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Post by Ethan Bennett - Clayface on Aug 19, 2016 0:11:51 GMT -5
Real Name: Ethan Bennett
Alias: Clayface, Clayface I, Solomon Grundy (once, due to shapeshifting)
Age: At this point in the timeline, most likely 37
Gender: Male
Occupation: Police Officer, Thief/Vandal/Villain in general
Current Status: Thankfully not in prison, or Arkham city, or anything like that. He's managed to set up a little home for himself in the abandoned basement of a movie theater, and he'll spend his days exploring Gotham, and if he ever has a good enough idea for a crime spree, he'll do it. He tries to keep a no killing rule, though, as the fact he hasn't intentionally spilled any blood during his career is part of what keeps him stable.
Alignment: Ethan would be a Lawful Good, Clayface would be a Chaotic Neutral, and bypassing the split-personality deal and looking at the character as a whole, True Neutral seems to be a good place for him.
Costumed Identity Known By Their Enemies, Costumed Identity Known By The General Public, Real Identity Known By Their Enemies, Real Identity Known By The General Public? : The fact that Ethan Bennett is (one of the people called) Clayface is public knowledge, it's just since Ethan was sort of a nobody to begin with the big scary clay monster was the more publicized version. Essentially, anyone can know his "secret" identity, just not everyone does. Sorta like knowing the name of the Secretary of State's wife. You can find it through a google search, but you're not expected to be able to name it off the top of your head.
( I mashed all these together into one big question because I feel like the answer was broad and inclusive enough to warrant that. )
Abilities/Skills: He has an amorphous body so he can do things like shapeshifting, regeneration, and he has limited Invulnerability. He can become and control more than one person at a time. He also has hightened strength and stamina. He can also change his body's texture, to be like clay, stone, rubber, etc. Also worth mentioning, having spent a lot of his adult life training to be and being on the police force as a detective, he has a comprehensive knowledge of crime scene investigation and the process used to track criminals. This allows him to make his own crimes less conspicuous, as well as set up evidence pointing towards someone else. And of course, he himself has no small amount of detective skills.
Weaknesses: He's dramatically affected by extreme temperatures, for example, he can be frozen by ice grenades, or melted by a heat lamp. He can also be forced to loose his form completely if he's sprayed with water that has a high enough pressure, as in, a fire hose will do it, and a showerhead will not. Also worth mentioning, if you manage to encase his body completely, in cement or a tub of wax or something that hardens around him, he may not be able to break out on his own.
Appearance:
Ethan Bennett is a 6'2", 172 lb male with a mesomorphic body type. He is African American, with green eyes and a bald head, though judging by his eyebrows his hair would be black. His jawline is broad, and he has a slightly pointed chin, along with high cheekbones. This gives his face an angular look. He prefers to wear the black trousers with suspenders, blue shirt, and black tie that he wore as a uniform for his detective job.
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As Clayface, he can change his appearance at will, though he does have a "default". Humanoid, made entirely of a gray substance which can most accurately be compared to, well, clay. He's mostly retained his body shape and facial structure, though all his features have been melted, his feet even pool out with excess material from his body, having dripped down and amassed there. His hands are larger, and there are strands of his body connecting his limbs to his torso, and his fingers to one another. These strands will snap and reform if stretched far enough. One strand in particular seems to permanently stretch over his mouth. His eyes have become a more piercing shade of green, and his eye sockets are stretched and melted to fit the streamlined quality of his entire form.
Personality: The duality between Ethan Bennett and Clayface is so severe that some may consider it a legitimately diagnosable case of dissociative identity disorder. Ethan is generally a relaxed, fun-loving guy, who knows not to take himself too seriously and always likes to crack little jokes. However, he's no idiot. He knows when to get serious. And nothing is more serious to him then peoples' safety. It's why he chose his profession as a police officer. It's also why he supports the Batman as much as he can, because he can see the good he's doing in Gotham. Ethan is, however, incredibly loyal. Both to his duties as a law abiding policeman to arrest the one who's technically a lawbreaking vigilante, as well as to his own beliefs, and the people of Gotham, who he believes need the Batman. This leads him to be quite conflicted.
