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#maybe sooner maybe later depending on how writing and editing goes

tryslora · 5 months

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ND Creative: Time, Focus, Organization

Time, focus, and organization can be complicated things as an ND creative.

Objectively, I know what I need to do. I know all the steps. I even know that in order to get it done, I have to list out all of those steps, note how long each will take and their dependencies, then reorganize them into a timeline.

Then I stare at the screen, or the piece of paper, and my brain just stops. Says nope. Hits the mental and emotional back button to get the hell out of that mode.

Makes it kind of hard to get anything done.

I’m currently struggling with this exact thing on multiple levels. Why am I blogging about it? Well, I’m hoping that if I talk about the places where I’m stuck, maybe I’ll become unstuck.

Oh, the funny ways we try to trick our minds, yeah?

Big List Things I Need to Do:

Publishing stuff with DPP (timeline not under my control)

Publishing stuff for independent book (oh hey, a release date would be nice and I’m the one who has to set that)

Plotting and outlining the next PHU novel (is it over a year overdue? I’m sure no one noticed…)

Plotting and outlining the next 7Lakes novel (because when the first one comes out, “where’s the sequel” will hopefully be the obvious first question)

There are a million other things on my list in various sizes from small through medium and even large, but none quite as unwieldy as all of those.

I’ve been blocked on these timelines—both for publishing and for plotting—for a long, long time. I feel like I’m trying to do too many things at once, or attacking things on too many fronts. I worry about well, what if one thing overlaps with another—are the people who want to read my work going to be like “nah, I can’t buy two books” and just nope out of everything? Am I screwing it all up?

I keep telling myself I need to let go and just Do The Thing.

Seriously.

Do The Thing.

So, let’s break down what needs to be done at the highest of levels for the writing-related things (and ignore all the blog posts, TikToks, video editing, etc that also needs to be done).

For publishing with DPP, there is: 2nd edit on book 2, large revision on book 3 before it goes to first real edit, then 2nd edit on book 3, and final edits on all of that. Plus cover reveals, blog posts, teasers. Pulling out quotes I want to use for stickers. I am pretty sure I’m forgetting things. The nice thing is that all of the big overhead things like planning a campaign has been done for me. YAY Duck Prints (Seriously, they are AWESOME). I think my sticking point here is that I have no realistic expectation for how long each editing round will (or should) take, so I’m not sure how to slot it in. Plus I know it’ll be overlapping with the other book.

For solo (independent) publishing, I have so much more to do. I have to create accounts with both the private and public profile information that’s required on publishing platforms. I need to create a logo and develop a description of my “publishing company” (me, it’s just me) and I need to business work for that company, like buying ISBNs. I need to finish the final book editing, then do the layout so I know what the spine width is. Then I can contract for and get a cover. After that it should get easier, right? Pull out quotes, do blog posts, cover reveal, announcement of the release date (probably not in that order). Get the news out. I can set a release date once I get everything else on a calendar. And if the bulk of the editing is done sooner rather than later, my editing energy can be spent on the DPP books while I’m doing production and marketing for the 7Lakes book.

Okay. This all starts to feel like something I can get my arms around. I’m going to let the high level/low level plotting go for now, and come back to it in another post.

So—why is this a blog post anyway?

I mentioned before that I was trying to unstick my mind. By talking out loud to someone else—even though I can’t see that someone, and who knows, maybe I’m shouting into the abyss—I feel like I’m being held accountable. I’m working through it in public. In plain sight. It means I have to keep putting one foot in front of the other, considering every word. It has to get out of my fingertips and onto the page because I am here, not just trying to make notes privately for myself.

I can’t back button out of it.

Sometimes that’s how I get things done.

Will this translate to me taking the things I’ve said above and moving them into something where I can add timeframes, and schedules, and put it all on a calendar with due dates and start breaking it down into even smaller tasks?

Gods I hope so. It’s a goal, anyway.

Getting back to where we started… time, focus, and organization can be complicated as an ND creative.

Time—I spent thirty minutes and a thousand words of chatter.

Focus—It’s like body doubling—by talking to you, I got something done.

Organization—I think I have a list. Or a start of one. It’s more than I had!

It’s a complicated way of doing things, but fingers crossed that my next step is getting to cross off the first part of my timelines task.

#writing #neurodivergent #nd creative #nd series

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bookish-whore · 2 years

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Hii, I really like your work and can't wait for the new content as well as the new Falling chapter and maybe a sneak peak or the date release? <3

Hello Anon! thanks for the ask and the support I have a few updates for you all below:

Firstly, thank you to everyone who wished me well as I have been recovering this past week I love and appreciate you all and the time away has done wonders for me <3

And I have good news! I am finally feeling better and more like myself and can get back to writing. As a little treat, I have a sneak peek for Chapter Nine of Falling which will be out Friday 10/7 (sooner depending on how the writing/editing goes) the teaser is under the cut! <3

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I led us to one of the stone benches placed throughout the space, it was my favorite spot in the garden. There was a clear view of the pond, sparkling in the sunlight and where we sat, we were under a canopy of wisteria. I enjoyed the sweet, floral, and slightly musky scent as it wafted through the gentle breeze. Lucien was the one to break the silence.

“Are you ready for the big reunion?”

I wrung my hands in my lap “Not really” I said looking down at my hands

“Why is that?” he asked turning his head towards me to meet my gaze

“Well, if I’m being honest, I feel nervous. I know it’s just Feyre and Nesta and I am so grateful you wrote to them, but I’m worried they will see me like- like I’m damaged or broken. That they will somehow think of me differently. Think of me as- as weak after what happened.”

“They would never see you as weak, or broken, or damaged. Not after what they have been through.” He took my hand in his “and regardless of what anyone thinks you are strong, one of the strongest people I know. What happened to you wasn’t because of anything you did, or didn’t do, and I know you are trying to cope by pushing people away but we- the people who love you- aren’t going anywhere.”

I nod my head “I know” I say, just loud enough for him to hear

“Now, come on” he jerks his head over his shoulder “lets finish at the pond I know how much you love feeding the ducks”

I flash a smile at him, and we make our way toward the ponds. I can’t help but feel a sense of calm about the big visit later. I guess Lucien’s words managed to put my mind at ease.

#thanks for the ask #i love you all #so much #like literally so much #acotar fanfic #azriel x reader #acotar fanfiction #teaser #bookish-whore

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lemonietrinket · 4 years

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How Day6 would react to overhearing you admit your crush on him to one of the other members

AN: a request from anon. i feel ive treated this more seriously (and focused perhaps more on the confessions themselves, bc i interpreted ‘crush’ subconsciously as ‘having long-term-feelings for’) than you meant in your request but i hope you enjoy it nonetheless!

Sungjin

“hyuuun, i’m in love please make it stop.” “only way that’s going to happen is if you go tell him.” “...i hate you.”

sungjin... i picture is going to date to marry (or an equivalent if marriage is not for you, as though i get the vibe he’s quite traditional, for the right person he would be very easily convinced), so he takes crushes and confessions quite seriously

probably would feel bad for eavesdropping

then would feel happy that you felt the same way

but then more serious issue of now having to confess would take over

would spend a long time thinking of the best way to do it

would probably settle on a classic walk or cinema/theatre depending on what’s showing

would make damn sure he and you would be alone while confessing—so to save both parties from pressure and embarrassment should things go wrong

also he’s quite a private guy and would want to let others know on his own and your terms

ngl probably wouldn’t admit he’d overheard you until like... a long time later

it would be under the initial reasoning that he would wait until you were stable so it wouldn’t have too big of an effect

but then he would forget

until it randomly came up in conversation

like we may even be talking years here

maybe when you live in your own place, just the two of you, and you’re hanging out with him and younghyun who is just refusing to go home bc the food is too good at yours who brings it up

“i don’t understand how it took so long for you two to get together, like even wonpil was starting to find yn’s pining sickening.”

and you would be salty, because “excuse me i hid my desperation very well!”

and sungjin would just immediately come to support you because he’s a loyal motherfucker and would begin, without thinking “she did, i didn’t know until i—”

that would be when he stops himself bc hes like oh shit i didn’t tell her and now two very curious sets of eyes are like staring at him and he’s 98% sure he can’t backtrack at all

“when you what?”

and he would just sigh “when i overheard you telling younghyun that you liked me”

and there’d be a moment of silence, followed by laughter

youngk would be confused, probably, having a surprisingly better recollection that you perhaps would “wait i remember that—how did it take you two months to work out what to do next?!”

and you end up just laughing harder, before noticing the the mix of emotions on sungjins face and reassure him “it doesn’t matter how long it took, we’re together now”

anyway overall sungjin is probably quite serious about it, but it will have a happy ending, you’ve just got to be patient lmao

Jae

“dowoon, what do i do?”

jae would be playful about it

after hearing you ask dowoon for advice since hes good friends with him he would be ecstatic, but would try and keep it lowkey

he’d hide out of sight of the doorway he’d passed by to have his little moment

and then he wouldn’t be able to stop smiling

his eyes would keep glancing to you for the rest of the day, even more than usual

but i think he would want to make things more official as soon as possible, as he doesn’t want to waste any time when he could do it sooner and be with you

and so he’d ask if you had a spare moment on the day or so, and take you some place quiet

not necessarily his room, more likely just outside the front door in the warm summer air

and ngl i think he would totally pull the “i think you know why i summoned you here today”

of course, yall have no idea, but you’re used to his occasional crackheadery—otherwise why would you crush on him so hard? “not a bit, but if its a trip to get snacks you don’t even have to ask, i’m in”

“well, that is a plan for later... depending on how this goes”

that’s the point where you would get confused and begin to wonder if something is up, but hel’l continue “i found out something really cool today yn.”

“really? was it the pin to brian’s credit card?”

he would laugh but shake his head, “nah even better” and that would give you the heads up that this was serious, and it would occur to you that he might have overheard something

but it becomes obvious when he follows with “a little bird... told me that someone, likes someone else, in our group. our friendship group.”

you briefly consider panicking, as the whole thing could still be construed as him not liking you back, but you put on a brave face and push through, “oh really? who?”

“that’s the problem, i don’t know, but i was wondering if you did.”

the chance was clear for anyone to see, and seeing the glimmer of hope, you seize it “well, i know someone who likes you... but i’m not sure if its mutual, so that might be why they haven’t said”

“if it’s who i think it is, then it definitely is... mutual” he would admit

and that would be the closest the two of you ever got to literally word-for-word confessing, because out of nerves neither of you would probably be able to admit it at the crux of the moment

however, like in all the movies idc if its cliche you would gravitate towards each other, and that would be the moment where you both recognised your feelings as well as shared your first kiss together

ok i’m going to stop before i combust

anyway as for whether he’d admit he’d overheard you, he would probably be quite quick to the chase on that one too, probably right after the kiss and you’ve spoken about it a bit more, he’ll probably just say “i kind of accidentally overheard you telling dowoon, please don’t be mad at me”

but how could you be, you’d gotten what you wanted after all

in conclusion, jae is lighthearted about it and woudn’t waste any time

Younghyun

“wonpil did i tell you how much i love his eyes?” “hmmm... perhaps... but tell me again, to just to make sure.”

god bless wonpil his emotional support would be A+

right off the bat our youngk is a songwriter

he probably finds a lot of inspiration out of love

and so his feelings for you coalesce to create love songs that he may or may not use in the future

anyhow, it means that to cope with his feelings he’s probably half composed something small where he admits them

with little intention of you probably ever hearing it at all

or at least, not without big chunks edited and names changed/cut

but when he overhears you rambling to wonpil who doesn’t mind the sappiness a characteristic you probably got off our brian anyway with his occasional borderline emo-ness

he’s grateful to his past-self for starting it, and realises that maybe its time to finish it

so it’ll take a week or so for him to finally confess

bc even though hes a bit of a flirt, i don’t see him wanting to tarnish love, since he owes it so much and its not fun to play with someone’s heart, especially not yours

so it might take him a little longer, and when he gets round to it, it’ll be perfect, just like you in his eyes

so prepare to be serenaded

yes, that sort of serenaded

in dim evening light, with the sun’s glow beginning to fade and make way for the stars, flickering like the candles laid out for you

again, that classical vibe won’t be missed on him

as for whether he’d tell you, probably only if you asked, but he would add that he’d been writing the song beforehand

he just may not admit to not planning on ever performing it

overall? when it comes to romantic flair, kang younghyun is king

Wonpil

“sungjin, uh, do you know where wonpil is? i can’t—” “isn’t he at your hip?” “as much as i kind of wish he was, he kind of isn’t.”

wonpil, my lovely sweetheart

probably wouldn’t be able to stop himself from just

walking straight in when he accidentally overhears you to ask right there and then

like, you’re probably pestering talking to sungjin in the kitchen or another equally frequented place, so it was likely that someone was going to overhear anyway

and maybe that was part of sungjins plan dont put it past him

but also it meant wonpil got further into the room the hunt for sustenance spurring him on, you know how it is before he caught onto what was being said, thus making it harder to back out

thus sungjin knew he’d overheard, but you with your back to the door were still clueless

and would’ve stayed that way had wonpil not continued and straight up asked or sungjin not said anything, which lets face it by this point he was really considering doing

he would be really excited about hearing that the feelings were mutual, and you were right there so what harm was really being done if he did just straight up waltz in?

as soon as you heard his small “you like me too?” you would whip around

aaand that would be sungjin’s cue to leave

“do you mean that?”

“it only feels right when you’re by my side, pillie.”

the words you would exchange would be in a soft flurry of emotion tbh, out of disbelief but excitement for the future

most likely ending with you embracing, foreheads resting against one another’s

fluff hours only in the house of pil, ok?

Dowoon

“jae, do you think dowoon will be free tomorrow?” “yea why?” “i want to take him to the cat cafe—” “oh my god is it happening?! is it really happening? are you finally going to tell him? plan ILU is underway?” “keep it down!” “oh god everybody stay calm, stay fucking calm—!”

my bean

my lovely bean

would feel guilty over accidentally eavesdropping, and this would reflect in his shyness later

however, he decides to run with the silver lining of having the chance to be prepared for tomorrow

and so he would not say a word and try and act natural

especially when you ask him if he wants to go out somewhere with you the next day

he’s not sure how he did, he tried to hide his ears as best he could but he was also well aware you knew him too well

when the next morning rolls around, he’s up early, getting ready in nice clothes that he hopes aren’t suspiciously too nice

and then he waits, trying to calm is nerves, before realising that maybe ignorance is bliss

when the time comes and you make your way to the cafe, he finds it difficult to act surprised, but also to try and keep his breath steady

finally, near the end, after asking if he had a good time and wanted to come back, you confess you liked him and it’s as if a weight lifts off his shoulders

he would kiss your cheek soon after, without much warning, out of relief and joy and nerves and a whole lot of else

and you’d probably pull him in for a proper kiss by his collar as soon as you’re sure he’s ok with it

