Face It

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Attack

The offensive was one of Shepard's least favorite military operations. She much preferred to be on the defensive, just because it gave her more time and less mistakes. Things went very wrong when you weren't the ones watching your enemy make mistakes.

Still, that's not saying she wasn't good at it.

Bottle

Shepard was never one to drown her sorrows. She knew they only came back with a vengeance, a head ache, and absolutely nothing gained. She'd seen many a soldier lost to the poison bottle. It seemed like such a waste.

When the chance came, she was glad to lead Septimus away from that.

Choice

When it came time to chose, she hadn't even pause to think. Kaiden's name came out before she could even stop herself. She'd apologized, but Ashley knew. No one knew, but Ashley did. Kaiden was important to Shepard.

Not just as a ground team member, as she'd been trying to convince herself.

Danger

Shepard was a soldier- tried and true. She wasn't much of a diplomat, but people listened when she spoke. Which was normal for someone in her position- high military rank and quite good at what she did. She was articulate, but like any soldier, she thought better-faster- when there was a gun involved.

Edge

The cliff was a precarious place to be operating. You could easily tip over, fall forever. Most people couldn't handle the force of gravity, the balance was hard to come by. People like Shepard came by it naturally, at least it looked like that. Really, she was always doubting her decisions.

Fame

Shepard had been an icon most of her life. The lowly orphan rises from the ashes, saves Elysium, defeats Saren and dies. Oh, yeah. And then comes back.

She was used to ogling people. The rest of her crew? Not so much.

Games

It was dangerous, to play. Most people chose to know, ignore, move on. The games were deadly, lethal. Fun. No matter if Shepard had landed or lived on the planet, she was always a player.

Hatred

From her figuring, Shepard had as much right to hate a particular group of aliens as the next person. Maybe more. She didn't let it interfere with her work, or her general 'goody two shoes' persona. (Saving that batarian in the slums on Omega had proven she could do it, right?)

It'd been years and she still had nightmares that there were big bad uglies having a campfire and she was on the roasting stick.

Important

Her life had little value to her. There were other people who could do her job. But her crew... They were irreplaceable. There was nothing she valued higher than her crew. She had been known to forgo entire missions just to save her people.

No one ever told her how much losing her had blackened their universe. Without accusing her, of course.

Jello

Wiggle wiggle.

It was an interesting...object to say the least. Wrex had never seen it before. It looked rather repulsive. But most, if not all, of human food did. When Shepard insisted that she was going to eat it, he had to stick around to see if she had the quads to eat it, or if she would expelled it.

The wriggling of the gelatinous substance set him ill to his stomach.

Kids

Shepard wasn't one for sentimentality, though she could give speeches like nobody's business, but she really did have a soft spot for children. There was something about that innocence that made her heart pang.

Between her and the children's parents, however, Shepard believed she had the easier job. At least she could kill most of the people who got on her nerves.

Lines

Sometimes, Shepard wished she was artistic. Thane had told her that the way she killed, her grace (though to her it was more like fumbling) on the battle field, had been truly an honor to see. But there were days when all she wanted to do was to put all of the pretty images in her head on paper.

Could Samara draw? Maybe they could do that mind-joiny-thing...

Mom

For the crew members who were not a) in love with Shepard or b) older than her by far too many years, Shepard was like a mom. For those who could only imagine what having a mom was like, Shepard was the ideal image. She was kind, caring, and didn't yell at you. She was only ever disappointed, though she would never out and out say so. You would just know. Shepard realized her role in the ship.

She just hoped she fared better than her own mother.

Never

She remembered. The sick, cruel and seemingly pointless experiments. The gut-wrenching feeling when she discovered those marines. Admiral Kahoku. She knew that she could never work for such a group. They were terrorists.

She must've gone crazy while dead, she thought to herself as she stared at the hologram of a man who she was now working...with.

Options

It felt like he could never trust her all the way. She knew, before the relationship had ever started, that it might be like that for a while. She hadn't expected it to be like that for so long, though. To say her relationship with Kaiden was perfect would be a lie. Did he always need to leave himself an escape hatch? Was she not worthy of his entire trust? What reason- but Shepard knew it wasn't personal.

