mass effect au: sports coach
During the nightmare on Akuze, N7 Mercy Shepard hears of a name--Cerberus. In the aftermath, Shepard joins Alliance Intelligence to lead the hunt for the terrorist group. Lately, children have been going missing from certain schools across the Citadel. Their next mission? Placed undercover at Presidium Academy as the new middle school coach
Nihlus, the high school coach, has never seen such a consistent turnout of parents to not just the games, but the practices too
ART BY ‼️🔥 @naarisz 🔥‼️
canon, crime lord, white collar
fic under the cut!
When James makes it to the park to meet his commander, someone has beaten him.
“I hope to see you around more, coach,” says a quarian that he is nearly very certain is Admiral Shala’Raan. He’d never forget that throaty voice.
“Please,” Mercy says, dimpling. “The kids call me coach. I’m just Mercy to you.”
“Mercy,” she purrs, it’s insane, really. She gives James lingering once-over as well. “I see someone wants your attention.”
It feels nice, how much they perk up when they notice him.
“James!” They greet, and sling an arm around his shoulders. It takes a lot to make him feel short, and Mercy does it easily and comfortably. “This is James. He’s the coach at Citadel Institute.”
Shala’Raan nods at him, and turns back to Shepard. “I look forward to Tali’s next game.”
“See you then, Admiral,” they reply with a smile.
“Bro, are you serious,” James hisses, uncertain if he’s about to shake his commander like a ramen seasoning packet, or continue gaping after the outrageous set of hips on the quarian aunty swaying off the sports field.
“You should come to one of my practices sometime,” Mercy laughs. “I think there are more parents than kids.”
James believes it, oh boy does he believe it, as Mercy stands in front of him gleaming like a shiny trophy under the floodlights. Being out in the artificial sun has darkened their skin and the freckles have multiplied. They’ve been growing their hair out for this role—brightening into a surfer blonde, and waving thickly to their shoulders.
He’s not even going to comment on their silky little shorts.
“I’ve got my own practices, remember?” James says. “But let’s switch schools, hey? You’ve got the one with all the hot parents.”
Mercy opens their mouth to respond, when James notices Dr. Solus and Dr. Chakwas escorting Jack.
They dart from his side, and runs for her.
With a holler, they slide to their knees in time for Jack to fling her arms around their neck for a hug.
The two clutch at each other, and Jack looks incredibly tiny in Mercy’s big hands.
Abruptly Mercy stands, bringing Jack with them. They hold her out by the armpits, with their long arms fully extended to beam up at her, like some Lion King shit—and then swings her around.
Jack shrieks with delight.
Some pebbles and bugs rise from the grass in little blue bubbles.
Mercy guides her into some simple stretches as Jack babbles about her week with the doctors. They correct her form easily, and well, it’s a lot to see such a big body be so flexible.
He watches as Mercy leads Jack into running a lap together, admiring his commander’s easy loping athleticism. Jack laughs, giggling and tripping a little when they hoot out with joy and starts running circles around her with the ball.
Every time Jack laughs, it’s like a sip of good, cold beer with a fat slice of lime after a hard workout. The first time they finally got that kid to warm up and crack a smile, was also the first time James saw his commander cry.
The pair passes the ball between each other, Jack copying Mercy’s increasingly elaborate tricks sometimes so seriously she locks up rather than be loose—but she’s improved a lot since that last time James saw the kid.
“Shepard would do well in this career,” Dr. Solus says, as they watch Mercy divebomb Jack with a shout and scoop her up. “If chose to retire from intelligence. Is very good with children.”
And his commander does look right, as they jog up to James and the doctors with Jack sitting on their shoulders. Their hands wrap around the kid’s chubby shins entirely.
“Time for nachos, yes?” Dr. Solus says, and briskly taps his fingers together
“Nachos, nachos!” Jack chants, Mercy quickly joining in and bouncing.
“That can’t be the only thing for dinner,” Dr. Chakwas says, smiling too much to pull off stern. “What else?”
“Mangonadas!” Jack hollers, grabbing fistfuls of Mercy’s hair, which they gamely accept with a wince.
“Tamales!” She leans down and shouts into their ear.
His commander has turned down their hearing aid in time, judging by their serene expression.
“Which ones, mija,” James asks. Is this paternal pride? He would lay the world down at this kid’s feet. “¿Cuáles quieres?”
“De rajas,” Jack says with relish, nailing the accent. “Con queso.”
“I like the ones with raisins,” Mercy hums.
“We’ll get those too,” Jack reassures them, patting their cheeks with her little hands.
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hello i believe you asked to be reminded about petalpressed? that sounds very interesting do explain
Hello yes! okay so rundown of Petalpressed:
In general, Petalpressed is an AU template I created that focuses on flower symbolism. It's like a combo hanahaki and soulmate tattoos au, except only taking the best parts of both. So everybody has a "living" tattoo somewhere on their body of a plant (or plant-adjacent, it's very broad - so fungi, lichens, algae, etc also count). The plant, in some way, represents or symbolizes the individual, usually via flower language, though it's totally a personalized thing so you can get as funky with it as you want. It can be absolutely anywhere on their body (face/head, back, legs, etc), take up a completely random amount of space (tip of finger vs entire torso, etc), and it will change based on the state of the individual.
