GrPr: Clarion

Name: Clarion

Nickname: Clari 

Age: 16

Gender: Female

Preference: Who knows

Place of Origin: Echo

Current job:

Will pick up light work here or there – sweeping storefronts, folding clothing, etc. Not physically strong enough to deal with any heavy lifting or hard labour. She’ll stack shelves or mop floors, but there’s no way she’d be any use to you if you need someone to chop firewood. If unable to find work, she will steal from unaccepted and, more rarely, from Legion. Typically she tries to sift through unwanted junk in less-frequented areas and scavenge as much as she can from that.

Personality:

Pessimistic & Stubborn – A self-proclaimed ‘realist’ (read: pessimist), Clari does her best to not be optimistic, since in her words it ‘sets you up for disappointment.’ Additionally, she can be pretty inflexible when it comes to others (not that she spends time with people very often) Even if she agrees to do something ‘your way’, she’s probably just going to go and do it ‘her way’ anyway, and only agreed to shut you up.

Selfish – The most important person to Clari is herself. Her needs come first, always. Other people are unimportant and get in the way, and only serve to make life more difficult. 

Antisocial & Rude – She is a loner and does her best to avoid people. If she has to deal with others, she often comes across as prickly and sarcastic, which works wonders for deterring people. Unfortunately, she can’t help her obnoxious mouth sometimes and that can cause trouble. Not just with some of the Legion, either.

Gentle – Contrary to what might be presented by her other personality traits, beneath the prickly exterior she is easily rattled and is rather fragile. She dislikes spending time with others, as the more she does so, the more attached she becomes, and the harder it is to only think of herself for survival.

Blunt & Apathetic – Clarion really doesn’t care about much at all. Other than her next meal and whether or not she’s sheltered for the night, she doesn’t give a rat’s ass. She doesn’t sleep very often, so she’s usually tired and grouchy, and is generally unpleasant to be around. Provided you don’t mind constant complaints and being told exactly what she thinks of you, hanging around to hear her muttered commentary behind people’s backs is actually rather amusing.

Bio:

Scholarship

Clari was raised in Echo’s Scholar Clinic, where she was a quiet and unassuming child who was mostly ignored by other Scholars and adults alike. She kept to herself, and was neither a star student nor an abysmal one – Clarion was gloriously mediocre, situated solidly in the middle of all of her peers. Being of a more lanky, thin build, and being quite a weak child, she struggled with some of the more physical aspects of her education, but excelled in evasion. As she grew older, she had a rougher time thanks to her growing personality and smart mouth, but managed to shut herself up enough to avoid pulling too much wrath from other Scholars and Educators. 

Release

Immediately after being released, Clari stayed near to Echo, reluctant to leave the safety of an area that she was familiar with. For a while she did her best in scavenging and staying close to the town, but she was competing with much stronger, hardier Runners. After suffering through several weeks of having her belongings stolen and living with the bruises and beatings she received if she dared try to fight back, Clari chose to move on. 

She traveled for a time, attempting to live in the wilderness alone and away from people, but with her few remaining belongings she couldn’t support herself and was forced to move in closer to the cities. Clari struggled for several months, never seeming to have enough food, unused to a new climate, and not knowing how to deal with people (resulting in more than one occurrence of her being hit or left unpaid by some Accepted members of society). 

After some time, she wizened up. Learnt to better keep her mouth shut, didn’t put up a fight when other Runners threatened her for her hard-earned payment, and began to realize that everything was useful and nothing was to be wasted. She scrounged through rubbish, searched in dumpsters and collected whatever she could. Clari could manage.

A few years passed, and as Clarion traveled, she grew bolder (at roughly 14 years of age). She began stealing from younger Unaccepted, taking some of what they had when their back was turned. Then it was stealing from other Runners, ones that were obviously stronger and better off than her. That was risky, but she learnt fast and she learnt well from it. Her arrogance eventually got the best of her, and she began to steal from the Legion as well as from Runners. It was only items they were unlikely to notice being gone, one or two pieces of clothing, some food. Then of course, thinking herself a master thief, Clari had to go and pick up a gorgeous new pair of shoes that had caught her eye. That pair of shoes almost had her arrested. She stole them in Fort Trox (a really bad decision on her part, but how was she to know that Fort Trox was so strict in comparison to Echo). Bad news for her, she hadn’t been as discreet as she thought when it came to stealing things, and the Guard was on her in a matter of minutes. By some miracle of fate or luck, a fog rolled into the city that day, and at that moment a brawl broke out between some Runners right there that escalated into chaos and even threw some Accepted into the pandemonium. She escaped in the mess, but barely, sprinting off into the sight-obscuring mist and never once looking back. She left all of her belongings (except those sneakers and anything she had on her at the time) and hightailed it out of the city as though death itself was following her. Clari has not been back to Fort Trox since.

