[center][b][color=000000]VOLUME ONE: ORIGINAL SIN[/COLOR][/B][/CENTER]

[INDENT][COLOR=SLATEGRAY][CENTER][center][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/0199a223-f589-7609-94ed-37709394b859.webp[/img][/center][/CENTER][table][row][/row][row][cell][center][sub][sup][sub][h3][b][color=black] C H A R A C T E R   P O R T R A I T[/color]
[color=lightgray]C H A R A C T E R   P O R T R A I T[/color] [/b][/h3][/sub][/sup][/sub][sup]_________________________________________________________[/sup][img]https://64.media.tumblr.com/6d65d22bbfc7d5db788dac452725ed43/e03b8a4204324b56-50/s2048x3072/0ee0d0c612dafa057a141ed654258eecdc82f66e.pnj[/img]
[sup]_________________________________________________________[/sup][sub][sup][sub][h3][b][color=black] C H A R A C T E R   S U M M A R Y[/color]
[color=lightgray]C H A R A C T E R   S U M M A R Y[/color][/b][/h3][/sub][/sup][/sub][sup]_________________________________________________________[/sup]
[sub][COLOR=darkgray]John Thomas Constantine[/COLOR]
[sup]_________________________________________________________[/sup] 
[COLOR=darkgray]19[/COLOR]   [b]|[/b]   [COLOR=darkgray]Single[/COLOR]
[sup]_________________________________________________________[/sup]
[COLOR=darkgray]Independent[/COLOR]   [b]|[/b]   [COLOR=darkgray]English[/COLOR][/sub][/center]
[indent]
[sub][sup][sub][h3][b][color=black] A L L I E S   &   A N T A G O N I S T S[/color]
[color=lightgray]A L L I E S   &   A N T A G O N I S T S[/color][/b][/h3][/sub][/sup][/sub][/INDENT][sup]_________________________________________________________[/sup]
[INDENT][hider=][color=#2e2c2c]-[/color]
[indent][sub][b][color=lightgray]   A L L I E S [/color][/b][/sub]
[sup]▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
[COLOR=DARKGRAY][color=lightgray][b]◼ FRANCIS 'CHAS' CHANDLER[/b][/color] - Best Friend
[color=lightgray][b]◼ CHERYL CONSTANTINE[/b][/color] - Sister
[color=lightgray][b]◼ GARY LESTER[/b][/color] - Friend (Deceased)
[/color][/sup]
[sub][b][color=lightgray]   A N T A G O N I S T S[/color][/b][/sub]
[sup]▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
[COLOR=DARKGRAY][color=lightgray][b]◼ THOMAS CONSTANTINE[/b][/color] - Father
[color=lightgray][b]◼ THE LAUGHING MAGICIANS[/b][/color] - Ancestral Constantines
[color=lightgray][b]◼ JACOB CONSTANTINE[/b][/color] - Stillborn Brother
[color=lightgray][b]◼ NERGLE[/b][/color] - Demon
[color=lightgray][b]◼ BEVERLY 'BEAVER' HUGHES[/b][/color] - Drug Dealer
[/color][/sup]
[color=#2e2c2c]-[/color][/indent][/hider][color=#2e2c2c]-[/color]
[sub][sup][sub][h3][b][color=black] P O S T   C A T A L O G U E[/color]
[color=lightgray]P O S T   C A T A L O G U E[/color][/b][/h3][/sub][/sup][/sub][/INDENT][sup]_________________________________________________________[/sup]
[INDENT][color=lightgray][b]1.01 -[/b] [URL=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5638680][COLOR=DARKGRAY][i]Malice Aforethought[/i][/COLOR][/URL]
[b]1.02 -[/b] [URL=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5638682][COLOR=DARKGRAY][i]According to Some[/i][/COLOR][/URL]
[b]1.03 -[/b] [URL=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5638683][COLOR=DARKGRAY][i]Radical Notions[/i][/COLOR][/URL]
[b]1.04 -[/b] [URL=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5638684][COLOR=DARKGRAY][i]Youth Today[/i][/COLOR][/URL]
[b]1.05 -[/b] [URL=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5638685][COLOR=DARKGRAY][i]Lifelong Friends[/i][/COLOR][/URL]
[b]1.06 -[/b] [URL=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5638687][COLOR=DARKGRAY][i]If Anyone Asks[/i][/COLOR][/URL]
[b]1.07 -[/b] [URL=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5638688][COLOR=DARKGRAY][i]Valuable Lesson[/i][/COLOR][/URL]
[b]1.08 -[/b] [URL=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5638689][COLOR=DARKGRAY][i]Eager to Die[/i][/color][/url]
[b]1.09 -[/b] [URL=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5638691][COLOR=DARKGRAY][i]Salt the Earth[/i][/color][/url]
[b]1.10 -[/b] [URL=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5638692][COLOR=DARKGRAY][i].[/i][/color][/url]
[/COLOR][/INDENT][/cell][cell][INDENT][sub][sup][sub][h3][b][color=black] T H E   S T O R Y   S O   F A R...[/color]
[color=lightgray]T H E   S T O R Y   S O   F A R...[/color][/b][/h3][/sub][/sup][/sub][/INDENT][sup]__________________________________________________________________________________[/sup]
[COLOR=DARKGRAY][indent]John was born May 10th 2006 to Mary-Anne Constantine and Thomas Constantine, alongside his stillborn twin brother, Jacob. Mary-Anne died during the birth, and Thomas, now a widower with a dead son, never forgave John. John wouldn't understand his father's hatred - but Cheryl, his older sister, would, and did her utmost to shield him from what she could all her life.

