-- Transcript --
Inspector Clayton DeStefano
Birthday: April 3rd

An inspector working out of the St. Hector Police Department's Coheed Station. Working with fellow investigator Sky Miller, he's able to rein in his partner's more reckless impulses. He knows when to let Sky's instinct run free, however, and the two of them have a powerful trust that has led them to solving case after case after case. That trust is put to the limit when they investigate the murder of one Guy Noir.

While both notice that there's more to the case than meets the eye, when GLOPOL steps in, Clay backs off while Sky goes rogue. Clay recognizes that any case that immediately catches the eye of an international investigative force is dangerous, but is unable to keep Sky under control. The partnership is further strained once Celeste begins to operate as a superhero. While Clay has nothing against Celeste saving people from burning buildings or car crashes, it's when she starts fighting criminals that he draws the line. As officers, neither him nor Sky can legally support a vigilante. While he won't report Sky, he makes it clear that he's not going to cover for him, either.

Thus, he tends to be particularly terse whenever Celeste is around, though he maintains he doesn't have anything personal against her. He's just worried that eventually, someone is going to get hurt because of Celeste - something he seems to have experience with.

- Expert marksman. Rather than the automatics carried by the rest of the station, Clay prefers to use a service revolver, which he typically keeps unloaded.
- Excellent investigative sense. While not quite on the same level as Sky, he is easily able to keep up with his partner and follow up on even his more outlandish theories, or reel him in when he's going too far off the mark.
- Excellent strategist and has a great aptitude for puzzle solving, with a deep love of game theory in particular. Is often found solving sudoku or playing trading card games.

-- Extra Trivia --

- His name, Clay DeStefano, is one part of a themed trio with Sky Miller and another character, a CSI agent named Brook Ruber. His first name is elemental, while his last name is taken from a character from the mini-series The Lost Room. That character was also a detective, who was partners with the main protagonist.
- Similarly, his birthday, April 3rd, is the release date of the DVD set for that mini-series.
- Back when I had first conceptualized Celectrique, I hadn't yet decided on limiting anthropomorphic characters to a small handful of species. At the time, I was friends with a couple bronies and originally designed Clay as an anthro pony to sort of make fun of them, designing him as purposefully anti-social and ill-tempered. Later on I realized mockery wasn't exactly the best impetus for a character design, especially after having a falling out with one of said friends, so Clay was redesigned as a toucan and his personality softened a bit. A remnant of the pony design remains, however, in that the trading card game he enjoys is based off of an in-universe cartoon that prominently features pony characters. His husband plays it with him despite not being a fan of the show, simply because Clay loves it so much.