Jason Jack Marlin won’t tolerate being called “J.J.,” except by Jessica. Fair, ever-so-slightly freckled skin, long wavy red hair, gray-blue eyes. 5’ 11’’, 145 lbs. Soft-spoken, with an unexpected wild streak. Gentleness belies street-wisdom. Sometimes it’s hard to tell whether or not the soft-spokenness is purposeful, done for effect. Maybe it’s only partly conscious. “ ... father was a fisherman ... mama was a fisherman’s friend.” Jason, when he lived at home, used to stay out all day some days with his father on the boat. Even so, the two of them were never all that close. Father was taciturn, maybe even gruff. Reliable, but not much of an enthusiastic teacher. Jason is secretly worried about his father; the man seems to be getting old ever since his wife drowned, and he couldn’t save her. Jason thinks he may be in love with Jessica, but it’s hard to tell. She can be so annoying sometimes. Her parents disapprove of him for some reason--maybe it’s his inglorious past. Her father is a printer; she’s fairly well-educated. Situation is made complicated by her parents’ ban on her seeing Jason, and by her own delight in teasing Jason. Jason has lots of buddies in the Old Town, from whom his appointment with Sean Harkwood has not alienated him. (When he spends time back in the old neighborhood, he tends to easily lapse back into the street, or dockside, or Old Town, or whatever-you-want-to-call-it dialect.) Every chance he gets, he still likes to run around town with the old gang (which, of course, has some new members and lacks some of the old; it’s not a closed-circle nostalgia kind of thing). Thomas, Richard, and Harold form his closest circle of buddies. One of their favorite hangouts is the Gilded Guppie, on Carter Street. There’s no one at the moment, however, whom Jason could call a best friend. Despite his love of being with small groups of people, swapping stories and laughing, Jason requires a certain amount of time alone. Sometimes he’ll pick a rooftop, or a quiet room somewhere, or go down by the docks, or just roam around. Jason’s enemy is Ronald “Ratchethead” Radcliff. Besides being a natural bully-type, he’s probably jealous of Jason’s new life. Every now and then he and his cronies try to stir up trouble. Jason prefers to avoid fights, but does what he has to do. The apprenticeship with the mage Sean Harkwood started when Jason was fourteen. Sean discovered Jason when the latter, in a fit of teenage devilry, broke clumsily into the former’s back pantry. (Ironically, the offence was committed on a dare--from Ratchethead, of all people, with whom Jason used to run around. But while Jason found cooler friends and meaningful work, Ratchethead just turned into more of an ass.) The student-mentor relationship has deepened and broadened constantly over the years--though Sean remains far from overtly sentimental. Truth is, Jason feels closer in many ways to Sean than to his father. Magic is the only thing Jason has ever really driven at. It’s not that he doesn’t like work, but he has to have a strong desire to do something before he’ll give up his irreverent wandering free time for it. Sean still thinks he should be more disciplined; he has tended to learn in mad fits interspersed with periods of “creative let-down,” let’s say to be nice about it. His course of study has ignited a passion for reading (almost anything) as well. [What do I typically call Sean?] [What’s Jessica’s last name?] Jason’s log, January 1, 1994 New Year’s Eve was a blast and a headache. Went with Tom, Dick and Harry to the Guppie, and met this crazy, rich-but-hiding-it Elfin chick (she was also hiding a magic dagger). Her asshole brother showed up, with grunts, and tried to snatch her, but we evaded ’em. Because she got pissed that I kept getting her name wrong, she finally told me she was Eguardia Lorien, out on a lark. Strange woman. Not too bright, it seemed, and kind of annoying, but intriguing none-the-less. Anyway, the really exciting part was finding the Elfin scroll—even she couldn’t read it. The old man’s going to look at it—but then he’s going to set me to learning Elfin! Should be cool. Haven’t heard from Jessica lately. I think she may be in one of those moods. And yes, the decision looms closer: What am I going to do in two weeks when I turn twenty-one? I’m itchin’ to just go somewhere. I hope I’m not just running away for the sake of running away, though ... how much more could I learn here? Sean won’t tell me what to do, of course. Not anymore.