What did you do today in Mass Effect?

Honestly, I'm glad you haven't had a bad experience there at the new bsn, but most people have run into a lot of trolls there and homophobia is a pretty common occurrence.  There was a huge civil war in particular between the more hateful straight female Jaal fans and the gay members of the board and they ran rampant saying lots of hateful things that the mods would overlook constantly-but the second we said anything about them we got warnings or even banned. It was why we started this place. 

I'm coming to the big dilemma part, Kaidan or Ashley. Welp, time to let Kaidan live, been awhile.

I switch between ashley and kaidan but its mostly kaidan that dies.

Kaidan never dies. I mean, LOOK at my avatar. I just can't let that sexy man go.

There's a t-shirt out there some where that has three options with check boxes next to them:

Single
Taken
Married to Kaidan Alenko

The shirt has the last option checked.  I feel like I should own that.  It'd be great to wear to Flame Con this August (a gay comic convention that also has an area for gamers).

A tiny bit of Nathan Shepard because I really should be asleep:

- Admiral Mikhailovich was waiting for me at the docking bay. Gotta admit I hate this guy. He had the gall to call a Spectre a "junior officer". Well, I pulled rank on him and denied him access to my ship.
- Just when I got off the docks, I was asked to help a survivor of Mindoir who'd been a slave to the batarians for a long time. She had been in a psych ward but somehow got a gun and escaped. The worry was that she would come to harm and no one wanted that, least of all me. Aren't many of us who survived Mindoir. Have to say, I choose the Colonist background specifically to to this side mission. I think it's one of the most well-written ones they did and shows what BioWare is capable of. Never fails to make me cry.

Crimson: I don't hate Ashley. The longer I play the more I get to see her as "human". Flawed, sure, but who isn't? And I kind of get where she's coming from with being mistreated because her grandfather had the audacity to surrender to the turians and that's somehow her fault. And her father's fault. I might be kind of anti-alien if my family was struggling because of something that a) made sense to do and b) happened before I was even born. Even with all that, she's still perfectly willing to do her job. I also am now of that belief that all potential love interests in ME1 should have equal chance to be left behind on Virmire. Not specifically looking to kill of Liara but realistically I'd rather have my fellow Alliance marines at my side. Just sayin'.

So, lately, I've been busy but not as much on gaming. The laptop with my MET died on me. The one I'm using now has TW3. I haven't finished that yet so not prepared to remove it. However, I have found I have just enough room to fit ME1, which is convenient given that I'm in the middle of an ME1 run with Nathan Shepard. Just fired that up, though, so haven't done anything yet today other than scrounge some Space Junk(TM) from engine debris on Casbin.

The other day, though, I started writing an ME fanfic. It's slightly a crossover with Marvel, in that it has Bucky Barnes as someone who, instead of dying on a rocket in 1945, was instead picked out of the ocean by the Collectors and found by Shepard and Co on the Collector Base 240 years later. I've thus far only gotten as far as getting him onto the Normandy along with the rest of the rescued crew. He's freaked out over the aliens and stuff. Also, he's inexplicably a biotic, but I do have an explanation. Anyway, that's probably going to take me some time to write out fully (first draft alone) but I have plans at least into ME3 semi-mapped out. Also, it's slightly more AU because it's got Scott and Sara Ryder in it (no Andromeda Initiative, sadly). I'm thinking of making use of some others who would have gone to Andromeda, too, like Drack and Vetra. I'll have to see how things go.

OK, I've got Faith Shepard, twin sister to Owen. Vanguard/Colonist/Ruthless. Deep and abiding hatred for batarians due to the massacre on Mindoir, made worse when batarians attacked Torfan. Willing to sacrifice 3/4 of her unit to make sure those batarians who surrendered stayed dead. While Faith had gotten away relatively unscathed from the batarians, Omen spent a brief time as a slave to the batarians before his biotics manifested and he was able to escape. Both joined the Alliance but their lives took different paths.

While both Faith and Owen were considered as candidates for the first human Spectre, the Alliance ultimately believed Faith was much more willing to do whatever it took, something they believed the Citadel Council would consider important. Owen might follow suit but only after human Spectres were a thing.

[I'm actually going to do some unusual stuff here. Might have Faith follow the main storyline while Owen, in an effort to get him noticed, will do some of the side missions. We'll see how it all plays out. Obviously, it'll actually be Faith I'm playing - though gender swapping back and forth isn't off the table - I'm going to RP them as different. I may even decide that certain squadmates are with Faith and others with Owen. Now I'm going to play and whatever else I write will be based on what I do in the game.]