and then the fact he eavesdropped would be a secret that he would die with

~~~

Masterlist

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tackyink · 3 years

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Hi Tacky! If you don’t mind me asking, how do you draft out your chapters when writing? I’ve been trying to get into better habits, but find myself hyperfixating on details and not how to get there. In my opinion, you pace your stories extremely well, and was wondering if you had any tips!

Oh, thank you! IoS is a mess in terms of pacing imo, but I think I’ve done better in every other instance.

It depends a lot on what I’m writing, but the gist of it is that I have a scene in mind and follow a logical progression on how to get there. Take the first chapter of Degrees as an example, for instance: I wanted Alex and Law to find that Poneglyph, but how are they supposed to get there? First, I need to have a scene where they meet (that would be when they first see each other in front of the library). Then I need a plausible reason for both of them to be there alone at the same time (Law really wants the book, Alex needs to work on Sunday), then a reason for Law to go down to the archive (he’s telling her he’s leaving), then finally the pieces have moved to where they need to be. That’s how I build entire fics, in a nutshell: there are certain scenes I want to write, but before I can get there I need to find out the correct steps for them to happen.

Sometimes I can’t find a clear solution, so I let the characters do their thing, and usually, if the premise I’m working with isn’t completely bonkers, the solution presents itself organically. A lot of writing advice will have you believe that every scene must push the plot forward, but I disagree. Sometimes characters need to talk about how many sugars they put in coffee, or to be left to their devices to do something silly, because while it ultimately may not be important, it fleshes out their characterization and dynamics. Personally, while I choose the major beats of a story, I let the characters decide how to get there instead of forcing them down a predetermined path. They’ll get there sooner or later.

Also, when I’m too stuck on details, I find that placeholders are a godsend. Maybe I don’t feel like writing a fighting scene that day, or I need to include a description that I think is boring, or I haven’t decided a character’s name or physical appearance yet. I just write [random thing I don’t wanna write now goes here] and skip it for the time being. The thing about drafts is that they’re hard because we try to make them as close to our vision of the story as we can, but they should be a skeleton. Once the bones are put in place, you go back and add the muscles, and then go over it again and slap on the skin. I know most people seem to go overboard with their drafts and when editing time comes they cut all the unnecessary chunks away, but for me it’s the reverse: my first draft is the bare minimum and then I keep adding to it. I find it’s easier to start with something simpler and build on top of it than to put everything down at the beginning and then select what needs to go.

This was a whole lot of rambling from someone who in the end doesn’t have a clue what she’s doing and just goes with the flow, but I hope some of it helps.

#anon #tacky asks

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ghost-writing · 4 years

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Fee+Bear 2/?? - Home (Henry Cavill fanfic)

This is a re-post from my other blog… I’ve decided to post my writing on a separate page, it’ll be easier to access like that.

I’ve edited this a little, but there might still be some spelling mistakes & grammatical errors. (English is not my 1st language!) So, if you see something that irks you, please tell me! :)

Word count: almost 1.8k

Warnings: brief mentions of sex, AND SOPPY SUGARY FLUFF.

This is a prequel of this, but there might be some inconsistencies in the Fee+Bear stories, as it’s more a collection of one-shots, so be warned!

The sun is shining outside London. For once, the weather is great, even if a bit cold. But after spending most of the day in the garden playing with the kids and the dogs, Sofia decides to retreat to her office, because the script for episode 6 is not gonna check itself. And it needs to be sent to twins John and Paul, the writers and showrunners, for their own corrections, with still enough time left to print the final version for the whole cast and crew.

There are a lot of people depending on her now: she’s not just the star, but also one of the executive producers of her new show. A show that she’s abandoned a lot for, that she’s invested a lot in. She was working hard for it before, and is working even harder now that the lock-down is finally over, to make up for lost time.

Work is a lot on its own, but she also wants to be there for Gigi and Noah. Carmen and Elena had moved to London with her, and she owed them a huge debt for that. Their presence allowed her to dedicate herself to rehearsing and filming during the week, but she insisted on staying at home on the weekends as much as possible. Her schedule was so full, she was sure no man would have wanted to be included in that constant chaos, but Henry was not any man. He worked hard too, but came to spent most of his free time with her and her kids, instead of partying or doing whatever he used to do before they got together. She had sworn not to rush back into a relationship so quickly after her divorce, but he changed her mind easily. From the moment he met the kids, blissful, happy moments were the norm in their home when he was around.

But right now, she has to work just a little to be able to enjoy the rest of the 4-day weekend they had managed to squeeze into their extra tight work schedule. (Just one more proof that Henry was committed to their relationship.) And the quicker she gets it done, the sooner she’ll be free of it. She knows that, but she’d pushed it to later several times already.

The room is cool, which Sofia welcomes after the overheating she endured in the garden. Even in shorts and a top, the intense playing made her blood boil. But maybe that was because Henry took of his t-shirt at some point… Of course, the cat had followed her, trying to escape the ruckus Kal, Kit and the humans made (the big one being the loudest), bothering his fifth nap of the day. Sirius knows that in here, he’ll find peace and quiet, and maybe some belly rubs.

Sofia grabs the small stack of paper that’s been sitting on her desk for almost two days now, a purple pen (her designated colour for corrections, the twins using blue and green), her phone and headphones, and goes to lay on the sofa, the huge Maine Coon in tow. As soon as she settles, her head resting on a big cushion at one end, facing the door, and her bare legs and feet on the other end, Sirius looks for the best spot: her belly isn’t large enough for him to curl up in a ball on, and there’s not enough space for his large fluffy body between her and the back of the couch.

Sofia lets out a slightly annoyed sigh. “Can’t you decide already?” The black feline lifts his majestic head and looks at her right in the eyes with those enormous green marbles of his, as if to argue that this is the most important part of his routine. She melts, as usual. “Alright, baby.” She lifts him up, kisses his forehead and pets him gently, long enough for him to purr for a moment, and places him on the armrest, above her feet. She knows that in ten minutes tops, he’ll get down from there to get closer to her, demanding attention, but at least, she’ll cool down before having to deal with him. She puts the headset on, turns on some heavy rock music, like she always does when she needs to concentrate, and begins to read.

She’s about halfway through her task, and Sirius has moved spot three times, when Henry’s head peaks through the door.

“What?”, she says, taking the headphones off.

“Can I come in? I have to make a phone call.”

“Sure!” She smiles at him. “And you also need to hide from my adorable but exhausting kids, don’t you?” She winks.

He sighs deeply. “I do love them, but they. never. stop.” After removing Sirius with the utmost care and putting him gently on the ground, he sits next to her. The tiger looks at him with disdain, making Henry recoil a bit, before searching for another position of power.

“It’s all your fault, Cavill!” She brings her legs closer to her upper body to give more room to the big man. “Don’t be so goddamn nice to them, and they’ll play with each other, instead of always asking you to entertain them!”

“I tried, but I can’t say no to them! Gigi always makes that sad puppy face, and I cave… Every time!”

“Superman defeated by a pouting 6 year old… Batman’s got nothing on my girl”, she mocks. “Ok, make your call and let me finish this, please! When I’ll be done, I can teach you how to fight off the Evil Curly Dragon and her sidekick, Deadly Birdie.” She puts the headphones back on, not waiting for her boyfriend to groan at her.

Henry calls a friend or one of his brothers, presumably. She turned the music down to a more acceptable level, and she can hear him laugh. She can’t help but peak out from behind the sheets of paper every now and then: he smiles, he frowns, he makes gestures with his hands, fully immersed in his conversation. She forces herself to concentrate on her work.

Minutes pass, she’s getting close to the end of the script. Sirius is now resting on top of the sofa’s back, close to her, his legs lazily dangling on each side. His butt is turned towards his rival for Sofia’s affection, showing his disapproval.

Immersed in her script, Sofia suddenly realizes that Henry’s hand is resting on her legs. Her bare feet were now pushing on his meaty thigh, as she was looking for warmth, subconsciously. She always had cold feet, and Henry was hot in more than one way. He starts moving up from her feet, slowly caressing the ankle, then up the calf, lightly massaging the muscle with the pulp of his fingers. She looks at him, ready to scold him for distracting her, but he’s still talking over the phone, apparently unaware of what his hand his doing. He’s gone a bit quieter, so she can’t hear what he says.

From the corner of his eyes, he sees her looking at him. His hand leaves her briefly, gesturing for her to take off the headphones.

“Mum says hello!”

“Hello, Marianne! See you soon!”

“You heard that? Yeah, maybe in…”

She puts the headphones back on, decided on finishing her task rapidly. But his hand is back on her leg. His whole palm is rubbing her calf now, going back down to her feet.

“God, this is divine…”, she thinks. Henry is very tactile, and she always welcomes his gentle touch. Thinking of it, they had barely shared a moment alone yet this weekend, just the two of them… They arrived really late on Thursday night, exhausted, so she just snuggled in his arms as they both fell asleep rapidly. The children had been all over them from early Friday morning. Only last night did they finally make time for some intimacy, but they were still tired, so they did what they had to do, and quickly called it a night. Maybe he was attempting something now… She couldn’t deny it was slowly putting her in the mood.

Until he touches her sole with his thumb, which makes her wiggle her toes at the tickling feeling. She puts the script down harshly, slapping it on her thighs. He silently apologizes, continuing his conversation with his mother. This time, his hand stays still on her legs, not going back to his delightful ministrations. And she feels like pouting at him just like her daughter, to make him start again. No, she has to finish work first!

A few minutes later, she sighs with pride and relief, closing the script and throwing it in direction of the desk. It bumps on it and falls on the ground, the noise making Sirius flinch and almost fall from his perch. She turns to face Henry, who’s looking at her, a grin on his face.

As soon as she takes her headphones off, he queries “Finished now?”

“Almost! I just have to scan it and send it to the twins!”

“Can you do that a little later?” He places his hand on her exposed thigh, his expression speaking without the need for words.

“Why would I wait?”, she replies, as innocently as she can, while he stretches his gorgeous body above hers, one of his knees placed between her legs. She can feel the heat emanating from his broad chest, flowing down to her stomach, and lower.

“Because your legs are cold, and I have to warm you up… Should we go to your bedroom?”

He dives his nose in her neck, his stubble scratching at her skin deliciously, his lips and tongue tracing a wet trail on her veins and nerves. They’ve been together less than four months, but he very quickly found all of her weak spots. Only four months, but things got serious between them even before they actually could start. After talking to each other almost everyday over the phone for several months, it did not feel like they were rushing into anything thoughtlessly. Maybe it was time for another step forward…

“Our bedroom?”, she asks.

He lifts his head from her neck and looks at her, not talking for a moment. She feels worried that he won’t agree. But he kisses her lips, and she kisses him back, her arms grabbing his neck while he wraps her legs around his waist. She pushes him gently with one hand, breaking the deep kiss, needing a clear answer.

“To our bedroom, then!”, he says, the biggest of smiles illuminating his face.

#fanfic #henry cavill fic #henry cavill fluff #fluff #with a dash of smut #Fee+Bear

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fractualized · 4 years

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I tried to respond to this with a “read more” cut that didn’t work, but I made the mistake of adding some HTML editing, and I didn’t realize deleting the post to try again would DELETE THE MESSAGE? Super cool website. Luckily I still had the ask in another tab for a screenshot.

ANYWAY, I’ve only gotten a few asks, actually, but this is many in one! And this took me a while because when it comes to writing I don’t know when to shut up!

The first question is interesting for a Telltale game, because the player chooses what Bruce does, so the answer could easily be whatever YOU like about John that makes you want to treat him more like a person than a tool. Then again, the times when you can make choices are limited, as are the actual choices (see: no opportunity to contact John post lab attack), plus Bruce does have reactions you can’t control. So his character is whatever blend results from the writing and the player.

But we’re specifically talking about the shipping-friendly scenarios! So let’s forget the meta and just assume the player makes the non-jerkass choices with John. Points are in the order they occurred to me.

>>>>>

1) John’s “light outside of Arkham” speech comes to mind first of course. The first time I watched that monologue and the camera switched to Bruce, I realized he and I had the same expression. Interactions with John are largely off-beat, and what he says about the lights still is given that it’s centered around an asylum, but it’s also very earnest and honest. It’s a very humanizing moment that makes clear that John’s attachment to Harley is very real.

I recognize that that is jarley-centric, but a) I don’t subscribe to the idea that John is actually talking about Bruce in this scene and b) that said, I think it still extends to Bruce. John is expressing genuine attachment to a person he admires and seeks guidance from (and sees as attractive), after all. His vulnerability should only emphasize to Bruce the importance of taking him seriously.

2) John is very open with Bruce immediately, starting at Lucius’s funeral. When John talks about being “the new guy” on the outside, it’s very sympathetic, even if you think John is actively playing for that sympathy to get Bruce to help him. Both things can be true. (I imagine this is a tactic he used in Arkham.) Later you get the sense that if John tried to talk to Harley about wanting to retreat to the asylum, she’d probably make fun of him.

John is up front with Bruce constantly, and that can be difficult not to reciprocate at least to some degree.

3) Speaking of the funeral, I think the fact that John brings a card calls for the “thoughtful” option. It is the wrong kind of card, and you wouldn’t normally give one to nonfamily of the deceased at the funeral, and if you’re going to do it anyway I guess you should also bring one for the family, buuuuuuuuuut I can see Bruce appreciating that John tried. And you know what? Telltale wrote that scene with no option to tell John to wait to talk to you OUTSIDE, which is what anybody on earth would do when someone arrived uninvited to a funeral and one of the main facts you know about them is that they happily knifed a guy, so we’re left to assume that Bruce finds John THAT intriguing.

4) When John says he likes Batman, Bruce has this proud little look on his face. “Hell yeah, you think Batman is cool!” He seems too pleased to hear it to think of John as just a game piece.

Jumping back to the coffee date, Bruce also has that semi-sheepish proud little shrug when John tells him how well he’s doing impersonating Harley. Bruce is having more fun in that scene the longer it goes, and probably wishes it really was just a casual conversation with a friend.

5) And related to that, Bruce has multiple opportunities to advise John about Harley (and, really, about how to behave appropriately in general). I don’t think Bruce puts in that effort if he doesn’t feel for John, in how he’s new to… almost everything. Also, to Bruce, the chances of John ending up back in Arkham or in prison must be HIGH, yet he puts in that effort anyway.

6) Taking the time to train John to throw a batarang seems like a little much to keep a good contact happy. Why waste precious laptop hacking time if not because you want to do your little buddy another favor? Also, if you so choose, why GIVE HIM ONE OF YOUR WEAPONS? Just… you don’t do that for someone you don’t like, or for someone you don’t think could be reliable help in combat later.

7) We don’t see Bruce laugh that often in the game, but I think he thinks John is funny. No way Bruce reflects on the shadow puppet scene later and doesn’t at least crack a smile at the idea of Gordon having that mustache as a baby.

8) John saves Bruce’s life multiple times. There’s rescuing him from the Arkham attack in Season 1, and then there’s triggering the EMP generator before Bane decides to kill him, as well as saving his butt from either Freeze or Bane in the virus storage area depending if you threw Catwoman under the bus or not. (If you didn’t, maybe John doesn’t get Bruce out of the ice machine back at Old Five Points, but his attempt to stand up to Harley is a pretty big deal for him.)

John will also save Bruce at certain quick time events, like if Bruce doesn’t duck when you’re with the Pact in the incinerator. You gotta like someone who helps keep you alive.

>>>>>

I tried to stay pre-funhouse, because narratively, that seems like the point where “this person is my friend” should be locked in, whether you tell John you believe him or not. I’m sure I’m forgetting moments since I haven’t played in a while, but I’ve listed enough to demonstrate that the writers provide ample opportunity for a friendship to form.

When it comes to romantic love, though, I’m not sure there’s a definitive moment, especially given the situation Bruce is in. He knows he cares about John, but I think he might need downtime (relative downtime for Batman, so like quiet cave research time) to realize he feels something more. So maybe in the couple weeks before Vigilante Joker’s debut, Bruce realizes he’s not just worried about where John is with the virus, but he really misses his eccentric pal. Or maybe it takes longer and happens post game when he visits John in Arkham, and has time to reflect on what John said about wanting Bruce’s love, not to mention the brief but memorable experience of having John as a partner. (Instant combat coordination! What!)

Now if we’re talking Villain Joker, the whole “I did love you” speech at their final confrontation indicates that Bruce realized his feelings before that. (I mean, people can still interpret that line as nonromantic love, but… come on.) Which seems odd, given that John and Harley started running around offing people by the hundreds, buuuuut that just makes me think it was the fact that John ran off with Harley and abandoned any of Bruce’s influence that made Bruce realize sooner how attached he felt.

(And maybe also that John made out with Harley right in front of him. I know that scene upsets some people, but it just made me laugh. Every single thing John does in the villain scenario is to get under Bruce’s skin, so I just thought, “Are you trying to make him jealous?? dkjfalshgalgha”)

As for BPD, it certainly matches up with a lot of John’s behavior. Honestly, though, fleshing out John’s particular diagnoses is not something I’ve focused on. It was part of a whole load of research I did on mental health care overall, but I just sort of blend what I’ve retained with trying to keep John consistent with his game portrayal. I don’t have substantial experience with mental health care so my personal comfort with representing him as having anything specific is looowwwww.

#ask #telltale batman #john doe #bruce wayne #batjokes #thoughts

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dabis-devil · 4 years

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hi there!!! could i request something for Midorya, shigaraki, bakugo and sero with an s/o that has really bad adhd? like she’s not hyperactive at all, just tends to space out randomly and can’t focus on tasks/gets distracted really easily? take ur time i love ur writing!!

Hyperactive

Ah. My old foe, ADHD.

Edit: when initially answering this I have no iDeA why my brain was on crack- I didn't see sero and I misread what you asked. Like what?? Any who, all is fixed! @apollosaidgayrights

Izuku Midoriya

Ngl he probably didn't notice

For sO LONG

Even though he's very observant

The fact that you couldn't keep focused if your life depended on it just seemed like a minority he mentally wrote off.

But when your ADHD came up in a conversation with his friends, he was like

“ oh- ” a small gasp escaped his lips. “ that makes sense, ” the pure boy chuckled.

Before he did his research, he was up in your face about it.

Trying to help you

Or keeping his hand on your thigh when your knee bounced (which probably left him more flustered than you)

The minimal figeting didn't bother him at all

But when he would tell you something and you walk out the room with intent to do that task, but your mind blanks?

He didn't show an ounce of annoyance

Broccoli boi didn't want to hurt your feelings!

He did his research sooner or later, and was pretty amazed at what he found. Him, being the lovable dork he is, wrote down all the techniques/remedies/helpful tips down somewhere.

You bet your ass he's going to try every single one with you

As long as you are open to the idea

He's generally amazed at your mind though. You think of so many things at once, and you're pretty creative.

Deku loves you for you, so don't you forget that.

Even if you can't remember what he said two seconds ago or you get easily distracted,,,

He loves you!!

Tomura Shigaraki

Shigaraki figured something was 'wrong' with you.

Why else were you so distant?

So out of it?

He kept a close eye on you, always.

He didn't deem it so severe he needed to ask

Like maybe you could get over it?

Honey that's not how this works but that's ok

He wasn't delighted to have to grasp your attention every two seconds

Because to you, everything is sUdDeNlY so interesting when he starts talking about important stuff.

You'd try to give him your attention, but couldn't help but slip up every now and then.

When you got distracted during a mission, thats when the ball dropped.

After returning to the compound, you got scolded for your behavior.

“ I'm trying, alright? It's not my fault!! ” you whined.

He tried to shush you with a scoff, didn't work.

“ I have ADHD. ” your lips curved into a frown.

he took your excuse into account, and went to Kurogiri with his questions.

“ Kurogiri, what should I do with y/n? ” he furiously scratched at the bare flesh of his neck. “ how do I fix (gender pronoun)? ”

He's confused but he's got spirit

It'll take him a hot second to understand there's no fixing ADHD, after many failed attempts and theories.

Once he gets past that, he begrudgingly goes the extra mile to endure a better lifestyle.

Bakugo Katsuki

Probably get pissed at first

It's so unnecessary??

Just s t o p??

Especially if you two are talking or doing something, and you can't complete your task

It will really annoy him

It's not that hard to remember things? Or to stay concentrated..

“ you had to finish this today, dumbass- ” he snarled, blood red eyes glaring into yours

“ I can't focus. ” you mumbled, flicking a pen between your pointer and middle finger. “ ADHD. ”

That was the first time you told him, guess it slipped your mind before.

His face literally froze

>:0

He felt a little guilty about always snapping at you for being so loopy.

Just a little.

When the two of you went to get something done, he would make a list, or remind you.

When you two talked together, he always drew you back to the topic.

Typically by clearing his throat

He did these sweet little things without saying anything- actions speak louder than words

He's thought about asking you about medication

HOWEVER

It's your choice in the end.

Basically,,,

It annoys him but it's not your fault.

He'll adapt slowly but surely.

Sero Hanta

Sero won't care.

Like at all.

As long as you don't, of course.

I don't think sero has the greatest memory either, and he gets distracted from things because he's a dork-

So he can relate to you on some level.

But when he found you as a ball of frustration, curled up on your bed, it was his solemn duty to find out what's wrong.

You were staring over a sheet of hero agencies, eyebrows furrowed and a frown across your lips.

Sero wrapped his arm around you, mirroring your frown. “ what's wrong, baby? ”

“ my ADHD is acting up, I can barely make up my mind of who I'm going to intern with! ” your voice cracked out of frustration.

Sero understood you. He patted your head with a gentle chuckle, “ let me help you out then. ”

Sero read over the sheet with you, and you have conversations about the pros and cons of each hero.

In the end, you decided on (your favorite hero here)

