Penance Appl
May. 1st, 2019 02:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hellboundheartOOC Info
Name:Rob
Age: 18+
Contact:
Current Characters:None
IC Info
Name: John Constantine- (AKA The Laughing Magician, Hellblazer, That Bastard, John Fucking Constantine, Street Wizard, World's Greatest Conman)
Canon: Constantine (tv series). He didn't live long enough to become a Legend. Small note here, when the tv canon doesn't explain significant events since it was cancelled after the first season, I try to fall back on comics. At least then there's a source someone can check. Often, these are small points such as the full scope of the Newcastle incident where the series is set to follow the comic including introducing Judith in unaired episode fourteen. While the episode 'Final Girl' didn't air, the script is available online.
Age: 34
Appearance: Constantine is about the most unremarkable person one can meet. Being six foot tall and blond is only eye-catching if one isn't wearing a tan trenchcoat, black pants and a white shirt with a sloppy pulled down tie. And smoking. Constantly. Shaving is something he does when he thinks about it so scruffy applies most of the time. Beneath his clothing, tattoos cover most of his skin in different occult symbols and spells. Was supposed to help keep him out of Hell. Yep. Absolutely demanding a refund. This is twice now!
Canon Point: post Final Girl, season 1, episode 14 (unaired) and his appearances on Arrow.
Background: Here at the regular wiki and here at the Hellblazer wiki.
CRAU:
+ Dead - He got hit by a sweet little old lady on her way to church who mistook the gas pedal for the brake when he was on a cigarette run. He will still deny his smoking habit killed him in the end. Horribly bloody and probably gave her a heart attack going out. Two for one deal.
+ Demon - John is from another hellscape game where he was a Retrival Intern/Specialist (went up topside to get demons that had escaped Hell's grip) and Head Librarian (meaning he managed the local written word porn palace). He also ran his own store called 'Hellblazer' when he took advantage of Hell's sprawling out. It was basically an excuse for him to sit on the porch and drink... while running an illegal smuggling of human goods operation.
+ Tattoos - These are a comic touch that he got.
+ Eyes - His eyes change colour when he wants or emotional.
+ Fingernails - lengthened and terminating in a point.
Out of all of these, being a demon is his biggest difference from his canon counterpart. In canon, John fights the forces of Hell (and sometimes Heaven) with everything he has. Regular people cannot deal with the things he seems to take in as everyday. This is the world, his world, and that's just how it is. He laughs, makes jokes that are sometimes cruel and demands everyone go the same unforgiving speed he does. He gives no quarter and doesn't ask for any. Sometimes, such as when he could use help, that harms him more than helps. Better he does what he can himself and takes the consequences than involve others. Then everything is under his control. Then there isn't anymore blood on his hands than there has to be.
Long ago, in a conversation with some entity that may or may not have been god, John laid out a possible future to him.
And then this version of him died and did go to Hell. For two years, he's waited. Only 498 more to go. He's a man of his word, after all.
Personality:
The easiest way to describe John, and the way that most people who've met him would describe him, is 'bastard'. For the record, John's parents were married when he was born.
To the casual viewer, John walks through life without so much as taking a scratch from all the unthinkable things going on around him. Regular people cannot deal with the things he seems to take in as everyday. This is the world, his world, and that's just how it is. He laughs, makes jokes that are sometimes cruel and demands everyone go the same unforgiving speed he does. He gives no quarter and doesn't ask for any. Sometimes, such as when he could use help, that harms him more than helps. Better he does what he can himself and takes the consequences than involve others. Then everything is under his control. Then there isn't anymore blood on his hands than there has to be.
Appearances can be deceiving though. After the Newcastle incident, John checked himself into a secure mental asylum. There he underwent shock and drug therapies as well as counseling, demanding that the doctors make him believe that there hadn't been a demon that dragged an innocent girl's soul to hell for eternity because of his mistake. He walked away from it when he got a message via a possessed fellow patient that he needed to fulfill a promise he made to a dead friend. By no means was he the only one who walked away from Newcastle without his scars. He just hides his better. It's an ongoing theme in Constantine's life that only a few like Ritchie and Chas see through.
