[shantamata]

Ray Ban glasses wish you all a Happy New year! The price of a time-limited event is only $24.99.

[uakarian]

GET TO KNOW ME MEME: favourite male character [1/5]  ➝ garrus vakarian

❝may you be in heaven half an hour before the devil knows you’re dead.❞  

[elliotsdad]

[emmettlathropbrown]

garrus vakarian, pre-scarring & post-scarring.

[darkcouncilelite-deactivated202]

[weirdotyler]

[lavenderlanguage]

I haven’t seen many people talk about this, so I wanted to mention that the fluent forever youtube channel is great if you want to improve your pronunciation. He has pronunciation guides for Italian, Korean, Mandarin, Cantonese, Hebrew, French, Dutch, Spanish (European and Latin American), Cantonese, English, Russian, German, Hungarian, Portuguese, and Japanese. I find it really helpful as he breaks down each individual sound in the language, what your tongue position should be, and gets a native speaker to give an example. Just thought it would be helpful to some people :)

[talktothemabari-deactivated2019]

it’s kaidan who goes first, long before any of them are ready, dead the moment his feet touch the dirt of virmire. garrus goes numb and tali sobs and ashley wakes up from nightmares, choking, for weeks afterward. liara watches shepard break and can’t provide any comfort because what comfort is there when he was so gentle and so kind and so good? even wrex, battle-weary and grizzled with his own trail of ghosts behind him, is shocked. 

it changes them. of course it does. after kaidan, there is a realization that they, the crew of the first normandy, will be knit together permanently in ways they can barely comprehend. shepard moves them relentlessly from mission to mission and slowly, they heal. hesitantly, ashley begins to open up to garrus and finds they have far more in common than she ever thought. tali and liara spend hours together, learning and laughing and loving each other like sisters. wrex dotes on them all. 

they face the reapers and saren together, shepard’s steady hand leading them into battle. the citadel is heavily scarred, but not destroyed and the council’s thanks are sincere. they depart as heroes and it feels a little strange, doesn’t it? tali asks the question and ashley puts an arm around her and quips that she hopes heroes still get shore leave. shepard cracks a smile at that and right then, it’s so easy to believe that they can conquer anything, liara thinks, as she leans her head on garrus’ shoulder. 

then shepard dies. 

it’s almost comical how quickly they split after that. or it would be, if the sorrow wasn’t quite so drowning. wrex and tali return to their people, wrex, to lead, and tali, to rise. garrus, colder, angrier, tries to make the galaxy a better place but cannot stop wondering if he’s making it worse. ashley throws herself into the alliance and pushes herself until the grief is only a dull ache in her ears. but no matter how liara tries, she cannot move on. she and feron find shepard’s mangled body and suddenly, she cannot speak when she turns it- her over to cerberus, shepard’s accusing eyes swimming in front of her. shepard was always so exhausted, liara remembers, and guilt and regret and worry reach out with grasping fingers to strangle her. but the smallest flicker of hope continues to burn in her stomach and as she turns away, she wonders what the others would have done. 

perhaps it’s fate that liara doesn’t join shepard after she wakes. but then, neither does wrex and neither does ashley. wrex is swept up with the inevitable infighting of the krogan and the bitter taste of cerberus in ashley’s mouth can’t be washed out, no matter how shepard tries. garrus and tali, however, inexplicably, irresistibly, find themselves pulled back to shepard’s side. the crew is new and interesting and the second normandy is awe-inspiring, truly, but tali sleeps fitfully. they’ve changed something with the engine, she thinks. it just doesn’t sound quite the same anymore. 

it’s a suicide mission all along really, chasing collectors and the truth about the reapers. shepard frays ties with cerberus then finally cuts them once and for all, her fierce eyes boring into the illusive man until he vanishes from miranda’s omni-tool, moments before the collector base is blown to hell. there is barely any time to regroup before shepard is arrested and once again, the crew of the normandy splinters off. they weren’t as close this time, too many people with too many scars for them all to get along comfortably. 

but there is no time to dwell. the war against the reapers consumes the whole galaxy. ashley is the first to rejoin shepard but her brutal injuries from dr. eva incapacitate her indeterminately and she is forced to rest in the hospital. 

suddenly, in the midst of the chaos and desperation, liara finds a miracle. the crucible. shepard’s eyes gleam when she sees the blueprints and liara knows what she’s thinking. a fighting chance. 

when shepard extends her hand, liara takes it without hesitation. if she closes her eyes, it could be the normandy sr-1 underneath her feet, pulsing with new adventures. but she remembers suddenly one day, when she calls kaidan’s name excitedly to come look at what she has found, that the old normandy is rubble and dust amongst the stars and what matters is the here and now. 

