Post by Jack Russell on Sept 16, 2007 17:24:58 GMT
(Morgan’s newest character for the x-peoples.)
Name: Jacob Emil Russoff (given name); Jack Russell (adopted name)
Codename: Werewolf
Age: 24
Mutation:* To give Jack some credit, he is far more complicated than he appears to the eye. Jack’s mutation is very simple, however. His mutation is that of the ability to take on a human form. For nearly all of his life, Jack had always assumed it had been the other way around. It was not until he voluntarily took the Cure that he learned the truth.
In his ‘normal’ form, Jack looks like something that stepped out of a horror book, resembling a wolf with some attributes of a human. His form is a powerhouse in strength, and it’s easy to see why, as he is built powerfully, and in this form he is capable of many athletic feats. In it, Jack is capable of springing from a crouch to 18 feet straight in the air, running 35 miles for an hour and a half before tiring, and bench pressing an enormous amount of weight, the extent of which, has yet to be determined. Consequently, the complex design of his form allows him to possess superhuman stamina, balance, coordination, and reflexes that are twice as fast as a human. Even though he is a worthy opponent as it is in his natural shape, his claws are very destructive as well, able to penetrate through a range of substances such as fabric, wood, and even soft metals and cinderblock.
In addition to these olympian abilities, Jack has senses of sight, smell, and hearing that are as acute as a wolf’s. In total darkness, while able to see with his eyes being reflective to any light anyway, he is able to see into the ultraviolet and infrared portions of the spectrum, and this enables him to see heat emissions of objects or people, varying on the strength of color and allowing him to judge that being’s mental or physical state. Jack can also smell approaching organisms within a 100 foot radius, and can also track foes for miles across almost any terrain. And his hearing, likewise, is just on a radical level, and allows him to detect a heartbeat in a cave at a peak distance of 30 feet.
Other plusses that come with his natural form is immunity to conventional injury, hardy enough to endure penetration wounds, exposure, burning, drowning, suffocation, and so forth. However, they will illicit injury if the injuries are severe. Even with this in mind, Jack possesses a bodily regeneration rate at over ten times a human’s. Regardless, he loses this immunity when he changes into his wimpy human form. When in this form, Jack’s full abilities are cut in half, as his little human shape can’t handle such extreme measures and sensory capabilities. And without fur to protect his human skin, which before had been stronger, Jack is susceptible to being burned by strong sunlight, forcing him to retire to the darkness. While not completely defenseless as a human, Jack can still be a target if he is forced into his human form by psionic means and has sustained injuries that have not healed completely in his bestial form. The biggest forte of being in his human form is having the vocal cords to be able to speak. In his bestial form he has not mastered speaking, and extensive practice may or may not fix that.
All of that aside, Jack has specific weaknesses. Like many others before him, he has a severe allergy to silver. The very presence of silver sets off his senses with a ringing in his ears and gives him the impression of burning metal. Even the slightest contact with silver irritates his skin instantly, usually burning it and drying it out upon contact. (And it hurts a lot.) Stabbing or shooting him mortally with a silver bullet or blade can kill him within minutes as his body reacts. Even if Jack doesn't die from recieving such a wound, silver-inflicted wounds take longer to heal. Wolfsbane appears to be an issue as well, but it poses no ill effects to him unless if he handles it excessively or ingests it.
During the three nights of the full moon, Jack’s mutation weakens slowly, and he is forced into his lupine form and almost driven insane by the power of the moon. This is what causes whatever he is wearing to stretch and contort to his shifting body instead of becoming absorbed when he shifts back at will. When this occurs, he doesn’t directly become aware of what he is doing, the human emotions he has learned buried beneath a several hour spurt of instinct. During this time, Jack has little or no control over himself, and he is and is not responsible for his own actions. This experience is almost dreamlike, and Jack rarely recalls fully what had occurred the night before. Usually it comes to him in horrific flashes with vivid sensory detail.
As if having one of Jack isn’t enough trouble, he can also ‘infect’ others by biting them. However, this appears only to happen during a full moon. The enzymes in his saliva trigger a mutation similar to his own in other people by messing around with their DNA in a highly-re active way, although it affects persons differently. A mutant with regenerative healing will probably have no effects at all, but a ordinary human may become exactly what Jack is, only they are really human and not really a anthropomorphic wolf. To date, there appears to be no cure.
Physical Description: When hiding his true identity, Jack’s human form looks very normal. He appears relatively unthreatening compared to his true form. He stands shy of six feet tall and is slightly lanky but well-built. His skin is pretty sallow from where he has avoided sunny days, although he has sustained some freckles. Albeit a little uncertain, Jack carries himself straight and tall, clearly unafraid of most things. His gaze is steady, intent, but nervous and alert, his eyes changing color to various shades of blue depending on the lighting or what he’s wearing. Liking to look somewhat well-kept, he cuts his blonde hair fairly short, his bangs only slightly falling across his forehead.
