Ashley Williams (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
brbvirmire) wrote2012-01-10 02:44 pm
brbvirmire) wrote2012-01-10 02:44 pm
Entry tags:
Application: singularity_rpg
Player Information ;
Your Nickname: DC
OOC Journal:technobubblegum
Under 18? Nope!
Email/IM: insanityprelude90 at gmail
Characters Played at Singularity: Chellbot (rebuildscience)
Character Information ;
Name: Ashley Williams
Name of Canon: Mass Effect
Canon/AU/Other Game CR: Canon
Reference: http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Mass_Effect_Wiki
http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Ashley_Williams
Canon Point: Post-Horizon. For this Ash, Shepard is a default male Paragon; Wrex and the Council are alive, the rachni queen and Kaidan aren't (the latter's kind of a given of course.) Gotta love mutable canons.
Setting:
Short version: It's the 22nd century, and humans are part of a galactic community. Also, badasses everywhere.
Long version: Okay, so in 2148 humanity discovered ancient ruins on Mars, left behind by an ancient race called the Protheans. This leads to a huge technological leap forward, thanks to the newfound knowledge of "mass effect": basically, the ability to make fields that alter the mass of objects using the newly discovered "element zero." Mass effect allows for all kinds of nifty sci-fi tech, such as FTL travel, shields, better guns, et cetera. Element zero also turns out to have another use- prenatal exposure, while it usually just kills the child with cancer, occasionally produces a "biotic." Basically, space telekinesis.
The discovery on Mars led to another Really Important Discovery. Pluto's moon Charon wasn't actually a moon, it turns out. It was another piece of ancient tech: a mass relay, encased in ice. Mass relays are scattered across the galaxy, and allow ships to jump from one to another in seconds, making interstellar travel feasible.
Humanity, of course, jumped on this opportunity. Various governments banded together, forming the Systems Alliance (and its military) to represent the species as a whole. The Alliance started sending people out to expand into the galaxy, colonizing numerous planets and activating all the relays they could find. That last part ended up getting them in trouble when another species, the turians, caught them at it. Long story short, humanity ends up at war with the first aliens they meet. Big surprise.
The First Contact War was short and relatively bloodless, though it did mark the first time a human ended up surrendering to aliens. It probably would have been worse if not for the intervention of the Citadel Council. See, turians aren't the only aliens in town. There are several intelligent species, and a galactic government based out of the huge ancient space station known as (surprise surprise) the Citadel. A quick overview of the ones we'll be seeing the most of:
Asari- Blue alien space babes. They're all female ("mono-gendered" technically but for all intents and purposes they're women), all biotics, and have thousand-plus year lifespans. Also, xenosexuality is a cultural institution due to their weird method of reproduction. They hold one of the seats on the Council.
Turians- The guys humanity pissed off. Highly disciplined and militaristic as a culture. They're the newest member of the Council, at least until humanity gets a seat.
Salarians- Greys on speed. They think fast, they talk fast, and they have fast metabolisms to match, although this comes with the downside of a short (40 years or so) lifespan. Tend to be scientists. The second Council race.
Krogan- Space dinosaur warrior guys. The salarians found them and brought them into the greater galactic community to swat some bugs (the rachni,) they proceeded to
Quarians- A race that ended up exiled from their home planet by their own creations (the Geth, a robot hivemind that they created as workers and then tried to eliminate when they turned out more intelligent than planned,) they now live a nomadic existence aboard a huge fleet of old ships. Their immune systems are so lousy that even aboard the fleet they spend most of their time in environmental suits. Pretty much all the other races see them as a nuisance at best.
There are several other intelligent species, but those are the ones with the most screen time.
One other thing about the Council- they're in charge of a special ops group, the Spectres. Spectres are pretty much the baddest of the badasses; they can work above the law, answering only to the Council, and it's their job to deal with situations that can't be dealt with any other way. The Alliance wants a human to be made a Spectre, as a step closer to the Council, and they get their wish: after a Geth attack on the human colony world of Eden Prime, Commander Shepard receives Spectre status so he or she can track down the guy behind it.
And then it all goes to hell. Initially everyone thinks the geth were working for a rogue turian Spectre, Saren Arterius. As it turns out, Saren's just a pawn for a bigger bad, the Reapers. Reapers are a mechanical lifeform, most easily described as ginormous living starships that kind of look like cuttlefish. Every so often they come into the galaxy and wipe out all advanced intelligent species. The Protheans were their last victim. Now they're coming around again.
Oh, and that shiny tech everyone thought was left by the Protheans? Mass relays and the Citadel? Yeah, the Reapers made those. They're a trap: a way to push civilizations along a certain path, making them easier to wipe out when the Reapers come by again.
So, Shepard and his/her squad (of which Ashley is part, having been reassigned to the Normandy after the attack on Eden Prime wiped out the rest of her unit) defeat Saren and the Reaper behind him, Sovereign. But it's not over.
Shortly after that fight, a devastating attack trashes the Normandy and kills Shepard. The rest of the team scatters without their leader to glue the team together. Shepard's body ends up in the hands of Cerberus: described at different points as a pro-human group, a black ops group, or a terrorist group- basically, not the nicest guys. They have about a metric fucktonne of resources at their disposal, and over the next two years they pour a lot of it into bringing Shepard back from the dead to deal with the mysterious disappearances of human colonies. As you might have guessed, it's the Reapers behind those disappearances- or rather, a slave race of theirs, the Collectors. Which happen to be heavily altered Protheans, enslaved by the Reapers.
It turns out the Collectors were gathering humans as part of the process of making a new Reaper. Shepard puts a stop to that.
The Reapers are still coming, though. The odds are pretty nasty. But the impossible is kind of what Shepard does.
Oh, and somewhere between the end of Mass Effect 2 and the start of 3 Ashley or Kaidan gets promoted to Spectre status. So apparently whatever they were doing while not on your team, they impressed the Council. This Ash isn't a Spectre yet though.
Personality:
"Soft" probably isn't the first word someone would think of to describe Ashley. She's forward, blunt and aggressive, short-tempered, not at all hesitant to make her opinions heard. She's pretty much the designated snarker of Shepard's squad in the first game, sometimes including sassing her commander to his/her face. If you fail to talk Wrex down on Virmire, she won't hesitate to shoot him to protect Shepard.
That said, she's not a complete jerk. She can show respect and compassion where she needs to. She's very close to her family (more on that shortly.) Of all your human party members, she appears to be the only religious one. And she's kind of a geek about poetry. It seems like she likes being seen as tough and prickly though ("... doesn't mean I can't like sensitive stuff! But don't spread it around.")
Remember I mentioned earlier that a human surrendered to turians in the First Contact War? That was Ashley's grandfather. The Alliance has had a bit of a grudge against her family since then; her father got passed over for promotions, and Ashley was repeatedly stuck with ground assignments that kept her out of actual combat. As a result she's determined to be the best and clear her family's name. And she'd go a long way to do so- Shepard can call her out on it, suggesting she's a little too willing to fall on her sword (gun?) to get rid of the Williams stigma. She might have internalized her superiors' prejudice a bit- if Shepard romances her she can eventually confess that even though she's always fought hard to get what she wants, she never really felt like she deserves it.
Also probably stemming from her grandfather's legacy is Ashley's issues with aliens. "Xenophobic" would be too strong a word, and she's quick to call others out on being space racists, but she does have some trust issues regarding aliens and dislikes the idea of humanity relying too much on them. She's not the person you'd want to pick as a diplomat. However, as a soldier she doesn't appear to let her misgivings about other species get in the way of her duty.
In short: hard and sour on the outside, sweet on the inside. Like some kind of jawbreaker, maybe. (in other news, I shouldn't write apps while eating.)
Abilities, Weaknesses, and Power Limitation Suggestions:
+ Soldier skills: In gameplay terms, Ashley is a combat specialist: she doesn't have any biotic or tech skills, but makes up for this by being proficient in multiple types of guns and physically tough (she can tank right alongside Wrex.) And, well, she's a trained marine anyway so you'd kind of expect her to be someone you want on your side in a fight.
+ Leadership: Not something you see so much ingame, but background info indicates she's actually not too bad at leading a unit.
- Abrasiveness: I went over this in the personality section already, but the short version: Ash isn't the easiest to get along with.
