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app for deerington
cw: drug use and addiction, death of family/romantic partner/random strangers, heavy child abuse, torture, ptsd symptoms including flashbacks
Character Name: Klaus Hargreeves. "Birth name" is Number Four. (Dad wasn't all that interested in naming the children he adopted.)
Canon: The Umbrella Academy
Canon Point: Upon passing out at the rave in Episode 7: The Day That Was
In-Game Tattoo Placement: Antlers coming under and around his belly button. They're about small-to-medium-sized and are blackwork designs in a classic tattoo style.
Current Health/Status: He hit his head so hard he might have seen God. Only he didn't get to see her yet. Otherwise, his system's been going through a rubberband of intoxication and withdrawal for the past week, and he currently seems to be going through a withdrawal-ish period. Also he was actively in the midst of a PTSD flashback on top of that when he passed out. Fun.
He is alive though, although this particular canonpoint is suspected to be a near-death experience. Since, you know. He saw God. Maybe.
Age: 29
Species: Human, against all odds.
History: Link, but it only summarizes up to the fourth episode, so I'll continue up until his canonpoint.
Klaus, upon using the briefcase, was transported back to 1968 and directly into the midst of the Vietnam War. He was presumed to have been a new recruit and conscripted suddenly in the confusion, and he ended up taking part and spent ten months in the military. He met a kind soldier in his brigade named Dave, whom he ended up falling in love with and starting a relationship. At the end of his ten months, while on the front lines, Klaus' brigade took heavy casualties, including Dave, who died in Klaus' arms.
Klaus returned to the present day and immediately had a breakdown, destroying the briefcase so that it could no longer be used. He returns to the Academy to wash Dave's (and his own, and others') blood off of him and recover but is discovered by Five, who immediately recognizes the symptoms of a recent trek through time despite Klaus' attempts to dodge the interrogation. Five discovers Klaus destroyed the briefcase and yells at him, at which point Klaus decides screw this I'm out and wanders off. Five decides to take advantage of the fact that Klaus had stolen the briefcase anyway, and claim to be holding it hostage to draw out the assassins for his own plans.
Meanwhile, Klaus tries to play it cool and act normal and forces Diego to give him a ride. Diego, however, notices quickly that something's off since Klaus is uncharacteristically silent. Klaus has him drop him off at a veterans only bar, where he starts to drink and finds a vintage picture of his (actually quite famous) brigade, with Dave and himself standing side by side. Diego decides to follow him in to confront him and see what the hell Klaus is doing, when they're interrupted by an old war vet who assumes that they shouldn't be there, and is offended that Klaus appears to be masquerading as a vet with his (sleeveless) military jacket and dog tags. Klaus, to Diego's surprise, claims that he is a veteran, but refuses to explain further or be civil in any respect, and lashes out and starts a bar brawl.
The two eventually are kicked out and return to the car. Diego tries to get more answers out of Klaus, and Klaus admits he lost "the only person he ever loved more than himself". Diego, having just recently lost someone as well, understands, but also slightly insensitively says Klaus is luckier than most, since he has the ability to see the dead and thus could interact with his dead loved ones again.
They then spot Hazel out on the street, and Klaus recognizes him as one of his torturers. Diego, still bent on revenge for Patch's death, follows him. Back at the assassins' motel, Hazel and Cha-Cha notice Diego stalking them, but are also called out by Five to ransom for their briefcase. They slip away from Diego (with Klaus just barely saving his brother from getting shot thanks to his inability to follow instruction) and sabotage his car by slashing all the wheels.
So they steal an ice cream truck, as you do.
And they interrupt Five's standoff with the assassins. By crashing said ice cream truck. Into them.
Yes, Klaus was the one driving.
Thanks to the Handler's intervention, everyone leaves the scene, uh, alive, with Five suddenly disappeared again and the assassins' guns mysteriously losing their cartridges.
And here's where time gets weird (again), but this time with feeling. With Five gone, the rest of the family (minus Vanya as usual) regroups and Luther tells them everything Five told him about the impending apocalypse, including the fact that they all die trying to stop it. Vanya returns with Leonard to invite everyone to her concert... only to find that everyone is having a family meeting without her. She is hurt and storms off.
Everyone, meanwhile, disagrees on what they should do about the apocalypse thing. Eventually, they disperse.
