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[h3][color=ed1c24]]John Constantine[/color][/h3]
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[h3]| Origin & Backstory |[/h3][/color]

[color=ed1c24][b]Childhood - 1981 -> 1994[/b][/color]
[i]"When everyone thinks you're crazy, there is only one way out...[/i]

John Constantine was born into a normal household in Liverpool in England. His parents were perfectly normal human beings, his Father Thomas was a teacher at a regular high school. His mum worked in an office, living a dreary nine to five job. John however, something was different about John. He's never found out what it is, despite searching. He always felt different, sometimes he could see things that seemed incredibly coincidental based on his thoughts. Adverts, or posters. They all somehow seemed to relate to something that was going on around him, and then he started seeing other things.

Demons, people would change on front of his very eyes into beings not off this world. They were creatures of two worlds, not full beings of hell sent to plague the people of the Earth. Then there were the angels, the ones sent to watch over us. All of it seemed crazy and he couldn't really understand it all. Naturally when he tried to tell people they believed that he was the crazy one and the craziness wasn't with the world. Nobody understood. So like with most things people didn't understand they locked him away in an asylum. They had him tested, poked, prodded and drugged more often than not. 

The problem is, the more and more people claimed him to be crazy th emore and more he simply looked for a way out. Naturally there was only [i]one[/i] way out.

[color=ed1c24][b]Two minutes of hell - 1994 -> 1994[/b][/color]

What John didn't understand then, is that committing suicide is the ultimate sin. As such his soul was then sent to hell, there was naught but pain and suffering. While he was dead a mere two minutes his rare [i]talent[/i] let him retain the memories of his time in hell. The main thing he could remember doing, was the running. What was considered seconds in the physical world transitioned into hours in the land of hell. Minutes turned into days. He could remember the pain and the suffering that existed in the world.

The next world, identical to our own in every way except burning and in ruin. The fires burned him as the smoke and sulfur burned his longs, despite the fact he was already dead. He ran for hours before he was captured by them. The pain, it was more than a single being could gain an entire lifetime and yet it was never ending. Whenever his body got used to the pain it increased in intensity, occasionally it would stop. If only for a moment, only enough time to let his eyes close in an attempt to sleep and then it would begin anew. Then, just as the second day ended. He was torn out of the grasp of the devil himself and back into the world of the living with a start.

[color=ed1c24][b]New Purpose - 1994 -> 2009[/b][/color]

New purpose was given in his life, he had to find his way in life. There was a way to make a difference in this world, and not only that... maybe he could earn his way into heaven after all this time. He was determined not to return to hell, and the best way he could see to do that was to send the half-breed demons back to where they belonged. It wasn't an easy path however, he knew that before getting into it that it could put his life on the line time and time again and with Lucifer sitting waiting to collect his soul... he needed to be careful. He needed to be prepared, so he traveled to Europe to learn the magical arts.

John then decided to head to head for New York in order to try and learn under one of the greatest mages in the world, Nick Necro. For a time, he was a part of something greater. Part of a team, they worked against several smaller demonic threats and cults in New York in an effort to retain the balance that the devils forces seemed to be concerned about less and less everyday. However the Books of Magic, apparently one of the main sources of magic in our realm of existence, began to become an obsession for Nick. As more time passed the more time Nick was devoting to finding the books and ultimate power. It was this obsession that drove Nicks girlfriend Zatanna away from Nick and towards John. 

However these weren't feelings John felt he could reciprocate, not when he knew that the path he was taking would likely lead him to an early grave and if he wasn't successful... back to hell. That didn't matter to the deranged Nick though, Nick saw it that John stole Zatanna from him and while the books of magic was still his obsession he wasn't above spending some more intimate time in order to get revenge against John. He worked with the Cult of the Cold Flame to try and get John sent to hell. Unfortunately he didn't count on Johns ability to manipulate or his quick wit, who then turned it around. Nick was the one to be sent to hell that day, which was the wedge that drove Zatanna away from him. Just at the moment John felt he could start loving her. 

