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Name: aaron
Contact Info: brewmegently @ AIM, plurk
Other Characters Played: Ganymede, Keith Anyan
Preferred Apartment: #6.006; or with Peony
Character Name: Jade Curtiss; born Jade Balfour; titles: Colonel, Doctor
Canon: Tales of the Abyss
Canon Point: immediately following Dist's death
Background/History: Jade Curtiss @ Tales of Wiki | Tales of the Abyss @ Tales of Wiki
Previous Game History: n/a
Personality: Jade is a complex man who shows very little of himself to the world around him. Though outwardly cheerful, teasing, and often taunting, he is internally a man who doesn't understand the people around him; jaded, bitter, and full of regret. Essentially, he is a very ugly person wearing a charismatic mask. He speaks very precisely and with a good vocabulary, showcasing his high intelligence.
While it could never be argued that Jade is a truly good person, he does have his strong points, most of them intellectual. He's extremely intelligent, a genius in his own right, highly qualified in both mundane and fonic artes - a type of "magic" done in his canon. He thinks quickly, and is a brisk and efficient, if extremely emotionally detached leader, having risen through the ranks of the Malkuth military to the rank of Colonel. In fact, the combination of his genius, fighting skills, and leadership potential probably should have netted him further promotions, to general or above, if he hadn't declined interest. Part of this success is probably related to Jade's high ability to read other people's intentions. Likely because of his own tendency to hide everything from his emotions to his true agendas, Jade is very good at reading between the lines and working out other people's true motivations and intentions, often putting two and two together to find out the things people are hiding. He is excellent at reading people, noticing details in what they say or do in order to paint an understandable picture, which paired up with his innate intelligence means he's often several steps ahead of everyone else, and very rarely surprised. Despite the layers he hides, Jade is exceptionally pragmatic, practical, always capable and willing to boil a situation down to a problem and a solution, regardless of whatever emotional entanglements might be involved.
Jade is intensely ambitious and driven. He thoroughly believes in his own reputation as Jade the Necromancer, a genius doctor and prodigy with the fonic artes. He sees himself as someone who is willing to desecrate dead bodies and push the limits of ethics to learn new things, perfect his theories into techniques, and produce results with his pet projects. Jade hates to fail, and this is one of his most major downfalls, his Achilles' heel. When he fails, he withdraws, he shuts down the attempts of anyone else to succeed where he hadn't, and tries dangerous things that end up getting people killed or himself nearly killed in order to push past his failings. While he claims to have no pride, he certainly does, and will generally protect it above all other things.
This leads in to Jade's more negative personality traits - most noticeable being that he has virtually no empathy. Jade has been high-functioning and bordering on sociopathic for most of his life - he simply doesn't understand or comprehend the emotions of the people around him. He's aware that they have them, certainly, and he's aware of how they motivate others, and how they can be manipulated, but he has virtually no innate understanding of how those emotions can and should be respected. He abuses his intellect and understanding of human motivation to manipulate those around him in the direction he wants them to go, uses their talents and emotions against them, and is often amused at least and disturbed at most about even the most emotionally devastating results. Pragmatic to a fault, he excels at finding the most efficient route to solving problems, and only declines to follow through because he knows intellectually that crossing certain boundaries is 'wrong.' This is something he's had to learn through trial and error - as a child, he frequently killed even harmless creatures for his own purposes, and viewed other humans as livestock that he couldn't connect with. This vicious pragmatism and lack of respect for others makes him come across as cruel, a ruthless monster with no concern for how his actions harm other people.
