#we have hanar

[ishouldroll]

I Should Roll, a Mass Effect Actual Play fan podcast coming April 2024.

ISR logo created by JD Kelly. All MELE screenshots are courtesy of Herobrine 24. Starfield image by Ivana Cajina [unsplash.com]. Music is "Derelict Ship" by Per Kiilstofte [machinimasound.com]. Used under a CC BY 4.0 licence.

#mass effect #tabletop #ttrpg #actual play #podcast #voice acting #improv #GET READY FOR CHAOS #we have elcor #we have krogan #we have hanar #we have a VORCHA #ishouldroll #science fiction #Youtube

[koizumicchi]

めおと (LIP×LIP) English Translation

めおと Meoto Married Couple

LIP×LIP (Aizou & Yuujirou) 2ndアルバム「生まれてきたことに感謝しなさい！」

Lyrics: Kaoru Composer: Kaoru Arrangement: HoneyWorks

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T/N: Keep in mind that Japanese and English aren’t my first language. I never claim my translation (attempts) to be error-free. As always, if you’re going to use or reference my translations, please do not claim it as your own and credit me.

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あなたの帰り待ちわびてしまう 私の心【あなた&お前】のものになってる

Anata no kaeri machiwabite shimau Watashi no kokoro [anata / omae] no mono ni natteru

I am waiting impatiently for your return This heart of mine is now yours to keep

あなたのことは何も知らない Ah 嫁ぐだけ これは定めよ お家の為にこの身捨てるわ お前のことに興味などない 同情もない めおとになるが 愛しはしない 政略の契り

Anata no koto wa nani mo shiranai Ah totsugu dake Kore wa sadame  yo Oie no tame ni kono mi suteru wa Omae no koto ni kyōmi nado nai Dōjō mo nai Meoto ni naru ga aishi wa shinai Seiryaku no chigiri

I know nothing about you Ah, we are only to marry This is my fate For my family’s sake, I will cast this body away I have no interest in you at the very least I have no feelings for you either We will be married but not loving each other It’s a marriage of convenience

雪が溶ける度に 心も溶けてく 近くなっていく 当たり前の存在

Yuki ga tokeru tabi ni Kokoro mo toketeku Chikaku natte iku Atarimae no sonzai

Every time the snow melts Our hearts also soften We are becoming closer We are an existence meant for each other

口にはしない愛の言葉も 束縛しない恋の形も 以心伝心 添い遂げ歩み出すめおと あなたの帰り待ちわびてしまう 私の心あなたのものになってる

Kuchi ni wa shinai ai no kotoba mo Sokubaku shinai koi no katachi mo *Ishin-denshin Soitoge ayumidasu meoto Anata no kaeri machiwabite shimau Watashi no kokoro anata no mono ni natteru

The unspoken words of love between us This form of love free of any restrictions Ishin-denshin A husband and wife for life, walking to the end of time I am waiting impatiently for your return This heart of mine is now yours to keep

寒くはないか？ 風邪ひかぬよう これを羽織りなさい 細くて白いその肩に触れ 守ると誓った

Samuku wa nai ka? Kaze hikanu yō Kore o haori nasai Hosokute shiroi sono kata ni fure Mamoru to chikatta

Are you not feeling cold? Don’t catch a cold Please put this on My hands brush your slender and pale shoulders I vowed to protect you

不器用な優しさ 強がりな性格 落ち着くその声に 堕ちていった二人は…

Bukiyō na yasashisa Tsuyogari na seikaku Ochitsuku sono goe ni Ochiteitta futari wa…

Your clumsy gentleness Your nature trying to be tough all the time That calm and steady voice of yours The two who were falling in love

離れはしないこの先永遠(とわ)に 来世だろうと引き寄せ合って 落花流水 困難も支え合うめおと お前の元へ急ぎ帰る 私の心お前のものになってる

Hanare wa shinai kono saki towa ni Raise darou to hikiyose atte Rakka ryūsui Konnan mo sasaeau meoto Omae no moto e isogi kaeru Watashi no kokoro omae no mono ni natteru

Won’t be apart now and for all eternity Would be drawn to each other even in our next life Each of our love returned A husband and wife supporting each other through thick and thin I hurry to return back to you This heart of mine is now yours to keep

桜吹雪いた春 風鈴涼む夏 紅葉色づく秋 雪化粧　寄り添う冬

Sakura fubuita haru Fūrin suzumu natsu Kōyō irodzuku aki Yukigeshō yorisou fuyu

A spring with a storm of sakura petals A summer with the wind chimes tinkling in the cool breeze An autumn with the leaves changing colors A winter blanketed in snow, us cuddling close

口にはしない愛の言葉も 束縛しない恋の形も 以心伝心 添い遂げ歩み出すめおと あなたの帰り待ちわびてしまう 私の心あなたのものになってる

Kuchi ni wa shinai ai no kotoba mo Sokubaku shinai koi no katachi mo Ishindenshin Soitoge ayumidasu meoto Anata no kaeri machiwabite shimau Watashi no kokoro anata no mono ni natteru

The unspoken words of love between us This form of love free of any restrictions Ishin-denshin A husband and wife for life, walking to the end of time I am waiting impatiently for your return This heart of mine is now yours to keep

離れはしないこの先永遠(とわ)に 来世だろうと引き寄せ合って 落花流水 困難も支え合うめおと お前の元へ急ぎ帰る 私の心お前のものになってる

Hanare wa shinai kono saki towa ni Raise darou to hikiyose atte Rakka ryūsui Konnan mo sasaeau meoto Omae no moto e isogi kaeru Watashi no kokoro omae no mono ni natteru

We won’t be apart now and for all eternity We’d be drawn to each other even in our next life Each of our love returned A husband and wife supporting each other through thick and thin I hurry to return back to you This heart of mine is now yours to keep

~

Notes:

isshin-denshin - “what the mind thinks, the heart transmits”

#LIPxLIP #honeyworks #meoto #lipxlip translation #aizou #yuujirou #umarete kita koto ni kansha shinasai

[chaosroid]

I think it's really interesting to see patterns of double standards crop up in fandom again when it comes to racist behaviour exhibited by certain characters. People love to point out Shadowheart's racist attitude towards Githyanki but give Lae'zel a pass for some reason, when she is arguably far more racist. Nobody talks about it, they just call her blunt and brutally honest, but that's really understating things. Girlie is straight up a Gith supremacist who, for all of act 1, believes everyone in Faerun are beneath her and inferior. She makes derogatory remarks about your physical appearance, is frequently condescending about your people, tries to force a Tiefling to bow before her, and says some pretty vile things like believing children deserve death if they are weak. All the result of indoctrination of course, but despite sharing so many similarities with Shadowheart, the latter is treated far more harshly.

