fics masterlist - if anyone's curious about what i write
Hi. 😌
I suck at introductions, but let's give it a shot anyway.
I'm Michelle or Mich, formally known as BlueClanMarkings, and I write Mass Effect fanfiction. You'll find me writing Female Shepard and any!turian or James Vega, but mostly Garrus Vakarian.
I love angst, smut, angst, romance, drama, did I mention angst, and staying away from the canon happenings. I love AUs tweaked just enough to make the timeline interesting.
Below is an overview of some of my fics. You can also check out my AO3 here. 🫶🏻
current wips:
Anchor - Garrus Vakarian/Female Shepard
I seriously need to write a better summary of this story... it's part 6 of my longfic/main series: By Starlight and Sapphire. Basically family drama and reconciling the Vakarian fam.
Shore leave takes Garrus Vakarian and Marika Shepard to Palaven. Home, family, and a confrontation Garrus has been avoiding. Visiting Valeria brings joy and hope, but it all comes crashing down during the dinner with Castis, pushing Shepard to her breaking point.
Patience gone and needing answers, things finally explode into raw honesty… and some good use of the hotel room as they navigate how to fix things before it’s too late.
The Shape of a Lie - Female Shepard/Garrus Vakarian
An angsty and long Western AU set in a fake 1890s USA. Expect horses, gunfights, hunting, death, and graphic descriptions of violence.
Hired to infiltrate an outlaw gang, bounty hunter Garrus Vakarian soon discovers that some jobs are more complicated than they seem.
Ten thousand dollars is a hard offer to refuse.
And loyalty is a dangerous thing to gamble with.
all my series:
By Starlight and Sapphire - Mainly Shakarian.
Follows the story of Marika Shepard from 2174 and all the way to post-war. Currently in ME2 timeline. It respects canon events to a degree before taking a hard left turn toward AU-territory. Marika is "my" Shepard: infiltrator, Earthborn, War Hero, true neutral, pragmatic, and oddly romantic. A proper best friend dynamic with Garrus that grows into romance.
The Shakarian Works - Female Shepard/Garrus Vakarian
Features just one-shots of these two lovable idiots. More often than not, it's just smut.
The Turian Daddy Works - Female Shepard/Other Turians
Lorik Qui'in, Castis Vakarian, Adrien Victus - the other very fuckable turians in our galaxy. More to be added.
The Pinky Swear - Female Shepard/Garrus Vakarian
Shepard and Garrus meet up a few years after the war to follow up on a pinky swear they made right before Ilos: if both are single by the age of thirty-five, they'd marry each other. This is fluff. I rarely do pure fluff but when I do I go fucking hard.
Breaking Regulations: The Vega Files - Female Shepard/James Vega
Literally just a series for all my Shega stories. Currently just one here.
Dragon Age
There's currently only one story here, a Rook (reader)/Emmrich Volkarin smut piece because the romance scene fucking sucked.
a few chosen samples:
An Eye for an Eye - Female Shepard/Castis Vakarian
(aka the most fun I've ever had writing fanfic)
Jane Shepard gets the surprise of a lifetime when she catches Garrus cheating on her with Tali. While having her boyfriend and her best friend do that to her is painful, she soon finds comfort in someone unexpected.
And that comfort quickly turns into something else.
A Guide to Awkward Courtship - Female Shepard/Garrus Vakarian
(aka let's pretend to date to get my dad off my back)
Some turian parents like to have a hand in who their kids end up with. None of them can compete with Castis Vakarian's overbearing nature. Garrus has had enough of his father's constant nagging, but nothing has helped stop him.
Then, Shepard offers a solution that he finds himself wanting her help with.
how to flirt with your commander - Female Shepard/Garrus Vakarian
(aka CSS and HTML gave me a headache, but flowed once I got it right)
Garrus Vakarian never expected his human commander to start winking at him. Unsure if she’s flirting, mocking, or plotting an assassination, he does the only logical thing: logs onto Read-It, the galaxy’s favorite extranet forum, to ask strangers for advice.
This is a romcom told entirely through forum posts, edits, and comment chaos.
rule number one: why we don't eyeball it - Female Shepard/Garrus Vakarian
(aka Garrus is fucking smart and I'll be damned if you forget it)
“Can it wait for a bit? I’m right in the middle of some calibrations.”
—Garrus Vakarian.
Shepard knows code. Crack security systems? Easy. Rewire field tech mid-firefight? Child’s play. Get into places she’s absolutely not supposed to be? Please. Walk into the forward batteries and try to understand equations, trajectory models, and Newton’s Laws of what the hell Is that?
No chance.
So when she asks her sexy turian sniper vigilante boyfriend to teach her what ‘calibrating’ actually means, she expects a lecture drier than the surface of Tuchanka. What follows is… technically educational.
Mostly hands-on.
And definitely passionate.
The winding path brought Garrus up the final stretch home. It sat at the center of the land, surrounded by grass and brush, fences framing the wooden house like a painting. His eyes drew up to the elk skull mounted on the gable, crowned with a vast rack of antlers. Memories old and faded with time came flooding, interrupted by a sound impossible to ignore.
Barking came, loud and sharp. A reddish-brown dog with black-tipped fur ran toward him with its hackles raised, but stopped as Garrus spoke.
“Long time no see, Ranger.”
Ranger’s ears tipped backward and his tail wagged low. He nosed Mantis’s muzzle gently and waited patiently for Garrus to dismount. As the gloves came off, Garrus ran his hand over the dusty coat and gave the dog a couple pats on its flank, murmuring praise under his breath.
“Garrus!”
Caught off-guard by the sunlit voice, he looked up just in time to see a blur of blonde hair and blue eyes gunning toward him. He barely managed to open his arms before the woman flung herself into him and wrapped hers tightly around his neck. A step back to brace himself, and something between a laugh and a sob came out of her.
“Good Lord, I didn’t— when did you— you’re back!”
His eyes closed. “Good to see you again, Sol.”
Garrus lowered her gently to the ground and brushed his thumb across her cheek, catching the stray tear rolling down her skin. Being on the road was a lot of things. Survival, hard, independence; an exercise in self-sufficiency. Mostly, he thrived. The freedom he had made it worth his time.
But that life didn’t have Solana. After months alone on the road, it’d become a problem.
He wrapped a strong arm around his little sister’s shoulder, pulling her in for a side-hug. She leaned against him for a brief moment, then pushed back.
“Oh.” The back of her hand pressed against her nose. “Oh, you stink.”
Blinking, Garrus sniffed his armpit. “Ain’t that bad…”
She grimaced. “When’s the last time you bathed?”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “Err…”
“Go get Mantis settled. I’ll get some water boiling. You ain’t sitting at my dinner table looking like that.”
Garrus watched her march back to the house, apron and dress flowing with every step. “Guess I ain’t got no choice.”
“Damn right.” Solana threw him a glance over her shoulder. “And for the love of God, get rid of that beard. You look like a cave dweller.”
The door slammed behind her like an exclamation mark. He set his hands on his hips and shook his head.
Made a series for the Western AU. Thought that was easier than to keep it in the "anything Shakarian, but unrelated" folder when it'll end up having multiple parts.
All CWs are listed in the series notes. This covers the entire series, not just The Shape of a Lie. Honestly, The Shape of a Lie is the one that'll be the least violent.
Also, a little bonus from chapter 4, because I'm laughing my ass off:
Castis signed the papers in front of him, set them in the stack to his left, and rubbed his eyes. It’d been a long day. Bar fights, loiterers, a drunk man wandering up and down the streets, crying and yelling about his son-of-a-bitch brother sleeping with his wife to anyone who’d listen. Most of them were drunken fools in need of a day in a cell to sleep off the alcohol.
There was more than enough space for them here.
“Sheriff, he took my wife!” Jenkins wailed.
“Mmh.”
“My own brother!”
“Mmh.”
“And my horse!”
Frowning, Castis looked over. “Your horse too?”
