| Oliver Gray |
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| Text Color | 0195ff |
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| Theme(s) | THEME |
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| Item | universal communicator; brown messanger bag that has:
-THINGS |
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| Weapons |
-his pokemon
-kitchen knife |
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| Gender | Male |
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| Pronouns | He | Him | His |
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| Birthdate | July 4th |
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| Age | 15 |
| Time Since Outbreak | four years |
| Species | Human |
| Weight | 96lbs |
| Height | 5'0" |
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| Region of Origin | Sinnoh |
| Religion | Arceist, sort of; he's admittedly more spiritual than actually religious |
| Accent | light northeastern American accent
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| Occupation | Trainer | Housekeeper | Cook | Cleaner |
| Party | So many of his party pokemon are shiny because he spent years living near an illegal breeding mill; Oliver did his best to sneak in and use his general dismissal as a nobody to rescue as many pokemon as possible. His entire party has been formed by the ones who refused to leave him; the sole exception is Rose, whom he met and rescued as a small child from bullies in an alleyway. |
| Pkm 1 |
Gardevoir | Rose (M)
Text Color: f9afc6
Level- 50
Type-  
Ability-
Attack list-
-Moonblast (Start)
-Psychic (Learned)
-Teleport (Learned)
-Protect (TM)
**Starter. Helps Oliver moniter and process his emotions. His skin and hair are a lighter shade of pink than his horns. Only non-standard shiny.
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| Pkm 2 |
Ribombee | Violet (M)
Text Color:
Level- 50
Type- 
Ability- Shield Dust
Attack list-
-Dazzling Gleam (Learned)
-Pollen Puff (Learned)
-Quiver Dance (Learned)
-Aromatherapy (Learned)
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| Pkm 3 |
Primarina | Lotus (M)
Text Color:
Level- 49
Type- 
Ability- Torrent
Attack list-
-Moonblast (Learned)
-Hyper Voice (Learned)
-Sing (Learned)
-Bubble Beam (Learned)
*One of the few non-shinies he was able to save.
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| Pkm 4 |
Togekiss | Gardenia (M)
Text Color:
Level- 49
Type- 
Ability- Serene Grace
Attack list-
-Air Slash (Start)
-Dazzling Gleam (TM)
-Aura Sphere (Start)
-Flamethrower (TM)
*One of the few non-shinies he was able to save. He actually saved a lot more of this batch and managed to bring them all to the drop-off point, but this particular pokemon took a deep liking to him and opted to stay.
*Was not named after Gym Leader Gardenia; rather, was named for what the flower stands for (joy).
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| Pkm 5 |
Swirlix | Sakura (M)
Text Color:
Level- 48
Type-
Ability- Unburden
Attack list-
-Return (TM)
-Heal Bell (Tutor)
-Belly Drum (Egg)
-Wish (Learned)
*Name chosen for cherries being something often put on cakes.
*Helps Oliver in the kitchen.
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| Pkm 6 |
Whimsicott | Carnation (M)
Text Color:
Level- 49
Type- 
Ability- Prankster
Attack list-
-Moonblast (Learned)
-Tailwind (Learned)
-Energy Ball (Learned)
-Leech Seed (Learned)
*Name is a very subtle reference to green carnations, the symbol of gay men in the 1800s and, specifically, Oscar Wilde, the man who came up with the idea and whose quotes Oliver finds very amusing.
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| |
| Quote | "I re-really don't like where this is going..."
"Oh look I was right imagine that, guys."
"S-sorry, sorry! I di-didn't mean to!"
|
| History | - history:
"I can't even begin to put into words the bullshit his life has been but... I guess it'd be a good idea for me to at least try."
There was silence for a few minutes. The fairy swirled his drink. It was literally water with a pecha berry jammed into the rim, but, perhaps uncharacteristically of Rose, the fairy made a joke before deciding to divulge the details to you. "I'll need a drink to get through this," he'd said.
Even his jokes were somehow bitter.
"As far as I can tell," he began in the slow, measured tone a person takes when trying their best to distance themselves from the tale about to come, "he was born and spent his early life in Jubilife. The youngest of five siblings; two older sisters, two older brothers. I don't know why, with so many kids to choose from, his parents chose him to hate."
That didn't bode well.
