#korblez

an excuse to draw my AU version of Gwen :3c (she's an adult btw)

For the fic title ask game:

Shrios + “even gods can’t stop the end from coming”

Oh Korb thanks I needed a title for this one bc. This.

This is a canon-compliant one I've had drafted for a bit :)

It's a one-shot, Mass Effect 3, set right before the assault on Cerberus - probably just after the Citadel party tbh, when everyone's passed out and Adrian, whose insomnia/somnophobia has gotten increasingly bad through things, slips away in the middle of the night.

She's been happy enough during things, but she needs quiet, she needs to have a true moment to herself. So she winds up around the largest drell enclave, and heads for the temple - it's quiet even during peak hours, but it's a lull and so many are gone anyway, that Adrian has the shrine to Kalahira to herself.

She's intending to pray, of course, she's holding Thane's book and she isn't fluent, but she's read them enough with him, that while she can't quite read the letters, she recalls his voice. She wants to pray for her friends and family. For Kolyat. For the galaxy. Wants to leave some offering - and boy does she.

She gets out maybe two words before her voice breaks, and she completely breaks down, full body sobs, because she is so goddamn tired and just had to play host to give her friends and crew a good time because they deserve it - but she is tired. She's hurting, and she's terrified - not that she'll die, but that she'll live, and she doesn't want to any more. She's lost and lost and lost and she can't fight, she doesn't want to face this any more, and more than anything she just wants her lover and he's gone and how fucking dare She take him? When he had done much, when he was finding something to live for after already losing so much?

She cries her heart out to the Goddess... and gets up. Cleans herself up. Gets back to the Normandy - because they need her.

They always need her.

“I have a present for you,” Wrex says gruffly.

Garrus’ mandibles flick in mild concern. Even Shepard’s head tilts warily as Wrex barks something over his shoulder. A few krogan shuffle to clear a path, and moments later a shaman in long, flowing robes makes her way through.

Shepard freezes, staring in open shock.  

“Shepard,” she rumbles.

Before Garrus can ask what’s going on, Shepard takes off at a sprint and barrels into her. A startled grumble runs through the gathered krogan as she lowers her great head to reciprocate Shepard’s headbutt, then catches him with one scaly arm and knocks him off his feet. They wrestle, limbs flying, before the krogan pins him to the ground and growls. Garrus starts to reach for his sidearm, but Wrex swats his hand with irritation.

“Idiot,” Wrex mutters.

Garrus is about to protest until he hears the sound coming out of Shepard’s throat.

Laughter. Open, unrestrained, delighted laughter.

“My human whelp,” the shaman says proudly, before offering Shepard a hand to help him back to his feet.

33: Every Lie by My Darkest Days

This is a really generic breakup song but I like to sort of deliberately side-interpret things that aren't explicitly ruled against, and I was forced to read a biography that was 80% cheesy spy novel bullshit instead of factual yesterday so it's on the mind and I just watched an interesting g1 episode with Mirage, so all of that comes together to mean that I'd like to interpret shit like

Surrounded by every lie that won't come true Now you wanna take the time, now why would you? Think you're gonna make it right, but how could you? So I can't stay, surrounded by (surrounded by) every lie

through the (to-me) more interesting lens of spy shit.

Jazz is kind of the archetypal Bondian spy, and if you tie yourself into knots (read the lyrics closely while ignoring the tone for point and idea, then flip the pronouns from "I" to "you" and use that for tone) a little bit, you can make the case for this being a Bondian "cool epic gigachad coolguy dude gets the secrets and also finds the hottest girl in the building and has sex with her and she turns out to be an enemy spy who falls in love with him and can't do her job right" type story, and just focus in on that last bit.

Making Soundwave the Bond girl is immediately appealing but also really low-hanging and not that interesting. So I'm leaning toward either Rumble and/or Frenzy or Ravage, suddenly discovering their loyalties are under much more strain than they thought they were. And of course Megatron is Mr Evil Genius or whatever and shit.

From there it's all about writing Jazz and Jazz and not Jazz as Mr James Bond In Metal Now, and playing up the contrast between the actual plot (tv drama goofy shit) and his brain ("am i supposed to be believing this? did you get this idea from a tv drama?") for humor

100: A Little Faster by There For Tomorrow

There is literally nowhere I can go with this that doesn't end at Starscream -> Megatron in some way. I think what I'm thinking is. like. Early IDW, so a break from the new normal from me, I suppose, lol - in the very brief era where Starscream was an apparent fanboy of Megatron's work in the gladiatorial ring.

Starscream and Megatron are distant friends and close coworkers. Megatron is a figurehead already, and Starscream is efficient and effective and they work less as Megatron over Starscream so much as Megatron+Starscream - one team, planning things out. In these days Starscream and Megatron are equals.

There's a sequence of this - five or six scenes, maybe, at most a thousand words - detailing Megatron asking Starscream's advice, them slowly getting to know each other, Starscream being turned to before Megatron as the military voice in the room alongside Soundwave. Power clustering where Starscream believes he deserves it, around his fingers.

Then we skip ahead - to the early-mid war period, before Cybertron is uninhabitable but reaching a point for certain. This one is short - Starscream looking out across Cybertron's melting skyline, over the heads of a bunch of other commanders in a meeting, as everyone clamors for Megatron's opinion on some tactic and no one asks him. He's not the only mission commander any more, and he's not the only military mind. He's not irreplaceable, and he's finding that out as he's being replaced.

Then toward later, near the beginning of what happens on Earth with the whole serious-assassination-attempt deal.

Only now do we come to the part that makes this song relevant:

I'm sure it tasted oh so sweet But it was never good enough for me I bit the tongue behind my teeth ... You said you'd always keep your word Show me what you're after I thought you promised me the world Tell me what you're after Go on and take it way too far Cause here we are, waiting once again Show me what you're after Just a little faster, now

See what I mean?

Hahahaha! It does, doesn't?

WIP Tag Game

This is the next part of Onboarding/Offboarding, which is Kaidan's first and last in-person conversations with various crew members of Normandy SR-1 prior to the events of ME2 in the Radiant Damage timeline. First part was Joker, this one is his time with Garrus:

“Reapers,” Liam says in a hushed voice, as though he’s worried someone’s going to judge him for being crazy.

omg that's so cool! Bex is one of my favorite names ^_^

Nebula: she's been best friends (and for a few years, much more) with Kaidan since BAaT. He was the first person to talk to her when she got there and pulled her into his friends circle and that was that. Finding out they were both from the same city and both loved hockey was a bonus.