singularityooc | OOC RECAP, Asphodel Log

Okay, now I know a few of you are feeling like there's too much to catch up with, now, and tagging is impossible. That's not true! The OOC recap is for just this sort of thing.

Below, I've written up short summaries and sections on all the characters who went ICly to Asphodel. Everything with a blue asterisk alongside it is something I've written to aid in hand-waving. Most of these additions are to either fill in the blanks or complete a thread that might be taking a little longer than everyone is happy with.

These summaries are purely for outside reference, so people don't feel lost and like they have to go read several hundred comments. It's what your character might need to know, or what might be marked on one of the dossiers, or just generally what looking around the bunker on Asphodel would have told them.

For more specifics, I tried to link everyone to their OOC post. Not everyone had an OOC post for the recap, so some threads have log links and some are sans links altogether.

At the very least, this will tell your character what they need to know to join in on the training logs.

If you find something written next to your character that you disagree with, or don't like the phrasing of, or if your section is missing, or incomplete, let me know!

Tacticians

Freelancer Carolina -

whatever_it_takes - Tactician - Log Link

Personal - *Carolina was abound, talking to a good number of people. It's a well known bit of information that she's in on the tactical planning for this mission. Several people have been recommended to see her.
Mission Specific - With her experience in stealth operations, vehicle based combat, and logistics and improvisation, she's exactly the kind of tactical officer they need on hand. Shepard is decent with broad tactics, but it's really not her specialty. *Carolina will probably be the reactive tactical command during the assault, if Shepard can assign her to it. For now, she's probably dealing with the vehicle problem and organizing additional equipment.

Shockwave -

notsoloyal - Tactician - Log Link

Personal - *He's not the chattiest Decepticon, but that's generally considered a plus.
Mission Specific - *He's smart, has intel, and has been around as long as Shepard. She's willing to listen to what he has to say. If Carolina takes ground in the assault, odds are good that Shockwave will be the tactical officer coordinating. At the moment, she has no intention of assigning him to a ground team but he may be tasked with gathering or generating materials.

Tanks

Noble 4, Emile -

spaceracist - Tank - Link

Personal - He spoke with a number of others on the planet, including Zelgadis (DOESN'T TRUST, LOOKS LIKE AN ALIEN), both Washingtons (could be very useful in the assault, especially if they can get over themselves and work as part of teams), and Steph (who seems like a civvie, but if she wants to fight, Emile will just make sure he draws the fire away from her).

Oh, and he also gave Carolina a head injury in training, causing her to shave her hair off. Whoops.
Mission Specific - In another universe, Shepard and Emile could have been BFFs. His armor, training, and enthusiasm for weapons technology makes him a perfect tank. He's donated some plasma pistols, perfect for disabling large electronics if overcharged, and shield technology that runs a little more user friendly than the Mass Effect variety. He also has a very large laser that Shepard is going to trade him an anti-material rifle for.

Samus Aran -

chozobloodrites - Tank - Log Link

Personal - *Samus isn't the talkative type. She's hard to miss, though.
Mission Specific - Was there any doubt that Samus would be a tank? No. No, there wasn't. Due to her extensive training, Samus will be on a team with more heavy hitting capability and less support. Odds are good someone will have a lightsaber. For the moment, Samus hasn't been tasked with anything specific. She has offered to attempt to repair her suit's ball function but that's in the wind.

Support

Arthur -

soldad - Support - Link

Personal - Arthur is a casual dude who has been taking in the sights on Asphodel.
Mission Specific - *Shepard is impressed by how nonchalant he is. Nonchalant is not something she deals with often and is worth note. His skill with firearms and the gear he'd scrounged to travel down mean that he's capable of being the major support unit in almost any team. He's getting more elegant equipment, a shield unit, and has a choice of ammo modifications on his oldschool weapons or new weapons. New weapons (Mass Effect sidearms or small machine guns) means a brief bit of training.

Freelancer Washington -

articletwelve - Support - Log Link

Personal - Wash was a presence on Asphodel and could be seen staring dubiously at the Normandy Crew's preferred weapons stock.
Mission Specific - *Wash has guns. He can use them like a son of a bitch. More than that, he has common sense and a healthy dose of paranoia. He's exactly the kind of support personnel everyone always wanted.

