Riiiiiiiiiiight, have this 3,385-words-long monster of a SU!
KNIGHT
Name: Valentina Kaminov
Gender: Female
Age: 18
Weapon/Armor: Valentina’s weapon is a pair of two scythes and claws, which are attached upon each arm, covering the entire lower arm and the back of the hand. An extremely rigid and fairly sharp blade extends from the arm, which can double as both a weapon and a mini-shield of sorts, and a set of long, ultra-sharp silver claws, capable of damaging armour, extend from the wrist, covering the hand, which are the main attacking weapons, and are generally used for tearing enemies apart or piercing holes in them. Her scythes (not her claws) are imbued with the power Sandstorm, meaning that they leave a long trail of sand in its tracks, clouding the visions of opponents (though not her own, as she also wears clear goggles in battle to protect her eyes).
Affiliation: Alexsandr; Ideals
Appearance: Valentina looks much younger than she actually is, standing at 160cm and having childish facial features, such as large, innocent, baby blue eyes which can make themselves even larger if she wills them to, a small button nose, and cherry-like lips. She has a very skinny figure, coupled with a tragically flat chest, though this also allows her to move more freely and nimbly. Her hair is also very childish for her age – she has wavy, platinum-blonde hair, which is tied back into two high pigtails that reach just past her shoulders when tied up like this, giving her the appearance of a prepubescent girl. Indeed, more than one person has been shocked when hearing about her real age.
In normal circumstances, Valentina is not one for dark, heavy, clothing – she prefers wearing skirts and dresses and blouses, usually white or any other pale colour, with the more frills, the better. Her favourite outfit is a cream-coloured dress with short, puffy sleeves and a frilly skirt that comes down to just above her knees, the shade of yellow getting darker the lower down the frills are. She wears white knee-length socks underneath them, and black strapless shoes with a ribbon at the front. She also wears a crystal necklace in the shape of a teardrop as a good luck charm, and her hair is tied back with carnation-pink ribbons. Of course, she ditches her girly clothes in battle, and wears a black protective outfit, which, though it isn’t a standard Knight’s armour, is still good at deflecting the majority of attacks, and is thin enough to let her move around freely. Also, in battle, she wears clear goggles to protect her eyes from sand to accompany her partner’s powers, as mentioned previously.
Valentina has a very faint trace of a long scar down her upper arm, which she got when she was eight years old, and is therefore almost invisible now.
Personality: Valentina is an extremely bubbly, sweet-natured girl (or more precisely, young woman), who loves meeting and chatting to new people, being easily excited, and being around people in general. She aims to live life to its fullest, and to value happiness above everything else. Though she does have a tendency to annoy people, she has a knack for breaking through people’s shells with her bouncy and determined nature. She loves making new friends, and is generally nice to almost everyone. She relishes in helping people complete tasks, and acts as the cheerleader of the group in many situations, due to her optimistic views about life and everything else, as well as her perpetually cheerful self naturally cheering up others by her mere presence in their company. As a result, she is well-liked and doted on by many people. However, some people still do think of her to be unnecessarily immature for her age, usually the most cold-hearted ones.
…Or so she seems. Valentina is well aware of her happy-go-lucky image, and how she looks so innocent and childlike, and uses this to her advantage. She is very selfish and cunning, and is used to getting things her way. Because of this, she uses various tricks and tactics to persuade, or rather bribe, people to do her bidding. She can create teary, puppy-dog eyes, or make tears roll down her cheeks while giving the impression that she is trying to hold them back, and even act cutesy and sweeter than usual, to get anything she wants, from extra sweets to a secret book of records out of bounds to everyone except the owner of the book. She uses most of her so-called ‘friends’ to her advantage, knowing that one would naturally want to be useful to their friends, and uses her high-born status as well to attract more ‘friends’. At heart, she is more cunning than a Zoroark, though of course, she will hardly ever let people know of her secret. She also has a specialty for hitting people where it hurts on purpose (both physically and metaphorically), while keeping up the guise that she is completely innocent and that she only ‘accidentally’ said that without meaning to hurt their feelings.
Valentina also has a very violent side to her. Whenever battles are involved, her personality takes a sudden 180 degrees turn, and she becomes violent and aggressive, maybe almost a psychopath, and is eager for blood and death. She revels in killing or harming others, hearing the screams of the people at death’s doors, and gives no mercy to anyone at all, no matter what tragic and tear-jerking excuse they may have. She loves being sadistic while torturing people, retaining her sweet, charming nature as she brings them excruciatingly slowly to their fates, and giggling madly as she does so. She also acts this way to anybody who ever turns against her, in the hopes that they will continue to obey her for all eternity afterwards. She hates losing, and believes that she must win at all times no matter what; as a result, she has often pushed herself too hard, leading to self-sustained injuries, and becomes even more enraged when losing, though it also does mean that she never gives up, being too proud to do so. When she is finished with her business, she immediately reverts back to her old self as if nothing had happened, making quite a few people afraid of her.
Along with being violent and aggressive, Valentina is also a tough cookie. Even in the most hopeless of situations, she never gives up, as mentioned before; no circumstance would ever drive her to surrender. She tackles any challenge she is faced with directly, showing no signs of fear, even when the challenge is trekking through an active volcano or facing off an extremely powerful Pokémon who is known to have killed many Knights. She is not easily shaken, showing no emotion even when she is presented with decapitated limbs and heads covered in blood, or is attacked directly by rogue Pokémon. She also never cries, not even in the most tear-jerking situations. It’s not necessarily that she feels no sympathy; it’s mostly just that she’s incapable of expressing her emotions. Then again, most of the time, she doesn’t feel anything.
However, just because she tricks and uses people, it does not necessarily mean that she is like this to everyone. She is actually still very cheerful, lively, and talkative when you actually get to know her, though maybe not as optimistic – she actually has a negative view on life, due to experiences in her life, though she doesn’t show this to anyone. She does genuinely care about the people she loves, and will do anything in her power to help and protect them, though she generally isn’t very good at expressing her own emotions due to having almost no prior experience in making friends whatsoever. She is also often too proud of herself to admit that she feels affection towards someone, which is another factor that stops her from making real friends.
History: Valentina was born to an upper-class family living in the centre of the Upper District. Her father was a Veteran Knight, whose many accomplishments in battle had earned him many medals, awards, and a great deal of money. Even before this, her father was from a noble family, who was already wealthy enough for them to easily afford a mansion with five storeys, including an attic and a basement, with a spacious garden and a pavilion, not to mention many servants. She also had a brother, Alexei, who was four years older than her, and was also definitely the stupidest and most obnoxious person she had ever met in her life. He constantly criticised her for ‘not looking like a proper woman’, as well as ‘not acting like a proper woman’, and was always ordering her around like a slave, or telling herself to go shut herself away in the kitchen with the servants. Needless to say, Valentina hated him from the bottom of her guts, disgusted by everything he did and said. In spite of this, their parents took no notice of his actions, and doted on him instead, giving him everything he wanted and more, especially their mother, even when he treated her like a piece of garbage. The only person he respected was their father, whom she respected as well, though she didn’t agree with most of his views.
What enraged her most was that, as the first-born male of the family, he was automatically in line to inherit all of their father’s fortunes, despite the fact that she was much more talented and intelligent. She loved learning about the world and honing her battling skills, and showed immense dedication to them, but Alexei showed no interest in this sort of things whatsoever, much preferring to insult and harm young girls and women around town, using his father’s status to do whatever he wanted with no consequences. Though her parents did spoil her rotten with gifts and food, and gave her her Partner Pokémon, a Gible, it was obvious that they didn’t actually care about her much, not caring at all about what she did with herself, and that Alexei was the most important one, with him being the heir and all, and treated him the best above everyone else, supporting his actions no matter what. However, Valentina found comfort within the servants instead, who loved her for being so sweet and chirpy. Taking notice of this bias, she magnified these positive traits, so that people would love her more, especially her parents, but she ultimately failed to win them over. As a result, her outlook on life deteriorated, blaming her gender on her failures in life, and began to take her rage out in the form of violence, starting out by torturing stray Pokémon she found on the streets with her Gible.
It was several years before Valentina realised three things: one, she was an excellent battler; two, her father would form a better impression of her if she became a Knight, like him; and three, she actually considered her Gible, by now a Gabite, to be her friend. She finally gave her Gabite a name, Aphrodi, and when she was twelve, after conducting much research on the Knights of Unova, she asked her father to allow her to become a Squire, and eventually a Knight, which, as she predicted, impressed him, though it still wasn’t enough to make him favour her. She was still determined, however; she would definitely become one of the greatest Knights in all of Unova, and prove once and for all that she was the rightful heir of her father’s estate, much more capable and skilled than her good-for-nothing idiot of a brother, who, not to mention, would certainly bring the family name to shame, including herself, when all his misdeeds would be uncovered. It would also nearly kill her to see the person she hated the most in the world inherit all that wealth, and she wasn’t going to have any of that.
She passed the entrance programs for becoming a Squire easily enough, possibly with her high-born status helping her pass without difficulty, and trained herself vigorously with Aphrodi, who later evolved into a Garchomp, vowing to prove her worth to her father, often driving herself to the brink of exhaustion. Despite being popular with many other Squires (though at first, she used to be ridiculed for her small stature), she didn’t make any friends that she considered to be real friends, especially since most other Squires in training were of a lower class than her, she didn’t consider any of them to be valid candidates for being her friend; besides, they would tarnish her father’s impression of her if he ever found out, which she obviously couldn’t let happen. She maintained a high performance level all throughout her training, easily besting others in practice battles, and she managed to obtain full Knighthood when she was 18, partly due to her starting her training a year earlier than others, and partly due to her exceptional skills.
She’d only been a proper Knight for a few months when the war between Aleksandr and Ernst broke out, during which she’d already carried out several successful missions. Grabbing her chance to participate in a war immediately, she joined Aleksandr’s army, as she sympathised with his situation, comparing it to that of her own – not to mention, she couldn’t wait to get into a situation that involved killing people for once. Of course, there was also the fact that he was the current ruling king and that allying herself with him would boost her family’s reputation further in the very likely event that he retained his position.
Other: Huh? Your Pokémon is evolving! [insert fanfare] Congratulations! Your Pokémon evolved into a… what? A Viking? Wait, where’s it running off to? Oh, shoot! Someone stop it! Someone! …Oh well, guess it can’t be helped now. And the Vikings set fire to the settlement.
POKEMON
Species: Garchomp
Nickname: Aphrodi
Gender: Male
Appearance: Aphrodi looks much more beautiful than your standard Garchomp… at least, to himself, anyway.
Personality: Aphrodi is a proud and arrogant Garchomp, who views himself as some kind of deity, thanks to his mostly pampered upbringing, which made him become a spoilt brat. He is always confident and full of himself, and has an unbelievable ego. He will attack anyone and everyone who even attempts to say that he isn’t the best Pokémon in the world, completely blowing off his head in almost a comical way, and has a tendency to get into unnecessary fights just to protect his ego. Thanks to his overblown ego, and the fact that he grew up pitting himself against much weaker and more vulnerable victims before Valentina began training as a Squire, he also has a crippling habit of underestimating his opponents and leaving openings for them to exploit. Even outside of battles, he can be very shallow and dense at times, often too busy making a big fuss of himself to notice other people’s emotions.
However, Aphrodi is different from Valentina in that he hardly ever actually means to hurt people on purpose, and that he does feel sympathy for others. Though he may like violence and action, he does feel vaguely guilty every time he injures or kills a fellow Pokémon, and on rare occasions, even feels genuinely sorry for his victims. He doesn’t mind making new friends, as long as he feels that they are on the same level as him, and cares about his loved ones to ridiculous levels, going absolutely ballistic when anyone attacks his friends, most especially Valentina (who he feels a sisterly bond for). He isn’t hard to impress or amuse, though most of the time, his pride will prevent him from letting others know about this, and will almost always deny having affections for anyone.
