Application for noanga

[failgoyle]

OOC INFO
Name: Airdra
Contact: Airdra

IC INFO
Character Name: Julian "Jules" Thibault
Canon Name: Changeling: The Lost
Age: 25, give or take a couple of years (time in Faerie is weird that way)

OC, AU, or CRAU History:
There's a wall of text history here. There's also a brief setting description here.

Personality:
Jules tends to be a little high-strung, and he is pretty good about inadvertently letting people know this. They usually catch on to this the second he starts yelling about something or dramatically bemoaning his fate about some other thing. He's a coward who scares easily and loudly. He's also a complainer. He's good at finding flaws in everything and loudly sharing them with the class. He plans for the worst, and he doesn't dare hope for the best. His life has not been something that engenders hoping for the best. "What if" is a question that is to be thrown at anything and everything in order to test it. He's convinced his life has been a string of nothing but the Worst Possible Outcomes, and so clearly those are what he needs to worry about. He loves blowing things out of proportion

More than anything, Jules can't handle combat. He is not a combatant by any means, and he will beg forgiveness or mercy or start crying hide or flee or do what he needs to do in order not to get involved. The man doesn't have much in the way of pride when it comes to saving his own skin. Subtlety is not something he's good at here. As much as he hates losing his tail, he will gladly drop it and run if it thinks it would be a sufficient distraction to spare him a really terrible fight. His gargoylish fae mien might be imposing to some, and he's aware of this on some level. But in practice, he's not good at applying that intimidation potential. He can work up a very good resting gargoyle bitchface if he has to, but any effect that has usually dissolves when he opens his mouth to speak or if he's confronted directly. It doesn't help that the human form of his Mask is scrawny and relatively unimposing, as Jules was before he was taken.

Yet underneath the surface, he's got a surprising amount of determination. You don't escape from Faerie if you're a total weakling, and there is some sort of strength hidden deep in there. Jules can be patient when he needs to. Very patient. He'll use misdirection if he has to, channeling his complaining urges towards something less important in order to obfuscate his true concerns or intentions. It's a win-win scenario as far as he's concerned--he still gets to vent somehow, and he gets to keep his true intentions to himself. And hey, complaining is just a way to pass the time while you're waiting, right? But if things get serious enough, he knows when he should freeze and wait there in the dark, biding his time. He knows how he usually behaves and he knows what people expect of him, and it's when he gets a grip on himself and uses what he is to his advantage that he's at his most dangerous. He sees no problem in kicking up some kind of dramatic scene for use as a distraction or to cause people to underestimate him. (Dignity? Who cares?) Everything has its own series of costs and benefits. If he manages to calm down enough to think, he's capable of weighing those costs and benefits with surprising coldness. He's not inclined towards sentimentality, and his priority is simply to ensure his own continued survival. He's not particularly loyal to anyone or anything other than himself and Haru, who isn't here right now. He's friendly enough, but there's a line between "friendly with someone" and "actually trusts someone" that he'll not cross easily.

In "things you'd put on a character sheet" terms, he's dealing with low Clarity and high Wyrd at this point in his life, which has led to some oddities. He's developed some issues surrounding doorways and passing through them properly, which has come off to most in his freehold as a weird fae thing, the result of having spent all that time in the Hedge on his own. It's rooted in practicality; he is still not comfortable with being seven feet tall, and he got badly stuck in a doorway once, breaking the tip off of one of his horns in the process. Yet sometimes...it is actually the weird fae thing like everyone thinks and he'll feel like he has to inspect the doorway or salt a threshhold or something else odd before he can pass through it safely.

Powers:
Jules has a variety of abilities related to his status as a Changeling. Perhaps the most important of these is his fae mien and its accompanying Mask. His time in Faerie saw him serving as a gargoyle, and many of those traits stuck with him upon his return. The Mask, a sort of protective bit of magic, prevents ordinary humans from seeing Jules as he really is--they only see him as a human. The Mask is thorough enough that it will mask the presence of additional limbs like his wings and tail, even if his tail falls off in a fit of panic. (And that tail can and will fall off if he panics; his Keeper thought it was funny and so there was a little cursing going on...) It's possible for his Mask to falter to a certain extent--on a good day some might be able to see his true nature either temporarily or permanently if the conditions are right (children, drunkards at the full moon, seventh son of a seventh son, people with two different colored eyes, people who have slept in a cemetery on a grave, anything otherwise appropriately fairy-tale-esque, etc). He can also perform a pledge called the Oath of Rose and Thorn, which would allow a mortal to see any Changeling as they really are--but be unable to say anything about it to another. One of the conditions would also be that whoever he performs the ritual for must do him a favor. Other supernaturals might also be able to pierce the Mask through other means. Jules's Mask is faulty even on a good day and his shadow tends to betray him, and aboard the ship, which is very much what he'd consider to be a Fae space, it's likely to just switch off automatically.

