cacophonish | PUMPKIN HOLLOW: DIRECTORY

STATISTICS

Jeffrey David Calhoun

FULL NAME

21 (c. 1995)

AGE

June 6, 1974

BIRTHDAY

Original + CRAU (Apocalypse How)

CANON

Oak & Iron

HOUSING

Entertainer

OCCUPATION

Avatar of the Spiral

CURRENT STATUS

Jeff Calhoun is a total hot mess of a bard. He's a high school dropout, a drug binging hedonist, a total flake, and an insecure, needy fucker who craves the spotlight. He's also ambitious, talented, and has endless drive when it comes to performing music and working his magic. Unfortunately, he kind of sort of accidentally summoned an entity (a demon, for lack of a better word, though it doesn't care for all the baggage that comes with the word) that became tethered to him. Unable to break free from each other, it resulted in a downward spiral for the both of them. After months and months of what felt like madness, Jeff started stumbling towards rock bottom.

And then he woke up in the wrong town (Gloucester, MA? That's a long fucking way from Los Angeles), in the wrong year (2021?? It's supposed to be 1995!), in the wrong world (What the fuck are the Entities? Is the word Avatar supposed to mean something to him?). Even though he didn't have a demon in his head anymore, his problems quickly became a whole lot worse.

As of July 2024, Jeff is a CRAU from Apocalypse How. For more info, check this application and this info page.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

height. 6'0" build. Lean, bordering on skinny, with slim hips and long legs. hair. Brown, goes blonde when he gets a lot of sun. His hair's thick, at the longer end of short, and often unruly. eyes. Hazel, almond shaped fashion. Eclectic, androgynous hippie, going as alternative as he can with the fashion available. Examples! distinguishing marks. A beauty mark under his left eye, a candy heart tattoo on his hip/lower stomach that says "LITTLE BITCH" and a cartoon depiction of Amdusias on his right side/beneath his ribs. (reference) sexuality. Bisexual, leans homoromantic marital status. Single residence. Los Angeles, CA career. Musician, various side jobs as needed demeanor. Painfully Californian voice. Also painfully Californian. Jeff's voice is softer and gentler than one might expect, with a dreamy, distracted quality to it. He isn't shy, or unconfident, so much as he's somebody who's used to being heard without having to raise his voice. (TALKING SAMPLE | SINGING SAMPLE | BONUS) scent. He's generally clean, but spends a lot of time in bars and clubs, so there's often a scent of sweat and cigarettes and body spray. He doesn't have a favored scent profile and will just spray on anything, so one day he might smell like Axe, and the next he'll smell like candy and flowers. mental. No matter how chill he tries to come across, mentally he's like a scared rabbit who's waiting for something terrible to happen. Also, psychics and anyone who can pick up on these sorts of things may pick up on a lingering stain on his psyche, something Other that doesn't belong. It's like psychic demon residue. magical. He's his world's equivalent of a bard, so if anyone can get a feel or sense of his magic, it'd be musical, lyrical, melodious, rhythmic, discordant, cacophonous, etc. depending on his mood.

ABILITIES

As a bard, Jeff makes magic through music; he can only cast through humming, singing, whistling, or playing an instrument. He likes to use magic whenever possible, often in frivolous, flashy ways. Style over substance!

Theoretically, with time, research, practice, and a ton of trial and error, he could develop all sorts of spells, but generally he sticks to his established wheelhouse:

Ear Worms. 🌀 As an avatar of the Spiral, Jeff's music can get stuck in people's heads, and along with it: a single delusional thought that they will obsess over until the spell wears off. For example: "Don't Trust So-and-So," "All Your Friends Hate You," "None Of This Is Real," etc etc. How a character acts on the delusion is up to the player. This spell is opt-in only, and will never be cast on a character without prior OOC communication.
Illusions/Hallucinations. 🌀 Jeff can now conjure illusions affecting sight only, not sound/touch/smell/taste. The illusions are not all-encompassing (so nothing that would affect an entire building, or anyone's entire field of vision, and so on) and are mostly just used for purpose of making people doubt their reality and question their own senses.
Telekinesis. He can move objects (or small living creatures) provided 1) they're in his general vicinity (about a 10 foot radius), 2) he knows where they are, and 3) they're not all that heavy (~40 lbs or less).
Pyrokinesis. Starting and extinguishing small fires is Magic 101, and Jeff's no exception-- provided there's something flammable to actually ignite. Jeff can manipulate fires with magic, but only in flashy, pointless ways. He can't change the size or intensity of fires, but he can make them dance and take shapes temporarily. Party trick!
Lights. Jeff can use magic to light up an area-- sparkling fairy lights, or creepy will-o-the-wisp looking things, or colorful lights, and so on. They're showy, pretty, and temporary.
Locating. Sometimes, Jeff can use magic to find things, like misplaced keys. This can work on all sorts of objects, but he has to be familiar with the "essence" or "energy" (or whatever you want to call it) of the object's owner.
Blight. He can kill plants, but it's rude and he tries not to.
Intoxication/Empathic Manipulation. One of his go-to party tricks is to sway the moods of his audience. His spells can have an intoxicating effect on the listener, usually a temporary state of euphoria or lowered inhibition. Typically, effects won't last for more than 30 minutes, and would be weaker/more diluted if cast over larger groups. On his own, Jeff can have a moderate effect on a handful of people. When amped up by other magic users (like his bandmates, back home), he can work a crowd into a frenzy.
(Note: I'll never have him cast this type of spell on another character without discussing it OOCly first, and am always happy to have the spell totally fail.)

PERMISSIONS

NAME. Dee CONTACT.

weeyotch / weeyotch (discord) ACTIVE TIMES/PACE. My tagging schedule tends to be pretty irregular because of work, and I'm more likely to be active before 5 AM (EST) on weekdays. I have periods when I'm totally present and boomeranging regularly, and then I have periods when I can't even look at any of my threads for several days. BRACKETS/PROSE. I default to prose for ease of phone tagging, but my tagging partners can use any style they're comfortable with, no need to match me. It's all good with me either way. OFFENSIVE SUBJECTS & TRIGGERS. None, though I'll generally avoid scenes or plots that involve cruelty to animals or animals in distress.
BACKTAGGING. Yes please always. I go through periods when I'm very, very slow due to work and after-work obligations, so I rely pretty heavily on backtags. I'm always happy to handwave things, as well. THREADHOPPING. Yes for Network-type threads; ask first for prose/log/action. FOURTHWALLING. N/A NOT INTERESTED IN. I'm open to anything; will update if this changes
PHYSICAL AFFECTION. He can be pretty casually touchy-feely, and is generally open to physical affection in return. But if he's in his head, touch can either make him extremely cagey, or extremely clingy. PHYSICAL VIOLENCE. You can attack him, but he's a weenie, so it would probably be a very short fight! He's more likely to throw something and run away, than stand his ground. RELATIONSHIPS. Yes! In theory. He's easy to get in bed, but relationships are another beast. He's extremely flighty, has never had a relationship last longer than a month, and has a really bad habit of accidentally ghosting people. PSYCHIC & PSIONIC. Mind reading, telepathy, aura reading, dream walking, etc. are all allowed, since Jeff doesn't have any fancy mental wards to keep people out. He's an open book. MAGIC. Go ahead and use any and all magic on him. Jeff's own magic has a very musical 'feel' and energy. MEDICAL INFORMATION. He could use a nap and some decent nutrition.
WARNINGS. Prior to arriving in game, Jeff was dealing with hallucinations, fugue states/blackouts, psychological torture, and demonic possession. While he's largely going to try to bury that trauma without dealing with it at all, it's fresh on his mind and likely to come up in the narration. He also engages in recreational drug use, but I'm not looking to play up that aspect of the character here, so I figure he's just going to have a hard time getting his hands on anything stronger than weed unless a plot calls for it.

LIFE IN PUMPKIN HOLLOW

General Notes As a young avatar of the Spiral, Jeff is on a path to shed his humanity and embrace becoming a Concept. This also means he needs to feed on the distress and fear of others!! His favorite ways of feeding usually involve:

Inducing feelings of hysteria with bardic magic
Causing his victims to lose control of their emotions/impulses while retaining enough awareness to know there's something wrong, usually through a combination of magic, lies, and intoxicants
Spreading "ear worms" of delusion with his music
Cultivating a sense of general Wrongness, such as by performing a song that sounds familiar, while lacing it with occasional nonsense or similar-sounding words.

Currently, Jeff has two 'tells' (besides his RENEWED, REFRESHED, CHEERY personality) that there's something wrong with him. First: his scars (mostly obtained from a very determined Hunter) and tattoos are... inconsistent. It's not like they're moving from the left side of his body to the right or anything like that. It's more like... they're just a little different every time somebody might see them. The shape of an old knife wound has shifted, or his tattoo's moved a few centimeters up, an inch to the left, and so on. Second: his reflection (in any surface, not just mirrors) is always Wrong. Its expression will be different from his own, or its movements are off, or maybe his eyes are a different color, or he's wearing a different outfit-- whatever it is, however subtle or obvious, there's just something wrong with it.

Long Term Avatar Bullshit: Jeff doesn't have Doors. He's not the Distortion, after all. But, in time, he will have a Mirror. It could be a hand mirror, or a standing mirror, or even something as small as a broken shard. Whatever the shape it takes, the reflection in the mirror will be wrong in a subtle way that practically compels you to keep on looking at it. Stare at it too long, and you just may fall in.

The mirror 'world' seems like a place you should know, but navigating it proves frustrating. Well trod paths don't go where you know they should, and muscle memory has you turning the wrong corner. But eventually, you may find your way to the main event: an endless party. Emotions are heightened, irrationality buzzing in the air, and you know this music, you know you know it, but you can't place it. You try to leave, but every room is just an extension of the party, until you find yourself in the same room, again and again, trapped in an endless, surreal loop.

Generally speaking, Jeff prefers to leave his victims questioning their perception, mistrusting their own memories, doubting their feelings. Did that just happen, or were they mistaken? Did he just say what they thought he said, or did they simply mishear him? etc and so on.

INVENTORY / SHOPPING LIST

GUITAR, BABY (as of April 2024)
Sending Stone: Bismuth, likely as a wire wrapped pendant on a chain.

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