Para APP
NAME: TF
JOURNAL: todd_fan
EMAIL: welsh_werecat@yahoo.co.uk
AIM: fanoftodd
WIKI NAME: Todd_fan
CHARACTERS: Crowley onlyanapple Lorne mysticalvender Wybie why_born Shortpack pocketsizedpal Sister girly_laps
CHARACTER NAME: John Marston
FANDOM: Red Dead Redemption
CANON: After the mission ‘We Shall Be Together in Paradise’ , as John goes to sleep for the night in Mexico.
WHAT THEY LOST: The ability to use a lasso. This is John’s tool of trade when trying to collect bounties alive, trying to break up fights without killing people or capturing wild horses. It’s his alternative from using a gun.
ABOUT THE CHARACTER:
John Marston is a man looking for redemption. Losing his parents at a young age, he ran away from the orphanage in which he was placed and joined a street gang. The gang taught him to read, how to fight and how to live the life on the wrong side of the law.
John stayed loyal to his gang as they stole and robbed their way across the country. John later paints them as a Robin Hood-esque operation, taking only from those who could afford it and giving to those who needed it. If this is true or if it’s just his way of justifying his actions remain a mystery.
During a bank robbery, John was shot and left to die by his gang. He survived, and turned his back on the outlaw way of life forever. He bought himself a ranch, and settled down with his wife and son, content to live a normal life.
This was not to be, however. Government officials, wanting to rid the west of the old outlaws to make way for a ‘brighter’ future, attacked John’s ranch, kidnapping his wife and son. They used John’s family as a way to force him to hunt down his former gang, under the threat his family would die if he refused to help them.
As John hunted down his old companions, he was reluctantly pulled into the troubles of the land he travelled through. Sometimes, he was persuaded to help with the promise of information on the men he was chasing, or sometimes he was paying off a debt for someone’s help. He never went into anything whole-heartedly, however. He was tired of the old life, and only wished to get his family safe so he could go home again.
John is a very serious man; he very rarely laughs, and often fails to see the humour in things that others laugh at. When he does use humour, it’s often very dry. Though he can read, he’s not well educated beyond that, relying on his other skills to survive. He’s a testament to the old west, during 1911, a time when technology and a new order of law keeping were encroaching on the old way of life. Train tracks cover the land where only horses were the mode of transportation, and the automobile is newly created. He’s a dying breed, and he knows it only too well.
To those who treat him well, John will act in kind, and will always repay any debt he feels he owes, sometimes going beyond what is asked of him if those on his side are brought into trouble by befriending him. He’s also exceptionally polite towards women, regardless of their way of life.
Despite this, John also has no qualms of letting people know when he doesn’t like them, particularly if they’re testing his patience. He’s often blunt and never pads his words. Though he no longer wishes to live the outlaw life, he will kill if it’s required, and is a skilled marksman. He feels remorse after the deed, even if the people forcing him to shoot in the first place were a risk to his own life.
John is an ageing gunslinger in a world that is steadily running out of use for him, all he wants in the world is to go back home to his family and gain the redemption he so desperately seeks.
THIRD-PERSON WRITING SAMPLE:
John took a long drag of his cigarette, watching the sky become redder in hue as the sun set over MacFarlane’s Ranch. His ribs hurt less now, the doctor really had done good work in removing the bullets Williamson had put into him.
His scarred face grimaced at the thought of that man’s name. If it wasn’t for him, he wouldn’t be in this mess right now. He could be at home, trying to be a rancher. If that idiot hadn’t gone and stirred up trouble, maybe his family would be safe right now.
“Are you going to stay there staring at the sky all night like it’s done you some kind of injustice, or are you going to help out around here?”
The voice startled him out of his thoughts as he turned to give the ranch owner’s daughter a tight smile.
“My apologies, Miss MacFarlane,” he said, flicking his cigarette away. “My mind was wandering to dark places you wouldn’t want to hear about.”
“I’ve seen my fair share of darkness, John,” responded Bonnie. “And how many times do I have to tell you, call me Bonnie.”
“You’ll likely have to tell me a few hundred times more, Miss MacFalane,” said John with the softest of chuckles, walking over to his horse and mounting it, his hands gripping the tight leather of the reigns.
“Damned fool,” muttered Bonnie under her breath. “Come on, it’s time to do a patrol of the herd. You still need to earn back those doctors bills I spent on your hide.”
“It’ll be my pleasure, M’am,” said John. “Lead the way.”
Bonnie shook her head at him before spurring her horse onwards. John settled properly into the saddle and followed her on. Thoughts of revenge would have to wait until morning.
FIRST-PERSON WRITING SAMPLE:
Now, I’m still not sold on this magic deal. The world ain’t that easy. You have to run it by your blood, sweat and tears, and if that don’t work, you just have to bleed, sweat and cry some more. I’ll just stick to doing what I know, I’ve no need for wishing.
[A pause, it still feels very wrong, talking to a book, and hearing it talk back in countless different voices] Those stables, anyone taking care of them?
INTENT: I love John’s battle to change what he once was, especially as it’s an ongoing battle as time and time again he is dragged right back into the old way of living. Paradisa would be another pain-in-the-butt roadblock keeping him from his family. Once he’s aware that he can’t get back to his mission, he might try to help people in the castle, as yet another way to show he’s a changed man.