As a ‘werewolf’ per se, Jack is completely different. Whereas as a human he is compact and average size, he is brawny and muscular in his bestial shape, standing at an impressive 6’8”. Covered with muscle as thick and strong as rawhide rope, it’s no wonder that he has more strength in this form more than the other. His wolfish form is also characterized by a thick, brown coat of fur, an elongated snout and ears, a curved spine, and lupine jointed legs. In this form his eyes are dark red, appearing to glow when a small amount of light refracts from them.
Personality: When he isn’t forced to lock himself up three nights out of the month, Jack is a very down-to-earth kind of guy who isn’t daunted by a little hard work. In fact, Jack is known for being a hard worker, but then again he’s also known for being a little unreliable when he was so concerned with his own personal issues. He hardly has that problem as much now, since he has no reason to escape to the world chasing a cure, but his reputation generally follows him through word of mouth by people he knows. Methodical by nature, Jack likes to get things done right and the first time. When it doesn’t get done the first time, and it’s clear it just isn’t going to work, Jack tries again anyway. Clearly he has enough ambition to keep trying, the same that got him through one after another of faulty cures.
Friends don’t come easy to Jack, and he is cautious about making them, lacking the confidence it takes to reveal all of himself right away, childishly uncertain that ‘no one will like him’ because of his bestial self. Despite the fact that this can make him appear a little dull and unexciting, time can warm him up to people and allows him to be a little more affectionate and jovial. He’s normally a introverted person, not one to get easily frustrated by the little things, but pressing him brings out the worst in him, a streak of primal temper that catches him off guard.
For the most part, Jack is traditional and punctual, and most wouldn’t expect him to crack under emotional strain, though he does tend to act sporadically and on a whim--his random adventuring a prime example. Metaphorically, however, Jack is the steel beneath the hammer, growing stronger from the repeated blows of life, but still forced to take the heat or break beneath it. There are days that he wallows in who he is, neck-deep in self-pity, and yet, he finds solace in the wolf inside him, feeling better when he is free in the wild away from judgmental people who would scorn him for his real appearance. To make up for the thrill of the hunt, Jack seeks other more acceptable thrills like riding his motorcycle and exposing himself to the elements with nothing but some very essentials and the clothes on his back while going on several day long hikes.
The primal part of Jack has few saving graces, however. When he is forced to change both physically and mentally, he can only recognize the taste of fear in the back of his throat and blood. Keeping the animal locked up inside forces it to almost explode out of him, and only an inkling of the human Jack hangs on, strong enough to keep himself from hurting those who he has an emotional attachment to, able to understand those persons as part of his ‘pack.’ Apart from this, Jack cannot understand complex human ideas at this time, unable to register the idea of mercy or sacrifice.
Background: Many generations before him, Jack’s great great great-grandfather Grigori Russoff began a string of werewolf lore when he developed a very late mutation that was triggered by the light of the full moon. It caused him to change into a very hirsute being of sorts that both resembled a man and a beast. While this mutation gave him the advantage of taking on a form that was powerful enough to withstand above average damage, the alternate form unfortunately came with its own primal mindset that resulted in his demise. When he was at the mercy of the full moon, Grigori prowled the countryside and unwillingly killed unsuspecting persons. After several months of this, he was killed by frightened villagers.
Although his children had been born before this mutation emerged, variations of the mutation continued throughout his descendants even after his death. With each generation, the mutation evolved, becoming more and more complex. The almost quaint beast became more wolf-like, and its senses and strength and endurance grew with each generation, and each generation afflicted one or more of Grigori Russoff’s descendants. At some point or another, when one of his descendants was trapped in this form, they began to infect others with this ‘disease’ by biting them, and dark, tragic tales of mysterious persons who could shape-shift into monstrous wolf-like creatures exploded across Europe. Sadly, many of Grigori’s descendants were killed out of pure fear of the unknown, and those who happened to be bitten and ‘cursed’ were usually killed as well.
This continued well on into Jack’s father’s generation, although Gregory Russoff’s own mutation didn’t emerge until well after he was married and had two children. He too was doomed to lurk in the shadows and maul victims that unknowingly ventured into the woods. Fear for his family pressed him to urge his wife to flee to the States with their children to protect them. His noble attempt spared their lives, but cost him is own, later stalked and killed by a mob of townspeople.
Laura Russoff, Jack’s mother, eventually remarried to a very well to-do man named Phillip Russell. Laura, Jack, and his infant sister Lissa lived comfortably in Los Angeles where Laura attempted to mend the damage done by raising her two children ignorant of what had happened to Gregory. Their lives occurred smoothly, and without any visible emergence of the family ‘curse’, they lived happily--at least for a while.
It was not until Jack’s sixteenth birthday did he shift for the first time into his bestial shape--unknowingly his body’s normal form. A full moon triggered his body’s response to lapse into the shape he was destined to be, but unfortunately the full moon forced his own consciousness to become subdued beneath his animal instincts. Like his father and his father’s father and others before him, Jack joined the ranks of the cursed and ran rampant about LA. Fortunately, the shock of such a sensory intense environment kept his bestial half from killing anyone, and lives were spared. Meanwhile, as his birthday party disbanded so his friends and family could look for him, the family’s chauffeur Max Grant sabotaged the brakes on Laura’s car out of pure spite when Phillip had suspended his pay. Max’s vengeance was sought quickly, and the very next day Laura was mortally injured in a car wreck when she spun out of control on a busy street slick with rain. Before she died, she revealed everything to Jack--his true heritage, his ancestry, and what had really happened to his father. On her parting breath, she begged for him to never hurt his stepfather.
Jack later killed Max on the third night of the full moon, but his stepfather was unharmed, some dim recollection in the Beast within him that reminded it begrudgingly that Jack musn’t hurt his stepfather--his mother’s last plea.
Shortly afterwards, Jack fled his home in California without telling anyone of his intentions. He scoured the U.S., trying to find some sort of ‘cure’ to quell the monster within, frightened that the slaying wouldn’t end with the chauffeur. Time and time again, unfortunately, each ‘cure’ turned out to be faulty, and one venture almost cost him his life when he was nearly killed by a cult that had captured him and tried to use him as a sacrifice so they could become werewolves. Along the way in his adventures, Jack attempted to be an on-and-off crime fighter at night, almost easily able to shift into to his newfound form as he attempted to right the evil he’d done by protecting those who could not protect themselves. On his adventures, he met Topaz, a mystic with powerful empathic, telepathic, and telekinetic powers. The two had an on-and-off relationship. Jack traveled by night only, and he thrived on the darkness, as sunlight became increasingly unbearable for him to handle in strong amounts, but strangely only in his human form. This cross-country trip came to a halt after he was finally contacted by Charles Xavier when he had stopped in New York to visit a supposedly powerful mystic that was renowned for his healing powers. Thankfully for Jack, Xavier invited Jack to the school and offered him help and shelter, two things which he more than graciously accepted, though did not at first trust.
Years of training allowed Jack to realize his full potential, and he almost began to like his bestial form, somehow innately accustomed to the feeling of being something that was fairly far from human. Despite this, Jack showed little or no progress with restraining the hungry, animal part of him that emerged during the full moon. Sometimes, even with reinforced containment cells, It would escape, and after repeated excursions of this, Jack announced his leave after graduation to attend college. After showing so much vigor in school, his peers--and even Lissa--believed the lie, and Jack really spent two years traveling again all over the country and then scouring other continents to find a way to rid himself of his mutation. He could afford the splurge, since by this time, his mother's estate of Castle Russoff was destined to be passed on to him, but Phillip instead sold the land to Miles Blackgar, and had it removed off the Californian coast to an island. Instead of giving Jack his dues, Phillip instead allotted him a specific amount of funds each month to live off of, which he used extensively for his travels. The results of these adventures were grim, and the only way out of his 'curse' seemed to be a mystical death. Disheartened by his failure, he gave in and returned to New York, hesitantly vouching for a place among the X-Men, wanting to clear his name and do something for others and not just himself. He even went as far as to get a degree in Environmental Science, his extensive outings in the woods and at the mercy of nature being put to good use.
But Jack being Jack, he proved himself unreliable. When Stryker’s invasion occurred, he was halfway across the country on another one of his adventuring/cure-searching venues, and by the time he returned, he found only ruin and death waiting for him. Guilty of his absence, Jack firmly put his foot down that time and did not run off again to pursue any far-fetched treatments. Then the Cure was issued.
On and off, Jack had wrestled with idea of being ‘normal’ again, something he hadn’t been for a long time. He’d grown used to his differences and his weaknesses, but the danger of someone getting killed was always there. Hoping for the best, Jack left--again, optimistic that this would be the answer at last. Left and right, other mutants were becoming free of their burdens, and it seemed he was to be free of his at last. But, as usual, Jack was wrong. In fact, the ‘Cure’ did nothing as it was advertised--or at least in his opinion it didn’t. If anything, it seemed to backfire and Jack was forced into his bestial form and could not shift back. While he had a little more control with his bestial self during the full moon, he had a very difficult time living day-to-day. Tasks that he had taken for granted when they were simple as a human suddenly became frustrating and required more awareness of his body. He could not speak to others, and when he managed words they were crude and difficult to make conversation with. But it was finally the fear that emanated from others that did him in. He couldn’t stand being regarded as a monster, being cooped up all the time from prying eyes. Desperate this time, he made discreet arrangements to be transported to Dr. Michael Morbius, a blood specialist, who had agreed to hellp him with his problem.
For several long months, Jack endured test after test to determine the source of the problem, becoming depressed with no clear end in sight. It wasn’t until a few months after he had become ‘stuck’ did things dramatically change for him. The ‘Cure’ apparently was not permanent, and Jack eventually returned to human. The good news for Jack was that he was completely normal again, the bad news however was that Dr. Morbius had discovered that the Cure really had worked. Jack’s mutation wasn’t the ability to shift into a wolf, his mutation was to shift from a wolf into a human.. a mutation he’d had since even before he was born. After his human form had defensively been held up for so long, it had started to fail when he was sixteen, weakened by the hormones of puberty, a whirlwind of emotions, and of course the light of the full moon. It explained everything to Jack, but the fact still remained that Jack had been looking for a cure that would have destroyed his humanity and not his beast. The realization took some time to accept, and he spent more time with Morbius to understand who he truely was and what it meant to be a wolf.
After his nearly one year hiatus, Jack returns to help make his mark on the world, and to clean his name for good.
Current Affiliation: Xavier Institute Faculty (if they'll allow him to come back, and possibly the X-Men if they'll have him)
Sample: ”Michael.. you are a genius..”
He can’t help but smile as he looks into the mirror, straightening the collar of his shirt and tugging on his sleeves while he marvels at his human features. Jack hasn’t seen his face in months, and even his freckles are a welcome sight. And he wants to press his fingers against his skin, pull and tug at it to make sure it’s still there. He’d had nightmares of looking into the mirror, only for his face to melt off the longer he looked until staring back at him was.. a monster--a beast, something he knew he wasn’t. But Jack knows it’s the real thing this time, and since this morning he’d done nothing but talk, talk, talk after getting over the initial shock, relishing in the way words rolled off his tongue and made sense instead of coming out as rough, fragmented growls and grumbles caught in his chest.
”Hey, pretty boy, you gonna stop looking at yourself long enough to let someone else use the sink?”
Jack looks up, his eyes rewarded with the full view of a monstrous man in a polo and bulging biceps that told him that an argument was not advisable. Still grinning like an idiot proud of a small accomplishment, Jack stepped aside. ”Oh, it’s fine, you can use it, I’m done. But it’s great though isn’t it? You can look in the mirror all day and your face will never change.”
All he got in return was a grunt as the man stepped past him to get to the sink. ”Whatever.”
There’s a little bounce in his step as Jack exits the restroom, clearly drawing a few gazes that deducted that he may have been doing a little more than just washing his hands in the men’s room in a very nice restaurant. Taking pride in the stares that people might be looking at him and not trying to look away, Jack does nothing to tell them otherwise, something outside of his nature that would probably be gone by the next day. Until then, he was happy and elated to be normal.
He returns to his table with his savior for possibly the rest of his life Dr. Michael Morbius, his sickly pale friend who had stuck with him for the long months.
Michael says nothing about Jack’s particularly bouncy mood, instead enjoying a glass of wine and offering Jack a smile. ”Jack, some people may get the wrong idea with how long you spend gazing into a mirror..” The twitch of his smile is tentative, but Jack barely takes notice, excited at the prospect of being in public.
”You just appreciate being human more when you’re not human for a long time, you know?” Jack almost ravenously attacks a roll, only remembering halfway through that since he’s human again he has no reason to be angry and wolfish and starving. ”I mean.. there was this one kid.. I don’t remember his name, at Xavier’s, and he was purple all the time, and he couldn’t do anything about it. And here I was, all worried about people not liking me because I had this other thing inside of me, even though I could hide it, and then karma comes back and bites me in the ass and it goes away for a while. It’s just so... invigorating.”
Putting his wine glass down slowly, Michael shifts uncomfortably. ”Jack.. there’s something you must know. While I hardly see this the place or time to reveal such information to you it’s vital that I tell you--”
”Wilson!” Jack exclaimed, snapping his fingers as the realization came to him. ”That was his name--Wilson Myers--”
”--Jack--”
”--then I think there was this other girl who had like.. three mouths sprouting out of her mouth, and it was pretty scary when she talked with all three of them at once--”
”--Jack!”
”..huh?” Jack blinked and stopped mid-ramble, his excitement barely containable, practically sitting on the edge of his seat.
”Jack it’s about the Cure.”
”Oh.. well.. what about it? Because I’m not taking that one again, no way. I’m telling you Michael, I’m going to beat this thing. I’m not going to stop until I find a way to get rid of this, becuase you know why? Because now I appreciate being human, I appreciate being made in God’s image. And God’s image is definitely not--” he halted as Michael held up his hand. ”..what? What’s wrong?”
”The Cure didn’t backfire. It worked.”
Almost laughing into his water, Jack raised his brows. ”How many glasses of wine did you have when I left the table, Michael? I mean, come on, it made me into that... that.. thing that I have to be when there’s danger and when it’s those three days of the month. It didn’t work at all.”
Opening and then shutting his mouth, Michael sat rigid as the waiter arrived with the entrees. Jack dove into main course eagerly after thanking the waiter several times and jokingly asking him to bring a glass of water for his friend.
Tense silence continued until the waiter departed, and Jack started to eat, enjoying his full plate of steak and a twice-baked potato. Michael took the time to lean in, speaking loud enough so his friend could hear. ”Jack, you must listen to what I have to say, it’s extremely vital that you know.”
Looking up, Jack nodded for Michael to continue as he still ate, apparently unworried about anything the doctor had to tell him after enduring his worst nightmare.
”Your mutation isn’t to shift into a wolf, Jack. Your mutation is to shift into a human.”
And then Jack started to choke on his steak.
