Character notes for "Monkey Chew Pepper"
Oct. 25th, 2021 12:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithHere are the character notes for "Monkey Chew Pepper."
Ti-Jean Castille -- He has fair skin and gray eyes. His brown hair is often long, but sometimes cut shorter by work hazards such as fire. He usually has a scruff of mustache and beard. He is tall and thin. He can change his appearance with both magical and mundane methods. His heritage is Cajun including American, French, and Spanish. Ti-Jean speaks Bayou Bantu, Cajun French, English, and Spanish. His accent drifts from all the traveling, but still carries enough Cajun to recognize unless he tries hard to hide it. His birthday is January 27, 1981. His sun sign is Aquarius and his moon sign is Scorpio. He is 24 in 2005.
Ti-Jean is the grandson of Gros-Jean, son of Mi-Jean and Abella. He has a bunch of siblings and cousins, some of whom are also into mystical matters -- a family tendency -- but they don't like him much because they consider him to be irresponsible. He maintains a network of friends and allies in the bohemian community, using them to find and help solve problems as he travels around. He has no permanent home, and prefers it that way. His experiences have left him with little faith in divine and mortal alike.
Ti-Jean is a shyster good at theft, sleight-of-hand, escape, and convincing people of whatever he wants them to believe or to do. When that's not enough, he often resorts to magic. He knows about occult topics across many different traditions. He's also skilled at street fighting.
Wracked by guilt and stress, Ti-Jean is rarely all the way sober. He drinks, smokes, and sometimes uses other drugs to cope with the horrors he has seen. This makes him prone to queasiness, shakes, and occasional collapse. He is particularly inclined to drink himself into a stupor after finishing a hard job.
Ti-Jean has crossed paths with Freesia and Cas. He has even had sex with Freesia on occasion, but she doesn't really do committed relationships and he's too afraid of attracting trouble to get attached to people. Ti-Jean also knows Aidan, although he seems to regard that with some embarrassment.
Origin: Ti-Jean was conceived in a cemetery by two teenagers screwing around, and that gave him even more of a sense for mystical things than usual for his family. As a teen, he and some friends dabbled in magic. When he was 16, it got away from them and most of them were killed. The other survivor, Guy-Vidal, went into seminary school and Ti-Jean became a wandering troubleshooter.
Uniform: Ti-Jean dresses in durable clothes, typically with dark colors. He likes long, loose coats and garments with plenty of pockets. He conceals weapons and magical materials in his clothes.
Qualities: Good (+2) Cajun, Good (+2) Existential Intelligence, Good (+2) Protective, Good (+2) Shyster, Good (+2) Street Fighting
Poor (-2) Traumatic Guilt
Powers: Good (+2) Mojo Man
In Terramagne-Cajun use, a mojo man is someone who understands the mystical and how to control it, but doesn't have the close spiritual connection of some other roles. Often it's someone whose experiences have caused a loss of faith, or even hostility toward spirituality. They tend to know a little of this, a little of that, blending different roles together as they solve problems with magic, folk remedies, or anything else that works. Most have a lot of contacts in the mystical fringe communities, although some are loners.
Ti-Jean has Energy Manipulation, Occult Knowledge, Sigil Magic, and Subtle Senses at Good (+2) level. He has Divination, Do Not Notice Me, and Healing at Average (0) level.
He can bind, banish, or destroy some nefarious creatures, and a lot of what he does involves traveling around to deal with mystical problems. He can lay magical hexes or blessings. He can create mojo bags, witch bottles, and other magical artifacts.
His sleep magic uses the incantation "Fais do do." (Cajun: "Go to sleep.")
Vulnerability: Poor (-2) Bad Luck
Ti-Jean has terrible luck. If anything can go wrong, it will. This happens at least once in every confrontation, sometimes more if it runs longer. It gives him kind of a fatalistic view of life, but it also gives him more energy to fight back. Ti-Jean usually wins a fight, but he also tends to limp away from it battered in body and spirit.
