TLV APPLICATION | complete
Jul. 20th, 2014 03:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
freezerburnsUser Name/Nick: Jessi
User DW: i might as well not have one lbr
AIM/IM: jessihoney18;![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
ajessiaday
E-mail: jess.piggin at gmail
Other Characters: Helena, Andrew
Character Name: Isaac Lahey
Series: Teen Wolf
Age: 17
From When?: The end of episode 3x24, The Divine Move, just before he leaves Beacon Hills
Inmate/Warden: Warden. Isaac has had some moments of somewhat dubious morality in the past but at this canonpoint he's firmly a good guy. Despite some negativity and tactlessness, he's kind-hearted and honestly wants to help people, particularly those he cares about.
Item: One of Allison's silver arrowheads
Abilities/Powers: Isaac is a teenage werewolf. This naturally means he's got werewolf powers. That is: increased strength, speed and agility; extremely good senses of hearing and smell; the ability to heal everything except wounds from weapons treated with special herbs and mystical stuff like that; and the power to take away/absorb another person or animal's pain by touching them with his bare hands.
When he does transform it's not into an actual wolf but a wolfman of sorts (lol), complete with extremely tough claws, very sharp teeth, awesome sideburns and bright yellow eyes. His powers are kind of heightened in this state. In Teen Wolf canon, the full moon doesn't force a transformation and the wolves, if they have a suitable mental anchor to their humanity, can control their shifting.
Isaac has pretty much full control at this point, though extreme pain, anger or fear can force a shift and the longer he goes without shifting the harder it becomes to control. When shifted, he also has less impulse control and a stronger urge for violence. Because of pack heirarchy he can be compelled by an alpha's roar to stop what he's doing or to shift either way; as he's a beta wolf this pack thing also means he's naturally more derential to his alpha, aka Scott. (Also, as Isaac isn't an alpha, his bite can't transform another person into a werewolf and he can't do any of the weird alpha claws-in-the-neck mind-meld stuff.)
Personality: Isaac likes to present himself as cool, unemotional and one of his biggest self-defence mechanisms is to be flippant and unaffected by whatever shit's going on around him. If he doesn't show himself as affected by things that happen to him or his friends, he can't be hurt. This is an effect of his father's prolonged abuse - his dad used to do stuff like throw glasses at him and lock him in an empty (unplugged thank god) chest freezer in the basement for long periods of time if he was angry with him - which began later. His father also demanded perfection in his schooling, which Isaac couldn't deliver. Before Isaac was bitten, he was, although not an outcast, definitely socially isolated at school. He kept himself to himself mostly, lacking the self-esteem or confidence to really interact with many people or make friends. Isaac's unaffected attitude is a mask. He's deeply affected by a lot of things, but when he doesn't know how to deal with his emotions he can lash out, both verbally and physically. (Though he's rarely cruel or sadistic about it, unlike his father.) He's quite sarcastic and cracks jokes a lot; he also makes inappropriate comments and doesn't seem entirely well socialised so doesn't always realise that what he's opening his mouth to say may be taken badly by whoever he's talking to. That said, he is aware of social convention and often realises moments after he's said something that he's made it awkward. His brain-to-mouth filter is just kind of shit at catching his inappropriate commentary before it makes its way out of his mouth.
He's been intensely lonely for most of his life, and thanks to his father being a super shitty parent, he's fairly desperate for someone to be a role model and guide him through his life. He finds this first in Derek, who turns him into a werewolf and tries - in not so great ways, like breaking teenagers' arms to show them they can heal from it - to teach him the basics of Werewolf 101. Isaac sticks around and bears Derek's violence better than the other two beta wolves - he's kind of got this ingrained 'violence is for your own good' mentality in relation to himself - and he does manage to gain some control over his shifting quite early. That said, and despite his loyalty, he grows angrier with Derek the more it becomes obvious that Derek has no idea how to protect his betas and the more time Isaac spends with Scott. Scott is the kind of guy who inspires Isaac's loyalty simply because he cares so damn much and always, always tries to do the right thing - the way that Scott will throw himself into a hopeless situation and hammer out a solution is incredibly appealling to Isaac. At least Scott tries to do something, while Isaac starts to believe that Derek doesn't know what to do or how to handle their dangerous problems. Of course, this anger with Derek - while he does have legitimate reasons for it - is also a tool for Isaac, a way to distance himself from Derek and justify switching his loyalty to a new alpha - Scott.
