[PXFIRE] [SU/DS] PXFIRE Roleplay - A Game of Storms

[Death's Spook]

Three reserves, please!:

Name: Anthony Carpenter-Weaver
Age: 45
Gender: Male
Species: Mimikyu
Team: Steel Scavengers (Leader)
Starting Blaze Jewel: Water
Appearance:

It can be a little difficult to recognize Anthony for what he actually is. His height is average for his species, but his Disguise is decorated completely differently. Instead of looking like a Pikachu, Anthony has opted for a rag reminiscent more of old heraldry. His coat is a silvery color, with navy faux facial features that look carefully painted on more than hastily scrawled. His tail is still made of wood, but instead of being a crooked bludgeon, it is instead shaved down to be a wickedly curved blade. His shadows are spread out, but usually kept hidden, save for one hand.

Personality:

A hero. Anthony is heroic, through and through. He has a deep abiding love for life and an absolute conviction that people can be good. He acts to preserve the innocent, provide succor for the needy, and overall try to make people's lives easier. He is always willing to offer a second chance, to allow those with a less than stellar past atone for it if they're willing. He has an earnest sort of charisma and tends to set people around him at ease, as though they can sense that he has everyone's best interests at heart. This all has a tendency to make people assume he's naïve. But naïveté has a way of being selected against in the land of Xia.

In fact, instead of being easy to fool, Anthony is the exact opposite. He is extremely observant, missing nothing of what's going on around him: the little that he doesn't directly see, sense with his shadows, or hears he can usually indirectly observe through other cues. It is practically impossible to sneak up on him, mundanely or with moves and abilities, much to the sudden, if brief, surprise of multiple would-be assassins. Further, lying to him is equally difficult, and even keeping a secret around him is not simple: his concern for those around him combined with his native observance and perceptiveness mean that even his very presence has an astonishing tendency to bring the truth to light. Furthermore, this means that while he will endeavor to be the most moral he can be and to encourage others to do the same, he is far from inept at considering the practicality of a situation.

But this combination of wanting to do good and also knowing how exactly how much work he has cut out for him means that Anthony has a tendency to run himself ragged. He will neglect his own needs in favor of trying to find some way to help those around him or attempt to plan around what his enemies may be trying to do to him and those under his protection. His fellow Knights frequently have to remind him to eat, sleep, and take time to relax: The Grand Lady, especially, will bluntly make him take a nap if he's getting entirely too little sleep.

History:

Anthony has been operating as a well known knight errant for quite some time now. Before the Black Lotus came into the picture, he was famous for both protecting the innocent and bringing outlaws to justice. His moral code was almost as well known: to protect those who need protecting, and to offer a second chance to those seeking redemption. In fact, in the world of Xia, this behavior originally marked him as an easy target: a victim to be killed or conned at a moment’s leisure. In fact, one particularly deranged Electrode named Kimblee attempted to do both in one shot, pretending to seek redemption so that they could get behind Anthony and kill him for their own sick amusement.

The Shadow Sneak that very publicly bisected Kimblee for making the attempt became a symbol of the fact that Anthony was not an idiot, regardless of his moral code, and people took him a great deal more seriously after that.

As the Black Lotus began to rise to power, Anthony naturally began to oppose them. But while he was quite a powerful Mimikyu, he was still only one person. He struggled to figure out what to do in between assassination attempts, of which there were quite a few, to make some meaningful difference in the lives of others.

He ended up stumbling on his answer upon fighting alongside The Grand Lady. An organized group opposed to The Black Lotus, a resistance of differently talented individuals able to work in concert. He and the Lady were the first members, but it did not take them long to find others. First was a Klinklang with the mind of a scholar and a deep bloodlust and their Sharpedo friend with a propensity for burglary and robbery. Soon after followed a Volcarona who publicly burned her father, a member of the Onyx Circle, to death for his crimes. An absent minded Minior and mute Claydol followed soon after, and together they began to publicly mount a resistance against Queen Taiya, becoming the infamous Seven Knights.

