[center][i]“Do you know the worst kind of person? The extremist that believes themselves to be good yet brings only ruin.” [/i] Face Claim/Appearance: [img]https://i.pinimg.com/originals/41/e4/22/41e422d22c5479501bf7ff7b286c8987.jpg[/img] Name: “Jess Tauri’s the name, partner.” Age: “Lived and breathed through a hundred-twenty years of revolts, civil war, gov crack-downs, and genocidal maniacs. Quite an eventful life, ain’t it?” Gender: “I respect most folk’s choice of pronouns and I expect the same for my own male pronouns. Call me anything else and you’re getting a boot to the groin to remind ya that God made it sensitive for all folk, regardless of what they identify as.” Canon: OC Main Thread or Sandbox: Sandbox Starting Location (SANDBOX ONLY): “Woke up in sum dirty alley with thugs at my throat. Joy.” Gotham City. Personality: “Jess Tauri, a tired man who simply wants a quiet, simple life yet through bad luck or ordained fate, keeps finding himself tossed into troublesome events and peoples. He holds little idealism or faith for such things will not put food in his belly and a blanket to keep him warm. As such, he is of a pragmatic nature who is willing to claim unowned valuables without regard and undertaking wetwork so long as it isn’t illegal or morally dubious. Even in combat such pragmatism shows, for he is willing to use any and all methods and weapons to incapacitate, wound, and kill his foes before looting their valuables off of them. Though it is rare for him to needlessly engage in conflict. After all, he wouldn’t have survived for over a century if he was a fool. Yet he retains a fair and steady hand in his dealings, returning respect and courtesy in equal measure. Jess even has a soft spot for children, especially orphans as he lost his parents in his later teenage years and often takes up a fatherly or mentor aura, educating them in basic skills or helping them cope with stress.” Equipment: “Jess Tauri seemingly has an endless assortment of equipment at his disposal, either plucked from corpses of fellow Contractors or brought from the black market, Jess has the right tool for the right job. His most notable, however, are: Universal Translator: A worn and dulled necklace that helps translate what exactly Jess is saying. Otherwise, what he’ll say will come out as garbled and staticy. Civilian-Grade Energy Shield: A common energy shield that can soak up damage from most attacks regardless of what they are. However, it cannot prevent the force of said attacks from causing pain nor stop internal trauma from being thrashed about and it can only take a few hits before its batteries need to be replaced. Armored Jacket and Hazard Mask: A jacket weaved with underlying armor that can withstand small arms and protects Jess from the elements. He follows this up with a mask that further protects him from airborne hazards such as toxins or gas, though both require regular maintenance. Nonetheless, Jess considers this the absolute minimum when going beyond safe areas. Arseripper: A shotgun humorously named by soldiers for its sheer stopping power. The Arseripper is designed to use most types of pellets and shells, but its most optimized for a single-powerful shot that can tear through unprotected flesh and melt uninsulated metal. One-Last-Shot: A six-chambered revolver morbidly named for it being the most common last resort weapon among the armies of the Confederacy of Sovereign States. Despite its name-shake and not possessing the same stopping power as the Arseripper, this revolver is powerful in its own right due to its being a miniaturized railgun. Just beware of the kickback so you don’t get pistol-whipped in the face. Heat-Kukri: A curved machete with integrated heating technology. It is composed of a tough material that is seemingly unbreakable, though it still requires regular sharpening to prevent dullness. Tools, Knickknacks, and Grenades: Jess has collected and continues to collect various tools, knicknacks, and grenades so he does not get caught without the right tool or explosive for the time. At current time, he’s carrying around a handful of lockpicks, rations, a first-aid kit, a lighter, a journal with a pencil, and several flash-bangs. PDA: A device with a cracked screen that permits Jess to electronically store information, documents, and other data such as maps. It even comes with auto-mapping! Though it only contains so much memory. Attributes: “Mattered-Tulpa: Jess and his kind appear human, certainly, but they aren’t ‘true’ humans for they are thought-constructs which have loosely bound matter to give them form. This has its advantages, but its disadvantages as well... -Meaning-Projection: Jess is capable of understanding the meaning and intent behind verbal language regardless of how it is structured or conveyed, but this ability does not extend to the written word and he cannot be understood well without the aid of a specialized device. Magic or other arcane methods may provide a stop-gap measure, but they’re bound to fail rather quickly. -Strengthened Immunity: Jess and others of his kind have a unique structure and immune response that provides greater resilience against disease, toxins, chemicals, and other such hazards. Even magical-based hazards are reduced in effectiveness. However, this is not true immunity and a potent enough toxin or venom can actually cause Jess’s immune response to overreact causing intense damage. Furthermore, medicine or healing-based magic has a tendency to fail unless it has been specialized to treating members of Jess’s kind. -Depressant-Insensitivity, Stimulant-Sensitivity: An odd quirk of evolution as a result of the monsters that lurk in Jess’s home world, but he has reduced sensitivity to depressants so he’s less affected by things that would slower him or make him sluggish. On the downside, however, painkillers are ineffective unless one gives an entire bottle. Amusingly, he’s much more sensitive to stimulants which would increase his alertness and brain-processing speed so even a sip of coffee can give him a morning jolt. Of course too much can be downright lethal or at the very least crippling. Mind-Sealing: Yet another quirk because of the monsters. The brain of Jess can recognize mind-controlling or subtle influences upon his brain and react, though not in the most optimal way. Instead of resisting, the brain will short-circuit itself to knock Jess out-cold which nonetheless leaves Jess vulnerable. No one knows why it does this, it just happens. Evolution at its finest, perhaps. -Ichor: A unique energy that surrounds and binds Jess’s form. Normally it would begin dissipating when outside of its homeworld which would kill Jess, but something has prevented this, allowing its general effects such as a general boost to all normal attributes and converting all ingested biomatter into energy so Jess does not expel waste in the normal way humans do. -Healing Factor: Jess has an increased healing factor like most members of his