cmdrjaneshxpard

[cmdrjaneshxpard]

Shepard stands idle as she listens to Tali, anticipating a monologue since she mentioned something about her work. Sometimes, when the quarian is very interested or excited about something, she has a habit of rambling, and Jane rarely interrupts her unless she has something important to say that can't wait. She's not certain if that's something her species does frequently--the rambling--or if it's limited to the one that resides on the Normandy. Either way, it doesn't bother her in the least, and she even thinks that it's kind of cute in it's own way. Despite that fact that few outside of their species knew what quarians look like under their helmets, Shepard generally thought they were interesting and even attractive, based solely on their personalities, In her opinion, true attraction meant that you connect with them mentally and emotionally, not just physically. Perhaps that's why the human Spectre doesn't discriminate against any species or gender based on appearance alone; it's not what they look like that truly matters.

As expected, the engineer explains what she was doing and what she was working on, and Shepard has no idea what she's talking about until she breaks it down into words she understands. "Well, if there's something you need, just forward the list to me and I'll make sure you get it. I want my ship to be in the best fighting condition it can be, and I'll do whatever it takes to get it there." She nods, her lips curling into a soft smile. "As far as taking a break, yeah, I was hoping that you'd be interested in doing that. I don't know about you, but if I stare at holographic screens and projected keyboards for more than a few hours, my eyes start to cross." A lighthearted chuckle leaves the woman.

"You know, the mess was vacant when I was there a few minutes ago." Her smile grows as she thinks about sitting down and having a nice chat with Tali, something she hasn't had a chance to do just yet, but has been looking forward to. "Would that be alright with you?" The redhead shrugs, brows raising. "If we stay in here, I think Kenneth and Gabby will try to butt into our conversation." Actually, she's surprised neither of the engineers have popped up and spoken to her yet, as they usually do when they know she's around because she has a good relationship with both of them.

   ”It’s fine, it’s fine. It’s just… well, you walk so quietly, and everything on this ship is so quiet to boot, and. W-well.” Realizing she’s stammering, Tali coughs into her filter, pawing at it with her palm in an attempt at human mimicry (they do that to muffle coughs, right?). After a moment, she awkwardly pulls her hand away, and attempts to stand up straight.

"I suppose, even after all this time, I still have quite a lot to get used to here. So, really— don’t worry about scaring me. I was just buried in numbers, is all," as she nods to the holographic omnitool display behind herself, which shows both 3D representations of two different drive core animations. 

"Nothing terribly important, really. And yes, vent differential!" she agrees immediately, and with a slight squeak, despite the obviously nervous fidgeting she’s doing. "That’s what I was working on, actually. See, I believe with just a few simple upgrades— I’ve compiled a list of exactly what parts we’d need, in fact— that I could increase the time between full expenditure and core overheat by a full seventeen seconds."

Tali blinks a moment, before coughing again and switching off her omnitool, realizing that still doesn’t make much sense. “The short explanation is, I think we can extend our overheat time by a good seventeen seconds— which, in a ship-to-ship varrenfight, means quite a lot. But it’s still, ehm, quite theoretical. I’d be happy to talk for a distraction in the meantime. We so rarely get to do that, Shepard. Did you want to, ehm— sit down, maybe?”

[cmdrjaneshxpard]

Her friend's reaction is not completely unexpected, but humorous to her still, one of her hands shooting up to her mouth to suppress a laugh. She had tried to not scare her and failed, though at least it was kind of funny for a moment. "Sorry," he apologizes, her voice slightly muffled by her palm. She lowers her hand and tucks it back in to space between her chest and elbow, getting back into a relaxed stance. It was easy to be calm and collected around Tali, as her presence was a comfort to her, since they have known each other for so long. Others didn't make her uncomfortable, rather, she just finds herself the happiest around the quarian squad member.

