#that me3 is like being home to me <3

[blacklesbothatlovestowrite]

On My Mama Pt. 4

Tags: @mixedfandxms @shurislover @sweetalittleselfish-honey @desswright29 @cutttteeee @onyxstones-world @katymae12344 @doramilaj233 @sweetalittleselfish-honey @6-noir @khara876 @she-is-my-unrequited-love34 @teadah18 @un-deniable-me3

So I took a bit of a hiatus but I’m back. I started a new story on Wattpad under my username NeomaMona (QueenNeoma) called You & Me. It’s a Jamaican fic with a straight main couple and Lesbian/gay side characters. Remember I write for everyone so no one is left out. Original characters w/ pics. This update is a bit of a roller coaster but I hope you guys enjoy. 🤎

A few weeks went by with you ignoring Shuri and Riri. You didn’t acknowledge their presence, you were either locked in your room when they were home or you were out.

While you felt slightly guilty for ignoring Riri as she didn’t do anything besides befriend an immoral person. You couldn’t bring yourself to talk to her. You hated to admit after the talk where you’d both shared such private and painful memories; you liked her.

You didn’t like anyone. Well, except Shuri before you’d found out what she’d done. However that didn’t count. As you never met her when you were crushing on her. You were just another girl behind a screen, admiring her while she knew nothing of your existence.

Riri’s words constantly played in your head. You scrutinized Bria’s every move and action, but so far she hadn’t done anything. She seemed genuine.

She kept you in a constant state of bliss. She loved making you cum in your room, whilst the duo were home. And while you knew she did it with the motivation of getting under their skin. You were sure at this point you liked fucking her but that was it. Your crush had worn off after the first two weeks.

In the past few weeks, Riri made it harder for you to ignore her. She brought you breakfast and iced coffee, she did your laundry and folded it, she waited up for you each night with dinner despite not receiving any thanks.

Each interaction made the guilt grow stronger. It was obvious she was trying. You’d never had anyone pay you any mind continuously, that felt genuine. She did things without being asked to. If you felt frustrated about something, she was quickly finding a way to help you. It was unspoken. She seemed to pay close attention to you. She noticed the small things.

One of the things that warmed you up to her slightly was when you’d fallen asleep in your room with the door open as you worked on your assignment. She placed your bonnet on your head and removed your makeup. You’d woken slightly when she placed your comforter over you, and whispered goodnight.

You couldn’t ignore how much she seemed to care about you.

-

“Hey.” You looked up from your textbook to see Riri in your doorway. Her hair was freshly braided back in cane rows styled into two space buns. She seemed nervous as she fidgeted with her hands.

“Hi.” You replied, biting your bottom lip. You felt just as nervous as she looked.

“I want to show you something. If you have the time?” She seemed unsure and you could hardly blame her. You’d said nothing to her in weeks despite all she’d done for you.

“Sure.” You nodded, closing your textbook and placing it on your nightstand before standing. You followed her out to the living room, your brows furrowing as she stopped in front of a canvas.

“I’m not sure how you’re going to take this but I remember when I lost my dad how much keeping his memory alive helped me.” Riri cleared her throat as she looked at you. Her eyes sparkled as you raised a brow, confused.

She turned the canvas around and you gasped. She’d painted a picture of your father and you. You were 3 in the portrait, sitting on your father’s shoulder as you cheered. A look of love on both of your faces. You swallowed as you recalled exactly where the picture she’d used had been taken.

Your mother was walking for the House of Woo. She was the first dark skin woman of color to ever grace the big stage. She single-handedly paved the way for dark skin women in the industry before the Woo show, however Woo was a coveted event for any black woman as they kept to lighter complexions only.

You remember being so in awe of her, seeing her walk. The only model who looked like you, not because of features but skin tone. All the other models were European, Latin/Hispanic, Biracial or Lightskin. You remember your father whistling and cheering loud as she sauntered on.

“Thank you.” The words were hard to release. You felt tears prick your eyes as you stared at the portrait. You wondered why she chose that picture of the many of your family online. If she’d known the backstory of the picture. Regardless you were grateful for it nonetheless. It captured your father in one of his happiest moments.

“I didn’t mean to make you cry, Y/n.” Riri frowned but you shook your head.

“You didn’t.”

“How about some food? You’ve been studying all day.” Riri suggested.

You nodded.

Riri took you to her favorite diner. There were a few students you knew from your college in the packed diner. As you were seated, Riri broke the silence. Her fingers playing with her gold necklace.

“I hope I didn’t make you uncomfortable.” Riri muttered, her voice low.

“I’m okay. I love it, really.” You said slowly. Hoping you conveyed just how much you enjoyed her gift.

“Why’d you do it ?” You asked.

“Everyone should have something of importance in their home.” She shrugged. “You had no pictures in your room. Yet your IG is full of pictures of you and your dad.”

“I locked away my photo albums.” You admitted. You’d even locked your album in your photo’s with picture of your dad.

“I hope you don’t think I overstepped.” She swallowed, you watched as she swiped her tongue against her bottom lip. You noticed she did that a lot when she was nervous or she was concentrating. 

“I appreciate it. I’ve been trying to pretend like if I don’t see things that remind me of him that I’ll stop being sad. But It hurts more.” Your eyes were watery.

“We aren’t the same. I know that but if you ever want to talk, I’m here. Even if it’s just to listen. Keeping things bottled inside won’t help you. I know that from experience.” She emphasized. She placed her hand over mine on the table.

“I’m sorry for ignoring you.” You changed the subject.

“You’re good.” Riri waved you off. “Shuri was out of line. And I pushed you too much.”

“You didn’t.” Your assured her.

“Thank you for everything you did. I should have said that before now. You didn’t have to do-“

“I wanted to.” She smiled.

“What are you getting?” A girl with a puff and laid edges said as she walked over. She was full of attitude. You looked her up and down, before rolling your eyes.

“What do you want, mama?” Riri asked.

“Whatever you get is fine.” You shrugged. You knew you and Riri liked the same food, after all the takeout she’d gotten you and the meals she’d made for you.

“We’ll have two medium well provolone mushroom burgers, with the thin fries and strawberry milk shakes.” Riri ordered. The girl hissed her teeth before writing it down.

“April, drop the attitude. I’ve never led you on, we were never together so I don’t appreciate your energy.” Riri lowered her voice so only you, her and the waitress heard.

“Good luck with that.” April directed towards me, tilting her head towards Riri.

“Friend of yours?” You smirked.

“No. We messed around but I told her what I tell everyone. I wasn’t looking for anything serious. I’m single. I have no need to lie, cheat or play with people’s emotions. I’m straightforward.” Riri clarified.

“Wasn’t?” You raised a brow.

“No one has captured my attention like you.” Riri admitted, her eyes locked with yours.

“Bold.” You giggled.

“I never lie. I have no reason to. No girl has ever made me like them enough to want to do anything for them beyond sex.” She shrugged and you bit your lip to keep from smiling. As hard as you tried not to like her, she was getting under your skin. While Bria had you hooked sexually, Riri was able to get under your skin with just her actions, her words.

You knew she was being honest because you’d heard stories of how she was never interested in going on dates with other girls. How she ‘loved them and leaved them’ she was solely focused on school and making her money.

“Why’d you get strawberry milkshakes.” Deciding to change the subject again.

“You hate chocolate and you think vanilla is too plain for a milkshake unless there are things added but you love strawberry milkshakes like you love strawberry cake.” Riri noted. “I know you only drunk the shakes I bought you because you were being nice. I saw the cringe on your face when you drank them so I deduced you had to like strawberry since you’d said you loved milkshakes on your snap one day.”

“Uhhhh.” You were shocked she paid such close attention to that.

“How cozy…” You look up to see Bria walking towards you. You could see her friend from the day in the courtyard sitting at a nearby table with her phone in her hand and figured she’d alerted her to where you were and with whom.

“Bria.” You warned. The more you got to know her, the more you realized while she despised both Shuri and Riri; she absolutely hated Riri. You were all for her being rude to Shuri but Riri didn’t deserve it.

“I missed you, babe.” She smiled, leaning down and kissing me. She thrusted her tongue into my mouth and sucked on it, as she moaned out. The kiss wasn’t like her usual ones. You could tell she was angry underneath the sweet demeanor. You pulled away, staring at her in confusion.

“What are you doing her?” You asked.

“I could ask you the same question, babe.” She narrowed her eyes at you.

“Riri and I are hanging out.” You informed her, watching as her eye slightly twitched.

“That’s interesting. I thought you hated her.” She swung her eyes towards Riri, before looking back at you.

“I never said I hated Riri.” I stared at her in shock that she’d so blatantly lie.

“Y/n, you said you hated her. That your skin crawled every time you were around her.” Bria gloated and you scowled. You couldn’t believe she was lying. Sure you’d said that about Shuri but never about Riri. Sure you found her annoying in the beginning but you were starting to like her. “You literally said she needed to go back to Chicago where her pops and Natalie were buried because you couldn’t stand the sight of her.”

“Bria!” You couldn’t believe she’d say something so heinous.

“That’s how it is?” Riri scoffed, her eyes showing how hurt she was. You felt sick at the way her voice cracked and her eyes got glossy.

“Riri I did—“

“Stop lying Y/n. Be honest, tell her how you planned on telling the whole school how she’d gotten her father and friend killed by going to that park.” Bria grinned.

“What the fuck is your problem?!” You shouted, as the whole diner got quiet.

“You told her what I told you…” Riri rasped, as tears fell down her cheeks. You looked at her with empathy. She wasn’t one to cry.

“I promise you I didn’t…” You swear.

“How would she know? I’ve never told anyone besides you and Shuri. And Shuri would never tell anyone that. I know that for a fact!” Riri hissed.

“I may be a bitch. But I’m not heartless I didn’t tell her that. I swear.” You pleaded.

“I thought you weren’t. I told myself you were hurt and angry and lashing out, that you were a good person but who was I kidding. You talk about Shuri being a horrible person but she did what she did with a willing participant that did not let her know she was married or in a relationship. You two are NOT the same.” Riri declared before getting out of the booth and storming off.

You sat in silence as you stared. Watching her leave, feeling like you wanted to throw up. Having people dislike you was one thing but Riri was different. She was sweet, caring, generous.

“Oops.” Bria smirked.

“I never told you about her father or Natalie… And I never said those disgusting things.” You hissed. “Why would you lie?”

She moved close until her lips were by your ear and you tensed. You felt disgusted by her. Having her near you was too much.

“You think you’re all that because you had Riri’s attention? Riri was mine first. You’re nothing compared to me.” She hissed, before standing and flipping her hair in your face.

-

What the fuck?

You hadn’t seen Riri since the night before. She was nowhere to be found. You’d spent the whole day texting, calling and looking for her. She’d missed all her classes. You were frustrated. Shuri was no help as she came in drunk again and passed out on the couch.

You made your way over to Bria’s apartment, and banged on her door. You wanted to know what the fuck she was on. From her words it was clear she wanted Shuri and Riri which made no sense since she’d left them.

And if she was so jealous of you why did she fuck you? She clearly was obsessed with you to be eating your pussy as much as she did.

