Nevarmore
He doesn't have regrets, because he stopped looking back a long time ago.
art and references
I seriously baby this guy too much.
Main references
Lain
Nevarmore
"Nevarmore" can refer to either of the two of them, but "Lain" refers to only the person.
If you're here because I asked you to draw a person, hit the first link;
if you're here because I asked you to draw a creature, hit the second link;
if you're here and are absolutely not sure which one I asked for, you have my permission to slap me with a large tuna.
Other references
These are doodles and...other things...I draw this guy a lot, so it'd be odd to leave all these things out. Hover over links for comments.
Finished stuff
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Everything dump
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These are unofficial and possibly OOC! Not for reference, just for amusement.
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Received art (commissions etc.)
Lain from Shiuka@dA
Lain and Nevarmore from Gooey@MB
Lain from Cierion@MB
Lain and Nevarmore from reversepedo (I love this and have no idea why)
...do I want to know? from nemesis
Lain, Nevarmore and Err from nemesis
Lain from nemesis
Nevarmore from Andoledius@dA
Lain from kotoh@dA
Lain from Iiely@MB
Lain from narutoninetail@dA
Lain from godzilla23@dA
Lain from Veyuna@dA
Lain from bone-kun@MB
Lain and Nevarmore from Hallica@Subeta
Lain and Nevarmore from Hallica@Subeta
Lain from inconventional@dA
Lain from t0shi0@dA
Lain and Nevarmore from fresh4u@dA
stats
Full name: Lane Crawford
Goes by: Lain
Age: 24
Height: 165cm
Occupation: Hired thief and full-time jerk
Lain is a scruffy, skinny and kind of small guy who, for some reason, almost always wears a rumpled suit and resides in an office space. He is...pretty annoying. I think he usually appears to be smirking at something or the other.
He probably won't bother you if you don't bother him first, but trying to get your own back at him is like punching yourself in the face. Extra smirking involved.
As a hired thief, he's extremely reliable for mission completion. You can be 99.9% sure he'll get the job done, except...it usually comes with extra baggage. Think of it like those corrupt-a-wish forum games- you get what you want, but you also get something else along with it.
His plans tend to not work. Most of the time (unless faced with an extremely easy job) he'll end up winging it, usually causing a ruckus while he's at it, or well..triggering security alarms, that sort of thing. He somehow always manages to escape, though. He's good at escaping.
I guess he seems pretty cool in a sort of dangerous bad boy way if you hang around him for just a short period of time, but he's really...quite uncool if you stick around too long...he's pretty independent, but independent in ways that tell you there wasn't anyone to show him how to be independent. In general: he's a mess in more ways than one.
Oh, and he came up with the name Nevarmore. No, he does not have a good sense of humour.
story
Past
He's always been an independent sort of person, even as a kid. His parents weren't at home much, they sort of...returned home less and less often until they stopped coming back altogether. He figures they were consumed by gambling (so he has this extreme dislike for the casinos that are the city's main attraction), though thankfully they didn't leave him with any debts. Maybe they protected him from the debt collectors, so he could keep living without having to pick up after them. Maybe they're still alive somewhere, even. He doesn't know and doesn't think about it much. He doesn't remember that much about them, except that his family used to be somewhat rich, and were pretty well-known.
Anyway, he had to support himself by the time he was in high school, so he did some odd jobs here and there, eventually settling on thievery at about 17. It paid for school fees and living costs, better than anything he'd done before, though his generally unpleasant attitude meant he didn't earn very much. He still doesn't. It's kind of hard to trust someone who, despite having a 100% successful track record, tends to bring down all sorts of unwanted things on your head afterwards. Intentionally or not.
I'm also thinking that his small size might have caused him to be bullied when he was younger, so his unpleasantness might have been (or was the result of) some kind of a defence mechanism. He doesn't quite know how to react to people in other ways. It doesn't stop, either- people tend to react unpleasantly to people who are unpleasant to them. And I think, in this world, people don't trust each other very much.
It's rare that anyone treats him nicely - up till where everything begins, no one's been especially kind to him. He does get attached rather quickly to anyone who does, though.
Otherwise, everyone else is just everyone else. Faces in the crowd, even if they're his employers - he doesn't care about them beyond what they can give him, and besides money, it's rather funny to see them flail about as the unexpected comes crashing down on their heads. They can try to get back at him, but he's Lain. He'll always find a way out. No one matters enough for him to worry about not hurting their feelings - not up until now, anyway.
Oddly, though, for all he doesn't care about people, he's rather uncomfortable about killing them. Sure, he's done it maybe once, or twice, or more than that - but the guilt nags at him for a long time, so he only ever does it when the pay's good enough.
Everything combined basically made him into the person he is now. Before story events, he didn't really have any friends (lots of people who hate his guts though), at best some...acquaintances. (See: Ruby. Who did actually hate his guts at some point in time, anyway.)
5 years before current events (19 years old), he takes on a joint mission with Ruby (25 at the time). I haven't thought of the details, but trouble happens and Lain escapes without regard for Ruby's safety. She manages to get away in time, but kind of bears a grudge against Lain. Some punching is involved.
Shortly after that, he finds the cafe while wandering around. Knocks out on that first visit (tired + hungry, also had a job that night), wakes up to a sandwich from Err.
He keeps coming back to the cafe after that, supposedly in the hopes of receiving more free food (and drink), but it's probably really just him hoping to receive more kindness.
He also stops waiting for people to find him for jobs and gets them from stdio while he bums around at the cafe instead. This improves his business slightly, largely because he finds more unfortunate souls who don't know any better about him this way.
5 years down the road (a little while before current events), he bumps into Ruby again (who hasn't forgotten that incident) and brings her to the cafe. Presumably some angry chasing is involved.
Current events
Stuff happens.
people
@ Err:
Come to think of it, no one's been really nice to him until he met Err, and then since he hadn't any time to be a jerk at Err before Err was nice to him...well, Err is pretty much the one person who hasn't been on the receiving end of Lain's jerkishness. He actually makes an effort to be nice, here...or at least, tolerable. He's not sure what makes Err tick. He just knows that it's kind of hard to be mean to someone who's nice to you, and he doesn't want to lose Err by being a jerkface. I guess it's some kind of mutual respect. Also, someone to act like a spoilt kid to.
@Ruby:
He's still convinced she holds a grudge against him. He enjoys making her lose her cool (this is not difficult, particularly if he's the one doing it), occasionally starting fights between the both of them inside the cafe...honestly though, he's surprised she doesn't ignore him entirely or treat him badly or attack without provocation. She can even hold a civil conversation with him if he doesn't taunt her (this happens very rarely, since explosive Ruby is...far...more...interesting...). This he finds very surprising. He's glad for it, too. Call his taunts acts of love: if he disliked her, he'd leave her alone, but the fact that he still bothers to grab her attention shows he kind of likes her being around. Not that he'd ever say it, but Ruby knows this.
@Diese:
Diese generally comes across as that weird hobo-man in the corner of the cafe. Lain used to argue with him, but always lost, so he gave up. Still throws verbal barbs at him sometimes. This is before discovering Diese was...that Diese.
To the famous thief/conman, it's lots of respect- Diese was pretty much everything he'd have liked to be: rich, centre of attention, skilled, etc...but well he turned out to be nothing like him. Welp.