Multiversal: application

[nastypieceofwork]

In-Character Information
Character Name: John Constantine
Username: nastypieceofwork
Fandom: John Constantine: Hellblazer
Played By: Paul Bettany

Canon Character Section (disregard if applying for an original character)

Physical Description: John Constantine is 46 years old, though he looks a bit younger (hooray demon blood!). He's six feet tall and has blonde hair and blue eyes, sharp features, and a slender build. He's not an imposing man physically, but he has presence, an air of confidence bordering on cockiness. He dresses reasonably well, suits under a slightly ratty trenchcoat, and is very frequently smoking.

Sexuality: John is bisexual. He has numerous girlfriends and female lovers in canon and also mentions past boyfriends; in a later point in canon than I've taken him from he has a long-term affair with another man. Most of his sexual involvements are short-term flings or one-night stands, momentary indulgences of excitement rather than deeper connections. He's a hedonist, and he sees nothing wrong with indulging desire or attraction between two (or more) consenting adults. He's very forward about his interests and intentions, frank about what he wants and unafraid to pursue it.

But he can and does have deeper, more committed relationships. If he falls for someone, he tends to fall hard and fast, and to have a hard time giving it up when things (inevitably) go wrong. One breakup left him so depressed and devastated he let his life fall to ruins and he wound up homeless for a while. And his feelings for people tend to linger; at the canon point from which I pulled him he's just gotten done tormenting a rival mage to death after the man killed one of Constantine's ex-girlfriends from a while back.

He doesn’t go seeking connections with people; they sort of happen to him. But he's willing to exploit an opportunity for sex, and to entertain the idea of something deeper should he feel it. He's sometimes wary of deeper connections, though, and not just romantically, because many of the people close to him, friends and lovers, have wound up dead or somehow hurt through their connection to him.

History: TW: suggestions of child sexual abuse, mentions of institutionalization and medical abuse.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Constantine#Fictional_character_biography ; but only up to the part right before the heading "The new millennium". I picked this canon point because while he's gotten up to some shit up to this point, he hasn't gone as entirely off the rails as he has in recent canon; also, he still has a lot of connections in his life such as family and friends, and therefore, more to motivate him to want to get out of Baedal, and more to lose.

Powers: Synchronicity wave sensitivity/harnessing (excellent luck, especially in gambling; a gift for being in the right place at the right time). And his blood is demonically tainted, which has slowed his aging and upped his healing factor/resistance to illness and injury--he's stronger and more energetic for his age and bounces back faster than you'd expect, but he's not invulnerable.

Talents/Abilities:: Powerful magician, occultist, paranormal investigator of sorts, strong negotiator (to the point of being a manipulator), con man.

Personality: JOHN CONSTANTINE IS FROM THE UK AND IS ALSO A HO.

John Constantine is a box of dicks. He is such an enormous box of dicks you can only get him at Costco. Look, he buried his childhood innocence and vulnerability in the ground so he wouldn't have to worry about them anymore, put a nasty curse on his father that made him waste away and almost die, routinely gets his friends and lovers—you know, the people he likes--mixed up in his schemes and ruined or killed, and he sees to it people who need to die have awful, drawn-out deaths. He once pitted the lords of hell against each other, selling his soul a couple times over just to fuck with them. Dude even strangled his own twin in the womb. He's a bastard through and through, a self-described "nasty piece of work."

He's an adrenaline junkie, and hits of weird or dark circumstances best satisfy his cravings. And the higher the stakes the better—this is why he prefers to resort to manipulation, to conning, to scheming, when he could easily fall back on magic in so many situations. He gets off on the feeling of power and control, on winning by his wits and words over magic, which he goes to as a last resort or a necessity and not an immediate tactic. He's a hedonist, a lover of pleasure, shameless about his pursuits of indulgence without much thought for long-term consequences. He smokes like a chimney, is a hardcore cynic who never met a curse word he didn't like, and he can be a condescending and demanding pain in the ass.

He holds grudges and goes out of his way to get back at people who have wronged him, or wronged the people he cares about. And he will save his ass by any means necessary. When he couldn't deliver the resurrected son a gangster demanded of him on pain of his life, he instead re-animated the boy's corpse with a demon. He once stood by and let an evil force consume an old friend of his.

So he's a self-serving self-indulgent dickhead who can't get over slights and is shameless about going after things that make him feel good. He's a bastard, but he's not rotten to the core. He's a humanist, and he believes in the intrinsic worth of the human race as a whole and of individual people (even if some of them really, really infuriate him). He's compassionate (even if he sometimes goes out of his way not to show it), unwilling to let innocent people get caught up in dangerous situations or be victimized by things or people with more power than they have. He'll always go to bat for children, and for his sister and niece, both of whom he's close to (even if he finds his brother-in-law a useless prat). If he knew a friend was in trouble he might… try… to help? But his kind of help is usually more trouble than it's worth. And honestly, what seems to happen more often than not is he learns a friend or old flame is dead, and he goes for vengeance instead.

He can and does love deeply. Aside from his sister and his niece, he has had several girlfriends he was very much in love with. And he's a loyal friend in his own way. He makes friends easily wherever he goes, because he draws people in—despite being a frequent total dick he's a very charming man. So he has a wide circle of acquaintances, contacts, friends, and lovers all over.

He's a powerful and knowledgeable magician, one who has extensively studied the occult arts, and whose family throughout the ages has occult power and connections. He frequently is called upon or puts himself to use as an occult investigator, which lets him indulge both his thirst for challenge and excitement and his interest in helping those who might be in over their heads.

Object: The metal box in which he buried his childhood innocence and vulnerability, SURPRISE, ASSHOLE 8) He will of course go rebury this shit at once, but this could possibly be used for awesome plotting someday.

Reason for playing: I love this dickhead a lot.

Also I want to keep branching out from my usual complement of straight-up heroes and do-gooders; John's decent enough when he wants to be but he's not the selfless, purely altruistic hero that Jim, Steve, or even Dean are. I think his background in the occult is a good fit for the game, as is his scheming bastardry, and his addiction to adventure and seeking out weirdness and trouble will keep him busy in a game like this. And I wanted more characters who would get out there and poke at the city's mysteries; Sherlock Holmes will go at them rationally and logically but John Constantine will get into the more esoteric side of things.

I'd like John to also set up as an occult investigator. I don't think he'd go work for Hellsing because both sides of that equation would recoil from the prospect, let's be real. But he wouldn't be averse to sharing information or consulting from time to time, and he can go out and make more trouble than a Hellsing operative can.

Gods: Rundas. She's always laughing; John's known as The Laughing Magician. She meets all her needs through chance; he relies on chance, good fortune, and the synchronicity wave to save his ass or see him through things fairly often. He's a gambler and a traveler, and so much in his life, good and bad, has come about due to chance or being in the right/wrong place at the right/wrong time. Yes, he's a magician, but he gambles on things and schemes and tries to solve problems through manipulation rather than going straight for magic, and so he needs good fortune on his side.


Writing Samples


First-Person Network Post:

The situation, cohort comrades, has become dire indeed.

[No pleasantries, no preamble, just John Constantine.]

The supply of smokes I had on me when I got here is dwindling down to nothing. I need to know where to get decent ones, lots of them, quickly and easily. Help a bloke out, and all—it's a nasty sight when I'm forced to do without.

[And there he goes, lighting one up as he speaks!]

Yeah, and spare me the lectures about my filthy habit, I'm a filthy man.


Third-Person Arrival Post:

"Bloody pocket universes."

John Constantine is beyond annoyed. He had things to do, places to be, and now he's in this bloody green room without so much as a by-your-leave.

And that box on the table to his left—that is not even remotely funny.

He's read the pamphlet, gathers this is real and not some hallucination. It doesn't feel like one. The pamphlet is obvious propaganda; the next step is to get out of this room and see how much of what's outside matches up.

He'll get out.

In good time.

He smokes two cigarettes, sitting quietly, centering himself and putting out feelers for potential and possibility. There's a brief shift, about the time he finishes that second smoke; he gets to his feet, quickly pocketing the… whatever it is, the communication device, and slipping that infernal box under his arm.

He moves to the door… yes, now, it's the right time. Tap-tap-tap go his knuckles against the wood. "Beg your pardon, anyone out there? Mind opening the door?"

There's a long, quiet moment, just long enough for him to consider the possibility that he was wrong—but only to consider it, because the lock turns over audibly, and the door cracks open, revealing a young woman on the other side. An employee, based on her dress.

He puts on his brightest, most rakishly charming grin. "Ta, luv. How absolutely fortunate for me, eh?"


Third-Person Action Post: http://badsuns.dreamwidth.org/409.html?thread=1177#cmt1177
http://beyondtherift.livejournal.com/550125.html?thread=25672429#t25672429
http://beyondtherift.livejournal.com/556430.html?thread=26215054#t26215054
http://terminal313.dreamwidth.org/291.html?thread=12323#cmt12323