#is it me or is garrus squishy | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

shivunin · 4 months

Text

WIP Wednesday

Tagged by @greypetrel @layalu @daggerbean and @zenstrike (Zen, I've decided I'm just going to post all fic things on this blog from now on, but I will post something that isn't Dragon Age c:)

Tagging @ndostairlyrium @heniareth @pinayelf @buchimgay @brother-genitivi @jtownnn @dreadfutures @inquisimer

I don't have a picture right now, but I've gotten the first two rows of purple onto the Leliana scarf and I'm really pleased with how the color looks so far! It's been really nice to do something with my hands in the evening, especially since I got hooked on a DND show I can watch at the same time.

Here are a snippet from some Mass Effect fic I'm still playing around with, then a bit from a BG piece I've been working on the last month or so.

From "Sure As Night," a ME WIP (535 Words):

The hum of the elevator to Shepard’s cabin had become familiar and comforting, in an odd way.

The rest of the ship sounded just slightly off to Garrus. It’d taken plenty of hits after they’d gone through the relay, had almost certainly taken some damage from that final blast. The Normandy wasn’t actively falling apart or neither of them would be up here, but the sound of the engine was just one more thing that was…off. Or maybe Garrus was just hearing things. Wouldn’t be the first time in the past few months.

But her elevator sounded exactly the same as always. It was…nice, for one thing to stay the same.

“Shepard?” he called. After a moment, the door unlocked and slid open.

It was not immediately apparent where she was when he stepped inside. Garrus glanced at the trail of water on the floor and followed it to the couch in the next room (top notch detective skills there; wouldn’t his father be proud of him now?). He saw Shepard as soon as he walked down the stairs, sprawled over the couch with her feet braced on the bulkhead. Her hair was tousled and darker than usual, water droplets clung to her exposed shoulders, and the rest of her torso was wrapped in a towel.

“Hey there,” she said, and Garrus blinked down at her.

“And here I was coming in to give a formal report,” he said drily. She grimaced and pushed herself up, raking her hair away from her face.

“Tell me that’s a joke,” she said. “Don’t think I can handle another emergency right now.”

She could, of course. They both knew that if there had been an emergency, she’d bolt out of here as quickly as she could and handle it. It’s who she was, after all.

“You ask the engineers, it’s all an emergency,” he told her. “But I think they’ll hang on for a little longer or Ken would be talking less.”

Shepard snorted and shifted aside, glancing at the open space beside her.

Well. He could take a hint. He just hoped she wasn’t about to tell him that last night had been a mistake. He’d been thinking about it plenty since then and he’d reached an entirely different conclusion. Racing through destruction with the expectation of certain death could do that to a person.

Garrus passed the last step and settled beside her as best he could. He still wasn’t used to the human preoccupation with these squishy pieces of furniture. Didn’t they ever get stuck? He always felt like he’d sink all the way to the floor if he sat back too far. He considered telling her this to break the tension and discarded the idea immediately. He could definitely manage better than that.

“How’s the arm?” she asked him, nudging the arm in question. Garrus shrugged and rolled his shoulder experimentally. After taking a rocket to the face, he’d found that his scale for pain was kind of shot. He hadn’t even realized there was something wrong with it before Chakwas had insisted on scanning him.

“I’ve had worse,” he told her, and she snorted.

“Tough guy, huh?” she asked.

“Something like that,” he paused. “And you? You took a few shots yourself.”

“I’ll survive,” Shepard said, looking at him sidelong, and smiled.

And (with a very different tone!) from a piece I am working on for Tav (234 Words):

Hope; a curious thing. She had been bereft of it for so long that its touch burned her then.

“Be welcomed, faithful paladin,” Lathander had said. “Be free of the bonds that held you. ”

“My Lord, I will serve you for all my days,” she had told him, and only knew that she was weeping when the droplets struck the hands she’d clenched below..

She had never been touched like this. Nobody had ever been touched like this, she was certain of that.

“You are mine now. The past is done,” he said. “Name yourself to me, Oathsworn.”

Octavia fell away, dead at last and free to rest. The woman she left behind took a deep breath. She had been a child once, and loved. Her family—her family had called her a silly nickname, coined by a brother with too few teeth to say her real one properly. She had left them behind too young, had left behind any hope of belonging somewhere at the same time.

But—she belonged here now. She belonged to Lathander, as she had once belonged to her family.

“Tavitha Hallowthorn,” she whispered. “I am Tavitha.”

“Tavitha,” the god said, already dissipating into countless flecks of light, each of them composed of all the shades of every perfect sunrise. “Be welcome.”

Octavia was dead. Tavitha bowed her head before her god and knew herself for the first time in a very, very long time.

#wip wednesday #tav tag #jesse shepard #shivunin scrivening #work has been. kind of a nightmare for the last two weeks #so i've written very little #but the good news is i am not getting laid off #the bad news is i am so good at my job that they fired someone else and now i have to fix her shit before i can go back to normal #but. i am glad that i will not have to look for something else #i just miss having the energy to do stuff T.T #oh. but i am getting a tattoo on friday too!!! so that's happening!!!#and hopefully i will have the time/energy to write again soon #because i have lots of Thoughts

20 notes · View notes

sol-consort · 3 months

Note

God that vibration in a Turians voice is what made me realize that “oh Garrus IS hot” in Mass Effect 2 because I liked him in 1 but didn’t think he was hot yet. I must’ve been too focused on trying not to romance someone in 1 which I almost failed at. Also I know that people have already said this out of the blue but I do hope you’re okay, you’re a cool dude who makes dope stuff even if I don’t comment which I should and pretty much the reason I’m still somewhat active on tumblr now

I feel out of the loop because I am desperately trying to find ME2 Garrus hot but something about how dismissive and distant he is puts me off. No like I tottally get it you've been through a lot BUT I WAS DEAD.

I LITERALLY WAS DEAD FOR 2 YEARS AND ALL HE HAS TO SAY "oh Shepard it's you." FUCK YOU MAN I WAS GOING IN FOR A HUG.

I haven't done his loyalty mission yet so maybe he will warm up on me eventually. Idk no strong opinions on romance so far except for the theif girl but she already has someone so I am fucked.

I was fully planning on cheating on Kaidan here.

I imported my ME1 save and the game currently has me flagged in Kaidan's romance because his picture is in my bedroom. It's supposed to turn down when I cheat on him and he will confront me about it in ME3

But now. I can't find anyone fuckable. Even Garrus who I was down bad for because of the stars in his eyes literally became batman 2.0 and is blasting my chemical romance from the back of the ship but no one wants to confront him about it and instead hope the phase ends soon.

Jacob is. Jacob lacks rizz. Jacob makes me feel like I'm sexually harrassing him because of how uncomfortable he seems whenever I pick a romance option. I actually had to google if he was romance-able just to make sure I wasn't doing anything wrong.

Who's left huh????? Who's dick I supposed to suck in order to get my shepard a malewife??

There is Liara. Liara is always fucking there standing in the corner. Ruining my Kaidan romance and tricking me into her romance like some kind of fae.

I hope the Garrus fever infects me soon too because it looks like I will end up staying loyal to Kaidan against my will. That man probably spent the two years after Shepard's death to make sure all men in the galaxy are unfuckable and all hot women are straight, just on the off chance Shepard comes back to life and tries to get some.

I mean he isn't wrong, Shepard flirted with him while on the job and while being his captain, he knows his commander will flirt with their co-works without any shame so why even take the risk?

God I miss Ashley.

On other news, I keep meeting Turians I want to fuck. Who are not an option to fuck. It's a twisted irony of fate because I keep refusing Garrus.

Also I'm starting to regret the fact I made Anderson the council. He seems really sad, but man it felt great watching Udina get told to fuck off.

Is he happier if he doesn't become the council? What choice did you make? Does he become something else then or do we even get to meet him?

And it is funny how all of this is your fault. I wouldn't have installed Mass effect or gave it a chance wasn't it for you ask a long while back. I would've let it rot in my library for a year then finally gave it a chance.

You stole my bg3 obsession and replaced it with mass effect! How dare you! I am very thankful you introduced me to this because I never realised how fun fps can be. I even bought another fps on sale today, called hellsinger.

But it is really freaky how much such a small thing like sending an ask detoured my life so much and changed my interests. It's a whole new side I wasn't even aware of its existence.

Thank you, genuinely. But I have learned my lesson and won't fall to your tricks twice. I'm not even gonna search up that other game you recommend until after I finish mass effect. Just in case it turns out to be jaw dropping too.

But the director ME2 took in gameplay isn't my favourite. I'm too squishy and the enemies are too squishy now. I can't be a cool sniper jumping from place to place and headshoting enemies. Now I have to hide behind fucked up barriers and wait for the enemy to reload or use my invisibility then I go in for the snipe.

The weapon feels more limited too, I get that they made them more unique but I prefer having the stats menu more. I only have two snipers so far and I hate both of them but I'm forced to use one because there are so little options.

It feels more resident evil-ish? Or maybe because I'm on veteran difficulty? I tried lowering it but it doesn't fix the issue.

My problem isn't that the enemies are dying too fast my problem is that I am dying too fast. I hate the new points system and level up too, I miss the more detailed one in ME1. I also loath the hacking minigames in here.

The dialogue and animations improved a lot tho, the missions diversity too! The heist one was such a blast I felt like I was in a movie. It was so cheesy and cliche in a very endearing way oh my god.

I like my Shepard but I miss their face scar. Why did they remove that option? I had it in like a cool reminder of the blitz or something.

Also if you pick earthborn you get these two wholesome newsrports

And this one for War hero

They made me smile. But also wtf people are having WEDDINGS on MY memorial??? GET OFF MY STATUE.

I also wished that people would've had a bigger reaction to us showing up alive, yk? Not even a hug so far. Even Anderson :(

But yeah that's all for now.

And I appreciate it dude, checking up on me. You're cool too. And about the comments, I can't exactly force you to do it, I can't force anyone, it's just a choice they make everyday.

But I am curious because I never thought you were one of my readers. You don't leave likes on my writing posts, and you have only sent one or two requests so long ago. You do like my writing advice and opinions sometimes. Is that why you follow me? Because I'm funny ofc.

But nah don't tell me. I don't wanna know, it will ruin the mystery. I pay attention to the posts each person who frequents here likes, and I get a general idea of their preference. Sometimes, I can predict which posts will be liked by who and which will be ignored by others. It's a fun minigame. Humans love patterns.

But yeah. I don't want random comments on stories or fics you haven't read or finished. I want them from the people who read and liked the story. I want to hear their opinion I want to know what they thought. But if you are dinning and dashing then...again I can't force to do anything. It just makes me sad really.

I like talking, but not about myself or feelings. I am the way I am, flaws and all and I don't have to explain it. This cycle will repeat, I might give up tomorrow, I might not, I can't predict the future. One day my thread will eventually snap.

But not today, I'm still working on fics, I am still posting. I'm not giving up yet.

And I hope this inspires you in any way since you're back to writing, I hope that you don't give up too no matter how scary quiet it gets. I hope you're more resilient than me. I hope you love what you write because it is very deserving of love.

4 notes · View notes

shepgarrus · 2 years

Text

Peregrine

Pairing: Female Shepard/Garrus Vakarian (MShep version is in the works) Rating: M Words: 665 Warnings: Descriptions of Garrus actually looking alien. Summary: Seeing Garrus naked for the first time.

