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thetrashbagswasteland · 4 months

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Today only from a card carrying member of the Castis Vakarian Appreciation Squad, a refresher on canon since there's a not-zero number of people in 2024 who seem blissfully unaware of how much we know about this man in canon (including andromeda yes the game is canon go cry about it).

He's a cop. Yes Castis works for C-Sec, implied within the same unit/building as Garrus and to the contrary of his son, is implied to be both good at his job and well-regarded for it. (This will be important for later points try to remember it.)

He has alien friends. Castis is canonically one of Alec Ryder's best friends. They're good enough friends that he passes on rumours/heresay about the Reapers to him and reminisces about spending time with him on the Citadel. Any turian old enough to have been an adult during the FCW and who has human friends as of canon prolly isn't a miserable old xenophobe. Whilst no, working at C-Sec doesn't exclude him from having shitty thoughts about Krogan and Quarians, it's a fairly good sign he's not anti-alien on the whole if he'll befriend a human.

He's got a personality. How dare minor characters have those! But more seriously, acting as if Castis is portrayed as nothing but a rule-worshipping automaton is doing him a disservice. If nothing else, his willingness to befriend and hang out with Alec, who's very much of the opinion that rules are guidelines to be circumvented when at all possible, shows that he's capable of nuance and maybe even a dash of line-pushing of his own accord. Maybe he's comfortable within the system and trusts law and order as set out legally above all else but c'mon guys, you don't hang out with a guy who goes on to break AI law and get dishonourably discharged (and then remain friends with him after that when it's made damned clear few others do) without being able to see shades of grey.

He trusts his son. This one I suspect may be more contentious BUT let's be honest here, Garrus isn't an easy person to be around. We hear about the pair of them clashing on the job and within their personal lives about the spectres but here's the thing: Garrus winds up on a secretive mission with a human and xenophobic terrorist group, after running off to a lawless hellscape to play batman. He remains distant until done working with Cererbus and then returns home with a crazy tale about a dead human spectre, genocidal robots from the year dot and half his face missing. Castis not only believes him but does so willingly enough that he does everything he can to help him get the news to the right people, just in case he's right. Equally, whilst we don't have an exact date for when the call with Alec occurs, it's post-start of ME1 at the very least and within that he's already willing to take what Garrus is saying Shepard says at face value. Within that call, it's made patently obvious that no matter what, he still trusts Garrus on some level and is proud of him on top of that trust.

He cares deeply for the people around him. Perhaps this one's linked with 3 but whatever, my post, my rules; in the comics, the picture we're painted by (unreliable narrator) Garrus is that of a driven, cold man who doesn't care enough about his own family. This is why he doesn't come home when Mama Vakarian gets hurt, we're told, and we're expected to take that as face value even when she herself says that by the time he can get away from work and be back there, she'll be mostly healed. Kinda contrasted by the fact that he seemingly retires/takes time off from C-Sec to be with his wife when she's dying. Now, the details are kinda fuzzy on the whys and hows but during ME3, he and Solana escape Palaven together. Maybe the war's going poorly enough that they're able to finagle staying together through the draft, maybe they come across one another purely by luck, we don't know. Either way, rather than attempt to get back to the Citadel and to where he presumably still had a job and/or was needed, he sticks with his daughter. Can't do anything more to help his son but he's gonna stick with at least one of his kids to make sure she survives. As well as all this, the "do things properly or don't do them at all" lesson Garrus struggles with from him is (gasp) not bad advice for their situation. He's trying to teach his son important life skills and whilst there's no denying he's going about it wrong, a key point is in fact that Garrus learns to master the gun he's struggling to fire and it in fact becomes one of his specialities! He becomes an exceptionally good marksman! The lesson fucking worked! He still, regardless of the reasons for it, seems to support and be content with Garrus not fulfilling his mandatory 15 but instead joining C-Sec and (worse still) doesn't have too much of an issue with him consorting with Spectres. Perhaps he's not best pleased but he definitely comes to accept that that's how things are irrespective of his own feelings about them as either a concept or as people (his belief that Garrus being a spectre would be a terrible no good very bad idea is, in fact, backed up by canon as being entirely correct too).

Conclusion/TL:DR. Take a lesson from Castis Vakarian himself here, either write about this man properly or don't write him at all, I'm begging y'all. There's an awful lot more to this character if you think about him and put together the information canon gives us on him, so do so.

#meta #character analysis #Castis Vakarian #garrus vakarian #turian #shakarian #also yeah MEA which gave us a canon name for him came out in 2017. Y'all have had 7 years to learn his name even if you had named him prior #do better.

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milkywayes · 4 months

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dreamt a cipher

a shepard/garrus post-destroy ending longfic.

[AO3 link]

I’ve debated a while about when to start posting this. Now it’s the new year, and I’ve been working on Cipher for over a year and a half, and I’ve waited long enough to start sharing it with you all. I’ve decided it’s finally time to start uploading while I work on the final chapters.

I started writing this before I ever drew a single piece of fanart for Mass Effect. It’s all the things that were bouncing around in my head after choosing the destroy ending with a mostly-paragon Shepard—consequence and responsibility and self-recrimination; her relationship with Garrus and with herself; their ties to each other and how much weight they can bear; their differing perspectives and how they slot together—all that fun stuff—compressed into a story, a place, a narrative.

I believe in the power of love, and I promise a happy ending. They’ve just been taking the long way to get there. Feel free to yell at me in the meantime.

A huge thank you to @callista-curations for her meticulous and invaluable beta work, and to @that-wildwolf and @gammaraydeath for being the best hypemen I could ask for!

A more detailed list of warnings can be found on AO3.

I've posted the full cover art here.

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Summary:

Pairing: Female Shepard/Garrus Vakarian Rating: M (subject to change) Important Tags: post-destroy ending - angst with a happy ending - slow burn (of sorts) - arguing - reconciliation - survivor guilt - minor original characters Her own personal Noverian peak. That’s what it was supposed to be. Nothing but the discovery: no distractions, no comfort, no windows looking out—no familiar faces. But it's starting to look like her winning streak might have ended in that pile of Citadel rubble, if it ever extended that far to begin with. ──── “How does the Earth idiom go? No use beating a dead—” A long-suffering sigh. “What was it again?” “A dead horse. And yet, you’re here. Beating it.” Pot, kettle. She wishes he’d just fucking say it.

-> AO3.

Read the start of Chapter 1: Constant Velocity under the cut!

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The overhead lights flicker as they always do when the data screens are up and running. It’s not something one gets used to, even so. It stings at her ocular nerves—or something like that, anyway, somewhere along the delicate wires that extend from her eyeballs into her brain—but her focus on the data doesn’t waver.

“In that case,” says Shepard, squinting against the ache, “what we need is salvage from a relay outside the immediate burst zone. Four jumps away. Five, if possible. There’s no point to any of this if we can’t scrape together a control group.”

