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jchb32273 · 5 years

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Fictober 2019 - Day 1

A little late in posting today, but here is Day 1 - Trust me, it will be fun!

Fanfiction - Dragon Age

AO3 Link

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“Kylara?” I heard knocking on our bathroom door. “You can’t hide in there forever! I can pick the lock, you know!”

I groaned, knowing my roommate, Leliana was all too serious. The last time she’d been caught, she got fined for breaking school property. It still didn’t stop her though… “All right! I’m coming out now!” I looked at my reflection and thought, I look ridiculous!

I opened the door, just as Leli was pulling out her picks. She gasped in surprise. “Oh, you look so pretty!!” She grabbed my hand and pulled me into the bedroom of our dorm. “Now go on and put on the rest of your costume! You’ve already made us a half-hour late!”

“I still don’t know why you are making me go to this Halloween party. I don’t know anyone there!”

“Which is why you need to go, Kylara! You need to get out more! Socialize!” Leli stood there in her sparkling black cat costume and frowned a bit. “I will not let you sequester yourself in the library or the dorm room for the entire year! College is about having fun!”

“College is about working hard, getting good grades, and hopefully a meaningful career,” I countered. “Especially when you are on a scholarship like I am.”

“That doesn’t mean you need to stay cooped up all the time! Come on now, it will be fun, trust me!”

I sighed as I pulled on the silly mouse costume she had bought me. I am going to look so stupid in this… “The Theirin’s are the ones hosting! I bet there will be nothing but a bunch of rich kids with bank accounts bursting at the seams. I won’t know anyone there!”

Leliana came over and put her hand on my arm. “This isn’t some high-end social gathering by Maric or Cailan. Alistair is hosting this party. Also, you know me, and that guy you know from your science class… Cullen? He’ll be there. Morrigan is also going.”

“The goth girl from your poetry club?” I asked, curious. “Why would she even consider going to such a soiree?”

Leli giggled. “She said she was curious about how the other half lived.”

“I’m sure that isn’t her real reason.”

“Probably not, but it’s what she told me. Actually, I think she knows someone who might be there and she was hoping to meet him.”

“Who?”

“The bass player in Alistair’s band.” she replied.

“With all the money his family has – and their precious reputation – you’d think they wouldn’t let him have such a hobby… or host wild parties.”

Leli shrugged. “He’s always been the black sheep of the family and was only recently ‘brought back into the fold’, from what I’ve heard. So I guess as long as he doesn’t do anything to embarrass them…”

I tried to think back on what little I knew of the Theirins. Maric was the CEO of a huge business here in Denerim. His wife had died some years ago and his legitimate son, Cailan, was already vice-president of the firm. The scandal of the family was that shortly before his wife had died, Maric had had an affair. That was where the second son, Alistair, fit in. Initially, Alistair had been sent off to live with some distant relatives, but now that he was in his third year here at Denerim University (and doing really well), Maric had apparently decided to claim Alistair as his actual son. There was probably more to the story, but I didn’t thrive on social gossip like so many others in my classes.

All I knew was that just about every female (and some males) around the campus gushed about how handsome Alistair was and how they were going to do everything in their power to get him to notice them… now that Cailan was engaged to some high-end socialite. Stupid of them, really. Last I heard, Alistair was heavily involved with another wealthy girl, Ellie Cousland, I think? Who cares… I am here at this school to focus on my education… not play games to win the affections of some spoiled rich brat.

I sighed again. “Just promise me you won’t leave me alone… and we won’t stay for long, all right, Leli?” I looked at myself in the floor-length mirror in the room. The mouse costume was tight and hugged every curve on my somewhat voluptuous body. The glittery, grey makeup on my face brought out the blue in my eyes (so Leli said), but it also forced me to wear my contacts rather than my glasses. I hated the contacts… they made my eyes feel dry.

“Don’t forget your cheese, little mouse!” Leliana laughed and handed me the stuffed cheese plush.

I rolled my eyes. “You know, mice don’t really eat cheese.”