"There wasn't anything specific I wanted. I just thought that I'd see what you were up to, since we haven't really had any real conversations since you've been here." She's making it a point to catch up with the Normandy's inhabitants sooner rather than later, since she knows that the time to so do is going to decrease as they get further and further into the swells of war. At the very least, she wants to hear about what they did while they weren't a part of her team. "If you're busy doing...whatever you're doing, I can come back later." She cants her head in the direction of the woman's console. As someone who doesn't know much about the kind of work the two dextros on the ship do, she can only talk about it in laymen's terms, which of course makes it sound like she has no idea what she's saying at all.

"You sounded like you were doing something important when I showed up. Vent...differential?" Sounds right.

Numbers— data, algorithms, mathematics, diagrams. So much of Tali’s life lately is lost entirely to holographic manifestations of engineering schematics, which the perky quarian is constantly striving to improve. Now is no exception— she’s been tapping away at her instrument panel like a concert pianist belting out a solo for a sold-out auditorium, fixing bug after bug and writing improvement after improvement. She’s gotten into such a groove that, in fact, she’s barely cognizant of her surroundings at all.

"Let’s see. You overhead if I set your vent differential below twelve micrometers, but… let me see… if I can get away… with…," she mumbles, tapping away as the instrument panel while adjusting some figures.. She’s just about to run tests on the new thermal piping when the throat-clear behind her snags her attention, making her hands flair up in awkward little waving bursts, her head turning on a swivel.

"Who-wha! … oh! Sh-Shepard! Hello. What can I do for you?" Of course, she tries to seem nonchalant. "I, ehm— sorry, you caught me a bit off guard.” 

[cmdrjaneshxpard]

[ enhancedintelligence ]

Despite the fact that the first time she had seen this platform, it had attacked her and her team, she didn't display any fear when she was near it, since it was the operator that was a bad person, not the unit itself. Some of the crew had been a little anxious when EDI first took over the body, a little shocked to hear the VI's voice coming out of a metal mouth, rather than overhead on the PA or through the comms. It was a little odd, for sure, and Joker had taken to her the fastest. The pilot had initially complained about the system, annoyed that it was "always watching," among other things. Once she had taken a physical form, he had become enamored with her rather quickly, and it didn't take long for the rest of the Normandy's occupants to accept her too. She had even stated to the commander that people were more inclined to approach her to ask a question or conversation, perhaps due to the fact that she was no longer a disembodied voice, but a humanoid.

"Everything alright up here?" Shepard inquired as she stepped into the cockpit. "And please," she began again, raising a hand. "Spare me the technical details; just give me the facts. She's still running well, I hope?" It wasn't that she was disinterested in the Normandy's functions, but didn't understand most of them, having never been interested in engineering or electronics in general. "That last landing was a little rough. Do you have any information about that, EDI?"

[cmdrjaneshxpard]

[ maidenliara ]

Even though it was technically her ship, Shepard allowed her squad their own spaces to work, relax, and sleep in. Of all the spaces on the vessel that was occupied by any of her team, Liara's office was probably the most interesting and spacious place, what with a wall of monitors that had sensors that caused them to turn and face whoever was near them. Initially, the commander thought that her setup was a little excessive and borderline creepy, but then she realized that the asari had such an elaborate system because she had taken over for the Shadow Broker, which meant she needed to see a lot of data at once to keep up. What exactly her new job entailed, Jane didn't know, and thought that it wasn't her business as long as it didn't interfere with the work the doctor did for her.

The door to her friend's quarters hissed open, and she anticipated Glyph's greeting, only to see that the VI was off in a corner doing something and hadn't even really noticed her. "Liara," she said with a soft grin as she approached the asari. "You always look so busy and I don't want to disturb you. Are you busy right now?" The woman shrugged, hoping that she was available for a short chat. "If not, maybe we could talk? It's nothing serious, I just feel like venting a little."

