Post by JULIAN MILLER on Jun 11, 2018 9:15:36 GMT -5
JULIAN LEE MILLER.
THE WHISTLEBLOWER POKEMON
| AGE | GENDER | ALLEGIANCE | OCCUPATION |
| Twenty-eight. | Trans man | Plasma | Plasma Scout (Whistleblower) |
APPEARANCE
Julian stands a fair bit shorter than the average man at 5'3". Although this flaw is a source of excessive insecurity for him, he tries to re-shape it into a positive by recognizing its usefulness in allowing people to gloss over him and underestimate him easily. He sports a thin and scrawny build, with little body fat and practically no hips. Almost every section of his body is unflatteringly flat and lanky. His thighs, however, are slightly chubby from both genetics and HRT redistributing the little body fat he does have into them. Dancing has also given him a very powerful amount of lower body strength with toned calves.
Julian's hair is perhaps one of the things he takes the most pride in. A few rich chestnut strands tend to be stubborn and stick out, especially around his hairline - however, for the most part, it slicks back nicely with some gel. Without the hair gel, however, his hair tends to be a fluffy, curly mop on his head. He believes that styling his hair goes a long way in giving him a professional appearance, and always keeps it fixed in public.
His facial features are fairly round and soft, save for his pointed chin and cutting jawline. Resting above them, a pair of fairly small lips with a prominent cupid's bow and matching dimple. He has a long, upturned nose fairly on the larger side with a straight bridge that rests comfortably underneath his two eyes. His eyes are perhaps the first thing that some notice about him - his organic eye is a deep honey brown, while the artificial one glows neon blue. His eye works as a camera, being able to record up to 30 minutes of footage at a time, although the quality is among the lowest possible and the camera can't record audio. He sports a small USB port on the left side of his head, which is hooked up to a battery and storage installed directly to his skull.
Attached to small shoulders that streamline into thin arms, one might notice the next most prominent feature about Julian - his right arm is entirely made of metal. The pieces and joints, Frankensteined from yellow and black metal thanks to a childhood obsession with Transformers, are fully functional. Julian cannot feel pain in the arm, but can feel sensations such as pressure due to it being connected to his nerves via a titanium implant in his bone. Its biggest flaw is that it cannot withstand extreme weather conditions. In conditions of extreme heat or cold, his arm will cease to function and simply become dead weight. It's also unable to be submerged. It's heavy and cumbersome, giving him shoulder and upper back pain, and is often prone to "jitters" from dust trapped inside, forcing him to remain especially careful of keeping his environment as cleanly as possible. The arm can easily be removed and taken apart to be cleaned and repaired as needed, but it's a tedious task that he prefers to avoid doing for as long as possible.
Julian's fashion sense is one that presents itself as trying to be as professional as possible - however, the downside to this is that he tends to be overdressed for any event. He typically wears a blue and white long-sleeved pinstripe shirt with a complimentary black vest over it as a work uniform. A long red tie hangs proudly around his neck - or, rather, it would if he had not tucked it into his pants. His pants, speaking of, are slender and completely black, save for blue pinstripes running down the right leg. A hasty disposition and a good sense of humor have driven him to install wheels in every pair of shoes he owns, using them to zip around everywhere.
Outside of work, Julian is comfiest at home in t-shirts and shorts. However, due to his lack of body fat, a lightning fast metabolism, and missing an appendage, he is always cold. He's almost always bundled up in a hoodie or at least a sweater of some kind, and is an obsessive chewer of the strings, aglets, and sleeves on them.
No stranger to body mods, Julian has two tattoos that he regrets deeply. Both were designed by a previous roommate trying to break into the field, but her design choices were questionable at best. The first one is a broken crop circle on the left side of his neck, thoughtfully designed to represent a sense of broken finality that his roommate deemed accurate to his at the time living situation. The second tattoo, however, is a full blackout sleeve done in bright blue ink that sits on his entire left arm. The design doesn't represent anything other than his roommate thinking it would "look cool". Julian regrets his tattoos more than anything and would remove them if given the opportunity.
The shame over them has left a massive burn scar on his left thigh. He prefers not to talk about it.
Julian's hair is perhaps one of the things he takes the most pride in. A few rich chestnut strands tend to be stubborn and stick out, especially around his hairline - however, for the most part, it slicks back nicely with some gel. Without the hair gel, however, his hair tends to be a fluffy, curly mop on his head. He believes that styling his hair goes a long way in giving him a professional appearance, and always keeps it fixed in public.
His facial features are fairly round and soft, save for his pointed chin and cutting jawline. Resting above them, a pair of fairly small lips with a prominent cupid's bow and matching dimple. He has a long, upturned nose fairly on the larger side with a straight bridge that rests comfortably underneath his two eyes. His eyes are perhaps the first thing that some notice about him - his organic eye is a deep honey brown, while the artificial one glows neon blue. His eye works as a camera, being able to record up to 30 minutes of footage at a time, although the quality is among the lowest possible and the camera can't record audio. He sports a small USB port on the left side of his head, which is hooked up to a battery and storage installed directly to his skull.
