Route 666: Application
Mar. 29th, 2025 10:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mytearsareminePlayer: Gail
Contact: cacophony @ plurk
Age: I am over 40 :)
Other Characters: Jack Russell
Name: Jolie Harmony
Canon: Odd Thomas
Canon Point: A year after the end of the book, once she’s finished her written portion of it and mailed it away to Odd
Age: Fourteen
Backstory:
Jolie grew up part of a small, isolated community of generally good people on the California coastline who ran a roadside inn and diner called Harmony Corner. When she was seven, however, Norris Hiskott arrived, and everything went all to hell. Formerly a scientist in a top secret government project not far from the coast, he had injected himself with alien DNA which caused a severe physical and mental mutation, and gave him the ability to split away part of his consciousness and possess other people. He could make them say or do whatever he wanted, and could change or erase memories at will. He took over the small town and the people in it.
Shortly before Jolie's thirteenth birthday, a man named Odd Thomas arrived in Harmony Corner, and began investigating. She rescued him from her own possessed family trying to kill him, drawing him down into the old fort entrance tunnel under the town where Hiskott couldn't reach her, and explained the situation. He left to try and stop Hiskott, and she suddenly found herself faced with a door that opened of its own accord for the first time. The voice inside introduced himself as Ed, a sophisticated and self-aware AI who knew what had happened to Hiskott and wanted to help.
Between Odd, Jolie, and Ed, Hiskott was killed and the house and its gross, unworldly contents were burned. Odd left, leaving her with the suggestion that she write down what had happened to her and her family, the way he wrote down what happened to him through his own adventures. It's been a year since then, enough time for the family to perhaps start to live more normally again, and to hope that their actual troubles are behind them, though they have all still been changed forever. Jolie just sent off her manuscript to Odd, and is uncertain where her next project lies.
Personality:
Given everything she’s seen, lived through, been forced to do, and had living in her head, it’s not surprising that Jolie Harmony is older on the inside than she is on the outside. She’s been mentally and emotionally tormented, and spent several months preparing herself for expected physical torment and death at the hands of her own otherwise-loving family and their alien-infused puppetmaster. It’s given her more maturity and a much tougher nature than your average fourteen year old girl. After all, she was the only thing keeping her mother sane and alive: she refused to give into despair or lose her self-control, because her mother more than once told her that it was only her astounding ability to cope that made her cope. Between that and her native stubbornness, not wanting to give Hiskott the satisfaction of ruining her life even more than he had so far, she learned to keep it together in terrible situations.
Her strange life has also given her some trouble with authority, after having no choice but to obey Hiskott for so long. Unless instructions come to her with explanations or phrased as a request, rather than an order, she gets irrationally angry, to the point of shaking, even when she’s well aware the order is because her parents are only thinking of what’s best for her or someone just doesn’t understand what they’re saying. Her usual recourse for that has always been escaping out to the ocean for a swim to cool herself down, but lacking that, shouting, indulging in an actual temper tantrum, or when even that isn’t feasible, angry sarcasm. If an order comes to her as a request, however, or with enough explanation that she can tell her own autonomy is being respected, she has no problems complying.
While Jolie is not particularly brilliant by nature, she is extremely well-educated for a fourteen year old, particularly when it comes to critical thinking skills. It was the only thing her parents could do in the face of Hiskott’s ownership of the town, whether to give their children something to fight with, or just as what little control they were afforded themselves to do with as they wished. That means she’s not too bad at putting things together to come up with logical solutions, and it also means she rarely takes things on faith. She needs proof, or at least something logical behind it, before she’ll believe. Her instincts are just as good as her thinking skills, she just hates to rely on them alone, so even when she feels like something may be good or bad, she has to reason out why she feels that way, as well. That also means she doesn’t take bullshit from anyone well, either-- and she’s pretty good at recognizing it.
On the whole, though, even her instincts tend to bend towards suspicion-- understandably, after the past several years of her life! It takes a lot to actually frighten her, though, and even when she is afraid, she’s learned how to shove it down, deal with it, and move on anyway. She can certainly feel it, but she refuses to let it rule her. She also won’t balk at admitting it, though she hates showing it, and often takes refuge in that same sarcasm that she deals with her anger through, as well.
Jolie is an active person, rather than a passive person. While she’s usually able to realize when there’s nothing she can do about a situation that won’t get her killed, and she is capable of asking for and accepting help when she knows she’s in that kind of situation, she’s not the sort to simply wait around for that help to come. She’ll instead do all that she can, in the meantime, to learn about and deal with any given situation she finds herself in. Even when she can’t find a “smart” choice, she’d still rather make a choice-- even if all the options are unpleasant, she’ll always choose the most interesting one, and the one she can predict the least. Then, even if she thinks it’s a bad choice, she might wind up surprised.