She glances back at Elsawy, who so far hasn’t made it more than a meter into the room. She nods without looking up from her omni-tool; orange shimmers off her shiny, black hair, giving her the uncomfortable air of a Cerberus operative. Not the worst comparison, except that Miranda would waste no time letting her know if her logic took a faulty turn somewhere. Elsawy’s just as likely to agree now and write a message detailing all her crap conclusions later.

Leaning her hip against the conference table, Shepard shifts her weight off her left leg, bites down on the sigh that almost manages to slip out. Once in the clear, she grouses, “Where the hell is Meyer? He’s the one that called this meeting.”

As it is, it’s three people in attendance and she’s the only one talking. She could’ve achieved the same results with a voice call from her quarters, where she could elevate her leg in peace and without witnesses. In the dark.

“Lab Two,” answers Elsawy, finally ripping her attention off the omni-screen and gracing Shepard with a second of eye contact. Maybe in another life she could appreciate the effort—Jesus, as if she hasn’t had her fill of lives already. “We’re close to a breakthrough on the initial output patterns. Sorry. He’s been feeding his data to me.”

“Right.” She blinks once, twice, in time with the flickering. It doesn’t help; it never does. “I’ll swing by later, then. Anything else he asked you to relay?”

“Just that, Commander.” Elsawy is mumbling just enough that her voice has to compete with the drone of the air vents. The translator takes a second to filter out and amplify it. The result is less than perfect: “More salvage—” bzzrt—“bigger picture, you got it.” She narrows her eyes, and Shepard raises a brow. “Left leg or—” bzz!—“left hip?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Commander.”

“It’s nothing relevant,” she says pleasantly, forcing herself to stand up straight again. There’s a brief tremor shaking up her hamstrings; she waves a hand to distract from it. In the frenzy of the lights, the movement looks jerky, nervous. She soldiers on. “Old field injury. Unrelated. Anything can set it off.”

Funny, kind of, since it’s that very leg that ends in the most perfect, cooperative example of a foot she’s ever had the pleasure of treading on. It’s cloned; a replacement. Not the only one either. They should’ve just done away with the whole limb, but she hadn’t been consulted. Same with her trick shoulder. Not even Cerberus had managed to get that one back on the straight and narrow.

“I’d rather you bring it up with the doctor,” replies Elsawy. This is, apparently, what it takes for her to finally speak at a reasonable volume. “If we manage to fill even one of the data gaps…”

“I know,” she says. “I know, and I’m telling you, it’s unrelated.”

-> continue reading on AO3

#mass effect fanfiction #shakarian #fanfic #shakarian fic #oh GOD. here it is. I'm BIRTHING this baby like Shepard birthed grunt #I'm so nervous but I am really proud of this story so Take it.#cipher tag

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lilmissnatcat24 · 7 months

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are you ready for the trope i've been foaming at the mouth to finally write

“Vakarian?” Pallin’s voice called out from his glass office. He gestured him forward with a flick of his fingers. “Can we talk? Now?”

It was never a good sign when Pallin called someone aside. He, like most other turians, was professional, bordering on emotionless. Which made it all the most devastating when he would pull someone from the case, or fire them with a neat little severance package, or tell them that they needed to go pick out chunks of a vorcha out of a car grill on Tayseri (and, speaking from personal experience, was probably one of Garrus’s least favorite days working for C-Sec).

Garrus ignored the immature chittering that came from Chellick, Ridgefield, and Lamont as he joined Pallin down the hallway into an empty office, normally kept clean and tidy for telling families that their children and their parents were found somewhere on the Citadel murdered. Pallin gestured at one of the seats for Garrus, pacing back and forth with a datapad tucked underneath his arm.

Pallin looked incredibly uncomfortable. He was fidgeting with his armor, fidgeting with his gloves, fidgeting with his mandibles, fidgeting with just about everything in a five foot radius that could be fidgeted with. Garrus realized he’d never seen Pallin look so nervous before.

He placed the datapad down on the table, looking up at Garrus expectantly. “Is this true, son?”

Garrus was terrified to pick it up. It could be just about anything. Saren’s orders to fire Garrus from C-Sec, transcripts from a listening device that implicate Garrus in his investigation, a paper trail linking him to a sex club… He picked it up and read:

Consensual Relationship Agreement

Citadel Security is committed to creating a work environment free from harassment, discrimination, conflicts of interest, exploitation, and favoritism.

It is against Citadel Security policy to use a position of authority to induce another person to enter into a nonconsensual relationship. Indeed, even consensual relationships in the workplace can cause disruption and other problems in violation to company policy.

The purpose of this agreement is to affirm that Delia Shepard (Officer- Drugs and Trafficking) and Garrus Vakarian (Officer- Homicide), both employees of Citadel Security, have agreed to engage in a welcome, consensual social relationship--

Garrus’s tongue felt like a foreign object in his mouth, his stomach dropping down several levels. What the everliving fuck was Shepard thinking? His entire face was so stupidly warm, so warm that he was sure that Pallin could feel it from across the room.

“I--”

“Listen, Vakarian,” Pallin said in a fake sort of soft professional voice. This was why he was so uncomfortable; dealing with HR matters like this always made him unsure of what to say, or how to say it, or where to put his hands when he talked. “I’m not going to be the one to tell you who you can and can't see when you’re not at work or how to spend your free time. But are you absolutely positive that this is how you want to play this?”

“Um… I mean… we-- I guess, the two of us… um…” Garrus had no idea what to say. Luckily for him, neither did Pallin, evidently.

“I don’t need to know the specifics, please,” he put his hand up, a pained expression on his face. “Just… just make sure this doesn’t get in the way of your work, yeah? No… no quickies in storage closets.”

“No, sir,” Garrus said so quickly it sounded like one garbled, stuttering mess.

“I better not be able to smell her all over you.”

“No, sir.”

“And I sincerely hope you don’t spend all of your time on the seventh floor at her desk. You need to be at yours, working. Is that clear?”

“Yes, sir.” Pallin opened his mouth once more, then thought better, closing it. He waved Garrus away, a clear end to the conversation. Garrus stood, his head feeling as though someone replaced his brain with feathers and flies. And, doing exactly what Pallin told him not to do, went straight for the elevator and punched in the seventh floor.

#mass effect fanfiction #mass effect #mass effect fanfic #shakarian #ao3 fanfic #shepard x garrus #femshep #garrus vakarian #turn left

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faejilly · 3 months

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Alright so ask box meme time! Garrus or Grunt?

[make me choose] oh look, you got me to write more Weaver! I've been wanting to do that, thank you. 💙💙💙 (In this case, you got first impressions of a cop from an Earthborn Shepard... 😅)

Vakarian makes Shepard feel old.

He’s probably about her age, though she’s not as good at reading turians as humans, for obvious reasons. (It’d taken her for fucking ever to figure out how to deal with humans, honestly. Which… is not a thought to help her feel less ancient.)

It also doesn’t help that he is systematically doing the absolute worst thing to make a good impression with her every time they’re in the same room.

She thinks she’s managing to hide that opinion.

