Jacques Gustave “Jack” Beauregard

[Jack Beauregard]

Patrick Swayze

Who is it there staring?

Name: Jacques Gustave “Jack” Beauregard
Age | B-day: 45 | May 22nd 1830
Position: Southern gentleman and philanthropist, he enjoys the beautiful things in life... which would include being a patron of the opera

Hair: Brown, keeps it a bit longer than fashion would dictate
Eyes: blue
Markings: scar caused by a bullet on the upper right arm from a duel

Learn to see, to find the man

Phobia: He has seen pretty much every detail of the evil face of mankind, so there's not really much to fear anymore. Though, he would not take lightly an attack on the family or , even worse, its destruction. The family is very important to him. The thought of eventually being the last member is not necessarily a comfortable one.
Habit: He doesn't really have any weird habit, apart from talking with his horse and sometimes to himself.
Pet Peeve: Politicians, they brought the South down after all. All these “great” men who rambled about “state's rights” and “independence” or about “preserving the Union”. None of them ever fought in the war, after all they were all just words. Politicians, a useless breed of people. Oh, Jack could have gone into politics after the war. A war hero, that's always a way to get votes. But becoming one of those cowardly fools? No sir, never.

Personality:
Jack is a Southern gentleman. He is well aware of the strict code of honor among gentlemen which must be followed all the time, after all he was raised with it. The secession wasn't something he particularly liked, but since Jack is a patriot of South Carolina there was no way for him to get around it.

The war shaped him up to a certain extent. At least as much as having enough of wearing a uniform. West Point, then the western territories and finally the civil war, that had to be enough. Still, Jack's opinion about the pre-war abolitionists and Lincoln is hardly the best. Slavery had been an outdated institution, and the Yankees, who had never been to the South (and knew everything only from hearsay and strange books), had had no right to interfere with the business of South Carolina and the other states.

His relationship with the rest of the family is... different, to say the least. His views were always too modern for his father and his older brother, while his younger brother actually agreed. Aunt Victoria, well... there was more than just an affair with her. Cousin Charlie, while he's a bit different than the rest of the family Jack actually has a good connection to him. As for his sister Ashley... It's best not to mention her. In Jack's eyes Ashley is a whore. Agreed, Ashley is a stunning beauty, but rotten to the core. Her exploits to gain power and influence have led her through the beds of plenty of rich or influential men. Needless to say that Jack's relationship with her is anything but good.

Jack likes women, oh yes. He likes them so much that he never managed to pick one and stay with her for the rest of his life, which is the reason for him not being married yet. He had his fair share of affairs, and then there certain professionals...

While he's a patriot, the family comes still first. Family, thes South Carolina, then the South and then, some at place at the end of the list, the United States.

What kind of life have you known?

Family:
Father | André Bertrand II | 65 | Deceased
Mother | Patricia Catherine | 67 | Alive

Brother | André Bertrand III | 37 | Deceased

Brother | Jean Pascal | 40 | Alive
Sister in law| Therese | 35 | Alive
Nephew | André Pascal | 17 | Alive
Niece | Elizabeth | 15 | Alive
Niece | Agnès | 13 | Alive
Niece | Émilie | 11 | Alive

Sister | Ashley | 35 | Alive

Cousin | Charles Pierre “Charlie” | 36 | Alive

Aunt | Victoria | 65 | Alive

History:
Born 1830 on White Hall, a cotton plantation in South Carolina, not far from Charleston, Jack -a nickname that wasn't used until he went to the Point- was raised to be a proper Southern gentleman. The Beauregards originally came from Lousiana, and parts of the family still lived there. The plantation, about seven miles north of Charleston, was one of the bigger ones in the area and of course the Beauregards also owned slaves. Who else was supposed to work those vast fields of cotton?

Owning slaves was normal thing for Jack and it took until he'd enter West Point to see other points of view and to actually meet Yankees. Those kind of people usually didn't venture that far south on their exploits.

Before going to West Point, however, Jack had to go through a number of exploits or adventures himself. For once, shortly before he entered West Point, he had to fight his first duel. Nobody was allowed to insult a Beauregard and walk away. His opponent fired to early and only hit Jack in the right arm, while Jack hesitated with outright killing his opponent. In the end he chose to spare the man -who had actually wet himself when facing the still armed pistol in Jack's hands. Such a coward was simply not worth the powder. And secondly there was his aunt Victoria, who had married into the family from the respectable Fabray family. However, Victoria never took her vows seriously, neither did her husband, Jack's uncle. It didn't help that Victoria was stunningly attractive. Thus it led to 17-year old Jack's first extremely close encounter with a woman.

1848, in a year of change and revolution in Europe, Jack finally entered the Point. For four years he and the other cadets of his year were drilled into officers and gentlemen, future leaders of men. Jack had his problems with discipline and some parts of the curriculum, but he proved to be a decent shot, good fencer and excellent rider. After all, his father had made sure that a male member of the Beauregard family would be able to keep his enemies away from himself.

One thing he regretted was that he wasn't just six years older. If he would have been, then he could have served in the Mexican War.

Jack graduated in 1852 in the upper half of his class. His scores in math had knocked him down from a higher position. But didn't matter. He was still good enough to not being forced to join the infantry. After graduation he spent the next three years in active service in the cavalry.

1855 Jack left the army. It was getting somewhat boring in the West, not that sitting on the plantation or in Charleston was necessarily better. He returned to the East just in time to witness the rising tensions between North and South. More and more people in the South were calling for secession from the greedy and power-grabbing North, while more and more people in the North wanted slavery to be abolished.

The thing was, Jack, while being used to slavery, believed that it was simply a dying custom. The end of slavery was really just a matter of time. Politicians, so called abolitionists -usually Yankees who had no idea about the South- were irrelevant. History would simply wipe out slavery since the concept, by now, was outdated. He knew that the plantations were suffering from slavery. The large workforce was simply not cost-efficient. Jack dreamed of industrialization. A cotton mill right next to the plantation and a machine to pick the cotton. That would have been it. The profits would skyrocket. But neither his father nor his oldest brother agreed with this view. It was too modern, too daring, too... Yankee. Thus Jack's idea never flew.

Meanwhile Jack had to take care of his cousin Charles, who had the strange habit of getting into problems more often than normal. But with Jack's guidance Charles managed to get into West Point as well and eventually grew into a decent gentleman.

1859 things started to turn bad, finally. John Brown, a notorious “abolitionist” -a terrorist and murderer more likely, at least in Jack's point of view- made the one move that would propel North and South closer to secession and civil war. Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry was a disaster. Brown was arrested, and eventually executed. While this turned him into a martyr for the self-proclaimed defenders of freedom in the North, Jack could only say that Brown's execution was justified. The man had been a crazy fool and a murderer. It was better to have him out of the way.

Secession came anyway. The civil war came anyway.

1860 Charles “graduated” from West Point, just in time for the civil war. It wasn't a real graduation. Due to the beginning secession movement in December 1860 cadets from the South had one big problem: how could they be at the military academy of a foreign -and likely hostile- nation? Thus Charles and others left West Point shortly after South Carolina seceded.

Fire on Fort Sumter!

Sumter surrendered!

Those were the news of those days. Jack though, while being a patriot -he loved South Carolina-, was worried. He knew the North, had lived and fought alongside some of those Yankees during his military days. The North was industrialized, had plenty of men, with more coming in almost every day from Europe. The South... had plantations. Jack knew that, on the long run, the South could not win.

Nevertheless, Jack was offered a commission by the new Confederate States. He joined the 1st South Carolina Volunteers as captain. The Volunteers were reformed in Richmond just a few months later as the South Carolina 1st Infantry Regiment.

The civil war was a long and bloody struggle. Initial success by the Confederates was always put down by the North with their superiority in numbers and material. The South Carolina 1st Infantry Regiment served in many bloody battles. Fort Sumter, Vienna, the Seven Days Battles, the second Bull Run, Antietam, Shepherdstown Ford, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Falling Waters, the Bristoe Campaign, the Mine Run Campaign, The Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, North Anna, Cold Harbor, the Petersburg Siege, First Squirrel Level Road, Jones Farm, First Pegram's Farm, and finally Five Forks were the places where the First was bloodied, triumphant and finally beaten.

The regiment had left home with 1,059 men and officers.

They surrendered with 18 officers (with Jack as commanding officer, he had made colonel throughout the years, mainly because all other senior officers had been killed) and 101 men.

Worse, the Yankee army had burned White Hall. Jack's father had not survived the loss. The shock over it had simply killed him. Jack's brother André did not survive the war either. When it all began André had been suffering from “secessionitis”. He had turned from a reasonable, yet traditional, planter to a fire-eater of the “Southern Cause”. It went so far that André shot himself when the war ended. Charles, like Jack, served in the Confederate Army -in the cavalry under Jeb Stuart- and survived the war.

Jack and Charles both returned home from the battlefields to find the devastated plantation, the slaves gone and the South occupied by the Yankees. Jack refused to pick up any other commission. He had had his share of warfare. He didn't need any more of it. Charles, on the other hand, decided to stay with the army. He joined the Union again and was sent westward as part of the cavalry.

Now being the oldest son Jack decided against becoming a planter. He just wasn't suited for this field of work. Instead he urged his younger brother Jean to take over those duties. Jean had always been the most reasonable of the three “Beauregard Boys”, while Jack had usually been the daredevil. Under Jean's leadership White Hall was rebuilt and finally modernized.

1865... peace was back in the country. Peace and... a certain movement in the South. Disgruntled people, former Confederate soldiers... they banded together, formed a rather strange organization and called it Ku Klux Klan. Now... that was an odd name, really. But the Beauregards soon realized that this Ku Klux Klan was anything else than friendly. Jean, Jack and Charles decided that the Beauregards would have no business with those foolish people. It was ironic that many of the slaves the Beauregards had owned returned to the plantation as paid workers. Though, it wasn't really surprising. The country was destroyed, conditions for former slaves in the North were hardly ideal either and the West was full of dangerous natives. So what other choice did those people have?

Jack remained in close contact with Jean, but eventually left White Hall and moved into Charleston. He remained close contact and played the part of “creative input” for his brother for several years. Eventually the profits started to roll in and Jack decided that it was time to explore new shores. Literally.

He went on his first trip to Europe in 1868 and returned to the US in 1870, just in time to escape the Franco-Prussian War. Obviously, the Europeans were not as smart, sophisticated and civilized as they always claimed to be. The difference was, that the Franco-Prussian War was fought by one empire against another. One emperor fought a king -who'd later be proclaimed emperor of all Germans. The civil war back home had been different. It had been about the states' rights, and nothing else (and slavery was an issue to be dealt by the individual states, not by a power hungry federal government.) Jack believed that the way it had been done had been a mistake. In his own words: “We should have freed the slaves and then fired on Fort Sumter.” Was secession unconstitutional as some had claimed? Not in his book. If the citizens of a state would vote over the issue of secession and the majority of the citizens would vote for secession, how could the decision of the people be unconstitutional? Lincoln, now his actions had been unconstitutional. Whoever had given Lincoln the right and authority to raise an army to invade his own country? And that was just one of the many issues Jack had had with Lincoln. But in 1870 the man had been dead for five years and Jack would have lied would he have claimed to be sad over Lincoln's death. Brown, Lincoln, his own brother. The fanatics who had caused the war were all dead, or so it seemed.

Fools, all of them. And the Europeans were driven into wars by the dictators in charge of their countries. They weren't off much better. In fact, Jack believed that they were off worse.

1873 Jack returned to Europe and visited France again. He brought with him a significant sum of money. The truth was that Jack had been exploring other business opportunities and he had eventually heard of an Emile Baudot in France who had been working on a new telegraph system. Jack invested in that idea and in 1874 the so called “Rapid Telegraphy” was patented. He also invested in the development of a new machine called “typewriter”. A weird thing, really. Pushing buttons to have small hammers imprint letters on a piece of paper. Weird! But Jack had come to the conclusion that this thing had potential.

By now Jack had taken a liking in Paris. It was a bit like Charleston, just bigger and more decadent. The French were a weird people, but there were similarities between hot-blooded Southern gentlemen like Jack and some of the French gentlemen he met and it was more than just his family name (after all the Beauregards came originally from France.) Besides, his investments in progressive technology were mainly in France, so Jack decided to stay for the time being.

Whose is that face in the mask?

Name: AK
Experience: Long enough to mourn the deaths of Gygax and Arneson
Contact: positive or negative pole? ZAP!
Other Characters: Saionji Kikuko

RP Sample:

There were eyes on her. Dozens of them.

No. Hundreds of them.

Obviously it wasn’t something normal for Hogwarts either. Students were sorted for the first year, not for the fifth.

She had listened to the names that were called up and one by one the group of first year students had gotten smaller. From the corner of her eyes she had seen how Annabelle had been chatting with other Slytherins at their table.

“Lefcourt, Rika.”

It pulled her out of her thoughts, then she approached the chair with the old hat. It wasn’t anything spectacular, just an old, worn down hat. Her eyes focused on it and it seemed that the hat was staring back at her. Of course hats couldn’t stare back, right? She took at seat on the chair and the hat was placed on her head.

“Hmmm... hmmm... Interesting, interesting...”
Rika’s eyes narrowed.
“Very interesting”, the hat rambled on to her. “A brilliant mind, really. Brilliant. But... dark... cold... angry. Oh yes, there’s anger, lot’s of anger. Interesting. Lefcourt, eh?” It seemed to take its time, contemplating over this carefully. “Pure bloods they are. Lefcourts always make Slytherin as long as I remember. Lefcourts and Slytherin. That’s how it fits. That’s how it should be. Hmmm... hmmm... Not with you, not with you. What to do with you... Slytherin... Hmmm... Oh, you don’t care, do you. Hmmm... Hmmm... Difficult one you are. Don’t care where I put you, eh? Fine then... Slytherin... No... not Slytherin. Not Slytherin. There’s anger enough, talent, too. But something else... hard to grasp, eh? Slytherin, no, no. Not Slytherin... better be...” The hat raised its voice, so that everyone could hear it now, “Ravenclaw!”

There was a loud cheer from the Ravenclaw table, Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors applauded. Rika was stunned, but got up on her feet and walked over to the table. She was welcomed as if she had been part of them for several years, as if... she was a friend. It was... strange... to say the least.

Over at the Slytherin table Annabelle’s eyes hardened at Rika. Then she shot her a glare. It was as expected, though. Rika was not a real Lefcourt, just some oddball, useless thing from some oddball exotic location. She wasn’t good enough to make Slytherin.