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Player Information
Name: Meta.
Age: 23.
AIM SN: metathepanda.
email: I'd prefer not to use e-mail, but my plurk is![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
metathepanda as well.
Have you played in an LJ based game before? Yes.
Official Reserve Link: Here
Character Information
General
Canon Source: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.
Canon Format: Video Game.
Character's Name: Jacob (Jake) Marshall.
Character's Age: 33.
What form will your character's NV take? No matter what form his NV takes, Jake is going to have a hell of a time using it. But to make things simple, it will be a touch screen phone he had before he left, with three buttons on the bottom: On/Off, Back, Home. The rest of its functionality will be on the touch screen, which will also have displayed big shiny buttons that are clearly labeled. Even then, Jake's still going to have a hard time with it (the damn thing hasn't gotten any easier while he was away).
Abilities
Character's Canon Abilities: Jake is a skilled detective, so it's hard to pull the wool over his eyes, particularly when it comes to a burning truth he has a dire need to know. He can easily stay cool under pressure. He has a great way of reading people too, and getting at their true emotions. Also, he knows how to tie and actually use a lasso. In mun's headcanon he can speak at least basic Spanish, because he looks just a little too tan to be completely Caucasian, and he often uses Spanish words in his speech.
Conditional: If your character has no superhuman canon abilities, what dormant ability will you give them? I would like Jake to keep his ability from SP past, to have the ability of seeing the past of a person or object in his mind's eye, simply by touching them with his hand or hands. This will be somewhat like the previews at the beginning of the first few cases in each Phoenix Wright game: Jake will be able to see, but not interact with, everything that was going on in near proximity to the person or object, starting from its full creation (for a human it would be as soon as they were born, for a gun it would be the moment that it was put on the market).
When he left the Port, he did not have complete control of his powers but he was able to stabilize his visions; he only got a few side effects like splitting headaches and nosebleeds. At first, his powers were extremely chaotic, showing only a second or two of its recent history or perhaps the whole history of the object at rapid speed (causing immense physical pain for Jake), or even just a still frame of the object. As he keeps using it, he will not only be able to keep the vision stable for longer periods of time, but he'll be able to control the flow of time, almost like it's a movie. He will then be able to play it forwards or backwards, at any speed he wants, or pause his vision. As it's going on, he'll be able to talk as well, something he won't be able to do as his ability first starts.
He was only be able to use it on one object at a time safely, but when using his ability to touch two objects at a time, his vision will only show something in common if the two pieces are related (i.e., a murder weapon and the victim of the weapon would show him the time of the murder). Otherwise, he will have two visions going on at once, which is not only dangerous for his sanity but also for his physical body, which may lead to him going into a seizure, going blind for a couple of hours, paralyzation, or any number of things.
Weapons: His pocket knife; his gun was taken from him immediately before this point.
History/Personality/Plans/etc.
Character History: There was absolutely no previous history given for Jake Marshall before the events of his case. The only things that were mentioned about him that pertain to before SL-9 was that he has never lived in Texas itself, and that he had a younger brother named Neil with whom he was ridiculously close. Due to the timeline, he was working in the police department at the same time as the defense attorneys Diego Armando before he became Godot, and Mia Fey, as well as Manfred von Karma in the Prosecutors Office. The rest of his history starts in the investigation stage of SL-9.
Jake finally had a chance to work with his brother Neil, along with four other detectives: Angel Starr and Bruce Goodman, and the two chief detectives in charge of the case, Damon Gant and Lana Skye. These six were sent on the trail of a serial killer named Joe Darke. He was a businessman who had accidentally hit and killed a man with his car. In a fit of paranoia, he killed the only witness to his crime, and this murder happened to be witnessed by someone else; the chain reaction continued until he was finally taken into police custody. Unfortunately, even with five skilled detectives on the case, there was not definitive evidence to convict Darke for the killings. Jake and the other detectives were not present, while Neil and Damon Gant interrogated Darke together; it was the last time he would ever see his brother alive. Darke was convicted for the murders as well as Neil's murder, and the SL-9 case was considered over; however, as Damon Gant and Lana Skye made evidence disappear and also magically created "new" evidence, the other three detectives, especially Jake, felt there was something off about the evidence.
