THE CITY APP.

OOC INFORMATION.

NAME: Jen

CONTACT: aurajen

AGE: Over 30

OTHER CHARACTERS: I'm apping an original character, Weir Dredger (fossick), in this app round too!

IC INFORMATION.

BASICS

CHARACTER NAME: Henry Creel

CANON: Stranger Things

CANON POINT: His canon point is revealed in a flashback scene in Season 4, Episode 7. Specifically, it's right after he was banished to the Upside Down.

AGE: 32

BACKGROUND

HISTORY: A wiki link!

PERSONALITY:

What impression does your character give when meeting someone for the first time? How does the first impression differ from your character’s true nature?

Henry likes to present himself as unassuming. He’s soft-spoken and often very polite by default to strangers, able to plaster on a faint smile and keep it there for the sake of looking peaceable. He likes to observe, and there’s always the sense that he’s perhaps thinking more than he’s saying at any given moment. Overall, though, the first impression he crafts is a relatively amiable one in most circumstances, and he’ll even indulge in some light humor with other individuals if the conversation skews that way.

This is all a facade, however, and one that he’s kept practiced and refined over the years of working as an orderly working with children in the lab he was imprisoned in. In reality, Henry is misanthropic and roiling with indignant anger aimed at his circumstances—feeling as though he’s lived as trapped, figuratively or literally, in some way—and mostly lacking in empathy. Behind the unassuming mask, he has the potential to be both highly manipulative and cruel; he just chooses to keep that hidden until the situation dictates otherwise. When it does slip off, his true nature becomes clear: a man who holds little regard for those around him, violent and angry.

How does your character handle stress? What do they do in an emergency?

Henry handles stressful situations on a scale anywhere from calm and manipulative to unhinged and angry, depending on the degree of stress. Generally, his cleverness helps him navigate problems with efficiency and quiet resourcefulness, all the while holding onto his polite demeanor without issue. Like this, he isn’t beyond asking others to aid him — though this is less out of a sense of teamwork or camaraderie, and more like simply using the tools that happen to be available to him at the moment.

Once a circumstance reaches a certain level of stress or emergency, Henry is much more likely to let his mask slip and rely on far more violent and direct approaches. Once he loses a sense of control, he’s liable to lash out and try to regain it and the upper hand by any means possible. He isn’t as interested in keeping up appearances or leashing his anger; in fact, he utilizes the latter to bolster his determination, and the outcome is often unpleasant and violent for those who might stand in his way.

What are your character’s ambitions/goals? Why are they important to your character?

Henry’s childhood years shaped his overall perspective on life, informing his goals throughout the narrative. Described by his father as a sensitive child—and further implied by the show and Henry’s own dialogue that he never quite fit in and was considered “broken” by the adults around him and society at large—Henry’s worldview was already skewing jaded even at a young age. Exacerbated by his differences and growing discontent regarding his inability and unwillingness to conform to society’s expectations of normality, he had already begun to resent humanity. With the addition of his powers, Henry could see into the minds of others, viewing their memories and soon deigning everyone as artificial, performative, and hypocritical. In his adult years, his ambitions revolved around shunning a world that ran on these flawed concepts, and ideally being able to create his own that would suit his own philosophies.

It could be argued that this is especially important to Henry because it would involve creating an environment that made sense to him, and therefore justifying that his outwardly perceived “brokenness” never truly applied. Everyone else was the problem, not him.

POWERS

SKILLS/ABILITIES:

(Note that these are the specific abilities available to him from his canonpoint.)

TELEKINESIS - The ability to move solid objects with his mind! Henry is able to do this with both small objects and large, showing very little strain with either. He's able to manipulate them with relative precision, as well.

PSIONIC BLAST - Or basically using his telekinesis in a much more forceful, offensive way, Henry is able to create a blast of force with his mind to push objects away or otherwise break them.

TELEPATHY - Henry is able to reach into the minds of others, viewing their memories and past experiences. From there, he can transpose his own consciousness and manipulate the events within. Like this, he is in total control of the scene unless interrupted physically (this leaves both him and the other individual in a trance-like state) or the other person can break his hold on them.

PAIN INDUCEMENT - It's worth noting that Henry's abilities can cause someone discomfort, headaches, and nosebleeds, though this is more a side-effect of his powers than anything intentional.

ILLUSION INDUCEMENT - He can make people see things that are not there! From complex illusions to more simple changes, Henry does not require intrusion into someone else's mind to do this.

PSIONIC RESISTANCE - He has a high resistance to psionic powers used on him. In this instance, it usually comes down to a battle of willpower to resolve the conflict between two psychokinetic-powered individuals.

MINDSCAPE - This does not apply to the same degree from an earlier canonpoint, but it is fair to assume Henry still possesses his own "space" inside his mind; a zone that represents his own subconscious and one in which he can drag others' conscious minds into. Later in the season, we see that it is littered with visuals related to Henry's experiences, ones that he would not yet have undergone yet in-game. Regardless, this would merely manifest as an aesthetic change, instead; the concept would still apply.

PSYCHIC ABSORPTION - When Henry kills a victim, presumably with his telepathic powers in which he infiltrates another person's mind, he absorbs their memories and skills, and if they are psionic like him, adds their power to his own. In his mindscape, these victims are represented as dead avatars, trapped in his head, but ultimately non-interactable since they are not conscious but merely a representation of what Henry has taken from another.

NERFING: Generally, Henry will be given more to exhaustion than normal, hindering his ability to use his powers with the same amount of frequency he would otherwise. His telekinesis will be limited to moving only smaller objects and for a shorter period of time. His psionic blast is less a blast and more a forceful push. His telepathy is particularly stunted at 20% of its normal capacity — Henry won’t be able to reach straight into anyone’s mind and rifle through their memories anymore. At best, he might be able to glean surface thoughts and emotions, and maybe an image or two if a recollection is at the forefront of someone’s mind. (Headaches optional!) Illusions will be similarly nerfed, in that he can’t make others see large of complex illusions. Simple, small things only, and only briefly. His resistance to other psionic abilities will be handled on a case-by-case basis when it comes up!

His mindscape is not really a nerfable ability, so he’d still have one! But since his telepathic abilities would be reduced, he wouldn’t be able to mentally drag anyone into it. Psychic absorption would no longer apply, also.

WEAKNESSES: Music is his most notable weakness; mainly, the fact that someone's favorite song (likely attributed and associated with happy memories) can reach parts of the brain that Henry's powers cannot, effectively creating an "escape" in which they can set themselves free from his influence. Henry is also susceptible to becoming exhausted after using his abilities too extensively. Given his applied nerfs, this will happen more frequently than usual.

In canon, some technologies can suppress psionic powers, which stymied Henry's powers via an implant in the neck for several years. No further details are given about this specifically, other than it Exists, implying that similar technologies could effect him in the same way should he ever be subjected to them.

SAMPLES.

TDM THREAD
TOP LEVEL (from a different game)