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strangewonders
P L A Y E R;
NAME: Andy
AGE: Over 18
PLAYER JOURNAL:shingetsu
TIMEZONE: CST
CONTACT: PM
OTHER CHARACTERS PLAYED: Souji Okita (PMK)
C H A R A C T E R;
NAME: Howell Jenkins (AKA: Howl)
CANON: Howl's Moving Castle (Book)
POINT IN CANON: Chapter 17: In which the moving castle moves house
AGE: 27
APPEARANCE: Howl is on the tall side of average, with angular features, and eyes Sophie describes as being like 'green bottle glass' and 'marbles,' implying they are slightly unnerving to look at. His hair is kept a pale blond through magic (he's naturally a brunette) and described as 'elaborate,' because vague descriptions are the name of the game for this book. He favors flashy, expensive suits of clothes, the jackets of which have long, trailing sleeves. He also has a fondness for floral perfumes.
CANON HISTORY: Wiki link (contains spoilers for a 20+ year old book).
CANON PERSONALITY: Howl is flashy, self-centered, egotistical, and incredibly vain. He spends hours a day tending to his personal appearance, and is unable to hold on to any of the money he makes because he's always spending it on his personal wardrobe and other various luxuries. He treats people poorly, often ordering them around and getting his way either through use of his not inconsiderable charm, or simply by wearing away at the poor person until they give in. He is also a complete coward, unable to take responsibility for his own actions, and will do anything--regardless of how outlandish--to avoid being held accountable for the things he has done. He becomes enamored of women quite easily, and will pursue them relentlessly until he has gotten the girl of the moment to fall in love with him... at which point he loses interest completely.
That is, at least, how Howl prefers the world to see him. And while much of it--the narcissism and cowardice included--has genuine roots in his personality, it is something of an overblown facade, Horrible Howl of the Moving Castle, rather than Howell Jenkins, the smart Welshman who managed to teach himself a bit of magic and escape to a different world.
Underneath all of this bluster, Howl has a genuine like of people. He can be very kind, and the things he does are motivated not out of greed or a desire for fame, but because he really does want to help people, though this tendency is only observable once someone's spent a fair amount of time around him. Howl's actions and motivations are complicated, a mixture of cowardice, frivolity, and a genuine desire to be of service to the people around him. On the whole, he is not nearly as bad a person as he actively makes himself out to be. He is, however, also the sort of man willing to get hysterical over his hair.
POINT OF DEPARTURE: N/A
ABILITIES: Howl is a very skilled, if somewhat unprincipled, wizard. Seemingly second only to the Witch of the Waste, Howl is capable of strong feats of magic. One example of the more complicated magic he's capable of is the spell that allows him to connect several locations together, allowing him access to locations physically far apart through one door which links them all (including the moving castle which is, itself, a construct built with Howl's magic). Without Calcifer's power, he will not be able to perform any truly large-scale spells like this on an ongoing basis. While Howl put his Moving Castle together with his own ingenuity, it is Calcifer's power that maintains it.
Most of his practice, however, consists of creating mundane spells for everyday use, which he sells to the general public. These include such things as spells to unblock drains, ensure favorable winds, and the like. His magic tends to be both practical and passive in nature. While Ingary's king has called upon him to work spells in aid of the army, on a personal level, Howl far prefers to run away than fight an actual fight, and thus uses his more destructive abilities only on the defensive.
Howl can also use his magic to alter his appearance. He usually does this in small ways--his blond hair, for example, is artificial, as he's naturally a brunette, and the cut may look slightly different from day to day--but he's capable of completely altering his form, if he so wishes (he turns himself into a dog in order to attend a funeral incognito). This is not a form of magic he uses often, however.
INVENTORY; Nothing but the clothes on his back.
ANYTHING ELSE WE SHOULD KNOW? Presumably, Howl will lose his ability to connect places the way he does in the books, since this would allow him to circumvent things in the game rather easily. The rest of the magic he does is pretty vaguely described, but if there's any desire for clarification on an aspect of his ability, I'm happy to try and cover it in more depth.
S A M P L E S;
FIRST PERSON: Which is Full of Yawning
THIRD PERSON: If thou be'st born to strange sights...
