FILL REBOOT: Need to Know (Miranda/Ashley)
anonymous
August 29 2014, 00:33:16 UTC
A/N: This is an attempt to re-start my own, earlier attempt at this story, which got interrupted by life happening all around me. I'm picking up the pieces and decided repost the first few chapters and continue in the latest thread, so it won't get lost. It will be cross-linked with the original fill.
Miranda/Ashley - Literally anythingThere is so little love for this pairing (in fact I've found nothing!) and as I love both ladies (and am forever bitter that they don't love ladies) I'm really looking for anything to do with them. Hooking up at the Citadel party? Meeting sometime between ME1 and ME2
( ... )
Need to Know (Miranda/Ashley) 45/50
anonymous
January 29 2015, 11:52:01 UTC
The shuttle jolted to a halt, rousing everybody from their rest. They unbuckled from their seats and stood up, Vega and Garrus pulling Ashley up
( ... )
Need to Know (Miranda/Ashley) 47/50
anonymous
January 29 2015, 11:53:50 UTC
She dressed up and walked out into the mess hall, her hair still damp, but at least she felt more like herself. Vega and Garrus were sitting at a table, wolfing down some rations to replenish the lost calories, sitting in silence, staring thoughtfully at the darkened windows of the medbay. The other marine nodded to her, pointing to a plate with some food on it that he thoughtfully prepared for her. That made Ashley realized how hungry she was
( ... )
Need to Know (Miranda/Ashley) 48/50
anonymous
January 29 2015, 11:54:51 UTC
She managed to keep Tali from being sick and finally led the her to the couch to lie down while the quarian girl shared maybe a bit too much information about her affection for Garrus and kept repeating how much she liked Ashley, who was like a sister to her. Ashley watched her until she finally passed out. Her head buzzing from the alcohol she stared out the observation deck’s window at the stars. She was feeling good and a bit light-headed, and wondered about their little chat. About obligations and about perceptions. She made a mental note to speak to Tali once she sobered up and encourage her to talk to Garrus
( ... )
Need to Know (Miranda/Ashley) 50/50
anonymous
January 29 2015, 11:57:06 UTC
EpilogueA few days later the Normandy met up with Admiral Hackett’s fleet to go over the plans to attack the Cerberus Headquarters. This was where Miranda and Oriana were getting off. Miranda was in no shape to join the attack anyway, and Oriana, who was adamant to contribute to the war effort, convinced her sister to let her join the Crucible team. Miranda did not argue much once she realized that she can’t keep her tucked away again and expect her to be idle, and it wouldn’t be so much different from hiding her from their father. There was no way she was letting her out of her sight either. She also had to admit, that Oriana’s intelligence would be well utilized in such an important project, it would keep her happy and the always moving Crucible construction site was probably the safest place in the Galaxy at the moment
( ... )
A/N: Need to Know (Miranda/Ashley) 50/50
anonymous
January 29 2015, 11:59:17 UTC
author’s note: So there we go. After many-many months of idling, writer’s block and half-abandonment, it is finally finished. I wish to apologise to the OP for taking so long, but finally it’s completed.
The story bears a passing resemblance to my previous Ashley/Miranda story, “Played”, especially the last part, which is a variation and extension of the bonus scene from Played. I kind of worked my way back from that. There are other places where the story or motifs overlap, and some of it is intentional. I was experimenting with writing a variation on a theme that was more relevant to the games, while trying to remain as faithful to the original as it made sense.
I also thank you for all the kind readers and feedback that I got, it is always appreciated. I will take another look at the story, iron out the wrinkles and start uploading it to AO3.
Re: A/N: Need to Know (Miranda/Ashley) 50/50
anonymous
January 29 2015, 16:23:43 UTC
Huh, now I can't not leave a comment - I read this from when it started, and I really enjoyed the inclusion of many 'plot' scenes, especially as you capture the feeling of the ME world really well! Also being a fan of this relatively-rare pairing does help - now that you say it I do see the parallels to Played (which I re-read some time ago), even if the dynamics resulting of the fact that they are supposed to be enemies (which dominates that other story) looses its importance here half way through, being set in ME3 and all. But their comparable backgrounds give this another (not unrealistic) basis here... And the characters totally make sense, Miranda changing between her seemingly over-confident 'perfect' behavior and her complete vulnerability multiple times, and Ash's confusion seem in character to me, contributing to the feeling of the world I mentioned earlier. So, uh... cool thing!
Re: A/N: Need to Know (Miranda/Ashley) 50/50
anonymous
January 29 2015, 19:01:37 UTC
Thank you for reading and staying with the story! I appreciate the feedback, especially since it is always the trickiest part to make these characters as believable as possible, while accepting that doing this will essentially be out of character for them. I'm glad there are other Ash/Miranda fans out there. :)
Re: A/N: Need to Know (Miranda/Ashley) 50/50
anonymous
January 29 2015, 18:29:15 UTC
I liked those scenes where Ash an Miranda were together and actively interacted with each other, like the whole Citadel part in the beginning was very good. The smut scenes were great, especially the latter two because of the cool locations.
But I found the parts where they were alone doing their own thing a little dry and not very interesting.
I already mentioned that I didn't like the frequent location changes and time jumps. The story just never slowed down enough to let Ash and Miranda spend a reasonably long time together to properly develop their relationship. For example, I really wish the Australia scene was longer. It was a pretty unique location for a ME fic and maybe they could have done something interesting there together.
