Jesse Love Jnr

First appeared in A Pound Of Flesh

Human, Male, Mundane

Jesse Love Jnr. (real name Harvey Twitter) is your basic but friendly Hicksville yokel. Jesse grew up away from the world of technology and has a very limited understanding of it. The stereotype of the simple country boy rings true in him. The rifle his father gave him when he died was eventually pawned when Jesse realised he could make much more noise with a gun in _each_ hand rather than wasting both carrying just one (this constitutes as genius in the eyes of Jesse), though he still hasn’t understood why he got such an amazing price on the rifle – suffice it to say the rifle was a unique antique passed down from generation to generation. Jesse was very lucky that the pawnbroker wanted the gun so badly. It’s probably doing rounds in museums all over the US or in some private collectors’ grasp.

When he reached his 17th birthday he was already on the fast track to nowhere. He spent many a lazy day just shooting beer bottles (and the odd bird/rodent/lizard). This of course drained much of his resources – the bullets, not to mention the volumes of beer consumed.

Never really one with a head for business, Jesse didn’t realise his family’s small GM free tomato farm was heading under until it was too late. With no one around to tell him otherwise, Jesse sold the land (yes, he was unknowingly ripped off) and made the most fundamental decision of his entire life (the biggest prior to that was what to cook for evenings grub); he decided to move into the city. Jesse was like a lost boy in a big bad world that he didn’t understand (and he still doesn't!). Yet he was determined enough to doggedly stick at it. Eventually, after much moving around (and burning his cash) he was discovered by a corporate suit as he intervened in a mugging that would have no doubt resulted in her death. Jesse threw the open pizza box in the face of the guy with the gun and quickly drew his pistols and fired point-blank threw the pizza, into the startled guys’ face. His accomplice was stunned. Then he dropped the knife (and woman) and ran... Jesse thought he’d lucked out – this corporate woman was beautiful _and_ she wanted him to work for her!

Corporate life was hard, harder in a sense because it demanded so much of Jesse’s full attention. If he didn’t get something he had to ask someone else and thus he built up a reputation of slow-witted hillbilly (old slang for country-boy that had _almost_ died out). Yet, this time, was a golden time for Jesse and by the time he’d reached his 22nd birthday he was well integrated into the corporate world and living relatively well. He was rewarded with cybernetic eyes when he reached deputy to Head of Security after a rather brilliant defence of the building (he did need constant reassurance that the procedure was safe). Jesse had managed to hold the 14th floor single-handed for ten minutes whilst back up arrived, at which point he was forced to leap off a balcony into the swimming pool to escape the encroaching flames. Had the pool been any shallower he may have broken more than just his legs. Jesse is understandably extremely weary of balconies and will avoid crossing walkways if at all possible. Even looking out of the window makes him nervous on anything higher than the 2nd floor.

His benefactor had the heart and more importantly the patience to stick with him and teach him about the things that he’d obviously missed out on in the country (basically everything). No easy task by any means and as time wore on she was forced to let him go about his work in his own way. Jesse retained much of his former identity since his Hicksville days were so ingrained upon him. This suited the corporation just fine since he was doing his work diligently and most surprisingly _effectively_. On many occasions Jesse managed to diffuse a situation by simply listening and what would almost be considered idle chitchat. Those who were subordinate to him loved his soft-handed approach and many sought to take advantage. Since Jess did not acknowledge hierarchical superiority in a strict sense, he never took notice of his colleagues’ insubordination (This of course left more work for Jesse). The higher ranks just let him get on with it as Jesse showed absolutely no signs of disloyalty – in fact he was probably the most loyal worker they had seen _ever_. Put down to a lack of deep thought, they decided he would never have the intellect to break-off.

However, to Jesse himself, he was having conflicting emotions throughout his time. The joy he felt from the praise to his successful work was often marred by the mocking from colleagues behind his back (and sometimes to his face). Jesse was getting more and more annoyed and yet it never showed. This seeming lack of reprisal only helped to further embolden his detractors who were jealous of his rise through effective results rather than any appliance of intellect.

He worked his way up to head of security at his facility and after he foiled a raid on the facility by a Shadowrun team he was promoted to special (black) ops. The corporation wiped his identity from records (so his work couldn't be traced) and put him to work (Hence the name Jesse – he added the ‘Love Jnr.’ part himself but its not official) He worked well but after time became resentful of his bosses’ constant "advances" towards him and of the unsavoury nature of some of his missions. So, on his last mission (which involved the hostile extraction - i.e. kidnapping of a rivals top scientist) after its completion he walked away from the job – he was 25.

Trying to part on amicable terms with his employer he sent an email to his former boss. He doesn't know how the company will react to his defection.

Description:

He’s had a hard life without realising it, without a family to develop in him a sense of empathy he is sometimes blind to others’ feelings. This stems from his own lack of understanding of his own emotions and he has learnt to just shrug and deal whenever the [insert emotion] rises – of course this doesn’t count for happiness as Jesse knows what that is…he’s not stupid…

Not tall by any means (say around 5’7”ish) Jesse looks weaker than he actually is. His body has become used to the constant and rigorous training that he has endured to keep fit for his post and chief amongst this training is his favoured boxing. With a mean left and right hook thanks to his natural ambidexterity, Jesse is no push over. Occasionally he’ll be forced into a brawl due to a colleague getting locked in close combat (he hasn’t run out of ammo in a tight spot yet) that has called for some hard nose hitting (literally) and Jesse can scrap with the best of them. It’s just that he doesn’t like the uncertainty of melee (and its messy) and well, deep down he’s a real nice guy, ya know? Still, when you’re good at something you don’t waste it, that’s his thinking. He is skilled in corporate security procedures and interrogation (he prefers veiled threats). He has also become quite keen at corporate etiquette (socialising with corp. types), as he knew this was his most obvious weakness. A lot of time was spent reading, mainly due the fact that he didn’t understand most of the jargon involved. Jesse did however get a basic education back home despite what his colleagues said! It was behavioural interaction that he never caught on to.

Medium length, wavy blond(ish) hair, with (usually) light blue eyes and chiselled features he’s quite handsome except for the kink in his nose where it was broken in a competitive boxing match. Jesse’s quite a distinctive character to the annoyance of his former employers – only occasionally would he were a balaclava on a mission. This in its self is enough for his employers to come looking for him as he could be linked to a scene later which could link him to the corporation.

Character of Metin