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Starter Pokémon! A compiled list of the starter Pokémon to choose from offered in Victory Road!
Player Name: Neon Email: N/A Preferred Contact: PM, or Discord lovely N.D. Dystopia#9916 Timezone: Pacific Daylight Time Current Characters in Victory Road: None
Welcome to the Wonderful World of Pokemon! Congratulations, you have a fun and exciting adventure awaiting you.
Now that you've been accepted... [○] Respond to this with your character's journal. This is a must! [○] Comment in the Taken Characters post, alphabetized by series: Here. [○] Join the following communities: victory_road, the_plateau, and ohmyarceus. Only Team Rocket personnel should join silph_co, but we ask that all Victory Road members subscribe to it. Note! You will not be accepted to the main or logs community until you've commented in the aforementioned places. [○] If you're still on the reserved list, please let us know that they've been accepted. [○] Please make sure to check out the Calendar for the weather and upcoming plots and swarms! [○] You can also find our mod plurk at victoryroad; if you have a Plurk, we suggest you become a fan!
We'd also like to take this moment to inform you of the Eastern Kanto Ferry! For only P2000, you can take a three day, all-inclusive ferry ride from New Bark Town to Pallet Town and begin a new pokémon journey in the Kanto region! Otherwise, feel free to start in Johto!
Player Name: H E-mail: heathar@gmail.com Preferred Contact: mutedtempest everywhere online, mutedtempest#7020 on Discord Timezone: IST (same as GMT) Current Characters in Victory Road: not a one
Character Name: Lotor Series: Voltron: Legendary Defender Timeline: Season 5, the end of Episode 6, "White Lion," after returning from Oriande with Allura on the space Segways Canon Resource Links:The fandom wiki More: Lotor nearly wasn’t born at all. His parents were told there were many complications, and Zarkon asked if there was any way to save the baby. Honerva demanded to be taken to the Rift, because “Quintessence is life; it’s the only way.” Zarkon, being unable to deny his love anything, betrayed the other Paladins and took her in.
Lotor wasn’t introduced to the show until Zarkon had been left comatose by his battle with Voltron. Haggar brought Lotor out of exile to lead the Galra as Emperor pro-tem until his father recovered. He was immediately met with opposition and those plotting to keep him from the throne, to which he responded with battle and a rousing speech that was well received by the Galra. This came immediately after two generals in the audience were discussing how small he is, and how he fights on the front lines with his generals like a common soldier (and how this is shameful).
As the season continued, we were shown that Lotor is extremely intelligent. We were also shown that his fighting and tactical prowess is pretty much unmatched in the Empire. This continues through season 4, where he has yet more run-ins with Haggar. He was relieved of his position by a very unhappy and reawakened Zarkon, but he wasn’t unhappy about this.
He obviously had his own plans that he was working on rather than wanting to be in command of the Empire, and these come to a head at the end of season 4, where it’s revealed that he’d been working on making ships from the comet he’d sent Voltron to get from another reality in season 3. After killing his general Narti after realizing she was being controlled by Haggar in order to spy on him and his ships, Lotor tests these Sincline ships as he knows Haggar will know about them. Haggar does, and tells Zarkon, who declares his son an enemy of the Empire and orders that he be shot on sight.
The Sincline ships don’t work, and Lotor is captured by Acxa as revenge for his killing Narti. He dislocates his shoulders to get out of his bonds and escapes in his fighter, but Zarkon’s ships are right behind him, so Lotor literally flies into a sun to escape him. It works, but just barely. He then hears a transmission from Central Command that a large explosion is imminent in a certain zone, and Lotor manages to piece together that this is all being orchestrated by Haggar. He immediately speeds to the location, and fires on Haggar’s ship with his ion cannon. After this, he tells the Paladins that it’s time they have a discussion.
Season 5 opens with Lotor imprisoned in the Castle of Lions. After returning from a mission, Shiro and Allura go to tell him that his intel has checked out and given them a win, to which Lotor replies that he wants to return the Galra Empire to a bygone era of peace. To prove this, he gives them information about Pidge’s father’s location, and Voltron takes Lotor as a prisoner exchange. This ends up going awry, as Lotor warned it would, and Lotor ends up facing Zarkon. After a hard battle, Lotor ends up killing his father.
He later goes to the Kral Zera, the Galran site of determining the new emperor/empress, in the Black Lion with Shiro. He announces that he is the rightful emperor as he killed Zarkon, and faces off with Sendak in a fierce battle for the throne. He succeeds, and from there forward he makes good on his promise to to try to return the Empire to peace. This involves researching in Haggar’s old lab with Allura, and they find that they can go to Oriande, a world of Altean alchemy secrets. They do, much to the dismay of the other Paladins (and Coran) and Allura is able to pass the tests of the sages and achieve the knowledge contained there. Lotor, however, chooses to fight the White Lion, shouting “Victory or death!” and is thus spat back out onto the temple steps. He later says that Oriande was for Allura, not for him.
Personality: Lotor is designed to be morally grey. He is calculating, manipulative, and charismatically persuasive, while simultaneously having a very genuine air to himself and to the things he says. He is one of the poster children of abuse, being abandoned/neglected/hated by his parents, especially his father, as well as looked down upon and scorned by many of the Galra. As a half-Altean he is smaller than most Galra, which means that all his life he has been underestimated and seen as weak when he is anything but. His fighting ability is incredible, and it’s obvious he’s trained very, very hard to get to where he is. It’s already been stated that he fought at the front lines, so he has that experience (though it’s looked down upon by other Galra generals, who state that “he has no honor” for doing so), as well as the fact that he’s somewhere around 10,000 years old and was born the son of an emperor of a race that valued fighting ability more than most anything else. We see him fighting without much trouble at all in the Galran gladiatorial arena, and while as a prince he may have done this simply for entertainment, one gets the sense that he does it often enough to be confident in his matches there.
He is also one of the most competent pilots in the Empire, able to outrun and outmaneuver his father’s warship as well as those of his father’s commanders and generals. He’s well aware that he has these skills, and while it’s never stated outright that he thinks he’s anything special, he’s obviously confident to the point of coming off arrogant. I don’t think he really is, but given that he often needs to put on a show of strength and power to get any respect from his people at all, he’s able to play the part very well.
His intelligence is vast, something that isn’t odd when you consider that his mother was an alchemist and very interested in science. Zarkon was no slouch in that area either - even after his corruption he's shown to be very shrewd, calculating and analytical. Lotor's circumstances and the fact that he grew up and lived all of his life without his parents’ support meant that he also did not have the support of the Empire, other than that afforded him by virtue of birth alone. If anyone hurt him or made his life hard, they could incur the wrath of the Emperor, which means he was likely very well and highly educated in both scholarly pursuits and combat, but left to himself much of the time. He was exiled for quite some time, only coming back when Haggar needed him to stand in for his father.
