Olivia Shepard - fairly, though she’s got a pretty short temper when people aren’t listening to her about something important. She’s uncomfortable with small talk, but otherwise good at talking to and working with people (especially kids; she’s fantastic with kids).
Vanessa Shepard - not in the least. She’s very cold and standoffish unless she likes you, and she likes very few people. She prefers hacking or punching her way through things, always has.
Kylie Lavellan - fantastic. She spent several years grifting and conning her way through the Free Marches before Bull picked her up and brought her into the Chargers, at which point her education into people-reading and manipulation absolutely skyrocketed. She mostly hates people who aren’t her people, but she knows how to work them.
Ariadne Trevelyan - halfway decent. She’s not very good at it as a child (being a Chantry orphan suddenly yanked into the Circle will do that to you), but she opens up with friends. With some coaching from her First Enchanter (and later Vivienne), she starts learning the Game and how to fake it. Especially once she’s pulled into the Inquisition, she’s very much my Fake It Until You Make It OC.
Vanessa/Ashley/Tali for the shipping meme, please!
How did they meet? Ashley was getting shot at by geth, Tali was getting shot at by Shadow Broker agents. Vanessa was the knight in shining armor who stood back like “Hang on, I can hack this,” but by the time she was done hacking both princesses had knocked off all the nonsense themselves. Instant heart eyes emoji.
Who developed romantic feelings first? [sorry about the Cora answer I left here; this is what I get for copy/pasting]. It all sort of happened mutually around the same time. Ashley and Vanessa were very much headed for something romantic, when they realized - subconsciously - that things felt a bit weird whenever they flirted without Tali present. So then they - also subconsciously - started flirting around Tali and including Tali in it and everything poofed into a magical OT3.
Who is their biggest “shipper?” Karin Chakwas. And EDI.
When did they have their first kiss and under what circumstances? Some time after Virmire, they all ended up in Vanessa’s bed (just sleeping; there’s fic, but it’s on my old blog and given a recent anon I’m hesitant to link it right now). Kisses happened after they mutinied and stole the ship. Sort of an adrenaline filled holy shit what did we do omg this is happening kind of thing.
Who confessed their feelings first? No one. They just sort of…happened.
What was their first official date? [frakking hell, here’s another one with a left answer]. Post-Citadel attack, Vanessa and Ashley are stuck in debriefings all day long (and getting kind of murderous about it), and Tali’s wandering around not really sure what she’s meant to be doing. She stumbles on a paintball arena miraculously untouched by the geth, decides that her girlfriends are probably going to need to shoot something, so makes them reservations for later that night. It’s not an official date, but it’s their first date.
How do they feel about double dates/group dates? There’s three of them already, no need to add more.
What do they do in their down time? Ashley reads (and dabbles in a bit of writing) poetry. Tali builds stuff, Vanessa tries to hack her way through omnitool games.
What was the first meeting of parents as an official couple like? Vanessa’s estranged from her mother, both of Tali’s parents are dead, but Ashley’s mom loves all three of them enough for all the missing and dead parents.
What was their first fight over and how did they get past it? It was an argument on how best to handle the geth on one of those UNC: Geth Incursion missions (specifically, and I can’t remember what planet this was, the wintry one where you’re on top of a mountain (or at least I’m always on top of a mountain) and the geth are all contained in the snowy clearing below, but it’s a relatively tight clearing with zero cover but the fucking Mako can’t perch on top of the mountain and aim its pulse cannon below).
Plan A (Vanessa): creep down the side of the mountain, hide behind those rocks; hack, shoot, overload, fire (fire powers totally existed in this game fight me), repeat, punch anything that gets too close
Plan B (Ashley): stay where we are where the geth can’t see us, snipe the fuckers even though it’s windy as fuck and also we only have one sniper
Plan C (Tali): hack the armature on that end, hack the colossus on that end, throw down a bunch of grenades and hope our aim doesn’t suck as much as usual
Ultimately they used a combination of A and C (a plan Ashley dubbed “D for Dumbass”), which involved Vanessa sliding on her ass down the mountain, yelling “YOOHOO OVER HERE” at the geth and leading them on a chase into a choke point, Tali hacking the armature to distract at least some of the killer robots, while Ashley maneuvered the Mako into position where she could use the cannon to take out the majority of the geth chasing Vanessa.
