Jack's Survey'O'Doom
[
Body and Appearance
1. Describe the character's height and build. Is he heavyset, thin, short, rangy? Jack is tall and thin, very active although probably not that muscled/athletic - human perpetual motion machine often yes, but not much for hard exercise.
2. How old is he? 25! He’s probably a matter of months before the Tragedy, and ‘acting his age’ will probably never be fully in his vocabulary.
3. Describe his posture. Does he carry himself well or does he slouch? He keeps pretty decent posture - he’d have probably caught hell as a kid if he slouched even if he WAS the third son they tended to forget about.
4. How is his health? Is he fit or out of shape? Any illnesses or conditions? Any physical disabilities? Jack’s in good health, active and fit if not incredibly athletic, and doesn’t seem to have any health issues.
5. How does he move? Is he clumsy, graceful, tense, fluid? Think ferret. He can be very graceful when he really, really wants, but most of the time it’s more flittering around here to there, up trees, over fences, and oh hey is that a bird?
6. How attractive is this character physically? How does he perceive himself in the mirror? As much as that hair alone has to take a lot of fussing over, he’s not really insufferable about it - he keeps himself up well and certainly has no esteem issues, but he’s easily distracted from being too much of a peacock - and he does do pretty well as a pretty-boy without hitting “mistaken for a girl”. He also doesn’t seem to care if he does something that messes up his clothes, either.
7. Describe his complexion. Dark, light, clear, scarred? Light and clear, and if he goes without sun for a while and then wanders back into it he roasts like a lobster.
8. Describe his hair: color, texture, style. Golden blonde and long. Really long. Really, really long. “How the Hell do you even?” long. It’s normally in a braid that goes almost to his ankles.
9. What color are his eyes? Bright green.
10. Does the character have any other noteworthy features? His ears are pierced; he usually wears a pair of green-stone drop earrings.
11. What are his chief tension centers? Tension centers? What’re those? What he does collect currently probably would mostly center around his hands and wrists from doing fine mechanical work.
12. What is the character's wardrobe like? Casual, dressy, utilitarian? Bright colors, pastels, neutrals? Is it varied, or does he have six of the same suit? Dressy, bright greens and bits of gold, even once he adjusts to modern styles he’ll probably err more on the “archaic” side most of the time.
13. Do his clothes fit well? Does he seem comfortable in them? What he’s arriving in was custom tailored, and as much as he dresses WELL he’d be very unhappy wearing anything restrictive.
14. Does he dress the same on the job as he does in his free time? If not, what are the differences? Technically speaking he doesn’t really have a job - he pitches in on the family business once in a while, but that’s just a matter of “dressing down” a little and leaving off jacket and more fragile things.
15. You knew it was coming: Boxers, briefs or commando? I think boxers, I’m not getting much answer out of him.
Speech
1. What does this character's voice sound like? High-pitched, deep, hoarse? He has a smooth voice, about middling-tenor range. And yes, he can carry a tune/sing decently; he’s pretty musically inclined and used to humming/singing to check melody if he’s trying to transcribe something to sheet music.
2. How does he normally speak? Loud, soft, fast, evenly? Does he talk easily, or does he hesitate? He’s fairly articulate, although it’s pretty easy to read his mood and all, and he does talk faster when he’s excited.
3. Does the character have a distinct accent or dialect? Any individual quirks of pronunciation? Any, like, you know, verbal tics? Noble-raised, even if a lower-nobility family; he’s not likely to swear, although he’s prone to “semiformal/less formal”.
4. What language/s does he speak, and with how much fluency? Going by place-names, I’d be guessing some kind of French-derivative; it’s hard to tell.
5. Does he switch languages or dialects in certain situations? Not something that’s ever come up; depending on linguistics that aren’t covered in canon, he might’ve picked up a little from Arthur Barma, but not much.
6. Is he a good impromptu speaker, or does he have to think about his words? Oh, he’s a perfectly good impromptu speaker, particularly if there’s something important.
7. Is he eloquent or inarticulate? Under what circumstances might this change? He’s usually perfectly eloquent, albeit in a casual-semiformal and sometimes fast-talk way; get him flustered or thrown off guard enough and he’ll trip over things, but he recovers fast and adapts to a lot of things pretty easily.
Mental and Emotional
1. How intelligent is this character? Is he book-smart or street-smart? He’s more intelligent than he thinks; he might not often put time into thinking hard about situations, and wouldn’t think of himself as someone you’d go to in order to solve puzzles or mysteries, but he learns fast, absorbs information well, picks up skills fast, and given a problem is good at figuring out ways around it, as long as he’s actually acknowledging that it needs solved.
2. Does he think on his feet, or does he need time to deliberate? He thinks on his feet. This is assuming he’s actually thinking things through, which doesn’t always happen!
3. Describe the character's thought process. Is he more logical, or more intuitive? Idealistic or practical? Intuitive/Idealistic, all the way. He’s got a perfectly good memory and all, but his thought process tends to bounce around like a kitten in a room full of toys; unless he has a reason to focus, he’ll be off looking at this over here, and oh hey there’s flowers here, and oh look! A shiny thing!
