Name: Andrew James O'Reilly Author: Newton Haights (newhaights@aol.com) Hometown: Pallet Town Appearance: Born June 7, 1983, which would make him about, uh, 20? What the hell year is it in PW!, anyway? Anyway, 5'10", average build but a bit on the lanky side, green eyes, longish straight hair (falls to about his jaw), no facial hair. Usual attire includes jeans or khakis, plain t-shirts under long-sleeved buttondowns, and sneakers. May be seen wearing a locket, which has an engraved note of encouragement (in bad Latin) and pictures of his parents, Roger and Charlotte. He's slightly nearsighted, so he wears glasses. Always wears his grandfather's old wristwatch. Owns a black Endless BackpackT. Keeps his wallet on a chain-clip to his beltloop. (Just how do these people make money anyway, outside of Trainer Battles?) Personality, background, and Long Friggin' Synopsis: Andrew grew up as a normal kid in Pallet; all the really eventful stuff happened after he left (and I started writing for him). Early on, during a family trip to Cinnabar, a Growlithe ran out of the broken-down Laboratory and somehow immediately bonded to Andrew; Roger caught the Pokemon and brought it home, and Blaze immediately became the family pet. Having spent so much time with a Pokemon in close proximity, Andrew started to pick up the basics of Pokemon speech, a subject he pursued while studying for his Trainer's License and is still interested in to this day. As a result, he can understand a great deal of Poke-speech; this ability is directly proportional to his familiarity with the species or the particular pokemon. Therefore, for example, he can understand his own team perfectly (or nearly perfectly), while a conversation with Celebi or Jirachi, in addition to being horribly HORRIBLY Non-Continuity, would leave Andrew completely lost. Unfortunately, disaster struck before Andrew could get his License... Andrew's grandfather, James O'Reilly, suffered a heart attack when Andrew was only 12. He was buried in the Lavender Pokemon Tower with his former team, as were his wishes. Before the Pokemon Tower was taken down and changed to the Radio Tower, Andrew made it a point to visit the Tower every year; he's just learned of the switch from Robert. Anyway...the product of a not particularly eventful childhood as the only child of Roger and Charlotte O'Reilly (both NPCs, unless absolutely necessary), Andrew was once a 10-year-old ready to see the world, mainly because he was bored as hell of boring old rural Pallet. Now 19, he still has an attitude of "This is cool...now what?" He's got a short attention span. ^^;; Since he left, he has obtained the Boulder, Cascade and Marsh Badges. While waiting for something...anything else to do, Andrew met Gads Trisan and Mara Tifer (see WGs wherever available) right before their big fight with Vorge and Panopticon. He then had a brief encounter with a female, very-but-not-actually Pokémon Resistance-type Kadabra named Stellara. When Gads came back all psychic and Mara...essentially kicked Gads out of the Fighting Dojo unofficially, Andrew just *happened* to get involved... Andrew entered the first annual (well, first WRITTEN annual) League Games at Indigo Stadium, and got to around the 5th round before he dropped out. (Yeah, it was because I got bored. Who's counting?) Due in part to the popularity of Gads' Jigglypuff, Sketch, the group (Andrew, Gads, and Mara, along with their Pokémon) got a shot at show business with Stevon "I couldn't make a decent movie to save my life, but at least I can try" Schpielbunk; during the shoot of the movie, the nanite (that made Gads all psychic) got stuck in his head. It started to affect his personality, but not by much (Jeez, even with a psy-enhancing mind-warping nanite stuck right next to his frontal lobe, he's boring. Sheesh). After having the nanite taken out and doing whatever with it, the group got a taste of the small screen. Andrew's role was the clueless lacky on Our Pokémon World, some sort of educational kids' programming. The entire group got tired of it and they all went back on the road. Somewhere on said road, the group got lost and wound up in Hellion Town. They found a kid named Felix and had a battle. They left, and Andrew split up from Gads and Mara for a little while to pay his respects at the Lavender Pokemon Tower. Gads got an urgent message to Andrew at the Tower, and he replied; Mara had been taken prisoner