not a secret, but we try to be low key to not stir the crew too much.” Alliance technically would not permit it, but they were both spectres and also no one was going to get reprimanded for dating in a galaxy-wide war.

“Why?” “Why what?” “Why court? You need a female to create offspring, right?”

Since when did being a father figure come with the birds and the bees talk? Ok Anderson had given Shepard that talk as well… on multiple occasions… “It’s not just about creating offspring, Grunt. Sometimes you just… love someone and want to spend the rest of your life making them happy. Besides, we’re gonna cure the genophage, so there will be plenty of Krogan babies to adopt.”

Grunt seemed to be thinking about that for a moment. “Okeer has imprinted some stories of males courting, but they were all executed. It is not natural.” Shepard was not surprised that Okeer was a homophobe. In fact, it fitted the profile.

“Do you think I should be executed?” Grunt looked up, squinted his eyes at Shepard and then looked back down at his hands on top of the blanket.

“I’d like to see people try to execute you,” he answered, though it was not an answer to the question. “Okeer was wrong about a lot of things. If anyone executed you for who you love, this galaxy would have gone to shit three times already. So… no.” There was a silence that stretched between them. Shepard was about to get up and leave Grunt to rest, when the Krogan suddenly posed another question. “If males courting other males are still strong males, who can fight, then why did they get executed?”

That was a great question, one Shepard had no answer to. He sighed. “Many humans shared Okeer’s idea. They did not think of it as ‘natural’, but… I think people are just afraid of what they don't understand.”

“They are weak and should be executed.” Shepard laughed and got up.

“Let’s hold off on killing homophobes, big guy. Now rest, before I send Chakwas your way. She’s the only one I am afraid of on this ship.”

#grunt #Mass Effect #mshenko #shenko #shepard #Kaidan Alenko #Male Shepard #Commander Shepard #mass effect trilogy #mass effect fanfic #fanfic #pride #pride month #pride 2022

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beck-nightengale · 11 months

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Summer Reading/Writing/Arting Tag

Yo, I was tagged by @chennnington over here to do this thing and it does look like fun, so why not!

But I'm also going to be boring since idk who to tag, so anyone is free to fill this thing out if it hits your dashboard. ᕕ(ᐛ)ᕗ Go knock yourselves out.

1) Describe one creative WIP project you’re planning to work on over the summer.

Thanks to Enderal kicking my creative nuts into gear and being recently liberated from certain "game-master" obligations (long, long ass story that'd probably go over most Tumblr folks' heads, anyway), I finally started diving back into a sapphic-flavored dark fantasy book series that I'd been planning since like around 2016 or so. It was mostly born out of some frustrations with the lack of WLW in general, and while I have some WLW elements in my existing works, I wanted to write something that was more overtly WLW with a leading lady who was outgoing about her sexuality than my previous protagonists (who are either repressed as fuck or too dead to hold a relationship that would function) and wouldn't take her four dang novels to finally kiss a girl.

Anyway, Morane Soraya was created from a whole mess of complicated feelings about women in media. I describe her as a combination of Julie D'aubigny and Anne Lister, with a bit of Christina of Sweden (all of who were badass women in history. Look 'em up!). I wrote a lot about the basics of who she is/what she's all about here.

Morane is a good bean:

Book 1, Bloodtithes, will go into her venturing into a scarcely-visited icy continent to investigate a possible cure or effective treatment to the painful condition she had been forced to live with, which gives her the proficiency she has in Blood Magick (which isn't inherently evil in her world, but very often misunderstood because of its side effects). She's from a mercenary group who all share the same condition and propensity for Blood Magick, so they're interested in this so-called "cure" as well, but not many make it to this country and survive, so Morane is sent alone instead. Along the way, she meets a horned jackal-man named Darius ka Dir, and gets entangled in a plot with a strigoika named Viorica Avanas who has a whole buttload of inner demons of her own (side note: I once played Vio in Skyrim to mess around with Kaidan and they got into some... Situations).

A friend drew Darius and he has a single giant and glorious curl that he is very serious about.

I've also talked a lot about Jade for my Enderal stuff, who was already based on an existing character, and I've figured out how to work her into Morane's world. She won't factor in until Book 2, Cloverleaf, because she's essentially gonna tear down a wall and break freaking everything.

You know. Like she do.

It's still in the planning stages but I'm feeling pretty good about it.

2) Rec a book!

I just started reading Dreams of the Dying by Nicolas Lietzau, which I'm enjoying a lot, but haven't read enough yet to form a coherent recommendation on it. I just got the audiobook though so I'm looking forward to that!

Otherwise, House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski is one of my favorite novels of all time and was a major writing inspiration for me. It's creative in how it gets you to feel uneasy while you're reading the book itself, a huge mindfuck, and one of the few novels that actually made me feel a sense of dread while I was reading it.

If you'd like some seriously bonkers reading material, I'd suggest giving it a looksee.

3) Rec a fic! (outside your character tag)

Iiii don't actually read fanfiction that much, so I'm not sure if I can rec one!

On the flipside, feel free to rec me some Enderal fics (or your own, if you have any). I'll read the shit out of it.

4) Rec music!

I can't recommend Murder by Death to people enough. They're my all-time favorite band, one of the few I've ever made an effort to go see live when they were playing in my city (just before lockdown hit, no less), and deserve more love. I've been listening to them since I discovered them high school and their albums just keep getting better and better.

