Acantha/JackOfHearts

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Jack of Hearts

Jack, inspired by a random character my roommate made in Soul Calibur III, is kind of...odd. But I like him a lot. Even if his one Compassion makes him an odd choice for the Maiden of Serenity.

Once I add some experience and refine his character background, Jack is going to be a PC in an Abyssal game. Hooray for conspiring with the ST...

So, Jack is being revamped a bit to better mesh with the other PCs. He's also getting a healthy amount of XP so he can act as the final boss without failing the first round.

Fiction

Weep, Sweet One

I broke a goddess once.

She was a creature of diaphanous sugar and sweet lies, the very essence of heartbreak made flesh. A runaway from the Celestial Bureau, she had set herself up in a corner of Great Forks, the city of the gods, and purloined from the surrounding temples a selection of nubile young worshippers that fawned and frolicked with her all hours of the day and night. She eluded capture a thousand times, and the censors were at a loss when they petitioned the Bureau of Destiny for a hunter to track down and bring to trial this errant goddess. They were surprised when a joint conclave of divisions chose me for the job.

I was younger then, but I pride myself in admitting I was no less jaded. At the advice of my mentor, I crafted a disguise of essence and star magic, tested it on a few unsuspecting gods in the ranker districts of Heaven, and satisfied I could make even the most hard-hearted creature melt, descended to her temple.

She never suspected the disheveled, handsome youth that appeared in her shrine’s doorway during an impromptu festival in her honor. I wove my way through her court like a ghost at first, allowing her only glimpses of my face or body through the swirling bodies of her supplicants. The magic caught her before long, and she broke into the crowd to find me; yet, I was always a step ahead of her, never letting her touch more than a lock of my hair or the curve of my back. When she came face to face with me, I only smiled before melting back into the crowd. It was maddening.

Day after day, I waltzed in and out of her temple at my own whim, ignoring her demands to sit beside her or serve her wine and peaches (pale imitations of Heavenly fare). Each defiance made her want me more, and each smile I gave her made her heart ache for me. I watched as she succumbed to lust with just a thought of me, and cried out my name in the night as others labored to please her. Soon she could not sleep, but tossed and turned, her dreams filled with the sound of my laughter or the faint touch of my hand.

When the time was auspicious, I allowed myself one last game.

She wandered the halls of her temple regularly now, unable to sleep for fear of fevered dreams she could not stop. There, I came to her, leading her down darkened corridors, letting her chase me until she was out of breath. And then, in a quiet courtyard under the stars that foretold her demise, I let her catch me and have me for one achingly short moment. I can still taste the sugar on her tongue, and hear her whispers of eternal devotion in my ear.

And then I laughed and laughed, mirthless and uncaring, and she finally knew what I was, and it broke her cold, jade heart.

I left her alone and desolate as the sun rose. She made no attempt to flee when the censors came for her, and her trial was short and to the point. She was sentenced to death, and her body plummeted from the heavens and fell in a last blaze of beauty to Creation.

As a reward, my superiors at the Bureau gifted me with a fine blade, forged with care and weighted with my specific style in mind. The tang is black and blue jade; the braid is sapphire thread woven around moonsilver spines. And the blade… the blade is the pinnacle of craftsmanship: starmetal folded a thousand times, formed lovingly into an edge so sharp it could cut the air itself. It is, without doubt, one of the finest objects I own, and I treasure it.

And when the night is quiet and cool, like that night in the courtyard with my broken, lonely goddess, I hear it weeping.

Description

The Jack of Hearts is a tall, frosty looking man of indeterminate age, coldly handsome despite his everpresent smirk. His skin is pale, unchanging no matter how much time he spends in the sun, and his once-blond hair has now lightened to pure white. He keeps it cut short. Like all of his caste, his eyes are sunlit blue, and his stare can make even a seasoned warrior uneasy.

He wears well-tailored clothes: often, a blue-white silk shirt and pale, close-fitting pants with boots or slippers. He also wears a long, full light blue coat with a high collar, embroidered with almost invisible swirls and loops.

Personality

• cold, calculating
• enigmatic
• doesn't anger easily, and doesn't hold grudges
• takes his work very seriously, even if he acts nonchalant
• surprisingly protective of his employees, but allows some clients their way if they compensate beforehand
• reputation for knowing everything about everything
• somewhat reclusive
• doesn't let people close to him, dislikes relationships

History

The Jack of Hearts was born into a wealthy Nexus merchant family and cursed with a father who loved gambling. When Jack was twelve, the debtors came to collect their money, and left his father dead and his mother weeping over their lost fortune. He gathered up his own personal savings, took his sister Amelia, and left.

For a year, they lived well enough. Then, their money ran out, and they were kicked out of their comfortable inn and onto the streets. Amelia begged on the streets; Jack turned to prostitution to earn money. It wasn't long before one of Nexus's pimps noticed the handsome young boy selling himself by the docks, and took him up as one of his whores. Within a year, Jack was a pimp himself, running an effective business amongst his fellow whores.

However, he set his sights higher. He made a deal with the owner of a high class brothel known as The Garden to come on as a courtesan, and it wasn't long before he rose to the top and became the owner's personal assistant and prize moneymaker. However, his work often had him traveling with clients and rooming in their manors and manses, and he saw little of his beloved younger sister. However, he found her work in the household of one of his former clients, and saw to it that she had everything she could ever need. She seemed happy, and Jack finally felt somewhat in control of his own life.

But, this initial happiness gave way to pain when Jack came home a week early from a client's mansion and went to visit her at her work, only to find her crumpled on the floor, raped by her employer's son. In a moment of passion, he flew at the rapist and throttled him to death, rather than taking his sister and running to a healer to save her life. By the morning Amelia was dead, and Jack was in Heaven with the others of his kind, Exalted as a Chosen of Serenity.

Statistics

Name: Jack of Hearts
Caste: Chosen of Serenity
Nature: Survivor
Allegiance: Independant
Concept: Avenger of Jilted Lovers

Attributes
Strength 3, Dexterity 4, Stamina 4
Charisma 3, Manipulation 4, Appearance 4
Perception 2, Intelligence 2, Wits 3

Abilities
Craft 3, Dodge 4, Linguistics 3, Performance 2, Socialize 4, Presence 4, Resistance 1, Investigation 1, Larceny 2, Lore 3, Occult 2, Athletics 2, Awareness 2, Bureaucracy 3 Martial Arts 4, Medicine 2

Backgrounds
Manse 3, Celestial Manse 2, Savant 2, Connections: Bureau of Humanity 1, Connections: Bureau of Destiny - Cerulean Lute of Harmony Division 1, Artifact 3, Salary 3, Allies 1

Charms
Dodge: Absence, Duck Fate, Avoidance Kata
Linguistics: Favorable Inflection Procedure
Martial Arts: Secrets of Future Strife, Blade of the Battle Maiden
Performance: Heart-Brightening Presentation Style
Presence: Presence in Absence Technique
Socialize: Shun the Smiling Lady, Hot-Eyed Snake Whispering, Cash and Murder Games, You and Yours Stance

Colleges
The Lovers 3, The Captain 1, The Ewer 1, The Sword 2

Virtues
Compassion 1, Conviction 3, Temperance 3, Valor 2

Willpower 6

Essence 3
Personal:
Peripheral:

Notes

Expanded Backgrounds

Manse 3

A former Dragon-blooded manor home, the Garden has changed hands several times over the centuries, until one resourceful man turned it into a brothel, taking advantage of the constant warmth that permeates the manse and makes it possible to grow plants year round. Jack bought it about five years ago from the previous owner, and has since made it into a profitable, pleasant place that people come to for innocent entertainment as well as companionship. It produces two Hearthstones, which form in two small hollows in the center pedestal in Jack's study. They are a Gem of Seduction (level 2) and a Stone of Passion (level 1).

Celestial Manse 2

Jack's Celestial Manse is a Sidereal-aspected townhouse complete with observatory. He maintains a small garden there.

Artifact 3

Salary 3

Note that Jack gets the normal stipend allotted to Sidereals, and does not suppliment that with wealth in Creation. All profits from the Garden go back into the Garden to pay for repairs, salaries, and the living costs of the courtesans.

Allies 1

One of Jack's assistants is Zephyranth, a god-blooded former slave that he picked up at a slave market near Chiaroscuro. Zephyranth knows that his master is one of the Exalted, and he strives to keep this knowledge a secret from everyone, including the other members of the Garden. If and when Jack's resplendant destiny runs out, he plans on taking Zephyranth to Yu-Shan and installing him as his assistant there.

Jack funtions as the owner of the Garden when he takes up the resplendant destiny of the Captain. In this identity he is Narciss, the cold but fair ruler of his domain.

Combos (none of these combos are officially active, since the ST hasn't assigned experience point totals yet)

Flute Captures the Snake

19m, 2W

Heart-Brightening Presentation Style, Hot-Eyed Snake Whispering, Cash and Murder Games

This combo reduces the target number to 4 and adds 3 dice to a Manipulation+Socialize roll to enforce a new relationship between himself and another being. Jack most often uses this to force fear or desire on his target, which they cannot overcome until they spend temporary Willpower equal to the number of successes on his roll. He often channels Conviction with this combo.

Elusive Gesture of Peace

18m, 1W

Absence, Duck Fate, Favorable Inflection Procedure

Use of this combo allows Jack to both evade an attack or other hostile situation while simultaneously speaking his attackers name, forcing him into a state of peace and happiness and ending his hostile thoughts. It reduces the target number of a Dexterity+Dodge roll to 4, and allows that roll to be made against the target's Essence to evade attack.

"You chose down..."

15m, 1W (note that Jack doesn't have these Charms yet)

Wise Choice, Heart-Brightening Presentation Style, Avoiding the Truth Technique

This combo allows Jack to divine which choice among many is the best, and then direct people away from it. It adds 3 dice and an additional 3 automatic successes to a Presence, Socialize, or Bureaucracy roll to convince people that his assertion that the correct choice is NOT the right choice, despite his words.