While Jade has an incredibly hard time connecting with others or understanding their feelings, he is slowly improving from the damaged and sociopathic child he once was. Though he isn't emotional on a general basis, he definitely has emotions and is affected by them. He feels close to several of his childhood friends, and is affected by the suffering of them and of his sister, Nephry. He is capable of caring for others and wanting to put their best interests first, even allowing his own ambitions to be put on hold partially because carrying on would hurt them. He tends only to show his more negative emotions - frustration, indignation, embarassment, and sometimes sadness, with his fondness and care generally masked or shown through sarcastic teasing. This is partially because Jade understands his own feelings as poorly as he understands others - while he is certainly capable of feelings, capable of being affected by them, he doesn't understand the complexities of why. He gives himself very little credit when it comes to emotions, assuming that because his own manifest in different ways than the ways he's learned are 'normal' that he is incapable of those feelings. When confronted with his own feelings, he withdraws, preferring to downplay his own capacity for them or his ability to understand the consequences of a situation that has led him to feel something intense. It is because of this failure to understand and properly process his own emotions that Jade is drawn to strong, open people who are capable of helping him understand the complexities going on under the surface - Peony is a prime example of this, though at times Anise, Luke, Guy, and many other members of the main party also function in this way.
It is because of this that Jade is not nearly the monster he thinks he is. While he has done many, many terrible things, and many others that skirted the line between ethical and unethical, he does hold himself responsible for his actions. He regrets crossing the line and killing the teacher he cared for so much, he regrets that he was unable to do anything to help her, he understands that his own death would hurt the people who care about him. He is capable of learning to care about others when he finds a reason to open his heart just a little, and while he will never be soft, compassionate, or tender, he is capable of growth. Because he is able to take these things into consideration, Jade isn't a villain, or fully a monster - he is a man with a very dysfunctional view of himself and the people around him. And he is learning.
Abilities/Powers: It's difficult to list off Jade's individual abilities, as he has a great many. He is the primary "mage" of his game, with a large number of various elemental and energy-based attacks that can deal a great amount of damage.
These attacks, however, are all based on Jade's natural ability to manipulate fonons, the basic particle of all elements on Auldrant, the planet Jade is from. Through this natural ability (not all characters from Auldrant are capable of doing so directly, having to rely on fontech, or machines that utilize fonons) and various chants he can perform a wide variety of attacks primarily related to the elements - darkness, earth, wind, fire, water, and light. Some of his attacks are energy beams and other similar energy attacks. He is unable to manipulate the seventh type of fonon, sound.
For more information on fonons, please see Fonons @ Tales of Wiki
For more information on Jade's particular fighting style, please see Jade Curtiss: Fighting Style @ Tales of Wiki
Jade has two additional fonic artes that only he has mastered. One allows him to break down spears into its basic elements and fonons to be stored against the skin of his forearm until it's needed and formed back into the shape of a spear. The other is his fonic sight, which allows him to absorb fonons through his eyes and which increases his casting power. Since his fonic sight can be extremely dangerous if not kept under strict control, he wears his glasses to seriously decrease the power of it.
Jade also has a Fonic Arte that only he has mastered that allows him to break down his weapon into its basic elements and fonons to be stored against the skin of his forearm until it is needed and formed back into the shape of a spear.
Items/Weapons: His spear, Dunamis; a bottle of cologne; a spare pair of glasses to keep his Fonic Sight in check
Sample Entry:
[The video post engages in an obviously staged sort of way. Jade is neatly centered in the feed, and he's wearing an almost blankly neutral expression. After a moment of contemplation, he smiles - it's obviously fake, there's obviously some kind of wound up tension behind it, in his eyes and in the way he holds his face. It shows for a few moments before he forces himself to relax and the smile becomes only a bare modicum more real.]
Good evening. My name is Jade Curtiss and I've recently heard rumors that, in this place, people are able to revive from death.
[He leans in more closely, and the light catches on his glasses, and the glare leaves his eyes impossible to see.]
I should like to speak to anyone who's experienced this - a sort of informal research into the phenomenon. It would certainly help if you'd be willing to share any memories or impressions of
the time between death and awakening, and what it was like when you returned. This subject is of particular interest to me, and anything you have to offer would be most appreciated.
[He leans in just slightly more, his eyes becoming visible again, and while his mouth is still curved into a seemingly easy-going smile, his eyes are narrowed. There certainly is something beneath the surface, a deeper and more personal reason to ask these questions than idle curiosity - but for the moment, all he has to offer is that glib smile.]
Sample Entry Two:
He can feel it creeping up on him long before it settles into his bones - the paranoia that makes the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, the feeling of being watched from behind, the sensation of wondering at every moment if the person beside him, behind him, is intending to kill him. It's a familiar sensation, enough so that for the first several hours after it settles into him, he can almost completely ignore it. After all, especially in a place like this, the time spent reading is more important than comfort. Jade is quite accustomed to paranoia, after all, that feeling of being out of place, of needing to protect himself, to return to something, somewhere, after having fought hard to be where he is.
The only difference, really, sitting in this library in Haven North, is that he has a concrete idea, a mental image of the place he must return to in order to find safety, and that place is somewhere he can conceivably reach. It's just a matter of standing up and brushing off the tails of his jacket, of closing the book he's reading, putting in a placeholder, leaving it in a precise place in a precise section of the Library so it isn't disturbed, and fighting his way back to the apartment block. Back to the safety of his room, where he can collect his thoughts and process, categorize all the things he's learned in this particular reading session.
But he wants just a little more, to find another piece to this puzzle, and there is the constant sensation that if he turns just one more page he may find it, that if he closes the book and leaves it here, he may never discover it. After all, there were important things to do at home on Auldrant, and whatever he may learn in this Library may allow him, eventually, with enough research, enough effort, enough intelligence, enough fighting and killing to find a way for them to go home, to take Luke and the others home. It's worth it to fight this sensation, the creeping madness encroaching on the corners of his astute mind, clouding the edges of his reason, coloring his memories of what he's reading.
After all, he is used to this sensation, Jade the Necromancer, a man who endures things on a daily basis that would drive most men mad, had driven them mad, all for the sake of being the best and knowing the most. That much, in this place, will not change.
Contact Info: brewmegently @ AIM, plurk
Other Characters Played: Ganymede, Keith Anyan
Preferred Apartment: #6.006; or with Peony
Character Name: Jade Curtiss; born Jade Balfour; titles: Colonel, Doctor
Canon: Tales of the Abyss
Canon Point: immediately following Dist's death
Background/History: Jade Curtiss @ Tales of Wiki | Tales of the Abyss @ Tales of Wiki
Previous Game History: n/a
Personality: Jade is a complex man who shows very little of himself to the world around him. Though outwardly cheerful, teasing, and often taunting, he is internally a man who doesn't understand the people around him; jaded, bitter, and full of regret. Essentially, he is a very ugly person wearing a charismatic mask. He speaks very precisely and with a good vocabulary, showcasing his high intelligence.
While it could never be argued that Jade is a truly good person, he does have his strong points, most of them intellectual. He's extremely intelligent, a genius in his own right, highly qualified in both mundane and fonic artes - a type of "magic" done in his canon. He thinks quickly, and is a brisk and efficient, if extremely emotionally detached leader, having risen through the ranks of the Malkuth military to the rank of Colonel. In fact, the combination of his genius, fighting skills, and leadership potential probably should have netted him further promotions, to general or above, if he hadn't declined interest. Part of this success is probably related to Jade's high ability to read other people's intentions. Likely because of his own tendency to hide everything from his emotions to his true agendas, Jade is very good at reading between the lines and working out other people's true motivations and intentions, often putting two and two together to find out the things people are hiding. He is excellent at reading people, noticing details in what they say or do in order to paint an understandable picture, which paired up with his innate intelligence means he's often several steps ahead of everyone else, and very rarely surprised. Despite the layers he hides, Jade is exceptionally pragmatic, practical, always capable and willing to boil a situation down to a problem and a solution, regardless of whatever emotional entanglements might be involved.
Jade is intensely ambitious and driven. He thoroughly believes in his own reputation as Jade the Necromancer, a genius doctor and prodigy with the fonic artes. He sees himself as someone who is willing to desecrate dead bodies and push the limits of ethics to learn new things, perfect his theories into techniques, and produce results with his pet projects. Jade hates to fail, and this is one of his most major downfalls, his Achilles' heel. When he fails, he withdraws, he shuts down the attempts of anyone else to succeed where he hadn't, and tries dangerous things that end up getting people killed or himself nearly killed in order to push past his failings. While he claims to have no pride, he certainly does, and will generally protect it above all other things.
This leads in to Jade's more negative personality traits - most noticeable being that he has virtually no empathy. Jade has been high-functioning and bordering on sociopathic for most of his life - he simply doesn't understand or comprehend the emotions of the people around him. He's aware that they have them, certainly, and he's aware of how they motivate others, and how they can be manipulated, but he has virtually no innate understanding of how those emotions can and should be respected. He abuses his intellect and understanding of human motivation to manipulate those around him in the direction he wants them to go, uses their talents and emotions against them, and is often amused at least and disturbed at most about even the most emotionally devastating results. Pragmatic to a fault, he excels at finding the most efficient route to solving problems, and only declines to follow through because he knows intellectually that crossing certain boundaries is 'wrong.' This is something he's had to learn through trial and error - as a child, he frequently killed even harmless creatures for his own purposes, and viewed other humans as livestock that he couldn't connect with. This vicious pragmatism and lack of respect for others makes him come across as cruel, a ruthless monster with no concern for how his actions harm other people.
While Jade has an incredibly hard time connecting with others or understanding their feelings, he is slowly improving from the damaged and sociopathic child he once was. Though he isn't emotional on a general basis, he definitely has emotions and is affected by them. He feels close to several of his childhood friends, and is affected by the suffering of them and of his sister, Nephry. He is capable of caring for others and wanting to put their best interests first, even allowing his own ambitions to be put on hold partially because carrying on would hurt them. He tends only to show his more negative emotions - frustration, indignation, embarassment, and sometimes sadness, with his fondness and care generally masked or shown through sarcastic teasing. This is partially because Jade understands his own feelings as poorly as he understands others - while he is certainly capable of feelings, capable of being affected by them, he doesn't understand the complexities of why. He gives himself very little credit when it comes to emotions, assuming that because his own manifest in different ways than the ways he's learned are 'normal' that he is incapable of those feelings. When confronted with his own feelings, he withdraws, preferring to downplay his own capacity for them or his ability to understand the consequences of a situation that has led him to feel something intense. It is because of this failure to understand and properly process his own emotions that Jade is drawn to strong, open people who are capable of helping him understand the complexities going on under the surface - Peony is a prime example of this, though at times Anise, Luke, Guy, and many other members of the main party also function in this way.
It is because of this that Jade is not nearly the monster he thinks he is. While he has done many, many terrible things, and many others that skirted the line between ethical and unethical, he does hold himself responsible for his actions. He regrets crossing the line and killing the teacher he cared for so much, he regrets that he was unable to do anything to help her, he understands that his own death would hurt the people who care about him. He is capable of learning to care about others when he finds a reason to open his heart just a little, and while he will never be soft, compassionate, or tender, he is capable of growth. Because he is able to take these things into consideration, Jade isn't a villain, or fully a monster - he is a man with a very dysfunctional view of himself and the people around him. And he is learning.
Abilities/Powers: It's difficult to list off Jade's individual abilities, as he has a great many. He is the primary "mage" of his game, with a large number of various elemental and energy-based attacks that can deal a great amount of damage.
These attacks, however, are all based on Jade's natural ability to manipulate fonons, the basic particle of all elements on Auldrant, the planet Jade is from. Through this natural ability (not all characters from Auldrant are capable of doing so directly, having to rely on fontech, or machines that utilize fonons) and various chants he can perform a wide variety of attacks primarily related to the elements - darkness, earth, wind, fire, water, and light. Some of his attacks are energy beams and other similar energy attacks. He is unable to manipulate the seventh type of fonon, sound.
For more information on fonons, please see Fonons @ Tales of Wiki
For more information on Jade's particular fighting style, please see Jade Curtiss: Fighting Style @ Tales of Wiki
Jade has two additional fonic artes that only he has mastered. One allows him to break down spears into its basic elements and fonons to be stored against the skin of his forearm until it's needed and formed back into the shape of a spear. The other is his fonic sight, which allows him to absorb fonons through his eyes and which increases his casting power. Since his fonic sight can be extremely dangerous if not kept under strict control, he wears his glasses to seriously decrease the power of it.
Jade also has a Fonic Arte that only he has mastered that allows him to break down his weapon into its basic elements and fonons to be stored against the skin of his forearm until it is needed and formed back into the shape of a spear.
Items/Weapons: His spear, Dunamis; a bottle of cologne; a spare pair of glasses to keep his Fonic Sight in check
Sample Entry:
[The video post engages in an obviously staged sort of way. Jade is neatly centered in the feed, and he's wearing an almost blankly neutral expression. After a moment of contemplation, he smiles - it's obviously fake, there's obviously some kind of wound up tension behind it, in his eyes and in the way he holds his face. It shows for a few moments before he forces himself to relax and the smile becomes only a bare modicum more real.]
Good evening. My name is Jade Curtiss and I've recently heard rumors that, in this place, people are able to revive from death.
[He leans in more closely, and the light catches on his glasses, and the glare leaves his eyes impossible to see.]
I should like to speak to anyone who's experienced this - a sort of informal research into the phenomenon. It would certainly help if you'd be willing to share any memories or impressions of
the time between death and awakening, and what it was like when you returned. This subject is of particular interest to me, and anything you have to offer would be most appreciated.
[He leans in just slightly more, his eyes becoming visible again, and while his mouth is still curved into a seemingly easy-going smile, his eyes are narrowed. There certainly is something beneath the surface, a deeper and more personal reason to ask these questions than idle curiosity - but for the moment, all he has to offer is that glib smile.]
Sample Entry Two:
He can feel it creeping up on him long before it settles into his bones - the paranoia that makes the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, the feeling of being watched from behind, the sensation of wondering at every moment if the person beside him, behind him, is intending to kill him. It's a familiar sensation, enough so that for the first several hours after it settles into him, he can almost completely ignore it. After all, especially in a place like this, the time spent reading is more important than comfort. Jade is quite accustomed to paranoia, after all, that feeling of being out of place, of needing to protect himself, to return to something, somewhere, after having fought hard to be where he is.
The only difference, really, sitting in this library in Haven North, is that he has a concrete idea, a mental image of the place he must return to in order to find safety, and that place is somewhere he can conceivably reach. It's just a matter of standing up and brushing off the tails of his jacket, of closing the book he's reading, putting in a placeholder, leaving it in a precise place in a precise section of the Library so it isn't disturbed, and fighting his way back to the apartment block. Back to the safety of his room, where he can collect his thoughts and process, categorize all the things he's learned in this particular reading session.
But he wants just a little more, to find another piece to this puzzle, and there is the constant sensation that if he turns just one more page he may find it, that if he closes the book and leaves it here, he may never discover it. After all, there were important things to do at home on Auldrant, and whatever he may learn in this Library may allow him, eventually, with enough research, enough effort, enough intelligence, enough fighting and killing to find a way for them to go home, to take Luke and the others home. It's worth it to fight this sensation, the creeping madness encroaching on the corners of his astute mind, clouding the edges of his reason, coloring his memories of what he's reading.
After all, he is used to this sensation, Jade the Necromancer, a man who endures things on a daily basis that would drive most men mad, had driven them mad, all for the sake of being the best and knowing the most. That much, in this place, will not change.