#crimsonsavior

This is an indie rp blog for MASS EFFECT character COMMANDER SHEPARD.
Middy/John, 33. A busy artist, a bad gamer and an avid comic book fan. Loves sci-fi and is an asexual trans man.

GENERAL

01. I’m not my muse. I don’t share his beliefs. If you have any problem with him, please don’t follow this blog.
02. This is a PRIVATE, MUTUAL FOLLOW blog, meaning that I won’t interact with you if we’re not following each other. This is for my own personal comfort. I also don't follow people back randomly, unless I'm certain they want to interact with me.
03. I’m mostly busy in real life, so if I take a long time to reply to our thread, please let me know. I usually try to reply once per day.
04. I don’t suggest people below 18 to follow this blog. Minors will be blocked if they follow. Some triggering topics can show up here like KIDNAPPING, NATURAL DISASTERS, DEATH, SUICIDE etc. I will, however, tag them appropriately. For instance: sexual content tw; death tw; etc.
05. My only trigger is animal death/animal hurt. Please, if you can, tag this one for me. I also ask you to tag posts containing sexual mentions/gifs/pictures. I’m sex repulsed sometimes. If I see you reblogging more than three posts without tagging those, I may softblock you.
06. I DON’T FOLLOW GENDERBENT MUSES, even if they’re canon. It’s blatantly transphobic, and I don’t want to explain why. Unless your muse is a trans person, so in that case, I’m more than happy to rplay with you.
07. Please, don’t follow me if you ship INCEST, and that includes adopted siblings like the Batkids.
08. I don’t speak much ooc, nor I try to force a conversation. If you stop a chat all of a sudden, I won’t take it personally. However, I try my best to be polite.
09. I actually love rplaying family bonds, friendships and even enemies over romantic relationships, though I’m not against them. If you’re interested in romantic ships, please let me know -- because sometimes I’m clueless in romance and I can’t get the message through rplaying. Also I don’t usually send romantic (much less sexual) memes to anyone, unless I’m sure we have an established ship.
10. Speaking of ships, I don't have any problem to ship my Shepard with any character, canon or non-canon. I have preferences, of course, but I'm open to any ship regarding the game trilogy. If you're in favor of ship wars, you better not follow this blog. By the way, I’m more than okay to be ship exclusive to a certain char. It’s not a requirement, but if we discussed it a lot and have active threads, I’m totally okay with it. I ask, if you request me that exclusivity, that you also do the same. I also don't autoship, so please, don't force any ships, even if they're canon.
11. Hey, take your time to reply to threads. If you don’t feel a thread anymore, you can drop it too. We can always start another. You don’t have to tell me you dropped a thread either. RPlaying is supposed to be a hobby. I’ll never force you to write something you don’t want to.
12. If you have any problem reading small fonts, please let me know and I’ll keep the standard font on our thread. ♥
13. I tend to write a lot (two paras, minimum), and I don’t enjoy one liners/crack threads that much. If you feel overwhelmed by the length of our thread, please let me know and I’ll try to shorten it. You don’t have to match the length either, but keep in mind that if I give you three paras and you return my reply with a single line, I may lose interest in the thread.
14. Communication is the key. Don’t be afraid of reaching me out to ask anything or tell me anything that’s bothering you. I promise you I don’t bite, and I’m willing to listen. I’m not fond of passive-aggressive behavior, especially when people take it to the dash. Tag those posts if you can, otherwise if I see too much negativity regarding drama, I’ll softblock you.
15. Don’t follow me if you: erase a character’s sexual orientation (for instance, making a canon bi char a straight/gay one, though I don’t mind people making a straight char bi/pan/gay/etc), thinks it’s fine to age up a child to smut, write non-con/incest, support any kind of bigotry. I’ll probably hard block you if I find any of these on your blog.

