#the default is earthborn+sole survivor

[calamitouscynic]

okay so im finishing up the citadel dlc right?? and starting to think about my next playthrough.

i’ve already determined im going for f!shep, sentinel/bastion (?? still thinking about that one, but whatever), but the BACKGROUND

the background

i think im finally going with spacer bc i’ve never done that before, BUT

i don’t want to do ruthless which is the only other background im missing, i dont want to be mean :(

cast your votes now sole survivor or war hero

#mine #text #kieran talks #kieran plays video games #mass effect #my first shep is fshep earthborn sole survivor w/garrus #and thats the one i always default to #shes Major Paragon #current trynig something new shep is #mshep colonist war hero w/tali and a bit of a renegade streak but still mostly paragon #bc i dont want to be mean #did junk punch han gerrel tho #next shep????? #fshep spacer w/liara #but how do i want their alliance career to gooooooo

[monowires]

info dump about ‘my’ shepard because i’m Autistic™️

DEFAULT/CANON MALE SHEPARD / sheploo (calling him this is so funny)

name: commander john shepard

birthday: april 11, 2154

class: adept (L3 pre-me2, L5x post-me2 prologue)

background: earthborn, sole survivor

morality: paragon (me1), paragade (me2), renegon (me3)

skill set (italicized = most used)

combat style: medium-range offensive

weapons: sniper rifles & pistols

powers: barrier, pull, reave, singularity, shockwave, slam, throw, warp

friendships/relationships

sexuality: gay

canon/primary romantic partner: kaidan alenko

headcanon/alternate romantic partners: garrus vakarian & jeff moreau

queerplatonic partner(s): tali’zorah vas normandy, liara t’soni

best friends: wrex, EDI, mordin solus, samara, kasumi goto, thane krios

kaidan is his partner unless otherwise stated; in some AUs (i.e. fanart or fanfic pieces), he may be with garrus or joker. garrus and joker count as his best friends, too, but for the sake of clarity they aren’t listed there.

tidbits

romantic traits:

he is the little spoon (and the bottom).

his love language is touch, but he doesn’t initiate physical contact often.

he’s clingy, but not overbearing.

he’s a bit dense. not to the extent that it makes him seem stupid, but enough to cause unnecessary pining.

he’s rather inexperienced; growing up on the streets had him too occupied with surviving, and by the time he’d hit adulthood, he joined the alliance. this became his sole purpose and he didn’t have much interest in pursuing romantic relationships.

disposition-related traits:

in me1, he seeks diplomatic solutions to problems, only resorting to violence when unavoidable. he often tries to avoid pursuing revenge or anything similar, but this is slightly shaken when he meets toombs & wayne. he convinces toombs to let wayne be arrested rather than killed solely because he does not want toombs to become wrapped up in chasing closure through killing just as he has.

 in me2, he still tries to be a good person, but his patience with those who become his enemies is rather thin. he doesn’t hesitate to threaten/intimidate his enemies, but he also tries to help civilians and similar people. as he’s very on edge given that he’s been forced to work with the same people that slaughtered his entire unit on akuze, he’s quick to defend himself and his allies. he will pursue those who threaten him or those he cares for because he doesn’t want to risk their lives regardless of cost; he feels largely at fault for the destruction of the normandy sr1, and this causes an obsession with eliminating potential threats.

in me3, he shoots first and asks questions later. he doesn’t accept any risks to himself and his crew. the invasion of the reapers despite his warnings has caused him to fall into a constant state of anxiety; these are the same entities he’s had nightmares about for years. he’s distrustful, brutal, and protective, but not evil. this is an important point, as a lot of his inner turmoil centers around his growing anger and worsening violent tendencies. he tries his best to protect the innocent, but acknowledges the occasional need for sacrifice. he will make these sacrifices if it eliminates something he perceives as a threat. this is, again, mainly a trait of post-traumatic stress disorder.