Klaus pulls Diego aside and, inspired by Diego's earlier comments, asks him to tie him up. Uh, wait, stop, okay, it's not a sex thing. He doesn't trust himself to stay sober long enough to do it, but he wants to be able to conjure Dave's ghost before the end of the world and see him one more time. Diego agrees to do it and they have a genuine bonding experience.
The moment Diego starts to walk away, however, Klaus stops him. He forgot to pee... before getting tied up.
This is handled offscreen.
As Diego starts to redo the whole tying his brother to a chair thing (totally normal, not weird at all), Klaus attempts to down just one last dose of pills. Unfortunately, thanks to Klaus opening up earlier, Diego won't let him, and the voluntary restraints end up a fair bit less voluntary as Klaus begs, even suggesting he'll conjure Patch for Diego. Diego doesn't budge and leaves him to sit and go through withdrawal alone.
Eventually, Klaus does it. He sobers up enough that Dave's ghost appears to him. He starts to cry from happiness.
And then none of that happened. I did say time got weird. Five returns from his siege of the Commission to... just after Vanya stormed out of the family meeting, thus instantly erasing everything that happened afterward. Hilariously, the implication ends up being that this basically ruined everything and in part sabotages his own attempts to stop the apocalypse and save his family.
Whoops!
So the day happens again, but this time worse! Five announces that he intercepted an order to the assassins to protect someone named Harold Jenkins, who he assumes is the cause of the apocalypse.
Leonard, meanwhile, overhears this on his way out with Vanya.
This time, with Five rallying them, the siblings minus Vanya agree to work together to stop the apocalypse by investigating Harold Jenkins and stopping him. This time, while three of them go to find more info, Luther stays behind because he is convinced that his father's final mission to him, which involved sending various readings down from the moon over the course of four years, has some connection as well. He goes to look for the research he sent his Reginald in his office.
Klaus uh, passes, because he's got a lot of stuff going on right now and he also happens to be in the throes of withdrawal, physical symptoms hitting him hard. He just kind of hovers around the house, still ruminating on the idea Diego planted in his head of seeing Dave one last time. Eventually, he seeks out Luther this time for help tying him up to keep him sober, since he's the only one still home.
Only he finds Luther very drunk on dad's liquor and lamenting the fact that the entire mission to send him to the moon was faked. He'd never even opened the files that were sent down. Reginald literally Planet Hulk'd him for seemingly no reason other than to get rid of him.
And, apparently, his method of coping is to ask Klaus for drugs. He wants to be carefree the way Klaus (apparently) is, because he had been the only one to stay behind and stay loyal to their father only for none of it to matter. Klaus tries to dissuade him, but Luther storms off.
Klaus follows, and starts to wonder if it even really matters, since the world is ending anyway and Luther needs a chance to live life in the way he never could until now. Ben appears and insists that Luther diving headfirst into a "party" lifestyle in response to a negative spiral after a lifetime of being extremely sheltered might have, like, consequences? What convinces Klaus is Ben's insistence that, if the situation were reversed, Luther would do anything to save Klaus.
They manage to find Luther by following the rumors of someone of his particularly unique appearance, leading them to a rave. Where Luther has already apparently taken a bunch of drugs and is currently dancing wildly, completely shirtless, mutated body on display. You know, sort of the opposite of anything Luther would normally do. Klaus is immediately overwhelmed by the loud noise and heavy crowds and flashing lights, likely due to early symptoms of withdrawal. Struggling, he makes his way to Luther to try to convince him to come back home and stay safe. Luther ignores him and tries to pop some ecstasy right in front of him, at which Klaus snatches the tablet from his hand and throws it across the room.
Immediately realizing his mistake(?) as withdrawal starts to hit him harder, he goes after the pill to retrieve it. The act of crawling across the ground, the flashing lights, the chaotic atmosphere, the loud noises... Klaus starts to experience flashbacks to the war. When he finally reaches the pill, he cradles it in his hand and sees Dave's body there instead and starts to have a breakdown on the floor.
Meanwhile, someone's jealous boyfriend is apparently pissed that Luther attracted that someone to dance with him. (He's surprisingly popular at the club??? This is why some fans suspect it's a furry rave but there were NO fursuits so I will deny it to my grave. It's 2019 and everyone's lowkey a furry.) The jealous man gets his friends to go take down Luther, and appear to be packing weapons, which Klaus notices and he hurriedly tries to intervene.
In the struggle, he's thrown to the ground and cracks his head hard on the concrete, passing out. It's at this point that Klaus finds himself in Deerington.