You had your phone recording from your pocket because you planned to clear your name to Riri. You couldn’t stomach her hating you.

“What?” She snapped as she flung the door open.

“What the fuck was that?” You matched her tone.

“Y/n, aren’t you a genius ?” She mocked.

“Why did you lie to Riri?” You demand.

“The questions should be why did she believe me? Why was she so quick to believe me over you?” She smirked.

“You had details not many people know I don’t blame her for not believing me. But I never told you any of that.” You crossed your arms over your chest. “Where did you hear about her Dad and Natalie?”

“Who cares?”

“I do, now tell me you classless hating ass bitch.” You barked, your tone conveying just how much you wanted to play ‘Whack A Bitch’.

“I saw you two when you were talking. I heard her tell you about them.” She rolled her eyes.

“Why do you hate her so much?” You wondered.

“I wanted Riri.” She snapped. “I’ve always wanted Riri. It’s the only reason I became friends with Shuri and fed her the idea of us being a throuple because they were close. Riri never seemed into it and at a certain point she decided to drop me like I was nothing when I told her I loved her and wanted to be with just her.”

“Are you serious right now? I can’t believe this shit!” You wanted to beat her ass so bad.

“Don’t act like you didn’t like me eating your pussy and fucking you while Riri listened.” Bria gloated. “You and I both know you wanted to get a reaction out of her.”

“Riri was right. You are a manipulative bitch.” You scoffed, walking away. She wasn’t worth your energy. You ended the recording and headed towards the only place you hadn’t looked. The lab.

After demanding to be let in, you were disappointed when you saw that Riri wasn’t there. You had no idea where else to look. You sighed before sending the recording to Riri’s number, her snap and her dms hoping she didn’t block you.

As you opened your apartment door you heard moans. You furrowed your brows as you locked the door behind you and headed towards your room, figuring Shuri had a girl over. Neither She or Riri had ever had anyone over so it was off putting but not surprising.

You tossed your keys and bag on the kitchen counter before seeing two people in the couch going at it. You couldn’t believe your eyes at first. But the longer you stared the more real it became.

You froze as you saw Riri fucking Nina on the couch. Your eyes were wide as you took in the scene in front of you. Nina was face down in the couch while Riri drove her strap into her. She was moaning and wailing as Riri pounded into her.

You couldn’t move as you watched in horror. You thought Nina was your friend. How could she fuck with someone she thought you ‘disliked’ and Riri? Of all the people she had to choose your ‘friend’.

“Fuck, you have the best pussy.” Riri groaned as she yanked Nina’s hair. “Look how you’re creaming for me mama.”

You cringed as she called her the nickname she only called you. You felt hurt. Bria turning out to be a fucked up person was one thing, but Riri? How could she go so low without even talking to you and letting you explain yourself or even defend yourself?

“Ay, mami! I love how you’re fucking me!” Nina cried out as Riri thrusted harder. You felt disgusted, angering building in you.

“Cum for me, mama.” Riri demanded, smacking Nina on the ass. And as if on command, Nina came. Her annoying ass voice screeching.

You crossed your arms.

“Are you done?” You asked.

“I mean not really but we probably should take this to my bedroom.” Riri smirked, as she moved away from Nina and stood. You narrowed your eyes as Nina got up and stared at you.

“I hope you don’t mind Riri invited me over? I couldn’t say no…” Nina smiled, and I bit back the urge to yell. I was about to turn to go into the room when Riri grabbed something from off the couch. Your heart dropped when you realized it was the canvas of your father and you.

“You’re disgusting!” You cried, as she walked it over to you with a smirk.

“It was fuck me, Natalie and my dad right?” Riri scoffed. “Well fuck you and your daddy.”

You watched as she took a lighter from off the nightstand and lit the canvas stained with their juices on fire. Your body shook as you watched her burn the canvas.

“Riri! That’s so mean.” Nina laughed.

“Never speak to me again. I will never forgive you for this. You were right. Shuri wasn’t to blame for anything. She was an uninformed willing participant. But you…” You sobbed. “You’re so much worse. Go to fucking hell Williams!”

You grabbed a vase with flowers and dumped the water into the burning canvas before grabbing your keys and bag and heading back out the door.



#shuri black panther #shuri udaku #princess shuri #shuri smut #shuri x fem!reader #riri x you #shuri x black!reader #riri wiliams x reader #riri williams #riri x reader

[most-datable-datable-bracket]

ROUND 3 MATCH 7

Garrus propaganda:

"Garrus is a character who went from being a shit head punk in ME1 and grows and betters himself over the games. He talks over the hard choices in ME3 without judging Shepard no matter what they choice. He is pretty much the first to stand up for them and even when his own home is being destroyed and he doesn’t know if his father and sister are alive he’s there for SHEPARD. He is there for the person who is always there for everyone else! ME3 Garrus is honestly Best Garrus and I want to celebrate how good his character arc is over the games.

And the best part is: the romance doesn’t fix him. He still grows and improves if you romance him or not!

Idk, I just don’t think it’s super fair to reduce him to his ME1 character when the fact that him growing and improving is the part I like best about him. Garrus, to me, shows you can always get better and life is about always getting better. It’s never too late to be better.

And he has the power to make Shepard dance good in the Citadel DLC."

Mercedes propaganda:

"She's super doting and kind! She makes sweets for her friends and helps them overcome emotional hardship! She survived an abusive stepfather and in a lot of her endings she takes up tending to orphans so they can feel safe like she did when she ran to live in church. She's religious but still expresses sincere and respectful interest in other religions and doesn't think less of others. She's a bit scatterbrained but can suddenly destroy you with simple but brutal observations and politely refuses to take shit. Fantastic cleric. Honestly she has some of the best supports in the game I love her so much she's too good for this world. Married her on Azure Moon with no regrets.

(Oh also she's canon bisexual and lovely rep. 😊)"

#garrus vakarian #mass effect #mercedes von bartels #fire emblem #fire emblem: three houses #Round 3 #most datable datable character

[meowsgirldrawing]

Fellow Bioware fans, specifically for Dragon Age Inquisition- Hear me out on this idea ive had

So what if Bioware did a DLC for Dragon Age: Inquisition, similar to Mass Effect's Citadel DLC

(And for those who don't know the Citadel DLC, its an...expansion pack? Or something similar that allows the crew of ME3-Mass Effect 3- to have a shore party on the Citadel. It has mini games to play of all kinds, small scenes with our favorite characters, love interest or not, and even a bit of a quest line to follow that is very hilarious and even more exciting, plus a bit more dialogue added to the game I believe)

Anyhow-What if, despite the circumstances, the inner circle of the Inquisition got something similar. Maybe not a whole vacation in itself but still something, y'know? I know Tresspasser may have did something similar but this is just me imaging fun and more comical with the potential chaos of the Inquisition crew.

Imagine this- romance scenes with the love interests like-

Seeing a more playful side of Cullen as we volunteer to help with dog training. Perhaps finally seeing him without a suit and in some casual clothes for once. I can just imagine a scene of him getting tackled by dogs as our inquisitor is laughing their ass off on the side.

Seeing Cassandra get pulled into relaxing for a bit by reading a story together, maybe her indulging in some fun by voicing the dialogues as our inquisitor is the one to act them out more.

Seeing Solas take us through a bit of an art gallery and pointing out his favorite pieces as he explains the meanings behind it. Then deciding at the end of it that he would like to make a peice with us or paint something in our quarters by our asking.

Seeing our favorite mage, Dorian go out on an actual date with his boyfriend and easing his nerves about being public about it. Him waving them off and saying thats hes fine, but obviously melting once he realizes that no one cares that its two men. And not just that- but him being sassy and playful, flirting with his Amatus as they dine together freely.

Piggybacking off the previous one, if your inquisitor is female and bestfriends with him instead, then the two having a nice day out together. Maybe if he isnt romanced to Bull in that playthrough, then helping him get a small date with someone. Maybe he fails a bit, but is able to laugh about it cause it was less terrifying than he thought compared to home. (You can plainly tell how much I adore this man)

Going to see a Jousting match with The Iron Bull. Maybe not as exciting as Dragons but perhaps Bull can read into the body language and tell whos going to loose, and instead of just telling us, he makes it a game that WE have to guess instead. Romanced version- if we win, hes laughing a bit, saying "Thats my Kadan!" (Jfjsjffs)

Blackwall probably can't do a whole lot, considering after his real identity problem, so maybe he makes pulls together a nice dinner instead. (Mostly for romance version) And somewhat saying towards the end, "You may be the Inquisitor, but you're still a lady, and you should be treated as such."

Look, I havent romanced Black wall that often, but boy- from the scene on youtube, the man can sure show his gentleman side.

And the fact that you can romance him as any race? OOO- Just imagine how much more tender that'll feel for a qunari or eleven inquisitor, LIKE-DKDJSOWNAK MAN WANTS HIS LADY TO BE TREATED LIKE THEY DESERVE

Anyhow, im gettin' off subject-

Helping Cole on a task he asked from us. It could be something so simple as flower picking cause he felt a little girl nearby feeling real upset about something and wanted to help.

I know alot of people have different views of Cole, just like any character, and people see him as either the son or little brother depending on how you go about it. So maybe this can go either way. Especially if your character is elven, they can give him tips on which flowers may be more appropriate or safer to leave for the little one.

(Ignore this if you want- My main Inquisitor is an elven chick named Bellatrix and ive always imagine her having a small soft side for Cole, treating him like a little brother in some areas cause he reminds her of her siblings. )

There are so many ways to go about this whole idea, honestly. And while I don't have many ideas for Sera, Josephine, Leliana, Varric, and Vivienne, I would have loved to see scenes with them in playful moments like these. Like Vivienne shopping with the Inquisitor or Sera going on that promise to make cookies with them and it turns into a whole mess but both end up laughing on the floor, flour caked on.

Out of all the Dragon Age games, Inquisition has to be my l, above all, favorite because of the outright love the characters bring to your character. Whether they are a steel on the outside, light hearted qunari, a playful and chaos making elf, or a soft but proud decision making dwarf with a bit of clumsyness. You cant really say that it doesnt matter what or how your character is, but its true how much it does matter cause it brings just another side of possibilities with such a character.

I apologize for my ranting but if you've taken the time to read this, please share your ideas with me cause even though hasn't made something like this for Dragon age, fans surely bring that idea to light in any way they can💜

#dragon age #dragon age inquisition #dorian pavus #cassandra pentaghast #the iron bull #cullen rutherford #da solas #cole dragon age #blackwall #dragon age games #Dragon Age x inquisitor #dragon age x reader

[theviridianbunny]

Top 5 video games!

