Interstitium

Interstitium takes the world of Mass Effect 2 and expands upon it by exploring the PoVs of various characters. Everyone gets their time in the spotlight, from John Shepard himself to some surprising choices.

Interstitium also makes some tiny tweaks which have larger overall effects on the course of the story. The potential side-effects of being brought Back from the Dead are looked at more closely, and the conflict between Cerberus and Shepard becomes a running theme.

Tropes used in Interstitium include:

• Alternate Continuity: Minor details are changed. For instance, TIM does not give Shepard a dossier on Archangel; Shepard overhears rumors about him while on Omega and decides he'd make as good a recruit as anyone Cerberus chose. Similarly, there is no dossier on Tali, and Shepard goes after her because she's Tali.
• Asshole Victim: TIM tries to invoke this by letting Shepard in on part of the reason they've been hounding Kasumi.
  • Thane is also concerned about this, as during his assassination of Nassana, he found himself racing to kill her before Shepard could potentially claim her life first. He didn't just want her dead because of a contract, he wanted to be the one who killed her, and is profoundly disturbed to reflect back upon this after the fact.
  • Averted with Wilson, whose POV chapter shows them to be morally ambiguious, but not someone who deserved their fate, either. (That fate being murdered so that Cerberus can keep his work on the Lazarus Project under TIM's thumb.)
  • A strange case of this, as this segment was written before Lair of the Shadow Broker, which proves Wilson is indeed a traitor, working for the Shadow Broker.
• Big Eater: Grunt, to the point that Mordin is able to get to him Through His Stomach.
• Break the Haughty: Miranda's allegience to Cerberus is more of a sticking point here.
• Death Is Cheap: Averted; in addition to the monetary cost of bringing Shepard back, the physical consequences are explored, along with the mental repercussions of waking up a 'zombie'.
• Divided We Fall: Just because Shepard was revived by Cerberus to save the galaxy doesn't mean he's willing to trust them. The subtle power struggle becomes more overt over time, until TIM points them right into a trap and Shepard decides enough is enough.
• Don't Explain the Joke: When Kasumi cracks a joke and her audience doesn't laugh, she asks if they even got it. Thane immediately details why it was meant to be funny, earning himself a head pat.
• Enemy Eats Your Lunch: Grunt tries to intimidate Garrus into handing over his rations during a mission. The fact it's dextro-formulated and not really fit for krogan consumption doesn't matter to him.
• Ensign Newbie: In Chapter 20, it's revealed that Shepard was thrown into this role in the Blitz. Being a lieutenant, he technically outranked a squadron of turian soldiers; thus, they expected him to lead them into battle.
• Eureka Moment: Tali gives one to Mordin in Chapter 17. He responds with a hug.
• Eye Scream: Barely avoided when Zaeed shoots Grunt to keep him from killing Jacob.
  • Tali also expresses her concern about this when Shepard wants her to disable the cameras Cerberus installed in his eyes.
• False Innocence Trick: Exploited by TIM to make Kasumi seem much less innocent than first appearances would suggest.
• Flashbacks: Are used extensively in most chapters to explore everyone's history.
• Former Teen Rebel: Mordin turns out to be one.
• Hidden Depths
• Humiliation Conga: Downplayed; Shepard doesn't hesitate to stick Miranda with some pretty degrading or embarrassing assignments, such as pretending to be Mordin's beloved.
• I Have Your Mate: Played for Laughs when Shepard and his crew have to create this scenario to appease the krogan. By offering them a chance to hold Mordin's 'mate' during his loyalty mission.
• Large Ham: Mordin really hams it up when pretending Miranda is his mate.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: EDI doesn't even remember her original name, or those of her creators. Cerebus made sure of that.
• Martyr Without a Cause: Thane is so determined not to be a bother or 'presume' anything that for the first week he's on board the Normandy, he doesn't eat or drink anything. Shepard is understandably annoyed when he finds out.
• Noodle Incident: The 'ergoline incident' that led to Mordin not being allowed to store any more samples in the medical bay.
• Not So Different: Jacob regards the assassin Thane and the mercenary Zaeed as being cut from the same cloth. Thane points out their own similarities.
• Oh Crap: Ken and Gabby share this with Joker in Chapter 19 when he announces EDI shut down their dampeners, rendering them unable to jump away from the trapped Collector ship without casualties in the lower decks. Becomes a bigger one when he adds that won't stop him from jumping without them, even knowing it would kill most of the Cerberus crew.
• One-Man Army: Shepard already had a reputation as this due to his heroics during the Blitz. Except he hadn't acted alone.
• Propaganda Machine: Put quite the spin on Shepard's actions during the Blitz, ignoring little details like how he had help from a squad of turians.
• Psychopathic Manchild: The fact that the waking world is entirely new to Grunt is played up for all it's worth, both good and bad.
• Sense Freak: Grunt. The tank didn't contain concepts like flavor, leading to him demolishing the kitchen shortly after waking up and bugging Garrus for his rations.
• Show Within a Show: Garr the Battlemaster, an animated series stated to have "poor production values but a surprisingly complicated story". Grunt is a huge fan and collects the action figures.
• Stealth Hi Bye: Thane pulls this on Aethyta during their conversation.
• Strawman News Media: Zizi Tic's Celeb-Watch is a Type 4 that puts a comically wrong spin on the events opening Chapter 16.
• Switching POV
• Sympathetic POV
• Timed Mission: Chapter 19. Gabby and Ken racing to get the dampeners back online before the away team returns and Joker makes the jump without them.
• To the Pain: Thane gives a speech of this nature to the man who ordered his wife's murder.
• Traumatic Haircut: Suffered by Miranda. Played for both laughs and drama due to what causes it (her nearly being killed) and how they're well aware how shallow and appearance-obsessed they're coming off as.
• The Vamp: Played with; while her perfect appearance makes this a viable tactic, Miranda is self-aware enough to realize she's not a master manipulator and lacks the social graces required to charm her targets with more than looks.
  • With the above knowledge in mind, Miranda makes clear to Kelly that she should consider seduce Shepard -- and makes clear she believes that's all the psychologist is good for.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Shepard gives Grunt a huge dressing-down after his trigger-happiness with a flamethrower kills half the colonists his team managed to save, and he nearly killed Jacob for calling him on it.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The reason for Wilson's execution.