CRAU History and Impact: n/a
Personality: What most people see when they look at Klaus is a carefree, hedonistic, deadbeat junkie. In a sense, this is partly true. He's pretty hedonistic, sure, and his lifestyle is heavily implied to have long been involving doing whatever it takes to scrounge up enough cash to chase the next high, never settling down for long and taking advantage of anyone who so much as accidentally offers help. He doesn't drive, doesn't work, doesn't pay if he can help it, and he gets around by mooching off of anyone he can.
To those that are familiar with this kind of life, it's clear that Klaus is definitely not quite as carefree as he seems. The drugs he uses are to numb himself from years of abuse and trauma, not to mention his power to see the dead that he's terrified of. And that's even before what he goes through during the series proper. He already had a form of PTSD, but it worsens and compounds over the course of the season, and he starts to more regularly experience flashbacks and breakdowns. He copes by self-medicating and self-deprecating and just saying whatever he thinks might be the funniest thing in that particular moment. Seriously, though, he does not shut up, even in potentially lethal situations. He annoys the shit out of his own kidnappers.
Of course, the fact that he uses humor to deflect from anyone looking too deeply at him has the awful side effect of... no one looking too deeply at him. No one takes him seriously, even in cases where he's being logical, because no one expects an honest or deep thought from his mouth, and he has no practice in being openly vulnerable. He's a little sensitive about this, despite the fact that it's an effect of his own making; he frequently spirals because he feels like no matter what he does to try to turn his life around or improve himself, no one will care or even believe he's serious about it.
The thing is, he can be surprisingly competent and sharp if the situation calls for it (and he's not high out of his mind at the time). For example, when Five brings Klaus along to interrogate someone, solely using him because he's the one least likely to ask any questions about why he needs to pretend to be Five's dad, Klaus ends up being the one turning the situation into their favor by taking charge and using unconventional methods to pressure the unfortunate target. Five seems to even be impressed for a moment, at least until Klaus opens his mouth again and pure idiocy comes out. And then, of course, he survives the front lines of the Vietnam War.
Klaus is clearly a mess of contradictions in eyeliner. He's selfish, obviously, doing whatever he can to look out for himself, but he's equal parts compassionate. Flashbacks to his childhood make it seem like it's more in his nature to be a source of comfort and a kind person in general until he grew to learn to be selfish out of necessity in order to survive. He's shown to be surprisingly empathetic when it comes to the pain of others, though this doesn't always manifest in the nicest way. Sometimes he just uses it to lash out in an argument. His one fatal flaw is his cowardice, which prevents him from a lot of things in life, missing opportunities and hardly realizing any of his own potential.
But most of the time, when left to his own devices, he's a victim of his own impulses, he's reckless, he doesn't listen to anyone, he's attention-seeking, and he can't seem to make himself care about anything up to and including the literal apocalypse. Basically, he's got a long way to go, despite the fact that he's sort of working on improving himself.
VALUES/MORALITY
FEARS/INSECURITIES
Abilities/Powers/Weaknesses & Warping: Klaus has the ability to see the dead. Normally, he can only speak to them, and they are completely incorporeal. There are some suggestions that a dead person is more likely to manifest if they have some connection to the area or to Klaus himself. The most obvious example is Ben, the ghost Klaus sees most often and most easily since they were close in life before Ben's death. He also was able to manifest Dave in the overwritten timeline, due to their connection despite the fact that Dave had no connection to the area in which Klaus was. This might also be why it's more difficult for him to manifest Dave otherwise; the only catalyst is Klaus himself, whereas Ben usually has a connection to the places Klaus hangs out since they grew up together.
Other examples: When Klaus was locked in the mausoleum as a child, he was harassed by ghosts who presumably were the people buried there. When Klaus started seeing ghosts while he was captured by Hazel and Cha-Cha, they were all the spirits of people who were killed by the two assassins.
As the series progresses (i.e. past this chosen canonpoint), Klaus finds that his aversion to his own power has avoided its full manifestation. He starts to be able to physically interact with spirits, although it has only been Ben at this point. Eventually, he can even make it so Ben can interact with others. This happens very occasionally and Klaus has very little control over it, and it only seems to happen in tense situations. Ben's own desire to interact with Klaus seems to come into play as well, such as when he punched him during their argument, although it may be suggested that Klaus subconsciously wanted to be stopped as well.
