#citlali shepard-velasquez | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

crqstalite · 1 year

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I posted 421 times in 2022

74 posts created (18%)

347 posts reblogged (82%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@zenyeetaa

@thomas-the-goat-of-satan

@alenkokaidans

@inquisitorlavcllan

@york-morgans

I tagged 226 of my posts in 2022

Only 46% of my posts had no tags

#mass effect - 21 posts

#original character - 9 posts

#oc - 9 posts

#kim's art <3 - 6 posts

#swtor - 6 posts

#dragon age - 5 posts

#my art - 5 posts

#citlali velasquez - 5 posts

#brione petrakis - 4 posts

#marvel - 4 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#edit bc i kept thinking: i understand that its *probably* a loose examination of what the adultification of children (especially teen girls

My Top Posts in 2022:

and the finished product. a redraw of this piece from three years ago.

"It seems introductions are in order." Lana states, stepping out of the metaphorical and literal shadows with their red-jacketed savior a few steps behind. Zanya shifts her weight back to her uninjured foot, taking stock of her surroundings. Beniko had lead her into a trap, whether knowingly or unknowingly and now there's a Republic spy with her. Considering the rest of her company, she wonders how long she had her working in tandem with the opposite faction. She catches the gaze of the cerulean eyed Jedi to her right, long enough to get a sense of her Force Signature.

Closed off, yet hiding something that simmers just below the surface. Pulsating, as if daring for her to seek it out. Reaching out does little, but Zanya can't help but feel like she's felt her somewhere before. Somewhere deep in the recesses of her mind she recognizes the feeling, just barely.

Fascinating.

The Jedi knows she's staring. Feels her, maybe. She averts her eyes, just as she turns her head to look at her.

"Master Qelu, glad you're back in one piece."

13 notes - Posted December 3, 2022

Shards of Glass

Intended to post this when I eventually finished and published the Citadel arc of Redamancy, but wrote it instead of actually working on aforementioned arc.

The Citadel Coup's aftermath from the perspective of one Priana T'Lara, and how she spends the night with a certain Mason Shepard.

General warnings for mentions of injury, blood, and a minor panic attack at the end from the protagonist.

"Thirsty?"

Priana glances up over her shoulder from where she sits on the balcony, surprised to see her partner with two cups in hand emerging from the dim light of his apartment, along with a medical kit in the other. Unlike her, he'd dressed out of his uniform, hair tied back from his face and donning a t-shirt and sweats. He's barefoot, unafraid of the possible glass spray on his floor -- or maybe too tired to care. She nods wordlessly, taking one of them from him while rolling her sleeves up.

There's still smoke billowing out from levels beneath them, hours after the invasion had ended. Fires probably, still burning. The Presidium's a wreck. The Wards are a wreck. People are dead. Co-workers are dead. Her friends are dead. Her apartment is shot to hell, and nothing is working right. Nothing quite feels real, and she sips down the glass of water faster than she should. She has sixty billion questions fumbling around in her mind, but she can't muster up the strength to rationalize it all. Likely they'll get the botched report within the next few days, with as many redactions as she has years on her.

She wonders who the hell got paid off to make all this happen.

Her eyes are drawn to her partner as he sits down next to her, Mason's got a nasty gash down the length of his exposed arm, and she winces when she sees the bloodied bandage around his forearm. It's carefully wrapped up in gauze by now, but it'd still been ugly when one of the C-Sec meds had to do it for him before rushing off to the next officer who'd been hurt during the invasion.

One of the many mistakes she'd made today, and the one she regrets the most.

"How're you holding up?" He asks, unlatching the clips on the kit. She shrugs. As well as she could be doing. She feels like an elcor is sitting on her chest and she may as well be drowning in the Presidium pools with how heavy her head feels.

The painkillers the apologetic asari had given to her earlier hadn't worked nearly as well as she thought they would.

Still, she gives a half sarcastic smile to the human beside her. He has bigger problems right now, and one of them shouldn't be her passive aggressive nature. Shouldn't be her guilt weighing on his conscience.

Asari were presumably naturally unemotional once they got older. So many years meant they saw people die. Meant they understood that life was fleeting for other races. Meant they grew desensitized over the years that events like this rarely affected them unless it directly hurt their own.

Her's hadn't gotten the memo, because no matter how much she tries to distance herself from the incident, she can't help but get angry all over again. With herself, with citadel security, with Cerberus...it feels like she's about to burst. It didn't matter that there were humans who weren't going home tonight, it didn't matter more that there were turians who were unlikely to check in alongside her tomorrow. All of it felt like death, tearing away at her and leaving her raw.

