A human with a little bit of Gigan in him, Gary Burberry was born in a city that is now a part of No Man's Land. Before the war, though, it was a lively place and filled with beautiful colors and music. It was a bright and vibrant city, famous for its artists and culinary delights, and a popular travel destination. But for every naive traveler, there's a dozen swindlers and pickpockets just waiting to cheat them out of their valuables. Gary, being a bit of a troublemaker, got caught up in these schemes early in life. It's not that he had a hard life. He just really liked the thrill of it. As he got older, he would get roped into bigger schemes, and picked up several sneaky skills. He also learned how to tell at a glance where a person was from and how much money they probably had. For years, he cheated and robbed people blind, but that all changed when someone finally managed to steal from him.
He wasn't expecting it at all. It was his 16th birthday and he and a group of his friends were going to celebrate by robbing a traveling art exhibit blind. So as night fell, they snuck into the convention center hosting the exhibit and each went along their planned routes. Gary made his way to his target area, a large room that held the collection of some famous artist going by the name of Henri. There were many paintings, each one surely worth a fortune. As he reached for his first painting, something stopped him. He wasn't sure what it was, but something about the piece had captured him. It wasn't something he hadn't seen before, just a landscape painting of a river. But there was something in the way the shapes and colors moved, as if the painting were alive in front of him. A certain calm came over him, overpowering his fiery and mischievous soul. He looked at the other paintings, mostly consisting of realism pieces, and was struck by this sense of awe. He had lost himself in the brushstrokes of these masterworks. So lost, that he didn't even hear a person coming through the door.
"Are you supposed to be here?" said a voice.
Gary was startled! He had forgotten what he was there for and now he was caught! He turned to face this person, surely there to apprehend him. It was a young girl. Much shorter than him. He could probably talk his way out of this. He's talked his way out of worse. "I...Uh, yeah I....You see, miss....Hmm....... *sigh* No." Words had failed him. He had forgotten everything. All he knew was that he was in a bad spot.
After a few seconds, though it felt like an eternity to him, she spoke. "Well that's okay, neither am I. Not until tomorrow, at least. I'm Henrietta." She smiled and reached out her free hand. "It's nice to meet you."
Flushed with a sudden feeling of relief, Gary shook her hand and replied, "I'm Gary." Now that the panic had subsided he took a moment to look at her. She was a pretty young woman, couldn't have been taller than 5' 10". She had snow white hair and pointy ears. An elf, huh? He then noticed that she was holding something. "Why do you have a step stool?" he asked.
"Oh, right! I just finished a new painting and wanted to put it on display before the event opened, but I'm a bit too short to reach." she said looking down in embarrassment.
"Oh, I see. ... Wait, a painting? So you're..!"
"Henri, yep." She said, her smile returning to her face.
"Then these...?"
"Are all mine, yeah." She said with a slight chuckle. "Y'know, for an art enthusiast, you sure seem to know little about me. You ARE here to get an early look at the art, right?" she asked as she put the stool down.
"Y-yeah, I am! I-I just..."
"Thought that Henri would be a man?"
'Well that saves me an explanation!' Gary thought to himself. "Yeah."
She looked at him sternly. He thought he had made her mad, but then she broke out into a laugh. "Sorry! I just love to mess with people!" she said as she grabbed a painting that was resting against the wall nearby. "The expressions on peoples' faces when I do are so interesting. And expression is my life!" She was about to step up on the stool when she paused. "Hey, how 'bout you hang this? You look tall enough."
"Me?" Gary said, pointing to himself. "Okay." She handed him the painting and slid the step stool out of the way. He took it and reached as high as he could reach, being careful not to bump into the painting below it. He had to stretch a bit, but he managed to hang it. It was a somewhat strange sensation. He had spent his whole life taking, and here he was, putting something where it belonged.
He was about to take a moment to admire the piece when he heard the sounds of sirens blaring. His natural instincts kicked back in and he ran out of the room full speed, leaving Henrietta behind without a word. Unfortunately for him, there wasn't enough time to make an escape. The authorities had already expected someone to break into the exhibit and had everything locked down in no time at all. Gary had been caught! But before the police could cuff him, Henrietta came running over. "Excuse me, Officer, but he's with me."
"I'm sorry, miss, and you are?"
"Henrietta."
"Wait. Henrietta? As in..?"
"Yes, as in Henri. I'm sure you've heard the name. I have an exhibit here that is showing tomorrow. This young man is helping me make some last minute touches."
