#desandra/hc.

[womanlives]

character weakness dump, combat edition !

mcMerce is phenomenal at fighting dirty. Not so great at fighting fair. She can be outclassed quickly in terms of up-front strength and stamina. When it comes to long, drawn-out brawls, you've got the advantage. Check her pockets for knives before a fist fight, yeah? Oh, who am I kidding? You won't find 'em.

Red is so used to fighting creatures whose primary offense is magic that she forgets other threats exist. Like, say, bullets. The amount of times she's gone into a fight with her magic defenses on high only to be popped by a Glock is Too Damn High.

Desandra can't hit a cow from 25yards away. Biotic charge, babey. Consider her eyebrows perpetually singed because she's constantly getting caught in friendly biotic/combat explosions. Oops.

Shahrzad gets other people to fight for her. They're not always as reliable or capable as she'd like. Morons.

Sofia freezes up the second a gun's pointed at her.

Paloma is physically weak as shit, dude. Her skills are highly specialized and solely magically-inclined. She's not an all-rounder. Never has been. Get up close, and her throat's as easy to slit as anyone else's.

Combat is a very personal experience to Surra. She will always opt for a close-quarters takedown. She can be whittled down slowly but effectively if kept at constant range.

Vivienne perpetually operates at 90% for fear of attracting demons if she goes that extra mile.

Dinks only fights in videogames and ragequits if he loses, heyooooooooo ~

[womanlives]

SOME 🍂 RANDOM 🍂 FALL 🍂 CONTENT 🍂 LITERALLY  🍂 NOBODY  🍂 ASKED FOR (EXCLUDING MY MONKEY BRAIN)

Viktoria wears a ratty knitted sweater underneath her power armor to keep warm when the seasons slowly start to change in the Commonwealth. There’s a bunch of bloodstains on it because it was initially used to stem the bleeding of a nasty leg wound, but she’s kept it ever since. It’s ugly. Like, ugly. Like, so ugly, but someone sometime knit it with care and she’ll be damned if she’s letting it go to waste. 

Jake eats unattended Halloween pumpkins whole. Leave that shit on your porch and it’ll be gone the next morning. He does this indiscriminately but favors the ones that’ve been bleached so the local fauna won’t get sick from them. If there’s a candle or some electric light inside, he’ll eat that shit, too. One of his many names is the City-Eater (not hyperbole), so all this does is give him the wind. Red hates it. He eats her pumpkins, too. Carved or no. It’s all about sending a message.

Yvette thinks that having one day to give thanks is far too short and devotes the entire month of November to showering those she cares about (friends, ghouls, etc) with compliments, gifts, and surprise visits. It’s equal parts endearing and annoying. She tried to learn how to knit socks once, but after a dramatic incident several years ago, there are no knitting needles allowed in her household anymore. Her ghouls confiscate them upon entry.

Sometimes Death gets mistaken for a trick-or-treater on Hallow’s Eve. He is very flattered when people give him candy and say, “Nice mask, dude.” A random lucky child gets the entirety of Death’s spoils at the end of the night.

Desandra misses the seasons terribly. Around the time of year where it’d get colder on Earth, she cranks down the temperature of the captain’s cabin on the Normandy to simulate the brisk, autumn temperatures. It used to be manual, but as Joker and EDI learned her habits from ship data, they began to adjust it automatically for her according to preference. When not killing something, she likes to nestle down in blankets and study for the MCAT she fears she’ll never take. Her space hamster nestles with her and occasionally chews holes in the blanket. It’s peaceful. She doesn’t know what it’s like to feel ‘at home,’ but she does like the cold and the coziness it brings. Her favorite weather is snow.

[womanlives]

some lowkey ‘character-defining’ Concepts:

yvette is perpetually locked in an eternal struggle with an inner beast that wants to take complete control of her consciousness and force her to be the monster she knows she is.

red believes in the inherent goodness of the world, even if it must start and end with her. 

desandra resents humanity and the alliance military and the universe as a whole.

vivienne is terrified of her own magic and potential.

shahrzad is rib-shatteringly lonely.

surra is fucking wholesome. she loves life, though she doesn’t give danger and the risk of death the respect it deserves.

kara has a death wish. 

chakwas refuses to retire because her entire life has been about her job. without it she has nothing left: an empty home, no hobbies. no family.

jacob taylor is determined to be there for anyone in need, but he’ll settle for being to someone what he always wished his father would be to him.

galatea never asked to be turned from stone to flesh. she struggles greatly to cope with her newfound sentience. she is bitter and doesn’t know how to show it.

hawke is a lyrium addict. she self-sabotages. there is hope for her recovery.

oghren is an alcoholic. there is very little for his. 

not a day goes by the wynne doesn’t think of her child and wish bitterly that she didn’t fight harder to keep him. she does not take the feeling of helplessness healthily or lightly after that.

aveline feels like she could’ve done more. like she could always do more.

viktoria wants to matter. to someone or something. she doesn’t care.

and every single one of them has the potential for growth. (ᵕ ᵕ⁎)

[womanlives]

