Something I've really come to appreciate in ME1 is how all three Council members are consistently and coherently characterized during what little interactions we have with them, and especially how they are different shades of pragmatism.
Now this is interesting because when you delineate characters through foil dynamics, you usually give them contrasting traits : a pragmatic character would be contrasted with an idealistic one. Yet since we're talking politicians, idealism is unlikely. What do we get instead ?
Valern's pragmatism is very much all about short-term efficiency : getting the mission done is the only thing that counts. Results are the only things that counts. He's a textbook example of what a cynical pragmatist might be depicted as ; which is perhaps why Esheel, in a Renegade!Timeline ME3, seems to have nothing but contempt for him.
Sparatus' pragmatism, on the other hand, always manifests itself as caution. Did you take this in consideration ? Do you have proof to back up what you claim ? Can you stop being a maverick for two seconds ? Can you conclusively demonstrate to me that you took every other possibility into account and that you did, in fact, make the best available decision ? It's pragmatism but focused on the long term, on not jeopardizing the future for the sake of the present. Strategy instead of tactics.
And as for Tevos, she usually has the last word, always mediating the reactions of her co-Councilors and the Council's responses as a whole. The feeling you get is that her pragmatism is all about flexibility and compromise : what's done is done, what's most important is that we agree on a mutually beneficial course of action. She juggles egos, unruffles feathers and calms everyone down so that they can move forward.
This is very nice because, in a sense, each of them is a perfect vanilla representation of their respective governments, in keeping with ME1's heavy worldbuilding duties : Tevos is very much the compromising centrist asari are supposed to be, favoring people working together (at practically any cost) over what they're working for ; Valern is all about the short-term mentality of the salarians, and the certainty any problem they cause can be fixed no matter what, in a never-ending parade of problems whose resolution cause other problems ; and Sparatus is risk-averse and perhaps the most conservative of the three, in that he is very afraid of any significant change upsetting the status quo, always calculating how this or that decision might change the grand strategic stage of the galaxy.
I wish you would write a fic where... Carla and Lisa get more than five minutes to themselves in the hospital, uninterrupted! (Bonus points if their conversation brings up Kate.) ✨
She cracks an eye at the sound of the door, expecting a nurse to be popping in for yet another vitals check. It’s that time of the evening: when supper has already come and gone and the hallway is slowly growing quiet as the last of the days’ visitors head on home.
The whole thing is frustrating in its predictability. Makes Carla want to scratch at her skin, a bit; claw her way out of this mundane routine and back to something more resembling normalcy.
Like a glass of wine in the pub, Lisa sat opposite her. Their hands brushing with intention across the tabletop. The twinkle of bright eyes gazing into her own. The flutter of want surging and swirling inside, waiting. Anticipating.
But it’s a swish of familiar blonde hair that comes through the door, followed closely by a soft smile that causes Carla’s stomach to flip with delight. She greets it with a tentative one of her own, pulled from the reverie by the more realistic alternative.
No, there’s not many heated glances in hospital.
“I wasn’t expecting you back today,” Carla breathes, opening the other eye to watch as Lisa shifts ever closer. She settles a hip gently against the edge of the bed, her fingers brushing delicately at the blanket as she leans in.
“I know,” Lisa answers, just as soft. Just as whispered. She shrugs, seemingly unbothered that she’s already been by for their typical morning catch up, and again just after tea. She’s set her hair loose for this visit, though, shed the armour of DS Swain in favour of the Lisa that Carla’s grown to know.
Carla feels that cocoon start to wrap around them – the one that blocks out the rest of the world when it’s just them, just the two of them and the intoxicating this.
“But the kids are all at home, so I figured we could have a minute to ourselves.”
“Ooh,” Carla teases, “How romantic.” She tries to hold the smile, tries not to let her gaze drop to the tubes dangling off her hand. Tries not to feel the bubble of irritation in her gut at the sight of them.
But it settles so heavy – like a sharp tack waiting to pop this and all.
