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Nov. 16th, 2013 10:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
big_mistakeN.B. Obviously, there will be spoilers for Pokemon XY. Furthermore, I've deliberately omitted all references to which Legendary and therefore which version AZ hails from. Additionally, I've avoided referencing the player character's gender. If an XY player character apps to Ariel, I'd like to have AZ synchronize with their choices.
→ IC
□ Name: AZ
□ Journal: big_mistake
□ Series: Pokemon XY
□ Canon point: Post-game, after reuniting with Floette.
□ History: http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/AZ
□ Personality: "The man who loved Pokémon with all his heart."
AZ is, more than anything, defined by his love for his Pokemon, especially his Floette, though this same love led him to commit terrible atrocities. AZ is a man of intense emotions. When he loves something, he loves with his whole heart. When he grieves, he goes to extraordinary, shocking lengths to bring his most prized Pokemon back to life, even if it costs the lives of many, many other Pokemon. When he is angered, AZ is blinded by fury and incapable of forgiveness, creating and using the machine that would come to be renowned as the ultimate weapon on both sides of the war, including the one his own Pokemon had fought on. It is AZ's capacity for great love that directly results in his capacity for great tragedy, great atrocity.
However, regret is among the powerful emotions that rule AZ. AZ does everything in his power to prevent not only Team Flare from using the weapon, and when he fails, he pleads with the player character to stop Team Flare and Lysandre. He refers to his regret for using the weapon as "unending pain". Interestingly, though, AZ displays no rancor towards Lysandre for attempting to use the weapon. In part, this may be because Lysandre never threatened AZ's Pokemon directly, as was the case with the war that claimed the life of AZ's Floette. It may also be because AZ both created and used the weapon himself, and so, rather than judge Lysandre, AZ does everything in his power to stop Lysandre from repeating the mistake that AZ made three millennia ago.
Despite that unending pain, however, despite referring to himself as a "mere shell of a man" without his Floette, AZ has continued to wander Kalos for 3,000 years. It may be that AZ has a spark of hope inside him that simply refuses to die. It may be that AZ simply is incapable of accepting being parted forever from his beloved Floette. Either way, it is absolutely clear that, if AZ has a clear goal to move towards, if he has any chance of being reunited with Floette, no matter what he must endure, he will continue to move towards that goal unrelentingly.
Although his bond with his Floette is especially strong, AZ never giving up the hope for reuniting with it after 3,000 years apart, there is evidence that AZ loves all of his Pokemon and treats all of them well. The Sigilyph he uses to battle the player character in Lumiose City during the parade celebration knows the move Return - a move that increases in power, the happier a Pokemon using it is with their trainer.
But while AZ is a powerful trainer in his own right, it is clear he does not battle for the sake of battling. While his team is powerful, composed of 3 level 60 Pokemon, more powerful than the most powerful Gym Leader's team, which also consists of three Pokemon, each of a lower level than AZ's, AZ's team is also weaker than any individual member of the Elite Four. Each of the Elite Four have four Pokemon, all of them of a higher level than AZ's Pokemon, and the Champion is even stronger than they are. Despite AZ's considerable age and experience, it is clear that his focus is not on becoming the strongest trainer, but on finding Floette again. In fact, it may even be possible that until recently, AZ's Pokemon were significantly weaker than they were in the battle against him. AZ was captured by Team Flare earlier in the game, despite AZ's best efforts to keep the key to the ultimate weapon from them, and even Team Flare's leader and most powerful trainer was, at that point, significantly weaker than AZ is by the time the player character battles AZ. AZ might have put an effort into making them stronger in order to prevent such an event from ever happening again.
When AZ does battle, it not to test his strength or his Pokemon's strength. Pokemon battles are not an end in and of themselves, but a means to an end. In the case of his battle against the player character, AZ feels that he can better understand the player character, better understand himself and their relationships with Pokemon, what they are and what they should be, by battling a strong, noble Pokemon Trainer. To AZ, Pokemon battles can be a form of communication.
Despite his significantly advanced age, AZ does not neglect to use advances in technology, and has been shown to canonically use pokeballs to store his Pokemon. Furthermore, his Torkoal's ability to use the Stone Edge attack and his team's ability to use the Return attack indicate that AZ has used Technical Machines to teach them these moves.