Nevermind that it's later revealed that Shadowheart is wary of Gith bc they recently just slaughtered her entire team, making her the sole survivor. Can't say they didn't have it coming since they stole their artifact, but her hostility doesn't just come from nowhere. If you play as a Githyanki, she'll be nervous at first but very quickly warms up to you and admits she's misjudged you. Also considering that Githyanki are literal fascist raiders with the only thing preventing them from pillaging all of Faerun being their war with the Illithids, her wariness is hardly unfounded. We hear instances of Githyanki patrols slaughtering Tieflings as early as act 1. It doesn't make her comments any less wrong, but considering the context, it makes sense.

Honestly, it feels like a case of Shadowheart looking too similar to a human earning her more scrutiny, whereas the more alien characters tend to get away with racist behavior despite acting in the same manner, if not worse, excused by "cultural differences". The Mass Effect fandom treated Ashley Williams similarly, where being human earned her more scorn while the racist remarks said by the alien crewmates were brushed aside and barely acknowledged. Garrus tries to make Tali feel contrite about her race, Wrex and Grunt straight up call Salarians a slur multiple times and is fine with making the Rachni extinct, Mordin contributed to the culling of the Krogans, Javik thinks everyone who isn't Prothean are primitive, and fans cheer when Shepard calls a Hanar a "big stupid jellyfish", but Ashley's the most bigoted squadmate of that franchise apparently.

It's a fascinating phenomenon that I notice in many fantasy and sci-fi fandoms, and it's amusing seeing it happen to BG3's as well now.

#saw a reddit thread where half the comments said they preferred lae'zel over shart bc she 'wasn't a racist bitch' like huh??? #baldur's gate 3 #shadowheart #lae'zel critical #mass effect #ashley williams #fandom critical

[sol-consort]

Considering humans evolved to quickly recognize patterns for survival, do you think we'd irritate other species by being able to point out their natural camouflage or social ticks fast?

The salarians come to mind. They have a lot of social cues embedded within their genese. Mordin mentions one in ME2, where when salarians lie to each other. If it's for the safety or protection for the other person, then their body manages to convey it in a que. It's fully involuntary and can not be faked or suppressed, so their society knows not to question someone who gives this tick while lying.

But the key part here is that he compared it to human faking a yawn, saying that's how hard it is to fake.

Maybe he wasn't aware that faking a yawn is literally the easiest thing alive. You can fake an authentic yawn. Hell, you can even force a real yawn if you try without anyone being able to tell the difference.

The tick of each person is different. Some humans avoid eye contact when lying, other humans do it because they hate eye contact in general. Some humans remain calm under stress or pain while other humans become snappy they second they get a headache.

There are generalisation, of course. How else would you sell those "psychology tips and tricks to reading people" 15$ books? Like if a human isn't smiling they aren't happy.

But that's...bullshit actually. Diverging from the norm and social cues is not rare in humans. Be it from personal preference, personality or even just being neurodivergent.

Humans can show happiness without smiling, we can be sad without crying, we can endure pain without groaning, and we can perform any and all emotions authenticity. The more we try, the better at faking things we get. We can in theory do all of this.

Salarians can't, they have a lot of their own outer communication piloted by their unconscious brain that makes it involuntarily. A human can teach themselves to stop flinching when surprised and brute force an involuntarily habit away, a salarian can't.

And it makes sense for them why their brains locked them out of developer options when it comes to the settings of their own bodies. Much like our own brain prevents us from so many things because we can't be trusted with it. Having their social cues built in since birth and never having to struggle to fit in gives them more time to actually live their life. While humans have to go through the several phases of self discovery and endless crisis of why do I exist?

We slow blink back to cats, of course we are going to pay attention to each one of the alien races ticks and cues to replicate it back to them. Attempting to mimick a turian's purring while cuddling with them, learning to headbutt a krogan if we want to prove ourselves.

You know that phrase about giving a monkey a typewriter and eventually it will print hamlet out? That's humans figuring anything out. A thousand humans will attempt to replicate the salarians lying for safety cue and fail.

But eventually, something gotta give and one of us will make a dent. Like someone figuring out a new technique in a speedrunning community, at first only they can do it but eventually it will become the norm and standard expectation of every speedrunner to master.

Like there are some hardcore humans out there who learned to read and write in binary without a translator, imagine walking to a geth and having a casual chat in 1s and 0s.

Humans learn to mimick birds sounds, so well at times that we used it to capture them before by mimicking mating sounds. Human voice impressionists are a huge thing and there are so many of them.

If anything it's hard for us to live with the aliens without mimicking them, it's in our nature. Throw a human to the hanar long enough and they'll completely adapt to using "this one" when refering to themselves.

I do see some species hating it because we aren't all sugar and spice everything nice. We will use these things to cheat, lie and "hack" our way into their held by ducktape society rules.

Purring at turians to earn their trust quickly before betraying them. Using the lying for safety cue on salarians to get away with normal lies. Making the drell think our emotions are as strong and painfully concentrated as theirs to excuse some of our shitty behaviour that a normal human would call us out on.

Give us long enough and we will crack the asari code too. Figure out the loopholes in their justiciar's logic and use it to misguide them towards our selfish interests. Learn their whole song and dance to corner their government into giving the humans slack or else they lose face with the rest of their galaxy and their own people. Because the asari actually rely on a beautiful facade to keep peace amidst their people, much like elves shoot themselves in the foot by making their egos and worth based on the fact they're so much civilised and sophisticated than the rest.

I think the protheons would love it tho, or just javik in particular if you began mimicking him. He'll compliment you for finally deciding to evolve instead of remaining a degenerate primitive.

#☆humans #☆drell #☆salarians #☆hanar #☆turians #☆javik #☆asari #☆krogans

[gabriellerudessa]

Thoughts about Mass Effect

So, I've just finished my run of the Legendary Edition. For context, I was 18 when ME3 launched, and I'll be 30 this year; the last time I had played the whole trilogy was WAY BEFORE the LE was launched lol.

So. All this time between gameplays and a lot of things in my life made me reflect a lot on the games and conflicts presented, the end and so on. Bear with me, this will be long.

Catalyst says that the root of the problem it has to solve is "organic versus synthetic"; this causes whiplash, because it is NOT something heavily shown in the games as "the root".

On the contrary, what is SHOWN is "control and order versus free will and self-determination": it's shown in the genophage - created because the Salarians COULDN'T control the Krogan -, in the Quarians versus Geth, the Collectors - so heavily indoctrinated they can't chose by themselves again -, Saren, The Illusive Man since ME2, the Reapers, and in ALL companions to some extent. Miranda, EDI and Jacob are the most glaring ones, but all of them bring this. Most of them in the oldest conflict regarding Created versus Creator to ever exist: Children versus Parents. Children test boundaries and once old enough, when they gain awareness and notice that Parents aren't as perfect as they thought, conflict arises. It can either end very badly, coldly, or they find new common ground.

