(no subject)
Player Information
Name: Thleen
AIM SN: disco newsie
email: disconewsie@gmail.com
Character Information
General
Canon Source: Newsies
Canon Format: Movie
Character's Name: Jack Kelly
Character's Age: 18
What form will your character's NV take? A thin paperback book Jack can stick in one of his vest pockets. It comes with a pen attached. Written text appears as print. If a character uses voice, the words will not only appear as text, but will be articulated as well. If a character uses video, a small picture will appear in the book, almost like an illustration-- except hoshit it moves. And talks. And is a video. Holographic entries, similarly, will pop up out of the book.
In order for Jack to post, he has to either have to write out what he wants to say (text), or write down "video" "holograph" "voice" in order to do one of those options.
Abilities
Canon Abilities: Jack has no supernatural abilities, but he's a fairly competent fighter. He knows how to handle a knife, but rather prefers not to, when all's said and done. He is also now, thanks to Sasuke, a fairly proficient hand-to-hand combat fighter.
Dormant Abilities: Jack's had to fight for survival his entire life, whether it be on the streets, in prison or in Edelweiss. He's starved, been beaten, been told he's utterly worthless, and yet, somehow, stayed alive and kept going. So his ability now will be simply that: survival.
Jack will be able to survive just about anything that happens to him: being stabbed, being burned, starvation, getting shot, being buried alive, whatever you can think of. However, he'll still feel the pain of it-- and that in itself is the drawback. If tortured, he'll live through it, but he might not want to.
Weapons: Currently the owner of three knives.
Character History: Born Francis Ryan Sullivan to two poor Irish parents, Jack had been taught from an early age that survival was to be his watchword, legality be damned. As a result of that lesson, the boy had been imprisoned more times than he could count in a place called The Refuge-- a dank prison made specifically for the streetrat children of New York City. The intent was to reform them through Christian charity; however, under the rule of the corrupt warden, Snyder, the prison was simply a place for them to starve and be beaten.
After escaping the Refuge at age eight in a feat that would quickly become legend, Francis found his mother and younger brother dead from disease. His father, long since imprisoned, was of no help, and so Francis found himself orphaned without a penny to his name. It was then he took his new alias "Jack Kelly"-- a move intended both to hide him from Snyder, who now held a grudge against him, and to distance himself from his less-than-glamorous old life. He took a job as a newsie-- one of several hundred boys, made up of the "poor orphans and runaways" of the city, who sold the newspapers for a penny per paper. To anyone who asked, Jack was merely biding his time until his parents, who were out west in Santa Fe looking for a new home, sent for him.
Through the years, Jack quickly became an unofficial leader for the newsies, viewed both as a hero (because of his daring-- and exaggerated-- escape from the Refuge) and an older brother figure. His brash and charismatic personality won him popularity and friends, but none got too close to him until he met newcomer David Jacobs.
David, a brand-new newsie, had only come to work for a short period of time: until his father's arm healed. Until then, however, he was stuck and lost in this new world, one whose rules he didn't understand and customs were foreign to him. Jack, seeing this, quickly took David under his wing as his new "partner" and taught him the basics of newsie lifestyle: number one being how to lie, or "improve the truth", as Jack called it, in order to sell more papers. (In a particularly defining line of dialogue, David disgustedly tells Jack that "my father taught us not to lie," to which Jack plainly replies, "Yeah, well, my father taught me not to starve, so we both got an education.") And it is David who, weeks later, when the price of newspapers is raised by 10 cents (something the newsies simply cannot afford), suggested striking.
Jack quickly seized upon this idea and began to rally the newsies, encouraging them despite having little to no idea on how to actually lead a strike. Although difficult at times (most were skeptical and more willing to just pay the extra dime, especially when the going got rough), between Jack's charismatic personality and David's intelligence, they managed to spark a citywide strike. A strike which seemed to be going well until Jack was recaptured by Snyder and brought to the head of the leading newspaper company, The World: Joseph Pulitzer, who had been desperately trying to suppress the strike, as it was killing his business. Pulitzer, hiding his panic and desperation, offered Jack an easy deal: simply go back to work until the strike dies, and then he, Pulitzer, would give Jack "more money in your pockets than you can earn in three lifetimes,", thus finally providing the means to fuel Jack's longtime dream of going out west to Santa Fe.
