Dr. Howard Claymore

Dr. Howard Claymore is a mortal character from The Demigod Diaries.

The Son of Magic
Dr. Claymore meets Alabaster after giving a lecture at an auditorium in Keeseville. Alabaster asks him a question about death, making the doctor somewhat nervous, given Alabaster's abrupt shift from fawning fan to a disturbingly serious adolescent. Alabaster gives the doctor a card with his address on it before leaving. Claymore retreats to his heavily security-ridden house, where he is called by Lamia, who wants to know the address of Alabaster, but he hangs up on her and goes to bed. During the night, Hecate pulls him into a dream where Alabaster is speaking with her, and witnesses Alabaster asking Hecate to intervene between himself and Lamia, who by this point evidently wishes the boy harm, but Hecate refuses.

The next day, Claymore goes to a coffee shop to continue work on his next book. Lamia is already at the shop, waiting for Claymore, and before long the two get into a heated argument that results in Lamia using the Mist to cut the doctor from the mortal world. After Claymore refuses to give her Alabaster's address, Lamia uses a spell to set fire to the coffee shop, killing the manager, Burly Black, who was Claymore's only friend in life. Claymore shoots Lamia repeatedly with a nine millimeter pistol, but it has little effect. Trying and failing to gauge any weaknesses Lamia might have, the doctor decides to go to Alabaster's address.

Upon reaching the house, Claymore is let in by Alabaster's false father, a Mistform Alabaster created to deflect suspicion. After a conversation with the demigod boy, who explains the circumstances of his position, it transpires that Lamia allowed Claymore to escape so that he would lead her to Alabaster, and inadvertently destroy his defences by carrying a spell somewhere on his person. When Lamia and Alabaster fight, the doctor gives the demigod an idea as to how to defeat Lamia once and for all, and using his last bullet to slow the monster down, the two retreat back into Alabaster's house. Unfortunately, no sooner had Alabaster found the tome with the appropriate spell, than Lamia catches up and takes Claymore hostage. Knowing Alabaster won't use the spell with his life in danger, Claymore attacks Lamia, and is subsequently killed. As his soul floats down the Styx, he is pulled back to earth by Hecate, who gives him a Mistform body to inhabit, and keep her son company in his exile. She explains that she separated Alabaster and Lamia upon Claymore's death, using the power of his sacrifice to magically bringing his soul from Hades and separated her children. She tells him that Lamia will likely not interfere with Alabaster again, now that he knows how to permanently defeat her.

Claymore is last seen helping Alabaster to his feet in a field.

Personality
Dr. Howard Claymore is an extremely intellegent mortal and is described by Lamia, Alabaster, and Hecate as "the most arrogant mortal" they have ever met. The doctor is very conscious of his own brilliance, and during the story often takes time to think and consider things deeply before acting. In this way, he quickly adapted to the idea of a magical world he had no prior knowledge of by rationalizing it as he could see it, therefore it had to be real.

He is very impatient, having no time for pointless frivolities by his fans, and holds many of them in contempt, as he knows many of them don't actually understand his work or his motivations. As a result of his intelligence and his impatience, he is fond of his privacy, and had only one person he considered an actual friend before his death, which was Burly Black, a local coffee shop owner. He also doesn't care for cats.

Trivia

 * He is the first mortal to have a point of view in either series.