#giovanni has the most normal goals of anyone though is the thing

[parasitoidism]

i need to play usum just bc im so enchanted by the idea of team rainbow rocket like idk what giovannis actual goal is with that but I have to imagine he had a reason for breaking the boundaries of space and time to create a hangout session with the worst vibes possible in any timeline

[thiswaycomessomethingwicked]

Now that it is the next day I realize I probably ought to have replied last night as I forgot what I was going to say. I was just so knackered and only on my phone, which made it hard.

In any case, I wrote a lot. Most of it is just rehashing what you said because you were (as always!) absolutely bang on the money. But I just needed to ramble for days. So. Here you go.

(Also I love love love your thoughts as well!!! It makes me so happy when you reply with your thoughts and musings)

--

Yes-Man/Sycophancy Nonsense!

I suppose it could come from the way he writes - if that is so, then it's as you say: people are misreading what is normal letter writing practice for the time with sycophancy.

I also suspect a lot of his humour, his passive aggresive jabs, and other such things are lost in translation - both of Latin to English but also translation across culture and time. There also may be a willful application of cynicism to a man who was not cynical. Congenital optimist was our Ficino.

Not that he didn't have his dour moments, of course he did (see that phenomenal letter to Giovanni in Vol. 4 about how philosophers cannot live in the court of princes and kings; also the various letters he wrote to the pope after the Pazzi conspiracy). But overall, he was one of life's optimists. (Suspect he felt he had to be. Both because he did believe in the goodness of mankind but also because he needed to be for mental health reasons.)

I wonder, for whoever these people are (Kaske doesn't name drop smh), if there is a fundamental misunderstand of how Ficino reprimands people. Particularly his patrons and those who hold power over him. Because it's different to how he, for example, reprimands his nephews.

Ficino's general approach to the likes of the Medici, Salviati, Riario, is to present the (Platonic) ideal of how that person ought to be acting as if the person is actually meeting those goals. Then he will be super passive aggresive about it, hinting that obviously anyone reading this will know that the person in question isn't meeting these ideals at all and really need to fucking get their life right and shape up.

So letters of "be better" to the likes of Lorenzo de' Medici (particularly when he was younger) would be along the following lines: "I know you are ensuring that you will be a good leader of your people by attending to your studies, taking things seriously, you'll not be out whoring and drinking and gaming, because you know better than that. You, obviously, are wiser than that and I believe in you. I would be disappointed in you otherwise, but thankfully I don't have to worry about being disappointed in you! Because I know you're behaving as a future leader ought to behave!"

Obviously he's more subtle than that, but that's the gist of how he reprimands people. You can literally feel him staring aggressively at the person going "right? right?? right?!"

The amount of neurosis Ficino probably instilled in his nephews through this method of getting them to behave could probably fill volumes.

(for letter writing, I have Denis Robichaud's Plato's Persona: Marsilio Ficino, Renaissance Humanism, and Platonic Traditions and he has a whole section on what Ficino was doing with his letters. I'll put some of it up in a different post.)

----

ok though the gay shit.

You are 100% on the money with people infantilizing Giovanni and doing god knows what (weird stuff) with Ficino and their whole relationship.

I think it's all down to various attempts to delegitimize their relationship by leaning on a few old tropes of historical queerness.

The main one is what you touched on - the age gap and then the implied predatoriness of Ficino through the (inaccurate, not factual) supposition of a pupil/teacher relationship.

This allows people to say a) the relationship was when Giovanni was young and therefore is not serious/less meaningful/somehow "fake" and "not real" in the way a more mature relationship would be "real" and b) the relationship was toxic/predatory and therefore not legitimate because probably Giovanni didn't want it but didn't know any better/felt like he had to go along with.

Naturally, as soon as you look at how they actually met (and not the nonsense Corsi writes in his notoriously unreliable biography of Ficino), that whole position falls apart.

It's exactly as you said: Not only were they never student/teacher (and Ficino goes out of his way to make it clear that they were always friends and never had that sort of intellectual power imbalance because it is very important to him that people view Giovanni as his equal when it comes to philosophy and scholarship), they also met when Giovanni was in his early 20s/Ficino his early 30s. They're only 11 years apart, which is nothing now and even less back then when 13/14* year old girls were regularly marrying men in their late 20s/early to mid 30s.

On top of that, they were introduced by a mutual friend - Domenico Galletti - who was a life long friend of both of them. It is literally just a case of "hey, I have these two cool friends, I bet they'll want to be friends with each other! Going to make it happen!" Then, you know, what I assume was the most saccharine love story of Florence proceeded to unfold. Probably complete with Lorenzo de Medici popping out of a box-hedge to Domenico going "you really didn't need to introduce them. Ficino hasn't shut-up about Cavalcanti for three months now. Angelo says it's the same be reversed for him. We need peace, Domenico".

"....sorry not sorry?"

/cue Lorenzo vanishing back into the box-hedge or w/e

*The medieval and early modern southern European marriage pattern had girls across all class lines generally marrying at this age. Except for Venice. The northern marriage pattern is where we see artisan/professional class women and on down the class line marrying in their later teens and into their very early 20s. Also this is for western Europe. Eastern Europe and the Balkans were different. (That one fucking tumblr post about medieval and early modern marriage presenting the northern marriage pattern as de rigueur across all of Europe drives me Nuts.)

Also! When that German home-wrecker (affectionate) wrote to Marsilio asking for a list of who his friends are, Marsilio includes a specific category for "pupils/people I mentor/teach" and it has men like Piero Soderini etc. but Cavalcanti is not in it. Cavalcanti is in the list of "close friends from my early manhood". Men he considers his equal. He is so explicit that Giovanni is not his pupil! Never was!

-

THEN you get the "let's delegitimize their relationship for Reasons but this time we're a tiny bit Woke".

Which is when you have people acknowledging that Ficino was fantastically in love with Cavalcanti, but presenting it as entirely one-sided. Something that Giovanni put up with and Marsilio was this sad, desperate, lonely old man who trailed after Giovanni for scraps of affection.

This version at least acknowledges Marsilio's queerness though at the same time it denies Giovanni's. Then, it degrades Marsilio's relationship with him by implying that it was somehow sad/pathetic.

The one iteration of this that really stuck out to me was the author who said that you get the sense that Giovanni was reticent and not as into Marsilio and Marsilio was into him. Then goes on to say that Marsilio presents a sad figure with his letters begging Giovanni to write him back and paints him in an effeminate light by implying that he is weak? pathetic? womanly? idk by asking Giovanni for his opinion and input on things. This one author also posits that perhaps one of the reasons Marsilio entered the priesthood was because Giovanni rejected him/due to a broken heart.

Again, as soon as you look at the reality it falls apart.

a) Marsilio would be APPALLED that someone thought his reasons for entering the priesthood were anything but the purest sense of having a true vocation. He literally wrote letters about how people should only enter the priesthood if they have a vocation, a desire to heal people, and a belief that religion is always fundamentally about love - which ties back to his position that priests should regard themselves as doctors and healers of their community.

b) We only get the curated one-sided version of the entirety of Marsilio's correspondence. Somehow people forget this? And even in this curated performance I think it is clear that these two men have some form of a deep, meaningful relationship.

c) Then there is the fact that they lived regularly at one another's houses, they wrote their married-couple-one-email-account letters, people wrote to both of them knowing they would be in the same place, people would comment if they saw one without the other, Ficino's chief executor of his will was Cavalcanti, everyone in Florence was so bloody aware that they were stupid about each other...

like christ! Luigi Pulci made fun of it! Even Debate-Me Pico was like "I love Plato but, for Reasons, I do not want to be associated with The Gays [Ellis: really Pico?? your bestie is Poliziano...]. Therefore I am going to have to argue voraciously with Ficino about certain, select aspects of his interpretation of the Text". There would be no need to do this if there wasn't a flaming homosexual couple in front of you going "so listen, hear us out, Plato's views of souls--"

Even if these authors want to take out the queerness, it cannot be denied that Ficino and Cavalcanti had a long, deep mutual friendship where they shared space, thoughts, and friends and were deeply enmeshed in each other's lives.

And I know I'm just yelling into the void on this/preaching to the choir but it just. drives me absolutely bananas.

-----

AND ANOTHER THING!

(I am now Ficino ranting to Cavalcanti about something or other)

They also are denying/ignoring that the entirety of De Amore is a testament about how much Marsilio loves Giovanni; including all the pain of uncertainty and difficulty that such love presents. He has some of those heart breaking lines:

You don’t know what to do, you wretch! You have lost your way and don’t know where to turn. You wouldn’t want to be with your murderer, and you wouldn’t want to live without such a blessed presence. You cannot be with someone who is killing you, and you cannot live without the man who steals you from yourself with his irresistible charms and claims you wholly for himself. You want to get away from the man who is scorching you with his flames, and you want to be close to him, for by being close to the man who possesses you, you can be close to yourself. You poor soul! You look for yourself outside yourself, and you draw close to your captor in the hope that one day you will ransom yourself from captivity. How foolish you are! You don’t want to love, because you don’t want to die. And you don’t want not to love, because you reckon you are serving the images of things celestial.

In addition, Ficino worked hard to repositioning Plato's view on the lover/beloved framework to ensure there is an option where the two can be equals with one another. He so desperately wanted to ensure that he and Giovanni were always on the same level.

He also spent so long grappling with physical desire and where it fits within the Platonic schema of reaching Truth/God. Because (queer) physical desire is important to him, he feels it is necessary, but obviously he wants to avoid sin and so cannot act on it. Yet, he still puts in these little safety valves:

That marriage is for procreation, obviously, and while two men cannot procreate how a woman and man can, their union does lead to a pregnancy of ideas and the birth of intellectual/philosophical output. So. It's kinda like having sex for the purpose of making babies within the confines of marriage. Which makes it....not ideal but ok? (The Church: Absolutely not.)

As God is our maker, he understands that we are but weak in the flesh and so therefore knows that we're going to slip up and won't punish us too hard. How do I know this? Vibes. Does it contradict like 90% of Church teachings? Don't worry about it.

When it comes to the Platonic Ladder of Truth, while acting on the earthly Venus does hinder our ascent to Truth/God, it doesn't always cause us to backslide because earthly Venus is still a form of love and love will always be striving to move up to Truth/God. So slipping up is not ideal but it's not causing us too much psychic damage. (The Church: What???? the fuck?? No!! on so many levels No!!!!) (Ficino: Love makes everything ok. Not always ideal. And yes it can lead to harm. But mostly it makes everything ok. God and Plato told me this. Therefore, it is fine.)

Just enough leverage so if he and Giovanni were to "slip up" were to show their love in more physical manner (which Marsilio always said they didn't need to - but you know, seems like they might have been putting their hands on each other from time to time), they are still protected. They won't go to hell. Their souls are still, mostly, safe.

Which, phenomenal. Amazing. You go you little weirdo.

----

OK I AM DONE. I WROTE WAY TOO MUCH. SORRY.

Ok still thinking about Carol Kaske as I walk home from work and it’s like her weird caveat around Ficino and Giovanni is quite funny when you think about it

“I see no evidence of Ficino’s homosexuality - I mean, obviously excepting whatever was happening with Cavalcanti”

He’s not gay, if you just don’t count his gayness

Like. What! Wild loops and hoops to leap through. Dexterous thinking. Cirque du soleil has come to town with the contorting that is happening.

Anyway, this is up there with the guy who tries to shame Ficino for seeming pathetic/desperate because he liked to ask Cavalcanti his opinion and advice

As if that isn’t a normal thing to do regardless of whether or not Cavalcanti was a friend or lover

Normal human behaviour!!

smh

[royallyprincesslilly]

Title: Love, Maybe? {40}

Chris Evans X Reader OFC Vixen Giovanni

Warning: Cursing, Heavy Angst

Word Count: 2.3K

Summary: After a night of drunkenness you wake up next to warm, hot as hell body, a migraine and no memory of the night before. When you come to realize that the hot body belongs to none other than Hollywood’s golden boy Chris Evans you freak out. As events unfold you become even more panicked to find out you got married in your drunken haze. What else is there to do but get it annulled, right? Before walking away, you share one more night of molten kisses and passion. Three years later you are still living with the repercussions of your brash decisions, but the surprises don’t stop there. The past has a way of coming back and have you questioning is this fate that you’ve been running from, hell could it have been love, maybe?

NOTE: **Italic texts is an inner Vixen thought. Bold Italic texts is an inner Chris thought. 

**Loosley Edited/Proofread**

**Interactive**

Thank you guys for reading!!!! If you enjoyed this please LIKE, COMMENT, REBLOG. 😊❤❤️

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Chapter 40: The Show Must Go On

-Vixen-

 “You may get knocked down fifty times but you better get up fifty-one, sugar.”

 Your grandmother’s words were the fuel for you that morning. You woke up before the sun rose and jogged five miles. Thankfully where you were staying was still private probably thanks to it being a gated community. You ran like your life depended on it, ran like someone was chasing you, ran like your very existence was threatened. When you were tired you pushed yourself, when you wanted to stop you forced yourself to keep going. On this run it was then you vowed to not let this new setback keep you down. You hadn’t gotten where you were today by letting punches keep you down.

 By the time you returned to shower the sun was up as was Ella. Your mother was in the kitchen preparing her breakfast. When you walked in she watched you, assessing if it was safe for her to begin.

 “Good morning mom.”

 “Good morning. Up early I see.”

 “Yep, early bird gets the worm, plus I have things to do,” you informed.

 “Here, have some oatmeal.” She put a bowl on the counter and waited for you to sit. Deciding it was smarter to appease then object you sat and plopped Ella beside you.

“Thank you.”

 You took a few bites and moaned. Ella joined in as well. Silence filled the kitchen, but you could hear the unspoken questions. You knew it was a matter of time.

“Vixen. How are you?” Her inquisitive tone held a deeper question, you could hear it.

 “I’m good.” It was a bold face lie and you knew she knew it. She didn’t acknowledge it though.

 “Vixen. How are you?” Flaring your nose you looked at her with a blank expression then smiled.

 “I’m good, mom.” You held her gaze and kept the smile on your face. She hummed then walked away. The clink of her heels on the floor stopped momentarily.

 “One day you’re going to have to stop lying to yourself. One day you will have to face your feelings. That day is nearing my precious girl.”

 She continued to walk, and you felt like she’d just uttered a curse on you. Shaking it off you focused on breakfast with Ella.

 After cleaning up the mess she’d made and given her a quick bath you checked messages that only had to do with work. you set up a meet with Kassius motivated to get back on track. You were not going to let this thing take over. You found the best outfit that screamed taking control and made your move to leave. As you were getting into your car Nex ran out to you with a tight hug.

 “What is this for?”

 “I’m here for you Vix, no matter what, no matter when. I am here. Just remembered that sometimes our strengths are also our weaknesses.” She placed a sweet kiss on your cheek and walked back inside. You glared at her back, that was not what you needed to hear right now. It was the last thing.

Sitting in front of Kassius forty minutes later neither of you spoke for several long minutes. He scrolled through his tablet with a pensive look on his face. A look that you couldn’t decipher. You couldn’t tell if he were angry, regretting his decision to bank on you, wishing he could nix the contract or what. Your leg began bouncing up and down as you flexed your finger bending it back and forth letting your joint pop in and out, these were your nervous ticks, ticks that you’d learned to control over the years but they flared up every now and then.

 Kassius sighed and flipped the cover of his tablet shut before he looked at you.

 “Eventful few days huh.”

 You busted out laughing. You shouldn’t have laughed; this was no laughing matter but laugh you did. A full minute passed where you heartily laughed. You felt like it had been weeks since you had when in fact it had been just a day or two. When you finally stopped Kassius still sat there with a small smirk on his face, but he looked like he wasn’t shocked.

 “I’m sorry. I have no idea why I laughed. This is not funny.”

 “It’s okay. I get it. The body’s response to stress can be humor. Perfectly normal, don’t worry about it.”

 You slowly breathed out and nodded.

 “How are you holding up? If I know anything about paparazzi they are relentless.”

 “You have no fucking idea.”

 “I’m fine, thank you.”

 “Are you really? From everything I’ve seen this is a big deal. This isn’t just some actor; this is Chris Evans,” he reiterated.

 You took in a shuddered breath and slowly let it out.

 “I would understand if you weren’t fine. I would understand if you were far from it.”

 “I’m--.”

 “Fine,” Kassius finished. He sighed and leaned closer on his desk.

 “Vixen, at this point we’re in this together. I need to know every surprise, everything to expect. This is your business I get it. I just don’t want any more surprises.”

 “I know. Kassius I didn’t know about this. It was just a shock to me as it was to you. I didn’t know we were still married. We met in Vegas got married drunk and the rest is everywhere,” you confessed.

 Kassius nodded and circled his thumbs.

 “I see. So our predicament is how do we move forward. Theoretically, they say no press is bad press so--.”

 “No, we’re not doing that. I see where you’re going and I’m gonna stop you there. I don’t want to use anything about him or this during this promo for the restaurant. We’re staying clear away from this.”

 Kassius studied you for a few moments then nodded and leaned back in his chair. “Okay. You have my word we won’t use this.”

 You nodded and breathed a sigh of relief.

 “We won’t use it but because it is already everywhere there is no way around it. they know who you are, they know what is happening. They will be around. We won’t play it up but that doesn’t mean there won’t be any association.”

 You understood. He meant that the paparazzi would use it and not necessarily be kind or gentle.

 “In light of things it wouldn’t hurt if you took a few days to lay low and work through this,” Kassius suggested.

 “No. That’s not necessary. I don’t need to take any time. We should keep moving forward. We’re close to the goal, let’s get there.”

 Again, Kassius studied you. he looked concerned but also slightly impressed.

 “Okay. Full force ahead.”

 The next hour went by where he went over the plan for the remaining weeks of construction, renovation, and promotion. He also gave you great news that Food Network sent over a preliminary contract for partnership with them. Turns out the video of your shoot slash impromptu cooking session was posted to YouTube and it got their attention. They loved it. So now you had the restaurant to look forward to and a Food Network show. You couldn’t believe how the tides of your life had changed.

 By midday, you pulled up to your restaurant to find a sea of paparazzo camped outside. Your jaw dropped as you surveilled any way to get inside without being seen. There was none, even the service entry was in plain sight. You sat there having a minor freak out moment as you realized you had to face this now. After almost ten minutes you got out of the car and walked toward the restaurant. Halfway across the street one of them saw you and approached shouting his question.

 “Vixen, Vixen anything to say to the world as Mrs. Evans? Anything to say to those who have said you’re a gold digger?”

 You clenched your jaw and focused on pushing through them. The sea of them was strong, like an ocean current.

 “Anything to say to rumors that you intentionally trapped Chris with this baby?”

 “Excuse me! Move!”

 Finally, you pushed through to the door and rushed inside locking it behind you before you did you caught one last question.

“Vixen, would you say you’re his black woman fetish he has to play through?” 

You stood there and watched them snap pictures and shout outside the glass. The shock of the question enveloped you. This was a nightmare, an insane nightmare you thought. Your anger was the only fuel you needed for the rest of the day. You busied yourself any way you could. You worked with the design team that was already there and completed the rest of your to-do list for the day. Your phone continuously dinged to inform you that you had a new message and all you did was ignore it. You didn’t have the time or patience for anything that began with C and ended with S or anyone who wanted to bring him up.

 By eleven, most of the installation was completed as were the concrete plans for the design. You were the last one there. Standing in the middle of the dining area you slowly spun around. You could envision what it would look like when it was all said and done. You were so close you could see the finish line. So close and then you could go back to San Francisco. Another sigh left you when the realization that San Francisco may be getting further and further away especially now with Food Network in the mix. Your thirst for success may be the double-edged sword that forever connected you to this place—the land of the fake.

 A knock at the door signaled the arrival of your security. Things were so insane you now needed security to get from your business to your car. This felt like some alternate universe. Once you stepped out onto the sidewalk the flash of the camera bulbs was more prominent and blinding. The two burly men surrounded you from both sides and guided you through the swarm of vermin.

 From your normal life in San Fran when you looked through tabloid magazines you didn’t think about how it really was for those who were hounded. It was an afterthought that it must have been tough and such an invasion of privacy but now that you’d experienced it, you didn’t know how any of them did it. After an agonizing minute, you were in your car stepping hard on the gas and getting the hell out of there.

  -Chris-

 “Fuck!”

 He nearly threw his phone across the room. He’d been calling for days and you never answered. He left messages, you never returned them. He texted, no response. Now when he called it went straight to voicemail, he suspected you’d blocked his number. You were distancing yourself and refused to hear him out.

 “Woah, woah, put the phone down and back away,” Mackie said from across the room. He rolled his eyes. He wasn’t in the mood.

 “I’m not in the mood, man. See yourself back out.”

 “Wow, that was a dick thing to say.”

 “Mackie.”

 It was a warning, a warning he was almost certain Anthony wouldn’t heed. He didn’t wait around to see though. He walked to the kitchen and to the bar he had. His alcohol supply was dwindling. Forgoing a glass, he took up the bottle of rum and put it to his head. The burn was a wake-up call. Rum was not his preferred drink but desperate times.

 “Sounds like you’re still going through your dick phase. Only dicks keep a secret from their wives that could implode right in their faces. What the hell man!?”

 He didn’t respond. He stared at the bottle of amber-colored liquid.

 “Come on man. You had to know that it was a bad idea lying about it. You had to know that she would have found out and every day you didn’t tell her would make it that much worse.”

 “I know. Fuck I know! I fucked up. I tried to tell her, so many times. I just—I didn’t know how. Then the closer we got, the more time we spent together I started—I didn’t want to lose her. I thought I just needed time to show her I’m not the same asshole from Vegas, that I was different,” he blurted out before he took another swig of Rum.

 “That is the worst plan I’ve ever heard. Man, you white people always coming up with these elaborate schemes that you swear are genius ideas but are really great piles of horseshit.”

 He kissed his teeth and walked out of the kitchen. He didn’t want to hear this right now.

 “You may not want to hear it bruh, but you need to. You fucked this up. You should have just told her and let the chips fall where they may.”

 He knew everything he was saying was true. He knew it. Part of him said he should have done just that, but the other part won out.

 “I know,” he admitted.

 “So, what are you gonna do to fix this? Nexus is pissed man. She’s not one hundred percent pissed because she knew about the married thing but she’s pissed about not knowing you were still married. Pissed that you lied. Pissed that she liked you and was rooting for you. Should I continue?”

 “You can stop.”

 “So?”

 He thought about it for a minute before he spoke. “I don’t know man, I call her, she doesn’t answer. She is pissed,” he explained.

 “Rightfully so. So what are you gonna do about it?”

 “You say it like it’s easy. Like I have so many options.”

 “You do. You’re Chris fucking Evans, mega rich, so many things at your disposal.”

 “I can’t money my way out of this. She’s not like that and you know it.”

 “Good answer. Thank god that dick persona knows where not to go. That was a test. You passed.”

 “I don’t want to lose her Anthony; I don’t want to lose my family. I had some sort of epiphany in Boston, some sort of vision of what really mattered, what I really wanted, and I only want her and Ella, this fame shit—keep it. I want her, over everything.”

 Antony stared at him, assessing his body language and face, then he nodded.

 “Then go get em’, man.”

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[pasttorn]

AT THIS POINT PRISON JUST WANTS TO KILL ME ⟡ ALWAYS ACCEPTING !

where did vulcan find that animal skull ? how does he feel about stumbling upon the skeletons of dead animals ? what made him want to bring nature back to the world ? what was his first encounter with an infernal like ? does he keep any plants around ? has he even been fishing ? does he ever leave food out for any animals other than cats and dogs , like raccoons or birds ? does he know there's other breeds of animals out there ? how does he feel about insects ? ( 1/2 )

( 2/2 ) before lisa and yuu , how did he spend his time ? how did he feel being alone w/o his family ? did he ever break down and can you..., drabble about it ? you made a headcanon about how he keeps a self-destruct mechanism in his crafts to remind himself of his goal , that he wants the opposite of self-destruction for animals , but what prompted him to think of this ? during giovanni's apprenticeship, what did vulcan think of him ? is he a glass half-full or half-empty kind of person?

     – HC. god there are so many questions, but let’s be real i will never turn down a chance to ramble about vulcan. under read more it goes !

ON THE SKULL.

        -- HE found it somewhere pretty far from his place when he was trying to explore, scavenge old materials from junkyards & the streets in order to reduce costs ( especially since he was on his living own when he found it, & had a finite amount of money ). it wasn’t a desert, not really-- but it was a pretty empty, isolated, with few vegetations; a place that looked like had gone through a drought recently. he found the skeleton of the animal, abandoned & forgotten & in the process of decomposing.

       -- IT was mostly a whim, really, on an on the moment sense of pity. the idea of the animal dying, without anyone knowing it’d existed made him sad-- only helped remind him even further of his own losses, how his family’d died, & would eventually be forgotten, like the deer ( & in their case, not even bones remained behind for him to bury, but rather just a burnt carcass that smelled of roasted human skin ). he just... couldn’t sit with that idea, it made him restless, uncomfortable. so decided to take it, repurpose it instead of simply letting it disappear. he paid his proper respects to the animal who’d passed away, of course, promising he wouldn’t take their death / remains lightly, & is constantly taking care of it so it doesn’t break.

ON SKELETONS / DEATH.

        -- DEAD animals make him feel... somber. he’s not especially sad-- he knows that death is part of the cycle of life, the natural course of things. that feeling goes to anything, be it animals or humans, knowing that one has passed away makes him feel bad, if only temporarily. since he accepts it, the process of life, & it’s one of the main reasons he was able to get over his family’s passing without much grieving ( he still grieves, of course. he hasn’t forgotten that day, hasn’t completely gotten over the immense grudge he has due to it-- but internalises it, knowing that there’s no way to bring back the dead & one shouldn’t get hung up over it so much it completely consumes them ). 

        -- IF he has the time, he prefers to give them a proper burial; be it a bird, dog, cat, or any other animal-- they don’t deserve to rot on the street any more than humans do. depending on the time, he might leave a stick or a stone on top of where he buries them, if only to have a way to mark where they have been laid to rest.

ON HIS AMBITIONS.

        -- HIS ambitions first started to bloom from the stories he’d hear from his grandfather. he’d sit in his lap, & listened to the old / forgotten tales of the animals & how the planet used to be so green & filled with life, only to turn into what it is now. those stories only helped plant the seeds that would later become his dream, but at that point, it was only mild curiosity-- as any child would have when they listen to their elders speak.

        -- THEY become full on dreams & aspirations for the future when his father showed him the machine for the first time-- the one that was built by his ancestors to hide the key to the amaterasu. seeing the images of the animals, having them be so close & look so real-- it fuelled him. often did he beg his father to show him the machine time & time again, if only to see & memorise how the animals & the world had looked like. it was when he was watching it one time, that he decided he was going to bring them back. he was going to show the world it’s lost potential, & he was going to bring them back, no matter how long it took or how hard that road was going to be.

ON HIS FIRST ENCOUNTER.

        -- HIS first encounter with infernals were actually with his father & grandfather. up until that point, he’d only heard of the stories, & had seen the destruction caused first hand when he passed by the scenes. up until that point, he’d seen the irreparable damages caused to families, sometimes even offering a helping hand while not exactly understanding how truly abominating fingernals could be.

        -- WHEN his family went up in flames one after the other, even without having seen an infernal before in his life, he’d heard more than enough stories to know that it wasn’t normal. their turning wasn’t like the others & it’s on that basis that his grudge against haijima grew, since they turned infernals right after refusing to work for them.

        -- NEEDLESS to say... it was TERRIFYING. it had occurred in the middle of the night, & he’d awoken to the smell of flesh burning & to the infernal screams of the damned. when they first started catching on fire, he’d initially thought something’d gone wrong with whatever they were building-- a stray spark that could’ve caught onto their clothing. he very quickly realised he was wrong, though, & could do nothing but watch as they bursted into flames-- since as much as he tried to extinguish the fire, they just grew stronger & stronger every second. of course, he tried doing whatever he could to stop them from catching on fire, but was dragged & forcibly taken outside the moment the firemen started to arrive, & had to be held back from being allowed to go back inside after them.

ON PLANTS / FISHING.

        -- HE does keep some around ! ! admittedly, he doesn’t have many-- mostly a couple cacti & other local plants that could last days without much water. it’s mostly due to both, the lack of space, & his lack of responsibility. while he does care for them, there are times when he’s too preoccupied with working on a certain project, that he forgets to water them. he also simply can’t keep more high-maintenance plants, since they take up too many resources & time that he just doesn’t have.

        -- AS for fishing-- he’ll do it if he needs to. he doesn’t actually like the activity all that much, especially when it’s done just for sport, since the hook still harms whatever fish it catches. but he does see the importance of the cycle of life, & the need to kill / eat when one is hungry-- which he had to do often, especially after the deaths of  his family, since he didn’t have the enough resources to buy food for himself sometimes.

ON FEEDING OTHER ANIMALS.

        -- HE does ! ! ! whenever he can, at least. he tries feeding stray dogs, as well as a couple other animals make their way to his junkyard. but sometimes there’s not enough money to provide food for everyone, & some animals don’t trust him enough to accept his food, so he tries to keep the animals he feeds at a minimum. not that it’s very effective, since he’s quick to change his mind whenever they’re visibly hungry and / or whine for food-- unable to turn them down for a chance at a free meal.

        -- THERE are also a couple birdhouses set up around the place that he regularly puts seeds into, hoping that wild birds that are in need of a meal make their way inside. it’s something he still does, even after moving to company 8-- sometimes during his days off, he goes back to the junkyard, if only to do some maintenance on the bird houses & put in enough food to last until his next visit.

ON OTHER ANIMALS + INSECTS.

        -- THOUGH he’s aware of them, he only knows a couple ! while he’s seen some of the breeds himself, & he’s heard from other people about them witnessing some animals-- he still wants to learn more. it’s not enough to hear it second hand, & there might be some species that are thought to be extinct out there, hidden from humanity’s ever so watchful eye. most of the world has gone unexplored, after all, with all the infernals & the amaterasu that lay scattered throughout the geographical map. 

       -- AS for insects. he doesn’t mind them ! while they can freak him out when they suddenly land on him or randomly start crawling on his skin without him knowing-- they’re fine in his book ! ! even while they’re small & crawly, they are still alive, & can feel pain, so in the end he still considers them to be the same as animals ( albeit a bit lower, since he doesn’t mind stepping on an ant or two, compared to stepping on a cat. but he will take a spider outside when he sees one in his workshop ).

ON HIS TIME ALONE.

        -- IT was... heartbreaking. when he looks back at it now, that time was more like a blur, a foggy memory that he’d rather not remember. the one thing he remembers in detail about it, however, is the HOPELESSNESS, despair & absolute ANGER he felt during that time. he spent a lot of time both grieving, & wanting-- needing-- to get back at haijima for what they’d taken from him. at first, he couldn’t bring himself to grieve too much, because there was so much he had to do & he had no time to be showing weakness; especially when the companies started scouting him the very next day.

        -- BECAUSE that time, he spent it cleaning up after the messed that had been caused. as infernals, they had burnt up a lot of their belongings. he also had to organised the items they’d left behind, & decide what to throw away & what not to throw away. he couldn’t bring himself to do it immediately, of course-- he’d try to get a head start on the clean up, only to sit down in front of an empty cardboard with a book or a tool in his hand as the memories came flooding back. he spent most of his days just sitting there, staring blankly at walls as he tried to gather his life together again, sometimes forcing himself to work because he knew he had to keep going & he had to stay strong. he’d start projects, but would lose motivation to work on it halfway. 

ON HIS MOURNING.

        -- LIKE mentioned earlier, he’d been able to holding up pretty well; seeing no other choice but the need to move forward & prove himself unmovable, no matter what he was feeling. he’d keep their family business going & he’d continue to refuse anything the fire brigade tried to get him into. 

         -- THAT is, though, until he’d accidentally started up the machine ( the one with the animal images ) when he knocked it over-- & that’s when he lost it. because it was there that he was surrounded by everything he’d cherished, a scene he’d only watch alongside those two. it’s only when he saw it, that it finally dawned on him that he was alone & they were gone, & that this was all they had left behind. he’d broken down in the midst of the security of the fog & the illusions, where no one else could see or hear him apart from himself.

ON THE SELF-DESTRUCTION MECHANISM.

        -- HE doesn’t want to get attached to them, is the simple answer. 

         -- IT came to him during his period of mourning. creating mechanical animals were his go to creations, especially when he was as spaced out as he was during that time. but when finally saw a new invention through to the end, instead of leaving it unfisnihed, he didn’t feel anything. not a sense of accomplishment, not a satisfaction over it’s outcome, nothing. he’d stare at the mechanical dog he’d made, watch it bark & wag it’s tail inconsistently, & think that it wasn’t real.

        -- BECAUSE no matter how realistic they might be, or how animated they might act, it couldn’t fill in the empty void he felt in his heart over the loss of his family. they couldn’t be replaced, not by something so fake & without life. & it’s then that he decided to add the self-destruction feature-- because he didn’t want to find comfort in something he’d made, vaguely hoping it’d fill up the gaping hole that grief had caused. it felt WRONG to rely on machines as a coping mechanism, & he wanted to remind himself that he could never use them as a way to escape reality & his feelings.

ON GIOVANNI.

        -- VULCAN didn’t think much of him, actually. he considered him part of their family-- anyone who worked along with them was a part of their family, blood related or not. heck, while they might not have been on par wit his, vulcan kind of admired his skills & giovanni’s new, innovative ideas that even he couldn’t even dream of doing. he’d enjoy watching him make things, even if he wasn’t the most talkative of people, & enjoyed the thought of having an apprentice that was older than him that wasn’t his father or grandfather.

        -- IT’S why his betrayal caused such a deep sort of hatred. because he’d not only used his family to obtain their skills, but he’d taken them away from him too-- like a toy he’d disposed off as soon as he was done. he HATED the way he’d grown so close to them, had trampled over their futures & their dreams, & STILL had the gall to come up to him & coax vulcan into joining him. in vulcan’s opinion, he didn’t have honour, he didn’t have loyalty-- as soon as he was offered a better deal, he’d abandoned them in the drop of a hat. that mentality of doing ANYTHING, even murder & the need to destroy the competition, just to realise their ideals disgusts him in ways he can’t even describe.

HALF-EMPTY OR HALF-FULL DILEMMA.

       -- HE’S cup is half-full type of person ! 

        -- HE prefers to see the optimistic outcome of all situations he arrives at, as well as the potential in every idea & minuscule thought. after all, he needs that positivity when he comes up with something new. he needs to go at it thinking that it’ll work, & if it doesn’t, he takes it as a learning experience to see what he needs to change in order to make it work. he’s the type that believes that even the smallest of steps matter in the long run. it doesn’t matter if it the process to get to his goal is slow & tedious & sometimes aggravating-- he’ll do it, no matter how many years it takes. 

        -- AFTER all, going at something expecting it to fail or expecting a bad outcome, only helps destroy all moral one could have built up until that point, further reinforcing their uselessness & their despair about a certain situation. & that is something he can’t afford to do, if he wants to realise a seemingly impossible dream.

[littlestartemis]

I have nothing better to do so I’ve decided to ramble my opinions on all of the pokemon rivals in sequential order. Under the cut cause I intend to go into detail on these.

Blue

This kid is a mixed bag for me. Part of his problem is that he just suffers from being a generation 1 character, which means only having one character trait apparently. Yes, he’s a jerk, the first ever jerk rival, and people love that, but being a jerk without nuance just makes you... loathsome. Even some of the weaker rivals, I still had these surprised moments of joy when my gameplay was halted to duke it out with them. With Blue? He’s the only one I ever uttered a groan at. “Oh good, this fucker has to waste me time and make me backtrack to a pokemon center to patch myself up before moving on.” The most insufferable thing about him is that no matter what, no matter how many times you put him in the dirt, he’s always convinced he’s so much better than you...

Until later games. It’s never stated what happened. If he had some self reflection, if Oak sat him down and told him to grow the fuck up, or what. But the next time we see him in the generation 2 games and onward, he’s still got this aura of smug confidence about him, but he seems more matured despite it. Like yeah, he’s hot shit, but you can be too if you work hard enough, maybe even almost as good as him. And while I love all of that for his character, that all comes after the fact. So as it stands, the Rival Blue, is lackluster, annoying, a headache, and undeserving of such a good fucking champion theme. Also the bitch has no unique rival battle theme unlike literally anyone else.

I’m also going to go into their music, though not nearly as much as their character.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5s4VYC9xR4

There are so many official variations and remixes and retoolings of the Kanto Champion theme that picking the “Best One” would be a practice in futility I think, so I just picked one of the better ones. What I have to say applies to pretty much all of them. And goodness, while I think Blue is a lukewarm rival it’s no wonder why this track has stood the test of time. Normally champion themes are in one of two categories, at least for me. The buildup themes, or the 0-100 themes. Some of them take some time to get there, to make you sweat a little as you realize who you’re dealing with, and some of them just kick down the door and GO. Blue’s theme though is interesting in that it kind of does both. It’s powerful, it’s oppressive in its composition and instrumentation, but there is just the tiniest buildup right after the bombastic kick off. I love it, it’s a strong theme with no real weaknesses.

5/10 rival, 8/10 character and theme

Silver

I think there was a time where if you asked around communities who long time player’s favorite rival was, a good majority would probably say Silver, and for good reason. He was another jerk rival, but with that fun little word I used before; nuance. He was mean, but rather than very deliberately being rude to you, it seemed more like he had other plans that you just happened to keep standing in the way of. He had a goal and he was going to accomplish it. And what was that? Curb stomping anybody brave or stupid enough to traipse around in a black and red uniform. This kid had a clear cut vendetta against team rocket, but instead of making him your ally with a goal like that, it set you as his obstacle every victory for you was one less for him, one less distraught rocket face he would get to see. And we even find out later why, and it’s fascinating. Giovanni’s kid? That’s utterly unique, and it really puts his hatred of team rocket and the idea of finding strength in others into a perspective you can really understand. Not to mention, there’s a bit of storytelling through gameplay with Silver that I’m sure most veteran pokemon fans know. So, he gets a Zubat on his team. Cool, right, edgy bat fits with the edgy tween. But at the very end of the game, when he’s been beaten time and time again and forced to confront why he isn’t strong enough, he realizes it’s because he’s been thinking only of his own strength, and not how much stronger his pokemon could be if they had his genuine care and support. And lo and behold, in his postgame battles, he’s got a proud, fully evolved Crobat on his team, which can only evolve with strong friendship. That’s good shit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZAV8mJY_Qs

For some reason it was kinda tough finding a decent rip of his theme. Ah well, this is easily one of the coolest rival themes. Much like Blue’s champ theme, it has this sort of oppressive energy about it, as if Silver isn’t even looking down on you, he’s just waiting to crush you and be on his way. He’s a fucking bad dude, and he’ll snuff you out however he can if it means he can get his shit done. 

9/10 rival and theme

Brendan and May

This pair of nerds. They’re... interesting. I do feel like they get a worse rap from folks since they were the first friendly rivals and the ones to start the trend, and truthfully I have nothing against the idea of having friendlier rivals. If every rival was an asshole it would get really stale really fast. These two though... Well, there’s just not much to them. In the rival role, they’re Professor Birch’s kid, which is basically their entire motivation for going on a pokemon journey to start with. A glorified favor/errand to fill out the dex cause they just happen to have easy access to one. Us being around is purely incidental, and I’m pretty sure the only reason they initially have an interest in us is because we’re Norman’s kid, a gym leader’s kid (dark shoutout to Brendan for throwing some nice 2002 sexism in his introduction with “Oh, you’re a girl? When I’d heard our neighbor was a gym leader’s kid, I was kind of hoping you’d be a boy.”) They get some extra significance in ORAS, which is much needed, having them around for a few Team Aqua/Magma encounters and even one last hurrah battle after you become champ to make up for throwing in the towel like a bitch after Lillycove. I don’t have much nice to say about them, but that’s mostly because I don’t have much to say about them, and what’s there is just... there. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rP0OXxc-zk

I’m not sorry. So, with our first friendly rival is our first more chipper rival theme. And truthfully, I like it! It’s very high energy, and has this twinge of suspense partway through to remind you that they have a wailmer you son of a bitch and you will respect the shit out of it under the cycling road. It’s bouncy, it’s fun, and it still has just the edge it really needs to be a proper battle theme I think.

4/10 rivals, 6/10 theme

Wally

And possibly the reason Brendand and May are so Just There. Wally. Now, I’ll say up front, I have a massive Gardevoir/Gallade bias, they’re my absolute favorite pokemon of all time, so having a rival character themed entirely around the pokemon family? Yeah that gets some free points from me. But earnestly, even without that, for as little as he appears he really is the true rival of the game. It’s a short story, but one you can rally behind. This sickly kid who isn’t even capable of catching his first pokemon without supervision and has to move to a small town with clean air just to like, function properly. But with dreams of becoming a pokemon trainer. He has the knowhow, he downloads apps he can use and study, he’s done the research beforehand for what all he needs to know, and after we set him straight in Mauville, he goes on his own journey separate from our’s. And when we see him again... what a god damn transformation (how do you become a badass by just unbuttoning your shirt). He really did it, he worked his ass off, and he made it to the pokemon league, he got a fucking mega stone - two mega stones actually since he gives you one - and he isn’t that same weak kid from the start of the game. He’s your equal, and you will respect him, if not for his power, then by the effort he had to put in to get to where he is now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_CiTJJg5_s

Why is this song so short. Powerful, resolute, triumphant, and 40 seconds long what the fuck. Length aside, this is the song Wally absolutely deserves, without question. I can’t express it anymore than in those few words. It’s the theme of perseverance, and the strength you can attain by never giving up.

8/10 rival, 9/10 theme

Barry

What a perfect bundle of energy. Barry is another friendly rival, but not just because he’s nice or something. No, he’s your friend, your childhood friend, and he treats you like it. He’s nice and is clearly happy to go on this adventure with you, but he also slams into you without saying sorry or feeling like he really needs to, and threatens to fine you billions of dollars if you’re late for your super important meeting on the outskirts of town. He is fucking chaotic dumbass personified, with such brilliant strategies as “run through the grass so fast the wild pokemon can’t catch us”, “let’s say thanks to the professor for giving us these novice pokemon by catching a legendary pokemon”, and “here’s the perfect foolproof winning strategy: never miss and never get hit, you’ll win every battle gauranteed”. And god dammit if he isn’t endearing for it. He’s your best friend, and has your best interests at heart, going so far as to take the fall with Rowan when he thinks his dumbass plan might lose you both the chance to get your first pokemon. But, he also wants you to be damn sure that the next time you see him he will be stronger, and he will beat you, and he will be the champion first, and is that one of those walls you put your face in to take a funny picture holy shit check it out I’m a croagunk haha. If you don’t like Barry, you’re taking the games too seriously, and I suggest you get in touch with your inner child because they’re probably starved for fun characters in your media.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hv8g5u55QFA

Did I say high energy because I meant high energy. A battle theme for the sugar high in all of us, he’s just so fucking excited to battle you again. Much like Brendan and May, there’s the tiniest hint of suspense later in the song, but it’s much shorter and less pronounced here. Because it’s not so much a battle with much at stake so much as two best friends having a good old fashioned round against one another for shits and giggles.

9/10 rival, 7/10 theme

Cheren and Bianca

If you had asked me a month ago what I thought of these two I don’t think I’d have had much good to say. Or... much to say at all, for that matter. For reasons that are very unclear to me now, generation 5 didn’t stick with me like others, and that’s actually kind of upsetting since I just recently finished playing through White version again. And boy, do these two have character in spades. 

I’ll start with Cheren. Cheren is great, because he’s actually almost a jerk rival, and I get the feeling if you weren’t supposed to be prior long time friends he actually would be. He’s very cool and calculating, and not too shy about getting pissy with each loss. He’s happy to lend you a hand, giving you tips, items he’s found that might be helpful, and fighting beside you against Team Plasma at a few turns. Something that stuck out to me was how nearly every rival battle was punctuated by “We both have the same number of badges now, so we should be on equal footing. Let’s put that to the test.” And each time, he’s not just being mad that he lost and then storming off, he’s very outwardly trying to deconstruct why he’s losing. You could almost picture him with charts and tables out, nose buried in his X-Transceiver screen between destinations, absolutely sure he missed some key strategy you used or that he simply overlooked. He’s very much the “power for the sake of power” rival at the start of the game, until the champion and the events with Team Plasma force him to confront his own flawed, short sighted goals. He can’t just Be Strong, he needs a reason for that, and that reason is ultimately protecting not just people important to him, but everyone. And that is just. So god damn cool. It extends to his eventual teaching role. Not only will he get stronger on his own, but he’ll teach others to be stronger, and in turn they’ll protect others too, and so on. And I think that’s perfect character motivation through and through.

Now Bianca. Oh man, do I love Bianca. She’s somehow the living version of if you perfectly spliced an introvert and an extrovert. She’s charming, outgoing, friendly, encouraging, and... also very shy, humble, not one to speak up most of the time. At least at first. And it’s such a tiny, blink and you miss it character trait, but every time she looses she needs like a full five seconds to hide her face under her hat before speaking again. Losing to you time and again does get to her, but she’ll be damned if she lets that deter you and your progress. It’s not your fault she lost, it’s her’s for not being stronger, and she ultimately realizes it’s because while she’s enjoyed raising pokemon and going on this journey, battling just isn’t where her heart is. But she still went on the journey, and fought to go on it, arguing against her father’s wishes for her to return home, and fighting by your side however she can through the debacle spreading over the region. She learns to stand up for herself and what she wants when she actually wants it, and even though in the end she might have been good enough to challenge the league if she kept at it, she realized it wasn’t for her, and that’s still ok. 

I don’t have much to add on regarding Cheren and Bianca’s roles in B2W2, beyond that it’s such a delight seeing them both realize their true purpose and being really happy with where they’ve wound up. Also I love their new looks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Yr5Taoyalo

Their theme invokes the same sort of feeling as Barry’s in the sense that this is less about beating the other person and more about two friends having a good time with some friendly competition. Any sense of suspense is almost nonexistent, and the fun factor has been cranked up. It’s bubbly, it’s cheery, and it never really lets up, and while I do think that makes it kind of weak as a theme representing both of them, it makes for a fun song.

9/10 rivals, 6/10 theme

N

So like, I know BW/B2W2 are older games, but, spoilers for plot stuff.

I’ve heard a lot of arguments regarding whether N even counts as a rival instead of an antagonist outright, but I personally think he’s meant to be the rivalry edge to make up for Cheren and Bianca being so buddy buddy, like they were trying to address the friendly rival complaints after the last two games. And N is certainly a fascinating beast (hah), being very intentionally directly designed to be the dark antithesis to the standard pokemon protagonist character. The protagonist doesn’t speak at all, he speaks too quickly. The protagonist’s goal is very vague and broad, simply being “the best”, while N’s is powerfully stubborn and full of conviction. And of course it’s right there in the design, he’s even got the hat. N is also a very tragic character, intentionally raised and taught from childhood all for the purpose of being Ghetsis’ perfect tool towards world domination. He can literally speak with pokemon, he doesn’t get people, and interestingly up until the final battle in the game, he exclusively catches and uses local pokemon when you meet him, presumably releasing them once his friends have helped him test your own resolve. Team Plasma eventually splits into two factions in B2W2, those who truly believed in their ideals, that what they were trying to do was create a better world for people and pokemon alike, and those who were just using it as an excuse to be cruel dickbags and steal pokemon. If Ghetsis is the later, N is the former. This isn’t an evil plot for him, he isn’t some wicked mastermind working behind the shadows, he’s very clear cut and up front with you about what he’s doing, why he’s doing it, he even basically says “hey I could be wrong, I’m like 90% sure you’re also a hero so prove it and show me who’s intentions are more pure.” I love this guy, and I’m genuinely happy he ends up just living a happy life with his pet dragon wolf friend by the end of B2W2.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0ajBL15Knk

N’s theme is a weird one for me. I genuinely don’t enjoy the composition, but I can’t deny that it’s pretty perfect for him. This intentionally twisted idealist seeking all of the best things in all the wrong ways. It’s dark, fast paced, foreboding, and the ticking clock in this final version really sells that he won’t back down on creating what he truly believes to be a perfect world if you don’t get him to listen to reason. In short, wonderfully thematic, just not for me.

9/10 rival 5/10 theme

Hugh

I’ll be up front, I’m very overdo for a replaying of B2W2, so my recollection of Hugh is a bit foggy. That said, I do recall liking him. He’s high energy, but he also has a better handle on knowing how to direct said energy. Much like Silver before him, he’s very goal oriented and with a vendetta to work through, but rather than seeing your presence as an obstacle, you’re a trusted friend and ally, anything to make stomping out Plasma that much easier, and what better way to fight crime than with a friend at your side. I recall he had a habit of lashing out at strangers for being inattentive of their pokemon since his little sister’s purrloin got stolen (irony) by Plasma, but it comes from a place of good, so you can kinda get it. He’s well meaning, head strong, and a bit of a hot head, and while I need to reacquaint myself with him, I remember liking him alright if nothing else.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZDEr6_xzsM

Shockingly, his theme is a bit more subdued in terms of your average battle theme. It’s got a bit of an edge to it, and I love the shit out of those drums, but it still has that friendly ring to it. Oddly, it gives me more of a megaman vibe than anything pokemon. And trust me, that’s not a bad thing. Just a very strange song altogether though.

6/10 rival and theme, subject to change

Serena and Calem

I don’t recall how much of this is true for Serena, but I do seem to recall the two actually having somewhat different personalities. And Calem borrows a bit from what I liked about Cheren. He’s still being buddy buddy with you, but as each loss piles on, he starts to get more and more outwardly frustrated with himself over them. What’s he doing wrong? You’re supposed to be at the same level as one another, why can’t he pull out just one win? And he’s slightly less apologetic about it, so he is a bit of what I described with “what if Cheren was still your rival but not your childhood friend”. I want to say that Sarena is much the same, but it’s simply been far too long, and for what good points they’ve got even after two full playthroughs, they just... don’t bring much to the table, much like similar rivals before them Brendan and May. And man, speaking of not bringing much to the table...

The Friend Gang

Mmmm... let’s start with what I like about them. Because earnestly, there is an aspect about Tierno, Trevor, and Shauna (respectively) that I like. For all of our rivals up until now, you’ve had roughly the same goal. To conquer all 8 gyms, defeat the elite four and champion, become the champion yourself, and maybe save the world if you happen to be in the area at the time. And you know, world of pokemon, that makes sense it’s all well and good. But like, some people run businesses. Some people drive taxis, some are singers, some are artists, some are scientists, not everybody wants to be a world class ace trainer. And, neither do these three. Tierno is interested in dance, and seems to want to go out there just to see new moves and techniques to incorporate them into dance moves. Trevor is actually interested in and invested in filling out every shred of information in the pokedex, which is refreshing since you know, we usually get as far as like maybe 50 pokemon tops before just calling it quits. And Shauna, I’ll admit I don’t recall much of her, but I seem to remember her going out on her journey much for the same reason Bianca did. Do figure out what she actually wants to do in the first place. Unlike Bianca though, she never really finds it I don’t think. So, they’re trainers, but with their own unique goals in mind. That’s cool! ... and it’s also all there is to them. They’re extremely one note most of the time, and regrettably very forgettable. Calling them rivals at all honestly feels kinda generous. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73UoF45hBVQ

Imma be real with you chiefs, I’ve been listening to like every other Gen 6 song except this one while writing this. This could have easily just been the generic trainer battle theme in any other region, which... after my analysis, I’ll admit, kinda makes sense. These aren’t ace trainers or anything, they’re just... some friendly peeps doing their own shit who happen to know how to battle too. But, thematics doesn’t save a song on it’s own.

3/10 rivals and song

Hau

Hau is just... god damned precious. He’s loose, he’s chill, he’s excitable, but not always excited, and happy to go with the flow on things. He’s not your childhood friend, but he acts like that just means he’s got lost time to make up for once he gets to know you, more than happy to offer you up snacks and whatnot. He’s a fast and loyal friend, and surprisingly one with his own goal in mind that actually kind of weighs on him in the background. He’s the grandson of the island Kahuna, Hala, which means he’s eventually supposed to take that role from the old man. And that’s a huge responsibility for a kid who just wants to enjoy the sun and malasadas. But, it’s one he wants to live up to earnestly, and he’s willing to work towards. He just has a little trouble working past that initial fear of “how can I possibly be as good a kahuna as my grandpa”. Plus, once he makes a friend, he’ll fight for em, eagerly and happily going along with you to the Aether Resort when he finds out Lillie’s in trouble. Rain or shine, Hau’s got your back, and is easily one of the best friendly rivals to date if you asked me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BYcMPXxJrg

This one reminds me a lot of Cheren and Bianca’s theme but this time it’s a lot more fitting. It’s a fun and silly time, whoever loses doesn’t matter, so long as everyone’s having a good time! A bit of a boring song, but perfectly befitting the character, so it gets a bit of a pass.

8/10 rival, 6/10 theme

Gladion

I would say “who hurt you”, but we have the answer to that question, and it really helps propel Gladion and indeed the entire Aether family to the heights of “well written pokemon characters”. But, we’ll stick with just Gladion here. When we first meet him he’s just another skull flunky, but even then not really. For as pathetic as the skull grunts are (I love all of you but you’re so bad), even they make fun of him. He’s a nothing to nobody who has nobody, nobody but him and his weird dog. He is so much the rebellious tween but dammit if he doesn’t have a good reason with how horrible and abusive Lusamine became after her awry experiments with ultra space. He took their experimental pokemon for his own, ran away, and never looked back, just trying to live a happy life as best he can with Type: Null. He’s very hardened, and clearly not looking to go make any relationships, but eventually he does warm up to you at minimum as someone he can trust in battle, and by the end of the game someone he can see as an equal and maybe even friend. Really, calling him a rival is a bit off. He has no real beef with you or your journey, most of the time it seems like he’s just fighting you because he’s in a bad mood. But he’s a young man who’s been hurt badly, and wants to keep others from feeling that same kind of hurt, and obviously if he’s nice and strong then nobody can ever stop him from keeping himself and the people he cares about safe. The friendliest of jerk rivals who deserves the utmost care and protection.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDLj143lxVk

How to make a good battle theme: Step 1, slap bass. Step 2, there is no step 2. Jokes aside, I love this shit. It is utterly not in line with what you normally expect from a pokemon theme, and that kinda makes it work really well. It’s wild, it’s strong, and it denotes a kind of complexity to its energy. Not jaw dropping, but just a great slap.

8/10 rival and theme

[ofalsehoods-archive]

verse details. || pokémon

lotor’s pokémon companions are as follows. putting this under a cut due to length

HONERVA.

ability: technician. moves: tbd. short bio:

the female who picked him up when he was on the street, honerva can be considered lotor’s real mother. heartbroken at the loss of her previous litter, she poured all of the love she had for her lost children into the new baby she had found abandoned. she blamed herself for their deaths, and she would not accept another death on her hands. for better or for worse, she saved the life of the assassin-to-be.

she knew they were both desperate when he turned to rocket for help, and at first accepted his mission. but as the weeks went by, she became more and more concerned for her son’s steps on the path to darkness. as a street cat she was willing to do what she needed to survive, and if that meant killing a few folks she didn’t have a problem with it, but what her son was doing had gone beyond that, and become something horrific. as much as she’d wanted to love and support him in all his goals, she could not support him in this. she eventually stopped fighting by his side, instead staying at home at the base as often as she could.

she did, however, support her adopted son’s alchemic pursuits, and was always willing to help with experiments whenever he needed a sample of a powerful normal-type move. she was as quick to learn the craft as he was when he explained it to her, and in fact saved him from making several costly mistakes. however, she couldn’t save him from the mistake that cost her her life: the attempt to reverse her aging by pouring solgaleo’s raw power into her body. to this day, rocket’s callousness in response to her death still haunts lotor--as well as honerva’s admonitions against the goals of the criminal group.

NARTI.

ability: overgrow. variant: hybrid - shiinotic father. moves: tbd. short bio: lotor and narti might never have met, as his first unova starter was supposed to have been a gift from team rocket for his tenth birthday as a reward for his hard work as the team’s youngest assassin. he could have had a stolen, expensive bred snivy or other starter with egg moves and a hidden ability, but he turned down the prospect when he found this little one abandoned on the street just like he had been. just like her canon counterpart she was blind and mute, which was the reason she had been abandoned--her young trainer didn’t want to deal with a disabled pokémon. as lotor was soon to find out, she was also part shiinotic, and so like a shiinotic she could hypnotize and mind control people with a single touch of her spores--as well as sense the world around her through fairy energy. though team rocket was skeptical of lotor’s decision, he was soon able to bring out her individual strengths, and prove to them that she could be just as competent and determined of a teammate as anyone else.

one can question whether lotor really saved her, because he brought her to a life of violence as a team rocket assassin pokémon. lotor certainly sees it as saving her, however, because he has given her the life she would have never had--and because he has such a warped perception of pokémon battling that he makes a false moral equivalence between entertainment battling deaths and deaths due to assassination. she’d end up killing pokémon anyway, it’s just that as a member of rocket she would be “honest” about it in a way.

KOVA.

ability: intimidate. variant: melanistic; lion. au where kova is the black lion moves: tbd. short bio: kova was lotor’s second pokémon after honerva. stolen as a pet growlithe from an inattentive foreign girl, the spoiled kova at first wanted nothing to do with the battling life. she hated lotor, hated rocket, and just wanted to go back home to where she didn’t have to deal with all this blood and guts spilling all over the place. she wanted to go home, damnit.

and then she met narti.

narti understood her. narti was always there for her. narti even dared to commiserate when she vented against lotor. and for the first time in her life, kova started to sympathize with someone other than herself, becoming less of a typical self-centered cat and more of a team player. she began helping narti more and more, both in and outside of battle; the two were and still are so in sync that it’s almost like they’re two parts of the same body. as in canon, narti uses her as her eyes--she “sees” through enchanted fairy spores planted at the base of kova’s neck that read what kova is seeing and transmit the visuals to narti. the only other pokémon she bonded with to an even close extent was honerva, and even then she had always loved narti more.

as for lotor? she has a somewhat better opinion of him now, although she’s never quite been comfortable with the whole “assassin” thing--she much prefers it when he enters her in contests or regular battles. of his teammates, she can see most clearly of all that being an assassin isn’t what he was made to do in life. much like honerva before her, she hopes he’ll see that someday before it’s too late--if it’s not too late already.

ZETHRID.

ability: scrappy / parental bond. variant: hybrid - aggron father. moves: tbd. short bio: zethrid was team rocket born and raised, bred to be tough as nails, just ready to be given to a trainer to beat the shit out of something. she expected to be given to a high-ranking commander, someone with years of experience and dozens of important missions under their belt. what she got wasn’t exactly what she asked for, but she grew to love it all the same. 

though not as experienced as she might have liked, the young lotor was exquisitely cunning, teaching her where her own ham-fisted strategy was not the right choice again and again. at the same time, though, being the pragmatist he was, he grew to appreciate when ham-fistedness was necessary, and brings out zethrid whenever he needs the big guns. she’s often impatient to be let loose in battle, but when it’s her turn, that unsatiated thirst for blood is what makes her all the more vicious.

over time, her loyalty to the group has become loyalty to lotor instead. all of rocket is held together by communal ties more than it is by loyalty to an abstract concept of a leadership, so it’s small wonder that she turned out loving him more than she loves the group. if forced to choose sides between giovanni and lotor, she’d pick lotor in a heartbeat. but at the same time, she loves the thrill of the kill, and would be sorely disappointed (though still sympathetic) if he ever gave it up. she often clashes with kova over this, as they disagree over what is best for lotor’s future.

EZOR.

ability: levitate. variant: hybrid - mimikyu mother. able to perform some mimikyu tactics, such as a mimicry of the disguise ability. moves: tbd. short bio: like kova, ezor was stolen--this time pulled from a heist on a top ranking tech store. it was lotor’s first mission for rocket, to see how well he could perform; he kept her as his share of the haul. unlike kova, however, she was thrilled to have been stolen. she didn’t know where she wanted to be before that and was sort of just messing around with electronics and going through the motions with the usual ghost mischief--so she felt like destiny had chosen her for some sort of grand adventure when she found out her fate. she loves life with lotor and with rocket, and she wouldn’t give it up for anything else.

of lotor’s pokémon, ezor is the most troublesome, happily sewing chaos with her trickery wherever she goes. she’s fond of appearing and disappearing to disorient her opponents, or just to play mind games with her friends. she is also the most likely to turn a blind eye to rocket’s misdeeds. she’s the picture of chaotic evil, living only to fulfill her own needs and desires, caring little for others’ with the exception of her master. she remains in denial that rocket abused and manipulated lotor mostly because being a part of the team is so much fun whether lotor stays or leaves rocket, she honestly doesn’t give a flapping fuck. as long as he keeps her entertained, he’ll have her loyalty.

ACXA.

ability: justified / adaptability. variant: hybrid - absol mother. moves: tbd. short bio: if lotor is the team leader, acxa is the deputy. levelheaded, steadfast and strong, she provides the backbone for the team. one could call her the “team mom”: she makes plans, she solves disputes, and despite her stolid demeanor she’s there for them when they need a shoulder to cry on. sometimes even lotor looks to her for direction, and will even grudgingly admit that sometimes her judgment exceeds his.

like some of lotor’s other pokémon and like lotor himself, acxa was first found fighting to survive on the street. he saved her as a riolu from a vicious pack of houndoom that clawed her and roasted her to near death, and used alchemy to nurse her back to health; when she recovered after a few weeks, she evolved for him due to the friendship. only afterward did she find out that he was actually an assassin for team rocket--which was, to put it mildly, a shock--but she still grew to accept it because of her own disillusion. if the world was so upside down that a team rocket assassin was more compassionate than the dozens of trainers who had passed her by for fear of risking their own lives, then she might as well embrace it.

SINCLINE.

ability: defiant. moves: tbd. short bio: sincline was the first and only pokémon that lotor ever caught the normal way--not through stealing, not through rescuing, not through unholy alchemic processes--the normal way. though he was loath to add another member to his team, as he felt like he was saying in a way that his teammates weren’t “good enough,” had always wanted a giant eagle to fly around on, and so he headed straight for route 10 where rufflet chicks are often found. but he wasn’t there to get a baby. he had enough experience raising pokémon from a young age. no, he did the dumbest thing possible and climbed all the way up a cliff so that he could find the oldest, most experienced, most battle-scarred warrior there was and take him down in his nest.

……and then had to ride his new braviary all the way down, because he just did the thing where the cat gets stuck up a tree and can’t come down except on a cliff instead of a tree.

sincline is the oldest member of the team with the exception of ezor, who since she’s a ghost is a thousand years old at the very least. if acxa is team mom then sincline is team dad, making bad jokes and giving everybody free piggyback rides. like honerva he doesn’t have a family anymore--he lost his mate to hunters and he has intrusive paranoid thoughts that their children met the same fate--and so lotor’s team provides a new family for him to protect. it helps that he doesn’t care for humans enough to mind killing them--in his eyes, humans are destroyers of nature and killers of pokémon’s families, so whether they live or die makes no difference to him. in return for his service, lotor helps sincline track down the remaining members of his family and allows him to visit them when they’re off-duty. 

THROK.

ability: power of alchemy. variant: transmuted human. still retains alchemic abilities gained when human. moves: tbd. short bio: lotor didn’t catch throk, he’d created him. see, rocket had asked him to target an alchemist originally named Martin Guylbeaux that was giving some of their operatives trouble down in alola, and so they sent their own alchemist to go deal with him. at the time he had just so happened to have been itching to try out this alolan alchemist spell that could turn a human into a ferocious fighting machine, an alolan muk to be precise. when he found this target, he found the best person to do it on.

he approached martin with a great deal of overconfidence, but fortunately not enough to reveal his intent. martin proved to be a much bigger threat than lotor had anticipated, and managed to back his assassin into a corner; were it not for martin’s hesitance before striking the final blow and lotor’s glib tongue, lotor surely would have perished then and there. but he caught martin disastrously off-guard with sweet false talk of leaving the organization he called a family. he said through crocodile tears that he wanted to be an alchemist, not an assassin, an explorer, not a killer. he wept that he had been kidnapped by the rockets as a child and had always been afraid to fulfill his dream--if only this man who held his own against rocket’s wrath could please help him escape…! 

he was faking it all the way, and yet there was a touch of truth to his words, because on the inside he really was getting tired of living the life he lived, although not nearly to the extent that he pretended to be. overcome by lotor’s apparent sincerity, martin offered the boy his hand to help him up. lotor pulled him into a warm hug-- 

and then he literally stabbed martin in the back, draining much of his life force and sending him into an unconscious state. when he woke up, he was no longer human.

quite honestly, martin/throk is the only pokémon on lotor’s whole team who isn’t fundamentally happy to be there. thanks to lotor’s experimentation he’s forgotten much of who he used to be, accepting the new name “throk” and the new identity as a team rocket assassin’s loyal stooge. but sometimes, his old self comes back in bits and pieces, and each and every one of those moments torments him like nothing ever has before.

[HIMSELF.]

ability: stance change / something else probably because this thing is an alchemic abomination variant: custom made. looks like lotor’s canon sword. moves: tbd. short bio: lotor’s sword with his soul stuck inside of it from an alchemy experiment. it’s literally him; if you destroy it, he dies, and if you take it from him, you get to control him. i already talked about the him-sword a fair bit in my original pokéverse post and tbh bc his sword is so significant and this post is so long already, i should save my meta on it for a separate post.

