Heroism Isn't A Thing You Are

〈 PLAYER INFO 〉
NAME: Troy
AGE: 25
JOURNAL: None
IM / EMAIL: troythetrekkie@gmail
PLURK: ACloudOfSnakes
RETURNING: Yes!

〈 CHARACTER INFO 〉
CHARACTER NAME: Margaret (Player Characters have no default names in her canon and she is one)
CHARACTER AGE:  Implied to be in her late teens; it is never clearly stated
SERIES: Pokemon Mystery Dungeron: Red And Blue Rescue Team
CHRONOLOGY: Post Rayquaza battle/leaving the Team
CLASS: The Leader of Team Crystal/Savior Of The World
HOUSING: 

BACKGROUND: Before the game began, Margaret was human. At some point, the spirits that guard the Pokemon world came to her in a dream and told her they were in need of a hero. She was confused as to how that she could be that, because she didn't see herself as heroic. After some discussion, she asked they take away her memory, so that she could fully immerse herself in the world of Pokemon - as in, the half of the planet solely inhabited by Pokemon, with no humans present. In order to make sure her wish was granted, she was turned into a Pokemon herself, and dropped off on a grassy knoll where a passerby found her.

Only able to remember her name and that she was sure she was human, she surprised Sheldon, the Squirtle passerby that found her, by volunteering to help a Butterfree they met whose son had fallen into a fissure in the earth (the 'dungeons' of the game's title are basically various cave structures). There, she was informed by Sheldon on the basics of the world. Something had caused a huge upswing in natural disasters lately, driven some Pokemon mad, made others attack anyone who approached them at random, and there weren't enough rescue teams anymore to handle the number of Pokemon in need of help. After helping get Butterfree's son back, Margaret and Sheldon decided to form a rescue team, not because they were particularly strong, but because people needed their help. Sheldon found a small one room house for Margaret to stay in, which was when Margaret first realized how sophisticated Pokemon out in this region had become. Shops, buildings, currency, trade of goods, mail - Pokemon on the opposite side of the globe from humans had made a whole civilization, one she slowly became more of a part of as she and Sheldon continued to do their work answers distress calls and letters pleading for someone, anyone, to help.

Over the course of the first month of helping Pokemon, two significant things happened. First, Alakazam, leader of the best rescue team in the business, Team ACT, recognized on sight that Margaret was not a Pokemon, though he kept this to himself at first. Secondly, despite being unevolved Pokemon with no tactical or type advantages to help them, Margaret and Sheldon went and fought Zapdos, a lightning-wielding Pokemon often referred to as a 'total monster' even by other, far more accomplished rescue teams. To the shock of everyone, they won, but what surprised most people was that they made the attempt at all. Zapdos had kidnapped Shiftry, a Pokemon who had no respect for Margaret's team and also had extorted money from those they rescued in the past. That Margaret's first reaction was to pack a bag to go get him when he was taken was enough to prompt Alakazam to talk to Margaret and Sheldon about her human-in-a-Pokemon-body status. Margaret still had no memories of her life as a human, and, seeing she wanted answers, Alakazam directed her to go to a Pokemon named Xatu for answers, as Xatu's psychic abilities were the greatest known to any on the continent.

This turned out to be a very bad decision. Along the way during the first month, Margaret and Sheldon had defeated a rescue team turned villains. One of those three, Gengar, was still nursing a grudge, and so followed Margaret and Sheldon all the way to the peak of the mountain where Xatu lived to eavesdrop on the conversation. Xatu said that the fate of the world, the natural disasters and Margaret becoming a Pokemon were interconnected. He also told the story of Ninetales, a Pokemon who could turn wicked humans into Pokemon should its' tail be pulled, which Xatu thought was a possible cause of Margaret's transformation. While she and Sheldon had no idea what this meant, Gengar went to the town square where rescue teams and common Pokemon doing their errands gathered and spread the story of a human who had become a Pokemon causing the natural disasters, as they had unbalanced the world. He also identified this human-turned-Pokemon as having been cursed by Ninetails, so when Margaret walked into the square, he asked her if she'd been turned by Ninetails. She couldn't answer one way or the other, and that was when Gengar turned to the gathered townsfolk and asked, 'If her being a Pokemon unbalances the world, then getting rid of her would restore the balance, right?'

Well, people who had been living with earthquakes, flash floods, droughts and madness were eager for a scapegoat, so the town more or less turned into a mob. Alakazam and his team temporarily covered for Margaret and Sheldon, on the condition they run far away and find the actual cause of the disasters and stop it. Packing some supplies, Margaret and Sheldon went on the run, crossing the entire continent, pursued by angry rescue teams who thought of them as villains now, running through a maze-like cave that led through the Lapis Mountains, climbing the Fiery Path to cross through an active volcano, and then having to fight Moltres, a spirit-guardian of fire who assumed their presence was what was disturbing the volcano. After fighting him off and pledging to find the cause of all this, they hadn't lost all their pursuers, so they fled up north, to Mount Freeze, where Articuno, the spirit-guardian of ice, made the same assumption Moltres did. This time, after defeating Articuno, a Pokemon called Absol with the ability to sense disasters and danger came forth and said she didn't sense that Margaret or Sheldon were the cause, but she could sense something up further north that might be it. The three trudged their way through the snow up to The Place Without A Name (no really, that's what it's called in the game files), where they were ambushed by Alakazam's team, who had become convinced of Gengar's lies, too. This is when Ninetails herself appeared, disrupting the fight, chewing out Alakazam's team and clarifying for Margaret that no, she was not the human that pulled on Ninetails' tails - that human had been male, it was years ago, and it was unrelated to the natural disasters.

