Claire Novak (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
waywardsister) wrote2022-07-25 07:11 am
waywardsister) wrote2022-07-25 07:11 am
App for @abraxas
OOC INFORMATION
Player Name: Inky
Are you over 18?: Yes, 35
Contact:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
inkcharm, Discord: inkcharm#4573
Other Characters in Game: ---
IC INFORMATION
Character Name: Claire Novak
Canon: Supernatural
Canon Point: 13x10: Wayward Sisters, after Kaia's death when Claire runs through the rift to leave the Bad Place and re-enter her world
Age: 20
Background: Claire @ SPN Wiki
Arrival Scenario: Free Cities
Suitability:
Currently feeling like a failure because she once again couldn't protect someone she loved, despite vowing to do so, and being denied the chance to decompress from that at home with her loved ones, Claire is going to arrive in the game intending to play the "conceal don't feel" game and throw herself into what she considers her job and frankly the only thing she knows how to do - meaning the whole gig of 'saving people, hunting things'.
She will initially want to pursue monster hunting avenues at all costs, and while she might have to train and gear up for that, that's going to be a singular drive for her. She's denied her vengeance quest by her inability to go home, and she's lost her support network, so she'll try and tough it out initially, but will absolutely want to find and engage with ways to protect and help the people she will begrudgingly grow attached to. Beyond her initial path to combat and monster hunting, I want to explore how the different loyalties she will develop to cast and cross canon CR can and will shape her approach to the setting and her priorities in it, too.
While she might initially try to hyperfocus on monster hunting and very little else, Claire is also a bit of a wandering spirit who has a surprising interesting in learning new things for someone who thought school was a waste of her time, so as she eases up her iron grip on her emotional state, she's likely to catch a bout of wanderlust here or there that will get her interested in exploring the world around her more in depth. She also never wants to be too tied down to one location and group of people, no matter how much she ends up valuing them, always fearful of losing her independence when she cares about people, and this will also motivate her to eventually look beyond the narrow hunting pipeline. Depending on who she ends up falling in with CR circle wise, I could also see her becoming more sympathetic towards certain factions, in particular the neutral/outsider factions and start helping out with different player led projects and initiatives once she allows herself the freedom to figure out where and how she fits into this world.
And while not a drive from Claire herself, I'd love to explore how someone like her interacts with the Singularity - someone who bucks the roles impressed upon her by outside forces, but as a result never had a chance to explore what that special something in her is that makes her a suitable holy vessel as well as the first and only human to survive an experimental werewolf cure. So sooner or later, she will certainly develop a bit of an interest in that area as well.
Claire is very much someone who believes she only knows how to do one thing and will pursue that fiercly, while also having a need and drive to look beyond what she's currently doing and find her own place in her world that's not completely tangled up in but perhaps often inspired by the people she meets along the way. In summary, monster hunting and mysteries of the unknown landscape around her will end up enticing her as much as things close CR are invested in.
Powers:
Human
Claire is a regular human, so physically and mentally has no particularly unusual skills/abilities, and all the weaknesses one would expect. It should be noted that through her father, she is a potential angelic vessel with particular suitability for Castiel, and while the show never expands upon this in details, it is related to her bloodline. It makes her body capable of withstanding the otherwise deadly long term affects of angelic possession, were that ever the case. She also used to be infected with lycanthropy, and is the first and only human in Supernatural canon who has survived an experimental treatment, ending up fully cured. While she doesn't have any active powers or passive affects related to either, they offer a wealth of options of be explored in a setting like Abraxas.
Hunter
Claire is a hunter, and therefore has gained a growing arsenal of lore on many common Supernatural canon monsters and methods to kill them, as well as an array of fake badges/identities, IDs, some minor hacking abilities (enough to keep her afloat for travelling the country and hunting, at the very least). While this knowledge might not immediately be useful in Abraxas, she's picked these skillsets up very quickly, and will be quick to adapt to new environments and challenges as a result. She's also gotten pretty good at hustling billiard players in dive bars.