Equipment:
Good (+2) Cigarettes That Can Do Anything
The most common effects include flash-bang, smoke bomb, and banishing. He always has a pack with those already charged and ready to be thrown. However, Ti-Jean can spend an action to charm one to create a variety of different effects. Because they're small, though, they can only affect about half of a room-sized area or up to two targets standing close together. He always carries uncharged cigarettes too. These require a base of tobacco grown for magical or spiritual purposes; otherwise a level is lost. They also require some ceremonial preparation; otherwise a level is lost. So Ti-Jean tends to buy his supplies from American Shaman or a hoodoo source. Grabbing a pack of ordinary cigarettes can still be made to work, but only if he has time to prepare them, and even then only at Average (0) level.
Good (+2) Utility Outfit
Ti-Jean always carries diverse equipment. Anything the size of a sawed-off shotgun or smaller is something he can reasonably pull out of his clothes. Searching him for weapons is a conflict situation. If the searcher wins, they find weapons or other items equal to the difference between the higher and lower rolls. A tie discovers the single most obvious item. A loss discovers nothing. Without one of the key garments, like a coat, the outfit only functions at Average (0) level. Less than that, Ti-Jean can still roll to produce something even when seemingly naked at Poor (-2) level. He is just that good at hiding things on his person with magic or other trickery.
Motivation: To protect what's left.
A number of Cajuns have nicknames prefixed with “Tee” “Ti,” “Tit,” “T,” and so forth — all pronounced tee. This prefix is derived from the French word petit, meaning “small” or “little.” It typically denotes a namesake/junior, or else the youngest child in a family.
Ti- , Mi- , Gros- (préfixes créoles)
Pronunciation varies; in this case it's closer to "zheen" than "zhahn." The "n" often vanishes at the end, especially in Jean- compounds, but at the end as with Ti-Jean it's more audible.
Etymology & Historical Origin of the Baby Name Jean
Jean is the French form of John. Both names are ultimately derived from the Latin “Iohannes”, the Greek “Iōannēs” and the Hebrew “Yochanan” all of which translate to “Yahweh (God) is gracious” or “God is generous”.
[---8<---]
From that point on, Jean became a wildly popular choice among the French where it remains on the Top 100 list of most favored boy names.
Bayou Bantu is a Terramagne-American language carried on by slaves, especially those who escaped into the wilderness of the bayous. It is a Bantu-based creole with liberal additions from other West African languages, plus some Choctaw and Chitimacha, with a little English and French thrown in. Compare with Louisiana Creole and Gullah from local-America.
The migration of the term mojo into today’s language is mainly due to its use in 20th century rhythm and blues songs. However though the word still refers to a source of power, it doesn’t necessarily refer to a mojo bag. Instead, it may simply mean magic or spells.
Fais Do-Do (fay doh-doh)
The French term literally means to “make sleep,” but in the Cajun culture, a fais do-do is a big party where dancing and festivities last long into the night. Babies sleep in a back room so their parents don’t have to leave early.
Ti-Jean's sun sign is Aquarius. His moon sign is Scorpio, which influences personality.
I like to describe this archetype as Fucked Up Urban Shaman. First, a shaman is someone who uses their mystical abilities to interface between the material and spiritual realms. The darker, edgier version is sometimes called a witch doctor. An urban shaman is someone whose affinity lies with cityscapes rather than wilderness, which influences what type of magical components they use and what their subtle senses tell them. They are still involved in solving mystical problems, but they use different tools and may deal in somewhat different types of problems. When someone's powers have a high cost, and their past is fraught, then you get a damaged hero or if they're obnoxious they might be called an antihero. Add that all up and you get Fucked Up Urban Shaman. For another example, see John Constantine from the prompt. This archetype is also ubiquitous in cyberpunk, and appears in variations across many roleplaying games.
Cassiel "Cas" Hansen -- He has pale skin, blue eyes, and short wavy blond hair. He is short and skinny. He is 7 years old in 2005. His birthday is January 20, putting him in Aquarius on the cusp of Capricorn. Cas is the son of Freesia Hansen (23) and Javan Sommer. Gentle and compassionate, Cas does a bunch of things around the house that his mother forgets or does badly. He's adultified, but doesn't mind the extra work. He just resents the fact that he can't always depend on his own mother. They love each other, but she's a flake, and that makes his life harder. She can't hold down a job for long, so they have to move often, and sometimes live in a car or crash with friends. When Freesia has a place, though, she shares with her friends so Cas is used to helping them too. He's been picked up by Family Services more than once, but his mother always gets him back.
