ELITE FOUR, grimsley delacour

[GRIMSLEY DELACOUR]

GRIMSLEY

ALIAS GRIM GENDER MALE AGE THIRTY-ONE DATE OF BIRTH SEPTEMBER 30th ETHNICITY UNOVAN SEXUALITY HETEROSEXUAL CLASS ELITE FOUR ALIGNMENT LEAGUE

PERSONALITY POSITIVE - gentlemanly This is probably the first quality of Grimsley’s that you will discover. He knows how to flatter both men and women, his manners are unparalleled, he's polite to the very end, and his socialite heritage means he knows the perfect way to handle almost any event or meeting. He’s also impeccably dressed and always well presented; a side effect of an upper-class childhood. The classic gentleman through and through. - observant After years of watching subtle gestures and facial expressions in card games and the like, Grimsley has developed an impressive eye for detail. Be that spotting a new haircut or reading an emotion in a twitch of the fingers, very little gets past him without him noticing. - adaptable Grimsley’s spent his whole life adapting. Ignoring his inconsistent childhood and looking only at his time alone, Grimsley has yo-yoed between too much money and too little money, and has always managed to deal with what was thrown at him. It’s a deep set ability, and allows him to blend with members from any class of society, as well as deal with nearly any position he’s put in. - chivalrous Gracious in battle be it victory or loss, extremely loyal to those close to him, courteous to everyone be them friend or foe, valuing honour and courage over all else; Grimsley could blend in well with the knights of old. Not the Knights of new though, if you catch my draft. - calculating Another thing that comes with the years of gambling practice is Grimsley’s ability to weigh up situations and risks, and trust me when I say it’s a dangerous weapon to have in battles. He can edit his strategies at each new development and he’s passed his skills onto his Pokémon too. But this is applicable in life too: he knows how to play a conversation to get the outcome he wants; hell, half the time he can play a person to get the outcome he wants. He can be quite clever with it sometimes. NEGATIVE - gambling problem ”Well don’t say it like that, it’s not a ‘problem’. It’s only a ‘problem’ if you’re losing more than you’re winning. Which I’m not.” If you speak to Grimsley about this he will deny it to the ends of the Earth, but there’s not really another way of looking at it. He may not be in the casino every day like his father, but he nearly always has a pack of cards and a pair of dice on him, and will take any opportunity to make a bet on something. - dramatic Although it may be seen as a good thing within the Elite 4, Grimsley’s penchant for the dramatic can be quite annoying in more serious situations. In battle it’s a welcome addition and adds flair to the already theatrical event of challenging the league, but when it’s applied to every day conversations it can get very tiring very quickly. - children He’s terrible with children. They’re small, fast, dangerous, and stupid, and that’s not a good combination. If he’s not trying desperately to avoid standing on them as they run through his legs, or leaning his expensive suits away from their sticky fingers, he’s struggling to string two words together in an attempt at ‘conversation’ with them. He’s not good with children. - socialite prejudices Grimsley was raised by an upper-class family with upper-class morals and an upper-class way of life. You can probably see where this is going. If you’re not “properly educated”, if you don’t appreciate “the arts”, if you don’t enunciate everything properly, he will probably look down on you. He really won’t do it on purpose, and he doesn’t think he’s being judgemental, but the patronising smile, the raised eyebrows, the general holier-than-thou attitude are rather hard to miss. - ‘handling’ friends Emotional outbursts and the like from his friends: Grimsley doesn’t really know how to handle them. If it’s an enemy or even an acquaintance he’ll act quite normally, but if it’s someone he cares about… he just wants to make them feel better but doesn’t know how to, and ends up making awkward comments that don’t really help at all. LIKES - risks If Grimsley can spice something up by adding an element of risk to it, he will do. It’s often through a bet of some kind but he can be quite inventive with ways of adding danger to daily occurrences. Don’t get me wrong though, he’s not careless about it. He won’t take the risk when the odds are stacked against him, but if he has the advantage or even if it’s too close to call, he’s likely to be attracted to the edge of danger a little risk can add. - games Quite a related topic, but this extends to a general desire for fun. He can be serious when the situation calls for it, but in general he’s happy being a little more immature. After all, you can easily change most situations into a game, even if only one side knows they’re playing. - dark-types Wow, really? So you might have guessed this one, but yeah, Grimsley likes dark-type Pokémon over all others. It’s something about their determination and their stealth and cunning, even just their preference for offensive tactics over defensive; everything about them just syncs so well with Grimsley. DISLIKES - boredom Grimsley can’t stand being bored, he’s like a child in his need to be entertained. If he’s alone in a room with nothing to do you can be sure he’ll be messing with a pack of cards (which he always keeps on his person for just this eventuality), training his Pokémon or just complaining loudly about the fact he’s alone in a room with nothing to do. - fighting-types This isn’t just because dark-types are weak to them (although that doesn’t help) or bug and fairy would be on this list too. No, this is more to do with the Pokémon behind the type. He dislikes the obsessive physical training, the reliance on pure force over strategy; plus, they’re just generally boring. Oh, and don’t worry, Marshal knows. - the Knights Self-explanatory, really. They’re a bunch of terrorists plunging the world into fear, using death and carnage to gain power. What he dislikes more than the group itself though, is his inability to respond. Even the combined force of the Leagues isn’t strong enough (or willing enough) to try and stop them, so what can he do on his own? Nothing. Just sit back and watch the world burn…