Weapons
Claire is capable with a variety of handguns, and can wield a sword/bladed weapon efficiently, as well as knives. In addition, we see her be competent in hand-to-hand combat, as well as resourceful enough to use a variety of improvised weapons. Most of these are skills she's picked up in recent years, and while no master at them, this demonstrates a level of fast adaptability and dedication on her part. Post her canon point we later learn through a brief mention that Claire will eventually go on to become competent enough to start training others.
Thief/Pickpocket
Claire can pick locks and has some skill in the sleight of hand department through years of breaking herself out of group homes, running away and living on the street, surviving on five finger discounts and cleverness. These skills were partially self-taught, and partially taught to her by a guy making his money by providing shilter for troubled kids and using them to shoplift and steal money.
Liar
Claire has an impressive pokerface when she really wants to, and knows how to lie to get into places she wants to be. She thinks fast on her feet and can be hard to read by those who don't know her.
Physical fitness
Claire has developed the stamina and strength to handle her lifestyle. Hunters need to be in good physical shape to not only outsmart, but also outrun and outmaneuver monsters, fight them, cut through them, and make it through the usual wounds you get on the job with a certain level of pain tolerance without keeling over before you can patch yourself up.
Basic first aid
Claire knows how to patch herself up and suture wounds. While not nearly as skilled as her "step-sister" Alex (a trained nurse), she knows how to stitch her own wounds. It's a necessity because she does most of her hunting alone on the road.
PERSONALITY QUESTIONS
Describe an important event in your character's life and how it impacted them.
Angel interference (and lack thereof)
Early in her life, Claire lost her father Jimmy Novak when the angel Castiel took possession of his body. This is the pivotal moment that caused her entire life to go on a downwards spiral.
Claire still has nightmares of following her father out the door as a child and seeing something utterly alien and beyond human comprehension stare back through his eyes. It resulted in further trauma when demons kidnapped her and her mother and she temporarily became the vessel of that very same angelic entity - her choice to sacrifice herself and save her family, because when she accepted becoming a vessel, it was with the understanding that she'd never be free again. The only reason she got to grow up rather than remain chained within her own body without agency was because her father negotiated on her behalf - and subjected himself to becoming a vessel once more. Claire is profoundly traumatized by this loss, and the years of downwards spiral and further loss the interference of higher powers has caused her.
For years she prayed to Castiel to protect her father and bring him home, and for years her prayers went unanswered. Even when the loss of Jimmy Novak caused Claire's mother Amelia to walk out of her life as well. Even when the death of her grandmother left her without a caretaker, stranding her in the system, handed from group homes to group homes. And overtime, devastation over the loss turned to hurt and then bitterness and anger. This one single event has caused Claire to lose faith in people of authority, in people who are meant to care for her. And ultimately, like a line of dominoes, it has caused her to experience traumatic loss after traumatic loss, because every choice made in her life as a result of her father becoming an angelic vessel has caused further catastrophe - from her mother leaving only to be abducted by another angel to be farmed for life force and ultimately die, to her trusting the wrong person and nearly being traficked, to her becoming a hunter in a desperate attempt to seize back some measure of control in a life in which she'd so far been stripped of agency again and again.
Claire is who she is not because of a series of unconnected tragedies, but because of a series of tragedies that happen as a result of Castiel's choice in vessel. By the time the angel regrets his choices enough to come looking for Claire, her life has already spiralled beyond repair. Castiel possessing her father has ruined her life when it initially happened, and dragged her into the circumstances and traumatic experiences that shape who Claire Novak is today on a fundamental level.
It is perhaps ironic that as much of a negative impact as this single moment in time had on Claire and her ability to cope with loss as well as her struggles with trusting people, at the same time it is also Castiel's guilt over this very event that eventually leads to a path forwards for Claire in which she can begin to heal, as Castiel choosing to come back into the ruins of her life he left behind is what leads her to finding a new family and finally exist in an environment in which she can get better and heal.
Regardless of that though, much of Claire as a person is still defined by the flaws and strengths she developed in direct response to that initial moment of Castiel possessing her father and the myriad of ways in which this ruined her childhood and teenage years. She would not have become a hunter capable of saving people and finding purpose in that if not for Castiel taking her father from her - but then again, she wouldn't have needed to become the kind of damaged, broken person who's prone to choosing this sort of lifestyle to begin with.