Which one is more easily made jealous? At one point or another, they’ve all been jealous of time the other two have had with each other. Ashley and Tali while Vanessa’s dead, Vanessa and Tali while Ashley’s abducted by the Collectors (DEE I WILL FINISH THAT I PROMISE), Tali while Vanessa and Ashley are together again for bits of ME3. But not of other people outside the relationship.
What is their favourite thing to get to eat? Vanessa’s a burger kind of girl, I feel like Ashley likes steak, and Tali just hangs out with her quarian food. They make an effort to find dextro places for Tali on the Citadel, though, so she’s not always eating paste (there’s a dextro vegan place right across from The Lost Sheep Bakery which yes shows up in every Shepard canon, it’s kind of like how Kylie’s a Charger even when she’s not Inquisitor).
Who’s the cuddly one? What their favourite cuddling position? They’re all a giant cuddle pile, but really Ashley’s the bigger cuddler of the three of them. Even if they somehow manage to fall asleep separate, Ashley’s cuddled up to at least one of the others by the time they wake up. There’s no space between any of them on the couch during movie night.
Are they hand holders? Nope.
How long do they wait before sleeping together for the first time? What’s the circumstances? They non-sexually sleep together pretty consistently after Virmire. Sex only happens post-Ilos, because they don’t want to risk any sort of infection with Tali or anything.
Who tops? Vanessa and Ashley, though Tali has her moments of “I’m going to be in control now.”
What’s the worst fight they’ve ever gotten into? C E R B E R U S. Hot damn is that a doozy. At the end of ME2, after rescuing Ashley from the Collectors and finishing up the mission and boo-yah we saved the day, none of them are in a mental position to be able to discuss the whole Cerberus thing. All three of them are really fragile from that ordeal, so that brewing argument takes a back seat.
But, after Ashley and Tali are both back on board in ME3, all three of them know that Cerberus is this big giant elcor in the middle of the room that they need to talk about or it’s just going to sit there and stew. Everyone yells at everyone for a good long while, but then they get it out of their systems and it’s okay.
Who does the shopping and the cooking? Ashley does both, with Tali’s help.
Which one is more organized and prone to tidiness? Vanessa and Tali. Vanessa because she grew up on a military ship, Tali because she grew up in the Fleet. It’s not that Ashley’s disorganized or messy, it’s just that the other two are pristine.
Who proposes? None of the above.
Do they have joined Bachelor/Bacheloette parties or separate?N/A
Who is the best man/maid of honour? Any other groomsmen or bridesmaids? N/A
Full Name: Vanessa Calliope Shepard
Gender and Sexuality: female, lesbian
Pronouns: she/her
Ethnicity/Species: Human, white (face: Eva Green)
Birthplace and Birthdate: April 11th, 2154; SSV Hyderabad
Guilty pleasures: scotch, plotless B-movies that consist of nothing but explosions, spending all day in bed with Ashley and Tali
Phobias: why are spiders even a thing in space
What they would be famous for: Butcher of Torfan, Hero of the Citadel, Conquerer of the Collectors, Savior of the Galaxy, Commander of the Reapers
What they would get arrested for: Destruction of private property, murder, kidnapping, possession of false identification, grand larceny, aggravated assault, grand theft auto, petty theft, treason, supporting a terrorist organization, forgery, drunk and disorderly, aggravated assault again, trespassing, interference with a police investigation, disturbing the peace, theft of priceless artifacts, destruction of public property. “I’m a Spectre and an N7..” “…dammit.”
OC you ship them with: I have a very clear image in my head, movie trailer-style, of Vanessa and Ariadne standing back-to-back on the battlefield, absolutely destroying everything around them with fire while Audiomachine’s Helios plays in the background; at the end of it they just look at each other, smirk, and nod.
