Post by Ysmir on Apr 9, 2014 19:38:05 GMT -5
"Am I a troublemaker? No. I'm a survivor. Trouble wouldn't help with that, would it?"
- Jack
Full Name • Cal Lyrion Kast
Nickname • "Jack"
Race • Human
Birthplace • Coruscant
Age • 30 (born 3622 BBY)
Gender • Male
Sexuality • Heterosexual
Faction • Lives on the Fringes of Republic Space, but supports the Republic's cause.
Concept • A drifter who fell into smuggling by happenstance, and a former gun-for-hire. Jack is a free spirit who refuses to throw his lot in with anyone but himself. (Rank 2)
Languages • Speaks & Understands - Basic, Mando'a
Understands - Huttese (Fluent), Rodese (Fluent), Twi'lek (Fluent), Dosh (Fluent), Binary (Fluent), Shyriiwook (Advanced), Sullustese (Basic)
Assets •
- AA-37 Heavy Blaster Pistol: A blaster given to Jack by his good friend, Brent. Upgraded and changed many times over the years, it is currently enhanced with a precision scope, an advanced power cell, and a reflective chamber. The name "Janessa" is laser engraved on the left side of the barrel.
- Zabrak Tystel Mk III: A very old, very finnicky heavy blaster pistol obtained by Jack through illegitimate means. It is his favored off-hand weapon with minimal modification made to its tried and true design; punch fast, punch hard.
- Corellian leather jacket: A black leather jacket with fur trim that Jack found inside his ship, the Long View, before restoring it to working order. It is layered with ballistic mesh to make it resistant to blunt trauma. It has also been layered with a cortosis weave that makes it resistant to lightsaber scarring, though generally only from glancing blows.
- Various grenades (2x thermal detonator, 1x ion grenade), mines, canteen, communicator, plasma torch, Verpine personal shield generator (for emergencies).
- His personal Starship, the Long View.
Appearance
Face Claim • Ryan Gosling
Height & Weight • 5'10", 189 lbs.
Overall Looks • A man in the prime of his life, Jack's appearance is one marked with a myriad of youthful and what some may find as attractive features. He has full lips that can often be found curled into a coy smile. His teeth are relatively blemish-free, as he brushes often. He has one metal filling in his lower right molar from when he was a teenager. His nose is straight and narrow, with an average width bridge. Leading up from his nose is a creased eyebrow ridge, a result of the many facial expressions he takes on. His eyebrows are somewhat bushy, but not completely untamed. Their fullness adds a bit more animation to Jack's numerous expressions. Jack usually keeps his hair shorter, but sometimes will let it grow out. The length at any time can depend on what he feels like or what the situation calls for. For example, if ever he found himself on Tatooine for an extended period of time, he may find it better to lop it all off than sweat all his fluids out.
He has a defined jawline and a well-pronounced chin that adds some masculinity to an otherwise soft-featured face. Adorning this jawline and chin is facial hair that Jack will rarely let grow out fully, usually preferring to keep a thin sheet of stubble. However, during situations that require him to "clean up", as it were, he can be seen clean shaven.
Jack is no stranger to strenuous physical labor. Although he gets plenty of exercise on a daily basis, he is not above the occasional workout. This has led to his athletic build and lean figure. Although not bulky by any means, he is still in notably better shape than the average Human male of his age. One mainstay of his attire is his black Corellian leather jacket. Otherwise, he will wear any kind of amalgam of outfits, from black muscle shirts to long-sleeved tees.
Personality Profile
Jack makes it a point to come off as incredibly one-dimensional to any new people he might meet, appearing to be a depraved drunkard with absolutely no morals. This is mainly a subconscious self-defense mechanism to ward off any who he feels would try and take advantage of him, although at his core, he is a very friendly person. Not at all reserved, he is an obvious extrovert who enjoys the company of others (particularly members of the opposite sex, mainly Twi'leks). He is adept at chatting others up, and is hardly outwardly affected if his advances are not met, as he is used to this sort of reception. He has loved and lost a few times over his short lifespan, and so he does not believe he will settle down with any one person within the near future, though he does not rule this possibility out.