Losing her father cost Claire her childhood, her ability to trust easily, her sweetness, her innocence, her optimism and her perspective on the future. The only trait of hers that seems to have remained intact from that moment in her childhood is her willingness to risk and sacrifice for people she loves. Even enterting the game, Claire will still feel the painful scars left behind by this event in her life, and how to this day it impacts the ways in which she interacts with others and this new world around her. After all, when you know there's a divine being out there wearing your father like clothes, and your prayers still go unanswered - why would you still have faith in anyone with power to use it well?
Does your character have a moral code, or other set of standards they try to live by?
Claire is always, in some shape or another, chasing after something or someone. Originally motivated by vengeance for her mother's death, Claire has since become driven to eradicate monsters. Her goal isn't as lofty as 'killing all existing monsters', but she's become determined to hunt as many and kill as many as she can, and in the process save as many people as possible. In the process, she's also allowed herself to grow a little closer to a specific few people again, and her desire to hunt monsters and prove herself capable in this chosen profession has been expanded to include a need and drive to protect those close to her. This does not extend to herself, naturally. If her loved ones are in need, Claire will stop at nothing to save them, and will teeter on the brink to walking a path of vengeance. While she's learned her lesson about recklessly endangering others, she doesn't exactly apply that to herself.
Claire tends to counter adversity and crisis with a cocky facade and bravery in the face of insurmountable odds, only showing true vulnerability when broken down. She'll be certain of making it out - or pretend to be, at least - until there is no other feasible option than to admit defeat, and even then she'll attempt to maintain her cocky attitude until the end. She's much more likely to break down after the fact in the arms of a trusted ally or loved one, than in the face of adversity in the moment - even in the face of imminent death.
What quality or qualities do they admire most?
Claire looks in others for some of the strengths and aspects she likes seeing in herself. People portraying any of the following will likely be people she gravitates towards. While she won't dismisse people who don't have these strengths/qualities, Claire is definitely not a real 'opposites attract' kind of person.
Independence/Self-Confidence
Having lost so many people at a young age, Claire has grown up to become an incredibly self-reliant young woman. While this can be to her detriment when she fails to ask for help, she will likely not despair over having to tackle any problem on her own, secure in the knowledge of the skills and capabilities she has acquired, and in her ability to persevere through hardship. "I've had worse" and "I know I can do this" are strong motivators for her.
Bravery
Claire rarely backs down from any challenge, and while there are things she fears and/or knows to be dangerous, she does not let this cow her. She looks at danger as something to overcome, not as something to bend to, and isn't easily pushed into being too scared to act. And if all else fails, this allows her to fall back onto some level of bravado, too. The way to gain her approval is definitely to have a similar level of moxi.
Protectiveness
Claire has chosen to become a hunter, which means she does two things: kill monsters and save people.She's protective of other people, especially those she's grown close to, and draws a lot of strength from feeling like she has to step up and shield others, or act on their behalf. She is more likely to overcome her own reservations about engaging with a situation, if she feels that other people are in danger if she refrains, and will more likely warm up to someone showing similar inclinations.
Found Family
While often reluctant to accept outside help, the closer Claire gets to someone, the more willing she is to rely on the people she knows she can trust, and be able to trust them to have her back and make use of their skill sets to compliment her own. Similarly she admires people who manage to have close-knit connections like that, be it with her or others.
Leadership
While still in the early stages of this development in her current canon point, Claire has grown to a point emotionally where she starts to think that maybe she can lead or help lead other people, train them, and help them move forwards in the dangerous world they live in together. She's not exactly a nurturing person, but she can help others learn how to defend themselves, and is willing to lead by example. She will never ask anyone to do what she wouldn't be willing to do herself, and would admire especially this aspect of leadership in others greatly.
Determination
Claire is stubborn, and when she sets her mind to something, she's not easily dissuaded off her path. She has little patience for uncertainty in others, and admires people who know what they're about.
Do they have a part of themselves they dislike?
Claire sees her own distrustfulness, recknlessness, anger and trust issues, penchant for vengeance, weakness due to feelings of guilt and failure, and judges herself harshly for it. She doesn't see herself as a strong or particularly good person, but hides that crippling self-loathing and doubt deep inside of her, weaponizing it against herself rather than confide in others unless it can't be helped.
