CORNELIUS CLARENT

[Cornelius Clarent]

HEAR US NOW - - -

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LET THE WHOLE THING BLOW

B A S I C I N F O

★ NAME: Cornelius Collin Clarent
★ NICKNAME: Niels; That Guy With Meowth Hair
★ MEMBER GROUP: Human
★ POKEMON: Meowth
★ AGE: Twenty
★ HEIGHT: 5'8"
★ WEIGHT: 130 lbs.
★ FACE CLAIM: Silabus from .hack//Roots and .hack//GU
★ APPEARANCE:

For some it is difficult to believe when first meeting Cornelius that he is really twenty years old, and not only due to his attitude; in appearance he still looks like some kid in high school, more or less. At five-foot-eight and weighing approximately one hundred and thirty pounds, he is pretty average height wise but with a thin, light build, and is neither particularly muscular or overly bony. Thanks to his, er, shall we say "hobby" of leaving the city to dig up artifacts, his skin is lightly tanned, though it's not very noticeable unless he is standing right next to a paler individual. His hair is a pleasant chocolate brown color and very long, ending several inches below his waist with a strange curl that somewhat resembles the end of a Meowth's tail. Because of this, people are sometimes a bit surprised to learn that he is one hundred percent human.

Moving on, he has nice enough facial features, though again they are fairly average, or at least until you get a closer look at his eyes, which ordinarily appear a shade of brown similar to his hair but can look almost amber colored when the light hits them just right. His smile is probably his best feature, thanks to years of careful dentistry and good brushing habits enforced by his parents. Not a single tooth is chipped or crooked, proving that they did indeed get their monies' worth out of it. Still, a good smile it is not a particularly uncommon trait, so just how does someone who's fairly average looking overall stand out in a crowd?

Simple: dress in green from head to toe. Nearly ever scrap of clothing in Cornelius's closet is green in color, whether it is a bright shade of lime or a darker, forest-y color. Hardly the normal khaki getup one would imagine a self-proclaimed archeologist wearing. He also has an affinity for belts, especially when they appear in places belts have no business being. Sleeves appear to annoy him, since he has so very few shirts that actually have them, preferring sleeveless shirts with high collars and belted vests to anything else. Even in the colder months, he refuses to wear anything with sleeves, preferring to don a pair of shoulder-high gloves instead. By his logic (or lack thereof) the cold touch of winter winds on his bare shoulders is still more pleasant than the itchy feeling he gets when wearing a coat. Conversely, he hates for his hands to be cold, and is often seen wearing a pair of dark green gloves, especially when out on an expedition. Shorts and pants that he can tuck into his favorite knee-high armored boots are commonplace, and other than a pair of fuzzy slippers he sometimes wears around the house, he owns no other footwear than the aforementioned boots. He also appears to own several bright green pirate hats for no good reason, and happily wears them in to work when he thinks he can get away with it.

Finally, while he is not the type to haul his prized collection of antique weapons absolutely everywhere he goes, he keeps at least one such sword on his person while on any out-of-city ventures. Perhaps this proves that he is not quite as careless as one might think, but at the same time, it might just be an excuse to show the old things off. Either way, despite playing the part of "absentminded archeologist" well, he is actually fairly good at using them should the need to do so ever arise.

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P E R S O N A L I T Y

★ POSITIVE:

• Intelligent - While he may look and occasionally act like a kook, Niels is actually a fairly intelligent young man, with a store of knowledge built up over his many years of strict schooling and a few of personal independent "research." Unfortunately, no one really cares about his particular brand of knowledge.
  
• Non-judgmental - He has a very live and let live attitude with, well, pretty much everything. That's not to say he doesn't think that there are some things that are definitely evil - murder being one of the big ones - but he tries to keep an open mind and refrain from passing hasty judgments on others. Unfortunately, this means he's a little too lax about who he lets hang around him sometimes.
  
• Amicable - Even on his worst days, Cornelius tries to create a cheery, upbeat atmosphere around him, and does his best to cheer others up when they're down. Unfortunately, due to his eccentric nature, this can end badly when he decides that a ghost-hunting expedition or a trip to the wasteland to dig up junk is in order to "lighten the mood."
  
• Energetic - When not sitting at his desk going through heaps of books or old files on half-dead computers, that is. Still, he is quite the ball of energy when something catches his attention - ghosts, old stuff, Pokémon, ect. He even manages to be energetic when reading, flipping through pages at a speed that would make some more leisurely readers flinch.
  
