#about hunk

Behold, older H.U.N.K.

spice: poppy seeds

weather event / natural disaster: avalanche

color: black

plant: drosera

animal: rat

weapon: rifle

subject / major: dropout

gemstone / mineral: obsidian

make-up product: concealer

candy: horehound drops

fear: death

method of long-distance travel: helicopter

art style: expressionism

poem: invictus by william ernest henley, or we real cool by gwendolyn brooks (the former is how he sees himself, the latter is how i see him.)

wood: ebony

mythological creature: boogeyman

celestial body: meteorite

romcom archetype: brooding loner (I'm sorry to say this, he's like Angel from Buffy. its true. he'd suck that bad in a romcom scenario. i'm sorry i had to say it.)

Tagged by: nobody, stole from dash

Thought-Provoking Headcanon Meme

(I talked a bit about it here, but since it's pretty much canon that HUNK is from a "developing" country [I'm putting that in quotes because, well, I think it's an inappropriate term, but I think it's significantly less offensive than the term 'third world'.] and I do believe he is someone that once had little to nothing, suffice to say, in this case, he was in fact, a poor person himself.

I think to have lived that way, to have known it, means he is not interested in unnecessary violence or cruelty for the fun of it. But that also isn't the norm for most mercenaries, and he doesn't expect the people around him to not abuse their power and harm others. The truth is, the poor and disenfranchised may be where he came from, but it is because he came from there that he knows what people around him are thinking -- they are the least likely to fight back, the least likely to do something about it. The strong do what they can, the weak suffer what they must.

In this world, being 'poor' is in fact, a weakness, and one that can be exploited. Truth is, working for a megacorporation is going to remind you of that fact every waking moment you're around them.

He sees people that don't want to cheat the system. He sees the people that want to 'pull themselves up by the bootstraps' [btw did you know that terminology is purposefully an oxymoron? nobody can pull themselves up by a bootstrap because then you'd just fall over. that's what the term means. it means doing something impossible. except people now use it to genuinely mean somehow getting out of something. I just thought that was interesting. ok, dumb aside over.] he knows that they don't want to hurt, don't want to harm, don't want to take the easy way out. Is it admirable? Maybe. Does he respect it? No. At some point you have to look your starving child in the mouth and say 'I've taken it upon myself to not commit crimes for our pride.' and realize that mentality will get you killed.

The phrase 'I had no choice' will always be met with resistance. Yes. Yes you did have a choice. Your choice was survive or starve. It's not that he never had a choice. It's that he was so disenfranchised, that his only choices were, in fact, violence, or death

Make no mistake, HUNK knows that the real enemy is the people that put them in this situation, people who make their wallets fat on war and violence and food scarcity and diseases-- but he also works for that enemy. If you can't beat em, join em.

Still, he's not going to look a child in the face, see them skin and bones, with clothing on so graciously donated from the 'developed' world, children playing in the mud with Umbrella-logo t-shirts on, and scraped knees and shrapnel in their arms, and bandaged eyes and think. 'I should take advantage of this'.

It's just, at the same time, he knows giving them all the money in his wallet also wont save them. It will only buy them time. He'll buy them that time, don't get me wrong, but it will be gone quick, and the maw of hunger and poverty is ever growing.

It's very easy for me to say 'ah, HUNK is a good guy, he'd do good things for the poor, he'd give them his money and food and the clothes off his back' but he IS Umbrella. Don't think for a second he doesn't know that. Don't think for a second he doesn't recognize that Umbrella took advantage of him because he was a poor Eastern European boy, don't think for a second he doesn't know Umbrella has history of stealing from Africa, stealing from the collapsed countries of the former Soviet Union, that they aren't built on the basis of European aristocracy, and white supremacy through eugenics. HUNK is not cruel to the poor directly, he's not going to kick them and spit on them and harm them, but he is doing something much worse.

the eternal quest to learn anything about HUNK at all

Did he have a good relationship with his family?

Yes he did! He had a large extended family, probably many aunts and uncles, many cousins, but he didn't have siblings. There were always children around, of course, but HUNK grew up more attentive to his family and the world around him, since his parents themselves weren't very used to talking to children, and the adults around him didn't treat him like one.

There is very vague canon information that HUNK is meant to be 'Eastern European' according to one of the devs of the original RE2, so I've mentioned that in some posts. He is probably from the USSR, at least before it fell, but he left long before that happened. He's from one of the many subjugated countries. Which one? He won't say.

What was his father like, if they knew each other at all?

