Which squadmate would your Shep absolutely refuse to go grocery shopping with?
Oh, hello! ^^ Thank you for the ask. I do have a Shep, her tag is Nell Shepard. ^^
Hmm...I think Nell would probably say Grunt. He seems like the type who'd get distracted by the options and/or would want to get a lot of things that they don't need or have room for, if only out of curiosity. (And Nell has a hard time telling Grunt, and only Grunt, no. 😂) I could see Nell getting distracted by something, turning around, and finding Grunt has somehow acquired every single shark gummy in the store. That's the last time she takes him with her. >_>
Her second choice (to refuse) would be Zaeed, because it's a 50/50 chance whether it's going to be a fun grocery trip with a nice side of snarking about things, or if she's going to have to drag him out of the store after he mouthed off to a little old lady who got in the way of them buying eggs and it somehow devolved into the little old lady smacking him with her purse.
For Nell :D
Cheekbone, phalanges, metatarsals, please
(Bare Bones asks - status: accepting) - ^^ Thank!! ❤️ This was actually quite hard. 😂
-
- cheekbone: what makes them smile?
Too many things to list, tbh. She smiles very easily--at her friends, at her plants, at a job-well-done--but she also smiles as a warning, a threat, or a mask.
(She smiles particularly softly when Jack's head is in her lap and she can play with his hair, especially if it makes him doze off.)
- phalanges: what is their relationship with touch?
She loves touch! She's the kind of person who just kinda gravitates toward others and ends up leaning against them or resting a hand on them or putting an arm over their shoulder; constant subconcious desire for physical contact and closeness. It's like a way to bond/affirm emotional closeness? If she's telling you not to touch her, she's either in a very bad mood or someone (you, probably) is about to die.
(I think, in a way, her casualness about sex is also an extention of this? More contact = good? I need to think about that more.)
- metatarsals: if they could disappear for a day, where would they run?
Hmm...if she was also able to take equipment with her, she would run to Trident. She's always wanted to go, and to sail around without anything to pull her back. She'd be disappointed when the day ended, though.
If she couldn't take equipment with her, a botanic garden. Not one in particular, just a random one. She'd study every plant and make sketches until she was made to leave.
Because it’s one of my go to favs: Shatter Albion Series.
Is there any scene that you cut from the main story that you wish you could go back to add? (Or alternatively, tell us about a cut scene that you wish you could have included)
( meme ) -- Thank you! :D <3 And thank you for reading! <3 I'm so glad you like the series.
Y'know, it's funny, cuz this is exactly why I rewrote MoI back in...my goodness, was it 2016? (Surely not that long ago??) There were just so many scenes that needed elaborating and missing bits that needed to be added and it felt necessary to do that before continuing on with the series.
But yes! There are still some I cut and either would like to add back in or might repurpose for later. (Sorry, this is long.)
From MoI:
The first time Victoria and Reaver sleep together. I've tried to write this so many times and it just...doesn't ever work out the way I'm picturing it. There's like...half a dozen-ish cut drafts in a document somewhere. Maybe one day I'll make it work.
The original, hand-written draft of MoI included a scene with Logan questioning Ben after Victoria disappears from Reaver's house, suspicious about why his sister's suddenly not writing him. In the end, it was cut cuz it didn't really make sense to have him go to Ben to find out if Victoria had somehow contacted him, but I still kinda like the idea.
Continuing along the Victoria-running-away track: there's a couple little outlines somewhere for a follow up to the scene where she decides to leave, showing how she got out of Reaver's house. One of them involved her actually shooting Reaver with his own gun; the other involved Reaver essentially stalking her through the house, not interacting or trying to stop her but watching her all the while. In the end, I couldn't make up my mind and I felt like nothing I wrote there would be 100% satisfying to readers, so I chose to scrap both ideas. Not sure if that was the right decision, tbh.
There was a scene before the wedding with Walter and Jasper playing cards in the original draft. Tonally, it didn't work, but I still like it.
