#postdestroy

[littlesmartart]

I have so incredibly many headcanons for these two post-destroy ending, most of them around the immediate aftermath. they get drafted into a biotics team that’s sent straight up to the citadel to clear the rubble and re-establish galactic communication, but they have a silent agreement with hackett that their real mission is to dig through to find shepard. 

both of these are after finding her - in the first one, neither of their outfits actually belong to them; miranda’s in the medical jumpsuit from huerta that she borrowed to wear whilst treating shep; jack’s wearing shep’s alliance shirt and tracksuit bottoms nicked from anderson’s apartment. 

in the second one, jack’s spent the whole day shifting rubble and managed to find a bunch of survivors, and miranda’s spent the whole day working on shepard and managed to get her into a stable medical coma. to celebrate, jack digs out some bottles from the apartment bar and they toast their exhausting success. I was listening to “mondo bongo” from mr and mrs smith whilst drawing it, so imagine someone playing music in the background whilst they dance and makeout sloppily then fall asleep together in a corner.

[littlesmartart]

so like two months ago for my Hellish Day of Travelling an anon requested “some post-ending shakarian fluff” and because I am mORTIFYINGLY SLOW the sketch I started on that day in response...is now finally finished!! I got carried away and kept making it more complicated and it just took longer and longer... but yeah! finally done! here are the shepard-vakarians and their post-destroy adopted family. as usual, BIG BIG thanks to @masseffectgayliens for being a total babe and letting me blather at them to figure out headcanons :)

DEETS BELOW THE CUT - 

after she physically recovers enough to persuade miranda and chakwas to let her out of her hospital bed, shepard sets back off in the normandy with garrus at her side. hackett, knowing that even if she “retires” shepard is still gonna kick ass and take names and generally cause a fuss (plus, he needs to justify to the council why he’s let an apparently retired spectre waltz off with the galaxy’s most advanced ship, because throwing his hands up and saying well do YOU want to try and stop her??? apparently isn’t enough for them), unofficially assigns her the job of galactic peacekeeper/diplomat. essentially, she is to fly about and just...be herself; the idea being that due to her reputation and just how many powerful friends she has, people are suddenly and mysteriously happy to solve issues peacefully when they hear that Commander Fucking Shepard has just pulled into spaceport. 

years later, garrus comments that given her tendency to compulsively adopt crewmembers, he’s not sure why he was surprised that shepard did exactly the same with children. alvea, a seven year old turian, was the orphaned sole survivor of a science vessel attacked by pirates who is initially meant to be returned to palaven to be looked after by family, but after liara spends a couple weeks digging and garrus calls up his hierarchy contacts, they discover that her only living relative is a totally disinterested second cousin, so they keep her with them on the normandy as they finish up the investigation and try to decide what to do with her. 

lydia, an eleven year old ex-duct rat, is found on the pirates’ ship when the crew mutinies against the captain in favour of surrendering to the normandy (finding you are being pursued by Commander Fucking Shepard is enough to make anyone think twice). she was recruited to work in their engine room in the midst of the reaper war due to her competence with machinery and ability to fit into tiny spaces. she and alvea get on so well, and make themselves such a happy home on the normandy after the trauma of their pasts, that shepard and garrus decide that the best course for everyone is for them to adopt the girls officially. 

alvea’s facial markings are a combination of garrus’, to show her joining of the vakarian family, and her mother’s, to honour her parents’ memory. lydia’s oversized hood is a custom design; when she first leaves the pirates’ vessel, the bright lights and loud sounds and many moving people immediately overstiumlate her and she can only leave the airlock with shepard’s hoodie over her head. the big custom hood lets her leave the normandy with her family without fear of sensory-related meltdown.

they don’t intend to adopt anyone else, but then wrex approaches shepard about fostering some krogan who he thinks have particular promise, because its important that this new bountiful generation learn how to use their heads for something other than headbutting. as krogan lifespans are so long that having someone look after your kids for a couple years is just the equivalent of sending them to summer camp, and because shepard is a decorated war hero, the fostering system becomes a highly popular endeavour and many krogan parents compete to have their kids mentored by the shepard-vakarians...much to shepard’s bewilderment and garrus’ amusement. so many of the new krogan generation consider them krantt that grunt tries to urge shepard to start her own clan (it would be so powerful! and grunt promises he’d desert clan urdnot for her if she did). though initially he pretends to be disinterested in the kids, he quickly and easily falls into the role of big brother and dotes on them all. he’s the one who bought the little krogans their dino/shark onesies.

the varren is called bill. he’s a rescue varren from the fighting pits on tuchanka. the name was decided by lydia for no other reason than that she liked it, and as no one could come up with anything better, it stuck.

[littlesmartart]

when shepard is found in the rubble of the citadel, hannah shepard pretty much literally fights her way to her daughter’s bedside. hackett gets her as much compassionate leave as she wants because honestly, who’s gonna dare fuck with rear admiral shepard when her little girl is hurt??? 

the most difficult thing is getting shep to stay in bed whilst she heals, as the moment she becomes conscious (essentially as soon as she gets out of surgery - me2 demonstrates twice that its practically impossible to sedate her for than a couple hours) she’s raring to get up and help rebuild. hannah ends up essentially keeping a 24 hour watch to keep her daughter from getting into Shepard Shenanigans before she’s healthy enough to survive them. when the normandy makes it back, liara and garrus step in so hannah is able to leave the apartment every now and then, but she stays close. she lost her baby girl once, very very nearly lost her again...she’s not letting her go this time without a fight.

detail explanations under the cut

my post-destroy headcanons: after the crucible fires, miranda and jack get shipped from earth to the citadel as part of an emergency powerful biotics team intended to clear the rubble and get galaxy-wide communication started again, though their main motive is to find shepard. when she is found, miranda immediately takes charge of her healthcare, as cerberus’ cybernetics are pretty controversial, and shepard is moved to the remains of anderson’s apartment to keep her away from prying eyes. hannah shepard arrives soon after to look after her daughter, and the normandy crawls back nearly two months later. EDI and the geth surive because they all Deserve Better and I only play 3 with the JAM mod :)

I HAVE SO MANY POST-DESTROY HEADCANONS I’M GONNA HAVE TO DRAW MORE OF THEM UGH. from now on they’re tagged “postdestroy”