Rick Longwood *giggles*

[revolvingscott]

Name:

Rick Longwood (assumed alias)
Derek Pinewood (birth name)

Age:

Unknown (likely mid-to-late twenties)
23 (sh don’t tell!)

Gender:

Male

Trainer Type:

Normal Trainer with a bit of anti-hero/criminal in him

Hometown:

Viridian City, Kanto

Appearance:

Rick’s appearance is one of the main area’s of conflict about him. Unfortunately, he likes to dress up and put on a show but, due to how questionable some of his activities are, he also feels the need to be discreet.

Therefore, Rick’s trademark ability to rationalise has brought his clothing to a compromise. He still enjoys colourful shirts and incredibly tight, incredible colourful trousers but, at the same time, he also owns an insane amount of long coats that reach to about his knees. They come in a variety of styles but, in general, they only come in various shades of grey, the majority very dark. His normal, everyday trench coat is black and comes to just above his knees with a collar that can be either turned up - for when up to really shady business - or turned down - when on the move. Since he wears this basically everyday - only taking it off if staying in one location at a time, it’s quite filthy with mud all over his back, the majority of it stuck between the bottom and his bum, a never-ending source of hilarity for him. He tends to give this coat a good wash when staying in a town so if it’s a short trip between two towns, the coat will most likely only be a bit muddied but, if he spends weeks traversing a Route, he’ll spend hours scrubbing the dirt off of it. To also add to his anonymity, he owns a dark, grey beret - for the style-conscious anonymous criminal - that he usually has tilted so as to mask his face as much as possible.

Rick also wears a selection of shirts. Generally long-sleeve but he normally wears them rolled up to half way between his elbow and shoulder because it can get warm in his coats. His favourite is either his light pink one or his violet shirt. He usually alternates between wearing these from day to day.
On his legs, Rick is normally wearing his skin-tight deep purple jeans. They are so dark, actually, that in most lights, they are almost black so they help him to blend in when his legs are entirely covered by his coat. He also has some more skin-tight jeans all very, very dark - the majority of them are actually just black - but they are more reserved for special occasions.

All Rick’s shoes are dark and light so he can run away quickly in them and they can help him blend into darkness (there is a pattern appearing, I know...)

Rick’s face is only ever visible when he’s stopped for something. So, when he’s been challenged to a pokémon battle, for example, he’ll take off his coat and beret and place them somewhere close at hand, in case he needs to make a quick getaway. In order to remain as non-descript as possible, Rick has short, brown hair that forms a short, shaggy fringe across his face. Everything about his face is as plain and average as possible - just as he likes it. Facial hair grows back at a relatively normal pace - after about 2 days without shaving, there is a noticeable stubble. Normally, Rick shaves in each town because a beard may set him apart.

At just over 6 feet tall - 6’ 2.6” to be precise - Rick can intimidate most people with just his frame. He naturally has broad shoulders but his coats help to accentuate them, making him a formidable opponent in the dark. Running and fighting has produced quite toned muscles on his arms and legs that he can and will use in case of an emergency.

Personality:

Rick’s relationship with pokémon is a long and confusing story. In short, his pokémon - that he has caught/stolen/“acquired” - he is very loyal and protective of; whereas other people’s pokémon are either none of his business or a force to be stamped upon. Somehow, in his mind, he has managed to remove any empathy for other people’s pokémon yet still fight to the death for his own, however he got them. This all stems from growing up in Viridian City and idolising the Gym Leader there at the time: Giovanni. His approach to pokémon left a mark on Rick but Rick still saw the need to protect pokémon fighting for him, since that’s where he gets the majority of his firepower.

People are another matter entirely. Usually, Rick has a lot of trouble forming bonds with others due to his home-life and everything that has happened to him over the years (more in History) which means that he is a solitary figure and that’s how he intends to stay. It’s this that got Rick interested in Giovanni. Living in Viridian City, all he saw was Giovanni stood in the middle of his Gym, with no wife to be seen and no significant emotional attachments. He was everything a young Rick wanted to be - strong, independent, financially secure - so he did his best to mould himself into his idol by training himself not to care what others thought and refraining from too much emotion with others, trying to appear as cold-hearted as possible. In fact, the only people to have seen him display any emotion in years have been his pokémon who he allows himself to love since he thought that they wouldn’t (and couldn’t) leave him. Unfortunately, he was wrong.

