klaus hargreeves 👻 6I App

BASICS

Your name or nickname: coffee
Your year of birth: 1982
A reliable DW account the mods can PM to reach you: necrozoetic
Who you currently play at 6I: n/a
Link to your hold comment: Here
Referral: n/a

Character name: Klaus Hargreeves
Character type: Fandom Character
Fandom/Canon: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Character DW journal: necrozoetic
Does this character have previous CR?: no.

HISTORY

Klaus at Umbrella Academy Wiki. This link only has Klaus-specific synopses of the first four episodes, so I'll list out other important details from before canon and the remaining six episodes below:

Pre-Canon:

• As stated in the wiki, Klaus was born to a mother who had not previously been pregnant, at the same time as 42 other children born to different mothers around the world in the same way. He and 6 other children were adopted by Reginald Hargreeves.

• The children were not treated as family by their adoptive father, but rather as complicated science experiments. They were well-educated, mostly cared for by an android 'mother' and Pogo, a monkey with the ability to speak (origin not explained). Their brainwaves were monitored as they slept, and every moment of their lives spent in the house were recorded by surveillance cameras placed around the house. One of the things that happened to Klaus as an adolescent was that he was repeatedly locked in a dark crypt to 'cure' his fear of the dead - this only succeeded in making him scared of the dead and of enclosed dark spaces.

• The siblings were debuted at around 13 as a superhero team called the Umbrella Academy that stopped crimes with their super powers, often violently. Through this, they rose to fame and were featured on TV, in magazines, etc. Throughout his adolescence, Klaus struggled with substance abuse, which he used to keep his ability in check and dormant, a pattern that continued into his adulthood.

• At an unspecified point, Klaus left home and the Umbrella Academy. All his siblings except Luther left in similar ways, drifting away from home and each other.

Episodes 5-10

• When the briefcase he stole from Hazel and Cha-Cha turned out to be a time machine, he accidentally jumped back in time and found himself in Vietnam during the war. While there, he became a soldier and joined the fight with the unit whose barracks he woke up in. He was in Vietnam for 10 months, during which time he fell in love with a soldier named Dave and had a relationship with him, and got a tattoo of the unit's insignia and name. When Dave was killed on the front lines in battle, Klaus used the briefcase to travel back to the present, where he destroyed it due to his grief over losing Dave before going home to the house. His time in Vietnam has added flashbacks of helicopters, gunfire, and Dave's death to his pre-existing PTSD symptoms.

• After returning to the present, he gets a ride with his brother Diego and ends up at a bar for Veterans of Foreign Wars, where he goes inside and finds a photo that includes Dave, and while he's tearfully looking at it, a veteran gets in an argument with him about whether he belongs there. After a bar brawl that Diego helps him get out of, the two talk about losing people before seeing Hazel and Cha-Cha at the donut shop and following them to the hotel they are staying in. After a short gunfight, the two steal an ice cream truck and follow the assassins out to where they've arranged a meet up with Luther and Five for the (fake) briefcase. Another gunfight ensues.

• One episode of the series is a day that is eventually erased via time travel. During the Day that Wasn't, Klaus asked for Diego's help to get clean so he can see Dave again by using his ability, and spends the day tied to a chair detoxing. At the end of the episode, he sees Dave's ghost coming toward him as time rewinds. Klaus won't remember the Day that Wasn't.

• During the Day that Was, which is the day Klaus will remember, he discussed saving the world with his siblings before they parted ways. Instead of asking Diego to help him sober up, he tries to ask Luther, who he finds drunk and depressed. After Luther goes into a rage and almost chokes Klaus to unconsciousness, Klaus comforts Luther and tries to talk him out of going on a further bender, with no success. Klaus and Ben follow Luther around, trying to find him because he's not suited to the bender lifestyle, and end up finding him at a rave, where Klaus almost caves in and takes drugs before seeing a hallucination of Dave's death, triggered by the bright lights in the club. Luther is almost attacked by some gangsters before Klaus intervenes and ends up hitting his head hard enough to send him into the afterlife.

