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[fluffywalrus]

MrStoob wrote...

How's your motivation doing now that the circle is complete and there is no more Shep to be had? I feel mine waning...

I'm still having fun. Other than when Citadel came out, I last played Mass Effect in...July? July, I think.
I'm pretty sure the fandom will ease up for a while until the next game comes around, but  I know I'll keep writing as long as I find it enjoyable. I'm likely to be changing a bit of ME2 and ME3, so that should help me keep things fresh.

[nrobbiec]

MrStoob wrote...

How's your motivation doing now that the circle is complete and there is no more Shep to be had? I feel mine waning...

I find it easier, now the Shepard saga is done I'm free to write whatever the hell I want, it really helped with "A Time to..." and now I have free reign with my Spectre Alenko series apart from fulfilling some of the ending slides.

[dpMeggers]

MrStoob wrote...
...

How's your motivation doing now that the circle is complete and there is no more Shep to be had? I feel mine waning...

Hard to say. My motivation waxes and wanes pretty regularly, which is why I have such an inconsistant writing schedule. Having said that I'm not finished with Shep's story - and I'm going to keep writing that story until I am. Which, at the rate I write, will probably be about 5 years from now or something.

[hot_heart]

dpMeggers wrote...

MrStoob wrote...
How's your motivation doing now that the circle is complete and there is no more Shep to be had? I feel mine waning...

Hard to say. My motivation waxes and wanes pretty regularly, which is why I have such an inconsistant writing schedule.

Hey, me too.

Initially, it was Miranda's reduced role in the game that inspired me to have a stab at this writing malarkey. It has been hard to sustain because I have to try and get inside her head and that is a depressing and lonely place.

Also, and I don't mean to sound mean, but the Miranda fanbase that I interact with tends to be a big bunch of sourpusses (understandably so), which doesn't really 'inspire' me.

As for Shepard, by the end of ME3, it no longer felt so much like my Shepard. I don't mean that in an overdramatic whiney way, just that I felt more attachment to the other characters and liked seeing them prosper. Before ME3 was even released I figured Shepard was going to die at the end (and I'd assumed as much while picking Destroy anyway).

[nrobbiec]

I'm lucky the Kaidan fanbase is really quite supportive and accepting. Though we are quite the minority apparently...

[hot_heart]

Oh, don't get me wrong, they're not bad people or anything like that. I just look at the discussion sometimes and I'm, like, "Ugh..."

I've sworn off the main forums for the same reason. At least this is a happy place.

[dpMeggers]

nrobbiec wrote...

I'm lucky the Kaidan fanbase is really quite supportive and accepting. Though we are quite the minority apparently...

I think having Raphael Sbarge as the VA helps. The man is like...humility/kindness personified. Every interview of his I've ever seen or heard has the words "wow" and "thanks" peppered throughout, in this tone like he's genuniely surprised anyone thinks highly of him. And he recorded and released the Horizon letter as a present to fans.

Huh. Maybe the character the fanbase gravitates towards also sort of dictates (well not dictates, but like...influences) the attitude of the fanbase? ME1 Kaidan was level-headed and kinda sweet, Kaidan fanbase is supportive and accepting. Vega is sort of a fun loving guy, and from what I remember of his fanthread there was a lot of joking around (and cats - apparently people decided that he was a cat guy). Joker is funny but intense - Joker fans are...dedicated if nothing else.

This is pretty much the only thread I still respond to. I lurk in Lankist's interactive comic thread too. The forums have become a ... less than welcoming place.

hot_heart wrote...
Hey, me too.

Initially, it was Miranda's reduced role in the game that inspired me to have a stab at this writing malarkey. It has been hard to sustain because I have to try and get inside her head and that is a depressing and lonely place.

Also, and I don't mean to sound mean, but the Miranda fanbase that I interact with tends to be a big bunch of sourpusses (understandably so), which doesn't really 'inspire' me.

As for Shepard, by the end of ME3, it no longer felt so much like my Shepard. I don't mean that in an overdramatic whiney way, just that I felt more attachment to the other characters and liked seeing them prosper. Before ME3 was even released I figured Shepard was going to die at the end (and I'd assumed as much while picking Destroy anyway).

Congrats hot_heart! You've promted the question of the day! Both of them! (Yes I could save one for tomorrow but that's no fun.)

Question 1: What inspired you to write your fanfic?

Question 2: Who is your Shepard and how did they come into being - did they pop into your head backstory fully formed, or did you develop that as you played? (If you have more than one - answer your canon/your fic Shep? If you don't have a canon Shep, pick your favourite? Or answer for them all!)