Attached to small shoulders that streamline into thin arms, one might notice the next most prominent feature about Julian - his right arm is entirely made of metal. The pieces and joints, Frankensteined from yellow and black metal thanks to a childhood obsession with Transformers, are fully functional. Julian cannot feel pain in the arm, but can feel sensations such as pressure due to it being connected to his nerves via a titanium implant in his bone. Its biggest flaw is that it cannot withstand extreme weather conditions. In conditions of extreme heat or cold, his arm will cease to function and simply become dead weight. It's also unable to be submerged. It's heavy and cumbersome, giving him shoulder and upper back pain, and is often prone to "jitters" from dust trapped inside, forcing him to remain especially careful of keeping his environment as cleanly as possible. The arm can easily be removed and taken apart to be cleaned and repaired as needed, but it's a tedious task that he prefers to avoid doing for as long as possible.
Julian's fashion sense is one that presents itself as trying to be as professional as possible - however, the downside to this is that he tends to be overdressed for any event. He typically wears a blue and white long-sleeved pinstripe shirt with a complimentary black vest over it as a work uniform. A long red tie hangs proudly around his neck - or, rather, it would if he had not tucked it into his pants. His pants, speaking of, are slender and completely black, save for blue pinstripes running down the right leg. A hasty disposition and a good sense of humor have driven him to install wheels in every pair of shoes he owns, using them to zip around everywhere.
Outside of work, Julian is comfiest at home in t-shirts and shorts. However, due to his lack of body fat, a lightning fast metabolism, and missing an appendage, he is always cold. He's almost always bundled up in a hoodie or at least a sweater of some kind, and is an obsessive chewer of the strings, aglets, and sleeves on them.
No stranger to body mods, Julian has two tattoos that he regrets deeply. Both were designed by a previous roommate trying to break into the field, but her design choices were questionable at best. The first one is a broken crop circle on the left side of his neck, thoughtfully designed to represent a sense of broken finality that his roommate deemed accurate to his at the time living situation. The second tattoo, however, is a full blackout sleeve done in bright blue ink that sits on his entire left arm. The design doesn't represent anything other than his roommate thinking it would "look cool". Julian regrets his tattoos more than anything and would remove them if given the opportunity.
The shame over them has left a massive burn scar on his left thigh. He prefers not to talk about it.
PERSONALITY
| POSITIVE - Quick-thinking - Reliable - Great sense of humor - Passionate - Warm emotional capacity NEGATIVE - Perfectionist - Pessimist - Prone to burnout - Cynical - Harsh self-judgement - Paranoid & Anxious - SEVERE TRUST ISSUES - Malleable - misanthropic | Despite his rough start in life, Julian turned out to be a rather compassionate person. His entire life and morals now revolve around fighting for the rights of Pokemon, and he deems the effort and dedication required of the task to be most rewarding. He carries a large amount of empathy and a warm emotional capacity that fuel him in wanting to make conditions better for those who cannot speak for themselves and are under the complete mercy of human beings. This is one of a few reasons why Julian leads a vegan lifestyle, and the entire reason that he's found himself in Anrui to work for a corrupt government. However, despite his adoration and passion for Pokemon, the same sentiment cannot be extended to humans. While he is soft and sentimental, Julian holds a very cynical view of human beings in general near and dear to his heart, and allowing this to go unchallenged for years has begun to help him practice avoidant behaviors towards even complete strangers on the street. He has been made paranoid and distrustful by those who have shown him cruelty, which his sun sign refuses to allow him to forget. Because of his trust issues, his cynicism, and his field of expertise, Julian is horrible at working together with others. He works alone because he only trusts himself. Conspiracies run wild in his mind - he truly believes that the earth is flat, that the moon landings were faked, that elections are always rigged, and that the government is always hiding something. Despite his mind running rampant with conspiracies, however, he chooses to dedicate his entire life to just one. He doesn't believe that R.O.T. is real. He firmly believes that R.O.T. was developed by Team Plasma as a tactic in order to fear monger people away from their most powerful companions and protectors - their Pokemon - with the greater goal of disarming the region to gain complete control. While he normally wouldn't care so deeply as to dedicate his entire life to it, what interests him is how this has a trickle effect on the Pokemon of the region. He's determined to get to the bottom of it for their sake. However, it could be observed by some that his obsession with conspiracies might simply a band-aid of a coping mechanism to escape from the reality he does know to be true. Either that, or perhaps he finds a subconscious sense of security, control, and even superiority over "knowing" something that others don't. Regardless of reason, his belief in conspiracies, witchcraft, cootie catchers, and fortune cookies tell easily of his ability to suspend disbelief and be swayed by things holding little logical credence. As such, it is safe to say that Julian is very malleable and easily manipulated. All of the years of his life spent under the heavy criticism of a strict set of parents have made Julian a perfectionist who is very hard on himself. He works brilliantly hard, but it'll simply never be good enough, or fast enough, or efficient enough for him to feel satisfied by his efforts. He overworks himself to the point of frequent burnout and exhaustion, often times even carelessly sacrificing his physical and mental health along the way just to cover up the obsessive thoughts and problems within that he refuses to address. Overworking is a bad habit of his that he is almost certain will kill him someday. Insomnia, combined with this, allows him to hold several side jobs that he busies himself with to prevent himself from thinking too much - everything refurbishing pinball machines, to managing social media accounts for fast food corporations, to repairing companion robots in a niche community that no longer has company clinic support. Since his job is so stressful, Julian has a few hobbies that he uses to try and de-stress. He babies his Pokemon in a way that most would find obnoxious. A lifetime of cooking for himself as a latchkey child has turned him into quite a skilled chef, and he has amassed a massive collection of both local and imported spices and homegrown herbs which he uses frequently in his dishes. In his apartment, he holds a rather large collection of statement and novelty mugs. He's also a loose leaf tea snob, a highly skilled dancer, an invested bookworm, and makes videos online from time to time for entertainment purposes. His biggest hobby, however, has to be a lifelong special interest of tinkering with and repairing robots, machines, and animations. Since his arrival in Anrui, he has also taken up witchcraft, desiring to have more control over his life. He specializes in cosmic, chaotic, and kitchen witchcraft in particular. While Julian is a quiet and nonthreatening person to be around, one might notice immediately that he is very closed off. He is incredibly shy to the point that even single words must sometimes be coaxed out of him. Awkward and soft spoken to a fault, he doesn't like to reveal information about himself or express how he's feeling, even if positive. This difficulty with emoting in general has caused others to grow frustrated with him several times before, as most grow tired of his muttering, mumbling, and awkward sentence and silence fillers. It's hard for him to open up, and body language is only something he understands but doesn't consciously practice himself. It's quite common for the cyborg to go completely non-verbal during periods of high stress, even around those he trusts; sometimes he just cannot bring himself to talk, and instead prefers to use baby sign language which he was taught when very young. Julian is also incredibly fickle, remaining perpetually vulnerable to how even the slightest changes in his routine can throw him off greatly. He's prone to bouts of panic and little things seem to constantly set him off in ways that only make sense to him. While his obsessive tendencies and his need for things to be incredibly specific make him seem eccentric or uptight to others, he desperately wishes that he could stop them. He simply has to brush his teeth on the bed, divide things into variables of 4, follow a precise skincare routine, and open doors and turn on faucets a certain way. Medication keeps the worst of compulsions at bay, but he's still sometimes chained to his routines and rituals which are both extremely important - and detrimental, if missed - to his mental health. Extreme paranoia keeps him on a tight and restrictive leash at all times, with personalized delusions of intense mistrust guiding his every decision regardless of how irrational it may seem. These paranoid delusions have only been intensified since his time in Anrui, now that he has experience under his belt of the region's corrupt environment. He believes that certain people in public spend much too noticeable of an amount of time watching him, unable to break his focus from their perceived threats. Along with this, he is within a simulation which can sometimes crack or glitch. A supernatural power allows him the understanding of when certain messages on the television or radio are specifically for him. He keeps a rich mental archive of every person he's ever met, analyzing them and their body language and then storing the information for later. If there is any sort of later inconsistency, he grows suspicious and views this as a red flag to justify closing himself off entirely from them. Sadly, as people tend to naturally have inconsistencies, this happens often and leads Julian to almost always isolate himself from others. Due to the paranoia that run rampant in his mind, Julian has developed an incredible foresight that allows him to easily see how and where things will go wrong - as such, he is always incredibly thoughtful and prepared. He'll remember your favorite drink and bring it every time he sees you, while also checking the one in your hand for any allergies you may have. He tends to focus on ironing out and filling in any gaps or weaknesses in plans - when your flashlight runs out of battery, he already has spares in his pocket. He carries a multi-tool everywhere he goes. He is the first one to scan the room for exits and any sort of furniture that could be in the way in the event of an emergency. He prepares for and expects the worst as a compulsion, making him resourceful and prepared during worst case scenarios. While he isn't very physically or mentally strong, you'll be glad to have him around when things go south. If one is willing to tolerate Julian's odd mannerisms and paranoia and gain his trust, then they will find a rich - although slightly unconventional - sense of humor underneath. Julian laughs at practically anything around those he feels comfortable with, and is skilled at finding awkward or overly specific things in life that provide humor or amusement in the observation of their quirkiness and oddity. He is also incredibly reliable as a friend, and his loyalty runs deep and genuine to a fault for those who do manage to gain his trust, as they are far and few between. Once this is earned, he would do almost anything for you. This has mostly ended badly for him when its fallen into the wrong hands, but these days he is much more cynical and suspicious as a protection against letting this happen again. He will be the most reliable and loyal person you've ever met who would sacrifice himself if it meant he got to see you thrive, if you can break down the walls he builds around himself. A lifetime of having to take care of both himself and those around him has shaped him to be an incredibly independent and reliable individual. He can be trusted to hold his own in almost any situation due to his quick thinking and ability to improvise. He naturally takes on a fatherly role in any group he's in, and will insist on cooking or cleaning for you the moment he likes you. He chooses his words very carefully, never promising something unless he is absolutely certain he can provide it. He's the type of man who will hop into a car in the middle of the night and drive for an hour to pick you up from a date gone wrong (and he has, in the past.) He'll cook you your favorite food when you're upset. He'll listen to you pour your heart out all night without saying a single word. The only condition is gaining his trust - a task that most eventually give up on. |
BACKGROUND
CONTENT WARNING for child abuse, child neglect, and implied sexual assault. Please be safe!
Julian's mother, Henrietta, was the lead scientist in the prosthetics and bionics branch located within a successful conglomerate corporation. Julian's father, Ronald, was the CEO of said corporation, whose eventual goal was to monopolize the cybernetics industry. Two busy parents expending their time and energy for science and human development would surely not have the time or a good reason to have a child - despite this, however, Julian was brought into the world through holes poked in a condom. Julian's father soon left the company to run for office, leaving it entirely to his wife to hold things up. After this, it was clear why he had been so insistent on having a child; one way to appeal to and relate to the masses was to take on the appearance of a responsible family man.
From a young age, however, Julian proved himself to be fairly different from other children. He developed way slower that most, hitting milestones at an abnormally late pace and being entirely mute. He communicated through only gestures and vague noises, leaving him to be entirely dependent on his parents who simply didn't have time for him. Due to this, he was taught baby sign language and used this to communicate until the age of 5, when he finally began speaking.
Like any bright and affectionate toddler, Julian was obsessed with his parents and showed intense separation anxiety issues with his mom in particular. He also constantly chased after his dad, wanting to impress the masculine figure he looked up to so dearly. No matter what he did, he just couldn't get the attention of his parents. While they gave him everything he ever wanted, the lack of emotional availability that he so desperately needed left him a very fragile and anxious child who didn't know how to process his emotions in a healthy way. As such, he became an obsessive chewer and began self-harming to deal with the stress. Chewing on his clothes, his fingers, his nails, and using self-soothing methods such as rocking was common for him. He also flapped his hands, but this behavior was immediately shamed by his parents, who forced him to repress it for the sake of upholding an image.
Nothing was wrong with their child - that was, until something was wrong. Against his father's will, Julian's mother had him screened for what she was certain was autism. Her suspicions of him being on the spectrum were confirmed correct, answering several questions for her - however, Julian's father refused to believe that his first born child was anything less than perfect. This aggressive denial of his condition led to his mother being forced to suppress it as well, and they tried their best to force Julian to be as normal as possible. Never learning to embrace his emotions and process them, along with his default behaviors being immediately conveyed to him as something to be ashamed of, he completely shut off from others and developed a horrible self esteem.
Being an "odd" child made Julian drastically unable to relate to his peers. Along with his eccentric tendencies and his late emotional development, he didn't relate to girls his age, and was much more interested in traditionally masculine forms of play and activity. Cast away by girls for being too weird, he dramatically rejected anything traditionally feminine and found himself running around with groups of boys and rough housing from the age of 7 and onward. Julian was eventually just considered to be one of the guys, obsessively shoving himself into their friend circles and activities.
Due to the neglect of his parents, Julian found himself identifying more with the guard Arcanines of his family's mansion. He grew closer and closer to the wise, mature, and gentle-hearted Pokemon who essentially raised him. These positive, loving, and nurturing experiences are what planted the seed in Julian's heart to value Pokemon more than people from an early age. Due to this, he had absolutely no reservation about interacting with the creatures. At the age of 10, this ultimately cost him his arm when he decided to very excitedly pet the Ariados owned by the parents of one of his friends. Julian was terrified of the amount of trouble he would be in, with screaming and physical abuse being common in his home life any time he inconvenienced his parents, and as such remained silent about the bite.
Not knowing the Pokemon to be venomous, it wasn't long before the arm became infected and spread to his body. The revelation came one night when a butler found him jaundicing in his bed. Julian was rushed to the hospital, where his right arm had to be completely amputated. He was fortunate enough to have a parent that specialized in high-quality prosthetic parts, and his arm was able to be replaced with a prosthetic that was fully functioning due to a titanium implant in his bone that could connect the arm to his nerves. The prosthetic was a mere prototype in development within the company at the time, however, and was frequently prone to glitches and other problems.
After the accident, Julian's parents unintentionally ruined his social life by suing the parents of his friend who had the Ariados. Financially destroying that family, talk spread fast in the tight knit neighborhood of Mode Street, and the parents of all of Julian's friends forbid their children from playing with him anymore in fear of his parents. For a while, Julian tried to sneak playing with them by meeting in public spaces such as ice skating rinks and movie theaters - however, missing opportunities to socialize any time that the boys weren't able to meet up in this way isolated him from the group until eventually it was never the same anymore. With the loss of his friends and the trauma of his accident, Julian began to grow incredibly anxious and developed obsessions to fill the void. It was during this time in his life that he began to take apart his robotic toys and tinker with them, figuring out how they worked from the inside out. This boredom buster developed into an utter fascination, and over the span of years he graduated from toys to machines of all sorts.
As word got out that Julian's arm had to be amputated due to neglect, his father's wholesome facade of being a family man who loved his kid more than anything crumbled. It became apparent that Julian's father was not going to win the election after this mishap. Years and years of campaigning began to stress him out to incredible lengths, and he finally gave up on running for office when Julian was 13 years old. He returned to the company, realizing that he would have to make something extreme in order to gain back the substantial amount of money that was lost in the election. Wanting to appeal to the richest of them all - the government - he began to develop the prototype for an artificial eyeball that worked like a camera, and could be charged on the go with a surgically-implanted battery and USB port. The working title was sloppily referred to as the EyeSpy.
Meanwhile, when Julian went through puberty, his dysphoria developed into a full-blown unbearable condition which was only further exacerbated by a diagnosis of endometriosis. A combination of endometriosis and obsessive compulsive tendencies kept him out of school most of the time and hindered his intelligence. To cope with loneliness, at the age of 13, Julian began using the internet as a form of escapism. He began to make videos and shared them online, gaining a following for being controversially uneducated. He also began to make videos of himself dancing, and would get feedback in the form of constructive criticism in the comments that helped him improve. The internet soon became his home, and he spent most of his time online. During this time, he became obsessed with a teenage blogger by the name of Josh Jackson.
Julian's videos were spoken of at school and mocked, which is where a girl named Aubrey first heard about them. She looked him up and was instantly a fan of his content. For 2 years Julian kept making videos, until he was relentlessly bullied by Josh Jackson's other teenage fans. In a fit of upset, Julian deleted all of his videos and went silent online. This is where Aubrey reached out to him, asking him where he had gone. The two began chatting and hit it off immediately as friends, finding it easy to meet up in person afterwards. They soon became best friends and would do everything together. When Aubrey asked Julian to be her partner, however, Julian did not feel any romantic attachment to her but also didn't have the heart to reject her. The fear of losing her combined with this marked the start of his first relationship.
It was soon obvious to him that Aubrey prided herself very much in her identity as a lesbian, directly clashing with the crushing feelings of dysphoria that Julian held. The feelings of not relating and not belonging with girls reared up and became a staple concern in Julian's life as Aubrey continuously pressured him for sex. Resentment began to build between the two over the constant rejection, along with the tension of Aubrey misgendering and deadnaming him even after he came out as transgender. When Julian turned 18, it finally became too much and he decided that he had to break up with her in order to finally have the freedom to be himself and begin transitioning. Although Aubrey didn't take the break-up well, the two remained friends out of what Julian felt was obligation to her.
At the age of 18, after breaking up with Aubrey, Julian finally began HRT. He was forwarded to an LGBT health group that offered support in exchange for any youth who was willing to join their extracurricular programs. Julian agreed and was put through a mental health screening. It was here that he was diagnosed formally with general anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder, and was put on medication for these conditions. He also joined the theatre group that the program held, participating in anything from musicals to drag shows. For 2 years, all was well.
When Julian turned 20, however, was when everything in his life seemed to change suddenly. In a petty act of revenge, Aubrey ripped Julian's vest open during a show to reveal his binder to the crowd. In a fit of rage, he quit theatre entirely.
Top surgery went well for him, relieving him of the dysphoria that was his chest - however, he also woke up with a bit more changed about him than what he had consented for. The iris of his left eye had also been completely removed and replaced with the EyeSpy. A debilitating pain rang through his skull where the charging port had been attached. At first, Julian was furious - however, he soon realized that becoming a walking portfolio meant that his father actually paid attention to him now. Julian's mother, however, was unable to adapt to the fact that her husband had surgically altered their son without his consent. Too bitter to continue the relationship, she left her husband and the company, and tried to establish a better relationship with Julian.
Despite her best efforts, the relationship between her and her son was fairly troubled. Julian was confused and not quite sure how to feel about her suddenly wanting to come around and be a part of his life now, while meanwhile, his father was finally proud of him. The stress of being surgically altered and the divorce of his parents took an intense toll on Julian, putting him in a crisis. One of his friends from theatre named Tessa, an artistic type who wanted to be a tattoo artist, suggested ink as a coping mechanism. Through peer pressure and not being of sound mind at the time, Julian agreed and got his tattoos. The fallout of this was incredulous and messy, resulting in his father attacking him and beating him to near death. Incredibly traumatized by the event, he begged his mom for help, who simply instructed him to not tell a soul in fear of the family image falling apart.
With this, the realization hit hard for Julian that he had to get out of there. He moved in with Tessa and her two roommates, Kendra and Jenna, and began taking on the role of their caregiver. Julian exhausted himself with the housework and cooking for the four of them, also driving a shared car to get all of them back and forth to their shifts. Julian himself scored a job at a sandwich shop, but had to quit relatively soon due to being unable to handle food with his delicate prosthetic and not being able to find gloves that fit the awkward metal components. Disheartened, he looked again, and managed to score a job as a fast food chain's social media manager - however, his dry sense of humor that he used as a coping mechanism through the company's account ended up landing him in trouble once more. He became desperate to make ends meet and took up a job at an entertainment pizzeria. He was initially hired to be a repairman for the animatronics and arcade machines, but was soon put in other stressful positions due to poor management and being understaffed.
From the constant stress of being broke and living with roommates who expected him to also be their caretaker, Julian once again turned to the internet to escape. It was online that he found the conspiracy theory community, who believed thoroughly and aggressively in the government being corrupt. Experiencing this firsthand and lacking world experience, Julian took almost all of their theories as truth. The echo chamber, combined with his pre-existing issues, drove Julian into a maddening existence of delusions and paranoia. He formed a close online friendship with a group of people who were all able to bond over conspiracies, affectionately referring to themselves as "The Curdle Squad". It was there that he learned of Team Plasma, the hysteria over R.O.T., and how some people thought it was a tactic to gain control by separating people from their Pokemon to render them powerless. Julian, immediately interested, began to research more. It was then that he discovered the horrible conditions of both wild and domestic Pokemon in Anrui over the R.O.T. scare, which greatly horrified him. The Anrui conspiracy soon became an obsession.
