#mara payne (shepard)

[bardofheartdive]

Thanks so much, @ronqueesha!

Top left: Veerla Sterling (Shepard)

Top right: Mara Payne (Shepard)

Bottom left: Roshene Tumblestone (a modern version of my D&D druid)

Bottom right: Maude Van Der Haegan (my Stranger Still/RPG character)

I will tag @alyssalenko, @butchdollyparton, and @vulpixelates. (Only if you want to, of course!)

Tagged by @serenbach86 to make some OCs in this dollmaker, thank you! <3

Here we have Aurelle Silmontier (Final Fantasy XIV), Tesalya (Baldur's Gate 3), T'nali Rhoka (Final Fantasy XIV), and my best attempt at Seluna (Pillars of Eternity)

Tagging @calico-heart and @sayonaramidnight for if yous fancy giving this one a go!

[flaine1996]

OC Fact Swap: Mara (Payne/Shepard) is a theater "triple threat." In addition to acting, she is a soprano voice and a ballerina.

Thank you for sharing!! That's so cool! I bet that even helps her be agile and nimble in combat!

Ezner can't act but she is a genius pianist. She's very good when it comes to auditory hearing that when she can just hear a piece she can replicate it without looking it up and she has a good singing voice not that anyone will know lol!

[bardofheartdive]

OC Character Personality Quiz

I was tagged by the delightful @alyssalenko to do this Which Character Personality Quiz for my OCs. (It was a lot of fun so I did a bunch of characters. Also, SUPER pleased with the results - I feel like they matched really well.) I'm posting the top 5 for each OC from a fandom that I am familiar enough to deem accurate. (Also following @alyssalenko's example, I'm doing fancy eye shots for my characters!)

Javi:

Ty Lee (Avatar: The Last Airbender): 90%

Lito Rodriguez (Sense8): 90%

Genie (Aladdin): 87%

Simba (The Lion King) 87%

Chris Turk (Scrubs): 87%

Wyatt:

Fantine (Les Miserables): 87%

Frodo Baggins (The Lord of the Rings): 86%

Peeta Mellark (The Hunger Games): 86%

Samwise Gamgee (The Lord of the Rings): 85%

Christian (Moulin Rouge): 85%

Mara:

Eliza Hamilton (Hamilton): 89%

Astrid Leong-Teo (Crazy Rich Asians): 84%

Maid Marian (Robin Hood): 83%

Deanna Troi (Star Trek: The Next Generation): 83%

Cosette (Les Miserables): 83%

Veerla (gets 6 because of a 3-way tie for 4th):

Inara Sera (Firefly): 89%

Mulan (Mulan): 88%

Princess Fiona (Shrek): 88%

Sailor Jupiter (Sailor Moon): 87%

Nala (The Lion King): 86%

Elizabeth Swann (Pirates of the Carribean): 86%

Angelica Schuyler (Hamilton): 86%

Donovan:

Derek Morgan (Criminal Minds): 93%

Sailor Jupiter (Sailor Moon): 90%

Maximus Decimus Meridius (Gladiator): 89%

Mulan (Mulan): 88%

Will Turner (Pirates of the Carribean): 87%

Tagging (if you want to play): @captainsaku, @happychica, @hawkeykirsah, @mallaidhsomo, @pigeontheoneandonly, and @ronqueesha. (Only if you want to, of course!)

[unclecrizzle]

THE WORST MOVIES OF 2017: THE UNCLE CRIZZLE EDITION

As someone who reviews awful movies on the regular, I could easily give you about fifty, truly terrible films I caught this year. But, as always, the top ten are the ones that I thought would at least be interesting. Instead, they disappointed the shit out of me. And they are:

1.       A Ghost Story – I’m still trying out what colleagues whom I respect see in this boring, pretentious-ass waste. Even the sight of that mesmerizing waif Rooney Mara stress-gorging on pie wasn’t enough for me to give a fuck about this.

2.       Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets – What should’ve been a marvelously pulpy adaptation of a classic, French, sci-fi comic book series was an busy, unappealing eyesore, complete with vapid lead performances from blank-slate pretty faces Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne and a pointless, bloated cameo from Rihanna. This movie pissed me the fuck off.

