(inthenightmods) » application.

[magnumpi]

"You ever feel cursed?"

CHARACTER Stranger Things 3 spoilers herein! » BASICS Name » Jim Hopper; friends call him Jim or Hop. He’s often known in town as Chief Hopper or simply Hopper. Canon » Stranger Things Canon point » The Battle of Starcourt, episode 308. Age » 43 Occupation » Chief of Police Height » 6’3” Weight » ~200 lbs. Physical description » Tall, broad, a little overweight. Sandy blond hair, blue eyes, heavy brow. Usually a few days' worth of beard growth and currently sporting a mustache. » APPEARANCE + MANNERISMS » WORLD DESCRIPTION Stranger Things is a serialized television show that freely and sincerely pays homage to the best elements from science fiction, horror, coming of age, and adventure film of bygone eras. Set in the 1980s Midwest, the series’ setting is a world much like our own. Ronald Reagan's president, American culture is high off technology, materialism, and marketing, and the hair is big. So, so big. But unlike our world, there is one major difference: the existence of another, alternate dimension of darkness, cold, and decay. This dimension, known as the Upside Down, is inhabited with a variety of otherworldly creatures that seem to feed, take over, or otherwise inhabit human beings for unknown purposes. The other notable difference? The existence of enhanced humans, children who developed psionic, telepathic, or telekenetic powers as a result of scientific experiments such as the ones conducted under the CIA's (real life) MKUltra mind control program. Oh, and a clandestine Russian takeover. » HISTORY Jim Hopper's history (background, seasons 1 - 2) @ Stranger Things Wiki Jim Hopper's history (seasons 1 - 3) @ Wikipedia » DEATH Deep under Hawkins' shiny new shopping mall, there's a dark secret: Russian military have continued the work of Hawkins National Laboratory by engineering their own way to open the Gate to the Upside Down. It was in this sprawling underground fortress where Hopper, along with two friends, executed a daring plan - stop the Russians, and close the Gate. In sabotaging the lab, Hopper disappears, presumably losing his life. In game, I'll maintain this presumption of death, by having his entering the Gate to the Upside Down to escape as the way he meets his end. » IN-GAME PLANS At this point in his life, Hopper’s more interested in leading than following. This is a motivation for him as well as a personality trait - a desire to control the elements of his environment that he can, a way to right wrongs, to leave his town in a better state than he found it in. But without his hometown, without his found family and the authority of his office, who is he? My plans for Hopper are twofold: first, pushing him into a setting where he will have to use all of his career-based skills at his disposal. He's a cop, which means his natural instinct is, for better or worse - to investigate. To unravel the mystery. The whos, the whys, the hows. He will be driven to understand the town, the denizens, the rules and laws that govern his new existence. Playing Hopper in a setting like Beacon gives me a chance to play an active participant: he’ll generally be at least trying to do something rather than just waiting for something to happen. Secondly, I'd love to get Hopper in-game synced up with new dynamics, a new found family. (The best trope, fight me.) He's a guy who's lost everyone meaningful in his life, who's had to build something new from the ground up. What does that look like in a place where the only shared experience is the same mystery of undeath? While I don't necessarily pre-plan for specific dynamics, I anticipate Hopper forming unexpected bonds and alliances with character types he'd probably never run into in canon. » ASPECTS OF THE GAME MOST INTERESTED IN Not gonna lie, horror? Completely my jam. Combine it with the overarching mystery of the game, plus the need for characters to explore, and you've got a recipe that's just sublime for this beer-guzzling, face-punching, tentacle monster-shooting Midwestern disaster. Not surprisingly, some of the aspects I'm most looking forward to in-game have to do with playing a cop in a mystery game, and playing a deeply tortured man in a horror game. Hopper's got a lot of demons, and the horror genre tends to emphasize and prey on those. And because I’m a monster that loves pain, I'm super excited to write alllllll about said demons, allowing Hop time and space to reflect and hopefully evolve in ways that feel authentic to the character. » HOW HOPPER GETS ALONG WITH OTHERS Not always super well. Hopper’s prickly exterior makes him a hard man to like but a much easier one to respect. Not many sign up to a life of law enforcement without the desire to want to help people, and Hopper is not much different. He’s a good cop; he will defend his town against the odds without much regard for himself, and will fiercely protect those he cares about. But the more familiar he becomes, the more of his instability is revealed. He can be short and rude even to those who would consider him a friend, defaults to sarcasm when irritated or stressed, and is not above using physical aggression and threats to intimidate enemies or those in his way. With children, he’s