And all this involves HEAVILY Control versus Free Will, some parents see children as extensions and something to control, others understand it's not like this. Most companions have this to some extent, usually from the children POV; Thane, I think, is the only one we see from the other side, a parent trying to reconect and fix his mistakes - Heck, even when we take away the Child vs Parent, we still have the concept Control vs Free Will, in that he was only a Weapon for the Hanar to control. (Edit: for some fucking reason I forgot Samara is a Mother and also her whole point is also about control vs free will. Go Brain 🤦🏻‍♀️)

But the Catalyst does not see any of this. It appears to disregard ALL other forms of conflict that can and have lead to annihilation of others - Javik himself says about how the Protheans would annihilate the species that don't conform and how there was this people that "found the secret for eternal peace" and then another came and decimated them. Conflict is a result of existence, usually because one wants to control others, but the Catalyst only sees "Organics versus Synthetics".

Why? I say the root for this is because The Catalyst was created by Leviathans, and as such, in their likeness of thought. And what we see about the Leviathans? The origin for indoctrination, focused on organics as far as we can see, in a more aggressive way - the miners had lost all awareness for ten years, the assistant lost all sense. The examples we see from Reaper Indoctrination are more insidious, if they aren't outright converting you on being a soldier for them; they make you think it's your choice, that they are right and so on. It's not outright stripping someone from all agency, not from the get go if it's not something that serves them. And, from what is implied, the Leviathans can't exercise the same control on synthetics, while the Reapers can.

The fact that the Leviathans can control others in such a way makes me think that, for whatever reason, they don't have conflicts between themselves. Maybe they are a hive mind or they have a queen-like controlling all of them, we don't have enough to say with certainty either, but the concept of conflict in itself is alien to them. It's very possible that they controlled all species that were under their thrall to not fight amongst themselves because, as they said, dead people don't pay tribute - I risk saying that when control was more spread amongst numerous individuals, there was more conscious thought going on in the controlled, or in the past it wasn't as heavy a hand as it's seen in the present. We don't have enough information for either. Again lol

Then the organics they controlled created AIs. And they couldn't control the AIs to not attack their organics. And, I would even risk, the root of their problem was probably because these organics also didn't have the tools to solve conflicts without controlling and stripping someone away of free will. They were controlled by the Leviathans, it was all they knew. But the AIs and synthetics created questioned, tested boundaries and so on.

As a consequence, the Leviathans assumed that the root of the problem was Synthetics versus Organics, and created an AI to solve this. And probably, considering that the Reapers can indoctrinate both organics and synthetics, they only wished or thought for the AI to control synthetics so they wouldn't attack organics. But the AI, at being in the likeness of the Leviathans, concluded that control was indeed necessary, that the conflict was inevitable; as a consequence, the solution it came with was to preserve the organics in Reaper form, being able to control both organics and synthetics, and guide civilizations in such way.

But since the Leviathans didn't have conflict amongst themselves, the AI Catalyst was biased. It didn't have examples of conflicts being solved by anything beyond control. That's why it was the only solution it could envision, because it assumed that Organics would always try to control Synthetics, and that Synthetics would always try to control Organics, and thus ending in annihilation. It couldn't envision cooperation of their own free will because the Leviathans couldn't envision so.

Which is fine. Being biased is understandable. It was created in the likeness of the Leviathans, the same the Geth were created in the likeness of the Quarians - eco-symbiothic, resulting in an AI that gains processing the more they are - and EDI in the likeness of humans. Heck, when we consider that in one of EDI conversations in ME3 she says that self-preservation is not her biggest directive anymore, but the people inside the Normandy, that she is not like the Reapers, we can compare to the Leviathan, that only created the AI because they needed tribute: it was about self-preservation, their OWN preservation was paramount, as it is shown in the fact that they have been hiding for who knows how long.

And the root of the problem of the talk with the Catalyst is that we can't say anything of the type to it. We can't say that conflict is natural and expected and that organics go through it ALL THE TIME between themselves but that it does not equal to annihilation. That compromise and common ground is possible and that children go through this all the time with their parents. That Control and stripping someone of Free-Will and Self-Determination is not the answer, because it usually only creates even more conflict, doesn't matter if between Organics and Synthetics, between Organics, between Synthetics, because at some point someone will fight against it. But cooperation is possible, and it is usually better (heck Javik says that this cycle is working because all species cooperate amongst themselves)

The whiplash and so many disliking the end, I risk, is more because we can't point any of this to the Catalyst. It's understandable its bias, even expected. It's frustrating that Shepard, a soldier that very much understands about how conflict is inevitable and how you solve it is what matters, can't say so, at least so the Catalyst would recognize "I'm not perfect. I was wrong."

Because even when we go along the lines of "this is Catalyst experiment to try and find the solution", I say that not all the data in the galaxy will help against deep-ingrained bias to interpret the data in this or that way. And that is what the Catalyst is: biased in a way of thinking where conflict in itself is unacceptable and a flaw, but is only being seen in one way because their creators couldn't see and experiment in other ways. But conflict is common and a part of existence, and it can be solved in ways where it reaches compromise, where it acknowledges free will, something constantly shown in the games. Just the Catalyst doesn't see it.

#mass effect #mass effect legendary edition #mass effect the catalyst

[c-rowlesdraws]

if you could have made changes to how ME showed the volus (and if you have any other ideas for other species) what would you have added/changed/taken away?

honestly, I CRAVE more of the "weird" aliens, all of them, not just the volus. All of Shepard's bestest friends in the series were fairly humanoid aliens-- and from a gameplay/technical perspective, that makes sense, since it's much more convenient to build every character who has to hold various weapons and run around and do all these different animations all with the same rig. But as a consequence, the characters who we got to know the best as people, and who could give us the most well-rounded perspectives on their own cultures, were all humanoid. And as the series went on, the non-humanoid species (and the batarians, humanoid but minor) got kind of treated increasingly like curiosities, running jokes, and/or cannon fodder (#JusticeForTheVorcha), rather than having their cultures elaborated on in the same way.

Closer relationships with other, weirder aliens like the elcor, hanar, and volus would have helped the player experience Shepard's journey as a person that much more strongly, moving with Shep from a position of relative ignorance about the galaxy to having a real sense of community and deeper understanding. The climax of ME3, with the entire galaxy overcoming their differences and conflicts to collaborate together and unite against a great common threat, would have felt so much cooler if we'd already gone through that process on a personal level: getting to know and befriend more members of alien species that at first seemed too funny or strange or unsettling to see as people as easily as more humanoid aliens.

