Thoughts on my portrayal
I've been meaning to get more active on this account as soon as I can scrounge up enough will to do so. But I wanted to explain my thought process as to why certain aspects are the way they are for the... 10(?) people who actually care lmao.
My Proton is heavily inspired by his appearance in the HGSS manga. Tbh I'm not a huge fan of PokeSpe, but when you've got such slim pickings with the in-game canon material, anything that can be taken into consideration should at least be at least looked at. I found the idea that he was Team Rocket's stoic, quiet, Computer Tech Guy a fresh take. As a result, I combined them -- Proton IS indeed their stoic, quiet Computer Tech / Social Media Guy, but he's ALSO a ruthless sadistic asshole, who's only quiet because he can't stand talking to other people.
When you look at his portrayal as a combination between the games and PokeSpe, things start to make a lot more sense. He is an incredibly capable, computer-savvy internet nerd, but he makes himself so unavailable (emotionally or otherwise) that he's got a weird amount of mystique about him. Girls in the organization tend to simp for him because, as sparse as he makes himself, he's still the most visible Executive in the organization, and he's got a pretty face to boot. They will usually try to prove how much they adore him by savagely targeting anything he deems stupid like the most toxic Stans in the history of anything. But ultimately, all of that is for naught. Proton is just too fucking misanthropic to ever give a damn about other people, and in truth, he probably hates his Stans the most out of anybody. But he accepts the chaos they wreak as the only "good" thing to come out of the situation.
Now about his accent: There's a fair amount of debate about whether or not Sinnoh should be treated as just another part of Japan, as was intended, or Russia. Tbh I go with the former hc more than the latter, but I decided to give Proton a Slavic-ish accent anyways because 1) It's kinda funny 2) Chicks dig guys with foreign accents 3) Proton can be obtuse on purpose and no one could be able to tell.
He does have genuine difficulties with speaking Japanese, but is generally much better at writing it. This is mostly because he talks a lot faster than he writes. When you're documenting a report or something, you can go slow or proofread it as you see fit. Talking doesn't work like that. He's personally the type of guy who would hate having a conversation with someone where they pause every 5 seconds and spend an eternity searching for the right word, so he made the conscious decision to sacrifice accuracy for speed with the assumption of, "Meh, they'll figure out what I really meant." (This also comes into play during internet / IM conversations where speed is more important.) Just call his ability Hustle I guess, lmao.
Despite his deep, pathological hatred for just about Everything in the world, Proton is super devoted to Team Rocket as a whole, and instills the same measure of respect into those serving directly under him. That's because he felt like Team Rocket was the first organization that really GOT him and appreciated him for who he was (a terrible, sadistic douchebag) instead of trying to change him for the "better". In fact, they promoted him for it. That's special to him, so his feelings in general about returning to a more "civilized" career fills him with dread. He'd quite literally fight for Team Rocket to the death if need-be.
Team Rocket also gave him his first, most significant friend in Petrel, who is the cool headed one in their red/blue dynamic. Despite that, you'll hear him constantly insult Petrel and downplay his importance, often calling him degrading stuff like "Rattata Man". In a very strange way, that could be considered a compliment from him, since he calls basically everyone (including himself) "maggots". Being a Rattata among maggots doesn't sound too bad, does it? In addition, he calls Giovanni p much exclusively "Boss". That's the most respect he'll ever show anyone tbh.
So it should be no surprise why Proton tends to hate Silver so much -- he respects Giovanni more than anyone in the world, and here comes this whiny little brat, mooching off of him. He knows now that Silver is SUPPOSED to be Giovanni's kid, but tbh he thinks it's a lie and considers Giovanni dumb as fuck for not seeing it for himself. In Proton's eyes, Giovanni and Silver look NOTHING alike. So don't expect him to show you any high regards if you're a Silver mun. He'll disrespect you in front of anyone -- including your own damn father, if need-be. No fear.
That's about all I have in terms of HCs for this guy. Please feel free to shoot me any questions about him if you have them.