There was a scene where Reaver sort of...playfully faux-crowned Victoria in the castle? He's being an ass and very sarcastic about it, and Victoria hates the entire thing, but it was supposed to lead to them having semi-public sex. ...which is also the reason it got cut. What smut I'd written was just...not good. And I never really had the will (no pun intended) to rewrite it, so I scrapped it.
An early on scene where Reaver and Victoria get into a proper row after she walks in on him with one of his...uh...friends. I actually had to check and make sure I didn't add this one back in and I'm not sure why I didn't. Reaver yelling at her about them "pretending to play house" and about how he was never going to choose Victoria above his own interests would've been very 👀👀👀 given how things turn out.
Not something I actually cut, but, if I were to do another rewrite, I'd like to add some more Logan scenes, just for the tragedy angle.
From DoV:
Cut one of the mystery dreams (well, I guess now that we're near the end of Blackout I can just say it: one of the dreams she shares with Scythe, where he's trying to contact her) cuz it was too repetitive.
A couple tiny (very tiny!) scenes with Faraday. Just chatting with him. In hindsight, they were unnecessary to cut.
I've talked about this one before, but the original scene where Victoria and Reaver talk about their relationship was cut and rewritten. Originally, Reaver was going to confess his feelings for her there. But it didn't fee organic and didn't really work and it kinda just pissed off Victoria worse. So instead the scene is -gestures to the story- but the line about the singing fish is as close to confessing as Reaver can get himself at that point.
From Blackout:
Technically the entire first draft was cut because my pc ate it, so I'm sure there's a lot of things on there I would like to add back in. T-T
Cut some flashbacks with the Crawler just for length, nothing really plot relevant, though. (I may come to regret this.)
Also cut some really stupid jokes of Reaver's. (I do not regret this.)
Cut a lot of political stuff that will affect the next story, and I...have begun to suspect this will come to bite me in the ass because a couple things were much more relevant than I thought they'd be. :S SO. I don't know what I'll do about that yet.
The next chapter has a rather large chunk from it that was cut and is in the process of being rewritten. Basically: Reaver and Victoria being horny now that they're reunited. It doesn't fit, tonally or pacing-wise, but I am a little sad y'all won't get to read Scythe interrupting them and Reaver complaining under his breath about not getting off. Maybe I'll turn it into a oneshot.
+ Bonus!
Technically there's an entire story I've cut from Shattered Albion (set between DoV and Blackout) about Reaver and Faraday investigating one of the DLCs together. I would really like to add it, cuz I think it would set up some things for the final book and I think it's fun, but I'm not sure if anyone actually would want to read it.
Broomstick: If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would it be?
London. I've had a love affair with London since the very early 2000s--the first time I read Tom Becker's Darkside books, really: there was so much love for the city in its pages, and it felt so alive in a way that I'd never experienced; I've wanted to go ever since then. Maybe one day soon.
With the new fable game coming out, what role do you see Reaver playing?
Hiya! ^^
I feel the need to state, as I do every year around this time (and every few months in general, come to think of it), that I’m still angry at Microsoft for their treatment of Lionhead and that I’m keeping my expectations as minimal as possible (in either direction). As a rule, I don’t speculate about games before they come out. And I haven’t watched the trailer yet, not sure when I will (maybe when my ire’s faded a little), so anything I say is hindered by that.
What I’ve heard about it, though, suggests it’s a reboot (though I’ve also heard something about an MMO??) and I guess it depends on if they’re rebooting from a specific game. A lot of the fandom has been begging incessantly for a game about the Old Kingdom, so, if that’s their starting point, I’d expect Reaver not to be there at all. In general, I’d be surprised if Reaver’s there in any context. But...if they do something with him, I’d expect it to either be an origin story or him to just straight out be the villain. (I have my doubts on another company’s abilities to handle him with the subtlety he deserves.) But yeah, mainly I just expect him to not be there at all.
I don’t mind being proven wrong when/if the game comes out.
K - What character has your favorite development arc/the best development arc?
