[Hello network it's Black Jack again, and he looks just a displeased as the last time you saw him. At least it's for a different reason this time.]

I am... in need of some assistance.

[Asking for help on a public line usually isn't his style, but he's been getting a little desperate here.]

[Black Jack holds up a small and pathetic looking Magikarp, who happens to have his Skitty hanging off one of his fins. She may or may not have been using him as a fish shaped toy.]

Will someone please enlighten me on the purpose of this particular species? None of the others I have encountered have been so... useless.

[The Magikarp doesn't seem fazed by the fact his trainer is dissing him on the network or that he's got a pink cat chewing him. This is actually all great fun for him, and he "karps" happily.]

Thank you in advance.

Hi guys! If you want to get in touch with me for any reason, here are your options:


Plurk: I'm over at giraffles if you want to add me. My timeline is also public if you don't want to add but would like to send a PP!

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Email: You can also toss me a line at giraffeswitheyepatches@gmail.com. It gets sent right to my phone, so I'm sure to see it!

Personal Journal: giraffeswitheyepatches I don't use it often, but you can PM this account.

This Post: Or you can comment here too!

Player
Name: Cari
Personal Journal: giraffeswitheyepatches
E-mail: giraffeswitheyepatches@gmail.com
AIM/MSN: AIM - queenofthegiraffes
Timezone: EST
Current Characters in Route: Russell Tringham bioalchemic

Character
Name: Black Jack
Series: Black Jack
Timeline: Post 21 anime series
Canon Resource Links:

there are literally no good history links so I’ve written it out sorry aksdhlk

Black Jack started out life as Kuro Hazama, child to Kagamitsu and Mio Hazama. Things went smoothly, with no indicated hardships or out of the norm incidents, until he was five. While him and his mother where walking on a secluded beach, Kuro stepped on a bomb that had been buried in the sand. The blast tore him and his mother apart, and ultimately his mother did not survive her injuries. Kuro would have succumbed as well if it wasn’t for the intervention of the brilliant surgeon Jotaro Honma, who managed to repair his body that had been thoroughly mangled. Because of this he has surgical scars all over his body and had to go through years of grueling physical therapy to be able to function on his own again. On top of the loss of his mother and painful recovery, his father left with another woman shortly after the accident. Kuro could not forgive him for this, and it was part of the source of his ambition to become independent again; Because then, he could seek vengeance on him for abandoning him and his mother.

Another source of inspiration for young Kuro was none other than Jotaro Honma, the man who saved him. Kuro admired him for his skill and desire to help people, traits he also exhibited and honed. He eventually went to school to become a doctor and succeeded for a short while. However, there was an incident involving fellow classmate Megumi Kisaragi. Kuro and Megumi had mutual romantic feelings for each other that went largely unnoticed and unrequited by either of them for a long time. They came fully into the light when it was discovered that Megumi had late stage uterine and ovarian cancer, but by then no one would risk an operation, and Kuro was not allowed to do so because he was still a student. Kuro refused to listen to authority however and preformed a miraculous operation to save the woman he loved. Unfortunately, this huge breach in conduct caused his medical license to be revoked, and then Megumi left, claiming that she could no longer live as a woman as she was. This is when Kuro truly adopted his alias of Black Jack and started practicing underground medicine.

Throughout episodes in canon, Black Jack is shown practicing medicine without a license and charging expensive fees for it, which he can get away with due to his talent. Many a time it is a gangster or a rich patron that would hire him, but it’s also been shown that he will treat anyone so long as they can pay, even offering payment plans or accepting alternate forms of repayment. Black Jack can (usually) heal any ailment, even those deemed incurable by other doctors, and can diagnose what other doctors have been baffled by. Because of his now underground business and his constant dealings with shady people, he has witnessed firsthand the selfishness of humanity and how greed and cruelty dominate. He has also been a victim in this respect, as there were multiple incidents of him being held hostage and forced to perform medical services under threat of harm and death, and he’s even been tortured by a group looking for his supposed fortune.

