Claire Stanfield (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cestlavino) wrote2014-04-07 09:25 pm
cestlavino) wrote2014-04-07 09:25 pm
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savetheearth
OOC Information:
Name: Remaix
Are you over 15? Yes
Contact:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
remaix
Current characters in the game: None.
IC Information:
Name: Claire Stanfield | Stage Name: Nero D'Avola (Pre: Claire Stanfield, a.k.a. Vino)
Canon and Medium: Baccano! (Anime)
Age: 23. (Pre: Somewhere in his twenties, but never specified.)
Preincarnation Species: Human
Preincarnation Appearance: Pictured here. He's the redhead in the front.
Any Differences: His fashion sense has been updated a little since it's obviously not 1930 anymore. Also, Claire's eye color seems to change from artist to artist, but I'm sticking with the same color it is in the anime: brown. Also, he needs glasses. He goes with contacts while he's on stage or trying to impress someone, but otherwise, glasses it is. Other than that, he looks the same.
Starting Location: Las Vegas, NV
Preincarnated History: Wiki link here!
Born sometime around 1910, Claire grew up very close to a notorious crime family, the Gandors. Orphaned at an early age, Claire was taken in by the father of the family and was essentially raised by him. He became very close to the three youngest sons, who subsequently started to unofficially consider him their fourth brother.
As a teenager, he left the family and ran away to join the circus. While there, he picked up some very handy skills; mainly exceptional strength and agility, as well as some very impressive acrobatics. He would later use these skills for a less innocent purpose: killing. He became quite the infamous assassin, known by the nickname 'Vino'. The name referred to how his victims (or what was left of them...) looked after he was through with them; stained with a lot of blood, as if they had been soaked in red wine.
Another thing that made him very feared, was the fact that he managed to kill people in cities that were very far apart from each other in a very short amount of time. The reason for this was that Claire got himself a job as a train conductor for a transcontinental railroad, a job that he took to quite happily. He was mentored by an older conductor named Tony, though of course he, nor any of Claire's other coworkers, had any idea that the new conductor was actually an assassin.
In 1931, Claire was working on an express train named 'Flying Pussyfoot' (yes, really). However, while he was working, the train was hijacked. By three separate parties. At the same time. Once Claire found out about this, he decided not to let them get away with it. Painting himself with the blood of one of the hijackers he just killed, he took on the identity of 'the Rail Tracer'; an urban legend of a monster that devoured train passengers.
However, rather than kill the passengers, Claire just sought the lives of two of the gangs. And took them he did. Messily, as is his style. However, while he was doing so, he witnessed a young boy named Czeslaw Meyer, asking a gangster to kill all the passengers. He also witnessed the boy being shot in the head... and then coming back to life, as he was really an immortal.
Not amused by the boy's desire to kill all the passengers, Claire confronted Czeslaw not much later and, as punishment, tortured the immortal boy and then left him tied up on the outside of the train.
Later, Claire interrupted a fight on top of the train between two members of the hijacking parties; Chane Laforet, a member of the Lemures, and Ladd Russo, of the Russo family. While at first Claire planned to just observe them and kill whichever one of them survived, he stepped in once he overheard that Chane hadn't wanted any part in the hijacking or the harming of the passengers. After a brief fight, Claire tricked Ladd by using his fiancee, putting a rope around her neck. Wanting to save her from being strangled, Ladd rushed forward to save her, throwing himself off the train.
Left alone with Chane, Claire had a talk with her - although since Chane was mute, Claire was doing all of the actual talking. Figuring out that she was afraid he, or anyone else, would harm her father, Claire offered to marry her, using the logic that this would make him her father's son as well and as such he would protect him just as much as she was doing. Plus, he was rather smitten by her. Before he could get an answer out of Chane, someone shot at them. Claire left to deal with the shooter, but first told Chane to carve out an answer on top of the train. She did, informing him where she would go and telling him to find her.