Clayface was born of Ethan Bennet losing his humanity in an incident with the Joker. Since his birth, Clayface's existence has been a blur of regret, confusion, rage, and vengeance. His primary goal is to impede the Joker, but not kill him, as he half regards him as something of a "creator", but one he hates nonetheless. He also mostly wishes to be left alone, especially by Batman, though he will go on small crime sprees like robbing banks and museums on occasion, just if he needs to get his kicks. He will also adopt aspects of the personality of anyone he shapeshifts into. For example, if he becomes Catwoman, he'll act confident and flirtatious. If he becomes Joker, he'll act unhinged and gain a sense of showmanship. This is because he has a subconscious feeling of emptiness, like he's the blank slate that was left behind when everything Ethan Bennett was stripped away. Just an unmolded piece of clay. So, he'll latch onto any defining features he can, even if they aren't his, in the hopes that he can at least pretend to feel natural again.
Background: Ethan Bennett grew up in Gotham alongside Bruce Wayne. Having met on a field trip to a museum, the two became close friends throughout the duration of their attendance to school, even playing on the same college basketball team. Once they matured and took up their own separate lifestyles, they mostly lost contact with one another, although they would occasionally meet up when they had the chance. Ethan became a detective on the GCPD, and held his position for several years. About two years into his employ, the Batman first emerged in Gotham. The police force has always been split on Batman's vigilantism, and Ethan always supported it as much as he could, considering his position of enforcing the law.
For approximately three years, the status quo remained pretty steady for Ethan. The Batman was becoming more and more well regarded by Gothamites, as well as his fellow GCPD members. This was especially considering the emergence of criminals such as the Joker, Penguin, Killer Croc and Bane, all who seemed to somehow be too much for Gotham's finest, yet Batman would bring down with ease. There were, however, still those who were against Batman, making the point that prior to his arrival, none of these super criminals even existed. Unfortunately, amongst those advocating anti-Batman ideals was the then current Chief of police.
Once the Joker began a new crime spree, revolving around a chemical compound that could melt solid objects into putty, he proceeded to humiliate the GCPD with this unorthodox instrument of crime by performing complex crimes in broad daylight, and effortlessly evading any attempt of capture. The chief drew the line here, and implemented a strict zero-tolerance policy of any individual operating outside the law, and this especially targeted Batman. After failing to capture the Batman, the Chief, knowing of Ethan's support for him, made a very clear threat that if Detective Bennet did not bring in Batman the next time he had the opportunity, he would be forced to hand in his badge. Ethan was under a tremendous amount of stress at this point in time, being forced into a position to go against what he knew was right, or be robbed of his livelihood.
All this came to a head on one particular night, in which Ethan cornered the Joker in a museum, hoping to arrest him and prove his competence. However, he was knocked out by a goon, and dragged off to an abandoned carnival because hey, Joker has a brand and he's gonna stick to it, even if it means having fairly obvious hideouts. Once Ethan wakes up, he finds he's been strapped to a chair, alone in a room with the very man he wanted to incarcerate. Joker begins to force Ethan to stare at a kinetic optical illusion, which coupled with the blow to the head he suffered earlier, disorientated and confused the detective. With Joker taunting him, he slowly forces more and more information out of Ethan, learning his situation, and using it to get even deeper under his skin. With Joker's voice influencing him, his mind began conjuring hallucinations that made him question his way of life, his loyalty to the law, and his allegiance to Batman.
Batman does, however, discover Ethan's location, and arrives there, at the same time as a few units of the GCPD. The police find Ethan and Joker first, and the chemical Joker's been using to melt things into putty is knocked out of his hands, and emits toxic fumes. Unfortunately for Ethan, he is the closest to where it shatters, and inhales most of the chemical vapor before it dissipates. Joker is apprehended by Batman, and the media arrives at the scene. The chief tells the press that it was the cops and only the cops who defeated Joker. Enraged at the gall the chief has to lie, Ethan announces it was the Batman who beat Joker and saved his life, all the police did was take out a few henchmen. This only made the police look even more incompetent, and the Chief fired Ethan, despite all he'd been through that night. When he gets home to his apartment, now psychologically traumatized, jobless, and emotional, he tries to take a warm shower to calm down. Of course, even this didn't work out for him, as his entire body melted into amorphous gray stuff.