They wouldn't even have to be selectable mission companions or whatever; even just a few really good recurring NPCs would do. Each "species representative" character having a distinctive individual personality, conforming to some known stereotypes about their species and defying others, putting a face to their people (even people without conventional faces, like the hanar)-- that's what I would have liked to see.

#mass effect #catie talks #ask #there were just so many gosh darn humans in the later games #i feel like the me1 citadel feels more multicultural than it does in the later games somehow...

[clericofshadows]

bioware made a fucking... Hanar bodypillow before a single human romance? I thought it was an April fools joke but apparently not...

I hate it here

like I wouldn't purchase a body pillow to be fair but like, we got Wrex, a non romance companion, before a human romance, and now we have corporate sponsored tentacles.

great. can we get some Ashley merch please? at least Kaidan has a terrible statue and a hoodie...

#cleric's convos #its not that deep but also wtf

[average-mako-enjoyer]

Bigots and Failed Promises of Mass Effect games

(I had this thing in my drafts for almost a month, and it would have stayed there if not for the wonderful post by @androidtrashfire, because I saw it, and I was like: "Fuck it, I have to rant about these games." I love Mass Effect, and I really think we should critique it. We should criticize things we love because silence = compliance.)

So I was talking to @liss-art recently about the bigoted fans in the Mass Effect fandom, and I think I need to make a post about it because it's something that really, truly bothers me, and it needs to be addressed.

Canon

Mass Effect is a story about deeply flawed people with a lot of problems, and through them it touches on issues like xenophobia, sexism, corruption, elitism, morality, identity. That's why we like it, right? But why are there so many bigots in the fandom? My theory is that it happens because Mass Effect, for all its supposed complexity, only touches on these issues without giving any meaningful commentary on them.

Here are a few obvious examples:

The Quarians are a distasteful allegory of the Roma people (right down to their accents). They are persecuted and ostracized for creating Geth, but the game never gives us any socio-political reasons why the Quarians did that. They just developed real AI because they were naive and stupid? Or because they were the only ones smart enough to do it? Did they do it in secret? Why did other races not make the same mistake?

Same with the Batarians. Yes, the game mentions tensions between humans and Batarians because humans try to claim territories that Batarians think are theirs, but that's about it. Batarians are all racist slave traders and they're bad, don't think about it, here's some memes about 300,000 of them dying, good job. And yes, I know you can read more about their history in the Codex (why is it an Asari who writes about Batarian history,btw?), but it's basically the same thing as saying D*mbledore is gay (I really am sorry for this reference). If no one ever mentions this rich Batarian history, then it doesn't exist.

And please don't get me started on Hanar. They "mercifully" saved the Drell by inviting them to their planet, immediately assimilated them into their own faith and also put them in conditions where they have to train as assassins from the ripe old age of 6 and eventually die of sci-fi lung cancer. But don't worry about it, Drell actually love to serve the Hanar, they do it willingly and consider their servitude an honor. Do you really want to criticize some stupid jellyfish who talk funny? Do you really want to talk about why the so-called Council races do nothing about it? LOL

Another thing the trilogy does is present entire races, including humans, as amorphous blobs. Do all Asari believe in the same "goddess"? Do all Turians obey the same Primarch? Well, what's important is that all humans in this bright future speak English.

But what about the genophage? That's a profound story, right? Well, not really, and it raises more questions than it answers. We hear a lot about how brutal, aggressive, and short-tempered Krogans are, but every single Krogan we meet is extremely well-mannered, and they only resort to violence against other races in dire circumstances. So why not save them? Does the game really present you with this moral dilemma or not?

And can anyone tell me why Salarians are allowed to abduct and experiment on sentient beings, and why Turians are allowed to wage wars? Why does no one talk about Asari in this context?

I really want to say that at least the characters are well written, but I can't because they're not.

Kaidan is a good example of this. We are told about his implant, we are told that he has chronic pain, but do we see him suffer from it? Do we see him in those moments of weakness and vulnerability?

The scene where he gets annoyed with Jenkins acting like he's a circus monkey who has to do a trick and biotically throws a cup at him was cut from the game. We occasionally hear him mention some of the side effects of his migraines ("Too many lights, too much noise"), but that's about it. What has happened to "show, don't tell"? And no, I'm not saying that the writers should feed me the story or walk me through it. What I am saying is that if you gloss over your characters' mistakes, flaws, and circumstances, you're getting people to ignore them. Do people who call Kaidan "boring" and insult him think about how his chronic pain, his trauma from Brain Camp, and the loss of Jenkins and Ashley affect who he is? Hell no.

Thane is another great example. What Mass Effect is telling us as a story is that you can completely abandon your family and your child and be forgiven if your reason for doing it is good and heroic enough. Like avenging your dead wife, because of course there has to be a dead woman thrown somewhere.

Everyone's favorite Garrus (mine too) is a cop whose character arc basically consists of deciding that he is above the law (since the law forbids him from killing people he thinks should die) and then involving his squadmate/friend/partner (depending on your playthrough) in the public assassination of his former squadmate, whom he never even bothered to confront first. Are there any consequences for Garrus for his actions? No. Again, it's all glossed over, and that's unfortunate because it removes the conflict and therefore the character development and depth.

And if you're going to tell me that ME is just a space opera, and that I should just enjoy the spectacle and the romance, then I'm going to tell you that I know that, and that I think it's a wonderful spectacle, and that some of the romance subplots are absolutely amazing story-wise, but the superficial commentary (or lack thereof) on the most important issues that ME covers actually harms the audience.

Fandom

On the one hand, we have people making mods that remove all the clothes from all the female characters (or remove all of femShep's organs and replace them with giant tits). We have people reposting that horrible, horrible art of Miranda and Jack fighting, tearing each other's hair and clothes, and maleShep smirking and saying "I should stay". We have people who say ME2 is the best game in the series because "there are no f*gs". On the other hand, we have people saying things like "there are two Commander Shepards - female and the wrong one". We have people who say "only weird people play as dudebro in 2024". We have people who think that simply playing as a female character is some kind of feminist statement, and that it makes them better and smarter than everyone else (the same people who use the term "dude gamer" as an insult). And all of those things are kind of the trilogy's fault.

Both maleShep and femShep have the same story. The only differences are the romance options, sexist remarks directed only at femShep, and flirtations from various NPCs directed only at femShep. What this tells you is that sexism exists in the Mass Effect universe, and only women suffer from it. It also tells you that only women are worth flirting with.

Another thing this game does (and modern games like Cyberpunk do the same thing) is equate the female experience to the male experience by giving both femShep and maleShep the same lines.