- Aliens: As mentioned above, Ashley doesn't especially trust aliens. She's getting better about that, though. Robots/AIs are more likely to be a problem, what with her spending so much time fighting Geth.
In other words, she'll fit right in on Sacrosanct. XD
Inventory:
* A suit of heavy Phoenix armor and whatever goes under it
* Multiple guns (the default loadout for a soldier in both games is four different guns.) They'll be damaged on landing in the Junkyard.
* A standard-issue omnitool.
Appearance: So I heard you like screencaps.
She doesn't look like the party tank, and it's a good thing she doesn't rely on stealth because she'd only be able to blend in if she was fighting in a candy cane factory.
Age: 27
OC/AU Justification ;
If AU, How is Your Version Different From Canon, and How Will That Come Across? Not... technically AU? lol Bioware characters.
If OC, Did You Run Your Character Through a Mary-Sue Litmus Test?
And What Did You Score?
Samples ;
Log Sample:
A short letter shouldn't be so difficult to write.
Not that fancy words were ever Ashley's specialty, but how hard could it be to say "Hey, I was kind of a dick back there on Horizon, sorry about that?" As it turns out, very. It's been twenty minutes, she's been sitting here writing and rewriting this email and it still doesn't sound quite right.
I'm sorry, but how could you work with them- No. They've been over that.
I saw you get spaced and- He doesn't need the reminder.
I really wish you would have told me. If what he said was true, he didn't have the option.
I missed- No no no, way too sappy.
The problem is, how does she make her feelings on all this clear when she doesn't even have a solid grip on them yet? She was finally coming to terms with Shepard being gone, and then there he was, alive and working with Cerberus, and the world turned upside down. A couple days later and she's still reeling. Still sort of suspects it's all a bad joke.
In the whole canon of human literature, there's no poem that she can use to sum it up.
Might as well start with "I'm sorry."
Network Sample:
[audio]
Someone here had better know what's going on here, and I don't mean the bull that VI gave me. How did I get here and who do I have to shoot to go back? I don't have time for someone's idea of a bad joke.
This is a joke, right? I mean, seriously. Everyone's singing. I'd swear I just walked into karaoke night on the Citadel if I didn't know better.
Your Nickname: DC
OOC Journal:
technobubblegumUnder 18? Nope!
Email/IM: insanityprelude90 at gmail
Characters Played at Singularity: Chellbot (
rebuildscience)Character Information ;
Name: Ashley Williams
Name of Canon: Mass Effect
Canon/AU/Other Game CR: Canon
Reference: http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Mass_Effect_Wiki
http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Ashley_Williams
Canon Point: Post-Horizon. For this Ash, Shepard is a default male Paragon; Wrex and the Council are alive, the rachni queen and Kaidan aren't (the latter's kind of a given of course.) Gotta love mutable canons.
Setting:
Short version: It's the 22nd century, and humans are part of a galactic community. Also, badasses everywhere.
Long version: Okay, so in 2148 humanity discovered ancient ruins on Mars, left behind by an ancient race called the Protheans. This leads to a huge technological leap forward, thanks to the newfound knowledge of "mass effect": basically, the ability to make fields that alter the mass of objects using the newly discovered "element zero." Mass effect allows for all kinds of nifty sci-fi tech, such as FTL travel, shields, better guns, et cetera. Element zero also turns out to have another use- prenatal exposure, while it usually just kills the child with cancer, occasionally produces a "biotic." Basically, space telekinesis.
The discovery on Mars led to another Really Important Discovery. Pluto's moon Charon wasn't actually a moon, it turns out. It was another piece of ancient tech: a mass relay, encased in ice. Mass relays are scattered across the galaxy, and allow ships to jump from one to another in seconds, making interstellar travel feasible.
Humanity, of course, jumped on this opportunity. Various governments banded together, forming the Systems Alliance (and its military) to represent the species as a whole. The Alliance started sending people out to expand into the galaxy, colonizing numerous planets and activating all the relays they could find. That last part ended up getting them in trouble when another species, the turians, caught them at it. Long story short, humanity ends up at war with the first aliens they meet. Big surprise.