John has few problems spinning a good story instead of the truth, especially if he can lead someone down the wrong road to his advantage. This includes those close to him. Constantine more than once manipulates them through events to get the outcome he wants even to the point of blackmail. While the end result is usually for the greater good, his friends or allies often do end up dead. The few that live don't want anything further to do with John Constantine. When encountered by John and Zed, they often advise her to go in the opposite of what ever direction John goes. Yet, she doesn't. None of them do until it's too late. There's just something about him that keeps a person close until they're burnt and learn better. But no one gets out of John Constantine's orbit without damage of some sort. His friends are all dead for that reason.
Morals are something John has a passing knowledge of and completely ignores. Given the nature of his work, he's often forced into a position where he has to use an innocent as bait to draw out something terrible. At one point, he threatens to drown a newborn baby to force one of the Sisters of Eve to tell him what he wants to know. No one is safe when he's in the zone and events are falling into place.
When life's problems are described by others, Constantine often suggests a lot of alcohol as the cure. For him, that seems to be what works. More often than not, he's seen with a drink of some sort in hand. While drunk off his arse, he performs the blessing on Chas that give him the lives of others who die in a fire that night, a ritual that had been created by Merlin himself for King Arthur's knights. While John is often shown drinking, he's rarely drunk. Those moments are reserved for when he's along or has talked someone into going to bed with him. He drinks to forget and blur those memories that would have him thinking of destroying himself. To stop seeing the crowd of ghosts of those he's killed or gotten killed crowding around him. At least in a physical instead of magical reaction, he's only destroying himself.
Rule breaking? Few are better at it than John Constantine. Anything he does, one should keep in mind that one is his persistent nicknames is 'Conman' or 'The Greatest Conman That Has Ever Lived'. Even being damned is something that John always plans to fight in the long run. Magic is a complicated thing, and he believes he might be able to get out from under that curse in the end. Save Astra. Live happily ever after. Something. One thing John never disbelieves in is himself and his abilities. That's why people follow this scruffy ex-drummer for a punk rock band in his trenchcoat and with a chain-smoking habit. Even those that hate him will go where he leads or manipulates them into going. That belief in himself is John's blessing and curse. It makes him arrogant and convinces others. People follow power or what they perceive as such.
The reason John got into magic was to make contact with his mother. She had died giving birth to him, and his father had blamed him for it every night after. The nickname 'Killer' came from dear old dad who didn't mind beating on his son when he came home drunk. Given that he was a cop, one of 'London's Finest' as John puts it might explain some of his willingness to stand against authority or call those in charge out when he thinks they're wrong. It also drives him to keep trying, learning, growing stronger in his abilities. Yet he turns down the opportunity to talk to his mother later, saving the world outweighing the want.
When it comes to himself, John never denies the things people say about him. He's called a liar, a murderer, a bastard and just about everything else that network tv could be claimed. While he might show flashes of anger such as when Manny is downgrading his abilities, he doesn't say they're wrong. They're not. He is all of those things and more. He's also furious that Heaven is standing aside and letting this happen, taking only the action of pushing it on him by Manny along with the carrot on a stick. He hates every single second that Astra's soul stays in tormented in Hell because of the mistake he made and that nothing else 'holy' or 'good' will help her. There is always in him that sick knowledge that Heaven doesn't give a damn and that Hell is always hungry. With the Rising Darkness, no one else is stepping up to stop it when the demons are breaking all the rules.
In the end, John is a man of more contradictions than similarities. It doesn't make it easy for the people around him, but what is? He can be a good man or a cruel man, can be the accidental hero or a coldly ruthless murderer. He'll make a joke and walk away no matter what has happened.
Weaknesses/Temptations: Whisper to John the right way, and he'd be way off the path. He's already a demon, been in hell for two years. Being dead and knowing his human living self is about leave him more than a little bitter. Where he was before, humans didn't exist. Angels and other demons he got. The living? Not so much. He tries to hide his jealousy, but there is a warmth and vitality only the living possess. Unlike most, there is no desire in John to enjoy the redemption that Penance might offer. He is well set at this point on fulfilling his promise. All those that he cared for have gone away, leaving him in this alien place alone with his human self.
