Grant Abaroa

Player
Name: Maggie
E-mail: maggieegauntt@gmail.com
Preferred Contact: omixgirl10
Timezone: U.S. Eastern
Current Characters in Victory Road: none

Character
Name: Grant Abaroa
Series: Original character
Timeline: End of Book 1 (after gaining custody of Chip)

Original Character Background:

Canon history

Grant is from a modern fantasy setting, the world of which is similar in many ways to our own; what differences there are stem mostly from the existence and workings of magic. This world’s Earth is one of four planes of reality, acting as the central axis around which the other three - commonly referred to as Heaven, Hell, and the Other Place - balance. Each world is host to its own “color” of magic, with different colors impacting reality in different ways, and its own native creatures with the ability to harness that magic naturally: white magic used by angels, black by demons, green by fae, and Earth’s red magic by dragons.

Rather than using magic “naturally” through their own bodies, humans harness it through carefully-arranged rituals; while these rituals allow the mixing of different colors of magic in ways not typical in natural magic use, the knowledge of how to put them together was all too easily forgotten by humanity as a whole. Intending to maintain their own power by limiting that of others, a few ancient vampires manipulated the rest of the world to abandon and forget magic; over time, the last vestiges of magic came to be so rarely encountered by humans and so poorly understood as to be largely written off as legends and old wives’ tales. It was only as non-magical technology advanced, and information spread faster, that the vampires finally accepted that they couldn’t keep magic a secret forever, and chose to re-introduce it in a controlled way, maintaining their own power and giving the world time to adjust.

That adjustment, on top of its impact on science and Earth’s understanding of the nature of reality, brought about an adjacent revolution with regards to the types of people that the world knew to exist. Inevitably, controversy and fear and doubt rose around the sentient undead, the magically constructed, and those touched by incurable curses or hybridized with beings from other planes.

Character history

Grant Abaroa was born to a mother well aware that she carried the genes for lycanthropy; though she showed no symptoms herself, her own mother was a werewolf, and the curse could easily be carried through a bloodline without its symptoms manifesting in every carrier.

However, Grant didn’t get the benefits of being raised by someone familiar with lycanthropy for long, as his mother passed away in an accident when he was ten. As his father had left their lives not long after his birth, and his mother’s family wasn’t equipped to take in another child, Grant was placed in the foster system. Unfortunately, as it turned out, people willing to take in a child with lycanthropy weren’t necessarily ready to take proper care of one. Grant's high energy and emotional outbursts, which only got worse around his monthly transformations, were often received poorly and handled worse by his foster parents.

Around that time, as Grant struggled to manage his symptoms with very little in the way of actual support, an organization emerged claiming to be making groundbreaking strides in “curing” lycanthropy - which was theoretically impossible, thanks to its being woven into one’s genetics. His foster parents, hoping for an easy answer to his condition, quickly enrolled him in their latest study - and Grant, already convinced that anything would be better than remaining a werewolf, gave little resistance.

The study itself quickly proved to be little more than glorified abuse, as its participants were coerced into undergoing frequently harmful procedures meant to force the magic out of their bodies, with the “excision” of the curse clearly considered more important than the subjects’ physical or mental wellbeing. Despite its harm and inefficacy, most of the subjects were either desperate, had little recourse but to stay enrolled, or both; it wasn’t until Grant and many other werewolves had been subjected to the so-called study’s dehumanizing and painful “treatments” for almost three years that the organization was exposed as fraudulent and dissolved.

In light of the revelation that such a large and public organization had been outright abusing those with lycanthropy under the guise of curing the incurable, a few well-executed news articles and a push for justice led to a swell in awareness for the rights of permanently cursed individuals in general, and werewolves in particular. As Grant’s foster parents could not reasonably have been unaware of what was being done to him, he was removed from their custody and placed in a different home.

By this time, Grant had already internalized a deep discomfort with his condition, and an approach to “handling” his behavioral symptoms that was rooted primarily in suppressing any impulses that could come across as too aggressive or “unstable” - impulses that could range from actually lycanthropy-rooted outbursts to standard teenage mood swings to simply standing up for himself, and none of his future foster placements did much to discourage that behavior.

In their relative stability, however, Grant took an interest in magic, seeking to at least manage that distaste for himself and his state of being with a better understanding of the condition that had impacted so much of his life. He ended up taking a genuine interest in the subject, and found its complexity more comforting than he expected; as he reached adulthood, he managed to push through community college and, in his late twenties, he opened a small store, selling books and supplies for the ritual magic he’d grown so intrigued by.

After a few years, despite the fact that Grant refused to sell weapons and dealt only in legal materials, his store ended up drawing in some suspicious regulars. Some, such as a vampire named Sophie Welman, he got along reasonably well with, even if the things she pawned off to him and some of the combinations of supplies she bought made him think he would rather not know what her mysterious, apparently dangerous “government work” entailed.

Her boyfriend, Foster, was another story. From the first time he stopped by the shop, he was basically a field of red flags; however, upon finding out that Foster was dying, and his theoretically impossible plan to perform necromancy on himself was actually probably his best chance of extending his own existence, Grant couldn’t bring himself to turn him away - something Foster seemed very aware of.

Around that same time, however, Grant ran into a significant distraction in the form of a child hiding in the alley beside his shop. It soon became clear that the child, Chip, must have been a runaway; however, between the mounting evidence that they had been abused and his own experiences with the foster system, Grant found himself reluctant to take the risk of having social services place them in a home. Instead, Grant slowly earned Chip’s trust and took them in himself for the time being - just until, he assured himself, he could find a way to be sure he was sending them somewhere safe.

