Player Name: GoggleDragon Personal Journal:goggledragon E-mail: GoggleDragon(at)gmail(dot)com AIM/MSN: AIM is email address Timezone: Eastern Standard Time Current Characters in Route: None
Character Name: Apollo Series: Genesis of Aquarion, Wings of Betrayal/Wings of Glory OVA series Timeline: The day before the battle over his forest Canon Resource Links:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genesis_of_Aquarion_%28OVA%29 (Some casual spoilers beyond. Yeah, Aquarion isn't too big on the whole "backstory" thing. That's about all we get.)
Personality:
Most of Apollo's views on life stem from something his grandfather always told him: "Be it grass, fruit, or beasts, whatever you eat, you have to live its part. Don't waste a thing." Apollo has made this concept one of the cornerstones of his life. He considers all the animals in the forest, even the insects, his friends, but he knows that he'll be forced to kill many of them so he can survive, and he accepts that, keeping their skulls on the hill around his grandfather's grave to help him remember each of them and how they died. He considers all of the animals he eats to live on inside him and respects their sacrifice. He makes a prayer-like gesture that he says makes him feel like he can live for his prey before he eats, clasping his hands together and bowing his head for a few moments. Unknown to him, this is a latent memory of his past life, where the right hand represents the life being taken and the left hand represents his own life, the two hands coming together in the shape of a human heart. Even though he kills his animal friends to survive, he hates seeing them scared or suffering, and if he comes across an animal who's injured beyond what he can treat, he'll kill it himself to end its pain.
Anyone who mistreats nature and doesn't respect it like he does - in his experience, all humans other than himself and his grandfather - is hated by him. The wish that his grandfather left him when he died was for Apollo to protect the forest, and this wish is the other cornerstone of his life. He tries his best to fulfill that wish, even killing animals that are unbalancing the ecosystem, such as a deer that ate so much that he was worried it would strip the mountain if he left it alone. The biggest threats to the forest though are humans, which he's not nearly as successful at dealing with, since all he has is a hunting knife and poachers are coming with guns, or giant robots are crushing the forest as they fight. Being helpless in the face of a threat to the forest or his friends is something that he finds extremely distressing, and a large-scale threat that he can't do anything about, such as a forest fire, will cause him to panic completely. Apollo's focus on protecting the forest blinds him to the realities of the rest of the world, and part of his development over his canon involves him realizing that he needs to help protect the entire Earth, not just the one tiny patch of it that is his forest. Part of his poor opinion of humans is from negative experiences with them, but part is also from a mistaken assumption on his part; he assumes that all humans are like him and can communicate with plants and animals, meaning they must understand the suffering they're causing and so their destruction of nature is malicious. Later, after the point I'm taking him from, he's genuinely surprised when he learns that this isn't the case, but immediately understands that that's why they can harm nature so easily. This also leads into another trait of his, that once he realizes that someone doesn't understand something, even if he doesn't like them he'll still explain the truth to them.
In general, Apollo is fairly calm unless you try to hurt him or someone or something he cares about, or if you insult him. Being around humans will also put him in a bad mood, though that will eventually change once he knows them. He enjoys talking about his animal friends with people who will listen, and he's perfectly capable of making jokes, though it's not necessarily clear that he's joking, such as when he feeds his prisoners and says it's a good idea to fatten up your prey before you eat them, only to be offended when they take him seriously. If he cares about someone, he'll instinctively rush to help them without thinking of his own safety, even in the face of a situation as completely beyond him as a forest fire, where he had to be held back from rushing in to try and save the animals. Beyond protecting the forest he has no real goals in life, and isn't particularly introspective. He'd have been perfectly content with dividing his time between hunting, swimming, and just spending time in the forest until the day he died if the plot (or in this case, coming to Johto) hadn't come in and jolted him out of his normal life. Even the idea of dying doesn't seem to scare him, though he would probably prefer to become food for some predator that beat him in a fight than die by a poacher's gun. He doesn't seem to have much experience with long-term planning in general, as his taking of the aforementioned prisoners doesn't seem to be done with any great purpose in mind, and he isn't even upset when they escape, though that could be because he knows they won't be able to leave the forest without him to guide them.
Strengths/Weaknesses:
+ His body operates near the peak of what is possible for someone his age, being fairly strong, extremely fast and agile, and able to jump extremely high. These traits have of course been reduced upon coming here, but the average human or pokémon will still have trouble hitting him or keeping up with him. + He's a good fighter, both unarmed and with a knife, using his speed and agility to his advantage. + He has extremely good situational awareness, being very hard to sneak up on. + He's a skilled hunter and forager who can survive and thrive in the wilderness. This is less useful here, seeing as how he can't eat pokémon and many of the plants are different, but the ability to track and stalk prey is still useful when searching for people or pokémon, and his general survival skills are still relevant. + He has vast knowledge of plants and animals: what's edible, what's medicinal, the best habitats for them, and so on. He also knows how to treat basic injuries and diseases, mostly through herbalism. Of course, much of this knowledge is useless here, but he'd understand how to determine this kind of knowledge for the new species here, so he'll figure out this world's flora and fauna fairly quickly. + He has the ability to communicate with plants and animals (now just pokémon of course). It's not clear exactly how much of this is his psychic powers at work and how much is simply recognizing animal cries and body language, but since at one point he describes a certain tree as always telling him stories when he's troubled, it can be assumed that there is something supernatural at work. For the sake of Route I'm saying that it's something between empathy and telepathy; he can communicate and understand emotional states and strong impressions and images, but he can't actually "talk" with them. Additionally, he can get an impression of the general emotional tone of the animals in the area. Again, it's hard to say how much of that is just understanding cries, but since he obviously has some kind of power, I'll say that it's a psychic ability. +/- If he considers you a friend or cares about your well-being, he'll do everything he can to make sure you're safe and happy. Unfortunately, he doesn't consider his own limitations or other people's opinions in doing so, which can upset others or get him in over his head if he's not stopped. +/- He doesn't like animals, and to a lesser extent people, getting hurt unless it's to kill them for food. How is this not all upside? Because he'll avoid letting his pokémon fight, which means they'll level up slower. +/- He has an excellent sense of smell, to the limit of what a human is capable of (which is more than most people in modern societies can reach). This sense is good enough to be able to distinguish the smells of flowers and grass in the wild. Unfortunately, this also makes him extremely sensitive to other smells, like oil and chemicals, making staying around civilization, especially industrial areas, very unpleasant for him. - He's prejudiced against humans, focusing on their negative traits and assuming the worst about them. He's later shown to be able to overcome that prejudice given enough evidence to the contrary or a realization that they might be ignorant of the consequences of their actions and are willing to learn the truth, at least for individuals, but his opinion of humanity as a whole is likely to remain poor for a while without something major to change it. - He has no long-term goals beyond protecting the forest, so he kind of drifts through life and lives day-to-day rather than striving towards anything in particular. - He's implied to be illiterate, which is reasonable given his upbringing. He knows what books are, as his grandfather had some, but they're shown as being covered in dust and cobwebs since he never touches them. - He has virtually no understanding of any even remotely modern technology. He knows what guns are, and has probably seen poachers bring in things like cars, radios, walkie-talkies, cellphones, flashlights, and GPS units, but at the most he'd know what those things are for, with no understanding of how to use them. - He has no understanding of many concepts or any kind of social customs, having never left the forest. Even things as basic as what money is and how to use it, or why women would react negatively to him skinny-dipping and inviting them to join him, are beyond him. Similarly, he doesn't know all the words that most people would expect him to, for example calling a year a "seasonal cycle". This is not to say that he is any way stupid; he just has never had the chance to learn certain things. - He's afraid of needles.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Breeder Starter: Spearow (slightly larger than standard) Password: Raspberry Lemonade
Samples First Person Sample:
[The video comes on to show a GIANT SPEAROW FACE filling the screen before its owner hops back to a more reasonable distance, revealing that it is in fact slightly larger than the average Spearow, though certainly not a giant. The camera is swaying quite a bit, like the person holding it has no clue that it's on or that they're supposed to be keeping it still, but it's clear that they're sitting in a tree, a few of the houses in New Bark Town visible through a gap in the leaves. The Spearow looks past the camera at whoever's holding it and gives a quiet "Spee".]
Okay, I'm talking now. What's this supposed to do? There's no one close enough to hear what I'm saying.
[The voice is slightly muffled, but seems to belong to a young male, possibly in his early teens. The Spearow tilts its head to the side slightly but remains silent.]
Talking with humans who aren't nearby? Like those things that group of poachers had with them. Why would I want to talk to humans?
[The Spearow gives a louder "Row!"]
Fine.
[The camera shakes violently as it's turned around, eventually coming to rest more or less on the face of the PokéGear's owner, which, aside from a head of red hair and a pair of golden eyes, is hidden by a mask of white cloth. The boy glares at the camera.]
Whoever brought me here, take me back to the forest and give me my knife back!
[The camera swings back to show the branches of the tree. The Spearow apparently isn't happy with how short the boy's post is and gives an angry "Spear! Spear!", but the boy doesn't say anything more. After a while longer of recording leaves, the camera moves and the Spearow's face looms into view. There's an irritated "Row!" and the feed ends.]
Apollo | Genesis of Aquarion OVAs | No Reserve (1/2)
Name: GoggleDragon
Personal Journal:
E-mail: GoggleDragon(at)gmail(dot)com
AIM/MSN: AIM is email address
Timezone: Eastern Standard Time
Current Characters in Route: None
Character
Name: Apollo
Series: Genesis of Aquarion, Wings of Betrayal/Wings of Glory OVA series
Timeline: The day before the battle over his forest
Canon Resource Links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genesis_of_Aquarion_%28OVA%29 (Some casual spoilers beyond. Yeah, Aquarion isn't too big on the whole "backstory" thing. That's about all we get.)
Personality:
Most of Apollo's views on life stem from something his grandfather always told him: "Be it grass, fruit, or beasts, whatever you eat, you have to live its part. Don't waste a thing." Apollo has made this concept one of the cornerstones of his life. He considers all the animals in the forest, even the insects, his friends, but he knows that he'll be forced to kill many of them so he can survive, and he accepts that, keeping their skulls on the hill around his grandfather's grave to help him remember each of them and how they died. He considers all of the animals he eats to live on inside him and respects their sacrifice. He makes a prayer-like gesture that he says makes him feel like he can live for his prey before he eats, clasping his hands together and bowing his head for a few moments. Unknown to him, this is a latent memory of his past life, where the right hand represents the life being taken and the left hand represents his own life, the two hands coming together in the shape of a human heart. Even though he kills his animal friends to survive, he hates seeing them scared or suffering, and if he comes across an animal who's injured beyond what he can treat, he'll kill it himself to end its pain.
Anyone who mistreats nature and doesn't respect it like he does - in his experience, all humans other than himself and his grandfather - is hated by him. The wish that his grandfather left him when he died was for Apollo to protect the forest, and this wish is the other cornerstone of his life. He tries his best to fulfill that wish, even killing animals that are unbalancing the ecosystem, such as a deer that ate so much that he was worried it would strip the mountain if he left it alone. The biggest threats to the forest though are humans, which he's not nearly as successful at dealing with, since all he has is a hunting knife and poachers are coming with guns, or giant robots are crushing the forest as they fight. Being helpless in the face of a threat to the forest or his friends is something that he finds extremely distressing, and a large-scale threat that he can't do anything about, such as a forest fire, will cause him to panic completely. Apollo's focus on protecting the forest blinds him to the realities of the rest of the world, and part of his development over his canon involves him realizing that he needs to help protect the entire Earth, not just the one tiny patch of it that is his forest. Part of his poor opinion of humans is from negative experiences with them, but part is also from a mistaken assumption on his part; he assumes that all humans are like him and can communicate with plants and animals, meaning they must understand the suffering they're causing and so their destruction of nature is malicious. Later, after the point I'm taking him from, he's genuinely surprised when he learns that this isn't the case, but immediately understands that that's why they can harm nature so easily. This also leads into another trait of his, that once he realizes that someone doesn't understand something, even if he doesn't like them he'll still explain the truth to them.
In general, Apollo is fairly calm unless you try to hurt him or someone or something he cares about, or if you insult him. Being around humans will also put him in a bad mood, though that will eventually change once he knows them. He enjoys talking about his animal friends with people who will listen, and he's perfectly capable of making jokes, though it's not necessarily clear that he's joking, such as when he feeds his prisoners and says it's a good idea to fatten up your prey before you eat them, only to be offended when they take him seriously. If he cares about someone, he'll instinctively rush to help them without thinking of his own safety, even in the face of a situation as completely beyond him as a forest fire, where he had to be held back from rushing in to try and save the animals. Beyond protecting the forest he has no real goals in life, and isn't particularly introspective. He'd have been perfectly content with dividing his time between hunting, swimming, and just spending time in the forest until the day he died if the plot (or in this case, coming to Johto) hadn't come in and jolted him out of his normal life. Even the idea of dying doesn't seem to scare him, though he would probably prefer to become food for some predator that beat him in a fight than die by a poacher's gun. He doesn't seem to have much experience with long-term planning in general, as his taking of the aforementioned prisoners doesn't seem to be done with any great purpose in mind, and he isn't even upset when they escape, though that could be because he knows they won't be able to leave the forest without him to guide them.
Strengths/Weaknesses:
+ His body operates near the peak of what is possible for someone his age, being fairly strong, extremely fast and agile, and able to jump extremely high. These traits have of course been reduced upon coming here, but the average human or pokémon will still have trouble hitting him or keeping up with him.
+ He's a good fighter, both unarmed and with a knife, using his speed and agility to his advantage.
+ He has extremely good situational awareness, being very hard to sneak up on.
+ He's a skilled hunter and forager who can survive and thrive in the wilderness. This is less useful here, seeing as how he can't eat pokémon and many of the plants are different, but the ability to track and stalk prey is still useful when searching for people or pokémon, and his general survival skills are still relevant.
+ He has vast knowledge of plants and animals: what's edible, what's medicinal, the best habitats for them, and so on. He also knows how to treat basic injuries and diseases, mostly through herbalism. Of course, much of this knowledge is useless here, but he'd understand how to determine this kind of knowledge for the new species here, so he'll figure out this world's flora and fauna fairly quickly.
+ He has the ability to communicate with plants and animals (now just pokémon of course). It's not clear exactly how much of this is his psychic powers at work and how much is simply recognizing animal cries and body language, but since at one point he describes a certain tree as always telling him stories when he's troubled, it can be assumed that there is something supernatural at work. For the sake of Route I'm saying that it's something between empathy and telepathy; he can communicate and understand emotional states and strong impressions and images, but he can't actually "talk" with them. Additionally, he can get an impression of the general emotional tone of the animals in the area. Again, it's hard to say how much of that is just understanding cries, but since he obviously has some kind of power, I'll say that it's a psychic ability.
+/- If he considers you a friend or cares about your well-being, he'll do everything he can to make sure you're safe and happy. Unfortunately, he doesn't consider his own limitations or other people's opinions in doing so, which can upset others or get him in over his head if he's not stopped.
+/- He doesn't like animals, and to a lesser extent people, getting hurt unless it's to kill them for food. How is this not all upside? Because he'll avoid letting his pokémon fight, which means they'll level up slower.
+/- He has an excellent sense of smell, to the limit of what a human is capable of (which is more than most people in modern societies can reach). This sense is good enough to be able to distinguish the smells of flowers and grass in the wild. Unfortunately, this also makes him extremely sensitive to other smells, like oil and chemicals, making staying around civilization, especially industrial areas, very unpleasant for him.
- He's prejudiced against humans, focusing on their negative traits and assuming the worst about them. He's later shown to be able to overcome that prejudice given enough evidence to the contrary or a realization that they might be ignorant of the consequences of their actions and are willing to learn the truth, at least for individuals, but his opinion of humanity as a whole is likely to remain poor for a while without something major to change it.
- He has no long-term goals beyond protecting the forest, so he kind of drifts through life and lives day-to-day rather than striving towards anything in particular.
- He's implied to be illiterate, which is reasonable given his upbringing. He knows what books are, as his grandfather had some, but they're shown as being covered in dust and cobwebs since he never touches them.
- He has virtually no understanding of any even remotely modern technology. He knows what guns are, and has probably seen poachers bring in things like cars, radios, walkie-talkies, cellphones, flashlights, and GPS units, but at the most he'd know what those things are for, with no understanding of how to use them.
- He has no understanding of many concepts or any kind of social customs, having never left the forest. Even things as basic as what money is and how to use it, or why women would react negatively to him skinny-dipping and inviting them to join him, are beyond him. Similarly, he doesn't know all the words that most people would expect him to, for example calling a year a "seasonal cycle". This is not to say that he is any way stupid; he just has never had the chance to learn certain things.
- He's afraid of needles.
Pokémon Information
Affiliation: Breeder
Starter: Spearow (slightly larger than standard)
Password: Raspberry Lemonade
Samples
First Person Sample:
[The video comes on to show a GIANT SPEAROW FACE filling the screen before its owner hops back to a more reasonable distance, revealing that it is in fact slightly larger than the average Spearow, though certainly not a giant. The camera is swaying quite a bit, like the person holding it has no clue that it's on or that they're supposed to be keeping it still, but it's clear that they're sitting in a tree, a few of the houses in New Bark Town visible through a gap in the leaves. The Spearow looks past the camera at whoever's holding it and gives a quiet "Spee".]
Okay, I'm talking now. What's this supposed to do? There's no one close enough to hear what I'm saying.
[The voice is slightly muffled, but seems to belong to a young male, possibly in his early teens. The Spearow tilts its head to the side slightly but remains silent.]
Talking with humans who aren't nearby? Like those things that group of poachers had with them. Why would I want to talk to humans?
[The Spearow gives a louder "Row!"]
Fine.
[The camera shakes violently as it's turned around, eventually coming to rest more or less on the face of the PokéGear's owner, which, aside from a head of red hair and a pair of golden eyes, is hidden by a mask of white cloth. The boy glares at the camera.]
Whoever brought me here, take me back to the forest and give me my knife back!
[The camera swings back to show the branches of the tree. The Spearow apparently isn't happy with how short the boy's post is and gives an angry "Spear! Spear!", but the boy doesn't say anything more. After a while longer of recording leaves, the camera moves and the Spearow's face looms into view. There's an irritated "Row!" and the feed ends.]