But Jack saw through Pulitzer's tactic, realizing that it was only because the tycoon was so terrified of the strike and its effects on his business that he was offering Jack this deal. So Pulitzer played his final ace in the hole: David. He told Jack that he could-- and would-- have David arrested and thrown into the Refuge. He then told Jack-- although the boy was already thinking it-- "What do you think the Refuge will do to him?" Jack, having been in and out of it countless times, knew that David wouldn't survive the tough, cruel lifestyle that was needed in the prison. And with that thought, he made his decision right then and there.
He emerged the next day in full view of all the newsies-- and David--, decked out in a new suit, ignoring the protests of betrayal and rage coming from his old friends. While buying his ration of papers, Jack was informed by Oscar and Morris, two of his non-striker newsie co-workers, that they were on their way to "fix" up David in order to put him out of commission and thus destroy the other leader of the newsie strike. Jack began to start after them, only to be reminded that, should he put one finger out of line, the deal was off and he'd go back to the streets.
Jack began to sell his papers, uneasy but still unwilling to seek trouble-- an opinion which changed when he happened to walk by Oscar and Morris beginning to beat David, with the other two Jacobs siblings to boot. Jack, faced with this cruelty, simply could not walk away and launched himself at Oscar and Morris. Between he and David, the two were easily taken care of and Jack had returned to his old self once again: leader of the newsie strike. Jack and David begin to plan: they need to launch a crippling blow at Pulitzer quickly, before word got back that Jack rebelled and the police were sent to arrest them both.
The two boys, with the help of their friend and ally Bryan Denton, a reporter from the New York Sun, quickly made a plan. A few days before, Denton had written an article on how the city ran on child labor, and if the newsie strike spread to the other child labor businesses, the city would quickly shut down. Although the Sun didn't put out the article, Jack's plan was to now publish it himself and spread the word to all the various child laborers in the city. Added at the bottom of the article was a note: there would be a rally the next day, to show Pulitzer-- and the entire city-- that the children were going on strike until the prices were lowered again. Because Jack, while working for Pulitzer, had been housed underneath the printing press for The World, he had quick and easy access to a free printing press: an advantage he wasted no time in using. Jack, David and Denton, aided by the newsie strikers, quickly printed hundreds of copies of Denton's article and spread it around the city.
The next day at the rally, it seemed as if the entire city showed up: thousands of children gathered and were protesting outside of Pulitzer's office. The man quickly summoned Jack and David to his office, where the two boys demanded and persuaded Pulitzer until he agreed to lower the prices once again. The two left and announced the news to the rest of the children, who celebrated. And as an added bonus to the victory, Denton had also gone and informed the governor of New York about the Refuge-- or rather, what conditions were really like. The governor (none other than Teddy Roosevelt) quickly shut down the children's prison, which meant Jack no longer had to be on the run.
All was perfect.
Except...
Jack, finally having the means, asked the governor if he would be willing to give Jack a lift to the train station, where he would finally leave for Santa Fe. David simply watched, upset, as his best friend, partner and co-leader left once and for all. But lo and behold, not before the day was out did Jack return. After a long talk with Mr. Roosevelt, Jack agreed that he "still [had] things to do". And besides, he had family there. Or rather, he had David-- which was, in his mind, just as good. The two, after a tense moment, found that they were still friends and partners. They buy their papers and begin selling once again.
Point in Canon: Jack was taken a month after the movie ended.
Conditional: Brief summary of previous RP history: Jack Kelly was placed in Saint Edelweiss's Institution For The Insane for two months. It wasn't a normal asylum, as one might expect: instead it was a sort of hell. The worst sorts of people were usually put on staff and in charge, and most of the patients were sane and good-- and as a result, life was terrifying. "Therapy" was little more than an excuse for torture, and patients lived in a constant state of fear and anger. Jack's own stay there can be broken down into two different story arcs: his time as a patient and his time as staff.
