Entry tags:
☍ application
IN CHARACTER
Character Name: Jack Wynand
Canon: BioShock
Canon Point: Pacifist playthrough (saving the Little Sisters instead of harvesting them); after clearing Hephaestus and encountering evidence of his true nature, but just prior to confronting Andrew Ryan
In-Game Tattoo Placement: Back of his neck, where it meets his spine; a pair of antlers twined with chains
Current Health/Status: Thoroughly worn out but otherwise mostly healthy. Healthy enough to move and fight!
Age: He's about 4 years old. Physically, he looks in his mid-twenties.
Species: A Mess of genetic augmentations, but ultimately human
History: Jack's character page on the BioShock wiki, which includes a synopsis of what he did during the course of the game.
Personality:
The largely silent protagonist who traverses the underwater Objectivist dystopia of Rapture is far from the nameless everyman he initially appears to be. The memories he possesses of his family and a life on the surface world are false implantations engineered so that he may be the perfect sleeper agent for the machinations of Frank Fontaine. Everything from Jack's parentage to his name to the "accident" that brought him to Rapture have been defined and outlined by someone else, stitched into his genes. Every action he's taken before and since his arrival to Rapture has been the result of trigger phrases, of someone else's manipulations, of external forces acting upon him, with Jack serving as an unwitting pawn whether he wants to or not.
Which is how it is that he follows orders unquestionably. Certain aspects of him simply manifest as though by second nature - his skill in hacking locks and turrets and security cameras, his ability to deftly use any and all of the weaponry he obtains throughout the game, his ability to use the resurrective Vita-Chambers that are meant to be keyed only to Andrew Ryan and his genetic signature - and yet, he doesn't think to question it. It might be he assumes it must be adrenaline, a survivalist instinct that had lain dormant up until now. And yet all of this, as he will gradually come to learn, was predetermined, as he was built purely to be the perfect weapon, Fontaine's secret tool, the single person on the planet who could infiltrate every one of Andrew Ryan's defenses and slaughter the founder of the city of Rapture himself. Ever since he was an embryo, sold by Andrew Ryan's mistress, not a single aspect of Jack has been of his own choice and his own volition. All someone has to do is give him an order via shortwave radio, and he's already scrambling to fulfill it - whether it comes from Atlas, the man who he's been programmed to obey, or Brigid Tenenbaum, who helped create him, or even Sander Cohen, the deranged "artistic genius" of Fort Frolic who more or less conscripts Jack into hunting down four ex-apprentices of his and killing them. Jack never protests, never argues, and never does anything more than quietly accommodate those demands. Where Atlas is concerned, that's conditioning. Where everyone else is concerned, however? Much of that seems to tie into an instinct to survive, a desperation to get out of Rapture, and an acceptance that much of the game's events are utterly beyond his control, and his only hope of escaping this hellhole is to jump through whatever set of hoops are presented to him. Maybe it just doesn't occur to him not to obey. A leader Jack is not; it's his instinct to follow, more than anything.
Even once Jack's mind control is released later in the game, he has difficulties forging his purpose without someone else's aid (namely Tenenbaum's). Fontaine taunts him for being unable to make his own decisions, and this criticism, nasty as it is, is not without truth. Jack has no conceptualization of who he is without someone telling him what to do - as long as he can remember, he's been ordered about, told what to do and what to be, and generally been a cosmic plaything of the highest order. Yet given the opportunity to break free, he still turns to others for help and guidance. This might have to do that despite his physical augmentation, Jack is still very much a child in many respects. It's only when the game has ended that he feels truly "free" to make his own choices and take the Little Sisters to the surface, independent of anyone's prompting. Part of this is naturally his conditioning to be a genetic slave as well as the lack of any resolution unless he can first take down Fontaine, the man who sculpted him into what he is, in order to be free of Rapture and everything it represents, but part of it seems almost pathological in nature.
Given that the man is functionally four years old and all his memories of aging are falsely implanted, his maturity and capacity to truly make life-changing decisions is questionable at best. He listens and follows well, but as indicated, he seems...unable to decide his own fate for himself. He trusts compulsively, listening to the first clear source of orders, regardless of the dubious source - from Atlas to Tenenbaum to even Sander Cohen, the one guy who was out of his mind even before Rapture started messing with genes. Jack listens to them all without complaint...or any comment, really. To call Jack quiet would be an understatement: he speaks one line in the entire narrative, and it's before the game even starts. Seemingly, unless he has something important to say, he doesn't bother.