For seventeen years, the bond between Cheryl and John would form an impenetrable barrier against Thomas' hate, a bubble of compassion and love to retreat into no matter what baseless punishment their father meted out; a bubble made only stronger by the addition of Gary Lester and Francis Kramer to their alternative family. The four formed a powerful union of friendship, each individual guided and guarded by the other three, pursuing interests both independently and collectively, treading the new and old that surrounded them. The darker aspects of art, Punk and Emo, Horror and the Occult, let them explore the darkness of their own lives in measured, controlled environments, binding them with a common pursuit. In each other they found safe harbour. 

Until Cheryl disappeared. 

The absence of one splintered those remaning. Gary turned to vice, pushing his mind to oblivion rather than suffer the hole; Francis fled to London, abandoning memories now turning sour; John found his psyche fracturing completely, growing obssessive and fevered, now subject to Thomas without shelter. When the investigation stalled, and then closed, John threw himself from the Ethelfleda Bridge, and after being fished from the Mersey River, was sectioned to Ravenscar Psychiatric Hospital.

Two years later and nineteen years old, John has been remanded from Ravenscar to temporary residency. Cheryl is still gone, and John is still haunted by her absence. Thomas is to the wind, absconded from the family he had grown to hate so much. His old and only friends are scattered, burying their pain in the intervening years. But fresh spectres are beginning to re-open old wounds; will John lose what little fragile mind he has left entirely? Or will he strive to finally put old ghosts to rest?
[/indent][/COLOR]
[INDENT][sub][sup][sub][h3][b][color=black] P L O T ( S )   &   G O A L ( S )[/color]
[color=lightgray]P L O T ( S )   &   G O A L ( S )[/color][/b][/h3][/sub][/sup][/sub][/INDENT][sup]___________________________________________________________________________________[/sup]
[COLOR=DARKGRAY][INDENT]My drive behind bringing John back into the mix is to rekindle my drive for writing in general. After a long period of struggle and burnout at work I now find myself facing into a lot of free time, and to that end I want to re-discover my passions and hobbies, and begin a slow-but-steady road back to some manner of happiness. Please understand my character submission is predicated on a real possibility that I will not be able to immediately overcome these barriers.