Rinzler, AU -

enslavedslayer - Support or Scout - Link

Personal - *Rinzler isn't a conversational sort of guy. He's got glowing catsuit armor and that cheerful black helmet and death frisbee, so he's hard to miss, but your character probably didn't chat with him.
Mission Specific - *Shepard, on the other hand, chatted at him. She was relatively aware of what those discs were capable of and had seen a few people wield them, in her time here. Given the necessity for quick reaction time and close range combat skills, not to mention that he takes orders well, is technically a computer, and doesn't backsass, Rinzler was in. Shepard doesn't like putting him on support, given his lack of mid-range, multiple target capability...but his conversation skills make it difficult to class him as a scout.

Until she assembles the final lineup, he's hovering between both. She'll try to equip him with kinetic shields, much like everyone else, and probably have him running written messages as a courier until the assault.

UNSC - PFC Tucker -

hardlines - Support - Link

Personal - Tucker likes to snark. He probably snarked around, if not to your character specifically. The only actual conversations he had were with Wash and York, predominantly about how helping and getting shot is safer than avoiding the battle.
Mission Specific - His general plan is to blow shit up and try not to die. A+

Zelgadis -

unchimerical - Support - Link

Personal - Zelgadis is too cool for this business, check out the link for detailed CR summary.
Mission Specific - According to his conversations with Shepard and his general skills, Zelgadis is a support role. He'll be paired with one of the heavier tank teams and likely be tasked with watching the retreat and making sure their scout doesn't die.

Pilots

UNSC 479 -

sarcasticpelican - Pilot - Log Link

Personal - Not certain.
Mission Specific - *She's a smartass pilot and it's been a while since Shepard had Joker around, she was starting to miss that. Which is to say she didn't. Yet. While Shepard doesn't take kindly to people ragging on her wheels, she'll take divergent opinions from pilots and Carolina seems to know this one. Shepard has never gotten along with the UNSC, but it's a strain caused by recognizing a dangerous, competent, unknown quantity. If she can back up her game, like Shepard is guessing she can, she can talk all the shit she wants about the Mako. At the moment, she is one of the people tasked with building or acquiring transport to the maintenance ring. She has full access to the Normandy Crew's Base and open ability to requisition assistance from the biotics to move large objects.

Duo Maxwell -

stillshinigami - Pilot

Personal - Not certain.
Mission Specific - *Duo is a pilot. If Shepard hadn't been sold on that, already, he was skilled as a soldier and a hacker. His military training wasn't up to her general par, but with the spread of his skills, she couldn't complain. He'll be given full equipment and training in the firearms. For now, he's assigned alongside Freelancer Carolina and UNSC 479. His job is to find/convert/build vehicles for transport over to the destination. With his skills, he'll be assigned to a secondary team of generally balanced people and serve as a support officer. ...Unless he finds a smaller mech, that is.

Scouts and Medics

Freelancer York -

neverknocks - Scout - Link

Personal - York is up in this. She's an infiltrator, combat skills to back it up, and is generally amusing. See link for a more detailed summary.
Mission Specific - Scout is a bit mild of a term. York's specialty is hacking and she's done more than a bit of looking into the teleporter security. Odds are good she'll get assigned to a more balanced team.

Jituss -

conspirator - Scout/Medic* - Log Link

Personal - This woman knows stealth. Odds are good most of the people here still have no goddam idea who she is.
Mission Specific - She's a hacker, combat medic, retriever, and knows how to use a weapon. She's a scout who needs absolute minimum safeguarding. She's been given details on the Mass Effect universe's stealth technology and will be given a basic kinetic shield array and a Mass Effect brand small machine gun. She may need to be trained in the gun, if nothing else. Until then, she's running intel gathering and cooking for the Normandy Haus.

Kanaya -

mcfussyfangs - Medic - Link

Personal - Kanaya kept mostly to herself, but plans on helping people.
Mission Specific - Her general plan is that once any wounded are taken care of is to go on a single-minded campaign to figure out where Hypatia is putting all her friends, because she doesn't believe they've all gone back home. She'll be provided with equipment and probably remain in a fortified position by the exit point, with the pilot and support crew.