As a mild analogue to the player themself, it can be assumed that much of Jack's reactions to the horrors of Rapture mirror the player's to a certain extent - even if he is silent, certain cutscenes and wordless reactions convey the understandable responses Jack has to the world he's been thrust into. His dismay when his genetic code is rewritten is both audible and palpable when Jack launches himself off one of Rapture's balconies in a desperate attempt to make the agony cease. He freezes in horrified wonder at the sight of the Little Sisters and Big Daddies, the malformed gatherers of the ADAM that allows Rapture's genetic economy to run. He panics, breathing heavily, just before the Bathysphere that led him into the city opens up, and the splicer that attempted to cut him out of it disappears with a sinister shriek.
But he also adapts quickly. This as a lot to do with how he was essentially "born" in Rapture and coded to be fantastic at infiltrating it, but Jack is also just fundamentally resourceful. Thanks to his situation, Jack is burdened with a scrounging impulse that would befit someone trapped in a sinking underwater city: he'll shamelessly grab and consume any food and drink he can find, and steal ammo and supplies from abandoned homes regardless of who they might have belonged to. He has no qualms with pilfering from the dead.
Though on that note, BOY has Jack killed a ton of people! Splicers, for all their hostilities, were very explicitly once artists, doctors, would-be starlets, and all in all ordinary people, and yet he has slaughtered countless of their number without a second thought. Much of this was out of self-defense, but for all his efforts to cure the Little Sisters, not a second thought is spared for the splicers other than potentially some vague remorse on their behalf. He's used to killing and dying for the sake of someone else's agenda. He draws the line at children, possibly because he can relate to them on a level that even he is unaware of, being one himself. His morality system ultimately boils down doing what it takes to survive, within reason. He has no qualms with killing those who attack first, but while harvesting the Little Sisters would allow him a better chance at making it through Rapture, he staunchly refuses to do so.
And that is the one piece of Jack's story that lies entirely in his hands, the one that ends up defining him completely and utterly as BioShock's story progresses: the fate of the Little Sisters. The gatherers of ADAM, little girls turned into genetic powerhouses to keep the wheels of Rapture's new market greased and turning, can either be harvested for their ADAM by our protagonist, killing them in the process - or rescued, restoring them to normal little girls, free of their conditioning. In the Little Sisters is a mirror of what Jack himself has endured. Like him, they've had their agency robbed from them at a very young age, molded according to someone else's wishes. Like him, it is only through the benign actions of an outside party that they can be freed.
What is Jack's choice, regarding the fates of these things that Tenenbaum calls upon his sympathy to save, that Atlas claims were killed long before now? What is Jack's choice, when even the one man whose voice he is conditioned to obey informs him that it would be wisest and most beneficial, in the long run, if he were to harvest the Sisters for all their ADAM, even if they will not survive the process?
He saves them.
With the help of one of Tenenbaum's plasmids, Jack carefully cures each Little Sister of their affliction so that they may be offered the one thing they never had, the one thing that he himself never had, even if he hasn't realized it: a chance. Even the first Sister he encountered he could not bring himself to harm, even despite Atlas's urging and that subconscious conditioning to obey his commands. Yet that choice, in the end, rests solely with Jack, and he chooses to be merciful. While he's not yet come to understand it, the Little Sisters are kindred spirits, and the more of them he saves, the more they start to regard him as the pseudo father figure they never had.
Despite every splicer he's killed, the horrors he's witnessed, the horrors he's endured, the horrors he's inflicted, Jack still cannot find it in him to hurt a child and makes the conscious choice to save every single one he comes across. He attacks only those who attack first - splicers driven mad by their own plasmid usage, beyond his help. The Sisters, however, remain vital in the one act of completely unnecessary cruelty he will not commit. Beyond his current canon point, he will risk sacrificing everything he is to save them.
Abilities/Powers/Weaknesses & Warping: HOO BOY STRAP IN. Due to the nature of BioShock's player abilities, I will be assigning Jack an allotment of plasmids (special abilities) and gene tonics (passive skills) that he would have realistically achieved by this point in the game. He will not be able to change this load-out unless he's able to...somehow get access to a Gene Bank.
I'll make suggestions for warping where applicable. If any of these abilities need additional warping or nerfing, just let me know!