And here we come across the story of Pinoko, the girl who would become more or less Black Jack’s adopted daughter. There was a patient who came in with a condition called ‘fetus in fetu’, in which during a pregnancy involving twins one fetus was enveloped by the other, and grew inside them as a sort of parasite. Normally this would be a simple operation to remove the underdeveloped twin from its host, but something odd had prevented all those who had tried before from doing so. The ‘tumor’ so to speak seemed to have a sort of physic will that caused whoever was trying to remove it to go crazy and become unable to operate. This was because the second fetus living within its sister was in fact almost entirely developed, and had a consciousness that deeply desired not to die. Black Jack promised to save the unborn twin if it allowed him to remove it, and true to his word he crafted an artificial body to hold the hodgepodge of organs and organic systems in. Thusly, the pint-sized Pinoko came in to existence. She would from thereon become Black Jack’s assistant and self proclaimed ‘wife’, although he treats Pinoko as a daughter and has often referred to her as such.

In canon, there is an antihero who appears as Black Jack’s rival of sorts. His name is Dr. Kiriko George, also known as Death incarnate, the practitioner of euthanasia who ends the lives of those suffering from incurable conditions. He is meant as Black Jack’s foil as the two of them both have hazy morals, although they both believe they are doing the ‘right’ thing, and work under the same expensive and underground concept. They often clash on how cases should be handled, sometimes reacting violently to the others presence, and will do their best to undermine the others work. Yet it is also been shown that they will work together to save someone and put aside their differences for the greater good. Black Jack has also saved Kiriko’s life on many occasions, and vice versa.


*Spoilers for the 21 Series*

21 years after the initial incident with the bomb on the beach, Black Jack receives an out of the blue telephone call from his father about him wishing to hire his son. He ignores it at first because of who it is, but eventually relents and goes to met him. It turns out, his new wife that he had abandoned Black Jack and his mother for had an accident in which her face was terribly scared with burns. Kagemitsu has heard about his son’s talent, and wants Black Jack to make his wife the most beautiful woman in the world. He is now rich so money is no object, and Black Jack agrees. Right before the operation, he asks his father if he had ever really loved his first wife. He tells him no, that he never did.

The operation goes smoothly and time passes to the day that the bandages are meant to come off. Kagemitsu is shocked; Black Jack has surgically altered his new wife’s face to an exact replica of his dead wife’s. When confronted, Black Jack says that his mother was the most beautiful woman in the world, and he would have given this woman any other face if his father had said he had honestly loved his mother, even just a little. He leaves, and returns home to find a bomb waiting for him on the kitchen table, and it goes off after a cryptic message plays. The general public, Pinoko included, are left to believe that he has died, although he does survive. Black Jack does his best to keep Pinoko uninvolved in this network of conspiracies and secret organizations he is uncovering for her own safety, but Pinoko tracks him down and ends up coming along for the ride.

It is later found that all of this leads back to the Noir Project, which had many years back consisted of a medical research team in which the members where the topmost doctors in the world. These doctors are the same ones that Black Jack has been secretly tracking down as he realizes they are interconnected. His evidence is an old photo he found of his mentor Honma with a group of people consisting of not only his father, but of some of the most prominent doctors in the community today. The Noir Project was put together to create advances in medical science, which they did succeed in doing to some degree. One notable and plot driven accomplishment is a highly advanced artificial heart that uses the electrical charge of a mutated, extraterrestrial virus as a power source. This virus was their crowning jewel however, because it seemed to stop the aging process once injected in to a humans bloodstream. They named it ‘Blood of Phoenix’ or B.O.P for short. Unfortunately, this ‘immortality’ comes with a price, as all the recipients of the virus in the Noir Project suddenly die of various complications caused by the virus attacking their bodies. ‘Phoenix Disease’, as the condition is then named, becomes airborn and starts to affect the population of the earth.

Because Black Jack’s father was directly involved in the Noir Project, he finds out that he initially left the project because they were ignoring ethics in their medical experiments. He ran back to Japan with her mother, married, and then Kuro was of course born. Then the Noir Project leader, Zen Matou, found him and in a ploy to get Kagemitsu to rejoin them, planted the bomb on the beach. So in order to protect his family, he left, and then lied later to Black Jack about loving his mother in an effort to continue to protect him. This revelation comes just before his father dies of Phoenix Disease, and leaves him more than a bit conflicted. Ultimately though, most of the other former members of the Noir Project also die, leaving behind only tattered family relations and a disease that threatens to kill the population of the world.