One important aspect of this power, however, is that when Klaus self-medicates with drugs and alcohol, it numbs him to the point of the powers not working entirely. Even if he starts to sober up, as long as any intoxication is still in his system, the only ghost he can see is Ben, due to their strong connection. He has to be entirely or at least mostly sober (and most likely withdrawing) to see anyone else. However, if he is completely, heavily intoxicated, even Ben has trouble appearing.
In regards to power warping and how his power will work in the Deerington setting, I plan on (with permission) occasionally having Klaus see spirits connected to other people he is threading with. He may also occasionally see ghosts from his own world. However, I will only use completely inappable characters, depending on the circumstance. This would sever his link with Ben from canon, leaving anyone who would wish to bring that character to the game free to do what they wish with him.
The warping aspect will make the power also more unreliable than it already is. Even while sober, he may have a harder time seeing a ghost, making them hard to make out visually and sometimes even unnervingly altered. Most of the time, he won't be able to communicate successfully with them. (He already can't communicate with a ghost if they speak a language he doesn't know, but this would make it more difficult for all ghosts to speak to him.)
Sometimes, the ghost will be entirely unrecognizable as anything other than a strange presence, which would make it easier to avoid discussing the ghost's actual identity and simply use it to fuel Klaus' existing fear of ghosts.
Inventory:
Writing Samples: This thread is from another game's TDM but it does highlight many aspects of Klaus' complete stupidity and also I love it. Here is Klaus' toplevel on the most recent TDM for something more reflective of his canonpoint here and interaction with this setting, and two more threads on the same post.
Player Name: Javid
Player Age: 28
Player Contact:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
erlking / javid#6941
Other Characters In Game: n/a
In-Game Tag If Accepted: klaus hargreeves: javid
Permissions for Character: here
Are you comfortable with prominent elements of fourth-walling?: I tend to dislike it for crack purposes, but I like the psychological take in the game's themes, so yes!
What themes of horror/psychological thrillers do you enjoy the most?: Us 2019 might be my new favorite movie of all time??? I've been a longtime fan of the Silent Hill video games as well. Things that play on the human psyche and such are my favorites, and my problematic fave will always be The Shining. I also really like things that riff on the genre like Cabin in the Woods and Behind the Mask. Stuff that challenges your perception of reality (Oculus sucked but the scene when she bites into the apple and pulls out a chewed up lightbulb? Amazing.) and I'm a sucker for a revenge story. Also can't say no to a good monster. I prefer stuff that's open to interpretation too, like not everything is explained and fans are encouraged to fill in the gaps, like early Silent Hill stuff.
Is there anything in particular you absolutely need specific content warnings for?: My only 100% always can't deal with it thing is images of dead or badly harmed cats. And, to a lesser extent, I can't take images/video with heavy focus on vomit. You know that scene in Mr. Robot s2 with the Adderall?? You know! That kind of horrible thing!
Additional Information: n/a
IN CHARACTER
Character Name: Klaus Hargreeves. "Birth name" is Number Four. (Dad wasn't all that interested in naming the children he adopted.)
Canon: The Umbrella Academy
Canon Point: Upon passing out at the rave in Episode 7: The Day That Was
In-Game Tattoo Placement: Antlers coming under and around his belly button. They're about small-to-medium-sized and are blackwork designs in a classic tattoo style.
Current Health/Status: He hit his head so hard he might have seen God. Only he didn't get to see her yet. Otherwise, his system's been going through a rubberband of intoxication and withdrawal for the past week, and he currently seems to be going through a withdrawal-ish period. Also he was actively in the midst of a PTSD flashback on top of that when he passed out. Fun.
He is alive though, although this particular canonpoint is suspected to be a near-death experience. Since, you know. He saw God. Maybe.
Age: 29
Species: Human, against all odds.
History: Link, but it only summarizes up to the fourth episode, so I'll continue up until his canonpoint.
Klaus, upon using the briefcase, was transported back to 1968 and directly into the midst of the Vietnam War. He was presumed to have been a new recruit and conscripted suddenly in the confusion, and he ended up taking part and spent ten months in the military. He met a kind soldier in his brigade named Dave, whom he ended up falling in love with and starting a relationship. At the end of his ten months, while on the front lines, Klaus' brigade took heavy casualties, including Dave, who died in Klaus' arms.
