app for deerington;

IN CHARACTER

Character Name: Billy Hargrove
Canon: Stranger Things
Canon Point: End of S3

In-Game Tattoo Placement: left shoulder
Current Health/Status: Deceased in canon, coming in with a bunch of big ol' scars from it.
Age: 18
Species: Human

History: Stranger Things on Wikipedia and Billy's entry on the Stranger Things wiki.

CRAU History and Impact: Billy was already in Deerington for around a year, and in that time he was able to go through a lot of personal growth, including:
● Realizing that it is okay to rely on others and express his emotions every now and then. He made real friends that pushed him out of his comfort zone which not only helped him express his deeply repressed insecurities and fears but also softened his approach to other people when they showed what he used to consider "weak" emotions. He's still not the best guy to go to if you're having a bad day but he'll make an effort to listen instead of picking on you for showing emotion at all, which is...some improvement.
● Apologizing to some of the people he had been cruel to, and focusing on managing his anger in a healthier way. Though he's still kind of a jerk he realizes he was on the path of becoming a lot like his father and he wants to avoid that. He's been able to do some real self-reflection and has begun to change his violent ways.
● Being confronted with countless horror scenarios has given him a chance to use his strength to protect the people he cares about instead of just being a brute, which has had a positive effect on his development and the way he sees himself.

Personality:
content warning: the following section contains references to child abuse and spousal abuse

Wherever Billy goes he makes a strong impression; he's loud and boisterous and refuses to be ignored. He was only in Hawkins for a few days before declaring himself the new king of Hawkins and openly challenging the previous top dog, Steve Harrington. Even his style reflects this part of his personality: heavy boots, clothes that are either a little too tight or are revealing, and a loud, flashy car that he revs the engine on as much as possible. He wants a reputation, even if it's a bad one.

While he's not a particularly skilled planner or inspirational figure, Billy tends to fall into the leadership role in his social circle because of his assertive nature and unwillingness to concede to others. He hates being told what to do, and tends to push back against anyone who tries to assert their authority over him too much. His dislike of authority stems from his negative relationship with his father, a very strict and controlling man. When Billy is given any authority, though, he can be just as tyrannical as the authority figures he rebels against. When put in charge of the Hawkins Public Pool, he enforced the rules with an iron fist, threatening small children with lifetime bans for minor infractions. He was also very controlling of his sister's personal life when he was put in charge of looking after her, trying to dictate who she could date or be friends with.

Billy is generally cruel towards others, using both physical strength and verbal attacks to try and bully them into submission. He gets his kicks from terrorizing others and, although active violence isn't his first resort, he isn't terribly concerned with the safety of the people he bullies, either (for example, he thinks it's fun to rev his engine and speed up when he sees kids on bikes, hoping to force them off of the road). He tries to bait other people into fighting him, but if they don't return his antagonism he'll generally stick to trying to push their buttons rather than fighting them anyway. When he's genuinely threatened or very upset, the gloves come off and he'll attack whoever's in the way, not stopping until someone else steps in and is able to make him stop. In one instance, his sister had to tranquilize him to stop him from beating up his unconscious rival.

Although he would deny it if asked, Billy is a very emotional person. He can go from zero to a hundred in a split second (usually this means going from relatively calm to enraged), and when he feels something he feels it very intensely and has a hard time not showing it. In particular, he cries quite a bit. Because he tries to be macho and buys into the notion that emotions aren't masculine, he prefers to either run off to be by himself or mask any emotions he considers 'weak' (sadness, fear, etc) with anger. Even when he was possessed and there was clearly something wrong with him, he tried to keep his composure around others and waited until he was alone to scream and cry.

A true adrenaline junkie, Billy likes to live life on the edge with very little regard to his own safety or the consequences of his actions. He smokes and drinks constantly, drives recklessly, and puts himself at risk for the sake of getting a rush. When he moved to Hawkins he found himself bored very easily in comparison to the life he used to have in California, and he became very agitated because he didn't have enough to entertain him. If he gets an impulse, he follows it, and works better when he has to think on his feet. Combined with his general moodiness he can be extremely unpredictable and dangerous to be around.

He's not book-smart (he skips school more often than not and doesn't seem to value that type of intelligence at all), but Billy has a talent for reading people and can be quite clever when it comes to emotional manipulation. He can wheedle out people's insecurities to attack them with, or he can put on a charming facade to get other people on his side. He has a different girl on his arm every week despite having a reputation as a heartbreaker, and has a group of otherwise sensible women wrapped around his finger with some well-placed compliments during his stint as a lifeguard.

On one hand, Billy is extremely vain: he spends a lot of time looking at himself in the mirror and working on his appearance in general, and likes to flaunt his physique and athleticism whenever possible. On the other hand, his cocky attitude is masking some deep insecurities. He has a lot of emotional issues due to his home life. His relationship with his father is extremely negative, rife with physical and emotional abuse. A lot of the abuse his father inflicts on him ends up being internalized and inflicted on other people. As a younger child especially, the cruel things he'd say to other children were word-for-word what his father said to him. Despite the fact that Billy seems willing to fight with anyone, he's deeply afraid of his father and backs down from confrontations with him.