Also it's not hard for me to find some character-centric songs from them because the topics they write about is very versatile. I tend to think of Lost River for Jade's story, and Ditch Lilly and Rumbrave for Rey's.

5) Share one piece of advice!

Writing women! Because I guess this one needs telling as there are people who still find writing female characters daunting or somehow more difficult than it is to write men. Which, fair, I was the same way. Despite having mostly female protagonists in the novels I'd written, the dudes in my earlier stuff somehow ended up taking the spotlight and stealing most of the development. I really struggled to work through some of my own internalized misogyny and "there are no good female characters in media" mindset, and it took a lot of opening my mind up before it got easier. Now I predominately focus on writing women to be that change I want to see - this includes not killing certain ones off to enhance manpain like I used to, which I learned was called "fridging", lol.

My advice for writing them is to just write them as characters. It sounds simple and stupid, but I'm surprised how much people get wrapped up in the "she must be a strong girlboss" brainrot that they end up with a very flat, boring character that literally no one can relate to, so she still gets outshined by the dudes because the writer tried to overcompensate her badass womanliness without giving her actually compelling character traits.

I feel like one of the main reasons why I absolutely adored Ellen Ripley when I was a kid was because she was written to be a man in the first Alien movie, but they changed the character into a woman without changing the script and it just worked. I didn't know that when I was young, but finding that out just made me appreciate Ripley so much more, because the writers didn't treat her like a "strong female character" but as just a character. I think if writers approached this mindset more, we wouldn't have the "no good female characters in media issue" that doesn't need to be an issue in the first place.

These days I approach character-building by not restricting certain traits by gender, and finding a balance between strengths and weaknesses. Just shut off your critical analysis brain to create a "strong female character" and just write "strong character" instead.

I could word vomit more about my own ladies and how much I love them now than I used to but I feel like this has gone on long enough. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

#tag game #writing #bloodtithes #morane soraya #darius ka dir #look at him #look at his beautiful curl #guess i can babble more about this series in the future if anyone's interested #friend's art

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commander-krios · 2 years

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For the OTP asks: 18, 23, 32, and 51. For Aurora/Joker and Daniel/Kaidan, please?

Thank you so much for the ask! <3

Aurora/Joker:

18. How likely are they to have fur babies? How many and what kind?

Very likely. In fact, Aurora and Joker get a bunch of a dogs once they retire from the military life. Aurora's a spacer and never really had an animal before (except for space hamster) so getting a dog is an adventure and Joker loves seeing how excited she is with them. At first, they get one because Aurora needs a service dog to help her walk after the war. When they do retire, they get a home on lots of property and have an animal sanctuary.

23. Who's more likely to convince the other to stay in bed come morning?

Joker. Aurora is usually the type get up and get right to work. Jeff complains constantly about it. There are days when she doesn't mind laying in bed all morning though. Especially if kisses are involved.

32. Who's the better story teller?

Joker would say he is (and Aurora would agree with him just to make him smile). But if we're being honest, Aurora is.

51. What’s a non verbal way they say I love you?

Joker's non verbal 'i love you' would be bringing Aurora something to help her while she is working: a cup of tea, a snack, a blanket... anything to make her more comfortable. He's not great with words, but he tries his best.

Aurora's non verbal 'i love you' is spending time in the co pilot's chair. She will sleep there sometimes, just sit in silence, be with him while he works. Sometimes she'll reach out to touch him, but usually, they will sit in silence and enjoy each other's presence.

Daniel/Kaidan:

18. How likely are they to have fur babies? How many and what kind?

While they are on the Normandy, Daniel and Kaidan don't bother with animals. There is too much to worry about without adding on a life for them to try to keep alive on top of it. But once they live on Earth (most likely on the orchard), they have the horses, dogs, maybe a few cats as well.

23. Who's more likely to convince the other to stay in bed come morning?

Daniel. He is definitely the type of person to want to lay around if there is nothing pressing to deal with. The one thing Daniel hates more than war is mornings.

32. Who's the better story teller?

Kaidan. Daniel likes getting to the point quickly, but Kaidan can weave a glorious tale.

51. What’s a non verbal way they say I love you?

Daniel's non verbal 'i love you' would be when he brushes his hand against Kaidan's neck and shoulder. He does it often when he walks by, even when he doesn't notice it.

Kaidan's non verbal 'i love you' is cooking for Daniel. He doesn't get to do it as often as he'd like, but when he does, he puts every bit of his love and affection into it.

#obligatory otp asks #theoriginalladya #aurora x joker #daniel x kaidan

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ogradyfilm · 2 months

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Recently Viewed: Kenji Misumi’s Yotsuya Kaidan (1959)

[The following review contains MAJOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!]

Yotsuya Kaidan is Japan’s most popular and frequently adapted ghost story. While the core premise is basically consistent from version to version—penniless ronin Tamiya Iemon falsely accuses his wife of adultery as a pretext to divorce her and marry a wealthier woman, culminating in violence, regret, and vengeance from beyond the grave—the precise details of the narrative vary wildly between cinematic interpretations.

