![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ataraxion app
Sep. 15th, 2013 09:33 pmP L A Y E R I N F O R M A T I O N
Your Name: Citric
OOC Journal: N/A
Under 18? If yes, what is your age? No.
Email + IM: degoggled @ AIM
Characters Played at Ataraxion: None.
C H A R A C T E R I N F O R M A T I O N
Name: Jack B. Badd
Canon: The Chronicles of Riddick: Pitch Black
Original or Alternate Universe: Original
Canon Point: Immediately after the events of Pitch Black
Number: Random
Setting: This character exists in a futuristic-type universe where space is a fairly well trailed terrain. Engineering and general technology has advanced to the point of permitting space travel to be an everyday element, and it is made necessity by massive human population growth and finite resources. There are common scifi elements such as 'cryosleep' for space travel, and advanced weaponry. Despite this, it appears that poverty is prevalent, and all the technology hasn't provided many solutions for the individual. There are no miracle cures, or unification. Artificial intelligence is rare. Many other worlds are colonized by humans, who are the primary known intelligent inhabitants of the universe, and many of those settlers have their own distinct cultures, beliefs, and genetic development (such as Furyans). There are a few established major cities where settlers and pilgrims route between, such as New Mecca. There appear to be uninhabited, hostile planets that are known, but left to their own devices, such as M6-117 (the setting of Pitch Black).
While many planets seem to have a sense of peace and control, interplanetary crime seems to exist in a gray area. There is no apparent overarching government, but big businesses and trades that hold the most sway. For this reason, there are fleets of mercenaries and bounty hunters, ready and willing to seize those opportunities. With few checks and balances, slave trade, militaristic aggression, and various other abuses are pretty rampant. There are 'prison planets', developed to hold the supply of criminals, or anyone who might fall prey to those in power. There is very little indicator as to how organized this justice really is, and it probably runs at the discretion of the individual authorities.
History: Jack B. Badd is a runaway from the planet Taurus 1. Little is known about the planet, or the culture there. (S)he seems to be delighted to have left it behind, and there is some implication of either mistreatment, and/or fear of abuse. Whether this is related to family, community, or anyone (s)he came across in the process of running away, isn't made explicitly clear.
Jack is presented in The Chronicles of Riddick: Pitch Black as a 12 year old boy stowaway of the merchant ship Hunter Gratzner. This is a ship headed for New Mecca, carrying cargo and forty passengers, but it is intercepted by a comet. (S)he narrowly survives the crash of the ship, and emerges with the rest of the survivors on the planet M6-117. This is a desert planet with no signs of life, or life sustaining resources. (S)he is freed unharmed from the wreckage by the free-settlers Shazza and Zeke. During the chaos, the en route prisoner Riddick escapes and assaults the merc Johns; he is promptly recaptured. Riddick promptly escapes again.
Jack seems relatively less anxious than the rest of the group; (s)he is morbidly excited by the presence of Riddick, and eager to be a part of their rescue. (S)he quickly grows closer with the free-settler Shazza, and Imam's acolyte boys. (S)he displays authoritative trust for would be captain Carolyn Fry, believing her to be responsible for their survival in the crash. Unknown to her, Fry had actually attempted to eject the passenger cabin, in a fit of panic. Having yet to meet the prisoner, Jack teases fellow survivor Paris about Riddick's escape, fantasizing about his brutal, survivalist behaviors. Zeke accidently shoots an unknown survivor shortly after, fearing he was Riddick; Jack witnesses the bloody death.
During the death of the unknown survivor, Fry is leading Imam and his acolytes, alongside Johns, in the search for water. Instead, they discover a seemingly abandoned archeological settlement. It has a spacecraft, and the potential for water, but it's without fuel power. Everything other than the ship is powered by the suns, with no alternative sources of power. They would have to lug the fuel cells from the old ship to the new, but it seems daunting.
While Zeke buries the body of the man, he is killed in turn by mysterious underground creatures. Riddick is there to witness, and is witnessed in turn because of Zeke's dying screams. He is recaptured, again, with the survivors, including Jack, believing he is responsible for Zeke's disappearance. When Fry interrogates him for the truth, Jack listens in, and questions him about his eyeshine. When he poses that (s)he has to kill some people, (s)he responds eagerly that (s)he can, and is sent away by Fry.
Fry eventually looks for Zeke, per Riddick's suggestion, deeper in the hole they found. She is attacked by the creatures as well, and crawls into a thin tunnel of light to escape. Jack barely picks up on her screams, and leads the group to her rescue, confirming Riddick's innocence in this particular death.
Now thoroughly afraid of their circumstances, Johns arranges for Riddick to go free, if he helps them survive the planet and formulate an escape. He agrees, and accompanies them in transporting the first fuel cell. Jack is sporting a pair of yellow and black goggles, similar to Riddick's, and begs to talk to him. (S)he's shot down by Shazza and Johns. Shortly after arriving at the archeological site, (s)he is spotted without a hat, with a shaved head as well. (S)he stalks Riddick unsuccessfully throughout the compound, with the acolyte Ali. Jack returns to the group without Ali, the new choice in look earning wholly disapproving looks.