Loss of Agency/Freedom
Claire values her freedom. She's lost control of herself and her circumstances through angelic possession, betrayal by people in power over her, attempted assault, lycanthropy and even, as she presumes in her current canon point, prophecy/visions. She doesn't handle feeling powerless and not in control of herself well, and even a perceived loss of agency can lead to heightened states of her bad characteristics and flaws.
Distrust
Claire has a hard time trusting that others have her best interest at heart, having been let down, left or betrayed too often in her life. The connections she's made have been hard to earn for the people who've gained them, and Claire will likely need time to warm up to anyone else to such a degree. In a dire situation, depending on developments, she might even foolishly refuse someone's help if she doesn't yet feel she can trust them. This can also lead to her not reaching out and involving people in her plans, and choosing to lie and do something in secret even if part of her knows it'd be better not to.
Recklessness
Claire throws herself at danger, and while she's grown better about thinking her plans through over the years of honing her skills as a hunter, she certainly still has a tendency to charge at danger head first, touch the thing, fail to watch her back, or go too far in trying to discover the truth without an exit strategy, backup or other help. She is easy to frustrate, easy to rile up if the wrong buttons are pushed, and can lose her temper in detrimental ways if she leans too hard into that anger. She's likely to bristle against people with authority, even if it would be in her best interest to listen to them, and she's prone to being cocky and dismissing the advice and assistance from such figures.
Vengeful
If wronged, if made to suffer a loss, Claire will stop at very little to get her due, and can easily go down a dark, obsessive path with this.
Loss/Failure/Guilt
Furthermore, Claire has suffered tremendous personal losses in her life, and is in many ways still grieving over her blood family, over Kaia, and over every single person she couldn't safe. She's unstable, and and when her layers of bravado, sarcasm and confidence in her skills are stripped away, she is a vulnerable, lonely person with abandonment issues underneath. The show heavily implies that even years after Kaia's loss, Claire would be pushed past her breaking point losing another loved one. Claire also carries with her the guilt of feeling responsible for several of these aforementioned losses - from her father and mother sacrificing themselves for her, to Randy selling her after she failed to come up with the money he needed to pay the loan shark back, to Kaia dying in her arms after Claire swore to protect her in the one place Kaia was scared to go, and only went for Claire's sake.
Claire dislikes these qualities in herself, and yet continuously fails to truly take steps to fix these shortcomings. While the positive aspects of her character and behaviour are strengthened and she's shown to experience growth, the negative aspects of her do not quite leave, ever, and she sometimes lacks the self awareness and impulse control to pull herself away from those aspects of herself.
Claire takes great pains to hide these vulnerabilities from others, not wishing to appear weak and only allowing people she's able to trust to glimpse at the depth of what a mess she is. Claire likes to feign cocky bravado, but considers herself weak. When she's infected with lycanthropy, she tells Dean that she can't risk staying alive as a werewolf, because she knows she lacks the inner strength to control herself during the full moon and contain the blood lust. She says about herself that she "can barely keep it together on a good day", and this crippling self-doubt and lack of belief in her inner strength means she would rather die than risk her self-perceived weakness hurting others.
What is their sign, and why?
The Hanged Man
Be it in her past as a troubled child and teen in group homes, runaway pickpocket on the street or current path as a hunter, Claire has lived her life as an outcast on the fringes of society from a young age. Initially a fate thrust upon her, Claire has come to embrace this lifestyle. She forges her own path in the shadows of normal society, following her own path as a hunter initially against the advice and wishes of everyone around her trying to allow her to finally become normal again - but she rejects the notion until it sticks, because finally this path that distances her from anyone but a small, though solitary and fractured community, is her own choice. Resilient and surviving in the face of adversity and terrible catastrophe unleashed upon her and the world around her, this sign exemplifies Claire, her understanding of her place in the world, and her choices. While ultimately she gathers around her a small group of people she considers family, she still travels her own path that intersects with theirs when Claire herself allows it, and still defined by all of their shared status of outcasts by circumstance and choice alike.
