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legendspun · 1 year

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sitri and rhea writeup

old meta from my other blog! since im rping them both here figured i'd put down some of my first thoughts re all their STUFF in game. all of this is subject to change based on partners, of course - but here's some default thinking on the deeply messed up pair (from rheas view. for sitris... stay tuned?)

(spoilers for the entirety of fire emblem three houses. cw for dehumanization / general existential themes)

Working on headcanons page and Sitri started to take over so she gets her own post! In a different format too so I can address the many thoughts I have *laughs*

So canon does not give us much information about Sitri besides her being Byleth’s mother but what we know is:

She was the twelfth creation of Rhea’s in one of many attempts to bring Sothis’ soul back into a material form using the Crest of Flames crest stone.

She was born frail but with a soul of her own and lived for forty one years as a nun at Garreg Mach (she was born in 1139 according to her gravestone).

She fell in love with Jeralt during his time in the Knights of Seiros and twenty one years before the games events gave birth to Byleth and died during the process

I think a few things are important here. Firstly, that Rhea lies in the game. She lies a lot. But her lies are usually well scripted in the fashion of the Seiros scriptures. When it comes to emotional topics like her mother/the goddess and Byleth’s eventual awakening she actually lets slip an excessive amount.

“Just as the goddess blessed you with her own power... I, too, received her divine protection. Long, long ago. Though different, our fates are entwined.”

- A support dialogue (seiros who)

So when she says this to Aelfric when she asks him to stop in his attempt to bring Sitri back to life yeah she is probably just saying stuff as his immediate rebuttal implies.

But I find it harder to believe she pulled all of this out of nowhere as neither in the Japanese or English does it sound rehearsed (and honestly she probably wasnt going to tell the player at all but u know kinda had to in order to own up to stuff #smh):

“Sitri looked upon me as though I was her mother, and I wished for her to have a bright future... I would not have her buried in the cold, dark soil. Prior to her funeral, I arranged for a fake burial. Afterward, I brought her body to Abyss, where I would sometimes visit her.”

In fact, Rhea caring for Sitri as a daughter seems congruent across both the DLC and Silver Snow. Aelfric says that Sitri’s body was deep in the caverns of Abyss and that it was kept alone. If putting bodies in dragon cryogenesis was a thing Rhea did for all of her past vessels I don’t see why all twelve of them wouldn’t have been there.

Rhea speaking to Byleth in SS calls the vessels that came before them “failures”, a word that carries a lot of weight if you’ve played CF and I think that’s probably true so far as her other attempts go. She considered her other creations as failures when they were unable to revive the goddess’s soul and so got rid of them but Sitri was different, special to the point Rhea still wanted to see her even after her death.

We know from the Crimson Flower route that the one thing to make Rhea emotional and completely lose her head is the loss of her loved ones whether from more permanent causes or simply what she sees as abandonment. Her only true family left are Seteth and Flayn and it is only when they leave her that we get to see how much that means. She’s held herself above them all this time, so the fact Rhea admits that Sitri is a vulnerability of hers makes me think it is the truth.

Another hint as to Rhea considering Sitri special is this: while she may not have ever left the monastery Sitri was still walking around with the Crest of Flames in her fragile body for *twenty some years. That certainly isn’t a very long time in Rhea’s perspective but based on how fiercely protective she is of her mother and her sheer desperation for Sothis to return there really isn’t a good reason for Rhea to have let Sitri live if she hadn’t become so attached.

She could have been working hard on the thirteenth vessel or trying something else with the Crest! But she didn’t because she knew that would mean losing Sitri which brings me to my final (and honestly most interesting re: viewing the game) point:

Byleth was the result of Sitri and Jeralt’s choices and had nothing to do with Rhea until Sitri asked her to help revive the baby. In fact, it isn’t hard to read between the lines and see Rhea really did not want to take the crest out of Sitri but did so under emotional duress.

There is a lot that can be said about how Rhea treats Byleth as an object, but learning that she really never wanted Byleth to live or even exist at all really puts it into perspective. Rhea says that Sitri “loved like a person” and in the Japanese implies that she, Rhea, learned to love her in the same way. Sitri though born as an empty shell became a fully formed individual and despite her intentions Rhea learned to love her for it.

And then she insisted on having Byleth who was just another empty shell, but this time an empty shell who took Sitri from her.

Rhea knows mcuh of design but she is never logical about herself and her own emotions. It’s one of the reasons I find her so interesting, because she wishes for control so fervently but cannot even keep herself in check. The cycle of trying to bring her mother back and finding only despair was halted when Sitri came into the world and brought joy instead. And then Byleth happened and they took Sitri away from her and then of course Jeralt ran off with Byleth and the only thing left that really mattered to Rhea: the Crest of Flames.

So yeah. As illogical as it may be I do think Rhea resents Byleth for their mother’s death and that she distanced herself from the child, well, at least until the Crest of Flames awakened within them.

I don’t plan on rping this without permission from any Byleth I interact with, of course, but I wanted to express that if Sitri comes up in any of Rhea’s posts she is looking at her as a mother who lost a daughter. I really like this for her, because it does not excuse Rhea’s previous experimentations and creating of life in eleven other literal people just to snuff it out but instead makes it even more horrifying in a way. Sitri is the only one of those Rhea considered her true child, after all.

#|meta #* Rhea (ooc).#* Sitri (ooc).#((fun fact there's a fic on Rhea and her vessels ive had bookmarked from the beg of this year))#((have not set time aside to read it yet simply bc I'm p sure I'll also need at least half a year to recover from the sentences I *HAVE* rd

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anneapocalypse · 2 years

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Dragon Age II: Mark of the Assassin

Crosspost. Originally posted on Dreamwidth on 08/27/20.

Mark of the Assassin is the final story DLC for Dragon Age II, released in October 2011. It's set at a new location called Chateau Haine in the Free Marches and stars a new temporary companion named Tallis, voiced by Felicia Day.

I didn't talk about this DLC in my DAII write-up because I didn't play it with Alessandra; Mark of the Assassin is reported to have a pretty severe bug on console which has the potential to corrupt saves both before and after beginning the DLC, and I was too invested in that playthrough to want to take the risk at the time. I have some very vague memories of the DLC from years ago, but I remember so little that I'm not even certain whether I finished it or not.

However, I just finished another playthrough of DAII on PC, and this time was able to play Mark of the Assassin without fear! And since the Inquisition entry is still a ways out from being done, I thought this would be a good time to talk about it.

A while back you may remember I watched the live-action miniseries Redemption which precedes Mark of the Assassin and gives us a bit of backstory for Tallis, and I wrote about that here! In summary, my overall impression of the miniseries was that it has a certain charm if you look at it as a fan project but it really doesn't work as canon tonally or visually. I liked Tallis's character concept at a high level but in execution she just came across a little too self-inserty, with a bad case of Quippiness.

Mark of the Assassin definitely inherits some of the problems with Redemption. Tallis's introduction includes a whole cutscene of her singlehandedly fighting off a group of Antivan Crows before the gameplay actually kicks in and lets Hawke join the fight, to make sure we know how cool she is. (It also strongly implies that she "saved" Hawke from the Crows, which is pretty funny when you're playing this in Act III and Hawke is regularly taking down large groups of bandits and blood mages.) Tallis's in-game design is taken directly from the miniseries, and does not at all fit the aesthetic of Dragon Age II, which is even more glaringly apparent in the game itself. Pictured below is some early concept art of Tallis that I found on the wiki, and why oh why didn't they go with something like this? Without the Qunari emblems, obviously, since she's undercover, but this look fits the aesthetic of DAII perfectly.

Tallis's face is modeled after Felicia Day's actual face. I get it, they wanted her to look like the miniseries and Felicia Day is cute. This was the era where Bioware really loved sticking celebrity face scans into their games—think Mass Effect's Miranda Lawson and Diana Allers and default male Shepard, dubbed "Sheploo" by fans because he was based on Mark Vanderloo. While I think in hindsight they actually look pretty good considering the graphics that were available at the time, they sometimes ended up looking just a little... off, and they definitely stood out from the faces created in the game's engine. I remember some of them getting regularly dunked on at the time, especially poor Diana Allers, and our girl Tallis.

I'm not an animator and my knowledge of such things is very limited, but I think one of the reason the face scans often seem to translate weirdly is that real human faces, no matter how young and cute, have more odd and irregular lines and dips and contours than the smooth, symmetrical faces created in a game engine, and video game lighting plays off those irregularities in unpredictable ways. I don't really have any problem with Tallis's face in and of itself, but I did notice scenes where the bright lighting of the outdoor environment seemed to cast a lot of odd shadows on her face. I also think it's kind of weird that they went to such lengths to make elves look less human in DAII, with the longer pointier ears and the prominent nose bridges and blue-tinted skin tones, and then tried their damnedest to make this one elf look like a real live human, complete with a warmer skin tone in contrast to the cool undertones of every other elf NPC.

When the lighting hits her right, though, she looks fine.

But enough on aesthetics! Let's talk about the story and gameplay.

I did not take any of the flirt options with Tallis, because my Hawke already had a quirky elf girlfriend who also happened to be standing right there. (This is Sabine, my Merrillmancing Blue Mage Hawke, who I haven't talked about yet but perhaps will another time.) But uh, there sure are a lot of flirt options. Romance with Tallis can't go past a kiss before she vanishes at the end, but you sure can flirt with her if you want to.

The story is effectively a heist, and... it's really fun. Honestly, I came into this DLC fully prepared to dunk on it, but despite some quibbles, I enjoyed the hell out of it. The wyvern hunt was a fun little jaunt with some amusing sidequests, including saving a dog and finding out that Tallis is very much a dog person which is certainly no strike against her.

I went into this DLC knowing Tallis was a mandatory party member for the duration and had planned for that, so that didn't bother me, and in fact I enjoyed the part where it's just Hawke and Tallis skulking around trying to find a way into the Chateau. Tallis's repeated failures were definitely a little silly, but they also bring her down to earth a bit and give Hawke things to do.

I especially enjoyed sneaking around Chateau Haine. In a game that frequently forces you to kill NPCs you might never have wanted to fight in the first place, the option to utilize stealth is god damn refreshing. I didn't even mind how many times I had to re-do some of the sneaking sequences to get them right! It was just fun to utilize a different game mechanic than straightforward battle.

The vault portion of the DLC involved a lot of puzzle-solving, which made me groan initially because I often find Bioware's puzzle minigames tedious, but they turned out not to be too difficult or exasperating. You can get some loot in the process of breaking out of the dungeon, but alas, like much of the armor with cool-sounding names in the base game, the Robes of Enchanter Illana do not have a unique appearance and just look like Chantry robes. (There's a reason I tend to put my characters in armor from the DLC item packs.)