OC most likely to murder them: Susan is, by and large, a very peaceful individual so wouldn’t actually murder Vanessa, but she and Vanessa clash the most out of all of my OCs and can’t be in the same room together (Vanessa is very loud and aggressive, and Susan is quiet and polite and has severe social anxiety).
Favorite movie/book genre: “Does stuff explode frequently and/or do people have a lot of sex?” “Yes.” “I’m there.”
Least favorite movie/book cliche: the Pick A Third Option trope can burn, as far as she’s concerned. Left to her own devices, she’s worse than Garrus when it comes to grey.
Talents and/or powers: She’s quite the MacGyver, and can fix just about anything with spare parts and an omnitool fabricator. And if it’s combat - literally everything is on fire.
Why someone might love them: she takes no shit from anyone, doesn’t care what anyone but her friends think, and will stand in front of literal fire for someone she cares about
Why someone might hate them: she’s loud, aggressive, likes her alcohol, and headbutts her way through most situations
How they change: She’s normally a pretty happy person (renegade as hell, but happy), but spirals downward in ME2 to the point where depression and alcohol mix very badly and turn her into a person who’s actively cruel, and not just pushy and loud. It’s a hard road up and out of that, especially during wartime, but Ashley and Tali help. So do antidepressants, courtesy of Chakwas.
Why you love them: renegade space princess
oookay, anon. You want 35 bits of headcanon about my OCs? You got 35 bits of headcanon about my OCs. But behind a jump, because 35 bits of headcanon about my OCs is a lot of bits of headcanon about my OCs.
(also behind a jump because I’m gonna talk about sex baby let’s talk about you and me sorry there was a loooooooot of caffeine today)
I’m gonna assume that the “v” at the end was a result of CTRL+Ving your way across my inbox and not that you want 35 bits of headcanon about Vanessa Shepard. She’s in here, though.
Susan sings 90s girl power pop in the shower, but only when she knows she’s completely alone.
Vanessa’s entire N6 mission was done with “One Way Or Another” on repeat.
Olivia and Liara pretended to be together on the SR-1 so Kaidan would stop flirting with Liv; she couldn’t figure out how to politely - yet clearly - tell him that she wasn’t interested and it was just easier to pretend to shack up with her best friend. This was not the first time they faked dating to get someone to back off.
James and Sam have made a pact to never tell Yael that there was, in fact, a control chip in the clone’s brain.
Ellara’s not sure that she’s the Herald of Andraste (and isn’t sure she cares); but it’s only after Josephine mentions that maybe people need to believe that she believes she’s the Herald that she stops admitting her confusion to total strangers.
Garrus ultimately wins the headshot competition with Olivia.
Hannah and Zaeed never get married, and they’re together until the end.
Leah survives the events of the Refusal ending, and wakes up several weeks later on Omega; Aria sent people in to snag Leah’s body before Cerberus or the Alliance or anyone else could get hold of it again - in an extremely rare moment of brutal emotional honesty, Leah said she’d rather die for good than be shoved into the role of Galactic Savior again. She lives out the rest of her life on Omega with Aria. Interestingly, though the Reapers do ultimately take over the galaxy and destroy life as we know it, they leave the Sahrabarik system alone until she dies.
Ruth went through N school with Anderson. They don’t talk about N5 or N7. Ever.
Ellara very much enjoys poking at Solas and intentionally irritating him. Kaelis Lavellan (Dany’s Inquisitor and El’s best friend, who romanced Solas; we’re working out the details of how this fits together) finds it hilarious.
Liselle/Abby resides inside Olivia’s canon, and Abby - alongside James - is one of the N school instructors for Olivia’s daughter, Nora.
Liv finally tells Garrus about her dyslexia shortly after Sur’Kesh, when he walks into their quarters and narrowly misses being nailed in the head by a thrown datapad. He starts reading classified reports aloud to her after that.
The logo for Hannah’s Lost Sheep Bakery is two sheep - a bigger one and a smaller one - in a field underneath The Oracle, which is Mindoir’s most prominent constellation (similar in obviousness to Orion or Cassiopeia).
Liara and Garrus are the only ones besides Chakwas who know about Susan’s anxiety issues, and they’re really the only ones who know how to talk her through an anxiety attack until her meds start to work. At least until she panics after the rachni mission (she’d thought she’d gotten Grunt killed and it all catches up with her in the shuttle), which she brought James and Liara for. Liara gets her through it, but it’s a little hard to hide what’s happening from James…which turns out to be a good thing a few missions later when Garrus is busy debriefing the Primarch and James has to be the one to remind Susan to hit the button on her armor and breathe. Despite being a little wigged that his CO can panic that spectacularly after a (technically) successful mission, James turns out to be astonishingly good at the calm-breathe-with-me-you’re-okay thing.
Vanessa attended the Alliance Engineering Academy in Tokyo. She spent a semester abroad in Paris at ParisTech. She’s conversationally fluent in Japanese, and her French is (and always has been) awful.
Shoshana’s the louder, brasher of the twins, but they were the Hero of Elysium and Yael was the Butcher of Torfan for a reason. Sho never could’ve made the decision that Yael did on Torfan.
Speaking of Elysium, Shoshana got through that with the help of red sand. No one knows. Not even Yael.
Olivia’s never had any sort of sexual experience with a human besides kissing a few boys on Mindoir.
Vanessa’s omnitool’s autocorrect is irrevocably fucked. She’s given up correcting herself or trying to fix it and has just rolled with it. (NOT AT ALL INSPIRED BY REALITY NOT IN THE LEAST).
Ellara hides sometimes at Skyhold, up in her quarters. Once she’s finally alone it’s hard to give up the solitude, especially if it means possibly passing by people who’ve waited all day for her audience and not gotten it. Since Thedas appears to lack cell phones, there’s some distinct difficulty in discreetly communicating with Bull that she would like him to come up. Her solution to this, naturally, is to tie a note to a rock and toss it out the window when she sees him. She’s only hit him with the rock twice.
Olivia stashes notebooks everywhere. She spends an hour on Alchera chipping away ice on the Mako to get in and take the notebook she’d stuck in its glove compartment.
Susan is lactose intolerant. Lemon sorbet is her favorite frozen treat.
Olivia is wildly allergic to seafood, and in her canon it’s not a sushi place but a steakhouse that Joker/Brooks invites her to. She still falls through the fish tank in the floor. Because of course a steakhouse has a gigantic fish tank floor why the heck not.
Zaeed takes Hannah into an Armax match. He’s been teaching her how to shoot, but Reapers and Cerberus don’t stand still with nice bullseye targets; the only way she’s going to know how she reacts in any sort of actual Need To Use This Pistol situation is to practice. It’s after hours, with no audience, on bronze, and she does pretty well once she gets past the holy shit, this creepy stuff is what my daughter’s fighting every day? Can I get a refund on the universe please? thing.
Yael and Shoshana leave little presents for their squad in their lockers each night of Hanukah.OKAY HERE’S A SPACE BECAUSE THE LAST 10 ARE ALL ABOUT SEX because I’ve not talked about any of my OC’s sex lives and there’s so much of it in my Evernote, I feel like it’s going to waste just sitting there.
Liv and Garrus started out as a friends-with-benefits thing (and started pretty much immediately after dealing with Sidonis; none of this wait-til-the-last-minute nonsense). Liv knew that any extranet research Garrus found would likely be porn of things she doesn’t enjoy, and so brought up that the whole interspecies thing meant they should probably sit down and have a talk about what they both wanted, and what actually makes them feel good. So they had a few drinks, talked, (watched some human/turian porn, man I’m glad “The Internet Is For Porn” came up when I wrote the 10-song meme), they got a bit horny…and the night ended with Olivia naked on her bed masturbating for Garrus, giving him a very explicit demonstration. He did the same thing for her pretty much immediately afterward (once he picked his jaw up off the floor because spirits fuck, human women are amazing).