NEWAYS ! i’m gonna be referring to my shepard as des from now on bc i may turn her from shep into a mass effect oc bc who the fuck knows but also i have strong feelings about des’ propensity for violence/lack thereof and here they are  

desandra will never physically instigate a fight. ever. she will verbally goad if she wants to get violent, but she will never, ever throw the first punch. the rare exception to this is when she is triggered, and she’s only ever been triggered that badly twice before in her life. she has insane self-control.

this is intentional. whenever des fights, des fights to kill. she disconnects. if someone engages with her, she does not back down until the threat is eliminated (they’re not moving/dead) or someone she trusts pulls her away. 

she is incredibly desensitized to violence. she’s been slated for this shit ever seen she was born (illegally) on earth. this is how the rules have been her whole life. there’s no warning with her. she’ll go from happily joking with you to breaking your neck if you take a go at her or her crew. then she’ll go back to happily joking with whoever is left standing as if nothing happened. 

she is not trigger-happy or a homicidal maniac. it’s all calculated. it’s how to stay alive. 

desandra dislikes violence. it’s empty and makes her feel hollow. she doesn’t actively avoid it because it’s effective and sometimes it’s the only thing that works. 

des used to hate that she was like this, until she came to terms with the fact that this is just how she is, and so long as she makes sure she’s following society’s standards for ‘good reasoning’ and ‘proper justification,’ then it’s not right, but at least it’s okay. 

she only feels guilt if she scares or upsets someone who was watching. this signifies to her that her justification wasn’t good enough, and she has crossed the line separating the Good Guys from the Bad Guys.

[womanlives]

for every  🌻  i get, i’ll share a platonic action / gesture / show of intimacy that makes my muse melt ! focusing on desandra bc Reasons

🌻 - Desandra’s first language is what she calls ‘gang-slang’: a language similar to an English-based Creole. There are a lot of strictly English words she doesn’t know the true meaning of, so taking the time to patiently explain a word to her when she looks confused means the world. Answering without condescension is Big. Not only does it show that you know how to read her expressions and her body language, but it shows that you’re willing to take the time to fully understand one another. Oftentimes, after a display like this, she will teach you the meaning of said word in gang-slang in response.

🌻 - Gifts. Any sort of gift. The thought of someone looking at something and thinking of her is so incredibly foreign but so incredibly kind that she doesn’t know how to process it, but will treasure whatever you give her to the Grave. The only material possessions she has that she cares about are gifts.

🌻 - She L O V E S the sensation of her hair being played with — brushed, styled, someone running their fingers idly through it, whatever. She loves it. Straight up stops her in her tracks. Good luck discovering this though, since she’ll never admit it. 

@mirafirstmate / 🌻 🌻 🌻

[womanlives]

for every  🌻  i get, i’ll share a platonic action / gesture / show of intimacy that makes my muse melt !

🌻 VIKTORIA’S WEAK FOR that whole trope where, in the middle of a tough fight or after one, you grab the other person by the back of the neck gently and put your forehead against theirs and ask them if they’re okay. When she was still actively working with the Brotherhood, most of her squadron would be in power armor so they’d have helmets on. This proximity would allow you to easily hear someone speaking softly even through a helmet — words for you and you alone.

🌻 YVETTE MELTS VERY EASILY, but for her, the most potent sign of intimacy/trust is ‘sleeping’ in the same space. It doesn’t even have to be the same bed. The same room works just fine. Why? Because if you’re another vampire, this shows that the two of you trust one another’s control to let your guard down together. And if you’re human, it shows you trust her to watch over you at night/or she trusts you to watch over her during the day. Not to mention, she is at her most vulnerable and supernatural: no breathing, deathlike, otherworldly. Also: sharing mealtimes. Because, y’know, vampire. 

🌻 IF SHAHRZAD SHOWS YOU VULNERABILITY (pain, fear, sadness), that’s huge. If you similarly reveal vulnerabilities of yourself to her after establishing a rapport with her and knowing who and what she is, that’s,, ,, Huge. I cannot overstate this.

🌻 DESANDRA’S INCREDIBLY INSECURE ABOUT reading people and gauging their feelings. She’s gotten it wrong so often that she’s just stopped making assumptions. So if you openly verbally tell her that she is important to you — even if it’s just “Hey. You’re my friend, Des” — that stops her dead in her fuckin’ tracks.

🌻 ASK SAMARA QUESTIONS ABOUT HERSELF. Follow up on those questions. Remember what she’s said. It’s been so long since anyone’s tried to understand the asari instead of the justicar. 

🌻 JACOB(tm) TAYLOR(tm) DESERVED BETTER IN THIS ESSAY I WILL — no but seriously, for Jacob, it’s simple. Be there when he calls. Be there when he needs you. Show up after a rough fight. Check up on him a week after he’s been sick. Show him he’s worth your time. I promise you, he’ll always do the same for you.

@cheatdeaths​ sent : 🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻

[womanlives]

honestly i cannot overstate how unwilling desandra is to assume someone’s emotions/feelings. bitch takes things literally; thus, bitch will ask Literally for you to explain what’s going on in your head at any point in time