Lotor has a very quick and analytical mind, able to make plans that optimize his skills and abilities while lessening those of his opponents, be they members of his own Empire or the Paladins of Voltron. He seeks knowledge and uses this to defeat his enemies, knowing when to withdraw from a battle and to use any new information gathered to re-evaluate and edit his plans. He’s able to think on his feet and play the part needed to get the job done, no matter who he happens to be up against. He is also insatiably curious, and has stated himself that he’s always wanted to be an explorer and learn about the universe.
Lotor seems very emotionally closed off when we first meet him, and this doesn’t change much until season 5. The showrunners have said that the Galra have intense emotions, and this is very true of Lotor, who tends to wear his heart on his sleeve. It’s very easy to see when he’s annoyed, angry, or sad, as he doesn’t hide these feelings from anyone. It can thus be concluded that the Galra, while despising weakness, do not see emotion or the expression of it as such. Of course, this may also tie in to the fact that Lotor is the son of the Emperor, as it’s been stated in the show that he has the ability to go and take anything he wants without asking for it. This may very well extend to his being able to show emotion without being looked down on for it, at least not in any way that matters.
Even so, it’s fairly obvious that his life has been lonely. Haggar was so corrupted by her time in the Rift and the need for quintessence afterward that she has no recollection of him as her son until the beginning of the fifth season, and even then, she definitely doesn’t treat him lovingly. Zarkon seems only to detest him and consider him unworthy of both the throne and his attention, and the only times they speak in canon are very uncomfortable. Lotor is also looked down on for being a half-breed, and this seems to drive him to do better. He considers his Altean heritage a strength, where the Galra see it as a weakness.
In the beginning of the series, Sendak says that the greatest weakness of all is to value the lives of others. In an empire based on conquest and subjugation, this makes sense. Lotor, however, tells Allura that he was sent to the far reaches of the Empire's territory to oversee a planet, and while there, he grew to know and care about its inhabitants and their culture. Finding out about this, Zarkon ordered Lotor to destroy the planet. Lotor refused, and Zarkon proceeded to destroy it himself. This was thousands of years ago, and Lotor is still visibly shaken by it, and is quite sad while sharing it with Allura. Through this his claims to want peace and to want to rule differently from his father seem genuine, and the showrunners have confirmed that everything Lotor says has truth to it. Whether or not he’s manipulating people to get his way is undetermined at his canon point, as are his ultimate goals.
That doesn’t mean that he’s a hero or above manipulation and coercion, though. While we haven’t yet seen him mislead Voltron, he was still introduced as one of the antagonists, and has his own plans to get quintessence to secure peace. To do this, he may very well “betray” them, either intentionally or not, but I can’t imagine it would be malicious. He would simply see it as a necessity to meeting his own goals. (Update post series: yeeeeeah nope not buying the "Lotor is Eeeeeevil" plot twist which had no canon evidence, though it's not relevant at his canon point so I'm just keeping him from right after Oriande so I don't need to deal with the weirdness). Voltron and the Paladins seem to be the first time he’s felt comfortable with people in a long time, if ever. When he greets the Paladins and Coran as his friends when they visit High Command, it sounds incredibly sincere and like he believes it. While he was friendly with his generals, able to joke around and visibly care for them, I think there was still a bit of hesitance on his part simply due to the fact that he outranked them and they were duty-bound to stay by his side. With Narti’s betrayal and his quick decision to kill her for it, he drove a wedge between himself and his remaining generals that could not be fixed. When Acxa pulled her gun on him, Lotor could have fought and more than likely killed her (she didn’t really take him that much by surprise), but he didn’t. He didn’t even make an attempt. He just looked sad. Even when putting the pieces together that Narti was spying for Haggar, he looked more panicked when he cut her down than he did angry.
Allura asks him if he’s all right, after Zarkon’s defeat. He has probably been asked this question before, by his generals at least, but it appears to be something he is not used to on a personal level. I would venture to guess that a Galran prince would not have people asking him such a thing regularly, and when they did, it would be simply out of duty and only in reference to his physical condition. He seems a bit out of sorts when he responds that he’ll be fine. He certainly doesn’t sound it, though. During the battle with Zarkon he looked incredibly scared, and sad afterward, showing that despite their tumultuous relationship, Lotor still loved his father. This is also the first time he shows true vulnerability in front of Allura. This increases as the season progresses, as their connection strengthens. By the end of the season he’s been shown to look at her adoringly, and it’s obvious he genuinely cares about her, and by extension the Paladins (although he’s not as close to any of them, obviously). He even flinches on Oriande when the Sages attack, something he would never risk doing before the Galra as they would dismiss him as weak. Yet as Emperor he didn’t even think twice about flinching in front of her. This shows how much his trust in her has grown.
When it comes to the leadership of his Empire, we aren’t really shown much at his canon point. He states that many are loyal to him, but there are sizable factions in revolt. Lotor is very skilled at war and tactics and though his plans seem to be to find an unlimited source of quintessence so the Empire will no longer need to fight for it, should this not be successful, he may well have to fight. His status as a half-Galra is also a point against him to the Empire, and the number of factions in revolt speak to this. Still, he does not appear concerned about this to anyone aside from the Paladins (and even then, it’s never directly addressed and usually neatly sidestepped). This may be something he does not focus on due to his lack of a way to prevent the battles ahead, or it may simply be an instance of his not wanting to show vulnerability to anyone, as he has been raised and lived all his life in a culture in which doing so gets people killed.
In summary, Lotor is a complicated man with a very dark past, who seems to truly want to help his Empire come to peace. While he is still often cold and cynical, this is changing as he learns to trust others, and while he knows the battle is far from over he seems to have a bit of hope. He has always been at odds with the cutthroat nature of the Galra and has been researching his Altean lineage for centuries, as well as many other things, and this has shaped him into someone that may be a bit terrible at dealing with people or his feelings but well versed in the attempt. His quest for knowledge and his penchant for exploration are definitive qualities, as is his ability to think on his feet.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Trainer Starter: Purrloin Password: Atomic Fireball
Player Name: Bear E-mail: realisticfakefish@gmail.com Preferred Contact:naturalcyber Timezone: EST (probably moving to CST within 2 months) Current Characters in Victory Road: N/A
Character Name: Thace Series: Voltron: Legendary Defender Timeline: Season 2, episode Blackout. Post-death Canon Resource Links:here
Personality: Thace is a very minor character, so some things will inevitably be headcanon, and others must be inferred from other facts. However, there is a basis that is set by his scenes in canon.
