Character Info

[knightofthedead]

Name: Jonathan Daniel Knight
Age: 28
Gender: Cis male
Orientation: Straight
Description: Danny Elfman, circa 1989ish (see here). Red curly hair, deceptively built for a 5'10 skinny dude who favors a baggy white blazer over an A-front and slacks. Prone to gigantic clown-on-crack smiles.

History:
Jon had a mostly idyllic childhood in small-town northern Connecticut, specifically a town called Union. He and his best friend, Rich Henderson, got into the usual young-and-hyper kid shenanigans, and were nigh inseparable. Jon was almost always in the kind of trouble that excitable, antsy, wiseass little shits in tiny towns get into... He never really hurt anyone, he was just bored out of his skull. Both his parents were psychologists, and had him tested for every variation on ADD in existence (to no avail), too fixated on needing a clinical explanation for why the neighbors were always coming up to them with statements that started in "YOUR CHILD...". It was his mother's sister, Rowena, who finally came to his defense, saying that maybe the poor kid just loved life and wanted more options for living it.

So Jon started spending his weekends in Hartford with Aunt Ro... When she wasn't busy traveling the world digging up stuff from dead civilizations. It was a combination of her influence and attending a wake for an Irish classmate's father that nudged Jon toward pursuing a career as a coroner. Once he found his calling, Jon wasn't the bored troublemaker anymore: all that energy had somewhere to go. He and Rich went to UConn together, with Rich hoping to become a surgeon. ("You can take care of my mistakes. You know, like you always do!") Jon poured himself into his studies, pushed himself hard, and finished his undergrad degree in two years. With his friend's moral support and the sudden added bonus of his parents' approval, it was looking like Jon had finally hit his stride.

The first night of his internship at the Union morgue was a rude awakening. His first case was a fatality from a drunk driving car crash, after a local party: not the driver, but his passenger... Rich. Jon took a semester away from college and moved in with his Aunt Ro to sort out his priorities in a city not perpetually haunted by his friend's ghost. Hartford not only healed him, but helped him rediscover his passion and his focus. Though there were a few other hiccups along the way (including an intern of his own who tried to accuse him of not only sexual harassment but necrophilia because he turned her down for a date), Jon was able to get back on track, stay there, and obtain his doctorate.

Taking over for the former Chief Coroner of Aviario Regional Hospital was his first official professional assignment. So far, Aviario is just enough of a middle ground between small town and big city to hold his interest. He made a quick and fast circle of friends through his co-worker April, and they have dubbed themselves "The Fire Gang" after the rambunctious fire goblins in Labyrinth. They're collectively filling the Rich-shaped hole in his heart, and he's earned Regular status at the local prohibition-themed swing club. The fact that corpses dead of "mysterious causes" show up once on a while certainly doesn't hurt, either... but you still can't convince him magic is real. (Not yet.)

Personality:
Jon is the kind of guy everyone wants at their party: he's never boring, he gets along with just about everyone, and he never seems to run out of energy. It turns out he's fueled by a ridiculous love for life and all that it entails ... with a generous dose of cherry coke. He never talks about what happened to Rich - and so he comes across as the absolute picture of someone who doesn't know what angst even looks like. It isn't that he hides it away - it's that he's had his time with it, and left the past behind to move on.

That being said, even though he's perpetually in a good mood, Jon is the kind of guy who can very easily rub some people the wrong way. He's got a guttermouth, and absolutely no tact at all, but he's always very pleasant about it (in fact, pro tip: you'll know he's legitimately angry or upset when he STOPS swearing). When it comes to romance, at this particular point in his life he's more of a "love 'em while they're there" guy than someone who's likely to find One Girl to settle with for the rest of his life. With regard to his friends, however, once you get to know him, and he decides he likes you, you're stuck with him, and he'd probably die for you if it really came down to it.

The only thing Jon takes seriously is his work. This might not seem like the case at first glance: he blares 80s classics, ska, and new wave music in the morgue, keeps cans of soda in the ice bins on the sides of the gurneys, and eats popcorn and oatmeal out of a bowl made from a real, varnished human skull (named Yorick, of course). His paperwork ends up in piles that would rival Mount Everest. But when he's actually at work on a body, even while the music's blasting, he treats the dead with the utmost respect. His philosophy is: he's the last person they're going to come in contact with for an extended period of time before they end up in the ground, so they might as well listen to some good music and get a little respect before they go six deep or get cremated. One of his very, VERY few hot-temper buttons is necrophilia, and any jokes related to it. If someone even tries to start up that thread of conversation, he'll shut it down quick and hard - then keep on with the rest of the conversation as though it never got brought up.

As far as minor details, Jon loves B-movies, classic era Tim Burton movies, and really cheesy horror stuff. He makes the best mudslides in Connecticut. He was adopted by a stray grey tabby named Dammit. And he'll take off his favorite oversized white blazer when you cut it off his corpse. He's also got a very strange variation on hematophobia: dead people can have blood on them all they want, but seeing live people "leaking" sets him off. He knows it's irrational, but he also knows where it came from, and he's found ways to put up with it. He grew up with two shrinks, he doesn't need to spend any more of his remaining time on Earth around more. Who knows, maybe enough exposure to it in a game setting would help him kick it...