Except maybe from Executor Pallin. Something in his eyes looks exactly as exhausted as she feels. (It's disconcerting to realize she identifies more with the politician-policeman than the reckless idealist, considering she's usually regarded as more of a reckless idealist herself.)

For all Pallin is the head of C-Sec, he's remarkably straightforward and pragmatic. Enough so that he doesn't ping against her instincts as cop, but Vakarian does.

And she’s (embarrassingly) still enough of a street kid to hate that.

A hypocritical street-kid, considering she’s basically Space-SWAT whenever Alliance Command sends her on a pirate-sweep.

Apparently the space part makes a difference to her lizard brain.

Vakarian’s also in space though?

No, her lizard brain doesn’t buy that.

Her lizard brain’s a fucking moron.

Do turians have lizard brains? She’s afraid that Vakarian doesn’t even have lizard sense. (She can suddenly hear Litty laughing in her head, ‘but common sense isn’t, you should know that by now,’ echoing out of a past Vakarian keeps reminding her of, a past that she thought she'd put to rest, a past she knows she'll never completely let go.)

Not helpful.

Every time he opens his mouth, she has to consciously resist the urge to sigh and knuckle her forehead or pinch the bridge of her nose. The physical pressure will not actually relieve the mental pressure, no matter how much it feels like it should.

But seriously, who introduces themself only to immediately complain about failing at their confidential assignment while very much in public?

Who follows that nonsense up by going right for an entirely unnecessary headshot in a hostage situation?

That had almost made her want to headshot him.

But she hadn’t. Because she has impulse control.

Doesn’t she?

Certainly more than Vakarian.

That’s not saying much.

She doesn’t have a problem dealing with the arrogance of people who are actually as good at their job as they think they are, but he seems to have no idea that he’s entirely failed to convince her that he might be one of them.

Despite all that, recruiting him is the right decision.

It is, she knows it is.

They need to make it clear this isn’t just a human vendetta. He’s Turian and Citadel and Police and makes this whole impossible situation reputable.

Closer to reputable?

But probably only to people who haven’t met him. He’s loud and brash and pulled out a sniper rifle in a med-clinic on the Wards.

He made the shot.

He took the shot because he saw it and he felt it and he wanted to protect Dr. Michel a hell of a lot more than he cared about himself.

He rushes into things because he cares.

Damn it.

That’s familiar.

He still makes her feel old.

#jilly answers #spacemomnephmoreau #mass effect #weaver shepard #garrus vakarian #jilly writes #me1 #me ot #make me choose

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shivunin · 4 months

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Three-Song Playlists

Rules: Compile three-song playlists for as many OCs as you can/would like to

Thank you for the tag @greypetrel! Like you, I am linking the full playlist in case anyone would like to listen to them c: The songs are in no particular order.

Tagging @star--nymph @zenstrike @daggerbean @ndostairlyrium @dungeons-and-dragon-age @inquisimer @idolsgf @dreadfutures @bitchesofostwick @vakarians-babe @jtownnn @nightwardenminthara @brother-genitivi and anyone who loves music (Please recommend music to me!! I love hearing new songs!!)

Arianwen Tabris (🗡️)

I Spit On Your Grave by ZAND (Spit your blood into my cup and then I'll gulp you down)

Trigger Finger by Coyote Kid (Bloodstains on a kitchen knife/ it wasn't made for this, but I know how to improvise)

Praying Mantis by Jazz Alonso (If I show my teeth, I must be hungry/ in you go, baby)

Maria Hawke (✨)

Nobody Wants to Be Alone by Christian Reindl, Atrel (When you strain your eyes to see the light, I won't be far behind/ Cause it's better in the dark when you're a friend of mine)

Champion by Fall Out Boy (I'm just young enough to still believe, but young enough not to know what to believe in)

Gracias a la Vida by Mercedes Sosa (Me ha dado la risa y me ha dado el llanto/ Así yo distingo dicha de quebranto/ Los dos materiales que forman mi canto)

Emmaera Lavellan (✉️)

Every Other Love Song by MALINDA (So good at explaining/ at finding the right words/ but when I look at you, I fail)

No Choir by Florence + the Machine (If tomorrow it's all over/ at least we had it for a moment/ Oh, darling, things seem so unstable/ but for a moment we were able to be still)

Comfort by Deb Talan (If you can't remember a better time/ you can have mine)

Elowen Lavellan (🌱)

Overture III/Awake by Sleeping at Last (Today, I'll survive/ tomorrow, make sense of my life)

Soap by The Oh Hellos (I don't know I've seen a thing grow/ without an open coat/ not without a softness showing)

Queen of Nothing by The Crane Wives (Isn't this what you wanted? Time sure feels like it's running out/ Just finish what you started/ Queen of nothing, wearing such a heavy crown)

Salshira Lavellan (🍂)

punchline by KiNG MALA (I'm having a great time/being the punchline to my own joke)

Dutch by Dessa (Love is like liquor/ it burns when it moves you/ Far as I figure/ there's nobody fireproof)

Mean It by K.Flay (So when I say I love you, I want to mean it/ Cause I say a lot of things that I don't mean)

Tavitha (Tav) (🌤️)

Can't Cheat Death by The Ballroom Thieves (There are two things I know for sure: I will be free, I will be free, I will be free/ and you can't cheat death)

Greener by Anju, Uliya (You reached inside and took the parts you wanted out/ maybe you forgot/ you can take what I have, but I grow something better back)

Dancing Plague of 1518 by mollyofgeography(Make room to hold a want that's weighted/shapeshift to sate it/ 'til my head knows my heart betrayed it)

Jesse Shepard (☄️)

Machine Heart by Icarus (You've been looking for some kind of savior/ you created me and turned me into you/ to make me last a lifetime)

Glitter & Gold by Barns Courtney (Do you walk in the shadow of men who sold their lives to a dream? Do you ponder the manner of things in the dark?)

Rusty Cage by Johnny Cash (You wired me awake and hit me with a hand of broken nails...but I'm gonna break my rusty cage and run)

#arianwen tabris #maria hawke #elowen lavellan #emmaera lavellan #salshira lavellan #tav tag #jesse shepard #tag game #music #this took me way longer than i'd like to admit lol

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thatwildwolfwrites · 16 days

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Change Starts With Today [AO3 link]

Category: Gen

Fandom: Mass Effect

Character(s): Garrus Vakarian

Pairing(s): Shakarian (mentioned)

Summary: Garrus goes to therapy.

