firelord-zuko

is evil.

1. If you got offered a free holiday to anywhere in the world, where would you go?

Venice

2. Coffee or tea? What kind?

Water, sparkling.

3. What's your favourite BioWare romance?

BethanyEither FemShep x Garrus Vakarian or Male!Inquisitor x Ashara Zavros

4. Which historical event would you like to witness?

The Holocene Uh, the first mission of Francis Xavier to Japan or Gutenberg's printing press.

5. Robots: cute or scary? (Or something else? All robot opinions welcome.)

Depends on the robot, I guess? They range from cute to uncanny to industrial.

6. Which Mass Effect 3 ending do you prefer?

Destroy. Control and Synthesis don't fit, and Refusal is a dick move.

7. Do you play an instrument? If not, which one would you like to play?

No, but the piano or cello would be cool.

8. Who's on the throne of Ferelden?

Alistair, Anora, and a million different Wardens all at once. #quantum

9. Who's your favourite elf?

Lord Divayth Fyr, the most interesting mer in the world!

10. What's your favourite kind of bird? (important question)

Uh, the flapping kind. What, seriously? Do dinosaurs count? Hm. Either ravens or hawks, I guess. 


Not tagging anyone because I'm not cruel like certain other people. If you feel like doing this, feel free to.

Here's some baseless speculation on the next Mass Effect (which, we know, won't be called that way).

1. Setting. Prequel, sidequel or sequel? All three have their own problems. They're largest in a direct sequel: no matter one's personal opinion of the endings of Mass Effect 3, all of them have a tremendous impact on Earth, humanity and the galaxy as a whole. The differences between them are so vast that accounting for all possibilities would be a considerable effort for Bioware, and of course directly invalidate the Refusal ending (your Shepard refused to fire the Crucible? Tough job! Your game's going to be spent on the run from the Reapers as galactic civilisation collapses around you). If ME4 should be a direct sequel to Shepard's trilogy, it will be set in the far, far future, once the galaxy is back on its feet. The presence of the Mako and some of the concept art we've seen, however, suggests far smaller technological differences than should be expected in that case. Meanwhile, a sidequel would have to fight against being overshadowed by Shepard's trilogy and account for why we never hear anything about it in the original trilogy -- and, of course, we're still waiting for the Reapers to come around. For minimal overlap, this would likely be set during the two years in which Shepard is dead. However, this setting also severely limits Bioware's room for creative world-building. A story set on the fringes of society might work, but it's difficult. Finally, a prequel gives us only limited room to play with. Unless ME4 is going to be set in an alternate universe, there are about 30 years before humans and turians make First Contact and the beginning of ME1. In that time, humanity expanded massively throughout the galaxy, to the point where they now apparently control as much space as the turians and salarians combined (though much more thinly-settled). By the time of ME3, the humans-alien ratio on the Citadel's Presidium seems to be just about 50/50. In addition, all technology would seem outdated to players used to that of Shepard's time. Advances that occured over the course of the games -- improved biotic implants, standard-issue omni-blades, the Kodiak drop shuttle -- will be difficult to transplant back in time. On the other hand, a prequel probably offers the most attractive plot possibilities, drawing up a galaxy in which humans are truly newcomers and in which Shepard is too far removed to interfere. In fact, a prequel could take place just after the end of the First Contact War, which would certainly make for some interesting discussions with any turian crewmates! Hence, I consider a prequel to be the most likely.
2. Protagonist. We know that our protagonist will be human -- a shame, after the ME3 multiplayer and Dragon Age: Inquisition offered us multiple races again, but understandable. Mass Effect has a lot more species than Dragon Age has races, and many of them speak and behave in ways that would be difficult to model. For instance, turians and quarians would require different voices than humans or asari. We also know that our protagonist will be connected to the N7 programme in some way -- which might imply that they're not a part of it, or perhaps, if it's a prequel, that they'll be one of its founders. It's an appealing idea, to be honest, though I'd prefer to see some other areas of the Alliance military -- or, even more interestingly, something that's not at all part of the Alliance. If you remember Jacob Taylor, ME2's most boring party member, he served as a corsair for the Alliance. So independent contractors are not without precedent for the Alliance. Some things, however, are a given -- we'll be an officer of some sort in command of our own ship. The screenshot of the CIC we've seen has a very large galaxy map, which suggests a cruiser or larger vessel -- definitely not a Normandy-class frigate. However, the player character is in full armour including helmet in the screenshot. Assuming that's not simply due to the early stage of the build -- there might not be casual clothes or facial features yet, and the captain's stand notably lacks definition -- we're not actually looking at the galaxy map on our ship. As far as plot is concerned, anything larger than a frigate seems unlikely, and anything smaller than a Normandy-class frigate would pose its own problems (gotta put all those crew members somewhere. ME2 had 12 party members and the Normandy SR-2 was packed.)
3. Party. It's unlikely we'll have any returning party members -- Bioware have announced they want a clean break from Shepard, after all. Besides, I'm not sure I'd want, say, Garrus or Liara looking over my shoulder sneering "Shepard would have done this so much better ..." As for species, it seems likely to me that there'll be at least one turian and one quarian. Why? Because these two species have been fan-favourites for ages, no doubt due to the efforts of Garrus and Tali. A turian would make only limited sense if this takes place soon after First Contact War, but might be possible if we're not playing an Alliance officer for the majority of the game. Either way, any members of returning species will have to distinct themselves from the stereotypes we've come to expect, and in particular from the archetypes represented by their predecessors. We've had a young quarian mechanic on their pilgrimage. We've had an asari maiden, an Ardat-Yakshi, and a matriarch. We've had a salarian scientist, and two krogan warriors. There aren't many drell around. Hanar and elcor are unlikely due to their non-humanoid bodies. Of course, there'll also be new species -- they've already announced that. As for returning species, a batarian would be cool, as would a turian biotic, maybe? Or an asari who doesn't use biotics, just to change things up.
4. Plot. We already know this game will be focused on exploration and take us to previously-unseen corners of the galaxy. I wouldn't be surprised if the plot also focused on this -- I can very well see playing an explorer in the vein of famous Alliance hero Jon Grissom, the first human to use a Mass Relay. That we won't play Grissom himself is obvious -- he's far too well-established a character, having appeared in Revelations and being the father of Kahlee Sanders -- but I can see playing as someone following him in his footsteps. No matter the time period, this would also present a connection to other species -- exploration, after all, is a common concern for all Council species. Additionally, a move to a more personal story -- compared to the "save the galaxy" plot of ME -- would be interesting, and not out of character for Bioware. They've done that in Dragon Age II and SWTOR before. 
5. Gameplay. Some things which I'm sure will continue to play a part will be the Paragon / Renegade system, cutscene interrupts (just PLEASE mute them ...) and the game's basic structure. That is, a 3rd Person Shooter with two squadmates, a variety of weapons and an emphasis on special powers. We'll also likely see the same classes again. Frankly, I can't imagine many changes here -- I think ME3 had absolutely golden gameplay.

