[ PRELUDE ; info ]
Character: Hawley Griffin AKA The Invisible Man
Series: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Timeline: After vol. 1
Details:
Let's get one thing straight. Griffin doesn't like you.
Don't worry, he doesn't hate you, either.
He just doesn't give a damn about you. At all.
Actually, though, before we go into the details, let's backpedal a bit, and start from the beginning.
Griffin actually used to be something close to a normal person. And then shit happened. Like being poor, and then having to steal money from his father (who later committed suicide) to do his research -- and then turning himself invisible (a scientific breakthrough!) but getting no appreciation for it -- and then getting tracked down by the police and robbing houses and blah blah blah -- sob, sob, yeah you get the point -- he's had a tragic past brought on partly by himself and partly by just how crappy people are in general which makes him more of a terrible person and so people hate him more and -- you get the point. It's been a bit of a vicious cycle for a considerable time, and. Yeah. It's not a very pretty picture.
-- or, well. It would be a pretty ugly picture except y'know. You kinda can't see him.
I mean, come on, he's called 'The Invisible Man,' of course he's invisible. Not naturally, though -- he was born an albino, which is probably why that invisibly experiment worked on him. Yeah, you heard that right -- he turned himself invisible -- something that he's finding a bit annoying now, and would like to reverse, but eh, that's not so easy. And so he's stuck in this weird borderline between human and ghost. He's completely invisible, as long as he's naked. Anything he eats shows up in his digestive tract unless it's digested. He still gets cold or hurt or sick. Human, but not human -- easy to ignore, and so that's often the case.
His situation sort of sucks.
And he accepts that. Come on. He knows he sort of brought this on himself. He's not gonna sit around weeping and being woesy and complaining. Nah, that's not what he does.
He just acts like a jackass instead.
Don't worry, it's not like he's out to get you, he's not a sadist! No, really, he's not. He's more of a hedonist, and a misanthropist, and a self-centered jerk whose entire life philosophy boils down to "I only care for myself."
'Cause see, even if he has nothing against you personally, if you're ever in the way of his survival? Yeah, he's not gonna hesitate to pound your skull in with the nearest heavy object. Because hey, it's not like killing you's gonna leave him any worse off! He's totally amoral, and the concept of "precious human lives" -- ha! Who believes in that bullshit? Humans all suck, and whatever it takes for him to live and enjoy himself, he'll do it with a reckless disregard for anyone else. And hell, if he's in the mood for going out and raping a schoolgirl just because he thinks it's gonna cheer him up -- why the hell shouldn't he go ahead and do just that? And don't give him any 'oh, but it's so wrong!' bullshit, he'll probably just ignore you and go off and kick a few puppies or something. (Okay, no, he won't bother doing that -- unless he's in an especially puppy-kicking mood.)
In a way, his invisibility's only made him worse for the wear, because -- just look how much shit he can get away with. It's like -- nobody ever cares about him, any more, so why should he care for anyone else? And he certainly doesn't care much for himself on anything more than a superficial level -- he sleeps whenever he's tired, wherever he falls; eats whatever's available; makes no effort to redeem himself in anyone's eyes, and lives recklessly -- as long as he's not in immediate danger, he'll do whatever the fuck he pleases. He likes tauting people, mocking them, 'try and catch me, you blind oaf, ahehe' -- and the moment that he is in danger? He's gone -- you'll never find him.
Kind of like a wild animal, caring only for himself in a brutish, instinctive way -- the invisibility stripped him of any reason to stick to human morals, and he's pretty much given up on even trying to maintain any sense of dignity. Whatever hedonistic pleasure he can get his hands on, he'll take -- not like he's ever gonna get "second chances" or "a better life" or any optimistic bullshit like that.
He's only looking for a cushy life. And if you're in the way to that goal.
-- ahehe.