Chapter 7 out now!

sneak peek/preview:

"Garrus?" "Yes." It wasn't a question. He reacted instinctively, like a soldier who'd received a command. "Can you take off that targeting visor?" He tilted his head at her. Instead of the anger she was expecting, all Marta saw in his body language was confusion. "...Why?" "For one, I'm not a target." Marta smiled at him. She liked to think that she had a good grasp on Garrus Vakarian's sense of humor at this point. "No, you're not." He flicked a single mandible in a half-smirk. "I'm just—" He rubbed his crest. "I don't like taking it off." I bet. Marta didn't say it out loud. She didn't want to push him into a step he wasn't ready for yet, but taking that step wouldn't even occur to him unless she brought it up. So she had to ask, even if just to see what his attitude was towards the idea. "Alright, so... Let's do what we did when we talked about Shepard, okay?" She sent him an encouraging smile. "What do you think is the worst thing that could happen if you take it off? Come on. Absolute worst-case scenario." Garrus scrunched up his nose. It didn't seem like he was enjoying this thought exercise. Maybe because he couldn't come up with any reason taking off the visor would be a bad idea.

read it on ao3 ^^

#YES NEW BANNER. AGAIN. WHAT OF IT #garrus #garrus vakarian #mass effect fanfic #mass effect

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dispatchwithlove · 8 months

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I just got this amazing commission from @angstyastro and I coulnd't be happier with it! Thank you for such an amazing piece! Look at these fools, coming undone because they're finally getting their hands on each other. Can't wait to work on this scene!

This is from In Your Arms, a Shakarian detective au.

#i'm so in love with them #help this is so hot #they're so hot #shakarian #garrus vakarian #shepard x garrus #garrus x shepard #jane shepard #shakarian art #the cases of shepard and vakarian #mass effect fan art #shakarian fic #amazing art

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striderincosmos · 2 months

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WIP Whenever

As tagged by @swaps55, and inviting any who wish to participate! (I'm not exactly linked to many writers on here just yet)

Here's a sneak peak (a nice, long one) between Nathaniel 'Nate' Shepard and Garrus on their way to Feros in Spectre Echoes: Memories and Portents!

- - -

The crew area was a rather bustling place at the moment, what with the new additions to the crew. It made Garrus stand out even more at the table, dressed in a shirt and pants that accommodated the slight crest of his upper back.

Nate took a seat next to him, a human beer in one hand and a turian brew from a case he’d had assigned to the Normandy’s cold storage in the other. “Evening, Garrus,” he said casually, offering the brew. “How are you holding up?”

“Rather well, honestly,” Garrus said as he took his drink, opening it and taking a sip. “This sort of environment is easy for me, no matter the species. I might have decided to go to C-Sec over joining the reserves in a decade or so, but you can’t beat out nearly a decade of military training.”

“What made you go into C-Sec in the first place?” Nate asked.

“It was the family business,” Garrus shrugged. “My father had been C-Sec before getting pulled out from the Reserves for Relay-314, and his father before him had done the same thing. Still don’t know why the old man went into politics, though. Even C-Sec is simpler than that.”

Nate shrugged. “I try to avoid politics. When you have a camera pointed at you more often than not…”

“I can see how that’d be the case,” Garrus said, pausing for long moments. “So, I’ve got a question for you about Saren.”

“Funny enough, I’ve actually got one for you, too,” Nate said. “You first.”

“Are you really planning on trying to arrest Saren and drag him in front of the Council after what he’s done?”

Nate ruminated on the query with a pull of beer. “It’d be what the Council wants done, most likely. Saren’s dangerous, but if we can subdue him, he needs to face due process.”

Garrus’s mandibles drooped slightly, the action looking almost like a grimace. Or a sneer. “There’s a lot of risk to that too, though. He isn’t the best Spectre the Council has for nothing. He could probably find half a dozen different ways to escape during transit to the Citadel, let alone what he could do if he was on it.”

“We know he’s the most dangerous person in the galaxy,” Nate said assuringly. “If there’s anyone who can guard him, it’s going to be all of us and the krogan along for the ride.”

“That wouldn’t stop the Council from offering clemency, or just finding some way to sweep this under the rug,” Garrus retorted. “But taking him in is the way it’s done by the book, isn’t it? ‘Do it right, or don’t do it at all’.”

Nate frowned slightly at the rather bitter invective. “And who said that?”

“Lucrius Vakarian,” Garrus said, washing the name back down with a pull of his brew. “Among the most renowned detectives on the Citadel. Spirits know he said to me more times than I can count.”

“Not a regulations guy, then?”

Garrus sighed quietly. “I get why they’re there. I get that they’re useful. My father and C-Sec drilled that into me well enough. But sometimes, in order to resolve a situation permanently, completely, the regs, and the people who enforce them, can make it so that a solution becomes a stopgap. People get away. Innocents get taken advantage of or hurt when they don’t need to.”

Garrus was silent for a moment. “Take Doctor Saleon.”

“Who’s that?”

“He was — probably is still — one of the leading figures of the Citadel’s black markets. Specifically in grown organs. Real mean bastard. In a place where a krogan who’s well-connected enough could drop 40,000 credits for a full quad transplant to try and counteract the genophage, Saleon was a unique brand of fucked up.”

“See, there was an increase in organ trade, well beyond what we expected. We managed to confiscate some, and do some genetic tests. It was a bit of a mess, but it led us to a very lively turian who was very insistent that he was not, in fact, missing his liver. We ran a background check, and saw he worked for the aforementioned doctor.”

“What did you do next?” Nate asked.

“We brought him and some of Saleon’s other former employees in for questioning. While I was interviewing one of them, I noticed something suspicious. One of the detainees, a human, started bleeding from his abdomen during questioning. Pretty badly, too. We offered to patch him up, and he got panicky.”

Garrus paused, was silent for long moments. “We found dozens of incision scars on him. Some of them fresh, like the one that gave him away. Others much older. That’s when we realized this sick bastard Saleon wasn’t just employing people. He was testing on them. Growing the organs right inside of them, then cutting them open, harvesting them, and selling them off. Most of the test subjects were poor, desperate. They only got a small cut of the profits from any sale, and only if the organs were viable. If they weren’t, he just… left them inside them.”

The beer wasn’t very appealing to Nate anymore, and he set it on the table at arm’s length. “What happened then?” he ventured.

“We went out to go and put the cuffs on this guy. But he rigged his lab to blow, ran as soon as his mules started getting pulled in by C-Sec. Took some of his ‘employees’ with him to the nearest spacedock. By the time we found where he was, the ship he stole was already leaving. He threatened to kill who were now his hostages if anyone tried to stop him.”

“And he got away?” Nate said incredulously.

Garrus nodded. “I ordered Citadel defenses to intercept and fire on him, but C-Sec HQ countermanded my order. They were worried about the hostages. Worried about civilian casualties for how close he still was to the city arms. I told them the hostages were already the next best thing to dead, that this was just the cold, hard calculus of stopping a criminal like this now and for good. But they wouldn’t listen.”

Nate sighed. “Sounds like a recipe for hating where you work.”

“To put it mildly.” Garrus chuckled darkly. “I went to Executor Pallin, the man in charge of C-Sec, and told him what I thought about the situation and the policies that made it happen. He told me if I didn’t like it, then I could quit. To be honest, I almost did, just to spite them.”

“As tough a choice as it is, the lives of the hostages were as important as catching Doctor Saleon,” Nate said pointedly. “If we didn’t care about the lives of those threatened by the people we want to bring to justice, how different are we from them?”