• Giving - Niels is the kind of guy who will give you the shirt off his back, along with an encouraging pat on the shoulder, a cheerful smile, and a cup of whatever tea or coffee he has lying around at the moment. And while he does not go out of his way to solve every problem his acquaintances may have - nosing into other people's business isn't a habit of his - he will certainly do everything he can to help them out if they ask.
  
• Responsible - He does not blame others for his mistakes, nor does he shirk his duties at the library where he works...or at least he tries not to. He just has to keep reminding himself not to get distracted. Some times he is more successful than others.
  
• Modest - Even though he comes from a wealthy family, he rarely mentions it or brags about his family's money and social position. Especially since he no longer lives with the family in question.
  

★ NEGATIVE:

• Absentminded - Niels has a tendency to forget where he's put things and, upon coming out of one of his fits of manic enthusiasm over Arceus-knows-what, often forgets what he was doing prior to getting sidetracked. The fact that his personal "work area" is a cluttered mess does not help.
  
• Disorganized - Or, in other words, dearArceuswhatisthatmess? Seriously, his apartment is a complete Rattata's nest, and his desk might as well be named Mount St. Paperstack. It's a miracle that he is able to find anything at all with how cluttered his space is.
  
• Foolish - Really, the guy could stand to have a reality check. People are not as good as he would like to believe, and while he likes to give others the benefit of the doubt, he could really get himself in trouble someday with his carefree attitude around others. He's been scammed in the past, after all.
  
• Too curious for his own good - His desire to conduct "research" (or, as most people see it, waste his time running around playing explorer and historian) leads him to venture into places best left alone, especially for a human boy with only a Meowth to protect him from all the nasty stuff out there, both human and otherwise.
  
• Guilty conscience - Though he tries not to show it, he is well aware that he is a disappointment to his family. He tries not to let it get to him, but sometimes it leads to...
  
• Bottles his negative emotions - Because he tries so hard to cheer up others, he feels like he can't let himself be the one breaking down. So he swallows his sorrows, puts on a smile, and throws himself into more productive things. Still, keeping all your sadness and guilt locked up inside can't be healthy.
  
• Unintentionally Creepy - Niels believes that helping others with a smile is common courtesy. He also likes to keep that grin while talking about macabre things like historical conflict and hauntings, often forgetting that such subjects unnerve or downright frighten others. He doesn't mean to be creepy, but when you're gleefully talking about a gruesome murder and the ghost that supposedly haunts the site, people can get a little freaked out.
  

★ HABITS, QUIRKS:

• This guy really likes ghosts - no one but he himself knows why, and since most of his acquaintances are a bit freaked out when learning about his hobbies, he has never felt the need to share. He absolutely adores anything that has to do with ghosts, be it ghost Pokémon, human ghosts, or just old places rumored to be haunted. He loves going on personal "ghost tours" when he can, despite being defenseless against Pokémon of the Ghost type.
  
• Another thing Niels loves is collecting artifacts of days gone by, ranging from bits of scrap metal to old weapons and out-of-date technology. Unfortunately, his "finds" only add to the clutter in his home.
  
• Unlike many people who fidget when they cannot concentrate, it seems like Cornelius physically has to fidget in order to keep his mind on task, and he might switch positions when reading several times.
  
• He likes to wear pirate hats. Yeah. I don't know why he does it either. Just another of his eccentric qualities, I suppose.
  

★ OVERALL PERSONALITY:

Cornelius Clarent isn't a young man known for being a clean, clear thinker: rather, despite his occasional flashes of brilliance and his store of knowledge pertaining to all things old and ruin-related, he is quite the disorganized individual. And I'm not just talking about his mess of an apartment - no, even his thoughts are haphazard and scattered at times. He can be focused when he really, really tries, but more often than now he is a bit of a space case, with little rhyme or reason to his thought pattern unless caught by something that interests him. He's the type who can look at the ripples in his morning mug of coffee and end up deep in thought about the complex structure of the universe and how everything reaches out to touch everything else. Though, of course, he's just as likely to see a pattern that looks like an archaic pokeball made of bubbles, which would be equally interesting to him.

His first and foremost hobby, gathering artifacts from the pre-Aether City era, is not too strange, though his tendency to leave all these artifacts scattered around his home in messy piles can be worrying. Rather, it is the zeal with which he goes about collecting these antiques that stands out. When off work, he is usually found in the outskirts, digging up relics of the past with gusto; that is, if he is not exploring the more haunted parts of the city for a good scare. His love for history is so great that he consideres himself an ameteur historian, though since few records exist of what the world was like before Aether City rose, he really knows just about as much as the next guy. Still, it is a way to pass the time, and he does enjoy it. And thanks to his exploits, he's also built a knack for spotting fake items, which can be helpful when someone in the market tries to swindle the absentminded young man. Of course, he usually ends up buying the fakes anyway because the cons must have a good reason for tricking people, so that is a bit of a moot point.