This story for Constantine is, I think, one of my best; mapped out from start to finish with (I feel) a strong narrative and a core thread of emotion, it brings a humanist side to John that I think in recent years has been lost behind the Liverpool con-man bravado and the occultist flash-magic. John Constantine is a man with sadness and heartbreak at his core, and I think the idea of him as a wretched, pitiable figure who'd rather just have a normal life but is inexorably forced - one way or another - to face into tragedy after tragedy is one left by the wayside in many incarnations and appearances. 

The use of the [i]Absolute[/i] ident is no accident or embellishment, either; the central principle of DC's new run is to retain the core traits and pillars of the characters while stripping away something previously thought vital: Bruce's wealth, Kal-El's upbringing with the Kents, Flash's connection to the Speedforce. My Constantine - my [b]Absolute Hellblazer[/b] - is a John [i]without[/i] Astra, [i]without[/i] magic; and yet, calamity somehow even more profound has struck him down, and John will have to rely on deals struck with others and the strength of his own wits to claw himself back from the Hell he will find himself mired in.[/INDENT][/COLOR][/cell][/row][/table][hr][/COLOR][/INDENT][hr]
[center][b][color=000000]VOLUME TWO: EVERY ROOM A MOUTH[/COLOR][/B][/CENTER]

[INDENT][COLOR=SLATEGRAY][CENTER][center][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/019ac7e8-9d61-7059-9994-7033a1ea72a9.webp[/img][/center][/CENTER][table][row][/row][row][cell][center][sub][sup][sub][h3][b][color=black] C H A R A C T E R   P O R T R A I T[/color]
[color=lightgray]C H A R A C T E R   P O R T R A I T[/color] [/b][/h3][/sub][/sup][/sub][sup]_________________________________________________________[/sup][img]https://64.media.tumblr.com/6d65d22bbfc7d5db788dac452725ed43/e03b8a4204324b56-50/s2048x3072/0ee0d0c612dafa057a141ed654258eecdc82f66e.pnj[/img]
[sup]_________________________________________________________[/sup][sub][sup][sub][h3][b][color=black] C H A R A C T E R   S U M M A R Y[/color]
[color=lightgray]C H A R A C T E R   S U M M A R Y[/color][/b][/h3][/sub][/sup][/sub][sup]_________________________________________________________[/sup]
[sub][COLOR=darkgray]John Thomas Constantine[/COLOR]
[sup]_________________________________________________________[/sup] 
[COLOR=darkgray]21[/COLOR]   [b]|[/b]   [COLOR=darkgray]Single[/COLOR]
[sup]_________________________________________________________[/sup]
[COLOR=darkgray]Independent[/COLOR]   [b]|[/b]   [COLOR=darkgray]English[/COLOR][/sub][/center]
[indent]
[sub][sup][sub][h3][b][color=black] A L L I E S   &   A N T A G O N I S T S[/color]
[color=lightgray]A L L I E S   &   A N T A G O N I S T S[/color][/b][/h3][/sub][/sup][/sub][/INDENT][sup]_________________________________________________________[/sup]
[INDENT][color=#2e2c2c]-[/color]
[indent][sub][b][color=lightgray]   A L L I E S [/color][/b][/sub]
[sup]▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
[COLOR=DARKGRAY][color=lightgray][b]◼ FRANCIS 'CHAS' CHANDLER[/b][/color] - Best Friend
[color=lightgray][b]◼ CHERYL CONSTANTINE[/b][/color] - Sister [i](Severed from Causality)[/i]
[color=lightgray][b]◼ GARY LESTER[/b][/color] - Friend [i](Deceased)[/i]
[/color][/sup]
[sub][b][color=lightgray]   A N T A G O N I S T S[/color][/b][/sub]
[sup]▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
[COLOR=DARKGRAY][color=lightgray][b]◼ THOMAS CONSTANTINE[/b][/color] - Father [i](Missing)[/i]
[color=lightgray][b]◼ THE LAUGHING MAGICIANS[/b][/color] - Ancestral Constantines [i](Banished)[/i]
[color=lightgray][b]◼ JACOB CONSTANTINE[/b][/color] - Stillborn Brother [i](Taken by Nergal)[/i]
[color=lightgray][b]◼ NERGLE[/b][/color] - Demon [i](Slain by Mammon)[/i]
[color=lightgray][b]◼ MAMMON[/b][/color] - Demon Lord of Avarice 
[color=lightgray][b]◼ BEVERLY 'BEAVER' HUGHES[/b][/color] - Drug Dealer
[/color][/sup]
[color=#2e2c2c]-[/color][/indent][color=#2e2c2c]-[/color]
[sub][sup][sub][h3][b][color=black] P O S T   C A T A L O G U E[/color]
[color=lightgray]P O S T   C A T A L O G U E[/color][/b][/h3][/sub][/sup][/sub][/INDENT][sup]_________________________________________________________[/sup]
[INDENT][url=https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4yHAnmWG098uvmY6bfJEdq?si=b51713eb99544edb][color=black][b]VOLUME ONE: Original Sin[/b][/color][/url]
[color=lightgray][b]1.01 -[/b] [URL=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5638680][COLOR=DARKGRAY][i]Malice Aforethought[/i][/COLOR][/URL]
[b]1.02 -[/b] [URL=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5638682][COLOR=DARKGRAY][i]According to Some[/i][/COLOR][/URL]
[b]1.03 -[/b] [URL=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5638683][COLOR=DARKGRAY][i]Radical Notions[/i][/COLOR][/URL]
[b]1.04 -[/b] [URL=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5638684][COLOR=DARKGRAY][i]Youth Today[/i][/COLOR][/URL]
[b]1.05 -[/b] [URL=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5638685][COLOR=DARKGRAY][i]Lifelong Friends[/i][/COLOR][/URL]
[b]1.06 -[/b] [URL=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5638687][COLOR=DARKGRAY][i]If Anyone Asks[/i][/COLOR][/URL]
[b]1.07 -[/b] [URL=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5638688][COLOR=DARKGRAY][i]Valuable Lesson[/i][/COLOR][/URL]
[b]1.08 -[/b] [URL=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5638689][COLOR=DARKGRAY][i]Eager to Die[/i][/color][/url]
[b]1.09 -[/b] [URL=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5638691][COLOR=DARKGRAY][i]Salt the Earth[/i][/color][/url]
[b]1.10 -[/b] [URL=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5638692][COLOR=DARKGRAY][i].[/i][/color][/url]

