Jacob Watson

A recent graduate from a relatively prestigious private high school, Jacob has recently transferred college courses after a year in vet school, in which he realized that as much as he may like animals, he is much less comfortable in dealing with their discomfort up close. He's starting to get used to college life, but is still quite unused to socializing or getting out of his shell, as he can't transition to the more open social setting of a college without feeling he is missing something.

Jacob is the third child of a now divorced couple. Both his elder sisters, much older than him, have long since abandoned the country, unwilling to put up with their father's constant disrespect and unfaithful behaviour around their mother. Jacob was mostly an accident, having been born while the couple had moved to a new place. Nevertheless, Jacob's mom soon was left to raise him alone, well into her 40s, as his father's midlife crisis manifested in the form of an attempt to go live abroad with his lover. While his mother did all she could to raise him well, the constant problems and trauma led her to a form of functioning alcoholism Jacob's had to deal with growing up. While his sisters helped keep his mother afloat, a single woman in her 40s with fairly little income was never going to be able to provide all the care needed.

Fortunately for her, Jacob proved to be rather prescient, and a quite fast learner. While not strictly the creative type, he definitely was gifted and the local private high school, a religious operation, took interest in his grades after they were alerted to his unusually fast maths second language uptake at the age of 10. He was allowed to enroll in the school's program, provided he could maintain his grades, which he dutifully did, scoring near the top of the class. Nevertheless, Jacob's middle and high school experience was dismal. He struggled to make friends in a stratified social environment where he was at the bottom of the ladder, having no money or appearances, nor connections to leverage, and essentially being seen as the pity case weirdo that had been accepted as charity. This exacerbated already existing social dysfunction growing up.

In many ways, enrolling into college and getting past that stage of his life was a huge step. While, both at home and in general, the environment hadn't gotten better, with both his sisters pushing for early work and "monetary independence", he at least could experience a freer social moment without the expectations of wealth, class or position. However, some years of social quasi-isolation have led to some feelings of... asocialness and difficulty to approach people. He is hoping that, with the upcoming year of college, and having quite appreciated the first year in vet school in meeting new people, that he can learn to communicate and open up better.

Jacob does hold one prescient advantage in his book that he isn't aware of. Aside the fact that he is a fast learner, and both kind and empathetic to other people when he opens up and when they allow him in, Jacob seems to have a near-supernatural capability of picking up on a person's way of thinking and the occasional pattern of distress in their expression. This gift, honed often and well with his mother, growing up, seems to give him at least a nice way to defend himself in situations of stress, but it can fail, provided he's confronted with a pattern he's never seen before.