Jack Nevins
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
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| "I understand now. Everything that's happened has been my fate. I am the Knight of Maysara, bearer of the holy blades!" | |
| Jack Denhall Nevins | |
| Player: @Eiji Nakamura | |
| Origin: | Magic |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Scrapper |
| Security Level: | 42 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Jack Nevins |
| Known Aliases: | The Knight of Maysara, Jack of Blades |
| Species: | Human |
| Age: | 19 |
| Height: | 6 ' 1 " |
| Weight: | 156 lbs |
| Eye Color: | Gray |
| Hair Color: | Brown |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | American |
| Occupation: | Student |
| Place of Birth: | Brinn's Coast, ME |
| Base of Operations: | King's Row |
| Marital Status: | Currently dating Jill Nerendrill |
| Known Relatives: | David Nevins (father), Phoebe Nevins (mother) |
| Known Powers | |
| Swordsmanship, fast healing and acrobatics. | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Knowledge of world history and literary arts, rapidly-blooming understanding of magical thoerem and the ability to turn almost anything into a tasty meal. | |
| Equipment | |
| The holy blades Etfel and Reycied | |
| No additional information available. | |
Jack Nevins, one of Paragon City's latest registered heroes, doesn't seem to qualify as one at first glance. Despite wearing his Security Card on his belt, his unassuming appearance, awkward scrawniness and seemingly-perpetual look of minor naiveté seem to suggest he is something of a hayseed. His actions, however, speak much louder than his plain background.
Contents |
History
Though young and still early in his stint as a superhero, Jack's life has been punctuated by notable milestones.
Discovering a Secret
Jack began his heroing career like many young, aspiring do-gooders--he was completely normal. Attending high school at Ridgemont Coastal in his hometown of Brinn's Coast, Maine, he worked part-time for the public library and had secured a scholarship at BCU, hoping to major in English with a minor in world history. His days not spent in class or at work were whittled away pacing the beach by moonlight, or curling up with a book at his favorite coffee house haunt, Johnson's on the Harbor.
One night, during one of these moonlit excursions, Jack happened upon a beautiful, blue-haired girl curled up on the beach. As he drew closer, he noticed that the girl was bleeding from a gaping wound in her stomach, and judging by the amount of blood staining the surf, she would die without medical attention. As he approached to offer his aid she looked up at him with eyes that held a desperate pleading. Reaching out one pale, slender hand, she wrapped the young man in a thin mist of deep azure. Light shone all around him, and when it cleared there was nothing left of the girl but a bloodstain in the sand and two medieval-style longswords lying at his feet. Shaking, Jack looked down at his right hand and saw a mark; a blue tattoo of a dragon's silhouette spreading its wings over a droplet of water.
Jack took the swords and wrapped them in his trusty jacket, and made sure to hide his hand from his parents when he went home. He spent the next week poring over the internet, trying to find any references to his new marking, and to the two blades, which were named "Etfel" and "Reycied".
Unfortunately, his search yielded little in the way of results. However, he did manage to find some information about Paragon City and its MAGI division. In a place they called the City of Heroes, he deduced, he was bound to find someone who could help him understand.
He left home exactly one week after finding the blades. Taking the last $200 from his personal funds, Jack left a note for his parents explaining what had happened and that he loved them very much, and hopped a Greyhound south down the coast for Rhode Island. The City of Heroes was waiting for him.
Paragon City Blues
The next day, young Jack arrived in Paragon with a good feeling. Disembarking at Atlas Park, he made his way to City Hall without a moment's delay and spoke with the representatives of MAGI. Unfortunately, those in charge could not discern the nature of his blades, or of his curious marking without further study. Because he was likely to be in the city for much longer than anticipated, Jack registered himself as a Security Level 1 hero under the pretense that he could do some good for the city while he waited.
Jack's first few fights, however, were messy and blinding, more often than not sending Jack away with a bitter victory and more than just a swollen lip. But he kept trying, and by the end of the day he had begun to cobble together an effective, if somewhat unrefined, style of using the twin blades left in his care.
As the days passed and no word came from Magi, Jack Nevins faced an even greater, though more mundane problem: finding a place to stay. His $200 was dwindling fast, and hotels did not come cheap. For the first week and a half, Jack sometimes slept on a park bench or went a day at a time without food. What hotels he could afford were slovenly at best, though gave him ample material for him to write his first song, "Paragon City Blues".
During this time of trial Jack hopped between Super Groups, never staying long in any, and finding no place that he felt suited him. It wasn't until halfway through his second week, among the chill autumnal wind of Croatoa, that his stay in Paragon began to look up.
The Echelon
Duality, the leader of the Echelon Super Group, extended an offer to young Jack, which he promptly accepted. Taken under their caring wing, Jack was brought aboard the Shade Sentinel and given a place to sleep. With new friends and a place to live, Jack had begun to focus more on protecting the innocents of Paragon City, and less on finding the key to his odd marking. Though sometimes in the dark of night he could feel those blue lines squirming...and then the nightmares began.
Beyond the Portal
Despite all the problems he faced, Jack continued to skyrocket in power. Under the tutelage of his friend Joey (aka Tsunami Dynamo), Jack prepared to enter one of the Portals beneath Peregrine Island. What he found on the other side was a surprise--an alternate-Earth version of the Circle of Thorns city, Oranbega. However, in this dimension, the Circle of Thorns were a group of peaceful aescetics who preached pacifism and kindness. Unfortunately, they were also being besieged by the Malta Group. Battling through the mechanical behemoths and well-trained soldiers, the team managed to expunge Malta from the ancient city.
In return, one of the Mages who recognized the mark on his hand as the Mark of Knighthood gave him an ancient manuscript called "The Guardian of Water". With an answer finally in his hands, Jack thanked them and departed Oranbega for his home dimension.
The Knight of Maysara
For the moment, Jack set aside the self-taught Russian he had been studying and began to read the manuscript. In doing so, Jack discovered that the origin of his powers came from a Water Dragon named Maysara. A dimension-traveling creature who could often take human form, she flew the waters between worlds protecting the seas. The manuscript spoke of this noble creature naming a Knight to oversee her in times of strife. The Knight of Maysara was marked on the back of his hand, and given the holy swords Etfel and Reycied to protect his patron dragon. The Mark of Knighthood would offer a mental link between Knight and Dragon, as well as imbuing the bearer with the strength, speed, grace and hardiness of a great wyrm.
However, the manuscript contained no clue as to what happened when the dragon died, for Jack now knew that the girl who had died on the sands of his hometown was Maysara of the Waves. He packed the manuscript away, and set out once more to find another piece of the puzzle that has fallen into his lap.
The Aspect of the Tetrarch
For Jack, the nightmares began to slowly get worse over the course of the next several months. In his dreams, he beheld a man swathed entirely in black and carrying a battle axe made of some kind of silver metal, whose caused destruction, death and pain wherever he walked. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Jack knew he would have to face this man someday. He tentatively labelled this man "Falx", based on the Latin word for "sickle", in reference to the shape of the man's axe.
In an effort to take his mind off the unfortunate images that haunted his dreamscapes, Jack began to spend more time on patrol, and less time sleeping. As a result, he began to grow stronger in a much shorter period of time. The power of Maysara bloomed inside him, flooding his mind and body and overloading him. One day, while leaping across Steel Canyon, he suddenly lost consciousness and awoke face-down in the water with a brand new body--a jet-black creature with glowing glue markings on its skin, a tail and claws on its hands and feet. He was unable to change back, and a dark panic welled within him, but it was tempered by curiosity. In this form, Jack was stronger, faster, and had the increased senses of a beast, and he could hear a lulling, soothing song in his head, which he somehow knew was the song of his patron dragon.
Two days later, once the energy inside him had stabilized, Jack was able to revert to his human form. From that point on, he was able to bleed his body into that of the dark Aspect at any time he so chose.
The Knight Manifest
Another stepping stone waited for him not a week later. In the midst of a fight against the Freakshow, Jack felt as if his heart was swelling and about to burst. As he fought through the pain to save a civilian, the sensation spread through his limbs and into his head. In an overwhelming burst of blue light, Jack was honored with a protective suit of armor created by the Dragon Tetrarch for use by the Knight of Maysara. Etfel and Reycied became two elegant, feathered scimitars, and his eyes seemed to blaze with blue fire while he wore it.
Jack has remarked that the Armor of Maysara is as close as he'll willingly get to superhero clothing, saying that "Every knight needs a suit of armor, right?"
Appearance
For all intents and purposes, Jack Nevins is a wholly unremarkable eighteen-year-old boy. Standing just over six feet, he is wiry to the point of being scrawny, with hands and feet that seem just a tad too large, and a lithe frame that seems to be mostly leg. His gangly, awkward appearance lends him a sort of vulnerability that many find comely and endearing, though he looks at his lack of bulk as a curse. He has the strongly-built cheekbones of his father, but the narrow jaw and slight snub nose of his mother, placing him on the average side of handsome. Recently, he suffered a cut on his face from a Freak with a blade magically imbued by the Circle of Thorns. As a result of the disruptive magical energies, it did not heal properly, and he has an aged, worn, smooth scar starting at his forehead, moving down over his left eye and down his cheek.
Jack wears his dark brown hair cropped short and finger-combed. His eyes are a deep slate-gray, and his skin is tanned to a sun-kissed, attractive bronze. He adamantly refuses to dress in "super-hero clothing", favoring the mobility and comfort of plainclothes. He can usually be seen wearing a white t-shirt and blue jeans, red high-top sneakers and his faded, worn bomber jacket. He has fashioned a leather harness that holds both Etfel and Reycied in sheathes over his left shoulder, held perpendicular to the ground.
Personality
More than any other trait, Jack Nevins can be described as altruistic. He cannot resist helping those in need, and often feels inadequate when introduced into a situation in which he cannot aid a friend. This rampant helpfulness is held partially in-check by a very slight, almost self-depricating sarcasm. He loves to laugh and tell off-color jokes, and he feels that to really get to know someone, you need to make them laugh.
Jack is a hopeless romantic. He enjoys quiet, introspective moments such as drinking a hot spiced coffee during a rainstorm, and still believes that a first kiss is magical. His self-esteem is low, and this comes across in self-depricating remarks and jokes at his own expense. Despite his scrawny build and bad luck with women, however, his recent involvement with his new girlfriend Jill has given him a new, more confident outlook on life.
He places a great deal of faith in the power of music, art and literature, and will almost always try diplomacy before fisticuffs. If his friends or an innocent victim are threatened, however, he will not rest until all offenders are lying in the Zig.
Powers and Abilities
Until very recently, Jack was just a normal (if intelligent) young man. With the advent of Maysara's power and the acquisition of the twin blades Etfel and Reycied, new skills have opened up to him.
Swordsmanship
Jack is a peerless swordsman, having cobbled together a slipshod two-sword style from trial-and-error and reading from the works of Miyamoto Musashi. While lacking any substantial stances, forms and strikes, it makes up for a lack of discipline with an abundance of creativity and unpredictability. While fighting, Jack commonly uses the blades, hilts and crossguards of his swords as well as the occasional elbow, punch, kick or leg sweep to take enemies down.
In his Aspect form, Jack fights with a feral style, hunched down and leaping at enemies like a beast, even using his tail and talons as he fights.
Acrobatics
Because of his lithe build, Jack is naturally springy and spry. This was augmented by the dragon's alacrity given to him by the Mark of Knighthood. Blessed with superb hand-eye coordination, he is capable of agile flips, back-handsprings, cartwheels, gainers and general tumbling. He has also unlocked the ability to launch himself in soaring leaps that can clear buildings.
While wearing the Armor of Maysara, Jack also gains the ability to fly.
Regeneration
Because of his patron dragon and his status as the new Guardian of the Seas, Jack can heal from mortal wounds in mere minutes. Small scratches and cuts heal before they can even bleed, more often than not, and no wound left on him leaves a scar unless it is imbued with powerful disruptive magic.
Willpower
(OOC, his willpower is explained by use of Inspirations.)
Something that Jack did not gain from Maysara is his indomitable will. Despite his frail body and low self-esteem, he has an unbreakable confidence in battle, and can rise again after lesser heroes would have succumbed to their wounds. A single break in the flow of battle can give Jack all the time he needs to regain his focus and turn the tide of victory.
Equipment
Jack carries a myriad of equipment on his person at all times. This includes, but is not limited to the following:
Etfel and Reycied
The holy longswords of the Water Dragon Maysara (though he is unaware of this fact at the moment) are expertly-crafted weapons. Their hilts are made of ironwood wrapped in blue leather with crossguards and blades of triple-folded Damascus steel. They are magically imbued to never rust, dull or break, and they have superior cutting edges. While the blades themselves are magical, Jack's skill with them comes more from his hard training with them rather than any magic influence.
It was recently discovered that the blades could take the shape of the user's will. With a significant amount of concentration, Jack can alter them into almost any other type of blade to suit his situation. Their original forms are those in which Jack found them, but with the advent of the Armor of Maysara, their "true forms" have been revealed--two elegant sabers decorated with a feather-and-coral motif.
Ouroboros Pendant
A simple metal locket that Jack wears about his neck. It has no actual value, but it contains within it a sample of soil from the islands surrounding Ouroboros. Jack took that soil sample as a reminder that he had once stood at the End of Time.
Bomber Jacket
An ancient, brown leather flight jacket, worn by Jack's grandfather and namesake, Jack Gershwin Nevins. J.G. Nevins was an American who obtained British citizenship prior to World War II, and served the Allies as an Ace in the Royal Air Force, and later in the Special Air Service. It is light, warm and has the SAS motto "Who Dares, Wins" stitched up one sleeve.
Blues Harmonica
One of Jack's most treasured possessions. He is an accomplished player of Chicago- and Delta-style blues music, and when the mood calls for it, can sing the blues so low it would leave only the most heartless heroes dry-eyed.
Hair Ornament
A simple white feather decorated with diamond beads. Jack wears it tied into his hair behind his right ear. When asked about its origins, he just grins.
Backpack
A simple leather messenger bag that Jack wears at all times. Its current contents are;
-Two changes of clothes
-The Canterbury Tales, by Chaucer
-A Book of Five Rings, by Miyamoto Musashi
-A Leatherman's tool
-A small first-aid kit
-The January, 2009 issue of Playboy magazine
-Sheet music and accompaniment for "Paragon City Blues"
-Japanese for Beginners by Mitsuhide Daigoro and Casey Barnes
-The Guardian of Water by the mages of an alternate-Earth Oranbega
Allies
Because the Foundation no longer houses Jack and he has moved on to working alone once more, he has few friends and allies to speak of.
The Future...?
Jack's future is clouded in violence and heroism. Only time will tell if this young man, plucked out of obscurity, will rise to become one of Paragon's greatest heroes, or fall and die a nobody.
Theme Songs
Various theme songs that I associate with Jack. Some resonate with his drive to be a protector, some with his kindness, some with his self-doubt and still others with his quirked sense of humor.
-"Anna Molly", Incubus
-"That's What Friends Are For", Stevie Wonder
-"Chove en Santiago", Luar na Lubre
-"Rubber Biscuit", the Chips
-"Nemo", Nightwish
-"Miles Away", Winger
-"Crossroads", Cream
-"The Immigrant Song", Led Zeppelin
-"Riding With the King", B.B. King and Eric Clapton
