BasicsName: John Valentine
Nickname/title: Johnny
Gender: Male
Age: 35
Build/physicality: He works out, but that’s only to stay fit, not build up extra muscle. Still, he’s in good condition for a 5’11’’ tall man.
Appearance: BackgroundPsychological status: John is about as sane as can be.
Quirks, ticks, conditions, sensitivities to the paranormal: He has dreams foretelling the death of those close to him.
Magical potential: Yes
Personality:John is a relatively simple man. He wakes up at five, works out for an hour, eats breakfast, then cleans up for work. Shop opens at seven and closes at twelve. He walks the half hour back to his apartment complex and eats a salad before undressing and going to sleep. On Sundays he goes for a stroll around town and treats himself to lunch at his favorite diner. Always the same one. At the end of every month he sends up money to his mother in the nursing home so she doesn’t get kicked out onto the streets. He goes up at least once a year and gets to play pretend as his deceased father.
He’s cordial to anyone he meets but doesn’t put up with bullshit. There are multiple days of the year not related to holidays where he closes up shop and doesn’t leave his apartment all day. Whenever questioned as to why, John dodges the question. He’s spending the day in mourning.
Hometown: Born in the suburbs around Chicago but moved into the city in his early adult years
Education: Business Degree
Occupation: Store Clerk
Achievements: He’s finally paid the mortgage off on his store and his apartment.
Sexuality: Bisexual
Religion/philosophy: John doesn’t really like to think about those sorts of things, but he supposes God is alright. He gives him a day off on Sundays, and that makes Him just fine in John’s book.
Marital status: His fiancée passed away seven years ago.
Family status: John’s sole surviving relative is a mother with alzheimer's living in a nursing home. All the rest have drowned.
Biographical writeup: John learned early on in life that dreams and reality sometimes do blur. At the young age of thirteen he was plagued with horrific nightmares of his two younger siblings drowning in a lake. These strange premonitions came true when the entire family was out at a park to get their photograph taken. The two young girls ventured too close to the nearby lake and fell in, dragged to the bottom by their heavy dress clothes. The next set of dreams started almost immediately, happening on and off over the course of 3 years. In the nightmares his father had gone on a fishing trip with his friends, only to have the boat sink, causing him to drown whilst trapped in the wreckage.
Four months after John’s sixteenth birthday his father announced that he would be leaving for a time to go fishing off the east coast. John had begged him not to go, but to no avail. His father was neither a superstitious man nor a religious one. Once again the terrifying visions proved to be true. Years passed by and John hadn’t a single dream, until he became engaged. This time, the nightmares had nothing to do with drowning. No, this vision was that of the love of his life getting brutally murdered.
Caroline would be walking down the street late at night, before getting jumped by two men and dragged into an alley. First they tried to rob her, and she would not comply. So then they decided to kill her. John regards the fact that she was not molested as a luxury, albeit a small one. John at last confronted Caroline about these nightmares one night, and tried to persuade her to not go out after the sun sets anymore. She thought that he was crazy, especially after he held to his claims with such utter conviction. An intense verbal argument between the two ended with her storming off into the dark. That was the last time John ever saw her alive.
John was grief stricken, and paid very heavy bribes to multiple law enforcers and private investigators to help him track down the killers. He was so rash and bribed so many individuals that that he lost a significant amount of his savings, actually having to sell his house. The money did it’s trick though. The killers were found and brought to justice. Not however, in the typical sense. The two men were brought to John directly, and he himself dealt justice. For those bribes were not just for the apprehension of the criminals, but also to keep quiet as to how they were punished.
The murders were not hidden, not in the slightest. There was, strangely enough, no evidence against John, and no lawsuit was ever filed against him. He had enough of Chicago though, and needed to get away from that damn city. John pooled all of his money together to open up a convenience store in the town of Arkham. Five years have passed since then, five years since his dreams returned. This time he dreams of himself. Yet still John remains, trying to make a new life while keeping the old one secret and buried.
Miscellaneous informationCombative belongings: He keeps a Colt M1911 .45 ACP under the counter in his store.
Noncombative belongings: The keys to his shop and his apartment, a deck of playing cards, and a matchbox.
Other information: N/A
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