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swaps55 · 3 months

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Mezzo - 07 - They All Die Young

Pairing: mshenko | Rating: M Tags: Canon-typical violence, trauma, dealing with your problems poorly, body autonomy struggles Summary: The twists and turns of ME2, through the eyes of everyone but Commander Shepard. Chapter Summary: Hannah Shepard, Jack, and Mordin, Oh My! AKA, Swaps wrote Mordin’s POV for the first time and she’s being so brave about it.

Chapter 7: They All Die Young | Read on Ao3

14 November 2185, Arcturus Stream, Arcturus, SSV Everest

Hannah Shepard sits at the conference table in room 2B on the Everest, eyes on the door that Admiral Hackett better walk through any damn minute. The Orizaba docked on Arcturus an hour ago, and she’s been waiting in this tiny room for half of that.

She replays the Freedom’s Progress security footage, staring at the face she had known since he took his first breath, even if she’d never really known the person behind it.

One minute he’d been a child chasing the stars, the next he’d had a spec ops designation, on his way to becoming the first human Spectre. Everything in between is just snapshots, still moments in time.

She’d last seen him about a year before his death, when she’d pinned him for making Staff Commander right before his transfer to the Normandy. The Spectre induction ceremony had happened without her. She’d watched from a terminal on the Kilimanjaro out in Gemini Sigma, wondering if the black chain on his dress uniform was Daniel’s. Giving it to him was supposed to have helped create some connection between them.

She always miscalculated when it came to Sam.

But Sam had been so difficult to get to know. Even Daniel had struggled when he was a kid. Anderson was the only person he didn’t keep at arm’s length. Or so she’d thought, until she’d invited Lieutenant – Commander, now – Alenko to dinner after his memorial.

(I’m sorry you didn’t know him the way I did. I think you would have liked him.)

It was…a relief, in some way, that someone would be able to remember him in the ways that she could not.

Sam was so much like Daniel. Burned bright and fierce and left so little behind. Idly, she wonders what became of the black chain. One of the only pieces she’d had left of Daniel, and she’d given it to Sam. Now she has neither.

They all die young. Or so she’d believed.

The conference room door opens, and Admiral Hackett walks in brusque, all business, acknowledging her salute with a curt nod and gesturing for her to keep her seat.

“Captain. Thank you for coming.”

“What is the meaning of the Freedom’s Progress security footage?”

He settles into his chair. A yeoman appears from a side door and offers them both water. Hannah waves him off, not taking her eyes off of Hackett.

“We don’t know yet,” he replies, looking her right in the eye.

“That’s my son, Steven. What do we know?”

He draws in a reluctant breath. “Several months ago we became aware that in the aftermath of Alchera, Cerberus managed to recover Sam Shepard’s body.”

Cold sweeps through her. “They found a body.”

She’s always imagined what those words would sound like.

Read from the beginning | Read the rest on Ao3 | The Mezzo Playlist

#mass effect #mshenko #mezzo update #i learned about the applications of acoustics in pest management and blood chemistry to write this chapter #i just need everyone to be very proud of me because this one was hard #and very scary because mordin solus is basically my favorite character of all time

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coraniaid · 1 year

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Top 5 Mass Effect characters

Going with my gut and trying not to think too hard about it:

1) Legion

I love Legion in Mass Effect 2. More broadly, I love what Mass Effect 2 does for the geth.

In the first game it feels a bit too obvious that the geth exist to be disposable cannon fodder which the player can mow down without guilt. Which … okay, yeah, they do. But somehow by the end of the sequel they’ve been reimagined as something more than that. As – I’d argue – the only really 'alien' aliens in the whole galaxy.

I love that multiple geth processes can exist in a single body, and that they all share memories and experiences with each other all the time in order to understand each other better. I love that instead of being some sort of scary sci-fi hive mind they are shown as being naturally trusting and cooperative, and how baffled they are by the fact that organic life isn't like that. I love the way that Legion gets defensive when you ask them about the bit of Shepard's armor they used to repair themselves. I love their silly little dance when they think nobody's watching. I love the way Legion will defend the geth way of looking at the universe and tell the player not to anthropomorphize them or think of them as lacking something because they don't use "I" as a pronoun.

And then Mass Effect 3 throws all of that out the window (or, uh, whatever it is that geth use instead of windows) so that Legion can Have A Soul. Oh well.

2) Urdnot Wrex

Yeah, the krogan are basically just generic Klingons knock-offs and their society and history doesn’t really make much sense. But, whatever: I like Wrex a lot. I like the fact he doesn’t much like you in the first game. And I like the fact that his opinion on you will slowly improve until, when you meet him again on Tuchanka in the second game, he's the only person from your old crew who genuinely and uncomplicatedly seems pleased to see you. ("Shepard! My friend!")

Unless, uh, you mess up and get him shot on Virmire, which I might have done once or twice.

I also think it's very funny that Wrex's loyalty mission in ME1 is this big hunt for his grandfather's old armor, and if you somehow stumble into possession of it without having recruited him the game strongly hints that Wrex would have had something important to say about it. Only, when you find it properly, and Wrex is alive and on board the ship, he just tells you that yeah, it's really old now so, of course, it's not very good or valuable anymore. And that's the last you ever hear of it.

(It's similar to that bit in the original Dragon Age when you can heroically turn down the offer of gold for a villager's old sword you borrowed, only instead of giving you an alternative reward like some sort of reputational boost, the game just has the villagers shrug and not give you anything and never mention it again.)

3) Jack

My favorite Mass Effect 2 crewmate and one of the few characters introduced in ME2 whose story gets a fairly decent resolution in the third game.

Yes, it would have been nice to have Jack back on the Normandy, but it makes sense for her that she doesn't come back. She gets to be somebody who other people look up to and to protect younger biotics like herself, and that’s a really good place for her to be.

Choosing Jack as the biotic specialist for the Long Walk section of the final assault on the Collector Base after completing her loyalty mission gives her arc in her first appearance a nice conclusion too. I think that’s one of the choices I always make (except when I’m deliberately trying to have the mission go badly for angst reasons, anyway), along with picking Miranda to lead the other team. Just feels the way that things are meant to go.

4) Mordin Solus

The other character introduced in ME2 whose story gets a decent resolution in the third game. (Honestly, the whole Tuchanka/genophage part of ME3 is so much better than the rest of the game it’s a little bewildering to think about.)

I almost always recruit Mordin first (sorry Garrus!) and I think the mission to go and get him is the point when ME2 really starts to properly work. The new Normandy doesn’t feel like home until I can go and irritate Mordin while he’s working away in his lab. I like the distintice clipped speech pattern Mordin effects -- I think it fits really well with the whole salaran short lifespan thing -- and I like Mordin’s loyalty mission and his attempt to turn you down gently if he thinks you’re interested in him romantically.

(I don’t actually ever take Mordin with me in my squad though, outside of that loyality mission, because he’s kind of rubbish in a fight.)

Plus, he sings comic operas on request. How many mad scientist war criminals can say that?

5) Liara T’Soni

I really like the Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC and I think it’s probably the highlight of the series. And the slightly strained relationship Shepard has with Liara by this point is definitely a key part of that (“I’m fine, by the way. Thanks for asking.”) So yeah, I like Liara too.

My semi-controversial(?) Mass Effect take is that I would probably like the games better if, instead of giving you the usual Bioware option of romancing half the crew, the games just forced you to choose the Liara romance option every time. It always feels, to me, that that’s what the writers really want me to choose anyway. Does any other character give you so many options to change your mind about after initially rejecting? Is any other character so obviously still in love with Shepard even if you picked a different romance option? But I’m aware I’m probably not playing the games for quite the same reason most people are.

Oh, also, Liara is hilariously overpowered in ME1. The final part of the game is just a completely different experience with her in your party, especially if you’ve also made Shepard an Adept. Which doesn’t quite gel with the story the game is trying to tell. “I’m just a shy young archaeologist who doesn’t like explosions”, Liara assures you, while effortlessly hurling yet another krogan battlemaster screaming into the void of space with nothing but the power of her mind.

#mass effect #asks #thanks!

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