i once hid my lust for stardom like a filthy magazine

Name: Dee

Age: 37

Contact: weeyotch @ plurk; weeyotch#8200 @ discord

Character(s) in game: N/A

Permissions: here

Character Name: Jeffrey David Calhoun

Age: 21 22?

Canon: Original

Canon point: 1995, several months after he accidentally summoned a demon that's now tethered to his psyche. Plus roughly a year and a half in this world.

History: To spare you a wall of text, Jeff's pre-game history section is behind the cut!

CLICK HERE TO EXPAND

For more information than you could ever want, here's an extended World Info post.

Jeff's from a modern fantasy universe, set in the present day, where magic is:

• Real. It exists, and it's been around for ages.
• Hereditary. Approximately 12% of the population is born with the ability to use magic at all.
• Out in the open. Everybody knows about it.

For centuries, magic users did the whole "hiding in plain sight" thing, their "society" (such as it was) existing as a secret, underground subculture. That changed with modern shifts in mass media and globalization. By the 20th century, discovery seemed inevitable. In the late 1940s, magic users outed themselves and emerged on the international stage. There were rough times, and many places are still rife with tension and conflict. But nowadays, in a lot of the world, the magical is practically mundane.

Officially, magical abilities are known as Gifts, and those who possess them are Gifted. While Gifted people are generally understood as part of modern society, that doesn't mean they're universally loved or embraced. Stigma and prejudices still run deep, especially in more conservative communities. But by and large, being Gifted (or not) is just another facet of a person's identity.

Although the decades since the big reveal were full of upheaval and tension, things are beginning to take a positive shift by the 1990s. It's far from perfect, but these days, being Gifted is becoming less and less of a fringe thing.

Click here for the full history write-up, complete with a timeline! Here's the tldr version:

Jeff Calhoun is a sunny, outgoing bard who lives for the spotlight. He may have failed his way out of school, and he can barely keep a job, but when it comes to music and the Gift, there's no limit to his drive and ambition. With his band of fellow Gifted musicians, an album making the rounds on college radio, and a dedicated following in the underground music scene, Jeff's star is on the rise. As the lead singer/guitarist/frontman of the Nervous Tix, Jeff's known for being wild and reckless, a total live-wire of a performer who can (and will) literally enchant crowds. According to the hype, he's got what it takes to really make it big.

Too bad he accidentally summoned a demon a few months ago. He didn't mean to do it; it was like the cosmic equivalent of calling the wrong number. For its part, the demon didn't even know what it was getting into. All it knew was a strange and beautiful melody, reverberating through the Gift, and it followed Jeff's song all the way back to the source. It was really just bad luck and a stupid mistake that tethered the curious, music-loving demon to Jeff.

The two have been trapped together for several months now, resulting in a mutual madness. The demon, which he's named Ziggy (Stardust, naturally), is a constant presence, talking to him, warping his perception, making it difficult to tell what's real and what's a hallucination. Every moment is beginning to feel like a terrible dream, and sometimes he can't even tell if he's really awake. In response, Jeff has upped his own reckless behavior, diving headfirst into drugs, sex, and anything else he can use to either drown the demon out with noise, or numb himself to the point where he doesn't care anymore. It's only a matter of time before he breaks down and goes racing towards rock bottom.

And that's when he ended up in the wrong year, in the wrong world, stuck in Gloucester! You can find a summary of his time in game here, and more in his character tag

On top of his crumbling psyche and desperation to keep his magic, Jeff's time in Gloucester was marked with a whole lot of loss. With a few exceptions, it was as if everybody he'd grown close to would just vanish, and it was... kind of a lot for his fragile sense of stability. When Tim disappeared from Wolf Pen, that was it for Jeff. He did make it back to Gloucester, where he looked for any trace of Tim, before packing his things from Bonnie's and leaving town, by bus, then train, then... whatever. Jeff spent a little bit of time in New York City, but eventually made his way south to Florida, then shot west for California, on some futile hunt for some version of the life he knew back home. Maybe this world had an equivalent of his parents, or his brothers, or his band, his friends... (Nevermind that Jeff was displaced by over 25 years on top of being in the wrong world, so even if he did find a version of anyone he knew, they'd be, like, old.)