If there is anything he enjoys as much as old places and objects, it is probably ghost stories; not only does he love a good scare, but he finds them enchanting, in a way. To him, ghosts and spirits are more than fuel for scaring the crap out of friends and family, they are a way that the past may come into contact with the present, defying the restrictions of time. Of course, it isn't just human ghosts that fascinate him - no, he enjoys ghost pokemon as well...which is unfortunate, because his current partner cannot harm them, leaving him at their mercy should he wander into their territory. Yet even knowing the danger, he just can't leave something so intreiging alone, and occasionally snoops around the rumor mill hoping to hear about haunted "hot spots" in the city to investigate.

Despite his eccentric tastes and spacy nature, Niels tries to be helpful whenever he can. Do you need to find a certain book in the library? No problem, he'll go get it for you right now - and reccomend others you might enjoy along with it. He genuinely enjoys helping others out, and is more than happy to listen to someone rant about their troubles, though he tries not to interfere until they ask him for it unless the situation is truly terrible. After all, sometimes you only need someone to listen to your problems in order to feel better. Additionally, he constantly strives to keep the atmosphere around him lighthearted and fun...though, unfortunately, he thinks getting the crap scared out of you is "fun," so he is not always as sucessful in this as he would like to be.

Despite his cheeful absentmindedness, even Niels has his darker moments. He is painfully aware that there are people suffering out there in the world, people who could live better lives if only families like his cared enough to share their wealth instead of hoarding it. He also knows that he is, for the most part, willfully ignoring this fact because he wants to enjoy his life, which makes him feel sick and guilty on the inside when he dwells on such thoughts. He also feels no small measure of guilt when he thinks of his family, who he admittedly still cares for even after they tossed him out. He often wonders if his younger sister is doing all right, especially since his leaving left her as the only one who could follow in his parents's footsteps. His guilt issues aside, even someone as generally laid-back as Niels can be angered if you know what buttons to push, and pressing his can lead to him answering you with cold, clipped politeness without any of the familiarity he usually speaks with, though even then thoughts of violence rarely cross his mind. Though there are a few rare moments where he has threatened out of line visitors to the library with either a Meowth to the face or, on his very worst days, by gleefully displaying one of his antique weapons for them to see.

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H I S T O R Y

• Cornelius's history, while a priveledged one, is far from exciting - rather, until a certain event in his junior high years, it was pretty bland. He was born the oldest child and only son of the wealthy Clarent family, in a nice, safe hospital where doctors immediately pronounced him a healthy baby. He was allowed to go home the very next day to his parents's large, comfortable home in the upper class district. That was one definite perk of being such successful lawyers: they could afford to live in luxury even in one of Aether's most exclusive areas, thanks to their careers and some old money on both sides of the family. Their wealth also meant that Mrs. Juline Clarent was alble to hire a nanny soon after her son's birth, leaving her free to return to her cases in less than a month. That said, as an infant Cornelius's only real contact was with his nanny, for while he would see his parents every now and again they were usually too busy to devote much time to playing with their young son, whether it was due to work or maintaining their carefully planned-out social lives. They were a family with many connections, and spared no expense in throwing lavish social gatherings at their home that were attended by numerous members of Aether high society. They also made a point to donate money when they had the chance to various institutions, though it was more for the sake of maintaining their good name than anything else. By supporting the scarce few charitable organizations in the city, they built up a credible name, made themselves look like individuals who could be trusted. Meanwhile, while they held social gatherings downstairs, the young Niels would sit up in his room with his nanny and listen to her tell him stories. Sometimes, they would be made-up, and others she would tell him legends that had more truth behind them, of a time when the world was different and Aether city had not yet risen. And while the nanny was quickly let go as soon as Niels was old enough to fend for himself and the stories - however inaccurate they were - were lost to him in time, they began a love for the past in the boy that only grew with time.
  
