Nickname: Prefers Jo, Juddie and JJ. (Dislikes the nickname Josh. Course people will have to get to know that, and people still call him that.)
Age: 23.
Birthplace: Flowood, Mississippi.
Sex: Male.
Occupation: Hoping for a ranch hand job?
Appearance: Stands 5'8, possibly 5'9. Appears as a slim and thin person but he's actually a bit lean in muscle. The best way to describe his body type is long/lean with broad shoulders. Semi longish dark wavy/straight hair, sometimes smashed underneath a hat. Wide dark brown eyes. The style tends to be comfortable and relaxed, jeans, t-shirts, long sleeved, hoodies, sneakers or boots.
Normally in the back pocket of his jeans there will be a notepad with a pen, and in the other a swiss army life. He'd carry around a hunting knife but he finds that a bit dangerous unless needed.
Personality: Jo appears as a rather peaceful and sometimes wise young man, he isn't very rambuctious especially in the company of others. (though he could be, it depends.) He conducts himself so quietly that infact people sometimes forget he's there, however this one does have a particulary childlike/silly side to him, happy go lucky and at peace with himself.
Even though he can be quiet, he's not an introvertive person in the outgoing sense, he can easily meet new people without worry.
Three of his best aspects would be; being reliable, loyal and trustworthy. You can trust on Jo to get the job done, but considering he has no sense of time there's always a chance he'll almost always sometimes be late or he'll forget something.
Once Jo finds you trustworthy, or someone capable of friendship then by all means he is a very loyal human being. To family he will always be.
Jo is very trustworthy, you could tell him something horrible and he'd keep it to himself unless of course it's a secret that is harming/has or will harm someone or anything he feels to be morally against. He's likely to 'open' his mouth if he must.
Three of worst would be; sometimes hot-headed depending on the subject, flacuating moods, wanting to live for the present and not looking toward the future which includes half baked commitment issues.
He's a 'live day by day' kind of guy, not trying too worry too much and taking his time yet at times he can be quite the worrier.
A well rounded head on his shoulders, keeping logic close to his heart and tries not to let his emotions get the best of him.
Even without the expression of his voice, he manages to convey how he feels or what he wants you to hear though his actions or face alone. If he's angry, he'll make sure you know.
Some might call him unserious yet at times extremely intense. You'll know when this kid is serious, you can almost feel it.
Not very telling of his personal life, curious and questioning by nature. He likes to know people.
Due to his hearing impairment, sometimes Jo can be bitter at life and pissed off about it; lost in a party of self-pity but he tends to put his faith in god from time to time. 'Everything happens for a reason. Least I got out with my life.'
Special abilities/talents:
Survival Skills - Something of a nature boy, he has survival skills on land or in water. Fishing, hunting depending, able to tell what most plant life is, and finding his way home from moss alone are some of things he can do. Doesn't seem like much but get lost in the woods with him. You'll see.
Aside from having survival skills, he is particulary good with his hands when it comes to working with them.
Technological Rendering? - I wouldn't call this an ability or talent... but I'll leave it up to you to place him with this or okay him because I really do prefer him as a regular human being.
Getting too close to electronics that use radio waves, dishes, air signals etcetra etcetra regular noise tends to sometimes become static and renders some objects unusuable. (It just won't leave my head for him.)
History: Growing up in a relatively small Mississippi town, Jo's parents tended to work long hours or never be around much though they would make time for their boy. Leaving him to spend plenty of time with great Uncles and Aunts along with his grandparents who taught him how to fend for himself well as old fashioned values that people tend to forget in life.
He was considered somewhat of an oddball, while a lot of the town was dominately cacuasian, and some of course held their old fashioned beliefs in racism here and there; he just didn't take to it fully. He'd be the first to speak to a out of place african american or native american at the drop of a hat.
Of course not everyone approved but people let Jo, be Jo.
You can pretty much say he got to be a kid, enjoying life with people surrounding him with protection and love more than other children get to experience.
Jo wasn't always deaf though, he became intensely interested in music at a young age with the teachings of his Great Uncle Brewster, the man had him picking up a guitar and learning how to read faster than he could manage.
By the time Jo was thirteen he had become well known for his musical abilities to write and play a tune better than some of the old folk, having a talent for writing something that stuck with you long after you heard it
Locally along with a few others (uncles included), they did small albums together but never did anything more serious than that; it was all in good fun and spirit of the town.