And yeah, okay, maybe he fucked with a lot of people on his magical mystery tour across the country. Hey, he's a growing avatar! He's gotta eat! But his sense of self preservation, and his knowledge that the ADI's, you know, got eyes and ears beyond Gloucester, did lead him to try and keep a low profile. At least, as low as one can while also picking some unlucky souls here and there to torment and gaslight.

He also tried to learn more about the entities, and other avatars, still desperate for some sense of belonging. And, for his efforts, he drew the attention of a hunter. He doesn't know what her deal is, exactly, whether she's touched by an entity or just really gung-ho about catching him, but lately, it's like every time he relaxes, lets his guard down, tries to settle into some kind of a routine (of, sure, terror and madness and magic--) she's there, ready to stab him with a hunting knife, or shoot at him, or-- fuck, once she even got him in the shoulder with a crossbow, like, who even does that--

Maybe that's why he's headed back in the direction of Gloucester. Much as he hates the ADI, it may be safer there, with them, than out in the world where he's being hunted bullied by some monster hunter with an ax to grind. And besides, he's got some loose ends left in town that he's going to have to face if he ever wants to get stronger, and really live up to his full potential as an avatar.

Personality: For reference, his original traits were Friendly, Curious, Flighty, Anxious/Insecure, and Self Destructive.

• Playful: Sure, Jeff may be a monster now, but he's, like, a friendly one! Sort of. There's still some good-natured sweetness left in him, it's just been twisted (har har). He just feels so light and free now, that he can't help but want to mess around and have fun with others! Jeff's eager to seek the company of others, and he can make friends (at least on a superficial level) pretty easily, but he doesn't really distinguish between 'friend' and 'food' all that well-- and he loves playing with his food. These days, Jeff's kind of like a cat, playful, affectionate, and prone to messing with things (and people) just to see what happens. He can get along with others, and he puts on a very cheery, personable face, buuuut he can also be (lightly!) sadistic and super annoying. (But then, he was already annoying before he died and became an avatar, anyway. Just ask his neighbors at Bonnie's.) Anyway, don't mind him, he's just going to metaphorically try and bat your sanity off a high shelf for fun.
• Secretive: Look, there's a lot that Jeff just Doesn't Talk About. Even putting aside the avatar thing, even before his death and rebirth, he hardly ever communicated his issues or struggles to anyone. Sure, it was obvious something was wrong just by looking at him (especially towards the end), but getting Jeff to actually talk about any of it was pretty much a lost cause. Even his closest friends only ever got, at most, snippets of his story-- that there had been something in him back home, that he'd doubted his sanity, that it was getting harder and harder to distinguish the lines between reality and hallucinations... He never communicated the depths of it, and has been pretty good about keeping certain secrets close to his chest. If anyone sussed out that he'd been hurting people, spent more and more time in the company of delusions, helped cause the blackout back in March, died and returned as an avatar, and so on, it certainly wasn't because Jeff said anything about it. He's got a talent for changing the subject, distracting people, or seemingly opening up without actually saying much of substance. He sacrifices information that he doesn't really care about spilling, and gives juuuust enough to satisfy questions, without actually revealing anything that matters. The end result is: Jeff's great at appearing open, friendly, and emotionally available, while he sits on a nest of secrets.
• Insatiable: As a human, Jeff had a tendency to devote himself wholly and borderline obsessively to the things that really sparked his interest. The downside is he can lose sight of everything else, in his pursuit of whatever interest of the day may be. This drive and curiosity has since grown in his time in this world. After spending so much time in a state of constant-buzzing anxiety and insecurity, where he couldn't even count on his magic or his sense of reality, and was always waiting for those he made connections with (Kugrash, Gil, Meredith, so many neighbors at Bonnie's, Tim) to simply disappear from Gloucester, Jeff's become a bit like a starved, wild animal. He's developed an insatiability for... Pretty much everything. Attention (I mean, he's a musician with dreams of fame, of course he's got a bottomless appetite for attention), love, power, magic, stimulation, food. He's hungry to learn more about the world he's in, and the entity that he's embraced, and what it really means to be an avatar. He relishes the feeling of having unfettered access to his magic, instead of drips and scraps, but it's not enough. He knows there's more, that he could be so much more, and he's desperate to accumulate power, knowledge, attention, and affection, so that he'll never feel like that weak, pitiful, lonely shell of a human he once was.
• Flighty & Distracted: He's always been a major flake, forgetting things (and people) easily. There was once an innocent sort of cruelty to him, where he seemed really engaged and intimate with another person, only to forget them as soon as his attention moved on to other things. That cruelty isn't so innocent anymore, but it is somewhat incidental. Jeff exists in a state where he no longer cares to distinguish dreams, delusions, fantasy, nightmares, any of it, from reality. If anything, Jeff prefers to chase delusions and get swept up in waking dreams, whenever possible, because reality's... heavy and grey and depressing, and he doesn't want to think about it, and now he doesn't have to. Reality's optional. Of course, that attitude can also make it difficult to really focus on others, or to remember what actually happened and what he only dreamed about, and he has to really put an effort into seeming grounded on earth. It's a struggle.
• Appreciative: Okay, so for as selfish as he can be, as annoying as he can be, as monstrous as he can be... there's still a spark of something truly, genuinely good and human in Jeff. He loves people, like, as a whole concept. Sure, he preys on them, but he's convinced himself that it's simply out of necessity, not any true desire to hurt others. Honestly, he thinks humanity, in all it's capable of, is really fucking cool. He admires and appreciates others' intelligence, cleverness, talents, skills, artistry-- honestly, he sees these things as akin to magic. Once he's truly placed his attention on somebody, long enough to really look at them, he'll often find something to value and treasure in them. He doesn't really have a high opinion of himself, but he can see a lot to admire in others. Especially nerds. Jeff thinks nerdy types are really fucking cool. (And, if one were to try and pull him back from his avatar arc, this is a great resource to tap into!)

