My character sheet again, and sorry for the delay. Subscribed to the thread, so I won't lose it again.
**Name**: John “Jake” Grendell
**Age**: 36
**Quote**: “ORRRYYYAAAAA!! Ah, that gave me quite the appetite! Who’s up for some chili?”
**Likes**: Cooking, chili, fishing, stories, fighting
**Dislikes**: Spiders, settling down
**Appearance**: Jake is 6’1” and 181 lbs, with a very muscular build. He has scars on his torso and back, and tattoos down his arms from the shoulder-blades to the wrists, with the right arm containing the words “WILD BOYS” with six names in a different colors underneath it, Jake’s name being last. On the right arm, there is a design containing many of the beasts Jake has vanquished, whether Heartless or monster.
Jake has neck-length dirty-blonde hair, dark hazel eyes, and a perma-stubble on his lantern jaw, and a scar on the bridge of his aquiline nose. He often has an amused, easygoing expression in everyday life, but that changes rather quickly to a ferocious grin when fighting.
**Clothes**: Jake wears dusty old travel boots and pants, with a broad belt decorating his waist. On his arms he wears bandages from just below the elbows to the second knuckle on the fingers. He wears several rings on his fingers (four on the right, five on the left including his thumb). He carries a worn-out hide cloak around his shoulders, and carries his things in an old leather knapsack. Around his neck is a tarnished silver necklace, which opens up to reveal an old picture of himself with his friends.
[Alternate outfit](http://lparchive.org/NIER/Update%2003/40-nierender.jpg)
**Equipment**: He carries around two fishing rods and a length of spare string, lots of rope, a hunting knife, a wood axe, spare rations, steel and flint, some spare clothes, and toothbrush.
Keyblade: “Kaiser Leo” - Kaiser Leo is a keyblade in the shape of a double-bladed greataxe about 3’10” long and 2’6” across the broadest point of the blades. The handle is made of gunmetal gray steel, and about 1’8”, while the blade edges are bronze-colored with large notches to resemble key bits. In the middle of the axe head on one side is a full profile of a golden-bronze lion, his mouth open in a roar, while the other has a winged heart of silver. Connected to the end of the handle is a footlong chain ending in a bronze lion head the size of an apple.
**Combat Style**: Jake is heavily focused on close quarters combat, tanking, and dishing out as well as he receives, making him a good protector of the less durable members of the group. He is, however, prone to rashness and can get carried away in the heat of battle, but always keeps an eye out for his comrades. While he enjoys fighting, he’s also a combat pragmatist, willing to do anything to save his friends and allies, and emphasizing protecting his friends over slaying a foe.
**Personality**: Jake is relaxed and easygoing, always ready with a good story or a good joke to get a conversation going. He’s pretty informal when talking to his colleagues and friends, and isn’t much for authority or authority figures, which means he’s going to have awkward moments when having to be an authority figure. However, he is an excellent pillar of support to any group he’s in, and can dispense some homespun wisdom for any situation. Jake enjoys comradeship, and likes to talk things over with his fellow party members.
Jake enjoys a good fight, and as such can switch from easygoing to hot-blooded when a good fight is on. He enjoys a good brawl or scrap to alleviate the boredom, though he’s not above fighting dirty when someone’s life is on the line. Even his tone of voice changes, going from relaxed and friendly like an uncle’s to hot-blooded and quite the large ham. He enjoys taunting or challenging a worthy foe, and enjoys a decent duel every once in a while.
He’s also a spirit struck by wanderlust, never really sitting down in one place for long. He seeks to find the next testing grounds, the next adventure, so that he may test his mettle, see new sights, experience more. However, he’s been wondering for a while now if he’s merely just delaying the inevitable; he’s become a ‘Lost Boy’ in a way, never truly settling down or willing to commit to anything, something that has resulted in him becoming a bit distant from others despite his gregarious nature. The rest of his original party, the ‘Wild Boys’, had settled down and decided to raise their own families and/or train the next generation of Keyblade wielders. As a result, he’s been wondering whether he should settle down like the others.
Jake also has a weird fear of pink-haired girls with blue eyes. The initial reaction to seeing one would be a sudden start and referring to the lady in question as ‘ma’am’. This reaction fades once Jake gets to know the girl better, but has its roots in the team sage for the Wild Boys, and one of the two girls in the group. She was very strict and ran a tight ship, often terrifying the usually slovenly, laid-back Jake into following her orders or if he pushed her too far.
**Back-story**: Jake is a veteran Keyblader, with a story that goes back more than two decades. When he was a young man, he lived in a medieval fantasy world under the protection of King Mickey and his Keybladers, where was the second oldest of four siblings, and the oldest son in the household. As such, when his father was away, it was up to Jake to tend to the farm and the animals. It was a hard life, but Jake did his work and never complained. However, he would always dream of seeing faraway lands, wondering what lay beyond the familiar. He was also a bit of a gourmet, and while he never complained about the bland food, he wished he could taste food abroad.
When Jake was 15, however, Jake’s home was attacked by monsters that slaughtered livestock and burned down crops. He got his family to safety in the house, and tried to fight off the monsters with his tools and axes. Nothing would hurt the monsters; either the attacks bounced off their thick hides, or went right through them harmlessly like smoke. Just as Jake was going to be overwhelmed, a pair of mystic heroes wielding strange weapons suddenly appeared. They cut through the creatures of darkness like a scythe through wheat, dispersing them like a fog before a strong gale. They saved Jake and his family, yet asked for little compensation. Jake, enraptured, found out that the two, Gabriel and Yomi, were kids no older than he, yet were self-proclaimed ‘Keyblade wielders’, who fought the monstrous ‘Heartless’ wherever they could find them. Despite his mother’s apprehension at him joining a pair of young wizards, he decided to join them. They managed to help him unlock his abilities as a Keyblade user, but his style emphasized combat strength rather than magic.
As time went on, Jake became an excellent fighter, becoming the heavy combatant of the team. However, an incident where he was still somewhat illiterate resulted in him misspelling his name as “Jake” rather than “John”, and thus the name stuck. Another time, he managed to get the group so sloshed they thought his suggestion of “Wild Boys” for a team name was a good idea (sobriety and the hangover convinced them otherwise later on, but by then it was too late to change it).
It was a time of adventures, a time of journeys, of mischief and heroics, and a time Jake would cherish forever. They had their triumphs and their torments, but the Wild Boys always managed to come out with their heads held up high.
However, as with all good things, it had to come to an end. Jake realized that the group had changed somehow. The others weren’t as excited to go on a new journey, or were more willing to take it slow. While they still wanted to fight the Heartless, they were getting concerned about their own lives. Some wanted to raise a family, others wanted to train their successors so they could carry the torch. Only Jake remained insistent on adventuring. Even Gabriel, the first Keyblade hero of the group, had settled down somewhere to raise children and train the younger Keyblade wielders.
So it was that Jake kept roaming the worlds, seeking the Heartless wherever he can, fighting them. It has been years since he last talked to his friends, practically eight years since he’s been travelling alone. Yet even he wonders if it isn’t time he tried to settle down, or how long he can keep up walking his paths alone.
**Skills**: Jake has excellent cooking and food preparation skills, though he seems to have a preference towards making spicy food that can burn a hole through your mouth. He’s a good tracker and hunter out of experience, and can make a good bargain at a shop (generally out of necessity). He’s also an experienced fighter with two decades of combat under his belt.
Abilities: Jake is an impressive physical specimen. Long years of working out and travel have made an already rather athletic young man into a strong warrior. He is strong enough to snap through unenhanced chains, and is a skilled brawler/fighter even without his Keyblade skills. He is fast, but not quite as nimble as he used to be, and as such has shifted to a power-based fighting style.
**Stats**: Attack Haste, Critical Plus, Defence Boost, Defender, HP Boost, MP Rage
**Support**: Air Combo, Plus, Berserk, Combo Plus, Once More, Second Chance, Second Wind/Hyper Healing, Synch Blade
**Defense**: Aerial Recovery (Smash Recovery), Defender, Guard/Block (Blade Bash, Block-Counter, Perfect Block, Round Block, Sliding Block), Dodge Roll, Dark Screen
**Magic**: *none*
**Movement**: Quick Run, High Jump, Air Slide
**Offense**: Aerial Dive, Aerial Sweep, Blitz, Combo Master, Counterguard, Explosion, Finishing Leap, Finishing Plus, Round Break, Sonic Strike, Upper Slash
**Summon**: Titan