Full name: Jackson Michael Darby Gender: cismale Pronouns: he/him Birthday: August 8, 1995 Marital status: married single Moral alignment: chaotic neutral
stuff and things
(tw drugs, prostitution)
Jack was the product of an affair, his father never destined to be part of his life. Instead, he became a payoff to be kept quiet. And while he was too young at the time to understand, it still left an impact on him. He wears it like a chip on his shoulder, taking off at the first sign of longevity so that he’ll never have to watch another person leave him.
His mother worked as an escort during his childhood, which made for an interesting upbringing. He was largely left to his own devices, left alone most nights to fend for himself, eating Spaghetti-o’s straight out of the can because he was too young to work a microwave.
When he was twelve years old, his mother was sent to county jail for prostitution, and since he had no other family to speak of, Jack was placed into foster care. It was a nice home with a nice family, and Jack probably should have been appreciative. In hindsight, he was, he supposed. But he wasn’t used to structure or people trying to tell him what to do so he became something of a Problem Child for them. Even still, the family put up with him for two years: the six months of his mother’s sentence and another year and a half while she made a home for them that CPS deemed “safe”.
He was fourteen when he returned and it was like coming home to a polished turd. From the outside, it looked better. They had an actual house rather than a rundown apartment. But on the inside, it was all very much the same. Jack fell back into old patterns, only this time he was rougher around the edges and just a little bit more experienced in the ways of drugs and alcohol
Once upon a time, Jack had been a gifted kid. He was smart and creative, but life had made him restless and directionless, so that talent was wasted. Instead, he fell a little deeper into the sort of life everyone expected of him. He befriended the older kids, he partied, and at fourteen, he lost his virginity to a woman much older than he was.
Life continued like that throughout his high school years. He carved a place for himself among the rowdier crowds and finally the freedom offered to him by his mother’s absence felt like freedom rather than neglect
When he was eighteen, he met a girl who rivaled him in his impulsiveness. They hit it off immediately, and on some drunken bender, the two got married. It hadn’t been a decision made with forethought, or even love, it was simply fun.
And it was good for a while. But like all things that stayed past their usual expiration date, Jack began to get antsy. There were real feelings between them, maybe even realer than he’d cared to acknowledge, but that just meant that it was going to go bad eventually. So, it was better to just hurry it along, right?
Jack did what he always did, and he self-destructed. He cheated. And he wasn’t very secretive about it. She left and he moved on, assuring himself it was for the best
He did learn his lesson, though. No one ever got as close as she did and that was how Jack preferred it: untethered and unattached. He’d be the one doing the leaving from now on.