( * = So, Toni helped me out major here, so big thanks to her for that. x3 Since originally, Jack is a supernatural creature by a curse, I’ve modified it to where he eventually just became what his ancestors had been changing into. I really hated to have a character that’s so similiar to Rahne kind of like how Wallflower and Primer are similiar, but, um.. yeah, this is Jack. And, of course I intend to use him, because I didn’t make this really, really long app for nothing. xD)
WESTCHESTER
Name: Jacob Emil Russoff (given name); Jack Russell (adopted name)
Codename: Werewolf
Age: 24
Mutation:* To give Jack some credit, he is far more complicated than he appears to the eye. Jack’s mutation is very simple, however. His mutation is that of the ability to take on a human form. For nearly all of his life, Jack had always assumed it had been the other way around. It was not until he voluntarily took the Cure that he learned the truth.
In his ‘normal’ form, Jack looks like something that stepped out of a horror book, resembling a wolf with some attributes of a human. His form is a powerhouse in strength, and it’s easy to see why, as he is built powerfully, and in this form he is capable of many athletic feats. In it, Jack is capable of springing from a crouch to 18 feet straight in the air, running 35 miles for an hour and a half before tiring, and bench pressing an enormous amount of weight, the extent of which, has yet to be determined. Consequently, the complex design of his form allows him to possess superhuman stamina, balance, coordination, and reflexes that are twice as fast as a human. Even though he is a worthy opponent as it is in his natural shape, his claws are very destructive as well, able to penetrate through a range of substances such as fabric, wood, and even soft metals and cinderblock.
In addition to these olympian abilities, Jack has senses of sight, smell, and hearing that are as acute as a wolf’s. In total darkness, while able to see with his eyes being reflective to any light anyway, he is able to see into the ultraviolet and infrared portions of the spectrum, and this enables him to see heat emissions of objects or people, varying on the strength of color and allowing him to judge that being’s mental or physical state. Jack can also smell approaching organisms within a 100 foot radius, and can also track foes for miles across almost any terrain. And his hearing, likewise, is just on a radical level, and allows him to detect a heartbeat in a cave at a peak distance of 30 feet.
Other plusses that come with his natural form is immunity to conventional injury, hardy enough to endure penetration wounds, exposure, burning, drowning, suffocation, and so forth. However, they will illicit injury if the injuries are severe. Even with this in mind, Jack possesses a bodily regeneration rate at over ten times a human’s. Regardless, he loses this immunity when he changes into his wimpy human form. When in this form, Jack’s full abilities are cut in half, as his little human shape can’t handle such extreme measures and sensory capabilities. And without fur to protect his human skin, which before had been stronger, Jack is susceptible to being burned by strong sunlight, forcing him to retire to the darkness. While not completely defenseless as a human, Jack can still be a target if he is forced into his human form by psionic means and has sustained injuries that have not healed completely in his bestial form. The biggest forte of being in his human form is having the vocal cords to be able to speak. In his bestial form he has not mastered speaking, and extensive practice may or may not fix that.
All of that aside, Jack has specific weaknesses. Like many others before him, he has a severe allergy to silver. The very presence of silver sets off his senses with a ringing in his ears and gives him the impression of burning metal. Even the slightest contact with silver irritates his skin instantly, usually burning it and drying it out upon contact. (And it hurts a lot.) Stabbing or shooting him mortally with a silver bullet or blade can kill him within minutes as his body reacts. Even if Jack doesn't die from recieving such a wound, silver-inflicted wounds take longer to heal. Wolfsbane appears to be an issue as well, but it poses no ill effects to him unless if he handles it excessively or ingests it.
During the three nights of the full moon, Jack’s mutation weakens slowly, and he is forced into his lupine form and almost driven insane by the power of the moon. This is what causes whatever he is wearing to stretch and contort to his shifting body instead of becoming absorbed when he shifts back at will. When this occurs, he doesn’t directly become aware of what he is doing, the human emotions he has learned buried beneath a several hour spurt of instinct. During this time, Jack has little or no control over himself, and he is and is not responsible for his own actions. This experience is almost dreamlike, and Jack rarely recalls fully what had occurred the night before. Usually it comes to him in horrific flashes with vivid sensory detail.
As if having one of Jack isn’t enough trouble, he can also ‘infect’ others by biting them. However, this appears only to happen during a full moon. The enzymes in his saliva trigger a mutation similar to his own in other people by messing around with their DNA in a highly-re active way, although it affects persons differently. A mutant with regenerative healing will probably have no effects at all, but a ordinary human may become exactly what Jack is, only they are really human and not really a anthropomorphic wolf. To date, there appears to be no cure.
Physical Description: When hiding his true identity, Jack’s human form looks very normal. He appears relatively unthreatening compared to his true form. He stands shy of six feet tall and is slightly lanky but well-built. His skin is pretty sallow from where he has avoided sunny days, although he has sustained some freckles. Albeit a little uncertain, Jack carries himself straight and tall, clearly unafraid of most things. His gaze is steady, intent, but nervous and alert, his eyes changing color to various shades of blue depending on the lighting or what he’s wearing. Liking to look somewhat well-kept, he cuts his blonde hair fairly short, his bangs only slightly falling across his forehead.
As a ‘werewolf’ per se, Jack is completely different. Whereas as a human he is compact and average size, he is brawny and muscular in his bestial shape, standing at an impressive 6’8”. Covered with muscle as thick and strong as rawhide rope, it’s no wonder that he has more strength in this form more than the other. His wolfish form is also characterized by a thick, brown coat of fur, an elongated snout and ears, a curved spine, and lupine jointed legs. In this form his eyes are dark red, appearing to glow when a small amount of light refracts from them.