• While he's in the afterlife, he has a short conversation with God before finding his father in a barber shop. While giving Klaus a shave, his father reveals that he had killed himself in order to bring the siblings back together, and confides that Klaus has barely scratched the surface of his abilities. Klaus wakes back up on the floor of the rave and Luther is gone - he finds Luther with a woman in his room the next morning and teases him before trying to tell Luther and Five that he spoke to their father and about the suicide. Neither believes him until Pogo confirms it.

• Klaus has a short conversation with Five and decides he wants to participate in saving the world. Shortly afterward, Allison is brought home in critical condition after her throat is slit in a moment of fury by Vanya. Klaus tries to donate blood to save her life stating that he loves needles, but is turned down because his blood is too polluted. After this, he goes looking for drugs again because his siblings don't take him seriously and he can't manage to connect with Dave, but Ben confronts him and ends up punching the drugs out of his mouth. This gives Klaus another reason to stay sober, as he starts training to try to recreate Ben's physical manifestation.

• After being threatened into helping his brothers save the world, Klaus goes with his brothers to Vanya's fake boyfriend's house, who they believe is the reason the apocalypse happens, only to find him dead. Assuming that the apocalypse has been averted, they part ways, though after asking Five how to start training with his powers and being rebuffed for being an addict, Klaus confronts Five about how they both have an addiction, Klaus to drugs and Five to the apocalypse.

• Vanya comes back home, grief and guilt stricken over having (she thinks) killed Allison, and Luther meets her. Instead of forgiving her, he tricks her and knocks her unconscious before locking her in a soundproofed room where he thinks she can't use her powers. Klaus, along with Allison and Diego, beg Luther to let Vanya out so they can talk about it, but Luther refuses. Vanya finds a way to use her powers and destroys the house, and all the siblings escape though Mom and Pogo are killed - Diego barely escapes with his life after Klaus allows Ben to materialize and pull him from under falling rubble. They realize that Vanya is the cause of the apocalypse.

• The siblings regroup at a bowling alley where Klaus tries to tell them that he can see, speak to, and have physical contact with Ben, but they don't believe him. The group is attacked by assassins from the Collective, and flee the bowling alley to go to Vanya's concert, where Klaus is left outside to be the lookout, as the others don't believe his abilities to be useful. After seeing Cha-Cha approaching the theater, he goes inside to warn his siblings and is almost shot. The group is pinned down and Klaus manages to allow Ben to manifest visibly, so the others can see him, and Ben uses his eldritch horror tentacles to take out all the assassins.

• After Allison stops Vanya from using her abilities to cause the apocalypse by deafening her with the sound of a gun, Vanya accidentally breaks off chunk off the moon while startled. The piece of the moon hurtles toward Earth and the siblings realize that this will cause the apocalypse. Together, they take Vanya's unconscious body and all of them start to travel through time with Five. This is where Klaus' canon point is.

What is your canon exit point?: End of S1E10, while jumping through time with all 6 of his siblings.

PERSONALITY OVERVIEW

n/a

PERSONALITY QUESTIONS

What skills does your character bring to the situation?

Frankly, Klaus is not a very skilled character, at least in the traditional sense. He's excellent at being dramatic to manipulative effect, stealing things and then managing to convert those stolen things into money, not minding needles, and creative dumpster diving. The skills that would likely come in most handy in Sixth Iteration are his capability for compassion and forgiveness, and his resilience and survivability.

Klaus has been addicted to one thing or another (alcohol, drugs, smoking) since he was very young, and with addiction comes a whole slew of terrible habits and traits - stealing from people you care about, being flaky and out of contact, relying too heavily on the kindness of family. Klaus has done all of those things, and a lot more, has been in and out of rehab and likely homeless on the streets at various times. He's done bad things, and so he understands how people can do bad things, and is far more likely to overlook or forgive bad behaviour on the part of people around him. This is shown in canon on various occasions, as all of his siblings have treated him badly at various points, but he still cares for them. The most poignant example is probably when his brother Luther drunkenly choked him half to death and only seconds after he stopped, Klaus was trying to comfort him through a depressive mood swing. Klaus gets it, how people can mess up spectacularly and still not be bad people, and this skill might just help to foster a sense of community with other people in the game who feel on the fringes or who have behaved badly and might need a bit of forgiveness on their redemption arc.