From there on, I see him doing little things to help you focus and keeping you on track.

He'll have you sit in his lap while he reads to you

He loves that

Post it reminders around the front door

He does anything you ask him too, as long as you ask nicely

Or beg

Or just order when he's feeling sub

Just don't take advantage of his help

It doesn't bother him, but the moment it got to you he knew he needed to do something to help you out.

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willimannarai-new · 4 years

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Avatar tours#1-3: Zurich-Tokyo

«Am nächsten Tag ging die Sonne auf »

Helmhaus Museum, Zurich/CH

4. December 2020 - 24. January 2021. 20. December 2020 - 2. March 2021 - 5. April 2021

With: Ali Al-Fatlawi, The Bad Conscience (Veru Loremipsum & LS Grave), Seraina Dür & Jonas Gillmann (in collaboration with the Theater Neumarkt Zürich), Philip Matesic, Teresa Pereira, Silvia Popp – Insel Institut, Alicia Velázquez, Guido Vorburger, Wassili Widmer, Willimann/Arai, Mirjam Wirz, Druckatelier Thomi Wolfensberger – curated by Nadja Baldini, Vreni Spieser, Simon Maurer and Daniel Morgenthaler

https://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/kultur/de/index/institutionen/helmhaus/Presse/Presse_am_naechsten_tag.html

Next Day The Sun Came Up – that could be the opening sentence of a novel. The exhibition at Helmhaus is all about breaking out and starting afresh – with the rising sun. It is about the capacity for resistance and regeneration – having overcome sheer exhaustion. It is about the possibilities of renewal. A dozen or so collectives and individuals, idiosyncratic, unconventional and compelling artists from Zurich, are putting themselves and their work out there at Helmhaus.

We actually came up with this title Next Day The Sun Came Up back in 2019. With its interwoven allusions to past, present and future, it could easily be the title of a novel or even of a rom-com. Today, we are all aware that the whole world is like some penny-dreadful. There is no guarantee of a happy ending. The only thing we know for sure is that the sun will come up next day. No matter what happened last night. The relentlessness of time, passing as it does, even over masses of dead bodies, under radiant blue skies, is both a blessing and a curse. Time goes on. That is the only certainty there is. Not for everyone, but for those who remain. Its unpredictable, inexorable advance right across the entire world defines the present. No algorithm can fully help us to prepare for the future, through growth and depression, whether economic or healthwise. And so we stumble along, lightheaded and breathless. What we suppress comes back to haunt us.

Even before the virus began to circulate, we had already chosen circulation as our theme for 2020 and the participating artists had already been exploring concepts of circulation in their art. The participating artists keep on going, producing, creating, heading reflectively into each day. They take the light with them and make something of it. No matter what may come – next day. They weave a web of threads between continents and cultures, between past and present, between day and night, banality and dream. They exchange viewpoints, address their counterparts and opponents. They speak with pigeons.

Four examples: Next day the sun came up – but what was Zurich like the day before? Artist Philip Matesic always develops his works in collaboration with exhibition visitors and passers-by. In this instance, he wants to find out, as part of a collective, whether a city such as Zurich has a memory. In doing so, he uses techniques inspired by American author Joe Brainard’s I Remember, unleashing a veritable stream of memory that inexorably sweeps us along, churning memories of our own to the surface. Zurich? Now, that somehow reminds me…

Mayumi Arai is always eight hours ahead of us and far away, while Nina Willimann explores the area around the Helmhaus: time, space and body overlap on encountering the avatar willimannarai. A flesh-and-blood creature speaks to us, here in Zurich. And yet there is a nagging uncertainty about whether or not we are maybe talking to Tokyo after all. Visitors have the opportunity of accompanying the avatar live on walks through the Old Town, through Altstetten, and even through Tokyo’s Ueno district, near the main station, in Zurich.

Mirjam Wirz’s sound system reaches all the way to the ceiling of the exhibition space. The loudspeakers stacked one on top of another blare out fragments of music and voices from Mexico City, which is where the artist began her research project Sonidero City. Following the traces of cumbia music, Mirjam Wirz brings together people’s stories, music, everyday life, the world around us and the knowledge within us, and combines them to form a mosaic of image and text. Her work bears the title Ojos Suaves (Soft Eyes) and her gaze is correspondingly open, seeking some undefined moment in which everything seems possible. Making things possible is also the key to a project involving twenty Zurich artists. During the first wave of the coronavirus, Martin Senn got ten artists to produce a portfolio of ten lithographs in collaboration with Zurich printmaker Thomi Wolfensberger. We liked the idea so much that we would like to continue the project during the second wave with prints by another ten Zurich artists. Lithography is a new medium for all of them. But why not take advantage of these exceptional times by starting something new?

Events (for dates and details, see the enclosed invitation card, and for updates see www.helmhaus.org) Even the sun has a corona. And so, for Next Day The Sun Came Up, our focus is not so much on big events, but more along the lines of direct – and safe – encounters between visitors and artists. Almost all the artists are present from time to time during opening hours. Teresa Pereira will be continuously working on her wall sculpture to create a radiant body, while Ali Al-Fatlawi will be lending form to the memories of visitors. Alicia Velázquez will be reflecting their dreams in drawings and writings, merged with her own dreams, to create a collective dream. The pigeons are always there for Seraina Dür & Jonas Gillmann and the duo will join them now and again, perhaps singing or dancing. Islands expert Silvia Popp produces chairs in her workshop and reflects on transformation, Wassili Widmer lends rhythm to all these spaces – and all sorts of stuff can happen besides – while Guido Vorburger quietly works on his next painting in his studio.

Discussions will continue at the Helmhaus – we hope – beyond the turn of the year. Speakers will be there as ever, with masks of course, to engage with visitors in reflecting on what has been seen, heard or felt. And, as ever, we’ll be announcing three events that will take place at the Helmhaus sooner or later. The book launch relating to the Neu-Oerlikon Performance Series presents a new publication covering a decade of performances in the public space. Edited by Maricruz Peñaloza and published by Amsel-Verlag Zurich, the book not only documents the contributions made by 150 performers from all over the world, but also addresses wider social, political and cultural issues (Thursday, 10 December 2020). How Swiss museums handle Diversity is the question for our panel discussion on Thursday, 14 January 2021. Based on a research project at the Hochschule der Künste Bern, and moderated by cultural scientist Anke Hoffmann, this is an opportunity for the guest panellists and the public to discuss representation, dependency/dependencies and quality with regard to the topic of diversity. Finally, we welcome a guest who has seen the sun come up for nigh on a century: Fritz Senn, Director of the James Joyce Foundation in Zurich and internationally renowned authority on Joyce, will be speaking with Daniel Morgenthaler in our 5 O’Clock Theses series, this time under the Beckettian title The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new (Wednesday, 16 December 2020). And besides: we can all look forward to the curiosity in the eyes of children, and adults too, putting the everyday behind them for an hour or so at the Helmhaus, thanks to the expertly led and thought-provoking Guided Tours – as well as Studio Tables for children.

For further information and visual material, please contact Nathalie Killias, tel. +41 (0)44 415 56 77, email: [email protected] Information on the exhibition and visual materials are available for download on our website: helmhaus.org.

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dgcatanisiri · 4 years

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I said I’d hoped to get this out by the end of the month. FINALLY, the next installment of my series of Hypothetical DLCs.

Welcome to DG’s Listing of Wish These DLC Existed, where I theorize, speculate, and just kinda generally throw ideas at the wall about DLCs for games I love that never happened and never will happen, but damn, I’d like to see them anyway.

Because I have ideas, I can’t get them made as mods, I don’t have time to make them into fic, and they’re never going to happen anyway, so why not put them up in a public place? After all, they’re tie ins to games I have no control over anyway, so it’s not like I’ll ever make money off of them anyway. And, as I’m not bound by any hardware limitations in terms of crafting ideas, or production cycles dictating when the game’s endpoint is, these can and do go on a great deal longer than the standard lifespan of a game.

A review of the format: There will be a name for the DLC, a brief synopsis, a reference to when this hypothetical DLC would become available/if and when it becomes unavailable, and then an expansion/write up of the ideas going in to them. Some ideas will have more expansion than others, because I’ve just plainly put more thought into them - in a lot of cases, I wrote them down just on the basis of ‘this idea seems pretty cool,’ and then gave them more context later on.

Feedback is welcome! Like an idea? Don’t like an idea? I welcome conversation and interaction on these ideas. Keep it civil, remember that these are just one person’s ideas, we can discuss them. Perhaps you’ll even help inspire a part two for these write ups! Because I do reserve the right to come up with more ideas in the future - these are the ideas that I’ve had to this point, but the whole reason this series exists is because I come up with new ideas for old stories.

With the KOTOR games both dealt with, we move on to the next category of the BioWare franchises, Mass Effect. This one took a while, considering the much more open-ended aspect of choices within the Mass Effect universe. And ME2′s edition is going to take a good long while as well, considering... Well, I’ll explain that when I get there.

Anyway. Given the way that Mass Effect carries decisions forward, there is an additional category for the ideas within these editions, where there’s a brief summary of the way they will impact future games - granted, most of these are ME2 letters and ME3 war assets, but it’s still worth making a note of.

Also, given the context of ME1′s rather open-ended structure, where there aren’t really any serious plot breaks or boundaries that prevent advancement too soon, aside from Virmire and Ilos not being unlocked until events in the plot, assume that, unless otherwise noted, these DLCs are all available at any point after Shepard is made a Spectre and given command of the Normandy, and, obviously, must be played before Ilos.

To business!

First Contact

As a Spectre and Alliance officer, Commander Shepard is called in when an Alliance team goes missing after reporting they had made contact with a new alien species. The Normandy is assigned to recover the team and establish peaceful relations if at all possible – yet there is a mystery here, one that the natives are not happy to welcome meddling in...

So, yeah, the basic idea here is simply that, with the whole Reaper thing, we don’t really get to see much of the more basic ideas of space exploration – big plot trounces little ideas. And first contact is as basic a concept for a scifi series as you can get. In my book, that’s the advantage of DLC in this series, to go for the smaller scale stories.

So let’s go into detail. We’re going to need a character to act as the exposition fairy – I vote that, at least in the briefing, this is coming from Pressley, so we can offer him a little more characterization and involvement (let’s honestly consider “Pressley gives a briefing that offers him more characterization, involvement, and general utilization” a thing for all of these, since he really doesn’t get a lot of usage in ME1, which is probably why he’s not really replaced on the Normandy after this game, and take this opportunity to give his character some expansion so that his death can mean a little more when ME2’s prologue goes down). He’s giving the baseline facts about why the Normandy is going in and handling this situation.

Obviously, the First Contact team has gone out of contact, and the Normandy is tasked to discover what has happened to them and make the best of the situation they end up in. I’m not locking this to after recruiting Liara, but I do picture her, Kaidan, and Ashley getting some fair use in any and all of these (a few in particular – we’ll get there when we get there), both because of their role as love interests and because of their general attitudes and thematic roles – Liara’s the wide-eyed idealist (considering her romanticizing of the protheans – any culture that refers to themselves as an “empire” is not going to be a peaceful collection of philosophers and scientists), Ashley’s the reasoned cynic, and Kaidan is something of the balance between them – cautious optimism and ready for if/when things go to shit.

The arrival finds Shepard and company on our new world (location to be decided – given Citadel rules on activating dormant Relays, it’s probably best that this is a planet within an already existing cluster, and we probably ought to put it somewhere within the boundaries of Alliance space, what with them taking lead on this first contact). The locals seem welcoming and friendly, but there’s a clear air of uncertainty – are they a threat, where’s the Alliance contact team, why are they acting like they know something that Shepard and crew don’t?

I know, we’re running the risk of retreading the ground of Feros and the thorian here, but, one, honestly, I like Feros, so I’m okay with revisiting it as a concept at least, two, it’s not like BioWare doesn’t recycle their own plots all the time anyway, even granting that they usually don’t do it within the same game, and three, I see it ending in a different place, so we’re going with this.

Anyway, investigation, suspicion, blah, blah, blah... I swear, the fun would be in the investigation, the building mystery, so I’m skipping over the work for the sake of a summary. The end result is that of course the natives killed the team, but the reason is because this is a group of descendants of a prothean subject race. They’d engaged in a revolt, adapted/stolen a colony ship, and flew off into the black, and done this right around the time of the initial stages of the Reaper invasion of the prothean empire – the protheans had bigger fish to fry (or be fried by, depending on how you use the metaphor), and given how proud the protheans are, I can see them covering this up in the name of saving face, both of which allowed these people to escape the notice of the Reapers – systematic destruction or not, finding one lone ship in the depths of space isn’t “needle in a haystack,” it’s “needle in the midwest.” It’d have been one thing if they’d found a planet to establish themselves on right away, but they dove into the black without a clear destination – also use this to emphasize WHY most Council explorations tend to stick to familiar clusters with an established Mass Relay nearby, that space is vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big.

As a detail for this race, I’m gonna include one of my headcanons for the protheans, since, hey, my DLC idea – while the protheans developed their technology around the Mass Relays and such, as the Reapers intended, the tech of their own design, without the influence of external powers, would have more of an organic bent to it, that they were more inclined to “grow” their tech than build it. Like they accepted the Mass Effect as a foundation for their tech, the Citadel as a base, but they weren’t all that happy about it, just never quite getting their own designs really match the designs of “inusannon” technology in effectiveness. So in response, this species turned towards cybernetics (maybe they’re members of the zha’til, to connect them having this knowledge with the tidbits Javik offers in ME3? *shrug* I’ll use them as the name for this species for simplicity’s sake, because that’s less awkward than no name at all, but I’m not married to it being them), to not just give them an edge against the protheans when they came after them, but also to serve as a taunt towards them, a statement of “you fear technology, so we’re going to become the personification of your boogeymen.”

So the survival of these zha’til has been their hidden nature, and they have developed into a pure xenophobic society – no aliens are accepted among them, and, with the appearance of Shepard’s team, they are fully of the belief that there will be those who come after. They can recognize that the appearance of outsiders once means it will happen again. And they will be ready – Shepard’s crew is a boon for them, allowing them access to biologies of not just humans, but asari, turian, krogan, and quarian. They’d prepared for the damage the protheans could do upon finding their retreat, spent fifty thousand years becoming something the protheans would have to fear. Of course, Shepard’s gonna have to ruin it. I can see them trying the ‘we’ll erase the coordinates, put up a warning buoy, ensure no one comes here’ argument, but that’s not flying with these guys, since organic nature tends towards curiosity, and just blanking the system would leave a mystery, one that organics would want to solve, and a warning buoy can malfunction or be ignored – they want total isolation, and, even if the odds are like one in trillions, that’s too high for them, so they’d sooner be the only life in the galaxy.

I’m thinking the solution is in their reliance on their tech, having attained this symbiosis with it that they all are implanted – tech can be hacked, it can malfunction, it can be a vulnerability as much as an asset. Going way back to the start of the involvement of Kaidan, Liara, and Ashley, here’s them all getting to voice their solution, with Ashley going the straightforward route of “they’re a threat, they’ll keep being a threat, they don’t want to change and stop being a threat, I don’t want to commit genocide, but I also want to defend the Alliance, and those options look mutually exclusive right now,” Liara is all “think of what they could offer us, their history is invaluable, they were contemporaries of the protheans, what might they know, and even if we have the ability to wipe out an entire species, that’s an action that can never be undone,” and Kaidan is the middle ground of “the leaders and people we’ve spoken to made a threat, but we can’t call the entire population of this planet genocidal maniacs, surely there must be something we can do to find a reasonable solution.”

It basically comes down to Shepard getting to hack the tech, and then faced with the decision – a) wiping them out by way of effectively setting all their implants to electrify themselves – they’ve shown themselves to be a threat, they have violent intentions towards other life in the galaxy, and nothing indicates that there is any dissent among their population, especially if their implants can allow for like planetary consensus or something, b) shutting down the tech, their greatest threat, as a way to keep most of them alive, but reducing their civilization to like Bronze Age – the Citadel races would certainly be willing to help the zha’til recover, but it’s not like they’d be happy to accept it, or c) use this as the way to force them to come to the table and negotiate in good faith, under the threat of destruction as a result of them using this weapon, give them a chance, with the downside being that they have done nothing to indicate that they deserve this chance, or that the second they develop a workaround, they’ll be back to threatening all alien life.

Post Game Followups:

ME2: Letter from the head of a Council-approved research team, investigating the planet, with or without inhabitants.

ME3: Assuming the zha’til survive, a representative is on the Citadel, offering their aid. If they were reduced, they are a significantly smaller War Asset.

Investigations

The Citadel’s Wards house people from across the galaxy, and murder is a common occurrence. When the murder victim is a prominent Alliance politician, however, one whose controversial opinions made him a target for non-humans, the Alliance can only trust one person to investigate on the Citadel – the first human Spectre, Commander Shepard.

Honestly, the Citadel could absolutely support its own game. Just the pieces we get of it from the trilogy and the Citadel DLC tease a massive station that probably has a population higher than some planets. So there’s A LOT to do here (indeed, looking over my notes for this, I have at least one DLC focused entirely on events on the Citadel in each game, and all of them can utilize entirely new areas, so...). And, really, who doesn’t enjoy an old-fashioned ‘whodunnit’ murder mystery?

Obviously, we have more than just the basic mystery happening here, or else we’d just have a standard sidequest, not a full DLC length story. I feel like this needs to go in depth on corruption within Citadel politics – poke around my blog, you’ll find I’m HIGHLY critical of the Council’s handling of the Saren matter, where they appoint a C-Sec officer with a reputation for not playing by the rules as the only investigator of the Eden Prime incident, give him roughly a day to look in to things, (Shepard’s out about sixteen hours, according to Doctor Chakwas, they arrive at the Citadel, get summoned to the Council, and encounter Garrus, at which point the trial is about to start, with no indication that more than hours at most have passed) and then TELL him that his investigation is over, Saren is allowed access to the files of the man he is accused of killing, an eye witness report of Saren’s murder of Nihlus is completely dismissed, while the data file Tali extracts from a geth, which Anderson says upon hearing that he’s never heard of this happening (to say nothing of the quarians’ status among the Citadel races) is deemed “irrefutable evidence”... There’s A LOT that is at best questionable about how the Council handles things. And that’s just sticking with the first game.

So I’d like to pull back some of the veil on Citadel politics, and use that to explore the human-alien friction. Due to Shepard’s rising profile throughout the series, we kinda lose a lot of the big level details of this, and it’s one of those things I like about the Mass Effect universe circa the first game – humanity ISN’T the big kahuna, they’re the latest arrivals, and the rest of the galaxy thinks they’re a bunch of jerks trying to take what they haven’t earned.

Hence where we start – our victim is an Alliance politician, someone who’s got one of those jobs that makes them friends and enemies of the same people. Obviously, this means that there are a lot of people on the Citadel (and outside the Citadel) who would easily be picked up as suspects – again, we’re going an investigative route, to help show off Shepard as a tactician, to show off their brains as well as their brawn.

This is going to lead us first to explore more of the Citadel Tower, the place where the Council and other assorted political figures meet. Udina probably plays a part in things, considering he IS the ambassador at this point, so he’ll probably be talking to Shepard about matters along the way, something of our regular check-in point (plus good to offer him some more characterization and expand him somewhat).

Obviously, with a murder mystery, we investigate through the location, taking us through the Tower and into its deeper structure, to the point that Shepard ends up in the Tower’s basement (or whatever we call the lowest level). Down here, the discovery is that there’s (what else) a conspiracy. Humanity is moving too fast – they’ve only been here for about thirty years and they already have an embassy, are angling for a spot on the Council, how long until they replace all the races who were here first on the Council, make the Citadel humans only?

I feel like we could also get some retroactive elements of Cerberus’s human supremacy in play here, suggest that our victim was being manipulated by them and used to advance their agenda – not just to foreshadow how Cerberus gains prominence in the next game, but also to show that even well-intentioned people are preyed upon by Cerberus’s actions (hello Paragon Shepard). Cerberus didn’t mind using him for their objectives, even if he’s not some pro-human bigot.

Speaking of, let’s tie in Terra Firma a little more into this – they seemed to have some influence in the first game, then drop off the face of the earth, so yeah, let’s throw them in somehow. Like I see that as part of our concluding decision, where the replacement political figure is one of their people, so they seem like the “obvious suspect” red herring – I think by this point we’ve established with these that one of my priorities is worldbuilding, and, again, Terra Firma dropped off the face of the series when it seemed to have developing prominence in the first game.

Anyway, back to the plot. Obviously, Shepard has to do something about this conspiracy. The problem is, of course, while extreme, they represent a dominant view among the Citadel races. And it’s one that has validity to it, humans are demanding more power than any other race in the Citadel’s history (this cycle, anyway, who knows about the previous ones?), and to these races, they are seen as aggressive in that pursuit.

Here’s the thing, and I’ve gone over this in my critiques of the Council before – humans are aggressive about getting more representation because of a handful of things. Number one, humans are out to advance, we recognize that we learn best from making mistakes, while the Citadel races seem to abide by a code of “none shall advance faster than the slowest.” That no advancement is made until all are “capable” of benefiting from it in certain ways, despite how we have the example of multiple species not even being able to compete on a level playing field with races like the asari, the salarians, or the turians – the volus are a client race of the turians, despite having been a part of the galactic community longer. It’s why we see the relative stagnation – the asari discovered the Citadel two thousand years ago, and yet so much of it is still a mystery.