Personality: When he isn’t forced to lock himself up three nights out of the month, Jack is a very down-to-earth kind of guy who isn’t daunted by a little hard work. In fact, Jack is known for being a hard worker, but then again he’s also known for being a little unreliable when he was so concerned with his own personal issues. He hardly has that problem as much now, since he has no reason to escape to the world chasing a cure, but his reputation generally follows him through word of mouth by people he knows. Methodical by nature, Jack likes to get things done right and the first time. When it doesn’t get done the first time, and it’s clear it just isn’t going to work, Jack tries again anyway. Clearly he has enough ambition to keep trying, the same that got him through one after another of faulty cures.
Friends don’t come easy to Jack, and he is cautious about making them, lacking the confidence it takes to reveal all of himself right away, childishly uncertain that ‘no one will like him’ because of his bestial self. Despite the fact that this can make him appear a little dull and unexciting, time can warm him up to people and allows him to be a little more affectionate and jovial. He’s normally a introverted person, not one to get easily frustrated by the little things, but pressing him brings out the worst in him, a streak of primal temper that catches him off guard.
For the most part, Jack is traditional and punctual, and most wouldn’t expect him to crack under emotional strain, though he does tend to act sporadically and on a whim--his random adventuring a prime example. Metaphorically, however, Jack is the steel beneath the hammer, growing stronger from the repeated blows of life, but still forced to take the heat or break beneath it. There are days that he wallows in who he is, neck-deep in self-pity, and yet, he finds solace in the wolf inside him, feeling better when he is free in the wild away from judgmental people who would scorn him for his real appearance. To make up for the thrill of the hunt, Jack seeks other more acceptable thrills like riding his motorcycle and exposing himself to the elements with nothing but some very essentials and the clothes on his back while going on several day long hikes.
The primal part of Jack has few saving graces, however. When he is forced to change both physically and mentally, he can only recognize the taste of fear in the back of his throat and blood. Keeping the animal locked up inside forces it to almost explode out of him, and only an inkling of the human Jack hangs on, strong enough to keep himself from hurting those who he has an emotional attachment to, able to understand those persons as part of his ‘pack.’ Apart from this, Jack cannot understand complex human ideas at this time, unable to register the idea of mercy or sacrifice.
Background: Many generations before him, Jack’s great great great-grandfather Grigori Russoff began a string of werewolf lore when he developed a very late mutation that was triggered by the light of the full moon. It caused him to change into a very hirsute being of sorts that both resembled a man and a beast. While this mutation gave him the advantage of taking on a form that was powerful enough to withstand above average damage, the alternate form unfortunately came with its own primal mindset that resulted in his demise. When he was at the mercy of the full moon, Grigori prowled the countryside and unwillingly killed unsuspecting persons. After several months of this, he was killed by frightened villagers.
Although his children had been born before this mutation emerged, variations of the mutation continued throughout his descendants even after his death. With each generation, the mutation evolved, becoming more and more complex. The almost quaint beast became more wolf-like, and its senses and strength and endurance grew with each generation, and each generation afflicted one or more of Grigori Russoff’s descendants. At some point or another, when one of his descendants was trapped in this form, they began to infect others with this ‘disease’ by biting them, and dark, tragic tales of mysterious persons who could shape-shift into monstrous wolf-like creatures exploded across Europe. Sadly, many of Grigori’s descendants were killed out of pure fear of the unknown, and those who happened to be bitten and ‘cursed’ were usually killed as well.
This continued well on into Jack’s father’s generation, although Gregory Russoff’s own mutation didn’t emerge until well after he was married and had two children. He too was doomed to lurk in the shadows and maul victims that unknowingly ventured into the woods. Fear for his family pressed him to urge his wife to flee to the States with their children to protect them. His noble attempt spared their lives, but cost him is own, later stalked and killed by a mob of townspeople.
Laura Russoff, Jack’s mother, eventually remarried to a very well to-do man named Phillip Russell. Laura, Jack, and his infant sister Lissa lived comfortably in Los Angeles where Laura attempted to mend the damage done by raising her two children ignorant of what had happened to Gregory. Their lives occurred smoothly, and without any visible emergence of the family ‘curse’, they lived happily--at least for a while.
It was not until Jack’s sixteenth birthday did he shift for the first time into his bestial shape--unknowingly his body’s normal form. A full moon triggered his body’s response to lapse into the shape he was destined to be, but unfortunately the full moon forced his own consciousness to become subdued beneath his animal instincts. Like his father and his father’s father and others before him, Jack joined the ranks of the cursed and ran rampant about LA. Fortunately, the shock of such a sensory intense environment kept his bestial half from killing anyone, and lives were spared. Meanwhile, as his birthday party disbanded so his friends and family could look for him, the family’s chauffeur Max Grant sabotaged the brakes on Laura’s car out of pure spite when Phillip had suspended his pay. Max’s vengeance was sought quickly, and the very next day Laura was mortally injured in a car wreck when she spun out of control on a busy street slick with rain. Before she died, she revealed everything to Jack--his true heritage, his ancestry, and what had really happened to his father. On her parting breath, she begged for him to never hurt his stepfather.
