[OCC] paradisa Application
NAME: Simone
JOURNAL: ration
EMAIL: Simmichan [@] gmail [.] com
AIM: BluePeterLadyboy
WIKI NAME: I am currently without one!
CHARACTERS: n/a
CHARACTER NAME: Jack Marston
FANDOM: Red Dead Redemption
CANON: Shortly after killing Edgar Ross
WHAT THEY LOST: I'm going to be a terrible person and take his Dead Eye. Jack'd still be a damn good shot without it, but he prides himself on being a quick draw and a quicker shot; like his dad, like Landon Ricketts. Taking that away from him would make for a real angry kid.
ABOUT THE CHARACTER: Jack Marston is, well. Jack is very much his father's son. It'd be hard not to see the resemblance between the two, from the scars on his face (granted, lighter and on the opposite side of his face to his father's) to the crushed idealist hidden behind a wall of cynical realism and dry humour. And of course, he's a good ol' fashioned gunslinger in a world where his kind is quickly becoming obsolete. Though he's not quite as stuck in the past as his dad. (Jack, for one, seems pretty excited about the idea of cars and planes and all that jazz.) He spent his formative years with his parents in Dutch's gang - it really shouldn't be surprising to anyone that he took to it as easily as he did.
He's an angry kid, and in a way he has every right to be. He was born and raised in a world of murder and robbery - he probably didn't even have any idea there was a different way to live until they left Dutch's gang. And it's kind of implied that he was never told exactly why; so all Jack knows is he was lifted out of a life that no kid should be part of and a family that no kid should spend that much time with into a life that made no sense. He's got a dad that he doesn't really know all that well who apparently wasn't around as much as anyone would've liked and when it finally seems as though they've got a chance to be a real family - well first his dad gets taken off for whatever and they get uprooted by the FBI, and once that's all done with and Jack and his daddy get some needed time to bond, the government sends in an army to take John down. Honestly, after that it's almost a wonder Jack waited until after his mother died before he went all Inigo Montoya.
So where does that leave us but with angry and confused young Marston? He gave up on his future the day his dad died - what happened to him wasn't right, and when it's the law fucking you over, you can't rightly use the law to get them back. So he did what he probably picked up from Dutch - picked up his gun and exacted his revenge. And that one crime (or three, depending on how you play the game,) is probably the defining moment in Jack's life. It's the moment where he resigns himself to a life of crime, throwing away his dreams of becoming a writer or whatever else he could've been.
As such, he's... A mess. He's lonely - everyone in his life was pulled away with no real explanation (except, perhaps, his mother.) In fact, everyone he's ever had a significant relationship is now dead and he's not had the time or the opportunity to form any real meaningful relationships, and Jack seems entirely unsurprised at this lack of other people in his life. He doesn't doubt his abilities with a gun or on a horse or any of that (in fact, sometimes he's downright arrogant about it,) but when it comes to his worth as a person, he seems to have some real doubts as to what he has to offer. He's accepted a life of loneliness and this seems to have caused a bit of a vicious cycle; his belief that he will always be alone feeding into his belief that he has little to offer which feeds into his belief he will always be alone, etc. etc.
He's polite, generally willing to help a stranger out - though it's hard to say whether that's out of a genuine sense of right and wrong or because he doesn't really have much else to do with his life - he's even (mostly) nice to his horse. There's a touch of youthful excitement to the way he approaches things; letting him get his hands on a gattling gun is like the best thing ever, and even though he really seems to have internalised the idea that life is a struggle and nothing he can do'll ever matter in the end, that little idealist in him is holding on for all it's worth. He still wants to believe there's real, genuine good people out there, no matter how many people show him otherwise. Honestly, he never seems particularly surprised after the fact, but he still runs around doing ludicrously difficult tasks to help out random people he doesn't even know for no real personal gain.
