"...I'm known to hang around the undead / You always see me comin' cuz I am RED..." --["Very Bad"]
Jaina Jade is a long-lived transgenic human vampire hunter, and the oldest of Ree's characters. She originated on Terra and lives on MoonBurnt aboard her spaceship, The Jaded Soul, but regularly returns to Terra to hunt down its vampires.
She has an inordinate fondness for Djew with Ice and for [journalling].
The image shown on this page was a gift from Erin Kyan.
Caucasian female, 6'0" (1.8m), 180 lbs. (82 kilos), curvy build, aged 18-25 years. Long punk-red hair, green eyes. Last seen wearing faded grey-black jeans, red camisole with black pleather vest (patched with electrical tape), and ragged black boots. Carries sharpened wood spikes. Consider armed and dangerous when she's not asleep or hungover, so no worries.
She sometimes dresses according to setting. For example, when visiting elves, she may wear a tunic or bodice instead of her 21st century Terran garb. She usually keeps her jeans for simple barhopping -- dressing up is for occasions or business.
Her accent is predominantly that of the American Heartland, but she's traveled enough that odd bits of otherness slip in, everything from Aussie slang to Elvish salutations.
Her scent, for beings capable of noticing, is faint -- her skin pretty much lacks the glands most people have that generate subtle people-scent. There's some, just not much.
Her skin is extraordinarily smooth and clear (except her [[hidden scar]] - see below), due to her abilities. Under ideal conditions it looks almost porcelain.
When working, Jaina always braids her hair back so it won't come loose or obscure her vision. She wears or carries a knapsack with supplies, which vary by prey (heavy firearms and ammo for zombies; knives with silver inlay and vials of silver nitrate for werewolves; stakes, wild roses, and blessed bullets for vampires, etc). The bag sometimes gets swung as a weapon itself.
If her prey is not photosensitive, she wears fingerless gloves to protect her hands (fingerless so she can still grip weapons as usual) and as much covering as she can manage in that climate, preferably at least denim to ankles and wrists, if not leather. She doesn't wear true armor on Terra, as that would draw too much attention, but neither does she care to break her skin with every tumble. Unscarring wounds means it hurts just as much every single time.
If her prey is photosensitive, she wears a camisole, no more on her arms than absolutely needed for her health, and hair pulled off her pale neck to complete the illusion of a silly, vapid bloodbag.
Jaina is very adorable when blushing, according to wise sources. Her blush covers her whole face and almost matches her hair.
None visible. Jaina's skin cannot scar under usual conditions, and it rejects piercings and tattoos.
She has a burn scar on her left thigh (a reminder to remove the lightsabre from the belt, then ignite it). It is never visible in public -- she wears jeans or, rarely, long skirts that cover it.
Her unusual hair -- the colour of fresh blood rather than the colour of most red hair -- can be considered a distinguishing mark. It does not take dye or bleach and usually resists any illusions cast to disguise it, though a strong enough spell or an adept enough caster may reap temporary results.
(The writer would gladly accept any help from her fellow writers on this score, as an outside view would be of immense help.)
Jaina hates vampires. She will try to avoid them, but if they feed on someone unwilling while she's around, she's going to investigate and probably swing a punch at minimum. She'll leave most vampires alone if they don't provoke her (especially if she encounters them in neutral ground, such as an open bar -- personal gatherings are another story).
She has a slight preference for the company of elves over humans, as she discovered early on that an elf's lifespan could match her own. However, J.J. is gradually understanding that a variety of circumstances could bring another human in line with her own almost nil aging. She has less familiarity with other races, just honest curiosity.
Jaina is fiercely protective of those she considers "hers," be they family or friend, and will often exert more effort on their behalf than her own. She likes vodka, Ice, Djew, wit, and hamburgers, but never in that order.
Jaina was raised on Terra by a secretive group dedicated to killing supernatural monsters. She had a number of family members in this all-female society, including Pasht as a mentor-parent, but lost them all when she fell in love with a vampire. Unfortunately, Pasht had fallen for the same vampire, and turned Jaina in as a traitor. The society cut all ties with Jaina and abandoned her on a strange world (the location of the Mausoleum, for you TSFV exiles). Here Jaina met elves and beings of other legendary races, drank booze, and decided that her life was messy but livable.