Shintoho’s 1959 film (helmed by Jigoku director Nobuo Nakagawa), for example, is a relentlessly dark (albeit vibrantly colorful) and bleakly cynical morality play; the protagonist is casually cruel and unrepentantly vile, with his grisly fate framed as karmic justice that the audience is intended to enthusiastically applaud. Keisuke Kinoshita’s 1949 duology, on the other hand, depicts Tamiya far more sympathetically; despite his (thoroughly reluctant) complicity in the terrible crimes committed against his spouse, he’s motivated primarily by economic factors beyond his control and the corruptive influence of his slimy, manipulative, verminous “friend,” Naosuke. Indeed, it is implied that the “haunting” is merely psychological—a subconscious manifestation of the central character’s guilty conscience. (Ironically, this “social realism” makes Kinoshita’s movie feel more subversive and revolutionary than Nakagawa’s comparatively lurid and gory effort.)

Kenji Misumi’s radically revisionist spin on the classic tale, however, probably takes the most liberties with the surprisingly malleable source material. Here, Tamiya (played by megastar Kazuo Hasegawa—which goes a long way towards explaining the particular “quirks” in his portrayal) is borderline heroic—an archetypal gruff-yet-chivalrous swordsman cut from the same cloth as Zatoichi and Tange Sazen. He’s also so passive and devoid of agency that he resembles the eponymous “specter” in Hammer’s The Phantom of the Opera, remaining virtually blameless for the (unnecessarily convoluted) series of events that result in his tragic downfall. He’s totally unaware of Naosuke’s devious conspiracy to humiliate, defame, and ultimately murder his wife, and although he still participates in an extramarital affair, the relationship appears to be purely transactional (and may not be overtly sexual; the extent of the “lovers’” physical intimacy is left deliberately ambiguous)—driven to desperation by poverty, he only indulges his mistress’ affections in exchange for money and lavish gifts. The editing, in fact, at one point explicitly juxtaposes his infidelity with that of his sister-in-law, who works part-time as a “waitress” at a “bathhouse” in order to supplement her husband’s meager income. Naturally, Tamiya’s relative “innocence” completely recontextualizes the story’s climax and denouement; whereas the character usually suffers an appropriately shameful, pathetic, undignified demise, Misumi allows him to achieve a measure of redemption via his glorious, honorable, beautiful death—sprawled at the feet of a bronze Buddha statue, wrapped in his wife’s favorite kimono, bathed in heavenly sunlight.

Pulpy, unsubtle, and unapologetically melodramatic even by Daiei’s standards, Yotsuya Kaidan isn’t the “best” adaptation of the original kabuki production, but Misumi’s various audacious departures from the “traditional” formula certainly distinguish it as one of the most interesting, unique, and undeniably compelling. For fans of chanbara and J-horror alike, it is essential viewing.

#Yotsuya Kaidan #Yotsuya Kwaidan #Ghost Story of Yotsuya #Kenji Misumi #Kazuo Hasegawa #Daiei #Japanese film #Japanese cinema #Japanese horror #J-horror #J horror #chanbara #Film Forum #chambara #film #writing #movie review

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mass-effect-2-le-mod-b0 · 2 years

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Mass Effect Legendary Edition: Best Nexus Mods You Need To Install

💾 ►►► DOWNLOAD FILE 🔥🔥🔥 With much better controls, more combat-focused gameplay, and even better dialogue, ME2 quickly made its way into the hearts of many fans who continue to play it from time to time. For those of you interested in making this game the best it can be, here are my picks for the absolute best mods you have to check out. Check Out This Mod. While the original buns are low-quality tangles of unkempt hair with a pretty strange hairline, these textures by user LiasFfalenn look like FemShep actually took the time to brush that hair before tying it up in a bun. Skipping these manually takes little time. While these images were greatly reduced in quality to improve performance, ten years is a long time in the gaming world. Your average modern gaming rig can handle HD textures without a hitch. Proficient ME2 mod creator CreeperLava took it upon themselves to track down each of the original high-quality Hubble pictures and used them to make new textures for the game. Skyrim mod veterans and other mod connoisseurs know few things are as useful as a reliable console that lets you level up, spawn items, and good stuff like that. Do you feel like mapping the galaxy and scouring every planet is already hard enough? Especially considering limitations like lack of fuel and not enough probes. All it does is increase max fuel from to , and max probes from 30 to , greatly streamlining the process. You could probably do this with the ME2 Cheat Console as well. As you gather new weapons in ME2, choosing the right loadout for each mission starts getting more and more complicated. More Hair ME2 tries to alleviate the problem by giving you 16 additional hairstyles , all taken from other characters in the game. And even I could find something I wanted to try despite my initial disappointment. And this mod by R0B0LUT10N just speeds up the animations to 60fps, making them play four times as fast by making them more fluid. BioWare has always made smart use of lighting and effects to make their games look much better than if every texture was laid bare under the sun. On vanilla, it makes the game look washed out. As previously stated, vanilla Mass Effect 2 uses many effects to make the game look better by obscuring low-quality details. Especially if you also install the HD textures add-on. Modern Weapon Pack by modder Tajfun eases the transition by adding 12 new weapons to your ME2 repertoire, eight of which are ported from ME3. Modder BlueJay9 is a total Asari aficionado. And he took it upon himself to create high-resolution textures for every blue lady in ME2. For obvious reasons, Liara gets special treatment. Her entire body is re-textured from head to toe. Even her tongue and teeth! Creator GoldenSkans9 graciously offers Alien Aliens, which replaces all of the alien NPC textures for more detailed versions with a higher resolution. Originally, only male Commander Shepard has any chance at romancing Miranda, the super-sexy Cerberus operative introduced in ME2. It also fixes issues created by modded-in same-gender romances with Kaidan and Ashley original Mass Effect, letting you continue your journey across the galaxy as a proud and out Shepard from start to finish. The best part is that this mod will run perfectly in any gaming rig that runs the base game at virtually no performance cost. Even after several official updates to cull their numbers. This mod by Moho25 not only fixes a ton of these small errors, but patches up bits of broken lore with new information from ME3 and other content, restores some cut material, and turns ME2 into the best version of itself. Replacing textures in your game for better ones is as easy as running a search on Google and copying some game folders. But what about pre-rendered cutscenes? Then with this mod you get all those HD videos automatically put back together into glorious p versions. Not only is it an amazing improvement over vanilla cut-scenes, but the amount of work and ingenuity put into this mod is frankly astonishing. The engaging gameplay and exciting story are still there, but the graphics slowly get left behind by modern standards. Nelson Chitty is a Venezuelan expat living in Argentina. His ideal weekend is spent between leisurely playing games of Civilization VI and looking for the next seinen anime to marathon. If you buy something we may get a small commission at no extra cost to you. Learn more. Stay Connected.

