Howard Phillips Lovecraft

Howard Phillips Lovecraft (ハワード・フィリップス・ラヴクラフト,) was a member of The Guild.

Appearance
Lovecraft superficially appears to be a tall, gaunt man with very emaciated features and dull, blank, dark gray eyes. He has dark, slightly wavy hair that reaches well past his waist, and is always seen pulled back so that it all falls behind him.

Clothing-wise, Lovecraft wears a white dress shirt and dark gray slacks, as well as a thin black belt around his waist. He wears a long tie, which is depicted as black in the anime, but patterned with a design of circles and diagonal lines in the manga. He wears a pair of dark gray loafers. Over all of this, Lovecraft wears a long, dark brown trench coat with three buckles towards the middle on each side. However, the most distinguishing feature of this coat is that it is in tatters, appearing nearly shredded at the bottom of the coat and at its cuffs.

When using his "Ability," Lovecraft sprouts numerous tentacles dotted with suction cups and holes along their surface at random intervals, and are undefined in length. In the anime, these tentacles are portrayed as a shade of dull green.

Personality
Howard appears to be a fairly odd person, for example, as he and John Steinbeck were chasing after the Armed Detective Companies Clerk's he was seen counting the wood grains before being told they weren't real. He also appears to be fairly non-chalant to battle, as he apparently fell asleep after being shot in the back by Kunikida.

After the war, his oddness shows itself even more. As he states in Chapter 37 that since his Contract with Fitzgerald is null that he'll be going to sleep, and thus he walks into the ocean.

Ability
The Great Old Ones (旧支配者,) is an ability that allows Lovecraft to transform either a part or his whole body into a monster with lots of tentacles. And in this state, he is only vulnerable from the inside. In addition, even after being destroyed from the inside by Chūya and Dazai, he eventually regenerates.

It is later known that The Great Old Ones is not an ability as Dazai is unable to nullify it.

Lovecraft's ability has many similarities to author H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu from "The Call of Cthulhu."

Plot
Lovecraft first appears in Chapter 18 with Steinbeck when he crashed his truck. He then later on appears with Steinbeck and the other Guild members during the conflict with the Armed Detective Agency and the Port Mafia.

Lovecraft then goes on to appear in Chapter 22 with Steinbeck after accepting the Mafia's proposal to capture the clerks of the Agency as bait, despite knowing that it was a trap.

In Chapter 23 & Chapter 24 Lovecraft and Steinbeck are seen fighting against Kunikida and Tanizaki but end up surrendering to the local police.

In Chapter 27, he encounters Yumeno Kyusaku on the streets by chance.

Lovecraft, together with Steinbeck, makes an appearance again in Chapter 31, where they both ambush Dazai who came to rescue Yumeno Kyusaku. However, Chūya Nakahara makes an unexpected appearance, resulting in their defeat and Q's rescue.

Lovecraft's final known appearance was in Chapter 37, when the other Guild members were discussing the fate of The Guild, Lovecraft appears, mentioning something about a "contract" before walking into the ocean and disappearing.

Trivia

 * His ability, The Great Old Ones is a reference to Cthulhu's origins, a 'Great Old One' is a God of extra-dimensional origins.
 * The Great Old Ones is not an ability.
 * It is heavily implied by his dialogue about a "contract" with Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald that he actually is the "Great Old One" he transforms into, particularly due to him disappearing into the sea at the end of the Three-way War arc.