Jack West

	Member Information
Player:	Bear
Number:	2012100002
Domain:	Adelaide

Template:PC Summary Requiem

Oh my God, please help me,

Neck deep in the river, screamin' for relief.
He says it's mine to give, but it's yours to choose,
You're gonna sink or swim, you're gonna learn the truth,
No matter what you do you're gonna learn the truth, sayin'

Ate the bread that once was stone.
Fell from a cliff, never broke a bone.
Bowed down to get the kings overthrown,
And I'm all alone and the fire grows,
And I'm all alone and the fire grows."

Bartholomew by The Silent Comedy

Personal Information

An Australian agricultural manager (farmer) who was stripped bare of his mortal tethers by fire and death. Jack West was embraced in February of 2005, in front of the burning ruins of his Kine life, and was promptly stolen from his Sire, who beaten away for breaking the Traditions. In the ashes that remained, little was left of Jack but the salt he was born of; the salt of the earth. That very salt would forever burn the parasitic blood of the Beast that intrudes in his being.

The salt shines through in his gritty personality, his blunt honesty, a policy stressing a minimum of secrecy, and his seemingly simple, straightforward nature. Salt is a dangerous chemical substance in the right, or wrong, hands, moving from perfect seasoning to catastrophic explosive - much like Jack himself. The fire that scoured his past life from the face of the world, however, was not about to be outdone so easily - or at all. Its mark forever changed the man, and all who meet him, in one way or another, feel the same, terrifying warmth of the flame.

With a shrewd mind, sharp claws, and a willingness to walk the front lines in spite of fear, Jack has made many marks on the Adelaide Court in his short Requiem. Rising from Sheriff to Carthian Prince, and then parting ways with the Praxis, Jack has maintained himself as the Gangrel Priscus, the Carthian Prefect and one of the most admired Sheriffs Adelaide has ever been lucky enough to be defended by. A long campaign to regain control of the Praxis from poor decisions made by Elder Invictus lead Jack down a dark political path, and his conceding saved Adelaide the dangers of Jack West as their Prince again. Instead, they retained one of their most hardy and reliable Sheriffs,

Appearance

Jack West tops out at a sturdy six feet tall, clocking the far side of a hundred and thirty kilos of fat, muscle and bone. There's Mediterranean in his mortal blood, given the dark, thick, tight-trimmed beard he wears, and the shoulder-length curling tendrils of brown-black hair. Green-hazel eyes are almost permanently hidden by black safety glasses, and his hair kept in check by a signature khaki Akubra hat. A wide jaw, smaller mouth and prominent nose round out his face.

A set of broad shoulders are exclusively adorned with a plaid button shirt, covered in a distinct, three-quarter length suede duster; just baggy enough to pack rifle-length heat without too much showing. Whether intentional or otherwise, the style de'Requiem for Jack is a 'clean, hard-edged cowboy' aesthetic; especially when considered with the 'must-be-ten-gallons-at-least' hat. He wears a black-patterned red bandanna and has been seen to be resolutely protective of it. Regularly, he adjusts (perhaps a little too intentionally to be considered fidgeting) a ratty pair of brown woollen fingerless gloves, of which he also shows a distinct protectiveness. A pair of utilitarian khaki cargo pants over a set of size twelve, steel-toe boots round out the base image of Jack West.

The man himself tends to brood, storm and patrol rather than 'stand', 'move' or 'walk'. When he does move, it's always with the utmost purpose; whether a purpose exists or not is not always clear. Wherever he turns his head, a scrutinising eye lingers behind black plastic. He always seems preoccupied with some undisclosed task; scanning the room, sniffing the air, closely observing others, or working on some manual thing. He never seems busy enough not to hold conversation; rather, he seems to only deem certain topics worth drawing the breath for, but when he does - prepare for an expressive, expletive-laden speech. Occasionally, he can be seen flipping the lid of a very modern looking jet lighter, or sipping from a plain steel hip flask. Otherwise, he stands ready to serve the Court of Adelaide. When he's not working on his farm, of course.

Often times, Jack is seen carrying a... Stop sign, much like one would carry a quarterstaff. Full sized, weathered, but otherwise untarnished, the stop sign even has the jagged concrete chunk at the far end still in-tact. It faintly smells of blood... Always... But has none visible on it. He also carries a large sports bag over one shoulder most nights. Sometimes he can be seen holding it on one arm. A funny prong sticks out of the right side of it.

His shadow is long. A little too long. And it doesn't like to grow shorter with the changing lighting.

