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bookbrawler) wrote2021-07-13 12:58 pm
Apocalypse How Application
Character Name: Jacob Stone
Age: 40
Canon: The Librarians
Canon point: At the end of And The Disenchanted Forest (S4 Episode 7)
History:
Series history here (more details about seasons 2, 3, and 4)
Personality:
Curiosity:
Jacob is a genius with an IQ over 190 and he devours every scrap of knowledge he can get about his interests. He grew up without anybody knowing he was a genius, and he would read as much as possible, learning languages on his own as well as everything about art, history, literature, and architecture. (Though architecture is just art we live in, he says.) He learned enough on his own to pose successfully as multiple experts with aliases, and eventually earning honorary degrees at at universities on four different continents, earning at least one doctorate. He became fluent in nine languages and is able to read more than a dozen. He was also accepted to the Sorbonne and Cambridge for an arts degree even though he didn't go. Even as a Librarian, he still continues to write papers and publish.
Anger:
Jake does have a temper--he gets annoyed easily especially when it comes to other people claiming wrong facts as truth. He'll quickly jump in and correct them. He's gotten into many, many bar fights--though he usually considers those a fun and happy event. But his deep-seated anger comes from growing up the way he did and how he was hiding his true self for most of his adult life, and the way his father treated him. He always hid who he was, hid his genius, and never told his father. His father saw him as an idiot and treated him as such, thinking he only cared for football and girls, even though Jake did the books for their family's company and was so good at it they didn't even need to get contracts for six months. Despite thinking he preferred his life in Oklahoma for so many years during this time, there was a buried anger there from his frustrations at not being the person who he truly was underneath.
Fear:
Fear and trust (or the lack of it) are huge parts of Jake's character. Nearly everything he does is motivated by fear--for the first part of his life, fear that people would find out that he was a genius, fear of moving beyond the town he grew up in, fear of his father, and fear of becoming something more than he was. Once he became a Librarian, he developed a fear of magic--not just magic objects or using magic objects in a mission, because oftentimes that was necessary. He became afraid of himself using magic, of uncontrollable magic, of magic corrupting him and the people around him. At the end of the series his attitude towards magic hasn't really changed--he acknowledges that it needs to be used sometimes, as a last resort, but would prefer using every other resort first. In the beginning of the series, he was so excited about being a Librarian and not hiding who he was around his teammates, but after Cassandra's betrayal, he put up his walls again, his trust broken. He did overcome his fear of people seeing who he truly was, but it took a long time to let down his walls. He also has a large fear of failure. Part of his fear was also because he was afraid of being a failure in his new life--his life where he wasn't hiding his genius anymore. He had started to use his aliases as a crutch, using them to protect himself. It was to the point where he was afraid of using his real name in publishing papers instead of his many aliases. He couldn't pretend it was his father's fault anymore, and had to deal with winning or losing on his own merits.
Excitement:
Jake can get very overly excited at times. He has an almost childlike wonder about him, and goes into full fanboy mode when it comes to thinks he likes--like getting a chance to ride on a submarine. Facts and discoveries excite him a lot, and he was beside himself when he got to meet a professor that he liked. Sometimes his excitement can get the better of him and get him into situations where he's in over his head--for example, going on the submarine ended up getting himself and Ezekiel into danger. Most of the time it's a positive part of his personality especially when he gets to express his love for art, history, or literature freely, which for most of his life he never got to do in front of other people.
Pride:
Jake can be very arrogant and prideful. Despite hiding his genius for years, he's also very well-aware of his own strengths and talents, and will absolutely call people out for being wrong, almost gleefully. He hates it when people present wrong things as facts, and gets into arguments with people about various aspects of history and art. He is very rigid in his opinions and will argue all day that his position some aspect is right. He considers his way the only right away, not just with facts but with things like trusting people as well, or with the use of magic. It takes a lot for him to consider the point of view of someone else if he's already made up his mind. For example, Cassie's arguments about using magic to help with things or to save the day, versus his arguments about never using magic and that it does more harm than good.
Suitability:
Jacob would absolutely stay with the ADI to prevent apocalypses, that's also what a Librarian does in his world. Plus, this seems to be a good place to get intel on how he might possibly get home, so it would be in his best interests to stick around and try to learn as much as possible about them and the world he's now found himself in.