The conversation came to an end where she declared that while he was determined to doing good in the end he was not a good man... at least not yet, and until then they couldn't be together. It was then that John decided to leave New York, telling Zatanna that he'd return when he could be the man she wanted him to be. Until then, other parts of the US needed his help and he'd be the one to help them. 

Naturally he was at ground zero as Superman made his big debut in Metropolis. More and more super heroes began to appear as he traveled all across the US actually. The idea never really appealed to him, he had power yes but he tended to keep to working with the mystic arts and part of that was keeping the entire existence of the mystic arts secret. The only one he really felt was up to the task was Batman. The rest of them, as far as he was concerned were a bunch of show boaters. They all did an important job though he supposed...

It was certainly an interesting time to be alive.

[color=ed1c24][b]The Thing from the Swamp - 2009->2010[/b][/color]

It turned out in the end that weirdos only attracted more weirdos. Of course John knew that that typically meant something supernatural was going on, at least usually. He started printing cards to hand out to people, after all he may as well make a name for himself. He also tried to make money but most of the time he'd end up completing the job and not taking any payment. Which made it hard to make a living from what he did, but he managed to scrape by. Eventually even accumulating a nice little network of informants who'd keep him in the loop. Some of them were just people who kept their ear to the ground.

Eventually he heard about something in Louisiana. As per usual, it was something that wasn't exactly of this world. Or part of him hoped so, the last thing he wanted to do was to get involved in some super-freaks business. All due respect to the guys but he had no interest in getting involved int heir war on crime. What humans did to eachother was their own business, no. He just wanted to stop the forces of Hell taking over the Earth and making it into the second hell... no big deal really. As per usual, without a mode of transportation a short while later he was sitting in the back of a taxi heading for Louisiana.

It didn't take him long to find the beast, and it took him even less time to discover that this wasn't exactly the dark entity that a lot of his contacts had been talking about. Instead it was a plant elemental, an interesting if not disturbing concept. The whole idea that such a being had chosen now to make itself known was the disturbing thing. Allowing the Swamp Thing to access the force called [i]The Green[/i] it and Constantine tracked down a cult of vampires inside of Illinois. Feeling that there was some even greater threat at work, Constantine sent the Swamp Thing in to deal with the Vampires on it's own. 

Besides, what super strong plant controlling entity really needed him for backup anyway? Probably not that one. After a time researching the coming darkness Constantine returned to Illinois. He found the Vampire cult gone however he only found one trace of the Swamp Thing. A note. The how of how the Swamp Thing was able to write a note still remains a mystery to this day. However it was merely a note for Constantine, to let him know that in terms of the growing threats the two of them couldn't face it alone and as such the Swamp Thing was going to try and find help.

That sounded too much like a super hero team up for Constantines liking, he hated the idea.

[color=ed1c24]
[b]The Cult of Steel - 2010 -> 2015[/b]
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John always felt there were two levels of crazy. There was crazy to the point of living a completely dreary normal life and then there was the crazy of making a cult in order to worship a Superhero including sacrifices to try to somehow appease him or make him more powerful. There's not a whole lot of in between, though not all of them performed ritualistic sacrifices he would give them that. A lot of the time it wouldn't even be the heroes fault, but instead some demon taking advantage of their popularity.

The same reason some famous people have a drastic shift in personality for no reason, that's not them performing a publicity stunt. That's them coming under the forces of a hell-beast. Or in some rare cases them being released from the control of a hell-beast. Of course Superheros got a lot more recognition than a mere celebrity, and there were always the conflicting opinions and tensions to play on. 

For the next [i]five-freaking-years[/i] he spent time cleaning up after the actions of the heroes. While he would sometimes be called to perform the occasional exorcism - he wasn't above the dirty work after all. He wasn't like the big hotshots who would swoop in, save the day then leave the dirty work for the little guy. Though most of his time was devoted to something dark going on in the underworld. Something was taking advantage of all the pain caused in the attacks, playing on the emotions of the general populace. Their anger and their fear. He'd spend days in a single city trying to banish hell-beasts back to where they came from when something big went down.

