Proving that Dean is not just a bitter, cynical old faced avatar and does have a sweet side...
Notes: Copy-pasted from a PM conversation with someone else. Casual tone, not written for greater publication, etc.
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I've never done one before, but I actually have a musing of a Mass Effect romance story. Not with any canon characters, mind you, but just a somewhat sweet story of, and I wouldn't believe it was me if I didn't think of it, a Human male and an Asari. Stereotypical, no?
Human male is a free-lance trader, ex-Alliance nobody who works out in the colonies, doing shipments for the Alliance or Human colonies. Sort of a quiet human xeno-nationalist, the kind who pays his dues to Terra Firma and gives discounts to human colonies in need. Thing is, he has a reoccurring bad history with Asari: his former wife left him (and took their child) to run off with an Asari, a later relationship with an Asari ended when he found her cheating on him with his own Man's Best Friend, and between Asari cultural arrogance and being burned badly by corrupt Illium beuracracy, he's become something of a soft-xenophobe... even as he knows it's wrong and unreasonable.
Asari is an Asari Maiden, probably around 150 to 250: Asari mid-twenties, in the prime of her life when most Asari shake their asses in bars or join merc groups. This one doesn't: too mature to get into the whole merc allure, and with a certain... medical condition which deters her from melding with others. She comes from a relatively wealthy but discrete family, and pursues work despite not needing to. Her element would be 'calm water', a sort of mature and reasonable desire to see the galaxy and travel, to broaden her horizons and improve herself. Reasonable kid, really, with an unreasonable condition... and a pocket-pureblood, an Asari with human-phile tendancies as compensation for suppressing desires for Asari. She's a bit of a loner because of it, the same sort as someone with a legal but slightly shameful private hobby.
Hardly a passionate cast, and the plot isn't worth an action scene either: some time after ME1, and sort of on the sidelines of the rest of the trilogy.
It begins with a help-wanted add: the Trader seeks an Asari co-pilot for long and lonely journeys to the colonies, payment generous, but not for the usual reasons. Trader seeks an Asari co-pilot to help him overcome his racism, a flaw he recognizes as unfair but can't seem to shake. The fact is upfront, and the past few Asari have been horrible, seeking to 'save' or 'fix' him as part of some romantic vision, usually including an attempt to mind meld. Maiden, who smudges some things about the why, is hired as much on the basis that she won't try a melding as anything else.
What follows next is a generic, or at least mostly undramatic, case of the two growing more accustomed and easy with eachother. Trader, the reforming racist, starts off with his over-reaction to his racist inclinations being overly formal, stiff respect: the sort of 'I'll be polite all the more because I don't want to' sort of thing. Maiden comes to understand that this isn't some ploy and that it does have a real flaw behind it, and accepts it even as the two converse on various things of Human culture.
After a largely uneventful first tour, the worst being Maiden helping Trader avoid a ruinous scam by virtue of her Asari experience and knowledge, Maiden is re-hired, and the partnership begins.
Second Act begins around the time of ME2, and the Collector Abductions are an increasing part of the context. These are many of the colonies Trader has gone to, and the abductions aren't just taking away Trader's friends or contacts, but also his source of business: it doesn't help that he's selling his service below cost to help Terminus colonists evacuate, and that he's still helping the Alliance reclaim colonies even though their payments are held up in legal limbo. Times are getting tough, and budgets tighter: Trader is about to let Maiden go, until she accepts a pay cut of her own initiative.
Act 2 really touches on the growing friendship between the two, and their own life interests. Trader is a pro-Human guy, of a calm sort, and the Terminus abductions hurt him on a number of levels. Trader becomes a proxy for my own views on exploring and elaborating on the nature, context, and importance of the Human colonies in the Terminus, and Trader is dealing a lot with the seldom-spoken hardships that Terminus colonists face. To Maiden, Trader begins to express more of his own hopes and dreams for Humanity. By opening up to her, gradually he accepts her as a friend despite his still-present racism. She becomes the exception to him, even though she's still an Asari.
Maiden's development, however, focuses on her loneliness as a hidden AY, how her human-philia shapes her perspective of events, as well as her growing attraction to Trader. The first is relatively simple, but is reflected by her reluctance to go to Illium for a stop after a refugee mission and her terror when she hears of a Justicar (reference to Samara) being present. It's only after such that Trader learns part of the truth, but not the what or why, of her isolation.
The second is a bit abstract, and ties to the third. A self-aware Humanphile, Maiden is cautious as her feelings develop: uncertain whether it's the natural inclination, or whether it's about Trader himself. She recognizes his racism, and that he's trying to fight it, but she's not sure whether she's indulgent or tolerant because of his effort, or his appearance. Similar to his benvolent idealism about Human expansion in the Terminus, and how it could be a good thing for everyone by bring a new civilization to the chaos and evil. Ultimately, of course, Maiden recognizes that she is in love for the right reasons, but isn't sure what she should do about it. Trader, just recently accepting, is still racist and would almost certainly not reciprocate.
Second Act, being a bit longer, has a few plot twists/indicators of note.
One thing of note is a suggestion, never proven, that Cerberus is using Trader for their anti-Collector campaign. Trader, in the course of his work, does business for Cerberus front companies: in fact, these front companies are among the few that reliably pay him and enable the duo to help colonists. Between paying dues to Terra Firma (which is mobilizing support for the Terminus Colonies) and a few suspiciously timed occurances, pro-Human Trader is an unknowing asset for Cerberus.
A trip to Illium was referenced. It's in the context of a pleasant but necessary stop in order to make a delivery run for colonists: in fact, it's immediately after Horizon, and Trader is one of the earliest first-responders (after Shepard) to bring aid to the colony after the Collector attack. On Illium, the presence of the Justicar spooks Maiden, and Trader's acceptance of her stigma (even though he doesn't know all of it) marks a high-point in his slowly overcoming his racism. It's not quite great, because he doesn't have the cultural understanding to care, but it's close enough and a moment where Maiden feels safe with him, and realizes the feelings.
A rare moment of genuine danger encompasses the finale of the act, in which Trader and Maiden stumble into a Collector Abduction on another colony, even as an Alliance force takes on another Collector Cruiser. While running between ground and an Alliance evac transport in space, Trader and Maiden are trying to evacuate colonists. They press their luck a bit too much, however, and an Occuli disables their ship and sends them crashing to the ground near Collector forces.
With Trader soon paralyzed by the Seeker Swarms, and Collectors approaching, Maiden is faced with a fight or flight option, between which Trader has already told her to flee and leave him behind. She ultimately refuses, of course, aand uses her biotics to both maintain an unstable bubble and to drag Trader to safety. Not being a super-biotic, however, the bubble soon fails and she is pinned down as Collectors approach. Maiden confesses her feelings to the stasis-frozen-but-aware Trader as the end approaches, only for the Alliance to dramatically turn the tide and destroy the Cruiser, and for the Collectors to fall dead. (Coincidentally, Shepard's Suicide Mission just finished.)
The awkward, somewhat unhappy aftermath occurs: Trader doesn't reciprocate her feelings because of racism issues he still can't overcome (with the crushing line 'if only you were human...), and with his ship totaled and him unable to afford repairs their partnership is coming to an end. Trader prepares to return to Earth, and sells his ship for scrap to a stranger's offer in order to afford one last farewell gift for Maiden before leaving.
When he means to leave, however, he is the one surprised: Maiden pulled strings with her family, normally distant but actually well connected and rich. The dealer Trader sold his ship to for scrap is actually the family company, and between asking her mother and spending the better part of her entire life's savings of over two centuries, Maiden now owns the ship.
Maiden, in a reversal of their first meeting, throws a fake job interview: she's looking for a co-pilot, Human male, for a shipping business servicing Human space. Only racist heart-breakers need apply.
With Maiden holding the cards, and with Trader feeling more than a little moved, they rejoin with a new understanding. Trader cares for Maiden, but isn't sure if he likes-likes her: it's a great big 'it's complicated' status, with his feelings of physical attraction, affection, gratitude-******-sense-of-obligation, and racism fighting each other. Maiden is attracted, and both know it, but she is willing to wait and give distance: not only for Trader, but because of her own issues.