Personality

The very first thing Jack became known for was his Wrath. He was known to be, and still can be, an unparalleled font of rage; though a heel has been placed squarely on the throat of his beast. His fuse is long, his frenzies are rare, but what lays beyond is terrifying enough to warrant such control. Where his Wrath ends, however, Hope begins. Unlike some, when left without a firm and/or knowledgeable hand to guide him, Jack takes charge. He leads by cutting the first swath, wide and long, in the hope that, with enough loud grumbling, his Damned countrymen will see a clear path to progress on; lest they be lost to the depths of greed, pettiness and madness the Embrace brings en masse. By action over word, Jack tries to inspire his kin to understand that there is always hope while... Well, while we can still decide to act. Beating hearts aren't a thing for them anymore, and drawing breath is voluntary.

As a man, Jack is honest and straightforward in all things, as he finds blunt truth to be quicker and less painful in both the short and long term. This doesn't preclude being mysterious when he can be, for a feeling of security, if nothing else. While appearing in his very early thirties, Jack's over the fourty mark at this point, with a decade of that Embraced, but he manages an excellent caricature of an 'angry old cowboy' from a distance - shoot first, reload second, ask third. Up close, however, a Kine heart still sits in his chest, and it still remembers empathy. One on one, Jack is still direct and blunt as a hammer, but he listens. He sees the strain of the Beast all too clearly in others, as he feels it hang on his heart more each passing night. He believes in hard work, fair rules, and an equal field on which all Kindred can stand in the dark. His views on the Beast, the parasite that inflicts itself upon those called Kindred, are as salty as his personality.

He's also 'not particularly religious'.

It isn't too surprising to hear of Jack's heavy disdain for the very idea of Kindred, let alone their actual existence; he makes no effort to keep it hidden, nor much to speak of it. The surprise comes in his strong attempt at being respectful and well-informed about the Requiem he now shares with all others. His anger, more now than ever, is focused like a laser only on worthy targets, decimating problems and bodies alike. Any toll taken on Jack's mental state remains generally unseen, as he does his best to keep his internal conflicts from public view - if only for decency's sake.

As a Gangrel, Jack actively works to subvert his Clan's affliction, striving to think more, not less, and to be the imposing, strict master that the Beast cowers from - not the inverse. His rage and his claws are infamous in Adelaide, but his alarmingly shrewd mind and keen ear are perhaps his most deadly, and least-known features. This level of perception and cognition has earned him surprising wisdom, some would say of that of Kindred decades his senior, or greater.

Many would try to summarize Jack in a sentence or less, for simplicity's sake. Jack's response to these sums him up much more aptly.

"Don't."

Mortal World

(WIP) His farm burned down and his fiancée dead, Jack cut ties with his living family and moved into the city to work in IT, trying to board the fast moving train to the future. Whether his Blood, or his past drove it, the farm-life called, and after some serious wheeling and dealing (and, rumour has it, beneficiary bankrolling), Jack is back on a farm somewhere south east of the City, doing what he excels at, but keeping his head well down. Though his farm looks more like a fortress than a homestead, Jack has taken to the modern Adelaide city's thrumming nocturnal focus with discreet gusto.

Information Known by Kindred Society

Having remained staunchly unaligned for a great deal of time, Jack finally joined the Carthians, despite much baiting from the Invictus. During his time as Sheriff and Prince, Jack oversaw the destruction of Adelaide's Society of the Accord outbreak, as well as numerous other 'cases solved/slain'. He has handled hostage situations, coordinated battles and Kindred in desperate times, and has time and again proven to be an unshakeable pillar of the Adelaide Court - someone Kindred know they can rally behind, despite ties or feelings, when the chips are down. He had a vested interest in a particular member of the Court, another Carthian, in fact, though little is publicly known about who or what, or the extent of his involvement with them. Given how he laments and holds to the death of his fiance, it's surprising to think he could move on at all. Jack holds a Haven somewhat outside the City, though the territory and Haven are still considered part of Adelaide's Domain proper. He keeps the location an 'open secret'. Select Kindred have been out there, but only a handful could actually track it down again without Jack to take them there. He keeps pigs and runs a successful farm. The pigs have sharp eyes.

