#atticus shepard

And now, my fourth Shepard to make it through all three games (although more are planned) XD

Atticus "Tac" Shepard: Ruthless, Colonist, Adept

After losing his parents on Mindoir, Atticus lived with his Uncle Atticus, his father's brother, who also was a colonist on Mindoir and who survived the attack. (And who he was named after.)

He doesn't use his childhood nickname much any longer, although his Uncle still calls him "Tac". The other person who used to call him Tac was Major Kyle. Kyle came along at a time when Atticus was angry, vulnerable, and a little lost, being away from his uncle. Unfortunately, the major decided to use Atticus' anger and hatred of batarians, and pushed him in ways he shouldn't have.

Atticus has no regrets about what he did on Torfan, but he in hindsight, he recognizes the predatory nature of Kyle's relationship with him. Atticus wasn't surprised to learn later that Kyle had set himself up as a cult leader.

He's gruff, has a prickly temper, and is often intimidating, but he is kind to victims of violence, because he remembers how he felt after the attack on Mindoir.

He and Jack started what both of them thought would be a fling, but it surprised them both by turning into a healthy relationship. Atticus survived after destroying the Reapers (shocking, I know). He and Jack ended up taking in a handful of Grissom Academy students who had lost their families after the war was over. Together with David Archer, they bought some land on Earth and built a couple homes next door to each other, and the three adults provided a home for the lost biotic tween and teen ducklings.

(Jack: "Okay yeah we live in the same house but you do your own fucking laundry and if you leave your shoes in the hallway I'll slap your ass with a singularity."

Rodriguez: "Screw you, Mo'om."

Jack: "What the fuck did you call me."

Rodriguez: "Ma'am?"

Jack: "...Shepard if you're still laughing when I turn around, it'll be YOUR ass in the singularity."

I've taken a break from BG3 and picked back up with my current Shepard - got him through the second half of ME2 and now he's on his way to saving the galaxy.

Atticus - survivor of Mindoir, Butcher of Torfan, Adept. And he's finally been sarcastic/sassy/cynical/crabby enough for his facial scars to start showing up again. (Despite my best efforts, they had faded by the end of ME2.) So he has successfully renegade-d without resorting to racism or war crimes XD

4. In developing their backstory, what elements of the world they live in played the most influential parts? 

For Garviel Shepard, it was mostly figuring out his past relationship with people he knew in the Reds and other gangs, and also heacanon discussions with wtf-skittens about THEIR Shepard, Akil...and then deciding that Garv and Akil are adopted brothers. Garv's story and personality pretty much grew from there.

18. What is the most recent thing you’ve discovered about your OC?

For Sam Shepard, she's a musician! She plays acoustic guitar pretty well. She had one with her on the SR1, but lost it when the ship was destroyed. But sometime during brief shore leave during ME3, Garrus took her shopping and bought her a new one.

19. What is your favorite fact about your OC?

For Atticus Shepard: He's a stubborn ass. Refused to give up his gun when they visited Purgatory prison, then proceeded to fight his way out using just his biotics JUST TO PROVE A POINT. Miranda was beyond exasperated with him for that stunt.

Atticus’ playthrough is done! 

Mass Effect consistently finds new ways to punch me in the feels, because Atticus had to apologize to Joker for the way he spoke to him after Thessia. I wasn’t expecting it to be a dialogue option, but it was. 

Atticus also was my first Shepard who went into the final battle fully expecting that he was going to die. All the other Sheppies - Sam, Garvi, Saul, - all went into it with the mindset of “I am going to survive this, damn it”. But once Hackett came on board the Normandy I realized that Atticus didn’t believe he would survive London.

But good news! He did. :3

Atticus’ two most important achievements so far:

1. Saved the students of Grissom Academy and then immediately made out with one of the teachers in front of the aforementioned students; not once, but twice.

2. Has been a big enough grouch that his facial scarring has reappeared. I feel like it’ll probably fluctuate throughout the game as I try to balance his lack of patience, quick temper, and tendency to punch problems into submission with Paragon Or Everyone Dies, but we shall see.

Well, I tried. I tried SO HARD. Atticus held on to his facial scars throughout the entire game - something none of my other Shepards have even come close to accomplishing - 

And then right before they went through the Omega 4 relay, Jack banged the renegade right out of him and his scars are gone. Which, tbh, is kind of the opposite of what you’d expect to happen, but here we are. 

So his facial scars have healed, he and the Illusive Man had a nasty breakup, and now he’s off to ME3.

Atticus is grumping his way through the galaxy.

He’s still maintaining a fairly even split with paragon/renegade (tho paragon is still winning), and I’ve noticed that it’s definitely impacting him more than my other Sheppies.

- He completed Zaeed’s mission but did not earn his loyalty, oops - He sometimes does not get the blue dialogue options. Luckily he was able to yell louder than both Miranda and Jack when they had their confrontation, so both are loyal to him - He is also the first of my Shepards who couldn’t make the check and get either dialogue option to resist Morinth’s influence.