SATURDAY POST: DragonCon 2012

(I didn't forget about the contest. Midnight! EST! I'll be there!)

I should have posted about DragonCon 2012 much earlier, but I didn't. Next weekend I'll be in Atlanta, so let's do this.

But, since this is a serious video game blog with serious video game art, you probably want to hear about the serious Mass Effect stuff I did, and not, say, Hentai Night, or the time I met a Dr. Who and held the door for him and did not know he was a Dr. Who until my friend ran up to me and shat kittens.

So imagine, if you will, myself and Husbando~ walking through the parking garage of a hotel in Atlanta one fine Labor Day weekend.

(I know I usually draw us naked as stick figures, but the shirt Husbando is wearing figures into this story, like so:)

There was a Mass Effect cosplay photoshoot, kindly hosted by a group on Facebook called the N7 Elite Costume Group. They're good people, go check them out. Actually, if I can run on a tangent here, if you're doing any kind of cosplay, check Cosplay.com's schedule and see if you can get to a photoshoot. They're too fun to miss.

Anyway, I needed a costume. I showed you that one I sewed last year. I actually 100% remade it this year, because last year's was too big. Trivia for you. I didn't want to use my real hair, so I went looking for a wig. I wanted an orange one, like MSPixel orange, but I couldn't find one at all. (Someone's going to say Arda Wigs, but they're all styled a little too animu~ for the Mass Effect universe, I think.)

I finally found a good real-red one and decided to be Default Mass Effect 3 Shepard. You know, New Jane instead of Old Jane?

Not too bad.

... oh, man, I need to get that wig out and brush it, I've got to use it again this year.

HEY, BEFORE WE GO ON: From this point forward, there are Mass Effect 3 spoilers. I figure you all have finished it by now, but you never know, so this is your warning.

The N7 Elite group marches in the DragonCon parade every year. If you EVER go to DragonCon, you get yourself a costume and you hike in that parade, do you understand me? That's the best part of every year. Oh my goodness. However, Husbando~ and I always march in the Star Trek part of the parade, so we'll skip ahead to the actual Mass Effect stuff.

The Bioware panel was right before the shoot, so most of us caught that first. It went exactly as you'd expect a bunch of Bioware nerds in a room to act.

That's the best Isabella I got, kids.

Speaking of, there were some amazing costumes, but this is MSPixel, I can't draw, and so I apologize in advance if I take your costume and make it look crappy.

After, we all decided to meet up and walk together to the shoot. I found some of my Internet friends!

One was dressed as Liara, the other was Alternative Outfit Ashley.

Oh, and also? Mark Meer was there!

... that's supposed to be Mark Meer. You guys know I can't draw, have mercy.

We all figured we'd follow him to the photoshoot, but, uh.

So we followed Zaeed up to the photoshoot area. It was neat, we'd all stand at the sidelines and the lady running it would say, "I NEED ALL THE MERCENARIES, MERCENARIES TO THE STAGING AREA," or "SHEPARDS, I NEED ALL THE SHEPARDS," and if you fit, it was your job to go get your picture taken in the group.

There were amazing aliens there!

The girl that went as Wrex needs a medal.

You might have seen on some websites (I think like 7500 nerd sites carried this story) that a couple dressed up as synthesis ending EDI and Joker and brought their own little Baby EDI.

I got to tickle Baby EDI's toes.

Oh man! That must be your jealous face!

The face model for Samara and Morinth is famous for showing up to this stuff dressed as Samara as well.

Also, she is hilarious. (Say it out loud if you don't get it.)

Being in the Alliance photo was probably my favorite. I met a really nice James Vega and helped him with his mohawk.

The photoshoot was cool in that, for an hour, I got to live in a world where asari and krogans and salarians were real, or at least as real as they're going to be. There's a certain kind of magic to that, you know?

DragonCon does a big Georgia Aquarium party each year, it's really neat. I went in my Shepard costume.

There's also a certain kind of magic to being Shepard around fish as well.

That's ... that's supposed to be Snow and Lightning. I promise.

But, all good stuff has to come to an end, I guess.

Husbando~ went as a Niner because he is a huge nerd.

That's my friend Tracey dressed as Castiel. I don't watch that show, so I don't know if Castiel has wings, I just didn't want you to think Tracey was dressed as a pervert in a trench coat.

Oh, one last thing.

We wanted Mark Meer's autograph, but didn't have anything else for him to sign. Mr. Meer is incredibly sweet, if you were wondering.

