Creon

*"No. I don't deserve love. I've known it all along, and part of me thought I could change that. That if I make myself seem big enough, that people will love me. That I deserve it. But I don't. And I see that now as my act comes to a close."*
—John Jacobson
**Johnathan "John" Jacobson** was a vigilante in Neo Arcadia and a rival to another vigilante, Almanac. The brother of Steel Sentinel, Jacobson began his own campaign to mete out his vision justice, rejecting the Arcadian Rebels' ideals and therefore becoming a threat. He took on the name **Creon**, taking inspiration from one of his favorite plays.

## Biography

### Early Life

Johnathan Jacobson was born on December 23, 1985. He grew up in with his parents constantly fighting in a small town near Center City. He immediately excelled in school, quickly taking a liking to science in particular. He would eventually receive a scholarship to Princeton and left his young two year old brother, Benjamin Jacobson, in order to go to college. John's life after this point is mostly a mystery. It's known that he majored and careered in chemistry. At some point, something caused him to turn, burning down his own laboratory on November 2nd, 2014. Why John suddenly snapped like this is unknown, but after this he went off the grid for several years.

### The Lonely One

#### Losing his Brother

It was the original death of Benjamin Jacobson that would draw Creon, then the Lonely One, to Neo Arcadia. At first, he seemed like a potential ally to the Rebels, despite some sinister undertones. Lonely One would subtly poke at Almanac's no killing rule, implying it was holding him back from being the best hero he could be.

### Creon

#### Challenging the Rebels

Taking up the villain name of "Creon" and donning a more regal attire to contrast his earlier simple trench coat, Creon would challenge Almanac to be the new leader of the Rebels, feeling he could do better. When Almanac declined his challenge, Creon would create a new team, which would let members use their own moral compasses to decide what was right, which included no restrictions on killing. Several members of the Rebels transferred to Creon's new team, including the likes of Jess Connors and even Clark Flat for a short time. This would infuriate Jason, and eventually the two would clash, with Creon losing purposefully. Creon would be jailed after the fight in the Neo Arcadia Police Department.

#### "Helping"

Opt would enlist Creon to help trap Evro, letting him out of jail. Evro was trapped, then used as a sacrifice to revive John's brother, Ben. Shortly afterwards, Opt would betray Creon, absorbing him into the amulet and killing him.

### Something Familiar

#### Ben's Plague

As a child, Ben's feelings of abandonment due to John leaving would leave him to demonize his older brother. After learning of his brother's turn to a "villain," these dark thoughts began to swirl. Ben tended to keep his negative emotions pent up out of fear they made him undesirable and a bad person, and they found an outlet in his development of Dissociative Identity Disorder. His alternate personality took up the name "Creon" as it was the worst evil Ben could think of.

### Achieving the Impossible

Through the immense stress this dark reflection of Creon would cause, it was able to make Almanac break his strict "no killing rule," causing the death of the young Jacobson. With this, "Creon" would go down as one of the most infamous villains the Rebels had ever faced.

### Creon's Last Stand

> *"The thump was soft. Uneventful. Mundane, even."*
>
>

Revived by Necrom, the "real" Creon would return to the world of the living. Trying to act out another climactic duel with Kade, Creon was caught off guard when Jason actually began to refuse to fight, and defy all expectations. Immensely frustrated, John would drop his act and show his vulnerabilities. Despite Jason offering John the only thing he wanted, genuine love and friendship, the shattering of John's act made him feel worthless and undeserving. He would purposefully fall out of a window behind him, dying as he hit the ground.

## Personality

Creon is cocky, pretentious, and condescending. He has a massive ego, and most likely some sort of superiority complex. During combat he often feels the need to suppress this in order to avoid underestimating his opponent. He purposefully will push people's buttons in a way of asserting his own level-headedness above their own.

This aside, Creon is an extremely careful and analytical person. He carefully learns about those around him, doing research on their pasts and personalities. He likes to be in control of situations, and will easily lose his cool if he feels he isn't.

*"M-m-Mom always s-said, that, that, J-j-Juh-John had a l-l-lot of f-friends. It s-seemed like it, at least. He, he w-W-was able t-to do everything. S-Suh-s-Sports, science, h-he was in c-C-choir, he d-d-did plays, it s-s-seemed like he w-was on top of everything. B-b-But, m-mom would tell me that, that b-b-beneath it all, h-he was hollow."*
—Benjamin Jacobson about Creon.

However, beneath all of this, John is an incredibly depressed person. All of his attempts are to try to prove to the world, and himself, that he is worth something. He doesn't think anyone would be willing to love him, so he resorts to people hating him instead, only wanting to be seen in the eyes of others. He's obsessed with power due to his childhood making him feel weak and always under the control of others.