His father is terrible. Militaristic, aggressive, mean, vicious, and overall a very unhappy person. He would just sit in silence and smoke or drink or both. He spoke angrily, you'd think his voice is a perpetual growl, he was violent with HUNK, he was rude and bitter and traumatized. He never 'taught' HUNK anything, he would do things as routine, and HUNK would teach himself. From things like tying his shoes, to things like sharpening knives or cleaning automatic weapons, HUNK was not taught a thing, he had to watch and figure it out or get left behind.

You might be wondering why I said he had a good relationship then.

Well, HUNK is an adult man now, he feels no need to 'forgive' his father for anything, but he understands his father was a person. He was going to, inevitably, fuck up. He knows his father didn't want to be attached to him. Children in the country didn't have the greatest chance of living. (HUNK doesn't really recall being a child. Not feeling like one, anyway. He's felt like an old man ever since he was a small boy.)

He knows his father was selfish, and taking care of his own interests, and is HUNK not doing the same? HUNK does not respect him as a father, but he empathizes with him as a survivor.

You might be wondering why I'm saying "is" instead of "was".

His parents are still alive.

But if in RE9 he's 70 to 80 years old, his parents would be over 100!

Correct.

They are.

He still sends part of his check to them.

Why do you think he's still working?

(Wow. What a fucking idiot.

Okay, well, that would be his FIRST reaction, but naturally his confusion would be from Wesker being alive to begin with [I know we have our headcanons that HUNK knew anyway, but I still think he would be surprised that Wesker persisted after that] and I think he would be, well, a bit surprised.

As for how he found out this information, well, it would have to have come through the grapevine. It would be a casual conversation. Over a smoke. Water cooler. Hey, you remember that guy from Umbrella? He died. Yeah, just the other day.

HUNK isn't much for small talk, I wouldn't even be surprised if he wasn't told this information directly. I wouldn't even be surprised if he didn't hear it until MONTHS after Al was gone. The thing that would hit him first is just the news that he's dead. He's gone.

Then comes the reason why.

Once that part comes, I think HUNK would genuinely not believe it's real. He'd think it'd be yet another hoax like the first time Wesker died. No, that can't be true. It certainly isn't what happened. In Africa? He did that? With what? A virus stronger than the T-virus? A direct strain from the Progenitor? Which the T-virus is a watered down version down to the millionth percentile? No. That can't be true. He was a smart person.

Maybe not that smart, but surely not that stupid.

The thing is, the world is going to move around HUNK, regardless of if he has time to process it. It's awful and sickening, and I just don't think he'd have time to pay attention to it. He would push it to the back of his mind. Push it out of his system. It has to be a hoax. It can't be true.

I think HUNK doesn't realize how much of that mentality is not just absurdity, but his own doubt. Wesker faked his death once before. He'll see him again. Wake up, and find Wesker looming over him, angry, frustrated, ready to take his anger out on him.

That is, of course, a part of their friendship. Seeing him again after years, like nothing had happened between them.

This is going out of canon entirely, but I like the idea that it's possibly Alex Wesker that makes him face the reality. Not on purpose, not really for any reason, she just hires a task force to go retrieve the Uroboros virus for her purposes on Sein. Maybe he is one of the people hired. Or maybe another person hires him for similar reasons. Enough for him to have to mentally realize he's about to see for himself.

But there is nothing to see. Just an active volcano. Just Kijuju itself, just people who have to be slaughtered for the virus, the strange worm-like disease, and the realization that, yes, this is all that remains of Albert Wesker.

He'd hand over the virus no problem, but it would start to hit, like the feeling of a disease overcoming him. He'd probably even feel sick, need time off, get checked out (have to make sure he didn't get infected) and rest. The resting makes him even worse. He doesn't want to think, but he's too ill to actually work, and he doesn't know what that sickness is. It feels like a pain in his stomach that's getting worse. He'd drink the feeling away like always, but it doesn't go away. His throat burns and the next day he's sick and vomiting, but it's still there.

The problem is Wesker is more than his friend, HUNK was a mentor to him, he was, as painful as it is to accept it, proud of Wesker. Proud when he survived the mansion. Proud when he broke away from Umbrella. Proud when he watched him work, watched him think, proud when he was able to correct Wesker's thoughts, focus him, ground him. He liked smoking with him. Drinking with him. Talking with him. Doing nothing with him. Sitting in the silence and watching the cars pass by and-- damn it that was a while ago, this shouldn't mean anything anymore.

I think, when he passes on the Uroboros Virus, he holds the vial too long, just for a moment, before handing it off. Just like a certain someone with the G-virus sample.

✎ㅤ. . .ㅤ𝑯𝑬𝑨𝑫𝑪𝑨𝑵𝑶𝑵 𝑸𝑼𝑬𝑺𝑻𝑰𝑶𝑵𝑺.

(It depends heavily on what type of 'alone' this would be.

If he's at home, safe, alone, he hardly allows himself to think of anything. When he's completely alone he has that time afforded to himself. Smoking, drinking, watching movies, doing chores. The latter is the rarest, not because he doesn't take care of himself, but that he hardly ever does it, his home can be described as 'barely used' because he's typically on jobs that have him moving around. (South Pacific one day, Umbrella Europe the other, sometimes Antarctica, Africa, China, America, I hardly doubt he hasn't been to every continent.) Suffice to say if he's safe, he's typically distracted, and if not, he will choose to distract himself.

If he's out in the field, on the run, injured, isolated, around enemies, his mind will wander, but he will do everything in his power to stop it from wandering. HUNK probably looks strange in that way, sitting upright, looking around ever so often, unable to sleep, too busy perceiving the threats around him. His mind wanders back to home, an older home, one he doesn't talk about, but he is very particular about willing that thought away. HUNK does everything he can in these moments to stay focused on the mission and can look and act like an emotionless husk at times.

Medical recovery is probably the worst times, when he has survived his injuries, he is 'safe' a hospital or Umbrella facility, getting his wounds cleaned, his blood tested for viruses, his bones healed his bruises covered, and his adrenaline is spent. He's just hurt. He sits there alone, and weak, and hurts. He can't take care of himself, he can't distract himself, he just has to heal, and then he thinks of what he considers "pointless" things. Childhood, home, his parents, things that wont do him any good to remember.

Thought-Provoking Headcanon Meme

💧 - How would your muse react to losing a best friend? How would they cope?

(HUNK has the luxury of hiding his expressions behind a mask, but even if his mask was removed, his reaction would be very strange to watch.

I think he would have a normal, human reaction. Eyes wide, jaw slightly slack, especially if it was fast, or sudden. He would experience the most shocking, gripping, desperate feelings he has ever felt in his life.

Then it would go.

He would feel numb. His face would fall, and he'd go back to looking like his normal self. The same thought drips back in. 'What did I expect?' He would continue on with his day, continue on with his life. Even if it was his best friend? Especially if it was his best friend. He has killed so many, he always expects that retaliation will happen, that he will have something taken from him, and indeed he has had many things taken from him, family, friends, strangers, lovers, so he has had a long time to practice this feeling.

HUNK would seem unaffected, almost cruel, and secure himself in that. He would retreat to his safehouse or whatever place he currently is holed up in, and drink. Drink and drink until it hurts and his head is light and dizzy, and his chest burns and his stomach feels like a warm pit. If he cries while drunk, he lets it happen, but it usually doesn't happen. He shed most of his tears as a child and does his best not to cry anymore.

Thought-Provoking Headcanon Meme

⌛️ - How often does your muse think about death? Do they think about it at all?

(Well, given his everything, it would be strange to say he doesn't think about it. So I think I should say more so that he thinks about it in a strange way. He doesn't look at it as an option even if it's staring him in the face.

In the RE2Remake scenario, HUNK tells the helicopter pilot to abandon him, and just leave for safety. This doesn't end the mission. In fact, it continues on, so when the helicopter appears again, HUNK is actually not expecting it, and asks why they came back.

I assume that he keeps going because, regardless of if the helicopter came back or not, he would have, in fact, continued to run, he would have kept going, no matter how impossible it is.

I think death is more like an obstacle to him. Something he has to get around, something he has to keep away from, but it's always going to be there, he has to plan around it, plan for it. I don't think he has a terribly negative feeling about it, although naturally I think he generally has a negative reaction to it, in the sense that, well, he is a living being and he prefers to live.

The thing I think he doesn't think about is growing old. He didn't think that would happen. But thanks to RE9 (for what its worth) he's still fighting, and he's at least 70 years old by now.

(I also really dont respect RE9 saying he wants a 'noble death' and that Leon is somehow a noble person to grant him that death. HUNK should have no idea who Leon is, and he also shouldn't care, and he also shouldn't be picking cowabunga suicide fights just so he can die honorably in combat so he can go to Dipshit Idiot Mercenary Valhalla, this is completely antithetical to the lore and just makes Leon look like an insane god warrior just for no reason and also the fight is like 10 hits and its over and -- I DIGRESS)

He's getting old, and he didn't expect that. He's not looking for a way out, he just wants to survive, he always wants to survive. It's always going to be a part of who he is. I'm sure his time is running out, but he's accepted that. He's made peace a long time ago. Leaving this world doesn't seem so bad.