Name: "Xan." - Xan, hypothetically answering the question of what their name is. They have a full name. They don't like sharing it.
Age: 23 - but they don't like sharing that either.
Gender: "Not your business. Bye." - Xan, hypothetically answering and then hypothetically leaving because of all these hypothetical questions about their personal information.
Hometown: Wyndon. Xan isn't hypothetically answering this one. They've hypothetically left already.
Appearance: Brown walking boots, brown backpack, black trousers, grey hoodie, thin black woollen gloves... motorcycle helmet? VR trackers? Run-of-the-mill as far as clothing goes, but Xan's accessories of choice aren't something you see every day. Xan's wrists are covered by smallish bracer-like dealies, like bracelets but big, their boots have boxes tied around them just above the ankles, their backpack has similar boxes affixed to the shoulder-straps and the helmet they often wear looks strangely put together on closer inspection. In colder weather they can slip into a big coat, and in warmer weather a lighter jacket than their hoodie suffices.
Androgynous, non-athletic form. About 5'5", maybe 5'6", a little underweight due to lacking muscle mass. Pale complexion, short ginger hair and dark green eyes, but the helmet's visor is tinted so that's not always going to be outwardly apparent. They probably won't bother to remove it much while out and about. Other considerations aside, there are lots of things Pokémon throw about that you
really don't want getting in your eyes. Wyndon accent, not really posh per se but definitely clipped to a fair degree, mid-high pitch, distorted a little by aforementioned helmet.
Strengths:
- Being the smart
Xan do be kinda smart tho. Perhaps a more accurate, more specific term would be 'academically minded'. An inventor and an analyser - Xan's a scientist at heart and is very used to acquiring data and using it to solve problems. Their background isn't in Pokémon battling particularly, but research into psychic phenomena is linked pretty heavily to psychic Pokémon; there's a lot of crossover in reading material so Xan hasn't really had to go out of their way too far to grab some passable Pokémon knowledge.
- Composure... relatively speaking
Easily - seemingly perpetually - irritable, but more-or-less unflinching from that stance; a low-burning exasperation that doesn't threaten flaring into rage. Xan can stay calm and keep their cool in most any situation, nigh-unburdened by the heights of emotion. Their curt frankness and annoyed disposition are cold and conscious, and anything resembling an emotional outburst from them is probably a premeditated attempt at getting someone to go away.
- Did someone say PSYCHIC POWER!?
Woah, man, that's crazy and stuff. People have psychic powers in Pokémon? Some of them, yeah - and Xan is one of them! I think Sabrina at some point turned some people into dolls or something, but that's hella freaky so let's not do that; Xan's current psychic abilities are mostly minor powers within the fields of psychoprecognition, psychosensory perception, psychotelepathy and psychokinesis. Xan's psychoprecognition isn't massively researched - mostly due to its fickle nature - and not particularly trained for the same reason. Though perhaps mistaken for simple instinct or recently honed reflexes at times, they do seem to be warned of imminent personal dangers slightly ahead of time. Outside of that, Xan's clairvoyance is limited to 'bad feelings' - often indistinguishable from non-psychic 'bad feelings' that people get all the time anyway. It's unresearched to the point that Xan isn't sure if comes under the umbrella of psycosensory perception or not. Speaking of! Their psychosensory perception, more studied and trained than the previous field, affords them a greater awareness of their own self and a more detailed understanding of psychic powers around them; essential for someone researching such things. Psychotelepathy comes under the greater umbrella of psychoenchantment, which is a particularly tough nut to crack. Light telepathy is the extent of their abilities in that regard; fairly consistently able to push vague concepts or images into another's mind, and that's about it. Pokémon and people alike seem to be able to understand speech well enough, so it's not really a game-changer - might help to practice for the sake of related abilities, though, and it's not without its useful quirks. Psychokinesis! Create force with your mind! Or, well, acceleration. Movement. Whatever. Kind of the default thing people think of when they think psychic power, and it sure is neat. It's Xan's second most researched discipline and its applications are simple in theory but in practice very flexible. Hey, maybe moving yourself with your mind instead of your body can make up for spending the last decade of your life in a computer chair! Psychosensory perception and psychokinesis in concert improve coordination significantly if it wasn't fantastic beforehand - don't need hand-eye co-ordination if you're technically not using your hands or your eyes, right? Wait, if psychokinesis is Xan's second most studied discipline, what's their first? Enter
psychotransmutation, the powerful ability to turn people into dolls psychoportation, a field Xan is so intimately familiar with and yet cannot replicate. Why not? Because it's
hard. There's a reason humans can't do it. Many reasons. They have been watching their Abra research partner teleport, teleport objects, teleport
Xan for over a decade - as Abras are wont to do - and over this time they have delved deep into its intricacies and discovered just how much of a
miracle it is that such a thing is even
vaguely plausible. In theory, teleportation should, in all likelihood, just kill whoever attempts it (if not destroy a huge portion of the world in the process) and yet here exists a creature who can do it
in its sleep. How thoughtful of the universe to invent psychic restrictions to prevent itself from imploding. In spite of that, teleportation would be neat, though... let's research some more.
