Character Application

Currently at: thegames

a note; the following is the application submitted and approved for the thegames, and is how I am currently playing the character. Please feel free to contact me if you have any further, or more specific questions regarding motivations and background.

History: Shepard's entry on the Mass Effect Wiki.

Due to the nature of Mass Effect's customizable character identities, I will be playing Commander Shepard as having the following background specifications:

Spacer | Sole Survivor | Infiltrator | Paragon

Born to parents already serving in the Alliance military, Commander Alison Jane Shepard (who goes by Jane) is an only child who was raised as a 22nd Century military brat. A smart, driven and sometimes headstrong girl with the whole galaxy at her fingertips, she knew that she could have chosen any life she wanted, but ultimately decided to follow in the footsteps of her parents and enlist in the System Alliance military.

Technologically savvy, sharp-eyed and with well-honed reflexes, Shepard became an exceptional soldier very quickly. She developed a knack for long range weapons and a crafty talent of sabotage, which eventually got her recommended to the Interplanetary Combatives Training course, also known as the N7 program; a prestigious academy designed to teach leadership and combat expertise to specially selected recruits, at the age of 23. During the course of the program, she was given instruction in a wide variety of areas such as zero-G combat, military free-fall (parachuting), jetpack flight, combat diving, combat instruction, infiltration, linguistics, and frontline trauma care for human and alien biology. It is considered a high honour to even qualify for the program and Shepard gradated with the rank of N7 - the highest level of proficiency.

Not long after completion of the N7 program, Shepard was sent on a mission to investigate and search for survivors on newly colonized planet , Akuze, that the Alliance had lost contact with. When camping for the night, her unit was attacked by an unfamiliar-at-the-time creature, now believed to have been a 'thresher maw.' Caught unprepared and unaware of the creature's weaknesses, the marine unit was subsequently slaughtered. A combination of resilience, perseverance, adaptability and blind luck, Shepard alone was able to survive both the initial massacre and the aftermath of surviving off the barely habitable land until rescue came. While many agree that the situation would have been traumatizing to most, Shepard believes that she was able to survive due to her training and her own stubbornness to never give up.

Years later, at the age of 29, Shepard was recommended to the Citadel Counsel for status as a Spectre - an elite force of special agents entrusted with extraordinary authority by the Council including the power of life and death over the inhabitants of the galaxy. She became the first human ever to gain Spectre status, which meant a huge leap forward in securing humanity's place in the galaxy as a force to be respected and taken seriously. Humanity, after all, has only been dealing with interstellar policies, politics and trades for a meager 26 years at this point.

Presentation:
As a person, Commander Shepard can be described as many things. A leader. A diplomat. A friend. Someone to love. Someone to fear. Over her lifetime, most especially over the past few years, she has learned to play all of the roles that she must fill, when she must fill them, and she has learned to play them well. She has developed an innate ability of being able to read people and situations; of knowing when to kiss ass or when to flat out punch someone in the face, and is not so full of pride that she feels either option is beneath her. At her core, she is an 'if the end justifies the means' sort of person, and does her best to be a 'big picture' thinker and planner. Though she will be the first to admit that she is flawed. Human. And has a bit of a temper if pressed too far. Sometimes that gets the best of her.

Her military upbringing and early life on ships and space stations are perhaps the largest cause of her 'for the greater good' mentality. She was raised to not only consider herself, but also those around her at all times, because living under such close confinement meant that her business, her actions, her decisions affected everyone around her. Often with immediate repercussions . She learned very early on to pay attention to those around her, to be aware of others and that they are likely aware of her. Simply being observant and aware might once have kept her from getting in trouble at as a child, but it is a life skill that has literally saved her life as a soldier.

No less important, her upbringing practically forced her into mastering interpersonal skills at a young age. How to be diplomatic and not anger half the people around her whom she had to deal with on a daily basis. How to appreciate privacy and quiet when small windows of such were given. And yes, how to put on a face and be nice to someone whom she secretly might want to punch in just for looking at her wrong, because isn't there always that one person you want to do that to?

All these things helped to shape her into the woman that she is now today; thoughtful, observant, diplomatic when diplomacy is an option but also… willing and able to break your neck if it's not.

Motivations:
Born in the year 2154, Alison Jane Shepard was born only three years before humanity's first contact with a sapient, intelligent, extraterrestrial race, but even before her birth, humanity knew that it was not alone in the universe. Alien life was proven to exist in the year 2148, after the recovery of ancient artifacts on Mars, six years before Shepard was even born.

Because of humanity's new outlook on the universe, Shepard was raised to have a healthy respect for other races due to the simple fact that she was going to have to coexist with them. Personal exposure to the vast variety of races within the galaxy cause her to develop a mild curiosity of them as well. Because of this combined respect and curiosity that she has still maintained throughout her adult life, she is often able to uphold amicable relations with a wide variety of species, by simply allowing herself to be as honest, open and understanding with them as she is able. This in turn has earned her the respect of many members of other races, and brought her friends and allies from all reaches of the galaxy. Some of them more unexpected than others. A select few of them even developing into some of her dearest and closest friends.

While she is able to make friends and allies quite easily, she lives a life that keeps her constantly on the move. Because of this, she can sometimes lose touch with those who are not in her immediate vicinity. This can include old colleagues, friends, her own parents and even lovers. It does not mean that she cares less for them than she once did. She simply has too many things going on, many of them highly important, that maintaining a healthy relationship with anyone halfway across the galaxy never quite makes the priority list. However, if you can manage to grab her attention while she is standing right in front of you, she can be and amazing, ally, friend or even lover.

Despite being a trained killer, which she undoubtedly is, Shepard is not a 'shoot first ask questions later' kind of gal. Not always, anyway. She'll be the first to tell you that she does have her exceptions to that rule. She undoubtedly has an incredibly high regard for life; not only the lives of humans but of any creature who can think for itself. Through her life as a military officer, she believes that she is able to protect this life. Protecting those who need it and hunt down those who would do it harm. If allowable, she will choose words over violence. If a problem can be solved by negotiation, she would much rather go that route than shed blood. But if she, at any time feels that such a path cannot be taken, she would much rather put ten bodies in their graves than later come to learn that a hundred more have suffered because she did not put an end to something when she could have.

Her life, career and most especially, her recent assignments, have forced her to learn how to make quick decisions based off of limited and potentially biased or flawed information. Being a military official, she has been trained to produce results quickly and efficiently while still adhering to proper protocols, regulations and formalities. She has proven time and again to be fully capable of following orders, but is wise enough to know that not every order can and should be followed. Sometimes, questioning or circumventing authority is necessary, and Shepard is confident enough in her own moral compass, personal skill set, and the input and support of those in her confidence, to make what are sometimes difficult choices. She has learned, or perhaps simply always been the sort of person who understands that she cannot dwell on 'what ifs' and 'maybes.' She makes decisions based on what she knows, understands and feels, doing her best to select the option that will produce the best possible outcome for the future, and is willing to justify or answer for her potential mistakes to anyone who feels the need to question her on it.

After years of service and an impressive roster of highly dangerous missions, Shepard has become, not exactly over-confidant, but certainly sure of herself and her abilities. She knows her limits, sure. But she has developed her own brand of almost fearless courage that some might view with a strange sort of awe and inspiration, and others might just see as reckless. Whatever she does, she throws her full self at it. One hundred and ten percent. Every time. Her life, her heart, her everything. She does not see her life as something useless or disposable, but she has no problem dying in the line of duty, if it means she's done some good in this universe. And there are few who would argue that she hasn't already done so, tenfold. She is not afraid of death. Hell, she has already died once. And that, as a friend of hers so elegantly put it, only seemed to piss her off.



SAMPLES

Thread:

Kaidan and Shepard do some catching up and try to pretend that it isn't totally awkward. Even though it kind of is.

Prose:

She does not bother to hide the disgust on her face as she enters the room. Quite frankly, the only reason she hasn't tried to kill everyone she's seen so far today, is because she is unarmed and she is alone, and even the famed Commander Shepard knows that without a little support and a rally point or two, it's probably better to pick your fights; save your strength, and maybe start making a mental list of who to pick off later.

For now, she plays along. Does what she's told. But she is none too happy about it.

"Shepard," one of the Gamemakers regards her, as if giving her a queue to begin, and she takes her time scanning over the weapons table.

Primitive. Barbaric. All of it.

It's all she sees in this place.

They parade about in their fancy, outrageous costumes and sit on their plush chairs behind their force fields. Hiding behind technology they seem to think is so sleek and advanced.

She was once told that she was a representation of the best of what humanity had to offer. It literally makes her feel ill to think about how far this place has drifted from her own reality; a place where children are put to death for entertainment. It's despicable.

She picks up a short sword, feels the weight of it in her hand. She's use to much more refined weaponry than this, but it's sharp and it'll do the trick.

She isn't even left-handed, but the dummy is slightly to her left and she's used to her omni-tool being on that arm; blade concealed and ready for action. The steal in her hand slices easily through the rubbery flesh of the dummy. With a single, frustrated yell, she nearly halves the object's ribcage. The lack of bone and sinew make such a cut even possible, but a similar blow to a human would be instantly debilitating, extremely painful and ultimately, fatal.

She looks at them with a devious smirk on her face before she walks away.

Melee weapons aren't even her specialty...

What is your character scored:
She is scored a 9. She'd be rated higher if they could read her thoughts or if they knew exactly they'd pulled into their world, but the Gamemakers have no idea what she's truly capable of, and she's not fully inclined to show them yet. Nevertheless, she's obviously well trained and a force to be reckoned with.

**A Note: after the application submission, the gamemakers rated her as a 10 instead of my initial rating of 9.