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Clancy grew up in the swamp that hosted Shades and Chomps for so long. He lived with his mothers, both very affectionate and nurturing women who wanted only the best for their little boy. As a child, he was carefree, happily roaming the swamp with a few Shade and Chomp friends. He reached adulthood not caring about the world outside the swamp, perfectly content to stay where he was till the end of his days. However, he had hit maturity during a pivotal time: the Chomps were considering re-entering society, and they were attempting to encourage the Shades to come with them. The mere thought of entering a vast, unfamiliar world sent shudders through Clancy, and when one of his Chomp friends left him for the outside world, he became so depressed that he hid at home for weeks, refusing to leave. As far as he was concerned, he was about to be exposed to a million ways to die or be hurt, and he had a very poor tolerance for pain of any sort.

Seeing this, Clancy's mothers reluctantly came to a decision. They wanted Clancy to become comfortable with the notion of an outside world, as the Chomps had. Framing it as a sort of "quest" to find the friends that had already left the swamp, Clancy's mothers told him that he needed to open his mind to the outside world, and that he should start at Grendel University; the University's artistic bent would be well-suited to his aptitudes (mostly for music and design). Feeling betrayed by his mothers' suggestions, his motive for joining the outside world ended up being to get some space from them until he could process what they had said.

As it stands right now, Clancy has mixed feelings about his place at Grendel. He was surprised to find that he does well in his classes, and the success makes him feel useful, like he has a purpose. Still, there are so many people there, and it feels like they're all in on some kind of ever-present joke that he'll never be able to understand. After classes, he tends to go back to his room, curl up into a ball, and cry and/or eat while watching movies or messing around on the Internet. He misses his friends and family dearly; he has yet to find any of his friends who left the swamp. He wishes he could find another Shade or a Chomp who understood his suffering. Sometimes, even feeling a person nearby makes his anxiety spike.

Still, Clancy's life isn't 100% doom and gloom. He enjoys his music and art classes; his aptitude for them makes him wonder if he may have a future in teaching others about the arts (preferably Shades and Chomps who are just as out of the loop as he is). He also enjoys the cuisines of other races; he sort of grew up as one of those "food = care" types, and so he likes to stock up on whatever interesting food he can find to comfort himself when he's had a particularly bad day. If he found someone else having a rough day (and he was feeling brave that day), he might share his food. His predilection for movies and the Internet has given him a bit of an odd sense of humor, and if he sticks around for long enough, a meme might slip out. (Oops.) His favorite thing about the outside world is Goodbye Owlbear plushies and couture; the colorful creatures appeal to him, and he sees nothing wrong with surrounding himself with them and making a great big Owlbear cuddlepuddle.

Overall, Clancy is a squishy tangle of nerves looking for a purpose and support. Though he's riddled with anxiety, there are ways to calm him down; those who figure the ways out and use them properly will find a warm, loyal friend.


Strengths:

Loyal - When Clancy decides to follow a cause or a person, he becomes a staunch ally. He gives his all to support those he considers friends, even when trouble arrives. If it falls to him to defend a friend, he will do so with a surprising fierceness and determination. It would take a great amount of extenuating circumstances to get him to change allegiances.

Good Intuition - Clancy has a knack for figuring out how things work. "Things" tends to include items like technology, science, and even people at times. He has a sort of natural sense for causes and effects, which fits his cautious nature and allows him to avoid causes of unfortunate effects.

Careful - Clancy exercises a great deal of caution in all his dealings with the outside world. He calculates his actions to avoid potential bad consequences, and he sets up contingency plans for when things do go wrong. One might say that he's a great planner.

Faults:

Anxious - Anxiety permeates every aspect of Clancy's life. He is constantly afraid of harm (mental or physical) befalling him, even during normal circumstances. This is why he avoids others in most cases and rarely speaks up in public. He fears pain, he fears embarrassment, and he fears failure. Those three fears leave him more or less paralyzed with anxiety ever day.

Overreactive - Clancy is prone to very strong emotional reactions. He feels his emotions so strongly at times that they just burst out of him, making him break down dramatically. He has enough self-control to wait till he's in a private place to break down, but the outburst tends to be rather noisy. He also feels happiness strongly, however, and if he felt comfortable with it, he'd break out into a hugfest.

Pessimistic - Clancy does not expect the best when he prepares for the worst. Every contingency plan assumes that something will go wrong somewhere. He keeps his expectations low so that, whenever things turn out all right, it's better than expected. He predicts backlash from actions that are completely normal and neutral to other people, and he expects people to give him backlash who are much more professional or polite than that. The outside world is just a bad, scary place as far as he's concerned.

Hey, Sami-Fire!

My apologies on the late crit. Thank you so much for waiting! I have a couple of comments and questions before I can approve Clancy.

Why did his mothers choose to send him to Grendel specifically? Also as an adult, shouldn't he have full autonomy over his decisions? (It's okay if his parents are overbearing, but it should be addressed!)

If Clancy felt betrayed (even if he needed some space) why did he choose to go to Grendel anyway? How does he feel about relocating to the Below?

How does Clancy's loyalty manifest in his life? How did that play into his decision to not leave the swamp with his friends, and then later to leave his family?

Finally, what is his tail like and what is their relationship?

That's all I've got!