I LOVE THE MASS EFFECT ANIMORPHS CROSSOVER TALK ABOUT IT MORE
Sorry for not replying for so long!!! I had to organize all my thought about this because I HAVE A LOT OF THEM.
So, on top of most of the things I’ve written about already, which are mostly world building, I’ve thought a lot about what might differ from the three games. So, here we go:
Commander Shepard. Still N7, still war hero and ultimate badass. Difference? Shepard’s a controller.
Their Yeerk is Dran Lissan, an engineer and expert hacker (there was a huge shift in Yeerk culture after the war over. One of them being them dropping the numbers thing, as the dissolution of the Yeerk council undermined a lot of the traditional hierarchical bullshit that kept all but the most useful to the war effort without host bodies. A high rank yeerk will still be called “Visser” as a sign of respect though). In the Alliance, yeerks and soldiers are sometimes paired together to create a soldier with an extreme amount of skill, all in one package who can switch control of the Soldier’s body depending on who’s skills are needed (I’m actually fiddling around with the idea that that’s what the N7 program actually is, training with a yeerk as a controller). Lissan and Shepard at the start of the game are already legendary for having such excellent chemistry and having completed training faster than anyone before. They are practically unstoppable together.
I also really wanted an Andalite squad mate, which is kinda what triggered this whole AU in the first place. Now I can’t decide if I should make an already existing squad mate an andalite or not (If I do, I’m leaning towards Kaidan), but I figure since the Alliance in this AU is made up of Humans, Yeerks, Taxxons, Andalites, and Hork Bajir, there’s probably a couple of each. Except not really Hork Bajir… they mostly keep to themselves, except for Seers who tend to become diplomats or Government Reps. (You don’t really see them in the military, except as morphs sometimes)
For example, Chakwas is also a controller. She’s a Doctor, who’s yeerk also has their MD, and together they have medical knowledge on pretty much every Alliance and Council species. Pressley’s definitely an Andalite; still has a bit of that Andalite superiority complex when it comes to other species.
Joker’s still got OI, and is even more bitter about it because Andalites are still pretty ableist and will give him shit, and on top of that he’s also not able to morph for very long so he can’t hide his handicap(I mentioned before in this AU that most of the kinks of morphing have been worked out, but I’m thinking now that everyone has different time limits on morphing, and you can train yourself to go past two hours if you’re capable).
There is one Taxxon Estreen on board that is an OC, who can morph for very long amounts of time, that you can read about here, mostly because I wanted to explore what that could entail. And there’d be more andalites peppered in with the rest of the crew.
The events of Mass Effect 1 are pretty much the same. Shepard and pals fight Saren, Someone dies on Virmire, and they try to subvert the distrust of the council (Council species don’t trust Alliance species and vice versa, the first contact war went on a lot longer than in canon). In the end they all save the day, hurray, hurrah!
Then The Collectors attack the Normandy. Shepard dies, everyone’s super upset and split apart. Cerberus is still a Pro-Human organization, except that makes all the difference here. They’re prejudiced against other Alliance species as well. So they bring Shep back, but not Lissan. Which fucks Shepard up, because there are still pieces of Lissan in their brain, and on top of PTSD from their death, they also get flashes of Lissan’s memories and thoughts and fears and quirks.
Mass Effect 2 goes on pretty much the same as well. Kelly’s a human who morphs Andalite to get a better read on her patients minds with thought speak (she’s scary good at it), as well as to get Shepard to trust Cerberus (“See? We don’t hate aliens that much”), and there’s a huge shit storm when Shep finds out she’s actually a human who’s been lying the whole time under TIM’s orders. There’s also a huge fight with Miranda, when she tells Shepard about the fact she wanted to put a control chip in them, and when Shepard objects, she says “how is it any different than that slug in your brain”? She later apologizes when she betrays Cerberus. Zaeed is a rare Hork Bajir seer who was bored as hell with his colony, and left at a young age and became a Mercenary. Kasumi is an estreen, which comes in handy for thievery. Everyone else is pretty much the same, except Grunt secretly really looks up to Zaeed because he thinks he’s so cool (Zaeed is kind of this Krogan masculine ideal by shunning his peace-loving people and becoming this terrifying eight foot tall dinosaur killing-machine, and Grunt is still insecure about his place in Krogan society).
Second game ends. Third game is again, very similar. Reapers arrive, aaahhhh ohh nooooo. Shepard still has PTSD as fuck, but the alliance needs them at the helm. And a weird thing starts to happen where Shepard will kind of start to lose it in the middle of a battle, but they come out of scrapes okay anyway. Shep also start to have some wild dreams involving their dead yeerk (the little boy never happens). It turns out that Lissan’s bits in Shep’s head are starting to regenerate a bit and merge with their brain. Never to the point where Lissan’s actually alive or an individual being, but to Shepard it feels a little like they have a guardian angel watching over them (If Ashley’s alive they have a discussion about it). Everyone’s the same except for Vega who is a scary-buff Andalite, but still has the same personality and backstory. His interest in the N7 program is especially poignant, since Andalites and Yeerks still have a pretty big aversion to one another.
AND THAT’S ALL I’VE GOT RIGHT NOW? I have seriously thought about this too much. I wish I could write fic and give this a proper place to be, hahah.
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