Application | September 2013 | Tu Shanshu
Sep. 1st, 2013 08:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sonofsamcroPlayer Information:
Name: Alex
Age: Over 18
Contact: reignsdown (gmail/plurk/aim)
Game Cast:
Ororo Munroe / Storm | Marvel 1610 |storm_warning | July AC
Character Information:
Name: Jackson “Jax” Teller
Canon: Sons of Anarchy
Canon Point: S01E12 – During Abel’s welcome home party
Age: 31
Reference:
Sons of Anarchy (show)
Sons of Anarchy (MC)
Jackson Teller
Setting:
The Sons of Anarchy is a motorcycle club what started with good, anarchistic intentions and went south of the law over the years. They’re living the high life in a modern era Earth with cell phones, handguns, and have nothing to do with dem crazy aliens or strange, brooding Bat-vendettas. People are plain, police are corrupt, and everyone just wants to live, y’know?
The theme of the series runs to family loyalties and toeing the line between outlaws and justice in one small town USA and said small town is where we’ll start:
Charming, CA
Small town California is the best way to describe Charming, where the generally good natures of her residents stand true to her name. Commercial development is almost nil in the town, thanks due in no small part to the actions of SAMCRO. The MC (motorcycle club) operates with the knowledge that commercial development means urbanisation and that means more cops than they can control, a core issue when you’re running the gun trade of the West Coast through the area, and so they aim to keep the corporate presence to a minimum. Chains and franchises are all but absent here and that’s the way the town likes it. It’s small, boasting a population of fifteen thousand at the best of times, and runs a bit sleepy on the day to day. There’s a barber shop, schools, and a hospital that’s got a great neo natal intensive care unit that Jax is all too familiar with after the premature birth of his first child.
The town itself has a soft drug trade, with marijuana being what SAMCRO likes and leaves to thrive for business. Crank has its foothold by the Nordic dealers, but harder drugs are hard to find and that’s the way the people like it. The majority of the population looks the other way where it comes to the MC, supporting their almost vigilante ideals and ignoring what shadows they force to be cast upon the town. The theory here is that the devil they know supports and takes care of them, so why invite the other kind in.
And that brings us to the devil, better known here as the reaper:
SAMCRO:
The “Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club – Redwood Original” goes by the acronym SAMCRO and that’s the name that everyone knows them as. They are the one and only MC charter in the town limits, with that not likely to change. Founded by two combat veterans of the Viatnam war, SAMCRO started as wanderer’s ideal with nine founding members (the surviving members of which bear the patch “First Nine” to show their longstanding loyalty to the club) and has expanded to charters up through Oregon, Washington, and across into Nevada (from a patched-in ally in the Devil’s Tribe). They bear a stylised grim reaper as their logo and many full patch members have it tattooed across their back as a sign of their commitment to the MC. Those that have been excommunicated are expected to black such a tattoo out, with the Sons taking that seriously; any former member found bearing the tattoo still will be taken back to their clubhouse to have it forcibly removed by fire or knife.
Bear no misconceptions: SAMCRO runs more outlaw gigs than legit operations, but they separate the two to keep their records clear. Each and every patch is vetted on not being a rat and any concerns raised about their honesty get treated with hardcore investigations. Those that are found to stray are given two bullets to the head and their memory not held fondly by any that know the truth. The rules are hard, but steady, and the members are loyal to the core. They run in specialisations, from business dealings to computer manipulation to demolitions to even a medic what served with the military before the whole “discharged” mess, but they all share a love of motorcycles and a dedication to the club’s business operations.
These guys are family and it shows by the respect they demonstrate to one another and the company that they keep – one another. They hang out during the day at Teller-Morrow, a garage founded by Jax’s father and stepfather (no, it’s not gay; it’s a long story and involves a very smart woman). There’s a bar attached to it and a room therein in which the MC meets to do business. There are also clubhouse rooms that they can crash in, with Jax practically living out of his.
SAMCRO’s outlaw focus is the running of hard guns into the One-Niners and other interested parties, with their suppliers being the “true” IRA. They offer some protection runs for merchandise, these jobs often being fed to them by the local chief of police, Unser, who’s been a long-time friend of the MC. The core of it is that the club’s flexible and adapts to what demands are made of it; they’ve done drugs, guns, vigilantism, corporate ousting, police buying, and just about everything else that can be thought of. They’re experts in keeping it legit, removing witnesses when there’s the misfortune for one to exist, and at the core they are there for one another.
Mostly. Clay Morrow, the club’s president, plays at the long game and walks the hard line when it comes to making decisions for the club. He keeps secrets and that causes a lot of friction between he and Jax, but they both want SAMCRO to survive and so they keep finding the right compromise to keep things going.