Jack's feelings on his father are complex, and they are probably the root of a lot of his problems now. As a kid, he idolized his dad and what he did - you even see him miming gunfights with a rifle on the farm. There was definitely a part of him who wanted to be just like John, soaking up all the lessons on hunting and such that he had - if being a little reluctant to go on them at first - but throughout his life, John was something of an absentee father and Jack harbours more than a little resentment for that. He never missed a chance to tell his dad not to bother making promises to stick around when he never had before, and he's still mad at him for that, going so far as to blame him for the person he's become. He's very aware of the resemblance he bears to his father, both in nature and looks and it's hard to believe none of that was intentionally crafted. In essence, Jack has become someone he hates by trying to emulate someone he resented.
ABILITIES: For whatever reason, the mechanics of playing as Jack are exactly the same as playing as John (Rockstar probably didn't feel the need to go changing everything when most people would put down the controller as soon as you finish Remember my Family.) This means of course, that like his father, Jack is a skilled marksman, proficient with a wide array of guns. He's also a pretty good hunter and survivalist with a working understanding of how to hunt, skin and gut animals and also the kind of herbs you'll find in the wild and what to do with them. Basically, if you left him alone in the desert with a pistol and a knife, he wouldn't do too badly.
He's a decent ranch hand, having learned how to break horses, herd cattle and harvest crops. Admittedly, the Marstons' farm never really got all that far before things went tits up, but Jack's a quick study and sort-of-mostly-usually eager to learn more.
Jack's most notable skill - and certainly the one that gets the biggest workout - is his Dead Eye. The dead eye system slows down time for a short spell and allow for the player to paint targets on enemies, meaning Jack can take several shots with dizzying accuracy in the blink of an eye. (It also comes with the hilarious glitchy side-effect of using projectiles as homing missiles.)
As an aside, sharing game mechanics means he also swims like a brick dipped in cement dropped in the middle of the ocean. Not so much an ability as the complete lack thereof, but there you go.
THIRD-PERSON WRITING SAMPLE: It's really not until that night that the truth of what's transpired sinks in. He can't stop staring at his gun; sitting by the fire, turning a worn out old revolver over in his hands like it was going to grow hands and challenge him to a match. Must've been quite the sight, he figured.
It's not the first time he's killed a man, not at all, but before it had always been in defence of something. Himself, his home, his mother. Things that meant something. But there was nothing that meant anything anymore; he'd hunted a man down and killed him and that should've meant something, anything, but all it meant is he's made a widow out of Ross' wife just as sure as Ross had made a widow out of his mother and that meant fuck all in the end.
Should've felt something, but he didn't. It's all hollow and he just feels... Tired.
Sick and tired of carrying around all this hate and anger but is wasn't as if he had a damn idea what to with it except keep it in his pocket like he'd been doing since he was old enough to really think about what was going on in his life. Since he was old enough to start reading and buried his nose in any book that caught his attention so he could pretend he was somewhere else for a few hours every day.
But he doesn't have that luxury any more, notes that much when he hears a bullet go whizzing past his head and spots what looks like a couple of Walton's gang members coming over the ridge. Jack's up on his horse like a lightning bolt, balancing precariously on the saddle while he readies his gun.
This is his life now.
FIRST-PERSON WRITING SAMPLE: Think I read a story like this-- a couple of 'em, actually. Some kid gets whisked off to a "magical land" for whatever bullshit reason. Used to wish that kinda thing would happen to me. [he snorts and flips through a few pages idly before coming back to this one] Funny how it happens when I ain't interested no more.
[A brief pause while he sucks in a breath. He may sound calm about this, but it's taking a lot of effort not to pull his gun and go shooting around of some kind of solution.]
Now assumin' I ain't fallen off my rocker, I'm guessing I can't just take myself and walk on out of here. I'm not too interested in all this whishin' business but... [sigh.] I'm sure there's something else to do round here, right?
INTENT: HONESTLY I think the main thing that drew me to Jack was his whole host of daddy issues. (This seems to be a reoccurring theme in a lot of my characters.) That aside, I really am fascinated by characters who have a drastic negative shift in personality and/or motive and throw themselves into a downward spiral like Jack did after John's death, and I want to see if it's possible for him to reclaim any of the person he used to be or if he's stuck on this path regardless of his environment.
