Appearance:
The most apparent thing about John is how weak he looks. This 4'4", 68 pound young boy is pale and skinny and often looks downtrodden. His bony face leaves his dark red eyes looking exceptionally big, and if one were to lift his shirt they would find protruding ribs above his deflated stomach. His white skin is dry with various scars scattered all over more akin to those of a fighter rather than someone like him. Another thing of note is the large dark-green backpack he carries with him that he seems to struggle with when moving long distances.
John wears a simple once-white (but is now stained with dirt, blood, sweat, and the occasional food stain) shirt that is torn and far too big for him along with a pair of black basketball shorts with blue lines running down the sides that only manage to fit thanks to the elastic waist. His mess of hair is long and dirty blonde, reaching down to the small of his back. Some have described it as "going all over the place". It is tangled in many places and caked with blood and dirt, being not much cleaner than his shirt.
When John fuses with the spirit of his Gyarados, Wrath, he grows to a titanic 9'6" and becomes extremely muscular, putting him at a weight of nearly 500 pounds. A blue three-pointed crest made from bone extends from his skull over his forehead and a ridge of white fins sprouts from his back along his spine down his newly grown blue fish tail. His teeth extend and sharpen to fill his now large and gaping mouth. Blue barbels grow on his face that resemble a moustache along with white fins on his cheeks. While he maintains the key features of a human, with arms, legs, hands, feet, head, and face, at that point it would be rare for anyone to call him anything but a monster. Certain pokespirit wielders would understand that it is his lack of control over his spirit that causes him to assume a form that resembles the pokemon itself more closely.
Personality:
John was once a brave, tenacious child, but since acquiring the spirit of his Gyarados, Wrath, he has become timid and fearful around others. At a young age, all he wanted was the power to fight back against bad guys and to never be pushed around ever again, but when he was granted that power it was terrifying. He is afraid of getting close to others knowing that if he ever had to fuse around them then he ran the risk of losing control and killing them. He shuns any peaceful people with silence, and if he absolutely needs to talk to anyone he will say only what is necessary. Strange to other people, he insists that others call him corpse. This stems from something his mother once told him.
However, deny it as he may he still yearns for that power he's always wanted. When he's not around those he judges as good people, he enjoys the rush of power that comes with fusing with Wrath. He knows killing is wrong, but can't help but feel a thrill when he pounds in the skulls of his enemies, their blood splashing onto his skin. The internal conflict is a subject of much thought for him.
John is only able to be completely calm when he is alone with his thoughts (and his Gyarados). From a young age he has been something that is almost extinct in this instinct-driven world; studious. During his scavenging he has come upon the occasional book, which he collects, memorizes, then tosses away to avoid carrying too much extra weight. Reading is one of the only things he can enjoy completely and without Wrath. He is a precocious person and very intelligent for his age, although his wisdom is still quite lacking. His mind is weak, the way he lusts only for power and runs from the consequences of having it.
History:
John was born to a pair of scavengers who wandered the region that was once Sinnoh. They were somewhat successful until John's mother became pregnant. The two were then forced to move to Eterna City, as a wanderer's life was not exactly the best one to raise a child in. While John's father was sentimental and compassionate, he being the one who suggested they move to the city to raise John rather than abandon him, his mother was more realistic. In defiance of his father's attempts to teach him morality, she insisted that the boy learn the ways of the world without any sugarcoating so that he could sooner become an asset rather than a burden. She was the one who gave him the name "John Doe", along with the words he would never forget.
Growing up in the city, John loved to learn new things. His father would read him bedtime stories which sowed the seeds of his interest in reading, so his dad spent many nights teaching him. He often wandered about the city in search of books and people who could teach him all sorts of new things. This began to garner a reputation for him around the city, but it was one that led to the other children bullying him. He grew to hate the other kids and wished he could beat them the same way they often beat him. This was the innocent beginning of his lust for power. The lessons on humanity from his mother did nothing to dissuade him from developing the idea that it was a "strong prey on the weak" world and actually encouraged it, furthering the thought that he needed power.
Loathing the restraining life in the city and not trusting any of its inhabitants, John's mother insisted they leave the city the moment John turned 7 years of age. They were lucky, since a couple years later a cult of pokespirit wielders destroyed the city and slaughtered the inhabitants. And so, the new family of three continued onward, journeying the region in search of food and supplies like before. John was a competent scavenger, but he was often reprimanded for getting things that weren't necessary such as books, so he made a habit of memorizing what he could from them before they had to move on.
It was on John's tenth birthday that he heard the calling to Mt. Coronet. When he told this to his parents, they both encouraged him to seek out the mountain as a pokespirit would be a huge boon to their efforts. They guided him to the base of the mountain then hid to avoid adult-hating pokespirit wielders, leaving John to climb the mountain alone. He successfully made it to the top and was blessed with the spirit of Gyarados. He returned to the base of the mountain to find his parents, both very proud of him.
John continued wandering with his parents, occasionally speaking with his Gyarados until they reached the site of a ruined city. His parents asked him to use his power to move some rubble, so he began the fusion with his spirit. His body grew bigger, stronger, and then he blacked out. Weak of body and weak of mind, he lost control. When he came to, he found himself standing in front of the deformed bodies splayed across the concrete in puddles of blood; bodies that once belonged to his parents. He was covered in their blood. All he could do was stare, when he heard the Gyarados spirit say, Are you satisfied with my power? Never again will any being be above you. John screamed in agony.
He stayed by the bodies and cried for the entire night before he finally passed out in exhaustion. It confused his Gyarados. Why are you unhappy? You said you wanted strength, to never be pushed around again. Together we are superior. John questioned the pokemon, but it could never truly understand how John was feeling so he eventually gave up.
John remembered what his mother had taught him and it helped him finally move on. He needed to survive, because if he didn't then all that was left was to die, and he was afraid of death so he continued scavenging. Fully knowing what his Gyarados (which he had taken to calling Wrath) was capable of, he used its power whenever his life was threatened by bandits and the like. Each time he tried to see what he could do to to maintain control, and slowly he gained the ability to actually stay conscious, and eventually to actually control his body. His mind still became animalistic and savage in that form, but he understood that he was making progress.
Eventually, safer places to scavenge dwindled in their bounties leading many innocent scavengers to expand their search to the territory John frequented. John knew that he wouldn't be able to deter them without killing them, so he resolved to move even farther in his own scavenging. To do so, he would need a proper stock of supplies to make it there in the first place, so he began his journey to Children's City to barter for what he needed to make it to a new scavenging frontier.
How does your character obtain food?: Scavenger
Pokéspirit Species: Gyarados
Pokéspirit Nickname: Wrath
Pokéspirit Personality:
Wrath is not evil. On the contrary, he wants John to be happy. The Gyarados understands how badly John wishes for strength and wants to grant it to him, to make John unstoppable. However, he is a simple being as well. He is unable to understand why John refuses that which he wishes for. As for himself, Wrath finds happiness in destruction. Concepts like family and friendship, and even good and evil are alien to him and incomprehensible. To him there is only strength and weakness, and the spirit and its wielder. All he knows is that power makes him feel good, and that he likes exerting it, operating on beastly instinct.
When outside of fusion, Wrath tends to keep quiet, only responding when John directly addresses him. He believes that in time, John will be true to himself and they would be able to destroy things in harmony.
Pokéspirit Moves: Dragon Dance, Waterfall, Earthquake, Roar, Taunt, Bounce
Pokéspirit Other:
When fused with Wrath, John used to go into a berserk state where he would rampage until everyone around him was dead or the mighty beast exceeded the limits of his frail body. Through further use, John is now able to maintain some aspect of control over himself during fusion. While he is still a bloodthirsty monster, he is able to focus his wrath on individual targets, although touching him when in this state is still a bad idea, friend or foe, lest he turn his fury onto you.
Unfortunately, a side effect of his pokespirit can take this little bit of control right back (Gyarados' Moxie). For each person he kills he feels an increase in strength, but loses more control over himself, becoming more savage in his behavior and closer to the way he was when he first fused with Wrath. When this happens, his only choices are to stop himself before it becomes too late, or embrace the power that comes with it and deal with the consequences.
John's weak body leads him to only be able to stay fused for a limited time, so if an enemy somehow manages to survive his brutal onslaught, John would revert to his weak body and pass out, helpless.
Opening Post:
"In this world, you're born dead. Nobody really lives. You're too busy surviving to accomplish anything, and when you stop surviving you die. So what's the difference between dying now or dying later? None. We're all just walking corpses waiting to be forgotten. That's what a John Doe is; a nameless corpse. You could say I've dubbed you the embodiment of humanity."
Those were the words his mother told him many years ago when he asked her why she chose that name for him. They have stayed with him his entire life, and he is often trying to figure out exactly what they meant. To him, he thought they meant that the only options in life were to either survive or die, and that whichever he chose, ultimately there would be no difference. The choice was entirely his own, though, and since he was afraid of dying, he was left only with the choice to survive.
Many would find those words very depressing, but John's mother had done her best to desensitize the boy. The things he learned from his mother and from experience seemed much truer than what he learned from his father and the books he read. However, he reason would have it that those words should tell him that there was nothing wrong with killing innocents, but he just couldn't bring himself to do it. He couldn't even bring himself to eat a dead body. The idea that they were a person with a consciousness of their own made him wonder how he would feel in their place, and from there he stopped wanting to think about it. At least when it was a hostile person he could feel comfort in knowing it was them or him.
As usual, Wrath was silent. John often wondered what ran through the spirit's mind. In the distance, he was able to see the decayed buildings that made up Children's City. All he had to do was trade for stuff and then leave. The longer he stayed, the greater the chance something could happen and the greater the chance Wrath could destroy it. Then he would be breaking Arceus' tenets and be punished. On the other hand, he could be killed by the other pokespirit wielders. Even Wrath's power shouldn't be enough to overcome so many others with more experience than him.
Our power is unmatched, and if it is not then we deserve death.
Wrath spoke matter-of-factly before receding into silence once more. It was difficult understanding the pokemon when it was so... primal. However, it seemed to have everything figured out for itself. John wondered how that felt, to know exactly what you wanted out of life. Exactly what your place in the world was. He'd been told there was no such thing as a "place in the world", but he still wondered about it. Again, his own existential thoughts coupled with that which he'd read and been taught by his father conflicted with his mother's words. He began to wonder if there was anything those things could all agree on.
