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rebellsNAME: Jay
CANON: Tales of Legendia
REFERENCE LINKS: http://aselia.wikia.com/wiki/Jay (character)
http://aselia.wikia.com/wiki/Tales_of_Legendia (game)
CHARACTER INFO: The first thing you have to understand about Jay is that he really, really could have used parents.
Until the start of the game, the only adult in his life was a sadistic, sociopathic ninja who treats people as toys and war like a funny game. He spent most of his adolescence in the company of talking otters. The game introduces him to us as Jay the Unseen, quasi-genius, information dealer, and strategist for a major empire--but really, he's just an enormous brat. He tricks bystanders into fights so he can see how strong they are, drags them into his pissing contests--er, I mean boat races, and gets unbelievably snitty when someone else spoils his plans. He'll stalk someone he's come to care about for funsies, but actually walking up to them and saying hi? That's completely beyond him. He provokes people. He thinks he is hilarious. And he harbors a peculiar disdain for the noble hero, the kind of person who blindly and earnestly risks their life for some higher cause they have convinced themselves is worth any price. These people are suckers, in Jay's opinion, too stupid to see that someone is going to take advantage of them, and he is only too happy to be the one to do it.
You see, Jay was raised by an assassin and trained as a human weapon. He was expected to kill in his master's name and to dedicate his entire life to that cause--and he did, and for his pains he was left to die on a battlefield, used as a decoy and abandoned. He never says as much in canon, but presumably, he doesn't want to repeat the experience.
Jay relentlessly avoids his own strong feelings; even as he grows closer to the rest of his party--dumb noble heroes all--he avoids them unless absolutely necessary, slides out of high-fives, and excuses himself from group activities. Any attempts to get close to him are swiftly rebuffed. In short, Jay is afraid. He wants a family--a place, a home--more than anything, but he doesn't want his life to be under someone else's control. It's a feelings tug-of-war that defines his character for most of the game--except that Jay is deceiving himself a lot. He thinks he is the cynical, objective one, who will protect the weak, kill for the soft-hearted, and somehow never, ever get attached; what he doesn't realize is that he's...incredibly shitty at not getting attached. When push comes to shove, Jay is willing to leave behind his entire life, becoming the tool of someone he hates and fears, for the promise of keeping people he loves safe. He's exactly the kind of person he holds in contempt, and always has been. Jay only begins to grow up once he realizes that not only are some things worth dying for, he's already found a few of them.
CONSIDERATIONS: Jay without memories would be...less extreme in almost every sense, and almost certainly much less of a giant troll. He definitely has a twisted sense of humor, and he enjoys catching people off guard--these are things that are natural to him--but most of the bizarre, bratty shit he does in canon is tied to his canon role. Getting Senel into a fight, the boat race, a lot of the stalking and eavesdropping he does...that's all for his job. He is Jay the Unseen, information dealer, and while he might eventually fall back into that role in Aather, I seriously doubt it would happen quickly. Jay is more than capable of being serious, and I think he would want to get his bearings, figure out who he is and what his goals should be here, before he starts causing shenanigans and making people mad at him.
Second, a lot of his trolling is also...a kind of deflection. For the first ten or so years of his life Jay was told that he was worthless and unwanted and that no one would ever love him except his blatantly abusive ninja master who then proceeded to fuck him over! This is an experience that tends to leave scars. And when Jay baits people, or acts like an asshole, or stalks the party for an entire afternoon instead of just saying hi, it's in large part because he can't bring himself to express his feelings about them honestly. Without that baggage, he'd be a lot more direct, not necessarily vocal about his squishy inner bits, but someone who's capable of seeking out someone he'd like to get to know better without some awful trolly pretense. Or saying I am worried about you in as many words. Or, you know, not avoiding his friends for weeks at a time.
BASICALLY Jay would still be curious and want to know things! And he would enjoy making fun of people! And he would not want to talk about his feelings! But all of that would be processed in...societally normal ways, instead of being filtered through the exaggerated loleccentric persona he takes in canon. Depending on how things shake out, he might start picking bits of that up again as he gets back memories, but...Jay in canon is someone who very much exists outside of society. He's a shadowy figure sneaking in and out, causing havoc at his whim. But Jay-in-Aather is faced with a) a much smaller community b) (probably, by the time he gets enough memories back) preexisting ties to people in that community, both of which would prevent him from being the type of floater "Jay the Unseen" is. He'd be forced to live within society in a way he hasn't been, and I imagine that would go a long way toward moderating him.
