[hider=John Merrick]Name: John Merrick

Gender: Male 

Age: 26

Appearance: [url=http://cdn.atwwwuk.com/images/hamiltonhodell/600x600FFFFFFf/_uploads/userassets/images/bayntonmat2012newpic1small.jpg]Joshua[/url] is a fairly good-looking man, although he himself denies it. He is of average height and weight, somewhat athletic, but really it’s just because he doesn’t want to get out of shape and unhealthy like when he was a kid. His facial features aren’t quite sharp and his face is soft, reminiscent of a puppy, but the lines on his face are straight and give off a certain edge to his face. If he’s not smiling in the distance he’s almost always looking like he’s deep in thought. His oak shade of hair is quite long and wavy, but always swept to one side or the other. His eyes, much like his hair are deep brown like the oak tree but with tiny specks of gold like an autumn leaf. And much like his face they are soft to look at, but matched with the right facial expression his eyes have been told to appear similar to those of a canine, adorable young pup or ferocious wolf. In terms of style, he wears what is comfortable, and if the weather permits it a plain white shirt, jeans, and sneakers is his go to style. 

Talent: Joshua has a degree in folklore studies from a good university. He’s a very smart man, and a lot of thing came easy to him, especially school. Much of what he learned in college he used as a foundation for what he would do in life. He didn’t know at first, but eventually he became a writer, well that’s calling it a stretch since writing isn’t his main goal. His main goal is knowing more about the unknowable. To him the paranormal world is a mystery and something that he can’t solve…yet. In the short few years, he has been gaining more and more knowledge about the paranormal world and shows no signs of ever stopping. 

John has a sort of sixth sense, not that he relies or uses it willingly. While in no means he can be called, a psychic or an exorcist in the few years he’s been dealing with paranormal phenomenon he’s been lucky enough to hear a sort of voice or have vibes when it comes to the paranormal. He’s sure that it’s not going to develop into anything more than a cold air in his personal space and a voice in his head, but he’s thankful that “it”, or rather “she” since it’s a female voice warns him of the things he doesn’t fully understand yet. 

Background: Joshua’s had a fairly normal childhood. Normal for him is that of broken one. His father turned out to be gay and decided to run away with some drug dealer from New Jersey. His mother decided that a life of drunkenness was what suited her the most and as soon as stuff became too depressing for her to handle. And a sister that beside hi. He didn’t really take a lot of this to heart since his so called parents didn’t raise him, paid no attention to him when they had him, and weren’t exactly good parents when they were “trying”. For the most part, he’s blocked that ugly and unnecessarily complicated part of his life. If there was anything that he sort-of-kind-of feels slightly reminiscent about it’s the sister he should have had, it would probably have made his childhood a bit better. Then again, he’d rather not share that childhood with anyone. 

The people that properly raised him were the various uncles and aunts who let him stay at their house so long as he didn’t cause any trouble. He rarely did cause people problems, but every now and then he’d do something stupid, often dangerous and life threatening. This was his rebellious phase. He got bored at high school a lot. Once he was out of high school and over eighteen, he immediately went to university. At the time he just wanted to get a business degree since he could have probably gotten a job in stocks or something with it. It was about a semester in when his roommate, and then best friend introduced him to a panel being held in their university by some so called exorcist. It was about some weird paranormal stuff that invoked the belief that annoying lies made up to make children hopeful that there was someone over there watching them. He remained skeptical and cynical about the whole thing, but after being intrigued, and annoyed at not knowing, he finally accepted the fact that he rather liked not knowing about certain stuff. He changed his course and decided on a new kind of life. Something that was a lot more…chilling.

Years went by and he graduated with a degree in folklore studies. He had the option to pursue a doctorate, but that would have been a waste of time on his part since filed work was more interesting. It took a while for things to pick up, but after a while the word got around that a new guy was “looking for some real weird shit”. Eventually he got around to writing a single book with thirteen stories; he thought it was funny to have thirteen stories. Of those thirteen that he published, he’s 90% sure that nine were the real deal, the fake one’s were just there for their insight value. Most of his other cases wound being fakes or just paranoia, but he still helps out when he can even if they were. For the most part he does so because he’d hate himself if he turned back on people. He didn't want to be like that kind of person. 

Every now and then, he’d experience the real thing which is what he’s really looking for and get lots of info. There’s really no purpose to this or maybe there is and only he knows. A friend of his told him it’s somewhat of an obsession, but he’s told him he’s fine. The real things are often dangerous and cause problems for him, but really even the frauds do. He’s been lucky enough to get out of the bad stuff safely thanks to a certain voice in his head, but even though he can get out of the situation freely that doesn’t those involved can. In those situations, he give them his personal advice and hopes they take it. 

Tidbits: He owns a small flat in above a bookshop. The bookshop is his day job, where he gets his money for his traveling expenses. The store is co owned by his best friend former roommate, who luckily enough is both rich and a big fan of his stories. 

His [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H__A8uPCrMY]theme[/url].
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