Changelings have separate Seemings and Kiths depending on what sort of role they served in Faerie. Jules's Seeming is that of a Darkling, a creature of darkness. Being a Darkling also gives him a bonus as far as being stealthy is concerned, and if he's trying to hide, he'll be difficult to find. There's also a drawback to being a Darkling, and that's that his magic won't be as strong if he uses it during the day, especially if he's in the presence of the sun. The longer he's been a Changeling, the more sensitive he's gotten to light, especially that from the sun. His Kith is a Lurkglider, giving him the Kith blessing of the Gargyole's Grace. He can fall up to 100 yards and not take any damage from said fall. He also has wings, though his wingspan is a tremendous one foot (a full twelve inches if he stretches) and can't fly. His Keeper messed with him in particular and due to his high strung nature, caused his tail to fall off when he panics. He will regrow the tail completely in a couple of weeks, which is very inconvenient and will make him whine a lot.

As a Changeling, he relies upon Glamour to use most of his active powers. Glamour is a substance that's harvested from human emotion. Just being in the presence of humans experiencing strong emotions is enough for Jules to sort of skim off the excess. It's unlikely that this would be noticed, especially since Jules isn't the sort to try to repeatedly harvest heavily from the same people--that's the sort of thing that would get him noticed. He feels like a leech when he's got to harvest Glamour, but a guy's got to do what a guy's got to do in order to survive. Glamour can also be regained through eating Goblin Fruit, and once more, since Jules sees the ship as a Fae space, he'd very likely assume the food would function in the same way Goblin Fruit might.

He's got the following Contracts:
Jack's Breath: Can lower the temperature in a room. Takes less Glamour if he can hear someone shiver or taste someone's sweat. just as disturbed by the sweat as you are

Fickle Fate: Temporarily worsens the target's luck. If he tries to use it on the same person in less than an hour, it'll rebound and hit him instead.

Favored Fate: Temporarily improves the target's luck. If he tries to use it on the same target again before the sun rises or sets, the target is guaranteed to fail.

Creeping Dread: Can incite fear in a target. It requires less Glamour if he's trying to frighten people into his dwelling.

Night's Subtle Distractions: This allows Jules to avoid notice by enhancing physical conditions that would limit perception. Shadows are darker, background noises are louder, and even background scents can mask Jules's scent. It requires less Glamour if he's outside and it's nighttime when he uses this.

Balm of Unwakeable Slumber - Renders a target extremely difficult to wake up. You can move them around, make loud noises, etc., and they won't rouse. Injury, however, will cause them to wake. If a target is asleep in their own bed between sunrise and sunset, this requires less Glamour.

Boon of the Scuttling Spider - Jules can run along walls and ceilings the way a spider would. He is the worst Spider-Man who knows nothing of responsibility If it's a stone or wood wall outdoors and at night, it requires less Glamour.

He has also, in a fit of terrible decision-making skills at a Goblin Market and an attempt to be more helpful to his motley in one particularly extenuating sent of circumstances, picked up a single Goblin Contract:
Fool's Gold - An object granted by the changeling is made to appear much more valuable, but those duped by this contract will remember exactly who gave it to them when the spell wears off.

He also has the following Merits:
- Iron Stamina: He's got stamina to spare, allowing him to keep going long after others might have fallen to exhaustion.
- Perfect Stillness: Capable of staying absolutely still for long periods of time, even in positions others might find uncomfortable.
- Iron Stomach: He can eat just about anything; he's far less likely to get sick off of spoiled food than a normal person.
- Trained Observer: What it says on the tin--he's been trained in the art of observation and will make note of the most relevant details of a scene when he's actively trying to observe it. He just has to chill enough to actually remember to do this
- Mantle (Winter): Proof of his standing with the Winter Court; it's a little cooler standing near him than it would be standing anywhere else in the room. This Mantle is noticeably weak for someone with his current standing in the Winter Court.
- Hob Kin: For whatever reason, hobgoblins register him as one of their own. Gives him bonuses when trying to bargain or otherwise deal with hobgoblins.

Because his Wyrd is a little high these days, he has unfortunately for everyone acquired the ability Incite Bedlam. To quote the sourcebook: "By calling up his own extreme emotions, the changeling can channel that energy into a desired emotional response and send it surging through those around him, overwhelming nearby targets with highly concentrated passions and urges." It cannot be used often in the least and would burn off a tremendous amount of Glamour along with tiring him out after, so he would prefer not to.

Outside of his supernatural abilities, he's extremely good with computers (five dots on the character sheet good), albeit with a criminal bent to that. He's capable of both forging new identities and stealing existing ones. He has committed crypto fraud and will probably continue to commit crypto fraud.

Dependents:
He is not responsible enough to care for anything else and probably couldn't even keep one of those air plants you don't have to do anything to alive, so no

Sample:
Here!