Line #65 Characters/Claw2024


1	%%Please do not un-comment out folders or tropes without adding tropes or context.
2
3	A list of characters from ''Literature/{{Claw\|2024}}''. While major spoilers are covered, please beware of spoilers if you are not not caught up to the most recent chapter of the web serial.
4
5	[[foldercontrol]]
6	----
7	!The Hurst Family
8
9	[[folder:Mia]]
10	The first viewpoint character of ''Claw'', a criminal contractor responsible for escrow services and helping criminals acquire new identities.
11	----
12	* AmazonianBeauty: Carson explicitly describes Mia as an "Amazon," and she's extremely tall and muscular, which are things that Carson loves about her.
13	* ChildhoodBrainDamage: Mia suffered a childhood TBI that she calls "the Fall" which was severe enough that it forced her to relearn even basic activities like opening doors.
14	* CrazyPrepared: If something can go wrong, Mia's probably planned for it. She's planted surveillance cameras in strategic locations around Camrose and stashed emergency supplies in a safe in an abandoned gas station. The bathroom that she traps Nathaniel in fills up with an odorless poison gas that an inflatable bag placed beneath the door prevents from leaking while the door is inescapable thanks to consisting of two separate layers whose hollow interior is lined with rebar. When the gas is used up she replaces it with an incendiary trap, and that's not even mentioning the explosive hidden in the kitchen counter or the tripwire on the porch.
15	* InsecureLoveInterest: She is one to Carson despite being married to him and his partner-in-crime, constantly feeling ugly and unworthy of him.
16	* MoralMyopia: Mia is a career criminal who kills casually and without much remorse and [[spoiler:a serial child abductor]], but believes herself to be a good or at least non-evil person. For example, she is severely judgmental towards Natalie Teale for [[spoiler:leaving her child alone in a hot car, endangering the baby, while she herself endangers her children by engaging with the murderous criminal underworld.]]
17	* MuscleAngst: Mia has severe body image issues, often struggling with feeling "feminine" when she's extremely tall and fit.
18	* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Mia prefers to work at a distance from her criminal affairs, but when children are involved she will rapidly rework any plans to protect them without concern for her own secrecy, without ever appearing to make the decision to do so.
19	* SpottingTheThread: This is Mia's specialty. She's a whiz at finding details about people's personal lives based on their social media profiles, up to and including their saved lists of pornography or activity on [[MutuallyFictional Pact Card]] forums.
20	* StatuesqueStunner: Mia is 5'11'', built like a tank, and, according to her husband, incredibly beautiful (despite her own doubts on that score).
21	* WouldntHurtAChild: Mia sincerely cares about Ripley and Tyr and even takes the time to worry about a child playing in a neighbor's yard whose mask risks slipping off when a nearby forest fire spreads smoke. Her empathy even extends to her criminal activity. When she participates in a scheme by a man to scam his ex out of money by arranging a ransom of their daughter, she makes the custody of the child so gentle that the latter doesn't even realize that she was "kidnapped", and she [[spoiler:unilaterally decides to help the teenaged Giovanna escape from her father when he tries to force her through Mia and Carson's services.]]
22	[[/folder]]
23
24	[[folder:Carson]]
25	The second viewpoint character of ''Claw'', Mia's husband and partner in crime.
26	----
27	* AmazonChaser: He is madly in love with Mia for her strength and brilliance.
28	* TheFace: Acts as this for interactions with clients due to Mia's social anxiety and desire to remain at a distance.
29	* LackOfEmpathy: By contrast to Mia, who comes up with explanations and justifications for why she does what she does to people, Carson drifts through life following Mia's lead, hurting others and taking lives without anything in the way of remorse. He only seems to feel true affection for Mia, Ripley, and Tyr.
30	* ManipulativeBastard: Carson can talk his way into just about any group, though as he compulsively manipulates others he will eventually slip up and be ostracized if he tries to stay longterm.
31	* MassageOfLove: Prone to massaging Mia's neck when she's feeling stressed.
32	* PayEvilUntoEvil: Shooting a defenseless couple dead in cold blood is a pretty messed up thing to do, [[spoiler:but when said couple was selling their own children to people who made snuff films, it comes off as something that was a long time coming]].
33	* TheSocialExpert: A social chameleon able to blend in anywhere in the short term, though Carson notes in his narration that he's only ever really felt at home with the Hurst family.
34	* TheSociopath: Carson lacks empathy for most people, is casually manipulative and charming, and has no particular moral lines. On the first day he and Mia met he executed two people and mused at how he felt nothing in doing so, and even his love for Mia is couched in terms of his fascination with her capabilities and how she makes him feel.
35	* ThrillSeeker: Carson deeply enjoys the feeling of empowerment he gets from working with Mia, as her planning and orders direct him to push his natural manipulation skills to their limits. He comments that when he's following Mia's lead and working as part of her plan he feels almost superhuman.
36	* YesMan: Carson is this to Mia, being willing to do anything she asks when she comes up with a plan, regardless of whether it breaks the strict rules they rely on to keep themselves safe. He explains to Valentina that this is actually his main mode of operation; people are often already hoping to do something and just need "permission" from a friend or supporter to go through with it.
37	[[/folder]]
38
39	[[folder:Ripley]]
40	The elder child of the Hurst family.
41	----
42	* AmbiguousGenderIdentity: Ripley comments that she jokes with her friends that her gender is "old man in a workshop," and generally prefers masculine clothing.
43	* MissingChild: [[spoiler:Ripley is actually Camellia Teale, the daughter of Natalie Teale, who Mia abducted as a baby after seeing Natalie leave her child unattended in a hot car for over fifteen minutes. Ripley is not aware of this.]]
44	* ObliviousAdoption: [[spoiler:Ripley is built very skinny, not matching Mia's AmazonianBeauty at all, but doesn't realize that she isn't actually related to Mia.]]
45	* PunnyName: The story is called "Claw" and her name is "''Rip''ley."
46	* {{Tomboy}}: Mia describes her outfits as having a "garage mechanic aesthetic" and she shows an interest in DIY construction projects.
47	[[/folder]]
48
49	[[folder:Tyr]]
50	The younger child of the Hurst family.
51	----
52	* CheerfulChild: A kindergarten age child with seemingly boundless energy and enthusiasm. His first words on-page are "Look! Mom! Lookatit!"
53	* PunnyName: The story is called "Claw" and his name is suspiciously similar to "tear" (although the name of the Norse god Tyr is pronounced like the "tear" within "teardrop").
54	[[/folder]]
55
56	[[folder:Valentina]]
57	The third viewpoint character of ''Claw'', the newly acquired eldest child of the Hurst family, formerly Giovanna "Gio" Cavalcanti.
58	----
59	* ChildrenForcedToKill: Valentina is forced to make use of Mia's traps to kill one of her father's enforcers, and while Highland claims that her victim survived and needed to be finished off, she doesn't believe him, thinking that he told a lie to spare her feelings.
60	* FriendlessBackground: In high school, a bullying campaign based on the fact that her father was a mob boss destroyed her social life, and Valentina has lasting issues over it, worrying that Ripley's masculine fashion style will lead to social ostracization and wanting to torment the girl she deems responsible for the rumors.
61	* HarmfulToMinors: What little she glimpsed of the Kitchen's operations has given her lasting trauma.
62	* MeaningfulRename: In Valentina's internal narration, she remains "Gio" for some time before she finally consciously discards it when she accepts that she will be Valentina in return for Mia's motherly care.
63	* TheRunaway: First comes to Mia's attention as she's desperately fleeing her family into the woods, with no real goal beyond getting away from her mob boss dad.
64	* StartingANewLife: Mia instructs Valentina to completely abandon any traces of her old life, with the intention of providing her with a fresh start.
65	* TroubledTeen: Growing up in the criminal Cavalcanti family has deeply damaged Valentina, which was only made worse when her social life was destroyed in high school leaving her isolated. She shocks and horrifies herself with the lengths she's willing to go to, and how little she feels when she does.
66	* VillainousLineage: After realizing that she felt nothing at all when she [[spoiler:tortured Addi, and learning that the entire cyberbullying campaign was conducted on her father's orders to toughen her up]], Valentina reflects that the Cavalcantis have infected her even down to her way of thinking, and that she is her father's daughter.
67	[[/folder]]
68	----
69	!Criminals
70
71	!!Associates of Mia and Carson
72
73	[[folder:The Contact]]
74	Born Timoteo Altamirano, he's the initially unnamed individual responsible for offering contracts to Mia and Carson in exchange for a cut of the payment.
75	----
76	* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: [[spoiler:Davie Cavalcanti has him maimed so he can be added to his collection. During the process, the contact throws himself off the operating table headfirst, which winds up getting him enough brain damage that the people looking after him couldn't treat it, and it kills him.]]
77	* DiligentHeroSlothfulVillain: [[spoiler:The contact has secretly not been bothering to displace their clients from Camrose after they receive their new identities, undermining the operation security that Mia makes such an effort to maintain.]]
78	* HoistByTheirOwnPetard: [[spoiler:He sends Davie Cavalcanti to Mia and Carson. After Gio escapes, Davie 'collects' the contact.]]
79	* MurderIsTheBestSolution: He decides how to deal with troublesome clients, and he's not above having Mia and Carson murder them, as he orders in the case of Nathan.
80	* NoNameGiven: At the start he's only known as "the contact" and never shares his name with Mia and Carson. They only find out his name [[spoiler:after he dies.]]
81	* QuestGiver: He's responsible for identifying clients for Mia and Carson and directing them to their services.
82	[[/folder]]
83
84	!!Clients
85
86	[[folder:Nathaniel Abate]]
87	The first client met in the story, Nathaniel Abate is a former army sergeant on the run from the law after stealing military technology and using it to commit murders.
88	----
89	* AllForNothing: [[spoiler:Nathaniel comes up with many clever ways to prolong his survival when locked in a sealed bathroom full of poison gas, from using a toilet paper roll to breathe air from a safe location to using the handle of the toilet plunger to lift up the cabinet beneath the sink to make the gas evacuate faster, but all his efforts earn him is prolonged suffering before he chokes to death on his own vomit.]]
90	* DomesticAbuse: He committed domestic violence against two of his ex-girlfriends.
91	* HeelFaceTurn: This is how Nathaniel sees his decision to defect from the army after discovering a conspiracy within it selling off weapons to independent factions.
92	* StarterVillain: Nathaniel is the first individual that Mia and Carson are forced into conflict with. Naturally for a StarterVillain, he's clearly outmatched by Mia's meticulous planning.
93	* TooDumbToLive: Nathaniel is on the lamb and soliciting the services of identity brokers who tell him in no uncertain terms that he cannot contact anyone from his previous life under any circumstances. Naturally, he does exactly that, telephoning his ex-girlfriend Kadie, which results in the contact making the decision to kill him for being too much of a risk.
94	[[/folder]]
95
96	[[folder:Davie Cavalcanti]]
97	A leader of a criminal organization known as The Kitchen who seeks Mia and Carson's services with flagrant disregard for the rules.
98	----
99	* AbusiveParents: Brutally beats his son, and emotionally abuses and isolates his daughter in order to "toughen her up."
100	* ControlFreak: Davie obsessively seeks control over people, both spearheading the Kitchen's attempts to integrate with the local government as enforcers and collecting people he finds interesting. His daughter speculates that this is also part of why [[spoiler:he keeps his victims alive as trophies, going to great expense and hiring doctors to keep them alive despite their physical condition.]]
101	* FauxAffablyEvil: In his first appearance, he comes off as a normal, if a bit overly smooth, person. Not the kind you'd expect [[spoiler:to have people maimed so he can keep them as trophies.]]
102	* LivingDollCollector: [[spoiler:He has people maimed, blinded, deafened and rendered totally helpless, and then keeps them in his basement, either because he finds them interesting or as punishment.]]
103	* SlouchOfVillainy: He has a subtle slouch, but Mia notices it. He's also an antagonist.
104	* SortingAlgorithmOfEvil: Played straight with Davie. After Nathaniel, who doesn't even consider the extent of Mia's preparation (spoofing his phone call to Kadie as well as placing cameras, microphones and lethal traps in his hotel room) Davie immediately marks himself as a more serious threat who is aware of their tricks by forcing Carson to remove all the spying equipment and death traps in his cabin room.
105	* TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse: Mia's first impression of him is that if he were one of the dads picking up a kid from school, she wouldn't have blinked.
106	[[/folder]]
107
108	[[folder:Max Highland]]
109	A former client of Mia's, from early in her career when she was less able to stay completely anonymous.
110	----
111	* AllLoveIsUnrequited: He's in love with Mia, who's married to Carson.
112	* TheDragon: Wants to be this to Mia, to Carson's jealousy.
113	* FromCamouflageToCriminal: Highland went from a dishonorable discharge, to private investigator, to being one of Mia's most reliable contacts.
114	* KnightInSourArmor: Despite his disillusionment and his willingness to kill, Highland steadily reveals that he's in fact an idealist; he mourns what he sees as the death of America as it becomes an increasingly obvious dictatorship, admires the idealistic core of Mia's business of giving out second chances, and expresses moral considerations and lines in the conflict against the Kitchen.
115	* PrivateDetective: He used to be a private investigator until he shot a man, resulting in him needing Mia's services.
116	* ShellShockedVeteran: Highland served overseas in the military, though he left thanks to the military being overwhelmingly deployed against American citizens.
117	[[/folder]]
118
119	[[folder:Spence Bolden]]
120	A former client of Mia and Carson, a mass murderer and smuggler.
121	----
122	* CrazySurvivalist: He lived on his own land, knew it like the back of his hand, rarely interacted with society and mostly got along using his skills in hunting and making what he needed, only buying what he couldn't make himself.
123	* HiddenDepths: When badly injured after a hit goes wrong, Bolden confides his insecurities with Carson, admitting that he could never feel worthy of a woman and that his parents once thought he murdered the family dog.
124	* MasterArcher: Bolden uses a crossbow in a setting where everyone else has guns, and at one point outdraws a man with an assault rifle who has the drop on him, hitting him cleanly through the head.
125	* OneManArmy: Bolden killed dozens of people who were building on land he considered his, and survived an army of cops that were sent to put him down. Carson invokes this trope by name to describe him.
126	[[/folder]]
127
128	----
129	!Other Characters
130
131	[[folder:Josie]]
132	The Hursts' babysitter.
133	----
134	* {{Fangirl}}: She's a huge fan of Est Tru, a controversial singer. Her reaction to getting tickets to one of her concerts says it all.
135	--> ''Oh my god what if my parents say no, I'd die. They can't say no! Will they?''
136	* PhoneaholicTeenager: It's subtle, but she clearly doesn't agree with Ripley's statement that "social media isn't that interesting," even if she follows "some" of Mia's privacy rules.
137	* PomPomGirl: A cheerleader, but a responsible, studious one who's great with kids, even the rambunctious Tyr.
138	* TheReliableOne: Mia and Carson picked her out for her reliability specifically, and even trust her with some of their deadman's switches, though she's unaware of the true context.
139	[[/folder]]
140
141	[[folder:Natalie Teale]]
142	A mother whose daughter was abducted long before the story starts.
143	----
144	* BerserkButton: She gets really pissed off at Mia's commiserations, because Mia said Natalie 'lost' her daughter, and Natalie angrily says that she didn't ''lose'' her daughter, her daughter was ''taken''.
145	* IfOnlyYouKnew: She bitterly comments that had her daughter not been taken, she wouldn't let her leave the house dressed like a girl she's looking at... [[spoiler:who happens to be Ripley, who is her daughter.]]
146	* InUniverseNickname: "Io", after Natalie's car, a Bariki Ion, which had one letter chipped off the logo.
147	* IWillFindYou: She never gave up searching for her baby girl.
148	* MissingChild: Her daughter Camellia was abducted from Natalie's car as a baby. [[spoiler:By Mia.]]
149	* ParentsAsPeople: On the one hand, she was clearly struggling as a mother and trying to get her child's father to give her the help she needed; on the other hand, she left her one-month-old daughter alone in a hot car that was parked partially in the road for over twenty minutes, and edited her own memories so she wouldn't have to admit that part.
150	[[/folder]]
151
152	[[folder:Benito "Ben" Jaime]]
153	The fourth viewpoint character of Claw. A true-crime journalist, freelance investigator, and Natalie's lover.
154	----
155	* InformationWantsToBeFree: Ben firmly believes that bringing secrets to light is a moral good.
156	* IntrepidReporter: Ben produces true crime documentaries, and goes to great lengths to follow leads. It's eventually revealed that he's tracked Mia to Camrose based on a discarded vehicle from more than a decade ago.
157	* TheStoryteller: In his narration, Ben constantly frames events and people within the lens of the documentary he plans to make about the Camellia Teale case. He's constantly considering how he wants to present things at a later date, and notes that he's always been the kind of person who chases attention.

Context Characters / Claw2024