PLEASE DON'T DO THIS TO ME, THIS ISN'T DROPPED IS IT?

Gotta say, Shepard owes Liara her life. She is literally a life-saver, and probably the best person to be the Shadow Broker.

I'm ashamed of all the typos in my previous review. Autocorrect is killer. Using the space bar for periods also leads to accidental period splices. Sorry about that one.

But I still love this story. When the 23rd chapter was put up, I realized I didn't remember much about this, but upon reading the first sentence of 23, and like, the first two sentences of 22 I realized this story was good enough to merit a complete readthrough-again. This time around I do have criticism, but nothing really solid. I'll have to go back and look to tell you what my thoughts are.

But tbh the criticism isn't much. With respect to (what should be, but isn't on the internet) the basics, you're all good. I'm so happy with the pretty much perfect grammar, and the varying sentence structure. I would look at this if I was writing a story myself. I know how to write essays, but I've always found story writing a challenge-it's hard to keep the writing immersive to the reader-concise, sophisticated, and 'natural.' My story writing looks like that of a high school sophomore-which I am definitely not.

Anyway, I enjoyed this. My only criticism has to do with the interactions between Shepard and Garrus when they're effectively dating. I can't remember which chapter it was, but their conversation read as overly gushy. I'm not saying that every conversation has to be 'hey big guy let's talk strats for taking down the Collectors.' However, in a couple chapters, I remember feeling like I was reading manga/overdone Kdrama romance dialogue, you feel? It's wasn't terrible, but it just felt like a little bit too much.

I love how Garrus is making himself seem more approachable in this chapter. I'm a Muslim and do the exact same kind of thing to get people to relax. You have to make yourself a person to them not someone scary. I haven't read further but it's be cool if later he talks/thinks about how hard and tiring doing that can be.

I’m so glad you continued this! Was like seeing an old friend in my inbox!

Ah, an amazing chapter to come back to. Loved the perspective change!

Thanks again for the update! 3

Amazing! I would like to read more...

I don't mean to sound demanding, but where is the rest of the story... I'm anxiously hoping that you can finish it. I really enjoyed every detail, you made the relationship so real. Thank you!

This is a great one. It covers a lot of small details that the game fail to mention but it should, and the transition from friendship to romance is quick natural and convincing. Thank you for the good work.

D'awwww... What? That's kind of my default reaction to Shepard and Vakarian interactions. Hm, what to say about this chapter... I certainly enjoyed it. Looking forward to whenever they activate Legion. I wish he'd been in the games longer... I have not gotten around to paying ME3 yet, but I just KNOW that game is going to break my heart SO MANY TIMES... T_T Legion... Mordin... Thane... Damn you YouTube and damn my curiosity for making me ignore the spoiler warnings every god damn time! T_T Ow...

I just saw that you updated in October! I'm so happy to see you haven't given up on this story. It's by far the best Mass Effect fanfic I've ever read, and has stuck with me all these years. I remember binge reading all you had written back in 2012 or maybe 2013, and just dying of anticipation for the next chapter to come out. I do hope you end up finishing the story- though I can understand if it's hard, especially after all this time, as you may have lost inspiration (I once wrote a story nearly 100,000 words long, and then simply lost inspiration- so I understand writers block).
Anyway thank you! Are you excited for the new mass effect? Maybe there will be a romance just as good as Garrus and Shepard that you'll want to write about ;)

This. Was great. I haven't been to finer for a while, /'d had actually almost forgotten about reviews (which is funny, because I sorted by them to find this story). Anyway, it really says something that I found myself wishing that I could comment on this chapter. Because it was really bleeping good. I wouldn't have interrupted my headlong hurtling through it otherwise.

Hurtling through reading means your story is good. Interrupting to comment means: really good.

This moment with Shepard having her enlightenment really got me. Because you took this so slow. Not unnecessarily slow, but properly slow. The physical contact, the care, the knowledge of each other... that doesn't happen immediately. And this moment. It's so characteristic of life. That mental double-take when you're like "nah, no way. Nope. Uh uh. ... ...shit." That was good. The way Shepard had to evaluate, and 'that voice,' and the open elevator? Spot on. Pip pip cheerio.

Even and especially the 'perfect first date' comment. It's not a date-neither of them said it was. But she's still speculating over the first date, and comparing this meeting to a date and it's almost like one in her mind. You have me sold on this story fam. J love it. I'll try to come up with some constructive criticism later.

Thanks for writing this,
Sets

P.S. Your use of 'purring' as a verb for speaking kills me. Especially since only. Garrus and Shepard have done it so far. Sometimes to each other. They are so perfect for each other omfg.

P.S.S. lol Jacob. He never stood a chance. I appreciated Garrus' subtle jealousy. He didn't even notice it himself.

I'm very much enjoying this fic! I love that you incorporate in game scenes and proceed to fill in the blanks between. I just love Garrus and Femshep and your interpretation of their story together!

Wow I'm glad I found this! I hope that you stick with it. :)

Glad you're back! Btw, out of curiousity... is garrus going to visit palaven to see his mother?