Anyway, this time next week? I'll be among krogans and asari again! I can't wait!

Homeworlds: Liara

Before we start today, did any of you all need Cerberus bed sheets?

Because Wal-Mart has your back, man. Wal-mart's got you.

Okay, so. Homeworlds. Homeworlds is a four-issue comic book, each issue concentrating on a character from the Mass Effect series. We already visited Homeworlds 2 with Tali. In that entry, I was trying to keep some spoilers from you all, but we're at a point where Homeworlds isn't going to spoil shit for anyone, so I can be more clear:

• Homeworlds 1 is about James Vega. It probably came first because Vega was shiny and new and people were interested in him. This comic sucks and Vega sucks so I'm not touching it. (It takes place on fucking Earth! This is Mass Effect! Set it somewhere nuts! Why would you set your rad ass sci fi story with blue ladies and giant tentacle aliens ON EARTH!?)
• We did Homeworlds 2, that's Tali. It's neat because it explains how Tali got ahold of Holyshitsarenisguiltyasthelivinghell.mp3.
• Homeworlds 3 is Garrus, and spoils the shit out of his recruitment mission. It's not bad, but it's not a story like the others, it's a disjointed collection of scenes. I have no idea how to MSPixel it. Still kind of neat if you're a Garrus fan.
• Homeworlds 4 is Liara.

Anyway, this comic starts out with Liara talking to Admiral Hackett:

Liara and Hackett are, by the way, totes best girlfriends now. I'm not sure how Hackett got in contact with her. I mean, he knew her from ME1, but, like, tangentally? He went from reading her name on Shepard's reports to omg ~totally~ BFFs who watch Lifetime together and empty cartons of Ben and Jerry's while doing so.

Whichever. Hackett wants information on the reapers, and was hoping Liara would have information, what with her broking shadows and shit. All Liara knows is that the Protheans might have had a reaper weapon that might be fixable if we could get ahold of it.

Anyway, since Hackett is her bestie 5ever, she travels to Thessia to check through the asari archives.

Kay, so, Liara decides to go to Kahje. The comic book is really confusing here: it calls Kahje a drell settlement. Which is true, but:

Why the fuck is it floating on water?

NERD SCIENCE LESSON TIME: Drell don't do well with humidity. It gets in their gills and makes them cough and stuff. Way too much humidity causes something called Kepral's Syndrome, which is what Thane is busy dying from.

I had to look this up, but Kahje is the hanar homeworld. The drell's homeworld, Rakhana, was once a desert planet that could support life. However, the drell don't give a hoot, they pollute. The hanar kindly evacuated the drell to Kahje, which was kind, but they can't really live there? But they do anyway? Shit's weird.

Liara needs to get to the Prothean archive on Kahje, so a drell named Quoyle offers to take her in his submarine ship thing. I have no idea why a desert species is also awesome at underwater navigation, just go with me here.

no one promised you good art

Shit! The archive's defense system is firing at them! It manages to hit, causing the ship to leak.

Which holy crap is so true and we will have a long discussion about that once we get to ME3 multiplayer but right now, hey, we made it into the archives!

Liara begins to read up when an old friend calls her.

I'm not sure why The Illusive Man, leader of CERBERUS thinks an alien is going to play ball, but I guess we gotta give Brother TIM props for trying?

Liara disconnects the call, and for some reason Quoyle is super impressed that Liara cold hung up on him.

So anyway, let's report back to Hackett.

Hey, Liara, what should be our next move?

Don't forget, humans discovered the Prothean archive on Mars, which is what allowed them to propel into the universe and start a war with the turians. Liara seems to think the Mars archive will have some good shit.

Maybe we'll run into her soon!

Mass Effect Invasion: Purple Is My Favorite color

SCENE: Omega.

DAFUQ is them?

Meet the adjutants! They're reaper bug squid rachni things. They explain what they are in Mass Effect 3, but I have totally forgotten what the hell they are past that, so either one of you will help me out in the comments or we'll wait until 3. Either way is fine.

They're currently pouring on to Omega by way of ships with Cerberus markings all over them. Welp. Let's call up Brother TIM, and --

(... in the games, Aria is a super dark blue, tinged purple, but still pretty damn blue. In this particular comic book, she is purple. Straight purple. Like a really girly My Little Pony pink purple too, it's weird. Anyway, if I'm coloring Anderson orange, I can haul out the purple for Aria.)

Yeah, don't forget, Aria's still pissy with TIM from Retribution, so that's good times.

