AEB Present 1.5 Saturn Backstory

Backstory for my character in AEB Present 1.5.
I'm putting it over here instead of Obsidian Portal, because I don't feel like posting 17 paragraphs in a text medium that has no spoiler tags.

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Saturn was born in Fallarbor Town to two Genetic parents. ('Saturn Rosewell' is not her birth name, but rather a name she was given and adopted later in life. More on that later. While she and her parents are all still very much alive, their names have been lost to history - and that's not important anyway.) She lived an incredibly happy and content life with her family and the rest of the town, though her parents found it rather odd she displayed no Genetic characteristics whatsoever - she looked perfectly normal. They watched her waringly, but lovingly, thinking it would only be a matter of time before the marks manifested.

The Calamity occurred when she was 8 years old. While she, her family, and her town remained relatively unscathed (compared to nearby areas), the experience really shook her, as she had to remain in hiding virtually all the time, living in fear that her parents might not come home one day. Still, this fear wasn't enough to cause her any side effects, and thankfully she and her family survived.

It wasn't until she was 12 or so that her Genetic heritage began to creep out. When her family took a day trip to the nearby Mount Chimney, the volcano unexpectedly became active and erupted slightly, causing large rocks to fall from above. As the evacuation began, Saturn became frozen in fear, terrified and unable to move. Her father ran to rescue her, though right as a boulder was about to hit her, instantly she teleported away to a nearby spot, avoiding it entirely. After overcoming the momentary surprise, her father then quickly whisked her away to safety with the others.

After that point, her 'eye ring' started to grow in, and by the time she was 13 it had fully developed, giving her eight eyes instead of just two. Since then she became the target of much ridicule, being mocked by the other students for 'looking like a freak'. Every day she would come home to her family in tears because of that - virtually everyone knew her parents were genetics, so why would this have been a problem? More perplexing still, her characteristics matched Claydol, a species present in neither of her parents.

Her parents loved her all the same, but grew extremely concerned for her. Eventually this grew to a head shortly after she turned 16, where she made a conscious decision to run away from home. She did this in secret, not wanting to attract any more negative attention, and fled to Mirage Desert, finding a quiet cave far away from where people walked, and cried there in hiding, cursing her lot in life for being born as neither human nor Pokémon, but rather a 'freak somewhere in between'. From there she developed a strong sense of self-loathing - and then, by extension, a dislike and distrust for all human-Pokémon hybrids.

She stayed a few days in that cave, the Pokémon there being unusually accommodating to her. The number of tears she shed began to diminish, but she still hated her status as a genetic. She resolved there were just 2 solutions to this: find a way to change herself to be completely human, or end it all and take her own life if she couldn't find a way. But where would she start? That wouldn't be easy. That'd take either an ingenious scientist or a miracle. She had no leads, and she couldn't go back to her parents, not now. She had nothing to do except to keep walking. Saying goodbye to the Pokemon she'd made friends with, she began to head south, towards the urbanized Mauville City.

As she drew closer, she became terrified - she'd be around more people who would potentially ridicule her, so she quickly looked around for another way around to avoid the city, when suddenly she ran into an unusual figure - a bronze Magnezone whose sheen looked dull from years of aging. He explained that he'd been contacted because a girl matching Saturn's description had gone missing, and her parents were worried sick for her. Terrified, she teleported a short distance away and hid herself, but after reassuring her that she'd be fine, she agreed to go along with him.

The Magnezone introduced himself as Jupiter Roswell, a name fairly well-known in Houen due to his role in stopping the Calamity. Saturn was amazed and enthralled at this, and the two talked at length. She expressed her desire to become normal - either completely human or completely Pokémon - to which the Magnezone suggested that his best friend, a world-renowned scientist, would be the perfect person for the job - and if he couldn't, he probably knew someone who could. She asked to meet this man, but the Magnezone imposed a condition first: go back to Fallarbor to let her parents know she was all right and traveling in his company.

Saturn agreed to this (reluctantly at first, since she didn't want to face her parents again after how she turned her back on them), so after they stopped by Fallarbor, with Jupiter explaining the situation, her parents allowed her to journey with Jupiter to Shinou, the Magnezone's homeland and the residence of the scientist. It was almost a month's journey before they arrived at the house of the scientist, a kind and understanding man who introduced himself as Dr. White.

