Might be some serious friction there with my characters, @DepressedSoviet. Dr. Baobab especially isn't keen on breeding in the first place, but she's a little nutty about Pokemon rights in general... And Max may be a woobie, but she is a Ranger. Basically an FBI agent.
I'm not saying every character has to play nice, just want to be up front about it.
Name: Dr. Noor Baobab Age: 53 History: "Traveler, researcher, and lifelong PokeFan."
There is more to the realm of Pokemon than competition and power, and Noor is a believer in the potential for Pokemon to have equality with their human companions. As a researcher focused on Pokemon intelligence, she is a critic of the Pokemon League and their pushing of the youth to see battling as the primary activity Pokemon are interested in. According to her theories, Pokemon can be artists, scientists, and even philosophers just as well as people can. In fact, determining why some Pokemon are of a lower order intelligence and why some are geniuses is the primary goal of her research, combining evolutionary theory, Pokemon genetics and "Type theory" with Pokepsychology and good old fashioned human psychology in order to create standards of classification and to test Pokemon education methods.
Her doctoral dissertation to the Hoenn Pokemon Research Institute was an in-depth experimental study comparing the intelligence-from-hatching of the Pokemon species Absol and the Flygon evolutionary line. The first is a single-evolution Pokemon, growing only in size from hatching to adulthood, while Trapinch, Vibrava and Flygon each have unique perceptions of the world and unique levels of intelligence related to their instincts, behavior and style of living. After all, some Trapinch and some Vibrava never evolve further in their entire lives, for reasons still not entirely understood.
Before she ever set foot in the Institute, however, she was constantly exposed to Pokemon, as both of her parents were veteran Pokemon Rangers. In fact, her very first Pokemon egg came about from the pairing of her parents' Flygon partners, and she was soaring through the air on a Flygon's back before she even learned to walk. Her parents instilled their values in her at a young age, as they considered their partners to be just as intelligent as themselves, that they were truly partners rather than master and servant. This is a common belief among Rangers and top-level Trainers, but somewhat less common throughout the world, where many Pokemon are seen as pets or, at worst, slaves.
As she grew up, moving from place to place across the region with her parents, she worked together with her little Trapinch, Hermes, to befriend other Pokemon. Like many Ranger kids, her parents were constantly busy on duty, and her Pokemon were some of the only friends she had. She spent many long weeks exploring in the wilderness, observing Pokemon in their natural habitats and laying the foundation for her later research work. Once she was old enough, she convinced her parents that she and the newly-fully-evolved Hermes could fly to meet their extended family in Johto, exposing her to many strange Pokemon that she could never find in Hoenn. These discoveries pushed her to formalize her theories, and once she had cemented her group of partner Pokemon she applied to the Institute.
Ever since her graduation, she has been traveling the Nation, lecturing on human-Pokemon relations and ethical partnership. In recent years, with her parents aging, she has come back to Hoenn to be close to them, and has begun in-depth studies of some of its most unique native Pokemon and Pokemon environments. Her current projects include the eternally dizzy Spinda, weather-manipulating Pokemon Castform, the effects of Dawn Stones on male Kirlia, the incredibly strange Shedinja and one of her favorite Pokemon, the deceptive hunter Mawile.
Party: Generally, as she is a researcher and not a League Trainer, Dr. Baobab does not battle non-wild Pokemon. Even then, her battles with wild Pokemon either end with her fleeing or befriending them rather than knocking them out. Only in rare, desperate circumstances has she gone all-out with her team in a battle. Wild Aggron especially tend to be ornery, and it's more difficult to flee a battle in cramped caves underground. Because wild Pokemon battles don't have any rules, though, and because she usually dislikes holding her field team in their Pokeballs, any wild Pokemon she comes across are subjected to anywhere from three to all six of her partners.
Main Field Team - "Hermes", Flygon (M, Family Egg / First Pokemon)
The eldest of Noor's little family, Hermes sees himself as the dutiful, responsible son. Being a dragon, he is the most physically capable of the team, with a lot of strength and endurance combined with ludicrous speed. This has lead him to relegate himself to the role of "acceptable target", protecting Noor and the others from danger as much as he can by drawing attention to himself.
The other Pokemon tend to defer to him when Noor is indisposed, and he sees them all as his younger siblings. Though he doesn't usually work to befriend Pokemon in the wild, he's known for his patience when dealing with the strange Pokemon Noor does research on. Charybdis is especially trying, as she keeps trying to bite the end of his tail off.
Classification Size - 6'07"/2.0m, 180.8lbs/82kg Descriptor - Mystic Pokemon Type - Ground/Dragon Ability - Friend Guard (Levitate understood) Baobab Sapience Class - 10, full sapience
Research Assistant Hermes' main jobs have always been protection and transportation, and that's how he likes it. He might be patient enough to babysit Pokemon once they've been brought into the group, but he has a hard time befriending them in the wild. He leaves that to Delphi and Orpheus, mainly. In a pinch, he's able to create beautiful songs and terrible sounds by vibrating his wings, and has a few sound-based moves because of this.
With the rest of the team temporarily in their Pokeballs, Hermes can carry Noor anywhere in the region with blinding speed, and is always happy to show off his muscles by breaking down barriers in the team's path. To escape a dangerous wild Pokemon, his MO is to whip up a Sandstorm to lower visibility and then blow the offender away with a Whirlwind. If that proves ineffective, and flying is not an option, he grabs Noor and zips away with Extreme Speed or attempts to knock the offender away with Dragon Tail.
