Revenance Application
Jan. 4th, 2014 12:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
juniorganymedianCharacter Name: Reginald Jeeves
Series: Jeeves & Wooster/The Jeeves Stories by P.G. Wodehouse
Gender: Male
Age: 35
Species: Human
Appearance: Jeeves is a large man. He stands at 6’4” and has a sturdy build. He is not an athlete, but he maintains a trim figure and naturally possesses a great deal of upper body strength. He has been described as being of Viking descent and has black hair, olive skin, and dark blue eyes. Given his profession and personal preferences, Jeeves keeps himself impeccably groomed. He slicks his short, dark hair back with pomade, the preferred styling gel of his era, and wears suits at almost all times. His typical uniform is a white button down shirt, black waistcoat, black mourning coat or jacket, gray pinstripe trousers, black shoes, and a black tie. If he is out and about, he can be found in a black bowler hat and black gloves. It’s a monochrome life that Jeeves lives for his employment, though he does possess other tasteful suits and a tuxedo.
Personality: Jeeves is intelligent, subtle, and controlling. He has a love of learning that rises beyond the typical and into the extraordinary. His encyclopedic knowledge and general ability to read people and situations aids in managing matters to his own will. And Jeeves very much likes to have his way. He’s extremely selfish and self-serving, and becomes cold and downright cruel (e.g., sending his pajama-clad employer on a frivolous 18-mile bicycle ride in a downpour) at times toward those interfering with his plans or those who have otherwise gained his ire for various ‘infractions.’ While some of these infractions are standard (e.g., a gentleman spurning the love of Jeeves’ favored niece), others are more unusual given Jeeves’ particular moral sensibilities. He has few qualms with encouraging his employer to commit acts of larceny, but he will not brook gentlemen wearing straw hats in the metropolis. This odd sense of morality is the result of Jeeves’ nature and outlook: a gentleman with several black marks on his legal record may be easier to manipulate, whereas exerting control over his fashion choices allows Jeeves to enjoy seeing what he likes to see around the house. Jeeves is typically unfazeable (at least outwardly), but he has been shown to physically recoil at the sight of what he considers truly horrendous clothing choices.
On a day-to-day basis, though, Jeeves acts as a polite, thoughtful, and stolid man with a job to do and social interactions to attend to. He has a wide network of acquaintances – calling any of them friends may be a stretch as he rarely lets anyone close enough emotionally to achieve that level of intimacy – and large family that he enjoys interacting with and calling on for assistance and information. He conforms to the social norms of his time (the 1920s) when it comes to interactions, though. He is described as having a ‘feudal spirit,’ a sense of hierarchy that he checks himself with automatically. Jeeves believes in and works within the social order and can be very snippy about his place in it, going so far as to frostily inform one gentleman that ‘I and the ‘working man’ have little in common.’ Jeeves is a classist and considers himself above the general rabble, even if he is not a moneyed or titled gentleman. He is a valet, a gentleman’s personal gentleman.
In something of a cognitive dissonance with his belief in the class system, Jeeves considers himself superior to those who are socially above himself, too. His drive to better educate himself through his own hard work likely came in part so that he could feel smarter and more learned than men who had had all the best education in the world. Valeting was a chance to rub elbows with those above him and a chance to show off. And Jeeves does enjoy showing off his intelligence, though he speaks with great modesty most of the time. He also enjoys the compliments that may typically follow. Enjoyment for Jeeves also comes from simple things beyond admiration, though. He likes performing route household tasks, fishing, and reading philosophy - he finds Nietzsche and the rest of the nihilists ‘fundamentally unsound’ and prefers to read the work of the rationalists, particularly Spinoza.
Abilities: Jeeves is a standard human male, albeit one who is exceptionally stealthy. He is described as ‘shimmering’ and ‘gliding’ about as if gifted with an ability to move without stepping foot to floor. His profession demands that he be able to blend into any room and go unnoticed until needed for something. Jeeves is also extraordinarily efficient at typical household chores. E.g., he cleans messy rooms in minutes, manages household budgets and finances with ease, and brews a fine cup of tea regardless of the circumstances he finds himself in. His hangover cures are also the stuff of legend, he’s a fairly good gambler, and is ‘something of a whizz’ with car repair.
Items: A suit, bowler hat, gloves, pocket watch, and pocketbook.