On with the show!

Faith: XO of the Normandy, the most advanced frigate in Citadel space. Captain Anderson handpicked me but for some reason we've got a turian hanger-on. He's a Spectre so I won't be surprised if I find out this isn't actually the milk run they're pretending it is and is instead a serious mission. Joker figured that out. So did Pressly. At least Alenko was smart enough to know our opinions don't matter nearly as much as following orders. Had to remind Joker, Pressly and Jenkins of that fact.

When I went to meet with Anderson in the Comm Room I instead found Nihlus there all by his lonesome. He started making what sounded to me like threatening comments about how safe our colonies were. I didn't know if this was turian posturing - a lot of turians hate humans since the First Contact War - or if he was trying to decide if we really were a galactic power. It's true that we've only been on Citadel space for less than 30 years but we already have more given to us than some races who have been around for centuries.

Then Anderson showed up. He told me that Nihlus had suggested me as a candidate for the Spectres. Surprised they didn't go for Owen. He's much better at schmoozing than I am and almost as good in a fight. But if a turian was doing the choosing I suppose they look for different things. In any case, our discussion was interrupted by a transmission from our destination, Eden Prime. It was under attack. There was an enormous ship like nothing I'd even seen in the background and lots of marines under fire. Anderson sent me down with Alenko and Jenkins. Nihlus was supposed to be watching me but ended up scouting ahead. Would have made more sense to see how I do while really under fire but it's his call.

Even so, my mission remains the same. I'm not there to protect civilians. There's a Prothean beacon waiting to be picked up. The Prothean Archives on Mars advanced humanity forward hundreds of years. This could do much more. If we lose some civilians along the way it'll be worth it in the end because humanity itself will be much stronger.

Dead bodies were everyone. It was hard on Jenkins since he'd been born on Eden Prime. That may have contributed to him being killed by a flying drone. Kid deserved better but I know better than most that the universe isn't fair. Kaidan, bless his heart, kept his cool. Exactly the kind of marine I needed backing me up.

Found a marine who was being attacked by those recon drones. She was smart enough to fall to the ground, turn and fire on them. Unfortunately, she was being pursued by robotWes with guns. Geth, creations of the quarians who had gone rogue centuries earlier. No one had seen them in about 200 years so them being on Eden Prime was a surprise. I wasn't interested in interrogating them so much as blowing them to bits. The marine, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, was another story. Especially with Jenkins dead, we could use someone with her skills. She brought us to the dig site of the Prothean beacon but it was gone.

We came to an area with a few prefabs. Outside there were people impaled on metal spikes. They didn't quite look right. Then the spikes lowered and we could see that whatever they had been they were no longer human. Looked like electronics had replaced their organs. The things rose up and attacked, nothing more than husks that exploded when they got close. Is it wrong to be grateful that at least Jenkins didn't suffer this fate? Or, maybe worse, find a family member had?

Found two scientists, one who was crazy. He said he'd seen a turian leading the geth. Couldn't have been Nihlus because we would have still been on the Normandy when it happened. Further on, near the docks, we saw that same ship viewed in the transmission from Eden Prime. It was enormous. Reminded me of one of those...a squid, maybe? Something like that. Attacks came from the docks by geth and husks, making a direct link between them.

At the docks, we found the corpse of Nihlus. Shot in the back of the head from the looks of it. Definitely made him innocent of any wrong doing. Of course, if we'd stuck together we could have all watched each others' backs. We found a dockworker hiding behind the crates. He said another turian was there besides Nihlus who was referred to as Saren. Nihlus seemed to trust him, let down his guard and got shot for it. Damn. In any case, the beacon wasn't here, either, having been moved to another platform.

We fought through a lot of get to take a train to that other platform. First thing we saw was a demolition charge. They were obviously going to destroy the platform. After disarming them, and fighting more geth and husks, we finally found that beacon. It was active, which Williams said it hadn't been when first discovered. I called it in but Williams decided to take a closer look. Green energy grabbed her and held her in the air. I jumped in to knock her to freedom but it grabbed me instead. [Then a crash. Assuming same sex mod at fault, possibly the one that allowed for Ash to approach the beacon instead of Kaidan.]

Wow, you've restarted Mass Effect 1 a lot it seems. I hope this run goes smoothly for you.