Marco -

baldwinboyfive - Scout - Link

Personal - Marco has been quite active and chatty. See link for detailed summary.
Mission Specific - Shepard likes and hates him in equal parts. He is slated for Basic Military training, Guns training, and is going to be given a kinetic shield. Due to his ability to transform into various animals and potentially short circuit doors and/or other units, he's classed as a scout.

Stephanie Brown -

selfmadehero - Scout - Link

Personal - Steph has had a lot of interaction, talked to most of the people headed out for the mission, but has not come out and informed them she's a vigilante (mostly). If it comes up, she won't deny it.
Mission Specific - Steph is going to have Basic Military training, Guns training, and Hand to Hand. She's getting full equipment. There's potential for mission assignments based on recon and infiltration. Odds are good, Steph will be on a more balanced team with the pilots and a more specific goal than “blow everything up”.

Rose -

roseintheshade - Scout - Link

Personal - Rose spent most of her time on Asphodel by herself trying (unsuccessfully) to use her ability as a Seer of Light to see the path that would lead their group to victory. When that didn't work, she spoke with a few people, including Kanaya, Nepeta and Shepard.
Mission Specific - Rose has the ability to see through things (basically, X-Ray Vision). She can also fly. She volunteered to help as a scout.

Roxas -

swordisakey - Scout/Medic* - Log Link

Personal - *Roxas was definitely a presence and made quite a few friends, Marco included.
Mission Specific - Shepard doesn't like sending kids this young into combat, she really doesn't like it, but she sure as shit isn't about to patronize him. Well...not verbally. If he can unlock things and cure, she'll send him in. His team will likely have an autonomous tank with a strong investment in no-man-left-behind and a multifaceted support agent. He's getting full equipment, Basic Training, Guns, and probably Hand to Hand as well. Until the assault, Shepard will have him running fetchquests to bring her back parts, schematics, and stolen tech.

Disembodied AI

Cortana -

mymothersshadow - AI - Link

Personal - Cortana spoke with Emile and a couple other people, mostly about tanks. She listened in on Emile's conversation with Shepard, contributing with explanations of UNSC technology and etc. when prompted to.
Mission Specific - *As an AI it's very likely that Cortana will travel with Emile and serve as secondary support to the Spartan and his team, particularly their scout.

Delta -

alaspooryork - AI

Personal - Not certain.
Mission Specific - *As an AI, he can provide support on site. With EDI on assault, though, Delta might serve more effectively as an administrator, working to keep tactical communication open during the actual operation.

TBD

Deadlock -

driftlock - TBD - Link

Personal - He hates everyone except the ones he hates slightly less (Eve). Shepard is alright with him because his desire to save Tria is not unfamiliar from her own desire to save EDI if the situation came up.
Mission Specific - Shepard hasn't counted him in, just yet, because the outcome of their mission to rescue Tria could make him an unreliable asset. He's provided mild information regarding the shuttle bay and is beholden to provide anything he learns looking for Tria.

Darth Nox -

forcewalking - TBD - Log Link

Personal - Isn't he just cheerful. Shepard calls him Chuckles. Odds are good nobody else knows his name and given his freaky Sith powers, you may or may not have noticed him.
Mission Specific - *Thread ongoing. Given his abilities, odds are good he'll be a Tank or Support, depending on how rounded out his team is. He may be assigned additional training, but it's not very likely. He may also be equipped with a breather and shields.

Freelancer Washington, AU -

edgeoflucidity - TBD - Link

Personal - *Washington and Epsilon were a presence, albeit quieter than most, during the stay on Asphodel. With all the Freelancer/UNSC armor, your character might not remember them at first, but odds are fair that they had a brief conversation at some point. At least they saw them there, no doubt about that.
Mission Specific - *Washington and Epsilon are something of a wildcard for Shepard. She's not sure where to put them, but the fact that they've had so much training makes it impossible to nix them from the roster. Until she's decided where to slot them, they're free agents and will probably be assigned as mission prep support until Shepard can figure what to do with them.

Wistalia -

avengerofjade - TBD - Log Link

Personal - It's hard to miss the giant dragon in the room, really.
Mission Specific - Nothing yet, OOC ideas?

