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TLV APPLICATION; and i can host you all in heaven
User Name/Nick: Jessi
User DW:![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
jessihoney
E-mail: jess.piggin at gmail
Other Characters: Trilla Suduri, Eddie Kaspbrak
Character Name: North Hollywood Henry aka NoHo Hank (likely not his real name, though it was probably the Russian/Chechen version of Henry, either Хенри/Henri or Хенрик/Henrik)
Series: Barry
Age: 39
From When?: Season 2, Episode 7. After being trapped on the BBQ bus by the Burmese mafia and being abandoned there by his own gang, he succumbs to smoke inhalation and dies.
Inmate/Warden: Inmate. Although Hank is a polite and friendly dude in general, he is also a high-level member (and leader of the LA branch by his canon point) in an organised crime gang. He has definitely killed people, hurt people, and fucked people over. The Chechan mafia run drugs and guns and other things that directly harm people. Hank is in the mob for a lot of reasons and doesn't get joy out of the bad things, but he certainly is complicit and directly responsible for a lot of bad shit.
Item: N/A
Arrival: Hank has just died, he's turning up with no idea what's happening.
Abilities/Powers: No powers, he's a normal human. He has trained with a variety of guns, although not to a military level, and he has had some hand-to-hand combat training. He also has been in prison and has skills as a thief. However, he much prefers not to get his hands dirty if possible.
Personality: NoHo Hank comes off as a good-natured, polite, friendly dude. And for the most part, he is. He genuinely likes helping people, team-building, making people comfortable, and having fun. He likes to connect with people, to make friends, and enjoys reading self-help books, cooking, and playing team sports. He is generally unflappable, even when people insult or demean him, bouncing back with positivity. It's not that he doesn't recognise the insults, it's that he specifically chooses not to let them affect him. At nearly 40 years old, Hank has adopted a mostly very zen attitude to life, he even calls himself "an optometrist by nature". If he was in any other line of work, he would be totally fine. But instead of going into hotel management or some other nice, polite line of work, Hank went into organised crime.
Hank, as a young man, was troubled, struggling with his sexuality and the lack of opportunities in his home country. He always idolised the "cool" bad guys in movies and television, taking the absolute wrong message from media like Scarface and The Godfather, and idolising Stovka, the best assassin in Chechnya. He joined the Chechen mob at a young age. Partly, this was just down to not having other options in the extremely repressive third world country of Chechnya, but there was definitely also a part of him that wanted to have that cool underworld life he saw in movies. Plus, being a gay man in Chechnya is straight-up a death sentence, so proving himself as a manly and dangerous criminal with the protection of a crime family behind him was also a big plus. In the Chechen mob, Hank found a camaraderie, even as a young man, when he was acting tougher and meaner than he really felt.
Hank is not necessarily a naturally violent dude, but he has been involved in organised crime his whole life at this point, and he is extremely desensitised to violence. When Vasha is filing Fuches's teeth to torture him, Hank is off to the side casually showing Goran how to use a smartphone app. He has hurt, tortured, and killed people; he has no qualms with the violence inherent in the drug trade and what damage it causes to innocent people. He survived three years in prison, and prisons in Chechnya are extremely hard and violent places. He has no moral aversion to violence, because that's really the only life he's ever known. While at this point in his life he doesn't exactly like to get his hands dirty himself if he can help it - although he will if it is necessary - his first solution when something goes wrong is to send someone to threaten or kill the person causing the problem, such as when he instantly goes to find Barry and hire him to kill Esther after she shows up at the stash house for a parlay with Cristobal, then immediately takes Akhmal to shoot Barry after he fails to actually assassinate her. Reacting with a violent sneak attack is his learned first instinct.
He is very rarely cold-blooded about it - violence is usually a means to an end for him, or a quick emotional reaction - but we do see him threaten Barry in a markedly different way at the start of the second season. At this point, Hank has taken over as the leader of the Chechens and when he first finds Barry to ask him to kill Esther, Barry insults Hank, calling him an idiot, and refuses to perform the hit. Hank waits for him after the acting class and this exchange follows:
Hank in this scene is cold, calculated, and deeply threatening. It's a glimpse of a different man, Hank more as he was as an angry 20-something, deeply focused on his reputation and his own desires. He is willing to kill innocent people to get what he wants. It may not be something he wants to do or gets any particular enjoyment out of, but he will do it.
