Johnny

**Johnny** is a contestant in the Center of the Universe OCT. His friend Jeremy joined with him as a spectator, as well as one of his bosses, Anti.

A farm boy with a heart of malleable gold, Johnny lives in the Realm(of Shadow) as resident demigod to the Ancient of Earth, and the owner of the largest natural farmland, promoting more natural growth in a still-developing dimensional plane.

His wish, as of the beginning of the tournament, was to permanently and properly separate himself from the demon, Chaos, to properly reform him. As of round 2, his wish has changed to assist those he has encountered.

As of the intermission "Two-Faced", Johnny is no longer an active conscious force, and Chaos controls the body.

As of "Welcome to the Jungle", Johnny and Chaos are deceased.

## In the OCT

### Entry Comic

Working on his owned farm in the early hours of that fateful day, a letter floated, as if intended, into Johnny's reaching hand from the Rift-the barrier that connects the Realm to the rest of the unlimited dimensions. Typically, you don't open odd letters that drift in from the sky, especially not when you're in your own dimensional pocket of darkness. But Johnny got quite excited to see the red seal, and peeked at the contents without thinking of the consequences. The concept of a wish in prize caught his eye-and, given that even his gods could not find an answer to his issue, Johnny decided to attend and try his best to FIND that answer.

In a very small debate between his friends and fellow demigod, Jeremy decided to tag along with Johnny to ensure his safe return to the Realm proper-after all, a fight means needs for a medical professional, right?

### Before the Invitation

Born a human in the far South, as a teenager, Johnny lived the life of a simple farm boy with big dreams of a better future. With the promise of potentially securing this future, Johnny took on a bet with a demon, and lost. He was unaware of the demon actually cheating to get his win. With his loss, Johnny was spirited away to an existence trapped in Hell, eventually succumbing to his torment and going dormant. When he woke again, he woke in the middle of an ongoing series of battles between Chaos and Anti, the Shadow god of Love. He was able to assist Anti in locking Chaos away, and proceeded to do everything in his power to prove his innocence, eventually becoming the demigod to Lot, the Shadow god of Earth.

Such acceptance, especially after many years of it, made him feel immense guilt for bringing Chaos to the world. At current, there is a massive issue that makes living with this knowledge hard-Chaos and Johnny remain tied together-if something happens to one, the other will feel it, or suffer the same consequence of an action. This resulted in Chaos needing to be sealed away, rather than pay actively for the crimes he committed. Johnny's wish entering the tournament was to completely separate their bond-not to eradicate Chaos, much to the gods' disapproval, but to allow Chaos to have a life, rather than lose it.

### On the S.S. Oh Sea

Johnny has had three instances aboard the applicant's cruise vessel that has shaped his entry into the competition.

Seeing Slate and Red Blueburg converse within the cafeteria gave Johnny insight to the powers or the viewpoints of his fellow hopefuls-and set him on edge when the thought of facing such an opponent came to mind. However, with Red's assertion of a 'fair fight', Johnny strengthened his resolve to stay strong. Chaos, on the other hand, was briefly in attempts to convince Johnny to cease this battle, though his efforts were quickly rebuked.

One night, needing a breather from the anxiety of a potential battle royale (and having witnessed Jagger attempt to choke out Spoon over a stolen badge), Johnny went on deck to play some music and steady his nerves. This was the night before the announcements-and just so happened to be where Johnny and Benny would have their first interaction. Overhearing Benny's proclamation for his wish, he couldn't help but go to him and offer him words of encouragement regarding his situation. Joining them shortly thereafter were fellow applicants Red Blueburg and Max Artic, and Johnny made it a point to perform a musical piece on fiddle for his new friends to celebrate the final night of the unknown.

Upon his announcement of inclusion, Johnny was elated-but seeing the misery of Red, and a group farewell-for-now to him, made him well aware of the weight of other's wishes, and, coupled with his knowledge of just who his fellow competitors were, Johnny began to question his own motives.

The night of the announcement, Johnny goes to greet his first opponent, Breaker. Breaker delivers a suspicion to Johnny, and Johnny expresses trust in Breaker over mutual connections to the moon itself.

### Round 1-Johnny VS Breaker "Hunting a Harvest Moon"

WINNER: JOHNNY

Wasting no time the moment they leave the tunnel, Breaker goes on the attack against Johnny. Johnny in turn leads Breaker into the city, heading into a large plaza that he and Jeremy had scouted out the previous night. The loose tiles of the plaza are broken apart by Breaker's powerful moon bullets, allowing for a worn Johnny to utilize the earth trapped underneath. Undaunted as he's cloaked in dust darkened by the setting sun, Breaker's Moon Men break apart every mound of earth Johnny constructs, leaving nothing but rubble. However, catching Breaker off guard, Johnny catches his leg and shatters his armor, accidentally breaking the bone as well. Seeing his opponent disheartened (and in pain), Johnny takes his wish on, calling for Jeremy to help him heal. All three retreat back to Breaker's camp, where they meet Zezebelle.

### Round 2-Johnny VS Osaeru "Shadow Harvest"

WINNER: OSAERU

Osaeru seeks out her opponent among a dead forest, finding him playing music rather violently. Chaos is in charge and eager to fight, but at Johnny's insistence, he bows out and allows him to take control. Osaeru proves her mettle against Johnny's earthen power with her own brand of magic. However, the appearance of Slate's Mucker army puts a halt to their intense battle, and encourages them to band together against the mud menace. Being overwhelmed, Chaos forcibly takes control of the body against Johnny's wishes, and attacks Osaeru despite the established truce. Seeing familiarities between her past and her present, Osaeru overpowers and beats down Chaos-who, in anger and retaliation, smashes Johnny's badge apart in one swoop. The exhaustion gives Johnny way to reclaim control, and, using his First Form, he carries Osaeru to Breaker's camp to recover.