Isaac has a LOT of pent-up anger and after taking the Bite, he has the power and ability to take that anger out on whatever pisses him off. In fact, he becomes more vicious and plays the villain for a while, simply because he now has the ability to do it and the power that gives him is intoxicating. He's very impulsive and, probably because of his father, is quite likely to default to attacking a problem rather than trying to solve it. He's not stupid or anything, but he does tend to be the one to offer claws or death as a first option to deal with the issues the pack is facing. Although this is a habit that he's slowly learning to curb, it is still an issue for him. Scott's influence as his alpha has helped, at least, as has Isaac's experience living with the McCalls and then spending time with the Argents. He asks more questions now, and they're not always "Can we just kill them?". He's not a bad kid, but Isaac's moral compass is... well, slightly demagnetised. His life hasn't been normal, his idea of right and wrong is a little bit shaky sometimes and his role models have mostly been bad ones. That said, he's managed to get through it without turning into a total monster (though he did have his moments) and at his canonpoint he has developed a sense of empathy and responsibility and a desire to do the right thing, although he doesn't always know what the right thing is. He tries, though. The idea of doing good, doing the right thing, is extremely appealing to him - when he first learns about the werewolf ability to take pain from other living creatures (taking some of a dying dog's pain on himself), he almost bursts into tears. He wants to be a good person and he's managed to find a place in the world that's letting him become one.
Thanks to his upbringing, Isaac has trouble trusting people. He's wary and cautious and tends to think the worst of people or assume they're thinking the worst of him. He doesn't really understand how people could like him or want to spend time with him, although he desperately wants them to. Being trusted is kind of intoxicating and he's the kind of kid who tries his hardest to rise to meet that trust. Disppointing his friends or family is something he hates, which is probably again a consequence of his father's assholery, but he's taken the best parts of that abusive lesson and run with it. Loyalty is one of his best traits and it's extremely important to him. If his trust is earned, he's the kind of guy who will risk his life to save a person with barely a second thought, like when he gets into the ice bath (which will slow his heart-rate down to "almost dead" levels) to try to regain his memories of where Erica and Boyd are being help captive. He throws himself into danger a lot for the people around him, and he barely seems to think about it. It's just the thing he has to do when someone he likes or trusts is in trouble. He loves deeply and craves acceptance, though he would probably never say as much.
In terms of his relationships, he's incredibly loyal to Scott as his alpha. Scott was one of the first people who ever seemed to care about him as a person - when Scott tells him he doesn't want him to get hurt, Isaac is kind of shocked by it - and Scott's mom took him in and gave him a home when he had nowhere else to go. Scott brings out the best in him and he wants to make him proud. He would do basically anything for Scott, and at this point is very firmly Scott's beta. And then there's Allison. Isaac's relationship with Allison is huge for him, not just in terms of likely being his first serious romantic relationship. She's accepting of him, interested in him and she's basically just amazing to him. He resists the attraction initially - both because of his natural wariness about getting close to/opening up to people and also because of her past relationship with Scott - but after Scott seems to move on, he gives in to it. He doesn't exactly pursue her, because he's not confident enough for that, but he does open himself up to her and spend a whole bunch of time with her. She's one of the people he would absolutely throw his life on the line for without a thought. In fact, he does - when she's about to be electrocuted by a high voltage power cable in a pool of water, he pushes her out of the way and takes the electricity himself. He'd follow her around making puppy eyes all day as long as it wouldn't make everything super awkward with Scott. :V
In terms of other relationships, Isaac has finally experienced a bit of real parenting in the form of Melissa McCall and Chris Argent - a bit late, but better than nothing - and he knows a little more now about how being responsible for someone means more looking out for them and helping them and less having power over them and making them afraid of you. He's pretty grateful to both of these adults for not being huge shitbags like his dad and for accepting him into their homes (not always being happy about it, in Chris's case, but accepting it) and treating him like a normal kid. More or less. It's a kind of acceptance that he didn't get at home and doesn't get from the pack, because it's parent-child specific, but it's still really important in grounding him and helping him get more well adjusted. At least he's not expecting to get punched or locked in a freezer whenever he dares to open his mouth to speak to an adult anymore. There's also the rest of the pack -Stiles and Lydia at least - who, while not really close with them, he still feels comfortable enough to spend time around them. (The show really doesn't give them many scenes together tbh.) He and Stiles have a somewhat snarky relationship, but it's not super hostile. He and Lydia have even less on screen time, but as she's Allison's best friend, Isaac still feels protective of her. (Plus he's still kind of ashamed about that time he tried to kill her on Derek's orders oops.)