Number two, humans are aggressive because the Citadel races were aggressive to them first. The First Contact War started because Citadel law is that no one shall activate dormant Mass Relays. Thing is, humanity opened Relay-314 at a time that they’d never even heard of the Citadel and its government. So the turians who opened fire first? They were holding humanity to the standards and rules and laws of a governmental body that they didn’t even know existed until the shooting started.

That the turians enforce this law so rigidly, and that the asari and salarians don’t seem to understand how much the asshole it makes them, is the honest source of a lot of the tension between the races in the game.

Like, I vehemently disagree with the racist attitudes of the Terra Firma asshole we meet, but he’s not wrong in pointing out that if you see a kid playing with a matchbook, you take the matches away, but you don’t shoot them for good measure. The turians started the conflict, and you can tell that the Citadel races never acknowledge their responsibility in this – it’s all “humans are so aggressive” without any understanding of why a species whose introduction to the greater galaxy came at a cost of life and involved acts of violence inflicted on them, literally on the basis of information that by definition, they could not have, just MIGHT hold a grudge.

...So, uh, bringing this back around to the topic at hand... This is where we get to the central conflict. Our Terra Firma assholes who are all “Earth first!” have a valid point that the Council and the Citadel races mistreat humanity, and wrap it up in condescending bullshit, so the fact that they’re looking to take some kind of action to do something about this is understandable, even if they’re doing it wrong. The opposition is the conspiracy folks, the ones who murdered the outspoken human, all in the name of protecting their people from perceived human aggression.

And yes, it really does all come down to something that simple, as both sides are right and both sides are wrong, and now someone has to clean up the mess their hostilities have created. I do want this to really come down to something so simple and, on paper, easy to resolve, because when this kind of thing happens in our world, it’s frequently just as on paper simple, but, because of the emotions involved and the personal grudges accumulated, no one is able to take that step back and try to make amends (not saying that as a value judgement, just a fact – sometimes it is appropriate to address the personal grudges, sometimes you need let them go for the greater good).

There’s an interconnectedness to the Citadel races in the course of the series, and this is one of the ways to showcase that, by displaying that both of these peoples need each other in the course of the continuation of this cycle’s civilizations. So Shepard’s ultimate decision is about making a decision, and the hard work is in making them both recognize and acknowledge that they are both wrong – pulling this off right, meaning Shepard found all the ways to make good in-roads with both factions so they’ll listen when they make a big persuasive speech, we have the legitimate grievances acknowledged and at least on course to be redressed (one of the galactic news reports can, if the Alliance fleet is sacrificed to save the Destiny Ascension, say that the turians are considering reparations – maybe with this option, this happens regardless). Pulling it off wrong, Shepard has to side with one faction or the other, leaving tension and hostility remaining unresolved, impacting future relations.

Post Game Followups:

ME2: Emails from the sided faction, talking about their political advancement.

ME3: Impact on Citadel politics, affecting the attitude of the populace in the Citadel Defense Force

Old Wounds

Shanxi was the site of the First Contact War. Since then, the human colonists have resisted alien interference and involvement on their world. But things become complicated when a turian effort at reparations ends up as a hostage situation. Naturally, the Alliance has one person they want to send in to help smooth things over – Commander Shepard.

An Ashley focus mission, we’re giving her the spotlight here – consider this something of a proto-loyalty mission, since the game itself didn’t have these. Because Shanxi is a place that means a lot to her and her family, so we’re going to say that she is on this mission. That obviously also limits this to a pre-Virmire position in the plot, because she may not make it off of that planet.

Shanxi is talked about, but it’s never even given a flyby in the games proper, and so we head there. And, especially with the context of the last entry in this list, I feel like there should be some effort to acknowledge that there should be reparations to humanity – like I said there, the turians discovered humans on Shanxi and decided to openly attack them, hold them to laws and rules that they had no way of knowing existed, and then decide that humans are the aggressive ones because of how they respond? Yeah, that’s bullshit.

So we have a situation where a group of turians have this realization and are trying to convince the people of Shanxi of their good intentions. Shanxi is, understandably, reluctant to believe it. Shepard is going in to smooth things over, try and ease the tensions that are inevitably flaring up, and Ashley is, ultimately, conflicted about how to feel about this whole matter – this is Shanxi, Williams are not exactly welcome here. But there is still a feeling of responsibility here all the same, because her family impacted this world and now she’s here to help try to build a bridge. The “hostage situation” of the synopsis will actually take place during the course of events – before that happens, we get a chance to explore Shanxi, learn about the history there.

This seems like a point to bring it up: Ashley’s grandfather surrendering Shanxi, in the name of preventing a massacre, and being branded a traitor for it makes little sense to me. Of course, I get that surrendering looks bad, if you’re only looking at the act, and not the motivation. People were losing their lives, he acted to protect them. The Alliance military being unforgiving assholes is not unbelievable, but the general public going along with it, refusing to have his name cleared, even decades later, is.

So we’re going to have to dig into the reasons for this. People on Shanxi will resent the Williams for the surrender – they wanted to fight to the bitter end, and they passed this along to their kids. The “death before dishonor” crowd think it would have been better to have fought to the last – sent a stronger message to the Citadel about the wrongness of that whole “shoot first, ask questions later, blame the victim for everything” approach. They’re the ones who lead the charge against Williams’ actions, saying he was weak for surrendering to the turians. Meanwhile others are aware that he saved lives.

If anything, this makes things difficult for Ashley. As much as she lives under the specter of her family, she is not quite sure about what life would be like if he’s cleared – even knowing that things would be better, her family not getting shit details and crap assignments, it means getting a new perspective on the future that she never expected and needs to process that.

Core plot is still the hostage situation, one that Shepard ends up being involved in. The hostage takers are a group demanding more for the turians in terms of reparations – they can’t bring back the dead, of course, but the turians aren’t giving enough in their eyes. I don’t know, let’s say that it’s coming across as a perfunctory kind of apology, the “We’re sorry you feel we disrespected you” kind of reaction, which... Yeah, I totally see the turians doing that and the humans calling bullshit.

I mean, yeah, you want more to it than just “we’re angry” and such, because that’s a pretty straightforward mission, but the idea here is as much for exploring Ashley’s character and development over just an outright mission story. This is about her, and we’re going to explore her through this as much as the plot, so the plot can get away with being fairly limited in scope or scale, because this is about the character.

And this means that Ashley needs to have the big moment of resolving the crisis, rather than Shepard. Like, RPG, we’ll say Shepard gets the option to decide who gets that moment, but let’s be real, to culminate her arc in this DLC, it should be her. Bookend the portrayal of her grandfather with her – depending on how Shepard’s interacted with her, with how much digging they did into the history of the place, how they’ve interacted with the people, and it leads to Ashley (or Shepard) being able to talk down the hostage takers, defuse the situation, resolve things peacefully. If they can’t, violence ensues.

Resolution-wise, we’d be looking at the turians being upset and nearly starting conflict all over again because “you humans are too damn aggressive,” “the turians aren’t negotiating in good faith and wish they’d blasted humanity back to the stone age,” blah blah blah. Variation is in how the situation was resolved – peaceful resolution leads to the agreement to try this again later, let hostilities die down a little before trying to fix these long-standing grudges, violent is that the turians walk away, the human diplomats basically going “well, we’ll try this again at some point, hopefully.” And, for Ashley, she’s resolved some of her family’s old ghosts – best case scenario, she’s given Shanxi a different memory of the Williams clan, and can walk away with a tangible note on her record that, regardless of how anyone else might try to creatively reinterpret her record, says that her contribution saved lives.

Post Game Followups:

ME2: Email from diplomatic representative about the advancement of the talks over the previous two years.

ME3: If peacefully resolved, a joint human-turian task force is a war asset.

Ascension

The Ascension Project is a home for human biotics. Rumors reach Captain Anderson that there is a biotic extremist group attempting to subvert the teaching and draw them towards pro-human interests, and he asks Commander Shepard to investigate what could be a threat to the human-Citadel alliance.

We had Ashley’s loyalty mission, here’s Kaidan’s. The advancement of human biotics was a running thread through the background of ME1, but sort of fell by the wayside as the series expanded its scope in successive games, so this is a chance to explore that further. And we’re going to do so in part by building on the mission in game that involves Chairman Burns, the Alliance Parliament member who is taken captive by L2 biotics seeking reparations.

Obviously, we see Grissom Academy, the site of the Ascension Project, in ME3, but hey, for one, I like the idea that (retroactively, anyway) this means that Shepard is returning there in the course of the third game, and for two, it’s entirely reasonable to make the Academy large enough to house areas that we just didn’t see in the course of the mission there. Plus we’re seeing it (at least to start) in less of a state of chaos as exists in ME3.

Again, we’re starting lowkey. The idea here is more infiltration first – if extremists are trying to coopt kids’ education, odds are sending in soldiers is gonna tip them off quick and easy. So instead this is going to be framed as an “Alliance biotic recruitment” kind of thing – “The Alliance wants you!” and all that sort. That’s the cover as Shepard’s team heads in. The name of the game here is stealth, that we’re not here to set off alarms, just to ensure that there’s no attempt at subversion of the Alliance’s goals of peaceful coexistence with the Citadel races.

As a sidenote, both this and the Ashley DLC are basically me engaging in retroactively applied stories to further justify why it is that Kaidan and Ashley get the Spectre wings come ME3 – as it is, that kinda feels more like a bone being thrown to humanity in the name of appeasing them with Earth captured by the Reapers, as well as Udina wanting a loyal bodyguard, as opposed to something that their skill and ability has earned them the position. I want some exploration of the skill that justifies them getting that position.

So, yeah, we see the Ascension Project in its glory, causing a bit of a stir of memories for Kaidan, aware that this is more like what he should have experienced at BAaT. He’s glad that there are biotics who are getting to learn about their abilities in a safe environment that isn’t going to treat them like trash – whether or not that’s the military boot camp way, these are kids who have been, by a quirk of fate and chance, given these incredible powers without their consent, they deserve sympathy and understanding regarding their lives abruptly turned upside down, not demands that they show the same level of skill as people who train through their lives to be weapons.

Another investigation story, as we look in on the various teachers, learning more about what the state of affairs with regards to biotics are – if Mass Effect Andromeda is going to say that Cora felt outcasted and isolated because of her biotics, lets at least make this have a tangible feeling of what the actual culture and society she left behind is dealing with, considering that this is something that I’ve seen EVERYONE side-eying at best with her. At least offer it some grounding in the universe so it’s not just her, in effect, whining that she felt alone when we have characters like Kaidan, who killed someone with his biotics as a teenager, and Jack, who was tortured from infancy in an attempt to build a better biotic.

Anyway. The idea is to see more about what the biotics go through, and to better explain what biotics even are to the uninitiated (re: the audience). Biotics are just an accepted part of the universe in the games as is, but these are still a relatively recent thing for humanity, and we don’t really know how people are handling it.

Honestly, I’m kinda inclined to fully lean into a “biotics = homosexuality” metaphor. Like, personal stuff here, that’s one of the things that really... bothers me about the way Cora is handled in Andromeda, that she has this very queercoded story in terms of her self-acceptance, to the point of at one point, in reference to her biotics, saying “what if someone had told me ‘that’s okay’?” about herself. And that’s a line that defines queer narratives, but it is coming out of this cis-straight person’s mouth. So yeah, I’m gonna fix that how I can, since canonically, Kaidan is a bisexual man, and he gets the focus here, and we’re gonna take advantage of this. I may have issues with how BioWare handles their not-straight characters, but since they’re not actually making this, I’m gonna take full advantage.

Oh, right. Plot. Something, something... We get to the overall plot. Of course, we can sway a few people over – these biotic extremists are looking for belonging and acceptance above all. We see things like Major Kyle’s biotic cult, biotics are looking for something that gives them a place, beyond just the military stuff – what happens to the biotic who is a pacifist, where do they fit in when the only place that really seems to accept biotics is the Alliance military? Yeah, sure, these extremists would be testing the idea of “pacifism,” but it’s still the general concept we’re going with.

Like with the above Ashley story, it comes down to Kaidan getting the option to take the lead on this. You know how in the situation in the base game with Chairman Burns, Kaidan will interject about being an L2, like those extremists? Last time I played through, I kinda felt like he should have been more in the lead on that mission, that it should have been his answer to Garrus and Doctor Saleon, or Wrex and the family armor, something like that. So we’re going to have a similar situation here. Like with Ashley above, his ability to talk down the leader of this group depends on how well the player investigated – find the details, talk to the right people, that sort of detective stuff (because I like there being more to gaining experience in games that just combat).

That’s especially meaningful because this particular pro-human person, the one leading these biotic extremists? He worked at BAaT, was one of the people supposedly tasked with watching the situations with the turian biotics who had been brought on. He knew Kaidan. Kaidan knew him. In some ways, because of what happened with Kaidan, that’s why he was inspired to this – letting aliens teach biotics to these children, dictate those terms, WAS abuse, and, in his mind, humans can’t let their children be so violently abused by aliens again.

Kaidan says he dealt with his past in the game proper. But this is still an echo of it, someone who he once knew, worse, someone who cites what happened to him as reason for what he’s doing. Which is why it’s important for Kaidan that he be the one to resolve this. As ever, it can be resolved with words or violence, yay Paragon/Renegade system. For Kaidan, though, it’s just important to see this through and make sure that he has this dealt with.

Post Game Followups:

ME2: Email from a class of biotics saved.

ME3: Student saved during the Grissom Academy mission is among the students encountered here, their presence gives a boost to the biotic students war asset

Ruins of Preita

An asari colony world has discovered a prothean archive that could rival those on Mars. Due to the concerns of the Reapers, Commander Shepard and crew go to investigate – and find an empty world, the archaeology team missing. Finding the missing team leads into a world lost to the galaxy for over fifty thousand years – and a threat even the protheans locked away!

So, now we have a Liara loyalty mission story. If you’ve paid any serious attention to my blog over the years, you’re probably having a laugh at my expense here – I’m always complaining about an overfocus on Liara, and yet here I am, adding to her content specifically. Hey, I’m at least playing fair and giving her time alongside Ashley and Kaidan. Hell, that’s why I’m doing this. I gave them time in the sun, and it’s fair that I give her the same.

But yes, I want to explore Liara’s character through the lens of her as an archaeologist, which basically gets a little lip service in the games proper, but ultimately means nothing. She is supposed to be an expert on the protheans and an archaeologist of renown, and yet that gets dumped as her actual profession in ME2, so that she can “be a very good information broker,” which... Not to dismiss her in what is meant to be a focus mission for her, but that ends up being told, rather than shown. Let’s let her play to her strengths.

This is a mission about her getting to flex that muscle. She learns about this archive – actually, thinking about it, let’s say that this was a dig that she had the chance to go on instead of the Therum dig, and chose it instead in the name of it being more isolated (more on that later). With the latest report she’s read about it, she thinks it’ll be an assist to Commander Shepard – if nothing else, the fact that Saren was interested in Eden Prime’s prothean beacon means that a new prothean archive might well be a lure for him, and he might well show up, or have Benezia or one of her agents go there in his stead. It could lead them to Saren, is what she’s using as her justification for telling Shepard to go and check this out.

Obviously it won’t, because game mechanics, but it’s a solid enough reason to get us where we’re going, which is an asari planet. Here’s where we get a chance to see Liara in her element AND see this pushback against her theories. It bugs the hell out of me that Liara says that her theory of the cycle of extinction is dismissed by other asari because of her youth – by framing that dismissal of her peers with having to do purely with her age, it says that in the two thousand years since the asari discovered the Citadel, to say nothing of anything that might have been included in the prothean archive in the Temple of Athame, NO ONE ELSE has put forward the idea of the cycles. That Liara is the first to put those pieces together. In more than two thousand years. And, as things turn out, she is 100% correct about there being a constant cycle of civilization and extinction.

My suspension of disbelief breaks at that. That she and she alone has developed this theory – this theory that is absolutely fact – in two thousand years. Bare minimum, I would have said that she was part of a fringe collection of scientists who just don’t have the evidential support to justify this being the mainstream view. But it’s the canon we have to work with, so, fine. But this disagreement when it comes to theories on the extinction of the protheans would be another point of why Liara didn’t go on this excursion, that these other researchers are those who do not share her beliefs, and, as she believes, that would mean they would shun her.

But it’s important that these researchers not just be strawmen – they may have held opposing views to Liara, that doesn’t mean they would dislike her. In point of fact, one of them has to have considered herself a friend to Liara, for reasons I’ll get in to in a bit. But these are going to be people who are all for the most part entirely likeable and reasonable. They just don’t agree with Liara’s stance.

Or at least, the records and logs they’ve left behind make them entirely likable and appear reasonable. Because, of course the research team is missing when Shepard and team arrive – like research teams in these scenarios are ever able to avoid going missing and being presumed dead.

This sparks a conflict with Liara – she’s glad that they’re able to try and find them, maybe even rescue them, but she’s also guilty because she should have been on this expedition, should have been with them. Liara’s got a tendency to put things on her own shoulders (see her reaction after Thessia, assuming you don’t have Javik/don’t take the interrupt to get them to an accord). Hell, ideally, this would be something done after Noveria and her mother’s death to explore that some – I hate how by the time you try to speak with her about it, she’s already pulling that “I choose to remember Benezia as she was” thing, seeming to either be accepting or repressing what happened, when what happened is that, regardless of the why, her mother is dead, and Shepard pulled the trigger.

So yeah, while this is a mission available at any point after doing Therum, in my mind, it’s best to take this after Noveria for the ability for Liara to lash out at Shepard for not being able to rescue her mother, how do they think that they can save these people, one among them a friend of hers, look at that, it’s another situation where Shepard is going to fail to rescue someone who mattered to her!

That is her breaking point, where she can’t bottle this all up anymore. That, for the sake of the mission, for “the greater good,” she’s bottled up her feelings and anger and resentment and fear, and yet, here and now, she can’t help it, she has to address it. She knows it’s unfair to Shepard – she heard about indoctrination, understands that it was something horrible for Benezia, that Benezia accepted no alternative to death, but people she cares about keep getting caught in the line of fire, all in the name of what, exactly? “The greater good”? “The ends justifying the means”? Chance and circumstance?

Hell, include some elements tying her closer to Ashley and Kaidan at this point – it connects the crew together more for when the Virmire decision hits, considering that this game only has banter in the Citadel elevators, which, given fast travel, is heavily skippable, and competes with news reports. There needs to be more development of the character interactions, so let’s do some character interaction here, if nothing else. (And maybe also include a post-Virmire conversation with her about how SHE feels about the loss of Ashley/Kaidan, yes I’m moving out of the scope of this DLC idea, but it’s good for characterization, dammit!)

Investigation happens, records and logs do the ‘ominous mood building’ thing... The end result is that what happened was that this planet once housed a prothean lab. A bio-engineering lab. They were creating something that (stated ambiguously, since Shepard won’t know about the Reapers properly yet at this point in the timeline) was meant to fight the Reapers, be something that could stand against them and protect the protheans. But by the time that it was done, the war was all but over, the protheans having lost. The protheans never got the chance to let it loose, pulling up stakes from the facility before the Reapers hit it. But as time wore away the tech, this thing they created has gotten loose on its own after a few thousand years. This thing is like the rachni on Noveria, having been grown in isolation – there was nothing else on this planet, it was literally the only kind of life around, even before getting to it being engineered as a weapon above all else. It’s too mad to save, must be put down.

Easier said than done, of course. The archaeological team are contained inside of it (I’m thinking held in some kind of crystal-like stasis pods on its back), and is drawing on them for life, sort of in the same way that Malak used the Jedi captives on the Star Forge in KOTOR, where it taps into them and heals itself based on their life force. So the Paragon/Renegade choice in here revolves around how much effort Shepard’s going to put in to saving the captives. Freeing them before they get used as batteries, probably with Liara using her biotics to rescue those who they manage to get loose (meaning she’s unable to act as support in combat because she’s busy focusing her biotics), or just killing them first – with Liara distracted and unable to provide support, that justifies the Renegade stance, because it’s one less source of firepower against the thing as it tries to either kill them or add them to its collection.

That’s important because that aforementioned friend of hers is going to be rescued either way the player chooses – Liara will insist on getting her out alive, even if Shepard foregoes saving the others. Regardless of the player choice, Liara’s friend survives, and, once the creature is dead, she’ll respond to how Shepard chose to resolve the situation, if she’s the sole survivor or if Shepard made an effort to rescue everyone. She’s grateful for her survival either way, but she’s angry about the failure to save the others if they were abandoned.