However, Jack has the not-so-positive trait of being very opinionated. On more than one occasion, he has had all out brawls with bargoers over their differing ideas about Galactic affairs. Although he has learned to restrain his massive ego recently, he is still somewhat prone to becoming heated during arguments. Another prominent characteristic of Jack is his love of sarcasm; possessing a very dry wit, he is extremely trigger happy with his use of it, sometimes even against figures of authority. This refusal to take matters seriously has led to trouble for Jack in some instances.
Jack also reserves the guise of being much more intelligent than he lets on. Much of this comes from his childhood love of engineering. He has tinkered and worked with various forms of technology from adolescence, and as a result has an in-depth understanding of mechanics and various forms of machinery. This mostly presents itself in the form of various repairs and upgrades he makes around his ship and on his utility droid. In line with his intuitive grasp of the inner workings of machines, his brain is arguably hardwired for problem solving in all forms; as such, he is a great strategist when the situation demands. Jack is also an opportunist, utilizing what some may call "dirty" fighting moves in combat to give himself the upper hand.
Something that few will discover when they truly get to know the man under the snark is that Jack is in possession of a heart of gold. He values trust above all else, and follows a personal code of honor; if he makes a promise, he aims to keep it at any means necessary. In kind, he expects the same of his allies, believing they'd do the same for him. Although not what you would call a "White Knight", he is not a fan of mindless killing and acts of cruelty. As such, he is neutral, but a definite supporter of the Galactic Republic and its cause, even if they've made his life difficult at some points. He harbors a dislike of the Sith Empire for this very reason, and even a touch of fear at the capabilities of Dark Jedi. It was this fear that led to him seeking training for resistance against mind tricks, and thus secure himself a form of reassured protection from possible probing of his precious mind. Despite his flimsy support of the Republic, his feelings toward the Jedi Order are anything but positive. In the early years of the war, he blamed the Republic's many losses on the Jedi's summary inaction and unwillingness to intervene.
At the baseline, he is an evasive, somewhat mysterious, but very outspoken charmer who is not one to squander opportunity when it presents itself.
Background
Father • Beck Kast, trader, 51. (Deceased)
Mother • Neesa Kast, librarian, 55.
Siblings • N/A
Other Important Connections • Brent Cisco, 34, trader.
Janessa Mal, 26, engineer. (Missing)
Marek Massani, Unknown, Mandalorian bounty hunter.
Lance Gallo, 49, "legitimate" businessman.
Overall History •
The son of a wealthy trader, Beck, and a librarian, Neesa, it's hard to surmise how Jack became the outlaw he grew up to be. However, if one takes a look at his past, he had a history of blatant "youth in revolt" behavior. His early life was markedly quiet; up to the age of 8, he and his parents got along on great terms. He got stellar marks in school, and he became part of the Rocket Club at a young age. This involvement would eventually develop into his passion for machinery and electronics. As an adolescent, he was fascinated with the Corellian Engineering Corporation. He often spent his free time making scale models of all their latest starships, from freighters to simple transport vehicles.
However, as a result of this, he often spent more time in the garage of his Coruscant home tinkering with machinery of all sorts than doing his school work. As no courses for his age were offered for what he was truly passionate about, he held very little interest for it. This was received with some scrutiny from his scholarly parents, who envisioned their son doing something similar to their business-level professions. By the time he reached his teen years, their determination to turn him back to school was only fuel for the fire.
He began to associate himself with some "less than reputable" people. He earned a job as a package courier, though the contents of the packages were on a don't ask, don't tell basis; he was simply instructed to bring them place to place in a low-key manner. This didn't last long, as he began to distrust his employer. Deciding to take more legitimate short-term job opportunities, he cut ties with the package supplier on good terms.
By the time he had turned 16, he had received a great amount of training with a blaster pistol from his good friend Brent Cisco, a 20 year old trader who was grooming the younger Cal, who preferred to be called Jack as it sounded "less snobbish", to become a freelance trader later in life, legal or otherwise. Brent saw it necessary to ensure that Jack could defend himself if he ever found himself in trouble. Although Brent already knew of the teen's ingenuity and technological prowess, he wasn't ready to leave anything to chance. To this end, he gifted Jack his very own AA-37 heavy blaster pistol, which he still owns to this day. Through all of this, Jack never lost his love of mechanics. At age 17, he built his first fusion generator over the course of several months, spending much of the credits he received from odd jobs to fund this. This would later be the very same fusion generator he installed in his ship The Long View later on in life as back-up power supply.
It was by sheer stroke of chance that he came across an auction being held. Being showed was a heavily battered VX-00 light freighter, manufactured by the Corellian Engineering Company. The price for such a hunk of space junk was so low, he couldn't pass it by. He purchased it, branding it The Long View as a reference to what his parents called "unachievable goals". Within it, he found an old, dusty leather jacket that was faded black in color, an article of clothing that would become his trademark. In just six months, with plenty of effort, he had restored the ship to working condition. With a bit of a heavy heart but his mind set on the sky, he bid farewell to his mother and father, promising that he would visit from time to time. Begrudgingly, but with good tidings and blessings, they allowed their son the chance to pursue his own life.
But first, he experienced a slew of other occupations, from which he has developed quite a storied history.. The first stop he planned was on the smuggler's haven, Corellia. There, he encountered a wealthy landlord in Coronet, the planetary capital, whom requested Jack be his bodyguard during a meet and greet with a potential land buyer. During the meeting, the conversation soon turned sour, and the potential buyer turned out to be crooked; he planned the meet to force the landlord to simply hand over the land, or pay the price of death. Jack managed to shoot the gun out of the hand of one of the buyer's own guards, aiming at the other. Through sheer stroke of luck, the guard's gun happened to be jammed. Jack took this chance to kick the table forward, hitting the guard and knocking him to the floor. For his actions, the landlord had the crook and his cronies arrested, and Jack was paid handsomely.
For a time, he found rampant success as the personal bodyguard to many executives and businessmen, but soon found the work to be monotonous and meaningless, even if it did pay the bills. After saving up precious credits, he burned to the skies once more.
It was from this point that he jumped to the smuggler's moon, Nar Shaddaa. Somewhat ignorant of the dangers of this world and more concerned with the career opportunities, his judgement of the world was clouded by his eagerness. Accompanying him was his older friend from Coruscant, Brent, the one who had taught him how to use a blaster. It was Brent who also suggested to Jack that he learn the many languages that the Galaxy has to offer. Truly, on Nar Shaddaa, the species were so diverse it seemed to be a necessity. The language barrier between him and the Sullustan landing pad owner was almost enough to get him kicked off. He began actively seeking out training in linguistics to better associate himself with the people of the residential and trade sectors, which are the places he tended to frequent the most. Meanwhile, Brent warned Jack like a broken record to avoid association with the Exchange. Jack had heard of the Exchange and their operations up to this point, but never knew the kind of grasp they had over Nar Shaddaa.
The way Brent explained it, he made it seem as though the Exchange and the Hutts were some kind of shadow looming constantly over the moon. To many, that would be the truth, but Jack couldm't see how one organization and a planet of bloated slimeballs could possibly own an entire world. Still, he heeded Brent's words, promising to avoid confrontation with them whenever possible.
It was Nar Shaddaa that Jack would meet one of the many "lost loves" he's encountered over his life, though this one sticks out in his mind as the most prominent. It was a pazaak den where many of the better players frequented. Having picked it up and just gotten his feet wet, he wished to test his merit against superior players. After losing twice in a row and nearly getting a blaster bolt between the eyes after withholding his bet, he retreated to the bar. There, from across the way, he made eye contact with a brunette-haired woman clad in a brown leather jacket from across the way. Her hair was wavy, not curly; it was slightly longer than medium length. He had ordered a glass of Tihaar, one of his favorite alcoholic beverages made famous by Mandalorians. He went to sit by her, and instantly struck up conversation. Hours passed in what seemed like minutes, and the bartender was announcing last call.
He had learned much about her in this span of time. Janessa Mal. She was a native of Nar Shaddaa, and was probably more street savvy than him and Brent combined. Her father left at an early age, and her mother raised her by herself. After her mother was claimed by sickness, Janessa, then 15, began to live on her own. Taken aback by her story and how he had come from privilege and her from nothing, he decided to offer her to stay at his ship. She politely declined, stating that she had her own business to attend to even at this late hour. Rather than pry, he let her go, and returned to his ship.