However, Grant found himself becoming more and more attached to Chip - and, upon discovering that they were part demon, and had already been abused for their heritage by their mother and step-father, realized that finding another home for them where they wouldn’t be mistreated would be easier said than done. As he arranged with the authorities to keep looking after them for the time being, Grant was already considering the possibility of adopting Chip himself.

With the new risk of losing Chip if he were to run into legal trouble hanging over his head, particularly as his lycanthropy made him a harder sell as an adoptive parent to begin with, Grant began making moves to pull back on his involvement with his shadier clients. Though he was still reluctant to cut off his dealings with Sophie and Foster entirely, he did encourage them to branch out their sources a bit, trying to distance himself a little at a time from their likely illegal activities. Unfortunately, that hesitation turned out to mean much more to Foster than Grant had anticipated.

Though Grant never knew the full extent of why, beyond that Foster seemed to have swung around to considering Grant a threat to his plans, the aspiring necromancer broke into his shop late one night and attacked him, succeeding in seriously injuring his shoulder and taking an eye out. However, before he could do anything fatal, Chip was drawn into the storeroom by the commotion; upon seeing Foster, who they knew only as a strange and somewhat ominous customer that they never really trusted, obviously trying to murder their adoptive father, Chip attacked Foster in turn. It was only thanks to Sophie’s coincidental arrival and intervention that nobody actually died in the incident, though Grant and Foster were both left in pretty miserable shape - and Chip, terrified that their “demonic” burst of violence would turn Grant against them, slipped out the back door in the commotion.

As Grant was in no shape to find Chip, Sophie tracked them down and convinced them to go back and talk to him. Finally, after months of skirting around the subject in one way or another, Chip’s fear that Grant would decide a demon hybrid was more trouble than he wanted to deal with became clear; horrified, Grant assured them that he had no intention of kicking them out, and finally told them about his plans to adopt them.

After the break-in, Grant had little interest in pursuing legal action against Foster, as that would bring far too much risk of drawing attention to why Foster knew him and why he would attack him to begin with - besides which, even after the attack, Grant could only think of Foster as a strange and troubled man who would benefit far more from whatever help Sophie could get him than from being arrested. However, the aftermath still slowed down the process of pursuing adoption; it was only once Grant had recovered physically and the premises had been investigated for safety (including an improved security system, just to prevent any repeat incidents) that they could finally proceed.

Fortunately, while proving that Grant was a better guardian for them than their mother and step-father was still a roadblock, overcoming the actual obstacle turned out to be fairly straightforward. Chip’s own testimony, the evidence collected by the government officials involved, and Chip’s mother’s apparent lack of investment in keeping them at all amounted to 'ward of the state' at best. Compared to all that, a recent break-in and chronic lycanthropy seemed like relatively small points against Grant. And so, after months of paperwork and investigation, Grant was declared Chip’s legal guardian.


Personality: Grant comes off as a reserved, even withdrawn guy; he’s kind and gentle to those around him, but rarely gets involved with them to any greater extent than is necessary. He keeps his personal life and involvement to a very limited scope, both in terms of how involved he gets with those around him and how vulnerable he makes himself to them in turn, and it often takes him by surprise when outside factors come to impact him anyway.

By and large, frankly, he’s somewhat intimidated by other people - both in terms of what they could do to him, and how he might be perceived when interacting with them. His lifetime of effort to avoid the image of aggression and instability associated with werewolves has left him something of a doormat; he will frequently stamp down his own discomfort rather than stand up against another person, particularly if he can justify to himself that he “should” go along with what they want, and, in much the same vein, can be potentially too forgiving for his own good.

The care he shows others, however, is genuine, if sometimes maladaptive. If he gets the impression that someone truly needs help, and that he’s in a position to provide that help, he’s far more likely to take potentially risky action than he tends to be when acting on his own behalf - especially if the someone in question is a child. If he catches himself getting upset, however, Grant will usually react to his own distress by putting up walls, preferring to come off as standoffish or cold rather than letting himself get worked up. Fortunately, he’s patient enough not to have to worry about that often, unless he’s pushed pretty hard - or someone happens to run up on a sensitive topic.



Pokémon Information
Affiliation: Breeder!
Starter: Swinub
Password: Rules password: Atomic
FAQ password: Fireball

Samples
RP Sample: TDM threads

Victory Road Sample:

[The live video starts with a bit of fumbling as someone still not-quite-familiar with the Gear gets it situated, and the camera finally steadies on Grant’s apologetically-smiling face and the Swinub snuffling at him for attention.] Hey, all; I had a quick question for anyone who actually knows how to use this, uh… Poke-Gear? Right.

Anyway, if you’re seeing this I guess I figured out the live video thing. My kid’s getting pretty into battling, and I want to film some of their battles, but I’d rather save and post it than just stream it live… I mean, it’s not like I don’t have confidence in them, they’re picking all this up really fast. [He laughs under his breath, brief but a little less reserved, his expression brightening as he speaks.] Probably helps that they were so into something like it back home, and they’re a smart kid anyway. It’s kind of amazing, I don’t know how they can get the hang of it all so quickly.

[Wait he’s getting off-topic, gushing about how Chip is basically the best can wait.] But, right-- point is, I’ve never been great with technology and stuff, so! Any advice on, uh… recording, saving, and posting videos with this thing would be great.

[There’s an impatient call from off-camera, a child’s voice, and Grant calls over in reply:] Coming, Chip, just a minute!

[Back to the Gear:] Right, okay, I’ve got to go for now, turns out - but I’ll check back later! Thanks in advance.