It was silent between them for a moment before Garrus sighed quietly. “You know, I can see where you’re coming from. I just wish we could have stopped Saleon as well.”

Again it was silent. “So,” Garrus said after a moment, “what was your question?”

“You’ve got a personal stake in this,” Nate began. “I won’t begrudge that, and I won’t discount that we might need to kill Saren to stop him. But if we do manage to capture him… can I count on you to let justice play out?”

Garrus was silent for long, contemplative moments. “As much as it might grate at me…” he finally said. “I’ll trust your judgment. You’ve got a good head on your shoulders, Shepard. However the stellar wind blows, I’ll follow your lead.”

Nate nodded. “I’m glad you have my back, Garrus.”

“I mean hey,” Garrus said, his mandibles implying a slight grin, “I get to learn what a Spectre looks like from you. Thus far, I’d say I’ve got a pretty good mentor.”

#WIP Whenever #mass effect #fanfic scene

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skiitter · 2 years

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"I love you, Garrus Vakarian."

It echoed like a gunshot in her head. The words were honeyed oil, viscous, insistent, easy. She'd said it because, high above the Presidium with the galaxy burning and the scent of ozone in the air, it was the only thing left to say. She loved him. It was a fact, a veritable force of nature; relentless and seemingly without end. The soft, vulnerable, beating center of her was wholly removed from the cavity of her chest and placed with ironclad trust into the palm of his three-fingered hand.

And Garrus Vakarian, sole anchor of her heart and absolute arbiter of her desires, did not say it back.

At first, she assumed it was a cultural miscommunication. Lord knows they'd had their fair share of those in the time they had spent together. Shepard didn't even think to question it, attributing his lack of reciprocation to the failures of their translators.

And then he said he loved Tali's omni-tool mod, and Liara's quick thinking, and Joker's sharp tongue, and the forceful way Javik demanded success. Without provocation, without restraint, the declaration so banal it was unnoticeable to anyone else. Suddenly, Shepard realized that Garrus knew exactly what it meant to love something. He understood with blatant clarity the human definition of the act and had chosen not to say it back.

Immediately, she wanted to ask him, to find out the objective truth of the matter. Only, between the war and the reapers and the waves of violent destruction, Shepard lacked the energy and conviction to do it. So instead, every bit the mechanical soldier she'd trained to be, Jane Shepard ate her feelings whole and let them fester with rot in total silence.

It worked surprisingly well, at least for a time. Despite the way it poisoned the well of her thoughts, it was still easy to speak to him. Garrus was her best friend, the person she relied upon most. He had her six, her back, and her best interests in mind. So what if he didn't say "I love you" back? She was a big girl. She was Commander fucking Shepard. The feather soft touch of his hand at her spine was enough.

And it was, all the way up until it wasn't.

An endless wave of Cerberus agents had them pinned against a crumbling wall, somewhere in the heart of a human colony. She is out of ammo, save for the last two rounds in her SMG and the situation is bleak no matter how you looked at it. All in all, a familiar if unwelcomed scenario.

"Not a great situation here, Shepard," Garrus said.

"Is it ever?"

His laugh strikes at the small, vulnerable points in her armor. Ever the marksman. "No, I guess not." The flanking engineer drops when Garrus shoots him between the eyes. "You never take me anywhere nice. And here I was, thinking you loved me."

Shepard pops around the corner to lob a stream of biotic energy at the approaching centurion. "Maybe I just got tired of waiting to hear it back."

Garrus frowns but the firefight overtakes them, and Shepard let's the topic drop.

He waits until they're safely back aboard the Normandy to respond. Guns clunk heavily into their containers as she offloads the small armory she carries around. Vega is chatting with Cortez nearby, arguing over the value of titanium vs. steel bullet casings. Shepard focuses on their conversation to shake the weight of Garrus' eyes on her.

Unfortunately for her, the two men leave before she can finish unloading her weaponry and the moment the elevator door slides shut, he attacks.

With a speed wholly incompatible with the bulk of his body, Garrus crowds her into the wall. "What was that back there?" he asks.

"What was what?" Shepard plays coy because the opportunity never presents itself and she's otherwise too direct not to seize the twisted reprieve. "Just the usual gunfight between us and the enemy, Garrus."

He growls, subvocals a low reminder of the predator he's descended from. "We both know that's not what I'm talking about."

She stares up at him, defiant in the face of his demand. "Well I can't imagine--"

"Did I miscommunicate something here, Shepard? Have I not made myself clear?"

Heat, drawn from a myriad of sources, burns her face. "You've made yourself perfectly clear, Garrus."

His hands clutch at the cloth of her uniform, threatening to pull her apart at the seams. "Then what's wrong? Because something is wrong. I know you, Shepard. I know you better than I know myself and something is bothering you. Something I did."

"You didn't do anything," she snaps. "That's the whole fucking problem." Feelings and the blatant declaration of them have never been her strong suit and in the face of discomfort, Shepard grows indignant. "You played it too easy, Vakarian, just like you always do."

He recoils like a poorly maintained pistol. "What the hell does that mean?"

"It means--" she shouts, only to lower her tone when a passing officer glances their way. "It means that I don't like being toyed with. I made my--my feelings known. And enough time has past that I was hoping you'd finally do the same." Shepard pulls away. "I guess you have."

When she goes to leave, though, he holds tight, pressing her into the wall. "What feelings? What are you even talking about?"

"I love you, okay? And I know you know what it fucking means, Garrus. You seem to have no problem throwing the word around otherwise." The foolishness is too much, and her indignation dies an ugly death. "I just thought you'd have said it back by now."

The gauntlet of understanding plays out on his features. "Shepard, do you think--"

"Keep your pity, Garrus, I'm a big girl. I'll get over it. The war will make sure of that."

He tries once more to speak, assuredly to apologize for her gross display of misconstrued affection, but Shepard cannot bear the rejection and she wrests free from his grasp to disappear gracelessly into her cabin.

Not even a full minute passes before he chases after her.

The fish all seem to look expectantly at her when she stalks into the room and she punches the 'feed' button almost hard enough to break it. Shitty, autotuned dance music plays mutely in the background.

Shepard takes one full step towards the inviting expanse of her bed when Garrus marches in.

"Garrus, I said--"

"I love you. Is that what this is about? Spirits, Shepard, how was I supposed to know you cared about that? Of course I love you! I'd burn this entire stupid galaxy down for you. I'd happily march into certain annihilation at your side, just as I have time and again." His mandibles flare with emotion. "I never said it back because I thought it was obvious. Apparent, even. I love you so much you stubborn, difficult, foolish woman."

She doesn't quite know what to say first and so she settles for a scowl. "I don't need some hallmark card of devotions, Garrus. It was just--in the moment you didn't say it back and--well--I mean you say you love your stupid rifle! What was I supposed to think?"

He closes the gap between them, satiating the mutual need to touch. "That I'm actually not the cool, suave, sophisticated badass that I pretend to be and telling the woman of my dreams--who happens to be the savior of all sapient life in the galaxy--that I love her is just a wee bit intimidating?"