However, she never got off his mind, and the next day he actively sought her out. Although Brent insisted Jack had virtually no chance at finiding one single person on a moon where people go to vanish, Jack did not relent. After much searching, he found her in an interesting place; a swoop bike garage that she owned and operated. She had explained that the only way she was able to make decent money was to offer to repair and upgrade the bikes of the many swoop racers on Nar Shaddaa. After boasting his own skill with engineering, Janessa suggested Jack show her just how good he was by repairing the bike she was meant to work on. It was then that he met her astromech droid, T7-E4. Janessa informed Jack that she acquired it from a junk dealer in the refugee sector, who himself found it deactivated while scavenging in a scrap yard. She spent some time repairing it to working order, allowing it the functionality to help it around the shop.
Jack accepted her proposal of fixing the bike, and she left to go drop off a package for someone, per her own explanation. Not only did he finish working on the bike, he pryed open T7-M4 and upgraded his mechanics, even re-bolting and re-spraying the exterior paneling. When Janessa returned from her errand, she was pleasantly surprised. Jack was sat in a chair, his feet propped on the desk, snoozing. She woke him by tapping a hydrospanner on the desk next to him. To his surprise, she straddled him, and within moments, they were walking with each other into the back room.
The morning after their fling, she informed him who it was she was delivering a package to; a member of the Exchange. As with many other small, independent businesses, the Exchange held a knife to Janessa's operations and demanded payments periodically in order for her to stay there. Knowing better than to go public with their actions and risk death, she simply paid them the required dues. Understanding of this, Jack ensured her that he hoped to be around long enough to make a difference for her. Although he did suggest they simply flee the planet together, Janessa pointed out that they were large enough to spare a force to look for them; plus, his ship wouldn't be bad for business either.
The next few months were characterized by Jack attempting to get enough credits together to hopefully try and pay off Janessa's debts for the next few years so that she may sell the shop and leave the Moon with him and Brent. Of course, this went back on the promise he made to Brent when they first arrived to not mess with the Exchange in any way. Torn between listening to his friend or helping his lover, Jack decided to omit the situation between her and the Exchange from any conversations for the near future. The way Jack saw it, the less Brent knew, the better.
Of course, it all came crashing down when Brent happened to run into Janessa as she was paying an Exchange contact. Questioning her after the deal, she did not hold the information back, assuming Jack had told him before. She went on to explain Jack's plan of raising money to get them off the moon without the Exchange tailing them. The two returned to Jack at the garage, where Brent scolded him for even thinking of getting involved, trying to explain that it didn't matter how much they paid the Exchange; they'd always want to come back for more.
It was at this point that Janessa suggested herself that Jack stop seeing her, fearing that the relationship between them may threaten Jack's safety and the friendship between him and Brent. Ultimately, Jack agreed, and the two ended it. Jack, however, left Janessa half of the credits he had saved up over a six month period to help her cover future payments, much to her thanks.
This would be the last time Jack and Brent stayed on Nar Shaddaa for an extended period of time, Jack preferring instead to stay on the move. The two relayed back to the ship, but Janessa stopped them before they could board. With her was T7-E4, her astromech droid. She decided to gift it to Jack for him to remember her by, and as thanks for her help. Giving one last parting kiss on the cheek, she disembarked from the landing pad, and Jack took T7-E4 with him and Brent. They then took off into the sky. Deciding it was time to head home and visit the parents after two years on the smuggler's moon, Jack and Brent sent the hyperdrive course for Coruscant.
However, bad news waited directly around the corner. When he visited his childhood home, only his mother answered the door; his father had died months ago due to natural causes. Shaken by the news and distraught, Jack decided to extend his visit with his mother, staying for three months. He spent much of this time upgrading The Long View, installing things that would later become trademarks of it, such as the dejarik table, the lounge, the bar, and the smuggling hatches. He also took the time to upgrade T7-E4. However, out of memory of Janessa, he decided not to wipe his memory core. For nostalgia's sake, he engraved "Janessa" into the side of his AA-37 blaster pistol with a precision laser. Brent, with his ever present homespun wisdom, reprimanded Jack for latching onto the past, but he simply wanted to remember what he considered his first true love. By extension, he developed a more general dislike for the Exchange, whom he partially blamed for their separation.
Brent later announced to Jack that he had obtained a job as a licensed trader. Happy for his friend and mentor, Jack "allowed" him to leave his side and pursue his own ventures, only as long as he visited Jack often and kept his mother company while he was out "tearing apart" the Galaxy.