3.       Downsizing – The latest from well-respected auteur Alexander Payne (Election, Sideways) was a misguided attempt at class satire that eventually turned into one of the most racist films I’ve seen in recent memory. Seriously, Hong Chau better not win a Golden Globe for basically doing Anjelah Johnson’s nail-salon lady for the duration of a movie.

4.       The Snowman – I defy anyone to tell me what the hell was going on in this incomprehensible, snow-capped clusterfuck. Even director Tomas Alfredson, who stepped in for Martin Scorsese, immediately began distancing himself from this whodunit in interviews, saying a lot of what he wanted to film didn’t end up in the final project. But a dubbed Val Kilmer wandering around like a deranged old man – that easily made it in, huh?

5.       The Book of Henry – What was supposed to be director Colin Trevorrow’s chance to make a simple, humanistic bit of filmmaking before helming the ninth Star Wars movie turned out to be what allegedly got him fired from starting work on that project. Hey, if someone made a batshit-crazy movie about a woman who attempts to kill her next-door, child-molesting neighbor because her dead son told her to, would you give him the keys to the Millennium Falcon?

6.       The Mummy – Yeah, this was supposed to be the beginning of the “Dark Universe” franchise. Instead, it was derivative nonsense that wasted a game Tom Cruise and made you not want to deal with the monsters from Universal’s heyday. I’m glad “Dark Universe” is dead and gone.

7.       All I See Is You – Seriously, what the fuck are we gonna do with Blake Lively? Even though The Shallows made a lot of people believe this blond fox had some depth to her, this horseshit from Marc Forster (Monster’s Ball), where Lively played a blind chick who gets her eyesight back and starts to think her husband is holding her back, only reminded us how much shit we’ll take from cute, white women before we’re like, “Yeah, why am I watching this?”

8.       CHiPs – Yeah, Baywatch was some sun-soaked bullshit. But the worst movie of 2017 based on a memorably cheesy TV show was this infuriating garbage, which only existed to show that stars Dax Shepard (who also directed) and Michael Pena were some badass dudes drunk off their own machismo.  Speaking of toxic-masculinity bullshit…

9.       Fist Fight – True story: A friend and I got high before the movie. It was sativa, so I was tripping balls. When we watched the movie, even the disorienting high I was having couldn’t keep me from noticing how fuckin’ putrid this movie was. By the way, this movie also wasted Christina Hendricks, which pissed me off beyond belief.

10.   American Assassin – All I gotta say is: WORST USE OF MICHAEL KEATON EVER!

Can I throw one more in there?

11.   Any movie starring Bruce Willis – Seriously, what the fuck happened to this guy? Remember how awesome he was in Die Hard and The Sixth Sense? Now, he’s phoning it the fuck in in atrocities like this and that. I’m starting to think Kevin Smith has every right to constantly remind people he’s a bitch to work with.  

[malte1mj-blog]