misc. traits:

due to being biotic, he eats a ton of food, and often steals the leftovers of his crew. this is something they learn the hard way; they either finish their food in one sitting, or they get their leftovers stolen by their Feral Biotic Commander™️.

he really, really enjoys tending to the fish tank in his cabin. it’s therapeutic for him. 

collecting model ships becomes a special interest hobby after his two-year coma. he enjoys setting up their displays and learning about various ships.

he has trust issues—but not towards other people. he distrusts himself and his ability to protect his crew.

he falls for kaidan in me1 but doesn’t ever confess his feelings on account of alliance regulations (and the fear of rejection). in me2, he pines for him, but the encounter on horizon causes a rift between them. in me3, he tries constantly to prove himself to kaidan, yearning for the trust he’d placed in him so many years ago.

there’s more, but it’s 4am and i can’t think straight anymore. plus this is also like a huge fucking wall of text already. so enjoy 👍

#mass effect #commander shepard #male shepard mass effect #male shep #male shepard #mshep #mshepard #commander john shepard #john shepard #mass effect headcanons #my shepard #i love him so bad

[ao3feed-mshenko]

Because Darling, This is More than Anything I've Felt Before

by ATOASTBW

“Wow Shepard, the others weren’t lying. Your cabin’s huge! I mean, what even is this fish tank?” Kaidan stands washed by the cool blue light, and Shepard chuckles, reminded of when they visited the Citadel for the first time. Kaidan’s exclamation of “Big place!” and Shepard holding back his amusement at the then-lieutenant.

That was three years ago, and Shepard’s missed two of them, years during which the lieutenant has grown and been promoted into the very major that stands before him. Strong, capable, and oh so handsome.

Thinking that he’s waited long enough, Shepard walks over. Kaidan doesn’t even notice until Shepard is right up beside him, but when he does, an endearingly sheepish look grows on his face.

“Sorry, I, uh, got distracted.”

“I can see that.” Shepard says, trying his hardest to pretend like he doesn’t find Kaidan just so damn adorable.

Kaidan’s awkward grin morphs into an affectionate smile. "So, what did you want to talk about?"

"Well, I wanted to know…" Shepard presses closer. "What did you mean by 'benefits'?”

Or,

Five of the times Shepard and Kaidan have sex in Shepard's cabin, and one of the times they have sex in their apartment.

Words: 21479, Chapters: 6/6, Language: English

Fandoms: Mass Effect Trilogy

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: M/M

Characters: Kaidan Alenko, Male Shepard (Mass Effect), John Shepard

Relationships: Kaidan Alenko/Male Shepard

Additional Tags: Sheploo - Freeform, Default Shepard (Mass Effect), Earthborn (Mass Effect), Sole Survivor (Mass Effect), Paragon Shepard (Mass Effect), Soldier shepard, Destroy Ending (Mass Effect), Top Kaidan Alenko, Bottom Shepard (Mass Effect), 5+1 Things, First Kiss, First Time, Hand Jobs, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, use of biotics for sex, Wall Sex, Rimming, Dom/sub Undertones, Competence Kink, Riding, Love Confessions, Porn With Plot, Porn with Feelings, Just so many feelings, Light Angst, Fluff and Smut, perhaps almost too fluffy, Domestic Fluff

source https://archiveofourown.org/works/43455690

#MShenko #Kaidan Alenko/Male Shepard #Kaidan Alenko #Commander Shepard #Mass Effect #ao3feed

[seeker-of-wonder]

Hey, if you don't mind me asking, what's your shep's pre-service history and psychological profile?

I don't mind at all! I was sorta going for what I assume are the defaults on this playthrough, so my Shepard is Earthborn + Sole Survivor.

Now that I think about it, they brought up Akuze so many times in ME1 that I can't even really imagine what a Shepard with a different backstory would be like 😅

#first mass effect playthrough #new video game! #mass effect trilogy #asks

[mllemaenad]

I can’t really work the character editor - I just dig through screenshots of other people’s characters, and then I tinker. I now also can’t really work photo mode, although I love that it exists.

