Now the world will hear what we got to say,
APPLICATION/CHARACTER INFO
Player Information
Name: Loraine, though I go around as blehgah almost everywhere
Age: 19
AIM SN: blehgah nyahmeh
email: blehgah_nyahmeh@hotmail.com
Have you played in an LJ based game before? Yep. amatomnes Just not with this muse.
Bonus: How did you hear about Siren's Pull? Through stalking Seen a few people in amatomnes , my other game, in it, so I looked into it.
Character Information
General
Canon Source: Newsies
Canon Format: Movie
Character's Name: David Jacobs
Character's Age: Approximately 17. It's not explicitly stated, but he looks/acts around Jack's age, which is 17.
What form will your character's NV take? David's NV will be a spiral ring notepad, the kind that you flip pages from the top. On one side, the page will be blank. This is the video option. The video feed will appear when he hold this side up. If he wishes to use text, he can flip it over and write on the side with lines. To use audio, he can hold it open like a book and read aloud.
Abilities
Character's Canon Abilities: None.
Conditional: If your character has no superhuman canon abilities, what dormant ability will you give them? In canon, David has a way with words. He helped convince the hard, calculating Brooklyn Newsies leader, Spot Conlon, to join their cause in the news strike. He inspired his fellow Newsies with his words, keeping the hope alive to allow the strike to continue. He's a stern hand of responsibility and he can prove that his down-to-earth opinions are correct, to boot.
Although David is articulate, he lacks the confidence to put his words out there. He has used his friend, Jack Kelly, to speak them for him previously. But as he starts to find his voice, his words become more powerful.
This will be David's power: he can sway people with his powers of persuasion. His opinion will not only be his once he's done talking with others. The catch is, if he doesn't believe in the words himself, they won't be effective. This way, his powers can't be taken advantage of by others. If he's not certain of himself and his voice, his power weakens and he has to take the time to find it again. In order to improve his power, David must maintain confidence in his opinion and practice his public speaking skills.
Once honed, David's powers of persuasion will be able to affect even the most stubborn, even if just a bit. Natural followers and indecisive individuals will fall for his speeches easily, and upon hearing him, they will have the exact same mindset as he does when he speaks. They will see things as he sees them and they'll believe what he believes. When dealing with the more hard-headed types, their thoughts won't change quite as drastically; instead, they will start to doubt their opinion in favor for David's. If the individual believes in their own opinion strongly enough, they won't be swayed, but they will acknowledge all sides to David's opinion. If they dwell too long on a decision, the next time David talks to them, they will end up giving into David's arguments.
If David doesn't believe in what he's saying, his powers don't activate (someone is asking him to do it for them, he's being forced to, he's not confident, etc). If the person he's talking to isn't interested, they won't work. If the person he's talking to doesn't understand, they won't work.
After attempting to use his powers (once he's aware of them) and failing to execute them properly (any of the above options), he will have to build them up again-- meaning they will return to their default strength of mildly convincing.
He also has to have the intent of convincing someone in order for the powers to activate. This way they can be activated without him being aware of it.
At best (the possible peak), his powers will change someone's opinion entirely: they will share his opinions and views. At its worst (aka the starting point), his powers will merely cause the subject to stop and think about it for a moment. The stronger the subject's will/mind, the harder it will be to convince them, which means he will need to build up his power more in order to have any effect at all.
Weapons: None. He'd probably fumble with a knife and cut himself.
History/Personality/Plans/etc.
Character History: David Jacobs is the eldest son in a family of five: a mother, father, younger brother, sister, and David himself. This family is average; his father worked, his mother stayed at home, and he and his siblings all went to school.
These circumstances changed when David's father broke his arm in a factory accident and was fired due to being useless. In order to keep his family functioning, David got a job with the Newsies. It was then he met Jack Kelly and the rest of the rowdy newsboys.
While working with the Newsies, David was exposed to the labor that mere children had to endure. But he didn't spring into action until he was directly affected by the higher ups in the industrial world: the prices for newspapers, normally 50 cents for 100, was upped to 60 for 100, or a tenth of a cent more than usual. Many of his fellow Newsies were enraged by this turn of events, prompting the idea of a strike.
Initially, David was against the idea; it was much too impractical and fool hardy. But when his best friend and selling partner, Jack Kelly, pushed the idea, he gave in and supplied Jack with the words that would move the Newsies into action.
David continued to contribute to the cause with his words. He convinced Spot Conlon, the head of the Brooklyn Newsies, to join forces with them, and he rekindled the fire that drove the Newsies to continue the strike when it looked like the odds were against them. It was David that supplied the logic and reason to Jack's drive, and together they managed to organize a rally with all the Newsies in New York.
During that rally, Jack was arrested by the warden of the Refuge, a jailhouse for minors. David and a few other Newsies went after him to rescue him, but in the end only David could reach Jack and pull him away from the authorities for a moment. He tried to convince Jack to leave, but Jack refused and told him to run. It took a moment of hesitation before David complied, leaving Jack to the hands of Snyder, the warden.
The next day, Jack came back, but he was all dressed up. The Newsies felt betrayed, including David. He was allowed an opportunity to talk to Jack, but even after drilling him for answers, Jack didn't budge.
Now the strike was in David's hands. It was harder to control, but he thought he can do it. The newsboys were restless due to Jack's betrayal, but they did manage to settle down and allowed Jack to sell his papers after some shouting.
Later on, Sarah was ambushed by two of the Newsies' enemies, the Delanceys. Les found Sarah and attempted to defend her, only to be found by David soon after. David rushed after the brothers and into an alley, where he was outnumbered once Sarah went down. He struggled to defend his family before he was bailed out by Jack.
Once they established that Jack truly was on the Newsies' side, Jack and David and his siblings found Denton, an ally and a newspaper reporter, to make a plan to properly execute the strike. Since Jack was being watched over by Wiesle, their newspaper supplier, he was being kept in a basement with a printing press. They toiled all night, printing Denton's article reporting the fact that New York ran on child labor to be handed out to all the minors working.
After the paper was distributed wherever they could manage, a countless number of children arrived to join their cause. They filled the streets, yelling and protesting. This allowed Jack and David the opportunity to talk to Pulitzer, the head of the newspaper they sell, and give him their demands to return the newspaper to its original price.
It took a firm talk and a threat to call the police, but Jack and David got through to Pulitzer. Once they had left, Jack lifted Les onto his shoulders and shouted to the crowd that that had won. The newspaper price was back to its original state, Snyder had been arrested, and Jack had the means to leave New York and fulfill his dreams of going to Santa Fe. In fact, he was even offered a carriage ride out of town with governor Theodore Roosevelt.
Jack wasn't gone for long, though. He came back, claiming that he still has things to do, and things were finally back to normal for the Newsies of New York.
Point in Canon: A week post-movie.
Character Personality: David is a man grounded by responsibility. He's practical, down to earth, and a no-nonsense kind of guy.
When his father's arm breaks, rendering him incapacitated, the first thing he does is find a job to continue to support his family.
At the beginning of the movie, David appears to be a bit reserved and withdrawn. When he orders his first newspapers, he receives an insufficient amount, but he doesn't push too much to get what he deserved. He doesn't give into Wiesle's, the seller, bait when he asks him if David thinks he's a liar. He maintains his no-nonsense attitude and simply states that all he wants is his missing newspaper.
This is when he officially meets Jack Kelly. Jack comes over to help David out, getting him the missing paper and buying him fifty more. David immediately refuses the 'charity' and the papers, saying that he doesn't want the help or Jack's friendship. All David wants to do is go about selling his papers and earning the money his family needs, returning to his straight forward tendencies.
But Jack persists. He offers Les a partnership, which David cuts into. David doubts Jack's intentions and his merits, opting for the more cautious side instead of giving Jack the benefit of the doubt.
At the beginning of the story, David seems to be more proper than the other Newsies. He doesn't have a rough, New York accent, he always keeps his clothes buttoned and neat, and he tries not to exaggerate the headlines like the rest of them. The reasoning behind this is his strict moral code; his father taught him not to lie. It's evident that he dislikes dishonesty, even if it is for the benefit of his profits. He sneers at Jack when he claims that 'Jack Kelly' is his real name even after he hears Snyder call Jack 'Sullivan', dubious because Jack 'has a way of improving the truth'.
But at the end of the movie, he acknowledges the need to 'improve the truth' a little, saying that headlines don't sell papers, Newsies do. He's standing in his underclothes, looking messy and unkempt like the rest of the Newsies; he's finally part of the group. And when Jack holds out his hand as a greeting when he comes back from the carriage, David spits into his hand, something he refused to do with Jack when confirming their partnership.
David is friendly once you get closer to him. He invites Jack to his home to meet his family and even offers to let Jack stay the night. This friendliness is also evident in the way he adapts to the Newsies' habit of communicating through casual physical contact. He's a loyal friend, one who helped defend Jack from the police and Snyder, went with Jack to rescue an imprisoned Crutchy, and followed after Jack when he was arrested.
David is the type to think before he acts. He takes in the situation at hand before making his move. It's against David's logic to go through with the strike idea; he tells Jack to reconsider before rushing everyone into things. There are too many risks in going on strike, and the Newsies don't even have a union.
Despite this, the idea grows on David, and eventually it becomes something he puts a lot of faith and dedication into. David stands up for what he believes in, as seen in his commitment to honesty, and the strike and standing up for his rights as a Newsie become something he devotes himself to. He doesn't back down when threatened physically, and he doesn't back down when their strike leader goes out.
David can get angry: if you betray his loyalty, David takes it close to heart. When he's shown the newspaper article Denton made after Denton abandons them for a different story, he doesn't stay and listen; he abruptly leaves in the middle of the conversation. He gets angry at Jack when he shows up all dressed up instead of being in jail like David and the rest of the Newsies had expected, shouting at him that they don't need him.
One could say that David has a one-track mind, and usually he's focused on helping others, be it his family or his friends. But all in all, David is a steadfast and responsible kid who may have some troubles loosening up sometimes. It helps, though, when you have a bunch of rowdy kids from New York as friends.
Character Plans: David will probably spend a lot of his time when he first arrives trying to understand the city. He'll probably ask around a lot about how things work and how he got there and try to analyze as much as he can.
When he finds out about sides and the people trying to find a way out, he'll try to get info from them, too-- after realizing he's in a place he shouldn't be, David's first instinct will be to leave and get home. He won't pick any side, but will try his best to keep tabs on both to see if either of them have made any notable moves that might have use to him.
Appearance/PB: http://www.livejournal.com/allpics.bml?user=taughthonesty
Writing Samples
First Person Sample
[There are a few notes scribbled onto the network every now and then, most of them too quickly written to be legible. A few select words can be made out if you squint at them long enough: "City", "Electricity?", "Les", and "Dark".
A few minutes later, a video feed crashes into existence.] Agh, dammit. [David picks up the notebook blank side up, throwing it a quick glance before moving to flip it over. He hesitates, his eyes narrowing. And he just stays quiet for a moment, watching the feed with a calculating gaze.]
...Is this-- Can anyone see this? I... [He hesitates again, taking a look around him. Making sure no one can see him in case he's talking to himself.] Right, uh. If anyone can see this, would you mind telling me just what's going on? First off, I'd like to know where I am now, and how I got here, and if I'm far from New York. I really need to get home, my parents are gonna flip out if they see how long I've been outside.
[More glancing around.] And, uh... Thanks in advance, I guess.
Third Person Sample
Here he is, trapped on an island in a strange, futuristic city and the only thing he can think about is whether or not Les remembered to bring lunch with him to school.
There are so many wonders all around him; tall buildings, towering street lamps, ruins of what could have been, and, most of all, the mere creatures that lurked behind the shadows. David would have thought that he would be analyzing the situation in order to find a way out and get home, but first, he thinks, he has to get over the fact that he isn't home and that Sarah won't yell at him for hogging her boyfriend when he gets back to the house.
The weather here feels like New York on an especially cool fall night. Windy, crisp, and cool enough to be classified as refreshing but still cold enough to make him shiver for the first five minutes out. David buttons up his sweater with shaking hands, suppressing his shudders as best as he can.
This might take some time. And when he says that, he might be talking about his walk, or finding a permanent place to live and finding a job, or getting to know the city better. What he's really talking about is trying to remember that he won't see his siblings or his parents for a long, long time. The mere thought of losing the constant in his life that is his family unsettles him greatly. If asked, it would take him around five minutes to think of a normal day without his family, and even then this imaginary David wouldn't have anything to do.
But there are many things that need to be done right here and now, and that should be good enough to keep him distracted. David takes another turn at the end of the street, making sure to keep his eyes peeled as he walks, taking in the sights and street names as he walks, looking for any help wanted signs that might catch his attention.
This might take some time, but he still has the power to make that time pass as quickly as he can manage.