During the week-or-so she spent there, she had been more happy than she'd been in her life before. Not only was she hopeful that her condition might be cured, but the family was so completely accepting of her. A few times, she was asked by Jupiter (who she was closest to) why she wanted to be 'normal'. Is this really what she wanted? Did she want to be another face in the crowd and simply vanish into obscurity, never singled out or noticed for anything ever? Did she want nothing about her that set her apart? Saturn answered all of those questions with a resounding 'yes'.

Despite all this, she was moved by Jupiter's compassion and understanding of her plight; she was touched that Jupiter always took the time to listen to her, with whatever she wanted or had to say, and never once complained about it. In fact, during her stay, Jupiter gave to her two things: the first was a brown beret she could wear that would cover her six extra eyes and conceal them from sight (so she would, at the very least, appear normal if something should fail), and the second was a small white rose attached to a hairclip, because he thought it would look good on her - plus, roses are pretty. Saturn broke out into tears of joy when Jupiter did this for her, and gave him a big hug with a great smile on her face - the only time in her life to speak of since adolescence that she smiled. As a form of recompense, she took a new name as a way of honoring him: she adopted the name Saturn Rosewell (the forename to keep the planet theme, and the surname as a slight alteration of Jupiter's last name, with a nod to the rose as well).

At last the fateful day came. Dr. White told her that there was not a certainty of success, but he would try his best to make this work. She said she'd be willing to undertake any risk, if there existed a chance she'd be normal again. Without going into too much detail, the idea was to have her Pokémon DNA supplanted by human DNA, via injection. She had a fear of needles, but went along with it. Unfortunately, it instead generated an immune response, thus causing it to be of no effect. Dr. White's face fell; this girl had depended entirely on him, and he had let her down. Upon hearing this, she was furious, seeing there would never be any hope for her normalcy ever again. She stormed out of the house and fled once more, prompting Jupiter (who said he would handle this alone) to chase after her.

After Saturn stormed away from Dr. White's abode, she ran as far away as she could, crying all the while and clutching her beret down over her head. She found a place just outside the city to let out her tears, just like when she had fled Fallarbor. Everything was repeating itself as it had before, and she knew, this time, there was no way out - she would have to take her own life. Before she managed to find the opportunity, or muster the courage, to do so, she heard Jupiter crying out her name - Saturn, the name she'd taken for herself, not her birth name. She was afraid to move, but she whispered very quietly so Jupiter could hear her. He did, and before long was at her side.

There, she explained to Jupiter that she couldn't go on living like this - death was her only out. Jupiter responded, quite matter-of-factly, that he couldn't let her kill herself - he would never be able to face her parents ever again if he did. He then asked Saturn what her definition of 'normal' was - she wanted to be normal above all else, so what would a normal person look like? Saturn replied that she didn't know - she never spent time around any normal people to really figure it out. Jupiter then noted that the easiest way to blend in was to hide in plain sight. He then said to someone behind him "You can come out now."

Saturn instinctively cowered and curled into a ball, but this visitor was nothing more than a Victini with a sweet disposition and incredible enthusiasm - who, interestingly enough, was wearing clothing emulating that of Saturn. Jupiter explained he met the Victini back in Hoenn, a little while after Saturn met Jupiter, and her heart was moved for this lonely girl. Secretly following Jupiter (who knew the whole time, but Saturn didn't notice), she had tried to become like her (appearance-wise) as an effort to cheer her up. She introduced herself as Natasha, with a "Nice to meet you!" and a hand extended to shake. Saturn didn't take the handshake as she was still reluctant.

Jupiter then went on to his next point: people don't really bat eyelashes at Pokémon Trainers, since they come from all walks of life. He suggested this as a possible path for Saturn to take, and, if her nature was ever discovered (doubtful, but possible), no one would think twice about it. She would get the chance to meet all sorts of people, and with that, decide who she wanted to be the most like. "And I'll be by your side, every step of the way!" the Victini exclaimed. Saturn smirked, ever so slightly, though the smirk faded as quickly as it had come. Thanking Jupiter for all he had done, she bid him goodbye, and with Natasha the Victini, she headed off into the wide open world, still not smiling, but substantially more optimistic.

On 4 February 1549, she and Natasha arrived in Fairview, looking for some form of job or work just to get by, as she had been doing up until now, with nothing much besides the clothes on their backs. They eventually met up with 3 other ladies in much the same position, and have been traveling with the group ever since - though now only 2 of the original 4 (Saturn being one of them) still remain. And since then, she's been on a series of tumultuous adventures not even she could have imagined...