by Sabrina, and Andrew had to save her. However, the retrospection by Gads over his choice on letting Andrew do the deed caused him to relook his life, and he split up from the group. Andrew and Mara split up soon after. After a run-in with the police over a scuffle that he was involved in on the way to the Saffron Gym, Andrew took a trainride to Johto, after seeing a note on a sign outside Saffron. After an ill-fated run-in with some Electrode near Route 36 and the Sudowoodo intersection, he met Andy Renev, Enimuram Yortsed and Nori Mizuke. Andy and Enimuram quickly recruited Andrew into the Bomb Ball Bashers, an underground organization devoted to the riddance of Voltorb-line Pokemon. Things happened quickly (well, if you ignore the collective slow writing habits of myself and Andrusi) after that -- first, the Sudowoodo that made the intersection so famous demanded a gold Nugget toll for their passage; Andy dealt with it in a rather unorthodox way (Joe Scruggs eat your heart out). Then they were accosted by a crazy man named Splash, who was convinced that Nori was an unknown woman going by the name of Murasaki. He tried to kill Andrew, but he was subdued eventually as his delusions led him somewhere else in search of whoever it was he was looking for. After that, on their way to what they thought was Olivine, Andrew decided to tell the Bashers that he just wasn't interested in joining. Before they could react fully, the four made their way to a spot just outside of "Olivine" (Mahogany), where Nori revealed her true intentions -- she had been planning to ambush and capture the Bashers ever since she met t hem, as there was a bounty on Andy's and Eni's heads. Things looked bad for them, until Ted Brotlov, the most visible (in PW! anyway) non-member of the BBB, decided to help the Bashers and Andrew escape ("If I can't catch you guys, nobody will!"). Only Andrew made it out; he wasn't sure what happened to Andy and Eni, but he was damn sure it wasn't good. Soon afterwards, Cyclonus, Ted's Electabuzz partner, approached Andrew and gave him one of Andy's pokeballs -- that of David, the Abra. While waiting, resting, and contemplating in the Mahogany PokeCenter, Andrew met with a nice young girl named Eran Marona (note: what, Dread, no WG?), and they went off to the Mahogany City Gym. Unfortunately, mischievous ghosts/an unknown organization/massive plot holes sucked them into a haunted mansion which may or may not have been the new Soul House, a mansion which confused and frightened them, yadda yadda another plot hole kicked them out. The plot hole dropped them at the base of Mt. Silver, where the Silver Conference (a tournament similar to the Indigo League Games) was being held. He entered, and won round 1 by defeating super-powered trainer Evir Apocalypse. Fortunately, Andrew's Bulbasaur evolved at the end of this fight. Unfortunately, Andrew and Nori (who was at the Conference under a pseudonym, one that did not fool Andrew) had a run-in with each other, resulting in Andrew being incapacitated juuuuuuuuuuuuuust long enough to be...disqualified from Round 2. Ah well, at least this time he didn't give up. Andrew is nice, especially around his friends from Pallet on the (now rare) visits back. Anyone he meets up with and will become friends will agree. Andrew has a face that doesn't stand out much; one product of this is a lack of challenges by other trainers. Therefore, Andrew's Pokémon are at lower levels than other trainers of his experience. He's a regular at many a Brock's Diner...Among his wardrobe, yes, he has a "Do you smell what the Brock is cooking" t-shirt. He bought a guitar instruction tape and book years ago (akin to John Gindick's "Country and Blues Harmonica for the Musically Hopeless") and is learning to play acoustic guitar. He's not that bad. I guess. Hey, nobody's complained. Goals: * Manage to actually WIN at a fucking tournament for once * Maybe find out what Nori's motives were for having Andy and Eni killed * Eventually, get badges Pokémon: Snicker (Pikachu): Andrew found and caught Snicker in Viridian Forest. Snicker has always loved a good joke, loves to be tickled (especially the belly) and generally laughs for the hell of it. Early on, Snicker seemed to take an interest in Andrew's guitar playing; Andrew decided to buy a tiny harmonica and an instruction book (basically the aforementioned Harmonica for the Hopeless book) to give to him. Now they