Jack later killed Max on the third night of the full moon, but his stepfather was unharmed, some dim recollection in the Beast within him that reminded it begrudgingly that Jack musn’t hurt his stepfather--his mother’s last plea.
Shortly afterwards, Jack fled his home in California without telling anyone of his intentions. He scoured the U.S., trying to find some sort of ‘cure’ to quell the monster within, frightened that the slaying wouldn’t end with the chauffeur. Time and time again, unfortunately, each ‘cure’ turned out to be faulty, and one venture almost cost him his life when he was nearly killed by a cult that had captured him and tried to use him as a sacrifice so they could become werewolves. Along the way in his adventures, Jack attempted to be an on-and-off crime fighter at night, almost easily able to shift into to his newfound form as he attempted to right the evil he’d done by protecting those who could not protect themselves. On his adventures, he met Topaz, a mystic with powerful empathic, telepathic, and telekinetic powers. The two had an on-and-off relationship. Jack traveled by night only, and he thrived on the darkness, as sunlight became increasingly unbearable for him to handle in strong amounts, but strangely only in his human form. This cross-country trip came to a halt after he was finally contacted by Charles Xavier when he had stopped in New York to visit a supposedly powerful mystic that was renowned for his healing powers. Thankfully for Jack, Xavier invited Jack to the school and offered him help and shelter, two things which he more than graciously accepted, though did not at first trust.
Years of training allowed Jack to realize his full potential, and he almost began to like his bestial form, somehow innately accustomed to the feeling of being something that was fairly far from human. Despite this, Jack showed little or no progress with restraining the hungry, animal part of him that emerged during the full moon. Sometimes, even with reinforced containment cells, It would escape, and after repeated excursions of this, Jack announced his leave after graduation to attend college. After showing so much vigor in school, his peers--and even Lissa--believed the lie, and Jack really spent two years traveling again all over the country and then scouring other continents to find a way to rid himself of his mutation. He could afford the splurge, since by this time, his mother's estate of Castle Russoff was destined to be passed on to him, but Phillip instead sold the land to Miles Blackgar, and had it removed off the Californian coast to an island. Instead of giving Jack his dues, Phillip instead allotted him a specific amount of funds each month to live off of, which he used extensively for his travels. The results of these adventures were grim, and the only way out of his 'curse' seemed to be a mystical death. Disheartened by his failure, he gave in and returned to New York, hesitantly vouching for a place among the X-Men, wanting to clear his name and do something for others and not just himself. He even went as far as to get a degree in Environmental Science, his extensive outings in the woods and at the mercy of nature being put to good use.
But Jack being Jack, he proved himself unreliable. When Stryker’s invasion occurred, he was halfway across the country on another one of his adventuring/cure-searching venues, and by the time he returned, he found only ruin and death waiting for him. Guilty of his absence, Jack firmly put his foot down that time and did not run off again to pursue any far-fetched treatments. Then the Cure was issued.
On and off, Jack had wrestled with idea of being ‘normal’ again, something he hadn’t been for a long time. He’d grown used to his differences and his weaknesses, but the danger of someone getting killed was always there. Hoping for the best, Jack left--again, optimistic that this would be the answer at last. Left and right, other mutants were becoming free of their burdens, and it seemed he was to be free of his at last. But, as usual, Jack was wrong. In fact, the ‘Cure’ did nothing as it was advertised--or at least in his opinion it didn’t. If anything, it seemed to backfire and Jack was forced into his bestial form and could not shift back. While he had a little more control with his bestial self during the full moon, he had a very difficult time living day-to-day. Tasks that he had taken for granted when they were simple as a human suddenly became frustrating and required more awareness of his body. He could not speak to others, and when he managed words they were crude and difficult to make conversation with. But it was finally the fear that emanated from others that did him in. He couldn’t stand being regarded as a monster, being cooped up all the time from prying eyes. Desperate this time, he made discreet arrangements to be transported to Dr. Michael Morbius, a blood specialist, who had agreed to hellp him with his problem.
For several long months, Jack endured test after test to determine the source of the problem, becoming depressed with no clear end in sight. It wasn’t until a few months after he had become ‘stuck’ did things dramatically change for him. The ‘Cure’ apparently was not permanent, and Jack eventually returned to human. The good news for Jack was that he was completely normal again, the bad news however was that Dr. Morbius had discovered that the Cure really had worked. Jack’s mutation wasn’t the ability to shift into a wolf, his mutation was to shift from a wolf into a human.. a mutation he’d had since even before he was born. After his human form had defensively been held up for so long, it had started to fail when he was sixteen, weakened by the hormones of puberty, a whirlwind of emotions, and of course the light of the full moon. It explained everything to Jack, but the fact still remained that Jack had been looking for a cure that would have destroyed his humanity and not his beast. The realization took some time to accept, and he spent more time with Morbius to understand who he truely was and what it meant to be a wolf.