### Philosophy

John's philosophy reflects Utilitarianism. He's willing to do seemingly immoral actions, such as killing, in order to create a net benefit of wellbeing. He tries to always choose the decision that will bring about the most prosperity for all, regardless of severe negative repercussions for a select few individuals. This ideology especially clashes with Kade's deontological approach, which states there are certain actions that are immoral by definition and thus ought never be performed.

## Physical Appearance

Johnathan is about 6'4" with a surprisingly bulky build. Though his face is mostly unseen, short glimpses at his skin reveal a shockingly pale complexion, probably due to a lack of sunlight. He wears a black military uniform, a flowing violet cape, and a large helmet.

The most notable thing about Jacobson's physical appearance is the thick, black goo that covers his entire body. It prevents anyone from seeing his face, which he believes to give himself a sort of power above others. He claims to have made this himself, using a chip in his head to control the movement of the sludge with his mind. It's been noted to smell incredibly bad, which Creon uses to distract enemies.

## Abilities

* **Genius-Level Intelligence:** John Jacobson was an extremely bright man, displaying signs of his brilliance from a young age. He received a near-full scholarship to the prestigious Princeton University, an Ivy League school with a 6.5% acceptance rate. He also scored 1590 on his SAT (99th percentile) and has an IQ of 145.
	+ **Master Tactician:** John is a master tactician, carefully planning out strategies and using his environment to his advantage. He often creates tricks or traps, luring people in, and he is also exceptionally good at manipulation, and can easily cause enemies to grow enraged and lose focus. He uses his copious amounts of "research" to purposefully provoke opponents.
	+ **Trilingualism:** John spoke English, Italian and French.
* **Expert Martial Artist:** John has lots of training in both hand-to-hand combat and acrobatics, usually trying to overwhelm opponents with fast attacks. Almost every move he makes is highly calculated and precise, and he has memorized hundreds of pressure points and blind spots humans have. He is thus a very capable fighter, as he was very confident in his ability to take on Almanac, and proved his skill in an extensive, bloody duel with him. His fighting style includes Aikido, Taekwondo, and Fencing. John was able to use his enemies' momentum against them, allowing him to deal with opponents without wounding them, thus leaving less of a trace of his involvement in conflicts.

## Weaknesses

* **Human Vulnerabilities:** Despite all his attempts to distance himself from it, John is merely human. Any sort of attack that would kill an average person would most definitely kill him.
* **Mental State:** John will quite frequently panic or grow uneasy if he feels unprepared or not in control of a situation. He'll often try to flee or escape if he feels this way, postponing the battle until a time in which he feels more prepared.
* **Sludge Vulnerabilities:** John's sludge has a difficult time remaining on him when underwater, and is conductive. Throwing him into some sort of body of liquid or an electric shock could definitely force the strange liquid off of him.

## Equipment

### Attire

* **Sludge:** John's sludge is his primary tool he uses. He controls this with a chip in his brain that allows him to maneuver it with his thoughts. It smells incredibly bad, which he uses as a distraction against foes. He can fire it at people, grab things and people with it, manipulate the shape of it, and possibly more. Though it takes the entirety of his liquid, he can create a clone of himself out of it to distract and confuse opponents, though it's noticeably slightly shorter than himself.
* **Armor:** John's helmet and armor acts as extra defense against incoming attacks, though also decreases his speed slightly. He houses small smoke bombs within his jacket that allow easy escapes from situations.
	+ **Cape:** John's cape is made of an incredibly strong fabric, and can be used to deflect small projectiles. It's nonflammable and nonconductive, so can block small blasts of fire and electricity.

## Relationships

* Father
* Ben Jacobson/Iron Sentinel - Brother

Allies* Team
	+ Jason Kade/Almanac - Rival

## Trivia

* John has a fixation with ancient societies and royalty. His codename is a reference to a character from Antigone, a play from Ancient Greece.
* John noticeably has a very large vocabulary and speaks quite elegantly.
* John is ambidextrous.
* John's sense of smell is noticeably weak, which is why he can tolerate the stench of his liquid.
* John considers himself to be somewhat of a showman. He likes the presentation of his scenarios to be absolutely perfect.
* John's favorite painter is Claude Monet, and his favorite painting by him is "Fisherman's Cottage," although he's also partial to "The Japanese Footbridge" and "San Giorgio Maggiore at Dusk."
* John has on multiple occasions had the chance to kill Jason Kade, but refrained from doing so.
* The "wings" on John's helmet were inspired partially by "Hedwig and the Angry Inch," specifically the large foam hairpieces Hedwig's fans would wear within the musical.

## Music

John's favorite songs include:

 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
 Charles Mingus
 Chet Baker
 Lou Reed | "Walk on the Wild Side"