Name: Alena "Ally" Volkova (she
hates it when someone uses the more traditional nickname "Alenka")
Age: Seventeen
Gender: Female
Hometown: Snowpoint City (Let's just assume that Snowpoint City is the default "Russian" setting in the Pokemon world for now, hehe)
Type: Dragon
Legendary: Dialga
Powers:
Dragon Claw: Alena channels draconic energy into her hands, lengthening and toughening her nails into dragon's claws and imbuing them with a dragon's power; she then slashes at her foe.
Pressure: Alena exudes a particularly intimidating, dangerous air that seems to scare the hell out of some people, and can even make the particularly susceptible go along with her (usually dangerous) ideas. Especially effective when she wants a drinking game.
Shadow Claw: Alena conjures up shadowy energy in her hands and uses it to strike at her opponents. Much better at catching foes off-guard than her usual Dragon Claw.
Iron Tail: Alena creates a diamond-hard energy tail from behind her, and strikes her foe hard with it.
Appearance:
(pretend the skulls are dragon skulls, complete with horns)
Alena, though rough around the edges, has a striking beauty that makes people look twice. She's very tall, standing at 6'1" in height, and has very fair skin, and a leanly muscular frame with long, lithe legs and very large breasts that she doesn't mind showing off. Her hair is long, thick and cut unevenly, though most of it hangs down to her hips, and her bangs usually cover her right eye. It's usually left down, or done simply in a messy ponytail or a loose side braid. While her natural hair color is platinum blonde, she started dying it silver-white fairly recently, after she had trouble dying her hair black and someone suggested that silver-white was a good color for her. Her eyes are a haunting violet color, framed with long lashes that are often coated with black mascara. Her face is angular, and her nose is strong, aquiline and rather prominent. She has a navel piercing, and her ears also have multiple piercings; her left ear has two upper helix, two earlobe and one tragus, while her right one has one rook, two forward helix and one transverse lobe. All of them are decorated with different sorts of dark-themed hardware. She has a big tattoo on her upper back, which takes the form of a scene featuring a howling wolf and a flying dragon, as well as on her upper right arm, taking the form of an upwards-pointing triangle glyph with a horizontal line cutting across. Her nails are painted black.
Alena has a distinctive subversive taste in clothes, preferring the color black in just about everything she wears. Details like studs, skulls (especially horned dragon skulls), spikes, chains, safety pins and edgy elements are her thing, and she loves leather and torn/ripped fabrics, while also enjoying some things like black lace and from time to time. Her usual outfit consists of a long-sleeved black top that reaches her hips in length, torn at the sleeves, at the cleavage (of course) and at the torso (showing off her stomach), with some of the holes held together by safety pins, a distressed, angry dark silver dragon skull with horns emblazoning the front and silver spikes decorating the shoulders. Under this, she wears black short shorts with ripped bottoms and studded pockets. Her shoes are black, lace-up knee-high combat boots with metal buckles adorning them. She wears these boots with thigh-high sheer black stockings with rips. On her hands are black leather fingerless gloves, and on her head is a black newsboy hat with a dark silver skull print. She also wears a thick, heavy, gunmetal chain around her neck. When it gets colder, she tends to wear a black leather biker jacket with spikes and chains over her outfit.
Personality: Alena, despite her background, does not act in the typical way a girl of such lineage would act...in fact, she spits on the faces of propriety and etiquette and challenges
anyone who tries to impose on her. Brash, crude, foul-mouthed and headstrong with a dark sense of humor, propriety and decorum are the last things on her mind, preferring to present herself as she is instead of putting on an act to please someone. An independent rebel with a particularly tough, stubborn mind, she values thinking for herself a lot, preferring not to be bogged down by the weight of expectations, behavioral norms, or "what ought to be". One could consider her impulsive because of this, and she is indeed. She's far from feminine, rather, she's very much a tomboy, with a rough manner of speech, a tendency to use profanity, and dangerous interests - extreme battling, drinking at seedy pubs, betting, skateboarding, mechanical work, pool, fighting, heavy metal music (among other dark genres) and cigarette smoking, among other things. Being so casual and sharp-tongued, she also comes off as blunt and classless, as she says what's on her mind and doesn't bother mincing her words. Far from demure, she can be very flirty when she wants to be (and towards almost anyone at that)…though she is also very skillful at shutting people out if she doesn't like them (and if she doesn't like them, she
doesn't like them, goddamnit). She isn't shy about her wild tendencies, and is an instigator who always makes the first move in everything she does. However, she has more than a few problems with actual romance, due to her experiences with some men. Being so pessimistic about long-term relationships, and is no stranger to being taken advantage of in her youth (twice in fact), she wants to prevent herself from disappointment and heartbreak as much as possible and thus, tends to push away anyone whom she thinks might try to get serious with her, knowing that they most likely have something to gain from her somewhere down the line, and she would much rather be alone or cheat than to be the victim in the end. She doesn't want to be used or be anyone's pawn, and can come across as someone who doesn't like commitment because of this. She really does want someone to love her for the person she is, but thinks that someone like that is difficult to come across, and owing to her previous failures of judgment, she thinks she now knows better and learned to ignore and push away any feelings she feels might become too intimate.
Alena is also rather foul-tempered; while she's a joy (if rather rough and crude) to be around when she's in a good mood, when she's in one of her darker moods, she's a lot scarier, as she would actually turn to violence with little provocation, especially when she loses a game/bet (she's an arrogant winner and a sore loser), or when her pride is threatened - yes, one thing she retains from her aristocratic upbringing is that telltale pride of hers, especially when it comes to feats of daring and winning, be it in Pokemon battles or other things. This pride might make her have issues with authority, turn to less-than-civilized means and pick fights (usually of the physical sort...she values toughness over diplomacy) in order to prove her point, but the same pride also makes her one who never gives up on whatever she sets her mind into - she's pigheaded and tough that way, yet because of this, is unforgiving, vengeful and also holds grudges for
long periods of time. She's also one who jumps into things (especially danger) before thinking…fear is something she doesn't want to hold her back, and she's always up for any risk or dangerous game. Of course, this lands her into trouble more often than not, and while most think that she might be more trouble than she's worth, she actually prefers to take care her own issues and problems by herself, not wanting anyone to take responsibility for her - she's a tough woman after all, not a helpless little girl.
Many may get the impression that Alena is standoffish at first, but she's actually friendlier than most think (she does prefer to be alone than be with overbearing people though), unless someone breaks her trust or tries to judge her superficially without knowing her. Then, yes, of course she would shut out said person and make life hell for them...she's the unforgiving sort and is one to hold grudges after all. She might be beautiful, but she's also very strong, having taken cage-fighting lessons for some time…if she threatens to break your bones, chances are, she'd actually do it (and by herself, not with a Pokemon) and make you really regret pissing her off. If she likes you, though? She'd be the best friend you'll ever have…she'll stand by your side, look out for you, and go through fires and storms for you. She also won't hesitate to show a more caring and compassionate side, as long as she likes you…though she isn't the most gentle when going about it. She's very brave, and sometimes, her fearlessness even skirts the line into being foolish. She prefers taking the risk and being foolish, however, than to sit around and discuss yet doing nothing. For her, nothing is accomplished unless people take action and move. She isn't stupid, however, and is street-smart from spending her free time in less-than-safe establishments. Aside from being skilled with her hands, she is also an objective, analytic thinker, who knows how to keep any kinds of feelings from influencing her decisions whenever it comes to more logical matters, though she's so bullheaded that she finds it difficult to accept points of views that she
thinks are too influenced by gut feelings and are "heart-based". Though she is determined and brave, she is also pragmatic and cynical rather than idealistic and positive, not being one who has high morals in terms of the way she prefers to go about things, or one to immediately believe whatever she hears, especially if it seems too good to be true. She's rather good with languages, having encountered quite a number of them at pubs, and is good at thinking on her feet, even in high-stress situations…she can stay clear-headed enough to act, when others would be less likely to. On the other hand, she's not one who creates elaborate plans ahead of time, which means she often chooses to improvise her way through things, using her practical intelligence.
History: Born to Snowpoint City's wealthiest and most prominent family, Alena's birth and early years were surrounded by intrigue, tabloids and rumors, all because she
just happened to go missing. Valentin Igorevich Volkov, her father and the heir to the family fortune, was the scholarly type...but also a known romantic who enjoyed beautiful women, one of his affairs involving the icy Khioniya Lebedeva. He fell for her
hard and loved her, yet she quickly grew bored of him as her initial passion waned and her pregnancy advanced. She
refused to have anything to do with "Volkov scum" and ran off with the infant Alena to a faraway region shortly after giving birth to her, and for five years, she succeeded in hiding the girl. Now, she knew she should've loved her daughter, but she just couldn't bring herself to, not when Alena's fair hair and haunting eyes looked
too much like Valentin's. It didn't help matters that the girl was a rambunctious, stubborn toddler who refused to sit still, didn't enjoy staying indoors and generally was the furthest thing from the "pretty doll" that her mother wanted her to be. Yet, the other part of Khioniya
did not want Valentin to have Alena. Thus she treated the girl with an odd mix of contempt, disdain and overprotectiveness, insisting that Alena always stay indoors for "her own safety", discouraged her from playing and exploring (going so far as to
punish Alena), and never failing to point out how "strange" her looks were. She was going to do whatever it took, and she was confident that with time, the world was going to forget about the missing "Princess of Snowpoint", and that her daughter was going to become more pliable. Little did she know that nothing escaped a Volkov, especially a very determined one.
News on the missing child spread throughout Sinnoh, as well as in other regions, mostly due to Valentin's own efforts (which surprised many - most thought that he probably wouldn't have cared). Igor, the family patriarch, at first didn't understand his oldest son's actions. Why did he care so much about a bastard daughter from the wretched woman when he could just find someone better, marry her and you know, have a legitimate heir? Valentin was adamant in his love and determination, however, which impressed Igor enough to relent and tell his son to do all he could to find the girl, so that she could be properly legitimized and raised as one of them. What Valentin thought was supposed to be a simple search was a lot harder than he expected however (thanks to Khioniya's ties and contacts making things difficult for him), and it took him five years to find her and bring her back. When he did, however, Khioniya cursed him and killed herself.
Alena thus, grew up in wealth and luxury. Valentin doted on her and encouraged her to be herself, a far cry from Khioniya's coldness and distance. Her personality and antics gave Igor a lot of headaches, however, as he believed that she be raised to become a proper, refined lady, worthy of the Shiny Swablu he had already handpicked for her (you see, the Volkov family trained
draconic Pokemon since their line began, and women of the family traditionally trained particular species)...but Alena was
anything but. She was difficult from the get-go, preferring rough-and-tumble play, fighting and getting herself dirty over learning decorum, as compared to her female cousins (and even her
male cousins), who were a lot more dignified and refined. Not to mention, she showed a lot more interest towards her father's Sceptile and her grandfather's Salamence over her female relatives' Altaria, Dragonite and Flygon, among other elegant species. She did humour her female relatives from time to time, however, though they did seem to be particularly entertained by fixing Alena's hair into various, elaborate, girly hairstyles and dying it in various colors, most notoriously shades of purple, as well as silvery-white…much to her suffering (she drew the line at hairdos...she did
not like playing tea and preferred decapitating dolls over having them "play nice"). She did get her way at times though, and usually took pleasure in showing her relatives up in the rougher games she played and usually won (though some of her more spiteful male cousins always lied that they went easy, if only to save their faces). This often made Igor scold her and lecturing her, wondering whether she was ever going to grow up to become a proper Volkov lady (never, of course). Her father did admire her strong will and guts, however, knowing that she wasn't one who was going to be easy to take advantage of. He took her side, and often reminded Igor that better one who is strong and stubborn,
like a diamond, rather than one who is easily manipulated.
Naturally, this rough behavior extended to when she was in school. This made her unpopular among most of the girls, but surprisingly well-liked among the boys and a few girls, who found her refreshing. It was also in school where she displayed a talent for battling, something that she prided herself in; becoming quite a known arrogant winner and sore loser from an early age, picking fistfights after losing the rare practice battle (she never enjoyed facing Fairy-types) and never hesitating to bully anyone she thought needed some "toughening up". This usually landed her in trouble with the teachers, and Valentin eventually decided to transfer her to a prestigious battle academy in Castelia City that he claimed was "a better fit for her talents". Before that, however, she needed to have her own Pokemon first, and Igor decided that it was high time that he introduced the eleven-year-old girl to the sweet little golden Swablu that he had been saving.
Turns out, Alena was
not amused at her grandfather's decision. Who was he to dictate the Pokemon she should train and, by extension, the way she battled? Not about to make some old fuddy-duddy take over her life, she confided with one of her school friends, who decided to help her by taking her on a bike trip to Eterna City. Alena, who wasn't exactly the most attentive student (she isn't much of an academic), wondered what
exactly he had to show her. He merely smiled and brought her to Wayward Cave under the Cycling Road. She then understood when she saw that the cave was populated by Gible, a Pokemon that she enjoyed using in her trial battles at the academy. Almost immediately, a tiny yet scrappy runt stood out to her; he was facing off against a much larger Gible yet showed no signs of letting up. Impressed, she caught the runt and decided that he was to be her partner, her grandfather's plans for her be damned. She had a sweeter, prettier relative who was probably dying to have the golden Swablu anyway.
Prestigious though the new battle academy was, it did nothing to change the girl's nature. Save for her pride, Alena never gained the manners and bearing expected of her...partly because of her own unwillingness and partly because of the circle of friends she fell in with. You see, Igor failed to check which academy Valentin chose...he wasn't getting any younger after all. Valentin was more understanding of his daughter, and chose not to send her to the well-known, expensive all-girls battle academy in Kalos, knowing that it was
not the place to send a teenage girl (he has a younger sister who graduated from there, and let's just say she turned out incredibly judgmental, snooty and while competent, was prone to taking pauses in battle for the oddest reasons). Alena was one of the least-behaved students at her new school, and she quickly gained a bad reputation...but she was surprisingly not an outcast. She gained a small circle of male friends whom she usually joined in training her Pokemon, pulling off dares and going to dangerous establishments in the evenings for some fun. It was also there where she discovered her affinity for dark off-mainstream subcultures that deviated from the norm, and quite by accident, really. The teenager just fiddled with the radio in one of her friends' car, and stumbled upon a station that happened to play heavy metal music. She fell in love immediately. As time passed, she fell deeper within the edgy subcultures that deviated from the trend-crazed norm and the freedom having real friends brought. For the first time, she saw the world and experienced it. Be it real pub culture, real music, placing bets and learning the ins and outs of vehicles thanks to her friends, Alena started knowing things she wouldn't have known had she not been allowed to leave home, and she loved the excitement, the daring and how different things were when the weekends and school holidays came. She also improved tremendously as a battler, becoming known for her relentless, offensive battle style and her ability to think quickly on her feet. Gavriil - her Gible - was also similarly tough despite his size, his ragged fin speaking of his prowess. She actually became one of the top battlers, and was a good student all-around, though with a notorious reputation for being an arrogant winner and a bully towards those with more healing-oriented styles (she has a "no guts, no glory" approach to battle), as well as those who regularly lose (she believes in being blunt to make them "toughen up"), yet she wasn't bothered so much by it. After all, she was a Volkov and she kept her grades within a good range, and those were reason enough as to why she wasn't expelled. It was also in the battle academy, when she was sixteen, where she got into an actual relationship with one of her instructors, a handsome Ice-type specialist in his mid-twenties named Nicholas Frost. She initiated by flirting with him, and managed to intrigue him enough. She stayed in the relationship until she was on the brink of graduation a year later, and wouldn't have broken up had she not found out that he had a
wife and had been using her for her family name. Angered, heartbroken and determined
never to let anyone take advantage of her ever again, she immediately broke things off and broke his jaw, her grade be damned.
She graduated anyway, got her Trainer's License and, wanting a taste of real adventure, she then rewarded herself by extending her stay in Unova for a nice vacation, doing whatever she wanted, which often happened to be in the most questionable parts of many cities. The day before she was
supposed to leave, however, which happened to be two weeks before her eighteenth birthday, she had a strange dream involving two voices she couldn't place her finger on. The voices called her Dialga, whom she knew was the Deity of Time. She didn't know why the hell they would be calling her
that. As far as she knew, she was a girl, a girl with features that looked nothing like the aforementioned deity. Not only did they call her Dialga, but they also kept going on about what sounded like some sort of prophecy; and requesting her presence in a location she, with all her knowledge from back alleys and seedy establishments, wasn't familiar with. What the hell was a "Hall of Legends" anyway? Perhaps it was just one of those dreams brought about a particular type of liquor. When she woke from the dream, she felt strange, but then she looked down at herself and saw her human body.
Heh, so much for prophecy, she thought. She wasn't about to fall for
a dream. A different voice in her room shut her up, however - that of Gavriil. Her eyes widened and she tried to remember if she had taken any odd drugs the night before...but no, the Gible was actually speaking. Gavriil told the silver-haired girl that he was a Messenger of the Legends and that upon turning eighteen her presence was required in the "Hall of Legends". Now, Alena was excited about the possibility of a real adventure to a place that nobody probably heard of, but on the other hand, how much of what she was hearing was actually real? Wanting to make sure that she was perfectly sane, she waited for evening to come before speaking with Gavriil once more, asking him what exactly was the Hall of Legends and where it was. Gavriil replied once more, stating that he didn't know, but that the answer would reveal itself when the time came.
Now, Alena waits impatiently for her eighteenth birthday, wanting to know more about her dream and why she was linked to
Dialga, of all the legends. Ever since having the dream, she's since noticed that people now found her a lot scarier and more intimidating than normal, to the point that she could pressure people into accepting outrageous dares...and she's pretty sure that it has absolutely nothing to do with her looks.
Partner
Name: Gavriil
Species: Gible
Gender: Male
Appearance: His fin is a lot more ragged and tattered than most male Gible, due to his tendency to pick fights. He's also
tiny, only being a bit over 1'00" when normal Gible are 2'04". His fin also bears a line of silver stud piercings.
Personality: Gavriil is tough and brave despite his small size, never letting it become something to worry about in battle...in fact, he actually seeks fights actively. Incredibly stubborn as well, he would prefer to go down fighting rather than give in. He overcompensates in many other aspects, be it in eating or using moves (the bigger and more violent, the better for him). In fact, one can easily say that he has some sort of Napoleon complex, from the way he acts.