After stumbling out of his apartment building in a daze, the police not recognizing him and blasting him with a hose hooked up to a fire hydrant, which forced him to melt into the sewer, the Chief gave a speech about how it really was his men and not the Batman that brought down this "clay-faced creature", and the name Clayface stuck. Later, on the very next night, Clayface kidnapped and made an attempt to kill the Chief, but was stopped by Batman. He got away, however, and since then he's been hiding in Gotham City, taking the form of any random civilian and laying low, only occasionally committing heists. There was one incident wherein he was captured and given therapy, and permitted to rejoin society. However, he was ousted by his fellow people, and in the end (with a little push from Joker) decided that it was far easier to be Clayface than Ethan Bennett, and that side of him became dominant, seemingly permanently. These days, he's making more of an attempt to stray from the solitary life he leads, and if he's going to be a super criminal, he's going to at least try to establish some ties with the super criminal "community" as it were.
Current Associates: N/A
Current Enemies: Both Batman and Joker; as well as most of the GCPD
Other Relationships: Despite Ethan Bennett's hatred for Joker, Clayface has some odd respect for him, as without Joker, he wouldn't be who he is, which is both good and bad in his mind.
RP Sample: He didn't know who it was he was right now, so it was hard to get in character. The overweight man in the bright orange button-up looked like a tourist, one of the many who come to Gotham just for a day or two only to get the best of the city and not have to deal with Scarecrow trying to gas an orphanage or something like that every other month. The tourists all came here to witness the landmarks, the culture, and hopefully even catch a glimpse of the legendary Batman, though that would rarely happen. Fortunately, the last thing he wanted at that moment was to see the Batman.
He walked down the street, passing by a few night owls, attending to business at this hour. What time was it, exactly? He wasn't sure. When he left the museum, the clock said 11:21, but he'd been walking for a long time now. Walking, getting as far away from that building as he could. The reason he'd chosen to be this man, of all the citizens who'd faces he'd memorized in case he needed a quick getaway into a crowded street, was because he was particularly fat. And inside his torso, he was carrying a particularly large statue of Bastet, made of pure bronze, it's necklace laced with jade, turquoise, and rubies. As soon as he saw it, he knew he had to have it. Cats weren't usually his thing, which is why he turned into Catwoman as he stole it, so it'd feel right. Also, it made for a believable person to pin this on if he was spotted, not many people could bypass the cameras, silent alarms, and night guard.
Almost at his destination now, he glanced at a clock he could see in the store window across the street. Midnight. It was exactly 12:00. He smiled a bit, knowing the police would've stopped searching by now. Catwoman hit the museum and got away on a rooftop, maybe Batman'll get her. That's what happened, and they had no reason to doubt it. He turned off of the main road and into an alleyway, making sure he was out of sight, before abandoning his disguise and wrenching open the cellar door, entering it, closing it tight behind him and descending a short way before coming into the basement of a condemned movie theater, which hadn't been open since this part of Gotham had been anything but a rotting ghetto. He smiled as his torso poured itself out into an appendage, which placed the statue next to an old leather couch, before retracting into his body. He turned on a lamp and looked around at the small space, filled with stolen furniture, arranged less like a hideout, more like a home. "Hah, thing really brings a little class to a dump like this."
He felt proud of himself for a moment, before he paused to think. What had he accomplished? He got himself a decoration. Sure it was nice, but, this isn't what people steal things for, right? He frowned, as that ever present nagging resurfaced. He had no reason to do that, he has no reason to do any of this. Why doesn't he just...blow up a building? Like other criminals? Or, start going after criminals and doing some good? Like Batman, or his old self, Detective Bennett? Did he have any goals? No, he has no plan, no purpose, no place, no-... He took a deep breath, and stopped himself. He was overthinking things. He hadn't killed anybody, so he wasn't that bad, but he wasn't bound by the laws, so he wasn't living in constant fear. He wasn't. That's all he needs. Actually no, that's not all he needs, what he needed was a distraction right about now. He shifted into one of his favorite forms, a young orderly from Arkham, and grabbed a stolen wallet off of a small pile on his coffee table, he didn't need to eat or drink, but eating and drinking is something people do, and he's a person. He is. He is. Exiting his little home and getting back onto the street, he said to himself in a completely different voice that the one he'd used previously "I think I'll go get a latte or something."