Didn't make it hurt less when he said, "Maybe you should see someone else... see if what you feel for me is real.", like she could have even thought about someone else then.

Hn, how things had changed.

Private

Shepard didn't feel the need to share information about herself. Most of anything to know about her was on the extranet. It wasn't a secret, though there were things even the 'net didn't know about her. Like, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't stop spilling her deepest, darkest secrets around Garrus. She'd never felt that he was looking for the exit while she talked to him. He was there, with her.

There would be no secrets on her part.

Quaint

Every girl dreamed of having the perfect life. Nice little house, family, and a dog. It never happened, of course, but... people still tried. She'd been explaining this to her xenos one day. She came home to a Normandy filled with apple pie stickers and a dog hologram.

After she was done giggling, she continued her lesson of herself. Mainly about how her perfect life was exactly the one she had.

Repercussions

After his betrayal, Shepard felt the need to make Udina's job very, very difficult. She would purposely make a mess, leave it for him to clean up. Politicians needed to know exactly who was in charge- even if she could only take these small revenges.

After her death, Udina secretly went out for a celebratory drink. When she came back to life, he was quite shaken. He should've known better than to cross her.

Special

She was so done with people saying she was destined for greatness. It got old. Fast.

By the time she was ten, she was ready to blow up on the next person who said anything along those lines.

Tears

Tali knew that Shepard cared deeply about her when she found her father on the floor. It could've been chords within Shepard's own past, but Tali doubted it. The hug had been real, Shepard's voice had been steady. The tears, though never before seen on Shepard, Tali knew, were for her and her pain. In that instant, Tali knew she would follow Shepard forever.

Unique

"You have a funny way of expressing yourself."

Shepard looked forward at her art, "It was this, or cooking."

"Oh, spirits it's beautiful." Garrus said, suddenly grateful.

"Shepard, why is there a heap of junk in my room?" Jack asked from behind them.

"Great. Now I'm going to go bake." Shepard said sadly.

Garrus shot Jack a glare from behind Shepard, "If I die from food poisoning again... I blame you." he hissed.

Vultures

Shepard hated the press. With a passion.

They were worse than birds. Vultures, she thought, was an appropriate term. They circled things that were already dead and done with, not daring to approach the still-living issue of...oh, she didn't know, Reapers? Too unimportant in comparison to her tastes in boyfriends, she supposed.

Whisper

Little known fact, Shepard was ticklish on her ears. If you spoke softly enough, she would shy away from you fighting a fit of giggles. She didn't really like people breathing on her neck because it made her feel like an idiot.

Garrus- much as Kaiden had- exploited this weakness at every opportunity.

X-Ray

"Daddy!" Shepard screamed.

He'd come bursting from the house almost instantly, "What is it, Moo?"

"Daddy! It hurts...it hurts bad." She winced as she moved to show him her arm. There was white bone protruding from her elbow.

"What happened?" Her mother demanded.

Shepard wouldn't meet her parents' eyes. With a steadying breath she admitted, "I jumped..."

"Moo! We told you!" And they had. They said that she could not fly off of the roof.

"I know. But Miss Knoll told me I was stubborn."

Her father picked her up, ignoring her protests of pain. She tried to be a big girl about it. The drive to the hospital was less than pleasant, but she couldn't bring herself to care. It was taking all of her effort not to cry. The x-ray technician seemed to notice, and he gave her a lollipop when he was done taking pictures of her arm.

She'd like that technician. He was the last one she'd liked.

Yes

Shepard learned that 'yes' was not the right answer in the military. 'No' was not the answer either. There was no right answer. But any answer was better than not answering. The memory made her shutter.

Zipper

Her first time in a jump suit had been rather awkward. She wasn't the only one. She'd never been particularly curvy, but the tight fitting mesh underlay made her feel like Pamela Anderson. She looked at all the other girls, who were all slyly doing the exact same thing she was.

"Anyone else having problems?" Shepard laughed awkwardly.

"Here, let me help you." A young girl in orange armor said. If Shepard remembered correctly, that girl had the biggest...chest of them all. And she'd been the first one in the suit? Did the navy discriminate against the flat chested?

With an easy smile the girl said, "My name's Izetta."

Shepard's grin came naturally, "Shepard."