garrus joins shepard in an instant on menae but palaven burns behind him and the fire is a reminder of what he is losing every second he is away. tali, likewise, worries about her people as they crumble and lose ground in their war against both the reapers and the geth. but they both come on board and the normandy feels a little more like home. 

when wrex steps onto the normandy, though his eyes remain grim, he bursts into a hearty laugh upon seeing garrus and tali and liara and its just like old times. they fight together on tuchanka and as the genophage cure comes swirling down around them, the future after defeating the reapers seems limitless. wrex stays on tuchanka but sentimentally, he touches the side of the normandy and shepard puts a hand on his shoulder. they’ve all gotten so old.

just when it seems that the breakneck pace of war is slowing, the citadel comes under attack from within. they race from floor to floor, trying to stop cerberus from taking complete control, and suddenly, ashley’s gun is pointed at shepard. 

“drop the gun. now.”

tali hesitates and out of the corner of her eye, she sees garrus’ hand tremble on the trigger. she looks at ashley and her hand is trembling too, and if shepard asks tali to fire, she doesn’t know if she can-

ash, it’s me. it’s us.

there’s a split second of tension before ashley exhales and points her gun at udina. the coup is quickly taken care of after that and ashley boards the normandy after shepard accepts her offer. her trepidation is broken by garrus’ teasing and liara’s hug. it’s too raw yet to talk about and they understand. 

the galaxy moves on. thessia falls. there is peace between the quarians and the geth but at the cost of legion. the crew grieve as one, for all the losses they have suffered. the reapers continue to tear apart the milky way and when shepard finally receives the news that the crucible is ready, she glances up and finds garrus’ eyes watching her. she nods and he knows. 

it’s time. 

shepard takes the fight to earth with the fury of a thousand bolts of lightning. just before the final charge, she gathers them all together, they who have come the farthest and survived every hell that has ever been thrown at them. they will survive this, shepard vows, and there is something indescribable in her gaze.

the crucible starts firing with incredible speed, bursts of green shooting into space like emerald flames. joker’s hands fly across the normandy controls and shepard’s voice pounds through all of their heads as they flee the growing energy blast.

we will survive this. we will survive this. we will survive this.

and miraculously, they do but shepard is lost, permanently this time. there is an outpouring of grief and a massive, grand funeral and the name shepard becomes revered across the galaxy. the name shepard will mean hero, wrex told the commander once, and he was right. 

the normandy’s repairs are finished on earth. there was talk of grounding the normandy permanently, keeping it as a memorial, but the normandy was meant to be among the stars and as long as joker is able to fly, it will be. liara, garrus, tali, and ashley are watching the last of the newly recruited and awestruck crew board the normandy when joker turns and grins.

“there’s still plenty of room,” he quips, “anyone else coming aboard?”

tali, unmasked, smiles wistfully. 

“she’s all yours,” ashley calls back to him. joker nods and gives a final wave. then the engines roar and the finest vessel in the alliance fleet takes to the sky once more. for a while, the four of them remain there, staring after old memories. 

then the moment ends. there is an unspoken agreement that of course, this is not their final goodbye. the crew of the first normandy parts ways, each to their own adventures, with shepard’s voice whispering in their ears, as if she were right there beside them.

liara is the best at keeping in touch, what with all of her shadow broker connections and intel. despite her hectic and often times mysterious schedule, she never misses a single birthday, whether it’s of garrus and tali’s adopted daughters or ashley’s son or wrex and eve’s boisterous bunch. and so, when wrex passes away peacefully in his sleep on tuchanka surrounded by his children, she is the first to know. his funeral comes close to shepard’s record-breaking attendance numbers, a testament to how well-loved wrex was to his people and how respected he was across the galaxy. ashley, liara, tali, and garrus come together and watch eve deliver a powerful eulogy that thunders through tuchanka’s wastes. when she finishes, there isn’t a dry eye amongst the gathered. afterward, there is no aggressive clamor to decide the next leader of the krogan for the decision had been made decades ago. eve wishes the crew of the first normandy safe travels as they depart and prepares to usher in a new golden age for the krogan.

on the ride back, every story sparks another, about wrex, about shepard, about all of them. in the contented silence between two stories, tali looks up with bright eyes and a soft, curved smile and asks if it was only yesterday they were all together on the normandy sr-1. and if the silver streaks in ashley’s hair hadn’t suddenly caught the light and the scars on garrus’ weathered face hadn’t been so pronounced just then, liara would have said yes.

there are only a few more decades of peace left before tali goes to join shepard  and kaidan and wrex. garrus was by her side and liara was at the door when she passed away. the most beautiful soul among them died, able to breathe the air of a future she never could have imagined, and for that, they are all grateful. but it doesn’t stop garrus from breaking. he was frail already, his years and his battles catching up with him at last, and he couldn’t go on without her. a few days later, he follows tali, clasping liara’s hand until the very end. 

