Mass Effect liveplay (complete)

[sincere]

Spent two hours wrestling with my taxes, gave up. I'll have to go to H&R Block next weekend and pay them to take this mess off my hands. Also spent some time looking at apartments/houses?? but it was not fruitful.

Meanwhile, I have been having the random want to replace all my icons with The World Ends With You character poses. Like, FUCK YOU, YURI AND SIF AND DINOSAUR ICONS. I NEED TWENTY ICONS OF SHIKI MAKING FLIPPY HAND GESTURES.



And finally, Mass Effect liveplay, continued from here. Mass Effect, pages 1-8. Mass Effect 2, pages 8-15. Mass Effect 3, pages 15-24.


Latest: ...finished...

Spacer sentinel with traumatic survivor backstory and adorable facial scar! LET'S GO.

Comments

[sincere]

So I don't hate Jack. I talk to her on the ship and she tells Shepard that Cerberus raised and trained her in a facility when she was young; when she escaped, they started hunting her. But she has every intention to hunt them back, once she gets names and places and dates.

Then she hops up on a desk and gets kind of excited and asks Shepard why she doesn't take her sweet ship and go be a space pirate. It'd be fun. Jack'd help.

So... a tiny bit hardcore skinhead, a tiny bit six years old.

[sincere]

Grunt, on the other hand, is adorable. He tells Shepard what the strategic weaknesses of a human ship like the Normandy are, and when Shepard asks what else he knows about human stuff, he says, "It'd only take a finger's length to sever your spine. Humans, salarians, asari... weak and soft. Quarians, not so much. Turians you'd have to work the blade a little. Not that I see the point. Heh -- the point. Get it-- Never mind."

...THERE'S A SENSE OF HUMOR IN THERE, I SAW IT! I SAW IT, GRUNT.

[sincere]

He was designed to be the perfect krogan warrior and he has all the krogan instincts that say "dead = weak and worthless, not like me, strong and alive and tough", so he thinks of the krogan's fate and he thinks, "If they die out, it's their own fault, and they suck."

But at the same time, he didn't earn what he has. It was just embedded into him. So in a way, he feels like even the dead are stronger than him. Maybe they failed, but they tried.

He says he'll try to find a reason to care about the genophage.

[sincere]

When I return to the game, the Illusive Man wants to talk to me, so I head to the debriefing room.

[sincere]

Shepard enters a hologram with the Illusive Man. Horizon, a colony in the Terminus System, just went silent. Either they're under attack or they will be.

And, incidentally, Ashley is there. Ashhhhhh!!! is not an option, so I ask a few cursory questions and then run to see her.

[sincere]

Mordin has "something" that should help with the Collector's paralysis and all, so. In we go??

[sincere]

Hypothetically Mordin's something is making us invisible to the Collector's swarming bugs, so they won't target us. But of course, the only real test is actual contact with a swarm, right?

"Look forward to seeing if you survive!"

[sincere]

We get a cutscene of the pretty little colony as the Collectors come in with their bugs and paralyze everyone. Ashley tries to fight them off, but of course fails.

"The Harbinger" takes control of a Collector to check out the place. "Prepare these humans for ascension," he pronounces.

Cheerful.

[sincere]

So a Scion or Harbinger or General or whatever of the Collectors keeps possessing Collectors near me and making ominous speeches about how this body does not matter and Shepard cannot prevail and he wants to hurt her etc. It's getting annoying.

[slayerofgod]

ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL

[sincere]

I activated the colony's defense towers and lasers were fired and the Collector ship gave up and left -- with like, half the colony on board, but you can't win them all!

More importantly, Ashley is here. She and Shepard have a definitely not romantic reunion. She's upset because she heard rumors that Shepard was alive -- and working with Cerberus. Alliance intel suggested Cerberus might be behind the disappearances, and they had an anonymous hint that they were going to hit this colony next.

Ashley is absolutely 100% not willing to trust Cerberus because of their past and her suspicions about their present, which is funny considering most of my alien friends are totes okay with it. Anyway, we're done.

[rainfall]

It is interesting. I also liked it as per our earlier discussion of Ashley's racism. You know?

[sincere]

Ashley is not completely wrong about Cerberus. The Illusive Man set up the whole situation. He leaked the rumors about Shepard, and then leaked rumors that Horizon might be next, and then Ashley felt the need to go, and then the Collectors were like, hey, Shepard's teammate is here, so...

Shepard doesn't have a chance to call him out on this, but I trust she's just muffling it. I've had more than enough chances to have her go "Cerberus are NOT good guys, they're just COINCIDENTALLY doing something that HAPPENS to be good-aligned at the moment" and she's not stupid. But because she's not stupid, and because the Alliance and the Council won't help her, she knows she needs someone to back her efforts. So, grin and bear it.

The Illusive Man wants to strengthen the team and build up so we can go through on an offensive.

[sincere]

Jacob is there after I'm done talking to the Illusive Man, to hint significantly at me that it might be time to start looking into loyalty quests. Thanks for the tip.

[sincere]

Jacob's loyalty quest involves no weird dialogue! He received a notification of an SOS sent by his father's ship. You know, the one that disappeared ten years ago? He wasn't talking to his dad when he went missing, and he's spent all this time accepting his death, but he has to check it out anyway.

[rainfall]

Did your dad's notification say he was in Silent Hill, Jacob, because

I've got a bad feeling about that...

[sincere]

Miranda just wants to punch herself for even having to ask for help, but -- she has an identical twin sister who is also being hunted by her dad, and who is being protected by Cerberus. Miranda thinks Daddy has found her, and wants to relocate her.

