evil stepmother jack vessalius (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
psychopath) wrote2013-02-07 08:41 pm
psychopath) wrote2013-02-07 08:41 pm
Entry tags:
somarium; application
[Player name] Numi
[Age] 22
[Personal Journal]hypnos
[Other characters currently played] n/a
[Character name] Jack Vessalius
[Age] 100+, physically 24
[Canon] Pandora Hearts
[Point in time taken from canon] Post Retrace 74
[Background]
wiki link
[Personality]
He's a head-turner - incredibly charismatic, blessed with great looks and the sort of hair women would kill for. He's chattery and happy-go-lucky, always armed with a smile and a compliment, though he might come across as a bit of an airhead.
Unfortunately, only the first sentence is true. The rest are part of a front that he puts up, because Jack, in reality, is an empty man. He's spent at least a decade working tirelessly to haul himself up from a street rat to one of the creme de la creme of society. Jack's been wearing a mask for so long that he's forgotten what his real face looks like.
He knows he's a manipulator, yes, but he doesn't realise how heartless he can be, since he's blinded by his singular obsession over Lacie - a woman who was, and is, his everything. He would gift the world to his deceased beloved, and that entails destroying it. He would destroy Lacie's only family, her brother, in order to bring her the world she loved so much. He would use a pair of brothers to further his own ends, seemingly without remorse, and he would destroy the lives of people a century later than his own time to finish what his best friend had given up his life for to prevent.
Jack loves completely, obsessively, unhealthily. It's a skewed love that's perfect in his mind, a love that justifies the means for an end that he thinks that is in his beloved's interests, but isn't.
Oswald is the first person to see right through him and tell him that he finds nothing. He describes Jack like water - a stretch of water so silent and still, that all you can see is a reflection - and that's what he is, really.
Jack himself doesn't quite know what his real self is like. It's shown in canon that he can be a ruthless, calculating chessmaster, whose determination spans time and death - he has no problem lying to further his ends. However, underneath this, he still retains some modicum of care for people he would not actively acknowledge as his friends - he seems to hold some regret for raising his sword against his best friend.
Around other people, Jack usually will, at first, present a front of him being a third-rate nobleman, born into riches, charismatic and trusting with no knowledge of political machinations. Someone that is probably easy to use and manipulate, and easy to lure using emotional bait. He has a soft spot for children and animals, and loves to flirt with women and make them blush.
He befriends those whom he can use and those who interest him; he gives favours and helps those whom he figures would feel indebted to him as a result. Jack's default reaction to noblemen like him is apathy at worst, and hatred at best, unless they interest him beyond their use in politics. He has an affinity for making people listen to him and making them do things, with them believing that they are doing it because of their own choices.
After the Tragedy, Jack founded Pandora under the pretense of keeping Glen Baskerville sealed, and he knew the organization would do a splendid job of hunting Baskervilles down - thus preventing them from finding the seals, which hold the truth, and their master's body. The four Dukedoms were supposedly formed from those who helped rebuild the country after the Tragedy, but Jack had carefully chosen them according to the future he wanted to create.
Jack does not lie much; he prefers leaving out pieces of the truth, because that is easier to believe. He likes inane babble and shallow topics, talking about other people, not much about himself. Affection is distributed and received freely, because it no longer holds any meaning for him, after nearly a decade of using everything in his disposal to build connections in nobility.
Any sort of prying into his personality would be waved off, and any overt effort will be shut down. Pointing out his tendency to self-sacrifice, and his empty personality, makes him uncomfortable and discomfited. After Lacie's death, he seems to slip a little, leaning towards the edge of being obvious; Arthur actually realises what sort of person he is because of this.
He's known for climbing trees and staying up there for hours at a time- this is where he is truly alone, he feels, and this is where he can just not think about anything, drop his facade, and rest. This is also why he has taken up music box-making, along with watchmaking: they are mindless tasks, just putting things together after laying it out, and it comforts him to just let his hands work and not think about it.