My answers:
1. I was sitting on the bus last February on my way to class one morning. I must have just started my ME2 engineer playthrough because I had this idea that after Shep regained some neural function during Project Lazarus, he started having coma dreams (or maybe spiritual experiences). And then it became - well, what would he dream about? And then the conversation between him and a dead friend which opens my story popped into my head - and Chapter 1 was born. The very first review expressed interest in hearing more about Shepard and RJ's past and now 13 chapters later I have a fic. (I should note - it was a very long bus ride).

2. Damon developed backwards. I'm a fan of the Gears of War franchise, and so I decided to make something of a Damon Baird-esque Shepard for my engineer playthrough. (For those who don't know - Baird is a mouthy, irritating, insubordinate, jackass of a genius engineer). So I got the blue eyes, the blond hair...and then for whatever reason I chose Earthborn/Sole Survivor as a background, started playing and it all went horribly downhill from there. Damon Shepard was open with his crew, fairly professional and only occasionally insubordinate. And then it occurred to me (as I was talking to Ash...), obviously he was very polite/careful around women, he was raised by a teenaged hooker. And then it occurred to me that I never want to understand how my thought processes work. 

[Ignis Mors]

dpMeggers wrote...

nrobbiec wrote...

I'm lucky the Kaidan fanbase is really quite supportive and accepting. Though we are quite the minority apparently...

I think having Raphael Sbarge as the VA helps. The man is like...humility/kindness personified. Every interview of his I've ever seen or heard has the words "wow" and "thanks" peppered throughout, in this tone like he's genuniely surprised anyone thinks highly of him. And he recorded and released the Horizon letter as a present to fans.

Huh. Maybe the character the fanbase gravitates towards also sort of dictates (well not dictates, but like...influences) the attitude of the fanbase? ME1 Kaidan was level-headed and kinda sweet, Kaidan fanbase is supportive and accepting. Vega is sort of a fun loving guy, and from what I remember of his fanthread there was a lot of joking around (and cats - apparently people decided that he was a cat guy). Joker is funny but intense - Joker fans are...dedicated if nothing else.

This is pretty much the only thread I still respond to. I lurk in Lankist's interactive comic thread too. The forums have become a ... less than welcoming place.

hot_heart wrote...
Hey, me too.

Initially, it was Miranda's reduced role in the game that inspired me to have a stab at this writing malarkey. It has been hard to sustain because I have to try and get inside her head and that is a depressing and lonely place.

Also, and I don't mean to sound mean, but the Miranda fanbase that I interact with tends to be a big bunch of sourpusses (understandably so), which doesn't really 'inspire' me.

As for Shepard, by the end of ME3, it no longer felt so much like my Shepard. I don't mean that in an overdramatic whiney way, just that I felt more attachment to the other characters and liked seeing them prosper. Before ME3 was even released I figured Shepard was going to die at the end (and I'd assumed as much while picking Destroy anyway).

Congrats hot_heart! You've promted the question of the day! Both of them! (Yes I could save one for tomorrow but that's no fun.)

Question 1: What inspired you to write your fanfic?

Question 2: Who is your Shepard and how did they come into being - did they pop into your head backstory fully formed, or did you develop that as you played? (If you have more than one - answer your canon/your fic Shep? If you don't have a canon Shep, pick your favourite? Or answer for them all!)

My answers:
1. I was sitting on the bus last February on my way to class one morning. I must have just started my ME2 engineer playthrough because I had this idea that after Shep regained some neural function during Project Lazarus, he started having coma dreams (or maybe spiritual experiences). And then it became - well, what would he dream about? And then the conversation between him and a dead friend which opens my story popped into my head - and Chapter 1 was born. The very first review expressed interest in hearing more about Shepard and RJ's past and now 13 chapters later I have a fic. (I should note - it was a very long bus ride).

2. Damon developed backwards. I'm a fan of the Gears of War franchise, and so I decided to make something of a Damon Baird-esque Shepard for my engineer playthrough. (For those who don't know - Baird is a mouthy, irritating, insubordinate, jackass of a genius engineer). So I got the blue eyes, the blond hair...and then for whatever reason I chose Earthborn/Sole Survivor as a background, started playing and it all went horribly downhill from there. Damon Shepard was open with his crew, fairly professional and only occasionally insubordinate. And then it occurred to me (as I was talking to Ash...), obviously he was very polite/careful around women, he was raised by a teenaged hooker. And then it occurred to me that I never want to understand how my thought processes work. 

for me (1) was because I was so pissed off after I played ME3 for the first time, that I decided to just tell the canon to go kill itself, I was going to mess with it to the point, that you'd be hard pressed for someone who isn't very familiar with the games to tell that it's actually following the plot of the original two mass effects. Sorry ME3, but I refuse to believe you were anything more than BioWare trolling the fans. I know it isn't the case, but it at least makes the third game bearable. That and Citadel. (teared up when using Miri and Zaeed in the combat sim. Aaaah, sweet nostalgia. I wonder if you could use Mordin if you saved him.) 
(2). Jessica just changed over time. I don't know where she started, but I'd say sometime around the point when I found out you could use the Gibbed editor to romance Miranda as Femshep. I'd say that the general details about her, knowing Miranda as a kid, being a genius, and being a not-so-secret hater of Liara were solidified by chapter ten. Since then, things have changed, and now, I'd say that her current specifics have been around for a good twenty chapters. 
*edit. 
Oops, forgot to add details about her. 
1) she loves Miranda, and if you do anything to hurt her, without having serious psychological trouble, she will, in Javik's word, throw you out the airlock.
2) she is a genius, graduated college at like sixteen.
3) she has all possible backgrounds, though all heavily modified. 
4) She is immune to Indoctrination. 
5) She's an engineer, who was given biotics during the Lazarus Project, because Miranda remembered her saying that she wished she had space magic as she called biotics.
6) She uses prothean biotic techniques that were stored in the Cipher, but finds them kinda repulsive, because of how they're supposed to inflict a lot of pain when used on organics.
7) She really likes big explosions. 
8) She greatly regrets doing the stuff she did on Torfan, and she had to deal with certain... consequences of Mindoir quite recently.
9) She thinks rachni are kinda cool, but would rather avoid them if at all possible. 
10) She hates almost every single asari in the universe. Samara being the only exception. 
11) She really, really hates any parent or leader who treats their children or subordinates poorly. That part made Jacob's loyalty easy.
12) She may or may not have severe psychological trauma after the chapter I'm writing. (question on that later.)
13) She is currently in the process of making sure that every member of her crew is sleeping with another member of the crew. She thinks it'll be funny. 
14) Except for Samara, Gardner, and Chakwas, she tries to keep that out of her mind.

Modifié par Ignis Mors, 26 mars 2013 - 02:02 .

[enayasoul]

dpMeggers wrote...


Question 1: What inspired you to write your fanfic?

Question 2: Who is your Shepard and how did they come into being - did they pop into your head backstory fully formed, or did you develop that as you played? (If you have more than one - answer your canon/your fic Shep? If you don't have a canon Shep, pick your favourite? Or answer for them all!)
 

1)  ME2's romance with Miranda and Shepard.  I was inspired to write what happened between the time after the SM and while waiting for ME3.  All the possible ways that it could evolve... how their relationship would grow, speculations on who Miranda's father is and how Shepard would deal with Ashley's lack of trust in him.  And speculations on what Ashley met on Horizon.  (Not done in any other fic... Ashley with child)  I also was interested discussing topics like indoctrination... what Shepard's prothean vision may mean and clues/ways to defeat the Reapers when they do arrive. 

Also felt Miranda and Shepard's time together felt cheated because he was locked up for 6 months. Wasting time... locked up/sitting on his butt while the alliance/council did nothing to prepare for the reapers.

Also wanted to describe the problems Miranda faced with her father and her past and overcoming them.

In ME3, didn't expect Mr. Lawson to be less than what we thought.  Would have like more characterization behind him and why he was they way he was and so forth.  Miranda killing her father the way she did was good.  To finally be free from him.  

The story I'm writing in an alternative... what if things were done differently, a different dimension maybe?

2) Shepard has the colonist background and ruthless.  He was my second Shepard I made and now cannon Shepard throughout. The first was earth born/hero default.  I very much like customization options to make him my very own.   I like how Shepard has evolved from ME1 to ME3.  Not particular found of the council not believing him but is necessary in his character development and growth as a character.  In ME3, there are parts where he's not what I'd have him say or do... but I like that he was allowed to be more emotional to what happened around him.  Express himself more. 

It's actually a challenge to write a male character... I don't want him to be too girly with all the touchy feeling stuff... but I made him a hopeless romantic...  Also taking cues from ME3 Shepard and characteristics from males in movies/tv and real life examples and research online.  

I developed my Shepard as I played him in ME1-ME3... wrote him and from the game perspective.  My cannon Shep is who I am writing in my fic. The choices he's made in ME1, ME2 and soon to be ME3.

Modifié par enayasoul, 26 mars 2013 - 02:18 .

[Ignis Mors]

enayasoul wrote...

dpMeggers wrote...


Question 1: What inspired you to write your fanfic?

Question 2: Who is your Shepard and how did they come into being - did they pop into your head backstory fully formed, or did you develop that as you played? (If you have more than one - answer your canon/your fic Shep? If you don't have a canon Shep, pick your favourite? Or answer for them all!)
 

1)  ME2's romance with Miranda and Shepard.  I was inspired to write what happened between the time after the SM and while waiting for ME3.  All the possible ways that it could evolve... how their relationship would grow, speculations on who Miranda's father is and how Shepard would deal with Ashley's lack of trust for him.  And speculations on what Ashley met on Horizon.  (Not done in any other fic... Ashley with child)  I also was interested discussing topics like indoctrination... what Shepard's prothean vision may mean and clues/ways to defeat the Reapers when they do arrive. 

Also felt Miranda and Shepard's time together felt cheated because he was locked up for 6 months. Wasting time... locked up/sitting on his butt while the alliance/council did nothing to prepare for the reapers.

Also wanted to describe the problems Miranda faced with her father and her past and overcoming them.

In ME3, didn't expect Mr. Lawson to be less than what we thought.  Would have like more characterization behind him and why he was they way he was and so forth.  Miranda killing her father the way she did was good.  To finally be free from him.  

The story I'm writing in an alternative... what if things were done differently, a different dimension maybe?

2) Shepard has the colonist background and ruthless.  He was my second Shepard I made and now cannon Shepard throughout. The first was earth born/hero default.  I very much like customization options to make him my very own.   I like how Shepard has evolved from ME1 to ME3.  Not particular found of the council not believing him but is necessary in his character development and growth as a character.  In ME3, there are parts where he's not what I'd have him say or do... but I like that he was allowed to be more emotional to what happened around him.  Express himself more. 

It's actually a challenge to write a male character... I don't want him to be too girly with all the touchy feeling stuff... but I made him a hopeless romantic...  Also taking cues from ME3 Shepard and characteristics from males in movies/tv and real life examples and research online.  

I developed my Shepard as I played him in ME1-ME3... wrote him and from the game perspective.  My cannon Shep is who I am writing in my fic. The choices he's made in ME1, ME2 and soon to be ME3.

I have the opposite problem. I worry I make the girls too manly. Oh well, no one's complained about it, so if it does happen, mustn't be way too manly. Maybe I'm just being paranoid. As usual.

[enayasoul]

I quite like the strong willed women in fiction and movies. To give a few examples, Tomb Raider and Underworld actresses. Probably why I liked Bastila(Kotor), Lian Sun(Jade Empire), Miranda Lawson (ME2/3), Morrigan (Dragon Age), Isbella(Dragon Age2)... I do also like Kria(Kotor2) and Morrigan's mother in (Dragon Age 2) You just love to hate them.

Seely Booth in "Bones" is just yummy. ) He's a great character/male role model.

[dpMeggers]

enayasoul wrote...

It's actually a challenge to write a male character... I don't want him to be too girly with all the touchy feeling stuff... but I made him a hopeless romantic...  Also taking cues from ME3 Shepard and characteristics from males in movies/tv and real life examples and research online.  

I hear that - although I've never really been concerned with making him too 'girly' I do find it's not nearly as easy to get into his head as it is to get into my female character's. Although it's still easier to 'be' Shepard than it is to be RJ - something about writing an action-oriented extrovert is incredibly difficult.

[Ignis Mors]

And now for my questions about the next chapter I'm writing. But first, establishing what's going on to see if it sounds too... weird to work.
First off, I'm saying that the krogan... somehow managed to map the network of thresher maw tunnels. And, they're using those to try and find Shepard. Do you think that would work?
While they're searching for Shepard, she's learning the biggest secret in the galaxy, and it doesn't involve the Leviathans making the reapers. 'Cause they didn't in this. That doesn't make sense. They don't have the limbs to make anything. Other than nice sushi out of themselves. 
But, Shepard is in Kalros's den. And, Kalros ain't trying to eat her. Instead, Kalros works as basically an exposition source, for the main exposition source. And, this is the source of the original question. Do you think it would be possible for a thresher maw to talk, without it being a giant WTF? moment?
Anyway, after the exposition dump, Shep goes and talks to the VI Kalros was protecting. the VI, a backup of which has been previously introduced, tells Shep the exposition about the origins of the reapers and the cycles. basically, way back in history, there was a really big problem. The Leviathans were turning entire species into their thralls, and if things weren't handled quickly, the entire galaxy would be their slaves. In it, the Leviathans didn't naturally evolve, but were engineered by {Spoiler removed} and cannot enslave them. However the {spoiler removed} see that the Leviathans could use their army of thralls to destroy them, so they begin the Reaper Project. After a while, six reapers have been made. They're Harbinger from the Leviathans, Sovereign from {spoiler removed}, and a few others who I can't remember their names off the top of my head. Then, a bunch of pure synthetic reapers are made to bolster the numbers of the reaper fleet. Then, after the Leviathan problem is handled, the other species have been willingly turned into reapers, to prevent the Leviathans spreading throughout the galaxy, since some escaped the genocide.  Question 3! does this sound like a decent motif for the reapers?
Anyway, during that previous exposition dump, Shep is also told that the reapers made a mistake. Over time, they ended up harvesting life too fast, and they had to seed life throughout the galaxy. And, that it has been happening similarly to this for countless cycles. With only a couple of new species popping up from time to time. I figured they'd use the genetic information stored in the reapers to re-seed them, and then use very advanced tech to make sure the seeded species evolved the same way they originally had. I don't know how, I'm no genetics expert. Maybe Mordin could explain. Anyway, do you think this is good. (sadly i have to run with it even if it sucks. I've written myself into a corner where I can't go anywhere else.)

[nrobbiec]

dpMeggers wrote...

Congrats hot_heart! You've promted the question of the day! Both of them! (Yes I could save one for tomorrow but that's no fun.)

Question 1: What inspired you to write your fanfic?

Question 2: Who is your Shepard and how did they come into being - did they pop into your head backstory fully formed, or did you develop that as you played?

1) My whole ME experience, getting to have this amazingly done same sex romance in something like this is well, it's almost groundbreaking from my point of view. To have these two gay men* who are just real people who happen to be male and happen to fall in love is something there should be more of. I loved every second from start to finish (well ME1 is a clunker but getting to my MSehnko means all is forgiven) and I had my idea of what happened afterwards but then I came across fanfics people had wrote, specifically Jungle World by Kunari and it made me want to try and bring my headcanon to life. And even though I've done my epilogue my attachment to the characters has just spurred on my imagination and now I'm planning my Spectre Alenko series. I'm not trying to get a following, it's just nice to have a creative outlet.

2) I have one Shepard and I just can't deviate from him. I'm normally a nice guy in games (apart from Fallout 3 - I can only be evil in that) and as I made the choices he kind of developed by himself a bit. I'd say my idea of Shepard was formed as I played. I saw his close friendships and so he became willing to do anything to protect his friends and as I learnt the way the games work and learnt the lore my canon formed and his behaviour became more organic over time as opposed to compulsively picking the paragon option every time. But he's still paragon, I would call him paragade, he has a sense of justice as well as a bit of the ruthless calculus. He'll save the Rachni even though it puts Grunt's life in danger. He'll sabotage the genophage to save Mordin and also the  whole galaxy from another Krogan war even though there are innocent Krogan who will no doubt suffer. Despite this he has a conscience as well as a bit of fragility. He really needs his friends and of course Kaidan. I started with ME3 so there's a lot of meta and retroactive decisions and viewpoints but from the first mission where he saved Kaidan from the beacon there was, I think, something more than just simple camaraderie. But that's just me I am obviously bias when it comes to the matter of my OTP.

I ranted on a bit longer than planned there.

*Yeah I know both Shepard and Kaidan could either be gay, straight or bi depending on your decisions and what not but in my canon they're both gay.

[dpMeggers]

enayasoul wrote...

I quite like the strong willed women in fiction and movies. To give a few examples, Tomb Raider and Underworld actresses. Probably why I liked Bastila(Kotor), Lian Sun(Jade Empire), Miranda Lawson (ME2/3), Morrigan (Dragon Age), Isbella(Dragon Age2)... I do also like Kria(Kotor2) and Morrigan's mother in (Dragon Age 2) You just love to hate them.

Seely Booth in "Bones" is just yummy. ) He's a great character/male role model.

To add a few of my own favourites to your list: Zoe Allyne Washburne (Gina Torres) and Inara Serra (Morena Baccarin) from Firefly/Serenity, Michelle Rodriguez in everything ever and Lyra Silvertongue (that she's a kid is irrelevant) from His Dark Materials.

[dpMeggers]

Ignis I'm gonna answer in chunks...becuase there's a lot to go through here.

Ignis Mors wrote...

And now for my questions about the next chapter I'm writing. But first, establishing what's going on to see if it sounds too... weird to work.
First off, I'm saying that the krogan... somehow managed to map the network of thresher maw tunnels. And, they're using those to try and find Shepard. Do you think that would work?

I don't see why not. Clan Urdnot uses them as part of a rite of passage so it would make sense to know where the bloody things are.

Ignis Mors wrote...
But, Shepard is in Kalros's den. And, Kalros ain't trying to eat her. Instead, Kalros works as basically an exposition source, for the main exposition source. And, this is the source of the original question. Do you think it would be possible for a thresher maw to talk, without it being a giant WTF? moment?

This one is iffy. They don't exactly have mouths conducive to producing intelligible speech - even if they did, it isn't likely that it would be a language Shep understood, even with a universal translator. On top of which, from what I've read about threshers, they're more dumb animal than sentient being. 

Ignis Mors wrote...
Anyway, after the exposition dump, Shep goes and talks to the VI Kalros was protecting. the VI, a backup of which has been previously introduced, tells Shep the exposition about the origins of the reapers and the cycles.

I'd be more inclined to have Kalros be sort of ... remote controlled almost (?) by the VI it was protecting and then have the VI do the exposition dump. This is less of a rewrite and more of a tweak of your orginal set-up (mainly becuase the idea of a sentient thresher is weird to me.)

Ignis Mors wrote...
*Everything else here* Anyway, do you think this is good. (sadly i have to run with it even if it sucks. I've written myself into a corner where I can't go anywhere else.)

I don't think it's terrible? (Sorry, that's not especially helpful). It could be plausible. My only question is if the Reapers were originally created to nom the Leviathans, and they screwed up and are seeding life again...why the harvest?

[enayasoul]

Oh yeah! Morena Baccarin... She played in a few episodes of Stargate and V. Loved both her roles. It's been so long since I've watched Firefly/Serenity.

[enayasoul]

@Ignis Mors... I think you know your story better than me. I say go with what you think should happen. Seems plausible.

[Ignis Mors]

dpMeggers wrote...

Ignis I'm gonna answer in chunks...becuase there's a lot to go through here.

Ignis Mors wrote...

And now for my questions about the next chapter I'm writing. But first, establishing what's going on to see if it sounds too... weird to work.
First off, I'm saying that the krogan... somehow managed to map the network of thresher maw tunnels. And, they're using those to try and find Shepard. Do you think that would work?

I don't see why not. Clan Urdnot uses them as part of a rite of passage so it would make sense to know where the bloody things are.

Ignis Mors wrote...
But, Shepard is in Kalros's den. And, Kalros ain't trying to eat her. Instead, Kalros works as basically an exposition source, for the main exposition source. And, this is the source of the original question. Do you think it would be possible for a thresher maw to talk, without it being a giant WTF? moment?

This one is iffy. They don't exactly have mouths conducive to producing intelligible speech - even if they did, it isn't likely that it would be a language Shep understood, even with a universal translator. On top of which, from what I've read about threshers, they're more dumb animal than sentient being. 

Ignis Mors wrote...
Anyway, after the exposition dump, Shep goes and talks to the VI Kalros was protecting. the VI, a backup of which has been previously introduced, tells Shep the exposition about the origins of the reapers and the cycles.

I'd be more inclined to have Kalros be sort of ... remote controlled almost (?) by the VI it was protecting and then have the VI do the exposition dump. This is less of a rewrite and more of a tweak of your orginal set-up (mainly becuase the idea of a sentient thresher is weird to me.)

Ignis Mors wrote...
*Everything else here* Anyway, do you think this is good. (sadly i have to run with it even if it sucks. I've written myself into a corner where I can't go anywhere else.)

I don't think it's terrible? (Sorry, that's not especially helpful). It could be plausible. My only question is if the Reapers were originally created to nom the Leviathans, and they screwed up and are seeding life again...why the harvest?

I forgot to put that down. Heh. It's related to Harbinger's "That which you know as reapers are your salvation through salvation." line. The reapers are saving us from being turned into Leviathan thralls, which they, and their creators, viewed as a fate worse than death. 
One line of the creators, which'll be in the chapter, is this. "Do you view their survival as so important that the other species must lose their freedom to survive? I say no. To survive as a slave is not life. To live is to be free. It is better to die a free organic, than to die a slave."
And, you're right about Kalros chatting Shepard up, I think I'll just put a speaker in the room that plays a recorded message for Shep to go chat with the VI Exposition. (not really. Though, that would be a hilarious thing to name it.)
And, I just thought of something hilarious! Have Shepard ride Kalros out of the area, and meet up with everyone while riding it. Sadly, that wouldn't fit the rather... serious tone of this chapter. especially with what Shepard learns.
*edit. Thanks guys. Now I should get back to writing this one, so that I can get it ready, and give the readers the big reveal.

Modifié par Ignis Mors, 26 mars 2013 - 03:06 .

[fluffywalrus]

dpMeggers wrote...

Question 1: What inspired you to write your fanfic?

Question 2: Who is your Shepard and how did they come into being - did they pop into your head backstory fully formed, or did you develop that as you played? (If you have more than one - answer your canon/your fic Shep? If you don't have a canon Shep, pick your favourite? Or answer for them all!)

1) I'd finished ME3, and was kind of in a grieving process I guess, and I made a few stops by here. Found people talking about a bunch of stuff, and I got scared away from the main board due to all the people talkng about Indoctrination Theory (which IMO would have been much worse than what happened in the game, if it was real and made any sense). Eventually found my way to the character threads, had some fun. People talked a little about fanfics, and I made some throwaway, thoughtless post about having written a bunch of stuff down for my Shep already. PMC65 sent me a message, said she'd be interested in reading up on another origin story, because there weren't so many at the time. I said sure, and gave it a go. I already had enough material.

2) When I started up Mass Effect 1 for the first time, I sat at the character creation screen for a few hours, writing down a backstory, OC characters she knew as a kid, a general idea of what happened. As I started playing through, I did two things. I adapted my backstory as I became more exposed to in game lore, and I wrote tiny journal entries for all the ship's main characters after each mission, to get into their heads, fill in the space between missions with potential happenings, adding/expanding on character interactions, etc.
So basically, I started with an idea, and them slowly expanded on it as I went, but all the main things remained the same, outside of adding  a lore-twist about my Shep's biotics. I'll avoid spilers as best as I can.

She is the loyal and self critical Amber Shepard, raised in a plethora of orphanages in Ottawa, one of the remaining supercities of UNAS. She has developed her biotics as something of a 'vanguard', skills developed during her teens. She loathes the very concept of slavery, and doesn't tolerate inhumane acts or noncensensual experimentation. She has a soft spot for children and people who have been abandoned, and sees family as an important structure that must be defended. She can let her emotions get in the way of logic, especially on such topics as that.

She's a ****** poor shot with a sniper rifle, which is why she uses her beloved shotty so much. Even with a pistol, she's nothing incredible, though still serviceable. She hates when the chain of command gets in the way of people doing what's right. Feels that people constantly need to prove they're deserving of their rank, and that such authority should be scrutinized and questioned, not blindly followed. If you ever tell her something is on a "need to know basis" and leave critical information out until a minute or two before a mission, she may just smack you.

She has little investment in Earth. Perhaps due to her treatment by society, she also doesn't particularly favour humanity, outside those she knows and is friends with. Humanity, in turn, doesn't care for her after Torfan.
She's no xenophile, but she does find other species interesting, and constantly tries to learn more about them.
She tends to be very critical of herself, and holds herself up to a high standard. She knows she's far from perfect, but has a hard time handing her burdens (whether they be personal issues, or mission-based workload) off to others, and can come off as a bit of a hypocrite, as she requests her team not try to be like Atlas and keep the world on their shoulders. She tries to share, though, but due to an extensive military history of her peers and subordinates not trusting her, disliking her, or rebelling against her orders, she's had little opportunity to see all of that ideology in practice.

She enjoys music, and plays a holo-piano in order to relax. She's serviceable at it, nothing special. She's fairly socially awkward in that she didn't really grow up being socialized like most kids. This results in her being awkward at times in ignoring social faux pas if she feels she needs to prove a point or say something important, and she is absolutely terrible at recognizing some social behaviour, like flirting. She can also be very affectionate and is a huge worrywart when people she cares for are in a bad spot.

And I could go on, but...well...I've gone on longer than I should have.

[dpMeggers]

Well, a little more about Damon (because I can - but also because you've all been so lovely with your sharing).

In spite of, and if I'm being strictly accurate, because of how he was raised, he's far more inclined to be Lawful Good/Lawful Neutral than anything else. To him, ignoring the law or taking it into your own hands is the first step towards anarchy. Anarchy leads to the situation he grew up in - people struggling to survive and being taken advantage of by those with power. Having once been in a position where he was weak and was cared for by someone stronger, he sort of learned that the strong have a responsibility towards the weak and that cooperation is better than just trampling each other. That being said, he's perfectly willing to make morally questionable decisions for the greater good (eg: punch a civilian to keep the geth from hearing them, sacrifice the Council to save the Citadel) or to operate within the spirit of the law rather than the letter (eg: mutiny against the Council to fulfill his duty as a Spectre).

He's not entirely comfortable in 'command' partly because of his childhood and partly because he started off an enlisted soldier. He knows he's an excellent tactician, and he has no problem leading people when he's the most qualified to do so, but he refuses to think of himself as above anyone except in a strictly chain of command sense. He, and this is a common trait in the special forces officers (in my story), adopts a 'lead from the front' and 'first among equals' style of leadership fairly early on in his career - no doubt aided by the fact that his best friend served with/under him.

As far as his attitude towards authority goes: he's really only insubordinate if he feels he has a very good reason. It goes along with the Lawful inclinations - the chain of command is there for a reason. If you're his superior you either have to be a frigging idiot or actively trying to get him killed for him to mouth off and even then it will be worded in such a way that insubordination is implied rather than outright stated. Otherwise he just salutes and thinks nasty thoughts at you.

He's fairly stoic - mainly because he's just wired that way, but also partially because emotional responses do not help in survival situations, and he's had to deal with his fair share of those, starting at a very early age.

[Seracen]

fluffywalrus wrote...

That's the weird thing about the death scene in ME2. it was a great moment, really memorable, and set up a nice little credits slideshow thing, and gave the player a nice segue into the game.
....
There are some good bits of it, but nothing powerful. Nothing that needed a death.

Thus, even though i am a ways away from my ME2 arc, i've been slowly working on a more...cohesive way to begin that part of the timeline. if I can keep the death...I will. I think it can be worthwhile, if challenging. I can't help but fear I'll end up having to make changes that will ****** a lot of people off...

Honestly, I always thought they could have had him in a coma, almost brain dead, but not completely gone.  The "lasting repurcussions" could have been the same cyborg body.

Add a few scenes with Shep coming to grips with it (like looking at his hands, seeing gears, and thinking he's more like the Geth/whatever)...very little change needed IMO.  I liked how it was presented, and I certianly like the 2 lines (one in ME2, one in ME3) that we got, I just felt it was a wasted character piece.

Ignis Mors wrote...

 Do you think it would be possible for a thresher maw to talk, without it being a giant WTF? moment?

Honestly, I think you can couch it thusly: Kalross doesn't speak through a mouth, but more like...say...the GraveMind in Halo, the Thorian in ME, or the Rachni Queen in ME.

Basically, mind speak...minor telepathic ability, whether directly to the head, or via a nearby corpse.

The Reasoning: a Maw as old as Kalross is extremely rare, and nobody ever bothered studying/was able to study the Maws as such...

Modifié par Seracen, 26 mars 2013 - 05:49 .

[Seracen]

nrobbiec wrote...

I'm lucky the Kaidan fanbase is really quite supportive and accepting. Though we are quite the minority apparently...

Are you kidding?!  Kaidan is a badass!!!  I perturbs me to no end that I am including Ash in my story, rather than Kaidan.

Reason for doing so, however, is that there's more I can do with Ash as the character...like make her go through a lot of character building that Kaidan wouldn't get (as he already fully matured in the games).

Alenko is just such a sympathetic and fully formed character.  His motivations are conflicted, and his redemption with Shepard comes full circle.  As far as his life story, he has accomplished all he wanted to in life.  I could fully accept playing a Kaidan Alenko side story, in a world where Shep died.

By contrast, I still hated Ashley by the end of ME3.  Her scenes were sort of wasted.  It's all "rabble rabble Cerberus rabble rabble [point a gun at your head]" followed by "sorry buddy [on the floor drunk]."

While fun, it isn't the most compelling bit of character development.

Conversely, Kaidan's return scenes were fun, heartwarming, and heartbreaking.

So yeah, in my fic, I am currently enjoying hating on Ashley, and at some point she'll redeem herself properly in the eyes of Shep's crew (notice it's his crew, as Shep himself has no problem with her).

Modifié par Seracen, 26 mars 2013 - 05:29 .

[Seracen]

dpMeggers wrote...

MrStoob wrote...
...

How's your motivation doing now that the circle is complete and there is no more Shep to be had? I feel mine waning...

Hard to say. My motivation waxes and wanes pretty regularly, which is why I have such an inconsistant writing schedule. Having said that I'm not finished with Shep's story - and I'm going to keep writing that story until I am. Which, at the rate I write, will probably be about 5 years from now or something.

THIS...SOOOO much this...

Although I gotta say, in a universe where I head cannon my own ending, I could go on forever.  Especially considering that the ME series is in my top 5 of all time, and is the reason I bought an XBOX 360.

Case in point, if I ever finish up the corrent fic...totally co-authoring a Thane fic (assuming I can figure out a way to bring Thane back).

One of my beta reader's has begged and challenged me to figure out a way to bring FemShep's lovable froggy assassin back from the grave.  I told her that she may have to deal with having a love triangle between FemShep/Thane/Liara, as I wouldn't want to have Kaidan deal with having the two zombies hook up despite him, haha!

******************************

Oooh, that reminds me: Who is the best match for Kaidan, if not FemShep?

My current list, if I do it, is...

1) Miranda
2) Gianna Parasini
3) Shiala
4) Kasumi (specifically after Kaidan wins the pushup contest)

Not Tali b/c Garrus, not Jack b/c CRAAZY (only mellows if w/ Shep), not Samara b/c...well...Samara, lol...

Modifié par Seracen, 26 mars 2013 - 05:50 .

[MrStoob]

Question 1: What inspired you to write your fanfic?

In all honesty, I read some fics and they were so badly written I thought "I can do better than this!"  Ha!  So I did a oneshot of an idea I'd had about Liara confronting Shep over a previous renegade 'misdemeanour' and it was quite well received.  Within that story I had the briefest of sections about Verity Shepard's childhood.  This inspired me to do a Shepard 'origins' tale, which then also turned into Liara origins and the full ME1, 2 and 3 fic it is now.

Question 2: Who is your Shepard and how did they come into being - did they pop into your head backstory fully formed, or did you develop that as you played? (If you have more than one - answer your canon/your fic Shep? If you don't have a canon Shep, pick your favourite? Or answer for them all!)

My canon/fic Shep (same person) sort of developed along the way.  In-game, prior to writing, Shep's devotion to Liara morphed into fascination with the asari as a whole and all that plays heavily in my fic.  By the way I've written her, you'd expect her to be more renegade but she strives for the path of righteousness, even if she fails sometimes.  And has anger/control issues hehe, but that side came along more in the writing than the game due to the direction of the story.