  
• For two years, Niels only knew the faces of his nanny, his mother and father, and very vaguely a few of their closest associates. However, that all changed when his little sister was born and Niels, who had never seen another child until that point, took to her immediately. As she too grew from a small, squirming infant to an active young child, the two of them would run around the house teasign their nanny, though unlike some "rich brats" their pranks were usually of a playful nature rather than spiteful. They were fairly close for siblings, thanks to their lack of other friends to play with, though this of course lessened when Niels was old enough to begin attending school. Even in preshool, his parents made sure that he had the best schooling, and for good reason: they fully intended for both their children to follow in their successful footsteps. Private schools that catered to the well-off were a must.
  
  Meeting children outside of his family was a first for young Niels, so he tried to be friendly and open to them like his nanny suggested, and he made a few friends along the way. However, as he went through the years, more and more of them started to distance themselves from him, while others would latch on once they were old enough to understand their parents's wishes for them to get close to him because of his family's connections. Niels was oblivious to it all, though, and simply came to the conclusion that friendships were transitive and not to worry about them so much. Rather than crying about someone leaving you, you had to smile and remember the times that they were there. That lesson was particularly important when, upon reaching third grade, his parents believed the eight-year-old responsible enough to live without his nanny. He missed her a lot for the first few weeks, but as time went by, he learned to accept it as just another part of life. Besides, even though he lost her, it seemed his parents were paying more attention to him these days...if only to make sure that he was maintaining acceptable grades.
  
  
• Over the years, Niels's more eccentric ways began to manifest, though slowly at first. Though an intelligent young boy, he was forever disorganized, and often had to sift through entire notebooks worth of papers before he could hand his work into his teachers. He was also prone to daydreaming, and quickly decided that watching the leaves blow by from his window seat was just as interesting as whatever was going on during class. His teachers would move him, sure, but he always found new ways to zone out, or else he would sneak a different book from what they were covering under his desk to read. Oddly, these books were often ones from his history class! Imagine the teacher's shock when they had to confiscate his history book from him because he was reading ahead of it during a different class.
  
  Strangely, though, he noticed that the books were always vague about what came before Aether City; most histories started with its founding, then filled it with the advances and growth of the city up to the present day. He found it odd, like the world was trying to forget something about the past.
  
  By the time he progressed to junior high, however, his reading habits began to change - not leading away from history, but adding something to it, spurred by an incident during one of his first days at the school. He had to stay after school that particular afternoon to make up a test he missed the day before due to a stomach bug, and while he was waiting for his ride in the school's empty hallway, he suddenly noticed that he was not as alone as he previously thought: there, at the end of the hallway and just below the stairs, was a slightly older girl dressed in a white gown, watching him with an eerie gaze that sent shivers up his spine for some reason. Curious, he took a few steps toward the girl, who in turn fled down the stairs toward the school's large gymnasium. By the time he got there, she was gone, leaving the curious boy with a ton of questions. Of course he didn't tell his parents about the incident, and why would he? They were both very no-nonsense people and refused to believe in anything that they had not seen themselves. Nor did he tell his sister, thinking she might let it slip that her brother was hallucinating or something like that. Instead, when looking for answers, he went to perhaps one of the most dubious sources of all.
  
  His classmates.
  
  Unfortunately, none of them had ever heard of the strange girl before...though some upperclassmen who overheard them chattering about her in the hallway had and were willing to enlighten them about a school legend. Apparently, there was a girl who went to their junior high about ten years ago named Lucie. Now, Lucie was a scholarship student - her parents didn't have enough to pay the school fees without it - and because of that she was at the very top of her class. She wanted to do her parents proud, you see. She was even going to graduate as the valedictorian of her class...that is, if she hadn't gotten sick and died right before graduation. Her parents couldn't afford the treatment after spending all the money to send her to school, even with the scholarship money, so they could only watch as she withered and died. Her last request was that they'd call her name at graduation even after she died, but the teachers never did. That's why the restless spirit of Lucie was said to roam the halls and school gym, still waiting for her name to be called.
  
  At first, Cornelius was skeptical after hearing the story. It sounded like something straight out of one of those ghost books, the elements too conveniently perfect to be true. However, there was something about it that intreguied him, and as he wasn't willing to just pass off that encounter as a daydream, he started to do some digging in the school library. Sure enough, in the yearbook from ten years ago, there was a dedication at the front that read "in honor of Lucie," right above a picture of the same girl he'd seen in the hallway along with her birth and death dates. Seeing that image sent tremors down the boy's spine: she was real! He knew that ghost pokemon existed out there, but he'd never expected that there could be human ghosts as well! Thrilled at this discovery, he started taking out any books he could find from the school library on the subject along with his usual fare, building his knowledge and passion for ghosts the more he learned about them. Particularly interesting to him was the fact that they were known to haunt places of signifigance, even though many appeared in random places as well. Perhaps there was something to be learned from such hauntings, especially if the spirits were from eras long past.
  
