"Sorry, but I am done with playing the action hero... Because I grew up."
-Junpei, Zero Time Dilemma
BASICS
NAME: J'pei [Junpei]
GENDER: Cis male
PRONOUNS: he/him/his
ORIENTATION: Demisexual panromantic, to be technical. Let's be real though he's mostly just lovin' Akane
BIRTHDATE: Early spring 2745
AGE: 30 as of Summer 2775
LOCATION: Semaca Weyr
OCCUPATION: Dragonrider
WING: Pavane Squad
APPEARANCE
EYES: Brown
HAIR: Dark brown
HEIGHT AND BUILD: Scrawny, thin, and stands at 6' solid (average height)
PLAY-BY: Junpei (Zero Time Dilemma)
FULL APPEARANCE: At average height, with a thin, even scrawny build, J'pei is hardly the most impressive figure. He tends to wear neutral colors, largely darker ones, and doesn't really stand out much. There isn't much remarkable about this man, though he is more pleasing to look at than not. Not especially handsome, nothing that stands out, he nonetheless is pleasant-looking. His expression, however, usually betrays him, with a scowl or a smug smile. His hair is dark brown, worn in a messy look, and his eyes are brown as well, a more amber color. Despite his pale skin, he appears to be of Japanese decent, as far as modern Earth terms go.
PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY: alcoholism
Gone is the J'pei of the past, the hero who stood up to bullies, the do-gooder, the self-sacrificing. According to J'pei, he's grown up. He sees himself as a realist, one more in-tune to the ways of the world. He sees the 'truth,' and from his experiences, the truth is awful. He views humanity as inherently bad, placing no faith in humanity at all, and is very clear about what he sees as the truth of the world. He sees no point in doing good, and places more stock in the truth, no matter how bad he thinks it always is. He acts as though he is willing to sacrifice others for his own benefit, but in truth, he is all talk. In fact, he is still the same in some ways, deep down, and will sacrifice himself for those he loves. He is extremely protective, and is afraid of losing people again. Despite everything, he still loves Akane and has finally decided to seek her out. He's more centered on the safety of his own world and people--as well as himself--than everyone else, now, and comes across as self-serving.
Despite sacrificing himself for his loved ones, even if he won't admit it, he's rarely kind, not even to them. To anyone, he is rude, not caring if he offends others and tending to try to keep them at a distance. Sarcasm and snark suit him. He says things he shouldn't, and is extremely blunt. He doesn't care about sugar-coating the truth. You're going to have to face it at some point. Naturally, he's a bitter and jaded man, with a cynical, pessimistic world view. He rarely takes things seriously, instead being sardonic and facetious, even about dark topics. Flippant sarcasm and gallows humor is used to cope, but it's also a result of desensitization due to his time at Benden. Indeed, he seems callous to the suffering of others (that's just the way it is), and will even make jokes about it. He generally acts smug, but he hides deep hurts and moral questions beneath a casual, joking exterior. J'pei enjoys drinking and finds that it tends to make issues a lot less complicated. As a result, he often uses it as a coping mechanism, poor though it may be.
While J'pei acts as though he is never happy, passionate, or excitable, these traits remain deep down. Under the right circumstances, he can still show a more childish, pure side, but if you call him out on it, he instantly shuts it down.
HISTORY
FAMILY:
-Ajunie of Green Kalauriath [Benden, Mother]
-K'eil [Kapeil] of Brown Myrth [Benden, Father]
SIGNIFICANT OTHER: None, but crushing on Akane
BIRTHPLACE:
HISTORY: Junpei's story is typical of a weyrbrat. He was born of flightlust to Ajunie and K'eil, who were barely involved in his life, though he did know them. There was a brief moment in his childhood where the creche-raised child sought to know his parents, but their vague lack of interest quickly set him on a different path. Instead, he attached to the creche workers...and to Akane. She was his only childhood friend, and he was hers. Junpei made stupid jokes and was a reckless, impulsive child with a hero complex, one who wanted desperately to become a rider by the age of 10, when thread began to fall. He did not recognize the corruption within his home. Akane, for her part, was a bit odd, and also made few friends. In fact, Akane was bullied at one point, and Junpei tried to fight her bullies, a fight that he lost.
