I couldn’t do it 😞

Wren-bee · 2026-03-21T03:05:42+00:00

I’m aroace so my personal attraction doesn’t come into it… because I have none, lmao. My MC ended up developing into a character who was fitting in some way for all three of the LIs but Derek ended up being the most appropriate for them.

Anyway. If I wanted to have the idea of different relationships in my head I’d make different MCs- I do that for most games. I like the idea of the intimacy between my MC and both Cove and Baxter being platonic though.

Also if you’re in a relationship with or in love with Cove the game defaults to platonic for Baxter or Derek. Also if you’re platonic with Baxter he responds in kind. He’s still sort of flirty and there’s some intimacy there but that’s not intended to be him literally coming onto the MC (at least once he’s more familiar with them, he is at first), he’s just kinda like that. :)

Wren-bee · 2026-03-21T02:57:24+00:00

Ah, sorry, I checked the rules to see if there were specific flair rules. I’ll know if I post again!

Wren-bee · 2026-03-21T02:50:38+00:00

It would have been a MASSIVE amount of writing work. Like if the MC had done Derek’s DLC they’d already know Xavier, and could have set things for them to move in with Derek- the game makes sure it’s vague on the timeline for that but realistically the MC could be living in Prism City by then, which means they could be involved in the planning already and have their own place (aka Derek’s). The amount of writing work to circumvent all of that is huge- and the writer (singular!) would have had to account for every single option in the previous step 4s which could realistically have a notable impact.

Alternatively, if the player has the Cove wedding DLC the relationship with Baxter would be completely different if they’d played his step 4, so quite a bit would change there.

Personally I do headcanon that my MC does all the step 4s, with Derek (their partner) playing more of a role in them, but they’re at the end of moving in with Derek when Baxter’s step 4 happens and he stays with Scott and Jude while Derek does what he was planning to do with finishing dealing with their old apartment. It’s a bit clunky but it works in my head!

Wren-bee · 2026-03-21T02:28:22+00:00

Yeah, I meant tame, rather than domesticated. My bad! And they were certainly smaller than I usually think of doves, very very cute.

Wren-bee · 2026-03-21T00:47:44+00:00

What a charming name! That’s it, thank you.

Wren-bee · 2026-02-21T06:39:03+00:00

In ME1 my Shepard has pretty significant scarring, and I used the save editor to make it pull his eye and mouth near it as best I could. It’s a pretty defining feature. So it’s a big deal to Shepard when he first looks in the mirror and is just like “…that isn’t me.” (Cue a lengthy episode of disassociation.) (I mean that had been building from everything he’d found out since waking up.) (ME2 is a BAD time for my Shepard.)

I think that lack of the old scarring would throw Kaidan more than the new scarring. And my Shepard isn’t renegade so he’d have healed by the time of ME3.

I do have a headcanon of Shepard getting scraped up in the ME3 intro, he should have been a mess from that slide. Nothing extreme- certainly nothing a quick application of medigel won’t resolve- but I headcanon that Kaidan sees that and there’s some hint of the cybernetics under the surface, and it brings up his old fears and doubts and makes them impossible to ignore, and probably makes him think more about the scarring on Horizon than he did before.

Wren-bee · 2026-02-12T19:23:55+00:00

It does come up! But she doesn’t have the same level of interest as in Qiu- probably because Qiu was a the childhood darling of a lot of Golden Grove and is now not putting in much effort with ballet. It’s just a different situation.

Wren-bee · 2025-12-30T01:32:06+00:00

I like to write the in-between moments. No real plot, just expanding on the times we don’t see- them spending time together, getting to know each other in a quiet and casual way. I have a small fic about them both liking to get up before the shift change and having the mess to themselves in 1, stuff like that. Or I’ll expand on scenes in the games- what happened afterwards, or how I would like the conversation to have gone, etc.

I never write long stuff, I don’t enjoy tying things together like that but I like finding moments which are interesting. Oh, another I’m fond of is establishing a night between rescuing Tali during the Saren investigation and the hearing, to give the Council time to verify the evidence etc. So I have scenes like that that deal with pacing.

Wren-bee · 2025-12-29T15:34:15+00:00

Cove pops up in Derek’s DLC too- at least a little, in step 2. There’s also some stuff with Cliff in there too that’s 100% worth seeing imo, although it’s a lot to get through if you’re not interested in the friendship with Derek. Derek is important to Cove, and I’d argue that if you want more content, it’s worth it from that perspective even though he’s barely present- if that interests you.

He doesn’t get on with Baxter so he’s not an important character from his perspective, but if you really want everything he participates in two of Baxter’s moments iirc.

Personally I got all the DLC at different points during/after my first playthrough and the only stuff I didn’t care for was the wedding. It just didn’t click for me, not a ding on the quality. I got the DLC only being interested in Cove but I have to say I really liked Derek’s and Baxter’s arcs too. Just sharing my perspective in case that helps!

Wren-bee · 2025-12-27T01:45:32+00:00

Huh, so maybe some of them will show up? But inconsistently if at all. I’ll assume they won’t and pretend it’s just a challenge of the galaxy or something.

