Jasper

art by PixelWayve

Jasper is a main character all four acts of The Dolls of New Albion. He is voiced by Paul Shapera.

## Before Death

Jasper comes from a family with a very respected name who was once extremely well off, but who has, within the past few generations, watched their fortune ebb away. The family name is still worth something, but there is not much behind it anymore.

Because of this, Jasper has been raised with a great deal of pressure to rescue the family name and fortune and restore the once proud line to the status they deserve. Unfortunately, Jasper really doesn’t care about all of this. He is quite content to settle down on the family’s country estate far outside of New Albion and pursue his passion for horticulture. He is interested in creating small scale food forests on limited land which can produce massive amounts and varieties of food which a family or individual can live off of indefinitely.

This is all well and good, but his family still wants their fortune back, while he argues that he can feed them and future generations and money need not be so great of an issue. These discussions never go well, and despite his convictions, he has been raised from birth to shoulder the family expectations, and so cannot just walk away. His mother uses a potent blend of guilt and pity which Jasper, although aware of and despises, is unable to emotionally resist.

His marriage was carefully arranged while he was still in his early teens, something that he resents.  He met Annabel McAlistair shortly before the wedding and was quite taken with her, although he only saw her one night. He forgot her soon afterwards.

The marriage is an unhappy one. He sees his wife as vain and shallow. She is actually quite industrious and focused. However, she too is from a family with good name but waning fortune and has fully bought into the need to make as much money as possible over the course of her life in order to restore the two families’ greatness. She has less than no interest in Jasper’s interests and is disgusted with him for his reluctance to go out and make his fortune.

He finds himself able to spend less and less time on his life’s passion, and is pushed into being a stockbroker. Interestingly enough, he has a sharp mind for it, the same logic that makes him a brilliant horticulturalist also makes him capable for being a successful stockbroker, but instead, he is complete failure at it. This is because he subconsciously sabotages himself. His resentment for his mother and wife comes out in his deliberate attempts to fail at the money making business.

The only good aspect of his otherwise miserable life is the birth of his daughter, Fay, whom he loves deeply. Alas, while she is still a young child, he is involved in the accident that kills him.

## After Death

Jasper found himself brought back to life and in a doll, as the result of a successful experiment by Annabel McAlistair to raise the dead. His doll body had very limited movement and he could not speak, only play radio broadcasts. An excited Annabel carried Jasper around the city for a time, going on walks in the park, getting ice cream, and going on carriage rides. Eventually, Jasper managed to communicate that he was unhappy in this state and wished to go back to Elysium. Annabel listens to his plea and destroys the doll.

Jasper is brought back to life for a second time by Edgar McAlistair, the son of Annabel, who discovered her notes. Edgar chose to bring back Jasper as part of a blackmail scheme to coerce Fay into to marrying him. Fay agrees to marry Edgar in order to be able to see and have time with the doll that houses her father's soul.

Byron McAlistair, the son of Edgar and Fay, develops an strong attachment to Jasper. Byron is also a prominent figure in the Voodoopunk movement, a counterculture which heavily centers around the afterlife and the dolls. The Voodoopunks run a campaign to elect Jasper the Doll as mayor of New Albion. With the time that he has spent in the doll body, Jasper has developed the ability to craft the radio broadcasts into a song of his own. With the Voodoopunk's platform, Jasper is able to speak to the whole city, and he sings a song longing to return back to Elysium. The song is picked up and sung by the rest of the dolls in the city who share the same sentiment. Another Voodoopunk member, Amelia, commits suicide due to an abusive home life and in her suicide note she uses the words of Jasper's song. The city becomes fearful that the dolls are a threat, and rioting begins, bonfires are lit, and the dolls are thrown into the flames. Byron saves Jasper from being destroyed.

As a result of the riots the city goes into a strict martial law, and anyone who is found in possession of a doll is punished severely. Byron is taken away by the authorities, leaving his daughter Priscilla McAlistair to hide away in the house with only Jasper for company. Jasper and Priscilla spend their time playing a never ending game of cards. Even though Jasper still wishes to die, he is content to stay and spend time with Priscilla, the first person he has come to love since being brought back from the dead. When Priscilla learns that Jasper is suffering as a doll, she calls the police to report a felony, choosing to sacrifice herself in order to allow Jasper to find peace. Jasper does not want Priscilla to die, but soldiers arrive at the house and they shoot and kill both of them.

## Trivia

* Jasper is the final known reincarnation of a soul line that includes Jordan Rathkar, Jan the Ghost Boy, and Jesse The Gambler.
* He is featured on the Priscilla and Jasper Play Cards shirt and poster in the official merch shop, with art drawn by PixelWayve