History: Jeeves has spent his life as a servant. He was born into a family of servants and his first job was as a pageboy at a girls’ preparatory school. He holds his aunts – women who were important in his young life and development – in high regard for their generally placid natures. His Aunt Annie particularly influenced his scheming nature as she was known to be able to solve all domestic disputes that arose in the Jeeves household by turning up and inciting such mutual animosity toward herself that warring parties came together once more. Jeeves carried this tactic forward in his own life, though he directed mutual animosity toward other parties rather than onto himself to solve problems (most particularly his employers). He also learned a great deal from and respects his Uncle Charlie Silversmith who is a butler at a large manor in the country.
Apart from that information, Jeeves’ early life is not elaborated on, so what follows is headcanon based on the other pieces of information we have, Jeeves’ personality, and what would be considered ‘normal’ for that time period. Jeeves was an extraordinarily bright child. He tells his employer at one point that he isn’t sure if he’s always been bright, but that his mother thought him so. He grew up with up with a younger sister, Amelia, who gave him his niece, Mabel. He got on well enough with his sister in their youth, but she was significantly younger than him, and he was already employed as a pageboy by the time she was old enough to hold a coherent conversation of any length. Still, he tried to instruct her as he could, assisting with her education. Jeeves wanted to ensure that any sibling of his, man or woman, would find themselves with the same education the rich enjoyed. He used to secret books from the library at the girls’ school where he worked to teach himself and Amelia. As a result of this, Jeeves and Amelia grew closer as they grew older, and Jeeves was very protective of her along with her daughter, Mabel, when Mabel came along.
Jeeves cut his teeth in scheming during his time as a pageboy, often using his fellow pages and the girls at the school to experiment with. This generally ended well, though, there were a few minor incidents that went awry that he learned from very quickly. Most involved miscommunications; he learned from this never to trust the other parties in his schemes to pull off his direction in full. It taught him to make his plans more adaptable and less rigid.
After his time as a pageboy, Jeeves became a valet with the instruction and assistance of his Uncle Charlie along with the Junior Ganymede, a club for butlers and valets to which Jeeves applied and was accepted. He was employed by several young men before being conscripted for service along with his father and uncle in the Great War. Jeeves was initially assigned to a Motor Machine Gun unit, then later a Tank Corps battalion. It was his time in the service that educated Jeeves in both gambling and mechanical work, and gave him a taste for travel abroad to places that were not war zones. The war also left him more world weary. He began reading philosophy in greater earnest to make sense of the fighting and death where religion had failed him. This was where he developed his passion for the likes of Spinoza. After the war, Jeeves came back and resumed his life as a valet, finding himself trying to exert greater control on his employers than before and enjoying it when they complied to his subtle grabs for power. His life in the service had been one where he had little control, so in becoming his own man again, he grasped for any bit of it he could get. This leveled out a bit over time, though he still did and very much enjoys control in all things.
A little over two years after the Great War, Jeeves came into the employ of Bertram Wooster, a gentleman he understood to be easily manipulated and controlled based on his conversation with other valets and butlers who had encountered him. Following on this, we enter into canon properly again. Jeeves spent the entirety of his employ with Bertie fishing him out of ‘the soup’ and other general troubles, whether they were matrimonial, financial, or legal. He found Bertie’s minor life crises (and those of his friends) to be amusing enough and the gentleman generous, kind, ‘mentally negligible,’ and bent to Jeeves’ own will and purpose without difficulty. In this way, Jeeves found Bertie the ideal employer and was happy to keep him unmarried and under his control. He did begin to develop affection for Bertie verging on more than just a servant for his master, though they did have their rows. Of particular note would be the time that Bertie’s attempts to learn the banjolele led to Jeeves handing in his notice and going off to work for one of Bertie’s friends for several weeks.
Jeeves and Bertie did ultimately reconcile when Bertie’s banjolele was destroyed in a fire, and Bertie decided he wanted to have Jeeves around more than he wanted to keep trying at the instrument. Preferring Bertie’s company to other employers, Jeeves rejoined his ‘entourage.’
Several more years passed with Jeeves stopping a couple of confidence tricksters from duping Bertie and his Aunt Agatha, seeing that Bertie’s many suitors were married off to others, and generally maintaining Bertie’s wardrobe to Jeeves’ own tastes. As a show of loyalty to Bertie during one of their adventures, and something of a commitment to him, Jeeves cut out and destroyed the notes on Bertie that he had written for the Junior Ganymede’s Club Book. This was a book all members of the Junior Ganymede were obliged to contribute to. It detailed the habits and eccentricities of their employers so that future members who found themselves serving the gentlemen and households listed could know what they were getting into. Destroying the section he’d written on Bertie (some 18 pages), Jeeves explained that it was unnecessary as he planned to remain in the gentleman’s employ for as long as Bertie would allow it. It is after this adventure (the last one adapted for the television series) that I will be taking Jeeves from.
