Post by jaxamar on Jul 7, 2010 8:52:36 GMT -5
Character
[/size]Name: Avartiath "Av" Drakenguard
Age: 17
Gender: Male
Career: Trainer
Pokémorph: Salamence
Appearance: Av has thetail of a Salamence, and the fins on the back of his head, but, otherwise, seems to be human at first glance. His black hair is unruly, and always, even if he attempts to gel it flat, stands up in spikes. He's lean, with a sort of rangy strength, that helps out in his chosen career. He has a rather archaic style to go with his draconic appearance; he wears a heavy cloak virtually all the time, and, beneath that, a dark shirt, a thick leather belt, and black pants. His hands are generally gloved, and he always wears a pair of thick, sturdy leather boots.
If you're ever lucky enough to see him remove his shirt, you'll see that he might once have had wings; two thick scars adorn his shoulder blades, although these are old, well-healed wounds... at least, physically. There is also a vertical scar across his left eye, although, fortunately, he can still see perfectly out of this eye. An interesting note about these eyes is that they're most unusually coloured; a bright, crystalline silver, like diamonds. The irises are even faceted. He has a patch of thick, armoured scales on his right hand and on his shoulders, although these are almost always hidden beneath his gloves and his shirt.
He can blast out streams or balls of purple-gold energy, although he rarely does so. These are strong enough to perhaps light a campfire, and can render someone's body numb, but can't do much damage.
Personality: Av is fiercely protective of any and all innocents, including Pokemon. His sense of moral obligation is stronger than many suspect; he has, more than once, willingly risked his life for others. He does, however, have a very hot temper, a side-effect of his transformation, although it is tempered by steely self-restraint. He is very kind and gentle, and also generous, willing to share the very last of his supplies with someone in need.
He enjoys reading a good book, and is, not unexpectedly, fascinated by crystals of all types; he's capable of staring into the depths of even a common quartz crystal for hours on end without getting bored. He is fastidious with all of his equipment, keeping it in good shape. He dislikes high temperatures, preferring the cool air of a mountain range. However, he cannot stand temperatures that are too low; his body just does not have the mechanisms to keep the heat in.
He enjoys the outdoors, too, and likes exploring immensely; after being confined to a biodome, however large, for six years has left the mark of an explorer on him despite the insularity and safety.
He is constantly frustrated by his unruly hair, to the point that he had practically given up on trying to control it. He has a habit of fiddling with his gloves, and brushing at the scar over his eye when he's nervous. He also has an unusual tendency to speak in a rather unorthodox grammar style.
History: :: Excerpt from the Manuscript of Av's autobiographical novel. Incomplete::
"Well?" a voice growled from the darkness of the room; the owner was lit only vaguely by the light from the screen before him.
"We are making progress," came the response, from a scientist bathed in a spotlight before the man, whose daemon, a Magnemite, hovered beside him, "The last batch of test subjects had a ninety percent survival rate, with only the odd minor complication aside from the deaths."
"And the deaths? What caused them?"
The man's Persian daemon stretched languidly, fixing the scientist with her eyes.
"Heart failure during the transfusion process," the scientist explained, "their hearts gave out halfway through due to a compound we have now removed from all formulas. All other complications are also related to this compound."
"Good," came the response, and the scientist, having tensed, relaxed.
"We have, however, run out of -uh- volunteers to experiment upon."
"That shall be taken care of soon," came the response, "However, for now, I have a single subject I want you to perform the procedure on."
"Sir?"
The man pressed a button on his throne-like chair, and a second spotlight flashed on, focussed on a ten-year-old boy who was staring up at the scientist and the man on the chair in silent horror. His frightened Daemon flitted between a number of small forms, but, being contained in a glass cage large enough to handle even the largest form she could manage.
"Ah," the scientist murmured, "This one. We stole him from Trainer's School, if I recall. Middle-class family; still looking for him, apparently."
"That is correct," the man hidden in the shadows said, leaning back; his face vanished entirely from view, although the hand resting on the keypad on the right arm of the throne was still illuminated.
"Which formula do you wish to be administered?" the scientist asked, as the boy, whose mouth was covered with a gag, struggled against his bindings.
"SA-37DF," the man in the shadows said coldly.
"Sir? Are you certain? That will require a living specimen to extract the DNA required."
"The specimen you mention is already here," the Boss said coldly; he tossed something at the scientist, who caught it, startled. It was a Pokeball.
"Inside is the Bagon you will use to gain the DNA needed," the Boss stated, "I realise that you would normally use a Salamence or Dragonite, but none of the Grunts were able to steal an appropriate Pokemon from its Trainer. This Bagon they caught at Meteor Falls is the best they could find."
"Understood, sir," the scientist said, bowing, "I will get someone on it right-."
"No," the Boss said, "You will get right on it. I do not want any mistakes with this one."
"Yes, sir," the scientist said meekly, as a few others came in and put the boy on a medical bed, before wheeling him out; they had not removed his bindings.