Grief is another interesting thing to talk about with Isaac. He's never really shown to grieve much in the show, not counting when Allison dies.
Death is a large part of his life and has been since his mother and brother died - his mother in a car accident and his older brother Camden killed in action. He worked in a graveyard digging graves from a young age; he's used to death. When Erica and Boyd, the other two isolated teenager beta wolves turned by Derek, Isaac's first pack, are taken and held captive, Isaac finds them after a few months - and Erica is dead. Although he's naturally upset by finding her body in a closet, we don't see him shut down emotionally or mentally. When Boyd is killed, Isaac gets angry rather than closing himself off with grief. When the pack think Derek has been killed, Isaac is the one who keeps his head and remains relatively calm on the school trip they take - until the anger he feels is useful to Scott and that's when he lets it out to cause a scene to stall the teacher. It's not that he isn't necessarily saddened or upset by death, but he's rarely if ever shocked by it to the point of shutting down. Even with Allison, in the midst of the worse grief he's experienced since his brother or mother died, he remains calm enough to lie to the police convincingly and then realise what she was trying to tell the pack with her final words - the way she'd discovered to kill the Oni.
Despite being a werewolf involved in all sorts of crazy supernatural shenanigans, Isaac is still a teenager who has been abused. He's not a confident boy and his self-esteem is low. He has nightmares and is severely claustrophobic - being locked into a small space has made him freak out with fear to the point of shifting involuntarily and attacking another person before. (Although, as an example of his self-sacrifice habit, he does throw himself into a situation in a cellar that's collapsing to hold up the roof to save Scott's mom and some others, despite this being a massively triggery thing for him.) Despite this, he's not a bitter person. He actually has quite a great capacity for forgiveness and he understands and is empathetic when others are in pain. He doesn't seem to blame or hate his father despite the man's shitty lock-your-son-in-a-freezer brand of parenting. He's not the kind of guy who holds grudges. He prefers to remember good moments with his father - in fact, these good memories serve as his human anchor and give him control over his shift early on - rather than the horrible stuff his dad did; and although he makes some comments about it, he doesn't blame Allison for stabbing him a whole bunch when she was dealing with her grief at her mother's death.
Barge Reactions: Isaac is going to find the Barge itself strange – because cruise ship flying through space – but in terms of the weird events and random violence, he'll actually cope quite well with it. Beacon Hills is a ridiculous hellmouth town full of weird crap and since he took the Bite he's seen a lot of it and has rolled with it. So that part of it isn't going to be too much of a problem. He may react violently in events, possibly without that much thought. He's going to have a little harder of a time adjusting to actually being a warden. He doesn't necessarily trust himself or think of himself in terms of having the capacity – emotionally, morally – to redeem a person. However, his deal is going to be a hugely motivating factor for him. Loyalty and love are very important to him, and his goal of saving Allison is going to be enough to make him push through that self-doubt and try anything possible to redeem his inmate and get his deal. (Plus, if he forms a good connection to his inmate, he's going to want to redeem them for its own sake too.)
All of this is going to be tempered by the fact of the other kids in the pack being onboard, which will make everything way more bearable. Most obviously, having both Allison and Scott on the ship will be hugely important to him: Scott because Isaac is at heart a beta and Scott is his alpha. He'll look to Scott for guidance a lot. Allison, because she's the entire reason he's here. Allison offered him a chance at love and acceptance for who and what he is. He's hers, pretty much wholeheartedly; if she asked him to die for her, he'd do it without question.
Path to Redemption: n/a
Deal: Isaac wants Allison back. Full stop. He stayed in Beacon Hills long enough to help Scott and the rest of the pack handle the Nogitsune, but now he wants to save her. She died saving him after all.