For Liara, though, the ultimate result is seeing something of the protheans being knocked off their pedestal – regardless of the reason (which, yes, we know to be extinction by Reapers), they abandoned this creature, left it to be consumed by madness. The point here is seeing Liara have a moment where she grows up – she has to acknowledge the protheans she pictured for the last century were flawed (Partially because it bothers me the way she speaks of the protheans with such rose-colored glasses even by ME3, when she says “it’s clear they prized knowledge, growth, and cooperation with the rest of the galaxy,” even before Javik sends that image crashing – a species who form an empire, whose legacy is memorialized as an empire, is not going to be first and foremost wise scholars). She’s realizing that whatever the reasons were for creating this, whatever caused them to leave it behind, they still did this to an innocent being that they were responsible for. It’s something of her “loss of innocence” moment, considering that Benezia’s death currently doesn’t really provide that (though, again, we ARE also addressing that... Details.)

Her friend is also going to get a few moments with Liara, talking about the archaeology team, and commenting about how Liara’s development has gone. This is a moment for Liara, to really help give her a character arc in the game proper – considering that she can be left on Therum until right before Ilos, she kinda doesn’t have much of one as it is. Also, this gives a chance for Liara to exist outside of Shepard’s world, considering how she bubbles herself into it as the trilogy progresses. This is someone who’s only really in Liara’s orbit, not Shepard’s, and it gives her a little more grounding and existence outside of Shepard.

Post Game Followups:

ME2: Letter from Liara’s friend, commenting about how she handled Shepard’s death, expressing concern for her losing direction

ME3: The creature’s remains have been examined, providing a War Asset, if the archaeologists were saved, they provide an additional boost, Liara’s friend has a cameo on the Citadel after Thessia

Incursion

An Alliance space station on the fringe of the Terminus system abruptly goes silent. As the Normandy’s stealth systems can get there without letting any invaders know, as well as Commander Shepard’s skill, Captain Anderson sends them to check on the station. The batarians specifically have been known to be in the area, but there remains the possibility that this is something worse...

Okay, out of the loyalty mission structure and direct character work, back to isolated stories in the setting. So, the frontier of space? I say this as a lover of scifi from a young age: It is TERRIFYING. You are on the edge of all that’s known, and any number of things, things you could never conceive of because they are so outside of your frame of reference, could show up and kill you. A flimsy barrier of glass (or transparent aluminum or whatever material they make those big honking windows out of) is all that separates you from a suffocating death.

Yeah, we’re doing a psychological horror story here. I suppose technically AGAIN, considering the stuff around the disappeared archaeologists in the above DLC idea, but that was as much about Liara as the atmosphere. This is pure paranoia and suspicion.

The inspiration I’m going with here is KOTOR 2’s opening on the Peragus mine. Something happened here, and the people are all dead or missing – a handful of corpses, but, yet again, we’ve got logs to find, and they’ll include people who we can’t identify among the dead. Because that gives motivation to stick around and solve things, rather than just blow the place to hell.

The first guess is that there’s a batarian slave raid happening here. There are indications that the Alliance officers here were thinking this at first, that this was some raid in progress – sure, it wasn’t open violence, but maybe they were softening things up, trying to get on board, lower defenses, and then let the slave ships show up and take everyone left. That’s what their last attempt at an outgoing message suggested, it’s what Shepard and company show up expecting.

But that wasn’t the case. The investigation continues through the station, with Shepard searching for signs of anyone still alive. And as they proceed through the station, there’s something that seems to keep just passing out of view. Something else is here with them.

Again, I’m skimping on the exposition here, just because the investigation is the important part, and that’s hard to develop without a layout of the station itself in front of me, and what and how the narrative has to adapt to the environment, but also because this is a very atmospheric style story, where the focus is in the build up, the mystery, the way to get to the big reveal of just what it is that happened here. In a story like this, the tension in this is built with how many times you think you’re going to have an encounter with “the monster” before you actually do.

This particular “monster,” as it turns out, is some kind of energy creature, something that came to the station from the unknown depths of space, drawn by the station’s power core emissions. All indications are that this is simply some space-born lifeform that evolved naturally, and isn’t like some Reaper weapon or anti-Reaper weapon. Just some non-sapient lifeform, drawn in by the power core (maybe it had been specially modified, to further explain why this station and why now), and ending up killing the inhabitants of it.

The thing about this is that I’m going to emphasize here is that I DON’T want this as some kind of creation of the Reapers or their servants OR something that was cooked up to combat them. This thing is entirely independent of anything to do with Reapers. One of the things that I appreciated with ME1 over the later games was the “lived in” nature of the galaxy, where there were a handful of things shown and revealed in the course of the story that just spoke to there being life and civilization wandering through the galaxy for countless millennia. Life is pretty persistent when given the chance, and there’s surely life that exists in the depths of space that is so completely alien to our understanding that we might not even recognize it as such. This creature is one such example of life but not as we know it.

Obviously, there’s a straight up Paragon/Renegade choice of killing or sparing the creature, finding some way to lure it off and away from the station. I’m also inclined for a neutral option of trying to humanely capture it – it’s a creature unlike anything they know, it could show them so many things about the greater universe in the examination – but I’m not sure I feel like there’s enough room in the series for that kind of variation, given the limitations – this IS meant to be DLC, you know? Or at least, hypothetical DLC. Either way, though, the end result is that there is a boss battle, Shepard having to either kill it or weaken it, the station is cleared of the threat and the Alliance gets to have the station back, with talk of it being repurposed into some kind of early warning system regarding threats from outside Alliance/Citadel space (hint hint, nudge nudge).

Post Game Followups:

ME2: Emails from the new station commander, referring to the reopening of the station and the fate of the creature

ME3: Station as a war asset, exo-biologists as a war asset, how they examine space-faring life in the galaxy and if they can be adapted in some way to resist the Reapers

Evolution

A mercenary contacts the Normandy, claiming to have information regarding Saren. Following this lead, however, proves to open a separate can of worms, as the mercenary reveals their connections to a cult of people who view synthetics as the next step in organic evolution, and, knowing of Saren’s ties to the geth, seek to stop Shepard – or convert them.

So the idea here is to give more attention to something that seemed to be a running plot thread during ME1 and ME2 – machine cultists. The ExoGeni survey team on Trebin got huskified by an unknown artifact, and in ME2, there’s the mine on Aequitas. Yes, technically that hasn’t happened yet, shush. But we observe this in action in the games proper, and no one ever actually acknowledges it beyond the simple immediate reaction.

So what we have here is a merc, trying to contact Shepard, claiming they have info on Saren. No one really believes it – if Saren’s working with geth, he would have no need for the liability of organic agents. Yet they also can’t really ignore the idea either because Saren is why they’re out here (I really intend to take advantage of the idea that the whole party cast comes back for these with a full on mission briefing/discussion to kick this off – sounds like some fun opportunities for character dynamics with them debating the validity of this claim).

The result of going in takes Shepard and team to a planet where, initial impression, something is OFF about this place. It’s a prefab colony in early colonization, and something about how the people act just doesn’t seem right. They seem to be in an almost trance-like state that no one can snap them out of, a fact that immediately puts everyone on edge.

The merc is here (let’s say he’s a turian), and keeps things frustratingly vague until the arrival of a leader of the colony. The kicker with him being that he appears partially huskified (sorta like the Cerberus goon on Mars that Ashley/Kaidan find). Yet he still seems to be able to act seemingly independently. Of course, someone this obviously not-right has made himself a target, but all the people in the colony, including the merc, are all on his side.

Shepard can try to fight out of this, but they’re overwhelmed – there IS an entire colony of people, and there’s still the possibility of getting them free, Shepard has a responsibility to not shoot civilians (no matter what trigger-happy Renegades might think), and the team at least is willing to take that stand.

The explanation is that this is a group of wanna-call-themselves “next phase of organic evolution,” people who believe that they are the future. That’s what got their attention about Saren and Shepard, knowing about how he is working with the geth (it was an open session of the Council when they got made Spectre, after all). They look to Shepard as a potential threat.

When we encounter Machine Cultists in the game proper, they’re too far gone to really give any explanation. The comics seemed to draw on this – in Mass Effect Evolution, Saren’s brother uncovered one on Palaven, the Illusive Man was involved, Saren had to nuke from orbit the location of this device and his brother with it. We’re kinda going into the same territory with this, but, you know, Shepard gets to save the day.

So the merc shows up, trying to explain, offer the sales pitch (i.e.: the carrot), try to convince Shepard that their leader has the right idea, that this is a true joining of organic and synthetic, and that it will avert the “coming apocalypse” (just in case the whole ‘Reaper artifact’ element wasn’t certain for anyone playing). Then the cult leader shows up to offer the threat (i.e.: the stick), the warning that whatever Shepard expects to do, they will not be able to succeed.

For pacing reasons, I think of this as a pre-Virmire thing, so there’s not a direct awareness on Shepard’s part that just being around a Reaper artifact is a cause for Indoctrination, leading to a period of wondering how this happened and assuming it comes from direct interface – this is as much an explanation for why, if the implication is that the cult leader got to interface with a prothean beacon of some kind (actually Reaper, in the same manner as the vision that Object Rho offers in Arrival), they don’t have Shepard try to interact with this one, that they’re afraid of Shepard becoming like these people.

Anyway, jailbreak sequence! Because we can do better than just running a game of Simon in order to get Shepard out of their cell. Shepard finagles a way out of the cell block and to the colony’s science lab (it’s a frontier world, they need a science lab just to stay aware of all the new things they discover here). Among the things there is the record of what happened here, and specifically the existence of the artifact. Leads to a simple solution – blow up the artifact, and see what that does.

Of course, the artifact is guarded in the heart of the colony’s main site. We meet up with the merc again, who’s seeming a little uncomfortable – the indoctrination hasn’t completely taken root in him, and so there’s some question of maybe he can be reached. Paragon/Renegade here about dealing with him – kill him or spare him. That sparing will come back in a short while

Because now there’s the colony leader – the cult leader, effectively, at this point – to deal with. He’s angry about the damage Shepard has done to everything, ranting about plans to bring the glory of evolution to the galaxy. Yeah, he’s round the bend, the device effectively having melted his mind (okay, yeah, I’m getting flashes of Kenson here, but hey, same tech, so it’s not ripping off, it’s continuity!)

After dealing with him, the plan is to blow the artifact sky high. Here’s where the merc comes back into play – he says he’s too far gone, and wants to be the one to push the button on this thing, die with it. It’s his way of having a good death after this. Another Paragon/Renegade choice about his fate before blowing the thing sky high – the colony, unfortunately can’t be saved, anyone not killed getting there dies when the device is blown.

There’s an after action briefing, too, where, because, again, the idea here is that this is pre-Virmire, the crew really discuss the horrors of what “these Reaper machines” can do, and what if they’re not some geth red herring or something.

Basically, my idea here is that this is adding to the atmosphere and mystique of the Reapers, in a way that, with the game proper focused on the concept of advancing the plot, doesn’t get a chance. This is a more traditional feature of building up the menace, by showing the insidious nature of things, having the Reapers’ subtle side at play – we see references of Indoctrination, but we don’t really get the horrors outside of some talk – sure, there are the salarians who are in the Virmire facility, and Benezia’s talk, but it’s all second hand. This is a case where we see the effects spread across the entire colony, which, given resources in the game, is all of a planet we get to encounter, and Shepard and company are the only ones who aren’t, and that can go to the paranoia, where the people surrounding them all are giving off the vibes of being a threat, but they’re not doing anything. What can I say, I am a sucker for a good atmospheric story.

Post Game Followups:

ME2: Email about the aftermath of the colony’s destruction, and the research done on the corpses on the effects of Indoctrination

ME3: War asset surrounding Indoctrination research, preliminary anti-Indoctrination tech being introduced around the Catalyst facility, if the merc sacrificed himself, his family offers a boost to turian military morale on the basis of how one of their own resisted (pointedly ignoring Saren)

Relativity

The Mass Relays are the ancient devices that allow faster than light travel throughout the galaxy. The Charon Relay specifically was one that opened the way for humanity to join the races of the Citadel. This only makes a sudden distress call from the Relay all the more urgent, and Admiral Hackett believe that of everyone in the Alliance, Commander Shepard is right for the job.

So the Mass Relays are these massive facilities that are a key point throughout the entire trilogy. Why, exactly, do we never see one up close aside from transition screens? We should totally get to explore one! Like, I realize that it’s never explicitly said if there’s any kind of command station, or if “guarding a Mass Relay” was a ship-based action or if there was actual, physical contact with one, but I’m saying that something of the size of the Relays, even if much of it is a solid object, you maintain SOME sort of command structure within it in order to monitor and examine things. Even if the Reapers have some kind of robotic drones or Keeper analogues running around, doing standard maintenance, I cannot be convinced that there is not SOME areas of the actual Mass Relay that house facilities for organic life to work in. Especially considering the design having the light sources along the hull that we traditionally associate with acting as windows on starships and space stations.

So yeah, this is an adventure taking us into the workings of a Mass Relay proper. The general idea is that there’s a distress call from the Charon Relay, which is something that really worries the Alliance – lose the Charon Relay, humanity loses their connection to the galaxy at large. And the Alliance doesn’t want the Citadel to know about this, at least not right away – if something is impacting how the Relays function, the Council is going to demand getting involved, and the Alliance DEFINITELY doesn’t want to give the non-human races a free pass into humanity’s home system, so they’re calling on Shepard.

Also part of the novelty of this is that I kinda want to have the chance to explore what it’s like for those who are not exploring the stars in this setting – the Mass Relay’s crew is alive and intact and interactable. This isn’t one of the many cases of showing up too late to be able to properly save people (I’m looking mostly at ME2 on this count, even before we add in the above and below of my own creation).

Head of the team on the Relay is an engineer, not a soldier (pulling a name out of hat for them in the name of simplicity in this write up... Let’s go with Sarah Manning, just because my Orphan Black DVDs happen to be right next to me as I’m writing this and it offers as good as a placeholder as any – feel free to picture Tatiana Maslany as this character if you so choose, though, by the rules of this series, in an ideal world, this would have been DLC produced for ME1 in 2007, so this character would probably be at least a decade, probably more, older than she would have been at the time, oh no, I’ve gone cross-eyed...). She’s not just concerned about the Council finding out – not that she’s a Terra Firma type, just that she has Earth related pride and considers the Charon Relay humanity’s, and, on a personal level, HERS, given her responsibility for it – but also the lives on board. She wants to protect and preserve as many lives as she can.

The interior of the facility is a mix of reasonably sensical designs, in the areas meant for humanoid habitation, and something far more Eldritch abomination-y when we start moving out of those areas. And, you know, we pretty much HAVE to move out of them as time goes on, since that’s like half of the fun of this concept.

But we start in the more familiar areas, where everything seems normal. Except the people are missing (yes, I know I’m relying on this concept a lot, but it’s good as an in universe mystery and out of universe programming so that the game doesn’t have to account for like a dozen NPCs to fill space). In this instance, the distress signal itself indicates that the Relay’s station commander had ordered their people to a designated safe zone within the Relay’s structure, which is where Shepard will need to head to uncover things. Sarah’s staying in the control area, trying to ensure that nothing else goes wrong.

At some point in the midst of this, I do want the question of if the Relay will be/has to be destroyed to come up, better establish the idea that will come up in Arrival of the destruction of Relay in the game proper.

The exploration takes Shepard into the Eldritch-y areas, which, sadly, because I am a wordsmith and not a picture kind of person, I can really only describe as messing with perception and going all Escher in the design. Basically, the idea is to present the interior and heart of the Relays as being these massively complex and complicated machines that function on a level not really human (or, in the case of the non-human races in the game besides the Reapers, human adjacent). Because, first of all, this is faster than light travel, which means this is this is this franchise’s handwave for how anything happens on multiple planets and is dealt with in (in-universe) real time, and second, Sovereign talked about a level of existence beyond our own and such. This leans into that kind of concept – yeah, sure, we may have the Reapers be shown as effectively fundamentally understandable, but let’s at least justify the hype a little, huh?

The big idea here is that we’re kinda throwing back to the puzzle style of play that you used to see in computer games in like the nineties. That’s why perspective is going to be a part of this. Basically, the engineers on the Relay found something that tripped the security systems, sort of “unhinging” standard reality around them, getting them lost in the various extra layers (dimensions?) that the Relay works in.

I don’t really know if I see any kind of real boss or major decision here, because this is basically about the gimmick over anything else – Mass Effect isn’t a bad place for a gimmicky throwback, right? Maybe... Ah, something’s clicking here for me – the guy responsible for all of this happening in the first place. He was trying to access an archive – he initially thought it was prothean, but he’s been able to realize that this is much older. He wants to get this information, and is the last one we rescue. The issue is that it’s going to be a choice – rescue this guy and lose the archive, or save the archive and he dies. Like, I’m thinking that there’s some kind of rip or maybe a miniature black hole that’s sucking in the both of them and Shepard can only save one. That’s a solid Paragon/Renegade choice, especially since I could see arguments for both.

Anyway, once the crew’s all rescued and the choice made, Manning gets back to Shepard and says that this is about to get slapped with a security clearance so high she’d “probably have to kill [herself] just for remembering [she has] it” (because yes, I want that as an actual quote), and recommends that they get off the Relay before any superior officers show up to rake them over the coals for their involvement – Shepard’s a busy person, doesn’t need to get bogged down in the red tape that’s sure to come.

Post Game Followups:

ME2: Email from Manning regarding the Relay’s subsequent stability

ME3: Manning’s team as a war asset/the archive being tapped for Crucible data and information on the Reapers (mutually exclusive – the team will have disbanded after the loss of the one member if the archive was recovered)

Planet of Peace

An attempt at colonizing a planet, with the aid of all Council races, in an effort at fostering galactic peace, sounded great on paper. The diplomats jumped on the opportunity. The reality has been... less than stellar. Considering the first human Spectre a bridge between races, the Council asks Commander Shepard to try and help smooth over relations.

Frankly, while I understand the focus on the threat of the Reapers, honestly, this seems like a legitimate issue that would be an instant demand for the first human Spectre. And, given the tension and hostility between the races (even beyond humanity against everyone else), it seems like a natural fit, in all honesty. Because it does seem like all the canonical colony worlds always start as one species attempting to tame a single world, rather than taking advantage of the unifying effort of the galactic community.

At the forefront of this colony is the retired human ambassador to the Council, Ambassador Goyle (Anderson mentions her when talking about his candidacy for the Spectres and we see her in the first of Alec Ryder’s memories, now we get to make her a character we get to interact with). This was her passion project specifically, thinking that all races had something that they could offer one another and need to come together.

Basically, she’s underscoring what I like to think of as a core concept of the series, being stronger together than separately.

But, of course, there are tensions. I mean, not even just because we wouldn’t have a plot without it. She is concerned that there might be some extremists getting involved – aren’t there always? When things are tense, some idiot’s always going to come along, see the stacks of dynamite, and decide to light a match. She is specifically asking that Shepard come to help resolve some issues, using their symbolism. Her request is fully aware of this being an exercise in flag waving, but it’s an important bit of flag waving – doing this here can make the galactic community a more stable place.

Bringing back in the element of having the cast back for these, I want to include quite a bit of companion content in this one, including something like how Dragon Age 2’s Mark of the Assassin DLC had a short companion quest for everyone. On a planet that’s a melting pot of the various races that make up the Citadel species, there’s going to be something for everyone here somehow. I don’t know what specifically right now – these write ups focus on the main plot, not the sidequests. But these are things that are there.

As for what is happening on the planet, on the small scale, there’s your standard culture clash brushfires, things that seem small and petty, but have accumulated for the people involved because they’re in such close proximity. But there is a strong Terra Firma presence as well, the “Earth for humans!” type, in addition to similar groups among the traditional Citadel races – this is still only a handful of decades past humanity’s entry, and as we’ve discussed before, the arrival of humanity has made things much more chaotic than they were before, and there’s more than a little resentment among the non-human races for humanity’s attitude and approach to things coming across almost as if they’re demanding more, without anyone Citadel side acknowledging that First Contact was a shit show of THEIR making (scroll back up and see Investigations for more on that...)

But the larger scale conflict is a group out to make sure that this planet fails in its mission and goal, drive a wedge between factions. I’m thinking of going the Star Trek VI route on this, that this group is an ironic banding of humans and non-humans, determined to see peace fall apart at the cost of allying with their supposed enemies, and using “look at how easily they turned on their own to stop this!” as a justification for their own hypocrisy.

