OOC: APPLICATION (EUDIO)

[royalpassport]

PLAYER INFORMATION

NAME: Ros
AGE: 31
CONTACT: rosloops
CHARACTERS PLAYED: None!

CHARACTER INFORMATION

NAME: Jefferson
CANON: Once Upon a Time
AGE: 29, though he also has an additional 28 years of living under the Dark Curse (he didn't age in that time, but unlike most of his cursed neighbors, he remembers all of it).
CANON POINT: Sometime between "Hat Trick" (1x17) and "An Apple Red as Blood" (1x21).

BACKGROUND: Jefferson from his current canon point (and bonus Enchanted Forest Jefferson for extra background).


INCENTIVE: After being separated from his daughter, Grace, for at least 28 years (however long he was trapped in Wonderland before the Dark Curse isn't really stated), Jefferson is desperate to have her back-- but not at the cost of her happiness. So he doesn't want to break her free from Regina's curse, as that would destroy her world as she knows it (after all, Grace-- now Paige-- only knows her cursed life, family, and memories, and though they may have been forced on her by Regina, they still feel real). And he can't ask to just have her memories of her life as Paige erased and her real memories restored, as that would be a complete violation of her. After all, in a way, Paige is also a real person with real experiences.

So, all Jefferson wants is to be able to turn back time to before he agreed to take a trip to Wonderland with Regina. Then he'll make the right decision: to listen to his daughter and stay with her in poverty, rather than run off to Wonderland under the false assumption that it'd be one quick trip and he'd be back in no time and they'd be rich and cared for etc. Sure, the curse would've probably still happened eventually, trapping him and everyone else in Storybrooke without their memories, but at least he wouldn't have abandoned his daughter. And maybe he wouldn't have lost Grace in the curse, either.

FIT: At this point, after spending 28 years in isolation, watching people repeat the same day over and over again, and knowing that he and everyone else is living through a terrible curse, and also knowing that he's the only one (besides Regina) who's even aware of it? Jefferson's a lonely, desperate, broken man. In all likelihood, he hasn't engaged in any intimacy at all in that entire time, plus however long he was in Wonderland. Going just by that, it may not seem like Jefferson's the sort of person who'd be a good fit for a city fueled by intimacy, but the fact is that he'll take to it with enthusiasm once he settles in.

It's just that he may be awkward at first, maybe even somewhat off-putting (after all, he's not known as the Mad Hatter for nothing), and he'll probably start out simply going through the motions, regarding intimacy as a chore he has to deal with to get his incentive fulfilled. But the decades of isolation brought on by his (partially self-imposed) imprisonment has left Jefferson starved of intimacy, and once he acclimates to Eudio, he'll start to realize just how much he's missed being in the world, meeting people, connecting with others. You can see that he's desperate for a connection in "Hat Trick." Once Emma begins to act like she believes him about the curse, he drops the bitter, menacing demeanor and seems almost pathetically hopeful. For a brief moment, he thinks somebody finally believes in him and is going to help him.

And then she whacks him upside the head with a telescope. But to be fair: he totally deserved it. But anyway, she even describes him to Mary Margaret as "a very lonely man."

Though we never see Jefferson pursue anyone romantically, he doesn't appear to have any hang-ups about physical contact. He's shown touching and being touched without any issue. Plus, he's shown to be capable of turning on the charm and being flirty when it suits him. And he was once married (presumably happily), until his wife's death, and has a child, so though he isn't likely to run around the city having a string of hookups, he's certainly capable of engaging in sex, intimacy, and loving relationships. And his lack of romantic relationships after his wife's death doesn't seem to be caused by grief or an inability to move on from her. It's just that Jefferson chose to devote himself to raising his daughter. Being a father was his top priority.

Here, he isn't likely to simply be physical with others while closing himself off emotionally. Jefferson's lonely and desperate to be understood, and being in a situation where he's not being called crazy whenever he talks about his life, the curse, Wonderland, all that, will go a long way towards opening him up to emotional intimacy, as well.

CONSENT: Although Jefferson's never broken consent in any sexual capacity, he did drug Emma by putting sedatives in her tea, kidnap Mary Margaret and tie her to a chair, and then threatened Emma at gunpoint into... making a hat for him, with the intent of getting her to keep trying until she could make one magical enough to get him a ticket out of Storybrooke. Needless to say, his behavior in "Hat Trick" is inappropriate, coercive, and menacing. It's also shown in a later flashback that he was basically a sketchy con artist/thief back in his younger days, and he had a hand in manipulating Regina into becoming the Evil Queen, though it's unlikely he knew at the time just how much that was going to snowball into utter disaster.

However, what Jefferson does in "Hat Trick"-- the kidnapping, the threatening behavior-- isn't indicative of how he normally behaves, or how he would behave in an environment with more stability and less torment than where he's been for the past 28 years (plus however long he was in Wonderland). Once he gave up his life of crime to raise his daughter, he's shown to be upstanding, humble and kind, and though he's living in poverty, he's not interested in returning to his old, far more lucrative career. At least, not until Regina manipulates him into doing One Last Job (like that ever goes well). After that, he's basically been living under conditions designed to drive him mad. Twenty-eight years of isolation, of being forced to remember his real life and his cursed life while nobody else does (well, okay, except for Regina), and of being separated from his daughter, who'd been given a new family and no memories of him, he's a desperate man by the time Emma Swan comes into town and begins to disrupt the curse little by little.

And once his "make Emma make me a MAGIC HAT SOMEHOW" plan fails, he basically returns to being a shut-in, except when pushed and manipulated by Regina once again (in a canon point after the one I've selected for him) to help her retrieve an apple under the promise that it'll get him his daughter back. More often than not, Jefferson's harmless-- capable of being dangerous, but not willing to act on it-- especially when he's not being pushed around or going through persistent psychological torment.

And though he kidnaps Mary Margaret, he was right that if he hadn't, she would've tried to cross the town line and something terrible would've happened to her. (Which was Gold and Regina's plan the whole time.) Yes, he engages in some creepy behavior and seems like he's on the verge of murdering everyone with giant scissors, but it's largely misdirection (his murder scissors are for MAKING HATS, TYVM). He doesn't have it in him to actually hurt Emma or Mary Margaret (as Regina calls him out on not being the sort to commit murder). And he definitely never crosses any lines in any sexual way or is ever shown having any interest in taking advantage of anyone in that way or being sexually inappropriate.

He also shows that he's got an understanding of consent and some respect of boundaries. Though he's more than a little unhinged after, you know, decades of psychological torture, Jefferson doesn't cross any boundaries with his daughter. He's not SO desperate that he'll barge into her life ranting about the curse or kidnap her or anything like that. In fact, he outright balks at the suggestion to go to Grace (now "Paige"), because he refuses to be so cruel as to ruin her life like that. And, later in the series, once he's reunited with her, he doesn't get up to any shady business again. He's content to live happily ever after.

He isn't cruel, he isn't a bully, and he isn't interested in hurting others. All he wants is to be able to live in peace with his daughter. Sometimes, he exhibits poor judgment (ie WHENEVER HE MAKES A DEAL WITH REGINA AND IS THEN SHOCKED WHEN SHE FUCKS HIM OVER), but his motives are generally out of love for his daughter and his desire to be the kind of father he thinks she deserves. With the incentive provided to him by the city representatives, and by removing him from a situation of ongoing psychological torture, he really has no reason or desire to get up to anything shady or inappropriate here.

SAMPLES: Prose Sample & Network Sample (Eudtio TDM) BONUS: Pre-Sad Dad Canonpoint. Just to show idk. RANGE?
ANYTHING ELSE? Jefferson is basically just:


Also, Jefferson has no powers and won't be bringing anything with him besides a bunch of clothes and idk HATMAKING STUFF.

oh my god i'm so sorry for how tldr this god. I HAVE A PROBLEM.