john marcus claxon jr.

[john marcus claxon jr.]

JOHN MARCUS CLAXON JR!


John Marcus Claxon Jr. (but you can call him Jack) is a 28 year old male from Cherry Creek, Colorado.

appearance !

Jack has warm brown eyes with long lashes set beneath even black brows. His skin, pale in the winter, is suntanned the rest of the year thanks to his running habit. He frequently forgets to shave when his mind is on other things, so you can actually gauge how busy he's been by how much facial hair he's accumulated. His hair is a dark shade of brown which looks black in most lighting, he wears it fairly short but keeps it long enough to run his fingers through when he's worried, a longtime habit of his. He's neither tall nor short, standing at about 5'10", and has the lithe body of a runner. His wrists are decorated with thick scars from wrist to elbow, a reminder of past struggles he really doesn't want anyone to see.

Jack's expensive, well tailored work wardrobe is the only hint of his family's wealth. He wears vintage style clothes--the sort of thing a man might wear to work in the mid-40s, complete with old timey hats. The look suits him well, however, his younger brother picks all of them out--Jack is tragically without any fashion sense whatsoever. Everything he owns is covered in a fine layer of dog and cat hair, but he tries his best to combat the problem with lint rollers. When he's at home he grunges around in old t-shirts and shorts, frequently in colors that clash spectacularly.

personality !

Jack is fascinated by his work and rests almost all of his self worth on being a good doctor, which isn't always a good thing. Psychiatric medicine is tricky business at the best of times and when his patients do poorly, so does Jack. Even when he's at home he's a natural born nurturer, fostering animals from the local shelter as well as caring for his own cat, Kabuki. When he needs to unwind or clear his head he tends to read, watch movies, or go running.

He can't stand reality tv or celebrity worship--it simply doesn't make sense to him. He's not too keen on confrontation, and would rather let people walk all over him rather than cause a scene. He doesn't like being alone, but he hates being a burden even more, so he hasn't dated anyone in years. He doesn't like his prescribed diet (no alcohol, no salt, restricted fluid intake, etc) but sticks to it anyway.

In the future, Jack would like to get enough of a reputation that he can start his own practice. He dreams of a time when he doesn't have to worry over his health, physical and mental. He would love to build a real relationship with his mother, but that seems extremely unlikely.

He's terrified of being helpless to stop his slowly worsening heart condition. He's even more frightened that when it gets bad enough he'll transform into a miserable old husk of a man, the way his father did. He's so afraid of turning into the old man that he refuses to answer to John or Junior and goes exclusively by Jack, even at family functions. And lurking in the back of his consciousness is a fear that the depression will return one day and he'll be powerless to fight it off again.

He's extremely observant, which makes him a brilliant diagnostician of mental disorders, but this ability seems to fail right along with his common sense when it comes to his personal life. He's become very charming, knowing that charm might be the difference between getting through to a difficult patient or losing them. He's got a moderate talent for photography, but has the potential to be better. He also a pretty decent cook, if he says so himself.

Jack, motivated by the desire not be become his father, has cultivated an air of calm competence around himself and almost never raises his voice. He listens intently to what someone is saying to him, even when he's upset, and strives to see every situation from all angles. He's very vulnerable to being taken advantage of when it comes to friendship--his current "best friend" is more of a money grubbing leech than a companion, but Jack can't see he's being used.


background !

Jack is the oldest of John and Anastasia Claxon's three children. When Jack was five the twins, Annie and Daniel, were born, and the three were inseparable from the beginning. John Sr. is now deceased, and Anastasia is more beloved stranger than mother to Jack. Dorothy Alder, the 58 year old retired nanny, is the one he visits on Mother's day. She was the one responsible for raising him, after all. Annie died of a sudden heart attack while Jack was at college, having inherited LQTS from their father and Daniel has become a 23 year old man training to inherit the family business one day.

Until Jack was about eight, life was tolerable, if a bit lonely. His parents' law firm in Colorado Springs was taking off in a big way and they worked very long hours, leaving their children under the watchful eye of Dorothy. Their home was huge and pristine, and the kids weren't allowed to touch most of it. It was like growing up in the sterile atmosphere of a museum.

When John Sr. was diagnosed with Long QT Syndrome, a genetic heart condition, the news changed him into a different man. As he became worse pain and the drugs changed him further until he was no longer recognizable as their father. In the two years it took him to die on the transplant list, he became progressively more abusive to everyone around him. Anastasia responded to his death by throwing herself into work even harder than before, so the children were left to cope as well as they could without parental support.

After watching his transformation, the children couldn't help be relieved that the old man was finally dead, but their chances of having inherited the condition were 50/50. They were all tested and given a clean bill of health, but with the warning that it might develop later. Jack was in medical school when he got the call all three had been afraid they might get one day. Annie had dropped dead of a heart attack on a hike. Jack and Daniel both took her death hard and resolved to get re-tested themselves. This time Daniel was the only one with a clean bill of health.

Distraught, Jack disappeared from the dorms at school and wandered the streets for a while, trying to make sense of it all any way he could. Unable to find solace, he went to Annie's hiking spot and tried to join her in death. When he woke, he found the outline of a pacemaker straining against his chest and his arms laced in stitches and bandages and restraints. It took over a year of counseling and frustration before Jack felt halfway human again, and much longer before he felt truly sane.

The first thing he did when he went back to school was to change his focus from neurological to psychiatric medicine. He had been lost in the darkness when his therapists had descended like angels and guided him into the light. He wanted to be that for someone--for as many people as possible. He wanted to guide people back into the sunlight.

Now Jack is doing very well--he's quickly establishing himself as a talented psychiatrist and finds his work enormously rewarding. His heart condition is well controlled for now and he enjoys an active lifestyle. He's finally reached the point where he's comfortable in his own skin, and it feels like a weight has been taken from his shoulders. Though he remains calm and quiet, Jack is no longer the timid creature he once was.


you !

hey, my name's Alice, i'm a 23 year old female. i've been rping for about ten years so that makes me a grizzled old veteran. my other characters are coming soon.