16, 29, 38
(assuming this is for the relationships asks!)
16. What is Shepard’s favorite memory of their family?
In public, Duke always says it was the day Hannah got her officer’s commission, tied with the day Duke got theirs. Both days, the two of them went out for dinner and then ice cream and generally spent the best time that a mom and her kid/best friend can have.
In private, Duke admits that their favorite memory of Hannah is a much more tender one: her cradling a three-year-old Duke, deathly ill from the eezo accident that ended up giving them their biotics. Hannah sat in a chair facing the stars rushing by, holding Duke close and singing softly to lull them to sleep in the midst of the pain of eezo making its mark on their body.
29. What was [Shepard’s and their LI’s] first impression of each other?
Duke’s first impression of Jack can also be found here, but Jack’s first impression of Duke was a lot less positive; Duke had arrived in a ship with Cerberus colors (and with a Commander with red slashing through his face). Aside from that, Duke seemed almost childish in their frank emotions and smiles (too common, no one genuinely smiles that much, do they?).
James’s first impression of Duke was of a similarly emotional person, but with all their negative emotions pulled to the forefront. They would do karaoke in their “room” (read: glorified cell) until their voice finally gave out at 0200, then go almost completely silent for days; they would demand news on the outside world (and Cade and Noel) that they knew full well Vega couldn’t give them; their spells of anger often left scratched or broken furniture.
James didn’t really start getting to know Duke until after a psychotic episode that had them hurling a chair at their window repeatedly, with only a several-story drop below said window. James’s view of Duke slowly became less his charge and more just...someone very lonely. Someone who needed his help.
Duke’s first impression of James was that they hated him--based solely on the fact that he was little more than a glorified jailer. Long story short, they grew out of that.
38. Favorite non-Shepard OTP?
MAN idk
i’m a fan of kaidan/ashley i guess? but mostly bc i’m a sucker for a good poly trio and kaidan/ashley/shep is a Good Poly Trio (also in this category is jack/james but that’s cos of duke)
wrex and bakara make a hell of a couple tbh. i love both of them and besides their banding together to steer tuchanka in a new direction, i think they could really grow to love each other
(highkey shoutout to cortellian, which is steve cortez and his eventual husband tobias santillian, who belongs to @solitarysmith)