He has a distinct weakness for anything sweet, and giving him lots of sugary stuff (especially chocolate) will guarantee pretty much anyone a one-way ticket to becoming his friend.
History: Aphrodi’s memories before being given to Valentina as a 7th birthday present are very hazy, with him only remembering very few, mostly insignificant details. When he first met Valentina, he wasn’t sure of his impression of her; what he did know, however, was that he disliked being ordered around by a little girl (despite him being a little boy then, too), and constantly rebelled against her, disobeying her at every single opportunity., Valentina, however, instead of running to her parents crying, as he’d expected her to do, took the matter into her own hands, and employed a whip. Whenever he didn’t listen to her, she whipped him – not very harshly at first, but not by any means gently either. Aphrodi was certain that he could wait this out, that she’d eventually give up, and continued to disobey her. He was utterly wrong – the whips began to become harsher, and eventually, Aphrodi decided that he was having none of this.
One day, about a year and a half after his first meeting with Valentina, Aphrodi completely turned against her, slashing her upper arm (fortunately, as he was still a Gible then, the wound was nowhere near fatal). However, what happened next was definitely not what he’d expected. Instead of bursting into tears and wailing noisily, the young, tiny Valentina immediately struck back; she grabbed hold of his head, flung him to the ground, and stamped her foot down upon him fiercely, remaining expressionless all throughout as her arm continued to bleed. He tried to struggle, but Valentina refused to back down either, and eventually, both were on the ground, wrestling each other. That was when Aphrodi realised how much of a brave and admirable girl she was (well, in a way), and subsequently when Valentina realised that her Gible was a Pokémon with true power and potential. In the end, they ended up lying on the ground together, muddied and exhausted, but laughing.
Aphrodi and Valentina maintained a shaky relationship from there on, but Aphrodi now felt respect towards Valentina – a first-time experience for him – and he was determined to help her, though he wasn’t sure if she even liked him back. It was yet another year and a half until he evolved into a Gabite during one of their training sessions, and around the same time, Valentina began to be friendlier to him, giving him sweets in secret, playing with him in the garden, and finally gave him a name – Aphrodi. From then on, they grew even closer together, playing pranks on each other and challenging each other, and were now officially pretty much best friends, albeit ones with a slightly vitriolic tone to it. It was also around this time that Valentina turned to street violence, and began seeking out Pokémon to fight and destroy. At first, Aphrodi enjoyed fighting with the other Pokémon, but after a while, he realised that he was fighting opponents who had a disadvantage, compared to himself, a toughly trained and already evolved Gabite. However, he was both too proud of himself and loyal to Valentina to stop himself from hurting them any further. Anyway, it gave him plenty of experience and satisfaction.
Aphrodi was fully supportive of Valentina’s goals to become a Knight; of course, it would do a lot of good for him as well, as it would finally be time for him to show to the world what an awesome being he was. He got along with the Pokémon of the other Squires better than Valentina got along with said Squires, though he often got into unneeded arguments that he could have gone without. He made a couple of friends too, but many others considered him to be somewhat of a comic relief character (at least, outside of battles; inside, he could probably knock them out in one blow if he wanted to, or so they believed). He evolved once again into a Garchomp during their trek through Victory Road, which definitely gave them a boost. It was around this time that he began to question his past; it seemed unusual to him that he evolved into a Gabite at such an early age, looking at all the unevolved Pokémon around him, and figured that he must have built up at least some experience before he met Valentina, though he couldn’t remember when. For now, he has put this question aside, though he still brings it up every now and then.
Powers:
- Sandstorm
- Dragon Claw
- Dragon Rush
- Earth Power
- Fire Fang
Ability – Sand Veil
Other: And the Vikings set fire to the settlement… again. Honestly.
I think I might have made Aphrodi a bit overpowered (what with him being a second-stage pseudo-legendary and all), and I'll happily change it a bit if I need to.