Everyone important to Jax is linked somehow to the club, from his mother being married to the founding president and then remarried to the current to his best friend Opie having done time for arson related to a demolition for the club. Even his ex-wife Wendy’s familiar with them – though you’d question that by the way his mother, Gemma, gave her the means to overdose herself after the mess of his son Abel’s premature birth. And let’s not forget his first love, Tara, who spent her fair share of time around the MC in her youth; a doctor now and a girlfriend then, she means the world to him and he has killed for her.
Rivals:
Keeliai doesn’t hold the monopoly on gang wars, I promise you that. The Sons have their own rival MCs and gangs that eat at their charters up and down the West Coast. Most prominent are the Mayans out of Lodi, who’ve gone so far as to torch their weapons warehouse where it sat right outside the jurisdiction of the Charming PD; they’re primarily Hispanic riders with an eye to take over the guns trade. The in-Charming Nords are in alliance with the Mayans on and off, but generally skirt under the radar as a bunch of white supremacists with their redneck heads stuffed up their asses; they’ve tried to run hard drugs into Charming in the past and each time have been shut down hard by the Sons. The One-Niners run out of the Oakland ghetto and buy up the guns that the Sons run, with the caveat that they stay in the ghetto and don’t put a so much as a foot into Charming; this arrangement works out – or has, in the past. These things can go south at a moment’s notice, the way it has around Jax’s canon point. The One-Niner’s reneged on a deal and now there’s the potential for serious strife between them as a matter of cleaning-house and making a point on who ought not dare to double-cross SAMCRO.
Patches, Patch-over, & Prospects:
“Patch” refers to the emblems of a motorcycle club that riders wear on their kuttes (sleeveless leather jackets). You don’t wear a club’s patch until you’ve been patched in, otherwise there will be hell to pay. It’s status and instant recognition to be a full patch member and you can bet many a person longs for that. These sorts of people have the potential to become Prospects, meaning someone that the MC is seriously considering patching in, but only after they’ve proven that they’re right for the club. SAMCRO has one prospect at the moment and he gets all the shit jobs (literally, after patch member Piney is done in the can). Patch-overs, conversely, are major events in which an ally MC gets brought into the membership of an ally MC. The Devil’s Tribe was a friendly MC in Nevada that the Sons of Anarchy patched-over to become their Nevada charter; this can run tensions high in the “patched-in” MC, as it’s rarely warned about, but these decisions are generally made for the best of at least one of the clubs.
Personality:
First glance? Jackson “Jax” Teller’s got a good heart and he knows where his shit is at in the day-to-day. Girls want him and guys want to be him, envying his charm and the easy way in which he carries himself. Club treasurer Bobby Elvis coined it best as his being the “James T. Kirk of the MC world” when Jax trashed a guy for mounting his bike uninvited and walked away with his girlfriend without skipping so much as a beat. Most people hold him in fair regard, respecting him more than fearing him because he really does come off as a good guy; he’s neighbourly and bears sincere concern about how others are doing. He’ll give up extra ride tickets to a kid that’s begging her parents for them and he’ll stop when he sees an accident and get right in the fray to pull the driver out – and he’ll take charge while doing it, demonstrating the attitude to get things done that got him vice-presidency of the Sons of Anarchy.
Truth told, his heart’s good, but it’s his means that toe the line. Jax grew up with SAMCRO and it shows in his loyalty, not to mention the way he carries himself. Their bonds of brotherhood are impressed on him and though SAMCRO may deal in guns, but they’re there for their brothers. Once a Son, always a Son; they give second chances where they’re due and they protect each other to the end. These are values instilled and demonstrated by Jax. He trusts them because they are his family and they’ve all earned it, suggesting that his trust’s not something handed out lightly. That’d be due to the outlaw side of things and the fact that the wrong word said to the wrong person? Could land one of them behind bars.
That’s not to say he’s all thought before talk, nope. This guy’s got a temper and has been raised to express it when and where it counts. Jax won’t harbour a grudge so much as drop the guy that crossed him then and there, beat him senseless, and then walk away. Or be dragged, because he’s been pulled off offenders before when he didn’t care to let up with his fists. This here is a man of action and reaction, taking advantage of a situation and making the best of it – with the “best” being defined by instinct. Got a whole crew of Sons in town for a patch-over? Kick down some Mayan bikes to spark a face-off and show that the reapers never stand alone. Catch sight of a guy that ran him off the road? Walk straight into the store and beat him senseless. Jax runs with his instinct in the moment, never forget that; sure, the birth of his kid’s got him thinking bigger picture, but these are years of habits that he’s got to break and it’ll take years to shed them all.
Yeah, birth of his kid; it’s hard for him to believe too. Jax is a recent father and that’s messing some with his perception of the club and, for the first time, cluing him in to what the big picture has in store. Abel’s only two months, maybe three, but he’s a big responsibility and one thing he thinks on is what life the kid’s going to have. What kind of SAMCRO is going to be around for him to see? Jax was practically raised by the MC and he’s starting to look at how SAMCRO’ll serve in the realm of raising Abel.
