Player's Name: Aces
Contact info: Plurk, AIM, I've apped here before and y'all still probably have me on your lists.
DW:![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
not_a_necromancer
Character: Colonel Jade Curtiss
Canon: Tales of the Abyss
Version: Game
Canon Point: Shortly after rejoining the party with new short-hair Luke outside the cave on Yulia Road
Age: 35
Gender: Male
History:
TL;DR Have a Wiki.
Personality:
At first, Jade may come across as being an extremely friendly and well-composed individual. It's an extraordinary front, but one he wears almost all of the time. Fact is, most of the time, the man is holding himself together with the force of his facade alone and little else.
Ever since the massively traumatic incident in his childhood, he's essentially taken to suppressing as much of his feelings as possible. Partly because it was easier to shove past and keep moving if he blocked the feelings out, partly because he's firmly steeped in the school of thought that rationality and emotion are completely opposing forces, and partly because it keeps him from hurting as much if he just shoves everything away in a neat little box somewhere.
One of his little flawed coping mechanisms to "let the pressure off" is to casually antagonize, taunt or troll people. This ultimately does nothing about the fact that you can only stuff so much before it comes out, but it definitely seems to prolong the process a bit.
The important thing to realize about Jade, though, is that he's hurting. He hides it well, but he really is hurting. A lot. He hasn't even really properly allowed himself to grieve over that incident in his youth. As it is, he tends to try to keep people at a distance, with the internal logic that he will hurt less when they inevitably die like everything else he's ever touched. It's a bit of that strange paradox of keeping people at a distance because you fear losing them and being left alone.
In spite of his flaws, however, he is fundamentally not a bad person - much as he would happily have you believe otherwise. He actually is quite the asset to the main cast, being a calm voice of reason and a valuable source of information and insight. Even though he can be harsh or painfully sarcastic, he does have this habit of coming through for the people he's with.
It may also be worthy of note that Jade does have a rather pointed stubborn streak, which is part of what makes him dig into his complexes and issues as much as he does. He is very much one of those blessed with a stubborn pride that tends to have him rising to challenges laid before him. This would also be part of why he and Dist have such a formidable rivalry between them - neither of them seems to have a grasp of when to back down.
Fears:
Isolation/Losing people/being hurt:
These three interplay in the most demented fashion. At the core of it, he doesn't want to be alone and he doesn't want to lose people, but he keeps people at a distance so it won't hurt as much when they eventually die(as that seems to happen whenever he gets too close to someone).
Failure:
As a natural consequence of his upbringing, he has a REALLY hard time acknowledging things that he doesn't know or can't do. Moreover, he has this lingering fear that he's going to mess things up again and people will die or that he's just plain not good enough.
Weaknesses:
Gifted Child Syndrome:
As noted upon his Wiki page, the very reason he ultimately wound up getting adopted into the Curtiss family was that they had taken notice of his skill and potential. That is one hell of an unhealthy message to send to a young child - that his entire worth is based solely on his skillset and the things he is capable of. Prior to this, taking down monsters that even grown adults had trouble with, was the sort of thing he was encouraged on. It was the kind of conditional love and attention from most of the adults around him that only came when he managed something difficult or otherwise procured impressive results.
That said, there was also a hefty expectation that there are many things that he SHOULD be able to do, given how talented and proficient he was. Needless to say, only terrible things ever resulted from those times he could not perform to expectation. As a result, he does tend to wind up suffering from the kind of stubborn locking up and refusal to admit that he doesn't know something, or cannot do something, that tends to come with mishandled gifted children who've since grown up. Realistically, the only reason he sullenly admits to his inability to use Healing Artes is because of that pointed traumatic incident in his past.
Guilt over the past:
As you can imagine, the fact that his childhood teacher is dead because of his own mistake, is something that is actively eating Jade alive. Slowly, but actively nonetheless. He even gives the reluctant admission to Luke that he no longer wants to bring the professor back to life, but that he wants nothing more than to beg for her forgiveness. I tend to headcanon that this is the sort of thing that continues to haunt his nightmares to this day, and that it is something that is weighing rather heavily on him - even though he doesn't like to let on about it.
People:
Jade is one of those lucky souls who is either REALLY GOOD or REALLY BAD at dealing with people. If he wants to play politics to suit his ends? REALLY GOOD.
...If someone is upset or crying or something around him, however, he really is that guy who might manage an awkward pat or something while trying to not look like he has absolutely no idea how to handle this situation. And for the love of whatever you find to be sacred don't let the person get blood or mucus on him. Because that will irritate and repulse him. Blood acquired via combat splattering is one thing, people bleeding on him is straight into the realm of unacceptable and he will be sore over it.
Internalizing:
As stated under the Personality section, he's as composed as he seems by sheer virtue of maladjusted emotional stuffing. Unfortunately, Auldrant as a whole is fairly universally terrible about concepts like mental health, and there is only so much a mere man can stuff away before it comes forcing back out in one form or another. This is liable to take one of two routes: crying or rage.
Because Jade has the various issues that he does, trust issues included, he isn't one to simply allow himself to cry just anywhere - particularly in the presence of others. Which means the possibility of having his temper flare and turn violent is all the more likely an option. This can range between destruction of property to full-on murderous intent depending on provocation, stressors, timing and other factors. In the case of a violent rage, he's entirely likely to beat the hell out of himself over it later. After all, that's incredibly irrational behavior and not at all acceptable for someone of his station.
Mundane Strengths/Abilities: It's pretty well implied in canon that he actually has an Eiditic memory, saying that he committed an entire book to memory within the span of a few minutes.While this is likely exaggerated some, given that this is a video game with time constraints, I will play it reasonably.
He is extremely good at getting the things he wants out of people and can be ridiculously persuasive - even if that means issuing threats to serve his ends.
He's extremely intelligent and tends to pick up on things quickly/is a fast-learner.
Sensitivity/Magical Ability: Fonons. He can use Fonons. Though his abilities are pretty solidly limited thanks to the Fon Slot Seal Largo so thoughtfully bestowed upon him. So he's fairly restricted on that front and may not be trying to tap into it. In the event that he does, he's literally going to be stuck with lower level Artes. Also the one major restriction in general is that he can't use the healing Artes - attempting to do so results in fire, explosions and death.
He's also gifted with the ability to SEE Fonons. The glasses he wears aren't prescription-based, they're actually inhibitors/dampeners so he's not actually seeing Fonons all the time - even though he has enough control by now to do fairly well without them.
His spear, that's more of a power focus than a weapon(even though it could be used as such), is magically broken down and conveniently stored within him to be accessible at a moment's notice. He actually was the one who created this technique.
Supply List: Spear(Which is actually stored in hammerspace/technically broken down and stored INSIDE OF HIM), glasses, Malkuth military uniform,
Game Transfers: Nooooooope.
Sample RP post:
Contact info: Plurk, AIM, I've apped here before and y'all still probably have me on your lists.
DW:
not_a_necromancerCharacter: Colonel Jade Curtiss
Canon: Tales of the Abyss
Version: Game
Canon Point: Shortly after rejoining the party with new short-hair Luke outside the cave on Yulia Road
Age: 35
Gender: Male
History:
TL;DR Have a Wiki.
Personality:
At first, Jade may come across as being an extremely friendly and well-composed individual. It's an extraordinary front, but one he wears almost all of the time. Fact is, most of the time, the man is holding himself together with the force of his facade alone and little else.
Ever since the massively traumatic incident in his childhood, he's essentially taken to suppressing as much of his feelings as possible. Partly because it was easier to shove past and keep moving if he blocked the feelings out, partly because he's firmly steeped in the school of thought that rationality and emotion are completely opposing forces, and partly because it keeps him from hurting as much if he just shoves everything away in a neat little box somewhere.
One of his little flawed coping mechanisms to "let the pressure off" is to casually antagonize, taunt or troll people. This ultimately does nothing about the fact that you can only stuff so much before it comes out, but it definitely seems to prolong the process a bit.
The important thing to realize about Jade, though, is that he's hurting. He hides it well, but he really is hurting. A lot. He hasn't even really properly allowed himself to grieve over that incident in his youth. As it is, he tends to try to keep people at a distance, with the internal logic that he will hurt less when they inevitably die like everything else he's ever touched. It's a bit of that strange paradox of keeping people at a distance because you fear losing them and being left alone.
In spite of his flaws, however, he is fundamentally not a bad person - much as he would happily have you believe otherwise. He actually is quite the asset to the main cast, being a calm voice of reason and a valuable source of information and insight. Even though he can be harsh or painfully sarcastic, he does have this habit of coming through for the people he's with.
It may also be worthy of note that Jade does have a rather pointed stubborn streak, which is part of what makes him dig into his complexes and issues as much as he does. He is very much one of those blessed with a stubborn pride that tends to have him rising to challenges laid before him. This would also be part of why he and Dist have such a formidable rivalry between them - neither of them seems to have a grasp of when to back down.