And find her he did. Before he actually approached her again, he first sent her a dress - with a knife holster sewn in, even. But thanks to a misunderstanding, Chane wound up kidnapped by some Russo thugs led by Graham Specter, who had mistaken her for a rich girl named Eve Genoard. While she was already fighting Graham and the gang she'd been staying with was already in the middle of trying to rescue her, Claire crashed the big confrontation. After a fight, Graham called the whole thing off after finding out that Claire was the one who threw Ladd off the train - reasoning that Claire should be killed by Ladd and no one else. Touched by Claire's sincerity, Chane decided not to kill him and even found herself falling for him.
Reincarnated History: Claire grew up pretty normally. Well, as normally as he could as a boy 'blessed' with the name Claire, anyway. But that aside, he had a very happy life with his family and all was well.
However, he had always had something of an adventurous streak. Though his grades were pretty good, Claire never had much interest in pursuing a normal career. But he just wasn't sure what else he was usupposed to do with his life.
At least, until he caught a magic show at the Las Vegas Strip. Still a young teenager, Claire was absolutely mesmerized and decided, right then and there, that he wanted to be a magician. So... he did. Proving to be a quick study, Claire taught himself a bunch of tricks as a start, then dropped out of school and got an apprenticeship with an established illusionist.
This obviously didn't really endear him to his parents, who disapproved and wanted Claire to get himself a more respectable job. However, their son refused to listen to them and, eventually, they realized they couldn't stop him. He was simply too stubborn and once he set his mind on something, there was no one who could tell him no. They still make their disapproval of his career choice obvious whenever they're in contact, but they've at least stopped trying to convince him to quit.
He worked hard and trained for years, only being an assistant for most of that time. The illusionist he trained with helped him a lot, becoming a mentor figure to him. The man taught Claire everything he knew, all the tricks up his sleeve. They were never very close outside of work, but that didn't matter to Claire. He was just eager to learn.
And thanks to that help, Claire eventually became a real illusionist, preforming at the Strip himself. He even took up a stage name. Not that he outright hates his real name, but he didn't want to go up on stage with a name like 'Claire'. So while on stage, he goes by the name Nero D'Avola.
Which is a completely ridiculous alias, but... Well, even when he's reincarnated, Claire is just a ridiculous person. He spotted the name on a bottle of wine while shopping and decided that, clearly, a type of Italian wine was an amazing stage name. Just go with it, it makes sense to him.
First Echo: Shortly before Claire first accesses the network, the illusionist who mentored him is killed in a mugging. Hearing about this gives Claire the memory of the scene where he interrogates a man, while dangling him off of a moving train, about how he got his conductor uniform. The man gleefully admits to having killed Tony, Claire's mentor, while cackling like a maniac. Claire's response is to push his face onto the tracks below. A very gruesome end to the memory.
Preincarnation Personality: One very important thing to know right away about Claire, as it defines a lot of his character, is that he believes the world is his. Not in a megalomaniacal, arrogant, mustache-twirling sense, of course. He just believes that the entire world is really all in his head, as no one can prove to him that they're actually real. Because of this, he believes that he can't die. Or rather, that if he ever were to die, he'd just wake up, as if the whole thing had been just a dream.
However, despite this, Claire does care about the world around him. He doesn't treat it like a game, nor does he see the people around him as his toys. He isn't a manipulative liar who only cares about having fun. In fact, he's rather polite and amicable towards people most of the time.
It doesn't matter that he thinks everyone is just a part of his mind; when he says he cares for someone, that's not a lie. He's a sincere guy and he always means what he says. While he might be very carefree and casual when he talks to people, this doesn't mean he's not serious about what he's saying.
He's friendly and extremely outgoing, if on the childish side, speaking his mind whenever he feels like it. And he speaks his mind a lot - the guy just loves talking and, if you let him, he will talk your ear off. Of course, this can both endear him to others or annoy them greatly, as he can be very obnoxious.
Obnoxious doesn't mean unintelligent, though. He might seem like something of a talkative loon to people, but Claire's actually fairly sharp, especially when he's dealing with people. He managed to deduce Chane's connection to Huey very easily, despite the fact that she was mute and Claire only had limited information to work with. He somehow seems to understand Chane perfectly, even though she can't answer him. He even managed to deduce a way to make Ladd throw himself off of the train, showing that he can even understand a mind as twisted as Ladd's. He's just that good at reading people.