“Tell that to anyone who has ever watched classic cat and mouse cartoons. Now come on! We are already so late! Let’s go!”

We arrived at a really large gated community on the outskirts of the city. Cars were parked all up and down the streets. Leliana found a spot on a side street about three blocks from the house where the party was being held.

The party was already in full swing by the time we got there. Despite my telling her to not leave me by myself, Leliana was greeted by several members of her poetry club, including Morrigan (who looked just as thrilled as I was to be here). They pulled her away from “the bookish nerd” (I heard one girl call me) and over to the stage where Alistair’s band was playing.

The music was obnoxiously loud, though I had to admit it did have a nice beat to it. Though I tended to prefer classical music, I still tried to keep up with what was popular on campus. I knew Alistair’s band, The Griffons, were quite the rage. I even knew who was who on stage. Fenris was the bassist. He was a broody elf with odd glowing tattoos on his brown skin. So that is who Morrigan likes, hmm? Interesting. The drummer was a huge qunari who went by the moniker of “The Iron Bull” on campus. With the pair of massive horns on his head, I could see why. The keyboardist was a guy I had only heard about from others. I only knew his name was Dorian and that he was originally from Tevinter. The second guitarist was named Anders and while he was quite the looker, he paled in comparison to the frontman.

I had seen pictures of Alistair in the school newspaper and in social gossip magazines at the store, but seeing him in person for the first time was quite a different experience.

I can see why women fall for him… I thought. He is very handsome. Under the lights of the stage, it was difficult to tell the true shade of his hair, but it seemed to be a rich auburn. His dark brown eyes radiated warmth and compassion. His voice was deep and melodious… it gave me chills as I heard him sing.

“Hey Kylara! Good to see you!” I heard a man shout next to me. I turned to see Cullen, who was dressed as a lion. He handed me a beer and I thanked him.

I nodded. “I have never heard him live… Leliana has some of his CDs, but it isn’t the same.”

“He is pretty amazing. I’ve known him for quite a while,” Cullen spoke loud so I could hear him.

“Really?”

“Sure! I can introduce you if you want to meet him.”

“Why would I? He’s handsome and popular… not exactly the kind of guy who’d be interested in someone like me.”

Cullen seemed surprised. “You never struck me as someone who judges others at first appearance, ‘Lara.”

I blushed (though it probably didn’t show through the makeup on my face). “I-I’m not… I mean… I’m sorry. You’re right, Cullen. But still, why should I meet him? Isn’t he already dating someone?”

“He broke up with her last night.” Cullen said. “Turns out she was cheating on him.”

“Oh, that’s terrible.” I could hear the song was nearing its end. “But again, Cullen. Why should I meet him? What do you think he’d see in someone like me?”

“Al is a real friendly guy… and he loves having people around him. However, it is always the same kind of people. I know he’s been getting really bored of it all. You, Kylara, are a sweet, quiet girl. You are smart and not at all like the women who throw themselves at his feet. I think Al might find that a bit refreshing.” The song finished just then and Alistair told the crowd he was going to take a ten-minute break. “Come on,” Cullen said and took my free hand. I put the beer down and grabbed my cheese plush. “Let’s go.”

Cullen pulled me through the crowd towards the stage so quickly that I didn’t see the large clown shoes in front of me until it was too late. I fell to the floor with a crash. People all around me started laughing… hard. Mortified, I got up and before Cullen could say anything, I quickly ran out a side door and out into the back yard.

I don’t know how long I was out there, but the cool autumn air was beginning to give me goosebumps. I had contemplated just going back to Leliana’s car, but I couldn’t remember where she had parked. So in the end, I sat out in the yard on an old swing someone had left tied to a huge tree.

Just then I heard footsteps behind me. A soft, but deep voice asked with concern, “Are you all right?”

I turned in the swing, twisting the rope, to see who had spoken. To my utter shock, it was Alistair! I quickly turned the swing back around as my face heated up. Cullen must have told him what happened! I suppose he needs to know if I am okay… so there are no lawsuits to sully the Theirin name. “I’m fine,” I mumbled. “I… just want to be alo- ” The old rope holding the swing chose that very moment to snap and for the second time that night, I fell to the ground. I wanted to cry, I was so humiliated.

