Claud Lacktern

"'Hff...'" Claud Lacktern, also known as The Specter for his ghostly appearance and enigmatic past, is a puppeteer situated on the coast of England in a castle that has been left to ruin by the sea. The draconic species in which Claud was initiated to be, the Spytomnus, is prone to facing many challenges; poaching, adapting to an aquatic lifestyle, and especially the loss of his voice. Hence, he is solitary, and afraid of change.

Claud's first appearance is intended for a spin-off story.

Appearance
Claud appears to be a small, squid-like creature, standing at a humble 4'4". Smooth, blue-white tendrils splay from his face and scalp, while a long, serpentine tail extends from his back, revealing a pair of jaws at the tip. He wears nothing but a white robe and shorts.

Claud is exceptionally weak when on land, and spends a majority of his time dwelling in bodies of water. When he is in water, his senses are amplified, his physical strength, speed, flexibility, and agility increases, and he is functioning at his optimum. Being an aquatic hunter, he can develop into an apex predator when delving into deep waters with these perks, strong enough to bust open submarines, or fending sharks away from whale carcasses.

The vent-like slits on Claud's face where his mouth had once been can behave as a trapdoor to seal oxygen when he is traveling underwater. He does not have gills, but his lungs process oxygen at a very slow rate which allows him to stay underwater for extremely long intervals. Furthermore, he is able to store oxygen within his stomach when he "breathes" it in through his tail-mouth, and this oxygen is pocketed into a sac-like organ above the stomach that presses against his lungs. This oxygen can be absorbed from the sac and into his lung chambers, while CO2 is exported back to the stomach from the lung chambers to be filtered out.

Due to being mute, Claud is greatly restricted when it comes to communication. He needs to perform very unconventional methods to interact with others, including through dreams and recordings. When someone is sleeping, Claud often comes to perch on them and inject his tendrils into their ears, allowing him to intercept their dreams and talk to them through their subconscious. His voice is described to be a calm, shuddering whisper, and he is presumably unable to speak any louder than that. The disadvantages that come with Claud prolonging his stay in someone's dreams involve inducing nightmares, and if they were to wake up during the conversation, they would experience sleep paralysis until Claud withdraws - both results making Claud feel guilty for attempting to socialize. However, Claud's voice can also be detected through recordings. Devices that detect aquatic signals are bound to hear Claud, alongside paranormal EVP devices that are sensitive enough to hear him.

Claud appears to be manifesting on a different plain when on land; His hair floats, his robes cascade outwards, his tendrils drift, and sometimes, he's even levitating. While this promotes a rather ghostly appearance, it is the product of him controlling his own gravity - making himself lighter and more buoyant to prevent injuries when on land, or allow him to sink faster in bodies of water to get to deeper zones faster while tolerating the pressures that come with it. Claud can only manipulate the gravity of his own body, but if someone were to touch him, they can be influenced by his gravity until they let go of him. He also has the ability to warp his size, compacting himself down to 1 foot (30 centimetres), or extending to an intimidating 20 feet (610 centimetres). Despite having this power, Claud seems most comfortable with keeping to the height of approximately 4 feet (135 centimetres) to spare himself from getting any injuries too easily when too little or too big. This sizeshifting can help Claud greatly with his hunting in aquatic landscapes; in the Abyss Zone, it can be difficult to determine the scale of creatures from a distance when there's nothing else to reference their size against in pitch blackness. Claud uses this to his advantage, and can further manipulate his size to confuse fish into approaching him when he appears small enough to seem like prey, but rapidly grow in size to seize them when they're close enough.

Personality
He is a timid being; reclusive and introverted. Isolated in his castle alongside his Fant creations, Claud's knowledge of the rest of the world has grown stunted and inward, which has resulted in him becoming stubborn and uncomfortable to any change or difference that could waver into his life. Claud finds difficulty in expressing his feelings - especially since he bares no vocal chords - though his semi-sentient tail can express his subconscious more clearly, and often channels his emotions into actions.

Claud has a fairly warped moral compass, believing that any unethical actions he makes can be justified in his own territory. Should he feel threatened on his own property by unwanted guests, he doesn't feel in the slightest guilty to use violent means or even to kill. He vindicates his hostility under the notion of how his kind are poached, and so believes he can kill in defense.

His philosophy consists of determining everyone to be a threat until they can prove themselves otherwise. In that way, he has been able to protect himself from his perceived dangers without taking any risks. He remains inward, as it's his only survival tactic.

He also believes highly that everyone has a right to privacy, and to never be susceptible to obligations. He values isolation and self-preservation - however, it reaches an extent where his life has become stagnant and he hasn't had the opportunity to grow and accept change. In a sense, his values have stunted him in his own time frame, trapped with only his own knowledge.

Trivia

 * Claud was created in mid 2020.
 * He was originally going to be in contact with Maxwell for trade, or even would've been living with him.
 * That was scrapped, clearly.