Series: Jeeves & Wooster/The Jeeves Stories by P.G. Wodehouse
Gender: Male
Age: 35
Species: Human
Appearance: Jeeves is a large man. He stands at 6’4” and has a sturdy build. He is not an athlete, but he maintains a trim figure and naturally possesses a great deal of upper body strength. He has been described as being of Viking descent and has black hair, olive skin, and dark blue eyes. Given his profession and personal preferences, Jeeves keeps himself impeccably groomed. He slicks his short, dark hair back with pomade, the preferred styling gel of his era, and wears suits at almost all times. His typical uniform is a white button down shirt, black waistcoat, black mourning coat or jacket, gray pinstripe trousers, black shoes, and a black tie. If he is out and about, he can be found in a black bowler hat and black gloves. It’s a monochrome life that Jeeves lives for his employment, though he does possess other tasteful suits and a tuxedo.
Personality: Jeeves is intelligent, subtle, and controlling. He has a love of learning that rises beyond the typical and into the extraordinary. His encyclopedic knowledge and general ability to read people and situations aids in managing matters to his own will. And Jeeves very much likes to have his way. He’s extremely selfish and self-serving, and becomes cold and downright cruel (e.g., sending his pajama-clad employer on a frivolous 18-mile bicycle ride in a downpour) at times toward those interfering with his plans or those who have otherwise gained his ire for various ‘infractions.’ While some of these infractions are standard (e.g., a gentleman spurning the love of Jeeves’ favored niece), others are more unusual given Jeeves’ particular moral sensibilities. He has few qualms with encouraging his employer to commit acts of larceny, but he will not brook gentlemen wearing straw hats in the metropolis. This odd sense of morality is the result of Jeeves’ nature and outlook: a gentleman with several black marks on his legal record may be easier to manipulate, whereas exerting control over his fashion choices allows Jeeves to enjoy seeing what he likes to see around the house. Jeeves is typically unfazeable (at least outwardly), but he has been shown to physically recoil at the sight of what he considers truly horrendous clothing choices.
On a day-to-day basis, though, Jeeves acts as a polite, thoughtful, and stolid man with a job to do and social interactions to attend to. He has a wide network of acquaintances – calling any of them friends may be a stretch as he rarely lets anyone close enough emotionally to achieve that level of intimacy – and large family that he enjoys interacting with and calling on for assistance and information. He conforms to the social norms of his time (the 1920s) when it comes to interactions, though. He is described as having a ‘feudal spirit,’ a sense of hierarchy that he checks himself with automatically. Jeeves believes in and works within the social order and can be very snippy about his place in it, going so far as to frostily inform one gentleman that ‘I and the ‘working man’ have little in common.’ Jeeves is a classist and considers himself above the general rabble, even if he is not a moneyed or titled gentleman. He is a valet, a gentleman’s personal gentleman.
In something of a cognitive dissonance with his belief in the class system, Jeeves considers himself superior to those who are socially above himself, too. His drive to better educate himself through his own hard work likely came in part so that he could feel smarter and more learned than men who had had all the best education in the world. Valeting was a chance to rub elbows with those above him and a chance to show off. And Jeeves does enjoy showing off his intelligence, though he speaks with great modesty most of the time. He also enjoys the compliments that may typically follow. Enjoyment for Jeeves also comes from simple things beyond admiration, though. He likes performing route household tasks, fishing, and reading philosophy - he finds Nietzsche and the rest of the nihilists ‘fundamentally unsound’ and prefers to read the work of the rationalists, particularly Spinoza.
Abilities: Jeeves is a standard human male, albeit one who is exceptionally stealthy. He is described as ‘shimmering’ and ‘gliding’ about as if gifted with an ability to move without stepping foot to floor. His profession demands that he be able to blend into any room and go unnoticed until needed for something. Jeeves is also extraordinarily efficient at typical household chores. E.g., he cleans messy rooms in minutes, manages household budgets and finances with ease, and brews a fine cup of tea regardless of the circumstances he finds himself in. His hangover cures are also the stuff of legend, he’s a fairly good gambler, and is ‘something of a whizz’ with car repair.
Items: A suit, bowler hat, gloves, pocket watch, and pocketbook.
History: Jeeves has spent his life as a servant. He was born into a family of servants and his first job was as a pageboy at a girls’ preparatory school. He holds his aunts – women who were important in his young life and development – in high regard for their generally placid natures. His Aunt Annie particularly influenced his scheming nature as she was known to be able to solve all domestic disputes that arose in the Jeeves household by turning up and inciting such mutual animosity toward herself that warring parties came together once more. Jeeves carried this tactic forward in his own life, though he directed mutual animosity toward other parties rather than onto himself to solve problems (most particularly his employers). He also learned a great deal from and respects his Uncle Charlie Silversmith who is a butler at a large manor in the country.
