#fucking around in the armax arena

[husband-steve-cortez]

I forgot how wonderfully warp-reave combos work. Nice synergy with Kaidan.

#still thinking *if* I'm gearing up for another Miles run #I'll do vanguard instead of sentinel #though I could also see him as an infiltrator #only thing really making me hesitate is. I'm not really in a Kaidan mood yet #fucking around in the armax arena #I think I prefer assault rifles on Sentinel to shotguns

[brother-genitivi]

headcanons for Deniz (and his son) because I have brainrot:

-He's gay and transgender. He takes a lot of pride in his own culture. He has a small nazar attached to his dogtags. Deniz also refers to his loved ones with Turkish words of endearment (canım, aşkım, güzelim).

-Deniz started crushing on Kaidan during their hunt for Saren. He kept his feelings to himself until they met again on Horizon, two years later. It's not until the Cerberus coup do they actually get together.

-He has a biotic son, Roşan, who's 9 by the time ME3 rolls around.

-It's very clear that he and Roş are a package deal. You can't have one without the other. However, Deniz struggles with this as he wants to keep Roş away from the dangers that come with saving the galaxy.

-Kaidan is well aware of Deniz and his son's strong bond. He sent Roşan and his uncle photos and stories about Deniz after the SR1 was destroyed. Kaidan is fully prepared to accept the responsibility of taking Roş in as his own.

-Roşan had been staying with Deniz's older brother and his brother's wife while he was under house arrest. Deniz doesn't discover his son and brother are even alive until after the Cerberus coup. His sister-in-law didn't make it that far.

-Around this time, he also finds out that Roşan's biological father died on Earth. They were still on good terms despite not being together anymore. Telling Roşan almost brings Deniz to tears.

-Deniz struggles to communicate his feelings well. He very rarely cries and wishes he could be more open with his emotions.

-He's a biotic renegade, but he's not unreasonable. He is always kind to his friends and family.

-After the war, Deniz finally grows his hair out. He's kept it short ever since he started transitioning, but decides to grow it as a "fuck you" to his dysphoria.

-He also takes a lot of pride in the scars on his chest. Deniz was thankful to Miranda who kept them while he was being reconstructed.

-Kaidan helps with the dysphoria, sometimes without even meaning to. He wears Deniz's hoodies from time to time, and Deniz finds comfort in his familiar scent.

-Deniz and Kaidan have a very open, communicative relationship. Though emotionally constipated, Deniz is receptive to the emotions of others. He takes accountability for being with Cerberus and apologises. He makes sure Kaidan knows his feelings towards Cerberus are completely valid.

-They get married after the war. The legal stuff is kept short and sweet, but the party is spectacular. There's dancing, Turkish food and music, and they have all their friends and family with them.

-All of Deniz's friends absolutely dote on Roşan. Liara teaches him how to improve his biotics all while lifting him into the air. Garrus looks after him and they go about the Citadel, exploring the shops. Auntie Tali gifts Roş his first drone. He often has playdates with Wrex's first son, Mordin.

-Jack takes him for a round in the Armax Arsenal Arena, then promises to give him a tattoo at some point. No one thought Zaeed would return from his retirement, but he shows up to Roşan's 13th with a present in hand. Samara tells him stories about her time as an asari maiden. Jacob takes Roş to the arcade and wins him every prize in the damn place. Kasumi gifts him artwork. It's probably not stolen. Grunt and Roşan bond over their love of dinosaurs. Miranda volunteers to look after him some days.

-James regularly gives him piggybacks or uses him as a weight whilst working out. Javik and Roşan star in an episode of Blasto. Samantha teaches him chess and is pleasantly surprised when she is beaten. Steve takes him for a ride in the Kodiak across the Silversun Strip. EDI quizzes Roş on his favourite stones and commissions a bracelet made of them. Uncle Joker lets him co-pilot the Normandy.

-Mordin would have loved to sing to Roşan. 'Scientist Salarian' is a classic, but Roş would also enjoy 'Krogan Queen'. Legion would play Galaxy of Fantasy with him. They'd both be banned for a few days due to 'unsportsmanlike behaviour'. Thane would teach him how to 'dance crazy'. Ashley would have loved to teach him self defense. Or poetry. Or both. Anderson would have shown Roşan how to bake and told him stories of his father.

#mass effect #mass effect 2 #mass effect 3 #mshenko #mshep #deniz shepard #mass effect headcanons #mass effect spoilers #long post

[dearophelia]

combat, i’m ready for combat

long live :: seven of wands :: combat, i’m ready for combat

It's suddenly become very important that Hannah knows what her child faces when she jumps out of a shuttle.

