Pokemon Trainers Saturn and Mars [Mahogany, Johto]

Born Julian Jay, he began life in a happy, comfortable environment; his parents were decently well-off but conscious of the fact that they had a son who needed them to spend time with him, and thus were careful to balance their careers with their personal lives and ensure their little boy knew he was loved and supported. Julian grew up a friendly child, if not a bit shy, and was well provided for. His grandmother was called upon to help raise him, and though he was miserable with the excessively stern woman, he wasn't trapped under her iron rule more than twice a week. And so, his early life was uneventful until a horrific boating accident claimed his parents' lives while the family was on vacation and landed him stuck permanently with his grandmother, whose younger son also came to help look after the boy. His grandmother was a deeply toxic person, strict beyond reason; wanting her grandson to go into business or science as his parents had, she did her best to force his destiny on him from an early age, stripping him of most of his favorite activities and ridiculing his interests. As the years dragged on he obtained a tiny group of friends, but truthfully they were more like people who allowed him to hang around them for the sake of making fun of him. Lonely, he waved the cruel jibes away as the 'just jokes' his friends claimed them to be, remaining mostly a shadow in conversations and fairly asocial unless first approached.  

And so the years dragged on the same until a chance meeting changed his life; Julian met a man who called himself Cyrus while attending a local school, and the man slowly earned his trust, the boy spilling the sad truth of his life bit by bit over the course of a year. Cyrus took him under his wing, where he met two other troubled youths, one of whom he became close friends with. Cyrus became a caretaker, the man treating him as though they were related, encouraging him to stop caring so deeply about the thoughts of others. As Julian began to spend more and more time with the man who became a guardian to him, his grandmother and uncle grew more abusive; at last he could stand the pain no longer and left what remained of his family to live on his own, becoming one of Cyrus's partners in the man's new project along with the two others Cyrus looked after. Life had weathered him by the time the project got seriously underway, and by the time he chose his new name at fourteen, his Commander name, the person he'd been as a child was almost completely gone.

Galactic came into form; Julian became Saturn, and his dearest friend became Mars. Over the next couple years preparations continued, Saturn realizing Cyrus's concern for others was either not real at all or second to his own ambitions. The knowledge devastated him, but rather than attempt to come to terms with it and bail on the closest thing he now had to a family, he hardened his soul. Cyrus had taught him not to care what others thought, had he not? The boy became arrogant and empty, the wonder he'd once looked at the world with taking on the form of morbid curiosity as became entranced with Cyrus's ability to entrap people using the very thing he hated and wished to eliminate: spirit.

But it failed.

After all that preparation, three children took down Galactic, and he was left with the ruins of the organization and the blood of those who had died at Lake Valor on his hands. It was then that the gravity of what he did began to sink in, though still, he avoided dwelling on it too much, jerking from it like an accidental touch to something hot. After a conversation with Pearl in which he expressed his desire to use Galactic to do good, he disappeared. Though initially he had planned to oversee Galactic himself, it seemed that the International Police had begun to creep in, seeking those who were involved with the more nefarious plots; it would be foolish to stay, given what he had done at Valor. Saturn tied up some loose ends with the company's money, helped settle some grunts who no longer wanted to be part of Galactic, and then left the group in the hands of a qualified grunt he chose himself. Giving this person instructions to research alternative energy sources and some plans to start with, Saturn took his Pokemon and inheritance and vanished to Unova to hide.

It was when Ghetsis surfaced in Unova that he began to fret, recognizing Cyrus's manipulative nature in the other man giving speeches. He was not surprised when Ghetsis's true colors were revealed, and vowed to do something should he return, which Saturn was certain he would. When he did, Saturn learned from a Plasma grunt that something would happen in Opelucid. On the date the grunt gave him, he arrived in the city and sent his Crobat out to look.

What would take place in Opelucid wouldn't be found, though; it would find them.

A blizzard struck the city in the middle of July, Saturn staggering outside to search for his beloved bat. He found her too late; Nebula was dead, and Saturn himself nearly froze to death. It was while recovering in the hospital that the full weight of his sins crashed down, his Toxicroak using the time Saturn was stuck there to hunt down answers, finally learning from a Plasma scientist that a doctor by the name of Colress Gannon had been responsible. Saturn, however, was uninterested in revenge; after being released from the hospital, he exiled himself to Snowpoint, to live in the worst part of the city.  

Death would be too good for him, and he feared it, anyway. He planned to live there in misery for the rest of his days to punish himself, but the when the epidemic swept through the region it changed his plans. His Toxicroak, still wanting revenge against the one who caused the blizzard, convinced Saturn to look for the man, pointing out Colress could try to do something stupid in his desperation to stop the epidemic. Realizing that truth, Saturn agreed, and so they set out, unsure of what exactly he would do should he find the man, but knowing he had to do something.

The years that followed were full of the kind of general misery the apocalypse would bring, but four years in, an unexpected reunion struck. Mars, similar to how he remembered her, rescued him from bandits threatening his life. She coaxed his story from him and now the two travel together, Mars his protector, eager to help him reach his goal.

And... perhaps, after completing it, however it turned out, exactly, he'll have a reason to stay alive, with the person he considers his sister back in the picture.

:virgo: Mars: The closest thing Saturn has ever had to a sibling; he adores her and desires nothing more than to ease her back onto the right path. Though desperate to keep her as his friend, he's not about to let bad behavior go uncorrected.

:virgo: [url=???]Jupiter[/url]: Something about Jupiter has always felt off to him, but when her true colors were revealed upon Galactic putting their plan into action, he found her outright repulsive. Though he had a very personal reason for what they were doing and would benefit from it, he didn't take any real pleasure in carrying out Cyrus's orders; she seemed to delight in it. While he nowadays finds his own state of mind during that time morally abhorrent, he shudders to think what reason she had for enjoying the destruction of others. Wants to avoid her at all costs.

:virgo: [url=???]Cyrus[/url]: Directly Saturn's thoughts: he used me oh god he used me and I fell for it completely... unless he didn't really use me and genuinely cared for me? Maybe? ????? Dear god I just don't know

He truly did trust this man; the knowledge that Cyrus may have just been using him rattles him deeply.  He does his best not think on it but is rarely successful.

:virgo: [url=???]Charon[/url]: Found him to be a creepy old man; avoided whenever possible.

:virgo: [url=???]Colress[/url]: Hopes to the love of the gods that don't exist for him not to do anything stupid. Is not sure where he stands on the topic of forgiveness with Colress-- he hasn't forgiven himself so why should he forgive Colress when their crimes were just as terrible? However, he certainly understands the man, or at least, is willing to try to, and refuses the notion of harming him should he find him UNLESS it is obvious he is going to repeat the sins of the past. He has no desire for revenge at all, only to ensure Colress doesn't bring about disaster again in some misguided attempt to cure the epidemic.

-despite his real name being Julian, he will always give his name as "Saturn;" this is not just a form of self-punishment ("I am not allowed to forget what I have done") but also, he in some small way hopes that someone will recognize the name and take his life for his crimes
-Saturn's space pendant looks like this; but the planet Saturn is instead a red Mars.

Life for Mars started in front of a fire station, in a cardboard box, with a Cleffa hissing at the firemen who discovered the infant. Her parents were never found. She was placed in a foster home with many other children; her foster mother paid no attention to her, her foster father spat a great amount of vitriol at her and the other foster children, as well as his wife, and she had a terrible relationship with her foster siblings, who turned to violence and drugs to cope with their awful home life. When she was a teeanger, unable to stand it any longer, she ran away with a Glameow she befriended several years ago and the Cleffa that had never left her side. Marian soon discovered that life on the street for a teenager was not as easy as she'd believed, and things would have gone very badly for her had she not been approached by Cyrus, who noticed her brilliance in the Pokemon battles she participated in to earn money for food. Eager for affection, she ate up the praise he gave her and joined his group of talented young misfits, where she met Julian, a boy just a year younger than herself. They became very close, but just as Galactic had brought them together, it also tore them apart. By the time their training was complete and they took on their new names, their closeness had grown cold and distant as each withdrew into themselves, Cyrus having successfully molded them into usable pawns.

He failed to convince her to completely abandon emotion, however, and her spirited nature shone through on their crusade across the region. Though she tried to pretend otherwise, meeting Mesprit unsettled her. Capturing her was worse.

But of course, it was all for the greater good. No one would ever suffer like she had ever again, because spirit would not exist, and so neither would selfishness.

But Galactic fell to the efforts of three children, and a disgusted Mars abandoned Charon at Stark Mountain, the greedy scientist unable to inspire her as Cyrus had. She didn't want money! She wanted a fixed world! She wanted to eliminate suffering and violence! Charon was the kind of creature she had hoped to rid the world of by helping Cyrus remake a universe that lacked desire. He was of no use to her, and she refused to sully her name by working with him. At least Cyrus was someone she could say she had worked alongside with pride. While not pleased with her crimes, recreating everyone who had ever existed would erase what she had done and make everything new again, anyway.

But now she existed in a world where she had no purpose. Her great leader had fallen, the replacement was a shill. Jupiter agreed that Charon was pathetic, but had no such lofty goals like improving the world and fucked off.

This left Saturn. Mars contemplated that as she wandered the wilderness around Mt. Stark, deciding she would try to go find him. If he was still cold and easily irritated he might be yet another dead end, but if even a sliver of her old best friend remained, maybe not all was lost...

She remembered how they sniped at one another like siblings, even after each had closed themselves off to the other. Surely, she thought, surely there must still be something there.

But findin him was not to be; she was soon apprehended, brought into custody by Looker despite her best attempts to escape him. The agent proceeded to confuse her, however, as he began visiting her in jail. He spent time with her, spoke with her, and eventually earned her trust and drew her story from her. He advocated for leniency and Mars was lucky that Looker's word was taken so seriously, her prison sentence ending up much shorter than one would expect given her crimes.  

Looker, in fact, saved her life by reaching for that shorter sentence.

She had been out of prison under a new name (albiet still listless and looking for a purpose and contemplating more vigilantism) for a short while when the epidemic came sweeping through, and it chilled her to know that if not for Looker, she would have likely died in prison to the undead. As she spent her days running, hiding, and fighting, Mars found herself not for the first time wondering where Saturn was. Where did he disappear to, did the person she used to know ever return? And why had Looker been so kind to her, even going as far as to visit her in jail and then after her convinction, prison?

With nothing else to do in this new and now-even-more-empty world, she set out to look for answers. Though she did a lot of soul-searching, she came up with very little besides the fact that she really did consider Saturn to be family to her. Her search eventually led her to IP Headquarters, though that yielded nothing.

But after four frustrating years of the epidemic, a miracle.

She found Saturn.

He was taken by bandits; they would have killed him had she and her Pokemon not stepped in to fight them off. That night she learned just how broken he was, and she resolved to protect him and help him rebuild his shattered self image. The two now wander together, Mars determined to fix the one she calls her brother.

:virgo: Saturn: The closest thing she's ever had to a sibling, she and Saturn struck up a surprisingly close relationship with one another in their early Galactic days.

:virgo: [url=???]Jupiter[/url]: Found her to be a stuck up bitch; doesn't know or care what happened to her.

:virgo: [url=???]Cyrus[/url]: Feels intense feeling of shame for having ever found this guy amusing or fun. She will never forgive his betrayal of her trust.

:virgo: [url=???]Charon[/url]: Found him creepy and annoying; had very little to do with him.  

:virgo: Arianna: Her biological mother. Has never met her.

:virgo: Looker: The man confuses her greatly; she can't understand his kindness. She would like to find him again so she might be able to find out why he had been so good to her despite Mars really not deserving it.

-though her real name is not Mars, she has come to see it as a nickname and treats it as such, using it as an alias
-Arielle's moves are used for non-battling purposes; Thunder Wave charges devises, Incinerate starts campfires, Sing helps soothe the insomnia or nightmare stricken to sleep, and Psychic lifts things over that are otherwise out of reach
-yes they were indeed born on the same date, but different years
-plotting with Looker and has been allowed permission to use him in this history
-Mars's space pendant looks like this