But I can work a save editor, so Cassandra Shepard has a much prettier bun than anything Bioware has to offer by default. I don’t think her skintone is quite right here, but I don’t want to accidentally make her bright orange again, so close enough (When I say I can work the save editor - it only extends so far to colour pickers. I have difficulty visualising end results when doing these things, so I’m not so much refining a look as I am just trial-and-erroring my way through until I get sick of it and give up).

And so far, at least, none of my modding has crashed the game.

I do love my Shepard, though. Earthborn, Sole Survivor, Sentinel Class. Leans paragon, but there are limits. And since I have a save editor, and I have done this the hard way multiple times in the past, I am now not even slightly above using it to edit my paragon/renegade points to get what I want while saying what I want.

Cassie had a rough experience in foster care due to her element zero exposure and eventual biotics, and eventually fell afoul of a proto-Terra Firma group, who equated biotics with evil alien influence.

After that she was a runaway, an emancipated teen, and a some-time mechanic and getaway driver for the Tenth Street Reds (which is exactly why she drives Like That). She joined the Alliance for an education, and was never aiming to make a career of it: the idea was to come out of this an engineer and find quiet and useful work somewhere in the colonies.

But Akuze happened when she was 23, and she never really shook the survivor guilt, and well, she was still biotic and that remained a problem for a significant chunk of humanity. It’s weird that she ended up an N7 mostly out of inertia, but true. What the hell else was she going to do?

She’s witty and capable; loves her tech skills and uncomfortable with her biotics; the Terra Firma/Cerberus crowd make her uneasy in very personal ways, which means ME2 is not a fun experience for her.

And she is named for the Trojan prophetess, because at one point I thought that would be funny. In-universe, she’d take that as evidence that fate is against her. But nope: that one is entirely my fault.

#Mass Effect #cassandra shepard

[husband-steve-cortez]

Wait is spacer + sole survivor the default Shepard origin...

No it's earthborn/sole survivor. Good. Still funny I ended up giving Ezra the two middle ground options...when I made Ezra he was my third Shepard and those were just the two I hadn't done yet.

#He's not quite a butcher but he's not quite a hero. No badass tragic backstory. Just a guy. #wearing a uniform as if he was born to wear it.

[luckyspacerabbit]

COMMANDER SHEPARD AS A COMPANION (ME2) TEMPLATE

This is my template for the Commander Shepard as a companion dossier. Mass Effect is a humungous game so creating a template that would work for recruitment in every single installment wouldn't have been feasible, so this centers around the idea of a companion being recruited in ME2. I still included Citadel DLC things because it's just so neat, and if you want to modify this template to work for ME1 and ME3 events specifically, you are totally welcome to! Feel free to @ me if you use it! I'd love to see y'alls creativity!!!!<3

A sample dossier is linked here.

Name:

Alias:

Birthdate:

Class, Specialization:

Weapons:

Unique Power (Active/Passive):

Armor: Pre/Post Loyalty

Origin: Spacer, Earthborn, Colonist, Other

[details of origin]

Psychological Profile: War Hero, Ruthless, Sole Survivor, Other/ N/A

[details of psychological profile]

Recruitment Dossier Text:

Recruitment Mission Me(1/2/3): [Select one game for recruitment or as many as your Shepard exists across]

Where Are They On The Ship Me(1/2/3): [Dialogue Branches]

Loyalty Mission/Assignment:

Suicide Mission (If Applicable): [Specalist for?]