Fears:
Isolation/Losing people/being hurt:
These three interplay in the most demented fashion. At the core of it, he doesn't want to be alone and he doesn't want to lose people, but he keeps people at a distance so it won't hurt as much when they eventually die(as that seems to happen whenever he gets too close to someone).
Failure:
As a natural consequence of his upbringing, he has a REALLY hard time acknowledging things that he doesn't know or can't do. Moreover, he has this lingering fear that he's going to mess things up again and people will die or that he's just plain not good enough.
Weaknesses:
Gifted Child Syndrome:
As noted upon his Wiki page, the very reason he ultimately wound up getting adopted into the Curtiss family was that they had taken notice of his skill and potential. That is one hell of an unhealthy message to send to a young child - that his entire worth is based solely on his skillset and the things he is capable of. Prior to this, taking down monsters that even grown adults had trouble with, was the sort of thing he was encouraged on. It was the kind of conditional love and attention from most of the adults around him that only came when he managed something difficult or otherwise procured impressive results.
That said, there was also a hefty expectation that there are many things that he SHOULD be able to do, given how talented and proficient he was. Needless to say, only terrible things ever resulted from those times he could not perform to expectation. As a result, he does tend to wind up suffering from the kind of stubborn locking up and refusal to admit that he doesn't know something, or cannot do something, that tends to come with mishandled gifted children who've since grown up. Realistically, the only reason he sullenly admits to his inability to use Healing Artes is because of that pointed traumatic incident in his past.
Guilt over the past:
As you can imagine, the fact that his childhood teacher is dead because of his own mistake, is something that is actively eating Jade alive. Slowly, but actively nonetheless. He even gives the reluctant admission to Luke that he no longer wants to bring the professor back to life, but that he wants nothing more than to beg for her forgiveness. I tend to headcanon that this is the sort of thing that continues to haunt his nightmares to this day, and that it is something that is weighing rather heavily on him - even though he doesn't like to let on about it.
People:
Jade is one of those lucky souls who is either REALLY GOOD or REALLY BAD at dealing with people. If he wants to play politics to suit his ends? REALLY GOOD.
...If someone is upset or crying or something around him, however, he really is that guy who might manage an awkward pat or something while trying to not look like he has absolutely no idea how to handle this situation. And for the love of whatever you find to be sacred don't let the person get blood or mucus on him. Because that will irritate and repulse him. Blood acquired via combat splattering is one thing, people bleeding on him is straight into the realm of unacceptable and he will be sore over it.
Internalizing:
As stated under the Personality section, he's as composed as he seems by sheer virtue of maladjusted emotional stuffing. Unfortunately, Auldrant as a whole is fairly universally terrible about concepts like mental health, and there is only so much a mere man can stuff away before it comes forcing back out in one form or another. This is liable to take one of two routes: crying or rage.
Because Jade has the various issues that he does, trust issues included, he isn't one to simply allow himself to cry just anywhere - particularly in the presence of others. Which means the possibility of having his temper flare and turn violent is all the more likely an option. This can range between destruction of property to full-on murderous intent depending on provocation, stressors, timing and other factors. In the case of a violent rage, he's entirely likely to beat the hell out of himself over it later. After all, that's incredibly irrational behavior and not at all acceptable for someone of his station.
Mundane Strengths/Abilities: It's pretty well implied in canon that he actually has an Eiditic memory, saying that he committed an entire book to memory within the span of a few minutes.
He is extremely good at getting the things he wants out of people and can be ridiculously persuasive - even if that means issuing threats to serve his ends.
He's extremely intelligent and tends to pick up on things quickly/is a fast-learner.
Sensitivity/Magical Ability: Fonons. He can use Fonons. Though his abilities are pretty solidly limited thanks to the Fon Slot Seal Largo so thoughtfully bestowed upon him. So he's fairly restricted on that front and may not be trying to tap into it. In the event that he does, he's literally going to be stuck with lower level Artes. Also the one major restriction in general is that he can't use the healing Artes - attempting to do so results in fire, explosions and death.
He's also gifted with the ability to SEE Fonons. The glasses he wears aren't prescription-based, they're actually inhibitors/dampeners so he's not actually seeing Fonons all the time - even though he has enough control by now to do fairly well without them.
His spear, that's more of a power focus than a weapon(even though it could be used as such), is magically broken down and conveniently stored within him to be accessible at a moment's notice. He actually was the one who created this technique.
Supply List: Spear(Which is actually stored in hammerspace/technically broken down and stored INSIDE OF HIM), glasses, Malkuth military uniform,
Game Transfers: Nooooooope.
Sample RP post:
