Val Leclair

Val stands at a whopping 5'1" when standing straight (which they rarely do, as they are partial to slouching), and will ramble at you about how unfair their shortness is if you happen to bring up the subject. Their complexion is fair, though how much of this is natural and how much is due to staying inside whenever possible is uncertain. They have a slender build, largely because they can forget to eat when particularly engrossed in a project. Their hair is a dark purple, reaching to their shoulders, and their eyes are a slightly lighter shade of purple. They don't care much about their appearance, or about what others think of them because of it, and for this reason they tend to stick to plain, inexpensive clothing. They have bags under their eyes more often than not due to chronic sleep deprivation.

While family legend holds that much of Val's family originally came from Kalos, they, as well as all the family members they know, were born and grew up in Carrefor Town. Val was the only child of a middle-class family; their mother was a teacher, while their father worked at a local museum. Both parents valued education highly, and so it was little surprise that their child turned out to be precocious, preferring text to speech and books to people.

What was a surprise was that their child turned out to be aura-gifted. While Val was barely old enough to talk, their parents realized that their child's description of the world didn't match their own perceptions, consulted experts, and determined that young Val had aura sight that was always on, auras obscuring the features behind them. With a bit of training, Val learned to turn off their aura sight and see things as the rest of the world did, but to this day doing so takes them effort that they often don't bother to expend. As their childhood progressed, they also learned to track auras and to channel their own, though both skills remain relatively weak.

Val's mother passed away when Val was eight years old, undergoing a heart attack that killed her nearly instantaneously, despite having few of the risk factors for such an ailment. Val's father did his best to keep going as if all was well, but his work at the museum left little time for his child, though he tried to make up for this with lavish gifts when he was present.

It was at this point that Val first became interested in ghosts. Ghosts were just about the only thing that Val naturally saw the same way everybody else did, with no aura in sight; beyond that, the idea that some ghosts were spirits of the deceased was comforting to a child who had just lost a loved one. When given free reign (which happened perhaps more than was entirely healthy), they spent their days freely wandering the graveyards that make up much of Carrefor Town, hoping to find ghosts, perhaps even one that was the spirit of their mother.

Such graveyard wandering was how Val found what was then a Gastly, but grew to become their beloved Gengar. Over the course of a couple of hours, Val befriended the Gastly, which then willingly followed them home. It wasn't their mother, they knew that, but it was... better than nothing.

Val had never quite fit in at school, between their aura sight and their tendency to become obsessed with whatever caught their fancy that day, but being best buddies with a ghost didn't exactly do their reputation any favors. They didn't much mind, though. Who needs human friends when you already have a ghost friend? (That's what they'd tell themself, anyway.)

Eventually, Val discovered the Internet. For a bit, it seemed like the solution to a problem they didn't want to admit they had--they could use text, could use everything they'd learned from the books they'd practically devoured, to make new friends. But throughout the years, right when Val started to think that they'd found a good group of friends over the Internet, one of two things would happen: Either the friend group would fracture and fall apart, or Val would become interested in something new and lose touch with friends gained from past interests.

One of these passing interests over the years was being a Trainer. During that period, Val caught several Pokemon, evolved their beloved Gastly into a Gengar, even considered undergoing a Gym challenge or two, and then... abruptly stopped caring about battling altogether. To this day, they don't care much for battling, though they'll do it if the need arises.

At first they thought--or worried, really--that their gender (or rather, their lack thereof) was just another one of these passing interests that would come and go soon enough. Val first realized that they were agender at the age of fourteen, using the Internet, with yet another group of Internet friends to back them up. But though the friend group dissolved eventually, taken down by drama and infighting, their identity remained.

Their dad claimed to understand when they came out, but he kept using the old name, the old pronouns, and when (if) he corrected himself he'd smile to himself in a way that rubbed Val the wrong way. Val was aware that their father probably thought this was a phase, and they couldn't entirely blame him... but that didn't mean they had to like it, either.

Val was nineteen and had been considering cutting ties with their father when he died in a train accident.

With no close family or human friends, Val grew closer and closer to their Pokemon compatriots and read more and more books. They researched a little bit of everything before settling on aura powers as their primary subject of study. It was an obvious choice, in a way, for a child who had been an outcast due in part to those very powers. And there was enough unknown in the field that Val could see themself becoming a pioneer, a name that would go down in the history books for making some big breakthrough or another.

Val considered leaving Carrefor Town, or even Veria altogether, but they always felt homesick when traveling. Even when they went to Kalos, supposedly the family's region of origin, nothing felt quite right. They weren't sure what it was that they missed so much--the acquaintances that they rarely made conversation with? the graveyards? the legends?-- but they missed something enough to keep them firmly rooted in Carrefor even as they established themself as an expert in aura studies.

After finishing school, Val initially struggled to think of a research project that would fit these grandiose visions they had established--or, indeed, to think of a self-contained project of any kind. But as they stayed up trying to think of a grand plan for their future, their mind wandered back to the ghosts that had been there for them almost since the beginning, and how they never had been able to see an aura for them... and they decided then and there to conduct a scientific investigation into why.

And so Val ended up as a professor, trying to balance research and teaching and the banalities of adult life all at once, with some success.

(I wouldn't recommend having them as your teacher, though.)

Pokedex Name: Gengar

Nickname:

Gender: Male

Ability: Cursed Body

Moveset: Hypnosis, Shadow Ball, Dark Pulse, Dream Eater



Pokedex Name: Medicham

Nickname:

Gender: Female

Ability: Pure Power

Moveset: Meditate, Force Palm, Acupressure, Hidden Power



Pokedex Name: Oricorio

Nickname:

Gender: Female

Ability: Dancer

Moveset: Mirror Move, Revelation Dance, Air Slash, Roost



Pokedex Name: Nincada

Nickname:

Gender: Male

Ability: Compound Eyes

Moveset: False Swipe, Mind Reader, Dig, Absorb


Pokedex Name: Riolu

Nickname:

Gender: Male

Ability: Inner Focus

Moveset: Force Palm, Copycat, Reversal, Foresight


Pokedex Name: Sableye

Nickname:

Gender: Female

Ability: Prankster

Moveset: Shadow Claw, Foresight, Confuse Ray, Punishment

Aura Sight- Minor

Minor Aura Sight grants the user the capacity to see the world from a more out of body perspective, being able to see around corners, through walls, and with their eyes closed with a low but discernible degree of detail. The greater the obstacles between a person and their target, the hazier things become, with human sized Pokémon potentially being mistaken for humans and vice versa. A Minor can strain for a short time to see about 50% farther with their Aura Sight than they can see normally (or than an average person could see if the user is blind). Additionally, a Minor's vision has become acute enough to notice distinct patterns or color combinations in a person's Aura. As such, they could easily recognize close friends or family from aura alone, though recognizing people with which one is less familiar can still be challenging, and auras with similar qualities may be impossible to tell apart.

Aura Channeling- Minor

A Channeling Minor can project an invisible field of aura (or visible if they choose to combine it with Projection, though having both doesn't necessitate visibllity) in order to give of an overall positive/calming vibe or a negative/unnerving one. These feelings are very subtle, but just enough to add or take off a bit of edge in many situations. This aura is not expended, merely extended out from one's body in roughly a 10 foot (3 meter) radius.

They can also expend bits of aura to heal small wounds such as scratches, scrapes, and mild bruises, either on the wielder or a single target, who they effectively heal by offering a bit of their own life force. This requires quiet concentration and cannot be done in the midst of high stress such as mid-fight; healing takes about a minute or two depending on severity. Only a small amount of one's aura can be expended at once in this way before it hits a threshold and locks off, so it is impossible to drain the user too greatly or do too much healing at once.

Val in particular is more able to heal themself than they are to heal others. Whether this is due to an innate difference in ability or due to them healing themself of minor wounds regularly while rarely healing others is unknown.

Aura Tracking- Minor

A Tracking Minor will be able to see the glow of aura marks on items in the surrounding area. Similar to “detective mode” in a video game, the user can focus in on a specific aura remnants and find items that their target may have touched or otherwise been in contact with so long as it is within a day or so. For Minors, this generally requires familiarity with the aura being tracked. A point of reference my be used, like a bloodhound getting a scent from an owned item, but the trail can get lost easily in urban areas.

Val started out as a nickname for their birth name, which they never cared for. Even now they prefer to be called V rather than Val, and they have been known to give out snarky or facetious responses when asked what V stands for.

Their current research project is determining why ghosts are largely immune to aura-based powers and the limits of that immunity.

Val had been midway through reading a book, a textbook focusing on some aura techniques that Val themself had yet to figure out how to use, when they noticed approaching footsteps.
Their Pokemon were all out, but Val knew even before looking up that these weren't the plodding footsteps of their Riolu, the quick and light steps of their Sableye, the forceful steps of their Medicham, the graceful steps of their Oricorio...
No, this was something else altogether.
These footsteps were human in origin.
Val looked up from their textbook, unsure if the incoming person was going to stop and linger or simply pass by on their merry way. When the footsteps slowed as they approached Val's seat, Val let out a long sigh and set their book down, then stood up, standing as tall as their short frame would allow.
"And you are?"

OOC Name: Haberdasher
Player Pronouns: She/they
Face Claim: [b]The Devil is a Part-Timer[/b], Urushihara Hanzo / Lucifer as [i]Leclair, Val[/i]
Continuity: Original
Starter Items:
Professors
4 PokeBalls, 2 Great Balls, 1 Ultra Ball, 4 Move Techs, 2 bonus Starter Pokémon