welcome welcome, we’re now [checks notes] 3 major installments and some extras into my big no-reapers au, so it’s probably high time i actually make a big masterpost for it, huh?

Features

Premise: 50,000 years ago, the Protheans were able to complete the Crucible, but by the time of firing, their population had been reduced to unsustainability. Their technology still remained for the later species, but the Reapers would never return. All’s well that ends well, right? Well, not quite. When a routine artifact retrieval on Eden Prime once more goes awry, new Special Tactics candidate Matteo Shepard is thrown headfirst into the fray, hunting down the mysterious team that attacked the colony - and stumbling across something so much bigger than they ever could have imagined.

Our Hero: Matteo Shepard, DMAB nonbinary (they/he pronouns). Native of Terra Nova, Matteo’s mother disappeared at a young age, leaving their family fractured and their trust in others on shaky legs. When their team’s investigation into the disappearing colony of Akuze leaves all but themselves and two others (that they know) dead and them needing intensive psychiatric care, they withdraw in on themselves, not wanting to get close enough to other people to be hurt again. Unfortunately for them, the universe disagrees with this plan.

The Crew: The Normandy crew has been supplemented with a whole host of other Shepards imported into a different canon OCs to flesh out the crew, as well as a couple familiar faces - Nihlus Kryik, mentoring Shepard for the Spectres, is a fixture on the team, and his rude shadow Saren Arterius is (very grudgingly, because the boss said he had to) coming along for the ride. Beyond the Normandy’s hull, the rest of the galaxy’s got a lot of new faces too, both friend and foe, ranging from Saren’s secretive family to the batarian Resistance and back again! Both canon characters and OCs join the party to bring the awfully empty galaxy to life...

Most Wanted: ... including the antagonists, of course. An entirely new team of mini-boss antagonists causes problems for Shepard left and right as Shepard explores the depths of Cerberus’s depravity, and an enemy often overlooked gets their own time to shine, with a subplot all their own, because I think they deserved better and had a lot of potential, and I’m the author so I decide the subplots, dammit. (You didn’t think I mentioned the batarian Resistance up there just for fun, did you?)

Love and All That: It's no Truck Shepard and the Space Kissing Adventure, of course, but we're not leaving romance off the table entirely! There's both established relationships and budding relationships for the discerning connoisseur. A couple of them are even majorly plot relevant, check the AO3 tags. Endgame for Matteo themselves is with Jack, but we have to get there first ;)

Links

AAAAAA YES MY BOYS my boys who were. supposed to be a one-off but here we are,

so we have rosmarus "ros" trikheion and moxatus "mox" pallantos, and it's a good thing you asked for them both because you rarely see one without the other. they're polar fishers with the tiirti mariners' union in the acalin branch, and are both in the coast guard reserves and spend occasional stints on the icebreakers docked at acalin accordingly. they've been near inseparable since they were bunkmates in basic training, though it took a few decades (and a nasty breakup with a shitty ex) for them to realize they had romantic feelings for each other.

both of them are big, burly boys, utter tanks of polar turians, and sometimes get mistaken for brothers. they both have brown plates, but ros is a bit shorter than mox and a lighter shade of brown, whereas mox is slightly taller and much darker. ros is also missing one of the horns from his crest, which snapped off in a fight with an omi that was trying to steal the day's catch - he had the last laugh, though, because he in turn snapped off one of the omi's tusks and took it as a trophy that he ended up whittling into a replacement for his missing horn.

ros is the quieter of the two, self-conscious and more interested in just being left alone. mox, on the other hand, is loud and aggressive, and very protective of his best friend. they pick on each other and have fun pushing each other off the ship sometimes, but nobody else is allowed to bully one of them without retaliation from the other. when ros ended up in an emotionally neglectful and toxic relationship, his opinion of himself only grew worse, readily believing everything his then-boyfriend said about him, and mox was furious, but couldn't bring himself to upset ros by speaking his mind. when said boyfriend became an ex, though, mox was ready with the comfort food and guys' night to cheer him up, because the union looks out for its own.

ros and mox are actually from opposite ends of the island. ros grew up in the shipbuilding hub of vraanun, while mox comes from the solitary patch of taiga on the southernmost point of tiirtias (i swear i named the city there i just forgot). they were both sent to the same base for basic training at hearthstone lake, and when they were finished they both happened to be stationed with the coast guard in acalin. with such a heavy union presence, it was only natural they fell in with the mariners there, and their size, strength, and rough-and-tumble attitudes drew the attention of local vzgliy calvetana sparatus. as soon as they finished mandatory, cal snatched them up for her crew - and for her enforcers. excited to have caught the eye of such a major face in the city, the pair eagerly accepted, and the union found them housing in the city, because the union looks out for its own.

the boys were still new the first time calvetana called on them to pay their dues. they didn't know her grandson well at the time, just a nervous half-a-face that shrouded himself in calvetana's shadow and was becoming a powerhouse in court, but the man who'd brutally scarred ierian had come a-calling, and made the mistake of walking into her tavern.

that night cemented ros and mox's places in the union, and their ride-or-die status with each other, and they've been loyal to calvetana ever since. in turn, she trusts them as members of her inner circle, and even after she retired the boys found seats at her table. invidas's teeth weren't the last sapient teeth to be strung onto their trophy strings, but they have the most sentimental attachment.

after all, the union looks out for its own.

godDAMN really diggin for the old abandoned ones huh. so fun fact rereading the first chapter of this i kinda wanna. rework it a bit. rewrite. i'm better now. we can rebuild him. anyway here's the start of a brand-new chapter 2 since i lost the file for my original ch2

In the Dark of the Night: Sparatus clan, pre-canon, Cnclr Sparatus's older sister retells the tale of a traumatic hunting accident and near-death experience that happened to her and her brother via therapy sessions

soooo i think part of my issue on rabbit is the ol' "the problem is about ten sentences back" trick, i couldn't figure out how the hell to continue so we're just gonna try starting again and seeing if i can get further than this and i think it's gonna work this time

To Catch a Rabbit: Kryterius mission fic, murder mystery, best friends with benefits to lovers, mutual pining, a simple "babysitting" assignment goes awry when a primarch is murdered and Saren and Nihlus are the only ones around to investigate

oh also ill get to ask answers either tonight or tomorrow i prommy

did i mention im working on an au where the ascension goes down and shepard faces Consequences. because that's what's consuming my brain atm we'll get back to exdiff in a bit i just have to let quentius have his villain arc for a minute

personally greatly enjoying how ive made the dynamic between quentius and sparatus "the dog they put with cheetahs in captivity to keep them from going insane" and "the cheetah threatening to go insane" respectively. sparky is the cheetah but also if he dies quenty WILL enter his villain arc and that's a threat. im having so much fun