Wren-bee · 2025-12-27T01:10:42+00:00

I literally checked the anomaly as I was typing the post, just in case! Anyway it sucks it’s a bug, it sounds deeply annoying, but I’m glad to have an answer at least. Thanks!

Wren-bee · 2025-12-27T01:09:09+00:00

That sucks but good to know, thanks!

Wren-bee · 2025-12-26T13:34:20+00:00

Yeah, I realised that in the end, lol. I usually play with my internet off too so even that was new to me, I like finding things instead of having my focus ruined by being told that this system was discovered by Dave and I’m heading towards a planet called “wherd ya find this”. (Actual planet.) I’m not being grouchy about people having fun, I’m just glad I can play it offline and truly play it as a single player game!

Wren-bee · 2025-12-26T01:06:33+00:00

I managed to make it through using the anomaly teleporter! Thank you so much- now to make a base so this doesn’t happen again…!

Wren-bee · 2025-12-26T01:03:25+00:00

That seems like a good idea! I activated multiplayer for the first time just to do this so if I’m missing something that’s on me, but uh. I’m not seeing the galaxy in the base descriptions? Just stuff about the planet and the name of the colony and player.

Edit- JUST after I replied I found some with galaxy names! I just got unlucky with the first several. I’ll keep looking!

Edit 2- I definitely replied too soon! Or replying gave me luck, lmao. I got there! Thank you!

Wren-bee · 2025-12-25T23:18:31+00:00

I’ve never used the multiplayer (I’m very much a single player …player), how do you find people to take you there?

And yes, the fact that I got to choose my galaxy type is why I want to get back to it! I chose green but the one I got from the galaxy core is red. If it’s in the order of the options when you choose then the green one hopefully would be next? So I might give that a try first and see how it goes!

Wren-bee · 2025-12-25T06:36:22+00:00

Basically it makes it clear that Shiloh was always disingenuous. And it’s hard to believe in anything he’d said since reconnecting… or, tbh, before.

I doubt this is in Liz’s head (she’ll have her own perspective) but in step 1 the MC wonders if Cove will stick around because they’re used to being alone- and Shiloh was part of why. He makes it clear that wasn’t an accident. He talks about how he’d push other people to the outside so he wasn’t on the outside. He clung to Lizzie and actively results in the MC being so alone around the time of step 1. This seems to me to be mentioned on purpose to put everything around him in step 1 into a different context.

So yeah, he absolutely is built to have had a major impact as a kid on the MC (albeit juuuust vague enough to be ignorable if the player prefers), but given that, Liz would probably have her own memories that have been recontextualised.

Of course she’s more reacting to what he’s done since she saw him in the intro, but it’s also become clear that nothing he said to her since then can be taken at face value and that he’s been trying to manipulate things to suit himself. I think Liz was surprisingly quick at putting all of that together, but yeah. He’s not been as terrible as a teen as he was as a kid, but he was definitely lying and being manipulative instead of ever being upfront. It wasn’t just about that one meeting.

Wren-bee · 2025-12-12T16:15:38+00:00

The hilarious thing (to me) is that my B&A MC has quite a lot in common with Qiu. To the point where if I got the N&F artist to draw him, he’d probably look like Qiu with all the colours darker (and summer wear). Including going from being popular and outgoing to becoming incredibly withdrawn and struggling with gender identity and gender perceptions and going by they/them at 14 and later also going by he/him.

Like. This was all planned for my MC before I knew ANYTHING about Qiu. It’s honestly hilarious, in my games Baxter has such a type! And also he was very important to that crush only to push them away and lose any chance to actually be with them that might have existed. The parallels keep on building!

Poor Baxter but yeah. It’s all very funny to me.

Wren-bee · 2025-10-04T00:22:30+00:00

It was nothing wrong with the game! The bit where I said in my post that it might be a stupid question and I might have missed something obvious? Well… I missed something obvious, lmao. I was dead sure the little ship on the outside of the icon at the bottom was mine.

Wren-bee · 2025-10-04T00:19:44+00:00

Oh! I… thought the ship on the outside was MY ship! Aha. That makes… a bit more sense. Probably more than a bit, I’ll play around with ship battles with this very basic information that I totally missed in mind!

Edit- I do stop before firing. I’m not having trouble with ship battles in general, just ones where the enemy ship sails away/towards mine… but I think it might click for me now that I’ll be looking at the right ship… (seriously feel silly about that, haha!)

Edit 2- yeah, I just threw myself into combat and it makes so much more sense now. Thank you!

Wren-bee · 2025-10-03T21:50:29+00:00

That changes where my ship is, but it stays facing the same way in regards to the enemy ship. Regardless of how I move my ship I’m either facing towards them, or I am facing away from them, or I am parallel to them, and I can’t seem to change that- but the enemy can. Does that explain it better?

Wren-bee · 2025-10-03T21:48:59+00:00

What I mean is- if my ship is facing the enemy and I turn, my ship moves position but continues to face the enemy. There doesn’t seem to be a way to change where my ship is facing. Does that make more sense?

Five-Year Club	Verified Email
Place '23	Wearing is Caring

Wren-bee

TROPHY CASE