Application to TLV

[tentacruelest]

User Name/Nick: Allison
User DW: N/A
AIM/IM: cannibalherpes
E-mail: allisonhodges2@gmail.com
Other Characters: Chris D'Amico, Ned

Character Name: Davy Jones
Series: Pirates of the Caribbean
Age: Of an undetermined but lengthy, ancient age, presumably at least several hundred years old.
From When?: From getting stabbed in the heart at the end of the third movie.

Inmate/Warden: Inmate. Davy Jones is the cruel taskmaster aboard the undead ship the Flying Dutchman, and runs his crew like a slavedriver. He willingly abducts dying souls and rather than help them to their final resting place (as was his original job to perform) enlists them as reluctant servants. He strikes evil bargains, is completely unforgiving towards people who get his ire up, and is a bullying kind of monster with little warmth or kindness to him. He willingly tortures and kills without provocation or for the slightest perceived infraction, and seems bent and determined to spread his own misery to everyone around him.

Item: N/A

Abilities/Powers: Due to his role as acting captain of the Flying Dutchman, Davy Jones possesses a range of different powers to be used on the job. He seems to be able to teleport short distances, can pass through walls unhindered, and is more or less effectively immortal - the only way to really kill him is by stabbing him through the heart, which in his case is kept hidden inside a locked chest.

In exchange for these powers, Davy Jones can't step ashore except one day every ten years. He seems to be able to get around this debilitating trait by either submerging his feet in buckets of water or sending his crewmembers ashore to act in his stead.

In purely physical ability, he is a talented swordsman and sailor. With a face covered in tentacles and a giant crab claw for a hand, Jones can break a man's neck or suffocate him without the use of any tools whatsoever. He is extraordinarily strong and can lift a man bodily with one hand.

BARGE RESTRICTIONS ON ABOVE POWERS:

While Davy occupies the Barge, he will not have access to teleportation or the ability to pass through walls. He will also be able to be killed by more conventional means in which one might kill a human, and will thus be not as invulnerable as he thinks he is.

Personality:
In the role of a captain, Jones commands a deafening presence, intimidating and ruthless and giant. Aboard his ship he's an absolute dictator and acts like it; he's unused to having his orders questioned and expects everyone around him to treat his word as law. When he's forced into a position of servitude, Jones will comply, but will look for every opportunity available to subvert the plans and activities of whoever holds sway over him. He's a violent, unstable creature when leashed, and absolutely resents being given commands by anyone.

There's a dark sort of sarcasm to Jones, who enjoys black humor as long as he's not the butt of the joke. He's bitter, cynical, and full of resentment from previous events in his history, and seems to enjoy prolonging the agony of those he was originally tasked to help. Jones has long since grown used to the idea that life (and the afterlife) is cruel, and his only response to this fact is to be even crueler to everyone over whom he commands influence. He's not above making bargains, but expects these to be kept; when someone goes back on their word with him, he tries his utmost to make sure it's the last mistake they ever make.

Quite literally heartless, when Davy Jones is bested he does not forgive and he does not forget. He goes to ridiculous, absolute lengths in order to bring his enemies to heel, and once he has them, will absolutely refuse to relinquish them for any reason. Once he makes grudges, he keeps them for good, and has had a history of spectacularly burning bridges in his wake. As a result, he has no friends or allies on his side: only slaves and brainwashed crewmen. He cares nothing for those souls lost at sea he looks after and has next to no pity for any creature living or dead.

Davy Jones is extraordinarily lonely, being a captain is a position of solitude. He does not even have the benefit of communing with other captains of the same status, being that in his position he rarely comes in contact with any functional ship. This, combined with his heart having been broken long ago, has led him to become a brooding, yet hateful creature who scorns affection, love, and friendship in all its forms and will go so far as to destroy other relationships out of spite. Making everyone around him as miserable and forlorn as he himself is seems to be his one remaining source of joy left to him in the world, and he delights in tormenting those under his command.

The one exception to this rule is his relationship with his pet, the deep sea-dwelling monster known as the Kraken who answers to Jones' beckoning. Using this creature to break ships apart and command the seas, Jones has developed a keen fondness and affection for the Kraken, far more than he's ever displayed for any other living thing. Other than this relationship, Jones has no one, and is naturally suspicious of anyone pretending to be anything other than cruel and deceitful. He expects the worst of mankind, and unfortunately it usually delivers.

Barge Reactions: Living on the edge of the supernatural world himself, Jones will hardly blink an eye when it comes to different species and worlds - he himself knows how tenuous reality can be after one dies, and will willingly accept the presence of the Barge with little argument.