4. What kind of education has the character had? Private tutors; he’s pretty well-educated, although he probably hasn’t bothered to remember a lot of the less relevant/interesting parts.
5. What are his areas of expertise? What, if anything, is he interested in learning more about? Music boxes, clockwork, fine pre-electronic/non-industrial machinery! He can make music boxes, pocketwatches, and such very well. Since the family focus is on musicboxes, he’s quite comfortable with sheet music and musical theory. He’s also pretty familiar with flowers and plants, and perfectly comfortable with courtly manners, chivalry, dancing, etc., as well as swordsmanship - granted he’s mostly learned that as an exercise in “standard training for someone of his standing”. He’ll pick up bits of information on just about anything, but it’s fairly rarely that he’ll have the attention span for more than trivia.
6. Is he an introvert or an extrovert? Extrovert. He loves people.
7. Describe the character's temperament. Is he even-tempered or does he have mood swings? Cheerful or melancholy? Laid-back or driven? Jack is a very even-tempered perpetual motion machine - as energetic as he is, he’s very relaxed, laid-back, and cheerful; it’s difficult to put any kind of a dent or damper on his mood, and even if you do give him something to be upset or what passes for angry about, it passes pretty quickly.
8. How does he respond to new people or situations? Is he suspicious, relaxed, timid, enthusiastic? Calm and enthusiastic - it’s hard to really daunt him; he likes people and will fluff at and be friendly toward just about anyone unless they seriously do something horrible to get on his incredibly small bad side, and he loves going out exploring, climbing trees, poking in caves and old towers, and generally getting in trouble.
9. Is he more likely to act, or to react? If it involves seeking people out or investigating something new, then he’ll be the one acting; when it comes to actual conflicts, he’s more likely to react or try to redirect and smooth things over.
10. Which is his default: fight or flight? Flight - he has to be pushed pretty hard or have something very important behind him to flip that into “fight”.
11. Describe the character's sense of humor. Does he appreciate jokes? Puns? Gallows humor? Bathroom humor? Pranks? Pranks and dorkery! He’s very light-hearted and easily amused by fairly simple things and absurdities - catching Glen with little birds resting on him was worth a lot of amusement. He’s less comfortable with dark or crude humor.
12. Does the character have any diagnosable mental disorders? If yes, how does he deal with them? Nothing that’d be a disorder, unless being innocent to a fault counts. He’s pretty happy and comfortable with his life, even though he tends to think of himself as a little on the “useless debutante” side, but he’s content to typically make up for that by trying to make people happy, especially ones that seem to be more closed in or worse off.
13. What moments in this character's life have defined him as a person? One of the defining moments so far is a relative lack thereof; he hasn’t had any real serious challenges or conflicts to deal with. The three biggest things that’ve directed what he’s doing with himself all have to do with others. The first was his family taking in Gilbert and Vincent as “curiosities” thanks to the superstitions around Vincent’s red eye; instead of treating them as some kind of sideshow, Jack claimed them as his servants, which really seems to’ve been a pretense for adopting them without a lot of conflict with the societal standards and his family. He’s been fussing over them and taking care of them since. The second was blundering into the Baskerville compound and meeting Glen; as much as Glen was already lost in a lot of ways, Jack did grasp how unusual it was for Glen to start opening up, and considered that something incredibly valuable, enough to sometimes spend more time around the Baskerville household than his own. The third was meeting Alice in the tower - which pretty well cemented that the purpose he would’ve chosen for his life would be “taking in strays and trying to make them happy”.
14. What does he fear? Losing the people he cares about. He hates seeing anyone hurt, but losing Glen, Alice, Vincent, or Gil would pretty much break him. Other than that, not much; his reaction to being shown Humpty Dumpty, a fairly disturbing looking chain, was awe and wonder instead of terror, he adopted Vincent in spite of the superstitions about red eyes, and he’s gone flouncing straight into the compound of the “Keepers of the Abyss” and “Gods of Death” to go flirt with the maids and fluff at the head of the House. He doesn't seem to even have the little instinct-trigger to react to something as “potentially dangerous” or be afraid of things.
15. What are his hopes or aspirations? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Not bloody much. There’s a lot of things he’d like to maintain the way they are; he’d like to get Alice out of the tower more so she can see the world, he’d like for Gil and Vincent to get to grow up happy and have a good life, and he’d like to see Glen smile more. As far as his own life, he’s pretty adjusted to the idea that he’s going to coast through things while the rest of the family deals with the main part of the business and gets the big inheritance and responsibilities.
16. What is something he doesn't want anyone to find out about him? Se-krits? What are those?
Relationships
1. Describe this character's relationship with his parents. Distant. His parents were a bit more concerned with running the business and the household, and trying to advance the house’s standing; as a third son, he wasn’t exactly worth much besides an extra set of hands and maybe an opening for some kind of political marriage. They weren’t hostile, but they weren’t exactly around much either, leaving him raised mostly by servants, tutors, siblings, and whoever happened to be around. He doesn't know them very well, but they've been perfectly kind and caring towards him.
