#and canon elizabeth definitely does not look 26

[anghraine]

Talking about my lesbian!Darcy P&P ideas has made me want to finish my (nearly done!!) chapter of love, pride & delicacy but I don't have time this weekend ;_;

[no-where-new-hero]

Chapter 26: On the Bay Shore

I was dreading this day of the book club.

I do think this chapter succeeds extraordinarily well in setting up everything that Dean will be for the rest of the series. LMM's overall tone really changes with regard to Dean from book to book, but the tension of the dynamic is here from the outset. It spells romance, but with a shadow over it. Dean saves Emily's life, coded as romantic and chivalrous. Dean saves Emily's life and also immediately tries to have a claim on it that she resents. The push-pull of the scene is bewildering, and I feel as though Maud herself is finding herself almost distracted by her problematic new character.

We also cannot quite ignore the loving detail Maud gives us about his appearance: "beautiful" voice, "dreamy and attractive" eyes. "Dreamy" is only ever used as an adjective for Douglas, apart for Emily herself. Emily likes his mouth (show me a reaction to a mouth that doesn't immediately connote sensuality). She does not think him handsome like the Jane Eyre analogue that she is, but these reactions to his looks are more how she responds to Perry or Teddy than, say, to Father Cassidy the Brown Nut. Twice in one paragraph, Maud tells us Emily's likes "a flavor" about him and "that lean clever face of his." He has a connection to her beloved father and gives her the impression that she has known him for a long while, an apparently kindred spirit that will wait for her--romantic in notion, cringy to our modern ears, but also more universally symbolically troubling the more and more you realize that Emily's journey has to be, almost by definition, a solitary one.

I think part of why Maud seems to be trying to get us on Dean's side is the way that he's a character whose thoughts and reactions we're privy to (Aunt Elizabeth is the only other one): we know he "never forgot" how Emily smiled at him here (oho, the foreshadowing, Maud!). We know he knows she wants to recite her whole poem to him. He becomes, for the span of this chapter, a strangely immediate secondary main character. In other LMM novels, this kind of primacy is afforded to such important people as Gilbert Blythe. In addition, of course, is the fluency of his conversation. Maud's gift for dialogue shines through Dean, and despite the imbalance we can perceive between the lines, the relationship that evolves between Emily and Dean has a tangible realism not felt elsewhere in the novel (Alice Munro, in her afterward to the book in one of the Canadian editions, points this out). I think this is due, in some measure, to the tension between said and unsaid, between two natures that are similar but desiring two different things.

Dean is very interested in symbols and metaphors; he thinks of Emily as a fairy, a star: it's dehumanizing but, right on the heels of Aunt Nancy's vivid portrait of adult womanhood in Beatrice, such a romanticized and abstracted attitude feels safer, childlike in its fancy. It is so very nearly like the return of a Douglas analogue--except for the fact that Emily is no longer a child. The preceding few chapters have assured this for us. And Emily's own obsession with the transgressions of Beatrice start echoing onto her own desire to reach out for the aster. She, like Beatrice, overstepped. She, like Beatrice (according to Dean--though he was only joking, says Maud!), cannot get off scot-free. Again, the tension between two opposing appearances confuse our takeaway.

I will always stand behind my own hypothesis that Maud just really enjoyed writing Dean. Right before she began drafting Emily of New Moon, she wrote in her journals about wanting to write a "novel for grown up people ...a psychological portrait of one person's life" that she titled Priest Pond, and my favorite LMM headcanon is that Dean would have been the main character of this novel. He has similarities to other prominent male figures in her canon (Walter Blythe and Barney Snaith), and he's also so fully rendered in a way a lot of her supporting male characters are not, which makes me suspect she had done a bit of planning for him beforehand. I think she absolutely set him up in this conflicted way because of Emily's necessary arc, but I also think that she was interested in him on his own behalf. And I'm rather sad she never wrote that other novel, going by the complexity and layers at play in this chapter.

[margridarnauds]

wash/mira with 2, 4, 12, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 26 lmao, 28, and 29

THANKS AVERY NOW I GET TO DIE OF ANGST. 

2. Who is the most insecure and what makes them feel better?

God, BOTH of them have very, very valid reasons to be concerned. Wash obviously is still hurt by Mira’s betrayal, and that isn’t going to go away easily even after their reconciliation. I can see her looking at Mira just casually doing something and wondering “What’s your game here?” And on Mira’s end, I can see her still feeling like Wash is going to choose Taylor/her job/etc. over her. Because of past experience. And, even postcanon, there’s the question of “Would she have made the decisions she had if Taylor HADN’T gone cuckoobananas?”

And then they’ll have that little reminder of their life together, Sienna or Leah will ask for help coloring something in, Wash will come up from behind and hug her, they’ll see each other giving orders and co-ruling the colony like a BOSS and just have that moment of “Okay, this is NOW.” It’s not going to be an EASY process, but it’s one that they are going to work through over time. 

4. Who can’t keep their hands to themselves?

Wash. I’m not even going to elaborate just...Wash. 

12. What first changes when it starts getting serious?

The GUILT starts to set in for Mira. For Wash, she starts to really feel HOPE for the first time. She’s spent a lot of time trailing behind Taylor, wanting to believe in the new world he’s promised, but for the first time, she has that possibility right in front of her. And then we all know what happens, goodbye youthful idealism. 

18. When they fight, how do they make up?

By not talking to one another for years but occasionally meeting up for bondage-y reasons, then bonding over a shared enemy. 

It’s funny because in a potentially postcanon world, I actually don’t see them fighting that often, given that so many of their current problems are related more or less exclusively to being on opposite sides, a few issues when it comes to the integration process for the Sixers aside. But, when they do, I think that they can both be pretty brutal, usually Wash is the first one to reach out, and it usually takes Mira a little further to come along. (MIRA? HOLDING A GRUDGE? NOT TRUSTING SOMEONE?) But, eventually, they do work it out, and Mira in particular can’t really resist Wash when she’s in the “Please look at me” stage. Neither of them would ever, EVER admit it in the crossover, but she’s at Peyrol levels of being whipped. 

19. Where do they go on their first date?

See 22. Alternatively, they went to Boylan’s. Because of course. They went. To Boylan’s. It’s not like there are that many options available. Which means that Boylan ALSO knows about the two of them dating. It’s why his hair’s so big; it’s full of secrets. 

20. Where do they go on holiday?

Honestly, I know that the holiday options are TN are limited, but I love the thought of the two of them lying on a beach while their kids play in the waves, the two of them working on building a sandcastle together. A massive prehistoric shark comes near Sienna and Wash casually snipes it. (Mira finds herself oddly turned on by it.) You know. Everything that you’d expect.

