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drinkslikeaSetting Background
His Story
Jonnie comes from modern Earth--with a few substantial differences from the one we inhabit. Supernatural entities and ritual magic are real--most people aren't aware of either, however. Most non-human critters can choose to be invisible to humans (with the rare exceptions of humans with second sight) and nearly all take terrible advantage of that (most often when faced with 'interlopers'), which is where the ritual magic comes in. There are a few ways humans in-the-know have learned to defend themselves and others from supernatural miscreants.
Most supernatural critters are neutral or even beneficial to humans native to the same area as the critters. Unfortunately, humans being what they are, invasions and/or peaceful migrations happen often enough that even 'good' local entities get tetchy with their human neighbors on a regular basis. And of course there are also a handful of beings (such as boogeymen) that are almost always malevolent, whether they recognize their targets as locals or not. Most national governments have an off-the-books bureau dedicated to defending their citizens from the local supernatural troublemakers, though in some places (usually the poorly-regulated ones) smaller family- or community-based groups have sprung up as well.
The fact that the supernatural is real isn't so much 'kept secret' as 'humanity usually prefers not to think too hard about it, since most people can neither detect nor defend against that shit, and that is just depressing'. The more successful the groups who can detect and defend against that shit are, the less cause everyone else has to notice the problem and the more they forget there is a problem. So, it's less there's any 'masquerade' and more 'humanity has a terrible collective attention span and memory'.
Jonnie's current nation of residence, the US, is primarily a nation of immigrants and invaders, with the land's native human population largely displaced from their original home locales; as a result, the supernatural is a significant menace. Until semi-recently the US has also been one of those 'poorly regulated' areas, so now that there's finally a properly organized federal group, it's having to spend a great deal of its time trying to bring the many established small groups under its umbrella.
Jonnie is a member of one of the few supernatural species that have little to no interest in humans whatsoever--probably because Dagonis Sapiens is native to the depths of the oceans, one place not a lot of humans try to move into.
Most supernatural critters are neutral or even beneficial to humans native to the same area as the critters. Unfortunately, humans being what they are, invasions and/or peaceful migrations happen often enough that even 'good' local entities get tetchy with their human neighbors on a regular basis. And of course there are also a handful of beings (such as boogeymen) that are almost always malevolent, whether they recognize their targets as locals or not. Most national governments have an off-the-books bureau dedicated to defending their citizens from the local supernatural troublemakers, though in some places (usually the poorly-regulated ones) smaller family- or community-based groups have sprung up as well.
The fact that the supernatural is real isn't so much 'kept secret' as 'humanity usually prefers not to think too hard about it, since most people can neither detect nor defend against that shit, and that is just depressing'. The more successful the groups who can detect and defend against that shit are, the less cause everyone else has to notice the problem and the more they forget there is a problem. So, it's less there's any 'masquerade' and more 'humanity has a terrible collective attention span and memory'.
Jonnie's current nation of residence, the US, is primarily a nation of immigrants and invaders, with the land's native human population largely displaced from their original home locales; as a result, the supernatural is a significant menace. Until semi-recently the US has also been one of those 'poorly regulated' areas, so now that there's finally a properly organized federal group, it's having to spend a great deal of its time trying to bring the many established small groups under its umbrella.
Jonnie is a member of one of the few supernatural species that have little to no interest in humans whatsoever--probably because Dagonis Sapiens is native to the depths of the oceans, one place not a lot of humans try to move into.
His Story
[He kills his best friend. Why exactly?]
[He flees to the surface; gets possessed by a boogeyman and becomes a drunk.]
[He's rescued and recruited by DALS. Jonas Abraham.]
[Working with Anne to investigate the Irons' group.]
[Going to assume command, but not actually getting there before arrival at game. (He is boogeyman-expert, Irons have boogeyman, is why chosen)]
Jonnie is not the dagon's birth name--that is unpronounceable out of the water and cannot be spelled with human alphabets. He acquired the code name much later on, but due to the problems concerning the other name he's called 'Jonnie' throughout this.
He was hatched into a well-to-do family of dagons (intelligent deep-sea 'fish-people'), somewhere in the Atlantic. His childhood was otherwise fairly unremarkable until he shot his best friend with a harpoon gun.
[bit about pre-boogeyman Jonnie's personality?] It was only the events of his life that had been unremarkable up until then--Jonnie himself was quite remarkable. ...Remarkably unpleasant. [stuff leading to the incident]
She was from a powerful family and Jonnie was only ~30 (roughly equivalent to a human teenager), so he panicked and fled the ocean entirely, ending up on the US's eastern coastline. He had no supplies or friends, and didn't know any human languages. In one way, it was lucky for him the boogeyman he ran into decided keeping the dagon might be fun, as it instantly granted him the ability to understand the local language; it was highly unlucky for Jonnie in every other way, of course.
Boogeymen, malevolent shadow-beings, can be found everywhere on Earth, including in the deep oceans. Jonnie knew what the creature who possessed him was from the beginning, but he didn't know how to fight it off and frankly at the time he didn't really care anymore. Jonnie was convinced nothing could make his life worse, a misconception the boogeyman was more than gleeful to shatter. It preyed on his mind and conscience about what he had done, about every other flaw he possessed (whether he was already aware of said flaw or not), and about every flaw he believed he possessed (whether he actually had said flaw or not). It whittled away at his mental health and emotional well being for almost half a year, gradually pushing him further into despair. Then it got bored, and unfortunately by then it had its hooks buried deep enough in Jonnie's mind that driving him to commit a few murders was easy--apparently far too easy to be much fun, as the boogeyman started fiddling with the gruesomeness levers, trying to see exactly how badly a dagon could rip a human apart.
The worst part of the experience for Jonnie was his understanding of how shadow-possession worked--namely, that a boogeyman couldn't force you to do anything you would never do on your own. Jonnie believed he was learning a lot of things about himself he had never suspected and really wasn't happy about. Whether his belief was in line with facts is up for debate, but Jonnie came to see his inner nature as a source of horror.
The boogeyman finally pushed things too far and made it clear the murders were not being perpetrated by a human, which got the attention of the federal department of DALS (Defense Against Local Supernaturals). They took over the cases and finally managed to chase Jonnie down. In a rare strike of good fortune for Jonnie, the head of the investigating team (Jonas Abraham) not only realized Jonnie was possessed but decided to give a damn despite Jonnie not being human, and forced his team to exorcise rather than kill the dagon.
By that point, the boogeyman was the only thing still keeping Jonnie together, so without it he broke hard. He managed to escape from DALS custody when he lapsed into a panic attack. He doesn't remember much from this period, or the next few years that followed. He apparently wandered aimlessly, acquired a drinking habit, and learned the finer art of 'wear a big hoodie when about to avoid too much attention'.
[befriended by another homeless man, tries to help when a boogeyman latches onto someone in the community?] [Jonnie gets recruited somehow :|a]
[He flees to the surface; gets possessed by a boogeyman and becomes a drunk.]
[He's rescued and recruited by DALS. Jonas Abraham.]
[Working with Anne to investigate the Irons' group.]
[Going to assume command, but not actually getting there before arrival at game. (He is boogeyman-expert, Irons have boogeyman, is why chosen)]
Jonnie is not the dagon's birth name--that is unpronounceable out of the water and cannot be spelled with human alphabets. He acquired the code name much later on, but due to the problems concerning the other name he's called 'Jonnie' throughout this.
He was hatched into a well-to-do family of dagons (intelligent deep-sea 'fish-people'), somewhere in the Atlantic. His childhood was otherwise fairly unremarkable until he shot his best friend with a harpoon gun.
[bit about pre-boogeyman Jonnie's personality?] It was only the events of his life that had been unremarkable up until then--Jonnie himself was quite remarkable. ...Remarkably unpleasant. [stuff leading to the incident]
She was from a powerful family and Jonnie was only ~30 (roughly equivalent to a human teenager), so he panicked and fled the ocean entirely, ending up on the US's eastern coastline. He had no supplies or friends, and didn't know any human languages. In one way, it was lucky for him the boogeyman he ran into decided keeping the dagon might be fun, as it instantly granted him the ability to understand the local language; it was highly unlucky for Jonnie in every other way, of course.
Boogeymen, malevolent shadow-beings, can be found everywhere on Earth, including in the deep oceans. Jonnie knew what the creature who possessed him was from the beginning, but he didn't know how to fight it off and frankly at the time he didn't really care anymore. Jonnie was convinced nothing could make his life worse, a misconception the boogeyman was more than gleeful to shatter. It preyed on his mind and conscience about what he had done, about every other flaw he possessed (whether he was already aware of said flaw or not), and about every flaw he believed he possessed (whether he actually had said flaw or not). It whittled away at his mental health and emotional well being for almost half a year, gradually pushing him further into despair. Then it got bored, and unfortunately by then it had its hooks buried deep enough in Jonnie's mind that driving him to commit a few murders was easy--apparently far too easy to be much fun, as the boogeyman started fiddling with the gruesomeness levers, trying to see exactly how badly a dagon could rip a human apart.
The worst part of the experience for Jonnie was his understanding of how shadow-possession worked--namely, that a boogeyman couldn't force you to do anything you would never do on your own. Jonnie believed he was learning a lot of things about himself he had never suspected and really wasn't happy about. Whether his belief was in line with facts is up for debate, but Jonnie came to see his inner nature as a source of horror.
The boogeyman finally pushed things too far and made it clear the murders were not being perpetrated by a human, which got the attention of the federal department of DALS (Defense Against Local Supernaturals). They took over the cases and finally managed to chase Jonnie down. In a rare strike of good fortune for Jonnie, the head of the investigating team (Jonas Abraham) not only realized Jonnie was possessed but decided to give a damn despite Jonnie not being human, and forced his team to exorcise rather than kill the dagon.
By that point, the boogeyman was the only thing still keeping Jonnie together, so without it he broke hard. He managed to escape from DALS custody when he lapsed into a panic attack. He doesn't remember much from this period, or the next few years that followed. He apparently wandered aimlessly, acquired a drinking habit, and learned the finer art of 'wear a big hoodie when about to avoid too much attention'.
[befriended by another homeless man, tries to help when a boogeyman latches onto someone in the community?] [Jonnie gets recruited somehow :|a]
