Post by Avalon on Apr 16, 2023 11:34:39 GMT 11
Name: Shiro Saihara
Age: 24
Gender: Male
Trainer Type: Former Plasma Grunt, future Officer
Hometown: Virbank City, Unova
Appearance:
Shiro stands at exactly six feet tall, with a considerably lanky and slender build. His complexion is pale due to years of shutting himself away. His hair is a pale white, with faint streaks of indigo dyed into it. Whereas once upon a time he was prone to frequently changing his own hair color or styles with the passing of time and his own interests, now he prefers a rather standard look. Despite his rough past, he has no noticeable blemishes on his face or body, luckily avoiding any scars or long-lasting injuries during his time with Team Plasma. His most distinguishing feature, aside from the obviously unusual hair, is a pair of piercing blue eyes that are affixed in a semi-permanent glare; this often results in him having a rather tired or angry look to him most of the time.
In terms of clothing, Shiro prefers pale colors, often dressing in shades of gray or pale pinks. His more typical outfit is usually consisting of a pink v-neck top, under some sort of jacket. Usually this would be either a pale gray hoodie (for more casual occasions), or a pale gray sportcoat (for when he feels like showing off a bit). He also possesses a small piercing in each ear, a simple stud that often goes unnoticed under his rather thick and wild head of hair. Shiro is surprisingly fussy when it comes to his appearance, taking great care to take care of his attire and keep it clean even when out in the field. He does, for occasions in which he would accompany his father (or, in the future, when doing his own work with the IPF), possess a rather standard black suit, though that is reserved largely for work occasions. The suit in question is a dark green, almost being black, in contrast to the rest of Shiro's otherwise monochrome attire.
Personality:
Shiro is a man at conflict with himself. He has a horribly naive view of the world, wanting to believe that everyone is capable of change and wants to be a better person. Despite this, he has seen enough of the awful in the world that he is quick to assume the worst in people and is prone to jumping to conclusions. He is slow to trust other humans, preferring to keep to himself. When in a large crowd or a densely populated city, Shiro is prone to moments of anxiety and discomfort, preferring to keep to himself and trying to avoid human interaction as much as possible. While he has always been a little uncomfortable around other people, his interactions with Team Plasma and his perceived betrayal by them has led to him wanting to avoid being tricked or used by other people at any cost. Because of this, he often relies entirely on himself and the Pokemon under his employ.
Despite this, he is actually rather tender and gentle with Pokemon. Even with hostile or aggressive Pokemon, he tends to speak to them with a rather gentle tone and a good deal of patience. He has a soft spot for animals and other creatures such as this, preferring their own company over that of his own species whenever possible. Because of this, he has a tendency to coddle and spoil his own Pokemon to an annoying degree, disliking the idea of seeing them in pain even if it is just part of being a Trainer. Despite all of this preferences towards Pokemon over people, he is still something of a bleeding heart who wants to help as many people and Pokemon as possible. This has lead to him having some meddling tendencies and a knack for getting himself into well-meaning trouble.
History:
Shiro was born in Virbank City, in the Unova Region. Virbank was a rather rough and dingy city, to put it nicely. Home to many roughnecks, delinquents, and blue-collar individuals, for many the only escape from the din of city life was the music scene or the criminal underground of the city. While most flocked to the nightclubs to listen to Gym Leader Roxie and her band, there were plenty of others who turned to less scrupulous means of passing their time. Shiro was one such person, falling in with a rough crowd at a rather young age despite his parents' jobs being in law enforcement and white-collar work, respectively.
Shiro's father was a police officer and low-ranking officer under the employ of the Region's IPF branch. Kyojuro Saihara, his father, wasn't some superstar agent sent out on international missions like some of his colleagues, but he worked a respectable job that allowed him to take care of his family. Of course, being so busy and absent from his home, it meant that he was unable to keep an eye on his son as well as he perhaps should have. With both parents working near constantly, Shiro was often left in the care of older kids within the neighborhood or completely on his own. Because of this, some of his neighborhood 'friends' would often drag young Shiro with them out on their misadventures.
Because of this, Shiro saw the ugliest sides of Virbank City. He saw criminals using Pokemon to do whatever they wanted, workers in the nearby complex abusing their Pokemon in the name of productivity and work, underground battling between less than caring Trainers. While his friends relished in the goings on around them, it sickened young Shiro. It reminded him of his parents' own pet Pokemon, and how he would feel if he saw someone treating his parents' beloved Stoutland or Liepard like this. But despite this, Shiro did relish in some of the nightlife of Virbank. While he took no pleasure in seeing the Pokemon of the city being abused, he engaged in a great deal of delinquency on his own. Shoplifting from the local mart with friends, spraying graffiti on the side of apartment complexes, and otherwise harassing the locals.
All of this, of course, was just a way to try and get attention from his parents on some level. And it worked, inspiring his mother to begin working from home and his father to try and spend more time with them, in order to direct him on a better path. They suggested he either look into becoming a Trainer and petitioning for a Pokemon from one of the local Professors, or better yet to follow one of his parents into their career paths. It was a gradual process, but their love and attention turned him away from his bout of youthful delinquency for a time, and he became close with them. But what he had seen of how the people of Virbank were beginning to treat their Pokemon stuck in his mind, and he could hardly stomach the idea of becoming a Trainer. Forcing them to fight just felt wrong, even if the Pokemon were being treated well. Shiro lived aimlessly, living off of his parents and not doing much beyond going to school and going home. His time at home would be spent playing with his parents' own Pokemon or reading, anything to escape from the world around him. He became something of a shut-in, really.
And then one day, some strangers in weird costumes came to town. They preached of Pokemon liberation, and how people could not be trusted to work with Pokemon due to their own evil natures. His parents and much of the people of Virbank scoffed at them, but it made sense to Shiro. The man speaking, an older gentleman who called himself "the Sage Zinzolin", tried and failed to reach the crowd, but Shiro managed to catch him before he left town. Only 17, the young-ish Shiro was amazed by what the Sage and his 'Team Plasma' allies were doing, and wanted to help them. Shiro had refused his parents' offer to help him start as a Trainer, so he had no Pokemon of his own, but Team Plasma welcomed the help. His parents disapproved, but the teenage Shiro ran away from home, meeting up with Team Plasma as they fled the city.
From there, Shiro was recruited into Team Plasma as one of many grunts. They were great in number, traveling around the Unova Region and preaching the ideals of Pokemon liberation. Sometimes it would work, and people would release their Pokemon into the wild and offer up their support to the team. Many times, they would be met with resistance; either forced to fight against locals or ran out of town by unsympathetic Gym Leaders and League officials. Rumors swirled that Team Plasma was involved in some criminal conspiracy or even in outright Pokemon theft and abuse, but Shiro didn't believe any of it. It was all just slander spread by the enemies of progress, he thought.
Over time, however, the group shifted. As more members joined, it became harder to pick out who was in with the group for the right reasons and who was just looking for power to abuse. It became undeniable that there were thieves and criminals in their midst, people preaching liberation as a way to steal rare Pokemon from unsuspecting people. But Shiro thought that it was just the work of some bad eggs, nothing too serious. He spent time with Team Plasma, watching it grow from a grassroots movement into an unstoppable force, until he was at the age of 20. Then, one of their 'liberation rallies' was interrupted and several members carted off by law enforcement. Among the arresting officers was Shiro's own father; in the chaos, Zinzolin escaped, leaving the many Grunts to face the brunt of the law.
Feeling betrayed by the man who had brought him into the movement and that he had looked up to, Shiro went with his father. In the eyes of the law, their 'liberating' of Pokemon was little more than petty theft. The Pokemon they forcibly freed went into the pockets of Plasma's leadership, not back into the wild as Shiro had thought. Team Plasma was a fraud, a group of criminals and thieves masquerading as a political movement and duping naive souls like Shiro. Shiro was crushed, but his father's quick-thinking and his own relative innocence worked out in his favor. Shiro was handed into the custody of his family, where he was placed under house arrest and monitored heavily.
None of this mattered, though, as Shiro had no intention of returning to the outside world after this. Depressed following the loss of the one thing he felt gave his life purpose, Shiro shut himself away. Even after his time under house arrest ended, Shiro remained a shut-in. His family wanted to give him time to recover from the shock he had suffered when seeing his world view crumble around him, but over time they began to worry. Would he relapse into old habits if Team Plasma returned, as rumors began to swirl that they inevitably would? Or would Virbank City's rough nature get to him again? Eventually, his family sat him down and explained to him that they wanted him to get away from Unova, to try and have a fresh start. He protested at first, but then he realized something. He had never been a proper Trainer himself, only occasionally commanding Pokemon borrowed from the Sages of Team Plasma during their operations. He had seen Pokemon being mistreated, but had never raised them himself (aside from assisting in the raising of his parents' Pokemon, whom were more like pets than anything else).
So when he said he would like to try raising his own Pokemon, his parents were pleasantly surprised. Turned out that there was a professor in the Johto Region giving out Starters to interested Trainers, and that his father could pull some strings to get Shiro's name on the list. All he had to do was stay out of trouble and promise to stay in touch this time. Deciding to see how the other half of the world lived, Shiro departed on a boat from Virbank in order to learn what it is like to be a proper Pokemon trainer. Of course, he privately wonders what his life would be like if he could turn over a new leaf and do what his own father did. There were plenty of people out there who needed some redirecting towards the right path, after all.
Goals:
- Join the IPF
- Atone for past crimes and mistakes, prevent others from pursuing lives of crime
- Make his family proud
Other Info:
Art Credit: Fanart of Ryoken Kougami/Revolver from Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS by Pixiv Id 6620471
How did you find us?: I was kidnapped and brought here against my will.
Application completed: [YES]
ICE STONE X1
FULL HEAL x1
AWAKENING x1
POTION x3
SUPER POTION x3
OLD GATEAU x1
REVIVE x1
POKÉBALL x1
GREATBALL x1
FRIEND BALL x1
AIR BALLOON x1
METRONOME X1
SNOWBALL X1
DESTINY KNOT X1
HEAT LAMP
JOHTO MAP
RUNNING SHOES
TECHNICAL MACHINES
TM07: HAIL x1
TM193: LOW KICK X1
HIDDEN MACHINES