He's been the captain of his own "redemption after death" ship, and will accordingly berate and violently lash out at anyone who dares get in his way. Most of his criticism will be devoted to the Admiral, but Jones will do all he can to corrupt the workings of the Barge without drawing the Admiral's attention - this cannot be said for anyone he perceives as being "under" him. Likely he'll be a relentless bully to inmates and wardens alike, and will be extraordinarily bitter while recognizing the irony of his position.

Path to Redemption: Davy Jones was not always cruel and merciless: once, before his transformation into his squid-like form, he was a living, breathing man with a heart. Long ago he was jilted, but he did have the capacity to love and love fiercely, and there are still traces of his humanity left within him.

The key to getting Jones to turn around is twofold: first, to force him to confront his past as a jilted lover and learn to let go of the crueler things in life, and second, to forgive debts owed to him. Jones is prickly, stubborn, and tends to cling to things that hurt him, twisting them in his mind over years of time until they've made him bitter and furious. Releasing that anger - accepting that shit happens and that it's okay and even honorable to forget transgressions against him and move on - is paramount to his redemption.

History:

Once upon a time, there was a pirate captain who fell in love with the sea.

Davy Jones, once a complete, living man some hundreds of years ago, was a brilliant sailor and swordsman who became enraptured with the Sea Goddess Calypso. Completely obsessed with her, Jones in the name of love agreed to Calypso's request to ferry the souls of those who had died at sea off to the underworld. Unable to set foot ashore for the next ten years, Davy Jones willingly did the job assigned to him with little complaint, believing that at the end of his ten-year tenure Calypso would be waiting on land for him to return.

However, owing to the unpredictable and forever changing nature of the Sea, Calypso failed to materialize at the end of those ten years. Bitter and resentful at his love being unrequited, Davy Jones carved his own heart out, locked it away in a chest, and buried it on land. Instead of assisting lost souls to their afterlives, Jones instead kidnapped these souls and press-ganged them into servitude, becoming a terrifying and merciless captain of legend. This change of heart led to his eventual transformation as a hideous squid monster, becoming less of a man and more of a cursed sea creature.

Jones took his resentment one step further, and during the First Pirates' Council he instructed the rest of the pirate captains present on how to "tame" the sea and imprison Calypso in a human form. His revenge sated, he continued to sail at will through the Caribbean, more legend than man, ferrying dead souls and press-ganging others who feared what dying would bring. Over time, his bitterness and cursed life transformed him, his crew, and his ship into the monstrous fish-like creatures they are to this day.

Thirteen years before the start of Pirates of the Caribbean 2, Jones struck a bargain with pirate Jack Sparrow; Jones would resurrect the sunken Wicked Wench, Jack's old ship, and give Jack thirteen years to sail around as its captain. After the thirteen years were up, Jack would come into Jones' servitude for a hundred years aboard the Flying Dutchman. When thirteen years were past, Jones sent his crewman Bootstrap Bill Turner to deliver the Black Spot to Jack, informing him that his time as a free captain was drawing to a close.

This didn't sit well with Jack Sparrow, who tried to trick the naive Will Turner into taking his place aboard the Dutchman. Jones in turn didn't appreciate Jack's attempt to cheat him out of his soul, and struck a new bargain: if Jack could collect 100 people in three days to deliver to Jones, his debt would be settled and he would be permitted to go on his way. Keeping Will Turner as a good faith payment, Jones left Jack to carry out his impossible task, unaware that Jack had foregone this new bargain and was instead seeking out the heart of Davy Jones. Jones' heart, once stabbed through, was the only way to kill him and get the horrifying Kraken off Jack's tail.

Returning back to the Dutchman, Jones was tricked by Will Turner in a game of Liar's Dice into revealing where he hid the key that would open the chest his heart was locked inside. That same night, Jones' key was stolen from him and Will took the opportunity to escape the Dutchman in search of Jack and the chest. Infuriated, Jones drove a steady course for Isla Cruces where the chest was buried, intent on reclaiming it before either Jack or Will could recover it and kill him for good.

He was too late; in a three-way scuffle, Jones recovered only the key and the empty chest. The heart itself landed in the hands of Lord Cutler Beckett of the East India Trading Company, who had been in pursuit of Jack himself. Jack perished when Jones during the same scuffle ordered the Kraken to tear apart the Black Pearl and drag it and Jack into Davy Jones' Locker, a sort of limbo for those lost at sea.

