Jodie "Rip" R. Mercy [WIP]
Sept 5, 2015 17:32:04 GMT -5
Post by robin on Sept 5, 2015 17:32:04 GMT -5
Jodie “Rip” R. Mercy | ||
| » APPEARANCE Jodie is short and twig-like. Standing at 5ft 1in and weighing in at 101lb, she looks like the ghosts she trains. Her pale complexion certainly doesn't help. Her form could be compared to a rectangular prism, as she lacks the normal womanly everything. The time she’s spent outside has lent itself to strong muscles but not a tan - mostly because she prefers the dark places of the world and a hood and sleeves to guard from the cold she’s sensitive to. Jodie’s hair is short and black, reaching only to her ears. Long hair has only served to get tangled in things. All gym leaders need a fancy outfit - one that makes them easily recognizable while also shouting to the world what type they train. Being partial to warm clothing that’s easy to move in, Jodie’s done her best to accommodate both needs. She’s commonly seen in a dark black-purple hoodie with loose sleeves and those fake ears on the hood, resembling a gengar and highlighted with a ghostly blue. Under that is a thick black scarf whose tails fall out the back of her jacket, and a simple sleeveless. She favors cargo pants and boots, and she carries all her stuff in a shoulder pack. She has several sets of this outfit (and sets of normal clothes too) and a lot of washing machine tokens. Her eyes have begun to blur through her (mis)adventures, and she’s invested in contacts. Seeing the opportunity, she requested they all be done in red. If you needed to know, they’re naturally brown. Jodie likes the look of jewelry but she doesn't actually wear any herself. Jodie’s voice is low and has a large range of volumes, though she finds herself being yelled over more often than she’d like. Her step is sure and silent, her small form making itself useful for once, and her gait is relaxed and light. » PERSONALITY Jodie is the type of person that, for the life of her, cannot stay still. It extends past the simple need to fiddle with something when sitting still to the way she lives her life; Jodie can’t stay in one place for more than a couple of days before she gets restless. This feeling can be lessened by meeting new people or going to new places, but after a week Jodie will be ready to move on. Jodie is not shy. Not just in the sense that she has no problem chatting with some random stranger, but that she has no problem asking said random stranger deep and highly personal questions. She’s always on the hunt for new secrets and stories, and in her book each person is a jackpot waiting to happen. Even with meeting all these people, there’s never been a person Jodie’s disliked. There’s people she likes to stay away from, sure, but she’s never hated anyone. She views people and their past as a casual observer. The past is what it is, people are what they are. Who is she to judge? Everyone has something redeemable, she’s found; no one is pure evil. Of course, if someone is doing something that conflicts with her morals (like stealing someone’s pokemon), she will step in to stop them. Just because she doesn’t hate them doesn’t mean she’ll let them run amuck . (Side notes: this isn’t to say there’s no one she’ll hate, she’s just never run into anyone that terrible. Also, “hate” and “dislike” are the same category for her. Or rather lack of category, as she puts everyone in the “they’re people, no comment” box.) Some people are born with talent. The ability to do amazing things is built into their being, and though they may fail here and there for dramatic effect, their exploits are met mostly with resounding success. This is not Jodie. Lacking the patience to overtrain her pokemon to the point they could beat even the types they were weak against, Jodie switch tactics; to tactics. That’s when she found her next falt; Jodie has a tendency to forget or not consider simple details. Sometimes these are harmless, like forgetting the name of a place, but more often than not she’s skipped over a fatal detail. She’s lost more than a few battles because she forgot a pokemon could learn a certain move, or even was a particular type. She’s experimented with her tactics until she’s found what fits; she plays a cautious offensive, where she’ll try to disable her opponent and strike hard and fast when the opportunity is right. (Side notes: she also likes odd tactics that are her opponent probably hasn’t prepared for. She’s gotten a lot better with pokemon types, save fairy type, that’s new and weird, but those fire-type-learning-a-grass-type-move still give her trouble.) Jodie likes seacrets. Not the shards of gossip others enjoy, though those are pretty great too, but the dark, gory, controversial seacrets. Bonus points if she’s the first person to find them out. If there’s a haunted house in the area, she’ll be there, unstable structures and possible trespassing be darned. Any old structure draws her, for hope of finding a past lost to history. She loves superstitions, old legends, urban legends, or conspiracy theories, and will forgo fear to find them out. Further, she finds, in general, things other people find gross or scary interesting. (Side notes: She doesn’t really