I started this account soon after finishing Mass Effect 2. Both it and the original Mass Effect really drew me in to the story, particularly the romance between my Shepard (Alice), and her love interest, Liara. After wrapping up the game I felt compelled to tell the story of these two women. So I started to do just that, and then remembered that I'm an engineer, not a writer! :-\

Update - 2013-03-13 - No, I'm not dead. I don't consider these stories abandoned, either. But the truth is that Grad School has pretty much dominated my free time, and between that and working a full-time job I just don't have the mental capacity to do any writing. While that's true, it's not the entirety of why these stories have languished for so long.

The finality of the Extended Cut hit me hard. So much that when I tried to go back to the next chapter of Returned I felt a profound sense of apathy for what I was doing. That was obviously several months ago, and I haven't opened the document since then.

That's not to say that the wheels have stopped turning. Even without playing the game, I still think about my stories. I think about what Alice's life must be like on an asari ship. I think about the deeper meaning behind all life being connected via those green circuitboard veins, and how people accept it to varying degrees. I've also been kicking around ideas in my head about how I would rewrite ME3. Given the massive MASSIVE undertaking that would entail, that story's going so far on the backburner that it might not see heat for years to come.

Works in Progress:

Returned -- Alice Shepard/Liara -- Drama/Sci-fi

Her battle was over. Alice Shepard had won, giving the rest of the galaxy a reprieve from the Reapers at the cost of her own life. But now she's been given that life back. But not all has been returned to her.

On Hold:

Observer -- Liara/OC/Nyxeris -- Drama (1 published chapter)

Nyxeris was ordered by the Shadow Broker to observe - and if need be, to assassinate - Liara T'Soni. But she was not the first to take the job.

Taken -- Alice Shepard/Liara -- Drama/Action (1 unpublished chapter)

Fifteen years after the galaxy fended off the invasion of the Reapers, Alice Shepard and Liara T’Soni, two of the most integral players in that war, have solidified their life together with the arrival of their first daughter, Alissondra.

After several joyful years of comparable peace, their lives are shattered when their daughter is kidnapped, taken right from under Alice’s nose. Mysteriously, the group responsible seems to have been able to avoid even the Shadow Broker’s tight network of tracking systems. No demands have been made, no traces can be found of the kidnappers, but that will not stop them from finding their daughter and bringing her kidnappers to justice. No force in the galaxy will.

Other concepts:

(No name yet) -- Alice Shepard/Everybody -- Action/Drama

The Reaper War, retold. Without the talent of one such as Koobismo, fixing the ending while working within the confines of the rest of ME3 proves too difficult for me. Rewinding all the way to Shepard's confinement, what would I do differently?