Spectre Requisitions 2020 Letter

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Spectre Requisitions 2020 Letter

Welcome! Thanks for writing for me! Please feel free to take as much or as little from this letter as you desire, I'm simply trying to ramble about what I like about this canon and these characters. Most of all, I hope you enjoy writing!

Shepards:

I'm very fond of the canon Shepards, but feel free to use custom Shepards or mix and match backstories to suit. I prefer Paragon over Renegade, but certainly don't mind a touch of justified ruthlessness

Likes:

Time travel. Canon Divergence AUs. Fix it fics. Everyone Lives AUs!

Worldbuilding. Game mechanics given narrative reasons/weight. Cultural differences. Alien biological differences.

Characters being competent. Dealing with trauma. Downtime after missions.

Friends-to-lovers, queerplatonic relationships, negotiating xeno relationships (I have a very soft spot for 'I'm not really attracted to your species exactly, but I like you a lot' types of exploration), arranged marriages and/or marriages of convenience

DNWs:

Non-con,

focus on the crucible/starchild decision scene (feel free to use whichever ending you desire, or just handwave ‘reapers are dead now’, I’d just rather not mention the three buttons),

Requests:

• Nihlus Kryik/Female Shepard
• Nihlus Kryik/Male Shepard

Nihlus is my favourite minor character! He makes an incredible impression as the first Spectre we meet (and the first Turian) and then goes and dies immediately. There's a lot of promise and potential there, and it's a real tragedy.

I'd be down for anything in which Nihlus doesn't die and then alters any of the game events. Does he manage to convince the Council to listen about Reapers? Is he there in ME2? You could sell me on pretty much any game mission, really.

Or maybe, he may or may not have encountered Shepard pre-series and been convinced that yes, this human would make a good Spectre. As a mentor? As a peer? Either is good, and it seems like he has a lot of respect for Shepards abilities.

I love time travel fics, and I'd be very interested in Nihlus himself being the time traveller — he knows absolutely nothing about the Reaper threat, but his survival would change a lot. Or his point of view of a Shepard that seems uncannily on top of the game.

Or even just a glimpse at another few minutes on the Normandy before they all leave for Eden Prime.

• Female Shepard/Urdnot Wrex
• Male Shepard/Urdnot Wrex

Shepard. Wrex.

Wrex has a lot of respect for Shepard, from listening if on Virmire about the genophage cure, to his welcome on Tuchanka, to all the little missions and asides. The fact that Wrex actually wants so much to do right by his people and fix their planet is an amazing character trait.

Shepard and Wrex are definitely a battle couple — and a terrifying one — and their banter and competence would be amazing.

Or it could be cool to see them exploring their leadership roles. How does Shepard fit (or not fit) on Tuchanka? How does being involved with a planetary leader affect Shepard's military responsibilities (during the times they're not a terrorist anyway)?

• Male Shepard/Garrus Vakarian
• Thane Krios/Male Shepard

These are both pairings that have so much content for Female Shepard and yet… shockingly barren for Male Shepard. Given the xeno romance, it seems strange that gender is where they'd draw the line.

The 'there's no Shepard without Vakarian' bromance is such a strong and powerful bond and the way these two always watch each other's back is amazing. The fact that Garrus is one of the few characters with Shepard through the whole Trilogy and Shepard clearly and repeatedly alters his life course… there's just a lot between them. I love how, in ME2, they just instantly click back into banter and get on with dealing with mercs, despite everything that's taken place and hasn't been explained.

For Thane… it does seem that his romance with Female Shepard is somewhat gendered, with references to the warrior goddess, so a Male Shepard romance seems like it would be quite different to the canon path — or maybe it wouldn't?