JOURNAL: ration
EMAIL: Simmichan [@] gmail [.] com
AIM: BluePeterLadyboy
WIKI NAME: I am currently without one!
CHARACTERS: n/a
CHARACTER NAME: Jack Marston
FANDOM: Red Dead Redemption
CANON: Shortly after killing Edgar Ross
WHAT THEY LOST: I'm going to be a terrible person and take his Dead Eye. Jack'd still be a damn good shot without it, but he prides himself on being a quick draw and a quicker shot; like his dad, like Landon Ricketts. Taking that away from him would make for a real angry kid.
ABOUT THE CHARACTER: Jack Marston is, well. Jack is very much his father's son. It'd be hard not to see the resemblance between the two, from the scars on his face (granted, lighter and on the opposite side of his face to his father's) to the crushed idealist hidden behind a wall of cynical realism and dry humour. And of course, he's a good ol' fashioned gunslinger in a world where his kind is quickly becoming obsolete. Though he's not quite as stuck in the past as his dad. (Jack, for one, seems pretty excited about the idea of cars and planes and all that jazz.) He spent his formative years with his parents in Dutch's gang - it really shouldn't be surprising to anyone that he took to it as easily as he did.
He's an angry kid, and in a way he has every right to be. He was born and raised in a world of murder and robbery - he probably didn't even have any idea there was a different way to live until they left Dutch's gang. And it's kind of implied that he was never told exactly why; so all Jack knows is he was lifted out of a life that no kid should be part of and a family that no kid should spend that much time with into a life that made no sense. He's got a dad that he doesn't really know all that well who apparently wasn't around as much as anyone would've liked and when it finally seems as though they've got a chance to be a real family - well first his dad gets taken off for whatever and they get uprooted by the FBI, and once that's all done with and Jack and his daddy get some needed time to bond, the government sends in an army to take John down. Honestly, after that it's almost a wonder Jack waited until after his mother died before he went all Inigo Montoya.
So where does that leave us but with angry and confused young Marston? He gave up on his future the day his dad died - what happened to him wasn't right, and when it's the law fucking you over, you can't rightly use the law to get them back. So he did what he probably picked up from Dutch - picked up his gun and exacted his revenge. And that one crime (or three, depending on how you play the game,) is probably the defining moment in Jack's life. It's the moment where he resigns himself to a life of crime, throwing away his dreams of becoming a writer or whatever else he could've been.
As such, he's... A mess. He's lonely - everyone in his life was pulled away with no real explanation (except, perhaps, his mother.) In fact, everyone he's ever had a significant relationship is now dead and he's not had the time or the opportunity to form any real meaningful relationships, and Jack seems entirely unsurprised at this lack of other people in his life. He doesn't doubt his abilities with a gun or on a horse or any of that (in fact, sometimes he's downright arrogant about it,) but when it comes to his worth as a person, he seems to have some real doubts as to what he has to offer. He's accepted a life of loneliness and this seems to have caused a bit of a vicious cycle; his belief that he will always be alone feeding into his belief that he has little to offer which feeds into his belief he will always be alone, etc. etc.
He's polite, generally willing to help a stranger out - though it's hard to say whether that's out of a genuine sense of right and wrong or because he doesn't really have much else to do with his life - he's even (mostly) nice to his horse. There's a touch of youthful excitement to the way he approaches things; letting him get his hands on a gattling gun is like the best thing ever, and even though he really seems to have internalised the idea that life is a struggle and nothing he can do'll ever matter in the end, that little idealist in him is holding on for all it's worth. He still wants to believe there's real, genuine good people out there, no matter how many people show him otherwise. Honestly, he never seems particularly surprised after the fact, but he still runs around doing ludicrously difficult tasks to help out random people he doesn't even know for no real personal gain.
