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Name. Jeffrey David Calhoun Age. 44 (c. 2018) Date of Birth. June 6, 1974 Canon. Original (Gifted & Talented) The TL;DR Version 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. There was a time, though, when Jeff was wild and reckless, a total live-wire of a performer, with the makings of a rock star.

And then he accidentally summoned a demon that ruined his life and left his dreams in tatters. After a year of (metaphorical) hell, then a stint in treatment, Jeff turned his back on magic, music, and the whole sex/drugs/rock'n'roll lifestyle. Now in his 40s, Jeff's a suburban-dwelling high school history teacher and a doting single father to his teenage daughter. A quiet life isn't what he originally envisioned for himself, but after surviving addiction, instability, and a close brush with demonic possession, Jeff's happy to keep things as uneventful as possible. Magical Goddamn Powers 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.

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. 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~

Background Info

Quick World Overview For more information than you could ever want, here's an extended World Info post.

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. 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.

History

A Quick Timeline

1974: Born in Santa Monica, CA, on June 6. Jeff's the middle child of three, from a loving, Gifted family.
1983: Picked up a guitar and started learning! He was always obsessed with music.
1984-1987: Started learning magic, mostly from his family. He found that music was the best ritual to work with, and so Jeff was always practicing and perfecting these skills, together. Unfortunately, he was a total slacker with everything else. At school, Jeff skated by with about a C average.
1988: Entered high school! Immediately joined the burnout/weirdo crowd.
1990: Started a band-- the Nervous Tix-- with his best bud and a couple other Gifted teenagers. With practice, the Tix incorporated magic ritual into their music in subtle ways. Things just seemed a little more vivid and exciting when they played.
1991-1992: Flunked his senior year, dropped out.
1992: Got a crappy apartment with his friends in LA.
1992-1994: Worked his ass off practicing, rehearsing, waiting tables, booking gigs, etc. Overworked and enmeshed in scenes where drugs were rampant, Jeff's own use shifted from 'occasional' to 'regular.' Meanwhile, the Tix made a name for themselves in the local punk scene and picked up momentum. As their hype grew, so did their reckless use of magic. Tix shows became wild bacchanalian revelries.
1995, The Year Shit Hit The Fan: Jeff unwittingly summoned a demon during a show. Drawn to the musical magic, the demon followed one of Jeff's spells all the way to the source, then got stuck. Effectively, it was trapped in his head. Jeff spent the year slowly losing his mind from demon-induced hallucinations, nightmares, fugue blackouts, and insomnia. The demon spoke to him frequently, trying to get him to cast a spell and complete the summoning (ie pull it out of his head and into the world). Meanwhile, Jeff dove deeper into drugs-- specifically, heroin-- in an attempt to smother it out. After months of Jeff's downward spiral, the band broke up. Jeff continued to languish until, after a particularly lengthy blackout, he finally reached out to his mom for help.
1996: Jeff was admitted to Harmony Grove, a recovery center for "Gifted issues." There, specialists severed his link with the demon. He then spent nine months in treatment, undergoing therapy, addiction treatment, and trauma recovery, while dealing with detox, post-acute withdrawal, and trauma. He also earned his GED! Jeff left Harmony Grove, determined to make the best of his second chance.
1997-2001: Went to community college, transferred to a university, started dating Lisa Miller, a doctoral candidate (he was smitten with her brains and ambition!), and graduated with a Bachelor's in History! When Lisa nabbed a job near the DC metro area, Jeff moved with her.
2002: Lisa and Jeff had a brief engagement, then a quick wedding.
2003: Melody Miller-Calhoun was born on February 13. Also, Jeff secured a job at a nearby high school.
2004-2006: Jeff and Lisa's fundamental incompatibility emerged in their day-to-day domesticity. Eventually, they were more glorified roommates than a couple.
2007: Jeff and Lisa divorced, amicably.
2008-2018: Jeff's spent the past ten years working (still at the same school) and raising Mel (now 15). Lisa visits frequently, and they co-parent like champs. Things are pretty steady, stable, and happy in Jeff's life, as long as he focuses on his job and Mel, and ignores any big, lingering issues of his own. It's no big deal. He's fine. Everything's fine!

I'll walk right out into a brand new day Born in Santa Monica on June 6, 1974, Jeff's the middle child of three. His parents-- an attorney and an artist-- were college sweethearts, Gifted activists who'd met each other at a protest, and Jeff and his brothers were raised with the Gift as an intrinsic part of their identities. The Calhouns were supportive, enthusiastic, and endlessly permissive parents, still clinging to the hippie ideals that brought them together, which was... good for Jeff in some ways, and disastrous in others.

By necessity, Gifted people kind of have to be inquisitive, independent, and adventurous, at least if they really want to experience the Gift to any real degree. It's difficult, because magic can't be taught, not in any 1-2-3 "this is the incantation, and this is the ritual, and here are the steps you take" kind of way. Instead, you learn the theories, and you learn to translate that into your own, individual way of communicating with the Gift. Ritual, it's called. Only then can you really begin to teach yourself how to cast the particulars. Many don't bother, or they reach a certain, comfortable level of modest skill and settle there.

So the Calhouns, Gifted to their core, and in every facet of their lives, nurtured those vital traits of inquisitiveness, independence, and so on. They encouraged their sons to try everything, do everything, experience everything-- responsibly, of course, and with some parental supervision! Mike, the eldest, really thrived, growing into a compassionate, ambitious, brilliant young man with a big heart and the drive to put his ideals into practice. Meanwhile Eddie, the youngest, may have been neurotic and high-strung, a total dork according to his peers, but he was always authentically Eddie. He knew who he was, and he liked what he liked, and he wouldn't let anyone make him shrink or hide. Where Mike was beloved by his peers (total golden boy), Eddie was the misfit with the small, tight-knit group of friends. They both had their people with whom they belonged.

As for the middle child? Jeff was the artist. He was all emotion and intuition and dreaming, drifting around with a smile on his face and a song in his heart. Music was his first, loudest, and longest love, and he picked up his first guitar before he ever even thought about casting a spell. The Gift came second, and it was only natural-- a total no-brainer-- that music would be his Ritual, his magical language. He was a bard through and through, to the point where the only reaction anyone could give to his magical-musical journey was "...yeah, that checks out."

As far as school went, Jeff would embody academic mediocrity. It was like he poured everything he had into music and magic-- learning, practicing, testing every rule and boundary-- and school was a very, very distant third in his list of priorities. To his peers, he was a friendly, outgoing kid, with a casual, easy-seeming confidence that coasted him through the different cliques. He was like a social drifter, friendly with everyone, but oddly detached from any particular group. He had one best friend, and then a sea of casual acquaintances. It afforded Jeff this mystique, an elusive kind of cool that was largely just a figment of other people's gossip and imagination.

In high school, Jeff's tendency to zero in on his interests at the expense of everything else had increasingly negative consequences. He'd developed a laid back rebelliousness, cutting classes and neglecting schoolwork in favor of cultivating his music and his Gifted rituals. It used to be, he could skate by making B's and C's. Then it became C's and D's. Drugs became a staple recreation, which he'd claim was because it helped him meditate and commune with the Gift, but honestly, it was mostly because he really liked getting high.

But, boy was he talented. He could play guitar brilliantly, sing in a voice that was beautiful and raw, and cast lively, dynamic spells like the Gift was just another extension of him. He was, simply put, good, and his ability to really push himself and excel in these things led his parents to put blinders on with his more glaring issues, and deal with his academic problems with too soft a touch. Jeff was just taking his time and finding his way, they figured. He was an artistic soul. It was fine. Insane and rising in my own weird way It was only a matter of time before Jeff got it in his head to start a rock band with his best friend. Brazen and outgoing, he was an obvious frontman, and she was a skilled drummer with a knack for lyrics and composition he couldn't match. They complemented each other well, and soon they recruited a couple more musicians for rhythm guitar and bass. And thus, the Nervous Tix were born. All-Gifted, with magic weaved into their shows to create an experience unlike any other act out there, the Tix were going to be totally revolutionary!

The only problem was: they sucked. At least, they sucked at first. But, for all their failings, they worked hard. They brainstormed. They composed different music and played around with their sound. They practiced. They found a style that worked for them, and in time, they improved.

Meanwhile, Jeff was flunking through his senior year of high school, and he wouldn't be able to graduate without putting his band to the side, putting his head down, and working his ass off to repair the damage for the rest of the school year, and likely through the summer. When he opted instead to flunk everything and skip out as soon as he turned 18, he would tell everyone it was because it didn't matter. After all, he had his art, his calling, his future career all mapped out, and you don't need a high school diploma to be a fucking rock star.

But the truth was: Jeff was afraid of trying, because if he tried and still failed, it would confirm to himself and the world that he really was just an idiot. At least this way, he could end his academic career on his own terms.

Still, flunking high school was a reality check in some ways. Jeff got a job (which assuaged some of his parents' fears), doing his best to support himself and his art. He kept himself busy, eventually saving up enough money to move into an apartment with his bandmate. The Tix kept performing, starting out at little dives, then moving up to clubs and other venues. They'd open for other up-and-coming acts, broadening their audience. And, the more magic they weaved into their shows, the bigger they got. The Tix became known for cultivating a revelrous, bacchanalian (and occasionally spiritual??) experience, and as they developed a following, they became a fixture in the LA music scene. Jeff and his bandmates had never worked so hard at anything else in their lives, and it was paying off in hype, momentum, and what was looking like an increasingly bright future.

But when you meddle with magic the way Jeff was, amping it way up, way too many times, eventually it's going to blow up in your face. Despite knowing this, despite warnings, he kept at it, because he was young, cocky, and invincible. His star was rising, and he wasn't gonna stop now. With all the magic the Tix were slinging around, it was only a matter of time before he got attention from other beings who possessed an intrinsic link to the Gift.

Which is to say: Demons. I don't want to be the bad guy Now, demons aren't inherently evil. Some are malicious, others are benevolent, but most of them are utterly indifferent to humanity. They exist on a separate plane of reality, and their only connection to reality as humans know it is through the Gift. It's like: if the various planes of existence were laid out on a Chutes and Ladders board, the Gift would be both the chutes and the ladders. Most of the time, that means... effectively nothing. Your average spell isn't going to be enough to attract otherworldly being's attention, let alone create a pathway for it to take a trip to Earth. In order to ever have a brush with a demon, a Gifted person would have to be a particular blend of brilliant, driven, and utterly stupid and reckless. And even then, your average demon is likely to want little to do with any human. At most, it may impart a little bit of wisdom to whoever summoned it (or a vague, meaningless, and totally misleading riddle), then peace out back to its home.

Jeff's demon was different. It was intensely curious, intrigued by what little it understood of humans. In particular, it found music so utterly captivating that it took notice of these odd, melodic manipulations that would reverberate through the Gift with increasing volume and frequency. It started to anticipate it, to look forward to it, until one day, it followed the music all the way back to its source, like a rat trailing after the Pied Piper.

Now, going back to that earlier analogy: Jeff's magic, in this case, would be a chute. A one-way ticket. So when the show-- and the musical rituals-- ended, and all that magical energy dissipated, the demon was effectively stranded on Earth. Specifically, it was tethered to Jeff, which was kind of similar to possession, but not quite the same. With possession, it could have taken the reins, used him as a meat puppet, and really experienced all that humanity had to offer. Instead, it was more like the demon was tied to him, and neither could escape the other, and so it just... made itself at home. Invisible and inaudible to everyone else, it became his constant companion.

At first, he didn't notice it. The demon took some time to quietly learn and absorb the world around them. And boy did it come to love pop culture. Jeff's heroes became the demon's heroes-- actually, so did his likes, and his dislikes, his tastes and family and friends... Without realizing it, he'd influenced this thing, fed into its growing obsession with the human world. And soon, it started to act out, with the thoughtless cruelty and voracious selfishness of an all-powerful child.

When the demon's influence was small and subtle, it was easy to rationalize away anything unusual in his perception. But then, he'd catch glimpses of something, briefly, in reflections. Not just mirrors, but any reflective surface. In time, the demon began to appear more, finding ways to articulate its wants and demands. It started speaking to him, not just with words, but through the Gift, and through his other senses. More and more, Jeff would experience nightmares, then hallucinations, reaching a point where he had difficulty distinguishing between dreams and reality. Already a habitual, but largely functional, drug user, Jeff's own drug use escalated. He started to mainline any substances he could get his hands on, in an attempt to either smother out the demon, or at least reach a point of numb, peaceful indifference. Naturally, it was a completely ineffectual way of dealing with the problem. Soon, he was experiencing intrusive thoughts of harming himself or others, and it was hard to say how much of that was the demon, and how much was himself, his own (far less literal) inner demons coming out to play. The worst was when he started experiencing fugue blackouts, lasting hours to days. It was this unsettling, dissociative feeling, like he'd wake up after having already lived the day as somebody else.

All the while, the demon kept talking to him in as many languages as it could. It was enthusiastically chatty, always having something to say, though its moods were utterly mercurial. It could be sweet, vicious, friendly, cajoling, demanding, needy; it was whatever it felt like being in the moment. Often, it would call itself his biggest fan, and what it wanted, more than anything, was for him to write a new song for it. And that song would be a ritual, a spell, that would make the suffering-- both of their suffering-- stop.

What the demon wanted was for Jeff to finish what he (accidentally) started and bring it all the way into the world. It wanted to take the wheel, to really become human and experience life in flesh and blood and fluids. It wanted to trade places with Jeff, which, if you think about it, could only be an improvement for both of them, since Jeff was hardly functioning anymore, and the demon was just overflowing with goals and life and inspiration!

Really, their dynamic could best be described as a cross between The Little Mermaid and Single White Female. And, eventually, Jeff was just tired. He was done. He'd give the demon what it wanted, indifferent to whatever consequences it might lead to. Best case scenario, it would take his body, and complete his slow-burn suicide. Worst case, it would take the nearest Gifted person (likely one of his bandmates, who were like family... maybe some unlucky sap in the audience?), and he'd be free. Win-win, right?

Meanwhile, cracks were forming in the Nervous Tix. Jeff was becoming increasingly unreliable and insufferable, a strung-out, self-absorbed asshole who was dragging the band down. They tried to get through to him; heart-to-hearts, interventions, arguments, nothing worked. He was doing his very best to alienate every single one of his friends and loved ones by lying to them, stealing from them, and hurting them over and over again. And, when Jeff finally broke and composed a special song-- just for his biggest fan!-- it was the final nail in the band's coffin. The show was a disaster, the spell (as far as they understood it) made no sense, and it didn't even work, anyway, because he was too weak and fucked up to be any use. All that happened was Jeff puked on the audience, blacked out, and fell off the stage.

After that, the Tix split up. Another promising band, brought down by the unhinged frontman. It's a tale as old as rock 'n roll. I don't want to do your sleepwalk dance anymore It'd be nice to claim that the band breaking up was the catalyst Jeff needed to seek help. Instead, he wallowed for a few weeks longer, in some kind of dreary, drug-fueled half-life where dreams, reality, music, and magic all morphed into one Cronenbergian monstrosity. And eventually, it was his older brother, Mike (Remember him? Mr. Golden Boy?), at this point a law student at Berkeley, who physically hunted Jeff down and hauled his ass out back to their childhood home.

Naturally, magic-related mishaps are as old as the Gifted community, itself. And one of the benefits of being out in the open was that by the 90s, there were more resources than ever available to Gifted people in need of intervention. So his parents got him admitted into an inpatient program for "Gifted issues." After a brief stay in a medically-assisted detox program, Jeff was moved into Harmony Grove, where he'd spend the next nine months of his life with the other Gifted fuckups.

Harmony Grove turned out to be the most formative experience of his life. He still had the demon with him, but it was easier to combat while he was surrounded by counselors, therapists, doctors, support groups, all helping him work through his treatment plans. It wasn't just the demon that they helped him with; it was also his addiction, and other maladaptive coping behaviors. He learned how to be a more understanding, communicative person, and to apply himself to things outside of his obsessions. After a few months, he was able to work with his care team on one final ritual, to sever the link between himself and the demon-- something he had to do for himself, because nobody could cast that kind of spell for him.

It was difficult. It took multiple failed attempts (and with them: sickness, despair, shaken confidence, and more noise in his head than he could stand), over weeks, before he got it right. But when he'd finally succeeded, there was a lightness he hadn't felt in over a year... and also a sense of loss and grief that he hated himself for. But when it was all finished, Jeff could finally, truly, work on himself and move forward with his life.

Jeff graduated from Harmony Grove with his GED, a determination to turn his life around, a thousand new coping strategies, and a seemingly unshakable sense of optimism. He moved back in with his parents for a while, waiting tables and enrolling in community college. This time, he applied himself, and he asked for help when he needed it, which made him (FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HIS LIFE) something of a model student. He was done with partying, and made sobriety a major priority, attending NA and finding new hobbies to use as coping strategies. Fitness became his go-to form of stress relief, which he desperately needed since drugs and alcohol were totally off the table, and music and magic were so intertwined in his recent trauma that he overcompensated by completely turning his back to them. I just want to feel some sunshine Jeff's next step in Living A Normal And Very Respectable Life was to go to college. He became a History major, and met, dated, and fell in love with Lisa Miller, a doctoral candidate and fellow Gifted student. He was always a sucker for the brainy ones... And their relationship was nice. It was normal and sweet and mutually supportive, filled with laughter and light, all these things he thought he'd never experience after the ugliness of his youth. So, when Lisa needed to relocate across the country, to the DC metro area, for work, Jeff happily drifted along with her.

The only problem was... Their relationship was pretty much doomed by Jeff's refusal to really, fully be honest with her. Once they moved in together, his life was like a 24/7 performance, because he just couldn't-- wouldn't-- be his complete self, flaws and all, around her. Jeff was convinced that if Lisa ever really saw him, instead of the happy, perfect demeanor he put out into the world, she wouldn't be able to stand being near him. Instead, he'd pretend he was always fine, and though she knew a sanitized version of his past, he could never bring himself to truly open up to her about the details.

In a way, his fears became a self-fulfilling prophecy, and their relationship would ultimately fail because of Jeff's tendency to close off a huge part of himself. But it took several years for things to fall apart. First, they moved across the country together, Lisa taking a research job with the Smithsonian, and Jeff putting in the work to become a high school teacher. Then, they had a very brief engagement, followed by a wedding and a baby: Melody. Naively, both of them thought that they could salvage their slowly withering relationship through Melody. After all, they loved her, and took to parenting with joyful enthusiasm, and that would solve everything!

Or they would slowly become little more than glorified roommates. Lisa was growing restless, having put off her ambitions for field research in an attempt to make things work, and Jeff was content to focus on their daughter and pretend everything was great and fine and perfect. By the time Mel was 4, however, Jeff and Lisa finally came to terms with the fact that their marriage wasn't much of a marriage at all, and they needed to separate, for Mel's sake, if nothing else. It was an amicable divorce, with Jeff having primary custody of Mel, so that Lisa could finally become the globe trotting field biologist she'd always wanted to be.

He'd already had way too much adventure in his life, after all. So, Jeff was happy (well, as happy as he can be, while deliberately repressing huge parts of his identity, but that's nobody's fault but his...) to stay in the burbs and live a quiet life, giving Mel the structure and stability to thrive. And... maybe he learned from his parents' mistakes and actually enforced some boundaries and discipline.

Some.

He's still a soft touch. I just want to find some place to be alone It's been about ten years since the divorce, and Jeff's pretty proud of how utterly uneventful he's managed to keep his life. Lisa's still very much a presence in his and Mel's lives, Facetiming with them when she's out of the country, and frequently staying in the guest room when she's stateside. Oddly, they're better friends now than when they were married, with Jeff finally managing to open up to her, really open up and be himself. And he's still teaching high school kids all about US History, trying his best to show them how very human all these giant figures were, how history's made by everyone, how they're all empowered-- well, you get the drift. Jeff even mentors Gifted kids, sometimes, and he's the faculty sponsor for the Gifted Students Club, even if he still refuses to practice magic in front of them.

Of course, even though Jeff's life is pretty steady, stable, and happy, it doesn't mean there aren't any lingering issues from his past. He's an anxious person. Extremely anxious, especially when a new or unexpected stressor is punted into his life. But he's able to manage the anxiety with some weed. He thinks Mel doesn't know. (She does.) Otherwise, Jeff's doing all right for himself. The self-medication even helps him relax enough that he's gotten back into practicing some-- some-- magic. He keeps the spells small, nothing like what he used to get up to, but it's nice to get back in practice, especially since he's been teaching Mel (now 15), as some good father-daughter bonding.

So that's where Jeff is now. A (sometime stoner) teacher, entering his mid-40s, living in suburbia. His troubled past is still a part of him, and sometimes, he has regrets, sure. He wonders what life could've been like if things hadn't taken such a sharp turn in his early 20s. But when he considers his life as it is, he knows: It was all worth it. And as long as he focuses on his job and Mel, and ignores any big, lingering issues of his own, it's no big deal. He's fine. Everything's fine!

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Melody (Daughter) placeholder

Lisa (Ex-Wife) placeholder

Allison (Nervous Tix) placeholder

EXTRA TIDBITS

A general overview of Jeff's taste in music. Look, he's a bard, and music is basically his religion, so this is important to him!

Smutty Sexy Permissions

Orientation. Bisexual Age Preference. Ages 30+ are solid, with a stronger preference for partners ages 40 and up. Jeff's happy to have platonic CR with anyone under 30! (And some smutty/shippy exceptions may be made for ages 25-29, depending on CR.) Top/Bottom. Jeff's a switch who tends to go with the flow depending on his partner and mood, but usually leans top. Dom/Sub. He's such a sub by nature. Jeff's a major people-pleaser, and he likes strong-willed partners who'll ~~tell him what to do~~ be assertive. Sex/Romance. In theory, Jeff's more in favor of romance, and he's big into relationships. However, he tends to opt more for sex than romance, because it's easy and less daunting than ROMANCE. Kinky Preferences. Jeff's open to kinky things, as long as they're approached playfully, in a way that's mutually fun and supportive. So for something like spanking, he's not down for giving/receiving anything that would actually hurt his partner/himself, but he could be receptive to light, playful swats. Humiliation-based kinks, likewise, are a no-go if they're emotionally taxing, make him feel like the butt of a joke, etc., but are on the table if it's lovingly teasing, lighthearted, etc. (► = giving, ◄ = receiving, * = hover for more info)

ic turn-ons (favorites). oral (◄►) anal* (◄►) vaginal (►) rimming (►) body worship (◄►) dirty talk (◄►) praise (◄►) femdom (◄) maledom (◄) objectification* (◄) hair pulling (◄) edging (◄) stoned sex (♥) playfulness (♥) gentle d/s* (♥) exhaustion* (♥) nerds (♥) strong ladies (♥) rugged dudes (♥) kind people (♥) super bossy power bottoms (♥)

ic turn-offs (negotiable). humiliation* (×) pain (×) restraints (×) public sex (×) hatesex (×) blood (×) fisting (×) passive partners (×) snobbishness (×) condescension (×) mean partners (×) sexy magic in the bedroom* (×)

Hard Limits I'm really flexible with things, so if something isn't listed above, that means it's just something Jeff, ICly, hasn't really thought about. So feel free to approach me if you're interested in something that isn't mentioned! The only non-negotiable limits (whether for IC or OOC reasons) are:

Ages 24 and under. I can be flexible with ages 25-29, depending on CR/plots/circumstances, but no younger than that. Jeff's not going to go for anyone 20+ years his junior.
Daddy kink. He'll run screaming in the opposite direction.
Teacher/student roleplaying. See 'daddy kink'.
Bathroom kinks. No scat, and if you piss on him, he'll get really upset!
Gore, snuff, etc. You can safely assume really hard stuff like gore, mutilation, snuff, vore, vomit, etc. are off the table.
Rape. Not a storyline I'm looking to explore with him.

WARNINGS & 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 absolutely refuses to cast that kind of spell ever again. 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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PERMISSIONS & OPTING IN OR OUT