Origin: Cas doesn't really believe his birth mother's story that she conceived him with an angel.
Uniform: Boy's clothes, usually in soft shades of gray or blue.
Qualities: Good (+2) Dexterity, Good (+2) Gentle, Good (+2) Housework
Poor (-2) Unreliable Mother
Powers: (latent nephil)
Motivation: "I can do it myself!"
Freesia Hansen -- She has fair skin, blue eyes, and long wavy blonde hair. She is tall and graceful. Her heritage is American. She speaks English and some French. She grew up in Sedona, Arizona. Her sexuality is pretty much free love. She is 23 years old in 2016.
As a teen, Freesia fell in love with a wild bohemian boy named Javan Sommer, who told her he was an angel. When she got pregnant, though, Javan didn't stick around. She had a son, Cassiel, when she was 16. Since then she made her way north, winding up in Nebraska. Freesia feels overwhelmed as a single mother, and she's not good at it. Cas often stays with neighbors or family friends, occasionally in foster care, but his mother always retrieves him eventually. They love each other, their relationship is just complicated.
Freesia is good at finding work but bad at keeping it. She doesn't have the level of responsibility for motherhood, either. She's just a flake. She gets stoned, runs out of money, and gets into trouble. It's not an addiction, just a bad habit of abandoning reality when it gets bothersome.
Her apartment is cluttered with funky knickknacks. Some of them are things she made; she is a haphazard upcycler and junk artist. The windows are filled with plants, but some of them are usually dying because she forgets to water them and then drowns them. Freesia has lots of bohemian friends, and they take care of each other as best they can. She often lets people crash at her place, when she has one. Freesia likes bohemian clothes in antique colors.
Qualities: Good (+2) Bohemian, Good (+2) Existential Intelligence, Good (+2) Graceful, Good (+2) New Age
Poor (-2) Flake
Ti-Jean Castille -- He has fair skin and gray eyes. His brown hair is often long, but sometimes cut shorter by work hazards such as fire. He usually has a scruff of mustache and beard. He is tall and thin. He can change his appearance with both magical and mundane methods. His heritage is Cajun including American, French, and Spanish. Ti-Jean speaks Bayou Bantu, Cajun French, English, and Spanish. His accent drifts from all the traveling, but still carries enough Cajun to recognize unless he tries hard to hide it. His birthday is January 27, 1981. His sun sign is Aquarius and his moon sign is Scorpio. He is 24 in 2005.
Ti-Jean is the grandson of Gros-Jean, son of Mi-Jean and Abella. He has a bunch of siblings and cousins, some of whom are also into mystical matters -- a family tendency -- but they don't like him much because they consider him to be irresponsible. He maintains a network of friends and allies in the bohemian community, using them to find and help solve problems as he travels around. He has no permanent home, and prefers it that way. His experiences have left him with little faith in divine and mortal alike.
Ti-Jean is a shyster good at theft, sleight-of-hand, escape, and convincing people of whatever he wants them to believe or to do. When that's not enough, he often resorts to magic. He knows about occult topics across many different traditions. He's also skilled at street fighting.
Wracked by guilt and stress, Ti-Jean is rarely all the way sober. He drinks, smokes, and sometimes uses other drugs to cope with the horrors he has seen. This makes him prone to queasiness, shakes, and occasional collapse. He is particularly inclined to drink himself into a stupor after finishing a hard job.
Ti-Jean has crossed paths with Freesia and Cas. He has even had sex with Freesia on occasion, but she doesn't really do committed relationships and he's too afraid of attracting trouble to get attached to people. Ti-Jean also knows Aidan, although he seems to regard that with some embarrassment.
