[Magician] Jack Nightingale

FULL NAME: Jack Nightingale
OTHER ALIAS: N/A
CURRENT AGE: 24
GENDER: Male
OCCUPATION: Freelancer
SCHOOL: N/A
FACTION: N/A



APPEARANCE: Can usually be seen wearing a pair of cargo pants and simple t-shirt. He wears a rusty iron cuff on his left wrist, has a rune tattooed on the back of his right hand.
HEIGHT: 5'5
WEIGHT:  123 lbs.
DISTINGUISHING FEATURES: Has the raido rune tattooed on the back of his left hand. It allows him to go wherever he pleases without people thinking something is amiss. If someone saw him breaking into a house, they’d still probably call the police, but he could walk around in Academy City without anyone finding it the least bit suspicious that he’s obviously a foreigner.



PERSONALITY:

Fatalistic
He never really seems to lose his cool. Whether he’s sleeping on the side of the road or in a cell, he doesn’t worry about it too much. “If an opportunity comes, I’ll take it. ‘Til then, what’s the point of panicking? Even if an opportunity doesn’t appear, then that just means it was hopeless to begin with."
The Line between a Minimalist and a Perfectionist  
If he is given a task, then he will, without fail, finish while exerting the absolute minimum amount of effort, unless the task interests him or is something he enjoys, in which case he will carry it out to the best of his ability, going to such lengths that a person unfamiliar with him would think him obsessed.
I Shall Faithfully Follow my Desires
He will, whenever possible, do whatever he feels like doing. If he sees something expensive he wants to buy, he will work around the clock for days to save up the money. If he takes a liking to someone, then he will go to great lengths to do them favors, even if they don’t particularly like him. If he decides he doesn't like someone, then that person drops to the bottom of his priority list. Even if he saw him getting murdered, unless the murderer is someone he dislikes even more, or is asked to help by someone who he likes more than he dislikes the guy getting killed, he would just walk on by as if nothing happened.
Power + Knowledge = Fun
He enjoys gaining new knowledge or skills. The more you know, the wider the world is, the more you can do, the more enjoyable the world can be.

LIKES:
Messing with people
Sarcasm
A good story
Anything that strikes his fancy
DISLIKES:
Being fooled
Idiots
Arrogant people
Bad cooking
STRENGTHS:
Staying calm regardless of the circumstance.
Is good at detecting discrepancies and elucidating the truth from them.
WEAKNESSES:
Acting (He can tell blatant lies with a perfect poker face, but could not play a part if his life depended on it.)
Once he decides to he wants to do something, he will not give up, no matter how ridiculous it is.
If he hears someone saying something wrong, or making an incorrect assumption, he feels an uncontrollable urge to correct them, even if it would be better to leave them be.



HISTORY:  
He was born into an ordinary family in an ordinary town in ordinary America, and lived an ordinary life up until the age of 17, when his father was killed in a car accident. His father was the only working adult in the house, so their family no longer had an income. He would no longer be able to go to college, and he went on to use up every minute of his time working. His mother, however, refused to work, giving various excuses such as “I don’t know how”, or “I’m still grieving”. Eventually he got fed up with her. He saved up some money, hitchhiked up to the east coast, and got a ship ride to Europe from a rather dubious source. After making it to Europe, he lived on the streets, and got money by doing various odd jobs.

One day, when he was napping in the branches of a rather comfortable tree he had found in a park, he awoke to something strange. He saw a group of oddly dressed men speaking in an odd language that sounded like Latin (not being fluent in the language he could not be sure) and drawing queer looking symbols on the ground. The symbols were utterly nonsensical to him, but a few words stuck out to him (presumably not having an English translation), such as 'Ley Lines' and 'Mimir'. As he observed them, he felt something was off (aside from the obvious). It was too quiet. He looked around, and oddly enough, even though the park was quite popular with children, and was located in a large town, there was no one around. Confused, he muttered "What...?" Immediately, the men looked swung around, looking right at him. Jack panicked and jumped out of the tree to try and run away. He had been lucky enough to, miraculously, avoid detection up until then, but his luck seemed to have run out. One of the men then took a stone with an odd symbol  (not unlike the ones they had been drawing on the ground previously) carved on it from his pocket and threw it at him. When the stone made contact, he felt an odd sensation as if he were drowning, and blacked out. When he came to, he was lying on a cot, with his leg chained to an iron ball.

