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Name: Jocelyn Laurent

Age: 25

Sex: Female

Appearance:

5'6 and trim, Jocelyn's figure lends to a style that can change on a complete whim. Some days she's preppy and put together, other days it's got more of a punk rock twinge. Shoulder length dark hair, and as is custom in her family's bloodline for all first borns, her eyes are naturally gray, but she wears green contacts to cover up that particular attribute (as she doesn't particularly like having gray eyes). When she's not working, Jocelyn wears several silver rings on each hand, one bearing the family crest of her family.

Her most interesting feature is the tattoo that runs from the front of her left hip and curves up and around her back, ending on her right shoulder. At first glance it looks like a floral vine, but closer inspection reveals that a series of symbols are worked into the vines each with their own meaning. The symbols are similar to those most witches would use as wards for their own circles or houses, but Jocelyn likes to keep hers with her at all times.

Special Abilities:

While she's skilled in several forms of magic, conjuring heat and fire in her hands is a specific skill of hers. Need a candle lit, but no matches? Forgot your lighter for your smokes? Jocelyn can help you out.

Mostly because of her "work", she's gotten very good at being able to read others' facial expressions. It's not a psychic sort of talent, it's just something she's picked up with practice.

Supernatural Affinity (Species/Group): Witch

Supernatural Affinity (Powers):

Skilled in basic white magic, and advanced black magic

Personality:

Jocelyn has always come across as strong. Being a big sister, she was always willing to step up and defend or protect her younger siblings, even if they didn't always get along (how many siblings actually do?). The same attitude has crossed over into her other relationships as well. Jocelyn is quick to defend friend or step into a fight that's not hers.

She's passionate about the things that interest her, and more than likely, she'll always have an opinion on whatever it is your talking about. While she's not blunt about things, if you ask her what her thoughts are, she'll be more than happy to tell you.

Although always happy to talk, and willing to share, she tends to be a woman of few words. This can also be attributed to her work relationships, where actions are more important than what anyone has to say. Typically her first instinct is to be physical, even with people she has just met. Jocelyn remains aware of people's personal space, should they need it, but can easily be described as affectionate in most of her relationships.

More recently though, Jocelyn's taken up a habit of being rather cut off from people. Too many friends she made when she first arrived in Marquette left for various reasons and she ended up cutting herself off from almost everyone. As a result, her social skills are rusty, but it's something she easily covers up with a mock confidence that isn't actually felt.

The hiatus has also seemed to crank her emotions up. Once she was rather cool and collected, but now she can swing into far stronger emotions and it's outwardly noticeable. Actually most of her emotions and thoughts are visible across her face unless she's really trying to cover them up. Definitely what most would refer to as an easy read.

History:

Jocelyn was born, the oldest of three children, to a magically gifted family whose French ancestry goes back several centuries. The Laurents had left France while the States were being colonized to avoid religious prejudice and eventually set up shop in New Orleans, where as the years passed they had become local royalty, setting up in a large house in the Garden District. It was common knowledge that the family was special. They attracted the attention of those who needed help, and were too feared by those who didn't approve. Plus it was New Orleans and almost every family had some sordid, supernatural history.

By the time she was young enough to fully understand, she was taught about her family's history, and her ability to do magic. She learned that being the oldest of the three children had it's advantages and disadvantages. The advantages being that every first born held more powerful, magical attributes than the following children, a more natural affinity for performing the magic instilled inside of them. Her parents were always supportive, and loving of all of their children, but it was clear that maintaining the family name and bloodline fell upon her shoulders. It was always the first born's own first child that harnessed the more complex magic that kept their family powerful and protected as it grew weaker with the second born, and so on.

The family had been waged in an epic battle of sorts against a vampire, known in legends as The Bloody Valentine, or just Valentin. During his massacre through New Orleans, he seduced and murdered a first born Laurent daughter before she had passed on her powers to an heir. As a result, the family line suffered tremendously and more rash of members attempted to hunt down Valentin for the injustice. All this seemed to do was spark an interest in the family with Valentin thus creating the feud as he continued to hunt down Laurents and kill them off one by on.

The rivalry had scaled to extreme levels, with each generation being taught from a younger age to hate the vampire. As a result the violence between the family and Valentin escalated and innocent blood was shed in more than one situation.

75 years ago, however, after Valentin had attacked Margaret Laurent (a very powerful first born daughter), her younger brother, Paul decided to take matters into his own hands and perform black magic to place a curse on Valentin to keep him from harming anymore of his family. The curse would have caused any damage Valentin did to any first borns of their bloodline to bounce back upon Valentin instead. Should the first born son or daughter die any death unrelated to Valentin, the protection would pass to the second born, and so on. However, seeing how the family were strictly witches of white magic, Paul was not at all skilled in the art of black magic. His spellwork was shoddy and his lack of research into the curse caused the spell to engulf not only Valentin, but Laurent blood as well. All damage became reciprocal between Valentin and the Laurents and so it was important for the family to make their children aware of Valentin's existence, and the so called "truce" between both parties to keep their family's bloodline safe. The truce has held strong for 75 years, despite the remaining loathing between them.