□ Age: Over 3,000 years old.
□ Gender: Male.
□ Appearance: The first thing most people will notice about AZ is his height. Not only is AZ's overworld sprite is significantly taller than another other sprite in XY, he is described by NPCs as being 9 feet tall, or taller than a Seviper is long. His appearance is otherwise distinctly disheveled and bedraggled, with more emphasis placed on the serviceability of his attire than how fashionable it is, fitting for the lifestyle of a wanderer. His clothes aren't very colorful, though he does wear a green scarf and a red beanie. He carries his personal effects in a plain backback slung over one shoulder. He has long white hair that reaches down to his waist, and his hairstyle covers one of his eyes in all shots of him. He has a weathered, craggy look about him.
□ Abilities/Powers: AZ is described as 'immortal' or 'eternal'. As an unintended consequence of his exposure to the ultimate weapon used both to revive his Floette and to end the war, AZ became effectively immortal. The games never go into extensive detail as to what, exactly, this immortality entails. At the very least, AZ has lived for 3,000 years. However, it has been shown, both in flashbacks of AZ prior to Floette's death in the war and in art of AZ at Parfum Palace and the Lumiose City Museum that AZ's hair was once darker. It is unknown whether his white hair is a result of shock from the trauma of losing Floette, a side-effect of his exposure to the ultimate weapon, or an indication that rather than true 'immortality', AZ simply ages significantly more slowly than normal humans. The true nature of AZ's immortality, however, is unlikely to be relevant, given the time scale Ariel operates under.
As a result of AZ's extraordinarily long life spent wandering Kalos, he is intimately familiar with both the region and with Pokemon native to Kalos. He is also a skilled Pokemon trainer. His Pokemon are stronger than Wulfric's, the strongest Gym Leader in Kalos, though AZ's pokemon team is weaker than any of the Elite Four's teams, and, consequently, AZ's team is also weaker than the team of the Champion of Kalos.
Even before he became immortal, AZ demonstrated considerable aptitude in science (or what passes for science in the Pokemon universe), building a machine that was able to bring a dead Pokemon back to life, then turning that machine into a weapon capable of ending a war by destroying both sides of the war simultaneously.
□ Personal Items: AZ will have with him the clothes on his back, the backpack he carries with him, a pouch of berries, his Torkoal, and a pokeball. The pokeball will be useless until AZ's status increases. AZ's Torkoal will effectively be about as dangerous as a 3 foot tall tortoise without its powers.
□ First Person Sample:
[When the video turns on, and, in fact, throughout the broadcast, half of the recording seems to be obscured. An unfortunate side-effect of the camera happening to be in someone's eyeballs when they have a hairstyle that obscures half their vision.
[Despite that, what can be seen is a dozing tortoise with an unusual pattern of deep red depressions in its otherwise black shell. If the viewer looks a little closer, they may notice that, despite its size, it seems to be settled in someone's lap, namely, the broadcaster's.]
This is Torkoal.
[This is uncomfortable for AZ. He lived the life of a king, 3,000 years ago, and since the end of the war and losing Floette, he's lived the life of a vagabond, a wanderer searching eternally for his Pokemon.]
[For all of his 3,000 years of experience, he's never had a job. But he understands that this, and so much else, is necessary here if he wishes to ever see Floette again, if he wishes to take care of the Pokemon in his lap, depending on him.]
I do not wish to leave it alone while I work.
I am looking for places that would allow me to keep it with me while I worked. [But while that's the ideal situation, AZ knows better than to count on reality being ideal, and so he casts his net a little further.] If that is not possible, however, I am looking for a place where Torkoal will be looked after while I work, or a person to look after it.
Thank you for your time.
[Just as AZ seems about ready to end the feed, though, the Pokemon in his lap starts to wake up, lazily nuzzling AZ's massive hand. The Trainer takes a moment to lovingly pet the Torkoal, and just before the broadcast ends, the Pokemon opens its mouth to intone its name.] 'Toooorkoal.'
[It doesn't even occur to AZ that an animal able to say its species' name (albeit only its species name) might be strange to anyone from other worlds than his.]
