Jean

Name:	Jean-Marc
Pronouns:	He/Him
Aliases:	Manager 646 (Year Zero), The Owner (First Cafe), The True 8, Manager No. 0 (Fourth Cafe), I (Fourth Cafe), The Otherman
Affiliation:	The Last Cafe
Trivia:	French Poetry

Always assume I’m in the loop.

Jean-Marc was the original Owner of the Cafe and Diner, and one of its founding members. He is the Otherman, and currently works in the clandestine Last Cafe.

Biography

Jean was the original Owner of the Cafe and Diner. Alongside his best friend and Amour, he was one of the founders of the Cafe and Diner in 1988. However, the Jean we currently know is not from this Sphere, but the previous, the 15th Sphere. While not much is known about the circumstances during the 15th, it is known that his role as the elder "The Otherman" - which entailed him ensuring that time flowed as it should - allowed him to make a deal. Specifically, he cut a deal with Belphegor and Mammon. In exchange for stepping down from his role as the Otherman, becoming human again, and granting the two Princes a majority share in the Cafe and Diner, Belphegor would use God's Pocketwatch to create a new Sphere, in which every Cafe and Diner employee would be safe, and he would be able to keep his memories of the 15th and the Mantle of 8. Because of this, he had an uncanny sense of direction while guiding the CaD, especially in the earlier years.

His first encounter with the coffee industry was in 1972, in his home town of Detroit, Michigan, when Miss. Cadillac burned down his family home, killing both of his parents and sparking a deep interest in caffeinated business.

In the next 16 years, Jean met ex-Employee No. 17, and his Amour. While the details of this are unclear, by 1988 the three were close enough to do business with one another. Also before the Cafe opened its doors for the first time, Lucifer assisted Jean in gaining Second Vision by reading the Wicked's words, though this action caused him to become Blighted.

During Year Zero, Jean put a lot of work into setting up the Cafe and Diner, ensuring that all the i's were dotted and the t's were crossed. He gave names to himself and the other founding members, and even found another employee, the aptly titled Manager 8. 8, or Jack Octo, possessed the Mantle of 8 in this year, though Jean gained it from him at some point before the First Cafe opened its doors.

Eventually, however, all Cafes must open, and the Cafe and Diner was no exception. Much of Jean's time in the First Cafe was spent battling his Wicked Blight, with the help of the aptly named Medic. While his work during We Are Open is shrouded in mystery, it's known that he and his Amour had a falling out in 1993, though the details of this are unknown. Unbeknownst to Jean, however, he had gotten Lucifer pregnant, and she gave the child, Julia, away to two angels, Ariel and Adathan Wandsun. That said, he has always had a tendency to take a more behind the scenes role, and indeed seemed to serve as such during the First Cafe. That being said, when the Cafe banished Satan and dismantled his Church, he was labelled as one of the "Anathemas" like the rest of the employes.

His good fortune would not last, however, and at some point likely in 2000-2001, Jean died in a fire that destroyed the First Cafe. This was, of course, not true; Belphegor had actually hidden him away somewhere. Despite this, his protégé Jennifer Hepburn seemed to believe that he did actually die in the fire, and one of the missions of the Second Cafe was to uncover who struck the match.

Though his whereabouts during the rest of the Second Cafe are currently unknown, Jean would later reappear in 2017, as a member of the mysterious Deep Corp 23, a clandestine organisation dedicated, in part, to casting doubt over the Third Cafe's investors, Muldra Yonomo and Sophie Grenbelrn. He was joined in this endeavour by his Amour, his best friend, his other best friend, and likely his protégé.

Jean, and the Deep Corp would later surface during the Third Cafe's Crisis, during which they joined forces with both the Third Cafe and the remnants of the Florida Cafe in order to stop Miss. Masoch. They succeeded, but this came at a high cost. Jean's Amour sacrificed herself, and they were overtaken by Muldra, collecting on his debts. Muldra reorganised the Cafe to his whims, assigning Jean as the leader, Manager No. 0, and ushering in the era of the Fourth Cafe.

Jean, of course, did not take this lying down, creating a clandestine organisation within the Cafe and Diner, consisting of himself, then-Employee No. 17, then-Employee No. 44B, Manager No. 1 and, later, Manager No. 5. This Darn Defiance wasn't his only concern, however; he still had to worry about the Otherworld, the Antekeys and the mysterious End. To this end, he appeared to have been making deals with Levi, Fly and Asmi, though the details of these are as yet unknown.

At the culmination of the Fourth Cafe's Otherworldly Adventures, the Cafe reached the Chamber at the End, and unlocked it, freeing the Bird from His imprisonment. After this, the CaD managed to shake off Muldra's restrictive control, and they expanded across the country. Jean's actions while the newly-minted Long Island Branch dealt with the Haunting of 112 are unknown, but we do know that, after that tab was squared away, Jean had decided to take up his position as the Otherman once more. Before he did so, he gave his Pieces of the Mantle of Eight to Jericho Myerscough, leaving him with three-eighths.

This was not the end of Jean's story, however. He set up a fourth branch of the Cafe and Diner, in the heart of the Ouroboros. This Last Cafe's job is to deal with matters of "cosmic importance"; currently, their goal appears to be subverting Fate. As Employee No. I, Jean recruited Belphegor, Theo, "John Doe" and Shaka of Zulu. Their location in the Flipside seemed to be aligned with Eden, and this was important to Jean's goal, as he intended to tear open the lost plane in an attempt to bring Lucifer back from the dead. This was, of course, a terrible idea, and he realised as such with the death of Victoria Ward. Currently, Jean is trying to make up for his mistakes by ensuring his Last Cafe is a little more transparent with the rest of the Fourth Cafe than it has been in the past, though he still remains rather distant. It is yet to be seen just how well the Last Cafe achieves its goals, but one thing is for certain; Jean will be leading them.

Personality

A lover, a dreamer, a poet and an idealist. Jean is many things, and has been many more things in the past. He is perhaps the most knowledgeable employee of the Cafe and Diner when it comes to coffee, helped by his knowledge of the 15th Sphere, though he no longer has those memories. He is a passionate man, but his ambitions can often bring those around him into grave danger. He has a penchant for French poetry and literature, especially the works of Villon and Baudelaire, and has a tendency to philosophise and wax poetic. Jean loves deeply, a trait which can blind him to others if those he loves are hurt. For example, his desperate pursuit of the chance that Eden could bring Lucifer back ended in the death of Victoria Ward. To put it simply, Jean is a star that shines brightly, but can burn those around him.

Ties That Bind

• Is deeply in love with Lucy, though their relationship has been rather rocky at times.
• Ex-Employee No. 17 is his oldest friend, and they have worked together since the beginning.
• Manager No. 1 is his protégé, and both she and Manager No. 2 are some of his closest friends.
• Julia Wandsun is his daughter, though he didn't know this until 2022. He wishes that he'd gotten to know her better.
• Seems to have some kind of friendship with Sophie Grenbelrn. Considering both of their natures, they likely knew each other well in the previous Sphere.
• Regretted not having been able to save Jack Octo in the previous Sphere, and resolved to save him in this one.