Damian Rook

NAME — Damian Rook, Luca Fenner
AGE — 24 years
GENDER — Male
SEXUALITY — Heterosexual
TRAINER CLASSES — Brutalist, Scrapper, Breeder
AFFILIATION — Unaffiliated (Anti-Crux)
OCCUPATION — Would-be breeder, have-to-be traveler


HEIGHT — 5'11" (180cm)
WEIGHT — 152lbs. (69kg)
HAIR COLOR — Dirty blonde
EYE COLOR — Hazel-gold
SKIN COLOR — Tanned Caucasian
ABNORMALITIES — N/A

While somewhat tall, Damian lacks the imposing presence of his father due to his lack of weight. Instead, he is frequently described as skulking or sneaking, terms that have actually become more accurate over the years. With dirty blonde hair, muddy hazel eyes, and questionably aged clothes, just looking at him makes one long for a shower. Blessed with an expressive face, Damian further finds it easy to keep strangers or would-be assailants at bay; he's well-practiced in narrowing his eyes and curling his lip to silently invite others in the opposite direction.

Purposely having very few outfits to choose from, Damian is most often seen wearing dirty black pants, a greasy white long-sleeve tee, and a military green parka with one of those fancy fur-lined hoods. His boots are scuffed and his short hair hasn't seen a comb in years. Despite the homeless look, however, Damian knows how to accessorize: he sports small black earrings in both earlobes, a black band on his left wrist, and a band-aid on his nose.


CALM . calculating
Born with an affinity for Pokemon and raised in a chaotic household, Damian learned quickly that panic only makes things worse. Not to say that he is immune to the feeling, but his experience in keeping his emotions in check is one of the hallmarks of his breeder forte. His patience and persistence have given him a track record of successful human-Pokemon relationships.

Unfortunately, nowadays this trait manifests as something dark. Pensive, quiet Damian could be plotting your demise this very moment. His eyes dart from corner to corner to give him the clearest view of the situation. He gives pointed looks to his Pokemon, makes carefully calculated movements. Suddenly, he strikes - bullseye.

PLAYFUL . sly
Damian firmly believes in the necessity of fun. As a child, he remembers vividly the times he hid himself away and came up with quiet little games as a distraction. In the darkest of times, a smile can be the brightest light. He aims to keep that light alive in the Pokemon he breeds and trains, encouraging whimsical behavior throughout their time together. It's been a while since Damian heard himself laugh fully, but he's optimistic that the day will come.

But for now, his antics appear devious, malicious. Egging his Pokemon on to prank strangers just encourages reckless behavior. They'll have no respect for other humans, and no self-control when they're really dangerous. His smile is wide and toothy, warping his face into something animal-like. They seem like harmless games now, but what happens when you're the target?

COMPASSIONATE . suppressed
Truthfully though, Damian holds a warm place in his heart for all living things. He still feels wonder when interacting with baby Pokemon, and he genuinely feels empathy for his fellow humans. But there are things in the world which cannot be ignored and cannot be fixed, certainly not by him. For now, it is imperative that he watches his back; that he talks to very few, and trusts even fewer; that he just keeps moving.

Some day, he'll be able to share his heart with any person, any Pokemon that comes up to him. He'll be able to experience the great roller coaster of conscious interaction between living things - without worrying about the consequences of saying his real name. He'll be able to start up his own breeding business where things are done right. Where everyone feels better.

Some day.


With a father in Team Crux and a mother that craved the simple life, Damian was doomed from the start.

Some time before he was born, Weston Rook was no more than a lowly agent in Team Crux. Perhaps blind with love, he promised his sweetheart Leia Malova that he was only in it for a quick financial boost. Over time, she began to see through his (self-)deception, but that was after there were two children in the picture.

At first, their arguments were tame and generally quite brief. After their first son, things got a little more heated, but Maximilian could walk in the room like a bucket of cold water. Unfortunately, as little Max got older, he decided his parents were really just a nuisance and avoided them altogether. This distance at such a young age encouraged his parents to play nice for a while, and thus Damian was born.

Wes and Leia's disagreements were the background music to Damian's formative years. He may have been bothered by it at first, but there's no memory. Instead, he remembers the frigid, silent scheming. They would smile to each other's faces, perhaps even give off some genuine warmth when alone with the kids, but when left alone? They planned such petty and yet biting things to do each other. Meals were had minutes before one parent got home. Gifts were given - in the worst taste. As the children got older, they learned to keep a distance from their parents lest they be dragged into the arguments.

Damian spent most of his time interacting with the wild Pokemon around their cabin. He found he had a knack for it between his warm demeanor and patience. Max took a passing interest in these activities, but would quickly chalk it up as boring and go back to wailing on the local flora with the biggest stick he could swing. Damian's little heart went out to the Pokemon that would sometimes scatter from this violence, but he figured it best to keep his objections inside. Or, at best, whispered to his new friend Salandit.

Puberty hit around the same time Wes got a promotion. His movement up the ladder of Team Crux ignited a powerful new indignation within Leia, and she began threatening her husband much more tangibly. Wes, perfectly comfortable in how their relationship had slowly come to this boil, thought nothing of it. But his new rank in the team meant the expectations rose as well. If Leia wasn't on the same page, she needed to be out of the picture.

And so, Leia disappeared.

Max, having grown increasingly violent and insensitive, was confident that Wes had killed her. Damian refused to acknowledge this possibility, figuring she had just finally had enough and left. For all his faults, Wes cared about his sons, so whenever his youngest asked why they weren't out looking for Mom, he would sigh and say there's no point. Both boys took this as validation to their inner reasoning.

The children aged into young adults, Max fitting nicely into his role as the oldest son of a gang member and Damian receding further into himself. One day, Damian came home to find his father and Max celebrating. The oldest son of a gang member was now also part of that gang. And so they put on the pressure for Damian to officially join as well.

At first, Damian was confident he could be the unaffiliated family member that his mother couldn't. He shared his troubles with Salandit almost daily, though Damian was never certain she actually understood. Their bond grew, but the pressure mounted, and he found himself straying further and further into the woods around their house. Accepting that he wanted to get away from them, but not wanting to disappear like his mother, he confronted them.

And the looks in their eyes.

As Damian walked out of the house for the last time, the memory of his brother and father standing over him, eyes narrowed, arms crossed, burned into his brain. A tiny voice whispered something in the back of his mind, but he thought about the Pokemon in his backyard. A tiny voice urged him to go faster, to get out there, but he kept his stride measured. A tiny voice tried to scream for the other person in his family that was so much like him, but he pictured her face as she baked his birthday cake a long time ago.

A small familiar shadow skittered up to his side. Salandit, the only one he'd ever seen and perhaps the one he'd spent the most time with, looked up at him pointedly. He felt his eyes welling up.

He heard a tiny voice. They want to kill me.

Carefully, meticulously, he combed over everything he had ever heard his father and brother say about work.

Nowadays, his actions are fueled almost exclusively by the need to evade his remaining family. His training tactics have evolved into something almost savage as he pushes Pokemon to their limits. Survival is the name of the game, and in his years on the run, he's continuously found it to be one of the best motivators.

He has adopted the alias Luca Fenner and maintains a cold, dangerous personality wherever he goes.




NAME — Salandit. Regularly referred to as 'bud.'
LEVEL — 5
SPECIES — Salandit
TYPE — Poison/Fire
EGG GROUP — Monster/Dragon
ABILITY — Corrosion
HELD ITEM — N/A
GENDER — Female
HEIGHT — 2'4" (40.5cm)
WEIGHT — 11.2lbs. (5kg)
MOVE LIST — Scratch, Poison Gas, Ember, Fake Out
PERSONALITY — Salandit actually runs the show for Damian. She knows all the buttons to press and all the faces to make to get a song and dance out of her partner. Spoiled rotten and proud of it, Damian's encouragement to be playful manifests itself as a daily goal for Salandit: make her partner do something that brings a blush to his cheeks.

That aside, Salandit has a strong moral compass of her own. There's a serious side of her which comes out in defense of Damian; she's brimming with loyalty and a fierce protectiveness that has gotten Damian both in and out of trouble in the past. She knows when playtime is over, and she knows when a situation calls for something a little darker than Damian would dare consider.

She sees their partnership as a 50-50 gig where each of them covers for the other's weaknesses. To that end, she's not afraid to lean on his judgment or ingenuity, but she's always got an eye out for his blind spot.

PLAYED BY JAIROU