 At some point, Wash’s comm device goes off. It’s Jim. They need her at the colony, something’s going horribly wrong. She turns it off. 

22. Where does their first kiss happen?

I’m probably going to roll with the Paradise Lost canon and say that Wash took Mira OTG like a fucking teenager, Bullshit Happened because it’s TN, they had to build a fire, there were Very Intimate Conversations about Wash and Mira and the future, and then they kissed. And then at some point in the night, a carno tried to attack Mira and, without a second thought, Wash took it down. Romantically. She would always wonder whether that was a good idea, after the fact. Whether, if she knew what she would later know, if she would have let it. Privately, she knows that she wouldn’t have. 

23. Where is their favourite place to be together? 

Command Center. For more reasons than one and for more definitions of the term “together.” 

26. Why do they need to have a serious chat?

THESE TWO? NEED A SERIOUS CHAT? I CANNOT. IMAGINE. WHY. THEY WOULD. NEED. A SERIOUS. C H A T . 

To begin with, the whole “You lied to me for months at LEAST and made me believe you didn’t love me when it was over” thing. And the whole “You support an actual military dictator who fucking KILLED SOMEONE and there’s no way that I can believe that you didn’t know” thing. And the whole “I have no idea why you’re even doing this - what do you mean ��your daughter needs it’ WHAT DAUGHTER?” thing. And the whole “You could do so much better than being brushed aside for Taylor’s new boytoy, let me express this in a nonviolent, healthy way” thing. And...

Basically, this is why they should have spent that whole ep tied to one another instead of Taylor and Mira. 

27. Why do their friends get annoyed with them?

Elizabeth (understandably) does NOT trust Mira, and I don’t think she really understands the process that the two of them are going through even though she’s fundamentally enough a compassionate person that she’s obviously going to push for it. It just...takes a little while. 

28. Why do they get jealous?

I think that Mira’s jealous of Taylor, but it’s not a ROMANTIC kind of jealousy. I don’t think that she thinks that he and Wash are banging; she KNOWS Wash too well for that one. And she isn’t into DILFs. But that doesn’t change the fact that Wash has still chosen Taylor over her, and that STINGS. If the two of them actually were banging...it wouldn’t really impact that one way or another. What matters is who Wash is going to stand by at the end of the day, and unfortunately...it isn’t Mira. And on one hand, Mira always KNEW this would be the case, especially since Wash has history with Taylor, but on the other hand...she really, really wishes that it wasn’t. 

29. Why do they fall a little bit more in love?

The little moments of vulnerability. For two people who tend to be so good at putting on fronts, especially in Mira’s case (Wash HAS them, but she’s better at pretending that There’s Nothing Wrong as opposed to pretending that she doesn’t have any emotions at all), whenever they have those moments, it’s a big OH. Because they wouldn’t do that for ANYONE else, and they both realize it. Wash personally loves to try to (non creepily) wake up before Mira and watch her sleep for that reason alone, because she’s so UNGUARDED then.

30. Why does it work (or not work) between them? 

At the end of the day, they’re both highly competent and mission oriented people. When they’re not at each other’s throats, they work on the same wavelength, and they both have a HUGE amount of respect for one another’s abilities and can’t stand to see them wasted on their respective sides. They also both functionally WORK in a good cop/bad cop scenario, with Wash inspiring loyalty and Mira (generally) inspiring fear in the people under their respective commands. IF circumstances had been different, they would have been damn effective co-leaders of Terra Nova. They’re really one of those cases where there’s nothing in their personalities that is really keeping them apart; it’s all in the circumstances, and if the circumstances changed....

[comastoast]

@onlydrowning yOU ASKED FOR THIS you WILDN i HOPE UR PREPARED FOR THIS CHAOS // this took me so fuckdamn long im so sorry there’s a bunch under here & it’s long i hope u enjoy:tm:

╰ ☾ ⛧⌒*｡ daisy eden

( MILO SHEPARD, Nick Jonas, 24. ) Okay so FIRST THINGS FIRST SHE CUTE AS HELL and I was reading her lil bio and the first person who came to mind was Milo because she’s a trauma nurse and I don’t know if she works with children but if she did she could be the one who requests child services who sends Milo to take care of the kids and it’s not so much romantic as it is just sort of therapeutic in a sense because they can discuss the patient with each other not like too deep but enough that they kind of have a loop hole in the sense that they can ask each other for advice with situations and that turns into getting coffee to talk about patients / cases to lunches to after work drinks to dinners and they just accidentally while trying to do their work and seeing eachother on their very limited time off or maybe in passing constantly blossomed into this bond between them that they doNT EVEN REALIZE IS THERE UNTIL THEY’RE LITERALLY LIKE STANDING THERE LOOKING AT EACHOTHER LIKE WHEN IN THE FUC DID THESE FEELINGS JUST SUDDENLY CHIME IN who IS THIS person i know their coffee order and their history and their family and this is wild who are you who am i are we dating????

( OPHELIA MONROE, Billie Lourd, 22 ) Ophie does a lot of charity work and events and maybe she’s around the hospital a lot because when she’s not at work she comes to visit with the children / hang out with them and her mother is also a doctor so she kind of gets to not HANG OUT IN THE HOSPITAL BC THATS WEIRD but she eats in the lunch room and maybe Ophelia’s mother is actually Daisy’s brother’s doctor unless you have it canon her father is bUT U KNOW COLLEAGUE but Daisy and Ophie sometimes eat lunch together or she’s a nice shoulder to lean on you know cute girl squad vibes

 ╰ ☾ ⛧⌒*｡ CHARLIE??????????

( JACKSON ALLEN, Daniel Sharman, 23 ) 👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀 we actively already talked about this but im half putting this here to remind you and half remind me because i SPACED ON THIS STARTER BUT WE ALREADY KNOW WHATS GONA GO DOWN HERE WITH JAC K & CHARLIE  AIGHT BYE

╰ ☾ ⛧⌒*｡ darla “dee” petrov

( NOLAN GRAND, Aaron Tveit, 25 ) WHY. DIDN’T. U. TELL. ME. U. HAD. AN. ANASTASIA. I WANT THAT WHOLE PLOT FOR NOLAN OR MCFREAKIN AN Y OF MY MUSES IT COULD WORK WITH HEATH TOO BUT LIKE WHY. AM I JUST NOW LEARNING THIS BEAUTIFUL NEWS??????????????? DO YOU HAVE THIS YET?????? DO YOU WANT IT BC I MCFREAKIN DO 

╰ ☾ ⛧⌒*｡ bella kelli

( KAZ REMY, Vanessa Morgan, 21 ) SO with Bella’s whole history and her super famous family I can 100% see Kaz like obsessed or a big fan and I don’t know if Bella would join a sorority or anything but either way Kaz could play it cool like she wouldn’t be DRAMATIC FAN GIRL but she’d know about the show and maybe Bella is like yeah no it was a bad time and then the girls become hardcore best friends and just squad goals on Kaz’s instagram OR EVEN DRAMATICALLY GO THE OPPOSITE WAY like Bella Hates Kaz bc she’s everything she tried to escape and once upon a time Kaz was the popular girl in college and she hates Bella bc she kind of stole that spotlight BUT EITHER WAY IS COOL FOR ME

╰ ☾ ⛧⌒*｡ zoey dutchess

( MAGS O’SULLIVAN, Saorise Ronan, 23 ) I can definitely see them at LGBTQ+ events and spending late nights working on posters but then Mags is like listen we’ve been working enough and you’re always studying why don’t we go out for once and they explore boston, mass which isn’t too far from harvard and they have this amazing day of just shooting the shit and getting a little shwasty and mags is just like lil bit heart eyes but it’s cool she keeps hERSELF CALM COOL & COLLECTED FOR SURE

( CHARLES “CHAZ” PALMER, Zac Efron, 26 ) He’s Not An Official Muse because I forgot to add him when I was adding temps but bitch just give me a frat boy / rich Harvard asshole who is only there because his dad donated a lot of mcfuckin money and he’s been there for way too long and one day he’s walking across campus and he sees Zoey studying or something and he immediately busts his way into her life but she’s not HAVING it she’s like listn you’re just some dumb idiot and you’re not taking advantage of being here ur fucking DUMB and it’s CLICHE BUT IT CAN HAVE SOME DEPTH AND A LOT OF FUN TWISTS AND TURNS OK

╰ ☾ ⛧⌒*｡ vincent montgomery

( COLBY JAMES, Sofia Black D’elia, 20 ) Okay But Imagine Colby is such a fucking fangirl for the misfits band and she’s gone to every single concert that was within reasonable distance then one day she actually wins a stupid talk-show radio contest and gets backstage tickets to the upcoming show & honestly the entire day turns into a massive mess for Colby like when she gets there it’s super late and the lines insanely long and she missed the first few songs then other super rich backstage VIPs are shitty toward her and she just gets more and more angry until she literally snaps and punches one of the girls RIGHT IN THE FACE and maybe it happens AS Vince is walking by or maybe a band member and someone’s trying to break up the fight and Colby technically has to be kicked out but wowza this is getting lame and cliche but maybe Vincent is here asf for the vibe she’s kinda kicking off and invites her to the bus and this would hella be that cliche shit and i realize now that im done writing it this sucks but pls just xoxo love me

╰ ☾ ⛧⌒*｡ maddox white

( BECK CONNOLLY, Elizabeth Olsen, 29 ) Beck isn’t exactly the most sentimental person but I can imagine her being close with Maddox for a long time like maybe they were childhood friends & they lost touch for a while / when he was with his girlfriend who broke his heart because Beck honestly didn’t like her vibe but didn’t want to be that friend so she tried to give him space then when they broke up I can aggressively and disgustingly see Beck writing Maddox a literal movie script or SOMETHING ANYTHING because that’s how she tries to like show affection with her words and producing work and she’d definitely write him a movie as a literal disney prince who has hardships and deals with a lot of bad shit but he’s actually a really good dude in her eyes and just it’s an animation piece and she’s like ‘listen no one even really has to know its you but i want your voice for the prince i won’t take no for an answer’ so she brings him out to LA so it’s just a lot of bonding & working on his movie & deep talks & chinese food netflix & legit chill just good VIBES you feel me??

╰ ☾ ⛧⌒*｡ samuel wells

( OPHELIA MONROE, Billie Lourd, 22 ) Do you hear the cliche bad influence plot because I do but not like samuel is aggressively pushing anything on Ophelia as much as it is Ophie is beginning to experiment because she was hanging out with all the wrong people and she already has that ‘im a druggie’ look because of the bags under her eyes but those are only there because she’s drained from staying up until 4 AM the night before so one night while she’s hanging out with her friends she meets Sam and he’s doing drugs so she’s like I mean I might as well try right??? and she like gravitates toward him for multiple reasons ( like a. he’s attractive b. he seems to have a general idea of what he’s doing c. she’s never seen him before the list goes on ) and this is lowkey just how it starts it can go down a variety of toxic ass paths like we could even set up a future verse where he actively got sober and so did Ophelia and they only could get sober when they were apart but then they get together again and they’re getting all kinds of fucked up and like they dig each other but the fuckin TOXICITY of their relationship bc they can only really feel like their old selves when they’re high & they’re eachothers triggers but it’s a nice ass trigger like they’re here af for this trigger

╰ ☾ ⛧⌒*｡ dakota heart

( LENNON, Jaira Burns, 23 ) Put. Dakota. On. Lennon’s. Youtube. Like he aggressively can be a constant guest on the show & they’re like best friends & lenny is the one who hooks him up with as many people as she can get her hands on / they’re wingmen and just good times good vibes storytime videos & challenges & she supports the living fuc outta him modeling like she’s aggressively ‘BOI U GOT THAT NICE ASS FACE ND THE BOD THOSE GIRLS OUT THERE GONNA WILD OUT FOR U lemme help with ur make up ur looking a lil pale today’ or something just like AGGRESSIVE PLATONIC SUPPORT OF HIS SUCCESS

[elizabeth-midford-who-blog]

salty asks: 1, 9, 10, 20, 26

Long post ahead.

These are all answered by the admin, if you want Elizabeth to answer these too she will. I certainly will be happy to break character, as I love breaking the fourth wall.

1. What OTPs in your fandom(s) do you just not get?*

Well, this is going to be obvious as to why with the answer to the next question. However, I absolutely will never understand this fandom’s favourite ship SebaCiel. One, Ciel is a thirteen year old boy and Sebastian looks like a twenty six year old man. It would be pedophilia for one-. (A lot of people like to tell me the age of consent in Japan is 13 so it’s okay, but there are actually laws throughout all of Japan in different parts- the override the first law- saying women must be at least the age of 16 and a male partner must be 18). Not that it matters, because they live in London and the age restriction there is I believe either 16 or 18, and YES even in the 1800’s it was wrong for a grown adult to have a relationship with another under the age of 16.

Besides pedophilia, because that topic is way too fucking touchy. Their relationship would be completely toxic and unhealthy. Sebastian only wants Ciel for his soul, even Yana Toboso has said Sebastian would never love a human. He’d only ever be with Ciel to toy with his emotions, to make him THINK he loves him (if Ciel had feelings for him), sexually USE him and make him trust him, just to get his soul. Sebastian would never love a human or someone weaker than himself, someone like Claude or even the Undertaker would be a much more higher option. I don’t think he cares about gender, he’ll partner with anybody, but I believe they have to be of the Supernatural and just as or even stronger than him.

There’s plenty of more reasons, but I’m going to point out the obvious one. So if there are all these things here that should stop them from being shipped, that should stop anybody from romanticizing them- why is this here? Oh, because it’s fucking yaoi. That’s the only reason the ship exists, is because they both have a dick.

That’s just my opinion, I don’t give a fuck what anybody else likes, but that’s what I think of the ship. The same goes for Alois x Claude, Alois x Sebastian and Ciel x Claude.

I also don’t understand Undertaker x Vincent like- y'all realize if he’s related to Ciel (which is more than likely) he’s Ciel’s uncle or Grandfather? So then- the Undertaker is either Vincent’s brother or father. I can’t tell if people just forget that or if they don’t care. I don’t care what people ship, but nah-. Incest isn’t my deal.

9. Most disliked character(s)? Why?

So uh-. This is probably gonna be a long one just like the first one. The character I hate the most in the entire series is Sebastian Michaelis. He’s a fucking piece of shit dude. Sure, he’s a wonderful meme, and I actually used to be hopelessly obsessed with him. Until, I met a Ciel role player (that I’ve now been dating for two years in real life), and we began roleplaying and eventually made a ship with their Ciel and my OC. The more I role-played with them and the more of my old feelings for Ciel came back, the more I began to realize that Sebastian is a piece of shit.

I will say, my initial hate for Sebastian has to be the scene with him and Ciel in Book of Circus when they’re killing the Baron Kelvin and The Joker. Ciel, having an actual PTSD attack, happened to catch Sebastian’s attention. He is actually drooling by his mouth, probably ready to vomit everywhere because of the PTSD, and Sebastian-. You know what he does? He grabs his hands, tells him that all he has to do is call his name, to say it, and he can order him whatever he wants. Ciel, thinking he is ACTUALLY in that place he was three years ago, probably warped to believe he was making the decision to form the contract again. That’s what happens in PTSD, for some people, their reality is mixed with the memory of where their ‘trigger’ or PTSD comes from.

So what I’m saying is, Ciel had no clue what he was doing in that moment. Now you can tell me Sebastian snapped him out of it, but no, he didn’t. He encouraged Ciel’s awful PTSD episode, which I’m not sure if Sebastian knew what that was I’ll give him that, and he ordered Sebastian to burn the place down. My theory will always stand that Ciel thought he was burning down the place he had been held in for a month, he was killing those people that hurt him, not the children because like I said-. He forgot where he was. Now, I know Sebastian 'asked him if he was sure’, but no one realizes Sebastian asking him, 'ARE YA SURE?’ Is gonna break his episode.

So why do I think Sebastian did that? Sebastian used Ciel’s vulnerability to his own gain, to make the contract stronger. He used his suffering for his own agenda, just like the demon he is. He is an asshole, he doesn’t care about Ciel’s feelings, he only does it because he has to. Which he can’t be blamed for saying that IS his nature, but I don’t care what’s in his nature, because he’s an evil demon. Isn’t that a good enough reason to hate him?

Ciel deserves better.

10. Most disliked arc? Why?

Honestly, there isn’t a single arc I disliked. I love every single one of them. My favourite probably being the school arc which I am so excited for. However, if I had to choose one I wasn’t interested in as much as the others-. The green witch arc? I don’t know, I loved that arc as well, but I suppose when I think of the manga, that’s arc I think of last. It’s not bad at all, it’s very good, but I guess if I had to choose.

20. What is the purest ship in the fandom?

This is a very hard one for me because surprisingly I don’t have many ships. I think maybe- I don’t know. I wanna say Grell x William or Vincent x Rachel. They’re both so perfect to me, like-? Vincent and Rachel obviously are canon, and Grell and William-. ;; They’re adorable together, especially all the fan art and fan fiction of them, it’s literally the purest ship. I would say Ciel x Elizabeth as well, they’re a very pure ship, but I also have mixed feelings as of late due to the current arc. Anything before that though? Absolutely.

26. Most shippable character?

Honestly-. Either Beast from Book of Circus or Grell. I ship Beast with fucking Dagger, Joker and Sebastian-. Even though I hate Sebastian, I just love the love hate thing. Grell is paired with so many, Undertaker, Ronald, William, Sebastian. Although Grell and William are my favourites, those exist too. Mey-Rin and Elizabeth are very shippable as well. Mey-Rin with Sebastian, either Bard or Finny, DEFINITELY NINA HOPKINS (I ship hard), Ran Mao. Elizabeth with Ciel, Alois (in my opinion, that’s gross), Sullivan ( ;^) that’s some good shit to me).

However, the most out of all of these, probably Grell.

[homoregalis]

Ryder Appreciation! Q & A

So, I just finished for the semester, and it’s time to show some freaking Mass Effect love! I know I still have the 30 day challenge I started TWO FREAKING YEARS ago, and I really want to get to that, but I keep having a combination of life, computer crashes, and the like getting in the way. So, for the time, I’m going to answer some ME:A questions about my Ryder! Dunno where these came from, but I’ma answer all of them!

Ryder Character Questions:

1. Your favourite quote

- “I am Pathfinder. Rah bah bah bah!” in response to the Kett guy on Eos getting all lippy on the radio

2. Share a screenshot of your Ryder:

3. Full Name?

- Elizabeth Miriam Ryder

4. Origin/Meaning of the name

- Nothing particularly. Elizabeth and Miriam are both generic abrahamic names

5. How did you come up with the name and why did you chose it?

- Elizabeth is a name that works for anyone, to me at least. It can be high class or working class, royalty or the great unwashed masses, doesn’t matter, it sounds right. Miriam as a middle name was an aesthetic choice, as most last names like Ryder, that are so short, feel like they flow better off of a middle name to me.

6. Did Ellen or Alec chose the name for your Ryder? Or did your Ryder chose the name?

- Ellen. Alec named Scott. Ellen’s side of the family is of European-Canadian extraction, where as Alec is Asian-American having been born and raised on the continental side of the Sierra Nevadas, right in their foothills.

7. What pronouns does your Ryder use?

- Elizabeth has never cared much, but uses traditionally feminine pronouns.

8. Gender identity

- Female, although she doesn’t ascribe any particular meaning to that. She does what she wants, and by definition it’s feminine because she’s female, as far as she’s concerned.