  Despite his growing love for the supernatural, however, he never saw Lucie again no matter how many times he went looking for her...at least, not until he thought he saw someone who resembled her at the back of the gymnasium three years later when he himself graduated. He wanted to call her name out in front of the school, see if that would let her move on, but in the end he was rushed off the stage so the next student could cross.
  
  He never did tell anyone why he became so interested in the paranormal, but over his next few years, he began to split his time between this reading and history more evenly. He also became more independent of his family, as evidenced by his willingness to go out on his own, whether to hang out with his occasional friends or visit antique shops in search of cool old stuff. Sometimes he would find an interesting piece of "junk" from outside the city walls to waste money on. Not exactly the way a teenager who was supposed to be studying to get into law school should spend his time, but he found it fun.
  
  His parents did not agree. They disapproved of his carefree lifestyle, especially when his grades started to dip below stellar. Thus began a cycle of constantly comapring him to his sister, who was two years younger but got much better grades, and of his grades rising and falling depending on how much they nagged him at any point in time. Yet as time passed, he grew...well, his idea for what he wanted to do in life and what his parents wanted him to do drifted far apart. He thought of the world outside of Aether City and wondered what it was like, wondered what clues to a distant past he could find out there. For he was curious, more now than ever, about what had happned to reduce this world to one lonely city. Everyone was taught that out there was nothing but death, that anyone who left the city was a goner, though some whispered rumors of hidden settlement out there. But what if he could find some kind of clue as to what lay out there? An answer to the riddle of their cultural amnesia? After all, those who didn't learn from history were doomed to repeat it, and while there were old books and such you could find here and there, it just wasn't enough to get the full picutre. He wanted more. He wanted to see what was out there, outside of classrooms and his parents's expensive, too-big house. As he drew closer and closer to graduation, he found himself strolling outside more often, staring up at the sky and wondering if it was really all right for him to just follow passively along like he had been doing for all his life. He really did not want to go into law, despite his parents's assumptions. But he didn't know exactly what he wanted to do with his life either. In fact, all he knew at that point was that he would be happier living free and actually doing something with his life than going blindly where his parents lead him. Their world with its bright, sparkling parties and reliance on either making or breaking a person's life just wasn't for him. So, finially, he made a decision - he was going to put his foor down against going to law school once and for all. He broke that news to his parents that night, just hours after getting his diploma, announcing it at the only large party they ever threw in his honor. And, of course, his parents reacted the way any loving couple who supports their child's life choices would:
  
  By throwing him out on his ass.
  
  Niels didn't know how he felt about that...betreyed? Hurt? Still, no matter how the words his parents said to him that night about wasting his life and being a disappointment stung, he felt better than he had in a long time, like a weight was lifted from his chest. And hey, it wasn't like they'd left him out there without means; even they weren't heartless enough to do that. They gave him an "allowance" of sorts to sustain himself until he decided to come back and go to school like they wanted him to. Unfortunately for them, he was more interested in finding a job and a place to say than crawling back home to apologize. So, at the age of seventeen, the fresh from high school Niels secured himself a fair-sized apartment in the middle class district along with a job at the library. He also made his first non-essential purchase as an adult soon after: a little Meowth to keep him company...and for protection in the less hospitable areas he was set on exploring.
  
  
• Cornelius has been a constant presence in the libarary and around the city square in general since, always visible thanks to his bright green clothing, tendency to tote strange old objects around, the Meowth following close at his heels. When not at work, he spends his days in the less frequented parts of the city, or even out in the outskirts looking for anything interesting. He's also made it his habit to go out on a "ghost tour" at least once a month of local areas that he has heard are haunted, and while he's never really seen anything since junior high himself, he's managed to take several compelling photographs of partial appirations - along with a few here and there of a Gastly licking the camera when the hauntings turned out to be pokemon-caused. He's starting to think that he has some goals for the future after all, if only he can learn how to pursue them...because opening up a museum someday would sure be nice....

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P L A Y E R I N F O

★ OOC NAME: Cori
★ AGE: 21...and I still get asked if I want a kid's menu at restaurants.
★ OTHER CHARACTERS: Kouki, Ceci, Raze...two of them are still WIP though. Chances are Niels will be the last (second?), unless I suddenly decide that I need an Epispect character.
★ RP SAMPLE:

-points at Kouki's post and her rare mod posts- I have stuff! Really! D:

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★ template was made for wretches and kings, do not steal ★

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