When Jocelyn was younger, and eager to please her parents, she accepted her role as their first born, and daughter, and the obligation of bearing children was a gift. She dreamed of the day she would get married and have her own children to pass her abilities to. At 17 she was engaged to a handsome young man, Jean, who was three years her senior. Everyone approved of their union, not just because it meant the family bloodline would continue, but because he was of another old money family in New Orleans. On the eve of their wedding though, her fiance was shot and killed trying to break up a bar fight between his brother and another patron. For all her wards she'd set in place to protect him, Jocelyn realized that her white magic was still limited.

In her heartache she lost the more loving aspect of her life, becoming less sure of herself and reluctant to build relationships with those outside of her family members. Occasionally she would take lovers, mostly younger boys from her high school who were blown away by the older girl's advances. She would keep them around until they either got attached or she got bored and then move on to the next one. Always an overly curious girl, she started researching black magic, drawn to it somewhat out of rebellion (as it was still banned in the family) and for it's intensity. Even the family history of being able to initiate curses that could bounce injuries back off the victims appealed to her current need for some sort of vengeance. The more she researched and studied, the more tempting the use of black magic became. She simply didn't see the danger in using it if your end goal was to protect someone.

A few years graduation, her parents attempted to address her rebellious nature, pointing out that it was her duty as a first born to settle down and start her family. They informed her that they'd let her infidelities go on for so long because they knew Jean's death was hard on her. While Jocelyn had been trying to forge her own path at the local private college, her parents were setting up dinner parties for her to meet new suitors. At one particularly excruciating party, Jocelyn lost her cool and the resulting argument with her parents (in front of everyone) led her to drop out of school and leave home at 20.

Armed with what was left of her trust fund, as she'd already had the whole thing signed over to her when she hit 19, she spent the next few years traveling and researching black magic more, slowly beginning to harness her power. Her views on marriage and love became even more skewed the deeper she delved into black magic, and while she could still perform white magic, her work in that field had become somewhat stunted as the black magic seemed to push her more purer abilities to the background.

As it always does though, the money ran out. Being alone, she honed her skills in black magic and continued to use it to benefit herself, using "survival" as justification. Jocelyn found herself in Marquette, having tried to track the vampire who had cursed their family to the town. She had hoped to reverse the curse, or at least do it properly this time, but to no avail.

On her own in a new town without much to stand on, Jocelyn met Eris, and was taken in by the idea of shelter and allowances, so she took a job within Babylon, catering to the whims and desires of whomever paid the proper price, unashamed of her choice of employment at that point in her life. She's been content in living comfortably, developing her magic further, and learning more about other aspects of the supernatural.

After what seemed like a good year in Marquette, things went wrong. Friendships that she'd forged at work and outside of failed as others moved on with their lives and were carried to other places. Jocelyn took most of these divides personally, assuming that she was a reason people left rather than a reason why they stayed. Old wounds from Jean's death were re-opened and she ended up closing herself off from society. For four months she remained locked in her room, only taking clients and even avoiding working the main bar of Babylon.

Weaknesses:

Low Self Esteem - She can come across as incredibly confident. Confidence comes with her job, but it's all an act. Deep down she craves affection, and the knowledge that she's desired. This has been intensified over her hiatus, especially since it didn't escape her that when she disappeared no one came to find out where she'd gone. However, she's perfected the pretense of being able to handle it all on her own and not caring what people might think of her, but she does.
Addicted - Highly addicted to using black magic, Jocelyn has come to use it often, sometimes when it's not even particularly necessary. It gets her quick, desired results, and she sees no reason to live without it. As long as she's not harming anyone, Jocelyn sees no reason not to use it.
Strangeness (Quirk) - Perhaps it's because she's a witch, who knows, but everything pertaining to water moves counter clockwise around her. The water going down the drain in her shower, or in the sink, and even when she stirs her drink, or tea, her hand moves counterclockwise, no matter how hard she tries to change it up. It doesn't matter where she is, or what the circumstances are.
Phobia - You may wonder why she has a ton of candles in her room. Jocelyn suffers Nyctophobia, the fear of the dark, though she's well aware that the dark poses no real threat to her, she can't be in a darkened room without some form of light, whether it be a candle, a watch light, or the moonlight. Her ability to conjure fire in her hands comes in handy, though she can only hold that for so long before it becomes painful.
Curiosity - Jocelyn just has to know. Do you have a secret you're not suppose to tell, she'll bug you until you give in and spill it, or bribe you with favors. What's lurking inside that dark, creepy room? She knows she shouldn't go in there to check it out, but gah! She's just got to. Her curiosity is what got her immersed in black magic in the first place. It's almost a compulsion to know everything, even if it's none of her business.
Trust Issues - A cross between still being hurt from losing Jean despite her best attempts, her parents' disapproval and an overwhelming lack of faith in people, Jocelyn has developed some powerful trust issues. She's wary about letting people in, for fear of getting hurt. Her initial assumption is that people will eventually leave no matter what she does to get them to stay or turn on her once they get to know her.

Strengths:

Family History - As mentioned, being the first born to her parents, Jocelyn is a natural when it comes to magic. It's quite simply in her blood, and she takes to new spells and rituals far faster than most.
Affinity - Jocelyn is well educated in symbolism regarding religions and aspects of the supernatural. She was taught it at an early age by her parents, as a means of safety and knowledge, but it grew more into a passionate hobby for her as she got older.

PB: Olivia Wilde