She'd never been through something like this. Never seen all this destruction and death up close.

It hurts.

It's not supposed to hurt.

"We don't have to be back on duty until later afternoon tomorrow. Injuries and all." He pulls out the rubbing alcohol, tentatively reaching over to her own knuckles. At first she wants to pull away, she's not a child, she can clean her own wounds, but she figures it's equally childish not to let the man do his own job. She gestures for him to take it, and he does, "Bailey's scrambling to get enough officers on duty to flush any remaining Cerberus agents out, but he's brought in outside help where he can. The worst of it's over for now."

She bites her lip, the alcohol burning at her half healed skin. It fuzzes up, turning white as Mason gently dabs at each tear. From stray gunshots, torn right through her gloves before she could toss the offending enemies away. They weren't deep enough to scar for too many years, likely they wouldn't even be there by her tricentennial.

At least her blood had stopped oozing out of it. It'd stained her uniform in multiple places, and made her dizzy with how much she's pretty sure she lost in the fights down in the Wards. Her worse injuries were wrapped at the remains of Huerta, and she'd been sent off with antibiotics and enough painkillers to probably kill a Quarian.

Mason looks worse for wear. Humans always did, so injury prone, so delicate and fleshy. Most were a map of scars in her line of work, and he was no exception. A cut above his eye, one underneath the other. Likely her shields had protected him from anything potentially fatal, but her heart still seizes up at the gauze.

His gaze follows her's, and he sighs, pulling out his own roll to wrap around her hand, "You know T'Lara, humans are sturdier than you think."

"I know." She answers quietly. Scarily so. Almost every organ in their body could be replaced, and they bounced back extremely fast. Broken bones were no problem for them, skin could grow back faster than she thought possible and they did it all within a handful of years.

Usually she wouldn't fret. She'd had human companions before, but Mason is the anomaly.

She feels like she failed him, and it's eating at her.

She hates feeling weak. Exposed. Vulnerable. Hates feeling like this.

"That wasn't your fault." He says, uncapping the ointment and carefully applying it before rolling the fabric out, almost as if he's read her mind, "It'll heal."

Two minutes too long. She'd been stripped of her shields, her own blood dribbling down her chin from her nose and a rolled ankle making it difficult to gain any ground.

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14 notes - Posted January 23, 2022

Starting off the year right with Citlali again! This time likely catching her breath after a night in the Wards with a friend, or two.

15 notes - Posted January 1, 2022

Happy Year In Review 2021!!

I've certainly lived in interesting times and here's my eventual result of that. (Can't believe it's already been a year -- 2020)

WORD COUNT:

This year I wrote a total of 127,820 words (92,789 published, 35,031 unpublished). Honestly I'm a little disappointed, I thought I did more than that. Given, it's 2021, the year of crises left and right, but...yeesh. That's less than I did back in 2019. In like, two or three months.

Most of the year was out of my control though, and I'm still standing. I count it as a win.

The Breakdown:

My Mass Effect works took up about 3/4s of the actual word count, at 112,020 words written (and 22,934 unpublished, along with most of what I haven't released for Redamancy yet). My goal this year was to finish Redamancy but it had other ideas, so I'm maybe halfway through actually finishing it? That could be another year.

My Arcane works (what a surprise), are all still unpublished with posting dates being sometime in early 2021. However, they're 12,097 words by themselves so far, so it's okay. I didn't expect to end up writing for League anytime soon, but here we are.

My singular Dragon Age work this year was Bones, which was 1,879 words. Not surprised I didn't have more, it's Dragon Age. That and I lost all of the games when my account was hacked earlier in the year. Not a lot of motivation to write for this fandom.

My singular Mind Blind work this year was "Do It For Them", which was 1,824 words. It's been a while since I've really interacted with the IF fandom, so that's pretty unsurprising.

New Things I Tried:

Not much I don't think? Redamancy has actually been beta'd, every single chapter currently published has had a second pair of eyes over it (which is such a big help, you'd never notice how many misspellings you miss yourself), but beyond that I didn't really have the time or mental energy to do much else. EXCEPT for starting to write for Arcane. Never thought I'd do anything relating to League.

(God I hate the culture around League so much.)

Favorite Thing I Wrote This Year:

Probably Letters Home? Not super sure why but it is one of the few times I've genuinely liked something I wrote mainly in a non-OC's perspective. It's a working point for Joker and Citlali, which are two characters I hesitate to write together for whatever reason.

(That and it's criminal how Tiptree and Joker's feelings related to it are just swept under the rug -- it's criminal!)