AAH WASH HIIII!! thank you for the ask!!

ok these are in no particual order! not sure how coherently I can word but I will try my best!! this will be a long post- so you can find it under the cut!!! I have a lot to say about my fave viddy games (and i am not sorry~) but I am sorry for spelling errors- my brain can not keep up with my thoughts and i want to get everything down and everything goes to mush :////

METAL GEAR SOLID 2 (2001)

long before cp2077 was the main source of brainrot- metal gear solid was the main source. I picked up mgs as a series when I was at university in my second year and then would not stop talking about it to my friends (one of which played the games when they came out!!).

the art of yoji shinkawa (see his work below) becoming a source of inspo to my drawing / painting practice (it may not look like it at times -but- it's there- a lot of my old worl had very paintily lines- using a ink brush in procreate ect! maybe i will post some old art one day )

(...there was also a point where I was doing weird perfomance art where I just stuck a cardboard box on my head and called it a day- hrrng.,.. just a box?!) oh.. how i miss being a student <3

BUT ANYWAY!!! MGS2 is my fave in the series- this is due to the character design- the character design altered my brain chemisty in the best way-- the art design- colours/mood- the greens the blues- also the soundtrack- ugh it's so good. (i also had/still have the biggest crush on solid snake- husband time... also olga gurlukovich.. my dear wife ugh she she her)

OH MY GOD WAIT- WAIT- another thing about mgs 2 and it's character design- THEY GAVE OLGA BODY HAIR- yes, i know thats quite a random thing to say, but, I feel like for the time the game being released- it was progressive(?) like- in games even today- most women are like - super models ? idk how to word but- it was so empowering to see Olga like that- she is an icon and i feel empowered when i see her! <3

2. MASS EFFECT 3 (2012)

The mass effect trilogy is a series thats so close to my heart- I picked the games up during the tranistion period between covid lockdowns and coming out of lockdown.graduating from uni- finding a job- screaming to the void- yknow- adulting- no more being a art student-UGH !!

a friend of mine from uni gave me the og ps3 box set at christmas 2020 (because i only had a ps3 at the time)... for me to play over christmas between term one and term two of my final year of uni... gaming got me thru a lot of hard times then-... actually skipped me1 because it was clunky and made me want to cry- went straight to me2 (after reading all the lore of me1) and then went into me3 blind.. god i was not ready - cried my heart out so much

Mass effect 3 is my fave in the trilogy because of the characters! also like with mgs 2- the soudtrack! also also! being able to create shepard to look how I wanted her to look- YES VERY GOOD-VERY NICE! I loved playing the whole trilogy- but ME3 has a place in my heart for real. - the build up to it- the feeling of impending doom - trying to get all your squad to trust shep- the citadel dlc!!! aaAHHHHH LOVE <33

EDI is my best girl- my best girl indeed!!! I see a lot of myself in her. How she grows and evolves over time0 how she learns and understands her worth. She brings me a lot of endless joy.

I got to play the full trilogy when it came out as a remastered bundle. The trilogy got me through a rough few months- I had got me first "real job" and it was a hard few months- but coming home and playing mass effect brought me joy ! I do need to do a re run of the trilogy for the purposes of vp and gif making- I do miss my beloved Zachary Shepard! (some screenshots of her below! on the left- me1 vs me3!! she grows- evolves- cuts her hair and gets ready to kick reaper ass!!)

fun fact: I have two mass effect art books! one of the books being a book that was only released with a game guide which came out in 2007.. the other being a big chunky book with SOOOO MUCH STUFF IN IT EE... both of which i paid for with money from my first "real job" (which i only lasted three months in- but dhdhdd it's ok-)

3. DRAGON AGE INQUISITION (2014)

DAI was THE GAME that got me into gaming/ made me realise I was a gamer. I picked up the game around the same time I picked up the mass effect trilogy- maybe a bit later.. was playing on the ps3 (and it ran like it was running on a toaster or a pottato) it froze every 20 mins and none of the character models looked any good... but i loved it still- yes I couldn't play any of the dlc at the time but it did not matter- i was having the time of my life.

In 2021 I got a pc built so I could finish parts of my degree from home (bc covid and having to stay home for my health)... my pc was powerful enough to run DAI so... yknow- I got it on pc and MY GOD- I COULD RUN IT PROPERLY AND PLAY THE DLCS !!!!! the joy of running the desent for the first time, jaws of hakkon and then big boi trespasser UGH MY HEART EXPLODED !! oh my god- playing the decent for the first time and hearing david hayters voice- i YELLED SO LOUDLY- (it was like my beloved snake was back fejhdhjdhjd) playing that dlc for the first time also felt so right- so natural- my canon inquisitor, wren having connections to dwarven heritage through her father

DAI was my first adult fandom- im not actively a part of the fandom anymore- but I met some really lovely people through it (psst @virginiabackroads and @elfishtales i am looking at you <3 ) I recently got back into Dragon age by making an AU for my best girl, Viridian (... in this au she is called Viri lavellan.. or just viri!) (psst @fereldanwench im still foreveer greatful you pointed me in the right direction for modding the game!!)

4. FALLOUT 4 (2015)

now.. this is a game I have yet to finish- but- I am having SO much fun !! The post nucelar setting is interesting- i'm still trying to learn the game mechanics- but it's exciting and cosy (even if i do scream when a feral ghoul comes out of nowhere and bites me!)

100% loving nick valentine- ugh I wish he were romancable... he has so much charm, like an actor in the golden age of cinema <3 I don't have a lot more to say about fallout 4, but this game is bringing me a lot of joy!! looking forward to more adventures and more modding soon!

5. CYBERPUNK 2077 (2020)

y'all knew this was coming >:) cp2077 my beloved!!!!!! yes, the game may still be broken and glitchy and there are so many things the game could do better in areas- BUT STILL- the joy this game has given me- the friends i've made though posting about the game-- everyone is so lovely!!

the oc's ive created (...viridian and rasmus- i am looking at you both) Viridian brings me confidence- (...rammbled about that here).. THE BLORBOS I'VE GOTTEN (JACKIE WELLES MY BABEEEEEEEEEEEE) - !!

ugh buying cp2077 was one of the best things I did in 2022! also being brave and choosing to posting cp2077 vp on here last october/november was another best choice I did in 2022.

the words are going but- oh goodness this game and the world building- the soudtrack- the level of detail!!! cp2077 as a game changed my brain chemisty in ways- but in the good way. opening my eyes to the world of virtual photography- video game modding. it got me back into writing as well <3 Thank you all for all the love and support within the fandom space- I feel like im home <3

#bunny screams into the void #wanderingaldecaldo #metal gear solid #mgs #dragon age #dragon age inquisition #mass effect #fallout #cp2077 #cyberpunk 2077 #bunny writes stuff #asks

[favoriteblogonthecitadel]

For Xiomara, 14, 15, and 47, please!

Tysm for asking!! <3 <3

14. Any good at flirting?

Hehe… yes. I like to think that what makes her good at flirting is a combination of blunt honesty, lightheartedness, and shamelessness. She makes it known when she likes someone, and enjoys playing around with whatever dynamic exists between them and herself. Whether your interactions with her are pleasant or tense, she will make use of physical space and touch (assuming the person is not touch-averse); she will also rely on simple logic to point out the opportunity for mutual fun (a la “I like you, you like me, so what is there to think about?”) and somehow make it compelling. She also does have a piercing gaze and a way of looking at you like you are the most interesting thing in the room. She toes the line between saying what people want to hear and refusing to bullshit them. And she’s not above a good double entendre.

15. What colors does Shepard prefer for their armor?

Through ME1 and often in ME3, she enjoys the black N7 armor with the red stripe. From a meta perspective, I don’t think it’s very unique lol, but it does suit her. It’s a little edgy and visibly distinct from Alliance colors, and highlights the importance of her N7 status to her identity. The program was the main thing that helped her move forward after Torfan and exposed her to the black ops opportunities that made her qualify for Spectre consideration. 

In ME2, she switches around a lot, partly because her sense of self is constantly shifting and partly because she’s a lot less restricted when it comes to wearing a range of nontraditional colors. She often sports blood red armor during a period when many rumors arise around her return, and she wants to make a point of being very visually loud, of being visible.

As mentioned, she does return to the classics in ME3 but occasionally wears the dark teal marine camouflage armor. She finds that it inspires other Alliance soldiers, and maybe that lifts her own spirits, as well. 

47. Does Shepard practice any kind of self-care?

Hm, I thought about this for a hot minute because Xiomara is often self-indulgent, but I don’t know that she’s often considerate or kind towards herself. She sees her body as a tool or machine that she may as well use for all it can give her. She could be persuaded to practice self-care if she was convinced that the device needs maintenance, that it has reached an unsustainable state and can only keep going after a little respite; but she’s so used to pushing the limits of what’s healthy that she’d be hard-pressed to agree with where people tell her to draw the line. 

In her youth, I can see her occasionally taking hot or cold baths to manage pain from injuries or from the natural wear-and-tear of her line of work. Also using her mandatory days off to practice sports or travel. As she matures and learns new forms of self-care from the people who love her, I can see her being more deliberate and creative with it. Maybe she lets Kaidan spend some extra time making a home-cooked meal for her, accepts a massage from him. Maybe she randomly sits in her apartment and recites however much she can remember of Samara’s meditation mantras, until her mind feels re-centered. And maybe she lets Kasumi and Tali sit her and Miranda down for a spa night, comments on how this is actually kind of relaxing, and sits there looking contrite as Kasumi yells that this is what she’s been trying to tell her for a year. Some of the best parts of her future come from her bonds with her chosen family; self-care is probably one of those.  

#xiomara shepard #xiomara asks #now i'm just thinking about her loved ones scolding her into taking care of herself and sobbing<3

[kingofdoma]

initial human me companions ranked worst to best (as in they’re the two you’re saddled with at the start of the game)

7. kaidan. no personality, useless in combat. virmire is his forever home.

6. cora. the other human female companion they failed by not making gay. romancing her is the creepiest thing ever (imagine falling in love with your dad’s female friend from work). barely edged out by liam for not having as interesting a loyalty quest. sorry andromeda, ilu.

5.  liam. annoying twerp who constantly gets himself into trouble and has tons of trouble learning his lesson. saving graces are being useful in combat and that banger of a loyalty mission.

4. jacob. perfectly average person. actually has an interesting story, even if he’s not garrus-levels of engaging to carry it. people don’t like him, but i feel like he got hit by the preston garvey effect. 7/10 at worst.

3. ashley. look. i know she’s a space racist in the first part of the first game. BUT IT’S THE FIRST PART OF THE FIRST GAME. and arguably, that’s a good thing. it actually makes her interesting! you can almost see the gears turning to make her jump through her little racist hoops and justify her worldview, and it’s kinda interesting to see her actually realize that aliens aren’t always the enemy. she has an arc! an actual goddamn character arc! accept that! don’t cut it short on virmire! also kaidan makes a gross comment about samara if you let him live in 3! just saying!

2. vega. you never realize how much you like the big lug until you look back on him. solid in combat, he just wants to be a good soldier, he pushed me to my limits on that dang me3 dlc pull-up minigame... yeah. a real absence of wrong on vega. i’m as surprised as you are that he’s that high.

1. miranda. badass. greatly improved by not focusing on her butt (thanks, mele). fascinating character. literally brought shepard back from the dead. she needs to date jack. i loved watching “chuck” back in the 2000s. miranda’s objectively the best.

