Claud

*Full Name: Claud [Redacted]
*Sex: Male
*Age: 30 (born July 24 X074) (2015)
*Height: 6' (1.83 m)
*Weight: 145 lbs (57.6 kg)
*Occupation: Hobo / Odd Jobs / Waiter at Swan Song / Live-In Lover and Housekeeper & Helper to Sigurd / Frankie's personal charity case / Baker at Doughey's Bakery / Student at Le Conservatoire de STEP / Member of The Sometimes an all-factions cover band
*Faction: Square
*Theme Song: My Body is a Cage (Arcade Fire), Within You, Without You (Instrumental)
*Astral Projection: Passion 宇多田ヒカル
*Playlist: On Grooveshark Link Broken, thanks Grooveshark.
==History==
Claud lost most of his family on V-Day, and then the last of it, his twin sister Gladys, in the Dance War.
30 Days of Character Development tag on my tumblr
==Timeline With RP Logs==
*Cross pulls Claud off the street, tries to help him get a job, get clean of the drugs, and get back on his feet.
*Sleep Walking Silliness.
*Boys' Night Out Cross takes Claud out for a night on the town for the laughs, they run into Frankie.
*Square Dance Lessons Frankie thinks Claud is Mafia and offers to help him with his vibe. Then Frankie finds out he isn't.
*Claud gets a job as a waiter at the Swan Song.
*Opening Night Claud meets the staff of the Swan Song.
*Claud and Sigurd become lovers.
*Awkward Goodbye Claud moves out of the apartment he shares with Cross, and permanently into Sigurd's home.
*Claud and Sigurd find a puppy.
Solar Flares begin
* Tearful Return Claud comes back from being turned evil by Phoenix.
*Rage Sigurd gets a Rage vibe.
*Patch Sigurd returns after disappearing for three days, and Claud cleans up the damage best he can.
*Swan Song During the solar flares; Claud and Sigurd try to hide their relationship from Frankie. It works.
*An Invitation to Drink
*Vampire and Cat Claud is a vampire and Frankie is a cat—shenanigans ensue.
*On Claud's birthday Sigurd showers him with gifts and affection, and it ends up being not half as horrible as he thought it was going to be. He still sorely misses his twin.
Solar Flares end
Flashbacks begin
*Frankie's Place Frankie offers to help Claud with his vibe. Ironically they get drunk, Claud's vibe runs out of control, and bad things happen (eventually becomes Adult RP).
*Weary The morning after Frankie's Place. It doesn't go well.
*Make Your Bed Sigurd breaks up with Claud, and Claud wanders the city (self RP).
*Stuck In Reverse Frankie finds Claud after he's been MIA for a week, and tried to help him.
*One Drop of Optimism Claud's vibe continues to give him grief, and an intoxicated Frankie stumbles in for an early morning chat.
*On Sigurd's birthday, Claud sends him a bouquet of 100 red and white roses with no note.
*Feeling weird being in Frankie's home all the time, Claud goes for long walks around the city, sometimes high on jive, sometimes not.
*On one such walk He runs into Phoenix and they end up fighting. During the fight Phoenix burns off a fistful of Claud's hair. Claud eventually passes out and Phoenix finishes chopping off his locks.
*Yuki finds Claud moping in a snow drift. Yuki invites him into his hidey-apartment for the night, they stay up late talking.
*Christmas was insane.
*Downtime A few days after Christmas, Claud wakes up and somewhat successfully helps Frankie through a depressive low caused by vibe depletion and a hangover.
*When Phoenix committed suicide, Claud felt the connection break and spent much of the day crying. By the time Frankie got home all he wanted was physical affection.
*What the Cat Dragged In Claud comes home plastered, Frankie deals with it.
*The Choreographer Claud is offered up as a sacrifice to Ardette signed up for private lessons thanks to Daddy Warbuck's Frankie Valentine's sponsorship and continued, inexplicable interest in the boy's well being.