Romanceable: (Y/N): If Yes: [Lock in Quest] [Romance Scene(s)?][Rekindled in Me2/3?] [Mordin advice?] [Special Dialogue?] [Kasumi Commentary]

Citadel DLC:

Message to Meet:

Friend Date:

Apartment Date:

Shadowbroker DLC:

Terminal Messages:

Shadowbroker Comment:

Comments on Shepard’s Driving:

Opinions:

Friends: [companion 1, companion 2]

Neutral: [companion 1, companion 2]

Enemies: [companion 1, companion 2]

Decisions They Approve Of:

[examples: Killing Wrex, Curing the Genophage, Saving the Reaper Base]

Decisions They Disapprove Of: [Saving the Rachni Queen, Passing Data to the Shadowbroker, Saving the Council, Choosing Udina, Punching Khalisah]

Comments on Cerberus:

Comments on the Alliance:

Comments on the Reapers:

Comments about other Squadmates:

Banter:

Joker commentary on recruitment:

Joker Comments:

Greeting/Default Saying: “Do you need something?”

How do they Address Shepard: “Shepard” “Commander”

Combat Phrases: “GOT ONE!” “Sit down!”

Low Health: “Low on Ammo!”

Revived: *coughing*

Friendly Fire: “Adjust your aim.”

Location Comments: [Any Notable: Omega, Illium, The Citadel, Feros, Horizon]

Companion Banter: [Me3 Style]

#mass effect #commander shepard #ocs

[smokedanced]

consider this a meme call for my mass effect muses.  or an interaction call in general if you’d rather plot! i’ve still not added them officially, yet (i’m not done playing the third game) but seeing as that’s where 99 percent of my muse has gone... unfortunately i do not have au verses so anything would be happening within the mass effect universe; however, i am flexible with canon and meshing with other fandoms is fine. as long as i can keep the general background story for my muses, i don’t care about small details like what year everything’s happened or if there are other alien species in the galaxy etc. i also don’t care whether you know about mass effect or not, and you can always have your muse just sucked into a parallel universe and not have them know either, if that makes it easier.

PLEASE SPECIFY AT LEAST YOUR MUSE (or give options). if you don’t specify mine i will pick or send memes from both.

commander wren shepard: primary muse. earthborn, sole survivor, infiltrator, mostly paragon. will default on mass effect 2 timeline; available for me3 up until priority: rannoch, available for me1, available selectively for pre-game (earlier military career; if delaying timeline where she didn’t enlist immediately when she turned eighteen, can plot for pre!military petty crime earth era). flexible with a lot of the world state/choices made if relevant to your muse. jaimie alexander faceclaim.

garrus vakarian: secondary muse. mass effect 2 post!archangel default timeline for me!muses & pre-game c-sec for non-me!muses (probably), open for archangel era, me1, early me3.

like for me to send you memes, message me (waywarded#6194 preferred but tumblr ims work if you don’t use/aren’t comfortable with discord) to plot!

#; meme call #; plotting call #yeah yeah i know it can be hard to interact with muses without much info and #if you wanna wait until i have their pages set up that's fine! #but just tossing this here

[bardofheartdive]

Series Overview: Tresvir

Day 5 of @the-wip-project‘s 100 Days of Writing challenge and the overviews continue! (So does the late-ness...)

Tresvir

My love of mShenga (mShep/Kaidan/James) is no secret to anyone who has looked at my AO3 page. I’ve written one-shots for them as well but this is my "canon" for them.

Quick Stats:

Shepard: John Shepard (default)

Earthborn

Sole Survivor

Soldier

Love Interest: Kaidan Alenko and James Vega (poly triad)

Other Important Relationships: N/A (one Kaidan & Rahna fic but that’s the only time she shows up)

Favorite Completed Fic: Recovering. This was actually the first fic I wrote for these three and it remains my favorite. Set post-ME3, it gives insight into John, James, and Kaidan’s recovery after the Crucible fired.

WIP I’m Most Excited For: I don’t have an exact plan for it but I’m really excited to write how their poly relationship develops during ME3. John and Kaidan were together in ME1, John and James were together through Shepard’s lock-up, but it’s not until ME3 that the THREE of them get together and I’m really excited to share it.

#100daysofwriting #100 days of bardic writing #tresvir #john shepard #kaidan alenko #james vega #bardic writing

[theoriginalladya]

Talk to me about why you love Caleb so much. :)

from this meme

Oh sweet lord, you’re really doing this to me???  (thank you, by the way!)  

