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PLAYER:
Name: Eilidh
Personal Journal: loisneach
Contact Info: AIM: loisneachbalgair | Email: elegance.wasted@hotmail.com
CHARACTER:
Name: Jonathan Steele
Source: Original.
PERSONALITY: You’d be hard pushed to find someone warmer, more caring, or more devoted than Jonathan. It doesn’t take much for him to form a bond with someone, nor does it take much for him to trust them. Befriend him, and you’ve a friend for life, and he would do anything for you, regardless of the repercussions it brought upon himself. He is incredibly passionate, and when he loves, he does it with all his heart. His loyalty is unwavering, and as he sees it, his reason to live is those people he cares for. Making them happy is why he gets up in the morning, because that’s the most important thing to him.
Perhaps the only thing really important. He throws his all into everything he does, and dealing with people is know different. Since childhood, he’s possessed a potent white knight syndrome, and time has only made it grow bigger. If there’s someone in need of any kind of help, he will drop everything to do what he can. He endeavours to come across as charming, and it comes easily to him, as much for his charisma as for his well-woven words and winsome smile. His heart is worn on his sleeve and his emotions are easily discernable with a single glance at him, but his smiles are always genuine, and in general he seems light of heart and easy going, flirtatious and confident.
A skilled musician, Jonathan could talk for hours about the subject, or any number of other things. He’s a jack of all trades, master of quite a few thanks to his dedication - learning new skills is another passion of his, and he is not the type to give up. (Though, to his chagrin, he remains a technophobe.) He seems to be the perfect knight. Talented, intelligent, and charming, Jonathan is one of those people who appears almost too perfect, too happy, too damn good. Indeed, that’s part of his problem.
All of Jonathan’s good points, his virtues, are what set him up for the fall.
He is devoted, yes, utterly, with all his heart. And it doesn’t take much to spark this in him, this die-for-you need to protect and please. He’s unguarded, gullible, and trusting to a fault, and what’s more, it’s nigh on impossible to break that trust. He is selfless to the point where it has become selfish, too eager to please, too singularly devoted, and those he loves can seemingly never put a foot wrong in his regard. It’s this which has, in the past, reduced him to little more than a doormat, and time has not taught him well when it comes to this. He is too caring, to willing to lay it on the line for someone he may barely even know. He will willingly give his all to someone he knows would never do the same for him, because it’s compulsive for him. It’s what he has to do.
Jonathan is ever protective, but to an extreme. Any hint of what he perceives as a threat, and he can be stifling in his desire to ensure no harm reaches those he cares for. Stifling, yes, and not always just in his protectiveness but from day to day. He is, despite how usually subtle it comes across, clingy and needy. He hankers after attention, and hates being withdrawn from people. And yet, despite this, when upset he does withdraw in on himself, as if in the hope someone will be moved to draw him out of it. And those black moods may not strike so often as they did once, but they strike hard.
For he is, as said, a man who throws his all into everything he does, be it love, be it laughter, or be it less positive. When he is angry, he is wall-punching stupid with anger. When he is sad, pulling him out of it seems damn near impossible. While an intelligent man, he is not necessarily the brightest - perhaps it’s that’s strong moral code (flawed as it often is) which has him failing with such things as mental strategy. Or, indeed, that used anywhere else. He is prone to be rash, running into things head first, often irrationally.
Jonathan is noble, there is no doubt of that. A truer friend is likely difficult to find. It is both his love, and his fears, that drive him. Above all, perhaps, he is a man of emotions, in equal measures a blessing and a curse.
BIGGEST FEAR: Abandonment or loneliness. Jonathan can run headfirst into a battle, face horrible demons, but he is absolutely terrified of losing people. Similarly, he is also scared of anything happening to those he cares about.
POWERS: Jonathan is strong and fast, perhaps a little more so than the average human. This is, however, nothing of particular note, simply the result of hard work and hard training throughout his life.
The summoning of Metamorphosis, his symbiotic weapon, could be considered less normal. This is his Knight’s Weapon, and, as such, can offer him tailor-made powers. The sword seems to enhance his ability to leap and jump, sometimes allowing him to stay airborne briefly (for example, during a fight). In addition to this, the sword can change its form, for example, it could be wielded as a longsword and then as a broadsword, depending on what Jonathan wished to use.
HISTORY: Firstly, a little on the world from which Jonathan comes from. It is Earth, present time, with the same leaders, the same celebrities, the same prices for the same things. It is a world that has forgotten magic, but that does not mean that there is none.