The Knights quickly realized that for all of their power, even they could not hope to singlehandedly war against the Black Lotus and any other competitors for the crown of Xia. The group made significant amounts of progress between stealing slaves and killing key targets, but it was not until they happened on the conflict torn Blackbriar City that they had a way to gain traction. The city before the Knights was a no man's land where the only thing that could be agreed upon was that the Black Lotus should not be listened to. The place was an area of such constant warfare that while Queen Taiya's forces officially claimed as land belonging to the Lotus, they did not bother enforcing many laws because the people who controlled the place, if anyone, kept changing week to week. Anthony and his Knights identified it as a key target to place their capitol, and it took them an impressively short amount of time to coerce, destroy, or bribe the factions of the city into submitting to Anthony's authority. While such a thing was not an unusual occurrence (there would occasionally emerge a temporary ruler of the city), the fact that Anthony claimed authority and then kept it catapulted the Knights from "dangerous group of rebels" to "potential rival nation", a status only further increased when the newly formed Steel Scavengers took the city of Coalrock.

Both Blackbriar and Coalrock are doing better than before: they are still cities of slums and industry that chokes the air, but Anthony's care for the cities' denizens combined with his intelligence have made him a competent ruler. He is in the process of evacuating noncombatants to areas off the war torn continent, not only to protect them but also to keep his resources focused on supporting those who can actually help in the fight against the Black Lotus.

Other: He doesn't advertise it, but Anthony is an extremely competent combatant, though he refuses point blank to engage in any bloodsports.






Name: If asked the question, she will simply tell you “I’ve left my old name.” But she is known as The Grand Lady.
Age: Mid-twneties, but she’s quite ambiguous about the specifics.
Gender: Female
Species: Tsareena
Team: Steel Scavengers
Starting Blaze Jewel: Steel
Appearance:

With thick green hair flowing behind her and a face lovely as the stars, the Lady first appears to be the spitting image of a generic Tsareena. However, there are certain tells that give her away. The scent of blood lingers on her, and faint scars cover her legs and arms. Her hair seems adorned with clips and the like, but a closer look reveals them to deadly blades. And most strangely, instead of a crown on her head, The Lady has a faint scar, clearly faded with time but just as clearly the mark of what was once a grievous wound. On occasion, she can be seen wearing a blue scarf, usually an indication of having been in a particularly bloody situation.

Personality:

The Grand Lady, put kindly, is a jerk. She's an egotistical, petty, bitter jerk who in most cases would just as soon kill you as look at you. She's not sadistic by any means, but cross her and everything you get in return is completely deserved in her eyes. She's arrogant and crass in a refined sort of way, every inch the haughty queen that her species tends to be. She also has no point to prove, being entirely sure of herself: if she wants someone dead, she is equally willing to do it herself as she is to arrange someone else to do it. She has a strong notion of her brand of justice, but mostly it's draconian and frequently hypocritical.

That being said, she does have a stronger self awareness than what she might have had natively. Anthony was particularly helpful in teaching her the virtues of slowing down, thinking through her actions, considering the consequences of her actions, and using her considerable intelligence to think through a situation rather than killing everyone involved and sorting things out later. This did not make her softer so much as it made her more pragmatic. But the presence of the other Knights does reveal a crucial point about The Lady: for all of her faults, all of her temper, cruelty, and pride, The Grand Lady's loyalty is absolute. She is not particularly loyal to the other Scavengers, but cross The Seven Knights and she is quite willing to inflict death and worse for daring to make the attempt. This has not gone unrecognized by the other Knights either: Anthony takes it as a sign that she could learn to be better, and all of them, while they may not completely agree with Anthony, have The Lady's back as much as she has theirs. After all, after someone saves your life repeatedly and you do the same, it becomes significantly easier to forgive personal faults.

