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3. John Constantine
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Johnny C. if you're feeling nasty.

Constantine, the Hellblazer, portrayed by the incomparable Matt Ryan, made a brief pair of appearances in campaign 1. He existed to give a magic stone to Spirit (Hombad's character) so we could talk to his ghost brother, annoy Oracle, help transfer Spirit's ghost brother into a robot body identical to Jimmy Olsen, and annoy Oracle. Not a whole lot for one of the characters the DM loves, but the campaign wasn't quite the place for him.

So cut to chargen for campaign 2. I'm coming up with this witch, and after figuring pieces out, one thing is that she ran into someone magic-adjacent who helped her realize some of her abilities. Tossed around Hawk, Doctor Occult, but ended up dropping Doc Occult. See, Saoirse got her wand, Twiggy, from Blackbriar Thorn as a child. Sometime later, after Thorn reemerged with the Injustice Society, Jade went to go find out why, and ran into Saoirse. This is how that friendship began (and why Susie and Patch have been KICKED OFF THE LIST), but sometime before that is when I needed my magician. I didn't want to go the route of Saoirse learning from a JSA Reservist, and so decided to just loop Constantine in.

So Saoirse been through some stuff, divorced, in a bad punk band, and ran into Constantine at some point. She was being chased by some demons, standard London fare, and he poofed them away, then cut off her hair. So she then bugged him by demanding some explanations and got few before he fecked off. And that's how Saoirse started shaving half her head as a style.

Anyway, Scar told me that Jade might not show up for awhile, so the rest of my social connections were my magic wand, a bit time villain in Blackbriar Thorn, and Constantine. Nobody really expected to run into their social connections all that soon.

I had seen 3 of my 4 by the end of session 2.

So pretty quickly, with magic being different and stuff, Brennus (MI's punch wizard) and my Saoirse needed teachers. She went to Constantine, of course. But the Shadowpact were being jerks and she mouthed off and Constantine took that personally so a rift very quickly grew.

It took time to get past it, but eventually the issues became apparent - Constantine had been letting Saoirse get close. After all, Constantine has issues with young girls - gets them killed, has a daughter who is also Swamp Thing's daughter so she's not exactly his... and Saoirse never had a father figure past the age of 10. But again, Constantine does not do a good job with people close to him and Saoirse makes poor decisions (see: Enchantress), so the pair is rather volatile.

Of course, over time, walls break down. Saoirse shares perhaps some traits of Constantine's. Some self-loathing, self-destructive habits, and bears a lot of guilt. It makes sense that the two would be able to deal with each other again after sharing some pints. And that's after Saoirse had to get another team to rescue Constantine's 'daughter' and bring her back. Just a whole lot of effort.

The pair has gotten to a place where neither really bothers so hard to hold up walls, and trusts each other a little more than most other people. There's a definite sadness - recognizing the issues the other has and the issues they will go through, the trials they face and their bleak futures... but in that recognition is understanding, and a willingness to provide a self to be there for the other. And I mean, Saoirse lost a bit of her soul to Enchantress, got marked by Trigon, frequently goes out into death's way and sees the Spectre a lot, has a crush on a girl who got mind-wiped by Constantine's old flame Zatanna and is also tagged to become an avatar of the Green, and is attached to this Blackbriar Thorn through destiny still in a way where he wants to use her... Saoirse's deep in the hole and Constantine suffers too much guilt not to help.

Poor Constantine has been dragged through the mud this campaign and he has much further to go. But it's not all drama and pain, melancholy and the bits of beauty from a found family of two broken people... why, there's also Christmas!

See, Spirit is a bit of an unhappy teenager. He was an orphan, sort of homeless in Gotham, went through the Earthquake, had his leg cut off and fed to people, his brother turned into a ghost to heal him, he made friends with goats that exploded, had a terrible nightmare where he became paranoid of everyone... Spirit went through a lot. Moody kid. And as a 14 year-old doctor, he's quite beyond the kiddish stuff (except he likes video games and Pokemon).

Constantine is able to pierce the veil. Whether it's Constantine delighting in the purity of a child or just that it's easy, he tends to have a good time showing some magic to Spirit, and even shared the Sands of the Terra Noel, some like Christmas cinnamon that fills you with Christmas cheer. There was an incident (we call it Drinks Bitches) where Spirit and Constantine had to fend off June's attacks on Christmas. Constantine has been this constant source of, dare I say, kindness and encouragement to Spirit, and coming from Constantine, that means a lot.

I mean, him with Lush? He hates the girl. It's probably mostly borne out of a desire to protect Saoirse from a girl whose mind got messed with because she was a murderous psycho before and is nothing but bad news... but also probably largely because Constantine let his body be possessed by Swamp Thing to make a baby. So he probably doesn't like the Green all too much.

Constantine is just such a deep character with a lot of trauma and backstory, where darkness is a constant companion of his, but that also makes those moments of light such a highlight in the bleak and dreary time. A character with such a strong voice goes far, and Constantine's got the accent, the way of speech, and all the knowledge to go with delivering a character who is as much of a symphony to the senses as he is a bludgeon to the sensitivity.

And he's fun to annoy.

Hint for 2: One of Saoirse's besties