Jack's feelings on his father are complex, and they are probably the root of a lot of his problems now. As a kid, he idolized his dad and what he did - you even see him miming gunfights with a rifle on the farm. There was definitely a part of him who wanted to be just like John, soaking up all the lessons on hunting and such that he had - if being a little reluctant to go on them at first - but throughout his life, John was something of an absentee father and Jack harbours more than a little resentment for that. He never missed a chance to tell his dad not to bother making promises to stick around when he never had before, and he's still mad at him for that, going so far as to blame him for the person he's become. He's very aware of the resemblance he bears to his father, both in nature and looks and it's hard to believe none of that was intentionally crafted. In essence, Jack has become someone he hates by trying to emulate someone he resented.
ABILITIES: For whatever reason, the mechanics of playing as Jack are exactly the same as playing as John (Rockstar probably didn't feel the need to go changing everything when most people would put down the controller as soon as you finish Remember my Family.) This means of course, that like his father, Jack is a skilled marksman, proficient with a wide array of guns. He's also a pretty good hunter and survivalist with a working understanding of how to hunt, skin and gut animals and also the kind of herbs you'll find in the wild and what to do with them. Basically, if you left him alone in the desert with a pistol and a knife, he wouldn't do too badly.
He's a decent ranch hand, having learned how to break horses, herd cattle and harvest crops. Admittedly, the Marstons' farm never really got all that far before things went tits up, but Jack's a quick study and sort-of-mostly-usually eager to learn more.
Jack's most notable skill - and certainly the one that gets the biggest workout - is his Dead Eye. The dead eye system slows down time for a short spell and allow for the player to paint targets on enemies, meaning Jack can take several shots with dizzying accuracy in the blink of an eye. (It also comes with the hilarious glitchy side-effect of using projectiles as homing missiles.)
As an aside, sharing game mechanics means he also swims like a brick dipped in cement dropped in the middle of the ocean. Not so much an ability as the complete lack thereof, but there you go.
THIRD-PERSON WRITING SAMPLE: It's really not until that night that the truth of what's transpired sinks in. He can't stop staring at his gun; sitting by the fire, turning a worn out old revolver over in his hands like it was going to grow hands and challenge him to a match. Must've been quite the sight, he figured.
It's not the first time he's killed a man, not at all, but before it had always been in defence of something. Himself, his home, his mother. Things that meant something. But there was nothing that meant anything anymore; he'd hunted a man down and killed him and that should've meant something, anything, but all it meant is he's made a widow out of Ross' wife just as sure as Ross had made a widow out of his mother and that meant fuck all in the end.
Should've felt something, but he didn't. It's all hollow and he just feels... Tired.
Sick and tired of carrying around all this hate and anger but is wasn't as if he had a damn idea what to with it except keep it in his pocket like he'd been doing since he was old enough to really think about what was going on in his life. Since he was old enough to start reading and buried his nose in any book that caught his attention so he could pretend he was somewhere else for a few hours every day.
But he doesn't have that luxury any more, notes that much when he hears a bullet go whizzing past his head and spots what looks like a couple of Walton's gang members coming over the ridge. Jack's up on his horse like a lightning bolt, balancing precariously on the saddle while he readies his gun.
This is his life now.
FIRST-PERSON WRITING SAMPLE: Think I read a story like this-- a couple of 'em, actually. Some kid gets whisked off to a "magical land" for whatever bullshit reason. Used to wish that kinda thing would happen to me. [he snorts and flips through a few pages idly before coming back to this one] Funny how it happens when I ain't interested no more.
[A brief pause while he sucks in a breath. He may sound calm about this, but it's taking a lot of effort not to pull his gun and go shooting around of some kind of solution.]
Now assumin' I ain't fallen off my rocker, I'm guessing I can't just take myself and walk on out of here. I'm not too interested in all this whishin' business but... [sigh.] I'm sure there's something else to do round here, right?
INTENT: HONESTLY I think the main thing that drew me to Jack was his whole host of daddy issues. (This seems to be a reoccurring theme in a lot of my characters.) That aside, I really am fascinated by characters who have a drastic negative shift in personality and/or motive and throw themselves into a downward spiral like Jack did after John's death, and I want to see if it's possible for him to reclaim any of the person he used to be or if he's stuck on this path regardless of his environment.