As a patient, Jack found himself desperate but optimistic. Things were grim from the start, true, but hopeful: after all, none of the other patients seemed insane, and although they were trapped, he was confident they would soon escape. They were nearly all intelligent, after all, and they most of them scientists, heroes, lawyers, engineers-- perfect sorts of people with whom to make an escape. Therapies were rough, of course, though Jack suffered through only one-- electroshock, repeated over and over. Still, even that wasn't enough to shake his unwaving optimism.
Helping that, of course, was the fact that Jack had much support among the patients. He made friends, allies, and even met a girl he thought he could fall in love with-- Claire.
Things changed, however, when a doctor on staff took interest in Claire. After many threats and leering allusions over the intercoms, Jack panicked, and in his panic struck a deal with the doctor-- himself in exchange for Claire. A willing body, to do whatever it was the doctor wanted, instead of an unwilling one, for just as long as the doctor wanted, so long as he never threatened Claire again. It was desperate and stupid, and the doctor took the deal immediately. Jack was, as a result, raped multiple times over the course of two days, and left to recover on his own after that.
Claire, for her part, broke up with Jack a day or so after that.
For the next few days, Jack kept to himself, recovering physically, his mind temporarily shattered by the experience. It was only thanks to the intervention of a man named Reeve that Jack found himself able to get back on his feet. Reeve-- someone who quickly became like a father to Jack-- taught the boy how to calm himself-- and, if need be, how to retreat back into his own mind when life became too difficult.
Back on his feet, Jack was promoted to staff a few days later as a security guard. It was a strange move, but one that afforded him protection, as the doctor wasn't allowed to touch a fellow staff member. So for the moment, Jack was safe. The only catch was that he was now on the side of those he hated worst of all, and had to comply with most of their sadistic orders. It was a situation nearly intolerable, but one he had to tolerate, or be demoted and become the doctor's toy once more.
To say life was hard would be inappropriate; life had been hard from the start. Life had always been hard. But now life was harder, in a way Jack had never thought it might be. He felt isolated from his fellow patients, and though he tried his hardest to help them, there were times when he simply couldn't. Worst of all was when he had to do his job: sit through therapies, and, theoretically, aid the doctors in torturing his friends. Jack never really complied, and fought his superiors as best he could, but there were times when all he could do was simply sit back, watch and try to patch up the patients afterward.
Because of his unwillingness to brutalize his friends, Jack was transferred quickly, becoming a nurse instead of a guard-- because, as the higher ups explained dryly, he seemed to enjoy healing so much. It was embarrassing for Jack-- a man already hyperaware of things like appearing too feminine or homosexual, thanks to his rape--but it was a job he found he eventually enjoyed much more. Now, as a nurse, he had easier access to things like bandages, splints, gauze, and other medical supplies. He could help his friends much more easily, and did. Through messy trial and error, as well as a few lessons from the other nursing staff, Jack gained a base sort of medical knowledge.
As time wore on, things grew worse and worse. People were being tortured, killed, and Jack found he slowly grew more and more indifferent to it. Not that he didn't care, exactly, but he couldn't-- he simply couldn't care too much about anyone new anymore, because there was no guarantee they would even be alive the next day. Most of his friends from the beginning of his days at the asylum were dead already, and those that were still alive had become shells of their former selves-- and yet Jack clung to them, because they were all he had in Edelweiss, and they, in turn, him.
Two months passed. Things seemed to have hit rock bottom-- but, like all things in Edelweiss, it was not as it seemed, and soon got worse. A fire spread throughout the asylum, and the last thing Jack could remember before blacking out was hearing the screams of his fellow patients as they were burned to death, trapped in their cells, unable to escape.
He woke as a patient once more in a place called Rosenhan-- another asylum, yes, but much cleaner than the sort Jack had ever seen. It was a modern madhouse, a real one, not a torture palace in disguise as Edelweiss had been. They were fed well, got real showers, were allowed to wander around freely, and even given free recreational time. What Jack loved the most, however, was that he got a window-- big, and one that afforded a view of the sun and the beach. It was still prison, and he still wanted to go home-- but things were definitely better than before. There were no apparent doctors, no nurses, no staff-- just the patients, wary and on alert for the next trick.
It's from here I take Jack: at the beginning of his healing process, before any of the doctors come back in.
