hellhouse Application

[bestfuneralever]

PLAYER: Kayla
CHARACTER: Klaus Hargreeves
CANON: The Umbrella Academy [Netflix]
CANON POINT: Post-s1
CANON PUNCTURING: No
FOURTHWALLING: No
GREATEST FEAR: Being consumed by and losing himself to the ghosts that haunt him

ABOUT: Series wiki | Klaus wiki
PERSONALITY:

Overall: Klaus is a complex case when it comes to describing how he acts and who he is as a person. First and foremost, because a large part of who he is, is actually a lie and little more than a well-worn mask that he prefers to the reality of the broken mess that he keeps hidden behind it.

On the surface, Klaus is a carefree, worry-free party boy with not a single care at all. This, along with his wild antics and gender-bending/androgynous wardrobe, is a persona that he gives out to the world, free of charge. It's the most magnetic part of him that makes people like--or at least want to like him.

However, hidden underneath the layers of booze, drugs, and that carefully-placed mask are the broken pieces of a man ravaged by his father's abuse.

Sensitive and compassionate, Klaus is not one to hide from his feelings or those of others. He will openly express fear or panic, or cry in front of other people without seeming to think or feel like it's not something he should do or share with people. He is also incredibly tactile and seeks to both give and receive comfort through touch-- a hand on an arm or shoulder or a simple hug.

Klaus is a bit of a fatalistic pessimist, always assuming the worst of people and situations-- because cynicism lessens his chances of being disappointed and if it turns out he's wrong, it's almost like a pleasant surprise. As much as he wants to believe people, particularly ones that press any kind of interest or care in his direction, he tends to disbelieve it or assume it's somehow manipulative in nature by default.

He holds a very low threshold for criticisms due to having so many--pathetic; weak; disappointment; junkie, the list goes on and on--thrown at him through the years and may react disproportionately to negative commentary. He also has a low tolerance for stressful situations, running from them as quickly and effectively as possible, usually in the form of pills or alcohol and preferably before a paralyzing bout of panic sets in.

Though it is hard to get through the number of walls Klaus has effectively built around himself through the last roughly two decades, once someone sticks around long enough to manage it, they will find a caring and loyal, if not ambitious or always dependable, person who will flay himself open for those he cares about when it matters most.

Positive Traits:

• Empathy - Klaus possesses a large capacity for compassion and understanding/sharing other people's feelings. Part of this may be because he deeply longs for people to understand him and where he comes from-- so he gives other people that benefit in hopes that maybe it will circle back to him one day, too.
  
  
• Adaptable - Klaus rolls with the punches with the best of them, probably largely due to the way he's lived his life-- flying by the seat of his pants with no plan whatsoever. He's also incredibly resilient and takes both physical and psychological tortures with the unnerving sort of ease of someone too used to the people in his life turning on him this way.
  
  
• Witty - Humor is one of the ways Klaus connects with people, and deals with all of the trauma under the surface. He has a tendency to be snarky and sarcastic more than not and will make wildly inappropriate jokes at the worst times.
  
  
• Protective - While it takes a lot to find yourself in the inner-circle of people he truly cares about, Klaus is fiercely protective of those within it. His siblings top the list entirely, always, and he'll throw hands with anyone who wants to buck against them (even if it's a fight he'll inevitably lose).
  
  
• Magnetic - Klaus has the kind of (surface) personality that just makes people want to be around him. He's "the fun guy" in any group of friends who rarely does or takes anything all the seriously and as a result, it's always easy for him to make friends anywhere he goes. Not that he'll necessarily trust those friends any further than he could pick them up and throw them-- he's inherently suspicious of anyone that seems to take a liking to him.
  

Negative Traits:

• Selfish - There's an inherent sort of selfishness that comes along with addiction and that is written all across Klaus' actions, from lying and stealing to support his habits to ignoring apparent concern from anyone about his substance abuse. In regards to his very unhealthy coping mechanisms, little is going to move him away from it, and he's going to continue to do what he deems as the best and only way to handle all the trauma in his life.
  
  
• Attention-seeking - The truth is, at the core of this particular trait, lives a desperate need to be seen and heard-- which isn't something any of the Hargreeves kids experienced much of with their overly dismissive father. He doesn't care if the attention is positive or negative, he just wants the focus to be on him-- the epitome of 'I don't care what you think, as long as it's about me'. This habit, which comes with a lot of flamboyant and over-the-top commentary and actions, can make him an annoying thorn in people's sides at times.
  
  
• Foot-in-mouth - No, really. It's a problem he has and he has it b a d. Get him going and he'll likely make a problem worse by just not stopping his mouth when he should have half a dozen comments ago.
  
  
• Impulsive - Not a big thinker, Klaus tends to follow his heart and what feels right-- and what feels right isn't always the best route to go because it often leads him into trouble. Drinking and abusing drugs in excess, jumping into the middle of a fray with little regard for himself are just a couple of examples. Klaus and whatever whim he may have at a given moment, are occasionally unpredictable in the worst possible ways.
  
  
• Unreliable - Along with the tendency toward impulsiveness, Klaus is not the most reliable or stable-constant person. His emotions drive him more than logic or reason, which can cause his opinions, determinations and loyalties to switch up on occasion. Flaky as hell, he can drop out of contact on a dime and no one will know when they might hear from him again. Klaus lives a life in a constant state of chaos and probably wouldn't know how to live any other way, despite longing for stability and peace.
  

ABILITIES:

• Special Abilities;
  
  Mediumship/summoning: Klaus has a connection to the dead/the afterlife and as such has the ability to see/speak to ghosts. When the conditions are right (i.e. he's actually sober), he can even call them from the afterlife almost like a really difficult long-distance video conference call (that he never wants to make).
  
  Channeling/manifesting: Klaus has an additional subset of his mediumship abilities that includes manifesting a temporarily solid form to allow ghosts to interact with the physical world and channeling them, allowing them to use his body for a limited time.
  
  Telekinesis: He also has an, as of yet undiscovered, ability to manipulate objects (and himself) with his mind-- mostly a levitation/hovering limit, which could potentially increase with time on the size and scope of things he could move.
  
  
  
  
• Skills;
  
  Self-defense: Though most of the skill he may have had when he was younger has diminished through years of drug abuse and lack of use, Reginald put all of the kids through various self-defense lessons; certain aspects of these self-defense tactics have been re-gained since he's gone back in time and fought in the Vietnam War. He also has some basic combat skills as well.
  
  General Adaptability: Living the life he's lived, Klaus can roll with just about anything that comes his way and for the most part, will probably even seem pretty unphased by it all.
  
  Knitting: A skill he picked up during one of his many rotational stints in rehab; it's a thing he can keep his hands busy with when he can't shut his mind down.
  
  Drink mixing: Look, it may not seem like a very useful skill to have, but it's one under his belt. You don't become the kind of alcoholic that he is and not learn what mixes well together to the point of skill.

ARE YOU AWARE THAT YOUR CHARACTER(S) WILL BE CHOSEN AT LEAST TO PARTICIPATE IN MANDATORY STORYLINES THAT TIE INTO THE PLOT OF THE GAME? Yes

WAS THIS CHARACTER RESERVED? Yep!
CONTACT INFO: HMD | loyalwolf on plurk | loyalwolf#3540 on discord