Jackson "Jax" Emmett Hawthorne

Jackson "Jax" Emmett Hawthorne is a vampire of Clan Ventrue, childe of , and member
of the Invictus Covenant. He is a PC created and played by Jeff Bly.

## **History**

Jackson Emmett Hawthorne was born to Christian and Dorothy of the North
Carolina Hawthornes. The Hawthornes were a very rich and powerful family, with money tracing all the way back to the very foundations of textiles in the South. Money was in their blood, as was the power than came with it. Until he was nine, the world was Jackson's oyster. He never wanted for anything, and although his father could be stern, he learned much from him. It was shortly after his ninth birthday that the world as he knew it would come to a screeching end.

 On a cold December night, on their way home from a charity ball dinner in Wilmington, his father hit a patch of black ice and lost control of their car. Both of his parents died in the ER, but Jackson survived. According to law, Jackson was supposed to be taken in by his uncle Mason, but Mason had other plans. The bulk of the family inheritance had fallen to Jackson's father, and Mason had always been bitter. He took the opportunity of his brother's death, using his skills as a lawyer, to shift the family business, homes, and inheritance to his own coffers. Furthermore, to keep Jackson from ever being able to lay claim, he shunted him off to the foster care system claiming with his responsibilities (and past with drinking incidents) he would not be fit to care for the young boy.

 With no other family, Jackson found himself in the system. It was a shock, but one he adapted to quickly. From home to home he bounced, learning to rely on himself rather than the care of others. As soon as he had graduated high school and turned 18, he left the system and begin life on his own in Midian. His original plan was to get a job and put himself through night school to be a lawyer, but the reality of the daily grind without assistance soon set in. He worked as dish washer for a posh restaurant downtown, and it would there he met Taye.

 Taye was a delivery guy for a local produce company, and he had nodded to Jackson a few times when making deliveries. One day he approached him with an offer. Leave the backdoor open at the right time on the right night, and he could make an easy grand. Jackson was so tired of being stepped on, and he could really use the cash, so he agreed. The whole thing went off without a hitch; Taye's crew came in and robbed the place after Jackson's shift, and the haul was good. No one traced it back, and Taye made good on his promise. Once he saw how easy it could be, Jackson ditched the busboy business and joined up with Taye's crew full time.

 It was great in the beginning. The streets of Midian open up to accept their own. Running with the crew, he learned the pulse of the city, and its veins run through the blacktop. He met dangerous characters, but learned to be dangerous himself. His education gave him an advantage that many of the other didn't have, as did his ethnicity and appearance. He was well liked, making decent change, and feeling like he belonged. Everything was going well...until he met Darla.

 Darla was like electricity. When she was around, he could feel it. When she looked at him, it was like he had grabbed a livewire. When they made love, it was like being wracked by lightning during a storm. She was beautiful, she was creative, she was crazy, she was living sex...and she was Taye's girlfriend. People were starting to talk, so it was time to make himself scarce.

 One night, on a bender, Jax (as the streets had christened him) made his way to a new nightclub downtown. The place was known for strange behaviors by even stranger people, and with a brain full of cocaine and a heart full of ache, he made for it in hopes of fucking the pain away. It was there, while he surveyed the debauchery in the darkness and downed a beer that he met her. Her.

 She moved like a cat, or maybe a shark. Delicate alabaster skin, clothing that was a bit dated, but immaculate and expensive...anachronistic in a stylish way. She watched him like a caged tiger watches a rabbit passing by. She bought him another drink, whiskey this time, something expensive...and asked him who his parents were. Said he had good cheekbones, descended from some sort of royalty in his past. He chuckled, but he was eating it up. The rest of the night became a blur. He was doing things he never would have done on his own. They took an expensive car in the parking lot and made their way to her place. It was there things changed. She barked orders, demanded he follow, and his mind swirled and relented. Somewhere in the back of his head he shouted out, tried to fight it, but he saw himself move to an antique mirror and smash it with his fist. Pain shot through him, but he grasped a shard all the same, and put it to his throat. She stood before him, a pupper master pulling his strings. She wanted him to end himself, right there, and in that moment everything of the shit life he had been dealt swept forward. Losing his parents, getting fucked over by his uncle, the foster homes, the shit jobs, losing Darla...and he something welled up within. He shook off her spell, and instead plunged the shard into her breast. Her eyes flashed up to his, a smile spread across her lips, and then she Embraced him.

 He spent the next few years under her wing, learning the ins and outs of the Danse Macabre. He learned he was Ventrue, with the blood of gods, and destined to rule. Perhaps he had always known this somehow. She taught him to control others, to use his natural talents to bend things to his will. He learned that power was something he liked very much. It drowned out all those screams inside, and helped him forget the awful things he had to do to maintain that power.

 Still, he was weak in one way particularly...Darla. After two years he sought her out. She wasn't with Taye anymore, but she had a new beau now, heroin. He tried to get her to clean up, but she always finds her way back. He knows he will always love her, but the monster inside always threatens to push her away.

 Now that he has had a taste of power, he knows it is his birthright, and nothing will stop him from having it.