"But they did. I'm not really sure how to order this in a cohesive way- I guess I must've several times by now, given our party, but. Eh." He swirled the drink again, watching the water spin. The pecha was nearly dislodged and he reached up to push it more firmly against the rim. "I forget between tellings how I did it. Coping mechanism, maybe. It's not easy to tell strangers 'oh yeah, my boy was viciously abused for years by the people who were supposed to take care of him' so I put it out of mind as soon as I'm done every time I have to run through this bullshit story again."
His words were followed by a wince and a look in your direction. "You do realize you don't have to listen, right?"
You were nothing if not stubborn, so you waved him on. He sighed. "All right. But now you've got a preview for what you're in for, so... don't say I didn't warn you."
Another, much shorter, beat of silence. This time he wasn't fiddling with the water.
"It was a cult, kind of," he continued. The measured pace was back. "He was part of a large-ish community. Worshipped Arceus. Standard stuff on the surface. Of course, if you moved like, a shovelful of dirt out of the way, the shit was right there; they didn't bother putting that too deep."
"This cult was kind of normal by cult standards; it hated certain groups of humans and pokemon and preached vile stuff about them. The usual, you know; gay people, trans people, women, in a way, humans of certain races, in some cases... As for pokemon, it was like... fairies, psychics- oh yeah duh they hated psychic humans too. But yeah; psychics, dragons, ghosts, dark types... poison types too, I think. Uhhhh... that might be it. It's hard to measure hate."
It was indeed.
"So they hated the Others and anything that might give people an idea of what the actual truth of life was, which meant they also hated television, movie, a lot of forms of art, music, dancing, education, science, the entire education system-- they were a bunch of tinfoil hat conspiracists hiding in their church tittering about how the world was against them and against their god and evil spirits and uuuuuugh." He lowered his glass to rub his temple. You were tempted to do the same.
"So that was the enviornment he was born into. Shockingly, none of those kids were what I would call stable. Oliver, though, ending up their least favorite for... some reason, ended up being the one they actively tortured. And I do mean tortured," he added with a glance over. "He slept in the attic, which was less insulated than anywhere else in the house. His stuff was regarded as things he didn't actually own, so anyone could take his things whenever. No concept of privacy at all, although thankfully him being in the attic meant that they'd have to go out of their way to invade it, so it happened less often than you think it might. Never allowed to say no to stuff or make decisions or anything like that. And when his siblings started getting pokemon, he wasn't allowed to have any."
You opened your mouth to speak. Rose cut you off. "The official excuse was 'they'll let you get into more trouble.' Which is just. Stupid. He followed their rules like a slave; he had to. It was the only way he didn't end up beaten black and blue. And honestly that tended to happen anyway. But he was young and afraid and taught to distrust any kind of authority figure who might've been able to help him, so compliance was his only protection even if it wasn't foolproof. Oh, and he went to public school despite the cult wanting really badly to separate themselves from society. I say that because it's relevant to what happens next."
"See, his parents weren't super well off, financially. I mean, they were doing decently enough considering they had five kids, but they were far from always having the latest stuff. So public school was their only option. Fortunately for them and their backwards-ass ideas, the school was pretty underfunded and really shitty, so they didn't actually get around to teaching the kids a whole lot of stuff. I mean, Oliver learned to read, and write, and add and stuff, but there wasn't a whole lot of- well I guess to be fair at that age I don't think a lot of science or history happens anyway. But point is, nothing happened to give the kid any perspective outside of his awful bubble. It's pretty lucky Oliver is such a sensitive kid and figured out for himself that what he was taught was garbage, even if he didn't understand how or why yet."
"So he walks to and from school by himself. That's... that's how he met me." There was a crack in his composure. "... I don't remember a lot of my own early life. I'll be honest there. I've forgotten where exactly I came from, or what happened to my parents, or why I was in that alleyway to begin with that day. I know I pissed off the humans I pissed off by stealing a berry from one of them. Because I was starving. And they chased me into that alleyway and started-"
He shuddered.
"... I wouldn't be alive today if it wasn't for Oliver. They'd have beaten me to death. But I remember- I remember someone suddenly scooping me up and holding me to their chest. And later I'd learn that he ran over, put himself between me and the bullies, and got down on his hands and knees and shielded me with his own body. They beat him up and then realized they were late for something and ran off. And- and he took me home. Snuck me upstairs. And he treated my wounds with his emergancy first aid kit that he kept beneath the floorboards of his bed..."
He had to pause a moment.
"He was afraid to take me to a pokecenter. Afraid his parents would find out somehow. So he made do with that. Took care of me using his own scant supplies... And then, after that, he started killing himself slaving away for neighbors, doing chores for money. Our neighbors weren't in that cult so... his parents didn't talk to them much. And at that point in time there was a huge chunk of the day nobody was home when he was. So he was able to work for other people. Eventually earned enough to buy a pokeball off some other kid who I'm pretty sure scammed the hell out of him with an inflated price but whatever. He got me a loveball."
The tiny, fond smile at what you assumed must be related to being presented with that pokeball for the first time was gone. Quickly.
"Until then I had to hide under his bed at all times. He tried to coax me into leaving once I wasn't wounded anymore, which took like, a week. But by then I'd... I'd heard. I'd heard how they treated him. I literally cowered under the bed at one point as I listened to his father beat him just... just a few feet away."
His eyes had unfocused. Maybe it was better if he didn't tell this story...
"I couldn't leave him," he whispered. "I wasn't strong enough to protect him, but I couldn't leave him. So I refused to. And so he got me the loveball so I could be hidden easier. He fed me off of whatever he could sneak me. And when he cried at night I could snuggle with him for awhile. But never all night. Couldn't risk that someone might barge in come morning..."
He wiped at his eyes. You pretended not to notice he had.
"He was eight."
Ouch.
"Really soon after he got me, his entire cult packed up and left the area. Turns out his uncle contacted his father, asking if he could help run a business. And then his father talked to their- religious- leader- person. And viola. They all moved to the middle of the wilderness, where his uncle was running an illegal breeding mill for pokemon. To try to get shinies."
Oh. You had an idea of where this was going.
"So in the middle of a town they straight up made themselves off the grid, they had no one telling them what to do, so they got to live exactly the kind of cult-dictated lives they'd always wanted to. Oliver got even more isolated from the world, thanks jackasses, and even more abused."
"They worked this kid like a slave. And he never got enough to eat. Like, even before this. He didn't get much to eat and if he tried to take more he was screamed at for being ungrateful. But he scraped by. It was a matter of survival... so he just... did it. And as time went by he figured out how to help the pokemon. They..."
He gestured fruitlessly for a minute.
"A lot of the pokemon at the mill were the kind they hated. Because you don't treat the kind of people you like like that. They brutalized these pokemon. Made them have kids only to rip those kids away. It- god." He had to wipe his face again. "... So... yeah. Oliver couldn't stand by and watch the suffering and do nothing, so... he started using his status as a nobody. We figured out how to help. He made contact with some wild pokemon beyond the walls of the town and arranged meeting with them. And started saving the babies and getting them to the wild pokemon, so they could be taken far away from that place. Eventually he figured out how to help the... the pokemon used as breeding stock..."
Welp you sure felt sick now.
"So... from there..." He chuckled and rubbed his eyes. "Violet. Lotus. Carnation. Sakura. Gardenia. He stole pokeballs from storage because they refused to leave him, too. As our party filled up, he started training them. Would slip outside the walls at night. We got stronger. Evolved. One of the wild pokemon who helped us get the babies out brought us a shiny stone to evolve Gardenia. But we were still no match for Oliver's mother. She was a steel specalist."
He took a gulp of the water. "When the epidemic broke out life continued as normal where we were. Not many strong things around our town. The tiny economy kept thriving and everything just. Kept going as aways. Despite all the death everywhere else around the world. Only difference was that they now had to hoard their shinies and other sell-able pokemon instead of selling them, but they thought the epidemic would blow over eventually, so. That didn't bother them much."
"But eventually he got caught. I guess it was only a matter of time. He got seen with his pokemon. And god, he was terrified. He was so scared. He didn't want to leave; he didn't think he could. But we knew that he might very well end up getting beaten to death over this. So after a little convincing, he climbed back through his bedroom window, threw some things into a backpack, and we ran. We ran for our lives." He picked off a bit of the pecha berry to munch on. "They followed. Not just because Oliver escaped, but because he escaped with some of their valuables. So we spent a good week or more just. Running. Oliver was worn out pretty fast."
I guess you got reincarnated into a human this time Oliver congratulations; here's your shitty childhood and copius issues.
-parents are abusive, religious assholes
-target of their abuse is Oliver; his siblings are treated pretty decently
-everyone has pokemon but him and he's not allowed to have one
-epidemic breaks out when he's eleven; family had been out of town at the time
-ends up in the middle of nowhere with his family and a large group of survivors, who end up discovering a place off the Sinnoh map where illegal breeders were hiding their operation
-the epidemic hadn't quite reached this place yet so there was time to prepare; all sick pokemon were immediately put down, and so the place isn't overrun, though constantly needs to be watched
-a town forms; Oliver's father smarmed his way into the good graces of those operating the illegal breeding mill, so he ends up one of their partners
-a tiny economy forms and thrives and the breeders continue their thing, collecting shinies and expecting the epidemic to eventually blow over
-treatment of the pokemon is horrific so Oliver starts doing some sneaky shit to save them, sneaking them out and to non-infected pokemon on the other side of the town wall who would then take the little ones and leave
-ends up over time with an entire party of six, whom he cares for in secret, because they refused to leave him but he's not allowed to have them
-parents get steadily more abusive and eventually Oliver is forced to flee the place because his pokemon aren't strong enough to stand up to their power but are at last strong enough to take on the wilderness and he's gonna die if he stays anyway and really does not want to
-spends a year free of his parents; lives in constant terror they will come for him
-i have no idea where he is but I do know he was, either just prior to the curtains opening on the team or maybe even during the start of the team, holed up somewhere he found that has a reasonable amount of supplies. Part of the personal conflict here was knowing they wouldn't last forever. He's a fifteen year old abuse survivor victim who has never had to take care of himself in a society-less world so things are Not Easy.
-there will be bullshit that I'm sure of
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| Appearance | Oliver is a skinny little thing; cursed with a lack of height and not much muscle to speak of, Oliver would be an entirely unintimidating presence even without his usual timidity. He wears a white button up shirt with brown coudrey pants, a blue sweater over the shirt, and a black necklace with an Arceus symbol on it, visible for all to see. It's like how someone here would wear a cross necklace.
He holds himself anxiously, almost fearfully; everything about his body language is submissive. He keeps back and to the shadows when possible. Rose is always out and almost always accompanied by another pokemon. Many times it's Carnation, whom Oliver carries around like a teddy bear, though it's also very common to see his entire team out because he believes in letting them spend time outside of their pokeballs whenever possible. In this case, they tend to cluster protectively near Oliver when others come around.
Expressive and lacking any sort of poker face, Oliver's expression and body language are an open window to his thoughts; if he is frightened, you'll know. If he's been startled, you'll know (because he'll also jump a foot away). If he's happy, he will try to hide it but ultimately lose. Though he's often far too frightened to speak, his face and body will do the talking for him.
Owing to finding a hideout with supplies in it, Oliver's health has actually managed to improve a little bit. Before his escape he was horribly underweight, as he'd been his entire life due to constant starvation; with no captors withholding food, he's been able to inch his way up to a healthier weight. However, he continues to get little sleep, and since he's hiding in a shelter and pretty much never goes outside, he remains concerningly pale.
Since he's able to, he still makes attempts to tame his hair. His hair would be healthier if he knew how to take care of curly hair, but more than that, he also still doesn't wash it much at all, as he's unused to getting to do that and he's only just accepting that he can even eat as much as he wants. Being free is a learning process. |
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| Personality | - personality:
- loving
-he loves very easily and with the whole of his heart
-admittedly this stems from his abuse; he can give himself so easily to others because he wasn't really allowed to get away with being selfish
-given to spoiling his pokemon whenever possible and will often get dragged into the messes of the more mischevious
- generous
-speaking of, he will happily give away anything he has to help someone in need
-whether this is time, money, food, etc; he has always been perfectly happy to give up what he has to help someone else
- timid, often anxious
-anxiety and fear basically rule his life and all social interactions and decision making
-has difficulty making decisions because this, but can oftentimes override his anxiety to make suggestions (in an attempt to not be useless) providing that who he is dealing with hasn't punished him in some manner for trying
-will overanalyze absolutely everything
-when presented with choices by another person, especially an authority figure, will immediately become terrified of making the wrong decision because all 'choices' ever given to him already had a pre-determined decision on the part of the authority in his life as to what they wanted him to pick and picking wrong resulted in punishment; will either freeze, blurt out the first thing that comes to his head, or make some very quick, panicky calculations and pick what he assumes is the answer least likely to get him beaten or yelled at
- friendly
-he doesn't really believe in being cruel when there's no reason to be
-he knows pain; why inflict it on others?
- strong moral center
-he does struggle sometimes with what is right and wrong given his parents very skewed teachings, but what he believes is right and wrong, he believes very strongly
- easily cowed
-it really doesn't take much to frighten him
-heavily depends on his pokemon for both physical and emotional protection
-it's easy to knock the fight out of him
- brave, when he can be so sneakily
-he puts himself in a surprising amount of dangerous situations to help others and would even do so at the risk of being hurt
-finds himself incapable of standing up to those in authority situations in public, but especially extreme circumstances might allow him to find the courage to
-otherwise he generally keeps his mouth shut, a long-learned survival technique
- polite and obedient
-beaten into him at a young age, Oliver is extremely polite to everyone he meets, regardless of their age, status, or whether or not they deserve it
-those older than him are addressed as 'sir' or 'ma'am' and he will avoid eye contact and do as they ask of him automatically
-he will go to great lengths to placate those in authority out of fear, even if it means hurting himself--he will never fight back for himself--but will refuse to harm his pokemon and will dig his heels in at the notion of harming anyone else, instead finding ways to make it seem as if he did what he was told
-he is used to serving others; it's pretty much a survival instinct for him to say 'yessir' and do what you're told
-will automatically place all people older than him in the 'authority' category and defer to their opinions and decisions and do whatever is asked of him
-will do, without being asked or told, things he assumes are expected of him, like making meals and cleaning
- quiet and reclusive
-afraid of everyone, he unsurprisingly doesn't have much to say and will rarely speak unprompted unless it's to make a suggestion he thinks might benefit the others
-very softspoken and sometimes needs to be reminded to speak louder when in louder enviornments
-unsure of what thoughts and hobbies are allowed and what isn't, he will keep his opinions and favorite things to himself
-fears being mocked for what he likes and will only speak up once someone else expresses interest in the same things he enjoys, although he's just as likely to perk up and listen intently and yet still be too shy to add his two cents in
- surprisingly strong will to survive
-mostly out of fear, but no, he really, really does not want to die
-even when things are really bad
- bitter and sarcastic
-privately, around strangers, but yes
-he has a shocking amount of salt
-with his pokemon he allows himself to have no filter
- self-depricating
-wastes no opportunity to deride himself, but rarely does so aloud
- humble
-will take no credit for any good he does or any talent he has
- patient
-if his pokemon are patient enough to put up with him he can hold his horses for two seconds when it comes to other people and situations
-and he truly has patience miles long unless someone has truly made a bad impression or has really irked him
- starting to become curious
-though it's been smothered all his life by religious extremists, he has enormous interest in basically everything
-the world has opened up to him too late to enjoy most of it, but the more time he spends away from the people who abused him into ignorance, the more he finds himself drawn to the source of information he's been denied
-takes especially deep pleasure in consuming forbidden knowledge, such as facts the basically-cult he was in found inconvenient and media that didn't agree with their worldviews
- gullible
-likely to believe anyone someone says, within reason, about the world or how something works
-it's not that he trusts people, exactly, so much as he just expects people to know what they're talking about
- needy
-you betcha
-desperately wants to be loved and will work very hard to earn someone's affection if they first show him any
-fully believes in the case of himself that love and even basic respect is something he must earn by being obedient and doing well what was asked of him
-subconsciously seeking to fill the hole left by his biological family
-would absolutely be an easy target for anyone trying to gain his trust and favor for nefarious reasons
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| Affiliations | - Oliver's Relationships:
:cancer: Pokemon:
:cancer: Parents:
:cancer: Siblings:
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| User Notes | - notes:
-I CONTINUE TO HAVE NO SELF CONTROL.
-stammer worsens the worse he is feeling; he hates this about himself so much
-a pretty good cook from years of practice, as at best nobody made his meals and at worst he had to cook for everyone else
-loves flowers and found it cute that all flowers have meanings; could probably grow them if he tried but not the really delicate ones
-his father loved steel types and his mother wasn't much of a battler, so even though he could absolutely take his mother's pokemon in terms of level if he was brave enough to (and he super wasn't), there was no way he was beating his father
-illiterate; he'll need someone to teach him to read
-While he right now isn't aware of this, having not gotten enough time to truly meet himself, he enjoys cooking, pop and rock music, disney movies, sweets, video games, all manner of novels, poetry, and history. He's easily fascinated by just about anything, and, with time, he will be eager to learn about and try almost anything and is always grateful for opportunities to experience new things, his favorites being food, music, literature, and skills
-this entire thing is kind of tentative, especially about the shinies, because I don't want to make him op; I just really loved the idea of having a character who kept saving pokemon from a breeding mill and ended up with these specially colored pokemon when he'd been deprived of any at all. And meanwhile doesn't fucking understand why a different color pallet would be something people would pay a lot of money for, so he's sitting on basically a goldmine and is very 'eh' about it.
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