SAMPLES & ARRIVAL
Samples: TDM Top Level with Various, The Village Log Thread with John Constantine
Player Name: Inky
Are you over 18?: Yes, 35
Contact:
Other Characters in Game: ---
IC INFORMATION
Character Name: Claire Novak
Canon: Supernatural
Canon Point: 13x10: Wayward Sisters, after Kaia's death when Claire runs through the rift to leave the Bad Place and re-enter her world
Age: 20
Background: Claire @ SPN Wiki
Arrival Scenario: Free Cities
Suitability:
Currently feeling like a failure because she once again couldn't protect someone she loved, despite vowing to do so, and being denied the chance to decompress from that at home with her loved ones, Claire is going to arrive in the game intending to play the "conceal don't feel" game and throw herself into what she considers her job and frankly the only thing she knows how to do - meaning the whole gig of 'saving people, hunting things'.
She will initially want to pursue monster hunting avenues at all costs, and while she might have to train and gear up for that, that's going to be a singular drive for her. She's denied her vengeance quest by her inability to go home, and she's lost her support network, so she'll try and tough it out initially, but will absolutely want to find and engage with ways to protect and help the people she will begrudgingly grow attached to. Beyond her initial path to combat and monster hunting, I want to explore how the different loyalties she will develop to cast and cross canon CR can and will shape her approach to the setting and her priorities in it, too.
While she might initially try to hyperfocus on monster hunting and very little else, Claire is also a bit of a wandering spirit who has a surprising interesting in learning new things for someone who thought school was a waste of her time, so as she eases up her iron grip on her emotional state, she's likely to catch a bout of wanderlust here or there that will get her interested in exploring the world around her more in depth. She also never wants to be too tied down to one location and group of people, no matter how much she ends up valuing them, always fearful of losing her independence when she cares about people, and this will also motivate her to eventually look beyond the narrow hunting pipeline. Depending on who she ends up falling in with CR circle wise, I could also see her becoming more sympathetic towards certain factions, in particular the neutral/outsider factions and start helping out with different player led projects and initiatives once she allows herself the freedom to figure out where and how she fits into this world.
And while not a drive from Claire herself, I'd love to explore how someone like her interacts with the Singularity - someone who bucks the roles impressed upon her by outside forces, but as a result never had a chance to explore what that special something in her is that makes her a suitable holy vessel as well as the first and only human to survive an experimental werewolf cure. So sooner or later, she will certainly develop a bit of an interest in that area as well.
Claire is very much someone who believes she only knows how to do one thing and will pursue that fiercly, while also having a need and drive to look beyond what she's currently doing and find her own place in her world that's not completely tangled up in but perhaps often inspired by the people she meets along the way. In summary, monster hunting and mysteries of the unknown landscape around her will end up enticing her as much as things close CR are invested in.
Powers:
Human
Claire is a regular human, so physically and mentally has no particularly unusual skills/abilities, and all the weaknesses one would expect. It should be noted that through her father, she is a potential angelic vessel with particular suitability for Castiel, and while the show never expands upon this in details, it is related to her bloodline. It makes her body capable of withstanding the otherwise deadly long term affects of angelic possession, were that ever the case. She also used to be infected with lycanthropy, and is the first and only human in Supernatural canon who has survived an experimental treatment, ending up fully cured. While she doesn't have any active powers or passive affects related to either, they offer a wealth of options of be explored in a setting like Abraxas.
Hunter
Claire is a hunter, and therefore has gained a growing arsenal of lore on many common Supernatural canon monsters and methods to kill them, as well as an array of fake badges/identities, IDs, some minor hacking abilities (enough to keep her afloat for travelling the country and hunting, at the very least). While this knowledge might not immediately be useful in Abraxas, she's picked these skillsets up very quickly, and will be quick to adapt to new environments and challenges as a result. She's also gotten pretty good at hustling billiard players in dive bars.
Weapons
Claire is capable with a variety of handguns, and can wield a sword/bladed weapon efficiently, as well as knives. In addition, we see her be competent in hand-to-hand combat, as well as resourceful enough to use a variety of improvised weapons. Most of these are skills she's picked up in recent years, and while no master at them, this demonstrates a level of fast adaptability and dedication on her part. Post her canon point we later learn through a brief mention that Claire will eventually go on to become competent enough to start training others.
