app >> prismatica

▶ PLAYER
HANDLE: xan
CONTACT: PM xandrei
OVER 18? Yes
CHARACTERS IN-GAME: Cullen Rutherford (Dragon Age)

▶ CHARACTER
NAME: November 11 / Jack Simon (alias)
CANON: Darker Than Black
CANON POINT: Episode 21, before his fight with Decade
AGE: ~27
BACKGROUND: Canon setting + Character history

PERSONALITY: November, at his core, is extremely logic driven and self-preserving, as most Contractors are. However, beyond that, he's shown to be sharp witted and mentally agile. In any of his fights, he thinks things through and thinks of them quickly. One of the biggest examples of this was when he fights Hei at the Gate in episode 6: he comes prepared with rubber boots so that Hei can't use his electricity via the water on the ground to zap him. He studies his enemies and keeps that information tucked away in order to beat them effectively. What's more, is that he is the type to have several contingency plans. In episode 5, he has a backup plan in place just in case a group tried to take Havoc away due to the possibility of leaks in the Japanese police force. Later, after he's defeated by Hei and Havoc is taken, Misaki asks him if he'd planned for it, to which he responds– "if I'd known about it, it seems odd that I wouldn't have planned for it, so in other words, no". He takes pride in his planning and organizational skills in this aspect.

What's more is that he actually doesn't mind being a Contractor, as he states in a conversation with Amagiri. Considering his profession, it's made life in MI6 considerably easier than it would be as a normal person. Contractors are usually called monsters in this world, and he's sure to have had that particular insult thrown his way. Instead, he takes it in stride and even perpetuates the stereotype that they're cold blooded by making off-color jokes. There are several times where he makes these jokes; when asked by Saito and Kirihara if he's been in Japan before, he says yes, stating that he's been there for assassinations (only punctuating it by 'just kidding' after their horrified reaction). The only thing that seems to truly annoy him is his contract payment (remuneration), which is smoking. April even mentions that his payment is hard to watch, since he inhales the smoke and then coughs pathetically afterwards.

As the series progresses, November's shown to develop deeper attachments to his team and then to Misaki Kirihara. After April is put into the hospital because of the explosion Maki caused, November takes the attack fairly personally. It's seen mostly when he goes after Maki, saying with a very vengeful expression that he needs to give the kid his "just desserts". There's no pity or mercy for Maki for what he did. His relationship with July is a little more subtle, as it starts from July's end, when he calls November his "partner". Misaki mentions as such, and November almost seems bewildered at first. Again, in the fight with Maki, though, he seems to finally understand July and what their teamwork means to him. He trusts July to be able to get him through the situation. Lastly, his attachment to Misaki; it's fairly peculiar, as it appears to come on very suddenly. He messes with her almost incessantly in the first episode he appears– calling her by her first name, joking about leaving her with the clean up of the potential mission disaster, cracking morbid jokes. As she starts to understand where he's coming from, though, the connection between them becomes more two-way. In episode 6, she makes a morbid kind of joke on his character, which he's surprised about. She's the first person he directs July to "in case something happens", and he turns around to risk himself for her when Maki detonates the furniture in the room Misaki saves November from.

These attachments are something that prove that Contractors may not feel as much, but they can still feel something. November's one of the more developed Contractors in terms of emotions, since he shows a fair variety of them, even going so far as to essentially sacrifice himself in the end. It's something that April brings up to Misaki, letting her know he wouldn't want to involve them in the problem, obviously cared about his team and Kirihara enough to keep them out of the loop so they wouldn't be at risk.

But, along with being more attached to people, he also shows some of the uglier sides of emotion. They aren't as demonstrative since November tends to keep his cool in most situations. When he makes the snap decision to kill Havoc as her powers are coming back, Misaki mentions something about him being more afraid than she thought. To her, it's a joke, but something in the surprise on November's face insinuates it may not have been entirely untrue. With Havoc's powers being potentially one of the most dangerous, he didn't want to take the risk of them coming back and turning on him or his team– it's logical but also tinged with fear. Later, when he goes after Decade, there's a mix of emotions on the situation. He's just learned his superior officer wanted to keep the truth about being involved in eliminating all the Contractors away from him. November goes into Decade's office obviously very serious; in his short talk with Decade, he shows a bit of a conflicted attitude: he's disappointed and betrayed, showing a slight hesitance. However, his anger with the situation wins out, which ultimately leads him to kill Decade and the armed officers that show up. As he's dying, he shows a sort of desperation when he tries to make his last call, face falling when his voicemail message gets cut off. In the end there's a bitter acceptance, shown when he decides not to smoke his contractual cigarettes.

