Nicknames: JJ / Jere (his ex used to call him Jere-bear which he always kind of hated. Some people use this to tease him).
Age: 19
Pronouns: he/him
Sexuality: Questioning (probably bi/pan)
Ethnicity: White British
Education: Graduated Swynlake Secondary 2021, incoming first year at Pride U, studying Sustainability Studies.
Work: General staff at Chippamunka’s.
You might know him from:
School! Jeremy attended Swynlake Primary and then Swynlake Secondary, graduating in 2021
Church! Jeremy’s family are regulars at the Cathedral, and Jeremy sung in the choir since he was very young. He has now stopped singing, but still attends regularly with his family now he’s back in town.
Performances! Jeremy has performed at school recitals and in performances at the Cathedral as a soloist for both vocals (especially before his voice broke) and in classical guitar.
Chippamunkas! Jeremy worked here from 2018. Although he stopped while he was away on his Gap Year, he has been rehired.
Appearance
Height: 5’10
Build: Lean, wiry, well defined muscles
Hair Colour: Dark blonde
Hair Style: Scruffy. Beachy-waves all over.
Eye Colour: Blue
Complexion: Quite tanned (tans very easily)
Distinguishing features: Guitar string scar on his right palm.
Wardrobe Style: Gen Z meets Surfer boy. Loves a bold patterned shirt and shorts.
Accessories: Has taken to wearing lots of woven and leather bracelets he picked up on his gap year, will also wear necklaces.
Socials
Social Media Handles:
Twitter: jeremy-Oh-my!
Insta: j-j-j-jeremy-johnson
Social Media Usage: Frequent. Regularly has to set up blockers on his phone during exam seasons to kick him out of his accounts.
Sister: Suzie Johnson, primary school student (and all round brat).
Ex-Girlfriend: Emily Brown, now a student at Glasgow Uni.
Friends:
Enemies…
Significant Belongings:
His guitars. Jeremy has 3 guitars. A nylon stringed Classical acoustic he has had since he was eight that is used for acoustic and classical performances, a steel string electro-acoustic that was a present for his sixteenth birthday, and an electric that he saved up all of his Chippamunka’s wages to buy because his parents didn’t really approve.
His camera. An old film camera that used to belong to his grandfather, a gift from his grandmother for his 18th birthday, he took it around on his gap year and now loves taking photos with it and getting them developed.
Favourites:
COLOUR(S): Green, he’s a basic guy.
WEATHER: A nice autumn day, when it’s cold and crisp and just a little windy.
MUSIC: Jeremy is the kind of musician who really doesn’t have a favourite type of music. Instead he appreciates pretty much every genre, but can be pretty picky about finding good examples of it all. He respects the artistry and performance of different musicians and the song-writing, but he’s never particularly liked the way that so much modern pop never even uses a real instrument (call him biased as a guitarist).
MOVIE(S): He likes action films, big, fast paced snappy dialogue action films with big action sequences and special effects. But he also secretly loves a good romcom and curling up on a sofa with one (his ex-girlfriend made him watch a lot. He has strong feelings about which ones are good).
SCENT(S): Vanilla, cinnamon, warm homey scents like that.
BEVERAGE: Milkshakes! But his job at Chippamunka’s has meant that he is pretty much always in pursuit of creating the Perfect milkshake - trying to combine different flavours and textures, chasing that absolutely perfect shake.
FOOD(S): Pizza. If he thought he could get away with it he’d just live off Pizza Planet. Instead his parents made sure that he was fully equipped with basic cooking skills so he can fend for himself well at uni.
ANIMAL(S): Platypus-es… platypi… Platypeople? Actually, he’d probably say dogs? He likes most animals, to be honest and doesn’t have very strong feelings about it.
You know, when I see fictional characters who repress all their emotions, they're usually aloof and very blunt about keeping people at a distance, sometimes to an edgy degree—but what I don't see nearly enough are the emotionally repressed characters who are just…mellow.
Think about it. In real life, the person that's bottling up all their emotions is not the one that's brooding in the corner and snaps at you for trying to befriend them. More often than not, it's that friendly person in your circle who makes easy conversation with you, laughs with you, and listens and gives advice whenever you're upset. But you never see them upset, in fact they seem to have endless patience for you and everything around them—and so you call them their friend, you trust them. And only after months of telling them all your secrets do you realize…
…they've never actually told you anything about themselves.
Adding onto this: characters who are so deeply repressed that they don't even realize they're not fine, or at the very least not supposed to be fine. Characters who do tell you about a situation they're in that should be bad, but instantly laugh it off saying they can handle it (spoiler: they can, in fact, not handle it). Characters who laugh with you and listen to all your woes and much later you learn that they were actually going through something at least equally bad at the time, but they wave it off and don't want to speak of it. Characters whose main coping mechanism seems to be "don't think about it" on endless loop.
Basically, the fictional embodiment of the "this is fine" dog.
And she knew other things-- things that must remain unspoken because she hadn't the words for them. In her head, she just heard the music of a distant song, of a roaring crowd, of the scratch of a record bringing Jeremy Johnson's music to life. If she tried to describe what she heard, looking into Jeremy's eyes, she'd find herself speechless.
She might only manage to hum the melody of his future, but then, well, that'd spoil it. He needed to find that melody himself-- in late nights after rehearsals, or while on the train back home, or when closing his eyes in the shower. He'd find it, that melody. And another where that came from and another, still, because his soul, like Linnet's soul, was woven together by song.
So Linnet didn't say anything else. They'd said it all.
Instead, she kissed him one more time. And on that second bong-- she laughed and stood, then hauled up Jeremy with her because this was her real part to play-- not to spoil his melody but to make sure he got on that train. He needed the hand! Nothing wrong with that.
"C'mon now! Jeremy Johnson's got places to be and audiences to woo and songs to sing!" she told him, squeezing his hand as that train pulled in and let out an exhausted sigh of smoke. "Don't you cry now. Well-- you can cry a little. Still, this is a see you later, not a goodbye."
His heart ached, like he couldn't hold it all inside him. The fear and the excitement, the love and the pain and the missing that came all at once. But he would, and he would have to. Linnet's soft lips met his once more, and he closed his eyes for a final time, as he kissed her back, and hoped she knew that he'd have followed her anywhere, if it weren't for the fact they both knew that, at least for now, their paths had to walk their seperate ways.
He hoped she knew that, although her home might be gone, she would always have a home in his heart, no matter where it went.
Jeremy let her pull him up, and he swung his rucksack onto his back so that he could cup her face gently in his hands and take one last proper look into those big beautiful brown eyes. "Oh, I'll cry me a little," he laughed, threatening to break right there on that train platform.
"Thank you," he murmured, for only her to hear, before he leaned in and kissed her forehead. She had believed in him in a way that made him believe in himself, and wherever he went next, it would be because of her; because of Pip, and Nemo, because of Mim and Luca and Eilonwy and Marie, even Phineas, because of his parents and his sister and all those people who had seen in him something he had never allowed himself to see in himself.
"I can't wait to tell you all about it," Jeremy smiled. For now, it would hurt. But there was a whole, wide world out there waiting, and there was nobody he'd rather talk about it with.
Jeremy caressed her face one more time with his thumb, before he stepped back, and stooped to pick up his holdall. "Take care," he said, the only thing that really mattered, before he stepped backwards and found his way into the current of people moving towards the train doors.
Once he was inside, he could find a window and wave her goodbye, and perhaps, as the train pulled out, he would finally allow those tears to fall.
