bardish | directory: duplicity

JEFF CALHOUN

Jeffrey David Calhoun NAME. 44 (c. 2018) AGE. 06/06/1974 BIRTHDAY. Original (Gifted & Talented) CANON.

suckerlove (Inbox) USERNAME. 004-B (Up) HOUSING. Submissive (Contracted: Peter Osborne) DESIGNATION. Musician & Bartender (Subversion) OCCUPATION.

As of the September 2020 Event, Jeff is now, occasionally, a merdude. EXTRA NOTES.

Jeff Calhoun is a nervous, gentle bard who refuses to do anything particularly bardly. Though Gifted, he rarely casts spells, and the thought of performing for an audience is likely to send him spiraling into anxiety. With a past that's marked with addiction, instability, and a close brush with demonic possession, Jeff's determined to live a life that's as uneventful as possible. These days, he's a divorced, suburban-dwelling high school history teacher and a doting single father to his teenage daughter. He prefers to live out his life like he's the supporting character in other people's stories. They can go off and have fun; he's already had his turn. No extra attention, no drama, no action or adventure.

There was a time, though, waaaay back in the early 90s, when Jeff was wild and reckless, a total live-wire of a performer, making a name for himself (and his band, the Nervous Tix) in LA. Night after night, he and his bandmates would perform music weaved through with magic ritual, cultivating bacchanalian revelries at their shows. As their hype grew, and their momentum built, Jeff and the Tix seemed like they were on the trajectory towards stardom.

That is, until his reckless magic use accidentally summoned a demon that ruined his life and left his dreams in tatters. For his full history, check his application.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

height. 6'0" build. Lean, fit. Jeff's athletic and clearly enjoys working out. (check it) hair. Brown, graying eyes. Hazel sexuality. Bisexual marital status. Divorced hometown. Santa Monica, CA current residence. Elmbridge, VA career. High school teacher (History), former musician demeanor. Painfully Californian fashion. Casual fashion dad. He wears a lot of jeans, t-shirts, plaid button-downs, and henleys. tattoos. hip/lower stomach & right side/beneath ribs. voice. Also painfully Californian (bonus singing voice reference) scent. Some kind of light cologne that makes one think of beaches and idk sea salt mental. Vacillates between a total state of CHILL and overwhelming anxiety, with a pleasant undercurrent of self loathing magical. He's his world's equivalent of a bard, so if anyone can get a feel or sense of his magic, it'd be ~musical~

WORLD INFO

Jeff's from a modern fantasy universe, set in the present day, where magic is:

Real. It exists, and it's been around for ages.
Hereditary. Approximately 12% of the population is born with the ability to use magic at all.
Out in the open. Everybody knows about it.

For centuries, magic users did the whole "hiding in plain sight" thing, their "society" (such as it was) existing as a secret, underground subculture. That changed with modern shifts in mass media and globalization. By the 20th century, discovery seemed inevitable. In the late 1940s, magic users outed themselves and emerged on the international stage. There were rough times, and many places are still rife with tension and conflict. But nowadays, in a lot of the world, the magical is practically mundane.

Officially, magical abilities are known as Gifts, and those who possess them are Gifted. While Gifted people are generally understood as part of modern society, that doesn't mean they're universally loved or embraced. Stigma and prejudices still run deep, especially in more conservative communities. But by and large, being Gifted (or not) is just another facet of a person's identity.

Although the decades since the big reveal were full of upheaval and tension, things took a major positive shift by the end of the 20th century. Things aren't perfect, but these days, being Gifted isn't nearly as on the fringe as it used to be.

MAGIC SYSTEMS

Jeff is Gifted, which means he has the potential to make magic work through self-directed Ritual. Magic, in this universe, isn't some amazing superpower, nor is it something that's as simple as picking a spell out of a book. Its applications can be versatile, running the pretty typical fantasy gamut (clairvoyance, glamours, telekinesis, vague curses/blessings, etc), with the potential mixing, matching, customization, and so on. The principles of magic are universal, but the actual spellwork is based on the individual.

Spells and Rituals are unique to the caster. Rituals are tied into some aspect of who they are, what they're interested in, or what they're skilled at. As for spells, they have to be crafted/composed and cast by the individual. Think of them like a song that can only be played by one person. They can cast the same spell over and over again, or remix it with something old and something new, or craft a new one. The bigger the effect you wish to have, the more difficult and complex the ritual spellwork must be.

