Bright End of Nowhere

1. I was browsing Tumblr awhile ago and came across a Bioware Confession that said that the poster would wish to cast the actress who played Maria Hill in The Avengers as Commander Shepard in a theoretical live-action film. I really can't unsee it now.

2. Seeding a Pandora station with Two Steps from Hell, Florence + the Machine, and Matthew Good (Band) really confuses the genome.

3. I have officially given up any and all pretense of actually being in control of writing this fic. It is going to be infinity words long because Commander Mouthy has Opinions. Christ, I'm going to need to go Make Friends or something to find a beta for this eventually. Assuming I can actually weave this narrative.

3a. Not that I really care if anyone other than me is willing to read it. I'm not just turning left here, I've changed phases and am throwing around complex vectors.

3b. "Fanon conventions, what fanon conventions?" This is me, ignoring, ignorant, or blatantly throwing out fanon Because I Can.

3c. Again, goddamn you and your Take A Third Option tendencies. There wasn't supposed to be a Third Option! Although you did jack the Epic level past 11.

4. Finally built a Lego set I've had around for about 3 years. I never realized safety orange and black were Bad Guy colors. Now the only set I have left to build is the space police one with the criminals looking like Ood, only more Cthulhu-y.

5. I suddenly have the oddest craving for scones.

1) Part of me feels very guilty for having the AC already going, because it really isn't that hot, but it's for the filter. Because the trees are still trying to kill me, and we've had a lot of rain. On the upside, though, so far it seems to be working (along with "drugging myself with Benedryl before bed on bad nights") and I haven't had a night yet where I only get 3 hours of sleep due to uncontrollable coughing. Ah, spring, you do try your damnedest to murder me every year.

2) I've been staring at LEGOs lately, in part because I realized I had two unconstructed sets just sitting in my closet and because I've had that construction itch again. When I found this from Ichiban Toys, I really could not resist it. (Even the Serenity model could not sway me.) But that hasn't soothed the itch, and when I stumbled upon this model of the SSV Normandy SR-2, complete with LEGO Digital Designer files so I could build it in Alliance colors myself...I'm hopeless. So now I've got a list of parts in an .xls, and I'm scouring BrickLink for parts and oh god, I'm actually going to do this. My latest Bad Idea. I have no idea where I'd even put the damn thing, and I know I'd end up having to take over the dining room table to build it. (The guys have noted that, considering it's LEGO, they really can't say a damn thing against me doing it. They're just as bad.)

Of course this leads to the Auxiliary Bad Idea: appropriate custom minifigs. I blame the fact that BrickArms and BrickForge exist.

3) Finished Bastion last week. Then promptly went and bought the soundtrack. "Build That Wall", "Mother, I'm Here", and "Setting Sail, Coming Home" are probably my favorite tracks.

4) Yarmond is playing Uncharted 2. neboat and I are having far too much fun asking him if Claudia Black has betrayed him yet. (Yes, no, yes, no, maybe? It's complicated!) Black is voicing, as far as I can tell, a treasure-hunter who may or may not be a double-agent for some terrorists and is possibly far cooler than the hero. Go on, be shocked. I dare you. (On the other hand, I had to pull up IMDB to prove one of her VA credits in the Mass Effect series because she sounds totally different.)

5) I seem to be writing another Guild game. This should not be shocking to anyone. Sometimes, I wonder why I don't just write gaming systems and attempt to indie publish them. My mom's been after me to try to turn this game-writing thing into an actual career.

I finished Mass Effect 3 tonight, and with it, finished the Mass Effect series. I...I just...I'm going to own my Unpopular Internet Opinion.

There was no other ending that would have been correct. I am not only satisfied, but deeply affected. It's hitting me now, and I am trying not to cry. Not even Persona 4's ending affected me this deeply.

Maybe I'll write more later. Not now. Even though you'll probably never see this, thank you Bioware.

Goodbye, Commander Shepard. And thank you.

(Subject line really has little to do with the post, other than somewhat celebrating Yuri's Night. Raise a toast!)

I spent last weekend at PAX East, which was very fun and very awesome. There are some really good indie games coming out soon, and some AAA titles, and basically, my wallet is going to once again be very sad very soon.

I possibly did a really stupid thing and started Mass Effect 3 about 2 days before the con. Thus spending a weekend in slight withdrawal, but mitigated by the fact that I was pretty much surrounded by gaming. The stupid part actually comes right now, because I am visiting my parents for 5 days, and thus am about 1600 miles from Bahamut. I'd be installing the game on my parents' laptop if it had a decent video card. As it is, I'm seriously in the withdrawal stage, mostly due to the "oh my god, what happens next?!" aspect. You know, like what happens when you're in the middle of a really good book or something. It's gotten to the point where I'm considering hitting up a bookstore for the tie-in novels. *facepalm* Yeah, I just might have a problem. Way to go, self.

The one good thing is that the withdrawal doesn't really hit unless I'm not doing anything. Since I'm only home for a short time, my parents have been monopolizing my time (as they should be! This is why I flew in, after all) and thus distracting me highly successfully. Seriously, if I were left alone for any significant period of time, I'd be climbing up the walls.

A Thought: Epic hilarity would occur if the crew of the SSV Normandy showed up on Atlantis in the Pegasus. Although I'm pretty sure Tali'Zorah would run circles around McKay, both out-doing and out-snarking him. (Tali'Zorah made this drone in a cave! With a box of scraps! No, seriously, she can do that shit. "Please Shepard; I'm a Quarian! Give me a hunk of scrap metal, a circuit board, and some element zero, and I'll have it making precision jumps!")

I'm really liking how all the races in the ME universe are distinct and nuanced. None of the major races seen are monolithic entities, and each have their own social issues, not to mention prejudice between the different species that exists on a spectrum. The minor races are a bit less nuanced, at least so far, but that's mostly because they're not heavily intertwined with the plot. So you only see a few examples.

So TB prevailed upon me to actually go play the copies of Mass Effect (1 and 2) that I have had sitting in my Steam library for awhile. I started playing ME in 2007 on the XBox360. I got roughly 80% through the game then had to stop playing it due to hosage. Fast-forward to last year, when I try to pick it up again but realize I have no idea how the controls work anymore. And since I didn't own the 360 anyway, and the housemate who does no longer lives with us, I bought PC versions on Steam during some random sale. So at least now I own them. Hence, why I've started from scratch.

Anyway, probably surprising no one who knows me, I am playing as FemShep, and there'd been something itching in the back of my brain. I knew the VA is Jennifer Hale, who's done a lot of video game voice work (Prier from La Pucelle Tactics, Fall-from-Grace from Planescape: Torment, Samus Aran from Metroid Prime, among many other roles). I looked her up on IMDB and then I found my answer. Hale was also the VA for Ivy from Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego? and Jessie Bannon on The Real Adventures of Johnny Quest.

Also known as the teenagers I wanted to be when I was 10, and pretty much shaped my childhood. (Ivy grew up to become Commander fucking Shepard. Yes. This makes perfect sense in my head. I DON'T CARE.)