Circus Darkrai Application - Jerrie Keys

Name: Jerrie Keys

Wish: “All the time I’d ever need to complete my work. That’s what I want.”

Time was all that the thief needed. And time was what she got. Whenever Jerrie is close to a deadline and has not finished whatever job that she is working on, time freezes in place for her, the world bleached white while all around her is still. To anyone else, this time freeze is but a split second, only Jerrie knowing that time had stopped. However, time remains frozen for her whenever she is outside of the circus grounds. In addition, such stillness is accompanied by an unsettling silence that drives Jerrie mad the longer she stays within a time slip. Jerrie thus fears being trapped in these time voids for too long, and she tries to rely on them as little as possible. She has considered bargaining to be released from her wish, but she is just as afraid of losing such a power, especially in the middle of one of her life-risking performances.

Personality: Jerrie’s attitude toward the world and everything in it is filled with bitterness. Used to a world where one has to work long and hard or steal to survive, the sly Klefki is easily caught off guard by generosity and kindness from others. She harbors distrust for others and is slow to befriend them, especially those who act too nice around her. Despite her unpleasant demeanor, Jerrie is a hard worker and doesn’t stop until she finishes whatever job she has, assuming that the job can be finished. She also knows when to swallow her pride and show respect for others, such as her superiors. Those who are lucky or persistent enough to earn the Klefki’s trust will discover a more compassionate side to her, one that does care for others amid all the selfishness. When terrified or angered, however, Jerrie is quick to snap at others, regardless of their intentions, and hide within her cold exterior once more.

History: 

Jerrie Keys was born to Melinda Keys, a single mother whose life was ruined the day she was impregnated. Melinda had no support from the father, who did not wish to share the responsibility of a child and promptly disappeared, and her heavily religious family, who shunned her after learning that she had pre-marital sex and did not wish to raise a spawn of the devil. Since no orphanage would accept an illegitimate child, Melinda was forced to raise Jerrie on her own, taking on two jobs at once in a world that was not supportive of working women. The longer and harder Melinda worked, the more the abuse she endured from co-workers and peers increased, and the more her hatred for her daughter grew.

Jerrie thus lived a life of poverty and misery, always hungry and wanting more in her life. She felt no love for her mother, who would remind Jerrie daily of her contempt towards her and how much better her life would be without her. As her hunger and hatred of being poor grew, Jerrie would leave the tiny flat her mother rented from time to time, begging for coins before slowly turning to thievery and pickpocketing in order to buy food. Never did she share with her mother, who often came home smelling of liquor and without a scrap of bread for the starving child. When Jerrie reached the age of thirteen, her mother had finally had enough, declaring Jerrie old enough to survive on her own and kicking her out of the flat with what little possessions she had. It was easy for the Klefki to leave, having no attachment to her parent, and after saving enough money from begging and pickpocketing, she rented a flat for herself in a different city, wishing to put distance between herself and her miserable childhood.

Finding herself a job as an office clerk in the middle of the Great Depression, Jerrie started to make a stable income and decent living given her circumstances.  However, while she was making enough to feed, cloth, and shelter herself, she grew to loathe others, mainly those with much more material wealth and happiness. It wasn't long before she resumed her career of thievery, but as her greed increased more and more, she set her eyes on greater prizes. Jerrie began undertaking a series of attempted bank robberies, but while she was skilled at safe cracking and quick escapes, she found time to be her most daunting challenge. While small-time thefts were fast and rarely a problem for her, Jerrie often caved under time pressure while taking on bigger jobs and more often than not had to abort them before she risked capture and arrest. Training seemed to do her little to improve her speed, and the thief grew more and more irritated by her inability to rid herself of her weakness and her lingering poverty.