9. Sexuality

- Bisexual, with a preference for female partners.

10. Date and Place of Birth

- 21st April, 2161 in Hong Kong.

11. Manner of Birth (Was Alec there? How long did it take? Were there any complications?)

- Unsurprisingly, Alec was off doing something or other and generally being a distant, if loving, individual. The births were reasonably easy, although Scott required careful rotation to stop him getting tangled in his umbilical

12. First Words?

- “No!” Turns out Ryder developed a distaste for celery at an early age, and wasn’t afraid to tell anyone about it.

13. Is your Ryder the older or younger sibling?

- (In line with ME:A canon) Older, by a few minutes. Although if you asked Scott he’d just say they were twins.

14. Does your Ryder have siblings? (CanonTwin and more)

- Just her and her “little” brother Scott.

15. Zodiac Sign?

- Taurus the bull, in the Year of the rooster.

16. Does your Ryder have a catchphrase?

- Only if cursing under your breath counts. That and, well, she’ll mutter “Funtastic” when she gets frustrating news too, I suppose.

17. Dominant Hand? Or is your Ryder ambidextrous?

- She’s fairly capable of a lot of things with both hands, like shooting or using scissors or the like, but is definitely right-hand dominant, and favours her right hand, particularly for fine tasks, like writing..

18. What does their autograph look like?

- “E. Rsquiggle” is probably the best description.

19. Describe your Ryders handwriting:

- A sloppy pseudo-cursive. She links her letters, but isn’t super consistent, and will not infrequently capitalize words in odd places, especially on words that start with “h”.

20. Height

- 5′ 9″, or about 175 cm.

21. Weight

- 170-185 pounds, or about 77-84 Kg

22. Bloodtype

- A-negative, from her mother’s side.

23. Any birthmarks that stand out?

- she has a couple of noticeable moles, one larger on her right hip, and another just above her right butt-cheek. Both feel consistent with the surrounding skin, and both are quite round in shape, looking like little more than spots of brown skin.

24. Hair (Length, Colour, Does your Ryder change it on different occasions? Describe it, share some screenshots or if you’re an artist maybe draw your Ryder with different hairstyles?)

- She tends to wear it relatively short, especially when on some kind of off-world assignment, but does grow it out in her down time, with it always ending up in a pony tail tied at the base of her skull. Elizabeth thinks it’s really pretty when it’s braided while long, but can only wear it braided if someone does it for her. Her hair is a black colour.

25. Eye Colour

- Green-Brown, leaning towards brown.

26. Do they look like their parents? Are there more resemblances with Ellen, Alec or a completely different relative?

- Scott inherited Ellen’s more Caucasian look. Elizabeth takes after her father, with his Asian ancestry clear in her features.

27. Do they like the way they look? Would they change anything about them if they had the chance? What would they change and why?

- Elizabeth is fairly comfortable with her body. She occasionally wishes she was a little taller, and had a slightly more curvaceous back-side, but generally she rocks what she’s got, and is damn happy to do so.

28. Any scars? How did they get them?

- She has the visible remnant of a well-healed scar on the left side of her face, from damage she got in a fire-fight with Batarian raiders, and a small scar on her lower lip from where a particularly feral street cat swatted at her as a girl.

The burn scar in evidence. The lip scar requires much... closer inspection.

29. Somatotype?

- She doesn’t know or care, and neither do I?

30. Do they wear make up? Are they good at it? Do they apply it for routine or because they have fun doing it?

- Elizabeth will wear a light foundation, and lipstick when on a date, but generally avoids make up else-wise. She’ll rock the messy make-up look for a night at the clubs with the girls though. Day to day, she doesn’t care to wear make up.

An atypical night out, no eyeliner in sight.

31. What’s your Ryders diet like? Did they listen to Lexis advice?

- Growing up with a busy mother and an absentee/distant father, the Ryder twins learned to appreciate Hong Kong’s street food, and often found their selves eating to-go from local restaurants, leading to a healthy life-long obsession with Chinese cuisine. Ryder eats plenty of veggies, usually stir-fried just enough to char at the edges, but be crisp and fresh else-wise, by choice. Lexi was preaching to the choir.

32. Favourite food and is it still available in Andromeda?

- She loves Mapo Dofu, and while soybeans and tofu were a few of the first food crops to be planted, the szechuan pepper is pretty far down the list. She also really likes Char Siu Bao, but they’re hard to come by too. Scallion Pancakes though are on the menu, much to her relief.

33. Weird food combinations they like?

- Mayo on her hot dogs.

34. How is their relationship with food? Do they enjoy cooking and eating or do they just see it as necessary for survival?

- Elizabeth loves cooking, and finds it tremendously cathartic. She also tends to stress eat though, and tries to be mindful of that. But she loves food, and all the attendant cultural and social elements that accompany a good meal.

35. Fitness (Any exercises? Yoga? Working out?)

- Kicking Kett ass, and a good general exercise regime. She enjoys boxing, and spends a lot of time with the punching bag, as well as the exercise bike where she can watch old tv shows.

36. Does your Ryder take any medications?

- She has medication for migraines and and inhaler as needed for asthma.

37. Any allergies?

- She has worse than usual seasonal allergies, and reacts roughly to furry animals when she first meets them. She’s also been chock-full of allergy meds since arriving in Andromeda, with her allergies going into over-drive around all these alien lifeforms.

38. Is your Ryder neuroatypical? How do they deal with it? Did the events in Andromeda affect their mental health in any way? Does your Ryder use stimming methods?

- Elizabeth has ADD/ADHD and suffers from dyslexia. She has a tendency to pace, and to play with her hands, such as touching her finger tips to her thumb in sequence repeatedly, when she’s having an off day.

39. Wardrobe (What clothes does your Ryder prefer? Did they take any clothes with personal history with them to Andromeda?)

- Elizabeth is decidedly a t-shirt/tank top and shorts girl, and took a decent selection of nice every-day cloths with her (well, as nice as luggage space for Andromeda allowed) as well as a pair of high-heels, a nice dress for polite company, and a couple of all purpose skirts She’s not a big bra person, although she has a couple for dressing up, with matching bottoms. She generally favours boyshorts. She also has the Andromeda issued wardrobe of socks (knee length in her case), shoes, trousers, long sleeve shirts and jackets, which keep her covered for the elements, and round out her wardrobe.

40. Any Accessoires they always take with them?

- Elizabeth has a 4,000 year old Asari family heirloom ring, given to her by a close Asari colleague when she got into the Andromeda initiative, so that her Asari friend knew that some part of her family had made it to another galaxy. Elizabeth wears it on a length of paracord around her neck at all times.