Before the three could investigate further, however, Damon Gant (who had just been promoted to Chief of Police for completing the SL-9 case) fired Angel and demoted Jake to a security guard for the evidence room. On top of that, it is implied that Lana and Jake's relationship turned sour then, because it was broken off. Outraged and heartbroken, Jake shirked his duties (admitting aloud to Phoenix two years later that he only visited the evidence room once a month) and for two years tried to convince his peers and other colleagues to help him reopen SL-9. He became even more frustrated and desperate when all of his colleagues chalked it up to being emotionally involved in the case, since one of the victims was his dearly departed brother.
As a final call for help, on February 21st, 2017, Jake tried to convince Bruce, along with Angel, to let them open Bruce's locker holding all the SL-9 evidence and reexamine all of it themselves. The case evidence was two years old and was supposed to be taken to the prosecutor's office, where it would be closed for good. While Bruce felt something was still amiss, he had seen what had happened to both Jake and Angel since the case closed, and refused. As Bruce was leaving, Jake made up his mind - he had to take matters into his own hands. So he stole Bruce's ID and created a disguise so that he could sneak into the evidence room and look himself without drawing suspicion; he knew exactly where the cameras in the evidence room were, so Jake felt he would be best for the job. However, he had a moment of doubt, and hid Bruce's ID and the costume and went on with his day.
At around 5:00 that night, Jake suddenly got a call from Lana Skye, with the news that Bruce had been murdered at the prosecutor's office. Jake made up his mind, and using his disguise and Bruce's ID, snuck into the evidence room and opened Bruce's locker to find the SL-9 evidence missing. At the same time, a friend of Bruce's named Mike Meekins followed him in and asked to see his ID. Knowing his cover would be blown, Jake instead pulled out a knife. Mike became so afraid when he accidentally stabbed his hand on Jake's knife that he passed out, and Jake hastily left the room, using his knowledge of the camera system to sneak out unseen. As he was hiding the now bloody disguise in his locker near the door, he accidentally left one of the sleeves hanging out; this would later prove that Jake had been the one in the evidence room.
However, this incident accomplished his objective all along; it kept the SL-9 case open long enough for Phoenix Wright to prove that not only had Damon Gant killed Bruce to steal the evidence and keep the truth of the SL-9 case out of the open, but he also had been responsible for the murder of Neil Marshall; Neil had been alive when Damon Gant found him passed out with Joe Darke. Not only that, Damon Gant had also staged it to look like Emma Skye, Lana's younger sister, had accidentally shoved Neil and killed him, which forced Lana to help him rearrange the "crime scene" to convict Joe Darke.
Point in Canon: February 26, 2017, exactly from when he first left for SP; this is the day after Damon Gant had been found guilty for the murder of Neil Marshall and both cases have been resolved.
Conditional: Brief summary of previous RP history: I am going to be bringing him back to the Port with his memories of the Port returned to him as soon as he arrives. Therefore, I've included a small summary of what happened in SP, including the most relevant points:
Jake was in the port from some time in May of 2011 to about October of 2012. During that time, he worked for the SPPD as one of their officers, eventually being promoted to a detective on their homicide investigation team. He saw many friends come and go during his time in the Port, one of which was the little sister of his ex-girlfriend, little Ema Skye. Also during this time, his ex-boss Damon Gant appeared, and they both kept eyes on each other during their stay. Jake was tormented by Gant in several instances throughout the Port, causing Jake to almost develop an obsession with getting Gant behind bars for the sneaky, illegal things he was inevitably planning - but of course, he had no evidence of illegal activities. During the Groundhog Day event, he was one of the officers who stopped the horrible traffic accident from occuring, causing him and his fellow officers to undergo psych evals before being put on active duty again. He was one of the first to be kidnapped for the Newcomer Hunts and was hospitalized for it. While all of this was going on, he was taking care of his friends Diego Armando and Maya Fey, who were both dealing with messes of their own when Mia Fey suddenly returned back from the dead. He also gained an (unrequited) crush on Re-l Mayer during their time working together, which he was still doing his best to get over when he left. He was killed in the line of duty one day, which coincidentally was when he left the Port.