N/A

Eve -

halfheartedcurse - N/A - Link

Personal - Eve is a creepy, precocious scamp. Who...climbs all over giant, surly robots.
Mission Specific - Shepard really doesn't plan on bringing her to the assault party...but they can't leave her alone in the Normandy Haus, so, here she is. It can be assumed that her general plan is to hide in the vents and wage a tiny campaign of geurilla warfare on the smaller drones until Hypatia wises up and floods the vents with neurotoxin or something. She will probably inform Shepard of this at some point.

Mass Effect

And the Mass Effect crew, for outside reference. Most of the Asphodel CR here is hand-waved, but they'll be joining in to work with the training section much more extensively.

I apologize that these aren't mixed in as they should be...but I realize I wrote them all in this sequence and moving them around actually has an effect. MY BAD.

Commander Jane Shepard -

cmdr_renegade - Tank

Personal - Shepard didn't do much chatting outside the war room, but she got a good feel for the people who'd come. Overall, she's impressed with the determination and variety. She wouldn't trust most of them farther than she could throw them, under normal circumstances, but the enemy of my enemy.... She's feeling more like a Commander, like she did on the Normandy with a full compliment, and that's making her more charitable than usual. Two years and she hasn't had this many kindly conversations.

It's a damn good thing this wasn't a long term situation.
Mission Specific - Shepard is a Vanguard. This means she has some reasonably powerful but generally unrefined biotic (glowy blue psychic, for all intents and purposes) skills. The most popular of these skills is charging, which she does as inhuman speed with the force of a freight train. She's deadly with small arms, reasonable with assault rifles, and seriously mediocre with long range weapons. Long range, not her forte. Shepard's style means that her support crew is going to have to be capable of considerable combat and her scouts have to be adaptive to a fault.

Commander John Shepard -

vanguard_charge - Tank

Personal - *John Shepard is a helpful guy. He probably talked to your character, greeted them enthusiastically if he knew them already, and was a general presence on the planet. He's as friendly as Jane is not, but don't let that fool you, he's just as military. He's a command officer and that's something that comes off of him in waves.
Mission Specific - *Shepard is also a Vanguard. It's possible that Jane, more a fan of eliminating as many as possible, is more viscous while John is more tactical. His team probably won't be left twisting in the proverbial wind quite as much as Jane's. His support crew can be more balanced to compliment the scout.

Major Kaidan Alenko -

allianceman - Support

Personal - *Most of you had to talk to either him or EDI at one point. If nothing else, you probably got the details of the plan from him before you left the planet. He's military, polite (and not just by comparison), and knowledgable. He's not exactly an engineer, but he's got enough skill that he can integrate or locate most things. He probably gave you the equipment he could or told you to come back to the base, later, to acquire it.
Mission Specific - *Kaidan is not a Vanguard, but he is a biotic. He's Sentinal and his specialty is warping the fabric of reality with his mind, particularly when that causes serious damage, lifts enemies above cover, or deflects bullets. Kaidan is good support and will be best placed on a team with a battle-savvy scout. His training as a Sentinal is impressive, but he'll be a little too busy to really unload a lot of clips into the enemy.

Lieutenant Ashley Williams -

brbvirmire - Support - Link to detailed CR.

Personal - *On planet, Ashley hung around the war room and occasionally wandered the bunker, proper. She's helpful, conversational, and enjoys classic poetry. Odds are fair that some of your characters had a brief conversation with her. Odds are very good that they noticed her, given the sniper rifle and stylish haircut.
Mission Specific - *Ashley is the gun nut on a ship full of gun nuts. She can strip, clean, and rebuild any weapon they have on deck and probably a few they don't. She's not a biotic but what she lacks in magical brain powers, she makes up for in weapons skills. She's a hardcore soldier and knows more about guns and how to operate them than most branches of the military have forgotten. She'll be teaching most of the gun related training. On team, she's a good sniper and slings an assault rifle like it ain't no thang. She's very balanced and very professional.

E.D.I. -

thatisajoke - Support - Link

Personal - Most of you had to talk to either EDI or Kaidan and a good deal of you did. She was the technical supply of knowledge on planet. Normally, she's a disembodied blue orb but the body she's in now is a blonde ~~cylon~~ bombshell with a red evening gown that she was poured into. It was pretty hard to miss her and reasonably difficult to identify her as a robot...unless you noticed that whole not blinking thing.
Mission Specific - EDI is a tactical AI who specializes in cyberwarfare. She was developed to handle and adapt to super advanced and insidious code, on the fly, and she does it very well. She has reasonable tactical training and can handle small arms with the best of them. Her reflexes are light speed and, while she may not have all the leverage of a sturdier combat frame, she throws a solid punch. She'll be best suited to provide on site assistance to scouts, rather than tanks. On the station, she's running the secondary network separate from Hypatia. It should keep communications reasonably secret, but it's not the method of choice.

Lieutenant James Vega -

notromanceable - Tank

Personal - *James Vega was that huge (I suppose this is relative, given the number of UNSC at this event) Latin guy in the heavy armor. He's easily the most amicable of the Normandy crew and, barring EDI because she's an AI, the most conversational. Odds are good you spotted him or chatted with him on the planet.
Mission Specific - Vega is an arms master. His skill with guns and gun related business rivals Ashley's. The man can fire anything and, frankly, there are precious few people you'd rather have as backup or clearing the way. He'll be running the gun training and basic military training, drills, combat skills, and probably be assisting the Shepards in hand to hand. He is not a pilot. Do not let him help with that. He can move large equipment but do not let him fly it.

Liara T'Soni -

asari_scientist - Support

Personal - *Being an odd color isn't a weird thing on Sacrosanct, anymore. Liara is that cheerful blue woman who occasionally pops up on the network asking innocuous questions to the public in general. It's hard to say whether she'd have given up the ghost or not, planetside, but you can bet that if you talked to Liara, she recorded every possible detail of that conversation. Not while you were watching, of course, but she got that shit down.
Mission Specific - Liara is an information broker. She's very skilled at finding her way through firewalls, recording intel, and assembling tactical plans. She's as dangerous behind a desk as she is in real life. She is good with small arms, but Liara's specialty really lies in Biotics. Unlike the human version, she's an Asari. Asari are the best in the universe with biotics and while Kaidan might top her in power, Liara's got finesse. She can lift, throw, warp, detonate, push, pull, you name it. ~~She can kill you with her brain.~~ If decent armor came in Asari sizes, Liara would be a tank, but it doesn't. It also doesn't help that Liara only tends to be ruthless when she has to be. A scout who needs cover will be best served by Liara. Between her and another rounded support officer, they wouldn't require a tank.

Thane Krios -

tablepuncher - Support

Personal - *Thane is that calm, meditating, green lizard guy. ~~You know, the one dressed like a stripper.~~ He's very polite, generally helpful, and altogether zen. If your character had a conversation with him, they probably left feeling better about everyone's chances.
Mission Specific - Thane is an assassin and he is the best at what he does. With his shiny new lungs (and internal organs) (seriously, though, don't bring that up in conversation), Thane is the alien bionic man. He is quick, efficient, and knows exactly how much force it takes to kill. He's decent with small arms, but his gun skills really shine when he's on long range. Thane is a very good distance support, whether that will come up is hard to say. In close quarters, Thane is best served on a team with a very autonomous tank who doesn't necessarily need backup firepower, and a skilled scout who may or may not be battle-savvy. With a few other support crew, Thane can be trusted to hold the line nearly indefinitely.

Now! This chart is, by no means, exhaustive. If you want to handwave your character through Asphodel, or you want to establish what someone was doing off screen, on the station, just fill out the HTML below and leave a comment for the recap.

If you are having trouble because your character simply wouldn't have gone to Asphodel, shortly after the Training Log goes up, I'll be doing an open log with Shepard. Given Hypatia's latest threats, she's going to be recruiting people Hypatia might not be watching so closely (i.e. people left on the station during the trip). She won't be recruiting them for combat, but rather as Couriers to deliver hardcopy (and thereby unhackable) messages to various people.

This courier position has the benefit of allowing your character to interact with everyone and anyone on the mission and doesn't require them to fight. Characters who went down to the planet are also welcome to take up this position, if they'd like. It's a CR freebie.

OOC RECAP, Asphodel Log