41. Stuff they always carry with them? (Nail File, Earbuds, Gum etc)

- A Flashlight. As a child, Elizabeth was particularly uncomfortable in the dark, and Ellen got her a a little pocket flash light so she would always have a light with her. Elizabeth kept it up, although these days her flashlight has a crenelated bezel that could crack a Turian’s face plate.

42. Any piercings/tattoos? When and why did they get them?

- Elizabeth used to have three eye-brow piercings above her right eye, but never wears jewelry on assignments, and so hasn’t worn them in years. She also has a mosaic of inter-connected tattoos on her left shoulder and upper arm, part of an eventual sleeve, documenting major firsts, like the first time she left Earth, the first Prothean dig she joined, and most recently, being one of the first humans to leave the milky way, which she got before they left, figuring they’ll either make it, or die trying, and that no-one would know her hubris if they failed.

43. What’s their hygiene like? Do they shower after every mission?

- Ryder showers daily and does all the usual hygiene maintenance, but otherwise doesn’t go the extra mile. If she’s feeling lazy on a weekend, she’ll just stay in and not worry about showering and all that, but other wise, keeps clean enough.

44. Scent?

- Pretty generic. A little musky when she’s been sweating her skin off doing something, and back when she helped secure digs, she’d often smell of that weired burned-metal/steak smell of hard vacuum, or dusty from spending time in the archaeology labs chatting with her fellow nerds. Out in Andromeda, she’s finding it a nightmare to not have a slight smell of stale sweat everywhere she goes with the long hours she’s spending in her envirosuit, often days at a time.

45. Do they use any perfume/cologne?

- Occasionally a light perfume for more formal occasions, usually something lightly floral, but otherwise, she’s a speed-stick and go kinda gal.

46. Voice?

- A light, pleasant contralto, with a tendency to speak a little sing-songy, her words a little lyrical.

47. Accents/Dialects?

- Her English is generally neutral, the result of spending her early life in Hong Kong, and later in Canada and else where. There are clear hints though of the lingering Hong Kong accent with its subtle British notes. Her Cantonese is clearly from Hong Kong though, and her French sounds mostly Parisian, although it’s clear there’s an outside influence, the result of it being her second language (after her joint mother-tongues of English and Cantonese)

48. Impediments?

- Elizabeth suffers from intermittent stuttering, although a life-time of experience with it has made it much less common in her speech, and it only surfaces as much any more when she’s upset or angry.

49. Are they good at singing?

- Her voice is sweet, but mediocre, although she can just about hold a tune. Much more a sing-along voice than an opera voice.

50. Describe their laughter:

- Elizabeth’s laughter is usually loud and full. Outside of that it could be a snigger, a bark, a chortle, a giggle, a snort, or just about anything, although she tends more towards bursts of full-on belly laughter.

51. Languages?

- English, Cantonese, and French.

52. Did they enjoy their time in school? Were they a good student?

- Elizabeth would have hated school if it wasn’t for her brother Scott being there to make it bearable. They’re both quite smart, but Elizabeth never enjoyed the everyday grind, and was less outgoing than Scott, and so didn’t socialize as much. Having her brother there gave her someone to engage with who was smart enough to keep up, helped her socialize a lot more easily, and made school doable for Elizabeth. Grades wise, she did excellently on tests and papers, but often only did just enough on busy work, and so had good, but not stellar, grades.

53. Do they swear a lot?

- Frequently, yes.

54. Temperament:

- Although prone to anger and frustration, Elizabeth takes pains to be professional and rational in her work, and to give people the benefit of the doubt. She rants and raves in private, but with friends and loved ones takes the time to try and be supportive, and to have patience even when something is trying, not always with success. Professionally she channels her tendency towards anger into righteous indignation and a vengeful zeal to achieve in spite of those who cross her, if at all possible achieving at their expense in the process.

55. Is your Ryder religious? Did the events in Andromeda made your Ryder question their faith?

- Elizabeth says she was “born Atheist”, religion never being a major component of her family life, and she herself never seeing the need for a god in a universe where science, day by day, kept peeling back the boundaries of the unknown. Andromeda just emphasized that, with the speed with which the new mysteries were being solved using good, old fashion, mortal science. One of her favorite quotes is “Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?” by Douglas Adams.

56. Their opinion on politics/political party?

- Elizabeth understands and sympathizes with the Earth-first stances of some parties, believing that the Systems alliance is sometimes too eager to seek the approval of the council. At the same time, she believes that Humanity’s place is as a major member of the Galactic political scene, and that growing ties with other races is essential. She particularly supports growing ties with the Turians, who have been at times the worst critic of and best ally of the Human cause in turn. With many younger Turians, and a fair few veterans of the first contact war, seeming to support closer ties with humanity, who they see in many ways as a kindred species, particularly since Humanity attained a council seat for Commander Shepard’s heroic actions during the attack on the Citadel (to Ryder) only a few years ago, she feels that her instinct towards galactic integration being vindicated. She supports the tight interplanetary trade regulation that the Systems Alliance maintains, on the basis that Human industry such as Hahne-Kedar would get crushed by the likes of the Elkoss Combine or Elanus Risk Control if they had to compete in the Earth Market the same as they do interplanetarily. It would be impossible to establish the high-end market segment they have if they weren’t able to found their sales earnings in human space. Her view is to look at the suffering that globalized deregulation caused to people in the 21st century, and use that as a lesson for future trade and economic policy. Ryder is also generally in favor of greater recognition for member races of the Citadel accords in formal decision making processes, although she supports limiting executive functions to the most populace races out of a pragmatic desire to avoid grid-lock.

57. Morality?

- She tends towards idealism with a healthy leavening of cynicism. She believes that sometime the most virtuous act, the act that causes the least suffering to the innocent, and which most rapidly solves a problem, is the use of force. She supports Alliance military action in the Verge, and proportionate response against Batarian forces and anti-slavery raids into Batarian space, as well as the expansion of the fleet to make it clear to Arahot that Humanity can and will crush them if pressed. So, she’s in the “speak softly, and carry a big stick” school of morality. That you should seek idealistic goals, but do so with an eye towards realism and pragmatism.

58. Assuming the Renegade and Paragon alignment still existed in Andromeda, how would your Ryder react? What would your Ryder chose?

- Broadly Paragon, with a dash of Renegade. Likely more Renegade than Shepard in ME1 or ME3, and about as Renegade as ME2, on account of having to deal with a broader range of galactic society, not just its best and brightest.

59. Etiquette:

- Elizabeth tends to be polite and formal with strangers, but is usually quick to ease up on formality after meeting someone, although the manners never quite go away, even when shit-talking her closest friends.

60. Attitude:

- She has little patience for people who are disingenuous, callous, or generally incapable of pulling their head out their ass and showing common courtesy. Outside of that, she’s fairly laid back and polite.

61. Outlook on life (pre and post andromeda)

- Generally positive. She sees Human space, and the council now that they’ve gone through the shock of Saran’s attack, as moving in the right direction, and she sees the broad appeal of the Andromeda Initiative to be enheartening. Since arriving in Andromeda, she’s felt affirmed in her positivity with the general goodness of people, although she’s angry that the shittiest people seem to gravitate at the top.

62. Any vices?

- Plenty ;) rich food, good quality rum, and Merino wool are just some of the more public.

63. Virtues?

- A very strong sense of right and wrong, and a tendency to give people the benfit of the doubt, as long as they aren’t just trying to save their own skin.

64. Do they live after a specific motto/philosophy?

- Not really?

65. Priorities in life and job:

- Surviving in Andromeda, getting a date with Vetra, and settling down somewhere with a view.

66. What motivates your Ryder?

- A hunger for new horizons and a chance to spread life beyond the paltry borders of our little galaxy.

67. Self Confidence?

- Miles of it, although, not with out doubt.

68. Self Control?

- Enough, although she does stress eat, and can like a drink too much.

69. Self Esteem?

- Lots, although she can feel that failures in her mission are her fault, even when they aren’t, and to take responsibility for things she didn’t have control over.

70. What would absolutely crush your Ryders confidence?

- Nothing, short maybe of getting her team killed.

71. Any quirks?

- I mean, yes. She’s a human, not a Geth. The most notable is that she has intermittent twitches around her eyes, especially her left.

72. Did your Ryder have any hobbies before Andromeda? Are they still able to maintain them on the Tempest? Did they found new things to do?

- Well, archaeology. She also enjoyed gaming, particularly racing and sports games that support split-screen multiplayer so she can thrash Scott.

73. Closet Hobbies

- Light BDSM.

74. Guilty Pleasures

- The occassional Cigarette, cheescake, ecchi manga.

75. Habits

- Always goes to the bathroom first thing after waking up, hates being awake until she’s had some caffeine so she bee-lines for tea, or caffeinated soda, or a caffeinated energy drink. Always hits the exercise bike up before bed to listen or watch something without just sitting on her ass.

76. Desires

- She’s beginning to want to settle down and start a family. Also, on the down-low, she wishes Drack would adopt her as another grand-daughter.

77. Wishes

- She’d like it if the initiative’s textiles equipment would get up and running fully so she could get some summer dresses.

78. Traumas

- Nothing especially. Her Mother’s death, her Father’s death, and her Brother’s injury are the big ones. Being treated a little as an outcast on account of only being part-Asian when she was young in Hong Kong, fitting neither into the local community, not the immigrant community.

79. Worries

- Plenty, but mostly transient.

80. Any nervous ticks? Do they bite their nails, chew their hair? Do they suffer from the shaky leg syndrome?

- Her legs bounce when she’s restless, and she looks around her surroundings a lot more when nervous. If she’s standing, she’ll bounce slightly, but noticeably, on the balls of her feet.

81. Soothers?

- A nice cool bed.

82. Soft Spots

- Kittens. When Turians do that thing with their mandibles. Anyone who cooks.

83. Accomplishments

- Becoming Human Pathfinder. Settling a bunch of colonies. Her work on archaeological digs, and coming the top end of her Alliance class are both points of pride for her.

84. What do they consider their greatest achievement?

- Eos.

85. What do they consider their greatest failure?

- Alec dying. She feels there must have been something more she could do.

86. Earliest Memory?

- Having noodles from a little bowl as a girl at dinner with her mother and brother.

87. Fondest Memory?

- Seeing space for the first time.

88. What are their dreams like?

- Elizabeth rarely dreams, but when she does, her dreams tend to be quite realistic. She does frequently suffer from fever dreams when sick though, and those are quite disorienting.

89. Happiest moment before their departure to Andromeda?

- When she first got deployed to secure a Prothean dig site. The two things that fascinated her as a child were space and the depth of history in the cultures around her, particularly in Hong Kong and, when she studied there, in Paris. She always knew space was going to become part of her life, but finding out she was going to get to reach out and see, first hand, the uncovering of a truly mysterious past in a Prothean ruin, discovering mind-boggling technological wonders that were 50,000 years old already, that really got to her.

90. Happiest moment in Andromeda:

-The first time she returned to Eos and saw it bustling after all the failures that came before.

91. Most valuable possession?

- SAM. She’s bonded with him in a way that’s impossible to describe, and already in the very short time she’s had him, she knows she’d find loosing him unbearable.

92. Do they collect anything?

- Misfit crew members and rocks. Elizabeth loved rocks as a kid, and found them fascinating, and she has ever since. She had to leave most of her collection behind, but smuggled a couple of the choicer small ones along. She didn’t know her father had a special rock until they arrived in Andromeda. Kinda made her feel a little closer to him.

93. Humour?

- Dry, dark, and cynical. The “worse”, often the better, as long as the joke is well crafted.

94. Likes

- I mean, lots of things? Misty rainy days are pretty far up there, as are cool sheets after a long day, and hot cocoa.

95. Dislikes

- Bad manners and disregard for basic niceness.

96. Favourite things in life:

- Perry the Pyjak, because he’s adorable! Also, Kallo and Suvi’s general dorkiness. And how much Drack is a total goober around his grand-daughter. And generally people having a soft and tender side with the ones they care for.

97. Profile:

- She’s an all rounder, and loves using her biotics to blink through things. *Whoosh-pop!*

98. Preferred Weapons:

- A Mattock assault rifle with scope for distance, as a compromise between accuracy, weight, rate of fire, and ammo capacity, giving her both a ranged precision weapon as well as an acceptable weapon for close to medium range engagements if pushed. For closer up, a modified Hurricane submachine gun, and for medium engagements a modified phalanx pistol that auto-fabs explosive charges, allowing her to put a lot of damage down range quickly.

99. Describe their fighting style:

- Again, a bit generalist. In open engagements, she tries to keep her distance and focus from target to target, methodically picking them off, and generally prefers to keep enemies as far away as possible just so she takes fewer hits. In enclosed spaces, or when pushed, she jumps from target to target, using her biotics to throw and yank enemies about, and to generate a barrier so she can close and use her biotics to “melee” opponents, nevermind blinking about the place to disorient the enemy.

100. Speciality:

- Controlled Biotic pulls. She can capture multiple objects, and keep them captured for a long time. While her other skills are decent, her throw especially being quite potent, her skill at capturing objects in a controlled biotic field is a cut above the rest.

101. Favourite Squadmates:

- Vetra and Drack. While she can tolerate the others, she actively enjoys Drack-and-Vetra’s company. She finds Cora preachy, and too serious, to the extent it interferes with her ability to do her job in ‘Liz’s opinion; She finds Liam obnoxious, although generally competent, despite a tendency to not plan ahead; She finds Peebee childish and trying, having little time for her facade of “mystery”; She finds Jaal’s attitude to be superior, his people to be even more prone to blind bigotry than most milky-way races, and their collective assertion that their emotional openness is somehow empowering to be little more than an excuse to emotionally degrade each other without long term consequence, and while it might not be fair to lump Jaal in with his people, his general adherence to defending their stances seems to be unthinking enough to ‘Liz that she feels he’s contributing to culture that is inherently unaccepting of genuine dissent and disagreement.

102. How do they handle the Nomad?

- Like a pro. Elizabeth had extensive experience driving off-road under various planetary conditions with the Alliance, and the act of driving appeals to some nerdy core of her personality that enjoys the precision of the act, the engineering, and the knee quivering power.

103. How do they maintain their sleeping pattern?

- These days, with SAM’s help, although Elizabeth has struggled to maintain regular sleep patterns since childhood, often relying on strict regiments of alarms to wake, and prescribed medicine to sleep.

104. Any traditions they value?

- Far to many to list. While Elizabeth is a forward facing and thinking woman, she recognizes the importance of the past, and is prone to cherishing the small things from it, like analogue time-pieces, and cooking over fire. Particularly important to her are manners, simple basic manners. She feel that in day-to-day life, they take no true effort, and signify a general respect for your fellow beings,

105. Culture?

- Most of Elizabeth’s culture comes from Ellen and Alec’s generally western Earth background, but an early childhood in Hong Kong definitely gave ‘Liz an element of awareness of Asian cultures and history, as well as informing her own worldview and mindset, and she embraces facets of Asian cultures generally, from appreciating the reverence for the natural world in Shinto and the search for inner peace of Buddhism, to things much more simple, like the slight bow that accompanies every “thank you” that passes her lips.

106. Eating Habits:

- Generally healthy, but sometimes too much. Elizabeth has struggled with Stress eating throughout her life.

107. Any pets?

- Just Perry the Pyjak. She had, with her brother, a cat and a dog as a child, the cat in Hong Kong, where a house-pet was more realistic, and a dog in Canada, where the larger suburban environments made walking and playing with a pooch doable.

108. Work Ethic:

- She avoids it when she can, but if something grabs her eye, or will clearly have a real world impact, she’ll work at it efficiently and well.

109. Does your Ryder have a criminal record?

- A couple public intoxication charges from college, an indecent exposure charge, and a few vandalism charges from graffiti as a teen.

110. Degrees?

- Two bachelors, one in Anthropology with emphases in the application of archaeological methods and xeno-anthropological principles, and one in Political Science, with focus on modern galactic relations.

111. Who is your Ryders best friend on the Tempest?

- Kallo.

She find him so easy to talk to, and so nice. To be honest, she has a bit of a crush. Besides, he’s just the best to hug! Most of all, he’s sensitive and patient. He’s the only crew member Elizabeth feel like she doesn’t need to be strong for. It was something about the way he was cheerful and joking from the get go, but always professional. She felt and instant fondness and connection.

112. Does your Ryder have any role models?

- Elizabeth has a fondness for those who pushed frontiers. She always admired Norgay and Hillary for refusing to say who reached the summit first. Also the early astronauts. To her, those kinds of people, often possessed of a surprising humility in contrast to the grandeur of their achievements, people who went to the unknown places to do the notionally undoable are the manifestation of the human spirit.

113. Any heroes and/or mentors?

- Not particularly, although she approves of Commander Shepard’s pioneering course as a Spectre, and her bright optimism in an often cynical galaxy. Elizabeth still remembers when the press photos first released of Shepard’s crew receiving commendations, and how it was so diverse, so different from what anyone suspected. Turian shoulder-to-shoulder with Humans and a Krogan, a Quarian helping the galaxy despite the tremendous mistreatment most received in galactic society, and the Willaim’s sisters, their family name no longer mud because of their forbears, accepting the highest Alliance and Citadel commendations for bravery on behalf of their fallen sister.

114. What is their reputation in Andromeda?

- Broadly positive. She has a reputation for helping those who need it, and not believing any problem is too small. She also has a reputation for crushing the life force out of you with her biotic powers, or burying a bullet in your head from behind a rock outcropping if you get in her way, or cause undue ruckus, or generally want a fight. She’s well brutal to those she considers threats, and the word is spreading.

115. Do they have a strong opinion on pineapples on pizza?

- They do not have a strong opinion, but they approve of people eating what they enjoy. Elizabeth herself rarely has pizzas with pineapple, but doesn’t mind.

116. Ever stole something?

- Nothing important. Strictly speaking she broke galactic law by ferreting away a small Prothean artifact from a dig, a small piece of a shattered and tremendously damaged base relief.

117. Is your Ryder the kind of person to play pranks? If yes, what did they do?

- Not really. Elizabeth more enjoys word play. Although she does occasionally enjoy getting a rise out of people, and can be a little gadflyish

118. Any “classic” movies they love?

- Apollo 13, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Blasto Movies because they’re like a comedy-action James Bond, and Star Wars Excluding episodes I, XIII, and XIX. Turns out that most galactic cinema is trash. the galaxy lost its shit when Star Wars was re-released for galactic showings, and Elizabeth remembers seeing it in London where it was being shown in the original English, in a theater packed with aliens in the city on business. She swears the Turian ambassador was in the back row.

119. Your Ryder once uploaded a video that went viral. What was it about?

- Biotic gymnastics. She did an Uneven bars set without any bars in full combat gear while on deployment near the verge. Gave her a decent reputation for biotic skill.

120. Describe your Ryder in one vine

- No.

121. What tropes fit your Ryder?

- She feels like a Pint-Sized Powerhouse next to Drack and Vetra, a Brainy Brunette, an Action Girl, a Magic Knight, with Mind Over Matter skills, a real One-Woman Army, who tends towards the cross road of Good Is Not Nice and Good Is Not Soft when someone gets on her bad side. Oh, and she totally has a Violently Protective Girlfriend...

Vetra, in a peaceful moment between murdering Kett and other sundry villains.

122. Favourite Song?

- Just one? Uh, Spirit in the sky by Norman Greenbaum?

123. Do they play music in the nomad?

- Not normally. I mean, in and around the colonies, sure, but out in the wilds? Why play music and ruin the breath-taking awesomeness of the unknown?