ataraxion application

[stimulations]

PLAYER INFORMATION
Your Name: Koke
OOC Journal: rarebirds
Under 18? If yes, what is your age?: Nope, 25.
Email + IM: kokanshu[at]gmail[dot]com, galahadfalling
Characters Played at Ataraxion: Taylor "Tyke" Kee, Richard B. Riddick

CHARACTER INFORMATION
Name: Josias St. John
Canon: Original
Original or Alternate Universe: Original
Canon Point: Current
Number: RNG

Setting:

EMBEDS
There exist two worlds: the virtual and the actual.
Original verse created by and information written by tussah.

History:

Josias is the only son of Lawrence St. John, and therefore sole heir of St. John Industries, a business empire specialising in virtual security. Josias was raised with all the privilege of the rich and powerful, and all of the limitations. Intensely curious, Josias always wanted to see more of the world beyond the glittering glass cage his father kept him in, and spent most of his childhood rebelling in small but significant ways - often ditching his protective detail, either real or virtual, in order to explore the lower, darker and more interesting places.

His father humoured this behaviour, to an extent, until Josias reached his teens. At this point Josias' life became strictly regimented, his father intent on training him to become a worthy heir to his business. Any attempts to break away from the pattern of lessons and lectures and reading were quickly stopped. There were small allowances in the social gatherings his father felt the need to show him off at, but Josias was largely kept caged, observed and monitored, and under an incredible amount of pressure.

It worked, for a time. All of the skill and curiosity he'd shown in his younger years, when directed into the channels his father choose found him learning incredibly quickly. His lessons covered every area of his father's business, including not only the hardware and software at the basis of their products, but also the business management, diplomatic and social skills he would need as CEO.

But then, when he was sixteen, Josias' development seemed to plateau. His lessons would take three times as long, complex concepts eluding his grasp and needed repeated explanation. His testing scores began to drop, taking 100% pass rates down to far more average numbers. He botched up coding, time and time again, and took an incredibly long time constructing more complex hardware units.

His father had intended him to enter into the business at nineteen, and while Josias' tutors did the best they could in the last three years, they eventually had to admit to Lawrence St. John that while Josias had been a very gifted child, as an adult, he was not so remarkable.

His skillset was not so shameful as to be an embarrassment, though, and while Lawrence was disappointed and frustrated, Josias was given a low level system maintenance position in St. John Industries when he turned nineteen. His studies, aside from independent work, ended, and though he was still covered by a protective detail and expected to show his face where and when his father required it, he was finally allowed all the freedoms of an adult.

Meek, mediocre and mild-mannered, Josias quietly settled into his new job, and though he was still often followed by the whispers that he was the boss' son, he largely faded into the background.

This was all how Josias had planned it.

Frustrated and angry under the strict lifestyle his father had constructed for him and most likely expected him to follow forward for the rest of his life, Josias had taken the only road of rebellion left available for him: to hide his natural intelligence and become a disappointment to his father. It had been difficult for him, at first, but fooling his tutors and everyone else around him soon became a game, and one that he found himself very good at.

Crushing down his curiosity and intelligence left him restless and frustrated, though, and as soon as the walls his father used to keep him caged behind eased up, he began looking for avenues to fully release his skills and knowledge - and to learn more. With his identity as heir to St. John Industries still a roadblock in this, he turned to the virtual, where he could alter his appearance and keep his activities hidden in the shadier corners.

Initially still cautious and wary, Josias soon found himself growing more comfortable, allowing his own personality to come to the surface, instead of the persona he used in the real world. He started small, working his way into interacting with the criminal network, but never becoming truly involved with them. His position within his father's company allowed him insight into the security systems so popularly used, giving him the knowledge on how to evade them or break through them.

Interested specifically in the ways the virtual could affect people, he moved into the virtual prostitution circuits, finding a definite taste for giving people what they wanted - and more - while satisfying his own appetites. Taking on the pseudonym of 'the Tiger', he quickly began to gain a reputation for his work, while in the real world, Josias slowly climbed up in the company only by stint of his name and being quietly consistent.

After a few years of getting himself settled as the Tiger, Josias soon began to crave more challenging activities. He'd heard rumours of couriers - people who upgraded their neuro-implants to potentially dangerous capacities for the transportation of illegal AIs and other data. While never really interested in being a sympathiser, Josias was definitely curious about AIs and hungry for the challenge. With his work as a prostitute giving him easy ways to set up meetings and exchanges, he took couriering on, but is still very new to the venture.

Personality:

Josias St. John is a meek, excessively polite young man with a rather nervous, awkward disposition. He keeps his head down and doesn't draw attention to himself, rarely speaking unless spoken to first, always quiet and reserved. He often looks as if he would be spooked easily. He is of mediocre intelligence, offering little insight or furthering of the work he does, but always consistent and diligent in finishing what tasks he is given. Altogether there is nothing remarkable or even particularly memorable about him. He fades into the background unless actively drawn out, which would only result in his discomfort about being drawn out making him even more timorous. His co-workers consider him to be 'nice', but tend to say it with a rather pitying look in their eyes.

Of course, all of this is not the real Josias St. John, but a persona he wears.

In the virtual, under the name of 'the Tiger', Josias' real personality is allowed to roam free. Sharply intelligent and insightful, he is incredibly good at reading people and understanding their motivations and behaviour. While in the actual he uses this in order to keep his mask in place, in the virtual his manipulations are intent more on finding out what someone wants, and by and large, giving it to them. He is greedy and hedonistic in this regard, working as a prostitute in order to satisfy his own curiosity about the potential of the virtual on the body, as well as his own sexual appetites.

In this sense what could be seen as rather selfless work is actually very selfish, and Josias is a selfish man. Though he may have rebelled against his father's rule over him, he was still raised in an upper-class environment, and is used to living well and being treated well. While his activities in the virtual carry a high level of risk to them, he tends to view them more as a challenge, and craves the excitement it gives him while also failing to truly understand how much danger he could land himself in.

He is arrogant and egotistical in this regard. Having managed to successfully manipulate his father and the people around him the actual, and excelled through his chosen work in the virtual, Josias has had little reason not to get cocky. This does not mean he's reckless, however. While the repercussions of the law or the criminal circuit he skirts around don't seem to faze him, he is very much set on not living the life his father wants for him. Caution comes in more strongly in situations where his identity or persona could be at risk.

In a one-on-one basis he is an incredibly charming young man, educated and eloquent. He has a rather sly sense of humour which is usually underpinned with flirtation, and as a result can often stray into the vulgar. He is very curious, will poke his nose into people's business without much regard for their feelings on the matter, much as he will also get into their personal space. He has a tendency to touch without permission.

Though he can easily make someone think he cares about them, there are very few people Josias holds at that level, and his transient role as a prostitute helps with this. He is fickle in his interests, affections and moods. This is where insight into people means that he can also be cruel, brutally honest and tactless with their feelings or problems. This is, sometimes, not something he truly means to do.

He can grow attached to repeat clients or people he has met in the surrounding industry, and his claws can be just as sharp with them if he is in the wrong mood. While he is likely to drive them off before he gets the chance to get over himself again, he does often make the attempt to follow the situation up with a sincere apology.

Ultimately the reason why Josias is so good with people is because he likes them. He finds them interesting as individuals and as groups, and while he hasn't grown close to many, this could in many ways be blamed upon his enclosed upbringing and the necessity to keep his identity safe. He does not go out of his way to intentionally hurt others, and if it is in his capability to help someone in need, he will.

While his manipulation of people, duplicity and criminal activities would easily mark Josias as a bad person, he is truly a good man at heart - it just takes a great deal of tenacity and luck to to find that out.

Abilities, Weaknesses and Power Limitations:

STRENGTH | NOTHING BUT THE MASK
Josias has been living his life behind a fake persona for nine years. He is an accomplished liar, manipulator and actor, able to understand and emulate human behaviour and body language to a highly detailed extent. Able to improvise to any situation, he has never once been caught off guard or let slip some telling detail. The mask only comes off when he chooses it to.

STRENGTH | STRANGE TIMES
Living in a world with such high level technology and where the virtual (in the more criminal corners) is only limited by the imagination, Josias has seen a lot of strange sights and situations. While many of them may not have been experienced in reality, it's left him highly versatile and adaptable to new situations and environments.

ABILITY | HACK THE PLANET
Josias has a neuro-implant, which is high-end, and extends the processing capabilities of his mind and allows for wireless connections to compatible networks or devices. It has also been upgraded to illegal levels of data capacity for the storage and transport of AIs, though he is not currently carrying any. When it comes to technology, Josias has always been involved and interested in the guts of things, rather than simply using the surface product. He is a trained programmer and engineer of both software and hardware, and his work within his father's company involved ensuring the efficiency and effectiveness of their security systems by attempting their own hacks against them. Outside of work, Josias' skills extend even further in the necessity to keep his activities and identity safe within his interactions in the virtual.

ABILITY | JOB YOU LOVE
Josias has been working as a virtual prostitute for five years. He enjoys this work, a great deal, and has a rather widespread reputation for being very good at it. 'Nuff said.

WEAKNESS | RED PILL BLUE PILL
Despite his adaptability to new situations, this is usually within the context of a world divided between real and virtual. The real never changes, while the virtual is any hacker's game. Thrown into a new real situation and environment, Josias will adapt, but will do so under the belief he must somehow be in a virtual environment. This will be a difficult belief for him to shake.

WEAKNESS | PLUG IN BABY
Josias is used to technology that is accessible through his neuro-implant, either wirelessly or through hardline connections (more commonly used in the construction of hardware units and installation of software). He will consider physical input to be positively archaic, and it will slow him down significantly until he learns to deal with it or finds a way around it.