Finally able to return home with their names cleared, Margaret and Sheldon resumed their rescue team work with, if anything, better reputations and higher esteem than before. They weren't just another rescue team anymore, they had crossed through jagged crystal fields and through volcanoes and to the highest peak of the northernmost mountain and fought two demi-gods. They had proven themselves to be tougher than they looked, so while Gengar's reputation was such he couldn't enter the town anymore, Margaret and Sheldon found themselves managing an increasingly large team as Pokemon joined and searching new dungeons for clues to what could have caused the disasters. When clues and Ninetails' cryptic remarks, put together, made it clear the spirit-Pokemon of the earth, Groudon, was responsible, Margaret and Sheldon wanted to go - but Alakazam and his team, feeling guilty for having chased them so far out, took the job instead. When they failed to return, a second rescue team was sent in to go save them. That team returned beaten and passed out in the square, at which point Gengar popped up to try to convince everyone things were hopeless. Margaret grabbed her bag and Sheldon announced to the crowd that they were going to go get Team ACT back and defeat Groudon, even if it seemed hopeless, even if nobody else would. This restored morale amongst the people, elevating Margaret and Sheldon's status as local legends a bit further, and then they went deep, deep under the ground to go look for Groudon and Alakazam's team.

Nearly forty stories under the surface of the world, they found Groudon, a victim to the madness that had gripped so many other Pokemon. Sheldon and Margaret were able to knock it unconscious, since there wasn't going to be any reasoning with it, and then they found Alakazam's team, who they took back to the surface. Strangely, though, even without Groudon loose underground, earthquakes continued. It was Xatu who put it together: the tremors were coming from up above, from a huge asteroid that was coming towards Earth. The only way to keep it from colliding and ending the world would be to go up into the sky and ask Rayquaza, the guardian deity of the sky, to destroy it. At this point, for once Margaret and Sheldon didn't have to argue their right to go. They were allowed to do so after one last night to rest beforehand. During the night, the apparition of Gardevoir, the same Pokemon who the player had seen in dreams every time Ninetails was mentioned, appeared to Margaret and told her that her time as a Pokemon was coming to an end. When Margaret woke up, she realized she didn't know if that meant she would be changed back or die, but she didn't want to hurt Sheldon, so she didn't say anything to him about it. Xatu and Alakazam had to work together to teleport them up to the Sky Tower, a place made of clouds where Rayquaza lived, and there was no way they'd have enough power to teleport them back. Knowing this was their final rescue team mission, the two ascended the Tower, full of ghost Pokemon and Pokemon long thought to be extinct, to where Rayquaza was. After the mandatory battle, they got him to look up, and he informed them that while he could unleash an attack called Hyper Beam and blow up the asteroid, it would probably kill them. Margaret put herself in front of Sheldon and told Rayqyaza to do it.

And then everything went painfully white before it went blessedly black.

PERSONALITY: Margaret is naive; this is defined by the spirits at the start of the game as her defining trait. However, it's arguable in what sense they mean this. While trusting random Pokemon spirits and randomly accompanying Sheldon to rescue Butterfree's child at the start of the game are impulsive actions, most of Margaret's impulsive actions are selfless ones, which may be why in the original Japanese she was defined as 'innocent'. She has an open heart, willing to trust Sheldon, willing to take on missions even she's not sure she can handle because 'someone has to', and makes friends very easily. Her default attitude is a cheery, lighthearted one. She jokes with Sheldon, she is content playing with Butterfree's children, she never shows bias against any particular species. Typically, she is smiling or laughing, and while she obviously is afraid of legendary Pokemon like Zapdos, Moltres and Articuno, she will be the first Pokemon to charge in to give them a piece of her mind. While she doesn't go looking for fights, she will stand up to people who are doing the wrong thing and she will defend herself where most Pokemon would run.

Her partnership with Sheldon is where her personality shines through in both the contrasts and complementary aspects. Like him, she is very convinced life should be fair and that some things are always wrong. Unlike him, she is very forgiving, to the point of saving Shiftry being her idea, and to the point where she doesn't pick a fight with Gengar even though he set a mob on her. She just isn't the sort of person who holds grudges. She can get angry, but she will still save someone who wronged her, and when she fought against Alakazam's team at The Place Without A Name, she yelled for Sheldon to run, same as how, when Rayquaza unleashed the Hyper Beam at the asteroid, she threw herself in front of him. Margaret is an extremely selfless person, to the point it's a major character flaw. Not only does she work herself too hard on the rescue team at points, but the idea she might have been the selfish human who Ninetails cursed gives her nightmares and makes her on edge. Hurting someone is something she actively fears. All she wants is for everything to be okay - a naive, innocent wish that in and of its' nature can never really be granted. We never see the conversation where she negotiated for her memory to be erased by the spirits, but it's more than plausible she did it to escape some kind of guilt.