Thief/Pickpocket
Claire can pick locks and has some skill in the sleight of hand department through years of breaking herself out of group homes, running away and living on the street, surviving on five finger discounts and cleverness. These skills were partially self-taught, and partially taught to her by a guy making his money by providing shilter for troubled kids and using them to shoplift and steal money.
Liar
Claire has an impressive pokerface when she really wants to, and knows how to lie to get into places she wants to be. She thinks fast on her feet and can be hard to read by those who don't know her.
Physical fitness
Claire has developed the stamina and strength to handle her lifestyle. Hunters need to be in good physical shape to not only outsmart, but also outrun and outmaneuver monsters, fight them, cut through them, and make it through the usual wounds you get on the job with a certain level of pain tolerance without keeling over before you can patch yourself up.
Basic first aid
Claire knows how to patch herself up and suture wounds. While not nearly as skilled as her "step-sister" Alex (a trained nurse), she knows how to stitch her own wounds. It's a necessity because she does most of her hunting alone on the road.
PERSONALITY QUESTIONS
Describe an important event in your character's life and how it impacted them.
Angel interference (and lack thereof)
Early in her life, Claire lost her father Jimmy Novak when the angel Castiel took possession of his body. This is the pivotal moment that caused her entire life to go on a downwards spiral.
Claire still has nightmares of following her father out the door as a child and seeing something utterly alien and beyond human comprehension stare back through his eyes. It resulted in further trauma when demons kidnapped her and her mother and she temporarily became the vessel of that very same angelic entity - her choice to sacrifice herself and save her family, because when she accepted becoming a vessel, it was with the understanding that she'd never be free again. The only reason she got to grow up rather than remain chained within her own body without agency was because her father negotiated on her behalf - and subjected himself to becoming a vessel once more. Claire is profoundly traumatized by this loss, and the years of downwards spiral and further loss the interference of higher powers has caused her.
For years she prayed to Castiel to protect her father and bring him home, and for years her prayers went unanswered. Even when the loss of Jimmy Novak caused Claire's mother Amelia to walk out of her life as well. Even when the death of her grandmother left her without a caretaker, stranding her in the system, handed from group homes to group homes. And overtime, devastation over the loss turned to hurt and then bitterness and anger. This one single event has caused Claire to lose faith in people of authority, in people who are meant to care for her. And ultimately, like a line of dominoes, it has caused her to experience traumatic loss after traumatic loss, because every choice made in her life as a result of her father becoming an angelic vessel has caused further catastrophe - from her mother leaving only to be abducted by another angel to be farmed for life force and ultimately die, to her trusting the wrong person and nearly being traficked, to her becoming a hunter in a desperate attempt to seize back some measure of control in a life in which she'd so far been stripped of agency again and again.
Claire is who she is not because of a series of unconnected tragedies, but because of a series of tragedies that happen as a result of Castiel's choice in vessel. By the time the angel regrets his choices enough to come looking for Claire, her life has already spiralled beyond repair. Castiel possessing her father has ruined her life when it initially happened, and dragged her into the circumstances and traumatic experiences that shape who Claire Novak is today on a fundamental level.
It is perhaps ironic that as much of a negative impact as this single moment in time had on Claire and her ability to cope with loss as well as her struggles with trusting people, at the same time it is also Castiel's guilt over this very event that eventually leads to a path forwards for Claire in which she can begin to heal, as Castiel choosing to come back into the ruins of her life he left behind is what leads her to finding a new family and finally exist in an environment in which she can get better and heal.
Regardless of that though, much of Claire as a person is still defined by the flaws and strengths she developed in direct response to that initial moment of Castiel possessing her father and the myriad of ways in which this ruined her childhood and teenage years. She would not have become a hunter capable of saving people and finding purpose in that if not for Castiel taking her father from her - but then again, she wouldn't have needed to become the kind of damaged, broken person who's prone to choosing this sort of lifestyle to begin with.
