oh gosh I didn’t even reblog it NOW I GOTTA GO FIND IT..
7 - An Angry Text (Cihro to Yvir)
Hey, I’m on to you! I know you said something to Vee today. They’ve had this awful base track on ever since you left and has been speaking (?) to me exclusively in this horrible auto-tuned voice. I’m not letting you out of my sight next time you’re on my ship.
18 - A Drunk Text (Cihro to Yvir)
you’re smart!! some human said something that didn’t translate and i need your hgelp figuring it out
So, I know about Cihro and his story, but I've heard mention of another character by the name of Vedden/Veddan? What are they about?
vedden? oh, he’s my oldest mass effect oc, actually. he started as the turian sentinel in multiplayer and then I decided to flesh him out. this was like..2012? you can check out his tag here and there’s art of him on my art blog as well but…
he’s pretty plain, to be honest? he’s kind of stereotypically turian: strict, uptight, and probably the most stubborn character I have. he’s a strong leader and takes responsibility very seriously, in part cuz he’s the oldest of three brothers, but almost to a fault cuz if he does make a mistake or fails at something he’ll beat himself up over it
he’s kind of like cihro in that he’s very reserved, but for different reasons: it’s just kind of how Vedden is, he’s more introverted and prefers to keep those who know him well few in number. cihro just holds back cuz he’s thinking about self-preservation: he WANTS to share, he just thinks he’s not allowed or the fewer who know about him, the better
he hates things that are out of his control and doesn’t take lightly to spontaneous and reckless behaviour. he’s a teensy bit short-tempered and difficult to get along with if you get off on the wrong foot with him but ultimately he can reasonable if you give him time to cool off and cares deeply about friends, family, and other turian biotics
he’s kind of racist in the beginning and a lot of his growth comes from being forced into situations where’s he’s forced to question his perspective on things: the cabal, humans, mercenaries/mercenary work, etc. I’ve found he has the most chemistry with characters who challenge his way of thinking and rile him up, lmao
but the more fun stuff: he likes puzzles and building model ships, he loves his bros and they’re the ones where you’ll see him fool around, and he’s got a heart of gold under all that grumpy exterior. kind of a sore loser. constantly conscious of his posture and constantly correcting it, vedden doesn’t seem to know how to relax?? and he’s like my only oc that can even kind of sing
If you made your characters another ME race what would they be? How would they change? What would alter about their backstories? How would they function in their alternate lives? Feel free to include as many OCs as you want ~<3
let’s see..
it’ll be hard toinclude races I’m not as familiar with (batarian, elcor, hanar) but I’ll do mybest. I’m also gunna shove this under a cut cuz it got unexpectedly long
I wanna start with Damen cuz as soon as I wrote that firstsentence I thought to myself ‘he’d make a decent hanar.’ He’s already annoyinglypolite and obnoxiously friendly and tends to speak in a roundabout way ratherthan directly. this doesn’t always mean his intentions are good, though, and asa hanar he might not have as much luck convincing people he knows to take thepath he wants for them. as a hanar I feel like he wouldn’t take onassassination at all since he wouldn’t have the same strength, but rathercompletely take on the role of finding, recruiting, or training young drell likeThane mentions in me2
even with that job ashis main focus I still think he could be a part-time yoga instructor, althoughas a hanar he’s granted waaaaay more flexibility than other species. I thinkhe’d be very frustrating because for him it’s so easy but for his students, notso much. maybe he’d just float around the classroom and try to show how theposes are done with his tentacles, or instruct folks to take deep breaths, informthem where their form is or isn’t good, etc
his family would becompletely different, too, lest he somehow ends up adopted still. regardless ofspecies I’d always like for him to have a close-knit family and siblings andparents he can rely on.
