Trainer’s PapersTrainer name: Shawn Wesley Caster
Gender: Male
Date of Birth [Age]: 12/5/93
Region of Origin: Kanto
Physical description: Being a farm-boy in both breed and behaviour, Shawn stands at an imposing six feet, with broad, squared shoulders.
His facial features are sharp and defined, boasting a square jaw and high cheek bones, but are softened significantly by the presence of his eyes, which are a hazy grey embellished with a yellow ring of sorts in each.
Occupation during war: A frontline foot soldier for the Kantonese/Johto alliance.
Post-War Occupation: The barman at a speak easy called “The Houndoors of War.”
Brief Biography: Shawn was born shortly after his older brother, Elroy, to a simple farming family living far off of the beaten path of route 14.
They were a good family: Proud of their good morals, and even more-so of their farm, which boasted the densest population of Miltanks ever to have been settled in Kanto’s south (after being imported from Johto, of course.)
Because of this, he was raised a good, honest farm boy: He did his workload each day, helped around the house, respected his elders profusely and, once a month, took the milk the Miltank’s produced to Fuschia City, to be sold in the local Pokémarts.
With this in mind, then, nobody was quite sure how he and Elroy ended up moonlighting as petty crooks.
The story goes that, during one ordinary journey to the city, when he and his brother were young adults, the pair came across a representative of Team Rocket, who- noting their strong builds, and simple country sensibilities- enticed them into a life of light crime as one of Team Rocket’s local grunts.
And of course, being young, impressionable and keen to do something
new after spending their lives on a farm, they were more than willing.
Thus began their new lives as small-time thugs.
Elroy and he would do all sorts: Threaten shopkeepers for protection money, and- failing that- shoplift the equivalent price’s worth in goods, or simply demand that younger kids hang over their Pokémon- as they were, after all, equipped with twelve Miltanks at the time- and all other manners of despicable (but relatively none-violent) crime.
Elroy had always had a better eye for it than Shawn did, however, and it showed.
After a few years- and against the boisterous wishes of his parents- Shawn was promoted from a Rocket Grunt to a local captain...
And it all went downhill from there.
Captains were expected to perform far more violence-indulgent jobs on behalf of Giovanni (who, it is fabled, had taken a liking to Elroy), such as attacking “peoples of interest”, and robbing moving cargo trucks.
And whilst Shawn- still a grunt- began to cower away from the life his brother had begun making, Elroy thrived on it.
He loved the adrenaline, the freedom and the sensation of power it gave him…
Right up until the end, when Team Rocket attempted to invade and empty the safari zone: Elroy had gotten himself into a scuffle with an armed squad of Jennies (the colloquial term for police officers), and- without a firearm of his own- had been totally blown away.
Team Rocket didn’t care. Giovanni didn’t even offer to pay for a funeral.
But Shawn cared.
The news gave him an epiphany, and shortly after the ceremony (held on the family farm), Shawn denounced Team Rocket, and swore that he’d become a force of good, to counter the evils of both himself and his brother.
A fond believer in the cosmic balance of the universe, Shawn threw himself totally into his farm work- almost to a worrying degree, as if it were his coping mechanism- until the year 1911 arrived: And with it, the war.
Shawn was one of the first Kantonese soldiers to sign up to fight in the alliance. Horror stories regarding Sinnoh’s attack on Orre’s west had chilled him to the bone, but something had told him that this was his chance for redemption.
Both of their chances.
He was deployed in Gateon Port the following year, as a member of a preliminary protection force, in the event that Sinnoh’s forces should continue their attack from the west.
And whilst that was a naval success, the ground-based battle was a catastrophe: Gateon Port was lost in 1913 to Sinnoh air-strikes, and then rebuilt by the occupying army for the sake of importing more soldiers.
Next, he was transferred to the mountains surrounding Pyrite Town, in the hopes of flanking any invasion force attempting to take Phenac City.
This movement was a success, as the Kantonese foot-forces took Sinnoh’s by surprise shortly before the invasion began.
However, that was all that went right with the plan.
Using superior weaponry, the Sinnoh armed forces ensured that the fall of Phenac was a lengthy and painful one: Save for encountering a few new friends, the entire campaign was a total failure for Shawn.
He was returned to Kanto only a few years before the war’s conclusion, and took with him an orphaned Growlithe he encountered during the sacking of Phenac City.
Having tasted the outside world, however, he found himself weary of farm-life, and decided instead to move to the “big city.”
Having heard that the city of Goldenrod was filled with vacant jobs during a scheduled trip to Vermillion City in order to negotiate the trade of his family’s milk, he caught the soonest train he could for the adjacent region.
It was Goldenrod, or bust.