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ficbrish · 3 years

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I really think there needs to be a mod that allows Kaidan to sit in chairs like the glorious, biotic bisexual he truly is.

#kaidan alenko #mass effect

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hmslusitania · 2 years

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Tis I, mass effect 911 anon and I’m STILL thinking about it even while at work. I’m so. ENTHRALLED by it because YES I really enjoy the slow biawakening you mentioned and like. Making Eddie basically magic is hilarious, but it’s DOUBLE hilarious because KAIDAN is also a tech guy, so imagining Confirmed Technophobe Eddie Diaz as a mix between tech/magic is glorious. My brain is still going BRRRRRRR from thinking about it xkdkdoslsl

I forgot he's a sentinel that's so much funnier. I don't remember who it was, but someone was pointing out the other day that Eddie is both a technophobe and canonically better at videogames than Buck, so it's all just very funny

#the ghost ship answers questions #anon #mass effect 911 #sorry for the ask spam guys

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felassan · 3 years

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Highlights and insights from the N7 Day cast & crew reunion panel

[Rewatch link]

In case a text format is better for anyone. There are some NSFW references. Cut for length.

(Some paraphrasing.)

“Some of us are inebriated”

“Patrick Weekes, the killer of man and beasts, the breaker of hearts”

JHale put the whole thing together, it’s the biggest ME cast reunion to date

The cast had no idea that the remaster was a thing

Lots of ace discussion about what the magic of the MET is (“it captured lightning in a bottle”)

Lots of warm fuzzies between the cast, crew and community, and lots of fun behind-the-scenes anecdotes

Lots of great discussion on the diversity and inclusion in ME: on gender, sexuality, representation, empowerment, the core message in the MET that “we’re all in this together or we’re screwed”, the progress made in the portrayal of female characters in gaming, etc. “Everything behind what went into these characters was authentic, we [the VAs] could tell that so much research, texture, authenticity etc had gone into them. It really made a difference”. JHale: “I’ve spent my career kicking down ceilings [barriers and so on women actors experience] with my steel-toed boot. To get to be a part of this game that has now created the expectation that there now be a female PC, ‘duh’, is once of the great things of my life. BioWare listened and put her on the box. The first time someone dropped the box in front of me I held it over my head and screamed over the crowd, ‘Casey Hudson, thank youuu!!’ It was a divine moment. This game was the moment the boot finally crashed through the glass, pushed by millions of women.”

The panel received many messages from the question submission from fans expressing that MET really helped them through very dark places and periods in their lives. The cast have had a lot of interactions with fans over the years where the fans expressed similar sentiments to them

ME was one of the first games Keythe Farley (Thane) acted for that had branching dialogue/dialogue choices, and when he saw the script with that when he went in, he was like “wow”. ME was the second big game D. C. Douglas (Legion) ever did. In his first audition he didn’t know it was for a robot-type character as it was disguised as something else with a military-feel. The second time it was to do a speech/lament at someone’s funeral and he knew it was for a robot. He said playing Legion for him was a case of “wake up, drink some coffee and go to work”

Jack was really special to her VA Courtenay Taylor because she relates to her so much and had a lot of similar emotional problems and personal troubles in her past. Jack helped her become who she has became. The host added that in his interactions with Courtenay over the years, he realized very quickly that she is very much like Jack

AWR has two moms, something which she hasn’t talked about/expressly said publicly before. Talking about recording lines between Sam and Femshep made her tear up. She said that being raised by two moms in the 80s was tough due to societal attitudes at the time, and so to see a loving relationship between two women depicted in a game was a big deal for her. When recording the white picket fence conversation, she was actually crying (“and then I’m crying because of the lesbians”). It was a huge moment for her to represent her moms’ journey. When she went home she told them all about how her character is gay and wants a white picket fence and everything “just like we had”.