It is also implied that Jack does not care much for his own well-being at best. When he finds Lacie, he is willing to be punished, or even put to death, as he had already seen the woman that had been his reason for living for nearly half his life. Even when Lacie practically deposits herself in his lap, he does nothing to touch her, content that she is close and that he can follow him.
It is said in canon material that what Jack feels for Lacie is too pure for obsession, but too blind for love. The only example he has of something approaching love is his mother's blind faith and her obsession to see his father again, which was never fulfilled (and he follows the same cycle, but with Lacie). Jack himself had never been loved or even given affection as himself, and from what he knows, he latches onto the first person to treat him like his own human being.
The sibling love between Lacie and Oswald confuses him, and this plays a part in his inability to understand that Oswald must put the good of many above the life of his sister. Oswald himself sends Jack's plans into a disarray, as he seemingly does not care what sort of empty man he is, and continues to be friends with him in spite of the fact that he only has eyes for his sister. He seems to regain part of his sanity when he later sees Oswald's severed head, and he realises that he had just killed his best friend (possibly only friend) by his own hand.
He wishes it was all just a quaint little fairytale, afterwards, but Jack does not do things by halves. The story must and will go on.
[Abilities]
wiki link
Canonly, Jack can take over Oz Vessalius' body and use his powers; as there is a current Oz in-game, we'll be working it out! No unauthorized godmodding anywhere. He will retain no magical powers aside from this.
[Other important stuff] Jack is physically 24 but he has lived nearly a hundred years. How?
Jack was thrown out of the Abyss' hundred year cycle, left to wind and rewind in 24-year cycles (the age he had instigated the Tragedy), losing memories with every cycle. The only constant is Oz, the B. Rabbit, Jack's Chain. A century later, Zai Vessalius meets a child in a snowfall- Jack, on his last cycle before his memories vanish completely, and the latter convinces Zai to take Jack as a replacement for his stillborn son. Zai agrees, and his only heir is introduced to society: Oz Vessalius.
[Sample post]
[First Person]
What do you think of your home world?
It's a lovely place, not always charming, but lovely nevertheless. There's always lots to see and tinker about! I'm not involved in politics too much, since I'm just the third son, so I always have free time to explore.
[he's lying; he hates his world thoroughly.]
If someone provoked or attacked you, what would you do?
Erm, that would be odd but I suppose...I would try reasoning with them first? Perhaps we could talk it out. I don't advocate violence, but if my loved ones are threatened, then I will raise my sword against them.
Someone comes to you to ask for the time. How would you respond?
Depends, is it a beautiful lady? Probably...I would probably pull out a rose - I always have some on my person, and goodness, I'm not telling how, a magician keeps his secrets - and dazzle her with my wit. And then she blushes! But not always, I get slapped sometimes.
Otherwise, I always carry a pocket-watch, so I'll just show them the time and perhaps try to strike conversation!
If I offered to save your soul for a price, would you go with it and why?
Ah...no, my apologies. My soul serves as a lock for someone quite dangerous, so I cannot allow it to be 'saved', as it were. And my soul cannot be saved, anyway, so I believe it would be a fruitless price, whatever it may cost.
Would you consider yourself a hero or a villain? Why? Neither is an option as well, but still tell why.
They call me the Hero of Sablier, but I'm not one, not in any sense of the word. I killed my best friend, that is nothing to be proud of, nor is it something that warrants the title. I didn't save anyone - just killed someone - doesn't a hero save people? I just did what I had to do at the time.
Call me a villain, perhaps, an accidental one, but not a hero, never a hero.
You are on the verge of death. You know there is no way to survive and there's no coming back. Choose any of the following to answer: What is your last wish? Your last regret? Last thoughts? How do you feel? Who is the last person you think of other than your killer?
My last wish would be that my loved ones would be happy. My last regret would be what I have done, what I have given, to try and fulfill that last wish.
You see a bloody knife on the floor. What do you do or think?