Losing her father cost Claire her childhood, her ability to trust easily, her sweetness, her innocence, her optimism and her perspective on the future. The only trait of hers that seems to have remained intact from that moment in her childhood is her willingness to risk and sacrifice for people she loves. Even enterting the game, Claire will still feel the painful scars left behind by this event in her life, and how to this day it impacts the ways in which she interacts with others and this new world around her. After all, when you know there's a divine being out there wearing your father like clothes, and your prayers still go unanswered - why would you still have faith in anyone with power to use it well?
Does your character have a moral code, or other set of standards they try to live by?
Claire is always, in some shape or another, chasing after something or someone. Originally motivated by vengeance for her mother's death, Claire has since become driven to eradicate monsters. Her goal isn't as lofty as 'killing all existing monsters', but she's become determined to hunt as many and kill as many as she can, and in the process save as many people as possible. In the process, she's also allowed herself to grow a little closer to a specific few people again, and her desire to hunt monsters and prove herself capable in this chosen profession has been expanded to include a need and drive to protect those close to her. This does not extend to herself, naturally. If her loved ones are in need, Claire will stop at nothing to save them, and will teeter on the brink to walking a path of vengeance. While she's learned her lesson about recklessly endangering others, she doesn't exactly apply that to herself.
Claire tends to counter adversity and crisis with a cocky facade and bravery in the face of insurmountable odds, only showing true vulnerability when broken down. She'll be certain of making it out - or pretend to be, at least - until there is no other feasible option than to admit defeat, and even then she'll attempt to maintain her cocky attitude until the end. She's much more likely to break down after the fact in the arms of a trusted ally or loved one, than in the face of adversity in the moment - even in the face of imminent death.
What quality or qualities do they admire most?
Claire looks in others for some of the strengths and aspects she likes seeing in herself. People portraying any of the following will likely be people she gravitates towards. While she won't dismisse people who don't have these strengths/qualities, Claire is definitely not a real 'opposites attract' kind of person.
Independence/Self-Confidence
Having lost so many people at a young age, Claire has grown up to become an incredibly self-reliant young woman. While this can be to her detriment when she fails to ask for help, she will likely not despair over having to tackle any problem on her own, secure in the knowledge of the skills and capabilities she has acquired, and in her ability to persevere through hardship. "I've had worse" and "I know I can do this" are strong motivators for her.
Bravery
Claire rarely backs down from any challenge, and while there are things she fears and/or knows to be dangerous, she does not let this cow her. She looks at danger as something to overcome, not as something to bend to, and isn't easily pushed into being too scared to act. And if all else fails, this allows her to fall back onto some level of bravado, too. The way to gain her approval is definitely to have a similar level of moxi.
Protectiveness
Claire has chosen to become a hunter, which means she does two things: kill monsters and save people.She's protective of other people, especially those she's grown close to, and draws a lot of strength from feeling like she has to step up and shield others, or act on their behalf. She is more likely to overcome her own reservations about engaging with a situation, if she feels that other people are in danger if she refrains, and will more likely warm up to someone showing similar inclinations.
Found Family
While often reluctant to accept outside help, the closer Claire gets to someone, the more willing she is to rely on the people she knows she can trust, and be able to trust them to have her back and make use of their skill sets to compliment her own. Similarly she admires people who manage to have close-knit connections like that, be it with her or others.
Leadership
While still in the early stages of this development in her current canon point, Claire has grown to a point emotionally where she starts to think that maybe she can lead or help lead other people, train them, and help them move forwards in the dangerous world they live in together. She's not exactly a nurturing person, but she can help others learn how to defend themselves, and is willing to lead by example. She will never ask anyone to do what she wouldn't be willing to do herself, and would admire especially this aspect of leadership in others greatly.
Determination
Claire is stubborn, and when she sets her mind to something, she's not easily dissuaded off her path. She has little patience for uncertainty in others, and admires people who know what they're about.
Do they have a part of themselves they dislike?
Claire sees her own distrustfulness, recknlessness, anger and trust issues, penchant for vengeance, weakness due to feelings of guilt and failure, and judges herself harshly for it. She doesn't see herself as a strong or particularly good person, but hides that crippling self-loathing and doubt deep inside of her, weaponizing it against herself rather than confide in others unless it can't be helped.
