Ad Libitum App
Name: Pyraven (kaviiq)
Contact: [AIM/YIM] pyraven
Character's Name: Jade Curtiss
Character's Age: 38
Character's Class: Mage/Spearman
3 Events That Affected the Character:
Fonic Prodigy: Not so much an event, but an entire phase that lasted well into Jade's adulthood. Jade started to show an incredible talent for fonic artes when he was a young boy. He easily compared to adult fonists, sometimes even surpassing them in ability. By age eight, he had already developed the theory behind Fonic Sight. Fonic Sight would alter the body's most powerful fon slots, the eyes, and allow them to draw in as much as three times the number of fonons as unaltered eyes. Jade put it to use shortly after developing it, and moved on to developing fomicry by age nine.
Jade's un-childlike outlook and his intelligence almost completely alienated him from his peers. With the exception of his sister Nephry and then-Prince Peony (and, though debatable, Saphir Wyon Neis), Jade failed to see value in human life and did not understand the emotions associated with death. Even into his mid-thirties, Jade claimed that he didn't have a firm grasp on the 'meaning' of death, and how someone was supposed to express grief.
The Death and Replication of Gelda Nebilim: Jade started to undergo a personality change from the time he was nine until he was twelve years old, helped by an Oracle Knight by the name of Gelda Nebilim. Nebilim came to Keterburg to open a school, and she always kept a special eye on Jade. She was also a Seventh Fonist, and Jade admired her because she could use artes that he physically could not. Under her guidance, he started to express his feelings like a normal child. But Jade wasn't entirely satisfied with Nebilim's unconditional love; he wanted to become a seventh fonist like her.
One night, Jade attempted to cast a healing arte... and lost control of it. Nebilim shielded him from the worst of the ensuing chaos with her body, and died shortly afterward from the burns she sustained in doing so. Jade, distraught over her death, used fomicry to create a living replica of Nebilim.
The replica, while nearly indistinguishable from the real Nebilim on the outside, was born without any of her original's memories. She was also incredibly violent, as the arte-based method used to replicate her was flawed. The replica was created with a fonic imbalance that drove her insane while also making her ludicrously overpowered. She fled from Keterburg, and preyed on fonists for several years afterward until she was sealed away by Malkuth's military.
Nebilim's replication paved the way for further fomicry research, eventually leading to the fontech-based method used to create Luke.
Accepting Luke: Jade did not expect to ever find Luke's company enjoyable, especially after the fall of Akzeriuth, and he was one of the last ones to believe that Luke really wanted to change. But when it came time for someone to sacrifice themself on the Tower of Rem to get rid of the miasma, Jade admitted that he thought of Luke as a friend. He'd seen how Luke had cleaned up his attitude and tried to be a better person. Luke was starting to think for himself and he was creating his own identity, which Jade found at least somewhat admirable. Inadvertently, it was Luke who taught Jade that he didn't have to let his guilt over replicating Nebilim consume him.
After Van's defeat, Jade is also the first to accept that Luke is his own person, and not merely a replica of someone else.
Pulled From: Shortly after the game's epilogue.
Personality: Jade is many things, but the nicest word that comes to mind upon meeting him is eccentric. Less polite, but nevertheless accurate, words that apply to him are jerk, bastard, or jackass. As he is described in one of his titles, Jade is, 'bitter, mean, nasty, sarcastic, and snide.' He is rarely, if ever, entirely serious, and even when he is, Jade tends to be sarcastic anyway. He takes also great pleasure in teasing and tormenting people regardless of their social standing. Friends, enemies, and acquaintances are all fair game to Jade if he can find a weakness to exploit.
To add further insult, Jade can also be incredibly charismatic if he so pleases. When he doesn't use bluntness and sarcasm to get what he wants, he uses his good looks and charm instead. He typically reserves this method for people who don't have a strong understanding of sarcasm (e.g., Florian).
On the whole, Jade can be a very morally grey character. While his intentions are mostly good (at least, good for Malkuth), his methods can be terrifyingly practical. He saw nothing wrong with killing Arietta while the latter was unconscious, arguing that she would only continue to hunt the main party if he let her live; he only stopped himself because Ion protested such an action. Later, he somewhat reluctantly supports Luke's decision to cause a large hyperresonance atop the Tower of Rem - an action that would more-or-less be a death sentence for Luke. Jade even admits to being cold and emotionally stunted; he can read people and manipulate them, but he has difficulty actually feeling any empathy for them. He goes so far as to claim that he's unable to mourn for the dead, not by choice, but because he doesn't understand how to.
That said, Jade isn't entirely a bad person. By the end of his travels with Luke & Co., Jade starts to open up to the idea that he can be hopeful and trusting of other people. While he doesn't advertise it, it does start to affect his behaviour in subtle ways. His teasing toward friends and teammates is more playful and good-natured than it is mean-spirited and abrasive. He even isn't averse to the occasional act of kindness and accommodation, as long as it's toward a good friend. Perhaps most importantly, he stops allowing his guilt for his past fomicry experiments to consume him, and instead turns it into an incentive to make fomicry a safer and more ethical practice.
Future Plans: Jade will likely look into the movements of the previous Jade once he discovers that he's apparently been to Atlas before. After that, it's possible that he'll join Ad Libitum, or wander off to do independent research on mana.
Roleplay Sample:
A video post/action log from Elegy City's heatwave event.
A more recent prose log (incomplete) with one of Elegy's NPCs.
Contact: [AIM/YIM] pyraven
Character's Name: Jade Curtiss
Character's Age: 38
Character's Class: Mage/Spearman
3 Events That Affected the Character:
Fonic Prodigy: Not so much an event, but an entire phase that lasted well into Jade's adulthood. Jade started to show an incredible talent for fonic artes when he was a young boy. He easily compared to adult fonists, sometimes even surpassing them in ability. By age eight, he had already developed the theory behind Fonic Sight. Fonic Sight would alter the body's most powerful fon slots, the eyes, and allow them to draw in as much as three times the number of fonons as unaltered eyes. Jade put it to use shortly after developing it, and moved on to developing fomicry by age nine.
Jade's un-childlike outlook and his intelligence almost completely alienated him from his peers. With the exception of his sister Nephry and then-Prince Peony (and, though debatable, Saphir Wyon Neis), Jade failed to see value in human life and did not understand the emotions associated with death. Even into his mid-thirties, Jade claimed that he didn't have a firm grasp on the 'meaning' of death, and how someone was supposed to express grief.
The Death and Replication of Gelda Nebilim: Jade started to undergo a personality change from the time he was nine until he was twelve years old, helped by an Oracle Knight by the name of Gelda Nebilim. Nebilim came to Keterburg to open a school, and she always kept a special eye on Jade. She was also a Seventh Fonist, and Jade admired her because she could use artes that he physically could not. Under her guidance, he started to express his feelings like a normal child. But Jade wasn't entirely satisfied with Nebilim's unconditional love; he wanted to become a seventh fonist like her.
One night, Jade attempted to cast a healing arte... and lost control of it. Nebilim shielded him from the worst of the ensuing chaos with her body, and died shortly afterward from the burns she sustained in doing so. Jade, distraught over her death, used fomicry to create a living replica of Nebilim.
The replica, while nearly indistinguishable from the real Nebilim on the outside, was born without any of her original's memories. She was also incredibly violent, as the arte-based method used to replicate her was flawed. The replica was created with a fonic imbalance that drove her insane while also making her ludicrously overpowered. She fled from Keterburg, and preyed on fonists for several years afterward until she was sealed away by Malkuth's military.
Nebilim's replication paved the way for further fomicry research, eventually leading to the fontech-based method used to create Luke.
Accepting Luke: Jade did not expect to ever find Luke's company enjoyable, especially after the fall of Akzeriuth, and he was one of the last ones to believe that Luke really wanted to change. But when it came time for someone to sacrifice themself on the Tower of Rem to get rid of the miasma, Jade admitted that he thought of Luke as a friend. He'd seen how Luke had cleaned up his attitude and tried to be a better person. Luke was starting to think for himself and he was creating his own identity, which Jade found at least somewhat admirable. Inadvertently, it was Luke who taught Jade that he didn't have to let his guilt over replicating Nebilim consume him.
After Van's defeat, Jade is also the first to accept that Luke is his own person, and not merely a replica of someone else.
Pulled From: Shortly after the game's epilogue.
Personality: Jade is many things, but the nicest word that comes to mind upon meeting him is eccentric. Less polite, but nevertheless accurate, words that apply to him are jerk, bastard, or jackass. As he is described in one of his titles, Jade is, 'bitter, mean, nasty, sarcastic, and snide.' He is rarely, if ever, entirely serious, and even when he is, Jade tends to be sarcastic anyway. He takes also great pleasure in teasing and tormenting people regardless of their social standing. Friends, enemies, and acquaintances are all fair game to Jade if he can find a weakness to exploit.
To add further insult, Jade can also be incredibly charismatic if he so pleases. When he doesn't use bluntness and sarcasm to get what he wants, he uses his good looks and charm instead. He typically reserves this method for people who don't have a strong understanding of sarcasm (e.g., Florian).
On the whole, Jade can be a very morally grey character. While his intentions are mostly good (at least, good for Malkuth), his methods can be terrifyingly practical. He saw nothing wrong with killing Arietta while the latter was unconscious, arguing that she would only continue to hunt the main party if he let her live; he only stopped himself because Ion protested such an action. Later, he somewhat reluctantly supports Luke's decision to cause a large hyperresonance atop the Tower of Rem - an action that would more-or-less be a death sentence for Luke. Jade even admits to being cold and emotionally stunted; he can read people and manipulate them, but he has difficulty actually feeling any empathy for them. He goes so far as to claim that he's unable to mourn for the dead, not by choice, but because he doesn't understand how to.
That said, Jade isn't entirely a bad person. By the end of his travels with Luke & Co., Jade starts to open up to the idea that he can be hopeful and trusting of other people. While he doesn't advertise it, it does start to affect his behaviour in subtle ways. His teasing toward friends and teammates is more playful and good-natured than it is mean-spirited and abrasive. He even isn't averse to the occasional act of kindness and accommodation, as long as it's toward a good friend. Perhaps most importantly, he stops allowing his guilt for his past fomicry experiments to consume him, and instead turns it into an incentive to make fomicry a safer and more ethical practice.
Future Plans: Jade will likely look into the movements of the previous Jade once he discovers that he's apparently been to Atlas before. After that, it's possible that he'll join Ad Libitum, or wander off to do independent research on mana.
Roleplay Sample:
A video post/action log from Elegy City's heatwave event.
A more recent prose log (incomplete) with one of Elegy's NPCs.