'cause my baby's sweet as can be

[slitherer]

canon: Howl's Moving Castle (by Diana Wynne Jones) name: Howl age: 27 canon point: Chapter 21, as Miss Angorian picks up Calcifer. info history Howell Jenkins is a rather ne'er-do-well twenty-seven-year-old, originally hailing from Wales, well-loved by his niece and at least tolerated by his nephew. He doesn't have a respectable job, despite being put through college by his family (writing his doctoral thesis on charms and spells, of all things), and tends to be viciously scolded by his sister whenever he comes to visit. He seemingly vanishes at will from all his responsibilities. Well--not seemingly, as it turns out. Though known in Ingary as the wizard Howl, among other psuedonyms, Howell Jenkins is how he began. After managing to discover magic in the mostly magic-less world that includes Wales, he then managed to transport himself to Ingary and began establishing himself as a wizard. Quite quickly, he became apprenticed to a very powerful wizard, Ms. Pentstemmon, and set about making himself a career. Ingary is an antiquated fantasy world, populated by humans and animals, but also by demons, witches, and wizards. Most people are non-magical and travel by horse or carriage. Spells for anything from curing a cough to warring with another country can be bought from wizards. Howl became one of those wizards at a relatively young age due to his proficiency at magic, possibly due to his origins in another world. Another young man by the name of Ben Sullivan, like Howl, also came from Wales, though Howl never met him. At the age of twenty-two, Howl, on his journey to learn as much magic as possible, seeks out a falling star and makes a contract with it. In exchange for saving the falling star from death by collision with earth, the star grants Howl even more magical power. The star becomes Calcifer, a fire demon with whom he conspires to creating the titular moving castle. The contract, however, requires that Calcifer owns his heart, possibly as a source of fuel. With Calcifer now sitting with his heart in the hearthplace, Howl sets about being as notorious as possible. The contract grants him incredible powers in addition to his magical education, but removes from Howl much of his emotional capacity--namely, the abilities associated with "having a heart." This is mainly significant because it causes Howl to go through girlfriend after girlfriend, and one of those girlfriends is a very powerful woman named the Witch of the Waste. She begins pursuing him for revenge, intent on taking Calcifer's power for herself and, by-the-by, breaking his heart (literally). To do so, she places a curse on him, the specifics of which he isn't aware of until later. On May Day, Howl makes his first appearance in the book in Market Chipping, pursuing the missing Prince Justin. Market Chipping is also one of four locations that can be reached through a four-way portal bespelled into one of the moving castle's doors. (The other three are Porthaven (a seaside town), Kingsbury (the royal capital), and his hometown in Wales.) At the May Day festival, he meets Sophie Hatter, but only in passing. He only really takes notice of her after the Witch of the Waste curses her, aging her body from the age of eighteen to about seventy. She manages to get into his moving castle while he's away, meets Howl's apprentice, Michael, and sets herself up as a cleaning lady. Unbeknownst to Sophie, who as part of the curse is unable to disclose the fact that she is cursed, Howl notices the magic on her immediately. While Sophie cleans her way through Howl's frankly disgusting 'castle' (it's really only four rooms), Howl spends most of his days away, trying to woo a girl named Lettie, who happens to be Sophie's sister. Messengers from the King come by, trying to convince him to take on the responsibility of searching for the missing Prince Justin. Along the line Howl accidentally discloses his suspicion that the Royal Magician, Wizard Suliman (known in Wales as Sullivan), is still alive. And despite his best efforts at proving to the King that he's a hopeless case and definitely incompetent, the King decides that Howl is a fine choice of wizard to search for his brother and the Wizard Suliman, appointing him the new Royal Magician along the way. At this point, the Witch of the Waste, who has abducted both Prince Justin and Suliman to use them as parts of a perfect human, is hot on Howl's trail. She kills Ms. Pentstemmon just hours after Howl and Sophie meet her. Distressed by the murder of his old teacher, Howl goes to her funeral despite the danger and a nasty cold. The Witch of the Waste finds him at the funeral, however, as he's found out about the curse she put on him through his nephew's English teacher. All aspects of the curse begin coming true, until Howl is certain of his impending doom. After a violent magical confrontation with the Witch, he sets about running away harder than ever by moving the physical entrances that connect with the interior of the moving castle. After opening a charming flower shop in Market Chipping of all places, Howl sets about trying to pin down the identity of the English teacher, Miss Angorian, who showed him the text version of the Witch's curse--apparently a poem by John Donne. On the eve