...And then sometimes he'll make truly bizarre leaps of logic that only he understands. Such as when Chane leaves her message and he's unsure whether or not she loves him or wants to kill him, then decides that even if the latter is the case, that doesn't mean the former isn't also. The woman he tells this to rightfully considers this completely ridiculous.
In the end he actually turned out to be sort of right about that one, but... it was still quite a leap to make. The point is, he's sometimes right on the money and other times not even close to the correct answer. One can be intelligent and also a complete idiot.
He's also something of a romantic, though before Chane he never exactly had long relationships. That's not to say Claire is some kind of ladykiller who hops from conquest to conquest - no, it's simply that every girl always rejected him. He was quick to propose to any girl that he thought was attractive. When they refused, he just gave up and found another girl to propose to. Chane was simply the first one who didn't outright reject him. You might think that, seeing as he barely knew all the girls he proposed to, Claire wouldn't care much about them, but that's not true. In fact, he's completely and utterly loyal to the girl he loves. And his love for Chane is true, even though it started off... a little abnormally. Of course, Claire isn't really normal.
But of course, it's not those parts of him that make him such a fearsome assassin.
In a way, his unique worldview helps, rather than hinders, his job. Claire's completely confident in himself at all times, arrogant even. This, combined with the belief that he can't die, makes him fearless. Though he can be surprised, in the end nothing ever truly rattles Claire. It can make him seem very cocky, the way he taunts people with the fact that they simply can't kill him, but... well, no one ever seems to prove him wrong.
Another thing that doesn't rattle him is all the violence he inflicts. It's one thing to be completely sure of yourself in a fight, but even the aftermath is nothing to Claire. He's desensitized to gore, torture, the works. As such, he has no qualms about leaving a mess when he tortures and kills people.
That's not to say that Claire is just any old psychopath, who randomly kills people because he feels like it. Other than killing people he's hired to, Claire sticks to killing only those who violate his moral code. Yes, he does have one, surprisingly enough. And he sticks to it. Mostly, Claire seems to really dislike those who wants to harm others. For one, he took his job as a conductor extremely seriously and killed anyone who dared to hurt any of the passengers about the Flying Pussyfoot.
This even included threats, mind you, as he had no problem torturing poor Czeslaw when he asked someone to kill all the passengers aboard the train. The only reason Claire didn't kill him was that Czes literally couldn't die.
As long as you don't violate his rules though, you're in the clear. Claire went out of his way to save Isaac and Miria, even though they were trying to save Czeslaw. He also didn't kill Rachel, despite her sneaking onto the train without buying a ticket and he also decided not to kill Chane once he realized she didn't want to harm the passengers.
Deciding to harm someone he cares for is, of course, an instant death sentence. To a very slow and messy death. The guy who murdered Tony, the man who mentored Claire as a conductor, found this out firsthand. Or rather, firstface... (Oh Dune, you poor, poor, faceless bastard.)
Of course, when he's done fighting, killing, torturing or whatever he's up to, Claire's back to being the same talkative weirdo as before. The switch can be a little disconcerting and it can be hard to tell exactly where Claire ends and Vino begins. But whether he's having a friendly chat or killing a whole bunch of people, he is always at least a little ridiculous. If he wasn't, he wouldn't be Claire Stanfield.
Any Differences: Right away, there are two things that separate Claire from his preincarnation.
Firstly, he doesn't have the same worldview, that solipsism. He sees the world as quite real and doesn't think he's the center of it. This makes him a lot less arrogant and fearless, as he doesn't think that it's impossible for him to die. While he's still harder to faze than most regular folks, he can get scared and he can be shocked.
Secondly... he's not an assassin. Obviously. Now, that's not to say he's an outright pacifist, but he's definitely not going to hurt people unless they really deserve it. And killing? Unless it's kill or be killed, that's out. Even if he were to kill someone in self defense, it would definitely freak him out a lot.
Though similar to the original Claire in many ways, his reincarnation is mainly just... less intense. He's still very outgoing, but he's a little more mature and, rather than full-blown arrogant, simply a little cocky at times. He's also still a little girl crazy, but is more likely to flirt and hand out his number to girls instead of immediately asking them to marry him.