SKILLS:
WRITING SAMPLE:
Introduce yourself in a few sentences.
Seriously? That's what this rigmarole is about?
Well, if you insist, I'll play. My name is Senel Coolidge. I'm an Alliance marine currently stationed on the Legacy, and I've made it my life's goal to use up this island's entire supply of flour. Ah, yes, and I'm currently on the run from the law. You see, I have a little bit of a problem controlling my temper. When someone offends me, it doesn't matter who they are, I just can't help but get a little violent.
As a matter of fact, I love fighting in general. I'll bet you all ten thousand gald that you can't beat me in a fight. Just look up the Alliance marine with the white hair and the tattoo over his eye....
"The suffering of a few is okay if it benefits a great many" -- do you agree with this sentiment? Why or why not?
You're going to have to be more specific, you know. In what sense? Morally? Practically? Factually?
Hmm, well...if you look at it in terms of morality, the answer's pretty obvious. If moral rules allowed you to injure one group of people for the benefit of another, they wouldn't be moral at all, would they? The first law of the good and the righteous is that you only punish people who deserve it. Everyone wants justice for themselves and their allies, at the very least; if you begin to deny them that right just because they happen to belong to a minority group, they no longer have any incentive to cooperate with you, or abide by the rules of "justice" and "morality" at all. That creates instability and strife between different factions, which in turn leads to war. Society collapses. So no, no working code of morality can accept that statement.
Of course, there are times when it becomes expedient to operate outside morality. Honor and righteousness don't mean much when your entire world is about to disappear, do they?
What event from your past has impacted you the most? Please describe.
This is quite painful, you know. I don't like to talk about it. But since you ask--we've been traveling with a barbarian, you see. An enormous hulking bandit, always covering himself in dirt and mud. I'm pretty sure he thinks a bathtub is a kind of pastry.
Anyway, one day the savage put his arms around me and wouldn't let go. Apparently he was under the impression he was giving me a "brotherly hug." I had to elbow him in the kidney just to get away, and I've never been the same since. It scarred me for life.
If you were a kind of food item, what item would you be and why?
Crab, unshelled. Perhaps you'll cut yourself trying to open it, hmm?
Three things you're good at?
Only? But that's agonizing.
1. Your secrets. Which is to say, you don't have them anymore. I make it my business to know these things.
2. Surprises! I enjoy the occasional well-crafted surprise, don't you? It's one of the things that makes my job worthwhile.
3. Not letting my emotions and simplistic ideas about how things should be get in the way of making the correct decision--unlike some people I could name.
Three things you're not so good at?
Honestly, there isn't anything. I suppose I could tell you I'm not very good at overly emotional histrionics--or "being manly," which is a trait that seems to be primarily defined by one's willingness to parade around without a shirt--or charging blindly into a situation without stopping to think about how much you look like a fool, but really, who wants to be good at any of those things?
I'm very accepting of my flaws. I guess that's another thing I'm good at.
Do you believe in soulmates or love at first sight?
Do I believe that impulsive people assign their sparks of infatuation a significance they honestly don't deserve, then invent trumped up terms and mythology to justify those superficial feelings?
Hmm, that's a hard one. I'm sure human beings are rational actors who would never do such a thing. Aren't you?
"Killing criminals is okay if they've committed a grave crime" -- do you agree with this? Why or why not?
Again, same question: morally, practically, factually, or all three? And what do you mean by 'grave'? You can't possibly hope to get meaningful answers asking such sloppy questions.
Justice would dictate that we punish the criminal in proportion to the crime. Mercy dictates that we turn a blind eye, but not enough to let the unrepentant strike again. Both can be called 'morality,' can't they? I don't have a strong opinion one way or the other--the intelligent answer would be whatever leads to the least future harm, but letting the wrong enact revenge doesn't bother me either. Just don't drag the rest of us into it.
Do you consider yourself a strong person? Why or why not?
…
I have the power and the will to make the things I desire a reality. Isn't that the definition of strength?
Free section:
[in one corner of the page, there's a tiny doodle of a dagger, thrust into the middle of what looks like a scroll]
CANON: Tales of Legendia
REFERENCE LINKS: http://aselia.wikia.com/wiki/Jay (character)
http://aselia.wikia.com/wiki/Tales_of_Legendia (game)
CHARACTER INFO: The first thing you have to understand about Jay is that he really, really could have used parents.
