This Bleeding Heart’s Got Some Bite

Name: Jonathan Clarence Tillman
Nickname(s): John, Johnny, JT, John the Red, Commie Johnny, Tilly, Jack [if that is your thing]
Gender: Male (he/him/his)
Age: 22
Birthday: Oct. 5 1996
Sexuality: Bisexual, only attracted to members of the proletariat

Personality: John Tillman is a self-described “true son of the revolution,” embracing his radical politics like a stoner embraces their favorite weed strain. Formed in the environment of his youth and from his equally bleeding heart mother, Tillman tries his best to stand up for those who suffer from oppression — even if it comes from his own siblings. This need to fight injustice has led him down some treacherous paths, though he would do it all again if it meant he could make up for the damage his family — mortal family, at least — has done.
Flaws:
Bleeding Heart Blues: As an angry spawn of Ares, Tillman has directed himself towards a sort of militant Marxist/Trotskyist worldview. As these views are very controversial, his soapboxing about the need to “seize the means of production” are more unsettling than inspiring to the common crowd. If someone does happen to agree with him, then they will most likely see Tillman as a…
Champagne Socialist: Despite championing viewpoints that are Marxist in nature, Tillman comes from a life of wealth, privilege and comfort. From growing up in “The Village” to attending Manhattan’s various private academies to applying to The New School, the history and presence of his family’s wealth underscores his radical views with an echo of hypocrisy.
“Dude, seriously, stop”: Tillman — between being paranoid that the CIA is out to get him and a demigod facing celestial horrors for the better part of his life — is on the edge almost all the time. Constantly on guard for any potential threats, Tillman is prone to aggressive reactions when surprised and is a complete buzzkill at parties.
Demigod+: While all demigods contain some level of ADHD and dyslexia, Tillman’s ADHD is more severe (to keep him ready for any threats) while his dyslexia is extremely severe (who needs to read in battle?)
Reliably Unreliable: Tillman has a track record of being abysmal when it comes to keeping up his end of a bargain. Whether it is borrowing money, watching someone’s back or just being trusted to actually dunk the new blood this week, Tillman is a safe bet for not getting the job done.
Eye color: greenish brown
Hair description: short and black
Height: 6 ft
Skin tone: normally pale but easy to sunburn
Ethnicity: caucasian
Body structure: tall, stocky and kinda swole
Personal Appearance: Tillman’s general aesthetic is combat chic. From surplus M53 and M67 jackets, used soviet patrol caps or military watches from either side of the Iron Curtain, Tillman will find a way to combine them with whatever civilian threads he owns to create a unique, battle ready but chill look. When one is expecting a class war, you must be dressed to fight at any moment.
Scars/tattoos/piercings/etc: Tillman has the image of a rose tattooed on the outside of his right leg. Although he rarely wears shorts, he thought it would be clever to wear his anti-authoritarian heart on his “pants-sleeve.” The joke was funnier when he was stoned.
Clothing Style: Tillman’s wardrobe typically consists of various off brand shirts, jeans and jackets. The only “name brand” items he owns are the pair of Converse shoes he brought to “celebrate” moving into the Ares cabin and the Vostok watch his mother gifted him for graduating high school. He is particularly fond of the watch for its Soviet aesthetic.

Place of Birth (city, state, country): New York City, New York, United States
Original Residence: Greenwich Village, Manhattan Island, NYC
Mortal Parent: Laurel Tillman, reluctant heiress to the Tillman Arms Co. fortune
God Parent: Ares
Relationship with God Parent: To say Tillman is disliked by Ares would be simplifying things for the worst. Between not hating Percy Jackson for what he did to him, sparing the lives of tratious demigods in the Second Titan War and not hazing new campers due to some socio-political dogma bullshit, Ares has had it with Tillman. Aside from a brief conversation following victory over the Titans, the two have never spoken and there is no reason to believe they ever will.
Abilities (doesn't use energy to do):
Tillman is able to use any non-magical weapon with ease upon contact
Tillman can manipulate the emotions of someone around them to make them more aggressive. This can be resisted.
Tillman is able to track down demigods within a 50 yard radius of him. This skill was picked up while serving as a scout for Kronos’ Army.

Powers (uses energy to do):
Tillman is able to enter a “war rage” state for up to five posts. This state makes him 200 percent more powerful and 100 percent more injury resistant. After the five or so posts of rage, Tillman returns to normal but is 150 percent more injury prone, lasting for another five posts. After ending his rage, Tillman cannot rage for another 10 posts and can only rage up to five times a thread

Weapon: Celestial bronze Xiphos, celestial bronze spear, celestial bronze dagger and celestial bronze shield named “Solidarity.” Which weapon Tillman ends up using depends on what he feels like that day/thread.
Pets (if any): Tillman does not believe in owning pets. As shown by fellow demigods being able to communicate with animals, constraining them is equal to slavery.

History (four sentences or more):
Laurel Tillman, the gunsmith’s daughter:
In the world of firearms and weapons systems, the name “Tillman” stands out as a sign of excellence. Established 1701 in Newport, Rhode Island, the Tillman Arms and Armor co. has been producing high quality and affordable firearms, artillery and ammunition for private, public and governmental customers. A Tillman rifle or carbine has been found in the hands of militants serving the British Empire, Pinochet Chile and Blackwater “private security contractors.”


For the past 300 years large swaths of the Tillman family have dealt with the immense toll their company has cause by, in fact, not confronting the blood money in their vaults and opting to take the money and run the production lines. Laurel Tillman did not.

