family

[just_another]

Fleshing out of Joel's family.

Charlotte (Charlie) Baker is Joel's 21-year-old sister. She's outgoing and loud where Joel is introverted and quiet, but despite this and despite the physical distance between them, they've always been close. Charlotte's birth when Joel was eight was what led him to finally accept that there was something different about him and he began his magic lessons two weeks after her birth. For as long as Joel has been practicing magic, it's been a way for him to protect Charlotte, it's a large part of why he concentrates so completely on healing and protective magic instead of anything else.

Joel is the only person she still allows to call her Charlie. She was ten when they left Shediac and although she has suspicions (and Joel knows she has these suspicions) she doesn't know the entire story behind their departure and Joel is afraid to tell her for fear of losing their close relationship. Besides Spencer, she's the only person he tells everything to with the exception of why they left home.

Though neither of them can explain it, they share a strong psychic connection, often able to sense when things are out of the ordinary for the other. Charlotte also has premonitions, though like Joel she's never learned how to read them. Though she loves to give Joel a hard time, she loves him blindly, respects him without reservation and believes in everything he does. She currently lives with their parents about 500 miles south, but has been thinking lately about moving back to Siren Cove to be closer to her brother.

Eleanor (Ellie) Baker is Joel's mother. She's 46 and is ferociously protective of her family. Although she's never been cruel, she is a stern woman and was a strict mother, which was easy with Joel who was a quiet child, and much less easy with Charlotte, who's only ever wanted to run wild. She was deeply disappointed when Joel refused to let her teach him anything about magic when he was a child, though she tried not to pressure him into it. She suspected he would come to it in his own time and he did.

The only thing she's ever wanted for her children was happiness and what happened with Amy in Shediac broke her heart. She's never blamed her son, but she knew he would blame himself and it's always hurt her that he's holed himself up in Crossroads and refused to open himself up to anyone. She's spent the past five years trying to gently prod him into trying to meet someone, mentioning her desire for grandchildren, when it's really only ever been about seeing Joel happy.

She's not especially quick to smile and much of Joel's solitary nature comes from his mother. But she's fiercely loyal and is a smart, talented witch who specializes in healing and protection, much like her son. She can sometimes border on judgmental, is quick to jump to conclusions and holds a grudge for far too long.

Brian Baker is Joel's father. He's 48 and is one of the most relaxed people Joel has ever known. He's not sure how any single person can be so unconcerned with what goes on around him, but Brian has always believed things will work out for the best in the end. The only time Joel has seen him agitated is when he had to load his family into their car in Shediac and drive away with almost none of their belongings.

When they first arrived in Siren Cove, Brian immediately went looking for a bookstore, having owned one in Shediac before the move. He's the reason Joel loves books as passionately as he does and when they lived together it wasn't uncommon to find them both holed away in some room reading. He never worried about doing typical father-son bonding activities with Joel, knowing the best way to bond with his son and make him feel important was to do what he loved.

Brian can certainly be accused of being lazy. He's not a highly motivated individual, has left almost all of the child rearing to his wife and didn't work especially hard to support his family financially. But he's a gentle, laid back man who never has a bad word to say about anyone.

His magic abilities were at one point fairly undeveloped and focus mostly on charms and conjuring. It's not something he ever worried about cultivating and never understood why his wife so badly wanted their children to learn how to control what they can do. Until, of course, the night Amy died. Since then he's worked hard with his wife to learn all he can and better control what he can do.