Another glimpse of this more serious Hank is when Barry has his gun trained on him, point-blank and he's about to shoot him. Despite how terrified and full of adrenaline he is (he throws up immediately after, once Barry decides not to kill him), Hank accepts his fate, telling Barry to just "do it", because he's "a dead man anyway". Hank is aware that his life is likely to be cut short, he knows the consequence of the violent world he lives in. He knows if he leaves the family or betrays them, he will be killed. He knows that there's a high chance if he stays loyal to the family, he will die in a gang war.
In fact, at the canonpoint Hank is from, he has just died as a consequence of his criminal life. He and his Chechens have been captured by the Bolivians and Burmese and have been driven out into the desert on a schoolbus to all be burnt alive. While the Burmese gang is splashing the whole thing down with gasoline, Hank has a very self-aware running confession that he makes (while the young Chechen sharpshooter and wannabe-boss, Mayrbek, is getting everyone else out the back of the bus and fighting back against the Burmese):
However, although this is a nice, self-aware realisation from Hank, it's also not one that really has a lasting effect on him. He mostly regrets getting the guys he thinks of as his friends killed. (They probably wouldn't call him their friend, as much as that's how he wants to be known.) As soon as the imminent danger has passed and Mayrbek rescues him off the barbeque bus (in the show, not for Barge purposes) Hank goes right back to his gang leader position. Although Mayrbek kills Khasam (the traitor who told their plans to the Burmese mob) before Hank has a chance to, he almost certainly would have ordered his death anyway. While he recognises that his life in the crime syndicate is probably not the best fit for him, especially the decisions he makes as the boss, he still steps right back into it. He will not be immediately redeemed just through acknowledging that he's probably not the right guy for the job, because it was still the only job in town, and at this point it's really all he knows.
Although it's not immediately obvious, Hank does have some insecurities. One of Hank's biggest motivators is his desire to be liked and to have a bunch of close friends and a group to belong to. He loves being accepted and validated by his social group. Being seen as intimidating or a figure of power is important to him too, but it's mostly in a childish way, because being frightening and powerful means you're cool. When Barry asks him if he, Barry, is an evil person, Hank is quick to reassure him that "you're, like, the most evil guy I know," and seems genuinely worried he hasn't provided Barry with enough validation, saying, "Do I not tell you that enough?" This is really more a reflection on Hank than it is on Barry. He finds it difficult to be the boss of his gang, trying to both be their friends but also maintain his authority.
All this said, Hank really feels more comfortable when he has a leader he can look up to and follow - especially when that leader treats him more as a friend and allows him to exercise his own judgement and explore his own ideas. Being second-in-command is really more his speed. In the first season of the show, Goran was his main leader. Hank followed his orders, laughed at his jokes, and backed him up. Goran allowed him to use his judgement a little, such as Hank's idea of sending a bullet through DHL to the Bolivians before having one of their guys killed by Barry, although Goran's trust was eroded by the end of the first season. He started to view Hank as a failure and weak because of hiscrush on friendship with Barry, who Goran believed had betrayed them for Fuches suggesting the Chechens take Cristobal's stash house, which caused a gang war. Hank's allegiance to Goran was still strong, but after Goran insulted him by calling him weak and pathetic, implying he's in love with Barry, and he's more suited to help Goran's wife wash the dishes, Hank calls Barry and warns him that Goran is going to try and have him killed. He likes Barry enough to compromise his loyalty to his family for him.
Cristobal, the Bolivian leader, is a much better fit for a partnership in a lot of ways, at least on the surface. He allows Hank to express his own ideas and stretch his creative muscles with decorating the stash house and setting up team-building between the Chechens and Bolivians as their partnership grows. However, Cristobal, despite seeming outwardly supportive and approving of Hank's ideas, also tends to overrun Hank, ignoring his feelings and believing his ideas are better than Hank's. He doesn't take Hank seriously.