So, when I originally responded to this prompt you sent me, I needed a Shepard.  I’d been devouring all of your Sam/Kaidan fic to that point, so I decided to give mshenko a try as well.  Little did i know how much it would change my life!

Caleb - oh man, I ADORE him, but it’s so difficult to put into words!  I needed a Shep for the prompt.  I didn’t want to use a default or throw-away because I figured (correctly) he might want more written about him.  When I was deciding background/psychological profile/class, etc., I orignially considered going with my ‘go to’ which is colonist/sole survivor/infiltrator, but then I decided I hadn’t played Earthborn much so switched that out.  It was still relatively comfort zone, but gave me the chance to explore a few other possibilities.

Hmm, have I ever mentioned I have a HUGE love of all things Irish?? I was playing my Irish werewolf from Werewolf: the Apocalypse at the time I answered the prompt, so I decided to sneak that influence in.  Grabbed a name from one of her werewolf children and WHAM! Caleb was born.  And right from the start, he captured my heart and pulled me into his side of the Mass Effect universe.

Now, you well know I have a LOT of Shepards (I think I mentioned somewhere my list has now hit #90?), but only two have captured my heart so badly that I think of them as ‘canon’ Shepards.  One is my first Shepard: Serafina.  The other, is Caleb.  (She is my colonist)  Their stories have reached me on an altogether different level than any others (except, perhaps, ShepShep).  

You and I have talked about using characters to explore thoughts/feelings/other ideas with our characters.  Caleb has turned into one of those for me. He’s ... complex, much more so than I first thought (and discover on a daily basis).  He’s tough, but has a softer, tender side that he doesn’t really show much to others.  He spends so much of his life as a lone wolf, even among groups and with friends - mostly as a reaction to things that happened to him when he was younger, some of which he isn’t fully aware of - and it isn’t until Kaidan sees through that he starts to understand he doesn’t have to be alone.  God, I could go on forever about him, but I’ll end with this.  How can you look at this face and not like him?????

YOU JUST CAN’T!  

#fic writer friday #ladya writes #Caleb Shepard #mshenko #I blame you for this/him Swaps #as you well know #and I will never be able to thank you enough for that!!! #swaps55

[annakie]

An Annotated Mass Effect Playthrough, Part One

A lot of these posts are going to be just my impressions, things I love, cool things to point out, I don’t know.  Rambles about how much I love this game and everything about it.

To start off I’ll talk about my OC a little bit, and how I got into Mass Effect. Then we dive into the prologue.

List of Posts: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

My OC

So we all have our Main OC Shepards. Mine is Annakie.

Annakie is a name from an MST3k episode that I have loved since the first time I saw it in the early 90′s.  I started using the name Annakie in IRC shortly thereafter, specifically in the SciFi channel’s IRC server, which used to be fairly active back in the day.  And by the day I literally mean circa 1995. They used to host some pretty cool, especially for 1995, events there, like authors and writers of their shows would come in and do Q&A’s, including Kevin, Mike and Bill from MST3k.  Kevin Murphy recognizing where my nick came from immediately was a moment of pride for me.

So I’ve basically always been Annakie online, even after knowing that it’s a real actual name some people have, I’ve still managed to snag it most places on the internet.  And most of the time when I play a new game, I start out playing Annakie, or one of two or three other names I regularly use sometimes.  But naming my first Shepard Annakie and having her look more or less like this every time I play is just... what I normally do.

Also I normally play goody two-shoes the first time I play through any game with moral decisions.  The first time I played through Mass Effect, though, she was an engineer.  I think the second time onward she’s always been a vanguard.  

She’s a Spacer, because I love having her mom alive and get to talk to her.  I like that she didn’t start from trauma.  But she’s a sole survivor, because I like how that shows how strong she became.  I also like that it gives her extra incentive to hate Cerberus later on.