Inventory:

• 1 full tailored suit, dark grey
• 1 full tailored suit, black
• 2 shirts, white
• 1 tie, blue
• 1 tie, light blue
• 1 pair of half-frame glasses, lenses set for mild longsightedness
• 1 box of surgical gloves
• 1 hardline neuro-implant port maintenance kit
• 2 hardline neuro-implant cables, length roughly 3 metres

Appearance:

Nicholas Hoult as Hank McCoy in X-Men: First Class

ACTUAL | Josias St. John is 6'2", but stands awkwardly in his height, a perpetual hunch to his shoulders as if trying to make himself shorter. He is Caucasian and pale-skinned, as if he spends most of his time indoors. He has dark brown hair and blue eyes, usually obscured behind glasses. While his appearance is usually immaculate and he wears expensive clothes, they never seem to fit comfortably on him.

He has two hardline neuro-implant ports behind his left ear, one resembling a modern USB port and the other resembling a modern Ethernet port. These require regular maintenance and care, as the skin around them can be sensitive and become easily inflamed or infected, or can start growing over the ports. Internally, he has a high-end neuro-implant that has been heavily upgraded (illegally) to extend its data capacity and security.

He speaks quietly and with good manners, but with none of the commanding presence or confidence that might be expected of someone of his status. He moves with a nervousness and hesitation that makes him appear meek and easily startled. He has difficulty maintaining eye contact.



Nicholas Hoult as Kenny in A Single Man

VIRTUAL | the Tiger is 6'2" and comfortable in his height, standing with his back and shoulders straight. He is Caucasian, skin tanned golden. He has sun-bleached light brown hair and piercing blue eyes. He is usually well-dressed, but in comfortable, casual style clothes.

He speaks levelly and directly, usually with an warm amusement to his tone. Well-mannered but engaging, his expressions are evident of his tone and feeling. He moves confidently but rather lazily, and can be quite invasive of other people's personal bubbles.

(While there is no virtual on board the Traquility for Josias to adopt this appearance within, it is worth mentioning as he is likely to slowly take this appearance on as best he can once he grows comfortable on the ship.)

Age: 25 (has turned 27 while on the ship)

AU Clarification: N/A

SAMPLES
Log Sample:

This truly has to be the most boring virtual construct Josias has ever seen. The concept had merit, of course - spaceships adventures could always be interesting - but the implementation was remarkably dull. Endless corridors repeating the same design, no stops on any exotic alien planets or bustling space stations, entertainment made through a slowly creeping narrative involving mysterious writing and smiley faces. Well, he understood the interest in the horror genre, but it had never appealed to him.

Which was another reason why he did not appreciate the lack of readily accessible coding. The thought had occurred to him, already, that this is not a game. They'd been working on something in the lab, a security 'trap' to capture and contain intruders in enclosed virtual constructs until they could be properly dealt with. There was the possibility - remarkably slim, and yet dreadfully present - that he had found himself in one such trap. That his father had become aware of his activities, and had tricked him. He tries to think over his recent encounters, any slip up he may have made.

There was the new client he had taken on, two days ago, the skinny brunette with the fantastic legs. She'd seemed a little dull, a little dim, but then, Josias knew all about dumbing yourself down in order to lull others into complacency. Had she been a plant? Had she recognised him, hoped to gain a profit taking the information to his father?

It's a burr in his mind as he makes his way back to the oxygen garden - the only interesting place on the ship, he's always had a love of greenery, so little of it remaining in the world. He picks at the thought, over and over, so intent on it that he almost misses the sounds of footsteps approaching. And he doesn't, of course, but Josias St. John does, and it's that clumsy fool that the stranger literally runs into - a collision that shouldn't have done much, but leaves him on the floor with his glasses askew.

He would not risk the chance that his father had created this ruse to catch him in the act of being anything more than timid and uninteresting. He apologises, profusely, picking himself up, and it's enough that the stranger acquiesces and retreats in uncomfortable bemusement. It was important, as always, that Josias St. John remained as Josias St. John was meant to be. He straightens his glasses, and continues.

Comms Sample:

[The video clicks on to reveal a rather nervous looking young man, standing awkwardly and holding the camera at arm's length from himself. He coughs, straightens his glasses, adjusts his posture, and yet the suit he's wearing - very well-cut, truly - still manages to look completely ill-fitting on him, and once his attention is elsewhere, his shoulders begin to take on a slump again.]

I apologise greatly for interrupting the session, but I'm afraid I didn't accept any invitation to this game. That is-- what I mean is-- assuming I was sent one. [He looks suddenly quite alarmed at the prospect that he wasn't invited, speaking the next far too quickly.] If I stumbled in then I can only apologise further and hope to remove myself before I cause any more inconvenience.

[A beat, flustered, realising he'd had a slight panic there, trying to compose himself again.]

Only, well. [An attempt at a small smile. It looks uncomfortable on his face.] I apologise but I can't seem to find the exit codes. I'd be very thankful-- grateful, I mean, if someone could point me in the right direction.

[There's a very long pause, wherein he continues looking at the camera, as if he expects something to happen. Eventually he seems to suddenly realise it's not turning off, and gives another rather nervous cough.]

Yes, that's-- that's all. Thank you.

[And he presses the off button this time.]