App for thewake

[dontwigout]

Personal Information
Name: Chi
Age: 18
Personal Journal: winterbolt
Email / AIM / MSN / Plurk: winterbolt
Current Character(s): N/A

Character Information
Character Name: Hogarth Hughes
Fandom: The Iron Giant
Source: Here

Character History:
Hogarth hails from the presumably sleepy little town of Rockwell, Maine in the year 1957, during which the current social issues concerning Russia and Sputnik are what has the country on the edge of its seat. He lives with his widowed mother (his father was killed, presumably three years prior to the events of the movie), Annie, who works at a local diner in town and rents out a spare room to make ends meet.

Hogarth’s story begins when he brings a squirrel to the diner that he found to show to his mother, begging her to allow him to keep it as a pet. During the inevitable commotion of Hogarth’s squirrel getting loose, he overhears some fishermen talking about an “invader from Mars” that crash landed into the sea. In addition, seemingly anything metallic has been turning up with pieces bitten out of them, a phenomenon that nobody can seem to explain. Of course Hogarth is intrigued by the things he hears, and when he discovers his TV’s antennae bitten off later that night, he takes matters into his own hands and heads out to investigate.

Armed with only an aviator’s outfit and a BB gun, Hogarth sets out into the woods late at night. After some time walking he stumbles upon a power plant, discovering more than he bargained for in the form of a 50-foot tall robot. Frightened, he watches transfixed as the robot attempts to eat the metal structure. It isn’t long before the robot becomes entangled in the plant’s power cables and in his panic Hogarth flees a short distance into the forest, only to come rushing back as an after thought. Seeing the robot appear to be in considerable pain from the electrocution, the boy darts over and manages to shut off the power, saving him. The minute he collapses Hogarth flees once more, back to the woods where Annie eventually finds him and takes him back home.

With the robot still being very much alive, Hogarth heads back into the forest the next morning with a camera, hoping he’ll be able to get his discovery on film. His bait of choice is a piece of metal, and after finding a spot to sit he hunkers down to wait for the robot to appear. It takes far longer than he expected, but come the robot does. He discovers that the robot is a more docile creature than he’d anticipated, having apparently seen Hogarth’s saving him as he brought back the switch from the power plant to the boy. He also realizes that this robot has no memory of what happened to him when he crashed to earth, nor can he speak. Like any boy his age Hogarth is thrilled to have found a real live robot. He doesn’t waste any time starting to teach the Giant, as he names him, what things are and how things work, as well as how to speak- more or less.

Hogarth quickly learns that keeping a robot of this size of his very own will be no simple task. The Giant does seem innocent at the very least, but the boy has to work hard to make sure he fully understands things, mostly the difference between right and wrong, as well as the fact that he can’t just go around eating any piece of metal that he sees. As it gets later, Hogarth decides it’s time to head home and orders the robot to stay behind, assuring him that he will return the following day- but no matter how hard he tries, the Giant follows him. Of course this sort of thing isn’t going to be acceptable, and Hogarth knows it.

An incident not soon after involving a train colliding with the Giant while Hogarth got him to fix a set of train tracks he tried to eat reveals to the boy that the Giant is capable of repairing himself, all of the broken pieces of his body able to be drawn back to him. This gave Hogarth a window to get the Giant into a barn near his house, a temporary hide-out for the robot until he could think of something better.

Unfortunately, the incidents involving the power plant, the stories of the fishermen, and the reported accounts of damaged cars and tractors alert a U.S. government agent, Kent Mansley. During his investigation of the power plant he discovers Hogarth’s BB gun, which he accidentally left behind when he saved the Giant. Of course this prompts Mansley to make his way to Hogarth’s house, renting out the spare room so he can get closer to the boy and ask questions. It isn’t long before Hogarth’s strange behavior leads Mansley to believe that he’s hiding something, and the fact that he’s already paranoid about the possibility of Russia creating something to attack them doesn’t help matters. For days Hogarth is hounded by Mansley, unable to get away from the man as he continues to pester him and slam him with questions. Concerned that Mansley will find the Giant so close to home, he manages to evade him long enough to find a more suitable home for the robot. This comes in the form of a junkyard owned by a beatnik named Dean McCoppin. Hogarth had briefly met Dean before when he brought the squirrel to the diner, but it does take some convincing before he allows the robot to stay, just so long as he refrains from eating the metal structures he dubs as “art”.