Benden was a traditional home, one that hardly valued chromatic riders, not even for threadfall. Junpei remained blissfully naive, however, ignoring the hard truth in favor of optimism for the future. Even with Pern so warped by Golre's influence, the remains of the war, and threadfall, he knew things would right themselves eventually. In 2761, when he was barely a fresh candidate, Golre was killed, and his hopes for Benden increased. Benden, however, remained a bastion for traditionalism.
In 2764, Benden attacked a Fortian hatching, kidnapping 2 riders. Junpei began to be suspicious of his Weyr, but suppressed this, especially as Akane had Impressed just before this. He couldn't leave her! He had to stay by her side! Even though Impression drove them apart, even if she was suddenly too busy with her new life and new classmates for him...he would wait for her. In spring the next turn, the kidnapped riders were rescued, and Junpei was relieved, despite feeling loyalty to his home. At the end of 2765, he Impressed to a green...and his life turned upside down. Zelagoth was a handful, sure, but he loved her dearly. His weyr did not value her in the slightest. Worse still, when she was barely a season old, Alayna's plight was revealed. She was freed, and Benden's crimes were brought to light. Horrified, but stuck there for weyrlinghood, J'pei's views on Benden changed practically overnight. Insult was added to injury for his previously optimistic outlook when Akane disappeared. Threadfall, too, was seen less as a heroic endeavor and more as a cold, hard truth. People died. He saw it himself. It was tragic, but it was just another part of life, and he became desensitized to the injury, death, and cruelty that he saw, despite being hyperaware of it.
She left, and after asking, he found it was for the new weyr, Semaca. She hadn't even said good bye, or told him personally where she was going. Bitter at being left behind, bitter at the horrors that had been uncovered at Benden, J'pei changed. He became more jaded, and suddenly, all of the corruption, traditionalism, and general crimes of Benden revealed themselves. They weren't hidden, but he was no longer oblivious to them. In Spring of 2767, Benden was placed under sanctions, and a season or two later, four bronzes from Benden were killed in Nornth's flight. Maybe humanity wasn't as beautiful as he once thought. Benden's leadership stepped down by winter of that turn, but it didn't matter to him. It wouldn't change the truth of what lay beneath, the corruption that he knew he'd find anywhere, but especially at Benden.
In Summer of '67, 18 months after Impression, J'pei graduated weyrlinghood. He'd made a friend in weyrlinghood, someone just as bitter as him, but who he cared for. He was torn: did he leave his horrible home, which was likely no different from any other corrupt weyr, to find Akane, or did he stay at Benden with V'laun, his new best friend from weyrlinghood?
In 2769, and then in early 2770, he Impressed two firelizards--first a white, then a brown.
In Winter of 2770, V'laun was killed in threadfall. J'pei was devastated, but knew that the risk was part of rider life. He mourned, and then he made plans. Nothing was tethering J'pei to Benden any longer, so he left the horrible, horrible weyr. He'd seen such awful things, and now he went to Semaca. Maybe Semaca was different. Maybe...maybe he'd reunite with Akane, and everything would be okay. Would it, though? He was bitter, he was angry. She'd abandoned him, betrayed him, left without so much as a good bye or explanation, in his eyes, but she was still his childhood friend, and he loved her anyways. Semaca was a weyr devastated by floods, partnering with pirates, and free of (most) color bias. A place for outcasts. Somewhere he hoped he might fit in. He didn't trust them for a moment, though. It would just be another corrupt weyr.
UPDATES
- Spring 2771: J'pei returns to Semaca and finally reunites with Akane. It goes poorly.
- Summer 2771: Reunion take two goes much better.