□ Third Person Sample:
http://theloonybin.dreamwidth.org/14748.html?thread=7602588#cmt7602588
→ IC
□ Name: AZ
□ Journal: big_mistake
□ Series: Pokemon XY
□ Canon point: Post-game, after reuniting with Floette.
□ History: http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/AZ
□ Personality: "The man who loved Pokémon with all his heart."
AZ is, more than anything, defined by his love for his Pokemon, especially his Floette, though this same love led him to commit terrible atrocities. AZ is a man of intense emotions. When he loves something, he loves with his whole heart. When he grieves, he goes to extraordinary, shocking lengths to bring his most prized Pokemon back to life, even if it costs the lives of many, many other Pokemon. When he is angered, AZ is blinded by fury and incapable of forgiveness, creating and using the machine that would come to be renowned as the ultimate weapon on both sides of the war, including the one his own Pokemon had fought on. It is AZ's capacity for great love that directly results in his capacity for great tragedy, great atrocity.
However, regret is among the powerful emotions that rule AZ. AZ does everything in his power to prevent not only Team Flare from using the weapon, and when he fails, he pleads with the player character to stop Team Flare and Lysandre. He refers to his regret for using the weapon as "unending pain". Interestingly, though, AZ displays no rancor towards Lysandre for attempting to use the weapon. In part, this may be because Lysandre never threatened AZ's Pokemon directly, as was the case with the war that claimed the life of AZ's Floette. It may also be because AZ both created and used the weapon himself, and so, rather than judge Lysandre, AZ does everything in his power to stop Lysandre from repeating the mistake that AZ made three millennia ago.
Despite that unending pain, however, despite referring to himself as a "mere shell of a man" without his Floette, AZ has continued to wander Kalos for 3,000 years. It may be that AZ has a spark of hope inside him that simply refuses to die. It may be that AZ simply is incapable of accepting being parted forever from his beloved Floette. Either way, it is absolutely clear that, if AZ has a clear goal to move towards, if he has any chance of being reunited with Floette, no matter what he must endure, he will continue to move towards that goal unrelentingly.
Although his bond with his Floette is especially strong, AZ never giving up the hope for reuniting with it after 3,000 years apart, there is evidence that AZ loves all of his Pokemon and treats all of them well. The Sigilyph he uses to battle the player character in Lumiose City during the parade celebration knows the move Return - a move that increases in power, the happier a Pokemon using it is with their trainer.
But while AZ is a powerful trainer in his own right, it is clear he does not battle for the sake of battling. While his team is powerful, composed of 3 level 60 Pokemon, more powerful than the most powerful Gym Leader's team, which also consists of three Pokemon, each of a lower level than AZ's, AZ's team is also weaker than any individual member of the Elite Four. Each of the Elite Four have four Pokemon, all of them of a higher level than AZ's Pokemon, and the Champion is even stronger than they are. Despite AZ's considerable age and experience, it is clear that his focus is not on becoming the strongest trainer, but on finding Floette again. In fact, it may even be possible that until recently, AZ's Pokemon were significantly weaker than they were in the battle against him. AZ was captured by Team Flare earlier in the game, despite AZ's best efforts to keep the key to the ultimate weapon from them, and even Team Flare's leader and most powerful trainer was, at that point, significantly weaker than AZ is by the time the player character battles AZ. AZ might have put an effort into making them stronger in order to prevent such an event from ever happening again.
When AZ does battle, it not to test his strength or his Pokemon's strength. Pokemon battles are not an end in and of themselves, but a means to an end. In the case of his battle against the player character, AZ feels that he can better understand the player character, better understand himself and their relationships with Pokemon, what they are and what they should be, by battling a strong, noble Pokemon Trainer. To AZ, Pokemon battles can be a form of communication.
Despite his significantly advanced age, AZ does not neglect to use advances in technology, and has been shown to canonically use pokeballs to store his Pokemon. Furthermore, his Torkoal's ability to use the Stone Edge attack and his team's ability to use the Return attack indicate that AZ has used Technical Machines to teach them these moves.
□ Age: Over 3,000 years old.
□ Gender: Male.
