app for sirenspull
Player Information
Name: Liz
Age: 21
AIM SN: the p0rn nun
email: silkenaracna at gmail dot com
Have you played in an LJ based game before? yes!
Currrently Played Characters: Carrie Kelley
Conditional: Activity Check Link: Here.
Character Information
General
Canon Source: Hellsing
Canon Format: Anime/Manga
Character's Name: Jan Valentine
Character's Age: 79 (Never stated in canon, but if I had to estimate! - and this is assuming he was made a vampire back in WWII at age 23, and counting his two years at Rivelata.)
Conditional: If your character is 13 years of age or under, please clarify how they will be played. n/a
What form will your character's NV take? An average cellphone, with voice and video capabilities and a fold-out qwerty keyboard.
Abilities
Character's Canon Abilities: The chip that makes Jan a vampire increases his speed, stamina and agility as well - but not nearly to the level that the other vampires of Hellsing have. He also can make ghouls of the corpses of people that he kills, which are under his command.
Conditional: If your character has no superhuman canon abilities, what dormant ability will you give them? If it's possible, I'd like Jan to have a vampiric boost, since his own powers aren't all that impressive as they are. He'd be able to heal his body with the help of the shadows that Seras and Alucard use in canon, and once he got the hang of it, willingly dissolve himself into those same shadows. His strength and speed would be a little higher than what they are in canon as well.
Weapons: In canon Jan comes with two semi-automatic P90s, and at Rivelata he picked up a handgun, an old-fashioned pistol (courtesy of a sky pirate), and more neat knives than you can shake a stick at - he'd be pretty pleased to have all that with him still!
History/Personality/Plans/etc.
Character History: In the world of Hellsing, there are vampires and there is Alucard, with a clear divide between the two. Vampires: creatures of the night, violent, mostly single-minded, and without forethought or planning, living just to enjoy the moment. They're a step above humans in strength and agility, and they typically take this as evidence of godhood, as license to rip and tear their way through whatever humans they might encounter. And then there's Alucard, the vampire that takes care of trivial matters like these, and he does it with a shadowy grin and minimal effort.
But eventually there began to come a new breed of vampire, one created to give this vampiric vampire killer, Alucard, a run for his money. Stronger, faster, able to regenerate, unfeeling of pain. Brothers Luke and Jan Valentine were the first two of these introduced in Hellsing. These two, polar opposites to each other despite their relation, were sent to the Hellsing manor with the orders to kill everyone inside, paying special attention to Integra Hellsing herself and her pet Alucard.
Cool-headed and self-possessed Luke descended to the basement to do battle with Alucard, confident that he would be the man's defeat, while hot-headed and excitable Jan (and his moaning, hungry army) took on the Hellsing soldiers to work their way toward Integra. Jan took care of the soldiers that opposed him, gleefully killing them all and turning them into ghouls to be part of his invading army. He took his time actually finding Integra though, preferring to stop along the way to enjoy bits of her wealth. He complained of the class segregation in England as he enjoyed one of her fine cigars, hinting that he was on the less fortunate side of the divide. But discovery of Integra's showy display of wealth seemed to give him renewed vigor, and he marched towards her location deciding, very loudly, to fuck her, shoot her in the head, and fuck her there too.
Walter and Seras were his first real obstacle, and he took to the challenge presented by them with nothing short of utter delight. He watched with alternating amazement and maniac joy as Walter made short work of his ghouls, and the proceeded to start on Jan himself. Jan managed to make it to the end of the hallway and fling open the door to the room in which Integra had been holding her meeting (at the expensive of one of his arms, lost to Walter's wires), only to find thirteen pistols leveled at him.
But even that wasn't too much a damper on his general delight, and as he slumped against the far wall, full of holes and leaking blood from everywhere, his laughter and vulgarity carried through to the end. He knew perfectly well that he'd failed the mission he'd been given, and that he was certainly going to die (by Walter's capable hands after a few rounds of torture, if not more quickly and immediately by his superiors themselves), and didn't seem particularly bothered by it. He had, after all, had one hell of a good time wrecking up the place. He gave Integra the clue Millennium as his superiors activated the self-destruct of the chip responsible for his vampiric nature and burned him to death.
Point in Canon: Just after being burned to death.
Conditional: Brief summary of previous RP history: The strangest thing happened to Jan when he showed up on the island of Rivelata. After bumming around for half a year, generally making a huge nuisance of himself and getting into fights whenever possible… he started making friends. It was weird, and he wasn't entirely comfortable with it. Sure, there were plenty of people ripe for trolling, of which he did plenty, but he started actually liking some of them. One of the first of them was Karin Maaka, a coworker of his at Junkhouse Ramen. He teased her mercilessly and constantly propositioned her for sex, as you do, only she never got mad at him. All he could make her do was freak out, blush, and apologize. It was weird. Eventually he started getting a little protective of her, figuring he was the only one allowed to make her freak out, blush, and apologize. He'd deny ever liking her at all fiercely, of course, but it was there. And it was strange.