While 'It's Complicated' prevails, an ambiguous but potentially happy future awaits.
Part 3 thoughts to follow.
(And I realize you didn't ask for this, but this is one of those long-standing ideas I just can't get out of my head. Thoughts appreciated, but not required.)
Notes: Copy-pasted from a PM conversation with someone else. Casual tone, not written for greater publication, etc.
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I've never done one before, but I actually have a musing of a Mass Effect romance story. Not with any canon characters, mind you, but just a somewhat sweet story of, and I wouldn't believe it was me if I didn't think of it, a Human male and an Asari. Stereotypical, no?
Human male is a free-lance trader, ex-Alliance nobody who works out in the colonies, doing shipments for the Alliance or Human colonies. Sort of a quiet human xeno-nationalist, the kind who pays his dues to Terra Firma and gives discounts to human colonies in need. Thing is, he has a reoccurring bad history with Asari: his former wife left him (and took their child) to run off with an Asari, a later relationship with an Asari ended when he found her cheating on him with his own Man's Best Friend, and between Asari cultural arrogance and being burned badly by corrupt Illium beuracracy, he's become something of a soft-xenophobe... even as he knows it's wrong and unreasonable.
Asari is an Asari Maiden, probably around 150 to 250: Asari mid-twenties, in the prime of her life when most Asari shake their asses in bars or join merc groups. This one doesn't: too mature to get into the whole merc allure, and with a certain... medical condition which deters her from melding with others. She comes from a relatively wealthy but discrete family, and pursues work despite not needing to. Her element would be 'calm water', a sort of mature and reasonable desire to see the galaxy and travel, to broaden her horizons and improve herself. Reasonable kid, really, with an unreasonable condition... and a pocket-pureblood, an Asari with human-phile tendancies as compensation for suppressing desires for Asari. She's a bit of a loner because of it, the same sort as someone with a legal but slightly shameful private hobby.
Hardly a passionate cast, and the plot isn't worth an action scene either: some time after ME1, and sort of on the sidelines of the rest of the trilogy.
It begins with a help-wanted add: the Trader seeks an Asari co-pilot for long and lonely journeys to the colonies, payment generous, but not for the usual reasons. Trader seeks an Asari co-pilot to help him overcome his racism, a flaw he recognizes as unfair but can't seem to shake. The fact is upfront, and the past few Asari have been horrible, seeking to 'save' or 'fix' him as part of some romantic vision, usually including an attempt to mind meld. Maiden, who smudges some things about the why, is hired as much on the basis that she won't try a melding as anything else.
What follows next is a generic, or at least mostly undramatic, case of the two growing more accustomed and easy with eachother. Trader, the reforming racist, starts off with his over-reaction to his racist inclinations being overly formal, stiff respect: the sort of 'I'll be polite all the more because I don't want to' sort of thing. Maiden comes to understand that this isn't some ploy and that it does have a real flaw behind it, and accepts it even as the two converse on various things of Human culture.
After a largely uneventful first tour, the worst being Maiden helping Trader avoid a ruinous scam by virtue of her Asari experience and knowledge, Maiden is re-hired, and the partnership begins.
Second Act begins around the time of ME2, and the Collector Abductions are an increasing part of the context. These are many of the colonies Trader has gone to, and the abductions aren't just taking away Trader's friends or contacts, but also his source of business: it doesn't help that he's selling his service below cost to help Terminus colonists evacuate, and that he's still helping the Alliance reclaim colonies even though their payments are held up in legal limbo. Times are getting tough, and budgets tighter: Trader is about to let Maiden go, until she accepts a pay cut of her own initiative.
Act 2 really touches on the growing friendship between the two, and their own life interests. Trader is a pro-Human guy, of a calm sort, and the Terminus abductions hurt him on a number of levels. Trader becomes a proxy for my own views on exploring and elaborating on the nature, context, and importance of the Human colonies in the Terminus, and Trader is dealing a lot with the seldom-spoken hardships that Terminus colonists face. To Maiden, Trader begins to express more of his own hopes and dreams for Humanity. By opening up to her, gradually he accepts her as a friend despite his still-present racism. She becomes the exception to him, even though she's still an Asari.
Maiden's development, however, focuses on her loneliness as a hidden AY, how her human-philia shapes her perspective of events, as well as her growing attraction to Trader. The first is relatively simple, but is reflected by her reluctance to go to Illium for a stop after a refugee mission and her terror when she hears of a Justicar (reference to Samara) being present. It's only after such that Trader learns part of the truth, but not the what or why, of her isolation.
The second is a bit abstract, and ties to the third. A self-aware Humanphile, Maiden is cautious as her feelings develop: uncertain whether it's the natural inclination, or whether it's about Trader himself. She recognizes his racism, and that he's trying to fight it, but she's not sure whether she's indulgent or tolerant because of his effort, or his appearance. Similar to his benvolent idealism about Human expansion in the Terminus, and how it could be a good thing for everyone by bring a new civilization to the chaos and evil. Ultimately, of course, Maiden recognizes that she is in love for the right reasons, but isn't sure what she should do about it. Trader, just recently accepting, is still racist and would almost certainly not reciprocate.
Second Act, being a bit longer, has a few plot twists/indicators of note.
One thing of note is a suggestion, never proven, that Cerberus is using Trader for their anti-Collector campaign. Trader, in the course of his work, does business for Cerberus front companies: in fact, these front companies are among the few that reliably pay him and enable the duo to help colonists. Between paying dues to Terra Firma (which is mobilizing support for the Terminus Colonies) and a few suspiciously timed occurances, pro-Human Trader is an unknowing asset for Cerberus.
A trip to Illium was referenced. It's in the context of a pleasant but necessary stop in order to make a delivery run for colonists: in fact, it's immediately after Horizon, and Trader is one of the earliest first-responders (after Shepard) to bring aid to the colony after the Collector attack. On Illium, the presence of the Justicar spooks Maiden, and Trader's acceptance of her stigma (even though he doesn't know all of it) marks a high-point in his slowly overcoming his racism. It's not quite great, because he doesn't have the cultural understanding to care, but it's close enough and a moment where Maiden feels safe with him, and realizes the feelings.
A rare moment of genuine danger encompasses the finale of the act, in which Trader and Maiden stumble into a Collector Abduction on another colony, even as an Alliance force takes on another Collector Cruiser. While running between ground and an Alliance evac transport in space, Trader and Maiden are trying to evacuate colonists. They press their luck a bit too much, however, and an Occuli disables their ship and sends them crashing to the ground near Collector forces.
With Trader soon paralyzed by the Seeker Swarms, and Collectors approaching, Maiden is faced with a fight or flight option, between which Trader has already told her to flee and leave him behind. She ultimately refuses, of course, aand uses her biotics to both maintain an unstable bubble and to drag Trader to safety. Not being a super-biotic, however, the bubble soon fails and she is pinned down as Collectors approach. Maiden confesses her feelings to the stasis-frozen-but-aware Trader as the end approaches, only for the Alliance to dramatically turn the tide and destroy the Cruiser, and for the Collectors to fall dead. (Coincidentally, Shepard's Suicide Mission just finished.)
The awkward, somewhat unhappy aftermath occurs: Trader doesn't reciprocate her feelings because of racism issues he still can't overcome (with the crushing line 'if only you were human...), and with his ship totaled and him unable to afford repairs their partnership is coming to an end. Trader prepares to return to Earth, and sells his ship for scrap to a stranger's offer in order to afford one last farewell gift for Maiden before leaving.
When he means to leave, however, he is the one surprised: Maiden pulled strings with her family, normally distant but actually well connected and rich. The dealer Trader sold his ship to for scrap is actually the family company, and between asking her mother and spending the better part of her entire life's savings of over two centuries, Maiden now owns the ship.
Maiden, in a reversal of their first meeting, throws a fake job interview: she's looking for a co-pilot, Human male, for a shipping business servicing Human space. Only racist heart-breakers need apply.
