'ELEMENTS OF RYDER' series

Looking for a tension filled story featuring an aromantic main character? Do you enjoy a mystery and suspense that leaves you guessing at every turn? What about the mind fuckery of an unreliable narrator? If whump, angst, action and thriller checks all your boxes, I have the story for you. 

Presenting Splintered Minds, a Mass Effect Andromeda fanfic featuring Sara Ryder. Watch as she wrestles with her demons and tries her best to get her job done. Thwarted at every turn, she falls and falls only to stand again, but is this one time too many? 

Featuring amazing chapter covers illustrated by @seokanori​​, the brainchild of Seo and Natsora. Seo providing the character and the story idea while @natsora​​ (me) fills in the plot. 

Splintered Minds is a 39 chapters, 155k story, completely drafted and edited. It is posted on AO3. It is updated every 3rd Saturday. (Update schedule is a little complicated, suffice to say, you’d get at least one chapter a month.) It features: 

Dual POV of Sara Ryder and Harry Carlyle

Post-game storyline

A recovery arc for those who has gone through so much trauma

Sounds like your kind of story? Read Splintered Minds on AO3

Don’t just take my word for it. Here are some comments: 

This was an awesome read! I cannot wait for the next installment! :D

All this tension between Ryder and Cora. Nice work with that! It looks like there’s even more tension now that it seems there is something between Cora and Scott.

Oh my!!!! Squealed loudly at this! First of all: i love the Sara/SAM relationship, and how she’s reacting at him telling on her! Second: I love love love the impending fight between Harry and Sara. One of these days when exams are finished I will leave a longer comment, but I love love love where this is going!

Slamming the kudos button! I was so happy to see this update, and my oh my! Their relationship is tense! 

Telling ANY Ryder to keep out of trouble is like telling a pig not to play in the mud :P

Ryder… Oblivion, really? :/ And the blanks are getting scaaaryyyyy!

There is sticky situations, and then there is this. Holy F. Ryder is in deep shit omg! 😱😱😱😱😱

This is literally the first chapter I’ve read of this fic and it sucked me in so hard I can’t believe it. It’s got so many of my favorite things: post-game aftermaths! Investigation! Mystery! Exploring Ryder’s traumas instead of stuffing it into a stasis locker! I am hooked.

I can’t wait to read the next chapter, I have a feeling it’s going to be good

OH GOD THAT CLIFF HANGER!

An aromatic character is something I thought I’d never see and honestly I’m in love with her because I can relate with it.

I’m extremely grateful to @natsora for working on it and making this plot real.   Cuz 'what is the idea without implementation or implementation without the skills’. 

So if you are in doubt whether to start reading this story or not, I’ll give you even more reasons to doubt xD [or fall in love with the plot before even starting to read it]. Just click ‘KEEP READING’:

Tagged by @thedarksideofseokanori Thank you!!

Tagging @ainzaphir @crackinglamb @dafan7711 @forlornmelody No obligations

Ryder yawned, long and wide as she stared at the man. She was getting tired of his ramblings. Sure, she was interested at first, so she endured and listened. In fact, she’d pat herself on the back for not walking off within the first thirty sentences or so in. On and on he went, a story filled with so much grievance and perceived slights. All Ryder heard were complaints. Blah-blah-blah, Bulldog shouldn’t have joined another team — a more successful one she might add in her head — blah-blah-blah Bulldog shouldn’t allow the Vipers to attack them. 

Blah. Blah. Blah.

Art and story by @seokanori​. Check out her works on Seokanori.com. Beta-ed by @ainzaphir​

Splintered Minds - Chapter 30 / 39

“The Tempest?” Carlyle snapped. “Why is she there?”

SAM remained silent for a moment. “I… do not know. My processes have been altered.”

He stiffened as he ran, his bag of supplies slung across his shoulders. “Again? Is it Scott? What’s happening SAM?”

“One moment, Dr. Carlyle,” SAM stated. All that filled the ominous silence was his laboured breathing. 

He had just settled into a light sleep when SAM’s voice came through his omni-tool, rousing him. All it had taken was four simple words — Ryder is in trouble — to bring him back to full awareness. His first thought was to check in with the Medical Centre, but a call told him everything he needed to know. She wasn’t in her bed, she has gone missing. 

“Where is she?” he growled. 

As the AI worked, his mind leapt from one disastrous scenario to the next. Ryder had done what she had initially set out to do, finally pushed over the edge by him revealing the truth. Scott had kidnapped and killed her. His synapses fired as his worries overtook his normally cool and calm manner. 

“She’s on the Tempest,” came the answer. SAM’s voice tight, almost afraid. “Her heart is failing, please hurry, doctor.”

His own heart stuttered in response as he doubled his speed. “Please inform T’Perro, Kesh and Drack. I’ll need help.”

“Understood, Dr. Carlyle.”

OC and plot belongs to the multi-talented @seokanori. Check out for work on SeoKanori.com. 

Many thanks to @ainzaphir for taking on beta-ing duties! Check out her writing at her AO3

Splintered Minds - Chapter 29 / 39

Ryder blinked the gunk from her eyes. Did I pass out? Pain registered on her consciousness, but it wasn’t the same level as the last time. Her head pounded, the side of her head a mess, her hair was plastered against her scalp. Things had gone tingly and numb. Music played in the background. She frowned as she tried to decide if the music was a part of reality. 

She grunted as she tried to turn her head. Her neck barely had the strength to support her skull, her chin thumped against her chest. Eyes rolling to the side, she saw the blade wasn’t protruding from her right hand anymore. Instead, there was a gaping hole. Her vision flashed. Another time, another torture table. An echo of laughter and a glinting nail. 

She squeezed her eyes shut, her breath rattling out through her mouth in shudders. Her throat was sore, it was swelling after Not-Scott’s stranglehold over it. 

Where is he?

Ryder was finally convinced that this was reality, but that meant there would be no escape. It was unending, relentless and real. She had to get herself and Harper out. At the same time, if this was reality, that meant it was Scott, her real brother, her twin. 

OC and plot belongs to the multi-talented Seo Kanori / MellowCorn. Cover art as always by the awesome @seokanori. 

My thanks to @ainzaphir for taking on beta duties! Check out her writing at her AO3.

Splintered Minds - Chapter 28

It was surprisingly easy, Ryder didn’t even have to sneak out. The floors were empty, the Nexus itself even more so. Dressed in a pair of Initiative sweatpants, hoodie and a pair of sneakers, she left the Medical Centre on foot. Nobody thought to ask, a pulled up hood was enough to dissuade all communication. 

The message was burnt in her retinas. 

It’s me. Let’s meet. My place. I’ll be waiting. 

Ryder wondered if she had imagined it. She checked her omni-tool again. The message glowed orange back at her. She rubbed her eyes, blinking them fast and still the message was there. Maybe this is all a dream. Is any of this even real?

She clenched her right hand and it protested. Dream or not, it didn’t matter, she was going anyway. Scott called, she had to answer. 

The tram was empty. It held the buzz of an empty refrigerator, just like her life. The air felt still and cold, it stung her nostrils. She sank into a seat and waited as the tram started moving soundlessly. Neon lights lit the interior of the enclosed track. They flashed across the windows like her life flashing before her eyes, images too fast to register. As the tram emerged from the tunnel, the Nexus opened like a flower. The floor dropped away, kilometres down, so did the ceiling. 

Dim lights spotted the landscape. She recognised the hydroponics, the docks and other essential sectors that ran through both the day and night cycles, ensuring everyone had air to breathe, food to eat and water to drink. Everything else was dark. Sane people were in their beds, or puttering around behind darkened windows. 

Ryder was the only one on the move. Scott called, she had to answer. 

The final chapter to a fRyder / Harry Carlyle story

A @badthingshappenbingo prompt fill for “Taking the Bullet” Fandom: Mass Effect / Mass Effect Andromeda

—

Ryder stepped out of Carlyle’s temporary housing. It was one apartment in a row of many others, yet early enough that there weren’t many people out and about. The few who were threw them odd looks, but they scuttled when she gave them a flat stare. Soon enough it was only herself and Carlyle left along the stretch of corridor. 

She turned to bid Carlyle goodbye when she heard a scruff of footsteps fast approaching. Instincts flared to life, she spun and spotted an angara fast approaching. Pink colouration covered in standard leather gear. Ryder frowned, the angara wasn’t there before. Her eyes darted about. She must have been hiding behind one of the struts that lined the corridor. 

Time slowed and sped up at the same time in a dizzying fashion.

Growing Up Chapter 2

A @badthingshappenbingo prompt fill for 'Human Shield’ featuring fRyder/Harry Carlyle. A birthday gift fic for @seokanori, my partner in crime Fandom: Mass Effect Andromeda / Mass Effect

My thanks to @ainzaphir for taking on beta duties! Check out her writing at her AO3 and Tumblr. 

It was a mess. Ryder couldn’t help but look into the crowd. “SAM, hook into the Nexus’ security system and scan the faces.”

“Understood Pathfinder,” SAM replied. 

In the time it took for her to get her stupid graze wound treated and suited up, somehow, some-fucking-how, Kandros and his men had managed to lose track of some of the Roekaar that had escaped. She sighed. They had taken down a couple of clusters that had struck other parts of the Nexus, but she had an itching feeling that she hadn’t seen the last of them. 

Sure the party had gotten a lot more exciting after the explosion, but this was a little too much. She was thinking more in terms of a bar fight and a chance to dunk Tann into the punch bowl and call it an accident. Kandros had placed the Nexus on lockdown, it was only a matter of time before they would catch them all, but Kandros was refusing to do a station wide sweep. 

“I don’t want to turn this into a witch hunt, Ryder,” he barked over the comms. “We have actual angara guests here, legit traders.” He had left the latest site of battle to regroup and plan back at APEX headquarters, leaving her with the loose ends. 

A @badthingshappenbingo prompt fill for “Caught in an Explosion” Fandom: Mass Effect / Mass Effect Andromeda

Also a birthday gift fic for my partner in crime @seokanori. Happy Birthday woman! I hope you enjoy your birthday. 

Sara Ryder is young, impulsive and completely reckless, or so Harry Carlyle thought. When a party is crashed by the Roekaar, Sara Ryder morphs right before his eyes, forcing him to reevaluate everything he knew. 

Maybe Harry Carlyle never truly knew Sara Ryder after all?

It’s suggested you read Deadly Star for context.

READ IT ON AO3

New SaHara art I did for MERBB story Returning Ghost 

@natsora wrote a story about my angry bean ‘Mellowcorn’ Ryder and it’s a part of Elements of Ryder series

… “You will recover fully in six week. Take the time and heal. Do your physiotherapy exercises. Then…” he left the word hovering between them.

Ryder narrowed her eyes. Ignoring the pain in her shoulder, she pressed her hand against his pants. She grinned when she felt the hardening bulge there.

“Four weeks,” she countered with a grin. …

Deadly Star by @natsora​

art by Seo Kanori something amazing @natsora wrote with my little flower mellowcorn_ryder ! click ‘keep reading’ to read the interview song: Maroon 5 - Moves Like Jagger

A/N - Oh gosh - I got rather inspired for this prompt! I chose to write Little Black Dress for Harry x Sara and @seokanori‘s was kind enough to let me used her characters. She also surprised me by doing art for this drabble, so you get smutty fic and sexy art!

Out Of Control

Harry’s eyes were inevitably drawn to Sara the moment he walked into Vortex. She always looked sexy, but dressed in the skin tight leather dress tonight, she was temptation personified. Their eyes met across the room, electricity leaping between them as he drifted further into the crowd, holding her gaze as she moved to the beat.

The dress hugged her curves faithfully, the glossy black material clinging temptingly to her tiny waist and the swell of her hips. The plunging neckline gave tempting glimpses of her golden cleavage, and thigh high boots hugged legs that only this morning had been wrapped around his waist. He smirked at the memory; the ever present hunger for Sara stirring within him.

His gaze lingered on the delicious line of thigh visible between her boots and the hem of her dress, and it took everything inside of him not to cross the room, bend her over the nearest table and make her his. A surge of lust, hot and thick, pulsed through him, a driving need to have her body under his, and he clenched his hands into fists.

The club lights flashed, outlining her body in a halo of blood red light, the pounding music matching the thundering beat of Harry’s heart as he moved forward. Hunger, lust , drawing him towards him towards Sara as she coiled and swayed on the dance floor …

My collaboration with @natsora and another one story about my Ryder!

Raining in Eos

story by @natsora art by @seokanori

I love every line of this story and I’m glad that I had such an amazing opportunity to work with @natsora again!  Happy reading and pls read tags and warning! 

Wonderful @natsora made for me oneshot and made my Sara so alive. I LOOOOOOOVE IT! Natsora is so talented author, I have a feeling that she visited my mind and presented my character exactly the way i see her because this is 100% the way I see my Ryder. My rough sketches turned into a whole story… Hell I’m so HAPPY! p.s. art by me ;) ____________________________________ song: The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army ____________________________________

‘SPLINTERED MINDS’  🔪 🔪 🔪

story by @natsora @mellowcornryder belongs to @seokanori

Interested? Read ‘Splintered Minds Hype Post‘ for warnings ;)