He is still completely ridiculous, mind you. This is the guy who named himself after a bottle of wine when he had to think of a stage name and thought it was a stroke of brilliance.
He also has two sides to him, but they differ from the original Claire's. Rather than being a ridiculous, romantic optimist one moment and a terrifyingly cruel assassin the next, this Claire is... well, a ridiculous, romantic optimist most of the time. Until he's on the job. But being a magician is very different from being an assassin, so this side of him is simply more bombastic and suave, as he's there to entertain rather than kill. He's a bit of a ham and that's saying something, as normally he's also far from being subtle.
So still a friendly, over the top doofus, just not with that dark side.
Abilities: Now, technically, Claire doesn't have supernatural abilities. Technically. However, his skills are taken to an absolutely ludicrous degree, so he's far from a normal person.
Firstly, Claire's agility is ridiculous. He's incredibly fast and acrobatic, often flipping around mid-air like it's nothing. Oh, and he dodges bullets. So clearly he has amazing reflexes too.
His strength is not to be underestimated either. According to the author of the light novels, Claire is strong enough to crush someone's spine with just one hand.
And, well... he's just a damn good assassin. He managed to wipe out nearly all members of the black suited and white suited gangs aboard the Flying Pussyfoot, all on his own. He later described this to his brothers as 'a walk in the park', showing no signs of exhaustion. Even before that incident, he was well known for being a very good, very brutal killer.
Still. Not technically superpowered.
Roleplay Sample - Third Person: Claire loved riding the bus.
It wasn't exactly a popular opinion. People usually didn't really love riding the bus, they loved the convenience of getting from point A to point B easily. But for Claire, the actual experience of being on the bus was highly enjoyable.
He wasn't completely sure why himself. But if pressed... He'd say that he liked talking to new people.
Well, the people that didn't immediately sent him away, of course. Though many people had told him, in many colorful ways, to shut up and leave them the hell alone, he never really took that to heart. The next time, he went right back to it. He'd never been good at shutting up, anyway.
Of course, it helped a lot when the person in question was an attractive young lady, as was the case this fine morning. For this, Claire pulled out his most tried, true, horribly cliched trick to strike up a conversation: card tricks. So far, so good. He hadn't been threatened with pepper spray yet, so... clearly he was doing something right.
"Well then... I believe this is your card, miss!"
Triumphantly, he held up the same card the girl had picked earlier... except now it had a number written on it. Claire's phone number, to be exact. The girl stared a little incredulously as she looked at it.
"Now, I do sincerely hope you don't think that's too forward of me! But I can't really help it, so I won't beat around the bush, as a courtesy: I think you're pretty cute! Please go out with me!"
He grinned shamelessly at her. It wasn't the first time he'd said words like these to a girl he just met, but he truly meant them. Judging from the glare and nasty words she was flinging at him, the girl... didn't believe his intentions were so pure. His expression fell and he sighed as she stood up and left the bus.
That made eleven rejections in a row now.
It was really a shame... She'd looked so cute and interesting, too. He bet they could've really hit it off if she'd only given him a chance, but... oh well. Them's the breaks. He wouldn't let a little setback like this make him give up. There were still plenty of fish in the sea.
Like... Oh, hello, now there was a real beauty who just boarded. Smiling, he approached her as she sat down and held up his deck.
"Well, hey there, miss! Care to pick a card?"
Roleplay Sample - Network: You know, no matter what horrible things are happening because of all of this, I have to say one thing. Business lately has been booming.
Seems there's lots of rumors going around, what with all the superpowered people running around. People are even thinking the magic in my show might be actual, supernatural, wave-a-wand-and-out-comes-lightning magic.
It's not, by the way. Let me just clear that up right away. But you didn't hear it from me. All these tourists coming to the shows, hoping to spot something otherworldly? Kinda silly, but I'm really not complaining!
Maybe some folks think it's a little unethical, profiting from peoples' misplaced curiosity, but I don't know. It's all in good fun, right? I think so, anyway!