Present

Clari is a little wiser now. Oh, she still steals, but she’s much more discreet about it – nothing big, nothing anybody would notice. It’s better to work for her food and pick up whatever she can find. Much less trouble, and nobody is going to try and arrest her. She keeps to herself, scrounges through junk that people have thrown out, and moves around from city to city picking up what jobs and payment she can. 

She don’t want no trouble.

Strengths:

 
Resourcefulness - She’ll find a use for pretty much anything. Even if it’s broken beyond repair, surely the parts can be used for something, right?

Agility/Evasion - Leave it to Clari if you need someone to climb a tree or scale a building. Why would you need to scale a building? Who knows, probably best not to ask. 
The one physical thing she’s good at is dodging hits and speeding out of a sticky situation.

Observant - She’s always watching her surroundings. For danger, for an easy meal, for something shiny on the floor. She’d make a great lookout, if you think she’s trustworthy. Which she’s not, really.

Weaknesses:

Low endurance/stamina – She tires quickly. Not great for long-term physical activity.

Physically weak – Clari is rather fragile. Easily injured, and not much of a fighter, nor does she have the muscle for it. When cornered, she’d much rather hand over her hard earned (or stolen) belongings than fight for them.

Literacy/Education – Clari is actually pretty smart, but she is a slow reader and has difficulties with simple mathematics, thanks to most of her time at the Clinic being devoted to physical training as opposed to mental.

Cowardly – Her bark is worse than her bite. When a situation gets too tough, she’s out of there like a fleeing rabbit. She’s not a thrill seeker and would be perfectly happy if nothing exciting ever happened to her in her life. Unfortunately 'excitement' tends to seek her out.

Likes: 

Food – Food, wonderful food. She will eat like a horse to keep that skinny body running.

Fires and heat – Who doesn’t love a good warm fire? Warmth is something Clari can never get enough of.

Fog – Even if it does make her stuff damp, Clari has grown fond of water vapour that reduces visibility. Sure, she can’t really see what’s in the fog, but that means that nobody can see her, either. It was the fog that saved her in Fort Trox, after all.

Nature – If she could, Clari would spend most of her time in the wilderness and away from people. Being around animals and plants calms her.

Dislikes: 

 Clarion dislikes most things, but the highest on her list include:

Cold – It’s so hard to function when you’re freezing, and Clari is always freezing, even under all of those layers. She’s skin and bones, and has never really grown accustomed to different climates, so anything below ‘blistering dessert’ and Clari is cold.

Wet/Rain – Having lived in the desert for a lot of her life, you’d think she should love rain, but when you’re wet you’re also usually colder, and it’s precisely because she’s still not used to it after all these years that she dislikes too much water falling from the sky. 

Guards – Obviously for a(n infrequent) thief, the idea of getting caught is a huge ‘no thanks’. After her near-capture, she’s learnt to stay well away from the Guard.

Large dogs – Dogs are scary, ok?

Lawfulness: 

Clarion has no qualms with stealing (from both Accepted and Runners) if she is absolutely certain she can get away with it – small, low-quality things that people are unlikely to care too much about. She does not like to make trouble for herself, (particularly after her brush with the Guards in Fort Trox) and will go out of her way to avoid any kind of situation that may prove detrimental to her general business. If there is even a slight chance of being seen, caught or otherwise noticed during unlawful activities, Clari will not risk it.

On the whole though, what’s one or two laws broken? 

Preferred stead:

Currently in or near larger towns and cities

Depending on the situation, Clari will take anything from an upturned dumpster to a bunch of cardboard boxes in the corner of an alley. Less frequented or isolated areas, where she is unlikely to come across anything worse than rats. She travels irregularly. One day, maybe, she’ll be able to stay out in the wilderness…

Combat specialty:

Run away.

If fleeing is not an option, she will do her best to evade and redirect attacks, attempting to find an opening to escape. 
See: Aikido and similar defensive/passive martial arts. 

She has a knife, but would really rather not use it.

Accessories:

Hair clip – it’s not actually a hair clip, but she uses it as one. Found in somebody’s trash can, washed and cleaned and now keeps the poorly-cut side of her hair out of her face

Pocket knife – It’s a pretty nice switchblade, still in good condition even if it is a little old. Small, easily concealed beneath multiple layers of clothing. Stolen from a Runner in her earlier days. 

Affiliates:

None thus far

Extra: 

    -       She really likes socks because they can be used for multiple things. 

    -       You can’t tell just by a brief glance because she wears so many layers, but Clari is very, very thin. Like, stick thin.

The list of clothing she wears to stay warm:

    -       one singlet

    -       one long-sleeve shirt

    -       one t-shirt

    -       one sleeveless hoodie (she removed the sleeves – they were gross anyway)

    -       one pair of fingerless gloves made from socks.

    -       one pair of leggings

    -       one pair of low-crotch pants

    -       one pair of real nice sneakers