Jessica DeGrandi-Vries, or simply Jess, is the twin sister of Jeremy DeGrandi, the wife of Alexander Vries, and mother of Marcus. Jessica is from the Dust Valley in The Westfold, and is the sheriff of her hometown of Karango. She is an unmatched marksman, and despite her job, is also reknowned throughout the land as a bounty hunter. She is currently the first Sheriff in the land of Haven, stationed in the capital.
Appearance[]
The first thing noticed about Jessica is she has Heterochromia, her eyes are different colors. Her right eye is a light gray green, while her left eye is a light shade of purple. Her brother shares these traits. Her hair is a darker shade of brown, and is almost always kept in a long ponytail. She has shapely lips, and has a scar along her right breast which is hardly ever seen. She has a very athletic build, with rather long and powerful legs.
Jessica usually wears a brown leather vest or tanktop, with camo pattern pants. She always has her black bandana on her, either across her left leg, or in her hair when she is sniping. She has a small bandolier of sniper rifle ammo on her right arm almost at all times. She wears tough, rugged outdoor boots with spurs.
Personality[]
When Jessica first debuted in the story, she was emotionally distanced from the other members of the pack given her forced membership. She seemed like a calm, always coolheaded girl that had an aura of coldness about her. As time went on however, circumstances would on occasion reveal a much more, damaged, even traumatized, personality to her.
Firstly, Jessica was shown to be a strict vegetarian. This came from not a willing choice of food tastes or nutritional interests. This was because she was so badly traumatized by the demise of her parents that she could not eat meat, for it made her hallucinate blood, which in turn triggered her trauma.
The only emotion Jessica ever seemed to show asides her moment of emotional instability was that of a somewhat concealed crush on Alexander, and general distrust towards Archerios and Mynna.
After Jessica confronted her demons, literally, her character took on a almost drastic change. She became much more friendly, has a general air of friendliness about her.
However, one thing has been constant. When its time to go to work, Jessica is 100% professional. She does not let emotions interferre with her judgement or decision making, and always remains calm and plans ahead. That being said, Jessica has a great deal of fun in good ol fashioned shootouts that remind her of home.
It should be noted however, that Jessica on her own, is yet to really come to acceptance and full trust and love with The Pack. With the recent loss of her brother, she has once again began to show small sighs of detatchment. While her new job as Haven City's first sheriff has brought immense satisfaction back into her life, and she has opened up to a handful of her friends, there is still a very thin layer of ice that needs to be broken for her to truly feel at home.
Jessica has an appreciation and respect towards fellow marksmen.
Abilities & Powers[]
Sniper[]
First and foremost, Jessica is one of the greatest marksmen in all the land. With impeccable aim and mastery of long distance calculations, Jessica prides herself on having never missed her mark.
Jessica invested quite a small fortune in hiring Pierce to design and build a custom Sniper Rifle for her. She named the gun The Black Shot, and is currently one of the most advanced pieces of technology in the world. Using unholy black energy collected from The Gallows, this rifle has the ability to fire a devastating beam of black energy that annihilates anything in its path. The recoil of this attack is so powerful it usually greatly harms Jessica's shoulder, as well as sending her flying.
Jessica is so skilled with a rifle she is capable of surgical percision at even extreme close ranges, as shown when she was forced to shoot Vries. She fired a shot at his head to make it look like she killed him, but instead shot the bullet along his forehead to provide a convincing splash of blood that aside from a deep cut did not harm him.
Werewolf[]
As a Hunter strain Type B, her natural senses are drastically enhanced, giving her acute hearing, precise sense of smell, and the ability to see perfectly in the dark, things that have only improved her already masterful sniping skills. Of all members of The Pack, her senses are by far the strongest. However, Jessica's regeneration is very poor, and she cannot shrug off attacks that the others can.
While Jessica would much rather deal with threats from afar, she is by no means helpless in direct melee combat. She is one of the few Pack members to have received formal training in physical combat, but while her stance and blows are more akin to a scrapper, Jessica has great knowledge and excels in submission holds. She uses her long legs to execute tight and swift headlocks and armbars, choking and breaking her enemies' arms respectively.
Relationships[]
Family[]
One of the people that Jessica cared about most was her twin brother Jeremy. Together they witnessed the death of their parents, which both strengthened and broke their bond. While together in their early years they were hustlers, Jeremy took to the life of an outlaw, while Jessica turned to bounty hunting, which would frequently give her run ins with her twin. As the years went by and Jessica became the law, the conflict with her brother continued to grow. Despite at least two decades of frequent encounters and countless arrests, Jess began growing restless and afraid for her brother.
Ever since she first laid her eyes on him, Jessica had quite an attraction to Alexander Vries. However, as he was married to Arriana at the time, she didn't let it show all that often. This also lead to a dislike of Ari, but that too, was not seen very much. Shortly after Alexander and Arriana split, Jessica took full advantage of his emotional turmoil and made her move, and the rest is history. Vries is the love of her life and the man of her dreams, and even before they became lovers they shared a marksmen rivalry, with Alex being in awe of Jessica's sniping skills. They have a very playful and affectionate relationship, and instantly become violently enraged when harm comes to the other. Jessica has unending unconditional love for her son Marcus. She is "just a bit" overprotective of him, and becomes quickly angered when she hears of his time in the military. She frequently pesters Vries about her loving Marcus more than him, and that he loves her more than him.
The Pack[]
At first, Jessica had great dislike of Archerios and Mynna.
History[]
Childhood[]
Jessica and Jeremy were born in the city of Karango, two minutes apart, with Jessica being the elder.
As a child, Jessica had quite the attunement with slingshots and was already an ace shot. At age 4 she won a marksman tournament with an air rifle given to her on her 4th birthday.
When Jessica and her brother were 6 years old, their parents were killed by the late Pirate King Hernandez Cortez. A 16 year old Hiraldo was present for this, and for years to come Jessica would hold both unbridled hatred and fear of the infamous Cortez Clan.
The Black Bandana[]
Unable to cope with her parents' murder, in her teenage years Jessica turned to bounty hunting as an outlet for her anger and pain. She rapidly built up a reputation for being the most effective and ruthless justice for hire the Valley had ever seen. She became known as Black Bandana Jessie, an epithet from the black bandana she always wore when she was on the job.