Jenkins nodded wildly, voice tight. “He rode off on him.”
“Without permission?”
“Well… technically I told him he could borrow him.”
The winding path brought Garrus up the final stretch home. It sat at the center of the land, surrounded by grass and brush, fences framing the wooden house like a painting. His eyes drew up to the elk skull mounted on the gable, crowned with a vast rack of antlers. Memories old and faded with time came flooding, interrupted by a sound impossible to ignore.
Barking came, loud and sharp. A reddish-brown dog with black-tipped fur ran toward him with its hackles raised, but stopped as Garrus spoke.
“Long time no see, Ranger.”
Ranger’s ears tipped backward and his tail wagged low. He nosed Mantis’s muzzle gently and waited patiently for Garrus to dismount. As the gloves came off, Garrus ran his hand over the dusty coat and gave the dog a couple pats on its flank, murmuring praise under his breath.
“Garrus!”
Caught off-guard by the sunlit voice, he looked up just in time to see a blur of blonde hair and blue eyes gunning toward him. He barely managed to open his arms before the woman flung herself into him and wrapped hers tightly around his neck. A step back to brace himself, and something between a laugh and a sob came out of her.
“Good Lord, I didn’t— when did you— you’re back!”
His eyes closed. “Good to see you again, Sol.”
Garrus lowered her gently to the ground and brushed his thumb across her cheek, catching the stray tear rolling down her skin. Being on the road was a lot of things. Survival, hard, independence; an exercise in self-sufficiency. Mostly, he thrived. The freedom he had made it worth his time.
But that life didn’t have Solana. After months alone on the road, it’d become a problem.
He wrapped a strong arm around his little sister’s shoulder, pulling her in for a side-hug. She leaned against him for a brief moment, then pushed back.
“Oh.” The back of her hand pressed against her nose. “Oh, you stink.”
Blinking, Garrus sniffed his armpit. “Ain’t that bad…”
She grimaced. “When’s the last time you bathed?”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “Err…”
“Go get Mantis settled. I’ll get some water boiling. You ain’t sitting at my dinner table looking like that.”
Garrus watched her march back to the house, apron and dress flowing with every step. “Guess I ain’t got no choice.”
“Damn right.” Solana threw him a glance over her shoulder. “And for the love of God, get rid of that beard. You look like a cave dweller.”
The door slammed behind her like an exclamation mark. He set his hands on his hips and shook his head.
how to propose to your commander - final chapter update
I commissioned the ever-awesome @mimitz0-o to make some art for the very final chapter of this HTML-hell story. ❤️ It's gorgeous and is exactly what I wanted. ❤️❤️❤️
As for me, I'm hanging up the CSS and HTML gloves until further notice. :)
i love making friends in fandom, i love playing with our toys together, i love coming up with increasingly niche aus, i love lifting strangers up, i love motivating people to create, i love watching someone get excited over an idea and immediately running with it, i love yelling in tags together, i love seeing someone gain confidence in their writing/art because people were kind to them <33
how to propose to your commander - final chapter update
I commissioned the ever-awesome @mimitz0-o to make some art for the very final chapter of this HTML-hell story. ❤️ It's gorgeous and is exactly what I wanted. ❤️❤️❤️
As for me, I'm hanging up the CSS and HTML gloves until further notice. :)
let’s settle this shit but do NOT reblog if you’re gonna be modest about it like a little BITCH. anyway privilege check tell me which ones apply to you: hot, funny, can dance, can do math, can spell, can drive, can cook
In Norwegian, we have a term to describe a horse that's "a little much" (not in a bad way). Eager to go. Not necessarily a beginner horse. The kind you wanna manage a little because it gets super excited about what you're about to do and wants to GO GO GO.
If I directly translate the Norwegian term, it's "hot".
how to propose to your commander - final chapter update
I commissioned the ever-awesome @mimitz0-o to make some art for the very final chapter of this HTML-hell story. ❤️ It's gorgeous and is exactly what I wanted. ❤️❤️❤️
As for me, I'm hanging up the CSS and HTML gloves until further notice. :)
