Post by Jace T. Sylkis on Jan 10, 2021 18:21:23 GMT -5
JACE TARAN SYLKIS.
THE FURTIVE POKEMON
| AGE | GENDER | ALLEGIANCE | OCCUPATION |
| TWENTY. | MALE. | RESISTANCE. | PROSTITUTE. SMUGGLER. |
APPEARANCE
Jace stands at 5'10" and has a fairly lean, streamlined build that would have lent itself well to competitive swimming in kinder times. His weight fluctuates between 150lbs and 160lbs in any given season, depending on what he's been eating and whether his activity level has sufficed to keep a small potbelly from forming. His face is what he would call "average" with a narrow-bridged nose, angular chin, and deeply blue eyes that often squint in concentration. He likes to keep his long black hair in a braid or ponytail since it stays out of his way more easily and he's not yet willing to have it all chopped off, but strands always seem to get loose.
As a smuggler, what he wears is dictated by where he needs to blend in, and he won't hesitate to change "costumes" on the fly if he can acquire something appropriate. He's also no stranger to makeup in order to further alter his appearance. He's most comfortable in jeans and a shirt or hoodie, when he can get away with casual attire. He hates the way his hands look, scarred on the palms with burn scars that obscure his prints, and relies on gloves (usually fingerless) to avoid looking at them and remembering. The scruffy beard that is all he has ever managed to grow isn't worth keeping, so he shaves his face as scrupulously as possible.
As a smuggler, what he wears is dictated by where he needs to blend in, and he won't hesitate to change "costumes" on the fly if he can acquire something appropriate. He's also no stranger to makeup in order to further alter his appearance. He's most comfortable in jeans and a shirt or hoodie, when he can get away with casual attire. He hates the way his hands look, scarred on the palms with burn scars that obscure his prints, and relies on gloves (usually fingerless) to avoid looking at them and remembering. The scruffy beard that is all he has ever managed to grow isn't worth keeping, so he shaves his face as scrupulously as possible.
PERSONALITY
| POSITIVE - RESOURCEFUL - WORLDLY - NONCHALANT - ORGANIZED - FLEXIBLE - CHARISMATIC NEGATIVE - ARTIFICIAL - SECRETIVE - OPPORTUNISTIC - CYNICAL - POSSESSIVE - LECHEROUS | Jace is a young man with patience and guile beyond his years. At his core, he is driven by a cold, calculating rage aimed against the unfair and deadly escalations of violence by the Plasma Party. Rage he hides deep beneath a calm, even cordial exterior. He doesn't remember the proverbial calm before the storm, but he feels even the ROT isn't as horrible for the Anrui region as the militant murderers presently running the show. Bringing down Plasma won't revive his parents, or anyone else whose lives have been lost, but he craves it like a junkie desperate for a fix. How can any cure for the ROT be found when the people are broadly prevented from studying the Pokemon carriers, or the humans that have themselves caught cases? Camaraderie of any sort has thus far been lacking for Jace, necessarily: because alliances are hard to form when you can't be certain of anyone else's loyalties. Better to satisfy the body's wants dispassionately and keep others at arms' length than to suffer betrayals, or become the betrayer yourself - and he will become the unrepentant turncoat, if that's what has to be done to stay undercover or win an edge against Plasma. He is as remorseless for allowing his grandmother to believe a comforting lie when she died as for leaving his hometown, where he had one too many close calls, to seek recourse elsewhere. In Verona City, he was a diligent student of many subjects that relied on scams, smuggling, and the use of his body for a source of income. He understood and successfully navigated street life despite not fully sharing it with the hapless urchins and ne'er-do-wells he encountered lurking in back alleys and illegal-goods warehouses. He is both adaptable and unpredictable by choice, but avoids personal sacrifice to whatever extent is possible since it reduces the likelihood that his life goals will be met. A berry in the hand is worth two on the bush, as they say. |
BACKGROUND
Born in Verona City, Jace can't remember a time before the ROT. He passed his childhood largely sheltered by his parents, loving and compassionate grass-type breeders who owned a small boutique on the city outskirts, from the news of political unrest and evidence of spreading sickness. That all changed when the Purge started and Plasma decimated his parents' shop and took their lives. He was taken in by his grandmother, a sensible but absentminded woman who had rid herself of all Pokemon paraphernalia as soon as the ROT scare began. His earliest attempt at cooking himself ramen at her apartment resulted in his hands getting horribly burned as a result of wearing the too-big oven mitts incorrectly. Grandmother tried raising him to be a good law-abiding citizen that would never be endangered like his parents had been, but when his school aired breaking footage of the aftermath of St. Jasper's bombing in the classrooms, he knew there was no going back for him.