Alistair knelt down and offered me his hand. “Please, let me help you up.”

At first, I just wanted to shout that I was fine and for him to leave me alone, but then I noticed his eyes were not haughty, but genuinely concerned. I gingerly gave him my hand and with a strong pull, he helped me to my feet.

“Are you hurt?” he then asked.

I sighed. “Only my dignity.”

Alistair smiled. “Well, I suppose that is good to hear. I hear dignity is easy to fix… if you know the right people.” He then leaned close and whispered, “I heard they even sell it in the back alleys of Orzammar sometimes…”

I couldn’t help it, I snickered.

“See now, that’s much better. A pretty smile from a pretty woman.” Alistair smiled and then asked, “So, what is your name?”

“Kylara.”

“Well, Kylara, it is very nice to meet you. I really like your costume, by the way.”

“Really? Why?”

He held out the cheese plush I had dropped earlier. “Well, for one, I do have a certain minor obsession with cheese…”

#fictober19 #no trigger warnings this chapter #Dragon Age #halloween party #friends #introductions #alternate universe #modern thedas

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the-wintry-mizzenmast · 7 years

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My thoughts on Mass Effect: Andromeda

My overall impression is that I enjoyed playing the game because the combat system is really smooth, and easily the best out of the Mass Effect games so far. So, yeah. A+ combat experience, lots of fun, cross-class capability and flexibility. The maps are generally very similar to Dragon Age: Inquisition with the forward stations (camps), obvious quest markers, and ability to set waypoints, only a way more massive scale as like the sprawl of Los Angeles, it is impossible to get around on foot, so you have to use your car, the Nomad. The Nomad is a vast improvement over the previous Mako, both in its capability and it’s near-indestructible handling ability. Apparently they got in some devs from the Need for Speed series to consult, and it shows. In a good way.

Despite all the griping of other reviewers, I do not feel that it’s a waste of time. It was fun, I enjoyed it. I could have enjoyed it a lot more, as there were a LOT of things that bugged me that detracted slightly from the experience. It is not the best Mass Effect game, and it is not the best BioWare game, but also probably not the worst. I don’t regret paying for it, and I think it has a lot of promise that might be fulfilled in either the DLCs or a sequel, though I feel slightly cheated because BioWare said it was supposed to be a standalone game and it’s very clearly not.

Now more detail into the Andromeda world, spoilers ahoy for ME:A and Dragon Age: Inquisition which I’m comparing it to.

ANNOYING THINGS

I’m going to start off with the things that annoyed me, the things that I felt could be done better. They are mostly narrative related. There are a lot of other pieces out there on the internet on why they failed so hard at animation (this tumblr post is a great place to start), so I won’t get into the details.

There’s nothing new about the Andromeda galaxy. Some of that is fine, because I never really felt that Mass Effect was all that groundbreaking in terms of science fiction world building, but the original trilogy was a really good execution of already existing science fiction tropes, like battling an ancient cosmic evil, biological life vs. artificial intelligence, etc. But it is kind of disappointing when you go to a new galaxy and you still find that the aliens are humanoid bipeds with an emotional range that’s the same as humans. Like, the Angara are supposed to exceptionally emotional…but you hardly ever see anything that is NOT a human-like acceptable emotional expression. Sure, when Jaal is pissed he gets really pissed, but there is never a moment that’s, “Wow, we have different ways of emoting, and what you just did would have been totally inappropriate in our culture” or something like that. Languages are easily decoded, and the Angara even have binary gender that correlate directly with our gender binaries. Worst of all, Jaal is straight, and that blows my mind. Like, he has a preference? Really? Despite humans being literally so alien they’re from another galaxy, Jaal prefers Sara over Scott Ryder? By the time you’re going xeno it’s so far away from what is probably your standard sexuality that I have no idea what rational basis his preference would be based on, but it enrages me that Jaal is apparently straight. I’ll get back to the subject of romances a little later, but… I’ve seen more originality in Star Trek: The Next Generation, and that aired in the late 80’s to mid-90’s. The Kett are essentially biological Borg, and they’re given such a laughable “bad guy” design that I just…*throws up hands* Some of the reasons the Angara are so similar are because you want to emotionally identify with them, and there is some base level of humanness that you need in order to romance Jaal for it not to feel weird. Like, I get that it’s less skeevy-feeling to fuck something that looks like Jaal instead of an octopus or sentient slime. Okeydokes, but I feel like that more could’ve gone into making Andromeda truly creative and they really just didn’t.