While he tends to be an outwardly friendly guy, Hank definitely has a petty streak in him when his authority is threatened - or when his object of interest/affection takes interest in someone else - which is shown when Akhmal insults him on the rooftop as they're trying to kill Barry and Hank kicks him in the shoulder Barry just shot, and when Esther tells him he "must make the time" to read all the self-help books Cristobal has given him and Hank just snaps at her to "please do not eavesdrop", plus the way he constantly pettily insults her appearance. He even dreams about upstaging Thomas Friedman on a talk show after falling asleep reading his book.
Hank is articulate and talkative, and tends to use a lot of pop culture references and malapropisms. He references Space Jam, Fleetwood Mac, Seal, John Wick, Sonny and Cher, Air Jordan and others. He uses memes and has a Bitmoji of himself. He calls himself a gearhead, saying he "loves gack", enjoying gadgets and tech. He fusses over finding the right "heroin table", which he says "is a thing on Pinterest, but not on Amazon". Other than being a crime boss, he's kind of a goofy dude.
Barge Reactions: Hank comes from a totally normal Earth, no magic or supernatural elements, so he's certainly going to be surprised by the Barge and all it entails. However, Hank is a pretty laid-back and relentlessly positive guy who tends to make the best of any situation he finds himself in. He will do his best to adjust and learn the ropes, and he won't be a kind of resentful or sullen inmate. Away from his crime lord responsibilities, he's going to feel less pressure and consequently, he's probably going to focus on making friends and enjoy the weird strange experiences the Barge has to offer.
Path to Redemption: Hank really needs someone to help him form his own moral compass that doesn't revolve around "lol guns are cool". He really has what amounts to a teen boy's view of the world: gangs and guns and drug money is cool and fun and everyone should totally aspire to be Tony Montana. Admittedly, coming from the incredibly poor and dangerous country of Chechnya and being in close contact with the Chechen mob all his life, there weren't a lot of other options for him, but he tends to view it all as a big Boys' Own adventure with his pals. He likes to hang out with his buddies, playing volleyball at their cool cocaine stash house and making money through drug running and stolen goods.
Hank needs to really recognise and acknowledge how his actions and the actions of his gang affect other people, and he also needs help to truly understand there are actually other options for him. The pull of family and also the feeling of not having anywhere else to go are incredibly strong for him and these patterns will likely be difficult to break through. He's unlikely to be violent of his own accord unless confronted or on orders from someone he considers a leader, so he definitely comes across as more mild-mannered, however he is completely desensitised to violence. When he is disrespected as a leader or his ego is bruised, he can lash out both verbally and physically.
He needs a warden who will be his friend but will also push him to confront difficult things seriously. As Hank tends to be someone who emotionally needs a leader, someone to look up to and idolise, he will probably fuck up and fall in with bad crowds during his time on the Barge. A warden who won't judge him on that, but will also tell him why the decisions he's making are not good and helps to push him to do better is important, as he needs to learn to both make better choices and trust his own instincts with those choices, instead of blindly following whoever he's currently latched onto as his "leader".
His redemption is deceptively simple - he needs to learn that hurting people is bad - but he's been living in this organised crime world for at least 25 years at this point, including a stint in prison, and he's definitely going to need a lot of work to actually understand this point.
Deal: N/A
History: There really is unfortunately no good history I can link for Hank. It just doesn't exist. This is the backstory I've cobbled together from both hints and other stuff in the show, plus extrapolations from real world history etc.
Hank was born in Chechnya in the late 70s. His family was not high up in the mob - or necessarily working for them at all - but they certainly knew of mafia activity, either through proximity or working with/for them by necessity. He went to preschool with Batir - a mob boss based back in Chechnya - and was likely intertwined with the mob "family" from a young age. I don't think he was particularly close to his parents, as he never mentions them in the show; they may be dead, or they have distanced themselves from him. Either way, they aren't a part of his life at this point.
Due to the political situation and treatment of LGBT+ folks in Chechnya, Hank certainly would not have been comfortable being a gay man, and his early life would likely have been full of trying to "prove" himself as manly enough. He was violent and joined the mafia as a young man, probably working with them in an informal capacity as a teenager.
By his mid-20s, he was moving up in the ranks. He idolised violent mob characters in movies, and definitely dreamed of going to America. He very much bought into the "America as the land of opportunity" idea. I think he either volunteered or tried to make himself available for mob assignments outside of the country of Chechnya. Initially, these were probably short one-off things around Eastern Europe, but Hank has a knack for fitting in wherever he lands and probably did very well on these jobs. He ended up working for a branch of the mob based in another country, perhaps Greece or Germany, and never really looked back, rising up as a competent ruthless gangster.