Read it on AO3, or below.

The stately swoop of his cowl was not in fact based on anything going on beneath, but space for a heating system atop his shoulders that kept the temperature of his cold-blooded body from dropping.

And the material of his civvies was about an inch thick. Dense but light. A little squishy. Warm.

With everything off he was small; all skin, lean muscle, tendon, bone.

No fat? She asked.

No what? He questioned. It came out as some asari science word.

Energy storage.

Mm, that's different for us. All between the organs, nowhere else.

She ran her eyes over him again. The size difference from how he looked in armor and even his civvies was striking in a confusing way, like she was looking at him through a carnival mirror. And his long neck, not visually shortened by a cowl, screamed 'alien' more than any other feature.

But, she'd always preferred thin, lanky men, as rare as true ectomorphs were in the service. And as her eyes passed over him once more, she felt heat light up and move through her insides.

He was perfect.

-x-

His hands were difficult to describe with words, as they were hard for her to understand.

His two fingers were long and thin, and looked to be what she'd call claw or talon, from palm to tip; but they bent at invisible joints whose position she'd been familiar with before witnessing the mind-bending reality. The thumb was a little better - the leather of his skin encroached up to the joint over the semi-hard material, whose hardness Shepard likened to dry bone.

The back of his hand was plated, pale and thin and only sticking out a couple of millimeters above his skin, essentially not adding any bulk at all. The plating continued on the tops of his forearms and the outer two-thirds of his upper arms, then melded into a smooth covering at the shoulders, which were another mind-boggling feat in material that didn't look like it should bend but did.

Where there were no plates, his skin was like worked leather. A little hard on some parts of his palm, like the leather was pulled taut over something hard beneath that wasn't bone, but it was still warmly smooth and with a give similar to that of her own palm otherwise. So not only skin, muscle, and bone, at least there.

-x-

The less said about his feet the better. At least for the time being.

-x-

She'd told him not to worry about interspecies awkwardness, but she'd eat her own words if his spurs started bending like an extra set of fingers.

Mine don't move, but other turians' do.

She glared at him. No they don't.

They do, I have a genetic defect that makes mine not move but others' do.

You're messing with me, she stated.

Yeah, I am. Can you imagine though, doing air quotes with your spurs...

I'd rather not.

-x-

The sheath, while foreign, felt straightforward. Physical stimulation to relax muscles; she was well-acquainted with the concept. And she barely needed to think about the female turian pheromones Garrus had dabbed on the inside of his good mandible, necessary for her work to accomplish anything. Neither of them could detect a scent from the pheromone paste, so it was easy to forget about.

The penis, however, was not.

It's weird how many species have dicks, Shepard commented as she studied what had emerged.

Did you know that krogan don't?

Shepard shot him a look.

Apparently they have testicles, but no dicks.

Always with the krogan testicles, Garrus. There something you want to tell me?

When he didn't recover from his bout of spluttering after a few seconds, she gave him something else to splutter about.

-x-

It was possible that her eyes would never not catch on certain features, on certain ratios; that he would never look truly familiar beneath her mind's instinctive knee-jerk reactions.

But on the other hand, maybe he would.

Author Notes (you get bonus ones for reading on Tumblr, lmao)

This is fic number 5000 (when logged in) on the AO3 fShakarian tag. I decided last night (at like 4995 fics) that I wanted number 5000, so I scrambled for something in Evernote and found this, minus the last two chunks. This is the first thing I’ve written that’s publishable (by my standards) in seven years, and I guess this means I can’t lament about not writing things in my tags anymore, rip.

Citing my sources:

If you're curious, his dick follows canon.

Turians don't have cowls, maybe.

If you look at Garrus's civvie game model, his civvies are actually kinda thick and if you remove that thickness, he's skinny. (I have an image of this where I traced his realistic size, if anyone’s curious you can send an ask.)

Turian hand inspiration.

#mass effect #mass effect fic #shakarian #garrus vakarian #turians #my ideas #my fics #...guess i need a new link in my navigation too huh #also would it be too weird to add my own fic to my rec sheet xD

60 notes · View notes

baejax-the-great · 3 years

Text

Alternate Ending

Working on a fic that got derailed when Garrus and Shepard decided to make out. Figured I’d post this version here while spraying them with cold water on the other version.

Shakarian (AO3), Rated T, mild suicide mentions

“You know I thought those shield fluctuations were just my sensors getting confused by your teleportation act?”

Shepard barely glanced over her shoulder before going back to removing her armor. “Did you?”

It wasn’t until he saw a slug hit her in the shoulder that Garrus realized she really was launching herself into the center of the fray—and exploding—completely unshielded. “Shepard, what the fuck.”

She waved a hand in the air. “The dark energy—the way it—in order to—look it overloads my shield emitters, or, well, not exactly, I sort of overload them on purpose along with everything else—but they recover pretty fast. It’s no big deal.”

No big deal? He’d never heard her trip over her words like that. “You’re standing there with your hump out—”

“It’s really good body armor, not even scratched, and I don’t have a hump unless you mean my ass—”

“You’re a sinking pigeon!”

“What?”

She dropped her chest piece on top of the pile, the sound echoing through the armory, and they stared at each other in mutual incomprehension. Garrus wasn’t angry, not really, but he veered into distinct annoyance when Shepard started laughing, a quick burst of startled air as her shoulders dropped.

Had she really lost her last shred of self-preservation?

“The expression is ‘sitting duck,’ birdman. Anyway, why do you think I bring my best sniper with me everywhere I go?”

She turned back to her armor as Garrus huffed. “I thought I couldn’t hit the side of a barn.”

“You can’t. I was talking to the visor. You’re just its mobile weapons unit.”

“Huh.”

She tossed the armor pieces into her locker in a way that would have made any turian commander give her latrine duty for a month and kicked the door closed.

Kasumi’s words came back to him, and in spite of himself, Garrus laughed. “Dammit.”

“What?” she asked with a sidelong glance as she began unsealing her softsuit.

“Kasumi called me your emotional support turian.”

That gave her pause. She got her suit rolled down to her waist, just some thin civilian clothes up top now, exposing a dark purple lump on her shoulder. She shrugged. “Well if I have any emotions that need a shot between the eyes, I’ll be sure to let you know.”

Shepard had gone unreadable while she fussed with her legs, and the weird tension that filled the room had Garrus bouncing on his feet. It occurred to him that he was now just watching Shepard undress for no particular reason.

“You should get that shoulder checked out.”

She slammed her suit down in front of her. “I might be a sinking pigeon, but you are a mother hen. It doesn’t even hurt.”

On what may have been his most suicidal impulse to date, Garrus reached out and poked it.

“Shit.” Shepard snatched his hand, and the very real possibility of Shepard decking him floated through Garrus’s head. But she just threw his hand to the side and said, “Fine. I’ll hit the medbay.”

Garrus didn’t know what made him do it. Gun to his head, he couldn’t have answered. But with seemingly no rational thoughts left in his brain, he reached out poked her again, one turian finger into the soft flesh of her side.

She caught his hand, and this time didn’t let go. “What are you…?” She let the words linger in the air, a questioning smile on her lips.

And yeah, Garrus was definitely feeling suicidal because when he tried to pull away and she didn’t let go of his wrist, he poked her a third time with his other hand, or, well, he tried to, but she intercepted before he made contact, and now she had both of his hands in a tight grip on either side of her hips, and…

Oh. That was what he was doing. He was flirting. Apparently. Like a twelve-year-old who didn’t know how to just talk to a woman and instead provoked her with juvenile antics.

Shepard was provoked.

He gave another weak attempt to pull his hands back, but Shepard didn’t let go. Pulled him in tighter, and either she was an expert in turian flirting or she was lining herself up to headbutt him straight to Andromeda.

She wasn’t smiling anymore.

His heart was in his throat as her eyes traveled over his face, inscrutable. He realized he was leaning in even closer, looming over her, really, but he couldn’t figure out how to stop.

Just when Garrus was about to try to excuse himself to take a dive out the airlock, just to cool off, Shepard lunged forward with the weirdest headbutt of all time, planting her mouth over his. Garrus made a noise that was something like “grggghhll?” but Shepard had released his hands and they were back at their absurd stunts, grabbing her around her squishy human waist and pressing her against his body.

Whatever this was, it was happening. Shepard sure as hell wasn’t pulling away, one of her hands creeping up around his neck to hold his face more firmly to hers. Her lips were warm against his mouth, and her nose was sort of smashed into his cheek, but she didn’t seem to care. And now that she was in his arms, he did not want to let go. This was, she was—weird, but good weird. Soft and kind of wet and Garrus had no idea what he was supposed to do next.

What he did was clumsily push her against the table and jostle her injured shoulder.

Shepard broke away with a hiss and a curse. She gave him a light shove, enough to knock him back two steps, though there was that smile again. Garrus’s hands, instigators of all of this, were now hanging limp by his side, no help at all.

Shepard’s eyes flicked over him. She absentmindedly ran a finger over her lips, which looked a bit pinker than they had earlier. “I’m going to, uh, I am going to go see Chakwas about this. The shoulder, not the uh—” she laughed “—You can… you can stay here and figure out what just happened. Yeah.”

Shepard left the armory in her socks, her softsuit still in a pile on the table. Garrus mirrored her earlier action, rubbing a finger over where her mouth had been just moments before. She’d left a little spit on him.

Weird. So, so weird.

After a minute, when his heart rate had slowed down to something approaching normal, he typed a query into his omnitool.

“That is what they call kissing?” he asked to the empty armory.

More importantly, could he get her to do it again?

He jumped when EDI’s voice filled the room. “The Commander has asked me to relay a message to you.”

He cleared his throat. “Uh, yeah. Go ahead.”

“She says that if you wish to continue your earlier conversation, you should wait for her in her quarters. She anticipates being done with Dr. Chakwas in about fifteen minutes.”

Garrus rubbed his thumb over his mouth again. Fifteen minutes was not a lot of time to learn… everything about human romance. “Thanks, EDI. I’ll, uh. Guess I’ll go wait. Ah, hm. You don’t have to tell her that.”

“Understood.”

Garrus shuffled into the CIC and just hoped nobody noticed that when he called the elevator, he had pushed the up button.

#shepard #garrus #shakarian #my writing #mass effect #me2 #first kiss #dumbasses in love #use my words? never #okay will you two let me write the real version now pls

101 notes · View notes

hardcore-like-eezo · 3 years

Note

What is "Blood of a King" about?

Tagging @berryshiara and @ljandersen who also asked about Blood of a King.

Okay, so it's not nearly as cool as it probably sounds 😅 Rather, it's a silly one-shot I wrote a while back, and now just need to get around to editing before posting. It's set on Tuchanka, in the victorious aftermath of Grunt's Rite of Passage (he, Shepard, and Garrus kill the thresher maw), and during a celebration Wrex hosts afterwards to welcome Clan Urdnot's newest member...well, I'll let an excerpt speak for itself:

The old krogan grinned wide as he lifted the pitcher for all to see.

“In the days of our ancient forefathers, it was tradition to drink the blood of our fallen enemies. Like much of our culture, it has been forgotten over time by most, but today we honor the ways of our ancestors. Today, not just any Rite was completed. An outsider—tank bred—has more than proven himself worthy of joining Clan Urdnot. And with the help of his krantt, he conquered the thresher maw!”