not always better — Hopper can become exasperated and impatient, and turns a hard right into authoritative and domineering when things get hard on him. Get past the thorns, though, and Hopper’s other facets can make him a formidable ally or a selfless protector. In quiet or vulnerable moments his real nature emerges: generous, playful, empathetic and nurturing. If he's needed, he will be there without question. His trust is hard earned, but doing so means you've got a tough fighter in your corner. » HOPPER'S MENTAL STATE UPON ENTERING GAME The past 6 months of Hopper's life have been marked by slow but consistent change and development. He's a year and a half into his adoption of teenage telepath Eleven, he's gotten closer to high school flame Joyce Byers, and is nursing three years of new nightmares care of interdimensional blood-hunting monsters. He's doing his best, he really is, but sometimes his best also includes either ignoring or barreling right through his frustrations instead of healthily addressing them. In some facets of his life, he’s become a more stable, positive figure, but in others, he’s regressing and losing control. In pulling him from the end of season 3, Hopper will be conflicted, caught between relief that his efforts succeeded, and anger and disappointment in having left behind the new life he'd just begun to rebuild for himself and his daughter. » PERSONALITY EMOTIONALLY GUARDED » In order to combat the gaping chasm left in him from the loss of his daughter, Hopper built an impenetrable emotional armor to protect himself from being hurt again. What once began as a survival mechanism has become one of Hopper's defining characteristics and his biggest personal obstacle. After all, cloaking himself in sarcasm, dismissiveness and isolation? Much easier than getting close to somebody again. But when he does allow himself open up juuust a little, his exposed vulnerabilities can cause him to overreact to real or perceived rejection if he's not careful. SELFLESS » Hopper demonstrates a willingness to put his life on the line if it means protecting those he loves. If fighting for the greater good, the personal cost to himself is always his last consideration. CYNICAL » What former teen rebel would be complete without a streak of cynicism? There's an inherent distrust in Hopper about a lot of things ranging from government organizations to a person's personal motivations. And it's the 80s - if there isn't some basic underlying Cold War paranoia running through anything, are you even alive? PROTECTIVE » God help the person who even suggests ill will towards someone under Hopper's protection. He will go to drastic measures to ensure somebody's safety, going as far as booby trapping the perimeter of his home, or threatening an ally to get what he needs. ANGRY AND IRRITABLE » Legendary. Hopper's anger is an unstoppable force, fuck your immovable object. This is a guy who can get irritated about anything, who doesn't even pretend to mask his annoyance when a bunch of nerdy kids wanna go full pedant about Tolkien lore. There's always a sense that whatever handle Hopper has on his anger is tenuous, that almost anything can tip his frustration into full on rage. And when it is truly unleashed, the results can be explosive. CARING » Under all that haughty attitude and gruff machismo, there's a guy who really, truly cares about people and their well being. He's there somewhere, I promise. ARROGANT » Hopper's a guy with a healthy ego, who tends to believe in himself and his abilities as being everybody's best option. It's the source of his robust confidence, the reason why he's as chill sleeping around with any and all single ladies in town as he is breaking into secret government labs - twice. DEPENDABLE » Once a person has become important to Hopper, he will go above and beyond for them - no work is too dirty. He will stick by someone he cares about to the bitter end, even if all odds are stacked against them, even if he's the only one on Earth left saying "you were right." CONTROL ISSUES » Hopper has a strong need to dominate most situations, and has the arrogance to think he's always capable of it. He wants to lead, wants to assume control, whether it's a police department, a conversation, or an impromptu cross-state trip. This is likely a byproduct of how he protects himself from hurt, making him a guy who doesn't really consider an alternative to ordering people around. WHITE KNIGHT » Once he becomes invested in a case, a story, a person, or a cause, Hopper will do whatever it takes to fulfill what he believes is his duty. The tendency there, like many in law enforcement, is to search for a sense of justice. » FLAWS + WEAKNESSES POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS » Hopper's very many traumas from young adulthood to his present have left him saddled with a host of psychological and behavior problems that fall under the umbrella of PTSD. He has either mentioned or implied experiencing recurring nightmares, auditory hallucinations, overwhelming guilt, hyper-arousal, and flashbacks. Untreated, Hopper has developed behaviors all associated with PTSD, including isolation, depression, substance abuse, hyper-vigilance, and uncontrollable