*dives in* @nix-shiva! Hey! Um, I'm on mobile, so reblogging isn't working well (read: at all), and your submit page doesn't seem to be active, but I will take literally any opportunity to talk about my Shepard, so...
1: Why did you choose your characters name? Went with the default because you liked it?
When I name characters, I tend to just experiment with sounds and name variations until I find something that fits for them. In the case of my Shepard, it wound up being "Coren"
2: What background do you like better? Why? Have you headcanoned your own background? Family?
*whispers* Yessssss... Coren is a Colonist/Sole Survivor, because it sounded like the most interesting combo. It really plays into who she became as time went on. Coren's story is very much one of lost time and regret.
Her parents were farmers, and her mother actually trained as a beauty specialist, and Coren was a little tomboy, running around in her overalls, covered in mud, and refusing to wear her hair any longer than a few inches, much to her mother's disappointment. Still, her mother was the only one allowed to cut her hair.
The Batarian attack on Mindoir was when she was 13 (few days before her haircut); Coren hadn't hit her growth spurt yet, and it probably saved her life. Her mother hid her in the kitchen, told her not to come out until it was all over, and ran to find their neighbors' children and make sure they were alright. Ten minutes later, one of the Batarian ships went down, clipping the structure, and bringing it all down. Coren's legs were pinned by the rubble, but the wall cracked and she could see out, and when the Alliance came, she was able to scream for help. Later, she kept sobbing about the smoke and ash, but when someone offered to trim the scorched tips off of her hair and give it a wash, she screamed that only her mother was allowed to do that, and they weren't to touch her hair, and no one would until they found her mother, why weren't they looking for her mother?!
She didn't cut her hair again outside of the necessary trims to keep it healthy for years; she looked up some of the elaborate braids her mother used to do, and worked them into her hair to keep it out of the way and able to fit under her helmet. When she was alone on Akuze, she grit her teeth and cut off a few clumps each day to start a fire whenever she needed one. As soon as she was off, she had a friend even it out, and they both pretended Coren wasn't crying even a little as they trimmed, rebraided, and tucked it up at the back of her head.
There were definitely lots of jokes about her hair being "legendary" in the Alliance, and one day on the Normandy during ME1 when Kaiden goaded her and Garrus didn't believe them, so she sat down in the mess and one by one unspooled her braids all over the place, and they're so long and so soft because she takes such good care of them...
...Sorry, I really love her hair and how it relates to her mental health. It's important to me.
3: Paragon/Renegade?
She's mostly Paragon, but as the games went on and she became more tired and brittle, her temper got worse.
4: Who was your very first romance? (Not necessarily from ME1)
First official romance was Garrus in ME2; she totally had a crush on him all through ME1, though. She and Kaiden flirted, with the agreement that they'd talk about it once the mission was over. They never got the chance.
5: How did they handle the visions from the beacons?
She didn't believe them very much herself, it was only as time went on and they found more evidence that she became sold on the idea. However, the innate feelings driving the visions drove her reactions whenever they came up in conversation; most of her insistence that people take them seriously came from the closed-throated panic that set in whenever someone insisted it wasn't worth paying attention to.
6: Did Ashley or Kaidan die on Virmire?
Kaiden.
7: How did your Shepard handle the loss of their friend on Virmire? Did they even care, or were they heartbroken?
She was distraught. It was yet another case of not being able to finish something they promised to do; her mother never cut her hair, her team never reached their destination, she wasn't able to talk down Toombs, and now, she and Kaiden would never talk about what they might've had.
8: What did Shepard do for the few weeks between ME1 and ME2? Did they take vacation? Or straight into hunting Geth?
You know how Shep walks out of the rubble, cradling their arm, looking triumphant? Yeah, for Coren, as soon as the camera cuts away, she trips over her own foot, crashes face-first into the floor, twisting her ankle all wrong, breaking her nose, giving herself a minor concussion, and making every single break and fracture she already had worse. (She later, rather deliriously, asked Garrus if her face was flat enough to be an honorary Turian, and he told her she'd need to try a little harder before she managed that.)
Basically, she spent most of that time in the hospital, recovering from her injuries; she's a god-awful patient, and her desperate desire to get back out there on the front lines probably doubled her stay. Vanguards, am I right?
9: What was going through Shep’s head at the start of ME2?
When the Normandy got wrecked, or when she woke up in the Cerberus station? The Normandy, she was remembering to stay centered, and focusing on getting as many people out alive as possible; when she spun off into space, her main thought was that she was glad so many people made it, as she watched the escape pods zip away. Then she heard the air escaping, the valves closing, and the primal panic set in. When she woke up again, the panic was still there, but now her balance was off, and she didn't know why, and some lady was yelling at her, and things were on fire. She stumbled through until the first window, everything feeling wrong, before she realized what was wrong. Cerberus had to shave her head to get at her brain, and never got around to growing it back, and pounds and pounds of hair no longer on the top of her head had thrown off her balance. She took one look at herself in that window, screamed, covered her mouth, and took a few seconds to take stock of things, shoving the oncoming panic attack as far down as possible. She actually managed to suppress it until she was back on the Normandy, at which point she locked herself in the bathroom, looked at her face, second-guessing every aspect of it ("Were my ears always this large? Was my nose always this short? Weren't my eyes blue before? Where did all their color go?!") which slowly devolved to her curled up in the corner, riding out the waves of the attack.