[color=black][b]VOLUME TWO: Every Room A Mouth[/b][/color]
[b]2.01 -[/b] [URL=https://www.google.com][COLOR=DARKGRAY][i]TBC 1[/i][/color][/url]
[/COLOR][/INDENT][/cell][cell][INDENT][sub][sup][sub][h3][b][color=black] T H E   S T O R Y   S O   F A R...[/color]
[color=lightgray]T H E   S T O R Y   S O   F A R...[/color][/b][/h3][/sub][/sup][/sub][/INDENT][sup]__________________________________________________________________________________[/sup]
[COLOR=DARKGRAY][indent]John was born May 10th 2006 to Mary-Anne and Thomas Constantine, alongside his stillborn twin brother, Jacob. Mary-Anne died during childbirth, and Thomas, now a widower with a dead son, never forgave John. Hatred was seeded at John's very first moments of life, and his only reprieve would be his older sister Cheryl, who devoted herself to protecting John from their drunken and abusive father. 

The bond between Cheryl and John was unbreakable, even in the face of Thomas' misplaced wrath, and for seventeen years they would bulwark one another against the injustice of their father's wrath, bolstered further by their deep friendships with Francis 'Chas' Chandler and Gary Lester. The four found safe harbour and common ground in each other, and formed a strong unit based on compassion; until Cheryl disappeared, and the vanishing of one splintered those who were left behind.

