Post by John Constantine on Feb 25, 2020 23:02:07 GMT -5
Subject Facts
Full Name: John Constantine
Codename: N/A
Age: Thirty-five years
Gender: Cisgender man (he/him)
Archetype: Neutral
Aliases: N/A
Marital Status: Single
Affiliation: N/A
Subject Attributes
Meta-Human Abilities:
- Sorcery: John is a capable sorcerer able to use magic, incantations, rituals and other typical components of the craft to accomplish a vast array of feats. He's been shown using divination, telepathy, casting curses, conjuring illusions, etc. His forte is in dealing with demons - summoning, binding, exorcising, etc.
- Synchronicity Wave Traveling: He has an instinctual ability that allows him to be in the right place at the right time. This gives him a sort of uncanny luck ranging from winning large amounts of money from casinos, avoiding harm, or even finding himself with the exact kind of ally he needs in the moment.
- Deception: John's excellent at deceiving people. He's a skilled con artist and negotiator.
- Occultism: He has a great amount of knowledge on the occult.
- Prestidigitation: He's very good at sleight of hand.
- Hypnosis: He's studied the art of hypnosis to a point where he's able to practice it.
- Escapology: He's quite good at escaping precarious situations as well as traps.
Paraphernalia:
- Trench Coat: John's tench coat possesses some demonic powers. The specific powers remain unclear.
Subject Weaknesses:
- Only Human: Despite all his magic, John is still a mere human and isn't immortal or invulnerable.
- Attitude: He's cocky and can come off as standoffish or downright arrogant.
- Commitment: Due to his past losses and failure, he finds it very hard to commit to people - be it romantically or platonically. This means he's often on his own.
- Trypanophobia: He's somehow quite afraid of needles.
- Unlucky: Despite his synchronicity wave traveling, he's still quite capable of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. He's also quite unlucky when it comes to people who get close to them; those very people often meeting some cruel fate.
- Haunting Past: He's haunted by those he has failed, those he has lost that he feels are his fault.
Subject History
John was born in Liverpool, Lancashire. His mother died during childbirth due to an earlier abortion - forced on her by her husband - had weakened her womb. His twin brother didn't survive, either, being strangled by John's umbilical cord. His father projected the blame for both of these tragedies onto John, creating a deeply toxic, hateful relationship between them. During his childhood and adolescence John began practicing magic, running away from home when a failed ritual turned his alcoholic, abusive father frail and withered. He eventually settled in London, rooming with Fancis "Chas" Chandler.
Constantine entered into the occult circles of London, and traveled abroad, meeting Zatanna Zatara in San Francisco. He also founded and headlined a punk rock band for a brief period, and preformed as a stage magician for an even shorter time. His first foray into occult heroism involved a tormented girl named Astra, and ended in tragedy as a demon John summoned in an attempt to save her took her to Hell instead. It wasn't until many years later that, through con-artistry, John managed to wrest Astra's soul from that nether realm. The original incident caused a nervous breakdown in Constantine, and he was committed to Ravenscar Psychiatric Hospital - a place he went on to drift in and out of over the years.
Following a convoluted - and trademark tragic - series of events involving London gangsters and a deceased mob-boss's son, Constantine left Ravenscar. He met Swamp Thing, building the foundation of a lifelong friendship and camaraderie. When John was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, he pitted the three most powerful Lords of Hell against each other by promising each of them his soul; playing on their pride, stubbornness and avarice, they were forced to cure him. The First of the Fallen couldn't let this trickery go unpunished, and hatched an elaborate trap. Though John survived, just barely, most of his friends and allies died in the conflict.
Later he returned to Britain and reunited with his older sister, who'd believed him dead. Constantine became embroiled in a magical war in London and discovered his niece, Gemma, had become a witch. This event bled seamlessly into a deeply complicated series of deceptions and power plays by the Lords of Hell that ultimately ended with the souls of John's sister, Cheryl, and brother-in-law, Tony, bound in Hell - all through their association to Constantine. He ended up revisiting Ravenscar again, where the ghosts of his torment coalesced in the form of an infant that was the catalyzed manifestation of all his guilt and self-hatred; John cast the manifestation off a cliff, and was freed from its weight, reverting to his former, cocky, charismatic self.
Constantine was confronted with the soul of his deceased twin brother. He finally understood that it was this soul's doing that had cursed his life - giving him cancer, terminating any attempt at relationships, agency, mental or emotional health in tragedy - to keep John's soul weak, so that they could merge into one soul. Rather than allow this to happen, Constantine carved his brother's lingering soul out of his own, enabling him to finally control his life and live it how he wished without fate actively conspiring against him. John then went on a series of adventures, each as odd and complicated as the last, and ended up finally retrieving his sister's soul from Hell.
Most recently, after an ominous meeting from the Three Fates, Constantine faked his own death and privately severed all ties with any friends or family he still had for their own good. When The Entity resurrected Swamp Thing and it in tern manifested as a violent, murdering avatar of the Green without a human conscience, Constantine - aided by Superman and Batman - ultimately calming the Green at its nerve center.
Subject Interview
For years he'd been stationed in London. It had been his home - Hell, it still technically was in a way. Not that he would claim to be the sentimental type. Others might claim so about him and he might not dispute them in the moment, but it wasn't something he was going to claim himself. He had some pride left, after all.
But there was something about Blüdhaven that drew him in. Perhaps it was simply the right place, right where he needed to be at this point in his life. He'd purchased - okay, rented - a rundown abandoned store in the slums of the city. Soon it would be clean, fixed up, and ready for opening. He was already certain most people who walked into his shop would be suburban white women who found him on Google and thought he could tell him their fortune.
Americans.
He had a single desk in the shop now and would soon have a sign that would declare he was an investigator - specifically one of the supernatural kind. Even before his arrival into the city, he'd gotten requests for work. Most he thought were absolute rubbish and just people seeing ghosts where there weren't any. One had promise - possible demonic promise, but he needed to do some more digging before deciding whether it required his expertise or not.
He lifted his head, looking up from the files he held, dropping them back down onto the dusty desk when someone's knuckles wrapped against the door - a knock echoing throughout the shop. He frowned because he hadn't put up any OPEN sign.
Maybe someone had been squatting here before he'd rented it and were returning? No, unlikely. The place clearly hadn't been broken into anytime recently. He'd checked. And he'd already changed the locks and added some warding to be safe. He didn't think he was paranoid.
He strode over to the door with all intentions to tell whoever was their to shove off. He didn't consider that perhaps this too was part of him being right where he needed to be.
Author's Notes
Player Alias: Kid Flash / Anna
Other Characters: Bart Allen
How did you find ARFD?: Been a member for almost two years.
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