care if the stuff she finds out is useful or not, she just likes finding it out. She also has a little booklet of possible conspiracy and loves mulling over them, trying to connect the dots.) When one first meets her, Jodie easily comes off as carefree. Lacking social boundaries overall, she has a tendency to do whatever she feels like. She’ll speak her mind (sparing no gory detail), go where she wants, and do what she wants, sometimes simply for a reaction. If she’s confronted for trespassing or doing something she’s not supposed to, she’ll try to bypass authority, using her gym leader status usually, before backing down. Expect her back later that night, of course. Then there’s the little things, like how she may stare at someone a little too long She’s the kid who would tell her playmates about the headless monsters in the night and inquired to their opinions on bugs she found. It’s just the way she is, and rather than trying to change herself, she’s decided to just run with her personality. Despite this, Jodie is very conscientious of her status. This leads us to her major conflict; while she doesn’t care what people make of her personality, Jodie is insecure about her failings. Not only were her parents skilled trainers, but she’s now a gym leader. She has certain expectations she’s supposed to live up to, and more often than she’d like she finds herself rolling unlucky dice. At the moment she’s covering up her failings with joking lies, as a way to laugh it off. (Side note: lost gym battles don’t count. That’s her job. Nor do battles with her not-gym team; that’s not her real strength.) Speaking of lying, Jodie has skill in telling untruths. She loves to exaggerate stories, specifically to make herself look better or overall enhance the tale. If she forgets details she’ll fill them in with whatever sounds the best. Accounts are hardly ever told the same way twice, and the longer the tale, the greater the difference. This is especially true with anything relating to her past; it seems everyone gets a different version of what she was doing before she was a gym leader. These particular stories are kept short or extravagant, both if you’re lucky. On morals, Jodie fully believes in doing what’s best for people. She will jump in if she sees someone being wronged, and make sure all has been righted. Authority without the good of people at its base grates her nerves, and will stand up against it. That’s not to say she’s a crusader of all things good; she has a “if it’s not harming anyone it’s fine” mentality which extends to herself. (Side note: Jodie likes the current status quo. If something threatens the world the way it is now, she will work to stop it.) Other: Jodie’s favorite thing to do with her hands is origami, so she always has little colorful squares of paper on her. She loves good food, especially when it’s weird good food, and will generally order the most unusual thing off the menu. Though she loves books, she’s always hated having to actually sit down and read them. Audio books have been a lifesaver. Current goals: Catch more ghost pokemon. Catch more pokemon in general. Learn more, travel more, figure out where the pokemarts get all their stuff. » tl/dr PERSONALITY Jodie: - Has a severe case of wanderlust - Lacks patience, cannot grind out levels - Doesn’t consider or completely forgets little details - Is terrible at memorizing things - Asks personal questions without hesitation - Is non-judgmental - Probably won’t dislike you - Loves secrets - Won’t always respect authority - Is a story teller - Exaggerates the truth, especially to make herself look good or for a better story - Could be considered a conspiracy theorist - Lacks a lot of social boundaries - Comes off as carefree - Will break rules - Won’t give you a straight answer about her past - Fears not living up to her expectations - Has the good of people at heart » HISTORY History put simply: Jodie’s family has a long history of being strong trainers and coordinators. She had a lot of trouble as a trainer, and has spent several years training away from the normal gym battle route. She grew up in Yaylitown and left there when she was 10 with her duskull to become a trainer. Her nickname, "Rip", comes from her great grandfather Ripley, whom she's been named after (her middle name) and deeply respects. Plus she really like ghosts. Jodie was born to discerning parents. Her mother was a distinguished trainer from Hoenn and her father had no shortage of skill as a coordinator. Her grandparents were no different, nor their parents before them. Throughout her young childhood, Jodie was told great stories of her family’s past, full of colorful characters who seemed to have the ability to do amazing things built into their being. Though they may fail here and there for dramatic effect, their exploits are met mostly with resounding success. Badges and other awards covered an entire wall of the Mercy family house, each with a great story. More than anything, young Jodie wanted a place of her own on that wall. Out of all the stories Jodie was told, none intrigued her more than those of her great grandfather Ripley. She loved hearing the stories of the old trainer, how