Character Personality: Jake is generally a very calm man, with a very cool attitude. Since the incident with his brother he has been cold and unfeeling towards many people, even the younger sister of his former lover (whom he had always treated kindly before his brother's death, according to her in the canon). He still obviously has some feeling of care or tenderness towards some people, but often times he tries to mask it behind his tough exterior. He makes himself extremely hard to read on purpose, not even batting an eyelash at someone accusing him of something in the canon unless they show him decisive evidence to the contrary. Only when he was shown to be lying did his mask ever falter. He does not want to show weakness, does not want to show that he still hasn't gotten over Neil's death or Gant and Lana's betrayal. If asked about his past, all he does is shut down, falling silent or telling them there are some things they're better off not knowing.
Ironically, while he tries to make himself as unreadable as possible, he hates it when he can't read someone or something like an open book. With people, he's much more willing to work with and try to crack than inanimate things. Hence why, in the canon, it explicitly states that Jake does terribly with any sort of technology that's more complicated than a television set. "I don't take to machines much" are his exact words when asked about the subject. As he was working the security desk in the canon, he admitted, "I know what maybe two of the machines in here do", when there were a dozen machines or more in the room. He'll learn if people are willing to teach him, but he becomes easily frustrated with technology and as such doesn't need much of it to survive. A radio is probably the only piece of technology he would ever truly not want to be without.
Jake has a terrible thing for cowboys, cacti, country music, steaks, whiskey, horses, and practically everything that is stereotypically "Western". In canon, he has three named cacti - Billy, Bogey, and Marilyn - and several more cacti scattered around his work desk. He loves wearing leather chaps and ponchos, and is rarely seen without his cowboy hat and boots. He even talks like a cowboy, using terms like "pardner", "hombre", and "bambina" to refer to other people he's talking to, cowboy lingo like "dogies" and "Yeehaw!", and uses very odd metaphors that are related to his cowboy obsession somehow. In mun's headcanon, he loves hot food and teases people who can't handle his cooking because of the heat; he makes a fantastic Five-Alarm Chili with his mama's sweet cornbread recipe - and, of course, his mama's other recipes, which are all standard cowboy fare. Past that, he drowns practically everything in Tabasco sauce, when he can.
Jake has many weaknesses, though it takes a lot for him to show them. The first is that it is extremely easy to win him over with food, specifically a steak dinner or a pasta dinner. He gets much more amicable in that case; in the canon the only way to get him to talk about the case was to get a steak dinner bento box from miss Angel Starr, and give the bento to him to make him talk. The second is that he has a strong sense of justice that can easily be turned against the law if he feels that the law is not capable of doing its job. He assaulted an officer while impersonating another officer, with intent to steal evidence from a case, and it was all because his brother's death felt fishy to him. However, he seems perfectly willing to follow the law once justice has been served; in the canon he willingly accepted his conviction and simply told Phoenix to take care of his cactus named Billy.
The third and perhaps most fatal flaw is that he is extremely vindictive when angered. All the detectives in the Joe Darke killings were brilliant detectives: the first point being, why else would five detectives be put on one case, and the second point being, Angel Starr was still known as the "Cough-up Queen" of getting confessions from criminals, two years after she had been fired from the job). And yet, Jake says in the canon that "Bruce wasn't that gifted of a detective" even though he was the lead detective on the case. When asked in canon by Ema Skye about her older sister Lana, Jake nonchalantly says, "I'm afraid your sister's fate's already been decided" - even though there is strong implications that they were dating at one point in their history, which has naturally got some emotion behind it. And yet he says cruel things about coworkers, about lovers, because one didn't let him see the evidence against protocol to find out what truly happened to his brother; and one left him at one of the worst times of his life.
