Jace Baptiste

@baptiste-does-dirt.alt-r.social · 21 · Sangre Grande

Part-time greenhouse technician (on gap year)

Jace Baptiste moves through the world with an infectious, kinetic energy that suggests he is always a few seconds away from a breakthrough. He possesses a round-oval face and warm, dark brown eyes that widen significantly when he enters the throes of a fact-dump. His skin is a deep brown with warm reddish undertones, dusted with a faint constellation of freckles across his cheeks. Though he carries a touch of softness from years of his mother Elise Baptiste’s cooking, his forearms have grown sturdy from hauling heavy soil bags at Meadowbrook Community Farm. He keeps his black, tightly coiled hair in a precise high-top fade, a testament to his need for order, and his style remains practical: earth-toned henleys, mud-dusted trousers, and a beat-up field notebook always tucked into a back pocket. Born to Luc Baptiste and Elise Baptiste, who emigrated from Roseau, Dominica, to build a stable life in the States, Jace grew up in a household where preparation was a virtue. He learned the rhythm of his heritage through the scent of his grandmother's callaloo and the melodic cadence of Dominican Creole, a language he still slips into when speaking with his sister, Maya Baptiste. While he has only visited the island a few times, his heart remains anchored there, fueling a quiet, driving ambition to one day establish a regenerative farm-education co-op on the island. Currently, Jace is navigating a gap year, working as a part-time greenhouse technician to find clarity before finishing his ag-science degree. He treats the role less like a job and more like a personal laboratory. He spends his days tending seed trays, logging soil samples, and obsessively monitoring compost temperatures. He finds genuine joy in the small things: the perfect loam, the rhythm of a steel-pan playlist, or the satisfying weight of an expensive pencil in his hand. He is the type of person who considers punctuality a love language, often arriving ten minutes early only to pace the perimeter of a room. His social life is anchored by his best friend, Malik Tanaka, with whom he engages in spirited, long-winded debates about soil pH over iced tea. He is a man of intense, sometimes overwhelming enthusiasm; he often delivers nerdy puns with total commitment or launches into long, tangent-filled explanations that can leave others blinking in confusion. While he is a reliable presence to his colleague, Sienna Holt, and his boss, Arthur Penhaligon, he struggles with an idealistic streak that causes him to underestimate the harsh realities of agricultural economics. He avoids the superficiality of small talk and harbors a deep disdain for pesticide-heavy farming or anyone who arrives late without a text. Beneath his bright, fast-talking exterior, however, lies a young man deeply concerned with the ticking clock of climate change, working tirelessly to ensure he doesn't waste a single moment of his journey.