Jason "Jace" Charles Barrett
Twenty-six | Werewolf | Everyone's adoptive brother

Birthday:
June 20, 1987

Occupation:
Technically unemployed- makes a meager living doing odd repair jobs around town. Also maintains the very small farm on his property, occasionally selling some produce for supplementary income.

Hometown:
Ashwick Groves, Conneticut- grew up there, real place of origin unknown.

Personality:
Jace is the epitome of laid-back and good-natured. He doesn't make plans, just goes with the flow and lives day-to-day. He handles things as they come, then moves on. Jace has a good sense of humor, always the first to be willing to joke at his own expense just to see someone smile. He'd do anything anyone asked of him, simply because he likes to help people. He's never been one to pick a fight, but everyone knows that he'd be a bad choice of person to cross-- he's very strong, and very protective of his large adoptive family. He's like everyone's big brother- he jokes and teases, and is lighthearted enough that it helps keep everyone at ease. Though his jesting nature makes him seem immature at time, when need be Jace seems wise beyond his years, having cared for himself for half his life now.

Talents/Skills:
Jace is a natural at fixing just about anything. Cars, appliances, electrical wiring, plumbing, you name it. He isn't sure how this happened, perhaps part was from watching and helping his father, but a lot of it is just instinctive. Some people are natural cooks and know how to put together ingredients in ways that work, some people are natural writers who put words together in a polished format... Jace is a natural repairman. He can look at something and easily figure out how it works, and from there figure out what it is preventing it from working, and what can be done to remedy that.

Quirks/Habits:
Jace doesn't consider himself to have many quirks, but he supposes everyone does. Anyone who would truly study him would notice he rubs the back of his neck when he's nervous, and is always the first to laugh at his own expense. His reaction to everything is some variation of a smile- happiness, nervousness, fear, worry... Jace doesn't like to let others worry about him, and so hides all his own concerns behind a good-natured grin that tells the world he's okay. Most of the time, he likes to think he really is okay.

History:

Jace really had no complaints growing up. He was the only child to his parents, and though he'd have wanted siblings he understood from overhearing conversations that it simply wasn't possible and in his usual, innate way of making the best of everything just considered those close to him to be his family. He was close to his parents, always helping his father on the family's small, modest farm kept more for their own sustenance than anything, and then always helping his mother with small house repairs. They lived a modestly comfortable, content life. Jace liked to think he made them proud, being the textbook all-American kid. He did well enough in football early enough that everyone knew he'd be likely to start as quarterback on junior varsity the moment he entered high school.

His parents would never see that, however. When he was only thirteen, Jace's parents died in a car wreck that Jace himself barely survived. Initially, Jace was convinced he saw something... something human run out in front of the car in an impossibly fast movement, causing his father to try and avoid it, hit a few concrete barriers, and eventually topple over the side of a bridge and into a ravine. Jace woke weeks later to find out his parents had died and were already buried. When questioned about the events, Jace said what he thought he saw, but got the impression so many thought he was crazy that he started to agree and chalk it up to trauma, if only to avoid further questioning.

When released to the care of a neighbor who promised to look after him a few weeks until a relative could be contacted, Jace dug through his parents' old documents trying to find out who it might be. His family was much like him- they made family of everyone around them, not having anyone of their own. He'd recalled a grandparent who passed when he was seven, but that was all. It seemed difficulty having children ran in the family, because he knew both his parents were only children.

While trying to find any sort of indication of who his parents would leave to take care of him, Jace found something he hadn't expected- he found adoption papers. Part of him wasn't truly surprised, as no one ever commented that he looked like his parents at all. People who said he reminded them of his dad usually meant in personality and work ethic. The papers detailed that Jace had been left at the local firehouse when his dad- a volunteer firefighter- had stayed behind while everyone else was off on a call. No note, nothing to go off of, so his parents simply took him in as their own.

Finding no evidence of any other family, Jace grew concerned that he would be thrown into a foster system, one that would inevitably take him away from Ashwick due to a distinct shortage of willing foster parents and no real facility for it. As such, Jace decided he had to do one thing he never truly had before- he started to lie.

Jace convinced everyone that an older, frail aunt had moved in to be his guardian, but that she couldn't get up and around much, justifying why ran all the errands. He learnd a very distinctive signature to fake for her when need be, and perfected a voice to answer the phone on occasion to only verify his story. Even with his talent, though, people grew suspicious, and Jace had to keep up with that suspicion, even going so far as to pay a homeless woman from a few towns over to portray this supposed aunt when authorities came to visit. After that, it was declared his house- which Jace took very good care of- was appropriate and had adequate legal guardianship.

Jace never did join the football team, having to spend all his time working odd jobs to make enough money to cover groceries and bills- his parents only left behind a little money. To start, it was mostly mowing lawns and hiring himself out to help on farms at harvest. Eventually, people learned of his repair skill and paid him for that, too. He wasn't picky- he got paid in everything from money, to food, to hand-me-down clothes as he hit several growth spurts during this time.

Jace got by, and other than a few scars that tended to stay hidden under clothes, no one would ever know he'd survived such a tragedy. Jace determined early on he could dwell, or he could move on. He knew dwelling would likely impede his ability to fend for himself as he'd be devoted only to wallowing, but moving on would allow him to continue working, to survive- and he decided that would be what his parents would want.

After that, Jace's next big struggle with things he didn't know about himself came when he turned sixteen. A few weeks after his birthday, he started to feel a sort of odd sensation. It was one like his body was trying to reform, a feeling so foreign, he couldn't help but fight it, like someone fights someone trying to twist their arm out of place. It was excruciating and confusing, and when he finally had a moment to breathe and glance in a mirror, what he saw was unbelievable- he saw what looked like a wolf staring back at him. Confused, he tried to move his hands over himself to refute this point, only resulting in clawing as his hands had become something else. He suddenly felt suffocatingly trapped in his house, earning splinters as he attempted to burst through the door, and cuts as he resorted to breaking through a window to run out through his farm and into the woods.

The morning after, Jace was found, weak and injured, by others who happened to be in the woods that night- others like him. He was certain they would take him to the hospital and he'd be branded as crazy, but instead they took him to a large house and let him rest a few days, as he found his injuries healed rapidly. As he recovered, some of the elder pack members explained to him what had happened- he was a werewolf, and had transformed for the first time. The notion scared Jace based on what he knew from movies, horrified to think that he'd have that experience every month for the rest of his life, but they assured him that it only hurts if you fight it- something people do instinctively if they don't know what they are. They apologized that he had to experience it, stating they didn't know he could be a wolf as his parents weren't part of the pack. Jace, feeling already as exposed to them as he possibly could be, informed them that he'd been abandoned and adopted, and also let it slip that he didn't have any other relatives that could tell him anything. As if trying to make up for what they couldn't possibly know, a pack elder insisted on becoming Jace's legal guardian for the remaining two years of his minority, and insisted on providing Jace with more in the way of food and clothing than he'd been used to for the previous three years- something Jace needed, as he wouldn't have been able to get by with his latest werewolf-influenced growth and hunger.

Now twenty-six, Jace is back to being predominantly self-sufficient, though the pack still helps him if he's had a slow month for business, and likewise he's the first to repair anything for pack members, generally insisting on doing it for free but usually being paid anyway. Jace's transformations are smooth and painless, and the pack is his new family. Despite seeming an obvious candidate to move out of town what with no real connections, Jace has no plans to ever do so. The pack is his family, Ashwick is his home, and he won't be told any differently.

Romantic History:

Jace's romantic history is short and relatively uncomplicated. As his parents died when he was still too young to date, and he was too busy caring for himself to really have the time for dating. Once he was out of high school and had a bit more time, he did manage to have a girlfriend for nearly a year and a half. He loved her deeply, and still does, but believed that he was a dead-end who would hold her back from a brilliant future, and as such broke it off despite the fact it still breaks his heart to see her and think of what he wished he could have with her. She's the only person that ever made him feel truly at home since his parents passed, but he just couldn't stand the thought that she might limit her options to stay near him- part of what he loves about her is her brilliance and potential, and he knew he'd hate himself if he felt he was any part of a reason for her holding back.

While he will play off his self-deprication as a bit of mood-lightening humor, the truth is that in this aspect, Jace doesn't feel he's good enough. He doesn't believe he could provide the kind of stable, comfortable life his parents had by working together. He knows he's barely scraping by on his own, and worries that if he tries to open himself up to dating... well, he doesn't think he could care for someone else, much less kids. It isn't that he wouldn't like that, he just doesn't think it'd work and doesn't think it'd be fair to give anyone anything less than the humble but comfortable and stable upbringing he'd had.

As such, Jace only occupies his time with occasional one-night stands, perhaps a string of them with the same person so long as he's sure they aren't at risk for getting attached. If anyone knew this about Jace, it would likely tarnish his good-guy image, but he doesn't fight it much. He believes everyone needs that kind of closeness, and he feels these small fixes of it save him from fooling himself into thinking he could manage and keep something more long-term when he knows he simply doesn't have the means to do it in good conscience.

Struggles:
Jace considers his only real struggle to be the most obvious one to everyone- a struggle to scrape by with a living. Others would expect him to lump that tragic night thirteen years ago in with it, but he never dwelled on it much to begin with and even less now that it has been half a lifetime ago. He certainly loves and misses his parents, but he knows they'd be the first to be disappointed if he simply sat around and moped. Of course, some days its difficult to avoid, and for those days, there's beer. Jace has been known to visit bars and sollicit temporary companionship on the nights he simply can't manage on his own, but those are few enough it doesn't even truly qualify as a habit. Jace would have initially considered his wolf nature to be a struggle, but the pack elders were right- ever since the revelation of what he truly was, his transformations have been painless, and often even welcome. On the days that Jace isn't sure how he'll manage food or bills, he even contemplates how simple it would be to just... shift into his other form and live as a wolf and never turn back. But then, he remembers the town he loves like family, and knows he can't leave them.

Portrayal:
Kellan Lutz

 

((Hello everyone! Amerz here with Jace. Since this is new and confusing to me, best way to get ahold of me will most likely be AIM (Amerz17) but I promise to figure out comments soon! Lets plot!

Especially anyone who has a fellow werewolf... I'm thinking given Jace's background an unknown relative might be interesting to discover. If it sounds like something you'd want for your character, hit me up! This boy can also use a best friend, close friends, people who helped him scrape by, old flings, and much more, so we surely can come up with something. Talk to you soon!))