With his new smuggling hatch installed, Jack and T7 took to the skies once more.
His first job, and what he now recalls as his most memorable, was to obtain a large shipment of spice that had gone down with a heavy freighter from the jungle moon of Dxun. Knowing of Dxun's status as one of the most unforgiving places in the Galaxy and Mandalorian territory, Jack knew this would be no walk in the park. The client who hired him would later become one of his most trusted employers, a man named Lance Gallo who lived in the capital of Worlport on the planet Ord Mantell. What Gallo needed with spice on Ord Mantell, Jack hadn't the slightest clue, but he never questioned a good payday.
He landed in the clearest spot he could find on the moon, doing his best to cloak his ship's signatures from the ever present government of Onderon; he wasn't afraid of getting caught, he simply didn't want to answer any questions they had, like if he had a death wish for landing on the most Hellish world in Republic space (Mustafar notwithstanding). He had prepared for the trip; under his usual black leather jacket, he wore an underlay of fiber mesh to give himself some basic protection. Then, on his forearm, a Verpine personal energy shield in case he ran into some un-friendly Mandalorians. With recent events, such as their declaration to take over the planets they feel are theirs again, relations with outsiders have been even worse than before.
The area he landed in was within fifty yards of the crash site, so finding the wreck and lugging back four or five crates of spice couldn't have been that hard, right?
Minutes after disembarking from the ship, he was being run down by a pack of boma beasts. He seemed to be losing them, and so took shelter in a clearing nearby. Just when he was about to take a breath of fresh air, a squad of Mandalorians emerged from the brush nearby, having been concealed with cloaking devices. Tired from running and unable to fight the four of them, he stood with his hands up.
Instantly, they questioned why he was on the moon. He went on to explain how he was hired to retrieve the shipment of spice that was on the crashed freighter nearby. Initially, they didn't believe him, thinking him to be a spy of some sort. However, he heard one of them mention how the communications array at their camp was down, and so they would not be able to relay this information back. To prove that he was no spy, he offered to help them fix the array if they, in turn, escorted him to the crashed freighter. Hesitantly, they accepted, and brought him to their campsite.
Much to their surprise, he had the array up and running once more within the hour. True to their word, the Mandalorians dispatched him and four of their best runners to escort him to the crash site, then to his ship. They arrived after some trekking through the jungle, where he and the Mandalorians made a few trips back and forth, stocking Jack's ship with as much cargo as it could carry; as an added bonus, he even took some of the other goods from the downed ship to deliver to Gallo. After saying his thanks, he departed the jungle moon on his ship.
Gallo was pleasantly surprised by Jack's initiative, though he requested Jack spare him the details. Jack then used the money to upgrade the ship even further, before departing to the Smuggler's moon once more.
However, the Exchange had not forgotten about him and his attempts at helping Janessa. Mere hours after landing on his reserved pad and making his way to the nearest watering hole, he was captured and beaten by Exchange thugs who had tagged his ship's ID signature the second it entered the atmosphere. Despite their instructions to then toss him into the Nar Shaddaa pit, they decided it'd be much more fun to let the moon take care of him. He was left cuffed to a seat in the open. It was at this point that a Force-user, whose face he couldn't forget to this day, had put him to sleep before helping him back to his ship. Despite his assistance, the fact that this person had been able to knock him out cold using nothing but "some invisible magic mumbo-jumbo" was a somewhat unsettling fact. It was at this point that he sought out someone in Nar Shaddaa to teach him how to resist the mind tricks that Force users employ.
He found this person in Marek Massani, a Mandalorian bounty hunter. Jack told Marek about his encounter with Mandalorians on Dxun, and the two formed a strong camaraderie. Marek taught Jack how to keep his mind constantly occupied with something to help resist the influence of Jedi mind alterations. Although Marek admitted to Jack that true success with this skill would only come with practice, he went on to point out that it was better than nothing. After teaching him this new found skill, and even tutoring Jack in Mando'a, Marek joined Jack for a time on the Long View as a crew member.