It was all a big mess, is what I'm saying.
10: What happened to their LI? Did they contact them?
Like I said, it was Garrus, and she already had a bit of a crush on him. Part of her panic attack was definitely knowing he'd gone missing, and thinking he was probably dead. She nearly cried when "Archangel" took his helmet off, and there was definitely a moment where she jokingly slapped his shoulder and told him what a jerk he was for making her worry like that.
11: Did they recruit all companions in ME2? Did they all get along? Who was their closest friend?
Yes, yes, and it depends how you look at it. She romanced Garrus, but they're still best friends. She adores Grunt and Legion, and all but declared them her space children, but... yeah, that's more familial? She's very motherly towards them. Purely platonic non-familial friendship would probably be Tali, since they've known eachother since the first game, and for new companions, um, either Jack or Kasumi, I'd say.
12: How did Shep deal with Mordin’s revelation? Do they even care about the Genophage? Or do they think it’s none of their business?
She was very uncomfortable with it; she understands the logic of the Turians and Salarians, when they implemented it, but it feels very unfair at this point, and she can't approve of Mordin's work modifying it. She also appreciates him telling her, and understands it must have been a tough decision, so she didn't want to alienate him by seeming angry with it, so it was awkward.
13: Did they recruit Kasumi and Zaeed?
Yep.
14: Were all of their companions loyal?
Yep!
15: Did they assist Liara in LOTSB?
Yep~!
16: How did Shep feel about not being part of the Aliance? Did they feel they were letting down Anderson or Hackett by working with Cerberus?
Not Anderson or Hackett, no; she felt like she was letting down Toombs, like she was letting down her whole unit on Akuze all over again. The sinking pit of betrayal in her stomach every time she opened her closet and saw the Cerberus logo on every piece of clothing... She wound up wearing the colonist uniform throughout almost the entire time, as it was the only outfit without the logo. When she got enough personal money to buy some more clothes, she bought almost everything in the store, because she didn't want TIM to know what outfit she actually wanted (it was a couple sets of jumpers in various colors, and a blue short-sleeved dress that reminded her of her mother.)
17: How did Shep feel about EDI?
A friend is a friend is a friend, isn't it? EDI is friendly and helpful and has proved herself to be on Coren's side enough times to be a trusted member of the team.
18: Did Shepard destroy the Collector Base?
Yes.
19: Did all of Shepard’s crew survive the suicide mission?
Oh yes!
20: Did Shepard complete the Arrival DLC?
No, she never got the request; I got the DLC after finishing my first playthrough with her, and I didn't think the plot fit with her character arc, so I ignored it on all other playthroughs.
21: How did they feel about killing so many innocent Batarian colonists?
That is exactly the reason I don't play it with Coren; she has a personal mantra that when all else fails, she will never take an action that could directly lead to the extinction of a race. So, for the sake of her character arc, I can't have her doing that in the middle of it. Therefore, Hackett never asked her.
22: Did Shepard offer to hand themselves in?
For working with Cerberus, yes. Immediately after the suicide mission.
23: How did Shepard spend their house arrest in Vancouver? Did any of their friends/LI come see them?
Well, it's strongly implied that Shep wasn't even allowed to get or send messages; I'm guessing guests were out of the picture. So, no, aside from guards, Coren was isolated in that apartment. So she sat there, she did some extranet shopping, she watched TV, and she worried. There was a lot of worrying. She also tried to grow her hair out again (actually, she started during ME2,) but just before the game starts, she took a razor and in a fit of frustrated peak, cut it all off again. Garrus was shocked when he saw her again, but she reassured him that she chose this, and she didn't regret it; it actually gave her an odd sense of relief to do something like that for herself.
24: How did Shepard handle leaving Anderson behind?
She stuffed it down deep, and tried to pretend it didn't bother her, to leave another friend behind. ("We'll get out of here," they'd agreed; another broken promise.)
25: Was Shep glad to have the Virmire survivor back in their lives?
Much like their encounter on Horizon, she was thrilled to see Ash for a few seconds, before Ashley pushed her away again. Coren still wanted to be friends, and worked very hard to win her over again, but there was a knife in her gut that twisted every time Ashley looked at her with distrust or said something suspicious.
26: How did Shepard handle the Tuchanka storyline? Did they cure the Genophage, or agree to sabotage the cure for the Dalatrass?