But by all means, tell me what you guys think. You don't have to agree or anything, I'm just curious to hear everyone's opinions.
Any Questions? None at the moment.
Name: Remaix
Are you over 15? Yes
Contact:
Current characters in the game: None.
IC Information:
Name: Claire Stanfield | Stage Name: Nero D'Avola (Pre: Claire Stanfield, a.k.a. Vino)
Canon and Medium: Baccano! (Anime)
Age: 23. (Pre: Somewhere in his twenties, but never specified.)
Preincarnation Species: Human
Preincarnation Appearance: Pictured here. He's the redhead in the front.
Any Differences: His fashion sense has been updated a little since it's obviously not 1930 anymore. Also, Claire's eye color seems to change from artist to artist, but I'm sticking with the same color it is in the anime: brown. Also, he needs glasses. He goes with contacts while he's on stage or trying to impress someone, but otherwise, glasses it is. Other than that, he looks the same.
Starting Location: Las Vegas, NV
Preincarnated History: Wiki link here!
Born sometime around 1910, Claire grew up very close to a notorious crime family, the Gandors. Orphaned at an early age, Claire was taken in by the father of the family and was essentially raised by him. He became very close to the three youngest sons, who subsequently started to unofficially consider him their fourth brother.
As a teenager, he left the family and ran away to join the circus. While there, he picked up some very handy skills; mainly exceptional strength and agility, as well as some very impressive acrobatics. He would later use these skills for a less innocent purpose: killing. He became quite the infamous assassin, known by the nickname 'Vino'. The name referred to how his victims (or what was left of them...) looked after he was through with them; stained with a lot of blood, as if they had been soaked in red wine.
Another thing that made him very feared, was the fact that he managed to kill people in cities that were very far apart from each other in a very short amount of time. The reason for this was that Claire got himself a job as a train conductor for a transcontinental railroad, a job that he took to quite happily. He was mentored by an older conductor named Tony, though of course he, nor any of Claire's other coworkers, had any idea that the new conductor was actually an assassin.
In 1931, Claire was working on an express train named 'Flying Pussyfoot' (yes, really). However, while he was working, the train was hijacked. By three separate parties. At the same time. Once Claire found out about this, he decided not to let them get away with it. Painting himself with the blood of one of the hijackers he just killed, he took on the identity of 'the Rail Tracer'; an urban legend of a monster that devoured train passengers.
However, rather than kill the passengers, Claire just sought the lives of two of the gangs. And took them he did. Messily, as is his style. However, while he was doing so, he witnessed a young boy named Czeslaw Meyer, asking a gangster to kill all the passengers. He also witnessed the boy being shot in the head... and then coming back to life, as he was really an immortal.
Not amused by the boy's desire to kill all the passengers, Claire confronted Czeslaw not much later and, as punishment, tortured the immortal boy and then left him tied up on the outside of the train.
Later, Claire interrupted a fight on top of the train between two members of the hijacking parties; Chane Laforet, a member of the Lemures, and Ladd Russo, of the Russo family. While at first Claire planned to just observe them and kill whichever one of them survived, he stepped in once he overheard that Chane hadn't wanted any part in the hijacking or the harming of the passengers. After a brief fight, Claire tricked Ladd by using his fiancee, putting a rope around her neck. Wanting to save her from being strangled, Ladd rushed forward to save her, throwing himself off the train.
Left alone with Chane, Claire had a talk with her - although since Chane was mute, Claire was doing all of the actual talking. Figuring out that she was afraid he, or anyone else, would harm her father, Claire offered to marry her, using the logic that this would make him her father's son as well and as such he would protect him just as much as she was doing. Plus, he was rather smitten by her. Before he could get an answer out of Chane, someone shot at them. Claire left to deal with the shooter, but first told Chane to carve out an answer on top of the train. She did, informing him where she would go and telling him to find her.
And find her he did. Before he actually approached her again, he first sent her a dress - with a knife holster sewn in, even. But thanks to a misunderstanding, Chane wound up kidnapped by some Russo thugs led by Graham Specter, who had mistaken her for a rich girl named Eve Genoard. While she was already fighting Graham and the gang she'd been staying with was already in the middle of trying to rescue her, Claire crashed the big confrontation. After a fight, Graham called the whole thing off after finding out that Claire was the one who threw Ladd off the train - reasoning that Claire should be killed by Ladd and no one else. Touched by Claire's sincerity, Chane decided not to kill him and even found herself falling for him.