Problem is, Abel and SAMCRO are family and that means blood – by birth or by spilling. Family’s a sacred bond and Jax goes the distance for his. Few get included in his circle, what with his mother, Abel, and SAMCRO taking up the most of it; they’re the ones that he’ll drop anything for. That makes getting past his bad habits hard, but he can’t change that part of him. He won’t.
Skirting the law for thirty-odd years has given Jax a real ability to let interrogation and bad attitude flow off his back like water under the bridge. While he’ll snap on some lowlife that’s talking shit about his ma, he’s got restraint when it comes to persons of authority. SAMCRO taught him that it’s about knowing when and how to pick your battles, and not being stupid about the ones that could land him in jail. Assaulting an officer? Don’t. Don’t invite the straight cops in at all and things are better; buy out the crooked ones and that better goes to great. He treats them with respect, but acts aloof on purpose. He’s just a law-abiding citizen protected by the constitution and that’s what he’ll have them know. They ask him about illegal activities and he’ll tell them he knows nothing about that, no matter how damning the evidence; he’s an old hand at letting their questions go unanswered, all while being pleasant about it.
That gives insights to how resourceful he can be in the fact he can recognise when and where to toe the line. Jax thinks as fast as he can and applies himself to the best of his ability, and he’s remarkably good at thinking outside the box. When the garage was being searched for illegal weapons, it was Jax what saw the sump truck and made the call to bag ‘em and transport them out in that. When the club was short on a cash deposit for the IRA, he made the call to collect an abandoned diesel tanker and sell its contents cheap to the chief of police for the sake of making the monetary deadline. He may not have the answer in the first five minutes, but give this man time and he’ll find a way. He’ll make it work by dealing or acting, figuring out the best course (as he perceives it) and sticking to it.
That’s probably what makes him intimidating to those that cross him. Jax here won’t stop once he’s been fired up and he’ll find a way to make it right. He doesn’t care about the legal sides of killing, just doesn’t think of it first. The fact he wears the “Men of Mayhem” patch on his kutte says that he’s spilled blood on behalf of the club and it weren’t no one time event. He’ll cut and kill where he has to, giving real power to any threats he utters – though they come out sounding right congenial, it’s more in the way he delivers it that really makes people uncomfortable.
Jax tries, more than anything; he tries to be a good son, a good VP, and a good friend. This don’t always work out for him and he struggles. He’s conflicted and sometimes that’s lead to him being double-crossed. He acts like he’d prefer to see the better of people, but he’s set in his ways and fiercely protective about them. He doesn’t know how to live a better life and he gets frustrated easy, even angry. He’ll laugh off things like aliens and superpowers, quite happy to blow it off like so much pot smoke. He’s also a king of bad life choices, needing contact for comfort at the worst of times; he’s literally slept with a woman while a body grew stiff on the floor – it’s a sign of how weird his life is and how, sometimes, he just needs someone there to keep him from disappearing into the current and becoming dead like his old man.
An old man that haunts him with a manuscript about what SAMCRO had been intended to be – an ideal, not an outlaw MC. Jax has read it mostly through and feels nothing but conflict about what his father wanted – legit earnings, not gun running – and how it turned out. It’s introduced a lot of doubt in his life that could turn crippling at the wrong time. He’s trying to work through it, but it’s not what he knew of his father and so it’s hard to come to terms. He takes time off by himself to think on it, but he’s no closer to sorting out how it could all fit together without tearing him apart.
Tu Shanshu:
This place? It’s whacked. People telling him that time’s frozen, others flying through the air. It’s the reason why they don’t run meth and E in Charming; they don’t need this hallucinating bullshit mucking things up and making folks crazy. Gotta keep your head in the game and Jax’ll figure there’s something sick in the water that makes people okay with all this. It’ll lead him to be a bit careful with who he talks to and he’ll stray from the network to keep the crazy from infecting him.
Priority one’s going to be getting a lay of the land and the colours that fly in each Sector. No VP of SAMCRO’s going to pretend that the charter’s life is behind him, no matter how many dimensions away they are. Jax will watch and learn a spell, doing observation and friendly chatter with the kedan to get a feel for who runs what, when, and where. This won’t be something he’ll advertise either, because you just don’t draw eyes to the dark side of the law.
Priority two’s going to be getting a Skype connection back to his family; he’s devoted and a dad, with a son that just got home. Jax doesn’t have the skill to do the whole warp-ten-engage deal and he’ll have to come to terms with that, but his surface speak’s going to be all about family and friends. He’s going to want to know what’s going on back there and he won’t buy the time-frozen spiel – that all reads like some crazy sci-fi, man. Not his deal.
Priority three’s going to touch on the Emperor and figuring out how tight the laws are held to around here. Consider it testing the water, but it’ll be all amenable. Jax is likely to find and befriend the gray-area officers of the law and he won’t push them. Just get to know them, be all neighbourly and what have you. No point upsetting the locals until there’s a reason for people to be upset.
