Valerie Cypress
Aspiring Professor | “Val” | 16
It’s difficult to miss Valerie when she's in a room. She's the brightly dressed lass in the Teddiursa slippers and goggles with the pale skin that just screams “I haven’t seen the sun in years.” Just shy of five foot four, she’s pretty average when it comes to both height and build. There’s not much to the girl though - she’s little more than skin and bones. Not to a dangerous degree, but it’s safe to assume that she’s not much of a foodie.
But let's take a closer look, yeah?
To start at the top, the first thing one might notice are the aforementioned goggles that Val is rarely seen without. They originally belonged to the girl's mother and serve no actual practical function. Well, unless a sandstorm were to whip up, but what are the chances of that? The goggles themselves sit upon Val's wild mop of grey hair, which defiantly sticks out every which way. There is some semblance of a cut to it, she has defined bangs at the very least and there are layers but... it's honestly hopeless. At it's longest, her hair falls just below her shoulders. A pair of hungry ruby red eyes constantly scan her surroundings. And a mischievous grin is more or less permanently affixed to her.
As far as clothing goes, Valerie likes things to be light and breezy. She very rarely wears shirts with sleeves and is more likely to go with shorts over pants. And, to tie it all together, Val's rarely seen without her labcoat. Gotta dress for the job you want, right? Obviously she can't very well keep that up in winter, but even then she tends to go with a "less is more" mentality which, quite frankly, doesn't really apply that well when we're talking about conserving body heat, huh? A labcoat makes for a pretty poor coat, but just try telling her that. It's honestly a miracle that she's hasn't succumbed to frostbite yet.
Style-wise, Val likes to stand out. Bright, neon colors. Loud styles. Anything that "pops" or catches the eye. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean that it has to LOOK good. It just has to make people look. It's all about making a statement. Which, considering the baby bear slippers she often wears in public along with the errhm...matching disembodied stuffed bear head she wears as a necklace, that statement is probably something along the lines of the incomprehensible screams of insanity. Or a desperate cry for attention. One of the two.
Background: Born in the shadow of the Mossdeep Space Center in Hoenn, is it any surprise that a young girl would dream of going to space? Of walking on the moon? Of boldly going where no man had ever gone before and discovering never before seen Pokemon? It’s a dream that many kids in the Hoenn region have at some point in their lives. And it’s a dream that the girl’s own father - a respected, brilliant scientist - got to fulfill when he was selected for a mission that would take a small research crew into orbit.
To Valerie, her father was her hero. She wanted to be just like him. And, to her credit, she had the potential. Val was a sharp kid. She picked things up quickly, and had an endless supply of questions. She had inherited her father’s ravenous hunger for knowledge. Books became her life, until, eventually, she stopped finding the answers to the questions she had. Then it became apparent that her only option would be to go out and find the answers herself.
Even at a young age, Val was rather stubborn and reckless. Being told that it would be too dangerous to go out into the wild only served to strengthen her resolve. Often, the kid would sneak away from home or school to be out in nature - just to find that one thing that interested her more than anything else.
Pokemon.
See, Val was absolutely fascinated by Pokemon. What kid wasn’t? But her interest wasn’t in how cool, or cute, or tough they were, but in how they acted. And, more specifically, WHY they acted the way they did. It was her favorite hobby - observing Pokemon in the wild while staying unseen. But, the adults in her life were right. It WAS dangerous to go out alone. And it led to her getting injured a number of times.
It would eventually pay off though. By the age of 15, Valerie would become published in a respected regional academic journal.She had been performing a study on the territorial disputes between Lairon and Aggron near the town of Dewford, where she stayed with her brother while her father was, well, in space. And through her findings, she proposed a number of potential preventive measures that should help deter members of the Aron-line from wandering too close to residential areas and rail lines. While it’s still too soon to say whether or not they would be successful in the long-term, early results showed promise.
Ever striving towards her ultimate goal, Val didn’t hesitate to use the publication to her advantage. She applied to every prestigious academy she could access. Landing a spot at a swanky school could give her access to the resources she needed to conduct further studies and, hopefully, earn an internship or apprenticeship under one of the top professors, which would be a fast track to realizing her dreams.
Even with her impressive academic achievements, however, Val was surprised to find that she was accepted by the Pokemon Masters Academy in the Marvalo region. It was more than she could have ever hoped for. There was swanky, and then there was PMA. The reputation of that place had global weight. Graduating from the Academy would all but guarantee her success on her path of scientific world domination complete understanding of the behavioral psychology of Pokemon, both terrestrial and extraterrestrial.
Personality: The Mad Scientist Valerie is rather...let’s just say eccentric, yeah? She often does or says things just to see what sort of response she can invoke in others. She's perfectly aware of how odd that might make her seem but...she simply doesn’t care. Following social norms is, well, boring. It’s much more interesting to see someone out of their comfort zone. It’s more honest, more real. More natural. And that’s something that Val cherishes over anything else - observing a creature in its most natural state. Even people.
