#plus the yknow. threatening the crew with a gun | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

jackals-ships · 4 years

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OKAY SO

cracks my knuckles. Barghest time ty @scottyadores for enabling me uwu

under a cut for length bc i tend to ramble and there's a good amount of backstory type deal, Cerberus rlly should be it's own warning tbh, no graphic things but vague discussions of "hm. that's probably not ethical science bro?"

SO Zander is my mass effect trilogy self insert (their full Legal name is Zander Lycaon Shepard Victriril-Maxxion, they have a human mom, turian mom an turian dad+mostly turian family! i think many thoughts abt them) i project. like a LOT on them and the Barghest akdj

the Barghest came about bc of the fact that me and canon hold each other at arms length. and i was thinking "okay what if. Cerberus didn't get got mildly at the beginning of me2 and they could fully rebuild Shep" and then i remembered oh hey Cerberus like. SUCKS. like sucks sucks so what if. we Winter Soldier the lil shit

so in the Zander Cinematic Universe the timeline is vastly changed, I'm still working out exact details like dates and stuff, but zan wakes up post death and has 0 memory of wtf is going on. the only things they remember are a) how to hold a gun and b) something Bad happened so Cerberus decides to run with that. they inform them that they died, it was a v important job, and they always worked for Cerberus

this ofc doesn't sound? right? but so far nothing seems weird so they don't press too hard and focus on recovery. joker and chakwas and the few people who were conned into joining up w Cerberus are banned from bringing up anything that might give them back their memories under threat of death or worse

the first few years are fairly normal, they're sent out on recon jobs, a few diplomatic missions, some jobs that require fighting, and they're given the code name Icarus. everything btw is hidden from them to an extreme degree. as far as they're aware Cerberus is a fringe group but it's not yknow. That

during this time period they're also outfitted with some body mods. they basically just upgrade the alliance muscle weaves already in them. it makes them stronger and faster +boosts up their biotics (think Cora levels of "I could rip apart an ATV with them" kinda boost lmao)

it's a few more years until there's an accident on a job causing Zander to lose both legs below the knee AND someone fucks up and let's loose "oops! actually we're a terrorist organization" under the assumption that they were totally out of it. understandably they throw a fit! they threaten a lot of things and end up attacking a doctor, it's a whole mess

so this is where things get "that is not ethical science". there's an in game revelation you can have where Miranda explains that she initially wanted to put a control chip in Shepard and that is exactly what happened way way before all of this went down. Zan comes around awhile later and is explained to that they're not allowed to leave. Cerberus brought them back, they owe them a debt, etc etc there's a lot of threats an they Can't Leave Essentially

now before Cerberus Zander was. well Garrus and Kaidan and Ash were Basically 70% of their impulse control and that comes back heavily. they start getting v v reckless and Cerberus figures they can do some..science if the lil shithead is gonna try and get got anyways. Zander ends up about 6ft 5in vs their original 5ft 8in, their biotics get a Massive boost, their original pointy teeth are made a much larger threat etc

this is where the name Barghest comes in bc there's a job that causes them to lose their sense of balance and they outfit them with a cybernetic tail that helps fix that issue (my thought process was cats use tail for balance what if. human have tail) (also im a furry. and i have mild vertigo. i would like a tail to fix that akhdjs) and they get sent on many more Murder Adjacent Jobs

there's actually a mission where they're sent after Nihlus who narrowly avoids dying (nihlus internally: first my husband now my protege. OKAY I GUESS) and a few other high ranking individuals. the Barghest becomes v v v infamous during this time period bc the way they take care of people is done in a way that's meant to send a message

they also get a crew called the Wild Hunt (Cerberus likes their thematics. I mean fuck project Lazarus?? really?) composed of themself, The Grim, The Wraith and The Dullahan! i have designs for them. somewhere on this blog. all of the Wild Hunt holds hands

it's a while longer before they're sent after Archangel who in this version has become a much more prolific, going so far as to work with Aria and become a very annoying threat. he almost gets got by the Barghest, they only stop because it's not until he's halfway dead that they realize "oh. wait. I know him?" and have a mini breakdown and drag him to a hospital where his original crew is like "what. the FUCK-"

I wrote a thing awhile back about it actually, it's all v heart touching when he comes around and explains Yeah. That's Shepard and Zander goes :o while the rest of the crew is "they tried to kill you. they're literally a murderer what the FUCK Vakarian" "you don't have all the facts" "which are?" "I love them"

and then they slowly begin getting back their memories from when they Weren't the Barghest and honestly it's a lot of me and my memory issues going "..i would like to have someone who is that nice to me when i don't remember what a spoon is called"

then y'know mass effect 3 happens except when the alliance tries to arrest them they go ":) no thank you im busy" and the council gives them semi sort of immunity bc it's shown that theyyyy rlly didn't have that much of a choice AND they want to do better AND technically their Spectre status was never revoked? plus y'know. reapers. those exist and Zan by this point is a mini tank filled with rage who wants to rip apart every Cerberus building they encounter with their bare hands and if they can't do that then reapers are also a good target

tldr: Barghest. pointy. i have placed my issues onto them but via the lenses of sci fi. they could bench press garrus. they probably did once they stopped trying to kill him. the archangel crew has been given 30 heart attacks via them eating cereal on the kitchen counter at 3am with their weird glowy cat eyes

#jackals barks #places my trauma and fears onto zan as rhe Barghest: here u go my child :)#fun fact also Barghest was initially known as the Hound and then i thought hm...black dog.... Barghest...... similar vibe #half my scenarios w them also are either 'v v soft and funny ala zan accidentally scares butler by being Very Quiet'#or 'i have decided to personally emotionally harm everyone around me :)'

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