“Zaeed suggested we do an Armax match,” Hannah says, over coffee.

“That's,” Olivia blinks and looks up, starting to approach morning coherency. “That's actually a really good idea.”

“Liv.” She'd been hoping Olivia would help her talk Zaeed out of it. While part of her knows that running through at least one match is the good and sensible thing to do, the rest of her wants to stick her head in the sand and pretend that reapers are just some nightmare that will fade away when she wakes up. They aren't, but that doesn't stop her from hoping.

Olivia swallows a mouthful of coffee and then covers a yawn. “It's a good idea. It'll help you feel comfortable shooting at things that are moving. Hopefully,” she starts a new sentence before Hannah can jump in, “hopefully you'll never have to. But,” she pauses, “I’d feel a little better, I know Zaeed would, and I think you would too, if the first time you had to hit a moving target was not the first time you'd tried.”

Hannah sighs. Zaeed would cancel if she really wanted and Olivia won’t push it if she asks her not to. But much as she doesn't want to admit it – they have a point. She can hit a stationary and labeled target pretty reliably, but in reality that isn't going to do her a damn bit of good.

***

Olivia uses her pass to book the Arena after hours one night. She's been using it for practice with her team, trying new tactics, weapons, and squad configuration. Armax is more than happy to let her have it after the incident with their scoring system.

Hannah watches in fascination as Olivia straps on her armor. She's seen her daughter in full battle gear before, but never watched the process. Boots, greaves, helmet, gauntlets, shoulders – all black with bright purple accents. Garrus helps Olivia with the shoulder seals of her chest piece and then she's in. Olivia shakes out her arms and bounces around a bit, making sure everything's properly in place.

She actually looks excited.

They're fighting holographic enemies. There's no audience, nothing real at stake. And yet Hannah's scared out of her mind. And her daughter is grinning.

Olivia cracks her neck and turns around. Her grin immediately vanishes – Hannah wonders just what expression was on her face to cause Olivia make an abrupt left turn like that – and she gives her a quiet little comforting smile instead. “I promise. No one's out there. They're not recording this. We're playing on bronze. We've,” she gestures to herself, Garrus, and Zaeed, “got you covered, Mom.”

That Olivia considers this playing is something Hannah thinks she ought to have examined by a professional. “Remind me why we're doing this?”

“Because actual reapers don't stand still in a shooting range with a target on their foreheads.” Zaeed comes up behind Hannah and kisses her cheek. Hannah leans into him a little.

“Be nice if they did,” Olivia says, rotating her shoulder. She got caught by a charging brute last week and she's still a little sore. “How's the armor feel?”

Hannah twists her torso. She's borrowing a set from Liara; Armax requires armor for all combatants and Olivia looked at her like she was nuts when she mentioned renting some from the arena. It fits a bit awkwardly – too tight in the shoulders, too loose in the chest – but it's so much lighter than the suit Ashley offered. She can actually move in this one without feeling like the local gravity quadrupled. “Strange.”

“You get used to it,” Olivia says and checks the capacity on her Black Widow.

Hannah's not sure she wants to get used to armor, but doesn't say so.

“Ready?” Zaeed asks.

Hannah blinks.

“You don't actually have to do this, Mom,” Olivia says quietly, taking a step closer so the two men know to keep their noses out of it. “Say the word. We'll cancel the whole thing and go get dinner.”

Hannah shakes her head and takes a sharp breath. “No. Let's do this.”

“You sure?” Olivia puts one gloved hand onto her mother's arm.

Nodding, Hannah settles her hand over Olivia's. “Yeah.”

“Alright,” Olivia gives her arm a little squeeze she can't feel through the armor and lets go. She stands next to Zaeed and Garrus at the elevator doors. “We're gonna be on Giant, which is a pretty big map. So if all else fails – run the other way.”

“That's your last piece of advice?” Hannah steps up onto the elevator platform with the others. The elevator rises into the arena.

Olivia shrugs and the map starts to load around them. “Works every time. Good hunting.” She taps each of the guys on the shoulder.

“Good hunting,” Garrus and Zaeed echo, giving Olivia and each other the same pat. They take off to set up on opposite sides of the map.

Hannah turns and again finds her daughter grinning beside her as the drone counts down to the beginning of wave one. “Am I going to hate this?”

“Probably,” Olivia says, and motions for Hannah to crouch down behind a crate. “Shoot at the stuff that shoots at you, run when we tell you, and it'll all be over in less than twenty minutes.”

Hannah takes a deep breath as cannibals start to spawn.

***

Three matches in and she gets the hang of it. It even starts being a little fun. The others rack up medals and points and headshots, but Hannah gets a little less scared, a little more willing to run out of cover, as they keep going.