kind. He can regenerate lost limbs and even recover from severe brain damage if stabilized quickly enough. However, it would take months to years to truly heal and because of the nutrients required, he has to have a constant intake of food lest the regenerated tissue ends up cancerous, mutated, or worse. A Century of Suffering: Jess Tauri has suffered through rebellions, been on both sides of the law, grieved through the death of his younger sister and her wife, and dealt with his mentally unstable niece. Combine all of this with the monsters that lurk in his homeland, his mental fortitude is second to none. It would take much to break him and even then, he’s likely to recover faster than any healthy person. Both Sides of the Law: Jess has spent time as a smuggler and gang leader in the criminal underworld and as a sheriff and part-time lawyer when forced to work for the law. He knows how both sides work and though he’s been thrown out of his normal element, there are bound to be commonalities regardless of where he is, and he will leverage whatever he can in his dealings with both sides of the law when he can. Combat Skills: Jess has not lived for a century without having some fighting experience under his belt. He has fashioned various fighting skills into his own style and is able to handle most combat situations with a cool head. Furthermore, he’s capable of handling most normal weapons or learn human-oriented combat styles without issue. A Collection of Skills: Jess has learned many a skill over the years from organization to medicine. Granted, he’s no polymath, but he’s good enough to either solve basic issues or provide a stop-gap measure. However, more specialized or higher-learning skills are out of his grasp. Amoral: Well, it’s not that Jess lacks morals, it’s just that his morals are rather flexible depending on the circumstance. But he makes no excuses for what he’s willing to do. This has the benefit of allowing him to live with himself most of the time. His allies and friends… might not appreciate this view. Stable Disease: Jess is currently suffering from a disease known as ‘Tainted Ichor’ that is slowly destabilizing his form and severely affected regions appear as glitched or blackened skin.. It is, however, kept in a stable state, but it will still flare up which can cause Jess severe pain. This happens randomly and can even knock him out if it becomes bad enough. Biography: Jess Tauri was born in a confederation called the Confederacy of Sovereign States and lived through the Socialist Revolts, a period of rebellions brought on by poor working conditions and the growing influence of the enslavement of xenos. He lost both of his parents during this time in which he was forced to smuggle goods of all kinds to ensure he and his sister did not starve. Jess would later start a gang with his fellow orphans to provide further protection, a point of contention with his sister, but after the New Social Contract and the ending of the War of Succession, caused by the banning of slavery, the central government began to crack down on the criminal elements and Jess was arrests. However, he was offered a full pardon in exchange for using his knowledge of the underworld and to lure out his connections. He took it for it was that or to be hanged with a ‘Necktie’. And so Jess worked for the law for the next decade or so, gaining experience on how to deal with criminal elements in a new age of legal and criminal reform. He would meet former members of his gang who had split off to form their own and either arrested them, convinced them to turn themselves in, or if need be, put them down. Jess would eventually be released from legal work and drift about, occasionally dropping by to meet up with his sister and a new wife. His relationship with his sister, however, was strained because of growing differences in how they viewed the world and the work they did. Jess became a Contractor, slang term for independent mercenaries that took on various jobs, whilst his sister worked directly under the central government as a scientist working on a classified project. Decades later and Jess would learn that his sister had two nieces, both vat-grown from the cells of anonymous donors. He attempted to visit them after they were released, but was denied by the central government, citing his criminal past. Such a thing confused Jess. He served the gov, didn’t he? But his sister managed to inform him of why his nieces were vat-grown. They had been selected for a project that would grant them certain… abilities and a resistance towards what the monsters did after capturing their victims. The two were placed under the sister’s and her wife’s care to ensure the two grew up in a normal upbringing whilst several others were placed in other conditions. Jess was disgusted, so much so that his already strained relationship with his sister broke and he disappeared off into the frontier regions. He would still communicate with his sister and nieces from time to time through letters and gifts, but he could not bear to face his sister. Not after taking part of what he considered an inhumane experiment. However, as luck or fate would have it, something happened which converted one niece whilst both his sister and her wife disappeared. Shortly after, his home country was beset by the monsters led by none other than the converted niece whilst the surviving one was missing. An entire year went by as he looked for her as the military stomped out the monsters wherever they were. An entire year of fruitless searches and endless asking, but he gained a lead. An old friend reached out to him claiming that the surviving niece was welcomed into an old library maintained by a kindly old person. The meeting that followed was… tense to say the least. The niece, Sun Tauri, was barely nine years old when the two finally met. Sun insulted him, claiming that he never cared and that she was better off with the kindly old person. Yet through insulted effort and help from the old person, Sun was eventually convinced to be adopted by Jess. And not moments after did the central government approach Sun to offer her training to eventually become a part of a unit specialized in combating the monsters her sister was converted into. Jess protested, claiming that she was much too young. Yet the gov countered that the monster threat had mutated into something greater, far more organized, and growing in strength. There could be no more half-measures, no more relaxed days, not when the monsters were tearing down the gates. However, they did concede that Jess would have custody over Sun till she was twenty years old. Since then he has dreaded her twentieth birthday. But he had remained steadfast in his sour support for Sun’s decision. However, some time after her twentieth birthday and her leaving to be formally inducted into the military, Jess suddenly finds himself in another world... Other: -Jess stands at a height of 7’11”. Yes this is a joke. [/center]