Jack Trade [Ready]

[RandomPony]

Name: Jack Trade

 

Gender: Male

 

Age: Adult

 

Species: Earth Pony

 

Eye colour: Very light brown

 

Character colour: His body is a muddy brown.

 

Mane/Tail/Other: Everything's brown. But for more detail, his hair is a darker shade of brown, more earthy in tone.  His mane and tail are both very "swishy" or "swiggly" as others might say.  It's wavy from the moment it sprouts from his head or rump, but for the most part is easily manageable, tucking the longer bangs behind his ears to keep them out of his eyes.

He has an assortment of capes he wears every day, of a variety of colors.  The capes may vary in length, but they are always long enough to cover his whole body.

 

Physique: Jack Trade is mostly of an average build, though he won't shy away from manual labor, he doesn't run into it all that often.  

 

Residence: A small run-down apartment in Manehattan.

 

Occupation: He mostly accepts odd jobs around the city, and makes a comfortable enough income to sustain his apartment.

 

Cutie Mark: Jack Trade's cutie mark is a black capital letter J surrounded by the suits of cards in red and black.

 

Unique Traits: Jack Trade can't really dance the waltz of social intricacies.  If something makes him curious, he asks questions.  If something upsets him, he lets whatever's responsible know.  If somepony tries to hint to drop a subject without explicitly stating so, Jack will plow on until something bad happens.

 

History: Jack Trade's father raised him to be very open with his feelings, to be sure and let his father know if anything was wrong or uncomfortable, or if things made him happy or sad.  Jack never really picked up how to not do that.

Jack's father loved to travel, and thought the travelling would do a young foal good.  Jack subsequently did not have many friends growing up, though certainly not for lack of trying.

 

Once Jack learned about cutie marks and what they represented, he began his struggle to find his special talent.  He tried many diverse things, gardening, sailing, pyrotechnics, acting, scuba diving, even a brief period of time where he thought maybe he should try being in the royal guard.  While he didn't exactly fail horribly at most of these, and he preformed better in some than in others, he never gained his cutie mark from any one task.

 

When on a particularly long road trip between cities, their wagon hit a nasty pothole on the road and broke a wheel, and the resulting bump caused his father, who was pulling the wagon, to misstep and sprain his ankle.  Jack, having taken an interest in being a nurse recently, happened to know how to care for the sprain, and wrapped it up with some spare cloth.  Investigating the wheel, Jack was able to rig up a fairly simple fix using their fishing poles.

However, with his father's leg sprained, and Jack not being strong enough to pull the wagon, they needed to make camp for the night or until another wagon came by.  Jack started a fire, having learned how from his father, and made a makeshift sleeping area in the wagon.  In order to draw attention, Jack started a campfire near the wagon, making sure it wouldn't spread to grass or trees.  They were fairly close to their next stop, and it wasn't long before a friendly pony helped them on their way.  That night, Jack received his cutie mark.

 

As Jack reached adulthood, he did not inherit his father's travelling spirit.  He longed to be able to have one particular place to call "Home." He decided to take up space in Manehattan, where the ponies say opportunity abounds.  As he and his father parted ways, his father gave him a gift, enough bits to secure at least a cheap apartment, to get him started on his new life.  With his father promising to visit him sometime, Jack set out for the city.

 

The city was difficult to get accustomed to, at first.  Although Jack felt great joy and a sense of accomplishment at having his own place to call home, he still needed to find a means of income.  Trying out for jobs did not turn out well for him, so he decided to try his hoof at being a handyman, offering his wide array of services to the public.  After enough ponies were curious enough to ask him to fix their sink, or unclog their drains, or landscaping, he managed to make his job steady enough to support his current apartment, or an even better one.  If he could save the bits.

 

Character Personality: Jack is generally pretty cheerful, though his blunt mannerisms seem to make most ponies uncomfortable as he responds in full details how he is doing.  He enjoys going to the local park and just sitting on a bench and absorbing the scenery, and once in a while going to a local bar just for the change in atmosphere(though he doesn't stay for longer than an hour).

However, he does not have great impulse control.  More than once he has spent quite a few of his bits on something he did not necessarily need.  Sometimes he's able to save up enough of his bits for a new class to teach him yet another skill to add to his repertoire, but mostly he wastes bits on overly-expensive novelty items and foal's toys.

 

Character Summary: Jack Trade is a jack of all trades who is always looking for a new skill to learn.  Although he doesn't have the greatest self-control, he's trying his best to adapt to city life, but it's very slow going.

 

And I don't know where I'd put a picture, so I put it at the bottom.

Commissioned by Otteroflore

[RandomPony]

So the first and foremost thing I'd like to ask help on is the matter of his cutie mark.  If it's unacceptable right now, I will change it, but I certainly wouldn't mind some help in how to change it. ^^;

Other than that, I would greatly appreciate any and all tips and pointers from other members!

[Elderflower]

Hi there Random! I'm the staffer who'll be helping you out with your app! First off I'd like to remind you to switch your app to [Ready] when it's ready for editing. You can change your title by selecting edit and then "view full editor."

Here on Canterlot we actually require all adult ponies to have their cutie marks, so that's something you'll have to fix in your app. Why not have his cutie mark relate to being a jack of all trades? Instead of drifting aimlessly from job to job, he could have enough skills in many areas that other ponies are always seeking him out when they need an extra hoof!

[RandomPony]

Ah! I'm sorry, I thought WIP meant it was open for editing!  That was a misunderstanding on my part!  I'll work on changing it, and hopefully have something new tomorrow night!

[Elderflower]

WiP just lets us know you're working on the app. Ready means the app is ready for staff review.

 

That said, please let me know when you've updated your app! Thanks. c:

[Elderflower]

Passing this up the ladder for SRPH review! c:

[SteelEagle]