Clayton Wray

Real Name: Clayton Wray
Super Hero/Villain/Renegade/etc Name: none
Title: Jack of Diamonds
Alignment: Neutral, leaning towards good.
Age: 26
Gender: M
Race: Caucasian
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Hazel
Height: 5’11”
Weight: 170

Costume Description/Image: He doesn't actually wear one. Clayton prefers various disguises as needed for accomplishing his goals. They range from simple to elaborate but all are usually convincing to most as long as too many questions aren't asked.

Personality: There are two sides to Clayton, the man and the myth. Some of those who know he exists imagine he’s the perfect gentleman thief, suave and sophisticated, a sort of cat burglar James Bond… These people have never met the man. In reality he is neither suave nor sophisticated; he’s actually pretty uncultured. He tends to come across as brash, sarcastic and sometimes idiotic, but despite that he always gets the job done… usually, anyway. Ever since his first heist, terrible circumstances seem to be a running gag in his life.

Despite the fact that he’s a career criminal, he is not without conscience; aside from the whole stealing thing he’s not really a bad guy. While he's no murderer, he does understand that not everyone is innocent and sometimes some people need to go. He will kill in self defense if he has to. His morals are a bit loose, but they’re not nonexistent. He also, due to his abnormal childhood, has a soft spot for children. He donates roughly one quarter of all he makes to various charities under different aliases. He’d never tell you about that, though.

History:
Childhood was a strange time for Clayton Wray. He was raised by his father, whom he inherited his powers from. His father was a notorious thief known as the King of Diamonds (named for the card he’d leave behind at the scenes of his crimes; something Clayton would later mimic in his own career.). He trained him to be a successful burglar from an early age.

Clayton travelled the world with him learning the various tricks of trade; his powers made him a very quick learner. He was not allowed to actively participate in his father’s heists until he was 14 but his time up until then wasn’t wasted; it was spent studying. He may not have received a formal education but what he got was almost as good. He showed high enough aptitude to where, if he were to have attended regular school, he would probably have been in advanced classes. Despite regular physical and verbal abuse from his father, Clayton strove to impress the man, and studying was one way and picking pockets was the other.

He participated in his first heist on his 14th birthday. It should have been a simple museum job, an art theft. Unfortunately, it was not. Everything was going smoothly, until a suspicious security guard took a different route than usual and stumbled on the father and son. Rather than runaway, or simply knock the man unconscious, Clayton’s father drew a pistol and shot the man dead. The guard was armed with nothing more than mace and a baton. Clayton was appalled with how cold blooded his father his fathers actions were. The murder caused the young boy to freeze up, even when it became apparent that the guard had already triggered an alarm and the police were on their way. His father was unable to snap the young Clay out of his shock, so he decided to prioritize. He left his son there for the police to deal with.

Clayton was able to escape, though. He returned home the next morning to find the place empty with the exception of a duffel bag of money and note which simply read "good luck."

He began committing heists on his own once his money started to run out, leaving behind a Jack of Diamonds in place of whatever it was he was stealing. He does so not in imitation of his father but more out of spite; a sort of way of one upping his dad at his own game. The first few years were rougher than he'd expected but once he became more and more confident in his abilities he was able to pull off more dangerous and more profitable jobs. He began preferring the harder jobs, even leaving notes before ones he deemed too easy in order to make them more difficult. He soon realized the error in that though. Real life wasn't a comic book. The life span of a gentleman thief was much shorter than one who kept his mouth shut.

Clayton has recently taken to Los Angeles as a home base of sorts. But after a failed museum and a terrible experience (not like that, you pervert.) at a gay bar called Pandora’s Box there’s no telling just how long he’ll stick around for.

There are a few who know his identity, and he uses those few as both sources of information and fences. They even act as sort of an employment agency for him. If someone wants something badly enough but doesn’t want to get their hands dirty, Clayton might be willing to help, if the price is right.


Powers:
Photographic Reflexes: Clayton has photographic reflexes/muscle memory which enables him to watch another person’s physical movements and duplicate them without practice, no matter how complex. This is limited to non-superhuman abilities, so while he can mimic the movements of a martial arts master perfectly he is still limited by his own physical abilities.
Since he is duplicating the action exactly he picks up any flaws in the persons movement as well until he had done said action enough times to sort of "make it his own", which can either get rid of their flaws, or add his own, or both.

Power Grid:
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Character Image/Description:
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Roleplay Sample:

Clayton slowly climbed out of the cold and into the warmth of the mansion through the window; so far the place had no more security than when he had scoped it out the day before. Didn’t they get his note? Maybe they didn't believe him... they must not have heard of him. Still, it seemed rather careless to leave only a single guard outside the door and a window unguarded especially since, just for the hell of it, he left them a note telling them exactly what he was going to steal. Maybe he was the careless one; fumbling around in the dark like that he almost didn’t hear the click of the hammer being cocked behind him. Whoever was holding the gun was slow and clearly untrained. Clayton was a blur of motion as he spun and extended an arm with enough force to put most anyone down for the count. Imagine his surprise when his arm hit nothing but air. He was taken aback for a second by this. If the person holding the gun wanted to kill him, it would have been the ideal moment to pull the trigger.

Seeing no one immediately infront of him at eye level, Clay looked down to see a young girl holding a pink cap gun. "Please don't take my daddy's diamond, mister. He didn't believe you'd come, but I know better." she pleaded

He was at a loss for words. How wrong of him would it be to knock out a kindergartner?

Interesting power! (: I kind of like the idea.. though I believe I've seen it somewhere else.. or maybe in another application.. but more watered down and such.. This seems fair, considering you've limited yourself.. But It's not like a mirrored memory, right? Not like when your characters opponent is preforming a move, your character can mirror them exactly? Or is it a few seconds of delay to counter them?

The Marvel character Taskmaster has the same power, but I hope that since the characters are so different that I can get away with it... EDIT: I think a girl on heroes and another Marvel character, Echo, have it too.

I think it would take him a second to register it.
Also, I should add that since he is duplicating the action exactly he would pick up any flaws in the persons movement as well until he had done said action enough times to sort of "make it his own" if that makes sense.

As long as you understand that with only 15 points you are significantly weaker compare to heroes with 22, Approved.

Yep yep.
Aside from his power he's pretty much a normal human.

rinnegato wrote:Yep yep.
Aside from his power he's pretty much a normal human.

I am scared of his Bloody Skills. I do Have an Idea, why not make him a Free Runner,/ Fighter Skill user? I'll be better to make a run out of a nerfy and dangerous situation.

Sergiy wrote:

rinnegato wrote:Yep yep.
Aside from his power he's pretty much a normal human.

I am scared of his Bloody Skills. I do Have an Idea, why not make him a Free Runner,/ Fighter Skill user? I'll be better to make a run out of a nerfy and dangerous situation.

It's funny that you should say that, I was actually coming here to ask if I could throw one more point into speed before the thread is moved for that exact reason.

rinnegato wrote:

Sergiy wrote:

rinnegato wrote:Yep yep.
Aside from his power he's pretty much a normal human.

I am scared of his Bloody Skills. I do Have an Idea, why not make him a Free Runner,/ Fighter Skill user? I'll be better to make a run out of a nerfy and dangerous situation.

It's funny that you should say that, I was actually coming here to ask if I could throw one more point into speed before the thread is moved for that exact reason.

It's just, It would be handy to have one thing In Speed, for a quick get away if in Trouble.

A normal human. Hm. Cool.

Approved and moved.

Edits made

Minor stat shifting and a little expansion on history. Reapproving.