2. Does the character have any siblings? What is/was their relationship like? Two older brothers - and as much as I did list them on the above question, his oldest brother was mostly absorbed in preparing to take over as head of the household, while the other brother was more involved in the socialite aspect trying to help raise the house’s rank; his relative lack of any real purpose or ambition that they could find pretty much left him out of the loop a lot. He didn’t get along BADLY with them - to the contrary, he's usually gotten along with them quite well - they just didn’t associate a whole lot outside of family gatherings.
3. Are there other blood relatives to whom he is close? Are there ones he can't stand? He doesn’t seem to have any close ties within his house, but none of them are sour enough for him to’ve had any real experience with the uglier side of human nature; the relationship with the family is basically one of distant, friendly congeniality. He hasn’t distinguished himself, but neither has he really tarnished the family name or gone off on spending binges, he does try to help out, and he's pleasant to have around.
4. Are there other, unrelated people whom he considers part of his family? What are his relationships with them? As much as he refers to Vincent and Gilbert as servants, he’s basically adopted them. He might be a little clueless of a parental figure sometimes, but he’s trying, and he does care about them deeply. His relationship with Alice is close to that, although a little less parental in tone.
5. Who is/was the character's best friend? How did they meet? GLEN. How they met isn’t canon-established, but I suspect Jack was somewhere he wasn’t supposed to be and saw someone who looked sort of cloud of gloom ish and just …wandered up and started chattering and fussing over.
6. Does he have other close friends? He does have a few friends among the other noble houses that’re around his age - Raymond Nightray is known, as is Arthur and Miranda Barma, and one could easily assume the Rainsworth ancestor was among that as well. Of course, Miranda counting as a friend seems to’ve been pretty one-sided since she was busy manipulating Gil and Vincent behind his back, and he was fairly close with Raymond.
7. Does he make friends easily, or does he have trouble getting along with people? He loves everyone. Generally, the main obstacle to him being ~friends with everyone~ is people’s patience with his occasionally scattered attention span and whether or not they realize that the fluffy friendly thing is genuine.
8. Which does he consider more important: family or friends? He definitely seems closer to his friends than his family.
9. Is the character single, married, divorced, widowed? Has he been married more than once? Single, hasn’t been married, no sign that he’s had a relationship beyond flirting where he’s used to getting shot down a lot.
10. Is he currently in a romantic relationship with someone other than a spouse? Does paleshipping count? (Trans: No, not really.)
11. Who was his first crush? Who is his latest? I don't think he has had a real crush; he flirts easily, but doesn't seem to invest much in it, and there's no sense that he's ever gotten that far or been that perturbed when things didn't work out.
12. What does he look for in a romantic partner? I'm not sure he's seriously thought about this one! Although most likely for a solid long-term relationship it'd end up being someone stable enough to counterbalance his own flightiness and lack of foresight, but otherwise loose enough to enjoy following along on his random whims and appreciate/share his whole “sense of wonder” reaction to most things.
13. Does the character have children? Grandchildren? If yes, how does he relate to them? If no, does he want any? Wrong canon point, come back later! Although seriously, given the timing on things and the lack of any sign of a stable romantic interest as of Sablier, odds are good that Oz isn't a direct descendent - the family line probably passed down through his brothers. The closest he has are Gil and Vincent, where he certainly tries and is doing what he can to give them a happy and safe life, but he's a little flighty and inattentive to be entirely good at it; Gil definitely seems to have picked up on it and appreciates it enough to be very loyal and devoted, and Vincent as of his canon-point is at least partly opened up and trusting him somewhat, although Jack's close relationship with Glen and what Vincent knows about Glen probably tarnishes that a little.
14. Does he have any rivals or enemies? This question confuses the Jackfluff.
15. What is the character's sexual orientation? Where does he fall on the Kinsey scale? 1, maybe - he’s pretty straight. A guy he got along with well enough hitting on him probably wouldn’t get a violent negative reaction, but there’d be a lot of flailing, floundering, and confusion.
16. How does he feel about sex? How important is it to him? It’s there, he’s certainly aware of it, I don’t think he’d have a problem if one of his flirting streaks actually got somewhere, but neither does it seem to be any kind of real priority.
17. What are his turn-ons? Turn-offs? Weird bedroom habits? Uh. God. I'll say here that I'm pretty sure he IS still a virgin, and I'm not sure he's ever seriously thought about what to do if he does, one day, succeed with one of his flirts; he's likely to be one of the most horribly affectionate and tooth-rotting/romantic lovers ever, and pretty easily drawn to a lot of the classical ideas of romance - flowers, candlelight, sweets, open starry skies, etc.; a lot of what would fall under “weird bedroom habits” would … probably confuse him, and some of it might manage to spook him, although the range from “???? eh?” to “... O.o; ….uh...hm. Edging away now/not that interested suddenly” would probably highly depend on who it was, how close he was with them, and how out there it was. Pain definitely does register asa turn-off/”this does not belong here”.