“Could be,” Lisa chuckles, reaching forward as though the touch of her fingers on Carla’s arm might keep her from pulling away. “Could see what happens to that heart rate monitor when I kiss you.” She grins, eyebrows wiggling, all the effort so apparent that Carla kind of wants to scream.
“Give over,” she says instead.
Lisa shakes her head, winding a hand around one of Carla’s and pulling it into her lap. “Can’t hide the way it spikes when I walk in the room, babe.”
Despite herself, Carla laughs, turning to see the tell-tale rise on the monitor screen as Lisa’s thumb swipes across her hand. She can feel the affects in her body: the tumble low in her belly, the tingling of her skin, the squeeze between her legs.
Even while she’s holed up in a hospital bed…
“No bloomin’ privacy in this place,” Carla grumbles half-heartedly, watching as Lisa preens where she sits. Watching as Lisa does that cocky little lift of her chin that always seems to undo any semblance of her own self control. “Don’t,” she scolds.
“Don’t what?” Lisa lets her eyes go wide when she says it, all feigned innocence.
As if she doesn’t know exactly what she’s doing.
“Is that what you came here for?” Carla murmurs, tugging their joined hands towards her chest.
The unexpected motion pulls Lisa slightly off her seat and she giggles, startled as she tumbles closer against Carla’s side. She catches herself with a hand on the mattress, careful not to put her weight anywhere that might hurt.
“Just to get me all hot and bothered when I haven’t got the energy?”
Lisa at least has the gall to look embarrassed. Her cheeks flush as she tips forward, pressing a featherlight kiss to the corner of Carla’s mouth. “Of course not,” she promises, “I just missed you, is all.”
Carla lets out a hum that makes it clear she only half believes her. That she isn’t wholly pleased herself to have Lisa in her room without Ryan or Bobby or Betsy hovering in a chair nearby. “I missed you, too,” she whispers.
“Not gonna tell me you’ve not brushed your teeth this time, are you?” Lisa asks, still near enough that her breath ghosts across Carla’s cheek. The sensation leaves shivers in its wake, gooseflesh standing at attention beneath her hospital gown.
And even though she feels unattractive, in this moment – utterly undesirable, with her hair unwashed and all the baggy clothes she’s been hiding in hanging off her skin – she lets Lisa close the gap. Lets her kiss her proper, with all the gentle conviction she’s been swearing with her words and her actions for days now.
I love you. I’m going nowhere. We’re okay.
It feels like coming home.
She’s breathless for a different reason when Lisa finally pulls away. Exhausted, as she has been ever since the start of the year. She growls, letting her eyelids flutter shut as she collapses against the pillows.
“This is supposed to be the fun part,” Carla mumbles, leaning into the caress of Lisa’s fingers on her cheek. It’s soothing, that – makes it harder to open her eyes again. Sleep claws at the edges of her consciousness, coaxing. “One kiss and I’m done for.”
“Yeah, well, you’re meant to be resting,” Lisa cajoles, “Not kissing me.”
The tell-tale press of Lisa’s forehead against her own a moment later lifts the corners of Carla’s mouth. And she knows, even without looking, that the monitor must be giving her away again. That, despite her very real attempts to push Lisa away, this is what she’s been craving.
This comfort. This connection.
This safety and support and love.
“We can have fun when you’re feeling better,” Lisa promises, “I’m going nowhere.”
'Never had Shepard seen her in a state so relaxed before her people. She looked ancient and beautiful, her markings vibrantly painted a starker white, her lips smudged white to match, and when she was addressed she moved with a languid fluidity.'
Empress Tevos, as she appears in Chapter 21 of Eternity's Embrace by @circesoracle
aaaaahhhhhh thank you beloved friend and mutual!! sorry for the delay, i also really enjoyed reading your prompt fills for your hot milves! very sweet, so soft,,,,
anyways! I have been Neglecting My Girl lately so woe, adanaheart be upon ye.
Straightforward (ao3 link)
Summary: Shadowheart hasn't received so many gifts in her life as to go around throwing them away. Even if one of them is the idol of a petty, miserable goddess who hates her.
