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[yourdearfriend]

Name: Nigh
Contact: dendrite
Other Characters: Aunamee

CHARACTER INFORMATION
Character Name: Clarence
Age: N/A. Appears to be a dead, 30-something scientist.
Canon: Penumbra: Black Plague
Canon Point: After acquiring his body

Character Information:

Here is a wiki entry detailing the plot of Penumbra: Black Plague.

Here is a wiki entry specifically dedicated to Clarence.

Personality:

Clarence is a malevolent, deviant parasite who speaks in old-fashioned idioms, gleefully anticipates murder, and manipulates the main character into hallucinating whenever he grows bored. He is sadistic, merciless, and unyielding.

And he smiles the entire time.

come on, monkey. take a joke.

Clarence is part of the Tuurngait, a formless alien hivemind that resides deep underground in Greenland. When a group of scientists uncovered the Tuurngait's tomb and interrupted the species' collective slumber, the Tuurngait began to kill -- and then possess -- the entire research team. Clarence is a splinter of the Tuurngait who attempted to posses Philip (the main character), failed, and instead remained trapped in his mind.

As a member of the Tuurngait, Clarence has nothing but praise for his brothers and nothing but disdain for humans. Humans are sloppy, primitive "monkeys" who seek comfort in religion, cliches and false hope. Clarence, meanwhile, is evolved. Magnanimous. He frequently tells Philip that he's a friend and a protector. He's not.

What Clarence is is cruel. He makes jokes in a taunting, schoolyard bully sort of way, with plenty of sarcasm and sneers. He cackles when he causes Philip to hallucinate and kill his only ally. He blocks out Philip's vision. He hides doors and moves hallways, all while feigning a perky sort of innocence. He creates chaos and then leans back, smug. Since he doesn't belong inside Philip's brain (and hates that he doesn't belong, since it makes him feel too much like a human) he intends to take the two of them on "some kind of messed up holiday" together. Might as well, eh?

It seems, yeah, the visual cortex of this monkey is certainly of a simplistic design.

Clarence acquires his understanding of the world through two places: the Tuurngait hivemind and Philip's brain.

As a member of the Tuurngait, Clarence has a frighteningly in depth understanding of human and animal anatomy. This is because the Tuurngait are formless and exclusively interact with the outside world by possessing biological creatures. When Clarence controls Philip, it's not a passive process -- he physically takes control of his brain and makes the right neurons fire at the right time. He also has a relatively decent understanding of human nature -- love, violence, curiosity, wars, etc -- albeit in broad strokes, as befitting for an ancient and highly interconnected alien race.

The knowledge he gleans from living inside of Philip's brain is far more concrete. Philip has seen a lot of old movies, and therefore now Clarence has seen a lot of old movies. Philip knows about cultural norms, and therefore now Clarence knows about cultural norms. The Tuurngait as a whole are perplexed and confused by humans and speak in stilted English, whereas Clarence speaks like an obnoxious New Yorker and constantly uses old-fashioned words like "broad" instead of "woman." In many ways, the knowledge he pulls from Philip's "primitive" brain is what makes him an individual.

in the end, this was one was far more human than he would have believed.

As much as Clarence would like to think he's an enlightened being without any pesky, human-like flaws, he is wrong. He craves stimulation. Without cruel jokes or death-defying drama to keep him entertained, he squirms like a energetic child being forced to sit still. He loathes slow moments and will even go as far as to help Philip (the man he is trying to kill) solve a puzzle if that means things will go a little faster. He sustains himself by getting other people to react. This is why he tells jokes, spits out cruel comments and manipulates minds.

He's loud, abrasive, and exudes about as much trustworthiness as a dark figure in an alleyway. His morality is nonexistent, and he won't hesitate to let people know, making him not exactly subtle in his villainy. In fact, Clarence tends to be the complete opposite of subtle, opting for grand displays and theatrical gestures, a combination of his movie-derived knowledge of humans and his need for attention.

Clarence also experiences fear for his life, an emotion that doesn't tend affect the Tuurngait as a whole. This is because the Tuurngait have no concept of I and put the survival of the species above everything else. Originally, Clarence follows this doctrine, begging his brothers to kill him and Philip and let the void "embrace him" because "there should be no I." The longer Clarence remains separated from the Tuurngait, however, the more fond he grows of living. He warns Philip about nearby Tuurngait soldiers ("monkey, they're... they're everywhere. don't go on. turn around.") instead of cackling and calling for his own demise. He startles more easily. He hesitates more frequently.

Once Philip discovers how to "cure" himself of Clarence and effectively kill him, Clarence alternates between begging for his life, taunting Philip ("you don't have the balls!") and violently and viciously attacking him while laughing like a maniac. He possesses a nearby dead body just so that he can get revenge on Philip for trying to kill him, babbling about murder, hide and seek, and how humans are ugly. He is unstable, vindictive and fearful. He is -- in the eyes of the Tuurngait -- too human.

5-10 Key Character Traits:

→ sarcastic
→ jokester
→ cruel
→ theatrical
→ deceptive
→ intelligent
→ impatient
→ amoral
→ unhinged
→ vengeful

Would you prefer a monster that FITS your character’s personality, CONFLICTS with it, EITHER, or opt for 100% RANDOMIZATION? Fits, please!
Opt-Outs:

→ Manticore
→ Merperson
→ Gargoyle
→ Minotaur
→ Kelpie

Clarence has been assigned Faerie.

Roleplay Sample:

Someone has given him a jacket. And pants.

It makes sense -- humans detest nudity, a fact that Clarence finds entirely perplexing. Sure, he thinks the human form is disgusting (the whole thing reminds him of a sunken piece of leather pulled taut over an ape), but they aren't supposed to think that. They're supposed to think of themselves as special, like perfect, imperfect pieces of art, or beautiful snowflakes, or whatever. That they don't in this instance (and do in others) is indicative of their whole backwards way of thinking, Clarence tells himself, and he hates that. He's better than that.

On the other hand, his skin is so cold that it's started to burn, prickling numbness settling in his toes and fingertips. When he was living inside of Philip's head, he was aware of the cold, but only in a vague, intellectual sense. Now he's feeling it, and no matter how much he wants to strip down naked in alien defiance, he can't.

"Stupid monkey flesh," he says, pulling his hood tight around his face. The humans around him are giving him a wide berth, mostly because he says things like stupid monkey flesh and sounds like an old-timey gangster. He's also bared his teeth at least twice (once at an old woman) and told a man to shoot him so that he could, quote, 'return to the glorious void.'

Clarence isn't good at first impressions.

Eventually, one of the humans is brave enough to approach him with a pamphlet -- but just barely. Once Clarence sees the man's anxious eyes, something shifts in his demeanor, his once slouched back growing straight, his eyes growing bright.

"Heeeey!"

It's a long, drawn out sound: like a song, but not one you'd want to listen to. He approaches him with clumsy, stiff muscles, practically lurching in this unfamiliar physical form.

"Don't I know you?"

He doesn't, but he finds that camaraderie feels more natural when he pretends. He reaches for his shoulder, nearly stumbling into him in a facsimile of a friendly pat-pat.

"It's your old pal Clarence! You remember me, don'cha?" His voice rattles in his throat like a sickly cough. When he clears his throat, nothing changes. "You owe me money, but don't worry! A fellow like me knows when to step back, give a guy a chance to get settled. How's the family?"

With his arm still tight around the man's shoulders, he snatches the pamphlet out of his hands. He doesn't succeed at this because of grace or motor coordination or anything like that. He succeeds because he's so brazen.

His brow furrows.

"What in the hell is a fur-bearing trout?"