2013 Movie Awards

Best Picture: American Hustle Blue Jasmine Frances Ha Gravity Short Term 12 HONORABLE MENTION: Blue Is the Warmest Color, The Past, 12 Years a Slave, The Square, Enough Said, The Spectacular Now, Stories We Tell, Before Midnight, Prisoners, Her, Captain Phillips Best Director: Woody Allen, Blue Jasmine Destin Cretton, Short Term 12 Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity Abdellatif Kechiche, Blue Is the Warmest Color David O. Russell, American Hustle HONORABLE MENTION: Noah Baumbach, Frances Ha; Asghar Farhadi, The Past; Paul Greengrass, Captain Phillips; Nicole Holofcener, Enough Said; Spike Jonze, Her; Richard Linklater, Before Midnight; Steve McQueen, 12 Years a Slave; Jehane Noujaim, The Square; Sarah Polley, Stories We Tell; James Ponsoldt, The Spectacular Now; Denis Villeneuve, Prisoners Best Actor: Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave Jake Gyllenhaal, Prisoners Tom Hanks, Captain Phillips Mads Mikkelsen, The Hunt Joaquin Phoenix, Her HONORABLE MENTION: Christian Bale, American Hustle; Christian Bale, Out of the Furnace; Daniel Bruhl, Rush; Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street; Ryan Gosling, The Place Beyond the Pines; Ethan Hawke, Before Midnight; Oscar Isaac, Inside Llewyn Davis; Hugh Jackman, Prisoners; Michael B. Jordan, Fruitvale Station; Tony Leung, The Grandmaster; Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club; Miles Teller, The Spectacular Now Best Actress: Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine Sandra Bullock, Gravity Adele Exarchopoulos, Blue Is the Warmest Color Greta Gerwig, Frances Ha Brie Larson, Short Term 12 HONORABLE MENTION: Amy Adams, American Hustle; Berenice Bejo, The Past; Lake Bell, In a World…; Julie Delpy, Before Midnight; Judi Dench, Philomena; Kathryn Hahn, Afternoon Delight; Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Enough Said; Rooney Mara, Side Effects; Julia Roberts, August: Osage County; Amy Seimetz, Upstream Color; Meryl Streep, August: Osage County; Emma Thompson, Saving Mr. Banks; Zhang Ziyi, The Grandmaster Best Supporting Actor: Michael Fassbender, 12 Years a Slave James Gandolfini, Enough Said Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club Tahar Rahim, The Past Keith Stanfield, Short Term 12 HONORABLE MENTION: Barkhad Abdi, Captain Phillips; Casey Affleck, Out of the Furnace; Bobby Cannavale, Blue Jasmine; Bradley Cooper, American Hustle; James Franco, Spring Breakers; John Gallagher Jr., Short Term 12; John Goodman, Inside Llewyn Davis; Jonah Hill, The Wolf of Wall Street; Thomas Bo Larsen, The Hunt; Nick Offerman, The Kings of Summer; David Oyelowo, Lee Daniels’ The Butler; Channing Tatum, Side Effects Best Supporting Actress: Kaitlyn Dever, Short Term 12 Sally Hawkins, Blue Jasmine Lupita Nyong'o, 12 Years a Slave Lea Seydoux, Blue Is the Warmest Color Shailene Woodley, The Spectacular Now HONORABLE MENTION: Amy Adams, Her; Pauline Burlet, The Past; Elizabeth Debicki, The Great Gatsby; Selena Gomez, Spring Breakers; Scarlett Johansson, Her; Catherine Keener, Enough Said; Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle; Idina Menzel, Frozen; Carey Mulligan, Inside Llewyn Davis; Julianne Nicholson, August: Osage County; Sabrina Ouzani, The Past; Sarah Paulson, 12 Years a Slave; Margot Robbie, The Wolf of Wall Street; June Squibb, Nebraska; Emma Watson, The Bling Ring Best Original Screenplay: American Hustle - David O. Russell & Eric Warren Singer Blue Jasmine - Woody Allen Enough Said - Nicole Holofcener Frances Ha - Noah Baumbach & Greta Gerwig The Past - Asghar Farhadi HONORABLE MENTION: Afternoon Delight, Dallas Buyers Club, Frozen, Fruitvale Station, Gravity, Her, The Hunt, In a World…, Inside Llewyn Davis, The Kings of Summer, Prisoners, Side Effects, The To Do List, Upstream Color Best Adapted Screenplay: Before Midnight - Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke & Richard Linklater Blue Is the Warmest Color - Abdellatif Kechiche & Ghalia Lacroix Short Term 12 - Destin Cretton