Now forced to answer to Cutler Beckett - an equally merciless tyrant bent on eradicating all piracy - Davy Jones was ordered to beach the mighty Kraken on pain of death, killing his own pet. With his crew full in service to the East India Trading Company, Jones continued his pursuit of Will Turner and co., while destroying every pirate ship that came into his path.

Summoned to Beckett's armada, Jones was enraged to discover that hated enemy Will Turner was now in league with Beckett and had similarly revealed the truth of Jack's escape from the Locker. The three struck a bargain between each other; Jones would release Will's father from his service, Will would lead Beckett to Shipwreck Cove (the last pirate stronghold), and Beckett would use his armada to kill Calypso before the pirates would have a chance to release her from her human form.

Still bitter from his centuries-old rebuke, Jones reached Shipwreck Cove first and confronted Calypso for abandoning their love. Calypso appeared apologetic and claimed that it was her nature to be wild and unchanging and never constant. Somewhat mollified, Jones again offered his love, and Calypso in turn promised to find him again after she'd been set free from her human prison.

A parlay between the East India Company and the pirates took place, in which Jack was exchanged for Will. Happily taking Jack as his prisoner, Jones brought them both aboard the Dutchman and prepared his ship for war.

As Calypso was released, a stormy, incredible maelstrom brewed in the middle of the sea; Jones steered his ship heedlessly into the fray to take on the Black Pearl. By fortuitous luck, a cannonball destroyed most of the East India crewmen and Jones murdered the rest; thus he was free to reclaim possession of his heart and free himself of Beckett's command.

However, Jack the escaped prisoner had reached the chest first. Enraged, Jones set about recapturing his heart and the two engaged in a bitter swordfight across the Dutchman. This in turn culminated with Jones fighting Jack, Will, and Elizabeth at various points, until Jones had dispatched with all three. The heart within reach, Jack and Jones remained at a standstill until Jones at last stabbed Will Turner.

This in turn enraged Will's father, who attacked Jones. In the midst of their scuffle, Jack allowed Will to stab Jones' heart, killing Jones and allowing Will to take Jones' place as the immortal captain of the Flying Dutchman. Dying, Jones cast himself into the maelstrom after whispering the name of his love.


Sample Journal Entry: What is this? This ship, these dead men wasting about their sorry little lives after they've been properly extinguished, this is what you call servitude? These fat, lazy, oafish creatures you call wardens aren't fit to govern a school of fish. And as for their inmates, the lot of them; useless! You, you high-minded Admiral, you take these souls and work them in pubs and spas, as if this was some vacation cruise.

If I am to serve - and I at least had the courtesy to offer my slaves a choice - but if I am to serve, I should prefer to think I'm doing something worth doing, so I can look myself in the face and have some self-respect.

None of you knows how to properly command a crew. Not a soul among you has risen above the muck and the dung of the sea.

You call this a ship? It's nothing but some planks thrown together. Cast me into the sea and be done with it; I'd rather be dead than stay here and count myself among you withering spawn.


Sample RP: With a derisive curl of his tentacled beard, the former captain of the Flying Dutchman limped across the deck, his barnacled claw scraping clean the wood of the railing. Cheap, pathetic work; he wouldn't stoop to calling it craftsmanship. The entire ship was an outrage to him; nothing this clean and orderly had ever been through a day's stretch of hard work in its life.

And the man in charge - the Admiral - was such a cheery, neat title. Not Captain, not Commander - Admiral put Jones in mind of a pressed shirt and a pressed wig and a pressed head for it to sit atop. He didn't like it. He didn't like any of it, and he especially did not like escaping one sort of slavery to be press-ganged into another.

Sneering, he lit his pipe and inhaled heavily. One of the struggles of living aboard the Dutchman was that it was constantly wet and sloggish and therefore impossible to keep a flame alight. Here, that was no problem; the damned Barge would go up like a tinderbox if he so chose. And hardly a man among the inmates and wardens could stop him. It was a litter full of half-grown pups, the Barge: babes and women. How could the Admiral pilot a ship of babes and women? It was a disgusting affront to any captain.

With a snarl of impotent rage, he turned and cast his pipe out across the bow. Let it scatter; let the embers burn the deck; let him burn with it. He didn't care. Jones would never be happy for as long as he lived, and apparently even longer than that.

Special Notes:

Edit 7/9:
As per the need to nerf powers for inmates, requesting that all of Davy Jones' supernatural abilities (teleportation, intangibility, breathing under water) as well as his inability to step onto land be completely wiped.

While it would be hilarious to see Davy try and navigate off-ship via a Slip'n'Slide, it sort of negates the purpose of having him at port at all.