#mass effect #bear in mind this list might change if i make it tomorrow #also be aware that i do not hate anyone on this list #kaidan couldn't make me feel any emotion most days #i just feel like this is how they rank #and i'm also tired of jacob slander #he's Fine. #i think miranda would stay at the top though #she just has the most going on #also be advised: this is whether or not they're Good Characters #not whether or not they're People I Want To Hang With #that's a wildly different list #also if you love kaidan i think you're valid and I love you #i just disagree

[sparatus]

Ohhhh bitch. You know I gotta. Blorbo thots about Oraka. <3

ancient-ass general old man my beloved <3

Send Me A Character

do I like them: i go out of my way to find him as soon as the opportunity is available i love this crabby bitchy old man so fucking much

5 good qualities: cranky. just here to have a good time. very sweet when he's not drunk off his ass. helps you out. charming in his bad moodiness <3

3 bad qualities: lonely and drinking about it. spreading private data about an ambassador because he had a bad day is an asshole move i suppose. cannot be convinced to just go home and take a nap

favourite episode/etc: i love him in me3 honestly distinguished old gentleman

otp: oraka/nice sunny park to hang out in

brotp: oraka & sha'ira i don't care what bioware says the old man is lonely and needs friends to talk to sha'ira doesn't seem the type to hold grudges

ot3: oraka/nice sunny park/birds to feed

notp: oraka/being lonely

best quote: all of them i just like listening to him talk

head canon: i have an oc for his hubsbin 👉👈 he just missed his husband a lot and there was miscommunication with sha'ira and that's what upset him, i just don't like the whole thing bioware wrote with him and the consort honestly it's stupid and mostly just "oOoOoH eVeRyOnE wAnTs To FuCk ThE aSaRi" like shut up bioware please let there be at least one (1) npc who doesn't think asari ooze sex this is stupid and gross. so anyway the whole thing with sha'ira was a huge misunderstanding he missed his husband and also his kids and grandkids were worried about him cause he does dumb shit when he's lonely

#press conference #korblez #look see i remember to do ask prompts

[pinguphd]

Soldier of Heaven Chapter 1

I spent like 3 days editing this, but at least I finally have chapter one of my fem!Shep/Kaidan fic. Taking place after the events of ME3, we're going to explore just what happened to our dear Commander Amira Shepard and her love, Kaidan Alenko. I would like to thank @the-californicationist for putting up with my rambling, and especially @tealenko for helping me work out some of the ideas I had. Wouldn't have done it without you two, this goes out to you!

Each chapter, including the name of the fic itself, is named after a song. I will update the playlist with each chapter so you can listen along with me. Enjoy!

“I won't be coming home

I won't be going anywhere

I will guard this post forever

Here on the alpine slope, where I did my final stand, I shall remain

Among the ice and snow that binds me to this mountain”

Soldier of Heaven-Sabaton

It took close to two months in the aftermath of the Reaper War for things to return to any semblance of normalcy.  While the makeshift hospitals were still full, they did not seem so utterly overwhelmed as when the Catalyst was fired, finally eradicating the Reaper threat and ending the horrid cycle.  Much of humanity’s home was destroyed, yet the overall mood in London was one of optimism or cautious enthusiasm at the society they are rebuilding. 

Amira Shepherd, the famed Savior of the Citadel, first human Spectre and one of the best biotics the galaxy has ever seen was one of the people still in hospital.  The doctors and nurses had no idea who she was, and Amira wanted to keep it that way.  Best they could figure was she was probably an Alliance soldier, but it was hard to be certain when she would not speak to any of them.  The combination of watching a man she considered to be a father figure to her-Admiral Anderson die right in front of her, the comedown from the six months that she had spent going from here to kingdom come gathering everything she possibly could to ensure the continued survival of everyone in the Milky Way, and, perhaps most heartbreakingly, saying her final goodbyes to her beloved Kaidan took its toll on her.

Having survived 3 different suicide missions, curing the genophage and watching Mordin die, saving Kaidan on Virmire, even her fraught reunion with him on Horizon was distressing.  She has seen enough trauma, heartbreak, and death to last her many lifetimes (quite literally, in her case). She could still recall every second of her final moments with him.  Helping him up after being fired upon with that beam, even forcing him onto the Normandy even as he begged her not to make him go and his anguish as she left him was the worst of all of it.  She loved him so deeply she made him go, although it broke her heart to do so.

That did not make the aftermath any easier.  After she had fired the Catalyst, she had very little recollection of what it was like in the midst of all that rubble.  Her armor was in pieces and near nonexistent and the burns and injuries she had, she almost couldn’t feel.  All she could remember was the feeling deep within her that she had to get back to him, no matter what.  Despite the risks to what she knew had to be incredibly fragile health, she did her best to keep a biotic field about her in the hope search and rescue would find her.  Dead or alive, she owed it to Kaidan to know how she ended.  Not another Alchera, not on her watch.

From what she had been told by the medical staff, she was in the smoldering rubble for around 3 days.  By the time she was found she was incredibly weak and in what she could only imagine was a rough state.  Bad enough to the point where the staff at the hospital, full to the brim with Alliance doctors, nurses and support staff had no idea she was Commander Shepard.  This fact suited her just fine.  

For some unknown reason they were keeping her there, so in a show of defiance, she kept her damn mouth shut.  She filled her time not in PT with a sketchbook and canvas a well meaning woman visiting her friend at work gave her.  It’s not right dear, you being here all alone. She was one of the only people in the few months she had been in hospital who was not interested in making her talk.  I understand dear if you don’t want to say anything she said to her on her first visit.  She enjoyed the companionship anyway.  

This sweet older woman was completely and utterly empathetic, expecting nothing in return.  Selfless too, visiting her.  She seemed to have a way with, what did Kaidan call them? “Old soldiers.” Huh.  Guess those words ring truer than she thought.  When the woman, Elizabeth, she eventually learned was her name, had come to visit, she always had a mug of tea and biscuits with her, armed to the teeth with even more art supplies for her.  

Elizabeth would sit with her in her room, chattering away about everything and nothing at all.  She heard stories of her kids and grandkids, all gone now.  She heard about her troubles finding ingredients for the teas and biscuits she brought with her on her daily visits.  More than once the doctors, nurses, therapists and technicians chided her for being rude in not talking to her friend who was so kind in visiting someone she had never met before.  Elizabeth came to her defense more than once, shutting that attitude towards her with a fury only known to a mama bear protecting her cubs.  

It was on one of these visits, Elizabeth chatting away while Amira worked on a scene of her and Kaidan’s last goodbye, that Elizabeth had said something particularly interesting.  “Apparently some Admiral is even in the area today.  Think he might be visiting some of the Alliance folk.”  Hearing this, Amira felt the blood in her veins run cold.  Beyond hope she prayed it both was and was not Admiral Hackett.  Desperate for word of her crew on the SR-2, she studiously focused her attention back on the pad in her lap, whilst Elizabeth prattled on and left her to get lost in her thoughts.  It was something she did a lot since she was found.

Okay, she was lying to herself.  She knew full well why they were keeping her there.  The combination of how heavy she used her biotics in her final moments before she made it to the Citadel, the injuries she sustained, and lying half dead (well, mostly dead if she was being honest with herself) using the very last of her reserves to emit a strong enough blue glow to be found had completely destroyed her implant.  The cybernetics and nanites Cerberus had given her had protected much of her fragile state and had served to speed up the healing process.  

In order to distract herself from the train of thought that thinking of Cerberus always led her down (the awful reunion with Kaidan on Horizon, almost losing Garrus on Omega, the suicide mission that was the Omega 4 relay…) she instead forced herself to use her famed laser focus on running down the list of why she had not been identified, her pencil stilling against the pad of paper in front of her.  Feeling a sense of calm overcome her after Elizabeth’s seemingly innocent remark at the visiting Alliance brass, she ran through the logistics she knew by heart.  

During and after any skirmish, battle or war, communications were in some form of disarray.  In this case, they were all but destroyed.  To that end, she knew connections to Alliance systems in particular were nonexistent.

When they had to replace her L3 implant with a highly experimental L5 type model similar to what she retrieved from Grissom knowing that the logistics of obtaining a safe and extraordinarily well tested L3 implant like what she had previously (she groaned internally at that, it would be her third damn implant) it was so badly damaged they couldn’t easily trace it back to the Alliance database, if they had the access at all.

With so few resources, they did not have a chance to thoroughly scan her like they would have done pre-war.

Over half of Earth’s population was dead, and with medical staff on or near the front lines their numbers had been particularly affected. With so few staff, and an extraordinary number of patients to tend to, she was able to stay safely under the radar.

Those who needed tending to number in the many thousands.  As fond as the medical field and Alliance tended to be of rules and protocol, the ability to follow such things went out the window in wartime, which she knew very well.

She thought of these 5 things, over and over, during the course of her visit with her friend.  It distracted her and calmed her nerves.  Anxieties she had become all too familiar with since Alchera reared their ugly head once more, however, when she heard a flutter of activity outside the small room she had been given.  She looked towards the door, with a mix of fear and well-disguised terror in her eyes in contrast to the awe Elizabeth had held in hers.  Elizabeth’s heart softened when she looked upon Amira, the older woman coming up to her to place a weathered hand on her bare shoulders.

Listening to the conversation in the hall with her well-practiced hearing, she heard a very familiar voice talking with the nurse that was particularly horrid to her over the course of her stay.  Prone to letting her mind wander since the war's end, she thought of all the ways this woman had tried to goad her into talking.  Attempts at withholding food, being more aggressive in the treatments she was giving, waking her at odd hours or abruptly, the list goes on.  She guessed that was part of why Elizabeth had visited her so often, after the first time she witnessed “the wicked harpy” draw blood with a rather vicious looking needle that left a pretty purple bruise at her elbow.

“Oh, how did you enjoy your visit sir?  We have had a great many Alliance soldiers grace our halls.  I myself have taken care of many of them.” She could hear their muffled footsteps walking away from the corner of the hospital. Elizabeth had given her shoulder a gentle squeeze, rolling her eyes. If by “care” she means acting like a wicked harpy armed with a syringe full of medi-gel, then by all means, she took great care of you dear. The two people in the corridor were unfortunately not far enough away, because the Alliance Admiral had heard some of their words and turned back around, heading right toward the door.  To her.

“Oh no sir, you wouldn’t want to go in there.  This silly woman doesn’t bother to talk to anyone.  No one knows her name and no one comes to visit either so clearly whoever she had in her life either is dead or she was so miserable to them like she is to us they just don’t care.”  She giggled a bit at that, letting just enough of her facade crack that the man's steps came to an abrupt halt and turned about face towards her.  Coming close enough to the windowed door, Amira’s eyes widened.  She knew that silhouette anywhere.

With a stern voice, he addressed Harpy.  “With all due respect ma’am, you were fully apprised of the reason for my visit today.  I did not put up with your company for the last hour for nothing.  I did not stand next to you blabbering about your skills as I visited my men and women, many of whom were under my command or under the command of a good friend who is also missing.  If there is a soldier in there under MY command, I will see her.”  Despite the stuttered protests of Harpy, trying to recover her “reputation”, he swiftly held out a hand to push open the door. 

Amira froze and dropped her pencil.  Clearly startled, Elizabeth raised her stature and wrapped both hands around her shoulders, standing protectively over her adopted charge.  “And just who in the hell are you?  Barging in here like a raging krogan like that, have you no manners man?”  Amira placed a hand over hers and shrugged them off, standing up.  The man’s eyes widened.  Yes, they knew each other very well.

“Commander Shepard?”

#kaidan alenko #mass effect #i will go down with this ship #shenko #commander shepard #mass effect kaidan #Spotify

[telamons]

i forgot how painful losing thessia was in me3. that shot with shepard watching the reapers destroy the planet as he hears the screams of helpless asari soldiers dying over the comms??

#aya.txt #mass effect #mass effect has always been extremely important to me as a whole #like i've played this game since i was 10yo its literally a part of me i grew up with it #but me3 is really different from the other games especially #in it you get to experience the hopelessness people feel you see just how bad the war is #also i especially love shepard's role in that one #like for example to me me1 and me2 are just here to build the hero/legend that he's supposed to be #he helps people along the way gets allies and proves his strength to the whole galaxy #in me3? he's the one needing support he's the universe's last line of defense for sure but mentally speaking he's constantly on edge #i've said it before to some people but to me mass effect overall is just a story of give and being given #you give people help and hope and they give you the same in return y'know? #idk if that makes any sense tho even in my head it's kinda nonsensical but oh well just know #that me3 is like being home to me <3 #okay i'll stop the venting here i really gotta go to sleep lmao

[felassan]

DA4 Lead Producer Scylla Costa’s BIG Festival talk, “Challenges of Dragon Age production during the pandemic”, can currently be rewatched on YouTube here starting roughly at timestamp 8:57:02 after a lil presenter blurb/intro. It’s 1 hour long. When it was streamed live, there was an English translation ‘voiceover’. There isn’t in this vid, however I want to post the link for Portuguese speakers, and also it’s neat for everyone to be able to see all the slides he presented with for themselves in context.

I don’t know if an English-language version will get put up so I’m sharing the notes I took during the talk below, in case anyone’s interested and because I might as well since I wrote them. The rest of this post is under a cut due to length.

Edit: Found a place to re-watch the English version of the talk

(Quick note: I didn’t note down everything, mostly things that caught my interest, so this isn’t exhaustive, and when I was watching I was real tired, so pls bear that in mind and don’t take these notes as bullet-proof 100% accurate gospel or direct quotes. If you watched it and think I’ve written down something wrong/misunderstood, let me know and I’ll fix. Also if you’re a Portuguese speaker and I’ve gotten something incorrect or missed something important etc, again just let me know.) **

** Edit: I’ve now gone through my notes while watching the talk again. I’ve filled in some of the gaps (although they still don’t cover everything said) and so forth, and now I’m no longer worried about there being possible errors in this post.

-----

For some context, this slide contained the breakdown of the talk’s structure. Bear in mind there are other slides present in the talk than the ones I’ve posted here, I didn’t include caps of all of them, just ones which were of note to me.

In the talk, chief Producer Scylla goes over challenges of DA4 production during the pandemic. He discusses the adaptations - necessary skills and learning from remote work - and he ponders on the future of teamwork.

After the launch of ME3 he became a producer, all his MMO and other experience helped a lot. He was on DAI for 3 years and MEA for 9 months, then Anthem. Today, on DA4, Scylla and another Lead Producer were the heads of the whole project, and there is his boss is the Executive Producer Christian Dailey. 

^ the usual AAA game development cycle (brief introduction)

AAA games are games that are launched for several platforms simultaneously. 

In BioWare’s case, the pre-production phase of the game development cycle can have from 5 - 30 people, and up to almost 60 people when they’re just about to go through the gate to production. 

In the pre-production phase, they go through the game’s concepts and prototypes and start developing systems. They seek the game’s concept and focus, and its key features. They do lots of market research. In the case of BioWare, all their games are strong in narrative, so they have lots of tools related to game narratives and supporting the development of a narrative (cinematic design, dialogue system etc) that get focused on in this phase. Other parts of the team such as writers and cinematic design need these systems to do their own roles. 

In BioWare’s case, the pre-production phase through to launch can take 4 - 6 years, but it does depend on the size of the team during development.

With regards to Dragon Age 4, they were coming close to the time when they would shift from pre-production to the production stage when the pandemic hit.

During the production phase is when the development of content and features takes place, with the systems mostly already existing from the pre-production phase. A few new systems may be developed in this phase. In the production phase is when things start escalating, and the team really starts growing, to like 2- or 3-fold the prior pre-production phase size. 

(DA4 is currently in the production phase.)

In the alpha phase, features have to be fully implemented and systems all have to be running / working. All the game features should already be in the game by now. They test from pre-production onwards, but this phase is when they run heavy technical tests with lots of players trying to play at the same time. In the beta phase, the idea is that you should now have full content and that now you’re balancing it and running more and lots of different tests with players before launch. There are final tweaks and then the final launch, when in the weeks prior to launch, all the different business units and areas e.g. marketing team, technology team, publishing team, get together once a day and all of the game’s issues are reported and brought to the table to be prioritized. Then they decide the next steps re: these issues (this is known as ‘the war room’).

After the launch there are usually patches like day zero patches and other patches, this being standard industry practise. The last stage is the new content stage where there are DLCs and a game with more content.

On March 12th 2020, the team gathered to review the DA4 story in the new office. Everyone was very excited. (They had spent over 10 years in their last building and had noticed that with the team growing they needed more space. In August 2019 they found the new studio in the city center.)

Anyway that evening, they got an email from the CEO which contained instructions and said that due to the pandemic, they should from now all start working remotely. They had known that this happening was a possibility so they had been planning on how to have all the devs working from home, but initially less than 50% of the devs were able to work from home successfully/efficiently due to various issues e.g. you need a VPN to be able to log in remotely to do your job normally, varying home office setups. The day after this, the office was basically deserted, except for Scylla, the IT infrastructure people and one or two odd devs.

Scylla was part of the team that was working on allowing the devs to work from home. They first started looking at the short-term changes they needed to make to allow this.

“First, take care of our developers”. 

When the pandemic first hit, their and Scylla’s [as Lead Producer] first priority was to look after the devs. Many of them are parents (schools and day-cares were shut, children were studying from home), others have relatives living with them, others have other personal circumstances which of course need to be taken into account when it comes to assessing what needs to be taken into consideration for this new scenario. So, they looked at each dev on a case-by-case basis in order to evaluate, speaking to each one and asking them what they could do to support them.

One of the first changes/adaptations they could implement was flexible working hours and flexibility around deadlines. Generally speaking the devs got a lot of support, EA was really good and really supported the devs especially in the first months of the pandemic (and they are still supporting them). Initially not all devs had suitable office spaces at home, some were working from the living room from laptops or at the kitchen table. The whole covid situation basically just happened over night and nobody was really ready to deal with that change. So their first step was to enable their devs to work remotely. As a producer, Scylla’s main task is to communicate with the team such as via a number of daily meetings. He doesn’t depend so much on powerful hardware.

“Enable developers to work remotely”.

This slide shows some of a BioWare audio team. Different teams have varying and specific needs in order to do their jobs and therefore in order to do them remotely. For example, the audio team need good-quality speakers and amplifiers, while the lighting and art teams need other specific equipment such as tablets and large screens. So there was a lot of work they had to do to go through each dev to understand their individual needs and what needed to be done for them. ‘Could they download the builds? Did they have the right performance [tech-wise]? Could they submit their changelists, their codes to the server?’

Some devs needed a more powerful internet connection as it would take 6-8 hours to download a build (some devs live rurally). Some needed a lot of cable, as they were working far away from their routers (sometimes up to 50m). As time went by things got better and better. 

The chair devs work from is also important; a kitchen able chair etc is not suitable to sit in for long-term desk work, possibly leading to health issues like back ache and blood circulation problems in the legs.

Every 3 months they had money given to help devs buy new mice, keyboards, monitors - anything they needed really in order for their office setting at home to be improved. For a while, because lots of people [generally, in society] were needing and buying them, it was quite hard to buy things like webcams and microphones.

On mid- and long-term changes:

In terms of DA, we have to look at this from 2 perspectives, the change in the personal and the professional environments. 

As a consequence of working from home, people tend to be less active during the day (even in an office, you go between meeting rooms, up and down stairs etc). Physical activity supports life quality and therefore work quality. Scylla noticed that he began to feel listless and such, and found that he needed to change his routine that he had initially developed when he started working from home, for example; having a normal start time (as in, have a semblance of structure in your day as if you were still working in the office site), get dressed at the normal time, not having meetings over lunch etc. This wasn’t just him, lots of other devs encountered this and had this experience too. Devs which adapted faster had better productivity and became more productive faster.

Scylla bought a stand-up desk which he can raise up and down, and at meetings he would be delivering a talk while standing or even while walking on a treadmill. Other devs also got stand-up desks. He tracked his body’s data on a Fitbit. These sorts of things helped improve physical and mental wellbeing. Other devs did similar things, like starting going out for jogs or began practising yoga. Essentially, everyone needed to make changes to their daily routine in comparison to what they had been doing prior to the pandemic. 

The pandemic has been a thing for over a year now. In their location, every couple of weeks a new restriction is put into place or a rule is changed, and every two weeks there’s a new thing that you can and can’t do. Scylla also started moving around his property. He worked on his desk, fixed it up and painted - taking up a new hobby. Other devs picked up new hobbies too. These are good ways to be active and also to be somewhere else, i.e. to break up the working day and not be spending it all in one home office-type location. Scylla found that when he made these sorts of changes to his routine to improve his lifestyle, the data output by his Fitbit as indicators of his health/wellbeing etc improved, e.g. number of steps taken in a day, heartbeats per minute while at rest. As stated many of the other devs went through a similar process.

On the professional side of things:

They had to improve remote delivery of builds. Accessing things from home as a dev requires a VPN. They need to download a build every day and then upload it to the server after making their changes to the game. They had to work with infrastructure and research other tech, such as streaming tech to allow remote console access, in order to better facilitate this process. For remote access, they also had to work on adapting communications channels.

“Adapting channels of communication.”

In this slide, the team are working on the storyboards. Before you can implement motion capture & performance capture, you have to ‘run the storyboards’ like this. These are small illustrating drawings which reflect the drafts and are meant to quickly reflect the intention of the scenes that are to be built. Before the pandemic, the team would go to meeting rooms like this, sit down, talk and interact in person. After the pandemic, the question became ‘How do you do this over Zoom?’ You can, but it’s not quite the same; it’s harder to see peoples’ expressions, some people are embarrassed speaking over Zoom etc. Therefore they had to adapt their communications systems, and unlearn the ways in which they developed before in order to relearn and learn new ways of communicating.

Slack was a tool that they adopted on this front. Communications channels can be confusing on Slack, so there was a need to develop structure. For example, how quickly should someone reply (as a recommended convention for the purposes of work)? They had to define the process/procedures for the channels so it was clear for the team as a whole how it would all flow (this is important especially if you have a team with say 30 people or as a whole hundreds of people). Before the pandemic, they had stand-up meetings where they’d go around in a circle every morning and talk about their activities - what they’re going to be working on, any roadblocks they had encountered etc. The question arose ‘How do you replace these?’ They ended up doing Slack messages at a certain time of day and updating their statuses with some details on what they’re working on and color-coding (green - fine, yellow - need help, red - busy/blocked out).