Powers/Abilities:
Some mild resistance to telepathy and bodily possession. This is not a magical power, but a mental ability to direct her own thoughts and clearly imagine things which do not exist or which are not what the telepath is trying to find. She's also a very strong swimmer and is extremely well-read for a girl her age.
Inventory: Her backpack that she'd left on the beach while she went swimming, with her clothes, towel, sunscreen, and a book she was reading in it.
Game Plans: I'm looking specifically for someone different from Jack, here. Jolie is a good, caring, protective person, but she is also angry, suspicious, rebellious, and blunt. She's younger, and so still impressionable in some ways, and while she is very book-smart and emotionally intelligent, she is sheltered from actual people and has very few practical skills beyond, like, laundry, and how to cook really simple meals. She's going to learn to want to fight to protect people, even though right now she has absolutely no skill in it, and is liable to wind up with a very different set of protectors and friends than Jack.
Monster Choice:
Fae (The Hunter): A common story of faerie is those of the fae folk who are not cute little flittery fairies, not tricksters, but determined hunters who serve the royalty and punish traitors, sinners, and those the court does not favor. The strong rules of oathkeeping of the fae in general mixed with the determination and will of the Hunt fits Jolie very well. Also, she is described in the books as having a real beauty, and I want to turn that haunting and alien in a way the fae fit with well.
Volare: Giving her the freedom of flight will I think give her a little more lightness. Also, I am just extremely fond of all the Volare traits. I am leaning harpy, but I might change my mind as the settled stone nature of the gargoyle might help ground her but also fit her constantly flaring anger issues, as well.
Elemental (Water): The ocean was always Jolie's place of escape and peace during her family's imprisonment. Giving this to her as a specific element will both bring that safety to her and taint it by this place using it to change her. The push and pull of that would be interesting to play with.
Vehicle Choice: A big, broad Oldsmobile sudan, drives like a dream (or maybe like a tank). Trait is TOUGH.
Sample: TDM thread
Monster Traits:
Plant speech: Can gain basic information on an area by speaking to vegetation
Plant magic: Growth, changing, or withering of plantlife
Invitation requirement: Must be specifically invited into a personal cabin or car
Oath compulsion: Cannot betray a promise
Inhuman features: After her first moon warp, her eyes turn gold, skin starts turning green-streaked
Super jump/reflexes: She can leap far distances and dodge more easily
Contact: cacophony @ plurk
Age: I am over 40 :)
Other Characters: Jack Russell
Name: Jolie Harmony
Canon: Odd Thomas
Canon Point: A year after the end of the book, once she’s finished her written portion of it and mailed it away to Odd
Age: Fourteen
Backstory:
Jolie grew up part of a small, isolated community of generally good people on the California coastline who ran a roadside inn and diner called Harmony Corner. When she was seven, however, Norris Hiskott arrived, and everything went all to hell. Formerly a scientist in a top secret government project not far from the coast, he had injected himself with alien DNA which caused a severe physical and mental mutation, and gave him the ability to split away part of his consciousness and possess other people. He could make them say or do whatever he wanted, and could change or erase memories at will. He took over the small town and the people in it.
Shortly before Jolie's thirteenth birthday, a man named Odd Thomas arrived in Harmony Corner, and began investigating. She rescued him from her own possessed family trying to kill him, drawing him down into the old fort entrance tunnel under the town where Hiskott couldn't reach her, and explained the situation. He left to try and stop Hiskott, and she suddenly found herself faced with a door that opened of its own accord for the first time. The voice inside introduced himself as Ed, a sophisticated and self-aware AI who knew what had happened to Hiskott and wanted to help.
Between Odd, Jolie, and Ed, Hiskott was killed and the house and its gross, unworldly contents were burned. Odd left, leaving her with the suggestion that she write down what had happened to her and her family, the way he wrote down what happened to him through his own adventures. It's been a year since then, enough time for the family to perhaps start to live more normally again, and to hope that their actual troubles are behind them, though they have all still been changed forever. Jolie just sent off her manuscript to Odd, and is uncertain where her next project lies.
Personality:
Given everything she’s seen, lived through, been forced to do, and had living in her head, it’s not surprising that Jolie Harmony is older on the inside than she is on the outside. She’s been mentally and emotionally tormented, and spent several months preparing herself for expected physical torment and death at the hands of her own otherwise-loving family and their alien-infused puppetmaster. It’s given her more maturity and a much tougher nature than your average fourteen year old girl. After all, she was the only thing keeping her mother sane and alive: she refused to give into despair or lose her self-control, because her mother more than once told her that it was only her astounding ability to cope that made her cope. Between that and her native stubbornness, not wanting to give Hiskott the satisfaction of ruining her life even more than he had so far, she learned to keep it together in terrible situations.
Her strange life has also given her some trouble with authority, after having no choice but to obey Hiskott for so long. Unless instructions come to her with explanations or phrased as a request, rather than an order, she gets irrationally angry, to the point of shaking, even when she’s well aware the order is because her parents are only thinking of what’s best for her or someone just doesn’t understand what they’re saying. Her usual recourse for that has always been escaping out to the ocean for a swim to cool herself down, but lacking that, shouting, indulging in an actual temper tantrum, or when even that isn’t feasible, angry sarcasm. If an order comes to her as a request, however, or with enough explanation that she can tell her own autonomy is being respected, she has no problems complying.
While Jolie is not particularly brilliant by nature, she is extremely well-educated for a fourteen year old, particularly when it comes to critical thinking skills. It was the only thing her parents could do in the face of Hiskott’s ownership of the town, whether to give their children something to fight with, or just as what little control they were afforded themselves to do with as they wished. That means she’s not too bad at putting things together to come up with logical solutions, and it also means she rarely takes things on faith. She needs proof, or at least something logical behind it, before she’ll believe. Her instincts are just as good as her thinking skills, she just hates to rely on them alone, so even when she feels like something may be good or bad, she has to reason out why she feels that way, as well. That also means she doesn’t take bullshit from anyone well, either-- and she’s pretty good at recognizing it.
On the whole, though, even her instincts tend to bend towards suspicion-- understandably, after the past several years of her life! It takes a lot to actually frighten her, though, and even when she is afraid, she’s learned how to shove it down, deal with it, and move on anyway. She can certainly feel it, but she refuses to let it rule her. She also won’t balk at admitting it, though she hates showing it, and often takes refuge in that same sarcasm that she deals with her anger through, as well.
Jolie is an active person, rather than a passive person. While she’s usually able to realize when there’s nothing she can do about a situation that won’t get her killed, and she is capable of asking for and accepting help when she knows she’s in that kind of situation, she’s not the sort to simply wait around for that help to come. She’ll instead do all that she can, in the meantime, to learn about and deal with any given situation she finds herself in. Even when she can’t find a “smart” choice, she’d still rather make a choice-- even if all the options are unpleasant, she’ll always choose the most interesting one, and the one she can predict the least. Then, even if she thinks it’s a bad choice, she might wind up surprised.
Powers/Abilities:
Some mild resistance to telepathy and bodily possession. This is not a magical power, but a mental ability to direct her own thoughts and clearly imagine things which do not exist or which are not what the telepath is trying to find. She's also a very strong swimmer and is extremely well-read for a girl her age.
Inventory: Her backpack that she'd left on the beach while she went swimming, with her clothes, towel, sunscreen, and a book she was reading in it.
Game Plans: I'm looking specifically for someone different from Jack, here. Jolie is a good, caring, protective person, but she is also angry, suspicious, rebellious, and blunt. She's younger, and so still impressionable in some ways, and while she is very book-smart and emotionally intelligent, she is sheltered from actual people and has very few practical skills beyond, like, laundry, and how to cook really simple meals. She's going to learn to want to fight to protect people, even though right now she has absolutely no skill in it, and is liable to wind up with a very different set of protectors and friends than Jack.
Monster Choice:
Fae (The Hunter): A common story of faerie is those of the fae folk who are not cute little flittery fairies, not tricksters, but determined hunters who serve the royalty and punish traitors, sinners, and those the court does not favor. The strong rules of oathkeeping of the fae in general mixed with the determination and will of the Hunt fits Jolie very well. Also, she is described in the books as having a real beauty, and I want to turn that haunting and alien in a way the fae fit with well.
Volare: Giving her the freedom of flight will I think give her a little more lightness. Also, I am just extremely fond of all the Volare traits. I am leaning harpy, but I might change my mind as the settled stone nature of the gargoyle might help ground her but also fit her constantly flaring anger issues, as well.
Elemental (Water): The ocean was always Jolie's place of escape and peace during her family's imprisonment. Giving this to her as a specific element will both bring that safety to her and taint it by this place using it to change her. The push and pull of that would be interesting to play with.
Vehicle Choice: A big, broad Oldsmobile sudan, drives like a dream (or maybe like a tank). Trait is TOUGH.
Sample: TDM thread
Monster Traits:
Plant speech: Can gain basic information on an area by speaking to vegetation
Plant magic: Growth, changing, or withering of plantlife
Invitation requirement: Must be specifically invited into a personal cabin or car
Oath compulsion: Cannot betray a promise
Inhuman features: After her first moon warp, her eyes turn gold, skin starts turning green-streaked
Super jump/reflexes: She can leap far distances and dodge more easily
