Popinjay

Jay "Popinjay" Ackroyd is a character from the Wild Cards series of books. As an ace, Jay can teleport people and things anywhere he can clearly visualize and he has to be able to point his index fingers at his target (holding his hand like a pistol). Known (much to his annoyance) as 'Popinjay' amongst his fellow wild carders, his power, especially combined with his quick wits, makes him a deceptively dangerous opponent.

History Edit

Jay Ackroyd was born in 1944 and became a private investigator, running the Ackroyd Creighton Agency with his junior partner, Mr. Nobody. As a private detective he has been involved in a variety of pivotal moments in Wild Card history.

While investigating the death of Jokertown information broker Chrysalis, Jay uncovered Senator Gregg Hartmann's efforts to cover up his status as a powerful and manipulative ace. In the process of this investigation Ackroyd, normally unlucky in love, bedded Ezili-je-Rouge, a woman who would become his future partner's girlfriend and the secretary for their detective agency. Upon Jay's arrival at the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta, he and Tachyon's grandson Blaise Andrieux were captured by Ti Malice.

In the early 90s, when Blaise ran away from home, Dr. Tachyon hired Ackroyd to learn his grandson's whereabouts and the detective traced him to the Rox. Tachyon was subsequently jumped into the body of a teenage girl, and called upon Ackroyd to help him again, this time having him accompany Tachyon to the planet Takis to help recover her original body.

While on Takis, Jay was captured by Blaise, who telepathically coerced him into chopping off his own fingers to prevent him from using his powers. After Blaise's defeat, the missing fingers were regrown by Takisian technology. Since then, Ackroyd married Hastet, a Takisian chef, returned to earth, and played an integral role in defeating the Card Sharks. Now he spends most of his time on his increasingly high-profile detective/bodyguard service, the Ackroyd Creighton Agency, which employs aces such as Peter Pann and Topper. One client of note was Peregrine, who hired the Ackroyd Creighton Agency to serve as bodyguards for her son, John Fortune.

Wild Card Traits Edit

As an ace, Jay can teleport people and things anywhere he can clearly visualize (often this means places like the local baseball stadium or police holding tank). He cannot use this power on himself, and he has to be able to point his index fingers at his target (holding his hand like a pistol). Whenever he uses his power the air displaced by the telporting object makes a "pop" noise from which he gets his unwanted ace name. The largest object Jay has ever been known to teleport was a fuel truck, which made a thunderclap of sound when it disappeared.

He can apparently teleport people into places that do not exist as long as he can visualize them, as he demonstrated by sending Ti Malice into a scene from a recurrent nightmare of his. Dr. Tachyon theorized that there were potentially no limits to the range of Jay's ability, as evidenced by his telporting Dr. Finn to Takis.

Appearance Edit

Ackroyd is a nondescript man, slender, just about 5 ft. 8 in., with brown eyes and hair and weighs about 145lbs. He generally dresses in old, worn suits and never wears a tie.

Personality Edit

Jay Ackroyd is somewhat jaded and cynical after dealing with the seedy underbelly of New York for the last few decades. He is an unrepentant wise-ass and his mouth has been known to get him in trouble. Jay has a pathological dislike of guns and firearms due to bad memories associated with a botched mission early in his career.

Trivia Edit

• Jay's favorite saying is, "Might as well, I can't dance."
• Jay dislikes his nickname, "Popinjay", and wishes people wouldn't use it.

Selected Reading Edit

• Wild Cards Volume VII: Dead Man’s Hand
• Wild Cards (comic book)

ReferencesEdit

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