Name: Jace Lindon Occupation: Junior Resident at Port Leiry General Age: 27 Sexuality: Pansexual Species: Witch Clan/Pack/Coven?: Feng-Lindon Hometown: Savannah, Georgia Relationship Status: Single Personality Traits: Studious, Clever, Organized, Egotistical, Greedy, Spiteful
Biography
Fire destroys.
Jace's entire life, top to bottom, end to end, he'd been taught one thing: because fire is such a destructive element, he had to take care in wielding it. He would have to become one with the innate ruinous qualities of it.
When he was born, his family knew exactly which element would be his to wield — his skin was hot to the touch from the moment he took his first screeching breath, the tips of his fingers dark like coal, orange flickering up into the palms of his tiny hands. Raising a child with proclivity for fire was a chore enough of its own, but making sure that this child knew that he held the future of the coven on his shoulders was even harder. Tantrums and cacophonous cries eventually gave way to silent glares and pouts, until his explosive manners became simply a thing of the past.
Training began as soon as he could string sentences together, not only from his parents, but extended family as well. They all tried to impart their own wisdoms to make sure that Jace would carry them on into adulthood. Many didn't stick — he was a child with a one track mind. He wanted to make friends, play with his toys, goof off at recess with all the others. The more he tried to pull away into a normal childhood, the more his family pulled him back into lessons, training sessions, and studying the fundamentals. By the time he was 11, Jace had given up on trying to do anything social by the book. His life shifted to two things and two things only: magical study and mundane study.
A child with no outlet was not a healthy one, but Jace would never admit that his childhood was anything less than great.
Air lessons were fine. He manipulated the air around him to a moderate degree and moved onto the next. Earth lessons were harder, but he loved the feeling of grounding himself with bare feet in the Savannah clay. Water lessons were practically impossible, and often devolved into theoretics rather than practicals.
Fire, of course, was the easiest, but he couldn't produce flame of his own accord like he was meant to be able to. The whole point of his whole 'heir of fire' shtick was that he was supposed to be able to create the flame out of thin air, like no one else could. He'd snap his fingers and nothing would happen. He'd click his tongue and nothing would happen. Pop his lips, shuffle his feet, blink hard, scrunch his nose, yell out catchphrases from comics — nothing.
Every time he'd try, his father berated him for not taking it seriously and he was sent upstairs with more tomes chock full of theory brought from overseas. He'd show his mother how easily he was able to manipulate the fire and she would press her lips together and tell him to do his chores. Discipline and pressure shaped his teenage years.
He was sixteen when he managed to do something different than just twirl a candle's flame around his fingers. It started the same: he'd bring the flame to his palm, breathe life into it, allow it to grow and fade, then focus on the leftover heat in his palm to create a spark that would hopefully burst forth to life. Instead of the usual nothing, he felt the heat burst forth but inside of his skin. He watched, fascinated, as the skin of his palm shifted into something akin to charcoal painlessly. The char spread down through his fingertips and faded just above his wrist.
It was a comforting heat, he realized, as he watched the skin crack open to reveal fissures of heat and cinders. Jace turned his hand over and watched as the embers crackled forth just underneath the skin, floating up into the air and burning out quickly. Smoke filtered up, mimicking the black of his skin. He reached out with his magic to try and manipulate the smoke into something, anything, but it wouldn't listen to him.
The heat of his hand, though, that was easy. He focused on the heat - made it hotter. More smoke. The temperature in the room shifted. He focused on making it cooler, and the embers died down, less smoke, and the temperature fell back down to normal. He'd never heard anything like this was possible. And it was remarkably simple to control.
At his next training session with his family, he showed them what he was capable of — it was the first praise for his magic that he can remember getting at all, but they still weren't satisfied. The heat needed to be outward, violent.
And so it goes.
He produced flame for the first time just before high school graduation in the bathroom as he was adjusting his cap and gown. He snapped his fingers on a whim, shoulders loose and excited for the prospect of what college might bring, and there it was: a quick spark, a tiny flame on the end of his finger. Eyes wide, he snapped again and it disappeared. It was never brought up to his parents.
The first trip to Port Leiry was not longer after that day. It was a marriage negotiation and Jace, of course, was ripe for the picking — but thankfully, they'd managed to stress the importance of Jace getting a college education. No, this was about his siblings. He watched as they volleyed the tennis ball back and forth to figure out what exactly his siblings would need, and what the Fengs would need. He hated it.
It was the first time he felt confident in his decision to get the hell way from the coven, at least for a little while. University was going to be a new start for him and maybe, just maybe, he'd use the space and time to nurture the glimmer of potential he knew he had.
Medical school was not an easy decision, but Jace knew he had to challenge himself to be able to live up to not only his parents' expectations, but the ones he'd put on himself, too. The time away from his family was exactly what he needed, but it was also exactly the reminder he needed to realize that he was what they wanted him to be. He didn't care for a normal life, but life as an heir of fire in the Lindon family was too important to write off. The more he heard from them, the more he heard from the Fengs, the more Jace knew he had to put his head down and make sure he could live up to the potential that was written in the stars.
His entire life, he'd been taught that fire was meant to destroy, to lay waste to everything around him. It'd been drilled into his brain, even his passive thoughts on the day to day reminded him of it. Being a doctor was the exact opposite of what fire was meant to embody, and that's exactly why Jace made the choice to become one. If he could fight against his real nature, conquer it, then Jace knew he'd be able to live up to his real potential.
Jace has many lessons to learn about magic, about the fire that lives inside him, and the most important one: fire doesn't just destroy, it gives life.
Connections
ex-fiance; this was not someone who jace chose to date, rather than a match set up by his parents and the feng parents as a way to combine the family. the dynamic and plots going forward can be discussed!
siblings; jace has two older siblings, a sister and brother. they were part of his trainings when he was younger. current dynamics are up to whoever picks them up!
co-workers; anyone else who works at port leiry general. nurses, other doctors, techs, literally anyone. jace tries to be a friendly guy despite the outward demeanor.
fengs; jace has complicated feelings about the fengs, as he knows his parents were so hard on him to make sure he could be part of bringing the next generation of feng-lindons about, in an effort to make more powerful magic. he's not really about it, and feels uncomfortable with the idea of a family one day, simply because of how his parents treated him. he also is very aware that the fengs are more than likely in the same situation.
a teacher; he doesn't need anymore mentors in his life, but most of his magical training has mostly been elemental. he struggles with basic spells, but is a quick study. he'd prefer to learn from someone not in feng-lindon.
tell him he's not what they say; he thinks he's a cataclysm waiting to happen because of the fire within him. he needs someone (or multiple someones) to get through the layers of emotional trauma he's been put through and convince him he's not just a force of devastation