To see him in his coat and with his trademark contemptuous grimace on display, you wouldn’t think that Rick was gay but you’d be quite mistaken. From an early age, he always knew he was attracted to men (in fact he realised his idolisation for Giovanni was a deep-rooted crush) but never let that bother him. He was gay, there was nothing he could do about it, so why angst over it? He allowed his objectiveness to see him through what a lot of people see as something sad or something to worry about. Nothing in his posture gives into homosexual stereotypes or clichés - he would appear to be an alpha male to most eyes - but it’s whenever he opens his mouth that he lets it slip. There’s nothing in the way he talks that is stereotypically gay - he hasn’t got a lisp, for example, and he oftens only speaks in a slightly-bored drawl - but his interests are, unfortunately, quite well-known clichés. He loves women in pop music. From Madonna to Lady Gaga, he loves them all and often finds it funny to drop references to their lyrics into his everyday speech and see if anyone notices. If they do, he often strikes up a friendship - or as close to a friendship as he can possibly allow.

His favourite types of pokémon are what used to be the ‘Special’ types (ie. Psychic, Fire etc) because they generally tend to make more of an impact on the environment around them and Rick likes the idea of people knowing he was there in whatever capacity it was. In fact, on his more high-profile burglaries, he likes to leave a LW (Longwood) mark in some way - usually by having it scorched into the area by a fire-type attack but, if the worst comes to the worst, a simple permanent marker will suffice.

History:

Born into a modest household, Rick grew up the only child of Michael and Grace Pinewood. Unfortunately, neither of the two could stand each other. Grace stayed married to Michael out of fear for her health (he was not a happy drunk) and also for the financial support he was (barely) able to give her. Michael stayed married purely to keep up appearance as a smiling, happy family. On the inside, however, they were anything but happy. Michael’s job was unstable at best, he was a construction worker in a town that needed very little construction so business was not exactly booming, per say, and when he wasn’t working, he would numb some of the anger and frustration with alcohol which, as I hinted at before, made him violent. Grace tried her best to care for her son but all he ever did was remind her of her husband so she found it very hard to love him and Michael didn’t give a damn, seeing Rick as his mother’s job and not having anything to do with him.

Because both of his parents were largely uneducated and, even then, didn’t have much time for him, when he joined school, he was far behind all of his peers. He had received absolutely no education from his parents and they obviously didn’t pay for any kind of nursery school so he didn’t know how to read or write and his English wouldn’t have nearly been as good if he hadn’t been brought up in front of a television so he had a lot of catching up to do. Since Rick was “stupid” and children are cruel, he was taunted and excluded by his peers from the very beginning of his education.

The combination of the bullying he received from his peers and the neglect he received from his parents, Rick repeatedly turned to various forms of escapism to fill the void that was left. This led him to the Pokémon Trainers television network. Every night, he would be able to live vicariously through the various Pokémon Masters and Gym Leaders that graced his television set, imagining he was one of them. It was through PTTV that Rick discovered that he lived in a town with its very own Pokémon Gym and the Kanto-renowned Giovanni (no last name). How could he not have known this? It was obviously because the only people that ever bothered talking to him were teachers and they didn’t bother talking about Pokémon Trainers and all that ilk, they were there to reinforce the professions and try to teach him and his peers about “proper careers”.

