(1) Family usually calls him Dusty; everyone else uses Kobe[break][break]

(2) Was born with a condition that ruined his ability to develop muscle. His parents refused medicines for religious reasons, but accepted physical therapies. At his current age, he can function for extended periods of time like a normal human being but still has fatigue issues.[break][break]

(3) Parents gifted him a ralts, but his favorite pokemon was the yamask line. He neglected the ralts and took it for granted, but of course still used it for fun when he could. This confused the ralts quite a bit, especially because of its telepathy.[break][break]

(4) In spite of its pain, the ralts still viewed Kobe as a friend, and it made a desperate move to try to earn his friendship. At the age of 10, the creature started supporting Kobe telepathically, supplementing his willpower and emotional state. It was the simple effectiveness of being mentally present, in a way that is physically impossible, that made ralts effective. It acts as something like a mental brace.[break][break]

(5) When he was 8, he gained the confidence to sneak out and go after his first yamask. The catch was successful, and from there on, yamask became a big secret. He lived a double life, sneaking out to battle with it.[break][break]

(6) Ralts is just an honorary member of Kobe's team. He keeps it around for the therapy value, but never battles with it. Having recently decided to use medication to complete his rehab, he wants to find a morally good trainer to give ralts to. Someone who will take care of it. This is because ralts would almost certainly die trying to take care of whoever inherits it.[break][break]

(7) His parents refused to give him a yamask for religious reasons. His love for yamask grew into a statement of his atheism, and a similar thing happened with his view of ralts. His opinion was that the gods of his parents didn't care about him, and so he was born the way that he was. It was after he used ralts to catch his first yamask that the scales fully tipped, though. Living a full blown lie, etc. This set him on the path towards Team Rocket. [break][break]

(8) His parents are psychic specialists because of their beliefs, so he polarized even further into his interest in ghost types. To them, psychic types are a kind of gifted guardian, and ghost types are a chaotic adversary.[break][break]

(9) Ralts is always with him as a mental supplement, very rarely in its pokeball. The exception is when he's with anybody from Rocket. Although he's sure that they might know about his health condition, he'd rather they view his progress as coming from his own strength. Having them know about ralts is an added weakness, but then having anybody know about ralts is an added weakness, and so to everyone else, he seems to like ralts, and his refusal to use it in combat seems like he's protecting it. If Rocket believes in his strength too much, though, his bluff could easily get him picked for a task that's well above his ability to endure.[break][break]

(10) His primary job was as a driver, but sitting for too long started to bother him too much. He is now a freelance battler for wild pokemon who become pests. This includes surveying the wilderness around houses (or if he's hired to go further out he'll do that, too) and mapping the locations of wild pokemon. Basically, he is a (supplementary) poacher, but he doesn't like calling himself that. He also doesn't report his numbers to the League, and he keeps his mouth shut if those numbers start dropping. He's even been hired to attack a few wild pokemon here or there to "take the aggro", so to speak.[break][break]

>Kobe is an irl callback in a few ways<[break][break]

(1) "Kobe" is of course from Kobe Bryant, but also from an older character of mine named Cobalt something, who I nicknamed Coby. Coby and Kobe are the same name, both being nicknames for Yaakov (Jacob).[break][break]

(2) "Dusty" is from the late great Dusty Rhodes, the American Dream![break][break]

(2a) "Kobe Rhodes" is a reference to the living legend, Cody Rhodes, the son of Dusty. He calls himself the American Nightmare. I might have Kobe start using the alias "the Mirage" at some point, in honor of both Cody and his dad.[break][break]

(2b) I also made a cool incubus character whose name was Dusty something. I named him in honor of Dusty Rhodes after I found out that Dusty Rhodes died. That was years ago, but it's thanks to me remembering that character that I decided to use the Rhodes surname for Kobe.[break][break]

(3) Coby had a health problem due to over relying on his tactile-telekinesis, which made him underweight, and he had fatigue problems because of his physical weakness. I never got to fully play that health problem out, and it was a neat thing to write, so I wanted to try to translate it.[break][break]

(4) The mention of him being a driver is a reference to a character who Coby had a few really good threads with. I might have Kobe still do driver stuff on the side, maybe to have more thread options. Idk, this character is partially a way for me to allow these memories to live and to be played out, so they can get the respect that I was never able to give them. Coby especially meant a lot to me. He was the first character whose story I was able to significantly progress. The first one whose "independent I" I was able to discover. I always found myself correcting mistakes with how I wrote him in real-time. Really changed my writing, in general.[break][break][break]