Jake does have many good qualities to balance out his flaws, and he will show them much more as time goes on; he's generally very charming especially towards the fairer sex, and has a cynical and sarcastic sense of humor that pervades his speech. But he does know how to have a good laugh, although he hasn't truly laughed in more recent years. He is still very kind to younger children, like Ema when she was younger, and in mun's headcanon he will be generally friendly to others once he has been allowed a time to grieve. Until then, he'll act like a lone cowboy going wherever the wind takes him.
Conditional: Personality development in previous game: Jake has grown a lot emotionally from his memories of SP; for one thing, he is a bit more open about his feelings to close friends - most notably, Re-l and Diego. He's been smiling again, and not been as cold to strangers; this is because he's had time to work through parts of Neil's death, even if he isn't completely over it. He's accepted a lot of things in his life, mostly that life isn't fair and sometimes you're dealt a horrible hand - which, while he's more than willing to admit is the hand he's been dealt in certain aspects of his life, still refuses to let it happen to any of his friends and will attempt to do everything he can to make sure their lives are happy. He's grown a lot more selfless, worrying less about his selfish emotions (except when Gant was involved) and more about what he can do to help around the Port in his position as an officer.
Character Plans: Play out the endgame for fun! Also, talking out a few more of his inner demons, and going to Diego's future wedding and see his best friend finally get his happy ending. He doesn't particularly care if he gets one romantically.
Appearance/PB: Jake is 177 cm tall and is fairly lean for his figure. However, looks can be deceiving; he's muscular where it counts. He has shoulder-length hair that is somewhere between black and dark brown, and brown eyes. On his chin he has a patch of eternal stubble (literally; no matter how many times he shaves it off with his pocket knife in the game, it's still there). He is usually seen, in the canon at least, in his full police uniform, along with many additions of his own - a poncho around his shoulders, a red scarf around his neck, a cowboy hat instead of the police hat, black fingerless gloves, and cowboy boots on his feet. He even has sewn-on fringe on the sleeves of his jacket.
Jake
Writing Samples
First Person Sample
[The feed flickers on a few moments, revealing only blue sky for two moments before it fizzles out again. But, a voice can clearly be heard regardless.]
Christ. Still can't use this gol-blasted gadget t'save my life.
[For a few minutes it just sounds like he's tapping away at the phone trying to mess with it, but nothing seems to be working.] 'lo? 'zis thing on? Anybody there, or am I jus' talkin' to myself? Ain't the weirdest thing I've done in my life, I reckon.
... well, the light's blinkin', so... [He coughs a bit and it sounds as if he's shifting.] This here's Jake, Jake Marshall. I was formerly with the SPPD, here - ain't sure how many'a y'all 'member me. Ain't even sure how many are left, t'be perfectly honest. Hell, I ain't even sure how long it's been.
Any of y'all reckon you can help out a lil' lost dogie by tellin' me what day it is?
Third Person Sample The city had changed a lot since he'd returned - most notably, that Damon Gant was gone for good, which he was ridiculously pleased about; and second most notably, that his lifetime friend had told him he and Mia were getting married. He wasn't sure what to think; of course he was happy, and some part of him knew it was inevitable, but he couldn't help but feel like things had changed too much; like he was a stranger observing from the outside. Even as he sat on the couch, staring at the familiar ceiling of the apartment he'd once shared with the engaged couple, it still seemed strange to him. Almost like it hadn't happened in so long that he had forgotten their marriage was a possibility. Best man. He wasn't sure how those words rung in relation to him. He liked it, definitely - in fact it made him a little relieved that Diego was soon going to get the happy ending he always wanted - but how much did he deserve the title? Well, there was no sense in worrying about it right now. He had a job to see about re-obtaining and wedding presents to get. Slipping on his trusty hat, he gave a little bit of a smile before making his way out into the Port.
Name: Meta.
Age: 23.
AIM SN: metathepanda.
email: I'd prefer not to use e-mail, but my plurk is
Have you played in an LJ based game before? Yes.
Official Reserve Link: Here
Character Information
General
Canon Source: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.
Canon Format: Video Game.
Character's Name: Jacob (Jake) Marshall.
Character's Age: 33.
What form will your character's NV take? No matter what form his NV takes, Jake is going to have a hell of a time using it. But to make things simple, it will be a touch screen phone he had before he left, with three buttons on the bottom: On/Off, Back, Home. The rest of its functionality will be on the touch screen, which will also have displayed big shiny buttons that are clearly labeled. Even then, Jake's still going to have a hard time with it (the damn thing hasn't gotten any easier while he was away).
Abilities
Character's Canon Abilities: Jake is a skilled detective, so it's hard to pull the wool over his eyes, particularly when it comes to a burning truth he has a dire need to know. He can easily stay cool under pressure. He has a great way of reading people too, and getting at their true emotions. Also, he knows how to tie and actually use a lasso. In mun's headcanon he can speak at least basic Spanish, because he looks just a little too tan to be completely Caucasian, and he often uses Spanish words in his speech.
Conditional: If your character has no superhuman canon abilities, what dormant ability will you give them? I would like Jake to keep his ability from SP past, to have the ability of seeing the past of a person or object in his mind's eye, simply by touching them with his hand or hands. This will be somewhat like the previews at the beginning of the first few cases in each Phoenix Wright game: Jake will be able to see, but not interact with, everything that was going on in near proximity to the person or object, starting from its full creation (for a human it would be as soon as they were born, for a gun it would be the moment that it was put on the market).
When he left the Port, he did not have complete control of his powers but he was able to stabilize his visions; he only got a few side effects like splitting headaches and nosebleeds. At first, his powers were extremely chaotic, showing only a second or two of its recent history or perhaps the whole history of the object at rapid speed (causing immense physical pain for Jake), or even just a still frame of the object. As he keeps using it, he will not only be able to keep the vision stable for longer periods of time, but he'll be able to control the flow of time, almost like it's a movie. He will then be able to play it forwards or backwards, at any speed he wants, or pause his vision. As it's going on, he'll be able to talk as well, something he won't be able to do as his ability first starts.
He was only be able to use it on one object at a time safely, but when using his ability to touch two objects at a time, his vision will only show something in common if the two pieces are related (i.e., a murder weapon and the victim of the weapon would show him the time of the murder). Otherwise, he will have two visions going on at once, which is not only dangerous for his sanity but also for his physical body, which may lead to him going into a seizure, going blind for a couple of hours, paralyzation, or any number of things.
Weapons: His pocket knife; his gun was taken from him immediately before this point.
History/Personality/Plans/etc.
Character History: There was absolutely no previous history given for Jake Marshall before the events of his case. The only things that were mentioned about him that pertain to before SL-9 was that he has never lived in Texas itself, and that he had a younger brother named Neil with whom he was ridiculously close. Due to the timeline, he was working in the police department at the same time as the defense attorneys Diego Armando before he became Godot, and Mia Fey, as well as Manfred von Karma in the Prosecutors Office. The rest of his history starts in the investigation stage of SL-9.
Jake finally had a chance to work with his brother Neil, along with four other detectives: Angel Starr and Bruce Goodman, and the two chief detectives in charge of the case, Damon Gant and Lana Skye. These six were sent on the trail of a serial killer named Joe Darke. He was a businessman who had accidentally hit and killed a man with his car. In a fit of paranoia, he killed the only witness to his crime, and this murder happened to be witnessed by someone else; the chain reaction continued until he was finally taken into police custody. Unfortunately, even with five skilled detectives on the case, there was not definitive evidence to convict Darke for the killings. Jake and the other detectives were not present, while Neil and Damon Gant interrogated Darke together; it was the last time he would ever see his brother alive. Darke was convicted for the murders as well as Neil's murder, and the SL-9 case was considered over; however, as Damon Gant and Lana Skye made evidence disappear and also magically created "new" evidence, the other three detectives, especially Jake, felt there was something off about the evidence.
Before the three could investigate further, however, Damon Gant (who had just been promoted to Chief of Police for completing the SL-9 case) fired Angel and demoted Jake to a security guard for the evidence room. On top of that, it is implied that Lana and Jake's relationship turned sour then, because it was broken off. Outraged and heartbroken, Jake shirked his duties (admitting aloud to Phoenix two years later that he only visited the evidence room once a month) and for two years tried to convince his peers and other colleagues to help him reopen SL-9. He became even more frustrated and desperate when all of his colleagues chalked it up to being emotionally involved in the case, since one of the victims was his dearly departed brother.
As a final call for help, on February 21st, 2017, Jake tried to convince Bruce, along with Angel, to let them open Bruce's locker holding all the SL-9 evidence and reexamine all of it themselves. The case evidence was two years old and was supposed to be taken to the prosecutor's office, where it would be closed for good. While Bruce felt something was still amiss, he had seen what had happened to both Jake and Angel since the case closed, and refused. As Bruce was leaving, Jake made up his mind - he had to take matters into his own hands. So he stole Bruce's ID and created a disguise so that he could sneak into the evidence room and look himself without drawing suspicion; he knew exactly where the cameras in the evidence room were, so Jake felt he would be best for the job. However, he had a moment of doubt, and hid Bruce's ID and the costume and went on with his day.
At around 5:00 that night, Jake suddenly got a call from Lana Skye, with the news that Bruce had been murdered at the prosecutor's office. Jake made up his mind, and using his disguise and Bruce's ID, snuck into the evidence room and opened Bruce's locker to find the SL-9 evidence missing. At the same time, a friend of Bruce's named Mike Meekins followed him in and asked to see his ID. Knowing his cover would be blown, Jake instead pulled out a knife. Mike became so afraid when he accidentally stabbed his hand on Jake's knife that he passed out, and Jake hastily left the room, using his knowledge of the camera system to sneak out unseen. As he was hiding the now bloody disguise in his locker near the door, he accidentally left one of the sleeves hanging out; this would later prove that Jake had been the one in the evidence room.
However, this incident accomplished his objective all along; it kept the SL-9 case open long enough for Phoenix Wright to prove that not only had Damon Gant killed Bruce to steal the evidence and keep the truth of the SL-9 case out of the open, but he also had been responsible for the murder of Neil Marshall; Neil had been alive when Damon Gant found him passed out with Joe Darke. Not only that, Damon Gant had also staged it to look like Emma Skye, Lana's younger sister, had accidentally shoved Neil and killed him, which forced Lana to help him rearrange the "crime scene" to convict Joe Darke.
Point in Canon: February 26, 2017, exactly from when he first left for SP; this is the day after Damon Gant had been found guilty for the murder of Neil Marshall and both cases have been resolved.
Conditional: Brief summary of previous RP history: I am going to be bringing him back to the Port with his memories of the Port returned to him as soon as he arrives. Therefore, I've included a small summary of what happened in SP, including the most relevant points:
Jake was in the port from some time in May of 2011 to about October of 2012. During that time, he worked for the SPPD as one of their officers, eventually being promoted to a detective on their homicide investigation team. He saw many friends come and go during his time in the Port, one of which was the little sister of his ex-girlfriend, little Ema Skye. Also during this time, his ex-boss Damon Gant appeared, and they both kept eyes on each other during their stay. Jake was tormented by Gant in several instances throughout the Port, causing Jake to almost develop an obsession with getting Gant behind bars for the sneaky, illegal things he was inevitably planning - but of course, he had no evidence of illegal activities. During the Groundhog Day event, he was one of the officers who stopped the horrible traffic accident from occuring, causing him and his fellow officers to undergo psych evals before being put on active duty again. He was one of the first to be kidnapped for the Newcomer Hunts and was hospitalized for it. While all of this was going on, he was taking care of his friends Diego Armando and Maya Fey, who were both dealing with messes of their own when Mia Fey suddenly returned back from the dead. He also gained an (unrequited) crush on Re-l Mayer during their time working together, which he was still doing his best to get over when he left. He was killed in the line of duty one day, which coincidentally was when he left the Port.
Character Personality: Jake is generally a very calm man, with a very cool attitude. Since the incident with his brother he has been cold and unfeeling towards many people, even the younger sister of his former lover (whom he had always treated kindly before his brother's death, according to her in the canon). He still obviously has some feeling of care or tenderness towards some people, but often times he tries to mask it behind his tough exterior. He makes himself extremely hard to read on purpose, not even batting an eyelash at someone accusing him of something in the canon unless they show him decisive evidence to the contrary. Only when he was shown to be lying did his mask ever falter. He does not want to show weakness, does not want to show that he still hasn't gotten over Neil's death or Gant and Lana's betrayal. If asked about his past, all he does is shut down, falling silent or telling them there are some things they're better off not knowing.
Ironically, while he tries to make himself as unreadable as possible, he hates it when he can't read someone or something like an open book. With people, he's much more willing to work with and try to crack than inanimate things. Hence why, in the canon, it explicitly states that Jake does terribly with any sort of technology that's more complicated than a television set. "I don't take to machines much" are his exact words when asked about the subject. As he was working the security desk in the canon, he admitted, "I know what maybe two of the machines in here do", when there were a dozen machines or more in the room. He'll learn if people are willing to teach him, but he becomes easily frustrated with technology and as such doesn't need much of it to survive. A radio is probably the only piece of technology he would ever truly not want to be without.
Jake has a terrible thing for cowboys, cacti, country music, steaks, whiskey, horses, and practically everything that is stereotypically "Western". In canon, he has three named cacti - Billy, Bogey, and Marilyn - and several more cacti scattered around his work desk. He loves wearing leather chaps and ponchos, and is rarely seen without his cowboy hat and boots. He even talks like a cowboy, using terms like "pardner", "hombre", and "bambina" to refer to other people he's talking to, cowboy lingo like "dogies" and "Yeehaw!", and uses very odd metaphors that are related to his cowboy obsession somehow. In mun's headcanon, he loves hot food and teases people who can't handle his cooking because of the heat; he makes a fantastic Five-Alarm Chili with his mama's sweet cornbread recipe - and, of course, his mama's other recipes, which are all standard cowboy fare. Past that, he drowns practically everything in Tabasco sauce, when he can.
Jake has many weaknesses, though it takes a lot for him to show them. The first is that it is extremely easy to win him over with food, specifically a steak dinner or a pasta dinner. He gets much more amicable in that case; in the canon the only way to get him to talk about the case was to get a steak dinner bento box from miss Angel Starr, and give the bento to him to make him talk. The second is that he has a strong sense of justice that can easily be turned against the law if he feels that the law is not capable of doing its job. He assaulted an officer while impersonating another officer, with intent to steal evidence from a case, and it was all because his brother's death felt fishy to him. However, he seems perfectly willing to follow the law once justice has been served; in the canon he willingly accepted his conviction and simply told Phoenix to take care of his cactus named Billy.
The third and perhaps most fatal flaw is that he is extremely vindictive when angered. All the detectives in the Joe Darke killings were brilliant detectives: the first point being, why else would five detectives be put on one case, and the second point being, Angel Starr was still known as the "Cough-up Queen" of getting confessions from criminals, two years after she had been fired from the job). And yet, Jake says in the canon that "Bruce wasn't that gifted of a detective" even though he was the lead detective on the case. When asked in canon by Ema Skye about her older sister Lana, Jake nonchalantly says, "I'm afraid your sister's fate's already been decided" - even though there is strong implications that they were dating at one point in their history, which has naturally got some emotion behind it. And yet he says cruel things about coworkers, about lovers, because one didn't let him see the evidence against protocol to find out what truly happened to his brother; and one left him at one of the worst times of his life.
