JACKSON DANIEL HAILEY JR.

thirty-eight,male, mortal and aware of it

N I C K NA M E : JAKKS (To those he knows casually)

SHAKES (He was called this in college.  A name short for Shakespeare whose paperback plays he often carry around folded over in a back pocket of his jeans while treading through campus)

DANTE (He goes by this alias sometimes at Support Group meetings or settings where he is speaking anonymously about his disease.  It is a reference to Pergatory and the author who first showed it to people.)

B I R T H D A T E : November 26th, 1973 - A Sagittarius with a very typical steadfast nature and an outlook that is optimistic and positive.  Even deep inside these fire signs believe that no matter what has happened, something good is always around the corner and the sun will always shine again.

E Y E C O L O R : HAZEL - Lately his eyes have been a bit hazy, the color dimmed by the dark circles that have started to show in his thinning face.  But when Jackson smiles his eyes light up and dance.

H A I R C O L O R : BROWN - His hair has receded a bit at the temples and he frets a bit about the amount coming out in the shower.  Since his treatments have become more serious and one of the side effects can be baldness he is hoping to avoid having a head like a cueball. 

H E I G H T : SIX FEET TALL - Okay, okay.  Five foot eleven inches, but he puts six feet down on everything!

W E I G H T : ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY POUNDS - Recently his weight dropped an excessive ten pounds as he battled out a tough upper respiratory infection.  When he was healthy he easily topped out at two hundred pounds or more depending on how much Wally had been cooking for him. 

D I S T G U I S H I N G F E A T U R E S :  When he was a kid his mother told him that he had a contagious smile.  Is that distinguishing? He used to have 20/20 vision but had to buy reading glasses when he hit thirty five because of the effect of infections on his vision.  Now he wears a real lense in his rectangular Elvis Costello style glasses and contacts sometimes.  On the upper right part of his butt he has a tattoo of a monkey bending over and looking back at you between its legs.  It's very wierd since the monkey has tiny cartoon balls and a round butthole drawn on it.  Obviously he had been drinking too much at the time.  Go figure.  Jackson also fancies himself a bit of a style mogul when he has the money to be so.  Even with limited means though he is neat, clean, stylish, and takes pride in his appearance. 

F L A V O R : ORANGE DREAMSICLE

D E S C R I P T I O N : ON A STICK

S K I L L S :
* Skill : Friendliness.  Yes it was a skill, if it wasn't then there wouldn't be so many people who were so horrible at it.
* Skill : Leaving good tips.  Nothing excessive but he does good by waitstaff.
* Skill : Open Mind.  He tried to keep an open mind and let people be who they are going to be, accepting them for that if he can.
* Skill : Speed Reading.  He consumes books the way some Americans consume french fries and drive thru burgers.
* Skill : Tying a Tie.  Yup, he can do that. Can do a bowtie too but he wouldn't be caught dead in one unless he's at a wedding.
* Skill : Driving Responsibly.  Much to the chagrine of his friends he is a very good driver who has a clean record without a single speeding ticket.
* Skill : Speaks Hebrew.  Admittedly he only really remembers some of what he learned in Hebrew School, and bits of the Torah. 
* Skill : Making Something from Nothing.  He can turn a tablecloth into a shirt, turn watch parts into a bracelet, or turn a frown upside down if given the right inspiration.
* Skill : Movie Memorization.  He has watched a million movies and knows lines or whole sections from most of them.  Plus he avidly consumed every episode of Aeon Flux, The Maxx, and My So Called Life. 
* Skill : Making Faces.  He's really good at it.
* Skill : Remembering People.  There's a certain knack he has for remembering you and usually several small details about each and every person he meets. 
* Skill : Expert Barista.  He can make a latte, a cappuchino, triple mocha, or any other coffee house favorite that is requested.
* Skill : Dinner Party Host.  He used to use this skill more, but since Wally died he hasn't put this skill into practice much.
* Skill : Musical Theatre Fandom.  Art he couldn't tell you a Picasso from a Rembrant, ballet he thinks looks *gay*, but start talking musical theatre and he's all over it.
* Skill : Listening.  It's an acquired taste.
* Skill : Spending Money.  When he has it he blows through it like a sailor on leave.  It's a gift and a curse.

W E A P O N S C A R R I E D : Mace? Maybe? Probably not. 

W E A P O N S O W N E D : Inside his body he carries a deadly disease, but it's only really used against himself.  If you don't count that then....no weapons to speak of.  Well, there is that Samurai sword Wally brought back from Japan, but he considered that a fireplace decoration. 

A C C E S S O R I E S : Usually Jackson carries a sweater or jacket on him since even in the summertime he can catch a chill in heavily air conditioned rooms and with his immune system that can be highly dangerous.  He also carries water around constantly and a plastic case that rattles and clinks with medications.  On occasion you may catch him with a joint or a pipe and there is definitely a sticker on the bumper of his old model Honda Civic that proposes the legalization of just such THC relief.  In particular he likes watches and when money flowed freely he bought a few really nice ones that he matches with his clothes and takes great care to keep running smoothly. 

H O M E : The house he lives in is not in the Garden District but a few blocks outside that glorious symbol of the past.  It is a two story Victorian with minor hurricane damage still apparent in the structure, but has mostly been kept proudly by its owners.  He lives in the attic room of this house with four room mates who live downstairs.  Marlowe and Daa are the lesbian couple who own the house, Sheba who is Marlowe's cousin from Virginia, and Jack a masseure from California.  His favorite part of the room is the slanted ceiling with large windows set in it that look up at the sky. 

O C C U P A T I O N : He works ten hours a week at Cafe DuMonde serving coffee and beignets to tourists and another ten hours at a small local bookstore.  That leaves him a lot of free time when he is feeling healthy, but seems like a lifetime of hours on his worse days.  Jackson tries to volunteer at a local center for GLBT youth and helps out at a downtown hospice and a Catholic soup kitchen when he can. 

E X T R A D E T A I L S : The white 2000 Honda Civic he drives belonged to Wally and it looks terrible because that man did not know how to keep anything clean.  The engine however is in good running order and though the odometer says 145,000 miles he is hoping it makes it another couple of years.  If it doesn't then he'll have to buy a bus pass.

B I R T H P L A C E : DALLAS, TEXAS

F A M I L Y : Out in the great wide world somewhere Jackson has a family; a mother, a father, and an older sister with a kid of her own.  However he was kicked out at seventeen and has only had the most sporadic contact with his family since then, usually through his sister Crystal Hailey who tries to be a peacemaker. 

His deceased lover Walter Linebarger (Wally to his friends) was his family from the first day they met in the French Quarter in the Fall of 1999.  They spent ten wonderful years together before Wally succumbed during a bad bout of Pneumocystis Pneumonia. Right up until the day he died Wally always had a smile for everyone.

His friends are his family now and he is grateful for each and every one. 

H I S T O R Y : Jackson was born in Dallas Texas to a typical enough family.  He was raised in a middle class home with middle class values instilled in him from a young age.  He went to a local public school and attended synagogue just down the street from his house.  When he came out to his family at seventeen years old he was kicked out of the house and spent the next few years living between friends couches and local youth shelters.  Somehow he managed to complete his last year of high school and scraped through his teenage years going to a state college.  He graduated from UTD in 1995 with a BA in English Literature.  That same year he was diagnosed with Stage I HIV and followed his then lover Julian to New Orleans to 'start over'.  Julian stayed in New Orleans for six months before he left on the trail of a young gutter punk named Jesus.  Yes, Jesus truly was the enemy of the Jews.  Left alone in the city Jackson made a life for himself in the eccentric city and learned the difference between living with and dying from his disease.  In the Fall of 1999 he met Wally at a costume party where Jackson showed up dressed as a Julie Newmar inspired CatWoman and Wally dressed as BatMan.  It was love at first whip.  Wally was a Stage II when they met, but neither of them could afford antiretroviral medication for any length of time.  They struggled with the red tape of the medical system to try to get in clinical trials, and continued to live together as they struggled happily along.  The last two years of Wally's life Jackson was his nursemaid and constant companion.  Right up until the end he loved the other mans wasted smile, and when he was left alone again in the Winter of 2010 he found himself struggling to remember why he bothered with the struggle.  He moved into the attic room of a house owned by some friends of his and continued his visits to the local free clinic even as his CD4+ T-cell count dropped to the 200 count in 2011.  The progression of his disease picked up speed, rolling downhill as the T-count fell and he began to wonder what waited for him on the other side of this life. 

A L I A S : CASE

P L A Y B Y : JUSTIN KIRK

C H A R A C T E R S I T E : NONE

-- Edited by JACKSON HAILEY on Monday 15th of August 2011 09:17:16 AM