M U S E S

01. OCs are welcome to have stories built with my character, so long as I read them and find them interesting. Canon characters from other fandoms too.
02. I ship with OCs and characters from other fandoms. Just let me know if you’re interested in shipping, because I’m clueless in romance as I’ve stated above.
03. Also, we need to have active threads and chemistry for a ship to work. If my boy says 'I don't have romantic feelings towards x character', so I'll comply with his wishes. He'll rarely accept romantic relationships due to his nature anyway.
04. I’m duplicate friendly, though I understand that some people get anxious when they see another blog of their character around. Take this as an invitation to interact with me, especially if you’re a multimuse blog.
05. I rplay Shepard as Renegade (Earthborn/Ruthless), though he has some "Paragon" attributes. For instance, he doesn't dislike aliens (he's indifferent towards them), hates Cerberus (he's a misanthropist) and destroys the Collector Base (simply because he hates Cerberus). Don't think his Paragon choices are made because he has a good heart -- there are always dark motives behind them, so all his choices are twisted in a way. Except for Overlord DLC ending, where he does pity David and gets mad at his brother for being cruel to him.
06. I particularly like the idea of having other Shepards as his brothers/sisters, so give them to me. If you don't want any kind of familial link, there's always the multiverse theory.
07. By default, if you send me a meme or I make a starter for you, the verse will be "A Journey's Beginning", depending on your char. The reason is because Shepard is calmer and collected on this verse, unlike his ME2 and ME3 counterparts. He'll be cold and distant, but he won't be an asshole (unless your char forces him to). It's also good for character development.
08. Because of his nature, any romantic ship with Shepard can be problematic. He'll hurt people, will try to push them away with harsh words. He'll soften with time, though it requires a lot of character development. If that's not your kind of ship, I suggest not to come to me regarding that subject. IMPORTANT: This is NOT always the case with everyone. Sometimes he won't accept your character in a romantic way, so please respect that.That’s it. Thanks for reading my rules. :)

D O S S I E R

John Shepard

Basic Information

Personality

John Shepard was born in a hostile environment without the support of his parents (who he never met), having to work in gangs during his young years. Because of it, he became ruthless and independent, but he grew tired of the useless wars among gangs -- so he joined the Systems Alliance Military at the age of 18 as a way to escape from that scenario. He’s focused on his job, always getting the job done no matter what happens. He won’t save people if they get in his way of completing a goal. He's very charismatic, even though some of his allies can question his choices. He hates when people try to manipulate him, so he always plans on a way to get his own revenge over them. He does hate arrogant people, dismissing them rudely. He enjoys the company of people who are as focused as him and he’s willing to learn more about anyone’s culture. Although he’s not a xenophobic, he does have a certain disdain towards Batarians due to the battle of Torfan and the incident of Terra Nova. Shepard doesn’t like weak people who always make excuses to avoid completing the job. He doesn't accept weakness very well, coming from others or himself -- he doesn't have a lot of patience to comfort broken people. He believes sacrifices are sometimes necessary, and that also means his own life. Although he’s open to learn more about aliens and synthetics, he doesn’t like geth in general -- he doesn’t consider them as living beings at first, but he enjoys Legion’s friendship (who changes his opinion later). Shepard also hates when people lie or hide things from him, especially when it’s something important -- he can get aggressive, depending on the lie and the person. About illicit activities, Shepard doesn’t care if someone does them due to his previous background as a gangster on Earth -- however, if certain activity stays in the way of his mission, he won’t hesitate to get rid of those responsible for it (for instance, the case on Noveria with Administrator Anoleis and Gianna Parasini). He tends to deceive some people to get money and resources too, especially if they try to manipulate him. Shepard allows someone to manipulate him if he gains something back (like a large amount of money or information about his mission). He’s a sadist (especially during ME2), while he tends to hide that side during the time he’s with the Alliance (mainly during ME1), afraid of being court-martialed. The Alliance Top Brass (in special, Steven Hackett) knows about his mental condition, so they give him a chance to be in the military if he gets proper treatment (which he does because he doesn't want to go back to Earth or become a CAT-6 mercenary). Because of that, he mostly behaves himself and will feel empathy sometimes (especially if he's with the right companion). He respects the Alliance and anyone who works for it -- to him, the Alliance comes first than friendships/romantic relationships (and also his own violent urges). He’s sexually active, not refusing any invitation for casual sex with anyone (unless he’s in a relationship, then he tends to be loyal). For him to be invested genuinely in a relationship, he needs to know the person very well and trust them, since not everyone is willing to accept his violent side. Shepard is cold and distant during his time with the Alliance (ME1) -- he's not an asshole to anyone in general, unless they get in his way to complete a mission or if they're rude to him. He's more controlled and won't show much his feelings to anyone. When he dies and is brought back by Cerberus (ME2 timeline), he gets abnormally angry -- without proper treatment, he's absurdly arrogant, sarcastic and cruel. Although he will seek everyone on his ship to talk, he won't be nice (usually). He'll spit his opinion in their faces without measuring words. He loves attention, so if he notices someone is ignoring him, he'll force a conversation until he gets what he wants. When he returns to the Alliance (ME3 timeline), he gets slightly better, in terms of personality. He won't be as controlled and cold as his ME1 counterpart, but he won't be as cruel and angry as his ME2 version, either. He'll be stressed out due to the Reaper War, so he may be harsh to people, but he will be less rude (it's even possible that he will apologize, depending on the person).