Apart from that information, Jeeves’ early life is not elaborated on, so what follows is headcanon based on the other pieces of information we have, Jeeves’ personality, and what would be considered ‘normal’ for that time period. Jeeves was an extraordinarily bright child. He tells his employer at one point that he isn’t sure if he’s always been bright, but that his mother thought him so. He grew up with up with a younger sister, Amelia, who gave him his niece, Mabel. He got on well enough with his sister in their youth, but she was significantly younger than him, and he was already employed as a pageboy by the time she was old enough to hold a coherent conversation of any length. Still, he tried to instruct her as he could, assisting with her education. Jeeves wanted to ensure that any sibling of his, man or woman, would find themselves with the same education the rich enjoyed. He used to secret books from the library at the girls’ school where he worked to teach himself and Amelia. As a result of this, Jeeves and Amelia grew closer as they grew older, and Jeeves was very protective of her along with her daughter, Mabel, when Mabel came along.
Jeeves cut his teeth in scheming during his time as a pageboy, often using his fellow pages and the girls at the school to experiment with. This generally ended well, though, there were a few minor incidents that went awry that he learned from very quickly. Most involved miscommunications; he learned from this never to trust the other parties in his schemes to pull off his direction in full. It taught him to make his plans more adaptable and less rigid.
After his time as a pageboy, Jeeves became a valet with the instruction and assistance of his Uncle Charlie along with the Junior Ganymede, a club for butlers and valets to which Jeeves applied and was accepted. He was employed by several young men before being conscripted for service along with his father and uncle in the Great War. Jeeves was initially assigned to a Motor Machine Gun unit, then later a Tank Corps battalion. It was his time in the service that educated Jeeves in both gambling and mechanical work, and gave him a taste for travel abroad to places that were not war zones. The war also left him more world weary. He began reading philosophy in greater earnest to make sense of the fighting and death where religion had failed him. This was where he developed his passion for the likes of Spinoza. After the war, Jeeves came back and resumed his life as a valet, finding himself trying to exert greater control on his employers than before and enjoying it when they complied to his subtle grabs for power. His life in the service had been one where he had little control, so in becoming his own man again, he grasped for any bit of it he could get. This leveled out a bit over time, though he still did and very much enjoys control in all things.
A little over two years after the Great War, Jeeves came into the employ of Bertram Wooster, a gentleman he understood to be easily manipulated and controlled based on his conversation with other valets and butlers who had encountered him. Following on this, we enter into canon properly again. Jeeves spent the entirety of his employ with Bertie fishing him out of ‘the soup’ and other general troubles, whether they were matrimonial, financial, or legal. He found Bertie’s minor life crises (and those of his friends) to be amusing enough and the gentleman generous, kind, ‘mentally negligible,’ and bent to Jeeves’ own will and purpose without difficulty. In this way, Jeeves found Bertie the ideal employer and was happy to keep him unmarried and under his control. He did begin to develop affection for Bertie verging on more than just a servant for his master, though they did have their rows. Of particular note would be the time that Bertie’s attempts to learn the banjolele led to Jeeves handing in his notice and going off to work for one of Bertie’s friends for several weeks.
Jeeves and Bertie did ultimately reconcile when Bertie’s banjolele was destroyed in a fire, and Bertie decided he wanted to have Jeeves around more than he wanted to keep trying at the instrument. Preferring Bertie’s company to other employers, Jeeves rejoined his ‘entourage.’
Several more years passed with Jeeves stopping a couple of confidence tricksters from duping Bertie and his Aunt Agatha, seeing that Bertie’s many suitors were married off to others, and generally maintaining Bertie’s wardrobe to Jeeves’ own tastes. As a show of loyalty to Bertie during one of their adventures, and something of a commitment to him, Jeeves cut out and destroyed the notes on Bertie that he had written for the Junior Ganymede’s Club Book. This was a book all members of the Junior Ganymede were obliged to contribute to. It detailed the habits and eccentricities of their employers so that future members who found themselves serving the gentlemen and households listed could know what they were getting into. Destroying the section he’d written on Bertie (some 18 pages), Jeeves explained that it was unnecessary as he planned to remain in the gentleman’s employ for as long as Bertie would allow it. It is after this adventure (the last one adapted for the television series) that I will be taking Jeeves from.