Klaus returned to the present day and immediately had a breakdown, destroying the briefcase so that it could no longer be used. He returns to the Academy to wash Dave's (and his own, and others') blood off of him and recover but is discovered by Five, who immediately recognizes the symptoms of a recent trek through time despite Klaus' attempts to dodge the interrogation. Five discovers Klaus destroyed the briefcase and yells at him, at which point Klaus decides screw this I'm out and wanders off. Five decides to take advantage of the fact that Klaus had stolen the briefcase anyway, and claim to be holding it hostage to draw out the assassins for his own plans.
Meanwhile, Klaus tries to play it cool and act normal and forces Diego to give him a ride. Diego, however, notices quickly that something's off since Klaus is uncharacteristically silent. Klaus has him drop him off at a veterans only bar, where he starts to drink and finds a vintage picture of his (actually quite famous) brigade, with Dave and himself standing side by side. Diego decides to follow him in to confront him and see what the hell Klaus is doing, when they're interrupted by an old war vet who assumes that they shouldn't be there, and is offended that Klaus appears to be masquerading as a vet with his (sleeveless) military jacket and dog tags. Klaus, to Diego's surprise, claims that he is a veteran, but refuses to explain further or be civil in any respect, and lashes out and starts a bar brawl.
The two eventually are kicked out and return to the car. Diego tries to get more answers out of Klaus, and Klaus admits he lost "the only person he ever loved more than himself". Diego, having just recently lost someone as well, understands, but also slightly insensitively says Klaus is luckier than most, since he has the ability to see the dead and thus could interact with his dead loved ones again.
They then spot Hazel out on the street, and Klaus recognizes him as one of his torturers. Diego, still bent on revenge for Patch's death, follows him. Back at the assassins' motel, Hazel and Cha-Cha notice Diego stalking them, but are also called out by Five to ransom for their briefcase. They slip away from Diego (with Klaus just barely saving his brother from getting shot thanks to his inability to follow instruction) and sabotage his car by slashing all the wheels.
So they steal an ice cream truck, as you do.
And they interrupt Five's standoff with the assassins. By crashing said ice cream truck. Into them.
Yes, Klaus was the one driving.
Thanks to the Handler's intervention, everyone leaves the scene, uh, alive, with Five suddenly disappeared again and the assassins' guns mysteriously losing their cartridges.
And here's where time gets weird (again), but this time with feeling. With Five gone, the rest of the family (minus Vanya as usual) regroups and Luther tells them everything Five told him about the impending apocalypse, including the fact that they all die trying to stop it. Vanya returns with Leonard to invite everyone to her concert... only to find that everyone is having a family meeting without her. She is hurt and storms off.
Everyone, meanwhile, disagrees on what they should do about the apocalypse thing. Eventually, they disperse.
Klaus pulls Diego aside and, inspired by Diego's earlier comments, asks him to tie him up. Uh, wait, stop, okay, it's not a sex thing. He doesn't trust himself to stay sober long enough to do it, but he wants to be able to conjure Dave's ghost before the end of the world and see him one more time. Diego agrees to do it and they have a genuine bonding experience.
The moment Diego starts to walk away, however, Klaus stops him. He forgot to pee... before getting tied up.
This is handled offscreen.
As Diego starts to redo the whole tying his brother to a chair thing (totally normal, not weird at all), Klaus attempts to down just one last dose of pills. Unfortunately, thanks to Klaus opening up earlier, Diego won't let him, and the voluntary restraints end up a fair bit less voluntary as Klaus begs, even suggesting he'll conjure Patch for Diego. Diego doesn't budge and leaves him to sit and go through withdrawal alone.
Eventually, Klaus does it. He sobers up enough that Dave's ghost appears to him. He starts to cry from happiness.
And then none of that happened. I did say time got weird. Five returns from his siege of the Commission to... just after Vanya stormed out of the family meeting, thus instantly erasing everything that happened afterward. Hilariously, the implication ends up being that this basically ruined everything and in part sabotages his own attempts to stop the apocalypse and save his family.
Whoops!
So the day happens again, but this time worse! Five announces that he intercepted an order to the assassins to protect someone named Harold Jenkins, who he assumes is the cause of the apocalypse.
Leonard, meanwhile, overhears this on his way out with Vanya.
This time, with Five rallying them, the siblings minus Vanya agree to work together to stop the apocalypse by investigating Harold Jenkins and stopping him. This time, while three of them go to find more info, Luther stays behind because he is convinced that his father's final mission to him, which involved sending various readings down from the moon over the course of four years, has some connection as well. He goes to look for the research he sent his Reginald in his office.
