Please let the brain rot stay!!

In the Veil Jumper version of "A Letter Dated Six Months Ago", Irelin says this:

Strife has finally given up sending teams out to rediscover the route that was lost. Without the magic in the map, the paths will not open, and the map is gone. I know it was difficult for him to make the final decision.

Rook didn't lose a handmade map someone can just draw again. They lost an actual magic artifact that would have allowed entry and navigation in that part of an increasingly dangerous reality-warping forest. The Veil Jumpers can no longer access that area, which means they can't protect anyone from the dangers in it, nor can they enter it if something there affects another part of Arlathan. They've also lost a connection to that part of elvhen history and culture, something that Strife—a city elf who joined the Dalish later in life after being run out of Starkhaven for defending elven children—undoubtedly found upsetting on a personal level.

(We also don't know what specifically would have happened if Rook had waited; we don't know what Strife or any of the other Veil Jumpers planned to do. Strife is pragmatic, but he still cares about saving lives and protecting people; we see in his introductory scene that with Irelin and Tarith in danger and no way to shut down the artifact, he has no problem with simply destroying it.)

Obviously we know from the rest of the game that the call Rook made led to them being in the position to stop the gods, so it's not that they made the "wrong" choice, but I can absolutely see Strife's point of view here. He's trying to do a lot of different things at once—protect the forest, stop reality from collapsing, protect Dalish clans, retrieve artifacts, preserve the history of his people—while everyone looks to him and counts on him for answers. Listen to how many times Bellara or another Veil Jumper says something like "Strife will know what to do" or "Strife can take care of it". This is someone who has a lot on his shoulders already with a lot of people relying on him, and as Irelin also writes in that letter, he took Rook's actions as a personal failure on his part, too.

I'm doing a full commentary reblog instead of putting this in the tags because I am very passionate about defending Strife on internet.com.

I wanted to add that Strife also had no way of knowing whether or not Rook was being truthful about needing to lose the map in order to save lives. Sure, most people headcanon their Rooks as brave heroes who saved lives, but to Strife, they're just another rookie (haha) veil jumper who made a blunder. I'd be pretty annoyed too if I were him.

Also, because I'm petty, I went and checked to see how long Strife supposedly 'yells at Rook' (as the fandom claims he does) about the map for. It's a mere 19 seconds of him chiding them in a steady and fairly monotone voice. He's not angry or aggressive at all, and he moves onto the next topic right afterward 😭

This is such an interesting question. I’ve been chewing on it for a while, and I wasn’t sure how to articulate my feelings for Garrus and why him of all the LI’s.

Well, I should start by mentioning that when I played Mass Effect, it was during one of my favorite artists more prominent eras for me. Which is Lana Del Rey’s Born to Die (2011 - 2013), so I feel like a lot of the feels for Garrus that I have are intertwined to the vibes of that music. The idea of realizing that you have affection for someone only after they died - and after Shepard comes back life is fun to play with.

Due to the organic nature of crafting your Shepard’s personality as you play, the relationship between Garrus and Quinn Shepard had the sexiest vibes to me.

The juxtaposition between Quinn Shepard, who has the Earthborn, Renegade, and Ruthless backgrounds, and Garrus seemed layered and interesting. Quinn Shepard grew up as an orphan and impoverished in New Atalanta.

She’s an ex-criminal who has done plenty of things to survive and has gone through a lot of trauma. Due to her mother being exposed to element zero when she was pregnant with Quinn was one of the only things that got her to the stars. She only joined the Alliance because they were willing to expunge criminal charges due to her biotic potential.

With her background, she and Garrus on the surface appear to be opposite -and they are. Yet, there are some similarities between the two. The hotheadedness, the stubbornness, the taste for danger, and most of all passion. The idea of a cop being drawn to leave his job to take down an existential threat at the command of an ex-criminal is a pretty sexy setup.

They are like a fun-house mirror of each other. Opposites attract type shit.

Also, the fact that this is a sci-fi space opera makes me feel like it’s a safe space to explore that dynamic while being removed from real-world cops. That and the fact that Garrus is an alien-raptor-bird man. Neither Quinn nor I would ever date a human cop. ACAB

The Normandy Crew is the first family Quinn has ever truly known, and Garrus being there from the start of the Reaper saga is significant to her. Garrus starts out as a naive young cop who follows her for the greater good of the galaxy. That surprises her. They don’t hit it off right away, but quickly they find themselves enjoying each other's company, and his sexy voice doesn't hurt. Although. Quinn’s very first thought about Garrus was about how:

He looked like he smelled good.

So, from her end, there was an immediate but not understood attraction.

After Shepard dies, Garrus gains more grit. Which only makes Quinn like him more once she comes back. That bad boy bite and edge that Quinn is attracted to.

That combined with growing trust over time, the mystery and excitement of what it could be like to be with a man from another world just makes Quinn want to bust. Lol.

At the end of the day, Garrus makes Quinn feel safe.

It’s a feeling she’s never known with a serious partner.

For me personally?

Garrus has a sexy voice, and I like plenty of people wanna bang monsters so….yeah. And scifi aliens are the same, and something about the turians make me go WOOOOOOOOBARKARFFFF

Who grew into this man who stands before him, grief in his eyes and exhaustion in every line of his body. He doesn’t know what he has endured, only snippets of stories shared of this spectre, this famed, dead, disgraced Commander. Most of what Garrus tells him of her doesn’t fully match what they say; he makes her sound like a person, so… human. 

When he comes to him, half of his face missing and a hollowness in his voice that makes him feel as if someone has taken a white hot blade to his keel, he sits on the same spot on the couch that he did when he was six, when he was twelve, and looks at him with the same reservation he did before he left for the Citadel. He has not stood in his family home since, and Castis thinks of the old visor he gifted him, the one he disassembled and then pieced back together; the one he wears now, a last gift from his mother. 

He can feel his son studying him, gauging his reactions, every bit the detective he was and the one he left behind.

He tells him this tale that sounds so far fetched, and he may skirt the truth but his son has never been one to outright lie. He was never any good at it, either, despite all of the times he tried to take the fall for Solana, nor has his imagination always been so wild. Reapers, he says; Collectors, he calls them, and he does not know the exact whereabouts of his son for the past few years, and as sure as Garrus is about this oncoming threat, Castis is sure he will never know the finer details.

the walls have arrow slits at a secret second level we aren't allowed to access that runs the whole way around the castle. there would probably be stairs up there in the three big watch towers, even though in game they're just barracks.

all the outbuildings being built into the walls instead of just against them is fun, it means the secret second level is probably pretty spacious too. the stonework would have to cover those buildings otherwise the wood roofs are wild security risks. so the second level is pretty wide.

Oh, a day of online detox and I come back to THIS?

There is a number of reasons why I am unwell about this man.

Because he's my comfort character. I know the bar isn't that high, giving that Harrier Du Bois and Frank Castle are in this list too. He is someone I keep coming back to when I'm sick or tired or in distress. He is sacrastic, he is mean, he's a hater and he's so salty and I vibe with this on so many levels.

Because he's competent, he knows is and he's so sassy about it.

Because the only time he fails brings consequences so devastating, it triggers one of the most subtle and heartbreaking (giving the way bioware's games are sterile and tidy about any major character's mental issues) character growth in the series.

Because he's loyal. He's with you from the very beginning, he's one of the few people acknowledging your death and hoping that you would return alive.

What a great platonic friendship, huh?

And then devs hit me square in the chest with the "In another lifetime without ranks I would rock your world" line and I'm going nuclear, because I need this man in Shepard's life.

Ignoring the shitty way they turned EDI into his "born sexy yesterday" girlfriend, I respect the boldness of that reject dialogue and I totally accept the (in game) canon of unrequitted love.

And it wrecks me so much.

So this fix-it fic/art with Alice was born.

Modern AU Vissenta Hawke making reels in her kitchen at 1:30 am when she’s come home from working dinner shift and shotgunned a beer on the way home.

Below the cut, a side by side of this and the original I drew three years ago, just to see how ridiculously far I’ve come with my art!

Glad you enjoyed! I love Hawke siblings to bits!

I haven't drawn Nathaniel yet but dw he's on my list😈 Awakening companions have a very special place in my heart so I wouldn't miss the opportunity to draw all of them at least once (but probably more cause they're all my pookies)

Hello mystery friend! Aww specialized asks!!

Hmm I will tell you, I’ve been playing these games for a decade now and I admittedly have never romanced anyone else except Garrus, so I’m going to try and rack my brain for what initially drew me to him in the first place. He’s lived rent free in my head for a very long time, he’s got his own little corner.

I will say, I shot rifle when I did marksman in high school, and there is something incredibly attractive about the patience and perseverance needed to become a good marksman with long range weapons. (For those curious, I am good but I personally lacked the frustration tolerance at the time to be great.) It speaks to a willingness to try again and again and again, and also to a fairly even temper. Yeah sure he’s a hot head occasionally (he’s what 24 in game 1? I’ll give him a pass he’s still maturing), but for the most part he’s very even keeled (particularly as the games progress, by 3 he’s very steady).

He’s also Shepard’s ride or die, no matter what. Whether you romance him or not, he’s there if Shepard needs him, always. He’s respectful and he looks up to Shepard but it’s not outright hero worship. There’s a willingness to push back on bad calls, hash things out, listen to one another. Mutual respect and understanding.

He’s never really mean about things, even when he says some stupid ass things about the Quarians in ME1 (which he apologizes for later, we love some growth of character). There’s a kindness and a desire to help people that I find very endearing.

I also strongly relate to that struggle of overcoming black and white thinking. I was raised with very black and white thinking and I have a very strong sense of what I think is right or wrong. It was a very inflexible mindset (that uh… N from black and white helped me overcome? Anyway…) so I appreciate his coming to terms with nuance, it mirrored a lot of my own journey into cognitive flexibility.

He’s also dorky and funny and definitely a goofy nerd which is my catnip, baby. Love that shit so much. and he’s Shepard’s friend! He’s her friend so much and I love friends to lovers. Friends to lovers is the only thing I care about.

I like reliability, dependability, and someone who is kind and funny and wants to help people. And we won’t look too closely at what in my life has caused me to cherish those things in others :)

Drawing almost every Dragon Age character — Part 19, Aveline Vallen

Do I love her? Yes. Will there be another point? No. Just that, thank you very much

He is adorable, anon, you’re so right.

So as some background, I work in law. In my corner of the field, the position is ACAB. Don’t talk to cops, don’t be their friends, don’t trust them, don’t date them. This is still my real-life stance, I don’t fuck around about this.

And when I played ME1 and met the cop (who admittedly had a very hot voice) who talked about how he used to ‘rough suspects up a little bit,’ I was….not impressed. I had also played Andromeda first, so I already had a fun fling with a sexy-voiced sniper who wasn’t a cop.

But then I start ME2, and got to that balcony, and - oops. It’s not just the sexy way he crouches over his gun, or this new snarky, sarcastic humor. It’s that Shepard found someone from her ground team who sees her, believes her, and will follow her into hell again. Yes, Chakwas and Joker are there, but they aren’t out on missions with her. Anytime that she’s found herself chasing down geth or punching through walls of husks, she’s had to trust these Cerberus randos to have her back. She’s a sole survivor, so forgive her for not immediately buying what TIM is trying to sell. With Garrus, she knows that he will have her back no matter who is shooting at her. Whatever the nature of their relationship was on the SR1, they are now the only people they can 100% rely on in the field. Even when he’s at his craziest (the Sidonis mission) she still trusts him so much that she gets in the way of his shot.

(I also think Shepard would hear about the deaths of his team and recognize him as a fellow sole survivor - different circumstances but similar enough that they now have this grim common trauma that is hard to find in anyone else.)

When Shepard says she doesn’t want someone closer to home, she wants someone she can trust, I think that carries more weight than just a reassurance. She has died and been revived. She doesn’t have any idea how they did it. She doesn’t know how much of her is ‘her.’ Her last ex is the one that handed her body to Cerberus. For my Shepard, that translates to a lot of trauma and insecurity about her body. The kinds of base physical attraction that used to move her toward someone isn’t gonna cut it anymore. She needs to know that her partner isn’t going to exploit her, or react in fear at her scars, or be anything less than deliberate with her feelings and needs. Who better fits that bill than Garry Vakarry? He’s a mess, but she is too, and she’s happy to be messy with him.

And then we get to ME3. He walks with confidence. Generals salute him. He’s got a suit on under his hard armor. Because while Shepard was being detained, he took up her banner and ran it all the way up to the top of the hierarchy. He’s a lot more stable, he reconnected with his family, he stopped seeing the world in black and white. Now he’s responsible, fully ready to lead, and still willing to follow his girlfriend’s command? Swoon.

More than that, they still have that trust. No one else has been through it together in the way that they have (even Tali turned Shepard down in their first ME2 encounter). They have physical/sexual attraction to each other, but the emotional connection that they have is still the foundation of their relationship. That’s why Shepard lets him pull her out onto the dance floor for the tango. That’s why Garrus lets himself get flustered around her. They trust and respect each other, which is incredibly sexy to me.

On a zoom-out, I also love the ambiguity of the physical elements of their relationship. I know it’s because BioWare was too scared to show turian dick, but it gives people endless room to invent their dynamic. I think that Garrus is a subby wet bitchboy for Shepard, for instance. There’s also room to interpret him as a feral dom, or for them to have vanilla sex, or even for them to have no sex at all! Does that man have a dick or multiple ducks or a pussy or some other thing? Whatever under the big blue sky you can imagine is as supported as any other interpretation. And I think that’s wonderful.

first you gotta do the build up and then the actual fucking and the fucking is pretty easy but you never know how long the fucking should last, and eventually you're like "okay I'm tired of this" so the characters cum, but you're not done yet because you can't just end it at "he fucking nutted everywhere" you gotta keep going, and the characters have to chat a little or cry or think about how horrible they are or something and then you kinda don't know when to end that either so now you're 2k words in and you might have put too much self hatred and not enough sucking dick. so you wrap it up, and think well it's done now.