Suitability: Jeff has no love for the ADI, and certainly no loyalty, but he's proven that he can smile and play along for his own gain and self preservation. (See: handing over Fenix Down, even though he kinda liked that creepy fire clown. Plus, he helped get the Undertones in custody in Wolf Pen!) He will turn on the organization if he feels it's in his best interest, sure, but he's got no interest in actually causing an apocalypse. His main interest is in securing his own safety, and growing in power, and he's happy to help take out any competing avatar who might get in the way of that with their, like, pesky world-ending rituals. And, on an ooc level, I'm interested in seeing if Jeff will continue to fully embrace his villain arc, and eventually become a real problem to permanently eliminate, or if he'll ultimately be pulled back towards humanity and redemption.

Powers/Abilities: First and foremost: Jeff's an avatar of the Spiral, which grants him a few new tricks (ear worms and minor illusions), a desire to stoke and feed on fears lest the Spiral come and feed from him, as well as a big tell that he's going to have to do his best to hide. Basically: reflections and photos give him away; his expressions in them will always be different from reality. Much like a vampire, he's gong to be avoiding mirrors as much as possible. Beyond his twisty status, Jeff is Gifted, which means he has the potential to make magic work through self-directed Ritual. Magic, in this universe, isn't some amazing superpower, nor is it something that's as simple as picking a spell out of a book. Its applications can be versatile, running the pretty typical fantasy gamut (clairvoyance, glamours, telekinesis, vague curses/blessings, etc), with the potential mixing, matching, customization, and so on. The principles of magic are universal, but the actual spellwork is based on the individual.

Spells and Rituals are unique to the caster. Rituals are tied into some aspect of who they are, what they're interested in, or what they're skilled at. As for spells, they have to be crafted/composed and cast by the individual. Think of them like a song that can only be played by one person. They can cast the same spell over and over again, or remix it with something old and something new, or craft a new one. The bigger the effect you wish to have, the more difficult and complex the ritual spellwork must be.