After his nearly one year hiatus, Jack returns to help make his mark on the world, and to clean his name for good.
Current Affiliation: Xavier Institute Faculty (if they'll allow him to come back, and possibly the X-Men if they'll have him)
Sample: ”Michael.. you are a genius..”
He can’t help but smile as he looks into the mirror, straightening the collar of his shirt and tugging on his sleeves while he marvels at his human features. Jack hasn’t seen his face in months, and even his freckles are a welcome sight. And he wants to press his fingers against his skin, pull and tug at it to make sure it’s still there. He’d had nightmares of looking into the mirror, only for his face to melt off the longer he looked until staring back at him was.. a monster--a beast, something he knew he wasn’t. But Jack knows it’s the real thing this time, and since this morning he’d done nothing but talk, talk, talk after getting over the initial shock, relishing in the way words rolled off his tongue and made sense instead of coming out as rough, fragmented growls and grumbles caught in his chest.
”Hey, pretty boy, you gonna stop looking at yourself long enough to let someone else use the sink?”
Jack looks up, his eyes rewarded with the full view of a monstrous man in a polo and bulging biceps that told him that an argument was not advisable. Still grinning like an idiot proud of a small accomplishment, Jack stepped aside. ”Oh, it’s fine, you can use it, I’m done. But it’s great though isn’t it? You can look in the mirror all day and your face will never change.”
All he got in return was a grunt as the man stepped past him to get to the sink. ”Whatever.”
There’s a little bounce in his step as Jack exits the restroom, clearly drawing a few gazes that deducted that he may have been doing a little more than just washing his hands in the men’s room in a very nice restaurant. Taking pride in the stares that people might be looking at him and not trying to look away, Jack does nothing to tell them otherwise, something outside of his nature that would probably be gone by the next day. Until then, he was happy and elated to be normal.
He returns to his table with his savior for possibly the rest of his life Dr. Michael Morbius, his sickly pale friend who had stuck with him for the long months.
Michael says nothing about Jack’s particularly bouncy mood, instead enjoying a glass of wine and offering Jack a smile. ”Jack, some people may get the wrong idea with how long you spend gazing into a mirror..” The twitch of his smile is tentative, but Jack barely takes notice, excited at the prospect of being in public.
”You just appreciate being human more when you’re not human for a long time, you know?” Jack almost ravenously attacks a roll, only remembering halfway through that since he’s human again he has no reason to be angry and wolfish and starving. ”I mean.. there was this one kid.. I don’t remember his name, at Xavier’s, and he was purple all the time, and he couldn’t do anything about it. And here I was, all worried about people not liking me because I had this other thing inside of me, even though I could hide it, and then karma comes back and bites me in the ass and it goes away for a while. It’s just so... invigorating.”
Putting his wine glass down slowly, Michael shifts uncomfortably. ”Jack.. there’s something you must know. While I hardly see this the place or time to reveal such information to you it’s vital that I tell you--”
”Wilson!” Jack exclaimed, snapping his fingers as the realization came to him. ”That was his name--Wilson Myers--”
”--Jack--”
”--then I think there was this other girl who had like.. three mouths sprouting out of her mouth, and it was pretty scary when she talked with all three of them at once--”
”--Jack!”
”..huh?” Jack blinked and stopped mid-ramble, his excitement barely containable, practically sitting on the edge of his seat.
”Jack it’s about the Cure.”
”Oh.. well.. what about it? Because I’m not taking that one again, no way. I’m telling you Michael, I’m going to beat this thing. I’m not going to stop until I find a way to get rid of this, becuase you know why? Because now I appreciate being human, I appreciate being made in God’s image. And God’s image is definitely not--” he halted as Michael held up his hand. ”..what? What’s wrong?”
”The Cure didn’t backfire. It worked.”
Almost laughing into his water, Jack raised his brows. ”How many glasses of wine did you have when I left the table, Michael? I mean, come on, it made me into that... that.. thing that I have to be when there’s danger and when it’s those three days of the month. It didn’t work at all.”
Opening and then shutting his mouth, Michael sat rigid as the waiter arrived with the entrees. Jack dove into main course eagerly after thanking the waiter several times and jokingly asking him to bring a glass of water for his friend.
Tense silence continued until the waiter departed, and Jack started to eat, enjoying his full plate of steak and a twice-baked potato. Michael took the time to lean in, speaking loud enough so his friend could hear. ”Jack, you must listen to what I have to say, it’s extremely vital that you know.”
Looking up, Jack nodded for Michael to continue as he still ate, apparently unworried about anything the doctor had to tell him after enduring his worst nightmare.
”Your mutation isn’t to shift into a wolf, Jack. Your mutation is to shift into a human.”
And then Jack started to choke on his steak.
( * = So, Toni helped me out major here, so big thanks to her for that. x3 Since originally, Jack is a supernatural creature by a curse, I’ve modified it to where he eventually just became what his ancestors had been changing into. I really hated to have a character that’s so similiar to Rahne kind of like how Wallflower and Primer are similiar, but, um.. yeah, this is Jack. And, of course I intend to use him, because I didn’t make this really, really long app for nothing. xD)
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