The first thing about him that is clearly demonstrated, again and again, is that Thace is calm and in control of himself, no matter the situation. Even when being interrogated by someone who claims to be able to discern lies, Thace calmly lies to her face and doesn't give himself away. He walks into situations involving spycraft and sabotage where his very life is in danger and doesn't blink. The only time when his composure cracks is under torture, and even then it's only crying out from the pain of it. He doesn't show any other signs of fear or anger or despair, even at his most helpless and hopeless moments.
The second thing directly demonstrated is that his public face is a very serious demeanor, and he's a man of few words. When he speaks he's very to the point, and he rarely shows any expression but a neutral one. His expression does relax a little when he has rare moments alone and at the end he smiles, so it can be inferred that there's more to his personality/emotions than that, but for the most part the only times he's seen in canon is when he has that public face on, so at least outwardly he's very stoic.
A third thing that's directly demonstrated is that Thace is very devoted to his cause of freeing the galaxies from Zarkon's tyranny. Not only does he continually risk his life for said cause, but in the end he willingly, without hesitation, and even with some joy, sacrifices his life to see his duty fulfilled.
A final thing that's seen on screen is Thace's ability to creatively think around a problem. When the codes he'd carefully gathered and needed to fulfil his important role in the final battle of season two where changed after his capture, Thace instead found a different way to achieve the same thing, and demonstrated technical know-how in order to do it, blowing up the core instead of shutting it down with the codes.
There are also things that can be inferred from canon. The first is that Thace must have good organizational skills, and be meticulous and careful, as well as very intelligent and quick thinking. This is because to succeed as a spy in an environment where a tiny slip or mistake could kill him, or being sloppy could result in his plans behind forfeit he would have to be. However, he's not perfect, and his very small mistakes (leaving the chip behind; returning to retrieve it, etc) do lead to his capture and death.
Second is that he must be a skilled leader. This is because he's already a lieutenant when we first see him, and is the first choice for promotion to commander. He is also not found at fault in any way until his spying is revealed. Hand in hand with that, he must also be a very skilled soldier, for the same reason of his rank, and also that we see him fight briefly on screen.
Also to be inferred from his status as a spy in deep cover, Thace must be an extremely good liar (he even lies to the head druid/witch Haggar although we only have Haggar's word that she can detect lies) and fully able to hide his true thoughts and emotions on a subject. This includes being able to act as a typical Galran soldier (they are shown to be oppressors ranging from apathetic about those they oppress to expressing vicious enjoyment) even though he disagrees with the tyranny and is actively working to destroy the empire from within. Likewise, from what others in the Blade of Marmora have said, it can be assumed that he agrees with their views that Zarkon is destructive and not bringing order to the galaxies like they'd hoped. It can also be inferred by group actions and statements that as a group, Blade of Marmora and Thace by extension value selflessness (Keith's test, Thace's sacrifice), loyalty, and makes every attempt to preserve the group (Kolivan's statements about his men, and reluctance to risk them unnecessarily). Secrecy, and bring untrusting in general also fall in line with the group, and with Thace's status as a spy.
On the flip side, Thace was raised in Galran culture with its emphasis on strength and power, and 'victory or death' mindset. While he doesn't move in lockstep with the culture (certainly not at all with respect to being obedient to the Emperor), such an environment would be pervasive. Strength and independence are things to be valued, weakness a potential for others to exploit and turn on you. Likewise, because of those ideals, the Galra empire doesn't endorse, and after 10000 years, probably is hardly aware of things such as trauma and how to treat/deal with it, medically or socially. While such things can be folded into something more noble, such as what the Blade of Marmora, and Thace by extension, display, they can easily turn toxic and lead to misunderstandings.
Then we must move on to a little bit of headcanon. Thace is only shown interacting with another Blade of Marmora (Keith) once, and very briefly during a fight for their lives at that. He's not seen on screen in a position where he could relax and express himself more openly. My headcanon is that when among his fellows who he trusts implicitly and explicitly and without external threats, that Thace has the potential to be good-humored and downright playful on occasion, and that in addition to that trust, he cares for the Blade of Marmora not only as a group but as individuals very deeply. I also headcanon that Thace is very noble at heart, although he's had to do terrible things to keep his cover, and the state of Galran culture and morality does leave him a little bit like a blind man stumbling around in the dark with regards to ethics and honor.
Lastly, I headcanon that while Thace can compartmentalize to keep himself steady, he has experienced trauma, and from that and the conflict between his internal ideals and his external environment/culture, he will eventually suffer if not helped by others. Likewise, that because of these things, he's distrusting of those not Blade of Marmora almost to the point of paranoia.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Trainer Starter: Honedge Password: Atomic Fireball
Victory Road Sample: The first thing that registers is the faint surprise accompanying the familiar sensation of snapping out of a deep sleep. Deep sleep is rare and dangerous, and Thace doesn't remember falling asleep.
What he does remember-- Is this some form of afterlife? He slits his eyes open out of habit, holding still and breathing deeply. The colors are unfamiliar, much too bright and chaotic to be anything Galra. The light is too bright, and feels warm against his face like only sunlight on a planet's surface really can. It's pleasant. Just that has him on edge, clenching fists under the fabric cover over him-- There's no prick from his claws against his palms.
Thace is aware of his heartrate picking up, but moves slowly, carefully, and takes in as much of his surroundings as he can while miming a stretch to limber up. The window is too small, or was too small; Thace can feel the differences just by moving. There's a door and a sound.
Quickly, Thace passes his palms over his forehead and cheeks (where is his fur?) while he assesses the situation. Small, and is that an Earthling? He doesn't know Earthling faces well enough to pick out falsehoods or attempts to hide things. The Earthling seems happy, but how much of that is true?
"Time to get up, sleepyhead! You don't want to get a late start on your big journey!"
A journey? Thace looks towards the Earthling since he's been addressed. He can't spot any signs of tension, or really any muscle-mass that would suggest someone trained in physical combat. A reply must be expected, so… "I feel like I've underprepared for my journey."
"Oh, nonsense! What kind of mom would I be if I didn't see you off with a bag full of all the necessities? And a lunch, of course!"
At this moment, he can see no other course but to play along and hope he finds some clue as to what's really going on. "Of course, Mother."
"Look who's acting like a grown up already; I'm so proud."
The bag is somehow both heavier than it looks and lighter than Thace was expecting, and he doesn't resist being herded down the stairs. The false-mother chatters and he passively listens, not attempting to make sense of the words right now, but to accurately remember them later so he can go over them in the most thorough manner possible.
It's almost a surprise that the door shuts tightly after him. Almost. Thace needs somewhere secure to assess the situation immediately, but where?
Unfortunately, we can't accept your application at this time. The majority of your application was fine, but upon review we cannot accept an app that rejects or eliminates major canon that precedes the canon point applied for, especially without further justification.
While we understand that sometimes canon can take characters into directions that are not in line with a person's expectations and that that can be disappointing, your hardline rejection of what is canon (as gleaned from your ooc note on his future development) leaves us with doubts as to whether you will be able to play Lotor without this attitude reflecting in your playing. We also do not feel that this is something that can simply be ignored by apping him from an earlier canonpoint, as even at this canonpoint Lotor has been engaging in behaviour that makes him a far darker moral gray than we feel you reflect in your application, such as him harvesting Alteans for Quintessence, something which you have completely omitted from your application. While the reveal of these facts may have come from after your canon point, as they are relevant to Lotor's current actions, they should've been mentioned.
For these reasons, we cannot accept your application at this time. You are free to reapply for this character (and others) in the future after reworking your application.
Welcome to the Wonderful World of Pokemon! Congratulations, you have a fun and exciting adventure awaiting you.
Now that you've been accepted... [○] Respond to this with your character's journal. This is a must! [○] Comment in the Taken Characters post, alphabetized by series: Here. [○] Join the following communities: victory_road, the_plateau, and ohmyarceus. Only Team Rocket personnel should join silph_co, but we ask that all Victory Road members subscribe to it. Note! You will not be accepted to the main or logs community until you've commented in the aforementioned places. [○] If you're still on the reserved list, please let us know that they've been accepted. [○] Please make sure to check out the Calendar for the weather and upcoming plots and swarms! [○] You can also find our mod plurk at victoryroad; if you have a Plurk, we suggest you become a fan!
We'd also like to take this moment to inform you of the Eastern Kanto Ferry! For only P2000, you can take a three day, all-inclusive ferry ride from New Bark Town to Pallet Town and begin a new pokémon journey in the Kanto region! Otherwise, feel free to start in Johto!
(Is it okay if I bring her back previously or must I start anew if she’s accepted?)
Player Name: Knux E-mail: MagiMecha@aol.com Preferred Contact:AshBlaze Timezone: Eastern Current Characters in Victory Road: N/A
Character Name: Sasami Masaki Jurai Series: Tenchi Muyo! Timeline: Post-OVA 3 Canon Resource Links:https://tenchi.fandom.com/wiki/Sasami (NOTE: Only the “Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki” section)
Personality: On the outside, Sasami's easily the little sister you want to have in your house and the picture perfect vision of the perfect housewife. Sweet, adorable and lovable to a fault, Sasami is always one to put a smile on anyone's faces. She's always shown to be helpful around the house, to the point where she's almost a workaholic - she hates the idea of getting sick because if she does, that means the house might end up falling apart without her. This is mostly due to the fact that she feels that she needs to pay back for the hospitality, no matter how much they say she doesn't need to.
Despite being a sweetheart, Sasami has shown a more stern side, willing to put her foot down when needed and defend. When her father, Emperor Azusa, came to take away Sasami and her sister Ayeka, she first told him no... then said that if he forced her, she'd hate him forever. And when a Galaxy Police officer attempted to capture Sasami, she easily fought back, defeating her with ease.
As well, Sasami is also somewhat of a prankster, though this rarely rears its face. When she first appeared to Tenchi, she pranked him into trying to get Ayeka's headpiece, knowing full well that he'd pull something boneheaded like taking the sword she swiped from him. If she thinks she can get a rise out of anyone, she'll be more than happy to do this, but she's pretty much tempered down from that sort of thing.
A major aspect of Sasami that may or may not come into effect here is her strange situation between her and the Goddess Tsunami, in that she considers herself nothing more than a vessel for the goddess and feels that the real Sasami is dead. While this subject has been laid to rest in canon in that her loved ones don't consider her any different and treat her as the real Sasami, especially since she truly is and only thinks this way because of her young mind processing it this way, it shouldn't be a problem here as she'll be disconnected from Tsunami and any traits from that, especially seeing the goddess' reflection in water, is removed.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Trainer Starter: Buneary Password: Atomic Fireball
Player Name: Dante E-mail: theirradiated@gmail.com Preferred Contact:teenysanguini Timezone: EST Current Characters in Victory Road: Spinel
Character Name: Padak Series: Padak: Swimming to Sea Timeline: Post-death Canon Resource Links:Here.
Personality:
Padak is determined and strong-willed, especially when it comes to survival. She is willing to do whatever it takes to escape the tank and return to the ocean. When she's first captured and placed in the restaurant's fish tank, she relentlessly smashes against the fish tank glass over and over, and it takes being smacked unconscious by the tank's leader, Flatfish, for her to finally stop. When Padak is put in charge of the tank's daily riddle game (where the loser's tail gets eaten), her riddle is asking the other fish in the tank how to escape.
Padak loves the ocean. While going back to the sea means survival for Padak, it's also her home. It's the only thing she talks about while in the fish tank, and all of her planning revolves around getting back there. She talks about the kind of fish she's met in the ocean, and the experiences she's going to have once she's free again. To her, the ocean means freedom.
Padak is daring, especially in her escape attempts. She pushes herself past her limits trying to break the glass of the tank, even though everyone else knows it's futile. Her first escape attempt involves throwing herself out of the tank, which nearly kills her due to running out of air before she can reach the ocean. In an almost suicidal attempt to get free, she throws herself into the king crab tank to ask them for help, despite the warnings she gets about how the crabs will try to kill her. She does it anyway, and gets dies. The only thing that saves her is a little boy who scoops her out of the crab tank.
Padak can be blunt. She calls the other fish in the tank "stupid" and tells them to think for themselves when they repeat the information Flatfish tells them about the ocean, despite never living there himself. She's also defiant when it comes to the Flatfish, who the other fish obey and admire. She sees him as an obstacle trying to stop her from escaping the tank, and questions that if he's from the sea, why doesn't he try to escape too? She loses all of her respect for him when he admits that he's not from the sea, but a fish farm like the rest of the fish in the tank. She tells the other fish in the tank that the Flatfish is a liar, and that they shouldn't believe what he says.
Padak is kind-hearted, this is especially true with her interaction with Spotty. She protects him when he's getting bullied by other fish, and tells him about the ocean. She even offers for them to live together once they escape the fish tank. But her kindness is really seen when she and Spotty try to escape to the ocean. Spotty gets caught by a customer, while Padak is inches away from freedom. Instead of diving into the ocean, she stays behind and doesn't leave Spotty, even at the cost of her freedom.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Trainer Starter: Wishiwashi Password: Atomic Fireball
Player Name: Tulip E-mail: just.befriends@hotmail.com Preferred Contact:osomatsuniisan Timezone: CST Current Characters in Victory Road: None!
Character Name: Osomatsu Matsuno Series: Osomatsu-San Timeline: S2 E24, 'Sakura' Canon Resource Links:Here ya go.
Personality: Though Osomatsu may come off as fairly simple in personality on the offset, the truth is that that idea couldn't be further from it. He's very much a man of contradictions - brave, but cowardly. Mean, but caring. Stupid, but sly. He has a lot of facets to him that he often refuses to show anyone on the offset, leading to anyone's first impression of him likely coming off as 'a well-meaning, but impulsive kind of guy who sometimes lets his emotions get the better of him, even when he shouldn't', but this is only half of the truth.
He means well. Most of the time, he does. (Such as in S1E2, 'The Melancholy of Osomatsu', where he simply wants to spend time with his brothers...but screws all of their own free times up accidentally.) He has a degree to which he's self-serving, a degree to which he forgets that other people are also a concern, but a minute after he realizes this, you'd be hard pressed to see a time where he truly went with the option that benefited him alone. He doesn't particularly see himself as a good person, but sometimes he sees himself as 'a person who was put into a position to do a good thing.' He's far from selfless, and of course if he does something nice there's a high chance he'll look towards whoever he helped for some kind of reward, even if it's merely just praise, but he will sacrifice quite a bit if he needs to. He's not the best at making tough calls, either, but when told to choose between his head and his heart, he'll usually choose his heart and worry about the logistical conflicts later. He's not always the best choice for anything, but if people truly depend on him, he'll give it his all.
He's childish - very naturally immature and without a filter, but in this case it's mostly because he hates the idea of covering up who it is. (As he himself says in Osomatsu-San the Movie: "Lying is bad, though." That after blatantly revealing to his entire high school reunion class that his brothers and he were all worthless layabouts without batting an eyelash.) If he stacks lies upon lies, it has a higher chance of collapse, so he feels it's easier to simply be entirely honest with who he is and how he likes to behave, and if someone doesn't like that, they're not worth his time anyway. Naturally, this makes him more popular with kids than it does adults, but he doesn't mind that either, honestly. He likes acting as a big brother figure to those younger than him - even unrelated - because in truth, he has a big heart and quite a few soft spots. Anyone who cares about him, first, and makes the effort to get along with him will immediately be treated with unconditional warmth, but he's still the sort of person who, if he caught onto say, a little girl who wanted to make friends but was easily frightened, would be the one to reach out to her as gently as he could, doing things like sitting down beside her on the sidewalk with a bucket of chalk and drawing silly pictures to make her laugh. In truth, he values other people moreso than himself, though he's loathe to admit it because it sounds sad, and because he's not fond of the idea of being hurt by this trait...though he has been burnt before, and he's one to forgive easily, but not entirely forget.
Despite how childish he is most of the time, he does have a point to where he'll realize a situation is serious, and he'll tone down his usual jokes and antics to buckle down and focus. He can get degrees of upset that are honestly just comical and come off more as temper tantrums if he's told a whim he's following isn't right (though he'll usually own up to it if it isn't in the end), or if he's told to stop doing something he enjoys, but if people other than him are hurt, that's when he buckles down and has his limits. Insult him? Sure, go ahead. Insult his brothers, an innocent kid, or someone who can't defend themselves in general? He'll call someone out on that without a hint of humor in his tone, and if they push it, he won't hesitate to defend them because it's the right thing to do. He's actually a fairly decent planner, and against someone who doesn't mean well if he's the one charged to take charge of the situation, he's someone who looks very deeply at people and can sometimes realize strengths in others they might not notice themselves. Similarly, in emotional disputes, he'd prefer to handle them with levity, but if something serious is happening, he'll push that aside because he knows that if he were like that, he'd simply want someone to be there for him, too.
He has a fair bit of hidden intellect. Though he may seem even downright stupid to begin with - and he'll admit, his strengths aren't in book-knowledge - he's very street-smart and emotionally-smart. He's not someone who you should trust with any exact calculations, but he is someone you could probably count on to see solutions other people don't and honestly surprise people with the most unconventional plans that still, somehow, work. He likes taking charge and assuming a leadership role, but if someone else has this covered, he's usually willing to put his faith in them, especially if he sees a situation as being out of his depth normally. Sometimes, he may play up his own idiotic qualities, whether that be to make someone's guard lower to surprise them later, or to bolster someone's confidence, or to simply make someone feel more at ease - often, there's a method to the way he acts, it's just getting him to own up to that being nigh-impossible. (As shown in S1 E15, 'The Ichimatsu Incident' where he plays incredibly dumb in an effort to get Ichimatsu to own up to an embarrassing secret, and in a number of other episodes where he pulls similar tricks.)
However, he is very flawed as an individual. He's impulsive to a fault, and if he sees some kind of resolution as the best option it can be a trial to get him to see any other way as better, because he's stubborn - but he can be talked down and see reason most of the time. (Though he's still not a person that should be left around big red buttons that say 'DON'T PRESS THIS' alone, because he has a natural curiosity, too, and no matter how many times he's told, if he's left alone with it...that button will end up pressed.) He's hot-headed and sometimes if his temper flares, he can say things he doesn't really mean, (as seen in S1 E2 'The Melancholy of Osomatsu', where he remarks that he 'wishes he were an only child', though that is the farthest thing from the truth) though he'll feel awful about it later and usually end up apologizing if he's crossed any kind of line. He has natural addictions on top of impulses, namely towards gambling and drinking, and he finds it difficult to resist those, though he can if he really, really has to. He sometimes likes to go with the easy solution to problems because it's the easy solution, and will groan if he has to do any hard work, but if it pays off, he'll be satisfied enough.
His greatest flaw is that he depends on others far too much. (Best seen in S1 E24 'Letter', where he reacts with outright pensive anger to the idea of his brothers leaving him and their lifestyle of slacking around - causing them to be driven away even further with his actions.) He cares deeply about others and how they feel, and being alone actually frightens him. He needs companionship, because if he's left to brood on his own, he'll lose all his motivation. He's a people-person in the sense that he likes people, he needs people, and even if he's not always the best with people, he tries.
Sometimes too much so. Similarly, if someone hurts him or refuses to let him in no matter how hard he tries, he'll lash out (seen in a number of episodes, most notably 'Letter' where he outright hits his brothers in his pensive state), and ultimately that hurts him further in the end even if during this downswing he'll spew insults and snap only to feel ashamed of himself later. He doesn't know who he is sometimes outside of being the 'oldest brother of the sextuplets', and he has trouble defining himself past helping others (his vaguely-defined life goal in promotional material is to become a 'charisma legend that lights up the sky one day', whatever that means, and it is shown in S2 E24 'Sakura' in his talk with Totoko that he has a lot of uncertainties). He isn't sure who he is or what he's meant for, and it scares him to think too hard on it, so he doesn't.
He's not completely a hero, even if he'd like to be one - he has far too many flaws holding him back for him to ever completely consider himself a hero - but he is trying, and even if that makes one person feel better...that's probably enough. It's what his brothers would ultimately want, anyway. Probably.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Team Rocket~ Starter: Trapinch (Nickname: Snappy) & Vulpix (Nickname: Charisma Explosion Fireball II, Charry for short) Password: Atomic Fireball
Samples RP Sample:Think this'll do! Victory Road Sample: So this was what he'd call a day, overall. Three battles, and he'd lost at least two of them, the last barely pulling through. Snappy, for his part, was looking pretty worn, and Osomatsu was doing his best to avoid any further encounters. "...You've been pretty brave today, little guy." He muttered, as he crouched down next to the small orange pokemon, gently rubbing its head. "There, there. Niichan's proud of you, y'know? You're really kickin' ass, takin' names..."
The trapinch opened its little jaw...and then closed it in a yawn. Osomatsu chuckled softly. "Aww. Y'need a nap?" He asked, before he pulled out his pokeball. "Alright. Take a nap, we'll get movin'." He didn't like to put the little guy up too much - mostly because he felt like that would be confining to him, and it would suck, so it probably sucked for Snappy too, right? But he needed to rest for now. Osomatsu recalled the little guy into his ball, before letting out a sigh. "Okay, where are we going, where are we going, where are we going and avoid the tall grass..."
Which. Was kind of like an extreme case of 'The Floor is Lava'. Especially when there was a forest ahead. He began tiptoeing around the grass...and humming a spy theme softly to himself. There was probably at least one other person nearby who gave him an odd look, but they weren't important, he didn't want to battle, the only thing that existed was him and this super spy 'keeping my little baby safe' escapade. Which was going okay, all things considered. It was a bit more walking, but he was soon out of the forest, a confident smile on his face. "Ha! Take that, forest! Alright, next is to find a place to heal up..." And in his thoughts, he'd started walking.
He'd started walking, not stopped, and promptly tripped over a rock, accidentally ejecting Snappy from the shelter of the pokeball in the process. The trapinch looked around, confused, before the unfortunate trainer was spotted...and given a small nudge by his friend. Osomatsu let out a small groan in response.
Player Name: Rio E-mail: lamia _ forte [at] yahoo [dot] com Preferred Contact: plurk @ lamiaforte Timezone: PST Current Characters in Victory: N/A
Character Name: Ardbert Series: Final Fantasy XIV Timeline: Mid Shadowbringers, when the Warrior of light goes to Amh Araeng. Canon Resource Links:Ardbert's Wiki & The Warriors of Darkness
Personality: Ardbert at his current canon point is a bitter, self-loathing, and depressed ghost of a man that he once was. His journey has been a long one where despite doing everything right, it's all gone horribly wrong. Backing up a moment, Ardbert used to be an adventurer and eventually a hero to his world. He is described by his old comrades as a kind and trusting soul. A sweet guy with a heart overflowing with love for those he holds dear. He's also the type of person who would never hesitate to help a person in need. During his adventures he got wrapped up in all sorts of quests big and small as no quest was beneath him. He was also shown to be the first to suggest partnering up with his comrades as such becoming the leader of their group. He was a great leader. He's quick to form a plan in tough situations, strict enough on his party for their own safety, and knew when to just cut a joke to ease tension. His gain was never selfish and he supported all his party members in fulfilling their own goals and personal quests. He believed with teamwork they could handle anything.
And he was right. Him and his party become the heroes of light to their world. It would unfortunately be their downfall though. Along their journey they learned of a secret mastermind behind a lot of nefarious deeds in their realm. Spoilers: It was one of their companions who had been manipulating them this whole time. This is where his boundless love would be his downfall. Simply put the nefarious plan was to make all these adventurers into "Warriors of Light" and in the end Ardbert would be needed to slay this traitor for the job to be done. Ultimately though he refused to kill his dear friend. This one choice (and the subsequent hunt and murder of the real manipulators) doomed his entire world and very nearly killed everyone.
Everything just gets worse from there. Him and his party are tricked again in their desperation. He had to kill all of his comrades and then had to take his own life. They do manage to stall the destruction of their world, but to do so required his party to sacrifice what remained of their life energy- yet out of his party he was the only denied his willing sacrifice.
This is what leads us to the Ardbert he is now. Having already lost his physical body and denied what would have been a spiritual death, he's been cursed to wander his homeland. For 100 years he's had to watch the world come to curse him and his friends names, had to watch civilization stand right at the edge of deaths door. No one can hear him and he can't interact physically with the world. Cursed to solitude and suffocating the intense guilt that all of this is his fault. His choices, his decisions lead to this and there is nothing he can do to save anyone anymore.
The main character, the Warrior of Light, does eventually come to his world and coincidentally is the only character who can see or hear him. Now it's the main character's turn to save his world. It's tough for Ardbert to handle, he flat out says that his world beyond saving and that it's a waste of time. He's become very self-deprecating being left with his own thoughts and guilt. It's important to note his attitude is slowly changing! At his current canon point the Warrior of Light is just starting to give him hope. Just a little.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Trainer Starter: Galarian Meowth Password: Atomic Fireball
[The camera feed clicks on to the view of a fairly normal looking man in not so normal looking armor. His eyebrows are furrowed in concentration as he still messes with the pokegear in question for a good minute before-]
Ah. Is this thing working?
[Look, it's a good thing he got practice during that weird weekend or he would be worse at this. His gloves aren't really making things easier either but.]
If fate should decide I must be stuck here, then so be it. I was already made aware of such things during a... 'weird weekend' I believe it was called.
No... [He shakes his head before turning the camera to the real point of this video. His Galarian Meowth who is just living it's life. Head slightly turned, chewing on some long grass. Little bit of a vacant wild expression.]
I understand we are supposed to rely on beasts here, but I don't see how. It just keeps wanting to chew on grass.
Matthew Holt | Voltron: Legendary Defender | Not Reserved
Player Name: Mochi E-mail: mochihearts@gmail.com Preferred Contact:mochihearts Timezone: CST Current Characters in Victory Road: Allura, Link
Character Name: Matt Holt Series: Voltron: Space Lion Hell Legendary Defender Timeline: Season 7, episode 13 -- “Lion’s Pride, Part 2” Canon Resource Links:Wiki I || Wiki II
Personality: Matthew Holt is the son of scientists. Call him a nerd if you want; he’ll wear it like a badge of honor. His brains are what got him selected as one of the fortunate few to explore the far reaches of our solar system.
