Recent Entries

Player
Name: Slip
Age: 20+
Personal Journal: N/A
Contact: OKae @ Plurk
Other In-Game Characters: N/A

Character (Original Universe)
Name: Jade Curtiss
Age: 36 as of canon point
Gender: Male
Canon: Tales of the Abyss
Canon Point: Post-Eldrant siege
History: Aselia Wiki | A more comprehensive timeline
Personality:

Usually, when Jade ends up having a profile description in some random “Tales of” guide, he is often described along the lines of “always wearing a smile, but no one can tell what his true motives are”.

That is, in fact, Jade Curtiss in a nutshell. A seemingly cheerful mage, he is always ready with a swift wisecrack or sarcastic comment for the situation at hand, often met with groans from his companions. While he is capable of dropping the smile when the situation calls for it, he nonetheless maintains his calm front and ability to make quick and sound decisions and execute them, thus making his title of Colonel well-earned and himself feared and admired by many.

However, he is still quite human, and occasionally slips up with his practiced mask. Topics veering in the direction of his past mistakes, particularly fomicry, will tend to evoke other emotions, ranging from anger to melancholy. After all, his unreadable expression is the result of a decades-old coping mechanism he seemingly developed to distance himself from the past–or rather, his past self. It is not something that naturally came about, for the Jade of the past did not have any trouble expressing what he truly felt and doing whatever he wished. The only reason why the facade seems natural is due to habitual use, and everyone knows about that saying about the man becoming the mask.

Years of experience in the Malkuth military and having to deal with the subtleties of nobility have presumably honed Jade’s ability to read people. Sensing the motivations of others is something of a second nature to him, and this ability has helped him in more occasions than he could count. An insightful man, he tends to read people like he does open books, especially those who have trouble hiding anything from anyone, such as Luke when he tries to keep his impending death by fonon separation. He, however, respects people's needs for secrets, perhaps because he is a man who hides much as well, given his troubled past.

While Jade could be quick on the uptake when it comes to other people and may be quicker (and perhaps, a bit brutal) when dealing with them, he can be thrown off-kilter by his own strong emotions, a contrast to his unruffled demeanor when dealing with some of his companions's more emotional outbursts. It doesn't happen very often, but when it does and he's upset by a matter, such as realizing what Luke must do to eliminate the miasma in one of the in-game skits, he tends to be sharper and dismissive of the train of thought that leads to the situation, like discouraging him from the notion and ending it with a declaration of how's impossible for Luke given what must be done. Otherwise, he tends to ruminate on the fact for an extended period of time, such as the time he takes the time to talk to Guy in the Jade scenario of Tales of Fandom 2 about Guy's feelings regarding the death of his loved ones, all in an attempt to reconcile his own lack of understanding with regard the matter. To this effect, it takes Emperor Peony, his best friend, to explicitly point out that sadness isn't the only manner in which one copes with death, and that him being upset about Nebilim's death back in the day is another way of coping with it.

In contrast to Jade's clear motivations for pursuing fomicry the way he did in his early years, his motivations nowadays are less clear, but the happenings in-game suggest a (slightly more responsible) fascination with knowledge and experimentation, as well as a dedication to his duty as a colonel of the Malkuth Empire and as the emperor's unofficial right-hand man. The former is used in both serious moments (i.e. reading some relevant documents for the party for usable knowledge as well as almost always being the designated explainer ~~if not Guy~~ for certain matters) and light-hearted ones (i.e. some skits with regard to Jade's cooking, as well as a scene involving his doctor costume title), while the latter is what makes him end up meeting with Luke and the rest, and aiding in a chain of events which unfold into the game we know as Tales of the Abyss.

When presented with a problem or a conflict, Jade is driven by what he sees to be fact, or perhaps the most efficient, surefire solution to the situation at hand. While he is capable of tact and would prefer to not to ruffle feathers, he is not afraid to deliver the cold, hard truth if he thinks the situation demands for it. This can be seen in several points in the story, such as suggesting they kill Arietta at Fubras River before she further interferes with them, as well as implying an alternative to eliminating the miasma (Luke sacrificing himself along with the replicas at the Tower of Rem). Or in other words, Jade, in the name of practicality, does not mince words and can be blunt. While he does know there's a time and place for everything, he doesn't hesitate in speaking out harsh realities in life and death situations, even if they may damage his relationship with other people, or perhaps earn him a rough handling, like what can be seen in the aforementioned latter situation, where he upsets Guy with his pronouncement.

The key thing to remember here, however, is that Jade has to think the situation calls for the truth or his thoughts. A lot of the time, he prefers to simply sit back and watching things unfold, which can be seen in the early parts of the game, when Luke has not been largely revealed to be a replica. Jade chooses not to say anything most of the time, knowing it would be troublesome on his end if he did, so he simply keeps quiet, despite suspecting matters as early as capturing Luke and Tear and bringing them to the Tartarus. This changes a bit as the story goes on (with him voicing out his more innovative theories while they were in the process of lowering the Outer Lands) and especially towards the end of the game, with him thinking of taking a more active role with regard resolving the replica situation by reviving fomicry research to help the remaining replicas.

While Jade exudes a cold exterior, he is, believe it or not, capable of caring about others. However, he is not the most conventional about it, preferring snide remarks over awkward words of affection. A sign that he cares is when he scolds people, as he doesn’t bother doing so with people he doesn’t care about. Cold as his homeland, he tends to hold people at arm's length, and is quite slow to trust others unless they've proven themselves one way or another.

To that effect, competence and reliability are important qualities that Jade looks for in a person, most of the time to the point of being utilitarian. Coupled with Jade's high standards and general disinterest in human relationships (even of the platonic variety), it is quite difficult for him to get attached to people. They say respect is earned and not given, and this could not be any more true for Jade. This is especially shown with regard to his relationship with Luke fon Fabre, a young noble he meets on the job.

Initially, Jade just thinks that Luke is some spoiled, rich brat he could take advantage of given his task of delivering an important letter to an enemy country. This opinion worsens as he and his companions travel to Akzeriuth as part of a peace negotiation, where Luke displays certain childish outbursts in response to being kept in the dark, as well as impatiently hurrying the group despite one of their companions being sickly. This negative opinion reaches its zenith in the aftermath of Akzeriuth's collapse, where Luke's denial of responsibility causes Jade to be one of the first people to walk out on him. Though later on, Jade does admit that this reaction of his was partly due to how Luke's behavior reminded him all too well of his child self, who likewise ran away from the responsibility of killing his beloved teacher.

However, as life goes on after Luke's self-imposed change, Jade's outlook on Luke slowly changes. Of course, it does not happen overnight, as words could only take oneself so far and for Jade, nothing speaks louder than action. One of the key points to this change in attitude includes Jade's scolding of Luke, which is something he rarely does and is pointed out as an act of caring, much to his embarrassment. Another key point is when Jade shows hesitation and guilt over giving Luke his death sentence with regard to the miasma situation, to the point where he drops his cold front and goes as far as to call Luke a friend, much to the latter's surprise. After accompanying Luke and his comrades through several more difficult tasks, up and until defeating a well-intentioned extremist, it is only natural that he felt sorrow at the idea of not being able to see Luke again as the latter goes off to fulfill a promise he made to a being called Lorelei. Despite what logic dictated, Jade still wished for Luke to come back to them and said as much, parting from the other with a heavy heart.

It is not often that Jade gets attached to people, but as illustrated above, when he does, he falls hard. Or as hard as someone like Jade Curtiss can, that is.

Powers/Abilities:

Jade is a master of the spear, his weapon of choice.

However, his true skill lies in using fonic artes, the equivalent of magic in Auldrant. A full list of his artes can be found here. He can wield six (Dark, Earth, Wind, Water, Fire, Light) out of the seven known types. Besides being able to cast spells, he is also able to put the theory behind them into practical applications. Examples include using the contamination effect to make his spear materialize and disappear at will and applying fonic sight on himself to increase the rate at which he gathers fonons.

To add a little background, Sound, the type he cannot wield, is primarily used for healing. It is also used for reading the Score (a type of prophecy) and for fomicry (Auldrant's equivalent of cloning).

Being the father of fomicry, he knows and can apply the theory behind replicating both animate and inanimate objects. Though he has sworn off using it to make another living replica, he remains knowledgeable on the topic.

Samples:
Everything in this Empatheias network post, but linking a specific thread for convenience!
From the MoE TDM

Vaikuntha
Moogle Name: Gelda
Moogle Gender: Female

First Job: Red Mage
Second Job: Dragoon

How's my driving?

[Empatheias] Information

[Melodies of Eternity] CR Chart

[Melodies of Eternity] IC Inbox

[Melodies of Eternity] Thread Tracker

[Melodies of Eternity] Information

Melodies of Eternity Application

(no subject)

[Empatheias] Thread Tracker

(no subject)

[Empatheias] CR Chart / Thread Tracker

Permissions

[Empatheias] Appearance

[Retired|Archived][Empatheias] Thread/Event Tracker

[Empatheias] IC Contact

[Empatheias] TDM + Emotion Sample

[Empatheias] 02/15-ish, hella NSFW