Klaus also takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin' - during the show, he's absolutely put through the wringer, he's kidnapped and tortured, survives almost a year in the Vietnam war thanks to some unexpected time travel, and he goes through terrible physical drug withdrawals twice in 10 episodes. Despite all this, he's on his feet, mobile, and ready to help save the world, even when his siblings don't necessarily think he's capable of helping them. This might be useful in the context of the game because while Klaus isn't ambitious or big on exploring, he's willing to try new things, and if they backfire, he's got a high tolerance for pain and generally feeling terrible. He might want to quit, but he very rarely actually does.

Why did you choose this specific character for 6I, and how do you picture them fitting into the game?

I've been wanting to play at 6I for quite a while (as you can probably tell by the multiple holds I've placed...) and Klaus is the character I'm most excited about, and that was a major motivator. However, 6I does appeal to me with this character in particular because I think the setting and power nerfing will be really good for his character development. Being separated from both drugs and his abilities will give him a chance to maybe heal a bit, mentally and emotionally, from the abuse and trauma he's endured during his life. It will also help him a lot to integrate into a community where he might actually contribute something useful. Klaus often complains of being forgotten, ignored, or not taken seriously by his siblings and the other people in his life, and with a more solid sober foundation free of ghostly visions, he might be able to develop skillsets and relationships that will help him be taken seriously. I enjoy sober Klaus much more than caustic high Klaus, so it will be nice to be able to play him that way in a setting where he'll need to use some of his survival skills and ability to connect with people to survive.

Speaking of connecting with other people, I think a community atmosphere and a village setting with a limited number of characters would be excellent for fostering positivity in Klaus and allowing him to form friendships, make frienemies, and develop his interpersonal skills. He's often very sarcastic and flippant, which can drive people away, so it will take some effort for him to adapt to a more communal lifestyle where making friends instead of fending for oneself is the best way to survive, but he'll adapt, and I expect that character arc to be really fun to play!

How do you imagine your character will survive in 6I, and in what ways will they contribute to the settlement, if any?

Klaus is the type of character who wants to be useful despite having...not a lot to contribute except in certain particular situations. I'm really interested in having him try his hand at various things and finding something he's actually good at, and then being able to provide that for other people. I think it would be very fulfilling for him, and a new thing to feel like he's needed and helpful.

In situations where there's work to do, unfortunately, Klaus is unlikely to volunteer to help out. He can be a bit lazy and low energy when things he doesn't feel like doing are involved. However, with a bit of prodding he'd probably grumble and get up and help. In emergency situations, where shelter and food are short, his empathy and resilience would kick in and he would likely let other people take what was necessary, especially if there were people who needed it (injured, children, etc.) more than him. Really, he mostly tends to be selfish where drugs are involved, and without those he's pretty relaxed and compassionate.

How will your character react to...

Being separated, possibly permanently, from loved ones and their previous life, including loss of powers, if applicable?

Frankly, a loss of powers would be a bonus for him. Klaus has a long-standing history of being traumatized by his power (seeing dead people) and his 'father' experimented on him with it in ways that left him with severe PTSD. While he would miss seeing his deceased brother Ben and have a decent amount of grief over losing the prospect of seeing his deceased lover Dave, he would generally be a lot more mentally healthy without the ability.

As far as being separated from loved ones, possibly permanently, he would miss them but adapt. The Hargreeves siblings have always had a very strange and strained relationship - they care for each other in a variety of ways, they are the only other people who understand their unique life circumstances, they relied on each other in fights and survival situations for years and (to some extent) trust each other...but they often don't like each other all that much. Klaus has been estranged from anyone he would consider a loved one for a long time, and if his siblings didn't arrive or went home, he would miss them but soldier on and find his own niche without them, just like he's done for most of his adult life. Besides his siblings, anyone else that he cared about or loved is dead.

Their environment being manipulated, possibly in strange or extraordinary ways, and possibly in ways which restrain them?

This will probably trip him out at first, but he'll adapt quickly - he's used to a high level of weirdness in his surroundings, partly because of his history of drug use and his ability to see dead people and partly because of being a member of the Umbrella Academy. In the series, he adjusts pretty quickly to things like deceased siblings coming back as old people in teenage bodies, time traveling to the Vietnam War unexpectedly, and the presence of a Commission to make sure that historical events unfold correctly that sends powerful hitmen after him. Not to mention his ability to laugh at torture.

