Rembrandt Kardos, Wandering Honedge Gijinka
Jul 10, 2016 13:39:27 GMT -6
Post by Rembrandt on Jul 10, 2016 13:39:27 GMT -6
Name: Rembrandt Kardos (Although since she left her home village, she has pretty much dropped using her last name in all contexts)
Gender: Biologically Female, Raised and Socialized as Male, currently identifies somewhere between Female and Other. (Probably best to mark as Other)
Age: 21
Species: Honedge Gijinka
Appearance: A single unobstructed glance at Rembrandt will instantly reveal that she is a gijinka. Her entire right arm does not exist in the traditional sense. Instead, the entire arm is a blade made of the same organic steel of the average steel type. With no elbow or digits, Rembrandt can not usefully take advantage of her sword arm except as a sword. Naturally, this effects her ability to climb, carry large objects, or any activity which would naturally necessitate using two hands. On the flipside, it means Rembrandt always has a weapon on her person, and can attack even without necessarily having to use a Pokémon move.
The key word, however, was unobstructed. Rembrandt wears a cape embroidered with the same design as a Honedge's tassel. When not physically exerting herself, it is designed to rest in a way in which it conceals the true nature of her arm. The cape has a two fold purpose; the first being that it allows her to hide the fact she is a gijinka when necessary. Although in no way ashamed of her heritage, under these times of heightened racial tensions, it might not always be the best to advertise it either. More importantly, it hides the fact that she has a sword for an arm. In her journeys, especially outside of her village, Rembrandt tended to notice that many people are simply unnerved and feel threatened due to a weapon appendage, and its simply for the best that she covers it up when not in use.
The rest of Rembrandt's attire is various different pieces of leather or plate armor, due to her previous profession of being a guardian of her village. Due to its practicality, even after she was exiled from the village, she has not seen a need to replace the armor with more civilian clothing. One modification she did make, however, is to abandon the leg armor. There was no practical purpose to this, and she realizes it even leaves a glaring weak spot, but Rembrandt realized it gave the rest of her armor a dress-like appearance without it, and that it was the perfect way to rebel from the fact she was forced to identify as a male for most of her life.
Rembrandt's face also can reveal her gijinka's origins to the careful observer. Her hair naturally takes the same royal blue color as the honedge's tassel; a color which is completely unnatural for humans (but could be dyed of course), but all-to-common in the gijinka world. More importantly, and even more well hidden, is the fact Rembrandt actually does not have a functioning right eye. The socket of where it should be is permanently shut, and the eye underneath is completely deformed and non-functional. This is the way of the Honedge; for the species itself only has one blue eye, only one properly developed for Rembrandt.
Unlike the sword, Rembrandt actually is personally and extremely self-conscious about only having one eye (Cyclops was a derogatory nickname she heard oh so much as a child), and thus decides to cover it with long bangs, to once again give the illusion that she has two functioning human eyes. On the back, Rembrandt keeps her hair in a pony tail; the traditional sign of a warrior in her home village, a hairstyle which, when she learned its feminine connotations off the island she grew up on, readily decided to keep.
Personality: Rembrandt was once a idealistic, outgoing, and chivalrous defender of her native village. She wanted nothing more than to protect her family and the friends from the terrors that lied beyond the village. Her entire body was built to fight, and Rembrandt genuinely loved the people that she grew up. Rembrandt even was altruistic enough to give up her own identity, molding herself into the gender constricts of her traditionalist village, just for them.
And in the end, they thanked her with an exile. Shows how much they appreciated her.
Now, Rembrandt is a broken soul, angry at the entire world for seeing her entire way of life crumple out of her hand in one day. The ideas she once upheld, of community, of justice, and defending those who couldn't defend themselves, meant nothing to her. The only possible way to survive in this world is veneration of the self, above all things else.
A more nuanced morality followed suit. While she isn't a nihilist per-say, Rembrandt no longer respects the law of any land that she travels in, especially human law. If she wants something and has no money, she has a sword arm for a reason. She can "politely ask" that the person gives it up, if they value their continued existence. Its not like she enjoys banditry; she just deserves whatever her eye catches than their current owner does. Stupid humans. She hated those filthy bastards.
Rembrandt's former sense of justice morphed itself into a sense of vengeance. If she feels wronged, she will take punitive actions against whoever wronged her. She's quick to take a grudge, and will hold it forever until she feels like she has justice.
Of course, the old Rembrandt isn't completely dead. On certain nights, she can feel pangs of guilt of her actions, and continued questioning if she is fundamentally a good person or not. Some days, the dread prevents her from even sleeping. Her actions are usually just to repress, and she can eventually force them away. Can't worry about morality when the alternative is jail or worse. No turning back now.
History: Eons ago, there existed a small, forested island continuously shrouded in a thick fog. This island radiated negative aura, the callsign of the ghost Pokémon, which would eventually migrate to the forests and call it home.
Closer to the present but still long in the past, a duskull gijinka shaman of a differing island detected the island of negative aura, and received a vision of a brilliant purple pearl in the center of it. He called on the island being a promised land of ghosts, and urged the ghosts gijinkas of that village and neighboring islands to leave to settle that island. And so they set off and sailed, and established a village which in turn never truly developed its own name and was simply called "the village".
In order to build homes in such a primitive time, the new gijinka settlers were forced to enter the forests and log the trees. This upsetted the native Pokémon, who felt that these foreigners were coming in and destroying their homes and way of life. The gijinkas retorted that they'd die if they can't have shelter, but the Pokémon refused to budge. Tensions would reach a breaking point when the shaman, now the village elder of the gijinkas, led a group of warriors into the deepest section of the forest and stole the pearl, claiming it was a holy gift from the gods. However, the ghost Pokémon too considered it a holy relic, and decided to go to war with the gijinkas. And, as ghosts are effectively immortal, the same ghosts continue the war to this day, raiding the village every night almost without fail.
Generations have passed, with gijinkas only knowing war. Of course, to them, that pearl is sacred, and they would never even dream of giving it back to the Pokémon. They would rather fight every day to keep it; and as ghosts are weak to ghosts, the fighting ends up being extremely brutal. Not everyone in the village is suited to be a warrior, and weaklings would never survive in a fight.
Of course, gijinkas of the honedge line were naturally gifted in fighting, for they are natural weapons. A caste system would soon develop, and those with the blood of the sword Pokémon ended up becoming the warrior caste of the village. As males tend to be larger, and ancient gender roles being terribly patriarchal, it was determined that men made the best fighters, and women honedge gijinkas only existed to make future men.
It was in this way of life how Rembrandt was born. She was the first and only child of her parents, both aegislash gijinkas, who loved each other dearly but found conception being all but impossible. When Rembrandt's mother, Spada, gave birth, both her parents but especially her father, Aike were dissapointed that the result was a girl. They tried so hard, and yet couldn't produce a son? Not only that, but the blood of the honedge was strong, for she only had one eye! That was rare even in this village, and for good reason; lack of depth perception made for a cruel handicap.
Still, trying again might not produce another result. This was to be their only child in all likelihood. Rembrandt's father couldn't shame himself and his extended family by being unable to produce a son to continue his warrior bloodline. There had to be another way.
Why not raise the child as a son?
Surprisingly, the villager elder (a descendant of the first elder of the village), feeling the pain of Aike, approved of his plan. The child would likely die fighting anyways, given her poor vision, and thus wouldn't need to worry about the stage of the child having children of their own. Plus, it would save face for Aike, and let him not live with the shame of only having a daughter. Thus, with his blessing, Rembrandt was given a man's name and raised as a man.
Rembrandt while obviously held back by her lack of depth perception, actually performed reasonably well training to fight. Instincts from her Pokémon side carried her through in sparring where her senses failed, and on her 13th birthday, she was accepted as a full man and warrior for the village.
Of course, it was starting to become obvious that Rembrandt was not a man, with a chest developing and her voice staying high pitched, but the village elder assured concerned citizens than Rembrandt was "a man in the soul". Being the respected expert on topics relating to spirituality, the rest of the village accepted the elder's explanation and continued to socialize Rembrandt as a man. While Rembrant herself hated the arrangement, feeling uncomfortable forced to identify as male, she willingly accepted it because she genuinely wanted to help defend the village from constant Pokémon raids.
It was slightly after Rembrandt's 16th birthday when the outside world tore apart Rembrant's world. The village heard of the main islands and their far more advanced technology, and previous generations allegedly even made contact with them before, a group of anthropologists suddenly and uninvitedly decided to land on the island and study first hand "one of the few traditionalist gijinka settlements left".
A misunderstanding of idioms led to one of the anthropologists deciding to grab the purple pearl. Rembrandt, in the temple at the time of incident, saw her religion trampled upon by this one act. She violently yelled at the anthropologist to put the pearl back, who froze completely out of shock and fear. Not seeing any reaction, Rembrandt lunged at the anthropologist, thrusting her sword into his chest. Of course, not used to the frailty of humans, this attack almost instantly killed the anthropologist, and the rest of the expedition immediately ran back to their boat in fear.
The next week, armed gunships of the Tarot Navy sailed into the port of the backwards village, its sailors armed with war-trained Pokémon and weapons far advanced to anything the village could offer. The captain of the squadron demanded to speak with the elder to explain the murder of one of their people.
To this day, Rembrandt didn't know exactly what they discussed, but the elder came out saying that Rembrandt had to go with the humans "to face your crimes", before exiling her from the village. Rembrandt loudly protested; she was only defending the pearl they fought so hard to protect every day! She looked into the assembled village to back her up; but not a single soul did, not even her own parents. They were too afraid of these new foreigners, not to speak up. Better to take just one of them, than to take all of them. Rembrandt screamed bloody murder as she was forcefully restrained and taken on-board, and not one villager flinched.
Rembrandt was being taken back to King City, on Cup Island, to face trial for murder to a government she didn't even really fully realize existed until that very day! Her own village betrayed her, for sticking up for them, and now she was likely going to die herself! It couldn't end like this!
Once at port, it took all of her energy to calm herself down, but using her ghost bloodline, forced herself into a incorporeal state and ran through the hull of the ship. She wasn't going to let them take her, not as long as she had any breath left! She ran out into the rural countryside of the Queensland Farms
She spent the next few years wandering through the Queensland Farms, surviving mostly by stealing food whenever she could and hiding in barns when no one paid attention. When the heat grew too heavy on her, she'd bail into the mountainside of the Death Peaks, living off whatever she could find in the shrubs and caves until whoever was looking for her eventually gave up.
A few years has passed since arriving on Cup Island. Rembrandt has heard legends of the Judgement Caves on nearby Wand Island. Caves that would judge you morally, and only let those good of heart to leave alive. After an intense bout of guilt in her latest raid, Rembrandt decided she had to head out to Wand Island, to find those caves, and finally prove to herself that she is a good person. It's not her fault she has to live like this; it can't be!
Moves: Secret Sword, Shadow Claw, Aerial Ace, Fury Cutter
Ability: No Guard
Powers:
Due to Rembrandt's ghostly origins, Rembrandt can temporarily force her body into a incorporeal state, allowing her to pass through physical objects (such as walls) as if they didn't exist. Since Hondedges themselves tend to manifest themselves in one solid object, Rembrandt is actually really terrible at using this ability; it drains her physically rapidly and she can't force the transformation when sufficiently stressed out. Using it in the heat of battle is right out.
Pokemon Owned: 1
~Pokemon~
Name: Spectre
Species: Gengar
Gender: Male
Moves: Shadow Ball, Psychic, Dark Pulse, Will-o-wisp
Ability: Levitiate
Nature: Impish
Details: Rembrandt initially found Spectre on her first foray into the Death Peaks, the only Pokémon that would dare to approach the gijinka's radiant negative aura.
Spectre, as a wild Pokémon, enjoyed greatly haunting weary humans who entered near his cave, greatly detesting their intrusions into his home. He would use his ethereal form to play psychological tricks on passerbys, in order to gradually unnerve them, before going in for the big scare. The way they screamed for their lives brought a sick joy to Spectre, who found justice in scaring them away from his home.
When he detected Rembrandt, he thought it would be the perfect scare opportunity. She was clearly already broken just from happenstance; he could really bast the fear turkey on this blue haired girl.
What the Gengar was expecting least was for the gijinka to instinctively consider any fellow ghost as a threat, and more importantly, fight back against the Gengar. Spectre, for all his skill in having to defend himself in such a dangerous place like the Death Peaks, was not expecting the sheer ferocity of Rembrandt and her single mindedness to destroy him.
Finding new respect for this traveler, Spectre did the last thing Rembrandt ever expected: turn into an incorporeal state himself and refuse to fight. The ghost Pokémon used his illusion tricks to instead try to calm her down, before attempting a dialogue with her.
After swapping life stories, Spectre came to the conclusion that it was the humans keeping both of them down, and that he carried no sins of whatever happened on her home island with the pearl. Rembrandt agreed; it was was[/s] those stupid humans who encroached on her sacred holy site and then convinced the elder to banish her. Spectre then offered to help Rembrandt master her ghost form, and in turn, she'd teach him how to fighter better. Since then, the two have bonded to become each other's only true friend, united in camaraderie against the humans they both despise.
<Why the hell are you so insistent we even go to Wand Island?>
Rembrandt sighed as her ghost companion once again asked this constant question. No matter how many times she tried to awnser Spectre's nagging, he never really seemed to accept her answer.
<And don't give me that moralistic spiel,> the Gengar continued indignantly, <We both know those filthy humans deserve every last thing we do to them.>
The blue hair girl sheepishly glanced to her side. He's not wrong, she was forced to concede internally, Maybe I-
No, no time to doubt.
"Look," Rembrandt finally butted it, "if we are good, there's nothing to fear from the caves' judgement, right? But it will help my mind rest finally on this."
Spectre shook his head, <It's still a massive waste of time. There's so much better things we could be doing.>
"If you really hated this," Rembrandt huffed, "You didn't have to come with me. I even said that the last seventy times you complained."
The Gengar's face exploded with a grin. <And then lose my only friend in the world? I don't think so!>
Rembrandt smiled back at the ghost. It's been a few years since they first met in that damp cave, where she almost killed the poor thing, and now neither of them could ever imagine life without each other.
<But that does NOT mean I have to like it!> Spectre added, dramatically pointing at Rembrandt.
The one armed girl laughed at her companion's last solitary act of defiance. "OK," Rembrandt conceded," "Fine. You win there."
The two started wordlessly around the room they stowed themselves in. Crates upon crates were stacked on top of each other, each with a particular fruit, grain, or vegetable plastered on the sides. The dim lighting made it hard to make out what each symbol actually was; they all meshed together in one round blob in the low visibility setting.
"More food here than I've ever seen in a lifetime," Rembrandt pointed out in awe.
As she said that, Spectre jammed one of his arms to the crate directly next to him, letting his one half fade into an ethereal texture. A second later, he pulled his arm out, with a bushel of bananas coming out with him.
The ghost snapped one of the bananas off the bushel and threw it at his companion. <Sorry if it's hard to peel with one hand>
"At least its not an orange..."
~About You~
Player Name: Omega
Preferred Pronouns: She
How did you find us?: A torrent of going through links and links of affiliates of the last site that I used, Aethra (which has imploded and no longer exists but as a small memorial to the dangers of internet drama). To be honest, I forgot the exact trail that led me here, and the person who would have referred me due to it. Sorry about that.
Also I understand in my image that her arm clearly has digits in her sword hand even when I explicitly said she did not. It was really hard finding any form of artwork with someone with a sword for an arm in general, and this image was so close to what was in my head, I just decided to go with it. So just pretend you see what I said? :3