History: Pretty comprehensive character wiki, plus Isaac at the TW wiki, Season 2 overview, Season 3 overview
Sample Journal Entry: [The video clicks on and Isaac's sitting, looking all cozy in a scarf and cardigan. He doesn't seem like he's freaking out - but he's totally freaked out. This whole place is so weird. He hasn't even stepped outside his room yet. He's been too wrapped up trying to figure out why the hell he's the one sitting here and how the hell he thinks HE can actually do this whole redemption. thing. But it's not for him. He has to keep reminding himself of that.]
So this whole BYO room onto the super strange prison spaceship - that's cool, right? I totally didn't expect that part. I kinda had this picture in my head of like, prison cells and stuff. Guards in uniform. People getting shanked. Smuggling stuff-- [Isaac, the next words out of your mouth were going to be up their butts, please don't finish that sentence.] --like in movies. [Nice save. Oh, but what if the room thing is just for wardens? Has he just made a crack about the inequality between wardens and inmates inadvertantly? That could be a bitter point, right? On TV the prisoners always hate that the guards have more stuff than them. That could be awkward.] Wait, do inmates get their rooms from home? Or is that just... a warden thing?
Um. [The pause stretches out for a bit too long and he realises he should maybe give his name. Possibly.] We're supposed to introduce ourselves while we wait on the Admiral to give us our assignments, right? So. I'm Isaac. Isaac Lahey, from California. Not exactly experienced with the whole... spaceship thing. Or the prison thing. But I'll pick it up.
Sample RP: The communicator wasn't difficult to work out, being kind of like a weird sort of smartphone, and Isaac had glanced through the messages people were sending out. Sitting on his bed - his room from transplanted onto the ship by magic - he absently scrolled through some of the latest ones and considered his next move. Introducing himself seemed like the thing to do. Yep, that definitely seemed like something he should probably get on doing. But how was he supposed to redeem anyone? That was a job for someone better, someone more sure of themselves. It was a job for Scott, his alpha, who always knew what the right thing to do was. Isaac was just a beta, he was just a kid. Why was he the one here instead of someone who'd maybe stand a chance at getting this right? It should be Scott; it should be Chris. He couldn't do it. He couldn't fix this. His hands were sweaty and it pretty much felt like butterflies were trying to punch their way right out of his stomach.
You're not a boy if you walk in there acting like a man. He couldn't stop remembering Allison's voice when she'd said it. It was good advice, helpful advice, for pretty much any situation. Yeah, but thinking about it hurt, deep in Isaac's chest. She'd kissed him to give him confidence when he was a scared boy dressed up and sweating in a suit that looked like a costume on him, about to walk into a den of yakuza soldiers. But here he was again, a frightened boy, and she wasn't here to kiss him now. That was the whole reason he'd taken this offer in the first place, this last ditch chance which he'd grabbed tight with the claws of both hands and clung to. The Admiral had promised he'd get a deal, a wish, anything he could ever think to want and ask for, if he was able to redeem some crazy person on a sci-fi spaceship prison. There was only one thing he wanted. He'd hardly even bothered to ask questions. Hell, it could have been a literal deal with the actual Devil and he still probably wouldn't have thought twice before agreeing. Allison had to live. If he never did anything else, he'd do this for her.
Maybe it was a case of just wanting it enough, being desperate enough to take the offer, maybe that was why he was the one sitting here sweating and turning the communicator over and over in his hands. Not that Scott didn't want Allison back. Not that Chris didn't, of course. But Isaac's soul hurt when he remembered her lying there cradled in Scott's arms, trying to speak, trying to tell them all that she'd discovered how to kill their enemies, trying to protect everyone even with her last breath. He thought he'd go crazy with how much it hurt, but he never actually did, and that was somehow worse. He didn't have anything else. There wasn't any room inside him for anything except her, hadn't been since he'd seen the sword slide into her stomach. He'd helped Scott after, he'd lied to the police, done everything necessary, but her death was like a drum in his head, beating out a rhythm that he could quiet but never stop. And that's when the Admiral had come and made his offer, after it was over, when the fact of her absence became unbearable because there was nothing else to do to take his mind off it.
Except there was something else to do now, wasn't there? He had to do it, for her. For Chris and Scott and all the rest of them. They all needed her back; he needed her. He hadn't been able to help Boyd or Erica - Allison would be different. Go in there with confidence and all they'll see is a boyish-looking man. This time, her voice in his head and the pain in his heart was just what he needed. He took a deep breath and, after a moment, finally clicked the communicator on.