The second strange encounter was with Dick Grayson (Nightwing). After learning that Jan was definitely not going to give up attacking people for dinner, and wasn't fond of drinking from the pseudo-blood fountain that the gods had provided out in the jungle for vampires, Dick decided to offer himself. Anything to stop a vampire from attacking people, apparently. Jan took him up on the offer with loads and loads of hesitation - it was a kindness he absolutely couldn't explain or understand, and it made him uncomfortable. Around the same time, one by one Jan's bosses and coworkers started going home, and he and Karin were eventually left in charge of the ramenhouse themselves. After both trying to run that, and putting up with the strange altruism from Dick, and a weirdly comfortable camaraderie from Lyle Dylandy, Jan decided to go back to his roots. (He had at least one friendship mixed into this bunch that was more comfortable and familiar to him - he'd befriended a violent and vulgar pirate woman, Apollo, mostly because she'd reminded him of the sorts of men he'd spend time around as a mercenary.) So he ate someone over the journal, rubbed it in about what a viscous and cruel killer he was, and took off the live in the jungle instead.
It was about then that Jan had his first significant run-in with Rivelata's resident Robin - Tim Drake. The fight ended with Jan tied up and hanging over that blood fountain in the jungle that he'd so scorned, and all of Rivelata free to have a chuckle at his expense. He couldn't entirely hate Robin for it, though. Because, well, the kid had kicked his ass and earned it. But he'd still go for the throat at any chance he got. It was around then, with Jan licking his wounds and nursing his pride, that he had another significant encounter with someone he'd so far only considered an acquaintance. Earlier on in his stay on the island, he'd slept with one of the natives to the world, Ba'astkioni Ijaba, who was of course drunk at the time. Ever after she'd maintained that Jan was a horrible disgusting mistake, and she'd never do it again, and that was pretty much fine with Jan. She hated him - lots of people did. No loss there. Only, she kept talking to him, very nearly wouldn't leave him alone, which was a little puzzling. An unfortunate adventure got the two lost in the jungle together, where Ba'ast pointed out that she actually rather liked Jan. She was just an abrasive and insulting person. With that revelation in mind, the two became friends. They'd very likely have become friends with benefits, but since sleeping with him, Ba'ast had started a relationship with Edward Elric.
Meanwhile, Jan and Dick (as Nightwing) had kept up an antagonistic relationship right up until Dick left the island, although it was one that drifted slowly closer and closer to something like a truce. Nightwing would find Jan stalking people, considering eating them, they'd fight for a while, and Jan would give up and resort to making fun of him instead of fighting him. It was a time like this that lead to Jan discovering that Nightwing was Dick, and due to some strange sense of loyalty for his sort-of-not-really friend, he kept the secret.
Events lead Dick to take the wrap for someone else's crime, and he ended up in the city prison. Jan, who had slowly been drifting back to behaving rather well and even holding a (sort of) steady job at a bookstore (never let it be said that Basch von Rosenburg is an impatient man - many of his books met an undignified fate at the end of Jan's permanent marker and crude dick-drawing skills), got a little caught up in an altercation that Roy Harper, under the influence of War's special warlike vibes, started in the city. Jan tore a townsman's throat out and promptly blamed his death on Roy, who'd started the whole fight. The incident sparked under-the-surface hostilities between the Natives and the Off-Worlders, with Roy taking the brunt of them. Eventually the truth was out though, and Roy, Basch, and a few others arrived to take Jan in. Jan was entirely prepared to fight the lot of them (and oh what fun it would be!) until he saw that Basch was among their numbers. Basch, the eternally patient, who was willing to put up with him as an employee no matter how annoying he got. Jan gave in then, and allowed himself to be taken to jail. But, hey, at least he had Dick/Nightwing for company.
He was in the jail for about a month before Dick took a trip home (and while he was incarcerated, both Karin and Basch disappeared from the island). Jan watched as Dick struck up a deal with one of the local gods, who sent him home to live a little while longer in Gotham. When he showed up again, he reappeared conveniently out of the jail. And, coincidentally, he'd gone and taken up the Batcowl at home, leaving Jan babysitting the Nightwing suit that he'd been wearing in the jail. Jan never got a chance to hand it back before Dick went home for good. But, before that final disappearance of Dick's, a few months down the road, Jan was stuck in the jail right up until the King of Rivelata himself paid him a visit. It was here that the biggest change found Jan. Or, more accurately, was forced onto him. The king placed a seal on Jan, making it so whatever damage he inflicted on another person would be dealt to him. If he bites someone's throat, a wound opens in his own. If he kills someone, he's dead. Jan, drunk on freedom after being locked away for so long, didn't realize until later what a colossally limiting thing that was. He also didn't count on feeling, as a vampire that couldn't hurt anyone, a little like he'd been neutered. So he kept the fact of his curse to himself, hid it as much as he could, and only told people when they owed him something and he thought there was a chance they might be able to break it. It was around here that Apollo left the island, stealing yet another of his friends and sinking his mood even lower.