Another issue that they faced was unforeseen - the number of meetings that devs were having really shot through the roof. When there wasn’t a good structure of communications channels, any conversation would become a meeting. Everybody began scheduling meetings left and right, and at the end of the day they would have little time left in which to actually work on their to-do lists. Hence, they had to work with the team to really analyze and be very pragmatic. ‘Which meetings needed to happen? Which didn’t? Is a specific meeting really necessary? Which meetings should be recurring? What can be done over Slack?’ This guideline had to be given to the team to help, and it improved things a lot. The number of meetings decreased a lot and they got more effective. For example, by making sure to set an agenda for meetings beforehand, and by having meeting notes (then a dev who didn’t really need to be at a meeting could skip attending and just quickly review the notes output after instead). They also decreased the standard length of meeting times from the default Outlook blocks of 1 hour and 30 mins to 55 mins and 25 mins respectively. This 5 minute change gave devs time for things like bio breaks (also 4 hours in a row at a computer in a home office with one meeting after another just isn’t good for a person).

“Adapting p-cap and mocap”.

On content:

From a content point of view, the most difficult thing in terms of the pandemic was adapting p-cap and mocap (performance capture and motion capture). They hire actors and it’s a large studio. The pandemic meant big limits to what they could and couldn’t do. The actors had to be masked and 5 meters apart in distance (although it doesn’t look like it in some of these shots due to angles). Also there could be no other person around in the studio - only the actors. The directors instead would ‘patch’ in remotely on big screens (you can see this in the second photo in the top right). 

Before the pandemic, they felt that they wouldn’t be able to do p-cap or mocap properly remotely, as the directors would usually stand right next to actors giving guidance on their performance. The techs would also usually be near. But they adapted! The keyword is adapting, changing process. It’s harder and it’s different, but it is possible, and people start rethinking what is possible. What was said to be impossible before now is possible.

P-cap differs to mocap in that it also captures voice and facial expressions.

On the future of work after covid:

There will probably be more working from home and more flexibility for workers e.g. being able to work say 3 out of 5 days from home. It does depend on what a dev’s specific job is however. For example, the audio engineers require lots of specialist equipment and said equipment is of higher quality and quantity in the office. So, depending on role, devs might be working more often or less often from home.

Another development is that lots of devs are moving house. In lockdown etc people started reassessing what’s most important in life. Some are moving further away from the studio to get a cheaper rent or for example couples who both needed an office space to work from home from but their current place only had one area. Others are moving closer to nature for a better quality of life, and still others have other different reasons for doing so. Over 10 devs that he knows in fact have recently moved, including Scylla himself.

The pandemic changed certain skills being used by people on a daily basis. Scylla used as an example of this one of his soft skills, being able to tell from looking/interacting in-person with someone if they are stressed out. Obviously it’s less easy to tell if someone is stressed out when you’re remote, so you adapt different ways of checking in with people in the new situation. To continue carrying out his role as Lead Producer, he began checking in with his team pro-actively on the new comms channels and asking how they were doing.

Also, now that companies are more open to working remotely, there is going to be increased competition for hiring devs. They saw both sides of this coin at BioWare. They were able to hire devs from many places that they couldn’t hire from before e.g. Montreal, Vancouver, the US, as there’s less need for devs to relocate to Edmonton or Austin. This opens up opportunities to hire really intelligent and skilled people that they would not have had access to before.

Question and answer segment:

The pre-production phase has been concluded. They’re in the production phase.

They are not giving out a lot of details yet but Scylla is really excited as a big fan of the whole series. He thinks that with DA4, they will have the opportunity/possibility to launch the best story out of all DA games. He feels that the characters they’re making are amazing. He’s dying to say more but can’t. 

When you work from home you need to keep your team as productive as possible. During the pandemic, when people started working from home, they noticed that some people became more productive and some people became less productive. They were analyzing it on a case-by-case basis so as not to make assumptions. They were interested in seeing what they could do to help. At the beginning of the pandemic, they were looking at the devs as people and seeing what they needed.

Production of DA4 still needed to continue during the pandemic because they want to be able to launch the game.

This slide shows a writer. Writing is an example of a role which is more able to work from home easily.

Their productivity did go down in the first month of the pandemic. After adaptations, some people then became more productive than they were before (this was role and personal situation-dependent, examples of this being artists and coders who were able to art and code at home without being interrupted, thereby being able to produce more). Covid has affected productivity in general, but this is part of our new reality. They have adapted and adjusted some deadlines. They have enough data (Scylla LOVES data) now to understand how long it will take them/how long they’ll need to launch the game. They have always had historical data for this purpose, but they’re doing more of this sort of thing now to ensure that they are doing things at the right time.

Remote hiring opens up the door to more talent joining, so if someone has talent geography will hold them back less. Some companies though may choose not to hire people from other countries due to labor issues, cumbersome legal aspects, time zones. But even in such cases there are activities for example that can be carried out while the rest of the team is asleep such as testing or working on the build, or there are cases where those companies still will want to hire a specifically/highly talented person even in spite of the potential legal aspects and so on.

On mental health: People were affected. There is the mental, physical and social impacts of the pandemic situation on people. EA supported them during the pandemic in terms of their mental wellbeing, there are specific companies (services offered, speaking to a therapist) that they can contact if they need something or help. EA had always been good at supporting them with this sort of thing but this has improved further during the pandemic. Another change was that they could/can take a couple of days off if they needed/need to because of the pandemic e.g. to take care of children, who were obviously not at school at the time. As a producer he had to be very mindful of all of this. How much they were monitoring peoples’ wellbeing really went up during the pandemic.

A question that was asked - in terms of DA4′s storybeats, is there anything in there that they decided to change due to the pandemic as it wouldn’t be sensitive or appropriate to include anymore, for example a plague plotline or something? Scylla’s answer is that DA and ME are games in which they try to have narratives that are relatable, which include things which people will identify with, so that players understand what characters are going through etc. Nothing in DA4′s plotline/storybeats has been changed (in the frame of this question, relating to the pandemic), as it didn’t have anything in it that could be specifically or a directly connected to a pandemic-type situation or anything. Of course the DA story has Blights and the Taint, but these are different & fantastical things and existed long before the pandemic situation. So this wasn’t the case with DA4 and there was no need to change anything, but this has happened to other games where they decided to change a storyline due to a strong correlation with something in the real world.

There were then concluding/closing remarks. The message he wants to send is that a crisis will always spark opportunities. Look at a crisis and try to see how you can grow.

-----

[☕ found this post interesting or useful? my ko-fi is here if you feel inclined. thank you 🙏]

#dragon age 4 #the dread wolf rises #da4 #dragon age #bioware #video games #covid mention #long post #longpost #wanted to write these up properly and post them yesterday but wasn't able to #mass effect #anthem

[luke-the-bisexual-mess]

With the citadel Council being somewhat incompetent I assume that the Normandy crew just usurped them after ME3

Liara: okay so you 3 are doing everything wrong, you're out and I'm now the asari Councillor

Asari Councillor: but I don't thi-

Garrus: that's right! Look what happened under your watch, I'm taking over for the turians

Turian Councillor: I'm sure we can talk about this

Liara: salarian Councillor as you did help us stop udina you can keep your role

Garrus: be thankful mordin isn't around or he'd have your spot

Salarian Councillor: fine by me, screw you two tho

Asari and turian Councillors: 😟

Tali: and my people are also joining the council! Don't like that then kiss our bosh-tet's

Asari Councillor: surely there's no need fo-

Wrex: my people are joining too, however I have to stay on my home planet I'm nominating my best warrior for the position

Grunt: tee-hee

And the rest of the galaxy agrees with them

#mass effect #mass effect 2 #mass effect 3 #citadel #citadel council #liara t'soni #garrus vakarian #tali zora vas normandy #urdnot wrex #urdnot grunt #asari #turians #salarian #krogan #quarians #joker went and joined them after liara said she'd show him that her hair tenticles move #miranda applied but the alliances wouldn't let her

[firelxdykatara]

I have never played a Mass Effect game in my life, but I’m pretty sure Liara is that blue girl with the weird tentacles on her head, right? Why do you dislike her (if you want to share that is, I don’t want to cause any unnecessary discourse)?

Yeah! Liara is the asari teammate from the original trilogy and one of the three original romance options, and the only one who has a mandatory presence in all three games--and she’s also the only character who is a mandatory crewmate in both the first and third game.

And it really, really shows.

I’ll be honest--the most of my resentment for Liara has nothing to do with the character herself. (Although I do have issues with her--most notably in ME3, where Priority: Thessia, the main plot mission set on her home planet, pisses me off every single time I play. To the point where, apparently, whenever I replay ME3 it pisses me off enough to pause the game and write a post about it lmfao. But I also hate things like Shepard [the player character] not being allowed to stay pissed off about the fact that Liara gave her dead body to fucking Cerberus [it’s a long story; you can get angry in the moment but it doesn’t affect their relationship and that has always bothered me], and how much Lair of the Shadowbroker [the massive DLC dedicated to Liara, which no other romance gets anything like] feels like it was written entirely with a Liara/Shepard romance in mind, and non-romantic lines were added as an afterthought..) My primary ire, though, stems from the fact that the trilogy is heavily, heavily Liara-focused, and the way she is pushed so fucking hard (and I’m not even talking about the fandom, which is bad enough, but the fact that it’s actively difficult not to romance her in ME1 chaps my ass to this day) by the games themselves, as if she is considered the ‘right’ love interest, really bothers me.

No other character in the series gets that kind of attention. No other romance interest has romantic scenes in all three games. No other romance interest has a mandatory presence in all three games, in fact. Liara is the only crewmate, and the only romantic interest, who is in all three games--and who can be romanced in all three games--with absolutely no option at any point to get rid of her.

The other two romance options in ME1, Kaidan Alenko and Ashley Williams, are colloquially termed ‘The Virmire Survivor’ if they survive the first game, because one of them dies on Virmire no matter what you do. Garrus and Tali, who are romance options in ME2 for female Shepard and male Shepard respectively, are not romanceable in the first game, and like every other crewmate in 2, they can be killed during the final mission. (Also, you don’t even have to recruit Tali if you don’t want to, since her recruitment mission is in the second batch and therefore optional since you only need eight total crewmates to advance the plot.)

The only mandatory crewmates in 3 are Liara, EDI, and James. Of those, only Liara is a romance option. (You can technically flirt with James, but it doesn’t really go anywhere.) The Virmire Survivor is only mandatory at the beginning of the game, and can be killed during one of the main plot missions halfway through--even if they survive, though, they can be sent to serve the council rather than returning to the Normandy, which cuts off their romance path. And while the Virmire Survivor does show up in ME2, they are angry and antagonistic (for good reasons, in fairness), and even on a romance path the most you get is a hug and their picture on Shepard’s desk, along with vague promises of ‘maybe when you’re not working with Cerberus anymore....’ in an apology e-mail.