History:

The Grand Lady’s origins are a mystery: she refuses to speak of them, even to her fellow Knights. Her crownless head gives some idea: it is a mark of a Tsareena who evolved without consent of their clan and who now wanders the world without one. However, her first introduction to the world at large was a brutal attack on a Black Lotus stronghold. Not absolutely critical, but certainly noticeable enough that when she announced herself as “The Grand Lady”, people took her seriously rather than laughing in her face.

She continued her own work, trying to fight the Black Lotus wherever she could find them, but it was not until she was caught in an assassination plot with Anthony Carpenter-Weaver that she began to find traction.

The Lady was uncertain at first about working with Anthony, but the Mimikyu had noticed and helped prevent an ambush meant to kill them both, so she was willing to give more leeway. Sure, he might have been just a little over concerned with morality, but he was competent and saved her life when no one had previously cared about helping her, so she was willing to forgive his odd fixations a bit. The two of them sought to work together, but realized that the most effect would be achieved with more allies, and sought to form their own group of elite warriors.

The Lady is ambiguous about her and Anthony’s first attempts to form the what would become the Knights, only hinting that it may not have gone smoothly at first. However, it was she who first successfully recruited Knights after she and Anthony started looking for them: she saved the lives of Max Clerk and Arlington the Sharpedo, causing them to join her and Anthony in exchange. She was also the one to suggest recruiting Magenta the Volcorona, though Anthony is the one who ultimately convinced the moth to join. She did not have a hand in recruiting Oort the Minior or Haq the Claydol; in fact, she was quite uncertain about the two of them at first. However, as the Knights began to work together, even the standoffish Lady had to admit the deep trust that developed between them all. It was a trust deep enough that she stood by them as they united Blackbriar City under the banner of the Steel Scavengers, and when Arlington suggested taking Coalrock in his almost casual way, she was instrumental in designing the tactics that would take the city almost completely whole.

But The Grand Lady is confronting an undeniable fact: in the end, it is likely that her friends will die. She might die too, of course, but there are signs that she may not care nearly as much about that. Ultimately however, she knows that none of her surviving friends will know peace if the Lotus is around, and she will do what it takes to remove Queen Taiya and her entourage once and for all.


Other:




Name: Max Clerk
Age: 31
Gender: n/a
Species: Klinklang
Team: Steel Scavengers
Starting Blaze Jewel: Ground
Appearance:

The most remarkable thing about how Max Clerk looks is that they look almost exactly average for their species. Their gears are neither particularly dull nor shiny and their faces look like every single other Klinklang’s. They even play to that appearance most of the time, easily overlooked when they want to be. However, when the situation gets tighter and they need to start fighting, their entire presence changes. There is nothing about their physical appearance that changes so much as their demeanor shifts entirely. Their gears spin more quickly, their voice goes from a inoffensive drawl to a powerful bass, and their presence overall is more intimidating.

Personality:

At first glance, Max Clerk appears to have what one might call a "stereotypical" personality for a Klinklang: they seem calm, intelligent, and generally stoic. Even the turning of their gears is quiet and unobtrusive as they turn the pages of their many books, appearing completely inoffensive. However, certain things place them squarely in the uncanny valley: their poorly concealed interest when they notice violence, their tendency to "fidget"—spin their gears one way, then another, quite quickly—when it's been quiet for a while, and their tendency to quickly suggest what some might call "brutal" actions whenever a situation might call for it hint at their inner nature.

For Max Clerk is a berserker. They love to fight, to revel in violence, to seek powerful opponents, and feel the rage and ecstasy of doing battle. They do not necessarily fight to kill: merely to find a challenge. In the years when they worked for the Lotus, they were a frequent participant in both variations of the Blood Pit Arena, where they were wildly successful. While their face and demeanor made it difficult to show, the pits were an addiction for him, a way to release tension and relax. That being said, they’re a fighter, not a sadist. They seek powerful opponents to do battle against, not victims to torture. They even avoid killing if an opponent is clearly no longer able to give them a challenge, a trait that some might assume is born from cruelty, not disinterest.