"But I said it first!"

"And I was too tongue tied to say it back." His forehead is cool against her own. "I'm sorry. I know--I know how hard it is, being vulnerable. And the fact that you thought, even for a second, let alone two standard weeks, that I didn't love you back is a crime I cannot bear to commit again."

"Garrus--"

He presses his cheek to hers, flaring the plates of his mouth in his own interpretation of a kiss. "Shut up. I love you. I'll say it everyday. All the time. To anyone who will listen. I love you."

#Shakarian #Skitterfics #My cat won't stop sleeping on my keyboard and so I wrote this in lieu of playing ME3LE #Why yes I did just complete the shooting comp with Garrus why do you ask #Garrus Vakarian #Femshep #mass effect legendary edition

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mythicaldemigoddess-of-deltarune · 3 months

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Sari Sumdac's Age Chart & Sumdac/Vakarian/Shepard (2024)

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Credit for Helluva Boss goes to to Vivienne "Vivziepop" Medrano & SpindleHorse

Credit for Transformers goes to Hasbro & TakaraTomy

Credit Transformers Animated Series goes to Sam Register & Matt Youngberg

Credit for Mass Effect goes to Bioware

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[Note: Don't Reblog This Without My Permission, As This Drawing Will Only Be Used For Here & Over At The Place Where I Will Be Using It As a Cover For One Of The Future Chapters Of "The Angel In Disguise"...I do have both the names I go by on this drawing even if "Mythicaldemigoddess-of-deltarune" was what I changed to because of certain reasons that I wont go into right now...and well once again this drawing will be used as a Cover for a future chapter for that story which if I decide to, I might post some chapters of it on here, you know like a Cross-Post...oh and in case the drawing is too small to see properly, please make sure to click on the drawing to make it bigger so it can be viewed a bit more better.]

I do plan to use this as a Cover for a Future Chapter for Falling For The Angel In Disguise…and yeah, some can guess what will be happening to Sari when she turns 24 years old in the story.

(I might of pointed this out before, but I will say it again...

"Falling For The Angel In Disguise" is for Mature Audience Readers Only, which means there be 18+ moments in certain chapters, even though some parts are still technically not fully detailed, even the whole Semi-Ship going on with Swindle x Adult-Sari...and originally Sari wasn't plan to be the main heroine of the story, but ideas change and the original heroine has a different part to play in that story now.)

also I have a new idea on who could truly be Sari's Human Bio-Parents, and well the whole idea can be added in a future Chapter, where the "Good" Doctor Scalpel will look over Sari's DNA and CNA again, and while it does show that she still Megatron's daughter through her CNA side…on her DNA side, it will show that Marissa Faireborn isn't the Mother after all, and it turns out that Sari's Human Mother is Jane Shepard (which is only in a Crossover-Fanon Timeline.)

and Scalpel also finds out about Isaac Sumdac's Other Brother who is his younger twin brother who's name is Ivaan Sumdac who turns out to be Sari's True Human Bio-Father, as he is a 100% match…

so yeah, I tried to make Ivaan as the "Hot Twin", ya know like Stanford "Ford" Pines from Gravity Falls by Alex Hirsch.

and the reason why Ivaan is going to be Sari's Bio-Dad in that Crossover Story, is because he wasn't wearing gloves.

so in a Fanon Timeline, Isaac isn't a only child and might have more than just two siblings, but only one of his siblings is Isaac's twin brother.

it might make sense that Ratchet was made to be Sari's Godfather by either Isaac Sumdac or Ivaan Sumdac, because both Uncle/"Adoptive Father" & Father would know that Sari has a much longer lifespan than them and will likely have the lifespan as other Cybertronians, even if she is half-human.

so knowing they might not live as long to be in her life forever and it being possible they might go before she becomes a young woman, they could have Ratchet be her Godfather…

even though in "Falling For The Angel In Disguise", Sari is a woman now...well womech when you count her being half-cybertronian.

so if anything were to happen to Isaac or Ivaan when Sari was still very young and before she becomes adult…

Ratchet will get Sari, but if anything were to happen to him, then Sari could end up going to one of her Moms, either Jane Shepard or Megatron. XD

also the reason why Sari at Ages 14 to 15 years old is not smiling in this drawing, it's because of her Autobot Friends.

and yeah in "Falling For The Angel Disguise" Sari is given another chance to be a kid again in a Flashback, where she loses only half of her upgrade, so being back to being 8 years old in the type of Flashback…

Sari's robot form is suppose to be much smaller and femling size in the flashback, so since she loses half of her upgrade some where in the past in the story, that meant she got to grow up a bit more and not skip through most of it.

at the moment Sari is 23 years old, but I will have her become 24 years old later on in the story.

the plan is that Sari will still use a type of Imp-Succubus Hybrid Disguise, from when she is still alive as a Half-Human & Half-Cybertronian, to when she becomes a type of Cybertronian-Angel.

Sari doesn't just have a Cybertronian Spark, the idea is that she has a hybrid spark that is half of Earth and half of Cybertron.

her angel wings are energy based, and yeah I'm still going to have Sari's blood type be O RH D Negative. (same as my blood type…) which would also mean that Sari is a Princess, which her being Megatron's Daughter, that would make her the Princess of The Decepticon Empire.

Scalpel could have Team Chaar (that is Strika, Blackout, Cyclonus, Oil-Slick and Spittor) as Sari's "Royal Bodyguards"…. and I want to say, that since Sari wasn't legally adopted by Isaac Sumdac, that means any human or cybertronian can legally adopt her as their daughter.

Porter C. Powell might be a power hungry jerk who tried to take over Sumdac's Company…who I wouldn't be surprised if his Sinner form ends up being a Anthropomorphic Pig with how Greedy he can be.

but Powell might have a good point, Isaac didn't make sure to give Sari some form of proper papers to show she in fact exist, even if he does a bit better than Greg Universe even if both of them are Gray-Parents…

it doesn't excuse him from not making sure she was taking to a Hospital after she was born in his secret lab, that Megatron was in. even if Isaac Sumdac and Greg Universe are still good dads in their own way, but that doesn't mean they are 100% good dads, like they both can be in between being good and bad dads…

which is why they would fall under the Gray-Parenting rank…and even if Isaac knows Sari is half-Cybertronian, he would still view her as still being human and wouldn't say "Sari, your Cybertronian.

your not like other kids!" even when Steven Universe does return, and I hope it does if some info is true…

I hope Greg doesn't just throw the whole "Steven, Your a Gem, your not like other kids." card….I mean yes Steven is Half-Gem, but he is also Half-Human.