I think Mulciber could be a krogan. consideringhow many krogan are born to one mother (I think), it wouldn’t surprise me if he had evenmore siblings to keep track of although as a krogan he may not even try to keeptrack of them all. that distance from his family might not make him bitterbecause of how long they live and could just be another aspect of his life. he could still very well be apathetic and cold, but a tad more aggressive and forward and abit more passionate about what he does rather than just blindly pursuing a job
although..as a transkrogan, mulciber’s life may be different than being a trans turian. where Ilike to think turians are like “you’re a dude? sure, cool” and kroganmight be the same, the genophage could change that. he’d be born so much soonerthan turian!mulciber and live much longer before the reaper war takes place andthe cure is made. during that time he’d probably get off Tuchanka (if he’s bornthere) to escape the risk of having to bear children if he turns out to befertile. I don’t think any incarnation of mulciber likes kids, lmao. therest of the galaxy may not know any better or put as much pressure on him tohave kids. he’d pursue mercenary work like he does in his original timeline andtry to find a small pact of friends or teammates he can rely on for the yearsto come. once the genophage cure is in place he won’t have to worry abouthaving kids and can go back to Tuchanka or do whatever the hell he wants
I think Vedden would be a human biotic. I thinkit’d be fun to turn him into the species he holds prejudice against for thefirst 30 years of his life and have his parents fight in the First Contact War.That means his racism would be flipped, although as a human he’d be lessaccepted in the greater galaxy and have a harder time as a human scorningturians than as a turian scorning humans. He’d still be grumpy but now with atouch of bitterness and feel like humans have to support and look out for eachother. Actually, as a human, somewhere in his military career, it’s possible hecould end up with Cerberus. Approaching me3 he might see where they’re headedand bail, then hopefully end up in a situation in the war (probably on Menae as support) where he can learn that turians aren’t whathe thought they were and come to some sort of understanding and grow as aperson
I thought aboutturning Aulus into an asari but thenI thought salarian might also work. Being an asari or salarian wouldn’t effecthis position within C-Sec. As a salarian he could think faster, work longerhours, and be in investigations right from the get-go. his tendency to worryeasily about friends and assume the worst might be amplified as a salarian butas a trained officer he’d have to be cool on the job.
I don’t think he’dever end up with Cihro as a salarian though lmao. they might be close friends, butthat changes the nature of their relationship and the impact it has on cihro’slife
and speaking of Cihro, he’s a little short to be aturian, so I think I’d make him a drell. a purple drell. if I continue with thehanar!damen path he could be trained under him from a young age and be part ofthe Compact. he’d be less friendly and less outgoing, but probably still seeksome sort of connection with others. he’d go about it in a completely differentway though and may only seek out other people in his field rather than just gettingto know anyone he walks into. his work would be less of a secret and hewouldn’t actively try to keep it and his social life apart. in that same veinhe may actually be more willing to help strangers and put himself in dangeroussituations for the sake of others because he’s been doing the same work hisentire life
and I’m gunna stopthere cuz this post is massive. this was fun to think about and turned out moreinteresting than I thought it would. Vedden as a human in particular kind ofcaught me by surprise
If your protagonist characters were evil/villains what would they be like? What would their stories be? What qualities would you draw on to make them villainous? Would they dress different? Would their job change? Conversely what would your villains be like as protagonists? How would you write them etc.?
oh my god I don’t know if this one is harder or easier toanswer because I don’t feel like my characters fall into a strict good guy/badguy column, but I guess if you change their cores then you’d get something likethis:
Cihro is already super morally ambiguous given that hefucking kills people for a living, but at his heart he’d really just like tomake friends, maintain those relationships, and make sure he doesn’t lose allof his “humanity” so to speak. If you were to push him to full bad then maybewhat he desires isn’t friendship so much as people who’s trust he gains andthen manipulates because if none of his friendships have worked out in the pastthen the only solution is to make sure he’s always in control in some twistedway. He’d use them as stepping stones to get ahead in life and not really showany remorse about losing their friendship because he never really consideredthem that to begin with. He’d be ready to give them the cold shoulder at amoment’s notice and feel cheated if they don’t give him what he wants.
I don’t think he’d dress any differently given that he livesin his suit and it’s optimized for his job and he already has a black and greycolour scheme going on. Maybe instead of going magenta with his visor/accentshe’d stick with the red he used for when he fought in the rings.
I think I touched on Vedden being ‘evil’ in the lastquestion and that is definitely not a good thing because he’s very determinedand willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done. No mercy!!
