Pokemon Trainer Mitsuru [Pyrite, Orre]

The first thing Mitsuru remembers is Unmei.

There was always just Unmei.

Hazy and dreamlike, he remembers sleeping in abandoned buildings and under tarps in alleyways, uncomfortable with the hard surfaces but the question of his safety never in doubt. Unmei sat at his side, his presence and that sense of safety at the feeling of him there rooted in something deeper than Mitsuru can remember now. But surely it was because they were brothers- because that tie of blood and choice wove together to create something that didn't need to be spoken: it merely was, like the law of gravity.

Pyrite was not an easy place for orphans but Unmei did his best. As a child, Mitsuru didn't fully understand just how much work Unmei must have done to protect him so well; even teenaged Mitsuru doesn't really know, yet, the herculean effort. He can scarcely recall hunger- maybe a spell or two, but nothing seriously prolonged. He went without new clothes for a little while at times, but within a month or less that was amended. New shoes. Sometime when they were twelve they moved into a real apartment- tiny, and probably junky, older Mitsuru realizes now, but back then it was so much more than they'd ever had, and he didn't really ponder where it came from beyond one or two questions to his brother.

Life was monotonous but safe. The only thing he felt a keen lack for were friends.

Unmei didn't really tell him not to leave the house, but Mitsuru, ever shy and with no real idea of how to speak to people, voluntarily shuttered himself away except for when he went to get groceries for them. It would be on one such run that he would meet his closest friend aside from his own brother.

Though dark and forboding enough that even Mitsuru in all his innocence and naivety knew he shouldn't approach, the sobs and wails of a small child beckoned him to stop and investigate. Readjusting his grip on the groceries, Mitsuru ventured into the alleyway, finding in an area hidden by shadow a cardboard box, not unlike the kind he and Unmei used to live in, housing a weeping Cleffa.

The Ceffa was so upset that he actually didn't notice Mitsuru standing there for a minute. His presence became known to him by chance and suddenly the tiny thing flinched to realize he was not alone.

Dirty and thin, he stared up at the boy that towered over him.

And Mitsuru reached into the paper bag hefted in one arm and held an apple out to him.

Unmei didn't protest their new family member. He had his own pokemon, after all. All he asked of the little fairy was to treat Mitsuru well.

It was not really a request, but it was a demand that was easily followed. For Mitsuru and the newly named Tsukimi, it was love at first sight, the way it often is when a human and pokemon who seemed destined to meet first do so. The two were utterly inseperable after a mere few hours together.

After a year, Mitsuru began slipping out of the house. Unmei still never forbade him from leaving, exactly, but he was overprotective and would hover whenever Mitsuru ventured outside to try to find other kids his age. Still shy to a degree that was a bit painful, the teenager found that it was a little easier to work around his social anxiety if his big brother wasn't leaning against a wall behind him and glaring at anyone who might try to talk to him.

The other children weren't much better off than he was. Their clothes were old, and their bodies a bit too thin. But they all craved interaction, and though Unmei knew they sometimes fought, there were a few safe spaces in the city carved out for tentative peace, where all of the children of the street would leave their weapons and grudges at the door and try to behave civilly with one another.

Such a space was also ripe with pokemon battling, battles that only sometimes got out of hand. There was a referee, an impartial orphan called Giggles, probably for the fact that she never once smiled; this was her domain, and she oversaw the entire back alley where this truce zone existed, brutally crushing anyone who dared spill blood in her space.

She also oversaw the pokemon battles, her Garchomp ensuring that no serious injury would be dealt. Those who took things too far were dealt with.

The violence came as rumors to Mitsuru, who had been there so little, but while the notion of hurting anyone, even in the name of justice, supposedly, turned his stomach, the promise of being able to maybe find his place in the world and among peers drew him there.

It was here that he discovered his and his fairy's talent for battle.

They lost a lot in the beginning, of course. Cleffas were not well known for their power. Every time they lost, Mitsuru felt Tsukimi's sad eyes burn into the back of his head. He felt the trust Tsukimi placed in him to protect him waver. And he would not let that stand.

But the more they tried, the more they learned. The better they got.

Until finally, Tsukimi evolved into a Clefairy right in front of an entire crowd of excited onlookers.