He remembered cuddling his mother's favorite Cottonee as a very young child, but he could no longer remember the sound of his mother's voice. He hated the Plasma Party for taking his parents from him and wrecking the life he should have lived. He hated the loss of lives that seemed so senseless, and the way Pokemon were villified for something he was childishly certain wasn't THEIR fault. The kid understood how to be circumspect, however, after his one outburst in class about how unfair and unjustified it all was had met with horrified stares from his classmates and a near-suspension. Jace pretended to be cowed and convinced. While he seethed inside, he projected calm and focused on biding his time. Things only seemed to get worse everywhere he looked, and he knew that he would not be useful as a "little twerp" to the Resistance that stood up to Plasma's heavy-handed regime. He made good use of the school libraries when other young teens were trying to carry on with after-class jobs, cementing friendships, petty betrayals, and hormonal budding romances. What good were any of them to Jace, with his plan of leaving Verona as soon as he could? He studied maps, economic reports, ROT statistics, acting and disguises, how to rig weaponry both simple and complex, how to perform first aid, sleight of hand, and much more - all as incidentally as possible so as to hide his intentions from the hawkeyed adults in his life. That meant also faking initial interest in a plethora of other subjects, some of which were actually fascinating after learning their basics.
At every opportunity, he saved up for a ticket out of Verona and a "cushion" to help him find a way to join the Resistance. He doubted it would be easy. While his grandmother never forced him to take a public job, he found ways to earn decent side money beyond an allowance for household chores. He proof-read peers' homework essays as they all reached young adulthood, since some struggled more than others with following formats and making sense out of the backdated propagandist news articles intended to brainwash this new generation of citizens. Sometimes, the side money Jace earned was less from working and more from performing certain "private favors" perhaps best left unmentioned out of respect for his "clients." Those clients found other ways to employ him beyond the use of his body, smuggling illicit things into Verona from beyond the city walls. His youth and guile helped keep him below the proverbial radar. But sometimes, when he bought groceries or chipped in to help pay for his grandmother's emphysema treatments, he wanted to pull out his hair. It was frustrating to watch his savings slip through his fingers, knowing how much longer he would have to stay to make up for the necessary losses, but he did owe the woman some love and loyalty; she only wanted what she thought was best for him.
Graduation was a sad affair full of platitudes and staff assurances that the future would be secured. He wrote a letter thanking his grandmother for taking him in and explained that he was tired of the city; in the letter, he lied about wanting to find a simple farm in need of laborers where he could be safely employed far from the streets. Only later in his journey would he learn by Pokevice that she had contracted the ROT from a neighbor and had to go into quarantine, where her advanced age and those lung issues from a lifetime of smoking brought about her lonely death. His smuggling work for his "clients" had increased over time in risk and reward, though the "private" labors had remained the same; though real trust was impossible under the circumstances, they paved the way for greater things - and now provided him with vague instructions on how and where to make himself known to the Resistance. At last, Jace's hopes to acquire an actual Pokemon and the network of back-up needed to take up more tangible opposition to the Plasma Party were coming to fruition- they must be made to pay.
He remembered cuddling his mother's favorite Cottonee as a very young child, but he could no longer remember the sound of his mother's voice. He hated the Plasma Party for taking his parents from him and wrecking the life he should have lived. He hated the loss of lives that seemed so senseless, and the way Pokemon were villified for something he was childishly certain wasn't THEIR fault. The kid understood how to be circumspect, however, after his one outburst in class about how unfair and unjustified it all was had met with horrified stares from his classmates and a near-suspension. Jace pretended to be cowed and convinced. While he seethed inside, he projected calm and focused on biding his time. Things only seemed to get worse everywhere he looked, and he knew that he would not be useful as a "little twerp" to the Resistance that stood up to Plasma's heavy-handed regime. He made good use of the school libraries when other young teens were trying to carry on with after-class jobs, cementing friendships, petty betrayals, and hormonal budding romances. What good were any of them to Jace, with his plan of leaving Verona as soon as he could? He studied maps, economic reports, ROT statistics, acting and disguises, how to rig weaponry both simple and complex, how to perform first aid, sleight of hand, and much more - all as incidentally as possible so as to hide his intentions from the hawkeyed adults in his life. That meant also faking initial interest in a plethora of other subjects, some of which were actually fascinating after learning their basics.
At every opportunity, he saved up for a ticket out of Verona and a "cushion" to help him find a way to join the Resistance. He doubted it would be easy. While his grandmother never forced him to take a public job, he found ways to earn decent side money beyond an allowance for household chores. He proof-read peers' homework essays as they all reached young adulthood, since some struggled more than others with following formats and making sense out of the backdated propagandist news articles intended to brainwash this new generation of citizens. Sometimes, the side money Jace earned was less from working and more from performing certain "private favors" perhaps best left unmentioned out of respect for his "clients." Those clients found other ways to employ him beyond the use of his body, smuggling illicit things into Verona from beyond the city walls. His youth and guile helped keep him below the proverbial radar. But sometimes, when he bought groceries or chipped in to help pay for his grandmother's emphysema treatments, he wanted to pull out his hair. It was frustrating to watch his savings slip through his fingers, knowing how much longer he would have to stay to make up for the necessary losses, but he did owe the woman some love and loyalty; she only wanted what she thought was best for him.
Graduation was a sad affair full of platitudes and staff assurances that the future would be secured. He wrote a letter thanking his grandmother for taking him in and explained that he was tired of the city; in the letter, he lied about wanting to find a simple farm in need of laborers where he could be safely employed far from the streets. Only later in his journey would he learn by Pokevice that she had contracted the ROT from a neighbor and had to go into quarantine, where her advanced age and those lung issues from a lifetime of smoking brought about her lonely death. His smuggling work for his "clients" had increased over time in risk and reward, though the "private" labors had remained the same; though real trust was impossible under the circumstances, they paved the way for greater things - and now provided him with vague instructions on how and where to make himself known to the Resistance. At last, Jace's hopes to acquire an actual Pokemon and the network of back-up needed to take up more tangible opposition to the Plasma Party were coming to fruition- they must be made to pay.
POKEMON
NICKNAME. SPECIES. GENDER. LEVEL __.
ATTACK 1. ATTACK 2. ATTACK 3. ATTACK 4. ATTACK 5. ATTACK 6.
ATTACK 1. ATTACK 2. ATTACK 3. ATTACK 4. ATTACK 5. ATTACK 6.
A paragraph of your Pokemon's personality should go here. Individual Pokemon in premade teams can not exceed level 35. You have a total of 100 levels to spread out over six Pokemon, but you do not need to use them all. If your character does not have any Pokemon, delete this section.
MISCELLANEOUS
| OOC NAME | FACECLAIM |
| Solace | [b]Hanasakeru Seishounen[/b] - Lumati, [i]Jace Taran Sylkis[/i] |
Pokeball x5
Potion x2
Lava Cookie x1