Alias: Clayface, Clayface I, Solomon Grundy (once, due to shapeshifting)
Age: At this point in the timeline, most likely 37
Gender: Male
Occupation: Police Officer, Thief/Vandal/Villain in general
Current Status: Thankfully not in prison, or Arkham city, or anything like that. He's managed to set up a little home for himself in the abandoned basement of a movie theater, and he'll spend his days exploring Gotham, and if he ever has a good enough idea for a crime spree, he'll do it. He tries to keep a no killing rule, though, as the fact he hasn't intentionally spilled any blood during his career is part of what keeps him stable.
Alignment: Ethan would be a Lawful Good, Clayface would be a Chaotic Neutral, and bypassing the split-personality deal and looking at the character as a whole, True Neutral seems to be a good place for him.
Costumed Identity Known By Their Enemies, Costumed Identity Known By The General Public, Real Identity Known By Their Enemies, Real Identity Known By The General Public? : The fact that Ethan Bennett is (one of the people called) Clayface is public knowledge, it's just since Ethan was sort of a nobody to begin with the big scary clay monster was the more publicized version. Essentially, anyone can know his "secret" identity, just not everyone does. Sorta like knowing the name of the Secretary of State's wife. You can find it through a google search, but you're not expected to be able to name it off the top of your head.
( I mashed all these together into one big question because I feel like the answer was broad and inclusive enough to warrant that. )
Abilities/Skills: He has an amorphous body so he can do things like shapeshifting, regeneration, and he has limited Invulnerability. He can become and control more than one person at a time. He also has hightened strength and stamina. He can also change his body's texture, to be like clay, stone, rubber, etc. Also worth mentioning, having spent a lot of his adult life training to be and being on the police force as a detective, he has a comprehensive knowledge of crime scene investigation and the process used to track criminals. This allows him to make his own crimes less conspicuous, as well as set up evidence pointing towards someone else. And of course, he himself has no small amount of detective skills.
Weaknesses: He's dramatically affected by extreme temperatures, for example, he can be frozen by ice grenades, or melted by a heat lamp. He can also be forced to loose his form completely if he's sprayed with water that has a high enough pressure, as in, a fire hose will do it, and a showerhead will not. Also worth mentioning, if you manage to encase his body completely, in cement or a tub of wax or something that hardens around him, he may not be able to break out on his own.
Appearance:
Ethan Bennett is a 6'2", 172 lb male with a mesomorphic body type. He is African American, with green eyes and a bald head, though judging by his eyebrows his hair would be black. His jawline is broad, and he has a slightly pointed chin, along with high cheekbones. This gives his face an angular look. He prefers to wear the black trousers with suspenders, blue shirt, and black tie that he wore as a uniform for his detective job. As Clayface, he can change his appearance at will, though he does have a "default". Humanoid, made entirely of a gray substance which can most accurately be compared to, well, clay. He's mostly retained his body shape and facial structure, though all his features have been melted, his feet even pool out with excess material from his body, having dripped down and amassed there. His hands are larger, and there are strands of his body connecting his limbs to his torso, and his fingers to one another. These strands will snap and reform if stretched far enough. One strand in particular seems to permanently stretch over his mouth. His eyes have become a more piercing shade of green, and his eye sockets are stretched and melted to fit the streamlined quality of his entire form.Personality: The duality between Ethan Bennett and Clayface is so severe that some may consider it a legitimately diagnosable case of dissociative identity disorder. Ethan is generally a relaxed, fun-loving guy, who knows not to take himself too seriously and always likes to crack little jokes. However, he's no idiot. He knows when to get serious. And nothing is more serious to him then peoples' safety. It's why he chose his profession as a police officer. It's also why he supports the Batman as much as he can, because he can see the good he's doing in Gotham. Ethan is, however, incredibly loyal. Both to his duties as a law abiding policeman to arrest the one who's technically a lawbreaking vigilante, as well as to his own beliefs, and the people of Gotham, who he believes need the Batman. This leads him to be quite conflicted.
Clayface was born of Ethan Bennet losing his humanity in an incident with the Joker. Since his birth, Clayface's existence has been a blur of regret, confusion, rage, and vengeance. His primary goal is to impede the Joker, but not kill him, as he half regards him as something of a "creator", but one he hates nonetheless. He also mostly wishes to be left alone, especially by Batman, though he will go on small crime sprees like robbing banks and museums on occasion, just if he needs to get his kicks. He will also adopt aspects of the personality of anyone he shapeshifts into. For example, if he becomes Catwoman, he'll act confident and flirtatious. If he becomes Joker, he'll act unhinged and gain a sense of showmanship. This is because he has a subconscious feeling of emptiness, like he's the blank slate that was left behind when everything Ethan Bennett was stripped away. Just an unmolded piece of clay. So, he'll latch onto any defining features he can, even if they aren't his, in the hopes that he can at least pretend to feel natural again.
Background: Ethan Bennett grew up in Gotham alongside Bruce Wayne. Having met on a field trip to a museum, the two became close friends throughout the duration of their attendance to school, even playing on the same college basketball team. Once they matured and took up their own separate lifestyles, they mostly lost contact with one another, although they would occasionally meet up when they had the chance. Ethan became a detective on the GCPD, and held his position for several years. About two years into his employ, the Batman first emerged in Gotham. The police force has always been split on Batman's vigilantism, and Ethan always supported it as much as he could, considering his position of enforcing the law.
For approximately three years, the status quo remained pretty steady for Ethan. The Batman was becoming more and more well regarded by Gothamites, as well as his fellow GCPD members. This was especially considering the emergence of criminals such as the Joker, Penguin, Killer Croc and Bane, all who seemed to somehow be too much for Gotham's finest, yet Batman would bring down with ease. There were, however, still those who were against Batman, making the point that prior to his arrival, none of these super criminals even existed. Unfortunately, amongst those advocating anti-Batman ideals was the then current Chief of police.
Once the Joker began a new crime spree, revolving around a chemical compound that could melt solid objects into putty, he proceeded to humiliate the GCPD with this unorthodox instrument of crime by performing complex crimes in broad daylight, and effortlessly evading any attempt of capture. The chief drew the line here, and implemented a strict zero-tolerance policy of any individual operating outside the law, and this especially targeted Batman. After failing to capture the Batman, the Chief, knowing of Ethan's support for him, made a very clear threat that if Detective Bennet did not bring in Batman the next time he had the opportunity, he would be forced to hand in his badge. Ethan was under a tremendous amount of stress at this point in time, being forced into a position to go against what he knew was right, or be robbed of his livelihood.
All this came to a head on one particular night, in which Ethan cornered the Joker in a museum, hoping to arrest him and prove his competence. However, he was knocked out by a goon, and dragged off to an abandoned carnival because hey, Joker has a brand and he's gonna stick to it, even if it means having fairly obvious hideouts. Once Ethan wakes up, he finds he's been strapped to a chair, alone in a room with the very man he wanted to incarcerate. Joker begins to force Ethan to stare at a kinetic optical illusion, which coupled with the blow to the head he suffered earlier, disorientated and confused the detective. With Joker taunting him, he slowly forces more and more information out of Ethan, learning his situation, and using it to get even deeper under his skin. With Joker's voice influencing him, his mind began conjuring hallucinations that made him question his way of life, his loyalty to the law, and his allegiance to Batman.
Batman does, however, discover Ethan's location, and arrives there, at the same time as a few units of the GCPD. The police find Ethan and Joker first, and the chemical Joker's been using to melt things into putty is knocked out of his hands, and emits toxic fumes. Unfortunately for Ethan, he is the closest to where it shatters, and inhales most of the chemical vapor before it dissipates. Joker is apprehended by Batman, and the media arrives at the scene. The chief tells the press that it was the cops and only the cops who defeated Joker. Enraged at the gall the chief has to lie, Ethan announces it was the Batman who beat Joker and saved his life, all the police did was take out a few henchmen. This only made the police look even more incompetent, and the Chief fired Ethan, despite all he'd been through that night. When he gets home to his apartment, now psychologically traumatized, jobless, and emotional, he tries to take a warm shower to calm down. Of course, even this didn't work out for him, as his entire body melted into amorphous gray stuff.
After stumbling out of his apartment building in a daze, the police not recognizing him and blasting him with a hose hooked up to a fire hydrant, which forced him to melt into the sewer, the Chief gave a speech about how it really was his men and not the Batman that brought down this "clay-faced creature", and the name Clayface stuck. Later, on the very next night, Clayface kidnapped and made an attempt to kill the Chief, but was stopped by Batman. He got away, however, and since then he's been hiding in Gotham City, taking the form of any random civilian and laying low, only occasionally committing heists. There was one incident wherein he was captured and given therapy, and permitted to rejoin society. However, he was ousted by his fellow people, and in the end (with a little push from Joker) decided that it was far easier to be Clayface than Ethan Bennett, and that side of him became dominant, seemingly permanently. These days, he's making more of an attempt to stray from the solitary life he leads, and if he's going to be a super criminal, he's going to at least try to establish some ties with the super criminal "community" as it were.
Current Associates: N/A
Current Enemies: Both Batman and Joker; as well as most of the GCPD
Other Relationships: Despite Ethan Bennett's hatred for Joker, Clayface has some odd respect for him, as without Joker, he wouldn't be who he is, which is both good and bad in his mind.
RP Sample: He didn't know who it was he was right now, so it was hard to get in character. The overweight man in the bright orange button-up looked like a tourist, one of the many who come to Gotham just for a day or two only to get the best of the city and not have to deal with Scarecrow trying to gas an orphanage or something like that every other month. The tourists all came here to witness the landmarks, the culture, and hopefully even catch a glimpse of the legendary Batman, though that would rarely happen. Fortunately, the last thing he wanted at that moment was to see the Batman.
He walked down the street, passing by a few night owls, attending to business at this hour. What time was it, exactly? He wasn't sure. When he left the museum, the clock said 11:21, but he'd been walking for a long time now. Walking, getting as far away from that building as he could. The reason he'd chosen to be this man, of all the citizens who'd faces he'd memorized in case he needed a quick getaway into a crowded street, was because he was particularly fat. And inside his torso, he was carrying a particularly large statue of Bastet, made of pure bronze, it's necklace laced with jade, turquoise, and rubies. As soon as he saw it, he knew he had to have it. Cats weren't usually his thing, which is why he turned into Catwoman as he stole it, so it'd feel right. Also, it made for a believable person to pin this on if he was spotted, not many people could bypass the cameras, silent alarms, and night guard.
Almost at his destination now, he glanced at a clock he could see in the store window across the street. Midnight. It was exactly 12:00. He smiled a bit, knowing the police would've stopped searching by now. Catwoman hit the museum and got away on a rooftop, maybe Batman'll get her. That's what happened, and they had no reason to doubt it. He turned off of the main road and into an alleyway, making sure he was out of sight, before abandoning his disguise and wrenching open the cellar door, entering it, closing it tight behind him and descending a short way before coming into the basement of a condemned movie theater, which hadn't been open since this part of Gotham had been anything but a rotting ghetto. He smiled as his torso poured itself out into an appendage, which placed the statue next to an old leather couch, before retracting into his body. He turned on a lamp and looked around at the small space, filled with stolen furniture, arranged less like a hideout, more like a home. "Hah, thing really brings a little class to a dump like this."
He felt proud of himself for a moment, before he paused to think. What had he accomplished? He got himself a decoration. Sure it was nice, but, this isn't what people steal things for, right? He frowned, as that ever present nagging resurfaced. He had no reason to do that, he has no reason to do any of this. Why doesn't he just...blow up a building? Like other criminals? Or, start going after criminals and doing some good? Like Batman, or his old self, Detective Bennett? Did he have any goals? No, he has no plan, no purpose, no place, no-... He took a deep breath, and stopped himself. He was overthinking things. He hadn't killed anybody, so he wasn't that bad, but he wasn't bound by the laws, so he wasn't living in constant fear. He wasn't. That's all he needs. Actually no, that's not all he needs, what he needed was a distraction right about now. He shifted into one of his favorite forms, a young orderly from Arkham, and grabbed a stolen wallet off of a small pile on his coffee table, he didn't need to eat or drink, but eating and drinking is something people do, and he's a person. He is. He is. Exiting his little home and getting back onto the street, he said to himself in a completely different voice that the one he'd used previously "I think I'll go get a latte or something."