Klaus uh, passes, because he's got a lot of stuff going on right now and he also happens to be in the throes of withdrawal, physical symptoms hitting him hard. He just kind of hovers around the house, still ruminating on the idea Diego planted in his head of seeing Dave one last time. Eventually, he seeks out Luther this time for help tying him up to keep him sober, since he's the only one still home.
Only he finds Luther very drunk on dad's liquor and lamenting the fact that the entire mission to send him to the moon was faked. He'd never even opened the files that were sent down. Reginald literally Planet Hulk'd him for seemingly no reason other than to get rid of him.
And, apparently, his method of coping is to ask Klaus for drugs. He wants to be carefree the way Klaus (apparently) is, because he had been the only one to stay behind and stay loyal to their father only for none of it to matter. Klaus tries to dissuade him, but Luther storms off.
Klaus follows, and starts to wonder if it even really matters, since the world is ending anyway and Luther needs a chance to live life in the way he never could until now. Ben appears and insists that Luther diving headfirst into a "party" lifestyle in response to a negative spiral after a lifetime of being extremely sheltered might have, like, consequences? What convinces Klaus is Ben's insistence that, if the situation were reversed, Luther would do anything to save Klaus.
They manage to find Luther by following the rumors of someone of his particularly unique appearance, leading them to a rave. Where Luther has already apparently taken a bunch of drugs and is currently dancing wildly, completely shirtless, mutated body on display. You know, sort of the opposite of anything Luther would normally do. Klaus is immediately overwhelmed by the loud noise and heavy crowds and flashing lights, likely due to early symptoms of withdrawal. Struggling, he makes his way to Luther to try to convince him to come back home and stay safe. Luther ignores him and tries to pop some ecstasy right in front of him, at which Klaus snatches the tablet from his hand and throws it across the room.
Immediately realizing his mistake(?) as withdrawal starts to hit him harder, he goes after the pill to retrieve it. The act of crawling across the ground, the flashing lights, the chaotic atmosphere, the loud noises... Klaus starts to experience flashbacks to the war. When he finally reaches the pill, he cradles it in his hand and sees Dave's body there instead and starts to have a breakdown on the floor.
Meanwhile, someone's jealous boyfriend is apparently pissed that Luther attracted that someone to dance with him. (He's surprisingly popular at the club??? This is why some fans suspect it's a furry rave but there were NO fursuits so I will deny it to my grave. It's 2019 and everyone's lowkey a furry.) The jealous man gets his friends to go take down Luther, and appear to be packing weapons, which Klaus notices and he hurriedly tries to intervene.
In the struggle, he's thrown to the ground and cracks his head hard on the concrete, passing out. It's at this point that Klaus finds himself in Deerington.
CRAU History and Impact: n/a
Personality: What most people see when they look at Klaus is a carefree, hedonistic, deadbeat junkie. In a sense, this is partly true. He's pretty hedonistic, sure, and his lifestyle is heavily implied to have long been involving doing whatever it takes to scrounge up enough cash to chase the next high, never settling down for long and taking advantage of anyone who so much as accidentally offers help. He doesn't drive, doesn't work, doesn't pay if he can help it, and he gets around by mooching off of anyone he can.
To those that are familiar with this kind of life, it's clear that Klaus is definitely not quite as carefree as he seems. The drugs he uses are to numb himself from years of abuse and trauma, not to mention his power to see the dead that he's terrified of. And that's even before what he goes through during the series proper. He already had a form of PTSD, but it worsens and compounds over the course of the season, and he starts to more regularly experience flashbacks and breakdowns. He copes by self-medicating and self-deprecating and just saying whatever he thinks might be the funniest thing in that particular moment. Seriously, though, he does not shut up, even in potentially lethal situations. He annoys the shit out of his own kidnappers.
Of course, the fact that he uses humor to deflect from anyone looking too deeply at him has the awful side effect of... no one looking too deeply at him. No one takes him seriously, even in cases where he's being logical, because no one expects an honest or deep thought from his mouth, and he has no practice in being openly vulnerable. He's a little sensitive about this, despite the fact that it's an effect of his own making; he frequently spirals because he feels like no matter what he does to try to turn his life around or improve himself, no one will care or even believe he's serious about it.
