#✞ ⠀ ⠀ ᶠᴵᴳ ⁰ ⠀ . ⠀ ⠀ headcanons

[punkmacabre-arc]

yadda yadda john's a scrungy lil guy yadda yadda yadda dude looks like he gets beaten up every day etc etc but !! constantine ( at least in my version ) he may look like the ordinary working class brit but, since his beginnings of dabbling with the occult, there's always been something a bit uncanny looking about him . . .

when they say, eyes are a window to the soul they mean it with john. steel, argentate hues that probably went two shades lighter the night he failed to bring astra louge back from hell + sealed both hers, his + the rest of the newcastle crew's eternal damnation. pale + haunted with grief, greying from anger held since he was a kid-- constantly seeing ghosts ( or perhaps just the mind playing cruel tricks ), a trickster's glint whenever a terrible plan comes to mind, a warning sign of the inevitable: john constantine has figured a way out.

and the scars ??? there's a cacophony of stories behind them. no matter how tender his hands hard, there's a roughness to the touch. palms eternally lacerated from blood rituals, fingertips calloused from guitar strings snapping. cigarette burns littered around the body ( some from accidentally falling asleep with one in hand, others - particularly on the arms - from his father + his cruelty. ) some around the ribs from the abuse during the so-called ""treatment"" at ravenscar. besides the many others, the most prominent is the one under his right eye + just above the cheek - a lasting reminder left by nergal.

and even more important, the tattoos because there's many, many, tattoos - which is only really known by those who's seen constantine with rolled sleeves / shirtless. started with stick + pokes done by his bassist in mucous membrane. but, after ravenscar + throughout the years, john certainly felt the need to tattoo protection sigils. the seal of solomon covers his entire back, scriptures of different languages over his arm, cheryl's + gemma's - his sister + niece - initials on back of his nape in small cursive. but also, in between the sigils are more sentimental ones - some little shitty drawing of venus, liverpool fc's logo on his right bicep along with y.n.w.a underneath ( you'll never walk alone - the team's anthem ), an ouroboros around his left elbow, even some traditional 'sailor' tattoos such as a snake on his forearm, a nautical star on his rib + a skull with a candle melting over the head.

[punkmacabre-arc]

it's so so SO important to me for everyone to understand john constantine still has his ears pierced. on his right, a tiny gold ring, which is both a small protection charm to wear off back luck, being apart of the queer/bisexual community & also reminiscent of his punk days. he certainly had more younger ( helix, a snug, industrial perhaps... ) but outgrew them as he got older, the scars still remain though.

[punkmacabre-arc]

shortly after what happened at the casanova club with astra & being checked into ravenscar by his friends: chas chandler, gary lester & annie - marrie flynn, ( all members of mucous membrane . . . john never was quite the same & they feared the worse with his mental health ⎯⎯ of his own detriment but also from his experience with nergal & sending an innocent soul to hell. ) packed away all of constantine's things into crates & stored in a storage unit by the docks. some things include are:

his entire vinyl collection ( mostly the clash, buzzcocks, poison girls which were a gift from his sister, the odd spice girls & other local punk bands from the liverpool / london area. )

a black fender telecaster bought from a pawnshop, leftover band shirts from local gigs & some handmade.

stolen pint cups & ash trays from pub benders.

childhood photos ( an unfinished baby book done by his mother; photos from scans, possible other names & the only photo of them together. another set with his sister, cheryl, at political marches, snuck in house parties, & the first time they went to the bay as kids. )

old journals noting first experiences with demons, occult books checked out from the library that've been overdue for decades.

a haunted menorah, a smalltime demon trapped seven ways.

film camera full with expired film.

old school uniform, small fiction book collection from high school & some school reports ( terrible attendance. full of detentions. could go far if genuinely put in the work. needs to stop telling teachers to slag off. )

the storage unit has been left locked ever since, with constantine immediately fleeing to san francisco after two years of constant checking in & checking out at ravenscar. the key remains in cheryl's care to this day, ever so willing to give her brother the key ⎯⎯ or even yet, go with him ⎯⎯ if only he'd ask . . .

[punkmacabre-arc]

john is very much the epitome of old man understanding of technology. he owns a blackberry pearl ( which is haunted by entity called vestibulan ) & a macbook from 2009 he refuses to go near. his reputation is very much more word of mouth, a ghost story & old pub tales in itself. business cards pinned on corkboards in shady businesses being the solid evidence of his entrepreneurialship skills. it's more likely to find him by raven than on a craigslist ad ( which is there, if you search hard enough . . . )

[punkmacabre-arc]

d'you ever just think about the parallels between john and lucifer . . . in the sense of them both were blamed by and rebelled against their father figures ( lucifer with god i.e "you were blameless in your ways / till unrighteousness was found in you" + john having done nothing but be born, and yet, still blamed for his mother's death by his father. ), left abandoned by a system that failed from protecting them, and how they'd both end up in the ninth circle of hell ? also known as treachery. where those who committed betrayals end up in a frozen, desolate lake. to quote: "as they denied all human ties, so are they bound only by the unyielding ice." ( lucifer in dante's inferno being stuck from the waist up + in the house of mystery short, the outside is also deprived + grey, as if hell's frozen over ) and the way hell sometimes is so intrinsically connected by a person's guilt + fears, john's hell would be barren: bone chillingly frozen + alone with nothing but his thoughts clawing at him, if anything because oh so many pissed off demons would love the chance, he'd be stuck in an eternal manhunt from demons who have his loved ones' faces. but nonetheless, alone.

[punkmacabre-arc]

final psa before bed . . . john hates the sex pistols