Over the span of six years, he researched it while also juggling his grating job and taking care of the constant needs of his roommates. Stress boiled to an all time high after their house was broken into, resulting in their valuables and cash being stolen by a man who was never caught. After having to replace all that was stolen and pay for repairs for the damage, the group found themselves at their lowest financial point, unable to make rent or eat. At the age of 26, it all became too much to bear and Julian unsuccessfully attempted suicide. The entire group was evicted shortly after, leaving him no choice but to seek alternative methods of living as opposed to being on the streets. Until he was 27, he lived at a local movie theatre, since spending money on movie tickets to reside within the facility daily and a gym membership for the showers was cheaper than renting an apartment in Castelia was.
After a year of this lifestyle, however, he could no longer handle the noise and the paranoia that came at night and returned home to his parents to figure out where he wanted to go with his life from there. He decided that with the EyeSpy, he could work as a whistleblower, greatly inspired by Josh Jackson's work. He decided that the operation would have to be a complete secret, as the less his parents knew, the safer they would be.
He saved for 2 years by taking on another part time job as a social media manager and taking freelance commissions to repair robots. Finally, at the age of 28, moved to Anrui. He paid Aubrey for a ride to the airport to not alert his parents to his plan, but a massive chunk of memory from that car ride is missing entirely in his mind. Aubrey swears that he simply fell asleep, but several details that don't add up make him suspicious.
Upon arriving in Anrui and signing up for Plasma, Julian met a man named King Esten. The two quickly became friends and grew close over the span of months. At some point, Julian unofficially moved in with King over time, and is now simply trying to amass his team of Pokemon and get to know them better through training. In an attempt to reclaim a part of his life that was wrongly stolen from him - theatre performance - he has decided to be a coordinator and participate in contests with his Pokemon.
On the side, he continues to try and climb the ranks of Plasma, hoping that becoming a trusted member of the organization will someday allow him the opportunity to access classified documents to disprove the existence of R.O.T. His ultimate goal is to get to the bottom of the conspiracy that he so adamantly believes in to restore the rights to the Pokemon of Anrui.
Julian's mother, Henrietta, was the lead scientist in the prosthetics and bionics branch located within a successful conglomerate corporation. Julian's father, Ronald, was the CEO of said corporation, whose eventual goal was to monopolize the cybernetics industry. Two busy parents expending their time and energy for science and human development would surely not have the time or a good reason to have a child - despite this, however, Julian was brought into the world through holes poked in a condom. Julian's father soon left the company to run for office, leaving it entirely to his wife to hold things up. After this, it was clear why he had been so insistent on having a child; one way to appeal to and relate to the masses was to take on the appearance of a responsible family man.
From a young age, however, Julian proved himself to be fairly different from other children. He developed way slower that most, hitting milestones at an abnormally late pace and being entirely mute. He communicated through only gestures and vague noises, leaving him to be entirely dependent on his parents who simply didn't have time for him. Due to this, he was taught baby sign language and used this to communicate until the age of 5, when he finally began speaking.
Like any bright and affectionate toddler, Julian was obsessed with his parents and showed intense separation anxiety issues with his mom in particular. He also constantly chased after his dad, wanting to impress the masculine figure he looked up to so dearly. No matter what he did, he just couldn't get the attention of his parents. While they gave him everything he ever wanted, the lack of emotional availability that he so desperately needed left him a very fragile and anxious child who didn't know how to process his emotions in a healthy way. As such, he became an obsessive chewer and began self-harming to deal with the stress. Chewing on his clothes, his fingers, his nails, and using self-soothing methods such as rocking was common for him. He also flapped his hands, but this behavior was immediately shamed by his parents, who forced him to repress it for the sake of upholding an image.
Nothing was wrong with their child - that was, until something was wrong. Against his father's will, Julian's mother had him screened for what she was certain was autism. Her suspicions of him being on the spectrum were confirmed correct, answering several questions for her - however, Julian's father refused to believe that his first born child was anything less than perfect. This aggressive denial of his condition led to his mother being forced to suppress it as well, and they tried their best to force Julian to be as normal as possible. Never learning to embrace his emotions and process them, along with his default behaviors being immediately conveyed to him as something to be ashamed of, he completely shut off from others and developed a horrible self esteem.
Being an "odd" child made Julian drastically unable to relate to his peers. Along with his eccentric tendencies and his late emotional development, he didn't relate to girls his age, and was much more interested in traditionally masculine forms of play and activity. Cast away by girls for being too weird, he dramatically rejected anything traditionally feminine and found himself running around with groups of boys and rough housing from the age of 7 and onward. Julian was eventually just considered to be one of the guys, obsessively shoving himself into their friend circles and activities.
Due to the neglect of his parents, Julian found himself identifying more with the guard Arcanines of his family's mansion. He grew closer and closer to the wise, mature, and gentle-hearted Pokemon who essentially raised him. These positive, loving, and nurturing experiences are what planted the seed in Julian's heart to value Pokemon more than people from an early age. Due to this, he had absolutely no reservation about interacting with the creatures. At the age of 10, this ultimately cost him his arm when he decided to very excitedly pet the Ariados owned by the parents of one of his friends. Julian was terrified of the amount of trouble he would be in, with screaming and physical abuse being common in his home life any time he inconvenienced his parents, and as such remained silent about the bite.
Not knowing the Pokemon to be venomous, it wasn't long before the arm became infected and spread to his body. The revelation came one night when a butler found him jaundicing in his bed. Julian was rushed to the hospital, where his right arm had to be completely amputated. He was fortunate enough to have a parent that specialized in high-quality prosthetic parts, and his arm was able to be replaced with a prosthetic that was fully functioning due to a titanium implant in his bone that could connect the arm to his nerves. The prosthetic was a mere prototype in development within the company at the time, however, and was frequently prone to glitches and other problems.
After the accident, Julian's parents unintentionally ruined his social life by suing the parents of his friend who had the Ariados. Financially destroying that family, talk spread fast in the tight knit neighborhood of Mode Street, and the parents of all of Julian's friends forbid their children from playing with him anymore in fear of his parents. For a while, Julian tried to sneak playing with them by meeting in public spaces such as ice skating rinks and movie theaters - however, missing opportunities to socialize any time that the boys weren't able to meet up in this way isolated him from the group until eventually it was never the same anymore. With the loss of his friends and the trauma of his accident, Julian began to grow incredibly anxious and developed obsessions to fill the void. It was during this time in his life that he began to take apart his robotic toys and tinker with them, figuring out how they worked from the inside out. This boredom buster developed into an utter fascination, and over the span of years he graduated from toys to machines of all sorts.
As word got out that Julian's arm had to be amputated due to neglect, his father's wholesome facade of being a family man who loved his kid more than anything crumbled. It became apparent that Julian's father was not going to win the election after this mishap. Years and years of campaigning began to stress him out to incredible lengths, and he finally gave up on running for office when Julian was 13 years old. He returned to the company, realizing that he would have to make something extreme in order to gain back the substantial amount of money that was lost in the election. Wanting to appeal to the richest of them all - the government - he began to develop the prototype for an artificial eyeball that worked like a camera, and could be charged on the go with a surgically-implanted battery and USB port. The working title was sloppily referred to as the EyeSpy.
Meanwhile, when Julian went through puberty, his dysphoria developed into a full-blown unbearable condition which was only further exacerbated by a diagnosis of endometriosis. A combination of endometriosis and obsessive compulsive tendencies kept him out of school most of the time and hindered his intelligence. To cope with loneliness, at the age of 13, Julian began using the internet as a form of escapism. He began to make videos and shared them online, gaining a following for being controversially uneducated. He also began to make videos of himself dancing, and would get feedback in the form of constructive criticism in the comments that helped him improve. The internet soon became his home, and he spent most of his time online. During this time, he became obsessed with a teenage blogger by the name of Josh Jackson.
Julian's videos were spoken of at school and mocked, which is where a girl named Aubrey first heard about them. She looked him up and was instantly a fan of his content. For 2 years Julian kept making videos, until he was relentlessly bullied by Josh Jackson's other teenage fans. In a fit of upset, Julian deleted all of his videos and went silent online. This is where Aubrey reached out to him, asking him where he had gone. The two began chatting and hit it off immediately as friends, finding it easy to meet up in person afterwards. They soon became best friends and would do everything together. When Aubrey asked Julian to be her partner, however, Julian did not feel any romantic attachment to her but also didn't have the heart to reject her. The fear of losing her combined with this marked the start of his first relationship.
It was soon obvious to him that Aubrey prided herself very much in her identity as a lesbian, directly clashing with the crushing feelings of dysphoria that Julian held. The feelings of not relating and not belonging with girls reared up and became a staple concern in Julian's life as Aubrey continuously pressured him for sex. Resentment began to build between the two over the constant rejection, along with the tension of Aubrey misgendering and deadnaming him even after he came out as transgender. When Julian turned 18, it finally became too much and he decided that he had to break up with her in order to finally have the freedom to be himself and begin transitioning. Although Aubrey didn't take the break-up well, the two remained friends out of what Julian felt was obligation to her.
At the age of 18, after breaking up with Aubrey, Julian finally began HRT. He was forwarded to an LGBT health group that offered support in exchange for any youth who was willing to join their extracurricular programs. Julian agreed and was put through a mental health screening. It was here that he was diagnosed formally with general anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder, and was put on medication for these conditions. He also joined the theatre group that the program held, participating in anything from musicals to drag shows. For 2 years, all was well.
When Julian turned 20, however, was when everything in his life seemed to change suddenly. In a petty act of revenge, Aubrey ripped Julian's vest open during a show to reveal his binder to the crowd. In a fit of rage, he quit theatre entirely.
Top surgery went well for him, relieving him of the dysphoria that was his chest - however, he also woke up with a bit more changed about him than what he had consented for. The iris of his left eye had also been completely removed and replaced with the EyeSpy. A debilitating pain rang through his skull where the charging port had been attached. At first, Julian was furious - however, he soon realized that becoming a walking portfolio meant that his father actually paid attention to him now. Julian's mother, however, was unable to adapt to the fact that her husband had surgically altered their son without his consent. Too bitter to continue the relationship, she left her husband and the company, and tried to establish a better relationship with Julian.
Despite her best efforts, the relationship between her and her son was fairly troubled. Julian was confused and not quite sure how to feel about her suddenly wanting to come around and be a part of his life now, while meanwhile, his father was finally proud of him. The stress of being surgically altered and the divorce of his parents took an intense toll on Julian, putting him in a crisis. One of his friends from theatre named Tessa, an artistic type who wanted to be a tattoo artist, suggested ink as a coping mechanism. Through peer pressure and not being of sound mind at the time, Julian agreed and got his tattoos. The fallout of this was incredulous and messy, resulting in his father attacking him and beating him to near death. Incredibly traumatized by the event, he begged his mom for help, who simply instructed him to not tell a soul in fear of the family image falling apart.