Special Notes:
User DW: i might as well not have one lbr
AIM/IM: jessihoney18;
E-mail: jess.piggin at gmail
Other Characters: Helena, Andrew
Character Name: Isaac Lahey
Series: Teen Wolf
Age: 17
From When?: The end of episode 3x24, The Divine Move, just before he leaves Beacon Hills
Inmate/Warden: Warden. Isaac has had some moments of somewhat dubious morality in the past but at this canonpoint he's firmly a good guy. Despite some negativity and tactlessness, he's kind-hearted and honestly wants to help people, particularly those he cares about.
Item: One of Allison's silver arrowheads
Abilities/Powers: Isaac is a teenage werewolf. This naturally means he's got werewolf powers. That is: increased strength, speed and agility; extremely good senses of hearing and smell; the ability to heal everything except wounds from weapons treated with special herbs and mystical stuff like that; and the power to take away/absorb another person or animal's pain by touching them with his bare hands.
When he does transform it's not into an actual wolf but a wolfman of sorts (lol), complete with extremely tough claws, very sharp teeth, awesome sideburns and bright yellow eyes. His powers are kind of heightened in this state. In Teen Wolf canon, the full moon doesn't force a transformation and the wolves, if they have a suitable mental anchor to their humanity, can control their shifting.
Isaac has pretty much full control at this point, though extreme pain, anger or fear can force a shift and the longer he goes without shifting the harder it becomes to control. When shifted, he also has less impulse control and a stronger urge for violence. Because of pack heirarchy he can be compelled by an alpha's roar to stop what he's doing or to shift either way; as he's a beta wolf this pack thing also means he's naturally more derential to his alpha, aka Scott. (Also, as Isaac isn't an alpha, his bite can't transform another person into a werewolf and he can't do any of the weird alpha claws-in-the-neck mind-meld stuff.)
Personality: Isaac likes to present himself as cool, unemotional and one of his biggest self-defence mechanisms is to be flippant and unaffected by whatever shit's going on around him. If he doesn't show himself as affected by things that happen to him or his friends, he can't be hurt. This is an effect of his father's prolonged abuse - his dad used to do stuff like throw glasses at him and lock him in an empty (unplugged thank god) chest freezer in the basement for long periods of time if he was angry with him - which began later. His father also demanded perfection in his schooling, which Isaac couldn't deliver. Before Isaac was bitten, he was, although not an outcast, definitely socially isolated at school. He kept himself to himself mostly, lacking the self-esteem or confidence to really interact with many people or make friends. Isaac's unaffected attitude is a mask. He's deeply affected by a lot of things, but when he doesn't know how to deal with his emotions he can lash out, both verbally and physically. (Though he's rarely cruel or sadistic about it, unlike his father.) He's quite sarcastic and cracks jokes a lot; he also makes inappropriate comments and doesn't seem entirely well socialised so doesn't always realise that what he's opening his mouth to say may be taken badly by whoever he's talking to. That said, he is aware of social convention and often realises moments after he's said something that he's made it awkward. His brain-to-mouth filter is just kind of shit at catching his inappropriate commentary before it makes its way out of his mouth.
He's been intensely lonely for most of his life, and thanks to his father being a super shitty parent, he's fairly desperate for someone to be a role model and guide him through his life. He finds this first in Derek, who turns him into a werewolf and tries - in not so great ways, like breaking teenagers' arms to show them they can heal from it - to teach him the basics of Werewolf 101. Isaac sticks around and bears Derek's violence better than the other two beta wolves - he's kind of got this ingrained 'violence is for your own good' mentality in relation to himself - and he does manage to gain some control over his shifting quite early. That said, and despite his loyalty, he grows angrier with Derek the more it becomes obvious that Derek has no idea how to protect his betas and the more time Isaac spends with Scott. Scott is the kind of guy who inspires Isaac's loyalty simply because he cares so damn much and always, always tries to do the right thing - the way that Scott will throw himself into a hopeless situation and hammer out a solution is incredibly appealling to Isaac. At least Scott tries to do something, while Isaac starts to believe that Derek doesn't know what to do or how to handle their dangerous problems. Of course, this anger with Derek - while he does have legitimate reasons for it - is also a tool for Isaac, a way to distance himself from Derek and justify switching his loyalty to a new alpha - Scott.
Isaac has a LOT of pent-up anger and after taking the Bite, he has the power and ability to take that anger out on whatever pisses him off. In fact, he becomes more vicious and plays the villain for a while, simply because he now has the ability to do it and the power that gives him is intoxicating. He's very impulsive and, probably because of his father, is quite likely to default to attacking a problem rather than trying to solve it. He's not stupid or anything, but he does tend to be the one to offer claws or death as a first option to deal with the issues the pack is facing. Although this is a habit that he's slowly learning to curb, it is still an issue for him. Scott's influence as his alpha has helped, at least, as has Isaac's experience living with the McCalls and then spending time with the Argents. He asks more questions now, and they're not always "Can we just kill them?". He's not a bad kid, but Isaac's moral compass is... well, slightly demagnetised. His life hasn't been normal, his idea of right and wrong is a little bit shaky sometimes and his role models have mostly been bad ones. That said, he's managed to get through it without turning into a total monster (though he did have his moments) and at his canonpoint he has developed a sense of empathy and responsibility and a desire to do the right thing, although he doesn't always know what the right thing is. He tries, though. The idea of doing good, doing the right thing, is extremely appealing to him - when he first learns about the werewolf ability to take pain from other living creatures (taking some of a dying dog's pain on himself), he almost bursts into tears. He wants to be a good person and he's managed to find a place in the world that's letting him become one.
Thanks to his upbringing, Isaac has trouble trusting people. He's wary and cautious and tends to think the worst of people or assume they're thinking the worst of him. He doesn't really understand how people could like him or want to spend time with him, although he desperately wants them to. Being trusted is kind of intoxicating and he's the kind of kid who tries his hardest to rise to meet that trust. Disppointing his friends or family is something he hates, which is probably again a consequence of his father's assholery, but he's taken the best parts of that abusive lesson and run with it. Loyalty is one of his best traits and it's extremely important to him. If his trust is earned, he's the kind of guy who will risk his life to save a person with barely a second thought, like when he gets into the ice bath (which will slow his heart-rate down to "almost dead" levels) to try to regain his memories of where Erica and Boyd are being help captive. He throws himself into danger a lot for the people around him, and he barely seems to think about it. It's just the thing he has to do when someone he likes or trusts is in trouble. He loves deeply and craves acceptance, though he would probably never say as much.
In terms of his relationships, he's incredibly loyal to Scott as his alpha. Scott was one of the first people who ever seemed to care about him as a person - when Scott tells him he doesn't want him to get hurt, Isaac is kind of shocked by it - and Scott's mom took him in and gave him a home when he had nowhere else to go. Scott brings out the best in him and he wants to make him proud. He would do basically anything for Scott, and at this point is very firmly Scott's beta. And then there's Allison. Isaac's relationship with Allison is huge for him, not just in terms of likely being his first serious romantic relationship. She's accepting of him, interested in him and she's basically just amazing to him. He resists the attraction initially - both because of his natural wariness about getting close to/opening up to people and also because of her past relationship with Scott - but after Scott seems to move on, he gives in to it. He doesn't exactly pursue her, because he's not confident enough for that, but he does open himself up to her and spend a whole bunch of time with her. She's one of the people he would absolutely throw his life on the line for without a thought. In fact, he does - when she's about to be electrocuted by a high voltage power cable in a pool of water, he pushes her out of the way and takes the electricity himself. He'd follow her around making puppy eyes all day as long as it wouldn't make everything super awkward with Scott. :V
In terms of other relationships, Isaac has finally experienced a bit of real parenting in the form of Melissa McCall and Chris Argent - a bit late, but better than nothing - and he knows a little more now about how being responsible for someone means more looking out for them and helping them and less having power over them and making them afraid of you. He's pretty grateful to both of these adults for not being huge shitbags like his dad and for accepting him into their homes (not always being happy about it, in Chris's case, but accepting it) and treating him like a normal kid. More or less. It's a kind of acceptance that he didn't get at home and doesn't get from the pack, because it's parent-child specific, but it's still really important in grounding him and helping him get more well adjusted. At least he's not expecting to get punched or locked in a freezer whenever he dares to open his mouth to speak to an adult anymore. There's also the rest of the pack -Stiles and Lydia at least - who, while not really close with them, he still feels comfortable enough to spend time around them. (The show really doesn't give them many scenes together tbh.) He and Stiles have a somewhat snarky relationship, but it's not super hostile. He and Lydia have even less on screen time, but as she's Allison's best friend, Isaac still feels protective of her. (Plus he's still kind of ashamed about that time he tried to kill her on Derek's orders oops.)
Grief is another interesting thing to talk about with Isaac. He's never really shown to grieve much in the show, not counting when Allison dies.
Death is a large part of his life and has been since his mother and brother died - his mother in a car accident and his older brother Camden killed in action. He worked in a graveyard digging graves from a young age; he's used to death. When Erica and Boyd, the other two isolated teenager beta wolves turned by Derek, Isaac's first pack, are taken and held captive, Isaac finds them after a few months - and Erica is dead. Although he's naturally upset by finding her body in a closet, we don't see him shut down emotionally or mentally. When Boyd is killed, Isaac gets angry rather than closing himself off with grief. When the pack think Derek has been killed, Isaac is the one who keeps his head and remains relatively calm on the school trip they take - until the anger he feels is useful to Scott and that's when he lets it out to cause a scene to stall the teacher. It's not that he isn't necessarily saddened or upset by death, but he's rarely if ever shocked by it to the point of shutting down. Even with Allison, in the midst of the worse grief he's experienced since his brother or mother died, he remains calm enough to lie to the police convincingly and then realise what she was trying to tell the pack with her final words - the way she'd discovered to kill the Oni.
Despite being a werewolf involved in all sorts of crazy supernatural shenanigans, Isaac is still a teenager who has been abused. He's not a confident boy and his self-esteem is low. He has nightmares and is severely claustrophobic - being locked into a small space has made him freak out with fear to the point of shifting involuntarily and attacking another person before. (Although, as an example of his self-sacrifice habit, he does throw himself into a situation in a cellar that's collapsing to hold up the roof to save Scott's mom and some others, despite this being a massively triggery thing for him.) Despite this, he's not a bitter person. He actually has quite a great capacity for forgiveness and he understands and is empathetic when others are in pain. He doesn't seem to blame or hate his father despite the man's shitty lock-your-son-in-a-freezer brand of parenting. He's not the kind of guy who holds grudges. He prefers to remember good moments with his father - in fact, these good memories serve as his human anchor and give him control over his shift early on - rather than the horrible stuff his dad did; and although he makes some comments about it, he doesn't blame Allison for stabbing him a whole bunch when she was dealing with her grief at her mother's death.
Barge Reactions: Isaac is going to find the Barge itself strange – because cruise ship flying through space – but in terms of the weird events and random violence, he'll actually cope quite well with it. Beacon Hills is a ridiculous hellmouth town full of weird crap and since he took the Bite he's seen a lot of it and has rolled with it. So that part of it isn't going to be too much of a problem. He may react violently in events, possibly without that much thought. He's going to have a little harder of a time adjusting to actually being a warden. He doesn't necessarily trust himself or think of himself in terms of having the capacity – emotionally, morally – to redeem a person. However, his deal is going to be a hugely motivating factor for him. Loyalty and love are very important to him, and his goal of saving Allison is going to be enough to make him push through that self-doubt and try anything possible to redeem his inmate and get his deal. (Plus, if he forms a good connection to his inmate, he's going to want to redeem them for its own sake too.)
All of this is going to be tempered by the fact of the other kids in the pack being onboard, which will make everything way more bearable. Most obviously, having both Allison and Scott on the ship will be hugely important to him: Scott because Isaac is at heart a beta and Scott is his alpha. He'll look to Scott for guidance a lot. Allison, because she's the entire reason he's here. Allison offered him a chance at love and acceptance for who and what he is. He's hers, pretty much wholeheartedly; if she asked him to die for her, he'd do it without question.
Path to Redemption: n/a
Deal: Isaac wants Allison back. Full stop. He stayed in Beacon Hills long enough to help Scott and the rest of the pack handle the Nogitsune, but now he wants to save her. She died saving him after all.
