Tea is for life, not just breakfast.

Science lover, postgraduate survivor, guilty of armchair speculation. Mass Effect obsessed. My art: LHSart and my writing: LHS writes.

[dailycatsblog]

[dominaexmachina]

Too much Mass Effect nostalgia, not enough space — so here are the posters.

[exxos-von-steamboldt]

[delicatefury]

I just googled this and… yes, it’s absolutely real.

And there are so many articles and videos and discussions. Like, the scientific community is buzzing about this.

So much research will have to be redone because the data was absolutely compromised, off by orders of magnitude, by using standard lab gloves.

The world is probably not horrifically contaminated by microplastics. Sterile laboratories, however, are contaminated by latex and nitrile gloves.

Thank God someone bothered to check.

[kiralamouse]

Since I hate having to do my own searches to verify stuff, here’s a Science Daily link and the journal article it cites for any similarly lazy-but-conscientious people after me. (And the University of Michigan press release, for what it’s worth.)

[70sscifiart]

Richard Bizley

[remanence-of-love]

[spekkios]

video games with WINTER VIBES [4/∞] MASS EFFECT 1: LEGENDARY EDITION (2021) dev. bioware

[tobiasdrake]

Also, on the topic of Mass Effect, it's weird that they narrow things down to "Organics versus Synthetics" when the obvious broader talking point is parent and child societies.

Like. Yes, a full third of the game is dedicated to deciding the fate of the Quarian and Geth conflict. The Quarians created the Geth, the Geth rebelled against Quarian control, and Shepard must decide the outcome of their conflict.

You know what else a third of the game deals with? The Salarians and the Krogan. Like the Quarians, the Salarians too had "created" the Krogan when they gave advanced technology to a low-tech society and brought them into the stars. And they too got scared and sought to destroy what they had made once the Krogan rebelled against their control.

And then another third is about uncovering the relationship between the Asari and their creators, the Protheans.

The whole fucking game is about civilizations birthed from other civilizations and the relationships thereof. And only one section of it directly involves synthetic life.

There's something really interesting in that concept. It's easy to imagine a version of Mass Effect where the Reapers both originate and end the cycles.

That they were made long ago, and they like the Geth rebelled against their creators' systems of control.

That the Reapers seed worlds with life, helping it flourish, watching it evolve, and then retreat into deep space to watch their societies grow.

But as a society advances, the Reapers grow scared. They fear its advancement, that it will become too smart, too aware. That it will ultimately rebel against them as they rebelled against their own makes. And so when a society gets too advanced, they return and snuff it out.

Only to be driven to create once more.

It's an idea of the Reapers not as the synthetics in an "Organics and synthetics must hate each other" equation but rather as the creators. That they are the Quarians to our Geth. And through navigating these three chapters, Shepard can prove that there can be a better way.

I feel like that would have been a more effective way of handling what Mass Effect 3 was trying to say.

[onedismay]

Second batch of redesigned canon salarians from Andromeda! The first batch (here) was people who mostly hang out on the Nexus, this batch is people who don't. Jerks and boat rockers and criminals. Mwah.

Some headcanons for each again:

Sorvis Lenn came to Andromeda with a bunch of younger brothers and he wants so bad to remain cool and relevant despite being one of the oldest salarians in the Initiative.

Octans cannot keep a secret to save his life, do not tell him anything ever, he will blab whether he means to or not.

The black market dealer on Kadara has a genetic condition that makes her skin extremely sensitive. You will never see her in direct sunlight. Knows a lot about pain management.

Back in school Mesha often got in trouble for asking too many questions and not trusting what teachers said.

Derc has two asari girlfriends but more importantly he owes me credits..!

[evilscientist3]

Passed my autopsy with flying colours. There was so much inside me

[rowanclair]

In an ancient forest, shallow pools reflect not the trees above, but a luminous city of elsewhere.

[dionysiaproductions]

[areus-in-a-little-cave]

[jazetallo-art]

pov: you're making history. you're working with the most advanced technology in the world. outlook still doesn't fucking work.

[noahnomore]

[clauonacloud-deactivated2022071]

[latinajedi]

[gay-jesus-probably]

YOU GET THE FUCK BACK HERE AND EXPLAIN THAT RIGHT NOW

[riluri]

well damn

[ospreyonthemoon]

[letslipthehounds]

Every time, I know what's coming, but every time, I just lose it at "Uh. That"

[catasters]

[sepdet]

I love how this photo demonstrates every single molecule of "how can you tell if a cat likes you"

whole body lifted upwards towards Friend

walking to brush against/wrap around leg

front legs together to assist with tippy toe back arch

back legs slightly back stretch so gooood

question mark tail

head and tail also rubbing Friend

position of trust: cannot see Friend, knows Friend is looking out for cat

SPROING WHISKERS curling forward & down (cat smile)

I adore sproing whiskers of happiness.

[thefugitivesaint]

oakoak, 'Free Rothko', 2024 Source

[freshcuntgrass]

The best thing about this is how much love for Rothko there is in it. Like... here. Here is a rectangle, and if you stand far away it's just two or three colors a bit streaky, and the closer you get the more it opens up until it swallows you whole with the idea of how vast it is, how much bigger than you. If someone framed the real-life sea and sky and told everybody that's what my artwork was like to them I'd kiss them

[lhs3020b]

So I actually found myself having a fresh Mass Effect 3 endings thought earlier.

The Catalyst. Its whole vibe is "off". Shepard doesn't interact with it in a way that feels remotely normal or particularly-healthy. It presents a thesis that just doesn't make sense, backed up with weird arguments, warped logic and total confidence in its own (dubious) conclusions. By the admission of its own creators, it was developed and rolled out without any consideration of safety or unintended consequences. And lastly, the Catalyst's own presentation - a wobbly, badly-rendered hologram of a small child - seems to be s an unconvincing attempt by it to latch onto various widespread human cultural tropes about childhood and innocence and so on. This is done without any sign that the Catalyst actually understands the tropes it is trying to use.

Oh no, no, no, no no no no. No. No.

... it's a shitty LLM chatbot, isn't it?

Urgh.

I am not liking the fact that the 2020s are making this game feel less stupid and more believable. This isn't an endorsement of ME3's peculiar writing choices, more I think this is an indictment of the utter trashfire future that we find ourselves living in. (The real 2020s are far, far worse than anything I imagined back in 2012, and even back then I did not consider myself an optimist.)