Loss of Agency/Freedom
Claire values her freedom. She's lost control of herself and her circumstances through angelic possession, betrayal by people in power over her, attempted assault, lycanthropy and even, as she presumes in her current canon point, prophecy/visions. She doesn't handle feeling powerless and not in control of herself well, and even a perceived loss of agency can lead to heightened states of her bad characteristics and flaws.
Distrust
Claire has a hard time trusting that others have her best interest at heart, having been let down, left or betrayed too often in her life. The connections she's made have been hard to earn for the people who've gained them, and Claire will likely need time to warm up to anyone else to such a degree. In a dire situation, depending on developments, she might even foolishly refuse someone's help if she doesn't yet feel she can trust them. This can also lead to her not reaching out and involving people in her plans, and choosing to lie and do something in secret even if part of her knows it'd be better not to.
Recklessness
Claire throws herself at danger, and while she's grown better about thinking her plans through over the years of honing her skills as a hunter, she certainly still has a tendency to charge at danger head first, touch the thing, fail to watch her back, or go too far in trying to discover the truth without an exit strategy, backup or other help. She is easy to frustrate, easy to rile up if the wrong buttons are pushed, and can lose her temper in detrimental ways if she leans too hard into that anger. She's likely to bristle against people with authority, even if it would be in her best interest to listen to them, and she's prone to being cocky and dismissing the advice and assistance from such figures.
Vengeful
If wronged, if made to suffer a loss, Claire will stop at very little to get her due, and can easily go down a dark, obsessive path with this.
Loss/Failure/Guilt
Furthermore, Claire has suffered tremendous personal losses in her life, and is in many ways still grieving over her blood family, over Kaia, and over every single person she couldn't safe. She's unstable, and and when her layers of bravado, sarcasm and confidence in her skills are stripped away, she is a vulnerable, lonely person with abandonment issues underneath. The show heavily implies that even years after Kaia's loss, Claire would be pushed past her breaking point losing another loved one. Claire also carries with her the guilt of feeling responsible for several of these aforementioned losses - from her father and mother sacrificing themselves for her, to Randy selling her after she failed to come up with the money he needed to pay the loan shark back, to Kaia dying in her arms after Claire swore to protect her in the one place Kaia was scared to go, and only went for Claire's sake.
Claire dislikes these qualities in herself, and yet continuously fails to truly take steps to fix these shortcomings. While the positive aspects of her character and behaviour are strengthened and she's shown to experience growth, the negative aspects of her do not quite leave, ever, and she sometimes lacks the self awareness and impulse control to pull herself away from those aspects of herself.
Claire takes great pains to hide these vulnerabilities from others, not wishing to appear weak and only allowing people she's able to trust to glimpse at the depth of what a mess she is. Claire likes to feign cocky bravado, but considers herself weak. When she's infected with lycanthropy, she tells Dean that she can't risk staying alive as a werewolf, because she knows she lacks the inner strength to control herself during the full moon and contain the blood lust. She says about herself that she "can barely keep it together on a good day", and this crippling self-doubt and lack of belief in her inner strength means she would rather die than risk her self-perceived weakness hurting others.
What is their sign, and why?
The Hanged Man
Be it in her past as a troubled child and teen in group homes, runaway pickpocket on the street or current path as a hunter, Claire has lived her life as an outcast on the fringes of society from a young age. Initially a fate thrust upon her, Claire has come to embrace this lifestyle. She forges her own path in the shadows of normal society, following her own path as a hunter initially against the advice and wishes of everyone around her trying to allow her to finally become normal again - but she rejects the notion until it sticks, because finally this path that distances her from anyone but a small, though solitary and fractured community, is her own choice. Resilient and surviving in the face of adversity and terrible catastrophe unleashed upon her and the world around her, this sign exemplifies Claire, her understanding of her place in the world, and her choices. While ultimately she gathers around her a small group of people she considers family, she still travels her own path that intersects with theirs when Claire herself allows it, and still defined by all of their shared status of outcasts by circumstance and choice alike.
SAMPLES & ARRIVAL
Samples: TDM Top Level with Various, The Village Log Thread with John Constantine