I still love Steven Universe Future, and I think Steven had the right to be upset with Greg in one of the episodes, and yeah Greg's parents might had some problems, but there could be more to it than meets the eye…and both Greg and Steven's Grandparents, could both be in the wrong, like Steven's Grandparents not explaining to Greg why they couldn't give him everything he wanted or how they always made him meatloaf…

which maybe having meatloaf once in a while might be okay, but if ya want to spice things up, put some mustard on it and eat it with some other food, like fries.

plus it could still be possible one of or both of Greg's parents had problems with very loud sounds that would hurt them, and Greg could have had a habit with turning the volume of his music up way too loud.

even if one can like to listen to their favorite music really loud, if you have someone either a friend or family who gets hurt by the very loud sound and is in the same room as you, it is best to turn the volume down for their sake.

if I had to guess, it could be Greg's Mom who would get hurt by Greg turning his music too loud, and it would have to be Greg's Dad to tell him or at least try to, to stop it but Greg ends up ignore him and what he tries to tell him. even if Greg might seem like the perfect Dad, but he isn't, I mean he can be perfect in other ways as a Dad, but at the same time he isn't 100% a perfect Dad, maybe around a 95% but not any higher than that…

Greg along with Sumdac, would be Gray-Parents, even if Isaac did some stuff right when being Sari's Father, he might make some mistakes along the way.

like if your a Mom, and you leave your baby who can still walk, end up being watched by your own Mother who is the baby's Grandmother, and the baby ends up getting hurt under the said Grandmother's watch…

and well, I think I had worse than that time when my Grandmother was watching me, but I ended up hurting my hand...

one of the other times I got hurt when I was a baby, was when me and my big brother were playing alone, and I ended up having to go to the hospital cause I got a bad cut close to some corner of my right eye....not sure if I brought that up on here either, but one of the fanfics I'm reading reminds me of it...I love the story, and even if there are still some differences that reminds me of my life, I think I can relate to one of the characters from it a little bit because they remind me of some parts of my life even if the parts of their life is still very VERY super different from my own....and well, maybe I will go into more detail in another post.

I still think if I was born a twin, chances would be I would be the younger twin who would be more like Stocking Anarchy, and my older twin sister would be like Panty Anarchy...

plus we would both be Defective Earth Angels, who don't exactly work 100% like other Earth Angels and know there is something seriously messed up with the Patriarchy because of that whole Toxic-Masculine thing...

Toxic-Feminine is still a problem too, but it isn't as dangerous or as high as the Toxic-Masculine that has been around for like many centuries...

I think I want to have Sari be a type of Gaea Follower instead of being a full on follower of Primus.

you know, some Female Transformer who is suppose to be in the Earth, plus if Gaea was part of both TFA and Earthspark, she would be Omni-Mom to both Sari, Dinobots, Wreck-Gar, Soundwave (who I'm still going to view as a separate one from the Cybertron-Born Soundwave who will be known as Soundwave Sr. and by his other name Soundblaster.), Constructicons and Sumdac's Robots.

Gaea could be known as Mom-2 to The Terrans: Twitch, Thrash, Jawbreaker, Nightshade and Hashtag.

I mean, when you think about it, Primus is kind of a terrible Omni-Dad in the TFA Timeline...it's not like he tries to stop the Autobots from misusing the living metal in Cybertron, or stop them from taking over still inhabited organic worlds that they end up Cyber-forming for Cybertronian life...and the Autobots have more planets than the Decepticons, if that doesn't tell you something is up...

another reason why Primus wasn't in the Transformers Animated Show, because a certain someone who was working on the show with the others, didn't like him...but no matter if ya like him or not, and no matter if he is kind of a terrible dad, he is still a important character in the Transformers Multiverse.

if Adult-Sari was helping her Autobot Friends Fight Megatron and his Decepticons all while a type of Ethereal Smaller Avatars of Primus, Gaea and Unicron are watching...

Sari who already knows that the Autobots who are much higher rank and run Cybertron and who don't tell the Autobots of lower-rank about them Cyber-forming organic worlds that already have organic life on them (and that is why the whole Optimus, Sentinel and Elita-1 were not allowed on organic worlds, because they would of found out the truth...) and the fact that the Autobots have more planets than the Decepticons because the Autobots make sure to push them back and keep them in The Decepticon's Territory...

Sari could figure out that both sides are in the Gray, and the Decepticons could be better if they tried a different path to try to stop the corruption on Cybetron, which I believe is thanks to Megazarak who disguised himself as Ultra Magnus...

one of the other problems Sari could see, can have to do with Primus.

and Sari could stop fighting whichever Decepticon she was fighting and walk over to where Primus, Unicron and Gaea are.

then Sari could point to Primus while yelling out

"Your a Terrible Dad, Primus!!!"

Primus could be shocked, Unicron could snort from trying to hold back his laugh, and Gaea could be all like "That's My Girl!" as she is so proud of Sari for speaking up like that.

plus if you think about it, in theory Sari could be technically a Demi-Goddess, and the reason why Megatron was possibly able to have Sari in that secret lab was probably The Cybertronian Goddess Gaea's doing...even though Megatron may have been in a stasis coma at the time and there was a 50 Stellar Cycles limit on how long Megatron could be separate from his body...you know like Zim and the rest of the Irkens and their Pak, of course their time limit isn't as long as Cybertronians...

plus in a Crossover Fanon Timeline with Transformers, Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss...

since Isaac Sumdac (and Ivaan Sumdac before he goes missing.) was using Megatron and reverse engineer his technology by taking some of the parts from Megatron's head, all while Megatron was still in his stasis-coma and still technically alive...

that might end up sending Professor Isaac Sumdac to Hell...

like picture his shock when he realizes he is in Pentagram City and not in Heaven, even if he still has some good points from his life...

but the whole taking parts from a still living being, even one like Megatron, still ends up making the bad points higher than the good points....even the points where Isaac Sumdac takes credit for Soundwave's creation, yeah Powell made the Sound-Wave copies, but Professor Sumdac wasn't the one who designed Soundwave.

if Isaac did have a twin brother, it could of been his twin brother who I'm still going to call "Ivaan" who found Megatron, NOT Isaac.

the brothers could of built their robotic empire together, and Ivaan was the one who was against taking parts from Megatron's head and wanted to find a humane way to reverse engineer the technology, by making a scanner that would scan the robot head and tell what is inside it and how it works.

Isaac however, goes against his brother's wishes and takes some parts from the robot head anyway, and that is why Megatron's head looks the way it does while in Sumdac's Secret Lab.

and not everyone has to agree with it, but how could Sari's protoform baby self absorb any of Isaac's DNA when he was wearing gloves...?

the reason why the Maximals and Predacons from Beast Wars were possibly able to get some samples of DNA for their disguises, might have to do with there was nothing preventing the access to the DNA needed for those disguises, the T-Rex Skeleton that Predacon Megatron, was easy for the scanners to pick up and scan, even the other lifeforms that were still very much alive.