She was about to send the Krogan off to fight the Reapers en mass; not curing the Genophage could send the Krogan to their deaths. And anyway, with Wrex at the helm, she believed they could be a force for good in the galaxy. So she very politely told the Dalatrass to go fuck herself, then told Wrex, Eve, and Mordin as soon as possible.
27: How did Shepard handle the Rachni Queen quest? (If she survived ME1)
Never send a whole race to their deaths; she saved the queen again, Grunt almost died, I cried like a baby, and both of us scolded Grunt for scaring us like that when he walked back out.
28: How did the Citadel invasion go down? Was the Virmire survivor killed, or welcomed back aboard to Normandy?
Coren shot Udina, Ashley came back to the Normandy, and they kept working on rebuilding their friendship.
29: How did the Rannoch questline go for Shepard? Did the Geth and Quarians make peace? How did Shepard feel about taking down a Reaper?
She was absolutely terrified the whole time she was fighting the Reaper, and afterwards, the adrenaline made it hard for her to keep her emotions capped off; she was giggly for a little while, then cried the whole way back to the ship, barely managing to clean up her face in time for her report. Peace was obtained, though it cost her one of her babies.
30: Did they celebrate?
Celebrate what? For Coren, losing Legion and the fear that Tali would walk away from the Normandy to help the Quarians rebuild sorta overwhelmed any feeling of victory. It was a futile struggle that cost far too many lives, and she was barely able to muster a numb sort of relief that it was over.
31: How did Shep handle their nightmares?
She showers. Scrubs her face. Everytime they start to intrude on her thoughts, she's back in that bathroom. She dives into her reports and her reading. As the months pass and her hair starts to grow in, she takes to sitting against Garrus's legs while he does his own reading, and he'll absently preen at her and work little braids into her hair, far simpler than any of her old ones, but it's soothing. On really bad days, she doesn't even say anything, just lightly headbutts his shoulder, and he'll finish whatever he's doing and they'll move somewhere more comfortable.
32: Did Shepard recruit all companions?
Yep.
33: Did Shepard recruit Javik? What is their impression of him?
She lives in constant terror that one day she'll turn her back for two seconds, and he'll cause a diplomatic incident she'll never be able to fix. They, um, they don't get along, but they respect eachother.
34: Did Shepard revisit all of their old crew and acquire their help in the war?
Yep! We actually managed to get all the War Assets!
35: Did Shepard help Aria T’Loak retake Omega?
Yes indeedy~!
36: Did Shepard investigate the Leviathan?
Yes, and I'd like to add that in that scene in Shepard's head, Leviathan wasn't the only one fluctuating; Coren also switched between herself in her armor, a long-haired version of herself in her twenties wearing the blue dress, and the child she was before Mindior burned.
37: How did Shepard’s shore leave go? How did they deal with their clone? How did they spend the remainder of their shore leave?
She was confused. Angry. And full of questions about her own self, about how much she was really her, and she no longer trusted her perspective. The others pulled her through, and in the end she offered to save the other Coren, but the questions will probably never go away. She was also very smug, in places, because the clone had clearly only recently learned about the nicks and scars that Coren has, and had tried to add them to her own face, meaning the cuts were fresh and clearly sore from poorly applied medigel. But, basically, this was the only mission where I took every Renegade interrupt.
As for the rest of shore leave, she spent it beating as many high scores at the various games as she could, shared Zaeed's frustration over the claw machine, and kicked the Area's ass. She also spent a lot of time curled up on her new black and white sofa with Garrus, watching the fire and just cuddling. Because yes.
38: How did Shepard’s journey end? Effect on their LI? Effects on their friends? Effects on their family?
Ah, and here is the culmination of her character arc! Coren promised Garrus she would come back, enjoyed their fantasy of moving somewhere tropical and adopting all the baby Krogan, and she wanted to live. She wanted to live, and she didn't trust the Catalyst, and she didn't trust the Reapers, and she wanted to live, and two of her three options would end in certain death, and she wanted to live. So she picked Destroy. And she did live, and it went against everything she'd ever stood for, went against her inner mantra of never wiping out a whole species, killed EDI, betrayed Legion's memory.... She's a train wreck for a long time after, and can't bring herself to face most of her crew afterwards.
Part of me likes the idea of the Geth and EDI making backups of themselves before the final fight, and hiding them in computer banks hidden deep in caverns on undeveloped worlds, just in case the worst comes to happen. So that she'd have to face them as well, knowing she'd pulled the trigger that shot them in the back. Because I am a cruel, cruel creator, and also, I'd just really like a way for everyone to live *shrug*
39: Link me screenshots!!
I actually don't have any... My computer is weird, and doesn't like to take screenshots while my games are in fullscreen, which is my favorite way to play. I have three near-identical playthroughs, and probably, like, two thousand save files over the course of all games/playthroughs, but I don't have any screenshots. Sorry.