The second encounter of significance with Robin came during a masquerade ball. They met at the party, issued a few challenges to one another (Jan pretending the entire time that he actually could carry them out if he wanted), and it was so reminiscent of old time's sake, back when he'd had more friends around, that he decided to do something nice for Robin. Dick had recently gone home by this point. Jan led Robin to the ramenhouse, fallen into disrepair since Karin had left Rivelata, and gave him the Nightwing suit he'd stashed there. Nightwing and Robin had been better friends than Nightwing and Jan, after all, right? It seemed right. Robin departed with it and, after a strangely empathetic sadness shared between them, an uncomfortable truce between the two.
In the year or so that it'd been since Roy had, roundaboutly, got him thrown into the jail, Jan had decided that he wasn't really so bad either. He hated him, sure, but he was losing more and more friends and familiarity, and he preferred to have an antagonistic force in his life than nothing. It turned into a sort of rivalry, and eventually the two challenged each other to a race. A race to see whether or not there was anything out there, past the rocky barrier that had so far blocked sea travel from Rivelata. So Roy commissioned a boat, Ba'ast built Jan a boat, and the race was on. Of course, at the last minute, Roy stayed behind to stop Sylar from going along with the group and taking his pick of people with abilities, and Jan was left to grudgingly carry the race out himself. After a week of travel (spent getting to know Ba'ast's newest boyfriend, and slowly deciding to like him - even if his presence meant that Jan still couldn't have a friendship with benefits with Ba'ast - landed them on a local goddess's vacation island, while back home a different god was mounting an attack against the entire island. They've managed to seal the attacking god away by the time Jan and the others make it back to the island as reinforcements, but Roy is accidentally sealed away at the same time. And, of course, Robin has sailed away with two of his friends rather than head back to Rivelata, and Lyle had gone and vanished while Jan was away, so there went three more sort-of-friends for Jan.
His last action on the island after making it back to find he was down yet another friend, was to reopen the empty ramenhouse. It was a last ditch attempt to make connections, like he used to have. As weird as it'd been to make actual friends, it was even stranger to have them dropping like flies and be unaccountably lonely for it.
Character Personality: Jan Valentine is vulgar. If he hasn't described something using the word 'fucking' in at least the last ten seconds, then he's not doing it right. He's loud, he says exactly what he thinks, and the devil may care if he's going to offend someone with it. In fact, it's probably going to be more amusing if someone is offended, so why not aim for the top? Insults are flung as casually as greetings. Murder, cannibalism, skull fucking -- none of these are topics that he spares, all get their time in the limelight.
He's also nearly the exact opposite of his brother, Luke Valentine. Luke is a carefully maintained dandy, controlled and calm and well-mannered, dressed perfectly and with his long, blond hair tied neatly back. Meanwhile Jan is a carefully maintained asshole, face full of piercings and manners loud and crass. He's talkative to the point that he needs only his own vocal chords to keep amused, rude enough to drive away a saint, blunt enough to make a sailor blush, and not to mention almost completely self-serving.
Aside from to his brother, Jan knows no real loyalty, and his main drive is generally only to create mayhem and provide himself some with some amusement. It's fine by him if he cheats a bit, bends the rules a little, it's all for the sake of the game. And the only real winner will be, of course, himself -- and whoever took it upon themselves to aim his destructiveness in a desired direction. But while he loves mowing down innocents, if he finds an actual challenge he doesn't get angry, he isn't afraid, and he's certainly not resentful to find himself being potentially torn to pieces; instead he absolutely loves the idea of a real fight, and will laugh himself hoarse even as he's losing limbs and finding holes shot through his body.
But despite his lust for chaos and generally destructive fun, Jan does knows how to keep an operation under control. He can follow orders and he won't lose his head and forget himself in the heat of battle, be it the high of victory or the gut-twisting knowledge of looming defeat. Jan Valentine is, in short, a good soldier, provided he was given enough incentive to pick a side and stay on it.
Conditional: Personality development in previous game: Although he's struggled not to change, and to keep true to the asshole he started out as, Jan hasn't been entirely resistant to change at Rivelata. It started in small, subtle ways. His experiences with Dick offering up a meal of his own blood, for example, teaching him that some people really don't have ulterior motives - or don't, weirdly enough, do things just to fuck with other people. A strange lesson, but it was absorbed nonetheless. Secondly he learned that you can struggle against someone without actually needing to beat them. This one came from his antagonistic relationship with Robin, kicked off with public humiliation and cemented with a quiet gift and a little shared sorrow. He wouldn't call Robin a friend, not by any stretch of the imagination, and he'd rather fight him than hang out with him. But he still liked the kid. The third lesson came from Dick as well - this one being that it really is okay to simply like people. He and Dick had almost nothing in common, from hobbies to moral stances. But, somehow, he'd come to genuinely like the guy. Dick was the first to teach Jan this lesson, but a number of other people reinforced it. A number of other people, it should be pointed out, almost all of which disappeared on him.
