APP; empatheias

[blueser]

⌈ PLAYER SECTION ⌉
Player: Kit
Contact: kitsoru


⌈ CHARACTER SECTION ⌉
Character: Blue Oak
Age: 14
Canon: Pokémon (games)
Canon Point: HeartGold/SoulSilver, post-postgame (after the player defeats Red)

Background: Wiki link!

Personality:
Blue, more than anything, is a blustering, infamous braggart, and loves to talk about his glory days (or day.. hour…) as a Champion and master trainer of Kanto. Pretty much everything that comes out of his mouth is to fluff himself up on some level, even if it’s meant to encourage someone else. He does usually mean well, and actively encourages other trainers to push their limits and set their goals ever-higher- telling the player to take initiative in meeting him to battle. He’s motivated by the prospect of new challengers, considering he wants to push his own limits as a trainer, still clinging on to his rivalry with Red from the old days and determined to beat him someday.

Red and Blue were childhood friends up until Blue reached that age where boys begin to care about stuff like looking cool- at which point he became a rambunctious bully, always trying to compete with Red because they were the same age and height (yes). Red tended to never rise to Blue's constant insistence on making everything into a contest, which only served to make Blue more competitive, and more in his face about it. It wasn't until they both started on their Pokemon journeys and Red proved consistently to be the more powerful trainer that Blue's frustrations led to him questioning his behavior and attitude. By the time Red defeated Blue to become Kanto's new Champion- just after Blue's own Champion victory- that Blue saw the error of his ways, admitting that he was the stronger trainer. Able to finally objectively look at himself and his behavior, that was the point where Blue began to really grow up. Although he still harbors much resentment towards Red- especially after the other’s disappearance- questioning the way he’s trained for all this time has opened him towards a path of redemption and reconciliation.

Although he may partake in battling evil for the sake of the challenge it presents or perhaps at the strong enough insistence of others, Blue isn't motivated by any personal sense of justice- for example, he doesn’t take nearly as much of an interest in stopping Team Rocket’s criminal activity as Red does. Although he briefly appears to pass by and battle Red during Team Rocket’s hostile takeover of the Pokemon Tower and Silph Company buildings, he doesn’t stick around to help defeat the gangsters and release the Pokemon and people held hostage by them, calling the Rockets wimps and instead telling Red to deal with it. To him, it’s all about whether it’s a personal challenge, rather than fighting for the sake of the greater good. However, this doesn't mean that he doesn't find their methods distasteful- Blue respects authority and law and is in no way sympathetic to them. It's because they have to resort to mistreating and manipulating Pokémon out of their own weakness that he finds them unworthy of his time, but is content to leave handling them to the police.

Since his (let’s face it, numerous) defeats at the hands of Red, and later by other trainers seeking out the Earth Badge at Viridian Gym, he’s been fairly humbled from his younger days. While bravado still remains his main form of communication, he can take a loss gracefully and admit when the other trainer is skilled, and he gets a thrill out of finding new, strong trainers to battle. After all, what fun is a trainer’s journey if you have no room to get better? At the end of the Generation 1 games, Professor Oak scolds his grandson for neglecting to care for his Pokemon as Red has, and tells him that this is why he lost. Blue seems to have taken this more to heart in later generations with the way that he encourages his opponent and their Pokemon- even if in a backhanded way. This change of heart can even be seen in some of his later teams- several of his Pokémon in HGSS know Return, a move that’s most powerful the more a Pokémon loves its trainer.

This scolding also may have had a somewhat adverse effect on Blue, at least before he managed to work through his problems alongside his Pokémon. Much of his early behavior and bullying is implied to be at least partially born of a desire to impress his grandfather, and resulting jealousy towards the attention Red receives. This is made evident in a scene in the postgame of FRLG, when both boys get the National Pokédex and access to the Sevii islands: Blue questions Oak "Hey, I heard that! Gramps, what's with favoring (player) over me all the time? I went and collected more Pokémon and faster, too. You should just let me handle everything.". That Blue may have seen himself as a disappointment for some time after his loss and Oak's scolding in the wake of it is not a stretch, especially considering his apparent disposition when the player first meets him in the Gen 2 games.

In Generation 2, he greets the player character on Cinnabar Island, where he has wandered off to train (it's said by NPC's that his absences are fairly frequent, lending a sense of ennui to this behavior). In that point in time, Cinnabar’s volcano has recently erupted, destroying the entire settlement on the island, which included a Gym and a famous science lab. When the player attempts to get him to return to his own Gym, he tells the player to take a moment to stop and look around them at the destruction, noting that for all of their world's focus on winning or losing at Pokemon, nature could wipe them all out in the blink of an eye, and 'we can lose in a second'. Aside from his apparent dawning self-awareness of his own fixation on victory, considering the nature of Pokemon world legendaries- who control aspects of the world from nature and weather to even the physics of time and space itself- a trainer like Blue who is a veteran by the time of his later appearances would certainly have seen and heard of enough close brushes with the natural power of Pokemon to give pause to the destruction inherent in humans foolishly attempting to harness their power. It seems that during his time after losing his Championship, he’s spent a lot of time pondering his place in the world, and opened his eyes to the wider reality than his personal drive for glory.

Abilities:
Pokémon Team:
As Blue is a Pokémon trainer, he will be coming in with 5 of his signature Pokémon:

Eevee
Ability: Adaptability
-Protect
-Substitute
-Return
-Quick Attack

Pidgeot
Ability: Keen Eye
-Return
-Whirlwind
-Air Slash
-Mirror Move

Arcanine
Ability: Intimidate
-Flare Blitz
-Extremespeed
-Thunder Fang
-Crunch

Exeggutor
Ability: Chlorophyll
-Leaf Storm
-Psychic
-Trick Room
-Hypnosis

Gyarados
Ability: Intimidate
-Ice Fang
-Dragon Dance
-Waterfall
-Return

Tactical/Analytic Skill:
Blue has no extraordinary powers of his own, but simply has a noted talent in understanding the tactical side of Pokémon battles- being able to think on his feet when it comes to changing strategies in battle to suit his opponent, and having an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of different Pokémon. The movesets he chooses generally contain thought-out counters to his Pokémon’s weakness (such as Thunder Fang Arcanine), plotted-out strategies (such as his favored use of the Trick Room TM as a Gym Leader) or held item-dependent strategies (such as Iron Ball Fling on his Machamp).


Alignment: I’ve chosen Aiada for Blue; this is because a great amount of his motivation in life, especially during his formative years, was jealousy towards Red. This competitive thirst for attention was his driving force towards becoming Champion. Once he lost that title, he was forced to reexamine his methods during his journey, and instead turned to rekindling his relationship with his Pokémon, gaining a new appreciation for the bond between trainer and Pokémon.

Other: Trainer Items: Blue arrived carrying his National Pokédex, a basic collection of potions/medicines/berries, and his TM case.



⌈ SAMPLE SECTION ⌉

General Sample: TDM thread!

Emotion Sample: Emotion sample