Going with the Star Trek VI reference, this group is gearing up for an assassination attempt on Ambassador Goyle herself, believing that stopping her will stop the advancement of this idea. Now, Commander Shepard HAS to save her, we’re not doing the question of “can they stop it in time?” but, for all those pro-humanity xenophobic “Cerberus was right all along!” types, the response of Shepard will be to either name the conspirators and why or utilize their designated fall guy.

BUT WAIT! That’s not the end of this one. See, we’re also going to get an aftermath – the results of this will impact how the population react, and there’s a second story mission that requires a plot progression to access.

Returning to this planet (I feel like it would get some ambitious name like “Hope” or something, but I think it’s kinda provincial for the planet to carry a human name, so...), things are even tenser than before. We get to actively see how the fallout is impacting things, with people drawing lines based on the earlier assassination attempt. This is a lot like how the turian weapons merchant on the Citadel in ME2 will respond differently based on how Shepard resolved ME1 – side with one faction in the first part, their supporters approve of you and their opposites are angry with you, and vice versa.

Goyle appreciates Shepard’s return, because she’s seeing the place beginning to collapse. She’s feeling ready to throw in the towel because of how poorly things are going. Still, until the place closes its doors, she’s going to stand up and act like the leader she’s here to be. Shepard saved her life, she’s going to commit it to preserving this colony. But she wants Shepard’s help all the same, because they can leverage that heroism to helping put things here right.

Of course, here’s where we get to the big finale choice – are you going to strengthen this colony or break it? And sure, it seems straightforward on the idea of what’s good and what’s bad, but here’s the thing that the overall narrative develops through investigation – the Alliance and the Citadel need to allocate their resources. Part of the reason that the sanctioned colonies tend to be dominated by one species or another is a matter of need – when you have a primarily human/asari population, you’ll have to import in resources for turians, things like that – even if they’re trying to grow them on their own, they probably need to import like soil for nutrients and such.

And that not only gets costly, that can divert resources that are more greatly in need. In the long term, this could tie up resources that are needed elsewhere. In the short term, if trying to make these disparate races and cultures work together and play nice is taking up this much time and effort, isn’t it possible, isn’t it plausible, that there are better things to be doing with those resources?

So, do we try and heal the divide and potentially tie up resources in what has been an uphill climb from the start, and right before the Reaper War begins (for all you forward thinkers reading this), or do we cut our losses and focus on making these types of cross-species initiatives at a later point in time? That’s the Paragon/Renegade choice here.

The resolution comes and Ambassador Goyle will be either thankful for the effort or resigned that her great initiative isn’t going forward. Regardless of Shepard’s actions, she’s thankful that they at least made an attempt – she isn’t going to see them as failing if they opted to cut the losses, but herself.

Post Game Followups:

ME2: Letter either from Ambassador Goyle, reporting on the colony, or a news service announcement of her having further withdrawn from the public eye after the colony’s failure.

ME3: For Paragon choice, there’s a decrease in dextro-food reserves, given the colony’s need, but an increase in interspecies morale, with efforts to incorporate multi-species crews underway, and vice versa for the Renegade

Daedalus Station

A space station on the fringe of Citadel space sends out a distress call. When the Normandy arrives, however, no one there claims responsibility for it. Yet the station is in a spiral, a path that will, slowly but steadily, lead the station directly into a sun. Commander Shepard attempts to save everyone aboard from the inevitable death, and discover why they seem unfazed at the idea.

Okay, let’s just acknowledge first, yes, I’m aware that the synopsis sounds not just like a rip off of the first mission of Leviathan but also “Incursion” above. I’m aware. Look, the synopsis is a short brief, not the full details, okay? Strictly speaking, it’s more in line with the events of Leviathan, certainly, but I want to at least acknowledge that I’m aware that there are similarities. Okay, they’re there, LET’S MOVE ON.

Anyway. Distress call, brings in the Normandy. Station is obviously in a death spiral. The moment that Shepard and company board the station, everyone is going about their routine. Obviously, something’s a touch screwy about this set up. Another investigation must ensue.

Of course, as we’ve established, details of the investigations are not where my expansions really shine – it’s easy to stretch out a discovery of this sort, with development A leading to clue B and making revelation C... Yadda, yadda. I’m about the what of these things, not the how.

The ultimate thing about this is twofold. Part one is that this is basically going to be an introduction to the concept of Indoctrination – someone discovered a Reaper artifact, and is trying to adapt it to their benefit. Because frankly, the idea that someone wouldn’t try and take Indoctrination for themselves... Yeah, let’s be real here. Someone WOULD.

Obviously, since we’re still in game one and the Reapers are still mostly a mystery at this point in time, there’s the question of what this is. But, hey, it’s still something that should have happened, and this is the time when there’s the most mystery and least immediate “oh shit, this will horribly backfire if we don’t just straight up blow this up now” reactions.

So, our villain. They’re gonna spiral into insanity (thematic mirroring – as the station enters the death spiral, they spiral into madness), so we’re not going to push too much on making them seem sympathetic, in the traditional sense. Honestly, in writing this, I’m kinda getting parallels to your average dangerous incel aspiring mass shooter, so we’re gonna go with that, someone who perceived themselves as more isolated and alone than they were – the investigation will have us find private journals from other crew pre-artifact that mention him, usually in the fashion of ‘he doesn’t talk much, but doesn’t seem that bad’ kind of messages. Meanwhile, his own talk about the others has a more downcast approach, that he knows they’re not interested in hearing about him, etc. etc.

You know, this is the kind of person who, upon getting the ability to manipulate minds is basically doing it in an effort to bolster his own self-esteem, turning people who were once a little sharp with him one time into his whipping boys, and making himself the king of this little hill.

The problem of his plan? The mental degradation. The last of those to fall under his sway sent out the automated distress beacon, and knew that there was a danger in this guy leaving – but they also couldn’t be sure that their efforts would be successful. It’s a case of the distress beacon being a double-edged sword – can their rescuers save them, stop this guy, or will they fall under his sway as well? But there’s no other solution. They set the collision course (and yes, I’m aware that this is happening on a space station, hey, the pilot episode of DS9 showed that the station could travel through maneuvering thrusters and such – the idea is that they wanted to find a way to destroy the station), and then destroyed the controls so it couldn’t be undone, and disabled the alerts so that the station wouldn’t alert anyone, setting it up to make it that the station’s sensors all seem to send the green light to the rest of the station – the false data would hopefully prevent the station crew from noticing.

Yes, of course I want there to be an apocalyptic log, why would I deny that BioWare staple?

Another thing that I want to do here is kinda retroactively at least make it a part of the universe that Shepard is resistant to the efforts of Reaper Indoctrination. The idea I’m going with is that some of the scrambling of Shepard’s brain (which, sidenote, I also want to take some time in this and call out the fact that it’s a PLOT POINT that Shepard’s brain gets messed with repeatedly throughout this game and no one thinks that might actually be a questionable matter – if a key point of this DLC is “dude, you’re messing with people’s minds, that’s rather unambiguously Not A Good Thing To Do,” then it’s an elephant in the room to not bring up that this is what’s happening with Shepard) has made them more resistant to these effects, though that probably means justifying this as having a watered down effect so that the companions are feeling the tug to fall under our villain’s thrall.

That’s basically where I picture the boss battle going, that Shepard has to fight against one of their companions, who has been compelled to be this guy’s defender against them. I’d say both companions, but that might be a little much, in particular on lower difficulties. So I’m going to say that Shepard can knock out one of their companions before they fall under the sway of the big bad’s influence, but the other escapes. I feel like there could be ways to offset the difficulties of this by way of like finding objects that counteract the signal or whatever, but the idea is Shepard versus companion. While it obviously has to end non-lethally, I feel like this is the kind of thing that is morbidly fascinating to see in just about everyone’s book. I’d also figure that it would depend on a handful of variables that make them resist more or less (because the game should reward investigation, right?)

When that’s completed (I figure it ends with Shepard destroying the controller artifact), it’s time to deal with the station about to be caught in the sun – the station’s going to be locked in a death spiral, but the people of the station can now evacuate. Which leaves the person responsible. On the Paragon side, Shepard is not judge, jury, and executioner, this guy should be given a fair trial. On the Renegade side, he’s a dick who took over people’s minds with no remorse on the matter. Whatever decision Shepard goes with, the station’s population will abide by – they probably want him dead anyway, right?

Aftermath does come into play, with a conversation with the companion Shepard fought against, because, especially if they’re a romance, that’s gotta mess with their heads. Also some general discussion of the artifact itself – obviously, while I expect a variation in the event this is played after Virmire, my idea of this is that it happens some time before it, so things like Wrex and Ashley/Kaidan’s deaths (or possible death) are variation options, this is basically something that I feel can influence matters – if Shepard and Wrex have already fought, for example, I feel like that would earn them enough influence come Virmire for Wrex to stand down there, it’s got parallels/foreshadowing... That kind of emotional work.

Also there’s some consideration about that artifact – once a technology exists, putting that genie back in the bottle is nigh impossible, so now it’s known that you can use this tech to control minds, someone’s sure to try and take advantage of this tech somewhere down the line – Shepard and company will discuss what kind of precautions can and should be taken about these kinds of developments in the future (hint hint, Cerberus/Illusive Man, hint hint).

Post Game Followups:

ME2: Letter from a station survivor, variation on the matter of how the responsible party was dealt with.

ME3: Efforts have been undertaken to block Indoctrination tech, based on the information that Shepard gathered on the station.

Fleet Crisis

With the concerns of Saren and the geth rising, Admirals Hackett and Anderson want to get a chance to upgrade the defenses at the heart of the Alliance. Arcturus Station, home to the Alliance government, is housing a defense meeting, and Commander Shepard is being recalled to speak at it. The Alliance may be facing another crisis, however...

(Two plot planets completed)

We have very little actual Alliance elements involved in the game, did you ever notice that? Like, there’s Admiral Anderson and Admiral Hackett, and we get the inspection tour thing from Admiral Mikhailovich, but other than that, we really are not given much about the Alliance proper. So the idea here for us to go to Arcturus Station and actually encounter the Alliance government proper. We only ever properly encounter the Citadel Council, not the government that technically, Shepard is under the authority of. The closest we ever come is the (rather useless) Defense Committee at the start of ME3.

So yeah, we’re going to the home of the Alliance proper, and seeing the Fifth Fleet – like my first time playing the game, I had no real concept of the Fifth Fleet until it shows up at the endgame. I kinda would like more foreshadowing, more textual acknowledgement of the fleet that is the reason why we end the game as we do. Like, we get to do a fleet flyby in the process, allowing us to see the size of the fleet and talk about what makes the human fleets different from those of the other races. Although the Citadel races do have their bullshit reasons for distrusting humanity, the fact that humanity has this massive force is a reasonable excuse for the behavior.

I also see this as a very different style DLC. As it is, we got one DLC that was basically a shooting gallery, so here, we’re in the opposite direction, where combat is taking almost a total backseat to dialogue – I mean you have a dialogue system like Mass Effect, where every line gets voiced, you would think that would imply that there’s a lot of faith in the writing, wouldn’t you think? And, the whole beauty of DLC in general usually is the fact that everything’s option – if you’re really all shooty-shooty bang-bang, you don’t HAVE to do this. But the whole series paints Shepard as this inspirational figure, and their oratory skills should be on full display as much as their ability to fire a gun.

I’m also kinda anti-“going to Alliance vessels and the in universe equivalent of the House/Senate halls/White House combined and freely shoot up the place,” just on principle.

Anyway, here we are, visiting the heart of Alliance space. We honestly really should have more of an idea of what humanity has accomplished in the universe. Arcturus Station, the home of Alliance government. This is a big deal for the crew, of course – it’s getting invited to speak at the Senate in Washington DC. For the various non-humans, it’s a big deal as well.

Now, of course, in the heart of Alliance government, the involvement of a bunch of non-humans is going to be considered questionable at best. I won’t go straight to “you can’t use any companions other that Ashley and Kaidan,” but there is going to be more of a sense of observation from the other Alliance officers and officials when the non-humans are in the party.

The first thing to note about this is that Shepard’s position as Spectre has made them a combination of being a political tool for humanity’s better advancement, but (as evidenced by Mikhailovich’s ranting) some are concerned that Shepard may be – intentionally or not – turned into a pure Council flunky and only doing the work that they approve, regardless of acting in humanity’s benefit.

That’s part of the reason Shepard’s even here – their position is getting humanity’s foot in the door with the Spectres, but this is creating a conflict in various corners, wondering about where their allegiance will be if pressed. Admiral Hackett is, of course, speaking in Shepard’s favor, but just because they have the approval of Hackett and Anderson, there’s still concern among the brass.

This is going to start out seeming very low-key – we’re in the heart of Alliance territory, who would be foolish enough to come along and mess with anyone or anything here, right? So a lot of initial tone-setting, discussion and debate – the first half is a debate sequence, with Paragon/Renegade points abound as Shepard discusses with the various Alliance officials what they’re doing as a Spectre. That culminates in Shepard’s oratory really getting to stretch as they approach the seat of governing for the Alliance, and all those earlier discussions start to add up to how their performance is among the bigwigs – if you talked up human dominance in the one-on-ones, then talk peaceful coexistence, for example, you get called on it.

After Shepard’s speech is over, that’s where we start to see the real fractures starting to take place. We’re not quite at ‘military coup’ levels (let’s leave SOME plot elements for the later games, huh?), but there’s clear dissatisfaction, that Shepard’s words have only fanned flames for – regardless of the way their speech went down, there are some among the fleet, admirals and other high ranking officers who were involved in the First Contact War and just don’t like how the Alliance is handling things.

It’s not a coup, but it is, in effect, breaking away from the Alliance to set up an independent nation, separate from both the Alliance and the Citadel. It’s still in its earliest stages, of course, but it’s easy to see how it might well turn hostile to both – it’s got several military figures from the Alliance leaving, meaning a vulnerable gap for the Alliance military, and it’s got lingering hostility for the Citadel races (turians in particular, but let’s also not forget that the asari, the famed diplomats of the Citadel, seem to have never picked up on the fact that the human resentment towards aliens comes from the fact that an alien government came along and tried to impose their rules on an unaligned species as humanity’s introduction to the greater galaxy – they are complicit here).

Shepard’s task becomes trying to prevent this offshoot from happening. These are orders being cut by President Shastri himself (let’s make this major Alliance figure a presence we actually feel in the series, huh?), with Hackett’s blessing – meaning if things devolve into a shoot out (which will be possible), Shepard will not be held liable for the deaths of several Alliance military figures, that the record will show that they were acting in the interests of the Alliance in response to an imminent threat of potential armed conflict, even a human civil war. No one wants it to come to that, but it’s also going to be one of the most likely outcomes in the minds of those involved – even if Shepard weren’t a Spectre, if someone of their rank and stature on the galactic stage gets involved, it’s because diplomacy isn’t working.

So there’s another segment of trying to sway the people involved. Shepard will have the choice of approached armed or unarmed (like I said, I dislike the idea of a shootout, but I feel like Shepard’s in a position both to be legally entitled to wear weapons in this situation AND uncomfortable going in without any weaponry), which will feed into the metric of how well their argument is received. Because it’s a mechanic so good, we’re using it twice! (Okay, really, it’s because “dialogue” is the gimmick of this idea, but shush.)

Anyway, the various ‘points’ accumulate to the ultimate confrontation with the heads of this group planning this splintering. Shepard’s arguments are going to be along the line of (to summarize) “you’ll only weaken the Alliance, that can’t be your goal,” “if you have problems, work within in the systems and listen to both sides of things,” “put this aside or else,” or “I support your efforts, but this isn’t the time.” Yes, I’m going with four paths for this, the dialogue wheel does offer that, and I want Paragon/Renegade options for each of these. Like you basically pick a path at the start and argue from that position. Depending on the “points” accumulated through dialogue (and probably a handful of sidequests) in the lead to this debate), it will come to either a peaceful resolution or Shepard pulling out their gun on a handful of high-ranking Alliance officers, ready and able to pull the trigger.

While shooting them isn’t an ideal solution, it can bring the others back into line. It’s just going to cause resentment within the Alliance itself – threat or no, these were respected figures among the Alliance. Meanwhile, folding them back in is an ideal solution, but it still means the resentment lingers, because Shepard’s only delayed the boiling over, not prevented it. There’s still tension in the Alliance because this was about issues that can’t be solved with a few words, especially when this was about the involvement and actions of the Citadel. Shepard might be a Spectre, but whether or not they’ve affirmed themselves as giving the Alliance its due, they’re now wrapped up in those politics.

The curveball in things is that last one, Shepard suggesting that they should wait on this issue. I think it’s a valid possibility among the various permutations of the decision point, to have Shepard support them, especially given that ME1’s Renegade Shepard could be a pro-human asshole, but, considering that this is DLC, and particularly DLC that, by my self-imposed rule, cannot change the base game’s story (because if I could do that, I might as well be rewriting all the games in this instead of just created additional content, and this is all hypothetical to begin with), we can’t introduce some new faction into the galaxy, especially an optional one. So the idea here is that Shepard is supporting it, but saying that they can’t make this A Thing right now.

There is an aftermath discussion with President Shastri as well, discussing implications for the future. I also figure that the companions should have a lot to offer in both the aftermath and the core interactions – again, I see Ashley and Kaidan as greatly recommended for this story, and the Alliance officers should have a lot to add, including conversations in the midst of the crisis.

Post Game Followups:

ME2: Email from Shastri as an update of the tension in the Alliance – it’s also something that should be impacted by the decision of the Council at the end of ME1

ME3: Tensions between Alliance and Council forces are impacted by the outcome – if they were swayed by persuasion to rejoin the Alliance, there’s actually a bump in assets, as well as the Alliance bigwigs being a tactical resource, while there’s a decrease in cooperation if the bad blood was fostered.

The Clean Up

The Battle of the Citadel is over, but even if the geth and Sovereign have been defeated, there is a lot left for Commander Shepard and the crew of the Normandy to do. Investigating the damage done to the Citadel leads to a possible lead on the Reapers. In the wake of the battle, Commander Shepard and company set out to chase it down...

(Post-Game)

So, as I said in the KOTOR editions, we’re adding a Post-Game to ME1 (since this is all hypothetical to begin with, so we’re going to make that alteration to the mechanics), pretty much solely because I want to do some development of the aftermath of the game, as well as do some retroactive set up for Mass Effect 2. Because I don’t think there was a lot of emotional wrap up to the characters at the time. I will grant that we’ve got an awkward period of time between the games here, but, hey, we’ve got enough wiggle room I think to lead in to the opening of ME2

Basically, we can start in what’s basically the immediate aftermath – Shepard’s now out of their recovery, is looking to get back in the game. But, with the Council either still reacting to the events of the Battle of the Citadel or still needing to be reassembled, there’s really not any particular indication of what to be doing. This is some mood setting, looking at the rebuilding effort, how the Citadel was impacted and seeing the response of people to the attack – some are still shaken, mourning their loved ones lost in the attack, hoping for the lost to be found safe, and all that sort. Others are angry about the attack, and the ultimate approach to it seems to basically be blaming everyone, and Shepard in particular since they’re there, for the failure to protect those on the Citadel – and yes, we absolutely get to call out this bullshit for what it is, because Shepard tried, but the Citadel itself is something of a complacency trap, and even if the politics weren’t a distraction, the fact that the Citadel itself remains aloof is an actual problem

Anderson speaks with Shepard, regarding the geth that are still out there in the Traverse, and the need to deal with them before they put more human colonies in danger. The bigwigs are already trying to downplay the Reapers – Anderson basically tells Shepard that they need to go out, find proof of something that ties back to the Reapers or the Council will likely turn around and make this all about the geth and call it over (uh, yeah, Shepard, about that...).

The lead involved is going to be heading out to the border of geth space, which is also the line of what used to be quarian territory. This is convenient for Tali, who wants to return to the flotilla now that Saren has been dealt with. There’s a trading outpost that will be out there that will give her the opportunity to get a ride back to the Migrant Fleet (because, despite a couple of references, I have never believed that Tali lingered too long on the Normandy – either she has to get her data on the geth back to them, or she has to discover an alternative). Because part of this is also going to be the “characters splitting apart” stuff as set up for ME2. Tali’s going to assist through this branch of the mission, but she will want to come back here before the Normandy returns to Citadel space proper.

The trading outpost is Omega-esque, something of “the poor man’s Omega,” again, setting that up for ME2 (we’re doing a lot of world-building patches here, okay?) The citizens here don’t care about the Alliance and they’re not all that concerned about Spectres, either. This is not a friendly place and will not just accept the appearance of anyone with the supposed authority that Shepard is representing.

This is kind of an introduction to ME2’s merc gangs – ME1 seems to play the systems of the Terminus to have their own government, species not represented among the Citadel races, and just this general atmosphere of the Terminus being more developed than it ends up being when we actually go there (which, yeah, that’s how writing and developing and world-building goes, but we’re here to smooth things over). I’m leaning towards not having the big three on Omega be all that represented here, considering that, lawless border or not, this is not really a place where they care enough to expand their influence. But they should at least be mentioned and referenced as the big dogs of the pack, that the gangs that jockey for power here want to take them on. Probably some poaching of members (through recruitment or snipers) from those gangs that make their numbers never get to where they might pose a threat.

Anyway. What needs to be done here is find out where Saren discovered Sovereign – that’s the idea we’re going with in trying to track down evidence of the Reapers. Sovereign had to be hiding out somewhere, you don’t just stumble across something like that. Considering this is one of the last places you’d expect to be able to find a Spectre, especially a Spectre who is one of the Council’s top operatives, it’s a decent enough starting point for us as the audience – we’ll say that there are records that Saren was out here shortly before the Eden Prime mission and such, explaining why we’re starting here.

Garrus is also going to have a realization about the merc gangs, about the horrible things they’re inflicting on the people who are living here, and being infuriated at the injustice allowed to happen – the effective attitude of the officials here are basically ‘look, unless the merc gangs come after us, we don’t care.’ This is going to dig under his skin (plates... you know what I mean), lead him to why he ultimately breaks with C-Sec, despite Shepard being able to lead him to a better understanding of the rules and regs – he understands the need for them, but sees them being used and abused to allows these injustices to continue, that it becomes a personal mission to see ‘justice’ and ‘law’ be synonymous.

As for the plot, yes, we’re getting there. This does, of course, lead to a shoot-out with a major gang force here, some people who are indoctrinated spies (because, hey, we’re looking for evidence of Reapers). They were left behind as part of Saren’s contingency plans, meant to stop anyone hunting for him – it’s just that the investigation that Shepard went on in the base game didn’t send them here. Even with Saren and Sovereign dead, they’re still here, still indoctrinated – a reminder that this is a permanent thing, a devastating thing, because there’s no way to take the Reaper compulsion away. But this leads to learning about a place that Saren ventured to from here, a place wracked with dangerous phenomenon. The only way to get there is with a crack pilot – which, fortunately, Normandy has.

There’s a brief pause from plot for some further expansion with the others – Wrex has been contemplating the krogan, given what went down on Virmire. His people are dying out, maybe not in the way we traditionally think of it, but still in practice. What is there for the krogan but to be used and abused by the Sarens of the universe, so long as all they care about is getting offworld and fighting and dying, usually being pit against one another as the proxies for stupid, pointless conflicts. It’s not right, and it’s beginning to eat at him.

And then there’s Ashley/Kaidan. Given the events of Virmire, both of them are thinking about the family that was left behind – Ashley’s sisters lost one of their central figures, Kaidan’s family lost their only son. They both are trying to write a letter of condolence to their counterpart’s loved ones (and specifically asking Shepard about the one they should be writing), trying to figure how they can make it better that they were saved at the other’s expense. It’s a complicated matter, and I want to just explore, even retroactively, how these two were friends, were close, potentially (if Shepard shuts down a romance with both of them) starting to come together. Just a bit that not only reestablishes the friendship and emphasizes that the fallen character is not forgotten, plus giving more context to how they’ll say that they and Shepard got through the other’s death together in ME3

This is a point for some romance content, which, I realize I have yet to bring up Liara’s character bit for this – don’t worry, it’s coming. But we do pause for some smoochies.

Anyway. The Normandy arrives in the hazardous area and we get a team meeting – remember how back in the first of these outlines, I brought up wanting to give more for Pressley? I haven’t directly mentioned him much since, but here’s a place to feature him, in the same way that the landing on Ilos does, showing him having a greater involvement in the strategy and such. Team Shepard needs to figure out if there even is a place to investigate within this area. There are sensor ghosts that might be something that they could land on and investigate, though it’s too small for a Mako mission (I may love that tank, but I feel like its final ride being the trip through the Ilos Relay is poetic and I’m not going to mess with that). Joker gets his moment of putting the Normandy through her paces (which is also going to add to the pain of her loss in ME2’s prologue, that she could pull this off, but couldn’t out-fly the Collector ship).

They detect something with a similar energy signature to the prothean beacons on an asteroid large enough to land on, which makes it reasonable for Liara to go with – take the prothean expert to a place that could hold more information on the protheans. She’s nervous because of the confirmation of the Reapers has just made things really real for her – this is facing the same thing that destroyed the protheans, and how can they stand against them, given the protheans’ advanced nature?

Let’s also take a moment and, given the indoctrinated nature of the mercs who attacked back on the outpost, to have some follow-up for Benezia’s death – I may only be speaking for myself, but it has NEVER sat right that Liara’s response to that is to simply go “I choose to remember Benezia as she was,” given that Shepard was, regardless of their reluctance, responsible for the actual bullet that ended her mother’s life. She’s struggling – could the mercs have been saved? Could her mother? Could what they find below offer a way to have saved them, and, if so, would Saren have had it, could he have freed her mother before her death? Did she have to die? Why did her mother have to die? Cue Shepard offering their support for her emotional struggle.

And yes, for Liaramancers, this is where they get their smoochies.

As for what they find... Geth. Plenty of (heretic – though Shepard doesn’t yet know this) geth. They are crawling all over the facility, it’s a firefight all the way to the central database, and, as our big final boss, we deal with a geth augmented with some of Sovereign’s tech, meant to be a Reaper upgrade for the geth. Obviously, this is not going to make it into the geth consensus (heretic or true), and this is effectively the only existing prototype.

The result of this is that they do find an archival interface, the same kind that allowed the communication with Sovereign on Virmire. Unfortunately, it can provide nothing – without Sovereign connected to it, it’s got minimal functionality – something might be recovered, with some time and effort. But the facility is about to move into the areas of this area of space that will fry any systems that get close to it – Sovereign probably had this place selected in the name of being a place where anyone who might stumble upon its hiding place would decide to move on because it’s suicide to remain in the area.

The only choice is to return to the Normandy, without any additional evidence. There are indications of geth vessels having moved out of the area and into other sectors, which could give them something to go on for further investigations. But, with this stage of the mission being a bust, Shepard is going to have the Normandy return to the earlier outpost in the name of allowing all ashore who are going ashore – Tali, Garrus, and Wrex, specifically, but also any other Normandy crew willing to stand down for the time being. Investigating this further is a strictly volunteer mission. This will, of course, lead us to ME2’s prologue...

Post Game Followups:

ME2: Mentions of Shepard’s activities on the outpost while on Omega, a letter from a scientist, passed on by Anderson, about further studies made on indoctrination being done on the sly, considering the lack of approval from the Council.

ME3: Further research has been done on indoctrination, now publicly, and makes for a scientific war asset, the remnants of the merc gang that were indoctrinated have reformed and reassembled as a roving band of resistance fighters against the Reapers.

Miscellaneous

Bisexual Ashley, Bisexual Kaidan, proper close outs to other romances, romances require proper flirts to start, additional conversations for all characters

Look, no one in space is heterosexual, okay? I don’t make the rule, I just enforce it. Actually, considering the context of these, I DO make the rules, and “no one in space is heterosexual” is one of them, so deal with it. Kaidan is canonically bisexual as of ME3, so there’s no reason he shouldn’t be canonically bisexual in ME1. And we’ll throw Ashley in for good measure, because why not? And we definitely – DEFINITELY – need to do something about the romance mechanic that seems to assume “I would like to get to know you better” means “you, me, my cabin, the way to Ilos, yes/yes?” There needs to be explicit markers for closing out a romance WITHOUT locking you out of conversations with the character in question (particularly considering that now, all of this game’s romances can be options in a given playthrough). And yeah, I think there could stand to be a few extra conversations with the characters, that focus on the characters proper – for most of the crew, they basically end up acting as glorified Wikipedia entries on their species, or, in Kaidan’s case, the plight of human biotics. Let’s give them some more personalized material that lets them tell Shepard something about themselves (and offer Shepard something similar, as character development for the both of them).

#dg's hypothetical dlc #mass effect #mass effect meta

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sky-writes-daydreams · 6 years

Text

How They Met Chapter 14

A/N: Hey! I’m still here. Sorry for the delay between updates. I’ve been working on this honestly. Editing and adding to it of course. (There’s smut coming I swear to the six.) Also been debating on something. If I were to write an alternate ending to the first one I had planned an episode happiness as it were, Would anyone be interested? Let me know plz.

@valkyrieofardyn @shigekihizashi @blindedstarlight @lola-mcevil13

Next Chapter Masterpost

Turns out I didn’t have to worry. I was sitting on the shaded steps outside of the power plant when I heard a whistle. I looked back and beamed.

“Cindy!”

“Hey girl. What’s up?”

“Waiting on the boys. Holly called for backup.” she nodded as she came closer.

“I heard. Kind of why I came running.” She sat down next to me and smiled.

“Hope you don’t mind. Pawpaw needed the truck so I had to take Bella.” I stopped then.

“Wait….” She smiled and flashed my spare key. I forgot I gave that to her. I laughed then and she smiled.

“Gave her a look over while you were gone. She should be good for a long while. Those empire techs knew what they were doing.” I stopped then.

“Who told you…?”

“The boys. Ignis was the quietest. I don’t think he likes you hanging around them too much.”

“I know he doesn’t…. Noctis just told me why…. He had a crush on me.” Cindy cringed then and I nodded.

“Kind of just crushed it…. Cus the guy that the boys keep running into…” I could feel the blush then.

“We’re dating….” She looked over stunned and I covered my face.

“You…. You're dating!? Finally!”

“Oh shut it!!! You know damn well why I haven't before now!” She started laughing then and I groaned covering my face. At least till I heard the gate open. We both straightened up and I soon ran.

“Gladio!!” He looked up and smiled.

“Hey! Sup?”

“Nothing much. Where the hell you’ve been?” He chuckled then.

“Long story. It was worth it tho.” I nodded and soon the boys started talking. I snuck away and headed for my jeep. They had it together now that gladio was home.

I got home about an hour later and just crashed on the couch. I was worn out and I didn’t feel like walking back to my bedroom. My boots were waiting by the door drying out and I just hit the couch. My phone was still dead silent but I didn’t mind. I got up long enough to scrub off some of the swampy mess on my legs and wash out my hair before I went back to the couch and turned on my small tv. I turned on some old movie and just settled down. I lost track of time while my eyes were closed. I only opened them when it started going nuts vibrating. I slid it over to answer without looking at the name.

“Hello?”

“Oh six…. I woke you.” I stopped then.

“Wait…. Ardyn?” I rubbed my eye a bit then as he chuckled.

“Yes. you ok?”

“I guess… Fuck what time is it?”

“Around seven at night. I’ve been trying to text but you never answered… Should have known you were asleep.” I laughed a bit then.

“Yeah maybe…. I’m lousy at keeping in contact though. I could have just been ignoring my phone as I clean. I’ve done that… Or reading. I do love my books.”

“Oh? Interesting…. At least you can sleep now though.”

“Yeah… I’m kind of shocked. Been a while since I’ve passed out like this…” I smiled then stretching slightly.

“Maybe getting that weight off me made it easier… I’m a lot more relaxed now…” I got up then turning on a lamp close by. It was already dark out. My tv was still on as well but I didn’t even check it.

“You too? Well I suppose that’s a good side effect.... I wonder how well you’d sleep if I was there though.” I laughed then getting into my kitchen. I kept this part of my house sparkling. I hated a dirty kitchen.

“My, That’s a jump…. But probably pretty fucking well. Wouldn’t need a thick blanket either cus you’re a heater.” I opened my fridge then and got a water out. I heard him laugh then and then pull away from the phone. I couldn't hear what he said.

“Good to know. I’ll remember that for next time hon. Sadly I’ve got to go. A quick meeting before I’m set free. Plans are in motion and apparently need my approval.” He sounded so bored. I laughed then leaning on the fridge then.

“My oh my, is the man of the people bored with his duties?”

“Very funny. I’m tired as well believe it or not. I would like an early day off.” I cackled then and he huffed.

“Go back to sleep Skylar. I’ll see you soon.”

“Alright. Hope it goes by quick for you, Ardyn… Love you.” It felt a bit odd to say it but It wasn’t a lie. I knew he stopped then before smiling.

“Love you too Dear…. See you soon?”

“Always.” He kissed the phone then making me go red before he hung up. I let my hand fall then as I sighed. I kind of wished he was here with me suddenly.

I didn’t get long to dwell on that. Come sunrise, I was getting leads over text for hunts all over the area. I was the highest ranked hunter they could find for some of these. I organized them all on my gps the best I could before taking off. The only good news is I got to text Ardyn. In between hunts, I’d send him little photos or texts just letting him know how they went or where I was. I even changed his name from cinnabum loser to Ardyn My Love. It made the huge job load a lot easier to deal with honestly and the nightly calls while I camped at havens close by helped even more. I was honestly lying on my back next to the fire looking up at the stars with the phone beside me on speaker when he mentioned it. I hadn’t seen him in over a week now and I was a rank nine hunter now. My friend Dino from Galdin had just asked me today about this new job he had for me which is what I was telling ardyn when he chirped up.

“Wait… you said the emerald was where?”

“Costlemark. It’s old ruins from the first empire. I’ve camped near there to take out some necromancers close by but never went in. It’s labeled as highly dangerous and dave is careful about which hunters go in. He won’t even do it anymore because the last time, he almost didn’t make it out.” I laughed then smiling.

“I’ve always wanted to go!!! The loot in that place is out of this world!” He laughed then.

“I can believe that… I’ve been in there…. Well…. As of…” I heard him pull the phone away as I looked over.

“Five minutes ago.”

“You went alone!?” I rolled over grabbing my phone quickly.

“How are you alive!?”

“Easy. It’s part of my secret.” I stopped then. He hadn’t mentioned his secrets since that night at the vesperpool.

“Ardyn…” I was worried. He had been so closed off about telling me before now.

“I went to make sure we could do it together…. This is where I want to tell you everything…. It’s the closest we can get to….” He trailed off then.

“Ok… Um… when?”

“Can you be here tomorrow night? It only opens at night.” I got up then and scrambled to my map. I looked over it and smiled.

“Easily. I’m only in the next district. I can get there during the day and we can hang out until nightfall if you want.”

“Sounds good to me. Be nice to see the local hangouts.” I laughed then smiling.

“Yeah I can toss you in the lakes and see if you can catch a rare fish or leave you stranded on the arches.” I folded the map then easily. This was going to be fun for sure.

“Oh get real…. You’re scared of heights. You wouldn’t get up there even if I offered you all the gil in lucis.” I gasped then as he started laughing. I just smiled then.

“Yeah ok you got me…. Well good news is that I live about an hour away so if I’m still talking to you after this, we can go chill at my house.”

“Oh? Am I finally going to get to see where you live?”

“Maybe. It’s not much but it’s mine for sure.”

“I’m alright with that. So…. is it a date?” I stopped putting away my things then and looked over at the phone going red.

“Um…. Yeah. I guess so…. Just don’t get me drunk this time ok?”

“I won’t. Not safe to go into costlemark drunk…. Unless you’re me I guess.” I laughed a bit then smiling.

“You promise we’ll be ok?”

“I swear hon. No harm will come to you while you’re with me.”

“I trust you…. Um…. Meet up at the chocobo post?”

“Is that the central location there?”

“Pretty much to me.”

“Alright…. Mind if I see if damien will let me pet him?” I smiled then.

“Oh? Do you have a soft spot for chocobos?”

“Well…. Maybe. It’s been a while. That’s all and he seems friendly enough.” I shook my head then smiling.

“Alright. I’ll text you permission in case wiz asks ok?”

“Thanks hon. See you there around noon?”

“Probably sooner…. Depends on how soon I can get some sleep.”

“I didn’t make you too excited did I?” I stopped then. Was he…?

“No…?” He started laughing then and I growled looking away.

“You jerk! I’m hanging up now!”

“Sleep well love.” He kissed the phone then and I just smiled. I kissed back before hanging up and went to bed smiling. Tomorrow was going to be a lot of fun.

#writing #sky writes #Ardyn x oc #ardyn izunia #ffxv #ffxv fanfiction #HTM #ardyn lucis caelum

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modernjobsearch · 5 years

Text

Everyday Career Advice That's Not Everyday: Skip Applications and Find Jobs that Aren't Posted!

The Question: What should I do?

This could be anyone. We all know these exact feelings: “I will keep applying to published jobs, but I am 99.9% sure this is not going to work. Unfortunately, I am not good at calling companies directly, I am not good at sales, and I don’t have the confidence to call anyone and explain what I have done. What should I do?”

My Answer – Beginning:

I agree with you about published jobs – they attract a crowd. I understand about not wanting to make calls. It’s not fun, even when you get good at it. The problem though is that your intended targets are getting crushed with email and response rates are getting lower and lower. In some cases, I’d even suggest sending letters (like actual mail) just to do something different. Maybe even cards – but you have to keep it simple.

Don’t Sell!

The other thing is that you need to change your attitude from thinking about this being a sales effort. Of course it is, but so is almost everything else anyone does in life if you really think about it. However you will do better in your search if you think of yourself as a solution provider looking for problems to solve. At your level, one way of doing this would be to read press releases and / or professional publications literally looking for other people’s problems to solve.

As a recruiter, I have never sold anything. I know recruiters who work that way, they sound like car salesmen, and put a lot of effort into pushing whatever they have. I put my effort in providing solutions – listening, doing research, and showing companies people I was pretty sure they would want to hire. I include resumes and pretty objective summaries and tell them to let me know if they are interested. That’s all. I don’t badger anyone to test drive any of my candidates. Usually if/when I work that hard on a search, my candidates get interviewed (and prepped of course). From there, my interview to placement ratio is 3:1, industry average is 7:1.

When I market a candidate or when you market yourself, it’s the same thing – show people the right solution at the right time and they will respond. In marketing, the timing is the wildcard. If you are not replying to job postings, you don’t know who needs what right now – which is when [right now] you are contacting them. You have to offset it/timing by increasing volume. You still have to do the research though and it has to be spot on.

This is the same way I do recruiting. I might, literally, look at 1000 LinkedIn profiles, contact only 10 people, and maybe only get 2 replies. However if I’ve done good research, my replies will be from viable, interested candidates and that’s money to me (even though really reading 1000 carefully researched LinkedIn profiles is a lot of work, especially when you know beforehand that 990 will be a waste of time).

What, To Whom, and How?

The two challenges for you right now are: What you are communicating (and to whom) and mode of communication. Your messages have to be well written and short. They have to be grammatically and structurally perfect. You have to work on this. It’s worth it though.

You have to seriously refrain from selling yourself. Your emails should start with something like: I can help you! And then include very few examples based on specific, researched knowledge, for example: You just read in Supply Chain Monthly (fake magazine) that XYZ Company is having delay issues with their Latin American suppliers and you know how to help them. If the article names a VP you even have a contact. The key to this is writing the best, most perfect, short message that you can – putting time into editing. You’ll use pieces of the message over and over again so it is time well spent.

Don’t send your resume or even tell them more than is absolutely necessary until they ask. Again, for example, if you are contacting someone about solving one of their problems, only mention your experience that is relevant to their problem, like before with XYZ Co. above, “Here’s how I solved delay issues with my Latin American suppliers when I was at ABC company, depending on your exact needs, I could help you do that too.” If they are interested, they will ask about your other experience, for a resume, etc. If not, keep moving.

Using this approach, my time goes into research, writing, and editing. A simple way to look at this: High Quality Research and Writing = High Quality Replies. Quantity becomes irrelevant.

The other challenge, the mode of communication is tougher. As I said, people are drowning in email. It still works and is better and less intrusive than phone calls but you have to set yourself apart. Again, well researched targets will help. A good subject line will help. A short, precise and technically perfect email will help.

If you send a card, do the same thing –

“Hi I’m Joe*, senior supply chain professional, I can help you solve your Latin American supply chain issues. I solved similar problems at ABC a couple of years ago. I’d love to share ideas with you and learn more about your goals. Please email me at (joe*@gmail.com) or call me anytime.

PS: I sent you this nice card because I’m sure you get a million emails but very few nice cards. Have a great day!”

Keep it Easy! (for them, not you)

Make it this short. Don’t include a resume or anything else. Don’t make anyone work to figure out why they need to talk to you. Make it easy for them. (Again, the right targets at the right time will respond.) Wait for them to ask you for more information, then show them how you can help.

Honestly, I might send cards just to mess with people and see what happens. You could go buy a box of cards with some nice, neutral image, something someone would put on their refrigerator or something. I know it is a high pressure, important thing – your job search. Just like me, working on commission. Even so, you can experiment, make a game of it somehow, take chances, have fun with it. You are aware of your weaknesses, so work around them. Define your targets around your strengths. Try different approaches. If you do cards, you can feel good every time you send out a well-researched and well written card. It doesn’t matter if you get replies. It is the act of doing the research, composing the message, and sending it from which you can derive satisfaction. And, sooner or later, one will hit the right target at the right time.

Kurt Schmidt is the author of “Modern Job Search” and the President and Owner of Capto Systems, an executive search firm focused on supply chain and strategic sourcing jobs in manufacturing and energy.

Everyday Career Advice That’s Not Everyday: Skip Applications and Find Jobs that Aren’t Posted! was originally published on Modern Job Search

#career #career advancement #career advice #career search #careers #employment #headhunter #hiring #job interview #job search #linkedin #networking #resume #search

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6ix-dragons · 7 years

Text

FT Speculation Time: Which One Will be Gone, for Real?

So, you may have already heard about the news regarding the Fairy Tail manga ending in a couple of volumes. However, there was also other news that made the rounds online, especially on Reddit, and probably around here, as well.