So there are some mixed signals here. Sexism exists and doesn't exist in this universe, Shepard is both genderless and very gendered, romances with underdeveloped characters are all over the place, and bigots thrive in this kind of environment.

The lack of commentary, the lack of perspective, the disastrous worldbuilding allows you to freely choose your sexist, racist adventure and not be punished by the story in any way.

Mirrors

There's a passage from Solaris that I absolutely adore and think about often.

"We don't want to conquer the cosmos, we simply want to extend the boundaries of Earth to the frontiers of the cosmos. […] We have no need of other worlds. We need mirrors. We don't know what to do with other worlds. A single world, our own, suffices us; but we can't accept it for what it is."

I think that perfectly describes what Mass Effect is as a universe. And in a way, it's a reason why it's so compelling. It's just empty enough for us to invest in it, to fill in the blanks of that narrative with the stories of our own. And it's also a reason why this fandom is a fucking hellscape.

#mass effect #my thoughts #kaidan alenko #thane krios #garrus vakarian #commander shepard #sorry not sorry for the wall of text because this is important

[max--phillips]

Dear BioWare,

Sexual dimorphism is so passé. The fact you only chose not to do it with the salarians (often portrayed as asexual), kett (villains), and collectors/reapers (also villains) kinda sucks.

It also sucks that the only monosex/“gender neutral” species we get are the asari (extremely conventionally feminine), the geth (robots and also villains for the majority of the trilogy), and the hanar (masculine sounding jellyfish). (Also I realize one could argue the collectors/reapers are monosex/gender neutral but I’m working off the assumption the reapers mutated individuals of all genders and they just ended up looking the same.)

Why do the quarians have tiddies? Why do the asari? What’s up with the dimorphism in turians and krogan and angara??? And why did it take until your flop of a fourth mass effect game to even introduce female salarians, and more than one token female krogan or turian (both of which don’t show up until the third game, and one of which you needed to purchase a whole extra dlc to see before LE)? Why haven’t we seen any female drell? Vorcha? Elcor? Batarians? Protheans?

Sincerely,

I know the asari were created to fill in a scifi trope but that’s just unnecessary and they shouldn’t look like that

#max says things #tori says things #max plays andromeda

[dirtybiowareconfessions]

Confession: I wish we could have a hanar LI in the next ME. Not even for sexy tentacle stuff, I just find them really cute for some reason.

#hanar #mass effect #bioware #dirty confessions #dirty confession

[nellasbookplanet]

Mass Effect is this really interesting case study of male-as-default vs female-as-default in non human species, because they give us such prominent examples of both.

Turians, salarians, and krogan all have women, yet none are seen on screen until the third game, and even then we get like, one of each in minor roles. Less prominent species like hanar, volus and elcor all have male voices, despite hanar being canonically genderless and volus' gender being considered a 'mystery'. It would've been easy to include female voice actors to any of these, or have an alien with a typically "male" sounding voice be referred to by she/her pronouns (frankly that would make sense for elcor and krogan, but by the time we finally get a krogan woman she sounds just like an ordinary human woman). And this isn't even getting into referring to genderless aliens with neutral pronouns, which seems to never have occurred to anyone as an option (fair enough, they/them pronouns weren’t exactly mainstream in 2007).

But no. The idea of gender as removed from human defaults to male, either visually, vocally, or in terms of pronouns. Voices meant to sound genderless, such as Legion and the hanar, still have male voice actors. None if of this is ever in-game commented upon. It’s just How It Is. The only species other than human in which we see a fairly equal balance of men to women is the quarians, interestingly one of the most human looking aliens outside of asari.

With the all female asari however, not only are they designed to look explicitly human (which they then in-game try to weasel themselves out of by going 'but ALL species find the asari hot, not just humans!' as if we don’t all have eyes), we are also beaten over the head with it constanly. Every single bar you walk into, there are half naked asari dancers. You are constantly hearing background chatter about how hot they are. A genderless character coded as female HAS to be explicitly and traditionally hot, while anything removed from that defaults to male.

The closest we get to non-human looking women is the rachni queen (which I'm guessing is only because of the age old trope of the queen of an insect hive mind) and EDI before she is given a body (at which point we are again beaten over the head with 'non-human coded as female (EDI) has to be hot' vs 'non-human coded as male (geth) get to be actually removed from human').

#mass effect #as I'm writing this I'm currently in the middle of my first play through of andromeda #and you best believe i have Thoughts on how they treat female alien characters in that one #but more on that another day #i do feel i should point out that it would've been very easy for the games to feel lazy and uninteresting in terms of alien species #because of problems like these where they strictly adhere to a human gender binary #but as with many of ther issues ME manages to salvage things by writing genuinely good characters and lore #it's like they told their writers 'hey our audience is straight white men they want hot women and cool aliens' #'adhere to that but otherwise do whatever' and the writers truly did do as much as was humanly possible #and ended up with something genuinely intriguing despite its flaws #nella talks

[spectre-requisitions-exchange]

NOMINATIONS ARE LIVE!!!!

Time to get to nominating this year’s delicious rare pairs! Please note nominations must come through this AO3 Link!!!!

When nominating, please fill in “Mass Effect – All Media Types” in the fandom box.

As a reminder, both gen (&) and romantic (/) relationshiptags are allowed for this exchange. Any relationship that fulfills the criteria below the cut is eligible! If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask the mods via our inbox or on our discord!

Please see eligibility rules, a how-to guide to nominating, and commonly asked questions below.

ELIGIBILITY RULES:

A pairing must have 200 or less works when viewed with completed works OR

A pairing may have over 200 works, but when viewed with completed works and otp:true parameters, the amount of remaining works is both under 200 and less than 1/3rd of the total number of works.

For Example:

* If Adrian Victus/Steve Cortezhas 138 works, then it will be accepted as it has less than 200 works. No further filtering is needed.

* If Volus God (Self-Declared)/Liara’s Hanar Half-Sister has over 200 works, but when searched with opt:true, only has 5 works, it would be allowed as it would have met the under the 1:3rd ratio rule.

* If Maya Brooks/Krogan Who Believes Fish Live on the Citadel has 200 works, but when searched with otp: true and completed works parameters, has 100 works, then it would not be allowed, as the ratio between the completed works and completed works with just the pairing (the otp:true component) would be too high to qualify. This rule is meant to help pairings that are commonly used as “side pairings” but rarely are featured in works where they are the focus.

If you have any questions on those rules or you just want to hang out and talk Mass Effect pairs beyond the most popular ones, consider joining us at our Discord server. It’s a great place to hang out and talk rare pairs.