Matt is powerfully curious, facing the unknown without trepidation--though that can occasionally lead him into trouble. Sometimes big questions don’t have obvious or immediate answers, but that’s not a bad thing. It just means that those answers haven’t been discovered yet, and Matt wants to have a hand in unearthing them. He believes that there’s no problem too obscure or outlandish for science to solve, and he loves the idea that no mystery is too great to be whittled away by someone sufficiently inquisitive and determined.
Life isn’t all serious business, of course. Matt has a ridiculous sense of humour, cracking puns at the drop of a hat just for shits and giggles. He thinks he’s hilarious and can’t be told otherwise, and once he’s gotten a laugh out of you it’s game over. He wields humor like a weapon and a shield, diffusing tense situations and making self-deprecating comments and jokes to lighten the mood. He doesn’t take himself very seriously, while simultaneously being very serious about his work.
Ever since he was young, Matt has always had a protective streak about him. Being a big brother means always looking out for your little, but he’s learned it sometimes means letting your little look out for you, too. He’s immensely proud of his family, and what a brave and tenacious group of people they are. The Holts are fighters, it turns out, in more ways than one. Don’t even get him started on his baby sister, by the way; Matt can wax prosaic about Pidge until he’s purple in the face. He thinks he’s the luckiest guy with the coolest sister in the universe, and attempting to contradict that will only get you a list of all of her impressive accomplishments for your troubles.
His experiences with the Galra were understandably harrowing; being a prisoner of war can change a person fundamentally, and he still suffers from nightmares and flashbacks. While he still would rather use brain than brawn to solve a problem, his inability to defend himself in the Galran gladiatorial arena was a source of shame and guilt; it drove him not only to learn to fight in self defense, but also to join the rebellion against the Galra. Matt has fought in the front lines, in the trenches of war, earning him physical and emotional scars that he knows will never fade entirely. He’s often redirected from the worst of the fighting for the sake of his technical skills, however. Matt is a communications expert, well-versed in codes and ciphers, able to pick up on patterns in immense heaps of data. This makes him an invaluable resource in the war, and he’s more than happy to do his part.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Breeder Starter: Solosis Password: Atomic Fireball
Welcome to the Wonderful World of Pokemon! Congratulations, you have a fun and exciting adventure awaiting you.
Now that you've been accepted... [○] Respond to this with your character's journal. This is a must! [○] Comment in the Taken Characters post, alphabetized by series: Here. [○] Join the following communities: victory_road, the_plateau, and ohmyarceus. Only Team Rocket personnel should join silph_co, but we ask that all Victory Road members subscribe to it. Note! You will not be accepted to the main or logs community until you've commented in the aforementioned places. [○] If you're still on the reserved list, please let us know that they've been accepted. [○] Please make sure to check out the Calendar for the weather and upcoming plots and swarms! [○] You can also find our mod plurk at victoryroad; if you have a Plurk, we suggest you become a fan!
We'd also like to take this moment to inform you of the Eastern Kanto Ferry! For only P2000, you can take a three day, all-inclusive ferry ride from New Bark Town to Pallet Town and begin a new pokémon journey in the Kanto region! Otherwise, feel free to start in Johto!
Welcome to the Wonderful World of Pokemon! Congratulations, you have a fun and exciting adventure awaiting you.
Now that you've been accepted... [○] Respond to this with your character's journal. This is a must! [○] Comment in the Taken Characters post, alphabetized by series: Here. [○] Join the following communities: victory_road, the_plateau, and ohmyarceus. Only Team Rocket personnel should join silph_co, but we ask that all Victory Road members subscribe to it. Note! You will not be accepted to the main or logs community until you've commented in the aforementioned places. [○] If you're still on the reserved list, please let us know that they've been accepted. [○] Please make sure to check out the Calendar for the weather and upcoming plots and swarms! [○] You can also find our mod plurk at victoryroad; if you have a Plurk, we suggest you become a fan!
We'd also like to take this moment to inform you of the Eastern Kanto Ferry! For only P2000, you can take a three day, all-inclusive ferry ride from New Bark Town to Pallet Town and begin a new pokémon journey in the Kanto region! Otherwise, feel free to start in Johto!
Welcome to the Wonderful World of Pokemon! Congratulations, you have a fun and exciting adventure awaiting you.
Now that you've been accepted... [○] Respond to this with your character's journal. This is a must! [○] Comment in the Taken Characters post, alphabetized by series: Here. [○] Join the following communities: victory_road, the_plateau, and ohmyarceus. Only Team Rocket personnel should join silph_co, but we ask that all Victory Road members subscribe to it. Note! You will not be accepted to the main or logs community until you've commented in the aforementioned places. [○] If you're still on the reserved list, please let us know that they've been accepted. [○] Please make sure to check out the Calendar for the weather and upcoming plots and swarms! [○] You can also find our mod plurk at victoryroad; if you have a Plurk, we suggest you become a fan!
We'd also like to take this moment to inform you of the Eastern Kanto Ferry! For only P2000, you can take a three day, all-inclusive ferry ride from New Bark Town to Pallet Town and begin a new pokémon journey in the Kanto region! Otherwise, feel free to start in Johto!
Welcome to the Wonderful World of Pokemon! Congratulations, you have a fun and exciting adventure awaiting you.
Now that you've been accepted... [○] Respond to this with your character's journal. This is a must! [○] Comment in the Taken Characters post, alphabetized by series: Here. [○] Join the following communities: victory_road, the_plateau, and ohmyarceus. Only Team Rocket personnel should join silph_co, but we ask that all Victory Road members subscribe to it. Note! You will not be accepted to the main or logs community until you've commented in the aforementioned places. [○] If you're still on the reserved list, please let us know that they've been accepted. [○] Please make sure to check out the Calendar for the weather and upcoming plots and swarms! [○] You can also find our mod plurk at victoryroad; if you have a Plurk, we suggest you become a fan!
We'd also like to take this moment to inform you of the Eastern Kanto Ferry! For only P2000, you can take a three day, all-inclusive ferry ride from New Bark Town to Pallet Town and begin a new pokémon journey in the Kanto region! Otherwise, feel free to start in Johto!
Before we make our final decision on your application, we would like to see a new sample thread (a minimum of five comments from your side) before we can make our decision.
Your app is fine overall, it's just that we have a rule that any submitted thread sample, even for a reapp, cannot be older than four months. If you can link us to a newer sample, either freshly written up (may we suggest using the TDM? You'll be able to carry over any threaded action into the game if you wish) or one that you played out over the last four months (even within another game), we can go on to process the app
You will have one week to complete these requests before the character is available again.