Hank's tattoos tell parts of his story. He worked as a thief and he has definitely killed someone. He was convicted at least once, and served 3 out of 6 years in prison. He also says he has previously been shot. I think these facts, as well as his more grown-up, upbeat attitude and the way he tries to solve problems in a constructive and helpful way by his canonpoint, point towards the idea that around the same time he went to prison, he was shot and had a near-death experience. This and his time in prison changed his attitude and he started to want to be more true to himself around his early 30s.
Some time after this, Hank was picked as one of a few mob members to branch out to America. The group says they have only been in California for a few months, however Hank seems to be extremely comfortable in LA and in the USA in general, so I think he probably has been there for at least a few years, possibly up to four or five, making arrangements and setting the stage for when Goran (his boss at the start of the series) arrived and helping him and his family settle in when he got there. Hank immediately took to America like a duck to water, changing his name to the Americanised "Hank" and got the moniker "NoHo Hank" after the area he was based in, North Hollywood.
Then the series happens.
Important events for Hank through the series: meeting and hiring Barry to kill Goran's wife's affair partner; Barry shooting Hank in the shoulder after Hank tries to kill him thinking he isn't doing his job; Goran using Barry to take over the Bolivian "stash house"; Cristobal, the Bolivian leader, coming to America for revenge; Barry killing Goran after Hank let him know Goran was going to kill Fuches; Hank taking over as leader of the Chechens; moving into the stash house and brokering a 50-50 partnership with Cristobal and the Bolivians ("our natural enemies"); Esther, the Burmese leader, coming between him and Cristobal; Hank hiring Barry to kill her; attempting to kill Barry when he fails to kill Esther; hiring Barry to train the Chechens into an army to stage a coup and get rid of the Burmese themselves; this plan being foiled and Hank and his men being captured.
Hank is coming from season 2, episode 7, "The Audition", when Esther's Burmese and Cristobal's Bolivians have rounded up him and his men, tying them up in an old schoolbus and setting the whole thing on fire. An ambitious young Chechen, Mayrbek, gets free and frees the rest of the Chechens, but Hank gets left on the bus and - for the sake of the Barge - dies. :(
Sample Journal Entry: Hank on the TDM
Sample RP: [OOC: This is from a Barge-setting PSL thread Gwen and I were doing as voice testing, let me know if you need a different sample!]
NoHo Hank is one of the people whose texts Barry has been ignoring. Relentlessly cheerful, he has been sending lots of emoticons - the text-only nature of the communicators doesn't slow him down much, though he does miss his bitmoji, gifs and memes, they're super fun, no? - and messages to check in with his buddy in the days since he got out of the lockup down in the bottom of the ship, regardless of whether Barry replies or not.
Finally, after about a week since Barry's release, Hank decides to take matters into his own hands. He heads to the kitchen first, having ingratiated himself with a number of the wardens and inmates who work there since he arrived. He likes to have a bead on the food, so sue him! He chats a little with Peeta and Marcus, then stops by Alfie's workstation, the bearded inmate's hands covered in flour, to see what kind of baked goods he has this morning. He leaves well-provisioned for the task ahead and trots down the stairs.
Rapping on Barry's door, he taps his foot. No answer.
He raps again, a cheerful rhythm to his knock.
Still nothing.
"Barry? Open up," Hank leans in close to the door and sings out, his voice confident. He's getting in there one way or the other. "I know you are in there, man. It's me, NoHo Hank!"
Special Notes:
User DW:
jessihoneyE-mail: jess.piggin at gmail
Other Characters: Trilla Suduri, Eddie Kaspbrak
Character Name: North Hollywood Henry aka NoHo Hank (likely not his real name, though it was probably the Russian/Chechen version of Henry, either Хенри/Henri or Хенрик/Henrik)
Series: Barry
Age: 39
From When?: Season 2, Episode 7. After being trapped on the BBQ bus by the Burmese mafia and being abandoned there by his own gang, he succumbs to smoke inhalation and dies.