Reincarnated History: Claire grew up pretty normally. Well, as normally as he could as a boy 'blessed' with the name Claire, anyway. But that aside, he had a very happy life with his family and all was well.
However, he had always had something of an adventurous streak. Though his grades were pretty good, Claire never had much interest in pursuing a normal career. But he just wasn't sure what else he was usupposed to do with his life.
At least, until he caught a magic show at the Las Vegas Strip. Still a young teenager, Claire was absolutely mesmerized and decided, right then and there, that he wanted to be a magician. So... he did. Proving to be a quick study, Claire taught himself a bunch of tricks as a start, then dropped out of school and got an apprenticeship with an established illusionist.
This obviously didn't really endear him to his parents, who disapproved and wanted Claire to get himself a more respectable job. However, their son refused to listen to them and, eventually, they realized they couldn't stop him. He was simply too stubborn and once he set his mind on something, there was no one who could tell him no. They still make their disapproval of his career choice obvious whenever they're in contact, but they've at least stopped trying to convince him to quit.
He worked hard and trained for years, only being an assistant for most of that time. The illusionist he trained with helped him a lot, becoming a mentor figure to him. The man taught Claire everything he knew, all the tricks up his sleeve. They were never very close outside of work, but that didn't matter to Claire. He was just eager to learn.
And thanks to that help, Claire eventually became a real illusionist, preforming at the Strip himself. He even took up a stage name. Not that he outright hates his real name, but he didn't want to go up on stage with a name like 'Claire'. So while on stage, he goes by the name Nero D'Avola.
Which is a completely ridiculous alias, but... Well, even when he's reincarnated, Claire is just a ridiculous person. He spotted the name on a bottle of wine while shopping and decided that, clearly, a type of Italian wine was an amazing stage name. Just go with it, it makes sense to him.
First Echo: Shortly before Claire first accesses the network, the illusionist who mentored him is killed in a mugging. Hearing about this gives Claire the memory of the scene where he interrogates a man, while dangling him off of a moving train, about how he got his conductor uniform. The man gleefully admits to having killed Tony, Claire's mentor, while cackling like a maniac. Claire's response is to push his face onto the tracks below. A very gruesome end to the memory.
Preincarnation Personality: One very important thing to know right away about Claire, as it defines a lot of his character, is that he believes the world is his. Not in a megalomaniacal, arrogant, mustache-twirling sense, of course. He just believes that the entire world is really all in his head, as no one can prove to him that they're actually real. Because of this, he believes that he can't die. Or rather, that if he ever were to die, he'd just wake up, as if the whole thing had been just a dream.
However, despite this, Claire does care about the world around him. He doesn't treat it like a game, nor does he see the people around him as his toys. He isn't a manipulative liar who only cares about having fun. In fact, he's rather polite and amicable towards people most of the time.
It doesn't matter that he thinks everyone is just a part of his mind; when he says he cares for someone, that's not a lie. He's a sincere guy and he always means what he says. While he might be very carefree and casual when he talks to people, this doesn't mean he's not serious about what he's saying.
He's friendly and extremely outgoing, if on the childish side, speaking his mind whenever he feels like it. And he speaks his mind a lot - the guy just loves talking and, if you let him, he will talk your ear off. Of course, this can both endear him to others or annoy them greatly, as he can be very obnoxious.
Obnoxious doesn't mean unintelligent, though. He might seem like something of a talkative loon to people, but Claire's actually fairly sharp, especially when he's dealing with people. He managed to deduce Chane's connection to Huey very easily, despite the fact that she was mute and Claire only had limited information to work with. He somehow seems to understand Chane perfectly, even though she can't answer him. He even managed to deduce a way to make Ladd throw himself off of the train, showing that he can even understand a mind as twisted as Ladd's. He's just that good at reading people.