Player Name: Zoe E-mail: fourteenthraidou@gmail.com Preferred Contact:fireplacecat or PM character journal Timezone: EST Current Characters in Victory Road: Cassandra the Dust-Eater
Character Name: Shinobu Tsukuyomi Series: Original Character (Changeling: The Lost/Mage: The Awakening) Timeline: About a year and a half after escaping Arcadia Original Character Background: Shinobu hails from the World of Darkness tabletop system; in fact, he hails from the same world as Steven Durante and Tyler Huang, although Shinobu's background as a Mage adds a few additional quirks.
The World of Darkness is very much like our own world on the surface; however, magic and supernatural beings are quite real, although most humans don't know this and many supernatural beings (or supernaturally touched humans) would like to keep it that way. Mages are humans who have "Awakened" to their own magical abilities and written their name on one of five "Watchtowers," each representing their own discipline, which exist in the Supernal Realm, a higher plane of existence from which all magic springs. Born in Japan in 1914 and raised in a family of Mages who belonged to an offshoot sect of their particular discipline, Shinobu was a particularly precocious Mage who Awakened to his power and wrote his name on one of the Watchtowers at age seventeen. If things had progressed normally, he would have continued on like this, dedicating his life to the study of those branches of magic his family specialized in, but then a pair of Fae who styled themselves on Titania and Oberon took a fancy to him and spirited him off to Arcadia, and there went that. He would spend five years (to him) as their unwilling plaything, forced to navigate between their quarrels and tantrums, or worse, those moments when their wills were in accord. His body began to alter itself accordingly, as the Fae and their realm alike worked their magic on him, eventually shaping him into a a Changeling - specifically, a Fairest. Further, navigating the whims of two masters left him with two different kiths: Dancer, for the metaphorical dance he'd been forced to do to keep them both happy, and Romancer, for the way he'd had to repeatedly mold himself to his captors' respective ideal lover.
Meanwhile in the human world, his Fae Keepers had left behind a Fetch, a copy of Shinobu created with bits of detritus and a piece of Shinobu's own soul, in the young man's place. Unfortunately for the Fetch, he was found out almost immediately by Shinobu's family, and forced to go on the run. He spent what turned out to be the next several decades traveling through Asia and the Pacific Islands, eventually ending up in San Diego sometime during the late 1960s. During that time, the Fetch came to sympathize enough with what he knew of Shinobu's plight that he resolved to rescue him from Arcadia. To that end, he would eventually ally himself with the San Diego Changelings' Autumn Court - almost unheard of for a Fetch - and set about doing so. It took a great deal of time, far more than anyone would have liked, but between his efforts and those of Shinobu himself, he was eventually successful. Shinobu was finally able to escape Arcadia and the Hedge, but there was a cost: his magic was diminished, its growth forever stunted; he would never be able to attain the heights he could have before being Taken. Not only that, but while for Shinobu his torment had lasted for five years, in the outside world almost ninety had passed. It was 2020, and he was half a world away from his home and his family, with no chance of return.
With little choice in the matter, and not wanting to sully his Fetch's efforts, Shinobu set about adjusting to this new upheaval. Already multilingual as a result of his magic studies, he worked to further refine his English. He joined the Autumn Court... although his Fetch being so known and respected there has been something of a double-edged sword. He studied and practiced with the powers he'd developed as a Changeling, as well as what was left of his old magic, adapting it to his new circumstances (this last would pull him into Steven Durante's orbit, as one of the things he did for practice was summoning the ghost of his sister, a vampire, to learn why they'd mostly disappeared; she then convinced/browbeat him into attempting to break into her brother's apartment to steal his anime for her, which was not the most auspicious beginning, but they managed). With a new identity - ironically, on paper he's his Fetch's great-grandson - he's essentially starting his life over again. What else can he do?
Personality: Before his Durance (i.e. his time as a prisoner of his Keepers), Shinobu had been a diligent student, focused on his studies almost to the exclusion of all else. He retained that diligence through his Durance; it's one of the things that kept him alive. His Keepers were capricious, with flaring tempers and needs and wants that almost seemed to change from minute to minute, and Shinobu had to learn to anticipate all of it as best he could in order to avoid punishment (that they quarreled constantly didn't help). Accordingly, he's very observant - and very controlled. It wouldn't do to show his own feelings in a situation like that, lest they be noticed and used against him. Unsurprisingly, post-Durance Shinobu has a very, very good poker face... and an eidetic memory, which is something of a double-edged sword.
Of all the varieties of Changeling, Fairest like Shinobu are the most likely to lose their grip on reality enough to be drawn back into Arcadia, even becoming True Fae themselves. Shinobu is well aware of this, and he works hard to prevent himself from falling to that particular fate. That's complicated, though, by his specific circumstances. He feels split in a number of different ways: between Mage and Changeling, human and... not-human, Japanese and American (on paper, anyway, via some very good forgeries from the Court), past and present. He's even got dual kiths - although one is much easier to deal with than the other. The Blessing and curse of a Romancer is that their appearance tends to reflect the desires of whomever is looking at them. To someone who likes black hair and brown eyes, or blonde hair and blue eyes, or tattoos or any conceivable combination of traits, a Romancer will appear to have those traits. Shinobu is never quite sure what other people are seeing when they look at him; sometimes even he wonders if the reflection he sees in the mirror is really true, or just another ideal. It's done nasty things to his sense of self, which also isn't helped by the fact that his Fetch is in such good standing with the Autumn Court. It's hard for Shinobu not to feel like a pretender to his own life sometimes. He fights fiercely against it, but it's wearing, and he can't help but wonder how long it will be before he finally gives in. Part of him almost resents his Fetch's efforts, no matter how many times he castigates himself for being ungrateful. Most Fetches wouldn't even try to rescue their originals; how dare he resent his own for actually doing so? He does his best to bury those feelings, but he's fairly sure his Fetch isn't fooled, which just makes things worse.
While he does have his bad days (too many of them), Shinobu is still determined to find a place for himself in the world, to prove he's not just an empty plaything or an inferior version of his own copy. He's much more willing to try new things than he was before his Durance (although given how long his Fetch has been around, chances are that he's also tried them at some point), and he's reached out here and there and made friends of his own, although he's not the most socially adept person around. Still, he doesn't trust easily; he can't afford to. He's always polite, but letting people get close to him is harder. That doesn't mean he doesn't try, and not just because he can't afford not to; he needs all the touchstones he can get in order to keep a basic grip on reality. But he also doesn't want to spend the rest of his life alone in a crowd. He just wants people who can see him for who he actually is, and not who he seems to be. He wants that more than anything. If he can find them.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Trainer Starter: Galarian Ponyta Password: Atomic Fireball
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indigo_league) wrote2016-05-03 09:48 pm
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