“That kid, he’s gonna get out of here.” Jason doesn’t look at Jesse while he says it. He doesn’t look at people much when he talks, often staring off into the distance at something only he sees. “He never should’ve been here at all. Everyone knows you don’t come to Toronto to be the best. Not any more. You come to Toronto ‘cause you’re hanging on by your teeth. That kid, though... All respect to your guy Jensen, but he. He could be the best.” A snort, a shake of his head. “Will be, minute he’s cut loose of...” A vague half-gesture around with one hand. “Us.”
Jesse feels a spike of anger that he knows is really jealousy in costume makeup, pretending to be an emotion more righteous than it is. He wants to snap at Jason, demand sharply who knew him first? Who knew Joey was the best before any of you even knew his name?
He doesn’t, though. Joey used to be an inside joke, a secret only Jesse had found out the truth of. Now the secret’s out, and everyone knows. Joey’s face is on billboards and he’s a hero wearing a flag with the Thunder logo as a cape, and Jesse hardly knows him at all.
did this character development exercise the other day cause i was trying to write a scene with a new character (this one actually) and realized i didn’t know him at all, and just listed two notebook pages worth of Facts. gonna do that for as many hockeyverse characters as strikes my fancy. without further ado i bring you,
what do we know about jason hernandez?
(linkthroughs to other similar posts to follow when they, like. exist.)
he’s thirty-two years old.
he’s a forward with the toronto thunder.
he’s played for the thunder for four years.
his nickname is dezzer or jase.
previously, he played on the seattle riptide and the team in auston, tx, the latter on a line with anatoly sokolov (a phoenixes forward) and clark beckett (former phoenixes forward current captain of the atlanta supernova.)
his greatest flaw is probably his tendency to get wrapped up in his impression of the facts a situation, leaving him unable to see how it's effecting others involved.
i.e. so mad about the coaching situation and hypothetical impact, general facts of bullshit going on with the thunder’s management to see what was happening in real life with joey.
has a strong sense of justice, of right and wrong.
hates to feel helpless, which is likely why he tends to focus on facts rather than people. facts don’t hurt as much.
that said, he has a high level of emotional intelligence when he takes the time to actually see beyond facts and look at people instead.
mexican by way of texas.
very proud of and close to his parents.
his mother, sylvia, is a research botanist.
his father, benjamin, is a gallery artist (painter).
his parents are confused but proud of their weird hockey playing son How Did We Raise An NHL Athlete We Just Don't Know, It Was An Accident.
he was... Different, before the thunder
jason was always pretty serious (much to the endless chagrin of sylvia and benjamin) but he wasn't quite. angry. until toronto, until this coach.
mildly allergic to cats but has one anyway.
has a scar on his chin from when he was a kid and tripped and fell on a rake while helping his mother in the garden.
really dislikes the coach, probably the most of anyone on the team, neither does the coach like him.
gave very, very serious thought to quitting the team over the summer.
unimpressed with toronto weather, especially the snow, but prefers it to seattle.
he reads mystery novels, and is horrible at guessing the endings.
he's got this weird tradition of planting trees with people. like, when he really likes somebody he likes to plant a tree with them because it feels more permanent than a picture or something, and then every time you walk past that tree you're reminded that there's a person that you cared about enough to plant a tree with and who cared about you enough to go along with that admittedly strange idea. got the tradition from his mother. (botanists are weird)
