Not so long ago, Jane Shepard was furious. Her life has been nothing but a mess recently. Between Reapers invading the Galaxy, Cerberus going against everyone, and the recent crisis with her clone, she had enough. So when she finally got time for well-deserved rest, she wanted to throw a slow, quiet party in opposition to all she experienced lately. To her shock, while all her girlfriends agreed that it was the best idea, her male squadmates had other opinions. "We have to blow some steam!," they said. "We're hitting the clubs!" Even Garrus, despite being in blowing relationships with Jane, preferred to go with the boys instead of staying with his partner. And as no one planned to yield, both groups went their separate ways.
Seeing how furious Jane was, Liara offered her help with preparing the party. So when Shepard put on her dress and got to Anderson's apartment, Liara, Samantha, and EDI were already there, and everything was already set: the decoration, the snacks, everything was perfect. Seeing that, the commander became less angry and awarded Liara with a smile, hug, and kiss on the cheek. Not so long after her, the rest of the guests arrived as well: Ashley, Tali, Miranda, Jack, Samara, and Kasumi; doctor Chakwas sadly couldn't make it due to a medical emergency, and Gabriella Daniels was asked to provide engineering expertise by some important party. Jane was quite surprised that she was the only one in civilian attire, as all other women wore their battle uniforms, but it ceased to bother her pretty soon: she wanted to feel different today, but if others didn't, it was on them.
The party was without a doubt successful, and after a few hours, Shepard's anger evaporated completely. Since college, she hadn't thrown or attended any single-gender party, and just now she realized that she missed that. Without the boys, the girls could be fully themselves, and Jane felt like a teenager again and remembered all the sleepovers and such with her high school friends. The women talked, ate, laughed, danced, and played together like the best friends they practically were; even Miranda and Jack suspended their mutual mistrust and decided to let it go for the evening. EDI took over the bar and prepared delicious drinks, and soon everyone was slightly dazed from the alcohol, although it only added a positive vibe to the mix.
"There is only one thing missing at this party," said Samantha, when all the women sat together for some snacks again. "The party game!"
"You're right, Sam," Shepard couldn't agree more. "Maybe some old-fashioned truth or dare, what do you think?"
"In favor!" Tali was as enthusiastic as ever. "But what's it? What're the rules?"
"It's simple," explained Ashley. "Someone spins the bottle, and whoever it lands on must declare if they want to tell the truth or do the dare. If the former, the one who spun asks the other any question they want, which must be answered truthfully. In the latter, the one who spun dares the other to do something, and they must do it. Next, the challenged person spins the bottle, and the whole process is repeated. At least this is the way I've always played it."
"And every truth revealed and dare completed must stay between those who play it," reminded Kasumi, playfully looking at others suspiciously. "So, everyone's ready and willing to play?" asked the thief, and every other woman confirmed.
"As I'm the commander of this crew, I should be the first to spin," said Shepard, recovering one of the empty bottles from EDI, while Liara turned Glyph's recording capabilities off and the rest cleaned made some room for all women to sit in the circle. As no one objected to her idea, Jane put a bottle on the floor and gave it a hard spin. It was spinning for several seconds, and when it stopped, the neck pointed toward Tali. "So, Tali, truth or dare?"
"I'll start with the truth," Tali answered. Her young age and quarian physiology made her one of the most dazed because of all the alcohol (many of which got to her organism through the emergency induction port that night) and was ready to get a dare, but decided to play it smoothly.
"Ok, then," said Jane and decided to be delicate for now. "What will be the first thing you will do after you take off your suit? Because the geth are still working inside, right? Stimulate your organism to build up its immunity system?"
"Correct, and the results are promising," the quarian confirmed. "But what will I do first? Attending the orgy?" she asked playfully and all the other women laughed. "But more seriously, I think I will go to the beach. To feel the sun on my face, the sand under my feet, and the water all over my skin... It will be something beautiful." Tali got a little dreamy but soon recovered. "So, it's my turn to spin the bottle now, right?," she asked and when confirmed, did as she said. The one the bottle pointed out was Liara.
"Liara, truth or dare?" the quarian asked. "Truth," the asari answered.
"Of course it's a truth for you, the all-grown big-ass Information Broker." Some women were surprised to hear such words from Tali, but she could be a little vulgar after the alcohol. "But when we met, you were an archeologist, so my question is: what was the funniest or the weirdest thing you've ever dug up from the ground?"
Liara smiled. "Well, archeology isn't the most funny profession out there, though maybe a little weird indeed. Let me think... Oh, I know! Once I dug up a prothean disk, but it wasn't active and I couldn't turn it on. I kept it though, not even knowing why, and even forgot about it. But when we recovered Javik and his device, it reminded me of my souvenir. So I got it to our Prothean and it turned out that my disk contains the prothean equivalent... of a porno vid! Of course, it works quite differently for them, as thanks to their sensory abilities they can really... experience their porn. I think it met the criteria of funny and/or weird?"
"Yep, 100 percent.," Tali confirmed. "Do you still have it?"
"No," Liara smiled and blinked. "I left it with Javik, maybe the man would be having a good time with it," she said, and everyone laughed. "My turn, I spin and ask: truth or dare?"
The bottle spun for a few seconds, and when it stopped, it pointed toward EDI - she declared a truth, as such was a pattern organics followed for the time being. For a moment Liara was puzzled about what to ask the AI about, but finally came to a viable conclusion.
"EDI, as an AI you have a very logical mind, and can calculate the answer to the questions organics can't because of emotions, personal preferences, and such. So tell us, who among us is the most attractive woman?"
EDI's answers came almost immediately - her processor was too fast for her to spend a noticeable amount of time calculating the answer. "All of you. All of you are unique and have some qualities which make you amazingly attractive. Commander Shepard is a hero, and almost everyone digs that. If not, they would favor Jack or Miss Goto - our crew's bad girls. If they are looking for geeks - and I mean it in a positive context - admiral Tali'Zorah, Dr T'Soni, and specialist Traynor would be the most attractive. Lieutenant Commander Williams and justicar Samara are great and devoted warriors - many people like strong women - and Miss Lawson has both a perfect look and a keen mind. To summarize, all of you are beautiful physically and spiritually."
Hearing it, everyone blushed slightly, and it was Shepard who shook herself off first. "Wow, speaking for anyone, thank you EDI for a compliment. You're not so bad yourself, even before you got a sexy mech body," she said. "But enough for that, spin the bottle!"
