Jack Bristow

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[edit] The Mun

[edit] The Character

  • Name: Jonathan “Jack” Donahue Bristow
  • Age/Birthdate: March 16, 1949
  • Species: Human/Wanderer
    • Type: Well, his first trip through the Rift made him a shapeshifter. (Hedgehog and German Shepherd). As of his second trip through the Rift, however... Well, he’s still a shapeshifter, but the Rift Gods have smiled on him and have given him the ability to communicate telepathically while he is in animal form. So, you know, he doesn’t have to mime everything.
  • Canon: Alias/Alt!Rift
  • Journal: http://stopdropanddie.livejournal.com

[edit] Appearance

Jack "SpyDaddy" Bristow. He may be bleeding, but he can still kill you so hard. That's a flesh wound, dammit.
Jack "SpyDaddy" Bristow. He may be bleeding, but he can still kill you so hard. That's a flesh wound, dammit.
Jack pretty much looks your garden variety businessman with granite features and gray hair that used to be dark and still looks dark underneath a layer of gray in some lights, plus dark brown eyes that are generally squinty- you wouldn’t call them beady, because he would probably punch you or something. However, there's a certain amount of "badass" to his looks despite the businesslike veneer and if you think you can take him lightly for whatever reason, you are dead wrong quite literally. He stands at an intimidating height of about 6'2 and if that doesn’t make you show him some respect, the fact that look on his face always seems to suggest he’s plotting ways to end you will. You really wouldn’t think he could make good on those threats, but he can and will in various and painful ways. He’s a hell of a lot tougher than he looks and even for someone who looks like he could be an investment banker, he looks pretty damn tough.

[edit] Personality

In a word, Jack is cold... To the point of being almost physically incapable of human emotion and extremely emotionally detached from pretty much everything. A lot of bad things in his past has gotten him to this point and it’s nearly impossible to tear down his walls to see exactly how much he really cares about things, particularly his daughter, who means more to him than any God or country ever could (but he has his ways of showing how much he loves his daughter-they just don't involve buying her ponies). He follows his own rules and tends to abide by his own laws and half the time his morals and ethics are pretty damn questionable for one of the good guys. He can be absolutely brutal when it comes down to business... And you know what? 85% of most Chuck Norris jokes can be changed to suit him. That is just how hardcore he is.

Despite his devotion to Sydney, he is generally extremely awkward around her (and well everyone, really) when it comes to anything that has nothing to do with the task at hand and as such their relationship has often been tested and strained. No matter what happens between them, however, it doesn’t change the fact that he would kill, torture, lie, and betray his country as long as he can protect her. You don’t mess with SpyDaddy’s little girl. It’s a lesson most people don’t live to regret. Unless you're his ex-wife, but Jack has issues with her and we don't discuss those issues.

He is extremely good at manipulating people to do what he wants in a variety of ways, whether through ego-stroking or strong-arm tactics. He has an extremely tactical brain and is well-versed in game theory, and is very much the defintion of "serious business" and he also don’t take your shit... So don’t try to give it to him.

[edit] History

For most of his life, Jack has known nothing but the CIA and everything that surrounds it. He’s gotten used to it and he’s comfortable with it, even when it’s utterly destroyed him on numerous occasions. After all, being a high-ranking officer of the CIA and a leading developer of Project Christmas led him to be targeted by the KGB and eventually seduced by one of their operatives- a woman named Irina Derevko. Jack, for the longest time, only knew her as Laura, the woman who would eventually become his wife and the mother of his child. He was blinded by his love for her and their family to the point that he didn’t realize he was being duped until the truth came out. Irina faked her death and he was held in solitary confinement for months due to the fact that the FBI suspected him of being complicit in her espionage. His young daughter Sydney was left in the care of Arvin and Emily Sloane until he was eventually cleared, although his life continued a downward spiral into slow madness when he started drinking heavily and abandoned his daughter to a life of being raised by nannies. One of a thousand regrets associated with Sydney’s childhood. Another, although it was one that would eventually save her life, was subjecting her to the aforementioned Project Christmas which hardwired her with the abilities of a potential spy. Despite that, however, he truly never really wanted his daughter to live in the same world as he did.

Ten years later, Jack received an offer from Sloane, who had grown disheartened with the CIA and the US government and struck a deal with the newly formed Alliance of Twelve which produced twelve cells posing as black ops CIA who in fact dealt with espionage and weapons sales and the like, to join SD-6, the cell that he took charge of. Jack pretended to go along with the plan and was, in fact, one of the few agents recruited who knew the truth about the agency, but, in reality, he became the very first double agent working to bring down the Alliance. Eventually, he became Director of Operations at SD-6, granting him a certain amount of high level clearance and becoming a valuable asset to the CIA because of this. As far as his daughter and anyone else was concerned, however, he just sold airplane parts.

While Sydney was in college, Sloane decided to take out an insurance policy on Jack’s loyalties by recruiting his daughter into SD-6 without his knowledge. Jack attempted to get Sydney out, but that only drove a wedge between the two of them and drove her deeper into what she believed was the CIA up until the moment she became aware of the truth about SD-6 and became the second double agent for the real CIA. This, unfortunately, did not improve their relationship. In fact, the two of them went through extremely long periods of occasional bonding met almost instantly with something else that drove a wedge between them, but no matter what happened, it was perfectly clear that Jack would do insanely illegal things to protect his daughter.

Unfortunately, Jack’s emotions aren’t just keyed into his daughter’s welfare... They’re also easily toyed with when it comes to his ex-wife, who walked right back into his life when she walked into the CIA and turned herself in. At first, he took great pains to remain distant from her and keep Sydney away from her as well, but eventually he started drawing closer and closer to her, still caught under her spell even after everything, until she eventually betrayed him a second time. Women? Do not occasionally make Jack Bristow a very smart man. Game Theory often doesn't extend to Derevko women.

By the time Jack fell through the Rift the first time, he had suffered through two years dealing with his daughter’s death by dealing with unsanctioned sources (including, you guessed it, Irina) to figure out what happened to her and found her again, unexpectedly, when she turned up in Hong Kong with those same two years missing from her memory... And then he, Sydney, Michael Vaughn, Marshall Flinkman, and Eric Weiss all fell through the Rift simultaneously. After adjusting to the new world, Jack got into a bit of a snit with Torchwood and started his own private agency with his “spykids,” (he claimed it was because it was necessary, but it was probably a petty attempt to best Torchwood somehow) eventually expanding to include Julian Sark (who fell through the Rift some weeks later), Michael Westen, and Fiona Glenanne (who weren’t Jack’s kids period, but he let them in anyway, because he felt their talents were best used for him, rather than against him). Things were pretty good for Jack for awhile... Except for the part where he and half his team occasionally turned into animals, but, hey, no one’s perfect.

And then he fell through the Rift again into a completely different version of that world and life just got a great deal more complicated again.

And he still occasionally turns into a hedgehog. You’d think that would go away or something.

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