Olivia comes basically at the drop of a hat. It’s not a whole lot of effort to get her to her first orgasm of the night (or morning, afternoon, whatever; time of day’s meaningless in space), though it’s a bit more work to build her back up for more. It took Garrus a little while to figure out signs and sounds, and how to not overstimulate her too fast, but he’s learned now, and quite smug about how many times he can get his girlfriend off in a night. He’s also extremely proud of himself that sometimes he can make her squirt; she doesn’t even comment on the self-satisfied grin on his face, because how that man can make her feel is unbelievable.
Liv and Garrus rarely have penetrative sex. Their height differences make most positions really awkward at best, or downright uncomfortable at worst (the best one is him fucking her from behind, but then they can’t look at each other and that kinda bums them out). But that’s okay, because unless Liv’s in the right headspace for it, PIV sex does weird - bad weird - things to her emotional state that she doesn’t really understand.
The Vanessa/Ashley/Tali trio is very, very good at using technology to their advantage. They prefer to get Tali out of her suit, but that takes time and planning, and running decontamination protocol on the locker room off the cargo bay really defeats the point of a quickie. EDI has been sworn to absolute secrecy how the three of them managed to record the pattern, speed, friction, and intensity of Vanessa and Ashley going down on each other. V and Tali then spent a few weeks figuring out how to program that into Tali’s NerveStimPro package. They voided the warranty, but it was absolutely worth it.
At one point, the vibrating strap-on that Shoshana was using on Ashley broke. In the middle of sex. It just stopped working, more than a new set of batteries and a good whack would fix. Ashley’s never seen anything quite so hilarious as Commander Shoshana Shepard, completely naked, writing a very irritated email to Tevura Pleasures because that was under warranty and they really ought to send a replacement and hell if they aren’t stressed enough without sex toys breaking all over the place ruining the mood. Except Sho sent the email from their actual Commander Shepard Alliance Business email. Being very discreet in all matters, Tevura simply sent a free goodie box - of the really good expensive stuff - to the Normandy, being careful to use inconspicuous packaging and direct it specifically to Shoshana Shepard. The box also included a handwritten apology from the owner, which also thanked Shoshana for all their hard work with this reaper business, and several bottles of rare, expensive asari liquor.
Neither Aria nor Leah have any sense of modesty about their bodies, or sex. Bray’s not even fazed by it if he walks in on them anymore, not since the biotic dildo.
Sex with Thane remains some of the best sex Yael has ever had. For one thing, the man knows what he’s doing with every part of his body. For another, one of the side effects of drell skin toxin is increased touch awareness. She felt every touch - every lick, every kiss, every thrust - about ten times more with him than she would with anyone else.
Ellara and Bull don’t have PIV (or PIA, for that matter) sex. Ever. He’s proportional, she’s proportional, things aren’t gonna fit no matter how much prep work they do. There’s still plenty of fun things to do, and they find them all.
(I’ve not gotten to any of the actual romance scenes yet, but I’ve spoiled myself for them all via YouTube, so). Bull’s into the S&M stuff and Ellara’s like “okay I’ll give that a shot, sure,” but they absolutely had a chat about limits before they started. Communication about sex is a Thing for me, so everyone does it. For the record, Ellara’s rules are “don’t hurt me, and no blindfolds.”
I’m leaving the final one here on its own without context, because reasons. Of fic. That’s not been written yet. “Be still, Cadash.”
Can I do a few? If so... Vanessa: 31, 47; Olivia, 12, 33; Susan, 8, 38
Absolutely!
Vanessa:
31: Most prized possession? Her omnitool. This thing has her entire life on it, and it's her lifeline during combat. She has backups stashed all over (even routinely sends a hard copy backup to a storage locker on Arcturus).
47: How do they express love? With romantic love, she's physical; she touches the people she loves, hugs and kisses and cuddling, but in private. With platonic/friendship love, she's going to give you so much shit. If she's not giving you grief about something, if she's not mocking you or teasing you, she doesn't like you.
Olivia:
12: Favorite book genre? She's not one for books. It's been talked about vaguely in a few fics (especially that last one with Hannah, excuse me while I pimp my own writing), but never outright stated, that Liv's dyslexic. She has a lot of trouble with novels; the blocks of text just scramble and she gets easily lost, and also frustrated with herself. So she doesn't even try anymore.