With Maiden holding the cards, and with Trader feeling more than a little moved, they rejoin with a new understanding. Trader cares for Maiden, but isn't sure if he likes-likes her: it's a great big 'it's complicated' status, with his feelings of physical attraction, affection, gratitude-******-sense-of-obligation, and racism fighting each other. Maiden is attracted, and both know it, but she is willing to wait and give distance: not only for Trader, but because of her own issues.
While 'It's Complicated' prevails, an ambiguous but potentially happy future awaits.
Part 3 thoughts to follow.
(And I realize you didn't ask for this, but this is one of those long-standing ideas I just can't get out of my head. Thoughts appreciated, but not required.)
Posted at 09:27 AM on 2012-09-30
Part 3 obviously corresponds with Mass Effect 3, and the Reaper War is a Big Deal.
Technically, Part 3 starts shortly beforehand. After Part 2, and ME2, the Duo have been in an awkward phase of their new (business) relationship.
Maiden is openly in love with a man whose racism is their second biggest barrier to ever happening, the first being what she actually wants even if he did reciprocate. As an AY, she can't, won't, mind-meld: but as an Asari and not a Human, their plumbing doesn't quite match either. Can an Asari have a purely physical relationship?
Trader is likewise conflicted. Physically, he can't deny he is attracted: Maiden looks like a woman, for the most part, and an attractive one as well. He enjoys her company, her personality, and most things about her. But there are two strikes against her: first, she's an Asari. Second, he owes her too much: between saving his life and saving his livelihood, he owes her a great deal and he knows it. As the honorable sort he knows that if she called him on it, called in the favor for just one night, he would... but it would be because of obligation then. The fact that she knows this, that she doesn't despite her attraction, is something that only makes her more attractive.
The opening setting of romantic tension, a trip to handling the Batarian exodus and spill-over into Alliance space and onto Alliance colonies, doesn't last long. The Duo are just coming to believe in the Batarian's accounts of invaders, rather than civil war or slave rebellion or geth attack, when the news comes: Earth has has gone dark.
The immediate period of panic, in which Trader seeks to return home to rescue his family but is stopped by the counsel of Maiden, is replaced by grief when Admiral Hacket, highest ranking Alliance survivor, announces that Earth has fallen. Knowing that 99% of his species, including his former wife and still-loved daughter, are trapped on Earth makes Trader weep.
Gradually, Maiden and Trader discuss what they will do, what they can do. Neither is fit for military service: Trader was never an amazing soldier, and Maiden is not an Asari commando. What they do have is a ship, a knowledge of the space around Human colonies, and a willingness to risk danger for the sake of evacuating people. Maiden and Trader are civilian support: with a good reputation with the Alliance for their work during the Collectors, as well as Maiden's family connections, Maiden and Trader are trusted to do missions of various importance or urgency. Weapons to colonies, evacuations, and even a few very unusual resource shipments of large amounts of raw materials for an unknown project.
As the war progresses, so does their relationship. A variety of key events help shape things.
In the early-war, Maiden supports Trader as he throws himself into his work in order to get his mind off of his missing daughter. With the loss of Earth and too rational to believe in a conventional victory against the Reapers after the fall of so many homeworlds, Trader is on the edge of despair. Maiden gives him focus on what's left, a sense of determination, and Trader leans more on Maiden. By the time the Krogan join the war, and the two of them ship a load of Krogan soldiers towards the Front, Trader has regained resolve.
The Coup is something the two are a bystander for. If a bystander, it would include a scene such that Cerberus execution squads have the pair at gunpoint... and also play out the latent Cerberus connection, with the troops sparring them because 'he's on the list.' Trader goes onto be arrested, held on suspicion of being a Cerberus agent, and his past of associating with Terra Firma and being employed by Cerberus front companies becomes a liability. Maiden, refusing to believe such despite urges from sympathetic C-SEC personnel and her family, seeks proof that Trader is innocent. In a last-ditch effort, she offers up substantial family resources to the Shadow Broker (network)... who, in a new policy of accepting payments of large amounts of raw materials, comes through. The Shadow Broker network finds proof that Trader was just an unwitting pawn, and the duo are released to do more service.
The next arc, while Shepard is fighting the Geth, deals with the steady Reaper advance in Asari space. Against his preferences, but pressed by the circumstances of his relief, Trader's 'parole' is a period of time to help the Asari. Trader and Maiden are dragooned into military support, ferrying Asari refugees and Asari Commandos.
It's not the best of times. While Trader's racism has lowered to the point of 'bad sunburn/allergies' annoyance, a series a poor encounters tests it. Grieving survivors who blame him for not arriving sooner and saving their significant others: desperate Asari who try to offer themselves to him for protection or aid: desperate ones who repay their salvation by stealing or looting parts of the ship, including personal mementos: being shanghaied by some Asari Commandoes and forced to flow into a danger zone at gunpoint after nearly being killed for resisting: having his ship actually stolen by a desperate group of refugees, except that they can not flee because of not having the fuel to: ultimately encountering the Asari who stole his wife away, who has the audacity to have already moved on and find another person after the wife and daughter were trapped on Earth. Blood boils...
...but, in a testament of his improvement, does not burst. Leaning heavily on Maiden, figuratively and sometimes literally, Trader manages through the contract without a major outburst. He's just tired, so tired, of the stress of dealing with Asari, and can admit that he looks forward to a breather of working somewhere else.
And then Thessia falls. They have no obligation to go. It would be exceedingly dangerous. With the Reaper blockade in place, running around it would take weeks of risky travel by conventional FTL to a safer relay.
Maiden, distraught as she is, is the one to counsel against it. The fall of Thessia hurts her. She knows the pressure Trader has been under. No one can say he hasn't done enough, or that he won't do more for others.
Trader, after a long silence, moves the ship in the direction of Thessia. His immediate reward is a hug from behind and tears and a kiss on his neck from Maiden, none of which he tries to shake off.
It's harrowing, obviously. The devastation of the Reapers as they roll over major Asari positions is visible from space. Occuli swarm around, and allied forces are losing ground rapidly.
The duo's target is an evac point right at the edge of the advance. Maybe a few hundred Asari are gathered there, cut off and unable to flee, as Reapers move to capture them. As the refugees pour into the ship, Banshees slowly approach with only limited resistance. Still, pressure building, Trader stays.
They get everyone there out safely, and make the jump to FTL. Unable to reach the Asari relay, it's a week-long journey to the next relay, with possible disaster in between or awaiting them. It's also going to be a stressful ride. There's barely enough room for everyone to stand, nowhere near enough beds, and a fraction of the supplies needed. Food rations for everyone is halved at the start.
Trader, stressed out as he is, informs of the survivors of their situation: little food, little space, insufficient facilities, and a self-admitted racist captain who has locked himself in the cabin with his share of food and a weapon. Only one Asari is allowed into the relatively luxurious space of the cockpit, and it's none of them. Not the most graceful of ship-wide broadcasts.
Thus it falls to Maiden to be the go-between, and to handle thee refugee issues. And it turns out to be not a disaster: whereas before Thessia most of their experiences had been bad, the worst sides of Asari nature showing through, now the best show. The rescued Asari Commandos help keep order and ensure the food supplies are rationed. An Asari matriarch on board gives her weight of authority and gravitas towards mediating conflicts and keeping calm. These Asari don't let gratitude be so easily forgotten, and Maiden finds that a number of them appreciate it all the more knowing that Trader had to fight racism to do it. There are no incidents across the flight, and when they ultimately do arrive at the Citadel Maiden is given a parchment and a number of data pads: every Asari rescued wrote their name, and their thanks on the parchment, and their personal stories on the data pad. Maiden and Trader have proof of the lives they saved. These Asari, with dignity and consideration to the end, leave the ship without issue before Trader finally leaves the cockpit.
In the cockpit during this time, Trader has been succumbing to stress and malnutrition, and sickness. Already weakened by the pre-Thessia stress, on the same rations as all the other refugees, and stuck between the confinement of the cockpit and the overwhelming presence of Asari throughout his ship, Trader's condition gradually takes a turn for the worse, made even worse when the medicine that would help is discovered to have been thrown out of the airlock to make room for refugees.