Jerrie’s life changed forever on the day that the circus came into town. Having nearly been caught the night before, the discouraged thief chose to visit the fairgrounds and take a holiday from her usual thieving ways. Tried as she might to enjoy herself, however, the Klefki kept finding herself mulling over her failures, losing interest in the marvels around her as she instead lost herself within the darkness of her frustrations. It was then that someone addressed her, catching her off-guard as she glanced up. The Darkrai introduced himself with a smile that made Jerrie’s metallic skin crawl, and she was unnerved by his insistence that he was aware of her problem and that he could fix it. Whatever she wished for, she would have it, and the magic of the circus would make it happen. The thief wasn’t sure what to think, believing this to be a con of some sort. However, desperation was eating away at her, and after a moment of consideration, she named her desire: time. She wanted enough time to do her work at her own pace, without a fear of getting caught. The Darkrai said nothing, flashing another sinister grin before getting up and walking away.

The next night, Jerrie tried her hand at robbing a local bank. After just reaching the safe and a few seconds of trying to crack into it, she was startled by a pair of guards, who had been alerted to a possible break-in that night. Panicking and with her escape route cut off,  Jerrie was prepared to fight back, but just as the guards prepared to advance toward her, a shiver ran across her skin, and in the blink of an eye, the entire world suddenly lost its color. The guards froze in place, and not a single sound pierced the new silence, save that of Jerrie’s terrified pants. After a few minutes, she realized that her wish had come true, and excitement began to bubble up inside of her. She wasted no time in returning to her work, having no fears of being caught. In but ten minutes, she walked out of the bank carrying as much cash as she could carry, laughing the whole way home. Donning on her that time was still frozen well after she had made it safely home, Jerrie saw this as an opportunity to revisit many of her old jobs that had gone belly-up, and she wasted little time in looting all that she could on this single night.

By the end of the night, Jerrie was sitting on a small pile of stolen goods, but her joy had long since turned to bitter resentment and terror. She had finished all of her jobs that night, but time refused to continue onward. She had all the money she had ever wanted, but there was nowhere she could spend it. There was no one to whom she could talk, any voices stilled by the eternal second. Worst of all was that infernal silence; the moment she held her tongue or stopped breathing for even a second, the lack of sound drilled at her mind, filling her with a dreadful loneliness and madness. This wasn’t what she wanted. She wanted to be rich, but instead she was now trapped forever in a timeless world.

In her misery and exasperation, she returned to the circus grounds, wanting to find the Darkrai and scream at him, to punch him in that crooked smile and curse him for bringing this curse upon her. The moment that she crossed the threshold into the circus grounds, however, she froze on the spot. There…was color. And people moving. Time was moving. But how? Was the curse broken? A step back across the threshold answered her question, the bleached and silent world returning until the terrified Klefki re-entered the grounds. It was then that Mr. Dark appeared to her, still bearing that wicked smile, and Jerrie slowly realized that her fate was no longer her own; she now belonged to Mr. Dark.

Likes:

• Luxuries
  
• Fiction novels
  
• Keys (she likes to collect them)
  

Dislikes:

• Animals (too many close calls with guard dogs)
  
• People obviously richer than she is
  
• Pure silence

• Fairy Lock
  
• Foul Play
  
• Spikes
  
• Thief
  

Extra: 

• She has always wanted to learn how to play the piano. And not just because it has 88 keys.
  
• Her main routine involves being put in a straitjacket and then locked inside a steel box secured by heavy chains and padlocks. All of this, she is required to escape before the rope suspending her and the box in the air burns through, dropping them into boiling oil.
  
• Jerrie still does a bit of pickpocketing on the side, usually when traveling from place to place during a time slip. She prefers to steal from wealthier visitors and leave poorer guests alone, however. It all still goes to Mr. Dark, to her chagrin, but Jerrie refuses to let her skills go rusty.
• Has more or less accepted that she's never going to escape the circus and is trying to make the best of it; for what it's worth, it beats being in a jail cell with nothing to do.
• Now owns a Rotom as a pet, has yet to name it and considers it a bit of a pest, but is using it to try and build up some amount of compassion and care for things other than herself. Responsibilities of trying to become a better person and all that.

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Update! June 21, 2015 - Expanded Jerrie's backstory, to elaborate upon her previously unmentioned childhood.
Update! March 1, 2016 - Now the proud(?) owner of a Normal Form Rotom. Updated extras as well.

Yep, another app. And another character that I fell in love with as I created her. Here's hoping I get in!