Schneider, Clyde

[Clyde Schneider]

Clyde Arthur Schneider
Unpowered

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General »

Nickname: Schneider, Clyde
Gender: Male
Age: 50
Student/Professor: N/A – Hunts down gifted
Subject: N/A
Birth-date: September 14, 1963
Birthplace: Leadville, Colorado, USA
Sexuality: Straight
Face Claim: Andy Serkis

Appearance »

Eye color: Pale blue
Hair color: Brown
Height: 5'7”
Build: Slender
Scars: A burn on his right shoulder
Tattoos: None
Piercings: None

Personality »

Likes:

• Winning
  
• Manipulating others
  
• Money
  
• Finding mutants
  
• Games
  
• Silence
  

Dislikes:

• Charlie
  
• Being outwitted
  
• Losing
  
• Mutants/Gifted
  
• Being called insane
  

Fears:

• Mutants/Gifted
  
• Spiders
  
• Getting old
  
• Fire
  

Brief Summary:

Persuasive
Though there is something about Schneider that should set off the mind’s warning bells. However, there’s something about his voice and the way he speaks that draws in anyone who listens. He has a way about him that can often cause people to do what he wants often without any real conscious decision to do so.

Frightening
There’s just something a little creepy about him. A look in his eyes, maybe, or the way he smiles. It’s something not quite right that just seems to promise danger. People tend to not like being around him, partly because he makes their survival instincts start kicking up around him.

Superior
Very full of himself, Schneider makes no attempt to disguise his disdain when talking to people – save for when he is trying to convince someone to accept his “help” or go with him. Even so, it is only through a great effort that he doesn’t let his disgust slip through (and the second he believes it is safe to do so, he will drop the façade and let his true feelings show through).

Focused
Schneider gets what he wants because he refuses to acknowledge any other possibility. Once he makes up his mind, he works with single-minded determination until he gets it – and so far he has never failed.

Power Description »

He'd rather be dead.

History »

There was nothing remarkable about Schneider’s past. He didn’t know his parents and he never cared to. They were there – he thinks – judging from a vague memory of cigarette smoke and alcohol, but the only person he has any memory of is an ancient uncle who performed much the same function as a mannequin. He died at some point, but to this day Schneider couldn’t tell you when, or what happened in the surrounding time. He was in high school by then and managed to convince a judge to emancipate him – the last thing he needed was to be shuffled along to yet another person who would hardly exist. High school had been little more than a place to practice manipulating his “friends” – he was far too clever to not to utilize every aspect of school – and he had learned early on that a few choice words at just the right moment could work miracles where intimidation would fail.

His uncle had left him a large house in the city of Silas, and enough money that he was able to live through his college years in comfort. He even made – against all odds – a friend. An honest to goodness, put-his-trust-in friend. Wenham was an odd fellow – he never once showed any sign that Schneider’s manipulative ways bothered him, and though he never actively helped, he was always there. He was there the night Schneider met his first mutant – a very drunk man who had stumbled into the house, giggling very drunkenly as his body periodically lit fire and extinguished.

Schneider would never admit it, but he panicked.

Ten minutes later they were standing over the body of the man – alive, though barely, judging by the amount of blood pooling around his head – Schneider with a drink while he tried to plan their next move. They couldn’t leave the guy there, and after several minutes of deliberating they dragged him into an alley two houses down and left him there. Half an hour later a very drunk Schneider decided that leaving the man was a bad idea – scientists would have paid a lot of money for someone who could light himself on fire. Unfortunately, the man was gone when they stumbled back out to find him, and Schneider was forced to leave his plan for next time.

It was two years before he met another mutant, and by then he had set up tentative contacts with a scientist and two government agents. The agents won the bid when he had finally apprehended the terrakenetic boy, and before long the boy had been shipped off and Schneider had received a tidy sum of money.

The next fifteen odd years were passed in much the same way, and before long Schneider had an extensive network of connections, as well as a large block of cells hidden in the basement. Both were frequently-used and well-kept (that is, hard to escape, not so much pleasant to be in), though Schneider was less than thrilled with how difficult it was too keep up so much with just the two of them. He also found that the more he . . . “worked” with the mutants, the less he liked it. It wasn’t right that they wore human faces and did . . . that. The more the idea got into his brain and frightened unsettled him, the more he hated them. They weren’t human – that was obvious – and they were so far inferior to him that after a while he not only didn’t feel any twinge of guilt at capturing them, he actually felt satisfied.

