Just Joe

Name: Just Joe

Nickname: The best magicians only need one name.  This is not a nickname, just an explanation as to why he's only called Joe.

And Joe's not his real name either.  He's forgotten his real name.  All he could remember were the first two letters, J and o, he guessed the rest, and no one's bothered to correct him.  This is also just an explanation and not a complete one at that.

If you really need a nickname, try Just Joe.

Age:  He said he was 23 the last time he was here, assuming that had been right and math still works, he'd be 25 now. Odds are at least one of those things isn't true.

Year: Officially he's in his third year but he's supposed to do some second year work as well, just not at Brakebills South, please don't make him go back to Brakebills South.

Discipline: He was originally classified as a Psychic and kept there for a year to "learn your damn wards".  He was switched to Knowledge once he had, which was cool because he had a thing for a girl who lived in the Attic.  She didn't know he existed but he could pine for her from a little closer that way (because pining from a far is so cliche).  And no, it wasn't a pervy kind of pining, more like an emo and eyeliner kind of pining.  He's still classified Knowledge in his third year but the girl's since graduated so he's dropped the eyeliner.

Specialty:  He has an affinity for Memory and Dream Magic, though that's not technically his specialty.  His specialty is 'officially' metamagic, which if you know anything about metamagic is basically a fancy way of saying you don't know what to do with someone.

Physical Description: Joe used to have a sense of style.  There had been a very good reason for this.  He's not sure if he's lost his sense of style or if he's just out grown it.  In either case, he's dressed like he just grabbed a few things out of a hamper (not necessarily his hamper though) and put them on.  This isn't far from the truth.  He also lost his shoes somewhere along the way.  This doesn't seem to bother him.

Beyond the clothes (clothes unmake the man, you know), he's 6' on his tippy toes (or in heels), has brown hair (clearly professionally tousled), a stubbled chin (clearly unable to grow a full beard), and blue eyes (clearly just clear blue).

He also tends to be at the center (or below) things.  This is less of a physical description than a physical sensation, like when someone joins you on a bed and you feel it sink a little and you either have to resist rolling toward them or give in and roll toward them.  It's not a strong feeling, he's not a magical pit of suckage (see below) but old habits are hard to break.

Distinguishing Features: Other than the aforementioned distinguishing feeling, he has a small birthmark on his left shoulder that looks vaguely like the face of a dog or wolf or maybe a raccoon (but definitely not a squirrel).

Personality:  Hmm...

Personalities:  Better...

Joe has personalities.  That's not to say he's DID or even the the old MPD.  Those are accompanied by memory gaps (at least according to Wikipedia) and he doesn't have memory gaps (at least not because of that).  He just has different personalities operating at the same time, in unison, collaboration, coordination.  He has a serious side (this is me being serious) which can be quite calm, considerate and calculating.  Generally speaking, this side of him is more reserved (literally and figuratively), since there aren't many things in life that require seriousness.  We (i.e. humanity, he would explain) tend to conflate things into seriousness.  That's not the same as being actually serious.  Besides, the serious side of him has other things to deal with; serious things.

Mostly, he's governed by his wild side and no, we don't mean hairy werewolf man howl at the moon and dance naked under the stars kind of wild, well, maybe the dance naked but only to a good song.  His wild side is more unrestrained by notions of linear or controlled thinking.  It's an unfiltered stream of consciousness, oh look, a squirrel, sort of thinking.  It's intensely curious, ravenously curious thinking.  It hungers for distraction, information, inspiration, entertainment; it is a consumer of entertainment, inspiration, information, distraction.

Those are his two personalities, though there's maybe a third that influences them both, a quite one, a persistent one.  We won't name this one, like it's some dark wizard who shall not be named lest he grow more powerful and come out to eat the sun and burp and puff out a little wisp of smoke from between his lips.

Personal Goals: To answer all of life's great questions and a few trivial ones.

Likes:  Curious people, crazy people, people.  Stories. Questions.  Music.  Dancing.  Lists.  Numbers.  Numbered lists.  Paint by numbers kits.  The sound or ripping paper.  The sound 'pfft' (which sounds an awful lot like ripping paper but isn't exactly the same).  Things that aren't exactly the same.  Meta-anything.

Dislikes:  META as an acronym.  Silence.  Answers.  Pride (which isn't the opposite of shame).  Shame (which isn't the opposite of Pride).  Transitions.  Middle-anythings.

History:

"I'm a magician, but I don't cast spells.  Chew on that one for a bit."

"Magic is the practice of harnessing the arcane energy that exists and flows through the universe that allows practitioners known as Magicians to manipulate aspects of reality through the application of spells."

"Those aren't my words, that's why I put them in italics.  You could hear my italics, right?"

"Anyhoo, they're the words they say to you in your very first class on your very first day, for all the newbs who grew up thinking magic was only something you read about in fantasy novels or erotic horror novels or erotic horror fantasy fanfiction."

"So, here's a question for you, can you be a Magician if you don't do magic?"

Actually, that's a question for you.

"Oh, yeah, right."

~O~

It could be said that John wasn't all there.  Now normally, when someone said something like that, it was a figure of speech, in his case...

"In my case, it's kind of literal."

As I was saying, in his case, it's literal, or perhaps, if we're striving to be precise, he isn't all in one place.

"I wasn't always this way, in fact, before I bailed halfway through my second year... and no, I didn't wash out of Brakebills South, despite what you might think, I left and took a gap year, year and six month?  I'm not sure exactly, most concepts of time are unnecessarily linear, but more on that later... where was I?  Oh... I didn't wash out of Brakebills South, I took a gap year and maybe six months to go off and kill my father and my brother.  Well, I didn't actually 'go off' to kill my brother, I just killed him because he happened to be there too."

"Wait, that doesn't sound very good, does it?  Let me rephrase..."

As I was saying, we weren't always this way, though it might be said we were worse.

"Now that's saying something, isn't it?  Then again, everything says something, doesn't it?  I mean, that's what language is, right?  Just a way of communicating, usually with words, but not exclusively with words, if we're still trying to be precise."

Are we?

"Regardless, anyone who knew us in our first year would probably have described us as a black pit of magical suckage.  And by suckage we don't mean sucakge in the lame sort of way but more like the 'also swallows' variety."

Let me try to explain.  Whereas most magicians reached within to expend magical energy via personal sacrifice, skillful tuts and an affinity with circumstance, i.e. spells, Jo...

"We."

... We reached out, drawing energy in like a magical vortex, guiding and twisting it and it's source to his... our, whims, which were often mercurial and completely devoid of notions such as consequence or consent.

"It was mostly consensual, as consensual as falling for someone can be at least, and well... I wasn't exactly in my right mind now was I... or wait... make that alone in my right mind."

"How's that for precise?"

It's precise.

"Good.  Point being, I was more like that drunk guy you pick up at the bar when you're drunk too and in the end we both get used, so if you want to point fingers there's a mirror right over there."

"You know to be careful around mirrors, right?  Seriously, don't f*** with mirrors."

And so, to sum up, Joe, was not all there, was a dangerously unstable first year, a moderately stable second year, left to do questionable things, and has returned to finish his third despite not casting spells, which begs the question.  Can you be a Magician if you don't do magic?

"Inquiring minds want to know."