Truth be told, as overly friendly and touchy as the girl may be, she doesn’t think much of people. To her, they’re little more than playthings. And Val, bless her heart, often can’t resist her impish impulses to pull pranks on them. For uh...research purposes. Sure. Let’s go with that. Everybody loves a good laugh, right? Even at their own expense? Okay, so her pranks maaay come across as a bit malicious at times, but it’s not that she dislikes people. It’s just that...well...they’re usually not interesting. Not on their own anyway. There have been some exceptions, however. Some truly fascinating exceptions.
For a brilliant young researcher, Val can come across as a bit of a scatterbrain. She's an absolute klutz and her organizational skills seem to border on “barely contained chaos.” She can also be a bit...excitable. Underneath all of that, however, is a hyper-focused mind - particularly when it comes to subjects in which she's sufficiently interested. She's incredibly perceptive and rarely misses a beat. She's got a way of reading people, what they want, what they’re trying to do, things of that nature. But she's a good sport and will gladly play along with a smile, just to see how things play out. There’s a sort of sinister potential within the girl, as she's not at all hesitant to deceive or manipulate to get what she wants. Were she of a more malicious nature, she might even make for a terrible villain. Luckily, however, this chaotic neutral girl only wants to carry out her “perfectly harmless, peaceful research.”
Val often falls prey to a sort of stubbornness and recklessness that plagues many scientific minds. When she’s set her mind to something, she fully intends to see it through - good idea or not. Like any good scientist, Valerie remains flexible, both in her thinking and in her methods...but there is a sort of pride that comes with the territory. She’s not so prideful as to think that she will always be 100% correct - the very basis of science is the acceptance of the notion that there may always be a better answer - that being said, nobody really enjoys being proven wrong. Whereas she might be utterly immune to social embarrassment, nothing makes Val cringe like being wrong.
The girl has little impulse control, giving herself entirely to whatever fancy sees fit to whisk her away in the moment. To her credit though, the young woman lives without regrets, which has to count for something. It might end up cutting her life tragically short but uh...are you really living if you’re not taking a few risks here and there?
When it comes to Pokemon, Val is powerless to resist her urge to study and observe. She's particularly fascinated by the similarities that arise within Trainer-Pokemon pairs in which the captive Pokemon shares a close bond with its master and how those differ wildly from other pokemon of that species in the wild. On campus, it’s not unusual for Val to approach even a complete stranger and ask to see their Pokemon. And if denied, Val’s not above tapping into her inner creep and just silently observing from afar. As a trainer herself, Valerie is more focused on the health and growth of her Pokemon more so than their capability for battle. That’s not to say that she's a complete pushover - Val’s knack for analysis lends itself well for recognizing habits and quirks in her opponents and adjusting accordingly. But at the end of the day, Val cares little for actually winning or losing, valuing the experience gleamed in the process far more.
What are some ways you would like to affect the story: Valerie, in her relentless quest for knowledge, is more than willing to put herself and, really, anybody else in any sort of danger required in order to get a good observation of wild Pokemon. The more rare or elusive, the better. And, given her only real motivation being the acquisition of the means to perform research, she could potentially be convinced to perform a heel-turn - or at least struggle with the temptation - if a nefarious group could offer her a substantial opportunity. It would be an interesting way of letting the kid grapple with just how far she's willing to go and just what she's willing to do to get the answers she so desperately craves. So, y’know, have fun with that in any way you’d like.
Outside of that, though, it's safe to say that she'd always be down to go out into the wild and try to track down some 'mons. Exploration's her jam.
Given her ultimate dream of going to space and finding alien Pokemon, any encounters with potential extraterrestrial Pokemon would be right up her alley: the Cleffa line, Elgyem line, Staryus,Solrock/Lunastone, even Deoxys if that becomes relevant.
Obviously, as an aspiring Pokemon Professor, Valerie would be absolutely thrilled to meet any experts in the field.
As far as character development goes, Val needs to learn how to form actual healthy relationships with other people instead of just using them for her amusement or research purposes. She needs to grow beyond simply looking down on everyone, even if she's not entirely aware that she does so. And quite frankly, even if she comes across as rather carefree, she needs to learn how to cut loose and actually, genuinely have fun WITH other people and not just at their expense.
Battlewise, I don’t really have a preference on the outcome of any that she's involved in. Battling isn’t exactly a priority of her, so she would be open to be used as fodder if need be for another character’s development. It might also be interesting for her to actually learn HOW to better battle or even train more effectively from another member of the cast.
Savo,
fellsing,
Forsythe,
Achronum,
PatientBean,
mickilennial,
Morose,
VitaVitaAR,
Rune_Alchemist,
Coda
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