With this, the realization hit hard for Julian that he had to get out of there. He moved in with Tessa and her two roommates, Kendra and Jenna, and began taking on the role of their caregiver. Julian exhausted himself with the housework and cooking for the four of them, also driving a shared car to get all of them back and forth to their shifts. Julian himself scored a job at a sandwich shop, but had to quit relatively soon due to being unable to handle food with his delicate prosthetic and not being able to find gloves that fit the awkward metal components. Disheartened, he looked again, and managed to score a job as a fast food chain's social media manager - however, his dry sense of humor that he used as a coping mechanism through the company's account ended up landing him in trouble once more. He became desperate to make ends meet and took up a job at an entertainment pizzeria. He was initially hired to be a repairman for the animatronics and arcade machines, but was soon put in other stressful positions due to poor management and being understaffed.
From the constant stress of being broke and living with roommates who expected him to also be their caretaker, Julian once again turned to the internet to escape. It was online that he found the conspiracy theory community, who believed thoroughly and aggressively in the government being corrupt. Experiencing this firsthand and lacking world experience, Julian took almost all of their theories as truth. The echo chamber, combined with his pre-existing issues, drove Julian into a maddening existence of delusions and paranoia. He formed a close online friendship with a group of people who were all able to bond over conspiracies, affectionately referring to themselves as "The Curdle Squad". It was there that he learned of Team Plasma, the hysteria over R.O.T., and how some people thought it was a tactic to gain control by separating people from their Pokemon to render them powerless. Julian, immediately interested, began to research more. It was then that he discovered the horrible conditions of both wild and domestic Pokemon in Anrui over the R.O.T. scare, which greatly horrified him. The Anrui conspiracy soon became an obsession.
Over the span of six years, he researched it while also juggling his grating job and taking care of the constant needs of his roommates. Stress boiled to an all time high after their house was broken into, resulting in their valuables and cash being stolen by a man who was never caught. After having to replace all that was stolen and pay for repairs for the damage, the group found themselves at their lowest financial point, unable to make rent or eat. At the age of 26, it all became too much to bear and Julian unsuccessfully attempted suicide. The entire group was evicted shortly after, leaving him no choice but to seek alternative methods of living as opposed to being on the streets. Until he was 27, he lived at a local movie theatre, since spending money on movie tickets to reside within the facility daily and a gym membership for the showers was cheaper than renting an apartment in Castelia was.
After a year of this lifestyle, however, he could no longer handle the noise and the paranoia that came at night and returned home to his parents to figure out where he wanted to go with his life from there. He decided that with the EyeSpy, he could work as a whistleblower, greatly inspired by Josh Jackson's work. He decided that the operation would have to be a complete secret, as the less his parents knew, the safer they would be.
He saved for 2 years by taking on another part time job as a social media manager and taking freelance commissions to repair robots. Finally, at the age of 28, moved to Anrui. He paid Aubrey for a ride to the airport to not alert his parents to his plan, but a massive chunk of memory from that car ride is missing entirely in his mind. Aubrey swears that he simply fell asleep, but several details that don't add up make him suspicious.
Upon arriving in Anrui and signing up for Plasma, Julian met a man named King Esten. The two quickly became friends and grew close over the span of months. At some point, Julian unofficially moved in with King over time, and is now simply trying to amass his team of Pokemon and get to know them better through training. In an attempt to reclaim a part of his life that was wrongly stolen from him - theatre performance - he has decided to be a coordinator and participate in contests with his Pokemon.
On the side, he continues to try and climb the ranks of Plasma, hoping that becoming a trusted member of the organization will someday allow him the opportunity to access classified documents to disprove the existence of R.O.T. His ultimate goal is to get to the bottom of the conspiracy that he so adamantly believes in to restore the rights to the Pokemon of Anrui.
POKEMON
BABY. TOGEPI. UNKNOWN GENDER. LEVEL __.
ATTACK 1. ATTACK 2. ATTACK 3. ATTACK 4. ATTACK 5. ATTACK 6.
ATTACK 1. ATTACK 2. ATTACK 3. ATTACK 4. ATTACK 5. ATTACK 6.
(OOC: I got this egg from the August Promo back when I was a member before! I have permission from Elf to re-claim it.)
Julian's most prized posession - Baby. His baby. Julian found the egg after one of his dad's Arcanines brought it into the house to use as a chewtoy. He's been taking care of the little one ever since - perhaps even a bit too protective over what is, essentially, his first Pokemon. He has a crippling fear that the Arcanine playing with the egg might have killed the baby inside, but he does everything he can in hopes that it'll hatch.
Julian's most prized posession - Baby. His baby. Julian found the egg after one of his dad's Arcanines brought it into the house to use as a chewtoy. He's been taking care of the little one ever since - perhaps even a bit too protective over what is, essentially, his first Pokemon. He has a crippling fear that the Arcanine playing with the egg might have killed the baby inside, but he does everything he can in hopes that it'll hatch.
MISCELLANEOUS
| OOC NAME | FACECLAIM |
| MABEL | [b]TALES FROM THE BORDERLANDS[/b] - Rhys, [i]Julian Lee Miller[/i] |
