Finnigan Black // Traveller

[Cai]

Traveller Finnigan Black
of Taranis City

Finn . 23 . Male

[X][X][X]

Place of Residence

None - travels

Occupation: 

Unemployed

Preferred Pokémon:

Hardy Pokémon

Significant Other:

[]

Family:

Roderick Black - father - unknown location

Esme Stevens - mother - lives outside caligo

Jessica Black - sister - deceased

Judea Devreux - aunt - lives outside caligo

Appearance:

tall, lean, pale, monochrome, washed-out, long limbed, shadowy, stony

At nearly six feet tall but built like a wiry young tree, Finn has a strange yet unclassically beautiful appearance. He is astoundingly washed-out looking, his pallor, near white-blond hair and grey-blue eyes creating a striking image, if not necessarily in line with conventional male beauty. His hair is usually over-long and hovering in his eyes while his clothing, limited in range, is immaculate, suggesting a certain fastidiousness despite the nature of his existence. Dressing in black more often than not, Finn adds to his monochrome appearance on most days with a black leather coat, a simple shirt and dark jeans, though he has a few scant changes of clothes which he carries in a leather pack. 

Finn's light grey eyes are wide-set in a handsomely sculpted face with defined cheekbones, a very straight nose and strong brow, commonly seen furrowed in a slight frown. To many, particularly young teenage girls, he is an attractive young man, even if there's something just slightly odd about his appearance. The way he carries himself, the strange colouration, and perhaps even a sense of coldness, since he almost never smiles or shows any obvious sign of affection, make Finn an unusual sight to behold. He is easy to compare to a figure cut out of alabaster since he looks so stony, unaffected and bleak. He also has a voice like cool metal, measured and with an ever-present undercurrent of sarcasm. 

Personality:

scathing, mistrustful, grudging, tough, resourceful, empathetic, protective. 

A self proclaimed loner, Finn usually avoids people and people avoid Finn. He is not friendly, cheerful or welcoming and his reaction to the strangers he meets is usually walk away. It's not that he doesn't know how to act around them; indeed he actually possesses a quick wit and sharp tongue that can be both deeply humorous and cruelly cutting. It's simply that Finn has no wish to be around people due to an innate suspicion and cynicism that means he doubts people, prefers to manage alone and ultimately is afraid to be close to anyone lest he end up getting hurt. The only things he allows himself to become close to are his Pokémon, since their loyalty has never failed him. 

Apart from that Finn does very well on his own as he's a clever, resourceful and streetwise young man capable of solving virtually all problems that come his way without needing anyone's help. He's usually strapped for cash since he's got no steady source of income, but he's a mean blackjack player and, though he keeps it on the down low for obvious reasons, he's a light-fingered pickpocket. When he gets really desperate for money, however, he's not above seducing his way into a bed for the night or a meal in the evening. Chances are he'll hate himself before dawn and be gone by morning, but he knows what he has to do to survive.

Had things been different in Finn's life, he might have been a very kind, dependable person since by nature he's empathetic and essentially a good person. He wants to help the weak and the downtrodden, but too often his pragmatism and sense of self-preservation push him to avoid getting involved or attached anywhere.

History: 

On a muggy summer's day in a run-down area of Taranis City, a twenty-two year old woman fetched her neighbour as she went into labour, eventually giving birth to a son that evening. The child was that of her partner, a man called Roderick who was seventeen years her senior and notoriously fond of his drink. The woman, Esme, was shunned by her very religious family for having had a child out of wedlock while Roderick, a rough back-alley trader, possessively kept her and their newborn son in their ramshackle two-room home almost twenty-four hours a day. It was a difficult life.

The baby boy was named Finnigan Black, and the gloomy room with the peeling paint in which Esme Stevens gave birth to him was to foreshadow an equally grim life about to begin. Family life in the Black household was not easy: Roderick drank what he earned and shouted every time Esme raised her concerns over the family's near-poverty state. She and Finn were at home doing nothing all day long because Roderick refused to allow her to do anything, but he wasn't bringing enough in to support both his drinking habit and the family. As such, the first five years of Finn's life were not good. 

Finn went to school when it became legally necessary, but disliked it from the beginning. Teased because of his shabby dress and underdeveloped skills, Finn was isolated even at a young age. Meanwhile, Roderick continued to drink himself into a stupor while Esme fell pregnant once again when Finn was seven and gave birth to a baby girl, Jessica. Finn felt an instant protectiveness over his little sister and ended up taking care of her more often than not, since Esme was fast-fading while Roderick drank himself into continuous rages. 

However, in his third year of school, things got a little better for Finn. A girl moved from Port Saint Kitts to Finn's district in Taranis over the summer, and she began attending the same school as him. That girl's name was Amy Westwood, and she was little, bright and generous of heart. She had light brown curls and bright green eyes and freckles all over her nose, and though her family was hard-up too, she was somehow free from that downtrodden air of poverty that clung to Finn and his mother, perhaps because, money aside, hers was a very happy and loving family. 

From that first day in school when Amy approached Finn, all smiles and sea green eyes, they became friends. She was his confidante, too, and the only one at school who knew what went on at home. Finn was closed off to everyone else - teachers, other children, his parents - but with Amy he was free to be himself. This made the next few years of Finn's life bearable; whenever he could he would sneak out and visit Amy and her family at her modest but cosy home, or on rarer occasions she would climb up the drainpipe and slip in through his window to visit him.

All that was the silver lining in Finn's life, but it didn't last forever. When he and Amy were eleven, her father got a job elsewhere in Caligo. The summer of his twelfth birthday saw her disappear from his life, her home all packed up into a truck and her green eyes full of tears as she said goodbye. She scribbled down her new address for him but neither of them had any means to keep in contact and that was it. Finn never saw Amy again, and would harbour a desperate hope of finding her again all his life. 

The ensuing years, now lacking Amy's moderating influence, saw Finn's descent into delinquency and violence. He fought at school, joined a street gang and got expelled from school by the time he was fourteen. He fell out with his mother and fought so often with his father that one day Roderick threw him against a wall so hard that he splintered the plaster. After that, Finn swore he'd leave home, but the only problem was Jessica. Finn knew his mother was incapable of caring for her, as she had deteriorated mentally and physically over the wearying years, but knew he couldn't bring her with him. But one day, when Finn was out, Roderick got very drunk. He started to beat Esme, but when Jessica tried to get him to stop, he pushed her aside and she fell down the stairs. Finn didn't find out until he was by her hospital bed. The fall had been fatal. 

No one could prove Roderick had done it but Finn realised this was it. The next day, he went out, fetched the money he'd got from various illegal sources and hauled Esme and a bag of their things out with him. Together they ran, heading for Port Saint Kitts and when they reached it, he put her on a boat headed for the Johto region, where Esme had a long-estranged sister. Finn left his mother there, too embittered to want to stay with her. He knew none of their blighted life had actually been her fault, but he couldn't help but blame her for Jessica's death.

From that day on, Finn lived as a traveller. He started raising Pokémon when he caught a lone Misdreavus in an abandoned ruined house he spent a night in, and as soon as he had the money he travelled to Kepa City in search of Amy's new address, but when he got there he found she'd moved again, and nobody knew where she was now. Resigned, Finn simply started to survive. He stole, sold and battled for money, finding the underground Pokémon battle circuit was fairly lucrative, if brutal. He added a young Buizel to his team at age sixteen, and at that point he discovered that young teenage girls, taken with his looks, were prime targets for valuable objects and free food. Self-loathing came with this low technique, but Finn did what he had to to get by. 

Six years later, he's still doing just that, and the notches on the bedpost are ever increasing.

Other: 

Party Pokémon:

Misdreavus ♀	Buizel ♀
Lvl 19	Lvl 18
Confuse Ray Astonish Psywave Spite	Swift Water Gun Pursuit Quick Attack

RP Sample:

"I'm not staying, Mother". 

A long pause elapsed. Esme, her eyes too big in her hollowed-out face, looked back at her son, and the look that passed between them was just the same in both sets of ghost-grey eyes. She smiled a bittersweet smile, but it was as if he was simply confirming she'd known all along. Finn set his jaw.

"Please, just... look after yourself. I'll... I'll stay in contact". He waited, but there was no reply and he stood, shifting from foot to foot, wondering whether Esme was in one of her trance-like phases again. He contemplated just picking up his bag and going. But at last his mother raised one frail hand and touched his hair, tracing his cheek.

"I've never done a very good job looking after you, have I?" she murmured. Finn's brow creased.

"None of it was your fault," he muttered.

"I should've been stronger than I was." She squeezed his hand weakly. "Finn, be safe. I love you."

Another pause. "I know." He looked at her one last time, but he said nothing more. Shouldering his pack, he turned to go. 

"Finn?" He paused. "I hope you find her." With one curt nod, Finn walked out the door of his aunt's house and never looked back.

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[Kitty]

Finn is accepted!