P L A Y E R;
NAME: Andy
AGE: Over 18
PLAYER JOURNAL:
shingetsuTIMEZONE: CST
CONTACT: PM
OTHER CHARACTERS PLAYED: Souji Okita (PMK)
C H A R A C T E R;
NAME: Howell Jenkins (AKA: Howl)
CANON: Howl's Moving Castle (Book)
POINT IN CANON: Chapter 17: In which the moving castle moves house
AGE: 27
APPEARANCE: Howl is on the tall side of average, with angular features, and eyes Sophie describes as being like 'green bottle glass' and 'marbles,' implying they are slightly unnerving to look at. His hair is kept a pale blond through magic (he's naturally a brunette) and described as 'elaborate,' because vague descriptions are the name of the game for this book. He favors flashy, expensive suits of clothes, the jackets of which have long, trailing sleeves. He also has a fondness for floral perfumes.
CANON HISTORY: Wiki link (contains spoilers for a 20+ year old book).
CANON PERSONALITY: Howl is flashy, self-centered, egotistical, and incredibly vain. He spends hours a day tending to his personal appearance, and is unable to hold on to any of the money he makes because he's always spending it on his personal wardrobe and other various luxuries. He treats people poorly, often ordering them around and getting his way either through use of his not inconsiderable charm, or simply by wearing away at the poor person until they give in. He is also a complete coward, unable to take responsibility for his own actions, and will do anything--regardless of how outlandish--to avoid being held accountable for the things he has done. He becomes enamored of women quite easily, and will pursue them relentlessly until he has gotten the girl of the moment to fall in love with him... at which point he loses interest completely.
That is, at least, how Howl prefers the world to see him. And while much of it--the narcissism and cowardice included--has genuine roots in his personality, it is something of an overblown facade, Horrible Howl of the Moving Castle, rather than Howell Jenkins, the smart Welshman who managed to teach himself a bit of magic and escape to a different world.
Underneath all of this bluster, Howl has a genuine like of people. He can be very kind, and the things he does are motivated not out of greed or a desire for fame, but because he really does want to help people, though this tendency is only observable once someone's spent a fair amount of time around him. Howl's actions and motivations are complicated, a mixture of cowardice, frivolity, and a genuine desire to be of service to the people around him. On the whole, he is not nearly as bad a person as he actively makes himself out to be. He is, however, also the sort of man willing to get hysterical over his hair.
POINT OF DEPARTURE: N/A
ABILITIES: Howl is a very skilled, if somewhat unprincipled, wizard. Seemingly second only to the Witch of the Waste, Howl is capable of strong feats of magic. One example of the more complicated magic he's capable of is the spell that allows him to connect several locations together, allowing him access to locations physically far apart through one door which links them all (including the moving castle which is, itself, a construct built with Howl's magic). Without Calcifer's power, he will not be able to perform any truly large-scale spells like this on an ongoing basis. While Howl put his Moving Castle together with his own ingenuity, it is Calcifer's power that maintains it.
Most of his practice, however, consists of creating mundane spells for everyday use, which he sells to the general public. These include such things as spells to unblock drains, ensure favorable winds, and the like. His magic tends to be both practical and passive in nature. While Ingary's king has called upon him to work spells in aid of the army, on a personal level, Howl far prefers to run away than fight an actual fight, and thus uses his more destructive abilities only on the defensive.
Howl can also use his magic to alter his appearance. He usually does this in small ways--his blond hair, for example, is artificial, as he's naturally a brunette, and the cut may look slightly different from day to day--but he's capable of completely altering his form, if he so wishes (he turns himself into a dog in order to attend a funeral incognito). This is not a form of magic he uses often, however.
INVENTORY; Nothing but the clothes on his back.
ANYTHING ELSE WE SHOULD KNOW? Presumably, Howl will lose his ability to connect places the way he does in the books, since this would allow him to circumvent things in the game rather easily. The rest of the magic he does is pretty vaguely described, but if there's any desire for clarification on an aspect of his ability, I'm happy to try and cover it in more depth.
S A M P L E S;
FIRST PERSON: Which is Full of Yawning
THIRD PERSON: If thou be'st born to strange sights...