Unbeknownst to John, Jacob had been destined before his birth to be the next incarnation of a powerful sorcerer known as the Laughing Magician, an individual born over and over throughout the history of the Constantine bloodline. With Jacob's death in the womb through horrific accident, the ancestral Constantines hatched a plan to both rebirth Jacob as fated using Cheryl as an incubator, and also exact revenge on John as their chosen 'vessel' for Jacob's soul. Their plan was [i]too successful[/I], fracturing John's mind, and after they were forced to mitigate a suicide attempt, John spent two years in Ravenscar Psychiatric Hospital. Francis fled to London. Gary turned to drugs. 

When John got out, his ancestor's plans were set back in motion. Subtly guiding him to reconnect with Chas and Gary, they ended up once again on the fateful Runcorn Railway Bridge. John killed Gary in self-defence, and then it all went to Hell: first figuratively, when the demon known as Nergal appeared and explained the terrible conspiracy John had been caught up in, and then literally, when John forged a bargain with Nergal to take him to Hell where Cheryl was being kept. In Hell, John managed to cut a deal with Mammon, Lord of Avarice for his assistance in dealing with his rogue 'family'. Between John, Nergal, and Mammon, Jacob and the Laughing Magicians were defeated, Cheryl was freed, and John returned to Earth to be with his sister again, now dubbed by Mammon himself the true and last Laughing Magician, the last Constantine of his line. 

After returning home, John found a new world opening up to him, one mysterious and layered but also unfortunately, inevitably, dangerous. Having created new enemies and inherited old ones, John couldn't risk the target on his back extending to his now-saved sister, and made the difficult decision to leave her behind to keep her safe. Now, Cheryl is protected from forces that would do her harm to get to John, and John has abandoned England entirely, nothing left to keep him around. He and Chas have moved to Chicago; Chas trying to scrape a living, and John trying not to think about how much his misses his sister, how guilty he feels over Gary's murder, and how his soul is currently inevitably bound for Hell when his time comes.
[/indent][/COLOR]
[INDENT][sub][sup][sub][h3][b][color=black] P L O T ( S )   &   G O A L ( S )[/color]
[color=lightgray]P L O T ( S )   &   G O A L ( S )[/color][/b][/h3][/sub][/sup][/sub][/INDENT][sup]___________________________________________________________________________________[/sup]
[COLOR=DARKGRAY][INDENT]I brought John back in a previous RP in a bid to rekindle my drive for writing in general after a severe and ongoing depressive period that indirectly brought about a decision to leave my job. With suddenly oodles of time, I directed what energy I could into re-writing, and following through on, what I felt/feel was/is one of, if not my best stories across the many years of this hobby, one I'd had rattling around my head for at least six years. I wrote that story, start to finish, and I had a blast doing do, and it brought back some old writing mojo I'd lost in the last half-decade or so, and got a lot of very positive feedback in the process. In the end, I was quite pleased with what I'd managed and how successful the experiment had been, how I now officially had [i]my[/i] stamp on Hellblazer forever, and left my stint as John in that RP there.

Originally I didn't have a follow-up arc to carry on writing with. Six years is a long time to stew on a story and to come up with something that could stand up alongside a story I'd built up so much in my own head felt very daunting, and this got a little bit harder when the reception was so positive that I began to feel like I was teetering on a pedestal and liable to crash to the ground at any moment. However, in doing some research, I was struck with inspiration, and with the mojo returned from writing the original story in the first place, keeping that momentum felt a lot easier than screeching to a halt and pivoting to a different character and story completely. Between that and straight-up bonafide [i]requests[/i] that I continue, it felt like we'd naturally moved on to the second experiment: now that the passion was re-ignited, could I carry on, continue enjoying myself, let myself play it a little faster and a little looser, but maintain consistency in both quality and engagement? Absolute Hellblazer Volume Two, Haunted House Boogaloo. Let's find out.[/INDENT][/COLOR][/cell][/row][/table][hr][/COLOR][/INDENT]