Favorite Fic I Read This Year:

@ljandersen's Sideways. Easily one of my favorites (even if I'm still behind a handful of chapters -- and mentioned it last year), just for the characterization alone. I absolutely love how their Kaidan(s) and Shepard(s) interact with each other, and the little details that turn out to be bigger than anyone would've guessed. I absolutely adore the ever-growing future that they've weaved into the story, as well as how they expanded the Mass Effect universe into something all their own. I'm really looking forward to seeing where the rest of the story goes.

@shockdowndefiance's A Momentary Lapse In Judgement. Though I really loved just about every work in their library (Allison Shepard my beloved) this one really stuck with me because it really examined the coup for what it was logically and what Bioware couldn't quite do, especially for a Kaidanmancing Shepard. Allison's universe extends Mass Effect something emotionally compelling, and this fic is probably one of the best examples of that. I still absolutely love how they resolved it, as well as how Allison's character really shines through here, both as Commander Shepard as well as -- well, a regular human being. It's painful at times, but also terribly comforting.

@swaps55's Sonata. I'm such a sucker for in-between moment Mass Effect stories, especially Shenko centered ones. Sam Shepard is such a compelling character, and his relationship with Kaidan is certainly one that makes you so very mushy on the inside. Swaps' writing style is something that'll suck you in and never quite let you go, and their attention to detail is something to be admired. (Which is why I was up until the middle of the night finishing it -- definitely worth the read!)

& (last but definitely not least)

@lyrishadow's Between Times. I still read it time to time just because it makes me happy and amuses me greatly. It was a birthday gift from them to me and it still makes me really happy. I really love how they weaved both of our Shepards together to write something so nice, and how they took the time out of their life to do it.

Writing Goals For 2022

Be less on myself about writing. I was genuinely feeling so guilty and completely paralyzed out of having any fun the entire months of October, November and December just because I hadn't gotten any substantial writing done. Which shouldn't be how I feel, writing is a hobby of mine. Just because I was more likely to reach for my stylus or even one of my games than I was my bookmark for my longfic doesn't mean I'm a failure, even if I would've liked to see more progress. I mean, hell I'm a high school student who's about to graduate in a couple months -- you'd think I'd be able to afford myself the same grace I give my peers.

(It's the validation. I live off of it. I shouldn't, but I do.)

Word Of Thanks

Thanking the lovely Lock + Key writers because you guys are lovely people, (@delinquest , @glyndwrwrites , @lnewmanwrites , @tayareum , @thesupremepuff + @colonelpknight [can't tag you]) thank you for going on such a wild ride with me this year, its been so freaking fun working with you all!

The lovely @mallaidhsomo for their contributions to Redamancy and all of the useful advice they've provided me with. Along with the rest of the Bioware Fanfiction server, I might not interact much but its a very comforting place to be. <3

@that-wasnt-so-bad + @kaidans-alenkos + @mariaalenkoshepard + @actualanxiousswampwitch + @oakstar519 for being the people I always love seeing in my notifs and inbox, and the people who always have the best headcanons for the canon characters and their own.

@sheyshen + @greencrusader13 + @anchanted-one + @naaklasolus for always being there to listen to my rambly nonsense in our development channel. And responding with your own OCs because I love them very much.

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27 notes - Posted December 31, 2021

My #1 post of 2022

"There is nothing stronger than a woman who rebuilt herself." - Hannah Gadsby.

Surprise! I'm your secret santa!! 🥳

My gift to @findingblissinignorance of their Ardelia Shepard!! I loved working on her because of her unique character and look, as well as the many tattoos you included on her pinterest board. Thank you for allowing me to draw her this year!

Happy Holidays! <3

45 notes - Posted January 15, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #ONLY 46% tumblr??#lol ok #anyway #long post #bc for some reason tumblr unravelled a whole fanfiction i had behind a read more lol

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crqstalite · 11 months

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9,10+11 for Kodelyn? ✌🏽

pride themed oc asks

9. Are there cultural or lore specific aspects to their identity? If applicable, does their species affect it?

Oh boy, Kodelyn is completely human. Culturally I don't think her bisexuality means too much either. Her parents love her regardless (though I think they've been rooting for Kaidan since the Normandy came home) of who she loves.

10. Does your oc celebrate Pride? How?

She does! Every June she and willing crew get together to have a little celebration, usually at Citlali's place, and join the annual Pride Parade in Los Angeles (as the Shepard-Velasquez family lives in Lake Tahoe). In later years, the tend to join the parade on the Citadel that're held in the more human-dominated areas. Perhaps crew like Garrus, Liara and Tali don't understand why these are as important (considering their respective cultures probably don't have as much emphasis on differing sexualities), but they certainly won't turn the invite down.

