Introducing my new Mass Effect chapter fic, Alternative Plans!
It is a Shepard/Garrus story that begins just after Arrival, dealing with the fallout of what happened on Aratoht. Shepard is resigned to turning herself in to the Alliance, but Garrus is not. At all. And in this case, all roads lead to Palaven. If I had to guess, I would imagine it will be at least 20 chapters, maybe 30. I currently have 7 written. Details below:
Alternative Plans
Chapter 1: Deliberation
Summary: Commander Shepard has been ordered to turn herself in to the Alliance after the disaster on Aratoht. Garrus refuses to let her go. He has a plan that he's sure will work... if he can get his father on board.
Introducing my new Mass Effect chapter fic, Alternative Plans!
It is a Shepard/Garrus story that begins just after Arrival, dealing with the fallout of what happened on Aratoht. Shepard is resigned to turning herself in to the Alliance, but Garrus is not. At all. And in this case, all roads lead to Palaven. If I had to guess, I would imagine it will be at least 20 chapters, maybe 30. I currently have 7 written. Details below:
Alternative Plans
Chapter 1: Deliberation
Summary: Commander Shepard has been ordered to turn herself in to the Alliance after the disaster on Aratoht. Garrus refuses to let her go. He has a plan that he's sure will work... if he can get his father on board.
So there's this trope I really like, where an enemy turns out not to be an enemy at all, just kind of an asshole.
I dearly wish Mass Effect 3 had taken this route with Udina, and maybe even with The Illusive Man (whom I apparently call "Tim" so easily that it accidentally slipped out in conversation about the game the other night).
I like to use it myself. Udina is of course one of my favorites, and Anora (Dragon Age) is another. I wonder how many times I can use this before it gets old??
Because I'm working on stuff. Mass Effect fans, have you ever wanted to go to Palaven? Here's an extract below, from my WIP Alternative Plans.
Shepard spent most of the ride staring out the windows at the foreign landscape. It was strange, but beautiful. The ground seemed to glitter—one of Palaven’s exports, she recalled, was mica. Between the sand and the sea at the edge of the city, the entire land seemed to reflect back towards Palaven’s strong sun. It almost glowed in the afternoon light.
Where narrow streams passed through, she saw masses of green plants, yet even these seemed more silvery than those on Earth. There were hills covered in dark shrubs, glittering valleys, and as they traveled, those little clumps of green became more frequent. There were low buildings sometimes, other homes, Garrus told her, built in the old style. They were stone, with thick roofs and deep overhangs, so that direct light never touched the windows.
Eventually, they passed over the remnants of an old stone wall.
“That’s the border of the estate,” Garrus told her. She peered out the window.
“I don’t see the house,” she said.
Garrus made a little murmuring noise, but didn’t really answer.
Some two or three minutes passed before she caught sight of it. It was low to the ground, like the other homes they’d seen, but sprawling, with wings stretching out in all directions around a circular hub with a large courtyard in the center. There, Shepard saw the most green she had since arriving on Palaven.
She grasped Garrus’s arm. “You didn’t prepare me for this,” she murmured. He’d said the family estate was big, but…
Garrus grimaced. “I think… he probably wants to intimidate you into good behavior.”
Shepard’s hand tightened on his arm. She didn’t know if she was intimidated or just insulted. Had Castis used his knowledge of her humble origins to his advantage? Is this why she was meeting him at this… palace instead of the nice family flat in Cipritine that Garrus had grown up in?
“Tell me,” she said quietly, “How many family members do you think he’s assembled to examine me?”
He winced. “There could easily be twenty or more, just here for the summer. More, if he’s asked them to come.”
Shepard took a deep, calming breath, not sure if it was panic or anger she was fighting back. But there was one thing she knew: No way in hell was she going to embarrass herself in front of Garrus’s family.
Out of control Edwardian youths refuse to clap at production of Peter Pan, force distraught J.M Barrie to pull out rarely seen "Tinkerbell Fucking Dies" ending
You probably know this but shitpost ruining fun fact for anybody who doesn’t:
When the play first was performed, JM Barrie et al were so concerned this might happen that they instructed the orchestra to drop their instruments and clap at this point, just in case
Children not clapping did happen too, (and some were even expected to have hissed, which was later written into the 1928 playscript and 1911 novel). But my all time favourite anecdote about it is from Pauline Chase (who played Peter)'s intro to Peter Pan's Post Bag 1909:
Children love to clap their hands at the play because then they feel that they are really part of it, and you can see them holding their hands poised ready to seize an opportunity. Their great chance is when I ask them to clap their hands if they believe in fairies, and so save Tink's life. But they are very wrathful if any one claps who has the reputation of being a cynic, and once there was quite an uproar in the front row of the dress circle because of a girl who clapped. Those about her pulled down her arms angrily. "How dare you clap," they cried, "when you know you don't believe in fairies!"
There was one dreadfully hard-hearted little boy who came to the theatre not to clap. That was his object for coming, and he came round "behind" to tell me so in the middle of the play. His teeth were firm set. "I won't clap," he said doggedly; "I'm not going to clap." And when the time came he didn't clap; above the clapping of all the others I could hear him shouting from a box, "Peter, I'm not clapping."
I am a certified hater of audience participation but let me tell you, it is almost impossible not to clap during this scene. Even as a full grown adult.
I just finished Lucid bad Riley’s The Seven Sisters and I am obsessed!!
And there are more books! It was the beginning of a series!! Except the library tells me it will take 8 weeks for me to get the next one. 😩 There’s history, there’s romance, there’s everything! I can’t wait to start the next one.
the best fanfiction you've ever read was written by a woman in her 40s before she made dinner for her kids. it was written by a teenager after school when they should've been studying for a history test. and a barista came up with the idea while they cleaned the espresso machine and busser fact-checked it on their break and the post-doc edited between writing grant proposals and the nurse apologized for typos in the notes after a long shift and behind every drabble and one-shot and multi-chapter fic there is a person with a wonderful and interesting and chaotic life and it is such a privilege that we get to be a part of it because they decided to do this thing we all share, for fun.
I'm sure all fanfiction writers heads are full of these. Just little things, like how Palaven flowers mostly bloom at night, or that chocolate is one of Earth's most popular exports (asari love it).
i do unironically think the best artists of our generation are posting to get 20 notes and 3 reblogs btw. that fanfic with like 45 kudos is some of the best stuff ever written. those OCs you carry around have some of the richest backstories and worldbuilding someone has ever seen. please do not think that reaching only a few people when you post means your art isn't worth celebrating.
For the uninitiated, I have a Dragon Age Origins story called One Night in Denerim. Alistair and Elissa Cousland meet shortly before the blight and spend one night together in the Gnawed Noble Tavern. From this I created 3 different series where events transpire differently after that night.
One Night Divergence: First Path (They meet again in Ostagar, as Grey Wardens together.)
One Night Divergence: Second Path (They meet again in Lothering and there were consequences of their one night together.)
One Night Divergence: Third Path (They meet again in the dungeons of the Arl of Denerim's estate.)
I just posted the latest installment in One Night Divergence: Second Path, featuring the events of the Landsmeet. See below for details.
One Return to Denerim
Summary: Alistair, Elissa, and Aedan arrive in Denerim for the Landsmeet where Alistair must face his fears and Elissa waits to learn if her child will one day be king or have no home at all.
Pairings: Alistair/Female Cousland
Characters: Alistair, Female Cousland, Male Cousland, Anora Mac Tir
Writing notes and thoughts: So once again I write the Landsmeet and am driven crazy by how little some of it makes sense. Why does Loghain just decide they're going to fight because he lost? And everyone just accepts it?? Fereldans just want to watch a fight or what??