Origin: Ti-Jean was conceived in a cemetery by two teenagers screwing around, and that gave him even more of a sense for mystical things than usual for his family. As a teen, he and some friends dabbled in magic. When he was 16, it got away from them and most of them were killed. The other survivor, Guy-Vidal, went into seminary school and Ti-Jean became a wandering troubleshooter.
Uniform: Ti-Jean dresses in durable clothes, typically with dark colors. He likes long, loose coats and garments with plenty of pockets. He conceals weapons and magical materials in his clothes.
Qualities: Good (+2) Cajun, Good (+2) Existential Intelligence, Good (+2) Protective, Good (+2) Shyster, Good (+2) Street Fighting
Poor (-2) Traumatic Guilt
Powers: Good (+2) Mojo Man
In Terramagne-Cajun use, a mojo man is someone who understands the mystical and how to control it, but doesn't have the close spiritual connection of some other roles. Often it's someone whose experiences have caused a loss of faith, or even hostility toward spirituality. They tend to know a little of this, a little of that, blending different roles together as they solve problems with magic, folk remedies, or anything else that works. Most have a lot of contacts in the mystical fringe communities, although some are loners.
Ti-Jean has Energy Manipulation, Occult Knowledge, Sigil Magic, and Subtle Senses at Good (+2) level. He has Divination, Do Not Notice Me, and Healing at Average (0) level.
He can bind, banish, or destroy some nefarious creatures, and a lot of what he does involves traveling around to deal with mystical problems. He can lay magical hexes or blessings. He can create mojo bags, witch bottles, and other magical artifacts.
His sleep magic uses the incantation "Fais do do." (Cajun: "Go to sleep.")
Vulnerability: Poor (-2) Bad Luck
Ti-Jean has terrible luck. If anything can go wrong, it will. This happens at least once in every confrontation, sometimes more if it runs longer. It gives him kind of a fatalistic view of life, but it also gives him more energy to fight back. Ti-Jean usually wins a fight, but he also tends to limp away from it battered in body and spirit.
Equipment:
Good (+2) Cigarettes That Can Do Anything
The most common effects include flash-bang, smoke bomb, and banishing. He always has a pack with those already charged and ready to be thrown. However, Ti-Jean can spend an action to charm one to create a variety of different effects. Because they're small, though, they can only affect about half of a room-sized area or up to two targets standing close together. He always carries uncharged cigarettes too. These require a base of tobacco grown for magical or spiritual purposes; otherwise a level is lost. They also require some ceremonial preparation; otherwise a level is lost. So Ti-Jean tends to buy his supplies from American Shaman or a hoodoo source. Grabbing a pack of ordinary cigarettes can still be made to work, but only if he has time to prepare them, and even then only at Average (0) level.
Good (+2) Utility Outfit
Ti-Jean always carries diverse equipment. Anything the size of a sawed-off shotgun or smaller is something he can reasonably pull out of his clothes. Searching him for weapons is a conflict situation. If the searcher wins, they find weapons or other items equal to the difference between the higher and lower rolls. A tie discovers the single most obvious item. A loss discovers nothing. Without one of the key garments, like a coat, the outfit only functions at Average (0) level. Less than that, Ti-Jean can still roll to produce something even when seemingly naked at Poor (-2) level. He is just that good at hiding things on his person with magic or other trickery.
Motivation: To protect what's left.
A number of Cajuns have nicknames prefixed with “Tee” “Ti,” “Tit,” “T,” and so forth — all pronounced tee. This prefix is derived from the French word petit, meaning “small” or “little.” It typically denotes a namesake/junior, or else the youngest child in a family.
Ti- , Mi- , Gros- (préfixes créoles)
Pronunciation varies; in this case it's closer to "zheen" than "zhahn." The "n" often vanishes at the end, especially in Jean- compounds, but at the end as with Ti-Jean it's more audible.
Etymology & Historical Origin of the Baby Name Jean
Jean is the French form of John. Both names are ultimately derived from the Latin “Iohannes”, the Greek “Iōannēs” and the Hebrew “Yochanan” all of which translate to “Yahweh (God) is gracious” or “God is generous”.