I was not-tagged by kamiiyu -- won't tag anyone else, naturally, because that's always annoying. Leave me to my social apathy, dammit. 

Rules~
1) Write down every letter in your first name 
2) Write down a song that pops into your head beginning with each letter.
3) Count the number of letters and TAG that many people. (if you want)

B -- Bella figlia d'amore (from Rigoletto, Giuseppe Verdi)
E -- Empio diro tu sei! (from Giulio Cesare in Egitto, Georg Friedrich Händel)
N -- Nothung, Nothung, neidliches Schwert! (from Siegfried, Richard Wagner)
That's a bit little, innit? I don't know any songs that begin with a hyphen, so here we go.
K -- Konstanze, dich wiederzusehen (from Die Entführung aus dem Serail, W. A. Mozart) -- not a lot of Ks in opera!
I -- In fernem Land (from Lohengrin, Richard Wagner) -- one of my favourites!
L -- Leb wohl, du kühnes, herrliches Kind! (from Die Walküre, Richard Wagner)
I -- I am the wife of Mao Tse-tung (from Nixon in China, John Adams)
A -- Amfortas, die Wunde! (from Parsifal, Richard Wagner)
N -- Nacqui all'affano (from La Cenerentola, Gioachino Rossini)

Well, that's a lot of opera -- and a lot of Wagner.

REALISING that this journal has been sorely ignored,
RECOGNISING that it would be beneficial for the informational value of this site to update it,
DETERMINED to break with past habits and not neglect my online presence,
I am RESOLVED to state and declare to all and singular to whom these letters shall come the following:

Mass Effect is amazing. No, like, seriously. I spent some seven days doing virtually nothing else but play Mass Effect.

With that out of the way, there's some new work coming up any time between a few days and three months. Primarily I'm thinking of the next chapter of The Flight of the Eagle, featuring a dinner party at the Fenette's, swordplay and diplomacy. I'm 4500 words into the chapter and expect to be finished soon. Secondly, I've started work on a sequel to my oneshot Born in the Wrong Century, for those who read and enjoyed my henceto only work in the Borgias fandom. The sequel will be called "The Last of the Tribunes" and will be based heavily on Wagner's opera Rienzi, Last of the Tribunes. The pairing will continue to be Cesare x Lucrezia, but the primary POV is no longer Cesare's, but Paolo's, which I find is an interesting way to mix things up. I've thus far written 1500 words, but considering that the first oneshot was over 18k words at the end, I expect this one to exceed the 20k mark. I've finished all my essays and language tests for this term and will be home soon over Easter.

Spirits, I miss my mum's cooking.

Anyone else thinking Jaime/Cersei Die Walküre crossover here?