Re: [OOC/Signup] The Legendary Beast Pack
It's not too late to join, is it?
Name: Mandalus
Gender: ♂
Current Age: 57
Species: Banette
Battle Record: 4/7/89
Body Mods: An artificially created ghost-pokemon, Mandalus’ body was originally stitched together with the exact intention of being infused with cursed energies. He differs from a regular Banette in that the two horns on either side of his head are longer, and curved into a shape reminiscent of demonic ears, while the central horn has all but receded. His arms are disproportionate compared to the rest of his body, being much longer, and dragging across the ground when he walks, and instead of a malevolent grin, his mouth is sad and drooping.
Over the years, his body has decayed from battle, and as a result he is covered in a medley of technicolor patches reminiscent of scars, and his left eye has fallen out - leaving an empty socket. Sewing needles impale his arms, keeping him in a constant state of pain, which increases his power to cast crippling Curses against his enemies by sharing his torture with others through the power of Destiny Bond.
Ability Mods: The stitching that holds Mandalus’ patchwork form together is sewn from the rare pokemon held item Destiny Knot, which has the side-effect of infatuating his opponent should he become infatuated himself. His body itself is made from Reaper Cloth, fabric prized for its strong spiritual energy, which makes repairing his body a costly endeavour should he be ripped.
Personality: Though created as a pokemon for battle, Mandalus is an ineffective fighter, the circumstances of his unusual conception having made him instead a manifestation of shame and regret. A deformed and ugly creature, he is overcome by the remorse accumulated from hundreds of pokemon bred and killed in the underground world of the pits, and as such is true to his classification as the “marionette” pokemon in that he is very easily manipulated. Lacking confidence in his own worth in light of the fact that he was so carelessly thrown away by his former masters.
Resentful towards his own miserable existence, and towards the humans who bound him to his frail and unsightly body, he draws strength from the spirit world by perpetually teetering on the fringes of life and death. Inflicting pain upon himself and others through torture in order to purge them of the so-called “limitations” imprinted upon them by years of servitude to humanity. An emotional leech – he also aspires to repair his splintered psyche by feeding upon the feelings others, in the hopes that it will someday enable him to break free from the withered husk he calls a body. Allowing him to truly pass on to the next world, which he like to think can’t be any worse than the one he currently finds himself wandering.
Bio: Mandalus started out as but one of many Shuppet, owned by a wealthy set of pokemon breeders operating under the alias Atropos, infamous for the loyalty and ferociousness of their twisted creations. Their pokemon were said to be the cruellest and most relentless of all – and part of their secret to success was the harsh conditioning process that their produce were all put through.
Every night, the Atropos breeders would release their Shuppet hordes into the caged sleeping areas where they bred their stock. Allowing them to drain their fill of emotions from the future fighters; on the single condition that they left feelings of hatred and cruelty alone to grow and mature, as part of a complex procedure that created pseudo-shadow pokemon possessing only the capacity to hate and destroy. Sometimes their victims would fight back, but in Mandalus’ case, he carried out the abominable practice for 8 years of life. Having been bred and trained from birth for that exact purpose.
When it became clear that he was nearing the time for evolution, a body was created to house him out of special materials, the breeders hoping that the accumulated flux of negative emotions consumed by him over the years would make him a vicious fighter. The most long-lived of his siblings, most of whom had been taken before their time either as fodder for the pits or by sly dark pokemon fond of their emotions, he was forcefully inserted into his new body and anchored there. With needles driven into his arms and shackles fastened around his neck and ankles while his spirit saturated the material to prevent his escape.
Turning him out into the battlefield – Atropos found their ambitions to have been misplaced. Instead of being filled with bitterness, Mandalus had fed upon the feelings of shame felt by the pokemon bred for battle. Guilt for what they had become to survive, regret for a life that held no happiness beyond the thrill of battle, and resentment towards the world and others like them. Instead of attacking, the matched ended abruptly in a draw. Mandalus linking himself to his opponent using Destiny Bond and then driving needles through his own body until neither pokemon were able to battle.
From then on, frustrated that he was not the gladiator they had been aiming for, his creators attempted to use him as a way to control the rankings. Hoping to make some profit for their trouble, he was given the ironic stage name “Tiebreaker” and sent out against opponents whom they did not want to advance further up the rankings. To an extent, their plan worked, Mandalus practically guaranteeing a draw against whomever he faced, allowing his creators to intercept the winning streaks of pokemon bred specifically by their rivals. Ensuring greater chances that pokemon bearing their brand would be the ones to climb higher up the rankings, bringing prestige and prosperity to their organization.
Eventually however, the price of maintaining their puppet became more costly that he was worth. Inevitably, his strategy of self-martyrdom wore out his ragged body quickly, and the materials necessary to repair him were rare and pricey. Seeing no further purpose in keeping him in captivity, he was sentenced to be abandoned, hurled down one of the subject disposal shafts along with the rest of Atropos’ failed creations. Mangled and broken by the fall, he lay there dormant, eventually moved away along with the rest of the garbage and dumped somewhere far from his birthplace.
Relationships: None currently, but very much open to them.
Other: Nothing more yet.