Character Personality: Jack's cocksure, confident, a funny man, someone whom everyone likes and wants to be friends with automatically. He's the older brother and leader to every newsie and hero to most. He sticks up for the little guy, as witnessed when Oscar and Morris try to beat up a smaller newsie: Jack quickly steps in and takes the two on himself. He also defends David, whom he did not yet know, when David insists he's been cheated out of his fair share of papers. He even goes so far as to buy him another 50, just to help him out on his first day.
One of the biggest parts of Jack's personality is that he says he needs no one. Growing up without any parents or family, Jack learned not to trust or let anyone get too close to him. This doesn't mean he isn't lonely, however; he invents an entire backstory about how his parents are out west and he is simply waiting for them to send for him-- an entirely unnecessary lie, as the newsies would not have cared one way or another about his past if he had chosen not to tell it. But this need for a family may be why he is both attracted and jealous of David and his family: because David represents everything he wishes he could have. He bitterly tells David this when David demands a reason for Jack's betrayal: "You see, I ain't got nobody tucking me in at night, like you ... [and] what's being a newsie ever give[n] me but a dime a day and a few black eyes."
Jack's also a dreamer: Santa Fe, to him, represents everything he could not have growing up. It is opportunity and fortune and riches just waiting to be discovered, and most of all, it's where he'll finally be free of everything he hates about New York. He even goes so far as to dress up in a red bandanna and cowboy hat, earning himself the nickname "Cowboy".
More than anything, though, Jack is the champion for the underdogs: he always tries to do the right (although not always legal) thing and when on the Bad Guy's side, feels uneasy and wrong. Although he had the chance of a lifetime-- more money than he could ever earn, and an easy way to get it-- he quickly dropped the deal in favor of his old friends. A good description might be "white knight"-- there's an almost compulsive need within him to protect the weak and innocent, simply because they need protecting. That isn't to say he's not above bending the law if it suits him, but never in a malicious way.
Personality development in previous game: Jack is still himself, of course. He's still optimistic, he's still good, he's still ready to do right above all else. Not even the asylum could kill that. The only thing different, now, is that Jack is darker. His outlook is more bitter, more twisted and cynical, than it ever was before.
His worldview is still hopeful, but, again, in a twisted sort of way: he's certain things will end happily, but he's also just as certain the journey to a happy ending will involve a lot of pain and death.He's tense and scared a lot of the time, and he hides that under a lot of anger. He won't let people touch him unless he knows them very, very well, and even then, it'll be stiff and awkward and he probably won't be the one to initiate it, because touching scares him. He curses more often, too. He's untrusting, too-- not because he thinks people are out to kill him (though that's a big part of it), but because he's scared anyone he trusts or loves will end up dying soon. He can still laugh and joke when he's relaxed, but it's not as cheerful as it used to be, and most of his jokes are a little darker than normal.
Jack will be brutal if he needs to be, if he think it means protecting those he counts as his friends and family. Not simply when he needs to be, too; there's a streak of cruelty in him, along with belated bitterness; in a serious fight, he might lose himself, thinking of the doctors and nurses he wished he could have hit. On the other hand, he can also be incredibly nurturing, to those he trusts and cares about-- and even if he doesn't know a person, he'll be, at least, helpful to them. Children in particular will see a kind side to him. He's gotten good at responding to screams and panic, and will keep his head in a crisis and be the first to begin patching everyone up if need be.
He has a hairtrigger for rape, and a handful of triggers that will set him off-- normal things for rape victims, as well as a hatred for the nickname "Jacky". Should a character be accused of it, do all he can to take them down. Murder, too, is a big one, but it's rape that will really set Jack off. He won't bother to go to the police-- he doesn't trust anyone in authority-- but instead will try to go after the person themselves.
Appearance/PB: http://www.livejournal.com/allpics.bml?user=cowboy_newsie
Jack's Schedule
6:00 AM - 2:00 PM: Madara's Uzushio Ryokan (Monday through Friday, $20 an hour)
6:00 PM - 10:00 PM: EMT (Monday through Friday, 20 hours) ($10.50 an hour)
In all, Jack makes $1010 a week.