"Begging your pardon, miss, but then why, may I ask, was he trying to escape?"
"He may or may not be working for me 'officially', and my or may not 'officially' be allowed in here. But he is, in fact, with me, and if you insist on arresting the poor boy, well, I just might have to pack up my exhibit and leave."
"Hmm. Well we can't have that, now can we? If you say he's with you, I suppose I can let him go, but make sure he stays out of trouble!"
"Thank you, Officer. Please come back later. I would love to see you at the exhibit."
As the Officers left, Gary looked at Henri and asked, "Why did you help me?"
"Eh," she said with a shrug, "You helped me, so I helped you."
"I helped you hang a painting. That hardly seems like a fair trade."
"Are you kidding! I hate step stools. If you really feel like you owe me, why don't you just stick around. I'm sure this won't be the last time I need a painting hung."
How could he refuse! From that point on, Gary accompanied Henrietta all over the world as she painted and held exhibits. She gave him a place to stay, food to eat, and all she asked in return was for him to hang her pieces. It didn't take him long to realize, but she had stolen his heart. And 4 years after their meeting, they wed! Shortly after that, Henrietta gave birth to their son, Lawrence. They stopped traveling after Larry was born and spent 6 joyous years together. But then the war began and Henrietta's art stopped bringing in any money. As they we brought closer and closer to poverty, Gary decided that he would have to make money in the only way he knew how. So he began stealing again, but this time, instead of trinkets, he stole food and other necessities.
He stole from as many places as he could, including from the troops that would pass through their town. But unfortunately, he got caught stealing from some troops and was arrested. But in a strange twist of fate, they didn't imprison him. Instead, they decided they could use his skills. So for two years, the military used Gary to steal weapons and intel from their enemies. Then on his last job, his life changed forever.
It was a simple job. He had discovered the location of a deal that was going to go down between some enemy soldiers and some black market merchants. Knowing that there would be a wealth of powerful and dangerous contraband, the military sent Gary and a few soldiers to ambush them. The operation went rather smoothly. They arrived at the location before the enemy soldiers did. They watched the three merchants, three gigans dressed in trench coats until they arrived. As the deal was going down, Gary's group attacked. It was a quick and clean attack. Every man was down in a matter of seconds, including the merchants. Unfortunately, not all of them died immediately. As Gary was going through the loot, picking out what was valuable and what was not, one of the dying enemy soldiers pulled the pin on one of his grenades and threw it. The only thing Gary could do was shield himself with the corpse of one of the gigan merchants before the BOOM!
As the smoke and shrapnel settled, Gary found that he was the only survivor. But as he set the corpse aside, he realized that something was very different. The trench coat had come off the gigan and was stuck to him. He tried to pull it off, but it wouldn't budge. Then it moved on its own, putting itself on Gary. It was a parasite! It needed a new host, and unfortunately for Gary, there was no one else around. Realizing that there was nothing he could do, he grabbed what little loot had survived and made his way back to his Superiors. They didn't take the news well and decided to stop using his services.
Now he and his family were back where they began, but now they had to face the prejudice that parasite hosts faced. Gary tried to make it work, though. It turned out that the parasite had a special ability that suited his skills rather well. The pockets of the coat turned out to be their own pocket dimensions, meaning he could put as much as he wanted in his pockets without weighing himself down. Once again, the mischievous spirit from his youth began to burn. Now instead of only stealing what was necessary, he stole anything and everything he could. Of course, living in what was essentially a warzone wasn't a good place to be. So with the help of a friend, he and his family escaped into the Canopy Kingdom.
But Gary didn't stay with his family for long. He decided to leave them to make a name for himself in the criminal underworld, much to their dismay. He succeeded, selling illegal contraband, stolen goods, and information. Nobody dared to cross him, not only because he was a valuable asset, but because of his parasite, he was basically a walking armory. He could pull any weapon out of his pockets at any time and since his parasite has eyes on the back, no one could sneak up on him. Because of this, he quickly became known as Pockets.
Once the war was over, Pockets spent a couple years traveling the No Mans Land, looting anything of value. Having acquired several objects of worth, he decided he should set up shop in a place in need of his particular talents. He decided that New Meridian would be an excellent location. The Mafia would undoubtedly appreciate his goods and intel, while competitors would come to him looking for an edge.
(mostly because I thought it was awkward and a really weird scene), and I decided to remove that part of the story since I found it to be reaaaallly awkward (but 