It is a world where forgotten creatures, forgotten shadows, still walk beneath the noses of the average human. It is a world where half-Elves are adjusting to city-life, hiding pointed ears behind their hair. It is a world where Vampires drink their fill, often from those who find it just another exciting fetish. It is a world where, just beneath the surface, the Demons, dead souls fragmented back together, and Sorcerers, that age old breed of magic users, are doing battle. And now, after many centuries, it seems as though the war is coming to a climax.
The Steeles were an old, old family. They were, and remain, absurdly rich, and hold great places of power throughout the world, yet few but those who matter know this or, indeed, anything about them. They’d had many names, from time to time, and many jobs - whatever brought in the most money, really, but there had always been one constant. The science of the soul.
In the Medieval Ages, many of them were alchemists, working with metallurgy and on crossing those fine lines between science and magic. And it was during this time that a breakthrough was made - some dark and secret power that was uncovered. It was during this time that the Steele family perfected the art of stealing souls. Yes, they could pluck them right from another person, and leave that person an empty shell, a machine just waiting to be reprogrammed as they saw fit.
And so the Steeles grew powerful. And over the years, their wealth and their power grew, just beneath the surface, just out of earshot.
It was during the eighteenth century that the family split. One moralistic upstart took his share of the money and left to make his fortune in other, fairer ways. But they do not stop being involved, no - a grudge was simply struck between the two sides, and time did not heal this bitterness.
Therefore, the rift goes on, one side doing just good business with stolen souls, the other side hating it. It is to the latter side that Jonathan Steele was born, first son to Andrew (of the Steele line) and Alicia (who seemed to possess some Vampire blood somewhere in her ancestry). His childhood was idyllic, his parents doting. He inherited a passion for music from his parents, as well as an early passion for fencing and riding. But more importantly, something that would shape the rest of his life, he discovered (for the Steeles are known to the Sorcerers, and the Sorcerers to them) the concept of Sorcerers and their Knights.
(Sorcerers are the magic users, but Knights are physical fighters who fight alongside them. Many Sorcerers bond themselves to a Knight they feel an affinity with, provided their chosen animals match up. The bond involves linking the two souls together.)
To young Jonathan, already brimming with notions of gallantry and chivalry, this became his dream, his hope, his aspiration. Before he could even hold a weapon, he’d decided what it was that he would do with his life. He would become a Knight, and bond a Sorcerer. In dreams, he caught glimpses of his Sorcerer-to-be, and in these dreams, there were always butterflies.
But at this time, there was also the matter of the birth of his parent’s second son. It was not that Jonathan’s parents turned him away to spoil young Richard, no - they had plenty of love for both their children. But Jonathan was a jealous, spoiled child himself, and did not like sharing this attention. He scorned the brother who idolized him, turning him away whenever he reached out to him. You’d think a boy so determined to protect would be more considerate, don’t you? But to Jonathan, Richard was worth nothing.
No. Far more important to him was his friend, Christian, another Steele - from the original branch of the family. For the two (now almost wholly different) families remained interlinked, and Christian, a weak, fragile sort of child, and Jonathan, stronger, braver, full of life, took an immediate shine to each other despite the fact that their fathers loathed each other. In fact, in his sickness and his withdrawn periods, Jonathan was the only person Christian would open up to.
So his childhood went on. He was home-schooled, and from an early age showed an affinity for fighting, whether it was a wooden stick or a catapult. He trained daily with the ultimate goal of becoming a Knight. Little did he know, his potential had already caught the attention of higher powers.
His life, however, was about to change.
At eleven, he was to begin attending a very prestigious private boarding school - the only one, indeed, which would teach children not only about the usual subjects but also about the other things, about the Sorcerers and Demons and all else they shared the world with. It was at this time, however, that the argument between his father and Christian’s came to a head. Unbeknownst to Jonathan, Andrew was given an ultimatum - leave, or his family would be reduced to soulless puppets. But there was one condition: Jonathan would be left behind to attend school with Christian, for without Jonathan, Christian would surely crumble.
All Jonathan was to know was that his parents were leaving him to be looked after by the servants for his schooling, despite how it broke their hearts. And he screamed. And he cried. And in the midst of this, he started school.