Then it would be off to the next crisis. What he wasn't expecting was, what was up to this point. [i]The crisis.[/i]

[color=ed1c24][b]"Trenchcoat Brigade"- Late 2015 -> Present[/b][/color]

Turns out Swamp-Thing went and actually made his own team. A group of people who worked in the dark, unlike the Justice League themselves who worked in the light of day (With the exception of Batman) and with a lot of fanfare (Batman doesn't get exempt from this). Apparently whatever was going down, had demons all over the country (and likely beyond) riled up. Something big was going down, and everyone wanted in on the action. 

Constantine, against his better judgement, decided to go with what he tried to name the [i]Trenchcoat Brigade[/i] (Unsuccessfully) and as his mum always said. If you want honey you follow the bees, naturally it was a good way to get stung and with the fact that bees was being replaced with "Demons" and "Honey" was being replaced with "Catastrophic event that had all clairvoyants in the US fearing for the safety of metropolis"... it was a good way to end up dead. Though he agreed with Swamp Thing. If the world was going to get turned on it's head, if the balance was going to be disrupted... best they be in the middle of it to try and keep things straight. The last thing they needed was for some catastrophic event to go down for people to then discover that Heaven and Hell were real and that oh look, hell-beasts are taking over the Earth.

No, far better he team up. At least temporarily. What happened, well. He doubted any clairvoyant in their right mind, not that many of them were in their right minds, could have predicted Doomsday. The name was a little pomp for his liking as soon as he heard the name on the media. Though he wasn't going to argue, everyone had said the scales would become unbalanced. He never felt that that meant that [i]Superman[/i] was going to be killed. Sure he felt that the caped hero was a bit of an arrogant and self righteous douche bag but... he was still the definition of the word hero. No, the scales had been tipped and then flipped on their side.

He didn't participate in the battle against Doomsday. No, what he did was work with civilians. He helped in the evacuation and saw to it that nothing took advantage of the chaos...

[color=ed1c24][h3]| Attributes |[/h3][/color]
[i]Powers/Skills listed are current, and may be expanded upon if he learns more.[/i]

[list]
[*][b]Exorcist:[/b] Simple to define, Constantine is able to forces spirits (typically evil spirits) to leave a host body against their will. The difficulty of this naturally depends on the demon.
[*][b]Magic Circles/Emblems:[/b] Constantine is well versed in the creation of magical circles or emblems in order to create specific seals. Typically either to protect a location/person or to trap a demon. These can also be used to reveal a demons true form or if complex enough can interact with the normal physical plain of existence. 
[*][b]Magic:[/b] While he doesn't often use it, Constantine does have access to magic which can perform a wide array of defensive/offensive abilities. However most of them he struggles with, the only magic spell that he typically uses is the ability to conjure flame in his hands which he can then use as a heat source, light source or a weapon. Anything else is substantially more complex.
[*][b]Hand to Hand Combat:[/b] You'd be surprised how often dealing with the mystic and spiritual how often it comes down to punching someone or something in the face. As such he is quite proficient at fighting. While he is considered a "Dirty fighter" as long as it gets the job done, he doesn't really care.
[*][b]Possession Resistance:[/b] Thanks to his studies he himself can resist psychic attacks and possession. He can even use sigils to make his presence from the world disappear altogether, at least for a period of time.
[*][b]Well Known:[/b] He's got a few friends, here and there.
[*][b]Stage Magic:[/b] Yeah, he can dazzle an audience.
[*][b]Arcane Knowledge:[/b] He might not be able to [i]do[/i] a lot of magic. Though he sure as hell knows it when he sees it.
[/list]


[color=ed1c24][h3]| Character Notes |[/h3][/color]

[b]Allies:[/b]

Oh, there's quite a few...