...And then sometimes he'll make truly bizarre leaps of logic that only he understands. Such as when Chane leaves her message and he's unsure whether or not she loves him or wants to kill him, then decides that even if the latter is the case, that doesn't mean the former isn't also. The woman he tells this to rightfully considers this completely ridiculous.
In the end he actually turned out to be sort of right about that one, but... it was still quite a leap to make. The point is, he's sometimes right on the money and other times not even close to the correct answer. One can be intelligent and also a complete idiot.
He's also something of a romantic, though before Chane he never exactly had long relationships. That's not to say Claire is some kind of ladykiller who hops from conquest to conquest - no, it's simply that every girl always rejected him. He was quick to propose to any girl that he thought was attractive. When they refused, he just gave up and found another girl to propose to. Chane was simply the first one who didn't outright reject him. You might think that, seeing as he barely knew all the girls he proposed to, Claire wouldn't care much about them, but that's not true. In fact, he's completely and utterly loyal to the girl he loves. And his love for Chane is true, even though it started off... a little abnormally. Of course, Claire isn't really normal.
But of course, it's not those parts of him that make him such a fearsome assassin.
In a way, his unique worldview helps, rather than hinders, his job. Claire's completely confident in himself at all times, arrogant even. This, combined with the belief that he can't die, makes him fearless. Though he can be surprised, in the end nothing ever truly rattles Claire. It can make him seem very cocky, the way he taunts people with the fact that they simply can't kill him, but... well, no one ever seems to prove him wrong.
Another thing that doesn't rattle him is all the violence he inflicts. It's one thing to be completely sure of yourself in a fight, but even the aftermath is nothing to Claire. He's desensitized to gore, torture, the works. As such, he has no qualms about leaving a mess when he tortures and kills people.
That's not to say that Claire is just any old psychopath, who randomly kills people because he feels like it. Other than killing people he's hired to, Claire sticks to killing only those who violate his moral code. Yes, he does have one, surprisingly enough. And he sticks to it. Mostly, Claire seems to really dislike those who wants to harm others. For one, he took his job as a conductor extremely seriously and killed anyone who dared to hurt any of the passengers about the Flying Pussyfoot.
This even included threats, mind you, as he had no problem torturing poor Czeslaw when he asked someone to kill all the passengers aboard the train. The only reason Claire didn't kill him was that Czes literally couldn't die.
As long as you don't violate his rules though, you're in the clear. Claire went out of his way to save Isaac and Miria, even though they were trying to save Czeslaw. He also didn't kill Rachel, despite her sneaking onto the train without buying a ticket and he also decided not to kill Chane once he realized she didn't want to harm the passengers.
Deciding to harm someone he cares for is, of course, an instant death sentence. To a very slow and messy death. The guy who murdered Tony, the man who mentored Claire as a conductor, found this out firsthand. Or rather, firstface... (Oh Dune, you poor, poor, faceless bastard.)
Of course, when he's done fighting, killing, torturing or whatever he's up to, Claire's back to being the same talkative weirdo as before. The switch can be a little disconcerting and it can be hard to tell exactly where Claire ends and Vino begins. But whether he's having a friendly chat or killing a whole bunch of people, he is always at least a little ridiculous. If he wasn't, he wouldn't be Claire Stanfield.
Any Differences: Right away, there are two things that separate Claire from his preincarnation.
Firstly, he doesn't have the same worldview, that solipsism. He sees the world as quite real and doesn't think he's the center of it. This makes him a lot less arrogant and fearless, as he doesn't think that it's impossible for him to die. While he's still harder to faze than most regular folks, he can get scared and he can be shocked.
Secondly... he's not an assassin. Obviously. Now, that's not to say he's an outright pacifist, but he's definitely not going to hurt people unless they really deserve it. And killing? Unless it's kill or be killed, that's out. Even if he were to kill someone in self defense, it would definitely freak him out a lot.
Though similar to the original Claire in many ways, his reincarnation is mainly just... less intense. He's still very outgoing, but he's a little more mature and, rather than full-blown arrogant, simply a little cocky at times. He's also still a little girl crazy, but is more likely to flirt and hand out his number to girls instead of immediately asking them to marry him.