Once in the junkyard, it serves as a relatively safe haven for the Giant (after he’s passed off as one of Dean’s sculptures when Mansley and Lt. General Rogard come to investigate), safe enough that Hogarth can play with his new friend without having to worry about being discovered, in addition to having Dean there to look after him when he has to go home. Hogarth is able to continue teaching the Giant things during this time, one of those things being the fact of life and death when the Giant witnesses a deer being killed by hunters. He tells him how death is a part of life. It’s bad to kill, but not bad to die, because eventually everyone dies. He also explains how even though the giant is made of metal and may not ever die, he has feelings and thinks about things, and therefore has a soul, and souls don’t die.
Hogarth’s relationship strengthens with the Giant over time. He’s really the only true friend that Hogarth has ever had, and the time he spends with him is some of the happiest of his life. This peace is short lived, however, when the Giant suddenly activates weapons of destruction in retaliation to Hogarth when he pretends to shoot at him with a toy gun. Dean is able to rescue the boy before he’s killed, and angrily orders the robot to leave. Unable to believe that his friend truly meant him any harm, Hogarth gives chase, and in the meantime Dean discovers that perhaps the Giant can’t truly control it’s reaction to anything offensive- possibly being created to self defend.

Dean chases Hogarth down on his motorcycle and they both head back to town, but before they get there the Giant manages to rescue two boys about to fall from a building. The citizens of Rockwell hail the strange robot as a hero for saving the children, but they’re not the only witnesses. Mansley sees this as well and immediately wastes no time alerting the government to the Giant’s wherabouts in the city. The army immediately interprets the Giant as a threat and attacks him. During all of this Hogarth gets away from Dean and runs to the Giant’s aid, and with Hogarth in tow the Giant flees from the army. When the Giant is finally subdued Hogarth is knocked unconscious, and when the Giant finds him not far away he assumes that he’s dead. He reacts by transforming into a massive weapon as the army continues to fire at him, forcing them to retreat as the Giant appears to be unstoppable. Mansley lies to Rogard, telling him that the Giant killed Hogarth, and in addition tells him that they should lure the robot to the sea so they can destroy it with a nuclear ballistic missile from the USS Nautilus.

During all of this- after being found and brought back to town by Dean and Annie- Hogarth awakens and is able to calm the Giant down, getting him to deactivate his weapons. Meanwhile Dean explains the robot to Rogard, and realizing Mansley lied to him he goes to order the Nautilus to stand down. Mansley snatches the walkie-talkie before Rogard can however, and orders the Nautilus to fire the missile, fully convinced that the Giant is the enemy and needs to be destroyed. He failed to realize that the missile would be heading straight for Rockwell, and would not only destroy the robot, but the entire town and everyone in it as well. He tries to escape in a moment of panic, but the Giant and Rogard’s army stop him and arrest him, so that he may ‘die for his country’ along with the rest of Rockwell’s population.

Hogarth explains to the Giant that the missile is coming and cannot be stopped, and that it will destroy the town and, in turn, everyone will die. The Giant realizes that this is his chance to prove to everyone that he is a hero, not a weapon. Much to Hogarth’s dismay, he tells the boy to stay and takes off to stop the missile…and is inevitably destroyed by it.

Though devastated by the loss of his friend, Hogarth’s life becomes more stable as Annie and Dean later get together, providing the boy with a solid home life. Later, Rogard gives Hogarth a small box containing the only piece of the Giant that was recovered after he was destroyed when he stopped the missile- a small bolt from his jaw. That night Hogarth is awoken by a soft beeping from the bolt as it tries to leave through the window, and, realizing that the Giant is out there somewhere trying to put himself back together, he lets the bolt go.

Character Personality:

Hogarth is the perfect example of an average kid, even though he’s unusually smart for his age. He was able to move up a grade due to this, branding him as a bit of a social outcast that’s picked on by the bigger kids of his grade. He’s no stranger to being alone, since often his mother works late nights at the diner and doesn’t come home until he’s already asleep- …or should be asleep, rather. He doesn’t have any friends, but that suits him just fine for the most part. He occupies his time with a fascination with outer space, science fiction, comic books, and anything pertaining to the unknown.