Despite being dragged around from industry convention to industry convention, Laurel could see through her family’s bullshit. They were not “helping keep the world safer” they were practically giving guns to the worst people on the planet — fascists, mercenaries and imperialists. As soon as she had the means to Laurel ditched the Rhode Island estate to hide among the fading bohemia of Greenwich Village.

Before fleeing to Manhattan, Laurel had a one night stand with a rather… interesting attendee of a trade show at Tillman Arms Co. HQ. Eight months later it turned out that the mystery attendee was none other than the god of war himself, Ares.


John Tillman, The Greenwich Warrior:
A child of Ares, more often than not, has a chip on their shoulder from the day they are born. What that chip is depends on the person, but the chip will likely be there.

Jonathan Clarence Tillman’s chip is his problematic lineage.

Even with his mother’s objections to the Tillman family money tree echoing through his ears, the social climate of Greenwich Village pushed John to loathe his very name. To be a Tillman is to be a flacid murderer, trading tools of murder for the bloody pennies of tyrants and gentleman warlords. And as a Tillman, John felt that it was his burden to right the wrongdoings of the last 300 years and rise above his ancestors.

The road to redemption began back when he was six, stirring up trouble with his bourgeois prepster students at The Greenwich Academy for Boys and Young Men. And then The Dalton School. And then Horace Mann, after which he was placed into Public School 41 in Greenwich Village.

Around the time little Johnny was starting middle school, he began to notice weird things throughout the city. Not the street preachers, flash mobs or any of those other crazy things cities attract. No, Tilly began seeing goat people, horse people, and giant dogs. And, after one of those giant dogs got a bit too biety with him during recess, his friend Charlotte turned out to be one of those goat people. With Charlotte leading the way, the two boarded the Long Island Railroad and rode until the tracks dried up. From the end of the line the two managed to cross into Camp Half-Blood without further conflict.

Upon arriving at CHB, John was given the standard demigod introduction. Here’s the big house, here’s the “cabins,” here’s the toilets, here’s the toilet water. He got fitted for armor, balanced with a weapon and thrown to the aggressively pranking wolves of the Hermes “cabin.” Later that week Tilly would beat the ever-loving shit out of the Demeter cabin flag carrier at capture the flag, winning the game for Hermes and the acknowledgement of his father, being claimed in the post-match festivities.

The next few years would see John Tillman trying to find his place within camp, school, the world and himself. At home he began to further his research into communist ideologies, while he began to fall into a strange niche of people who were anti-authority but not particularly disruptive at camp. At camp a son of Poseidon started some beef with the cabin, but he never got too involved in that drama. Tilly was more concerned with the big picture — the struggle of the classes.

The divide in the treatment of minor and major demigods stuck out to John as the most glaring form of class struggle in the celestial world. While the Olympian demigods were given fine palaces designed to suit their particular niche, the minor demigods were ghettoized to the Hermes cabin, sleeping on the floor in bags and surplus pillows. And that was with multiple unused cabins on the site.This treatment from divine beings on other divine beings was sickening to John. He could not sit on the sidelines while such gross injustice was tolerated. While the camp provided only so many ways to fight this, there was at least one group set on changing things for good.

In the winter before the battle of the Labyrinth, John hopped on an Amtrak for San Francisco to join Kronos’ Army in solidarity.

His decision was not a very public one, so when he returned to camp in the summer, his siblings were none the wiser. What they did not know is that their half-brother spent six months foiling demigod missions, recruiting new members and doing maintenance work on the Princess Andromeda. The labor was hard and not unionized, the missions were long and usually fruitless, and the recruits were either uninterested, confused or left after a few weeks. But worst of all, the feelings of solidarity that brought Tilly into the Army were all but nonexistent within the ranks. While the marketing sure pushed it, the reality was a cold and unloving world filled with hate, angst and resentment. This was not a way for him to live.

Tilly fought for the Ares cabin in the Battle of the Labyrinth, Battle of Manhattan (or at least when they joined the fight) and in the Giant War. The semester way impacted his grades, so he had to take online summer school classes to graduate. While he has moved into the Ares cabin, Tilly lives a double life between camp and New York City. He is currently trying to get into The New School and works in the Camp Half-Blood store as a cashier and inventory manager.

Time at Camp: 12 years
Full-Time or Seasonal: Full-Time but goes back and forth between camp and NYC.
A Memory: (Give us a memory that means a lot to your character.)

On his way back to New York after leaving the Titans, Tilly had a lot of time to think his life decisions over. While the ride and thoughts of the time were a blur, he was able to come to one conclusion before stepping onto the platform at Penn Station: the gods do not care about mortal thoughts.

Specifically, the gods did not care about mortal economic/political ideologies. While the world below was focused on struggles between haves and have-nots, the gods had their own struggles and battles that put lives in the ballance. They had no five year plans or quarterly earnings reports to follow, they made the world for the plans and reports to exist in.

Tillman decided that while the politics of the gods could not be changed, the lives and situations of the children could. And for all the things that could be changed, he would carry the torch to do so. He would go on to build the new cabins, train the new recruits, and even use the tracking skills picked up from the army to find more demigods for the camp.
Notes:
Face claim is Blake Jenner

Word Count: 2,113

Code:

Jonathan Tillman [i](redline2400)[/i], Cabin 5[/b][/b]

Approved! Tilly wont like me, I've enslaved so many pets. Reliably unreliable is a serious mood though. Can 10/10 relate.