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TRIGGER WARNINGS:
- mentions of animal death
- child exploitation
- illegal fighting ring

Jacob M. Jones

Name: Jacob Matthew Jones
Alias(es): Red Hot Champion
Age: 27
Pronouns: He/Him
Sexuality: Bisexual
Species: Human
-
Homeworld: Ceres
Moon (larger): Libera
Moon (much smaller): ProsperinaRarity: ✦✦✦✦
Path (Combat): Destruction
Path (Lore): Trailblaze
Element: Fire
Factions: Astral Express
Occupation: Gladiator (formerly), AE Engineer, Inventor
Online Alias: i 𖹭 chicken

As one of the engineers of the Astral Express, Jacob has followed the crew on his fair share of adventures over the last 8 years. His former life as a Gladiator also came into handy when dealing with the Antimatter Legion, as well as repairing mechanical devices around the express or the worlds they would visit.

His interest in robotics and other machinery didn't come out of nowhere. As a child, he lived with his father and their family dog, Rosie, a large black Doberman, in the Lower District of Neo York. His father was a mechanic himself, once from the upper district and forced to move once he was accused of a false crime, with his wife who was still pregnant with Jacob at the time.Jacob's mother died after childbirth, leaving him with very little memories of her. All he had were photos in the home and stories told by his father.

At the young age of five, he'd once snuck over to the windows to a dance studio in a more wealthy part of the Lower District, and fell in love with the elegant steps and movements of the ballerinas practicing inside. Sometimes, he'd try practicing their steps on his own, only to fall and bump his elbows and knees on the ground. But he persevered, and eventually would learn the steps to the ballet all on his own.He was startled when the Ballet Master came out to call him over, and ran off as quick as his little feet would take him, back to the shop and being careful not to step back in the vicinity of the studio. However, the Ballet Master would figure out who he was quickly, and approach Jacob's father to ask him to enroll his son into the school. She could see he had talent and passion, a rare gem in Neo York's lower district. At first, he tried to politely decline, citing the fact that they hardly made enough money to put food on the table, but she insisted— no need for tuition, just repair their damaged machinery when needed.

And so, Jacob's dream to dance became a path he could run on. Small performances were recorded for his father, who had to occasionally make trips to other parts of the district for work, but Jacob didn't mind. His father would call him after the performances to congratulate him, and bring home things from the other cities as gifts for him.When he was 13, he was chosen to take the lead role for the ballet "Libera and Prosperina", a ballet that was written after the myth of their moons. He was so excited, and begged his father to take time off work to come to the theatre so he could watch him. And he did, because who could ever deny their child like that?

Unfortunately, on the fifth day of the month of Octavune, year 375 After Calamity, the tiny theatre collapsed due to an unexpected rampage of a group of Terrestrials, large monsters that were once flora and fauna, mutated by the residual energy of the Stellaron Calamity 370 years ago. The largest of the group, a type named the Paladin, with the shell hardness of a Diamond, lead the destruction that killed 37, with 15 still missing. Unfortunately, some of the victims included 9 of the dancers themselve, the family dog Rosie, as well as Jacob's father. Jacob had been crushed underneath large chunks of debris, destroying both legs, his right arm, and the rest of his lower half. His spine would suffer great damage, alongside the loss of right eye, and his skin would carry scars from the fire that razed the theatre down.

Jacob would be rescued by a man, who was from the Upper District, only having moved down here for business. The man's name was Father Theodore, a well respected person of high standing, with wealth most citizens of the Lower District could never even dream of. He spoke to the boy, partially buried under rubble, feeling the dirty rain on his face and breathing in the suffocating smoke after the flames receded.

Jacob was escorted to the wealthiest hospital in the area, and given robotic prosthetics to help him walk again. The rest of his body would be reconstructed with advanced surgical technology from the Golden City of the Upper District and beyond— fluid and natural. But to Jacob, the legs he lost would never be replaced by these pieces of metal.

His friends, a pair of orphans, was also brought into the hospital to treat their injuries, even if less severe than Jacob's. The older sister, Julia, accompanied him when he needed to go to his physical therapy. It turned out that Julia also received an offer from Father Theodore— become a singer for the Upper District in exchange for high quality medical care for her younger brother, Thomas. Julia had always wanted to sing, and it made Jacob happy for her.

When Julia and Thomas left, Jacob felt alone. His father was gone, and Rosie was gone. Mrs. Celestine hadn't visited, either. There was nobody he could turn to except for Father Theodore, who gave him the emotional support he needed, who was a kind ear and listened to his tears, who was always there to speak words of encouragement when he struggled in physical therapy. Once he was well enough to write with his left hand, he signed a contract agreeing to pay off the price of the prosthetics by working under him.