HOW TO NOMINATE:

1) Go to the Ao3 Tagset Page for Spectre Requisitions while logged into Ao3. A tagset is what most Ao3 fan exchanges use to determine what relationships (in Spec Rec’s case) or other criteria are used for an exchange.

If a pairing is not nominated, it will not be able to be used for sign-ups, regardless of whether it would have been eligible otherwise. (Example: Suvi/Chakwas, while certainly being eligible as far as total works go, won’t be an option to ask for if it’s not nominated during the nominations period.)  

If you don’t have an Ao3 account, contact the mods, we’ll be happy to help you get one with an invite link!

2) Click the Nominate Button.

3) Fill out the Nominations Sheet.

For fandom, please use “Mass Effect - All Media Types”. We only use Mass Effect - All Media Types because it gives us the highest chance of getting that sweet, sweet Mass Effect content in there regardless of potentially sticky couples (for example: crossovers between a book and a game, or between the Mass Effect Trilogy and Andromeda, or crossovers between other media and Mass Effect) and because Ao3 frankly doesn’t like it when we have couples wandering through different fandoms in the tagset. For relationships, any pairing/threesome/moresome that meets the eligibility rules. For most pairings, Ao3 should help autocomplete it for you -- but if you come up with a very original pairing (or AO3 is feeling unhelpful), it may require you to type in the full thing. If it does not auto-complete, don’t worry - you can still submit it! Pairings should be in alphabetical order of names. One pairing per line, please!

4) Submit your Nominations! Just click the button on the bottom, and you should be off off and away!

COMMONLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

What if I accidentally nominate something that’s not eligible? Will I get in trouble?

Nah. You might wind up with it being rejected, but we assume most people operate in good faith in their nominations. If we reject a couple, we will always put it in the spreadsheet for the year linked on the sidebar with a reason why, and you are always free to come to us with questions if you’re not sure what that is.

How many things can I nominate?

10 relationships - so choose carefully what you’d like to see and write. That covers both Andromeda and Trilogy, all the novels, comics, etc.

Can I nominate, even if I’m not sure I’ll sign up or don’t plan on signing up?

Of course! Nominating isn’t a binding process - you’re only voting for what you’d like to see. You don’t have to sign up after nominating things - in fact, nominations are anonymous, so we can’t tell what you’ve nominated.

Are there any special rules/restrictions on what I can/can’t nominate?

Only the eligibility rules.

How do I search the OTP:true thing?

Can I nominate transgender or nonbinary Shepards/Ryders?

Yes! All Shepards and Ryders are welcome. For Nonbinary Shepards/Ryders, please nominate them under Nonbinary Shepard/Ryder. For transgender Shepards/Ryders, please nominate them until the preferred gender presentation and when you sign up for the exchange, please put in your sign-up that you would like that version of the character to be considered trans.

(Please note that if you only want a trans version of a character, to write in a DNW (Do Not Want) in your request for the cis version of the character; otherwise, you will be interpreted as open to both cis and trans “Female Shepard/Ryder” or “Male Shepard/Ryder”.)

Can I nominate Original Characters?

Yes - ish. We allow original characters who are defined enough to give the person who matches on the original character something to go on, but not so much so they have to do an exhaustive amount of research on a fanon character. For example:

Allowable OC nominations:

Female Asari Spectre/Female Cerberus Agent - both these roles are defined in terms of what category of pairing they want (f/f), and the two roles give someone an idea of who these people are without being excessively limiting.

Not-so-allowable:

Communications Officer/Male Original Character: both of these are too vague. We’re not sure whether this person wants a male, female, nonbinary, or other gender for the Communication’s Officer; Male Original Character is so nebulously defined that we’re not sure just who that might be.

Female Shepard/Batarian(s) - We don’t know who these batarians are, or how many of them there are. “Five Male Batarian Pilots” tells us a lot more.

Male Shepard/Legion/Ebony Raven Darkmayne (My OC) - While we encourage you to add details about your Shepards or other OCs, it’s very hard to write for original characters someone else has formed. Please nominate your OC in more generic terms (ex Male Shepard/Legion/Female Original Goffic Hogwarts Student).  You can add in names and descriptions in optional details in your sign up, but this way the writer or artist has more wiggle room for what will suit their fic or art, and you have more options of matching more people since you aren’t limited to one interpretation of a concept.

A good rule of thumb is if you can sum up an OC in more than one and less than five non-name nouns, it’s probably a valid nomination.

Can I nominate crossovers?

Yes! Crossovers between different Mass Effect properties are welcome and and are crossovers between ! Just please, if the character you’re crossing over doesn’t hail from a Mass Effect canon, add in the canon next to the character name, eg “Darth Vader (Star Wars)/Garrus Vakarian.”

What if I have more than ten to nominate???

We will allow people to request a couple extra nominations if they need the space; it’s a big, big universe after all. If you have exhausted your sign-up, please PM us or talk to us on the discord about adding in extra pairings. In order to keep things fair for everyone and not have one person’s pairings dominating the space, please limit your extra requests to no more than 5.

#specreqs2023 #specrecsnominations

[hanaerize]

[HoneyWorks] めおと (Meoto) / LIP×LIP - Eng/Kan/Rom Lyrics

(Ask permission first before using my translations!!)

💙 - Yujiro

💛 - Aizo

💋 - Yujiro/Aizo (LIP×LIP)

[💙]

I impatiently await for your return.

あなたの帰り待ちわびてしまう

Anata no kaeri machiwabite shimau

[💛]

My heart

私の心

Watashi no kokoro

[💋]

is yours and yours alone, my dear/love.

【あなた&お前】のものになってる

[Anata/omae] no mono ni natteru

[💙]

I know nothing about you.

Ah, I'm just getting married to you.

This is my only fate.

As I'm willing to sacrifice myself for the sake of the family.

あなたのことは何も知らない

Ah 嫁ぐだけ

これは定めよ

お家の為にこの身捨てるわ

Anata no koto wa nanimo shiranai

Ah totsugu dake

Kore wa sadame yo

Oiye no tame ni kono misuteru wa

[💛]

I have no interest in you,

and I don't hold any feelings for you.

I'll marry you but,

I'll never love you.

お前のことに興味などない

同情もない

めおとになるが

愛しはしない

Omae no koto ni kyōmi nado nai

Dōjō mo nai

Meoto ni naru ga

Aishi wa shinai

[💋]

As we are bounded by this political marriage.

政略の契り

Seiryaku no chigiri

[💙]

As everytime the snow melts,

雪が溶ける度に

Yuki ga tokeru tabi ni

[💛]

our hearts also melt.

心も溶けてく

Kokoro mo toketeku

[💙]

As we grow closer,

近くなっていく

Chikaku natte iku

[💛]

it became an ordinary to be in each other's presence.

当たり前の存在

Atarimae no sonzai

[💋]

Our unspoken words of love,

and our forms of love without constraints.

With our understanding of one another,

as wedded husband and wife, we walk foward till death do us part.

口にはしない愛の言葉も

束縛しない恋の形も

以心伝心

添い遂げ歩み出すめおと

Kuchi ni wa shinai ai no kotoba mo

Sokubaku shinai koi no katachi mo

Ishin denshin

Soitoge ayumidasu meoto

[💙]

I impatiently await for your return.

My heart is yours and yours alone, my dear.

あなたの帰り待ちわびてしまう

私の心あなたのものになってる

Anata no kaeri machiwabite shimau

Watashi no kokoro anata no mono ni natteru

[💛]

Are you feeling cold?

So that you won't catch a cold,

put this haori on.

As I felt your slender and pale shoulders,

I vowed to protect you.

寒くはないか？

風邪ひかぬよう

これを羽織りなさい

細くて白いその肩に触れ

守ると誓った

Samuku wa nai ka?

Kaze hi kanu yō

Kore o haorinasai

Hosokute shiroi sono kata ni fure

Mamoru to chikatta

[💙]

With that clumsy kindness of yours,

不器用な優しさ

Bukiyou na yasashisa

[💛]

and that brave front of yours.

強がりな性格

Tsuyogari na seikaku

[💙]

With that soothing voice,

落ち着くその声に

Ochitsuku sono koe ni

[💛]

The two of us fell inlove...

堕ちていった二人は…

Ochiteitta futari wa...

[💋]

We will never part away from each other's sides for eternity.

Even if in our next lives, we will be drawn to each other.

Like fallen petals in flowing water,

we support each other as husband and wife through difficulties.

離れはしないこの先永遠(とわ)に

来世だろうと引き寄せ合って

落花流水

困難も支え合うめおと

Hanare wa shinai kono saki towa ni

Raisei darou to hikiyoseatte

Rakka ryūsui

Konnan mo sasaeau meoto

[💛]

I fasten my pace as I rush back to you.

My heart is yours and yours alone, my love.

お前の元へ急ぎ帰る

私の心お前のものになってる

Omae no moto e isogi kaeru

Watashi no kokoro omae no mono ni natteru

[💙]

Cherry blossoms swirling through the wind in spring

桜吹雪いた春

Sakura fubukiita haru

[💛]

Cooling tinkles of wind chimes in summer

風鈴涼む夏

Fūrin suzumu natsu

[💙]

Autumn leaves changing color in fall

紅葉色づく秋

Kōyō irozuku aki

[💛]

Snow adorning us as we embraced in winter

雪化粧　寄り添う冬

Yuki geshō yorisou fuyu

[💙]

Our unspoken words of love,

口にはしない愛の言葉も

Kuchi ni wa shinai ai no kotoba mo

[💛]

and our forms of love without constraints.

束縛しない恋の形も

Sokubaku shinai koi no katachi mo

[💙]

With our understanding

以心

Ishin

[💛]

of one another,

伝心

denshin

[💙/💋]

as wedded husband and wife, we walk foward till death do us part.

添い遂げ歩み出すめおと

Soitoge ayumidasu meoto

[💙]

I impatiently await for your return.

My heart is yours and yours alone, my dear.

あなたの帰り待ちわびてしまう

私の心あなたのものになってる

Anata no kaeri machiwabite shimau

Watashi no kokoro anata no mono ni natteru

[💋]

We will never part away from each other's sides for eternity.

Even if in our next lives, we will be drawn to each other.

Like fallen petals in flowing water,

we support each other as husband and wife through difficulties.

離れはしないこの先永遠(とわ)に

来世だろうと引き寄せ合って

落花流水

困難も支え合うめおと

Hanare wa shinai kono saki towa ni

Raisei darou to hikiyoseatte

Rakka ryūsui

Konnan mo sasaeau meoto

[💛]

I fasten my pace as I rush back to you.

My heart is yours and yours alone, my love.

お前の元へ急ぎ帰る

私の心お前のものになってる

Omae no moto e isogi kaeru

Watashi no kokoro omae no mono ni natteru

#lipxlip #haniwa #aiyuu #honeyworks #someya yuujirou #lip×lip #shibasaki aizou #lyrics translation

[brinteylovesaliens]

HC for FemShep that @sarahsmiles1991 and I came up with today...

Shep: gods first a turIan wants me to be a spectre, another wanted me to join with him as a slave to sovereign, then another turian wants me captured so he could live like a king, and then they want me to do things for them like save their planet, son and a head of a geth,what is it turians DON'T want from me?

Garrus: ... to die, we don't want you to die

Meshep: as sweet as that is, Sare-

Garrus: Siren was being brainwashed by a reaper, believe me many turians would kill to be in my position.

Victus: the Turian Hierarchy received a request to officially recognize Commander Shepard as a Turian citizen. I've also received requests for marriage requests from many families for the Commander.

Wrex: yeah? Well she's already officially a Krogan and has had breeding requests.

Tali: yeah, well she's already a Quarian Captain and can link suits with literally anyone she wants!

Geth: consensus was reached by 99.99999999999993% of all Geth that Shepard-Commander is Geth. She has entered our consensus space twice and survived. And is nice to us. We.. like her.

Balak: All Batarians want her dead

Bray: not me

Balak: except Bray

Bray: I'd marry her of she wanted

Balak: he's a bad Batarian

Aria: she can be my co-Queen.

Balak: Batarians want her dead

Batarians: nah, we're cool with her

Balak: but..

Batarians: she can hold her own word us. She's badass. And doesn't kill us just for being Batarian

Balak:

Bray: she kinda threatened me once. It was hot.

Balak: ... okay maybe I was turned on when she said she would hunt me down BUT I STILL WANT HER DEAD

Balak: she blew up our solar system!

Bray: yeah, for a good reason

Balak: PEOPLE DIED!

Bray: yeah, and billions lived because of it

Balak: ffs

Bray: I wish to make babies with her

Hanar: this one would also like to say that Shepard has been requested to mate as well for bringing back one of the enkindlers, along with the drell of course.

Elcor: Shyly excited, we too have accepted her as one of us after saving us

Volus: .....yeah I guess would make a good mate if she wanted us

Morlan: she is welcome in my shop at a 90% discount

Salarians: while one old bitch doesn't like the fact that she cured the genophage many has asked to send thier ancestor genes to her if she would be interested [we then discussed hoe Salarians swap genealogy stuff..]

Asari: ... ya no we want her we want many shep asari

We'll need to add more as we go..

