Jaire

Backstory

Jaire was born in a small rural town in Kutron. His mother died when he was very young, leaving him to be raised by his father. Jaire is selectively mute, which caused his father to become frustrated with him.  His father would often vent his frustrations towards him, and would often ridicule Jaire when he got upset. This caused him to have a lot of trust issues later on in life. 

When Jaire was ten years old, his universe's equivalent of the child protection services paid a visit to his house to investigate a complaint that had been made. They sat down and spoke to both Jaire and his father individually to try and assess the case. A few weeks later, the child services came back to take Jaire away. They said that they felt like it was in his best interest, but that he might be able to return if his father was able to clean up his act. Even though Jaire didn't like living with his father, he was still scared to leave the house he grew up in. 

Jaire was brought to a facility where he lived with other kids who had been taken away from their parents. He had hoped that maybe it wouldn't be so bad, but he ended up getting badly bullied by some of the other kids, who had labelled him as an easy target since he couldn't talk or defend himself. The staff had also tried to help him overcome his apparent inability to speak, but much like his father they assumed that he was doing it for attention, and in the end they ended up doing more harm then good. Jaire was so miserable at the facility that he decided that he had to get out on his own terms. It took a lot of careful planning, but on the night of his thirteenth birthday, he finally managed to do it. 

One he escaped, however, Jaire realized that he had nowhere to go. He didn't want to go back to his father, and he had no other friends or relatives that he could stay with. He ended up living on the streets, moving from town to town doing whatever he needed to do to get by. He eventually found his way to a city called Korsa and he ended up staying there since the locals were friendly enough to him and there were a lot of unsuspecting tourists which made it easy for him to steal when he had to. He set up a home base in an alleyway behind a restaurant, where one of the cooks would sometimes bring food to him rather than throw it away. However, this wasn't a completely reliable way to get food so Jaire would often spend his days wandering around busy streets and markets trying to find food and water, and only stealing as a very last resort. 

One day when Jaire was out in a busy market he got caught stealing from a man. The man was furious with him, and started yelling at him. When Jaire didn't respond to any of the man's taunts, the man only got more angry with him and his anger quickly escalated to violence. He beat Jaire up pretty badly, and only stopped when a bystander pleaded him to do so, expressing concern that the man would end up killing Jaire. The man let him go, but at this point Jaire was severely injured. Jaire returned back to his alley behind the restaurant to try and recover from the injuries that he had sustained. It was here that he was found by Ryselle, a circus ringmaster who had heard him crying and came to investigate. 

Ryselle immediately took pity on him. She tried to help him calm down, and later brought him to a hospital after realizing the severity of his injuries. While Jaire was recovering, Ryselle offered him a position with the circus, as she didn't feel right about sending him back to live on the streets. Jaire didn't want to go back to the streets either, but he was concerned that he wasn't quite cut out for being a circus performer. He wasn't able to convey his concerns to Ryselle, but he was able to get across that he would at least think about it. In order to help him make a decision, Ryselle brought in Solque partly to talk to Jaire about circus life, but also so that Jaire would have a friendly face to look out for if he did end up accepting the position. Solque was able to figure out that Jaire could read and write, and as a result was able to quell some of Jaire's concerns. 

Jaire ended up accepting the position, and was inspired by Solque to train to become an aerialist. Solque trained with him one on one, helping him build up the strength he would need to be an aerialist, but also to help him boost his confidence. He also finally was officially diagnosed with selective mutism and started getting the proper help that he needed. Jaire trained for two years before he was finally ready to perform with the other aerialists. He still gets trained privately by Solque to help him with his confidence.

Personality

Jaire is naturally very aloof and closed off, and while he does open up eventually it takes him a very long time to do so. He's not very trusting of others due to all the issues he's had in the past and he tends to not show much emotion. He is very sensitive and has a lot of insecurities, and as a result he doesn't respond well to criticism and tends to dwell on it for far too long. But despite all his faults, Jaire is genuinely caring. He's always willing to let his friends vent to him when they need to get something off their chest, and is always trying to help in any way that he can. He's also very clever, and is generally a fast learner. 

Relationships With Other Characters

Solque: Jaire views Solque as sort of like a role model. He's very attached to him and will follow him around almost everywhere. Jaire also refers to Solque as his first real friend, as Solque was the first one to take the time to get to know him and help him with his issues. He often tells Solque things that he's too afraid to tell most people. Jaire also has a crush on Solque, but he's too afraid to tell him. 

Random Facts:

• He communicates mostly by writing things down in a notebook that he carries around with him. The only people he can talk to verbally are Solque and (on occasion) Ryselle. He can sometimes hold a short conversation with other people if Solque is around. 
• He's an aerialist
• Even though Jaire is pretty shy and quiet, he loves to perform. 
• He's gay and non-binary but not really openly. The only person who knows is Solque (he mostly uses male pronouns, but they/them is fine too)
• He was inspired by Jinkx Monsoon
• He touches his face and wrings his hands when he's nervous
• He loves to sleep. He's been known to take a lot of naps in his spare time. 
• His full name is actually Jairet, but he prefers to go by Jaire to the point where most people don't actually know that Jaire is just a nickname. 
• He calls his father by his first name when he talks about him so that he can pretend that he's not related to him.