Bacon finds a way, Jack

A personal blog for video games, writing, LGBT things, and general funny junk.

[csaberific]

Drabble - Laundry

Flipping the switch and watching the cascade of lights across the ceiling was one thing. It was another to power on one of the washing machines and see the old man's relief. Such a small, unimportant thing, a laundromat in Brooklyn's Flatbush. But even ten years after the war, small and unimportant things meant all the world.

"Thank you," Mister Smithson said. "It was an honor having Commander Shepard help put this place back together."

Shepard smiled somewhat sheepishly. "Think of it as my apology. For busting the windows when I was sixteen."

A different recognition dawned across Smithson's face.

[csaberific]

Current musical hyperfixation

[csaberific]

Drabble - References to Classic Literature

"Must feel weird," Kasumi said, sitting on Shepard's desk. "Being here while the Normandy's out there."

The Alliance sent the Normandy scanning the cluster for resources to aid with the relay repair. That meant scouring ever more distant systems, and with communications still spotty, Shepard wouldn't hear from her in weeks.

"I knew what I was in for when I resigned," he said.

"Hopefully Joker isn't away for so long he's declared dead, and you hold an archery contest to choose your next guy."

Whatever that meant went over his head. Shepard stared at her.

"Not an epics guy, huh?"

[csaberific]

Writing drabbles for my original fiction feels like writing fanfic for my own characters, but it's been a nice way to put details I've had in my head for a while into words

[csaberific]

Drabble - Implied/Referenced Character Death

Shepard stepped through the flaps of his tent. He’d insisted on no special treatment, though the tent city’s administrator likewise insisted on separating him to spare him from constant attention. The tent had only room for a bed, desk, and footlocker, so he’d donated most of his personal possessions from the Normandy.

Shepard sat at the desk and pulled the tiny velvet box out of his pocket. What was a significant expense before the war had become a near-impossible miracle of favors and trades after.

“Till death do us part,” he supposed, applied differently to the two of them.

[csaberific]

Drabble - Unconventional Family

(Post-ME3, headcanon-heavy destroy ending)

---

“Sometimes,” Joker said, watching the FENRIS mech trot past their door, “a family is a rockstar pilot, the first human Spectre, and a robot dog.”

Shepard joined him on the bed. Their new cabin was a third of the size of the Normandy’s with double the noise from the drive core. “First human Spectre to retire.”

“To ‘retire.’” Joker used finger quotes.

True, Shepard had spent the day helping build a school in Armali. “Family,” however, triggered a short-lived train of thought. Absolutely not. He was already looking after a few hundred kids on Earth. Also, there was Grunt.

---

In an attempt to get myself writing regularly again after a long creative dry spell, I combined the Wheel of Names generator and the Ao3 tag generator to create some drabble prompts. Most of them are for original characters, but my finger slipped and I put Shepard on the wheel too oops.

[csaberific]

Going through my old SWTOR posts and old blog... lol there's a lot of stuff I forgot I wrote

Damn I put a lot of brainpower into these MMO characters

[okjohnrich]

Hi! Welcome! 👋

You're about to read John Rich & The Big Picture, a very funny story about a very anxious man hurtling towards his soulmate at 200 mph.

At 28, John Rich is the youngest cover artist in the illustrious history of The New York Review. This means, every week, he draws a portrait of some notable person and this portrait becomes the cover of this very prestigious magazine. But when John is tasked with drawing the supposedly vapid (and obviously gorgeous) action movie star, Tyler Hughes, he discovers that Tyler is the one person he cannot draw. 

Updates weekly.

✏️ start reading >> here ✏️ latest chapter >> here

You can also read the story online here: okjohnrich.site ✏️

FAQ under the cut. ⬇️

When does The Big Picture update? John Rich & The Big Picture updates on Friday afternoons.

Will you release this as an e-book at some point? When I'm done, yes, I'll release this novel in .PDF and .EPUB format.

People keep talking about taxes. What are the taxes? If you enjoyed reading this novel, you are legally required to pay the Friend Tax by telling a friend. Use lots of emojis and sound like you're going insane. (This helps.) Similarly, if you laugh at anything, you have to tell me in a comment or tag me on social media. This is the Laugh Tax. By paying your taxes you help me and others construct a non-monetary socialist gift-based utopia.

Follow the author on bsky, instagram, tumblr (main), and tiktok.

[csaberific]

It's been very interesting seeing how different Shoker fics set in ME3 handle the Gunny Question. I've seen the Tiptree subplot followed closely to canon, with Shepard overhearing the traumatized commando, I've seen happier takes on it where Gunny survives (and hey, maybe Joker deserves a bit of happiness during the misery that is the war), etc. It's all a conversation! What kind of story is the author trying to tell, and how do they work with or remix canon elements to help tell it! Gosh, transformative work rocks.

(I did a remix that ends in roughly the same destination, only with Gunny having more agency)

[csaberific]

Oh gosh Pawn is coming up on ten years old, too

It's probably my favorite entry in the Victor-verse. I'm still pretty proud of Echoes, of course (the Gunny storyline is one of my favorite things I've done), but overall Pawn hit upon a lot of stuff I like in stories. A deeply flawed protagonist who manages to overcome his shortcomings, antagonists that reflect him (Whitwell's self-righteousness, Sam Yin's vengeful scheming, Liz's own backstory struggles), bits of mystery, and inextricably gay.

Also it was fun to have as backstory while writing Echoes; there's a reason quite a few chapters follow up on Pawn

[csaberific]

No idea if this scene will ever see the light of day, but I've wanted to write an awkward family scene for this protagonist ever since I decided he was the youngest and least favorite of three sons

"He was supposed to have moved past this," he thinks but my boy I don't think you've gotten over anything in your life, Mr. Sad Boy Hours

[csaberific]

I wanted to make a post on what happens after Echoes but really it's just what Vic and Joker planned at the very end. Vic does charity work (or just work? I'm not sure charity donations are a thing right after a galaxy-spanning apocalypse) helping kids orphaned by the war, Joker sticks with the Alliance until the relay network is repaired, then they go on a long "vacation" (I use the quotation marks because they spend a good deal of it helping rebuilding efforts) across the galaxy in a civilian ship

Also there's a wedding somewhere in there? Probably a small private thing in the short term and eventually one of their anniversaries is very posh when luxuries are more available

[csaberific]

Also this may be decades down the line but Vic does get the lux-ass penthouse of his dreams with a stupidly large alcohol shrine private bar

[roarmoreau]

JOHN SHEPARD & JEFF “JOKER” MOREAU  [mshoker]  ↴

“Son of a b*tch”, Joker sighed irritably, feeling strong hands on his hips and a broad chest behind his back. He felt familiar smell of perfume. Shepard chuckled throatily and put his arms around his pilot’s waist as gently as he could. Commander whispered in a deep voice, leaning close to Joker’s ear: “Yeah, I know”, John buried his nose in the dark-red hair at pilot’s nape instantly and went down witj kisses to his neck. “I adore you”, he said shortly. Jeff rolled his eyes and smiled, faintly. They’re both too stubborn.

[csaberific]

As I struggle away with figuring out the plot of this story (at this point I'm likely to just go "fuck it" and wing some elements with placeholder ideas) of course my brain wanders off towards one of the other story concepts that's been sitting in my head for years

But hey, I got a cute idea for the urban fantasy with a dash of cyberpunk story with M/M romance, specifically the scene in which the protagonist and the love interest finally kiss

(I love this protagonist btw, he's my disaster bi son)

[csaberific]

Every time I rework the ~cosmic backstory~ of my urban fantasy setting I hope it's the last time

Realistically, it probably won't be

(But hey I have a semi-solid concept for the ending of this story at last because of this latest rework!)

[csaberific]

I'm currently doing a "memory lane" kind of playthrough of SWTOR's Jedi Knight story (last year I did one for Sith Inquisitor) in which I do all the sidequests like you would've had to do during the 1.0 days

A "SWTOR Classic" is probably extremely off the table, but in that alternate universe where the game was more successful and got a WoW or FFXIV-sized budget I'd be curious to try it out and take it really slowly. I do miss story bosses actually requiring some effort. I remember during launch there'd always be a few people in General chat asking for help with Darth Zash for example.

[csaberific]

Well that was MEA. It's actually only the second full playthrough I've ever completed. I maintain that the final mission and ending are still better than ME3's, but that really isn't a high bar.

It's interesting looking back and comparing my motivations for writing the Victor-verse and writing all that MEA fic. With the former, I was asking "what if": what if M!Shep/Joker could be a thing, what if x squadmate did this sidequest instead of Shepard, etc. Even Echoes wound up being less of a fix-it fic and more of a "what if I got a bit weird with how I stretched the bounds of the base ME3 narrative" kinda deal.

With the latter, I was definitely trying to fill in some blanks.

Landing Zones: "Wait, why couldn't Ryder and the sibling take the time to catch up?"

Like Someone Else: "Wait, why did Reyes just yeet himself out of the Kadara plot with minimal fanfare after all that buildup?"

The Insomnia Club: "Wait, when did Ryder and Gil go from strip poker flirting to falling in love with each other?"

Hundred Spaces is admittedly my least favorite of my MEA fic; reading through it again after almost eight years, I wish I'd done more to say something new about the characters rather than regurgitate what we already knew about them.

Though if I ever write another fic, it'd be a post-game MEA fic where I throw sequel-proofing out the window and go wild~