Isaac may have got a shock and was out cold because of it, but it could be possible that if he did have a twin brother called Ivaan, he would of found his brother out cold on the floor and saw the protoform, and while not wearing gloves himself, ends up touching the liquid metal body and it ends up absorbing his DNA.

so yeah, it is also a Fan-Headcanon Theory I have...

that Isaac Sumdac has a twin brother who ends up going missing under mysterious reasons, possibly when Sari was 1 or 2 years old.

and Isaac is really Sari's Uncle, while Ivaan (Isaac's twin brother) is her true biological human father.

and in a Crossover with Mass Effect, Ivaan could be Jane Shepard's Ex-Husband, and she was with Ivaan Sumdac when they found Isaac on the floor and unconscious, and Jane wasn't wearing gloves either and both her and Ivaan touched the protoform sparkling at the same time and then Sari came to be...and well like Isaac, the two end up getting a shock as well and go unconscious, but they could wake up much sooner than Isaac did because they both got half of the shock, like the shock that was given to Isaac, was instead split between the two of them, so they were only out for a short while and woke up before Isaac did.

also I have a theory that the Cybertron from the Beast Wars Cartoon, is really a Future version of Earth, which could explain the Organic Core and the Fossils in Beast Machines.

that Cybertron is "Cybertron II" and it was Earth.

not everyone has to agree about that theory, but it could be possible that the Cybertron from that universe and timeline is in fact Earth having been Cyber-formed and some Humans had been lucky to leave and went to another galaxy and called a new Planet home that was similar to their original world...

anyway there is another Crossover drawing that has Adult Future Sari in it, along with some other characters as well...

I will post it up in a little bit, right after I eat some powder doughnuts and check out some fan art on here. :)

#do not reblog without permission #crossover fanart #transformers fanart #transformers animated #tfa fanart #helluva boss fanart #mass effect fanart #sari sumdac #isaac sumdac #twin brothers #ratchet #jane shepard #john shepard #shepard clone #garrus vakarian #fizzarolli helluva boss #asmodeus helluva boss #january 2024

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echogekkos-writes · 20 days

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💚 🤍 💔 🏳️‍🌈 💀

(Sorry im sending so many 😭 i just really want to hear your opinion on a lot of things)

Long answers so putting them under 'keep reading' for the sake of yall's dashboards.

💚: What does everyone else get wrong about your favorite character?

Mmmmm. I'm gonna pick two and cheat cause I have feelings on how both are written.

First, Mipha. Like you and other mutuals, when it comes to Mipha, we all are on the same page of just how bland and weak she is written or seen by others in the fandom.

That her crush on Link gets in the way (it doesn't. Yes she loves him, but her love of him never overtakes her duties). That she only cares about Link (no she cares for all the people in the Domain and Link and is selfless to a fault, one of her intended flaws). That she is not partially adept (her spearmanship is described being a league of her own). It just culminates into all of these weird mix of Mipha becoming a bland side character when she really is not. Yes is some of her canon writing a bit shallow? Absolutely. But that's true for all of the Champions. And yet Urbosa and Revali get more love and deserved writing in the fandom, leaving Mipha and Daruk in the dust.

As for the other character? Garrus Vakarian. I love my boy. I love me one space dino. but PLEASE fandom you all need to course correct how you write him. Garrus is Shepard's best friend, no matter if they are in a relationship or not. Also, Garrus is protective of Shepard, but not overprotective to the point of smothering. Yeah the party shenanigans with him and Zaeed talking about defensive parameters for Shepard is great and funny, but some have him way overprotective of Shepard to the point of getting in her way. Shepard can take care of herself. Garrus knows this. And he steps in only when he knows he should. Also....Garrus isn't as suave as you think he is. All that bravado is to hide his self-depreciation and yall gotta remember that. Temper that badassery with some good old depression and PTSD cause that's Garrus for you.

🤍: Which character is not as morally bad as everyone else seems to think?

That's a hard one. Rhoam? Yeah he's a shit father and yeah could he have treated Zelda better? Absolutely. Pretentious to think all the races will drop everything to give their best people, or in the case of Urbosa and Mipha, ruler/heir? No doubt. There's no if and or buts there.

But keep in mind. Hyrule's fate was residing on him. On Zelda's sealing powers. On him excavating the entire regions, finding the divine beasts, organizing the Sheikah with the Guardians, raising an army, diplomatically asking for help from the other races...all while trying to run a kingdom. The stress got to him, and he did what he did because partly he thought he was right, but mostly he was, I feel, nervous and scared. Everything was riding on his and his daughter's success, and he took his frustration out on his failure. Does that make him morally bad? Yeah. But it doesn't make him an outright villain or asshole as everyone likes to dunk on him for.

Rhoam to me is more of an anti-hero. His ultimate end goal is the salvation of Hyrule, but his methods to get there, while noble, are questionable when dealing with people themselves.

💔: If you had to remove one major character from the series, who would you choose?

Ganondorf. I'm sorry, I love him, but I actually think his repeated presence in Legend of Zelda severely limits the creativity and storytelling behind the LoZ franchise. I could even throw in the argument of Link and Zelda as well. The one thing I will never forgive SS for was the Curse of Demise. That shit right there? Ruined the series to come. We can no longer get a new BBEG without Ganondorf either being directly or indirectly involved in the story. Like look, I love games that took either a different take on Ganon before the whole Demise curse, or after by distancing it in some way. Look at TP, BoTW, and MM. Zant being controlled by Ganondorf, a Calamity born of his hatred, and no Ganon involved.

Now granted, WW is probably one of my favorite takes on Ganondorf, but that's because he was given a little bit more humanity alongside his evilness. That he is a 'person' and despite that, still evil.

And even still, I would argue, by having Gandondorf as the same villain over and over you are just re-hashing the same story with the same characters, the same old Good vs Evil plot of Hylia vs Demise just in a different era. And while the gameplay may be great for future games,. at some point, there will be a breaking point for the story. ToTk a prime example.

🏳️‍🌈: Which character who is commonly headcanoned as queer doesn't seem queer to you?

Sidon? And yeah I'm gonna toss in Revali there too. I just don't see them as queer. And that's not cause I'm straight either.

I just..I don't know I don't even see Sidon as being romantically involved with anyone (I am still choosing to completely ignore any and all ToTK Canon). And if he is? I don't know who I'd ship him with or who his partner would be? Am I currently in the middle of writing a Sidbazz wip as part of my miphlink modern AU? Yeah. Still, I don't really headcanon him myself as queer. It's a fluid concept for me...whatever fits the story I'm writing best.

As for Revali, I ship him with his own ego.

💀: If you had to choose one major character to die, who would you choose?

BoTW Zelda. She should have died at the end of BoTW. Here's my reasoning.

She should have died alongside the other Champions. The last relics of the past, leaving an amnesiac Link with barely any memories to make a new life in a land he has come to slowly recognize as the world he lives in now, and not the past. It's how I initially hoped BoTW was going to do. That we encounter Zelda's spirit at the end of the story, her last act to hold the Calamity back in enough time for Link to finish the job.

Now I know Nintendo would never even fathom something like this. Can't kill off your precious Zelda and piss off all the Zelda/Zelink fans. but narratively I think it would have made for a great bittersweet ending. And would have made for a better sequel as well.

#thanks for the asks!#long answers

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