When PW was working on Sam’s arc, one of the things they did was show it to one of their colleagues, who is a lesbian, asking what things she’d like to see in an arc like that and what things she felt were missing from it. The white picket fence conversation came from the colleague’s feedback (“we wanna see the nice, healthy, happy domestic stuff”, as it’s often missing in portrayals of wlw relationships)

As the VAs got more into their characters, they sometimes had feedback and input to the process to offer, like “I don’t think she’d say [this] like [that]”. Sometimes they knew their characters even better than the crew did sometimes. JHale waxed lyrical about Caroline Livingstone’s awesome direction, with the host adding that he has interviewed a lot of the VAs over the years and they all talk about Caroline like she’s Gandalf the White coming to the rescue in LotR. AWR expressed that Caroline is really funny (“don’t worry it’s not you, PW was sick when they wrote this line that’s why”) and emotionally in-tune with them and this makes long hard sessions with her a joy

When Mark went into record for the Citadel DLC one day he asked Caroline “wouldn’t be great if Shepard’s clone had been made to be the opposite gender? Then the two Shepards could fight each other!”

William Salyers (Mordin) likes the way Mordin’s story ended and felt that it was wonderful to be able to play that. He feels like the luckiest person because as he wasn’t the original VA of Mordin, he got to come in late to something that was amazing. “Caroline helped me get to where I needed to be emotionally to play that final scene. It was one of the most moving things I’ve ever gotten to do personally for a piece of interactive art”. PW related that with Mordin’s writing, they didn’t realize how much they were asking for. They thought William was amazing doing all the science-speak/technobabble, as they themselves didn’t know what it meant, and then suddenly having to deliver emotional heartbreaking lines. William’s always been a secret science nerd and so he loved that fact about Mordin. “It was a real treat to say your words”

Karin: “I always claim credit for the Scientist Salarian song even though I had nothing to do with it. I opened that door for PW”

Steve Blum (Grunt) found it a real treat playing Grunt as Grunt is a tough soldier on the outside but a [babey] on the inside, while he is more the other way around (softer on the outside, fight-y inside). He isn’t a gamer and so didn’t know what to expect or what he was getting into. There was the big pile of words, they showed him the picture of Grunt, and he just ran with it. “Grunt was kind of a perfect character for me in that respect”. Side note: his wry comments throughout the panel were hilarious

“Casey Hudson, our glorious loving overlord”

Courtenay jokes about “interspecies snorkeling”

The women Courtenay met working on this game are her friends for life. Ali Hillis (Liara) gave her her number the night of the ME3 drop and was like “let’s hang out!!” “JHale is the shit. I go to England and there’s AWR and I have this friend for life”.

“We’re a family”. The host comments that you don’t see this kind of closeness between the people on a lot of projects

Kimberley Brooks (Ashley) thinks things have and are changing for the better in terms of roles for women, and roles for brown and black women. This year she has noticed increasing awareness of inclusion and of where it’s lacking. “The copies I’m being sent for auditions, it’s drastically changing, I’m seeing it change before my eyes. It’s really exciting, there’s more and more roles for me.” “Ash is such a strong character and I felt very badass playing her, it was life-changing”. She’s excited that the remaster is going to be a new way to see these characters that they’ve been so lucky to voice. Kimberley/Ash was the first female character Karin saw in the studio, when she saw her she was like “Wow, she’s so kickass and inspiring”. At this point Karin hadn’t been working at BioWare for all that long, and she wanted to thank Kimberley, because she saw her and heard her voice and had a personal ‘this changes everything’ moment

Raphael Sbarge (Kaidan) finds it very moving how many women were encouraged into gaming due to ME

Raphael: “Everyone here has awesome varied careers, but because ME was so collaborative [and so on], [it was something really rare and special]. Nothing else I’ve done has been so important or impassioned, it has almost a religious experience to it, which you can see from tears in fans’ eyes and tattoos and people talking about it 10 years later”. “I’m so grateful for it.” “Clearly we’re going to do this again next year! :D” D. C. added that it’s going to follow him for the rest of his career. Courtenay says it has catapulted her career

PW talked about how it’s great that the female chars in ME were allowed to have real, realistic flaws and dark periods (as opposed to nonsense stuff like ‘her flaw is that she’s clumsy’)

Having the male and female PC be voiced was a big, expensive commitment for the studio. Karin commented that at the time, it was a risk that the pretty-much almost entirely-male leadership of BioWare at the time decided was important to take, and so she was happy that these were the values her colleagues had

PW was “the junior baby writer on ME1. I’d just gotten to the studio and Mac Walters fell down a flight of stairs and hurt his back, and they pulled me in while he was healing”. Karin: “Mac was very understanding when PW fell on the ice and hurt themselves during ME2.” PW: “My job in ME1 was to come up with conversations between followers to pass the time in the elevator loading times. I was throwing stuff at the wall to see what would stick”

Steve turning his volume down before he shouts classic Grunt quotes down the mic

Caroline: “Do you know how many tears were shed in the booth? How many times have we all cried in the booth...” JHale: “We were recording the end of ME3, which I never call the end, because I’m always like I’M HERE! [wink] The goodbye Garrus lines” - these lines got right under her skin and when she went to say her lines she couldn’t speak because she’d burst into tears. “It was all I could do to say those words... and then there was silence... [and Caroline had gotten choked up too].” This was one of the last sessions they did. PW: “John Dombrow wrote Garrus in ME3 and I’m gonna tell him that he got you both to break.”