It was, in fact, welcome respite. He took to it at once, skilled in his studies, athletic, instantly becoming popular amongst his fellow schoolmates and his teachers (most of them, at least). He developed a close knit group of friends who would stay with him throughout those years -two of which were some of those Other Steeles, Christian and Thomas. Christian, though deathly shy, was able to open up through Jonathan. School became a haven. He formed a friendship with one of his teachers - who so happened to be a Demon named Rothinzil, cursed into a permanent state of ‘Clarity’, who had once been a Knight, centuries before. With Rothinzil, he was able to continue training, and the man became almost fatherly. Whilst Christian and Thomas topped every class (The main Steele family would accept nothing but perfection), Jonathan was top in every sport’s team and in music (he was, in fact, the starring voice in the choir, and lead in the orchestra). It was not, however, without fault.
For the main side of the Steele family is much bigger, and there are many brothers and cousins following a strict hierarchy. A few years above them in school was Thomas’ oldest brother Alexander, who was being groomed to become the next head of the soul stealers. Jonathan and Alexander loathed each other from meeting, Alexander full of cruel remarks which Jonathan was easily baited by. At twelve, one of their tumultuous arguments resulted in Jonathan lashing out, shoving the older boy - and Alexander fell into the river.
He was saved, and he was safe, but the bad blood between he and Jonathan would only fester, and Jonathan, at only twelve years old, was to be haunted by almost killing someone.
Thankfully, things preceded without incident. He was at school most of the year, sent home to a house full of servants during holidays. Until, at least, he was fifteen. For it was at this time when Alexander decided to exact his revenge. Having just learned the family specialty, little would please him more, he decided, than seeing Jonathan reduced to a hollow shell. In this, Jonathan was also betrayed by his friend James, but the attack was stopped by Rothinzil, and he was safe.
At this time, Jonathan also started a relationship with Christian - as he saw it, he’d fallen in love, and fallen hard. It did not last - Christian eventually dropped him when he found someone else, and this too hit Jonathan hard. On top of this, still failing to find his Sorcerer was grinding him down. He remained bright and popular, the centre of his circle of friends, however, carrying himself with his usual mien as his skill with the sword and with shooting became all but prodigal.
Towards the end of his school life, he was in a brief almost-relationship with a girl from the sister school, named Dilys Amherst. As it was, she was a Sorceress herself - but not the one Jonathan was waiting for. They lost touch at the end of school, however, and Jonathan, upon returning home, dismissed every servant. He was a frequent visitor to the nearby village in the valley, but from his friends and his distant family he shut himself off. He lived alone, and spent his days trying to embitter himself against the idea of ever wanting to be a Knight.
Was it chance or more which drew the Demon King to him? Jonathan did not know then, and while he may know more now, he does not consider it his place to say.
He came to him first in dreams. Dreams of spider’s webs that smelled of incense. He visited him them in his home, a strange, unearthly being Jonathan could not help but cling to. Here was someone who noticed him. Someone who cared. And Jonathan would do anything for that, knowing so little of King Roth as he did. It was Roth who began training him with the longsword, and to this day it remains his favoured weapon. Roth offered him the choice to come to the Demon Realm (A parasitic world adjoined to his own, controlled by the King himself) and Jonathan, seeing himself as having nothing to lose, went with him.
He gave no warning, no explanation to his friends, his family. He simply disappeared off the face of the world, as if he’d ceased to exist.
But in the Demon World, in the court of the king, he lived, and he was happy. He befriended the Demons, knew them well, and was perhaps closer to Roth than any. He was devoted to the King. So much so, in fact, that he fought those Sorcerers and Knights he had once so wanted to join. And he was good. He was damn good.
Rothinzil, however, saw this, and was angered by it. Many times, he tried to persuade Jonathan away, and each time, failed. Jonathan may well have been bewitched, but Roth did not even need to. Growing desperate, Rothinzil left to find one of Jonathan’s relatives, an uncle who had been travelling since he was a baby.
Jonathan stayed with Roth until his early twenties, and even if he still dreamed of butterflies, he cared only for the King. Rothinzil returned, however, with Jonathan’s uncle, Nigel - and that man was quite powerful himself. It was Nigel that took Jonathan from Roth, and Nigel that kept him in his own home.
Jonathan’s mood was endlessly black, despair flicking to fury within moments. He would never smile, never laugh, tried relentlessly to escape - but those powers of his uncle kept him there, and his uncle refused to give up.
In this strange house, it so happened that certain lines blurred. One such line was that between human and animal, and Nigel’s house was always full of people suspiciously like them.
And Jonathan met a woman, delicate and lovely, who spoke in whispers and ate only fruit. He is a man who believes in love at first sight (and those who believe in love at first sight may well find it), and so he did with her. Their relationship was brief, fleeting, transient - perhaps only a fortnight.
For butterflies do not live long, and neither did she.
But the effect she had upon him lasted. He was, you may say, healed of his previous, obsessive love, healed of some of that darkness, and, though saddened, held hope again. He returned home in his mid-twenties, and three wings of the mansion were locked up, not to be used again for many years. In this time, he did all the work himself, his home becoming cluttered with things, but he was, for a time, comfortable.
By twenty six, he’d found a profession, thanks to a distant friend of the family in need of protection. He became a mercenary, for the most part a body-guard for hire, which suited his desire to serve, to protect, even if all of it was empty. And so, during these jobs, he became accustomed to killing.
His life grew darker again. The locals, who saw him no longer, passed stories and rumours about the mad aristocrat up in the mansion (save for one, Albert, who continued to visit him, undeterred). They spoke fondly enough, true, their tales not spun in cruelty, but the man who lived there became something of myth. Between friends and colleagues, he flitted from meaningless relationship to meaningless relationship, and what was sex for others was love for Jonathan, was what he needed, what he craved, just some attention, just some regard for a time. It became a monotonous, patterned parody of life, and Jonathan was a pale ghost of what he had been.
He was by now just past forty (and hardly aging, call it good breeding), more than used to the way his life had gone but liking it not, when he met a man who’d happened upon his garden, undeterred by tales of mad aristocrats. It was then that he met Nathaniel Strife.
Their first meeting was not ideal. For Jonathan, in all his old paranoia, actually pulled a gun on the other man, who was ready to meet it with a flare of magic.
To ask Jonathan, he would say once more, however, that it was love at first sight. But, for once, he did not rush in. For many months, in fact, they grew close, closer, finding a rare solace in each other. And Nathaniel was not without his own problems, for he too, was prone to darker moods, to sadness and detachment. In fact, the Sorcerer bore a curse from Roth himself, and often had seizures. Jonathan remained with him through it, however.
And so it came to pass that Jonathan was bonded to Nathaniel, both as a Knight and as a lover.
He returned to Tear, the base for the Sorcerers, as a friend rather than an enemy, and whilst many had their misgivings, was generally accepted back - especially by the High Sorceress Akasha, a web-weaving, Machiavellian spider of a woman. As it was, he had a few friends there already - Dilys and her Knight, for example, and through this he quickly made more. His life had reason to it again, motivation, and Jonathan was happier than he had been in over a decade.
There were yet problems to cope with, of course, saving Nathaniel from suicide being one of them. But the very nature of a butterfly was change, and it came easier to them now. Also difficult was enlightening Nathaniel to the nature of his past where Roth was concerned, but, as with all things, they pulled through this.
He was quickly becoming one of the top Knights, highly talented and well liked by many. He befriended, in fact, a teenage trainee named Christopher, an orphan who seemed to idolize him. They trained together and grew close, to the point where they were all but father and son.
Soon after, they learned the irony of this. In one of those brief, almost-meaningless flings, Jonathan had fathered a child. The mother, a Sorceress of Tear, had been killed by Demons shortly after childbirth, and Jonathan had never found out about his son. Akasha, who could have told him, did not - instead, she gave the child to an old, reclusive Sorceress whose power she needed, in order to make the woman come back.
When this came out, there was outrage, and on none more than Jonathan, who was all but willing to leave that place. In the end, however, he was persuaded back by his sense of duty, and that kept him there - and he was more than willing to make up for lost time with his son, Christopher.
For the honour of his adoptive mother, in fact, Christopher challenged the Demon King (his rash stupidity most likely inherited from Jonathan himself). Jonathan, upon hearing this, demanded Roth fight with him instead, and so, for the first time since Jonathan had been dragged from him kicking and screaming, they met once more.
In the ensuing fight, Jonathan was heavily injured - it seemed, in fact, that his wounds may have been fatal. But he was healed, and thus saved.
Now with a family and friends arrayed about him, Jonathan arguably had all he’d wanted. In Tear, he was growing in renown, especially after his fight with Roth - in fact, he was being touted as the one who might, just maybe, bring down the Demon King. It remained hard for him to hate him, true, but the curse upon Nathaniel, the pain caused to those he loved now outshone it, and he trained still. He kept fighting, kept pushing himself to get better even when it seemed he could not. For Demons are unnatural things, and he has known Roth in his clarity, and in his cruelty, and seeks not to simply kill him, but to give him the rest he should have had centuries before.
In the meantime, the war continues to rage on.
It was in one battle between Tear and the Demons, taking place on Demon turf, that Jonathan was knocked out. And when he wakes, Tear, Demons, and his bonded will be far beyond his reach, no matter how hard he tries.