Oh dear, why is something like that on the floor in the first place? I suppose I would look around and see if anyone's injured, all that blood has to come from somewhere. Unless it's a kitchen, I'd have one of the cooks clean that up. Otherwise, if...there's nobody hurt I'll have the authorities summoned, there is someone out there who hurt someone else, or themselves, both equally terrible.
You find yourself with a cute, little penguin slave. What do you do with it?
Oh my goodness, my best friend would love this, he's really quite fond of birds! I would dress it up in penguin bows and probably ask it what sort of food it likes and perhaps ask it to dance. Oh, oh, maybe build an igloo for it! Can I tell it that it isn't my slave any longer? Why would you want to keep a penguin as a slave, that's horrid!
[Third Person]
It's raining, and that's depressing. Jack's umbrella had long given up on itself - that's even more depressing - and he'd held on to its scraggly remains as he looks for shelter. He's no stranger to being out in storms; this was already a step above enduring freezing cold on the street in tattered clothes, and far above the worse alternative, which was being inside, warm and bundled up as another noble's valet.
The closest one he could take shelter in reminded him uncomfortably of his childhood home, and the idea is scrapped, along with any other future plans to even look at it. Childhood memories, from before he had met Lacie, weren't welcomed, in dreams or not.
The next one looked suspicious, and Jack wasn't fond of leaving suspicions untied, so he drifts towards it, squinting through the rain. Blood doesn't faze him whatsoever, and he could return to this house later when he doesn't feel up to dealing with people again. Somarium is a friendly lot, and it tires him to pretend, again, after so long of not having to. If there was someone already using this house, well - too bad for them; Jack wasn't used to not getting his way.
He could tell people that he'd stayed at the hotel - it was close enough to stave off questions about where he'd been in the storm. After all, a sheltered noble like him should pick the most comfortable lodging, right?
[Why do you want to play this character in Somarium?] I've been wanting to play canon!Jack as he is - manipulative charmer extraordinaire, and Somarium seemed like a good place to wreak havoc :)
[Which rule was your favorite and why?] No meta-gaming, because where would the fun be in that.
[Where did you hear about Somarium?] I was here a couple of years ago, and then a friend of mine apped in and poof here I am again.
[Any questions?] Nope.
[Age] 22
[Personal Journal]
hypnos[Other characters currently played] n/a
[Character name] Jack Vessalius
[Age] 100+, physically 24
[Canon] Pandora Hearts
[Point in time taken from canon] Post Retrace 74
[Background]
wiki link
[Personality]
He's a head-turner - incredibly charismatic, blessed with great looks and the sort of hair women would kill for. He's chattery and happy-go-lucky, always armed with a smile and a compliment, though he might come across as a bit of an airhead.
Unfortunately, only the first sentence is true. The rest are part of a front that he puts up, because Jack, in reality, is an empty man. He's spent at least a decade working tirelessly to haul himself up from a street rat to one of the creme de la creme of society. Jack's been wearing a mask for so long that he's forgotten what his real face looks like.
He knows he's a manipulator, yes, but he doesn't realise how heartless he can be, since he's blinded by his singular obsession over Lacie - a woman who was, and is, his everything. He would gift the world to his deceased beloved, and that entails destroying it. He would destroy Lacie's only family, her brother, in order to bring her the world she loved so much. He would use a pair of brothers to further his own ends, seemingly without remorse, and he would destroy the lives of people a century later than his own time to finish what his best friend had given up his life for to prevent.
Jack loves completely, obsessively, unhealthily. It's a skewed love that's perfect in his mind, a love that justifies the means for an end that he thinks that is in his beloved's interests, but isn't.
Oswald is the first person to see right through him and tell him that he finds nothing. He describes Jack like water - a stretch of water so silent and still, that all you can see is a reflection - and that's what he is, really.
Jack himself doesn't quite know what his real self is like. It's shown in canon that he can be a ruthless, calculating chessmaster, whose determination spans time and death - he has no problem lying to further his ends. However, underneath this, he still retains some modicum of care for people he would not actively acknowledge as his friends - he seems to hold some regret for raising his sword against his best friend.
Around other people, Jack usually will, at first, present a front of him being a third-rate nobleman, born into riches, charismatic and trusting with no knowledge of political machinations. Someone that is probably easy to use and manipulate, and easy to lure using emotional bait. He has a soft spot for children and animals, and loves to flirt with women and make them blush.
He befriends those whom he can use and those who interest him; he gives favours and helps those whom he figures would feel indebted to him as a result. Jack's default reaction to noblemen like him is apathy at worst, and hatred at best, unless they interest him beyond their use in politics. He has an affinity for making people listen to him and making them do things, with them believing that they are doing it because of their own choices.
After the Tragedy, Jack founded Pandora under the pretense of keeping Glen Baskerville sealed, and he knew the organization would do a splendid job of hunting Baskervilles down - thus preventing them from finding the seals, which hold the truth, and their master's body. The four Dukedoms were supposedly formed from those who helped rebuild the country after the Tragedy, but Jack had carefully chosen them according to the future he wanted to create.
Jack does not lie much; he prefers leaving out pieces of the truth, because that is easier to believe. He likes inane babble and shallow topics, talking about other people, not much about himself. Affection is distributed and received freely, because it no longer holds any meaning for him, after nearly a decade of using everything in his disposal to build connections in nobility.
Any sort of prying into his personality would be waved off, and any overt effort will be shut down. Pointing out his tendency to self-sacrifice, and his empty personality, makes him uncomfortable and discomfited. After Lacie's death, he seems to slip a little, leaning towards the edge of being obvious; Arthur actually realises what sort of person he is because of this.
He's known for climbing trees and staying up there for hours at a time- this is where he is truly alone, he feels, and this is where he can just not think about anything, drop his facade, and rest. This is also why he has taken up music box-making, along with watchmaking: they are mindless tasks, just putting things together after laying it out, and it comforts him to just let his hands work and not think about it.
It is also implied that Jack does not care much for his own well-being at best. When he finds Lacie, he is willing to be punished, or even put to death, as he had already seen the woman that had been his reason for living for nearly half his life. Even when Lacie practically deposits herself in his lap, he does nothing to touch her, content that she is close and that he can follow him.
It is said in canon material that what Jack feels for Lacie is too pure for obsession, but too blind for love. The only example he has of something approaching love is his mother's blind faith and her obsession to see his father again, which was never fulfilled (and he follows the same cycle, but with Lacie). Jack himself had never been loved or even given affection as himself, and from what he knows, he latches onto the first person to treat him like his own human being.
The sibling love between Lacie and Oswald confuses him, and this plays a part in his inability to understand that Oswald must put the good of many above the life of his sister. Oswald himself sends Jack's plans into a disarray, as he seemingly does not care what sort of empty man he is, and continues to be friends with him in spite of the fact that he only has eyes for his sister. He seems to regain part of his sanity when he later sees Oswald's severed head, and he realises that he had just killed his best friend (possibly only friend) by his own hand.
He wishes it was all just a quaint little fairytale, afterwards, but Jack does not do things by halves. The story must and will go on.
[Abilities]
wiki link
Canonly, Jack can take over Oz Vessalius' body and use his powers; as there is a current Oz in-game, we'll be working it out! No unauthorized godmodding anywhere. He will retain no magical powers aside from this.
[Other important stuff] Jack is physically 24 but he has lived nearly a hundred years. How?
Jack was thrown out of the Abyss' hundred year cycle, left to wind and rewind in 24-year cycles (the age he had instigated the Tragedy), losing memories with every cycle. The only constant is Oz, the B. Rabbit, Jack's Chain. A century later, Zai Vessalius meets a child in a snowfall- Jack, on his last cycle before his memories vanish completely, and the latter convinces Zai to take Jack as a replacement for his stillborn son. Zai agrees, and his only heir is introduced to society: Oz Vessalius.
[Sample post]
[First Person]
What do you think of your home world?
It's a lovely place, not always charming, but lovely nevertheless. There's always lots to see and tinker about! I'm not involved in politics too much, since I'm just the third son, so I always have free time to explore.
[he's lying; he hates his world thoroughly.]
If someone provoked or attacked you, what would you do?
Erm, that would be odd but I suppose...I would try reasoning with them first? Perhaps we could talk it out. I don't advocate violence, but if my loved ones are threatened, then I will raise my sword against them.
Someone comes to you to ask for the time. How would you respond?
Depends, is it a beautiful lady? Probably...I would probably pull out a rose - I always have some on my person, and goodness, I'm not telling how, a magician keeps his secrets - and dazzle her with my wit. And then she blushes! But not always, I get slapped sometimes.
Otherwise, I always carry a pocket-watch, so I'll just show them the time and perhaps try to strike conversation!
If I offered to save your soul for a price, would you go with it and why?
Ah...no, my apologies. My soul serves as a lock for someone quite dangerous, so I cannot allow it to be 'saved', as it were. And my soul cannot be saved, anyway, so I believe it would be a fruitless price, whatever it may cost.
Would you consider yourself a hero or a villain? Why? Neither is an option as well, but still tell why.
They call me the Hero of Sablier, but I'm not one, not in any sense of the word. I killed my best friend, that is nothing to be proud of, nor is it something that warrants the title. I didn't save anyone - just killed someone - doesn't a hero save people? I just did what I had to do at the time.
Call me a villain, perhaps, an accidental one, but not a hero, never a hero.
You are on the verge of death. You know there is no way to survive and there's no coming back. Choose any of the following to answer: What is your last wish? Your last regret? Last thoughts? How do you feel? Who is the last person you think of other than your killer?
My last wish would be that my loved ones would be happy. My last regret would be what I have done, what I have given, to try and fulfill that last wish.
You see a bloody knife on the floor. What do you do or think?
Oh dear, why is something like that on the floor in the first place? I suppose I would look around and see if anyone's injured, all that blood has to come from somewhere. Unless it's a kitchen, I'd have one of the cooks clean that up. Otherwise, if...there's nobody hurt I'll have the authorities summoned, there is someone out there who hurt someone else, or themselves, both equally terrible.
You find yourself with a cute, little penguin slave. What do you do with it?
Oh my goodness, my best friend would love this, he's really quite fond of birds! I would dress it up in penguin bows and probably ask it what sort of food it likes and perhaps ask it to dance. Oh, oh, maybe build an igloo for it! Can I tell it that it isn't my slave any longer? Why would you want to keep a penguin as a slave, that's horrid!
[Third Person]
It's raining, and that's depressing. Jack's umbrella had long given up on itself - that's even more depressing - and he'd held on to its scraggly remains as he looks for shelter. He's no stranger to being out in storms; this was already a step above enduring freezing cold on the street in tattered clothes, and far above the worse alternative, which was being inside, warm and bundled up as another noble's valet.
The closest one he could take shelter in reminded him uncomfortably of his childhood home, and the idea is scrapped, along with any other future plans to even look at it. Childhood memories, from before he had met Lacie, weren't welcomed, in dreams or not.
The next one looked suspicious, and Jack wasn't fond of leaving suspicions untied, so he drifts towards it, squinting through the rain. Blood doesn't faze him whatsoever, and he could return to this house later when he doesn't feel up to dealing with people again. Somarium is a friendly lot, and it tires him to pretend, again, after so long of not having to. If there was someone already using this house, well - too bad for them; Jack wasn't used to not getting his way.
He could tell people that he'd stayed at the hotel - it was close enough to stave off questions about where he'd been in the storm. After all, a sheltered noble like him should pick the most comfortable lodging, right?
[Why do you want to play this character in Somarium?] I've been wanting to play canon!Jack as he is - manipulative charmer extraordinaire, and Somarium seemed like a good place to wreak havoc :)
[Which rule was your favorite and why?] No meta-gaming, because where would the fun be in that.
[Where did you hear about Somarium?] I was here a couple of years ago, and then a friend of mine apped in and poof here I am again.
[Any questions?] Nope.