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Post by John Shepard on Feb 6, 2014 9:26:45 GMT -5
JOHN SHEPARD
Age: 32
Gender: Male
Nicknames: Shepard (which might as well be his full real name as everybody calls him this)
Sexuality: His extranet activities suggest heterosexual, but it’s anyone’s guess really
Race: Human
Occupation: Commander, Spectre
Faction or allegiance: Systems Alliance
Moral alignment: Paragon in actions, Renegade in personality
APPEARANCE
HEIGHT: 6’4”
WEIGHT: 235 lbs
EYE COLOR: Blue
HAIR COLOR: Black
OTHER: Only a few minor scars after Cerberus revived him and gave him a new body. He used to have several burn marks on his body from where the Thresher Maws’ acid melted through his armor, along with a number of tattoos acquired during his affiliation with the Tenth Street Reds. He also used to have a birth mark shaped like Abraham Lincoln on his left butt cheek, but alas Cerberus didn’t bother recreating it.
PERSONALITY
DESCRIPTION: People occasionally struggle to believe that the Shepard they met in the past is a well known hero to both humans and aliens alike, because his actions seem to be in direct conflict with his general demeanor. He is coarse, unrefined, and downright nasty to people who bother him, whether it’s a Council member telling him how to do his job or a kid who stares at him a little too long. Shepard has little patience, and even less regard for sticking to rules and codes of conduct. He believes in getting a job done in whatever way is necessary, and he’s not afraid to upset a few people along the way, in fact, in some cases he might even consider angry officials and butthurt Turians a nice bonus to his accomplishments. As angry and brutish as he might seem though, his moral compass tends to point in the right direction, and although he’d glare and grumble about the incompetence of the people he’s working with, he will still help them even if it puts his own life at risk. Nobody knows where the mismatch came from and no one is quite sure whether Shepard is a psychopath playing a hero to keep up appearances, or whether he’s a good guy putting up shields of indifference and anger. He eases down a little on his companions and people he respects, to the point that he'll quietly seethe rather than voice his frustrations, and some are even able to get him to laugh and smile on occasion and lighten up a little in general, though he will still call them out on bullshit if they try to pull it with him.
Despite his sheer lack of regard for rules, there is one rule he does seem willing to follow most of the time, and that’s the one regarding fraternization. He will have friendly drinks and target practice sessions with his companions and crew members, but ultimately he tries to keep a healthy distance away from those under his command. He firmly believes that he has to see his crew as expendable and keep their potential demise in mind at all times so that, in the worst case scenario, he will be able to continue leading the rest of the crew without having to struggle with too much grief. Of course, despite what he claims on the subject, not even Shepard can live together with people for several years without starting to consider them as more than just uniforms to order around, and although he does his best not to get attached, it does happen on occasion. He denies this though, of course.
Another major thing about the commander is his seemingly bad case of megalomania. Shepard enjoys the sound of his own voice and the sight of his own reflection, and rarely trusts other people to do a job as well as he could. He puts effort into looking good if time allows it, and though he’s no clean shaven pretty boy, he makes sure to tweeze those unsightly hairs from his chin and to brush his eyebrows so they look ruggedly handsome on him… because of his representative function as Commander of the Normandy and of Spectre of the Citadel Council of course, of course… No one was able to prove this vain side of the Commander before, but now that he purchased a Shepard VI and keeps it outside his cabin to “greet” guests, no further proof is really necessary.
Though no one would believe it, Shepard actually does possess a fun and loving side to his usual grumbly persona. He likes to collect tiny space ships, and he talks to his hamster Boo as though the furry creature is his best friend, and he’d fly into a rage so epic that even those familiar with his short fuse would be alarmed if anyone ever hurt his furry fellow. He also loves his fish, and Liara’s VI drone Glyph. Which once again reinforces the confusion regarding his true nature of psychopath or good guy.