“there they are,” he whispers suddenly and liara turns her head because there’s a flash of something in his eyes, as if he can see them and she wants so desperately for it to be true. when she turns back, he is gone. 

ashley, light-years away, stumbles, and gasps at the sudden, unexplainable pain in her chest. 

“ma’am? are you alright?”

“fine, soldier. carry on.”

after the young nurse hastily strides away, ashley sits down for a long, long while, staring at nothing. she is forgetting more and more often, that the bustling hospital is not the barracks of the alliance and that each nurse who hurries by is not a fresh-faced soldier. or maybe, she is just forgetting, as she always is now. strange that with all of the advancements they’ve made, they cannot help her remember. perhaps it’s simply too much. but this pain is real, and she understands with piercing accuracy even before liara comes to tell her. neither of them say what they are thinking, that they are the last ones left and always knew they would be. 

ashley holds on another five years. she always was stubborn. she was worsening rapidly, but she still sat bolt upright when liara arrived. they sit together, and liara can feel her steadily slipping away. 

“what was her name, again? i know it…” she murmurs, eyes half-closed.

“shepard,” liara reminds her softly.

“that’s right. shepard,” ashley nods, pleased. “shepard.”

she is at peace when she goes. liara exhales, then closes ashley’s eyes. she is alone now. 

it will be centuries before liara sees them again. she throws herself into work and lives eight more lifetimes before her bones begin to ache and when they do, she welcomes it gladly. friends and family surround her but just past them, she swears she can see something, a flash of an n7 patch, a hint of red armor, a faint spot of gold and lilac swirls. she sees them.

liara! it’s been so long. 

we are waiting for you.

“thank you,” liara whispers and takes kaidan’s hand.

and so they go on, as watchful stars over a brilliant galaxy. 

reunited, at last. 

                                    the crew of the normandy sr-1. 

[masseffecttranscribed]

It’s not a transcribe but this is too good not to go up.

[thievinghippo]

Visit Original Link

Here is all of Garrus’ ‘background chatter’ from the party in the Citadel DLC.  I tried to order them from sober to progressively drunker.  Cause Garrus is hammered by the end.  It’s fantastic.  

1 minute long.

[hugahalf-elf]

my phone autocorrects garrus vakarian to harris canadian just so you all know

[dusterluster]

THIS IS SO IMPORTANT OKAY

[patrickdiomedes]

#it is 100% the name of his human persona he affects to make fun of normandy crewmates#garrus: i’m harris canadian and i –#kaidan: garRUS stop it#garrus: and i just love drinking coffee and talking about having hair and asking intrusive questions to aliens#garrus: that’s what i call other species you know#garrus: aliens#garrus: even though most of the galaxy is made up of non-humans#garrus: want a donut or some other thing you can’t digest garrus?#garrus: wow harris i’d love one you are so nice and friendly i see why you got on the council so quickly (tags via @dusterluster)

oh my god I haven’t laughed this hard in a while

[anexperimentallife]

Garrus Enough

[thomasmxller]

jonas hector for ballon d’or 

[comeonblues]

[witchphie-deactivated20160119]

[comeonblues]

“Cesar Azpillvcnjsklh4…cu..eta ” {X}

[selenocysteine]

Tips to learn a new language

The 75 most common words make up 40% of occurrences The 200 most common words make up 50% of occurrences The 524 most common words make up 60% of occurrences The 1257 most common words make up 70% of occurrences The 2925 most common words make up 80% of occurrences The 7444 most common words make up 90% of occurrences The 13374 most common words make up 95% of occurrences The 25508 most common words make up 99% of occurrences

(Source: 5 Steps to Speak a New Language by Hung Quang Pham)

This article has an excellent summary on how to rapidly learn a new language within 90 days.

We can begin with studying the first 600 words. Of course chucking is an effective way to memorize words readily. Here’s a list to translate into the language you desire to learn that Derek Roger suggested! :)

EXPRESSIONS OF POLITENESS (about 50 expressions)      

‘Yes’ and 'no’: yes, no, absolutely, no way, exactly.    

Question words: when? where? how? how much? how many? why? what? who? which? whose?    

Apologizing: excuse me, sorry to interrupt, well now, I’m afraid so, I’m afraid not.    

Meeting and parting: good morning, good afternoon, good evening, hello, goodbye, cheers, see you later, pleased to meet you, nice to have met.    

Interjections: please, thank you, don’t mention it, sorry, it’ll be done, I agree, congratulations, thank heavens, nonsense.    

NOUNS (about 120 words)

Time: morning, afternoon, evening, night; Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday; spring, summer, autumn, winter; time, occasion, minute, half-hour, hour, day, week, month, year.    