HISTORY (summary in OTHER) Delacour. That name used to carry so much power, so much authority. That name could get you anywhere; into any party, any meeting, any club. One word from the Delacours and a law could be passed, a felony could be ignored, a reputation could be created or destroyed. Their social status and riches gave them nearly unrivalled power throughout Nimbasa City and most of the surrounding area. They were not a family you’d want to mess with. Of course, it’s been a while since those days. The family has continued to live and function in Nimbasa, but the newer generation of Delacours was less interested in their public standing, less bothered about having a hand in every movement of politics, every rise and fall of a person in the city. They had their own worries by that point. Living so close to the entertainment hub of Unova, it was inevitable that even someone as high-class as a Delacour would end up in a casino at one point. Unfortunately, Norton Delacour was not the kind of person you'd want to end up in a casino. Not with that much money at his disposal. The family managed to keep it quiet for years, but when the news of Norton Delacour’s gambling problem finally reached the public, it spread like wild fire. With the majority of their money gone in the way of gambling debts, they had no way of redeeming their reputation, and the already struggling family lost their last finger holds in society. If you ask in the right places you’ll still hear stories of them, and you’ll still see a glimmer of respect in the eyes of the storyteller, but for the most part the Delacours simply disappeared into the background. That was the last straw for Elizabeth, Norton’s long-suffering wife. She’d fallen out of love with him long ago, and had only been hanging around because of the money and the attention. They were both gone now so what reason did she have to stay? Their five year old son? The brat worshipped his father; the two would get along just fine without her. And so she walked, leaving Norton alone in the huge house he could no longer afford, with just little Grimsley for company. Children are rarely aware of the problems grown-ups are having, mostly because they don’t see the thing as a problem. With no real understanding of the concept of debt and mortgages, Grimsley had no idea the family was struggling until several years later when he and his father were forced out of their mansion and into the (equally huge) house of his grandmother, one of the few family member still acknowledging Norton’s existence. His grandmother was the one who cared for him, who looked after him, who taught him how to be the proper refined gentleman his name demanded, while his father made continuous promises that he could get all of their money back in the next game… then the game after that… then the next, and the next, and the next, until grandma Delacour threatened him with eviction (he didn’t stop gambling of course, he just stopped telling her about it). She’d never lent him so much as a dollar, declaring gambling as a filthy habit, furious her son could ever have been pulled into it in the first place. It was a good job little Grimsley had her around or he’d have no role model at all. Of course… unbeknownst to grandma Delacour, Norton had been teaching his son the tricks of the trade for years by that point. It started off as a bit of fun, some light explanations when Grimsley had been playing with a pack of cards Norton had been looking for. Poor Norton did love his son, and had convinced himself that everything he was doing was for Grimsley’s benefit. The money would all go to him of course, once he'd finally won it back. He really wanted to connect with him somehow, and the thing he was best at (or at least most fluent in) was gambling. So after seeing the excitement in the little boy when Norton started explaining the different cards to him, he jumped at the idea to teach him how to play. The real surprise came when he realised Grimsley was actually good. It’s said that if you learn a skill as a child you’ll be much better at it than if you learned it as an adult, and Grimsley certainly seemed to be following that rule, and just seemed to be improving with age. Maths had always been a strong point of his at school, and being able to calculate probabilities lightning fast in his head every time a new card was revealed was an incredibly useful skill. And he was brilliantly observant: he knew all of his fathers ‘tells’ by the age of thirteen (but then they were quite obvious; why do you think he was losing so much money?). It was still just a game to Grimsley, with the added excitement of keeping it secret from grandma, but Norton saw the bigger picture. He started bringing his son along to real poker games, sneaking him into casinos whenever he could get away with it, and generally just introducing his son to the real world of gambling. His fellow poker players were happy enough to have Grimsley around; they were getting Norton’s money either way, and the kid was happy to bring them beer while they were playing. But as the years passed, Grimsley started joining in with the games, just little by little. It started off with the odd little suggestion to his father, but ended up with Grimsley basically playing in his place, and winning a good few hands too. He even managed to win his first Pokémon in a card game – a Pawniard the man had just caught and had no use for. He was inevitably banned from playing when Norton’s poker buddies got angry about losing to a kid, but it was too late by then. Grimsley had the skills. Little by little, Grimsley started earning money back for his father, who had practically stopped gambling himself by this point; he’d channelled his addiction through his now teenage son, desperate to make Grimsley play rather than do it himself. This should have looked like good news to his mother, that her son was no longer wasting money, that he’d broken free of that awful curse. But grandma Delacour knew her son too well, and she got suspicious. She started snooping, looking for the reason behind the little influx of cash the family was receiving and soon found the reason. In a flurry of rage, she kicked the pair of them out of the house, appalled at her son for leading Grimsley astray, and equally furious at Grimsley for not knowing better than to follow in his father’s footsteps. That wasn’t all Grimsley had been doing in that time though. Although he loved going out in an evening with his father, and seeing the joy and pride in his face whenever Grimsley won anything, there were other important things in his life too. The Pawniard he’d won was quickly becoming important to him. He hadn’t had huge amounts of experience with Pokémon before this point: he’d seen them in the wild and at safari parks and the like, and the cleaning team at his old house had had Pokémon helping them out, plus the odd kid at school had one, but he had very little hands-on experience. His mother had had Pokémon; he distinctly remembered a Persian who had hissed at him when he’d tried to stroke it. But he didn’t remember his father ever having any. Maybe he had one day. Maybe he lost them in a card game – it wouldn’t have been a surprising thing to learn. And his grandmother only had a Fletchling that was far more interested in sitting on the top of the bookshelf and singing than interacting with Grimsley. But now he had Pawniard, and he quickly learned to appreciate the little guy. The two of them often spent the day wandering around Nimbasa and the surrounding area, just playing or training or exploring. Once the pair started to develop an interest in battling, they quickly caught a Sandile and a Scraggy in the desert-like Route 4, and a Purrloin a little while later on a school trip to Virbank City to learn about "industry in the real world". It was not just coincidence that Grimsley was ending up with dark type Pokémon either. He’d met many others along the way, even caught a couple and used them for a little while, but they never kept his attention the way dark Pokémon did. It was something about their stealth, their sneaky tactics, their determination that Grimsley just loved. Plus, he felt like he had an affinity with them – the usually difficult to interpret moods of a dark-type Pokémon were easy to detect to a boy who’d been reading the subtlest of facial expressions in card games since he was seven, and the Pokémon equally respected him for his offensive battling style that dark Pokémon excelled in. So when grandma Delacour evicted the two gambling boys, Grimsley already felt like he had a supportive family around him, with his father as an added bonus. The parent-child combo lived together for a few years more, but by the time Grimsley turned eighteen, he was fed up of being pushed into casinos by his father, and decided to move out once and for all. He was already making quite a name for himself in the battling world, having won six of the eight badges of the region in the past year, and decided to continue down that path. Norton wasn’t happy of course, but it wasn’t up to him by that point. An argument ensued, resulting in Grimsley storming out and leaving his father cursing after him. Their relationship has cooled over the past few years, but has never regained the strength it had once had in the earlier years. Regardless, Grimsley was finally out on his own and now had everything planned for his future… except money. Travelling was expensive, and it’s not like he could ask his family for any support… Well, like father like son. It’s an interesting insight into the morality of humans when you consider that all major cities have somewhere for you to gamble away your money. It may not be a grand casino but there’s always a card game here, a dodgy betting shop there, and Grimsley was always quick to sniff them out. The problem with gambling is no matter how good you are, a lot of it comes down to luck. You could know every trick in the book but if your partner is being dealt flushes and you’re getting nothing, you’re not going to win. Some months Grimsley was raking it in, renting deluxe apartments with a bedroom for each Pokémon and a private swimming pool on the roof, and others he’d be using every sliver of charm, every sneaky tactic he knew to avoid sleeping on the streets. It was an interesting life, and one that really pushed the limits of his adaptability, but with his team by his side he fought through everything life threw at him. And through it all, his skill as a trainer was improving, the strength of his team was growing, and with all eight badges under his belt, so was his reputation. It was nearly six years after Grimsley had left home that Alder approached him. The Unova League was looking for new experts to take up positions in the Elite 4, and word of Grimsley’s prowess with dark type Pokémon had reached him and impressed him. Grimsley was admittedly shocked, seeing as he hadn’t even attempted the league himself (not from fear of losing, just because other things had kept him busy), but listened to Alder’s proposal, and gladly accepted the invitation to battle. It was close, but when the pair were down to their last Pokémon each, Alder just pipped him (that damn Accelgor!), and with a smile and a thank you, Alder left, leaving Grimsley in a depressed slump against a wall. Naturally, Grimsley thought that was the end of it. As disappointed as he was to miss out on an opportunity of that size, it just pushed him to train his team further, focusing his attention more wholly on his Pokémon and away from the gambling (which may or may not have been sliding him in the same direction as his father by this point – depending on games of mostly luck for an income is not the healthiest way to live). The extra push finally allowed his Pawniard to evolve, and with it came a feeling of such achievement that the ordeal with Alder paled into insignificance. That being said, when Alder came back just a few months later and asked for a rematch, Grimsley leapt at the chance, and when the battle climaxed in the newly evolved Bisharp v. Accelgor again, Grimsley’s hands were in fists so tight they were making his arms shake. Bisharp was dodging the Focus Blasts as practiced, and though it was nail-bitingly close, Alder got the last shot in and won for a second time. But instead of being angry like last time, Grimsley just smiled and knelt by his Bisharp to calm him, while the Pokémon desperately tried to push himself back to his feet. When questioned, he simply looked up at Alder with the resigned smile on his lips. “We tried our hardest and we lost. A true battler reflects on their loss and considers how to win next time rather than getting upset about it.” He shrugged slightly as he stood up again, brushing it off as something he’d learned over the past year; after all, the loser learns something from every battle too. Apparently that was what Alder had wanted. Whilst Grimsley was left blinking in surprise at the job offer the Champion of the Unova League had casually offered him, he explained that it was attitude as much as skill that made someone Elite 4 material. He was fed up of seeing trainers with fantastic battle prowess but lacking the ability to deal with a loss. It was obvious Grimsley was talented enough even before battling him (and anyway, Alder hadn’t required him to win, it would have been unusual to beat the Champion anyway), but Alder had wanted to watch his reaction, his emotions, his general response to the situation thrown at him. They had been predictable the first time hence why Alder had walked away, but it was the composure of their second battle that had won him the title. Those words didn’t really settle in until a few days later, and it wasn’t until Grimsley was led into the room he was to design as his arena that the whole thing started to feel real. It’s been seven years since Grimsley accepted the offer and a lot has happened in that time. Though his job demands he be present in the League’s impressive castle-like tower whenever a challenger arrives, it does not mean he has to be there all the time – the Elite 4 were normally notified in advance if a trainer was coming, and so long as Grimsley had his Honchkrow on him at the time, he could get back to the League fast enough to meet the new contestant without it ever looking like he was gone. So he could spend as much time as he liked wandering through Unova (and enjoying his knew celebrity status), and could keep relatively up to date with all the big news. The storms were certainly big news. Grimsley wasn’t fantastically close to his family (which only really consisted of his father and grandmother anyway) by this point, but even he had to check home every few weeks to make sure they were ok. Then the so called ‘Knights’ announced themselves at the Vermillion Massacre and the world prepared for war. This wasn't a new phenomenon, Team Rocket had tried, Team Aqua and Magma had tried, Team Galactic had tried, Team Plasma had tried on Unova’s own soil and Team Flare had tried just a few years ago. Granted this attempt was far more intense than the world had seen before, but the point was, the world had protectors. There were the Pokédex holders who’d always helped before, and anyway, there were the Leagues. If the Leagues couldn’t solve this problem, no-one could. When the Indigo Plateau was destroyed with its members still inside, the whole situation shifted. The Knights of Arceus had already proven they could and would go further than any previous team had, and the world had already been scared of them, but this… this brought a new feeling… this brought hopelessness. And now Grimsley was scared. As selfish as it is, in times of trauma you always tend to think ‘well this can’t happen to me’. No-one would hurt the Leagues, they were too big, they were too powerful. And then this. Until that point, Grimsley had been all for fighting. He wanted to stop them, wanted to help defend the world as best he could. And there was support all around him too, a lot of the League wanted to fight. But when some of their own were attacked, that plan no longer seemed viable. As a member of the Unova League, Grimsley was involved in the talks to decide what the hell the world should do in this situation but rather than being helpful, he just felt thoroughly overwhelmed. This is not something they teach you when you become a member of the League; the diplomacy he’d dealt with before had been small matters that his own personal experience could help him solve – where was the experience for this? Meanwhile the Knights had started offering aid and support to the public, who seemed to be starting to listen to them despite everything the despicable group had done. The world was going mad and after endless meetings, the League had come to the conclusion that the best option was to do what the madmen wanted. The public wanted it too now, and the Knights seemed to be genuine in their promise to stop attacking if they received support. All Grimsley could do was hide behind his steepled fingers in silence while the decision was made: the Leagues would be handed over to the Knights. Suddenly he doesn’t feel quite as at home there anymore. Even though he knows in his head it was the right decision, his heart just won’t listen and refuses to give the same enthusiasm for his job as it used to. Now he seems to be constantly looking for a distraction, for a few moments where he can pretend the good old days are back, where his biggest worry was where his next win would be. Well, you shouldn’t really be surprised that Grimsley’s retreated to gambling for a bit of relief. His skills are as sharp as ever, and he now has the added benefit of the odd star struck player accidentally giving him an easy victory. But he enjoys it, and the distraction is just what he needs right now. But pretending everything is fine won’t work forever. The Knights will make their next move. And what will the dice bring then?