Legal alignment: Lawful
Pokémon’s Papers
First Pokémon (primary partner)
Name: Reynard
Species: Growlithe
Gender: Male
Type: Fire
Physical description: For the most part, Reynard resembles an everyday Growlithe. However, his left ear is noticeably missing a notch of flesh- the result of a shrapnel grenade landing too close for comfort- and around his neck he wears a royal blue ascot.
Met: Shawn first met Reynard on the battlefield of Phenac City, during the closing years of the war.
Reynard looked to be the pup of one of the enemy’s war-bred Arcanines, who’d followed his mother out into battle without a clue in the world.
Needless to say, the Arcanine did not survive the battle. Reynard however, did.
As he sat whimpering by his mother’s form, Shawn just so happened to have been making a speedy return to the safety of the Kantonese barricades in the city’s east, and scooped him up in the process.
The plan had originally been to train him up to become an Arcanine of war, much like his mother was: However, he made the fatal mistake of giving him a name, and soon grew too attached to him to bare parting.
Reynard became his primary partner throughout the rest of the war- Shawn and he saved one another’s lives many a time- and afterwards, his closest friend.
Brief personality description: Reynard, having never truly had an Arcanine to look up to, has yet to advance out of the “pup” stage of his life.
He is very agog about the world as a whole, sometimes dangerously so, and painfully naïve of the intentions of other Pokémon and trainers.
He’s playful, energetic and totally carefree, for the most part.
Relationship with trainer: All this said, he harbours a burning loyalty for Shawn, and still embodies the innate grace and pulchritude of his species.
If Shawn is in danger, this canid will bare his teeth: And if ordered to attack, he will do so fiercely.
When not in battle, however, he is as faithful and true a companion as any dog, and often pesters Shawn to play games with him in their spare time.
Move Set:
[Reversal] [Flamethrower]
[Agility][Takedown]
Second Pokémon (secondary partner)
Name: Alba
Species: Swellow
Gender: Female
Type: Normal/Flying
Physical description: Alba’s right wing is wrapped in a makeshift scarlet bandage, made from an old red scarf. Otherwise, she resembles any other Swellow, save for the fact her crest is slightly longer due to Shawn’s recurring failure to bother tailoring it.
Met: When Shawn found Alba, she was an injured Tailow that looked to have been abandoned in the stretch of wilderness between his farm and Vermillion City.
A foreigner in this stretch of the region, it had been immediately targeted by a flock of Spearow, and was fortunate to have escaped with nothing but a heavily damaged right wing.
Still, her original trainer- or captor, at least- was nowhere in sight, and when Shawn rescued her from the forest floor, there was the genuine concern that she’d never fly again.
But that didn’t mean Shawn would stop trying.
Now, two years later, Alba hasn’t only taken flight again: She’s evolved.
Having recovered her strength some months afterwards, she refused to part with the makeshift bandage Shawn had given her- as it retained some sentimental significance to her- and continued to wear it long after her wing had healed.
She also began to train fiercely in order to repay the favour: A year after they’d first met, she evolved into a Swellow, and since then she’s been his loyal raptor.
Brief personality description: Alba is a creature that emanates the very air of nobility and grace.
She sits with her chest puffed out proudly, and wears her wing-scarf proudly as a sign of her strength.
Unlike Reynard, she’s also very dignified, calm and collected. She attacks when asked, stops when asked and returns to her pokéball when it’s requested of her.
Relationship with trainer: All of that said, she’s by no means detached: She’s very affectionate towards Shawn, and worries for the wellbeing of his other pokémon like a mother hen.
Furthermore, she’s obedient and very well trained, no doubt as a result of the fact she feels eternally grateful towards Shawn for putting the time into helping her recover and fly again.
Move Set:
[Aerial Ace] [Fly]
[Steel Wing][Quick Attack]
Third Pokémon
Name: Gawain
Species: Gallade
Gender: Male
Type: Psychic/Fighting
Physical description: Gawain is slightly thinner than other Gallade in the waist, and his crest has been chipped away very lightly, as though it was eroded.
Around his neck, he wears a red neckerchief and a set of rusting dog-tags.
Met: Gawain was actually the Kirlia of a fellow soldier during the sacking of Phenac City.
When a particularly problematic charge was made upon the Kantonese/Johto barricades that’d been erected in the city's east, however, his trainer was fatally wounded by a Sinnoh soldier’s Weavile, and taken quickly to the hospital wing of their encampment.
Upon his death bed, he expressed regret that he’d never been able to evolve his Kirlia into the “knight that [he] had always known he was”, and in his desperation, Gawain sought Shawn out, as- having rescued Reynard- he’d developed a reputation for assisting troubled pokémon.
Hearing the soldier’s concerns, Shawn agreed to seek out a Dawn Stone, and eventually acquired one in circulation around the camp, sacrificing his month’s cigarette rations in order to do so.
Returning to the hospital wing, he triggered the Kirlia’s evolution into a Gallade, and in doing so granted his trainer’s dying wish.
The soldier entrusted Gawain to Shawn’s care with his final words, before departing this world due to his fatal wounds.
Gawain, grateful for Shawn’s assistance and respectful of his master’s wishes, joined his arsenal of pokémon. He never, however, grew as close to him as the others did, and took his old trainer’s dog-tags to remember him by.
Despite this, he has no qualms with wearing the traditional cloth Shawn tends to issue his pokémon.
Brief personality description: Although once a lively and playful Kirlia, the events of the war and the loss of his partner have weighed heavily on Gawain’s mind.
He has become pensive and distant in these years, and suffers from very mild PTSD. He loathes the sight of blood, and rarely, if ever, makes a sound.
Despite this, however, he’s a determined and honourable battler, embodying what one would expect from a traditional fencer: Because of that, he’s developed a very strong moral code, which he will defend without hesitation and until the end.
Relationship with trainer: Gawain is not as affectionate as Shawn’s other pokémon, but for what he lacks in affection and emotional investment in his trainer, he makes up for in a mutual respect.
In his eyes, Shawn is not his trainer, but a fellow soldier with whom he’s agreed to journey. The two consider one another equals because of this.
They both share a new, strict moral code.
Move Set:
[Night Slash] [Psycho Cut]
[Leaf Blade][Teleport]
Fourth Pokémon
Name: Ethelinda
Species: Dratini
Gender: Female
Type: Dragon
Physical description: Ethelinda is somewhat skinnier than the average Dratini, but by no means emaciated: This is simply the physical echo of an abusive early life.
Furthermore, her head-fins are angled ever so slightly in a backwards direction- as if she’d been made intentionally less air resistant- and the last sixth of her tail is a brighter shade of blue than the rest of her body, indicating that it’s relatively new by comparison.
At the interval in her tail, at which point the pigment gets brighter, she wears a blue scarf.
Met: Following his honourable discharge from the Kantonese/Johto alliance, Shawn returned to Kanto, and- for a short spell- resumed his duties and responsibilities on his family’s farm.
During this time, however, he took a liking to the nearby city of Celadon, and visited it frequently, more often than not for the sake of burning away some of his hard earned military pokédollars.
On one outing, however, Shawn opted that- instead of visiting the department store, as he usually would have- he would instead give the new-fangled “Games Corner” a try.
He didn’t have much luck.
Having spent the funds he brought with him for the day in a matter of hours, Shawn re-emerged out onto the streets of Celadon after dark, and- when he was preparing to go home- heard the sound of some inexplicable struggle in the alley behind the Games Corner’s main building.
It was then that he realized that the worst had come to fruition: The casino was a Team Rocket facility, and behind it, two grunts were mercilessly beating a small, helpless Dratini- The runt of her litter, and ‘unworthy’ of being a prize- to death.
With the help of Gawain, he managed to fight the two off, and sent them running for their superiors.
However, the damage had been done: The tip of the Dratini’s tail had been sliced off, and her fins looked to have been damaged pretty seriously, too.
Shawn, feeling great sorrow for the poor creature, and having developed a habit of rescuing unfortunate pokémon, immediately captured her and rushed her to the nearest pokémon centre.
To his surprise, she made a miraculous recovery: She regrew the tip of her tail (As reptiles are wont to do), and her fins eventually healed up, as well.
However, they would remain angular forever more as a constant reminder of her experiences, and her tail’s tip would never match the rest of her body’s pigment again.
The Joy on staff referred to her as “A noble serpent.”
Shawn named her “Ethelinda.”
Brief personality description: Ethelinda is a meek and docile soul, fearful of anything bigger than herself and quick to hide in Shawn’s shadow whenever danger strikes.
That is, unless it’s Team Rocket.
Upon seeing a rocket grunt, the metaphorical “red mist” descends over the little dragon’s eyes, and she falls into the throws of what could only be referred to as a dragon’s rage.
However, this usually just gets her and Shawn into more bother, as- despite what she may one day evolve into- she is still a very small, very fragile pokémon.
Relationship with trainer: Although she is a generally timid creature, in the presence of Shawn she acts more akin to a cat than a pokémon, constantly looking towards him for protection, and in return showering him with affection. She never wanders too far from him, and is always prepared to battle when he asks her to, putting her 110% in.
Sadly, though, her 110% isn’t all that much.
Move Set:
[Dragon Rush] [Dragon Rage]
[Aqua Tail][Extreme Speed]
