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YOU'RE ALL THAT I SEE

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[attr="class","freiwanttmid"]CHARACTER FACTION league

[attr="class","freiwanttmid"]CHARACTER RANK cadet

[attr="class","freiwanttmid"]FACE CLAIM tarou urashima from okami-san and her seven companions

[attr="class","freiwantttop"]ABOUT THE CHARACTER

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Your mother knew right away that something was different -- she felt it in her spirit, she'd tell you later. The doctors assured her that you were healthy, but you were only a few months old when she took you to have your hearing tested. Your grandfather insisted that it was a curse, that she'd chosen the wrong man, that her Galarian husband was bad news from the beginning... but she didn't listen to the old man's nonsense, and simply began to learn sign language along with your father so that she could equip you appropriately as you grew. When you were old enough to start meeting other deaf children for playdates or beach trips, you learned that your parents were the exception and not the rule. Most of the children signed much more efficiently than either of their parents, and not for the first time, you were thankful that you had a family that were willing to learn for you. your parents taught you the meaning of love from your first breath. [break]
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alola was a safe region to be in. your parents never worried about crime or ill intent, and you were a responsible enough child. it wasn't uncommon for your father to leave you inside eating a mango over the coffee table and watching the latest poké-rangers episode with the subtitles on while he stepped out to work in the garden, or maybe take a quick walk into town to grab rice for dinner or malasadas for the pair of you to share while your mother worked. when you were five, he came back from one of his trips to hear the carbon monoxide alarm blaring. it frightened him to think what might have happened as he rushed you outside. thankfully the alarm had simply been out of batteries, but your father was terrified and convinced your mother that you needed to have a service animal. some kind of friendly, hardy pokémon who could alert you to a noise that meant danger and guide you away. while alola had a multitude of excellent options, your parents eventually decided that a mareep would be the best fit. you were happy to have a new friend to play with, and quickly set about teaching him various signs while your parents taught you how to talk about him when he was working. [break]
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when you started school, it was with a private tutor for all the other deaf and hard-of-hearing children in your area. obviously, there weren't many, but you had enough friends to satisfy you. some of them talked and could read the lips of other people talking, while others like you only knew sign language. you got along better with the latter, because their experiences more closely resembled your own. you had only been at school for a few months when your new best friend kai started saying that his mom's ninetales had had a baby. you'd never heard of a pokémon called ninetales before, but when he showed you pictures of the ice-type and her vulpix, you started to beg your parents to let you have one. you were positively unrelenting, but they were reluctant -- alolan vulpix were rare, after all, and therefore expensive. not to mention long-lived and grumpy. certainly, the chilly foxes weren't good pets for children, especially not when aforementioned children already had a pokémon whom they loved very much. and that was true -- you were fond of sparky, but you were sure he wanted a new friend, too. [break]
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your parents, however, would not be swayed. a few weeks later, you were bemoaning this to kai for the umpteenth time as the pair of you wandered the beach, sparky keeping easy pace at your side, when you noticed a red sand shovel abandoned on the surf. your grandfather had once told you stories about how objects abandoned on the beach would become vengeful, and you thought that was a sorry fate indeed, so you resolved to return the shovel to its rightful owner. as soon as you picked it up, the sand started to warp around you into an extremely distressed sandygast. you were quick to return it -- you'd found the owner, after all -- and thanked tapu bulu that you hadn't found a palossand instead. kai ran away because he was afraid, leaving you to talk down the angry ghost-type without actually being able to talk except with your hands. thankfully though, it seemed to understand in some capacity, and let you leave. however, you remembered your grandfather's stories -- you thought that the sandygast must have been sad, so you kept returning to the beach to find the lonely red shovel and offer it some berries before it chased you away. [break]
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much to your mother's dismay, the young sand mound began to follow you home. your grandfather insisted that any child who'd been chosen by a ghost-type ought to keep it by their side. your parents were firm on their 'no more pokémon' stance, but your father was always moved by strays and your mother wasn't about to deny a lonely ghost-type who'd already been abandoned by one child. not to mention that she didn't want you to be actually cursed, which was always a possibility, and so you got a new friend -- the requirement being, of course, that he stayed firmly outside lest he destroy your mom's carpet. while you and sparky were pleased to have a new friend, your desire for a vulpix didn't waver, and neither did your parents's resolve. if anything, they became more resolute in their decision since you already had two pokémon to care for, one of whom was exceptionally unruly and liked to eat sandals that got left outside overnight. [break]
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but when you were nine, a member of your galarian family fell ill. your father wanted to move to care for her, and while your mother was reluctant, she was willing -- after all, he'd spent the past fifteen years in alola on her behalf, so moving to galar for some time certainly wouldn't kill her. she began to do research into schools and towns, and even looked into coastal towns because she knew that you'd all miss the sunshine. however, you were extremely resistant to moving. you threw temper tantrums every time the subject came up and even as the time to move drew nearer, you adamantly refused to pack your things. you ran away to kai's house on three separate occasions, and once broke an antique vase of your mother's. no punishment they could come up with could tame you, and you really just wanted to stay in alola with your friends and family and island life. then your parents broke and said they'd give you a vulpix, and you were totally packed the next day. [break]
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you and your three pokémon shipped off to galar for your next grand adventure, and you swore that you'd never seen the sky so dark and gloomy. sparky, on the other hand, was thrilled by the constant storming and grew much more staticky in the meantime. You had to wear long sleeves and coats for the first time in your life, and your heavy, woolen school uniform was just the worst, but at least they let Sparky in. By the end of the day, his tail was always glowing like a second sun from all the electricity he leeched from you and your classmates, and every morning he'd discharge it in the yard. Not that you had a very big one anymore. Kahakai and Ho'oilo didn't like it half as much. your poor sandygast missed the beach and the fresh berries especially. while ho'oilo was appreciative of the cooler temperatures, she hated being expected to stay indoors all day. [break]
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ultimately though, it wasn't the end of the world, and you were able to quietly settle down at your new school. it was hard, of course, being the new kid -- and especially being the new kid from a different country with an entirely different form of sign language -- but you had a translator for a little while until you'd learned the galarian form, and it turned out that your new school -- and later, your high school -- presented a lot more opportunities than there had been back home in alola. more specifically, it presented samandriel smythe, an attractive aspiring trainer in your year with dark hair and odd interests. sam liked poison types, and was trying to be chosen to be a gym challenger. you thought it was a lofty but impressive goal. he wanted to be a gym leader one day, and through him, you fell in love with the gyms of galar and most of the world. you'd always planned to do an island challenge, but the idea of being part of a pokémon league was suddenly far more appealing. he caught you up in the excitement of it all, even taking you on dates to stadiums in order to spectate grand matches between powerful dynamaxed pokémon. you became close with him -- closer than you'd been with kai. he invited you to his family's cabin on the lake when they'd go up for the weekend, and it was under an umbrella at the lake of outrage where you two shared your first kiss. then, sam noticed the sound of a pokémon crying, high-pitched and loud enough to catch his attention. the two of you went to investigate, only to find a deino who had gotten trapped in the lake and was having trouble escaping because of the slickness of the ground. with the help of your pokémon, you and samandriel worked to get it back on solid ground, only to realize that it was a baby. apparently it had imprinted on you two, because it wouldn't stop following you and chewing on your arms, and it started to cry again if you wandered too far. samandriel didn't know how to train anything other than poison-types, but you weren't about to back down from a challenge, and so at thirteen you found your next friend -- a whiny deino who craved your comfort. once again, your parents just about had a cow, but this time the relocation attempt went far more poorly and so they relinquished your deino under the condition that it did some obedience training. [break]
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this was around the time when another opportunity presented itself. you had a few classmates who had explained to you that they were transgender, or non-binary. those terms confused you at first, but a healthy amount of research on the internet got you thinking, and soon you started to ask more personal questions. you weren't sure that labels were the right way to go, but through careful testing, you realized that you didn't exactly like to be called by your birth name. then, of course, the question became what else should i pick? and, furthermore, what pronouns do i like? your parents were supportive of your exploration, even if it was difficult for them to fit new names and unfamiliar pronouns into their mouths, but eventually you settled -- your name was enigma, and you were a they. you had a relatively painless experience in changing up your style and identity, and not for the first time, you wondered -- why can't all adults be as awesome as my parents are? [break]
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you were fifteen when samandriel took you on your last date. he explained quietly to you that he'd finally gotten his offer -- he was finally getting sponsored, finally going through the gym challenge. he was going to explore galar and get stronger before potentially managing to prove his worth and respectability. if he was lucky, he'd get an apprenticeship and open his own gym. it was a tearful goodbye, but as a parting gift, he gave you an egg -- a zubat, born of his partner, to remember him by. you shared a parting kiss, and then he was gone. your first real heartbreak, and it wasn't even anybody's fault. your parents did everything they could to make you feel better, especially after the egg hatched, and this time there wasn't even an argument. they knew it would be cruel to try and persuade you to give up the gift, and honestly, they weren't sure it would do much good anyway. eventually though, you recovered. [break]
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two years passed by relatively uneventfully. your life moved on, and while the hurt never went away, samandriel still sent you letters and it was nice to see him on television from time to time. then, the year you'd turned seventeen, disaster struck. [break]
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you and your parents had been on the way to watch a gym battle at another stadium when another driver in a much larger and more durable car hit yours. the next several hours passed in a blur, and the next thing you knew, a child services worker and a grief counselor were in your hospital room. perhaps the cruelest part of it all was that neither of them could sign, so a nurse from the next ward over had to be called in to scrape by talking like a toddler since nobody had bothered to notice that you were deaf. you were in shock when you collected your things, and it didn't really wear off until you touched down in hoenn. your poor aunt in verdanturf town had no clue how to handle the situation. you hadn't seen her since you were a little kid, and her most recent understanding of your interests was 'likes vulpix more than anything in the world'. she knew that your last move had been eased with a new pokémon, so she gave you a gift of her own -- a shroomish, a hardy little grass-type meant to help you feel more acquainted with hoenn. you took two weeks to get settled before you filed for a trainers' license and bluntly told your aunt you were going on a journey. you had a full team anyway, and you needed the fresh air. she wasn't sure how to respond, so she let you go -- after all, anything else might have broken you in half. [break]
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before, you were tenacious and vibrant. determined to prove everyone wrong. as stubborn as a dragon-type and with as much energy as a pikachu in a thunderstorm, you were everything you had to be to make yourself known and understood. you loved your parents, loved your pokémon, and loved your heritage -- no matter what anyone else said. you were a fighter, one who looked injustice in the eye and fought back with the determination of a river carving a canyon. you were unrelenting and unwavering, and damnit, you were strong. you got angry easily and you would never drop an argument, but you had a fire in your eyes and your grandfather used to call you volcano child in your mother tongue. [break]
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but then your parents died, and suddenly, you were broken-hearted and hurt with nobody to sew you back together. your next of kin lived in hoenn, when you'd come to know alola and galar as your homes. your prayers to tapu bulu fell on deaf ears from so many miles away, and it didn't matter how much water was in hoenn -- it just wasn't alola. it wasn't your family. it certainly wasn't home. you stopped talking to your friends, and the wildfire in your eyes dulled to a flickering candle fighting to maintain its last breath, threatening to go out altogether in that midnight darkness. your walls went up. you became cold and distant, not wanting to make friends or forge relationships. you knew you couldn't handle the heartbreak of losing anyone again, so you began to wrap yourself in bubble wrap and build the walls of your castle, but you didn't stop to realize that keeping people out also means that you're left alone with your thoughts. your anger has fallen from righteousness, and now you're angry at everything -- at fate, at yourself, and at your gods. your grandfather's superstition has crept back into your blood, a last desperate attempt to cling to your culture, and you cling to souvenirs of your father's life in galar. nothing is right, not anymore, and you're not sure how to cope with the world. maybe you're deaf, but the world is still so loud, and your nightmares are louder. so for now, you're doing something to get your mind off everything -- you're challenging the hoenn league, and damnit, you're going to become the champion -- there's nobody left to tell you no. [break]
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sparky. mareep. male. static. [break]
your loyal companion since childhood, sparky is trained to alert you to smoke alarms and screaming. he keeps you safe. he's a hardy and healthy little sheep, who keeps the rest of your unruly brood in line. he's not the brightest bulb in the bunch, so to speak, but he has a heart of gold and really wishes you still wanted to play with him. loves lightning storms. charge, take down, power gem, cotton guard, signal beam, thunder.[break]
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kahakai. sandygast. male. water compaction. [break]
a lonely pile of sand you rescued from misery in your childhood. while generally sour and obnoxious to children, he loves you to pieces and likes to bring you seashells. since he's been away from the beach for so long, he settles for magnets and balls of lint. he makes a lot of messes and will eat just about anything that you put in his mouth, especially if it's colorful. sandals beware. bulldoze, hypnosis, iron defense, shadow ball, earth power, shore up.[break]
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ho'oilio. alolan vulpix. female. snow cloak. [break]
something of a gift and something of a bribe. when you were young, you were obsessed with alolan vulpix, and you were given one to ease the transition to galar. she is stubborn and fond of lazing about. she takes great pride in her appearance and her heritage, and is more than happy to show a dragon or two that she means business. especially likes to bully baby. confuse ray, extrasensory, ice beam, sheer cold, grudge, blizzard.[break]
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baby. deino. female. hustle. [break]
you and your first boyfriend rescued baby together, and she's been imprinted on you ever since. like most deino, she is aggressive and loud, but especially likes to scream when she doesn't get her way. she wants to follow you everywhere, and explores her world by chewing. it's impossible to make her do anything she doesn't want to, and while she can be especially affectionate, she's usually a royal pain. dragon breath, slam, crunch, dragon rush, nasty plot, outrage. [break]
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sam. zubat. male. inner focus. [break]
your first love was samandriel smythe, a galarian trainer who loved poison types. when he left to challenge the gyms, he gave you an egg, and rambunctious little sam was contained inside. he's a whirlwind of energy and potential, but is easily distracted and has trouble sitting still long enough to be given commands. swift, poison fang, mean look, leech life, venoshock, air slash.[break]
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shroomish. female. effect spore. [break]
the newest addition to your team is a shroomish given to you by your aunt as an arrival gift, but you resent the very concept. you don't want to be in hoenn at all. to make matters worse, she doesn't really do much more than stare at you and eat. you haven't bothered to use her in battle yet -- you can't imagine she'll be all that useful. leech seed, headbutt, giga drain, toxic, seed bomb, spore.