soren or ierian / 29 / they or he / ao3 tevos stans i have nothing for you here icon by trekkiemage! art & writing at lieutenantabrudas me:a at avitusxmacen everything else at notsogreathornedowl
... because at this point I have enough running projects I should probably make a proper list instead of just the one post for ExDiff, huh?
Hiiiii!! It's-a me, NoisyNoiverns, your friendly neighborhood niche Mass Effect author, most famous as "that one dude who built the entire Desolas/Abrudas tag from the ground up" and the turian councilor's defense attorney who made up an OC for his wife and... also the entire clan, and then accidentally convinced some people she's canon, oops? I've got multiple longfics and series going now, so I figured I should put together a proper list, lol.
Current Longfics
In the Land of Giants: Fic 3 of 10 in Exponential Differentiation, "ItLoG" for short. With Hislop dead and Terra Nova safe, Shepard and Nihlus continue the hunt for Cerberus. A friend's disappearance and a clue from a mysterious message both point them towards Omega, where they encounter a surprising new ally... who seems to know more than she's letting on. [AO3]
The Weight of Memory: Companion novella to ItLoG. While Shepard and Nihlus gallivant off to Terminus, Saren returns home to Palaven to rest, recover, and get used to his new leg as he adjusts to retirement. But the galaxy isn't done with the Arterius clan, and their problems are getting too big to hide from... [AO3]
Make Less the Depth of Grief: After the fall of the Destiny Ascension in the Battle of the Citadel, the galaxy is in shambles, and the hunt is on for Alexander Shepard. In order to find him, Ashley Williams consents to be interviewed about her time on the Normandy. But the more she talks, the less sure of her answers she feels... [AO3]
In Retrograde: When a rescue mission goes horribly awry, turian soldier Axilus Madelivio and quarian Pilgrim Thie'Haasn nar Olyna are thrown together, their fates inexorably intertwined by the biotic explosion Thie set off to save their lives. Now Axilus's latent biotics have been activated, and Thie's Pilgrimage has been thrown wildly off track. In order to escape Axilus's impending transfer to the Cabals and earn Thie's place in quarian society, the two of them are going to have to work together - for better or for worse. [AO3]
Sentiment and Reason: Fic 2 of the Dead Parents Club Murder Mysteries. A visit to an old friend of the Arterius brothers goes awry when the friend in question is found dead in his own home, and Special Tactics are asked to investigate. The problem? Saren is too recognizable, and the late general's neighbors aren't talking. It's up to Avitus Rix and Macen Barro, posing as newlyweds, to infiltrate the neighborhood and find the killer - while coming to terms with their own old rivalry and new feelings. [AO3]
Overarching Series
Exponential Differentiation: No-Reapers AU, DMAB nonbinary Shepard. "ExDiff" for short. After a mysterious all-human team attack Eden Prime and destroy the Prothean beacon found there, Shepard sets out on a grand adventure to hunt them down - and gets in so much deeper than they ever thought possible, uncovering a massive terrorist organization and facing impending war with the Hegemony. Nihlus and Saren join the crew, as well as several OCs including additional Normandy crew, new Spectres, and the batarian Resistance. Also a lot of worldbuilding for alien cultures, especially turians and batarians. Primary ships are Kryterius, Desabrudas, Garrus/OC, and Shepard/Jack.
Series on AO3
Detailed masterpost
Completed: Broken Mirror [x], Blood in the Water [x], Where the Wind Rests [x]
Currently In Progress: In the Land of Giants [x], The Weight of Memory [x]
Upcoming: Belly of the Beast, Straight On Til Morning, Towards Peace, The Distance Between Us, A Most Dangerous Game, Entwined, Jack Harper Must Die, Once and For All
Uneasy Lies the Head: Also referred to as "Bad End" for short. Canon divergent, male Shepard, past mShenko. The Destiny Ascension was left to die, and now the rest of the galaxy is paying the price. While Shepard is hunted down for high treason and terrorism, everyone else has to pick up the pieces he left behind and try to move on. The Normandy crew and the Alliance are insisting it was a necessary sacrifice, but was it really? Examines the consequences of Shepard's actions, both for himself and for the galaxy at large.