In a nutshell, he's very much a Contractor– he has no qualms about murdering in cold blood– but he shows many more layers under that: a quick mind, dry (and sometimes dorky) sense of humor, and a genuine connection to the people he trusts and cares about.


POWERS/ABILITIES: As he's part of MI6 and the British Secret Intelligence Service, November likely has training in base military combat, as well in espionage, interrogation, and quite possibly torture methods. His athleticism is seen in many portions during the series, so even without his powers he could probably hold his own. However, the biggest portion of his power comes from his being a Contractor, which allows him to freeze liquid he may not necessarily have direct contact with. He demonstrates this in several different (and creative) ways during the series. The first instance his powers are used in canon is when he's talking to the thugs in episode 5. When the smoking thug tries to stop him from leaving, he freezes the blood in the man's arm, causing the limb to snap clean off. Within moments, he also uses a nearby cup of tea as a weapon, splashing it towards another thug and freezing it in mid air so it could be used as a sharp projectile. In conjunction with April, he'll usually freeze whole swathes of water on the ground, effectively trapping people's feet and legs in place so they can't run. During his fight with Maki, he splashes up a significant portion of water from the puddle he's standing in, freezing it around him in order to fend off the brunt of the explosion Maki creates. This hearkens back to his quick and creative thinking, something that Amagiri is impressed by.

Moreover, being a Contractor essentially makes him an equivalent to someone with anti-social personality disorder (sociopathy). He doesn't feel regret or guilt over killing or even using people to his own ends, approaching everything with logic, reason, and self-preservation in mind. The only downside to this whole Contractor business is that he has to fulfill his compulsory remuneration by smoking cigarettes after he uses his powers.

INVENTORY: 2 suits: (1) black, (1) white. A case of cigarettes.

MOONBLESSING: Cordis

▶ SAMPLES

[ It feels like Brazil.

The room is muggy and hot, the air feels almost oppressive with the two combined. Of course, he’s not going to think of it as just a room any longer. He knows his objective, and that’s to get to the end of simulation intact. Briefly, he thinks about where the end goal would be. If he were to design this place, it would be on an off-beat path, something that’s a little harder to find. After all, there’s no fun in being easy to hide, is there?

Stepping further into the room (or should he say environment setting, now), he’s alert, watching for any sudden motions. For how busy the last few missions have been, this place feels so silent. In actuality, it’s a bit eerie, if only because it’s reminding him more and more of a place that doesn’t even exist on Earth anymore. November follows the half-created trail, gingerly stepping over roots and plant life. There’s only quiet and the faint rustling of wind through trees as he does, though he has a bad feeling that there’s bound to be something nasty that will show its face sooner or later.

Part of him hopes it’s the sooner, frankly. He’s a patient person and he’s been trained to deal with the anxiety before everything goes to hell in a hand basket, but that doesn’t mean he has to like it. Crouching under a branch, he feels a bit of a breeze– there must be a break in the trees somewhere close. Up ahead, the brown and green of foliage breaks up, opening close to a shoreline. Said shore is formed by a river rushing by, and if he listens well enough, he’s pretty sure he can hear where the VR is recreating the sound of a waterfall in the distance. Attention to detail. Nice.

Before he steps out from the trees, though, he looks around and specifically upwards. No one in horror movies ever look up, and he’s not the idiot that’s going to be taken by surprise. So far, still nothing. Not even a peep. Frowning, he wipes his forehead with the back of his hand, keeping the moisture from dripping into his eyes. Alright, time to keep moving. Carefully, he steps out of the relative safe zone of the jungle, heading towards the water. As he gets closer to the river, the situation starts to come more and more together. Standing out on a larger rock, he glances down both ends of the rapidly moving water; there’s only one bridge.

And it’s on fire.

Ok not like in an absolute blaze (not yet), but he gets the feeling if he doesn’t get across that pretty soon, he’s going to be pretty fucked. It’s one thing, after all, to freeze a slow moving body of water and quite another to ice over rapids. Eyes narrowing, he quickly thinks over his options. Bridge is on fire, there’s water here, and no enemies in sight.

Wait, no. Scratch that. Squinting towards the bridge, he sees there are definitely things nearby it. And those things are moving rather quickly. Ah well, this should be interesting. Stepping off of the outcropping he’d been on, he splashes directly into the water (feels real, hopefully it is), and starts heading towards the bridge. It’s just as he gets closer when he hears the hair-raising screech the thing lets out.

Said screech sounds familiar, he thinks, as he pivots neatly, an icicle forming into a large enough spike to get the thing through the chest as it swoops down. He waits until he sees it stop struggling and then continues towards his end goal. When he gets closer is when all that silence from earlier goes straight out the window. Suddenly, the air is filled with noise, and while he wants nothing more than to clap his hands over his ears, he has to get out of this without dying. Or being horribly maimed (that’s probably optional).

Ok. No time to lose his head. Breathe. Four targets, two high and two low. One makes a dive and he moves, grabbing its leg and jerking it down into the shallow water, which immediately ices over it. Power still active, he ducks under the two that make a simultaneous attack, fingertips pressing against their torsos. They don’t stop moving though, and it takes him by surprise. Almost as much as the harpy-looking thing that suddenly comes running from the side, claws extended.

Where did that come from?

He’s freezing its feet to the ground when he spots it– that was the one from earlier. Not dead, like it was supposed to be. Well shit. How was he supposed to kill something that doesn’t die with a strike to the heart? November puzzles through this as he freezes two more harpy-things into the shoreline, crouching just in time to only get scratched on the shoulder by the last one passing over head. With four pinned (probably temporarily, honestly), he makes a break for the bridge, listening for the flap of wings and non-muffled screeching. The last one follows him all the way, only diving when he starts to turn towards it. Kicking water up at the thing, the liquid gets turned into icicles, hitting it at two joints and its neck. Immediately, it crumples to the ground– he gets the feeling it won’t be down for long.

But, before he deals with the creatures again (limited time, very limited), he has to get across the bridge that’s now less of a small campfire and more of a blaze. The logical part of him realizes that it wouldn’t even be standing if it weren’t VR, but he sets that aside for now. Wading out just a bit further, he crouches down and pours just enough water over himself to make his clothes damp (ok, damper than they are, thanks to humidity). A screech off to his left tells him the things are about to get loose again, so he rushes back out and onto the bridge itself.

There are missing portions already, having burned through. He’s not hesitating though, long legs taking him across sections that are missing two boards. With the heat, he can feel his clothes drying, and he ices the edges over, making it last. Another creature finally comes down on him about halfway across, nearly running him right over the crumbling banister. Red lights up his eyes as he ices more of the water on himself over before he grabs hold of the monster’s arm, pushing it directly into a larger portion of the blaze.

It catches fire like kindling and oil.

Now too occupied with its current state of death by fire, the harpy-thing struggles on the boards of the bridge before toppling over into the rushing water. November doesn’t waste any time moving– he can hear the bridge cracking on the other end. Pieces of it start to fall away behind him, and he runs across the rest of the distance, ignoring the cries of pissed off harpies. Once fully across, he takes a glance back. Nothing following; the ice from the shore is still holding those things in place. Part of him wants to completely destroy them, but that isn’t the real objective. He’s got a timer, and he knows it’s probably running low.

Mouth pressed into a straight line, he navigates his way through a second set of jungle before he finally comes to a cave. One that’s surrounded by murky water. But, it’s thankfully still and he feels like he has just enough power to get him across. The tip of his shoe hits the water, and soon it’s rapidly freezing over. It’s not thick enough to hold him walking on it too long.

So he takes a breath and runs right across it, sliding to halt when his feet touch land again.

Looking straight up to the camera he can see winking in the corner, despite his extremely wet-cat appearance, he smirks. ]

I do hope I didn’t keep you waiting too long. Perilous test and such.