Jeff's Ritual is music: singing, humming, whistling, playing the guitar, etc. Any spell he works has to be built on music, which makes him a bard. He's also pretty rusty when it comes to casting anything big, and he'd rather keep his spells to little, petty things, if he has to cast any at all.

ABILITIES

As a bard, Jeff makes magic through music; he can only cast through humming, singing, whistling, or playing an instrument. Thanks to a boatload of past trauma, Jeff tends to avoid casting whenever possible, and is more likely to freeze up in a crisis than attempt any kind of magic.

When he was younger, though, he used magic whenever possible, often in frivolous, flashy ways. Style over substance! So although he's rusty now, Jeff's still got a pretty solid grasp over the following types of spells:

Telekinesis. He can move objects (or small living creatures) provided 1) they're in his general vicinity (about a 10 foot radius), 2) he knows where they are, and 3) they're not all that heavy (~40 lbs or less).
Pyrokinesis. Starting and extinguishing small fires is Magic 101, and Jeff's no exception-- provided there's something flammable to actually ignite. Jeff can manipulate fires with magic, but only in flashy, pointless ways. He can't change the size or intensity of fires, but he can make them dance and take shapes temporarily. Party trick!
Lights. Jeff can use magic to light up an area-- sparkling fairy lights, or creepy will-o-the-wisp looking things, or colorful lights, and so on. They're showy, pretty, and temporary. This spell comes in handy if Jeff's stuck in the dark and nobody has a flashlight.
Locating. Sometimes, Jeff can use magic to find things, like misplaced keys. This can work on all sorts of objects, but he has to be familiar with the "essence" or "energy" (or whatever you want to call it) of the object's owner.
Blight. He can kill plants, but it's rude and he tries not to.
Intoxication/Empathic Manipulation. One of his go-to party tricks as a young bard was to sway the moods of his audience. His spells can have an intoxicating effect on the listener, usually a temporary state of euphoria or lowered inhibition. Typically, effects wouldn't last for more than 30 minutes, and would be weaker/more diluted if cast over larger groups. On his own, Jeff could have a moderate effect on a handful of people. When amped up by other magic users (like his bandmates, in the past), he could work a crowd into a frenzy.

PERMISSIONS

Backtagging. Always! If I get too bogged down, however, I prefer to focus on plot-specific backtags. Threadhopping. Always fine on network posts; ask first for action/logs. Fourthwalling. N/A since he's an OC; however, you're free to confuse him for other characters played by Timothy Olyphant. Romance. Totally open to romance with characters ages 30+! Mindreading. Mind reading, telepathy, aura reading, dream walking, etc. ALL ACCEPTABLE. Jeff doesn't have any fancy mental wards to keep people out. Manipulation. He's probably pretty easy to manipulate, go for it. Injury. Minor injuries are always fine; major injuries on a case-by-case basis. Fighting. You can fight him, but he's really not a skilled fighter, and he's kind of a skittish weenie, so it wouldn't be a very long fight Killing. Generally not interested in character death.

WARNINGS & EXTRA PERMISSIONS

Jeff's an addict in recovery, but he does still engage in semi-regular recreational drug use (marijuana), and it may come up in scenes. It's mostly to self-medicate anxiety issues, and he's a functional stoner. He also has a little bit of a Dark Past^TM from his early 20s, which includes drug addiction, demon-induced psychological torture (hallucinations, fugue blackouts, intrusive thoughts), and a stay at an inpatient recovery program.

Drug use and Dark Past^TM issues aren't likely to come up in most scenes with Jeff, and his character tends to be pretty lighthearted in general interactions. I always warn for it if he's high in a top-level, and I'll steer clear of references to it when interacting with somebody who'd prefer to avoid such content! I'll also always use warnings in the subject line if a tag starts to go into his past issues in any detail.

Also, while most of Jeff's magic is pretty harmless, Intoxication/Empathic Manipulation is a spell that can have a nasty effect on others, particularly if wielded irresponsibly or cast on somebody without their consent. It was something he used to cast because he was 21 and stupid. The good news is: he refuses to cast that kind of spell these days. The bad news is: he's still capable of it if, for whatever reason, it might come up in game. I assume people are opted out of this spell as a default, and it would only come into play in a scene if specifically opted into (and if it's IC on Jeff's end to even cast it).

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ros est weeyotch#8200 i'm trying to finish this but i have a cat in my lap

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NOTE TO SELF: JEFF HAS BECOME A VICIOUS MERMAID

add notes about this somewhere
tides and shit

Edited 2020-09-28 01:59 (UTC)

directory: duplicity

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