Player: owlie
Contact: liberos
Age: 32
Other Characters: n/a

Name: jayce talis
Canon: arcane
Canon Point: season 2, episode 6
Age: 32

Backstory: wiki
Personality:
+Default emotional state and temperament: what is your character normally like? What personality do they show to the world, and is this at odds with how they really feel?

jayce starts off as a innovative man with big dreams; he's charismatic, a bit of a goof and very kind hearted, emotionally ripe and extremely tactile, but many will tend to ease away from him after he opens his mouth— because he's notably been called quirky and strange. he is a scientist completely obsessed with his research on magic and dedicates his life to controlling arcane energy to help the working class and make lives better through his research.  the result of being questioned and rejected for his ideas is jayce talis eventually being a people pleaser for a years. he wants approval and he most certainly wants to make everyone happy at the same time to achieve that approval— and we all know that doesn't work. jayce has wants, desires, but he is very easily malleable in season 1 due to believing that's how he'll get hextech to give more and more to the people. he is pulled into the council's politics and strays away from the lab— even completely out of his element, jayce is flexible and strives to do the right thing under the pressure of expectations and being hextech's poster boy. he masks a whole ton, attending parties he doesn't want to and flashing his charisma to be accepted. he tries his best to fight corruption, a drug empire and even give freedom to the undercity, he tries his best to protect his partner, viktor, all of which were things the council did not care about in their centuries of reign while jayce was there for a few days. but there is a price for stretching oneself too thin. at the very end of season one is when jayce begins to realize he shouldn't care what others think, because that didn't really get him anywhere. only this, with viktor's help and mel's backing.

fast forward to season two: he gets transported to a doomed timeline after touching the anomaly, falls down a ravine and suffers a serious tibia-fibula open fracture. jayce spends months in the dark, starves, falls ill, and has plenty of time to think about everything he's done between his fever spells and tweaking. his fight to survive and journey to pull himself out of the crevices, alone, has worn jayce's nativity down to reservation. he now questions before wishing to please, knows the importance of following his wants and needs before anyone else's, and has shed his mask in front of others and cares not for his appearance; in contrast to properly grooming himself for the masses and then keeping his unkempt hair and beard post-anomaly. despite the hardened exterior he uses to complete heavy-duty tasks, jayce maintains his heart. trauma has not sucked the love out of him but makes it even stronger; the difference is, jayce is more selective about who he trusts with that heart and his integrity.

+Motivations and goals: What drives them, in both the long term and the short term? What pushes them to keep going even when things are tough?

jayce is initially driven by idealism and ambition. he wants to prove himself as an inventor and scientist and receive recognition for his work as much as validation. this sometimes has him acting on impulse to secure his beliefs and standing in face of those who doubt him and his work. he believes his dream is hextech, revolving around the creation of a world where progress, innovation, and science can solve societal issues, such as poverty, inequality, and even dangerous conflicts. He hopes that by making Piltover the center of technological and scientific advancement, he can create a legacy of lasting change. throughout season 1, jayce's ideals conflict with the realities of power dynamics and the ethical implications of his technology, which eventually has him resigning from the council to return to working in the lab with viktor. his time post anomaly in season 2 drastically changes his goals and motivations— jayce is motivated by the weight of responsibility and the reveal of what could happen in the future as much as what his dream had been all along: his partnership. he doubles down and defends not only piltover from annihilation, but doesn't everything he must, even in difficulty, to save his partner and join him to destroy what they've created together.

+Regrets and fears: What holds them back? What do they want to avoid at all costs?

jayce's regrets and fears are tied to the consequences of his ambition, decisions and actions. the innovation he pushed for hextech eventually brought horrific repercussions to the future, but the entirety of this is a bit of a paradox (in that hextech's existence is heavily tied to the partnership between viktor and jayce, who will always gravitate to each other in every timeline possible to save one another as long as hextech exists in that timeline, which we know is something the both of them don't actually regret; without hextech, there would be no jayce and viktor, and that is something they can't seem to bear).

jayce's time in the ravine also shows us how much he regrets how he went about things, how he ultimately lost himself in politics despite attempting his best; he still fell into a brief corruption arc, regrets betraying those that were closest to him because of his poor decision making. the death of a child in one of silco's shimmer lab is something that haunts him— jayce is a person that's always wanted to help, to do good and put the very magic that saved his life into the hands of the people who need it most— instead, he created the mercury hammer to do the opposite, destroy lives, and it became the very thing to shatter is leg and disable him for life— and the very thing he broke apart to get himself out of the crevice. when faced with how much he strayed from his principles after viktor was caught in the blast and especially post ravine, it immediately made him want to resign and return to who he was: a scientist that belonged in the lab with his partner, whatever the cost of that could be.

+Breaking points: What can cause them to fly off the handle in rage? Or break down in tears? Or alternately just shuts them down entirely?

jayce holds trust in very high regard, and any betrayal that may make hims feel like he was taken advantage (such as when he accuses mell of manipulating himself and viktor)  can push him into a fit. if his efforts and capability is questioned or disregarded, it is sure to make him snap with frustration.

jayce's greatest moments of breakdown have related to his experiences of massive personal loss or intense moral conflict that lead to results directly connected to his poorly made choices.  the weight of his failures, particularly those that his personal actions have contributed to, can lead him to break down (the ravine is a perfect example of this).

+Values: What do they admire in themselves or in other people? Do they have any codes or beliefs that they try to uphold?

• Progress, Kindness, Empathy – jayce's wish to put magic into the hands of the lower working class is a staple of his values during most of season one and what he questions in season two (not exactly questioning progress itself but if he's lived up to that value he's upholded for so long— we see this when he creates hextech weapons once feeling pressured and reaponsible to do so, which was one of the worst mistakes he's made). he wants to help people the way magic has helped him, and above all really wishes to see what people could do with it under an idealistic lense.
• Justice – jayce values correctness, loyalty and truth, because he is a man of those. if something unjust is happening, jayce fights against it, and it has in more ways than one urged him to make some of the most impulsive decisions— it's one of the core values he feels like he betrays during his ascension to council power, being taught that if he wished to have what he wanted he had to play the political game— not the righteous one. later in season two, jayce abandons his post from the council to return to this valuable asset of himself.
• Responsibility – if jayce has to do something, and fates depend on him, you can bet your ass he'll hauled that mantle over him. despite being a man of science, jayce takes only roles he's not exactly fit for and does the job a little too well— because when respinsibility calls, he does not shy away. he's broken promises before through difficult circumstances, but the jayce of today would go to horrid lengths to keep one.

+How do they handle change and trauma? Specifically the changes and trauma of turning into a monster?

when faced with the trauma of his deeds, jayce is canonly shown to be obsessive and overanalyze himself, others and important events in an attempt to "solve" the problem (ravine 101). he doesn't have much time in series to process what he goes through, being thrown into loop after loop and prioritizing the future of piltover and viktor's fate over what he's gone through. when asked, jayce deflects, but mostly because he knows his fate and doesn't seem to get close to anyone he used to be, rejecting reconnection in favor of keeping his promise to viktor.

in a healthier setting, jayce copes rather well with his emotions by externalizing them and talking about them. crying, if he must. while true that jayce's recent trauma has made him more reserved about who he shares himself with, I still feel like if given the chance and feeling safe enough to, he would ease into his core behavior and talk about it, cry about it— try and work himself around it and pick himself up. he is not one to allow himself another fall because he couldn't adapt and stand his ground.

in terms of becoming a monster, I feel like it's a bit of a similar route; jayce is doomed and has one goal he'd like to get back to, and that's viktor— his body has already gone through its own traumatic changes as is, and so long as it doesn't get in the way of his duties. if it does, almost a certainty that jayce will obsess over a solution— not to even change himself back (because after arcane's ending he most definitely doesn't have an attatchment to his body), but to find a way to adapt to it.

+Closing statements: Anything else you wish to add or sum up?

Powers/Abilities: jayce is an ordinary human with a big, scientific brain. he's an inventor and can go go gadget in a ditch with no tools, so that might be worthy to note. he also has a magic rune in his wrist that could power up his hammer and makes it shoot the weirdest load. now, jayce avoids using it because overuse can cause the rune's hexcorization (a fancy word for magic metal disease) to spread faster and shorten his lifespan (he'll "evolve" into a metal doll)
Inventory: really tattered clothes, an embedded rune in his wrist, a leg brace and the corrupt mercury hammer
Game Plans: jayce would first and foremost want to figure out a way back to his timeline to save the world and his partner, though this may change depending on any canon updates to end series (which there will be, come the future). he'd mostly be worried about making sure viktor is safe, but i also wanted to indulge in is him reconnecting with others after his isolation and canon events that, while it gave him time to think it didn't give him time to cope or process. being a monster will also come with its challenges (mobility, which i'm eying tf out of) that will give him chances to bond while they roadtrip.
Monster Choice (in no particular order):

a) TAURUS: strength and stamina scream jayce's current arc in how he defies his limits and saves himself through sheer determination and will to live. it's also a bit humorous to remember that jayce has a guitar in his room early season 1, so he's also musically gifted?? the affinity to earth and stone feels like a callback to his struggles in the ravine, and just— i love this fit. i would slot him under a draft horse centaur.

b) CELESTIAL: celestials are seen as protectors and jayce does not stray from that at all, being called "defender of tomorrow" in LoL lore. it also exaggerates his already strong sense of justice and has the potential to make him a little more prone to act out violently, surprisingly! guardian compulsion fits his core values, and the cleansing magic could be a sweet callback to what he has always wanted to do with magic: help people. i would still lean into a draft horse themed unicorn for this and use his astral form as inspiration. please look at how fruity..... please can you see the vision

c) UNDEAD: now this is also a gritty good option. like. jayce is already dead. or at least he will be, eventually and sooner rather than later. the theme of this would mess more with him, i feel, which could be tremendously juicy. it is a reminder of how feral he has become, coming out of that ravine. it is a callback to his guilt revolving around destruction. this would cause him more mental anguish, but also give him more room to cope with those themes the most because he's going to be a walking reminder of that. hilariously, they have the potential to use ice magic— a childhood trauma born from being caught in a snowstorm as a child. he hates the cold. basically this is the option to choose if you hate jayce, or if you have a freaky sense of humor like me lmao. i would go, again, with the draft horse theme and set him up with draugr.
Vehicle Choice: an iridescent rainbow pickup with butterfly decals.
Sample: top level