OTP meme: For Jack and Inara: 1, 8, 22 For Jack and Amelia: 3, 9, 16 ^^
I laughed when I pulled up the list and saw #1
How would a thumb war go?
At the end of the day, I think Inara's cybernetics carry the day, tbh. But she'd try to let Jack win. Then he'd get annoyed once he realizes. 😂
(Cut for length)
During the crushing stage, how did they try to get each other's attention?
TBH, this isn't actually a very interesting question for Jack and Inara (Amelia tho... 😂). Largely because Jack was like, "Yeah, that's not happening any time soon," and shoved it aside as much as he could (and got standoffish in the process). At times during ME2 when emotions were running high, he'd slip up and call Inara by her first name, which did give her a clue that *something* was going on with him, but he wasn't really trying to get her attention. Then, after the war, he still didn't really try to get her attention, though he couldn't really help but do the thing where he looks out for her and has all these little gestures that he does for her and no one else. (Does she pick up on that? Not at all because she's not very good at this. 😂)
As for Inara, she kinda of glides over the crushing stage entirely. After the war, he's just... there. And it's comfortable and she doesn't even notice all the little ways they react only to each other until suddenly one day she realizes that she fell for him and she has no idea when, but he's been showing her all along how he feels about her and I really like them. 🥺
AUs
Oh! What an interesting one, especially because it's Jack and Inara. It's so hard to conceive of AUs for them, tbh, because their story is so much a part of them as a couple that it's hard to imagine them in different settings. But it sure is tempting to think about switching their roles (the Illusive Woman and Commander Jack Harper) and I still have notes on making the North by Northwest AU for them specifically. I feel like Inara would work well in that setting.
How do they celebrate their anniversaries?
I'm still partial to the time Amelia dragged Jack to Omega for their 10th anniversary... 😂 Though that's not exactly typical. It amuses me to think of them going shooting for their anniversary... but only because Jack annoying Amelia is funny actually. (Usually it's the other way around!)
But I think this is the one thing where they're fairly normal about it all. They put the world on pause and spend time together alone. A weekend away. A special dinner. Something along those lines.
What did the pair compromise for each other, if they did?
There's a lot of "it depends on the story" here, but there tends actually to be a pretty big compromise on where they end up living together. For sketches and short stories, I tend to default to just setting them up in Jack's apartment at the rebuilt Cord-Hislop HQ because it's easier for the purpose, but Amelia giving up the Normandy to live on Earth actually is a big one. Jack giving up living on Earth to live somewhere like the Citadel is the other version of this. Jack and Inara take up the same post-war project so there's really none of that for them, so for Jack and Amelia this is probably by far their most significant compromise.
For #16 I'll get back to you when I get to the answer for @wardencommandershepard 😅