Until the start of the game, the only adult in his life was a sadistic, sociopathic ninja who treats people as toys and war like a funny game. He spent most of his adolescence in the company of talking otters. The game introduces him to us as Jay the Unseen, quasi-genius, information dealer, and strategist for a major empire--but really, he's just an enormous brat. He tricks bystanders into fights so he can see how strong they are, drags them into his pissing contests--er, I mean boat races, and gets unbelievably snitty when someone else spoils his plans. He'll stalk someone he's come to care about for funsies, but actually walking up to them and saying hi? That's completely beyond him. He provokes people. He thinks he is hilarious. And he harbors a peculiar disdain for the noble hero, the kind of person who blindly and earnestly risks their life for some higher cause they have convinced themselves is worth any price. These people are suckers, in Jay's opinion, too stupid to see that someone is going to take advantage of them, and he is only too happy to be the one to do it.
You see, Jay was raised by an assassin and trained as a human weapon. He was expected to kill in his master's name and to dedicate his entire life to that cause--and he did, and for his pains he was left to die on a battlefield, used as a decoy and abandoned. He never says as much in canon, but presumably, he doesn't want to repeat the experience.
Jay relentlessly avoids his own strong feelings; even as he grows closer to the rest of his party--dumb noble heroes all--he avoids them unless absolutely necessary, slides out of high-fives, and excuses himself from group activities. Any attempts to get close to him are swiftly rebuffed. In short, Jay is afraid. He wants a family--a place, a home--more than anything, but he doesn't want his life to be under someone else's control. It's a feelings tug-of-war that defines his character for most of the game--except that Jay is deceiving himself a lot. He thinks he is the cynical, objective one, who will protect the weak, kill for the soft-hearted, and somehow never, ever get attached; what he doesn't realize is that he's...incredibly shitty at not getting attached. When push comes to shove, Jay is willing to leave behind his entire life, becoming the tool of someone he hates and fears, for the promise of keeping people he loves safe. He's exactly the kind of person he holds in contempt, and always has been. Jay only begins to grow up once he realizes that not only are some things worth dying for, he's already found a few of them.
CONSIDERATIONS: Jay without memories would be...less extreme in almost every sense, and almost certainly much less of a giant troll. He definitely has a twisted sense of humor, and he enjoys catching people off guard--these are things that are natural to him--but most of the bizarre, bratty shit he does in canon is tied to his canon role. Getting Senel into a fight, the boat race, a lot of the stalking and eavesdropping he does...that's all for his job. He is Jay the Unseen, information dealer, and while he might eventually fall back into that role in Aather, I seriously doubt it would happen quickly. Jay is more than capable of being serious, and I think he would want to get his bearings, figure out who he is and what his goals should be here, before he starts causing shenanigans and making people mad at him.
Second, a lot of his trolling is also...a kind of deflection. For the first ten or so years of his life Jay was told that he was worthless and unwanted and that no one would ever love him except his blatantly abusive ninja master who then proceeded to fuck him over! This is an experience that tends to leave scars. And when Jay baits people, or acts like an asshole, or stalks the party for an entire afternoon instead of just saying hi, it's in large part because he can't bring himself to express his feelings about them honestly. Without that baggage, he'd be a lot more direct, not necessarily vocal about his squishy inner bits, but someone who's capable of seeking out someone he'd like to get to know better without some awful trolly pretense. Or saying I am worried about you in as many words. Or, you know, not avoiding his friends for weeks at a time.
BASICALLY Jay would still be curious and want to know things! And he would enjoy making fun of people! And he would not want to talk about his feelings! But all of that would be processed in...societally normal ways, instead of being filtered through the exaggerated loleccentric persona he takes in canon. Depending on how things shake out, he might start picking bits of that up again as he gets back memories, but...Jay in canon is someone who very much exists outside of society. He's a shadowy figure sneaking in and out, causing havoc at his whim. But Jay-in-Aather is faced with a) a much smaller community b) (probably, by the time he gets enough memories back) preexisting ties to people in that community, both of which would prevent him from being the type of floater "Jay the Unseen" is. He'd be forced to live within society in a way he hasn't been, and I imagine that would go a long way toward moderating him.
SKILLS:
- Jay was trained to kill people efficiently from a young age, so he's a pretty decent fighter. He uses a dagger and is an iron eren--what this means is that he has magical glowy fingernail powers that give him the ability to do a variety of special physical attacks. In Jay's case he can also do (small) elemental attacks.
