#jasondearborn

full biography / background

triggering / sensitive content warning: military, 9/11, ptsd, depression, mental health.

Jason Everett Dearborn was born not long after the fourth of July in 1983 -- second born to the Clark and Nicolette Dearborn, and forever lording it over everyone's head that the fireworks that light up the sky on Independence Day are a celebration for his birthday. He was a happy baby, with round cheeks and bright eyes, a perfect tag-along to older brother Theodore during his younger years, before he understood the ins and outs of his tumultuous family and began to realize what an afterthought he was to his mother, and how much pressure would be put on him by his father.

Childhood was marked by Sunday morning church appearances with a pressed white shirt and long lectures by his father about how to be good, learning skills he didn't care to learn and being made to feel lesser for wanting to spend his time reading a nature book or taking a long hike by the lake. Add to that a younger brother born from an affair and a younger sister born to fix all the issues, and things began to get complicated really fast, with the once well behaved young boy rebelling in his teenage years. He played sports, but never very long -- he lost interest in football early on, and wouldn't really cut it with wrestling (pulling his opponent's hair a little too hard when he got mad got him removed from the match, and the team), and he couldn't compete with his high school rival when it came to soccer. He did well with art, dabbled in chorus, and excelled in biology, where he could learn about plans, and take that knowledge home to start a garden. But he knew early on that college wasn't going to be for him. The party scene, sure, Jason was frequently found at the hangout in the woods, a worn path from his backyard to the firepit evident even years later, but… not so much the structured learning when he had no path to follow.

Enlisting in the military ticked off many boxes for Jace: an escape from his parents and small town life, finding some sort of purpose for himself, and making his father proud (begrudgingly). He excelled at basic training, always pushing himself to beat out the others, do a little better than the person before him, and he felt like ha had finally made something of himself. Then 9/11 happened. Jason was put into active duty -- six years of it. He saw and did things that he can't unsee or undo for those six years: he was injured twice, lost more friends than he could count, lost touch with his family, and sent home with the recommendation for a purple heart, which still sits in a box under his bed, untouched.

At his first opportunity to get out, he did. He tried to go home, rolling to a stop at that house in the suburbs, but realized that he didn't want to be there. He purchased a camper -- named Annabelle Lee -- and hooked it to the hitch of his Jeep and left. He didn't say hello, he didn't say goodbye. He jut left. The letter his parents received let them know that he was no longer active duty, had left the military, but he didn't tell them where he was, where he was going, what his plans were. Partially because he didn't know. Mostly because he didn't care.

The open road was fun, getting to see the country that he had spent so many years defending, but it was also a dangerous place for a man to be when he was fighting battles. Jason dealt with PTSD, anxiety, depression, on top of lasting health impacts, like the tinnitus in his ear, the creaky knee that probably should have landed him in physical therapy. He found himself doing therapy online, set up in his camper with a laptop, talking to someone who could help him, who encouraged him to find a steady job, to settle down somewhere. He lucked out. An ad for a groundskeeper at one of the parks in Yellowstone. Slowly, Jason learned the ins and outs, worked hard and used his military background to help enroll in Montana State University, where he began to take every class and course that he could involving the environment, agriculture, forestry, anything that would help get him to where he wanted to be. He picked up a side job as a volunteer firefighter after completing training, helping out with wildfires primarily, applying his knowledge of the environment around them to help. And after graduating in May of 2014, finishing all of the courses and training that he needed, Jason became a state park ranger in January of 2015.

He spent some very good years out west, living in his camper, learning the job inside and outside, growing as a person. He made friends with his fellow rangers, with long term campers, he kept on top of his therapy (by some small miracle), continued fighting wildfires, took classes and courses and… somehow found himself on the phone on the cusp of his fortieth birthday with the park manager in Merrock, Maine, asking if they had any positions available. It moved pretty qucikly after that, packing up Annabelle Lee, driving across the country while speaking to a real estate agent about a plot of land he had his eye on, and finally… coming home.

WANTED CONNECTION: the smokey bunch.

FOR CHARACTER(S): Jason Dearborn (Luke Mitchell).

REQUIREMENTS: no face claim requirements! the characters would have lived in the wyoming area between 2012 and 2022 and worked as volunteer wildfire fighters. oh! and you have to have a Smokey Bear tattoo.

SUGGESTED FCS: completely up to player!

SPOTS OPEN: 5/5.

CONNECTION DETAILS: While working out west in the state parks (particularly Yellowstone), Jason decided to take up volunteer firefighting, working to fight off wildfires that hit the area. While doing this, he became good friends with a group of fellow firefighters that dubbed themselves The Smokey Bunch, due to the fact that they were always telling people... only you can prevent forest fires. They've stayed in touch through the years, and are still good friends!

LAST NOTES: each particular connection can be anything you like! they could have roomed together during training, your character could be moving to Merrock to check it out, they could have had a little romantic backstory, anything!