As the main protector of the team, he is the most experienced at battling. Despite Noor's distaste for violence, she knows that many wild Pokemon and some unscrupulous Trainers will attack her, and her team needs someone who can defend them. Hermes has always been the one to volunteer for that role, and secretly, he really does enjoy battling. The rush of combat, overwhelming his opponents with incredible power... perhaps that's the dragon in him.
- "Delphi", Gardevoir (F, Met in the wild, as Ralts)
If Hermes is the stereotypical big brother, Delphi is most certainly the big sister. Kind, intelligent and graceful, Delphi has always been Noor's primary research assistant. During her time as a lecturer, many students called the Gardevoir Dr. Delphi, and they were only half joking. Delphi's development from Ralts to Kirlia to full-grown Gardevoir mirrored Noor's own growth into adulthood so much, she sees her friend as basically an empathic human. She has even submitted a proposal to the Hoenn Pokemon Research Institute to accept Delphi as a student.
Whenever Noor is attempting to befriend Pokemon in the wild, Delphi is there, directing herself, Orpheus and the rest of the team carefully, to avoid scaring the wild Pokemon off. Whenever Noor is doing psychological studies of Pokemon and humans, Delphi is there, providing data through her telepathic and empathic abilities. Without her, Noor's research would become very difficult to achieve.
Classification Size - 5'03"/1.6m, 106.7lbs/48.4kg Descriptor - Embrace Pokemon Type - Psychic/Fairy Ability - Telepathy Baobab Sapience Class - 10, full sapience
Moves Field Moves Teleport | Future Sight | Telekinesis | Gravity | Charm | Captivate | Attract | Hypnosis | Misty Terrain | Moonlight (synergy with Misty Terrain) | Heal Pulse (trained to use on people, but not as effective on non-Pokemon)
Research Assistant As mentioned above, Delphi is Noor's primary research assistant, and most of her moves are focused on befriending wild Pokemon and understanding them empathically. She is also a capable empathic healer, and has several useful Psychic abilities for field work. Most of the time she works together with Orpheus and his musical skill in order to calm down and interact with ornery Pokemon.
In the rare occasions that Hermes and the other more capable battlers of the team need her help in more than a healing/support role, she can use some damaging Psychic and Fairy moves... But like Noor, she abhors violence, and would rather flee than fight. Thus, these damaging moves aren't particularly strong.
Battle Moves Moonblast | Draining Kiss | Dazzling Gleam | Psychic | Dream Eater | Double Team
- "Orpheus", Ludicolo (M, Met in the wild, as Lotad)
The happy-go-lucky Orpheus is not very serious about research or doing anything other than dancing around in the rain and singing. Delphi constantly has to remind him to pay attention to what they're doing, as given any downtime, he and Lethe go off by themselves and instantly get lost. When he is focused on the task at hand, though, he makes a useful assistant to Delphi, and his musical talents are second to none. He's especially handy when dealing with Pokemon of his own types, as Delphi doesn't have much in common with swimmers or plant-like Pokemon.
He is interesting in that he is, as far as Noor can tell, fully sapient, he's just... kind of dim.
Classification Size - 4'11"/1.5m, 121.3lbs/55kg Descriptor - Carefree Pokemon Type - Water/Grass Ability - Rain Dish Baobab Sapience Class - 10, full sapience
Moves Field Moves WIP, mostly musical/sound moves. Definitely Sing, of course, and Rain Dance. Research Assistant Battle Moves
- "Cassandra", Absol (F, Last Pokemon met during her childhood in Hoenn)
Prickly and aloof, Cassandra is a strange friend to have, but a friend nonetheless. Modern science has revealed the "Disaster Pokemon" to be drawn to impending disasters because of their foresight and compassion, but many people still harbor ill will towards any Absol they see. Noor ignores this stigma, and Cassandra travels with the team just like the others.
One night as young Noor and her early team were camped high on a mountaintop, they were visited by the silent Cassandra, who woke them with a simple tap of her paw and led them away from their campsite. The other Pokemon were wary, but Noor knew of the stories and trusted that the Absol was leading them to safety. As they trudged through the snow, she suddenly whipped her head up and stared in the direction of the camp... And moments later, it was completely engulfed by an avalanche. After that harrowing experience, Noor offered Cassandra a place with her and her friends, and for reasons of her own, the Pokemon accepted.
Nowadays, she tends to stick close to Alexander, as despite their differing approaches they share similar instincts. Cassandra is probably the second most capable battler on the team after Hermes, and if people are being threatened or are otherwise in danger, she and Alexander make a magnificent tag team as they guide people to safety.
Classification Size - 4'/1.2m (at the shoulder), 142lbs/64.4kg Descriptor - Disaster Pokemon Type - Dark Ability - Pressure Baobab Sapience Class - 10, full sapience
Moves Field Moves WIP Research Assistant Cassandra's basic role lines up with her natural instinct and the way she and Noor met: she senses danger. Because she has very fine senses, and she's in tune with invisible eddies and floes of energy in the world, she is always on guard, and rarely surprised by anything. Noor travels in a lot of dangerous places, and Cassandra tends to be the one leading the way. Along with Alexander's sense of direction, the pair of them are very effective wilderness guides.
In addition, if there is a battle that cannot be escaped from, Cassandra attacks with silent fury. Noor and the rest of the team are really a little scared of Cassandra when she's battling, but as soon as the threat is ended she returns to her even-keeled (if moody) self. Battle Moves WIP
- "Alexander", Ampharos (M, Met in the wild as Flaafy during her journeys through Johto)
As a newcomer in a strange region, even though she had her early team and Cassandra, Noor had a tendency to get lost. Johto is large and filled with very different Pokemon from Hoenn, and often Noor would get so excited she would rush off of the path whenever she saw something interesting... Which led to her getting lost. The third or fourth time she did this, she consulted some of the family members she was visiting to see if they had any suggestions.
They pointed her in the direction of some Mareep, which in turn led her to the more intelligent Flaafy who shepherded them. After a long day of bad hair-dos and static shocks, she and Delphi managed to explain their predicament and convinced one of the Flaafy to join them. The newly named Alexander was an enthusiastic but unskilled navigator, and Noor didn't know why his kind had been recommended until a good several months later, when Alexander guided them through a particularly tricky cave, and suddenly underwent his evolution into Ampharos. With the evolution came an entirely greater level of intelligence, and his navigation abilities grew manyfold.
Now, he is partnered with Cassandra as the wilderness guides of the team, keeping everyone moving in the right direction. When people are in danger, he leaps into action with his beacon while Cassandra works to shepherd them, and they work so well together they have become inseparable. Alexander is a lot more emotional than Cassandra, and shows his grief when they're apart, even if the most affection she shows outwardly is a tendency to stand next to him rather than off by herself.
Classification Size - 5'06"/1.7m, 157lbs/71kg Descriptor - Light Pokemon Type - Electric Ability - Compass Baobab Sapience Class - 10, full sapience
Moves Field Moves WIP, definitely Flash, of course. Research Assistant Alexander's main role is as the partner to Cassandra. The pair of them guide Noor and her team through dangerous wilderness, with Alexander specifically determining direction and making sure they don't get lost. Battle Moves WIP
- "Lethe", Quagsire (F, Met in the wild as Wooper during her journeys through Johto)
Ah, Lethe. Noor's only main team Pokemon who does not have full sapience according to her scale, Lethe was just a little Wooper who started following the team around once Alexander evolved into Ampharos. Woopers are not known for their intelligence, and more than once the team found themselves saving the little Pokemon from falling off of cliffs or otherwise hurting itself. After a good little while of this going on, Noor decided to study the Wooper's intelligence.
According to her best methods at the time, she was practically catatonic. This comforting fact in hand, Noor gave up trying to understand the and let the team decide what to do. Orpheus developed a liking to the Wooper, as she enjoyed splashing around in his dish, so Noor agreed that they could keep her around. Since then, Lethe has been a less-than-useful part of the team. In fact, after she evolved into a Quagsire, if anything she got less intelligent. She just got bigger. She makes Noor pretty exasperated, so uniquely among the team Lethe is more associated with the other Pokemon than she is with the human of the group.
Classification Size - 4'07"/1.4m, 165.3lbs/75kg Descriptor - Mud Fish Pokemon Type - Water/Ground Ability - Oblivious Baobab Sapience Class - 2, barely intelligent at all
Moves Field Moves WIP Research Assistant Lethe is not a research assistant at all, she's really more of a burden than anything... But the team likes to keep her around, so Noor tries not to complain.
Weird Pokemon / "Projects" - Spinda (F, stumbled into Noor's camp one night and couldn't find her way back home) - Shedinja (?, happened to appear while studying Nincada evolution) - Castform (?, Noor was granted a research grant by the Weather Institute) - "Charybdis", Mawile (F, sought out in Granite Cave) - Male Kirlia (M, raised from a wild Ralts - Noor is preparing to use a Dawn Stone)
---
Name: Keeper 2nd Class Maxima "Max" Muroda Age: 25 History: "Hiya, I'm Keeper Max! bzzztcrkkakakshhhhPING And that's, um, that's Staog! How can we... help?"
Even in a region as seemingly natural as Hoenn, modernity reigns, and computers are everywhere. All of the major players of the region, from the corporations to the Pokemon League have extensive computer systems, and where there are systems... there are vulnerabilities. Enter Maxima Muroda, at 21 years old: an ambitious self-taught hacker with a chip on her shoulder and a grudge against the Fairfax family. With the aid of her imported virtual-reality Pokemon, "Staog" (PorygonZ), Maxima quickly made a name for herself in criminal circles. If you wanted data you weren't supposed to have, she and her little collective were the ones to hire... and Jonton Fairfax was quite the reliable employer.
She wasn't always so unethical, though. As a teenager Maxima was a bright computer science student studying information distribution systems. She wanted to find a way to link Gauntlets across regions, allowing specialized Pokemon and items to be easily distributed and traded in digital form. After a few years of work on this pet project, she and her professors neared a major theoretical breakthrough. All they needed was access to a massive supercomputer in order to put the theories into practice. When Fairfax caught wind of the project and offered their own company computers, Maxima was overjoyed. Now not only were they going to revolutionize item materialization, she was going to work with the Fairfax Association! Surely they'd be so impressed with her code that they'd offer her a job, right?
Well, turns out the contract they signed for the use of the supercomputer came a bit of fine print. Fairfax researchers had been working on a similar project, but had gotten stuck half-way through. When they got access to Maxima's code, they were ordered by someone higher-up to quietly appropriate it and claim that it introduced a malignant program into the supercomputers. By doing so, they forced her into an investigation of criminal wrongdoing. By the time the investigation blew over and Maxima was acquitted, the Fairfax team conveniently announced that they were developing a nearly identical program. Even though she had been acquitted, Maxima's young reputation had been ruined by the accusation from a major corporation. Her protestations were not heard.
Expelled from her school for academic misconduct, with nothing but stolen Institute computers and a glitchy Porygon, she began her hacking career just to spite the corporate stooges who ripped her off. As far as the world of underground hacking goes, she was doing pretty well for herself for a while. Fat contracts from Jonton, living large with her friends, taking on "the man"... But it couldn't last forever. Two years ago, a job went bad. It turned out the Air Rangers had been onto her collective for a while, and they set up a sting involving the Fairfax Association. Maxima couldn't resist the low-hanging fruit, and she got her whole team busted.
After several long discussions with the Rangers involving her contracts with Jonton Fairfax, as well as the extent of her programming knowledge and her reasons for forming her collective, she was offered a plea bargain: go through Ranger training and become a white hat, and in return her sentence would be suspended. She cut her hair, got some Ranger tattoos, and started calling herself "Max", in order to separate herself from her criminal reputation. Newly christened, Max was a favorite at the Ranger Academy, passed with flying colors, and joined the Air Rangers' computer intelligence division. After its "upgrade", Staog was never too much use, but she still chose it as her partner, as technically it could fly, if she could convince it to do so.
Right now, she's assigned to a broad-spectrum prevention detail, looking for signs of fraud, hacking and other cybercrimes, as well as occasionally flying to other cities for "real" Ranger work.
Ranger Partner: "Staog 2.42.1.01.z (unstable)", PorygonZ (Genderless, Originally licensed as Porygon 1.0)
Poor Staog has never had much of a personality. As a blocky Porygon 1.0, it was a dutiful programming assistant and stalwart, if dull companion. Though Maxima was never great with Pokemon, Staog was in tune with her interests, and it was always there to help, so she quickly grew fond of it. Once she was accepted into her Institute, she discovered that Silph Co. had years before released a stable second iteration of the Porygon program. Initially leery of the upgrade, thinking it might damage Staog's memory of their time together, she did a lot of research and determined that it would probably be a lot happier as a Porygon2.
So upgraded, Staog 2.0 was her best assistant while she was working on her ill-fated materialization network project, and could often be seen rushing around the Institute gathering research and various computer components. It had some small capacity for battle, so occasionally she would spar with a few of Trainers who also attended the Institute, but neither Staog nor Maxima were ever particularly enthusiastic about it.
After her reputation soured and her grudge with Fairfax began, Staog was basically her only friend. During the trial, a shady former Silph employee noticed her Porygon2 and offered (for a nominal fee) a brand-new, bleeding edge upgrade that hadn't hit the market yet: the Z-Disc! It seemed a little dubious, but she was vectoring for any advantage she could find in the trial, so she bought the disc and "upgraded" Staog that night. It did not go well.
Since then, Staog 2.42.1.01.z has been a glitchy mess. Fantastic help when it decides to work, complete hindrance when it decides to bug out. It flies around shouting binary at people, randomly shifts from small to big to icy cold to shockingly electric, and only sometimes completes programming tasks Max assigns it. Staog's new crazy outlook on the world has led to some innovative hacking methods and (more recently) stress testing for Ranger systems, but her superiors' patience runs thin whenever she relies on Staog for a job, so it's relegated to transportation duty more than it would like.
Classification Size - Various, from around 3' to around 6' Descriptor - Virtual Pokemon Type - Various, default Normal Ability - Glitchy: Staog changes its Type and grows stronger or weaker at random. Its size also fluctuates, and like all PorygonZ, it tends to act erratically.
Moves Field Moves Fly | Conversion | Conversion 2 | Recover | Magnet Rise | Sharpen | Lock On | Flash | Disable | Growth | Minimize Battle Moves Metronome | Copycat | Tri Attack | Uproar | Screech | Supersonic | Substitute | Explosion | Random move relating to its current Type
Interesting. I'll probably have Abd be a fringe theorist with a completely different view of the sources of magic than the standard view, then, adding a cyclic element to them. Of course, his specialty would be at the the apex of the circle, ;) because that's how he rolls.
In terms of your system, where would "Pure Magic" or "Quintessence" or "Prime/Source Magic" fit in? Basically, magic that amplifies, negates, draws out, identifies or crystallizes/makes permanent other magic?
Very well! Prepare yourselves, mortals, for Abd the Quintessor! Ahahaha!
Oh, that reminds me. How academic are the distinctions between each variety of magic? Would there be a kind of Sphere theory, ala Mage: the Ascension? Or, if not, could I have my character be a proponent of such a theory? My idea was for a Prime specialist, a Mage who manipulates Quintessence and the "Moste High Arte of True Magick" (as he insists on saying it).
EDIT: I posted an image, but it became super tiny. I'll look for a replacement.
Excellent character, once again. :) I look forward to abusing interacting with her... ;) One small thing that I wanted to discuss with you. It doesn't really change anything about the character, though. I wanted to play with the idea that every region has their own devise similar to the Gauntlet, but it's not a Gauntlet. For example, in the last iteration, the Kalosian Rangers had Cubes that attached to their packs but were equipped with the same mechanics. Is that too complicated? I just liked the idea of each region having their own small aesthetic differences.
Well, it depends on how you want to handle the miniaturization/digitization technology. If it had a corporate source, e.g. SilphCo., I think having it be different in each region makes sense, because every major regional corporation would have released their own version of the technology to compete with the original. Basically like the Poketch/PokeNav distinction. If it came from national-level Pokemon researchers (Professors, Pokemon League), I think it should be more uniform (aesthetic differences only), as it represents an "official" Trainer device, like the various PokeDexes.
--
By the way, anyone who's making characters, feel free to talk to me about interactions with mine! I'm happy to have preexisting relationships with anyone.
Hello@TheHangedMan! I'm looking for some magical goodness, and I really like the tone of your write-up. I have a character concept in mind, but like abloomingflower, I'm wondering about the upper age limit. 21 is a bit on the young side for me, I prefer characters who are at least 25 or so.
Would a firm journeyman-rank Mage at 25 be appropriate?
And here's my second character. She's a bit simpler.
Name: Keeper 2nd Class Maxima "Max" Muroda Age: 25 History: "Hiya, I'm Keeper Max! bzzztcrkkakakshhhhPING And that's, um, that's Staog! How can we... help?"
Even in a region as seemingly natural as Hoenn, modernity reigns, and computers are everywhere. All of the major players of the region, from the corporations to the Pokemon League have extensive computer systems, and where there are systems... there are vulnerabilities. Enter Maxima Muroda, at 21 years old: an ambitious self-taught hacker with a chip on her shoulder and a grudge against the Fairfax family. With the aid of her imported virtual-reality Pokemon, "Staog" (PorygonZ), Maxima quickly made a name for herself in criminal circles. If you wanted data you weren't supposed to have, she and her little collective were the ones to hire... and Jonton Fairfax was quite the reliable employer.
She wasn't always so unethical, though. As a teenager Maxima was a bright computer science student studying information distribution systems. She wanted to find a way to link Gauntlets across regions, allowing specialized Pokemon and items to be easily distributed and traded in digital form. After a few years of work on this pet project, she and her professors neared a major theoretical breakthrough. All they needed was access to a massive supercomputer in order to put the theories into practice. When Fairfax caught wind of the project and offered their own company computers, Maxima was overjoyed. Now not only were they going to revolutionize item materialization, she was going to work with the Fairfax Association! Surely they'd be so impressed with her code that they'd offer her a job, right?
Well, turns out the contract they signed for the use of the supercomputer came a bit of fine print. Fairfax researchers had been working on a similar project, but had gotten stuck half-way through. When they got access to Maxima's code, they were ordered by someone higher-up to quietly appropriate it and claim that it introduced a malignant program into the supercomputers. By doing so, they forced her into an investigation of criminal wrongdoing. By the time the investigation blew over and Maxima was acquitted, the Fairfax team conveniently announced that they were developing a nearly identical program. Even though she had been acquitted, Maxima's young reputation had been ruined by the accusation from a major corporation. Her protestations were not heard.
Expelled from her school for academic misconduct, with nothing but stolen Institute computers and a glitchy Porygon, she began her hacking career just to spite the corporate stooges who ripped her off. As far as the world of underground hacking goes, she was doing pretty well for herself for a while. Fat contracts from Jonton, living large with her friends, taking on "the man"... But it couldn't last forever. Two years ago, a job went bad. It turned out the Air Rangers had been onto her collective for a while, and they set up a sting involving the Fairfax Association. Maxima couldn't resist the low-hanging fruit, and she got her whole team busted.
After several long discussions with the Rangers involving her contracts with Jonton Fairfax, as well as the extent of her programming knowledge and her reasons for forming her collective, she was offered a plea bargain: go through Ranger training and become a white hat, and in return her sentence would be suspended. She cut her hair, got some Ranger tattoos, and started calling herself "Max", in order to separate herself from her criminal reputation. Newly christened, Max was a favorite at the Ranger Academy, passed with flying colors, and joined the Air Rangers' computer intelligence division. After its "upgrade", Staog was never too much use, but she still chose it as her partner, as technically it could fly, if she could convince it to do so.
Right now, she's assigned to a broad-spectrum prevention detail, looking for signs of fraud, hacking and other cybercrimes, as well as occasionally flying to other cities for "real" Ranger work.
Ranger Partner: "Staog 2.42.1.01.z (unstable)", PorygonZ (Genderless, Originally licensed as Porygon 1.0)
Poor Staog has never had much of a personality. As a blocky Porygon 1.0, it was a dutiful programming assistant and stalwart, if dull companion. Though Maxima was never great with Pokemon, Staog was in tune with her interests, and it was always there to help, so she quickly grew fond of it. Once she was accepted into her Institute, she discovered that Silph Co. had years before released a stable second iteration of the Porygon program. Initially leery of the upgrade, thinking it might damage Staog's memory of their time together, she did a lot of research and determined that it would probably be a lot happier as a Porygon2.
So upgraded, Staog 2.0 was her best assistant while she was working on her ill-fated materialization network project, and could often be seen rushing around the Institute gathering research and various computer components. It had some small capacity for battle, so occasionally she would spar with a few of Trainers who also attended the Institute, but neither Staog nor Maxima were ever particularly enthusiastic about it.
After her reputation soured and her grudge with Fairfax began, Staog was basically her only friend. During the trial, a shady former Silph employee noticed her Porygon2 and offered (for a nominal fee) a brand-new, bleeding edge upgrade that hadn't hit the market yet: the Z-Disc! It seemed a little dubious, but she was vectoring for any advantage she could find in the trial, so she bought the disc and "upgraded" Staog that night. It did not go well.
Since then, Staog 2.42.1.01.z has been a glitchy mess. Fantastic help when it decides to work, complete hindrance when it decides to bug out. It flies around shouting binary at people, randomly shifts from small to big to icy cold to shockingly electric, and only sometimes completes programming tasks Max assigns it. Staog's new crazy outlook on the world has led to some innovative hacking methods and (more recently) stress testing for Ranger systems, but her superiors' patience runs thin whenever she relies on Staog for a job, so it's relegated to transportation duty more than it would like.
Classification Size - Various, from around 3' to around 6' Descriptor - Virtual Pokemon Type - Various, default Normal Ability - Glitchy: Staog changes its Type and grows stronger or weaker at random. Its size also fluctuates, and like all PorygonZ, it tends to act erratically.
Moves Field Moves Fly | Conversion | Conversion 2 | Recover | Magnet Rise | Sharpen | Lock On | Flash | Disable | Growth | Minimize Battle Moves Metronome | Copycat | Tri Attack | Uproar | Screech | Supersonic | Substitute | Explosion | Random move relating to its current Type
Since we don't have an official OOC yet, I'm going to go ahead and post my first character here.
--
Name: Dr. Noor Baobab Age: 53 History: "Traveler, researcher, and lifelong PokeFan."
There is more to the realm of Pokemon than competition and power, and Noor is a believer in the potential for Pokemon to have equality with their human companions. As a researcher focused on Pokemon intelligence, she is a critic of the Pokemon League and their pushing of the youth to see battling as the primary activity Pokemon are interested in. According to her theories, Pokemon can be artists, scientists, and even philosophers just as well as people can. In fact, determining why some Pokemon are of a lower order intelligence and why some are geniuses is the primary goal of her research, combining evolutionary theory, Pokemon genetics and "Type theory" with Pokepsychology and good old fashioned human psychology in order to create standards of classification and to test Pokemon education methods.
Her doctoral dissertation to the Hoenn Pokemon Research Institute was an in-depth experimental study comparing the intelligence-from-hatching of the Pokemon species Absol and the Flygon evolutionary line. The first is a single-evolution Pokemon, growing only in size from hatching to adulthood, while Trapinch, Vibrava and Flygon each have unique perceptions of the world and unique levels of intelligence related to their instincts, behavior and style of living. After all, some Trapinch and some Vibrava never evolve further in their entire lives, for reasons still not entirely understood.
Before she ever set foot in the Institute, however, she was constantly exposed to Pokemon, as both of her parents were veteran Pokemon Rangers. In fact, her very first Pokemon egg came about from the pairing of her parents' Flygon partners, and she was soaring through the air on a Flygon's back before she even learned to walk. Her parents instilled their values in her at a young age, as they considered their partners to be just as intelligent as themselves, that they were truly partners rather than master and servant. This is a common belief among Rangers and top-level Trainers, but somewhat less common throughout the world, where many Pokemon are seen as pets or, at worst, slaves.
As she grew up, moving from place to place across the region with her parents, she worked together with her little Trapinch, Hermes, to befriend other Pokemon. Like many Ranger kids, her parents were constantly busy on duty, and her Pokemon were some of the only friends she had. She spent many long weeks exploring in the wilderness, observing Pokemon in their natural habitats and laying the foundation for her later research work. Once she was old enough, she convinced her parents that she and the newly-fully-evolved Hermes could fly to meet their extended family in Johto, exposing her to many strange Pokemon that she could never find in Hoenn. These discoveries pushed her to formalize her theories, and once she had cemented her group of partner Pokemon she applied to the Institute.
Ever since her graduation, she has been traveling the Nation, lecturing on human-Pokemon relations and ethical partnership. In recent years, with her parents aging, she has come back to Hoenn to be close to them, and has begun in-depth studies of some of its most unique native Pokemon and Pokemon environments. Her current projects include the eternally dizzy Spinda, weather-manipulating Pokemon Castform, the effects of Dawn Stones on male Kirlia, the incredibly strange Shedinja and one of her favorite Pokemon, the deceptive hunter Mawile.
Party: Generally, as she is a researcher and not a League Trainer, Dr. Baobab does not battle non-wild Pokemon. Even then, her battles with wild Pokemon either end with her fleeing or befriending them rather than knocking them out. Only in rare, desperate circumstances has she gone all-out with her team in a battle. Wild Aggron especially tend to be ornery, and it's more difficult to flee a battle in cramped caves underground. Because wild Pokemon battles don't have any rules, though, and because she usually dislikes holding her field team in their Pokeballs, any wild Pokemon she comes across are subjected to anywhere from three to all six of her partners.
Main Field Team - "Hermes", Flygon (M, Family Egg / First Pokemon)
The eldest of Noor's little family, Hermes sees himself as the dutiful, responsible son. Being a dragon, he is the most physically capable of the team, with a lot of strength and endurance combined with ludicrous speed. This has lead him to relegate himself to the role of "acceptable target", protecting Noor and the others from danger as much as he can by drawing attention to himself.
The other Pokemon tend to defer to him when Noor is indisposed, and he sees them all as his younger siblings. Though he doesn't usually work to befriend Pokemon in the wild, he's known for his patience when dealing with the strange Pokemon Noor does research on. Charybdis is especially trying, as she keeps trying to bite the end of his tail off.
Classification Size - 6'07"/2.0m, 180.8lbs/82kg Descriptor - Mystic Pokemon Type - Ground/Dragon Ability - Friend Guard (Levitate understood) Baobab Sapience Class - 10, full sapience
Research Assistant Hermes' main jobs have always been protection and transportation, and that's how he likes it. He might be patient enough to babysit Pokemon once they've been brought into the group, but he has a hard time befriending them in the wild. He leaves that to Delphi and Orpheus, mainly. In a pinch, he's able to create beautiful songs and terrible sounds by vibrating his wings, and has a few sound-based moves because of this.
With the rest of the team temporarily in their Pokeballs, Hermes can carry Noor anywhere in the region with blinding speed, and is always happy to show off his muscles by breaking down barriers in the team's path. To escape a dangerous wild Pokemon, his MO is to whip up a Sandstorm to lower visibility and then blow the offender away with a Whirlwind. If that proves ineffective, and flying is not an option, he grabs Noor and zips away with Extreme Speed or attempts to knock the offender away with Dragon Tail.
As the main protector of the team, he is the most experienced at battling. Despite Noor's distaste for violence, she knows that many wild Pokemon and some unscrupulous Trainers will attack her, and her team needs someone who can defend them. Hermes has always been the one to volunteer for that role, and secretly, he really does enjoy battling. The rush of combat, overwhelming his opponents with incredible power... perhaps that's the dragon in him.
- "Delphi", Gardevoir (F, Met in the wild, as Ralts)
If Hermes is the stereotypical big brother, Delphi is most certainly the big sister. Kind, intelligent and graceful, Delphi has always been Noor's primary research assistant. During her time as a lecturer, many students called the Gardevoir Dr. Delphi, and they were only half joking. Delphi's development from Ralts to Kirlia to full-grown Gardevoir mirrored Noor's own growth into adulthood so much, she sees her friend as basically an empathic human. She has even submitted a proposal to the Hoenn Pokemon Research Institute to accept Delphi as a student.
Whenever Noor is attempting to befriend Pokemon in the wild, Delphi is there, directing herself, Orpheus and the rest of the team carefully, to avoid scaring the wild Pokemon off. Whenever Noor is doing psychological studies of Pokemon and humans, Delphi is there, providing data through her telepathic and empathic abilities. Without her, Noor's research would become very difficult to achieve.
Classification Size - 5'03"/1.6m, 106.7lbs/48.4kg Descriptor - Embrace Pokemon Type - Psychic/Fairy Ability - Telepathy Baobab Sapience Class - 10, full sapience
Moves Field Moves Teleport | Future Sight | Telekinesis | Gravity | Charm | Captivate | Attract | Hypnosis | Misty Terrain | Moonlight (synergy with Misty Terrain) | Heal Pulse (trained to use on people, but not as effective on non-Pokemon)
Research Assistant As mentioned above, Delphi is Noor's primary research assistant, and most of her moves are focused on befriending wild Pokemon and understanding them empathically. She is also a capable empathic healer, and has several useful Psychic abilities for field work. Most of the time she works together with Orpheus and his musical skill in order to calm down and interact with ornery Pokemon.
In the rare occasions that Hermes and the other more capable battlers of the team need her help in more than a healing/support role, she can use some damaging Psychic and Fairy moves... But like Noor, she abhors violence, and would rather flee than fight. Thus, these damaging moves aren't particularly strong.
Battle Moves Moonblast | Draining Kiss | Dazzling Gleam | Psychic | Dream Eater | Double Team
- "Orpheus", Ludicolo (M, Met in the wild, as Lotad)
The happy-go-lucky Orpheus is not very serious about research or doing anything other than dancing around in the rain and singing. Delphi constantly has to remind him to pay attention to what they're doing, as given any downtime, he and Lethe go off by themselves and instantly get lost. When he is focused on the task at hand, though, he makes a useful assistant to Delphi, and his musical talents are second to none. He's especially handy when dealing with Pokemon of his own types, as Delphi doesn't have much in common with swimmers or plant-like Pokemon.
He is interesting in that he is, as far as Noor can tell, fully sapient, he's just... kind of dim.
Classification Size - 4'11"/1.5m, 121.3lbs/55kg Descriptor - Carefree Pokemon Type - Water/Grass Ability - Rain Dish Baobab Sapience Class - 10, full sapience
Moves Field Moves WIP, mostly musical/sound moves. Definitely Sing, of course, and Rain Dance. Research Assistant Battle Moves
- "Cassandra", Absol (F, Last Pokemon met during her childhood in Hoenn)
Prickly and aloof, Cassandra is a strange friend to have, but a friend nonetheless. Modern science has revealed the "Disaster Pokemon" to be drawn to impending disasters because of their foresight and compassion, but many people still harbor ill will towards any Absol they see. Noor ignores this stigma, and Cassandra travels with the team just like the others.
One night as young Noor and her early team were camped high on a mountaintop, they were visited by the silent Cassandra, who woke them with a simple tap of her paw and led them away from their campsite. The other Pokemon were wary, but Noor knew of the stories and trusted that the Absol was leading them to safety. As they trudged through the snow, she suddenly whipped her head up and stared in the direction of the camp... And moments later, it was completely engulfed by an avalanche. After that harrowing experience, Noor offered Cassandra a place with her and her friends, and for reasons of her own, the Pokemon accepted.
Nowadays, she tends to stick close to Alexander, as despite their differing approaches they share similar instincts. Cassandra is probably the second most capable battler on the team after Hermes, and if people are being threatened or are otherwise in danger, she and Alexander make a magnificent tag team as they guide people to safety.
Classification Size - 4'/1.2m (at the shoulder), 142lbs/64.4kg Descriptor - Disaster Pokemon Type - Dark Ability - Pressure Baobab Sapience Class - 10, full sapience
Moves Field Moves WIP Research Assistant Cassandra's basic role lines up with her natural instinct and the way she and Noor met: she senses danger. Because she has very fine senses, and she's in tune with invisible eddies and floes of energy in the world, she is always on guard, and rarely surprised by anything. Noor travels in a lot of dangerous places, and Cassandra tends to be the one leading the way. Along with Alexander's sense of direction, the pair of them are very effective wilderness guides.
In addition, if there is a battle that cannot be escaped from, Cassandra attacks with silent fury. Noor and the rest of the team are really a little scared of Cassandra when she's battling, but as soon as the threat is ended she returns to her even-keeled (if moody) self. Battle Moves WIP
- "Alexander", Ampharos (M, Met in the wild as Flaafy during her journeys through Johto)
As a newcomer in a strange region, even though she had her early team and Cassandra, Noor had a tendency to get lost. Johto is large and filled with very different Pokemon from Hoenn, and often Noor would get so excited she would rush off of the path whenever she saw something interesting... Which led to her getting lost. The third or fourth time she did this, she consulted some of the family members she was visiting to see if they had any suggestions.
They pointed her in the direction of some Mareep, which in turn led her to the more intelligent Flaafy who shepherded them. After a long day of bad hair-dos and static shocks, she and Delphi managed to explain their predicament and convinced one of the Flaafy to join them. The newly named Alexander was an enthusiastic but unskilled navigator, and Noor didn't know why his kind had been recommended until a good several months later, when Alexander guided them through a particularly tricky cave, and suddenly underwent his evolution into Ampharos. With the evolution came an entirely greater level of intelligence, and his navigation abilities grew manyfold.
Now, he is partnered with Cassandra as the wilderness guides of the team, keeping everyone moving in the right direction. When people are in danger, he leaps into action with his beacon while Cassandra works to shepherd them, and they work so well together they have become inseparable. Alexander is a lot more emotional than Cassandra, and shows his grief when they're apart, even if the most affection she shows outwardly is a tendency to stand next to him rather than off by herself.
Classification Size - 5'06"/1.7m, 157lbs/71kg Descriptor - Light Pokemon Type - Electric Ability - Compass Baobab Sapience Class - 10, full sapience
Moves Field Moves WIP, definitely Flash, of course. Research Assistant Alexander's main role is as the partner to Cassandra. The pair of them guide Noor and her team through dangerous wilderness, with Alexander specifically determining direction and making sure they don't get lost. Battle Moves WIP
- "Lethe", Quagsire (F, Met in the wild as Wooper during her journeys through Johto)
Ah, Lethe. Noor's only main team Pokemon who does not have full sapience according to her scale, Lethe was just a little Wooper who started following the team around once Alexander evolved into Ampharos. Woopers are not known for their intelligence, and more than once the team found themselves saving the little Pokemon from falling off of cliffs or otherwise hurting itself. After a good little while of this going on, Noor decided to study the Wooper's intelligence.
According to her best methods at the time, she was practically catatonic. This comforting fact in hand, Noor gave up trying to understand the and let the team decide what to do. Orpheus developed a liking to the Wooper, as she enjoyed splashing around in his dish, so Noor agreed that they could keep her around. Since then, Lethe has been a less-than-useful part of the team. In fact, after she evolved into a Quagsire, if anything she got less intelligent. She just got bigger. She makes Noor pretty exasperated, so uniquely among the team Lethe is more associated with the other Pokemon than she is with the human of the group.
Classification Size - 4'07"/1.4m, 165.3lbs/75kg Descriptor - Mud Fish Pokemon Type - Water/Ground Ability - Oblivious Baobab Sapience Class - 2, barely intelligent at all
Moves Field Moves WIP Research Assistant Lethe is not a research assistant at all, she's really more of a burden than anything... But the team likes to keep her around, so Noor tries not to complain.
Weird Pokemon / "Projects" - Spinda (F, stumbled into Noor's camp one night and couldn't find her way back home) - Shedinja (?, happened to appear while studying Nincada evolution) - Castform (?, Noor was granted a research grant by the Weather Institute) - "Charybdis", Mawile (F, sought out in Granite Cave) - Male Kirlia (M, raised from a wild Ralts - Noor is preparing to use a Dawn Stone)