jam together all the time. Lvl 20 Moves: Thundershock, Growl, Thunderwave, Quick Attack *** Yuugi (Ivysaur): Yuugi was Andrew's starter Pokémon -- that is to say, the pokemon Prof. Oak gave him along with his license -- and quite possibly the one that took Andrew the longest to name. Very sporty and athletic, he plays with a baseball-sized soccerball (see notes for Blaze). Loves to watch Fushigida -- er, I mean Fushigi Yuugi. Yeah. That's it. It's because he's a big fan. *nod* OK, truth be told, he's faking it just in case he ever meets this one really cute Bellossom again. But you didn't hear it from me. ;-) Lvl 19 Moves: Tackle, Growl, Leech Seed, Vine Whip *** Blaze (Growlithe): Blaze, as mentioned before, was caught by Mr. O'Reilly during a trip to Cinnabar when Andrew was 6. The family kept Blaze in their name until Andrew was ready to leave for his Pokemon journey. A large, soft snow-white streak -- a blaze of white, if you will -- stands in the middle of his otherwise cream-colored headtuft. Blaze is Yuugi's soccer partner/opponent; the two play very hardcore, full-contact soccer, almost rugbyish, I suppose. Because of this, Blaze is leaner than most Growlithe, and Yuugi is not quite as stocky as most Ivysaur, although he DID become a bit bulkier. Since Yuugi's evolution, Blaze's competition has become a bit tougher. Lvl 19 Moves: Bite, Roar, Ember *** David (Kadabra): David was purchased during a trip to Cerulean; he evolved in Celadon in a fight against a red-green Mankey. Nothing too special about this Kadabra. He is a huge fan of magic, especially televised; it was during a special that Andrew decided to name him. Lvl 16 Moves: Teleport, Mega Punch, Doubleteam, Confusion *** David (Abra): This David, not to be confused with Andrew's other David, was given to him indirectly by Andy, before whatever fate befalled him in the Mahogany Rocket Base. Andrew knows little about David yet, other than the fact that he (David) doesn't yet know where Andy went. Lvl 10 Moves: Teleport, Mega Punch *** MC2 (Mankey): Named after Gads Trisan's Mankey, Monk-chan, this is the red-green Mankey that David fought in Celadon. It is also the same Mankey that Bill used in the experiment that turned Gads into a Mankey hybrid. Aside from its coloring, it stands out because it is missing a tail; in the experiment, MC2 inadvertently traded its tail for Gads' hair color. It first fought in the first round of the Pokémon League Games of 1999, 0-6 Badge Bracket, and proved itself in Round 1 of the Silver Conference of 2003. It's a decent fighter, even more so since Andrew trained it against its namesake. Lvl 21 Moves: Scratch, Leer, Karate Chop, Low Kick, Fury Swipes *** Allies: Anyone who's ever been nice to him. So far, particularly: * His parents, Roger and Charlotte * Gads and Mara Trisan, if/when he ever meets them again (hinthint Locke) * His Pokémon and those of his friends Acquaintances: * Rob & Rilli: Andrew met with Robert and Mithril-rama during the marriage of Gads' and Mara's parents, soon after they (Rob and Rilli) had switched bodies due to Sabrina's twisted sense of humor. * The Ketchums, the Oaks, etc.: Well, living in Pallet town, and especially living there before Ash and Gary turned age 10, it's not unreasonable for the Oaks, the O'Reillys and the Ketchums to have known each other. Neighborhood buddies; if either of them saw Andrew, there'd be a heartfelt reunion, but don't expect Ash or Gary to pop in unexpectedly to say hey to their "ol' buddy" or anything, and DEFINITELY don't expect them to pop in to save Andrew from some dire circumstance. * Eran Marona: They met in the Mahogany "Soul House", but outside of that they barely know each other. Enemies: * Team Rocket: After being ambushed by a group of Rockets and DOUBLY taken in by Nori Mizuke, what was once a general aversion has turned into an all-out...dislike. ...What? He's not that emotional. ...Fine. He hates them. He hates Team Rocket. Are you happy? It's not like he would have joined ATR if they still existed or anything. * Panopticon/Protopticon: Gads' bitter enemy. Any enemy of a friend is an enemy of his. Also, he did try to kill him and his friends during the movie shoot... He doesn't know what happened to Panop since he left (search the archives for Karnivax/Kyle Richter for that), so as far as he knows Panop's still a valid threat. -- Newton P. Haights newhaights@aol.com http://www.geocities.com/newhaights/