[lou-bonfightme]

Toulouse Henri Bonfamille - Character Sheet

if you get sleep or if you get none / the cock's gonna call in the morning, baby / check the cupboard for your daddy's gun / red sun rises like an early warning / the lord's gonna come for your first born son / his hair's on fire and his heart is burning / so go to the river where the water runs / wash him deep where the tides are turning...

Archetype — The Caregiver Birthday — May 10, 1995 Zodiac Sign — Taurus MBTI — ENTJ Enneagram — 3, the Achiever Temperament — Choleric  Hogwarts House — Slytherdor Moral Alignment — True Neutral Primary Vice — Pride Primary Virtue — Diligence Element — Earth

Overview:

Mother — Adelaide Bonfamille (nee LaBlanc) (Portia de Rossi FC) Father — Hector Bonfamille (Tony Goldwyn) Mother’s Occupation — socialite Father’s Occupation — politician Family Finances — wealthy Birth Order — oldest child Brothers — Berlioz Bonfamille (Matt Hitt FC, 20, Birthday: June 20, 1997) Sisters — Marie Bonfamille (Olivia Holt FC, 17, Birthday: April 22, 2000) Other Close Family — Maternal Aunt: Duchess LaBlanc Best Friend — Hades Other Friends — Sophie, Daisy Enemies — Roger, Perdita, literally so many people tbh Pets — A cat that is not his. Also his plants.   Home Life During Childhood — emotionally manipulative/abusive; argumentative with father; parental disagreements; was put in charge of younger siblings Town or City Name(s) — Paris, France Details of Town(s) or City(s) — loved the river and parks, only place he had refuge What Did His or Her Bedroom Look Like — rather plain, big windows, bright, painted a cream color, not a lot of toys but an easel and paints in one corner, a large desk with art supplies. Any Sports or Clubs — nope, he focused solely on his art. Favorite Toy or Game — didn’t really play a lot of games, but he liked building legos with his siblings, or reading to them. Schooling — did excellently in school Favorite Subject — science (especially biology), though he has a fondness for literature as well. Popular or Loner — loner, but girls liked him alot; he had the broody bad boy thing going on, which annoyed him immensely. Important Experiences or Events — moving to Swynlake Health Problems — undiagnosed manic depressive; some minor PTSD and agoraphobia Culture — french, and proud of it. Religion and beliefs — raised catholic, attending church mainly to keep up appearances, he finds parts of religion very beautiful, but also calls bullshit on most of it; he’s too logical and scientific to really find any sort of comfort in it; respects those who are religious though; has a predisposed inclination to dislike muslims based on rhetoric and a lack of proper understanding about the religion.

Physical Appearance:

Face Claim —  Freddy Carter Complexion — pale and freckly! Hair Colour — Russet Eye Colour — Green Height — 6′0 Build — slight and tall Tattoos — none and never will Piercings — none Common Hairstyle — perfectly styled 90% of the time, if you catch him without his hair styled he really likes you. Clothing Style — the Most fashionable, very flamboyant, lots of colour Mannerisms — tucks his hands behind his back when he’s nervous or being respectful, if he’s embarrassed his ears turn red Usual Expression —

Health:

Overall (do they get sick easily)? — not since he’s become a werewolf, but he never really got sick Physical Ailments — none Neurological Conditions — bipolar II Allergies —  none Grooming Habits — grooms better than some of my girls lmao. takes very good care of himself--when he’s not in a depressive state, then he has more trouble, but if he’s going out he’ll still go through the motions. Sleeping Habits — terrible sleeper. has really bad insomnia. is up late a lot, sleeps in late a lot. wakes up a lot throughout the night. tosses and turns. has trouble falling asleep. Eating Habits — super picky eater. when depressive/manic sometimes doesn’t eat that much Exercise Habits —  lmao what exercise Emotional Stability — off his meds? like a 2/10, on his meds he’s closer to a 6/10 probably.  Body Temperature — normal Sociability — very charming, knows what to say to get people to like him. that doesn’t always mean he says those things lol Addictions — none really?  Drug Use — smokes pot, doesn’t do other drugs thank god that’d be so bad Alcohol Use — drinks more than he should

Your Character’s Character:

Bad Habits — what habits are not bad habits? Thinking he is right about everything, pointing out people’s flaws, getting in fights, generally believing he knows better than everyone else, not feeling out his emotions, withdrawing when things get tough, not speaking to anyone about things that suck in his life, taking on all challenges alone, i could go on... Good Habits — he’s a good brother, he takes care of his siblings, he takes care of himself, for the most part; he’s an excellent studier; he’s very loyal once you win his loyalty Best Characteristic — his unfaltering loyalty Worst Characteristic — his lack of ability to properly communicate his emotions Worst Memory — all the times he had to hide in the closet, or his father sent him to bed with no dinner and kept him there for hours Best Memory — his siblings being born Proud of — his siblings, his art (sometimes) Embarrassed by — not much, honestly. When people catch him having a proper emotion Driving Style — doesn’t drive but he’d be a total soccer mom Strong Points — his loyalty. It’s unwavering and uncompromising Temperament — volatile Attitude — melancholic. Weakness — not being emotionally vulnerable. Seriously, it would solve so many of his issues Fears — not being good enough, being unlovable, worried that he will always be horribly bitter Phobias — pfft nothING (jk he’s lowkey afraid of storms) Secrets — lmao so many where to start? Mostly that he actually does crave affection Regrets — lol everything; probably the biggest is being so hard on ber during their teen years Feels Vulnerable When — he’s having emotion Pet Peeves — god where do i start? People who dont say what’s on their mind Motivation — protecting his siblings is his main motivation Short Term Goals and Hopes — he doens’t really have any im realizing this rn Long Term Goals and Hopes — also does not have many here Sexuality — grey asexual, biromantic (he could be either rly) Exercise Routine  — pfft exercise is for the weak Day or Night Person — night owl Introvert or Extrovert —  introverted extrovert lou really does thrive in a crowd but needs a lot of recharge time after Optimist or Pessimist — pessimist highkey

Likes and Styles:

Music — Classics. Classical. Stuff with not a lot of lyrics. Though, he’s also fond of the Opera. He really likes Faust and Don Giovanni. Also, he secretly likes a couple of musicals--Les Miserables and Cats are probably his favourites, though he very rarely indulges in them. Books — Candide by Voltaire is his favourite novel, he’s read it several times. He is a fan of the gothic period, he enjoys books like The Phantom of the Opera. Is not a huge Victor Hugo fan because he finds him a bit wordy, but he does like Hunchback of Notre Dame. He prefers concise language in his novels, but also likes beautiful imagery. He’s an avid reader. Magazines — He reads National Geographic and TBH probably gets a copy of Vogue, as well as a few museum magazines, just to keep up with the art scene. Foods — Lou is not a very big sweets person, he prefers richer foods. His favorite is frozen grapes--red or green, that doesn’t really matter. He’s almost always snacking on grapes. Drinks — Lou loves champagne. He also is an avid drinker of water. Animals — Lou loves birds, they’re his favorite. He’s also a fan of reptiles. And he has a particular interest in dinosaurs. Sports — Lol. Social Issues — Lou takes a bit of a middle road on these issues. There are things that he is rather passionate about--such as LGBTQIA rights (this is a recent development), but he also has some rather...unethical opinions about things like immigration that he usually keeps to himself because he knows that they are contentious subject. Favorite Saying — “Chacun voit midi à sa porte” Translation: Everyone sees noon on his doorstep. Basically, everyone views the world the way that they view it. Color — Ah, he cannot choose--but he does gravitate to warmer, earth colors in his paintings, oranges and reds and browns. Clothing — Lou is extremely fashionable and he always is dressed impeccably. He loves color and very rarely wears dull ones. Jewelry — Not a huge fan of jewlery, I’m sure he has a nice watch though, that his father gave him. Games — Chess. Puzzles. Things that challenge the mind. Websites — Eh, he’s got a tumblr blog, and he’s #instafamous so. TV Shows — Lou doesn’t watch television enough to have favorite shows but he detests reality shows and probably watches them with his brother to make fun of people. Movies — Lou doesn’t watch movies often, but he loves good cinematography. Also, documentaries. Especially nature and historical ones. (Also loves Legally Blonde on the lowkey.) Greatest Want — To be needed. Greatest Need — To learn to embrace his emotions.

Where and How Does Your Character Live Now:

Home — lives at his mother’s home in Swynlake Household furnishings — very modern, aligned with the latest Parisian fashion. Favorite Possession — his art studio, does that count?? Most Cherished Possession — the drawer of arts and crafts that lou kept from his siblings when they were little. Neighborhood — the woods, very posh Town or City Name — Swynlake Details of Town or City — small magic friendly Married Before — to Anita Dearly, long story. Significant Other Before — none. Children — none. Relationship with Family — close with his siblings, though closer with Marie than Berlioz, a bit of a momma’s boy, and has a cordial relationship with his father, is very close with his life-long nanny, Nounou. Car — none. Career — will probably be an artist; should be a surgeon. Dream Career — surgeon he just doesn’t know it yet Dream Life — a successful magical animal treatment center, where he can also practice his art on the side; very little chance of having a family but deep down would love a wife/husband and children, maybe he’ll adopt. (he does not know any of this.) Love Life — a hot mess; tries not to develop feelings for people. Talents or Skills — painting, obviously Intelligence Level — he’s very intelligent and observant Finances — wealthy af

Your Character’s Life Before Your Story:

Past Careers — he’s been a student. Past Lovers — many; mostly one night stands, very few repeats Biggest Mistakes — being so hard on ber in secondary; marrying anita. Biggest Achievements — uhmmmmm his art has hung in several galleries