- Gross Musculature: Jack was genetically engineered to be extremely strong. The small shots we get of his face and body type indicate that he is, scientifically speaking, built like a brick shithouse. This strength isn't outside the upper boundaries of what's humanly possible, but he's sturdy enough to take a lot of punishment and strong enough to brain an ADAM-enhanced splicer across the head so they never get up again. He is capable of dying, and has died numerous times (resurrection is possible in the BioShock thanks to Vita-Chambers, which exist in-universe).
- Genetic Conditioning: Unbeknownst to the man himself, Jack was created with a great deal of mental locks and keys. Aside from being the biological son of Andrew Ryan, Rapture's founder (a genetic status which allows him to use a lot of Rapture technology that would otherwise be barred to him), there are certain code phrases that will compel him to follow certain orders. The only two known to the player are "Would you kindly," a trigger phrase that compels Jack to follow that order exactly, and "Code yellow," a failsafe command that tells Jack's brain to tell his heart to stop breathing. Jack is unaware of either of these trigger phrases, as they're privy only to the man who commissioned his creation, Frank Fontaine, and the scientists who programmed those triggers into him, Brigid Tenenbaum and Yi Suchong.
- ADAM: One of the achievements of Rapture's scientists was the development of ADAM, a miracle drug capable of facilitating the rewriting of one's DNA. As a technical citizen of Rapture, Jack is hardwired to make full use of ADAM's capabilities. The side effects of tumorous growths, addictive use, and homicidal delusions appear to be decreased due to his genetic engineering, though it's worth noting that it's entirely possible that Jack succumb to the worst of ADAM's side effects, as witnessed in the game's bad endings. We'll simply call it a heightened tolerance for the stuff, as he was more or less built by ADAM's prime manufacturer. This probably won't come up in game, except that he won't like...go splicer anytime soon.
- Plasmids: Listed below are the plasmids he has equipped at the time he falls asleep and wakes up in Deerington. He will require a supply of EVE to keep using the active plasmids, likely via AC rewards (although it's possible for him to restore small amounts of EVE via drinking alcohol or coffee, or by smoking cigarettes, the health side effects to these are still in play). Basically, once he's out of EVE, he's got none plasmids with left beef. All plasmids are of the "level one," or weakest variety, unless otherwise noted.
- Electro Bolt 2: Shoots a bolt of electricity powerful enough to stun or kill an opponent, as well as the potential to short out or jump-start electrical-based technology. This plasmid is level two, purchased from the Gatherer's Garden vendor in Arcadia, which just means it's stronger, basically, but it's not a death sentence for anybody unless they're standing in water when he shoots it off.
- Incinerate: Enables the user to ignite anyone or anything flammable with a snap of their fingers. Fires will burn continuously and spread within realistic parameters, but do tend to snuff out after a good thirty seconds if there's not, like...oil around.
- Telekinesis: Allows the mental lifting and propulsion of small objects without manual handling. Can affect objects such as shotguns, ammunition, desk chairs, or fire extinguishers, but not anything adequately heavy, and certainly not people. Jack does lift corpses and the like, but only once they're dead, and I am fine with nerfing that if it's too much trouble. It's also worth noting that his coordination with this skill is pretty shoddy; he can lift stuff toward him if it's beyond arm's reach, or he can fucking Fling it away from him with enough speed to hurt somebody, but that's about it.
- Insect Swarm: BEES. But yes this is legitimately the power to generate a swarm of hostile bee-like insects to bite and sting at enemies. Has a notable tendency to not really be aimed or controlled once used, meaning that this can aggravate and attract the attention of enemies and otherwise passive creatures that might then get very angry at Jack in particular and I say that as someone who consistently makes this mistake.
- Winter Blast: Shoots bolt of ice to freeze target on the spot. Can affect machinery as well as people, though in both cases they tend to thaw quickly, especially near heat. I'd be amenable to warping this to give Jack a risk of frostbite in his hands if he overuses it.
- Little Sister Antidote: The only plasmid not to occupy a slot in Jack's load-out, presumably because of its extremely singular use. A gift from Brigid Tenenbaum, his creator and the creator of the Little Sisters who harvest the city's ADAM, it allows Jack to "cure" them of their genetic conditioning and turn them back into largely ordinary little girls. This is useless in Deerington sorry Jack.
- Gene Tonics: Listed below are the gene tonics he has equipped at the time he's ushered through the Door. He will not require a supply of EVE to keep using gene tonics, as they all allow "passive" bonuses. All gene tonics are of the "level one," or weakest variety, unless otherwise noted. I'll be honest here, most of these are...functionally useless in an RP setting other than offering an explanation for some of his skills - like hacking, being super good at hitting people with wrenches, drinking to restore health, and a general ability to survive an absurd amount of punishment.