### Intermission-"Two-Faced"

After making it back to Breaker's camp with Osaeru in tow, Johnny sits down to ask an important favor of the mercenary and divulge his backstory. Chaos briefly speaks with Breaker in turn, and Breaker assures that he will break the two apart. Once in control once more, Johnny grants Breaker the ability to travel in The Rift-the darkness that spread across worlds, in which Shadows travel. With this, Johnny bids farewell to his friends and leaves for the city, to hide out and wait for Jeremy and Anti to return so they can go home.

Once in the city, Johnny attempts to contact his companions to tell them about his loss and wish to go home, but is dismayed to see the connection isn't working. In a slump, he starts to look for shelter, but runs into Benny, who has lost Faye in the city, and, as a friend, offers to help him recover before his next match. The two hunker down in a building during the Cosmic Storm, Benny taking a nap while Johnny keeps watch. Between the stress of the mucker raid and the stress of Chaos and the previous match, however, leaves the older exhausted.

### Intermission Animatic- "No One Lives Forever"

Chaos takes his chance and rips control of the body out of Johnny's hands.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kkirv7YQUb4

### Loser's Bracket, Round 2- Chaos/Johnny vs The Cerebral Monger "Welcome to the Jungle"

Attempting to trap his opponent, Chaos leaves The Cerebral Monger a set of coordinates on the head of one of his robots. Monger meets Chaos in the midst of the city, close to the site of his encounter with Richter. In an attempt to save Monger's life, Johnny intervenes and soul-snatches their opponent to meet the metal menace in the greenhouse of the soul, revealing the once Anton Gallagher. However, his plan backfires when Anton returns fire to Johnny, refusing his attempts to defuse the whole of the situation.

Having effectively silenced Johnny, Chaos reigns full control of the body and attempts a final assault on Monger-however, Monger gains the upper hand and puts the dog out of his misery, Hanging the still body atop the very crane Richter stood upon, Monger collects the remnants of his sentry-half still alive from Chaos's assault, and takes it back to his base.

## Personality

A golden boy of the country, Johnny cares a bit too much and thinks perhaps a bit too little. His inclination is to kindness, and his actions are [typically] to protect, defend, or comfort. Even Johnny's fighting reflects his personality-he tends to let the opponent take the first shot, and tries to respond in kind after giving them the opportunity.

His kind nature has been known to get him into bouts of trouble-most notably his wish for the tournament earning him less-than-stellar reviews with his bosses. However, it has also proven to be an asset, especially when it comes to taming otherwise untamable animals on his farm.

As the tournament progresses and Chaos becomes more of a presence, Johnny's demeanor has become slightly more nervous, cautious, and more prone to self-sacrificing or isolating tendencies, out of fear of the demon causing others harm.

## Skills and Abilities

* Weapon Proficiency- Johnny has an extremely durable pitchfork with him for the tournament. Reinforced with Dark Matter, it can resist immense stress damage, but there's genuinely nothing else special about it. Under immediate or extreme strength, it can break. It can be summoned by Johnny accessing the Rift-like hitting a trash can's pedal, a stomp with intent to summon from Johnny can launch the pitchfork into his hand.
* Earth Manipulation- As demigod of Earth in the Realm, Johnny is able to manipulate earth in unrefined ways. From busting it up to become a fine dust to producing massive fissures with immense power, the attacks are versatile only in relation to the earth itself. There's little beyond wrecking it that Johnny can do-but he can coax it into breaking.
* As a Shadow, Johnny is composed of Dark Matter-a heavy grey-to-black, thick substance that acts as blood, tears, etc. Extended contact in immensely large quantities can turn someone INTO a Shadow. When Johnny gets cut, Dark Matter flows fairly easily, but it’s not an immediate losing sign. Johnny can even use this to his advantage if need be-it can be used to fix his pitchfork if broken, force his body to shift shape, or provide a little bit of weight or shielding to objects like rocks! It doesn’t do a TON though. Just enough to be a nuisance more than anything.
	+ Side note: If it seems like Johnny sincerely is about to die or be dealt a truly devastating blow, Chaos will surface to attempt to get the body out of that situation as well-his experiences are very different from Johnny’s, so he’ll try and keep them both alive. The only noticeable difference is a shrinking of eyes, a sudden dip or loss in accent/drawl, and a little bit of a flattened curl to contrast the sharp curl of his lip.
	+ As of Round 2, Chaos has surfaced as his own additional character, forcibly taking over and holding onto the body's control, attempting to shove Johnny down, or take him over.
	+ Johnny and Chaos are deceased, but their story may not be over.

## Trivia

* Johnny has an intense unease about Slate, due to his shadowy nature, quite literally. His similarity to Shadows without being one is concerning, and something about him sets Johnny on edge.
* Benny is also a big focus to Johnny-he worries about his past and what he's been subjected to, based on what he overhead on the deck of the S.S. Oh Sea, and his big brother instincts kick in. Max also applies to this!
* Breaker is his buddy, and Johnny has a slight crush on him.
* Johnny was born on August 17th, with the last name Gildon.
* He owns a hellhound named Michael, while Chaos owns a hellhound named Simon.