Out of that--
Name: Thleen
AIM SN: disco newsie
email: disconewsie@gmail.com
Character Information
General
Canon Source: Newsies
Canon Format: Movie
Character's Name: Jack Kelly
Character's Age: 18
What form will your character's NV take? A thin paperback book Jack can stick in one of his vest pockets. It comes with a pen attached. Written text appears as print. If a character uses voice, the words will not only appear as text, but will be articulated as well. If a character uses video, a small picture will appear in the book, almost like an illustration-- except hoshit it moves. And talks. And is a video. Holographic entries, similarly, will pop up out of the book.
In order for Jack to post, he has to either have to write out what he wants to say (text), or write down "video" "holograph" "voice" in order to do one of those options.
Abilities
Canon Abilities: Jack has no supernatural abilities, but he's a fairly competent fighter. He knows how to handle a knife, but rather prefers not to, when all's said and done. He is also now, thanks to Sasuke, a fairly proficient hand-to-hand combat fighter.
Dormant Abilities: Jack's had to fight for survival his entire life, whether it be on the streets, in prison or in Edelweiss. He's starved, been beaten, been told he's utterly worthless, and yet, somehow, stayed alive and kept going. So his ability now will be simply that: survival.
Jack will be able to survive just about anything that happens to him: being stabbed, being burned, starvation, getting shot, being buried alive, whatever you can think of. However, he'll still feel the pain of it-- and that in itself is the drawback. If tortured, he'll live through it, but he might not want to.
Weapons: Currently the owner of three knives.
Character History: Born Francis Ryan Sullivan to two poor Irish parents, Jack had been taught from an early age that survival was to be his watchword, legality be damned. As a result of that lesson, the boy had been imprisoned more times than he could count in a place called The Refuge-- a dank prison made specifically for the streetrat children of New York City. The intent was to reform them through Christian charity; however, under the rule of the corrupt warden, Snyder, the prison was simply a place for them to starve and be beaten.
After escaping the Refuge at age eight in a feat that would quickly become legend, Francis found his mother and younger brother dead from disease. His father, long since imprisoned, was of no help, and so Francis found himself orphaned without a penny to his name. It was then he took his new alias "Jack Kelly"-- a move intended both to hide him from Snyder, who now held a grudge against him, and to distance himself from his less-than-glamorous old life. He took a job as a newsie-- one of several hundred boys, made up of the "poor orphans and runaways" of the city, who sold the newspapers for a penny per paper. To anyone who asked, Jack was merely biding his time until his parents, who were out west in Santa Fe looking for a new home, sent for him.
Through the years, Jack quickly became an unofficial leader for the newsies, viewed both as a hero (because of his daring-- and exaggerated-- escape from the Refuge) and an older brother figure. His brash and charismatic personality won him popularity and friends, but none got too close to him until he met newcomer David Jacobs.
David, a brand-new newsie, had only come to work for a short period of time: until his father's arm healed. Until then, however, he was stuck and lost in this new world, one whose rules he didn't understand and customs were foreign to him. Jack, seeing this, quickly took David under his wing as his new "partner" and taught him the basics of newsie lifestyle: number one being how to lie, or "improve the truth", as Jack called it, in order to sell more papers. (In a particularly defining line of dialogue, David disgustedly tells Jack that "my father taught us not to lie," to which Jack plainly replies, "Yeah, well, my father taught me not to starve, so we both got an education.") And it is David who, weeks later, when the price of newspapers is raised by 10 cents (something the newsies simply cannot afford), suggested striking.
Jack quickly seized upon this idea and began to rally the newsies, encouraging them despite having little to no idea on how to actually lead a strike. Although difficult at times (most were skeptical and more willing to just pay the extra dime, especially when the going got rough), between Jack's charismatic personality and David's intelligence, they managed to spark a citywide strike. A strike which seemed to be going well until Jack was recaptured by Snyder and brought to the head of the leading newspaper company, The World: Joseph Pulitzer, who had been desperately trying to suppress the strike, as it was killing his business. Pulitzer, hiding his panic and desperation, offered Jack an easy deal: simply go back to work until the strike dies, and then he, Pulitzer, would give Jack "more money in your pockets than you can earn in three lifetimes,", thus finally providing the means to fuel Jack's longtime dream of going out west to Santa Fe.
But Jack saw through Pulitzer's tactic, realizing that it was only because the tycoon was so terrified of the strike and its effects on his business that he was offering Jack this deal. So Pulitzer played his final ace in the hole: David. He told Jack that he could-- and would-- have David arrested and thrown into the Refuge. He then told Jack-- although the boy was already thinking it-- "What do you think the Refuge will do to him?" Jack, having been in and out of it countless times, knew that David wouldn't survive the tough, cruel lifestyle that was needed in the prison. And with that thought, he made his decision right then and there.
He emerged the next day in full view of all the newsies-- and David--, decked out in a new suit, ignoring the protests of betrayal and rage coming from his old friends. While buying his ration of papers, Jack was informed by Oscar and Morris, two of his non-striker newsie co-workers, that they were on their way to "fix" up David in order to put him out of commission and thus destroy the other leader of the newsie strike. Jack began to start after them, only to be reminded that, should he put one finger out of line, the deal was off and he'd go back to the streets.
Jack began to sell his papers, uneasy but still unwilling to seek trouble-- an opinion which changed when he happened to walk by Oscar and Morris beginning to beat David, with the other two Jacobs siblings to boot. Jack, faced with this cruelty, simply could not walk away and launched himself at Oscar and Morris. Between he and David, the two were easily taken care of and Jack had returned to his old self once again: leader of the newsie strike. Jack and David begin to plan: they need to launch a crippling blow at Pulitzer quickly, before word got back that Jack rebelled and the police were sent to arrest them both.
The two boys, with the help of their friend and ally Bryan Denton, a reporter from the New York Sun, quickly made a plan. A few days before, Denton had written an article on how the city ran on child labor, and if the newsie strike spread to the other child labor businesses, the city would quickly shut down. Although the Sun didn't put out the article, Jack's plan was to now publish it himself and spread the word to all the various child laborers in the city. Added at the bottom of the article was a note: there would be a rally the next day, to show Pulitzer-- and the entire city-- that the children were going on strike until the prices were lowered again. Because Jack, while working for Pulitzer, had been housed underneath the printing press for The World, he had quick and easy access to a free printing press: an advantage he wasted no time in using. Jack, David and Denton, aided by the newsie strikers, quickly printed hundreds of copies of Denton's article and spread it around the city.
The next day at the rally, it seemed as if the entire city showed up: thousands of children gathered and were protesting outside of Pulitzer's office. The man quickly summoned Jack and David to his office, where the two boys demanded and persuaded Pulitzer until he agreed to lower the prices once again. The two left and announced the news to the rest of the children, who celebrated. And as an added bonus to the victory, Denton had also gone and informed the governor of New York about the Refuge-- or rather, what conditions were really like. The governor (none other than Teddy Roosevelt) quickly shut down the children's prison, which meant Jack no longer had to be on the run.
All was perfect.
Except...
Jack, finally having the means, asked the governor if he would be willing to give Jack a lift to the train station, where he would finally leave for Santa Fe. David simply watched, upset, as his best friend, partner and co-leader left once and for all. But lo and behold, not before the day was out did Jack return. After a long talk with Mr. Roosevelt, Jack agreed that he "still [had] things to do". And besides, he had family there. Or rather, he had David-- which was, in his mind, just as good. The two, after a tense moment, found that they were still friends and partners. They buy their papers and begin selling once again.
Point in Canon: Jack was taken a month after the movie ended.
Conditional: Brief summary of previous RP history: Jack Kelly was placed in Saint Edelweiss's Institution For The Insane for two months. It wasn't a normal asylum, as one might expect: instead it was a sort of hell. The worst sorts of people were usually put on staff and in charge, and most of the patients were sane and good-- and as a result, life was terrifying. "Therapy" was little more than an excuse for torture, and patients lived in a constant state of fear and anger. Jack's own stay there can be broken down into two different story arcs: his time as a patient and his time as staff.
As a patient, Jack found himself desperate but optimistic. Things were grim from the start, true, but hopeful: after all, none of the other patients seemed insane, and although they were trapped, he was confident they would soon escape. They were nearly all intelligent, after all, and they most of them scientists, heroes, lawyers, engineers-- perfect sorts of people with whom to make an escape. Therapies were rough, of course, though Jack suffered through only one-- electroshock, repeated over and over. Still, even that wasn't enough to shake his unwaving optimism.