*Claud and the Choreographer Claud and Ardette's first meeting, it doesn't go as horribly as expected.
*Hired Well that was easier than planned.
*First Day It's de-ja-vou all over again.
*Claud goes home after his first day at work and has a nervous breakdown on Frankie's couch. Eventually Frankie coaxes him into playing some songs on his guitar and IT GOES ALL WRONG.
*Claud and Frankie try to deal with the aftermath the next morning; Frankie puts Claud through a will-testing exercise and Claud eventually succeeds, then has a small freak-out because he realizes he's going to have to move out soon, and he realizes doesn't want to leave. Frankie feels bad, gets drunk, they get mad at one another, and Claud leaves for work after a semi-effective resolution is made.
*Claud starts looking for another place to live.
*During a night of drinking, Claud ends up meeting up with Cross at a club. They dance, and Cross is disturbed by Claud's vibe-connection. Cross gets plastered and Claud has to guide him to one of Cross' apartments.
*Claud finds out in no uncertain terms that Jack is completely head-over-heels for him, and tells him they need to take it slow. Jack is elated that he has a chance, and Claud goes home and marinates in his worry.
*Eventually Jack and Claud go on a date. It's a little awkward, but sincere, and Claud establishes a connection with Jack (which, like all of his other connections, will never really go away).
*Jack gets drunk, Claud babysits him to make sure nothing bad happens to him. Jack is mentally explicit about what he wants to do with and to Claud.
*The next morning, Jack and Claud have a discussion defining their relationship, what they want and expect from one another, and "officially" start dating.
*Small Mercies: Claud finds an apartment and shows it to Frankie. Frankie is less than impressed. Claud finally kinda-sorta wins him over about the idea and they leave. On the way home they are attacked and Claud takes a risk using his vibe in self defense. It works, but not without consequence. Frankie has a waking flashback and spends the rest of the RP as Francis, convinced Claud is some iteration of Poppy. It breaks Claud's heart and nearly breaks his will.
*Going For the Face: A few days after being attacked, Claud confers with Ardette. This marks the beginning of Claud's personal struggle with the acceptability of violence.
*Jack helps Claud power wash graffiti off of the walls of his apartment.
*Jack and Claud continue to have fluffy sexytimes and it's generally nauseating to everyone, unless your name is Jack or Claud.
*Claud officially moves out of Frankie's apartment.
*Claud finds out the Swan Song is closed and deals with this information the same way he deals with all emotional trauma: he doesn't.
*Father's Day was super awkward.
*Long Drunk Birthday Despite his overall improving mental state, Claud knew his birthday would be difficult for him to deal with, so rather than risk being an emotional wreck at work, he chose to seal himself off from the city—and Jack— spending the day drinking in his apartment, alone. Eventually Frankie pays him a visit and they both get wasted.
*Christmas and New Years are calmer, quieter, and have a lot less drama than they did last year. During this time Jack moves in with Claud.
*Jack gets Claud a freaking nice leather jacket as a late Christmas gift.
*After not seeing the man for a few months, Claud visits Frankie and finds him holed up alone in his gutted apartment. He's able to get a meal into the man and gets him to relax enough to get some restful sleep. While asleep, Frankie's vibe manifested in strange ways.
*Claud returns to Frankie's apartment with the intention of helping him. After a rough start to their evening they wander the city and make some progress against Frankie's out of control paranoia. They return, talk for a bit, and Claud convinces Frankie to stay with him until his vibe calms down.
*The day with Frankie is surprisingly without any collateral damage, and a lot of progress is made in repairing many aspects of Frankie's self image. At the end of the day though, Frankie overloads Claud with enhancing vibe and Claud's brain shuts down parts of its language center. For a few weeks Claud is rendered unable to understand spoken or written language, and he himself cannot speak, relying on his vibe to communicate with feelings and images, and to sense people's intents as much as possible.
==Personality==
By nature and by vibe Claud is the submissive twin; a yes-man. He tries to please and help at almost any cost, and his vibe only exacerbates this. He will subconsciously adopt the mannerisms and speech-patterns of those he is around.
