When I say I'm always learning new things about Mass Effect, even after multiple playthroughs, I'm not kidding.
I always play a Male Shepard, Spacer and Sole Survivor.
This time, I'm playing a Female Shepard, Colonist and War Hero.
And the Colonist part............... I have seen many posts over the years from many of you, and I always felt like that background was really sad, but I didn't get HOW SAD until I met Talitha.
Her story is devastating and the wording used to explain it is striking. The voice acting is incredible. Her suffering is felt so deeply.
And the whole time she was talking about her as an animal not getting a name (btw, "Animal don't get names" reminded me a lot of the dehumanization of Jack and her being called Subject Zero), about her "masters" putting metal all over her, her mom and dad telling her to "run" and dying after, I thought... My Shepard is right there and she lived it. She lived the raid. Her friends and family members are dead. And Talitha of course was rescued much later after the read.
Genuinely at this point i was like... It's fine, I'm not crying.
And Talitha asks: Why are you alive? Why are you-- Why aren't you like her? Broken. Only fit to dig and carry.
Shepard replied she was broken for a while, but had to keep going, as she said "pull herself up".
And playing her as I was, she comforted Talitha, gave her the sedative, telling her she won't have a bad dream:
The mission is a matter of de-escalation, and I think it's done very well. Lieutenant Girard is a good man. He and his men could have killed Talitha (as no doubt, others would have done) but he instead called Shepard. He even insisted that Shepard walk away if it doesn't work.
He wanted to save Talitha so badly. And it shouldn't be unusual, it should be the norm.
The fact that the mission is written by Chris L'Etoile is also quite interesting.
The constellation of Ursa Major, the Great Bear // Siegfried
Click below to see an annotated image and read more about the stars that make up Ursa Major!
In order of brightness:
Alioth (ε Ursae Majoris) is the brightest star in Ursa Major and helps form part of the handle of the Big Dipper. It is a solitary blue-white giant star about 83 light years away. Its name comes from the Arabic phrase alyat al-hamal meaning "the sheep's fat tail."
Dubhe (α Ursae Majoris) is a binary star system consisting of an orange giant and a blue-white giant star. The system is about 123 light years away. It forms part of the cup of the Big Dipper. The name comes from the Arabic phrase żahr ad-dubb al-akbar meaning "the back of the great bear."
Alkaid (η Ursae Majoris) is a solitary blue giant star about 104 light years away. It forms the very end of the handle of the Big Dipper. Its name comes from the Arabic phrase qā'id bināt naʿsh meaning "the leaders of the daughters of the bier."
Mizar (ζ Ursae Majoris) is a quadruple star system consisting of four blue-white giant star. The system is about 83 light years away. It forms part of the handle of the Big Dipper. The name comes from the Arabic word miʼzar meaning "covering."
Merak (β Ursae Majoris) is a solitary blue-white giant star about 80 light years from Earth. It forms part of the cup of the Big Dipper. Together with Dubhe, they form a line pointing towards Polaris (α Ursae Minoris), the North Pole Star. The name comes from the Arabic word al-marāqq meaning "the loins."
Phecda (γ Ursae Majoris) is a binary star system consisting of a blue-white giant star and a red dwarf. The system is about 83 light years away. It forms part of the cup of the Big Dipper. Its name comes from the Arabic phrase fakhth al-dubb meaning "thigh of the bear."
ψ Ursae Majoris is a solitary orange giant star about 140 light years away.
Tania Australis (μ Ursae Majoris) is a potential triple star system, consisting of at least a red giant star about 230 light years away. Its name is a portmanteau of Tania, which comes from the Arabic phrase Al Fiḳrah al Thānia "the second spring of the gazelle", and Australis which is Latin for "the south side."
θ Ursae Majoris is a potential binary system consisting of at least a yellow-white giant star about 44 light years away.
Talitha (ι Ursae Majoris) is a quadruple star system consisting of a blue-white giant star, two red dwarfs, and a white dwarf. The entire system lies about 47 light years away. The name comes from the Arabic phrase Al Ḳafzah al Thalitha meaning "the third leap of the gazelle."
Megrez (δ Ursae Majoris) is a solitary blue-white giant star about 80 light years away. It forms part of the cup of the Big Dipper. Its name comes from the Arabic word al-maghriz meaning "the base [of the bear's tail]."
Muscida (o Ursae Majoris) is a solitary yellow giant star about 182 light years away. Its name comes from the Arabic word for "muzzle."
Tania Borealis (λ Ursae Majoris) is a solitary blue-white giant star about 138 light years away. Its name is a portmanteau of Tania, which comes from the Arabic phrase Al Fiḳrah al Thānia "the second spring of the gazelle", and Borealis, which is Latin for "the north side."
Alkaphrah (κ Ursae Majoris) is a binary star system consisting of two blue-white giant stars about 360 light years away. The name comes from the Arabic word al-qafzah meaning "the leap [of the gazelle]."
23 Ursae Majoris is a binary star system consisting of a yellow-white giant star and a red dwarf about 42 light years away.
Taiyangshou (χ Ursae Majoris) is a solitary orange giant star about 198 light years away. Its name comes from the Chinese phrase Tàiyángshǒu (太陽守) meaning "guard of the sun."
υ Ursae Majoris is a binary star system consisting of at least a yellow-white giant star about 116 light years away.
Alcor (80 Ursae Majoris) is a binary system consisting of a blue-white giant and a red dwarf about 40 light years away. It forms a double star with Mizar. The name comes from the Arabic word al-khawāri meaning "faint one."
I started reading a little series of fantasy novellas that are about desert kingdoms. I had a great time, and it's a great little pick-me-up. I would consider these Fantasy Romance: overall fantasy world-building and plot are enjoyable, and there is a pretty heavy romantic subplot. I can't wait to continue with the rest of the series.
Since the author isn't really on amazon, she sells through her own website. You can find this series here!
Also, I'm officially sold on using acrylics on watercolor paper <3 They behave exactly how I want them too, and it for some reason, it feels like I can correct little mistakes easier.
I have a fixed star experiment planned for an upcoming election 🐻☄️the result will be a very limited collection of talismans, which I plan to send to friends and family with the hopes of receiving feedback. If you're interested, please reach out with any questions and tell me where to send it!
Luz is doing well, she is growing a lot. I am not showing her on social media because people have been saying hateful things to me and to her for no reason so I’d prefer not to expose her to this unnecessary cruelty, but thank you to all those asking about her lovingly. Luz sends hugs and kisses with a lot of love.
I find this statement of hers hypocritical and not genuine because when she/we thought Zabdiel was the father she had no problem exposing Luz and posting almost daily pictures of Luz so it feels like since she can’t use Luz to gain followers anymore then now she wants to protect her and not expose her in social media.
I am glad that she is respecting Luz’s privacy because she is an innocent baby that doesn’t deserve to be exposed on social media. I wish that all those fan pages that fans created for Luz when she was born would delete their accounts because I don’t think that an innocent baby should have fan pages.
