(no subject)

OOC Information

Player handle: Lia

Contact details: mizlia on plurk, ohliamylia on AIM, I don't have a personal journal on DW but you can message this account

Time zone: EST

Other characters: N/A

IC Information

Name: Ianto Jones

Nicknames/Alias: Thomas Wright (alias), clever nickname TBD if it's ever revealed

Age: 26

Source canon: Torchwood (TV)

Personality: Ianto is very Welsh, first off, with that wonderful wry and somehow cheerful pessimism that the Welsh have cultivated. He prefers coffee to tea. Like, a lot. He’s a talented social chameleon, able to adapt accordingly to fit into various situations – or, if need be, fade into the background and become part of the scenery. This is partly so he doesn’t attract too much attention and partly a defense mechanism, allowing him to ‘belong’ anywhere. His talent is partially due to him being a lying liar who lies. A lot. Only ever about himself and his past, to obscure aspects of his upbringing that he’s embarrassed by. He doesn’t do it so much to make himself sound great, just to hide things he thinks people would judge him for, like family, or to keep his feelings and thoughts safe and private.  With information that’s not related to him, though, he prefers to be forthright. He’s too bright for his own good and unendingly curious; he likes to “know everything”, both in a general trivia sense and knowing how the sausage gets made. Loyal primarily to what he believes is right and to others who are fighting toward the same cause. Empathetic, although he hides it well most of the time, bottling up his own emotions until they occasionally spill out. He prefers mercy over justice, unless it’s personal, and then he will threaten to maim/torture/kill you, and may actually do any of those things given the opportunity. He has a sarcastic streak a mile wide, especially in the face of danger (unless it's in the face of certain death, and then he gives up and moans about how they're all going to die). He needs to be needed. He likes having a place in things, preferably a big one. Not like a leader, but like a "what would we do without you" sort of deal. He keeps to himself, emotionally and physically. Fears being useless, having no "point", forgetting or not knowing who he is - but also fears remembering too much, constantly haunted by the past he can never forget. Canonically he has eidetic memory, although that is often subject to player error because I don’t, so mostly he just has exceptional recall. His memory is just as susceptible to alteration by drugs/alcohol/whatever as everyone else’s, though. Kind, polite, and even charming, which is occasionally a mask but usually in earnest. He's also got a weird buried dark side to him that I don't even understand.

Canon history: Wiki. I will be taking him from as close to his death as I can get without going over, so let's say just before Children of Earth.

AU Information

Appearance: At six feet, Ianto is quite tall, although somehow he doesn’t seem it. Caucasian, blue eyes, and short brown hair, which is always impeccably parted and very carefully arranged. Ianto – or shall we say Thomas, as that’s the persona that he will be presenting to Lethevale – very deliberately dresses as a reasonably upstanding Victorian gentleman, with decently-made clothing that, if it is a handful of years out of date, is at least exceptionally well cared for. He typically sticks to a ‘look’, with variations maybe in the color of his cravat or tie. Overcoat depending on the weather, jacket, vest with a silver watch chain and an older but polished pocket watch, pants, and nicely shined shoes, all in shades of charcoal, grey, and black. White shirt with a detachable collar and a somewhat colorful (but not too ostentatious) cravat or tie. Bowler hat. For those who care to see or happen to find out, he is obviously cultivating the appearance of the middle-class, but the devil is in the details: either his wardrobe is full of duplicates or he tends to wear the same (laundered) clothes often, any tears are not expertly hand stitched, and although his shoes shine, the soles are worn and there are dings and scratches that cannot be buffed out.

History: Ianto Jones was born in 1844 in Newport, South Wales, the son of a prostitute and a sailor. He never knew his father. Having already given up a girl for adoption several years previous, his mother decided to keep him, and struggled to support the two of them through Ianto's childhood. He grew up in the alleys and back rooms of the city. At a young age, his mother had him pretend to be crippled and beg on the streets, but as he got older he discovered his true calling: pickpocketing. He used charm, wit, humor, and his ‘innocent’ youth to distract gentlemen out of their wallets and ladies out of their purses. He challenged men to games of skill to impress their ladies. He stole from his mother’s customers. He allied himself temporarily with various other groups of children in the city, staying with them as long as it was worthwhile for him. Ianto gained more and more skill as he got older, which became increasingly necessary as his mother began to succumb to illnesses both mental and physical. Despite his attempts, she died when he was seventeen and was buried in a paupers’ grave. Ianto retreated from the streets and managed to track down his half-sister, his mother’s first child, who was scraping by in a workhouse to support her two children. They connected, and Ianto left behind his old identity, emerging just before the age of twenty with a new one that would allow him to ingratiate himself amongst the elite and pickpocket from them to support his sister’s family. He moved to London and worked his way up the social ladder, stealing as he went and sending money back to his sister in Wales. After a year or so, under suspicion and close to being unmasked, he fled to rural England, constructing a new identity there and continuing to improve his skills and send money back. Soon he was chased out of England entirely and spent the next several years fleeing from one western European country to another, creating new identities, learning some of the languages, and relieving people of their possessions.

Job: Pickpocket. Lower middle class, appears a little higher than that.

Reason for coming to Lethevale: A new life and old money. Berlin wasn't working out for him. He needs a fresh start and new victims.

Inventory: A silver pocketwatch, sentimental value. A small amount of luggage, clothing. His savings.

Samples

Prose Sample: 200+ words of your character’s reaction to one of the following prompts:

* You are lost in a storm when you see a light through the trees.
* You are attacked by wolves.
* While investigating a guest room, you open a secret passageway in the wall.

* You are staying in the King’s Head, which you’ve heard is haunted, when you hear mysterious sounds outside your room.

Test Drive: A link to a thread you’ve done on the TDM. This allows us to see how you play off other characters, as well as what the character looks like in AU.

 

 

Misc.

Additional Links: Opt-out post, HMD post, etc.

Anything else: Anything you didn’t get a chance to put elsewhere.