Name: Jude
Age: 19
Url: @cycloe
Name: Boreas Vaati
Age: 22
Gender: Male
Sexuality: Asexual
Hometown: Camphrier Town, Kalos
Occupation: Astra Scientist; prev. trainer, independent researcher
Badges: N/A; never challenged.
Ribbons: N/A; never challenged.
Team Astra Rank: Scientist
Recruited: 5 years ago
Loyalty: Conditional. Depends on Astra for protection and power against the law; if offered a “better deal,” might desert or turn traitor to.
At a glance, either from within the ranks of Astra or to those flipping through rap sheets, Vaati seems contradictory. Wide swathes of time stretch between activity ticks, and outside of them lies a story of mild manners: someone who’d never aspired to the glory of the league or contest fame, who traveled often in pursuit of eclectic research and a personal fascination with the world and the Pokémon who call it home.
Those who know of his stunts—few in number as they are—figure him a very different man.
Born in the sleepy Camphrier Town, a younger mind spent his days hatching dreams far bigger than he could’ve ever hoped to become. As he grew, so did a small contempt for his city and the ones who shared it; a place he felt was backwater, smothering for someone with aspirations that soared above its quiet forests. His guardian, wise and experienced—but old, retired from making strides by the way of Pokémon research—was the one to initially sow an interest in the potential Pokémon held when paired with human minds and human hearts. So too was he the one to equip Vaati for taking the first steps of his Pokémon journey—
By having that equipment stolen.
With Sigilyph he left Camphrier, and with Sigilyph he watched Kalos shrink from the passenger deck of a southbound ferry.
Tannum was not his first stop, nor his second or third. Independent work, a slowly-growing but compact team and a flirting interest in the illicit business of Sinnoh and Unova kept his momentum up, and with his first hesitant steps into the outside world he began to make viable, vile plans. He knew, was ever sure, that there was power to be found in every Pokémon—that it could be brought to light only by the cleverness and will of those commanding it. The question of how to best acquire that power, however, left him aimless.
His goals were clarified when he crept along on his first “investigation” of Sinnohan ruins, only then awakening a burning desire to understand and covet the vast power of ancient Pokémon; to know their potential as only they, themselves do.
Tannum became home after near a quarter decade of searching, and Astrashortly thereafter. The resources and protection it provided, if only in numbers, offered major advantages over the places he’d abandoned; and years later, having risen to the rank of scientist, he spends his days consuming and dissecting knowledge that would’ve been impossible to obtain without Astrasupport.
Still—though grateful—he remains a fickle man, volatile and selfish in his methods and in their aftermath. Any research personally headed has a tendency to turn violent—desecrating nature and attempting to take by force what he feels might benefit his cause, leaving the rest to rot where it lies after he’s through.
Name: Ira
Gender: Female
Species: Sigilyph
First met: On Route 10, Kalos; fourteen years ago.
Nature: Serious
Ability: Magic Guard
Hold item: N/A;
Current moveset: Air Slash, Psyshock, Fly, Roost
Background/Personality: If asked, Vaati can’t be certain whether he’d caught Sigilyph or she’d caught him. Away on one of his first trips to study the Pokémon living among the fields of western Kalos, he’d grown as bold a boy of eight could; it didn’t take long, having snuck away from the protection of his old man’s old team, to run into trouble.
Or—he’d expected her to be, at least. Ira had seemed as interested in his wobbly exploring as she was unthreatened by his tiny attempts to “defend” himself when she came too near. When he was finally found and drug back by the ear, she came with him.
Despite the stoicism she regards most everyone with, she still seems to think of Vaati as the scared little boy she’d known all those years ago. Perhaps it’s because she’s so ancient that it seems as if no time has passed at all; Vaati, personally, thinks she’s just “always been that annoying.”
Name: Renato
Gender: N/A
Species: Starmie
First met: Route 13, Unova; seven years ago.
Nature: Calm
Ability: Natural Cure
Hold item: N/A;
Current moveset: Rapid Spin, Scald, Psychic, Recover
Background/Personality: Caught on impulse during a time made up of growing pains, little Staryu quickly proved itself an invaluable addition to the one-man-band of a team that’d been struggling to stay afloat. What it lacks in expression, it makes up for in presence; just as stubborn as its teammates when either encouraging or demanding that everyone take a break and think things through. Whether its desire to maintain order is born of affection or frustration is…something he’s has never been sure of.
Name: Fig
Gender: Male
Species: Castform
First met: Astra HQ, five years ago.
Nature: Impish
Ability: Forecast
Hold item: N/A;
Current moveset:
Background/Personality: When Vaati’d first been presented with his choice of Astra partners, he’d been conflicted. Put off from four-legged friends due to an incident of unfriendliness when he’d been very small, he’d resigned himself to curiosity of Castform’s uniqueness and ties to the weather—which didn’t sound so bad, he’d thought.
Fig is Fig. Fig is not particularly good at battling, or really anything else. Fig is, however, very practiced at knocking things off his desk, hiding whatever it can carry wherever it can carry it, wandering out in the open while trying to stealth away from authorities, and breaking favorite coffee mugs.
It’s hard not to be endeared to something after spending five years with it, but Vaati does wonder, sometimes.