#mass effect headcanon #femshep

[sol-consort]

Do you think it confused the other species that the turians of all people are the ones humans bonded with best? First Contact and the minority of humans who hate aliens aside, the most emotional species in the galaxy latched right onto the most emotionally constipated species.

Oh, it definitely confused them. Because other species have had attempts at bonding with the turians before.

The salarians were too hesitant and cautious for them.

The asari acting superior and looking for their own interest.

The krogans are fun to wrestle with, but their core beliefs are just too different for them to work together.

So what's better than the galaxy equivalent of overly curious animals who just can't sit still without packbonding with something around them?

Don't forget that even on earth, humans have this weird relationship with birds. They tend to accidentally mate with us because we pet them so much. Hell pigeons have been in a symbiotic relationship with us for so long that they can't leave our cities anymore. It's their jungle now.

And turians like any other birds would probably latch onto the humans giving them chin scratches and dextro seeds.

Much like how talented bartenders take it as a challenge to make non-alcholic versions of cocktails. I feel like human chefs and scientists would try their best to create dextro versions of our food just so the Turians could eat it. Humans made wine suitable for cats. Why wouldn't they make dextro chocolate ice cream for their beloved turians' neighbour?

We're loud, expressive with our emotions, blunt with our flirting, and very, very ready to latch onto an alien for eternity. Turians gotta respect our loyalty and countless attempts to understand their culture, truly understand it and not just an on papers clinical documentation.

We're also relentless. We fail at something and keep trying. We had so many people die when we first discovered the artics, but we still kept sending researchers over to figure it out. No, like it was voluntary, we were so interested in this cold freezing hell that talented people kept agreeing to go there even if it cost their life.

I bet you every turians have met at least one human they admire, we're stubborn and petty, but use these traits to accomplish something and as fuel for our passions.

Look at how fast the humans bounced back after first contact war. Dude, if it was the asari or hanar, I bet you, my liver, that they'd never let their war with turians go and always hold a grudge.

Not that humanity didn't hold a grudge, but when all the new generations are seeing are friendly adorable featherless birds who are so fun to poke and tease until they come out of their shell, it's hard to remember the grudge from a war you weren't even old to participate in.

We've had countless wars with ourselves, the turians aren't special. And when an entire race is raised upon public service and discipline like them, they must be so repressed for a wild human to come along and be a bad influence on them.

Like live a little! Make bad choices, take risks, and be a little more selfish. Likewise, there are humans who will come along and help strengthen their core values, give your best to others, stay honest and loyal, and help people without looking for payback.

Turian and human duos become far too common that they're excluded from the galaxy program to integrate every race into each other's military and jobs.

Every turian ship has had at least one human working on it. Some even develop a taste for dextro food and cut any risk of contamination by never bringing other foods onboard. Teaching the other turians fun games or showing them human music. The humans proved they could keep up with the turians, even join in on their wrestling matches just for fun.

and while the humans didn't have the same thing because of how much we outnumber them, every human ship at least has met a turian ship and sent them a hello or told them their ship is very pretty then moved on their way.

And it's not all sunshine or rainbows. There are incidents where turians and humans just could never agree or meet eye to eye. Especially with how blind turian loyality to their group can be and how individualistic humans are. Turians are used to accepting orders from highers above without questions, while humans are used to having a vote and a say in every important decision.

We think giving up our individuality is basically the same as dying since you are truly alive if you're not free to be yourself? Nothing defines you in this life but you, doesn't matter what group you leave behind.

they think giving up their clan is basically the same as dying. Because exile must have meant death for them before, if someone isn't loyal to their group, how can they be loyal to anyone?

Some humans and turians just could never get along, but the majority of them proved their ability to overlook the differences and work together despite all.

Turians who become close to humans learn how addicting the taste of freedom is. Humans who are close to them learn how reassuring being a part of a community is.

There is a reason why C-Sec is mainly made out of humans and turians. We both are looking to make a difference in our own way, prove a point, or find a purpose.

I like the idea of humans and turians being the first races to ever look past each other's different appearance and actually see each other's spirits. The first two races to pass the test of the universe and work together and start relationships despite knowing they can't have children, fall in love, and grow old together.

The novelty of an alien falls off very quickly. It takes a human 3 months to develop a habit. After 3 months, you'd stop introducing your friend as Viteponia the turian and just start introducing them as Via, my pal.

You'd even forget the fact they were a turian, like they obviously are, duh, but you just don't think about it anymore. To you, they're Via, the person who held you back from texting your ex and the person who you share your dextro snacks with. You bring them over to your family and forget to mention the fact they're a turian.

I think at some point, turians would try to get you to wear face paint because they forgot you're human and got sad over the fact you don't have any clans. That you're such a good and loyal person, you don't deserve to be bare faced, so here, let them paint your face with their clan colours.

Also I think they're very curious about human hair. Birds love human hair, pulling at it, sitting in it like a next, even using it to build their nest. Turians must have looked at human hair and felt a very weird primal urge to touch it and test how it feels.

#☆turians #☆humans #☆human kink #alien human kink #☆fluff

[c-rowlesdraws]

Sorry, unsolicited ME3 discourse, I see it crossing my dash and it's like a cat with a laser pointer. What gets me about the ME3 endings is that they completely ignore that multiple times within the text, we get shown that symbiosis isn't just possible, but it really just requires basic mutual respect and communication. Not space magic fusions or anything like that.

The fact that they built up to that with the Geth-Quarian resolution, the Leviathans, and EDI, and then fumbled it into the completely incoherent and disconnected Synthesis ending at the last minute, never fails to hurt my brain. The rest of the story has plenty of problems but they almost had a really cohesive ending that spoke to an actual thesis.

Personally my headcanon flavour of ending is just Shepard making silent fixed eye contact with the Catalyst's avatar while in the background out the window the ridiculous fleet you assembled wipes the floor with the Reapers until they pinky promise to be nice, and then everyone goes out for yiros.

As far as I understand it, not just Synthesis but all of the endings felt last-minute because in a way, they were last-minute— the whole overarching plot of the series was changed midway through production from one having more to do with the use of mass effect technology accelerating entropy (and the Reapers destroying galactic civilization to stop that) to one focused on an existential conflict between “synthetic” and “organic” life. There are still plot threads pertaining to the old storyline that just don’t go anywhere now, like the whole thing with Haestrom’s sun aging prematurely in ME2.

I’m publishing this ask because I respect ur thoughts and I think other people will also find them interesting, but also I meant what I said about not wanting to get into ME ending discourse, lol. If anyone wants to continue the discussion or anything in the replies/reblogs, I will be reading but not engaging. Ask me about hanar strip clubs or elcor gyms instead or something if you want to get my engine revving.

#mass effect #catie talks #ask