Epic poetry's her go to reading material: having the text split up into stanzas with obvious whitespace and breaks between them makes everything so much easier for her. Dante's her absolute favorite (she's been through The Divine Comedy a few times, and it's getting her through the war), and there are a couple asari writers Liara pointed her to in college. She tried really hard to get into the turian authors Garrus suggested, but the translations were just so horrible (and when she read back the translated version to Garrus, he looked so appalled she burst out laughing).
33: Concept of home and family? Home doesn't exist without her mom (and later, home doesn't exist without Garrus). Family is people she cares about and trusts.
Susan:
8: Favorite indulgence and feelings surrounding indulging? Generally being lazy and staying in bed with Liara. She has anxieties about doing nothing (what did she forget, what is she meant to be doing, what can she be doing, what should she be doing), so it takes a bit of planning ahead to make that lounging around with her girlfriend actually relaxing.
38: What recharges them when they're feeling drained? She draws. It's all technical-type drawing, ships and spaceships (and geth, she discovers that she's quite good at geth), because the lines and angles and the precision really soothe her. Ideally she'd be alone (or with Liara) in a quiet calm space.
hello friend! will you please tell me your sfw shipping headcanons for ashley/tali/vanessa and/or yael/sam/james? (any of the questions you feel like answering or all of them!)
I will absolutely tell you about my SFW shipping headcanons for both of those ships!
Yael/Sam/James:
Who cooks? James. The other two can stumble their way around a kitchen and feed themselves, but James actually enjoys it. And if he cooks, they end up with something a little more creative than noodles.
Who’s the messiest? The cleanest? They’re all pretty clean and neat, being military and having to live out of a suitcase for most of their lives. But of the three of them, Yael’s absolutely the cleanest and neatest: she didn’t have a lot of stuff growing up, so she doesn’t acquire a lot of stuff and takes care of what she does own. Sam’s probably the messiest, but only in terms of missing the laundry basket when she tries to toss dirty clothes in; she has crap aim.
Who fixes the vehicle after a breakdown? Garrus. James’ idea of maintenance involves kicking it, and Yael knows enough about vehicles to know when she should stop poking around under the hood and get a professional. And Sam’s knowledge of internal engines is academic at best.
Living space has a leak! Who fixes it? James. If the leak’s not going to turn into a flood or damage anything, Yael doesn’t really care about it, and Sam tried to fix her own toilet in college and it ended quite dramatically so she’s never attempted home plumbing repair again.
Who buys the groceries? James. He cooks, so he knows what they need. If they go as a group, their cart mysteriously has more stuff than is on his list.
Going out to eat: Who pays? Who orders the most food? And who has dessert? Yael pays, because she never buys anything ever and therefore has the money to feed a biotic, a giant soldier and a comm specialist who likes chocolate. They generally order a variety of things for the table (though it’s usually takeout) and just pick and choose a bit of everything. Sam gets dessert.
Would they go to the beach? James talks about it enough that they couldn’t not go to the beach just to see what all the fuss is about.
Who knows how to swim? Who doesn’t? James knows how to swim. Yael and Sam technically know how to swim because it was part of Alliance basic training.
Is someone multilingual? Do they try to teach another language to the other? How does it go? Yael speaks Hebrew and James speaks Spanish. They don’t really try to teach it to anyone else, though the other two are getting pretty good at the Shabbat prayer (no idea what it means, but they can pronounce everything now).
Any pets? Or plants? The hamster and some fish. Sam attempts a cactus.
Baths or showers? Together or separate? Any bubbles or bubble fights? Separate showers, usually. Sam and Yael have promised James no sex or precursor-to-sex activities when he’s around, so shared showers and baths are reserved for when he’s on duty or otherwise not in their quarters/apartment. The three of them do use the hot tub together, but it’s not a naked session.
Can they stand silence? Who talks the most? Who talks the least? Silence is good. Yael doesn’t talk much, and sometimes Sam gets in a mood where she rambles a whole lot.