He laid there for what could have been hours or days, until one of the strangely dressed men he had seen at the park came in. The man explained that they were members of a magic cabal, Those Who Seek the Truth. He explained that they were lacking personnel, and Jack could either join willingly, or be 'coerced'. Unsurprisingly, he chose the latter. During his time with them he learned to use magic, and more importantly, grew into his identity as a magician. He slowly realized that all his life he had been chained down. At first he was chained down by normality. Then, later, by his mother. Then by poverty. And now, by this magic cabal. They had never really removed that ball and chain from his leg. After he spent three years learning all he could from them, he left in the middle of the night, careful not to leave any trace.

From that point on, he lived as a magician for a hire. Basically, he remained a freelancer, taking any job he could get, ranging from deliveries to assassination. He gained experience, was careful not to gain a reputation in order to avoid being found by Those Who Seek the Truth (they weren't particularly strong but it'd be a pain avoiding them), and gained knowledge and various new skills while continuing to improve those he already had. The years passed by, and his desire to rip apart the chains that had bound him his whole life only grew. He desired to do what he wished, when he wished, where he wished, why he wished, and how he wished. He longed for complete freedom from all the chains of this world. Then, one day, he was asked to do a peculiar job. Well, more like idiotic. Some no-name cabal reserve army wanted him to go find out the secrets of the windowless building in Academy City. Well aware of the relationship between the Science and Magic Sides, as well as the futility of the request, he of course refused. But the cabal had mentioned something that had piqued his interest. The name of Academy City’s General Superintendent, Aleister Crowley. Though he knew about Academy City, he'd never really paid attention when people were talking about it, so this was the first time he'd heard the superintendent's name. No magician had not heard the name Aleister Crowley. He was once the greatest magician alive. He had, however, died many years ago, and Jack didn't believe for an instant that they were the same person (that was just way too ridiculous), but it sparked an interest in Academy City. And so, he decided to go explore the place. He had seen many fantastic sights as a magician, among magicians, but he had never seen an esper. That, and he suspected that he might find a clue to freeing himself there. Well, the espers were probably the main incentive. Schoolgirls shooting lasers. Now that was something he had to see.


RANK: N/A
(MAGIC NAME): Libertas719 “This blade shall sever the chains that bind me.”
(ABILITY NAME): He utilizes two types of magic: Rune Magic is one, and for the other he utilizes Idol Theory by having a golden hilt act as Tyrfing. He keeps the hilt in his right pocket for easy access, and by having the rusty cuff on his wrist allude to the imprisoned dwarves who forged the blade, he can 'forge' the blade out of whatever material lays nearby, whether it’s wood, plastic or steel. By interpreting the fact the Tyrfing is said to ‘never rust’ as being unbreakable, the blade is always incredibly sturdy regardless of what he forges it out of. Making use of the fact that the blade ‘never misses a stroke’ and that it ‘cuts through stone and iron as easily as clothes', he imbues the blade with the ability to cut things from a distance. For example, there is a telephone in front of him, outside of the blade’s reach. He raises the blade up, and swings the blade as he would if he were close enough to make contact. The pole in cut in two. Various limitations include that he can only cut things he can see, and if they’re too far away or moving too quickly for him to perceive clearly, his view of them is partially blocked, or are just too far away, then he cannot cut them either. Also, if he only partially swings his sword, then nothing is cut. For example, he is swinging his blade to cut down a stop sign, and someone parries his sword or knocks it out of his hand. Nothing is cut. Also, he can only cut one thing at a time. If there are two people standing side by side, he can only cut one of them at a time. He can also make use of the swords ‘three great evils’ to create three curses each time the blade is forged. Because it is just an imitation created through Idol Theory, these curses cannot, say, cause someone to suddenly die of a heart attack. What they could be used for, however, is something more along the lines imparting misfortune. For example, if he curses someone who is fleeing him, then the person he cursed may suddenly come upon an acquaintance or enemy and be delayed, giving him time to catch up. He cannot, however, control the form the curse will take. Also, in keeping with the sacrifice of a life each time the sword is 'unsheathed', every time he cuts something, he gives up one sixteenth of a liter of blood.