People: family, relative, mother, father, son, daughter, sister, brother, husband, wife; colleague, friend, boyfriend, girlfriend; people, person, human being, man, woman, lady, gentleman, boy, girl, child.    

Objects: address, bag, book, car, clothes, key, letter (=to post), light (=lamp), money, name, newspaper, pen, pencil, picture, suitcase, thing, ticket.    

Places: place, world, country, town, street, road, school, shop, house, apartment, room, ground; Britain, name of the foreign country, British town-names, foreign town-names.    

Abstract: accident, beginning, change, color, damage, fun, half, help, joke, journey, language, English, name of the foreign language, letter (of alphabet), life, love, mistake, news, page, pain, part, question, reason, sort, surprise, way (=method), weather, work.    

Other: hand, foot, head, eye, mouth, voice; the left, the right; the top, the bottom, the side; air, water, sun, bread, food, paper, noise.    

PREPOSITIONS (about 40 words)    

General: of, to, at, for, from, in, on.    

Logical: about, according-to, except, like, against, with, without, by, despite, instead of.    

Space: into, out of, outside, towards, away from, behind, in front of, beside, next to, between, above, on top of, below, under, underneath, near to, a long way from, through.    

Time: after, ago, before, during, since, until.    

DETERMINERS (about 80 words)  

Articles and numbers: a, the; nos. 0–20; nos. 30–100; nos. 200–1000; last, next, 1st–12th.    

Demonstrative: this, that.    

Possessive: my, your, his, her, its, our, their.    

Quantifiers: all, some, no, any, many, much, more, less, a few, several, whole, a little, a lot of.    

Comparators: both, neither, each, every, other, another, same, different, such.    

ADJECTIVES (about 80 words)    

Color: black, blue, green, red, white, yellow.    

Evaluative: bad, good, terrible; important, urgent, necessary; possible, impossible; right, wrong, true.    

General: big, little, small, heavy; high, low; hot, cold, warm; easy, difficult; cheap, expensive; clean, dirty; beautiful, funny (=comical), funny (=odd), usual, common (=shared), nice, pretty, wonderful; boring, interesting, dangerous, safe; short, tall, long; new, old; calm, clear, dry; fast, slow; finished, free, full, light (=not dark), open, quiet, ready, strong.    

Personal: afraid, alone, angry, certain, cheerful, dead, famous, glad, happy, ill, kind, married, pleased, sorry, stupid, surprised, tired, well, worried, young.    

VERBS (about 100 words)    

arrive, ask, be, be able to, become, begin, believe, borrow, bring, buy, can, change, check, collect, come, continue, cry, do, drop, eat, fall, feel, find, finish, forget, give, going to, have, have to, hear, help, hold, hope, hurt (oneself), hurt (someone else), keep, know, laugh, learn, leave, lend, let (=allow), lie down, like, listen, live (=be alive), live (=reside), look (at), look for, lose, love, make, may (=permission), may (=possibility), mean, meet, must, need, obtain, open, ought to, pay, play, put, read, remember, say, see, sell, send, should, show, shut, sing, sleep, speak, stand, stay, stop, suggest, take, talk, teach, think, travel, try, understand, use, used to, wait for, walk, want, watch, will, work (=operate), work (=toil), worry, would, write.    

PRONOUNS (about 40 words)

Personal: I, you, he, she, it, we, they, one; myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves.    

Possessive: mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs.    

Demonstrative: this, that.    

Universal: everyone, everybody, everything, each, both, all, one, another.

Indefinite: someone, somebody, something, some, a few, a little, more, less; anyone, anybody, anything, any, either, much, many.    

Negative: no-one, nobody, nothing, none, neither.    

ADVERBS (about 60 words)

Place: here, there, above, over, below, in front, behind, nearby, a long way away, inside, outside, to the right, to the left, somewhere, anywhere, everywhere, nowhere, home, upstairs, downstairs.    

Time: now, soon, immediately, quickly, finally, again, once, for a long time, today, generally, sometimes, always, often, before, after, early, late, never, not yet, still, already, then (=at that time), then (=next), yesterday, tomorrow, tonight.    

Quantifiers: a little, about (=approximately), almost, at least, completely, very, enough, exactly, just, not, too much, more, less.    

Manner: also, especially, gradually, of course, only, otherwise, perhaps, probably, quite, so, then (=therefore), too (=also), unfortunately, very much, well.    

CONJUNCTIONS (about 30 words)

Coordinating: and, but, or; as, than, like.    

Time & Place: when, while, before, after, since (=time), until; where.    

Manner & Logic: how, why, because, since (=because), although, if; what, who, whom, whose, which, that.