TIM explains to Aria that adjutcants are coming because they escaped from a Cerberus facility. I swear to hell, a Cerberus facility goes haywire like twice a week. You ever have that one friend with more money than sense? That's Cerberus. Anyway, "oh no space bugs" is now the plot of Mass Effect: Invasion, so welcome.

Holy hell, have I mentioned I hate comic books? I should mention I hate comic books. I have trouble reading them.

I have left huge portions of this series out, because seriously there's plenty of filler in these books. If you're interested, go pick yourself up Mass Effect Invasion at wherever it is that they sell this stuff. I think I saw them at Toys R Us. Holy SHIT Mass Effect does not belong in the hands of children.

That being said, Invasion actually is pretty important to Mass Effect 3, so let's go forward.

Cerberus sends Aria a buddy named General Petrovsky to help with the adjutcants.

Petrovsky gets the idea to fight the adjutcants in space, since if they shoot down their ships, they can't use Omega. At first it goes really well. You know why?

No really, the adjutcants can figure out how to overtake a space station, steal a ship, fly a ship, but shooting? Fuck shooting.

What the hell does the scene on that ship even look like?

So they eventually ask Siri how to shoot or something, I don't know, and start firing on the Omega troops. Aria gets the idea to close the Omega 4 relay so that they can't come through it, but Petrovsky won't let her because that is literally dumb as hell. You can't just close a fucking relay, they don't work like that.

... yeah, apparently, they're coming through the Omega 4 relay, by the way? Because apparently Cerberus set up their shit inside the Omega 4 relay territory? Remember, that thing that took us all of Mass Effect 2 to cross? Apparently Cerberus cloned the shit out of the IFF (I guess, they never say), installed it on everything they own, and just started setting up research areas right in the middle of hostile reaper territory and expected it to all go well. I think The Illusive Man swims in pennies.

Petrovsky instead retreats through the Omega 4 relay. See, because he's got an IFF just laying around, and also advanced ship shielding and an upgraded drive core and you know what, fuck it, this shit is insane. This is not how the Mass Effect story works, this is not what we were told earlier. Petrovsky dons his horse anus spelunking gear and we all go running through the Omega 4 relay because why not.

Aria and Petrovsky investigate one of these research stations, where a researcher says that the adjutcants 'whispered' to them. Draws are appropriately shat. More adjutcants attack, so Aria fights back, but passes out.

Then, Aria learns an important lesson: never pass out with Cerberus around.

Or maybe just never wake up.

Without Aria, Omega decends into chaos.

Cats sleeping with dogs, peanut butter mixed with chocolate, it is a shitty mess.

See, Aria kept folk in check on Omega. When you go around taking Aria through strange mass relays and knocking her out, you upset Omega's delicate balance, letting all the mercs shoot the fuck out of each other.

Well, shit, Shepard's in the brig on Earth right now, so I guess we're going to have to rely on Garrus Liara Anderson Aria. Hey, where is Aria, anyway?

... welp.

They have Aria strung up in some sort of anti-biotic contraption that thankfully isn't a sex bed. It keeps Aria from nuking all of Cerberus.

They start to put a collar on her that will do stuff to her head as well. Aria does, however, problem solve.

Aria catches up with Petrovsky and has some words.

Petrovsky saves Aria from getting shot, allowing her to escape to Omega.

It's ... hang on to that, we'll talk about it later. Petrovsky leads some Cerberus troops to Omega to fight against Aria's forces, it goes as well as you'd expect.

Aria decides to make a "final push", which sounds super dramatic, but can I tell you? It's just her running through a totally empty Afterlife. For a comic book series that likes its fight scenes, I was expecting a better climax.

(... I added in the couch. The climax has to take place close to the couch. Lie to me, tell me I'm wrong.)

Anyway, after the adjutcant goes down, Aria goes back to give Petrovsky a piece of her mind again.

... the comic books present Petrovsky as a conflicting character: he's totally devoted to Cerberus, but he seems to understand that there's a value to the civilian life on Omega, and he'd like to preserve it. He's never conflicted, though, so it comes off confusing to me.

Anyway, that's the state we leave Omega in before Mass Effect 3: in the hands of Cerberus. Aria defects to the Citadel, we'll see her later.

NEXT TIME: all of you wonder why [spoiler character] wasn't in this comic book, yet had such a big part in the game. Her. That one. The girly one. Don't make me say her name, I'm trying not to spoil people! It starts with N, damnit!