#dukejackjames

ship aesthetics (2/?) - dukejackjames (duke shepard/jack/james vega)

Duke pushed themself backward with a cry, pressing their back against the wall as a shadow fell over their corner. The figure’s omnitool glowed a menacing orange. The blade would flick out at any moment, or Duke would be scanned, their most vulnerable points identified and targeted. The biotic blast was building in their hands–

“Hey, Duke.”

Duke yelled wordlessly as they thrust their hands out, glowing blue, tucking their head down.

“Duke. Listen, it’s me. It’s Jack.”

Duke slowly looked up again, the biotic flare around their fingers subsiding.

“It’s me,” the voice confirmed. It was coming from the omnitool–no, from the projection above the omnitool. “Vega called me, said you got fucked up by that last mission. Can you talk?”

“Nnh.”

“Yeah, got it. Fuck’s sake, Vega, get down to their level, quit towering over them.”

James immediately knelt, staying a cautious distance away from Duke. “Hey, Lobo.” He could see white all the way around Duke’s irises. “You’ve been down here for a while.”

Duke relaxed just a little, but they looked away, pulling their knees up to their chest again. Still, they managed their first words in two hours: “My mind is burning.”

Duke:

Stupidly powerful biotic

A sub-point of that: Fought eezo sickness at age three and won

Five foot three inches of whoop-ass

God had to give them anxiety and psychosis because without a starting handicap they would have beaten him in a fistfight at age ten

Is Commander Fucking Shepard; has fought wars and worked out truces and is an icon in peacetime

Hottest nonbinary motherfucker in the galaxy

Jack:

Also a stupidly powerful biotic

Probably did beat God in a fistfight at age ten

Or at least every single motherfucker who kept her locked up in Teltin

Protective streak three miles wide: one mile for Duke and James, one for Frankie and Juni, one for her students

Hottest woman in the galaxy

James:

One of the best goddamn soldiers in the entire Alliance; you don’t assign just anyone to guard Commander Fucking Shepard

Definitely the buffest motherfucker around

Ripped a TV off a wall in seconds and calmly told the bartender he’d pay for it with the money he won off a group of batarians in poker--batarians he proceeded to beat the snot out of with the TV screen when they got pissy at him. if that aint a power move idk what is

N7 and looks hella good in the armor

Strong in body and mind; the man has Seen Some Shit and fought past it to be the best James Vega possible

Hottest dude in the galaxy

Together:

Two biotics and a guy built like a brick shithouse; nothing stands in their way for more than three seconds

Hot as hell together and they know it

One of the first high-profile polyamorous marriages in the Systems Alliance

Can eat a restaurant broke in one sitting

They just [clenches fist] love each other so much

Lobo, Nought, and Muscles, y’all

-who proposed: Duke. It was late one night, and the three of them were discussing the logistics of officially adopting Frankie and Juni. James said it would be easier if they were married, and Duke said, “Okay, marry me.” Took Jack and James a second to process, but they said yes, of course.

-who fussed over flower arrangements and decorations: Duke. Duke cares about that shit more than Jack, and James was more often than not away on an N7 mission.

-tux/dress? who wore what: they all wore white. James was going to wear a black tuxedo, but Duke was agonizing because their mom always wanted them to wear a white dress, so James suggested that he wear a white tux and Duke wear a fancy white tuxedo-style jacket over their long dress. Jack wanted a train like Duke had, but she one-upped them: her train was a long white cape.

-their wedding colors: gold, white, and black

-who they chose for best man/maid of honor: James chose Steve. Duke really couldn’t choose between Cade and Noel, but Jack solved the problem by shrugging and saying she didn’t really have anyone to choose other than Duke and James (except maybe Rodriguez), so Duke could have both Cade and Noel.

-who kissed who at “you may kiss”: Jack beat James out to kissing Duke, but he surprised her by kissing her first when she let Duke go, then letting Duke yank him down by the front of his shirt and kiss him.

-who led the first dance: It wasn’t really a “leading” situation so much as James and Jack tucking Duke between them for their first dance. It’s warm and tender, and they make it work.

-what song they chose for their first dance: “walt” by Yoko Kanno, from Zankyou no Terror

-who they chose for mother-son/father-daughter dances: Duke chose their mom, duh. A wonderful reversal of the mother/child dance at Hannah’s own wedding. Jack and James declined to choose anyone for this one; they know how important Duke’s mom is to them, and they didn’t really have anyone they would dance with. James definitely danced with Hannah at the reception, though.

(assuming this is for the relationships asks!)

16. What is Shepard’s favorite memory of their family?

In public, Duke always says it was the day Hannah got her officer’s commission, tied with the day Duke got theirs. Both days, the two of them went out for dinner and then ice cream and generally spent the best time that a mom and her kid/best friend can have.

In private, Duke admits that their favorite memory of Hannah is a much more tender one: her cradling a three-year-old Duke, deathly ill from the eezo accident that ended up giving them their biotics. Hannah sat in a chair facing the stars rushing by, holding Duke close and singing softly to lull them to sleep in the midst of the pain of eezo making its mark on their body.

29. What was [Shepard’s and their LI’s] first impression of each other?

Duke’s first impression of Jack can also be found here, but Jack’s first impression of Duke was a lot less positive; Duke had arrived in a ship with Cerberus colors (and with a Commander with red slashing through his face). Aside from that, Duke seemed almost childish in their frank emotions and smiles (too common, no one genuinely smiles that much, do they?).