The overhead lights sped past Avartiath's eyes in blurred streaks. His struggles had tapered off; he had only succeeded in scraping his wrists raw and actually tightening one of the knots.
Their arrival at their destination was abrupt, to say the least; they burst through the door, and suddenly Av was staring up at a Pokemon habitat; a aviary containing hundreds of Chatot and other colourful birds.
An instant later, they were beyond that as well, and the scientists pulled down their goggles. For a moment, Av wondered why, then he was plunged into utter darkness.
If his mouth hadn't been gagged, he would have cried out in surprise.
Somebody pulled him off the bed abruptly, and he was placed on a much harder, cold surface. He wriggled as they tore off his shirt and pants, although they left his underpants on. They then unbound his arms, and he flailed, deliberately trying to slow them down and annoy them. But barely a second later, both his hands were held in a vice grip, and were forced down into tight, cold metal clamps. Before they untied his legs, they clamped his waist down as well, and his head, so that he couldn't wriggle any more. They then clamped his feet down onto the table, although, to Av, it was seeming more and more like some sort of torture device, which held him completely still aside from his chest, if only to allow him to continue breathing, and his eyes. Although his eyes did not help him much in this utter blackness.
"The Boss has ordered that formula SA-37DF be administered to this one," said a voice, which he recognised as the scientist from the room with the spotlights and the scary man in the shadows.
"Understood," said a number of unfamiliar voices.
Av tensed, but instead of what he expected, a needle being jabbed in somewhere uncomfortable, didn't happen.
Instead, someone tore off his gag.
"Wha-?" he gasped, just as a mask was thrust onto his face. He quickly drew in and held a breath, before they could release any of the sleep-gas into it. This earned him a sharp jab in the ribs from someone's hard finger, which forced his breath out. He breathed back in, but in that instant, he not only smelled but tasted the gas, and knew it was all over.
Seconds later, nothing registered at all.
"Uh... huh?" Av mumbled groggily, as he came to.
"Good," said an unfamiliar voice, "You're awake."
"Huh?" Av managed, forcing his eyes open. He immediately regretted this; a lance of light seemed to penetrate his skull through his eyes.
"Easy now," the voice said, as someone propped him up, "Easy. Here, drink this."
Av obediently drank the liquid, a blend of berry juices, and, within a few seconds, was feeling a lot better. This time, when he opened his eyes, the beam of light was slanted off to his left. He was looking up into the face of a Flygon Pokemorph. He was covered in angry-looking purple blisters, and was moving carefully, but he was awake and, apparently, well enough to look after Av while he was unconscious.
"Ugh... Where?" Av asked, still groggy.
"This is... A zoo," the Flygon Pokemorph said distastefully, standing up, "And our home... at least for the moment."
"Ugh..."
"Oh, right. Here."
Av snapped his mouth shut on the Chesto berry without thinking. A few seconds later, he was alert again, and scrambled to his feet.
"What happened to you?" Av asked the Flygon morph, "And what's your name?"
"The name's Daniel," came the reply, "And this is the side-effects of what they did to me to transform me into this. They're painful, but the docs are at least certain that they're going to go away after a while."
"My name's Avartiath. Most people just call me Av, though."
Av looked around. They were in some sort of berry-tree grove. A stream gurgled nearby.
"You might want to go look in the pool beside the stream," Daniel said, starting to climb up a tree to collect some berries. A moment later, he slid back down, wincing. Just afterwards, some Starraptor swooped down and started to help him out.
Av sucked at his lip; he wanted to help Daniel, but he might only get in the way. Instead, he went to the pool. As he went to sit down at the water's edge, he saw his hand.
"W-whoa," he stammered, staring at his hand for a moment, then he knelt and splashed water onto his face.
When his eye opened to see the strange face staring back at him, he couldn't come to any other conclusion.
"What did they do to me?!" he screamed; as he did so, a blast of purple-gold energy erupted from his jaws, boiling the surface of the water.
Daniel, back at the tree, heard the scream and looked guilty.
"Perhaps I could have broken it to him more gently?" he wondered aloud, but then sighed, dismissing that notion.
Four years later, Av lay curled up in the cave he had chosen to be his home. The fourteen-year-old had spent the last few months effectively confined to a small area around this cave inside the biodome that was the home, and prison, of about fifty other Pokemorphs of varying species. Daniel's body, never intended to live in such a humid environment, had succumbed just before Av's evolution into a Shelgon Pokemorph; he had been moved to the Desert Dome the last Av had heard. Even there he was apparently still sick.
In this curled position, Av was completely hidden inside his thick, armoured shell. To anyone outside, all they would see would be his yellow eyes staring out from the darkness inside the shell. Which was a good thing, considering. He had been undergoing rapid changes inside the shell, and these changes weren't always pleasant to look at. Fortunately, they were over now, pretty much. Av could feel his new wings pressing against the outside of his shell; they were large, large enough that he would be capable of flight when he emerged. A thick tail was coiled against the base of the shell, near the hole at the bottom; it was too small to fit the actual tail through.