Ali turns out to have chosen to explore the locked and darkened coring room. He is quickly discovered by the creatures, who appear to favor the dark, and torn to pieces. The rest of the group discovers him, at Riddick's direction to the room. There, he theorizes that the settlers were cornered in the coring room, trying to shut themselves away from the creatures, but forgot to 'lock the cellar'. While trying to justify why one would hide from nocturnal creatures in a dark room, Fry uncovers that the planet undergoes temporary shifts from constant daylight to constant dark. Dark is coming soon, and they have yet to move the fuel cells.
Fry urges them to hurry for the cells, but Johns reveals his private concern that Riddick can pilot, and that he might take the ship himself. We learn from Riddick that Johns, who hadn't explicitly identified himself as a merc before, is also a morphine addict. This is all unknown to Jack. The group proceeds with the plan to retrieve the cells, with Jack momentarily worried for leaving Riddick at the settlement. Jack mimics the convict along the way, in gestures and obscenities, more focused on imitation than the plan at hand.
When they arrive, the group scatters for the cells and personal belongings. Jack watches the planets quickly aligning into eclipse in horror, while they race to finish. (S)he assists in trying to revive their solar powered transport, but fails. The planet begins to go dark, before they can even finish loading the cells, and the group witnesses the rising of the creatures from their hollowed out, underground nests. They all run for cover, with Shazza and Riddick being the remaining survivors left in the open, when the creatures reach them. Both hit the ground. Shazza rises prematurely, and is torn in half and carried off, much to Jack's terror and horror, having to be restrained from chasing her. (S)he mourns briefly as they wait in the dark, trapped in some wreckage from the crash site.
Jack questions the sounds the creatures make, and Imam theorizes the creatures use echolocation. They are interrupted by some aggressive attempts to break in by the creatures, and move deeper and deeper to get away. Riddick and an acolyte encounter one of the creatures in the wreckage, and the acolyte is torn apart. The remaining group manages to evade the creatures anyways. Sealed in as far as they can go, the group, particularly Johns and Fry, negotiate their next move.
Fry insists they must return to the settlement, and man the craft, but Johns claims the darkness can't last. He tries to use Jack as a pawn for his argument, pointing out how scared the boy is already, which angers Fry. She insults his cowardice, and Riddick interferes when Johns lunges for her, resulting in a momentary standoff. Johns stands down, and Fry reassures Jack that they have an advantage over the creatures; they have multiple sources of light. She volunteers Riddick to guide them through the dark, with his eyeshine, which he appears to acquiesce to. They obtain glowing tubing from the wreckage, as well as lit alcohol bottles for light. Along the way, Riddick mentions that the creatures know their blood now, to which Jack looks unusually nervous.
The group makes their run with the fuel cells on a sled, powering the glow tubes, with Riddick at the lead. Paris accidently drops an unlit flare, and despite his fear, Jack dives for it, to the protest of Fry and Imam. Imam saves Jack from a diving creature, Johns shooting wildly into the dark. Paris panics, and crawls off into the dark, breaking the glow tube setup, and leaving them all vulnerable and without a major light source. He is speared by one of the creatures, blows a mouthful of liquor over a lighter (revealing many monsters around him and them), and is finally killed.
They regroup and revert to using flares and lit bottles of liquor alone. After a while of traveling, they realize they are going in circles. Riddick says he has been leading them around in a circle, to give him time to think about the roadblock ahead. There is a narrow path ahead, full of creatures. Riddick points out, again, that the creatures are after their blood. Specifically, Jack's, who he identified as 'the girl'. Jack panics, and apologizes tearfully, claiming she didn't want people to mess with her for being a girl. Fry comforts her, and says they have to turn back, that the risk is too high. Johns mocks her, and refuses to go back. He reveals to the survivors that Fry had tried to murder them during the crash.
Johns takes Riddick aside, and proposes that they drag some bait behind them to distract the creatures. Jack watches them suspiciously from afar, though Imam reassures her. Fry shares in the suspicion. Johns insinuates they should use Jack, to which Riddick answers that they need larger bait. He attacks Johns, and wounds him, leaving him to be devoured by the creatures. Riddick then intercepts the fleeing group, mocking their plan to return to the ship as well, and turns them around. Jack is shaken by the losses, and Riddick warns her not to cry for Johns. Imam stops to pray with the group, including Jack, but is unable to persuade Riddick to pray as well. Riddick reveals he isn't a non-believer; he simply hates God.
Riddick orders them to keep Jack in the middle, but also takes the fuel cells to carry all by himself. The creatures around them begin to slaughter one another as they race on, raining blue blood. Riddick demands they keep moving forward, and goes on without them when they pause to save Imam's acolyte. Jack calls after him, desperately, and is targeted by a monster, with the rest of the group preoccupied with the injured acolyte. She is pinned under a chunk of bone in the path, the creature smashing through it. Riddick stops, but seems to decide to move on anyways. It is Fry that leaps to Jack's rescue, and earns the creature's attention instead. Riddick interferes, gutting the creature, and they keep moving forward.
It begins to rain, hard, putting out one of the lit bottles of alcohol. As Jack struggles to light Fry's bottle again, Fry asks Riddick to tell her the settlement is close. He tells her they won't make it, and the last acolyte is snatched by a creature, into the darkness, as Imam screams. Riddick orders them to hide in a small space in the rocks, and rolls a large rock to seal them in. He retrieves the fuel cells and moves on without them. As they try to reconcile their resources without him, Jack resigns out loud that Riddick won't be coming back for them.