- Armored Shell 2: Prevents 25% of piercing and bludgeoning damage. This gene tonic is level two; a gift from Tenenbaum for saving the Little Sisters. Basically, increased durability.
- Static Discharge: Causes the user to emit an electric burst when struck by a melee attack. Has a low chance to actually "shock" the attacker. I'd like to warp this one so it has an even chance of shocking Jack as well, to even the playing field.
- Wrench Lurker: Increases damage dealt by Jack's melee weapon, his trusty wrench, when he catches an attacker off guard. He can hit rull good with a wrench.
- Electric Flesh: Reduces electric damage received by 75% and increases outgoing electric damage by 30%. This just makes sure he won't die if his power warp doubles back on him lol.
- Booze Hound: Drinking alcohol allows Jack to restore a small amount of EVE as well as health. This does not save him from any other negative side effects that may be involved while drinking.
- EVE Saver: Slightly reduces EVE cost for use of all plasmids. Not by a whole lot, so he's still gonna need EVE hypos.
- SportBoost: Increases subject athleticism; movement speed increased by 10% and Wrench swing speed increased by 25%. Basically he can move pretty fast for a fucking tank of a guy.
- Hacker's Delight 2: A medium amount of health and EVE are gained after a successful hack of a mechanical device. This gene tonic is level two; a gift from Sander Cohen after Jack undergoes his long gauntlet of artistic "challenges." I don't know if hacking will even come up in-game, so I can take this one or leave it.
- Security Expert: When hacking security devices, it removes up to two Alarm and Overload Tiles, one Acceleration tile, adds one Resistor tile, and the machine flow speed (the amount of time Jack has to hack equipment) is also reduced by a half second per tile...yeah this is gonna be useless here sorry Jack.
- Shorten Alarms 2: Reduces the length of hostile security alarms by forty seconds. This gene tonic is level two; found while constructing the EMP bomb in Hephaestus's Core. AGAIN, USELESS. SORRY JACK.
- Speedy Hacker: While hacking, it reduces the machine flow speed by one and a half seconds per tile. Jack is a HACK-MASTER. This is pointless unless next event has to do with a shitton of machines.
- Safecracker: Increases Jack's aptitude while hacking safes and combination locks. Lock up your safes folks he can CRACK those suckers.
Inventory: Jack picks up what can only be called, by scientific standards, a metric shit-ton of equipment over the course of the game. Buuuuut for all his capacity for brute strength, a hyperspace arsenal is not one of the many abilities granted to him. While he gradually accrues a whole mess of weapons in the game, Jack's sole weapon slot will be dedicated to the game's starting wrench because I'm a cruel cruel person to this poor literal baby.
- (1) Wrench: Jack's trusty melee weapon.
- The clothes on his back: Cable-knit sweater, pants, and the works, all stained an impressive amount of blood and saltwater.
- (1) First Aid Kit: For healing! How helpful.
- (3) EVE Hypos: Necessary for plasmid use. If Jack runs out, he will not be able to use his active offensive plasmids.
Writing Samples: Here's Jack being tormented by the life-sucking ghosts of his fake parents in another game! Isn't that cute. Here is, also, Jack on the Deerington TDM back in October when I was initially planning to app and got a bad case of the "ran out of time"itis instead. Both threads are pretty short, but the second one is a little fleshier.
OUT OF CHARACTER
Player Name: Zero
Player Age: 18+
Player Contact:
Other Characters In Game: Chara Dreemurr (
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
inconsequence)In-Game Tag If Accepted: Jack Wynand: Zero
Permissions for Character: Yoink!
Are you comfortable with prominent elements of fourth-walling?: BioShock is a game built around meta-narrative, so I'm absolutely cool with it.
What themes of horror/psychological thrillers do you enjoy the most?: In case it wasn't obvious from the fact that I'm playing from BioShock, I have a horrid love for body horror. Psychological and existential crises of identity and memory are also a lot of fun for me to play around with.
Is there anything in particular you absolutely need specific content warnings for?: I can stomach most anything. My only hard line, again, is misgendering. Whether it's intentional or out of ignorance, that's the one thing that always gets me. I'm fine if people slip up on occasion, but I'm not interested in playing it out, for example.
Additional Information: underwater dad sim