Hey everyone!

As a longtime Mass Effect fan, I wanted to build an interactive tribute that captures the tension, companion dynamics, and moral choices of the universe, but adapted for a comfortable, cinematic reading experience right in your browser.

You can try the live demo here (no download needed):

• 🎮 Playable Demo: caiotome.github.io/mass-effect-vn
• 💻 GitHub Repository: github.com/CaioTome/mass-effect-vn

🌌 What is this project?

This is a fan-fiction Visual Novel prototype set months after the Control (Paragon) ending of Mass Effect 3.

Here are the key design choices I built into the engine:

• First-Person POV Camera: You experience everything through Commander Shepard's eyes. There is no fixed Shepard sprite on screen, so your own custom Shepard (male or female, scarred or pristine) remains your true canon.
• Baldur's Gate Style Dialogue List: Instead of compressing choices into tiny wheel snippets, options are presented as full spoken lines in a numbered list (clickable or selectable via keys 1–9). No colored spoilers telling you which option advances the scene—you decide based on the narrative context.
• Dynamic Voice Lighting (Light & Shadow):
• When talking one-on-one (e.g. Liara alone in her Sanctum), she is centered on screen.
• When Garrus arrives, the stage smoothly transitions to a dual layout.

• The character currently speaking steps into full illumination, while listening companions fade into the shadows. When Shepard speaks, both companions stay in the shadows listening.

• Lightweight & Open Source: Built 100% in pure Vanilla HTML5, modern CSS, and modular JavaScript, with procedural sci-fi audio effects generated directly via the Web Audio API.

🤖 Transparency & Acknowledgment

I am from Brazil and English is not my native language. I used AI to help me with:

• Translating and refining the English dialogue;
• Coding and styling the web engine;
• Generating the atmospheric sci-fi background art (Shadow Broker Sanctum).

This is a 100% non-commercial fan project. All rights, characters, and the incredible Mass Effect universe belong to BioWare and Electronic Arts. A huge thank you to the developers and writers who created this universe that we all love so dearly.

The engine code is completely free and open-source under CC BY-NC 4.0 for anyone who wants to adapt it or create their own stories.

I would love to hear your feedback on the pacing, dialogue, and mechanics! Let me know what you think. Keelah se'lai.

Three more chapters of Mass Effect – The Slow Unbreaking are now live on AO3!

This week takes Shepard from one kind of trust exercise straight into another.

Jack’s loyalty mission brings the team to Pragia, where returning to the place that shaped her forces Jack to confront memories she has spent years turning into anger. I’ve always loved Jack, so I wanted to give this mission room to breathe—and to make it personal for Shepard in a way that highlights some of the similarities between them.

From there, Shepard’s already-fragile relationship with Cerberus gets pushed even further. The Collector threat is escalating, the Illusive Man is still playing his own game, and Shepard is becoming increasingly certain that trust is something people either earn very carefully… or burn very quickly.

And then it’s back to Illium.

A new lead sends Shepard to Liara, opening the door to Lair of the Shadow Broker and the next stage of their story.

As usual, I’ve kept familiar ME2 dialogue and gameplay where it serves the story, while expanding the internal thoughts, quieter conversations, and character moments around them.

Read on AO3:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/91256931

I’ve been especially excited to reach this part of the story. 💙

Wo-hoo, update 🥳 aaand just about 5 chapters left.

The side effects of the beacon are... Unexpected.

A tale of Reapers, Love, Death - and Ivy : Covering ME2, ME3 and some beyond. Shakarian, 1st person, alternating POV. Adult tone (with all the stuff that encompasses) and truckloads of my deranged, uhh, special kind of humor. A pretty long story (currently 220k+). WIP, about 90% done.

Love to hear your feedback.

If you like, have a look at my companion story from jack's perspective 😉

~~ https://archiveofourown.org/users/GothicReaper/works https://www.fanfiction.net/u/4189519/GothicReaper

Three more chapters of Mass Effect – The Slow Unbreaking are now live on AO3!

These chapters bring Shepard’s time on Illium to a turning point.

The final recruitment missions are wrapped up, a few familiar side encounters make an appearance, and Shepard continues discovering that building a team means dealing with more than combat effectiveness. There are tensions aboard the Normandy, personal boundaries that need to be drawn, and a few people who are still trying to decide exactly what kind of commander Shepard really is.

But Illium was always going to mean more than recruitment.

For the first time since the Normandy was destroyed, Shepard and Liara finally have time to confront what two years of separation, resurrection, grief, and change have done to the relationship they left behind.

Some things are easier to talk about than others.

Some fears are harder to admit.

And sometimes the person standing in front of you is still the same person you loved—even when neither of you is entirely sure how to begin again.

There’s a mix of familiar ME2 material and quite a bit of original character work in these chapters. I kept and condensed gameplay where it served the story, then expanded the moments between the missions—the conversations, internal thoughts, and relationship beats the game didn’t have room to show.

Read on AO3:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/91256931

I’ve been looking forward to sharing these chapters. 💙

I've been re-reading some older fanfics, and I somewhat remember 1 I've been trying to find. The only things I remember is Geth and Quarians trying to make peace before the events of ME3 I think, and that the Geth built a monument for the Quarians who fell during the Morning War. I think it has more Diplomatic (taking) Geth platforms like Legion, and maybe a few Quarians and Shepard get to land on Rannoch early to verify things Planetside.

Maybe Daro'Xen is the "villain" in this section, trying to upload a virus or something, but I'm not 100% sure about that one. I thought it was a Shepard/Tali romance, but I couldn't find it looking under that criteria. Any help would be appreciated.

hi everyone! ive been working really hard on a big canon rewrite fic complete with body horror, imposter syndrome, unreliable narrator... i have a few great commentors but recently my comments are full of bots and its getting very discouraging. my friend recommended i post here! the series includes a ME1 rewrite (which i am currently REWRITING), a few side stories, a WIP ME2 write, and a Dune crossover AU! I try to post a chapter a day of at least one fic. If you decide to check it out, thank you!

https://archiveofourown.org/series/6352616

Chapter 38 of my novel-length fic set immediately after ME3, The Bells I Hear, has just gone up! This is one I've been both looking forward to posting, and nervous about posting, for a long time - it's the romantic climax of the story, and the precipice of what at first seems to be the final battle.

This story has two central romantic couples: Shepard and Liara, whose romance is mostly told in flashbacks, and Oriana Lawson and an OC, whose story is unfolding in the present, after ME3. I don't want to spoil the many twists and turns, so I won't say more, but will share the teaser summary for the whole fic, below. If it sounds interesting, give it a try! I'm really proud of it.

The Reapers have been destroyed, but to the survivors, the victory tastes like ashes. The Normandy wrecks on an uncharted planet, and a grieving crew must pull together to find a way home without their commander. At Sol, the shattered remains of the victorious allied forces struggle to survive, coexist, and reconnect to the rest of the galaxy. The greatest threat to peace comes not from without, but within. A heavy story of grief, perseverance, love, leadership, and hope in the face of devastation.

Three more chapters of Mass Effect – The Slow Unbreaking are now live on AO3!

This batch is all about trust, control, and the people Shepard is slowly allowing closer.

Chapter 15 — The Measure of Control

Garrus has unfinished business, Jack is still trying to understand the commander she’s agreed to follow, and Shepard is becoming increasingly aware that Cerberus’s idea of giving her command doesn’t necessarily include giving her privacy.

Some boundaries are about to be redrawn.

Chapter 16 — The Weight We Choose

Back on Illium, Liara knows Shepard is finally coming.

While she waits, old memories surface alongside questions about love, choice, and some words from Benezia that Liara may not have understood as well as she once believed.

Meanwhile, the Matriarchs on Thessia remain suspiciously well informed about a life Liara has worked very hard to keep her own.

Chapter 17 — The Knife You Let Close

Shepard finally reaches Illium.

There are familiar encounters here, but I’ve expanded the spaces between the game moments—what the characters notice, what they think, and how seemingly small interactions affect the choices that follow.

And when Miranda asks Shepard to help protect the one person she cannot afford to lose, the mission becomes more personal than either of them expected.

As always, I’m keeping the ME2 structure I love while digging into the character story happening underneath it.

Read on AO3:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/91256931

Hope you enjoy this batch! 💙

(Just a fun thought I've had rattling around the ol' noodle for a bit now and finally wrote out while listening to Vigil's Theme.)

Imagine for a moment. A decade after the Reaper War.

Javik is becoming an older man now. He's been helping Liara write her book and, perhaps most importantly. His own curiosity about the nature of the Prothean Empire before the harvest of his cycle, has begun to pique.

Years pass. He mourns, he reflects. He bears witness to the final stands of of his people. Even spread over hundreds of years across dozens of systems that had been isolated centuries before he himself had been born.

One Last voice to mourn his civilization, tattered though it had become by the time he was born into it.

But... On this latest world, in yet another dusty place full of the half fossilized remains of his species, he hears a familiar signal.

Faint through the hard bedrock and the interference of a harsher atmosphere a thin voice chimes in half forgotten tonal patterns.

"You, Are Prothean. You are not indoctrinated."

For a moment his breath catches.

But no, it's just a VI.

This isn't even the first time he's encountered one, on these many digs Liara undertakes.

Just another fading system reacting to the fading remnant of a dead people.

"Is it time to wake?"

And suddenly, everything it means to be Javik, changes.

the first chapter of my new kinky female/zaeed fic is live on AO3 ✨

this will be a fairly faithful retelling, just with a kinky romance with my favorite merc.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/93396021/chapters/249251466

Introduction

• This is an idea I've been thinking about ever since I realize how similar the two series, with my thoughts going something along these lines "If these two series were in the same universe, what could happened, what would change if such similar but different series were somehow in the same universe." So here are some of the ideas I came up with, after a bit of clarifying things.

Some Clarification

• To firstly explain who the First Ones for any non-B5 readers, are various races that were, well, the first races to developed both sentience and space travel. The first of them was Lorien, who by the start of B5, is roughly 7 billion years old whilst also being naturally immortal having long since transcended flesh for a transcendent state of being. Both he and his race would then nurture and guide fellow races to space travel and come to dominate the galaxy until they eventual reach transcendence as well.
• Among these First Ones to be nurtured by Lorien and his race were the Vorlons and Shadows, who came to dominate the Galaxy for potentially billions of years, but they into conflict with one another due to their radically different philosophies on what is the best way to help and to teach the younger races. The Vorlons believed through order and obedience can younger races prosper whilst the Shadows believed that through the chaos of war and destruction is the weak cull and the strong remain.
• And that leave the Reapers, how they can worked in such a crossover due to two key facts: The Leviathans, at least to my knowledge, only existed as far back as a billion years ago before they were wiped out by their creations, however their genocidal campaign of wiping out all space faring races goes against and interfere with both Vorlons and Shadows who fight back and probably win against the Reapers. Thus, to finally get some proposed ideas.

The First Ones and the Reapers

• The Leviathans were a First One who due to their natural telepathic powers that allowed them to enslave whole races, began to conquer the Galaxy until their arrogance grew so much that they sought to overthrow then dominant Vorlons and Shadows, and thus began a galactic spanning war with the Vorlons and Shadows fighting against the Leviathans and their enslaved races. Eventually, they were defeated and for their actions, were banished to Hyperspace, unable to influence the younger races again. However, two potential ideas open on how the Reapers come to factor into this:
  • 1.The Reapers were created by the Leviathans in the aftermath who were designed to harvest and purge the galaxy 50k years to spite the First Ones who defeated them and to hopefully return to power themselves, though this has the unintended side effect of both Shadows and Vorlons likely destroying the Mass Relays and Citadel to prevent the Reapers from quickly returning until their conflict with another one consumed each other.
  • 2. In the aftermath of the devastating war that lay waste to the Galaxy and trillions of younger races, Lorien would take the Leviathans greatest creation, the Catalyst, and reprogrammed it to prevent such a conflict between the First Ones again and serve their interests. However, in the coming millions of years, the Vorlons and Shadows would go to war over and over again, the Catalyst, wanting to prevent such devastating conflict, proposed a twisted solution. Each 50,000 years, the Vorlons and Shadows would nurture their respective younger races, with the Reapers created from the 'winners' of each cycle. If a race nurtured by either Vorlons or Shadows emerged triumphant over the Galaxy, they would be consider a 'winner' and point given to the winning First One, whilst the nurtured Race would be harvested and their knowledge and civilization preserved for all eternity whilst the remaining races would be wipe out. These cycles would continue until after 50,000 cycles, the First One with the higher points would be declared the winner and the loser would be forced to leave the Galaxy.
• Third Idea - The Reapers are not from this universe or even dimension, rather they come the eldritch dimension simply known as Thirdspace. Thirdspace is an unknown and strange dimension that orginated from Babylon 5: Thirdspace Movie, inhabited by an unknown race called simply the Thirdspace Aliens who devoured all life in their dimension whilst using their immense telepathic ability to enslave all other life to be their cultists. Thus instead of the Thirdspace Aliens, there was the Reapers, who origins are totally unknown but seeks harvest life every 50k years, emerging from their eldritch dimension to harvest the galaxy for an unknown purpose. The Shadows and Vorlons came into greater conflict over how to best beat this unknown threat, with them narrowing beating back the Reapers each cycle, but in the current cycle, they've become consume with who is more right on both guiding the younger races but also to permanently defeat the Reapers.

Closure

Given how long this post already is, I've decided to split my various ideas on this crossover into a series of posts, if I think people are at interested in such ideas. Also please let me know your thoughts on what I suggested, primarily in regard to the Reapers, because I'm unwilling to sacrifice either side due to how fundamentally they are to their respective series. Also I can answer any questions you might have on such a crossover is anyone is curious.

Three more chapters of Mass Effect – The Slow Unbreaking are now live on AO3!

This batch spends some time in both halves of the story.

Chapter 12 — Only the Living Wait

We return to Liara for another glimpse of the two years Shepard was gone—what she held on to, what she built for herself, and how those experiences helped shape the woman we meet on Illium in ME2.

Chapter 13 — The Measure of Mercy

The final recruits are coming aboard, but there’s little time for the new team to settle in before the Collectors strike Horizon.

I’ve expanded and adjusted a few things here, including one part of Horizon that has bothered me every time I’ve played the game. 😂

We also get a closer look at Shepard and Jack beginning to size each other up, while Miranda continues comparing the woman fighting beside her to everything she once knew only from files and reports.

Chapter 14 — No Looking Back

After Horizon, those observations continue.

Jack tests boundaries. Miranda watches. Shepard keeps doing what Shepard does.

But reputation only tells part of the story, and the more closely people watch her, the harder it becomes to ignore what’s underneath.

This rewrite continues to focus less on recreating every familiar mission beat and more on the people inside them—the things the game hints at, the thoughts we never hear, and the relationships forming beneath the surface.

Read on AO3:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/91256931

Hope you enjoy the new chapters! 💙

Can anyone give me some suggestions for fics where humanity uses AI and Senthetics long before they make First Contact with the Citadel, and it didn't blow up in their faces?

Or, Alternatively, where humanity died out and are survived the their AI they left behind?

Crossovers are also welcome. I remember 1 or 2 with Nier Automata that were good.

I'd like something that seriously derails from canon if AU. I read Battle Chicken recently and really like it, which inspired this post. I've also read Mythos Effect.

For crossover, I'd prefer crossovers between civilizations rather than just individuals. I'm not really interested in reading a story about Harry Potter on Shepard's crew, but a story about magical society integrating with humanity and that conjoined culture and magitek taking to the stars would be really cool, as an example of what I mean. To clarify, I'm not asking for Harry potter crossovers. This is just an example.

I've read Battle Chicken, Mythos Effect, and Technophiles already.

Thanks!

I’ve been out of the loop for Mass Effect for a good long while. Occasionally check out new chapters for Interesting Times, but besides that, I haven’t really delved deep in the fandom for a long time.

Looking for any good recommendations from the last few years, ME-only or crossovers are welcome

Three more chapters of The Slow Unbreaking are now up on AO3!

Shepard has a new Normandy, a growing crew, and a galaxy full of problems waiting for her. But before she can move forward, Admiral Hackett sends her somewhere she isn't quite ready to revisit.

Chapter 9 — The Weight of Her Name

For everyone else, two years have passed since the Normandy's destruction. For Shepard, the loss is barely a week old. Returning to Alchera forces her to confront a past that still feels painfully close—and raises some unexpected questions about her future.

Chapter 10 — Worth the Risk

Back on Illium, Liara is preparing for Shepard's return while continuing to pursue her own unfinished business.

Her love for Shepard has never been in doubt. Her willingness to let other people dictate what that love should look like? That's another matter entirely.

Chapter 11 — The Doctor and the Ghost

Omega brings Shepard two very different recruitment challenges.

I've woven Mordin's expanded comic-book history into this chapter and explored what might have happened to Garrus during the two years Shepard was gone. The familiar missions are here, but I've streamlined much of the combat to focus on the people behind the dossiers.

Throughout this rewrite, I'm exploring the stories the game could only give us glimpses of: what happened while Shepard was dead, how the people she loved carried on without her, and what it means for all of them now that she's back.

Read Mass Effect – The Slow Unbreaking here:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/91256931 

Hope you enjoy the new chapters! I'd love to hear what you think of the expanded character perspectives.

I’ve been out of the loop for Mass Effect for a good long while. Occasionally check out new chapters for Interesting Times, but besides that, I haven’t really delved deep in the fandom for a long time.

Looking for any good recommendations from the last few years, ME-only or crossovers are welcome

There was a fic I found a while ago that had a biotic Shepard’s joining the Valkyrie Program (the same as Cora Harper from ME:A). Can anyone help me find it, I think it was on AO3?

Well it’s done. This weekend posted ch 15-18 as I knew I was running out of time. Work was going to pickup and I wanted this to be done before then. My first fanfic is done!✅

Hope you like it

https://archiveofourown.org/works/91601201/chapters/246264441

Three more chapters of The Slow Unbreaking are now live on AO3.

This batch is where Shepard really begins discovering what “two years later” means.

Freedom’s Progress brings her face-to-face with someone from the life she remembers—and gives us another look at that reunion from a perspective the game never really explored.

Meanwhile, Liara finally receives the news she has spent two years hoping for.

Shepard is alive.

But Liara’s life didn’t stop while Shepard was gone. She has been building something of her own, becoming sharper, stronger, and far more dangerous than the archaeologist Shepard first met on Therum.

And Shepard?

Cerberus has given her a ship, a crew, and a list of people they think she should recruit.

She has her own ideas.

These chapters also weave in pieces of Mass Effect comic canon for Tali, Joker, and Kasumi, expanded with the character moments and internal perspectives I always wished we had gotten to see.

Because for me, ME2 isn’t just about the missions.

It’s about what happened while Shepard was gone—and what happens when she comes back to a galaxy that kept moving without her.

Read Chapters 6–8 of Mass Effect – The Slow Unbreaking on AO3:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/91256931

Some things are familiar.

Some very much are not. :D

So, this is a long shot, and if not allowed, I apologize. I was talking to someone and we both remember a fic, most likely on fanfiction.net, about Shepard and Garrus adopting a Batarian little girl. Neither of us could remember the name and where it was for sure. If anyone could help us find it, I would be greatly appreciative.

Last I posted it was my initial post about the Tali/MShep Fic I am writing “Homecoming”. About their post Reaper war activities.

Since then Have added a new chapter with roughly 4 to go

Cheers

https://archiveofourown.org/works/91601201/chapters/245537596