Sins: Give us a list of sins your character will be entering the game with. There is a minimum of three.
From LH:
Drug Abuse Violation - Marijuana
Driving a Velociraptor while Intoxicated
Property Crime - Theft in Little Eden
Property Crime - Arson of a home in Little Eden and another business in Hades
Assault - bar fight
Obstruction of Justice - hypnotized two officers into doing ballet because they interrupted him
Disorderly Conduct - urinated on a building
Violent Crime - kidnapping and restraint in a 'demon bottle'
Public Drunkenness
Copyright infringement of pornographic materials
Aggravated Assault - kidnapping and restrain in a demon bottle
Burglary - pickpocketing
Vandalism in Little Eden
Threatening an official/police officer
Fraud - Claimed to be a police officer
Weapons Violation - Carrying and making demon bottles
Robbery - Little Eden
Stolen property - buying, receiving, possession, smuggling
Forgery and counterfeiting
(Little Eden was where the angel population lived)
For Penance:
pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and sloth - all seven big ones. A million other little ones could follow as outlined above. John cares little for authority or things he's not supposed to be up to.
Powers/Abilities:
- Knowledge of the occult. Despite most people who need his help not wanting it or knowing they need it, John's ability to know what he's looking at or interpret signs is second to none. This is limited to the DC universe though.
- Detective. This does go hand in hand with his occult knowledge.
- Exorcist. What it says on the tin. And his business cards. He never did get new ones made.
- Disguising/Illusion/Casting illusions. John makes another person look like him, fooling even Papa Midnite into thinking it is him. Most of his tricks are small, getting someone to look past him instead of at him and the like. Helpful if he's out stealing from someone. Does not work against someone with True Sight such as an SPN angel or demon since they see the true faces of other angels/demons.
- Wards/Sigils - He uses his circles with simple or complex patterns to contain a demon or call one up. This does take preparation and not something usually done on the fly. Even when John uses such a circle in 'Blessed Are The Damned', it takes him a few minutes to draw a simple circle and accompanying sigils in the mud. Had something been attacking him right then, it would have been a quick contest that he would have lost.
- Resurrection/Soul Retrieval/Necromancy - John can raise the dead and bring back souls from death. Whole lotta good that power is here.
- Hypnosis - Methods of this vary from distracting a person with a trinket, a picture or just speaking words. Opt out post always available.
- Fire - We have a winner for most useless ability in Hell. Ever. Oh look, everything is more on fire now! Due to being a demon, no longer able to do the fancy woohoo holy fire thing.
- Conman - For all the magic things John can do, it's his conman abilities that serve him best. Fast talk and bluffing are a way of life for him. Except for his closest circle or people he's helped out, most people don't know John can even do magic beyond sleight of hand or card tricks easily dismissed.
On another note, John is not a good fighter. He's more of a pub down and dirty fistfighter, but a ninja would throw him around like a ragdoll.
Items: Characters will be allowed up to six personal items in game, not including whatever clothes they're wearing. All items must be able to fit in a duffel bag. The only thing they won't be allowed are pets from home.
+ Fluffy white rabbit stuffed animal - In LH, this was Mange, his cursing/talking grumpy white rabbit. Flipping over to here, Mange is now a toy.
+ Endless pack of Silk Cuts - It was Hell, he needed cigarettes, and people were getting suspicious of his smuggling from the topside activities.
+ Comm device from LH. It plays Flappy Snakes. That's it.
+ Roll of ordinary gray duct tape.
+ Lucky gold lighter or maybe not so lucky since he's dead and all.
+ Box of 250 paperclips to feed his mildly sentient trenchcoat. Only one a day with a dash of whisky.
SAMPLES
Network: Penance - Never been happier John texted Lucifer...
Had to get in the wayback machine for this one
I hate using LH but all John's other network stuff is TFLN
Log:
When memory loss struck LH and John forgot he was a demon
There was this one time he got arrested
Penance TDM