Rick was enamoured. He began watching PTTV with, somehow, even more interest now, waiting anxiously for any mention of his town’s very own celebrity. It was through this that he discovered that Giovanni was widely considered the most powerful Gym Leader in Kanto. Wow! It was on that night that Rick decided then and there that he had to be like Giovanni. Or, if he couldn’t do that, he would love to at least meet him. So, after school, he eschewed the normal school bus and made his way across the town - for over an hour’s walk - and ended up stood outside the Gym he had fantasised about for so long, the one he had seen on the PTTV and one day dreamed of challenging - or even entering. His little 11 year old heart was pounding as he pushed against the door. And the door pushed back. He pushed harder and the door stayed resolutely shut. He stood gobsmacked, staring at the gym, wondering why he couldn’t get in. All he wanted was to meet his idol, maybe get his autograph, was that so much to ask? A man appeared from the side of the building. “He won’t see you, kid. Go away!” Rick would never forget the big, red “R” emblazoned on his chest. Rick would also never forget the moment his heart shattered and he realised he had allowed himself to feel something for someone and look at where it had got him! Humiliated (or so he thought) and miles from home on a cold, winter’s evening that was soon becoming night. That was the day he swore off “love” or any significant emotions towards humans.

Things continued that way. Slowly, he began to make “friends” with people in his class. Moving up into a new school at 12, he managed to make new “friends” and would have even passed for a normal pre-teen boy. Except he wasn’t. With the onset of puberty, Rick began to notice that as his fellow boys started to confess attraction to girls, he was becoming increasingly attracted to them instead. As I mentioned before, he didn’t see this as anything to angst over but he still recognised this as homosexuality, making him a “filthy *****ing queer”, in his father’s words so he made the decision to keep it from his parents so, to be on the safe side, he wouldn’t mention it to any of his peer group.

This went on for about 3 years until Rick realised that, actually, he could be a fully-functioning gay man (he was 15 but that didn’t stop him from thinking he was a man) and still keep it from his parents. He knew of a gay bar in Pallet Town which was close enough to get to/fro without too much hassle but far enough away that he didn’t think anyone would find out. So, since his parents didn’t care if he disappeared for nights at a time, he began making his way to Pallet Town every Friday and Saturday night (if he couldn’t find somewhere to stay the Friday night) and would find himself inside the town’s one and only gay bar. He liked it there. He liked the feeling of acceptance he felt there; plus, it always felt nice to be desired.

Of course, everything good must come to an end so, at 16, one of the people who frequented his Pallet pub told his parents. It wasn’t the shouting or the beating or even getting kicked out of his house that hurt the most; it was the sense of betrayal that shook him to the very core. Rick made a promise to himself that day that he would never trust another human again. A promise he has kept to this very day.

So, what was he going to do? He had been kicked out of his home and had no future job prospects. Sitting at the top of Route 1, trying to figure out what to do, he remembered something he had seen on PTTV years ago: there being a pokémon professor living in Pallet Town. How hadn’t he remembered this sooner? He had been in Pallet so many times over the past year and yet had never recalled the fact that someone who had been mentioned on PTTV lived there! So he set off for Pallet Town down the now-familiar route to meet this new man.

Unfortunately, the walk still took him about an hour and an hour is a long time to spend trapped in your own thoughts - especially when those thoughts are as negative as Rick's were. He remembered the last time he had set off to meet an idol he had first heard of through PTTV and remembered the pain he felt at the rejection. No, he couldn't meet Oak! But what else could he do? He was 16, had no qualifications, no money and no pokémon of his own so really didn't have many options. Still thinking like this, Rick accidentally ended up at Pallet and could see the Laboratory towering over the town on a hill. He had a sudden realisation. Hadn’t PTTV said something about Oak housing starter pokémon for new trainers with the money to buy one? He obviously didn’t have the money but he did need a way of making money and all of the trainers Rick saw on the TV were very, very rich! So perhaps he could just borrow a starter, catch a pokémon for himself and deliver it back to Oak good as new (maybe a bit stronger, too), he wouldn’t mind!