anger. HAUNTED BY LOSS » Hopper counts relatively few blessings in his life, having lost all living relatives, many close friends, his marriage, and his only biological child. Like many others from the era, Hopper has opted to deal with his history by attempting to bury it. Chief among his recurring traumas are memories from the Vietnam War, the loss of his daughter, the dissolution of his marriage, and fighting the interdimensional creatures from the Upside Down. (RECOVERING) FUNCTIONAL ADDICT » Hopper's brand of self medication had historically landed between a mixture of prescription pills and liquor, often while on duty, but has seemingly cut back on both while he's served as adoptive father to Eleven. While there's no pills anymore, he still knocks back beers like they're water, and when things get really tough, he’ll take his two shots of whiskey straight, thanks! WHAT ANGER MANAGEMENT? » There's a lot of anger bubbling just below the surface. Relatively little separates between his neutrality and rage, capable of going from zero to sixty in ten seconds flat. Once he's pushed far enough, his outbursts will often be loud, aggressive or violent, even if he does his best to control himself. HONESTLY, JUST KINDA A DICK » Whether it's a natural personality trait, or a new character flaw, Hopper's become someone whose sympathies are earned. He's rude, impolite, sarcastic and dismissive to people he doesn't know, is willing to be manipulative to get what he needs, even if that means intimidating his daughter's boyfriend. HIS DAUGHTER, SARA » If there was one defining moment in Jim Hopper's life, the single time he rounded the corner and become another man entirely, it was the experience of losing his young daughter to cancer. It's presumed that the stress of this loss is what drove Hopper into depression and substance abuse and eventually became the nail in the coffin of his first and only marriage. This is a hurt Hopper has never healed from, and one that had nearly defined who he was until he found something new to live for. HIS OTHER DAUGHTER, ELEVEN » Taking in the parentless, superpowered, almost feral Eleven lit a new fire in Hopper he hadn't experienced in seven years. He'd described the change as being able to "feel things again," given him new drive and purpose to act as El's protector, teacher, mentor, and father. But even as El's brought happiness back into his life, she's also brought frustration and hurt too once it becomes clear he must begin to pull away to let her grow. JOYCE » A Hawkins High schoolmate and likely old flame, Joyce has become Hopper's seemingly one and only friend and confidant, as well as his best source for parenting advice. Like his daughter, Hopper will do absolutely anything for Joyce. Has he carried a torch for Joyce since high school? Has her inability to recognize his feelings for her hurt his pride? Survey says: definitely, son. » ABILITIES Hopper is a non-enhanced human being with no special powers. However, he does possess a few specialized skill sets. MILITARY AND POLICE TRAINING » Hopper is a decorated Vietnam War veteran, and has experience with military equipment, tactics, and training. He has also served as a police officer in at least two cities, including Homicide Detective in NYC and Chief of Police back home. INVESTIGATIVE SKILLS » Hopper's observational and memory skills are fairly refined, as well as his ability to identify patterns and coincidences and follow up on relevant leads. His years of experience means his instincts about people and situations are well-honed and usually close to the truth. SURVIVAL INSTINCTS » Despite his tendency to solve his problems with fist or firearm, Hopper's often able to tactically plan ahead in order to ensure safety and survival. He can devise plans and divvy responsibilities between parties, use Morse Code to communicate, leave markers to know where he's been, and can rig up improvised trip wire traps as an early warning system. BASIC COMBAT SKILLS » He's no Avenger, but Hopper knows how to throw a punch and take a beating like a champ. His experience, size, and willingness to catch others off-guard means he'll best most average humans until he gets his ass handed to him by someone truly dedicated to the art of fucking people up. GUNMANSHIP » Hopper demonstrates a comfortable familiarity with firearms of all kinds, from smaller revolvers and pump-action riot shotguns up to automatic and semiautomatic military rifles. He appears to be a decent shot with fairly good consistency. » INVENTORY CASUAL CLOTHES Green and pink Hawaiian button-up; blue jeans worn beneath disguise. [ ✖ ] RUSSIAN UNIFORM Olive drab jacket pockmarked with bloody bulletholes; OD jodhpurs; knee high black leather boots. [ ✖ ] CAMEL CIGARETTES Half a pack of Camel cigarettes. [ ✖ ] (NON-FUNCTIONAL) LIGHTER Plain silver Zippo-type lighter. WALKIE-TALKIE Short range walkie-talkie radio. OOC » PLAYER INFO Player Name: Priestly Player Contact: PM journal Character(s) In-Game: None yet! » SAMPLES Log sample » Hopper's top levels @ the TDM Network sample » Hopper @ the TDM; Hopper @ general texting bkst meme Narrative sample » What happened next, Jim would say he couldn't remember. ( codes by whambam, edited by magnumpi )