Black Jack is then left to pick up the pieces. He ends up contracting Phoenix Disease himself, and having to figure out a way to neutralize the virus. In the end he does, by using the two different versions of the virus (the original vs the one mutated through radiation) which have opposite electrical charges, for they then cancel each other out and die. This is then developed in to a vaccine which is distributed free of charge to make up for the Noir Project’s mistakes, and Black Jack continues on with his life and his underground practice.

Personality:

Black Jack is a cynical, sarcastic, and rude individual with a skewed set of morals, although he does have his bright points. Being an outcast for his looks and with the ensuing hostile disposition, he's developed the attitude that he doesn't need anyone but himself in order to succeed. Respecting other like-minded or strong-willed people? Yes. Trusting them with his life? Probably not, at least not until some sort of character relations have been established. He often struggles with himself as well, because the world does not operate in black and white no matter how much he would like it too.

Black Jack has also been told his entire life that he can’t do this and can’t do that, due to his once debilitating injuries and because of the political nature of human societies. He is extremely prideful, and will not accept this kind of talk from anyone, as he has proven so many wrong in the past before. He takes a cynical view on the world and people because of this as well, as he knows firsthand how self driven and cruel people can be. Black Jack is out for revenge for himself and his late mother, and can and will be cruel to people to get what he wants. And its worth mentioning that his less than legal practice often gets him into situations where he is the victim of or a witnesses to human depravity.

Here is where his skewed morals come in to play. He is often hypocritical, as he has taken on the new name of ‘Black Jack’ because his past self is ‘dead’, and yet he dwells on the past. On many occasion he is shown seeking his revenge or retelling stories about his youth. Black Jack is an underground doctor, one who has hurt and manipulated people, but will often take a righteous stance when he sees a horrendous crime or an unethical practice taking place. He may act as if these things don’t affect him, but they do, and sometimes he will provide her services free of charge to those he deems deserve it. On the other hand, he has been known not to help for the very same reasons if a person is found to be undeserving.

Black Jack deliberately puts forth a persona of being cold, callous and uncaring, which is meant to prevent him from developing bonds with other people. After the incident with Megumi, and his continued descent into the underworld where the depravity of man is so blatantly exposed, he believes it is better for all parties involved if no one knows he has a heart. This is not the case as over and over again it is shown that he honestly cares about people and about helping them. More likely than not, he’ll treat a patient knowing full well he probably won’t ever see the money they owe him, or he’ll take alternative payments; such as the one time a child gave him a pinwheel toy in return for reattaching his arm and leg. This is a side that is still rarely seen or recognize by people however, and his fabricated persona dominates his reputation.

Strengths/Weaknesses:

Strengths

First Aid - Black Jack’s medical expertise means he can cure ills and administer first aid even when he lacks equipment and less than ideal conditions.

Resourcefulness - He’s adept at using materials on had to come up with solutions to problems, even outside of the medical field, a la MacGyver.

Drive - Once Black Jack decides he’s going to do something, not much is going to stop him, be it revenge or saving someone’s life.

Secret Philanthropy - As much as he will deny it, he does enjoy helping people and while he insists that they pay for his services, he often takes alternative payment methods and has treated people free of charge if he feels as if they deserved it.

Weaknesses

Arrogance - His way is the right way, obviously. Oh and his opinions are always superior. It takes a lot to get him to admit he was wrong about something, and he has a tendency to go out of his way to prove his viewpoints, often harming others or ignoring important things while doing so.

Bluntness - Black Jack is an ass. And he has no problem being mean to people he doesn’t like, and that thing called tact is something he lacks.

Lack of Faith - He doesn’t trust anyone but himself, and general thinks people are terrible. Black Jack doesn’t have a very high opinion of humanity in general. (Because people suck, yo)

Hypocrisy - He’s so much of a hypocrite it hurts. Like complaining about Kiriko charging absurd amounts of money for euthanasia when he does the same thing for his illegal medical practice.

Criminal Activity - Black Jack isn’t above doing underhanded things to get what he wants. Though he’s against hurting people in general, he’s also been hell bent on taking revenge on people for his mother’s death. Also he practices illegally without a medical license.

Pokémon Information
Affiliation: Trainer
Starter: Skitty
Password: Caramel Popcorn

Samples
First Person Sample:

[The gear turns on to show a feed of a very disgruntled looking man. The scars on his face make it look like he lost a fight with a chainsaw. Or a shark. Or a shark with a chainsaw.]

[You get the idea.]

I don’t care if this is an elaborate ruse, or some sort of prank, because it isn’t funny.

[Is he pissed? Oh, only a little.]

People’s lives are on the line. I don’t have time for this nonsense.

If you have business with me I would prefer if you were upfront about it. I don’t appreciate being dragged around like this.

[Really people you could just ask for his help instead of kidnapping him all the time.]

[He gives the screen a long, cold glare.]

This is ridiculous.

Third Person Sample:

He wanted to say he’d been in stranger situations than this; but no, this was definitely taking the proverbial cake. Black Jack would have almost preferred that it was something drastic over taking the medical field again, because super viruses and trauma were things he could handle. Those where things he knew, things he could predict. Not even the situation with the Noir project had been this weird.

This was way out of his area of expertise.

Black Jack frowned at the map in his hands. This strange county with its domesticated monsters bore a resemblance to the Japan he knew, but at the same time it most certainly wasn’t the same place. The landscape may be more or less the same, yet it truly had to be a separate world. It was a hard concept to swallow.

If it was a hallucination or a dream, it was a pretty damn realistic one.

“And just what do they expect me to do?” He grumbled aloud, but only received a purr in return from the Skitty beside him. She was an absurd creature, disproportioned and brightly colored, and by all reasoning shouldn’t exist in the first place. Yet for all of Black Jack’s logic based reasoning he couldn’t deny what was right in front of his eyes. For all the impossibilities, the creature was very much alive. And she wasn’t the only odd beast in the surrounding area.

Pinoko would have loved it all. Her adoptive father was far less enthusiastic about it, and remembering her gave him another reason to want to be rid of the place. There had to be someone behind this, organizing the complicated ruse, and Black Jack intended to find out who and… convince them to give him passage back home.

He had wasted far too much time here as it was.

Current Location: Viridian City

Pokemon:

Roster

Skitty ♀ | Pinoko OT: Black Jack Level: 14 Type: Normal Ability: Cute Charm Nature & Characteristic: Sassy :: Strong Willed Moveset: Fake Out, Growl, Tail Whip, Tackle, Foresight, Attract, Sing Met at New Bark Town (level 5) | April 21st, 2014 Pinoko is a sweet-as-candy Skitty who reminds Black Jack a lot of his adopted daughter back home, so he named the 'mon after her. She doesn't mind when her trainer gets all moody and broody, and in fact will seek out ways to cheer him up. (Sometimes it even works, dat Cute Charm yo) Pinoko can also be feisty when she chooses to be-- which is usually in battle. She has a trainer to protect, after all! She also loves pretty things, and wants to be the best dressed Skitty in all of Kanto.

Magikarp ♂ | Kiriko OT: Black Jack Level: 4 Type: Water Ability: Swift Swim Nature & Characteristic: Naive :: Highly Persistent Moveset: Splash Met at Kanto Ocean (level 4) | April 23rd, 2014 This pathetic fish somehow managed to flop itself onto the deck of the ferry while Black Jack was traveling to Kanto. He felt sorry for it and took it in-- And now sorely regrets it. Named for the arch rival/nemesis/jerk he had to work with once, Kiriko the Magikarp doesn't always deserve the borderline abuse he's put through but puts up with it because he's got a trainer OH BOY!! 8D And maybe someday, he'll be a majestic Gyarados who will make everyone jealous. Someday... Pinoko also has a tendency to use Kiriko as a toy, batting and tossing him around and testing out new moves on him. At least she doesn't do it maliciously and the two of them get along just fine.