HISTORY
History: Shepard was born some thirty years ago in a crappy little neighborhood in Detroit, North America. His early years were rather uneventful, he went to school like every other kid, and he played outside and threw tiny paint bombs at passing vehicles to pass the time while his mom worked. Unfortunately for both of them, his father had ditched out the second he heard he’d knocked up his girlfriend, and she had no intentions of having an abortion. At times it’s hard to see why she didn’t, as she hardly had time to spend with her son, and their relationship was far from close. Little Johnnie-boy felt closer to that angry lady that kept throwing cans at him and the other children whenever they ventured too close to her yard than he felt to his own mother. When he turned seven, his mom got fired from her job, and after almost a year of applying for a new one and getting rejected every single time, the single mother turned to alcohol and spent her days feeling bitter and angry at pretty much everything and everyone, though John seemed to be the biggest culprit in her life. What had already been a distant relationship before became even worse when she started blaming him for the bad things in her life. John for his part became skilled at ignoring her complaints and climbing out the window to escape her tirades whenever they escalated. By the time he was ten, he was a master at sneaking out of the house without his mother noticing. Whenever he was out, he’d hang about a group of kids his own age, who lived similar lives and wanted to get away from their parents as well. At about thirteen years of age, one of his friends introduced him to their older brother, who was a member of the Tenth Street Reds, a rather notorious gang made up of mostly kids and young adults. In all his childish naivety, John didn’t see any harm in joining them. It seemed like a good idea at the time, of course, some good ideas turn out to be bad ones, and they like to come bite you in the ass later on. This was one of those ideas, although he wouldn’t find that out for years to come.
As a member of the Reds, Shepard committed petty crimes almost daily. He got skilled at distracting unsuspecting strangers and nicking their wallets, and whenever the older kids needed an extra man along to go rob a store, Shepard was usually the first name to come up, mostly because he went through his growth spurt early, and he was a behemoth by the time he was fifteen. Despite living like a criminal for a number of years though, John drew the line at actually hurting people. He was willing to break mailboxes, leave flaming bags of dog poop on the police station’s doorstep and even robbing stores and people didn’t faze him much, but when some of his ‘brothers’ wanted to go beat up a former member just to teach him a lesson, Shepard refused to go along with it. Naturally, this refusal spelled the beginning of the end for his friendly bonds with the gang. Shepard didn’t leave the gang out of his own free will or because the others wanted him out though, rather, he picked the wrong man to rob one day and found himself knocked out in a prison cell, making idle chatter with the other poor sobs who had underestimated their victims. Because he was underage, and the man decided not to press charges, his sentence was mild; a few months of community service and a few visits with a counselor and he was free to go. He shocked everyone when, rather than ignoring the court’s orders, he actually showed up to carry out his sentence. Not once, but every single day. And although he tried to sass the counselor a number of times, he showed up for each appointment all the same. It turned out the man he had tried to rob was an officer at the Alliance Navy, away on shore leave at the time. Shepard had no idea why, but for some reason the man kept showing up whenever he was cleaning graffiti off of walls and helping old ladies cross the street to talk about where he was going with his life, and what he planned to do once he became an adult. Though the visits initially annoyed the youth to no end, after a while he started to consider the man somewhat of a friend, and the soldier got him to talk about things he wouldn’t even share with his counselor. As the relationship got better, Shepard started to really consider his own future, and decided he didn’t want to still be robbing people by the time he was thirty. Because his education was somewhat lacking though, there were few choices for him, college wise. Eventually, after a little pushing from the soldier, Shepard ended up signing up for a position in the military at age sixteen. He went through the gruesome physical training and passed even the psych exams. And so, completely by coincidence, Shepard ended up joining the Alliance as a recruit. Like every other cadet, he went through boot camp and he was signed up for extra classes to try and make up for the years of just… not studying. Shepard left home without even saying a word to his mother or his friends, and when asked, he mentioned being an orphan despite his mother still being very much alive.
His training years went by as they did for most, although he had to graduate a year late because of the hole in his overall education not being filled in time. There were a few bumps in the road here and there, but for the most part, Shepard couldn’t complain. Especially not considering the shithole he had lived in before. After a year delay, Shepard graduated as well and became a full marine, and he was soon sent out on missions on Earth. The missions varied from so simple a child could do it, to cases where he occasionally felt the training he’d received hadn’t prepared him enough for what he was about to face, but Shepard had always been a guy who shoved his emotions out the window in favor of keeping a clear mind that focused solely on the task at hand. He was considered a stick in the mud and even an asshole at times by the squad he served with, but ultimately they all knew that, while he wasn’t a pleasant guy to deal with, he had their backs. And he knew what he was doing. He gained some respect for being the type to always get the job done and smacking some sense into the weaker grunts on his team, and eventually he even managed to befriend some of the men who had become so accustomed to his angry persona that they started to see it as amusing, rather than irritating. He even managed to corrupt some nicer guys into adopting his douche bag habits by arguing his points in ways that couldn’t really be countered. And no, most weren’t happy about this influence he had on people, but it did make him move through the ranks much faster than most would. He somehow managed to inspire trust and confidence in the men under his command, and that quality didn’t go unnoticed by the higher ups.