History:

Max Clerk does not remember when they first came to be, or even their existence as a Klink. Their first coherent memory is of being a Klang, fiddling with some tools and some kind of device. Perhaps the reason for this memory’s coherence is what happened immediately after: a Blaziken attempted to mug them, and much to her brief surprise, the strange device turned out to be a weapon. Despite the evolutionary and twice over type advantage, the Klang that would become Max Clerk successfully killed the Blaziken.

The display pleased an official from the Black Lotus who happened to be watching. The Mismagius had actually been evaluating the Blaziken for recruitment, but his interest immediately shifted over to the Klang. Little did he know that when he recruited the Klang in question, they would not be some mindless automaton, but rather a brilliant warrior who just got their first taste of heart pounding battle.

The Mismagius was known to the Lotus as Thomas James Clerk, and when he explained the concept of family to the Klang he’d recruited, they very quickly chose the name Max Clerk for themselves. Thomas thought this was a strange quirk, a ghost in the machine, rather than the Klang actually seeking an identity, and he essentially made Max Clerk his own personal weaponsmith with a gladiatorial twist: after all, the Klang proved to be a good fighter, and throwing them into Blood Pit Arena occasionally was a way for Thomas to brag a little. Thomas, however, did something to displease Queen Taiya, and she indulged in a macabre sense of irony by pitting him against his newly evolved Klinklang, who was not loyal enough to Thomas to avoid chewing him up in their gears.

Afterwards, Max Clerk began to work for Queen Taiya’s own weaponsmiths (no sense in discarding someone potentially useful, after all), but they slowly began to realize a growing distaste for the Lotus: fighting and killing was all well and good, but the Lotus was starting to reveal sadism that disquieted them. When Max Clerk found a Ribombee gleefully choking prisoners to death with pollen for no reason other than “because she could”, they had enough and resolved to betray their empire.

Max Clerk’s bloodlust sought the fight immediately, but their reason and intuition told them to wait, to bide their time for the opportunity to do the most damage. And when a Sharpedo barged into the lab, cheerfully informing everyone that he was going to “loot you all to the bedrock”, Max Clerk began to kill everyone in sight other than the Sharpedo in question. The Sharpedo, Arlington, was utterly confused, but went along with it.

After the massacre, Max Clerk was marked as undesirable by the Black Lotus (Arlington was already on that particular list), some of whom were struggling to process the betrayal by what they saw as an object more than a Pokemon. They were a well known combatant (and Arlington was no slouch himself), and so when the Black Lotus tried to kill them both, they sent an entire squadron of soldiers specifically meant to kill them both.

Of course, that meant that when The Grand Lady ambushed the squadron in question, they were utterly unprepared to deal with the extremely powerful Tsareena and got completely demolished. She almost lackadaisically murdered them to a man before offering the two a chance to join her in a little group she was helping to form.

What happened next is something of an unknown, but there is one thing Max Clerk will admit to: they refused to follow a leader who could not best them in combat. Max Clerk challenged Anthony to a fight, supposing their size and type advantage would allow them to best the Mimikyu.

The “fight”, as much as it could be called that, is still a blur to the Klinklang. Suffice to say, not even seven seconds later, they were halfway buried into the ground with Anthony politely standing over them, as though not only not responsible for but completely clueless about how Max Clerk ended up so utterly thrashed.

The Klinklang was completely loyal after that.

Max Clerk and Arlington are a close team even relative to the other Knights, covering each other’s flaws and weaknesses quite well. The two are best friends, and everyone else on the team is loathe to separate them, both from an emotional standpoint and a practical one. They have been instrumental in gathering intelligence for the Knights, as well as being quite capable combatants. Though only time will tell if the dynamic duo (and the Knights they’ve joined) can survive their trials...

Note: There are obviously seven members of the Seven Knights, but only the PCs have Blaze Jewels.