The Spectacular Now - Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber 12 Years a Slave - John Ridley HONORABLE MENTION: Captain Phillips, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Star Trek Into Darkness, Thor: The Dark World Best Ensemble: American Hustle Blue Jasmine The Past Short Term 12 12 Years a Slave HONORABLE MENTION: Afternoon Delight, August: Osage County, The Bling Ring, Enough Said, Frances Ha, Frozen, The Great Gatsby, Her, Inside Llewyn Davis, The Kings of Summer, The Place Beyond the Pines, Prisoners, The Spectacular Now, This Is the End, The To Do List, The Way Way Back, The Wolf of Wall Street Best Limited Performance - Male: Andrew Dice Clay, Blue Jasmine Spike Jonze, The Wolf of Wall Street Thiago Martins, Upstream Color Matthew McConaughey, The Wolf of Wall Street Sam Shepard, August: Osage County HONORABLE MENTION: F. Murray Abraham, Inside Llewyn Davis; Max Casella, Blue Jasmine; Louis C.K., American Hustle; David Cross, Kill Your Darlings; Adam Driver, Inside Llewyn Davis; Alden Ehrenreich, Blue Jasmine; Paul Giamatti, 12 Years a Slave; Toby Huss, Enough Said; Jeremie Laheurte, Blue Is the Warmest Color; Michael K. Williams, 12 Years a Slave Best Limited Performance - Female: Robin Bartlett, Inside Llewyn Davis Xenia Kalogeropoulou, Before Midnight Stephanie Kurtzuba, The Wolf of Wall Street Annie Mumolo, Afternoon Delight Alfre Woodard, 12 Years a Slave HONORABLE MENTION: Yaya Alafia, Lee Daniels’ The Butler; Joanna Lumley, The Wolf of Wall Street; Cristin Milioti, The Wolf of Wall Street; Joyce Payne, Prince Avalanche; Jeanine Serralles, Inside Llewyn Davis; VInessa Shaw, Side Effects; Misty Upham, August: Osage County; Olivia Wilde, Her; Mary Elizabeth Winstead, The Spectacular Now Breakthrough Performance: Elizabeth Debicki, The Great Gatsby Adele Exarchopoulos, Blue Is the Warmest Color Lupita Nyong'o, 12 Years a Slave Nick Robinson, The Kings of Summer Keith Stanfield, Short Term 12 HONORABLE MENTION: Barkhad Abdi, Captain Phillips; Israel Broussard, The Bling Ring; Pauline Burlet, The Past; Katie Chang, The Bling Ring; Liam James, The Way Way Back; Jackson Nicoll, Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa; Margot Robbie, The Wolf of Wall Street; Mickey Sumner, Frances Ha Best Film Editing: American Hustle - Alan Baumgarten, Jay Cassidy & Crispin Struthers Frances Ha - Jennifer Lame Gravity - Alfonso Cuaron & Mark Sanger Short Term 12 - Nat Sanders The Square - Christopher de la Torre, Mohammed el Manasterly, Karim Fanous, Pierre Haberer, Pedro Kos, Stefan Ronowicz, Shazeya Serag & Angie Wegdan HONORABLE MENTION: The Act of Killing, Before Midnight, Blue Is the Warmest Color, Blue Jasmine, Captain Phillips, Dallas Buyers Club, Enough Said, Her, The Hunt, Inside Llewyn Davis, The Past, Prisoners, Side Effects, The Spectacular Now, Stories We Tell, 12 Years a Slave, Upstream Color Best Cinematography: Gravity - Emmanuel Lubezki Her - Hoyte van Hoytema Prisoners - Roger Deakins Side Effects - Peter Andrews 12 Years a Slave - Sean Bobbitt HONORABLE MENTION: American Hustle, Before Midnight, Blue Is the Warmest Color, Blue Jasmine, Captain Phillips, Frances Ha, The Grandmaster, The Great Gatsby, Inside Llewyn Davis, Nebraska, The Place Beyond the Pines, Short Term 12, Spring Breakers, Upstream Color Best Original Score: Gravity - Steven Price Her - William Butler & Owen Pallett Prisoners - Johan Johannsson 12 Years a Slave - Hans Zimmer Upstream Color - Shane Carruth HONORABLE MENTION: All Is Lost, Blackfish, Captain Phillips, Frozen, The Grandmaster, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Monsters University, Nebraska, Oblivion, Rush, Saving Mr. Banks, Side Effects, Star Trek Into Darkness, World War Z Best Original Song: Frozen - "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?" - Kristen Anderson-Lopez & Robert Lopez Frozen - "Let It Go" - Kristen Anderson-Lopez & Robert Lopez The Great Gatsby - "Over the Love" - Aaron Foulds, Stuart Hammond, Tom Hull & Florence Welch Inside Llewyn Davis - "Please