Timeline

1976 - 2005 - Jack was born and raised into farm life, on a property a ways outside of Adelaide proper. He spent his formative years in a school of the air, before gaining employment on the West family farm, tending livestock and crop alike. He did well in school, fought his bullies by fist, and generally failed at romancing - all the hallmarks of a typical Australian Youth. As he grew, he came to understand alcohol and hard work as facets of life, but a young jillaroo by the name of Alexandria Remington stole his heart. They joined, and grew together, working the land to bountiful yields. It wasn't perfect, as Alex and Jack often had conflicting opinions about the world, but they reconciled their differences with acceptance and understanding, and burnt out their frustrations in the bedroom and in hard work in the fields. In the early 2000's, Jack gained propriety of the family farm, with his parents retiring on sizeable supers. In 2005, Jack was embraced, and what remains of his farm, and his fiance, could fill a matchbox with mostly ash...
2007 - 2013 - Jack was taken from his Sire, and after a few months of coming to grips with the reality of his new world, was given a decent Kindred education by Alder Tippara of the Copper Triangle. Jack realised it would take him much longer to come to grips with his situation, and so he left for the City proper, to try and find a new life in the night. He pushed weakly for two years in secrecy, but with so few Kindred, and so little genuine interaction, Jack found an even more hollow life than he felt inside. Returning to Alder Tippara, Jack had an unfortunate event he prefers not to speak of, which left him scarred early in his Kindred years. So, he came to a deal with Alder Tippara - protection in voluntary torpor to help ease the pain of his actions, and in return, hard work with Tippara's Drones. Down for a few and up again, Jack set to work with Tippara's drones, and honed himself further, hard work numbing the pain that his Requiem brought. As time drew on, Jack began to understand that he was, in fact, never aging, effectively immortal. This meant he would, at some point, have to come to interact with the greater Kindred society. With trepidation, but resolve, he set out to enter the Adelaide Kindred scene proper. Alder Tippara provided, and Jack once again found himself on a farm, far way from the problems of the City. With a stable base, he set out for the City, armed only with what Alder Tippara had taught him, and little more...

Recent History

2013-2014

Jack's time in the City during his first years in Kindred Society were sketchy. He came and went, choosing to avoid getting involved in the City's problems where he could. Some Kindred 'scared' him, in what little ways they could given his powers of Protean. Most were simply assholes, or had their heads so far up their asses they couldn't see the simplest issues of a situation. Jack hadn't yet learned enough about the way the Danse Macabre worked, and didn't mesh well with the Court at large. As the numbers burgeoned, he stepped back, but when he finally returned many months later, the Court's numbers had dwindled significantly. Few showed up, there was an asshole of a Carthian Prince, something needed to change. Jack became a Carthian, and sought to make a place for himself while the Court was small. During this time, he stepped on big toes, spoke with gods, butchered undead, and fought with old, long-standing Kindred problems that plagued their society, eventually finding himself as 'Sheriff West', a title he will find he can never escape. However, whether through hard work, dumb luck, or a strange combination of the two, Jack proved to be a stabilising force in the Domain, and the Kindred flowed out of the woodwork to rejoin a more stable society. Soon, Jack realised that his frequent vanishings for up to months at a time had to end, and he settled into the idea of remaining at the Court full time, as it were, to properly assist those few genuinely cursed, but otherwise good souls, he had found in his time there.

2015

August - Took Praxis.
September - Somewhere in the three months of Praxis, Jack saw the complete wipeout of all existing members of the Society of the Accord in Adelaide.
October - ?
November - The First Draft of the Laws were finally introduced, two months after their expected release, to mixed review.
December - The decision was made to contract out the Praxis to the Invictus for 6 months while the Carthians prepared. Jack retreated to his Farm and spent the holidays there.

2016

January - The Praxis changed hands, Jack became again Sheriff.
February - June - A six month campaign for Praxis was held by Jack, fighting a boon-bled shadow war with the Invictus to try and reclaim a Praxis he thought had been stolen from him. With the blood tell oath vanished with Lorenzo, Jack was left in the worst situation possible, after such a resounding victory over an Elder Invictus. During these months, Jack encountered many new problems as Sheriff of Adelaide, including the appearance of an unknown supernatural humanoid calling himself... 'Jack'... To which most Kindred have referred to him as 'Other Jack' to save confusion. Cases of werebears, tentacle monsters from the deep, bleeding stones, the chaos and deaths of many Kindred in haven fires, and many more problems plagued the City as Jack tried his best to maintain his sanity, juggling organisation and defence of a Princeless City. As Synthblood flooded the veins of the streets, feeding became problematic, and so in a desperate move, Jack and a team of Kindred assaulted the local Synthblood storage facility in Adelaide, and promptly blew it up. This pushed Synthblood out of Adelaide, and out of Australia altogether, adding another great victory to Jack's belt.
July - With the Praxis bid finally at hand, the Carthians under Jack had grown in number, and become greatly organised, much to the distain of the Invictus neonates. Jack had Praxis within his grasp, but at the last second... Conceded. This caused much chaos, and is rumoured to be the reason the local Carthian numbers have been shattered, although the City only seems to fare worse and worse. With Kindred havens being tagged, a werebear in the woods, a potentially dangerous development in the blood burners and more, Jack is now tasked with getting the City back to a point of stability... If that is even possible. It doesn't help Jack's crisis of purpose and 'faith', if it can be called that. He's failed the Carthians, and in a way, as best as he has strived to represent and understand them, the teachings of the Carthians have failed him. His views on the matter are complex, but as the Prefect of the Adelaide Carthians, Jack shows no weakness where he can. He remains steadfast in his views, and helps all the local Carthians where he can.

Lineage

Known Sire

The Corvus - Jack's relationship with his sire epitomized the definition of 'Icy Pragmatism'. He bore no love for his Sire what so ever, and granted him no respect for his actions in the way he changed Jack's life. He had, at one point, intended to end his Sire's Requiem early, though it would have been no small task. However, having ascended to Praxis, (and after breaking his Sire's jaw, in direct and intentional violation of Elysium), they seemed to have 'settled matters for now', leaving Corvus reeling in both thought and body. The necessity of a reliably strong arm of Law saw Jack keep the Corvus on as Sheriff.

This didn't last, as Corvus had a crisis of faith, and fled on some damn fool notion to Sydney, before returning after long. On his return, he proceeded to turn the Circle against him, and turned most of the Court against himself in the process, all through separate interactions. Clearly whatever happened in Sydney loosened his grip on his beast to an unacceptable degree. Realising he was no longer welcome, Corvus came to the conclusion that, perhaps, he was a relic of the past, and shouldn't remain. He sought Jack out to have a final chat. After a surprisingly heartfelt discussion, Corvus bid goodbye to the relative stranger that was his Childe, and left for what Jack can only hope is greener pastures.

The conversation they had changed something in Jack. He's been known to defend the discussion of his Sire now, a staunch turn from the desire to kill him for years previous.

Quotes

Quotes By

"Don't tend to give it much thought because it's the same reason as all of us. Because some prick infected you with a parasite, like the rest of us, and, like me, you were left to rot. Boohoo." - Upon being asked "Do you know why I was embraced?" by Ariana Trentworth.

"Fucking Werewolves. FUCKING WEREWOLVES. Of all the fucking... Ghosts, Spirits, fucking Zombies, things from other fucking dimensions, but fucking. WEREWOLVES." - Imperator West in a mental flurry after dealing with the first Court-visiting Werewolf.

"Fuck, you're a fucking idiot." or "What the fuck were you thinking?" - common proverbs from Jack West.

Quotes About

"Kindred are meant to be unflinching, stubborn creatures, but Jack's one of the few I've meant who won't compromise once he's made a decision. That's even more badass than the fucking stop sign." - Lucky

"He burns with the fire that destroyed his life, and he speaks with wisdom beyond his brief years. I think he'll do right by Adelaide, but let's see if they do right by him. Anyway, I like him. He can stay." - Fatimah al-Mu'allima

"One day he'll notice me and notice that I like him. Even if it happens by him killing me with that stop sign. At least he'll have noticed." - Ariana Trentworth

"We had our differences, He even removed a hand. But he's more honest than most of these assholes I share my requiem with." - Mikhail Torre

"Candyman" - Manx

Rumours

Jack is having a crisis of... Covenant? He refuses to leave the Carthians, but... What else could have drawn his mind?
The wall around Jack's Farmstead are more akin to fortress walls than any windbreaker.
Corn and Olive trees aren't the only things growing in soils of Jack's Farmstead - something darker has taken root.
Jack's Pigs have a remarkably watchful eye, but they seem content and unconcerned around Kindred.
Carsten and Jack speak rather often. More often than most others Carsten speaks to.
His Alpacas have won Best-In-Show several years running.
Jack is guarded about his bandana, and his gloves - something to do with his fiancée?
Jack refers to his farm and Haven as The Bastion.
The Protean nature of Jack's Beast is reaching some sort of breaking point.
A select few Kindred are rumoured to have been spotted entering and exiting Jack's farmstead. Given the state of the outer wall - Invite-Only is the most likely bet?

Member Information
Player:	Bear
Number:	2012100002
Domain:	Adelaide