The First Contact War was short and relatively bloodless, though it did mark the first time a human ended up surrendering to aliens. It probably would have been worse if not for the intervention of the Citadel Council. See, turians aren't the only aliens in town. There are several intelligent species, and a galactic government based out of the huge ancient space station known as (surprise surprise) the Citadel. A quick overview of the ones we'll be seeing the most of:
Asari- Blue alien space babes. They're all female ("mono-gendered" technically but for all intents and purposes they're women), all biotics, and have thousand-plus year lifespans. Also, xenosexuality is a cultural institution due to their weird method of reproduction. They hold one of the seats on the Council.
Turians- The guys humanity pissed off. Highly disciplined and militaristic as a culture. They're the newest member of the Council, at least until humanity gets a seat.
Salarians- Greys on speed. They think fast, they talk fast, and they have fast metabolisms to match, although this comes with the downside of a short (40 years or so) lifespan. Tend to be scientists. The second Council race.
Krogan- Space dinosaur warrior guys. The salarians found them and brought them into the greater galactic community to swat some bugs (the rachni,) they proceeded to
Quarians- A race that ended up exiled from their home planet by their own creations (the Geth, a robot hivemind that they created as workers and then tried to eliminate when they turned out more intelligent than planned,) they now live a nomadic existence aboard a huge fleet of old ships. Their immune systems are so lousy that even aboard the fleet they spend most of their time in environmental suits. Pretty much all the other races see them as a nuisance at best.
There are several other intelligent species, but those are the ones with the most screen time.
One other thing about the Council- they're in charge of a special ops group, the Spectres. Spectres are pretty much the baddest of the badasses; they can work above the law, answering only to the Council, and it's their job to deal with situations that can't be dealt with any other way. The Alliance wants a human to be made a Spectre, as a step closer to the Council, and they get their wish: after a Geth attack on the human colony world of Eden Prime, Commander Shepard receives Spectre status so he or she can track down the guy behind it.
And then it all goes to hell. Initially everyone thinks the geth were working for a rogue turian Spectre, Saren Arterius. As it turns out, Saren's just a pawn for a bigger bad, the Reapers. Reapers are a mechanical lifeform, most easily described as ginormous living starships that kind of look like cuttlefish. Every so often they come into the galaxy and wipe out all advanced intelligent species. The Protheans were their last victim. Now they're coming around again.
Oh, and that shiny tech everyone thought was left by the Protheans? Mass relays and the Citadel? Yeah, the Reapers made those. They're a trap: a way to push civilizations along a certain path, making them easier to wipe out when the Reapers come by again.
So, Shepard and his/her squad (of which Ashley is part, having been reassigned to the Normandy after the attack on Eden Prime wiped out the rest of her unit) defeat Saren and the Reaper behind him, Sovereign. But it's not over.
Shortly after that fight, a devastating attack trashes the Normandy and kills Shepard. The rest of the team scatters without their leader to glue the team together. Shepard's body ends up in the hands of Cerberus: described at different points as a pro-human group, a black ops group, or a terrorist group- basically, not the nicest guys. They have about a metric fucktonne of resources at their disposal, and over the next two years they pour a lot of it into bringing Shepard back from the dead to deal with the mysterious disappearances of human colonies. As you might have guessed, it's the Reapers behind those disappearances- or rather, a slave race of theirs, the Collectors. Which happen to be heavily altered Protheans, enslaved by the Reapers.
It turns out the Collectors were gathering humans as part of the process of making a new Reaper. Shepard puts a stop to that.
The Reapers are still coming, though. The odds are pretty nasty. But the impossible is kind of what Shepard does.
Oh, and somewhere between the end of Mass Effect 2 and the start of 3 Ashley or Kaidan gets promoted to Spectre status. So apparently whatever they were doing while not on your team, they impressed the Council. This Ash isn't a Spectre yet though.
Personality:
"Soft" probably isn't the first word someone would think of to describe Ashley. She's forward, blunt and aggressive, short-tempered, not at all hesitant to make her opinions heard. She's pretty much the designated snarker of Shepard's squad in the first game, sometimes including sassing her commander to his/her face. If you fail to talk Wrex down on Virmire, she won't hesitate to shoot him to protect Shepard.