Unlike Citlali, she has a smaller collection of pride merch, but breaks it out everytime the year swings around.

11. Is your oc open about their identity? Are they more lowkey or more blunt about it? Why or why not?

I like to think Koda isn't ashamed of her identity but also doesn't tell everyone about it. She keeps a little bi pride flag on her desk sometimes, and there's a pin she keeps on her jacket when she goes out and about sometimes. Mostly just because it's just another facet of her identity. Commander, soldier, sister, daughter -- and she just happens to be bisexual as well.

I think she and Kaidan are very 'out of everyone I'm attracted to, you're the most special' to each other a lot. Y'know, bi4bi couple ftw lol

Thank you for asking!

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crqstalite · 3 years

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You've been visited by the random writing prompts goblin!! - Write about your character just... talking. Are they talking to themselves, or with someone else? What kind of slang or phrases do they use often? Do they have an accent?

I really should quit writing these one-on-one scenes with Kodelyn and Lali (and maybe y’know, with their actual partners) but I couldn’t get the prompt out of my head! I love them too much and Citlali’s POV is one of my favorites to write -- she goes off on a lot of tangents and I find it more funny and entertaining that anything. Way different than I write Kodelyn’s. Probably should do more shippy writing at some point, but some point is not now.

Post-war. Word count: 2,008. no warnings.

“Y’know, she even said she might even put a good word in for me,” Citlali leans back in her chair, grinning around her straw, “Might be a real flight lieutenant, give or take like a decade. No more stowaway-ing for me.”

“Sounds nice.”

“Yeah. Dealing with ships is more my speed than people. Biotic regiment sounds too...I don’t know, challenging? Out there? For little old me.” The younger woman sighs, throwing a hand over her forehead dramatically, “Plus I’d have to work with our dear Major Alenko of all people. As if I don’t see enough of him now, he’d be my actual CO this time around.”

“Yep.”

“Still, that’s years out when the galaxy gets it’s head back on straight. Think they’re just absurdly shortstaffed right now. Not even sure whether this is a good idea or not, I mean, I spent half my life afraid of what I could do and now? Supernova. Might as well make good use of this.” She snaps her fingers, “Like lighting...something on fire. Damn it, lost the analogy that quickly.”

“That’s great.”

Citlali straightens in her chair again, looking around the atrium and shaking her cup, ice rattling inside of the plastic. The Citadel was rebuilding, after nearly a year and a half after the war had ended, and a few wards were getting back to the idea of normal. If one went wandering, one could probably still see the scars and missing shops, homes and even nearly half a ward on the other side. Yet, here they were, at a little fast food place, still very much alive and thriving.

Suck on that, Reapers. Shepard 3, Reapers 0.

The energy in the food court is different from where it had been before the Citadel had been moved to Sol. Less nervous energy to burn, less fatalistic views being preached from every corner of the Presidium. Life was getting back to good. Summer was right around the corner on Earth at least. Less death and mass murder at the hands of the Reaper putting a dampener on dinner.

She squints at her sister. Kodelyn Shepard, entirely off duty, was still in something that made Citlali think she was going to spar with James. Offhandedly she wonders if she would ever take her up on that offer to get a full wardrobe beyond the one or two shirts, jeans and boots she owned. Considering she rarely saw Kaidan out of anything similar, she’d have to do something about that soon.

She’d always looked nice in yellow.

However, said Shepard has a smile just gently tugging at the corners of her mouth while one hand flies over her omni-tool’s keyboard, not a glance up to where Citlali is.

She’s not paying attention. Probably hasn’t been since she started talking nearly five minutes ago. Her offhanded responses have gotten better though, Kodelyn almost had her fooled that she was carrying on a two-way conversation. Probably should’ve gotten suspicious when she didn’t actually offer anything to the conversation. Or when she opened the omni-tool to begin with. Multi-tasking had always been a skill that she had, not so much one that Citlali did.

“Anything good?” Citlali reaches over the table to gently (alright, she’ll admit it wasn’t all that gentle) pull at her sister’s wrist. A quick glance at the ID tells her all she needed to as she slumps back in the chair, “Damn, speak of the devil! You haven’t been listening to a single thing I’ve said have you?”

“Hey!” Kodelyn yanks her hand back, swiping at the screen a few times, “I have been listening.” She retorts indignantly.

“Have you?” Citlali raises an eyebrow. She hasn’t been, but knowing her sister, she’s good enough at halfway paying attention to reconstruct what she’s said well enough that she wouldn’t be able to accuse her otherwise.

Damn her. Sound doesn’t turn to soup whenever multiple conversations are going on around her. Lucky.

“Yes! I have.”

“Uh huh,” Citlali gnaws at the straw, wickedly grinning when she returns to typing, “Anything dirty?”

“No!” Kodelyn yelps, closing the UI, and dropping her face into her hands as Citlali cackles at her own jab, “Would you give it a rest?”

“I would, if he didn’t take over every waking thought of yours.” Citlali playfully presses a finger into her vulnerable forehead, “Fi-an-ce, brother-in-law-to-be or otherwise, you could at least spare your maid of honor and baby sister twenty minutes of your undivided attention.”

Kodelyn softly smiles. She’s at least genuinely apologetic, leaning back into her own chair with her hands out in front of her, “I know. And I’m sorry, just...”

“I know. He’s important. This whole shing-ding you have planned for the dead of summer is important. Actually, why the middle of July? Do you know how sticky July is? How humid it is to my poor hair? And yours?” Citlali gets a bit carried away (well that was on Kodelyn, July was the month of the devil. But then again she’d never been to Vancouver in July...and she was getting carried away again), “But have you spent a single second today not on that thing?”

“You know, I don’t just use it to talk to Kaidan. There is spectre business to attend to as well. Just because the war ended didn’t mean that work did.”

“Really? You had me fooled, thought he was the only contact in there,” Citlali snickers as Kodelyn rolls her eyes, “I get it, you’re still important and you’re still really busy. I respect that. Just sometimes I just want to know what’s going on with you without having to hear it secondhand, or on my ‘tool.”

“As if you haven’t been equally quiet the last few months.”

“I haven’t! I even sent the RSVP note back. In pen. That’s how much it meant to me.”

“That was your writing? Thought Mason got ahold of it. Kaidan and I could barely tell who it was from.”

“Ok, glad we can agree our baby brother writes like a chicken, but my handwriting is not that bad!” Kodelyn snickers as Citlali pops the cap off her cup, rattling around the ice at the bottom of the cup. Pink liquid still hangs onto the cubes, which meant the last of the juice was still hiding from her. She sucks on the straw anyway, “We have all the time in the galaxy now and we still just keep missing each other. Twice you were presumed or actually dead -- three if you want to count the original battle of the Citadel, and sometimes it still doesn’t feel real that you’re sitting across from me, very much alive and kicking. Three times I had to come to terms with the fact you might actually be gone.”

Kodelyn’s expression softens at her admission, “Is that why you keep trying to invite me out to ‘girl’s nights?’ Because you just want to make sure I’m still here?”

“No that’s mostly mom, you really have to start answering those. Occasionally Tali whenever she’s here, she’s asks after you, y’know. Liara and I hang out sometimes. Not as much fun, she’s as quiet as you sometimes and I’m not an archeologist. Or information broker. Or Asari. Not much we can talk about that isn’t confidential or something way out of my realm of understanding -- not like she wants to talk about the newest extranet series either.” Citlali remarks. She did genuinely like Liara, even if their interests were on opposite sides of the galaxy. Maybe she should bother the Asari a bit more before she took off again into the unknown, wherever said unknown was. What did a Shadow Broker do all day?

Beyond the point though, “Look, I won’t get sappy, but the piece of your pie chart that’s dedicated to me means a lot. It’s good when I don’t nearly get a heart attack every time you’re on the news.”

“If it was that serious-”

“-And it’s not.”

“If it is,” Kodelyn continues, “I’ll always be here. Just a call away.”

“I had to schedule this a week in advance, Dee.” Citlali gestures with her pretty much empty cup, though backs down a moment later, “Maybe I’m being a bit ridiculous, but I can count on one hand how many just...days like this we’ve spent together since the war ended. I mean, you could probably count everyday I was in your hospital room, but those are technically invalid since you weren’t conscious for most of them.”

“You know better than anyone that I’ve been pulled in thirteen different directions at once, not all of them as fun as you make them out to be. And yeah, you’re right, maybe I haven’t been making as much of an effort as I could be to spend some 1-on-1 time with you.” Kodelyn taps her nails on the table, thinking while the conversation lulls, “You still mean everything to me Lali. I’ll be better, just give me some time to figure all of this out, okay?”