Jan's still pretty uncomfortable with putting these lessons to use. Liking people is weird enough on its own, but it also means they're going to eventually leave, and if you like them too much it means you're going to be lonely. He doesn't like that part much. Loneliness had always been a sign of weakness for him, and it still is, but he's not sure how to avoid that part. Unexpectedly liking so many people has left him open to liking more in the future, but the realization that loneliness (and, even worse and even weaker - sadness) follows that makes him feel uncomfortable with himself.
Jan is very much in a state of confusion, in this regard. He's changing, no matter how much he doesn't want to, but he hasn't solidified into any particular final result. He knows that it's okay to like other people, but he doesn't want to. He knows he probably will like other people, and he knows how good it feels to like them. But he still doesn't want to. Even worse, once all of his friends have disappeared and he's suffering full effects of the exact reason he'd been resistant to get close to them in the first place (loneliness, sadness), he wants to reconnect with people and get those good feelings back. It's a terrible idea, it's weak of him, and it's stupid. But he's had a taste and it's officially too late for him to go back to being the unattached, utterly unfeeling asshole he used to be.
Of course, these lessons learned and urges felt aren't on the surface. They're deep, hidden, and only just recently even admitted to himself. On the outside he's the same Jan Valentine that he always was, and he'll fight tooth and nail (and fang and gun) to keep people thinking that. He's been reduced to having and wanting friends, but he still has his pride.
Character Plans: First of all, Jan will be delighted to be out of Rivelata. It wasn't a bad place, as far as places to be stuck go, but with all your friends disappearing? A change of pace will make him the happiest guy around. He'll antagonize everyone who lets him and pick as many fights as he can (right up until he realizes that his curse is still in effect, then he'll do lots of fronting), and generally act like an overexcited and incredibly destructive and vulgar puppy. Who wouldn't want that. 8]
Appearance/PB: Icons here!
Writing Samples
First Person Sample
[The video function snaps on immediately, of course. How can Jan resist showing himself off for the whole - whoever's out there to see? The feed catches narrowed golden eyes and a furrowed brow, lasting just until he's convinced it's working right. Then it zooms out for a lovely closeup of an overly-pierced face and a way too wide, way too toothy sort of grin.]
Well, shit! Talk about a goddamn rescue service! What'd I do, finally click my heels together three times at just the right angle, or something? Because as much as I appreciate the save - [The grin twists down into a sudden snarl, fierce and showy.] It took you sorry-ass cuntswabs fucking long enough! Holy fuck, could you've been any slower? I coulda saved my own goddamn ass eighteen times in all the time it took! I -
[He stops suddenly, head twisting around to listen to a blurred voice coming from somewhere off-screen. The scowl turns into a puzzled frown, and he caps the lens with a hand.] Hang on a sec, donkeyfuckers. There's a dude over here, like, begging to get his eyes popped out and eaten. Who'm I to say no, right?
[There's a shifting, scuffling noise as Jan starts over to the speaker, presumably to carry out his distracted threat, and the motion hits some button and ends the feed.]
Third Person Sample
He didn't eat the guy. The greeter. He'd wanted to, stomach empty like it was, and the fucker had certainly been annoying enough to warrant some good old-fashioned gory devouring - but he didn't. Jan didn't want to remind himself of just why the guy had met a happier fate than the one Jan would've picked for him, though. That stupid fucking seal on his neck gave a warning twinge (or at least his irritated mind could've sworn it did) at just the thought of violence, so with a snarl and enough threats to send a grizzly bear looking for a bodyguard, Jan had stalked off the baseball diamond to go and see this city for himself.
Get inside before nighttime. The guy had been pretty adamant on that point, even if Jan had laughed off the reason behind it. Monsters, bro? Dude, bro, I am monsters! It was true, too. Even if he wasn't exactly high in the business of killing people right now, it didn't make him any less. It fucking didn't. He was still Jan Valentine, he still -
What the fuck was that.
Jan stopped dead, long limbs tensed and lanky body half folded in anticipation of - of whatever that was. It hissed, it moaned, and it dragged itself along on skinny, diseased looking forearms. Was it alive? He wasn't real sure. Was it human?
Jan concluded, after a long and careful look, and with slowly-spreading grin, that it wasn't human. And therefor, the terms of his agreement didn't apply to it.
And suddenly showing up in a weird-ass city with a bunch of weird-ass super-powered-whatevers didn't really sound so bad.
Name: Liz
Age: 21
AIM SN: the p0rn nun
email: silkenaracna at gmail dot com
Have you played in an LJ based game before? yes!
Currrently Played Characters: Carrie Kelley
Conditional: Activity Check Link: Here.
Character Information
General
Canon Source: Hellsing
Canon Format: Anime/Manga
Character's Name: Jan Valentine
Character's Age: 79 (Never stated in canon, but if I had to estimate! - and this is assuming he was made a vampire back in WWII at age 23, and counting his two years at Rivelata.)
Conditional: If your character is 13 years of age or under, please clarify how they will be played. n/a
What form will your character's NV take? An average cellphone, with voice and video capabilities and a fold-out qwerty keyboard.
Abilities
Character's Canon Abilities: The chip that makes Jan a vampire increases his speed, stamina and agility as well - but not nearly to the level that the other vampires of Hellsing have. He also can make ghouls of the corpses of people that he kills, which are under his command.
Conditional: If your character has no superhuman canon abilities, what dormant ability will you give them? If it's possible, I'd like Jan to have a vampiric boost, since his own powers aren't all that impressive as they are. He'd be able to heal his body with the help of the shadows that Seras and Alucard use in canon, and once he got the hang of it, willingly dissolve himself into those same shadows. His strength and speed would be a little higher than what they are in canon as well.
Weapons: In canon Jan comes with two semi-automatic P90s, and at Rivelata he picked up a handgun, an old-fashioned pistol (courtesy of a sky pirate), and more neat knives than you can shake a stick at - he'd be pretty pleased to have all that with him still!
History/Personality/Plans/etc.
Character History: In the world of Hellsing, there are vampires and there is Alucard, with a clear divide between the two. Vampires: creatures of the night, violent, mostly single-minded, and without forethought or planning, living just to enjoy the moment. They're a step above humans in strength and agility, and they typically take this as evidence of godhood, as license to rip and tear their way through whatever humans they might encounter. And then there's Alucard, the vampire that takes care of trivial matters like these, and he does it with a shadowy grin and minimal effort.
But eventually there began to come a new breed of vampire, one created to give this vampiric vampire killer, Alucard, a run for his money. Stronger, faster, able to regenerate, unfeeling of pain. Brothers Luke and Jan Valentine were the first two of these introduced in Hellsing. These two, polar opposites to each other despite their relation, were sent to the Hellsing manor with the orders to kill everyone inside, paying special attention to Integra Hellsing herself and her pet Alucard.
Cool-headed and self-possessed Luke descended to the basement to do battle with Alucard, confident that he would be the man's defeat, while hot-headed and excitable Jan (and his moaning, hungry army) took on the Hellsing soldiers to work their way toward Integra. Jan took care of the soldiers that opposed him, gleefully killing them all and turning them into ghouls to be part of his invading army. He took his time actually finding Integra though, preferring to stop along the way to enjoy bits of her wealth. He complained of the class segregation in England as he enjoyed one of her fine cigars, hinting that he was on the less fortunate side of the divide. But discovery of Integra's showy display of wealth seemed to give him renewed vigor, and he marched towards her location deciding, very loudly, to fuck her, shoot her in the head, and fuck her there too.
Walter and Seras were his first real obstacle, and he took to the challenge presented by them with nothing short of utter delight. He watched with alternating amazement and maniac joy as Walter made short work of his ghouls, and the proceeded to start on Jan himself. Jan managed to make it to the end of the hallway and fling open the door to the room in which Integra had been holding her meeting (at the expensive of one of his arms, lost to Walter's wires), only to find thirteen pistols leveled at him.
But even that wasn't too much a damper on his general delight, and as he slumped against the far wall, full of holes and leaking blood from everywhere, his laughter and vulgarity carried through to the end. He knew perfectly well that he'd failed the mission he'd been given, and that he was certainly going to die (by Walter's capable hands after a few rounds of torture, if not more quickly and immediately by his superiors themselves), and didn't seem particularly bothered by it. He had, after all, had one hell of a good time wrecking up the place. He gave Integra the clue Millennium as his superiors activated the self-destruct of the chip responsible for his vampiric nature and burned him to death.
Point in Canon: Just after being burned to death.
Conditional: Brief summary of previous RP history: The strangest thing happened to Jan when he showed up on the island of Rivelata. After bumming around for half a year, generally making a huge nuisance of himself and getting into fights whenever possible… he started making friends. It was weird, and he wasn't entirely comfortable with it. Sure, there were plenty of people ripe for trolling, of which he did plenty, but he started actually liking some of them. One of the first of them was Karin Maaka, a coworker of his at Junkhouse Ramen. He teased her mercilessly and constantly propositioned her for sex, as you do, only she never got mad at him. All he could make her do was freak out, blush, and apologize. It was weird. Eventually he started getting a little protective of her, figuring he was the only one allowed to make her freak out, blush, and apologize. He'd deny ever liking her at all fiercely, of course, but it was there. And it was strange.