History: Pretty comprehensive character wiki, plus Isaac at the TW wiki, Season 2 overview, Season 3 overview
Sample Journal Entry: [The video clicks on and Isaac's sitting, looking all cozy in a scarf and cardigan. He doesn't seem like he's freaking out - but he's totally freaked out. This whole place is so weird. He hasn't even stepped outside his room yet. He's been too wrapped up trying to figure out why the hell he's the one sitting here and how the hell he thinks HE can actually do this whole redemption. thing. But it's not for him. He has to keep reminding himself of that.]
So this whole BYO room onto the super strange prison spaceship - that's cool, right? I totally didn't expect that part. I kinda had this picture in my head of like, prison cells and stuff. Guards in uniform. People getting shanked. Smuggling stuff-- [Isaac, the next words out of your mouth were going to be up their butts, please don't finish that sentence.] --like in movies. [Nice save. Oh, but what if the room thing is just for wardens? Has he just made a crack about the inequality between wardens and inmates inadvertantly? That could be a bitter point, right? On TV the prisoners always hate that the guards have more stuff than them. That could be awkward.] Wait, do inmates get their rooms from home? Or is that just... a warden thing?
Um. [The pause stretches out for a bit too long and he realises he should maybe give his name. Possibly.] We're supposed to introduce ourselves while we wait on the Admiral to give us our assignments, right? So. I'm Isaac. Isaac Lahey, from California. Not exactly experienced with the whole... spaceship thing. Or the prison thing. But I'll pick it up.
Sample RP: The communicator wasn't difficult to work out, being kind of like a weird sort of smartphone, and Isaac had glanced through the messages people were sending out. Sitting on his bed - his room from transplanted onto the ship by magic - he absently scrolled through some of the latest ones and considered his next move. Introducing himself seemed like the thing to do. Yep, that definitely seemed like something he should probably get on doing. But how was he supposed to redeem anyone? That was a job for someone better, someone more sure of themselves. It was a job for Scott, his alpha, who always knew what the right thing to do was. Isaac was just a beta, he was just a kid. Why was he the one here instead of someone who'd maybe stand a chance at getting this right? It should be Scott; it should be Chris. He couldn't do it. He couldn't fix this. His hands were sweaty and it pretty much felt like butterflies were trying to punch their way right out of his stomach.
You're not a boy if you walk in there acting like a man. He couldn't stop remembering Allison's voice when she'd said it. It was good advice, helpful advice, for pretty much any situation. Yeah, but thinking about it hurt, deep in Isaac's chest. She'd kissed him to give him confidence when he was a scared boy dressed up and sweating in a suit that looked like a costume on him, about to walk into a den of yakuza soldiers. But here he was again, a frightened boy, and she wasn't here to kiss him now. That was the whole reason he'd taken this offer in the first place, this last ditch chance which he'd grabbed tight with the claws of both hands and clung to. The Admiral had promised he'd get a deal, a wish, anything he could ever think to want and ask for, if he was able to redeem some crazy person on a sci-fi spaceship prison. There was only one thing he wanted. He'd hardly even bothered to ask questions. Hell, it could have been a literal deal with the actual Devil and he still probably wouldn't have thought twice before agreeing. Allison had to live. If he never did anything else, he'd do this for her.
Maybe it was a case of just wanting it enough, being desperate enough to take the offer, maybe that was why he was the one sitting here sweating and turning the communicator over and over in his hands. Not that Scott didn't want Allison back. Not that Chris didn't, of course. But Isaac's soul hurt when he remembered her lying there cradled in Scott's arms, trying to speak, trying to tell them all that she'd discovered how to kill their enemies, trying to protect everyone even with her last breath. He thought he'd go crazy with how much it hurt, but he never actually did, and that was somehow worse. He didn't have anything else. There wasn't any room inside him for anything except her, hadn't been since he'd seen the sword slide into her stomach. He'd helped Scott after, he'd lied to the police, done everything necessary, but her death was like a drum in his head, beating out a rhythm that he could quiet but never stop. And that's when the Admiral had come and made his offer, after it was over, when the fact of her absence became unbearable because there was nothing else to do to take his mind off it.
Except there was something else to do now, wasn't there? He had to do it, for her. For Chris and Scott and all the rest of them. They all needed her back; he needed her. He hadn't been able to help Boyd or Erica - Allison would be different. Go in there with confidence and all they'll see is a boyish-looking man. This time, her voice in his head and the pain in his heart was just what he needed. He took a deep breath and, after a moment, finally clicked the communicator on.
Special Notes: