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Mar. 4th, 2015 09:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
visions_ofCHARACTER NAME: Joanna Wallis, but they go by Jo. Or other nicknames, potentially, but even their parents don't really call them Joanna.
CHARACTER AGE: 23
SPECIES:Witch
BACKGROUND & HISTORY: Jo was raised in Maine, in a coastal town small enough that their high school wasn't even technically in the township. Jo's parents are aging hippies with an affinity for folk rock and politics way left of where the majority of the town falls. This trait covers a lot of ground: Jo's mother practices an unassuming magic that's heavy on folk tradition and low on written spellbooks, but the slightly odd, albeit useful remedies she suggests to problems are generally ascribed to her just "being into all that new age stuff."
In reality, Jo's mother is not at all the stereotype of the wacky kitchen witch; she's firm, tough, a county public defender who has had to earn respect and is as impassioned by the untapped potential of the judicial system as she is by magic. The instinct toward wards and talismans is bred into her all the way down the maternal line but she approaches it as bit of a perfectionist, exacting and brisk, and highly effective. Jo's father, is, if anything, the quirky one, an easily distracted musician and botanist often visible tending the expansive gardens around their house and occasionally showing up to the same open mic nights as his child.
Jo has, therefore, learned most of these traditions, not so much as a formal education but as the natural absorption of culture. A deep respect for and acknowledgement of seasonal changes, energy and the personifications assigned to them -- habitually choosing jewelry based on the energies best carried by the stones and always having rosemary growing in the window -- is these are things Jo knows instinctively, just as they can’t help but have emotional responses to political issues or beautiful music.
Jo grew up with few friends, but close ones: they met their best friends Jen and Rachel in elementary school and by the end of middle school, the trio were inseparable. They started a makeshift band, though none of them could sing, and the thing changed names every month or so. Around the same time, Jo began getting headaches.
Highschool was a tough, confusing time. A new girl named (??) became friends with them, a whimsical girl with a penchant for destructive relationships. She and Jo became close, and Jo ended up really ridiculously in love with her, a prompt for confronting their own sexuality. (??) cared for Jo, but had a tendency to take advantage, a little, of knowing she could count on them, and it was a bit of a mess.
When they all split up for college, Jo scrabbled to find their own identity and a friends group as close as the one they had left. They made friends quickly with anyone who seemed interested and ended up partying a lot their freshman year. By this time, Jo's migraines were more frequent and more debilitating, resulting in pro- and post-drome effects that could last several days, such as visual effects, nausea, light sensitivity, and disorientation as well as trouble with explaining thoughts.
PERSONALITY: WIP - Prone to depression but covers it with a tough front. Unafraid of stating their opinion and even provoking a fight if necessary to stand up for their beliefs - the first one on the picket line and the last one to get dragged away.
OPINION OF THE RIVALRY: Blissfully unaware, so far. Jo would think it was pretty dumb and might, if pushed, go into detail about their thoughts on rich people needing excuses to maintain landgrabs and name status, and humans as a whole feeling inclined to isolate and judge each other.
LIFESTYLE: WIP - Bi/pansexual; genderqueer. Poor - wants to work in healthcare or social work eventually, but for now will take anything. Has a tiny studio apartment, lots of light and glass and window herbs. Plays guitar.
POWERS &ABILITIES: Jo has locational psychometry -- they can tell you about parts of the past, and more rarely, future events that have taken place at a location or the general feeling given off by the place. Typically they need to be in that location, however some things override that if they have a very strong energy. This is not at all practiced or something they're aware of and right now it's taking the form of visions - painful, sudden and uncontrollable - and dreams. They've always had a mild ability to pick up on the energy of places -- certain places would feel more or less comfortable to be in, and there have been places they've refused outright to go -- but for the most part they never thought it was anything real and important.
PLAYED BY: Kristen Stewart
CHARACTER AGE: 23
SPECIES:Witch
BACKGROUND & HISTORY: Jo was raised in Maine, in a coastal town small enough that their high school wasn't even technically in the township. Jo's parents are aging hippies with an affinity for folk rock and politics way left of where the majority of the town falls. This trait covers a lot of ground: Jo's mother practices an unassuming magic that's heavy on folk tradition and low on written spellbooks, but the slightly odd, albeit useful remedies she suggests to problems are generally ascribed to her just "being into all that new age stuff."
In reality, Jo's mother is not at all the stereotype of the wacky kitchen witch; she's firm, tough, a county public defender who has had to earn respect and is as impassioned by the untapped potential of the judicial system as she is by magic. The instinct toward wards and talismans is bred into her all the way down the maternal line but she approaches it as bit of a perfectionist, exacting and brisk, and highly effective. Jo's father, is, if anything, the quirky one, an easily distracted musician and botanist often visible tending the expansive gardens around their house and occasionally showing up to the same open mic nights as his child.
Jo has, therefore, learned most of these traditions, not so much as a formal education but as the natural absorption of culture. A deep respect for and acknowledgement of seasonal changes, energy and the personifications assigned to them -- habitually choosing jewelry based on the energies best carried by the stones and always having rosemary growing in the window -- is these are things Jo knows instinctively, just as they can’t help but have emotional responses to political issues or beautiful music.
Jo grew up with few friends, but close ones: they met their best friends Jen and Rachel in elementary school and by the end of middle school, the trio were inseparable. They started a makeshift band, though none of them could sing, and the thing changed names every month or so. Around the same time, Jo began getting headaches.
Highschool was a tough, confusing time. A new girl named (??) became friends with them, a whimsical girl with a penchant for destructive relationships. She and Jo became close, and Jo ended up really ridiculously in love with her, a prompt for confronting their own sexuality. (??) cared for Jo, but had a tendency to take advantage, a little, of knowing she could count on them, and it was a bit of a mess.
When they all split up for college, Jo scrabbled to find their own identity and a friends group as close as the one they had left. They made friends quickly with anyone who seemed interested and ended up partying a lot their freshman year. By this time, Jo's migraines were more frequent and more debilitating, resulting in pro- and post-drome effects that could last several days, such as visual effects, nausea, light sensitivity, and disorientation as well as trouble with explaining thoughts.
PERSONALITY: WIP - Prone to depression but covers it with a tough front. Unafraid of stating their opinion and even provoking a fight if necessary to stand up for their beliefs - the first one on the picket line and the last one to get dragged away.
OPINION OF THE RIVALRY: Blissfully unaware, so far. Jo would think it was pretty dumb and might, if pushed, go into detail about their thoughts on rich people needing excuses to maintain landgrabs and name status, and humans as a whole feeling inclined to isolate and judge each other.
LIFESTYLE: WIP - Bi/pansexual; genderqueer. Poor - wants to work in healthcare or social work eventually, but for now will take anything. Has a tiny studio apartment, lots of light and glass and window herbs. Plays guitar.
POWERS &ABILITIES: Jo has locational psychometry -- they can tell you about parts of the past, and more rarely, future events that have taken place at a location or the general feeling given off by the place. Typically they need to be in that location, however some things override that if they have a very strong energy. This is not at all practiced or something they're aware of and right now it's taking the form of visions - painful, sudden and uncontrollable - and dreams. They've always had a mild ability to pick up on the energy of places -- certain places would feel more or less comfortable to be in, and there have been places they've refused outright to go -- but for the most part they never thought it was anything real and important.
PLAYED BY: Kristen Stewart