[cmdrjaneshxpard]

[ arianashepard ]

The moment the other woman came into view, adrenaline began to course through the commander's veins, her senses heightening and her heart racing, her body preparing her for a fight. As far as she knew, she had vanquished her twin, so seeing her alive and breathing was a bit of a shock, to say the least. How she had survived the fall from the Normandy, she wasn't entirely sure, and honestly she didn't give a damn. The fact was that her carbon copy was here, she was real, and that set the redhead off.

"Don't move," she called out, quickly snatching her sidearm off of her thigh and raising it in the direction of the other Shepard. "You know that I'm accurate at this range, and I won't hesitate to put one between your eyes." It was rare that she spoke like this, as she was generally more calm and easygoing, but seeing the person who tried to literally steal your life from you changed how you behaved. Jane had briefly studied psychology in her free time, and remembered that humans would experience auditory and visual hallucination after so many hours without restorative REM sleep, so this could be why she was seeing the clone again. What other explanation could there be? This could have been a hallucination, she supposed, as she couldn't recall the last time she had slept.

"How did you survive?"

[cmdrjaneshxpard]

[ superstarspectre ]

While Shepard had feared that her friendship with Ashley might have been jeopardized when she was briefly affiliated with Cerberus, she found that that was but a snag, and she harbored no resentment towards her friend. Initially, she had been quite bothered and upset when the solider had refused to join her crew citing that the organization that revived her was known to be extremists, and she could "never work for a group like that." In retrospect, she realized that had the roles been reversed, she might have responded in the same way. The past was the past, however, and she was glad to have the lieutenant on the Normandy once more.

"You look tired, Ash," Jane stated as she walked past the other woman in the mess on her way to the fridge. The last mission they had gone on together had been exceptionally dangerous, more so than usual, leaving Shepard with a shallow cut going across her left cheek. Williams seemed to be mostly unaffected, thankfully, but she looked like she was understandably exhausted.

The redhead pulled open the door to the refrigerator and sighed in disappointment, realizing then that she had forgot to add her favorite juice to the most recent requisition order. She snatched a bottle of water and closed the heavy metal door before turning on her heels to face the table. As she twisted off the cap, she noticed that she had an embarrassing amount of dirt beneath her nails, and made a mental note to clean that out when she returned to her cabin.

"Sorry things got a little rough out there," she added before taking a sip of her drink. "I wasn't expecting an ambush."

[cmdrjaneshxpard]

[ iwasgoingtobringmusic ]

The quarian appeared to be busy, as usual, three-fingered hands tapping the orange holographic keyboard at her console, seemingly unaware of her friend's presence. Shepard opted to just stand there for a moment, curious eyes tracing over her figure as she watched the woman work, waiting for the exact right moment to make her aware that she had entered the room. The commander had a habit of accidentally sneaking up on people, and had done so to the admiral on more than one occasion, and always felt a little guilty for startling her.

She casually folded her toned arms over her chest and cocked her head to one side, hoping the engineer would glance over at her from her workstation and greet her, but that moment didn't come after several seconds. It wasn't polite to stare, but again, she had no interest in surprising her. The only way she was going to be able to get her attention was if she reached out and touched her, or if she spoke, so she chose the latter, clearing her throat loud enough to catch Tali's attention, she hoped.

[cmdrjaneshxpard]

[cmdrjaneshxpard]

[cmdrjaneshxpard]

[cmdrjaneshxpard]

ladies of mass effect: commander shepard (5/?)

[cmdrjaneshxpard]

"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved." -Helen Keller

[cmdrjaneshxpard]

TAKE EARTH BACK

[cmdrjaneshxpard]

Get to know me meme: favorite female characters [1/5]: jane shepard (mass effect series)

"It's hard enough fighting a war. But it's worse knowing no matter how hard you try, you can't save them all."

[cmdrjaneshxpard]

Fem!Shep #6

wow I admit it, this was one hell of a request but I like how it turned out in the end!