Who stays up late? Who sleeps the most? Does the other have to force them to sleep/wake up? They all stay up late, but Sam is a morning person no matter when she went to sleep, and the other two are so incredibly not. After Yael, half-asleep, accidentally put her in a stasis field, Sam doesn’t try to wake anyone up anymore.
Who is the highest maintenance? Does the other mind? Well, Sam has a toothbrush that cost almost as much as a gun mod.
Vacation ideas: who decides them? Where would they go, if anywhere? James and Sam decide on vacation; Yael’s never really had the opportunity to go on vacation so she doesn’t know how that even works (leave doesn’t count, since it was always with a group of people who didn’t know where to go so they all just found a bar). California sounds nice.
Vanessa/Ashley/Tali
Who cooks? Ashley. Vanessa forgets to eat unless someone reminds her. Tali teaches Ashley how to cook dextro food that isn’t paste.
Who’s the messiest? The cleanest? Continuing the theme, they’re all pretty clean and neat. Ash and V come from a long line of military families and training, and there isn’t much room on the Flotilla for having a messy room (not to mention you can’t exactly toss your suit off in the corner when you get home from work).
Who fixes the vehicle after a breakdown? Tali and Vanessa. Ashley stands around and offers moral support.
Living space has a leak! Who fixes it? Vanessa. She lived in an impressively crappy apartment her junior year at the Engineering Academy with an equally crappy super, so she learned a lot about home repair via the extranet.
Who buys the groceries? Ashley.
Going out to eat: Who pays? Who orders the most food? And who has dessert? Vanessa pays, usually. Ashley orders the most food, and Tali always has dessert.
Would they go to the beach? Probably.
Who knows how to swim? Who doesn’t? Vanessa was on AEA’s swim team, so she’s pretty great at it. Ashley also knows how to swim. Quarians don’t usually jump into bodies of water for fun.
Is someone multilingual? Do they try to teach another language to the other? How does it go? I’m trying to work through my Vanessa linguistic headcanons and I keep coming up empty. Tali obviously speaks one of the quarian languages in addition to Galactic Standard (I will hold tight to the idea of Standard until the end of time, especially because it gives rise to pigin and creole languages and that’s just super cool).
Any pets? Or plants? A space hamster. No fish. Between Tali and Ashley, they keep a few indoor plants alive.
Baths or showers? Together or separate? Any bubbles or bubble fights? Tali’s envirosuit can make things kind of awkward (they have the prep time down to about fifteen minutes, but it still requires a bit of planning ahead), so they tend to shower for cleanliness separately for the sake of time. Her suit’s waterproof, somewhat obviously, so showers and baths for Fun are 100% things that happen.
Can they stand silence? Who talks the most? Who talks the least? There’s not a lot of silence with this crowd (though they’re okay with it when it does happen). They all talk a lot, about the same amount.
Who stays up late? Who sleeps the most? Does the other have to force them to sleep/wake up? Vanessa doesn’t sleep a lot, never has, but she lets the others sleep. Tali doesn’t need as much sleep as humans, so she’s usually the second one awake. They both tease Ashley for sleeping later than them, even though she’s waking up at a perfectly acceptable time.
Who is the highest maintenance? Does the other mind? Technically Tali’s the high maintenance one on account of being a quarian in a relationship with two humans (and Ash and V certainly don’t mind), but in terms of what I think this question is getting at, no one’s particularly high maintenance.
Vacation ideas: who decides them? Where would they go, if anywhere? Ash and Tali decide; Vanessa’d be perfectly content anywhere as long as the three of them are together (cue Ash and Tali giving her so much shit for that thought), so if they want to actually go anywhere different or special, the other two have to pick and plan. They’d go someplace warm, and probably dry.
Because V's an engineer, she gets the paragon interrupt to shut up Petrovsky and reroute power easily.
The line is "Maybe if I was a stupid grunt," but I feel like Vanessa would go into a rampage at his hologram.
"Look, asshole. I graduated at the top of my class from the Alliance Engineering Academy with a master's degree in computer science and a specialty in systems engineering, spent three years in the Alliance Engineering Corps, and am one of the only five N7 rank engineers to ever exist. Get out of my face."