Your crewmates are boring. They are just so dull. It’s not that they’re bad people, in fact you get the impression that most of them have their shit together. But they’re all…good people, and that makes them tearfully boring. They have stupid little quirks that it feels like somebody filled out a character generation sheet in a tabletop, but they’re not even as fleshed out as somebody playing a one-shot would make their characters out to be. Everyone is fundamentally a good person, and lacking the darkness or the ongoing tribulations and trials that made your crew in DA:I so interesting. I’ll go through them one by one:

CORA is a snoozefest. I find her insufferable. At first she’s kind of stand-offish because she was supposed to be the Pathfinder, which I would imagine romancing her as BroRyder really weird because of her close relationship with your father. Then she reveals herself to be some sort of Asari-aboo, in the worst sort of weeaboo fashion. She refers to herself as an Asari Commando, and worships one of the Asari Commandos on the Asari Ark, and she just comes off as one of the creepiest weeaboos ever. Couple that with her “I need people to tell me what to do” character arc, and I just…tried to avoid her as much as possible. Do the loyalty missions even do anything? I might just skip hers and see if that kills her in my new playthrough. SO BORING.

VETRA is kind of sweet, and I like her relationship with her sister Sid. She has a rough background that makes her not a Turian citizen, but it’s kind of hard to feel especially bad for her because hey, she’s got her new start in a new galaxy and all that is behind her. Great! …there’s no darkness, no moral greyness about her. Sure, I’m sure she’s involved in all sorts of shady requisitions dealings, but she doesn’t even have the interesting quirks or usefulness that is Josephine in DA:I. I relegate her to the sweet, and I like her, but not romance material.

PEEBEE is annoying as hell. She’s like the manic pixie scientist girl who just won’t shut up, and her absolute commitment phobia is just…BLEGH. She’s like that flaky friend that depends on you for everything, and once you need help she’s all “NEW PHONE WHO DIS.” I feel like she’s supposed to be the fun Asari character who’s the opposite of Liara, and that managed to include her being a million times more insufferable and annoying. She also has that “I’m not like other Asari” that bugs in the same way that people go, “I’m not like other Asians” or “I’m not like other girls” that smacks of internalized misogyny or racism and…yeah. I had a one night stand with her with my first playthrough as an Asian Sara Ryder, and that was enough, thanks. :/

LIAM is a sweet nerd. His loyalty mission was fun. I have no idea why he doesn’t like Vetra. He’s fun to have around, but he mostly seems to have his shit together. He’s a good dude, he’s got my back. …and he does nothing interesting or fun or has anything interesting in his backstory whatsoever. So he’s really into nerd stuff and takes on the duty of first contact and culture sharing with Jaal and the Angara and he fucks that one up a little…okay, anything else? Nope. Snoozefest.

JAAL is supposedly all about emotional stuff, but so often he clearly just suppresses his emotions? He’s got like…a normal sensitive guy range of human emotions and the game is trying to tell me he’s amazingly emotional and I’m all like, “No, that’s just a healthy level of human emotions, yo.” He’s probably your second most interesting romance option, but he’s still in the running for the “pretty bland” title which is not saying much. He’s got a little more to chew through in terms of the Kett/Angara revelation, and the fact that he’s seen war and a lot of death, but yeah. …good friend, great skills as squadmate. Not interesting. Also not sure why straight. SOMEBODY AT BIOWARE JUST MAKE HIM BI ALREADY.

