falsepretences | Entries tagged with bio

{JORDAN NOVAK
woke up to the sound of silence

THE BASICS!

FULL NAME: Jordan Anthony Novak
NICKNAMES: No.
AGE & DOB: 32 / November 17
RANK: Jack of Spades
PB: Matt Bomer

APPEARANCE!
cutting like knives in a fist fight

Jordan is tall, 6'0, and lean, build more like a swimmer than a body-builder. He's nonetheless very strong from years of training, and his slim appearance hides firm, developed muscles. Jordan has laser-bright blue eyes and brown hair, though a lighter shade than his younger brothers, and pale, even skin. As he's grown older his J.Crew ad perfect wardrobe has morphed into one that's heavier on the slick suits, as is befitting an upper Spade and lawyer, but occasionally he still likes to throw the Suit of black formal suits a loop with something a little brighter.

PERSONALITY!
you can never look back

An extravagant flirt - though with an undeniably sardonic air - Jordan is nonetheless an extremely ruthless man, willing to do what's necessary to get what he wants. Intensely goal-oriented, Jordan operates best with a problem to solve or a plot to advance, something that's served him well as the director of the Spades legal department and will likely serve him even better as a Jack of Spades standing between two powerful and ruthless royals.

He has, over the years, learned to tamp his tendency towards frustration and temper and play the long game; on the surface, Jordan appears to be all things calm and genial. Underneath, however, there is still the core of simmering violence that made his teen years in the Hearts so difficult, and that's a side of himself that can't be suppressed forever. He's learned over the last few years to give himself outlets for that - whether it means taking on assassinations that he could be sending Tens on or sparring matches with friends with just the same tendencies depends on the situation at hand.

Balancing these very sharp traits is a sense of warmth and loyalty that runs as deep in Jordan as anything else; Jordan is loyal to a fault, whether it be to friends or family, and it's hard to push him far enough to betray that. The times he has have resulted in sometimes years of guilt, depression and self-recrimination that have made him spiral into a very dark place. On top of this tendency, Jordan is also a very reserved man; he's secretive, and not one to let people inside, so when he goes to a dark place, he most often goes there alone.

BIOGRAPHY!
been through hell like that

Jordan was born in Spades, the first son of Laureline Novak, a Ten and Medea's Head of Training, and Dwayne Novak, a Nine and the Queen's enforcer. He was raised from a young age to be a perfect Spade, learning both martial skills and manipulation at his parents' side and being trained to one day take down David as the King of Spades. But then disaster struck in the form of Dwayne Novak's murder.

In truth, the murderer was Jordan's own mother, Laureline, and the reason was to protect both Laureline and Jordan's younger brother Hadyn - who wasn't a Novak, but a Kattalakis, and the half-brother of Zoë Kattalakis - but both boys were told that Dwayne was killed to serve David's purposes. And it wouldn't be the first time, would it? After all, the Spade King had been the Court Assassin once, and wasn't above getting rid of obstacles to his vision for the Spades. Who was more of an obstacle than the mad queen's enforcer, after all? And with Athena rising fast to take Medea's place, the Spades was no safe place for Dwayne's remaining family. So the Novak fled the Suit and joined the Hearts instead. The plan remained the same; Jordan would be King, Hadyn would be Ace, this time of Hearts. His mother would go to any lengths necessary to make it so.

This knowledge wasn't much of a comfort to Jordan, though, who missed the father he wasn't permitted to grieve for, and missed his friends, and missed being able to actually be himself. As a result, he was a moody, vicious teenager who made no friends in the Hearts and felt constantly under suspicion, even as he grew up and took his place as a Two of Hearts. Eventually the moodiness gave way to a rather cynical charm, and Jordan began to excel at playing a Heart. He never let them in, though, just as they never let him in, and ultimately that was his downfall when the ailing King of Hearts told him he wouldn't be his choice of successors.

Jordan then made a decision that altered his life and that of his younger brother, and he betrayed his mother using every manipulative, Machiavellian trick she'd taught him since childhood. He sent her to the judgment of the King and Queen of Hearts, trusting they would be merciful but knowing full well he could be sending Laureline Novak straight to her death, and he did it not only to save Ceiro Ryan - one of the only Hearts to treat Jordan as someone of value - but to buy Hadyn a future. His mother's plan, after all, was doomed. Jordan couldn't make Hadyn Ace if Jordan wasn't king, and it was clear the Hearts would never accept him there when they barely accepted him at all.

The decision, the look on Laureline's face, sent Jordan into a quiet depression that he convinced himself no one could see, and he deliberately isolated himself further - cutting himself off from friends and even Hadyn for months - until his cousin Clive convinced him to go home. Clive was on the verge of being named David's replacement as King of Spades, and he needed Jordan. Jordan was, after all, the one in their family who had been bred for the position Clive was about to attain, and while Clive was a very clever man, he was from the less ruthless branch of the Spades. He wanted Jordan's help, and Jordan went - because what was there for him in the Hearts?

Moving to the Spades didn't halt his tailspin, though it slowed for a time, and for a time he seemed to be pulling out of it only to fall back into again. It was, in the end, three people who pulled him out. His best friend Chris Lowry, the sharpest young Heart other than Jordan's own brother, who hauled him out of every bar in the Deck and let Jordan vent his rage on him; Joe Smith, an uncle on the Novak side, who practically ordered Jordan to leave the often toxic atmosphere of the Deck and go to law school to get his head on straight; and Elisha Kagan, his brother's on-again and off-again boyfriend, who Jordan had never been close to - but who kept Jordan from taking the final step to end the pain by reminding him that doing that would destroy Hadyn too.

Even so, it was only halfway through his first year at the University of Virginia School of Law that Jordan finally pulled himself out of the dark hole he'd fallen into, and knowing himself he applied himself in school with the kind of determination he'd once devoted to his martial training. Then he applied himself to the direction of the Spades legal department, and rising to Ten of Spades, and finally he applied that same determination to earning a Face position. King was, obviously, going to be the ultimate goal, but being named Jack of Spades is the final step before realizing all his ambitions.

The ambitions that Jordan needs, if he's to avoid falling into the dark places ever again.