Because of his impressionable nature, his temperament changes radically according to environment, who he's with, and his level of intoxication.
*While high or drunk he is over-eager to please, uninhibited, sometimes silly.
*Among strangers he is reserved and formal, hesitant to discuss personal matters. But with a vibe like his, people don't stay strangers for long.
*When at work he is amicable, pleasant, and smiles a lot. He tries to be as nice as possible to everyone, especially Squares.
*When his vibe is out of control he is more prone to misbehavior such as: non-consensual leeching, and working to fulfill the desires of the person/people he's connected to at all costs and consequences, despite the trouble it may cause, and despite the risk it poses to himself and others.
Claud has an old-fashioned sense of honor and debt. He will always (or at least attempt to) remember favors others have done for him, and will try to make it up to them in some way. Because of this he is reluctant to accept favors and is embarrassed by people's kindness towards him.
A shy, sensitive, timid boy since birth, Claud had always hid in his sister's shadow. Their parents died when they were 12, and he withdrew further from all others, Gladys becoming a surrogate parent to him. While she had the best intentions, Gladys spent many years doing too good of a job protecting her "baby" brother. Through circumstance and choice, Claud is a very immature and emotionally under-developed individual. His empathic abilities help him make up for this, he is generally polite, and he is a fast learner—but as far as maturity goes, he's about a decade behind his peers.
His greatest desires are for family and stability. 
==Dance / Vibe style==
Claud loves dancing, but because of what happened between himself and his dance teacher Frankie Valentine, he is once again reluctant to dance. It is still a very emotionally sensitive, personal, and intimate act for him. He slow-danced with Sigurd only once, but due to the solar flare event, complications arose even from that.
He knows little concerning the full nature of his vibe, and less of how to control it. Despite all of the hardships he's faces, or perhaps because of them, he has learned more about his vibe in the past few months than he has all the years since V-Day. He's not entirely happy about that either, but he is starting to take responsibility for his circumstances. 
What he does know about his vibe is as follows:
*The main aspect of his vibe is connecting mentally with another person, both temporally and permanently, most easily accomplished through skin on skin contact. This includes sharing, reading, and broadcasting thoughts, and transferring "energy," which can be either vibe, vibe created energy, or just the natural energy a person's body has.
*Ideally he should be connected permanently to one person with a vibe that works well with his. Claud desires monogamy, despite his polyamorous disposition, and is seemingly infinitely adaptable.
*When unpartnered, Claud's vibe reaches out to anyone and everyone in the vicinity, causing Claud great distress. He deals with this by taking jive.
*This process of forming and maintaining a connection, searching for someone to connect with, and forming and maintaining a long-distance (not skin-contact) connection (think of a cell phone or a wifi connection) is very draining, and is the main cause for Claud's long periods of sleep.
*The need to connect and share energy, if too intense, manifests as a feeling that can only be described as a lonely hunger, coupled with crushing depression. Claud is vulnerable when unconnected, like an exposed nerve, and his vibe seeks to give him motivation to find someone to bond with.
*If he gets critically low on stored vibe, he will start to pull heat energy from the environment around him, and vice-versa—if he has too much vibe, he will dump the energy in the form of heat and light.
*As a result of the volatile nature of his vibe, he is very physically durable: comfortable in a wide range of temperature extremes, resistant to physical injury.
*Also as a result for his low efficiency / high energy needs, he is unconsciously attracted to those who's vibe causes them to emanate energy, they being a more concentrated source. He cannot, however convert or use high potential "raw" energy (yet)—such as electricity from the power grid—it has to first be transformed through a human "converter."
His vibe expresses differently when activated by different acts:
*Partner Dancing: His vibe works to temporarily connect him to his dance partner so they dance in perfect harmony, with or without physical contact. Each participant is rewarded with a feeling of euphoria. The permanent connection, if present, is strengthened. Claud currently does not know how to not form a lasting connection with those he dances with. 
*Ballet: In addition to the partnered dancing effects, "raw" energy manipulation, currently in the form of heat manipulation, is possible.
*Singing: (unrealized) Singing forms a weak but non-negligible connection with him and every member in the audience. The more attention they pay him, the better and less-distracting the connection. As always, the connection is two way, so while the audience will feel everything he is feeling to a certain extant, he also risks being overwhelmed by the collective emotion of the audience.
*Alcohol: When drunk his vibe is "lazy" and "unruly." His control of it is less than normal and it has a tendency to latch onto the desires of others, and seeks to fulfill those desires, despite the consequences.
==Claud's Guitar==
Claud uses a red Fender Malibou Electric-Acoustic Guitar, gifted to him by Frankie Valentine for Christmas. 
He also has been making use of various other musical tools, such as the Vo Wond. 
==Relationships==
:Funk Mafia
*Phoenix: The first time they met was during the flares; Claud was whisked away for a few days and turned evil by Phoenix, who bribed him along with the promise of "feeding him." When Claud got too grabby, Phoenix overloaded him with vibe, which scared the shit out of him, but actually left him feeling less "hollow" for a few weeks. The morning the flares changed, Claud and Phoenix came to their senses and awkwardly parted ways. They've crossed ways since then, and their interactions have been increasingly more violent, until their latest run-in where Phoenix burned/cut off Claud's hair. Phoenix's death hit him hard, literally. The psychic recoil from being connected to someone who died a violent death (which too closely resembled his sister's death) hurt him deeply. Again
*Dustin Malitowski: During the flares, when Claud was temporarily a vampire, he seduced, then bit Dustin. Just a little awkward oHo
*Frankie Valentine: It's super complicated. Claud feels terrible for initially inadvertently deceiving the man, and the shit that keeps happening when they're high, or drunk, or just plain careless. He tries very hard to be polite in Frankie's presence, and flip-flops between calling him "Mr. Valentine" and "Frankie," still not really sure where their relationship stands, and depending on their company. Claud has a definite pride problem, so accepting help makes him feel vulnerable and like he's imposing on the other person. He's afraid that Frankie will eventually resent him for taking up space in his home, and for being a constant emotional drain. Despite this he's sad and anxious about moving out, but he knows he has to, for both their sakes. He worries about him, sees how violent and drastic his mood swings are, sees how much the man doesn't eat and does drink, and has gotten more than one very long, clear look into the disturbed mess that is Frankie's mind. And yet he loves him so much it hurts. Claud's initial desire to connect with Frankie was based in vibe attraction only, but through the months of training with him, his feelings have become deeper than that, much to his shame, because he is unsure if these feelings are genuine. Through Frankie's drunken confessions and information glimpsed through their connection, Claud has a pretty good idea of why Frankie's hurting, who he lost, and what she meant to the man. Sometimes these secrets weigh on him, but he knows he can never talk about them to anyone.
Being with Frankie Valentine is very much like taking hard drugs: you feel fantastic, then you wake up feeling like shit, and then you do it all again. He's totally addicted.
:UG
*Yuki: During the solar flares his vibe started acting up, so he traveled a short way out of Square to buy some jive, and ended up buying food for Yuki in exchange for a small amount of the drug. They talked a little and were generally polite to each other. Subsequent interaction has been similarly pleasant and polite.
*Vivi: Vivi seems to show up randomly and without announcement, usually when Claud's out running errands or walking the dog. They're on good terms with each other, but he is rather disturbed by Vivi's ghost enterage. There are a lot of dead people he'd rather never see again this side of life. Claud tries to pretend he doesn't know, but he's pretty sure who Vivi's "special pillow" is, and feels terrible about it.
*Taye Bellflower: She's really hyper and mischievous, but ultimately she got him his job so he can't really be mad at her? He admires her confidence and carefree nature.
*Muffy: A tiny bat girl? Adorable!
