[ tower of animus ] ; APPLICATION

[finallycowboys]

Player Information

Name: hanshi
Personal LJ: hanshi @ lj
Age: 24
Contact Info: email; kyungjhan[at]gmail[dot]com | plurk; hanshi
Other Characters Played: The Grand Highblood [AU6]

Character Information

Character Name: Henry Cooldown
Character Series: No More Heroes
Character Age: 30
Character Gender: Male
Original Canon
Canon Point: Right after the final boss before he disappears from the scene.
Background Link: this is pretty short

Personality:
Henry is the mild-mannered professional. He is down-to-earth, generally polite, relatively intelligent, but an ass at times with a bit of haughtiness about him. The fact that he isn't a "ranked assassin" (being a freelance assassin, as the wiki describes him) only tells so much about him. It is speculated that Henry was in on the killing game with Sylvia, but apparently did not know she was trying to seduce his twin brother, the anti-hero protagonist, Travis Touchdown. He sees himself as above the game, and feels he can do whatever wants, even if it meant directly interfering with Travis's fights. He doesn't see himself bound to the game (the game is both figurative and literal), which makes him sort of cocky.

There are standards for what kind of targets he acquires, made apparent in the last boss battle of NMH2. If the battle is too cliche or ridiculous, he won't even touch it with a 10-ft beam sword. These sensibilities make him seem old-fashioned, feeling the need to keep up his reputation through his work, living by respecting the fight, and engaging in (mostly) good, clean duels. If his opponent is worthy of his respect, he will carry out the job that is asked of him, but usually the assassins he face end up not being quite at that level. Only a small handful of skilled assassins can consider themselves "worthy" of respect, which usually means they have to either kill him or end the fight in a draw. Dr Letz Shake is a different situation all together, and while he admits that the good doctor got the best of him, it's something that he does not wish to remember. Foul play was probably afoot, and he certainly won't tell anyone why he was beaten by such an easy opponent.

He sees himself as the better version of Travis, but he doesn't let it go to his head. When he makes mistakes, he knows to feel shame, and can openly admit it. This is shown when Travis saves Henry in the second game from being forever frozen in carbonite, even if he didn't have to. Henry is genuinely thankful even if he was too ashamed to thank his brother face-to-face, but he doesn't like owing people anything so he returns the favor by being the awesome douche he is by stealing three more of Travis's kill to help him along his way in a more timely manner. Well, Henry thought it was a nice gesture, anyway.

Henry's likes and dislikes aren't very obvious to anyone but himself. He's been shown wearing nice clothing like button-up shirts, cuff links, vests and slacks, so one can assume that he likes neatness and good tastes in clothing. His color of choice seems to be grey. He loves fighting, just like Travis, but it seems he has a different reason for it. He doesn't like feeling weak and unable to do things his own way. For instance, he's trapped in his own subconscious in the second game and a little anime-styled character tries to persuade him to stay. She tells him he didn't want to go back to the real world, and reached out to her. Henry probably has some hidden insecurities that we don't know about, nor does the game ever elaborate. So, she's asking him to stay, but he adamantly refuses. He's a very determined individual, so if he wants out, he will get out, despite how nice running away sounds. Then he teases his own subconscious, suggesting she come with him instead, where she becomes angry and attacks him. He kills her of course, then moves on! Sure, the fight was pretty ridiculous, but it's his subconscious. He can make excuses in there. If there happen to be any other dislikes and likes pointed out, they are likely to be head-canon information (which a good deal of Henry's thoughts and opinions are based on since the game hardly elaborates on his character).

Ever since Travis got over his desire to kill Henry and his desire to become #1, Henry formed a mutual respect for his other half, and helps him when he feels he truly needs it. He seems to be keeping a close watch on him, appearing at a certain moment at the last boss fight: The final boss, Batt Jr., presented three decapitated heads on silver platters to Travis. One of them was Henry's, causing Travis to get extremely emotional and angry, but as if on cue, Henry bursts into the room. He proceeds to admonish Travis for being deceived by such a cheap trick. He truly cares about Travis, but it's almost always implied through actions and rarely through words. He feels like he needs to be the big brother of the two, and teach him a thing or two about life to keep him from getting killed in stupid ways.

Henry is also very much alone now. His wife, Sylvia, divorced him, probably doesn't have custody of his (assumed) daughter, Jeane, his real parents are dead, and his foster parents (if he has them anymore) are probably back in Ireland. His only true family is Travis, and even though they hardly know each other, they still share the same blood. It's safe to assume that this was of utmost importance to Henry, wanting to be reunited his only living relative.

Abilities:
Henry possesses very "above-average but not enough to be superhuman" speed & jumping abilities. He also wields a light saber type of weapon aptly called a "Cross Saber" due to the cross-shaped guard made of light. He has an elegant and clean killing style, preferring to go for the killing blow right away to keep things quick and neat. It's used like any other sword, except for the additional long-range feature where he charges his weapon to create orbs of electricity and shoot them out at his targets.

In the first game on normal and bitter mode, he has a ridiculous amount of health, and can execute a scary instant-kill Meteor Move where he first stabs you through the chest, throws you up high into the air, kicks you down, then throws his sword down after you to plunge it through your chest again - effectively pinning you to the ground - then down he comes and lands on the end of his sword to further damage your broken body by slamming you into the earth. It's strong enough to alter the landscape, including cement, in this particular instance.

In the second game, he doesn't have any instant kill moves that the player can use. He only has his basic move-set and a dash feature. It's not as fast as it is in the first game, but one can only assume that's just for the sake of game play.

Sample Entry:
Henry found himself wandering around the deserted streets of Speed City. It used to be quite an illustrious landmark of technology and business, but had mysteriously deteriorated over the years. He didn't know the details, but it was a real damn shame.

He felt a sort of connection to the city, to its demise, and reflected on the past couple of years. The recent events of his life resurfaced, and he felt a sting in his chest. He was overwhelmed by shame, and he kicked a pebble that sat it in his way, a hollow 'plunk' sound following shortly after as it hit an overturned trashcan. This was stupid. He couldn't believe he was feeling sorry for himself, wandering around an empty city like an emo bastard. So what if he and Sylvia were now divorced? So what if she went behind his back and slept with his twin brother? So what if his only living blood relative was a total fuck-up with no class?

He was still his brother, and...well, he had caught wind of his return. It was just a rumor, but even rumors had some truth to them. The only thing on his mind when he thought of Travis was their unfinished fight, which he wasn't even sure about right now either.

"We'll meet again soon," he said under his breath, a small smirk forming on his lips. "Better bring your A game, brother."

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I also have a post here on his LJ journal when I used to play him at DDD: [LINK]