The thing is, he can be surprisingly competent and sharp if the situation calls for it (and he's not high out of his mind at the time). For example, when Five brings Klaus along to interrogate someone, solely using him because he's the one least likely to ask any questions about why he needs to pretend to be Five's dad, Klaus ends up being the one turning the situation into their favor by taking charge and using unconventional methods to pressure the unfortunate target. Five seems to even be impressed for a moment, at least until Klaus opens his mouth again and pure idiocy comes out. And then, of course, he survives the front lines of the Vietnam War.
Klaus is clearly a mess of contradictions in eyeliner. He's selfish, obviously, doing whatever he can to look out for himself, but he's equal parts compassionate. Flashbacks to his childhood make it seem like it's more in his nature to be a source of comfort and a kind person in general until he grew to learn to be selfish out of necessity in order to survive. He's shown to be surprisingly empathetic when it comes to the pain of others, though this doesn't always manifest in the nicest way. Sometimes he just uses it to lash out in an argument. His one fatal flaw is his cowardice, which prevents him from a lot of things in life, missing opportunities and hardly realizing any of his own potential.
But most of the time, when left to his own devices, he's a victim of his own impulses, he's reckless, he doesn't listen to anyone, he's attention-seeking, and he can't seem to make himself care about anything up to and including the literal apocalypse. Basically, he's got a long way to go, despite the fact that he's sort of working on improving himself.
VALUES/MORALITY
- Prioritizes his own safety and wellbeing, but will help someone in need if he can.
- Empathizes with people when they are vulnerable with him, but tends to withhold his own insecurities rather than not.
- Doesn't want those he cares for to get involved with a lifestyle like his. Will withhold drugs from family. You'll thank him later.
- Has a low opinion of himself, in part due to his life choices, but always ends up falling back into bad habits. He's working on it, but taking the easy way out is too enticing sometimes.
- Does not see abusers as worthy of redemption, due to personal experience. Has a bit of room for nuance in regard to those who stand by and "let" abuse happen, though, depending on their reasoning.
- Is not above breaking the law. Does not care for authority figures. Fuck the police. Shoplifts more than not. Has been arrested and/or institutionalized for his drug use multiple times.
- Is allergic to responsibility. Has never held a real job. Has been homeless off and on as a result. Doesn't know how to drive but can and will steal a car if he feels like he really needs to drive an ice cream truck into a person.
- Has murdered people as a kid, as have all his siblings, due to their grooming by their father. Has also killed in war. Is... less inclined to do so now, especially after Vietnam. But if he feels someone deserves it (see abuser clause above), he's not above laughing at their untimely death.
- Very forgiving of family, father notwithstanding.
- Will easily lie if he feels he has to. Would rather hide things about himself than share them. Relies on humor to distract from unpleasant truths.
- Even when he realizes the apocalypse is actually going to happen, can't really be assed to care about it. This is partially his nihilism regarding his own ability to do anything about it.
FEARS/INSECURITIES
- GHOSTS. Enclosed spaces. Relationships. Has PTSD due to child abuse/neglect as well as from his time in the Vietnam War. Can and will have flashbacks.
- Basically always either in a state of intoxication or withdrawal. Has been rubberbanding for the past few days, though he was mostly alright (read: had access to drugs and no inclination to avoid them) during his ten months in Vietnam. Is currently on a withdrawal stint, and is a little motivated to try and keep sober, but hasn't been convinced yet. Will fall off the wagon real soon without the right people looking out for him.
- He's intensely afraid of being alone or abandoned. In part his tendency to act out is a call for attention. Has no impulse control or brain-to-mouth filter.
- Very insecure about not being believed or taken seriously when he's trying to be genuine. The fact it kind of always ends up happening due to his own mask he's put up for so long feeds into that insecurity and, in turn, contributes to him always eventually turning back to his addictions.
- Kind of still afraid of dad, even though he's dead.
Abilities/Powers/Weaknesses & Warping: Klaus has the ability to see the dead. Normally, he can only speak to them, and they are completely incorporeal. There are some suggestions that a dead person is more likely to manifest if they have some connection to the area or to Klaus himself. The most obvious example is Ben, the ghost Klaus sees most often and most easily since they were close in life before Ben's death. He also was able to manifest Dave in the overwritten timeline, due to their connection despite the fact that Dave had no connection to the area in which Klaus was. This might also be why it's more difficult for him to manifest Dave otherwise; the only catalyst is Klaus himself, whereas Ben usually has a connection to the places Klaus hangs out since they grew up together.
Other examples: When Klaus was locked in the mausoleum as a child, he was harassed by ghosts who presumably were the people buried there. When Klaus started seeing ghosts while he was captured by Hazel and Cha-Cha, they were all the spirits of people who were killed by the two assassins.
As the series progresses (i.e. past this chosen canonpoint), Klaus finds that his aversion to his own power has avoided its full manifestation. He starts to be able to physically interact with spirits, although it has only been Ben at this point. Eventually, he can even make it so Ben can interact with others. This happens very occasionally and Klaus has very little control over it, and it only seems to happen in tense situations. Ben's own desire to interact with Klaus seems to come into play as well, such as when he punched him during their argument, although it may be suggested that Klaus subconsciously wanted to be stopped as well.
One important aspect of this power, however, is that when Klaus self-medicates with drugs and alcohol, it numbs him to the point of the powers not working entirely. Even if he starts to sober up, as long as any intoxication is still in his system, the only ghost he can see is Ben, due to their strong connection. He has to be entirely or at least mostly sober (and most likely withdrawing) to see anyone else. However, if he is completely, heavily intoxicated, even Ben has trouble appearing.
In regards to power warping and how his power will work in the Deerington setting, I plan on (with permission) occasionally having Klaus see spirits connected to other people he is threading with. He may also occasionally see ghosts from his own world. However, I will only use completely inappable characters, depending on the circumstance. This would sever his link with Ben from canon, leaving anyone who would wish to bring that character to the game free to do what they wish with him.
The warping aspect will make the power also more unreliable than it already is. Even while sober, he may have a harder time seeing a ghost, making them hard to make out visually and sometimes even unnervingly altered. Most of the time, he won't be able to communicate successfully with them. (He already can't communicate with a ghost if they speak a language he doesn't know, but this would make it more difficult for all ghosts to speak to him.)
Sometimes, the ghost will be entirely unrecognizable as anything other than a strange presence, which would make it easier to avoid discussing the ghost's actual identity and simply use it to fuel Klaus' existing fear of ghosts.
Inventory:
- little baggie of assorted pills, for recreational use. the amount of pills is 5.
- thc infused chocolate bar.
- pack of cigarettes, partly used. amount within is 16.
- a plain pocket flask. currently empty. boo hoo.
- ka-bar utility knife from the vietnam war. because i'm not giving him a freaking submachine gun but i do want him to have a weapon. added bonus of making him upset when he sees it!
- outfit: obnoxious tie-dye crop top, dog tags tucked beneath the shirt, olive drab military jacket with the sleeves cut off, the same leather pants with slits on the thighs that he's worn every day for the past week, FOR ONCE a pair of grey converse and black socks rather than being barefoot. i've compiled visual references of this outfit from various sources here, aside from the shoes, because for some odd reason the cameras didn't focus heavily on klaus' feet when he wasn't barefoot. weird!
Writing Samples: This thread is from another game's TDM but it does highlight many aspects of Klaus' complete stupidity and also I love it. Here is Klaus' toplevel on the most recent TDM for something more reflective of his canonpoint here and interaction with this setting, and two more threads on the same post.
OUT OF CHARACTER
Player Name: Javid
Player Age: 28
Player Contact:
Other Characters In Game: n/a
In-Game Tag If Accepted: klaus hargreeves: javid
Permissions for Character: here
Are you comfortable with prominent elements of fourth-walling?: I tend to dislike it for crack purposes, but I like the psychological take in the game's themes, so yes!
What themes of horror/psychological thrillers do you enjoy the most?: Us 2019 might be my new favorite movie of all time??? I've been a longtime fan of the Silent Hill video games as well. Things that play on the human psyche and such are my favorites, and my problematic fave will always be The Shining. I also really like things that riff on the genre like Cabin in the Woods and Behind the Mask. Stuff that challenges your perception of reality (Oculus sucked but the scene when she bites into the apple and pulls out a chewed up lightbulb? Amazing.) and I'm a sucker for a revenge story. Also can't say no to a good monster. I prefer stuff that's open to interpretation too, like not everything is explained and fans are encouraged to fill in the gaps, like early Silent Hill stuff.
Is there anything in particular you absolutely need specific content warnings for?: My only 100% always can't deal with it thing is images of dead or badly harmed cats. And, to a lesser extent, I can't take images/video with heavy focus on vomit. You know that scene in Mr. Robot s2 with the Adderall?? You know! That kind of horrible thing!
Additional Information: n/a