Okay rest including PJO-ification under the cut cause this got long:
For example, when the person is a baby their tattoo will appear as just a seed or bulb or whatever is applicable for that plant. The plant will also probably be semi-ambiguous at that point or change plant types as babies don't really have a ton of defining traits. By the time they start settling into being an individual they'll get a more clear plant and it will most likely stay that for the rest of their lives, unless they experience a major shift in their identity that would cause it to change. It also is unlikely to change locations on the body unless for the same reason. The plant will also reflect the person's physical or emotional state, such as wilting if they're very sick or upset, blooming if they're extremely happy, etc etc. Some people may also have generalized versus specific tattoos, such as general "roses" rather than "roses of a specific color" in which case their tattoo may change colors to match mood/plant language associated with that specific color of the plant/or just at random, depending on person.
The soulmate/hanahaki thing comes in when the person develops romantic feelings or enters a mutual romantic relationship (specific because i'm aroace so I like including normalization of not having a partner, even QPP - there's still leeway there though with how individuals categorize "romantic" and obviously it's a template so there's freedom to mess with it). If they have a crush they may start coughing up the plant or parts of the plant associated with that person, though it doesn't cause them any physical harm. Does the coughing-up-petals thing go away once the relationship is reciprocated or is it just a thing that Happens When You're In Love Sometimes At Random? Who knows. You decide. If they enter a mutual romantic relationship with someone, their partner's (or partners') plants or a part of their plants will appear beside their own, and will change depending on the state of the relationship or partner's physicality or emotions. If their relationship is going well, the plant may bloom, if it's going poorly it may wilt, etc, and same if the partner(s) are upset/sick/etc. If the relationship breaks off or is no longer reciprocated the secondary plant will disappear, and if it left a particularly strong impact on the individual, residual parts of the partner/partners' plant(s) may be left behind, such as leaves, seeds, or petals. It depends on the person/relationship if those remnants will ever go away or how long it may take.
"Plant compatibility" is totally a horoscope-type thing in this universe alongside stereotypes of types of plants, and that's where the "soulmate" concept comes in. It is up to discretion if it is actual soulmates or just coincidental, but in-universe there is an idea of "If you share an exact plant with somebody, you are soulmates." Again, re: horoscope thing, here it could totally just be a coincidental thing based on "If you share a plant that is meant to symbolize you, chances are you have similar personalities and so will get along." There may be people with the total opposite perspective - "Don't date someone with the same plant" because maybe having similar personalities means you'll totally clash. Those concepts probably co-exist in practicality. Lots of variety. Also totally up to customization if the plants have to be local to where the person's from or be from anywhere or how much you want to stretch the definition of "plant" or etc etc. Lots of fiddling options.
I do have a sideblog for it as a more generalized template - @petal-pressed. Since it's a template, it's meant to be applicable to any fandom and totally free to use, and I occasionally post prompts on that blog. And again, the template intentionally lots of room for fiddling and freedom.
Anyways the PJOification of all of this:
"What ships are this au" Whatever's funniest/most dramatic in the moment. Go wild. Make your own variations or whatever.
Everybody's plants: (subject to change)
Percy & Annabeth - Bluebells (They match) - Annabeth's on arm where she got stabbed, Percy on small of back.
Grover - False goat's beard, placement undecided
Piper - Anemone (plant not animal), placement undecided
Jason - Forget-me-nots, right forearm
Leo - Hydrangea, placement undecided
Hazel - Clover, possibly forearm
Frank - Undecided but Snapdragons maybe, possibly forearm
Reyna - Jonquil, possibly forearm
Nico - Dandelions, wrist
Will - Sunflowers, side of torso/back
Luke - Originally Lilacs on face, changes to Rhododendron and spreads to shoulder/armpit.
Thalia - Eastern White Pine, placement undecided
Calypso - Undecided but Hibiscus or Zinnia maybe, placement undecided
I have some other notes for other characters but theyre all very noncommittal
I made a lot of random moodboards for this au but since they were just for personal use I don't have the credits for the images and so will not post those. If people are interested I might take requests to make new ones though. They're quite fun for me to make.
And random doodles - The first one is an extremely old one that was just me fiddling with random designs + cameo Solangelo to show off how the plant tattoos might look
And then some more recent ones:
I usually do aro/ace Leo for these aus, so here's him pretending to cough up plants as if he had a crush ^
and some silly Jasico ^
Some other misc fun notes I had for random things:
"Is this canon-verse au or non-canon-verse?" you may be asking. The answer is. Depends. You decide. Again this is not a fully fledged singular au it's just me rotating a template in my brain and it happened to be formed around PJO initially.
Because Percy and Annabeth both have bluebells as their flower, when Percy disappears and loses his memory, both he and Annabeth can't tell if they have only their own flowers or the flowers of two people and it totally freaks them out.
Also because they share flowers, when Nico has his crush on Percy and is thus coughing up bluebells, people presume he has a crush on Annabeth because those are her flowers too. He's not having a great time.
One variant of the thoughts my friends and I brainstormed for Jason was that he and Reyna were dating before he disappeared, and when he lost his memory it also made Reyna's flowers disappear from his tattoo completely. It took longer for Jason's flowers to fade from Reyna's tattoo and she just got to watch Jason's flowers change depending on his state wherever he was until they disappeared too.
Nymphs are obviously pretty one-for-one with their plant. If they even have tattoos is up to you. Either way this does mean Lavinia is coughing up poison oak though so she's having a bit of a rough time. She thinks it's totally worth it though. The coughed-up plants don't really hurt you as bad as the actual plant might, if at all, so she's fine in general.
I had other thoughts too but i'm forgetting.
uhh anyways yeah i think that's about it. woo flower au.
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