He is still completely ridiculous, mind you. This is the guy who named himself after a bottle of wine when he had to think of a stage name and thought it was a stroke of brilliance.
He also has two sides to him, but they differ from the original Claire's. Rather than being a ridiculous, romantic optimist one moment and a terrifyingly cruel assassin the next, this Claire is... well, a ridiculous, romantic optimist most of the time. Until he's on the job. But being a magician is very different from being an assassin, so this side of him is simply more bombastic and suave, as he's there to entertain rather than kill. He's a bit of a ham and that's saying something, as normally he's also far from being subtle.
So still a friendly, over the top doofus, just not with that dark side.
Abilities: Now, technically, Claire doesn't have supernatural abilities. Technically. However, his skills are taken to an absolutely ludicrous degree, so he's far from a normal person.
Firstly, Claire's agility is ridiculous. He's incredibly fast and acrobatic, often flipping around mid-air like it's nothing. Oh, and he dodges bullets. So clearly he has amazing reflexes too.
His strength is not to be underestimated either. According to the author of the light novels, Claire is strong enough to crush someone's spine with just one hand.
And, well... he's just a damn good assassin. He managed to wipe out nearly all members of the black suited and white suited gangs aboard the Flying Pussyfoot, all on his own. He later described this to his brothers as 'a walk in the park', showing no signs of exhaustion. Even before that incident, he was well known for being a very good, very brutal killer.
Still. Not technically superpowered.
Roleplay Sample - Third Person: Claire loved riding the bus.
It wasn't exactly a popular opinion. People usually didn't really love riding the bus, they loved the convenience of getting from point A to point B easily. But for Claire, the actual experience of being on the bus was highly enjoyable.
He wasn't completely sure why himself. But if pressed... He'd say that he liked talking to new people.
Well, the people that didn't immediately sent him away, of course. Though many people had told him, in many colorful ways, to shut up and leave them the hell alone, he never really took that to heart. The next time, he went right back to it. He'd never been good at shutting up, anyway.
Of course, it helped a lot when the person in question was an attractive young lady, as was the case this fine morning. For this, Claire pulled out his most tried, true, horribly cliched trick to strike up a conversation: card tricks. So far, so good. He hadn't been threatened with pepper spray yet, so... clearly he was doing something right.
"Well then... I believe this is your card, miss!"
Triumphantly, he held up the same card the girl had picked earlier... except now it had a number written on it. Claire's phone number, to be exact. The girl stared a little incredulously as she looked at it.
"Now, I do sincerely hope you don't think that's too forward of me! But I can't really help it, so I won't beat around the bush, as a courtesy: I think you're pretty cute! Please go out with me!"
He grinned shamelessly at her. It wasn't the first time he'd said words like these to a girl he just met, but he truly meant them. Judging from the glare and nasty words she was flinging at him, the girl... didn't believe his intentions were so pure. His expression fell and he sighed as she stood up and left the bus.
That made eleven rejections in a row now.
It was really a shame... She'd looked so cute and interesting, too. He bet they could've really hit it off if she'd only given him a chance, but... oh well. Them's the breaks. He wouldn't let a little setback like this make him give up. There were still plenty of fish in the sea.
Like... Oh, hello, now there was a real beauty who just boarded. Smiling, he approached her as she sat down and held up his deck.
"Well, hey there, miss! Care to pick a card?"
Roleplay Sample - Network: You know, no matter what horrible things are happening because of all of this, I have to say one thing. Business lately has been booming.
Seems there's lots of rumors going around, what with all the superpowered people running around. People are even thinking the magic in my show might be actual, supernatural, wave-a-wand-and-out-comes-lightning magic.
It's not, by the way. Let me just clear that up right away. But you didn't hear it from me. All these tourists coming to the shows, hoping to spot something otherworldly? Kinda silly, but I'm really not complaining!
Maybe some folks think it's a little unethical, profiting from peoples' misplaced curiosity, but I don't know. It's all in good fun, right? I think so, anyway!
But by all means, tell me what you guys think. You don't have to agree or anything, I'm just curious to hear everyone's opinions.
Any Questions? None at the moment.