----FIN----Name: John Corwin
Species: A poor, average HUMAN artist (YES!)
Age: 28 years old
Agency: Seventh Book of Retribution Chape
Appearance:
Personality:John’s a bit of a loner, often preferring a pencil and a piece of paper to the comforts of society. And who can blame him? For with comfort comes drama. And drama is one of the things John dislikes about society, so he avoids it while he can. Unfortunately, while he can do wonders with a pencil and paper, not having an actual won’t really cut it for life. But that’s okay. John relies on hope to keep him living, and a lot of perseverance and dedication. If anything he hopes to one day be able to create the perfect drawing, one that can find beauty in the humanity of emotions. Meanwhile he finds that many are disheartened from his work, and becomes disheartened himself as a result. Friends are almost out of the question, and even if he does manage to make a friend it doesn’t last long. This is either due to the friend finding him to depressing/weird, or his thinking that the friendship will eventually led to one of them getting hurt. He will go to a private/public party if invited though, but that’s only because of the free food. Usually his plans for such occasions are to take the food, and leave. Though sometimes that is not always the case and someone stops him on the way out, forcing him to partake in activities he would rather not do. If a fight breaks out at the party [anywhere in general really], he’d leave regardless, without saying a word to [and will later claim he did so because it was giving him a “headache”]. That’s why he isn’t yet committed to a relationship. One; because it involves drama, and two; he really isn’t that committed to love. That is to say love is impossible for the guy, try reading any of the poetry John writes and you’ll see why.
John may be a depressing dude to hang around with, but there are some who discovered that he is very helpful in nature. If you have a problem, and you would let him in, who’s to say he wouldn’t help you. He’s just afraid really, but secretly he wants to help as many people as possible if only through inspiration. He hopes to do that through his paintings [hasn’t quite worked out for him yet, but hey its getting there]. A constant wanderer from apartment to apartment, street to street, he sees the people and what they are going through and identifies with them as a person going through hardships him-self. It’s just that fear of commitment that really gets to him, and all that drama. And it isn’t until recently that he starts to break out of shell, mostly due to seeking help after fearing he was becoming insane. But he feels for people. And if given a chance he can very well be a good friend.
Drive: Hope
Discipline:Christianity [Recently went back to religion after leaving it alone for so many years, if only out of desperateness].
Abilities/Skills:~Abilities~•
Empathy---- John can sense the emotions of others, and in extreme cases can actually feel what other’s are feeling. He is able to do this either through eye contact, hearing a person’s voice, or simply being around a person experiencing powerful emotions. As John would be quick to tell you, there is a difference between the emotions of spirits and the emotions of the living. And that’s why John can easily identify spirits, due to the extremities of a spirit’s emotion. He is also able to identify WITH the spirits, thus opening a door for insightful conversations. However…
•
Memory Visioning---- Comes directly after feelings experienced via Empathy. If John manages to become to connected to a spirit’s emotions [Note the word
”spirit”], John is able to experience whatever memory that may be related to a spirit’s emotions. These memories are experienced in vivid ways, in which John may very well feel everything that happened in said memory, as if it was his own. In a sense, this form of vision could very well be a spirit’s will to communicate, but in most ways is directly related to a spirit’s emotions. After experiencing a spirit’s memories, John is often prone to withdrawal, hiding within himself until the initial shock of experiencing someone else’s memories subsides. During such a stage he will have an urge to draw the image on a piece of paper or hard surface, out of fear for what may happen if he held the image in too long [mainly for the fear of nightmares]. Unfortunately, the memory remains engraved in his mind despite his putting it on a surface. Which means if he sees
anything [and I mean ANYTHING] related to the memory he experienced there poses a danger that he would experience it again.
•
Photographic Memory---- When it comes to memory John is able to recall pictures clearly in his mind, enabling him to record the image down on something such as a piece of paper, or accurately describe to interested listeners.
~Skills~•
Artistic Skill---- John is a highly skilled artist, pursuing realism as his art form of choice. And it works for him. His artwork is often realistic, and close to picture-perfect. If you were to ask John to draw anything, anything at all, there is a good chance he could do it, but only if the request is realistic and can be associated with his memory. And even his quick sketches seem good. Most of his paintings portray portraits of individuals or scenery. Many who look at his works claim that they tell a story. Others claim they get some sort of emotional response from the paintings. It is as if there was a lot of emotion and dedication put into the drawings. Unfortunately his artistic skill is still yet to be fully recognized, and may never be.
History:John’s first run-in with the supernatural came soon after he began developing his skills as an artist. He was a young teenager in high school who had recently started crushing over a girl in his class. However, another boy was in love with her as well. He was beginning to take art classes after a teacher noticed the doodles in his notebook. So, in an effort to impress the girl, he attempted to draw a picture of her for Valentine’s Day. Alas, he only found that she had liked the other boy more than he. Disheartened, he threw away the picture, and spent lunch in the library alone. In the comforts of the book shelves, he discovered that somehow he felt worse being there. He also discovered that he was beginning to get a migraine. What he did not know that a spirit saddened for the same reason he was miserable resided in the library. It was the spirit of a young man who was stuck in the moment his girlfriend cheated on him. Being enveloped in memories about a girl he never knew, yet feel like he had known, John had suddenly felt like drawing a picture of this girl. He didn’t have paper with him, but he did have a pen. Taking a book off of one of the shelves he began furiously drawing in its pages, a drawing of a girl with wavy, brown hair. A girl who’s face looked like that of his crush. The librarian caught him in the act, ending him up in detention. He was also sent home with a letter to his parents.