Still, it will make him uncomfortable. He's adapted to that kind of situation before, but that's not to say he likes it, particularly. Depending on the definition of restrained, it would also bother him as well. Klaus is not a fan of tight spaces, as they give him flashbacks of being locked in a crypt when he was an adolescent, so any physical restraint would probably make him panic a little. Restraint in his freedom in general would bother him a bit as well, as he's been in jail and rehab and those are situations he didn't particularly enjoy. He likes having the freedom to do what he wants, when he wants, and being barred from doing so would make him uncomfortable, pouty, mad, or any combination thereof.

Being physically and/or mentally manipulated, such as having hallucinations or suddenly possessing special abilities they did not have before?

This is the one that would really mess him up. As a person who gets regular PTSD flashbacks and occasionally has auditory and visual hallucinations, and with his long history of seeing dead people in various states of injury and violence, Klaus does not like having his mind manipulated unless he was the one that did the manipulating (ie. through drugs/alcohol). He would likely react with panic, at least until he worked out what was going on, and depending on the situation, past traumas are likely to be brought up such as things he saw in the Vietnam War, the death of Dave, or his childhood abuse.

Because of his history, Klaus tends to assume that strange things happening to him mentally or physically are because of himself, his powers, or otherwise because of his actions or those of his siblings. He isn't the sort to jump to a conspiracy or the thought of being manipulated by someone watching him, even if he's told that those things are happening, and will try to fake it like nothing is happening before eventually breaking down into fear and panic. When he's afraid, he tends to crouch down or lie down, arms over his head, fetal position or knees up against his chest, and doesn't respond unless he has to.

POWERS & SPECIAL ABILITIES

Klaus has the ability to see and interact with dead people. When he isn't inebriated or in an altered state of mind, Klaus can see people in the afterlife, and interact with them visually and verbally. The spirits take a variety of forms - most often semi-transparent horror visions of the dead that scream and whisper his name or apparitions that seem to interact with him verbally and visually as if they were actually present with him. Most of these apparitions show any visible signs of any injuries or conditions that led to their deaths and speak the languages that they spoke in life, which sometimes means that Klaus can't understand them. The exception to his is his brother, Ben, who he has been seeing whenever he was sober since shortly after Ben died. Ben appears perfectly normal with no outward sign of how he died, and seems to be solidly visible, audible, and present sooner after Klaus stops drugs than any of the other apparitions.

Klaus also has the ability to interact physically with the dead, and to conjure spirits and allow them to manifest into the physical world. He has, at several points, allowed Ben to interact with the physical world - Ben punched him in the face, he allowed Ben to drag Diego to safety, and in a fight where the siblings were badly outnumbered, Klaus pulled Ben into the physical world and allowed Ben to use his eldritch horror ability to save them. This physical use of Klaus' ability is rare, takes a lot of effort, and requires at least a day or two of solid sobriety to manage.

Klaus has spent most of his life trying to dull his abilities, not train in them, so he has very little control beyond the passive seeing of spirits that he can't 'turn off' without being intoxicated. It is stated by his father that he has barely scratched the surface of what he can do, but at this point he (and the audience) is unaware of what else he might be capable of.

WRITING SAMPLES

SAMPLE 1
Why did you choose this sample? It's a nice, solid thread with introspection and a few different moods demonstrated, with Klaus and Diego discussing canon events and 6I game events.
Linked or pasted sample: 6I TDM thread with Diego.

SAMPLE 2 (cw: some mild sexual references)
Why did you choose this sample? I was really proud of this top-level I wrote for Klaus on the Zhautas TDM. I felt like it showed a variety of reactions and moods for him, and captured his body language really well, in particular. I didn't get a lot of bites and wasn't overly attached to the threads I did on it, but I still like the top-level.
Linked or pasted sample: Zhautas TDM top-level for Klaus.

SAMPLE 3 (cw: violence/blood)
Why did you choose this sample? This thread is a good example of how I play action-based stuff. Eddie is a very different character than Klaus, but it's a fun action-survival thread with a bit of violence that shows how I deal with those subjects.
Linked or pasted sample: Riverview thread with one of my previous characters, Eddie Thawne (causational).