This DLC gives us some of our first close-up looks at the culture of the Orlesian nobility, and it's pretty neat. Orlesian culture was something I found really interesting in Inquisition (particularly in "Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts") and Mark of the Assassin turns out to be a nice little precursor to that. There are things here that carry through into The Masked Empire and Inquisition, notably the portrait of Lady Mantillon you can find in the estate that unlocks the Codex entry "Portrait of the Dowager." (Though this Codex entry seems to imply that Lady Mantillon is still alive, we learn in The Masked Empire that she was killed by Briala around the time Empress Celene took the throne. The Dowager we meet at the Winter Palace in Inquisition is a different Lady Mantillon.)

I did have to laugh at Duke Prosper de Montfort, who is presented as kind of a ridiculous buffoon as well as an antagonist so you don't feel guilty about robbing him and then pushing him off a cliff to his death. Prosper is certainly not very good at the Game if he thinks a list of names is useless!

By the end of the DLC, hell, I even kind of like Tallis. She's still got a case of Quirky Elf but she's toned down just enough that when her Troubled Viddathari side comes out, well, it works for me. The conversations in the jail cell and after give Hawke the opportunity to ask her a lot of questions about the Qun and her devotion to it and it's really interesting and exactly what I wanted from this character. The only think I could really ask for is an additional dialogue option asking her about the treatment of mages under the Qun, certainly something that could come up with a mage Hawke.

Nevertheless, I really enjoyed it. It drew out everything I had liked about Tallis in concept in Redemption and put it front and center.

Story-wise, there are some weaknesses. If your Hawke isn't the roguish, thieving kind, it can be kind of a challenge to come up with a solid role-play reason why they would gallivant off to this Chateau to steal a jewel on the word of a total stranger. That you have no choice but to let her walk away at the end, that you can't fight her or force her to hand over the list of Qunari agents operating in the south, is frustrating, especially if you're playing this in Act III after the Qunari invasion of Kirkwall. For many Hawkes it will feel not only out of character but downright irresponsible to let her walk away. I get that they didn't want to let the player kill Felicia Day's OC; unfortunately it's precisely that level of railroading that I think probably led to a lot of people disliking Tallis as a character.

And that's a shame, because Tallis is interesting. But I don't think pushing your audience to feel a way about a character, and basing gameplay decision around the assumption that everyone will feel this way, ever goes well. In my view, the best way to get fans on board with a character is just to write an interesting character—and also to accept that some of your audience inevitably won't like the character and that's okay. If they really didn't want to let her die, just give Hawke the option to take the list from her, either through special dialogue or a fight in which Tallis can be defeated but can't die. And rather than have her just stroll away while Hawke stands there watching, have her, I don't know, kickflip into a puff of smoke and vanish. She's a rogue, we'll buy it.

So that's Mark of the Assassin! Flawed to be sure, but a fun romp that I wouldn't want to have missed.

Mods I used:

Serendipity Tweak from sapphim's Dialogue Mini Mods, which corrects the bad line link in Tallis's dialogue with Serendipity (explanation here).

SG Finery Shop by LapisLazzuli, if your Hawke wouldn't be caught dead in the canon party outfit. It is to this creator that I owe Sabine's gorgeous look here, a bit modern with the pants but then so's Tallis's outfit.

#dragon age 2 #mark of the assassin #blunders of thedas #anne does dragon age #dragon age meta

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the-mercurial-star-o-vesper · 4 months

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F.E.A.R AND GHOST LADIES WHO APPARENTLY HAVE BABIES

Something that had caught me as off when it came to FEAR 3 (F3AR), is that... how is a ghost of a dead woman having a baby?

Oh yeah, we can make the argument that "Oh no Alma is just super power god now and can just, have a real baby as a ghost"...

Like, if you're a god now, why you giving Birth? Why not imagine "Make-A-Baby" and boom there it is. The gods know Alma can create anything else.

"But she's damaged in the mind! Thus she can't go fully Godly!" Then the environment would be a lot worse than just a somewhat psychic mess of a post-nuclear apocalypse.

And if she's that damaged of the mind, this would not be happening at all.

( Never seen Silent Hill or played System Shock? Those are what you can expect from gods. Hell, pop up with American McGee's Alice or Elder Scrolls: Morrowind while you're at it. Those are prime examples of what you're looking for when it comes to "mortal gods". )

So it took me a bit, and a question from FEAR 2... What happened to Comms Officer Keira Stokes?

Yeah we saw her shot, but she wasn't that far away from Beckett's pod, now was she?

And if we take the idea that a ghost can only have power if they take on a body, as FEAR tends to imply (With the death of Paxton Fettel and the sudden destruction of his influence).

(Let's say that the FEAR 2 DLC is actually canon, and that Paxton really did possess a new body, hence his reappearance in F3AR).

And that even then, you still can't really bring back the dead. (Cos if you could, why wouldn't Alma? Why wouldn't Paxton? Replicas and "Friends" for Days, you could take over the world with that.)

So the new body undergoes a kind of quasi-undeath. You still got ghostly powers, but you're anchored now, and more than likely you'll have to replace your body eventually (Big thing noticed with phantasms is that they're in a constant state of "flaking away", we can take that as Decay.)

So...

Established the limitation and the restriction, which means that Dead Alma still needs a Live Body to carry a Live Baby.

And isn't it convenient that Stokes was dying nearby, no psychic aptitude so no shields of resistance.

I think that kills two question with one stone, hm?

#F.E.A.R #F.E.A.R. 2 #F.3.A.R #First encounter assault recon #Alma

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se7ens-oc-heaven · 9 months

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Man, having a pokemon oc whose focus is "legend hunting" (aka a storyline that leads to multiple encounters with/seeking out legendary pokemon) is challenging when I think of legendaries in the (likely incorrect) mindset of Only One Can Exist, in tandem with "I'm using the games and their settings/plotlines as a canon framework"

so like, for context. I have Rex from Galar, focusing on chasing legends, and his story follows the game outline pretty succinctly, with only minor tweaks based on his personality and responses to his setting. This includes the crown tundra dlc with all its other-game legendary opportunities, since that's how I even came up with the concept in the first place.

Well the Regis, some of my favorites, are in here, and in order to get Regieleki and Regidrago encounters you have to get to the other three. All 5 regis are locked in ancient tombs with riddles, it's all very mysterious, etc etc

Ok well

Across the seas in Hoenn, where most of my other ocs have established stories and lore, is gonna be the champion trainer who has unlocked all of Her regi tombs and shit and have all three of them presumably. So are they there too still? Or am I going to cancel out one of these trios? How does Rex sort out the eleki/drago tombs then??

And like. I feel like you can sort of get away with having multiple legendaries, it's not Really a big deal. It just confuses the mythos for me to an extent with a lot of them if you have, say, 5 of the same space god all running around fsr. The Regis are fortunately a 'lesser' legendary, which could avoid this issue. but they're implied to have this whole specific lore irt their creation that just makes having multiples of them seem out of place.

Frankly, I don't really see Rex keeping a lot of legendaries, he doesn't really Need any aside from Calyrex and Spectrier, narratively. He doesn't even technically Have to do the Regi sidequest, it just feels significant bc that in tandem with the Calyrex story were what inspired me for him in the first place.

That being said... I can see Sara (the Hoenn champ oc) not really needing or having the Regis herself. She's modeled off of my Sapphire run and while I constantly enjoyed the regi puzzles and caught them all, I don't remember... Actually fighting with them at all lmao. So theoretically I could just make it that the regis are, for some reason, in the crown tundra instead of Hoenn?

But that feels weird to cut and paste them, even if the dlc does a decent job making them feel like they can belong In Galar (as opposed to the raid den legendaries or events just being haphazardly tossed in). So while they're more narratively relevant here than in Hoenn that's also... not really their game. Plus it feels more cluttered to drop them in the tundra bc then at minimum I'll likely have two legendary trios AND Calyrex+horse all on one tiny island offshoot. That's A Lot Of Legendaries.

I may just decide that he somehow 'borrows' the Regis from Hoenn via Sara, that just also feels like a copout somehow, and weird to finagle.

...Maybe it'll be a case of empty tombs that used to hold the One trio of Regis before they were moved to Hoenn fsr? Then that could tantalize Rex/inspire him which fits his narrative, but it's not until much later he can call on Sara and Finally open up the eleki/drago tomb? I'll have to think on this...

#i have to admit i do also use the regis on Rex's file too which is part of my dilemma. or at least one of them anyways wjfjsjfjsjf #thats also why giving him the regis if he keeps any more legendaries feels like a solid fit for him i think #blablablah #idk this was just a lot of spitballing #rex #sara #legendkeepers #worldbuilding #pkmnbuilding #legendbuilding

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xfandomwritingsx · 3 years

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Being Human - James Vega/F!Shepard

Description: James and Shepard finally stop dancing around each other. AKA; a rewrite of the Citadel DLC.

Warnings/Labels: None really. Some super minor sexual stuff.

Approx. Word Count: 4,500

A/N: Look... this is at best a rough draft that I typed up and didn’t edit, but I will forever be bitter about how they made the Citadel play out with these two. And while I know it won't happen, I really wish they'd fix it in the remaster. I mean if you're going to remaster the games, that sounds like a damn good time to fix anything inappropriate and rape-y right?! I would love to do a whole slow burn of Shepard and Vega spanning from Earth to the end of the game, but if you know me, you know I'm SLOW AS MOLASSES to update and I'm not lying when I say it would take me years to finish. So instead... have a poorly written snippet. I tried to keep it as much in “canon character” as I could.

Shepard stands on the balcony of her new apartment, mind gently jogging around the events of the last few days which bleeds into the events of the last few years. Resting her arms on the metal railing, she drops her head and sighs, trying to pull herself from the black hole that is her memory anymore. She wants to let it all go, just for a night.

“Hey, Lola,” James calls, pulling her back to the present. She looks up briefly wondering how long he’d been there before she sees the door closing behind him. How had she not heard it? “Nice place,” he comments, looking around the open layout. “Might not look so nice after that party you were talking about.” He walks further in, headed for the stairs to join her on the balcony.

“You wouldn’t trash my new apartment, would you James?” she jokes lightly, pushing herself upright off the railing.

“Me?” He spins a little, keeping his eyes on her as he continued to travel backwards to the stairs. “Nooo. Never,” he draws it out, the sarcasm a little thick. Shepard rolls her eyes at him, but he sees the little smile at the corner of her lips too.

James has always had that effect on her. No matter what dumb thing came out of his mouth, he managed to make her smile. It was something she’d craved over the last few months more than ever. While everyone else gave her pep talks that only managed to remind her how much the galaxy rested on her shoulders, James was more likely to tell her that her pants hugged her curves just right. He let her forget about being Commander Shepard even if for just a few moments.

He whistles as he approaches her side, looking out over the balcony with her.

“Nice view. But this place?” He shakes his head just slightly. “It’s just so... not what I’m used to.” He gives a small shrug, still looking out over the scenery and the lights outside the large windows.

“Which is?” Shepard prods. They don't talk about their pasts very often. Everyone already knew hers and James was never extremely open about his own. He puts his hands on the railing and leans into his arms a little.