Caroline was also really teary during Keith David’s (Anderson)’s performance where he tells Shepard she’s like his daughter. This moment was one of JHale’s favorites to act

BioWare came up with a proprietary VA recording system which JHale describes as a secret sauce as-yet not widely-used in the industry

Lots of fun in the line-reading portion at the end. The lines/scenes were sent in by fans. This starts around timestamp 1 hour 50 mins. There’s a break where they discuss more anecdotes after a bit then some line-reading resumes at 1 hour 59 mins 18 secs

"Salarian Vorcha Conrad Verner simmering sexual tension scene”

One of PW’s fondest memories is of ME3 when JHale and Mark got to play off each other (which they naturally didn’t get to do very much), when PW had shoved the entire script of the Blasto movie into random ambience throughout the Citadel. They knew Mark was going to be Blasto as he voiced most of the hanar. PW: “We had to have Blasto’s elcor partner’s hot sister... And I was like could it be JHale?? Because they hardly ever get to talk to each other. It was one of my proudest moments”. Mark: “Not only that, we had a romance.” JHale: “Yeah, it was hot”.

“Think of the poor cold freezing Edmontonian hanar”

PW’s story about Sam’s toothbrush: They wrote it as a throwaway line but AWR did it so well that PW wanted to bring it back in the Citadel DLC, as that DLC was the action-comedy one. So they decided the toothbrush was going to save the Normandy. The art director at the time was in an early playthrough of the scene and in that version of the scene Sam held up her empty hand. The director was like “We gotta make the toothbrush? Really? It’s gonna be thousands of dollars to render the toothbrush.” It then got to the next few lines and the director deadpanned at PW “Okay that’s pretty good, we’ll make the toothbrush.” PW: “Good, I got my toothbrush.”

It was John’s idea that we find out that Mordin had been working on a crime noir novel. There was a period in the development of the Citadel DLC where PW was feeling like “Mordin’s gone, he had his big moment, I want to respect and honor that” and the entire team were like “I think Mordin needs a couple more songs dude”. “Well alright!” By that point William had shown them he could deliver literally any line

“Oh I need a shower that was so steamy hot”

PW got in trouble with Localization over Jack’s “Save some of your energy, we’re gonna do it on the pool table” exchange. Localization were like “Um could you explain what Jack means by this??” These lines were PW’s, Karin as an editor got the question about it and passed it on to PW like “nope this is your fault”. “The best part is it was France that needed PW to explain the joke while apparently Germany were like ‘Yes please confirm that this is regarding the possibility of oral sex-’”

Keythe on voicing Thane: “Thane was a real lesson in opening up to the character, allowing this beautifully conflicted character to exist. Each character in the MET has conflicts within themselves and a tragic flaw that is revealed through the course of conflict.” He also waxed lyrical about how the MET was akin to Star Wars and Citizen Kane, and about the interconnectedness and representation in it

D. C.: “I have a question for you guys. Was it a conscious decision to not have Legion as a romance? Because there are a lot of upset people out there!!” “Voltage problems.” “A lot of creative reuses of ‘There was a hole.’” PW: “It was a process of us figuring out what we wanted to do. If we had known... The number of people who were like ‘I don’t know, are people gonna wanna romance Garrus? Liara? She’s blue and has no hair. Are people gonna be okay with that?” Karin: “We were young and naïve, now we know BioWare fans are thirsty.”

Derek brought in the first picture of Thane to show Caroline and she was like “He’s really hot, that’s gonna be a killer character. People are gonna want to romance that gentleman”

Raphael asked the BioWare team if there’s ever been a point where they thought about doing more DLC content or some kind of revival. “Has that ever come up?” “We’re legally obligated not to say, sorry, we’re going through a tunnel right now, bad reception!!”

D. C.: “Does this country have a soul?” “It does.”

“An N7 Day to remember! Go forth and heal.”

#bioware #mass effect #video games #lgbtq #feels #lul #garrus vakarian #best boy #please remember if you are a minor you should not be following me #a minor = under 18 #next mass effect

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nothisis-ridiculous · 3 years

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Duplicity

An AU where Kaidan joins Cerberus for the events of ME2.

Chapter Nine: Of Explosions, Traps, and Thresher Maws

"Who did you blow to get access back?"

Mary looked up from the safety of the relatively stationary floor of the shuttle. This wasn't a day where the nausea meds worked to full effect, but she could suffer through a grin, "Illusive Man didn't appreciate Leng's interference with our mission."

"What a bosh'tet."

"You should still avoid him, if possible."

"Come on, Shep! Give me a reason to smear him against the cargo bay walls," Jack retorted with a smug grin.

Tali huffed, "I can take care of myself!"

Mary rubbed at her temples, focusing again on the grooves in the flooring, "we might be pushing it already."

"As I said," Jack sighed, "it's an empty facility. Since when did you give a fuck about what Cerberus thinks? Did you drink Cheerleader's kool-aid?"

"I jumped at the idea of blowing up this facility if my urgency was not noted," she retorted, "and only if it was cherry flavored. Unfortunately, it tastes like watered down orange."

"You're fucking weird."

"I'm sure someone likes orange flavoring."

"And they would be wrong, and besides, have you ever tasted orange?"

"That's beside the point, Shepard."

"Why is the bastard even here?" Jack interjected, becoming the voice of reason.

Mary puffed out her cheeks, "he was elusive about it. Leng mentioned something about a confidentiality breach. Tali, did you try and hack their systems?"

Tali shook her head, "if I did, they wouldn't have caught me."

Shepard grinned.

"Cerberus has the entire Normandy bugged, and not to mention that AI. I wouldn't do something like that without you knowing about it."

Mary nodded, "I thought so. If I wanted to get rid of those bugs, what would I need to do?"

Tali went silent.

"Way to ruin your plan," the biotic gently mocked.

"Who is Kai Leng to you?"

Jack leaned back in her seat with a growing scowl, "him and some Cerberus bitch tried to capture me. It didn't happen, but some mercs got me instead."

"That explains how you got to Purgatory," Mary murmured in response.

Jack shrugged, not interested in further explaining that particular defeat.

"Please be careful with him; even Miranda seemed spooked," she cautioned gently.

"Cerberus has really got you by the balls."

The blond flinched, "I'll have you know I ignored an urgent message from the Illusive Man to bring you here." It was a poor attempt at a deflection; everyone aboard the Normandy knew about her history with a certain crewmate. Worse was the presence of nearly every friend she had left in the galaxy. Most brought in by her. She had no doubts that the Collecter threat was overly sensationalized, but for the time being, it what her only option in stopping the threat. Anderson had seen the threat for himself, but whether or not he could help remained unknown partially because she was afraid of a formal admonishing.

"I forgot how much I hate this place."

~~~

"Shepard-- we caught a break."

Predictably, the break was a trap. Mary wasn't liking the new habit of trampling through her ship in armour fresh from a fight. Or how annoyingly composed the Illusive Man always was, even in her impromptu meeting, he was waiting with a cigarette and drink in hand. The bastard knew what he had done. Worse, he was ready for her to explode.

"In the meantime... I suggest you tell your crew I didn't risk their lives unnecessarily," whether or not the microscopic curl of his lip was imagined in the end, "it would make things easier going forward."

"I'll tell them the truth, screw this half-truth bullshit," Mary leaned back on her heel, folding her arms.

"Our reports missed the petulant child side of you," he took a long drag, flicking away the butt, "can't you see this was necessary."

"Not in the way you handled it."

His pupils narrowed as he stared at her, mouth kept in a thin line. Boldened by this slip, Mary pushed it, "you'll be lucky to have my crew after this."

"Who, exactly, is going to help you? The council already dismissed you once. The Alliance doesn't care about the humans in the Terminus Systems," his posture and blank expression returned, "unless you don't care about the abducted colonies and the Reaper threat anymore."

"Fuck you!"

He issued a long and drawn-out chuckle, "I expected better behavior from you, Shepard. Be an adult, and put aside your petty grievances. You need me to stop this threat."

The coldness pierced her heart first, spreading through her veins with incredible speed until it froze the tip of her fingers. The frigidity of her body forcing her face in a neutral expression, "Akuze was no petty grievance, you conniving prick."

She couldn't lose much more face, so stomping off without a pause was well within her wheelhouse.

"Mary?"

Kaidan knew that look, not that he had to be blocking her way to read it. The emotionless mask was there for only a select few emotions, and all urged him to reach out. Whatever it was, at least meant he wouldn't have to explain why he hovered around the briefing room. He stood his ground, allowing her the time to breathe before he attempted to pry it out of her. Eventually, her shoulders dropped for the briefest moment before squaring back up.

"Talk to me," Kaidan murmured gently, "what happened out there?"

Shepard's posture had corrected, but the mask had yet to fall. Moving him into unfamiliar territory, so he waited for her to speak. Timidly, slowly, placing his hand on her pauldron once the time elapsed into the space of no response.

"Shepard," he called.

First, her body lurched forward, he instinctively moved to pull her in, but the arm that reached around him corrected course and shoved him aside. Perhaps a little harshly, as his back met the metal wall of the hallway. Finally, the mask slipped, catching the moment her eyes filled with regret that morphed with the half-assed raising of her arms, "it was a trap."

Mary spun away to the right, sputtering another few choice words as Mordin collided with her across the opening doorway.

"Go get Grunt ready; we're headed to Tuchanka."

~~~

"You've had a lot more poker practice, Alenko," the turian mused in defeat.

"Back then, I was never invited," the biotic returned snidely.

"Only because Shepard took you everywhere," Tali added wistfully, "you were both so moony-eyed."

"Is that your excuse for always losing, Vakarian?" Kaidan grinned, fighting a bittersweet blush, "careful Tali, you'll start slipping."

"You were all formally crewmates?" Thane finally decided to speak from his corner of the mess hall table. His gaze lingered longer on the human. The other two were obviously connected to Shepard. His short time aboard the Normandy, he hardly saw the Commander and this man in the same room.

The human's next smile a little less forced, "yeah. With Joker at the helm. Those were crazy days."

"Much simpler times, just chasing a rogue spectre across the galaxy."

Tali hummed, "it felt more heroic back then."

"To hell with Cerberus," the man muttered.

Thane stood from his seat, this talk of the past making him feel further like a stranger in this group. Why Officer Alenko had invited him in the first place was a mystery, he hadn't attempted to speak with anyone. Not out of malice but out of desire. Shepard's words about him socializing with the crew to find meaning the sole reason he attempted this game.

The three looked up at him in unison.

"We can change the game."

"You can just stay and talk if you want."

"Look at you guys scaring away the new blood."

Thane glanced between the group; they were a good sort. He shrugged in an effort not to disappoint them, returning to his seat; he had little else of import to do.

"How about a game of go fish?"

The turian turned to the man, "isn't that a children's game?"

"I thought keeping your credits would be an enticing offer," Kaidan returned smugly.

