babylonsbouncer

Name: Clayton Marshall

Age: 29

Gender: male

Type: Select One

Appearance:

While Clayton isn't the biggest guy in the room by any means, that doesn't mean he isn't well toned. He's about six foot, and well defined. His hair he tends to keep short, and his manner of dress is anything he can have good freedom of movement in, generally dark colors. He doesn't let facial hair grown in past stubble, and he's got dark eyes.

Personality:

Clayton is the type of person who can be as forcefully present as he wants to be, or as in obtrusive as background furniture in a room. Being a professional bodyguard requires the ability to either be a huge, immobile presence, or someone who can fade back and he'd good at his job.

While generally a quiet man, that doesn't mean he's not paying attention. Point in fact, he's always paying attention. He just usually doesn't talk unless he's definitely got something to share, or he's been drawn into it by people around him. When he's actively on duty, however, it's incredibly difficult to get him to relax his guard long enough to get him talking about anything.

If you can get past the stoic professional, Clayton can be thoughtful, engaging, and talkative. It's just a bitch to get there. Once there, however, he'll talk. It's easier for him to focus on others in a conversation than have focus settle on himself, but if he gets into what he considers a good conversation, he'll ease up. Alcohol usually helps this along as well.

Those he protects hold a special place in Clayton's life. Even if he doesn't especially like everyone he's been employed to protect--they are top priority, and he will go out of his way to even be something akin to supportive. For instance, there are a whole lot of girls at Babylon that personally drive him nuts, but if they're ever hurt, or upset or anything, he tends towards being supportive and comforting if he can be. He's not terribly good at being comforting, but he has a soft touch mode when he needs to. This occasionally leads to the mistaken idea that he cares about people on a personal level, something that he doesn't quite know how to stop.

Sexuality:

hetero

City History:

Clayton was never one of the happy shiny people. His family was one that was broken at best, and with a severely alcoholic father that liked to knock around anyone within reach at the moment, it's safely said that Clayton was never a happy kid. Growing up was rough, and he went into the military as soon as possible, even going so far as to have papers forged so he could go in earlier than his birth certificate would have allowed.

Military life suited him fairly well, it dealt with a lot of his aggression and channeled it in better ways than he'd known how to previously, and it gave him much more structure. He went from being a powderkeg of delinquency to a very decent soldier. He found that he excelled at hand to hand combat, and wasn't too shabby in tactics either. Things seemed to be going pretty well for him. ...at least for a while. Unfortunately, just because he found a new outlet, didn't mean he didn't have all those rage issues or poor coping skills. Eventually, in a large mess that left two other soldiers dead, Clayton was dishonorably discharged. Going back home to Eidolon City, he never even contacted his family to let them know where he was or what had happened--he severed contact the day he left for Basic, and to this day never even paused to ponder where his family members wound up or even if they were alive.

It wasn't long before he took a job as Eris Stockard's bodyguard. It was a pretty straight forward gig as far as he was concerned, at least when he first arrived. He was there to keep her safe, and the residents safe. If anything was going on that wasn't sanctioned, he rearranged faces, and sent people packing with the clear idea if they ever returned, they probably weren't going to be making it home next time. After only a month or so there, his job got fairly easy. People really got the message fast between himself and Eris what was and was not allowed to go on under Babylon's roof, and his frequency in handing people their asses due to contract violation got fewer and fewer. He started spending more and more time with Eris, and that's when his obsession started to grow.

She fascinated him. He'd never met anyone like her, and there was something about her that merely attracted him on levels he couldn't quite quell. So, he was drawn in. And the woman proceeded to make a career out of fucking with his head. He wanted her, he knew that, though it offended is rigid professionalism to either admit it, or act on it. It seemed she kept pushing his limits on that, because she could quite clearly see that attraction. Some days, Clayton just didn't know what end was up anymore, she spun things so effectively. Yet that didn't deter his interest, in fact it probably just fueled it more. They had a very different relationship, one built on a whole lot of twisted headgames and self examination that Clayton wasn't happy about but couldn't actually stop.

Things started getting a little hairy with mafia influences. The Konovich syndicate really wanted hold of Babylon, something that Eris was never going to allow to happen. He in fact, was a key element in helping her keep her standing as neutral territory. Somehow, however, things went wrong and he still isn't quite sure how it happened. Rosaline came to him and started working at getting to him like Eris did, and she had limited success. Mostly, this was because she was a lot more physical with him, and a lot more apt to telling him what he wanted to hear at the moment. Playing off of his frustration with Eris, she was able to twist him around in some ways--in the end just enough to get what she wanted. Clayton -does not know this-. He thinks he got close with Rosaline, and then everything went to hell, and he's trying his damndest to get things back in order with her. What really happened was Rosaline helped orchestrate Eris' deposement, distracted him when it was necessary, and now she's dealing with a situation she didn't see coming but is overwhelming her--and everyone else at Babylon.

Special Skills and Abilities:

Has had military training. Competent with firearms, though generally he doesn't use them. Extremely adept with hand to hand combat, and he's a decent tactician.

Weaknesses:

The man's taste in women leaves something to be desired. At absolute best, it's questionable, and at it's worst, it's downright masochistic. He likes a powerful woman, one that's got dominant traits, and a penchant for twisting him around in little knots on a whim. Part of the other problem with the women he's attracted to is Clayton is actually not built to be a one-night-stand kind of guy. He has no interest in paying for entertainment either. Deep down? The guy wants a real relationship. He just hates that fact to his core because he feels like it makes him weak. He feels like it doesn't fit in with how he wants himself to be, that admitting on any level that he may want another person around long term, that he might actually need something of that nature to be satisfied...he hates that on every level of his being. This inner desire was one thing he learned from Eris, and one thing he still twitches about any time he thinks about it. It doesn't help that somewhere far deep down what he would have liked was her. So, basically, at the end of the day, the kind of women he is attracted to are not the kind of women that would remotely fit into what he would actually desire in a relationship.

Possibly his masochistic taste in women is some personal penance for his sadistic side. Being a bodyguard lends itself to a streak in him that does tend towards the sadistic. He loves a good fight, and he revels in taking someone else down. He just hasn't graduated into true sociopathology where he'll do it without due cause. He merely found himself a profession that feeds it without him needing to sail off the deep end and find other ways of fulfilling that need. He's a man who enjoys his job.

Clayton also has a temper. One part of not getting too close to too many people has aided this, however, if people around him keep picking, his professional demeanor can be dropped in a heartbeat, and then you've got a very pissed off man who can probably kick your ass on your hands. Once he cracks and lets that anger take over, Clayton often doesn't stop until someone's dead, and that's just never a good thing. The only time he manages to keep it in check is if the object of his fury is a woman. While not the kind of guy who has a strict 'I don't hit girls' policy or anything, he is much less likely to strike one.

Putting a great lot of personal pressure on himself, Clayton is a type who prides himself on his professionalism. He wants to do his job and do it to the letter perfectly, which is a major problem when one works for a woman like Eris. It's not so bad of a problem anymore, with Rosaline, but everything else Clayton really tries to keep it all on the level. Even if he knows that no one else plays by the rules--he has a rigid sense of them and doesn't want to violate them. He won't at all tolerate the idea of failure, and is his own harshest critic. This in mind, it's one of the many reasons he took what happened to Eris so very hard. In his estimation, he failed her, and he's not forgiven himself for it, and it doesn't look like he will any time soon. It's something he's reminded of every day, with as bad as things have gotten at Babylon since she disappeared.

Clayton tends to obsess over certain people. For a very extended period of time, he was obsessed with Eris--something that even though she's 'gone' hasn't entirely evaporated. It's just something he plays close to the chest. In fact, he's still trying to find out what exactly happened to her, who exactly did what. If he does puzzle it out...he has a plan to take vengeance.

Strengths:

Clayton has a fairly good grip on his demeanor. For a while he can definitely hold onto it, and it takes a lot to fluster him. It's just really those few people who get under his skin that can ruffle his feathers. Beyond that, unless his buttons are pushed too hard, he can hold it together. That and he's damn efficient at his job.

Family or Connections:

Eris, Rosaline, anyone at Babylon, anyone in the Konnovich Syndicate

Residence:

Babylon

Career:

bodyguard and bouncer

PB: to be chosen!