Deerington App

( Someone call the undertaker. )

Jesse, despite being quite a loner before the Recall, is actually a people person at heart. That can be inferred more from his in-game voice lines and his conversations with other characters. He likes talking, likes flirting, and likes making new friends and acquaintances. He sometimes grates on others because of his penchant for banter (more than one character gets annoyed with him in-game for it), but if he seems somehow flighty because of that, well. That's just simply not true.

 

Jesse might be a nice guy with an easy smile, but he's also someone who shoots to kill with little hesitation. He's military-trained and street smart to boot (both canon points; he trained as a black-ops agent and was once a member of a notoriously vicious gang). Years of conditioning and drilling don’t go away that easy. When he enters a place for the first time, Jesse is busy memorizing the layout of the building or noting the safest place to stand in the room. When he meets someone, he takes the time to memorize the details of their face, note the presence of any scars, and pin down anything at all that could mark that person as untrustworthy. He’s a man well-practiced in recon and experienced in dealing with unsavory characters. Underestimating Jesse because of his laid-back, over-the-top cowboy persona is a mistake.

 

But on the flip side, he does love his cowboy aesthetic. It's not an act he puts on just for show and then takes off at the end of the day. That’s just who Jesse is. He loves cowboy movies and country music, and his voice lines in-game are full of references. His hat is his prized possession. His southern drawl is authentic. And above all, Jesse firmly believes in the sort of vigilante-good-guy justice from all those old Westerns. He isn’t the least-bit embarrassed by his preferences and is used to shrugging off the judgement of others. He’s actually gotten less over-the-top over time. He had a gun once with a grip shaped like a boot. With a spur on it. I’m not even making this up guys, it’s canon. Check out his Blackwatch skin.

Edit: Oh God, so in writing this app I took a close look at Jesse's current gun, and it still has a spur. I never noticed. Nevermind. He has chilled out exactly 0%.

 

Jesse is generous with his friends. He’s also loyal, but not so much that he won’t call someone out on their BS. This is evidenced in canon by his relationship with his erstwhile commander in Blackwatch. When said commander makes decisions that endanger his team on a particularly dangerous mission, Jesse is very blunt in calling him out on it. He doesn’t hold back despite his high regard for the commander.

 

Before the Recall, Jesse lived a lone, vigilante lifestyle. Now that he’s back around people on the regular again (I headcanon him returning to Overwatch for the Recall), he’s getting used to being more than just surface-friendly with someone again. He’s a man who prefers to keep his ghosts out of sight of others, which only makes them more apt to haunt him when he’s alone. Though he might tell stories of his past with an easy smile, certain things do weigh on him. A good canon example of this is the Christmas comic from a couple of years ago. Christmas Eve saw Jesse passed out with a drink in his hand at a bar. 

 

(This is presumably before he rejoined Overwatch, since details of the Recall are still vague; but it could just as easily be interpreted as being after he joins back up to the reformed Overwatch. That… makes it sadder, honestly.)

Personal Moral Codes: 

Jesse was a member of a ruthless gang, once upon a time. His younger years were spent doing some terrible things for terrible people, right up until Overwatch (or specifically, the covert operations division named Blackwatch) busted the gang and took the survivors into custody. Jesse was given a choice: to rot in prison with his fellows, or join Blackwatch to atone for his crimes. At the time, the choice was more about staying out of prison than actually making amends. But even then, there was part of him attracted to the idea of atonement. 
 

At some point along the way, Jesse became a believer in doing good to right past wrongs. His whole cowboy schtick seems like a gimmick, but he really holds to that “vigilante justice in the Wild West” sort of mentality. He doesn’t always believe in doing things by the rulebook per say. His definition of “good” isn’t necessarily “lawful.” But he does have a strong sense of justice, which he divvies out in his own way. (But not enough of one to turn himself in on his own bounty.)
 

Jesse has killed a lot of people, and he’s likely to kill a lot more. He killed with the Deadlock Gang, he killed in Blackwatch, and he continues to kill (largely to defend himself or others) in the present. He’s under no illusions about the nature of his profession, both then and now. He wouldn’t necessarily call himself a good man because of the blood he’s spilled. But he would argue that the killing is justified. “Gotta break a few eggs to make an omelette,” he might say. Killing, to him, isn’t inherently bad. But there’s killing for a good reason, and killing for a bad one. He has his line drawn in the sand far as that goes, and it only bends so much.
 

This isn't super relevant, but I thought the mention of religion was interesting, so have a headcanon: Jesse isn’t strictly religious, but he does have some Catholic leanings. They have little to no effect on his everyday life or his work, but he's been known to say a prayer from time to time.

Insecurities/Personal Demons: 

Jesse isn’t afraid to look back at the things he’s done in his past, but he does still feel the need to do good in the world in part because of his past sins. They haunt him less though than what happened to Blackwatch- specifically, what happened to his mentor and commander, Gabriel Reyes.
 

I won’t go into all the details, but this is the summarized version: Reyes had a falling out with his longtime friend Jack Morrison, then the commander of Overwatch. Their relationship deteriorated fast. Jesse saw the tension building and became concerned with some of the decisions Reyes was making, both for himself and for Blackwatch. Jesse ended up leaving the organization. Not long after, the base where Jesse had lived and worked was destroyed in an explosion triggered by a fight between the Morrison and Reyes. Both men were presumed dead in the blast. (Unknown to anyone, both men survived; Reyes himself became a masked mercenary, hunting down former Overwatch agents under the name Reaper. Jesse still doesn't know this.)
 

Though he felt justified in leaving at the time, Jesse is plagued by guilt over Reyes’s death. The man was practically a father to him. Logically, there was no way he could have changed Reyes’s path; but Jesse still wonders “what-if.” What if he’d stayed? What if he’d pushed Reyes harder? What if he’d looked closer, payed more attention, seen something that would have changed how things turned out?
 

Jesse wouldn’t admit to being lonely, but he struggles with loneliness even when he’s among friends. Drinking is one coping mechanism he’s taken up. While his habit isn’t quite full-blown alcoholism, it's firmly in the realm of “unhealthy.”

 

Abilities/Powers/Weaknesses: 

Jesse would consider being “charming” a power worth nothing, but setting that aside…
 

Jesse is a trained marksman, meaning he knows his way around a gun very, very well. He’s been honing his skills with firearms since he was a kid taking up with the wrong sorts of people, and he’s only gotten better at it over time.
 

His one unique skill is an ability called Deadeye. In the Overwatch video game, it’s his “ultimate” ability that allows him to do heavy damage or KO up to six opponents at a time with one shot from his gun. In fandom works (and in my writing of Jesse), the ability tends to work the same way. Its origins are unexplained. It’s not magic, but it’s not tech either. Like many things in the Overwatch canon, we don’t have any explanation for it quite yet.
 

My headcanon for Deadeye is that it takes a lot of out Jesse to use it, and the amount of times he can utilize it within a single day is limited.

 

Ability/Power/Magic Warping: 

Deadeye is an ability Jesse uses so rarely that I'm struggling to think of a good, relevant way for it to be nerfed. It usually automatically targets enemies only, but perhaps it could be changed to be less accurate, hitting the surroundings or even allies? Or it could cause excruciating pain? Maybe for every shot it lands, he feels as if he was shot in the same place on his own body?

Inventory: 

- Peacekeeper, Jesse’s gun.

- His outfit (jeans, plaid flannel shirt, obnoxious belt buckle, cowboy boots, cowboy hat, sarape, and what I'm assuming is a kind of armor. He usually has ammo on his belt as well, if that is able to come along part and parcel with the rest.)

- I’m not sure if Jesse’s prosthetic arm would count as an inventory item or not, but to err on the side of caution: yeah, his arm.
- A pack of cigars
 

Writing Samples: Sample 1 / Sample 2

OUT OF CHARACTER

Player Name: Saru
Player Age: 29
Player Contact:spinmeatale 

Other Characters In Game: N/A
In-Game Tag If Accepted: Jesse McCree: Saru
Permissions for Character: Here.
Are you comfortable with prominent elements of fourth-walling?: Yes.

What themes of horror/psychological thrillers do you enjoy the most?: 

I tend to dislike gory horror movies, mostly because I don't find them scary. It feels like a shock-value scare to see someone with their insides on their outsides, and it leaves little impression after the initial wince. I prefer horror that makes the characters question their own sanity, or that warp the world around them in such a way that they start to distrust the way things seem. Did they hallucinate those feet beneath the shower curtain, since no one was there when they pulled the curtain back? But then, who turned on the water? And sure, they can prove that the window was smashed in from the outside, but can they prove it was the weight of the dozens of bloodied hands they saw smacking against it just before the glass caved? But then, where’s the blood? That kind of thing. Or themes were the MC starts to change into something monstrous or "other" themselves, can tell it's happening, and don't know how to stop it. Those stories are super compelling for me.
 

I also like when horror protagonists have to rely on elements of stealth or wits rather than outright violence. It's a lot less scary when your main character has a big gun or some other weapon that's proven capable of taking out monsters. It's another situation entirely when the guns don't work, and the only way to safety is by distracting the enemy, or making sure you're not seen. (Mostly thinking of video games here; if you’re familiar with Fatal Frame, I think the gameplay for that series is scarier than, say, something like Dead Space for that reason.)

Is there anything in particular you absolutely need specific content warnings for?: Nope!

Additional Information: ;)