Once he had started getting around and more mutants started getting wind of what he was doing, trouble began to arise. The targets they scoped started learning to anticipate his arrival and to defend themselves, and as a result he was nearly killed on several occasions. When he heard the rumors about the man who was going to jail for beating a teenager to death, his interest was piqued, and it only got more interesting from there. Some of the reports said the man had done it with his bare hands, some said with bricks . . . some had a weird mix of the two. Schneider had his own theories, of course, so he made his excuses and took a trip north.

It was better than he’d hoped. The man was an assimilator and could be potentially invaluable – not only to Schneider but later, after he’d gotten his use out of the mutant. It was getting the mutant on his side that would be the problem. He mused over it for a few days and finally decided that it had to be the mutant’s choice – he could get someone to tweak his memory, but there were too many ways that could go wrong, and he might not be able to contain the man long enough to have it happen . . . no, it had to be voluntary. Schneider decided visiting during regular hours would be best – no need to get anyone’s feathers ruffled before they had to be – and was surprised at how little it took the man to agree. After that it was a simple matter of calling in a couple of favors and getting some paperwork misplaced, and then then Erik Loren was freed from jail and given over to him. It was a shame, Schneider thought later, that Erik had such an attitude – he really would have been almost priceless if it weren’t for that mouth!

The next year brought rumors of suspicious blackouts in a small town in South Dakota that Schneider decided was worth checking out. It wouldn’t be anything that required much force, but he took Erik along with him anyway, and it turned out to be a good choice. They caught the father halfway through a beating that Schneider almost apoplectic – how the hell was he supposed to make a profit off the boy if the man broke him? – but it was nothing compared to Erik. Schneider had to practically shout to get the bodyguard off the man – almost had to touch him, and the thought of that made him sick – but eventually something made it through. The man was pulped but breathing, and that was good enough for Schneider – he could keep the police away fairly easily as long as no one had died. They turned their attention to the boy now hiding under the coffee table and after some persuasion (i.e. Erik dragged him out against his will) they were back on the road.

Schneider wasn’t sure when it happened – in the car on the way, he thought, somewhere between two of the fits being pitched by the boy in the back seat – but he was somehow coerced into keeping the boy. True, blackouts could be useful if the boy was able to control them, and, no, he didn’t know anyone off the top of his head who would buy a nine year old . . . he still didn’t like it. But he had agreed, and until the boy ruined his chances, Schneider was trapped with him . . .

Three years followed in which Lukan learned, more or less, to earn his keep, and Schneider found he really, truly hated Erik Loren. Unfortunately, Erik was too valuable to get rid of – he was, despite his own feelings, a good bodyguard, and he was one of the few that Lukan would tolerate being taught by. Schneider had resolved to at least get his money’s worth out of the boy, so he was willing to leave Erik behind when he set out to test an idea. His target was a woman nine months pregnant, so he didn’t expect much of a struggle – until he arrived to find the woman dead and the baby (his real goal) with its very young father. He tried persuasion on the boy, but got ahead of himself and ended up with a bloody nose. The second attempt was no more successful, and then the man and child had disappeared.

Schneider chased him – he had been struck by an idea once while watching Lukan practice, and had been possessed since. People paid him out the nose to own a mutant – how much more would they pay to raise one? This child he’d discovered had a good chance of being a mutant – both parents were – and he wanted it!

Three more years passed during which Schneider got no closer to catching the man or baby, Lukan improved only slowly, and word filtered through of a school for mutants. A whole campus of people like that . . . it practically made his mouth water – he could only imagine how easy it would be to become very rich very quickly. He couldn’t pass up the chance – he suspended his search and collected the mutants that were loyal (for one reason or another) to him before setting out for the school. He would have his pickings of the best, and he would soon be a very, very rich man.

OOC »

OOC Name: Morde
Contact(s): PM
How did you find us? I followed the second star on the right

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