END RUN: Risa - Rogue Faction -

_{EDIT 20.12.2011: Snow-Camo Coat didn't look Kanto-colours enough, so was updated to fit.
EDIT 22.03.2012: Updated with new pokemon (Omen) and switched out 'Calm Mind' from Lantern because it didn't suit his agitated persona.
EDIT 02.06.2012: Defected to Rogue Faction! Added new pokemon (Amp), evolved pokemon (Lantern) and changed coat to tattered one from R2 entry. Changed to an entirely new app.}

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END RUN


RISA

Theme: [link]

Full name: Risa
Age: 30-something (Suspected to be 34)
Height/Weight: 6'3" / 175 lbs
Hometown/Region: Snowpoint City, Sinnoh
Military Faction: Army


Extra items: Carries his smoking pipe everywhere. Has mentioned on more than one occasion that it helps him 'focus'. Also has a small book of personal writing and if carrying a backpack, then a wooden box of tea ingredients.

AFTER ROUND 2: Wears a tattered coat and sports a gasmask he picked up in Undella Bay. Uses both to create a wraith-like persona on the battlefield to debilitate his enemies.

Personality:

-Risa likes to play the bored, aloof and interesting individual, but is always thinking and always planning. Strategically minded, he considers people pawns. He's had friends over the years but never really bonded with anyone completely, as his obsession with beating entropy estranges him socially and takes up all of his spare time.

- Risa smokes from his pipe when he needs to think and drinks tea when he needs energy. Not a believer in coffee, he has a small satchel of different tea blends that 'unlock' different states of mind, like relaxation, alertness, calmness etc. Some of which he has blended himself, and are quite potent. He doesn't believe in the loss of control created by taking hard drugs for drinking profusely. This extends to medicinal drugs and recreational drugs as well.

- Heavily interested in the occult, especially myths surrounding immortality. He's learnt almost all there is to know about Sinnoh's mythology, at least culturally. He lacks the scientific education to understand it on a scientific level, which is why he enjoys talking to scientist's and hearing his theories rejected or sustained.

- Superstitious in that he believes in luck... and in the afterlife, somewhat. He believes that every living thing has a soul and that soul has a particular energy around it. He believes that the key to immortality (or at least great power) is harnessing the energy of the soul. He takes an interest in Ghost and Psychic type Pokemon as a result (empathic Pokemon too).

- Loves giving orders, but not making them. Not motivated enough to be a big leader, content with second in command, or in charge of a small team.

- Treats Pokemon like tools. Sees no need to befriend them at all, but doesn't force his belief on others. Not out of kindness, but out of indifference.

- Is flirty, but when it comes down to it, hes not interested at all. Its just sport.


Backstory:

Risa's exact beginnings has always been a mystery. To his superiors, to his friends and even to him. He was orphaned at an early age and sent to a military orphanage where he learned doctrines and disciplines that fascinated him. Close to his 10th birthday he was fostered to a kindly old couple who did their best to bring him up and spent most of their savings on private education for him.

During his last year at school his foster father grew sick and passed away, and before he was able to get home, his foster mother passed away as well, apparently due to a broken heart at losing her life partner. Seemingly unmoved by this, Risa joked that those who cared for him were destined to perish and continued to finish his education.

In actuality his military indoctrination to survive and sudden realization that everything that lives must perish had tripped something inside him. He studied as much as he could about the apparent immortality of the Legendaries and the energy stealing properties of some Pokemon while he still had access to the libraries and mentors of his private school.

Soon after graduation he found himself drawn toward the familiarity of military life. He already felt comfortable with the way of life the military offered and considered it an easy way to get money to further his studies into self-preservation and beating the natural course of entropy. He enlisted in the Sinnoh Land Reserves and was sent across the country to different bases.

Over the next few years of his life Risa found himself fascinated by different ruins and locales of Sinnoh and their history with the formation of the universe. However his erratic military postings soon got to annoy him; just as he started to get an understanding of the myths and sciences surrounding a particular area, he was re-based. One notable annoyance was being re-based from Celestic to Snowpoint, his old hometown (being where his foster family raised him) and as Risa put it 'a culturally devoid wasteland'.

Risa wasted no time in his new posting and applied for immediate transference while looking into the nearby Lake and Temple. Mistaking his transference request as a cry for companionship, ( and from snooping into his background) the kindly Brigadier-General of the prestigious Coronet Division of snow commandos dismissed his request and attached him to the 501st group. Much to Risa's chagrin.

His free time all but gone, Risa found himself devoting energy into his new position and soon rose to the rank of Captain and was in charge of a small group of new recruits to the fold. Content with shuffling the rookies around by relaying orders from people above him, (orders he thankfully didn't have to make) Risa began to make friends and socialise or as he liked to put it, stagnate.

Pulling himself together he began to help out with research with a locally based research facility. He exchanged his knowledge and drive for the chance to delve into thier extensive scientific researching. He made some of the best friends he had ever had while working here, and helped out on a project that looked into the bond between pokemon and humans. It was here that his curiosity was noticed by members of a covert branch of Sinnoh's military, the Sinnoh Homeland Technology Operation.

The SHTO was devoted to acquiring technology for the betterment of Sinnoh Military by any means necessary, whether that be through negotiations or subterfuge. Impressed with Risa's ability to multi-task and process information efficiently while under pressure, they recruited him on a contractor level offering their knowledge in exchange for his help in discovering everything that the research facility Risa was volunteering for, was working on.

Risa, not hindered by trivial notions like loyalty, did his double agent duties well and was inducted fully into the SHTO a short time after. Distracted by more responsibilities both SHTO and Coronet Division related, Risa did not realise that several private research companies around the country had been sabotaged or accidentally destroyed at more or less the same time. Including the one Risa was double crossing.

Almost 5 years since then, Risa has been gaining notice in the SHTO and continuing his duties with the 501st. Realizing that the best way to unlocking the secrets of defeating the reaper would be through SHTO intelligence, Risa began to take more and more overseas expeditions.

After the Great War and the global economic confusion that followed, Sinnoh's intelligence agents and military analysts determined that this would be an optimal time for acquisition of technology and information beneficial to Sinnoh with minimal chance for a strain on relations.

So, in an effort to keep up relations with Kanto, Sinnoh offered some of their finest units from different divisions to help against the propaganda war with Johto. Little does Kanto know that there are several agents of the SHTO among these recruits, each agent coupled with a special 'handler' in charge of relaying information and assignments to their assigned agent.

Risa doesn't approve of being ... 'handled'.


Defection!:

After receiving word from his handler that an old project he used to work on had been restarted by the SHTO, Risa was ordered to investigate and join a possibly rising Rogue faction, devoted to using technology to creat a brighter tomorrow free of violence. The SHTO were indifferent to the Rogue's ideals, but they did take much interest in thier technology, and as a result wanted Risa in the thick of things as soon as he could.

The old experiment he used to work on back in Sinnoh, PROJECT BOND, was an experiment that documented the bond that developed between a pokemon and a human, which was unique in nature. The Research Centre that Risa was working for before he was recruited by the SHTO was concerned with communication between the human and pokemon through this bond. All data on the project was supposedly lost in a great fire that killed Risa's best friend and colleague, Alistair MacDonald, but Risa managed to give what he could to the SHTO, unbeknownst to his colleagues.

Now, the SHTO seek to restart the Project in order to manipulate soliders on the battlefield through their pokemon, and Risa's new interest in psychological warfare using Ghost-types has got the SHTO thinking to see if they can marry the two and produce results.
However, not all the members of the original project are dead or out of contact. In fact, one of Risa's old colleagues and dear friends resides in the Kanto Military, and the SHTO, through Risa, are about to make her an offer she can't refuse...




Trivia

- Chuckles in strange situations sometimes.

- Wears his hair clip to bed.

- Cannot survive in the 'wild' to save his life. Prefers sleeping a bed whenever possible, and will complain to anyone who will listen if deprived of one.

- Dabbles in prose and poetry from time to time. Isn't very good.

- Once worked with a sinister scientist in another life many years ago. Most of thier work was lost in a great fire that also took the life of a dear friend. Risa shares an estranged but steady relationship with her.



THE POKEMON


LANTERN | Lampent | Modest | Shadow Tag | Male

Designated " LN - 10 " by his processing number, Lantern was originally chosen as a candidate for combat application because of his ghostish, life siphoning abilities and thier application for energy consumption. As a result, Lantern's special attack is sky high and often loses control of the spiritual flame that burns life energy on its head, making it a great Area Damage dealer. Risa, in his quest to make things more efficient for himself, slurred LAN - 10 together and liked how it sounded, thus giving Lantern his name.

Lantern was paranoid and jittery when Risa first obtained him, and prone to attacking when startled, but is learning to reign in his neuroses. Risa keeps him out of his Pokeball as much as possible now, as his training plans escalate.


Flamethrower | Shadow Ball | Will-o-Wisp | Memento

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Full reference: [link]

OMEN | Cofagrigus | Quirky | Mummy | Male

Theme: [link]

Designated " 0 - MN " by his processing number, Omen is another victim of Risa's love of names. Omen is an especially nasty Cofagrigus, specialising in status aliments and taking advantage of weakned/weak combatants. He is rarely seen without a manic expression on his visage, especailly when in battle, as he loves nothing more than to inflict fear and detrimental effects on his victims. Omen preys on the weak and hindered, and was captured as a Yamask and trained for the purpose of exploiting this trait.

Risa has plans to use Omen and Lantern in tandem to create a form of psychological warfare. He wishes to inflict as much debilitating effects on his enemies as he can before actually having to face them in one on one combat. After his success in Undella Bay, Risa plans to use Omen any chance he can get, to experiment on his psychological effects on people/pokemon.


Toxic | Hex | Ominous Wind | Mean Look

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AMP | Rotom | Mild | Levitate | Female

Full Reference: [link]

Theme: [link]

Designated " 4M - P " by her processing number, Amp is a pokemon given to Risa for his defection to the Rogues, and was not spared Risa's love for naming his pokemon after their designations. Amp is mischievous, and loves to inhabit all kinds of electrical equipment and devices to annoy anyone she can. Devoid of gender, Risa likes to refer to her as she, for her love of shiny things and sweet smells. On the battlefield, Amp is the most regimented and focused pokemon Risa has in his arsenal, and often keeps the agitated Lantern in line with short electric shocks, whenever he is in danger of a panic attack. Amp attacks swiftly, but methodically, using debilitation before destruction.

Risa will use Amp as a debilitator, and also to display a crackling aura around himself as he stalks the battlefield in his new persona, The Banshee.


Discharge | Thunder Wave | Flash | Confuse Ray


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