PLAYER:
Name: Eilidh
Personal Journal: loisneach
Contact Info: AIM: loisneachbalgair | Email: elegance.wasted@hotmail.com
CHARACTER:
Name: Jonathan Steele
Source: Original.
PERSONALITY: You’d be hard pushed to find someone warmer, more caring, or more devoted than Jonathan. It doesn’t take much for him to form a bond with someone, nor does it take much for him to trust them. Befriend him, and you’ve a friend for life, and he would do anything for you, regardless of the repercussions it brought upon himself. He is incredibly passionate, and when he loves, he does it with all his heart. His loyalty is unwavering, and as he sees it, his reason to live is those people he cares for. Making them happy is why he gets up in the morning, because that’s the most important thing to him.
Perhaps the only thing really important. He throws his all into everything he does, and dealing with people is know different. Since childhood, he’s possessed a potent white knight syndrome, and time has only made it grow bigger. If there’s someone in need of any kind of help, he will drop everything to do what he can. He endeavours to come across as charming, and it comes easily to him, as much for his charisma as for his well-woven words and winsome smile. His heart is worn on his sleeve and his emotions are easily discernable with a single glance at him, but his smiles are always genuine, and in general he seems light of heart and easy going, flirtatious and confident.
A skilled musician, Jonathan could talk for hours about the subject, or any number of other things. He’s a jack of all trades, master of quite a few thanks to his dedication - learning new skills is another passion of his, and he is not the type to give up. (Though, to his chagrin, he remains a technophobe.) He seems to be the perfect knight. Talented, intelligent, and charming, Jonathan is one of those people who appears almost too perfect, too happy, too damn good. Indeed, that’s part of his problem.
All of Jonathan’s good points, his virtues, are what set him up for the fall.
He is devoted, yes, utterly, with all his heart. And it doesn’t take much to spark this in him, this die-for-you need to protect and please. He’s unguarded, gullible, and trusting to a fault, and what’s more, it’s nigh on impossible to break that trust. He is selfless to the point where it has become selfish, too eager to please, too singularly devoted, and those he loves can seemingly never put a foot wrong in his regard. It’s this which has, in the past, reduced him to little more than a doormat, and time has not taught him well when it comes to this. He is too caring, to willing to lay it on the line for someone he may barely even know. He will willingly give his all to someone he knows would never do the same for him, because it’s compulsive for him. It’s what he has to do.
Jonathan is ever protective, but to an extreme. Any hint of what he perceives as a threat, and he can be stifling in his desire to ensure no harm reaches those he cares for. Stifling, yes, and not always just in his protectiveness but from day to day. He is, despite how usually subtle it comes across, clingy and needy. He hankers after attention, and hates being withdrawn from people. And yet, despite this, when upset he does withdraw in on himself, as if in the hope someone will be moved to draw him out of it. And those black moods may not strike so often as they did once, but they strike hard.
For he is, as said, a man who throws his all into everything he does, be it love, be it laughter, or be it less positive. When he is angry, he is wall-punching stupid with anger. When he is sad, pulling him out of it seems damn near impossible. While an intelligent man, he is not necessarily the brightest - perhaps it’s that’s strong moral code (flawed as it often is) which has him failing with such things as mental strategy. Or, indeed, that used anywhere else. He is prone to be rash, running into things head first, often irrationally.
Jonathan is noble, there is no doubt of that. A truer friend is likely difficult to find. It is both his love, and his fears, that drive him. Above all, perhaps, he is a man of emotions, in equal measures a blessing and a curse.
BIGGEST FEAR: Abandonment or loneliness. Jonathan can run headfirst into a battle, face horrible demons, but he is absolutely terrified of losing people. Similarly, he is also scared of anything happening to those he cares about.
POWERS: Jonathan is strong and fast, perhaps a little more so than the average human. This is, however, nothing of particular note, simply the result of hard work and hard training throughout his life.
The summoning of Metamorphosis, his symbiotic weapon, could be considered less normal. This is his Knight’s Weapon, and, as such, can offer him tailor-made powers. The sword seems to enhance his ability to leap and jump, sometimes allowing him to stay airborne briefly (for example, during a fight). In addition to this, the sword can change its form, for example, it could be wielded as a longsword and then as a broadsword, depending on what Jonathan wished to use.
HISTORY: Firstly, a little on the world from which Jonathan comes from. It is Earth, present time, with the same leaders, the same celebrities, the same prices for the same things. It is a world that has forgotten magic, but that does not mean that there is none.