Inmate/Warden: Inmate. Although Hank is a polite and friendly dude in general, he is also a high-level member (and leader of the LA branch by his canon point) in an organised crime gang. He has definitely killed people, hurt people, and fucked people over. The Chechan mafia run drugs and guns and other things that directly harm people. Hank is in the mob for a lot of reasons and doesn't get joy out of the bad things, but he certainly is complicit and directly responsible for a lot of bad shit.
Item: N/A
Arrival: Hank has just died, he's turning up with no idea what's happening.
Abilities/Powers: No powers, he's a normal human. He has trained with a variety of guns, although not to a military level, and he has had some hand-to-hand combat training. He also has been in prison and has skills as a thief. However, he much prefers not to get his hands dirty if possible.
Personality: NoHo Hank comes off as a good-natured, polite, friendly dude. And for the most part, he is. He genuinely likes helping people, team-building, making people comfortable, and having fun. He likes to connect with people, to make friends, and enjoys reading self-help books, cooking, and playing team sports. He is generally unflappable, even when people insult or demean him, bouncing back with positivity. It's not that he doesn't recognise the insults, it's that he specifically chooses not to let them affect him. At nearly 40 years old, Hank has adopted a mostly very zen attitude to life, he even calls himself "an optometrist by nature". If he was in any other line of work, he would be totally fine. But instead of going into hotel management or some other nice, polite line of work, Hank went into organised crime.
Hank, as a young man, was troubled, struggling with his sexuality and the lack of opportunities in his home country. He always idolised the "cool" bad guys in movies and television, taking the absolute wrong message from media like Scarface and The Godfather, and idolising Stovka, the best assassin in Chechnya. He joined the Chechen mob at a young age. Partly, this was just down to not having other options in the extremely repressive third world country of Chechnya, but there was definitely also a part of him that wanted to have that cool underworld life he saw in movies. Plus, being a gay man in Chechnya is straight-up a death sentence, so proving himself as a manly and dangerous criminal with the protection of a crime family behind him was also a big plus. In the Chechen mob, Hank found a camaraderie, even as a young man, when he was acting tougher and meaner than he really felt.
Hank is not necessarily a naturally violent dude, but he has been involved in organised crime his whole life at this point, and he is extremely desensitised to violence. When Vasha is filing Fuches's teeth to torture him, Hank is off to the side casually showing Goran how to use a smartphone app. He has hurt, tortured, and killed people; he has no qualms with the violence inherent in the drug trade and what damage it causes to innocent people. He survived three years in prison, and prisons in Chechnya are extremely hard and violent places. He has no moral aversion to violence, because that's really the only life he's ever known. While at this point in his life he doesn't exactly like to get his hands dirty himself if he can help it - although he will if it is necessary - his first solution when something goes wrong is to send someone to threaten or kill the person causing the problem, such as when he instantly goes to find Barry and hire him to kill Esther after she shows up at the stash house for a parlay with Cristobal, then immediately takes Akhmal to shoot Barry after he fails to actually assassinate her. Reacting with a violent sneak attack is his learned first instinct.
He is very rarely cold-blooded about it - violence is usually a means to an end for him, or a quick emotional reaction - but we do see him threaten Barry in a markedly different way at the start of the second season. At this point, Hank has taken over as the leader of the Chechens and when he first finds Barry to ask him to kill Esther, Barry insults Hank, calling him an idiot, and refuses to perform the hit. Hank waits for him after the acting class and this exchange follows:
HANK: "You have to understand: I am not asking you to do this hit, I am telling you."
BARRY: "Hank, relax, man."
HANK: "I am relaxed, okay? I am super relaxed guy. But now I'm the boss. And you really disrespected me. So you're doing this, because if you do not, I tell Goran's family who really killed him, and this place - and all of your friends - they go bye-bye. Do you believe me now? You still think I am "fucking idiot"?"
BARRY: (shakes his head)
HANK: "Good. Good. Don't fuck with me, Barry. It's not polite."
Hank in this scene is cold, calculated, and deeply threatening. It's a glimpse of a different man, Hank more as he was as an angry 20-something, deeply focused on his reputation and his own desires. He is willing to kill innocent people to get what he wants. It may not be something he wants to do or gets any particular enjoyment out of, but he will do it.