Discovering Mass Effect

I’ve been gaming since I was seven in 1982 when my parents brought home our first Atari 2600.  When RPGs became a thing I liked JRPGs a lot on the family Nintendo and some action RPGish games like Super Metroid, but when Western-Style RPGs like Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights came out, I found my true video game love.  

Before Mass Effect, my favorite game was Knights of the Old Republic.  And it’s still way up there in my list of favorite games of all time.  And I really loved Carth Onasi. Although I’d loved other video game love interests before him, Arin Gend, Valen Shadowbreath, Celes/Locke... Carth was my favorite.  That also inspired me to try my hand at fanfic for the first time.  That never saw the light of day and I’m pretty sure I lost it like 3 hard drive crashes ago.

So when I heard that the same company that made KotOR was making a new, non-Star Wars space game, I was excited.  Until I went and looked at some of the trailers, gameplay preview videos, etc, and saw no female protagonist option.  I must have looked somewhat early on because even on message boards I looked at the answer was “they haven’t said anything” or “I don’t think so”.  And I was *crushed*, then stopped paying attention to that video game. After it came out, I heard it was a pretty good game, but if you could only play a guy, I wasn’t that interested.  

It wasn’t until 2009 when I finally got an XBox 360 and realized I had no idea what games to play on it that I didn’t already have on PC.  I joined a game trading thread on a forum I was on, and bought a few titles, and someone was selling Mass Effect cheap, so I thought... what the hell, I’ll probably like it even if I have to play a dude.  

A few nights later I was curled up on my couch with controller in hand and... hmm this music is pretty good.  OK New Game... Create Profile... wait what?  Custom or default Female character?  You can play as a woman?!? WHAT??  Damn, I should have looked at this game more closely.  Okay.

So I made my Annakie Engineer... and honestly I don’t remember what origins I picked then... but the game started.

I recognized one of the first two voices I heard but couldn’t place it.  And then a third guy was talking over these space scenes and someone walking scenes and... hang on, is that Seth Green?!?!  Neat!  Real cool space imagery here, great music... and then the intro was over and another guy started talking.

That. Is. Carth. Onasi’s. Voice.  

I SCREAMED.

Then I stood up walked into my office, sat down at my PC, googled “Carth Onasi Voice Actor Mass Effect”, found the character’s name, then googled “Kaidan Alenko romance”.  Found the wiki page, saw the answer was yes, and screamed again.  Really, really mad at myself.  This game had been out for two years.  A space RPG where you can play as a lady and the same voice actor I already ADORED was in it playing another romanceable character.  I knew then, two minutes into the game, that I was going to fucking LOVE THIS GAME and I should have played it TWO YEARS AGO.

I went back, played all night, and for the next several nights until I beat the game.  And then joined forums and everything I could get my hands on to find fellow fans, then replayed the game, and played again, and again, and again until I had all the achievements.  Then I bought it on PC so I could get all the achievements on PC and be ready to import saves for when Mass Effect 2 came out.

The one good thing about waiting so long to play ME1 was, I only had a year to wait until ME2.  That year was basically all about Mass Effect for me.

The Prologue

Anyway, while we’re here, let’s talk about the prologue.

First off, who else, the first time you played, when in character creation you heard the “Profile Corrupted!” message thought you fucked something up or maybe your game disc was bad.  Anyone?  Not just me, right? I  may have restarted my Xbox.

The class descriptions I think are a little wonky.  I chose Engineer the first time through because I like utility classes and I like healing.  But the classes don’t really... play that way I guess.  Hitting F to heal (or whatever it’s mapped to on the controller) doesn’t really matter, and a couple of classes have access to First Aid.  Nobody is really a “healer”.  Hence switching to Vanguard later.

The prologue itself does a really great job, though, of setting up the game, and the world.  It starts with the great move of telling you a little bit about your own character, helping you to understand those choices that you made “Spacer” “Earthborn” “War Hero” “Sole Survivor”,  That was a good move.  It took me until my second playthrough to connect those two guys talking about me to being Anderson and Udina.  