James’s first impression of Duke was of a similarly emotional person, but with all their negative emotions pulled to the forefront. They would do karaoke in their “room” (read: glorified cell) until their voice finally gave out at 0200, then go almost completely silent for days; they would demand news on the outside world (and Cade and Noel) that they knew full well Vega couldn’t give them; their spells of anger often left scratched or broken furniture.

James didn’t really start getting to know Duke until after a psychotic episode that had them hurling a chair at their window repeatedly, with only a several-story drop below said window. James’s view of Duke slowly became less his charge and more just...someone very lonely. Someone who needed his help.

Duke’s first impression of James was that they hated him--based solely on the fact that he was little more than a glorified jailer. Long story short, they grew out of that.

38. Favorite non-Shepard OTP?

MAN idk

i’m a fan of kaidan/ashley i guess? but mostly bc i’m a sucker for a good poly trio and kaidan/ashley/shep is a Good Poly Trio (also in this category is jack/james but that’s cos of duke)

wrex and bakara make a hell of a couple tbh. i love both of them and besides their banding together to steer tuchanka in a new direction, i think they could really grow to love each other

10. What kind of friend is Shepard?

Duke’s kind, but also kind of pushy. Will alternately tease mercilessly and care selflessly. Very cuddly and affectionate.

(combined au bonus: Lives to call Cade Shepard out @commandcrshepard)

20. What are [Shepard’s and their LIs’] common interests or hobbies?

Well, Duke and Jack align very nicely in their preferred mode of combat. Armax Arsenal Arena will never know what hit it. James gets in on that too; it’s one of their favorite bonding activities with all three of them.

Aside from combat, James and Duke are both dog people, and Jack grudgingly falls in love with the three fluffy dogs they adopt once they settle on Elysium: Whiskey the St. Bernard, Bullet the Leonberger, and Kitten the Samoyed.

Plus the three of them get tattoos together sometimes. Duke doesn’t ever catch up to Jack in that regard, but they certainly get their share of tats post-war.

30. When did they realize they fell in love?

Here’s that answer for Jack, but I’ll talk about James here (with some details specific to their Shepard canon, with combined au details in parentheses).

Duke and James first met when Duke was put under what was politely called “house arrest” after Arrival. A few weeks in, James caught Duke lamenting that their undercut was getting too shaggy, and he offered to do their shave with his clippers. It became a sort of monthly ritual, them doing each other’s shaves. Duke was delighted that James kept the mohawk they gave him.

After the Reaper attack, after they ended up on the Normandy together, it got a little...awkward. They weren’t sure where they stood, now that Duke was suddenly his commanding officer rather than his charge. (While Duke wasn’t technically Alliance anymore (they’d been stripped of their rank and thrown in house arrest for desertion and working with Cerberus), their last rank before they resigned their commission and disappeared had been higher than James’s, and Duke was joined at the goddamn hip with the Commander.)

Duke realized that they had feelings for James relatively early on, but they did their best to repress it out of loyalty to Jack--until they finally broke under the stress and cried to Jack over vidcomm about many things, including the buff lieutenant who could cheer them up any day and actually, genuinely cared. Jack matter-of-factly asked, “Is he hot?” Duke showed her a picture, and Jack instructed, “Bang him,” which is the Jack equivalent of giving her blessing.

Duke approached James with their proposition, and he asked to think it over. A few days later, he came to the captain’s cabin (port observation, which Duke had essentially claimed as their quarters) to accept, and they spent their first night together.

Duke didn’t acknowledge to themself that it was love for a long while--not until the night before the attack on the Cerberus base, when James came up to their cabin (to port observation) and asked quietly if Duke was all right. They admitted that, no, they absolutely were not, and James made sure to hold them all night.

They couldn’t admit it to him in the lull before the final push in London, even as they laughed, “I love you too” to Jack’s “you better survive, because I’m getting laid after this.” They didn’t tell him, couldn’t find the courage or the words, until James was being hauled back up the ramp to the Normandy, fighting to get back to them, even as injured as he was. Duke put a hand on James’s face and told him, “Go. I won’t lose you here. I have to know that you survived. I love you, James.”

They turned and ran before his reply could weaken their resolve.

But once they’d been extracted, once they were back on the Normandy with Chakwas working frantically to keep them alive, James squeezed Duke’s hand and whispered, “I love you too, Lobo.”

(WHEW that got long srry!!)

40. Is there someone in the squad of ME/ME2/ME3 Shepard dislikes? Why?

Not after getting to know each of them.

Duke and Miranda were at odds as Duke’s trust in the Illusive Man began to wane; they felt that Miranda was the leash that Duke was tugging at, and the Illusive Man held the other end. But after the Collector ship, they realize that TIM is using Miranda just as much as he’s using Duke, and they enter a truce that eventually becomes a friendship.

They didn’t dislike Kaidan, but they were certainly wary of him after Duke got out of BAaT with their mother’s intervention and Kaidan was demonized for killing Vyrnnus. Once they talk, though, they realize that their old friendship from Jump Zero is still there, and that neither blames the other for what happened.

Other than that, Duke’s pretty chill with their whole team.