Jack

"Fun, friendly, social, a little flighty, a little flaming, a little frivolous.  Extremely loyal. Very dedicated and protective and supportive. Dedicated to more than just my friends; very determined when it comes to my goals. People underestimate me a lot, and I take full advantage of it. When I decide on something, I go after it. And I get it."

"I'm Russian. Born here, raised here, but the snow and the wild and the deep, primordial forests are in my blood. Hence my surprise over a kinship with driftwood. People think I'm a predator, they usually expect me to be a wolf or even a bear, but I'm not. I'm a fox. Clever, wily, a survivor. A minor predator, but also certainly prey. Someone that hides and runs but stands when he needs to."

Childhood
He was a wild child, roaming like little beast hither and yon through his family's gardens and forests, connecting with nature.


 * "I remember one time when I was four, I found a nest full of eggs. I didn't grab them, thank goodness, because I was afraid of breaking them. But I went and told Mom, all excited that we could have eggs! Blue eggs! Like a cartoon! And mom brought me back to the eggs and told me that eggs were little babies sleeping, and if we ate the eggs they'd never wake up. After that I made it my personal mission to hunt down all nests with eggs and protect them." He laughs again. "To be honest, at that age protect just meant standing a little bit aways with a sturdy stick and a fierce scowl, but I felt like I was being of help.  And then I found out about the circle of life, and it made me very sad. But then I knew whenever I'd found the signs of something dead and eaten, even an egg, that something else had gotten a good meal and maybe brought some home to their own babies."


 * "You should've grown up somewhere like my home," he laughs. "Ponds and streams and trees and lots of lovely dirt all over. Mom ended up restricting me to two areas of ingress, by which she installed showers. I entered without showering when messy under pain of death," he chuckles.  "When you're a little boy super proud of the mud tattoo he just gave himself and itching to show Dad, it's a terrible hardship."

Though he was a child of the forest, he was also a world traveler and culture consumer.


 * "Not road trips. We would fly around the world.  Sometimes things went awry, to put it mildly. Those were some of the most fun trips. I've come to the conclusion that the best families or groups are the ones able to take a plan falling apart and going horribly wrong, and still make it fun.  Like getting lost in the volcanic mountains of Hawaii. Or getting lost in the tiny back roads of France. Or getting lost hiking in the hills of New Zealand. Or getting lost in the forests of northern China. Or getting lost, or getting lost, or getting lost," he grins.

Despite growing up undeniably priveleged, his parents installed a hard set of good values in him and taught him to always be himself. And he was always himself. To that end, he knew from a very early age that he was gay, and he never tried to hide it from anyone, even when it caused him trouble in school and socially.


 * "I've known a long time, to my Dad's despair. I was probably six when it first came up, but I was eight when it was just plain as day.  Dad was so lost when it became clear I was gay…" he chuckles. "Not that he avoided it or anything. He was actually the first to realize it. But he was so sad when he realized such an important part of growing up and being a teenage boy, meaning lust and matters of the heart, he couldn't talk about with me.  But we still had just about everything else we did together. Magic and boys were just about the only things he couldn't help me with."

He was bullied quite badly in school. He sort of brought it on himself in some cases, collecting unpopular kids and taking care of not only himself, but his friends. It earned him a fair number of enemies; it also earned him good friends. But he could definitely take care of himself - he was taking martial arts. His dad wanted him to learn something Russian and vicious, or Israeli like Krav Maga, but his mom vetoed that, afraid he might accidentally kill someone. (His mother tried to get him into dressage or polo, but his dad stopped that to keep Jack from being bullied even worse).

High School
Jack transferred to a public school during high school. That's where he encountered the worst of the bullying and homophobia, but where he was best able to take care of himself and others around him.


 * "It was actually a pretty interesting situation… One of the jerks at school was a particularly hateful homophobe, but it wasn't really… him that was the driving force. He was just a bully that was kind of stupid, and listened to anything and everything his best friend filled his head with. The interesting part was that the friend wasn't really hateful. He just… He was full of all kind of insidious whispers, fearful of the terrible gays and our influence. But it seemed like the kind of hate and fear that was… inward, you know? Like he wasn't sure about himself." He sighs. "Mainly I bent him as a sort of attack, to shut him up. I wasn't very proud of it afterwards. Shockingly enough… he understood when I apologized to him. He didn't blame me for tricking him or anything, he actually kind of thanked me for helping him figure himself out better. And I still got what I wanted when his loyal dog of a friend stopped going after Jonah and Benni."


 * "I think we just had a weird football team…  At least six of those guys were gay. And I dated about eight."

Education & Training
A business degree for non-profit organizations.

I can do first aid, some basic triage, and simple therapeutic care.

Magic
"My mother's family was druids. Very strong. But somehow the line weakened. Some of us think it was because they left their home territory in Russia and came here. Like uprooting a large tree and cutting the taproot. My mother's somewhat weak of a druid, and of course in me it turned into strong magism."

His Foci Objects:
 * Ring, pale wood braided with gold wire
 * Ring, Alder
 * Ring, Oak
 * Ring, lignum vitae, which is a family heirloom with a very strong diamond in it
 * Wand, custom of alder with low carbon steel in the core and gold wire around it

Description
Tattoos: None Piercings: Tongue ring

Clothes
Alternative Formal: An old fashioned looking suit made of rich black cloth with a heavily embroidered vest in greens and browns, fanciful forest scenes, with a crisp white silk shirt underneath. White gloves. Suit jacket. With a gorgeous black cloak with a green silk lining to go over it. A lovely black silk shirt and somewhat tight dress pants in a lovely dove grey.

Coats: Gorgeous but understated camel hair coat

Interests
Music:

Activities:
 * Big band.


 * Dancing - club and ballroom


 * Movies (in theatre)


 * Walks, hikes in nature, relaxing


 * Horseback riding (owns horse)


 * Traveling, seeing the world

Misc.
He drives a Porsche Boxster

"It'll take longer for me. I want to use my own money, not the family money, and we have a rule for frivolous spending.  Every dollar we spend on ourselves, we match it to charity.” He gets his personal money from the family – like an allowance.
 * Jack is saving up for a Tesla (he thinks it’s a sexy beast)

Jack’s favorite bread, made to pair with almond butter. Black Honey. It’s a black bread with honey roasted seeds inside with a honey glaze.

Family

 * John and Milenka Heath (parents)
 * Cambry (family)

Friends

 * Bea
 * Benni
 * Jiri
 * Maxim