By the time he was seventeen however, something tragic had happened. He came down with a bacterial meningitis referred to as 'Pneumococcal Meningitis', the disease had him spending six days in intensive care being treated for it.
Nearly losing his life to the illness but finally near his eighteenth birthday the sickness cleared up. Leaving him in recovery, temporary side effects of recovery included; severe unbalance, hearing loss, lack of concerntration and short-term memory loss, slightly impaired eyesight and severe frontal headaches.
While it took nearly six months to recover from the side effects, the hearing loss unfortunately became a permenant factor in his life, well as spells of dizziness, rarity of unbalance and a migrane. Still having bouts of concerntration and short term memory from time to time but it doesn't hinder his life. The last three not nearly as bad but better than doctors could expect.
It took a long time for things to regain what normalacy he knew; During that time he became much closer with his mother and father, particulary more his mother. Both gaining a relationship they didn't have in earlier stages of their lives.
A lot of people claim that Jo changed after it, becoming milder in nature, never seen with his guitar like he used to be seen around town and even thought that he became mentally challenged in the process which isn't entirely untrue; it did change him an awful bit to the point that the town that once brought him peace slowly made him bitter and angry with life. Though the mentally challenged had been a lie, he wasn't any smarter than he was before but he didn't get a sudden case of stupid either.
While town gossip spread about Jo's personal life over the course of a year, problems were rising between his parents that quickly escalated the couple into seperation.
That also adding to the rumors made him and his mother, house bums, very briefly. By the time the young man was in his early twenties, both he and her decided to move up North away from the mess and the ongoing family arguements involving marriage, money and too many other problems he's not worrying about right now.
Lucky for both him and her (Carol 'Anne' King), the town of Mysteria is peaceful, quiet with the occassional ongoing loud noises that uh don't bother him in the least but there is something kind of strange about Mysteria. At least that's what his mother likes to think.
Flaws: (must be at least three flaws)
Deaf - Jo is pretty much deaf, he only has about eight percent of his hearing and it's really not useful. Frustrating, it's like someone could be screaming but all you hear is in and out frequencies of static. Someone talking normally is just air in his ear.
He can still talk... but he can't hear his own range so it's pretty much frustrating or annoying for him to others for him to do so, since he's been deaf he's barely used it and it's not really all that great to anyway.
However able to read lips to the best of his abilities, knows some sign language and carries around a notebook/pencil for the situation. Without the last one; communication would sometimes be impossible, some if not most people don't even know basic sign language. Related to his hearing loss, he has bouts of dizziness, unbalance and rarely migranes. Though they are not entirely hindering to his life, they can cause some problems.
Moody - A flacuation of confidence and low-self confidence in himself, one day he might feel like he's king of the world, that everything could go right and the next he's suddenly not wanting to get himself out of bed in hopes it'll be the last day he lives or whatever's going through his mind. Basically he can go from being very happy-go-lucky to sometimes highly depressed.
Avoider (Includes personal commitment and confrontations) - Does not deal well with confrontation, especially personal confrontation. This includes commitments of any kind in any type of relationship.
Over-confident - (In some areas) Is a daredevil. (His confidence in survival skills often more or less send him stumbling home with something sprung, if at worst broken. Common sense pretty much be damned in a daredevil situation.)
Random Anger Issues - Can sometimes have explosive anger, it would take a lot to have him do so but he can keep himself under control most of the time.
Merits
Being underestimated - People tend to think because he's deaf; this equals stupid, dumb, a handicapped idiot. This is good on his part, considering underestimated means he has a slight advantage with people when trouble brews.
Common Sense - He is very logical and tends to think things through. Common sense thought comes natural to him, even if he's not picked it up from somone before. (Sometimes, common sense goes out the window when it comes to daredevil situations most of the time.)
Fast Learner - Once shown how to do something a few times. It won't take forever to pick up, he'll take to it and continue to teach himself better on it in the long run.
Faith - God has been good to him, even though sometimes he gets that inkling to blame the higher being for things. He does quickly to apologise and pray for forgiveness. (This doesn't mean he has faith in people however.)
Sexual Orientation: Straight, but honestly he's not the go get em kind of guy.