For the next few days all John dreamed about was that one girl, and he spent his time in school daydreaming rather than work. He wasn’t allowed into the library any longer, but was actually relieved by this. He was afraid of the library, afraid that he would experience the feeling of being in someone else’s head again. He began drawing more frequently, using artwork as an excuse to not talk to the girl he liked or anyone else in general. His grades plummeted and both his teachers and parents grew worried. They all tried pressing him to be more social and offering him help, but he ignored their pleas. Eventually, all he wanted to do was go back to the library despite his fears, and meet the person who shared him his memories.
The ghost’s name was Jeffery that much John knew from his memories. He was very much like him, not good at sports, a bit strange to others, likes to put smiley faces on tests. He was a music-oriented guy, so John could kind of relate to him. When John finally got to go to the library again he would sit in the same spot before with a bunch of paper and pencils and just get teary eyed with the ghost. In a year or so he knew everything about the ghost’s life and a couple others as well. The girl who fell from the balcony, the girl who drowned in the pool, the lunch lady who got trapped in the cooler, the boy who died in a gruesome fight, he knew them all. But as he grew closer to the dead, his relationship with the living was strained by his new-found ability. He became known as the creepy dude who spoke with people who weren’t even dead. To the dead he was someone they could empty their emotions into, even though his mental health was a stake. Sometimes he would break into tears out of nowhere, or angrily scream at no one in particular.
At the age of sixteen he was diagnosed with Bi-Polar Disorder.
High school passed by in shades of grey, he spent the next two years drawing whenever he got the chance, sketches of individual people who had a strange realness to them. Art class was the only class he did well in, all others he got 60s and 70s. He would barely pass each marking period. The only college he was interested in was far away and expensive. He wasn’t even able to get accepted, to anywhere actually. Freelance work was his only option, and he managed to move out of his home into a nearby apartment with its help. Things were going well for awhile; John found work on the internet almost every week. After eight months of being a freelancer however requests dwindled down and found no one wanted to hire him. What was worse, the apartment he lived in was possessed.
The spirit was unlike any he met before. Its emotions were far greater than anything he ever experienced. Every night at a certain time doors would open and close violently, all at once. The microwave he used caught on fire. He had to get a new one, and that caught on fire too. Electricians simply told him the wiring in the house was loose. His light didn’t work, so he couldn’t really draw that well after dusk, making it harder for him to produce more artwork to sell off to people on the streets. He was eventually reduced to eating cold canned food, or stealing from the general market (something he wasn’t versed in at the time). On the streets he began a beggar of a sort. He would carry with him a bag full of art supplies he spent most of his savings on, and offer to draw people things for a fee. He had lived in the Big Apple so such a thing was not uncommon.
Months passed and he began a wild decent into debt. He could barely pay the monthly rent and he couldn’t keep the heat or the electricity on. The spirit, in the mean time, was growing angrier. For reasons John still doesn’t know the answer to, the demon hated him. As far as John was concerned it wanted him out, and was going to do whatever it took to make him leave.
Fate had it that John lived next to the apartment of the very women who could help him. She was named Miriam, and was a devout Catholic who attended the nearby chapel. She knocked on his door one day and began rambling about her mission and that Jesus loved him, John denied her entrance for the first time. He couldn’t believe any of that stuff after what he was going through.
The next day she came again, this time seeming desperate. “I can hear what’s going on” she said. Reluctantly John let her in, and she told him of her chapel, and a priest who could perhaps help his suffering go away. She invited him to mass on Sunday, and left.
Sunday was an awkward moment for John. All these people around him were strangely peaceful, unlike the ones on the streets. It was like all of these people were content with living in a world of pain, and had nothing to worry about at all. They accepted him into their service, prayed with him, and praised his talents. After service the priest embraced him like he was some lost son, and when he told him of the demon who was threatening his life the priest solemnly offered his services “before it was too late”.
The demon wasn’t dumb, they never are. Once John came home from service, he found he was locked out and had to force his way in. Once he was in a barrage of random items met him. He grew angry at the demon, not able to ignore it any longer, quieting it with a yell. For the next few days he experienced vivid dreams of what he thought the thing planned for him, possibly to threaten him against the exorcism. It failed, and the priest came to successfully ward it off.
The apartment was now calm, but John couldn’t stay in the apartment any longer. The priest offered him sanctuary in the chapel until he could find a new apartment. Thankful, John agreed.
For the next couple of years John became a wanderer. He would move from apartment to apartment, never lasting any long, and spent most of his time at the chapel doing work for the priest. Other people pitied him as he continued to sell artwork on the streets. Some gave charity (like free food or clothes) to him, others gave him spare coins, and the rich offered him a spot in New York City’s Gallery or gave him invitations to parties (which he only went to for the food). Women found him handsome, and tried to attract his attention whenever he was out if only for entertainment. The middle aged continuously recommended he found himself a job. At this time in his life he ran into more spirits than ever, some of there were stalkers. And their memories plagued his dreams. People who glanced at his work found that they were too frightening to behold, and were even more frightened when the artist grabbed hold of them, telling them about a spirit of some sort. He became known throughout New York City as the “Artist Medium”, a play on the material or techniques used by an artist to create or produce a work.
Eventually John realized that if he ever were to survive he needed to get a job, and with no one else to go to he went to the priest whose name was Father Channer for advice. It was on that day John heard of the Seventh Book of Retribution Chapel which Channer was revealed to be a member of. He was told by Channer of what the priest thought to be his abilities, and advised him to not be afraid of them but use them to help the people he feared for so much. Channer also prepared for him a meeting with the Seventh.
With a new hope for the future, John looked to perhaps use this opportunity to do something he never did before, create something happy.
Theme: Modest Mouse – “Edit The Sad Parts”
