sawyer jonathan sinclair, 27, veterinarian, witch
sawyer sinclair was originally born in devil’s backbone as charlie queen to maggie and aiden queen, a couple whose blood hummed with magic, though what they used it for wasn’t as pure as their blood intended. the queens dealt in the kind of magic that stained their hands and the earth beneath their feet red, that left families standing at the foot of a fresh grave. it was no surprise that the elders eventually caught up to them. arrangements had been made in advance for what would happen to sawyer in the chance that the queens would be burned for their magic, so when the elders came knocking on their door the next door neighbour was ready and waiting for maggie’s call and sawyer was gone from the house before they could find him - but not before sawyer watched his parents crumple to the ground at the raised hand of an elder. two days later ‘charlie queen’ became sawyer adams and was placed in the adoption system. he spent two months in a group home before the sinclairs adopted him and his name changed again.
the sinclairs were a wealthy and prominent family in the exclusively human part of devil’s backbone. claire sinclair owned a chain of spas in and around nola while robert sinclair began coaching high school baseball after a knee injury cut his professional baseball career short. claire, a vain but warm woman, loved kids but hated stretch marks and robert, an impatient but compassionate man, loved kids but hated it when his wife was irritable, which led to the couple adopting four children: first, a three year old girl named caroline, two years after that a two year old girl named madeline, a year after that a seven year old boy named brody and finally, only a couple of months after that, six year old sawyer. the kids, despite being adopted from different families, were close, inseparable and crazy protective of each other.
sawyer, however, sometimes found it hard, the single witch in a family of humans, especially when he knew so little about that part of his family. he had no family book, no witches to teach him and as such, no way to know what was happening to him or how to control it. as such, when sawyer found himself occasionally freezing the his drink or sending streams of ice to the wall when he got a little mad, the naturally curious and idealistic kid decided to test his limits (which were not as high as he thought) by turning the small river by the nearest park into an ice rink for him and brody (he was going through a “no girls allowed” phrase while his sisters were going through a “our little brothers are lame” phrase). at the time sawyer, only 8 years and naive, obviously didn’t have the power to freeze enough of the lake for the pair to safely skate, while brody, 9 years old and always willing to recklessly believe in anything sawyer did, didn’t think to check. consequently, when brody skated to the middle of the lake before sawyer could finish lacing his skates, it took seconds for the thin layer of ice sawyer created on the surface of the lake to break. sawyer, in his panic, couldn’t react in time to save his brother, so when the ambulance finally showed up they only served to pull brody’s dead body out of the lake and bring him to a morgue.
sawyer went to the funeral in an expensive suit, stained the sleeves with his tears and went home to spend a good three days cocooned in his sister’s bed (his own was in the room next to brody’s, a room he couldn’t bring himself to walk past). eventually, after day three of wallowing, his parents made him go to weekly therapy sessions to work out his grief. during the first session he tried to discuss his powers but the therapist, achingly human but aware of the darker things devil’s backbone held and not quite a fan, tried to convince him these things he did were just illusions he made up to deal with his grief. this, of course, didn’t work, as sawyer lived next to winnie and her grandmother and quickly found himself learning more and more about what he could do. between winnie and the rest of the witches sawyer befriended over the year following his brother’s death as well as the things he taught himself, sawyer’s control improved. what this meant, however, was that he could control /not/ sending ice flying around when he was angry or sad, but whenever he tried to do anything beyond make ice cubes or cool down a room on a hot day he panicked elsa style. still to this day, he can’t do too much without panicking.
after a month of therapy he convinced his parents he was all fixed, ready to go back to the life of handing out charming smiles and polite laughs to his parents friends rather than hiding away and snapping at requests to ‘mingle’. sawyer became a new guy, gone was any of the old sensitivity, starry eyed idealisms and thoughtful nature he had before. he became nearly apathetically laidback, letting everything roll off his back and onto the guy behind him, crafted a personality from scratch. he went into middle school and then high school as the typical ‘cool guy’, played sports, bullied kids and charmed teachers. he eased up on the bullying thanks to the witches in his coven talking some sense into him, but kept the snapbacks and nike sandals and ‘haha and then what (:’ texts. he went into every situation and every relationship he shared with a girl with the intention of getting laid and getting out, but he could never quite shook the things that made up his core: his endless curiosity, his inherent sensitivity and compassion. those goals of getting laid were often overthrown within moments, his attention stolen by something he found to enjoy within the person beyond their breasts (their interests, their career, etc.). his original plans to keep people at arm's length, to use them for a good time, crashed and burned completely each and every time, though it was still rare for anyone to reach his core where he kept things like his real parents and his brother and his need to love and be loved.
as a student, sawyer rarely had the patience to study for tests on subjects people forced on him rather than topics he stumbled on on his own, but had the aspirations for a career that required good grades, so sawyer was no stranger to cheating. thanks to several miracles and his magic, he was never caught and managed to graduate and go to a university just outside of devil’s backbone. only last year did sawyer finally finish his schooling and began to work at a clinic within devil’s backbone. the ultimate goal is to have his own clinic, and while he has no problem taking money from his parents, he’s not quite ready to take on that kind of work (he’s lazy sorry bout it).
he lives in an apartment with winnie, one that is often cluttered and loud, either from their bickering, a lightsaber fight or sawyer’s neverending trap music. truth be told, despite his endless supply of fuckboy propaganda and his claims that he’s not a nerd, homeboy is the biggest nerd. like seth cohen levels of nerdiness. he and winnie actively try to make their toy lightsabers real. he and winnie /own/ toy lightsabers.
he’s very in the moment, refuses to think about things for too long and never ever looks back. he doesn’t allow himself enough time to think about things like his parents, the elders, his brothers, the way his mother still sometimes looks at him like she knows what happened to brody was his fault, and is thus never still.
he’s an insomniac, rarely sleeping for more than a couple of hours at a time and often finds himself at mcdonalds at 4am with gus or taking a run around the block with all 56 (this is an exact number) of his and winnie’s dogs at 6am.
it is incredibly rare for him to ever say no to a reckless activity, in fact he’s more likely to suggest a way to make it even more reckless.
he’s mastered the practice of pretending to be confident to the point where he’s truly just obsessed with himself. touch his hair and you can’t be surprised when he gives you frostbite.
sawyer’s entire life is jokes, though they can be mean, and he very rarely takes anything seriously. give him an inch and he will take a mile. he has the tact of a brick wall, always asking too many questions, pushing the envelope a little too far.
he’s fiercely protective of his friends, mainly his coven, and his animals (all animals, actually) as well as compassionate, though he tends to pretend otherwise.
he gets along with most, as he very rarely takes anything anyone says to heart (he also very rarely truly listens to anything people say) and anything you could say against him he’s thought of first (homeboy is no stranger to self loathing, he’s just very good at masking it). while he spends incredible time and effort towards the people he loves, he wastes no brain power towards the people he doesn’t. if he doesn’t like you he will not speak to you and flat out ignore you.
it is 3am i am tired love him.
parallels: peter petrelli, isaac lahey, noel khan (book verse tho), reeve tabatsky, ...noah czerny [incoherent screaming], joey tribbiani, seth cohen, matt cutshall