Av felt a bristling sensation; quite unlike the pain of when he had evolved the first time. Then something cracked, near his chest, then he deliberately pushed out with his feet and arms. The bone connections with the plates on his chest snapped almost instantly, and the old plates fell away, clattering across the floor of the cave.
Myko, his Daemon, flickered between forms as her soul partner shoved himself to his feet, and snapped off the plates at his sides. That left the three plates on his back, which were much harder to remove; his wings were not quite strong enough to push them off, and he had to slam back-first into the wall of the cave to make them snap off. But when they did, Av spread his wings triumphantly, laughing from the thrill of finally being free of the heavy plates and finally, finally, having the wings he had waited four long years to grow.
Myko fluttered up to his shoulder as a Starly. She trilled as well, as Av stepped out of he cave and into the sunlight. He spread his wings, and leapt into the air, giving them a hard flap. The massive leap turned into a soaring turn, before landing and yelling his exhilaration to the entire dome.
The old, faded shorts he was wearing, along with his wild black hair, soon recieved a thorough soaking as he dove into the lake at the centre of the Mountain Dome, in which he lived, Myko following as a Mudkip.
Av broke the surface and laughed, as Myko climbed onto his shoulder.
"Whoo! It feels good to be me today!" he yelled to the dome in general, drawing a smile from the Dragonite 'morph who was fishing for his dinner at the bank.
Two years later, Av was sitting in his cave, reading a fantasy novel one of the scientists had brought in to help keep the 'morphs amused, when an explosion caught his attention. Myko, quickly zipping up to his shoulder in her Quilava form, looked at him nervously.
"Someone's penetrated the dome from outside," she said, clinging to his shoulder as he ran outside.
Two of the scientists, whom Av had always been suspicious of, leapt at him and swung heavy blades. Av, seeing them coming, attempted to jump out of the way.
"Hgaaaaaah!" he screamed, as the blades passed within a centimetre of his scaled shoulders. His wings, however, were not so lucky.
"Spinarak saved him!" a voice called, as if from far away, as Av slowly regained consciousness; he had blacked out before, from the pain.
He felt something sticky on his shoulders, and the fiery points where his wings should have been.
"If it wasn't for that String Shot, Offficer Jenny, he would have bled out before you could get here," the voice continued, "He's fortunate to be alive."
"What about... the wings?" Officer Jenny asked, and Av listened attentively.
The other speaker sighed, and apparently shook her head. "It was too late," she murmured, "They were unattached for too long. They can't be reconnected."
"No!" Av gasped, pushing himself up. His wounds burned, but he looked imploringly at the young woman in the nurses outfit, "Please tell me it isn't true!"
The nurse looked away, unable to answer.
Av fell silent, and his tail lashed from side to side.
"The culprits?" he asked eventually.
"Are going to be in jail for the rest of their lives," Officer Jenny said, "Maximum security, solitary confinement."
"Good," Av growled, as Myko laid herself across his lap as he sat on the medical bed, "But what of me? I've been in that place for six years."
"I know," Jenny said, "But during that time, your parents never gave up hope. One of my sisters delivered the good news about your survival just a minute or two ago."
"What about... this?" Av asked, waving a hand at his own body, "I'm not what I used to be. I'm not who I used to be."
"Av?"
"Dan!"
Av rushed up and embraced his friend, the incautious movement causing his wounds to feel like they were on fire. He didn't care; he was just happy to see his friend. The Flygon 'morph patted him awkwardly on the shoulder, and looked at the bloodied string that had saved Av's life.
"I'm sorry about your wings, Av," he said quietly, "But I'm glad you're OK otherwise."
Av's head fins drooped, and he sighed, leaning against the wall.
"I'll have to get used to it," he said after a long pause, "I'm just glad the ones who did it are going to be in jail for the rest of their days."
"So what now?" Dan asked Jenny.
"You're too old to become a Trainer, Dan," Jenny said, "But Av here is still young enough. Still, he's going to have to spend a whole year here recuperating before we can send him anywhere."
"All right," Av said, laying down on his stomach and sighing, "I guess there's no other choice. I can't exactly just go back to my parents' house either."
"I have to stay in the desert, Officer Jenny," Dan said, sighing, "I guess I'll head to the desert near mount Chimney in Hoenn, or the desert in the Enera region."
"Be careful, Dan," Av said, holding out his hand to his friend, and Dan, smiling, shook it.
The Dæmon
[/u][/size][/center]Name: Myko
Form (if settled): She never settled because of her soul partner's sudden and horrific infusion with Salamence DNA
Favourite Forms (if not settled): Mudkip, Quilava
Appearance: She always has the long head fins of a Salamence, no matter what form she's in.
Personality: Myko is a bit more even-tempered than Av, and is rather more quiet than he is. However, she is just as protective of those who are weaker than she is, and is more than willing to display it.