Work in progress, bulk of the info in comments below because I wordvomited and it's going to break the entry otherwise probably for ease of organization.
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, which is exacerbated by the fact that he still has his tail--and the tail still functions as the Keeper intended, not unlike a lizard's tail. If Jules becomes frightened enough (which isn't hard to do), the tail will drop off. This is always a matter of extreme irritation, and dropping his tail can sometimes cause him to forget about his fear through the exasperation that results. It takes him a couple of weeks to grow that thing back, after all. Very inconvenient.
He's also not at all quick to become involved in anything. Part of this is thanks to the nature of his durance encouraging observation over action, but part of it is also a tragic pre-existing condition known as laziness. He'd rather skirt around along the edges of whatever's going on and avoid direct participation unless pressed into service. He will watch and file information away for later, but he won't volunteer any of it on his own unless he's pressed. He's very big into picking the course of action that means the least risk and work for him. And yet if he's not thinking too hard on the relative amount of work, he'll spend a great deal of time and energy on things that are designed to save him effort in the future.
He's a complainer. He's good at finding flaws in everything and loudly sharing them with the class. There is always something wrong, nothing is ever perfect. In his mind, seeking out the flaws in something is a means of self-defense. If you identify the flaw, you can plan for its failure. If he's poking holes in a plan, it's because he's trying to guard against its inevitable failure. 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.
Blowing things way out of proportion and overreacting accordingly is a favorite pasttime of his, though it's not usually intentional. He lacks a certain amount of emotional regulation that lets him just deal with the unexpected or things not going his way. He can be a bit of a drama queen, and his motley (mostly Haru) has taken to making a list of things that make him have a dramatic freak out in much the same way some parents on the Internet make notes of all the absurd reasons their toddler is crying. 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 cringing, sniveling 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. He likes his motley and all, but if it comes down to his making some selfless sacrifice on their behalf, he's afraid that they'd be completely and utterly screwed. Clearly, the solution to that ethical dilemma on his part is just to avoid those sorts of dangerous situations at all costs so he doesn't have to choose.
Being something other than human is still kind of a new thing for him. He seems comfortable enough with who he is now, but lingering frustrations with his lot in life tend to show up in other ways from time to time. The most obvious example of this is his tail. Having a tail is clunky and inconvenient if you want to do anything like, say, wear pants, and yet it's somehow even more inconvenient if he drops the tail like a scared lizard and can thus fit into normal pants again. The facial changes don't bother him quite so much, oddly enough. He's grown comfortable with having things like horns and a snout. And while such things might make him look ferocious, he doesn't think of himself as such. This reflects itself in his bearing--he's got terrible posture, and he has a tendency to flinch easily. Darklings tend to embrace the darkness, but Jules has only met that tendency halfway. He likes the cover the darkness provides, the way he can hide himself in it. Darkness makes it easier for him to sit there and like in wait or watch for things. But darkness also contains the things that go bump in the night, which Jules very much wants nothing to do with. This, despite the fact that many would classify him as one of many such nightmarish things. He's too afraid something bigger and nastier than he is will come along and do horrible things to him. He doesn't fear death quite as much as he used to, if only because he's been through much worse.
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momijizukamori
Personality
Date: 2015-12-04 04:40 am (UTC)He's also not at all quick to become involved in anything. Part of this is thanks to the nature of his durance encouraging observation over action, but part of it is also a tragic pre-existing condition known as laziness. He'd rather skirt around along the edges of whatever's going on and avoid direct participation unless pressed into service. He will watch and file information away for later, but he won't volunteer any of it on his own unless he's pressed. He's very big into picking the course of action that means the least risk and work for him. And yet if he's not thinking too hard on the relative amount of work, he'll spend a great deal of time and energy on things that are designed to save him effort in the future.
He's a complainer. He's good at finding flaws in everything and loudly sharing them with the class. There is always something wrong, nothing is ever perfect. In his mind, seeking out the flaws in something is a means of self-defense. If you identify the flaw, you can plan for its failure. If he's poking holes in a plan, it's because he's trying to guard against its inevitable failure. 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.
Blowing things way out of proportion and overreacting accordingly is a favorite pasttime of his, though it's not usually intentional. He lacks a certain amount of emotional regulation that lets him just deal with the unexpected or things not going his way. He can be a bit of a drama queen, and his motley (mostly Haru) has taken to making a list of things that make him have a dramatic freak out in much the same way some parents on the Internet make notes of all the absurd reasons their toddler is crying. 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 cringing, sniveling 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. He likes his motley and all, but if it comes down to his making some selfless sacrifice on their behalf, he's afraid that they'd be completely and utterly screwed. Clearly, the solution to that ethical dilemma on his part is just to avoid those sorts of dangerous situations at all costs so he doesn't have to choose.
Being something other than human is still kind of a new thing for him. He seems comfortable enough with who he is now, but lingering frustrations with his lot in life tend to show up in other ways from time to time. The most obvious example of this is his tail. Having a tail is clunky and inconvenient if you want to do anything like, say, wear pants, and yet it's somehow even more inconvenient if he drops the tail like a scared lizard and can thus fit into normal pants again. The facial changes don't bother him quite so much, oddly enough. He's grown comfortable with having things like horns and a snout. And while such things might make him look ferocious, he doesn't think of himself as such. This reflects itself in his bearing--he's got terrible posture, and he has a tendency to flinch easily. Darklings tend to embrace the darkness, but Jules has only met that tendency halfway. He likes the cover the darkness provides, the way he can hide himself in it. Darkness makes it easier for him to sit there and like in wait or watch for things. But darkness also contains the things that go bump in the night, which Jules very much wants nothing to do with. This, despite the fact that many would classify him as one of many such nightmarish things. He's too afraid something bigger and nastier than he is will come along and do horrible things to him. He doesn't fear death quite as much as he used to, if only because he's been through much worse.