Abilities

Shepard is an Engineer. He uses tech on the battlefield, mostly his combat drone named Thor. He’s effective at blasting through enemy defenses and disabling opponents. He can hack geth, mechs and computers, disable enemies’ weapons, cause paralysis and toxic damage in organic targets, build better shields for himself, overload geth, mechs and biotic barriers and deploy combat drones (Thor) and sentry turrets. He also has special training with sniper rifles. Shepard uses cybernetic upgrades after he was brought back to life by Cerberus -- they can give him more resistance, strength and defense.

Bio

John Shepard was born in Toronto, United North American States (UNAS) on April 11th, 2154. He was abandoned by his parents when he was still a baby, and homeless people started taking care of him. When he was old enough, a kid Shepard began stealing from people to survive the streets. Eventually, a gang took him under their wing, teaching him how to read and write so he could be useful for them in the future. It didn’t go exactly how they planned to -- gang wars had killed most of the members, and Shepard ended up having to jump from city to city, trying to make money. He went to Detroit, New York, Montreal, even going further, to Vancouver. During his teens, he joined the Tenth Street Reds and worked on kidnapping, armed robbery, extortion and drug traffic. He eventually met Finch, though he had never befriended him. During the last two years in the Reds, Shepard started getting unhappy with his life, wishing that he could have a good reason to fight for. He had always been a young man who was focused, determined and ambitious, but crime life wasn’t satisfying him. When he turned eighteen, Shepard left the Reds (not without a fight) and decided to join the Systems Alliance Military. Already having experience with firearms, sneaking and fighting, it didn’t take long for him to join the N Program (Special Forces). A quick learner, he was one of the few soldiers who managed to reach the last level of the N Program, the N7. Years passed, and Shepard was eventually sent to fight on Elysium during the Skyllian Blitz in 2176. The aftermath brought him to Torfan, where he got the alias ‘the Butcher of Torfan’ because of his decision to send his own soldiers to death and kill any Batarians in his way (including the ones who surrendered). The Alliance would call him ruthless after the episode, though they would also notice Shepard’s focus on getting the job done. Eventually, Shepard was assigned to be in an important mission on Eden Prime due to his background on Torfan. It seemed like the Alliance was interested in his skills, studying the possibility of choosing him as a possible candidate for the Spectres, an elite special task force for the Citadel Council. However, things didn’t go as planned…

Mass Effect 1

Mass Effect 2

Mass Effect 3

A Journey's Beginning

Happens during ME1. Commander Shepard becomes a Spectre, and his main mission is to stop Saren and the Geth from bringing back the Reapers. Regarding his personality, Shepard tends to repress his feelings, being cold and distant in this verse because of Alliance’s protocols.

Dead and Kicking

Happens during ME2. Shepard is killed during an attack on the Normandy SR-1, and is brought back to life by Cerberus. Without the Alliance’s support, he’s forced to work with Cerberus to defeat the Collectors. Since he’s not an Alliance soldier in this verse, he unleashes his ‘true self’ -- cynical, sadistic, cruel and unfeeling. He’s also mostly angry about what happened to him and the Normandy SR-1, worsening his personality.

An End Once and for All

Happens during ME3. After sacrificing an entire Batarian system to delay the Reaper invasion, Shepard is locked up by the Alliance. When the Reapers eventually reach Earth, the Alliance has no choice but reinstating Shepard as a soldier. Now, he needs to find a way to stop the Reapers from destroying and harvesting all intelligent life in the galaxy. Regarding his personality, Shepard is ‘tamed’ by Alliance’s protocols once again, though he’s less inclined to repress his feelings than his ME1 version -- that’s mostly because he’s certain he’ll have to sacrifice himself at some point.