[rainfall]

This would come across as dumb, I want to stress that, but I think given the circumstances involved in Miranda's birth that it's perfectly expected for her to have not just a twin but several twins.

[sincere]

Grunt doesn't have a loyalty mission, but he does joyously tell me that he now hates turians! Yay! He has a feeling!! He has a feeling, Shepard!!

Adorable headache.

[sincere]

Okay I'm back. I started Jacob's loyalty mission.

[slayerofgod]

Excellent choice, madam. Easily my favorite. ^^-b

[sincere]

Every star system Shepard travels to had better learn to fear, because I mine the shit out of everything in sight. I leave nothing left. I am the pillager of worlds.

[sincere]

I wander in casually to upgrade some shit and casually see if Mordin has anything to say and he bowls me over with exclamations about how the Collectors are attacking aieee and I'm like what is happening here

The merc group Blood Pack picked up a former member of the team that worked on the revised genophage adaptation, Maelon. Mordin would consider it a personal favor to him to help Maelon.

So... I guess his loyalty mission is now open also!

[sincere]

Next we've made the executive decision to do Mordin's loyalty mission!

[rainfall]

Mordin > Miranda. You know it's true.

[sincere]

Meanwhile, Grunt has a loyalty quest! He's pacing and growling and frustrated. He wants to kill something. More than usual. He just feels. Urghh. And then he slams his head into the window and then stalks over to Shepard angrily.

Grunt: See?! Why even do that?!

sdfklskjg XDDD

"Fury is my choice, not a sickness." Shepard suggests he go see a krogan medic of some kind, and he refuses to ask her to go to Tuchanka, so she tells him she's doing it anyway, and he grudgingly thanks her.

[sincere]

So Grunt's loyalty quest starts off well! He goes to Tuchanka, finds it an unimpressive chunk of rock not worth his time, and introduces himself to Wrex as "pure krogan" and "you should be in awe".

[sincere]

Wrex said Okeer was very unpopular here.

Grunt: He is dead.
Wrex: Of course. You're with Shepard. How could he be alive?

Brorex has such faith in my ability to murder everything. It brings a tear to my eyes, man. Shepard asks what's wrong with Grunt, and Wrex says nothing, he's just becoming an adult.

Garrus: Adolescence? Can't we just take him back to Omega and buy him a few dances?

slkdfjlsg

[sincere]

Okay, more tomorrow.

[sincere]

So my main man Garrus has his loyalty mission up, and I am on it.

So, Garrus might have a lead on Sidonis, the guy who betrayed Garrus's team. Fade is a guy on Omega who's an expert at making people disappear, and Sidonis was seen with him. Garrus likes the human saying "an eye for an eye". Sidonis owes him ten lives.

When Shepard expresses some reservation ("Are you sure that's how you want to play it?") he says he's sure, and "you don't need to agree with me, but I'd like your help." Because bb.

[sincere]

I dock on the Citadel for Garrus's mission. EDI suggests we consult C-Sec, and Captain Bailey says that Fade works for the Blue Suns. He has a lead, but no concrete idea where he is, or he'd have locked the bastard up already. He says that some of Fade's contacts work in the market warehouse, though, so we should consult there for more information.

"Gently, of course."

Of course.

[sincere]

Fade is not this little volus dude whose krogan mercs make some threatening gestures, but back down readily enough when Garrus and co make threatening gestures right back. The volus dude tells us that Fade is Harkin -- a drunk asshole C-Sec officer from Mass Effect who got demoted/fired for being corrupt. And Harkin is in the warehouse district, surrounded by Blue Sun mercs. Sounds like fun.

[sincere]

SPACE HAMSTER

IT'S SMILING AT ME??

[sincere]

The turian/asari couple who are definitely not having the life-span talk are adorable.

[sincere]

After thanking Shepard for the loyalty mission stuff, Garrus admits he finds it strange being on a human ship in a high-tension mission. Humans don't prepare for them the same way turians do: with violence! Turian ships are strictly-run but on their off time they're allowed to do whatever they want and their commanders know they need to let off steam.

This one time, he had a high-tension mission and he and the recon scout had been at each other's throats. She suggested settling it in the ring. They were the top-ranked hand-to-hand specialists on the ship. Nine rounds of fighting to a draw. And then they went back to her quarters. "More than one way to work off stress."

Are we... are we at the romantic options now

[sincere]

So. Garrus. We could always work off stress together.

Garrus: I didn't think you'd feel like sparring, Commander.
Shepard: Or we could skip right to the tiebreaker.
Garrus: Oh--!
Garrus: I--
Garrus: Hmm...

Garrus: I... never knew you had a weakness for men with scars...
Shepard: /smirks at him
Garrus: Well -- why not! There's nobody in this galaxy I respect more than you. If we can find a way to make it work...
Garrus: Then... Yeah, definitely.

Definitely sounds like a positive response.

[sincere]

OKAY MIRANDA LOYALTY MISSION!!

[rainfall]

Things we will never do: Miranda loyalty mission.

[sincere]

Never mind. Miranda's quest takes place in the same nebula as two recruits and Liara, and I won't want to leave until I'm done, and I want Tali first.

RECRUITING TALI

[sincere]

Tali is on a planet where the magnetic fields are fucked up so the radioactive sun will destroy our shields if we're ever in direct sunlight. This is exciting.

The geth have overwhelmed the little quarian outpost we find, but the quarian left a message playing: Tali'Zorah and the data are all that matter, find her and help her.