□ Appearance: The first thing most people will notice about AZ is his height. Not only is AZ's overworld sprite is significantly taller than another other sprite in XY, he is described by NPCs as being 9 feet tall, or taller than a Seviper is long. His appearance is otherwise distinctly disheveled and bedraggled, with more emphasis placed on the serviceability of his attire than how fashionable it is, fitting for the lifestyle of a wanderer. His clothes aren't very colorful, though he does wear a green scarf and a red beanie. He carries his personal effects in a plain backback slung over one shoulder. He has long white hair that reaches down to his waist, and his hairstyle covers one of his eyes in all shots of him. He has a weathered, craggy look about him.
□ Abilities/Powers: AZ is described as 'immortal' or 'eternal'. As an unintended consequence of his exposure to the ultimate weapon used both to revive his Floette and to end the war, AZ became effectively immortal. The games never go into extensive detail as to what, exactly, this immortality entails. At the very least, AZ has lived for 3,000 years. However, it has been shown, both in flashbacks of AZ prior to Floette's death in the war and in art of AZ at Parfum Palace and the Lumiose City Museum that AZ's hair was once darker. It is unknown whether his white hair is a result of shock from the trauma of losing Floette, a side-effect of his exposure to the ultimate weapon, or an indication that rather than true 'immortality', AZ simply ages significantly more slowly than normal humans. The true nature of AZ's immortality, however, is unlikely to be relevant, given the time scale Ariel operates under.
As a result of AZ's extraordinarily long life spent wandering Kalos, he is intimately familiar with both the region and with Pokemon native to Kalos. He is also a skilled Pokemon trainer. His Pokemon are stronger than Wulfric's, the strongest Gym Leader in Kalos, though AZ's pokemon team is weaker than any of the Elite Four's teams, and, consequently, AZ's team is also weaker than the team of the Champion of Kalos.
Even before he became immortal, AZ demonstrated considerable aptitude in science (or what passes for science in the Pokemon universe), building a machine that was able to bring a dead Pokemon back to life, then turning that machine into a weapon capable of ending a war by destroying both sides of the war simultaneously.
□ Personal Items: AZ will have with him the clothes on his back, the backpack he carries with him, a pouch of berries, his Torkoal, and a pokeball. The pokeball will be useless until AZ's status increases. AZ's Torkoal will effectively be about as dangerous as a 3 foot tall tortoise without its powers.
□ First Person Sample:
[When the video turns on, and, in fact, throughout the broadcast, half of the recording seems to be obscured. An unfortunate side-effect of the camera happening to be in someone's eyeballs when they have a hairstyle that obscures half their vision.
[Despite that, what can be seen is a dozing tortoise with an unusual pattern of deep red depressions in its otherwise black shell. If the viewer looks a little closer, they may notice that, despite its size, it seems to be settled in someone's lap, namely, the broadcaster's.]
This is Torkoal.
[This is uncomfortable for AZ. He lived the life of a king, 3,000 years ago, and since the end of the war and losing Floette, he's lived the life of a vagabond, a wanderer searching eternally for his Pokemon.]
[For all of his 3,000 years of experience, he's never had a job. But he understands that this, and so much else, is necessary here if he wishes to ever see Floette again, if he wishes to take care of the Pokemon in his lap, depending on him.]
I do not wish to leave it alone while I work.
I am looking for places that would allow me to keep it with me while I worked. [But while that's the ideal situation, AZ knows better than to count on reality being ideal, and so he casts his net a little further.] If that is not possible, however, I am looking for a place where Torkoal will be looked after while I work, or a person to look after it.
Thank you for your time.
[Just as AZ seems about ready to end the feed, though, the Pokemon in his lap starts to wake up, lazily nuzzling AZ's massive hand. The Trainer takes a moment to lovingly pet the Torkoal, and just before the broadcast ends, the Pokemon opens its mouth to intone its name.] 'Toooorkoal.'
[It doesn't even occur to AZ that an animal able to say its species' name (albeit only its species name) might be strange to anyone from other worlds than his.]
□ Third Person Sample:
http://theloonybin.dreamwidth.org/14748.html?thread=7602588#cmt7602588