He had a positive relationship with his mother and was a happier person when she was around, but she had to endure the same abuse that Billy did and left without taking him with her. This left him with deep-seated abandonment issues and a distrust of other people in general. He doesn't like opening up to people and assumes that he'll just be burned again if anyone gets too close. Despite being in the popular crowd at school, Billy has no close friends and even his sister doesn't know him very well. Despite being hurt by her actions, Billy doesn't seem to resent his mother and regards the time they spent together as the happiest time of his life.

When he's pushed far enough and can't run away from his problems, Billy is a surprisingly vulnerable person. He has a hard time coping with negative emotions, and is very sensitive to how he's viewed by others and what they're saying about him. He puts up a tough front, but internalizes criticism and failure and is very emotionally expressive when he's alone. Despite his fear of getting close to others, his longing for some sort of companionship is strong enough that a single person showing him kindness was enough to save him from being possessed and controlled by a monster. The compassion he received from Eleven (despite the fact that she had every right to be afraid of and angry with him for his actions towards her friends) during his final days touched Billy, who until that point assumed that he couldn't rely on others and would have to face everything alone.

Billy is a deeply unhealthy person with a lot of issues to work through, but he has some good qualities lurking beneath the surface. When he's in a good mood, he can bring a lot of genuine enthusiasm to a group, and in his rare relaxed states there's an almost playful free-spirited quality to him. He put up a mental fight against the Mind Flayer until the very end and tried to keep it from hurting others, even while he himself was hurting. He was able to resist the Mind Flayer's orders long enough to stop himself from attacking Karen Wheeler and warn her to stay away from him, even though he was already under its control to the extent that he was drinking jugs of chlorine when it told him to.

When he actually cares about someone he can be very protective and brave for them. In defense of his mother, he stood up to his father and tried to attack him to keep him away from her, and in defense of Eleven (and Max) he stood up to the final form of the Mind Flayer even though he knew that it would kill him. It's also worth note that the strength he gets to stand up to these bigger threats is entirely motivated by his care for other people; he never stands up to them for his own sake and instead directs his anger towards people he sees as easy targets when his only motivation is himself.

His relationship with Max had noticeably improved from the time she stood up to him to the summer of '85, to the point where they were both actively concerned for each other. While there was still some tension between them, he had stepped back from trying to control her and from terrorizing her friends. He begs for her for forgiveness and asks her to believe that he wasn't kidnapping people and feeding them to the Mind Flayer of his own free will, and his last words to her are 'I'm sorry'. He regrets the choices he made in how he used to treat Max and, although he had a way to go, was trying to repair that relationship.

Being possessed has also made him rethink who he wants to be and how he wants to treat others. Old habits are hard to break so he'll still have that same cruel exterior and tendency to give in to his anger and resort to violence, but he at least realizes that he needs to change and wants to work towards being better. Bring forced to watch while a monster took control of his body and used it to hurt and kill other people has made being violent and feared seem a lot less cool than it once did. Another key factor in his choices moving forward are both the absence of his father and how small of a threat he seems in comparison to the new supernatural threats that Billy has faced. His worst moment in canon (the confrontation with Steve at the Byers house) came right after he was hit and threatened by his father, and that relationship in general is the source of a lot of his anger. Any sort of personal growth is going to be a difficult path for him, and he has a lot of room to either succeed or fail depending on his circumstances and how he chooses to react to them, but he's faced enough consequences and regret to at least start thinking about who he wants to be.

Abilities/Powers/Weaknesses & Warping:
● Fighting (he fights a little dirty, but he's pretty good at it)
● Driving (and ignoring the speed limits)
● Surfing
● Swimming
● Note: Billy was possessed by the Mind Flayer for some of his time in Deerington. I am bringing him in this time with no possession, so he will be at normal human levels of strength and not have any advanced healing capabilities.

Inventory:
• A 1979 Camaro Z28
• One denim disaster outfit
• One date night outfit
• A few posters of various metal bands
• A boombox with some cassette tapes
• A couple packs of cigarettes

Writing Samples:
Deerington Log
Duplicity TDM

OUT OF CHARACTER

Player Name: Cass
Player Age: 31
Player Contact: dandymott / vellocett#7191

Other Characters In Game: none
In-Game Tag If Accepted: Billy Hargrove: Cass
Permissions for Character: HERE
Are you comfortable with prominent elements of fourth-walling?: Yep!
What themes of horror/psychological thrillers do you enjoy the most?: Corruption, body horror, mind control/forced-to-do-it, serial killers, Saw-style 'games' where it's one person's survival versus another's, a big threat that everyone's forced to band against, hallucinations, worst fears. I love Stephen King type horror in general, slasher movies, and creepypasta-style horror.
Is there anything in particular you absolutely need specific content warnings for?: No.
Additional Information: N/A