Jean M. Rousseau is unabashedly French when virtually everybody sticks with planet of origin. He is of noble stock (another largely outdated concept); in keeping with the tradition of nobility, he has never worked a day in his life and doesn't let that keep him from wasting more money per year than your average working grunt makes in a decade. Jean's ship is small and flashy, and it hosts one of the most ill-kept secrets in the entire race: an extremely powerful drive that is so unreliable even the military hasn't been willing to make a non-virtual copy. The monstrosity takes up fully half of the Noblesse Oblige, and is used only for quick, infrequent boosts of speed that invariably put it at least two places farther up the line - until it blasts itself into little pieces. Jean nearly got in fifth place last race, but demanded the overstressed drive be put to use in the final straightaway and wound up drifting in for 29th.
Jean is a foppish eccentric with a bad temper and bad taste in clothes. His crew is mostly more likeable and easier to pin down. Jax 'Pathfinder' Burton, the Oblige's pilot, is a heavyset, laid-back sort of guy who manages to make even the most daredevil stunts seem like nothing to even get excited about. Jean would never admit it, but his near success last race was more due to Burton than the flashy drive. Morton Alexander, on the other hand... well, give the man some slack. He probably wouldn't be painfully thin and always irritated if he wasn't given the thankless job of mechanic to two engines. Jeeves, a stuffy English butler, serves no function other than standing in Jean's shadow and pandering to his every whim.
- Character description by Selden. Reference art by Zachfive. (Click characters for larger art.)
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