#character development thing

Falkner was never one for fireworks. Even with Skarmory-especially with Skarmory-he couldn’t fly through them, and more often than not the noise seemed to remind the smaller birds of thunder. But it was tradition, and he wasn’t about to interrupt other’s celebrations. So, with Altaria and Togekiss remaining in the aviary to keep everyone safe and calm, he and a few other Pokémon left at sunset with one goal in mind: to get as far from Violet City as possible, while still being able to return by sunrise.

The December air was bitter against his cheeks, and he couldn’t help but be thankful for the gloves he’d received for Christmas. Still, even that thought didn’t linger on his mind for long; he was too fixated on other matters.

Because this New Year’s Eve felt...different. Lonely. And the Gym Leader didn’t understand why.

Every year, he turned down numerous requests to join in the celebrations of others in favor of spending the night with his birds. And this year was no different, in that respect. So why did it feel different. He had his birds, and they were all he should need. They were all he ever needed.

But, even though he told himself that, the truth of the matter ate away at him. A truth that, perhaps, had always been there, but he’d been too preoccupied and blind to notice. A truth that hurt him.

This time of year was meant to be spent with family and loved ones, neither of which he currently had.

“Pidgeot.” The bird chirped, signaling to his trainer that he’d heard him over the winds rushing by. “Land.” And unexpected command, certainly, but Pidgeot obliged, followed by the rest of the flock. They circled wide for a minute, then came to land in a large, empty field beside a lake, where Falkner dismounted and slowly walked over to the water. His reflection stared back at him with that darkened expression he’d taken on in the recent weeks. Then something rippled the surface, obscuring the view and bringing forth all the emotions he’d tried to hide just under the surface.

Anger. Bitterness. Resentment. Fear. Sorrow. Neediness. Doubt-

And something else disturbed the water’s almost-settled surface, and the blue-haired trainer was forced to realize that the disturbance was caused by his own tears, flowing freely.

Yes, he had his birds. He’d always had them, and always would. But he wanted more. After a year of tremulous emotions and even doubts about the whereabouts of his father...was it wrong to want more? He’d been violently fighting to push people away and remain in seclusion, when really he wanted to be able to let someone in. And it was starting to tear him apart.

His thoughts were interrupted by a stirring in his uniform. Eevee, awakened by his trainer’s shaking, peeked its tired head out of the collar and looked up at Falkner with concern. Forcing a smile, the Gym Leader sat down beside the lake and began to scratch behind the Pokémon’s ear, laughing as it crawled out of his top in favor of curling up on his lap. The scene was enough to draw the attention of the rest of the flock, who fluttered over to join them.

And it was then, sitting there surrounded by the love and support of his Pokémon, that Falkner made his resolution.

There would be no more holding on.

All his life he spent dedicating his attention to only a few people at a time, coming to cling to their affection even when they moved on. All he was doing anymore was sitting passively, waiting for those who would not return.

No more waiting. Not for Valerie, or for Julius...or even for his dad.

If he wanted to be happy, he had to move forward. Had to stop focusing on what he thought he wanted, and pay more attention to what he had:

Matsuba, Whitney, Clair, Bugsy, Will. All of the Johto League, and more. Like Skyla and Winona. Even Janine.

Kotone, Didge, Rod, Abe, and other trainers.

Autumn, and perhaps in a twisted way even Blue.

nephre's memory is much better than she lets on. especially when it comes to the smaller details, she retains a lot of little things that other people are likely to miss. she can recall faces and voices pretty easily, numbers and dates and stuff tend to slip her mind though.

she most fondly remembers her younger sweeps when she spent most of her time with her lusus, training and playing board games and just generally enjoying herself while oblivious to all the injustices going on in the outside world. on the more negative side of things would be the few attempts she's made at romance, which all ended poorly and embarrassingly with absolutely nothing gained as far as she is concerned. if there were one thing she could forget that'd probably be it.

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erin isn't proud of it, but she really doesn't have a very good memory at all for things outside her job. sure she can recall the exact layout of the parking lot outside south tenget station (it's a popular spot for electricity-based rogues to wreak havoc), but remembering what she ate for dinner a few nights ago? it's something she wouldn't mind improving on.

nephre prefers to communicate by text, where she has ample time to think out her responses for maximum i'm-right-and-here's-whyitude with a hint of snark. in text she tends to be rather loquacious with a fairly formal choice of words; in speech she's still talkative but a bit more reckless, speaking boldly and clearly enunciating everything she says to be sure that she's heard (the "quotation mark" numbers in her quirk kind of help emphasise this).

6 Oh, forgive me, I did not mean to doubt your abilities. 9

6 I just thought that perhaps they could be put to better use. 9

6 Such as not slaughtering well-meaning lowbloods. 9

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erin doesn't speak much, but when she does she speaks with confidence and means every word she says. she speaks simply and a little on the slower side to make sure her point gets across, and her written correspondence isn't much different. i haven't really determined any regional accents yet, but having lived far from the city i doubt hers would be particularly strong.

(on a side note, a few regions will have secondary languages in addition to the standard english, and i'm thinking jashen's would be one of them, so that would probably have a greater effect on the regional accent than just slight differences from place to place. still though, this probably wouldn't affect erin's own accent much)

i'm not really sure what sort of dogma would be common in alternian culture, though i'm not sure if it would be nephre's cup of tea anyway. associating with a religion would be associating with highbloods! if she were religious it probably wouldn't be a particularly mainstream one, and she'd be pretty discreet about it. she was influenced by chinese culture so i'm thinking something similar to taoism might work? i dunno, i'll think about this more at a later date

as far as superstitions go, she has a thing about not keeping purple objects in her hive. bad omens, she says

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since yunivian gods are confirmed to exist there's not a huge amount of religious variety in the angelcy setting, the mainstream ones tend to focus on interpretations of yunive's motives (no one really knows for sure if yunive is malevolent or benevolent or something in between). erin herself is not religious and stays away from most affairs involving the gods and magic since she doesn't care for them.

nephre's idea of a "greater good" is partly ending discrimination against the lower bloods and partly gaining a comfy seat at the top of the food chain. if such goals required some form of sacrifice on her part then she'd most likely go through with it, though she certainly wouldn't be happy about it. giving up her own life is out of the question, though.

she's prejudiced against all highbloods regardless of their actual moral standpoints; lowbloods she's generally more tolerant of, though any who act mean or disrespectful towards her will receive no sympathy. ends justifying the means isn't something she really has an opinion on, since she's usually rather passive and rarely takes any actual action, and she doesn't often stop to consider the goals of others either.

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erin has never really believed in a greater good. there's no such thing as a utopia and it's impossible to make absolutely everyone happy, so the best you can do is stop everything from going to complete hell, and that's what she joined the agency to do. the job has its share of risks and of course sacrifices must be made, but if it meant maintaining order she'd give up whatever she could so long as she'd still be able to stand and fight by the end of it.

nephre likes laws when they suit her, though she at least tries to follow them most of the time, since it's hard to make changes when you're dead. she has a huge beef with alternia's hemospectrum-based caste system, claiming it to be vastly unfair since one's rank in society is determined at birth and is entirely beyond their control (while she does have a point, she feels so strongly about it mostly because it prevents her from being in a position of power). those who enforce the law are usually highbloods and therefore automatically scum, of course.

she doesn't really have any traditions; even if she knew anything about her ancestor, she wouldn't feel obligated to walk in their footsteps or anything. she can think for herself, why should she let anyone else instruct her how to live her life? her code of conduct would be something like... keep a strict daily routine, because discipline makes you a stronger person, also don't talk to highbloods. rules that are not set in law are, again, something she picks and chooses as she sees fit, though unlike actual laws she's not so afraid to break a few.

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erin is a strictly law-abiding person, being on the side of the government. she believes law is very much necessary to keep order, and has some respect for those who enforce it - though she knows that not everyone on the force has good intentions. she's a by-the-book agent and loathes her partner's occasional tendency to resort to drastic not-quite-legal measures in order to get the job done. if she ever finds certain laws to be unreasonable or unfair, though, she'll usually try to take it up with someone, but still follow them in the meantime.

nephre is kind of a mixed bag, being very cynical regarding highblood matters but much more forgiving when it comes to lowbloods. due more to her inflated ego than any actual evidence from highblood actions she has come to believe that almost all highbloods are worthless scum who do not deserve their position in society, and is quick to believe any bad word said against them. on the other hand she looks fondly at any lowblood she sees as having potential, though she never puts them even close to the same level of respect as herself. she is mostly resigned to her fate, convinced that no one will listen to reason in regards to social heirarchy, though that doesn't stop her from being highly resentful.

if someone tried to sell her real estate she'd first check their blood colour. reject them immediately if higher on the spectrum, maybe consider their offer otherwise.

erin is very much a cynic and her unstable family situation is mostly to blame. she finds it difficult to believe that good people exist, much less good magic-users, though she has softened in that respect since joining the agency, since many of her coworkers (most notably toby, being her field partner) are magic-users who are also pretty decent people. being subject to much misfortune in the past she expects it to continue, though she hasn't completely lost hope, which is partly why she works as hard as she does.

nephre has a pretty standard troll family, just her and her lusus. said lusus (a panda with butterfly wings) was always a very doting parent and insisted from the beginning that nephre could do great things if she put her mind to it - praise that nephre took a little too closely to heart. nephre's hive was not particularly close to any main towns, being in a forest, though her lusus still insisted she make the effort to maintain a social life (which she usually did, begrudgingly). she was never particularly wealthy, which was a source of frustration to her.