Even though she doesn't see herself as heroic, Margaret is extremely determined. She crossed a continent on foot out of sheer willpower, forcing herself to keep going, not for herself, but to clear Sheldon's name in addition to hers, so she didn't ruin his life. She is a Normal type, meaning she has no type advantages over anyone in a fight. She just keeps going and going; even if she's knocked out, she wakes up, gets back up and tries the same fight again. By the time Groudon enters the picture, her resolve has become such that it's not a question of if she'll go, but who's coming with her. Public opinion of her species may be that they aren't strong or smart or particularly good at anything, but she doesn't care. She has to be able to live with herself and that means she has to try to help people, over and over again if necessary. And she loves her friends dearly, more than she ever tells them. As much as she may seem almost clueless in her certainty she can face things, her thoughts are always serious when it comes to Sheldon, and in what she thinks might be their last moment together, she throws herself in front of him not because she has issues with recognizing her worth, but because she loves her friend more than herself.

POWER: Pokemon biology, meaning, here, both the standard Eevee appearance and Pokemon moves. All Pokemon know four attacks, though in her case she woke up knowing three and had to slowly learn more. A basic Pokemon attack I'm not sure even counts as a power is Tackle. It's, well, a tackle by a small fox-like creature. There's nothing otherworldly or Pokemon-universe only about this particular move. She knows Dig, which allows her to dig her way underground and then burst out of the ground at an enemy, though that apparently takes up a lot of energy because it cannot be used very often. Iron Tail is... it's a Pokemon thing, you have to suspend logic for a moment. Somehow, her tail glows and becomes as hard as iron in order to strike someone. All of these attacks are close-range attacks; the only ranged move an Eevee can learn is Swift, which is a move wherein a bundle of glowing, star-shaped bolts of energy are summoned and launch at someone. Swift has good long-range accuracy, can cut corners and is made less useful mainly by the fact that she, as an Eevee, doesn't have the Special Attack stat to make it really hurt. At best it knocks someone or something over; this is why working with a partner was so vital to her on the rescue team. That said, spamming Swift is possible, if ill-advised, as Swift is at its' most accurate when she is stationary, leaving her open to attacks from behind. Her other attacks, while close-range only, allow for more mobility in a fight. Remember, Margaret has never been an almighty powerful fighting machine. Her key factors in winning are her partner and her lack of giving up; physically, she is not a powerhouse.

〈 CHARACTER SAMPLES 〉
COMMUNITY POST (VOICE) SAMPLE:

[How did Margaret turn on the camera? How does she ever? At least this time it's on the table and she's sitting atop a chair so her gaze is level with the camera as she smiles, tail wagging a little.] Good morning everyone! I was thinking, the imPort response teams here seem a little big. They're all big groups and organizations, which is good for charity, but not great for quick responses. I think we could use a Rescue Team system here like back home. We could help a lot of people that way, especially on short notice, and it would give us all a chance to try working together in pairs and make more friends with other imPorts that way. I just haven't figured out how to set things up yet, since we're in different cities and communication is different... but I'd really like to hear from all of you on what you think. We can call it Team imPort! [She raises one paw in a cheering motion, grinning, before jumping up to turn the camera off.]

LOGS POST (PROSE) SAMPLE:

It's a bright new day, and Margaret has trotted out to a field that's probably used for baseball at other times. It has good, sturdy dirt, which she stomps at with her paws. While she was able to dig through rocks once in Lapis Cave, those were loose gravel rocks. She's not sure how hard a surface has to be before she can't dig through it anymore, but if there's a cave-in or a rockslide here, she wants to be able to help. Nodding to herself, she starts to dig in earnest at it. As usual, the first few feet are hard but manageable. Three feet in, her paws feel numb, but she grits her teeth and keeps digging down. She'll dig the return tunnel to the surface when she's got something to show for her efforts. She winces, whimpers and stops a couple of times, then digs in anew, picturing Butterfree's child in her mind. People here have children, too. They would be scared for their kids in that sort of situation, too. She hit hard rock five feet down and clawed at it, frustrated. What if there was a child on the other side of that rock? Who would help? Sheldon wasn't by her side to help anymore. Repeatedly, her small claws clacked against the rock, again and again, until a human came to investigate, just in time for her to squeal in triumph.

"Look!" she beamed up at the human, happily. "Six feet down! A new record! And tomorrow, I'm gonna beat that, too!"

FINAL NOTES: Her canonical age was given by two game developers, both of whom have equal clout but contradict each other. She is somewhere between 15 and 19. I have chosen the diplomatic solution of 'she doesn't remember' in case this is retconned when the games are remade in the future.