Liara, as mentioned, gets an entire like... five mission long DLC, which feels like it was created with her romance path in mind, and even without the DLC, if you romanced Liara in ME1 she’ll kiss Shepard and she is a fixture on a planet who can be returned to and talked with at any point in the game. Non-romanced, her reasons for being unable to give up Shepard, to the point of giving them to Cerberus to be resurrected, come off as extremely creepy, and like....no one else in the game is allowed to even react about it. Like, jfc, if I were a romanced Kaidan/Ashley and found out what Liara did, I’d never trust her again. But no, it’s treated like a minor blip no matter what conversational options you choose, no one else gets to react, and Liara’s insane sense of entitlement to Shepard (especially if there was no romance) is never really addressed.

Then of course there’s the way the fandom fawns over her, as if she’s the Unquestioned Best Romance (she really isn’t), and it combines with the way the game pushes her so hard (like I said, it’s difficult to avoid romancing her in ME1, because if you keep talking to her there will come a point where what seems to be a normal investigative conversation option leads to Shepard saying they’re attracted to her no matter which option you choose; also, in the Genesis DLC, which plays at the beginning of 2 if you want to use it to make the decisions from 1 without importing a save, Shepard will talk about Liara as if they were romantically interested in her before you even get to the point of choosing who they romanced) to have just made increasingly me sick of Liara fucking T’Soni over the last several years.

So, yeah. When I saw her at the end of the trailer, my first reaction was a very loud ‘are you FUCKING kidding me???’ Don’t get me wrong, I’m incredibly excited, no matter what happens, but if Liara is a mandatory squadmate again--especially if it’s some centuries after the OG trilogy so every other character is dead and gone, which is the only reason I can somewhat justify her appearance since asari have such long lives--I am probably going to break something.

#mass effect #anti liara #liara salt #asked #long post #Anonymous

[shockdowndefiance]

1, 7 and 11 for Allison Shepard and her preferred love interest?

Answering from this post here. Not specified which sections so I'm going to do one question from the top 3.

This is for Allison Shepard and Kaidan Alenko

PRE-RELATIONSHIP

How did they first meet?

In a Systems Alliance base in Jacksonville, FL, where Kaidan and Joker were joking/veering on mocking who their new XO would be, when Kaidan notices a Staff Lieutenant* in fatigues and with a sea bag over her shoulder. He doesn't think much of it - this is an Alliance base (one of the busiest on Earth, up there with Vancouver, Shanghai etc.) and being his polite self he asks her if he can help her with anything.

Allison doesn't say anything for a moment, eyeing him up, then Joker, then the ship, then back to Kaidan. As soon as she starts to speak all the pieces fall into place and he instantly recognises her the moment she says "Staff Lieutenant Allison Shepard. I believe I'm your XO."

* Yeah I got fed up with the ranks as they are in game/canon, so I made my own system. Shepard is a Staff Lieutenant, Kaidan is a Lieutenant, Ashley is a Gunnery Sergeant as of ME1

GENERAL

7. Who takes the lead in social situations?

Allison. No question about it. It's not that she's necessarily the more forward or outgoing of the two, but being a War Hero (and before that, daughter of a First Contact War veteran) she's more than used to plastering on a smile, making casual small-talk, and lending an ear to someone for one task or another, but always making sure to never promise anything completely.

As of ME1 Allison's been in the limelight for near-on seven years, received invites to multiple high class events (and when a tour of hers accidentally or accidentally overlaps, oh I'm so sorry I would have loved to come but duty calls) and is basically the Alliance's biotic, N7, and later Spectre poster child.

Kaidan is definitely the more withdrawn of the two, though he opens up enough around close friends and maybe a little alcohol in the mix. When he and Allison are out about their relationship, I imagine that he is quite affectionate in parties, always wanting to be by her and touching in some way (hand on elbow, holding hands, knees touching).

LOVE

11. What are some songs that apply to their relationship, in-universe or otherwise?

Hoo boy. I have a playlist of 88 songs, totaling almost 6hrs. This does cover the entirety of Allison Shepard's story up to (and a bit beyond the Reaper War) so not all of them are romantically linked. Of the ones that are, these are my favourite/tell the story in the best way:

Mass Effect 1:

Florence + The Machine - Cosmic Love - more for the melody and the title than the lyrics themselves. Allison is a Spacer, so there's a bit of romanticism around stars, the galaxy etc. around their relationship.

Sixx A.M. - Starts (Explicit Lyrics) - "Do you wanna go to heaven tonight...Do you wanna be my lover tonight...Do you want to see the stars before they fall". The romance scene between Shepard and Kaidan on the way to Ilos. Again a cosmic-linked song but the moment I heard this it became the Shenko song for me. Remember this one

Black Stone Cherry - Remember Me & Johnny Cash - Hurt - "Today was a hard day, I still can't believe that all of this is true...When I am gone, will you stay strong, don't cry, this is not a dream. When heaven calls, and stars they fall, believe, will you remember me?" & "What have I become, my sweetest friend? Everyone I know, goes away in the end"

AKA the ooof ow my heart songs. Needless to say this is after the destruction of the Normandy SR-1, both from Kaidan's viewpoint. The relationship between the two of them wasn't expressed, so while Allison's family can grieve and mourn in public, Kaidan cannot - and even to a point where he can't be that upset over his CO, can he?

Mass Effect 2:

Shinedown - If Only You Knew - "If you only knew, I'm hanging by a thread, the web I spin for you. If you only knew, I'd sacrifice my beating heart before I'd lose you." This is Allison post-Horizon, when things are heavy. She's pulled her head above water somewhat, but Horizon pulls her back down.

Shinedown - Through The Ghost - "Speak of the devil, look who just walked into the room, the guilted and faded notion of someone I once knew. All the perfect moments are gone, all the precious pieces are wrong." This was originally an ME3 song (Vancouver) but story-wise this now places at the end of ME2, when Allison is heading off to Aratoht. Hackett sends along Kaidan and this echoes her feelings when she sees him.

Mass Effect 3:

Sixx A.M. - Stars (Cinematic) - I told you to remember this one. In any official soundtrack this would be a reprise, the same song but in a more mournful way. Allison and Kaidan are now officially together, and while the spark of what was back on the ME1 is still there, the galaxy being at risk puts a damper on their ability to take time and enjoy being with each other.

Florence + The Machine - Bedroom Hymns - pure romance scenes song. Nothing else to add. Smutty lyrics.

Conchita Wurst - Heroes - "So let the walls come down and the colours light up the sky. We could be heroes, we could be heroes, tonight. Where the hearts break loose and love is like a battlecry, we could be heroes, we could be heroes, tonight".

This one takes a bit of explanation. On the approach to Earth for the final assault, in the small hours of the morning, a thought pops into Kaidan's head. He turns to Allison and simply says "Let's get married." Allison half-laughs but goes "Sure. When?" and 30mins later they're in the shuttle bay, wedding officiated by Joker.

This song (or at least the chorus) is what I imagine whenever I think of that scene. Allison and Kaidan do quick vows, exchange simple fabricated rings, and prepare for the assault. Their wedding day, not that they know it at the time, is also the day the Reaper War ends.

And Beyond...

Black Stone Cherry - Sometimes - "Couldn't we pretend that I'm fine, and this ain't my life. It's not the way it ends for me. Couldn't we pretend, you're not gone, you're still here, it's not true. It's not the way it ends for you.". I spent so long swapping this and Remember Me (in the ME1 section) around and I think I am happy with their placement.

The Reaper War is over. Casualties are many. Allison Shepard is in the hospital, in a medically induced coma, with multiple injuries. The Normandy and her human crew are reported as MIA with no one knowing their status.

This song is, in my mind, a duet sung between Allison and Kaidan, Allison on Earth and Kaidan who-knows-where in the galaxy. They both believe the other dead, and this is them both wishing that this is not the case, that maybe the other can find a way back to them.

In short, another ooof ow my heart song

Skylar Grey - I'm Coming Home Pt. II - I'm sure this is on a lot of people's lists. The Normandy systems are functioning, they're going to make it to Earth, and Kaidan finally gets in contact with the Alliance in London. He discusses what happens with the brass, and turns his head and hides a sigh when yet another higher up is introduced to him.

"Alenko. Good to see you again."

"Allison?!" His eyes snap back front and centre. She's alive, standing in front of him in the QEC. It's a hologram, but it's her. She's alive, on Earth. They made it. Both of them.

And the blood will dry Underneath my nails And the wind will rise up To fill my sails So you can down and you can hate But i know no matter what it takes I'm coming home, I'm coming home Tell the world that I'm coming home

❤️

#questions and answers #allison shepard #kaidan alenko #mass effect #shenko #fshenko #rosenkow #thank you #sorry this ended up being so long #and I gave myself feels with the songs

[theoriginalladya]

Five WIPs

I was tagged by the delightful @hunnybadgerv.  Thank you, my dear!  <3

Tagging anyone who would like to participate.  Just please tag me back so I can see what you are up to!

So, following hunnybadgerv’s formula, I decided to stick to recent WIPs.  Funnily enough, outside of ShepShep which I’m working on for Nano, they all belong to Caleb Shepard’s universe.  So, let’s see what we’ve got...

The biggest of the five - ultimately in completed length as well as the most active among them - is my post-ME3 story for Caleb set in Shannon, Ireland.  Caleb is asked to return home for the first time since he was eighteen because of some strange goings ons back there.  Who else would his old friends look to for help but Commander Shepard himself?  The writing I’ve done in this story over the past couple of weeks actually forced me to make it into two separate stories (which I’ll still count as one WIP for now), one about the actual ‘mission’ in Shannon, and the other a follow up to some of the fallout.

May the Road Rise to Meet You - This is Caleb’s story about the events of Akuze.  I’ve had a large part of it written for a while now, but decided to rework the first chapter because while I like the set up for the rest of the story, I really don’t like it enough for publishing.  Soooooo, reworking Chapter one ... whenever Caleb stops bugging me about post-ME3 stuff! lol

N7 Missions - Not sure this’ll be the title, but I’ve got a good bead on at least one N7 mission that Caleb undertakes post-ICT following Akuze.  The first one will focus on him meeting up with his N7 partner, Rosa Morales-Minton. I’m hoping to come up with at least three to cover the time between ICT and the beginning of ME1.

I have a couple of chapters in Caleb’s ME1 story that involve NPCs either from the games (read: Coats) or ones I created (Rosa will make an appearance).  The one that smacked me upside the head last week and that I started on involves Coats.  What happens when you let two former sniper school and OCS roommates loose on the Citadel together?  Your guess is as good as mine at this point, but considering their relationship, anything goes! lol

ME3 era - this one while technically set in Caleb’s universe is actually the beginning of the war in London.  I’ve always been struck by the ME3 trailer showing Coats in Big Ben, and we hear him mention it in game at the end when Shepard gets to London, but now that I have him and Caleb as good friends, I wanted to explore it further.  Toss in another buddy of Caleb’s (Abby Williams), and we’ve got the makings for a potential side-story and OTP that’ll become a big part of post-war stuff for Caleb and Kaidan.

