I Think A Lot About Shepard's Fish Tank Wipeout In The Citadel DLC.

I think a lot about Shepard's fish tank wipeout in the Citadel DLC.

The entire DLC is this lighthearted love letter to Mass Effect, and it's beautiful. But then there's THIS moment. When Shepard falls through a fish tank.

The entire way down, they desperately try to arrest their fall. They have no shields. No combat armor. There is no one to catch them. It feels like this is one of the few times there is ever fear. And they don't land gently. And the cut scene lingers on it. There is no levity in this moment. Shepard is on the ground, groaning in pain, slow to get up, clutching their ribs. First instinct before they try to get to their feet? Reach for the gun. Have that first. Then see if you can stand.

And I think the only reason we can have this moment, where Shepard is vulnerable, injured, and in trouble, is because there is no one there to see. The moment Brooks gets on the comm, they crack a joke. "Yup. Feeling good." While unable to stand up straight.

We get this at the end of the game, too, but that's when the stakes are at their highest. That's when it's supposed to be hard. It's no less magnificent then, but now, in this moment? When everything was happy and fun and silly? MAN.

And afterward, everyone jokes about it. Every single member of your squad makes a crack about the sushi place. And Shepard plays along. Haha, yeah, fell right through it, while trying to change the subject.

No one knows what that fall was like. No one saw Shepard lying on the ground in the bowls of the Silversun Strip, water dripping off them, struggling to get to their feet.

And no one asks, because it's Shepard.

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celestial-hearts2

3 years ago

Just a random assortment of headcanons & AUs for Arcane:

Headcanons:

- Vi does that thing cats do where she just curls up in random patches of sunlight.

-- Caitlyn almost had a heart attack because of this one time Vi was just casually sleeping on the edge of the roof.

-- One time her parents asked why her girlfriend was sprawled out on the coffee table and just "damn it Vi."

- Vi sometimes falls asleep while standing up.

- Caitlyn eats ice cubes.

- Caitlyn's parents are just as protective of Vi as she is. They hear someone say something and go into full "tf did you say about our future daughter in law" mode (in their polite Piltovian way, of course).

- Caitlyn told Jayce about that time Vi punched the tower down so now he sometimes asks her to help test the durability of whatever he's building because surely if it can survive that it can survive anything.

- Every time Jayce says or does something stupid Viktor just bonks him on the head with his cane.

Alternate Universes:

- Arcane AU where everything is the same except instead of actual explosives Jinx just yeets paint bombs at everyone.

- Instead of getting arrested Vi is adopted by Sevika.

-- I find the mental image of Sevika turning to Silco and going "if you get to keep the small explody child, I get to keep the small punchy child" amusing.

-- Eventually leads to a "competitive parenting" dynamic where Silco is actively trying to win while Sevika just does it by accident.

-- If Sevika wants time off or a raise she just asks Vi to break something that would inconvenience Silco (though, let's be honest, Vi doesn't need much convincing for that), sometimes they get Jinx to help because Silco is physically incapable of being angry at Jinx for longer than five minutes.

- AU where Vi actually is the leader of Zaun but Caitlyn doesn't know cause it just never comes up, Vi herself doesn't mention it and no one in the Undercity brings it up because "what idiot doesn't know that?" so the two of them are just off doing their thing without it ever being addressed, cut to some point in the future & the council mention wanting to meet whoever's in charge and Vi pipes up "oh yeah, that's me" and Caitlyn's just standing there like "excuse me, what???"

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celestial-hearts2

4 months ago