Another glimpse of this more serious Hank is when Barry has his gun trained on him, point-blank and he's about to shoot him. Despite how terrified and full of adrenaline he is (he throws up immediately after, once Barry decides not to kill him), Hank accepts his fate, telling Barry to just "do it", because he's "a dead man anyway". Hank is aware that his life is likely to be cut short, he knows the consequence of the violent world he lives in. He knows if he leaves the family or betrays them, he will be killed. He knows that there's a high chance if he stays loyal to the family, he will die in a gang war.
In fact, at the canonpoint Hank is from, he has just died as a consequence of his criminal life. He and his Chechens have been captured by the Bolivians and Burmese and have been driven out into the desert on a schoolbus to all be burnt alive. While the Burmese gang is splashing the whole thing down with gasoline, Hank has a very self-aware running confession that he makes (while the young Chechen sharpshooter and wannabe-boss, Mayrbek, is getting everyone else out the back of the bus and fighting back against the Burmese):
HANK: What are they doing? Okay, shit, yeah, gasoline. Okay, they're - they're gonna burn us. Wow. Oh boy, alright, this is it. Yeah, this is it, I've killed us all. Okay, um, hey guys? Since we're all about to die in a moment, I have to be honest about something, okay? I have been deceiving you guys and before we die I have to come clean. I know you look at me and you see hard-as-nails criminal, stone cold killer, ice man, but, uh, this is lie. In fact, I have been lying about who I am my entire life. Real talk? I should not be manager of crime syndicate, I should be manager of hotel - chain of hotels - instead of being this conning man. Playing the role of the ruthless gangster? I mean, that is not who I am, because the truth bomb of it is -[ind] a lot of you, so be it - I'm nice. I'm polite. I am optometrist by nature, you know? But because I did not have courage to stand up and be my true self, nice guy, and instead chose pants-on-fire existence, we are all on the barbeque bus. So guys, I am really sorry for, uh, convincing you I was ruthless leader. I will regret it for the rest of my life, probably two more minutes. So in closing, hopefully there's afterlife and I can host you all in heaven and make you delicious appetisers. Wouldn't that be something, guys? Guys?
However, although this is a nice, self-aware realisation from Hank, it's also not one that really has a lasting effect on him. He mostly regrets getting the guys he thinks of as his friends killed. (They probably wouldn't call him their friend, as much as that's how he wants to be known.) As soon as the imminent danger has passed and Mayrbek rescues him off the barbeque bus (in the show, not for Barge purposes) Hank goes right back to his gang leader position. Although Mayrbek kills Khasam (the traitor who told their plans to the Burmese mob) before Hank has a chance to, he almost certainly would have ordered his death anyway. While he recognises that his life in the crime syndicate is probably not the best fit for him, especially the decisions he makes as the boss, he still steps right back into it. He will not be immediately redeemed just through acknowledging that he's probably not the right guy for the job, because it was still the only job in town, and at this point it's really all he knows.
Although it's not immediately obvious, Hank does have some insecurities. One of Hank's biggest motivators is his desire to be liked and to have a bunch of close friends and a group to belong to. He loves being accepted and validated by his social group. Being seen as intimidating or a figure of power is important to him too, but it's mostly in a childish way, because being frightening and powerful means you're cool. When Barry asks him if he, Barry, is an evil person, Hank is quick to reassure him that "you're, like, the most evil guy I know," and seems genuinely worried he hasn't provided Barry with enough validation, saying, "Do I not tell you that enough?" This is really more a reflection on Hank than it is on Barry. He finds it difficult to be the boss of his gang, trying to both be their friends but also maintain his authority.
All this said, Hank really feels more comfortable when he has a leader he can look up to and follow - especially when that leader treats him more as a friend and allows him to exercise his own judgement and explore his own ideas. Being second-in-command is really more his speed. In the first season of the show, Goran was his main leader. Hank followed his orders, laughed at his jokes, and backed him up. Goran allowed him to use his judgement a little, such as Hank's idea of sending a bullet through DHL to the Bolivians before having one of their guys killed by Barry, although Goran's trust was eroded by the end of the first season. He started to view Hank as a failure and weak because of his
Cristobal, the Bolivian leader, is a much better fit for a partnership in a lot of ways, at least on the surface. He allows Hank to express his own ideas and stretch his creative muscles with decorating the stash house and setting up team-building between the Chechens and Bolivians as their partnership grows. However, Cristobal, despite seeming outwardly supportive and approving of Hank's ideas, also tends to overrun Hank, ignoring his feelings and believing his ideas are better than Hank's. He doesn't take Hank seriously.
