Jaisen Santiago Dreyfuss

From Brass Goggles

Current revision as of 06:32, 5 May 2009

Name : Jaisen Santiago Dreyfuss (prefers just “Dreyfuss”)

Age : 43

Nationality (place of birth) : Province of Tejas, New Spain (Now the Republic of Texas)

Physical appearance : 5' 11" medium build, rangy, early stages of middle-age fat, but still relatively lean. Habitually wears either brocade- or leather-fronted black, blue, or brown waistcoats/vests with center-placket broadcloth shirts and cravat, black stripe-legged (buff stripe) bib front trousers with the leather suspenders under the waistcoat, leg cuffs tucked into knee-high, deerskin-and-black-cowhide, buckle-and-lace, heeled moccasin boots (look like Navajo-pattern boot mocs, only higher); Military Greatcoat of teh high-collared, frock variety, favored by the post-Texas-revolutionary Marauder Mercenary Company; occasionally wears various uiniform and protective gear for high-altitude and hazardous-climate purposes

Isstill never without his "possibles" bag, hung from left shoulder to right hip, which contains the military-standard quickstart firekit; powder and shot for the boat gun in inner sleeves of the body of the bag; small tin flask usually containing some variety of extremely strong liquor, journal with charcoal and graphite sticks; small short-handled brass hammer; roll of bone and steel needles, thread and sinew, and small leaf-bladed knife for clothing repair; occasionally used to carry food items (for trips on foot, for instance). On right shoulder to left hip is slung a flattened-gourd water bottle, covered in brown leather and stoppered with willow tied on stopper. Occasionally carries the blunderbuss slung over one shoulder or other; habitually wears Paterson revolver on hip rig on right leg; "bowie" knife hangs next to holster on same belt. All but the hilt and pommel of teh original half-basket saber was destroyed in Shanghai in the battle with Cadens, the xth commodore; it is now being reforged by a student named "Robert" at Patrick O'Landrey's school for technomancy. for now, Dreyfuss, when he carries of wears a sword wears the Republic O Texas Grand Army standard curved officer's saber, which hangs at his left side, supended by a standard miltary sword harness. Dreyfuss was miraculously healed along with the rest of the Boheme's crew after the defeat of the Cold One Queen, bt=-ut at=stikk occsioinally carries a crook-top hickory cane because he is used to it, and because it makes such a perfect secret weapon. Profession / job title : Former: Apprentice Blacksmith/Texas Revolutionary Army mounted Infantry Lieutenant/airship mercenary/Banjo Player/Adventurer/Sometime Air Privateer. Currently: Commodore of the Republic of Texas Air Fleet, Liaison to Her Britannic Majesty's Secret Service,

In command of the RTAF St. Elmo, originally the airship that languished in drydock in Galveston, now upgraded to a fourteen-gun Pocket War Zeppelin, used as a supernatural threat hunter and anti-unrest battle station (currently in Drydock in the Docklands Harbor area, pending Dreyfuss' return from a secret mission to Texas)

Dreyfuss went to Texas to stop a hoaxed assassination attempt by Mariana Cloude-Miszte, his now-estranged former fiancee, but which has instead proven to be an elaborate hoax designe dto draw him out into the open, away from his companions on the Boheme and St. Elmo., so that she can fulfill her twenty-year obsession and kill him in revenge for the death of her father, a Commander Cloud, 1st officer of the Mad Anthony Wayne, the airship which was Dreyfuss' 1st command , and from which he was thrown clear, and teh rest of the crew, including Commander Cloud, died when the ship hit the water after its cables had been cut by bar shot from an unidentified Louisianan privateer zeppelin.

Weapons of choice: 44 caliber Paterson revolver (Texas Ranger pattern); large-bore pistol-grip blunderbuss;Standard Republic of Texas Grand Army curved-bladed officer's saber.; "Arkansas Toothpick" type boot knife;"Whitefire pistol"; actually a glorified and infinitesimally-adjustable "wand" or focus device for the white fire of technomancy, in which Dreyfuss has grown exceedingly strong-- more strong, in fact, than he actually realizes. Good with but intensely dislikes volley firearms; is able to use just about any weapon effectively. Adherent of the belief that all things can be weapons.

General Personality: Somewhat aloof, having been raised as an orphan, and having lost friends and individuals who were like family aboard his first command when it was shot down. Tries not to be arrogant or too judgemental, but occasionally fails miserably in both endeavors; can be just as mean and nasty as his former comrades-in-arms if the situation demands it ("well, you know, they were mercenaries; one pay call away from turning pirate, you know. And, their pay came from being suspicious of everybody. But I try not to be that way anymore").

Has a very long fuse, and a tight rein on his anger, which is a good thing, because he has quite a lot of it, and it tends to cause damage when he lets it get away from him. Cruelty for enjoyment's sake, especially of innocents or defenseless individuals by persons in positions of power, makes his blood boil.

Courageous, loyal to the point of a fault (and beyond). Tries very hard to be scrupulously honest, but will lie to save others' feelings, or to avert catastrophe. Is absolutely (and somewhat humorously) terrified of any sharp object in a physician's hands.

Biography : Jaisen Santiago Dreyfuss, born to a white woman(Marian Parker) and her Natchez adventurer husband (Francois Dreyfuss), was only 1 year old when his parents went to Parker's Fort to visit his mother's relatives, leaving him in the care of a neighboring family. Both parents died in the Comanche attack/incident that made the little fort famous, and Dreyfuss was raised by a blacksmith (name lost or unrecorded) of the Moses Austin Colony.

Dreyfuss served in the ragtag excuse for an army that half-guarded, half fled headlong along with, the mass of refugees fleeing Santa Anna and his troops during the Runaway Scrape. He started as a fifer, but soon took up a rifle & kit dropped by a comrade who was killed in a skirmish outside some nameless hamlet on the prairie. He served well enough to earn a commission for gallantry in the face of the enemy, rescuing a young female relative of Interim President Williams from a Mexican cavalry troop ("Brave, my left thumb, I wanted to ask her to the cotillion!"). wounded sixteen times, five from friendly fire when training especially inept volunteers, with whom he seemed to have a talent (so they sent them to him for training. and they kept accidentally - one hopes - shooting him...).

After the revolution, In an attempt to quell or at least lessen the troubles that plagued the tiny country's marine and rivurine borders, The republic of Texas (ROT) contracted the privateer mercenary company the Bayou Marauders (Dreyfuss now a dirigible captain with them), to guard these borders. They prowled the middle-to-eastern coast and bayous, in a motley assortment of craft, including a few primitive underslung-boat-type dirigibles, engaging and sinking or shooting down any who presented a suspicious mien to their (admittedly) over-zealous eye.

Dreyfuss left this organization after his first command (the tiny belted-monitor dirigible Mad Anthony Wayne), was shot down over Galveston Bay, off Indianola. Dreyfuss and crew had engaged a Louisianan privateer zeppelin, which cut the cables holding the Mad Anthony 's hull under the gasbag with chain and bar shot, plunging her with all hands (except Dreyfuss) into the bay. She never rose again, and Dreyfuss only escaped by accident, having been thrown from the outside after deck (He was trying to secure a loosened cable, the crewman who had been doing it having been shot down by a rifleman on the Louisianan ship) when the first cables snapped. His torso was ripped by a loose cable that he tried to grab on the way down but lost hold of; the scar is there to this day, from right shoulder blade to left hip.

When he hit the water, Dreyfuss' left leg broke, whicxh is the reason for his once requiring "that stupid, accursed cane"; the leg had not healed quite straight. He has learned to use it both defensively and offensively, however, and continues to carry one, because he is used to it.

It's now 3 years on from The events of the War against the Cold Ones, and Drefuss' involvement with the crew of the Boheme Dreyfuss has managed to acquire a modest side-wheeler steamboat, fit it to a zeppelin envelope framework without cables or any vulnerable members with gas cells, along with a rather unconventional (and very powerful) ducted fan propulsion system built from the existing paddle wheel array. The Saint Elmo is fast, maneuverable, and heavily armed.

Dreyfuss has since been employed by the British government asa Vampire and Supernatural Threat Hunter, teh Saint Elmo serving as his center of operations, he and his ship and his Immortal Ward, Irene Dreyfuss (who, despite rumors, isnot actually a vampire, or rather was not at the time that she dropped out of teh lives of teh Tinker's Row crews), becoming nearly as famous as the Boheme and her crew. Irene has left, and Dreyfuss has lately been assigned to act as military escort for the boheme, under Emmaline Lighton, and closely affiliated with the Aether League (as a white fire technomant, Dreyfuss is somewhat automatically a member of the League).He has also fallen quite hard for both his world-walking Dimension-crossing Lieutenant Junior GRade Nadya Caterina Zarate, (in whom he has inadvertently started a whitefire ability onset reaction by sending a whitefire bolt along her intended path to follow him after dioscovering he has left, in order to protect the young and (as he sees it) inexperienced JG, whom he fears will die in such an encounter.), and for Madame Hyacinth Arachne, Nadya's bordello Madame and lover.

Dreyfuss is currently trying to book passage on a fast RTAF armored packet gunship zeppelin for his and his niece's return to London. Unknown as yet to Dreyfuss, an entire platoon of Air Rangers in Full Kit(including encounter suits and 'wings) will be "offered" to him by the Texian Military, in order to fully man the troop complement portion of teh Saint Elmo ; these Rangers would be prepared to travel with him, and his niece, Esmeralda Litton-Van Huiyck and take up residence on the St. Elmo under his command, as part of a diplomatic deal cut between the Republic of Texas and the British Empire (also largely unknown to Dreyfuss) to establish the Saint Elmo asnot only a military but also a diplomatic institution in London.

Dreyfuss' current activities can be found in Steam London