#he and Liara have the same 'I'm trapped at a school/work social function and cannot leave. the refreshment table is my only friend' memory

[springagainafter]

Chatting with Liara post-Therum!

For her ME1 romance, I am absolutely taking artistic liberties and am bending canon a little.

This is mostly because 1) she only gets three conversations 2) she spends a lot of time worrying about her lack of romantic experience and/or explaining how the romantic version of asari melding works and 3) her explanation takes up pretty much her entire third conversation.

I think the intended dynamic is opposites attract (Liara says at one point that she and Shepard have "almost nothing in common"), but there is no dialogue with fun multiple choice answers to a personal question (a la Ash's "why are you here?" question) and I had trouble picking out any dialogue where they bond over the same thing besides the mutual "I'm attracted to you" part.

So instead I am going for "similar personalities and similar social experiences during schooling and deciding on a job because of their families but picking wildly different career paths."

Anyway, Merrick's first conversation with Liara was pretty brief. He checked in to see how she was doing, she said she was going to be fine and they briefly discussed Dr. Chakwas, and she thanked him for saving her from the geth and he said he was glad they got there in time.

The game has Shepard immediately refer to her by her first name (in contrast to Ash and Kaidan, who get referred to as Williams and Alenko) but I am ignoring that in favor of Merrick gravely referring to her as "Dr. T'Soni" for quite a while, which is mostly a respect thing and only a little bit of a "avoiding calling her by her first name because I'm attracted to her and getting involved is not a great idea and I'm not even sure if she's interested anyway" thing.

Merrick sets her up with How To Not Die On Missions lessons with Kaidan (biotics, specifically in terms of having to use lethal force) and Ash (how armor works, hand-to-hand combat).

The intention there - besides teaching Liara how to not die - is to confirm Liara really isn't working for her mother or Saren and is who she says she is and to quickly get her to trust the other two and vice versa.

It does not take long at all before Ash (who is disinclined to trust Liara's story since her own family is super close) and Kaidan (who likes Liara but is not attracted to her, aside from the whole "he has eyes and can see she's pretty" aspect) - both go "yeah, she's definitely telling the truth" and they and Merrick are content that this is the right conclusion.

Liara still gets side-eyed by the rest of the crew for a bit but Merrick and Ash and Kaidan make it a point to demonstrate that they trust her and eventually the rest of the crew buys into that.

In the meantime, Liara does point out the crew's distrust to Merrick.

Liara: I know you took a chance bringing me aboard this ship. I have seen the way your crew looks at me. They do not trust me. Liara: But I am not like Benezia. I will do whatever I can to help you stop Saren. I promise.

(Her first conversation is not strictly a romance one but oooo, first instance of one of the two of them making a promise to the other person - either by specifically saying "I promise" or implying it. Which continues into LotSB and 3!)

Shepard: Don't worry, Liara. I trust you. I know you won't let me down.

(This seems like such a very trusting thing for Shepard to say when she's *just* gotten on the ship, hence my it's-been-a-few-days-and-there's-been-a-consensus-with-Ash-and-Kaidan headcanon.)

Liara: It means a lot to hear you say that, Commander. Thank you.

Liara mostly calls him Commander ingame throughout this convo and then Shepard at one point; in my headcanon she instead calls him Commander for quite a while, which is mostly a respect thing and only a little bit of a "I'm attracted to him but trying not to blurt that out and therefore referring to him only by his rank" thing. (Everyone else - except Anderson, who occasionally uses his first name - calls him either Commander or Shepard all the time so she blends right in).