#mjshepard

[moonracoons]

Marian-Jane (MJ) Shepard

[moonracoons]

Decided to do @milkywayes shepard meme! This was really fun :)

Marian-Jane (MJ) Shepard - Colonist - Sole Survivor - vangard - Paragon (most of the time)

Casual Outfit/Armor: love the N7 hoodie.

Interest/Hobby: Boxing. I have a HC that after Mindoir she was in the foster system until she was old enough to join the alliance. During that time she found herself in a lot of MMA/ fight-club type groups. Helps her blow off steam.

An Animal: Honey badger. These guys are WILD! theyre considered absolutely fearless, which is very Shepard to me. When they attack theyre relentless and will fight just about anything, no matter how big. Their anatomy is very tough, impossibly thick skin, and damn near indestructible. Cool animals!

An object in their bag/ on desk: Headache relief. And a thermal clip.

Favorite weapon: Biotic Charge into Meele.

Their love interest: Garrus <3

Favorite food/drink: I did some research and there ARE some energy drinks in the ME world 😂😂 so I used that.

[moonracoons]

WIP Wednesday

Just been working on... well, learning how to draw faces 😂 the last few days have been my shep OC - Marian Jane (MJ) Shepard.

[moonracoons]

Okay imma just drop this and run away because im scared. I havent written anything in 9-10ish years 😅

Okee bye

*running away noises*

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Her words were coming out more hurried and unorganized than steve had heard come from the Commander before. He turned his focus from the repairs he had been making on the Hammerhead, and looked up to where Shepard was leaning against its exterior. "I find myself thinking-" she had been saying, voice suddenly strained, "- that if i'd been born a spacer or - or maybe grew up on earth I would have -- I wouldn't have to--" she cut herself off with a bitter huff, shaking her head. She pressed the back of her skull against the cool steel of the Hammerheads exterior, as if that was the only thing keeping her upright. "No." she whispered after a minute. Steve listened, though he had the feeling she wasnt talking to him anymore. "No, I think I would have always ended up here." She said slowly. Her eyes had glazed over, as if she was watching all the lives she could have lived. Watching how every one took her to the Normandy, leading the charge against countless horrors Steve watched the realization lay accross her shoulders like a viper. "Commander, I-" Steve started, hand moving in an attempt to comfort her. Shepard let out a huff and quickly pushed off the hammerhead, standing stright. Her demeanor snapping to that of Commander Shepard. "I'll let you get back to it, Steve." She smiled and patted him on the shoulder before quickly walking towards the cargo bay elevator. Steve watched her leave, noting the inward curve of her shoulders. He thought to himself, not for the first time, how many heavy burdens can one person carry before they break.

[moonracoons]

Quick question about MJ. Can you yap a bit about why Garrus is her canon romance option? I am extra curious because I always see a renegade Shep + Garrus, but in the board post you stated that MJ is mostly paragon.

Hello!

Omg yes, I would love to yap about this! (And I yapped quite a bit I am so sorry haha)

I will preface this by saying that MJ is 90% Paragon and a solid 10% Renegade (mostly because that's just how I like to play lol. I always try to do a Renegade playthrough, but I end up either Paragon or weirdly split down the middle, which just isn't great for the endgame).

I like to think that throughout all of ME1 and about 90% of ME2, their relationship was simply that of best friends and comrades. Despite their different views on the world, they had proven to each other that they were ride or die.

When MJ helped Garrus with Dr. Saleon and later told him, "You can't control what others do, but you can control how you react. In the end, that's all that matters," it really made him rethink how he handled situations. MJ inspired him and earned his loyalty to the very end.

On the other hand, in the beginning, MJ really enjoyed Garrus's company. He was smart, funny, and a damn reliable soldier. Time and time again, he showed her that he had her back. She trusted him completely.

I have a HC that, with MJ being an MMA specialist and Garrus being a hand-to-hand combat specialist, they trained together a lot. They were interested in many of the same things, had a very similar sense of humor, etc. At the end of the day, they became best friends, and I don't think either of them had ever experienced a friendship like that before.

At the beginning of ME2, MJ does a lot of very Renegade things. In simple terms, she's pissed as hell about her current situation. Once Garrus is recruited (and almost seeing her best friend's head get blown off certainly didn't help her mood), I have a HC where Joker talks with Garrus, and together they help her get grounded. Garrus reminds her of what she told him after they found Saleon. I also think just the presence of Garrus allowed her to relax for the first time since waking up. He was a familiar face from before, she knew he had her back, and she leaned on him heavily. Garrus also helped remind her of who she was. She was still Shepard. 

In ME2, when MJ propositioned him, and he said, "Well, I had never thought about it..." neither had she. In my mind, it was a spur-of-the-moment proposition for a friends-with-benefits situation... that failed horribly. After they survived the Collector Base, whenever they spent time alone together (which was very often, since they were still best friends and comrades), it usually ended with them being more intimate than just friends.

I feel like it finally hit both of them that their connection ran deeper right before Shepard left for Earth at the end of ME2. Being apart felt like losing a limb. Sure, they were both strong enough to continue with their respective missions... but something was missing.