Mr. Kennedy" - T-Bone Burnett, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, George Cromarty, Ed Rush & Justin Timberlake Short Term 12 - "So You Know What It's Like" - Destin Cretton & Keith Stanfield HONORABLE MENTION: Despicable Me 2 - “Happy”; Frozen - “For the First Time in Forever”; Frozen - “Love Is an Open Door”; The Great Gatsby - “A Little Party Never Killed Nobody (All We Got)”; The Great Gatsby - “Young and Beautiful”; The Hung Games: Catching Fire - “Atlas”; Oblivion - “Oblivion”; Sound City - “Cut Me Some Slack”; Sound City - “You Can’t Fix This”; 12 Years a Slave - “My Lord Sunshine (Sunrise)” Best Art Direction: Gravity - Rosie Goodwin & Andy Nicholson The Great Gatsby - Beverley Dunn & Catherine Martin Her - K.K. Barrett & Gene Serdena Saving Mr. Banks - Susan Benjamin & Michael Corenblith 12 Years a Slave - Alice Baker & Adam Stockhausen HONORABLE MENTION: American Hustle, August: Osage County, Blue Jasmine, Captain Phillips, Frances Ha, The Grandmaster, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Inside Llewyn Davis, Lee Daniels’ The Butler, Oblivion, Oz the Great and Powerful, Short Term 12, Star Trek Into Darkness, Thor: The Dark World, The Wolf of Wall Street, World War Z Best Costume Design: American Hustle - Michael Wilkinson Blue Jasmine - Suzy Benzinger The Great Gatsby - Catherine Martin The Hunger Games: Catching Fire - Trish Summerville 12 Years a Slave - Patricia Norris HONORABLE MENTION: August: Osage County, The Bling Ring, Captain Phillips, The Grandmaster, Gravity, Her, Inside Llewyn Davis, Lee Daniels’ The Butler, Oz the Great and Powerful, Saving Mr. Banks, Spring Breakers, Star Trek Into Darkness, Thor: The Dark World, The Wolf of Wall Street, World War Z Best Makeup: American Hustle The Grandmaster The Great Gatsby Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa 12 Years a Slave HONORABLE MENTION: August: Osage County, Blue Jasmine, Dallas Buyers Club, Gravity, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Inside Llewyn Davis, Iron Man 3, Lone Survivor, Prisoners, Rush, Saving Mr. Banks, Star Trek Into Darkness, Thor: The Dark World, The Wolverine, World War Z Best Sound Mixing: American Hustle Captain Phillips Frozen Gravity Inside Llewyn Davis HONORABLE MENTION: Frances Ha, The Grandmaster, The Great Gatsby, Her, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Iron Man 3, The Kings of Summer, Monsters University, The Place Beyond the Pines, Prisoners, Rush, Sound City, Star Trek Into Darkness, Thor: The Dark World, 12 Years a Slave, World War Z Best Sound Editing: Captain Phillips Gravity The Hunger Games: Catching Fire The Place Beyond the Pines Thor: The Dark World HONORABLE MENTION: All Is Lost, American Hustle, Frozen, The Grandmaster, The Great Gatsby, Her, Inside Llewyn Davis, Iron Man 3, Lone Survivor, Monsters University, Prisoners, Rush, Star Trek Into Darkness, 12 Years a Slave, The Wolf of Wall Street, World War Z Best Visual Effects: Gravity The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Star Trek Into Darkness Thor: The Dark World World War Z HONORABLE MENTION: The Grandmaster, The Great Gatsby, Her, Iron Man 3, Lone Survivor, Man of Steel, Oblivion, Oz the Great and Powerful, Rush, The Wolverine Best Foreign Film: Blue Is the Warmest Color - Abdellatif Kechiche The Grandmaster - Wong Kar-Wai The Hunt - Thomas Vinterberg The Past - Asghar Farhadi The Square - Jehane Noujaim HONORABLE MENTION: The Act of Killing, The Gatekeepers Best Documentary: The Act of Killing - Joshua Oppenheimer Sound City - Dave Grohl The Square - Jehane Noujaim Stories We Tell - Sarah Polley 20 Feet From Stardown - Morgan Neville HONORABLE MENTION: The Armstrong Lie, A Band Called Death, Blackfish,. The Gatekeepers, A Place at the Table, Salinger, We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks Best Animated Film: Despicable Me 2 - Pierre Coffin & Chris Renaud Frozen - Chris Buck & Jennifer Lee Monsters University - Dan Scanlon HONORABLE MENTION: The Croods Every 2013 Film I've Seen: Ranked

[bardofheartdive]

OC Name Origins

I was tagged by @ronqueesha - thank you so much! I will tag (only if you want to play): @commander-krios, @happychica, @korkro, and @mallaidhsomo. Only if you want to, of course!

RULES: Search and post the meaning of your OCs’ names (if you made their name up or they go by a nickname, post an explanation of how it came to you)! Bonus if you can find something for their last name too.

But . . . I've done this one with all of my characters here. So instead, I'll tell you why I picked the names I did. (I’m letting you in on some Easter Eggs here, so take note!)

Alejandra “Ale” Ryder Aragón

Ironically the "named after her father" didn't come up until after I'd picked "Alejandra." I wanted a Spanish name that was kind of long with a good nickname option. I was actually leaning toward "Gabriela/Gabi" or "Daniela/Dani" because I was worried "Ale" (ah-leh) would be read by English-speakers as "ale" (the alcoholic beverage) but I kept coming back to "Alejandra" so eventually I just decided to go with what felt right.

Ariella Shepard 

I love the name Ariel. I put an "a" and the end of it because I could. Ariella was the ORIGINAL name of my "proto-femShep" - my very first Shepard - and it only felt right keeping it with the Shepard that got the canon universe.

Donovan Shepard and Lír

Remember those Easter Eggs I mentioned? This is one of them, a nod to Burn Notice. The actor who plays the main character is Jeffrey Donovan. (The main character's name is also "Michael," which is Donovan's middle name.)

Javier “Javi” Ryder Aragón 

Honestly, "Javier" didn't get a lot of thought. I needed a Spanish boy name for Ale's twin and I liked the way it sounded. (And I didn’t plan on him becoming an actual, fully developed CHARACTER . . . )

Mara Shepard

When I split up my "proto-femShep" and I needed to name the one that got my Without You series, I decided to go with names by meanings. One of the meanings of "Mara" is "bitter" and it's also Biblically connected to grief. Which, of course, made it perfect!

Veerla Shepard

This was originally spelled Veerle after one of my favorite (triple threat) stage performers, Veerle Casteleyn. The name is pronounced the same, though I changed the spelling to be phonetic because a friend told me they had always read it "veer-lee" (referring to the actress).

[bardofheartdive]

OC Name Meanings

I was tagged by @ronqueesha, thank you so much friend! I will tag (only if you want to play) @alyssalenko, @captainsaku, @ghostxofxartemis, @happychica, @jediwalkerw, and @theheroofoakvale. Anyone who wants to play!

Rules: Google and post the meaning of your OC’s name (if you made their name up or they go by a nickname, post an explanation of how it came to you)! bonus if you can find something for their last name too

I’ve got a lot of them and I did them all so everyone buckle up!

First things first:

Shepard: variant of “Shepherd,” meaning “herder of sheep”

Ryder: Old English, meaning “cavalrymen”

Ale Ryder

Alejandra: Spanish, meaning “defender of mankind”

Jacinta: Spanish, meaning “hyacinth”

Aragón: Spanish, place-name referring to the kingdom and/or river Aragón

Ariella Shepard

Ariella: Hebrew, meaning “lion of God”

Jean: English, meaning “God is gracious”

Bennet: variant of “Bennett,” meaning “blessed”

Chris Shepard

Christopher: Greek, “meaning bearer of Christ”

Jonah: Hebrew, meaning “dove”

Ramsey: Scottish, place-name likely referring to a place in Huntingdonshire

Donovan Shepard (and Lír)

Donovan: Irish, meaning “dark”

Michael: Hebrew, meaning “who is like God?”

Lír: Irish, meaning “sea”

Gina Shepard

Gina: Italian, meaning “queen”

Torianne: Compound of Tori (English, meaning “winner”) and Anne (Hebrew, meaning “favored”)

Ewing: Scottish, from the clan name “Clann Eóghain,” meaning “children of Eóghain”

Javier Ryder

Javier: Spanish, meaning “bright”

Luis: variant of “Louis,” meaning “famed warrior”

Aragón: Spanish, place-name referring to the kingdom and/or river Aragón

Mara Shepard

Mara: Hebrew, meaning “bitter”

Elizabeth: Hebrew, meaning “God is my oath”

Payne: English, meaning “countryman”

Veerla Shepard

Veerla: variant of “Veerle,” meaning “battle traveller”

Renée: French, meaning “reborn”

Sterling: English, referring to the sterling coin

[bardofheartdive]

My girls (at least the main ones) all end with “a” - Alejandra, Ariella, Gina, Mara, and Veerla. I also happen to have three middle names that start with “J” - Alejandra Jacinta, Ariella Jean, and Christopher Jonah - which I didn’t realize until I did looked at them for this. 

Besides that, though, they’re pretty varied.

Look at the names of your ocs, do you have a personal pattern? Is there a first Initial you tend to go most with or an ending like -ia? If you listed your ocs alphabetically, would all letters of the alphabet be covered?

[bardofheartdive]

OC Heights

I was tagged by @alyssalenko to show my characters’ heights using this height comparison chart. I’d done a few of these a while back but I’ve thrown in a couple new sets too. I’ll tag, only if you want to play, @asianshep, @briarfox13, @ghostxofxartemis, @ginbiscuit, @jediwalkerw, and @ronqueesha​.

Shepards and Ryders:

Veerla, Donovan (Lír), Kaidan:

Dawn Squad (Donovan’s Torfan team):

Jack and Ale:

Kate and Veerla:

Theo and Donovan (Shepard):

(Jack, Kate, and Theo belong to @cdrkateshepard​)

[bardofheartdive]

OC Faceclaims

Another tag from @alyssalenko from so long ago... Thank you for your patience, friend! I will tag (only if you want to play) @cdrkateshepard, @ghostxofxartemis, @illusivesoul, @korkro, @pigeontheoneandonly, and @ronqueesha​, as well as anyone who wants to play! I'm not going to spam you all with ALL of my OCs so here is a carefully chosen selection for your perusal.

Ariella Shepard (Bennet): Scottie Thompson

Mara Shepard (Payne): Anna Selezneva

Veerla Shepard (Sterling): Meisa Kuroki

Donovan Lír and Donovan Shepard: Jensen Ackles

Chris Ramsey (Shepard): Brian Balzerini

Gina Ewing (Shepard): Alex Marshall-Brown

Alejanda Ryder Aragón: Ximena Romo

Javier Ryder Aragón: Adrian Bellani

Summer Shepard and Autumn Brooks: Jamie Ray Newman

Ansleigh Albright: Alona Tal

[bardofheartdive]

🎶 Mara/Kaidan?

Thanks for the ask! Mara and Kaidan are my poor, tragic, star-crossed lovers. Have something sad and romantic!

"Make You Feel My Love" cover by Lea Michele

I could make you happy, make your dreams come true

Nothing that I wouldn't do

Go to the ends of the Earth for you

To make you feel my love

Send me a 🎶 and a pairing, please!

[bardofheartdive]

Ariella (Bennet): Colonist, Sole Survivor, Paragon, Destroy, Kaidan Alenko

Chris (Ramsey): Spacer, Ruthless, Renegade, Control, Ashley Williams in ME1, one-nighters with Jack and Kelly Chambers then Miranda Lawson in ME2, Diana Allers in ME3 and also Chloe Michel even though the game won’t actually let you (in short every willing or coercible human female)

Gina (Ewing): Earthborn, Sole Survivor, Neutral, Refusal, Liara in ME1 and Garrus in ME2 and 3

Mara (Payne): Spacer, War Hero, Paragon, depends on the Divergent Point, I’ve written Destroy and Refusal and of course sometimes she doesn’t survive to the Crucible or isn’t the one to pick, Kaidan Alenko (though they can never be together because tragedy)

Veerla (Sterling): Colonist, War Hero, Paragon (occasionally into Neutral), Destroy (but AU so it’s not quite the same...), Donovan Lír (an OC) and Kaidan Alenko

let’s do a thing:

colonist, earthborn, or spacer? ruthless, war hero, or sole survivor? paragon, renegade, or neutral? control, destroy, or synthesis?

[bardofheartdive]

Mara/Kaidan 🎶

Thanks for the ask! This one comes with some special backstory/explanation free of charge!

Mara and Kaidan's universe is actually a series of universes that diverge from the canon story line at a point where Shepard and/or Kaidan could die and don't. This song specifically relates to the story where Shepard dies firing the Crucible.