“That doesn't count,” Garrus says as he and Olivia stand beside a smoking ravager corpse.

“Why not?”

“It doesn't have a head. You can't get a headshot on something that doesn't have a head.”

“Zaeed,” Olivia says into their comms, “we need a judgment call here. Oh,” she gently pulls Hannah back, away from the corpse. “Don't stand in ravager blood.” There's a look in her eyes that tells Hannah she tried that once and it ended badly.

“Did the arena record it as a headshot?”

Olivia pulls up the kill feed on her omnitool as the next wave starts to spawn. “No.”

“Then it doesn't count.”

“I got it right in the center circle thing!”

Hannah starts to fidget. There are enemies – on the other end of the map, but enemies heading their way – and these three are just standing around in the open arguing the validity of a headshot. She ducks behind a container.

“Doesn't count,” he repeats.

“Oh, stop,” Olivia scolds. She turns around and shoves her omniblade into the husk that had been hitting her. “Fine, the ravager shot doesn't count.”

As the others seem unconcerned by the banshee or the brutes headed their way, Hannah begins to realize just how easy they've been taking it. This – lazy enemies with grenades that hardly touch her shields, one banshee at a time – is not their reality.

It's not her daughter's reality, which stirs up something low and scared at the base of her spine.

“Make it harder,” she says when the match is over.

“You sure?” Zaeed asks.

Hannah nods. “Yeah.”

Silently, Olivia bumps it to silver.

A match later, Hannah has to watch from her visor's spectator mode as Olivia solos the back half of wave ten. A lot of things went sideways: Zaeed got slammed into the floor by a brute, Garrus got picked up by a banshee, and she got eaten by a cannibal before she had a chance to revive herself.

(It was for the better. She'd be useless to Liv anyway, probably a liability. They got all the devices activated, at least.)

The arena camera cuts to a front angle of Olivia, who doesn't look scared or even challenged while she works on the two banshees. Mostly she looks bored. Bored and a little hungry.

Olivia takes cover around a door and reloads her Black Widow. With a centering breath, she pops around the corner. In two final shots, both banshees scream and fall. She grins, blows imaginary smoke off the end of her rifle, and winks at Garrus as he stands up and dusts himself off.

This still isn't Olivia's reality.

Hannah swallows, hard.

She pauses behind the others as they get off the elevator after the match. “What does it look like when you're actually fighting?”

Olivia freezes and slowly turns around. “What do you mean?”

“When you're out there, fighting. What's it like?”

There's a look that passes between Olivia and Zaeed. It's a heavy look, a protective look, a we agreed not to tell her about this look, and it nearly makes Hannah cry.

“Tell me,” she insists.

“It's usually like gold. Sometimes the single-enemy platinum waves,” Olivia says softly. Her eyes briefly flick sideways – she's lying, understating reality to make her mother feel better.

“Can we,” Hannah's throat is suddenly dry and it has nothing to do with the exercise. She swallows. “Can we try that?”

It's suddenly become very important that Hannah knows what her child faces when she jumps out of a shuttle.

A look passes between all three of them this time, but it's less heavy, more calculating. Can we carry her through this?

Hannah's dead weight and she knows it, but as the seconds tick past, this becomes more and more something that she has to do. She needs to know that she can stand in front of the same things Olivia can. She runs a fucking bakery, but there's no way in hell she's okay with her kid being out there, trying to save a galaxy that seems hell bent on not being saved, when she can't even face Olivia's daily life when it's presented to her in a holographic combat simulator.

“I soloed Platinum a couple times,” Olivia says, breaking the brief silence.

Hannah hears the translation: we'll be fine. The two men shrug and nod in agreement.

“We can do gold, but in a couple days. I think we're done for the night.”

Without another match in front of her, Hannah realizes how exhausted she is. Olivia, Garrus, and Zaeed look like they could go a few more rounds, but they're career soldiers. She works out regularly, but she's not nearly in the shape they are. She nods as she turns her back to Zaeed so he can help her unseal her armor. “Okay.”

Hannah doesn't see the look on Olivia's face.

The one that begs him, Please talk her out of this, I don't want her to know.

#hey it turns out i've been working on this one for seven years #so it feels good to hit post finally #and yes there is absolutely more of it in a later card #s:long live #s:2021 #livfic #s:words

[slippery-minghus]

could you imagine, though? being really anyone, anywhere in the Milky Way Galaxy during the Reaper invasion, perhaps in the refugee camp on the Citadel, in the trenches on Palaven, in the maze of slums on Omega, in a high rise on Illium, in the Quarian Flotilla, on Tuchanka, or even in the burned out cities on Earth...

and you're terrified. you don't know how long it'll be until you, your family, your friends, everyone dies. because everyday you lose a little more hope that you'll survive, that this isn't total annhilation.

you've heard stories, urban legends, and myths about the soldiers fighting the war beyond your home. of course you have, everyone has. it's all anyone talks about, really. in particular, you've heard about a woman named Commander Shepard. you remember her name from the vids a few years back, when the Citadel was attacked. And when the human colonies were getting attacked by the Collectors, of all things (talk about urban legends!).

as the war dragged on you started to hear more about her, however. more and more often, the vids talked about her, telling stories about her almost fantastical journey across the stars. Somehow, she cures the motherfucking Genophage, because that was a thing that was possible? all while recruiting a Thresher Maw to kill a fucking Reaper?? and then a few weeks later she leads the charge on the Quarian homeworld--yanno, the one they were exiled from by the geth??--and she takes down a Reaper by hand!!

She's a fucking super hero! and she has a whole team of the galaxy's best soldiers, and such a badass tiny spaceship! and day by day, you start to actually have hope that maybe, if we just get lucky enough, and work together enough, we just might win this.

and you go on, even though the world around you is crumbling.

and then, one day, you hear the news. Commander Shepard, your hero, everybody's hero, was attacked by a near-army while alone on a short, precious break, on the Citadel.

For a few days, the galaxy is silent in terror.

there are rumors she's alive, of course there are (after all, everyone thought she died a few years back, but she just disappeared!) but there were so many men--belonging to a terrorist group nobody recognizes--and she was unarmed. of course she had her omni-blade, and some vids say she even had a pistol, but she fell through the restaurant floor! down a massive drop! no one could survive that, right?

meanwhile, the war against the Reapers is still raging. The memory of Shepard, and the hope that their hero is not gone, strong in their hearts; but their hope is quickly fading. after all, she was one-of-a-kind.

but then! then she's back, alive, and okay! and the vids are speculating on hints and clearly censored secrets about her having some sort of mysterious evil clone! but of course, she's a hero, and she succeeded against an attack on her life by someone just as strong as her! by an army of people as strong as her small, elite team!

you feel like a dawn of hope has risen over this nightmare's dark horizon.

a few days after Commander Shepard returns from the dead once again, you begin to hear rumors that she's going to compete at the Armax Arsenal Arena on the Citadel's famous Sunset Strip. Her first several competitions break galaxy-wide viewing records.

and over the next few weeks, between real missions and battles, Commander Shepard takes the time to be a regular fixture in the Armax Arsenal Arena.

Quickly, you hear about her responding to fan requests, ranging from a sick kid through the Make a Dream foundation to soldiers on the battlefield. you start hearing that vid channels are polling for popular match challenges, and overall a winning idea was a solo battle against Reapers. Shepard agrees, and the date is set. Viewing Records are broken again as the galaxy tunes in to the match that was all but bound to confirm the Commander's super hero status.

It was a well known fact at this point that Shepard did not win every match in the arena, especially against stronger enemies. This grim truth made every real-life battle she did survive all that more terrifying; it only made her seem stronger, in a way. and for many, it gave them hope because it became obvious how much stronger they were in numbers.

So the solo match was the one to truly elevate myth to legend.

Everyone, from the live crowd to those in the trenches watching through staticky feeds, cheers and cries as their Commander is outnumbered and alone on the virtual battlefield.

She doesn't win the first time, or the second. She nearly makes it on the third round, only to be swiftly overwhelmed in the fourth. The galaxy is reminded that super hero or not, she is still just one woman.

It becomes clear after a the first consecutive matches that the Commander is starting to burn through her stamina. She clearly takes a good bit of damage developing her strategy--she takes cover far away, relying on her trademark Mantis sniper rilfe. (many viewers yell warnings any time a husk gets too close to her vantage point, and cheer when she takes them down with an omni-blade attack.)

The following attempted matches are spectacular displays of the Commander's strength and skill. Shepard, known for her infiltrator specialization, relies on her tactical cloak to separate herself from close calls.

On several occasions, she simply blinked out of view, leaving the simulated enemies confused. The crowd would go wild, the cameras and commentators recording the match searching for her desperately. after several seconds, someone would spot her, far on the opposite end of the arena, and once again everyone would cheer as she launched back into action.

when the Comnander won the solo match, the galaxy cheered. truly, this woman could save them.

#found this buried in my drafts and oh man #it's kinda cheesy but hell this gave me feels #i was actually just thinking today about the bit talking about how shepard failing the solo match #makes every real battle she survives that much more terrifying #mass effect #mass effect fic #my fic #june shepard #my ocs