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[scythegun]

PLAYER
YOUR NAME: Redd
18+?: Yes!
CONTACT: pokerap | AIM: writersblockredd | Discord: pokerap#0934
CHARACTERS IN GAME: N/A
RESERVATION LINK: Here!

CHARACTER: CANON SECTION
NAME: Yeager
AGE: Never stated in canon but he's presumably around the same age as Raven, which would put him in his mid-thirties
CANON: Tales of Vesperia (XBox 360 version)

CANON HISTORY:

Tales of Vesperia @ Wikipedia | Yeager @ Tales Wiki | In-depth summary of Yeager's appearances (IT'S REALLY LONG THOUGH)

Yeager's canon has been listed as the XBox 360 version of the game due to the differences between them. The PS3 version of the game was only released in Japan and comes with a few upgrades including more boss battles, replayable boss battles and cutscenes/skits, and two new party members. This changes the story a bit with the inclusion of Flynn and Patty as playable characters, but for the most part the main story stays the same. The biggest difference here is Yeager's voice and accent - in the PS3 version (and the Japanese version of the XBox 360 game), Yeager occasionally speaks in English, while in the translated XBox 360 version he has a thick German accent and uses German words on occasion. I will be playing this version as opposed to the Japanese version and will be following the XBox 360's sequence of events.

I've provided a summary of Yeager's appearances in canon since he's not mentioned at all in most game summaries. It's very long but I believe it covers everything. I'll try to cover everything in the app so you don't need to go read that, but if you have any questions about the timeline that should answer it! I can answer any other questions you have about the story as well, and I apologize for just how long this app is.

CANON PERSONALITY:

Yeager seems to be a pleasant man; he's smooth-talking and he's almost always smiling. Nothing seems to get under his skin. He's the sort of guy that's easy to get along with. He seems like a perfectly ordinary man; there really isn't anything all that special about him aside from his accent.

And then you realize he's orchestrating a war between the Empire and the guilds, running two guilds, selling arms and blastia under the table, and posing as a completely different person all at the same time. Yeager is a very busy man.

The charming personality isn't an act, however. He wouldn't get very far if he wasn't a good salesman, and considering just how far Leviathan's Claw (Yeager's main guild) reaches within the game, it's safe to say Yeager is very good at what he does. Leviathan's Claw is a guild that covers a good amount of things - selling blastia and arms, working as mercenaries to protect wealthy (and often evil) clients, and assassinations being the most frequent assignments. Yeager runs everything on top of handling Ruin's Gate, another guild and one that is considered very influential. Ruin's Gate is a guild focusing on archaeology and excavation - which is where Yeager gets the blastia from. Regaey is the leader of Ruin's Gate, and given the backwards name, it's obviously just Yeager in disguise. Regaey looks absolutely nothing like Yeager and acts nothing like him, right down to losing the accent and stuttering almost constantly. Regaey is very soft-spoken and hesitant, lacking all of Yeager's usual confidence and charm. Yeager's acting skills are exceptional, which plays into how he presents himself to potential clients and enemies alike.

Speaking of enemies, Yeager might act like he's the easiest person in the world to get along with, but there are very few people who actually like him. In fact, Yeager is attacked by Don Whitehorse, the leader of the guilds, and someone Yeager actually likes. Don claims the world would be a better place without Yeager in it, which is entirely true. Yeager isn't offended by this or by the attempt on his life and strangely enough, he shows up to Don's funeral. It's the one moment of the game where Yeager actually seems genuinely bothered by something, even if it's only for a few brief moments. His relationship with Don Whitehorse is never explored in game, but Yeager clearly does feel the loss of the leader of the Guild Union, just as everyone else does. Despite the fact that Don attempted to kill him earlier that day. He's a complicated man.

Aside from this once instance, Yeager almost never shows any emotion other than mild amusement. He never gets angry. He never gets scared (though he can portray fear very well as Regaey). This blasé attitude is not something Yeager puts on as a front, however. This is how Yeager always is, and there's a reason for his carefree attitude towards literally everything. Ten years ago Yeager served the Empire as a member of the Imperial Knights and fought in the Great War against the Entelexeia. It was during this conflict that Yeager died. He also lost someone very important to him, a fellow knight named Casey who was most likely his girlfriend, although canon isn't very clear on that. Yeager was brought back to life by Alexei - the Commandant of the Imperial Knights - through the use of a special Hermes Blastia. Casey was not revived. This blastia gave Yeager a second chance at life, but unlike Schwann Oltorain, Yeager chose not to ally with Alexei and left the Empire for the guilds. Since those who join the guilds are no longer under the Empire's protection, this was a safe move to avoid Alexei. Ten years later, Yeager's entire world view is so warped by having a second chance at life he can't genuinely care about much.

This is particularly notable when it comes to Gauche and Droite, his adopted daughters. Despite caring for them in some form, Yeager usually utilizes them as a means to escape. They show up and throw smoke bombs to cover his escape several times and even fight for him at one point. They're members of Leviathan's Claw and the people Yeager is closest to, but they still can't get into his base without being questioned by Yeager's minions, the Red Eyes. Yeager does care for them, but ultimately his version of "caring" is so subdued it's outweighed by his distrust. With all of that said, while he doesn't appear to care for them very much during the course of the game, it's obvious that he does care enough to put his life on the line for them. He's pressured into working for Alexei using both Gauche and Droite as well as the orphanage they came from (that Yeager still funds) as leverage. This ultimately ends in Yeager's death and he refuses to tell anyone why he did anything.

There is no one Yeager trusts more than himself. He does everything on his own and when he absolutely cannot get himself out of a situation, he has Gauche and Droite nearby to jump in and cover him. If Yeager trusted anyone else, he wouldn't be doing everything on his own - he's doing a lot for one person to handle, after all. During his final battle with the party Yeager chooses to fight alone. Gauche and Droite are nearby, but they flee after Yeager dies and do not interfere with the battle at all, because he ordered them not to. Even at the very end Yeager won't tell the party why he was doing everything he did, because he can't trust anyone. This extends to Alexei of course, though Yeager did die trying to defend Alexei due to that nasty blackmail mentioned above. Yeager continues to have difficulties with authority figures, news at eleven.

Despite his laid-back attitude towards almost everything, Yeager does have emotions. He was upset at Don Whitehorse's passing and during his final battle he's obviously manic and thoroughly enjoying pushing himself to his limit in one final rush. There is another side to Yeager that conflicts heavily with the arms dealing, warmongering asshole Yeager presents himself as to the party. Yeager adopted Gauche and Droite, which is odd enough, but he also sends a good amount of money to the orphanage the girls lived in. Yeager's payments kept the orphanage from going under entirely and after his death there is a sidequest the party can take on to fund the orphanage. While one good act certainly doesn't make up for all the terrible things Yeager has done (and tried to force others into doing), it is a surprising gesture of kindness from a man who shows none throughout the game. Yeager's a complicated man, but ultimately he is human with the same good sides and bad sides as everyone else. The bad heavily outweighs the good here, though. Funding an orphanage is nice and all, but it really doesn't balance out wanting to start a war for profit.

Yeager is a powerful and influential man with both the Empire and the guilds and his efforts ultimately pushed both sides entirely too close to war, but in the end it was really something Yeager did simply because he needed something to do with himself. His apathy has gotten so bad over the past ten years that he truly believed death to be preferable to continuing to live when he should have died in the Great War. Despite his bitterness at the world in general, Yeager puts his all into everything he does and when he dies, it's not on his terms, but he takes as much control over the situation as he can. He led the party to Zaphias knowing they would confront Alexei and eventually face him. Never mind the fact that his daughters watched him die and the party - consisting of several teenagers and young adults - had to kill him to get through to Alexei, who was trying to activate a superweapon. The only thing that mattered was everything going according to Yeager's plans. This selfishness is an extreme example, but Yeager will ultimately choose his own happiness over everyone else's. That includes his daughters.

Despite this fatalistic world view and the desire for everything to finally be over, Yeager can find happiness, even if it is in brief amounts. He genuinely enjoys his work, he cares for his daughters, and even when things don't go as planned, it gives him a chance to improvise. He loves challenges and the chance to really push himself, so his final battle with the party was an incredibly emotional moment - he finally had a chance to go all out and see what he could do with the blastia keeping him alive. Unfortunately for him, he was pulled from before the battle could conclude and he could die, so that's going to be difficult to adapt to. Yeager does pride himself on his ability to adapt, however, so he'll work himself out as quickly as he can.

While he comes off as a very casual, laid-back man, Yeager is a complete mess who focuses on living in the moment. Ultimately, he doesn't find as much meaning in the second life he was given as he'd want. Unlike Raven - the party member Yeager serves as a foil to - Yeager does not overcome this and chooses to allow himself to die. He might not have wanted to die so soon, but with Alexei's interference Yeager has little choice but to fight the party. He might as well make the best of it though, and he'll try to take as much control of the situation as he can.

SKILLS/ABILITIES:

List of Artes | Caress of Death (Yeager's Mystic Arte) | Hermes Blastia
(I've provided these links for the extra details, though everything is covered below!)

Yeager is a Tales character, which of course means he has ridiculous combat potential. Yeager's battles take place against the party, which consists of four powerful characters at any given time. Naturally Yeager can hold his own against them because he's a boss. Yeager uses a really odd weapon, even for a Tales game: his weapon is part-gun, part-scythe, part-whatever it wants to be at any given moment - including a sword, shield, and a crossbow. This means he can attack at both close range and from further away, so Yeager controls the battlefield exceptionally well. He's equally good with close range and long range attacks and no matter what shape his weapon takes, he can utilize it perfectly. This weapon is never explained in-game, but it isn't magic and is probably one-of-a-kind. The perks of being an arms dealer, I guess. The list of artes he has access to is above, but the important thing about them is that they're all physical attacks relying on his weapon and his blastia.

Perhaps the most important thing to note is how Yeager uses his arts. In Tales of Vesperia artes can only be used if a person has a blastia. This is done by using aer (a natural part of the world) to grant the user power. Blastia come in all sorts of forms, but to shorten an incredibly long explanation, Yeager has a Hermes Blastia attached to his chest. Most people wear blastia as accessories, but Yeager is special because ten years ago, he died in the Great War. The Hermes Blastia given to him brought him back to life. Hermes Blastia are exceptionally powerful and this is how Yeager is capable of using all of his abilities. The downside is that it is connected directly to his lifeforce instead of aer. That said, using a ton of abilities will apparently not kill him, since both he and Raven can be completely reckless with how much they attack and neither of them suffer much for it. Using nonstop attacks like that will tire Yeager out, however.

The Hermes Blastia is not the only way to kill Yeager, but it does make him much more resilient than he has any right to be. Raven survives being (presumably) crushed to death, so it's safe to say it would take a lot to kill Yeager. Destroying the blastia is a surefire way to kill him though, and since it's so large and located in the middle of his chest, that's a definite concern.

As an arms dealer Yeager has an extensive knowledge of both weapons and blastia. His own weapon is unique and it doesn't appear to be easy to handle at all. Yeager has a good deal of knowledge at his disposal which makes him both an excellent salesman and very dangerous. He's smooth-talking and can be charming as well, so it's usually quite easy for him to manipulate people and get what he wants from them.

Also worth noting is Yeager's ridiculous ability to disguise himself. He spends a bit of the game masquerading as Regaey (yes, no one notices that it's just his name backwards) who looks nothing like Yeager and sounds nothing like Yeager. Regaey is quiet and soft-spoken, constantly stuttering and sounding unsure of himself while Yeager is the exact opposite. Being able to drop his accent and fool everyone into thinking Regaey is a completely different person is a pretty impressive skill, though not something Yeager can pull off easily. Yeager was also capable of running two guilds (Leviathan's Claw and Ruin's Gate) and trying to instigate a war, all while selling arms, handling blastia sales, and overseeing excavations at dig sites as Regaey. He's been a busy man and clearly he's capable of a good amount when he's actually motivated.

CHARACTER: AU SECTION
AU NAME: Jaeger (real name: Gunther Schwarz)
AU AGE: 34
PHYSICAL DIFFERENCES:

The first (and most obvious) difference is that Jaeger's no longer running on a heart blastia. He's a perfectly ordinary human, and that includes his appearance. Instead of dark blue/purple/some other color (because canon can't decide) hair, Jaeger's hair is jet black and his eyes are dark blue. He doesn't style his hair the same way either, instead he has it shorter and all slicked back with evenly-cut bangs. His taste in clothing is also a little different too - he's traded his unique suits for something more traditional and the cravat has been swapped out for standard ties. He's still a sharp dresser, but he prefers normal colors most of the time. Sometimes he'll get a little creative, though! Jaeger also has a very thick German accent, but this time it actually makes sense. He cannot drop his accent at will, but he does intentionally play it up because he likes it.

AU HISTORY:

★ Born somewhere in Germany to a very wealthy family as "Gunther Schwarz". He's one of several children somewhere in the middle, and as such he felt overshadowed by his other siblings for most of his life.
★ As a child his parents gave him whatever he wanted, but they were mostly absent from his life and he was raised mainly by nannies.
★ Aside from this his childhood was surprisingly normal, except for the part where he often tried to trick his siblings into getting into fights with one another. He wasn't very close to his siblings and they fought often. The only member of his family he actually liked was a distant cousin named Ferid (seventhprogenitor, with permission from the player). Together they were little terrors at the family gatherings.
★ Jaeger went to a fancy private school where he was decently popular, but he orchestrated schemes to get the more popular kids into some serious trouble in school because playing with people like that was fun. He left high school with a spotless record, even though many of the other students suspected him of masterminding these schemes. He didn't keep any of his high school friends because they were all suspicious of him.
★ After high school Jaeger went to a fancy university where he studied all sorts of things before finally settling for a business degree.
★ Because money wasn't an issue, Yeager traveled around Europe and picked up a lot of interesting and unique items. He brought them back home and opened up a curio shop, because he thoroughly enjoys tricking people into buying "magical" items from foreign lands. (He makes everything up, of course.)
★ He got involved in some pretty nasty, shady things and picked up the name "Jaeger" to use in place of his own far-more-recognizable name. He sided with a gang and while he never got involved in the fighting, he was involved in buying and selling weapons for the gang.
★ During this time he wound up with a girlfriend who was also very involved in the gang. She seemed to be very friendly and open, but in reality she was keeping plenty of things from him.
★ This went on for quite some time until he was very nearly caught. His girlfriend tipped the police off about where their most recent arms deal would be and Jaeger was nearly caught up in it. After that he fled to the states (at his parents' urging), where he found the charming city of Recollé. He didn't initially plan to settle down, but it's been three years and he's made no plans to leave.
★ (He hasn't spoken about his ex-girlfriend since then and he's done everything in his power to pretend that never happened at all instead of actually coming to terms with his issues. Jaeger now refuses to let himself get close to anyone.)
★ Jaeger chose Recollé because of Ferid. He'd kept in contact with Ferid over the years and even though they weren't nearly as close as they had been as children, at least Ferid was a familiar face.
★ He set up his curio shop again in Recollé and he still receives money from his parents to keep him on the straight and narrow. They believe that he's turned his life around and they're perfectly fine supporting him as long as he doesn't doesn't end up involved in anything awful again.
★ What they don't realize is that he's still involved in shady things in Recollé.
★ Some time ago Jaeger met up with Albert Wesker (manufactured, with permission from the player) and while the two don't really click personality-wise, they do have something the other wants. Wesker uses Jaeger's business to put his products into circulation while Jaeger gets to be involved in shady things and make money off it. He provides Wesker with information on the people who buy his products as well.

A full list of CR as discussed on the AU planning post can be found here.

AU PERSONALITY:

Jaeger ultimately shares a lot of the same traits as Yeager - they're both shady businessmen who thrive in situations that they've set up and they both enjoy pitting people against one another just to see what happens. Where they differ is very important, however, starting with Jaeger's extreme desire to be noticed.

Growing up as one of the middle children in a large family that was emotionally distant wasn't really good for Jaeger. He didn't stand out from his other siblings at all and he felt like no one paid any attention to him which is what led him to start acting out in the first place. This has carried over into adulthood; he cares deeply about being noticed and having attention on him, though he's finally chilled out a bit and no longer tries to make everything about him, always. He's very aware of this flaw of his and tries to cover it as best he can, but even so he's still the sort of person to want to stand out in a crowd. He's found that the underworld is a better place for this than trying to make a name for himself in legal ways (or maybe it's just more fun this way).

Unlike Yeager, Jaeger never had anyone to keep him in check. While Casey was very important to Yeager and ultimately led to a lot of complicated issues after she (and Yeager) died, Jaeger never had anyone to serve as a buffer. The girlfriend he had back in Germany ended up stabbing him in the back, so she certainly wasn't a good influence on him. As a result, he's unrepentant in his awfulness and he really doesn't care that he's a terrible person. While he is capable of being empathetic, it's very stunted and he doesn't usually bother. He'll screw people over to make money because he likes it and he won't consider how that's going to mess people up because why bother? He's selfish and self-centered just like Yeager, but Jaeger takes it to the extreme.

Another negative is his temper. Yeager couldn't really be bothered by anything because he was already so screwed up, but Jaeger doesn't have the same problems. Normally he seems unflappable and unfazed, but he's capable of getting angry and losing his cool eventually. He's patient, but that can only last for so long before he snaps. He prefers words to violence and won't physically lash out at anyone. The patience threshold is a big difference from Yeager, who never actually got angry during the course of the game.

It probably goes without saying by now, but Jaeger's spoiled and used to getting his way. He only has to pester his parents into getting more money out of them and has never really had to work a day in his life. He works because he enjoys what he does, but he doesn't really have a good grasp of money and tends to do whatever he wants without taking much care about the consequences. Nearly being busted back home has taught him to be a bit more careful, but he's used to being able to buy his way out of trouble. All of this makes him a little less mature than his canon counterpart.

On the plus side, Jaeger's soft spot for children is actually more pronounced than Yeager's - Jaeger spends a lot of time volunteering at the Recollé orphanage with the younger kids and he also donates money to them whenever he's got the chance. He enjoys teaching children and while he's not very fond of teenagers he does still help them out when he's asked to. He's not a good influence or role model or anything of the sort, but he is capable of caring and it's even more obvious than Yeager's was. If Jaeger had adopted kids of his own, he certainly wouldn't be treating them like bodyguards. However, he's very aware that he wouldn't make a good father and he knows his lifestyle isn't the idea to raise children, so he'd never do that to a child in the first place (which is once again showing way more self-awareness than Yeager ever did).

Going along with the above, Jaeger actually is capable of genuinely caring about people and he doesn't do it in the backwards manner Yeager does. Jaeger can be fiercely protective of the people he cares for, but he doesn't usually get to that point since he does try to hold everyone at arm's length. He's not close to his family members and he's not close to anyone in Recollé either. The last time he got close to someone it ended badly, so he'd prefer to avoid that. With all this said, Jaeger does care and he cares a lot, unlike Yeager who was barely capable of caring.

Perhaps the biggest difference between Yeager and Jaeger is a direct result of the heart blastia. While Yeager lived in the moment and had difficulty finding meaning in his second life, Jaeger has never had to face that sort of struggle. He thoroughly enjoys the life he has and he does what he wants to get enjoyment out of it, but he's never had an existential crisis over dying and coming back to life, obviously. This has shaped his world view differently; he's still having fun and enthused about his life instead of struggling to find meaning. Jaeger's perfectly content to never question the meaning of life, honestly. He lives in the moment as well, but it's not in the same way Yeager does. Jaeger's not quite as screwed up in that regard, thankfully.

Jaeger doesn't use his fake name as a means of escape like Yeager does. "Jaeger" is simply another part of Gunther, unlike Yeager and the man he was during the Great War. Because Jaeger doesn't use this as a means of escape, he acts exactly the same regardless of what name he's going by. He likewise doesn't have Yeager's ability to drop his accent or disguise himself and lead a double life to the same extent. Jaeger is a busy man, but he's not running two guilds. Like with the above, this means that Jaeger's a little more put-together than Yeager.

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[scythegun]

For assumed CR Yeager's comment on the AU workshop is over here (along with comments to Yoshiko, Elda, Aligula, and Ferid), but here's everything that's been planned:

★ Distant relatives: Ferid Bathory (seventhprogenitor) & Aligula/Alison (innocentloveholic)
Ferid and Jaeger were terrors growing up. They both pitted their cousins (and siblings in Jaeger's case) against each other because they found it amusing. As they grew up they kept in touch, though it wasn't anything more than cordial letters (and pictures of Alison... a lot of pictures of Alison) but when Jaeger needed a place to relocate to, his first thought was Recollé because Ferid and Alison live there.
Aligula/Alison is Ferid's daughter. They don't really know each other, but Jaeger's heard an awful lot about her.

★ Employees: Silver (feistytrader), Zaveid (sivard), and Orion (bitemefightme)
Silver is an orphan Jaeger met not long after he moved to Recollé. They get along fairly well and that's why Jaeger chose to employ Silver. He turns a blind eye to Silver stealing, as long as he doesn't get caught, anyway.
Zaveid certainly wouldn't approve of Jaeger's lack of morals and ethics if he knew about them, but he doesn't. Zaveid's been working for Jaeger for a few months.
Orion is a new worker who just started at Jaeger's shop.

★ Customers: Algira/Alec (littlekittens) and Aradia/Ami (livingdeadgirl)
Algira/Alec has been in the shop to buy cat-related things before and Aradia/Ami buys dead things in jars sometimes.

★ Fence: May (me_matey)
May sells stolen things that Jaeger's gotten his hands on for a profit.

★ Barista: Sayaka Maizono (destage)
Sayaka works at a cafe that Jaeger frequents, they've chatted quite a few times about various things.

★ Orphan he met while volunteering: Roderic (foretellable)
Roderic was one of the first kids Jaeger met in the orphanage when he started volunteering.

★ (Terrible) neighbor: Elda (matchbreaker)
Elda is Jaeger's next door neighbor and she occasionally stops by his shop. While they can be civil with one another, usually that's only while they're away from the houses. Otherwise they're arguing about where the line between their properties is drawn or otherwise being assholes about their lawns. They're both extremely petty about it.

★ That delinquent who graffitied the side of his shop: Yoshiko (trappingheart)
Yoshiko graffitied Jaeger's shop and he caught her doing it, so he's been pretty unimpressed ever since.

★ Fellow evil person: Albert Wesker (manufactured)
Wesker and Jaeger occasionally work together, mainly with Jaeger selling Wesker's products in his store and reporting the buyers to Wesker. Jaeger likes teasing Wesker and otherwise being a total annoyance in his general direction. They aren't exactly friends, but Wesker tolerates him.