So, that’s about it.  Also been working on some writing prompts for Caleb here and there, though he’s being a bit stubborn about them at the moment.  Of late, he’s the one Shepard who is pretty much dominating my non-Nano brain.  I guess I can’t be too upset.  He’s got some amazing stories to tell! :D

#Five WIP meme #ladya writes #Caleb Shepard #mShenko #Kaidan Alenko #(Ryan) Coats #Rosa Morales-Minton #Abby Williams #all the WIPs #hunnybadgerv

[sparatus]

17: Kisses as a promise for Teia/Sparky?

thank you!!

for reference ierian is my hc name for councilor sparatus, teia is his wife (full name aediteia epirian) and a reporter for citadel newsnet, they're both turians and have been married for decades and have 3 kids and several grandkids, and i have it that teia turns 80 in me3 and sparky is a year younger than her so this could feasibly be taking place basically anywhere from 6 years before canon to right before the start of me3, who even knows

it's like, an hour past a reasonable bedtime as i'm writing this so i'll probably wake up in the morning and want to fix it whoopsie

kiss prompts

17. kisses as a promise

The characteristic grumbling of an old turian drake not happy with what he was currently being made to do was the soundtrack to Teia's prepwork as she got dressed, following her around from the closet to the dresser to the jewelry box. "Dear, are you actually getting ready, or are you just glaring at your clothes and hoping they'll spontaneously combust so you don't have to go?"

Ierian harrumphed. Teia hadn't noticed quite how often he made the sound until every late-night comedian and their mothers were trying to imitate it, and now she couldn't stop hearing it. "There's still time to make up a family emergency."

Teia moved her head enough to see her husband's reflection. His clothes, specifically selected a week prior and freshly retrieved from the tailor the day before, lay on the bed, while Ierian himself stood on the opposite side of it, arms crossed under his keel. He hadn't even removed his robe after his shower an hour ago. "You made up an emergency to get out of the last high-society party."

"And it worked. I didn't have to go, I got to stay home and watch vids until I fell asleep, and all I had to do was remember what the lie was for a week in case anybody asked. You know I hate these things."

"I think the entire galaxy knows you hate them, dear. Just put up with it for an hour or so, and then we can leave. We're in our seventies, we can claim an early bedtime." Teia held up one set of mandible hangings, then another, trying to decide which looked best with her outfit. "Citrine studs, or little gold hoops?"

"You can't ask me that, my answer's always the same, the citrine brings out your eyes." Ierian pressed the heels of his palms into his eyes and rubbed for a moment, then sighed and started untying his robe with one hand while the other reached for his shirt. "Tevos is going to be insufferable tonight."

Teia scowled, taking the little citrine studs out of their box. "At least she offers more intelligent conversation than half those airheaded social climbers. I'll promise you one thing, sunshine, the time you have to endure this will go down exponentially for every person who asks why I still bother with a career when my husband is the most important turian in xenopolitics. Because I hate being bored and don't want to sit on my husband's laurels, you lazy little..."

Now it was her turn to grumble as she carefully placed the little metal rods through the holes in her mandibles and screwed on the fasteners. Ierian snorted somewhere behind her. As she was readying the third stud and trying to find the hole, the reflection of the bedroom disappeared into a sea of dark brown plate and colorful tattoos as a calloused hand steadied her own. "Starlight, your blood pressure."

Ierian's hand turned up, and Teia blinked, looking up at her husband's face in the mirror for a moment before sighing and placing the remaining piercings in his hand. "That's my line," she scolded, but there was no bite to it as she tilted her head to one side to give him easy access. "You're the one with actual medication for it."

"You still have to be mindful," Ierian hummed. He took her mandible gingerly, squinting slightly before he placed a stud in the hole. "We're both getting older."

Teia sighed softly, willing her head to hold still for him. Try as he might to hide it, she could feel the faint tremor in his hand and the stiffness in his fingers. "I want to go as badly as you do."

"You're just better at sucking it up and putting on a brave face, yes, I know." Ierian chuckled to himself and fastened the last stud in place, then moved behind her and nudged her head to tilt the other side. "That's why I can't go without you. Somebody has to do the socializing while I'm skulking by the food."

"Mm. You look so good in your fancy suits and robes and things, though. It's a special treat for me."

Ierian paused in his attentions to chuckle and press a kiss to the top of her head. "Yes, fair point, what other reason do I have for dressing up nice if not so my wife can swoon over me?"

She giggled, turning around to reach up, cup his jaw in her hands, and pull him down for a proper kiss. "See? You get it. And I obviously have to be the best-dressed hen in the room, so you get to point me out and brag to all your stiff-gizzard associates that you married that one."

He laughed, finally, a rich, deep sound that shook her ribs and echoed in her chest. "You win, you win," he purred, leaning down to touch their frontal plates together. The ragged scars on the left half of his face were rough to the touch, but she'd grown to find it charming over the years, another little quirk she got to claim special. "An hour and a half."

She purred and took a step closer, sliding her arms down his neck, over his shoulders, along the curve of his cowl. "Think of it this way," she murmured, twining her arms around his thick torso. "You're helping me put all this on..." She pressed their mouth plates together again, and this time she let it last a little bit longer, say a little bit more before she pulled back. "... so you get to take it off me after."

Ierian's eyes gleamed as she met his gaze again, and his purr thrummed through her bones and settled deep within them. "You always say the nicest things to me," he cooed, and he granted her one more kiss to seal the deal before retreating and holding up her piercings again. "Now, hold still. I'll help you with these, and you can help me get my crest hangings to lie right. My fingers are acting up again tonight."

#ierian's writing #ierian's ocs #spirian #aediteia epirian #ierian sparatus #councilor sparatus #sparatus tag

[smokeybrandreviews]

Extra Credit

I’m approaching the end of my current Mas Effect play through and it’s been fantastic. As they always are. I just finished the Leviathan DLC and am about to start the Omega addition and it got me thinking about how the ME franchise has some of the best downloadable content in gaming. I’ve enjoyed almost all of them and, upon repeat completions, i figured its time i take a specific look at these extra missions and kind of work through why i love them so much. This list, some of my favorite content in the entire franchise, is definitely going to be sequel heavy because i can’t be bothered playing that first game. It’s hard to go back when you started with such a high bar.

Lair of the Shadow Broker

This one is an interesting gem. I really like the idea of the Shadow Broker but, more than that, I like Liara. She's my third favorite squad mate and that's saying a lot because this game is but on exceptions characters. You'll be hard-pressed to find one that sucks. I mean, f*ck Kaidan but everyone else leaves an impression. Liara wasn't apart of the SKWAD in ME2 and she was sorely missed. I didn't find that out until I played ME3 but, circling aback around to the second after completing my first run through the endgame, I was stunned. Liara is a boss and that Singularity is crazy overpowered. More than that, I just really liked fighting the Shadow Broker. Having a Yaag in the big chair was a stroke of genius, mostly because up to that point, we had never really seen one. Introducing them with a representative of that race being the Kingpin of Crime within the Mass Effect galaxy was amazing. Also, as kind of a cherry, their little interaction after everything on the Normandy was cute as f*ck, especially if you decide to romance her.

Omega

The Omega DLC is a whole f*cking mood. I love Omega just in general and missed it dearly during my run through vanilla Mass Effect 3. It's just something so homey about that crime infested, no man's land, of a world. A huge bonus is being able to actually, finally, play as Aria T'Loak; The Queen B*tch, herself! Because of this DLC, Aria became one of my favorite squad mates and it's a spot well earned. She's incredibly powerful, shredding through Cerberus and Adjutants alike. Similarly, Nyreen Kandros definitely makes an impression if a little fleeting. The first playable female Turian, a niche that Vetra Nyx would fill in Andromeda, I was thoroughly surprised by their design. Bioware actually out in a decent amount of effort to demonstrate the sexual dimorphism of the Turian race, unlike the goddamn Krogans. That sh*t was kind of a letdown. More that the dope character additions, just Omega, itself. Being able to actual explore areas of the station in all of it's grimy, dusty, rusty, glory is more than worth the price of admission.

Overlord

Overlord is a mixed bag but very rewarding play. The opening mission is exceptional, full of action and grandiose set piece as that satellite collapses in on itself. I loved that part. I loved what followed, less. They two missions to override the lock down were bogus as f*ck. Like, they were very clearly there to pad the run time basically. Neither one really felt necessary and I hate doing them. However, once you actually get into Atlas Station, that sh*t gets really real. I'm a slut for lore and Project Overlord is chock full of it. David shows you what happens to him, why he was treated the way he was, and when you finally free him, prepare to be absolutely horrified. The first time I saw that sh*t, I was incensed. Definitely nail that Paragon interrupt because f*ck Gavin, man! It's a happy ending for David as long as you chooses blue and do right by him. Why wouldn't you? I mean, unless you're a heartless f*cking monster, like his brother.

From Ashes

From a effect on gameplay, From Ashes is my favorite DLC in the entire franchise. Sure, you unlock Javik and he's dope, easily in my top ten favorite squad mates, but it's that f*cking Particle Rifle is a game changer. No ammo necessary. Short cooldown time. Absolutely ridiculous damage because of the continuous stream of raw, destructive, energy. A whole ass increase in power as the unit overheats. This gun is f*cking insane and I never leave home without it. Indeed, I complete From Ashes as soon as I can whenever I play ME3. This gun really makes short work of everything it sets it's sights on. As kind of an extra bonus, you get to see a bit of the Javik's cycle, too. Not a lot but, I must say, those Collectors look good in the enhanced ME3 graphics!

Stolen Memory

I love playing this thing. Aside from unlocking Kasumi, what is basically her loyalty mission, one you can do at anytime because of her DLC character nature, turns out to be a delightful change of pace. You're literally on one of her heists and it's a delight. Sure, everything devolves into Shepard shooting his way out of danger, of course it does, but even that is pretty fun to play. The cover system in Mass Effect 2 really shines in the back half of this level and makes for some rather strategic fire fights. There's one point where you can just destroy a battalion of mercs with a cannon to get out of a room and I live for that. Plus,you get to hang out with Kasumi and she is an absolute delight. Her banter is arguably the best in the game and you get a ton of it during this mission.

Leviathan

If the Citadel DLC didn't exist, Leviathan would be my favorite. This thing is an epic, lore driven, masterpiece of Mass Effect content. It's incredibly fun to play and alters the entire perceptive of the conflict you'd been fighting up to that point. The addition of the Leviathan race, itself, is a staggering revelations that alludes to so many narrative possibilities, it's hard to not to love this thing. I want to know more about them. I want to know more abut their world. I want to know more about their tech. I want to know everything and how it may tie into the original Mass Effect plot with the whole Dark Energy thing. There isn't really anything outside of that story enhancing content but I still love playing this extra mission and never pass on it.

Citadel

I mean, it's the Citadel. It's easily the best written thing in the entire Mass Effect franchise. It's the real ending to a trilogy played and I loved every second of it. Citadel is a love letter to fans and you really feel that, even after the main mission content which was filled with so much levity and tongue-in-cheek references. It's an absolute masterpiece and, as a fan, it's a must play. This is probably the shortest entry on this list but it's just that matter-of-fact. It had to be Citadel. Any other choice would have been wrong.

#Mass Effect #Mass Effect 2 #Mass Effect 3 #Mass Effect: Legendary Edition