It was at this point that Jack dabbled in the bounty hunting profession, and developed a larger familiarity with his blaster pistol and use of various kinds of weaponry. He and Marek's team up distinguished them as a highly effective duo in the world of bounty hunting. Although they took contacts from almost any source, Jack outright refused contracts from the Exchange, explaining his prior dealings with them to Marek in great detail. Of course, Marek accepted these terms. Their work took them on a myriad of adventures throughout the galaxy, all on the Long View. T7-E4's usefulness and skills combined with their partnership and wit reeled them in plenty of credits to keep food on the table. On top of mental control and finer precision with his weapons, Marek also tutored Jack in a number of Mandalorian hand-to-hand combat techniques, even giving him moderate training with a vibroblade.
It was five years ago that he and Marek took their most memorable contract. The two were tasked with travelling to the desert planet Tatooine where a notorious pirate by the name of Vax Villard was hiding out.
Vax had a troupe of highly trained mercenaries as guards, and was currently under investigation by Republic officials. To avoid being summoned to appear before the senate at Coruscant for his crimes on the edge of Republic space, he had fled to Tatooine. Jack and Marek docked at the infamous space port of Mos Eisley; a bustling grove of the Galaxy's most foul offspring. After a quick bribe of the local cantina barman, Jack found out that Vax had holed himself up on the outskirts of the space port. Renting speeder bikes, he and Marek rode off in pursuit.
Sadly, it seemed Vax was wise to them asking around. They were ambushed by Vax and his six mercenaries in a gully. Their speeders were blasted with ion charges and disabled, causing a very messy crash for both of them; luckily, Marek had his seemingly indestructible Mandalorian armor on, and took hardly a scratch. As blaster fired rained down upon them, Marek dragged the injured Jack from the wreckage. It was then they devised a plan of action. Marek would keep them distracted and, after utilizing a medpac to stabilize his wounds, Jack would sneak around the outside of the gully and pick off the Mercenaries on the hill. Marek stood from behind the cover of one of their broken speeders, firing back at the Mercs with his blaster rifle. It was heavily upgraded, and could rip through even the strongest shields with two or three hits.
As they were pre-occupied, Jack ran around the outside of the hills that encompassed the gully. Lining up the shot to the three mercs on his side was like shooting womprats in a barrel. With three blasts to the legs, they all fell to the ground. After whacking each one with his trusty stun baton, he turned his attention to the other hill. He spotted two mercs - Marek had already taken one down - and a now-frightened Vax getting ready to take off on his own speeder. Rather than let him get away, Jack pulled one of the thermal detonators from his belt's equipment pouch. He pressed the button on top, activating the five second fuse. He cooked it two seconds, then tossed it over the gully, placing it just under the speeder. He knew the capabilities of a thermal detonator; anything within the five meter radius would be atomized. Luckily, the speeder absorbed the brunt of the impact; upon detonation, the middle of it was sent exploding upwards, and shrapnel was sent flying. Vax himself was launched off of it like a bucking Bantha, skidding across the hot desert sand right to the feet of Marek. The other two mercs were riddled with shrapnel, and were likely dead before Marek even made it on top of the hill.
Marek, with Vax on his shoulder, and Jack headed back to Mos Eisley. They hand-delivered the captured pirate to the senate on Coruscant, and the two were paid handsomely and awarded civilian commendations for service to the Republic. After a year and a half, Jack decided to return to his smuggling ways, and parted on friendly terms with Marek, whom he keeps contact with to this day.
((( PRIOR HISTORY ENDS HERE. UPDATED HISTORY. )))
The Battle of Coruscant of 3595 served as a staunch reminder that life was not always so prim and proper, and beckoned Jack back to the world he once called home to check on his mother and childhood friend, Brent. Although their home had been damaged in the fighting and the world overall was still recoilling from the gruelling experience, Jack was relieved to discover that both his mother and Brent were alive and well. After staying for a time to assist in the post-War recovery efforts to the best of his ability, Jack decided it would be prudent for him to depart once more rather than linger in one place for too long. He left his home behind once again to take to the stars, where he felt more at peace than he ever did within those four walls.
With the recent uprising of the Archeri Chorus and the summit between the Sith Empire and Galactic Republic resulting in a truce between the two formerly opposing parties, Jack has made a conscious decision to lie low in the wake of the coming war. However, with pressing times knocking on the doors of even civilians totally uninvolved in the conflict, and new information about the dangers of the Chorus coming to light, Jack must heavily consider what matters more; his freedom, or all life in the galaxy.