Weaknesses:
- Please don't make me jog I do not like to jog
While the grand combination of psychosensory perception and psychokinesis can make up for a lot of physical attributes, stamina isn't one of them. Neglecting exercise throughout Xan's earlier life (see aforementioned computer chair comment) makes the hiking required of a Pokémon journey a slog. Mental exhaustion is also a thing and carries somewhat into the physical, and those also carry into psychic exhaustion, and vice versa thirdsa you know how it is. Xan is constantly fighting off exhaustion of some kind or another - and wow, it
really can't help that they get to watch their research partner sleeping eighteen hours a day. If Xan weren't motivated they'd probably do the same.
- Wait, you have to actually TRAIN the Pokémon?
Xan isn't too fond of interacting with people or Pokémon in general, and giving direct orders to people deserving of respect is probably one of their least favourite things to do under that umbrella. Heck, it's half the reason they quit their last job. They have a tendency to treat Pokémon as their own autonomous entities, which isn't without its benefits - unfortunately, through either more animal intelligence or simply preference, most would rather have some kind of direction. Xan usually solves problems directly, and Pokémon battling is a distinctly indirect thing. Their logic is that the Pokémon being trained likely has far more accurate data about its own fighting condition and abilities, and so it should
theoretically be better to simply relay relevant information and
occasionally advise potential options - leaving the Pokémon to make their own decisions. The flaw is that this assumes the Pokémon both wants and is able to make their own decisions, and that they are both intelligent enough and respect Xan enough to follow their advice. Safe to say that Xan's headway in training Pokémon tends to start out slow, and it also tends to
stay slow unless the two really mesh well - or if they've spent most of their lives in close proximity, in the case of their research partner. Talk about a head start.
- Absolutely finished with people
Introversion in itself isn't a weakness, and Xan knows as much, but their attitude to dealing with others - and also the act of
not dealing with them - leaves them often neglecting, or occasionally ruining, otherwise beneficial opportunities. Interacting with others regularly - and with Pokémon trainers especially, who tend to possess a certain brand of energy - causes Xan a sort of mental frustration and they're sick of pretending that that isn't the case. Xan does not shun others out of misplaced pride, nor simple shyness, nor some kind of past trauma. It's not a front or a facade. They're not even really a misanthrope, as they're inclined to treat people quite favourably as long as long as said people keep a respectful distance. Instead, Xan simply possesses a genuine dislike of human social interaction irrespective of the humans themselves. By all means, that isn't to say that there isn't a certain bitterness involved; Xan's personal boundaries (don't talk to me or come within arm's reach of me unless you actually require it for good reason) are easy enough to abide by once known but are still very much easily and constantly crossed by strangers, to the point where Xan is poised to expect it at almost every turn. Not ill-mannered unprovoked, just... easily provoked. These concepts aren't even limited to humans; Xan considers Pokémon to be slightly less abrasive in general, but perhaps that's just because they've encountered fewer of them. Why go on this journey, then? Well, research has to be done, and funding is hard to come by. Tolerating hardships is just a necessary part of progress. Hopefully they can leave most of anything involving social interaction to their research partner and people will leave them alone. Heck, interacting is so easy for the Abra they could probably do it in their sleep.