[b]Enemies:[/b]

Lucifer, The Devil, Satan himself. There aren't many others who are legitimantly in his "Bad" books.

[color=ed1c24]
[h3]| Character Goals |[/h3][/color]
I'm learning more about him all the time, and I love the mystical element of DC. So really I'm just looking forward to exploring that, introducing villains in the same area of the mythos just to spice things up. It's also going to be interesting interacting with any other heroes... especially if they've never dealt with anything like this before.

[color=ed1c24][h3]| Sample Post |[/h3][/color]

[color=ed1c24]"I'm telling you mate, it's not going to happen. Simple as that."[/color] John rested his head back while the Taxi sat in a carpark out of the centre of metropolis. Sure shit was till going tits up but he needed his rest the same as everyone else. Would be easier if the rest of his so called [i]team[/i] had decided not to go AWOL on him. At least he still had Chas, he wasn't really in the market for a new taxi driver. After all it was such a personal experience. 

"I'm sure the big guy has earned his way into heaven. I mean not two days ago he died protecting the city from an evil rampaging monster. Pretty sure discounting all the other good he's done that more or less grants him entry." John just sighed as he sat up, facing the ever stubborn bastard that was probably the best friend he had ever had. He wasn't wrong, under normal circumstances that would have been enough to earn a glowing recommendation to the palace upstairs. Sadly these weren't normal circumstances.

[colored1c24]"I'll let you have it Chas, self sacrifice probably is one of the better ways to get in. Not to mentiona ll the other shit he's done over the years. You're forgetting one crucial thing though."[/color] He sighed as he just got a blank stare straight back. [color=ed1c24]"Superman wasn't human he was... kryptomanian or something like that."[/color]

"Kryptonian."

[color=ed1c24]"Whatever, the point is for whatever reason Earth is the center of all these Heaven, Hell and Earth Shennanigans. The even bigger guy upstairs doesn't really seem to care about anything out there or from out there, angels get pretty jealous about the fact that we seem to be his favourites. Sorry Chas, he died a hero but-"[/color] John just shrugged. [color=ed1c24]"-His fate is in the hands of whatever Kryptonian god exists, if there is one."[/color]

"I just don't like it, look at what all he did for us-"

[color=ed1c24"What? Fly around in a cape and cause trouble. We have plenty of people that can do that."[/color] John couldn't help but wince at the glare he got from that remark. [color=ed1c24]"Sorry Chas, maybe God'll grant an exception. Who knows? I mean if there's hope for me there's bound to be some hope for Superman. At least you'd bloody well hope so. I mean if I got a second chance at life you'd think so at least, wouldn't you?[/color]

Chas just sighed. "Sorry, I know you just want to sleep. It's been a busy couple of days-"

[color=ed1c24]"With a few more to come probably."[/color]

"The point is, I guess there isn't one. It's just a shock, y'know?"

John nodded his head. [color=ed1c24]"Yeah, I know. In the end he did his job, so grab some shuteye so we can do ours. Hopefully we can clean up this mess before something decides to use Supermans death as an opportunity to cause havoc."[/color] Truth be told, something already wasn't right. He could feel it in his bones, gonads and just about every other part of him that he could feel something in. Whatever had happened here, well. The scales were tipped and something had to be done quickly before the balance was gone forever. Quite obviously the one time he felt like he could [i]really[/i] use help was the one time almost everyone willing to help him disappeared off the face of the Earth.

He just hoped they were still alive. 

"Yeah, I guess you're right John."

[color=ed1c24]"Tell you what Chas, we'll go to the funeral. Pay our respects and see if any of gods messangers are there. I mean don't get me wrong, I'd rather avoid them as they're just a right pain in the arse but..." [/color]John sighed, as he couldn't believe he was saying this. [color=ed1c24]"Superman deserves to go to rest properly. Now close your bloody eyes and go to sleep before I knock you out. You'll do no good as a taxi driver if you can't keep your eyes open."[/color]