That said, she's not a complete jerk. She can show respect and compassion where she needs to. She's very close to her family (more on that shortly.) Of all your human party members, she appears to be the only religious one. And she's kind of a geek about poetry. It seems like she likes being seen as tough and prickly though ("... doesn't mean I can't like sensitive stuff! But don't spread it around.")
Remember I mentioned earlier that a human surrendered to turians in the First Contact War? That was Ashley's grandfather. The Alliance has had a bit of a grudge against her family since then; her father got passed over for promotions, and Ashley was repeatedly stuck with ground assignments that kept her out of actual combat. As a result she's determined to be the best and clear her family's name. And she'd go a long way to do so- Shepard can call her out on it, suggesting she's a little too willing to fall on her sword (gun?) to get rid of the Williams stigma. She might have internalized her superiors' prejudice a bit- if Shepard romances her she can eventually confess that even though she's always fought hard to get what she wants, she never really felt like she deserves it.
Also probably stemming from her grandfather's legacy is Ashley's issues with aliens. "Xenophobic" would be too strong a word, and she's quick to call others out on being space racists, but she does have some trust issues regarding aliens and dislikes the idea of humanity relying too much on them. She's not the person you'd want to pick as a diplomat. However, as a soldier she doesn't appear to let her misgivings about other species get in the way of her duty.
In short: hard and sour on the outside, sweet on the inside. Like some kind of jawbreaker, maybe. (in other news, I shouldn't write apps while eating.)
Abilities, Weaknesses, and Power Limitation Suggestions:
+ Soldier skills: In gameplay terms, Ashley is a combat specialist: she doesn't have any biotic or tech skills, but makes up for this by being proficient in multiple types of guns and physically tough (she can tank right alongside Wrex.) And, well, she's a trained marine anyway so you'd kind of expect her to be someone you want on your side in a fight.
+ Leadership: Not something you see so much ingame, but background info indicates she's actually not too bad at leading a unit.
- Abrasiveness: I went over this in the personality section already, but the short version: Ash isn't the easiest to get along with.
- Aliens: As mentioned above, Ashley doesn't especially trust aliens. She's getting better about that, though. Robots/AIs are more likely to be a problem, what with her spending so much time fighting Geth.
In other words, she'll fit right in on Sacrosanct. XD
Inventory:
* A suit of heavy Phoenix armor and whatever goes under it
* Multiple guns (the default loadout for a soldier in both games is four different guns.) They'll be damaged on landing in the Junkyard.
* A standard-issue omnitool.
Appearance: So I heard you like screencaps.
She doesn't look like the party tank, and it's a good thing she doesn't rely on stealth because she'd only be able to blend in if she was fighting in a candy cane factory.
Age: 27
OC/AU Justification ;
If AU, How is Your Version Different From Canon, and How Will That Come Across? Not... technically AU? lol Bioware characters.
And What Did You Score?
Samples ;
Log Sample:
A short letter shouldn't be so difficult to write.
Not that fancy words were ever Ashley's specialty, but how hard could it be to say "Hey, I was kind of a dick back there on Horizon, sorry about that?" As it turns out, very. It's been twenty minutes, she's been sitting here writing and rewriting this email and it still doesn't sound quite right.
I'm sorry, but how could you work with them- No. They've been over that.
I saw you get spaced and- He doesn't need the reminder.
I really wish you would have told me. If what he said was true, he didn't have the option.
I missed- No no no, way too sappy.
The problem is, how does she make her feelings on all this clear when she doesn't even have a solid grip on them yet? She was finally coming to terms with Shepard being gone, and then there he was, alive and working with Cerberus, and the world turned upside down. A couple days later and she's still reeling. Still sort of suspects it's all a bad joke.
In the whole canon of human literature, there's no poem that she can use to sum it up.
Might as well start with "I'm sorry."
Network Sample:
[audio]
Someone here had better know what's going on here, and I don't mean the bull that VI gave me. How did I get here and who do I have to shoot to go back? I don't have time for someone's idea of a bad joke.
This is a joke, right? I mean, seriously. Everyone's singing. I'd swear I just walked into karaoke night on the Citadel if I didn't know better.