#ada shepard

[miniature-space-hamster]

Had the pleasure of painting @phoenixsoul13’s Shepard, Ada, with James Vega as part of a gift exchange ^^

[darthfruitbasket]

The thing about smart characters, well-educated ones?

They use their bookworm crap to smack you right in the feels sometimes, ex.

Ada Shepard is comparing herself to the ship of Theseus thought experiment, and I kind of hate it.

(She also 100% rolled her eyes at "Project Lazarus" because, subtle, TIM).

[darthfruitbasket]

@faejilly

I imagine this happened when Ada Shepard’s parents were trying to name her, sitting in a little studio flat in future!Montreal:

“Ophelia?”

“No.”

“But--”

“NO. Absolutely not, you are not naming our daughter that. And if the next name you suggest is ‘Desdemona’, I will throw something at you. I did classics in undergrad, John.”

[darthfruitbasket]

Character trinket things bc that’s something I actually put a bunch of thought into at one point:

Ren Shepard has her mother’s wedding ring (a family heirloom, worn by her grandmother first) and a little amulet of St Michael given to her by her aunt Nela; she carries both on the same chain her dogtags are on.

Anna tends more to tattoos than to physical trinket type things (she’s covered in ink, all carefully placed to not be visible when she’s in uniform because Admiral Shepard’s kid can’t be looking like some sloppy non-comm, oh no), mostly because she’s learned to travel light; her exception is one set of her late father’s dogtags, which she wears next to her own.

- Ben’s little thing is the key to the motorcycle with an actual antique combustion engine he had back on Earth, pulled from a scrapyard; he doesn’t really need the reminder of where he grew up, but if he ever forgets, it’s there.

Blair, on the other hand, does not buy into your sentimental shit, because it’s just *stuff*, who cares. People kill each other over stuff and it’s stupid.

- Ada has her mother’s little fleur-de-lis pendant, which she tends to use as an anchor of sorts (or, at worst, a reminder of how heartbroken her mother would be at what she’s become).

- Jane has lived out of a shoebox as long as she can remember, and doesn’t tend to accumulate stuff, but wears a ring her folks got her when she finished Basic; it’s nothing fancy, plain little titanium band, but it suits her.

- Cari doesn’t tend to take sentimental stuff with her on rotation, but the exception is this smooth little rock she picked out of a river bed as a kid; it’s in her pocket and it’s the perfect size for her to fidget with when the situation allows.

- Petra has a rock, too, but hers is one she found along the seawall in Vancouver just before she shipped out to Basic (and she wouldn’t be back to Vancouver for years). It’s not a fidget for her, but she carries it around as a “that’s where you came from, and you’re not going back.”

- Payette (Ryder) never really had a token type of thing, but after (spoiler) happens, she finds herself carrying her father’s wedding ring in her pocket. She’s not going to wear his armor (oh my god no), but she can’t make herself put his ring aside.

[darthfruitbasket]

Stardust, Comet, and Supernova for Ada! Please and thank you :D

Stardust - What kind of clothes do they usually wear off-duty? (sporty, elegant or specific clothes like sweatpants, jeans etc):

Her casual is flats or loafers or sneakers, dark denim and a t-shirt/sweatshirt/the leather jacket.

Her more dressier, not-uniform is usually a dark (blue/black/wine-coloured) suit, white shirt, and flat appropriate shoes. She’s quite tall, and feels uncomfortable being any taller, so heels are a no.

Comet - What is your Shepard’s sexuality?:

 I haven’t poked at it much, but I think she’s a heterosexual aromantic. 

Supernova - When did your Shepard decide to join the Alliance? Was there a breaking point in their life that made them to become a soldier?:

It was the raid on Mindoir. She’d had other plans, attending university to become an astrophysicist or an aerospace engineer, but wanting to help families like hers drove her instead to apply to a military academy instead.

[darthfruitbasket]

How about 3, 6, and 9 for Ada Shepard? Please and thank you :P

(And I’m gonna get you back w/ an ask now that I’m not on mobile)

3. Are they superstitious?

Not really; her background and interest in science and logic and mathematics makes it very hard to be superstitious. She’ll go along with old Navy superstitions because tradition more than any belief in the thing.

6. Do they know how to cook?

Her father taught (or was teaching, in the case of her little brother) both of his kids to cook, and while she was a passable home cook, she hasn’t had a reason to use the skill in 10-15 years between mess hall dining, ready-made meals, and military rations.

9. What would make them loose hope?

Honestly, I think by the time of say, Arrival, she’s already losing hope. No one wants to listen, she’s a convenient scapegoat, people already don’t trust her or think she’s gone off the deep end, and the Reapers  are literally on the doorstep. She was flirting with Death Seeker territory by ME1, and it only gets worse as the games go on.

At her core, underneath all her bitter stoic jerk armour, she really wants to believe that people are not inherently bad, that they at least will try. (Though she’d never tell you this). So seeing things that go against that kind of puts a dent in her hope.

[darthfruitbasket]

Because I couldn't think of anything else, and I'm curious, what would your Shepards have done if they hadn't joined the Alliance? :D

hm.

- Ada would’ve likely continued on in her education, v. likely gotten a PhD or at least a master’s in physics or math; I could see her teaching, or taking another academic path to be an aerospace engineer.

- Anna never really had any other plan, given family pressure--she knew exactly what was expected of her from the time she was small. If she hadn’t caved to that, I could see her just sort of...drifting. Getting a job on a cargo freighter or a transport (because she doesn’t know how to live in one place).

- Ben, if he survived long enough, maybe would’ve negotiated his way onto a space freighter and worked there. Without a biotic implant or any kind of training, I’m not sure what his future would’ve looked like, but maybe he saved up the money and did it later.

- Uh. I’m about 75% sure Blair would have died had she not enlisted (after the murder of her brother, she went to the police and turned snitch and gave up every.single.one of her old crew). If she had survived, she probably would’ve hopped a transport out west and gotten a job in a shipyard or what have you, anything that her largely self-taught tech skills would be applicable to.

- Cari probably would’ve gone with her original plan: Degree in architecture, probably with a fine arts minor or something, and then gone to work in the field, designing buildings/stations/stuff.

- Jane had offers to play college/university football (American); she was a running back in high school. I don’t know that she ever would’ve gone pro, but she probably would’ve played at college level, gotten a degree in something that would allow her to be active and athletic. If she had joined the military but opted for a different path, she also could have gone to flight school or trained in mechanics.

- Petra - Also quite high probability that she would’ve died. If she’d made it out on her own, I can see her getting a job and a room somewhere and making ends meet, maybe putting herself through high school at night or on weekends.

- Ren wanted to go to university and couldn’t afford it, but the Alliance was willing to pay for her education, so she went. That wouldn’t change, but if she’d insisted on a non-combat track, she probably would’ve ended up as a ship’s engineer (her dream job ngl).

[darthfruitbasket]

dépaysement (French): the feeling that comes from not being in one’s home country, for Ada Shepard? Please and thank you :D

(aklaifhakjjakh why)

Earth was home to a lot of people, but it wasn’t for her. She was Earth-born, but colony-raised, and home wasn’t on Earth.

Home was a backwater farm colony world that hadn’t been spared the onslaught of the Reapers, not Earth’s sprawling cities. It was easier to read the reports while being... detached. It felt less hopeless if she reminded herself their home, not mine. 

Looking down over London as the shuttle rocked was almost like a punch in the ribs, because there was no way to disengage from that. Even if it wasn’t her home, even if it was someone else’s....

A glance at her squad showed her that Ash had her elbows on her knees, hands folded and head bowed, and James looked uncertain, like he didn’t know whether or not to mirror her.

The words were out before she could catch them, and it was as if she could hear her mother’s voice, reciting the prayer as she did the same.

“Sainte Marie, Mère de Dieu, priez pour nous pécheurs, maintenant, et à l'heure de notre mort. Amen.”