Name: Jasper Harcourt
Age: 25
Gender & Pronouns: Male, he/him
Appearance:
Jasper stands at average height, at about 5'9”. Though he's not one to go out of his way to exercise, he's always led an active lifestyle through his pokemon journey, giving him a trim, fit body type. He has choppy steel-blue hair that would fall past his shoulders at its longer points, but he keeps it held in a loose bun. His eyes are a piercing golden yellow, in contrast to the rest of his darker appearance. He has a long face shape with a pointed chin and a long but thin nose. His skin, which rarely sees more than moonlight, is quite pale and prone to burning. He has long, thin fingers that get him a lot of “do you play the piano?” questions (he does not).
Jasper isn't a fan of that old-timey look some of the other ghost specialists seem to favour. Instead, he usually dons a long-sleeved black shirt and damaged jeans. He also wears a number of black bracelets and has a drop necklace with a large ghost-type symbol on the end of it that contains a Key Stone. His clothing choices are offset by thick prescription lenses that he wears to correct nearsightedness. He is otherwise practically blind but can manage without them (at least in a “fake it until you can hear who you're talking to” sort of way), but considering he can't see even a quarter way across the battle arena with his normal vision, they're a necessity for pokemon battles.
Personality: Jasper has a calm and mature aura about him that contradicts with his personality once you get to know him a little better. He takes great joy in making quips at and messing with his friends and co-workers, but in truth, the more he teases you, the more he likes you. He can be a bit of a prankster in this regard too, especially with the wide array of ghost pokemon at his disposal that are perfect for scaring the living daylights out of anybody at any time. He doesn't take as well to being on the receiving end of pranks though, and will immediately plot revenge if taken by surprise.
He's surprisingly chatty, and especially if you get him onto a subject that he's passionate about, it can be difficult to shut him up. He gets most of this energy out via writing though, as well as talking to his rotom, Pixel. If it weren't for Pixel figuring out how to possess electronics with speakers, he'd probably talk to himself any time he was without human company. It's more this fact than anything that he got into writing – mostly books detailing his training techniques and tales of grandeur about battles past. How true any of them are is up for debate – he definitely exaggerates certain details or skips over some he'd rather the public not be aware of.
Jasper is a night owl, partially out of necessity as ghost-types get more out of training when they're in their element at the witching hour. He can be very grumpy in the morning, especially if he has to wake up early, or if he doesn't get his coffee on time. The number of mean-spirited quips he makes at others quadruples when he's tired, and he will take poorly to anyone trying to engage him in legitimate conversation before his brain is fully functional. Despite this, he will mock early birds for their inability to stay awake at night, as if oblivious to his own inability to function at their respective prime time.
He can be awkward when he has to be empathetic, as his instinct to make light of the situation is sometimes the worst reaction to have to somebody in pain. He feels like he goes into panic mode if he sees another person crying, especially if he knows them well enough that he can't just turn a blind eye to their emotions. He doesn't like to go to others if he's upset either, and will either rant to Pixel or internalize everything. He avoids talking about negatives or worst case scenarios, preferring to either ignore bad situations or find a positive from them.
History: “Do you think I should start all the way at the beginning? 'I was born and raised in Floaroma Town. In the spring the air was so thick with pollen I could barely breathe, but the scent of those gorgeous blossoms as they opened themselves wide to the heavens and lit up the ground like a rainbow... I'll never forget it. It's the smell of home.' But eh, I was born in the dead of winter anyway. In the middle of a blizzard. Everything was dead. Yeah, that's more fitting; the publishers'll like that.”
“Zrrt! Leave it in! Good for Sinnoh tourizzzzm!”
Jasper shrugged at his rotom, nicknamed Pixel, who was currently inhabiting the tablet he used for writing. They had a lot of time to kill, as they were presently inhabiting a train car headed for an airport to take them to Orre. “Why would I care about Sinnoh tourism? But sure, whatever. But if my autobiography tanks, it's on you. Anyways, where was I... Oh, right. Parents had normal boring jobs, I was outside a ton as a kid, life was good. I had an older brother too, Aiden. He was a total jerk to me growing up, always pushing me around, but he died when I was seven. Fast-forwarding to adulthood - ”
“Zrrt! Wait, wait, wait! You can't juzzzt glozz over your brother like that!”
“Why not? I hate talking about it. I guess it did kind of lead me to where I am today... nah, I can abridge it, let's skip ahead - ”
“Azz
zz your head editor, you gotta spill the detailz!”
Jasper was quiet for a few moments. He hadn't had a great relationship with his brother as a kid, but when Aiden had been caught up in a dare with some of his “friends” and drowned in the fast rapids just outside of town... everything changed. “It was like my whole world shifted...” he muttered, Pixel eagerly writing down every word. “Maybe sometimes I wished Aiden was dead... and I felt so, so guilty about that afterward. I'd do anything to take those thoughts back, anything to make life go back to normal – to make my parents smile again, to lift that dark cloud over my heart. There wasn't anything I could do. But I heard a rumour. I went outside of town to the Valley Windworks. That's when they found me.” Jasper's eyes glossed over, a small smile tugging at his lips. “I should have been terrified, right? A swarm of drifloon descending on me like a pride of pyroar on a bunnelby – er, wait, what would people from Orre say?”
“Zrrt! Uhh, like Team Snagem on a shadow pokemon?”
“What? Nevermind. Leave it as is. But it was incredible... The flowers of my hometown were nothing compared to the void of the afterlife. The eyes of my ancestors, the incredible broadness of it all – I don't know how to describe it Pixel, and the conversation I had with my brother, I... just let me write it myself later, okay?”
“Whatever you say, chief!”
“I think I was meant to stay there, but maybe the drifloon sensed how absolutely grateful I was for the opportunity. Maybe they saw something in me I didn't recognize in myself yet – I really don't know, but obviously I didn't stay in the afterlife. The drifloon who brought me back ended up being my first pokemon. I named him Alonso – dunno why, I was a kid. Kids are weird. Speaking of kids being weird, I grew more and more interested in ghost pokemon and the other side I'd been so blessed to visit. Oh, and before you ask, yes were my parents ever concerned about me. My Arceus, where would I be if I'd listened to them and ignored my calling? I just got sneakier about it – and left home when I was ten. In fact, I didn't just leave home – I left Sinnoh.”
“To Kalo
zz, where you met me! I can take it from here!”
Jasper chuckled. “I met you when I was sixteen, in the Lost Hotel. You just skipped over six years and six gym badges - but hey, you're the editor.”
“Zrrrughh, alright, alright, so you got to Kalozz aaaaand?”
“Met up with the most ridiculous group of kids the world had ever seen. I loved those guys to death – still do, wish I could visit more often. I gotta stop leaving the country. Anyways, they were mostly from Kalos. Few of 'em found their calling elsewhere, but the rest of us stuck through it the whole journey. I didn't just train ghost types at first either – do you remember that gogoat we thought we could ride on between towns? No idea why we thought that was a good idea.”
“Not really. I think by the time you found me it was a ghostzz only club.”
“Ah, yeah, true. I'd caught Dante by then, and Alonso had evolved. I'll write those stories separately. You quickly became my favourite cell phone, Pixel; you'll always have that. And now you're my favourite vacuum cleaner, too.”
“Zrrt – REDACTED.”
“Anyways, finished the gym challenge when I was eighteen and had started training for an opportunity to challenge the Kalos Elite Four. I learned so much over eight years. I grew up traveling around Kalos, meeting new people, studying new pokemon, and learning how to be creative with the pokemon at my disposal. It all came down to this. I had to switch Alonso out of my team, which was hard at the time – he just wasn't battling as well as he used to. I figured maybe he was getting old, I mean, who knows how old he was when I caught him, right? Challenged the Elite Four – really fun battles, all four of them. I have some notes from back then documented somewhere; you can borrow those for details. I'd earned the right to challenge Diantha – but she wasn't available right away, so we set a date for the championship match to be held a week later...”
Jasper fell quiet, then let out a slow sigh.
Pixel floated closer. “...I took the call from the pokemon centre.”
“Alonso... just like that, he had slipped away from us. Back to where I first met him. Back to the realm nobody on this planet can truly comprehend. I knew he was in a better place, but I... I wasn't with him. I was so focused on training for that big battle that – I didn't even realize how sick he had gotten. Maybe I was just young and disillusioned into thinking he was immortal. Ghost types may border the afterlife, but they only share it when their life, too, comes to an end. I learned that the hard way. One of the worst days of my life was compounded when I had to forfeit the match I'd been looking forward to for half my life. Diantha was really nice about it though – made it seem like it was no big deal to completely cancel the event. Ha – I know better now. But even though we didn't battle then, she saw potential in me – and when Olympia had to retire for a while due to a health scare, I was happy to step up when Diantha requested it.”
“Zrrt! I already mi
zz Anistar City!”
“Same here, Pixel. The sting of salty air, the crisp sea breeze – it's just as much home as Floaroma Town, now. What a gorgeous city – and the gym! Olympia was an artistic genius if she was the one who designed it. The ghosts took to it like a moth to a flame – I bet anything some of them are still there. I probably forgot a dreepy or two at least.”
“Real respon
zzzzible, boss.”
“I'm glad Olympia's doing better now, but the last year being in charge of it was wonderful. Wish they'd kept the ghost typing when I left. I learned so much when I was there – I'd spend time devising new strategies while watching other ghost experts on old replays in the backroom whenever I wasn't battling.”
“Zrrt! To Orre we go!”
“Yeah,” Jasper smiled. “Some guy named Justy contacted me. Heard that my gym contract was almost up and figured I'd be looking for a new gig. Didn't think it would be somewhere so far though, or somewhere so dangerous.” Jasper sighed and looked out the train's window. The sun was setting. “They said I'd need a pokemon to fly around on, do you think I'm winging it with Viper? Like, yes, but it's weird when she goes invisible and I'm just flying around on nothing.”
“Zrrtthhhaaaa hahaha! Forget Viper, I can inhabit a helicopter. Leave it to me!”
“...Yeah, no. Hard no on that. No stealing vehicles. Bad rotom.”
“Zzaaawww...”
Jasper grinned out the window. After they got off the train, they'd need to take a plane to make it to Orre. It was an island, after all – one that was in a bad place right now. Earthquakes, natural disasters, storm surges... if he and his ghosts could lend any assistance, then they were up for the challenge.
--------------
Pokémon
--------------
Species: Sableye (mega)
Name: Dante
Gender: Male
Appearance: Nothing out of the ordinary, other than his mouth is almost always curled into a creepy smirk.
Personality: Pretty quiet and unassuming, despite being Jasper's ace pokemon and having numerous accolades under his hypothetical belt. He has a weird habit of cackling randomly to unnerve others and loves to hide and jump out of nowhere to scare people. Jasper's other pokemon look up to him as their leader of sorts and give him a lot of respect – and a wide berth.
History: “Ah, Dante. I met him in Reflections Cave in Kalos – I had no idea back then what this little guy was capable of, though he gave us one hell of a battle. And yeah, he's always been this quiet and creepy, I adore it about him. Chatty pokemon are the
worst.”
“Zrrt! Hey!”
“And then, naturally, I had to go on a long quest to find a sablenite. Actually bought it off a sketchy rare items trader for a hefty sum, and I wasn't sure if it was the real deal at first – obviously it was, oh, you should have seen Dante the first time he mega-evolved. I knew I had a champion-worthy pokemon on my hands right at that moment. Incredible. He became my signature pokemon, and I'm so proud at everything we've accomplished together.”
Species: Rotom [various forms]
Name: Pixel
Gender: Genderless – doesn't really care what you call them pronoun-wise, but will be quick to remind you they have no genetalia, if only to elicit a reaction.
Appearance: Usually is possessing Jasper's cell phone or writing tablet so that they can speak. Both devices turn from their usual grey to red with large eyes whenever possessed, and can float.
Personality: Typical of rotom, loves to possess electronics and rivals Jasper in terms of chattiness. They can talk if they're possessing an electronic with a speaker. Very friendly, but has a sarcastic streak and, like their trainer, love to mess with people they know well.
History: “Zrrt! That'
zz me!”
“Yeah, I caught you in the Lost Hotel back in Kalos, but you can probably detail that battle better than I can.”
“To be honest, I jumped at you hoping you'd catch me! I'd always wanted to leave town, go on a journey, and I picked the perfect trainer!”
“Thanks buddy, you're pretty cool too. Took you a while to figure out you could talk though – the day you went into my cellphone changed my life forever. I had a rotom phone before it was cool. Still can't decide if it was a good or bad change, though.”
“Ha ha ha. I am laughing so very hard.”
“I think your best battle was against Siebold. Pretty sure the last thing he was expecting to see was a lawnmower. I think he had half a mind to disqualify us - sore loser, ha!”
Species: Dragapult
Name: Viper
Gender: Female
Appearance: Typical appearance, but has a habit of phasing in and out of transparency.
Personality: Powerful and she knows it, and fearless in battle. Has dozens of dreepy children, though none are on Jasper's person aside from the ones in her cannons. She has a huge sweet tooth and will stalk anybody who has food on their person, hoping they'll give her some. Jasper likes to encourage others to feed her since this reinforces the behaviour, and means they will have a giant ghost dragon popping up in their room at midnight begging for treats. This mental image amuses Jasper to no end.
History: “Remember that gogoat I mentioned a while back? Yeah, I traded him for a dreepy egg with some weird lady from Galar who was breeding them like they were going out of style. I guess you can't even register a gogoat in the pokedex in Galar, so it was, uh, maybe slightly illegal, but whatever.”
“Viper'zzz really awesome! The way she launches her kids across the battlefield, zoom, I want to try it sometime!”
“Yeah, mom of the year. That's Viper for you, I guess. Never did figure out who the father was, damn horny buggers, none will fess up. The gym was starting to drown in dreepy, so maybe it's for the best we got out of there."
Species: Ceruledge
Name: Kratos
Gender: Male
Appearance: Average sized, rather young which shows in his glossy appearance
Personality: A bit shy and unsure of himself, especially around other trainers. He has warmed up somewhat to Jasper but hasn't given him his full trust yet. On the other hand, is fiercely protective of younger pokemon if he senses they are in danger.
History: “The newbie on the team! Got Kratos in a trade for a spiritomb; his name came with him, but eh, it's not too bad. Still got some work to do on this one, but I can tell he's full of potential."
“Zrrt! Crazy what people will trade you for a spiritomb. We've got like ten of 'em back home."
"To be fair Pixel, I don't think most people spend months staking out to hunt them like we did. Spiritomb are pretty elusive."
"Cra
zzziness pays off sometimes!"
You all have been accepted.