Series on AO3
Currently In Progress: Make Less the Depth of Grief [x]
Upcoming: Come What Come May, But a Walking Shadow, A Necessary End
Dead Parents Club Murder Mysteries: Exactly what it says on the tin. Series of mission fics featuring Saren, Nihlus, and Avitus, with occasional guest Macen, and other friends such as primarchs, Councilor Sparatus and his wife Aediteia, and various canon characters loosely associated with the trio (say hi, Benezia and Hannah!). Main pairings are Kryterius and Barrix. No-Reapers AU for ease of timeline sorting and not having to factor in indoctrination or Andromeda, because I don't want to.
Series on AO3
Completed: To Catch a Rabbit [x]
Currently In Progress: Sentiment and Reason [x]
Upcoming: Through the Bars, An Immodest Silence, The Greatest Vulnerability, The Test
Celestial Interference: OC-centric series following Axilus Madelivio and Thie'Haasn nar Olyna as their lives are thrown wildly off-course and inexorably twined together. Mostly against their wills. Axilus wanted to be a historian, dammit. Co-written with xMidnightSun. Rewrite of the "Rise & Reign" series, ten years of writing skill improvement and so much character development later.
i hate it when i can tell my perception of a character is diminishing in real time because of fandom wank. like nooooo i want to maintain an objective relationship with the text but everyone is so annoying about you nooooo
one of the best parts of making up increasingly wild and specific aus with a friend is sending them posts like "this is sooo blorbo in torture chamber au number 15" and they reply back like "YESSS btw have i told you about my latest idea for how to torture them even more" and you get to enjoy a little snack and kick your feet with glee
TEN FAVORITE MASS EFFECT CHARACTERS | #5 Tali'Zorah vas Normandy
→ “You want to know what it is? You wanna know? It’s a pretty bird made of rainbows. It is flying out of the eye hole of a skull being held in the mouth of a thresher maw with a naked woman holding a sword on its back.“
I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with relating to characters, “they’re literally me” etc but if that’s the only way you engage with stories you’re kinda missing the whole point of Characters being vehicles through which we can see perspectives outside of our own. and also you’re going to get upset when the Character acts in a way that is not Personally Relatable to You
I get in theory why people complain about het ships or whatever, I get wanting to watch queer media I really do, but I guess where y’all lose me is like. I saw some asshole on a post about Sinners complaining it was “hetslop”—this person was specifically doing so while also claiming Remmick was a queer character and thus they were justified in caring more about him than the Black protagonists. which is a whole other disgusting can of worms that has been well addressed by others at this point. but even in the absence of that part of the argument, like, no, i actually don’t think that a hunger for queer stories is an especially good excuse to deride and dismiss a piece of landmark Black filmmaking, especially as a non-Black person. I have a post that’s been going around encouraging folks to engage with more Native stories and characters, and I had someone come onto that post saying in the tags that they’d need these stories to be queer in order to care. and I just think that, you know, sucks! like obviously as a queer Native I also want to see more of those stories too. but idk how else to put it other than to say that Black people and people of color shouldn’t have to be like you in order for you to care about our narratives and experiences. and I think some of y’all are using this disdain for heterosexuality as a cover for your unexamined racial biases. it’s not okay to be racist to people just because those people happen to be straight, and you continue to be white before you are queer.
on an even more basic level than that, also, I simply just think some of y’all NEED to learn how to interact with media and storytelling without ships and fandom in mind. like if not being able to write fic about two men kissing is genuinely going to be a dealbreaker for you I think that’s actually something you need to work on within yourself because at that point I think you’re no longer really interacting with art and themes and narrative so much as just kind of playing with toys. which is, like, fine I guess. have fun. but it wouldn’t kill you to disengage from that from time to time. especially if would allow you to actually appreciate rich and deeply moving cultural stories from communities of color that you desperately need to learn how to see as human
i'd make a joke about "let the HUSBAND giggle under the covers and tell HIS WIFE to put that camera away before dying before HIS WIFE'S story starts" but lets be real he'd still get more fanart
The best thing about tumblr is you can just make a criticism of a very specific person completely unprompted and then that person will appear as if summoned in your notes to prove your point for you.
big fan of characters who have it all under control when theyre put in situations but no idea how to be like a regular guy doing regular stuff when all is said and done.
the fact that samara canonically tells you that once her code tells her to hunt someone down and kill them she'll deliberately avoid learning literally anything else about the target or the situation so she won't learn anything that might redeem them or cause gray morality so she doesn't have to worry about a complex situation is insane. fuck are you talking about. that's not justice. that's not very honest or honorable or respectful of your target. what the fuck. you've heard of a code of honor and a code of chivalry now get ready for: code of lalalala i can't hear you