The second strange encounter was with Dick Grayson (Nightwing). After learning that Jan was definitely not going to give up attacking people for dinner, and wasn't fond of drinking from the pseudo-blood fountain that the gods had provided out in the jungle for vampires, Dick decided to offer himself. Anything to stop a vampire from attacking people, apparently. Jan took him up on the offer with loads and loads of hesitation - it was a kindness he absolutely couldn't explain or understand, and it made him uncomfortable. Around the same time, one by one Jan's bosses and coworkers started going home, and he and Karin were eventually left in charge of the ramenhouse themselves. After both trying to run that, and putting up with the strange altruism from Dick, and a weirdly comfortable camaraderie from Lyle Dylandy, Jan decided to go back to his roots. (He had at least one friendship mixed into this bunch that was more comfortable and familiar to him - he'd befriended a violent and vulgar pirate woman, Apollo, mostly because she'd reminded him of the sorts of men he'd spend time around as a mercenary.) So he ate someone over the journal, rubbed it in about what a viscous and cruel killer he was, and took off the live in the jungle instead.
It was about then that Jan had his first significant run-in with Rivelata's resident Robin - Tim Drake. The fight ended with Jan tied up and hanging over that blood fountain in the jungle that he'd so scorned, and all of Rivelata free to have a chuckle at his expense. He couldn't entirely hate Robin for it, though. Because, well, the kid had kicked his ass and earned it. But he'd still go for the throat at any chance he got. It was around then, with Jan licking his wounds and nursing his pride, that he had another significant encounter with someone he'd so far only considered an acquaintance. Earlier on in his stay on the island, he'd slept with one of the natives to the world, Ba'astkioni Ijaba, who was of course drunk at the time. Ever after she'd maintained that Jan was a horrible disgusting mistake, and she'd never do it again, and that was pretty much fine with Jan. She hated him - lots of people did. No loss there. Only, she kept talking to him, very nearly wouldn't leave him alone, which was a little puzzling. An unfortunate adventure got the two lost in the jungle together, where Ba'ast pointed out that she actually rather liked Jan. She was just an abrasive and insulting person. With that revelation in mind, the two became friends. They'd very likely have become friends with benefits, but since sleeping with him, Ba'ast had started a relationship with Edward Elric.
Meanwhile, Jan and Dick (as Nightwing) had kept up an antagonistic relationship right up until Dick left the island, although it was one that drifted slowly closer and closer to something like a truce. Nightwing would find Jan stalking people, considering eating them, they'd fight for a while, and Jan would give up and resort to making fun of him instead of fighting him. It was a time like this that lead to Jan discovering that Nightwing was Dick, and due to some strange sense of loyalty for his sort-of-not-really friend, he kept the secret.
Events lead Dick to take the wrap for someone else's crime, and he ended up in the city prison. Jan, who had slowly been drifting back to behaving rather well and even holding a (sort of) steady job at a bookstore (never let it be said that Basch von Rosenburg is an impatient man - many of his books met an undignified fate at the end of Jan's permanent marker and crude dick-drawing skills), got a little caught up in an altercation that Roy Harper, under the influence of War's special warlike vibes, started in the city. Jan tore a townsman's throat out and promptly blamed his death on Roy, who'd started the whole fight. The incident sparked under-the-surface hostilities between the Natives and the Off-Worlders, with Roy taking the brunt of them. Eventually the truth was out though, and Roy, Basch, and a few others arrived to take Jan in. Jan was entirely prepared to fight the lot of them (and oh what fun it would be!) until he saw that Basch was among their numbers. Basch, the eternally patient, who was willing to put up with him as an employee no matter how annoying he got. Jan gave in then, and allowed himself to be taken to jail. But, hey, at least he had Dick/Nightwing for company.
He was in the jail for about a month before Dick took a trip home (and while he was incarcerated, both Karin and Basch disappeared from the island). Jan watched as Dick struck up a deal with one of the local gods, who sent him home to live a little while longer in Gotham. When he showed up again, he reappeared conveniently out of the jail. And, coincidentally, he'd gone and taken up the Batcowl at home, leaving Jan babysitting the Nightwing suit that he'd been wearing in the jail. Jan never got a chance to hand it back before Dick went home for good. But, before that final disappearance of Dick's, a few months down the road, Jan was stuck in the jail right up until the King of Rivelata himself paid him a visit. It was here that the biggest change found Jan. Or, more accurately, was forced onto him. The king placed a seal on Jan, making it so whatever damage he inflicted on another person would be dealt to him. If he bites someone's throat, a wound opens in his own. If he kills someone, he's dead. Jan, drunk on freedom after being locked away for so long, didn't realize until later what a colossally limiting thing that was. He also didn't count on feeling, as a vampire that couldn't hurt anyone, a little like he'd been neutered. So he kept the fact of his curse to himself, hid it as much as he could, and only told people when they owed him something and he thought there was a chance they might be able to break it. It was around here that Apollo left the island, stealing yet another of his friends and sinking his mood even lower.
The second encounter of significance with Robin came during a masquerade ball. They met at the party, issued a few challenges to one another (Jan pretending the entire time that he actually could carry them out if he wanted), and it was so reminiscent of old time's sake, back when he'd had more friends around, that he decided to do something nice for Robin. Dick had recently gone home by this point. Jan led Robin to the ramenhouse, fallen into disrepair since Karin had left Rivelata, and gave him the Nightwing suit he'd stashed there. Nightwing and Robin had been better friends than Nightwing and Jan, after all, right? It seemed right. Robin departed with it and, after a strangely empathetic sadness shared between them, an uncomfortable truce between the two.
In the year or so that it'd been since Roy had, roundaboutly, got him thrown into the jail, Jan had decided that he wasn't really so bad either. He hated him, sure, but he was losing more and more friends and familiarity, and he preferred to have an antagonistic force in his life than nothing. It turned into a sort of rivalry, and eventually the two challenged each other to a race. A race to see whether or not there was anything out there, past the rocky barrier that had so far blocked sea travel from Rivelata. So Roy commissioned a boat, Ba'ast built Jan a boat, and the race was on. Of course, at the last minute, Roy stayed behind to stop Sylar from going along with the group and taking his pick of people with abilities, and Jan was left to grudgingly carry the race out himself. After a week of travel (spent getting to know Ba'ast's newest boyfriend, and slowly deciding to like him - even if his presence meant that Jan still couldn't have a friendship with benefits with Ba'ast - landed them on a local goddess's vacation island, while back home a different god was mounting an attack against the entire island. They've managed to seal the attacking god away by the time Jan and the others make it back to the island as reinforcements, but Roy is accidentally sealed away at the same time. And, of course, Robin has sailed away with two of his friends rather than head back to Rivelata, and Lyle had gone and vanished while Jan was away, so there went three more sort-of-friends for Jan.
His last action on the island after making it back to find he was down yet another friend, was to reopen the empty ramenhouse. It was a last ditch attempt to make connections, like he used to have. As weird as it'd been to make actual friends, it was even stranger to have them dropping like flies and be unaccountably lonely for it.
Character Personality: Jan Valentine is vulgar. If he hasn't described something using the word 'fucking' in at least the last ten seconds, then he's not doing it right. He's loud, he says exactly what he thinks, and the devil may care if he's going to offend someone with it. In fact, it's probably going to be more amusing if someone is offended, so why not aim for the top? Insults are flung as casually as greetings. Murder, cannibalism, skull fucking -- none of these are topics that he spares, all get their time in the limelight.
He's also nearly the exact opposite of his brother, Luke Valentine. Luke is a carefully maintained dandy, controlled and calm and well-mannered, dressed perfectly and with his long, blond hair tied neatly back. Meanwhile Jan is a carefully maintained asshole, face full of piercings and manners loud and crass. He's talkative to the point that he needs only his own vocal chords to keep amused, rude enough to drive away a saint, blunt enough to make a sailor blush, and not to mention almost completely self-serving.
Aside from to his brother, Jan knows no real loyalty, and his main drive is generally only to create mayhem and provide himself some with some amusement. It's fine by him if he cheats a bit, bends the rules a little, it's all for the sake of the game. And the only real winner will be, of course, himself -- and whoever took it upon themselves to aim his destructiveness in a desired direction. But while he loves mowing down innocents, if he finds an actual challenge he doesn't get angry, he isn't afraid, and he's certainly not resentful to find himself being potentially torn to pieces; instead he absolutely loves the idea of a real fight, and will laugh himself hoarse even as he's losing limbs and finding holes shot through his body.
But despite his lust for chaos and generally destructive fun, Jan does knows how to keep an operation under control. He can follow orders and he won't lose his head and forget himself in the heat of battle, be it the high of victory or the gut-twisting knowledge of looming defeat. Jan Valentine is, in short, a good soldier, provided he was given enough incentive to pick a side and stay on it.
Conditional: Personality development in previous game: Although he's struggled not to change, and to keep true to the asshole he started out as, Jan hasn't been entirely resistant to change at Rivelata. It started in small, subtle ways. His experiences with Dick offering up a meal of his own blood, for example, teaching him that some people really don't have ulterior motives - or don't, weirdly enough, do things just to fuck with other people. A strange lesson, but it was absorbed nonetheless. Secondly he learned that you can struggle against someone without actually needing to beat them. This one came from his antagonistic relationship with Robin, kicked off with public humiliation and cemented with a quiet gift and a little shared sorrow. He wouldn't call Robin a friend, not by any stretch of the imagination, and he'd rather fight him than hang out with him. But he still liked the kid. The third lesson came from Dick as well - this one being that it really is okay to simply like people. He and Dick had almost nothing in common, from hobbies to moral stances. But, somehow, he'd come to genuinely like the guy. Dick was the first to teach Jan this lesson, but a number of other people reinforced it. A number of other people, it should be pointed out, almost all of which disappeared on him.
Jan's still pretty uncomfortable with putting these lessons to use. Liking people is weird enough on its own, but it also means they're going to eventually leave, and if you like them too much it means you're going to be lonely. He doesn't like that part much. Loneliness had always been a sign of weakness for him, and it still is, but he's not sure how to avoid that part. Unexpectedly liking so many people has left him open to liking more in the future, but the realization that loneliness (and, even worse and even weaker - sadness) follows that makes him feel uncomfortable with himself.
Jan is very much in a state of confusion, in this regard. He's changing, no matter how much he doesn't want to, but he hasn't solidified into any particular final result. He knows that it's okay to like other people, but he doesn't want to. He knows he probably will like other people, and he knows how good it feels to like them. But he still doesn't want to. Even worse, once all of his friends have disappeared and he's suffering full effects of the exact reason he'd been resistant to get close to them in the first place (loneliness, sadness), he wants to reconnect with people and get those good feelings back. It's a terrible idea, it's weak of him, and it's stupid. But he's had a taste and it's officially too late for him to go back to being the unattached, utterly unfeeling asshole he used to be.
Of course, these lessons learned and urges felt aren't on the surface. They're deep, hidden, and only just recently even admitted to himself. On the outside he's the same Jan Valentine that he always was, and he'll fight tooth and nail (and fang and gun) to keep people thinking that. He's been reduced to having and wanting friends, but he still has his pride.
Character Plans: First of all, Jan will be delighted to be out of Rivelata. It wasn't a bad place, as far as places to be stuck go, but with all your friends disappearing? A change of pace will make him the happiest guy around. He'll antagonize everyone who lets him and pick as many fights as he can (right up until he realizes that his curse is still in effect, then he'll do lots of fronting), and generally act like an overexcited and incredibly destructive and vulgar puppy. Who wouldn't want that. 8]
Appearance/PB: Icons here!
Writing Samples
First Person Sample
[The video function snaps on immediately, of course. How can Jan resist showing himself off for the whole - whoever's out there to see? The feed catches narrowed golden eyes and a furrowed brow, lasting just until he's convinced it's working right. Then it zooms out for a lovely closeup of an overly-pierced face and a way too wide, way too toothy sort of grin.]
Well, shit! Talk about a goddamn rescue service! What'd I do, finally click my heels together three times at just the right angle, or something? Because as much as I appreciate the save - [The grin twists down into a sudden snarl, fierce and showy.] It took you sorry-ass cuntswabs fucking long enough! Holy fuck, could you've been any slower? I coulda saved my own goddamn ass eighteen times in all the time it took! I -
[He stops suddenly, head twisting around to listen to a blurred voice coming from somewhere off-screen. The scowl turns into a puzzled frown, and he caps the lens with a hand.] Hang on a sec, donkeyfuckers. There's a dude over here, like, begging to get his eyes popped out and eaten. Who'm I to say no, right?
[There's a shifting, scuffling noise as Jan starts over to the speaker, presumably to carry out his distracted threat, and the motion hits some button and ends the feed.]
Third Person Sample
He didn't eat the guy. The greeter. He'd wanted to, stomach empty like it was, and the fucker had certainly been annoying enough to warrant some good old-fashioned gory devouring - but he didn't. Jan didn't want to remind himself of just why the guy had met a happier fate than the one Jan would've picked for him, though. That stupid fucking seal on his neck gave a warning twinge (or at least his irritated mind could've sworn it did) at just the thought of violence, so with a snarl and enough threats to send a grizzly bear looking for a bodyguard, Jan had stalked off the baseball diamond to go and see this city for himself.
Get inside before nighttime. The guy had been pretty adamant on that point, even if Jan had laughed off the reason behind it. Monsters, bro? Dude, bro, I am monsters! It was true, too. Even if he wasn't exactly high in the business of killing people right now, it didn't make him any less. It fucking didn't. He was still Jan Valentine, he still -
What the fuck was that.
Jan stopped dead, long limbs tensed and lanky body half folded in anticipation of - of whatever that was. It hissed, it moaned, and it dragged itself along on skinny, diseased looking forearms. Was it alive? He wasn't real sure. Was it human?
Jan concluded, after a long and careful look, and with slowly-spreading grin, that it wasn't human. And therefor, the terms of his agreement didn't apply to it.
And suddenly showing up in a weird-ass city with a bunch of weird-ass super-powered-whatevers didn't really sound so bad.