When Jacob was 14, he entered the Colosseum for the first time.A circular cage, taller than a palace, with gates locked on both sides into the depths of the Colosseum, where men were contracted to fight Terrestrials and beasts for the entertainment of the underground.

The first time he killed, it was a mutated dog that looked like Rosie. He couldn't breathe, and his vision swam. He passed out in the ring.

The second was a half-mutated boy no taller than himself.

The third was a crying Terrestrial.

The thirty-first was a Paladin.

Fifty-seven times.

Eighty-nine times.

Six-hundred and fifty-two times.

He doesn't remember anymore.

There was a time where, when sleeping in the shared rooms, he was nearly strangled in his sleep by a fellow Gladiator, much older than himself, gone crazy over the loss of his ranking, and over the repetitiveness of his life. The man had been pulled off of him by some of the other Gladiators, Old John and a man named Blythe, but it did not stop the terror that coursed through Jacob's veins when the stagnant air finally returned to his lungs.He started sleeping with his back against the corner from then on. Even if the other Gladiators felt pity for the boy, he couldn't trust them anymore. What if they turn on him, too?

He missed his father. He missed Julia and Thomas. Were they doing well? Did Father Theodore lie to them, too?

When he was 16, he was allowed to have his own room, as one of the top Gladiators in the Colosseum. It wasn't any better, still as barren as the old, shared rooms, but at least he had his personal bathroom. There was privacy there. No cameras, no microphones...

At 17, managed to disconnect the tracker from his prosthetics, and dug out the second tracker out of his stomach.The Colosseum allowed him to have some freedom once he became second in the rankings— he could explore the lower district in his free time, with some pocket money to buy things as long as it wasn't something that could turn against the owner of the Colosseum. Jacob would sneak away while hiding the tracker on the collar of a stray cat, using his coins to buy Wolfram, a metal changed on Ceres to be strong enough to deflect other metals and light enough to use for armor. With the small windows of opportunity, Jacob would fully remake his prosthetics and use it to survive longer in the ring. Paladins, Heralds, Horsemen, none of them were a match for him after that.Jacob was sure that Father Theodore knew about his sneaking around. After all, there was nothing he was unaware of.

At 19, during his wanderings, three strange outlanders appeared in the lower district. A man with brown hair, glasses and a gray coat, with a cane that didn't seem to be a tool to help him walk, but made him look dignified with every step he took.

A woman with flaming red hair, with golden roses and laurels adorned upon her dress. She was elegant, and wasn't afraid to speak her mind.

A person that was neither man nor woman, beautiful and charismatic, charming everyone everywhere they went, with large wings that curled around them protectively in moments others didn't seem to notice.

One was heavier than the other. It wasn't hard for Jacob to notice it was a prosthetic, and built with the wrong type of material for a person with hollow bones. When they were alone, he couldn't help but approach them with curiosity, asking them about their wing and if they wanted to improve it's weight and strength. They were hesitant, of course, because who would want to allow a stranger to touch something so personal?Over the next few days, he pestered them. He learned their name, Ikaros, and the names of their companions; Miss Himeko and Mr. Welt Yang. He would constantly bothered them about their wing. Regardless of how strong they were, he could tell the skin around the wing was irritated, and needed a lighter metal frame— otherwise, how could they fly?

The new wing took only 3 days to complete, and while installation was somewhat painful, as the circuits would need to connect to the nerves, it was much lighter and easier to use. It even acted as though it was a real one; following their emotions fluidly and easily.On the last of those 3 days, with only a couple hours to spare, Jacob had appeared in front of Ikaros with a large bruise on his face. It was from when a swing from the club of one of the Terrestrials he'd fought that day had caught him off guard, and to be honest, Jacob hadn't really noticed how bad it was until he showed up at Ikaros' hotel room. It wasn't too hard to get the figure out what the reason was, when they followed him and discovered the Colosseum— watching this young mechanic that had looked malnourished, exhausted and paranoid behead a beast three times his size.

When they'd accosted him in the streets the next time they saw hkm, his confession about the Colosseum was the prelude to his journey across the cosmos. In order to keep the entire thing peaceful, they decided to purchase his contract from Father Theodore's hands, bringing him and what little belongings he had with him onto the Astral Express with them once they left Ceres. Quick, easy, and... Peacefully, at Jacob's request. After all, as of now, there was nothing they could do.After confirming that the contract was indeed the authentic copy, they startled Jacob by burning it up right in front of him. With the true contract gone, and no copies available, Jacob was free to do what he wanted. Except, he didn't know what he wanted to do. His robotic limbs, though lightweight, were still much too heavy to allow him to dance the way he used to— And, paired with his paranoia, there was no way he'd ever allow himself to swap them out for anything else. So, he became a passenger on the Express, and then officially joined them not too long afterwards.

He became close buddies with Ikaros, who's eccentricity made him laugh way too hard. Once on the express, he began holing himself in the room that the conductor had prepared for him— A large one that allowed Jacob to add and do whatever he wanted, with a smaller room sectioned off in the back as his private bedroom. With the money that he got just by doing odd-jobs and other repairs on expeditions, he bought materials for himself to build a personal exercise gym in his room. He got friendly with the fourth member on the Express, Void Archives, and participated in the construction of Shush. The trio of idiots would then become the greatest distress to Pom-Pom's existence.

Occasionally, there'd be little robots wandering around the Express, either cleaning or simply crawling around, much to the chagrin of Pom-Pom. There was an occasion where, much later down the line, when one crawled around on the ceiling of one of the cars and exploded— thank Aeons it had been while they'd been parked at the planet of Fabrica, a planet well known for their advanced technology. It allowed them to make quick repairs, and also gave them some time to scold Jacob for a good 30 minutes.During the chaotic invasion of the Herta Space Station, Jacob, now 27 years old and much more experienced in Trailblazing, had gone off to a different part of the station to subdue the Antimatter Legion, meeting up with the other young duo once DanHeng had found Arlan.

The journey on Belobog was left to the younger trio, with Jacob watching from above and only supporting when necessary. Eventually, he would join Himeko, Ikaros and Welt in visiting Belobog after the Stellaron was sealed.

Jacob played a supporting role on the XianZhou LuoFu, though he did panic a bit when receiving a message about DanHeng's sudden absence. Jacob is not one to abandon either of the kids on the Express, even if he's only older than them by a handful of years. When both DanHeng and March7th disappeared on one of their previous adventures without saying anything, Jacob had threatened a gang of irritating brutes with bodily harm if they'd done anything to them. Of course, they hadn't, but they did get a kick out of aggravating Jacob about it, which ended up with them in a pile on the floor and Jacob's flame boosters steaming from exhaust.

During the events of Penacony, Jacob, after being convinced to follow along to the Planet of Festivities instead of holing himself up in his room again, entered into the Moment of Golden Hour— Coming face to face with the bustling vibe of a the most prosperous "Moment" in Penacony, showcasing an entire city bathed in luxury. His attention was immediately snatched by Clockie Diner, and the scent of delicious food that he'd never tried before. It took a while before he was found by the Trailblazer, when Jacob was hanging around the Food Trucks, having the time of his life trying the floating ice cream and... Well, he just loved the food here.

There was a moment when he finally decided to take a break and wander around Aideen Park, standing by the edge to simply watch the bustling activity of other patrons of thr planet— and Sunday himself. What was he doing here? Jacob didn't know, and Jacob was going to ask. Though, it didn't seem like Sunday liked him being around— perhaps it was due to Sunday's position as the Head of the Oak Family, and being around someone as boisterous as Jacob was... tough. He was loud, extroverted, handsy— Everything the Halovian didn't like or was used to.

When Sunday had to leave for his meeting, Jacob continued to have fun around Golden Hour. It was nice, he'd never really relaxed this much before.

Until the situation on Penacony imploded.

Jacob played a supportive role most of the time, but fretted over the disappearance of the Trailblazer most of all. Were they okay? What happened? Should he rattle all the information out of that damn bird??

It was tough when Sunday's form changed, mostly by the fact that Jacob realized his perspective of the Halovian was wrong this entire time. Sunday wasn't some well put-together, only elegant leader of the Oak Family— just someone with ideals like the rest of them, who may have felt smothered with his life that was perfectly laid out for him on a red carpet. Someone who thought this was the only way to give the weak the right to choose their path. Actually, Jacob really admired that of him. Jacob, himself, was someone who struggled in making decisions, because the last time he'd done those, he'd... Killed people. So, for someone to stand steadfast and make a righteous decision so readily, even if it was the wrong one, was... Magnificent.

It was rather surprising to others when Jacob was so lenient when they met Sunday again. Normally, he'd be ready to pummel someone who was perceived as a cruel, awful tyrant into the ground, regardless of how frail they were. Instead, he was rather... Chill, for lack of a better word, glued to the Halovian's side so persistently that even Sunday himself got used to it.

"So, if you split again, would your new name be... Wonmonth?"

... Perhaps Jacob should calm down with his terrible humour for a while.

Concept Art + General Artwork