Noctium App

[privateeyeforhire]

 « PLAYER INFORMATION »

Name: Saru (she/her)
Are you over 18?: Yes
Contact: acesaru#1505 (Discord), spinmeatale (Plurk)
Other characters, if any: N/A


« CHARACTER INFORMATION »

Character: Juno Steel (he/him, also goes by feminine forms of address like 'lady' and 'dame')
Canon: The Penumbra Podcast
Canon point: End of season 2 (just after Soul of the People)
OU or AU?: OU
Age: 40
Species: Human


« RECORD »


Disposition: [ CW: mention of mental health struggles, sibling death, an abusive parent, and self-destructive behavior. ]

Picture every stereotypical noir detective you can think of, and that’s Juno Steel—at first glance anyway. He’s got a no-nonsense attitude, a sarcastic sense of humor, and a strong moral compass. That last thing is what motivates him in his work more than money, fame, or anything else: Juno wants to do good in the world. He’s extremely jaded and is quick to see the worst of a situation—and a person—but deep, deep down, he believes that a better, more just universe is possible.

Unfortunately for Juno, life has taken that optimism and beaten it to hell time and time again. He’s lost people he cared about, bungled cases and relationships that were important to him, and at the end of the day he blames one person: himself. Through seasons 1 and 2 of the Penumbra Podcast, Juno struggles with incredibly low self-esteem and self-destructive tendencies. He’ll throw himself into any dangerous situation and take the hits for the greater good even if it almost kills him, because he doesn’t consider himself or his own life to have any inherent worth.

A lot of this stems from his childhood and early adult life. Juno’s mother blamed him for the fall of her career and the family’s descent into poverty, and her struggles with her own mental health and lack of access to resources led to a downward spiral that ended with her killing Juno’s twin brother. She didn’t know it was Ben at the end of her blaster though—she thought it was Juno, and made sure Juno knew it when he found his brother’s body. Juno has never forgiven himself for not dying that day, and this in no small part contributed to his persistent need to throw himself in harm's way before anyone else gets hurt.

Juno will be apping in from the very end of season 2, right after he’s had a chance to face this aspect of his past and his guilt head-on. He realizes he wants to live after all. He comes to terms with the legacy he has inherited from his mother, her bad coping mechanisms and her mental illness (Juno canonically struggles with depression). He sees that not everything is his fault and, by extension, he doesn’t have to do everything alone.

This makes this canon point a great entry point for him into Noctium—this version of Juno is a little less harsh, a little less angry, but he still has a lot to process and a lot of character development to go through. Being put in a setting where intimacy is a focal point of life will play really well into that realization that he needs others, and that need isn’t something to be ashamed of.

And don’t you dare tell anyone, but Juno is secretly a romantic. He tends to fall fast and fall hard when he does catch feelings for someone. He cries at weddings. His thoughts (which we get to hear firsthand on the podcast) can be downright poetic when he’s focused on someone he cares about, even if he struggles—or chooses—not to say any of it out loud. Although he’s been hurt before—his fiancée betrayed him and his most recent love interest is a con man who robbed Juno of more than just his heart when they first met—he can’t seem to shake this particular trait. He’ll be heartbroken still and guilty over his own betrayal of said con man when he arrives in-game, So Juno’s time in Noctium will be colored by that love and that loss in a bittersweet way.

Another thing that defines Juno, aside from the way he views himself and his relationships, is the way he views the world around him—particularly people in power. Driven by that innate desire to do good, Juno started a promising career in law enforcement in his incredibly corrupt hometown of Hyperion City as a young man. The cops there are as bad as the criminals though, and through some unspecified scandal he was ousted from the force. So despite having been an authority figure himself as a cop (and perhaps because of this insider's view), Juno has a healthy distrust of authority. Politicians, socialites, the police—where he’s from, they’re as likely to do you in as a common criminal, but with much better resources at their disposal.


Suitability: Juno has always figured out how to roll with the punches life throws at him, but even this will be a doozy of an adjustment to make. Back in his canon, he’ll have just started off on a new leg of his life: new home, new direction in life, new friends and compatriots. He’ll be incredibly angry about having been taken away from all that right when he was starting to get his life together, but he’ll channel that anger into investigating anything and everything he can see. There won’t be an area of the world accessible to him that Juno won’t explore, and he’ll be eager to talk to the locals if only to learn more about what he’s dealing with. Part of it is knowledge being power, but it will equally be a distraction from his heavier emotions. You can’t have a breakdown if you’re working hard enough, right?

He’s coming into this game not trusting body modifications in particular, having just recently had a stint with a mind-control AI implanted in his own head. Suffice it to say that he’s not going to like the whole gem thing no matter what the benefits are. The abilities and transformations will be something he’ll both fear and be fascinated by deep down.

Depending on the bonds he forges early on, Juno may quick or slow warm up to the world and its mechanics. He’s a lot more personable than he’d care to admit, and he’s less combative towards positive attention at this canon entry point. That means he could take to the gembonded system quite well. On the flip side, he could spiral into distrust and turn inward, falling victim to manna hunger before seeing any positive benefits. He has a long history of retreating inward instead of reaching out, and being around strangers could exacerbate that despite his recent character growth. It’s really going to be a matter of seeing how his CR plays out.

Condition upon arrival: Juno will be in good health when he shows up, and he will have been in perhaps the healthiest place he’d ever been mentally before arriving in-game. That of course won’t mean he’s happy to be here. Juno won’t go as far as to get violent with anyone, especially once he’s been given more information about the circumstances, but he’ll be incredibly distrustful and resentful from the get-go.

Abilities: Juno has no extrasensory abilities or magical powers, but he does have a few things he’s good at. He’s been a renowned sharpshooter since his time at the HCPD, able to land shots that many find astounding and impossible. However, since losing his right eye (and then its mechanical replacement), he’s been working on building his skill back up. And no detective would be anywhere without their detective skills. Juno has a keen eye, a good memory, and a knack for putting disparate pieces of a puzzle together. It’s served him well and kept him alive through many a case.

Inventory: Blaster (in-universe equivalent of a gun); one reload cartridge for said blaster; comms (in-universe communicator, won’t work for actual calls or messages in Noctium); plasma cutter (a knife with a laser-like blade); handwritten note (from a special someone)

Gembond: Amethyst
Gem Location: On the back of his right hand.


« MISCELLANEOUS »

Sample: Erku TDM (Sept 2021)

Noctium TDM (Feb 2022)

Notes: Here's link to his Penumbra Pod wiki page, and here is a picture of him and a cat because I heard you like animal pictures.