While he tends to be an outwardly friendly guy, Hank definitely has a petty streak in him when his authority is threatened - or when his object of interest/affection takes interest in someone else - which is shown when Akhmal insults him on the rooftop as they're trying to kill Barry and Hank kicks him in the shoulder Barry just shot, and when Esther tells him he "must make the time" to read all the self-help books Cristobal has given him and Hank just snaps at her to "please do not eavesdrop", plus the way he constantly pettily insults her appearance. He even dreams about upstaging Thomas Friedman on a talk show after falling asleep reading his book.
Hank is articulate and talkative, and tends to use a lot of pop culture references and malapropisms. He references Space Jam, Fleetwood Mac, Seal, John Wick, Sonny and Cher, Air Jordan and others. He uses memes and has a Bitmoji of himself. He calls himself a gearhead, saying he "loves gack", enjoying gadgets and tech. He fusses over finding the right "heroin table", which he says "is a thing on Pinterest, but not on Amazon". Other than being a crime boss, he's kind of a goofy dude.
Barge Reactions: Hank comes from a totally normal Earth, no magic or supernatural elements, so he's certainly going to be surprised by the Barge and all it entails. However, Hank is a pretty laid-back and relentlessly positive guy who tends to make the best of any situation he finds himself in. He will do his best to adjust and learn the ropes, and he won't be a kind of resentful or sullen inmate. Away from his crime lord responsibilities, he's going to feel less pressure and consequently, he's probably going to focus on making friends and enjoy the weird strange experiences the Barge has to offer.
Path to Redemption: Hank really needs someone to help him form his own moral compass that doesn't revolve around "lol guns are cool". He really has what amounts to a teen boy's view of the world: gangs and guns and drug money is cool and fun and everyone should totally aspire to be Tony Montana. Admittedly, coming from the incredibly poor and dangerous country of Chechnya and being in close contact with the Chechen mob all his life, there weren't a lot of other options for him, but he tends to view it all as a big Boys' Own adventure with his pals. He likes to hang out with his buddies, playing volleyball at their cool cocaine stash house and making money through drug running and stolen goods.
Hank needs to really recognise and acknowledge how his actions and the actions of his gang affect other people, and he also needs help to truly understand there are actually other options for him. The pull of family and also the feeling of not having anywhere else to go are incredibly strong for him and these patterns will likely be difficult to break through. He's unlikely to be violent of his own accord unless confronted or on orders from someone he considers a leader, so he definitely comes across as more mild-mannered, however he is completely desensitised to violence. When he is disrespected as a leader or his ego is bruised, he can lash out both verbally and physically.
He needs a warden who will be his friend but will also push him to confront difficult things seriously. As Hank tends to be someone who emotionally needs a leader, someone to look up to and idolise, he will probably fuck up and fall in with bad crowds during his time on the Barge. A warden who won't judge him on that, but will also tell him why the decisions he's making are not good and helps to push him to do better is important, as he needs to learn to both make better choices and trust his own instincts with those choices, instead of blindly following whoever he's currently latched onto as his "leader".
His redemption is deceptively simple - he needs to learn that hurting people is bad - but he's been living in this organised crime world for at least 25 years at this point, including a stint in prison, and he's definitely going to need a lot of work to actually understand this point.
Deal: N/A
History: There really is unfortunately no good history I can link for Hank. It just doesn't exist. This is the backstory I've cobbled together from both hints and other stuff in the show, plus extrapolations from real world history etc.
Hank was born in Chechnya in the late 70s. His family was not high up in the mob - or necessarily working for them at all - but they certainly knew of mafia activity, either through proximity or working with/for them by necessity. He went to preschool with Batir - a mob boss based back in Chechnya - and was likely intertwined with the mob "family" from a young age. I don't think he was particularly close to his parents, as he never mentions them in the show; they may be dead, or they have distanced themselves from him. Either way, they aren't a part of his life at this point.
