Personality: Somewhere between being a dashing space hero and a reckless, genius bad boy, Jim Kirk manages to develop a personality actually somewhat worth paying attention to. Even when making deliberate efforts to be stagnant, he's the sort of character that grows and develops near continuously, taking what he's given and using it in some way. He's been shown to be more self-aware than he lets on, consciously knowing when he's being a screw-up and not doing a thing to change it. If asked, his most likely excuse for this is apathy. Why bother putting your intelligence to good use when there was Iowa to bum around? A rather depressing past involving, among other things a dead father, a grieving, absent mother, and a brother who left home young, not able "to be a Kirk" in their stepfather's house. A mentor character even mentions it in passing, that the sort of background Jim had made a little bit of dramatic backstory expected, but there was no need to dwell on it, something Jim would have been quite happy to do without the proper motivation.

Thankfully, once the proper motivation has been found, Jim becomes a nigh-unstoppable force. He's not the sort of take challenges lightly, because being told he's incapable of something is one of the biggest insults he knows. He may lack the obvious, outward desire to prove himself before he's been properly challenged, but one can be sure that once dared, Jim will inevitably exceed all expectations, and defy as many odds in his path as possible. Once he has set himself up to do something, he takes personal responsibility for the outcome, sometimes ignoring the rational truth of the matter: he can't be responsible for everything. Although it's something he very well may come to be better at accepting, for now, every death for a common goal is a personal failure. Going hand-in-hand with that, Jim has a knack for cheating death. And when he doesn't cheat it by chance, he is entirely apt to rewrite his situation entirely to make the outcome turn in his favour.

During his Starfleet military training, he took a test, one that had been taken many times before but never beaten. In fact, the Kobayashi Maru is designed and frequently modified to be unbeatable. Unfortunately, someone told Jim that, and so it was beaten. The most common way of looking at the situation was that he cheated. However, there's also the view -- the one that he argues -- that no-win situations don't exist, so he just made things work in his favour. This may or may not have involved sneakily installing a subroutine that changed the parameters of the test, but nevertheless, gives a pretty decent example of how set Jim is on getting things done.

Aside from his stubbornness and perseverance, Jim manages to be an interesting character socially, as well. Flirting is as natural as breathing for him, leading to plenty of compliments and careful dodging to get what he wants. Then again, fighting is also about that natural to him, and so when flirting goes wrong and turns into a barfight... well, that's not a wasted evening, either. Letting people get physically close to him isn't an issue. In fact, he seems to rather enjoy taking up other people's personal space. But emotionally close, that's another story. When thrown in the right situation, camaraderie and teamwork that looks suspiciously like friendship might crop up, but otherwise, there's a certain distant nature to his relationships. Jim can be just as guarded as he can be flippant, and what can sometimes be a rather bleak world view has been known to shine alarmingly bright with optimism.

Jim's been told, point blank, that in the future, he'll be great. That doesn't necessarily mean he believes it, though, and the differences between timelines he knows are great enough that he's dubious that the known Kirk of the future is really what he'll become. He's still young, and no amount of cockiness can hide that blatant truth. Youth does not cancel out determination, though, and that is something he has in great supply.

Abilities: Aside from above-average intelligence and combat abilities, Kirk's just an average human male.

Sample Entry: So. Craziest thing happened today. [Jim is using his "so this is bullshit and I need you all to see it as such" tone of voice. Hey, if there's going to be an open communications system with a habit of broadcasting frequent whining, he might as well get in on it.]

I was walking home from work, minding my own business, when... okay, this is going to sound completely ridiculous, but if literature has taught me anything, it's that those were zombies. Calculating, murderous, freakishly intelligent zombies. Not my idea of a great Monday, but Mondays are kinda crap, anyway. They're lousy for everyone. They are... [This isn't a dramatic pause for emphasis, why would you ever say that?] - particularly lousy when I have to borrow some kid's baseball bat to save both my behind and his from the approaching zombie hoard. The subsequent brain matter splattered on my dress shirt just added to that lousiness.

So I propose a toast to Mayfield. Thanks for the zombies and the zombie guts and being stuck in the twentieth century with baseball bats for weapons. You're really winning my heart over here.