When they reunited, the relief of having that missing piece fall back into place made them finally realize that they were simply it for each other. MJ was Garrus's person, and Garrus was MJ's.

I could keep yapping about this forever, so I'll stop there haha. But basically, I think they fill in each other's missing pieces. Shepard helps Garrus see the gray between the black and white, while Garrus helps Shepard realize that sometimes things really are black and white. It's not perfect, but there's so much love and loyalty between them.

Okay thank you for coming to my TedTalk! <3

[moonracoons]

Oh, yay! Play with us!

2, 13 and 15 for Marian.

Wooo! Yes, thank you for allowing me to play along! :)

Question #2: What habit does your OC have that they themselves find annoying?

I feel like Marian chews the inside of her mouth to shreds, which is very annoying, seeing as how she loves spicy food.

She also has not been able to kick her smoking habit. It was something she picked up after Mindoir when she was in the foster system for 2 years before enlisting. She got addicted instantly and, though she can go a long time without smoking (bootcamp/ missions / ect.) she will always find herself picking up a pack when she is on shore leave. She finds it really annoying that she cannot kick the habit.

Question #13: What is the easiest way to make your OC laugh?

Hmm, I think she laughs pretty easily when she is in good company. Always lending a little chuckle to a joke or a bark of laughter to a good story.

But I think the easiest way to make her absolutely belly laugh is rapid-fire witty/ gallos humor. This was something that made her and Joker very fast friends. Joker is also one of the only people who can make her laugh to the brink of tears.

Question #15: For how long can your OC stand in complete silence without breaking it?

If she is on a mission, she is laser-focused and can stand in silence for hours... Other than that, maybe 3 minutes. If she is working on something (a model ship/ cleaning her gun/ ect.) she will definitely start humming to herself without noticing. Subconsciously, silence makes her really uneasy so she will do something to help ease that anxiety.

Thank you so much for asking! <3

[moonracoons]

Hello! I had some questions about MJ, but since you reblogged an ask game, I'll save those for later.

For the ask game about MJ, I am curious about 1 and 5 :)

Hello!

Omg yes, you can always ask about MJ :) It helps me get to know her better as well haha.

Question #1: How vividly does your OC dream? What do they dream about, or do they even remember their dreams?

Oooh! I feel like Marian would typically have really vivid dreams in the moment, but forget them shortly after she wakes up. I feel like they would mostly be abstract experiences. More like clippings/snippets of consciousness bleeding together into an almost liminal type of dream.

I have a HC that she has always had an issue with recurring dreams (seeing as how she experienced that in ME3). In the past, it would be abstract and cruel interpretations of what happened to her family on Mindoir. Then it was her quad on Akuze. Then it became the vision she had on Eden Prime. Every time she would wake up with little memory of what she had dreamed, but the feeling would loom over her most of the day.

Question #5: What sound does your OC hate the most?

The sound of people smacking their lips when they eat (anyone else with Misophonia out there? lol). I have a HC that she had a little brother on Mindoir, and he would smack his lips just to annoy her. lol

Thank you for the ask! I appreciate ya <3

[moonracoons]

4 and 10 for the OC ask game!

Omg! Thank you for asking :)

I have so many OC's (mostly for D&D) but I think I am going to answer these for my OC Shepard :)

Question #4: What is your OC's ideal way to spend a Friday night, and has that changed over the years?

So, I am going to start with the Pre-Eden Prime mission in ME 1. Marian Shepard's ideal Friday night started with going to the boxing gym or the shooting range. She found out early on that the only way to calm her anxiety was to hone her survival skills ( just a hunch, but probably something to do with watching Mindoir burn around her as a kid). After that, if she ran into some of her Alliance comrades at the gym/ range, she would spend the night out with them. If she was alone, she would probably go out anyway and explore whatever colony/ settlement/ city she was in. Girl doesn't know how to sit still.

During the events of Mass Effect 1-3, she still finds herself honing her survival skills after finishing her reports. Though now she would meet her comrades in the docking bay to spar or talk guns. I feel like as long as she is doing something to occupy her mind, it would be ideal.

After the events of ME, (because she absolutely survives! Because she is Commander Shepard, and of course she does! ) ... the girl still cannot sit still, though she has slowed down a lot ... mostly due to the missing leg. But! She would spend her Friday nights with Garrus. Maybe they would go out, maybe they would stay in and go over her latest N7 training plan/ his latest reports on how to rebuild Palavan.

Question #10: Does your OC care about their appearance? Does this align with how much effort they put into how they look?

I feel like Marian does care about her appearance, but more so for how it is a byproduct of her hard work and physical skills. She really values her muscular/athletic build because it gives her comfort knowing she is physically strong enough to handle dangerous situations. She also just thinks having big muscles is hot, so I think she does put effort into her appearance for that reason as well lol.

I don't think she wears makeup much in her day-to-day (mostly because she doesn't have much practice in that department, except when she smudged her mom's black eyeliner on during that one phase she had as a young teen). I do have a HC that Kasumi teaches her how to apply makeup during ME 2, and she starts to use it a bit more afterwards.

Thank you for asking! this is fun <3