"The Man Who Can't Be Moved" by The Script

"And maybe I'll get famous as the man who can't be moved And maybe you won't mean to but you'll see me on the news And you'll come running to the corner 'Cause you know it's all for you I'm the man who can't be moved"

Send me a 🎶 and a pairing, please!

[bardofheartdive]

Series Overview: Without You

Late for Day 2 of @the-wip-project‘s 100 Days of Writing but it’s still the second somewhere. Today’s series is my angst-fest, Without You.

Without You

This series is actually started as a spin-off of A Good Ride, a collection of stories that were AUs of Ariella’s canon universe. But the more I wrote for them the more developed the universes became until it eventually reached critical mass and I ended up splitting the two entirely. Each story starts with a “divergent point” a point in games where Shepard or Kaidan could have died and looks at what would have happened (in Mara’s universe) if they had. I love this series because I am a Tear Drinker and an Angst Monster I love looking at the ripple effect of changing a single choice. How does Shepard dying change Kaidan and how is it different when it happens at the Battle of the Citadel versus Cerberus never bringing her back after the Normandy is destroyed. (And also I’m an Angst Monster and Tear Drinker.)

Quick Stats:

Shepard: Mara Elizabeth Shepard

Spacer

War Hero

Sentinel

Love Interest: Kaidan Alenko

Other Important Relationships: femShep & Garrus Vakarian, Kaidan Alenko/Citadel Doctor, Kaidan Alenko/OC, Kaidan Alenko & Garrus Vakarian, femShep & David Anderson (not all of them in every story)

Favorite Completed Fic: Without You: Battle of the Citadel. (Mara is killed when Sovereign explodes in the Battle of the Citadel.) It was a tough call between this one and the next in the series but this won out in the end because it shows more of the differences in the universe as a whole, versus just Kaidan. It also includes cameos by Gina Ewing (Shepard) and Chris Ramsey (Shepard) which I really enjoy!

WIP I’m Most Excited For: Without You: Collector Base. I actually started posting this at one point, but my pantster made an error my plotter couldn’t deal with and ended up taking it down to do a major overhaul. In this installment, Mara dies during the attack on the Collector Base and (basically) Kaidan takes Shepard’s place during the events of ME3. Also, the main relationship in it is Kaidan Alenko & Garrus Vakarian, which is one of my favorite brOTPs.

[bardofheartdive]

N7 Month 2020

This year for @n7month​ I did a series of aesthetic boards for my OCs. For the grand finale, here they are all in one place! (Links to individual boards below.)

Gina Shepard (Ewing), “Red” | Ariella Shepard (Bennet), “Cooperation | Donovan Lír, “Green” | Chris Shepard (Ramsey), “Blue” | Veerla Shepard (Sterling), “Purple” | Ale Ryder Shepard (Ryder Ramirez), “Legacy” | Mara Shepard (Payne), “Free Space”

[bardofheartdive]

Don't feel bad, @mallaidhsomo. I also have six:

Veerla: Adept (modified)/Colonist/War Hero. Paragade. Romances Kaidan and Donovan Lír, one of my OCs, in a poly triad.

Gina: Soldier/Earthborn/Sole Survivor. Renegon. Romances Liara in 1 and Garrus in 2 and 3. (For her playthrough but actually romances an OC because she's not actually Commander Shepard... It’s complicated...)

Chris: Engineer/Spacer/Ruthless. Renegade. Romances (“romances”) every female human he can but he doesn’t care about any of them. (He is my misogynistic, xenophobic asshat.)

Ariella: Vanguard/Colonist/Sole Survivor. Paragon. Romances Kaidan.

Mara: Sentinel/Spacer/War Hero. Paragon. Romances Kaidan.

Donovan: Infiltrator/Earthborn (modified)/Ruthless. Paragade. Romances @cdrkateshepard‘s Theo Walker.

Actually, technically, seven! I always forget John...

John: Soldier/Earthborn/Sole Survivor. Paragade. Romances Kaidan and James in a poly triad.

im a sole survivor, a paragon, and a vanguard that romances kaidan.

how about you? i wanna see the variety of sheps out there.