Jake does have many good qualities to balance out his flaws, and he will show them much more as time goes on; he's generally very charming especially towards the fairer sex, and has a cynical and sarcastic sense of humor that pervades his speech. But he does know how to have a good laugh, although he hasn't truly laughed in more recent years. He is still very kind to younger children, like Ema when she was younger, and in mun's headcanon he will be generally friendly to others once he has been allowed a time to grieve. Until then, he'll act like a lone cowboy going wherever the wind takes him.
Conditional: Personality development in previous game: Jake has grown a lot emotionally from his memories of SP; for one thing, he is a bit more open about his feelings to close friends - most notably, Re-l and Diego. He's been smiling again, and not been as cold to strangers; this is because he's had time to work through parts of Neil's death, even if he isn't completely over it. He's accepted a lot of things in his life, mostly that life isn't fair and sometimes you're dealt a horrible hand - which, while he's more than willing to admit is the hand he's been dealt in certain aspects of his life, still refuses to let it happen to any of his friends and will attempt to do everything he can to make sure their lives are happy. He's grown a lot more selfless, worrying less about his selfish emotions (except when Gant was involved) and more about what he can do to help around the Port in his position as an officer.
Character Plans: Play out the endgame for fun! Also, talking out a few more of his inner demons, and going to Diego's future wedding and see his best friend finally get his happy ending. He doesn't particularly care if he gets one romantically.
Appearance/PB: Jake is 177 cm tall and is fairly lean for his figure. However, looks can be deceiving; he's muscular where it counts. He has shoulder-length hair that is somewhere between black and dark brown, and brown eyes. On his chin he has a patch of eternal stubble (literally; no matter how many times he shaves it off with his pocket knife in the game, it's still there). He is usually seen, in the canon at least, in his full police uniform, along with many additions of his own - a poncho around his shoulders, a red scarf around his neck, a cowboy hat instead of the police hat, black fingerless gloves, and cowboy boots on his feet. He even has sewn-on fringe on the sleeves of his jacket.
Jake
Writing Samples
First Person Sample
[The feed flickers on a few moments, revealing only blue sky for two moments before it fizzles out again. But, a voice can clearly be heard regardless.]
Christ. Still can't use this gol-blasted gadget t'save my life.
[For a few minutes it just sounds like he's tapping away at the phone trying to mess with it, but nothing seems to be working.] 'lo? 'zis thing on? Anybody there, or am I jus' talkin' to myself? Ain't the weirdest thing I've done in my life, I reckon.
... well, the light's blinkin', so... [He coughs a bit and it sounds as if he's shifting.] This here's Jake, Jake Marshall. I was formerly with the SPPD, here - ain't sure how many'a y'all 'member me. Ain't even sure how many are left, t'be perfectly honest. Hell, I ain't even sure how long it's been.
Any of y'all reckon you can help out a lil' lost dogie by tellin' me what day it is?
Third Person Sample The city had changed a lot since he'd returned - most notably, that Damon Gant was gone for good, which he was ridiculously pleased about; and second most notably, that his lifetime friend had told him he and Mia were getting married. He wasn't sure what to think; of course he was happy, and some part of him knew it was inevitable, but he couldn't help but feel like things had changed too much; like he was a stranger observing from the outside. Even as he sat on the couch, staring at the familiar ceiling of the apartment he'd once shared with the engaged couple, it still seemed strange to him. Almost like it hadn't happened in so long that he had forgotten their marriage was a possibility. Best man. He wasn't sure how those words rung in relation to him. He liked it, definitely - in fact it made him a little relieved that Diego was soon going to get the happy ending he always wanted - but how much did he deserve the title? Well, there was no sense in worrying about it right now. He had a job to see about re-obtaining and wedding presents to get. Slipping on his trusty hat, he gave a little bit of a smile before making his way out into the Port.
