@maenage: (for the meta) does john's actual age affect him? and if so, how? — META TOPICS
yes it does! more mentally than physically, but there's still a few noticeable elements that the demon blood doesn't quite patch over.
first, his mind is still aging at a normal pace, though his body is much slower going about it, and i think it definitely affects his memory processes as he gets older. he already struggles with some memory loss due to the deeply unethical and unhealthy practices applied to him in ravenscar, and that will advance with time. something specific to my portrayal is that i headcanon constantine as having an eidetic memory, since he's able to pull so many little details out of a hat for such specific situations, and i've begun to work in that he's starting to have trouble recalling eidetic imagery as clearly as he used to; he has to work with more references for magic than before, and his punk band days are even hazier, now. i also think this means he sees the physical representations of his friends' ghosts less and less tangibly as time goes on; over time, they've stopped being watcher figures and become a little closer to shades: less defined features and limbs, fewer details in the face.
his age also affects him in terms of his outlook on life, since he's lived long enough to see endless humanitarian crises and failed governments doing the same shit over and over again. he's prone to acting like a grumpy old codger, but anyone who's known him long would tell you he's been a grumpy old codger since he was thirty, so it's hard to say what's age and what's him. he has developed something of a defeatist streak over time, though; he's never been an optimist, and he's always gone into fights expecting that he could die, but the older he gets, the more the players in the game of magic change and the less leverage he has, and the more often constantine walks into fights resigned to the fact that he probably will die, if he doesn't give it everything he's got. he's jaded and he's tired, basically.
physically, his frown lines and smile lines are more deeply defined than they would be otherwise, and constantine definitely has more joint pain than he looks like he should, because he's been grinding those things down for 70 years. he had pins put into his left knee during city of demons, after he got hit by a car, and over time that's started to stiffen up and become his bad knee, though he'll never let anyone but his mates see him limping on it; can't afford to let it become a known weak point for enemies to use against him. the demon blood keeps his vision unusually sharp, but doesn't stop him from getting the kind of headaches that normal people associate with 'going too long without using your glasses when you clearly need them', so he bit the bullet a few years back and picked up a pair of reading glasses, though he uses them sparingly, because he's a prideful idiot.
i also dither between him developing arthritis more rapidly as he gets older because of the use of his hands for magic, or staving off arthritis because of the use of his hands for magic, and one of these days i'll make a decision, but either way, his hands get shakier with time.