Time, all they had was time these days. And yet it felt like she’d blinked, the war happened, and she was sitting in a hospital waiting room for hours on end. Blinked again, and she found herself back in her own apartment, her own bed, her semi-old life. Startling, almost like none had passed at all between when she’d picked up that call from Miranda to now. And yet, now it didn’t feel like she was wasting any of it by pulling her sister away to do something silly or inane. Death was no longer rapping at their door with increasing ferocity, almost like a much too determined salesman. Felt like they’d managed to crucible it across the front lawn and send it scrambling.

“Yeah, of course. Just...for the record.” She shrugs. The cup is finally empty, making an ugly noise when she sucks on the straw, instead still gnawing on it, “All we have is time these days. And I’m not being sarcastic, we honestly do. We’ll see the passing of another century given something else doesn’t try to annihilate the galaxy.”

“Yeah, if they could wait until after the next Council summit as well as after the wedding, that’d be great.” Her sister says, flickering open her UI again, “I spent way too much time helping planning both of those to have them ransacked by the next Harbinger.”

“Oh yes!” Citlali grins, “Councilor Shepard-Alenko, that’ll be the day. Yes ‘Reapers’, we have dismissed that claim already.”

“I still haven’t accepted,” Kodelyn laughs, turning her wrist to show Citlali something, “And I might not, I’ll recommend Petrakis but that’s as far as I’m going to help them find a proper representative. I’m not really Councilor material, and Kaidan’s had to remind me I can’t exactly hang up on them if they’re standing right next to me.”

“Really? Finally time to kick back and settle down with you, huh? Nice little place in Vancouver? Here? Part of me is going to be surprised if I see you in anything other than a t-shirt and jeans.”

“Probably not forever, but there is a piece of my pie chart dedicated to not driving myself up the wall anymore,” She gently presses her finger into Citlali’s forehead, making her chuckle, “Not such a bad thing. And I wore that spring dress you bought for me last month.”

“The day you step back from all this,” Citlali waves her arms around them, “Is the day I eat my hat.”

“I’m capable of more than just all this.” Kodelyn gestures similarly, “It’ll be nice to step back and enjoy what we saved. Preferably not from a war room anymore.”

“Never thought I’d peel you out of one,” Citlali says, “Mrs. Kaidan Alenko.”

“You have to get tired of saying that at some point.” Kodelyn’s partially right, though it amuses her. Sort of sweet at times.

“Will I? I don’t think so.”

“Really?” Kodelyn raises an eyebrow, “So how soon can I call you Mrs. Jeff Moreau?”

“New topic!”

#kodelyn shepard #citlali shepard-velasquez #oc #original character

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crqstalite · 3 years

Photo

kodelyn shepard (32) + citlali velasquez (26) + mason shepard-velasquez (23)

#kodelyn shepard #mason shepard-velasquez #citlali velasquez #oc #original character #guess who got her hands on metahuman creator #it was me #i had to compress the hell out of these gifs though #and a lot of details got smushed out #-sobs-#THESE BABIES HAVE FACES NOW #can you tell im absurdly excited for LE?#im going to do annika brione and aj tomorrow #and hopefully danny and nia the day after #NOTE THOUGH: they take goddamn forever to load

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crqstalite · 2 years

Note

For the past, present, and future thing: once again for the Shepard-Velasquez siblings (any of Kodee, Citlali, or Mason for any question) I request Past 3, Past 12, Present 5 & 6, and Future 4. Also I'd like to ask a twist on Future 4 with what's something they didn't expect would happen but actually did.

Finally getting cracking on this one after sitting on it for a month. Why? I don't know.

(An extra edit two weeks after that one, finally I'm finishing this)

3. Describe their family. Who raised them, and who had the most impact on them? Did they have any siblings? Who were they closest to? What were the family dynamics like?

The Shepard-Velasquez siblings were primarily raised by their parents, Hannah and Joaquin. Easily described as a strict but ultimately loving mother and an easy-going Alliance contractor. I'd argue that impact depends on the child, as Hannah had the largest impact on Kodelyn and Citlali, but Joaquin probably had the most impact on his son. Family dynamics were messy, between Hannah's unresolved generational trauma and the upheaval that Citlali's biotics caused, the easiest way to describe it would be "too little, too late". Everything went wrong because so many little mistakes built up and brought the whole house down. No one lives at home anymore, even though they talk about it all the time.

5. What kind of people do they usually interact with? Who are their friends, the people they look up to/trust, and who are their “associates”?

The Normandy crew and the siblings they interact with most:

Kodelyn: Kaidan, Miranda, Liara, Garrus, Grunt

Citlali: Joker, Tali, Jack, Kasumi, Mordin.

Mason: Thane, Samara, James, Jacob.

(Mason I think is interesting only because he tends to gravitate towards those that are both more introverted, but also ones with significant years on them compared to him. With the exemption of James, he does appreciate the wisdom they have. In the case of James, he can sort of relate to him, and the other takes Mason under his wing once they meet.)

6. What is their current relationship with their family?

Current relationships are likely something Revival will attempt to expound upon, but its focused heavily on healing. Not quite forgiveness (there are some things sorry just can't fix), instead repairing what they can and trying to be better in the future. There's some stubbornness on both Citlali and Hannah's parts (after all, both think they did the best with the situation they were dealt) and Mason hesitates a lot on trying to be vulnerable with his family again after they hurt him. Koda is being pulled in thirty different directions at once, and inadvertently uses it to avoid harder conversations and situations. Relying on each other is a little too much of a request and they stumble around a lot around certain subjects, but when asked, they do say they care about each other in their own ways. Whether that's still knowing the others favorite flavor of cake or just knowing instinctively how they take their coffee. Somehow. After a whole decade.

4. What’s something they were sure would happen in their future but didn’t?

Koda was pretty sure she'd end up right where her mother is, a Rear Admiral commanding a ship. Likely unmarried, considering how she tended not to keep many ties when she was younger, without children. While she remains with the Alliance, she doesn't end up an Admiral. She's content enough with promotion to Captain a few years later, and her relationship with Kaidan progresses to marriage eventually. Maggie joins them a handful of years later.

Citlali is pretty firm on how she'd believed she would've ended up on the Citadel working a dead end job or doing party tricks for as long as she could hold out. Didn't think she'd see the Reaper invasion, didn't think her sister would die, didn't think she'd end up living on a warship for nearly a year or becoming a secondary pilot to said warship. She did all of that and ended up marrying the other pilot. And had a kid. She's seen exciting times and would really prefer if they'd stop.

And Mason? Mason's just pleased he lives to see thirty after the Reapers touch down. He never really thought he'd have as solid of a relationship with his sisters as he eventually does, nor that he'd have anyone who really cared about him emotionally like Priana does. He never really thought he could be pleased with his life, but he is.

Thank you for asking!! <3

#mason shepard-velasquez #kodelyn shepard #citlali velasquez

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crqstalite · 2 years

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1, 5 & 7 for 'the future', for Citlali & Kodelyn, if you'd like! :-)

Thank you for asking and sorry for the wait!

1. Briefly describe their life in the future, regardless of how far into the future this is.

Kodelyn sees a life of being a pretty (in)famous person for most of the rest of her life. She doesn't quite take a step back from the Alliance until she's a handful of years older, but likely still commands the Normandy for a time. She does act as somewhat of a political figure, but turns the Councilor position that they offered down for Cpt. Petrakis to take, and eventually is given to Admiral Chen. She marries Kaidan a few years after the war ends and has a daughter some years later that keeps the pair of them on their toes.

Citlali has Esme a handful of months after the war ends, so she's doing her very best to give her a life far better than her's in the ruins after the war. She and Jeff marry a handful of years later, and pursues a masters in astrophysics. She goes on to work in the engineering sector, and heads part of the reconstruction effort on the Citadel, working with other biotics to safely speed up the process. They tend to travel a little more than her sister's side of the family.

5. Did they get married or have a family? Why? If otherwise, why not?

Kodelyn did, there was just a lot of time that passed before the idea lodged itself in her head. She and Kaidan were already a good pair, but they agreed to let the relationship progress naturally before doing anything serious (well, more serious than fighting a war together). They're in a committed relationship for a handful of years before they get properly married (Aftermath isn't canon anymore), and Maggie arrives a few years after that. Enough time for them to settle into life again, and long enough that Maggie would have a home

Citlali also does, just quite a bit earlier with Esme's birthday being Sept. 27th, 2187. Definitely not expected, but very loved by her parents. Likely she doesn't marry Jeff immediately afterwards but does within the next year or two. Esme gives her a little bit of the childhood wonder that she lost out on when she was a kid, so she's grateful for the time she has with her daughter.

7. Are their friends still a part of their life? Are there people they are no longer in touch with, or newly important people?

I like to think both sisters keep in contact with their squad members from the Normandy.

Though they aren't living near each other anymore, Kodelyn keeps in contact most with Liara, as well as Miranda and James. Liara assists Brione (and by default, Koda sees Garrus a lot) most often, but often times will share some of her intel with Kodelyn as well when it comes to more important decisions. James happens to still live on Earth when the Normandy is grounded, and she considers Miranda a good friend. Newly, she's often in contact and working alongside Councilor Chen, though doesn't know what to make of him yet.

Similarly, Citlali's most often in contact with Tali. Tali did her best to help her out with her degree and often they ended up working together on various projects on the Citadel. Miranda assists with her biotics from time to time, but they have a good rapport to just get out and see the sights from time to time. (Citlali's better at getting her to relax and have fun compared to her sister). She and Jack see each other a lot, and though Jack can't convince her to work with her, she's allowed Jack to claim the eventual biotic tutelage of Esme.

#kodelyn shepard #citlali velasquez #esme moreau #maggie alenko #oc #original character

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crqstalite · 3 years

Photo

i colored that earlier post.

#i guess if you ever wanted to know the palettes for these kids #you do now #my art #kodelyn shepard #citlali velasquez #brione petrakis #annika johansson #danny shepard #AJ shepard #oc #original character

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crqstalite · 3 years

Text

wip whenever.

a bit from a chapter i’m working on. i am...very excited to finish it. grissom academy, mass effect 3.

yeah. yeah this is the good part i’ve waited a whole fifteen chapters to write.

The simultaneous activation of omni-tools only brings doubt, “And…what if they’re not lying?”

“Then what, are just going to lie down and take it?” Citlali asks, poking one of the girls a little roughly, “You all already gave the assholes here a run for their money a few minutes ago. Take everything they throw at you and then a little more, Jack didn’t train you to let them kill you now.”

Jack grins at her, then turning to her student, “Come on, Rodriguez. They’re only asking nicely ‘cause you scared them in that last fight. So take your balls out of your purse, and kick some ass.”

“Yes ma’am.” She responds, stunned by the order but straightening.

Citlali approaches from the group of students, unholstering her pistol before Kodelyn holds out a hand, “You’re sticking with the students. Protect them with your life.”

“I thought I was with you.” She furrows her brow, confused.

“You are. But your orders right now are to protect every one of those students right there. Get them out of here safely.” Citlali tries to protest the order, but Kodelyn stops her, “I’m serious. They’re our biggest priority right now, and you’re one of the most powerful out of all of them. Go wild if you need to, but just keep Cerberus off them. You’re their last line of defense after Jack.”

She doesn’t seem too happy with the assignment, her expression somewhere near telling Kodelyn that she feels slighted by being moved off the main squad. After a second to think, she nods anyway, “I’ve got it. I can do that. No promises a few Cerberus bastards won’t go careening off the edge though.”

“I don’t care what you do. Just don’t endanger them or yourself, got it?” Kodelyn asks.

“I’ve got it. I’ll do what I can.”

“Good. I’ll see you on the other side.”

“Gotcha. See you on the other side, Commander.” She says, a determined grin on her expression now. At the last second, she wraps her arms around her, stumbling the both of them. In a quieter voice, “Be careful out there. I won’t die if you don’t.”

Kodelyn doesn’t like the usage, nor just how much finality is attached to it. It almost sounds like she’s trying to say goodbye, but she wouldn’t be surprised if this entire mission is starting to put her more on edge than it should. She can’t shake the feeling that something’s about to go terribly wrong, but it isn’t as if they can turn back now. She does understand what her sister is trying to get across before she lets go, clapping a hand on her shoulder, “Go give ‘em hell.”

“You know I will!” Citlali bolts after the retreating group, and disappears around the corner. Kodelyn takes a breath, turning back towards the threshold.

She’ll be fine. She has Jack and a good handful of students around her own skill level. She’s not alone, and she’s looking okay compared to how she’d been earlier. Citlali could do this. Unholstering her rifle, Liara and Garrus follow her through the doors. They slam behind her.

There’s no going back now.

“Don’t hesitate to use more force than necessary. These bastards will not stop at anything to get their hands on them, so I’m not pulling my punches.”

“Understood, Commander.” Liara responds. She hesitates for a moment, quickening her pace to be eye to eye with her, “Are you sure you don’t want one of us with them? I do not doubt Jack and Citlali, only that it seems we’ve left them with a skeleton crew.”

“If our heaviest hitters are down in the Atrium and not on the walkway, they have to deal with us first before they go up there.” Kodelyn explains, “Plus, I feel like those students can hold their own. They’re definitely not invalids.”

#kodelyn shepard #citlali velasquez #wip whenever #:3 #>:3 #foreshadowing #i also wrote a whole 7.1k words today #most of it is tweaked dialogue from the game but like #i live in fear of current me right now #i am ready for bad things to happen >:3 #i also hit 30k in the last 10 days so #yeah #im a bit of a mess right now

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