Aspirations: To be the very best, like no-one ever was! At being psychic. The best in psychic ability and psychic research. Pokémon training? They could take it or leave it - why do you ask? Much of Xan's adolescent life was spent researching psychic power - both in general and specifically their own - but research requires resources and with avenues to pursue running out, their options are almost at a standstill. They've made decent headway thus far - their current abilities can attest to that, and developing the relatively lightweight gear they wear to function as psychic training wheels was no mean feat either. But there's still plenty on the horizon, with more to research in multiple areas. There's a certain introspective, philosophical aspect to psychic power, but there are also a lot of potential practical applications in science, in engineering or medical fields, in transport, in safety, and probably much more. This journey is both a short and long term gateway to furthering that goal; improving their research partner's psychic abilities via battle training will open up more opportunities for research, and catching different psychic Pokémon will have similar benefits. Non-psychic-type Pokémon with psychic abilities are also a particularly interesting avenue of research. Xan also kind of
needs certain qualifications in order to perform proper (and importantly, legal) research - they've got around that thus far via informality and their research partner being a family pet. Long-term: money and important connections work wonders, and both tend to come naturally to Pokémon trainers who perform well. Xan isn't interested in being the 'very best', but a 'passing grade' as it were is a very appealing prospect... it's just that Xan might be underestimating just how much effort a 'passing grade' requires. It certainly seemed like the easiest option at the time. They aren't disinterested in battle itself - it's exciting to watch, and there's plenty of strategy involved to provide interesting depth - it's the
training and the interaction that comes with it that bothers them, but they're going to have to deal with that if they want to get anywhere.
Rival: "Don't think I have one. If someone considers me their rival I hope they get hit by a car." - Xan, being hypothetically questioned about hypothetical rivals and then hypothetically considering the hypothetical benefits of in-hypothetical-hypothetical traffic collisions. If cars don't exist in z-verse, please consider this hypothetical quote stricken from hypothetical canon.
Starter Pokémon: Kass the Abra. They're a nice, mild, gentle jokester with the patience of a saint. They quietly laugh at jokes even when asleep. Kass has been Xan's research partner since long before they began their Pokémon journey, and their companion even before then - family pet, and all. They were named by Xan's mother - 'Season Three Kassadin' is technically their full name, though Xan prefers not to acknowledge that. Kass' amiability and Xan not being an utter inhuman abomination have led to a deep understanding and respect between the two, leading to equal parts effortless teamwork and comfortable silence.
Gender: "Ask Kass." - Xan hypothetical hypothesis blah blah weeee
Moveset: Teleport and Confusion (egg). Abra doesn't get much. Bless the egg move.
Ability: Magic Guard (I didn't know this ability existed, this is cool)
Additional Pokémon: Jerry the Psyduck. Honestly, he's a champion. Jerry was a mid-journey acquisition borne out of Kass' good-natured intervention. Accountability for the name is split between himself and both of his peers - Xan asked for name ideas, Kass telepathically submitted the notion of slap-bass and a laugh track, and Xan's sceptical 'Jerry?' got a cheerful, affirmative quack from the Psyduck. Jerry (the 'Seinfeld' is theoretically there but Xan refuses to acknowledge it) is a thinker - not in the sense that he's particularly bright, but in the sense that he seems to put a humongous amount of effort into the act of thinking. Jerry does not seem to be in the slightest bit gifted - indeed, Jerry often looks as if his brain is in perpetual deadlock just performing the necessary duties to keep the psyduck alive - and Xan's method of Pokémon training does not seem to help with that in the slightest. Nonetheless, Jerry tries. Jerry is motivated to train. Jerry tries
so hard. Xan can't help but commend that kind of effort. Thank goodness Kass helps.
Disclaimer: If anyone is mean to Jerry I will scream.
Gender: "Ask Jerry." - Xan
really just doesn't like giving people any kind of personal info of any kind. Even if it's not very hard to extrapolate from Jerry Seinfeld. Jerry is boy. Jerry is my boy.
Moveset: Scratch, Tail Whip, Confusion, Fury Swipes, Water Pulse, Disable
Ability: Cloud Nine
RP Sample: https://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?p=10211042#post10211042