According to this post, by @thefairystales, this translated account of what was mentioned from a promo event (for the Dragon Cry movie) indicates that “a very important character” will be killed-off for real—at some point in the final chapters for the story. In this post, a question was directed to Hiro Mashima by a fan. The manga’s author responded by mentioning how saddened he was, when he drew his manuscript (presumably for the upcoming chapter, or so), just before further mentioning that at some point in the final 10 chapters of the manga, there will be “the final scene of a very important character”.

Just who is that “very important character” has yet to be revealed, as Mashima has stated in that post that he “can’t say who it is about”. What has also been known so far, from what was reported in that post, is that two of the people who voiced the major characters in the anime adaptation, have voiced their surprise after his answer. In the case of the person who voiced such surprise at Hiro’s answer...it was actually from the voice actress for Lucy.

Now, before I continue any further, I just want to express a few things. Firstly, I want to mention about how there is a precedent behind this kind of news. A couple of story arcs before the current Alvarez arc, the Tartaros arc in particular, Hiro Mashima mentioned somewhere that an important character will be killed-off around the end of that arc. It was later revealed that Natsu’s father figure, Igneel, was killed-off at that point, late in the arc.

Secondly, however, I also want to point out that, depending on how it goes for the final chapters of the story, the very potential for this ‘important character’ to be killed-off may not even happen at all. If it does happen, ‘though, then there may also be the potential for said character to be written right back in. And, again, this is due to a precedent behind it. Fans of this series may recall the “fake deaths” that happened earlier in the Alvarez arc, particularly with Gajeel, and Juvia (Makarov, however, is someone that will be mentioned further down in this post). Those who have read those chapters that featured such instances would believe that this certain character was killed-off for real, until it was revealed later on, that they really weren’t.

Thirdly, and this is rather from me personally...I just don’t like it that one of the major characters will be killed-off for real—especially if it’s a protagonist. For certain reasons in my mind, I feel that killing-off a major character this late in the story just doesn’t feel right. Especially with all the fake deaths that were aforementioned here, it somewhat doesn’t make sense to just kill off a character like that. Besides, the author of the manga mentioned at one point in the past, there would be some sort of “happy ending” for the story. There wasn’t any mention of a “bittersweet ending”, or anything like that...so, I have to wonder what the author intends to do, in terms of wrapping-up the story.

And now, lastly, what you’re about to read below, is just purely speculation of what’s going to happen in the final chapters for the story. Simply put, these are only my opinions of what will happen in those final chapters, and these opinions are based on what has happened already, in those previous two chapters of the manga.

With all that mentioned aside, here are the characters that I think, have the potential to be killed-off for real—for the final chapters of the story (from the highest potential, to the lowest potential):

(Be aware; there are spoilers for the most recent FT chapters below!)

Jellal

Ohhh, boy...he’d just had to do it, didn’t he? But, in all seriousness, he currently has the highest potential to be killed-off permanantly. You would have thought from before, with how Erza had to talk him off of doing things like this, he would be able to learn not to give his whole life away for what he has done in the past.

To those who have already read the manga, or just don’t give a hoot about spoilers, this is what happened: chased down, on the heels of a furious Acnologia (in his fully-fledged dragon form, mind you), Jellal decides to save the lives of those on the Christine, by just going after one of the biggest bad. Instead, he ends up in the clutches of the villainous dragon-slayer...and this is where I think that might be it for Jellal.

Personally, I’m kind of okay, if Jellal is the one who gets killed-off. I mean, with how he deeply feels about all the things he has done over the years, I don’t doubt his intentions to risk his own life, for the sake of saving those he knows and cares about. As someone who ships him with Erza, ‘though...yeah, it would definitely be devastating. I mean, considering what they went through, and how their relationship developed, it would have been nice to see those two end up together AND living! But, in case if Jellal gets killed-off for real, then I’d be okay with it (although I will greatly lament what could have been, in terms of him being together with Erza).

I would also seem to think that this is just a result of the author’s writing, given the intentions to end the story sooner. I just don’t think that the whole chase between the Christine and Acnologia should have been written in at all, so that something like this wouldn’t even be necessary! Or, even before then, not have Acnologia confront Erza and Wendy in the first place.

Despite all this, there’s still some sort of expectation that Jellal wouldn’t be the one to be killed-off for real, after what he just did in chapter 535. Here’s hoping that he doesn’t meet a tragic fate!

Lucy

Here’s another character that I think, has the highest potential to be killed-off for real (not as high as Jellal, ‘though)...hopefully not.

Having saved Natsu from certain death (another character, in which I’ll get to, shortly) in chapter 534, Lucy becomes empowered by the Book of E.N.D.—so much so, it ends up affecting her physically. Fortunately, in chapter 535, she wasn’t further harmed by the effects of editing the book, but there are mentions in the chapter that she could face even worse reprecussions, by making changes to whatever’s inside the book.

Now, the only way I could ever think about how she can be killed-off, is if she sacrifices herself (just like Jellal did) to save the ones she truly cares about. This might be quite apt, but this is something that I can definitely see happening. Maybe in a situation where she is confronted by Zeref, she somehow makes a sacrifice that takes up a certain amount of magic she cannot handle, and it ends up saving Natsu, and the others...but at the cost of her own life.

I’m pretty sure reading that paragraph above will make some of you quite unsettled (especially for the NaLu fans). Honestly, I wouldn’t like it very much, either, if it comes to this. Furthermore, it leaves the question of what happens to the Heartfilia family line, if she ends up dying.

One of the things that would certainly have to be addressed, in order for that to happen, would be the Book of E.N.D. itself. I believe, when Lucy rewrote certain sections of the book inside, it resulted in her life being chained directly to Natsu’s life. How the author addresses that issue, is pretty much up to him.

Otherwise, I can also see a scenario where Lucy gets revived somehow, after she “dies” (much like what happened at the end of Rave Master). That is one particular scenario that I’m hoping/expecting it will happen, in the story’s conclusion.

Erza

If I had to guess another character that is most likely to be killed-off (as with Lucy) within the closing chapters of the story, it would be Erza—despite how ridiculous it may sound.

However, I can’t really mention that it is ridiculous to think of that idea, after what had transpired in chapter 535. The only way I can ever think about how she would be killed-off, is if she gives up her own life to save Jellal from Acnologia. A situation, in which Erza dies fighting the major villain, or they both end up through the Timelapse. That would devastate Jellal, much in the same way Erza would be, for if he does sacrifice himself for her. Of course, it would also devastate Erza fans, as well as fans of the Jerza pairing.

As we’ve seen before, ‘though, just about no situation can ever be that dangerous, nor threatening to her life. Time, and again, we’ve seen her in such perilous instances, where it felt as if she were to die. However—and this could also be attributed to the way the author writes things—she somehow manages to pull through, barely by the skin of her teeth. So, it may be possible that she could be the one to be killed-off...but, at the same time, it may also be possible that she can pull through. Hopefully, with Jellal still there, by her side.

Zeref

As much as I can mention about him, Zeref does have the high potential to be killed-off in the story’s close...especially so, given the mostly-villainous vibes of his character.

The only ways I can ever see Zeref being killed-off, is if he is defeated, by either one of: Mavis, Lucy, or Natsu. I mean, there’s the possibility that these three can team up to go against him, and one of them strikes the finishing blow. Also, there’s the potential of Acnologia defeating him, too, which would be more interesting for the story—should it actually happen.

I know that, for some, they would feel somewhat saddened if Zeref were to die, considering his unfortunate past. But, the fact of the matter is, it is still the same Zeref that Natsu and the others in the guild have to stop, before he becomes the catalyst for the end of the world (and the timeline, as they know it). And so, he continues to be one of the main villains that Fairy Tail must defeat.

Again, just like what was mentioned with Lucy above, the issue surrounding the Book of E.N.D. must be addressed first.

Natsu

I believe that Natsu (as likely as Zeref, Erza, and Lucy above) is also most likely to be killed-off, in the final stages of the story.

There’s one scenario that I could think, with the way he is taking on Zeref right now. Instead of Lucy sacrificing her life to save the others, Natsu sacrifices his own life to save her.

The only thing I have against this notion, is that he was already on the verge of death, in chapter 533. Also, it was Igneel who expressed to him, more than a few chapters earlier, to keep on living. I can also see the potential that Natsu gets somehow revived, after he “dies” (again, much like what happened in Rave Master). Unless, I’m mistaken, and will sound foolish for mentioning it.

Furthermore, Mashima does need to address how Acnologia will be taken care of. The answer to whether Natsu takes on Acnologia—after Zeref, of course, or whether Natsu takes on both Zeref and Acnologia depends on how the author continues from 535.

Anna

Alright, so here’s another one that I’ve considered on this list. As lots of you may have known already, Anna (the ancestor to Lucy, from 400 years back) has emerged from hiding, and has devised a plan to send Acnologia into the Timelapse, after her original plan went awry.

It seems to me that, following the events of chapter 535, there is potential for Anna to actually spring into action. In this case, she would be the one to take on Acnologia herself, or be joined with Erza, in the fight against him. I would think, by doing so, she would take Acnologia into the Timelapse with her. It would be the one scenario that I would like to see, the most.

However, I also believe that Mashima has plans of his own, and that he’ll carry them on, for the next few chapters ahead. We’ll see how it pans out.

Gray

As likely as it is, but not as much as the five characters above, Gray may have the potential to be killed-off. I mean, he’s currently in the same area with Lucy, and they have to reach Natsu—while he’s still taking on Zeref. If anything, there is a considerable likelihood that Gray could be the one to take the fall for his guild.

On the other hand, I don’t really think Gray will be the one, at all. When you look back from the beginning of the story, he already had quite a few of these instances, where he had a brush with death. Go back to the time, around the Galuna Island arc, where Gray tried to use “Iced Shell”, but ended up not using it. Then, it happened again, in chapters 334 and 335, where it seemed that he might have died for real. The next following instance of where he had the potential to be killed-off again, was much later in the Alvarez arc, when both Juvia and him had seemingly sacrificed themselves. Finally, there was the moment, when Gray tried to use his “Iced Shell” again, against Zeref.

Fortunately, in those few aforementioned examples, Gray came back alive and well—so far. And, honestly, I don’t think fans of Gray (nor the fans of Gruvia) would definitely want to see him be killed-off for real.

Mavis

Technically, she was already dead, but she somehow still exists. Mavis, to me, is also likely to be killed-off.

The way I can see it happen for her, is if she ends up defeating Zeref—by any means, but taking her own life with her, in doing so. It would certainly give closure to both Zeref and Mavis, in the story...although it would be quite bitter-sweet, as well. Ultimately, it’s up to the author, to decide what should be done about her.

BONUS: Makarov

Now, it seems totally absurd that he would be included into this list, seeing as how he’s already dead (having taken place, after all those ‘fake deaths’...a-hem). But, consider what Mashima mentioned in that blog post, from above. He mentioned the “final scene of a very important character”.

What if, based on those very words, it really means that all of the surviving guild members pay their respects to Makarov—who passed on his legacy, by sacrificing himself, to protect the ones he knows? For all that’s known about Mashima, he can truly be a trolling author at best. So, I’m hoping that Mashima is referring to the fallen guild master, when he mentions the “final scene of a very important character”.

BONUS #2: Blue Pegasus/The Christine Crew

Well, considering how the Christine has ended up crashing into the water, it would seem that nobody on that ship could survive. But, this being Fairy Tail, where the majority of the characters end up unscathed...it would be much less likely that anybody on that ship would be killed-off. It just doesn’t seem that way, to me!

Alright...that’s all the characters that I can think of, who have the most potential to be killed-off for real, in the story’s closing. Again, it’s all speculation, and only my opinions, too, but I know that some of the choices out there, can be uncomfortable for some in the fandom. However, we don’t really know what’s going to come around the corner, as soon as the next few chapters hit. All that I can mention about it, and it is that we must remain a little bit optimistic, for some of those characters involved. And, if it does come true for the worst, we must be well prepared to brace for it (I know I’m trying to).

If you have any comments, or suggestions you’d like to share, I’m all open to them!

#fairy tail #speculation time #personal takes #ft spoilers #long post #natsu dragneel #lucy heartfilia #gray fullbuster #erza scarlet #jellal fernandes #zeref dragneel #anna heartfilia #mavis vermillion #makarov dreyar #blue pegasus

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stressedwolfe · 5 years

Note

1-49 All of them

Heh I guess I should have seen this coming

1. Do you listen to music when you write?

yes almost always

2. Are you a pantser or plotter?

Plotter mostly tbh

3. Computer or pen and paper?

Pen and paper for ideas, Computer for actually writing

4. Have you ever been published, or do you want to be published?

I do want to be published in the future, yes.

5. How much writing do you get done on an average day?

either 2000-5000 words or none

6. Single or multiple POV?

ohhhh good one, Single for the mystery stories but multiple in general

7. Standalone or series?

both. both is good

8. Oldest WIP

My current one, the big one thou knows about.

9. Current WIP

look above land lubber

10. Do you set yourself deadlines?.....yes, yes I do. But do I meet them? No. No I do not.

The Specifics11. Books and/or authors who influenced you the most

JKR, Tolkein, Rick Riordan, Neil Gaiman, C.S Lewis, Kit and East

12. Describe your perfect writing space

My bed/room, no outside noise, preferably with a view on a park or the sea or something.

13. Describe your writing process from idea to polished

Well I get the idea, work it out in me head, the kinks, plot holes and the like. Though I tend to only write it down if it fills me up with energy or motivation.

14. How do you deal with self-doubts?

I Love this. I validate them, simple as that. I understand their concerns then explain why they have no reason to worry.15. How do you deal with writer’s block?

Procastinate and/or work on another WIP or just another activity.16. How many drafts do you need until you’re satisfied with a project?

I have absolutely no clue. I’m still writing my first ever draft.

17. What writing habits or rituals do you have?

Well, I get a bottle of coke and go through the plot in me head or whatever i want to write.

18. If you could collaborate with anyone, who would it be, and what would you write about?

Kit, because we’ve already done this.

East, same reason.

Jake, cause he has great ideas.

19. How do you keep yourself motivated?

Oh good lord... See that’s the thing, Motivation comes and goes in waves. I don’t always keep myself motivated, I just know that I’ll have to get my WIP done sooner or later so why not now?

20. How many WIPs and story ideas do you have?

Oh boy... let’s see there’s like... 5 currently? But I’m just working on like 2-3 of them. I dropped alot more in the past few weeks and decided to focus on what’s more important to me.

21. Who is/are your favourite character(s) to write?

Bruce, Katie, Rafe and Keith tbh

22. Who is/are your favourite pairing(s) to write?

Kallura and Brafe I think?

23. Favourite author

hmmm I have quite a few but I suppose JKR

24. Favourite genre to write and read

Scifi/fantasy/Mystery

25. Favourite part of writing

That feeling when you write and you’re just... filled with energy/excitement and it doesn’t tire you out. When you’ve been writing for hours but it feels like it’s been minutes.

26. Favourite writing program

I dunno what you’re on about.

27. Favourite line/scene

“Hear that? I’m chosen. Can the chosen one smoke?“ - Tommy Shelby, Peaky Blinders.

28. Favourite side character

Rhea or Drogo probably... Maybe Kara or Damian

29. Favourite villain

from my book? Probably the big bad.

30. Favourite idea you haven’t started on yet

Heh... there’s a ton so buckle in and pray I have the motivation to write them all down.

31. Least favourite part of writing

Not having the motivation to write or lack of inspiration/ideas.

32. Most difficult character to write

hmmm... I suppose it’s Raven probably

33. Have you ever killed a main character?

>.> Listen- It had to be done.

34. What was the hardest scene you ever had to write?

Bloody hell there’s a ton but it depends on what you mean by the hardest... I’ll go with my current WIP cause It’s difficult to find ways to progress the scene.

35. What scene/story are you least looking forward to writing?

I... dunno... nothing comes to mind tbh

36. Last sentence you wrote

“Very well then,” Raymurmured dejectedly, grabbing the tangled black thread which pulsed as soon asshe did. Rafe noticed the concern wash over her as well as Corsair’s.

37. First sentence or your current WIP

James Redbourn anxiously paced the hallways of the hospital.

38. Weirdest story idea you’ve ever had

Turning Cormac into a ruthless killer but it didn’t fit his character.

39. Weirdest character concept you’ve ever had

Charlie I suppose, prankster but somehow mature.

40. Share some backstory for one of your characters

I politely decline to do so until I’m ready.

41. Any advice for new/beginning/young writers?

Find quotes, lots of it and find writers who write the same genre as you and take their advice, learn from their mistakes. Refuse to give up on your idea if it breathes life into you. Find out why is it you want to write.

42. How do you feel about love triangles?

Can be interesting if done correctly

43. What do you do if/when characters don’t follow the outline?

Say fuck it and go with it, I want to explore this new development and see where it goes.

44. How much research do you do?

Depends on the topic.

45. How much world building do you do?

I sort of make most of it up as I go a long but I do have some concrete guidelines and i’d say fairly much.

46. Do you reread your own stories?

Sometimes, when i’m in the mood for it or editing things.

47. Best way to procrastinate

Netflix or reading another book.

48. What’s the most self-insert character/scene you’ve ever written?

I think it was the Kej Leon and Henry Graves situation.

49. Which character would you most want to be friends with, if they were real?

Keith or Bella easily... they just know how to have a good time among other reasons.

#fox cub #asks

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lifeasarandomdudeknowsit-blog · 7 years

Text

Entry #335 - Rhythm of the Night

Right, I should probably get around to writing today's entry. I went to bed last night a bit earlier than usual because I'm trying to right my sleep schedule. Of course, I ended up not even waking until after 9 AM. Apparently I needed the extra rest. I'm really hoping this will help snap me out of this weird non-rhythm I have going for me.

I was thinking to myself the other day if it's possible to have a circadian rhythm of longer than 24 hours. I've noticed that I definitely feel like I want to stay awake for 17-18 hours before sleeping, but still need the usual eight hours of sleep to recharge my batteries. I'm curious if that's something that other people experience, or if it's just a weird aspect of my body. I feel like if the day lasted an hour or so longer, things would be much easier for me. Right now, my body rhythm has been trending towards going to bed later and waking up later. I'm worried that if this keeps up, soon I'll be falling asleep when the sun comes up and waking up when it goes down. Of course, the cycle would continue and I'd eventually return to what most consider “normal” waking hours.

After doing a very small amount of research, it appears that this is a recognized circadian rhythm disorder. It's called (appropriately enough) Non-24-hour sleep-wake disorder. Though, after looking into it a bit more, I'm unsure if it's really possible for me to have, as there are apparently less than a hundred official cases of it, at least as far as sighted people are concerned. Apparently, this is much more common amongst blind people, though the commonality is among those with no light perception whatsoever. So I don't know, really. It's still possible, but I would have to let my circadian rhythm run free while keeping a sleep diary in order to attempt to confirm this. Otherwise, I just need to set more alarms in order to attempt to keep up with a “normal” sleep schedule.

I mean I was able to keep a schedule during my time in school, but it certainly did me no favors at times. And with the job search, I can't exactly just let my circadian rhythm go nuts, because if I find something that's 9-5 and my biological clock had decided that that is when I sleep, I'm going to have a very difficult time adjusting to a new rhythm.

I don't know. Maybe I'm just blowing this all out of proportion and I'm just being lazy when I don't wake up with my alarm. I will admit that I don't particularly like mornings, and if I had the choice to wake up at 9 or 10 AM, I probably would. But seeing as how most jobs start at 9 (if not sooner), I'm limiting my options pretty severely if I want to sleep in late. I know there are jobs out there that start at noon or 4 PM, but at that point, I'm running the risk of getting out of work late at night, and depending on how good the public transit system is in this city, I may not be able to use it to get home. Unless I can find something that lets me work from home, I'm much more than likely going to have to find something with hours around the same time as most folks' schedules.

And that reminded me that I needed to check something in regards to an exam I took about six weeks ago. Turns out I finally got my score for one of the state government positions. It's a bit lower than I expected, unfortunately. I'm in the third tier of candidates, which means if I put in an application for a position, whomever is hiring has to go through every other candidate from tier one AND tier two before calling me for an interview. Still, I have my score, and I'm going to put in a bunch of applications for that position. I also need to check and see if any of the other positions have open exams (or will have times to sign up in the near future).

I actually wouldn't mind a government job. It's stable, good pay, good benefits, retirement plan...not necessarily the most glamorous position, but right now, I'm not looking for glamor. I'm looking for a stable position that will allow me to pay my bills and have enough left over to finally get a savings account going again. I actually enjoy office work, strangely enough. Doing things like data entry, calculations, and writing reports comes oddly natural to me. Heck, I've managed to write in this blog every day for the last eleven months, so I must be halfway decent at writing. Unless it's all been just garbage and no one has bothered to tell me.

The point is if I could find a government job (or, really, anything that could pay a living wage), it would free up so much for me and allow me the opportunity to work on these other projects I've been putting off for a very long time. Whether or not one of these jobs actually sticks won't be known until I get called in for an interview. We shall see what happens.

Apparently, the paragraphs I wrote today were so short that this entry has to keep going. I write all of these in a word processor before posting them, and usually once I get to this point (I'm about a quarter of the way into my second page) I've hit my thousand word mark. Sometimes, it doesn't work out that way, and today must have been one of those days. I don't really stop and look back to see what I've written. It just all flows out of me in one take. Sometimes I wonder if these entries would read more clearly if I went back and edited them, but that sort of spits in the face of my style in general. I don't really like editing things much. I love doing things in one shot, and whatever the result is, that's what I take. I guess I enjoy more raw content than polished content. But that's me.

#one thousand words every day #writing #life #circadian rhythm #finding work

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