Also, nice that they explained what Mass Effect actually *is* and placed you in a year, so you have an idea how far ahead this game is from our own time.

And then this...

Majestic.

But it’s great how they start with a shot of you, looking at Earth

 then you see Jupiter, with an establishing shot of the spaceship you’re in.  (OK I didn’t get a great screenshot of this, I’m using gifs that are going in a gifset posting tomorrow)

And then you fly by Neptune

Then... wait what the fuck is this thing?

Along with Seth Green talking to... someone?  And the movement through the ship, giving you glimpses of Jenkins, Pressley, crewmates doing their jobs, the camera constantly sweeping, something big is happening!  Something exciting!  You’re not sure what all of it is but... it sounds cool!

The camera swings around on the person you’ve been following, and you already kinda know it’s your character, but there you are, in a very cool sweeping reveal.

The music swells.  Then the big glowy weird scissors thing... eats the spaceship and spits it back out.

It’s all so effective.  It’s kind of breathtaking to watch even for what must be like my 30th time, not exaggerating.

And I can never wait to do it again.  What a great way to start this game.  

#mass effect #annakie's mass effect stuff

[monowires]

Hullo! Just discovered your blog and absolutely love all your takes on mshenko. As a fellow default /earthborn / sole survivor Shep lover myself, super happy to have found someone who shares so many silmilar headcanons for the relationship between these two gorgeous men 😍

omg you’re too kind!!! i’m honestly just dropping my thoughts here and hoping they make sense 😭

#johnny.txt #monowires asks #mshenko

[ao3feed-mshenko]

Because Darling, This is More than Anything I've Felt Before

by ATOASTBW

“Wow Shepard, the others weren’t lying. Your cabin’s huge! I mean, what even is this fish tank?” Kaidan stands washed by the cool blue light, and Shepard chuckles, reminded of when they visited the Citadel for the first time. Kaidan’s exclamation of “Big place!” and Shepard holding back his amusement at the then-lieutenant.

That was three years ago, and Shepard’s missed two of them, years during which the lieutenant has grown and been promoted into the very major that stands before him. Strong, capable, and oh so handsome.

Thinking that he’s waited long enough, Shepard walks over. Kaidan doesn’t even notice until Shepard is right up beside him, but when he does, an endearingly sheepish look grows on his face.

“Sorry, I, uh, got distracted.”

“I can see that.” Shepard says, trying his hardest to pretend like he doesn’t find Kaidan just so damn adorable.

Kaidan’s awkward grin morphs into an affectionate smile. "So, what did you want to talk about?"

"Well, I wanted to know…" Shepard presses closer. "What did you mean by 'benefits'?”

Or,

Five of the times Shepard and Kaidan have sex in Shepard's cabin, and one of the times they have sex in their apartment.

Words: 21479, Chapters: 6/6, Language: English

Fandoms: Mass Effect Trilogy

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: M/M

Characters: Kaidan Alenko, Male Shepard (Mass Effect), John Shepard

Relationships: Kaidan Alenko/Male Shepard

Additional Tags: Sheploo - Freeform, Default Shepard (Mass Effect), Earthborn (Mass Effect), Sole Survivor (Mass Effect), Paragon Shepard (Mass Effect), Soldier shepard, Destroy Ending (Mass Effect), Top Kaidan Alenko, Bottom Shepard (Mass Effect), 5+1 Things, First Kiss, First Time, Hand Jobs, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, use of biotics for sex, Wall Sex, Rimming, Dom/sub Undertones, Competence Kink, Riding, Love Confessions, Porn With Plot, Porn with Feelings, Just so many feelings, Light Angst, Fluff and Smut, perhaps almost too fluffy, Domestic Fluff

source https://archiveofourown.org/works/43455690

#MShenko #Kaidan Alenko/Male Shepard #Kaidan Alenko #Commander Shepard #Mass Effect #ao3feed

[theashenphoenix]

N7 Tag Game

Tagged by @secrettoupeecollector (or your other blog, I can't keep track 🙃) and at least one other person a long, long time ago... I'm so sorry, I can't find you in my dumbass notifications but thank you for tagging me!! 💖💖 

Favorite Character: I love practically every character in this series and could rattle off dozens of names, but in the end Commander Shepard is the one. Miss you, Shep. 

Paragon or Renegade: Most all of my Shepards are varying degrees of Paragade or Renegon. Pure Paragon or Renegade has never felt natural to my role playing style, though I have done them For Science! (TM). They were... interesting. 

Favorite Class: Vanguard 4 LYFE!! Infiltrator is a solid second place when I feel like scratching the sniping itch tho. 

War Hero, Sole Survivor, or Ruthless? Played all 3 and I have to say I enjoyed Sole Survivor the most. 

Spacer, Colonist, or Earthborn? I've always liked the idea of Shepard being Earthborn the best -- for me, it makes ME3 and the whole taking Earth back from the Reapers all the more poignant. But again, I've played all 3 and they all add interesting little dynamics. 

Favorite Alien: Most decidedly: the Elcor. 

Favorite Planet/Location: For the planet, Illium. But my favorite location is the Normandy because it's home. Omega is a close second. 

Favorite DLC: Overlord. I love sibling stories, and this one was... *sobs* I'm glad we got to see David Archer at Grissom Academy in ME3 (if you chose that option in ME2 that is) and doing much better than he was before. 

Favorite Weapon: I liked the Widow sniper rifle best, especially in ME2.

Favorite Shepard/OC: Okay so, I've done more than a dozen full playthroughs of the trilogy and I adore all my Shepards, but I do hold a special place in my heart for my first playthrough as Jane Shepard. (Yeah, I just kept the default names 😂) She loved Garrus and destroyed the Reapers, and hearing her take that one shaky breath at the very end of ME3 was EVERYTHING 😭😭😭

Favorite Mission: Priority: Tuchanka in ME3, for sure. Love you, Mordin 💜

Favorite Track: Okay, this question is the hardest one for me, being the OST junkie I am. If I had to choose just one, it would be Suicide Mission from ME2. Honorable mentions: Vigil (ME1), the Main Theme from Andromeda, Normandy Reborn (ME2), An End Once and For All (ME3), I'm Proud of You (ME3), and the Mass Effect Theme (ME1). 

ME1, ME2, ME3, Andromeda? ME2. Of all the games, I liked its plot and writing the most. 

SR-1, SR-2, Tempest? SR-2! Love those leather seats!! 

Tagging @rhetoricalrogue  @guardedlogic  @mikaeled  @refinedstorage  @hindarsfjall  @chuckhansen  @asaucyginger  @underbetelgeuse  and anyone else who wants to participate on this fine N7 Day.

#tag game #i tagged folks who i know have played at least one game in the series #but if you're reading this and want to do it please do so! #are tags even working again? oh well #the trilogy was my life for so many years #i love it so much #n7 day blogging

[bloomingcrows]

sol system, stars, and supernova for the Shepard meme!!

🌞 sol system - what is your shepard’s class, background, military history?

adept, earthborn, sole survivor!

✨ stars -  who is your shepard’s li?

this is a bit tougher, because i’d like to default bernard as not having a love interest, and i haven’t actually done a playthrough with him.  perhaps liara.

🌟 supernova - when did your shepard decide to join the alliance? was there a breaking point in their life that made them become a soldier?

as an earthborn child, an orphan who got bounced around the foster system quite a bit, bernard desperately needed stability in his life.  as soon as he became of age, he joined up.  it was a no-brainer - the military provided him with goals, with a schedule, with income, and with well-needed health insurance for a therapist.  it was perhaps not for glory - although he did want to fight for what he felt was right.  but it was for necessity.

#thank you!!! #arianashepard #headcanons

[ifanfictiondreamerworld]

A link from the Mass Effect wiki. This one is about the main protagonist of the series, beit male or female.

#Mass Effect #Commander Shepard