"I already owe you a small fortune when you do decide to collect," the turian drawled, "might not be wise to encourage you to do so."

"I'm banking on interest too, Garrus."

"You would," Garrus chuckled, his eyes sweeping to the quarian, "but Tali, I've always wondered why your faceplate is tinted. Doesn't that distort your vision?"

"Garrus my e-"

Grunt barrelled by the table, taking the L2's attention with him. Adding biotics to the already large Krogan only increased his appetite, especially after a fight. The youngster looked pleased, settling down at the table with whatever was easiest to sweep into his arms—tearing into the still bagged loaf of bread sideways, the group watching with mixed reactions.

"Grunt," Tali was the first to scold, "you should be a little more careful."

"He's just a growing boy, Tali," Garrus replied.

The krogan looked up and around the table with a sheepish grin, "I am a boy no longer. I have passed the rite, and with my battle master, have defeated a thresher maw! You should be in awe!"

"That's no small feat-" Thane finding himself suddenly the chatty one.

"It was glorious! A worthy opponent. So big and in your face," Grunt continued to gloat through mouthfuls of bread and plastic.

"And Shepard?" the man dared to ask.

"The best battle master. Our enemies should be afraid!"

"Was she upset?" Tali pressed.

"No- she fought bravely."

Garrus was next to speak, "nothing odd?"

The krogan groaned, "she fought well. So well, she was too tired to speak."

Kaidan shuffled from his chair, hesitating as the turian and quarian took turns locking eyes with him, "am I supposed to sit here and do nothing?"

"I wouldn't test her patience."

Tali folded her arms, "what could you even do? Guilt trip her again?"

"Ouch," Kaidan flinched, running a hand through his hair, "I deserved that one."

Grunt looked around the table, cocking his head to the side. Thane went still, achieving a far better understanding of the situation than the confused krogan. Until Miranda, followed by Kai Leng burst from the second officer's office, both beelined for the elevator. Garrus, Tali, and Kaidan moved to intercept the pair.

"Out of our way," the Cerberus assassin seethed.

"Do you have a death wish?" Garrus tried to defuse him with humor and a well-intentioned claw on his shoulder. It did not work; the man's eyes only narrowed the anger held in his posture, doubling.

"Keep your dirty talons off of me, bird!"

Tali pulled Garrus back, allowing Kaidan to get in the way.

"That wasn't necessary," the biotic stated bluntly.

Leng rolled his eyes, "and neither is whatever fit Shepard is having in the elevator."

"So you're going to make it worse by demanding she stop?"

"Kaidan, we can't let her damage the ship," Miranda added gently.

"Yeah, I know," Kaidan sighed, rubbing at his temples, "but she won't. I don't think she will, anyway. It's her way of coping."

"By letting off biotic charges?"

"Yeah, I know, but has she damaged anything?"

EDI piqued up, "damage remains cosmetic."

Miranda placed her hands on her hips, "well, this is why we hired you, Alenko. Make her stop, or we'll be forced to act."

"Next time, a little warning after she's faced a Maw would help."

~~~

Riding through the elevator of the Normandy was an old pastime. Something about being crammed into a small space with blank walls let her think. About the good, about the bad, about anything that needed her consideration, really. She had spent hours in the old elevator; they moved much too quickly in the new ship. With more floors and staff came more distractions.

Usually, it involved much less biotic discharge, but this time that display kept the peace. The strain to keep it contained and from flaring too brightly occupied her mind pushed out the thing... the creature... that kept trying to wedge back in her mental space. Pulling it all back in, only characterized by a faint aura around her form, was another challenge. She kept her back to the person.

Ignoring it until the crinkling of a bag pulled her attention.

The opened bag revealing the light reddish-brown contents within, "I thought you might be hungry."

She looked Kaidan up and down, resting on his gentle gaze. Why was she so stubborn? Was he really so different? Did who he worked for matter? She couldn't pretend that all she saw of Cerberus was bad. She trusted Jacob- he had many of the same qualms she did about the organization but continued under their banner without compromising his morals. Her work was good fighting to protect the galaxy from the Reaper threat. Sure at the moment, it felt solely based on saving humans from the Collector threat, but they were only a tiny piece of the problem. She saw no shift in Kaidan, despite the things he had done after she passed. The same integrity, the same aggravating calm, the same compassion.

Perhaps she was unfair. What would she do to bring back the man she loved?

Huh, love was a funny feeling—a light but at the same time heavy notion.

Fuck this.

Fuck the forced distance.

If they were going to die, why waste what could be their last moments together?

"Kaidan."

Pushing the chips aside, she wriggled her way into his arms. A hand threaded through her still damp hair, his nose pressing into the top of her skull. The other arm supported the small of her back, cradling her in gently. Mary breathed in his familiar scent, no different than the man she knew two years ago. It was this easy. Some, but not all, of her worries faded into the background. She had missed physical comfort.

"Wrex was there," it was all she could offer.

Kaidan's chest rumbled, the patch pressed against her forehead an unwelcomed annoyance. A reminder. Hot and blinding, the logo was all she could focus on as it rubbed against her.

Maybe she was weak, but she could not separate the horror from the uniform.

He let her escape without a fuss, leaving him empty-handed.

#fshenko #mass effect fancition #cerberus au #female shepard x kaidan #kaidan alenko #duplicity #mass effect

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