I want to say Mary, but I feel like her arc is mainly implied off screen, so. I’m going to go with Lady from Devil May Cry. Her rage and bitterness in 3 and how she refuses to move past it, won’t even allow for the thought of being distracted from it, because somebody has to hold Arkham accountable and it may as well be her. That she’s not only allowed to act on that anger, but is told it’s okay, it’s understandable, it’s okay to hate someone who hurt you and someone you love, and that the narrative allows her to feel relief in acting on her anger and in comfort in no longer being the person she was...while also telling her that it’s okay to need help from someone outside your pain. And I appreciate that the series let her grow--let her discover that trusting others isn’t all guaranteed to cause harm and that she could open up and make friends again. That she was able to go from angry and distant to awkward and purposeful to playful and at ease with the people she has relationships with is such a nice arc, especially that, in a world full of actual demons, she’s able to find something like recovery from her trauma is...I appreciate the hope of it. I also really appreciate that, in that recovery, they didn’t invalidate her previous anger. She’s able to say “you know, shooting my dad in the face was a really good thing, saving the world-wise, but it was also really bad for my mental health and I wouldn’t wish that on anyone else” while still being understanding of someone in similar circumstances to how she used to be, and that’s really nice. It’s rare to see a character be allowed to move past their anger without becoming judgmental, or in turn being judged, and it’s just...I enjoy it a lot and really hope the series continues allowing her to grow.
N - Name three things you wish you saw more or in your main fandom (or a fandom of choice).
- Meta that doesn’t end up circling around to a ship. Shipping’s great, but sometimes I just want to think about a character’s motivations without having someone sidetrack the discussion with a long ramble about how it ties into who they hc as the character’s partner and that character’s reactions and how the fandom should feel whatever towards them. Like...not everything’s about shipping. Let us have at least some discussion without it, please.
- Support for writers. This is something I try not to talk about anymore because people tend to get mad at me when I do, but there’s something incredibly infuriating about seeing a fandom cry and whine about how it’s dying and there’s never any new content, but then they turn around and treat fic writers as if they’re meaningless and nonexistent. And I realise it takes much more energy to read fic than it does to consume most anything in fandom, but if y’all want more content then you need to support the writers. (And before another person tries to tell me that fic writers are annoying and have no place in, particularly tumblr, fandom: we should not have to beg for our place or justify our existence in fandom. We’re not a crop to be harvested and then abandoned when the field lies barren--no creator is. Consuming our content doesn’t give anyone the right be treat us horribly.)
- More weirdly specific aus, passion projects. That kind of thing. Also AUs in the aesthetic sense--gothic, steampunk, cyberpunk, noir, decopunk/dieselpunk, Lovecraftian, etc.--the kind of AUs that don’t really get touched very often but can be really fun when they are explored. <3
P - Invent a random AU for any fandom (we always need more ideas).
Ooh, this is hard. So many ideas. Bear with me a sec.
- For Fable, for some reason a Sense & Sensibility au just sounds really fun. Like...Sparrow’s partner dies and they move out to the country to raise their kids and Walter and Jasper come over to visit all the time and it’s mainly just focused on family and it’s very warm and comfortable. And then the HoBW starts having suitor drama and Logan tries to be calm and rational and oh no, he’s got a crush and Sparrow’s just -head in hands-. It all ends happily, but for a while we’re not sure. There are exactly 0 shadow monsters trying to murder everyone.
- ...I was going to say something about mermaids for BBClock, but I took a break from thinking to read one of @leafenclaw‘s fics and now I’ve got Elementary on the brain SO...Entrapment au for Elementary. With the caveat of him not yet having met Irene/Jamie, Sherlock goes undercover in M’s organisation and ending up working a job that involves Jamie’s art expertise and his own varied skills. There’s lots of brainy flirting as they prepare and neither realises the other is getting ready to betray them (and neither of them seem to realise that betrayal’s going to be as hard as it is). Not sure how I think it would end, though.