:Squares
*Jack Orphen: After Claud made it very clear what he was and wasn't willing to commit to, Claud and Jack are dating. It's gotten a little more serious; as of Chirstmas Jack and Claud are living together, but Claud maintains that it's still an open relationship, despite not having seen anyone for the better part of a year. The giddy puppy-love has given way to the reliable comfort of being in a steady relationship. Though he still worries about repeating mistakes, and keeps others at an emotional distance, he's let Jack come almost as close to his heart as Sigurd was. He's still afraid to let Jack see any bad side of him, and tries to hide his negative feelings until he's alone, often not telling Jack about his fears and troubles.
*Ardette Bombaerts: Claud has a lot of feelings about this lady, mainly: awe, fear, respect, and curiosity. He does his utmost to never express any emotion in the woman's presence, despite desperately wanting to ask her all sorts of questions. She seems like she knows a lot, but is the type to never tell the secrets she keeps.
*Bianca Palmer: Sweet girl, worked briefly with him at the Swan Song. Claud hopes to get to know her better.
*Cross: Formerly his dealer. Cross let him live in his flat in Square for reasons he wouldn't go into details about, but he made it pretty clear he needed to keep a low profile and Claud was just cover. Despite not really getting along with Cross (or even understanding him or his motives) it sure as hell beat sleeping on the streets. In the short time that they lived together, Cross was able to help get Claud on the road to recovery, weening him off of the drugs he'd grown dependent on. Claud started looking for a job--when he eventually found one at the Swan Song he was able to move out of the shared apartment, and he and Cross parted ways. He still can't fathom that Cross is a dad. They've progressed to being on civil, almost pleasant, terms with one another.
*Sigurd L. Reinhart: His boss, and... the word Sigurd likes to use is "lover." Since he's never before felt romantic or sexual feelings for anyone, the simplest aspects of being in a relationship elude him, but thankfully Sigurd is kind and patient. He feels bad about how much he sleeps, and tries to make it up to Sigurd by being obedient and helpful, insisting on doing most of the chores, cooking, shopping, and really anything Sigurd asks. He isn't fully aware of it, but serving others at the Swan Song, and looking after someone who is not himself is helping to heal him. He is re-learning how to love, and they're both happier than they've been for years. And though he loves it when they make love, it's not because of the act itself (although it is pleasurable), it is because he loves Sigurd. It's not so much about the physicality of sex as it is building the vibe connection and their relationship. They broke up. Claud still isn't sure how he himself feels about the situation, because he understands it too well from Sigurd's point of view, thanks to his sympathetic vibe, and he figured it was only a matter of time before he fucked up and/or Sigurd got tired of his bullshit. But he knows for certain that he still loves the man, although the long months of being without a permanent bond-partner left him frustrated and pained. Time, and connecting to Jack, helped soften a lot of that projected frustration, and he wants to talk, but he's still a coward and can't yet bring himself to make that phone call.
:Roller Banditos
*Reginald Santiago: The man threatened Claud, Jack, and the bakery, and now Claud's a little on edge. Just a little. He still wants to dance with the dumb guy for some reason.
*Lucy Soloviev: She tried to pick-pocket him when he was wandering the streets during his time with Frankie, and he essentially depressed her away.
*Bella Bella: They've only run into each other a few times, most notably at the Valentine's Day Dance of '102. He has no idea who she is and why she was upset with him.
==Miscellaneous Information==
His prized possession is his wallet. Not for the cred in it (there hardly ever is any) but for the photos. He realizes they are potentially dangerous to have, but they're all he's got left, and he clings to them like a life-raft.
Claud is dyslexic although he's never been diagnosed. He's actually very intelligent, but because of his difficulty reading, he's never been a very good student. Dancing greatly helps his dyslexia, but he still has an aversion to reading, and is essentially aliterate. He enjoys looking up instructional videos on his iPod.
He can't read music either.
His apartment (modeled in 3D using Google Sketchup)
Claud is genuinely beginning to think that he's emotionally defective.
==Character Gallery==
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Category:Characters
Category:Squares