[---8<---]
From that point on, Jean became a wildly popular choice among the French where it remains on the Top 100 list of most favored boy names.
Bayou Bantu is a Terramagne-American language carried on by slaves, especially those who escaped into the wilderness of the bayous. It is a Bantu-based creole with liberal additions from other West African languages, plus some Choctaw and Chitimacha, with a little English and French thrown in. Compare with Louisiana Creole and Gullah from local-America.
The migration of the term mojo into today’s language is mainly due to its use in 20th century rhythm and blues songs. However though the word still refers to a source of power, it doesn’t necessarily refer to a mojo bag. Instead, it may simply mean magic or spells.
Fais Do-Do (fay doh-doh)
The French term literally means to “make sleep,” but in the Cajun culture, a fais do-do is a big party where dancing and festivities last long into the night. Babies sleep in a back room so their parents don’t have to leave early.
Ti-Jean's sun sign is Aquarius. His moon sign is Scorpio, which influences personality.
I like to describe this archetype as Fucked Up Urban Shaman. First, a shaman is someone who uses their mystical abilities to interface between the material and spiritual realms. The darker, edgier version is sometimes called a witch doctor. An urban shaman is someone whose affinity lies with cityscapes rather than wilderness, which influences what type of magical components they use and what their subtle senses tell them. They are still involved in solving mystical problems, but they use different tools and may deal in somewhat different types of problems. When someone's powers have a high cost, and their past is fraught, then you get a damaged hero or if they're obnoxious they might be called an antihero. Add that all up and you get Fucked Up Urban Shaman. For another example, see John Constantine from the prompt. This archetype is also ubiquitous in cyberpunk, and appears in variations across many roleplaying games.
Cassiel "Cas" Hansen -- He has pale skin, blue eyes, and short wavy blond hair. He is short and skinny. He is 7 years old in 2005. His birthday is January 20, putting him in Aquarius on the cusp of Capricorn. Cas is the son of Freesia Hansen (23) and Javan Sommer. Gentle and compassionate, Cas does a bunch of things around the house that his mother forgets or does badly. He's adultified, but doesn't mind the extra work. He just resents the fact that he can't always depend on his own mother. They love each other, but she's a flake, and that makes his life harder. She can't hold down a job for long, so they have to move often, and sometimes live in a car or crash with friends. When Freesia has a place, though, she shares with her friends so Cas is used to helping them too. He's been picked up by Family Services more than once, but his mother always gets him back.
Origin: Cas doesn't really believe his birth mother's story that she conceived him with an angel.
Uniform: Boy's clothes, usually in soft shades of gray or blue.
Qualities: Good (+2) Dexterity, Good (+2) Gentle, Good (+2) Housework
Poor (-2) Unreliable Mother
Powers: (latent nephil)
Motivation: "I can do it myself!"
Freesia Hansen -- She has fair skin, blue eyes, and long wavy blonde hair. She is tall and graceful. Her heritage is American. She speaks English and some French. She grew up in Sedona, Arizona. Her sexuality is pretty much free love. She is 23 years old in 2016.
As a teen, Freesia fell in love with a wild bohemian boy named Javan Sommer, who told her he was an angel. When she got pregnant, though, Javan didn't stick around. She had a son, Cassiel, when she was 16. Since then she made her way north, winding up in Nebraska. Freesia feels overwhelmed as a single mother, and she's not good at it. Cas often stays with neighbors or family friends, occasionally in foster care, but his mother always retrieves him eventually. They love each other, their relationship is just complicated.
Freesia is good at finding work but bad at keeping it. She doesn't have the level of responsibility for motherhood, either. She's just a flake. She gets stoned, runs out of money, and gets into trouble. It's not an addiction, just a bad habit of abandoning reality when it gets bothersome.
Her apartment is cluttered with funky knickknacks. Some of them are things she made; she is a haphazard upcycler and junk artist. The windows are filled with plants, but some of them are usually dying because she forgets to water them and then drowns them. Freesia has lots of bohemian friends, and they take care of each other as best they can. She often lets people crash at her place, when she has one. Freesia likes bohemian clothes in antique colors.