DRACK is the most fun of all your squadmates, because he’s this ancient Krogan but he has so much left to give. He is full of humor and fun and Krogan loyalty, and HELL YES DRACK is great. I wanted more Drack in this game. I am still disappointed that they don’t let you romance Krogan or Salarian. :/ Bummer.

SUVI is also a snoozefest. So she’s a religious lesbian scientist who keeps wanting to eat things in Andromeda. There is literally nothing else about her to write home about.

GIL bothers the hell out of me. He is the only gay male romance option on your ship, and that is not cool. He’s not a squadmate, and frankly, his story arc which is his best friend, Jill, pressuring him to have a baby with her smacks of the heteronormative narrative of homosexuals being problematic because they are stealing away reproductive opportunities. That is so regressive, that it bothers me. I’m not sure if they were trying to go the “gay parenting, yay!” route, but with Sara Ryder, it just smacks of gay conversion therapy because he does end up going to his female best friend to have a baby with her. EW. WHAT THE FUCK. I am told this narrative doesn’t go away if you are romancing him as Scott Ryder, so…DOUBLE EW. WHAT THE FUCK.

Again, these are all fundmentally good people. That means there’s nothing interesting about them as characters in a Mass Effect world. It’s not like in the DA world where you have this great representation of troubled and morally grey characters (e.g. Zevran, Anders, Fenris, Cassandra, Dorian, Iron Bull, Solas), so everybody is just boring. The only exception to this is…

REYES VIDAL and thank fucking god because he single-handedly (single-voicedly, perhaps, as he’s voiced by Nicholas Boulton, who is known to us DA fans as Garrett Hawke) saved the Andromeda experience for me. He is actually interesting because he is this morally grey character trying to make the best out of a shitty starting experience in the Andromeda galaxy, and he is put into situation where he makes hard and oftentimes not squeaky-clean decisions. AND I LOVE HIM. He’s very clearly from Antiva, and the Zevran Arainai school of charm, flirtation, and bisexuality, but DAMN am I not pissed at BioWare that because he’s a supporting character and therefore never joins your crew or becomes your squadmate, your interactions with him boil down to about 20 minutes of some 90-hours of gameplay. And he cuts off your other romance pathways as well (as I discovered the hard way), so I felt kind of ripped off that I am apparently exclusive with some mafia kingpin that I’m in a long-distance relationship with. No sex scene, just a couple of make-outs and a kabe-don.

…WHAT.

If I don’t get more Reyes Vidal in a DLC I’m going to flip a table.

More dangling threads than a Project Runway disaster. There was real potential with a lot of the background plot that was going on, but NOTHING is resolved by the end of the game except for the most urgent “where we gonna live?” plotline.

Things that are dangling and aren’t even sewn up before hitting the runway are: - Ellen Ryder is still in cryo? - Who is the Benefactor and who murdered Jien Garson? What is up with the shady shit behind the Initiative anyway? - Who created the Scouge? - Are the Remnant still around? Why did they just abandon Meridian? - The Kett are still at large in the galaxy… - What caused the course deviations in intergalactic space about 300 years ago? - What’s happened to the other arks?

NOTHING IS RESOLVED. I thought I was getting a standalone game, and it’s actually a bait and switch. There are more questions raised than answered, which bodes well for a sequel, but I’m not sure if I want Bioware Montreal to be the people making this game.