Appearance:
Abilities:
Mechanic:
The Teller-Morrow garage is the legitimate front for the Sons of Anarchy and it’s not all smoke and mirrors. Jax is a skilled mechanic in both repairs and customisation, to the point that the other Sons will confer with him now and again on what they’re planning to do on a job to catch his thoughts on the matter.
Biker:
Needless to say, you don’t run as VP of an MC without some serious skill on a bike. Jax won’t be doing daredevil runs on one, but he’s a steady ride and doesn’t get shaken off by a few shots fired his way. He lives and breathes the motorcycle life, riding his like he’s been doing so since he popped out of the womb. With the way the SAMCRO boys are, that wouldn’t be far off the mark.
Crack Shot:
Jax doesn’t hit the ‘marksman’ calibre of a shot, but he’s got a steady hand and can fire repeatedly into the same target without faltering. He’s got a quick eye and knows how to make the lethal shot, moral code issues or otherwise – demonstrated when he dropped Kohn, a seriously creepy stalker agent, with a single headshot and in half a second when he started screaming slanders about Tara. He’s also a fair hand with all manner of guns, knowing how to dismantle and reassemble most models – plus all the necessary upkeep.
Scrapper:
Hit them hard, get them down, and beat them into the ground; those are the rules of combat once Jax enters the fray. He demonstrates fondness for the right hook and has no problem sitting on an opponent and beating their face into a new configuration. The man’s resourcefulness manifests here, with anything and everything turning into a weapon should he need it, but really? Fists are the weapon of choice (after guns, lbr).
Inventory:
Jax comes in sans one Sons motorcycle and that won’t make him happy, but he bears one semi-automatic pistol (all serial numbers filed off), a few loaded magazines, his father’s service USMC KA-BAR knife (which he’s never seen without), and his kutte.
Kutte:
The second skin of any SAMCRO patch and well warranting its own mention. The cut-off leather jacket bears the SAMCRO reaper on the back and the state in which the charter resides (California). The chest of his kutte bears the Redwood Original patch to signify his membership in the original charter, the V. President patch to note his rank within that charter, and the Men of Mayhem patch to signify that he has spilled blood on behalf of SAMCRO. There is also a SAMCRO patch on the lower left side, further highlighting his membership in the core charter of the Sons of Anarchy.
Suite:
Wood Sector, two floors; he’d prefer a single floor, but if they’re full up then he’s a two-floor kind of guy. This separates him from the gang influences, but that’s kind of how he helped run Charming: No one else on his turf without SAMCRO’s permission. He’s also got a bit of his father’s tendencies, giving him an appreciation of the quieter, peaceful life – to an extent. Give him time and it won’t stay that way.
In-Character Samples:
Third Person:
They pulled him up straight off some marble floor and the first thing he did was drop one with a fist, his instincts running a mile faster than his brain in seeing that this wasn’t the clubhouse room that he’s been living in since Wendy got pregnant with Abel. Two others held him back, but like it mattered when his legs went to rubber beneath him. Things got real dizzying then and he had to sit, shrug ‘em off, and listen to their spiel before he agreed to go anywhere.
What got him turned out not to be the words, but the one he popped changing right in front of him, puffed black eye shifting to take on a purple hue, then a match to the other side of its face. That – Hell, he asked them what kind of crank they pumped into him, because that ain’t right.
Then it hit him. Abel’s not here, not crying for food. Funny that crank’ll always be something he holds close to Abel. He doesn’t blame Wendy for the hole in the kid’s stomach, but it’ll always be there in his mind that it was an overdose what pushed him into the world too young and busted to do more than sit in a toaster for weeks and weeks.
Don’t matter that it’s the reminder so much as there is one and it makes him realise that he’s it. No one’s familiar here; there’s no kid, no Gemma, and no Reaper but the one on the back of his kutte. They’re gone and he redlines at that a bit, warning ‘em that this Emperor can take her business and shove it if she thinks holding him’s going to break SAMCRO. He won’t rat and they won’t deal for nothing. They wouldn’t do it when the feds had Clay and he won’t have them do it for him. SAMCRO’s stronger than that and this Emperor’ll learn it right quick if she thinks the card’s’ll fall any other way.
Network:
[Video comes up on this gent sporting about the some disbelieving amusement at the situation that’s been set before him. He’s wearing a sleeveless leather jacket that’s got a “V. President” and “Men of Mayhem” patches on his right and “Redwood Original” on his left.]
This shit’s real? That’s what they’ve been squawking at me all day, but it coming outta some guy with a beak? [He laughs and shakes his head. It’s an incredulous laugh, the sort that comes from someone not used to the whole it’s a bird-plane routine.] That shit is whacked, man. We’re talking a trip so far out that second star to the right’s just a hop down the street.
[He leans back and stretches his shoulders, hooking an arm on the back of the chair.]
And you all believe this fairytale?
[That’s not so much a question as a judgement on the general sanity levels around here.]
Name: Alex
Age: Over 18
Contact: reignsdown (gmail/plurk/aim)
Game Cast:
Ororo Munroe / Storm | Marvel 1610 |
storm_warning | July ACCharacter Information:
Name: Jackson “Jax” Teller
Canon: Sons of Anarchy
Canon Point: S01E12 – During Abel’s welcome home party
Age: 31
Reference:
Sons of Anarchy (show)
Sons of Anarchy (MC)
Jackson Teller
Setting:
The Sons of Anarchy is a motorcycle club what started with good, anarchistic intentions and went south of the law over the years. They’re living the high life in a modern era Earth with cell phones, handguns, and have nothing to do with dem crazy aliens or strange, brooding Bat-vendettas. People are plain, police are corrupt, and everyone just wants to live, y’know?
The theme of the series runs to family loyalties and toeing the line between outlaws and justice in one small town USA and said small town is where we’ll start:
Charming, CA
Small town California is the best way to describe Charming, where the generally good natures of her residents stand true to her name. Commercial development is almost nil in the town, thanks due in no small part to the actions of SAMCRO. The MC (motorcycle club) operates with the knowledge that commercial development means urbanisation and that means more cops than they can control, a core issue when you’re running the gun trade of the West Coast through the area, and so they aim to keep the corporate presence to a minimum. Chains and franchises are all but absent here and that’s the way the town likes it. It’s small, boasting a population of fifteen thousand at the best of times, and runs a bit sleepy on the day to day. There’s a barber shop, schools, and a hospital that’s got a great neo natal intensive care unit that Jax is all too familiar with after the premature birth of his first child.
The town itself has a soft drug trade, with marijuana being what SAMCRO likes and leaves to thrive for business. Crank has its foothold by the Nordic dealers, but harder drugs are hard to find and that’s the way the people like it. The majority of the population looks the other way where it comes to the MC, supporting their almost vigilante ideals and ignoring what shadows they force to be cast upon the town. The theory here is that the devil they know supports and takes care of them, so why invite the other kind in.
And that brings us to the devil, better known here as the reaper:
SAMCRO:
The “Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club – Redwood Original” goes by the acronym SAMCRO and that’s the name that everyone knows them as. They are the one and only MC charter in the town limits, with that not likely to change. Founded by two combat veterans of the Viatnam war, SAMCRO started as wanderer’s ideal with nine founding members (the surviving members of which bear the patch “First Nine” to show their longstanding loyalty to the club) and has expanded to charters up through Oregon, Washington, and across into Nevada (from a patched-in ally in the Devil’s Tribe). They bear a stylised grim reaper as their logo and many full patch members have it tattooed across their back as a sign of their commitment to the MC. Those that have been excommunicated are expected to black such a tattoo out, with the Sons taking that seriously; any former member found bearing the tattoo still will be taken back to their clubhouse to have it forcibly removed by fire or knife.
Bear no misconceptions: SAMCRO runs more outlaw gigs than legit operations, but they separate the two to keep their records clear. Each and every patch is vetted on not being a rat and any concerns raised about their honesty get treated with hardcore investigations. Those that are found to stray are given two bullets to the head and their memory not held fondly by any that know the truth. The rules are hard, but steady, and the members are loyal to the core. They run in specialisations, from business dealings to computer manipulation to demolitions to even a medic what served with the military before the whole “discharged” mess, but they all share a love of motorcycles and a dedication to the club’s business operations.
These guys are family and it shows by the respect they demonstrate to one another and the company that they keep – one another. They hang out during the day at Teller-Morrow, a garage founded by Jax’s father and stepfather (no, it’s not gay; it’s a long story and involves a very smart woman). There’s a bar attached to it and a room therein in which the MC meets to do business. There are also clubhouse rooms that they can crash in, with Jax practically living out of his.
SAMCRO’s outlaw focus is the running of hard guns into the One-Niners and other interested parties, with their suppliers being the “true” IRA. They offer some protection runs for merchandise, these jobs often being fed to them by the local chief of police, Unser, who’s been a long-time friend of the MC. The core of it is that the club’s flexible and adapts to what demands are made of it; they’ve done drugs, guns, vigilantism, corporate ousting, police buying, and just about everything else that can be thought of. They’re experts in keeping it legit, removing witnesses when there’s the misfortune for one to exist, and at the core they are there for one another.
Mostly. Clay Morrow, the club’s president, plays at the long game and walks the hard line when it comes to making decisions for the club. He keeps secrets and that causes a lot of friction between he and Jax, but they both want SAMCRO to survive and so they keep finding the right compromise to keep things going.
Everyone important to Jax is linked somehow to the club, from his mother being married to the founding president and then remarried to the current to his best friend Opie having done time for arson related to a demolition for the club. Even his ex-wife Wendy’s familiar with them – though you’d question that by the way his mother, Gemma, gave her the means to overdose herself after the mess of his son Abel’s premature birth. And let’s not forget his first love, Tara, who spent her fair share of time around the MC in her youth; a doctor now and a girlfriend then, she means the world to him and he has killed for her.
Rivals:
Keeliai doesn’t hold the monopoly on gang wars, I promise you that. The Sons have their own rival MCs and gangs that eat at their charters up and down the West Coast. Most prominent are the Mayans out of Lodi, who’ve gone so far as to torch their weapons warehouse where it sat right outside the jurisdiction of the Charming PD; they’re primarily Hispanic riders with an eye to take over the guns trade. The in-Charming Nords are in alliance with the Mayans on and off, but generally skirt under the radar as a bunch of white supremacists with their redneck heads stuffed up their asses; they’ve tried to run hard drugs into Charming in the past and each time have been shut down hard by the Sons. The One-Niners run out of the Oakland ghetto and buy up the guns that the Sons run, with the caveat that they stay in the ghetto and don’t put a so much as a foot into Charming; this arrangement works out – or has, in the past. These things can go south at a moment’s notice, the way it has around Jax’s canon point. The One-Niner’s reneged on a deal and now there’s the potential for serious strife between them as a matter of cleaning-house and making a point on who ought not dare to double-cross SAMCRO.
Patches, Patch-over, & Prospects:
“Patch” refers to the emblems of a motorcycle club that riders wear on their kuttes (sleeveless leather jackets). You don’t wear a club’s patch until you’ve been patched in, otherwise there will be hell to pay. It’s status and instant recognition to be a full patch member and you can bet many a person longs for that. These sorts of people have the potential to become Prospects, meaning someone that the MC is seriously considering patching in, but only after they’ve proven that they’re right for the club. SAMCRO has one prospect at the moment and he gets all the shit jobs (literally, after patch member Piney is done in the can). Patch-overs, conversely, are major events in which an ally MC gets brought into the membership of an ally MC. The Devil’s Tribe was a friendly MC in Nevada that the Sons of Anarchy patched-over to become their Nevada charter; this can run tensions high in the “patched-in” MC, as it’s rarely warned about, but these decisions are generally made for the best of at least one of the clubs.
Personality:
First glance? Jackson “Jax” Teller’s got a good heart and he knows where his shit is at in the day-to-day. Girls want him and guys want to be him, envying his charm and the easy way in which he carries himself. Club treasurer Bobby Elvis coined it best as his being the “James T. Kirk of the MC world” when Jax trashed a guy for mounting his bike uninvited and walked away with his girlfriend without skipping so much as a beat. Most people hold him in fair regard, respecting him more than fearing him because he really does come off as a good guy; he’s neighbourly and bears sincere concern about how others are doing. He’ll give up extra ride tickets to a kid that’s begging her parents for them and he’ll stop when he sees an accident and get right in the fray to pull the driver out – and he’ll take charge while doing it, demonstrating the attitude to get things done that got him vice-presidency of the Sons of Anarchy.
Truth told, his heart’s good, but it’s his means that toe the line. Jax grew up with SAMCRO and it shows in his loyalty, not to mention the way he carries himself. Their bonds of brotherhood are impressed on him and though SAMCRO may deal in guns, but they’re there for their brothers. Once a Son, always a Son; they give second chances where they’re due and they protect each other to the end. These are values instilled and demonstrated by Jax. He trusts them because they are his family and they’ve all earned it, suggesting that his trust’s not something handed out lightly. That’d be due to the outlaw side of things and the fact that the wrong word said to the wrong person? Could land one of them behind bars.
That’s not to say he’s all thought before talk, nope. This guy’s got a temper and has been raised to express it when and where it counts. Jax won’t harbour a grudge so much as drop the guy that crossed him then and there, beat him senseless, and then walk away. Or be dragged, because he’s been pulled off offenders before when he didn’t care to let up with his fists. This here is a man of action and reaction, taking advantage of a situation and making the best of it – with the “best” being defined by instinct. Got a whole crew of Sons in town for a patch-over? Kick down some Mayan bikes to spark a face-off and show that the reapers never stand alone. Catch sight of a guy that ran him off the road? Walk straight into the store and beat him senseless. Jax runs with his instinct in the moment, never forget that; sure, the birth of his kid’s got him thinking bigger picture, but these are years of habits that he’s got to break and it’ll take years to shed them all.
Yeah, birth of his kid; it’s hard for him to believe too. Jax is a recent father and that’s messing some with his perception of the club and, for the first time, cluing him in to what the big picture has in store. Abel’s only two months, maybe three, but he’s a big responsibility and one thing he thinks on is what life the kid’s going to have. What kind of SAMCRO is going to be around for him to see? Jax was practically raised by the MC and he’s starting to look at how SAMCRO’ll serve in the realm of raising Abel.
Problem is, Abel and SAMCRO are family and that means blood – by birth or by spilling. Family’s a sacred bond and Jax goes the distance for his. Few get included in his circle, what with his mother, Abel, and SAMCRO taking up the most of it; they’re the ones that he’ll drop anything for. That makes getting past his bad habits hard, but he can’t change that part of him. He won’t.
Skirting the law for thirty-odd years has given Jax a real ability to let interrogation and bad attitude flow off his back like water under the bridge. While he’ll snap on some lowlife that’s talking shit about his ma, he’s got restraint when it comes to persons of authority. SAMCRO taught him that it’s about knowing when and how to pick your battles, and not being stupid about the ones that could land him in jail. Assaulting an officer? Don’t. Don’t invite the straight cops in at all and things are better; buy out the crooked ones and that better goes to great. He treats them with respect, but acts aloof on purpose. He’s just a law-abiding citizen protected by the constitution and that’s what he’ll have them know. They ask him about illegal activities and he’ll tell them he knows nothing about that, no matter how damning the evidence; he’s an old hand at letting their questions go unanswered, all while being pleasant about it.
That gives insights to how resourceful he can be in the fact he can recognise when and where to toe the line. Jax thinks as fast as he can and applies himself to the best of his ability, and he’s remarkably good at thinking outside the box. When the garage was being searched for illegal weapons, it was Jax what saw the sump truck and made the call to bag ‘em and transport them out in that. When the club was short on a cash deposit for the IRA, he made the call to collect an abandoned diesel tanker and sell its contents cheap to the chief of police for the sake of making the monetary deadline. He may not have the answer in the first five minutes, but give this man time and he’ll find a way. He’ll make it work by dealing or acting, figuring out the best course (as he perceives it) and sticking to it.
That’s probably what makes him intimidating to those that cross him. Jax here won’t stop once he’s been fired up and he’ll find a way to make it right. He doesn’t care about the legal sides of killing, just doesn’t think of it first. The fact he wears the “Men of Mayhem” patch on his kutte says that he’s spilled blood on behalf of the club and it weren’t no one time event. He’ll cut and kill where he has to, giving real power to any threats he utters – though they come out sounding right congenial, it’s more in the way he delivers it that really makes people uncomfortable.
Jax tries, more than anything; he tries to be a good son, a good VP, and a good friend. This don’t always work out for him and he struggles. He’s conflicted and sometimes that’s lead to him being double-crossed. He acts like he’d prefer to see the better of people, but he’s set in his ways and fiercely protective about them. He doesn’t know how to live a better life and he gets frustrated easy, even angry. He’ll laugh off things like aliens and superpowers, quite happy to blow it off like so much pot smoke. He’s also a king of bad life choices, needing contact for comfort at the worst of times; he’s literally slept with a woman while a body grew stiff on the floor – it’s a sign of how weird his life is and how, sometimes, he just needs someone there to keep him from disappearing into the current and becoming dead like his old man.
An old man that haunts him with a manuscript about what SAMCRO had been intended to be – an ideal, not an outlaw MC. Jax has read it mostly through and feels nothing but conflict about what his father wanted – legit earnings, not gun running – and how it turned out. It’s introduced a lot of doubt in his life that could turn crippling at the wrong time. He’s trying to work through it, but it’s not what he knew of his father and so it’s hard to come to terms. He takes time off by himself to think on it, but he’s no closer to sorting out how it could all fit together without tearing him apart.
Tu Shanshu:
This place? It’s whacked. People telling him that time’s frozen, others flying through the air. It’s the reason why they don’t run meth and E in Charming; they don’t need this hallucinating bullshit mucking things up and making folks crazy. Gotta keep your head in the game and Jax’ll figure there’s something sick in the water that makes people okay with all this. It’ll lead him to be a bit careful with who he talks to and he’ll stray from the network to keep the crazy from infecting him.
Priority one’s going to be getting a lay of the land and the colours that fly in each Sector. No VP of SAMCRO’s going to pretend that the charter’s life is behind him, no matter how many dimensions away they are. Jax will watch and learn a spell, doing observation and friendly chatter with the kedan to get a feel for who runs what, when, and where. This won’t be something he’ll advertise either, because you just don’t draw eyes to the dark side of the law.
Priority two’s going to be getting a Skype connection back to his family; he’s devoted and a dad, with a son that just got home. Jax doesn’t have the skill to do the whole warp-ten-engage deal and he’ll have to come to terms with that, but his surface speak’s going to be all about family and friends. He’s going to want to know what’s going on back there and he won’t buy the time-frozen spiel – that all reads like some crazy sci-fi, man. Not his deal.
Priority three’s going to touch on the Emperor and figuring out how tight the laws are held to around here. Consider it testing the water, but it’ll be all amenable. Jax is likely to find and befriend the gray-area officers of the law and he won’t push them. Just get to know them, be all neighbourly and what have you. No point upsetting the locals until there’s a reason for people to be upset.
Appearance:
Abilities:
Mechanic:
The Teller-Morrow garage is the legitimate front for the Sons of Anarchy and it’s not all smoke and mirrors. Jax is a skilled mechanic in both repairs and customisation, to the point that the other Sons will confer with him now and again on what they’re planning to do on a job to catch his thoughts on the matter.
Biker:
Needless to say, you don’t run as VP of an MC without some serious skill on a bike. Jax won’t be doing daredevil runs on one, but he’s a steady ride and doesn’t get shaken off by a few shots fired his way. He lives and breathes the motorcycle life, riding his like he’s been doing so since he popped out of the womb. With the way the SAMCRO boys are, that wouldn’t be far off the mark.
Crack Shot:
Jax doesn’t hit the ‘marksman’ calibre of a shot, but he’s got a steady hand and can fire repeatedly into the same target without faltering. He’s got a quick eye and knows how to make the lethal shot, moral code issues or otherwise – demonstrated when he dropped Kohn, a seriously creepy stalker agent, with a single headshot and in half a second when he started screaming slanders about Tara. He’s also a fair hand with all manner of guns, knowing how to dismantle and reassemble most models – plus all the necessary upkeep.
Scrapper:
Hit them hard, get them down, and beat them into the ground; those are the rules of combat once Jax enters the fray. He demonstrates fondness for the right hook and has no problem sitting on an opponent and beating their face into a new configuration. The man’s resourcefulness manifests here, with anything and everything turning into a weapon should he need it, but really? Fists are the weapon of choice (after guns, lbr).
Inventory:
Jax comes in sans one Sons motorcycle and that won’t make him happy, but he bears one semi-automatic pistol (all serial numbers filed off), a few loaded magazines, his father’s service USMC KA-BAR knife (which he’s never seen without), and his kutte.
Kutte:
The second skin of any SAMCRO patch and well warranting its own mention. The cut-off leather jacket bears the SAMCRO reaper on the back and the state in which the charter resides (California). The chest of his kutte bears the Redwood Original patch to signify his membership in the original charter, the V. President patch to note his rank within that charter, and the Men of Mayhem patch to signify that he has spilled blood on behalf of SAMCRO. There is also a SAMCRO patch on the lower left side, further highlighting his membership in the core charter of the Sons of Anarchy.
Suite:
Wood Sector, two floors; he’d prefer a single floor, but if they’re full up then he’s a two-floor kind of guy. This separates him from the gang influences, but that’s kind of how he helped run Charming: No one else on his turf without SAMCRO’s permission. He’s also got a bit of his father’s tendencies, giving him an appreciation of the quieter, peaceful life – to an extent. Give him time and it won’t stay that way.
In-Character Samples:
Third Person:
They pulled him up straight off some marble floor and the first thing he did was drop one with a fist, his instincts running a mile faster than his brain in seeing that this wasn’t the clubhouse room that he’s been living in since Wendy got pregnant with Abel. Two others held him back, but like it mattered when his legs went to rubber beneath him. Things got real dizzying then and he had to sit, shrug ‘em off, and listen to their spiel before he agreed to go anywhere.
What got him turned out not to be the words, but the one he popped changing right in front of him, puffed black eye shifting to take on a purple hue, then a match to the other side of its face. That – Hell, he asked them what kind of crank they pumped into him, because that ain’t right.
Then it hit him. Abel’s not here, not crying for food. Funny that crank’ll always be something he holds close to Abel. He doesn’t blame Wendy for the hole in the kid’s stomach, but it’ll always be there in his mind that it was an overdose what pushed him into the world too young and busted to do more than sit in a toaster for weeks and weeks.
Don’t matter that it’s the reminder so much as there is one and it makes him realise that he’s it. No one’s familiar here; there’s no kid, no Gemma, and no Reaper but the one on the back of his kutte. They’re gone and he redlines at that a bit, warning ‘em that this Emperor can take her business and shove it if she thinks holding him’s going to break SAMCRO. He won’t rat and they won’t deal for nothing. They wouldn’t do it when the feds had Clay and he won’t have them do it for him. SAMCRO’s stronger than that and this Emperor’ll learn it right quick if she thinks the card’s’ll fall any other way.
Network:
[Video comes up on this gent sporting about the some disbelieving amusement at the situation that’s been set before him. He’s wearing a sleeveless leather jacket that’s got a “V. President” and “Men of Mayhem” patches on his right and “Redwood Original” on his left.]
This shit’s real? That’s what they’ve been squawking at me all day, but it coming outta some guy with a beak? [He laughs and shakes his head. It’s an incredulous laugh, the sort that comes from someone not used to the whole it’s a bird-plane routine.] That shit is whacked, man. We’re talking a trip so far out that second star to the right’s just a hop down the street.
[He leans back and stretches his shoulders, hooking an arm on the back of the chair.]
And you all believe this fairytale?
[That’s not so much a question as a judgement on the general sanity levels around here.]