It is a world where forgotten creatures, forgotten shadows, still walk beneath the noses of the average human. It is a world where half-Elves are adjusting to city-life, hiding pointed ears behind their hair. It is a world where Vampires drink their fill, often from those who find it just another exciting fetish. It is a world where, just beneath the surface, the Demons, dead souls fragmented back together, and Sorcerers, that age old breed of magic users, are doing battle. And now, after many centuries, it seems as though the war is coming to a climax.
The Steeles were an old, old family. They were, and remain, absurdly rich, and hold great places of power throughout the world, yet few but those who matter know this or, indeed, anything about them. They’d had many names, from time to time, and many jobs - whatever brought in the most money, really, but there had always been one constant. The science of the soul.
In the Medieval Ages, many of them were alchemists, working with metallurgy and on crossing those fine lines between science and magic. And it was during this time that a breakthrough was made - some dark and secret power that was uncovered. It was during this time that the Steele family perfected the art of stealing souls. Yes, they could pluck them right from another person, and leave that person an empty shell, a machine just waiting to be reprogrammed as they saw fit.
And so the Steeles grew powerful. And over the years, their wealth and their power grew, just beneath the surface, just out of earshot.
It was during the eighteenth century that the family split. One moralistic upstart took his share of the money and left to make his fortune in other, fairer ways. But they do not stop being involved, no - a grudge was simply struck between the two sides, and time did not heal this bitterness.
Therefore, the rift goes on, one side doing just good business with stolen souls, the other side hating it. It is to the latter side that Jonathan Steele was born, first son to Andrew (of the Steele line) and Alicia (who seemed to possess some Vampire blood somewhere in her ancestry). His childhood was idyllic, his parents doting. He inherited a passion for music from his parents, as well as an early passion for fencing and riding. But more importantly, something that would shape the rest of his life, he discovered (for the Steeles are known to the Sorcerers, and the Sorcerers to them) the concept of Sorcerers and their Knights.
(Sorcerers are the magic users, but Knights are physical fighters who fight alongside them. Many Sorcerers bond themselves to a Knight they feel an affinity with, provided their chosen animals match up. The bond involves linking the two souls together.)
To young Jonathan, already brimming with notions of gallantry and chivalry, this became his dream, his hope, his aspiration. Before he could even hold a weapon, he’d decided what it was that he would do with his life. He would become a Knight, and bond a Sorcerer. In dreams, he caught glimpses of his Sorcerer-to-be, and in these dreams, there were always butterflies.
But at this time, there was also the matter of the birth of his parent’s second son. It was not that Jonathan’s parents turned him away to spoil young Richard, no - they had plenty of love for both their children. But Jonathan was a jealous, spoiled child himself, and did not like sharing this attention. He scorned the brother who idolized him, turning him away whenever he reached out to him. You’d think a boy so determined to protect would be more considerate, don’t you? But to Jonathan, Richard was worth nothing.
No. Far more important to him was his friend, Christian, another Steele - from the original branch of the family. For the two (now almost wholly different) families remained interlinked, and Christian, a weak, fragile sort of child, and Jonathan, stronger, braver, full of life, took an immediate shine to each other despite the fact that their fathers loathed each other. In fact, in his sickness and his withdrawn periods, Jonathan was the only person Christian would open up to.
So his childhood went on. He was home-schooled, and from an early age showed an affinity for fighting, whether it was a wooden stick or a catapult. He trained daily with the ultimate goal of becoming a Knight. Little did he know, his potential had already caught the attention of higher powers.
His life, however, was about to change.
At eleven, he was to begin attending a very prestigious private boarding school - the only one, indeed, which would teach children not only about the usual subjects but also about the other things, about the Sorcerers and Demons and all else they shared the world with. It was at this time, however, that the argument between his father and Christian’s came to a head. Unbeknownst to Jonathan, Andrew was given an ultimatum - leave, or his family would be reduced to soulless puppets. But there was one condition: Jonathan would be left behind to attend school with Christian, for without Jonathan, Christian would surely crumble.
All Jonathan was to know was that his parents were leaving him to be looked after by the servants for his schooling, despite how it broke their hearts. And he screamed. And he cried. And in the midst of this, he started school.
It was, in fact, welcome respite. He took to it at once, skilled in his studies, athletic, instantly becoming popular amongst his fellow schoolmates and his teachers (most of them, at least). He developed a close knit group of friends who would stay with him throughout those years -two of which were some of those Other Steeles, Christian and Thomas. Christian, though deathly shy, was able to open up through Jonathan. School became a haven. He formed a friendship with one of his teachers - who so happened to be a Demon named Rothinzil, cursed into a permanent state of ‘Clarity’, who had once been a Knight, centuries before. With Rothinzil, he was able to continue training, and the man became almost fatherly. Whilst Christian and Thomas topped every class (The main Steele family would accept nothing but perfection), Jonathan was top in every sport’s team and in music (he was, in fact, the starring voice in the choir, and lead in the orchestra). It was not, however, without fault.
For the main side of the Steele family is much bigger, and there are many brothers and cousins following a strict hierarchy. A few years above them in school was Thomas’ oldest brother Alexander, who was being groomed to become the next head of the soul stealers. Jonathan and Alexander loathed each other from meeting, Alexander full of cruel remarks which Jonathan was easily baited by. At twelve, one of their tumultuous arguments resulted in Jonathan lashing out, shoving the older boy - and Alexander fell into the river.
He was saved, and he was safe, but the bad blood between he and Jonathan would only fester, and Jonathan, at only twelve years old, was to be haunted by almost killing someone.
Thankfully, things preceded without incident. He was at school most of the year, sent home to a house full of servants during holidays. Until, at least, he was fifteen. For it was at this time when Alexander decided to exact his revenge. Having just learned the family specialty, little would please him more, he decided, than seeing Jonathan reduced to a hollow shell. In this, Jonathan was also betrayed by his friend James, but the attack was stopped by Rothinzil, and he was safe.
At this time, Jonathan also started a relationship with Christian - as he saw it, he’d fallen in love, and fallen hard. It did not last - Christian eventually dropped him when he found someone else, and this too hit Jonathan hard. On top of this, still failing to find his Sorcerer was grinding him down. He remained bright and popular, the centre of his circle of friends, however, carrying himself with his usual mien as his skill with the sword and with shooting became all but prodigal.
Towards the end of his school life, he was in a brief almost-relationship with a girl from the sister school, named Dilys Amherst. As it was, she was a Sorceress herself - but not the one Jonathan was waiting for. They lost touch at the end of school, however, and Jonathan, upon returning home, dismissed every servant. He was a frequent visitor to the nearby village in the valley, but from his friends and his distant family he shut himself off. He lived alone, and spent his days trying to embitter himself against the idea of ever wanting to be a Knight.
Was it chance or more which drew the Demon King to him? Jonathan did not know then, and while he may know more now, he does not consider it his place to say.
He came to him first in dreams. Dreams of spider’s webs that smelled of incense. He visited him them in his home, a strange, unearthly being Jonathan could not help but cling to. Here was someone who noticed him. Someone who cared. And Jonathan would do anything for that, knowing so little of King Roth as he did. It was Roth who began training him with the longsword, and to this day it remains his favoured weapon. Roth offered him the choice to come to the Demon Realm (A parasitic world adjoined to his own, controlled by the King himself) and Jonathan, seeing himself as having nothing to lose, went with him.
He gave no warning, no explanation to his friends, his family. He simply disappeared off the face of the world, as if he’d ceased to exist.
But in the Demon World, in the court of the king, he lived, and he was happy. He befriended the Demons, knew them well, and was perhaps closer to Roth than any. He was devoted to the King. So much so, in fact, that he fought those Sorcerers and Knights he had once so wanted to join. And he was good. He was damn good.
Rothinzil, however, saw this, and was angered by it. Many times, he tried to persuade Jonathan away, and each time, failed. Jonathan may well have been bewitched, but Roth did not even need to. Growing desperate, Rothinzil left to find one of Jonathan’s relatives, an uncle who had been travelling since he was a baby.
Jonathan stayed with Roth until his early twenties, and even if he still dreamed of butterflies, he cared only for the King. Rothinzil returned, however, with Jonathan’s uncle, Nigel - and that man was quite powerful himself. It was Nigel that took Jonathan from Roth, and Nigel that kept him in his own home.
Jonathan’s mood was endlessly black, despair flicking to fury within moments. He would never smile, never laugh, tried relentlessly to escape - but those powers of his uncle kept him there, and his uncle refused to give up.
In this strange house, it so happened that certain lines blurred. One such line was that between human and animal, and Nigel’s house was always full of people suspiciously like them.
And Jonathan met a woman, delicate and lovely, who spoke in whispers and ate only fruit. He is a man who believes in love at first sight (and those who believe in love at first sight may well find it), and so he did with her. Their relationship was brief, fleeting, transient - perhaps only a fortnight.
For butterflies do not live long, and neither did she.
But the effect she had upon him lasted. He was, you may say, healed of his previous, obsessive love, healed of some of that darkness, and, though saddened, held hope again. He returned home in his mid-twenties, and three wings of the mansion were locked up, not to be used again for many years. In this time, he did all the work himself, his home becoming cluttered with things, but he was, for a time, comfortable.
By twenty six, he’d found a profession, thanks to a distant friend of the family in need of protection. He became a mercenary, for the most part a body-guard for hire, which suited his desire to serve, to protect, even if all of it was empty. And so, during these jobs, he became accustomed to killing.
His life grew darker again. The locals, who saw him no longer, passed stories and rumours about the mad aristocrat up in the mansion (save for one, Albert, who continued to visit him, undeterred). They spoke fondly enough, true, their tales not spun in cruelty, but the man who lived there became something of myth. Between friends and colleagues, he flitted from meaningless relationship to meaningless relationship, and what was sex for others was love for Jonathan, was what he needed, what he craved, just some attention, just some regard for a time. It became a monotonous, patterned parody of life, and Jonathan was a pale ghost of what he had been.
He was by now just past forty (and hardly aging, call it good breeding), more than used to the way his life had gone but liking it not, when he met a man who’d happened upon his garden, undeterred by tales of mad aristocrats. It was then that he met Nathaniel Strife.
Their first meeting was not ideal. For Jonathan, in all his old paranoia, actually pulled a gun on the other man, who was ready to meet it with a flare of magic.
To ask Jonathan, he would say once more, however, that it was love at first sight. But, for once, he did not rush in. For many months, in fact, they grew close, closer, finding a rare solace in each other. And Nathaniel was not without his own problems, for he too, was prone to darker moods, to sadness and detachment. In fact, the Sorcerer bore a curse from Roth himself, and often had seizures. Jonathan remained with him through it, however.
And so it came to pass that Jonathan was bonded to Nathaniel, both as a Knight and as a lover.
He returned to Tear, the base for the Sorcerers, as a friend rather than an enemy, and whilst many had their misgivings, was generally accepted back - especially by the High Sorceress Akasha, a web-weaving, Machiavellian spider of a woman. As it was, he had a few friends there already - Dilys and her Knight, for example, and through this he quickly made more. His life had reason to it again, motivation, and Jonathan was happier than he had been in over a decade.
There were yet problems to cope with, of course, saving Nathaniel from suicide being one of them. But the very nature of a butterfly was change, and it came easier to them now. Also difficult was enlightening Nathaniel to the nature of his past where Roth was concerned, but, as with all things, they pulled through this.
He was quickly becoming one of the top Knights, highly talented and well liked by many. He befriended, in fact, a teenage trainee named Christopher, an orphan who seemed to idolize him. They trained together and grew close, to the point where they were all but father and son.
Soon after, they learned the irony of this. In one of those brief, almost-meaningless flings, Jonathan had fathered a child. The mother, a Sorceress of Tear, had been killed by Demons shortly after childbirth, and Jonathan had never found out about his son. Akasha, who could have told him, did not - instead, she gave the child to an old, reclusive Sorceress whose power she needed, in order to make the woman come back.
When this came out, there was outrage, and on none more than Jonathan, who was all but willing to leave that place. In the end, however, he was persuaded back by his sense of duty, and that kept him there - and he was more than willing to make up for lost time with his son, Christopher.
For the honour of his adoptive mother, in fact, Christopher challenged the Demon King (his rash stupidity most likely inherited from Jonathan himself). Jonathan, upon hearing this, demanded Roth fight with him instead, and so, for the first time since Jonathan had been dragged from him kicking and screaming, they met once more.
In the ensuing fight, Jonathan was heavily injured - it seemed, in fact, that his wounds may have been fatal. But he was healed, and thus saved.
Now with a family and friends arrayed about him, Jonathan arguably had all he’d wanted. In Tear, he was growing in renown, especially after his fight with Roth - in fact, he was being touted as the one who might, just maybe, bring down the Demon King. It remained hard for him to hate him, true, but the curse upon Nathaniel, the pain caused to those he loved now outshone it, and he trained still. He kept fighting, kept pushing himself to get better even when it seemed he could not. For Demons are unnatural things, and he has known Roth in his clarity, and in his cruelty, and seeks not to simply kill him, but to give him the rest he should have had centuries before.
In the meantime, the war continues to rage on.
It was in one battle between Tear and the Demons, taking place on Demon turf, that Jonathan was knocked out. And when he wakes, Tear, Demons, and his bonded will be far beyond his reach, no matter how hard he tries.