- Various ninja skillz--the one we see in canon is his ability to dispel the NINJA ILLUSIONS created by others, revealing the invisible and dispelling clones.
- Eavesdropping and stalking....
- He's also a good strategist, and helps stage a number of ambushes and attacks.
WRITING SAMPLE:
Introduce yourself in a few sentences.
Seriously? That's what this rigmarole is about?
Well, if you insist, I'll play. My name is Senel Coolidge. I'm an Alliance marine currently stationed on the Legacy, and I've made it my life's goal to use up this island's entire supply of flour. Ah, yes, and I'm currently on the run from the law. You see, I have a little bit of a problem controlling my temper. When someone offends me, it doesn't matter who they are, I just can't help but get a little violent.
As a matter of fact, I love fighting in general. I'll bet you all ten thousand gald that you can't beat me in a fight. Just look up the Alliance marine with the white hair and the tattoo over his eye....
"The suffering of a few is okay if it benefits a great many" -- do you agree with this sentiment? Why or why not?
You're going to have to be more specific, you know. In what sense? Morally? Practically? Factually?
Hmm, well...if you look at it in terms of morality, the answer's pretty obvious. If moral rules allowed you to injure one group of people for the benefit of another, they wouldn't be moral at all, would they? The first law of the good and the righteous is that you only punish people who deserve it. Everyone wants justice for themselves and their allies, at the very least; if you begin to deny them that right just because they happen to belong to a minority group, they no longer have any incentive to cooperate with you, or abide by the rules of "justice" and "morality" at all. That creates instability and strife between different factions, which in turn leads to war. Society collapses. So no, no working code of morality can accept that statement.
Of course, there are times when it becomes expedient to operate outside morality. Honor and righteousness don't mean much when your entire world is about to disappear, do they?
What event from your past has impacted you the most? Please describe.
This is quite painful, you know. I don't like to talk about it. But since you ask--we've been traveling with a barbarian, you see. An enormous hulking bandit, always covering himself in dirt and mud. I'm pretty sure he thinks a bathtub is a kind of pastry.
Anyway, one day the savage put his arms around me and wouldn't let go. Apparently he was under the impression he was giving me a "brotherly hug." I had to elbow him in the kidney just to get away, and I've never been the same since. It scarred me for life.
If you were a kind of food item, what item would you be and why?
Crab, unshelled. Perhaps you'll cut yourself trying to open it, hmm?
Three things you're good at?
Only? But that's agonizing.
1. Your secrets. Which is to say, you don't have them anymore. I make it my business to know these things.
2. Surprises! I enjoy the occasional well-crafted surprise, don't you? It's one of the things that makes my job worthwhile.
3. Not letting my emotions and simplistic ideas about how things should be get in the way of making the correct decision--unlike some people I could name.
Three things you're not so good at?
Honestly, there isn't anything. I suppose I could tell you I'm not very good at overly emotional histrionics--or "being manly," which is a trait that seems to be primarily defined by one's willingness to parade around without a shirt--or charging blindly into a situation without stopping to think about how much you look like a fool, but really, who wants to be good at any of those things?
I'm very accepting of my flaws. I guess that's another thing I'm good at.
Do you believe in soulmates or love at first sight?
Do I believe that impulsive people assign their sparks of infatuation a significance they honestly don't deserve, then invent trumped up terms and mythology to justify those superficial feelings?
Hmm, that's a hard one. I'm sure human beings are rational actors who would never do such a thing. Aren't you?
"Killing criminals is okay if they've committed a grave crime" -- do you agree with this? Why or why not?
Again, same question: morally, practically, factually, or all three? And what do you mean by 'grave'? You can't possibly hope to get meaningful answers asking such sloppy questions.
Justice would dictate that we punish the criminal in proportion to the crime. Mercy dictates that we turn a blind eye, but not enough to let the unrepentant strike again. Both can be called 'morality,' can't they? I don't have a strong opinion one way or the other--the intelligent answer would be whatever leads to the least future harm, but letting the wrong enact revenge doesn't bother me either. Just don't drag the rest of us into it.
Do you consider yourself a strong person? Why or why not?
…
I have the power and the will to make the things I desire a reality. Isn't that the definition of strength?
Free section:
[in one corner of the page, there's a tiny doodle of a dagger, thrust into the middle of what looks like a scroll]
