Ivan Elias Haugen

the basics

full name ♦ Ivan Elias Haugen
nicknames ♦ None known
age ♦ Nineteen
birthday ♦ December 23, 2000
occupation ♦ Independant artist
school ♦ Formerly Benjamin Franklin High, no college.
species ♦ Shifter - White Eurasian Lynx
ability/power ♦ see above
how the ability works ♦ Ivan, like the others in his family, is a shifter - but his animal is that of a white eurasian lynx. Normally native to Norway, the cat would be easy to spot in a city such as NOLA, and the only ones he's seen are those in captivity. This, and the fact that he usually prefers his human form, is why he's rarely, if ever, seen shifting or in his feline form. The situation has become so rare that it still hurts every so often when he does it and he gets tired once he's shifted back, making a few hours' nap necessary. Lately, he only shifts when he's trying to avoid his family members or society at all as they visit his studio apartment not far from Phalanx.
gender ♦ Male
sexuality ♦ Unsure, thought to be asexual

the appearance

face claim ♦ Ivan Bubalo
height and weight ♦ 6'1", 180-190 (fluctuates)
identifying features ♦ Septum peircing, dyed white-blonde hair
overall appearance ♦
Ivan, to most, looks like a typical 'scene kid' - dyed white-blonde hair (originally sandy brown-blonde), blue eyes, pale-ish skin, ear and nose peircings. He does tend to wear a good deal of black clothing, even in the NOLA heat, though he does toss in the occasional white shorts or t-shirt. In what the South considers the winter, it doesn't change all that much - he just adds a black leather jacket and maybe a black beanie if he feels the need. He has a - you guessed it - black backpack he carries with him that holds his art supplies and such, and he never lets it out of his sight.

the personality

likes ♦
▶ learning about and trying new techniques. no matter how much he learns, he knows he can't know every art technique out there, so he loves it when he comes across a new one that he hasn't tried yet.
▶ quiet nights at home. kinda comes with the territory, being deaf and all, but even so, he can still feel vibrations when loud noises or sounds pass his apartment, which still disturbs him if he's, say, watching a movie or something.
▶ new drawing tools. paints, carving tools, pencils, pens, whatever it is - except markers - he always feels a rush of joy when he gets them and can't wait to try them out at home or sketching out and about.
▶ secretly sketching others in town. yeah it sounds creepy, but like photography, catching someone or something in their moment of happiness when they think nobody's watching gives him a bit of secret happiness, too.

dislikes ♦
▶ assholes and idiots, though they're usually the same thing when it comes to these crowds. he has a sign hung in his studio that reads "the best thing about being deaf is that it makes it easy to ignore the idiots" but sometimes even that's a challenge.
▶ being bothered when he's in his element. interrupting his muse has consequences for both himself and his art. if he's stopped mid-painting and goes back to it, it never has the same feel or result and it pisses him off. he's been known to destroy canvases in these moods.
▶ incorrect subtitles - even worse, no subtitles at all. one would think that the hearing can at least write halfway decently to let the deaf and hard of hearing community enjoy tv, but no. he finds himself laughing at the typos, but normally if they get too bad, he'll just change the channel, even if he's interested in the show.
▶ people dropping in unannounced - he doesn't mind company, but when he doesn't know it's coming? yeah, he has a video system set up for this, but it doesn't prevent rude people from being rude.. or him from making himself scarce.

strengths ♦
▶ artistically inclined - he brings a sketchbook and tools with him everywhere in case muse strikes, but usually prefers to stay inside with his canvases, paints, clays, and wood blocks. he occasionally does his work digitally but finds more enjoyment in physically doing the work.
▶ focus - he has a great deal of focus, especially when it comes to his work. it helps that he can block sounds out completely, but sights and memories/thoughts are a different matter.

weaknesses ♦
▶ deaf - his hearing, or lack of, is always a liability, seeing as he's unable to detect danger using it.
▶ no college education - he's bright, he's intelligent.. but his lack of a proper college education by choice impedes a number of things he would need it to make sound decisions with.

dreams ♦
▶ being a well-known artist around the city - he'd like to be known, just not recognized on the streets, for his work

fears ♦
▶ being forced into being a part of the hearing world - his uncle "mads" has his own twisted view of the world, and while ivan doesn't share those views, he also understands where his uncle is coming from. he'd prefer not to join the world of the hearing, no matter what he's told that it'll afford him.

overall personality ♦
Ivan is... not a loner, but he still prefers to be left alone, even by his family some days. Some that know of him, which are few and far between, would claim he's the artist that sequesters himself away to create masterpeices. Those would be wrong. He does it to avoid society in general, who usually asks too many questions about his deafness - how it happened, if he wants corrective surgery, etc - and his family, most of whom have very opinionated and nosy personalities, something he'd prefer to stay away from. If he gets around those sorts, as he likes to say, he can't be held responsible for what he 'says' - deaf or not. To those who have gotten close enough to him without being bitten - sometimes literally - he can be seen for having an attitude problem, but to him, he's only saying what he feels, without filters, which he thinks the world needs more of.

To stay out of trouble, however, he sticks to his own thing inside his apartment, where he has an elaborate music setup to keep his muses happy. He has it going while he works on larger art peices or just relaxes and sketches whatever pops into his head. The speakers laid on the floor don't make the rats in the basement happy, but who cares.. it's how he feels the timing and beat of the music, and it aids in his creations. He'd always been very expressive, even when he was younger, doodling on school notebooks and such, and this hasn't changed one bit. Only these days, if in contact with the wrong people, that 'expression' can be in the form of a single finger straight to their faces before he walks off.

the history

father ♦ Henrik Haugen, early 50s, Professor by day/Restaurant owner by night
mother ♦ "Cate" Haugen, 50, College-level ASL Teacher
siblings ♦ "Dessyslava", "Nastya", "Frederic"
important people ♦ Anyone listed here
hometown ♦ Kenner, LA
overall history ♦
At the risk of sounding like a fifties announcer, meet the Haugens. Henrik and Cate, Ivan's parents, moved to the States from Norway when they had just hit their second decade of life. They and thier (eventually) four children lived in one house with two bathrooms - which meant the two men usually took a backseat to the three females. Despite this, they are tight-knit and family oriented, having spent every holiday together with Lars' two brothers who also moved here from Norway, and weekly movie nights (with subtitles for those with hearing trouble or deafness, of course). Even with Cate working as a teacher and Henrik having two jobs, they're considered middle class, struggling occasionally because of the four children. Like Ivan, a couple of his siblings chose to live within walking distance to Phalanx and also spend time there - though their close proximity has convinced their parents that there is no need to live there full-time.

Ivan's choices to not go to college and to not join the hearing crowd have not made his father terribly happy with him, but Ivan truly doesn't care one way or the other. He reasons it out as there simply not being a suitable art program that focuses on what he wants, so he's continuing his work completely self-taught. Occasionally he will pop in on a Phalanx class or two to see where others are comparitively, but as far as commiting to a school and class schedule, that hasn't happened and he doesn't expect it to anytime soon. For now, he stays ina an apartment about a block or two from the school for convenience's sake, and sells his art to the highest bidders to make extra cash when he needs it.

the role player

alias ♦ Mouse
age ♦ 36
pronouns ♦ She/Her
code ♦ ADMIN EDIT
other characters ♦ Robert O'Reilly, Blade Boudreaux