Even as time passes or if he determines it's impossible to get home, he would not want to leave since actively preventing apocalypses and saving people was part of his job as a Librarian, plus doing this will keep all the people he cares about safe.
Powers/Abilities: (With help from the Librarians Wiki)
Genius: Jacob Stone has an IQ of 190+ and is an expert in art, art history, history in general, literature, and languages. If it's the humanities, he knows about it. He also has knowledge about engineering from his previous career as an oil rig worker.
Fighting skills and strength: Jake leveled up from untrained brawling--which he has an affinity for and loved--to being trained by Eve Baird, the Librarians' Guardian, who is a trained soldier, as well as trained by the Monkey King in martial arts which primarily seems to be Kung Fu. Whether via supernatural means, strength, or just as a result of Baird's training, Jake learned how to hit with enough force to break a punching bag and knock it clear across the room. He officially completed the Monkey King's training, and the Monkey King taught him all that he could with physical techniques--Jake declined to learn more advanced magical ones.
Multilingual: Jake is able to speak 9 languages and read at least 12. He eventually gets the ability to understand tree language and is used as an interpreter, which is a feat in and of itself since according to the trees their language and humans' languages are very far apart.
Gift of The Inner Soul: A magical tattoo gifted to him by the Staff of Shangri-La, he used it to give a soul to an Egyptian god, which eventually turned him mortal (when combined with the other Librarians' gifts). Most of the tattoo disappeared when he used it, but a remnant of the tattoo remains and its abilities are unknown.
Voice of the Trees: The grandfather tree/original forest from which all forests of their world derive used Jake as a translator so that they could speak to humans and warn them not to cut them down, because if they do all the rest of the forests in the world will die. They were looking for someone like Jake for a long time, since he's a linguist. After he got a splinter when he was in the woods, he started hearing voices and which turned out to be the forest asking for help. Jake was absorbed into and became physically part of the grandfather tree which used his face and voice to speak with, though Jake retained his own self-identity as well. It is unclear whether Jake retained this ability or any other plant-related ability or effect after this ordeal since he never went back to this forest at the end of the series. If I may extrapolate from this point since canon gives us no answers, I propose that Jake still remains ambassador to the forest and therefore retains the ability to speak to/translate for a sentient forest or tree if he ever comes across one, and retains an affinity to plants, forests, and nature and can sense or hear their suffering. If scanned magically or scientifically, I propose that it could be possible for others to pick up on some faint tree/plant related echoes.
Magic: Despite Jacob hating to use magic, he can use it. He's not the best at it, but he's been able to pull off a few feats. He read a passage from Gilgamesh as part of a ritual where immortality was transferred to another person. He's able to do little diffusion spells (initially by accident), for example, when he says "We're the Librarians" it makes people accept pretty much any reason why they're there. He was also able to use the Gift of The Inner Soul instinctively, knowing how to send the tattoos and the power towards the Egyptian god. He also has magic inherently in him because he is a Librarian and infused by the magic of the Library. He was able to be trapped by a Blumhardt Loop, which was initially created to trap demons but can trap anything supernatural including fairies, therefore as a Librarian he is a supernatural being, too.
Entity Affinity:
Jacob would be affiliated with The Eye. He has spent his entire life afraid of his secrets being exposed and known, plus, he has an inherent desire to know as much as possible. However, knowing magic or knowing how to do magic is also terrifying to him because of the things that knowledge can do. He knows that magic can be incredibly destructive and his greatest fear is that magic may corrupt and destroy him and the people he loves. Finding the one piece of knowledge that may destroy you or someone you know is a very real possibility in his world and part of his greatest fear.
Inventory:
Clothes on his person: Plaid shirt, jeans, inner shirt
Necklace: Silver, with a shield pendant
Wallet with chain: Contains driver's license, debit card, library card, and two twenty dollar bills
Clippings book: Magical, cursed - a portable version of the larger clippings book that resides in the library, when used or opened, newspaper articles that contain clues about a recent magical anomaly that will lead them to their next mission will appear.
Cursed effects: When opened, the headline of the article that shows up next in the book is cut into Jake's hand and arm, Harry-Potter style. The clippings book's magic could be weaker in this world and it could be harder to discern the clues.
Samples: