Clyde Duval D6 - resub- {ready}

The first thing a person might notice, and the last thing that Clyde would want them to would be his hands, as his fingers are nimble , long, slender and usually picking wallets out of people’s pockets. This extends to the rest of his six foot frame, as his arms and legs are all lanky which makes fleeing the scene if he gets made a whole lot easier. He’s gaunt, a touch on the bony side, but he’s not frail. His blue-green eyes are often calculating, though not cold, as he is always devising plans but never intends for anyone to get hurt; he’s a thief, but he’s not a murderer, and considers violence to be a terrible waste of talent only suitable for criminals with no imagination.

His skin is a shade of tanned alabaster, and his hair curly locks of brown. He likes to think that he has a forgettable face, the kind that lets him blend into a crowd on account of how normal it is; while there is some truth to that, what makes him memorable is his speech pattern. The only book he had to read as a child was an ancient weather beaten dictionary, and as such, his conversation is often colored with words that nobody uses in their everyday interactions; words that most people in his line of work wouldn’t know how to pronounce, let alone understand the meaning behind them. Clyde finds this natural, but it makes it easier for people to recall who he is.

This occasionally works to his advantage though, as he can be quite charming, or at least sound charming, even if his words come out as technically veiled insults. Still, flowery compliments and honeyed words flavor his speech on a frequent basis and have gotten him out of or into trouble on a regular basis. Despite the perks that usually come with being so charming, Clyde generally avoids getting caught up with anyone; while his lips may promise the world, his hands will steal the contents of the home and he’ll be gone before they realize what’s happened, even if he decided to be truthful, as people generally find the truth to be too simple or outlandish to be so.

It’s this that makes him find most people dreadfully boring. In his mind they are nearly all the same, with no regard for the world around them, too caught up in their small, innocuous lives to see what’s going on around them. The one trait he appreciates above all others though is wit. People that use humor to their advantage are often flippant and lighthearted, making them straight up in all their dealings. Everyone else he assumes has an agenda. After all, he has several and there is no such thing as honor among thieves.

No honor perhaps, but there is intelligence. Clyde’s mother hard pressed him to become book smart, wanting him to one day be accepted to one of the learning institutions in the district; wanted him to make something of himself. However, after growing up with thieves for parents Clyde came to believe that the easy road was the more rewarding one, choosing to take someone else's bread rather than going to the trouble of earning his own. It was more fun as well as being faster. 

As mentioned above, Clyde’s parents were petty criminals themselves and it was from them that Clyde learned a majority of his skills. During his childhood he watched them engage in everything from pickpocketing to grand larceny and they did pretty well for themselves considering. By the time he was fifteen they had amassed what amounted to a small fortune (at least by district six standards), ill-gotten though it was. But every criminal will slip up eventually, and one day they were caught and with a combined rap sheet a mile long, they were put away in the detention center with sentences measured in the decades. Clyde took care of himself after that, sticking with the skills they taught him to navigate the streets and converting a few rundown shacks into safehouses or stash hidey-holes.

With the money they left behind, he was able to do decently for himself; never having to do anything too high profile in order to utilize his talents. Eventually, he found himself bored and lonely as his lifestyle did not generate any kind of relationship, even among other criminals. One day he found a sort of kindred spirit in the form of Charlotte Blair, who was a different kind of lawbreaker. Adhering to his own moral code and wanting a confidant, or at least someone who could listen to him talk, he offered to hire her as a friend, as he felt that he had to give her something tangible in order to keep things even. In exchange for her listening to him and accompanying him around the district, he paid her a steady wage and gave her a place to sleep.

For a time, he felt that things were good, until he followed in his parents footsteps and made a mistake, picking the pocket of an off-duty peacekeeper and finding himself locked away for months , a terrible setback though he was privately grateful that it wasn’t for years. His stay wound up being a bit easier than he initially expected, as the guard on his cellblock was a habitual gambler and Clyde’s intellect was able to correctly guess the final placements of a good number of tributes based on statistics.

In exchange for betting help, the guard made his stay slightly more comfortable than average and when he got out he was only a little worse for the wear. Now, out on the streets again, he finds himself at a loss for what to do with himself as he doesn’t want to go back to the DC. He's only twenty and still has his whole life ahead of him.  He still has some money tucked away, enough that he doesn’t need to keep stealing from passerby, but he just can’t help himself. That there is his largest mistake in spite of his intelligence, as in the world of thieves, the final mistake is stupidity.