of Midsummer's Day, the day the curse is due to hit him, Howl slips back out to Wales for a last reunion with his Rugby Club, having fulfilled one of the last conditions of the curse of his own volition. As he lies in bed recovering from his post-reunion hangover, the Witch finally catches up with him for good. She attacks his family back in Wales. Howl chases after her. In the meantime, Sophie is tricked into entering the Witch's fortress and is trapped there as the Witch explains how she mixed the best parts of Prince Justin and the Wizard Suliman into one body, tossing both their heads, as she wants Howl's to complete it. She desires to take over Ingary as Queen with the Howl-Justin-Suliman mixture as King. The desire comes at least partially from her fire demon, which has much influence over her heart, and is at the moment taking the form of Miss Angorian. Howl, knowing this, has been pursuing Miss Angorian in an attempt to fight the Witch and end her curse. He fights off the Witch herself and travels back to the moving castle with Sophie, where they find that Miss Angorian has broken in and is about to crush Howl's heart and Calcifer's contract with it. personality For all his innate ability and magical skill, Howl makes it his highest priority to avoid actual responsibility as much as possible. He might be a perfectly competent wizard, but he doesn't want people to know that if they'll give him trouble. Unfortunately for Howl, the King of Ingary himself finds out. Though Howl is aware that finding Prince Justin will likely entangle him with the Witch of the Waste, the reason he gives for refusing is that he doesn't want to be known. He's so intent on avoiding the responsibility that he sends Sophie off to the King to pretend to be his elderly mom and tell him about what an awful person Howl is. All the while, Howl doesn't tell Sophie about anything of his fears and suspicions. By nature, Howl is what Sophie calls a slitherer-outer. He slithers out of everything he can, including most work, commitment, and questions. To keep people from becoming interested in him personally, he has his apprentice Michael spread rumors about how terrible he is around town. He always has an escape route (see: four entrances/exits to his castle, multiple names and aliases, the magical ability to literally fly away). He doesn't lie, per se, but he never says anything clearly if he can help it. There's a reason why he considers a wind advancing "an honest mind" one of the last conditions that will be fulfilled for the curse. As suggested by his avoidance of most burdens, Howl cares for himself the most. His sister, back in Wales, often reprimands him for never giving back to his family and spoiling his niece, showing her frustration with his constant coming and going and his general failure to be a part of the family unless it benefits him. Part of Howl's intense focus on himself manifests in tantrums when things don't go his way. When Sophie rearranges his hair products and accidentally causes him to dye his hair a pinkish-ginger, he covers himself in a thick layer of green slime and sulks in a nearly catatonic state for hours. He doesn't have very good priorities or principles when it comes down to it. These are all traits that Howl had even when he was living in Wales, for the most part, and were only exacerbated by his contract with Calcifer. The reasons behind the creation of the contract, however, are a little more decent. It was pity for the falling star's imminent death that made him agree to the contract that neither of them knew the full terms of. After the contract was made, Calcifer took his heart. Without his heart and with more power, Howl set about slithering out more than ever, especially from relationships. He understands emotional pain, but it doesn't matter much to him when it's the pain of other people. The lack of a heart makes him less empathetic than ever, making his inherent selfishness the dominant part of his personality most of the time. Most of the time being key. Howl also tries to avoid the responsibility of being known as a halfway-decent person. He steeply overcharges the rich clients of Kingsbury, especially the king, but sells equally powerful spells to fishermen for pennies. Though he never tells Sophie, he knows that she's cursed, and tries to break the curse on her throughout the book without letting her know. Additionally, if there's one thing Howl's honest about, it's obtaining knowledge. He went to college and in the process somehow found out about spells. Pursuing that, he found Ingary and managed to get an apprenticeship with one of the most powerful wizards in the kingdom. After learning what he could, he went on to teach himself more and more. Howl is a powerful wizard in his own right, even without Calcifer, due to not only his talent but also his willingness to learn. Outside of his desire to learn, or at least amass more power, Howl doesn't have much else. He keeps running, trying to find fulfillment in chasing girls and failing because what he needs is his heart back in his chest--and someone who can keep his fickleness in check. He has poor impulse control and no real direction, and despite himself, he's looking for something to fill the void in his chest. abilities/powers strengths weaknesses