Mulciber..is already a massive asshole. Like, he’s not evil,but he doesn’t have a lot of good traits either. He’s just indifferent, so Ithink that means he could be pulled in any direction with the right kind ofinfluence. He could end up working as some kind of living weapon for anorganization or, from when he’s young, refuse to let his family’s distance makehim bitter and embrace the positive side of life. He could pursue the ArmigerLegion with a sense of purpose or do something else entirely, like charity orsocial work to help make other people’s lives better. He’d make an effort totalk to his many siblings and see if he can make them some sort of actual cohesivefamily unit rather than divided into little groups.
Mulciber already wears a lot of warm colours so that mightnot change. What might change is his sense of style, he may wear moreprofessional clothes or have a greater variety of things to wear than just acouple outfits
Uhh..Aulus? I guess counts as a main now? I still think he’dbe with C-Sec, but I can see him abusing his power and being extremelyprejudiced & racist. He’d be impatient and want things done his way, noexceptions, and cross a lot of boundaries. That might eventually cause him tobreak off from the force and become a mercenary. I can see him being with theBlue Suns in this scenario. Alternatively, he makes it as a Spectre before he’sreally corrupt and although he’s doing “good” work he’ll achieve itusing underhanded methods that gets people hurt along the way.
I feel bad cuz I don’t think a lot of my characters’wardrobes would change because they all have some kind of black + __ colourscheme going on
I think that covers all my mains? excluding damen. If you want meto elaborate on anyone let me know
If your characters had the lives of one of your other ME OCs who would have what life and how would they adapt? What would they be like?
this is really trickyto answer. I’ll do my best to answer this coherently and stick to twocharacters instead of thinking about every possibility otherwise I’m gunna havea novel of a post
although it looks like this got pretty lengthy anyway
I think two charactersI could switch who lead very different lives would be Cihro and Vedden. Cihrolives a largely normal life up until his early twenties when he decides to liveaway from the Fleet and pursue assassination as a career and Vedden is part ofthe military his entire life in some manner - he does drop out of the cabalfor a couple years but he goes back
Vedden would probablybe much more affected by this kind of change. he would be a totally differentkind of assassin with different preferred methods of killing, especially if hestill has his biotics, which could be the catalyst to him becoming an assassinif he wants to reject the cabal. honestly, he’d probably make it better as abounty hunter because he doesn’t have the same patience Cihro has, but he doeshave the tech skills Cihro lacks to hack shit and engineer his own tacticalgear
His personality isalready really uptight, so becoming a killer would probably make him cold,ruthless, and make it all that much harder to see his soft side. I think a partof him would still deeply care about his younger brothers, but if it was hischoice to have training he probably wouldn’t see them all that often. I thinkhe’d still visit them, but it’d be kind of tense and he’d be awkward because he’dhave to remember how to be an older version of himself or something he’s not.He puts his all into everything he does, so living that kind of isolated lifestylewould be very bad for him
I think he’d be prettyscary, tbh, because where Cihro is friendly outside the job and tries to keephis social life and work life separate entities, Vedden being an assassin wouldconsume him and bleed into every aspect of his life. He’d hang out withshady people and just. not be a nice guy
And now for Cihro. Beingin the military means returning from his Pilgrimage and joining the Fleet,which means he’s following in his mother’s footsteps, which works since he’salready ruled out botany or any kind of science anyway
And like..honestly, Ithink this would have a really positive effect on him? Living outside the Fleetwas his choice so it’s also good for him, but being on his own and having tosupport himself all the time made him forget how to rely on other people. He’svery extroverted so having any sort of community will bolster his energy levelsand make him productive, happy, and better at communicating his feelings
He would actually attendhis father’s funeral because he’d be there, have closure, and become closer tohis mother from it
Like jeez if Icontinue on this path he could even find himself a husband and settle down. Ithink the only major difference this would have on his personality is he mightbe a little more hardened, a little more serious, but honestly he’d still mostly be himself
Lmao so I think fromthis post we can deduce that becoming an assassin isn’t a good thing for anyof my characters but some will handle it better than others
I hope that sort of answers the question, thanks for the ask!
