VICTOR HAAS

The initial inspiration for Victor Haas came from a pretty singular concept; how do you live with grief, and how does it effect the person you become after someone you love has passed on? Victor, as he currently exists, is the sum of everything his loss has culminated in. He's fearful, anxious, and has a sort of 'learned helplessness' that's come from internalizing the circumstances of his wife's passing. On the other hand, part of living with grief is... well, living. The world will continue to move even after people leave it, and all one can do is try and keep up.

Goals for his characterization include exploring some of the more problematic aspects of his character, trying to build him up to become more resilient and capable (along with exploring moments in which he fails to rise to the challenge), and exploring the lingering ramifications of his loss.

Character inspirations include Rex Murphy of the Arkham Horror LCG, and to a lesser extent, Alan Wake, especially as he appears in Alan Wake 2.

PERSONALITY TRAITS

Despite his persistent anxiety, Victor is very much a people-person. An ambivert by nature, he will never be the most gregarious person in the room, but he does have a genuine love of humanity, and is generally compassionate by nature (with few exceptions). He's also particularly fond of Pokemon, largely due to his history of living with them as companions more so than battling partners. Victor has a bit of a weakness for cute things, and despite being aware of the fact that Pokemon are very different from people, he has a particular soft spot for small Pokemon that are easily anthropomorphized (essentially, any Pokemon you could perceive as a 'tiny person', such as Golett or Elgyem).

On the other hand, Victor can also be quite cowardly; he is willing to capitulate to the desires of others if it means avoiding danger or hardship. He is also deeply anxious about the state of Hoenn as it currently exists, and lives a transient lifestyle out of an irrational fear that if he lingers in one place too long, something terrible will happen to him. However, for all of the preparations he makes to avoid danger or misadventure, Victor is not very physically capable, and if he's on the road, there's a solid chance he's going to run into a spot of trouble. Finally, he has a particularly harsh and judgmental perspective of those currently (and sometimes formerly) associated with Team Rocket. It could be said that this isn't the worst viewpoint to have, but for someone who is otherwise compassionate towards his fellow man, he has little sympathy even for those who may be an unwilling part of the organization.

MOTIVATIONS

CURIOUSER AND CURIOUSER: As someone who has both an interest in the paranormal and a love of stories, Victor finds himself drawn to whatever people or places that spark his curiosity. He has a voracious appetite for knowledge, especially in the context of culture and folk traditions, and is particularly drawn to stories about the lived experiences of his fellow man.

FIGHT OR FLIGHT: Victor is an intrinsically compassionate and sometimes empathetic person. However, he's wracked by anxieties and a lack of belief in his own abilities. While this conflict isn't always apparent in more low-stakes situations, when the chips are down, he may struggle between what he perceives is the right thing to do, and the urge to get the hell out of Dodge with his sorry hide in one piece.

CURRENT PLOTS

THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE
While his belief in the paranormal and the supernatural has been somewhat dampened by his previous work experience, Victor still continues to find himself drawn to the weird and strange. A strange cryptid spotted outside of town? Psychics who can levitate objects or channel the dead? A piece of toast with a miraculous manifestation of Arceus' face on it? If it's strange and possibly unexplainable, Vic will be there!

SEEKING:

• The wacky, weird, and wonderful. Any characters or threads involving things or phenomena not currently explained by known science, as long as it doesn't at least appear to be outwardly dangerous.

I WANNA BE A POKEMON RANGER
Having run into multiple Pokemon Rangers during recent travels, and even being told that he might have the makings of a Ranger himself, Victor is starting to consider the idea. However, he does not, in fact, want to live a "life of danger"; he may need a nudge in the right direction to deal with some of his fears and insecurities before he could pursue this idea in earnest.

SEEKING:

• Pokemon Rangers who would be willing to foster/encourage Victor's budding interest, or at least those who could bail him out of whatever trouble he might find himself in on his travels

OTHER PLOT HOOKS

PAST CONNECTIONS

• Former classmates or friends from his home in Lavender Town
• Former colleagues from The Looking Glass, a small tabloid newspaper also based out of Lavender Town
• Former classmates or friends from his college days in Ecruteak City (fall 2009-spring 2013)

NEW CONNECTIONS

• Kantonian refugees
• Other writers/journalists
• Anyone with any sort of involvement or interest in the occult

THE STORY SO FAR

A sort of TL;DR version of Victor's life and pertinent information about him can be found in his infamy file. This is the "long version" that appeared in his original plotter (and will probably be tweaked later tbh).

TRIGGER WARNING; death/death of a loved one

SPOILER: Click to show

Life had been peaceful, if not almost horribly mundane, until Team Rocket's invasion of the Kanto region.

Back then, Victor Haas had been living a blissfully uneventful life. He was a columnist for a local paper, often tasked with writing the daily horoscopes or covering stories of alleged supernatural phenomena that even he found himself skeptical of. Of course, being primarily based out of Lavender Town, people across the region happily ate up whatever schlock he pushed out about ghosts, aliens, and the like.

He lived happily with his wife Naomi (nee Sonozaki), a former Johtonian and genuine enthusiast of stories involving the occult. She'd often contribute to his writings in some way, whether it was her input on the daily horoscopes ("the Bull is a fixed star sign, dearest, and an Earth sign at that") or offering suggestions on local cases supposedly involving the paranormal. They were truly happy together, lives entwined in their tiny one-story home until they had to leave it all behind in a desperate midnight flight.

Victor had gotten wind of the impending invasion from colleagues abroad and managed to arrange a hasty escape with his wife and their two Pokemon as Rocket forces swept through the region in earnest. The two opted to settle in Hoenn, if only because the neighboring Johto was also apparently under siege, but "settling" proved to be something of a pipe dream.

Calamity after calamity kept the couple on the move, transients in a region that felt dangerous and alien to them both. They never felt like they could settle in one place for long; what if they were caught in Slateport during the attack of an Ultra Beast? Or in Lilycove when the Megapolans launched a full-scale invasion?

In time, however, Victor began to fear that their increasingly nomadic lifestyle was beginning to take a toll. Naomi had become increasingly stoic and distant, but at times Victor would notice the way her eyes would unfocus and sweat would bead on her brow even at rest, or the way she'd lean into him as though she could barely keep herself up, or the way she'd wring her hands together until her knuckles were pale white, pushing down some kind of discomfort that she refused to disclose to him.

He knew he had to do something, anything, but Naomi would just smile as beautifully as she ever did and assure him he was worrying over nothing. She was strong, she insisted, strong enough to follow him to the ends of the earth. And she did, until a cold winter morning when Victor woke up to find that his wife of nearly ten years had passed on.

It's been nearly a year now, and Victor Haas is a ghost of the man he once was. He still lives a transient life, wandering from place to place with his Espeon and his late wife's Ninetales, but less in a conscious attempt at self-preservation, and more in the subconscious hope that maybe he'll be sent into blissful oblivion whenever the next tragedy in Hoenn strikes. He'd never tell anyone that, though; he puts on a weary smile, shoves down his grief, and churns out trashy articles and personality quizzes for blogs to make enough money to feed his Pokemon.

It's not all bad, though. He's recently returned to his old passion for the occult and the strange - it's one thing that makes him feel close to the most important person in his world, even if she's no longer a part of it.

CODE BY GUNSMILE