Wrex slammed the pitcher down on the table, causing a deep purple, viscous liquid to splash over the sides. A raucous cheer rose from the room as many krogan rose to their feet, pounding their fists on the tables in anticipation.

“Grunt, will you drink the blood of your slain enemy and honor our ancestors?”

Grunt snatched his goblet from the table and downed the recently refilled volume of ryncol to make room.

“Yes,” Grunt said eagerly, earning another cheer from the clan, “I will honor my people!”

Wrex picked up the pitcher once more and filled Grunt’s goblet. And then, precisely as Garrus had feared, Wrex turned in their direction.

“Will Grunt’s krantt join him?”

Garrus held up his hand as politely as he could.

“I’ll leave more for you,” he said.

“You sure, Garrus?” Wrex said in a low rumble, stepping behind him and Shepard with the pitcher. A murmur rippled through the crowd, heightening Garrus’s pressure to give in.

But he managed an amiable chuckle as he resisted, “Someone has to fly the shuttle home, tonight.”

Wrex eyed him with a piercing gaze before shrugging, “Suit yourself. Maybe turians really are softer than they look.”

Leaving Garrus to smolder, Wrex turned to Shepard.

“But I know Commander Shepard,” he said, “She may be human, but she’s made of iron and flame.”

A silence fell over the room as the host of krogan waited to see if the comparatively pale and squishy alien had the courage to partake. Wrex wasn’t left to question whether he’d be disappointed for even a second, as Shepard lifted her krogan-size mug in his direction.

...So anyway (it doesn't end pretty), I think part of me wanted to give Shepard the honest story to tell at a bar (or to her enemies) that she's drank the blood of a thresher maw. And given her reputation and charisma, no one will ever be able to tell for sure if she's telling the truth or not.

#natsora #berryshiara #ljandersen #hardcore-like-eezo answers #blood of a king #my writing

7 notes · View notes

ramblinganthropologist · 3 years

Text

Crossed over

Summary: Garrus has something to tell Shepard before they get down to pound town. Same hat, though? Same hat.

(I wrote this originally for pride but didn’t finish it in time. Yes I am 100% pulling this out of my ass, but who cares. My city now.)

---

Shit.

Garrus’ heart was still racing as the door to the main battery shut in front of him. Only moments prior, the Normandy’s commander had been standing there, chatting with him. Well… chatting wasn’t really the right word. Propositioning, maybe? That felt more on the face plate to him, but it just sounded so salacious for something coming from the man people had dubbed humanity’s boy scout.

He didn’t know what a boy scout was, but he was fairly sure they didn’t make suggestions like that…

“I guess I need to… ask Mordin about this.”

His hand hesitated on his omni-tool before he could make the call. The salarian would be good for positioning and allergic warnings, but he didn’t need that at the moment. That wasn’t going to quiet the frantic racing of his heart. He needed somebody else for that, someone he was still on shaky terms with.

But he needed someone would listen and not need a million clarifying questions…

His talons typed in the familiar number, and it was soon sending out the request. Thanks to being so close to a mass relay, it would go through no problem. Well, that and the fact Cerberus had souped up the Normandy’s communication system in several definitely off the market and illegal ways. Though that really wasn’t his problem anymore – he hadn’t been part of C-SEC for over two years.

Just… old habits die hard he supposed.

The call took a few seconds to connect, but he soon heard the sounds of Palaven on the other end. Garrus felt his stomach drop as he realized just how late it was on his homeworld. No doubt he had woken up the other party from a deep sleep – that was strike two for him before he had said a word.

Strike one, naturally, was going off on Omega and becoming a mercenary who took a rocket to the face. She was still mad about that.

“Garrus?”

Solana sounded tired. He could hear her shifting on the other end, no doubt because she had been in bed and fast asleep. Guilt swarmed in his stomach, but his resolve pushed it away. As the humans said it, in for a penny in for a pound.

And boy, he was going to get a pounding…

He took a deep breath, trying to steady himself. The humans of the Normandy would’ve never noticed it, but no doubt his sister had already picked up on just how frantic he sounded. Right then, any turian within a couple hundred yards probably could’ve picked it up. Hell, a passing ship might have even gotten the hint if they hadn’t been in FTL drive. But he tried anyway – he had his pride in the end.

“Uh, hey, Solana. Sorry, I realize it’s late and all, but- “

Right then, he could imagine her mandibles twitching in annoyance, but also the gleam in her eyes that gave away just how curious she actually was. After all, he wasn’t the call home type. Never had been really, especially after their mother had passed. It just sort of got pushed to the back and they caught up when they could.

“Gar, you’re freaking out so loud the humans are going to hear it. You’re not dying again, are you?”

Hey, that had been a one-time deal. It wasn’t like he had a habit of taking rockets to the face or anything…

Garrus took a deep breath to steady himself once more, and he allowed his body some respite by dropping it onto the cot he kept in the battery. Sure, he probably could’ve had a bunk elsewhere – but that would’ve been with humans who had no problems working with Cerberus. As the object of his anxiety would’ve put it, taco was good out there.

He still didn’t get that – what did food have to do with displeasure? Humans were weird…

“I’m fine.” His mandibles twitched. “Just… had a talk with Shepard.”

Solana’s subvocals were curiosity city as she leaned in. “The big one or the dead one?”

“He’s not dead anymore…” Garrus’ voice trailed off. “And the little one, yeah.”

On the other end of the line, he heard his sister chuckle. “What, did you two have a fight about calibrating or something? That’s not exactly something to call me over, Gar. He’s not going to kick you off the…”

Her voice trailed off, no doubt because she had put the pieces together. He felt his stomach squirm as he waited in the pregnant silence, knowing the ball was going to drop any second. Really, this was the last thing he wanted to tell her…

“Please tell me you told him before you two fucked.”

Garrus’ mandibles almost let him lift off the ground as he jumped to his feet on instinct. “We haven’t… not yet. We were just… he made suggestions. I think we’re going to eventually, once we both put some research in. Kind of hard to smash a turian and a human together and all…”

His voice trailed off, realizing just how awkward he sounded. Really, the logical side of him knew he was being ridiculous. It wasn’t like he was a virgin like Shepard was. There were a few lovers in his past, so for the most part he knew what he was doing. It was just… well, humans were odd.

Solana’s voice was steadier the next time she spoke. “So… you’re planning to fuck your CO.”

“Yes, I know, I’m a walking stereotype.” The embarrassment could have choked a krogan. “Honestly… I don’t even know why I called. I just…”

His sister finished for him. “You’re worried about how he’s going to react if you tell him, because you’re planning on filling him in.”

Garrus was left standing there in the battery, mandibles almost to the bottom of his neck. He had no idea what kind of vocals he must’ve been giving off then, but they had to be something. After all, Solana wasn’t making fun of him. When it came to his love life, she loved nothing more than doing that. It was some older sister commandment: thou shalt pick on thy little brother for his terrible interest in people.

So… yeah.

“Gar?”

He shook his head. “Yeah, I guess that’s it,”

Solana shifted a pillow on the other end. “He’s a medic, right? He’ll at least understand it that way.”

Enough interaction with medical staff had taught Garrus that didn’t mean a whole lot of anything. Besides, he wasn’t looking for a checkup, this was practically starting… something. And maybe that’s why his stomach shifted so badly at the thought of it as he glanced around the battery.

Shit…

“I mean… do they even hold classes on that outside of turian occupied areas?” He sighed. “It’s easier with us… I don’t know how a human is going to feel about it.”

His sister’s subvocals shifted to something that reminded him of when he had been smaller, and she had stood by him on the playground. He was bigger than her now… but something about it was oddly comforting. It was also kind of embarrassing, but he was going to take what he could get at the moment.

“Well, if he starts shit, tell him to count his days.”

Despite his anxiety, Garrus found himself chuckling. “You’re really going to threaten the first human Spectre?”

“He died once; I can make it happen again if he hurts you.” The certainty in Solana’s voice was a strange comfort then. “Seriously, if he has a problem with it, then he’s an ass and he’s not worth it. Not your fault he’s a dumb human who doesn’t get what it means.”

Another chuckle – he knew when he had lost a fight. “Thanks, but I think I can handle it. Besides, you’re kind of on Palaven.”

Not that that meant anything – piss Solana off enough and she’d find a way to show up.

“Lucky him.” Solana let out a yawn that helped Garrus know their call was ending. “I mean it, Garrus. If he says anything…”

He found the knot in his stomach loosening as he sat back down. “I’ll send you our coordinates.”

“That’s my little brother. Now, get the hell off the line. I gotta get up for work in 4 hours.”

Well, love you too…

Still, Garrus let his sister go and the battery lapsed into silence once more as the call ended. He could hear life on the other side of the heavy door as the crew went about their duties, but right then it didn’t matter. He had made up his mind over the course of the call, so now he felt more resolute.

Was he still terrified? Absolutely. Humans were fucking unpredictable. After all, who else launches out of a mass effect field and starts fighting with the first sentient species they meet? They had a species wide death wish or something…

But that didn’t matter then. Now it was time to figure out what he wanted to say. And at least he had time for that as he waited for the big gun in front of him to show him some data.

---

A few weeks later, and there he was. Garrus shifted from foot to foot as the elevator door opened and let him out. He had been to the top of the Normandy before, enough that he knew the layout. Past that door was the object of his anxiety, waiting on the pretense of a talk about what they were planning.

Maybe it had been a while since he had last had sex, but he definitely didn’t remember that much thought put into it before. Was it because he was getting older, or because his partner was a squishy human?

“That you, Garrus?”

Shepard’s soft voice carried through the metal. Something about it always set the turian’s heart beating a little faster. In those moments, he found it hard to talk. So, in the end he just stood there like an idiot.

This was going great, clearly.

Thankfully, Shepard wasn’t a stupid man. His head appeared through the open door, checking to make sure he was ok. Today he had his hair pulled behind his head – he was fairly sure he called it a ponytail – and out of his face. No doubt he had been working with Saren. The hamster had full face privileges at pretty much anytime. And yes, he was jealous of a hamster for that.

So sue him.

The words brought hm back to life. “Oh, yeah. Sorry, guess I was more tired than I thought.”

The Spectre smiled at him as he motioned for Garrus to follow. Just as the turian had thought, he had been working with his hamster. From the looks of things, it had been a deep clean and a cage change if the shredded bedding meant anything. No doubt the man in charge of it all had been cleaning it up when he had come calling.

“What’s Saren got this time?”

Shepard gestured to the cage as they moved past his desk towards the sitting area. “I went for an under the sea theme. It seemed appropriate; he is living in the old fish tank system.”

That would explain the sunken ship half buried in the substrate. He had to hand it to the human, he really knew how to spoil his pets…

Together they sat at the table, Garrus positioned so he could just see Shepard’s unmade bed in the background. It was so close, but it felt like lightyears away. He was supposed to get on that eventually with the Spectre…

Talk about nearly giving himself a heart attack.

“Anyway, you wanted to talk about …”

Shepard’s voice dropped and his cheeks turned pink. Humans called that blushing, and it was pretty noticeable on the ones with light skin. It usually turned the Spectre krogan rampage red if he got going, so things weren’t too bad yet. He could work with this.

Still, Garrus felt tense as he gazed over at the human. At least both of them were nervous about this, so he didn’t feel completely stupid. In a way, that was helpful as he tried to find the words he had practiced for a week.

Naturally, they had abandoned him at the sight of those blue eyes. He was a sucker for blue…

“Yeah. There was something… I needed to tell you.”

His talons tucked against each other as he tried to keep from looking at the human. “Just so we both know what we’re getting into and all.”

“You’re not allergic to human body fluids, are you?”

Shepard was so matter of fact in his tone that Garrus felt himself chuckling without meaning to do it. Leave it to the Spectre to find a way to relax him without consciously attempting it. Maybe that was his real superpower – the biotics were just a fun perk.

But yeah… maybe he could do this.

“No, I’m good there.” Another deep breath. “Just uh… I don’t really tell people this. None of their business, and most non-turians wouldn’t get it anyway.”

At that, Garrus paused and checked the sight in front of him. Shepard was watching him, analyzing him maybe. He had stopped nervously tugging at the end of his ponytail, and his hands were in his lap. From the looks of things, he had the Spectre’s undivided attention.

No pressure.

“Something up, Garrus? You don’t have to tell me if you don’t- “

He held up his hand. “No, I feel like I should. We’re getting kind of… close.”

The tension rippled across his carapace as he felt it on the tip of his tongue. “Do… you know what it means to be crossed?”

At that point, the translating function on their omni-tools went haywire. Whatever Shepard normally heard when it worked, he definitely wasn’t getting it then. At least the man hadn’t winced at the sound of him untranslated. That was probably a good sign for cross-species relations if there ever was one.

“Sorry, the translator didn’t pick that up. I got something about a mix up?”

Well, half points for trying.

Garrus nodded as he tried to pick his words carefully so they would translate right. “Something like that. You know we believe in spirits, right?”

When Shepard nodded, he continued, stomach churning all the while. “Well… sometimes the spirit and the body it’s in have a disagreement about… things I guess.”

Disagreement was putting it mildly, of course. Garrus would’ve rather called it an all-out war in his early teens when the bad feelings were at their peak. Now it was mostly quiet – thank you, modern medicine – but sometimes it still whispered in his thoughts when he least expected it. His spirit was a tricky one like that, no wonder he had lasted so long on Omega.

But… yeah, he was getting away from the awkward conversation he was having. That was probably a bad coping mechanism left over from being a merc.

Shepard still seemed tuned into the conversation at the very least. “Ok… so your mind and body don’t… agree on something? Is that what I’m getting?”

“Pretty much. It’s not super common, but it happens.” His mandibles flapped as he tried to find the words. “There are ways of… making the spirit more comfortable depending on what way you need to go. Medical procedures help, but oftentimes one of the best ways is to just live the way your spirit wants.”

He had been 13 when his spirit had started acting up. That was a common age, though he didn’t exactly hang out with many crossed turians these days…

His shoulders still tensed as he snuck a glance at the human – hadn’t lost him completely. “I guess I’m trying to tell you… that I’m crossed. Not that it’s going to matter for us in bed, the hormone therapy has pretty much taken care of everything. I only have to take a maintenance dose every couple months…”

His voice trailed off. Shepard hadn’t said anything for a long time. Instead, the Spectre seemed to draw into himself. Something about that made Garrus’ stomach drop and almost instantly he regretted saying anything at all.

Maybe he was going to need Solana after all…

His voice was shaky when he spoke again. “Look, I get that it doesn’t- “

“So, you’re like the turian version of trans?”

Garrus blinked. The word was a new one, he had learned it from listening to the crew. Mentally, the translation ran through his head as he sat there, trying to remember what it meant. Something about gender?

What was that again, an ice cream flavor? He was kind of drawing a blank…

“Uh… don’t really get what that is, Shepard. You’re going to have to explain it to me before I can say anything.”

There was a glint in the man’s eye then as he nodded. “Basically, humans have a thing where their brain and body don’t match up. We can also fix it with medical procedures, but the best way is the same way you’ve got.”

The turian found himself nodding. “Guess that would be the human version of being crossed, yeah.”

In that moment, Garrus wasn’t sure what to expect as the pieces fell into place. It was Shepard, but Shepard was still human. More importantly, it was impossible to read how he was reacting then. His face was utterly blank as he sat there, staring down at his hands.

In the words of the Spectre… he should probably go.

Garrus could feel something breaking inside still as he stood. “I get it’s probably not what you expected. It’s ok… I just ask you don’t spread it- “

Those eyes were on him as Shepard reached out to keep him from going. “Damn it, Garrus, same hat.”

…

“Same…”

A wide grin broke out on Shepard’s face as he started laughing. “I think we’re in the same boat here if you’re telling me you’re on the turian version of HRT. Holy shit, talk about one hell of a relief. I thought you were going to say you were allergic to humans or something.”

The translation whirred in Garrus’ visor as he wordlessly sat back down. He had a full picture now, and it was one hell of a sight. The tension that had been vibrating across his carapace began to melt away as he listened to the human laugh, and soon he found himself chuckling as well.

Solana was never going to believe this.

“Nope, still not allergic to humans.” His mandibles twitched. “So… you humans do it too then?”

Shepard was still smiling as he nodded. “Yeah. If not for my biotics fucking everything up, I would’ve been on HRT too by now. But then you wouldn’t get to hear my lovely, squeaky voice cracking over the battlefield and who would want to miss that?”

“I wouldn’t…” Garrus’ voice trailed off. “Oh…”

Well, from the sound of things he hadn’t needed to worry. Maybe he didn’t need his older sister to come beat up his not-yet lover yet after all. His pride would survive for at least one more day at this rate.

Honestly, he felt lighter than he had in weeks. If not for the ship’s gravity, he might have been floating then. Then again, that might have been caused by Shepard’s quiet chuckles over all of this. Something about the man’s laughter always put him at ease.

“I can’t believe you thought I was cis, though.” The human had gone back to playing with the end of his ponytail, though from the motions it was less nerves and more something to do with his hands. “I would be insulted if you were human.”

Garrus felt his mandibles twitch. “It’s not like I know the difference, Shepard.”

“You literally saw my dick fall out of my pants, Garrus.”

…

Yeah, well… he wasn’t the medic, now was he? For all he knew, they were supposed to do that.

Still, at his silence Shepard just chuckled more. Surprisingly, he seemed lighter as well as he sat back. Maybe because of his own nerves, but he hadn’t noticed just how tight the man’s shoulders had been when he had entered. No doubt they had been worrying about similar things if there was that much crossover.

Something, something, communication made for happy relationships.

“Well, clearly we’ve got plenty of research to do if we want to do this right.” The human sounded much happier as he looked down at his always present omni-tool. “I mean… if you still want to and all. I understand if you’ve changed your mind.”

Garrus all but hopped to his feet. “No! I mean… no, I haven’t changed my mind. I’m just glad I know what to research. I think I was looking at the wrong vids…”

“Well, that makes two of us, unless you guys figured out a way to fix anatomical issues we’re still working on. Turian anatomy seems a little more straight-forward when it comes to genitals, what with everything being internal.”

…

You know, he probably should’ve found his anatomy being discussed in such clinical terms rather dry. Yet the fact Shepard seemed so relaxed about the whole thing was rather heartening. Maybe he was just more relaxed now that the bomb had dropped and he still had both of his mandibles.

He was glad for that – the implant surgery to fix him the first time had really sucked.

“I think you’ll be fine with whatever you’re looking at.” He let out a sigh of relief. “So… good talk?”

Even he knew that sounded awkward. Yet, the other man chuckled and nodded as he stood at last, pushing his ponytail behind his shoulders as he approached the turian. Apart from when they were getting shot at, it was probably the closest they had ever been.

“Yeah. Good talk.”

And then he smiled. “So, uh… I need to finish cleaning up from Saren. Unless you want to help with that?”

Garrus was already on his feet, eyeing the door. “I think I have some calibrations to get to down in the battery.”

Shepard’s cheeks briefly puffed out, but then he allowed a rather laid-back chuckle. “Alright, I get the idea. I’ll talk to you later, Garrus. Good luck with the calibrations.”

Luck – he certainly had a lot of that at the moment.

Garrus honestly felt lighter as he left the man’s quarters to return to his spot in the battery. The weight that had pressed down hard on his talons had evaporated, like gravity no longer affected him. It was a bit strange – the ship was set to adjust to that – but right then he wasn’t thinking like a tech as he rode the elevator back down.

All things considered, that had gone better than he had expected.

“Well… doubt Solana is going to believe this one. Who knew humans had it too…” he trailed off as the door opened to the crew floor. He let the matter drop for the moment, focused instead on getting back to work. After all, the Normandy was a big ship, and keeping her running was a heavy task he was more than happy to deal with.

Still… it was good to know they were on even footing. Maybe it wouldn’t go as badly as he thought it might. But he definitely needed to change his vids…

But he could worry about that later. A big gun needed some specialized calibrations if they were going to live another day. He could think about his sex life later.

#ramblinganthropologist's writing #trans!Garrus #my city now mfers #tf4 shakarian is now my canon lol #Alistair Shepard #Garrus Vakarian #they're not gonna fuck until ME3 tho

13 notes · View notes

writtenjewels · 3 years

Text

Identity

Garrus, you haven't come home to visit us in a long time. Is the Citadel really that exciting? Don't bother answering, because I'm coming to see for myself. If you're worried I'll embarrass you, good! I'm doing my job right as your loving older brother. See you soon! ~Eoin.

Garrus let out a groan reading those words. He tried sending a message back but he didn't get an answer. If he knew Eoin, his brother was already halfway to the Citadel by now. How had he gotten off Palaven? Probably used his silver tongue to sweet-talk his way onto a transport. He sent a message to traffic control asking them to keep an ear out for any transports coming in from Palaven, and to inform him immediately when they docked. There may still be a chance of getting this under control.

A part of him felt guilty that it came to this. He loved his older brother but once he decided to leave home, he had very little contact with Eoin. Mostly because when he left home he found out that his brother wasn't just weird and squishy, he came from an entire species of weird and squishy things. They called themselves “humans”. He contacted his father that very day.

“How could you have lied to us?” he demanded. “What happened to Eoin's real parents?”

“Your mother and I were his real parents,” Castis insisted. “We found him in a shuttle alone, drifting in space. His human parents, whoever they were, either died or abandoned him. He's a Vakarian, and that's the end of it.”

“He should still know the truth,” Garrus argued.

“He does know the truth: that we are his family. That's the only truth he needs to know.” Garrus wanted to argue more, but his father had cut him off. And now he was left as the one to face Eoin when he finally learned the truth. Thanks a lot, Dad.

Garrus got the alert that a small Pavalen transport was on the way and hurried to meet it. At fist it seemed like all it was unloading was cargo, and then a figure descended. Despite the dread sinking into him, Garrus was pleased to see his brother's face as the older man appeared. The blue and red face paint stood out strongly against his skin and his mouth was doing that weird upward curl the humans called “smiling”. Now Garrus finally had a point of reference to the gesture.

“Look at you, Officer Vakarian, all dressed up in your C-Sec uniform!” Eoin declared proudly. “Did you grow another few centimeters since I last saw you?”

“You're starting to sound like a doting asari matron,” Garrus complained.

“Sorry, kiddo, I'm just excited to see you again.” Eoin patted him on the arm. “So? Show me around the place! Introduce me to all your friends. You are making friends, right?”

“I have co-workers,” Garrus told him. “And before you get any ideas, no, I don't want your help.” He still remembered how Eoin had tried getting other turian children to play with Garrus when they were younger. The results were mixed at best. “Do your superiors know you're here? I find it hard to believe they sanctioned this visit.”

“Well...” Eoin's eyes rolled up to the ceiling. “They don't actually know I'm here.” Garrus covered his face with his hand. Not again... He would swear that Eoin did these sorts of things on purpose knowing it would piss off their father. “Relax, Garrus. How else was I supposed to ever see you? You don't take any vacation time.”

“Well, you've seen me. Now go back home before you get into trouble.”

“You know, I feel like you've forgotten which one of us is the older one.” Humor glinted in Eoin's eyes. He paused, freezing, smile falling from his face. “Hey, that dock worker...” Garrus turned to look. Oh, shit. It was a human. “That turian's got the same genetic disease as me,” Eoin realized. “Didn't Dad say it was really rare?”

“Ahh....” Shit, shit, shit. “That's, ah...”

“I should go talk to them,” Eoin decided.

“Eoin, wait!” Garrus grabbed at his elbow. “That... that's...” He squeezed his eyes shut. “It's not a genetic disease, it's... he's just an alien.” Eoin stared at him for a long moment. “It's a whole species,” Garrus explained, hating how pale his brother was looking with every word. “They're called humans.”

“But...” Eoin's eyes moved to the dock worker, then back to Garrus. “But then... what am I?”

Garrus squeezed his brother's arm and tried to deliver the blow as gently as he could: “You're a human, too.”

#mshepard #garrus vakarian #mass effect #au

8 notes · View notes

shifty-looking-sheep · 3 years

Link

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Mass Effect Trilogy, Mass Effect - All Media Types Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Kaidan Alenko/Female Shepard Characters: Female Shepard, Kaidan Alenko, Garrus Vakarian, Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Liara T'Soni, Jeff "Joker" Moreau, Urdnot Wrex, Admiral Hackett, Dr Chakwas, Engineer Adams Additional Tags: Post-War, Destroy Ending (Mass Effect), Happy Ending, Wedding Fluff, Wedding Speeches, Embarrassment, friends teasing, Reminiscing, Reminiscing about Normandy SR1, Post-Mass Effect 3, Friends notice everything, Teasing

Summary:

Shepard wasn't scared to commit; it was the actual wedding she was scared of, and now she realised why.

The crew of the SR1 show that they were paying attention more than Shepard and Kaidan had previously thought.

It took a full year for her to give in. Not that she didn’t want to commit; she’d been committed way before she admitted it to herself, and years before she admitted it to him; sometime between her throwing him out of the way of the beacon on Eden Prime, and seeing the blush creep up his neck as she came to speak to him after Noveria. A really long time. It was the actual wedding she was scared of, and now she realised why.

“So, the crew of the SR1 realised Shepard was interested in Lieutenants pretty early on.”

Snorts of laughter wafted over from a table of Normandy crew. Kaidan’s mum giggled from the other end of the top table. But most worrying of all, she could see that Admiral Hackett had raised an eyebrow.

Dr Chakwas continued, apparently unconcerned by the horrified look etched onto Shepard’s face.

“I believe I was there right at the beginning. The ground team had just returned from Eden Prime; the Commander had been injured and was out cold. The then-Lieutenant hadn’t left her side, of course. When she came to, they had a who-can-apologise-the-most competition, until the Commander told the Lieutenant that he had nothing to apologise for, and his face did something like this…”

The doctor waited for everyone’s attention before pulling a ridiculous, eyebrow-raised flirty face. Kaidan groaned and hid his face behind his hand. Shepard couldn’t help but smirk at the memory.

“And then, the next day, the Commander came back to the med bay to ask what I knew about the Lieutenant, in a ridiculous fake-nonchalant tone,” Dr Chakwas affected a Shepard-like low voice while twisting her hair between her fingers. “Um, so, er, what can you tell me about the Lieutenant, you know, professionally, or, you know, whatever.”

Garrus snorted some of his drink out of his nose, while Shepard sunk a little lower in her seat. Kaidan turned an amused eye to her and cocked his head. “Subtle, Jane, “ he breathed, looking slyly satisfied with himself.

“So, I quickly caught her up on what being an L2 was like, and the medical support I needed to offer for his migraines etc. and she pulled a face like she’d just seen a puppy with three legs.” The doctor exaggeratedly exhaled and batted her eyelashes. “And that’s how I was the first one on the SR1 to find out that there was something going on between them.”

Dr Chakwas sat back down at her table as the laughter started dying down. Shepard gave her what she hoped was an angry glare, but the doctor just winked in return.

“Thanks Karin, but I don’t think you can count raised eyebrows as the start of a relationship. I was the one who saw that.”

Adams had just stood up and flashed an uncharacteristically mischievous grin to the waiting crowd. A low groan escaped the bride’s lips. "Shit", she thought, "him as well?"

“Let me tell you a little about the Normandy SR1’s oxygen recycling mechanism-“

James loudly booed and aimed a dinner roll at Adams’ head, which he smartly sidestepped. Instead, it narrowly missed Jack, who shot daggers at James as he sat back in his chair, shaking his head.

“It’s on a closed system, separate to life support and the first three back-up systems. Essentially, it can’t fail, requires no maintenance, and is so far down an engineer’s list of priorities that they didn’t even feel the need to install the panel on the engineering deck. They just shoved it in a corner of the crew deck where it could be safely forgotten about. This corner happened to be outside the CO’s quarters… Which brings me to exhibit A, Major Alenko’s SR1 work logs.”

Shepard heard Kaidan sharply inhale. She turned to take in his sheepish expression as he guiltily rubbed the back of his neck. Adams had pulled up a document on his omnitool and had started to read from it.

“Monday 6th – 1100-1200 hours – maintenance: oxygen recycling. Tuesday 7th – 1400-1600 hours – maintenance: oxygen recycling. Wednesday 8th – 0900-1000 hours and 1700-1830 hours. You guessed it. Thur-“

One of Kaidan’s sisters was leaning forward to try to catch Kaidan’s eye, grinning and shaking her head. The light giggling from the guests was rising in volume.

“Sunday 12th – 0800-1100 hours – suspected power drainage issue in oxygen recycling system. Sunday 12th – 1200-1300 hours – power drainage issue confirmed as false alarm.”

Joker, swinging back on his chair, rolled his eyes. “Wow, this is embarrassing for you, eh Major? Shepard, did you realise you just married your stalker?”

Kaidan pinched the bridge of his nose and clamped his eyes shut in what looked to be a futile attempt to will himself to the other side of the galaxy, rather than the onset of a migraine. Shepard patted his arm in what she hoped was a supportive manner, but couldn’t contain a burst of laughter as Adams continued.

“Wednesday 23rd – 0700 hours… Major, seriously? Did you actually get any work done on this mission?”

Kaidan groaned and attempted to lower himself so far down his chair as to be invisible to the room.

“Oh no you don’t,” admonished Shepard, grabbing an elbow and dragging him back upright. “‘Celebrate our love’ you said. ‘We need everyone there with us’ you insisted. This one’s on you, Mr Weddings-are-fun.”

“It’s not too late to elope,” he whispered back. “You call the skycar and I’ll meet you outside in five after swinging by the gift table.”

“And that’s how I knew about their relationship before anyone else,” concluded Adams, with a half bow.

The majority of the applause came from a table near the back of the room with a bunch of Kaidan’s friends and squadmates from Biotics Division. Gaining some respect back when he returned to work after the honeymoon was looking like it might be tricky.

“Gonna have to disagree with you there Adams,” Wrex said as he stood up, awkwardly adjusting the collar on his actually rather dapper formal attire.

Shepard involuntarily groaned just as the room went quiet, causing eighty pairs of mischievously laughing eyes to sweep right over to her. "Is everyone from the SR1 going to take a turn at this", she thought, angrily, then froze mid-thought. "Oh goddess, they were, weren’t they!"

“I was definitely the first to notice these two were at it. Or at least that they wanted to be at it. It was… uncomfortable,” he rumbled.

“Oi, Commander!” shouted Jack, mouth full of chocolate mousse. “Didn’t know you had it in you! My girl was getting some on the job!”

Shepard turned an unflattering shade of brick red, which clashed nastily with her flaming hair, falling in waves about her face (Tali had insisted that she ‘do her hair’, but Shepard couldn’t wait to throw it into a ponytail later).

“I took to sparring with Kaidan back in those days. Only other Biotic on the ship, pretty worthy partner, for a human. Not much room on the old Normandy though, had Garrus and Ashley down in the shuttle bay with us as an audience, but they were usually busy with their own stuff.”

“Oh no!” breathed Shepard, a shame-filled, indulgent memory floating up to the surface of her mind and burning her cheeks. Kaidan turned and raised an eyebrow.

“…but I noticed that Shepard seemed to be down there weirdly often when the sparring was going on. Taking notes maybe? Spotting, in case the battlemaster squashed a crewmate.” Wrex seemed excited at this thought, and slammed a fist into his palm. Bakara tutted next to him and put a hand on his arm to bring him back to the moment. “Anyway, I realised she wasn’t watching the fighting, hurhurhurr, she was watching the squishy crewmate, hurhurhurr.

“I guessed she was worried about me hurting the pretty Lieutenant , so I spoke to Ashley, and she said ‘Don’t sweat it, Krogan, it’s not you she’s imagining naked’.”

Traynor sprayed half a glass of champagne across the table before she could clasp her hand over her mouth. Everyone was howling at this point, spurred on by Wrex’s deep guffawing. Shepard’s eyes betrayed her and slipped over to look at Hackett. ‘Everyone was howling’ was an exaggeration; the Admiral looked pained. Shit. Shitshitshit…

“So sure, humans, you might have seen some warm-up, but I knew when it got serious enough for Shepard to start ogling.”

Kaidan’s hand darted out and caught Shepard as she made her break for under the table. “Ah ah ah,” he mocked. “If I’m not escaping, you’re not escaping. For better, for worse, dearest wifey.”

Shepard growled and sat back grudgingly. She’d feel better if she was in her armour; in armour she could face anything. This dress was just discomfort on top of discomfort.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Kaidan whispered in her ear. “But no, drugging all of our wedding guests and running off to live on Omega is out of the question. Well, until we hear what’s next…”

"Next?! There couldn’t be more, could there?" Shepard silently pleaded.

“These eyes don’t miss much – I was a vigilante sniper, after all. Clearly, I caught the real start of this first,” purred Garrus, waving his hand in the direction of the newly-weds.

Kaidan and Shepard flicked back to face each other. “OK, you put the drugs in the champagne bottles, I’ll call the shuttle,” said Kaidan out of the corner of his mouth. Hell, she loved this man.

“Snipers lurk on the edges of the battlefield, they see everything, and keep an eye on their squadmates. Which was lucky for Shepard and Kaidan, since they weren’t always focused on the bad guys.”

“WHAT?!” Shepard slammed both palms onto the table, pulling back her shoulders and giving Garrus her best battlefield stare. Sadly, he knew he had the upper hand, and besides, intimidation is much harder when you’re wobbling on your heels after three glasses of champagne and a sneaky ryncol.

“Woah, Shepard, touched a nerve? That’s more than you touched on Daratar where I had to shoot three smugglers who almost got the drop on you while you were ‘entranced’ watching Kaidan warping.”

“That is so untrue!” she complained, a little too high-pitched for her liking. Kaidan grinned and mouthed “really, Jane?” which didn’t escape Garrus’ notice.

“Oh, buckle-up Alenko, I’ve pulled your ass out of the fire more times than Shepard’s. The mines on Nepmos? You had two Rachni soldiers on you while you were busy gawping at Shepard’s melee prowess.”

“Slander!”

Kaidan joined Shepard’s indignant pose behind the top table.

Garrus chuckled almost malevolently. “OK, OK, I didn’t mean to suggest that earth’s best and brightest can’t handle themselves in a fight, simply that without Palaven’s finest around they might be sporting a few more scars in their wedding photos.”

At the phrase ‘Palaven’s finest’, Tali groaned and lifted her head up as if rolling her eyes, a gesture which set Liara off into a fit of uncharacteristically girly giggling.

“Clearest time though, after clearing out some Cerberus mercenaries on a drifting freighter. All focussed during the firefight, sure, but afterwards…”

Shepard cast her mind back… she couldn’t remember what Garrus might have been referring to.

“The perps had hidden gas cannisters around the ship, and the love-birds thought they’d make finding them all into a race. They’re running around giggling like school kids, shouting across the room every time they find one, completely forgetting that I’m there. Then suddenly, I hear this crash, like twisted metal, along with a yelp, and I figure they’ve gotten themselves in trouble, so I walk around a pile of crates in the direction of the sound, and guess what I see…”

Several suggestions were shouted out, but Garrus managed to ignore them, and the subsequent laughter. “They’d both ‘fallen over’,” he continued, using air quotes. “I guess they’d run smack into each other, but they were making no attempt to get up – just staring at each other through their visors, faces bright red, with Alenko’s hands on the Commander’s hips as she’s fallen on top of him. I had to VERY LOUDLY clear my throat to snap them out of it. I’m not sure what they were thinking of doing with all that armour on, but hey, good for them. Anyway, I think that proves that I knew something was going on before any-“

“That’s enough Vakarian,” laughed Tali, as she bumped him out of the way with her hip. “I have clear evidence of something going on in the SR1 days, not just longing looks.

“I was on my pilgrimage. Never been away from the flotilla before, never been around humans, and I really didn’t know anything about human bodies.”

Kaidan mouthed “Bodies?” and developed a worried look while Tali continued.

“Since I was so nervous, and new to everything, a couple of crew members took me under their wing, mainly Adams, who was so kind to me, talking to me about the ship and the drive core, and Kaidan, who acted a bit like a big brother, coming to check on me and making sure I was doing OK.”

Shepard flashed Kaidan an affectionate smile.

“Well, I thought he was checking on me.”

Shepard’s smile froze.

“Anyway, these ‘check-ins’ seemed to link up to when Shepard was down in the cargo bay talking to the crew in-between missions. When she made it into engineering, Kaidan would go discuss something with the ensign, or Adams, then come back to chat to me about omnitools or laugh at my favourite vids. But he was never that focussed on the conversation if Shepard was leaving.”

“Ohhhhh,” Kaidan made a pained noise and hid his head behind his hands. “No no no no no…”

“So I thought, maybe it was a human custom to watch your superior officer’s hips as they leave a room, and so I asked him.”

Kaidan made a noise like a dying animal, but it was drowned out by the tidal wave of laughter, much of it coming from Vega and Cortez, one of whom shouted “L2, you dork!”

“Well, he turned completely red,” Tali practically shouted, trying to continue the story despite the general furore. “I’d never seen a human do that, but naturally, being Quarian, I thought he must be running a fever, so I backed up quickly (worried I was going to catch something), and said, a little too loudly, ‘Woah, you look hot Lieutenant’, which-“

Tali’s next words were lost in the cry-laughing erupting around the room. Adams was clutching his chest almost as if he was in pain.

“OK, OK, haha, calm down guys. Anyway, I told Kaidan that he looked hot, and Shepard was still in the room, and she whipped around so quick, smirked, looked Kaidan up and down, and left. Ten seconds later, my omnitool pings: ‘Yes, he does, but back off Tali, this one’s mine!’.”

Garrus whistled, and Vega yelled “Caught red-handed Lola!”

“So, I think I win, since I actually have written evidence from the SR1 days. Eat that, Bosh’tets!”

“I have better than that”. Joker, rather than stand up, leaned back in his chair and made an exaggerated gesture of resting his hands behind his head. “I was the one running the betting pool on when they’d get together, and I know exactly when that happened because I’m the one who won.”

Shepard and Kaidan turned to one another and simultaneously repeated “betting pool?”.

“Admiral Hackett, sir, I’m guessing anything said at a wedding stays at a wedding, Vegas-style?”

“You have my word, Mister Moreau,” the Admiral chimed in, in mock-seriousness.

“So, we opened the books a few days before we arrived on Therum. The signs were all there – Lover-boy here making cow eyes at the Commander in the mess; those looooong chats after each mission. Seriously, it felt like the Normandy had turned into the Love Boat.”

“Joker, stop exaggerating.” Liara, stepping up to her maid of honour duties, had an eye on the Admiral and his reactions. Thank the Goddess for Liara, Shepard thought. That’s one wedding tradition she was glad she’d followed (Tali had forced her, refusing to attend if Shepard didn’t name bridesmaids).

“Oh, now T’Soni speaks up,” said Joker. “I’m sure you have something juicy to add to this discussion.”

“A friend doesn’t break a confidence, Joker. What kind of information broker would it make me if I revealed everyone’s secrets?” Liara answered, with a wink to the top table.

Joker waved her answer away and continued. “Anyway, Susi and Johnson both bet on them not getting it on until shore leave, the innocents. I thought Pressly might write me up when he came over and mentioned the pool, I mean, I thought I was toast, but then he just said ‘I’ll put my credits on it being a solar month’. Miles out.”

Kaidan took Shepard’s hand under the table and gently squeezed at the mention of some of their fallen colleagues. It still hurt. It would never not hurt, but it also felt good to hear Joker recount stories about them so animatedly.

“You were in, weren’t you Adams?” Joker hollered over his shoulder.

“Yeah, and you took me for 20 credits!”

“After every mission, crew would rock up to change their bet. Hell, at one point I had 30 credits on them getting it on in the back of the mako on Noveria and blaming it on ‘sharing body heat’, but that 30 credits went to hell. Anyway,” Joker continued. “Eventually, I got the evidence I needed to win my original bet. Cam footage of the mess hall with a clear view of the Commander’s quarters. 1500 hours - Alenko walks in. 2100 hours – Commander walks out, alone, grinning. Fifteen minutes later, out slopes Alenko, looking more than a little dishevelled and extremely pleased with himself.”

Wolf whistles echoed around the room, and someone, presumably Donnelly, shouted “Get in there my son!”

“And all this happened to occur exactly when I’d bet it would: ‘The night before we catch up with Saren’.”

Joker took an awkward bow, since he was still in his seat. “Thank you, thank you, I’m available for Tarot readings, predicting numbers for the Illium lottery, and picking auspicious names for your future children.”

Tali made her eye-rolling head movement again. “Joker, you are so self-satisfied, if you were made of chocolate, you’d eat yourself.”

Shepard hadn’t heard what Tali said though. She was too busy exploring a niggling feeling she had, just out of reach in her memory, connected to Joker.

“So that’s why you interrupted us!” she exploded. Springing out of her chair and throwing the accusation before she’d had time to consider the consequences. Now everyone was looking at her expectantly, and the explanation needed to be good before everyone started imagining that Joker had walked in on her and Kaidan in a compromising position.

“Just after the ship was grounded, I was at the lockers and Kaidan came over, and we nearly kissed, except you jumped on the comm just before we did.”

Several members of the original SR1 crew snapped their heads over to Joker’s direction, and there was an audible intake of breath from O’Reilly.

“That would have meant I won!” He shouted. “You owe me, flyboy!”

“Not a chance,” Joker retorted, though with an undercurrent of panic. “All’s fair in love and gambling.”

“Let’s move on, shall we, ladies and gentlemen.”

Hackett had risen from his seat, brushing his sleeves absentmindedly before settling into parade rest. “I think I may have something of note to add.”

The laughter, shouting, and general hubbub of the party was extinguished in a nanosecond. Joker’s eyes were practically popping out of his head. James let out a low whistle, but was quickly silenced by Cortez jabbing him in the ribs.

Hackett cleared his throat and shifted his weight from foot to foot. "Is he nervous?" thought Shepard. "Oh hell, how bad is this going to be if an admiral of the Alliance navy is nervous to say it?"

“Three days after the battle of the Citadel, I received an interesting message from Major Alenko, which I’m very glad I chose to ignore.”

The colour completely drained from Kaidan’s face.

“I forget the details…” the Admiral trailed off, but with an ever-so-slightly mischievous smile. “Something about falling in love… any fraternization implications being entirely his fault… Commander Shepard being an exemplary officer who had just saved the whole galaxy, and shouldn’t be punished for a minor infraction… being prepared to take any and all consequences... some kind of offer of resignation… Naturally, I decided to deny all knowledge of receiving such a missive.”

Kaidan had turned to Shepard and was giving his extremely-serious-apology face, clearly expecting her rage at the idea that he’d confessed to complicating the chain of command without discussing it with her. However, Shepard’s facial expression wasn’t angry at all. Instead, she looked contrite – she knew what was coming next.

“I’d just decided to delete the message from the Major when, to my absolute shock, a second message comes through.”

Confusion bloomed on Kaidan’s face, until he looked over at Shepard and froze, then it morphed into a Cheshire cat grin as realisation dawned.

“This second message was remarkably similar to the first one, but with a few key differences. There was something about Lieutenant Alenko being the future of the Alliance… amazing example to other Biotics, blah blah blah… all untoward behaviour being entirely the fault of his superior officer… and another offer of resignation…” Hackett concluded, with an amused expression aimed at Shepard. He’d started off seeming nervous to be joining in with the general pile-on, but now he was clearly enjoying himself.

Shepard and Kaidan were still just looking at each other. Kaidan’s grin had softened into a loving smile, mirrored on Shepard’s face as well.

“Funnily enough, I took the view that I should probably ‘forget’ this second message as well… I’d become very forgetful in the face of a possible reaper invasion,” mused the Admiral, looking around at his audience and drinking in the laughter and small ripple of applause. “Anyway, I believe the point I am making is that, while I acknowledge that I can’t compete in your competition to see who noticed the relationship first, I believe you can thank me for not allowing the heroes of the Reaper War to resign four years ago over it.”

That elicited a huge cheer from the room, with a number of people raising their glasses in a toast.

Shepard slowly leaned sideways to rest her head on Kaidan’s shoulder, and as he quickly dipped to kiss the top of her head, she whispered “You idiot.”

“Right back at you,” he whispered back.

#first fanfic #mass effect #happy ending #shenko trash

21 notes · View notes

swaps55 · 3 years

Text

Random Sam headcanons, thanks to some recent Discord questions and back and forth between the RLRO and myself:

If Sam were a teenager in the 2000s, what would be his favorite band?

Sam would probably lazily belt out every word of "If I Had A Million Dollars," by Barenaked Ladies, off-key, with emphasis on "haven't you ever wanted a MON-KEY?" And if someone snorted and said, "betcha twenty bucks you can't do One Week," he'd have grinned and won himself $20.

Who was his mentor?

Anderson is definitely a mentor to Sam, but there was also another very important figure: Guthra Tulak, a one-time krogan shaman who had been ostracized from the Krogan Empire for reasons I haven't figured out yet. I'm still mulling over a lot of the details, but as a post-BAaT, pre-Ascension Project biotic, Sam had astronomical potential but there was no good training program in place for human biotics.

Enter the Ares Project, a highly classified experiment in which the Alliance brought in Tulak to work with a handful of teens who were not only high in biotic potential, but also had incredible aptitude scores that suggested they'd go far in the Alliance. The thought was that the krogan could provide a completely different approach to the biotics while also giving these kids a chance to learn from one of the most formidable species in the galaxy. It was a brutal program, but Tulak turned out to be a good choice - she was wise and dedicated, if you were willing to do the work. Sam was. He connected with her pretty quickly, and for the first time in his life felt understood by someone.

In addition to learning biotics, he also wanted to learn about the krogan, and she taught him everything he wanted to know. As such, he feels very comfortable among the krogan people, and "gets" them more than most humans do. Tulak is responsible for Sam's signature biotic fighting style: "if you get in its face fast enough and hit it hard enough, it'll probably stop bothering you."

What’s something Sam does to indulge himself?

Sam’s never been a material person outside of his gear, and he’s terrible about spoiling himself. But post-war, Sam gets some equine therapy as part of his healing process, thanks to Mrs. Alenko, who's owned horses her entire life. To Kaidan's horror, Sam decides he likes it and takes up riding as a hobby. Now he constantly comes home with new tack, brushes, etc. Kaidan doesn't know what any of it is for, and 90% of the time Sam doesn't either. Thank goodness Mrs. Alenko does.

Kaidan: Are you...are you modding the horse?

Sam: ...maybe.

Kaidan: It's a horse, Sam. Not a gun.

Sam: That sounds like quitter talk.

Kaidan: .....

Sam: [pats the horse]

What does he name his fish?

He names all the jellyfish Blasto, except one, which he calls Squishy (Sam has no idea which jellyfish is actually Squishy; when someone asks, he just peers at the tank, pretends to look, and points at one).

Every single fish is named Kevin. Every one. Picture him scooping a dead one out of the tank with a heartfelt, "I really liked Kevin," right before dumping a new Kevin into the tank.

He convinces Garrus that Kevin is really just a human word for "fish."

"Not according to my translator," Garrus says with a healthy dose of skepticism, because he's been down this road before.

"It's a slang term," Sam swears.

Eventually Garrus is reluctantly convinced, because Sam really is the type who would just call his fucking fish, "fish." So Garrus starts referring to fish as "kevin." Even does it once when ordering sushi, which is when he learns that of course it's all bullshit, really, he knows better, but he's in so deep at this point he's going to go down with that ship, and continues calling fish Kevin with a "fight me about it" attitude.

So Sam says, you know what, fuck it, fish=kevin, now and for always, and has in fact ordered “swordkevin” at a very nice restaurant, even though Garrus was millions of lightyears away. That was one of those moments when Kaidan had to remind himself that he loves this man.

#'shoot it again sam' shepard #i may be overdosing on fun headcanons #to make up for all the sad fic

24 notes · View notes

biotic-boshtet · 3 years

Text

Aftermath - Chapter 7

Read on AO3

Start at the Beginning

Doubt (and Duct Tape)

“Norah Jean!”

“I’m so sorry, Jeff.”

The comm dies and the pod launches. The fireball blooms in slow motion.

She’s spinning.

Spinning.

Suffocating.

Norah Jean snaps awake. The first thing her eyes land on are the multitude of stars through the skylight. They used to be so beautiful. Now she can’t even breathe, staring up at them. Can’t tear her eyes away from the cold, emotionless lights. She’s vaguely aware of her corona flickering in and out, rising and falling with her shallow breaths. The comforter is tangled around her legs. She focuses on what she can feel. Her hands are balled up in the sheets, clenching so hard her knuckles hurt. Her body is drenched in sweat, soaking her t-shirt and shorts. The air circulating through the cabin is frigid, cooling her sticky skin.

She can almost take a normal breath.

The soft whir of the fan pointed at her bed breaks through her thoughts. Norah Jean takes a breath, listening to the subtle hum of the drive core, then the sound of the empty fish tank. She can smell the air freshener on the desk, apple cinnamon, it smells like home. She shifts slightly, and the smell of her shampoo wafts up from the pillow.

Her mouth tastes like blood. She must have bitten her cheek before she woke up.

Norah Jean can finally look away from the stars, can a deep breath. She sits up and puts her feet on the cold floor, holding her head in her hands. She won’t be getting back to sleep tonight. This marks the sixth night in a row she’s had that nightmare. She learned on night three that falling back asleep only brings more of them.

She gets up and walks to the desk. Half a dozen reports sit stacked next to the computer. The clock reads 0200. With a sigh she sits down and picks the first pad off the stack. They won’t read themselves.

Her cabin is cold, just the way she likes it, and Kaidan is wrapped up completely in her comforter on the bed. She climbs onto the mattress and peels away the edge of the blanket to shimmy under and cuddle close to him. He stirs when her cold hands touch his warm skin, rolling over to face her.

“Hey, Sugar. Didn’t think you’d show.” He presses a kiss to her nose.

“Didn’t think I’d show? This is my cabin.”

“I missed you so much.”

“What? Kaidan, I haven’t gone anywhere.”

“Two years is a long time, Norah Jean.”

“I haven’t left, I’ve been here the whole time!”

“No, you haven’t. You died. None of this is real, Sugar.”

“No. Let’s just go to sleep, this is just a nightmare, everything will be okay when we get up.”

“Norah Jean, you need to open your eyes. It’s time to wake up.”

She blinks and they aren’t in her cabin anymore. Alarms wail all around her and Kaidan faces her, fully suited up.

“Joker’s still in the cockpit, he won’t abandon ship. I’m not leaving either!”

Alarms give way to the silence of space as the Normandy crumbles around her. In seconds, nothing but stars surround her.

She can’t breathe.

With a start, Norah jean sits up in her desk chair. Her datapads are scattered across the desktop, and the clock reads 0430. She leans back and rubs her face, covered in lines from the datapad she fell asleep on. She gets up and heads for the gym in the cargo bay.

After a few hours of deliberation, looking between the roll of duct tape, the folded bedsheet, and the skylight, she keys the comm frequency for the main battery.

“Hey, Garrus, are you busy right now?”

“Well, I was in the middle of some calibrations, but I’ve been looking for an excuse to run a full system diagnostic. Please tell me you need my services for two hours or so.”

“I do need your help with something, I don’t think it’ll take me two hours though. Meet me up in my cabin?”

“On my way.”

Several minutes later, the door chimes as Garrus walks through. He makes the Turian approximation of a whistle as he looks around.

“Damn, Shepard, you’re living like a queen up here. What’s a guy like me gotta do to get a view like this?”

“Oh? I’ll trade you. I’d sleep better in the down in the guts of the ship anyway.”

“You’re not sleeping?” His mandibles twitch and he looks long and hard at her face, as if only now seeing the dark circles under her eyes.

“Only a little bit. Not nearly enough. But that’s why I called you up here actually, because I have a plan.” She turns to grab the folded sheet and roll of duct tape from the bed. “We’re covering the skylight.”

“’We’?”

“Yes. As you can see,” Norah Jean stands on the bed and reaches one arm up. Even on her toes, she doesn’t come anywhere close to touching the ceiling. “I can’t reach it myself, and this bed is attached very firmly to the floor. So, I need you to give me a boost.”

“A… boost?”

“Yes, Garrus, stand on the bed and pick me up so I can reach the ceiling.”

“Okay. And if I drop you?”

“Are you already planning to?” She laughs at the way his mandibles twitch.

“No! I just don’t want you stabbing me because I accidentally dropped you!”

“Garrus, where would I be hiding a knife? My hair isn’t long enough to do that anymore. Even if you do drop me, I’ll land on the bed, its fine. If you’re that worried about dropping me, I can just sit on your shoulders.”

“I like that, that sounds more secure.”

“Okay then let’s do it, lemme climb on.” Garrus climbs onto the bed and kneels down, so she can climb onto his shoulders.

“So, what is it humans say about duct tape? That it fixes everything?” He slowly stands to his full height, wobbling a bit between the squishy mattress and the marine on his shoulders.

“200 plus years and it hasn’t failed us yet. Even in space, there’s use for it.”

“Maybe Ceruberus should’ve used a bit of it on you, might’ve sped the process up.”

“I’m not gonna give that the dignity of a response.” She lays the sheet over she arm and tears off a strip of tape.

It takes them almost thirty minutes to securely fix the sheet to the skylight. The first corner she’d taped up peeled off once two sides were plastered to the steel. Then as they finished the final corner, the second corner sagged down. By the time everything is secure they’ve gone through a roll and a half of tape, and Garrus is lying on the bed with his eyes closed.

“Tell me when the room stops spinning okay?”

“Here, this’ll fix it.” Norah Jean tears off a square of duct tape and sticks it to Garrus’ armor.

He lifts his head and opens one eye to look at his new silver patch. “It really does fix everything.”

Norah Jean sits on her too-soft bed and stares at her armor on its rack. She’s put herself through countless armor drills, just like the Academy’s, but still, she can’t get her time under three minutes. Major Mabbit would have her ass.

She walks over to the rack and starts the timer.

Two minutes and fifty-six seconds. Progress. Hopefully she won’t need to suddenly get ready to drop anytime soon. She takes her time pulling the armor off, inspecting the slowly growing collection of scratches and dents. Ghosts her fingers over the dent on her chestplate from one of Garrus’ concussive rounds. On one of her greaves, a gouge from an impromptu sparring session with Jack out in the field. A square of silver duct tape right in the middle of her left pauldron. The signs of a stranger’s armor slowly becoming hers.

The door to the cockpit slides open, and Joker glances over his shoulder to see Norah Jean come in. She scuffs a foot on the floor before sighing and sitting down, hugging her knees to her chest.

“Uh-oh, you’ve got that look that means you’re thinking about one specific thing too much. Spill it.”

“I’m still me, right? I’m still the person you grew up with? Your old high school sweetheart?”

Joker sighs, turning his chair to face where she’s sitting on the floor. “Norah Jean, why-“

“Just. Answer the question. Please.”

“It’s a complicated question, so you’re getting a complicated answer, just a warning. Yes, and no. Of course, you’re not the same person you were in high school. You’re not even the same person you were when you graduated from the Academy and left Arcturus. But that’s normal, hell, even encouraged. You came away from Akuze like a ghost, you’d been through hell and back, but you were still you. People don’t just walk away from trauma without changing, Norah Jean that’s just not how that works. It’s unfair to expect yourself to be the exact same person you were when you saved the Citadel. You got spaced for fuck’s sake, and you remember it? That changes people. So yeah, you’ve changed, but everyone changed when the Normandy went down, whether they want to admit it or not.”

“That’s not what-“

“If you’re asking me if I think you’re some Cerberus controlled zombie, the answer is hell no, absolutely not. If Cerberus had a chip in your brain, I don’t think I’d be able to beat you at Scrabble.”

Norah Jean snorts and rolls her eyes. “Wow, that’s the metric you’re going by? I didn’t realize the bar was so low.”

“It’s more of a combination of things.”

“Do you ever wonder about how life would be if we’d stayed together after the Academy?”

“Telling you “No.” would be lying and I try not to lie to you, you’ve got a weird knack for figuring that shit out.”

“Because you have a shitty poker face, Jeff.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Anyway, I try not to dwell on it, it was 10 years ago. I can guaran-god-damn-tee that if we were still together in ’83 I wouldn’t have been piloting the Normandy because there’s no way Anderson would’ve passed up having you as his XO. Do I regret breaking up with you? No, not really, because without worrying about the regs, you got to chase down what you wanted from your career, and I got to pilot this sweet, sweet ship. Yeah, at first it sucked because you needed space and that space meant we didn’t so much as message each other for 2 years, but it was worth it. And plus, I like our friendship better this way, we’ve got a good thing going here. Now grab the Scrabble set, get your ass in your chair, and we’ll see how many games I win this time.”

“You spend all this time building me up just to break me down again, I see how it is.”

“I’ve gotta keep you in check somehow, Norah Jean.”

#mass effect fic #garrus vakarian #jeff joker moreau #norah jean shepard #this is my near miss shakarian chapter dedicated to how many times ive gone through the reach and flexibility convo to almost romance garrus #aftermath #mandi writes

2 notes · View notes

kaidans-alenko · 3 years

Note

If you're doing them, #7 for the physical affection prompts.

#7- squishing cheeks

I needed an excuse to write some garenko and I thought this prompt was perfect for them, so thank you 🥰

Garrus watched Kaidan as he slept next to him, running his talons through Kaidan's thick black hair and down his face, stopping at his cheek. Humans were softer than turians were, krogans referred to them as squishy and while that wasn't the word he would use, he could see where they were coming from.

Garrus gently poked his cheek with a claw, pausing to see if it woke him up, it didn't. This time he instead pinched Kaidan's cheek, not hard enough to hurt but he was amazed with how soft the skin was there in comparison to the rest of him. Kaidan woke up as Garrus squished his cheeks together, annoyed that his boyfriend had interrupted his nap "Do you need something?"

"Sorry Kai," He said as he pulled away "you humans are just so soft."

Kaidan rubbed his cheek "Compared to turians maybe." He loved Garrus, but the claws he had in place of fingers definitely took getting used to, for a few reasons.

Garrus moved Kaidan's hand away, taking it in his own as he leaned closer, placing a kiss on the other man's cheek.

"Why are humans like that?" Garrus asked, curiosity finally getting the best of him.

"Well we are mostly water." Kaidan replied, it wasn't much of an explanation but it seemed to satisfy the turian.

Garrus nodded and pinched his cheek again, pulling gently "Does that hurt?"

Kaidan sighed "Not really but you are reminding me of my grandmother right now."

Garrus withdrew his claw "Sorry you're just so-"

"Soft?" Kaidan interrupted.

"Yeah!"

Kaidan laughed and Garrus took him in his arms, their foreheads pressing together "Sorry for waking you up."

Kaidan shrugged "It's fine, you were cute so I'll let it slide this time." Kaidan wasn't sure turians could blush but the flare of Garrus' mandibles got his feelings across just as well.

#i hope you like it 😳👉👈#i can redo it with shenko tho if youd like #kaidan alenko #garrus vakarian #garanko #alenkarian

11 notes · View notes

incorrectly-quoted-queers · 4 years

Conversation

Garrus: Sometimes I'm surprised you humans survive anything, with how soft your bodies and nervous systems are

Femshep, comes around corner: God dammit, I think I have a cold

Garrus: Do you want me to get you some medicine? Fluids? Those face tissues you use to get rid of mucus?

Femshep: Don't worry about me-

Garrus: It is my job as your teammate and boyfriend to make sure you're taken care of

Garrus, scoops her up: Back to bed with you

Joker: ...Yeah, no clue how we squishy humans survive anything

#Incorrect Mass Effect Quotes #Shakarian #Joker #Femshep x Garrus #Squishy humans

102 notes · View notes

jotaveiga · 4 years

Text

It was the first time after 6 months that the miracle happened. Liara finally managed to gather them in the same room. It hadn't been easy to find them, then convince them to step inside the old repaired Normandy.

There was some contentment for the reunion but there was an underlaing of sorrow, pain, regret. Understandably so.

Kaidan was the most bitter out of everyone, he kept his arms crossed tightly over his chest until there was enough silence for him to speak.

"Are you going to tell us why we had to leave our missions to come here of all places?" Liara was about to start explaining but Wrex started to threaten Kaidan for being rude, Vega was also intrigued and threw a "yeah, why?", Cross conversation resumed and the room fell into chaos.

Liara called a couple of times trying to emmulate her but to no avail. She looked desperate at the console in front of her and pressed the button.

"Will you stop that?!" Shivers run up and down spines, tears welled up and the silence was as crushing as the void of space itself. Her voice resonated loud and clear.

"I apoligize Commander, but I must insist." Joker immediatly raised to his feet as EDI spoke.

The hologram of Jane Shepard rose in the middle of the room.

"Dios mio!" Vega's wisper was louder than he intended but it described perfectly the mood.

"Are we ready?" The soft metalic voice came through and Shepard took a deep breath before nodding.

"Ready as I'll ever be."

Liara hugged herself, already antecipating the message that was to come, she heard it first when she retrieved Shepard's omnitool from Earth.

"So, you know I am really great at this...sharing feelings and stuff... Phew...well, let's do this then. EDI thinks it will help my anxiety wich most of you don't really know about, so I guess I'll start with you EDI." The Commander's chuckle brought a knot to the hearts of those watching and hearing attently.

"No Commander, this is meant for the crew."

"And what the fuck are you? You are part of this crew and part of this family..." Jane rubbed her forehead "...jeez I'm lame. Well, I'll start with you and that's final." EDI chuckled in her silky tone.

" EDI, you can be a pain in the ass, not literally fortunatly, but a pain nonthless, but you are also my friend. You learned how to be caring, you are the best with Joker, that asshole got really lucky for having such a babe swooning over him." Joker laughed and a couple of people followed suit.

"I am lucky to have you as a crew member and as a friend EDI" Shepard flashed her the most genuine smile and EDI thanked her. "Who next?" She scrambled trough a piece of paper of all things. "Joker than. You've been with me since the very beginning man, you are my brother and I love you but honestly, sometimes you are hella annoying." Jane burst into laughter and Joker, the now Joker followed while tears rushed down his cheeks, but he didn't care. He had been trough hell with her and always brought her back except the only two times that really mattered. "Don't beat yourself up" the man looked up at her hologram and felt as if she could read his mind "without you, I would've died a long time ago and we all know that, I hope you can find a new purpose." The seriousness returned to the room.

"Liara, I know we had a complicated start but I came to see you as one of the best friends a person could have. I know you know your worth but just to reinforce it, you are an amazing, intelligent being and I really want you to take care of my ship collection because no one else out of these morons could do it." Again chuckles echoed troughout, but the mood was somber, for each name, Shepard seemed to shrink a little.

"Tali, you are the most fun and bubbly person I've had the pleasure to know, you are so young and so determined, and I if I am alive after this, I'll go to your planet and I will elege you as Queen of the Quarians" Tali sobbed inside her mask as Vega put one arm around her shoulders.

"Wrex, old man, I've been thinking about it alot and I decided that it would be cool to spend my retirement raising a baby Krogan, so I'll take up on that offer of yours. Thank you for the headbutts, you know I needed them" Jane winked and Wrex only let out a soft "squishy human" but he loved her, and everybody knew it. What a feat, to have the admiration and love of two Krogans.

"In the matter of adoption, Grunt, you are my son, and stop dennying it! You know I love you and I want you to be the strongest most perfect Krogan that ever lived, I am very proud of you", Grunt slammed a fist on the wall next to him, but nobody felt it as a threat, it was pain for the loss of what he also considered as his mother.

Shepard sniffled ever so slightly while going trough her list.

"Jack, you are a mean ass bitch and I love you for it, and when this is all done, I need to learn how to dance and you got some really sick moves so, if your up for it, hit me up" Jack chuckled from the corner "finnaly you admit you can't dance" a couple of others laughed with her.

"Vega, are you still sore from all the pull ups you couldn't do?" Jane snorted a laugh "well, you better not push yourself to hard man, we need you opperational, you are one of the best soldiers we have and I am glad I have you on my team, pendejo" Vega smiled brightly but the saddness in his eyes seeped out.

"Kaidan...I...well, I don't think we've ever seen eye to eye, but I know the admiration you had for me, at least until I disappointed you, and I never want to do that again, but I will, so, I need you to look up to yourself and not to others because otherwise you'll never live to the amazing potencial you have, don't be held down, I...I am sorry for what you have been trough because of me" there was no jokes or chuckles, Jane knew every single person on her crew and she knew how to address every one of them individually. Kaidan took a step forward almost as if he wanted to touch the hologram, after all, he still loved her.

Her mood shifted as she skimmed the paper in her hand.

"EDI, I think that's enough for now, I'll do the rest later." It hurt him to know who the rest was, but he understood, like he always did.

"Commander we are almost done"

"What's even the point? Maybe they're all dead, maybe I failled and ended up destroying the few things I have ever loved..." The exasperarion in her voice could be heard but no recognized because Commander Shepard was the one who pulled people up.

"Commander..." EDI's mettalic voice was conforting and reassuring.

"I know, I am sorry EDI, I just... Well... Garrus." Everybody in the room turned to the Turian partially covered by shadow. He hadn't talked since the war, since he left Shepard on the ramp of the Normandy, no one had heard him again. He shifted the weight of his body from one leg to the other until Jane started.

"I swear to God, if you are somewhere out there callibrating stuff, I'll find you and headbutt the hell out of you!" She tried to chuckled but the sound died before it was even born.

"Listen, never blame yourself for my decisions, we both know I am to stubborn. But I do want you to credit yourself. For everything you have done for me. For all the times you had my six, for all the times you helped me see reason, for saving me from the very first moment I've met you." Her voice wavered and the sobs from both Tali and Liara could be heard in the seconds of silence.

"I love you big guy. I have for a really long time and my only regret is that I should have told you sooner, so we had more time." The trembling on her tone crushed the hearts of those present. Garrus walked towards the console and stood face to face with her hologram.

"I know you will be the best Primarch the Turian ever had because you learned from me" she chuckled between tears. "And I know that someday we'll see eachother again, until than, please take care of this band of misfits we call family because they cant' take care of themselfs." The air grew thicker.

"There is no Shepard without Vakarian. I love you Garrus." For the first time since he last saw her he spoke and his voice sounded foreign, hoarse and scratchy and it pained him like tousands of needles to say those words but he didn't care, he could die for all he cared, he just wanted her in his arms again.

"I love you too".

They watched as her figure slumped to a chair behind her as her palms covered her face. After a solid minute, Jane straightened her back and wiped her cheeks leaning one arm on her knee and looking dead on. "Imagine how embarissing this shit would be if I am still alive?" And with that, the swosh of a door could be heard from behind them.

#female shepard #mass effect fanfiction #mass effect #feelings #tali'zorah #liara t'soni #james vega #jeff joker moreau #kaidan alenko #femshep x garrus #garrus vakarian #urdnot grunt #urdnot wrex

27 notes · View notes