She continues to spend a large portion of time doing the work of her old family, despite being shunned by them. This often keeps her away from her beloved tavern-hopping, but she makes each shot count both from her gun and at the bar. (Her writer should probably be shot for writing that, but has no remorse whatsoever.)
She now resides in her spaceship on MoonBurnt and splits her time between MoonBurnt and Terra. In her free time, she wanders the Cross'd Roads and other planetary nexuses.
Jaina has become fairly experienced in jury-rig repairs, thanks to the extensive damage her spaceship sustained some time ago. She can't improve on the original and often ends up with machinery that operates at a low capacity, but she can usually get it functioning at least. She's also a moderately good pilot if she has all the instrumentation working to guide her; she's nigh useless without any.
Jaina's powers affect several areas.
See [[Magic]].
Jaina's old vampire-slaying order gifted her with the ability to emit light through her skin, including ultraviolet light to repel vampires. (She can also manage the visible spectrum, which sometimes manifests when she's startled, embarrassed, pissed off, or otherwise not in control of her emotions.) Since her expulsion, though, this ability has faded in and out of existence. Jaine suspects that what the order has given, they are now attempting to take away. Eventually she probably won't have this ability left at all, but she refuses to give up without a fight. (Presence or absence of this ability is random and depends on the writer's mood at the time. Make no assumptions!)
To protect her light emanation, Jaina's skin does not scar or callus. She wears padded boots and wraps her stakes in leather straps to protect her palms, spots that would thicken on normal humans. This is true even at times her light isn't working. Her sweat doesn't smell as strongly as most humans', due to a slight difference in her sweat glands.
Her light is unrelated to sunlight. That is, she does not absorb, store, and re-emanate sunlight; her body produces light by an unrelated process.
Jaina's blood congeals quickly, both to protect her flesh and to minimise the chance of vampires scenting her fresh blood. She does not menstruate either. This is all apparently normal for a vampire hunter of her former group.
Quick clotting makes nosebleeds look very strange -- sprays of coarse red powder instead of fluid.
Her hair is naturally blood-red. It won't bleach or dye.
She has fairly nice muscles, but they aren't superpowers, just results of training in extra gravity.
Jaina's flesh is bioluminescent due to gene splicing, probably with genes of a firefly or similar creature. Her bloodstream contains a dormant substance that activates mildly and somewhat slowly in the presence of adrenaline; this is why she glows faintly when excited or scared but otherwise in control of herself. She can consciously release more reactive substances into her blood (to glow more brightly), even limiting its effect to a specific part of her body (such as her hand or neck) and, to a degree, its hue -- up to ultraviolet, outside of the human visible spectrum. Her skin is NOT warmer than usual when she does this -- the process produces light but virtually no additional heat. Any excess warmth is due to her adrenaline and nothing more. Her inability to glow at times is due to lacking the reactive substance required.
Her liver is mildly tweaked to process urea more efficiently (because it's not sweated out her skin, unlike a normal human's hide) but doesn't hinder her in getting stinking drunk if she wants. It may also be involved in her light shows by storing or processing the chemicals required.
She does not regenerate except for flesh wounds; she can sprain her ankle or break a bone as easily as the next person (and has) and such injuries heal as a normal human's, unless treated by magic or superhuman method.
Working on this part... it's probably going to be:
Unknown to her, Jaina's "family" deliberately rendered her infertile so that her tweaked genes would not be passed on. During the same medical process that gave her light-emitting skin, the lining of her uterus was stripped. This means she does not menstruate and cannot get pregnant -- she might be able to carry a fertilised egg but it couldn't implant in her uterus, and if it could it wouldn't be healthy without the blood-rich lining to protect the embryo. At this point, she's long-lived enough that she probably doesn't have any egg cells left in her ovaries anyway.
In short, her keepers deliberately induced [Asherman's Syndrome] in her.
Jaina's only innate magic is portalling. She has tried to cast minor non-portal spells with no real success, and has a particular fascination with warding and defensive magics. Her specialisation makes her think of all magic as a means of of transportation.
She's able to draw on her life force to open and use portals -- with several caveats:
An example of a portal gone wrong (taken from Schemer's Corner, 8 Oct. 2003):
[Jaina's] skin shimmered as she concentrated on shaping a portal. A brilliant shape began to form in the air before her. It glowed in rhythm with her flesh, pulsing rapidly.
As she worked further on her spell, Jaina's knees began shaking beneath her. She slipped to one side, landing hard on one elbow. The portal flicked on her impact with the floor. She didn't breathe, hoping the spell was near enough to completion to be safe.
The glimmer in the air shook once, twice --
-- and as Jaina shifted her arms to push herself upright, one wrist brushed against Lance's blood on the floor.
What the -- oh, CRAP!
In her shock Jaina lost control of her magic. It exploded into light and profanity, although the latter might merely have been her reaction. A thousand splinters of light scattered right through the walls of Schemer's Corner, taking Jaina, Lance, and Weft with them.
Her desperate fear of being alone has crafted Jaina into a formidable opponent. She espouses no particular fighting style, preferring to lash out in unexpected assaults. It's messy, but her simple muscle and refusal to lose have put kebabs into more undead than you might think.
Jaina is an experienced melee combatant, but with a heavy emphasis on specific situations (vampires). She knows how to fire a variety of firearms but is only an okay shot. She can hold a sword without hurting herself, but only on a good day, and she's unable to use it effectively in battle. (She says they're balanced completely unlike wooden stakes.) She has decent aim as an archer, but tends to scuff her skin when releasing her bowstring.
Status: Involved with Ice
Children: None (infertile)
Relatives:
Among her friends: [Foxxfire Evenstar], [Flute Aslora], Lance
(Foxx and Flute are also family, though not direct relatives, being adoptive elves much like Jaina.)
Among her adversaries: Pasht, Weft
Jaina met Lunzie shortly after the former lost all connection to her family. Lunzie was instrumental in shaping Jaina's new view of the universe, in which vampires could not be considered inherently dangerous or evil. The two became very close and have adopted each other as sisters. Lunzie's late daughter, Jae, was named for her Aunt Jaina, and both women refer to Jaina's relationship to other family members (e.g, Lunzie's late husband was Jaina's brother-in-law).
Lunzie is one of a handful of people who knows the location of The Jaded Soul.
Jaina had something of a platonic crush on Suitov Iceheart ever since he helped her into Schemer's Corner after she injured herself, and it seems he fancies her quite a bit too. She [asked him to share a drink with her]; it quickly turned into a night-long conversation and growing attraction.
Suitov is responsible introducing Jaina to Djew, her favourite form of caffeine.
The vampire hunter and the fallen angel have a surprisingly low-drama friendship. Lance gets Jaina to loosen up, enjoy herself, and be unafraid of sexuality in general. They infrequently go clubbing and/or drinking together.
An incident between Lance and Weft caused Jaina to permanently distrust and despise Weft (as noted below). She is deeply protective of her loved ones and doesn't tolerate anyone who harms "her people."
Pasht and Jaina share a complex, frustration-fraught history dating back to Pasht's days as Kara, a vampire hunter. Jaina tends to idealise Kara and villify Pasht, forgetting that Kara was no saint herself.
They rarely meet on the boards.
Jaina discovered Weft leaning over a bleeding, unconscious Lance with a knife. She immediately acted to remove Lance from the situation, assuming Weft was trying to hurt or kill Lance. (It was actually a huge accident and misunderstanding, but even if Weft tries to explain, she's too distrustful of anything he says to listen.) Suitov finds him amusing, so Jaina copes with having him around, but Weft and Jaina frequently engage each other in insult battles.
In the past, Jaina attached herself to the arm of Lucifer against Lance's wishes. (She's also supposed to be the star of a novella-in-progress in which she gets engaged to an Elven King, but it would seem she has lately forgotten her prince.)
Her hackles automatically rise around any unfamiliar vampires, but she won't attack without cause. If attacked, she will counter-attack; if her dear ones are attacked, she's liable to kill the offenders without further thought.
She generally doesn't get close to humans (now that her lifespan greatly exceeds theirs) but she doesn't actively dislike them either.
Jaina's [sig] was created by [Foxx].
Would Ms Jade or her agent be frightfully cross, no pun intended, if I were to ask her to accompany me in a fictional jaunt... Oh blast. I mean, would she care to share a short story with me? -- sv
Uy, Ms Jade just has the best taste in men, doesn't she? </ultrasarcasm> --wf
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