DORUmon

Last updated 7/1/13.

--P9850

Key Items
-Pokegear
-Two sets of clothing (Youngster trainer class)
-Long-sleeved jacket
-Starter Kit (Trainer)
-FOOD
-Always food
- Prototype Interface stone (as a pendant)

Medicine
-7 Potion
-2 Antidote
-2 Paralyze Heal
-2 Awakening
-2 Burn Heal
-2 Ice Heal

Travel Items
-1 Repel
-1 Max Repel
-2 Escape Rope

Pokeballs
-5 Poke Ball
-1 Great Ball

Berries
-Assorted wild-picked berries

[action]

[At about 1:00 in the afternoon, a roar echoes over Violet City. It's followed by gouts of flame shooting into the sky from somewhere near the northern lake; a pair of Aerodactyl hover up and away, shrieking down at whatever's on the ground.

They scatter when "whatever" follows them up - a Salamence, wobbling in the air at first before finding his balance, and screaming triumph after the fleeing dinosaurs.

The newly-evolved dragon swoops down like a rogue thunderbolt, falling out of the sky onto fossil Pokemon in a burst of dragonfire and gnashing teeth. His wild, ruthless pursuit of the renegade monsters takes chunks out of more than one roof and sets a good few bushes on fire - he chases his targets and anything that blocks him from them with a single-minded fury, ignoring any collateral damage or danger to passersby. The parts of Violet in his line of fire get reprieves when he darts back into the sky to scuffle with Aerodatyl, but grounded Kabutops and Omastar lure him back down repeatedly to wreak more havoc.

There's probably a good bit of running going on, but sharp eyes might notice the one young boy whose stumbling path trails after the wild dragon, rather than away from it.

All in all, it lasts about half an hour. The trail of unconscious fossil Pokemon leads down along the eastern side of the city and to a grassy area south of the Pokemon Center, where a Shellos is dutifully bubbling water onto patches of burning foliage, and the Salamence itself lies on the ground, looking put-out. His trainer is sitting next to him, backpack strewn open on the ground, struggling with bandages from a first-aid kit; his arms bear a collection of tooth and claw lacerations, and one nick on his cheek is bleeding steadily. He looks on the verge of tears, teeth bared in a grimace, though whether it's from the pain of the injuries or thanks to something else isn't a certain call. The Salamence is clearly still wired, hissing at anything that so much as moves, his wings quivering, but he remains flat to the ground, restrained by Dorumon's presence.]

[video]

[Dorumon's wearing his long-sleeved jacket when the video clicks on - not too unusual, given the rain. There's not much that can be done to hide the cut on his cheek, though, and it still appears wet with fresh blood. Salamence is no longer behind him, and it looks like he's sitting on a bench somewhere in Violet City.

He gets to the point fast, voice quavering a bit but sounding sharper than he usually does.]

What happens if you accidentally cause trouble in a city? [He swallows, eyes flicking away for a split second.] ...Do you have to leave? Or should you leave, even if they don't make you?

[He looks almost angry with himself in the second before the video clicks off.]

[The form-restoring effect didn't hit Dorumon until he got involved in a computer-related mishap at the Violet City Pokemon Center. His Pokemon vanish into the PC, and he...

...is sent careening across Kan-Joh's cyberspace. When he's not being dumped in front of PC stations in Pokemon Centers, he's being bodily ejected from the communications network via people's Pokegears. Be careful turning yours on today - a three-foot beastdragon may come flying out haphazardly.]

[So after a long, grueling four-and-a-half days of traveling through the wilderness while learning how to walk properly, Dorumon and his Bagon arrived in Cherrygrove City. They spent their first night curled up in a bush somewhere, because the concept of inns is something Dorumon hasn't been introduced to yet.

When morning comes, they're hungry (and a little sore, on Dorumon's part. This whole "human body" thing is going to continue to be a pain, isn't it?) So they go to find the food that they were promised they'd find here, looking as shabby and disreputable as a trainer and Pokemon who've been sleeping on the ground and not bathing for a week can.

They do find it, eventually, thanks to Bagon's willingness to run through any pair of open doors he can find. The grocery store, Dorumon decides as he goes through picking up an armful of whatever he recognizes as food, must be this world's greatest feature. It must have very caring overseers. He's smiling as he strolls right out the door with a small pile of apples and meat...]

[video portion 1]

[Hello world, it's a Bagon! This Bagon wants to let those people from before know, via mashing his nose into the camera and growling, that his trainer isn't completely ridiculous anymore and also they found food. So now they're ready to go find you all and show you just how awesome Bagon's going to-

-wait, hold on, something's going on. The camera tilts up. Overhead, Dorumon has stopped, looking back with an expression of wary confusion. There's yelling somewhere offscreen, something about stealing and "come on back here, kid". Dorumon blinks and shakes his head, looking more wary as the seconds tick by. He glances down, then back up.

The yelling gets louder and his eyes suddenly widen. Bagon yelps. The two bolt, video jerking erratically and partially obscured as Bagon hugs the Gear to his chest and hoofs it down the street. A loud thud makes him stop and turn - Dorumon's on the ground, his stuff's everywhere, the man chasing them (the store's manager, now that he and his uniform are on video) is catching up, and...

...from there, it goes right to hell. When the man tries to pick Dorumon up off the ground, the boy just starts fighting, headbutting and yelling and flailing and doing whatever he can to resist the poor, bewildered guy's attempts to restrain a petty thief.

Bagon watches this for a minute, then lets out a battle cry, dropping the Gear. It lands face-down on the ground, picking up more muffled yelling from all three parties for a few more seconds before shutting off.]

[video end]

[After that incident, and after he had everything explained to him and apologized and bought some food properly, Dorumon and Bagon wander around Cherrygrove, eating their lunch and exploring, Dorumon looking a little embarrassed and Bagon looking a little grouchy - and both of them looking very much like they have not only been sleeping on the ground and not bathing for a week, but have also just gotten into a brawl. It doesn't stop Bagon from running up to anything that looks interesting and poking it enthusiastically. Dorumon isn't quite as energetic as that - he's got things on his mind.

Incidentally, Dorumon isn't falling over himself at every step, but he's still not a very graceful walker. They stop a lot for him to lean on walls or sit down and regain his balance.]

[video portion 2]

Where do you get money? [short and sweet.]

Player
Name: Holo
Personal Journal: hologramblue
E-mail: 059delta149@gmail.com
AIM: hologramblue
Timezone: EST (GMT -5)
Current Characters in Route: none

Character
Name: DORUmon
Series: Digimon X-Evolution
Timeline: Post-canon
Canon Resource Links: boom

Personality: Dorumon is a pretty simple Digimon, at his core. He's driven by fairly normal desires - comfort, companionship, purpose, and above all survival - and he's had a hell of a time trying to fulfill those desires during his life so far. He comes from an abstract and largely anarchic world, and his life has been consumed by weird, dramatic plot shit revolving around the fact that he is alive when "divine" decree says he should be erased from existence. He has lived the life of an outcast, and doesn't remember much of the time before he was an outcast, if such a time ever even existed. Dorumon went from fleeing the collapsing old world to wandering aimless and friendless in the new one - he's certainly no stranger to hardship or loneliness, even if his context for it is leagues removed from what organic creatures typically have to deal with.

The major point of X-Evolution and of Dorumon's character was that living beings naturally want to keep on living, and that's okay, and life is precious, and it should be aided and passed on whenever possible. Life is a treasure, and that's the philosophy that's kept Dorumon going all this time, through the loneliness and then through the fighting and the destruction and all the way to the chamber of the god of the Digital World. Dorumon hates death, and he hates senseless killing even more. No matter how many times he sees someone die before him, he's still horrified by it in every single instance. The power of the will to live is what Dorumon holds closest to his heart.

Dorumon's behavior and attitude is generally pretty mellow and reticent, with moments of temper. He's got a rough side, and won't hesitate to return mocking or threats with aggression, and will fight fiercely to protect himself or prevent senseless destruction, but he responds to most situations with wary curiosity and interest. He's quiet, not used to having anyone to talk with, but enjoys companionship even though he's not very good at holding a conversation - in fact, because he's had so few friends, he values friendships even more. As his default, Rookie form Dorumon, he has the demeanor of a reserved child.

...He's not exactly a child, though. Digimon do change in personality somewhat when they evolve, and some evolutions produce more changes than others; as Dorumon progresses up his evolution line, he gains confidence in himself, and the greatest change comes when he assumes the form of the Royal Knight Alphamon. In this form he is brave, confident, still reserved, but emotionally secure and no longer aimless - he takes his belief in the value of life and turns it into a warrior's motivation, raising a legendary blade to defend all life in the Digital World. It's safe to assume that this portion of Dorumon's latent personality has stayed with him to some extent after he reverts to his Rookie form.

By the end of the movie, he's much better-adjusted than the lonely, purposeless child with self-worth and identity issues that he was at the beginning. He has comrades, he has a young Digimon to take care of, he knows what he is and what he's accomplished, and he has the residual memories and knowledge from being Alphamon to bolster his self-image. He's not the paragon of psychological health - that the world is fixed doesn't erase all the things that he experienced - but he has a decent amount of internal strength to fall back on if the world were ever to crumble around him again.

A thing that's worth mentioning in the context of an RP app is that Dorumon is a Digital Monster (one from a Digital World that hasn't made contact with a Real World, at that), and so the usual concerns of organic beings, not to mention of human society, are unknown to him. He doesn't have logical social context. He's going to have a lot of fun with that.

Strengths/Weaknesses:

Strengths:
- Where his motivations are concerned, Dorumon is stubborn. Extremely stubborn. He was told once that he needed to survive, and he took it to heart, and now - even when all seems pointless, even when he's miserable - he survives. He was told once to care for Tokomon, and he took it to heart, and now - even when it puts him in danger - he takes care of that baby. Once Dorumon sees something he should do, and affirms that it's a good thing to do, no amount of emotional or physical pain can stop him from powering on through. This could come to be a weakness in his interactions with people, but when it comes to his own welfare, it has been and will be an excellent survival skill.

tl;dr Dorumon's biggest strength is finding a good thing, believing in it, anchoring himself with it, and sticking to it; as long as he has it, nothing else can break him down entirely.

- He's had a lot of experience in tough survival situations and knows to keep an appropriate level of wariness; though he treasures life, he is well aware that there are people out there who will want to hurt you, and it's good to find out what you're getting into before you go running into a situation. He's of average general intelligence, but is world-wise where one world is concerned and is more than capable of picking up the skills needed to handle this one.

- His memories of Alphamon are proof to him that he is important as an individual and that he has a place in (his) world. Insults may sting, but it's unlikely he'll ever feel as bad about himself as he once did. Combined with the aforementioned stubbornness, and he has the emotional fortitude to work through personal setbacks however much they hurt.


Weaknesses:
- Counterpoint to his stubbornness is that if you can manage to shake his faith in the things he stubbornly believes in, you've found Dorumon's greatest weakness. He spent the entire movie fighting and fighting for life, then nearly lost hope when he evolved and saw that he resembled the monsters that were destroying everything, thus making him question his right to cling to the ideal of life for life's sake.

- Dorumon's friends back home were all made in very extenuating circumstances, and are all relatively new. He's not familiar with the way that friendships normally develop, nor is he used to being emotionally close to other people. This is his most relevant and greatest weakness.

- The wariness that keeps him out of trouble might also keep him from making friends or meeting with good opportunities or having fun.

- Dorumon has a track record of seeing people die or be attacked and then flying into a panic. In canon, this usually causes him to evolve and confront the murderer. As a human, he'll probably freak out and possibly attack the attacker. There are a lot of reasons why this is usually a bad course of action.

- He may be stubborn enough to keep walking on when things hurt, but being alone still does hurt. He knows what he's worth, but he still enjoys feeling that he is of immediate value to someone. Having Pokemon with him pretty much entirely alleviates this weak point.

- He's a quick study in survival skills, but Dorumon has no knowledge of the organic world to begin with and will be stumbling across new obstacles for a very long time.

- He also comes from a rather anarchic world that doesn't use money or have many laws or really have any of the trappings of human civilization. Towns are going to baffle him. Organized human things in general are going to baffle him. This should be a much bigger part than it is, but it's very easy to sum up.

Pokémon Information
Affiliation: Trainer
Starter: Bagon (Reason 1: Dorumon is part of the Dragon's Roar family. Reason 2: Salamence roughly resembles Dorugreymon in body shape. Reason 3: Bagon's thing with flying fits thematically with Dorumon's thing with hidden potential and Alphamon. Reason 4: Alphamon uses a dragon as a sword. Dorumon can use a dragon as a...metaphorical sword.)
Password: Strawberry Marmalade

Samples
First Person Sample:

What are you following me around for?

[The muffled voice is that of a young boy; about eleven years old, by the pitch, sounding tired and confused. It's followed by a Bagon's babble, then a sigh.]

Never mind.

[There's a clatter, then the 'Gear's audio abruptly clears, as though the mic were moved away from an obstruction. The video clears, too, showing a view of trees and sky and grass on Route 29. A few seconds of silence.]

You shouldn't make a mess of things. [rustle.] What's in there, anyways...? [rustle clunk scrape clatter.] Are these clothes? [thump.] I think this is food- [The Bagon babbles loudly, and the boy yelps, and the 'Gear flips over twice. The video now shows the Bagon running around, Mom's bento lunch in hand, biting the box determinedly. The boy is standing up, watching helplessly.]

Wait, don't take that! It's not yours, it - oof-! [He takes two unsteady steps, leans forward, and falls over. The Bagon hops up onto his back and sits down on top of him, still chewing away on the box.] Let me up..!

Third Person Sample: Dorumon's gait was unsteady and tottering. He felt tall and stretched-out, like he was walking on stilts, and more than once he leaned too far forward and toppled to the ground with a yelp. He would lay there for a moment, dizzy and uncomfortable, until the little blue dragon jumped around and shook his shoulder impatiently; then he eased himself to his knees and slowly rose onto his new pair of legs.

He'd left the house he'd woken up in as soon as he could, and was now inching his way out of New Bark Town, trying to stay alert until he found somewhere safe and quiet to rest. He'd have time to figure out this strange new body then, and look at all the strange things he was carrying with him, and ask the spirited little dragon Digimon where he was. Dorumon was starting to lose hope on that last option, though - the Digimon didn't seem to be capable of speech, babbling out growls like a child. It was sort of like Tokomon, but more ferocious. Dorumon dared to stop shuffling along for a moment, swaying in place and trying to look down at it without losing his balance. It looked up at him, face scrunched up in a grouchy frown - or was that just how its face always was?

Step by laborious step, he left the town - started down the forested road - rounded a tree and collapsed against its base, drawing deep breaths. His body felt strange, like things inside it were churning, and Dorumon closed his eyes against the feeling of illness that welled in his chest. A thump made him open them again, to the sight of the small dragon pushing his bag over and rooting through it.

"What are you following me around for?" The dragon babbled something at him. Dorumon sighed. "Never mind." He dared to lean forward, reaching out unsteadily towards the dragon. It pulled out half the contents of his bag, looking satisfied, then ran up to grab Dorumon's hand. The Digimon-turned-boy made a little surprised noise, then sat still, watching the dragon hug his wrist like a toy. He watched, and waited, and listened, and tilted his head back to look at the sky, letting the strange world wash over him.