Beliefs
1. Do you know your character's astrological (zodiac of choice) sign? How well does he fit type? His birthdate is entirely headcanon, forewarning, and his world isn’t Earth so it may not apply - and has him as a Pisces/Water Rat, which he pretty well is… Emotional, much more grounded in dreams and ideals than reality, adaptable, clever, and with a high value on friends and family.
2. Is this character religious, spiritual, both, or neither? How important are these elements in his life? His best buddy is the head of the keepers of the Gates of the Abyss. I’m not sure he entirely processes the implications of this, and it seems to be handled much more in a “And this happened/is what’s going on here” than any kind of big mystical underpinnings; he’s curious but from some of his comments in this part of his canon, a chunk of it sorta goes completely over his head. He's aware of it, but it's in a very “part of his world” sense, not a “big religious meaning” sense.
3. Does this character have a personal code of morals or ethics? If so, how did that begin? What would it take to compromise it? He does, but it's not very well formed yet; a lot of it's a sort of hazy notion of chivalry and Romantic standards. He doesn't like seeing people hurt or suffering, likes seeing people happy, and tries to work towards that, and does believe in trying to protect and help the weaker and less fortunate, as well as a strong sense of loyalty to friends and those he cares about. He basically grew up with it; some of it probably came from tutors, stories, and him actually taking seriously chivalry, noblesse oblige, and courtly manners, and then grew out of his own tendencies from there. As for compromising it … even his loyalty to his closest friends can't manage that one; he hates conflict and will try every other avenue possible to avoid it, but, well Sablier and his future has him taking up a sword against Glen for this.
4. How does he regard beliefs that differ from his? Is he tolerant, intolerant, curious, indifferent? Tolerant and curious; as malleable and loose as his beliefs are, about the only thing he'd react negatively to would be things like the legend about “people with red eyes bring disaster” and that being used as an excuse to abuse others.
5. What prejudices does he hold? Are they irrational or does he have a good reason for them? Uh. If you hurt kids you'll piss him off?
Daily Life
1. What is the character's financial situation? Is he rich, poor, comfortable, in debt? His family may be lower nobility, but they are nobility; he's decently well off.
2. What is his social status? Has this changed over time, and if so, how has the change affected him? Again, nobility, low enough to not be that invested in politics, and third son so he's not a big issue for marriage/succession; it's been pretty constant, so he's pretty secure and stable in his situation.
3. Where does he live? House, apartment, trailer? Is his home his castle or just a place to crash? What condition is it in? Does he share it with others? From the sound of things the Vessalius family probably does have more than one home as of his canon-point, if barely; not really more than a home in the city where everything is, and a home in the country that happens to not be far from one of the Baskerville households. He flits back and forth between them, although of late he's more often at the country estate hopping over to the Baskerville estate to pester Glen and fluff over Alice; it's getting a little hard to tell which household he actually lives at.
4. Besides the basic necessities, what does he spend his money on? He does definitely have a wardrobe enough to look good most of the time, and a fondness for flowers and gardens, although he's not the one mainly responsible for the roses and other gardens on his family grounds; he's familiar with theatre and opera, some of it goes towards material for musicboxes and things like the pocketwatch, and he does have some jewelry. Still, gifts for friends and keepsakes probably end up taking a higher priority when they come up.
5. What does he do for a living? Is he good at it? Does he enjoy it, or would he rather be doing something else? He makes music boxes; he's not the main breadwinner for the family, so he's not at it constantly, but he's very good at it - the pocketwatch/music box he carries is an incredibly complicated piece of work as such things go, and as flighty as he is, he does enjoy the work enough to volunteer it for personal things and gifts.
6. What are his interests or hobbies? How does he spend his free time? Flowers, spending time in the gardens, music, folklore and stories, also sleight of hand and similar performing arts; his free time is often split between the above and practicing things, and being out of the house, enjoying the outdoors, exploring, and especially all of the above while spending time with friends and/or going visiting.
7. What are his eating habits? Does he skip meals, eat out, drink alcohol, avoid certain foods? He eats fairly well, although he couldn't cook to save his life; if there isn't something keeping a set schedule, his mealtimes are a little random - he won't forget to eat for periods long enough to threaten his health, but he can be distracted into forgetting meals. He has a definite preference for sweets, but there isn't really anything that he avoids, and he'd try pretty much anything once as long as it wasn't utterly abhorrent. As for alcohol, he's basically casual/social; glass of wine with a nice dinner or having a few drinks when out on the town or having an evening with siblings/friends. He doesn't really drink a large amount much; his tolerance is somewhat mediocre, and he gets pretty vicious hangovers when he overdoes it.
Associations
Which of the following do you associate with the character, or which is his favorite:
1. Color? Green and blue.
2. Smell? Roses, climbing flowers
3. Time of day? Afternoon
4. Season? Summer
5. Book? (Alice in Wonderland) His favorite books are probably something heroic/romantic fantasy and faerie tales.
6. Music? Classical, folk/filk, traditional, bouncy pop
7. Place? Gardens and festival-markets!
8. Substance? Gold and silver
9. Plant? Zinnia, Amaranth, Daisy, Forget-me-Not
10. Animal? Rabbit, songbirds
END
{{ Get the HTML here so you can do it yourself. }}
Body and Appearance
1. Describe the character's height and build. Is he heavyset, thin, short, rangy? Jack is tall and thin, very active although probably not that muscled/athletic - human perpetual motion machine often yes, but not much for hard exercise.
2. How old is he? 25! He’s probably a matter of months before the Tragedy, and ‘acting his age’ will probably never be fully in his vocabulary.
3. Describe his posture. Does he carry himself well or does he slouch? He keeps pretty decent posture - he’d have probably caught hell as a kid if he slouched even if he WAS the third son they tended to forget about.
4. How is his health? Is he fit or out of shape? Any illnesses or conditions? Any physical disabilities? Jack’s in good health, active and fit if not incredibly athletic, and doesn’t seem to have any health issues.
5. How does he move? Is he clumsy, graceful, tense, fluid? Think ferret. He can be very graceful when he really, really wants, but most of the time it’s more flittering around here to there, up trees, over fences, and oh hey is that a bird?
6. How attractive is this character physically? How does he perceive himself in the mirror? As much as that hair alone has to take a lot of fussing over, he’s not really insufferable about it - he keeps himself up well and certainly has no esteem issues, but he’s easily distracted from being too much of a peacock - and he does do pretty well as a pretty-boy without hitting “mistaken for a girl”. He also doesn’t seem to care if he does something that messes up his clothes, either.
7. Describe his complexion. Dark, light, clear, scarred? Light and clear, and if he goes without sun for a while and then wanders back into it he roasts like a lobster.
8. Describe his hair: color, texture, style. Golden blonde and long. Really long. Really, really long. “How the Hell do you even?” long. It’s normally in a braid that goes almost to his ankles.
9. What color are his eyes? Bright green.
10. Does the character have any other noteworthy features? His ears are pierced; he usually wears a pair of green-stone drop earrings.
11. What are his chief tension centers? Tension centers? What’re those? What he does collect currently probably would mostly center around his hands and wrists from doing fine mechanical work.
12. What is the character's wardrobe like? Casual, dressy, utilitarian? Bright colors, pastels, neutrals? Is it varied, or does he have six of the same suit? Dressy, bright greens and bits of gold, even once he adjusts to modern styles he’ll probably err more on the “archaic” side most of the time.
13. Do his clothes fit well? Does he seem comfortable in them? What he’s arriving in was custom tailored, and as much as he dresses WELL he’d be very unhappy wearing anything restrictive.
14. Does he dress the same on the job as he does in his free time? If not, what are the differences? Technically speaking he doesn’t really have a job - he pitches in on the family business once in a while, but that’s just a matter of “dressing down” a little and leaving off jacket and more fragile things.
15. You knew it was coming: Boxers, briefs or commando? I think boxers, I’m not getting much answer out of him.
Speech
1. What does this character's voice sound like? High-pitched, deep, hoarse? He has a smooth voice, about middling-tenor range. And yes, he can carry a tune/sing decently; he’s pretty musically inclined and used to humming/singing to check melody if he’s trying to transcribe something to sheet music.
2. How does he normally speak? Loud, soft, fast, evenly? Does he talk easily, or does he hesitate? He’s fairly articulate, although it’s pretty easy to read his mood and all, and he does talk faster when he’s excited.
3. Does the character have a distinct accent or dialect? Any individual quirks of pronunciation? Any, like, you know, verbal tics? Noble-raised, even if a lower-nobility family; he’s not likely to swear, although he’s prone to “semiformal/less formal”.
4. What language/s does he speak, and with how much fluency? Going by place-names, I’d be guessing some kind of French-derivative; it’s hard to tell.
5. Does he switch languages or dialects in certain situations? Not something that’s ever come up; depending on linguistics that aren’t covered in canon, he might’ve picked up a little from Arthur Barma, but not much.
6. Is he a good impromptu speaker, or does he have to think about his words? Oh, he’s a perfectly good impromptu speaker, particularly if there’s something important.
7. Is he eloquent or inarticulate? Under what circumstances might this change? He’s usually perfectly eloquent, albeit in a casual-semiformal and sometimes fast-talk way; get him flustered or thrown off guard enough and he’ll trip over things, but he recovers fast and adapts to a lot of things pretty easily.
Mental and Emotional
1. How intelligent is this character? Is he book-smart or street-smart? He’s more intelligent than he thinks; he might not often put time into thinking hard about situations, and wouldn’t think of himself as someone you’d go to in order to solve puzzles or mysteries, but he learns fast, absorbs information well, picks up skills fast, and given a problem is good at figuring out ways around it, as long as he’s actually acknowledging that it needs solved.
2. Does he think on his feet, or does he need time to deliberate? He thinks on his feet. This is assuming he’s actually thinking things through, which doesn’t always happen!
3. Describe the character's thought process. Is he more logical, or more intuitive? Idealistic or practical? Intuitive/Idealistic, all the way. He’s got a perfectly good memory and all, but his thought process tends to bounce around like a kitten in a room full of toys; unless he has a reason to focus, he’ll be off looking at this over here, and oh hey there’s flowers here, and oh look! A shiny thing!
4. What kind of education has the character had? Private tutors; he’s pretty well-educated, although he probably hasn’t bothered to remember a lot of the less relevant/interesting parts.
5. What are his areas of expertise? What, if anything, is he interested in learning more about? Music boxes, clockwork, fine pre-electronic/non-industrial machinery! He can make music boxes, pocketwatches, and such very well. Since the family focus is on musicboxes, he’s quite comfortable with sheet music and musical theory. He’s also pretty familiar with flowers and plants, and perfectly comfortable with courtly manners, chivalry, dancing, etc., as well as swordsmanship - granted he’s mostly learned that as an exercise in “standard training for someone of his standing”. He’ll pick up bits of information on just about anything, but it’s fairly rarely that he’ll have the attention span for more than trivia.
6. Is he an introvert or an extrovert? Extrovert. He loves people.
7. Describe the character's temperament. Is he even-tempered or does he have mood swings? Cheerful or melancholy? Laid-back or driven? Jack is a very even-tempered perpetual motion machine - as energetic as he is, he’s very relaxed, laid-back, and cheerful; it’s difficult to put any kind of a dent or damper on his mood, and even if you do give him something to be upset or what passes for angry about, it passes pretty quickly.
8. How does he respond to new people or situations? Is he suspicious, relaxed, timid, enthusiastic? Calm and enthusiastic - it’s hard to really daunt him; he likes people and will fluff at and be friendly toward just about anyone unless they seriously do something horrible to get on his incredibly small bad side, and he loves going out exploring, climbing trees, poking in caves and old towers, and generally getting in trouble.
9. Is he more likely to act, or to react? If it involves seeking people out or investigating something new, then he’ll be the one acting; when it comes to actual conflicts, he’s more likely to react or try to redirect and smooth things over.
10. Which is his default: fight or flight? Flight - he has to be pushed pretty hard or have something very important behind him to flip that into “fight”.
11. Describe the character's sense of humor. Does he appreciate jokes? Puns? Gallows humor? Bathroom humor? Pranks? Pranks and dorkery! He’s very light-hearted and easily amused by fairly simple things and absurdities - catching Glen with little birds resting on him was worth a lot of amusement. He’s less comfortable with dark or crude humor.
12. Does the character have any diagnosable mental disorders? If yes, how does he deal with them? Nothing that’d be a disorder, unless being innocent to a fault counts. He’s pretty happy and comfortable with his life, even though he tends to think of himself as a little on the “useless debutante” side, but he’s content to typically make up for that by trying to make people happy, especially ones that seem to be more closed in or worse off.
13. What moments in this character's life have defined him as a person? One of the defining moments so far is a relative lack thereof; he hasn’t had any real serious challenges or conflicts to deal with. The three biggest things that’ve directed what he’s doing with himself all have to do with others. The first was his family taking in Gilbert and Vincent as “curiosities” thanks to the superstitions around Vincent’s red eye; instead of treating them as some kind of sideshow, Jack claimed them as his servants, which really seems to’ve been a pretense for adopting them without a lot of conflict with the societal standards and his family. He’s been fussing over them and taking care of them since. The second was blundering into the Baskerville compound and meeting Glen; as much as Glen was already lost in a lot of ways, Jack did grasp how unusual it was for Glen to start opening up, and considered that something incredibly valuable, enough to sometimes spend more time around the Baskerville household than his own. The third was meeting Alice in the tower - which pretty well cemented that the purpose he would’ve chosen for his life would be “taking in strays and trying to make them happy”.
14. What does he fear? Losing the people he cares about. He hates seeing anyone hurt, but losing Glen, Alice, Vincent, or Gil would pretty much break him. Other than that, not much; his reaction to being shown Humpty Dumpty, a fairly disturbing looking chain, was awe and wonder instead of terror, he adopted Vincent in spite of the superstitions about red eyes, and he’s gone flouncing straight into the compound of the “Keepers of the Abyss” and “Gods of Death” to go flirt with the maids and fluff at the head of the House. He doesn't seem to even have the little instinct-trigger to react to something as “potentially dangerous” or be afraid of things.
15. What are his hopes or aspirations? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Not bloody much. There’s a lot of things he’d like to maintain the way they are; he’d like to get Alice out of the tower more so she can see the world, he’d like for Gil and Vincent to get to grow up happy and have a good life, and he’d like to see Glen smile more. As far as his own life, he’s pretty adjusted to the idea that he’s going to coast through things while the rest of the family deals with the main part of the business and gets the big inheritance and responsibilities.
16. What is something he doesn't want anyone to find out about him? Se-krits? What are those?
Relationships
1. Describe this character's relationship with his parents. Distant. His parents were a bit more concerned with running the business and the household, and trying to advance the house’s standing; as a third son, he wasn’t exactly worth much besides an extra set of hands and maybe an opening for some kind of political marriage. They weren’t hostile, but they weren’t exactly around much either, leaving him raised mostly by servants, tutors, siblings, and whoever happened to be around. He doesn't know them very well, but they've been perfectly kind and caring towards him.
2. Does the character have any siblings? What is/was their relationship like? Two older brothers - and as much as I did list them on the above question, his oldest brother was mostly absorbed in preparing to take over as head of the household, while the other brother was more involved in the socialite aspect trying to help raise the house’s rank; his relative lack of any real purpose or ambition that they could find pretty much left him out of the loop a lot. He didn’t get along BADLY with them - to the contrary, he's usually gotten along with them quite well - they just didn’t associate a whole lot outside of family gatherings.
3. Are there other blood relatives to whom he is close? Are there ones he can't stand? He doesn’t seem to have any close ties within his house, but none of them are sour enough for him to’ve had any real experience with the uglier side of human nature; the relationship with the family is basically one of distant, friendly congeniality. He hasn’t distinguished himself, but neither has he really tarnished the family name or gone off on spending binges, he does try to help out, and he's pleasant to have around.
4. Are there other, unrelated people whom he considers part of his family? What are his relationships with them? As much as he refers to Vincent and Gilbert as servants, he’s basically adopted them. He might be a little clueless of a parental figure sometimes, but he’s trying, and he does care about them deeply. His relationship with Alice is close to that, although a little less parental in tone.
5. Who is/was the character's best friend? How did they meet? GLEN. How they met isn’t canon-established, but I suspect Jack was somewhere he wasn’t supposed to be and saw someone who looked sort of cloud of gloom ish and just …wandered up and started chattering and fussing over.
6. Does he have other close friends? He does have a few friends among the other noble houses that’re around his age - Raymond Nightray is known, as is Arthur and Miranda Barma, and one could easily assume the Rainsworth ancestor was among that as well. Of course, Miranda counting as a friend seems to’ve been pretty one-sided since she was busy manipulating Gil and Vincent behind his back, and he was fairly close with Raymond.
7. Does he make friends easily, or does he have trouble getting along with people? He loves everyone. Generally, the main obstacle to him being ~friends with everyone~ is people’s patience with his occasionally scattered attention span and whether or not they realize that the fluffy friendly thing is genuine.
8. Which does he consider more important: family or friends? He definitely seems closer to his friends than his family.
9. Is the character single, married, divorced, widowed? Has he been married more than once? Single, hasn’t been married, no sign that he’s had a relationship beyond flirting where he’s used to getting shot down a lot.
10. Is he currently in a romantic relationship with someone other than a spouse? Does paleshipping count? (Trans: No, not really.)
11. Who was his first crush? Who is his latest? I don't think he has had a real crush; he flirts easily, but doesn't seem to invest much in it, and there's no sense that he's ever gotten that far or been that perturbed when things didn't work out.
12. What does he look for in a romantic partner? I'm not sure he's seriously thought about this one! Although most likely for a solid long-term relationship it'd end up being someone stable enough to counterbalance his own flightiness and lack of foresight, but otherwise loose enough to enjoy following along on his random whims and appreciate/share his whole “sense of wonder” reaction to most things.
13. Does the character have children? Grandchildren? If yes, how does he relate to them? If no, does he want any? Wrong canon point, come back later! Although seriously, given the timing on things and the lack of any sign of a stable romantic interest as of Sablier, odds are good that Oz isn't a direct descendent - the family line probably passed down through his brothers. The closest he has are Gil and Vincent, where he certainly tries and is doing what he can to give them a happy and safe life, but he's a little flighty and inattentive to be entirely good at it; Gil definitely seems to have picked up on it and appreciates it enough to be very loyal and devoted, and Vincent as of his canon-point is at least partly opened up and trusting him somewhat, although Jack's close relationship with Glen and what Vincent knows about Glen probably tarnishes that a little.
14. Does he have any rivals or enemies? This question confuses the Jackfluff.
15. What is the character's sexual orientation? Where does he fall on the Kinsey scale? 1, maybe - he’s pretty straight. A guy he got along with well enough hitting on him probably wouldn’t get a violent negative reaction, but there’d be a lot of flailing, floundering, and confusion.
16. How does he feel about sex? How important is it to him? It’s there, he’s certainly aware of it, I don’t think he’d have a problem if one of his flirting streaks actually got somewhere, but neither does it seem to be any kind of real priority.
17. What are his turn-ons? Turn-offs? Weird bedroom habits? Uh. God. I'll say here that I'm pretty sure he IS still a virgin, and I'm not sure he's ever seriously thought about what to do if he does, one day, succeed with one of his flirts; he's likely to be one of the most horribly affectionate and tooth-rotting/romantic lovers ever, and pretty easily drawn to a lot of the classical ideas of romance - flowers, candlelight, sweets, open starry skies, etc.; a lot of what would fall under “weird bedroom habits” would … probably confuse him, and some of it might manage to spook him, although the range from “???? eh?” to “... O.o; ….uh...hm. Edging away now/not that interested suddenly” would probably highly depend on who it was, how close he was with them, and how out there it was. Pain definitely does register asa turn-off/”this does not belong here”.
Beliefs
1. Do you know your character's astrological (zodiac of choice) sign? How well does he fit type? His birthdate is entirely headcanon, forewarning, and his world isn’t Earth so it may not apply - and has him as a Pisces/Water Rat, which he pretty well is… Emotional, much more grounded in dreams and ideals than reality, adaptable, clever, and with a high value on friends and family.
2. Is this character religious, spiritual, both, or neither? How important are these elements in his life? His best buddy is the head of the keepers of the Gates of the Abyss. I’m not sure he entirely processes the implications of this, and it seems to be handled much more in a “And this happened/is what’s going on here” than any kind of big mystical underpinnings; he’s curious but from some of his comments in this part of his canon, a chunk of it sorta goes completely over his head. He's aware of it, but it's in a very “part of his world” sense, not a “big religious meaning” sense.
3. Does this character have a personal code of morals or ethics? If so, how did that begin? What would it take to compromise it? He does, but it's not very well formed yet; a lot of it's a sort of hazy notion of chivalry and Romantic standards. He doesn't like seeing people hurt or suffering, likes seeing people happy, and tries to work towards that, and does believe in trying to protect and help the weaker and less fortunate, as well as a strong sense of loyalty to friends and those he cares about. He basically grew up with it; some of it probably came from tutors, stories, and him actually taking seriously chivalry, noblesse oblige, and courtly manners, and then grew out of his own tendencies from there. As for compromising it … even his loyalty to his closest friends can't manage that one; he hates conflict and will try every other avenue possible to avoid it, but, well Sablier and his future has him taking up a sword against Glen for this.
4. How does he regard beliefs that differ from his? Is he tolerant, intolerant, curious, indifferent? Tolerant and curious; as malleable and loose as his beliefs are, about the only thing he'd react negatively to would be things like the legend about “people with red eyes bring disaster” and that being used as an excuse to abuse others.
5. What prejudices does he hold? Are they irrational or does he have a good reason for them? Uh. If you hurt kids you'll piss him off?
Daily Life
1. What is the character's financial situation? Is he rich, poor, comfortable, in debt? His family may be lower nobility, but they are nobility; he's decently well off.
2. What is his social status? Has this changed over time, and if so, how has the change affected him? Again, nobility, low enough to not be that invested in politics, and third son so he's not a big issue for marriage/succession; it's been pretty constant, so he's pretty secure and stable in his situation.
3. Where does he live? House, apartment, trailer? Is his home his castle or just a place to crash? What condition is it in? Does he share it with others? From the sound of things the Vessalius family probably does have more than one home as of his canon-point, if barely; not really more than a home in the city where everything is, and a home in the country that happens to not be far from one of the Baskerville households. He flits back and forth between them, although of late he's more often at the country estate hopping over to the Baskerville estate to pester Glen and fluff over Alice; it's getting a little hard to tell which household he actually lives at.
4. Besides the basic necessities, what does he spend his money on? He does definitely have a wardrobe enough to look good most of the time, and a fondness for flowers and gardens, although he's not the one mainly responsible for the roses and other gardens on his family grounds; he's familiar with theatre and opera, some of it goes towards material for musicboxes and things like the pocketwatch, and he does have some jewelry. Still, gifts for friends and keepsakes probably end up taking a higher priority when they come up.
5. What does he do for a living? Is he good at it? Does he enjoy it, or would he rather be doing something else? He makes music boxes; he's not the main breadwinner for the family, so he's not at it constantly, but he's very good at it - the pocketwatch/music box he carries is an incredibly complicated piece of work as such things go, and as flighty as he is, he does enjoy the work enough to volunteer it for personal things and gifts.
6. What are his interests or hobbies? How does he spend his free time? Flowers, spending time in the gardens, music, folklore and stories, also sleight of hand and similar performing arts; his free time is often split between the above and practicing things, and being out of the house, enjoying the outdoors, exploring, and especially all of the above while spending time with friends and/or going visiting.
7. What are his eating habits? Does he skip meals, eat out, drink alcohol, avoid certain foods? He eats fairly well, although he couldn't cook to save his life; if there isn't something keeping a set schedule, his mealtimes are a little random - he won't forget to eat for periods long enough to threaten his health, but he can be distracted into forgetting meals. He has a definite preference for sweets, but there isn't really anything that he avoids, and he'd try pretty much anything once as long as it wasn't utterly abhorrent. As for alcohol, he's basically casual/social; glass of wine with a nice dinner or having a few drinks when out on the town or having an evening with siblings/friends. He doesn't really drink a large amount much; his tolerance is somewhat mediocre, and he gets pretty vicious hangovers when he overdoes it.
Associations
Which of the following do you associate with the character, or which is his favorite:
1. Color? Green and blue.
2. Smell? Roses, climbing flowers
3. Time of day? Afternoon
4. Season? Summer
5. Book? (Alice in Wonderland) His favorite books are probably something heroic/romantic fantasy and faerie tales.
6. Music? Classical, folk/filk, traditional, bouncy pop
7. Place? Gardens and festival-markets!
8. Substance? Gold and silver
9. Plant? Zinnia, Amaranth, Daisy, Forget-me-Not
10. Animal? Rabbit, songbirds
END
{{ Get the HTML here so you can do it yourself. }}