OTHER History Summary (because it’s too long to read all of it): Grimsley’s family used to be rich and influential, but had been slowly losing both money and power when his father got into gambling and sealed their fate for good. His mother left them and the father and son had to go and live with Grimsley’s grandmother when they could no longer afford the house. During this time, Grimsley’s father taught him how to gamble, and when his son turned out to be good at it, brought him along to poker games etc. When his grandmother found out, she kicked the two of them out of the house. A few years later, after a big fight, Grimsley set out alone with his Pokémon, and gained quite a reputation as a dark-type trainer (whilst funding himself through the gambling skills he’d picked up earlier). He was approached by Alder and eventually offered a position in the Unova League. Since then, he’s been involved in the talks about the Knights, and though he personally wants to fight, admits that is not the best plan at the moment, but has consequently lost some of the enthusiasm he used to have for the League. I’m in the process of reading the Pokémon Black and White Manga, so I didn’t want to include anything about that in his history until after I've finished reading it if that’s ok. Once I do finish, I’ll write it in. Grimsley will always have his Bisharp, Liepard, Krookodile and Scrafty on him, but the final two members of his team change depending on what he needs at the time. Pokémon based on teams from Black/White and Black 2/White 2. Banner image by Laciechan. Avatar by 纪. Signature by me.

POKEMON Bisharp, male Sword Blade Pokémon Defiant Aerial Ace ▸ Night Slash Guillotine ▸ X-Scissor Metal Claw ▸ Swords Dance Liepard, female Cruel Pokémon Limber Fake Out ▸ Attract Aerial Ace ▸ Night Slash Sucker Punch ▸ Torment Krookodile, male Intimidation Pokémon Intimidate Crunch ▸ Outrage Rock Slide ▸ Earthquake Dragon Claw ▸ Foul Play Scrafty, male Hoodlum Pokémon Moxie Hi Jump Kick ▸ Head Smash Crunch ▸ Poison Jab Sand Attack ▸ Façade Honchkrow, female Big Boss Pokémon Super Luck Night Slash ▸ Psychic Aerial Ace ▸ Haze Toxic ▸ Fly Sharpedo, male Brutal Pokémon Rough Skin Waterfall ▸ Night Slash Earthquake ▸ Aqua Jet Blizzard ▸ Agility IN PC

POKEMON Grimsley | Grimsley Delacour PLAYED BY SIGYN ! MADE BY ★MEULK OF GS

[★ FATE ★]

ACCEPTED

Okay so wow. That history is pretty incredible. I can't think of a think specificially to comment on but the app in general was perfect. Grimsley's match and rematch against Alder to get into the league was cool too. :3 Looking forward to seeing you bring our beloved dark type trainer to life.