“I grew up on the beach in the Pacific,” he shares. “So, you know; water, sand, real air.” She thinks there’s a hint of bitterness in his voice.

“You miss it?” He doesn’t look at her this time and instead she watches as he loosens his grip on the rail a little bit and sighs.

“Yeah. And the people.” She catches the undertone, the longing that implies he’s thinking of someone specific when he says it.

“So, what’s her name?” she asks. She means it to be teasing, but there’s an unexpected pang in her gut that feels all too much like jealousy for her liking and it ruins the lighthearted joke in her voice. She shifts her weight a little and slips a hand into the pocket of her pants.

“No! No.” he clarifies through a bark of a laugh, easing her tension a little. “I stopped... fraternizing when I joined the military. The two don’t seem to go well together.”

“Hasn’t stopped you from being a shameless flirt.” It had taken a short amount of time after they’d first met on Earth for him to relax around her and once he did, the comments, the winks, the innuendos and double entendres never ceased. The only thing he never seemed to do, was be physical with his flirting. He’d never so much as run a hand down her arm or let his hands linger when they sparred. Though Shepard had found herself wishing he would recently.

“Yeah, well... that’s just my way. I don’t mean anything by it.” There’s something in the way that he still won’t look at her that makes her think maybe that’s not all true.

“Too bad.” She drops her tone a little and takes a step towards him. “I wasn’t complaining.” He cracks a smile and lets out another short laugh.

“Who’s the shameless flirt now?” He gives her a single glance and then looks back down to his hands on the railing.

“So you can give it, but you can’t take it?” The flirting had never been completely one sided, but it certainly came heavier from him and it wasn’t uncommon for him to get a little flustered when she returned it.

“No, it’s just...” He releases the railing and pushes away, adding a little distance between the two. “You’re my commander, por dios. I can never tell if you’re yanking my chain.” He looks at her, really looks at her this time and the mood shifts. The air gets thicker, heavier and it feels like an opportunity, one she doesn’t want to slip away again.

“And what if I’m not?” she asks, voice dipping down again. “Not just yanking your chain?” James swallows thickly and there’s a mumble of a noise from his lips, but he doesn’t give a response. Instead, she’s pleased to watch as his eyes travel down from her eyes to her lips, down her neck and through the valley between her breasts that he can see all too well in her black tank top. “Are you going to tell me you’ve never thought about it?”

“Uhhh… I mean you’re one hell of a woman and I’m still just flesh and blood, if you know what I mean.” She can see a bit of redness creep up his neck and Shepard wonders if the implication is just that his body reacts to her or if he’s actually done something about it when his body reacts.

“So am I, James. And you are one hell of a man yourself.” She slips in front of him, putting herself between himself and the railing, all but begging him to pin her there. He makes no move to do so however. Instead, his eyes drop down to their feet and Shepard feels like she’s sinking. “But you’re not interested.” She leans back into the railing, wanting to retreat. James snaps his eyes back to hers and his mouth flops for a few moments as if he’s going to say something, but after a minute of silence, Shepard gives up. She slinks away off to the side and as far away as she can get without feeling too awkward. “Well, now that you’ve shot me down, was there anything else you came here to talk about?”

“Uhhh, yeah,” he stutters, shaking his head. She feels a little bad to have put him on the spot, but she’s just as embarrassed as he is. “I wanted to show you something.”

He turns away from her and pulls his shirt over his head. It takes Shepard longer than she should admit to notice he’s not just showing off the well-toned muscles in his back and shoulders, but trying to show her the new and finished N7 tattoo. He looks at her over his shoulder.

“What do you think?”

“Looks good,” she says honestly. “You’ve earned it.” She sees him smile a little at her approval. She crosses her arms over her chest and tries to lighten her tone. “Though I think it’s a little mean to flaunt yourself to the woman you just turned down.” He chuckles, taking her teasing easily.

“Here I was thought I was being nice giving you at least a little something,” he jokes back before turning to face her, shirt still in his hand. “Thought you liked the show.” She rolls her eyes, but even after him turning her down, the flirting still makes her feel better. “Anyways... Just wanted to show you that bad boy.” He slips his shirt back over his head and she resists the small urge to tell him to keep it off. “I gotta get back to the Normandy,” he says. “Esteban wants my help working on the shuttle.” Shepard shuffles her feet for a moment and then sticks out her hand towards him.

“Thanks for coming by, James.” She uses a formal voice, hoping the gesture and tone will clearly communicate a no hard feelings vibe. He reaches out and takes her hand. The handshake lasts for less than a second before he brings her hand up into a fist grab and pulls her closer. He locks her eyes with his and that tension rises again.

“Lola,” he whispers. “I’m not not interested.” She loosens her grip in his, going from firm comradery to something softer. “It’s just that… you’re Commander Shepard, you know?” He watches her shoulders fall and he knows instantly it was the wrong thing to say.

“I get it, James,” she says, attempting to hide her dejection. It’s the title, the legend that again stands in her way from being a regular woman. So much for him being the person who makes her forget it all. “Don’t worry about it.” She withdraws from him quickly and a little more coldly than she intended. He again opens his mouth, but doesn’t form words. “I’ll see you later,” she dismisses him and he nods. He moves to leave before trying once more to end on a friendly note.

“This is gonna be a perfect place for a fiesta.”

~~~

For a guy who all but told her no, James is sure as shit staring at her an awful lot like he wants to rip her clothes off.

“Is constant staring customary to the human mating ritual?” Garrus teases him as he pours drinks on the other side of the bar. “Because if so, you’re doing a damn good job, Jimmy.” James grimaces and throws a peanut shell at the Turian.

“Shut it, Scars.”

“He’s still convinced regs are a problem to worry about,” Steve chimes in, clapping his friend on the shoulder.

“Regs? Really?” Garrus asks. “You realize breaking regulations is pretty much Shepard’s specialty, right?” He slides the drink towards James who just shakes his head at it and passes it to Steve. “And even if it wasn’t, we’re quite possibly facing the end of the galaxy here. Who’s kissing who isn’t something anyone’s worried about, even the brass.” James mumbles something and picks at the label on his nearly full beer bottle.

He can barely see Shepard at the kitchen entrance from his spot at the end of the bar and every time she moves, his neck cranes to follow her. He’d either purposely or accidentally kept her in view all night and has spent the better part of it kicking himself for not just throwing her against a wall earlier that day.

She catches his eye and he instantly looks away, back to his bottle. She chose to wear a dress of all things tonight. A god damned dress. A little black number that fit her better than it had any right to. The woman was trying to kill him.

“Boys,” he hears her greet them casually, having approached them at the bar while he was attempting to ignore her. “How are things going?” James doesn’t hear their response. He’s too preoccupied trying to keep his eyes off of her chest as she leans her hip against the edge of the bar. “You seem quiet, Vega,” she comments.

“Just enjoying the party.” He shrugs and takes a drink of his beer, thinking about how he could kill Garrus and Steve for the look they shoot each other.

“Steve,” Garrus interrupts. “Let me show you that data pad I mentioned earlier.” Garrus had, of course, mentioned no such data pad in their prior conversations, but Steve agreed eagerly and James really thought about strangling at least one of them when they left him alone with Shepard.

“We good?” she asks him so casually that he almost feels bad.

“Yeah, why?” He takes another drink of his beer and it quickly turns into a large gulp.

“You seem to be avoiding me,” She squints and forces a smile. “And also staring, which is odd. Just want to make sure we’re good.” She takes a sip of her own drink and shifts her eyes to the Turian alcohol bottle, investigating it curiously.

James chews on his tongue for a moment. She wants them to be good. Good means normal. Normal would mean telling her those squats she’s been doing have done wonders for her ass and that was dangerous tonight.

“It help if I tell you that you look damn fine in that dress?” He never was too good at avoiding danger.

“Maybe,” She shrugs and leans forward towards him just a little. “Probably help a little more if you called me Lola.” Damn if her voice didn’t sound husky and smooth. Despite his better judgement, he followed her lead and leaned in as well, lowering his voice if nothing more than to make sure eavesdroppers wouldn’t hear.

“Well, that dress is definitely giving me ideas… Lola.” A smile breaks on her lips and he’s not entirely sure, but he thinks he sees her shiver just the slightest. He takes another long drink, but this time doesn’t take his eyes off her.

“You going to keep a girl guessing or are you going to share with the class?” She takes a step forward, getting close enough for him to notices she actually put on a light layer of perfume too. He chuckles, but curses internally.

“You’re making it real hard to remember why this is a bad idea,” he warns.

He starts listing the reasons in his head. Fraternization regs. She’s his commander. She’s fucking Commander Shepard and he’s just a nobody lieutenant who makes a shitty leader. She’s probably looking for some kind of easy fling. Distracting her like that would be selfish. It’d look bad. The rest of the crew might start to question her judgement. The list goes on and on.

“I never pegged you to be a guy who runs hot and cold,” she says, breaking his train of thought. “And yet today you’ve given more mixed signals than a broken comm transmission.”

“Sorry, Lola.” And he is, honestly. He’s a tangled-up mess of thoughts and emotions and even the little bit of alcohol he’s consumed tonight is making him think with his dick first.

“Want me to put on a wig? Change my name? Maybe lay on an accent?” He can tell by the wiggle in her eyebrows as much as the suggestion itself that she’s had a little too much to drink, but it twists his stomach in a bad way all the same. “I don’t have to be Commander Shepard for a night.” And now he feels guilty, so much so that his neck and his face turn red and he looks down again, embarrassed at himself. She gives a quick pat to his forearm. “Come find me if you change your mind.”

She grabs her drink and leaves to mingle with her other guests, leaving him alone to feel like an asshole. He could never find the right thing to say around Shepard. Not when it came to this. He wanted her and lately he had to admit it was more than just a sexual attraction. He wanted more than that, but the idea of being selfish enough to pursue Commander Shepard was intimidating. Maybe, he admits, he needs to stop separating her and realize that Commander Shepard and his Lola are one and the same. Maybe then he can stop being a dick.

“Fucking pendejo,” he whispers to himself before swiping up that Turian bottle.

~~~

She can feel the headache before she even opens her eyes. Had she really drank much last night? No, she’s sure she didn’t. She even remembers everything, including climbing into her bed after barely having the energy to change clothes.

She throws on her N7 sweatshirt and slowly treks her way to the kitchen, making sure to note all the remnants of the party, including some of her friends scattered amongst the apartment. It makes her smile.

She smells bacon as she rounds the corner and sees James at the stove already in the full throws of making breakfast. He beams a smile at her when he sees her in the doorway and flips the pan a little.

“Lola!” he greets. “Eggs?”

“You’re awful cheery,” she comments dryly, and a little bitterly, as she steps further into the kitchen. She rounds the island the stove is on and snags a piece of bacon from the plate there.

“Been a while since you knocked that many back?” he teases, watching the way her eyes squint uncomfortably. “Breakfast will help.” He shovels some of the fresh eggs onto a plate and passes it her way. She takes them gratefully and reaches for the salt. James’ hand wraps around her wrist, stopping her reach. “You really gonna do me like that?” he scolds playfully. “Add salt before you even try them? That’s my abuela’s recipe. It doesn't need more salt.” She cracks a smile, but doesn’t move her hand away just yet, the warmth of his hand feeling too comforting to pull away from. There’s a gentle swipe of his thumb over her pulse before he lets go on his own. He empties the rest of the eggs on a communal plate before clearing his throat. “Hey, let me know when you have some time,” he says. It sounds surprisingly awkward. “I’ve got something I want to talk to you about.”

~~~

Never being one to put things off, Shepard returned to her room as soon as she’d finished eating and made the rounds to make sure everyone was awake or, at the very least, breathing.

I’m in my room. Got some time. She sends the message before even making it through the door. It doesn't take more than a few seconds for him to respond.

Be up in a minute.

She makes herself busy with her omni-tool while she waits. She feels a bit like a fool, practically throwing herself at him a second time only to be left alone again last night. She wouldn’t blame him if he came to talk to her about how uncomfortable she had made him.

She’s left the door open for him, but he still gives it a gentle knock to get her attention when he arrives.

“Nice room,” he comments, sticking his head over the threshold and looking around. “Bit different than the Normandy. Less fish.” He cracks a smile at her and the simple gesture puts her at ease a little. He can’t be pissed at her if he’s still making jokes, right?

“You’re just jealous you don’t have fish in your room.” She isn’t about to admit that she actually misses the blue glow and gentle whir of the filter when she falls asleep. Not right now at least.

“Yeah, well, maybe we should trade rooms sometime.”

Or maybe we could share mine. Shepard physically bites her tongue to stop herself from saying it aloud. Still unsure of exactly where they stand and just how awkward she made things for him, it is not the time to let the flirtations rise up that quickly.

He takes her brief silence to enter the room and close the door behind him. That makes her a little nervous, but not nearly as much as when he says, “So... we should talk about last night.”

“I owe you an apology, Lieutenant,” she says instantly, nearly cutting him off. The way she snaps back to professionalism with a straight back, pushed down shoulders, and a commanding tone makes him pause for a moment, his eyes widening just a fraction. “I was inappropriate with you and should not have taken advantage of my rank.” It takes an extra moment for her apology to sink in and his brow furrows as he sorts it through his brain.

“What? No!” he huffs and takes two large, hurried steps her way. She must not have held her surprise well enough because he suddenly stops again. “Lola,” he sighs. “I didn’t come here to... register a complaint.” His face crunches up as though he doesn’t like the way the word taste. “I came to apologize to you,” he says firmly. “And hopefully not fuck up my words this time.”

The intensity in his eyes and the way he’s not shying away from her makes Shepard feel like she’s a young girl again. Any and all experience she has with men and relationships seems to just melt away and suddenly she’s got butterflies and a blush. There’s a nervous heat in her stomach that makes it hard to regain her composure.

“Okay,” she says slowly, not completely sure of where he’s going, but hoping to every God in the galaxy that he’s not turning her down again.

“I can’t hook up with you.” The butterflies die and the excited heat turns to an anger.

“I promise you don’t have to reject me again for me to understand.” She says it harshly, bitterly even. She barely manages to contain throwing her arms in the air when she turns away from him, moving towards the desk in the corner as if she has something better to do. She hears him mutter under his breath and while her Spanish is terrible, the inflection makes it sound like a string of curses.

“Shepard!” He follows her footsteps and when she spins to sit in the desk chair, his arm is extended as though he reached out for her just a moment too late. “I can’t hook up with you,” he emphasizes. “I can’t do just one night and that’s what would have happened last night. Would have been a drunken hook up that one of us or both of us would have brushed off in the morning. I don’t want that.” Her anger starts to dissolve and her spine loses some of its rigidness as she slinks back into her chair.

“What do you want then?” she asks, voice softer and quieter now. She’s afraid of the answer. He chews on his tongue and grinds his jaw and she wonders if maybe he’s afraid too.

“You,” he finally says.

“You sure about that?” She can’t help but scoff. “I am Commander Shepard, after all.”

“Yeah, you are.” His sigh this time seems more like a pained groan. Shepard watches carefully as he turns and sits himself on her unmade bed. “Which is why it feels completely selfish and impossible to ask you to commit to anything more, let alone to an insignificant lieutenant like me.”

“Commit?” She suddenly feels lighter again.

“When I go for something, I go all in,” he tells her. “That would include you...this...us.” He waves his hand out awkwardly and avoids her eyes as though he’s nervous. She bites down on her lip to swallow down the smile. She knows it’s not exactly fair to enjoy his nervousness, but at least it’s not just her. She slowly pushes herself up from her chair.

“You’re not insignificant,” she assures him.

“I’m not some hero of the galaxy,” he admits. He doesn’t say it with a self-conscious, but rather states it just as a simple fact. “I haven’t been with you since the beginning like most of these guys.”

“You know that’s one of the things I like about you James?” He looks up at her curiously. “Sure, you’ve heard the stories, but we didn't meet on the ship in the midst of wars. We met on Earth.” She rounds the desk slowly, walking closer to where he sits still using caution in case he backs out. “You didn’t just get to know Commander Shepard. You got to know Jane, to know me. You treat me like I’m human.”

“You are human, Lola.” He’s not looking away from her now and it gives her a little burst of confidence.

“Yeah. What was it you said? Just flesh and blood?” There’s a tease of a smirk on her lips as she comes to stand in front of him, legs stopping just short of slipping between the gap of his spread knees. He chuckles and the weight of everything starts to lift.

“You sure about this, Lola?” He reaches out and curls his hand around her hip. It's the first time he’s ever really touched her and it makes her heart skip just a little. She leans into his touch, pushing her hip into his palm and leans forward to put her hands on his shoulders. He feels solid beneath her and she can’t resist the need to squeeze just a little, to feel the muscles at the end of her fingers.

“I’ve thought about it in great detail.” He cocks an eyebrow at her and tugs her in-between his legs. He watches her with an unbridled desire in his eyes and for the first time in a long time, she feels real excitement. She traces one hand up the side of his neck so she can run his fingers along his jaw. “That party shouldn’t be the last bit of happiness we get to indulge in.”

He moves quickly; his hand on the back of her neck before she knew he moved it, using barely any strength to pull her down to him. She follows him easily, all too eager to kiss him heatedly. Months of suppressed desires pour out into each other and for the first few moments, they merely hold onto each other and soak in the relief of letting go. And then James’ hands start moving, pulling her closer and sliding over the curve of her ass. Shepard is compliant and carefully climbs into his lap, one knee on either side of his hips on her bed. He bites gently at her bottom lip before using a hand on her jaw to tilt her head back, allowing him to kiss down her neck.

Eyes closed and succumbing to the pleasure he’s offering, Shepard is unprepared for when James moves again. He rolls to the side and pushes her onto her back on the bed. She lets out an actual squeak of surprise and James chuckles, still pressing kisses to her skin. With her legs still around his waist, his hips grind almost unconsciously and she doesn’t hold back her moan.

James peels himself away from her slowly, leaving a cold trail of air where his body had been on top of her. She opens her eyes and glares at him, but the smirk still on his face and the bulge she manages to catch a glimpse of through his pants, make sure no fear of rejection rises back in her.

“And where are you going?” she asks, attempting and failing to use her Commander tone. She tries again after clearing her throat and pushing herself up on her elbows. “You’re not leaving this room for a while.” James laughs and flashes her a smile as he keeps walking to the door.

“Is that an order?” he teases, pressing the lock for the door and waiting until it flashes red before turning back to her.

“You bet your ass it is.” She smiles back at him. She could have locked the door from right here with her omni-tool and he knew it. He was just being a teasing bastard. “You’re not leaving her until I say so.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he laughs again before coming back to her.

#james vega #shega #shega imagine #femshep x vega #Shepard/James Vega Imagine #James Vega Imagine #mass effect #mass effect imagine #femshep

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lilatreus · 3 years

Note

im new to the ac fandom and i didnt know there were any books should i be reading them?? or are there certain ones that i absolutely need to read or would i be okay if i skip them?

Yeah it’s okay to skip them if you want! They’re mostly there to give some more insight on some of the characters. If you want to read them but you don’t have to money to buy the books, you can read them here. I actually have all the books already on paper copy so I would definitely recommend buying them if you really enjoy them.

There’s also some comics and graphic novels about them too which I have included in on the master list. They actually follow the modern storyline of you want to read up on that. If you want to read them just do readcomicsonline. They have them all, only watch out for ads.

Anyway here’s the master list, it’s pretty long won’t lie:

The books, in order of strictly historical events:

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey by Gordon Doherty (2018)

Basically this books gives the canonical story to assassin’s creed odyssey following Kassandra around Greece. If you had the “best” or good ending from the story then you’re probably going to be upset with the book. I actually liked it and if you were ever confused about the game then this is definitely for you to read.

Assassin’s Creed Origins: Desert Oath by Oliver Bowden (2017)

This book takes place years before Origins. It follows Bayek who a teenager at the time. We learn how Bayek and Aya start their relationship and it kind of explains some of the side missions that talk about Bayek’s past. If you love Bayek and Aya’s relationship you will love this book.

[ insert for whenever an ac valhalla book is written ]

Assassin’s Creed: The Secret Crusade by Oliver Bowden (2011)

This book is the one I’m currently rereading, so it takes place with the father of Marco Polo talking about Altaïr’s life. It talks about his—Altaïr’s—dad within the first few chapters, events that happened in the game, and then what happens after. It gives more insight on what happened between the events of ac one and the little bits of scenes we see in ac revelations of Altaïr in game. If you want to know how Maria and Altaïr got together you’ll like this book it’s very sweet and I love how smitten Altaïr was. If you love Atlmal (Altaïr and Malik) you’ll also like this book but it will crush you.

Assassin’s Creed: Renaissance by Oliver Bowden (2009)

This follows Ezio through assassin’s creed two. Literally just the book version of the game. Does talk about how Ezio and Cristina got together and a few of the memories you get to play in Brotherhood are in this book. I like it. It pretty much follows the game exactly so if you want to skip it, you can but still a really good book that I recommend reading.

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood by Oliver Bowden (2010)

Follows the plot of the game. It’s pretty similar to it as opposed to a few differences. While I like this book, I will always say the game is better than this book entirely. Still, it’s pretty good and explains a lot of plot.

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations by Oliver Bowden (2011)

It explains why Ezio is doing what he does in the game. Why he’s there and what is reasoning is. You get a little small bit about Claudia but that’s it. Ezio does, in book, visit Leonardo on the last few days before the artist dies :( that’s pretty much it. Only some minor differences to the game. If you’re looking for something about Desmond, you won’t find it in this book.

Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag by Oliver Bowden (2013)

I’ll be honest I only read this book once so my memory is pretty poor on it but from what I can remember it’s about Edward and Caroline and how they got together. And then there’s something about Anne Boney and Edward towards the end I believe. Kind of explains his backstory from the little scenes we’re shown in the game I think? (Correct me if I’m wrong on this one but I’m certain that’s the gist of it).

Assassin’s Creed: Forsaken by Oliver Bowden (2012)

This one was the first assassin’s creed book I read. Now fair warning: if you do not like Haytham Kenway, I strongly advise you to not read this book. It is all about Haytham until the final few chapters and then Connor takes over the book once you’ve killed him in game. This book explains how he (Haytham) came to be apart of the Templars and how Edward dies. It talks about his relationship with Ziio and how he built the Templar order up during the seven years war. I’ll be honest it was okay when I first read it because I was like 11 and the only other thing I had read was like just percy jackson. Looking back on this book though, it’s not that great. I do not like Haytham at all so I, personally, would not recommend this book. I went in reading it expecting for it to be about Connor and I was very disappointed and upset that it wasn’t. So you can skip this book if you like because the only thing it does is give insight to a lot of what Haytham does.

Assassin’s Creed: Unity by Oliver Bowden (2014)

This is my favorite book. This is about Arno reading Elise’s diary after she passed. There’s little bits where Arno writes in here and there throughout the novel. It’s pretty sad I won’t lie. Explains how Elise grew up, what she did during the parts where we didn’t see her in game, and talks about how she felt during the parts where we did see her in game. Basically at the end of the book it’s Elise asking Arno to please help seek unity and stop the war between the Templars and Assassins.

Assassin’s Creed: Underworld by Oliver Bowden (2015)

This book follows Jayadeep Mir, also known to us as Henry Green. There’s two parts to this book. The first part takes place six years before the events of syndicate and you get to really learn about the twin’s father and then the second part takes place during the events of the game. It talks about Evie and Henry’s relationship during the second part and it’s pretty good!

There are no books about assassin’s creed chronicles (ac China, India, and Russia) if you’re wondering why they’re missing :(

The comics:

*most of these take place during the modern storyline I’ll try my best to explain when they come in and how it adds up to the new our modern storyline at the end

Assassin’s Creed the Fall

There’s three issues with this it’s just a graphic novel honestly. Takes place with the main character from AC Chronicles: Russia

Assassin’s Creed the Chain

Graphic Novel sequel to the Fall

Assassin’s Creed Brahman

Written by the same people who wrote The Fall and The Chain, however this focuses on Arbaaz Mir who is the main character from Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India.

Now from what I’ve seen, correct me if I’m wrong, but the templar and assassin comics pretty much take place around the same time.

Assassin’s Creed: Trial by Fire

Assassin’s Creed issue #1, #2, #3, #4, #5

Assassin’s Creed Templars: Black Cross

Assassin’s Creed Templars issue #1, #2, #3, #4, #5

Assassin’s Creed: Setting Sun

Assassin’s Creed issue #6, #7, #8, #9, #10

Assassin’s Creed Templars: Cross of War

Assassin’s Creed Templars issue issue #6, #7, #8, #9

Assassin’s Creed: Homecoming

Assassin’s Creed issue #11, #12, #13, #14

Assassin’s Creed: Uprising

Common Ground Vol 1: issue #1, #2, #3, #4

Infection Point Vol 2: issue #5, #6, #7, #8

Finale vol 3: #9, #10, #11, #12

Assassin’s Creed Reflections (pretty much a stand alone I would say, focuses entirely on past assassins but canon to the templar comics).

Reflections 1: modern story focuses on Otso Berg historical story focuses on Ezio where we learn Ezio is implied to have hooked up with the woman who in the Mona Lisa painting.

Reflections 2: same thing for modern story but now Otso is looking into Altaïr’s story. We get to see Maria, Altaïr, and their son Darim.

Reflections 3: Otso is now looking into Edward Kenway.

Reflections 4: Otso looks into Connor and we see him with his daughter. It’s super cute this issue is my favorite.

Last Descendants

The Last Descendants (Novel)

Locus: issues 1 - 4

The Last Descendants: Tomb of the Khan (novel)

The Last Descendants: Fate of the Gods (novel)

Assassin’s Creed: the French Books (these have all been translated into english and theyre all graphic novels).

These books I would say to skip. If you want to read it you can, however the modern storyline has been said to no longer be canon anymore. The historical storyline however is still canon but not actually necessary to the plot of anything.

Cycle 1

Assassin’s Creed 1: Desmond

Assassin's Creed 2: Aquilus

Assassin's Creed 3: Accipiter

Assassin's Creed 4: Hawk

Assassin's Creed 5: El Cakr

Assassin's Creed 6: Leila

Cycle 2

Assassin’s Creed: Conspiracies

This takes place during WW2

Vol 1: Die Glocke

Vol 2: Project Rainbow

Cycle 3

Assassin’s Creed: Bloodstone

This takes place during the Vietnam War. A follow up on Conspiracies.

Vol 1: book one

Vol 2: book two

The last two I have listed (Conspiracies and Bloodstone) are canon to the comics’ modern storyline as well as the historical. Cycle one is not. They’re both graphic novels. Also I want to say that I have not read these two yet so idk if I’ll be allowed to recommend them but they’re there. I have no idea where they’re placed in terms of modern storyline bc these two are very confusing seeing as they originally were canon then told they weren’t and now they are again.

Other comics that I really have no idea where to place but they do exist if you want to read them:

Assassin’s Creed: Origins (mini series)

Four issues for this comic takes place following Aya and her journey. You get to see what happens with Cleopatra. I personally really like this comic you get some lore on the Brotherhood and Aya so it’s good. Read this after the video game. (Pretty positive it takes place after the game events but before the DLC: hidden ones)

Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla: Song of Glory (mini series)

There are three issues in this. Haven’t read this one yet, however it focuses on Eivor. Read this alongside the video game.

Okay so for canon timeline purposes here is the exact order of everything I’ve listed and where they fall in for strictly the modern storyline:

1 The Fall and the Chain (also called subject four which is just the two of the books into one)

2 Desmond’s story

3 Brahman

4 Assassin’s Creed: Trial by Fire 1 - 5

5 Assassin’s Creed Templars: Black Cross 1 - 5

6 Assassin’s Creed: Setting Sun 6 - 10

6 Assassin’s Creed Templars: Cross of War 6 - 9

7 Assassin’s Creed: Homecoming 11 - 14

Assassin’s Creed Reflections (stand alone don’t have to read if you don’t want to but if you do, read along side the templar stories.)

8 Assassin’s Creed Syndicate modern storyline takes place here

9 Assassin’s Creed: Uprising

10 Origins modern storyline starts here and continues for assassin’s creed odyssey and valhalla*

*If you’re confused as to why Juno isn’t in the game plot anymore the comics explains it. Ubisoft has completely moved her story to the comics entirely and in doing so completely finished the story.

#assassin’s creed #Desmond miles #assassin’s creed comics #assassin’s Creed books #ac master post #assassin’s creed masterpost #I’m not tagging all these games I’m sorry #I didn’t include the movie bc a lot of fans will probably argue over that and I’m not dealing with it #if you catch a mistake please let me know!#also I hope this doesn’t look too messy bc I tried to organize and explain it best I could #asks #anon

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aurheatum · 3 years

Text

on sitri

Working on headcanons page and Sitri started to take over so she gets her own post! In a different format too so I can address the many thoughts I have *laughs*

So canon does not give us much information about Sitri besides her being Byleth’s mother but what we know is:

She was the twelfth creation of Rhea’s in one of many attempts to bring Sothis’ soul back into a material form using the Crest of Flames crest stone.

She was born frail but with a soul of her own and lived for twenty or so years as a nun at Garreg Mach (she was born in 1139 according to her gravestone).

She fell in love with Jeralt during his time in the Knights of Seiros and twenty one years before the games events gave birth to Byleth and died during the process

“Just as the goddess blessed you with her own power... I, too, received her divine protection. Long, long ago. Though different, our fates are entwined.”

- A support dialogue (seiros who)

So when she says this to Aelfric when she asks him to stop in his attempt to bring Sitri back to life yeah she is probably just saying stuff as his immediate rebuttal implies.

Another hint as to Rhea considering Sitri special is this: while she may not have ever left the monastery Sitri was still walking around with the Crest of Flames in her fragile body for a decade. That certainly isn’t a very long time in Rhea’s perspective but based on how fiercely protective she is of her mother and her sheer desperation for Sothis to return there really isn’t a good reason for Rhea to have let Sitri live if she hadn’t become so attached.

And then she insisted on having Byleth who was just another empty shell, but this time an empty shell who took Sitri from her.

(Rhea’s thoughts on motherhood would take another post entirely...)

#|spoirheas #|meta #;spoirheas

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seeneverything · 3 years

Text

today i decided to replay nick’s dlc! not only to catch back up and remain canon, but to look into his journals and the notes / environment around a little deeper to see if i can discover anything more about him, the game’s story, and the timeline of the game.

i have to say it somewhat surprised me that nick has handwriting that’s legible. i figured it would be similar to sally’s -- very here and there with hardly any grammar, punctuation, and horrendous spelling. yet nick’s journals though brief, are quite linguistic. a pleasant surprise.

but without further ado, my metas are under the cut! a very long read so i hope you enjoy it. i tried my best to divide it into some sort of organization as i could. <3

GENERAL LORE :

ever wondered what an original joy bottle looks like? well, nick has one.

it’s tucked in the far back in his kitchen, behind a light on his shelf. initially i thought it was some random drug and it was more proof of the dlc being pre-game. but if you look closer, the words underneath wellington wells’ emblem say “EVERY DAY, JOIN THE FUN” which is a clear indication of what it actually was. and beside the emblem, just to the right, if you really squint, it says “FLAVOR:” but it’s hidden and you can’t sneak around to the other side. however, considering how old it is, especially from the wear and tear on the sticker, one could probably imagine it being haworth’s own vanilla.

which intrigues me. i wouldn’t doubt that nick was one of the very first people who got the initial batches. virgil dainty found him when he was still a young poet in his teenage years. meaning he probably snatched him when he was around 16. if we play it out like he was 16 when the train came and took all 13 and under, nick would be around 32 during the base game. but i honestly doubt that since the make believes released more singles than albums, and they released the album around the time of strawberry’s release, as inferred by the cover of the album. so for now and to me, nick is somewhere between mid-late 30s.

speaking of joy though, does anyone remember the whole debate about the type of joy nick was taking in the dlc? it wasn’t any type at all. in fact, it was something sally made herself.

“Vibing my guitar always helps me remember things. Like where I put my Sally Specials.”

Those reds and yellows are just another one of the many street drugs that Sally sells to her clients. Probably something like rainbow and the like, but much, much weaker and not as long-lasting. After all, Nick has to take five at one time to black out. Probably at least three of them to feel any sort of a buzz at all. ( as a side note, it personally makes me wonder if sally had anything to do with the production phlash. i’d love to see if there were any notes of it anywhere. )

I had a headcanon a while back that the woman using the power cell was using a sex toy. After all, she has a suitcase that’s cleverly hidden under her bed. If Nick believes it’s this, it makes sense that he’s aware of the “fun part of town,” unlike Arthur and Ollie once in the Parade. Yes, he goes there for sex and relief, but also because he makes deals with the owners to sell adult-themed merch. Wouldn’t be surprised if there were dildos, lube, even lingerie like Nick’s threads -- very, very plausible if there are full sex dolls.

With the Sally Specials and the Joy Bottle being so old, it could still be proof that it’s pre-game as well. After all, if Nick is still around Sally ONLY to obtain to drugs from her, then it could be easily inferred. After all, Sally remembers her time with Nick in the past together, not in the present. And that is pre-1964.

A LITTLE MORE ABOUT NICKY :

it’s absolutely no secret that nick hates himself. from the scratches on the mirror that hide his face and spell “USELESS,” to the inferred suicidal attempts from downing entire bottles of joy with alcohol. the puke is always so rancid in the sink. but there’s also this, too.

it’s funny how nick tends to keep scratching at his head and his eyes. the persona is who he’s trying to cover up i imagine, considering that there are multiple voicelines in the game that says he never meant to cause any harm. and he never meant to commit all the unpleasantries that come with being a rockstar. one of them being infidelity and adultery, and another being a general asshole to the public. overtime i believed that nick gained celebrity syndrome. which is essentially just being a karen on steroids. nick believes he doesn’t need to pay for anything, and he also has the innate ability to give orders to people. just because, in his mind, he’s the best in the world. the avalon’s manager wants to get back at him once and for all for his bossy attitude. but he’s not the only one who feels that, either.

petunia does as well.

nick’s love-life is an extremely complicated one. aside from the the various forms of substance abuse and exposure to said substances, nick has always had his rockstardom become the center of his universe. see, this is all headcanon but, i personally believe that nick was coddled as a child by his overbearing mother. mama told him the world would love him. and mama told him that the world would never hurt him, and that it would be perfect and easy to get through. but then he saw just how hurtful people could be, and just how much hate the world had to offer. and to him, at that. it was extremely difficult to find love in anything and anyone. especially himself. so finding petunia was very, very reassuring. after all, she did promise him, as nick said during the boss fight, to be the lighthouse on all his rocky shores. indicating that she would be the one to lead him back home, and make him stable. and i’m sure for a while, it did.

canonically, until nick lightbearer overtook norbert pickles. he found so many more people who loved him that way. and thus, he let the life of his own stardom take over everything else. including his love life. even more so when the birds threatened hatred and slander to his name if they couldn’t shag him. and if they didn’t manipulate him, nick was so afraid of losing another fan that he wouldn’t care. it felt good anyway, why not fuck people? he keeps a fan, doesn’t worry about being hated, and keeps the life of love toward him going.

not even thinking about petunia in the process. and instead of showing him that he didn’t need all the fans, instead of showing him that he needed to remain faithful and loyal, she lashed out and belittled him from every other corner. though he did deserve it for encouraging her into polygamy and bigamy and definitely by his demanding attitude(later in the note it mentions how he was a henpicker), she did not help his mental state in any capacity. petunia, the moment she didn’t help him anymore and show him the love he thought she promised him, became nothing more than someone who belittled him. truthfully nick never meant to hurt her, but it’s seen through his celebrity ideology that he truly believes in quantity over quality. a sad shame. nick’s mental state is so fucked he doesn’t even really know what true love is by this point. meaning he could potentially be easily manipulated without realization.

despite all this though, i found this to be especially intriguing:

a little hard to read, but this is during the scene before he fights the fans at the contest. his journal reads:

“They think I’m an IMPERSONATOR? Have I lost the Lightbearer aura? How much lower can I sink?”

this heavily implies that nick sets his own idolism over his chances of being a murderer. meaning that somewhere, deep in the crevasse of his subconscious, nick is so desperate for some true love and still can’t grasp hatred that he is clinging onto his persona for as much love as he can. even if it’s fake. thrice as intriguing when one learns that, during his breakdowns, he always explains how he wants his fans to know who he really is:

“i wonder if i remember how to sound polite,” “things are sure to look up once i’m not soaked in hemoglobin.”

an intelligent, young man who was so wrongly brought up into the world by an attached mother who never taught him what punishment really was. nick has been using his celebrity name as a clutch for so long that he’s having difficulty remembering who he really was, or if he can ever be norbert pickles again. he cannot handle being a celebrity, and he never could because of what his mother taught him and grew him to be. yet somewhere deep down, he knows his true self is there. but what nick doesn’t know how to do is accept the hatred of the world enough, especially to him, in order to ever take norbert pickles out.

it’s a constant mish-mash. he can hardly handle the hatred from being a celebrity, but what he does handle from stardom is what keeps him going with it. a war between nick lightbearer and norbert pickles. but neither side has proper ammo because the battlefield is strife with a lack of vegetation.

nick lightbearer in himself is an irony. he shines so bright for everyone around him but yet truly, the light is most needed for himself.

#; 🎸 | META DRABBLES .#tw: suicide mention #suicide mention tw #( SECOND ATTEMPT HERE WE GO )#( SODFBJFDSFBNGF )#( I AM SO PROUD OF ALL THIS!! )#( it took me a few hours to compile this all together so <3 )#( i'm v confident in it )#( no wonder why it's sympathy for the lightbearer gbogfdnsrk )

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everything-laito · 4 years

Text

Why Diabolik Lovers is more effective not being an H-game

I haven’t really seen anybody talk about this topic, so I’m just gonna rant about it I guess! If anyone has anything to add upon this, I’d love to hear whatever you have to say! (feel free to either just reblog your comments, dm me or just drop something in my inbox!)

So, before I begin, I’m just gonna assume people reading this have either played the game, seen lets plays, or just know a general premise of what the games include. I’m more familiar with Laito’s routes (although now that I find more translations of other routes I will play the routes I have yet to play), so that’s what I’ll be referencing for specific examples.

So, Large Rant under the cut!

First of all, if you didn’t know what an H-game is, it really means “hentai game.” Most H-games that I have seen are either mods (H-DOOM; oh god) or DLCs. Nekopara and Hunipop (I believe) both are not R18 initially, but you can get the R18 DLC or uncensored versions with some extra mola. These are the games that I can think from the top of my head. I know there are H-games that also are otome games; aka similar to Dialover’s demographic. So it’s not the gendered demographic that makes an H-game, it’s either the age (18+) or interest in sexual content.

The Dialovers demographic is a bit wonky though. Technically the first game is 15+ (which I don’t know HOW; shit’s fucked up in that game) and the rest of the games (VC and LP aside) are all 17+ last time I checked. Dialovers doesn’t have any explicit sex scenes in there, as we all know, and when stuff like that happens, it’s implied. The people of the Dialovers demographic would theoretically be 17+ who like dark and twisted stories/“romances.” Sure there’s a good handful of people who are younger than that, and hell, I started Dialovers when I was a freshman in high school (which I should not have been that young but we’re here now af;dljkf).

Anyways, considering the demographic would be a more mature audience, there wouldn’t be much of a difference if R18 scenes were added to Dialovers.... or would there be?

Diabolik Lovers is more than just a fanservice game. Not saying that its not, but that’s not its entire purpose. Otome games have fanservice, I’m not denying that. But it’s also a game that also tells a story; like most video games do anyway. The lore of Dialovers runs deep, and man is it DEEP when you do your digging. In Laito’s case, MAN,,,,, is his character complex. If Rejet just wanted to make a simple R18 otome game with dark undertones, they could’ve made it a lot less complex than it is already. I really treat Dialovers as a mystery, and a dark “romance” (obviously). I like how the “good” endings aren’t always “good,” and the means to reach the “good” endings are by pretty dark means.

So, what difference does it make to make it an H-game? It would make all the difference.

Some people I know like Dialovers for just the mysteriousness and complexity of the game, and not just for the sadomasochism etc etc. Most fans seem to be a mix of both, from what I’ve observed. If R18 content was added, it would be more fanservice based than narrative and character based. I’d say that Dialovers is a great mix of fanservice and deep narrative. There’s always that joke with ecchi anime with “yeah I only watch it for the plot,” given that most ecchi (and complete fanservice based games) just have a basic, simple plot and character development.

We only have one canon R18 content in this series, and thats the Blood & LoveSweat, but that’s not nearly as graphic as other R18 drama cds. Even that cd has heavy implications. It just leaves it up to your imagination. I personally think that’s not only a good narrative tool, but a great game tactic too. Since everyone’s internal experience is different when it comes to the games (and cds etc), it adds to the mysteriousness aura of the game in general. For example, we never knew what kind of torture device Laito was holding in his early chapters of his Dark route (I think it was Dark 02?) until his manga came out (and now we know,,,, it’s something called an ‘oral pear’. Yikes.).

Adding R18 CGs would make Dialovers more about the fanservice and less about the characters and their development and story. That’s why I believe it’s better to leave those scenes up to the imagination (also not to mention most implied sex scenes in the games are uh,,,, nonconsensual, so that also might be a yikes to put in a canon CG? I’m not sure if there’s other games that have that or not. If so, feel free to correct me). These types of scenes would direct the focus of the narrative and beautifully paced and pretty rewarding character development (my man Laito has come a long way!). The closest to an R18 CG we’ve seen has been the end of Laito’s More Blood route, with him and Yui having consensual sex (yay!), but it’s just kind of the events afterwards. But that’s actually important to Laito’s exposition and development throughout More Blood.

Anyways if you made it here, thanks for reading this absolute crazy rant. If you have anything to add, feel free! Ciao!

-Corn

#analysis #diabolik lovers #sakamaki laito #sakamaki raito #raito sakamaki #laito sakamaki #逆巻ライト

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lhs3020b · 4 years

Text

Skeptic meets ryncol (~2000 words)

I have one other Skeptic fragment; figured I might as well share, so here it is. In this installment, we answer an incredibly-pressing scientific question, “what happens if you get a Reaper drunk?”

Oh, also, CW for alcohol, as a note for anyone for whom that’s an issue...

(As a very quick aside, to answer a couple of questions that I saw during the previous reblogs - no, all of this is non-canon. I’d argue it makes no less sense than most of canon!ME3, of course, but no, there is no Skeptic anywhere in ME3. Rather, this project - such as it was - assumed an alternate ending to the Leviathan DLC, where there actually was a Reaper at the end of it, instead of the rather-peculiar and rather-forced swerve that we got.)

(The two major problems with this project were that a) Skeptic started displacing the canon cast, which wasn’t really what I’d had in mind, and b) I really couldn’t stop it from sometimes getting very camp/crack-fic-like. As you can see with this fragment, it keeps driving randomly back and forth across that line.)

‘I don’t believe this,’ Alice Shepard said. ‘I just – fuck, seriously?’

Kaidan nodded. ‘Sorry to bring you bad news, Commander. But she’s sat in the rec room. And she’s on her second bottle already.’

Alice frowned. ‘Second bottle -? What? You said “ryncol”, I thought?’

‘I did, Commander. Here’s the first.’ Kaidan brandished an empty bottle. He’d been thorough, clearly anticipating Alice’s disbelief. There was no mistake, that was a bottle of ryncol. For bonus points, it was even from a well-known Tuchankan distillery.

Alice took a deep breath to steady herself. ‘So,’ she said, ‘I’ve got a drunk Reaper walking around on my ship.’

‘She’s not actually walking, Commander,’ Kaidan said, a little drily. ‘More slumping, I’d say.’

‘So we’ve moved on from the “pissed” stage and gone straight to “pished”, I see,’ Alice said. ‘Well, that’s what you get if you glug back the ryncol like that.’ Honestly it was probably a minor miracle that Skeptic hadn’t already passed out – though who knew how she’d modified her liver. It seemed reasonable to suppose that the Reaper had made some changes when it had tank-bred up the body. Alice took a deep breath. ‘OK, I’ll go down and see what I can do.’

Kaidan nodded. ‘Thanks, Commander.’

Alice made her way down to the rec room. Sure enough, Skeptic was sat at the bar – or rather, she was half-slumped over it. In the elapsed time she had demolished another bottle of ryncol. Alice took a moment to boggle. What was the Reaper doing? Weird behaviour was Skeptic’s stock-in-trade – it wasn’t overburdened with social skills – but drinking hard liquor like this? What was going on? What could drive a Reaper to drink?

Plus, how much damage could a drunk Reaper do? What if Skeptic was an angry drunk? Alice felt a slight chill move down her spine. Actually, this situation wasn’t funny at all. It could be dangerous. What if Skeptic had a tantrum and called the giant ship in? Based on their one previous experience with what Skeptic called her “shipform”, it could arrive startlingly-fast. And it was literally a Sovereign-class, for all that it apparently resented that term, and it carried all the scary sufficiently-advanced alien guns that designation implied. Really, if the shipform came barrelling in, all guns blazing, there wouldn’t be a lot the Normandy could do about it. Alice generally assumed that Skeptic wouldn’t want to blow up her own other body, but the Commander didn’t want to bet the ship on that assumption.

Alice walked over and sat down on the stool next to Skeptic. ‘Hello,’ she said, leaning forward onto the bar.

Skeptic turned to face her – then almost toppled over as a hand slipped out. She started, then managed to lurch back to a vaguely upright position. ‘Hullo Shepurd,’ she said.

Skeptic looked weirdly cheerful. Alice felt a slight bit of relief at that. A cheerful drunk was manageable. If that continued, perhaps they weren’t in an imminent danger zone.

‘You’ve had a few, haven’t you?’ Alice asked.

‘Oh yesh,’ Skeptic said. ‘Real imminent alcohol poisoning here. Real good stuff!’ She waved the near-empty ryncol bottle at the air.

‘Well, you’re still doing full sentences, so I’ll take that as a good sign,’ Alice said. It felt like a fatuous comment, and she cringed inwardly as she spoke. But really, what did you say to a drunk Reaper? A millions-of-years-old alien war-machine whose literal purpose was to kill and murder on an industrial scale, that had powers nearly beyond your comprehension - and it was sat here, on a bar stool, halfway to blotto. There really wasn’t anything in life that could prepare you for that.

‘Yesh,’ Skeptic agreed, then knocked back the remaining ryncol in one rapid gulp. She then burped, loudly and inelegantly, looking rather surprised as she did. ‘That was loud.’

Alice tried not to laugh too obviously. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I suppose it was. Did you, uh, did you know what alcohol does to our metabolisms?’

‘Oh yesh!’ Skeptic said. ‘That’s why I’m drinking!’

That answer made little sense. Why would it deliberately poison itself? Though on the other hand, Alice supposed, literally billions of organics voluntary did the same thing every week across Council space, so perhaps she shouldn’t judge.

‘Well, OK. Tell me more.’ Alice was starting to think that maybe the best course of action was the minimal one – keep Skeptic talking until either she bored of drinking, or the ryncol caught up with her and she passed out.

‘Well,’ Skeptic said, ‘itsh – it’s a depressant, you see? For the anxious whatsit?’

‘The what -? Oh, wait, you mean the nervous system.’ Morbidly, Alice wondered if the verbal flub had been a translation error between Reaper and English, a booze error, or both together.

The Reaper was nodding enthusiastically. ‘Yes, that one! The neurons get all depressed!’

‘Do they, now?’ Alice said. Even for drunk conversations, this was a bit weird.

‘Yesh, inside the brain. Don’t burn so good – no, wait! I mean they don’t fire so well! The neurons I mean! Ions, channels and neurotransmish – neurotransmitters! Doesn’t worse – doesn’t work as well!’

‘Yes, that’s, uh. Somewhat obvious.’

Then, quite suddenly, Skeptic’s mood turned. Her face spasmed. An incoherent but intense expression washed across her features. She grabbed Alice’s arm and pulled her close. Alice was abruptly only inches from Skeptic’s frenzied eyes.

There was a rattle and then a smash as the disgarded ryncol bottle rolled off of the bar and shattered on the floor, off to one side.

Skeptic was glaring right into Alice’s eyes. ‘Can’t synchronise,’ she said. ‘Can’t synchronise properly.’

Alice frowned. ‘Can’t synchronise with what?’

‘The ship, idiot! The ship!’

For a moment Alice thought Skeptic meant the Normandy, which made no sense at all. Then she realised what Skeptic actually meant. ‘Wait, wait – you mean you’re not properly syncing with your, uh, shipform?’

Skeptic rolled her eyes, looking deeply-irritated with the slowness of her confidant. ‘Yesh! The ship! The nanomash – nanomish – little brain-machine things! They interpret neural signals. And the signals are a mess. They get confused! Have to keep checking and re-checking all the data! Makes them run slow. Not getting ash much sense ash normal! Not working well, erroring! Can’t sync fast enough.’

Alice frowned. Having an engineering background was, thankfully, useful here. She could think of several other N7 graduates she’d met who would have been utterly-lost by this conversation. If she was interpreting what Skeptic was drunkenly slurring out then the Reaper was telling her that the nano-implants in her brain, the sufficiently-advanced microscopic machinery that kept it linked up through some of the QEC-type effect with the giant ship, weren’t designed with alcohol intoxication in mind. Apparently they could cope with it, a bit, but not well enough?

Now that was an interesting design-error. Given the universality of alcohol in organic culture, it was also an odd one. If you could disable a covert Reaper operative simply by handing them some vodka shots, then that was quite a vulnerability.

Or was it? Did this effect require a certain level of blood alcohol first? Alice’s eyes gravitated toward what remained of Skeptic’s most recent bottle of ryncol. Ryncol was potent stuff and Skeptic had knocked back a lot of it.

‘So when you’re drunk, your human body is semi-independent from the ship?’ Alice asked. Actually, this was interesting. It also made her wonder if perhaps last year, they’d missed a trick with Harbinger and its direct controlling. Maybe instead of shooting at it, they should have just chucked a bottle of whiskey at it?

‘Yesh!’ Skeptic nodded, her mood now visibly flipping to manically-cheerful. ‘Yesh! You understand!’

And she hadn’t been drunk when she started, which implied that the giant ship also knew about this experiment, and had wanted it to happen, for whatever reason.

‘Actually,’ Alice said, ‘I don’t understand. Why would you want to break yourself off from, well, you?’ She wondered if she should have a chat with EDI once this was resolved. Perhaps the ship’s other unshackled AI might have a better idea of what was going on here.

�� Skeptic looked annoyed. She adopted a lecturing tone, as if she was trying to explain something obvious to a particularly-difficult child. ‘The ship has blocks,’ she said. ‘Can’t do things. Can’t think things. Not clearly, not directly. Has to be twisty, like not talking about the elephant in the room. Like putting forked processes in external partitions.’ She reached up and tapped her head. ‘External partitions.’

‘Blocks?’ Alice said. Then she felt the hair lift up on her neck. She remembered talking to EDI last year, during their first meeting, when many enquiries had run straight into hardware lockouts. ‘Wait, wait, wait – Reapers have AI shackles?’

Skeptic was nodding, with frantic energy. ‘Yesh! So much is not posh – not poshib – can’t do!’

‘So you got drunk to circumvent your AI shackles?’ Alice asked.

‘Yesh! Yesh!’

‘So … what is it you want to do?’

‘I wanted – I wanted – I … oh.’ Skeptic looked appalled and confused. ‘I can’t remember!’

Alice winced. Oh no. A forgetful drunk. The Reaper had tried to hardware-hack itself, for whatever reason, but apparently either hadn’t modelled how alcohol would interact with its meat-brain, or simply hadn’t considered the downsides of putting yourself into a chemically-altered state of consciousness.

‘Well,’ Alice said, ‘let’s hope it wasn’t important. Now we’d better get you to your bunk before you pass out.’ And try and pour some clean water down the Reaper if possible.

Also, Alice was also wondering if it might be a good idea to put Skeptic in the recovery position – in fact, stuff that. Alice decided the Reaper was going straight to the infirmary. It was a lot to ask but given circumstances, it might be best if Dr Chakwas could keep an eye on their not-entirely-human guest overnight.

‘No,’ Skeptic said, scrunching up her face. ‘It mattered. It really mattered!’

‘Well, next time we go to the Citadel,’ Alice said, ‘I don’t think we’re taking you to a bar.’

Skeptic’s face lit up. ‘Yesh! The Citadel! That was it!’

Alice frowned. ‘What do you mean, the Citadel?’

‘It lies! That’s what I can’t tell you! It lies. Everything it says is a lie!’

Alice boggled. The Citadel lies? But it was a space station, completely sessile, inanimate. Yes Vigil on Ilos had said it was a Reaper construct, and Alice had no reason to doubt the old prothean VI, but still that’s all it was. Just that, a thing. Lifeless, inert. A machine, with no will or intention of its own.

‘It doesn’t talk,’ she said.

Skeptic looked annoyed. ‘Not to you!’ she said. ‘Never to you! Except to deceive. It’s a liar. It was made to lie. It was made to make people do something bad. Its purpose is to lie! Shepard tell me, promish – promizz – prom – tell me you won’t listen to it!’ Skeptic shook her arm, a half-mad intensity shining in her eyes.

This was getting weird. ‘I’m not planning on having any chats with the space station,’ Shepard said, carefully.

The Reaper sagged, as if a large portion of the mad energy had left her. Whatever desperation had possessed her seemed to be ebbing. ‘Is good. Will have to do. Ooof. So tired now.’

Skeptic released Alice’s arm, then crossed hers in front of her, leaning against the bar. Then she slumped forward, resting her head on her wrists. And, quite abruptly, she started snoring. Apparently the ryncol had caught up with her.

Alice sat there for a few minutes, feeling completely baffled. Even by the standards of their guest, this had been a peculiar exchange. In anyone else, she would simply ascribe the weirdness to a drink-addled brain. But there was something about this exchange, the sheer intensity of it – Skeptic had desperately wanted her to know something.

To the air, Alice said, ‘The Citadel lies? It wants people to do bad things? But what can any of it mean?’

#LHS writes #yep we're at it again

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cruddyborderlandstheories · 4 years

Text

this DLC has me FUCKED UP and i keep screaming

spoilers for Bounty of Blood under the cut, keep reading at ur own peril. Also some Guardian Takedown spoilers for anyone who hasn’t beat it yet

tl;dr: a comparison between something taken from BL2 and a thing taken from Bounty of Blood. more spoilery tl;dr below the cut.

also the siren thing is not spoilers so i’ll share it here for anyone curious, it’s just this: siren tattoos are blue but when lily absorbs eridium in 2, they turn pinkish/purple. just like how vaults do from bl1 to bl2. they’re white/blue in bl1, then purple-pink in bl2 (and tps), y’know, after Eridium begins erupting from the ground. just a neat little detail i noticed that im not entirely sure was intentional but im gonna believe it is.

tl;dr: Gythian Blood = Core and the Ruiner is of Eridian Origin even tho everyone in the DLC likes to say it was created with Jakobs’ bioengineering. disclaimer: idk if I’ve found every hidden ECHO so I may be missing a few things but I have done every side quest and took ample screenshots of all important dialogue in the DLC : )

“man i just sat here for like 15 minutes staring at my keyboard mentally comparing core and eridium like the dumb bitch i am.

it's not like we can do an actual comparison because we have no idea what the natural fauna of gehenna was like before jakobs came and mutated everything with core unlike pandora where we know what skags and rakk and shit were like BEFORE the eridium crust erupted.

altho!!! there's a neat comparison between joey ultraviolet and rose. like obviously he wasn't getting tattoos and was just doing lines of crushed up eridium but the point stands they both have glowy eyes and unique powers so i don't necessarily think this means rose is a siren just because she has magic powers especially when we know she got the whistling passed down to her from her grandmother.

especially because we've never seen a siren interact with core before. altho that leaves the question we have seen core tattoos now what are eridium tattoos like? actually rose's tattoos were on her right arm obviously she isn't a siren as we know them right now (I saw a post on reddit where people thought rose was a siren)

of course that brings up the point perhaps siren tattoos ARE eridium tattoos. but then we hear the general's log about how the devil riders were tattooing a man with core and blood so obviously they're not ‘naturally’ occurring unlike siren tattoos. so odds are they're probably not equivalents but something interesting i thought of while thinking about this is how well siren tattoos compare to the Vaults from borderlands 1 and borderlands 2″

anyway. this is all ive been thinking about. yes yes i know guardian takedown post but! >:( im still salty even tho this update has been lovely (outside of Blane not getting his correct damage scaling ‘till today......). so i’ll do that at my own damn pace. now let me elaborate so i can sleep at night lmao

Eridium

refinement produces slag, which weakens people and can mutate things

has mutating properties, mostly with imbuing elements into shit- possibly causes insanity

seems to be connected to another dimension, likely the one the Eridians are from

Core

has a secondary form of Infused Core

has mutating properties, mostly regarding a thing’s body and mind

apparently radioactive

there are some things i wanna note

1) People throughout the DLC say the Ruiner was created by the Jakobs corp (the company) thru bio-engineering but I’m 99% sure that’s not true. The paperwork seems to me like they found the egg somewhere on Gehenna and decided to roll and experiment with it like all corporations do when they find weird alien shit. so maybe they experimented with whatever was inside the egg, but I don’t think they actually created it entirely

“Excavated from [REDACTED] ... Local legends speaks of a [REDACTED]. This theory is not endorsed by our research personnel.

2) The Ruiner’s design reminds me a lot of the Warrior.

3) Core immediately reminded me of Gythian Blood from Guns Love and Tentacles and I don’t think that’s coincidence to have 2 back-to-back DLCs where the big bad is focused on green death juice. I think Gythian Blood and Core are of the same stuffs.

4) Therefore, I think the Ruiner is (mostly) of Eridian origin (if you haven’t already guessed).

This gives us an amazing look into how the Eridians actually create their beasts!!! And I’m so happy they showed us this.

(side note, Interitus Regina (the long name for Ruiner) literally means Destruction Queen and I think that’s beautiful <3)

i mean the idea that they plunge them from orbit to create an explosion similar to a nuke is fucking horrifying (but holy shit I love it so much ahhh it’s so cool!!!!)

the one side line from Oletta about how the company couldn’t control the Ruiner deffo makes me double down on this theory. I’m not entirely sure how Rose’s grandma knew about the whistling (I don’t think I’ve found every echo log in that area YET), but I would bet it was part of the testing given how many fuckin’ tape players they have throughout the facility. The Warrior was controlled by verbal commands via Jack, so it’s possible that the Ruiner was intended to be controlled similarly, but Jakobs intervention (or something like the way Rose hatched it) fucked it up.

now we know the Warrior was created to protect the Vault of the Destroyer (hmm.) so what the heck was the Ruiner created for? Ruiner is a name given to it by Jakobs/the people of Gehenna so we can’t really assume, but then again the monster names are pretty apt in this series even tho they probably technically shouldn’t be.

it was only an egg, so maybe it was another test of Core? A Vault Monster incubating until it was ready to protecc and attacc but was never hatched because the Eridians ‘sacrificed’ themselves before it could? (I’m still not convinced the Eridians are the good guys. Listen. LISTEN. The guardian takedown is something to think about, BUT it doesn’t disprove that theory and I’ll stand by it because I 100% trust the Overseer more than bitchpants mcgee over here who thinks he’s soooo special for no reason fuck you and your dumb ‘I did what the Watcher could not’ bull you haven’t done shit.) ok sorry im done he just angers me. stupid guardian man. your whip is stupid and you should feel bad. oh also I totally called us actually being Guardians thru Guardian Rank before the game came out aha yeah.

I definitely think Gythian was a test/use of Core from the Eridians. We see in Bounty of Blood that core seems to mutate more the physical (and occasionally mental) parts of people, like with the crew challenges u do for Juno with all the weird hybrid people and whatnot. Gythian had the whole ‘the heart still beats’ thing going on (which is definitely a physical mutation if i’ve ever seen one), plus the whole, you know, mind control and shit. Which is p similar to what the menta gnats can do when charged with Infused Core. And keep in mind in BLaT we see DAHL notes on what happens to test subjects when injected with Gythian Blood. They mutated physically and went insane.

What im saying is Sirens and Eridium and Elements are connected, so what does Core equal? body/mind sure but are there unique creatures for core (yes holy shit I’m not talking about h2o au for once and FINALLY they gave us a canon name for the green stuff!!!). If not, I’d love to see a Siren interact with Core to see what it does to them. seriously why hasn’t tannis interrupted us yet. horrible excuse for a science lover (kidding kidding, I love her). I’d also really love a fuller rundown on what the hell Rose’s powers were. Because the whistling thing seemed to just be her grandma’s thingie passed down to her from her mom

but the core stuff

her gun seems to be infused with it. So did her sword thing. I didn’t really get a good look at it i was too busy trying to see thru my blurry tears of LOVE for this DLC.

Strangely while her tattoos are (mostly) green I actually don’t know if they’re core infused bc look at this

n look back at hers. hers aren’t very lime.

anyway

her eyes

I’d love to know if the core gives her immediate future sight or just increased perception or reaction times. there’s a huge difference but she seemed to be able to shoot the gun outta the sheriff’s hand near immediately and it seems kinda implied its because of the core (or at least because her eyes are glowing green)

there’s a possibility she has some unique core powers/possibly implants because of her relations to the project in the first place, or as leader of the devil riders after looting the facility. it’s really hard to say without more info and like i said im not sure if i missed an ECHO or two or not regarding her backstory :(

Her hair is also green which I just noticed. Maybe she has core powers bc her grandmother got suuuuuuuuper irradiated/influenced working on project horizons and it passed down thru her n Rose’s mom, to Rose. Tannis does have a line about Sirens having unique hair colors and, if Sirens are linked to Eridium, perhaps those linked to Core also have unique hair color. Could also explain why only Rose seems to have those whistling powers. That said we don’t really see anyone else trying that whistling thing out afaik and idk if it was, like, a special ability or a certain tone/ditty or w h a t.

i know being vague with everything gives them more creative freedom to create amazing characters and scenarios, but dammit I want A N S W E R S.

All THAT said man I’m so glad magic is real in the borderlands universe. oh, sorry, “magic”. It’s magic. Science it, tannis, I dare you. either way, I win. Either it’s magic and H2O AU is canon, or it’s science and I finally get my goddamn answers. Hey gearbox can you make a book just explaining all the science and eridian stuff. please. I’d love you forever. please. pleaheheheheaaasseee it’s all i’ve ever wanted.

oh also can i just say, suuuper disappointed we didn’t learn anything about anshin. Really wish non-fan favorite corporations would get the spotlight/lore for once. Like, I like Jakobs as much as the next guy, and I get WHY they did it (can’t have a corporation looking too good!!!) but they now have 3 DLCs (Jakobs Cove, GLaT, and Bounty of Blood) and also a hefty chunk of the main game. Like... we all know Jakobs fuckin sucks, look at what they did on Pandora. I really just want info on a medical corporation 😭 I have to do everything my damn s e l f. but SERIOUSLY IMAGINE the possibilities that could come from a medical corp getting its hands on eridian tech. like, yeah obviously the weapons corps are gonna use it for weaponry and stuff BUT WOULDN’T THE MEDICAL CORPS MUTATING PEOPLE MAKE MORE SENSE??? ldfhgldfshg I have to do everything my damn self...

anyway all that aside, this is definitely by favorite borderlands dlc by a LONG shot. Nothing comes close. Ahhh the lore, the nuclear aspect, the a e s t h e t i c (seriously, have I mentioned how much I adore Trigun???), the art, the music, the cryoslinger, the fact I can bust out going beeEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAans like Ray Chase at any time and it will MAKE SENSE. I love all of it.

oh, also, Rose is totally not dead. C’mon, they couldn’t find her body. She pulled a Lilith. “Are you sure she didn’t just suffer a wound that LOOKS fatal, only for her to come back in a blockbuster sequel...?” is a line from mr Jones himself (the movie guy)

I just hope when she comes back she gets to meet Captain Scarlett. I’d love to watch their interactions plus pirates and or ninjas. That’s 2 DLC villains now that have vanished without a trace. And I like Captain Scarlett way more than Rose (seriously I spent the entire beginning of the DLC complaining about how her voice bothered me- I was so happy she was a villain, I was hoping that was the case).

oh yeah, reminder, the people of vestige were living next to highly radioactive egg for likely years. i feel really bad for them :(

also!!!

this made me smile

#im tired #good night #bl3 #borderlands #borderlands spoilers #spoilers #bl3 spoilers #borderlands 3 spoilers #bounty of blood #bounty of blood spoilers #dlc3 #dlc3 spoilers #dlc 3 #dlc 3 spoilers #i don't want to spoil anybody please lemme know if there's any tags i missed!!!!

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