The years passed by, and Shepard became so accustomed to his new lifestyle that he valued it above all other things in life. He never took shore leave and volunteered for extra training sessions, one of which was a session on life and combat in space. Though Earthborn, Shepard felt little affection for his homeworld, his past experiences ruining the planet forever in his eyes. Taking to the stars had never been his dream, but when the opportunity presented itself, he grabbed onto it with both hands, and soon enough he joined his Alliance brothers and sisters in the great void known as space. Though there was a fear that he wouldn’t be able to deal with actual aliens, Shepard proved to be quite the tolerant man, as he treated any aliens he encountered exactly the same as he treated the average human. Which wasn’t saying much, but at least he didn’t treat them worse.
The second big change in his life came when he was out on an investigative mission on the planet of Akuze. Shepard and his team were sent in to investigate the mysterious disappearance of the pioneer team that had been sent down to begin the process of colonization. Although the situation seemed quiet at first, all hell broke loose when the team ventured too close to the pioneer team’s last known location. It soon became clear why contact with the team had been lost when enormous, monstrous creatures came popping from the ground right beneath their feet, catching the squad off guard. Many of his unit died during that initial surprise, and the few that didn’t soon followed as they forgot about their training and survival instinct kicked in, sending many running for their lives while frantically shooting at anything that moved, including each other sometimes. Shepard and three others were the only ones who managed to keep their cool, and through their combined efforts, they managed to take one of the Thresher Maws down. As soon as it went down though, three more appeared in its place, and they quickly realized there was no way to win this fight. They started their strategic retreat, but being foreigners on the planet proved to be their downfall. The Maws knew the terrain better than they did, and just when it seemed like the monsters had given up their pursuit, they sprouted from the ground ahead of them once again. Through some sort of miracle, Shepard managed to survive the acidic spit the Maws launched at them, and although he was badly burnt from where the substance burned through the armor and melted parts of it to his skin, he managed to make it out alive. The same couldn’t be said for his three comrades. Shepard wandered around, badly hurt and with no water or food for almost two days before another team was sent down to investigate. They picked him up and took him back to the ship for treatment before questioning him about the situation on Akuze and the fate of not just the pioneer team but his squad as well. He became noted that day as the only man to have survived the tragedy on Akuze, though he drew little comfort from that fact. The images of his men screaming and dying in ways so gruesome that it would make even the most seasoned warrior throw up a little in his mouth if he’d seen it continued to haunt him for month to come. And even now, he still can’t clear that image from his memory. He probably never will.
His recovery took almost two years, at which point he was assigned to the SSV Normandy, to serve as Commander to Captain Anderson. The sour attitude he’d always had had worsened some after Akuze, but because he still got a job done and followed most orders, the attitude was overlooked. His first mission with the Normandy turned out to be another tragedy, one that reminded a little bit too much of Akuze. Almost right out the ship, Shepard could add another dead comrade to his list when Jenkins foolishly walked right into enemy fire. After fighting through piles and piles of Geth, Shepard and Kaidan (along with Ashley, whom they’d picked up along the way) reached their objective; the Beacon. Of course the Spectre that had been sent along still hadn’t shown his face, which didn’t surprise Shepard all that much, considering… you know… Turian. His team was made up of fools however, and where Jenkins had seen fit to walk into enemy fire, and Nihilus was off beating it in the bushes most likely, Ashley seemed fit to go approach the unknown artifact, which ended with her getting sucked to it like a magnet. Shepard, ever the gentleman, and more than a little annoyed at his squad’s tomfoolery, grabbed Williams and tossed her aside with every intention of scolding her for being a fool when he himself got caught in the force that had drawn Ashley towards the Beacon. After strange visions that reminded of a trip gone wrong, Shepard was knocked out and somehow carried back to the ship and into Doctor Hacksaw… Chackwas’s med bay. Unfortunately for Shepard, the visions weren’t just a result of some sort of alien drug playing tricks on the mind, and before he knew it, he was drawn into political bullshit dealing with a Council that seemed to exist just to piss him off, and after that he was sent along to go and find the next clue to what his vision could possibly mean while simultaneously dealing with another Spectre gone bad, another Turian, go figure. Before he left the Citadel though, Shepard spent some time looking around the place and ended up recruiting a bunch of aliens to his crew. A Turian C-Sec officer named Garrus, a Krogan mercenary named Wrex, and a Quarian mechanic named Tali. After a brief visit with a woman who called herself a Consort, Shepard was on his way to go safe the day. His journey led him to Therum, where a certain Asari scientist was supposed to be digging through dirt for whatever reason. She had answers though, and so Shepard drove out and nearly killed his men by almost driving straight into a pool of lava and then almost flipping the Mako upside down in an effort to navigate through the mountainous terrain. Eventually they made it to where the 100 year old kid genius was supposed to be… only to find her drifting awkwardly in some sort of mass effect field she’d accidentally activated. Once again, Shepard was not surprised to see this, as his entire crew seemed to consist of morons. After narrowly escaping certain death due to a seismic event happening in the mines they were in, Shepard and crew continued the journey for answers, with Liara serving as a translator of sorts for the visions in Shepard’s head. A great personal tragedy hit when the team arrived on Virmire. The mission was interrupted by Saren himself, and his arrival lead to Shepard having to choose between the lives of two of his crew members. A choice that continues to haunt him to this day.
After finding out about Ilos, the Protheans and the Reapers, the Reaper known as Sovereign attacked the Citadel, and only through the mass relay on Ilos did Shepard and his team make it to the hub in time to help mess up Sovereign’s plans by opening the Citadel’s arms, defending the Council (despite them still being annoying) and then taking on Saren himself. Though they were victorious, it was clear that the battle had only just started. Shepard gave Udina a huge fuck you by making Anderson the first human Council member and then walked off to go do something nobody else seemed concerned with; doing his damn job.
After the attack on the Citadel, the Alliance sent Shepard to root out any remaining geth resistance. The Normandy was sent into a sector where three ships were reported to have gone missing in the space of one month. After four days of fruitlessly searching for signs of geth activity, the Normandy is attacked by an unidentified ship, ripping it apart. As the rest of the crew abandoned ship, Shepard went to rescue Joker, who refused the initial evacuation order believing he could still save the ship. Unfortunately, a blast separated them just as Shepard managed to get Joker into an escape pod. The Commander's hardsuit was damaged by explosions and Shepard was flung into space, barely surviving the Normandy's destruction. However, the suit's pressure seals were compromised, and it is apparent that the Commander suffocated to death, coupled with the possibility of the hardsuit burning up on reentry to the planet below.
Due to his comprehensive knowledge of galactic events, the Shadow Broker sends Feron, a drell in his service, to obtain Shepard's body. At the same time, Liara T'Soni, who has been looking for Shepard since the attack, is recruited by Cerberus to recover the Commander's body. Feron had originally planned to return the body to the Shadow Broker, until he hears of the Broker's deal with the Collectors. At that point, he defects to Cerberus. Once the Commander's body is retrieved by the duo, they decide to give it to the pro-human organisation Cerberus, rather than turning it over to the Collectors.
In an effort undertaken by Cerberus called the Lazarus Project, Shepard is rebuilt and revived, organically and synthetically. Two years later, Shepard awakens in the lab of a Cerberus space station, which is under attack. As Shepard moves through the station, the Commander begins to learn about Project Lazarus and the effort taken to bring Shepard back—with many data caches citing the immense expense of the project and that despite their efforts to make the Commander exactly as before, Shepard may have been inadvertently altered in some way. Shepard has also been referred to as "asleep" for some time by the Illusive Man, leader of Cerberus.
All the while, the entire populations of human colonies have been disappearing without a trace during the Commander's incapacitation. Due to the ignorance and political red tape hampering both the Alliance and the Council, Cerberus is the only organization in a position to combat the threat, and Shepard agrees to work with Cerberus to solve this mystery. Meanwhile, rumors of Shepard's apparent survival have mixed concerns. Some would even think that Shepard is undercover investigating the colony disappearances.
[I’d better get some damn credit for this history man *fingers bleed all over keyboard*]
SKILLS AND ABILITIES
MAJOR SKILLS: Assault Training
Heavy Weapons Training
Fitness
Adrenaline Rush
Concussive Shot
Incendiary Ammo
Cryo Ammo
Frag Grenade
WEAPONS, ARMOR AND BELONGINGS
WEAPONS: M-3 Predator Heavy Pistol
M-76 Revenant Assault Rifle
M-97 Viper Sniper Rifle
ARMOR: N7 armor
BELONGINGS: Space Hamster, Space Fish, Model Spaceships, Dog tags, Shepard VI, picture of Ashley
IT'S ALL ABOUT YOU
NAME: Serah
HOW DID YOU FOUND US: Your conning
OTHER CHARACTERS: Not a one
OTHER NOTES: Idk man |
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