I'd never written Shakarian before but my friend is a huge fan and prompted me to write a fic with crickets as the inspiration. Oh man.

Mass Effect and all associated characters belong to Bioware. I make no money from this fanfiction.

"These are delicious, some of the best I've ever had," Shepard said, popping another crunchy cricket into her mouth.

"I can't even watch you eat those. I've seen a lot of awful things in my life, Shepard, but this is coming pretty close to the top of the list. They're creepy." Garrus winced, as she pulled another out of her bag of dried crickets, biting half of it off and savoring it before tossing the rest into her mouth. "And huge. And disgusting. And I can't stand that sound."

"What, you don't have insects on Palaven? I would have thought chitinous insects would be everywhere."

"Insects, yeah, but they definitely aren't edible."

She dug through her bag to find the largest cricket she could and held it up to her face, inspecting it thoroughly. "Look," she said, nudging him with her elbow. "This one almost looks like you." Shepard held the cricket toward him and grinned at his repulsed reaction.

"Yeah, no. Definitely doesn't look like me. Would you get that thing out of my face?"

"Suit yourself," she smiled, looking pointedly at him and eating it with deliberate slowness. He closed his eyes and shook his head, disgusted.

"You know," Shepard continued, "I don't know about Palaven, but back home, insects are the food of the future. They reproduce quickly, pack more protein per pound, and are pretty much fat free. Cheaper to produce than livestock and better for us, too. Delicious and nutritious."

"Well, good for you and the rest of humanity. I don't see any other humans out there eating bugs though."

"Mmm, you're right. They haven't quite caught on yet. That's too bad; they don't know what they're missing." She held the bag to her mouth and tilted her head back, delightedly munching on a mouthful of crickets.

With a hand over his face, Garrus shook his head. "Can't take you anywhere."

Thank you for reading!