Bad turian

or turian courting explained

Garrus often said he was a bad example of a turian. Tali always thought he sold himself short on that account but right now as she lay in his arms in post coital bliss she was rather alright with him being a bad turian. After all he had gotten the courtship order rather messed up and almost completely backwards.

First off, they had jump directly to sex. Tell she jumped him. And he never said no. And it was right before they were going through the Omega-4 relay and could have been killed. In traditional turian fashion, that is supposed to come after marriage. Supposed to. In practice at least a few dates. Quarians at least tend to stick to the after marriage part. Apart from limited clean rooms that have to be scheduled on the Flotilla, exposing yourself to anyone is a huge cultural deal for the quarians. It means you will get sick, so whoever you are exposing yourself too better be worth it.

On the upside, the weak up adaptive immune system of the quarians meant that repeated expose did lessen the severity of illness and could eliminate it all together. This pleased Tali greatly as she planned on "linking suits" with Garrus often while he was on Rannoch. Dr. Chakwas said that they couldn't have strenuous activity. That was fine with Tali, she didn't mind doing the work at the start of the month if Garrus paid her back later.

Secondly, they got married. Yes they did at least know each other a few years first but they hadn't even gone on a proper date. And Garrus was being foolish about things so they rushed that part. They didn't even have any sort of ceremony either. However, Tali was alright with it. Their relationship wasn't a normal one that followed regular norms so if they did things differently it was okay.

Thirdly they had kids already. Turians are quite long lived and don't generally start having children until their mid 30s. Garrus' sister Solana, while not bucking the norm, had had her children right after her 15 years of service were up. Garrus had confided in Tali that he suspected that her marriage was an honor marriage, as an unwed mother is something rather shameful in turian society. Still it had seemed like a happy one.

Fourthly, Garrus had had a house built. Turian males had been building houses to impress females for thousands of years. It made practical sense too. On a planet where the solar radiation is trying to kill you, getting out of direct sunlight is a good thing. And so part of turian mating rituals was to build a house. Or to have a house built. Or if you go back far enough, find a nice cave. The idea of course was to provide a safe place to raise young. And as time marched on, the size of the house was an indicator of their ability to provide. To be fair, Garrus did have nothing to do with this particular house at all. Legion had just found the biggest one he could and started building it. But then Legion had given it to Garrus to be his home and now that they were married it was also Tali's home. And while the male turian might build the house to attract a mate, it was the female that decorated it and made it a home.

Fifthly, Garrus didn't hunt. At least as far as Tali knew. There really wasn't any opportunity to see if Garrus had any food gathering skill. Though if his skill with his rifle was any indication maybe it was a good thing he didn't hunt. Local wildlife would never stand a chance. And in a weird twisted way Garrus did at least get this one sort of in the right order. Maybe. Tali wasn't sure.

Normally, the step that went right before the building of the house was to show off your ability to get food. Sometimes this step was combined with the house as showing a house with a full larder helped. More traditionally, if things were serious between two turians, this is when the male went to meet his prospective mate's parents. And he normally brought a gift of food. Over time and social classes this could be expanded the male having to throw a feast for his future in-laws. And the main course was to have been caught by the male himself though nowadays most just settle for the excuse to have a party. Alternatively, the male could also personally prepare the meal himself if he was a decent chef or wanted to suck up a little harder to his prospective in-laws.

Garrus got this step sort of right back on the Normandy. He used to share meals with her. Even brought her a few. Turian nutrient paste wasn't exactly the greatest nor a great show of hunting prowess but the gesture was sweet.

Sixth, he never isolated her from her friends or others to get her alone to show her he was interested. It also supposedly had the advantage of focusing the female's attention on the male and made him more attractive as he was the only viable option. This would immediately lead to dates of course. Or at least after the turians were out of the stone age. Though, if you pressed a turian male hard enough or if he really truly liked a girl he would do a traditional mating dance. The male generally dressed up, and tried to show off as much as possible that he was a fine physical specimen. If this went well then things progressed to offering food to the female, then to her family and then building and showing off a house. And after all that, if the female was still interested then they got married. Or she wander off and the male would tear down the house and start the whole thing over again.

Well Garrus never got around to isolating Tali from her friends. On the SR1 she wasn't considered an adult and on the SR2 there were few that she would have called her friends. She spent time with Garrus by default. She wasn't going to get chummy with Cerberus people.

However Tali wasn't complaining. She had gotten to go out on a double dates with Garrus as Liara and Jane had come along as well. They had gone dancing. Garrus was still so banged up he was reduced to doing the Shepard Shuffle but everyone had a good laugh about it and he stayed out on the dance floor the entire time. And they had gone to karaoke as well. While Garrus might have gotten laughed at for his dancing, his singing was something else entirely. There is something about that flanged voice of turians that is just so hypnotic. Add in Garrus' voice on top of subharmonics and Garrus was a crowd favorite that night. Nevermind that almost none of the quarian crowd could understand him, Garrus could carry a tune and it sounded beautiful even across the language barrier.

And they took walks along their little stream. Sometimes just the two of them so they could talk, sometimes with the kids and the geth the inevitably followed them. It really was all so backwards, really getting to know the person you married after the fact but love was never a rational emotion. And Tali knew enough about Garrus to know this marriage would last forever. He was too loyal for it not to. So was she for that matter. Yes she knew they would have their fights. And they would change as people. But they would adapted.

That's all marriage was in the end. A lifelong agreement that even though people change, they would stay the same enough at the core that each person could adapt to the smaller changes in their partner. Like how Garrus and Tali had changed over the last 3 years they had known each other. They had seen the changes and adjusted. And at the core they were still the same. That was more than enough for Tali.

"You're mine you know."

"What's that?" Garrus asked.

"Mine. You're all mine. No one else's." Tali reaffirmed.

"Oh course I'm yours. I wouldn't rather be anyone else's."

"Good. Mine." Tali said. She was feelingly playful and possessive.

"And you're mine too right?" Garrus asked.

"Hmmm. Nope. You're mine and I'm mine. Everything is mine."

Garrus laughed. "Even the kids and the house and Legion?"

"Yup. Everything is mine." Tali giggled.

"That's so mean Tali. I like it."

"Good, because I'm going to show you that you're mine." Tali replied kicking off round two.