he would go to the ends of the world to find the most elusive of pokemon. He and his faithful mightyena braved all environments, from storming seas to sweltering volcanos, all for the hope of finding something new. In one tale, an old sea man asked the young boy Ripley why he was venturing into a dangerous ice cave. He replied, “I’m seeking adventure, treasure, and a tale of my own. When I find it, then I can be happy.” and he stood by those words until he died. If asked who her hero was, Jodie would blurt out the obvious answer; “Great Grandpa Ripley”. Jodie bought a cape and hat to match the ones in her grandfather’s portrait, and her parents congratulated themselves for choosing the right middle name. Driven by the promise of glory and the wanderlust that would later drive her around the region, The Great Ripley, Formerly Known as Jodie, spent her single-digit years reliving the trials of the old trainer. Her first and middle names became interchangeable. The young girl became infamous for walking into random resident’s houses, proclaiming her search for adventure, treasure, and a tale of her own. Three weeks after she turned nine, Jodie became restless. She couldn’t wait for her tenth birthday (why couldn’t it have been this year?) and the shiny new licence that would come the day of. One day it dawned on her - she didn’t need a trainer’s licence to have her own partner.The opportunity arrived when the professor from the Yaylitown lab was traveling to Dizhen city for a few days. She gained her parent’s and the professor’s permission to come along. Late one night she slipped away into the forest. She was used to wild pokemon; how to get along with them without a fight. But the pokemon of this forest were different. Pursuit from a large wild pokemon eventually led her to an old, worn shack. Bursting through the door, she was met face to face with another pokemon. She did the one thing she could think of - reaching into her pocket she drew out the pokeball she had nicked from her parent’s stores, and threw. The ball clicked shut, and Jodie had caught her first pokemon. Already Ripley had been shorted to “Rip”, but with the introduction of her new duskull companion the nickname was cemented. Jodie was out of the house the day she turned ten. She was at the lab door before the professor unlocked the door for the morning. Jodie got her gear and left; she didn’t bother with a starter pokemon, she already had her own. She was ready to take on the world. Reality hit her hard. Coming from a family like her own, Jodie thought she’d just be good at pokemon. Quickly she found that, for her, just doing something with her best of skill and heart is a recipe for an explosive failure. In battle, she’s never succeeded in simply overpowering her opponents, and even after factoring in type advantages and other common battle strategies she found herself losing far more often than she was winning. Why? For a while she assumed it was because her fighting spirit wasn’t up to par (maybe if she just yelled a little louder...). In time Jodie discovered the truth; those kids who yelled at the top of their lungs while their charmander flamethrowered a wartortle into a loss spent days just training for every battle they won. She tried this approach, tried her very best to knuckle down and train, but she couldn’t muster the concentration. After two hours of repeated training she got the jitters and couldn’t focus. She tried over and over to beat a gym, or even anyone with one gym badge, and continued to fail. This was nothing like the stories. She was supposed to be like her family; strong, able to take on any challenge and come out victorious, but the truth said otherwise. At last she gave up. Around the time she turned eleven, Jodie disappeared off the map. Letters home trickled in at a crawl and few people had any news from her. For a year she went on a search to find her strength. One day, out of nowhere, a news story aired showing the stunning victory of a trainer earning her first badge by a landslide. Though this story has been largely lost to time and better victories, she has a recording of it on her pokedex. Jodie took on another two gyms, but when she fought for her fourth badge, she faced an utter defeat. Even a different strategy couldn’t make up for the difference in strength; she’d met the extent of her power. Again Jodie disappeared. When she was seventeen, Jodie again emerged. She’d found her love for ghost types; they seemed to click with her better than other types (plus she found a lot of them were she liked to explore). The team she had built, what would eventually become her gym team, was strong. She knew each of the pokemon on her team by heart - what they could do, their limits, their quirks - and the strength they’d built led her team to victory. At the age of nineteen she was offered a position as a gym leader, and has never since looked back. | ||
AGE 20 | ||
| GENDER Female | ||
OCCUPATION Lost Shrine Ghost Gym Leader | ||
 (I'll make her pic a little nicer later) | ||
GYM TEAM       - Sableye has Keen Eye - Golurk has Iron Fist - No Hidden Abilties - Froslass knows Water Pulse - Dusknoir knows Brick Break | ||
CURRENT TEAM  | ||