Hardly any of your choices matter. I feel more rail-roaded in this game than I have in a modern BioWare game, DA2 included. At least in DA2, while Hawke had absolutely no agency in the events surrounding them, at least your choices decided who you fought against in the final battle, and there was also the very real and very common possibility of losing one of your friends. If you didn’t play your cards right, Isabela could’ve left, you could’ve given Fenris back to Danarius, you could have killed Anders, your surviving sibling could’ve died in the Deep Roads, you could have killed Merrill, you could’ve lost the allegiance of Aveline…literally the only person who can’t leave you is Varric, so it feels like a real accomplishment when you do go through the game with everyone intact. The same is somewhat true for ME2 as well, as the final mission you can potentially lose squadmates if you don’t assign them the correct tasks and have their loyalty missions. Even in DA:I you can make choices about certain characters in their arcs that change them and their interactions with other characters, as with the Cole human/spirit decision, and the choice of whether or not to work with the Qunari and whether to keep Cullen on the lyrium which both have the potential to come bite you in the ass in the Trespasser DLC. DA:I overall had more meaningful choices that affected your experience, as in the choice of mages vs. Templars, but also the end world state of your game, as in who you picked to be Divine, and the fate of the Inquisition and so on.

You are almost never asked to make a hard choice in Andromeda. There’s no equivalent of whether or not to kill Anders, of picking between Kaidan and Ashley. The closest to the former is whether to pick to side with the krogan or save the krogan over the Salarian Pathfinder, and that doesn’t seem to change the ME:A experience much. You are never asked to pick between a squadmate, and the only meaningful close choice there is the choice between Reyes Vidal and Sloane Kelly (which, let’s be honest, is a real no-brainer because Reyes in the only interesting romancable character in the entire game and Sloane Kelly is a thug through and through. It’s like, pick between this gang leader and this smooth mafia boss; yeah, this is pretty clear). Everything else is…minimal. And that’s really, really sad. I’m expecting, throughout the game, to have to make that hard call between say, whether to leave the Warden or Hawke behind in the Fade (in my first playthrough, it was a real rough one because that was a choice between Warden Alistair [who was coupled with my DA:O warden, Lyna] and Marian Hawke [who was coupled with Anders]), and while that was awful and painful, it was also GREAT. There is no equivalent in Andromeda and that makes me really sad. The stakes are just lower overall, which narratively makes for a way more boring game.

The gay options suck. This is less sucky if you are a lesbian, but if you are a gay bloke, you’re kind of out of luck. As I stated above, Gil undergoes conversion therapy to have a biological child with a woman, and your only other option is the amazing and charming space ZevranReyes Vidal whose single downside is treatment as a SECOND-CLASS ROMANCE. If you want to get the Matchmaker achievement where you romance 3 characters across 3 different playthroughs, it is currently NOT POSSIBLE to do that with male characters without having to do something hetero. That’s so not appropriate.

Aside from awkward facial expressions, the fact that there’s one face for all the Asari, and relatively shallow interactions with other NPCs, those are my major ME:A complaints.

GREAT AND AWESOME THINGS

The Nomad drives so well. I hated the Mako from the first game, and I love, love, love the Nomad now. Driving across Voeld makes me feel like Dominic Toretto in that custom Dodge Charger running from a nuclear submarine in Fast & Furious 8 good.

Reyes Vidal. I don’t need to say more here than Garrett Hawke and Zevran Arainai had a lovechild and his name is Reyes Vidal.

Combat experience is smooth as silk. Which makes the new game + more awesome because diversifying skills and quick profile switching is FUCK AWESOME. It’s kind of a pain to set up, but once you’ve got going, you’re going good.

That trope where everybody you’ve encountered in the game comes and helps you at the end of the game. That brief moment during endgame in front of the vault on Meridian where the krogan you’ve saved and Reyes Vidal and the whole damn cavalry come to assist. YESSSSSSS I love that trope so much and it hit all my happy buttons.

Jump jets. I am never going to be able to go back to a game where I can’t jump.

Movie night was cute. It was adorable.

Low grav asteroid/planet was amazing and fun. I’m really surprised it look this long to execute that. I wish it were bigger? It was smashing fun to drive around on.

Asians in space. I’m finally glad to see some goddamn Asians in space, knowing how many damn Asians exist in this world, I am so glad to finally see myself represented? One of the Asian default Sara Ryders is also super cute and we played as her and it was SO FUCKING NICE TO FINALLY SEE SOME ASIANS IN SPACE THANK YOU.

#mass effect: andromeda #Just me with my thoughts #I need more Reyes vidal

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