Helping that, of course, was the fact that Jack had much support among the patients. He made friends, allies, and even met a girl he thought he could fall in love with-- Claire.
Things changed, however, when a doctor on staff took interest in Claire. After many threats and leering allusions over the intercoms, Jack panicked, and in his panic struck a deal with the doctor-- himself in exchange for Claire. A willing body, to do whatever it was the doctor wanted, instead of an unwilling one, for just as long as the doctor wanted, so long as he never threatened Claire again. It was desperate and stupid, and the doctor took the deal immediately. Jack was, as a result, raped multiple times over the course of two days, and left to recover on his own after that.
Claire, for her part, broke up with Jack a day or so after that.
For the next few days, Jack kept to himself, recovering physically, his mind temporarily shattered by the experience. It was only thanks to the intervention of a man named Reeve that Jack found himself able to get back on his feet. Reeve-- someone who quickly became like a father to Jack-- taught the boy how to calm himself-- and, if need be, how to retreat back into his own mind when life became too difficult.
Back on his feet, Jack was promoted to staff a few days later as a security guard. It was a strange move, but one that afforded him protection, as the doctor wasn't allowed to touch a fellow staff member. So for the moment, Jack was safe. The only catch was that he was now on the side of those he hated worst of all, and had to comply with most of their sadistic orders. It was a situation nearly intolerable, but one he had to tolerate, or be demoted and become the doctor's toy once more.
To say life was hard would be inappropriate; life had been hard from the start. Life had always been hard. But now life was harder, in a way Jack had never thought it might be. He felt isolated from his fellow patients, and though he tried his hardest to help them, there were times when he simply couldn't. Worst of all was when he had to do his job: sit through therapies, and, theoretically, aid the doctors in torturing his friends. Jack never really complied, and fought his superiors as best he could, but there were times when all he could do was simply sit back, watch and try to patch up the patients afterward.
Because of his unwillingness to brutalize his friends, Jack was transferred quickly, becoming a nurse instead of a guard-- because, as the higher ups explained dryly, he seemed to enjoy healing so much. It was embarrassing for Jack-- a man already hyperaware of things like appearing too feminine or homosexual, thanks to his rape--but it was a job he found he eventually enjoyed much more. Now, as a nurse, he had easier access to things like bandages, splints, gauze, and other medical supplies. He could help his friends much more easily, and did. Through messy trial and error, as well as a few lessons from the other nursing staff, Jack gained a base sort of medical knowledge.
As time wore on, things grew worse and worse. People were being tortured, killed, and Jack found he slowly grew more and more indifferent to it. Not that he didn't care, exactly, but he couldn't-- he simply couldn't care too much about anyone new anymore, because there was no guarantee they would even be alive the next day. Most of his friends from the beginning of his days at the asylum were dead already, and those that were still alive had become shells of their former selves-- and yet Jack clung to them, because they were all he had in Edelweiss, and they, in turn, him.
Two months passed. Things seemed to have hit rock bottom-- but, like all things in Edelweiss, it was not as it seemed, and soon got worse. A fire spread throughout the asylum, and the last thing Jack could remember before blacking out was hearing the screams of his fellow patients as they were burned to death, trapped in their cells, unable to escape.
He woke as a patient once more in a place called Rosenhan-- another asylum, yes, but much cleaner than the sort Jack had ever seen. It was a modern madhouse, a real one, not a torture palace in disguise as Edelweiss had been. They were fed well, got real showers, were allowed to wander around freely, and even given free recreational time. What Jack loved the most, however, was that he got a window-- big, and one that afforded a view of the sun and the beach. It was still prison, and he still wanted to go home-- but things were definitely better than before. There were no apparent doctors, no nurses, no staff-- just the patients, wary and on alert for the next trick.
It's from here I take Jack: at the beginning of his healing process, before any of the doctors come back in.
Character Personality: Jack's cocksure, confident, a funny man, someone whom everyone likes and wants to be friends with automatically. He's the older brother and leader to every newsie and hero to most. He sticks up for the little guy, as witnessed when Oscar and Morris try to beat up a smaller newsie: Jack quickly steps in and takes the two on himself. He also defends David, whom he did not yet know, when David insists he's been cheated out of his fair share of papers. He even goes so far as to buy him another 50, just to help him out on his first day.
One of the biggest parts of Jack's personality is that he says he needs no one. Growing up without any parents or family, Jack learned not to trust or let anyone get too close to him. This doesn't mean he isn't lonely, however; he invents an entire backstory about how his parents are out west and he is simply waiting for them to send for him-- an entirely unnecessary lie, as the newsies would not have cared one way or another about his past if he had chosen not to tell it. But this need for a family may be why he is both attracted and jealous of David and his family: because David represents everything he wishes he could have. He bitterly tells David this when David demands a reason for Jack's betrayal: "You see, I ain't got nobody tucking me in at night, like you ... [and] what's being a newsie ever give[n] me but a dime a day and a few black eyes."
Jack's also a dreamer: Santa Fe, to him, represents everything he could not have growing up. It is opportunity and fortune and riches just waiting to be discovered, and most of all, it's where he'll finally be free of everything he hates about New York. He even goes so far as to dress up in a red bandanna and cowboy hat, earning himself the nickname "Cowboy".
More than anything, though, Jack is the champion for the underdogs: he always tries to do the right (although not always legal) thing and when on the Bad Guy's side, feels uneasy and wrong. Although he had the chance of a lifetime-- more money than he could ever earn, and an easy way to get it-- he quickly dropped the deal in favor of his old friends. A good description might be "white knight"-- there's an almost compulsive need within him to protect the weak and innocent, simply because they need protecting. That isn't to say he's not above bending the law if it suits him, but never in a malicious way.
Personality development in previous game: Jack is still himself, of course. He's still optimistic, he's still good, he's still ready to do right above all else. Not even the asylum could kill that. The only thing different, now, is that Jack is darker. His outlook is more bitter, more twisted and cynical, than it ever was before.
His worldview is still hopeful, but, again, in a twisted sort of way: he's certain things will end happily, but he's also just as certain the journey to a happy ending will involve a lot of pain and death.He's tense and scared a lot of the time, and he hides that under a lot of anger. He won't let people touch him unless he knows them very, very well, and even then, it'll be stiff and awkward and he probably won't be the one to initiate it, because touching scares him. He curses more often, too. He's untrusting, too-- not because he thinks people are out to kill him (though that's a big part of it), but because he's scared anyone he trusts or loves will end up dying soon. He can still laugh and joke when he's relaxed, but it's not as cheerful as it used to be, and most of his jokes are a little darker than normal.
Jack will be brutal if he needs to be, if he think it means protecting those he counts as his friends and family. Not simply when he needs to be, too; there's a streak of cruelty in him, along with belated bitterness; in a serious fight, he might lose himself, thinking of the doctors and nurses he wished he could have hit. On the other hand, he can also be incredibly nurturing, to those he trusts and cares about-- and even if he doesn't know a person, he'll be, at least, helpful to them. Children in particular will see a kind side to him. He's gotten good at responding to screams and panic, and will keep his head in a crisis and be the first to begin patching everyone up if need be.
He has a hairtrigger for rape, and a handful of triggers that will set him off-- normal things for rape victims, as well as a hatred for the nickname "Jacky". Should a character be accused of it, do all he can to take them down. Murder, too, is a big one, but it's rape that will really set Jack off. He won't bother to go to the police-- he doesn't trust anyone in authority-- but instead will try to go after the person themselves.
Appearance/PB: http://www.livejournal.com/allpics.bml?user=cowboy_newsie
Jack's Schedule
6:00 AM - 2:00 PM: Madara's Uzushio Ryokan (Monday through Friday, $20 an hour)
6:00 PM - 10:00 PM: EMT (Monday through Friday, 20 hours) ($10.50 an hour)
In all, Jack makes $1010 a week.
Out of that--
- $100 goes for groceries.
- $100 goes into savings.
- $100 a week for rent for their old apartment, which is very useful for, you know, having guests.
- Which leaves about $700 to spend. Which is a lot, all things considering.