Trader weakens, and Maiden is left to nurse him and take over his duties on top of handling the refugees. Gradually he becomes too weak to leave his chair without difficulty, and eventually begins to fade in and out of delirium. Not knowing that Maiden can hear him, Trader rambles about his shame at knowing that the only reason he resists a relationship is because he lets race get in the way of things. He alternates between lambasting Maiden for being foolish enough to care for a fool, and reflecting on the basis for his great respect for her. Maiden, often by his side during this issues, doesn't bring them up... but does learn something. Trader, at his lowest between delerium and reality, is coaxed into admitting that he feels at east in contact with her, and that her hug upon going to Thessia meant something to him. Following that, Maiden begins to hold his hand... and, at an appropriate moment when she thinks he has fallen asleep, gives him a soft kiss.
Upon safely making it to the relay, the ship soon makes it to the Citadel. The Asari refugees disembark, and after they do Maiden takes Trader to Huerta Hospital where he is treated for extreme stress and expected to make a rapid recovery. Though the Citadel still has scars of the Cerberus coup, the pair find it a respite for the time being. Trader focuses on his recovery, and between handling business Maiden spends much of her time with him. Their hand-holding habit continues, though without talking about it, and they have the appearance of a couple such that members of the hospital staff assume they are in a relationship. Maiden denies it...
...until Trader matter of factly tells her that he reciprocates her feelings. Less a confession and more of a statement of fact, Trader has reached a resolution: he is still racist, but he loves Maiden even so. He can't deny either part of himself, but if she is willing to accept it as she's said she is, he can try to do the same. Seeing that she's still stunned, he goes onto the 'why's, and begins to recount the positive influences she's had on his life, and how he's come to appreciate the little gestures and-
Obviously, a kiss interrupts. The appropriate sort of quick at first, but leading to an enduring and a soft smile, as loved by saps.
A nurse, tactfully waiting outside, kindly waits until they part to announce that she's going to enter. Knowing smiles and teasing jabs at early denails await after the two agree to a date.
The next stage of the relationship awaits, with an honest 'what next?' awaiting both of them. Thus begins an honest look at how the physical aspects of a relationship might work. Asari don't have the lower plumbing of Humans, having a hole but not the parts to appreciate it, and usually use melding to replace it... so conventional sex is largely out, even though Asari do have some physical turn-ons. Except that, as an AY, Maiden has no desire to do a melding, and as a quasi-racist/abnormal, Trader doesn't want a melding. They'll need to something different.
Research and relationship counseling follows. Seeking advice on what he could do for her, Trader skips the pornos and goes to the Consort's office for advice, which he receives. Humanphile Maiden, knowing what gets men (and women) off, seeks something that could help them both. Looking at an adult store with Human-Asari themes, one thing she finds is a NervStim program: a hole is a hole for a man, but by using a NervStim she could get something out of it as well, letting them be 'normal.' But then, as she's ready to check out, something else catches her eye...
The evening of the date comes, and they have a grand time with a dinner, with a stroll, and being in eachother's company. They talk about how far they've come over the years, and how it's been worth it, and share an intimate kiss on the Praesidium. Then, as they prepare to go to a hotel...
The Reapers arrive. Shepard is at the Cerberus Base.
The pair make a frantic escape to their shuttle, even as Reapers fly over the Wards and Praesidium. By luck, and Shepard and C-SEC's preparation, the Reapers meet steep resistance and the two successfully make it to their ship, already loaded with cargo intended for the final push. The two strap in and leave, making it to safety and to a rendezvous point where Hacket's fleet amasses for the attack on Earth.
The pair soon become a part of that: not of the main push, because of the capabilities of their craft, but as sort of a 'work on the expectation of victory' scheme. While nearly all of the force will go to Earth, the infrastructure devastation means that even in the course of victory, much of the fleets could well be stranded in-system for lack of fuel. Trader and Maiden, along with some others, are tasked to follow the Sword Fleet but divert at Saturn with a cargo and team of engineers: their mission is to find, seek to repair, and deploy a new Helium-3 processor so that, if the Reapers are beaten, some of the infrastructure to maintain spaceflight will be available for Earth.
That will be tomorrow, though, and in the classic Mass Effect tradition the night before remains.
Their own planned night ruined, Trader seeks to make it up and searches for Maiden, who he finds in her room... and wearing her final purchase. Not, as some might suspect, a sexy piece of clothing.
She's wearing a wig. A specially-made one, one that looks realistic and even feels smooth to the touch.
Maiden is surprised that he's there, in her room, apparently planning to visit his. She claims her preparations aren't ready yet: beside her are jars of body lotions, skin-toners to make her look like a Human. She beings explaining how she's prepared, babbling, that she could make it easier for him to enjoy if she looked like a Human, even if she really wasn't, and-
As is appropriate, Trader kisses her. He appreciates the effort, the lengths she has gone... but she doesn't have to go that far. He loves her. She knows, which is why she tried, that she wanted to make this night something to remember. Trader, having also prepared, kisses at just the Asari sensitive spot at the collarbone to make her gasp, and proceeds to do just as she wanted.
Fade to Black.
The final battle feels more like afterglow. A system away from the fighting, the pair watch the fighting from afar. They track the battles on the ground and in the space above, even as they themselves orbit Jupiter. The Alliance engineers they carry are busy setting up the new Helium-3 processors and a fabricator to quickly make more, leaving the couple the chance to bask together in the cockpit, where they have a perfect view of watching the Crucible go by.
Hope at the progress of Sword and determination at the passing of the Crucible and Shield, however, are challenged with fear and worry as the limits of the organic forces become clear. So confident are the Reapers that they even send a few of their Dreadnaughts, slightly damaged from battle, to fly to the Charon Relay and blockade it: no new reinforcements get in, but also to keep Sword and Shield from getting out by the relay.
Pluto is much to close to Jupiter as it is, and the Reapers begin to target some of Hacket's winner's-bet infrastructure projects: a floating spacedock near Pluto, Helijm 3 at Neptune. Gradually coming closer.
With no good place to flee to, the team chooses to pack up the fabricator and hide among the Saturn rings, to wait the Reapers out. As the Battle in London grows ever more desperate, the Reapers grow ever closer...
And when reports that the Conduit wasn't reached come over, the Reapers are at Saturn. And they know that the organics are still there, and begin to hunt them out, shooting rocks in the rings.
Hide and seek becomes cat and mouse, and the Reapers are ever closer, closer... until a Reaper simply flies through part of the ring, rocks breaking upon it, and is right in front of them. It charges its laser, and fires a glancing blow that knocks out the engines. It begins to charge again...
Trader and Maiden, resolved to face the inevitable, embrace each other as the end appraoches...
(Three Different Endings!)
(Red)
Red energy washes over, cutting the lights of their ship but knocking out the Reaper as well. The two, still embracing, watch in dead silence as the dead Reaper floats before them.
It's not until the Alliance engineers, working on the door behind them, open it that life resumes. Systems are down, but are being repaired. The engines are a mess, but the fabricator can repair the damaged parts. One of the engineers even suggests boarding the dead Reaper to salvage some craft.
Trader and Maiden see the opportunity, and offer their services as a job on top of resuming the Helium 3 infrastructure across Saturn. With the relays gone, the fleets are going to need a lot of fuel to get home...
Trader and Maiden, together, spend the rest of their lives together ferrying cargo for the galactic rebuilding. With the relays gone, they are among those who brave the long, difficult, and thankless task of mapping out the systems that can be used to build a conventional FTL shipping route to re-unite the sectors. Taking these long trips from sector to sector, with only their cargo and eachother for company, the couple build a reputation and a life together until, one day, they vanish during one of their long hauls and never return.
(Blue)
Blue Energy washes over, but has no apparent effect. The Reaper changes color... and instead of destroying them with its laser, moves closer. Crippled, unable to move or flee, the ship prepares to be boarded and both Trader and Maiden promise not to let the other be taken alive... but the boarding doesn't come.
The Reaper isn't capturing their ship: it's carrying it. To Pluto, to where that initial drydock was supposed to be placed, where even now Husks and Reaper thralls appear to be repairing damage even as other damaged ships are being towed by the Reapers.
One Reaper, the largest among them, broadcasts: it is the Harbinger of the Shepard of the cycle, and the Reapers now serve. These organics here will be helped, repaired, and set free to deliver the message as they see fit... and the Reapers will be there to assist them. If, however, the organics here would help them to repair the damage...
Trader and Maiden, out of their depth and lost, hold onto eachother and maybe, just maybe, hope for the best.
Trader and Maiden spend their time together doing what they always did: trade and move things. Some of there cargo gradually turned to things previously unthinkable: Husks from the war, now laborers in peace, being transported from place to place. 'Gifts' of Reaper technology, now serving to rebuild civilizations rather than destroy them. Trader himself eventually accepted one, eventually: genetic therapy to extend his lifespan coming close to matching Maiden's.
The two stayed together for the long haul, living together and ultimately passing away together.
(Green)
Green Energy washed over them, and everything changed. Senses expanded: new data, and new means to interpret it, flowed over them. The Reapers were no longer unknowable... but now they didn't know themselves. Even as the non-hostile Reaper towed them to Pluto, they sought to make sense of it.
It was new and disconcerting. They could feel and know their bodies and selves changing, even at their own will: a DNA that no longer had an AY gene, a primitive paranoia that now applied to himself.
It was frightening, terrifying, something to be lost in... but amidst the uncertainty, one truth gave them a foundation: the other was still here with them. That was enough to keep living for.
Trader and Maiden coped with their synthesis as they had coped with their other trials: together. It was not without difficulties, and it was not the end to troubles, but it was not without benefits: what they could do to each other, for each other, made up for a great deal.
The two stayed together, the security and familiarity not changed despite everything else, and met the future.
===
And that's the sappy story side of me. May it never be needed to be typed again.
Technically, Part 3 starts shortly beforehand. After Part 2, and ME2, the Duo have been in an awkward phase of their new (business) relationship.
Maiden is openly in love with a man whose racism is their second biggest barrier to ever happening, the first being what she actually wants even if he did reciprocate. As an AY, she can't, won't, mind-meld: but as an Asari and not a Human, their plumbing doesn't quite match either. Can an Asari have a purely physical relationship?
Trader is likewise conflicted. Physically, he can't deny he is attracted: Maiden looks like a woman, for the most part, and an attractive one as well. He enjoys her company, her personality, and most things about her. But there are two strikes against her: first, she's an Asari. Second, he owes her too much: between saving his life and saving his livelihood, he owes her a great deal and he knows it. As the honorable sort he knows that if she called him on it, called in the favor for just one night, he would... but it would be because of obligation then. The fact that she knows this, that she doesn't despite her attraction, is something that only makes her more attractive.
The opening setting of romantic tension, a trip to handling the Batarian exodus and spill-over into Alliance space and onto Alliance colonies, doesn't last long. The Duo are just coming to believe in the Batarian's accounts of invaders, rather than civil war or slave rebellion or geth attack, when the news comes: Earth has has gone dark.
The immediate period of panic, in which Trader seeks to return home to rescue his family but is stopped by the counsel of Maiden, is replaced by grief when Admiral Hacket, highest ranking Alliance survivor, announces that Earth has fallen. Knowing that 99% of his species, including his former wife and still-loved daughter, are trapped on Earth makes Trader weep.
Gradually, Maiden and Trader discuss what they will do, what they can do. Neither is fit for military service: Trader was never an amazing soldier, and Maiden is not an Asari commando. What they do have is a ship, a knowledge of the space around Human colonies, and a willingness to risk danger for the sake of evacuating people. Maiden and Trader are civilian support: with a good reputation with the Alliance for their work during the Collectors, as well as Maiden's family connections, Maiden and Trader are trusted to do missions of various importance or urgency. Weapons to colonies, evacuations, and even a few very unusual resource shipments of large amounts of raw materials for an unknown project.
As the war progresses, so does their relationship. A variety of key events help shape things.
In the early-war, Maiden supports Trader as he throws himself into his work in order to get his mind off of his missing daughter. With the loss of Earth and too rational to believe in a conventional victory against the Reapers after the fall of so many homeworlds, Trader is on the edge of despair. Maiden gives him focus on what's left, a sense of determination, and Trader leans more on Maiden. By the time the Krogan join the war, and the two of them ship a load of Krogan soldiers towards the Front, Trader has regained resolve.
The Coup is something the two are a bystander for. If a bystander, it would include a scene such that Cerberus execution squads have the pair at gunpoint... and also play out the latent Cerberus connection, with the troops sparring them because 'he's on the list.' Trader goes onto be arrested, held on suspicion of being a Cerberus agent, and his past of associating with Terra Firma and being employed by Cerberus front companies becomes a liability. Maiden, refusing to believe such despite urges from sympathetic C-SEC personnel and her family, seeks proof that Trader is innocent. In a last-ditch effort, she offers up substantial family resources to the Shadow Broker (network)... who, in a new policy of accepting payments of large amounts of raw materials, comes through. The Shadow Broker network finds proof that Trader was just an unwitting pawn, and the duo are released to do more service.
The next arc, while Shepard is fighting the Geth, deals with the steady Reaper advance in Asari space. Against his preferences, but pressed by the circumstances of his relief, Trader's 'parole' is a period of time to help the Asari. Trader and Maiden are dragooned into military support, ferrying Asari refugees and Asari Commandos.
It's not the best of times. While Trader's racism has lowered to the point of 'bad sunburn/allergies' annoyance, a series a poor encounters tests it. Grieving survivors who blame him for not arriving sooner and saving their significant others: desperate Asari who try to offer themselves to him for protection or aid: desperate ones who repay their salvation by stealing or looting parts of the ship, including personal mementos: being shanghaied by some Asari Commandoes and forced to flow into a danger zone at gunpoint after nearly being killed for resisting: having his ship actually stolen by a desperate group of refugees, except that they can not flee because of not having the fuel to: ultimately encountering the Asari who stole his wife away, who has the audacity to have already moved on and find another person after the wife and daughter were trapped on Earth. Blood boils...
...but, in a testament of his improvement, does not burst. Leaning heavily on Maiden, figuratively and sometimes literally, Trader manages through the contract without a major outburst. He's just tired, so tired, of the stress of dealing with Asari, and can admit that he looks forward to a breather of working somewhere else.
And then Thessia falls. They have no obligation to go. It would be exceedingly dangerous. With the Reaper blockade in place, running around it would take weeks of risky travel by conventional FTL to a safer relay.
Maiden, distraught as she is, is the one to counsel against it. The fall of Thessia hurts her. She knows the pressure Trader has been under. No one can say he hasn't done enough, or that he won't do more for others.
Trader, after a long silence, moves the ship in the direction of Thessia. His immediate reward is a hug from behind and tears and a kiss on his neck from Maiden, none of which he tries to shake off.
It's harrowing, obviously. The devastation of the Reapers as they roll over major Asari positions is visible from space. Occuli swarm around, and allied forces are losing ground rapidly.
The duo's target is an evac point right at the edge of the advance. Maybe a few hundred Asari are gathered there, cut off and unable to flee, as Reapers move to capture them. As the refugees pour into the ship, Banshees slowly approach with only limited resistance. Still, pressure building, Trader stays.
They get everyone there out safely, and make the jump to FTL. Unable to reach the Asari relay, it's a week-long journey to the next relay, with possible disaster in between or awaiting them. It's also going to be a stressful ride. There's barely enough room for everyone to stand, nowhere near enough beds, and a fraction of the supplies needed. Food rations for everyone is halved at the start.
Trader, stressed out as he is, informs of the survivors of their situation: little food, little space, insufficient facilities, and a self-admitted racist captain who has locked himself in the cabin with his share of food and a weapon. Only one Asari is allowed into the relatively luxurious space of the cockpit, and it's none of them. Not the most graceful of ship-wide broadcasts.
Thus it falls to Maiden to be the go-between, and to handle thee refugee issues. And it turns out to be not a disaster: whereas before Thessia most of their experiences had been bad, the worst sides of Asari nature showing through, now the best show. The rescued Asari Commandos help keep order and ensure the food supplies are rationed. An Asari matriarch on board gives her weight of authority and gravitas towards mediating conflicts and keeping calm. These Asari don't let gratitude be so easily forgotten, and Maiden finds that a number of them appreciate it all the more knowing that Trader had to fight racism to do it. There are no incidents across the flight, and when they ultimately do arrive at the Citadel Maiden is given a parchment and a number of data pads: every Asari rescued wrote their name, and their thanks on the parchment, and their personal stories on the data pad. Maiden and Trader have proof of the lives they saved. These Asari, with dignity and consideration to the end, leave the ship without issue before Trader finally leaves the cockpit.
In the cockpit during this time, Trader has been succumbing to stress and malnutrition, and sickness. Already weakened by the pre-Thessia stress, on the same rations as all the other refugees, and stuck between the confinement of the cockpit and the overwhelming presence of Asari throughout his ship, Trader's condition gradually takes a turn for the worse, made even worse when the medicine that would help is discovered to have been thrown out of the airlock to make room for refugees.
Trader weakens, and Maiden is left to nurse him and take over his duties on top of handling the refugees. Gradually he becomes too weak to leave his chair without difficulty, and eventually begins to fade in and out of delirium. Not knowing that Maiden can hear him, Trader rambles about his shame at knowing that the only reason he resists a relationship is because he lets race get in the way of things. He alternates between lambasting Maiden for being foolish enough to care for a fool, and reflecting on the basis for his great respect for her. Maiden, often by his side during this issues, doesn't bring them up... but does learn something. Trader, at his lowest between delerium and reality, is coaxed into admitting that he feels at east in contact with her, and that her hug upon going to Thessia meant something to him. Following that, Maiden begins to hold his hand... and, at an appropriate moment when she thinks he has fallen asleep, gives him a soft kiss.
Upon safely making it to the relay, the ship soon makes it to the Citadel. The Asari refugees disembark, and after they do Maiden takes Trader to Huerta Hospital where he is treated for extreme stress and expected to make a rapid recovery. Though the Citadel still has scars of the Cerberus coup, the pair find it a respite for the time being. Trader focuses on his recovery, and between handling business Maiden spends much of her time with him. Their hand-holding habit continues, though without talking about it, and they have the appearance of a couple such that members of the hospital staff assume they are in a relationship. Maiden denies it...
...until Trader matter of factly tells her that he reciprocates her feelings. Less a confession and more of a statement of fact, Trader has reached a resolution: he is still racist, but he loves Maiden even so. He can't deny either part of himself, but if she is willing to accept it as she's said she is, he can try to do the same. Seeing that she's still stunned, he goes onto the 'why's, and begins to recount the positive influences she's had on his life, and how he's come to appreciate the little gestures and-
Obviously, a kiss interrupts. The appropriate sort of quick at first, but leading to an enduring and a soft smile, as loved by saps.
A nurse, tactfully waiting outside, kindly waits until they part to announce that she's going to enter. Knowing smiles and teasing jabs at early denails await after the two agree to a date.
The next stage of the relationship awaits, with an honest 'what next?' awaiting both of them. Thus begins an honest look at how the physical aspects of a relationship might work. Asari don't have the lower plumbing of Humans, having a hole but not the parts to appreciate it, and usually use melding to replace it... so conventional sex is largely out, even though Asari do have some physical turn-ons. Except that, as an AY, Maiden has no desire to do a melding, and as a quasi-racist/abnormal, Trader doesn't want a melding. They'll need to something different.
Research and relationship counseling follows. Seeking advice on what he could do for her, Trader skips the pornos and goes to the Consort's office for advice, which he receives. Humanphile Maiden, knowing what gets men (and women) off, seeks something that could help them both. Looking at an adult store with Human-Asari themes, one thing she finds is a NervStim program: a hole is a hole for a man, but by using a NervStim she could get something out of it as well, letting them be 'normal.' But then, as she's ready to check out, something else catches her eye...
The evening of the date comes, and they have a grand time with a dinner, with a stroll, and being in eachother's company. They talk about how far they've come over the years, and how it's been worth it, and share an intimate kiss on the Praesidium. Then, as they prepare to go to a hotel...
The Reapers arrive. Shepard is at the Cerberus Base.
The pair make a frantic escape to their shuttle, even as Reapers fly over the Wards and Praesidium. By luck, and Shepard and C-SEC's preparation, the Reapers meet steep resistance and the two successfully make it to their ship, already loaded with cargo intended for the final push. The two strap in and leave, making it to safety and to a rendezvous point where Hacket's fleet amasses for the attack on Earth.
The pair soon become a part of that: not of the main push, because of the capabilities of their craft, but as sort of a 'work on the expectation of victory' scheme. While nearly all of the force will go to Earth, the infrastructure devastation means that even in the course of victory, much of the fleets could well be stranded in-system for lack of fuel. Trader and Maiden, along with some others, are tasked to follow the Sword Fleet but divert at Saturn with a cargo and team of engineers: their mission is to find, seek to repair, and deploy a new Helium-3 processor so that, if the Reapers are beaten, some of the infrastructure to maintain spaceflight will be available for Earth.
That will be tomorrow, though, and in the classic Mass Effect tradition the night before remains.
Their own planned night ruined, Trader seeks to make it up and searches for Maiden, who he finds in her room... and wearing her final purchase. Not, as some might suspect, a sexy piece of clothing.
She's wearing a wig. A specially-made one, one that looks realistic and even feels smooth to the touch.
Maiden is surprised that he's there, in her room, apparently planning to visit his. She claims her preparations aren't ready yet: beside her are jars of body lotions, skin-toners to make her look like a Human. She beings explaining how she's prepared, babbling, that she could make it easier for him to enjoy if she looked like a Human, even if she really wasn't, and-
As is appropriate, Trader kisses her. He appreciates the effort, the lengths she has gone... but she doesn't have to go that far. He loves her. She knows, which is why she tried, that she wanted to make this night something to remember. Trader, having also prepared, kisses at just the Asari sensitive spot at the collarbone to make her gasp, and proceeds to do just as she wanted.
Fade to Black.
The final battle feels more like afterglow. A system away from the fighting, the pair watch the fighting from afar. They track the battles on the ground and in the space above, even as they themselves orbit Jupiter. The Alliance engineers they carry are busy setting up the new Helium-3 processors and a fabricator to quickly make more, leaving the couple the chance to bask together in the cockpit, where they have a perfect view of watching the Crucible go by.
Hope at the progress of Sword and determination at the passing of the Crucible and Shield, however, are challenged with fear and worry as the limits of the organic forces become clear. So confident are the Reapers that they even send a few of their Dreadnaughts, slightly damaged from battle, to fly to the Charon Relay and blockade it: no new reinforcements get in, but also to keep Sword and Shield from getting out by the relay.
Pluto is much to close to Jupiter as it is, and the Reapers begin to target some of Hacket's winner's-bet infrastructure projects: a floating spacedock near Pluto, Helijm 3 at Neptune. Gradually coming closer.
With no good place to flee to, the team chooses to pack up the fabricator and hide among the Saturn rings, to wait the Reapers out. As the Battle in London grows ever more desperate, the Reapers grow ever closer...
And when reports that the Conduit wasn't reached come over, the Reapers are at Saturn. And they know that the organics are still there, and begin to hunt them out, shooting rocks in the rings.
Hide and seek becomes cat and mouse, and the Reapers are ever closer, closer... until a Reaper simply flies through part of the ring, rocks breaking upon it, and is right in front of them. It charges its laser, and fires a glancing blow that knocks out the engines. It begins to charge again...
Trader and Maiden, resolved to face the inevitable, embrace each other as the end appraoches...
(Three Different Endings!)
(Red)
Red energy washes over, cutting the lights of their ship but knocking out the Reaper as well. The two, still embracing, watch in dead silence as the dead Reaper floats before them.
It's not until the Alliance engineers, working on the door behind them, open it that life resumes. Systems are down, but are being repaired. The engines are a mess, but the fabricator can repair the damaged parts. One of the engineers even suggests boarding the dead Reaper to salvage some craft.
Trader and Maiden see the opportunity, and offer their services as a job on top of resuming the Helium 3 infrastructure across Saturn. With the relays gone, the fleets are going to need a lot of fuel to get home...
Trader and Maiden, together, spend the rest of their lives together ferrying cargo for the galactic rebuilding. With the relays gone, they are among those who brave the long, difficult, and thankless task of mapping out the systems that can be used to build a conventional FTL shipping route to re-unite the sectors. Taking these long trips from sector to sector, with only their cargo and eachother for company, the couple build a reputation and a life together until, one day, they vanish during one of their long hauls and never return.
(Blue)
Blue Energy washes over, but has no apparent effect. The Reaper changes color... and instead of destroying them with its laser, moves closer. Crippled, unable to move or flee, the ship prepares to be boarded and both Trader and Maiden promise not to let the other be taken alive... but the boarding doesn't come.
The Reaper isn't capturing their ship: it's carrying it. To Pluto, to where that initial drydock was supposed to be placed, where even now Husks and Reaper thralls appear to be repairing damage even as other damaged ships are being towed by the Reapers.
One Reaper, the largest among them, broadcasts: it is the Harbinger of the Shepard of the cycle, and the Reapers now serve. These organics here will be helped, repaired, and set free to deliver the message as they see fit... and the Reapers will be there to assist them. If, however, the organics here would help them to repair the damage...
Trader and Maiden, out of their depth and lost, hold onto eachother and maybe, just maybe, hope for the best.
Trader and Maiden spend their time together doing what they always did: trade and move things. Some of there cargo gradually turned to things previously unthinkable: Husks from the war, now laborers in peace, being transported from place to place. 'Gifts' of Reaper technology, now serving to rebuild civilizations rather than destroy them. Trader himself eventually accepted one, eventually: genetic therapy to extend his lifespan coming close to matching Maiden's.
The two stayed together for the long haul, living together and ultimately passing away together.
(Green)
Green Energy washed over them, and everything changed. Senses expanded: new data, and new means to interpret it, flowed over them. The Reapers were no longer unknowable... but now they didn't know themselves. Even as the non-hostile Reaper towed them to Pluto, they sought to make sense of it.
It was new and disconcerting. They could feel and know their bodies and selves changing, even at their own will: a DNA that no longer had an AY gene, a primitive paranoia that now applied to himself.
It was frightening, terrifying, something to be lost in... but amidst the uncertainty, one truth gave them a foundation: the other was still here with them. That was enough to keep living for.
Trader and Maiden coped with their synthesis as they had coped with their other trials: together. It was not without difficulties, and it was not the end to troubles, but it was not without benefits: what they could do to each other, for each other, made up for a great deal.
The two stayed together, the security and familiarity not changed despite everything else, and met the future.
===
And that's the sappy story side of me. May it never be needed to be typed again.
Posted at 09:42 AM on 2012-09-30
A back and forther with that other person about the outline.
Other person is 'you.'
===
You said...
Wow. Lots of potential with this one. I *love* the stasis scene. I think also you wouldn't need to wait until that climactic scene to introduce moments of genuine and plot-related danger; I imagine plucking armed refugees out of the path of impending Collector attacks would bring out both the best and the worst of the people in danger of not getting themselves or their loved ones aboard Trader's ship.
I'll say..
Danger was something I wanted to avoid for the most part, because the point of these two is that they aren't super-heroes. They're civilians, who at best get caught up in some things.
I thought about other Collector evacuations, but decided against it: a large part of the Collectors was not knowing what colony would be targeted next. Coincidence, or being sent in by Cerberus as part of a trap, were the only viable ones. Evacuating people fearing an abduction could still go on.
One of the 'risks' I thought about, however, was pirates/looters targeting a colony the pair went to help. Sort of the first responders responding to finding malcontents on the scene. One potential scene I didn't feel was a major plot point was a possible 'Cerberus booby-traps the colony against looters' scenario: Cerberus activates security (like Veetor did), and pirates are at a standoff. Trader, with codes received from employers/Cerberus fronts, is able to skirt the danger and be protected by the security while doing an investigation.
That sort of thing could even be before Shepard revives, honestly.
You wrote...
Some random and half-assed thought-provokers:
1). I know it's only an outline, but I'm not sure I buy Trader's reason to hire Maiden. It seems to me that if he wants to overcome his xenophobia enough to actually hire an asari then he's not actually that xenophobic (which cheapens his personal journey of overcoming his xenophobia). I know it's skirting with cliché, but maybe if you forced him to take her on somehow you could create more dramatic tension. (Maybe having an asari crew member is a new requirement by asari colonies to avoid punitive protectionist tax, thus illustrating their corruption and one of the reasons he thinks they suck?).
I'll write...
I think that could work, especially in a sense of 'in addition to.' Trader is supposed to be a regretful racist: someone who knows he's unreasonably biased, but can't resist the impulses. But that doesn't mean recruiting has to be his own idea. Wanting to improve is supposed to be a part of him.
Rather than 'Asari Colonies,' I could definitely see it with 'Asari corporations.' Sort of a soft-power level to counter Human racists/terra firma/Renegade Council, in which Asari corporations levy sanctions on corporations that do business with 'racist' outfits. Hence an Asari instigation, but can also be turned into a lemonaid out of lemons opportunity.
You wrote...
2). You could stand to have more characters/crewmembers. If Maiden is the character who pulls him towards enlightenment, he needs a devil or some devils on his shoulder pulling him back towards his old ways (and for good reasons).
I think that if there are more crewmembers who are willing to treat her badly, and he stands up for her because he takes (his responsibility as captain/his genuine kindness to individuals) more seriously than his xenophobia then it says a great deal about him as a man (which could be the reason she falls for him so hard).
I'll write...
I did consider a devil character, but there were some restrictions. I didn't want a love triangle, for example, and I didn't want too cluttered a cast. Making a permanent crew seemed too likely to divert the focus of an unbalanced polarity.
Two concepts that I did toy with, however, served similar purposes. The Ex, for one, and the Cerberus Friend.
The Ex would have obviously been the former wife. Not a sympathetic figure, given that she had an affair, left the faithful husband, and took the daughter away and, with the Asari legal system, mothers have all rights and can do that. An encounter with her would have been tense, and to her the presence of Maiden would have been something to reek of hypocrisy on Trader's part.
That idea didn't find its way in because the tension/conflict would have been more on a personal dispute between the Ex and Maiden than Trader. Trader could stand up for her, but it wouldn't have been out of duty.
Cerberus Friend would have been a business associate/longtime acquaintance who Trader trusts, not knowing that Cerberus Friend is pulling strings on part of Cerberus. While that serves well as a basis for involvement with the colonies, as an antagonistic faction it didn't work: too many 'Cerberus is racist' ******-poor pieces as it is, and a token overt racist a drag down. Cerberus Friend was supposed to be amiable, and while he might express concerns about the Asari it would also be tempered by not aggitating his asset.
Putting duty before racism was an idea, but it didn't seem to have a natural follow-in in the ME2 arc. Rather, it fit better with the return to Thessia in the ME3 rc.
You wrote...
Also more characters allows for more conflict and tension generally. Just because it's a romance doesn't mean it shouldn't be gut-wrenchingly dramatic all the way through.
I'll write...
I can agree, but in this case 'bitter-sweet' was sort of a theme of this couple in particular. Low drama, if you will, with actual character (as opposed to situational) conflict used sparingly.
Part of the drama in this love story is that it's the contexts that prevent the romance (racism and an AY gene), rather than the personalities conflicting.
I guess I can't really think of a good third wheel crewmate who wouldn't make the entire story awkward. While Trader's racism is geared towards Asari, he isn't overly fond of aliens as opposed to neutral. A Salarian would be a non-factor in the romance, but too likely to be the fast-speaking wit. A Krogan would be bizare. A Turian... well, a Turian might work, but it would also have trouble finding a role. I wouldn't want an agrevational relationship.
You wrote...
3). The Alliance rescue mission ties in chronologically with James Vega's brush with the Collectors, no? It would be really interesting to view the ruthless military decision he made through civilian eyes.
I'll write...
Yes and no. Technically James' incident would have occurred before the Suicide Mission. You could justify the destruction of the ship as killing the local Collectors, so the keystone army isn't the biggest issue when I considered it.
The real issue was 'how do you get saved from a stasis field once trapped?' James' scenario was that he left his men to die to flee, so he could avoid it and keep the intelligence. That doesn't scream 'Alliance victory and destroyed a Crusier' to me. While nothing denies them a seeker-swarm counter, so that wasn't why they were doomed, creating a context in which James would rescue the pair from certain death was difficult.
I mean, I suppose you could: James men rescue the pair from the certain death, get them moving again. James needs their ship to pick up the data that was dropped somewhere (possibly already having tried to steal the ship, but it's locked), and the squad stays behind to let them get to the space dock with James. Ship is in the air, but James makes the call and nearly holds a gun to their head to make them get the data and get out of there. When they do, James goes to the cargo hold and sits on a bench, watching the device, and goes silent.
That could have happened, but it seemed... well, the first one was already contrived as it was. I suppose it seemed to interrupt the privacy of the two, and the destroyed ship scenario. It also commits the sin of involving a major canon character: something I wanted to avoid if possible.
Other person is 'you.'
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You said...
Wow. Lots of potential with this one. I *love* the stasis scene. I think also you wouldn't need to wait until that climactic scene to introduce moments of genuine and plot-related danger; I imagine plucking armed refugees out of the path of impending Collector attacks would bring out both the best and the worst of the people in danger of not getting themselves or their loved ones aboard Trader's ship.
I'll say..
Danger was something I wanted to avoid for the most part, because the point of these two is that they aren't super-heroes. They're civilians, who at best get caught up in some things.
I thought about other Collector evacuations, but decided against it: a large part of the Collectors was not knowing what colony would be targeted next. Coincidence, or being sent in by Cerberus as part of a trap, were the only viable ones. Evacuating people fearing an abduction could still go on.
One of the 'risks' I thought about, however, was pirates/looters targeting a colony the pair went to help. Sort of the first responders responding to finding malcontents on the scene. One potential scene I didn't feel was a major plot point was a possible 'Cerberus booby-traps the colony against looters' scenario: Cerberus activates security (like Veetor did), and pirates are at a standoff. Trader, with codes received from employers/Cerberus fronts, is able to skirt the danger and be protected by the security while doing an investigation.
That sort of thing could even be before Shepard revives, honestly.
You wrote...
Some random and half-assed thought-provokers:
1). I know it's only an outline, but I'm not sure I buy Trader's reason to hire Maiden. It seems to me that if he wants to overcome his xenophobia enough to actually hire an asari then he's not actually that xenophobic (which cheapens his personal journey of overcoming his xenophobia). I know it's skirting with cliché, but maybe if you forced him to take her on somehow you could create more dramatic tension. (Maybe having an asari crew member is a new requirement by asari colonies to avoid punitive protectionist tax, thus illustrating their corruption and one of the reasons he thinks they suck?).
I'll write...
I think that could work, especially in a sense of 'in addition to.' Trader is supposed to be a regretful racist: someone who knows he's unreasonably biased, but can't resist the impulses. But that doesn't mean recruiting has to be his own idea. Wanting to improve is supposed to be a part of him.
Rather than 'Asari Colonies,' I could definitely see it with 'Asari corporations.' Sort of a soft-power level to counter Human racists/terra firma/Renegade Council, in which Asari corporations levy sanctions on corporations that do business with 'racist' outfits. Hence an Asari instigation, but can also be turned into a lemonaid out of lemons opportunity.
You wrote...
2). You could stand to have more characters/crewmembers. If Maiden is the character who pulls him towards enlightenment, he needs a devil or some devils on his shoulder pulling him back towards his old ways (and for good reasons).
I think that if there are more crewmembers who are willing to treat her badly, and he stands up for her because he takes (his responsibility as captain/his genuine kindness to individuals) more seriously than his xenophobia then it says a great deal about him as a man (which could be the reason she falls for him so hard).
I'll write...
I did consider a devil character, but there were some restrictions. I didn't want a love triangle, for example, and I didn't want too cluttered a cast. Making a permanent crew seemed too likely to divert the focus of an unbalanced polarity.
Two concepts that I did toy with, however, served similar purposes. The Ex, for one, and the Cerberus Friend.
The Ex would have obviously been the former wife. Not a sympathetic figure, given that she had an affair, left the faithful husband, and took the daughter away and, with the Asari legal system, mothers have all rights and can do that. An encounter with her would have been tense, and to her the presence of Maiden would have been something to reek of hypocrisy on Trader's part.
That idea didn't find its way in because the tension/conflict would have been more on a personal dispute between the Ex and Maiden than Trader. Trader could stand up for her, but it wouldn't have been out of duty.
Cerberus Friend would have been a business associate/longtime acquaintance who Trader trusts, not knowing that Cerberus Friend is pulling strings on part of Cerberus. While that serves well as a basis for involvement with the colonies, as an antagonistic faction it didn't work: too many 'Cerberus is racist' ******-poor pieces as it is, and a token overt racist a drag down. Cerberus Friend was supposed to be amiable, and while he might express concerns about the Asari it would also be tempered by not aggitating his asset.
Putting duty before racism was an idea, but it didn't seem to have a natural follow-in in the ME2 arc. Rather, it fit better with the return to Thessia in the ME3 rc.
You wrote...
Also more characters allows for more conflict and tension generally. Just because it's a romance doesn't mean it shouldn't be gut-wrenchingly dramatic all the way through.
I'll write...
I can agree, but in this case 'bitter-sweet' was sort of a theme of this couple in particular. Low drama, if you will, with actual character (as opposed to situational) conflict used sparingly.
Part of the drama in this love story is that it's the contexts that prevent the romance (racism and an AY gene), rather than the personalities conflicting.
I guess I can't really think of a good third wheel crewmate who wouldn't make the entire story awkward. While Trader's racism is geared towards Asari, he isn't overly fond of aliens as opposed to neutral. A Salarian would be a non-factor in the romance, but too likely to be the fast-speaking wit. A Krogan would be bizare. A Turian... well, a Turian might work, but it would also have trouble finding a role. I wouldn't want an agrevational relationship.
You wrote...
3). The Alliance rescue mission ties in chronologically with James Vega's brush with the Collectors, no? It would be really interesting to view the ruthless military decision he made through civilian eyes.
I'll write...
Yes and no. Technically James' incident would have occurred before the Suicide Mission. You could justify the destruction of the ship as killing the local Collectors, so the keystone army isn't the biggest issue when I considered it.
The real issue was 'how do you get saved from a stasis field once trapped?' James' scenario was that he left his men to die to flee, so he could avoid it and keep the intelligence. That doesn't scream 'Alliance victory and destroyed a Crusier' to me. While nothing denies them a seeker-swarm counter, so that wasn't why they were doomed, creating a context in which James would rescue the pair from certain death was difficult.
I mean, I suppose you could: James men rescue the pair from the certain death, get them moving again. James needs their ship to pick up the data that was dropped somewhere (possibly already having tried to steal the ship, but it's locked), and the squad stays behind to let them get to the space dock with James. Ship is in the air, but James makes the call and nearly holds a gun to their head to make them get the data and get out of there. When they do, James goes to the cargo hold and sits on a bench, watching the device, and goes silent.
That could have happened, but it seemed... well, the first one was already contrived as it was. I suppose it seemed to interrupt the privacy of the two, and the destroyed ship scenario. It also commits the sin of involving a major canon character: something I wanted to avoid if possible.
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