Vere

"Mama raised me right.  Straight A's.  Yes sir, yes ma'am.  Supportin' the church.  Playin' football."

Childhood
Born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, in one of the slightly rural suburbs, though he spent almost the entirety of every summer in northern Georgia in the mountains proper with his grandparents. He learned to hunt and camp, ride and fish, but he also spent a lot of his time sitting in trees reading.

The last part of nearly every summer was devoted to a family road trip.


 * "Sometimes you need to get somewhere quickly.  But we used to take road trips with the kids every summer and part of the trip was the drive."  Mama laughs.  "We'd see an interesting billboard or road sign and next thing we knew, we were miles off course and having a great time."

He played baseball and soccer right up to high school, but once he went to high school he switched his focus.

Growing up, he always felt that he was different in some way, but it wasn't until he was thirteen that he started to figure out that he was gay. Some of his crushes included: MacGyver, the brothers on Blossom, Data on Star Trek.


 * "Well, there always seemed somethin' a bit off about me.  I didn't quite seem to think the same as my peers.  But for sure for me was when I was around thirteen and my friends were real interested in girls and I didn't entirely see the point, but I noticed the cute girls' brothers."


 * "That's certainly so.  When I talked to my parents about my sexuality, they a'course wanted to talk to our pastor.  He went all fire and brimstone and sinnin' evil and my mama was not takin' any of that.  She kindly thanked him for lookin' after our immortal souls for all those years, but she no longer felt he was up to the task.  We must've visited four or five different churches after that, tryin' to find a new place to call our spiritual home."

High School
When he started high school, he chose to focus on academics and football - tight end and then quarterback. He also grew more involved with the community and the church.

Through his high school years he struggled with his sexuality. In his first two years of high school he dated a couple of years and picked up the reputation of being a perfect gentleman (because he had no real interest in doing anything with them). Over the summer before 11th grade he had a fling with a young man living near his grandparents, and when he returned to school for his 11th grade year he couldn't pretend he was something he wasn't. After a few months, when he was pushed to ask out one of the cute cheerleaders, he just admitted that he was gay.


 * "That's certainly so.  When I talked to my parents about my sexuality, they a'course wanted to talk to our pastor.  He went all fire and brimstone and sinnin' evil and my mama was not takin' any of that.  She kindly thanked him for lookin' after our immortal souls for all those years, but she no longer felt he was up to the task.  We must've visited four or five different churches after that, tryin' to find a new place to call our spiritual home."

There was rough period for him, but he tried to act as if nothing had changed and fought to stay on the football team. After a straight series of dominating wins on the field, however, the school and his teammates began to warm to him again. By the time the summer before his senior year arrived, things had returned to almost normal. Vere had to be careful how he acted and interacted with people, and be very discrete in any romantic interests he had, but he decided it was better than hiding who he was and living in constant fear.

After High School
He takes a great trip during the peak of hunting season - travels down to Tennessee, Georgia for hunting, then to Florida for some first rate fishing, maybe some camping.

A previous boyfriend was a flame eater with a circus.

Magic
NONE

Description
Tattoos: None yet Piercings: None yet

Physical: Not largely built, but surprisingly solid and powerful with muscles - gives the impression that he should be absolutely made of muscles. He has a strong jaw and a dimple on the left side of his mouth. His skin is tan and a little rough from hard outside work.

He has scarring around his left knee from being shot in the line of duty.

Deep, smooth voice.

Interests
Music:

Activities:


 * Hiking


 * Dancing


 * Working out


 * Fishing


 * TV, movies


 * Plays, concerts

Misc.
Religion: Christian, but not really affiliated with a specific church or faction of religion


 * "I have faith, if that's what ya mean.  I'm not a fan of the word religious.  It's got connotations attached."

He gets health testing every six months, and he does a lung scrub every couple of years to handle the effects of smoke damage from smoking. He picked up smoking while at the police department, and he's having considerable trouble quitting; he's allergic to something in the nicotine patch.

He's got a handful of family recipes up his sleeve.

He lives in a renovated warehouse.

He orders specialty chocolate as a treat for himself - expensive European brand, little squares of chocolate with special extra bits, like spicy curry, and chili pepper, and some flowers in them, some with fruit

Family

 * Richard and Dehlia
 * Amerie and Donald
 * Annette
 * Cody
 * Keifer and Kaikura Falore and Lacey

Friends

 * Alain Swinn
 * Clarissa
 * Di
 * Jay
 * Patrick
 * Pup