Due to the political situation and treatment of LGBT+ folks in Chechnya, Hank certainly would not have been comfortable being a gay man, and his early life would likely have been full of trying to "prove" himself as manly enough. He was violent and joined the mafia as a young man, probably working with them in an informal capacity as a teenager.
By his mid-20s, he was moving up in the ranks. He idolised violent mob characters in movies, and definitely dreamed of going to America. He very much bought into the "America as the land of opportunity" idea. I think he either volunteered or tried to make himself available for mob assignments outside of the country of Chechnya. Initially, these were probably short one-off things around Eastern Europe, but Hank has a knack for fitting in wherever he lands and probably did very well on these jobs. He ended up working for a branch of the mob based in another country, perhaps Greece or Germany, and never really looked back, rising up as a competent ruthless gangster.
Hank's tattoos tell parts of his story. He worked as a thief and he has definitely killed someone. He was convicted at least once, and served 3 out of 6 years in prison. He also says he has previously been shot. I think these facts, as well as his more grown-up, upbeat attitude and the way he tries to solve problems in a constructive and helpful way by his canonpoint, point towards the idea that around the same time he went to prison, he was shot and had a near-death experience. This and his time in prison changed his attitude and he started to want to be more true to himself around his early 30s.
Some time after this, Hank was picked as one of a few mob members to branch out to America. The group says they have only been in California for a few months, however Hank seems to be extremely comfortable in LA and in the USA in general, so I think he probably has been there for at least a few years, possibly up to four or five, making arrangements and setting the stage for when Goran (his boss at the start of the series) arrived and helping him and his family settle in when he got there. Hank immediately took to America like a duck to water, changing his name to the Americanised "Hank" and got the moniker "NoHo Hank" after the area he was based in, North Hollywood.
Then the series happens.
Important events for Hank through the series: meeting and hiring Barry to kill Goran's wife's affair partner; Barry shooting Hank in the shoulder after Hank tries to kill him thinking he isn't doing his job; Goran using Barry to take over the Bolivian "stash house"; Cristobal, the Bolivian leader, coming to America for revenge; Barry killing Goran after Hank let him know Goran was going to kill Fuches; Hank taking over as leader of the Chechens; moving into the stash house and brokering a 50-50 partnership with Cristobal and the Bolivians ("our natural enemies"); Esther, the Burmese leader, coming between him and Cristobal; Hank hiring Barry to kill her; attempting to kill Barry when he fails to kill Esther; hiring Barry to train the Chechens into an army to stage a coup and get rid of the Burmese themselves; this plan being foiled and Hank and his men being captured.
Hank is coming from season 2, episode 7, "The Audition", when Esther's Burmese and Cristobal's Bolivians have rounded up him and his men, tying them up in an old schoolbus and setting the whole thing on fire. An ambitious young Chechen, Mayrbek, gets free and frees the rest of the Chechens, but Hank gets left on the bus and - for the sake of the Barge - dies. :(
Sample Journal Entry: Hank on the TDM
Sample RP: [OOC: This is from a Barge-setting PSL thread Gwen and I were doing as voice testing, let me know if you need a different sample!]
NoHo Hank is one of the people whose texts Barry has been ignoring. Relentlessly cheerful, he has been sending lots of emoticons - the text-only nature of the communicators doesn't slow him down much, though he does miss his bitmoji, gifs and memes, they're super fun, no? - and messages to check in with his buddy in the days since he got out of the lockup down in the bottom of the ship, regardless of whether Barry replies or not.
Finally, after about a week since Barry's release, Hank decides to take matters into his own hands. He heads to the kitchen first, having ingratiated himself with a number of the wardens and inmates who work there since he arrived. He likes to have a bead on the food, so sue him! He chats a little with Peeta and Marcus, then stops by Alfie's workstation, the bearded inmate's hands covered in flour, to see what kind of baked goods he has this morning. He leaves well-provisioned for the task ahead and trots down the stairs.
Rapping on Barry's door, he taps his foot. No answer.
He raps again, a cheerful rhythm to his knock.
Still nothing.
"Barry? Open up," Hank leans in close to the door and sings out, his voice confident. He's getting in there one way or the other. "I know you are in there, man. It's me, NoHo Hank!"
Special Notes: