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[Noelemahc]

Yes, this is another "here are my endings!" thread. Please, if you're gonna be beating me up (and I know some will want to), don't aim for the head, okay?

EDIT: Small clarification. This is not a "let's write a totally new ending". This is a "let's make the existing endings palatable", aka "this is what I personaly think the EC should contain". As such, all the outstanding elements of the original endings - the Normandy crash, the survival of your squadmates that were shot by Harbinger and the indescribable manner of the breathing scene - are left untouched, although attempts to explain them away are made. There is also a suggestion for a fourth possible ending, one that tries to preserve the continuity of the existing ones while dealing away with most of the stupid character-breaking fallacies contained therein. Therefore, there are TWO sets of LI resolutions, one for the Red Ending and one for the Fourth Ending. Currently, only the Red Ending resolutions are being worked on because people will find them easier to relate to. Also, because most of the ME2 LIs will have zero difference in their resolutions since they do not incorporate the Normandy all that much.

Original post follows.


Bear with me if this will read like a fanfic. The main strength of the game
has always been in variety the dialogue can go, and even if the writers
conveniently forgot this the moment The Illusive Man died, we should not. There
may be remarks to some lines as justification.

Returning VAs: the Shepards, Harbinger, Starchild, Hackett. Teammates and
LIs if you're feeling very generous.



The main driving force should be "show, don't tell" and "use
as much scripted scenes as possible, enough with the pre-renders".






I. Harbinger

Should be taunting you as he takes potshots and Shep and his team. Totally
randomized except for the quips at his teammates (should only appear if they're
with you on the final run or are your LIs).




"Shepard. Still you persist in resisting those your greater."

"Shepard. A pathetic creature of meat and bone, incapable of accepting
your fate." (System Shock reference, because a game rife with malevolent
AIs should not not have at least ONE System Shock or Marathon reference, that's
just disrespectful of the genre)

"Shepard. This hurts you." (I can't BELIEVE it's not in the
game!)

"Shepard. Why do you persist?"

"Shepard. This world has fallen. Accept it."

“Shepard. You have angered us.”





"Asari. Your homeworld is gone, further resistance is pointless."

"Prothean. The last remnant of an extinct species. You are already
forgotten."

"Turian. You have already lost your world, and you will lose this
one.” (remember, Reapers cannot comprehend the idea of friendship)

"Quarian. You would not last long on this world even if it
survived."

"Human. You distrust the Shepard. Why do you follow his/her
lead?" (for the VS)

"Human. Your world has already fallen. Accept your fate."

"Synthetic. P-p-pointless waste of resources, a-a-aiding
organics." (hello, mr. does not compute)




II. The Red Ending.

The current system for EMS determining the level of destruction the
Citadel's explosion will deal to Earth is stupid and counter-intuitive. A
better way would be if the shut-down Reapers would start FALLING OUT OF THE
SKY, the less EMS you have, the more Reapers were not pulverized and will make
planetfall. Simple, and marginally easy to do without resorting to pre-rendered
videos of which this game already has an unjustifiably humongous amount, the
bane of modern game design.




If the engine has handled the Tuchanka Reaper fight, it WILL handle showing
us that schematic model of London we see in the flyover scenes with big flaming
Reaper corpses falling onto it from orbit. Flip to overplanet view (yes, the
one on the title screen) with a different shape for the falling pieces and
small moving dots to represent the various ships of the Allied Races, and
you're golden.




Bonus points if you bother to show us our team-mates and generic soldiers
FROM ALL THE RACES WE RECRUITED (something you also forgot to do, the Geth
never show up on Earth for no apparent reason and we only see like two or three
Salarians through ALL the cutscenes of London) looking up at the stuff that's
about to crush them flat (or crush some redshirt flat if you had enough EMS),
with the Geth following the unfortunate messy fate of the Reapers for great
surprise of their allied soldiers. Extra bonus points if you show the Quarians
scrabbling at their suits if you made peace with the Geth -- remember, they are
now being used to kickstart Quarian immunity, and that means if they die, the
Quarians whose suits they are in now have suffered suit system failure.
Consequences, it's all about the consequences.




See VI and VII for more on the post-Citadel scenes.




III. The Blue Ending.

No exploding Reapers means no large falling debris. Panning shots of the
abovementioned soldiers and teammates looking upwards at the Citadel and the
Reapers and the sudden realization for the teammates that the Shepard is gone.
Like, body unrecoverable gone. Bonus points for your LI breaking down.




IV. The Green Ending.

Same as before. We see the soldiers, we see them stare at themselves and
each other as they are magically subjected to a uniformization. Bonus points if
the synthetics (yes, EDI and the Geth, that means you) look more organic now,
as opposed to the circuitry (neat touch, btw) we get in the Green Ending as it
is now.

Modifié par Noelemahc, 22 avril 2012 - 05:18 .

[Noelemahc]

V. The Fourth Ending.
The big thing missing from the "We want to be just like Deus Ex Human Revolution and throw out the player's decisions over the course of the game in favor of a "pick an ending" button" con ME3 has been up to now is, of course, the "Let the world find its own way" option.

Shepard is presented his choices as before, but he can walk away. (he can already, I checked, the game geometry somewhy renders the lift he came in on as perfectly walkable, as if BW seriously considered this option)
Should he reach the lift, the Starchild will approach him and...
Child ©: "Where are you going?"
Shepard (S): "All your options rest on the assumption that I trust you. I have no reason to. I refuse to use this device."
C: "But why? I have explained you the options the Crucible allows, are they insufficient?"
S: Dialogue wheel, top option - "They are YOUR choices, not mine."; middle option - "They are not choices.", bottom option - "Yes, they are."


--->1. S:"These are not choices I can make. These are choices YOU suggest I make. That is not the way of organic life."
"You have spent countless cycles eradicating organics to satisfy your own petty hatred. Slaughtering organics in the name of saving them from being destroyed by synthetics is irrational."
"Therefore, I have no reason to trust anything you say, or do anything you suggest. In fact, the exact opposite seems to be the logical choice."

--->2. S:"There is no choice. I will sacrifice far more than I will win if I choose any of them."
"You ask me to give up my integrity, safety of my descendants or the right of any sentient being to self-actualize, all in return for something that is not guaranteed to work."
"The galaxy will collapse without the mass relays. Whole systems will die out if their chains of supply are eliminated."
"They will never recover from the damage. The damage YOU inflicted."

--->3. S:"Insufficient? They are downright insulting. You say you are the creator of the Reapers, yet you have zero control over them?"
"You created them to prevent organics from being destroyed by synthetics, but to achieve it, you choose to destroy organics WITH synthetics before they can build their own."
"Your logic is circular. Your conclusions are false. And your minions had the audacity to call themselves "infinitely my greater"?"

Either way, the child responds with: "You are mistaken. These are the only options the Crucible presents. There is no viable alternative for this planet's survival."
S: "There is. Call them off."
C: "I... cannot. They are set in their ways."
S: "Then you have no reason to exist anymore."

Shepard reaches for his/her comms.
"Admiral Hackett?"
Hackett (H): "Shepard? I thought we've lost you. What is going on? The Reapers have... paused."
Shepard looks inquisitevely at the child. It does not react. He activates the lift.
C: "Where are you going?!"

S: Dialogue wheel: Paragon: "The Crucible is a Reaper trap.", Renegade: "The Citadel is a Reaper trap.", Top grey: "My team?"; Bottom grey: "Paused?" (Para/Rene requirements are as high as for the second to last TIM dialogue)


--->Paragon - "Admiral, the Crucible was a Reaper device to enhance the Reaper Control AI that resides in the Citadel. Destroy it, it might disorient them enough to give us a fighting chance."

--->Renegade - "Admiral, the Crucible was a Reaper device to enhance the Reaper Control AI that resides in the Citadel. Destroy them both, it might disorient them enough to give us a fighting chance."
H: "Acknowledged. What about you?"

--->Whether you picked Para or Rene, or if you picked "My team", Shepard says
S: "I'm coming out, Admiral. How's my team?"
H: "They were battered but alive, last we had contact. The Normandy is still flying."
S: "Last contact?"
H: "About when you opened the arms of the Citadel, Commander."
S: "Got it. Give'em hell, Admiral."

--->If you picked "Paused" (or instead of the last one if you picked “My team”),
S: "Their command AI is confused. Use this opportunity, give them hell, Admiral!"
H: "Acknowledged."

(Behind-the-scenes stuff: if you pick the Para or Rene, it adds a 1000 points to your current EMS, once the dialogue is over, the calculus begins. Over 7K, bestest ending, between 6K and 7K slightly worse, between 4K and 6K mediocre ending, below 4K worstest ending)

Shepard descends on the elevator, leans against the control panel Anderson was fiddling with when Shepard first entered the room. Coughs, blood spatters the non-holographic portion of the panel. We are treated to several cut-in shots of Hackett acting upon Shepard’s recommendation – either the United Fleet wailing on the immobilized Reapers, or on the Crucible in the mouth of the Citadel, or both it and the Citadel. Cut back inside, if under attack, the structure gets rocked by explosions.

The starchild materializes next to Shepard, but its shape is now less defined, and it loses focus as it speaks.

C: “This will not lead you anywhere. Your attempts will fail in vain. The deaths of your allies will be on your hands.”
S: ”But they will be out of yours.”

Shepard fiddles with the controls, and the room rotates, connecting to a different section of the “chasm” we entered through. He can see a light at the far end – the Conduit beam. He hobbles over to Anderson’s body and pauses, bent down, hands on his knees, gathering strength to lift it.

C (now a blur more reminiscent of Vigil): “You are a hypocrite. You act as if denying you and yours the choice of your own fate is criminal, yet you have no such reservations about the Reapers or the Citadel.”
S (looks up): “You mean, about you? The Reapers are just your tools, you’ve said as much. They do your dirty work for you.”
C (flickering, a distinctly cuttlefish-like shape appearing intermittently): “They do what is necessary to preserve order in the galaxy.”
S: “Listen to yourself! You justify the destruction of organics with the protection of organics. That is circular logic. Your entire premise for the Reapers is false.”
C: “W-we... We do not concur. It has been proven empirically that, prior to this cycle, the galaxy has adhered to a specific order ever since the introduction of the Reapers.”
S: “Yes, because you FORCED that order on the galaxy.”
C (finally coalesces as a cuttlefish not unlike the Reaper generic shape... but obviously organic, an imprint of its creator, like Vendetta, VA changes to Harbinger, but with a different voice filter): “That was the only way.”

S:(dialogue wheel, Paragon – “The only way you could see.” Renegade – “For you, maybe.”, top grey – “Not for this cycle.” and bottom grey – “Is that so?”; Para/Rene only comes up if your Shep is a peacemaker, i.e. made a real genophage cure and united the quarians and the geth; saving and freeing the rachni is optional)


--->Paragon: “It was the only way your species could see, maybe. We have achieved peace in the name of killing you and your Reapers. Synthetics and organics fight side by side.”
“Fight YOU side by side. Making them no different from each other.”
C: “Only for as long as the Reapers exist. What guarantee you have that they will not fight each other again once we are gone?”
S: “None. But it will be done out of their own free will, not because some rampant AI has decided to let them... or to kill them so they couldn’t try.” (hello, Marathon and Halo fans, I welcome you, you can sit over there in the corner)
C: “Their conflict is inevitable. When we arrived, they were already fighting.”
S: “Because Sovereign spurred the geth into action, poisoning their peaceful minds with your lies.”
(he bends down to pick Anderson up)
C: “Nazara was allowed free reign in order to activate the Citadel and free me to begin the harvesting cycle.”
S: “And in doing so, he has undone all your arguments for you. You cannot say anything that will convince me otherwise.”
(starts walking, begin next scene)

--->Renegade: “The only way for your species. Perhaps you could not see or hear reason, like the quarians and the geth did. Perhaps you have not had the capacity for thinking ahead, like the krogan now demonstrate.”
“In the end, it always comes down to what you are willing to do to stop the killing. You thought only more killing, killing on a grander scale could help. I have proved otherwise.”
C: “Your alliance is based on fear of the Reapers. It will dissolve as soon as we are gone.”
S: “Maybe, maybe not. Time will tell. What I do know, is that if we ever go to war again, it will be on our own terms, and not because some crazy ancient AI decided that it’s about time.”
(he bends down to pick Anderson up)
C: “We were like that once, before we had to create the Reapers. We had no other choice.”
S: “You eliminated YOUR OWN race? You’re further gone than I thought.”
(starts walking, begin next scene)

--->Top grey: “This cycle is different. We have peace now, between quarian and geth, krogan and salarian, human and turian. All old grievances forgotten in the face of the enemy. YOUR face.”
C: “And what will happen once we are gone?”
S: (bends to pick Anderson up) “That we will deal with once we get there. But we do it on our own terms, not yours.”
(starts walking, begin next scene)

--->Bottom grey: “If it was truly the only way, why offer me your “choices” at all?”
C: “Because you are the first organic to ever get this far with the Crucible. You are chaos personified.”
S: “And what made you think, then, that I would even consider accepting any of your offered choices?”
(bends down to pick up Anderson)
C: “Because they are better than the alternative.”
S: “Considering the alternative is little different from bending to the will of the Reapers, I’d like to take my chances.”
(starts walking, begin next scene)

Insert – the Fleets are attacking Shepard’s designated target, be it the Reapers, the Crucible or the Citadel and the Crucible together. Explosions, flying bits, all that jazz. In any case, remember that the vanilla game game-overs you if the Crucible is destroyed, who do you think is shooting at it? So yes, if you ordered to attack the Reapers, they are shooting at the Crucible, trying to kill Shepard.

Cut back, Shepard is walking down the hall of bodies, almost stumbling under Anderson’s weight. The holographic cuttlefish determinedly floats by his side. Explosions, falling debris, electrical discharges abound around him, but he is unfazed, just plain old tired.

C: “And you expect that destroying the Reapers will bring peace to the galaxy?”
S: “I KNOW it will. Either way, you won’t be around to pass judgement on it.”
They reach the conduit beam. Shepard turns around to see the control room collapse on itself, the destruction spreading.
C: “And who are YOU to pass judgement, to decide the fate of the Reapers this way?”

Dialogue Wheel. On the side where you get Paragon interrupts (right for PC players, left for console players) is the Blue option. On the side where you get Renegade interrupts (left for PC players, right for console players) is the Red Option. They are both “I’m Commander Shepard...” and they appear regardless of the scores you may or may not have accumulated.



“I’m Commander Shepard, and it is my favorite planet in the Universe you decided to f*** with.” He steps into the beam. (note: Shep is one of the least-sweary characters in the entire game. I think he/she deserves one F-word.)


“I’m Commander Shepard.”
“I made peace between the Quarians and the Geth/destroyed the Geth/destroyed the Quarians.”
“I cured the Krogan Genophage/doomed the Krogan to their Genophage.”
“I unleashed the Rachni on the galaxy/eliminated the Rachni from the galaxy for good.”
“I destroyed the Collectors.”
“I am the Survivor of Akuze/Butcher of Torfan/Hero of the Skyllian Blitz.”
“And I am tired of your disingeneous assertions.”
He steps into the beam.

Here, depending on who your LI is, and whether you even had one to survive to the end of ME3, Shepard will add as he is whisked away back to London:
Tali: “I promised my beloved to keep her homeworld safe. Keelah see’lai.”
Liara: “And I want to see those blue babies one day.”
Jack: “So f*** you and the Citadel you rode in on.” (okay, okay, Shep is awesome and therefore deserves one more F-word)
James: “And I promised my man I’d get our homeworld back.”
Diana: “And there’s a scoop of the century waiting for me.”
Garrus: “And I’d like to meet my man’s family one day.”
Thane: “And my soul has already earned forgiveness.”
Miranda: “And it’s about time I stopped running and started living.”
Esteban: “And there’s someone who needs me to watch his six down there.”
(still working on witty ones for Ash and Kaidan, mainly because I have not seen the resolutions to their romance in ME3)

If you’re alone, or your LI bit it in ME2 or ME3 while not being Thane, instead: “And I really need a vacation.”

Then we see the wrap-up of the space battle, depending on your EMS it might range from “all Reapers gone, hurrah” to “gosh darn it to heck, they woke up and slaughtered us!” Either way, the Citadel is kaputski in orbit and rains spectacular multicoloured debris onto London. Cue the breathing scene.

Parts VI (Consequences Scenes if you picked a blue or green ending or the red and did not earn the breathing scene) and VII (consequences scenes if you picked the Red (and Shepard lived through it) or Fourth Ending) coming soon.

Modifié par Noelemahc, 14 mai 2012 - 07:56 .

[Noelemahc]

VI. Shepard is dead.
A. The relays are destroyed (B & G endings, R if you mucked up and didn’t survive)
Fade from black. Panning shot of the Sol System, starting with the relay debris being studied by Quarian and/or Geth ships (done in-engine, not pre-rendered, it’s time to dust off those ME1 assets, people).

Jupiter orbit, a space station of human design with docked ships of all the Allied Races present. Faunts’ “Memories of Places We’ve Never Been” fades in slowly from the background, along with sounds obviously heard over the radio – applause. Then a voice starts and the viewers realize we’re listening in to a system-wide broadcast.

Hackett (H): “It has been an arduous month for all of us. One month since the Battle of London.”
Panning shot inside of the space station, assorted asari, turians, batarians (if you recruited them), volus (ditto), krogan (if you didn’t sabotage the genophage cure), rachni (if you gained the real ones), geth and/or quarians (you know the drill), elcor (you did that evacuation quest, didn’t you?) walk to and fro, some pausing in front of a big vidscreen, showing Hackett giving his speech at the marginally recognizable and obviously partway through being rebuilt UN HQ. Just to remind you which space station this is, you can see some of Jupiter out the window to the side of the screen.

H: “One month since the mass relay network went dead.” (more views of the space station, you start seeing salarians now, and humans, wearing lab coats, some asari among them also)
“That, however, is not the end of the galaxy. The Reapers are gone, for better or for worse, and we have to take our lives back. And first among the priorities, even higher than rebuilding Earth, is returning all those brave soldiers and scientists that helped this happen home.”

One of the station labs, a quarian (or a geth, if you destroyed the quarians) is gesturing at a holographic image of a Reaper inside of a holographic model of the system that housed the Alpha Relay from Arrival. An assortment of lab-coated sentients watches him intently.

“Our scientists tell me that rebuilding it as it was is next to impossible. We have neither the resources nor the technological advances necessary to achieve such a feat. However…”
A turian and an asari are standing near a viewport, staring out at the ships bringing in salvaged relay and Reaper components.

“The Reapers possessed a means of propulsion that allowed them to circumvent the relay network altogether. And that, I am told, we can reverse-engineer and, over time, implement in any sufficiently large ship across the galaxy.”
A turian fighter wing flies by the viewport as the two walk off, hand-in-hand, and the camera flies through the window, after them.

“It will be slower overall, but unhindered entirely by tethering to the relays, we will be able to explore – and colonize – a significantly larger portion of our galaxy, hopefully ending any and all disputes about colonial territory for good.”
The fighter wing twists out of the way of a freighter moving up to the station, and the camera breaks off, moving away from Jupiter entirely.

“That, I hope, will help us appreciate the peace and value of co-operation we have learned over the last few months. The scientists that have worked on the Crucible, the device that secured our victory, have thankfully been stranded with us in the Sol System, allowing them first-hand access to any and all Reaper technologies that can be salvaged from their… hulls.”

The camera passes through the asteroid belt, aiming towards Mars, overtaking several human ships accompanying a larger geth (or quarian, if you destroyed the geth) craft.

“In the meantime, using our quantum entanglement communications, we have been able to establish a rudimentary communications channel between Sol and the surviving homeworlds of the Citadel races. Thankfully, we had a few human ships with the technology delivering supplies when the relay network went down, allowing them to pass the technology on to the governments of the galaxy.”

Intercut during speech – short glimpses of Victus speaking with the Citadel Council-in-evacuation; Wrex or Wreav speaking with Eve or (if she’s dead) with Fortack, etc.

The camera focuses on Mars, pausing as it fills the entire screen, then dips towards the Prothean Archives.
“Thessia’s evacuated scientists have already shared their long-canned plans for creating mass-effect altered FTL drives, developed based on their study of Prothean technologies, in the hope that it will aid our joint efforts.”
We see many craft landed around the Archives complex, as well as an in-progress construction zone, building temp housing for the stranded soldiers. You can make out krogan, turian, geth, elcor workers helping out (I hope by this point you will add “if you recruited/saved them” on your own) the humans, which are mostly using exoskeleton loaders.

“All the specialists we can spare have been studying the Prothean Archives on Mars and across the galaxy, looking for other ways to achieve the goal of alternate propulsion.”
We see several scientist types – human, asari, quarian, hanar – gathered around the central console of the Archives, staring at a readout.

“I am also happy to report that we have finally managed to establish communications with some of the ships that were lost in transit when the relay network failed, including the Normandy, the late Commander Shepard’s ship, downed and lost when it was trying to warn the evacuated Council of the imminent relay collapse.”

We see a holo image of Hackett, speaking out of the Normandy’s comm room projectors, moved outdoors now, jury-rigged and cross-patched with a webwork of makeshift connections, as the surviving Normandy crew – not just the teammates, but also the other crew members, Chakwas/Michele, Adams, Ken and Gabby, Joker et al, watching him speak, as Traynor continues to fiddle with the wiring with Cortez.

They’re all as out of uniform as can be on a jungle planet while watching the de-facto head of the Earth Fleets, with Garrus wearing his tunic, not his armour, Vega naked from the waist down (admire that N7 tat, you know you want to), Tali’s suit stripped of as much cloth and other layers as possible, the VS wearing Shep’s N7 hoodie, Liara wearing someone’s borrowed t-shirt and jeans, while Javik is sitting in a tree’s shadow, looking at them with a bemused expression. Allers (if you didn’t chase her off the ship) is sunbathing off to the side. EDI (if this ain’t the red ending) and Joker are holding hands, if it is, Joker sits hunched, cupping his face in his palms.

“And that brings us to today’s main news.”

The crew perks up, even Traynor stops to look at the holo.
“We have finally recovered the… remains of Commander Shepard and Admiral Anderson.” (he pauses and chokes on the word “remains”)

Whoever was your LI, the camera focuses on them, the scene, however, remains mostly the same. Cortez sniffs and wipes a tear, Traynor shudders, Garrus hangs his head, Tali starts sobbing into his shoulder, Vega balls his fists and sets his jaw, Ash cries a little, Kaidan is holding back tears with a visible effort, Liara hugs him/her and buries her face in the embrace, sobbing quietly. (sorry, am yet to complete Diana’s romance, so no idea how, if at all, she should react)
Hackett sighs.

H:”They will be interred at London, as per their last available wills and testaments. The British government has graciously agreed to place a pair of statues at the former site of the Reaper Conduit.”

The camera moves towards him, passing behind Vega’s back—and crossfading into passing out from behind someone else’s as we look at Hackett in the flesh, giving his address in the UN building. Representatives of assorted races are in the audience, along with the survivors of the Suicide Mission, mostly seated in the back. Miranda looking smug and talking in a hushed voice to Jack, the latter passing occasional glances at Jacob with a wry smirk; Jacob squirming under the gaze. (if Miranda’s dead, Jack is with Rodriguez, if Jack is dead, Miranda smirks at Jacob instead, if Jacob is dead, they just talk, if only one of the three is alive, they simply listen to Hackett), Samara looking calm as always, Zaeed lost in thought, already composing another “I was the only one to survive that day” story. Mordin (in the unlikely chance that he’s still alive) is coughing, his age catching up to him. Kasumi is standing in a doorway, looking at Jacob in that recognizably tsundere way (or, if he’s not there, just looking at Hackett). The asari are spread out in the hall, while the quarians and/or the geth are bunched up to one side (together, if they all lived). The turians are also spread out, but not as much, and there’s only a handful of krogan and other races’ representatives present.

H: “In addition, it has been decided by unanimous vote that the warzone surrounding the Conduit site will be turned into Shepard Square, eventually becoming home to the Anderson War Museum.” (if Paragon is higher than Renegade, otherwise Shep gets the museum)

The camera edges away from the hall into a wall, coming out again near the Normandy crew, showing most of them smiling sad smiles of empathy.

H: “This will be the last update I will be doing on the restoration project, having passed on the responsibility to the shared Restoration Committee, while I return to my duties as head of the Alliance’s Fifth Fleet. In the coming months, we will be performing test runs of the new FTL drives, and everyone is open to sign up for being on the first planned flights to Sur’Kesh, Illium and Palaven. We cannot promise how soon it will happen, but know this.”
The camera slowly gives us a panoramic view of the Normandy camp, the ship’s hulk in the background, quick-deployment tents from the ship’s emergency supplies set out for housing, as we can see that the ship is depowered.

H: ”It will. Because in the end, what defines us most is not what we have lost, not even the sacrifices we have made, but the willingness to go on, to continue struggling for survival. It has always been a trait of humanity, a trait we are glad to learn we share with everyone else in the galaxy.”

The view starts to rise, above the treeline, showing us the path the Normandy carved into the landscape when it crashed is already growing over.

“And that is why we will succeed. Why Commander Shepard and Admiral Anderson and many others have not sacrificed their lives in vain so that we could live today. Because we will never give up. Never back down. Never surrender.”

The camera has broken cloud cover and is zooming off into space. We see a little dot moving in the distance, coming up from the planet and accelerating at the camera.

It’s Boo in a makeshift spaceship, and as he gets closer to the camera we can hear him screaming his “SWEEEEET” louder and louder until he crashes into it, breaking the image on the screen. The camera has lined up in that recognizable way that when he does it, the broken screen reveals the Mass Effect logo with the line cutting through it lining up perfectly with the planet’s horizon, just as in the beginning of ME1 (and missed moments of coolness in the other two).

“Hackett out.”

Roll credits.

B. The relays are not destroyed (My proposed fourth ending, if you didn’t have enough EMS to survive, but enough for the Reapers to fall)
Largely the same, except that Hackett now refers to reverse-engineering the Reaper drives to explore the parts of the galaxy that are inaccessible to relay travel—and beyond! And the scenes of the Normandy in the jungle are replaced with intercuts of the Normandy crew sitting in the audience listening to Hackett’s speech (given uninterrupted here, the timing is largely the same):

“It has been an arduous month for all of us. One month since the Battle of London.”
“That, however, is not the end of the galaxy. The Reapers are gone, for better or for worse, and we have to take our lives back. And first among the priorities, even higher than rebuilding Earth, is returning all those brave soldiers and scientists that helped this happen home.”
“All the United Fleet ships that could, have already left for their homeworlds, those few that remain due to undergoing repairs, will be able to within the month.”
“In the meantime, we have a unique opportunity.”
“The Reapers possessed a means of propulsion that allowed them to circumvent the relay network altogether. And that, I am told, we can reverse-engineer and, over time, implement in any sufficiently large ship across the galaxy.”
“It will be slower overall, but unhindered entirely by tethering to the relays, we will be able to explore – and colonize – a significantly larger portion of our galaxy, hopefully ending any and all disputes about colonial territory for good.”
“That, I hope, will help us appreciate the peace and value of co-operation we have learned over the last few months. The scientists that have worked on the Crucible, the device that secured our victory, have thankfully stayed on with us in the Sol System, allowing them first-hand access to any and all Reaper technologies that can be salvaged from their… hulls.”

“Thessia’s evacuated scientists have already shared their long-canned plans for creating mass-effect altered FTL drives, developed based on their study of Prothean technologies, in the hope that it will aid our joint efforts.”

(we still see Mars, but it has less ships on it, and no temp housing)

“In the meantime, the galaxy’s governments have recovered from the aftermaths of the war for their homeworlds, and are organizing relief efforts to the worlds that have suffered the most as we speak.”

(the communications scene plays out a little differently – Wrex/Wreav is talking to Eve in person, looking over construction on Tuchanka; Victus is looking at the ravaged Palaven off a battlecruiser’s bridge; asari ships are landing in the ruins of Thessia)

When the camera comes into the UN building, we see the Normandy crew among the delegates:
Liara in FemShep’s little black dress (with the suggestion that it IS FemShep’s if you played one) sitting next to the VS on one side and Aethyta on the other (if you bothered to make them talk), Vega uncomfortable in his dress uniform, Kaidan being all handsome in his, Diana being one of the reporters catching the broadcast, Tali and Garrus holding hands (if you romanced one of them, accept that the other is a rebound; otherwise – hey, they hooked up, didn’t they?), EDI and Joker sitting together near the geth/quarian gathering, the geth shooting EDI appreciative glances, but their reactions to the words about Shepard’s body are largely the same, Javik standing in the back, not far from Kasumi.

“And that brings us to today’s main news.”
“We have finally recovered the… remains of Commander Shepard and Admiral Anderson.”
”They will be interred at London, as per their last available wills and testaments. The British government has graciously agreed to place a pair of statues at the former site of the Reaper Conduit.”
“In addition, it has been decided by unanimous vote that the warzone surrounding the Conduit site will be turned into Shepard Square, eventually becoming home to the Anderson War Museum.” (if Paragon is higher than Renegade, otherwise Shep gets the museum)
“This will be the last update I will be doing on the restoration project, having passed on the responsibility to the shared Restoration Committee, while I return to my duties as head of the Alliance’s Fifth Fleet. In the coming months, we will be performing test runs of the new FTL drives, and everyone is open to sign up for being on the first planned flights from Earth, Sur’Kesh, Illium and Palaven, trying out and comparing the different design proposals. We cannot promise how soon it will happen, but know this.”
”It will. Because in the end, what defines us most is not what we have lost, not even the sacrifices we have made, but the willingness to go on, to continue struggling for survival. It has always been a trait of humanity, a trait we are glad to learn we share with everyone else in the galaxy.”
“And that is why we will succeed. Why Commander Shepard and Admiral Anderson and many others have not sacrificed their lives in vain so that we could live today. Because we will never give up. Never back down. Never surrender.”

As he finishes his speech, we are treated instead to a view of London’s former war zones, being scrubbed of the dead and the debris, someone bending down to pick up a torn N7 patch, then looking up at the sky, watching an asari cruiser floating up there. As it covers the ground, the camera flies past someone's portable music system playing either "London Calling" or something that sounds suspiciously like it. It pauses before heading towards the asari cruiser,  past it, past the moon, catching up to Boo and his little rocket from behind, overtaking him and coming right into place to get smashed as in the other variant. Same lining-up of the camera, except it is of Earth this time, much like in the beginning of ME1.
“Hackett out.”
Roll credits.

N.B. In either case, if you’re playing a no-import or you did not buy the hamster in ME2, the view simply fades to black in view of the stars instead of showing him to us.

VIb. Reapers Win.

This comes with a few funny prerequisites, basically boiling down to where you want to insert the non-standard game-overs. The most barebones one (i.e. without inserting tediously unskippable unpausable cutscenes (seriously, BioWare, what were you thinking with? the 1990s called, they wanted to hand you the cutscenes-pause-on-spacebar mechanic, because you cannot write your own) every time the Normandy is Pacmanned on the Galaxy Map) includes two (actually three, but two are nearly identical) points.


A. Citadel Destroyed.

A variation on the "Citadel Destroyed with Shepard in it by Hackett" from the previous section, BUT you don't have as much EMS as before. This is the second-to-worst option on my proposed four-outcome system (described above in the paragon/renegade interrupt section). You are treated to much the same cutscenes as before, up to Shepard reaching the conduit beam -- the station explodes, setting him aflame before he makes it to the beam.

"Final Assault" from ME1 plays in the background.

Cut to outside, the Reapers and Allied Fleet ships exchanging fire, but the Reapers aren't as blowy-uppy as before, they've rallied and are pushing back, cutting the Destiny Ascension (or it's Suspiciously Similar Substitute) in half, blasting an Alliance Dreadnaught head-on (we see Hackett engulfed in flames), as the Citadel breaks up and explodes, so do the ships of Shepard's insufficient armada. Fade to black.

Fade to "Liara's World" from ME1.

Montage: shovel digging earth, hits something solid. Thick gloved hands pull it free - it is Liara's time capsule. Glyph lights up expectantly, says his "Greetings". Cue to puzzled face of the yahg farmer that just found it in his vegetable garden. He calls over to a friend working the next patch over.

Break.
Obviously alien cars pulling up to a church-like building in the asari style. Inside, a statue of Liara is standing on a pedestal shaped like the time capsule, quick cuts show us the yahg in prayer, pendants shaped like Glyph on their chests.

Break.  Switch to "Breeding Ground" from ME1.

First manned rocket flight. Break. The yahg pilot is carried in celebration after an obviously successful mission. Break. Faster. Shuttle-like ships, taking off in spades. Moonbases set up, quick cut inside - a small statuette of Liara and a signet of Glyph lying side-by-side on a shelf next to a picture of someone's family.

Break. A fairly advanced-looking ship reaches a mass relay. More cuts - yahg stormtroopers burning down villages on dozens of different worlds, corraling slaves into huge dropships, chanting "T'SONI, T'SONI", and building identical churches all over the place. (thank you, Garrus, for that brilliant image forever burned into my mind).

Break. It's Earth, or what's left of it. A burnt-out shell of a world, the explorer ship cautiously avoiding the debris that has formed into rings around it. Gravel, bones and metal debris crunches under their heavy boots. One trips on a
rectangular object, and it fritzes. Picks it up. It's Shepard's holo of Liara. "T'SONI!"

Break. Yahg ships pass by Klendagon (you know it's Klendagon because of the super sexy rift), land on unspecific planetoid near what is obviously a planet-to-space cannon similar to the one we use on Tuchanka. Camera pans up apprehensively to demonstrate that it is similar to the Thanix Cannon in design, just humongouser (is that even a word?).

Break. Long take, Reapers once again re-enter the galaxy. As they jump in via relay, they are met by a barrage of destructive fire from planet-sized battlestations, spouting variously-sized replicas of the Klendagon Cannon, and a quick cut to the station commander - decked out in all red and gold, standing on a raised dais, as he clutches his Glyph amulet and whispers "T'SONI" one last time as he watches the Reapers die for good, the camera panning around him to show us their glittering debris around the mass relay.

Roll credits.

B. Citadel NOT destroyed.

Worst you can get. Either if you had TOO little EMS to even destroy the Citadel or if you got blowed up in the Crucible while deliberating a-la vanilla game. Plays out the same until the church-building. Instead of Earth, the yahg discover the Citadel, in its usual place, squeaky-clean, perfectly fine and dandy, keepers scurrying about. They are promptly shot dead. A few quick cuts shows us that they destroy all ships approaching it, later similar ships appear in their armada - the races subjugated.

Switch to -- "Uplink", ME1 again.

Long take,
Reaper scout, someone who took over Sovereign's job, arrives at the Citadel. It seems deserted, powered down. He swoops in with the obvious intentions, until the Citadel lights up. The lights are not yellow. They are red, even if they do not extend as widely as they should (the keepers are no longer alive, remember?) and scream "hello, dead Reaper" at the screen. Pulse blasts of red fire are exchanged, but the Citadel is sturdier than one lone
Reaper that gets torn apart by Citadel-mounted guns.

Switch back to relevant part of "Breeding Ground".

The final scene with the Reaper invasion fleet is the same up to the final cut of the yahg admiral. As he says his prayer, instead of watching the Reapers get blown up, as there are more of them this time around and the yahg do not have Gigantic Reaper-Killer Mass Accelerator Technology From Klendagon, we see him thrown aside by an explosion, as the camera cuts to outside - the losses on both sides are catastrophic, but the yahg roll out their hijacked Citadel Battlestar Of Deathy Doom Of Ultimate Redness, as it arrives UNDER ITS OWN PROPULSION from a mass effect jump from a different direction and cuts the Reapers like butter with its mounted supercannons. Cut to what we easily recognize as the Council chambers of the Citadel, turned into a huge war room, as the yahg admiralty watches over a holorepresentation of the battlefield, pointing at the rapidly winking out Reaper signals. As the last one goes, they cheer, their voices reverberating in the hall as the camera lifts upward to show us the Citadel arms open, revealing the glowing remains of the Reaper forces.
"T'SONI, T'SONI, T'SONI..."

Roll credits.

{Edited for fixing the formatting and making the two outcomes different from each other}
{Edited for Klendagon Cannon and further differences between endings - reasoning being that if they find Earth instead of the Citadel, they find Liara's latest records, maybe mentions of Klendagon in them that didn't make it into her time capsule because she honestly forgot about it in the hubbub around the Crucible}
N.B. Why do the yahg win regardless? Because if one of them, stolen from a primitive society to be a beast of burden (and therefore picked not for being huge and deadly compared to the others), managed to take over the largest secret organization in the galaxy without anyone noticing, imagine what an army of them is capable of, forewarned like the asari were, but unlike them - actually WILLING to use that knowledge to secure intergalactic supremacy. I pity the fools that live long enough to see the yahg rise to power... Plus, they totally have teeth!

Modifié par Noelemahc, 17 mai 2012 - 01:37 .

[Noelemahc]

VII. Flynn Shepard Lives!
This is a work in progress, to be updated as new sub-scenes are finished and/or touched up. This is a tug-of-war between exposition and closure (or, to portmanteau, exposure) vs.  ungodly amounts of screen time. Yes, Metal Gear, we are looking at you pointedly and making rude gestures.

Once the breathing scene has ended, you get a briefer version of the flyby scene with (or, if we’re cutting corners, without) Hackett’s speech – with slight modifications, such as removing the relief worker finding an N7 patch, replacing a few lines (see below) and, of course, lacking Boo’s flyaway. It will have to wait =)

In squiggly brackets – {like these} – I will be adding notes on suggested alternatives for the “el cheapo” approach which is supposed to minimize the expenditure on VAs.

“Commander Shepard has managed to recover the body of Admiral Anderson, who will be interred in London as per his latest will and testament. The British government has graciously agreed to name the planned memorial park to be placed on the site of the Reaper Conduit Beacon after Admiral Anderson, as well as place a statue devoted to him at the Conduit site.”

“The Commander him(her)self, however, is in critical condition, currently placed under medical care of several high-class specialists in a military hospital the name of which, in the interest of security, I shall not disclose.”
(return to rest of speech about engineering magic; the stranded crew reaction is largely the same, but with an air of relaxation – the Commander is alive! Less tears, maybe some whoops of joy, though I doubt that anyone but Garrus and Traynor are capable of them)

A. Red Ending.
Fade to white. The white blurs out to reveal we’ve got a nice PoV on a tiled ceiling that looks like it has seen better days. The view is blurry and not very stable, rocking from side to side.
“Commander?” a female voice, a nurse.

The sounds of an omni-tool triggered. “Get me the admiral. He’s awake.”

Fade to white again as Shepard faints.

Fade in again, faster this time. We’re looking at Hackett looking out a window of a hospital ward.  Slowly, slowly enough as to be imperceptible until you suddenly notice it’s already at full volume, the Vigil track fades in.
“Commander. Welcome back to the land of the living.” He turns to face the hospital bed. The camera slowly swivels to reveal to us an ashen-faced Shepard, scarred but very much alive, as he/she speaks up.

“A… Admiral Hackett. How… how long was I out?”

“Forty-two days, give or take, depending on whether you want to count the times you were trashing in your sleep as “out”.” Shepard cringes at the answer, cautiously flexes arms.

“Did we win?”

“Would we be having this conversation if we did not?” Hackett’s voice is level, his face impassive. It’s not a joke.

“I might still be inside the Crucible, suffering from some sort of induced hallucination from the Indoctrination process,” Shepard ventures, carefully prodding his/her face, pausing over the scars.

“No, you’re not. Whatever you did, blew the damn thing apart. Citadel, too.” Hackett visibly relaxes – he was unsure WHAT was going to wake up here. He sits down on a chair by the window.

“What happened, exactly?”

“The Crucible emitted some sort of pulse, retransmitted across the galaxy by the relay network. Every synthetic, every bit of Reaper tech seems to have… ceased functioning. Sometimes violently so.” Hackett is rather grave and not at all optimistic.

{If doing silent movie treatment, the nurse is voiced, then the music starts. Instead, it is “Lights Are Always On”, still Faunts. Where Hackett speaks, instead of hearing him, Shepard has violent flashbacks of the Citadel}

“Every--?” Shepard cuts the word short.

{BTW, even if silent, all dialogue is still lipsynced and mouthed appropriately, for dramatic purposes – ME3 fails in a lot of scenes where we see “people are talking far away” moments where mouths don’t actually move – f.e. the Ashley memorial scene on the Citadel}

“Yes, Commander. The relays are gone. Imploded, apparently. Which is for the best, we initially feared a repetition of the Alpha Relay incident on a galactic scale. As for the rest…”
{If mute, he does a show-and-tell on an omni-tool – stills from cam footage, showing the beam, the relay collapsing, etc.}

If you saved the Geth:
“The Geth are no more. Many of their ships just crashed after losing control, most of the mobile platforms collapsed where they stood. It’s like they were permanently switched off simultaneously.”
{collapsed geth platforms, media photos of crashed Geth ships}

If you destroyed the Geth:
“I assume that the Geth would have felt it first after the Reapers. The Quarians certainly did – their reliance on VIs did them a disservice here.”
{snaps of Quarians scrabbling at their suits, Quarian ships colliding, etc}

If you made peace on Rannoch:
“The Geth are no more. Many of their ships just crashed after losing control, most of the mobile platforms collapsed where they stood. Every Quarian suit with a geth runtime in it has failed. They were running immuno-training drills, I believe? Virtually none of those who volunteered for it has survived.”
{intermix of the above two, timed to his speech, finished off with Quarian corpses which seem to be leaking from inside their suits}

Shepard takes all three silently, with a wince at the third.

“Then went the Thanix Cannons. Nothing severe, and, as I am told, easily repaired – it helped that none of them were powered by Reaper energy sources.”
{Snaps of burnt-out cannons, techs working on them}

Shepard nods along, rubbing his/her jaw. The camera starts to wander – there’s a holovid display a-la hospital TV at the far end of the room, silently showing newsfeeds from the across the world – devastation, rebuilding, relief efforts, devastation, orphans, Reaper archive footage, Reaper corpse crashed in the Grand Canyon, Reaper corpse looking like it got killed by small-arms fire in the Red Square, snippets of Admiral Hackett’s UN address (with blurby quotes at the bottom of the screen for immersion and the benefit of the voiceless version).

The attention wanders back to Hackett.
“The husks just fell where they stood, although some did explode in a spectacular fashion.”
{husk bodies, a Cannibal rupturing, a Brute collapsed over husk bits}

“From what we hear, whatever was left of Cerberus, suffered the same fate.”
{a lower-quality still of a Phantom’s head exploding, troopers having the same gooey death the Quarians did, etc}

“Which brings us to the last bit of Reaper tech.” He looks pointedly at Shepard.
“The Normandy.” No show-and-tell, the lipsync is good enough for you to read THAT on Sheps’ lips.
Especially since you’re seeing them close-up, soaking in that cheek scar, the bandages on the neck, the faint trace of staples and stitching on a collarbone.

“It got caught in the blast—sent away through the relay as it collapsed.”
{Several stills in sequence – Normandy flies, Normandy zapped, Normandy gone, empty space instead}

“Do we know where?” Shepard implores, with an upwards move of the head for the mute version.

“Not precisely. The QEC still works – we have them checking in regularly, to make sure everyone’s okay. They've been feeding us star charts they collate of the sky they see -- we're comparing those against our records. It's only a matter of time until we pinpoint their location at least in terms of star systems.”
{a holo of Joker’s sullen holographic shape next to Traynor inside a holoprojector similar to the Normandy’s: followed by a few snaps of an alien sky with those two dreaded moons}

“Since the Reapers knocked out the comm buoys, QEC is our only lifeline to the rest of the universe – we had ships doing delivery runs to the homeworlds when the relays collapsed, they passed their transmitters on. We are now the messengers of the galaxy, Commander.” (the last one delivered as a proud statement of fact)
{holo-sepia shots of Alliance ships landing on Illium, Tuchanka, Menae, followed by the holoprojector view of the Council}

“Is –“ Shepard starts to ask, reaching out a hand, but is interrupted by a coughing fit.

If your LI was of the ship’s crew:
“Yes, Commander. She (he)’s okay.”
{Holoprojector shot of Tali/Liara/Ash/Kaidan/Cortez/Traynor/Garrus}

If not:
“Yes, Commander, They’re okay.”
{holoprojector group shot of the crew, if Tali and Garrus hooked up, his arm is on her waist}

“EDI?” {I honestly have no idea how to convey this}

“Unfortunately, no. Total system failure.”
{Holoprojector shot of grief-stricken Joker demonstrating the burnt-out chassis}

If Quarian/Geth peace:
“However, the Quarians say the Geth can be rebuilt, given time. In their original form, sadly, not the upgraded version Legion created. Perhaps, if backups exist, EDI too can be restored.”
{photo of two Quarians fiddling with a Prime, reminiscent of the “working on unit 01” scene from the Consensus}

“What of the other races?” (Shep looks up as Hackett gets up)
“The Krogans are restless, eager to go home. The turians, asari and salarians are helping with the relief efforts.”
{stills of Krogans arguing, various races helping with the rebuilding}

“The Crucible team, however, is hard at work – reverse-engineering the Reaper propulsion systems. If they could get around a destroyed relay in two months, imagine the possibilities of mass-producing such a drive!”
{Shots from the Jupiter Station. Someone’s joking hand-painted sign “REMEMBER CITADEL” (yes, System Shock fans, I know you just got goosebumps, go get some sedatives) hung above a doorway, people prodding at a big Reaper chunk, staring at holoreadouts, etc}

“And on that note, I have to go, Commander. There’s a huge meeting in an hour concerning the future of the Council races which I, sadly, have to attend.”
{he folds the holoprojection up, turns off his omni-tool and nods at the TV, which shows the words “DECIDING THE FUTURE, Reaper technology – safe for use?” under stills of Wrex/Wreav, Victus, Mordin (if he’s alive), Wilks (if he’s alive), Hackett and many others you may not immediately recognize}

“I am not, however, leaving you alone. There’s someone here who badly wants to see you, Commander, I just wanted to talk to you before I attend the meeting.”
{he gestures at the door, and in walks…}
[TO BE CONTINUED]



>>>>>     THANE     <<<<<
This happens before Shepard wakes in the hospital.
If we are feeling generous, this even happens regardless of Shepard ackshwally surviving (although it would make little sense in case of Control, I admit).

Black fades to white fades to a shaky view of a blue sky with light cloud cover and a bright sun. The sun is viridian, the sky is turquoise, but otherwise rather normal-looking.

Camera switch. That was Shepard's-eye-view, as she's lying on her back in the sand, still in that bloodied uniform. On a beach. The sand is reddish, appearing as if dried human blood.

The waves of the sea are a murky green, like after a storm, and try, but to no avail, to lap at Shepard's feet - she's a little too far for the tide to reach her yet.

She props herself up on her elbows, looks around, starts getting up. Holds her hands up to her forehead to shield her eyes from the sunlight as she looks up and down the beach. Sees a lone figure far ahead, sitting on a rock outcropping overlooking the sea. Starts walking towards it, and as she does, the blood and the damage fade away from her, until she's looking unscathed and unscarred as she walks up the rock to the figure.

As she approaches it, we hear a voice, praying.
"...Kalahiri, mistress of the seas, guide this one's soul on its path, let the souls of others it had helped provide their help, so that nothing makes it stray from its destined way, and see to it that it finds peace..."

Halfway through the prayer, camera switch to show the figure from the front -- it's Thane, looking a lot more morose, although a lot less sick than we last saw him. Then again, he WAS dying at the time. Shepard's eyes widen, but she doesn't want to interrupt him.

"...and let the one he loved and who loved him be at peace, knowing that his soul is safe on its journey, and that he is waiting for her, just as her father is..."

When he's finished, she finally speaks up.
"I didn't know you knew Admiral Anderson, Thane."

Thane's eyes open.
"Until an hour ago, I did not, siha. He came through before you. We had an interesting talk. He was-- is-- a good and honorable man."

He stands up, turns to face her.<bullet time, PARAGON and RENEGADE INTERRUPTS appear>
: Shepard throws her arms around him, taking him by surprise, he even has to take a step back to regain balance. When she looks up from burying her face in his shoulder, there are tears in her eyes.

"I've missed you," she begins, but cannot continue, she's at a loss for words.
"And I missed you, siha," he replies, finally putting his arms around her too.

: Shepard narrows her eyes.
"So, is this happening in my head or is this real? Am I dead or alive?" she ponders, taking careful steps towards him, it's obvious she fears this is a Reaper trap, even though it pains her to see him walking and talking again and not be able to do anything with him.

"Why cannot it be both?" Thane asks, reaching out, taking her hand. Her defensiveness evaporates at the touch and she embraces him.

CONVERGENCE: "So, honestly, am I dead? Is this what drell heaven looks like?" she asks, looking into his eyes.
Camera switch, over her shoulder, we follow her gaze.

"No, and no," he replies with a slight sad smile. "You are very much alive, just incapacitated. And there is no more drell heaven as there is hanar heaven or human heaven. All souls eventually end up in the same place, regardless of their race, faith or moral stance in life."

IF LEGION SURVIVED ME2 into ME3: Shepard looks apprehensive as a ghostly version of Legion's voice from the forest of shadows says, at the edge of hearing, "Does this unit have a soul?"

She gestures at the sea and the sun."Then what does all this mean?"
"Drawn from your memories. By yourself, actually. This place... may have had some importance to you?"

She narrows her eyes at the view and the colours shift. The sun becomes bright yellow, the sky fades to blue, the sand becomes, well, sandy. Shepard recoils in surprise.

"Virmire? We're on Virmire?"

Thane lets go of the embrace, taking shepard by the hand, and leads her to the edge of the outcropping.
"If you say so, although this is rather your memory of it, not the actual planet."

"This place -- the planet, at least -- means a lot for my life. This is where I destroyed Saren's cure for the genophage. Where I talked to Sovereign for the first time. Learned what the Reapers really are, outside of myths. Where I've <almost> had to kill Wrex. Where I've had to sacrifice <Virmire Sacrifice name here>..."

They contemplate the horizon and the brewing stormy black clouds on it for a moment.
"So, what am I doing here?" she finally asks.

IF TOLD ASHLEY in ME1 THAT YOU ARE AN ATHEIST: "Not on Virmire, I mean, this... this... hallucination? Memory lane? Whatever this is."

IF TOLD ASHLEY in ME1 THAT YOU BELIEVE IN GOD: "Not on Virmire, I mean, but this... limbo? Purgatory? Whatever this is."

EITHER WAY:"You are here because you've just caused a massive shift of energies. It's not anyone's purpose, just... an accident. One that I am happy with, however."
"So there's no gods, or demons, or whatever? No afterlife? No paradise garden to frolic in?"

"Those facts are unconnected. There might still be gods, but be no afterlife, or vice versa. It doesn't really matter in the end, siha. Would your life be any different if you knew for certain whether gods existed?"
Shepard looks down, then back up at Thane, shrugs.

"Not really, no. Then again, I've just talked to what amounts to a God of the Reapers, and I've killed it. I think. I'm not actually sure what I just achieved."

"I'm sure you will find out when you get back."
Surprised look on Shepard's face.
"I'm... going back?"

"Believe it or not, you ARE alive. You're in an Alliance hospital, on Earth. You -- or at least your body -- is aware of all that while your mind is here."

Shepard shakes her head, smiles in a disbelieving manner.
"And how do you know all that, Thane?"
"Because we are in your head... in a manner of speaking."

"So, while I'm here..."

"...there's a message waiting for you."
"What?"

"The souls going through here all are given a choice. Remain, keeping their recollections of the living world, and exist, or, if you prefer, "live", in whatever shards of their memories they have retained. Or move on, to another state of being, one you can never return from. Or do not want to. Whichever, not one has ever returned, that much is certain."

"Heh. This IS Purgatory after all. So what was that about the message?"
"I've been asked to pass it on by a soul that learned that I knew you. She herself has decided it was her time to move to the other state of being, but she had given her promise to the previous message-bearer, who gave his to the original author, and could not break it."

"Yes?""It was..."
IF YOU DID THAT SPOILERY PARAGON OR RENEGADE THING A LONG TIME AGO: "Was submission preferrable to extinction after all? I hope you've made the right choice, Commander. Thank you for helping me make mine."
IF YOU DID NOT: "Is submission preferrable to extinction after all? I hope you'll make the right choice when the time comes, Commander."

"Saren..."
"I have been pondering its meaning. Could you enlighten me?"

"Saren Arterius. The rogue spectre I chased on the original Normandy. The one who pretty much got me into this whole mess with the Reapers - if he had never used the geth to strike at Eden Prime when we were headed there..."

: Shepard closes her eyes and hangs her head in silent mourning, then embraces Thane, resting her head on his shoulder, sobbing quietly.

: Shepard balls her fists, raises one to head height as if readying to punch something, then drops the hand, embracing Thane in silence.

After a short bit, Shepard draws back.
"So, if everyone passes through here and can wait indefinitely... Did you see Irikah?" she carefully ventures.

Thane lowers his gaze. We see his eyes flinch as if he's having flashbacks, but he remains silent, wincing with every returning memory.
"Yes."

"I take it, it didn't go so well?"

"No. Perfect recall apparently carries over into the afterlife as well. Her memory of me... did not quite match the reality."

"But I thought perfect recall would also mean the feelings never dwindle? Love never dies?"

"Yes, and no. I am not the man she loved, siha. Haven't been for a while now. I've changed... because of you, among other things," he adds uncertainly.
"Ah. I see."

"We parted in peace, as much as absence of hostility can be called peace."

"I'm going to miss you even more now," she says after a short pause, "Knowing the damage I have done to your afterlife with your wife."

"That fault lies entirely with me, siha. And I will be waiting for you."

"If only we had more time..."
"Time is not relevant here. At least... not in the way it is outside."

With that, she looks up at him, and he looks down at her.
"Then let's not waste any more of it..." she says quietly.
She leans in for a kiss as the screen fades to white...


{without further ado, move to the introduction to the Red Ending's "Shepard Lives!" for the story's resolution; the flow then follows Hackett -- comms to Normandy for whoever was your #2 rebound LI or the loveless conclusion -- then to the doctor's visit, then the final resolution scenes}

Modifié par Noelemahc, 11 mai 2012 - 02:05 .

[Noelemahc]

LI resolutions for "Shepard Lives, Red Ending":

>>>>>JACK<<<<<

In walks Jack, slowly and somewhat reluctantly. Nods to Hackett.

“Admiral.”
“Ms. Naught. Commander.” Hackett nods to both of them and leaves, shutting the door after him.

Jack turns to Shepard, putting her hands on her hips.
“I oughta kill you where you stand. Lie. Whatever.” {accusing finger, dismissive wave on “whatever”; it’s clear she’s mighty PO’ed}

“What did I do?” {Shepard is quizzical}

“I thought I was very clear – said I’m getting laid when this is over. Where were you?!” {upward wave on “clear”, half open palm outstretched at Shepard on “where”}
<from here on out, RENEGADE means whether you had more Rene points than Para, and vice versa. There will be some special prompts for when they're equal, I promise>
: “Busy dying.” {that snarky snarky smile Shep does in ME2 when he tells Jack that he’s undead}
“And I said it would go this way, didn’t I?” {she’s hysterical, there are tears in her eyes} “You get close to me, and then you die.” {she’s now hugging herself, sobbing quietly}

: “Saving the Galaxy, nothing major.” {nods at the window}
“Yeah, and getting killed in the process, looks like.” {she hugs herself, sobbing}

EITHER WAY: Shepard motions to her.
“Come here.”
She looks up, walks up to the bed slowly, sits down on the edge. He takes her hand.
“I meant what I said. You don’t have to be alone anymore. You yourself proved as much, your students—“ {imploring look as he caresses her hand}

IF CONVINCED STUDENTS TO FIGHT: “—paid the price already.” {sullen look} “Rodriguez and I are the only ones that got out alive out of that hellhole.” Quick switch of camera to outside the door, Rodriguez sitting on a bench in the hallway, her only sign of being in better health than Shepard being the fact that she apparently walked here… somehow. She’s bandaged and rather beat up, looking apprehensively at the door every now and then. She looks worried.

IF CONVINCED STUDENTS TO SUPPORT: “—are still kids.” {sullen look, still} “Rodriguez seems to be the only one even halfway to proper biotic combat readiness.” (pause) “Heh, imagine that, I’m a drill instructor! Who could’ve believed it!” Quick switch of camera view to outside the door, the kids waiting around, sitting and standing and generally getting in the way of doctors, throwing looks at the door and at Rodriguez intermittently, her pose is largely the same, she’s just a lot less… battle-worn.

“Not your fault. Still, you’ve made a great teacher,” Shepard warrants, regardless, looking slightly worried that she’s more intent on staring at the wall next to the window than looking at him.

“Jack. Look at me.” {he reaches out to stroke her cheek}

She throws a glance at him, and tears return to her eyes.
“I thought I’d lost you, you idiot!” she’s not yelling, it’s more of a stifled cry. She punches his shoulder angrily, sees him wince and then throws herself on top of him, sobbing. Shepard, still wincing because that’s his still-mending bones she’s racking with her sobs, puts his arms around her.

“I thought I told you already,” he finally says. “You’re not getting rid of me THAT easily.”
She looks up at him. “You said a lot of things.”
“And I don’t intend to take any of them back. Jack—“

IF LIARA TOLD HER HER NAME: “That’s not even my name, you know. Not my real one.” She sits upright, but at least now stays facing Shep. “Remember what Blue said, it’s Jennifer. Heh. Never thought I’d turn out to be a Jennifer.” {sad smile} “And I still have no last name other than Naught, and it’s a **** to spell.”

IF LIARA DIDN’T TELL HER HER NAME/SHE DIDN’T MEET LIARA: “That’s not even my name, you know. Not my real one.” She sits upright, but at least now stays facing Shep. “Not even sure I’ll ever find out WHAT the real one is.” {sardonic smile} “And I still have no last name other than Naught, and it’s a **** to spell.”

EITHER WAY: Shepard smiles. “It’s a free galaxy. You can call yourself whatever you like. Pick whatever name you want.” {pauses, brushes his hand against her cheek, she smiles back}

<bullet time, PARAGON and RENEGADE INTERRUPT options light up at the same time>

: “Hell, if you want it, you can even have mine.”
{her eyes widen, she draws back}

“Are you… saying what I think you’re saying?” {genuine horror there}

“Why not? It’s not very likely I will have to go fight the Reapers again,” {stupid grin} “And seeing how I would like to spend the rest of my life with you—“

“Stop. Stop right there.” {she gets up, holding up her hands in the classic “stop” gesture – close to her chest, she’s actually afraid} “What would this mean for me?”

“You’re worried for your future? Five minutes ago you only wanted to scold me for not getting you some!” {laughs} “Other than becoming Jack Shepard, this will mean whatever you want it to mean. Though I’d rather it meant that you wouldn’t have to run away from anything or anyone anymore. That you’d have a home to come back to. That you’d be happy. With me, if possible.”

“Shepard, I…” {awkward pause, sly grin} “I’ll think about it. Can’t promise anything more right now.”

: "Hell, I can help you pick one."
{she grins, narrows her eyes}
"Like what? I know you'd make fun of me either way."
"Aw, come on, I thought you might enjoy being Jennifer Schmidt, it's got vigour!"
{she punches him playfully, more careful this time}
"Called it!"

{she pushes herself up to a sitting position, throws a glance out the window, sighs}
"I... I don't know, Shepard. Sound great, it's just... I'm not sure I'm ready for this whole... commitment thing."

"You still can't trust me?"
{she looks at him imploringly}
"I can't trust myself. Every day I worry about those kids" {gestures at the door} "if I made the right call, if I'm good enough for this. And now you--" {she pauses, giving an exasperated handwave at him}

OPTIONS CONVERGE
“Alright, no pressure. {placating open palms} There is only one more thing…”

Jack’s eyes narrow. “I knew it. You want to go off on some effing adventure?” {accusing glare}

“Effing? Being a teacher has certainly had an effect on you.” {laughs}

“Cough up. What is it?”
“The Normandy. Gotta get my people back.”
“But… why you?” {raised eyebrows, puzzlement}

“Remember you said that nobody screws with your students because they are YOUR kids? Those are MY people. I owe it to them to get them home.”

“Heh. I told Kahlee it will go this way.”

“What?” {Shepard’s turn to be puzzled}

Jack walks to the door, opens it.
<go look up “RESOLUTION” section for this ending, it’s shared between all the versions>

{Overall, if silent treatment, this plays out shorter: Jack walks in, exchanges nods with Hackett, talks to Shepard – accusingly, then cries, then he motions her onto the bed, talks to her, she explains the students – we get treated to the hallway view as illustration – she punches his shoulder, then hugs him.
Wthen he proposes in his roundabout way via PARAGON – since we don’t hear the exact words, when her eyes widen, we get a “nightmare montage” – the words “Jacqueline Nought” as they appear on the Normandy’s cenotaph, a sign saying “Commander Shepard”, then, after a brief moment of clarity, the first sign changed to “Jacqueline Shepard” and we are jerked back into reality as she backs off, and he implores.
In the RENEGADE - same montage, but with the replacement words transmuting, Shepard waving at them as they become "Jennifer Schmidt" (for skits and giggles, intermediate options can be "Miranda Lawson", "Jacqueline Shepard" and "Janice Polito"), the rest of the gestures are largely the same.
Then he speaks of the Normandy (another montage – the crash site, the team in the holo, Shepard and his team in London and then Jack and her students in the Grissom Academy), and she relents, and nods, and goes to the door}



>>>>>MIRANDA<<<<<

Miranda enters slowly, almost apprehensively. Hackett nods at her.
“Miss Lawson.”
“Admiral.”
“Commander.” Hackett nods at Shep and makes himself scarce, hiding a crooked grin. The door closes and locks behind him.

Shepard fidgets in his bed a bit.
“Hello, Shepard,” Miranda begins, walking up to the foot of the bed. Camera takes in her legs as she does so, but instead of swinging over her butt as it always does, swings the other way, moving back, along the bed, so that we are briefly presented with a Shepard’s-eye-view of her leaning against the bed.
“Miranda.”
Pleasantries dispensed, Shepard regains composure.

“So, how does being a free woman feel for you?”
She turns to glance out the window, replies while still looking away from him.
“It is… weird. The Alliance still views me as a potential risk,” she turns her head back to look at Shep as she says “risk”, “I had to sign four NDAs to even enter this building.”

Shepard rubs the back of his neck.
“Well, they’re a bureaucracy, and I wasn’t awake to vouch for you. My bad.” He grins. She sighs, walks around the bed to sit on his bedside, from the room’s side (i.e. opposite from the window).
"You'd think they could change their mind after what I did for them," she half-mutters.
IF READ SHADOW BROKER REPORT ON HER MERCENARIES:
"I heard. How'd you get yourself a private army, anyway?"
IF NOT READ SHADOW BROKER REPORT:
"Yeah, I was wondering about that. How'd you get to Earth for the final push anyway? Weren't you keen on hiding Oriana?"
She smiles.
CONVERGENCE:"Sometimes offence is a good enough defence. I pulled some markers, called on any ex-Cerberus operative that would talk to me."
IF IMPORTED ME:INFILTRATOR PLAYTHROUGH: "A man named Randall Ezno was of great help. You'll meet him soon enough, I think you might like him."
"Suddenly, I had a personal surgical strike force at my disposal. While you were working over Cronos Station, we hit all the Cerberus outposts we could find, cutting off any support The Illusive Man may have had left, recruiting new defectors as we went."
"And then coming to Earth to join the big battle seemed a natural enough conclusion. We started with Cardiff, though. The Alliance troops stationed there called for help, we helped them. After that, nobody asked any questions."
"Reapers in Cardiff?" (hello, Torchwood fans, nice of you to join us)
"Apparently so. Blew out some sort of hidden bunker complex under the city and then just decided to entrench. We smoked them out."
“I was worried about you,” she ass as sort of an explanation, sounding unsure of herself, "And shooting things, as it turned out, helps me relax." (yes, Farscape fans, we didn't forget you either)

: “Don’t worry. I made my promise, you don’t have to run anymore. I’m here. I’ll always be here for you.”
She smiles in a sad way.
“Here, lying in a hospital bed?”
He gives her a stern look.
“I don’t intend to spend the rest of my life in it, if that’s what you’re asking. Speaking of which, didn’t you plan to spend yours with your sister? How’s Oriana doing after all… this?”

: “Don’t worry. You brought me back from the dead once already, I’m sure you could do it again. You’re like a guardian angel, watching over me.”
She smiles in a sad way.
“Some angel I turned out to be. Couldn’t even watch my own sister well enough.”
He gives her a stern look.
“But she’s safe now. She’s safe, right?”

CONVERGENCE: “Oriana’s signed up for the Restoration Project that’s going on Jupiter Station. Or, as some have taken to calling it, “Citadel Station”. Fancy that.”
Shepard nods.
“Hackett told me. And you’re okay with that?”
“Why shouldn’t I be? She’s her own person now, finally. Even found herself someone already.” (pause) “An asari.”
Awkward pause.

IF NOT COMPLETED LAIR OF THE SHADOW BROKER OR NOT READ HER DOSSIER
“Miranda, is there something here I don’t know?”
She sighs again, then turns to face him. When she speaks, her voice is small and fragile.
“Shepard… I’m infertile. Genetic defect, hereditary.  They tell me there is nothing that can be done.”

IF COMPLETED LAIR OF THE SHADOW BROKER AND READ HER DOSSIER
“Miranda, I…”

<bullet time, PARAGON and RENEGADE INTERRUPTS appear>

“…it’s alright. I know.”
Her eyes widen in surprise.
“You what?”
“Your neoplasm.”
Another pause.
“H-how?”
“The Shadow Broker – the old one – had had files compiled on all of us. When Liara took over his ship, I read most of them.”
She frowns, but Shepard continues.
“I was looking for information on the Illusive Man, I did not expect to find intimate details you wanted to hide. I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, you’re sorry, and I’m sorry.”
Another pause.


“…you think she might be infertile too?”
She draws back in shock.
“What? How do you know that?”
“I’m friends with the Shadow Broker, remember? The old one had had extensive files on all of us. Yours had medical records – I’m sorry I didn’t tell you earlier, it’s not exactly something you can bring up in casual conversation. “
“It’s still rude.”
“I know. I’m sorry. I guess I was waiting for you to bring it up yourself…”
Another pause.

CONVERGENCE FOR EVERYONE! “Does Oriana know?”
“Yes.”
“Does she have it too?”
“We don’t know yet. I can’t be certain until we have her see a doctor, but… chances are, she will also have it. It’s something left over from the way we were made. From our father’s DNA.” She practically spits the last phrase out.

<bullet time, PARAGON and RENEGADE INTERRUPTS appear>


“Then it’s probably good for her. Sure, if they have children – and that’s already going too far with the assumptions – there’s no doubt it’s going to be a little blue girl, but the important part is that she will be able to, regardless whether she has it or not.”
“I know, it’s just… “


“You’re worried she’s only doing this because with an asari, it doesn’t matter if you’re fertile or not, because the baby’s going to be blue anyway?”
“No, I…”

CONVERGENCE: “Wait, you’re more worried that it’s an asari?”

Miranda gets up, paces around the room as she speaks and gestures widely.
“I don’t know! I mean, she’s my little sister, I’m supposed to be taking care of her now that I’m all she has left in the world and—“
“—Miri, stop.”

She stops dead in her tracks, looks at him quizzically. Not everybody in this universe would call her that, right? Once he sees he has her attention, Shepard resumes.

: “You’ve said it yourself, she’s her own person now. Let her choose her way. Decide on who she wants to be, who she wants to be with. Isn’t that why you freed her from your father?”

: “Listen to yourself for a moment. You sound like your father. You cannot protect her from everything. You should not protect her from everything. She has her own life. If you really want to be a part of it, you must learn to let her make her own decisions, her own mistakes.”

CONVERGENCE
“Besides, wouldn’t it be the best “screw you” you could ever hope to deliver to your father’s legacy if all his grandchildren are going to be blue?”
(that last one delivered with a laugh, and she finally smiles through tears)
“Thank you, Shepard. You’re right… It’s just that this foolish “perfection” has made me too critical of everything. Of me, of her… even of you.”
“That’s weird. I don’t remember you being critical of me.”
She sits back down on the bed, leans in.
“That’s because you haven’t disappointed me yet.” Quick kiss.

"I can think of at least one way to do it, once I'm out of this hospital."
She looks at him questioningly.

"The Normandy. I have to get my people back."
"Shepard, you don't even know where they are!"

"That's the beauty of it. It all depends on being able to travel without the mass relays--"

The door chimes – there’s a visitor.
“Stay right there,” she begins as she springs up, “There’s something else I have to tell you.”
She opens the door…
<see SHARED CONCLUSION>

{Overall, this is not as hard to adapt to a silent movie treatment. When discussing Miranda's condition, her nightmare montage consists of medical charts, highlighting words from the Shadow Broker's terminal -- "benign neoplasm", "infertility", "consider adoption", "support groups". When speaking of Oriana's fling, she might show Shep a holo of Ori with her arm around an asari's shoulder. The rest is easy-peasy - mentions of Lawson Sr. get accompanied by his face, his holding Oriana hostage, etc.

The general idea is that Miranda's a very railroaded plot, there's only ONE direction you can take in the game that leaves her alive to have this talk, so the divergences had to be made up. And yes, we know she was interested in a boy in LotSB. Time has passed, the boy may have ruined her liking of boys, it might be a phase... or it might not. That's not the point, the point is that Miranda is FREAKING OUT OVER NOTHING, because it touches on a sensitive issue.}

>>>>JACOB<<<<
(for the unlikely situation where you didn't find anyone to settle for in ME3 after you got dumped; the assumption is made that he had to be loyal to survive his mission; therefore his father's mission has been completed, whichever way it ended)

...and in walks Jacob, a little hesitantly.
"Mr. Taylor, Commander, I think I'm going to leave you two to it," Hackett says and makes himself scarce.
"Admiral," both reply almost simultaneously.

Jacob follows Hackett out with a glance and turns to Shepard.
"So, can't leave you unattended, can I?" he says, pulling up the chair from the window to sit at the foot of the bed.

"What's that supposed to mean?" quizzical eyebrow.
"Well, after we talked, I thought you'd be okay and--"
<optional flashes by>

IF NOT TAKEN: "--you know. Not do any of that suicide mission stuff again."
"A tiger can't change its stripes, you know."
"Yeah, I know what you mean." {flexes neck uneasily} "After I left the Corsairs, I never managed to completely shake off the military school of thought. Seen a lotta people like that in Cerber--" {trails off}

IF TAKEN, Shepard: "--not go suicidal? Jacob, not everything revolves around me and you. Especially now that there's no me and you anymore."
"Sorry, I didn't mean it like that."
"Well, it came out like that anyway." {bitterly}

CONVERGENCE: Jacob: "Sorry."

Shepard shifts a little in her bed, looks at the window.
"So tell me, you and Brynn--"
{interrupts} "We're fine. Really. I know what you might be thinking--"

Shepard: "--and I have good reason to. You run away from everything in your life. You ran away from the Corsairs. Ran away from me. Ran away from your father, in a sense. Wouldn't surprise me if that's how you broke up with Miranda, either."

Shepard: "--damn right, I do. You might hate your father for what he did -- to you, to his crew -- but you are just like him. You couldn't stay in the Corsairs, couldn't wait for me, couldn't face your father until that distress call came in... Now I know why Miranda was so cold to you when we met."

CONVERGENCE: Jacob: "Yeah. Maybe you're right. But you're no princess either, Shepard. When you were on trial--"

Shepard: "--my friends waited. Some waited on the results, some waited for my return. They did not sit idly by, and they did not look for ways to betray me."
"Is that what you think I did? Betrayed you?"

<bullet time, PARAGON and RENEGADE OPTIONS appear>
: "Well, what would you call it? Getting some other woman pregnant when I'm indisposed, is that a good idea of a "prize"? I'm glad you're happy with her, but the way she looks at me makes me feel like she's plotting my death every waking second."
"Brynn is not plotting your death."
"I didn't say she is. I said she makes me feel like she is. Her dislike of me is palpable." {seething, yet controlled rage}

: "Yes. Betrayed my trust, at the very least. Would it have killed you to call me? To write to me? "Shepard, I love you, but there's this far more accessible girl out here that isn't trying to get me killed by fighting Eldritch Abominations!"
"And would that have satisfied you?"
"A lot better than "Oh, hi, haven't seen you in a while, by the way, want to meet the mother of my future child?", that's for sure!" {realizes she's yelling, stops}

CONVERGENCE: Jacob (getting up): "This was a mistake. Coming here. I'm sorry, Shepard, I-- I'd like us to stay friends, but it feels like you would hate me regardless."

: "I don't hate you. I just can't trust you anymore. You're a good soldier, Jacob, but you're apparently a very crappy person."
: "I really don't want to, but I can't help it. Everything you say or do only makes it worse. And the way Brynn scowls when she looks at me doesn't really help all that much."

CONVERGENCE: Jacob turns to the door.
"Jacob?"
He turns back.

"I'll say this much. Don't be like your father. Brynn... needs you. Her child will need you. Will need a father. Marry her. Keep her safe."

"Thanks, Shepard. I will."

"Oh, and if I ever learn that you mistreated her in any way, or abandoned her and the baby -- have no doubts, I will find you, and I will strap you into a nice sturdy hardsuit, glue you onto a training drone and set you flying into an Alliance Fighter Pilot Life Fire Exercise Area."

Jacob looks distraught as Shepard goes on.
"And the best part of it is, you know that nobody will dare try to stop me, because I'm Commander Shepard. And I really dislike repeat offenders."

He nods.
"I... will take that into consideration, Shepard."

"Good. Have a nice life, Jacob. And... thanks for the memories."

After he leaves, Shepard looks at the window again.
IF DISCUSSED FATHER FIGURES WITH EDI AFTER CRONOS STATION:
"Dammit, I really have to start asking these questions in advance."

(Overall, Jacob's story is a sad one. He's a dude who cannot decide what he wants... and pisses off the Galaxy's most feared warrior woman in the process. If there's ever gonna be a "Shepard's Funeral" scene in this section, Jack is probably gonna beat him up.
I'm still thinking of ways to silentize the scene, though, without turning it into a procession of floating images.
Note: the threat occurs regardless of being Para or Rene. No, I don't dislike Jacob as a character, he's surprisingly well-written, but the turn of events was... unpleasant, to say the least.)


<<<<<hop on over to the CONCLUSION right now, y'hear!>>>>>



HOLOCALL INTRO
This is shared if your Shep romanced someone who is marooned with the Normandy. Yay!

Door opens, revealing a dude in an Alliance uniform with a hoverloader with some shapely devices on it.
“I’ll leave you to it, Sergeant,” Hackett tells the tech, then nods at Shepard. “Commander.”

The tech wrestles the machinery into the room, nodding at Shepard as he goes along with it.
“Commander, this’ll just be a moment.” he offers.
“Sorry, do I know you?” Shepard ventures.

“No, Commander, I’m with the Fifth Fleet. Got an order to provide you with a QEC station and the frequency settings for the Normandy’s comms.”

“Ah. Right.” Shepard leans back, studying the ceiling as the tech fiddles with the stuff, setting up a power converter, rigging the projection screen, etc.

IF DID BENNING MISSION
“Commander, you were at Benning, weren’t you?”
Shepard gets halfway up to see the tech trailing the wires clear of the possible walking path to the bed.

“Yes, I was. Stopped a Cerberus attack on some civilians.”
“I wanted to thank you, sir/ma’am. My mother was there, gave a pretty accurate description of “that Alliance officer that saved us all”.” He stands up, wipes his forehead.

“Glad to hear she’s alright then, Sergeant.” Shepard replies somewhat hesitantly. “Just doing my duty.”

IF DIDN’T DO BENNING MISSION
“Commander, have you heard of Benning?”
Shepard gets halfway up to see the tech trailing the wires clear of the possible walking path to the bed.

“Wasn’t that a colony that got attacked by Cerberus?”
“Yes, it was. “Was” being the operative word. My mother was there…” pause, as something clicks in the depths of the holoprojector, “…I’m glad you took those bastards down, Commander.” He stands up, wipes his forehead.

“Just doing my duty, Sergeant.” Shepard replies hesitantly. “I’m sorry about your mother, I guess didn’t do it fast enough.”

CONVERGENCE: “No, it’s alright, Commander. You took Cerberus out, that’s what matters.”
He triggers something. “Alright, it’s online. Let’s just hope they’re not asleep right now or anything, ‘cos that would probably be rude of us.”
A fritzy image of Traynor comes into view., shattering and reforming as the system tries to compensate for the distance. Finally, she coalesces.

“Normandy here-- C-commander?” she says, awestruck. “Commander Shepard! It’s you!”
We hear other voices, to the effect of “What?” “Shepard?” “Keelah!” “Well, I’ll be!”, “By the Goddess!” etc.
Switch view to the jungle. The QEC rig outdoors is now swarmed with the crew staring at a holographic bedridden Shepard.

"Normandy? You actually named the planet "Normandy"?"
"Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time. She Normandy has been our home for quite a while - some longer than others - and now that this planet serves as our home away from home... It's as good a name as any," Traynor explains. {and I honestly have no idea how to silentize this}

“Commander? Why are you in a hospital bed?” Joker finally asks.
“Well, let’s see… First I got shot by Harbinger, then I got shot by a Marauder, then I was indoctrinated by The Illusive Man, and THEN I blew up the Crucible to trigger its firing mechanism and apparently… fell down to Earth.” {quick flashes – the run to the Conduit, the burnt armour, Marauder Shields, TIM’s rude gesture of power, the Starchild, the explosions…}

“AGAIN?” Joker’s disbelief is palpable.
“Yeah, I get that a lot, don’t I?” Shepard scratches his head. “Where’s—“
“Shepard!” Your LI steps forward… <see relevant section below, haw haw>

>>>>> TALI <<<<<
...Tali steps forward, and everyone else gives her a wide berth, we see the planetside view as they take a step or two back to get out of the projector's range, but they do not disperse.Meanwhile, Shepard now only sees a life-sized holo of Tali in front of the bed.
"Hey, Tali."
"Hello, Shepard."A slight pause.

"I was worried about you--"
"I was worried about you--" they say at the same time, then both stop. She laughs, Shepard grins.

"OK, you first," she says {pointing finger at him}
"I was wondering if you have enough food out there. From what I understand, the planet-- Normandy -- is not dextro-friendly."
"No, it's not. Well, here's the funny thing..."

IF CHAKWAS IS THE SHIPBOARD DOCTOR"...Dr. Chakwas likes to plan everything in advance. There was a separate container of dextro food in the cargo hold -- since it only has to feed Garrus and me, we'll probably last longer than the rest of the crew without having to experiment with eating any of the local plant or animal life." {if Garrus is dead, you know what to do, right?}

IF MICHEL IS THE SHIPBOARD DOCTOR"...Dr. Michel is quite taken with Garrus, it seems, so we inexplicably found ourselves with enough dextro food supplies stowed away to feed us two for far longer than the rest of the crew before we'd have to go hunting or scavenging." {giggles} "Although you have to admit it, this is rather cute."

IF MICHEL IS THE SHIPBOARD DOCTOR BUT GARRUS IS DEAD"...we somehow had a double dose of dextro food stored away -- and even the single one would last me for a few months. As it stands, I'm probably safe from having to hunt or scavenge for food for quite a while..." {she pauses, then sighs} "...although I hope it won't have to come for that."

CONVERGENCE
"Either way, I'm all set. What about you? What happened to you, Shepard?"
"I'm getting back to health. Soon as I can walk, I'm getting you out of there."

"H-how? As we understand it, the mass relays are gone. This means that even if you KNEW where we are right now, it would take you a better part of ten or maybe twenty years to reach us..." {she trails off, hangs her head dejectedly}

<bullet time, PARAGON and RENEGADE INTERRUPTS appear>

"Remember what we agreed on, way back? I'm not giving up until you have a home to go to. And since you DO have a home to go back to now, it's my duty to get you there..."

"Hey, cut that defeatist talk! You're not dead yet! And if I have anything to say about it, you never will be! That's an order from your Captain..."

CONVERGENCE, final words are:
IF TALI WAS EXILED "...miss vas Normandy nar Rayya!"
IF TALI WAS EXONERATED, BUT NOT MADE ADMIRAL "...miss vas Rannoch nar Rayya!"
IF TALI WAS MADE ADMIRAL "...Admiral!"

Either way, she replies with
"Shepard! YOU don't have to call me that!"
"Well, turns out, I don't actually know ANYTHING about Quarian honorifics, or if you even have them, or is it just fleet ranks?"

She shrugs."You never asked," {the smile is palpable in her voice} "Guess you're in for a crash course in Quarian terminology when this is--" {she cuts off, sniffs, sounds like she's on the verge of tears}
"About the only thing I want to know right now..." {cue "I Was Lost Without You" in it's final sex-having movement}

<bullet time, PARAGON and RENEGADE INTERRUPTS appear>

"...is whether you'd like to become Tali'Shepard vas Normandy when I get you out of there? ...If that's even how Quarian naming goes in regard to marriage."
"What?" {she looks up} "You... you want to marry me?"

<common interrupt appears as she speaks, fades as her question ends; only affects how soon Shepard replies, purely aesthetic, but attach a counter to it nonetheless, then put it up somewhere -- "THIS MANY ME PLAYERS ARE DESPERATE TO HAVE TALI AS THEIR WAIFU">

"Yes. I love you. You love me. Marriage is a common form of taking that kind of relationship further." {spoken levelly, with a sensation of emotions being held back, a-la his Rannoch-ending "Waiting on you" speech}
"B-but we'd never be able to--"
"We'll figure something out."


"...is whether there's a word to describe how badly I want you to be off that planet and by my side right now. Tali See'lai."
She takes a step back.
"That's... actually correct. Heh. "The Tali that I hope to see someday...""
Her eyes blink rapidly, she's fighting tears without a means to wipe them away.
"Thank you, Shepard. I love you."
"I know."

CONVERGENCE:
Vega's voice: "You do realize that we CAN HEAR AND SEE YOU two, right?"
Shepard: "Shut it, Mr. Vega."
Vega: "Aye, shutting it, Commander."

IF GETH AND QUARIANS UNITED:"So, Shepard, were the rumours we heard true? The Geth are..."
"No more. Whatever the Crucible did, it killed every AI or VI in the galaxy -- and since the Geth were upgraded to true AI by Legion..."

IF GETH ELIMINATED:"So, Shepard, were the rumours we heard true? The Reapers are..."
"No more. Whatever the Crucible did, it killed every AI or VI in the galaxy -- I guess even ones as primitive as the Shepard VI that Mouse made." {last bit added only if Mouse actually TOLD you of the VI, and/or you used it}

CONVERGENCE"So that's what happened to EDI... Adams and I, we've been trying to bring her back online. The datastacks are all intact, at least physically -- but until we can power her up, we can't check whether they're wiped, or damaged, or anything, actually."

EXTRA SECTION IF PEACE ON RANNOCH"Well, Xen's reportedly working on ways of bringing the Geth back, although I guess it's not going to be the fully-aware Geth, not with all samples of the Reaper code they used gone. The mobile platforms are untouched, only the Consensus has been... disabled, I guess."
"What? But Xen was all for destroying the Geth!"

"I think it's an obsession issue. All she really wanted was to study them, to know them. That's why she backed Han'Gerrel instead of Zaal'Koris - war would give her more test subjects than peace."
"Huh. We'll make a Quarian politician out of you yet, Shepard!"
"I try." {wry grin}
END EXTRA

"So, Shepard, are you really going to come and get us?"
"I'm your captain, you are my crew. It is my honor-bound duty to take care of you. And that includes getting you off planets that you crashed my ship on without me while I was getting thrown out of an exploding space station."

"Yeah, I never properly understood how you survived that."
"Neither did I. And there's apparently nobody left alive who could tell me -- not something I'm rather happy about, as you can guess."

"Almost forgot, Tali..."
"Yes?"

IF SPACER ORIGIN
"When this is over, you're gonna have to meet my mother."
"Your... mother?"
"Yeah."
"You never mentioned her before. Or your father."
"He's dead. In the line of duty, long before you and I met. My mother, however, is an admiral."
"An ADMIRAL?!"
"Yeah, I knew it would pique your interest. You'll like her. She'll probably like you, to--"
"Shepard, why didn't you tell me your mother's an admiral?"
"Well, I thought it wasn't relevant..."
"But... come to think of it, you're an admiral's daughter, I'm an admiral's son..."

IF NOT SUGGESTED MARRIAGE EARLIER
"If this was an Earth fairy tale, there'd be nothing in our way if we ever wanted to get married, hah."
"You'd want to marry me?"
"Why shouldn't I? Is there a Quarian law that prohibits marriage to outworlders?"
"Not as such, seeing as our concept of an outworlder has always basically been anyone who doesn't live on the Migrant Fleet..."

IF SUGGESTED MARRIAGE EARLIER
Tali: "And how would a human Admiral react if her son wanted to marry a Quarian?"
"Good question. And I guess that sooner or later we will know the answer to that."
"Great. Keelah, you never cease to amaze me, you know that?"

IF EARTHBORN ORIGIN
"When this is over, we're building that house together."
"I wouldn't have it any other way."
"Good. Can't even remember myself ever living in a real house."
"What do you mean?"
"I was an orphan, a street rat, back on Earth. Hell, feels like it was several centuries ago."
"How'd you go to Commander Shepard, First Human SPECTRE, from that?"
"Determination. Stubbornness. Also, a healthy dose of not willing to die on those very streets. The military held all the ways towards that."
"And so you took it."
"And here I am. I hope there's no social stigma for orphans among your kind."
"Not really... Like the turians, we judge more on merit, and your name is known to pretty much anyone in the galaxy, Shepard. You'll be fine. We'll be fine."

IF COLONIST ORIGIN
"Is everything that grows and lives on Rannoch dextro-amino-based?"
"Yes, I believe so."
"Then we might have a problem."
"What pro-- Oh. Oooh."
"Yeah." {nods} "I understand I could grow my own crops on Rannoch's soil, but it would take time. You might not believe it, but I do know a thing or two about farming." (Yes, BSG fans, I knew you were clamoring for this line to be used in a non-tearjerker fashion, and I am deeply sorry I failed you)
"Well, if you can get HERE, means that sooner or later trade ships will get to Rannoch. It won't be able to survive on its own for the longest time, anyway, so where there's problems, there are going to be traders and relief workers and diplomats and I doubt many of them will be turians. Which means there will be levo-amino-compatible food. I WON'T let you starve, Shepard."
"That is most reassuring. Maybe we'll make a farmer out of you yet, Tali'Zorah vas Normandy."
"Maybe we will."

CONVERGENCE, FINALE
The doorbell rings.
"Huh. Tali, I've apparently got an appointment with a doctor right now, but I will call you back."
"You'd better. For all this crowd of eavesdroppers, it can get pretty lonely out here."
"I know. I will be there soon as I can -- and for that, unfortunately, I have to make nice with the doctors."
"Good luck. You're going to need it."
"Ain't that the half of it. I love you."
"I love you too. Keelah See'lai."
"Keelah See'lai."

<Do not pass "GO", do not collect 200 credits, go straight to the CONCLUSION  section!>

>>>>> JOKER <<<<<
(Yeah, you read that right. Prerequisites: Your LI is dead (be it Virmire, Suicide Mission, Citadel Coup or Kepral's Syndrome) or a cheating bastard, you did not full-romance anyone new in ME3 (or ME2 if Virmire), you flirted with Joker on the Citadel, you're a FemShep (not necessarily in that order))

...Joker steps forward and everyone gives him space, although carefully. They look at him as if he's about to topple, and, frankly, he does look like he would.
"Shepard, I'm sorry we--"

Shepard raises her hand in a placating gesture.
"Don't worry, Joker. Hackett told me. You couldn't have known the relays would collapse."

Joker looks down and to the side, as if avoiding her gaze.
"Yeah... yeah, that's about it."

"How are you?" Shepard asks when she decides the pause has gone on long enough.
"As well as could be, considering." He turns to the side, pointing with his thumb to somewhere behind him. "Any landing you can walk away from--"

"--is a good landing," Shepard finishes with a grin. "So what happened to EDI?"

IF CONVINCED EDI AND JOKER TO HOOK UP
"She-- she's gone, Shepard." (sniffles) "Just like someone hit an "off" switch, here one moment, dead the next."
IF NOT
"It's... like someone switched her off, Commander. And we can't turn her back on."
EITHER WAY:
Adams's voice: "Whatever it is you did with the Crucible seemed to have affected her too, Commander."


Shepard: "Must've been the Reaper tech that Cerberus used to create her."
Joker: "But... but we can repair her, right?"
Adams's voice: "We're trying. There seems to be no physical damage, but... Well, without the ship's systems online, we can't do much. Can't power her up on her own batteries, can't take out the data core to see if it's alright."

<bullet time, PARAGON and RENEGADE INTERRUPTS appear>
Shepard: "Jeff... she may be gone for good." (Separate line) "Even if Adams and Tali can fix her..."
(if Tali's dead, it's Gabby, if Gabby's dead, it's Ken, if Ken's dead, it's Traynor)
"... what comes back might not be her. Not entirely. Maybe not at all. We can't know for sure what the Crucible did and how it will affect AIs."
IF UNITED GETH AND QUARIANS: "I do know that the geth are gone, and even if repaired, would be a Consensus again, not individuals."

Shepard: "Jeff... it's wishful thinking." (Separate line) "Even if Adams and Tali fix her..."
(same deal, slightly different line)
"...that will not be the EDI we knew. Not really. That wasn't an EMP charge that disabled her, and whatever originally occupied that body might come crawling back out now that EDI isn't holding it back."

CONVERGENCE
Joker: "I know... Dammit, Shepard, I KNOW THAT!" {realizes he's yelling, stops, trails off on "that"}
Shepard: "But you still hope for the best?"

"Yes. What else is there to do? I can't fly, can't build, can't hunt, can't even gather all that well." {exasperated sigh} I'm dead weight. And it's killing me." He looks at his feet again, rubs his forehead as if he's hiding tears. As he talks, the camera switches to the planet, showing a panoramic view of the team standing around him, sharing his suffering.
<bullet time, PARAGON and RENEGADE INTERRUPTS appear> 


"You still have hope. I'm coming for you, Jeff... for all of you. So believe me when I say it -- you WILL fly again. With me, if I have any say in it."
Joker looks up at her and the camera switches to an over-the-shoulder view from Shepard's bed so it's as if he's looking at the player.
"Uh... with you?" {tilts head to the side, narrows eyes in suspicion}
"If you want to, of course," Shepard adds hesitantly, realizing she's overplayed her hand. As the camera moves, we see her nervously fiddle with her hands.


"Are you going to give up that easily, Joker? You're the best damn pilot in the fleet -- too valuable to leave out there in the jungle. So, like it or not, I'm coming over there and I'm pulling you out of that sulk and putting you into a pilot's chair, you hear me?"
Joker looks up at her and the camera switches to an over-the-shoulder view from Shepard's bed so it's as if he's looking at the player.
"Pulling rank on me, eh?" he says with a smirk. "Bet it's all a ploy to get you near me?"
"Hah! And what if it is?" Shepard asks with a wry grin, the camera having switched in time to show it.

EITHER WAY:
(if gone paragon-renegade or renegade-paragon in the above choices):
Joker: "Then it'd be my pleasure to fly you, Commander." he replies with a salute. "Or fly with you, anyway," he corrects himself quickly with a sheepish grin. Set the "flirt successful" flag to "on".

(if gone full paragon in the above):
Joker: "Of course, Commander. Duty calls and all that. You're still my CO, even if you are stuck in a hospital somewhere and I'm not." he salutes her the same, but doesn't smile.

(if gone full renegade):
"Then I'll accuse you of nepotism, Commander," he replies with a grin, "although I have to say, I almost fell for that one." He holds up his hand to show with his fingers -- "About this close, actually."

Either way:
Shepard: "Heh, alright. Fair enough. What else have you been up to?"

If talked to Joker about Tiptree after Thessia:
Joker: "And I found out about my family. They... didn't make it off Tiptree. At all."
If not:
Joker: "Not much. Found out my family probably died in a Reaper attack on their colony. Tiptree, you probably don't even know where that is. My dad and my sister, Hillary..."
If heard full story about Tiptree in Huerta:
Shepard: "I know."
"Hackett told you?"
"Uh, guys? Could we have a bit of privacy for this?"
View of the communication area on the planet, as people look quizzically and, shrugging, wander off. Liara stays where she is.
"I think I know where this is headed," she tells Joker, "I think I should stay."
When everyone else is out of earshot, Joker turns back to Shepard.
"So, did Hackett tell you?"
"No, I mean, I sorta knew even before you told me about Tiptree. I just didn't make the connection until later, and... well, bringing it up at that point felt like kind of a dick move, you know?"
Eyes narrow in that accusing glare he gives EDI after the humans-on-their-knees line:
"You sorta knew?"
"It was in Huerta Memorial... when I was visiting <VS_name_here>, I think. I overheard an asari huntress talking to her therapist. Have you ever seen an asari with PTSD?"
"No, I have not." {still steam-bilowing-from-ears-angry}
Liara's voice {Joker turns to the side to look at her, but we and Shepard see only him nodding at her words}: "I have. Not a lot of things can traumatize a member of a race as long-lived and adaptive as the asari. Being born with biotics regardless of your descent carries a significant impact on your attitude to life."

Shepard pauses to take a breath.

"She spoke of her mission to Tiptree and how a fifteen-year-old girl named Hillary died because she was all that stood between her and Banshees, and all she had to her name was a towel because she was in the shower when the Reapers attacked the farm where her unit was stationed." Her voice is level, but tinged with sadness, pain and empathy.

"What? Hi-- my sister Hillary?" {Joker's dumstruck by the revelation}

"Well, I didn't know whose sister she was when I heard her, but... Human girl, fifteen, named Hillary, who wanted to be a pilot like her brother?"
"I-- I don't even--" Joker gasps for breath, bends over, hands on knees. Calms down as much as he can, stands up. "How did she die?"
<bullet time, PARAGON and RENEGADE INTERRUPTS appear>  


"Banshees. The huntress fled, but Hillary's leg was broken. She couldn't run fast enough."
Joker's agonized scream should make your blood curdle, yes.
"WHY? Why couldn't she save her?"
"...that is what caused the trauma. When I saw her, she was afraid of humans. Afraid of showers. Afraid she might turn into a Banshee...


"The huntress. They were hiding, and Hillary was hurt, her leg was broken. The huntress panicked, thought the Banshees might hear her, find them, kill them."
If that last agonizing scream was supposed to curdle your blood, this one should boil it instead.
"SHE killed my sister? Not the Reapers, but that asari?"
Liara's voice: "Joker..."
Shepard: "When I saw her, she was out of her mind with guilt. Kept thinking she would turn into a Banshee herself..."

CONVERGENCE: 
 "...Begging the doctor to let her have a gun. So she could shoot herself." Shepard pauses to compose herself, quiet down the helpless anger, wipe the tears she didn't notice she was crying. "Would you have handed her a gun, Jeff? Even if you didn't know it was your sister that died because she took a shower?" 

Long pause. Camera switches to the planet once again to show us ta panning shot of Joker, taking a weak step back, shuddering at the collective distress of the revelations. Liara's sobbing, fighting to wipe away the tears as they stream regardless, as she gets up to help him. Once she steadies him, wiping her own tears, he replies.
"No. I guess not. You said it yourself - all she had was a towel. Against Banshees. Dammit..."

IF AUTHORIZED WEAPON:
"I could. And I did."
Liara (looks at Shepard now that she's within the holo's range): "You WHAT?!"
"Liara, you had to be there to understand."
IF NOT AUTHORIZED WEAPON:
"Neither could I. I guess she probably died with those who got hit when the Reapers took the Citadel. But back then, watching her..."
CONVERGENCE


"The way she spoke... She wasn't talking to the doctor. She was talking to me. The whole time, she was staring at me. The doctor said she was afraid to even look at humans after that, yet she was... confessing... to me. Because she wanted to be heard. By a human. Maybe even judged. Most of all, she wanted release. That would be no life, cursing yourself for something that led to the death of a child -- a girl. For an asari, that's practically seeing her own child die. No wonder it broke her."

Joker: "Shepard, I..."
"I'm sorry that I didn't tell you before. But you're the pilot - the life of the whole ship depended on you staying calm. Focused. Take that focus away, we wouldn't be having this conversation right now, most probably."
"Yeah. I guess you're right."
"I am?"
"Would've been a dick move to bring it up later. I even think it's still a dick move... but thanks for telling me. Not keeping me guessing."
"You're welcome, Jeff." {only calls him Jeff if earlier flirtation thing succeeded! Otherwise "Joker"!}

If not heard Huerta story
Shepard: "What happened?"
"It was a small farming community. Got hit by Reapers. At first, there was no news at all - common enough case - but I kept hoping. Hoping that maybe at least Hillary got out. Heh. Kind of a dick thought, hoping that only my father died."
He pauses to run a hand across his face and sigh.
"And then the news came in -- there were refugees, taking whatever could fly off the planet. Mostly children. I perked up, maybe my sister was one of them. Sure, fifteen isn't "children", but who nitpicks those details when there's hope?"
Shepard: "She wasn't there?"
"No. She wasn't. So here I am. Stranded in the ass end of nowhere, no home to go back to, no ship to fly..." His voice shakes, Liara stands up, reaching out a helping hand, but he brushes it away.
If convinced EDI and Joker to hook up: "...no girlfriend..." {in a small voice}
Shepard: "Well, you at least can do something about the last one. Let me take care of the rest, alright?"
If not:
Shepard: "Well, all of that I'm going to take care of for you as soon as I get out of this hospital..."

Either way
The doorbell rings.
"Dammit, the doctor's here," Shepard says, looking at the vidscreen near the door.
If flirt succeeded: "Jeff, I have to see the doctor now, but I will be checking up on you. Try not to sulk too much, alright?"
"Yeah, okay. See ya round, Shepard."
If talked about Tiptree at length: "And thanks for the truth. Even if it hurts."
"I'm sorry, Jeff. But I thought you needed to know."
"Yeah, I guess I did. Good luck!"

If flirt went overboard or failed flirt: "Alright, Joker, time to make nice with the doctor. Try to stay out of trouble, alright?"
"Of course, Commander."
If talked about Tiptree at length: (adds) "I'll try."

Either way: "Normandy, out."

The holo goes off and Shepard thumbs the small pad near the bed to open the door...
<<<What are you waiting for? Go see the SHARED CONCLUSION this instant!>>>

Modifié par Noelemahc, 16 mai 2012 - 08:44 .

[PeaceMack]

Those are some pretty thorough suggestions. If I were doing it on a shoestring budget, I'd just end it after the Anderson sequence. Shep struggles forward, presses a button, and the screen fades to white. Hackett crackles in the radio background...some cheering. Queue epilogue (or not). It's still not great, but it removes a lot of the bad parts.

[Noelemahc]

PeaceMack wrote...

If I were doing it on a shoestring budget, I'd just end it after the Anderson sequence. Shep struggles forward, presses a button, and the screen fades to white. Hackett crackles in the radio background...some cheering. Queue epilogue (or not). It's still not great, but it removes a lot of the bad parts.

Yeah, it's BW's backup plan, I'm willing to bet anything. I guess that's where the Snicket Warning Label goes. "Stop when Anderson stops talking. Just... stop."

[Xits]

I enjoyed reading that. Hopefully we'll get at least that level of closure.

[Odetus-]

That was a great read, really nicely done!

[Leviro2005]

That was good, though I don't know how "cheap" it would be

[Noelemahc]

For cheapness, you can always keep the flyover sequence that I propose as the background for Hackett's speech, but drop the actual speech. "Places We've Never Been" is wonderful on its own, you know =)

Some of Harbinger's and Shepard's lines can probably be cobbled from old and/or unused material. All three games are chock full of unused lines by Hale and Meer that are nevertheless ACTUALLY ON-DISC. Same goes for Hackett's response over the radio. I'm more than certain there are oodles more lying on the cutting room floor (judging from the same-sex content making it into LotSB), because if BioWare's sound director is any good, he didn't throw ANYTHING away.

That yahg sequences can recycle lots of assets from the previous games, the only genuinely new stuff needed will be to design the churches and vehicles, but that too is rather easy. And the chanting is easy enough to form from Shadow Broker's lines.

Modifié par Noelemahc, 08 avril 2012 - 03:22 .

[UrgentArchengel]

Can't wait to see your ideas on handling the Shep lives 4th ending. All and all, this was a tear jerking read, and what I wanted to see out of the ending. Just some good old closure.

[a.m.p]

Okay, finished reading. Love it, for the fourth option and for the handling of the first three.
One minor issue, that I noticed, why is anyone going to Illium? It's a highly populated planet, but it's almost twice as far as Thessia and Thessia is the farthest citadel space homeworld.
Also, can't get the image of a yagh farmer out of my head.

[Noelemahc]

I picked planets off the top of my head when I was writing that, ackshwally, sorry. Plus, the idea was that since Thessia is a smoking ruin, Illium is the next best thing (as ME2 plays it like it's the second most populous asari world out there, and the second most important, sort of like the St. Petersburg to Thessia's Moscow) for the asari to set up their temporary government-in-exile. Its fate regarding the Reaper invasion is never clearly stated in ME3, IIRC.

And yes, I had that image in my head since Hackett first mentioned the yahg homeworld being left alone. I've seen at least a dozen people on the boards here and there express the same idea about them finding the time capsule, I just went with the easiest-to-accept one =)

Glad you liked it =) I've got Shepard's final words with the squadmates almost done here, just want to post them all in one go instead of in batches. It's hard to balance exposition, fanficness and the idea that it HAS to be doable without voiceovers to remain budget-constrained, as it turns out... but seriously, if one dude can come up with all that in a couple weeks, how hard BioWare must've NOT wanted to give us closure then?

Modifié par Noelemahc, 08 avril 2012 - 05:26 .

[a.m.p]

I honestly didn't get the impression that Thessia was more of a smoking ruin than all other homewolrds, we're just kind of focusing on it more, because we're supposed to hate Kai Leng and because Liara decided to be very sensitive again.
As far as asari colonies go they, probably (speculation™) have other major population centers within citadel space.
Also, if you're going into that much detail, the second link in my signature is about distances and travel times to different places from Sol. I went full nerd and made a map with cluster coordinates, because the issue kept bugging me.
Judging from the comparison, fellow russian?

[Noelemahc]

Well, the impression I got was that it had been properly lost, "oh dammit, we have to settle somewhere else I guess"-lost. I might be wrong, but as I've stated before, ME3 falls flat on its face every other time it tries to rely on "show, don't tell". Which is kinda bad.

Yeah, I have to read that some day, thanks =) I've already geeked out about the map you've drawn up, I just haven't read the thread. It's worrisome that the BW twitterers make the FTL travel limitations a non-issue even though the game's own canon is very explicit about WHY all the races were so hot about mass relays.

(on an unrelated note, I keep getting reminded of that infamous YouTube video where a WarCraft fan outgeeks the game's writers during a BlizzCon by pointing out a contraction in WoW's plot in relation to one of the spinoff books. They went "Oh, wow, we kinda forgot about that" and patched it in the game a few days later. Now that's dedication =)

Judging from the comparison, fellow russian?

Yup. What are the chances, huh?

[a.m.p]

Also, forgot to mention. If the mass effect trilogy ended with "Hackett out" (instead of "tell me another story about the Shepard")I'd have forgiven it about 30% of the plot holes. Honestly.

[Noelemahc]

Bump for update on the yahg scenario. "Shepard Lives" is almost finished, just ironing out the non-shoestring version.

a.m.p wrote...

Also, forgot to mention. If the mass effect trilogy ended with "Hackett out" (instead of "tell me another story about the Shepard")I'd have forgiven it about 30% of the plot holes. Honestly.

Yet another Missed Moment of Awesome among dozens of others. It's really really sad. Sadder than KotOR2 sad.

Modifié par Noelemahc, 10 avril 2012 - 01:36 .

[d1ta]

Yahg farmer.. XD now I can't get that image of a yahg as the new harvest moon protagonist XD

Can't wait to read your 'shepard survives' part hopefully closure with LI included

[Mr Regarde]

An old tip directors always mention is to "Show, don't tell" the plot. The mere imagery you laid out is enough to get the point across, without that long-winded Hackett speech. I do like the ideas on incorporating the LI into the end, and I think this ending works well enough. It's certainly a step in the right direction, at least in my opinion. It rambles a bit, but as I said, the imagery it sets up works well. And that's all I have to say.

[Noelemahc]

I've mentioned "show, don't tell" so many times today, I think I better have it readied for c&p insertion just in case =)

As I've posted above, I did try to make it work without Hackett as well. Trying to do the same for the crew reuinion was an interesting challenge, I think I'll have to post them as I finish the individual people or this will take until the EC DLC is released (>_<)

[a.m.p]

Noelemahc wrote...

 I think I'll have to post them as I finish the individual people or this will take until the EC DLC is released (>_<)

Yes please)

[Noelemahc]

Raw "Shepard Lives" intro added. Will be adding the individual people as I finish formatting them. Frelling MS Word decided to break all the carefully placed BBCodes just because it can.

Jack's LI resolution added. I knew her story HAS to end on a sappy ending, but the idea for how Shepard can actually propose to her without either of them breaking character was a revelation akin to the one you may or may not have had when you realized that cocoa or hot chocolate powder goes with ANY cereal breakfast. ANY.

Now to try and keep myself from making DudeShep propose to EVERY girl... I know we all want to know if Tali'Shepard vas Normandy nar Rayya is a cooler name than Tali'Zorah vas Neema nar Rayya, but still.
Miranda's next, BTW. So sue me.

Modifié par Noelemahc, 13 avril 2012 - 02:03 .

[a.m.p]

Finally someone brings up Jack's name. It's one of those little and important character details that should definitely come up in any Jack-including epilogue.
So while this isn't exactly the Jack I know (because being femshep and all, I never got to really get to know her) I like this.
Will the poor stranded ones eventually get their touching dialogue (via QEC or in person) too?

[omikron199]

Text wall. Most won't read