He’s a bit rebellious and a thrill seeker, not hesitating to go out and investigate what could have caused his broken TV antennae. Though he’s only 9 years old, he’s remarkably brave, both saving the Giant from the power plant as well as rushing to his aid when he’s attacked by the army without any regard for his own well-being.

When Hogarth finds a friend in the Giant, he clings to that with everything he’s got. He devotes all of his time and energy to making sure the Giant remains a secret, on top of teaching him right from wrong, how to speak, and bringing his comics to read to him. He takes it upon himself to teach the Giant that he can be who he chooses to be. He shows him that he’s a lot like Superman, who also crash landed to earth not knowing what he was doing, but always used his powers for good and never evil. At the time Hogarth didn’t realize it, but his kindness had a deep impression on the Giant.

In the midst of everything he and the Giant go through, Hogarth relentlessly seeks to protect the Giant, his best and only friend. Even when the Giant nearly kills him in a reaction that he can’t control, Hogarth believes that he never truly meant to do him any harm. This shows Hogarth’s unusual brightness and insight for his age, able to see the good in things no matter how frightening and imposing they might be.

Though it’s obvious that Hogarth is still everything that a 9-year old might be expected to be- full of an endless supply of energy and sometimes sarcastic and snarky- he proves time and time again that he’s imaginative, introspective, bright, and sensitive. Though his true desire is to fit in with everyone else, he never seems to feel the need to change who he is to make friends. He’s the living embodiment of what he tells the Giant: You are who you choose to be.

Powers and Abilities: N/A

Samples
Network:

[There’s a bit of static before a young boy’s face can be seen, brown bangs tousled and hanging in his face as he pauses to catch his breath before speaking.]

Hey! Can- ..Can anyone hear me on this thing? Can anyone see me? Helloo!

[He realizes a moment too late that he might be a bit too close to the screen for comfort, and speaking- or yelling rather- a bit too loudly. He corrects himself by leaning back, brushing his hair from his eyes as he glances over his shoulder.]

This uh….this definitely isn’t my bedroom or my backyard, and unless Mom somehow moved me and all of our stuff somewhere else while I was sleeping, this isn’t Rockwell either.

[He leans close again with a squint, his lip curling.]

C’mon, someone’s gotta be seein’ this. Anyone? Hello? My name’s Hogarth Hughes! Could use some help here! [He pauses.] Mom? Dean?

…Giant….?

[He falters, shaking his head a bit. No, the Giant wouldn’t be here. He couldn’t be.

Right?]
Third Person:

Though the junkyard wasn’t an ideal place for a child to be spending the night, It was far from lonely. Hogarth could count on one hand the amount of times he’d found himself not feeling lonely. But here? Here he wasn’t lonely. Dean and the Giant might not be a shining example of good company, but they provided the best company Hogarth had had in a long time.

A small smile crosses his face as he watches the Giant from a short distance away, idly kicking his legs over where he sits on a pile of scrap metal. It’s hard to tell if the robot is awake or asleep, lying on his back with his head angled towards the stars above. Hogarth told him that all good things had souls. The Giant had one too, because he had feelings and thought about things, and souls never die. Though there was no way for the boy to know if that was really true or not, he’d stick by it. The robot was too innocent and kind hearted to not have a soul.

“…You’re my first friend, you know?” He whispers regardless of if the Giant hears him as he drops his chin into his hand. “You’re the first to ever really play with me…or listen to me. All the other kids just think I’m weird. Not gonna argue with that though.” He snorts, pulling his legs close to his chest before wrapping his arms around them.

“But I guess…you’ve never really had a friend either, huh? You don’t even remember anything. You don’t know what anything is. But that’s why I’m gonna keep teachin’ you stuff.” Hogarth smiles a bit more before resting his chin on his knees, glancing up at the dark sky himself without moving his head. His mother would probably be looking for him soon…

“But it’s ok. Even if you don’t learn anything else, I’ll keep on being your friend.” The boy tightens his grip around his legs as a cold breeze passes over him, causing him to shudder a bit before he can continue. “Everybody deserves to have a friend, even giant robots. …Especially giant robots. So I’ll make sure you always have a friend, Giant.” Hogarth yawns, turning his head a bit so it can more comfortably rest against his knees. He mutters one last thing before completely drifting off to sleep,

“I’ll be your friend, if you’ll be mine…”