Reblogged daisywalletchains
Reblogged shadoedseptmbr
tumblr where are they
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My lovely Shepard.
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Hayao Miyazaki on AI
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estramor-deactivated20231029
Reblogged daisywalletchains
alistair, alistair, the years pass and still not a single one of my real-life crushes can hold a candle to you
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why did no one tell me quantum computers looked like that
what the fuck
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The Shadow Broker Dossiers are one of my favorite bits of lore in the Mass Effect series because they intrusively probe the characters' lives. Into things, the characters obviously wouldn’t share with Shepard. You, as the player, choose whether Shepard is going to probe further into their companion's private lives.
My favorite entries have to deal with Garrus, his sister Solana, and his mother's condition with Corpalis Syndrome.
There is so much that can be picked apart in the above message exchange between Garrus and Solana. It’s all we know of her character, yet she feels very real, very raw in how she talks to her brother.
It touches on a lot of Garrus’ failures up to this point, too, in ME2. Saying that he's playing Spectre, which is a very fair comment that Solana makes at Garrus. He threw away his C-Sec career or possibly Spectre training for a third worse option that ends up literally blowing up in his face and getting people killed.
There's a lot of jealousy in that comment as well. Solana probably had to give up her career and life ambitions to take care of her mother. Her brother can’t even bother to show his face. Just a thirty-minute text exchange. She probably hasn’t seen him in years, and their mother is deteriorating day by day in front of her.
Garrus, for obvious reasons, can’t be there and isn't going to let Solana know. This message is one of the last ones Garrus sends out before hitting the Omega Relay, so at this point, he thinks he might end up dying.
There is a sense that they were probably close when they were younger. They share a sense of humor and end on a joking note. But in the end, Garrus finally tries to reach out and fails to make a connection with his sister. It is such a bittersweet family situation.
On a more hopeful note, with Mordin's connection with STG, Garrus is able to get the right connections to help his mother.
On a less hopeful note, by the time ME3 rolls around, Garrus only mentions his father and sister. So even with the possible connections with treatments, it's implied his mother had passed between the events of Mass Effect 2 and 3.
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The Future Prometheus - Chapter 2
Rating: Teen and Up
Summary: A Shepard clone who does not know they are a clone, let alone who Shepard is, begins her training regimen. For some reason, everyone acts like she's done this before.
Start Chapter 2:
One morning, a doctor places something in your lap. It is metal. It is heavy. You have no idea what it’s supposed to do. They look at you expectantly. You ask the Well what to do. You tell the doctors the object is a gun. They ask you to be more specific. You say it’s a M-5 Phalanx semi-automatic heavy pistol manufactured by the Systems Alliance. The human doctors smile. They ask you to take it apart and then reassemble it. You do so and hand the gun back to them. They tell you you’re making great progress. They say you’ll be back to being a soldier in no time.
After the doctors leave, you ask the Well, “What is a soldier?”
For the first time, the Well seems hesitant to answer you. It shows you someone who is strong and brave. Someone who protects their people from those who would want to hurt them. You think you could protect people.
Later, something very exciting happens. You get to leave your room. You are escorted into a hallway and led through a series of doors and turns and corridors until you reach a large room with various machines. A man in shorts and a t-shirt explains that he’s your personal trainer. He’s here to help you get stronger. As it is your first time exercising, your trainer says you’ll just do body weight workouts. You’re taught many new ways to move your body. The push-ups and squats and sit-ups are fun, but your favorite part is the stretching and yoga.
Stretching your body hurts, but in a good way. It makes you aware of all your muscles and tendons and the way they work together. The trainer shows you how to do downward dog pose, and you feel the tightness in the backs of your legs as you try to get your heels to touch the ground (the Well informs you the part of your body you’re stretching is called the Achilles tendon). You learn cobra pose and feel the slight burning feeling of stretching out your stomach (the Well once again informs you those are your abdominal muscles you’re feeling).
The trainer asks if you want to try a hard one. You nod your head, grinning. Your trainer gets into a low squat and braces his elbows against the inside of his knees. He shifts his weight onto his hands and brings his feet up, so they hover over the ground. He tells you this is crow pose. You try to copy him but can’t stay up for more than a few seconds. Your trainer tells you if you practice a little bit every day, not only will you be able to do crow pose, but someday you will even be able to do a handstand. He demonstrates by extending his legs into the air until his body is a straight line with his feet on top and hands on the bottom. When you leave your exercise session, you are determined to learn how to do a handstand.
You’re then taken further down the hall to another room. A man behind a waist-high display case greets you and the doctors, introducing himself as your firearm trainer. Within the display case are many different pistols and handguns. Behind him are racks of rifles.
He unlocks the case and pulls out the Phalanx pistol you were handed back in your room. He passes you a pair of clear plastic glasses and a pair of black, bulky headphones. He waves for you to follow him to a series of booths. He stops in front of one of them and begins to prepare the pistol for you.
In front of you is a counter. Behind the counter is a long corridor. At the end of the corridor is a board hanging from the ceiling. On it is a target made up of a series of concentric black circles. The center of the target is red. The trainer looks at you expectantly.
You don’t know what to do. The trainer does not look like he plans to explain what you’re supposed to do. Feeling a little dumb, you once again refer to the Well for help. It doesn’t seem to mind. It imparts an overview of a series of things. One: What a gun range is and what you do there. Two: Basic gun safety. Three: How to properly hold a gun.