The sheer joy of that moment was one Mitsuru would never forget. He ran right into the ring and snatched his friend off the ground in a squealing, spinning hug, the cheers of the other children melting into the background.

And when they stopped, through a gap in the crowd, there he spotted his brother, leaning against a wall.

Their eyes met. Unmei's mouth twitched, the corner turning up slightly, and he lifted his hands to clap slowly, lowering his head to his brother.

It really was one of the best nights of his life.

And a mere couple years later the world ended.

He waited as long as he could in Pyrite. He really did. Boarding up the walls with Brutus and Tsukimi with the remains of their table, he huddled in their apartment, trembling as he listened to the streets outside, the sirens, the screams. Every now and again he would be able to see a building alight somewhere in the city.

And still, Unmei didn't come home.

Brutus kept tugging him to the bedroom, pointing at a duffel bag he'd dug up somewhere. Every time, he went back to sitting in the living room near the window but low to the ground, peeking out occasionally.

Eventually the sound of violence was too close. He at last obeyed and packed the bag.

With only what could be carried on his back, he fled into the night. Brutus urged him to steal a pickup from an already-dead man. Listening to the screams of the dying, Mitsuru didn't hesitate to take what the dead could no longer use.

He didn't know how to drive a car, but he didn't need to in order to press down on the gas pedal. It was a minor miracle he avoided hitting anyone or getting hit, but he managed to escape the city.

The next year or so were something of a weird nightmare. The sort where everything felt just ever so slightly unreal, especially during periods of relative peace, but something would always crop up to remind him of the changed world.

He gained new family along the way, pokemon he found and took under his wing. He nearly died a few times. He made some friendly acquaintences, only to part and never see them again.

Unbeknownst to him, Brutus kept the worst away. He guided Mitsuru away from gorey scenes he discovered and did his best to scare those into submission who would abuse the boy.

They eventually found an abandoned cottage near a lake- a fortunate find indeed. Inhabiting the cottage was a Rillaboom.

This Rillaboom would be their saving grace. The kind ape taught them how to take over the cottage's little farm, as well as how to fish in the nearby lake. Between these two things the child and his pokemon remained well-fed. And between that and the sewing skills Mitsuru already had, the little family had a decent chance at a self-sustaining household.

Eventually the Rillaboom bade them goodbye, off to find his human. The parting was tearful but understanding, and he promised to return someday, just as soon as he found either his human or what happened to her.

And so the family let go of their dear friend and did their best to be content where they were, but eventually, seeking to see what other boons the lush forest could offer, Mitsuru found a little settlement.

So it was that he became known as the odd but gentle child down the river who lived at the cottage. He and the leader of the little budding town, Rui, became friends, and with the extra seeds she let him have, his tiny farm became prosperous indeed. He returned the favor by giving back some of the produce he grew.

It was a harmonious relationship that they had, and for years, they were as happy as could be under the circumstances.

But all good things came to an end. In Mitsuru's case, it was not the hand of tragedy that brought it about- rather, it was the slow gnawing grief that came with the unknown fate of a loved one, of survivor's guilt and sleepless nights and nightmares filled with screams.

Over the roughly three years he spent there, it wore him down to the metaphorical bone. At last, unable to stand it any longer, he made the choice to lock up his home and go searching for his beloved brother the same way his Rillaboom friend had left looking for his human all that time ago. He asked Rui to look after his cottage and promised her that all its produce was hers; if in a year, maybe two, he hadn't returned, it was hers to do what she wanted with it; he only asked that she consider giving it to someone who really needed it, the way he had.

Despite not being battlers, his bunny and chinchilla refused to be left in Rui's care, so after he said his goodbyes to his friends at New Agate, Mitsuru packed up his gear and gifted supplies and left home to search for the rest of his family, vowing to not return until he had his brother in tow or answers as to why he didn't.

And first stop on his list was his old home. Time to return to Pyrite- nostogically, in a pickup truck he found.

Well, at least he was a better driver this time around.

• cheery

-sunny.deck up in here
-as a general rule of thumb he tries to be happy and smiley
-life isn't worth living if you're unhappy and he's alive
-and that's amazing in it of itself
-he may as well make the best of it!

• sometimes anxious but tries to be optimistic

-the world as he knew it ended suddenly and violently, and it wasn't always the easiest thing to cope with
-that being said, if he didn't hold onto some thought of things getting better for humanity and pokemonkind as a whole, he's quite sure he'd lose his mind
-as said before, he's still alive, and that's worth a lot!

• some measure of innocent

-Unmei had done well to preserve a certain amount of innocence in Pyrite
-while he had become suddenly and violently acquainted with blood as the world decended into madness, Brutus had so far guarded him from seeing most examples of cruelty from the living
-so while haunted by the carnage left by the undead, Mitsuru remains mostly unaware of those who took advantage of society collapsing to do evil things with impunity or those survivors who turned to evil means to keep surviving in the harsh world

• trusting

-due to this, he's fairly trusting, perhaps even a touch guillible
-he trusted his brother with all of his heart on matters of importance, so the idea that other people would just... lie is unthinkable
-he's not unfamiliar with white lies, and it's not like he doesn't understand boundaries, but the concept of people being deceitful just because or in spite of the greater good is inconcievable to him

• eager to make friends

-he's very lonely, and would love some human company, or even just company beyond his immediate family
-he deeply misses Unmei and the rest of the pokemon, and in their absence he's rather lost
-not that he's totally bereft of purpose or joy, but being without most of his family has definitely taken its toll on him
gentle
-immensely, by nature
-very nurturing

• generous

-whether it be with his time, money, supplies, or emotional support, Mitsuru is always happy to help
-he employs some amount of pragmatism when it comes to giving things away, but where he can he tries to help

• ignorant and naive

-it's not that Mitsuru doesn't know what poverty is or thinks they didn't struggle
-he just doesn't know how much they struggled
-he was aware they were poor, but since Unmei made sure he usually ate, he had no idea they almost lost their home several times
-doesn't know just how well some people live, since he was poor and everyone he knew was either just as poor or worse off
-being rich is a concept he's aware of, but he doesn't know just how good some people had it
-he's rather unaware of the systems that kept his life so awful or he'd be a lot angrier with society pre-epidemic

• strong-willed

-he believes what he believes and believes it strongly

• merciful

-whenever possible, he tries to forgive others rather than hold a grudge
-life is too short and too fragile to spend it miring in anger over smaller things

• no stomach for violence

-he abhors it
-will always attempt to talk his way around tensions to avoid it
always happy to help
-making others happy is truly a joy to him and he takes even little bits of happiness from such simple things as assisting with directions
-the world is better when people help each other
patient
-if you're Unmei's brother you gotta be
-used to dealing with stubborn people and reckless people
-not to say that he can't get exhasperated but so far stubbornness and recklessness has never resulted in making him truly angry
-anger is not really in his dna anyway

:aries: Unmei: His older brother. Mitsuru remembers nothing of their parents; his first memories are of his brother and hiding in alleyways and sleeping in cardboard boxes. He absolutely adores his elder brother and has no idea of the three main ways Unmei kept their basic needs met throughout their lives, nor does he know the truth of their relationship nor how they met. He misses him terribly; finding Unmei is one of his main drives in life, one of the few things that helps him keep going no matter how overwhelmingly sad things get. His faith in Unmei is absolute.

It's kind of amazing that Unmei is so terrified of Mitsuru ever knowing the truth when Mitsuru's love would not be shaken one iota.

:aries: Rui: A dear friend. Rui is the leader of New Agate, built not very far from the destroyed original. Mitsuru discovered her settlement one day when looking for more natural treasures the forest could be hiding to help him survive- needless to say, he wasn't expecting that thing to be an entire town.

Rui felt sorry for the child and took him under her wing, the concern not taking long to morph into genuine fondness. For Mitsuru it was much the same; Rui was kind to him, and Mitsuru really needed a guiding hand in life, being so young and alone. All of his friends were also children, and things were hard emotionally after their ape friend left, so the new people and their willingness to be kind and generous was a giant boon. Even Brutus didn't take very long to start calming down, though it would be a year until he no longer tensed at someone in town approaching his human, and only a little less for Rui.

Rui taught him some extra things about farming he did not know, as well as basic first aid- more importantly, she gave him some idea of how normal people spent their time together. It was comforting to find that was very similar to how he and Unmei had often spent their time together.

In Rui, Mitsuru found a mentor and a friend, and sometimes, something of a fussy older sister. And really, that was what he'd needed most.

-the profile art is very old; I will be replacing it in the future with something that more accurately reflects his appearance