Qualities: Good (+2) Bohemian, Good (+2) Existential Intelligence, Good (+2) Graceful, Good (+2) New Age
Poor (-2) Flake
(no subject)
Date: 2021-10-25 02:48 pm (UTC)Also see the Hunters in Supernatural.
>>They are still involved in solving mystical problems, but they use different tools and may deal in somewhat different types of problems.<<
I am reminded of Mau from Nation (the book). After a traumatic experience, he believed in the gods just enough to be mad at them for not existing, despite having talked with Death (and the Ancestors, and the King of the Gods).
He also fights death, not by fighting or the usual rickster sneakiness, but by very determined practicality: get milk for the baby, challenge the Ax-Crazy psycho to single combat to minimize casualties, stand watch at night...
Thoughts
Date: 2021-10-25 09:27 pm (UTC)Yeah, a lot of them fit. Also Magnus from Shadowhunters, but the Shadowhunters themselves don't actually interface at all well. 0_o They leave the hard work to poor Magnus.
>> I am reminded of Mau from Nation (the book). <<
Fascinating.
>> He also fights death, not by fighting or the usual rickster sneakiness, but by very determined practicality: get milk for the baby, challenge the Ax-Crazy psycho to single combat to minimize casualties, stand watch at night... <<
Easiest way to save a life nowadays: cache extra air conditioners and hand them out in heat waves.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2021-10-25 11:25 pm (UTC)Other ideas:
- practice emotional labor
- reach out to people / imagine everyone is wearing a sign that says "make me feel special"
- be a good example for others
- make sure people in your care aren't hungry (i.e. offer to feed them - but don't push.)
- make sure general needs are met - and help get them met where you can.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-10-28 03:18 am (UTC)I'm thinking of whether or not it would make sense for Rent-A-Center to rent out air conditioners (and space heaters) to help people endure their local climate and weather. But air conditioners need to be installed in windows, and they could get damaged in the process (dropped out of a second floor window), and the renter would owe Rent-A-Center the replacement cost.
I can make an air conditioner work, but I don't have enough weather-working power to break a local heat wave or cold snap, or to make it rain, or stop raining (or snowing).
Thoughts
Date: 2021-10-28 03:34 am (UTC)Shamanism is about intercession between the material and spiritual realms. A technomage typically interfaces between technology and humanity. That's only sort of the same thing. Though I'll allow that some types of technomagic can overlap with shamanism, for instance, dealing with technological totems.
>> but I'm not all that fucked up. My physical health is troublesome, but I've outgrown most of my early emotional traumas.<<
That's good.
>> I'm thinking of whether or not it would make sense for Rent-A-Center to rent out air conditioners (and space heaters) to help people endure their local climate and weather.<<
They could. The problem is, a business will only stock an amount that is profitable to them. It will quickly run out during a serious heat wave. It will probably run out even in an ordinary summer, because if HVAC equipment breaks, fixing it routinely takes weeks or months. This is not an acceptable state of affairs, but I expect it to take a lot more dead people before society gets off its ass to do anything about it.
>> But air conditioners need to be installed in windows, and they could get damaged in the process (dropped out of a second floor window), and the renter would owe Rent-A-Center the replacement cost.<<
Eh, any time you rent equipment there's a risk of breakage. If the company is sensible, they will have insurance to cover that, rather than try to get money out of customers who can't afford to buy their own stuff anyway.
>> I can make an air conditioner work, but I don't have enough weather-working power to break a local heat wave or cold snap, or to make it rain, or stop raining (or snowing). <<
Then consider stocking a spare air conditioner. Fans can help with a range of heat before air conditioning becomes urgent. They are much cheaper and smaller, so several could be stocked.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2021-10-28 06:26 am (UTC)Re: Thoughts
Date: 2021-10-28 09:54 am (UTC)As long as one dweller stands up whole;
And here are three million lives.
Their spirits run through the nerves of wire
Through the concrete bones and the furnace-fire --
The body of stone survives
That is how New York City survived Superstorm Sandy, even when the subway tunnels filled with seawater.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2021-11-03 03:28 am (UTC)