Re: A/N: Need to Know (Miranda/Ashley) 50/50 - A!A
anonymous
January 29 2015, 18:54:20 UTC
I appreciate the feedback and I understand your issues with it. I already started extending/re-working the motel scene and I'll add the beach scene to the list. I will try to round them out a bit if I can before starting to upload it to AO3.
(trivia: The Australian location is actually a bit stalker-ish choice, as it is the hometown of Miranda's voice actress.)
The parts where they are alone doing their own thing is different, though. I tried to keep them as short as possible, but those were necessary to move the plot forward and set up the story until they can meet. One of the reasons for the quick jumps in time and place were to try and cut out the boring parts and get to the important bits. (Maybe one of the reasons that some parts are dry was because I was rushing them to reach the interesting parts.)
Thank you for your feedback, it really helps to fix things and to motivate!
A!A: Need to Know (Miranda/Ashley) 50/50
anonymous
February 5 2015, 23:37:03 UTC
I took the advices and tried to flesh out the first two chapters: the citadel encounter and the beach scene. The extended scenes are up on AO3. Hope you like them.
Re: A/N: Need to Know (Miranda/Ashley) 50/50
anonymous
January 30 2015, 16:20:19 UTC
Enjoyed this greatly, however the piece is not without it's flaws. Mainly, there is a lot of 'tell' and very little 'show', especially in action chapters. Now that may be because A!A is simply not familiar with the subject matter (military life, infantry combat etc.) I would also suggest you try a more direct storytelling approach in present tense or even first-person narrative for action bits. Again, loved the fill, just throwing something for you to consider.
Re: A/N: Need to Know (Miranda/Ashley) 50/50
anonymous
January 30 2015, 17:30:31 UTC
a!a here, and thank you for your comments, they are quite useful. I do agree about the show don't tell observation. However, since I'm writing this in my free time, that turned out to be way too hectic to keep the narrative tight, I can't afford the time to develop these scenes fully. I just wanted to get the story done, and thus, some scenes were indeed, rushed. I'd love to spend more effort on these fills, but that would make the story much bigger and a lot of work which I can't necessarily put into it. In the future I'll try my best to show more and tell less as much as my time and energy allows it. Being not a native English speaker, however, I know I have my limits. That's why I write for a kink meme and try to get to the smut, and don't make a living out of it :)
So this is an attempt to fill this prompt:
http://masseffectkink.livejournal.com/7415.html?thread=35478775#t35478775
Miranda/Ashley - Literally anythingThere is so little love for this pairing (in fact I've found nothing!) and as I love both ladies (and am forever bitter that they don't love ladies) I'm really looking for anything to do with them. Hooking up at the Citadel party? Meeting sometime between ME1 and ME2 ( ... )
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The story bears a passing resemblance to my previous Ashley/Miranda story, “Played”, especially the last part, which is a variation and extension of the bonus scene from Played. I kind of worked my way back from that. There are other places where the story or motifs overlap, and some of it is intentional. I was experimenting with writing a variation on a theme that was more relevant to the games, while trying to remain as faithful to the original as it made sense.
I also thank you for all the kind readers and feedback that I got, it is always appreciated. I will take another look at the story, iron out the wrinkles and start uploading it to AO3.
Any comment or feedback is appreciated.
A!A out
Reply
Also being a fan of this relatively-rare pairing does help - now that you say it I do see the parallels to Played (which I re-read some time ago), even if the dynamics resulting of the fact that they are supposed to be enemies (which dominates that other story) looses its importance here half way through, being set in ME3 and all.
But their comparable backgrounds give this another (not unrealistic) basis here... And the characters totally make sense, Miranda changing between her seemingly over-confident 'perfect' behavior and her complete vulnerability multiple times, and Ash's confusion seem in character to me, contributing to the feeling of the world I mentioned earlier.
So, uh... cool thing!
Reply
Reply
But I found the parts where they were alone doing their own thing a little dry and not very interesting.
I already mentioned that I didn't like the frequent location changes and time jumps. The story just never slowed down enough to let Ash and Miranda spend a reasonably long time together to properly develop their relationship.
For example, I really wish the Australia scene was longer. It was a pretty unique location for a ME fic and maybe they could have done something interesting there together.
Nice work overall!
Reply
(trivia: The Australian location is actually a bit stalker-ish choice, as it is the hometown of Miranda's voice actress.)
The parts where they are alone doing their own thing is different, though. I tried to keep them as short as possible, but those were necessary to move the plot forward and set up the story until they can meet. One of the reasons for the quick jumps in time and place were to try and cut out the boring parts and get to the important bits. (Maybe one of the reasons that some parts are dry was because I was rushing them to reach the interesting parts.)
Thank you for your feedback, it really helps to fix things and to motivate!
Reply
Reply
Reply
Again, loved the fill, just throwing something for you to consider.
Reply
I'd love to spend more effort on these fills, but that would make the story much bigger and a lot of work which I can't necessarily put into it.
In the future I'll try my best to show more and tell less as much as my time and energy allows it. Being not a native English speaker, however, I know I have my limits. That's why I write for a kink meme and try to get to the smut, and don't make a living out of it :)
Reply
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