Riddick reaches the ship and installs the cells. In the cave, the alcohol light goes out, and the cave begins to glow with bio-luminescent worms, called bioslugs. Jack, Imam, and Fry begin to fill the empty bottles with them to create lanterns. Riddick waits at the ship for some time, in thought, then closes it up, and prepares to leave. Fry reaches the ship, suddenly, glowing bottle in hand, and begs him to return for the others with her. He counter proposes that she abandon them and go with him instead. She refuses, and he insists, until she is in tears. She surrenders to the idea, but changes her mind, and attacks him, demanding he go back. At his questioning, she admits that she would die for the others.
Imam and Jack are surprised by Fry, returning to the cave. Jack waits in a moment of suspense after seeing Fry, and is excited to see Riddick as well. Jack exclaims that she never doubted him, not knowing the event between Riddick and Fry. Riddick is separated from the group, and despite outsmarting one of the creatures, is cornered by two, with only a shiv. Jack boards the ship with Imam, and despite Imam's insistence that they leave, Fry returns for Riddick, as Imam holds a worried Jack at the ship. Riddick is badly wounded, and she attempts to hold him up, reassuring him that they will get back, that she hadn't meant she would die for him. A shadow falls across he back, and she is speared by a creature. After a long moment, it snatches her away, leaving Riddick to crawl back to the ship.
Riddick mans the craft with the two passengers. He hesitates, to Jack's nervousness, but he only waits to maximize destroying as many creatures as he can on liftoff. As they settle in for the flight, Jack questions what they should say about him, if they encounter any questions about the events. He tells her that Riddick died on that planet.
Personality:
Jack is still a kid. This means her sense of self and validation, her motivations are all in a state of growth. She isn't the hardened Jack/Kyra character of the film sequel, but she obviously has the potential, the groundwork. She isn't scarred by her experiences; she's only wounded.
From what we gather in Pitch Black, Jack is disassociated with whatever identity she had on Taurus 1, including gender identity. She is chiseling her way into her version of a better life, with a macho, delinquent attitude. She doesn't drop the ruse even in the face of injury or death, like knowing the creatures seek blood while she's menstruating. That is an extreme conviction from a kid, and it's as much a function of her sense of self preservation. It can be taken from her comments that being a girl has not been an enormously pleasant experience for her. She isn't just hiding from her past. Jack is trying to throw out whatever cards she was dealt, and work outside the confines. From the beginning, we see that she identifies Riddick as what she thinks this looks like.
We can see from her friendly relationship with Shazza and Fry that she isn't wholly alienated from functional authority figures. She presents herself as working independently of them, and not placing a lot of expectations for help, or comfort, but lets them hold her and reason with her (like Fry). She helps most of the adults at one point or another, out of boredom or likeability. This definitely indicates she's not what she idealizes, and she isn't reconciling her aspirations with her behaviors yet. To the contrary, as when she mourns Shazza, or worries for leaving Riddick behind, she has a very normal empathy, a drive for validation and friendship. She wants to trust. Jack judges authority to be more valid when it comes from a person, not a system. Most of it is taken with a grain of salt, but it's still taken.
Jack obviously is taken to a lot of casual, young self-deluding. She's not stupid by any means. She has common sense, and a sort of budding street wisdom. But she is prone to flights of fancy, to devising escapes. For a kid floating in a universe, waiting to be taken advantage of, or lost altogether, being untouchable is a fantastic sort of thing. She is generally familiar with death, and bad things happening to good people, even before the film. She fears for people, and mourns them, handling the deaths with a slowly deteriorating cool, but she handles it, for a time. She is damaged by the events of the film; but she is on her way to scarring it over. She handles stress fairly well, though we can contribute some of that to the unpredictable universe she lives in. Jack has a tough face on, so it's misleading. We see cracks in that, and there's still a lot of tempered empathy.
Jack isn't a negative personality. She is wary, and humorously morbid at times, but that's more a function of her tender age and poor environment. At the core, she is excited by people, and the expanse of worlds. She is an idealist by way of lack of experience, and can still more act upon what she wants rather than what will actually happen. Her priorities are often hit and miss, built on limited worldview and consequences. She would disagree with it, thinking that she's very aware and on top of things that adults aren't. She's just a rough kid who thinks she can be the big bad without losing anything of value in the process.
Specifically, the events of the film alter her in such a way that Jack is brought to a complete bareness, as far as her lies, her self, her sense of control, her ability to handle the real world altogether. It crumples her, a bit, in the way she cowers when the night first falls, or when her gender is revealed. She bricks on top of it, however slight, and that is a foundation. She handles the prolonged attack by the bioraptors with an outstanding fortitude for a girl her age, helping with the collection and preservation of the light, discovering and employing the bioslugs, etc. When pushed to action, she acts, and acts as capably as she knows, and the events of the film have fueled that nature.
Ultimately, Jack fantasizes most about becoming very competent and dangerous, which she nurtures in meeting Riddick. She wants to be accountable to no one. She injects this with a faux eagerness for murder, and being crass, but it's a superficial jabber. Given the right momentum and motivation, she may do something completely off field or unexpected, but that's more a function of youth and an unscrewed morality. It scares her seeing others in pain, but one could say she is prodding a lot of gray areas. She doesn't perceive Riddick, his choices, or the consequences very clearly, latching on to the respect and fear people douse him with instead. She views his isolation as more a function of his being better, faster, stronger than anyone else in a room, rather than necessary, or damaged.
His humoring this forms, at least from her end, a sort of impromptu brotherly bond. By the end of Pitch Black, although she has battled some doubts about him, she still wants to trust him by extension of her admiration. She knows nothing about his abandonment at the escape craft, but given that she was still in awe of him at Zeke's murder, those singular revelations probably wouldn't make or break her trust on its own. Of him, or anyone else she chooses to put on a pedestal. Fry is also one such who survives that sort of vetting. With the knowledge that Fry tried to kill them, Jack maintains a lingering respect and trust for the captain, reflective of the need for a trustworthy figure and giving the benefit of what Fry had done for them so far.
Abilities, Weaknesses and Power Limitations:
Abilities
-- Conventionally smart. She's a fairly clever kid, and can put two and two together faster than a lot of adults she's met. Note, not all adults.
-- Familiar with futuristic technology and space travel. While she's no pilot or Skywalker, she knows her way around basic equipment, weapons, etc. She can imply and identify the use of some technology, and the concept of prolonged space and new worlds doesn't shake her like it might others.
-- Resilience and persistence. She has a growing penchant for surviving, and survivalist habits. She's no great hunter of the wilds, but damned if she won't dig in her heels and stab you with a paper clip. These are her best qualities.
-- Resourceful. She has survived on her own for a while before the catastrophe on M6-117. She managed to stow successfully on a merchant ship. She seems to have a degree of expecting others not to provide for her, and taking initiative.
Weaknesses
-- She's twelve, almost thirteen. Her muscles are nil, her life experiences are pretty incomplete. Now matter how clever, she thinks and behaves like an adolescent/young teenager. She makes split second poor choices (like running into the darkness for a flare when there's a darkness loving superbeast). She is emotionally immature.
-- She's human. She has no hidden superpowers, and she's not a savant. She's fleshy and mortal.
-- Poor mentorship. Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but her preoccupation with Riddick and dangerous behaviors in general are a threat to her present decisions and her future. She idealizes being the baddest kid on the block.
Inventory:
- 1 pair of broken yellow and black goggles
- 1 solar powered robot toy, around one foot long
- 1 dark red striped polo shirt
- 1 cap
Appearance:
PB: Rhiana Griffith
AU Clarification: N/A
S A M P L E S
Log Sample:
Jack wiggles her bare toes against the cool bay floor. It's nerves, not whimsy. It's a disconcertingly familiar sensation, in such a foreign place. She's never traveled by way of goo suspension before, and her heart is still pumping so hard off her ribcage that she can see it jump behind her eyes. Her throat is tight. The initial jolt of adrenaline was like a night terror. Survivable, but goddamn. She is not meant to be here. Jack is meant to be aboard a small, wildly out of date emergency craft, drifting on towards a space highway.
"Imam?" It's squeezed, and she sounds like one of his former disciples. Calling blind. Not a comforting thought, given--you know.
She tries again, with conviction. Her voice echoes back at her, mocking. Maybe they had been discovered. Rescued. Captured. With Riddick on board that craft, all things were in the dice. She pauses to consider, but her brain dashes the theories around with a dizzy sort of enthusiasm. If it is, if it was. Fry--the captain was gone. They hadn't discussed it in enormous anything, but she knew, and it grounded her for a moment. Last she remembered, she had been kind of twisted up about it. Her relief at knowing the planet was a speck behind them, and the pinch that Fry was monster meat. She couldn't call for Fry. Okay.
In a moment of clarity, she realizes it would be better to get dressed than wait for them to come to her. In the meantime. All things considered, this was a nightmare. Whoever had put her in the tube knew she wasn't strictly Jack, if not who she'd been thumbing it with. She shivers, and runs a damp hand over a damp, bare scalp. There's a door there, to the side. Jack approaches it with a tenseness, fists balled. Peeks, prepped for a little ferocity.
Lockers in the clear. Two steps in.
She offers a look back into the room she'd just been birthed in. She shouldn't go shouting about him. They had a plan. She had high hopes for that plan.
Their plan had banked on someone asking. No one was asking. This floor was clear. Dare she, if only to let it out.
Her voice drops to a whisper, nearly but not prayerful. "Riddick." Just in case. He'd totally hear it.
Comms Sample:
[ A face, appropriately goggled and stoic, just too close to the screen. Ahem. ]
One toy. [ She pulls back a few inches, as though to bring something into view, the rattle of something in her hands. Leans back into frame. Amending, ] A kid's toy.
I want-- [ Um. Hm. Whatever she'd had in mind seems specific to a disadvantaged degree.
The toy finally breaks into a little screen time, peeking from the corner as she leans back. A fair sized robot, squared in the little arms and shoulders, with a clear-ish half sphere helmet for a head. A solar powered lil' bot. Faded to hell, and beaten too. ] It works. Whatever you got, hit me up.
I dig practical. [ The bot wobbles in her hand, and drops away. There she is again, in focus. ] Does anyone know anything about shivs?
Your Name: Citric
OOC Journal: N/A
Under 18? If yes, what is your age? No.
Email + IM: degoggled @ AIM
Characters Played at Ataraxion: None.
C H A R A C T E R I N F O R M A T I O N
Name: Jack B. Badd
Canon: The Chronicles of Riddick: Pitch Black
Original or Alternate Universe: Original
Canon Point: Immediately after the events of Pitch Black
Number: Random
Setting: This character exists in a futuristic-type universe where space is a fairly well trailed terrain. Engineering and general technology has advanced to the point of permitting space travel to be an everyday element, and it is made necessity by massive human population growth and finite resources. There are common scifi elements such as 'cryosleep' for space travel, and advanced weaponry. Despite this, it appears that poverty is prevalent, and all the technology hasn't provided many solutions for the individual. There are no miracle cures, or unification. Artificial intelligence is rare. Many other worlds are colonized by humans, who are the primary known intelligent inhabitants of the universe, and many of those settlers have their own distinct cultures, beliefs, and genetic development (such as Furyans). There are a few established major cities where settlers and pilgrims route between, such as New Mecca. There appear to be uninhabited, hostile planets that are known, but left to their own devices, such as M6-117 (the setting of Pitch Black).
While many planets seem to have a sense of peace and control, interplanetary crime seems to exist in a gray area. There is no apparent overarching government, but big businesses and trades that hold the most sway. For this reason, there are fleets of mercenaries and bounty hunters, ready and willing to seize those opportunities. With few checks and balances, slave trade, militaristic aggression, and various other abuses are pretty rampant. There are 'prison planets', developed to hold the supply of criminals, or anyone who might fall prey to those in power. There is very little indicator as to how organized this justice really is, and it probably runs at the discretion of the individual authorities.
History: Jack B. Badd is a runaway from the planet Taurus 1. Little is known about the planet, or the culture there. (S)he seems to be delighted to have left it behind, and there is some implication of either mistreatment, and/or fear of abuse. Whether this is related to family, community, or anyone (s)he came across in the process of running away, isn't made explicitly clear.
Jack is presented in The Chronicles of Riddick: Pitch Black as a 12 year old boy stowaway of the merchant ship Hunter Gratzner. This is a ship headed for New Mecca, carrying cargo and forty passengers, but it is intercepted by a comet. (S)he narrowly survives the crash of the ship, and emerges with the rest of the survivors on the planet M6-117. This is a desert planet with no signs of life, or life sustaining resources. (S)he is freed unharmed from the wreckage by the free-settlers Shazza and Zeke. During the chaos, the en route prisoner Riddick escapes and assaults the merc Johns; he is promptly recaptured. Riddick promptly escapes again.
Jack seems relatively less anxious than the rest of the group; (s)he is morbidly excited by the presence of Riddick, and eager to be a part of their rescue. (S)he quickly grows closer with the free-settler Shazza, and Imam's acolyte boys. (S)he displays authoritative trust for would be captain Carolyn Fry, believing her to be responsible for their survival in the crash. Unknown to her, Fry had actually attempted to eject the passenger cabin, in a fit of panic. Having yet to meet the prisoner, Jack teases fellow survivor Paris about Riddick's escape, fantasizing about his brutal, survivalist behaviors. Zeke accidently shoots an unknown survivor shortly after, fearing he was Riddick; Jack witnesses the bloody death.
During the death of the unknown survivor, Fry is leading Imam and his acolytes, alongside Johns, in the search for water. Instead, they discover a seemingly abandoned archeological settlement. It has a spacecraft, and the potential for water, but it's without fuel power. Everything other than the ship is powered by the suns, with no alternative sources of power. They would have to lug the fuel cells from the old ship to the new, but it seems daunting.
While Zeke buries the body of the man, he is killed in turn by mysterious underground creatures. Riddick is there to witness, and is witnessed in turn because of Zeke's dying screams. He is recaptured, again, with the survivors, including Jack, believing he is responsible for Zeke's disappearance. When Fry interrogates him for the truth, Jack listens in, and questions him about his eyeshine. When he poses that (s)he has to kill some people, (s)he responds eagerly that (s)he can, and is sent away by Fry.
Fry eventually looks for Zeke, per Riddick's suggestion, deeper in the hole they found. She is attacked by the creatures as well, and crawls into a thin tunnel of light to escape. Jack barely picks up on her screams, and leads the group to her rescue, confirming Riddick's innocence in this particular death.
Now thoroughly afraid of their circumstances, Johns arranges for Riddick to go free, if he helps them survive the planet and formulate an escape. He agrees, and accompanies them in transporting the first fuel cell. Jack is sporting a pair of yellow and black goggles, similar to Riddick's, and begs to talk to him. (S)he's shot down by Shazza and Johns. Shortly after arriving at the archeological site, (s)he is spotted without a hat, with a shaved head as well. (S)he stalks Riddick unsuccessfully throughout the compound, with the acolyte Ali. Jack returns to the group without Ali, the new choice in look earning wholly disapproving looks.
Ali turns out to have chosen to explore the locked and darkened coring room. He is quickly discovered by the creatures, who appear to favor the dark, and torn to pieces. The rest of the group discovers him, at Riddick's direction to the room. There, he theorizes that the settlers were cornered in the coring room, trying to shut themselves away from the creatures, but forgot to 'lock the cellar'. While trying to justify why one would hide from nocturnal creatures in a dark room, Fry uncovers that the planet undergoes temporary shifts from constant daylight to constant dark. Dark is coming soon, and they have yet to move the fuel cells.
Fry urges them to hurry for the cells, but Johns reveals his private concern that Riddick can pilot, and that he might take the ship himself. We learn from Riddick that Johns, who hadn't explicitly identified himself as a merc before, is also a morphine addict. This is all unknown to Jack. The group proceeds with the plan to retrieve the cells, with Jack momentarily worried for leaving Riddick at the settlement. Jack mimics the convict along the way, in gestures and obscenities, more focused on imitation than the plan at hand.
When they arrive, the group scatters for the cells and personal belongings. Jack watches the planets quickly aligning into eclipse in horror, while they race to finish. (S)he assists in trying to revive their solar powered transport, but fails. The planet begins to go dark, before they can even finish loading the cells, and the group witnesses the rising of the creatures from their hollowed out, underground nests. They all run for cover, with Shazza and Riddick being the remaining survivors left in the open, when the creatures reach them. Both hit the ground. Shazza rises prematurely, and is torn in half and carried off, much to Jack's terror and horror, having to be restrained from chasing her. (S)he mourns briefly as they wait in the dark, trapped in some wreckage from the crash site.
Jack questions the sounds the creatures make, and Imam theorizes the creatures use echolocation. They are interrupted by some aggressive attempts to break in by the creatures, and move deeper and deeper to get away. Riddick and an acolyte encounter one of the creatures in the wreckage, and the acolyte is torn apart. The remaining group manages to evade the creatures anyways. Sealed in as far as they can go, the group, particularly Johns and Fry, negotiate their next move.
Fry insists they must return to the settlement, and man the craft, but Johns claims the darkness can't last. He tries to use Jack as a pawn for his argument, pointing out how scared the boy is already, which angers Fry. She insults his cowardice, and Riddick interferes when Johns lunges for her, resulting in a momentary standoff. Johns stands down, and Fry reassures Jack that they have an advantage over the creatures; they have multiple sources of light. She volunteers Riddick to guide them through the dark, with his eyeshine, which he appears to acquiesce to. They obtain glowing tubing from the wreckage, as well as lit alcohol bottles for light. Along the way, Riddick mentions that the creatures know their blood now, to which Jack looks unusually nervous.
The group makes their run with the fuel cells on a sled, powering the glow tubes, with Riddick at the lead. Paris accidently drops an unlit flare, and despite his fear, Jack dives for it, to the protest of Fry and Imam. Imam saves Jack from a diving creature, Johns shooting wildly into the dark. Paris panics, and crawls off into the dark, breaking the glow tube setup, and leaving them all vulnerable and without a major light source. He is speared by one of the creatures, blows a mouthful of liquor over a lighter (revealing many monsters around him and them), and is finally killed.
They regroup and revert to using flares and lit bottles of liquor alone. After a while of traveling, they realize they are going in circles. Riddick says he has been leading them around in a circle, to give him time to think about the roadblock ahead. There is a narrow path ahead, full of creatures. Riddick points out, again, that the creatures are after their blood. Specifically, Jack's, who he identified as 'the girl'. Jack panics, and apologizes tearfully, claiming she didn't want people to mess with her for being a girl. Fry comforts her, and says they have to turn back, that the risk is too high. Johns mocks her, and refuses to go back. He reveals to the survivors that Fry had tried to murder them during the crash.
Johns takes Riddick aside, and proposes that they drag some bait behind them to distract the creatures. Jack watches them suspiciously from afar, though Imam reassures her. Fry shares in the suspicion. Johns insinuates they should use Jack, to which Riddick answers that they need larger bait. He attacks Johns, and wounds him, leaving him to be devoured by the creatures. Riddick then intercepts the fleeing group, mocking their plan to return to the ship as well, and turns them around. Jack is shaken by the losses, and Riddick warns her not to cry for Johns. Imam stops to pray with the group, including Jack, but is unable to persuade Riddick to pray as well. Riddick reveals he isn't a non-believer; he simply hates God.
Riddick orders them to keep Jack in the middle, but also takes the fuel cells to carry all by himself. The creatures around them begin to slaughter one another as they race on, raining blue blood. Riddick demands they keep moving forward, and goes on without them when they pause to save Imam's acolyte. Jack calls after him, desperately, and is targeted by a monster, with the rest of the group preoccupied with the injured acolyte. She is pinned under a chunk of bone in the path, the creature smashing through it. Riddick stops, but seems to decide to move on anyways. It is Fry that leaps to Jack's rescue, and earns the creature's attention instead. Riddick interferes, gutting the creature, and they keep moving forward.
It begins to rain, hard, putting out one of the lit bottles of alcohol. As Jack struggles to light Fry's bottle again, Fry asks Riddick to tell her the settlement is close. He tells her they won't make it, and the last acolyte is snatched by a creature, into the darkness, as Imam screams. Riddick orders them to hide in a small space in the rocks, and rolls a large rock to seal them in. He retrieves the fuel cells and moves on without them. As they try to reconcile their resources without him, Jack resigns out loud that Riddick won't be coming back for them.
Riddick reaches the ship and installs the cells. In the cave, the alcohol light goes out, and the cave begins to glow with bio-luminescent worms, called bioslugs. Jack, Imam, and Fry begin to fill the empty bottles with them to create lanterns. Riddick waits at the ship for some time, in thought, then closes it up, and prepares to leave. Fry reaches the ship, suddenly, glowing bottle in hand, and begs him to return for the others with her. He counter proposes that she abandon them and go with him instead. She refuses, and he insists, until she is in tears. She surrenders to the idea, but changes her mind, and attacks him, demanding he go back. At his questioning, she admits that she would die for the others.
Imam and Jack are surprised by Fry, returning to the cave. Jack waits in a moment of suspense after seeing Fry, and is excited to see Riddick as well. Jack exclaims that she never doubted him, not knowing the event between Riddick and Fry. Riddick is separated from the group, and despite outsmarting one of the creatures, is cornered by two, with only a shiv. Jack boards the ship with Imam, and despite Imam's insistence that they leave, Fry returns for Riddick, as Imam holds a worried Jack at the ship. Riddick is badly wounded, and she attempts to hold him up, reassuring him that they will get back, that she hadn't meant she would die for him. A shadow falls across he back, and she is speared by a creature. After a long moment, it snatches her away, leaving Riddick to crawl back to the ship.
Riddick mans the craft with the two passengers. He hesitates, to Jack's nervousness, but he only waits to maximize destroying as many creatures as he can on liftoff. As they settle in for the flight, Jack questions what they should say about him, if they encounter any questions about the events. He tells her that Riddick died on that planet.
Personality:
Jack is still a kid. This means her sense of self and validation, her motivations are all in a state of growth. She isn't the hardened Jack/Kyra character of the film sequel, but she obviously has the potential, the groundwork. She isn't scarred by her experiences; she's only wounded.
From what we gather in Pitch Black, Jack is disassociated with whatever identity she had on Taurus 1, including gender identity. She is chiseling her way into her version of a better life, with a macho, delinquent attitude. She doesn't drop the ruse even in the face of injury or death, like knowing the creatures seek blood while she's menstruating. That is an extreme conviction from a kid, and it's as much a function of her sense of self preservation. It can be taken from her comments that being a girl has not been an enormously pleasant experience for her. She isn't just hiding from her past. Jack is trying to throw out whatever cards she was dealt, and work outside the confines. From the beginning, we see that she identifies Riddick as what she thinks this looks like.
We can see from her friendly relationship with Shazza and Fry that she isn't wholly alienated from functional authority figures. She presents herself as working independently of them, and not placing a lot of expectations for help, or comfort, but lets them hold her and reason with her (like Fry). She helps most of the adults at one point or another, out of boredom or likeability. This definitely indicates she's not what she idealizes, and she isn't reconciling her aspirations with her behaviors yet. To the contrary, as when she mourns Shazza, or worries for leaving Riddick behind, she has a very normal empathy, a drive for validation and friendship. She wants to trust. Jack judges authority to be more valid when it comes from a person, not a system. Most of it is taken with a grain of salt, but it's still taken.
Jack obviously is taken to a lot of casual, young self-deluding. She's not stupid by any means. She has common sense, and a sort of budding street wisdom. But she is prone to flights of fancy, to devising escapes. For a kid floating in a universe, waiting to be taken advantage of, or lost altogether, being untouchable is a fantastic sort of thing. She is generally familiar with death, and bad things happening to good people, even before the film. She fears for people, and mourns them, handling the deaths with a slowly deteriorating cool, but she handles it, for a time. She is damaged by the events of the film; but she is on her way to scarring it over. She handles stress fairly well, though we can contribute some of that to the unpredictable universe she lives in. Jack has a tough face on, so it's misleading. We see cracks in that, and there's still a lot of tempered empathy.
Jack isn't a negative personality. She is wary, and humorously morbid at times, but that's more a function of her tender age and poor environment. At the core, she is excited by people, and the expanse of worlds. She is an idealist by way of lack of experience, and can still more act upon what she wants rather than what will actually happen. Her priorities are often hit and miss, built on limited worldview and consequences. She would disagree with it, thinking that she's very aware and on top of things that adults aren't. She's just a rough kid who thinks she can be the big bad without losing anything of value in the process.
Specifically, the events of the film alter her in such a way that Jack is brought to a complete bareness, as far as her lies, her self, her sense of control, her ability to handle the real world altogether. It crumples her, a bit, in the way she cowers when the night first falls, or when her gender is revealed. She bricks on top of it, however slight, and that is a foundation. She handles the prolonged attack by the bioraptors with an outstanding fortitude for a girl her age, helping with the collection and preservation of the light, discovering and employing the bioslugs, etc. When pushed to action, she acts, and acts as capably as she knows, and the events of the film have fueled that nature.
Ultimately, Jack fantasizes most about becoming very competent and dangerous, which she nurtures in meeting Riddick. She wants to be accountable to no one. She injects this with a faux eagerness for murder, and being crass, but it's a superficial jabber. Given the right momentum and motivation, she may do something completely off field or unexpected, but that's more a function of youth and an unscrewed morality. It scares her seeing others in pain, but one could say she is prodding a lot of gray areas. She doesn't perceive Riddick, his choices, or the consequences very clearly, latching on to the respect and fear people douse him with instead. She views his isolation as more a function of his being better, faster, stronger than anyone else in a room, rather than necessary, or damaged.
His humoring this forms, at least from her end, a sort of impromptu brotherly bond. By the end of Pitch Black, although she has battled some doubts about him, she still wants to trust him by extension of her admiration. She knows nothing about his abandonment at the escape craft, but given that she was still in awe of him at Zeke's murder, those singular revelations probably wouldn't make or break her trust on its own. Of him, or anyone else she chooses to put on a pedestal. Fry is also one such who survives that sort of vetting. With the knowledge that Fry tried to kill them, Jack maintains a lingering respect and trust for the captain, reflective of the need for a trustworthy figure and giving the benefit of what Fry had done for them so far.
Abilities, Weaknesses and Power Limitations:
Abilities
-- Conventionally smart. She's a fairly clever kid, and can put two and two together faster than a lot of adults she's met. Note, not all adults.
-- Familiar with futuristic technology and space travel. While she's no pilot or Skywalker, she knows her way around basic equipment, weapons, etc. She can imply and identify the use of some technology, and the concept of prolonged space and new worlds doesn't shake her like it might others.
-- Resilience and persistence. She has a growing penchant for surviving, and survivalist habits. She's no great hunter of the wilds, but damned if she won't dig in her heels and stab you with a paper clip. These are her best qualities.
-- Resourceful. She has survived on her own for a while before the catastrophe on M6-117. She managed to stow successfully on a merchant ship. She seems to have a degree of expecting others not to provide for her, and taking initiative.
Weaknesses
-- She's twelve, almost thirteen. Her muscles are nil, her life experiences are pretty incomplete. Now matter how clever, she thinks and behaves like an adolescent/young teenager. She makes split second poor choices (like running into the darkness for a flare when there's a darkness loving superbeast). She is emotionally immature.
-- She's human. She has no hidden superpowers, and she's not a savant. She's fleshy and mortal.
-- Poor mentorship. Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but her preoccupation with Riddick and dangerous behaviors in general are a threat to her present decisions and her future. She idealizes being the baddest kid on the block.
Inventory:
- 1 pair of broken yellow and black goggles
- 1 solar powered robot toy, around one foot long
- 1 dark red striped polo shirt
- 1 cap
Appearance:
PB: Rhiana Griffith
Jack is a tall, slim twelve year old girl. She is not overwhelmingly developed, in a feminine way or muscularly, and still easily passes for male. She is starting to employ basic measures, though, like chest wrapping. When her hair is grown, it's a medium brown, with blue eyes.
Currently, she chooses to have a shaved head, to better emulate her 'mentor'. When she's around people who don't know she's a girl, she speaks in a slightly lower pitch. She's so committed to the act that it's automatic, and not easy to shake her from. She speaks slightly higher when people know she's a girl.
Age: 12 (close to 13).Currently, she chooses to have a shaved head, to better emulate her 'mentor'. When she's around people who don't know she's a girl, she speaks in a slightly lower pitch. She's so committed to the act that it's automatic, and not easy to shake her from. She speaks slightly higher when people know she's a girl.
AU Clarification: N/A
S A M P L E S
Log Sample:
Jack wiggles her bare toes against the cool bay floor. It's nerves, not whimsy. It's a disconcertingly familiar sensation, in such a foreign place. She's never traveled by way of goo suspension before, and her heart is still pumping so hard off her ribcage that she can see it jump behind her eyes. Her throat is tight. The initial jolt of adrenaline was like a night terror. Survivable, but goddamn. She is not meant to be here. Jack is meant to be aboard a small, wildly out of date emergency craft, drifting on towards a space highway.
"Imam?" It's squeezed, and she sounds like one of his former disciples. Calling blind. Not a comforting thought, given--you know.
She tries again, with conviction. Her voice echoes back at her, mocking. Maybe they had been discovered. Rescued. Captured. With Riddick on board that craft, all things were in the dice. She pauses to consider, but her brain dashes the theories around with a dizzy sort of enthusiasm. If it is, if it was. Fry--the captain was gone. They hadn't discussed it in enormous anything, but she knew, and it grounded her for a moment. Last she remembered, she had been kind of twisted up about it. Her relief at knowing the planet was a speck behind them, and the pinch that Fry was monster meat. She couldn't call for Fry. Okay.
In a moment of clarity, she realizes it would be better to get dressed than wait for them to come to her. In the meantime. All things considered, this was a nightmare. Whoever had put her in the tube knew she wasn't strictly Jack, if not who she'd been thumbing it with. She shivers, and runs a damp hand over a damp, bare scalp. There's a door there, to the side. Jack approaches it with a tenseness, fists balled. Peeks, prepped for a little ferocity.
Lockers in the clear. Two steps in.
She offers a look back into the room she'd just been birthed in. She shouldn't go shouting about him. They had a plan. She had high hopes for that plan.
Their plan had banked on someone asking. No one was asking. This floor was clear. Dare she, if only to let it out.
Her voice drops to a whisper, nearly but not prayerful. "Riddick." Just in case. He'd totally hear it.
Comms Sample:
[ A face, appropriately goggled and stoic, just too close to the screen. Ahem. ]
One toy. [ She pulls back a few inches, as though to bring something into view, the rattle of something in her hands. Leans back into frame. Amending, ] A kid's toy.
I want-- [ Um. Hm. Whatever she'd had in mind seems specific to a disadvantaged degree.
The toy finally breaks into a little screen time, peeking from the corner as she leans back. A fair sized robot, squared in the little arms and shoulders, with a clear-ish half sphere helmet for a head. A solar powered lil' bot. Faded to hell, and beaten too. ] It works. Whatever you got, hit me up.
I dig practical. [ The bot wobbles in her hand, and drops away. There she is again, in focus. ] Does anyone know anything about shivs?