#biotic headcanons

[ferusaurelius]

Day Thirty-Three

For @the-wip-project #100DaysOfWriting Challenge

Prompt: What kind of gestures are your characters often using?

This is a good question. There’s the gestures I write, and then there’s the gestures I imagine are habitual for a particular character.

I probably have more patterns of action than I consciously realize, but in rewriting the First Contact War there’s just gonna be a lot of slogging, and maneuvering, and waiting around in between the aforementioned.

On a totally unrelated headcanon aside, I can see biotics adopting habitual actions based on or adjacent to their mnemonics. While I get that the whole point of these mnemonics is to control the biotic ability, I think that using your space magic a lot would also start to bleed over into your everyday body language.

Habitual gestures and ways of seeing are something I try to incorporate into my POV characters. I just think it makes them more relatable.

One of the other challenges in Air Needing Light is translating between human terms and trying to inhabit the turian perspective. 

I do a lot of splitting the difference and will tend to default to the human term when it’s nonspecific enough or general enough that I don’t want to take time out to more fully develop the turian viewpoint. 

However, when the turian view is different enough that I feel like the human word may or may not apply, I do make an effort to illustrate the turian idea of the concept or cover it in my author’s notes. This is a constant balancing act.

[ferusaurelius]

Beta Reader(s)

Looking for beta readers for the first chapter of my Mass Effect no-Reapers AU fic taking place during the Relay 314 incident / First Contact War. 

Saren Arterius is the POV character -- youngest full member of his Blackwatch squad right when their mission goes from ‘routine incompetence’ to ‘disaster dumpsterfire.’ The Alliance 103rd Marines say hello.

More information under the cut. 

Signal boosts appreciated!

Fic Information

Really Bad Attempt At Summary: Saren Arterius is the youngest, shortest FNG on Blackwatch Ravus Fireteam 3 when the Alliance 2nd Fleet decides humanity has had about enough of turians occupying Shanxi. Also he may not be as much of a ‘failed biotic’ as he thought.

POV: Saren Arterius

Canon: no-Reapers canon-divergent AU, some fix-it, everyone probably lives

Perspective: Moderately close third-person limited.

Tense: Immediate past.

Word Count (Ch 1): 3500

Chapters Planned / Outlined for Part 1: 15(+)? Knowing this beast, it could expand on me. The actual arc has three parts. Part 1 is dealing solely with events on the ground on Shanxi.

Content warnings: Canon-typical violence.

Pairings: None really in this arc, though there are a lot of platonic feelings and I’m having the time of my life writing an entire OC turian Blackwatch squad. Plus another major biotic cabal OC who doesn’t even show up in the first chapter.

Beta Reading Needs

This is my first fanfiction attempt in fifteen years, and the first/only thing I’ve written for the Mass Effect fandom.

I need: sensitivity/genre readers familiar with medical and/or military fiction. Readers familiar with mass effect technical and military canon. Readers with strong opinions about turian culture and/or military. Readers who like Saren Arterius as a character and who are willing to be sounding boards for general ideas.

Readers willing to act as developmental advisers in any capacity, or who just think a ‘no-Reapers AU’ could be cool.

I’m typically a character writer, so I’m way out of my depth with certain conventions of military fiction. While I’m reading and researching quickly, I love being able to complicate my plots in realistic ways that add to overall character development.

On a personal note: I have thrown out enough volumes of material to be fine with most levels of criticism. I will love you as much for pointing out my egregious flaws as for being excited about the material.

Hit me up here on tumblr for more information if you’re interested! I generally communicate through discord and gmail.

[crassussativum]

(Holy fuck

I forgot one of my own damned headcanons about biotics. Okay, so it was that they don’t have the colony paint / tattoos because it’s one of the thing the Cabal can make them sacrifice which was why Saren was bareface even though he was probably from Palaven and come on, why would you not wear the colors of your homeworld if you’re turian? Because you’re not allowed to that’s why. Anyway, yeah sorry Cato doesn’t have facial tattoos, he’s barefaced.)

[antivanrogue]

little-known biotic party tricks

- biotic juggling

- biotic people-juggling

- cheating in pull-up competitions

- buzzer handshakes, no buzzer necessary

- pretending to be a glowstick

- pretending certain anatomical parts are glowsticks

- exploding clothes