So that was Rick’s first burglary. He made his way into the lab via an open window and, his heart thumping so hard he thought his chest might burst open, he maneuvered around until he saw it, sitting on a metal table in the far corner of the room: a Poké Ball. Making his way over, he saw that there was a note underneath it saying ‘Here’s the new Squirtle you wanted! x’ and a woman’s name - he presumed she was a Squirtle breeder. Squirtles were one of the Kanto ‘starter’ pokémon! Quickly and as silently as possible, Rick grabbed the Poké Ball and ran back to the window he entered through. Luckily, it was still open. Without a thought as to why there wasn’t anyone about in such a large facility, he dived out and ran for Route 1 as fast as he could make it. He used the Squirtle to capture a Rattata (don’t tell anyone but he actually liked it because it was pink - sh!) and made his way back to Oak’s Laboratory to deliver the squirtle back (he planned to just chuck it through the window or something) but he was greeted by the sight of at least 10 police officers surrounding the lab, apparently searching for him. Rick hadn’t thought they would get here so quickly (last time he made that mistake) and panicked. He ran from the lab into the woods surrounding it and hid. He came out of hiding a couple of hours later - after the sun had set - and there was nobody about anymore. He had no idea what to do even though he had spent hours trying to figure out his next move.

He ended up travelling Kanto with his team of pokémon. He strictly avoided gyms because he didn’t want his Squirtle to draw attention to itself. Even when it evolved into a Blastoise and Rick had managed to amass a team of 6 strong pokémon and a small fortune through sheer determination. Unfortunately, this meant that Rick earnt a reputation around Kanto as this powerful trainer that refused to earn Gym Badges (even though he was obviously good enough to get one).

One night Rick returned to the Pokémon Centre he was staying in (Celadon) for the night when he discovered there was already someone there, waiting for him. Before he was able to draw a Poké Ball, however, the man began to speak, explaining that he knew that he stole that Squirtle and that, if he was caught, he would face a considerable amount of time in prison and he would receive a lifetime ban from training pokémon. If he didn’t work for him, that is. Reasoning that what he lacks in skill and training he makes up for in PokéPower (exact terminology), he would be very good as a thief, a thug or both. Rick didn’t have much of a choice in the matter so agreed to work for the man in exchange for his silence.

Eventually Rick got good - very good - and began demanding some kind of pay from the man (who still didn’t have a name). The man, however, got offended by that and the two had a falling out. A week after they ceased communication, the IPF raided Rick’s room. Fortunately, Rick was able to use his now-honed burglar skills to escape the confrontation but the same could not be said for his pokémon. Before he could do anything, the IPF were in his room and he just dived out of the window without even attempting to grab his bag containing his Poké Balls that was sitting on the opposite side of the room. He also didn’t give much thought to the fact that he was in a room 3 storeys up and was lucky that he didn’t injure himself when landing.

He didn’t even get an opportunity to grieve his pokémon that night. He was too full of anger at the man to even remember his pokémon until he remembered what he had left behind. The image of their faces when they were released and he wasn’t there was too much for Rick to imagine and he spent the next day hidden in a nearby forest (just like old times), crying over his loss. Rick ended up spending a year in a deep depression in a bar on the Sevii Islands, drowning his sorrows every night. Every night, that is, until he remembered Giovanni. It was a natural progression from the most recent depressing memory to his first and he thought about how Giovanni was always so cold and aloof - strong, Rick thought - that he would never end up here. Of course, what good was Giovanni now, though? He had disappeared after the fall of Team Rocket 3 and a half years ago and was most likely never going to be seen again.

In that little bar, Rick heard things. Sailors from all over the Pokéworld would come to the Sevii Islands and they would sit in that bar and talk to one another, sharing stories of their homeland and places they visited. One night, Rick was sat in his usual dark corner when he heard two words he knew were intrinsically linked to Giovanni: Team Rocket. His interest piqued, he eavesdropped on this sailor from Johto talking about how there were rumours that Team Rocket had returned and were basing themselves in Johto. Later that night, fueled by the adrenaline rush the thought of meeting Giovanni gave him and the alcohol he had been funneling into himself for years, he approached the sailor and struck up a conversation. He found out that the sailor’s next voyage was to New Bark town in Johto and asked if he could tag along. After a few more drinks, the sailor - Steve - said yes and, 2 days later, Rick was on his way to Johto.

The thought that if Team Rocket were back in Johto, Giovanni might be their leader spurred Rick on in his attempts to get to anywhere in Johto. He had no idea where this New Bark Town was but he didn’t mind one bit, anywhere in Johto was good enough for him.

Landing in Cherrygrove, Steve and Rick walked down the route to New Bark Town where, Rick discovered, a different pokémon professor lived. It had been years since he had watched PTTV and this ‘Elm’ was a young one so Rick had never heard of him but, if he knew anything about Professors, he knew that their labs housed pokémon. Breaking into the lab was easy - childs play, he thought, making a joke to himself about the age of the professor who worked there - and 3 pokémon caught his eye: 2 shinys and one pokémon he knew to evolve into a Dragon type which, if his memory served him correctly, was a very powerful type indeed. He quickly took them before quickly exiting the lab, making his way back in the direction of Cherrygrove since it was the only exit from this town. He was off and ready to join Team Rocket by any means necessary.

Goals:

• Join Team Rocket and get as far up in the organisation as he possibly can
  
• Avenge his fallen pokémon by fighting against the IPF in every way possible
  
• See if he can be reunited with his pokémon
  
• Return to Kanto with a powerful team of pokémon, ready to show his parents exactly who they kicked out and what he has achieved
  
• Before returning, however, he would like to defeat the Elite 4 to prove he is powerful enough to confront his parents

Other Info:

• *giggles at his name*
  
• The pokémon he stole were all Amelia's (I'll RP them ending up there soon) - her shiny Budew, shiny Ralts and Trapinch.

How did you find us?:

Gorl, please.

Application completed:

MmHmm, Honey Bee

[revolvingscott]

Pokémon in Party

Shiny Ralts
Name: Alejandro
Gender: Male
Level: 13
Attacks: Confusion, Growl, Double Team, Teleport.
Ability: Synchronize

Nature/Personality: Alejandro is driven entirely by his own insecurities. From a young age, he was bullied by all the other pokémon because he was a male Ralts and “Ralts should be female”. Add onto that that he is shiny - so special and more likely to be shunned - and that makes him pink/purple, he was the perfect target for bullies. This meant that Alejandro became deeply insecure in himself but, specifically, his masculinity. So Alejandro decided to “better” himself and become this ultra-macho person. He also combines this with an aggression towards everyone/everything he doesn’t know that stems from the torment he received as a baby to create a very hostile Ralts that will not back down in a fight.

Trapinch
Name: Brax
Gender: Male
Level: 10
Attacks: Bite, Sand-Attack.
Ability: Hyper Cutter

Nature/Personality: The baby of the team, Brax is still attempting to grow and change from a young Level 10 to a fully blossomed Flygon. He even still pines for his mother on occasion. Still, he is keen and eager to learn from his older (and younger) team-mates.



Sableye
Name: Marius
Gender: Male
Level: 10
Attacks: Leer, Scratch, Foresight, Night Shade
Ability: Keen Eye or Stall
Nature/Personality: Marius is constantly being gripped by a sense of adventure and spontaneity that consistently gets him into trouble - hence how he ended up following Rick out of Elm's lab. He also doesn't seem to possess much of a short-term memory so is prone to forgetting moves mid-battle and having to be reminded of how to do the bloody thing!

Pokemon Egg

Name: ??

Gender: ??

Level: N/A

Attacks: N/A

Ability: ??

Nature/Personality: ??

Other: ZapdosZulu Easter Event 2015

Pokémon Box

Bill's PC

---

[revolvingscott]

Inventory





Item: Poké Ball X6

Item: Great Ball X1

Item: Full Heal X2

Item: Revive X1

Item: Potion X3

Item: Map of Johto

TM/HM Case

~empty~

[revolvingscott]

Colours:

• Rick: CAC9C9
  
• Alejandro: D5ACDE
  
• Brax: C57373
  
• Marius: BD3960

Threads:

• It took him 2.5 years to travel here... apparently... >>

[The REAL Joey]

Yes, yes, YEEES!
This pleases Electivire!
I hereby declare your character application: APPROVED!

You know the drill by now.