[application]

[everythingsjake]

OOC Information:
Name: Second
Are you over 15? Yes.
Contact: Plurk - secondhandact

IC Information:
Name: Jake Harley (preincarnate: Jake English)
Canon and medium: Homestuck/Webcomic
Age: 16
Preincarnation Species: Human
Preincarnation Appearance: here
Any differences: Jake's current incarnation has very dark brown eyes, whereas the original Jake English has green eyes.

Preincarnated History: Jake English grew up on an island in the middle of the ocean with his grandmother. When he was around 10, she passed away, leaving Jake alone. He spent most of his days strifing with the various monsters that roamed the jungle, watching cheesy action movies, and chatting with his various online friends. He knew from the moment he ‘met’ Dirk Strider that he was going to be playing a game with his three pals, and wasn’t surprised at all when they booted up sBurb together and brought about the apocalypse.

Upon entering the game, Jake and Dirk Strider struck up a tenuous relationship as they worked their way through their respective Lands, though since their session was a Void session, things were a lot more stagnant for them than they were for their beta counterparts. It wasn’t until Jane accidentally triggered Trickster mode that things started to get really interesting, and at the end of that candy-flavored rainbow joyride, Jake found himself down one boyfriend and at odds with almost all of his friends for various reasons.
Shortly after Trickster mode ended, the alpha kids were blown up and thus each achieved God Tier, since they had died on their quest beds. Unfortunately, Jane was quickly possessed by the Batterwitch, and she dragged Jake off to a rather modest jail cell, where he moped and moaned about his situation, which is where Aranea found him.

After Jake refused her offer to repair the emotional damage that he’s undergone, Aranea forced healing on him all the same, triggering his Hope powers to activate. He then began emanating a field of Hope, even accidentally (and temporarily) bringing to life his mental concept of Dirk, who tried to kill Aranea.

Jake’s Hope powers continued to expound until Jane skewered him, at which point the Hope field - and brain ghost Dirk - vanished.

More information can be found here.

Reincarnated History: Prior to his first Echo, Jake Harley led a rather sheltered life on the finer side of Locke city. He was a 'surprise baby' for a single mother, and he doesn't know much about her; she apparently came home from London to deposit the tiny tot at his grandmother's doorstep before disappearing back into the world. Grandma Harley doesn't like to speak of her estranged daughter, due to a falling out they had long before Jake was born. While he's eternally curious, there's some things you just don't ask about, and his mother is one of those things. He doesn't like the dark shadow it brings over his normally jovial guardian's face.

An accomplished paleobotanist, Jake's grandmother distrusted the general skills of the public schools and instead simply ensured that he had the finest tutors throughout his younger years. He spent most of his childhood travelling with her, visiting locations across Europe and exploring both archaeological and geographical sites. If asked, he'd jokingly Nowadays, she's less adventurous, instead preferring to do research in her rooftop greenhouse as opposed to touring the world. The number of discoveries and ground-breaking theories she proved when she was young has afforded her quite the tidy sum to retire on, and while she still 'works', there's little need for either herself or Jake to actually go out of their way to find ways to make money.

While Jake has never really gone out of his way to befriend any of the other residents of the city, he’s no stranger to its’ streets, as urban exploration is just as fascinating to him as some of the locations that his grandmother took him to when he was younger. Because of this, his grandmother encouraged him to take several self defense courses, and he excelled in most of them, preferring judo above all others and relying on his own instinct when it comes to keeping up his legwork speed.

Though he’s been asking his grandmother if he could attend public school for the past couple years ‘as a lark’, she hasn't budged - citing things such as 'your mother asked the same questions' and giving him dark looks when he presses the matter - and he still meets with several tutors throughout the week to continue his studies. On his sixteenth birthday, his grandmother gifted him with a pair of flintlock pistols that belonged to her father, and their weight in his hand triggered his first Echo.

First Echo: A Natural Gunsmith - Upon feeling the weight of his great-grandfather's flintlock pistols in his hands for the first time, Jake regained the skill to wield dual pistols with ease.

Preincarnation Personality: Growing up on an island in the middle of the ocean meant that Jake English, in his first incarnation, was pretty excellent when it came to defending himself...and incredibly devoid in the social skills aspect. Everything he knew about how to handle people came from watching action movies - which, while a good way to pass the time, was definitely not the best way to learn people skills. He did manage to develop some pretty decent friendships via the internet, but he often lacked the decorum necessary to keep conversations from heading in an awkward direction. While this always made his friends cringe, Jake remained oblivious, unsure of where he went wrong in most situations.

Because he knew how to act based on how his heroes acted in the movies, Jake ended up a little self-centered...if by ‘a little’ you mean ‘thought the world revolved around him. For a very, very long time, Jake didn't take into account other people’s emotions when he was wrapped up in his own emotional torment. It wasn't that he was intentionally malicious! He just didn't know the proper way to handle Actually Being Friends with people. Sure, he had a big heart, but he also always put himself first, ‘just to be safe’. It wasn't that he meant to be selfish. Things just turned out that way.

Jake also had a bad habit of abusing out-dated (generally fairly British) vernacular, because it was ‘too cool’. As a man about town (or so he thought of himself), he felt that he should use only the most sophisticated of terminologies, which resulted in a teenage boy who sounded as though he’d stepped straight out of a 40s-era British B-movie. The fact that his friends didn't share his lexicon never bothered Jake. He was a gentleman in his own right.

For all his negative qualities, Jake English wasn't a bad guy, not in the least. He was always good-natured almost to a fault, ready to believe the best of his friends and fiercely loyal to the few folks who were close to him. He always hoped beyond all reason that things really would turn out alright, and he truly believed that if you wished hard enough, things would be okay. Though in the end it turned out that all his bravado wasn't enough to cover up his cowardly nature, that didn't stop Jake from trying to be the hero for a very, very long time.

Any differences: While Jake always had an idea that he was a little cowardly in his preincarnate form, the current Jake has never really had his mettle tested. When his anger is piqued (which takes a bit of effort, to be honest), he’s fearless to the point of stupidity, and once he feels he's been challenged, he refuses to back down (even at risk to his own health). Fortunately, his current shyness tends to keep him from getting into too many conflicts.

Since he spent the majority of his younger years travelling abroad across Europe with tutors that were mostly British, he still tends to use slang from across the pond, though it's definitely a bit less dated than the vernacular his preincarnation tended towards. (He does slip in an antiquated phrase here and there, since his grandmother swears rather creatively whenever things go wrong in the kitchen.)

While Locke is a big city, Jake has still ended up fairly sheltered, his view of the world colored both by his grandmother's natural distrust of the destructive elements of society and by his own lack of general social skills. He tends towards the quiet, preferring to observe in any given situation before he reacts, preferring to view things from a scientist's standpoint. Observe, don't disturb is a mantra that his grandmother instilled at him at a very young age, and he still holds true to that. He's careful not to disturb the few abandoned places he's found, treading lightly wherever he goes, whereas the prior Jake was a very loud and brash individual who charged through his surroundings much like a bull in a China shop.

Though he tends to keep to himself, this Jake still has a rather impressive imagination, and can sometimes be caught talking to himself as he creates fantastical stories about the world around him. He's got his head a bit in the clouds, though he's more than capable of coming back down to earth when it's necessary.

Since he doesn't currently have any close friends, that means he also doesn't currently have any strong loyalties to anybody but himself, and it’s going to take him quite some time to truly trust anyone. At the moment, he's a fairly introverted individual, and is sometimes quiet to the point of being unnerving; though that might just be his lack of social skills asserting themselves. After all, it isn't as though he has much experience with people his own age - or people in general.

Abilities: While Jake achieved God Tier as the Page of Hope, the extent of his actual powers isn't really known, other than he can apparently bring things to life if he believes in them hard enough. Aside from that, he has all the standard perks of being God Tier: limited immortality (death only sticks if it’s Heroic or Just), better-than-average reflexes, and some pretty sweet duds.

He’s also a very skilled fighter, since he grew up on a jungle island alone and spent most of his time fighting in the jungle (and getting his ass brutalized by the robot Dirk built for him). He’s also incredibly handy with his chosen weapons - dual pistols - and he wields them with ease.