Jeff's Ritual is music: singing, humming, whistling, playing the guitar, etc. Any spell he works has to be built on music, which makes him a bard. As far as magical potential goes, Jeff can be powerful, when he applies himself, and his magic is the epitome of style over substance: flashy, potentially useful, but applied frivolously. What boosts him up and sets him apart from your average Gifted person is his willingness to be amplified by other casters (his bandmates), and further fueled by his crowds' energy.

On his own, Jeff's magic has a very limited range and influence, and his spells tend to be small, personal, and borderline mundane. It should also be noted that his spells only work in person, and only when he's actively casting them. So a studio recording of one of his spells wouldn't have any effect on anybody listening, nor would a live broadcast.

Once he became an avatar of the Spiral, he got a little boost of powers, marked with a handy Spiral emoji.

Typically, his range of magic includes:

• 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. As this is separate from his bardic magic, he doesn't need to sing to create illusions.
  
  
• 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). So Jeff could never lift a car with magic, but he could put it in park by manipulating the gearshift. Really, this kind of spell is mostly useful when his hands are full and he doesn't want to make the extra trip to carry something.
  
  (It's also great for pick pocketing and shoplifting)
  
  In theory, he could use this kind of magic to do things like pick locks! But since he's likely unfamiliar with the lock's structure, it would be the magical equivalent of throwing shit at a wall to see what sticks.
  
  
• Empathic Manipulation & Intoxication: 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 wouldn't last for more than 30 minutes, and would be weaker/more diluted if cast over larger groups. On his own, Jeff could have a moderate effect on a handful of people. When amped up by other magic users (like his bandmates, in the past), he could work a crowd into a frenzy. This spell is opt-in only, and will never be cast on a character without prior OOC communication.
  
  
• Pyrokinesis: Starting fires is Magic 101, and Jeff's no exception-- provided there's something flammable to actually ignite. He can light a candle, or start a campfire (y'know, that's already got kindling and kerosene or whatever), but nine times out of ten, he'd rather just grab a lighter to do the same thing. Jeff can snuff out small flames, but he can't stop an uncontrolled fire.
  
  Beyond lighting/snuffing out fires, Jeff can manipulate them a little with magic, but only in flashy, pointless ways. He can make them dance a little, or take shapes temporarily, but that's about it. Jeff can't change the size or intensity of fires.
  
  
• 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. Mostly, this spell comes in handy if Jeff's stuck in the dark and nobody has a flashlight.
  
  
• Locating: Sometimes, Jeff can use magic to find things. Like if he misplaces his keys, the right spell can give him a sense of where they might be. 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. So Jeff can find his own misplaced objects, but he couldn't find his friend's dad's missing golf club. I mean, unless he spent some time with the guy first. As a teenager, Jeff would use this kind of magic to try to locate and steal test answers from his teachers.
  
  
• Blight: He can kill plants, but it's rude and he tries not to. He also can't do the opposite-- nurture life-- with magic.

In addition to all the magical wizard shit, Jeff's a skilled guitarist and singer, and he's got some standard juvenile delinquent skills.

Entity Affinity: Jeff is all about the SPIRAL, BABY. Prior to his arrival in game, he spent the months experiencing auditory and visual hallucinations, talking to what's essentially a voice in his head, and could no longer trust his own perception. While the demon was in his head, dreams and reality began to melt together, and now that he's fully embraced that, he's become an avatar of the Spiral. RIDE OR DIE. Wait, he already died--

Inventory: Whatever clothes he packed, an acoustic guitar, an electric guitar and travel amp, an ipod shuffle, a D&D monster manual, mirror shards from a Spiral artifact (his reward for helping Aelwyn take out Fenix Down -- possibly hidden somewhere away from Gloucester for idk future plot purposes -- also happy to say he just totally lost this somewhere along the way).

Oh, and Macaroni, the naked sphynx cat that once belonged to Jack, then Abby. Unless somebody's been taking care of her at Bonnie's all this time, in which case, disregard!

Samples: sample one & sample two (older sample)