He utilizes Rune Magic for various other, more subtle spells, like people clearing fields, or to prevent the people Academy City’s guards from noticing him should he sneak in. He excels in using them to alter people’s perception, like seeing his hilt as a pencil, not noticing the cuff on his wrist, giving people suggestions, and putting them to sleep. He keeps a variety of runestones in his left pocket, and places the rune on the person or object he wishes to affect. It only needs momentary contact for the spell to take effect, unless he wishes for the effect to be prolonged. For example, if he used a rune to make someone fall asleep, they wake would wake an indeterminable amount of time later, which is often fine. But if he wishes for them to stay unconscious, the stone needs prolonged contact. Obviously, it would be significantly less potent against other magicians. He can easily create more runestones by just grabbing a pebble off the side of the road and drawing or carving the rune on it.

OTHER ABILITIES:

Physical Combat
Jack has studied various martial arts as well the human anatomy, because he realized that if someone got in too close for him to swing Tyrfing, then he’d be done for. He’s isn't anywhere near the level of a master martial artist, but if he went against an average street thug, or four or five lightly armed street thugs (knives and blunt objects), he’d almost certainly win. Beyond that, though, his chances of victory in a straight fight begin to drop.
Fairly Tech-Savvy
He doesn’t really care for the divide between the Magic and Science sides, and spent a fair amount of time around technology before his father's accident, so he is much more capable around technology then some other magicians. He’s not a super hacker or anything like that, he’s just quick to adapt to new technology, and knows his way around a computer, basically the same level as your average Joe. He is, however, aware of the friction between the two sides, so he tends to keep this trait on the down-low.
Deception
Is proficient in all forms of deception, from blatant lies, to half-truths, to purposely telling the truth in a way that will cause the other person to misunderstand, changing a subject, and various other skills.
Polyglot
Due to his dealings with people of many different nationalities, he has become fluent in many of the common languages spoken in the European area, such as German, French, Greek, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Russian, as well as Latin and Japanese. (I figure since Academy City is in Japan, Japanese has become a lot more important in the Index verse, like how lots of people learn English thanks to its common use in business deals and such.)


CHARACTER THEME: N/A at this time. May add some later.


PLAYER'S NAME: Libertas719
RATING: M for mature (Violent or suggestive content such as 'Ecchi' or 'fanservice' scenes.)
FACE CLAIM: Tooru Mizuhara, from Shoujo Shin’iki ~Shoujo Tengoku -The Garden of Fifth Zoa (This site is quite handy.)
OTHER CHARACTERS: N/A
MISC. INFORMATION: I wouldn’t really call this important, but judging from how Kamachi has named some of the various Western characters in the LN (e.g. Blueshake and Birdway), Nightingale would probably sound like pretty normal surname in the Index verse.

Test Post:

While I'm happy to see more Magicians in this forum here are my thoughts regarding his history and ability.



What were they doing in the park? You mention its a popular destination for children so I can't really fathom why they would go there to purposely look suspicious and not notice a sleeping man under a tree until he wakes up only to chuck a stone at him just so they could kidnap him.

Magicians in contrast to Espers aren't restricted to one specific power but in return they have to invest in a lot of time and effort to achieve what Magic they aim to craft. Ideally Magicians are picked up from childhood, runaways like Agnese Sanctis is a good example. Children's minds are usually open towards new ideas whereas an adult would have doubts shackled by their own common sense and logic earned from their experience and education hence they're usually not the best students to take up sorcery. Imagine it this way if you will, a child is able to pick up a new language alot faster than an adult.

I don't know if this is true for all Magic cabal but generally Magicians are said to be free to join and betray their organizations whenever they like. If their own ideals conflict with that of the organization they're free to pack up their belongings and walk out the front door whenever they please. Only ones I can think of that are harsh towards defectors are the Roman Catholic Church but even then it doesn't seem anywhere near as harsh as they ought to be seeing as there are many members from Roman Catholics who defected to Anglican Church at the drop of a hat and nothing was really done about it. So I don't really see the point in him sneaking out of the nameless cabal when he can just walk out.

Aleister's welfare is actually far widely spread and known by any Magic cabals worth their salt. The information network and spies from various cults operating in Academy City has already proven that for anyone to "investigate" they would need to enter the building via a Lv4 Teleporter (Musujime) otherwise it's a fruitless "investigation". I don't know why but I often got the impression that there's really not much to investigate since Aleister doesn't seem to be the sort to shy away from an audience if they request visitation from him. Course he won't extend that sort of invitation to people that bare their fangs at him but seeing as Tsuchimikado walks in and out of his room every so often and Aleister is bound to understand he's invited a spy of multiple cabals, I'm sure he really doesn't mind and access to his chambers is open to whoever wants to walk in on him.

That said, I'm abit confused why you'd want to see him.

Now as for his abilities.

Tyrfing is a mythical weapon so I'm abit conscious about letting him have it when only a handful of canon characters have access to these replica weapons. The name aside, the activation and effect of this weapon feels almost abit redundant to a Lotus Wand. Yes they have some different characteristics but pretty much what your weapon can do you can just as easily do the same if not more with the Lotus Wand minus the cursing effects. That and you seem to have forgotten the most important detail of Tyrfing in that when it's drawn it must kill a human as part of the rule that governs it's laws of causality. I don't know how you'd integrate that but it's something to think about when trying to utilize idol theory with this weapon.

I think thats about it from my first glance.

Thanks for the feedback! I'll just reply to your post to clarify a few things, and then clean up the profile. And yeah, I noticed the lack of active magicians.

Yeah, I'll have to add some more detail about the park thing. By sleeping in the tree, I meant up in the branches. Like, out of immediate sight. A clearer reason for them to be in the park in the first place would be good, but I tried to imply that they had implemented a people-clearing field.

Oddly enough, even the park was quite popular with children, and was located in a large town, there was no one around.

And the rock was a runestone, but I should I should add a bit more detail to that. If you read the abilities part of the profile you could infer that it's a runestone, but now that I look again you could just as easily take it at face value. {Edit: Ley lines. There, a reason which could force them to have to be in a location they would normally never be!}

As for the time and effort, he was picked up by them at 17, spent three years with them, and at present he's 24, which leads to him spending 7 years as a magician. And while he was not 'picked up' while as young as Agnese, he was still a teenager, and as such still pretty open to new ideas.

As for the freedom of magic cabals, from what I've read in the light novels, it really varies. Some are as strict as the Roman Catholics (though more to prevent information leakage than anything else), some rather laissez faire, as you described them, while others try to keep them in, but if they get out, don't really try to track them down, as well everywhere else on the spectrum in between those two extremes. Well, that's just my impression. If that was stated in the novels and I read it, then I have completely forgotten it's location. And as for the cabal being nameless, I just didn't give it a name because it wasn't especially well known or anything (though a bit of laziness may have had something to do with it as well), so I just didn't bother naming it. I guess I'll do that.

I did mention that Aleister is rather well-known.

The name of Academy City’s General Superintendent, Aleister Crowley. No magician had not heard of Aleister Crowley.

Though, now that I reread it, I see that it isn't really that clear whether I'm referring to Aleister as the famous magician or the superintendent when I say that he's well known. And by investigate I meant more covert, like along the lines of 'what are his plans', 'what are his assets', 'what are his weaknesses', that sort of thing. Aside from Aiwass and Fraulein Kreutune (not that they'd know about them, but it wouldn't surprise me if there rumors going on speculating about the existence of ridiculous things like that), there's probably still a lot of crazy stuff in the Windowless Building.

As for why he'd want to see him, his curiosity was peaked. A man who is basically the representative of the Science Side having the same name as one of the greatest magicians who had ever lived? How interesting! Plus the various building throwing (#1), laser shooting (#3 & #4), self-cloning (#2) espers running around in the same city. Basically like a tourist, but instead of going to see the sights, he's there to see mechas and lasers.

About Tyrfing, you seem to be thinking more along the lines of Curtana and Durendal. I'm thinking of it being more along the lines of Lævateinn as used by the magician Stiyl goes against in Toaru Majutsu no Index SP in terms of power level. About the similarities to the Lotus Wand, yeah, I should iron that out. Though, the Lotus Wand works by applying stimuli given to it elsewhere, while Tyrfing just lets you cut from a distance. Against a man wearing armor, the Lotus Wand could strike the flesh beneath the armor, while all Tyrfing could do is cut them apart. And the 'killing a man' part, I referenced that with

He has give up half a liter of blood to ‘sheathe’ the blade, as per the legend that it would not be sheathed without being soaked with human blood.

Though, I could water it down a bit by having it take a bit of blood each time he cuts something with it.

Good explanation, I'm happy with the answers you've provided so I will approve this with 1/2 for now until you provide a test post.  (Not that I'm approving you to show secret favoritism for Magicians!)

EDIT: Approved