a pretty chill and friendly guy for someone who can see beyond the veil of death. has held close to his kindness through everything that’s happened to him, but is just enough of an asshole at times to be fun to be around. empathetic, too forgiving for his own good, fundamentally believes in the capacity of people to change for the better. hates being treated as special because of his powers. wears his heart on his sleeve and has a lotta baggage but he doesn’t like to trouble others with it. on the contrary, he will try to help other people to an almost annoying degree, which can occasionally lead him to becoming an enabler. he's working on it.
his Guardian Star/soul takes the form of a Kantonian Vulpix.
born in Santalune, Kalos on October 2. he had a relatively normal childhood until T͎̟̻̮͊̓̃ͅḧ͇̮͔̗͇͍e͙͓͒̓ͣ ͖͔̀ͤ̓Aĉ̜̹̹̎̀̈̽̉ͨc̲͇̼̭̅̒́ͫ̔ͬi̤̭̙̩̤͍̯̓̽͐̈́d̍͂͌̌e̜̿̈ͩ͌ͅn̤̖̉ͦ̔t̳̺̖͔̠̬̭ͫ when he was 10.
truth be told i’m not satisfied with any of my ideas for this part anymore. but it took place in the Santalune Forest. at first i wanted him to stumble upon a cult but the idea doesn’t fully appeal to me anymore. some sort of cult might still be involved but not in the satanic panic kinda way idk. either way he established contact with otherworldly forces, mainly something to do with Giratina. that awakened some sort of power inside him and he accidentally caused a forest fire. Phantump were somehow involved, which were hurt in said fire. ever since then, he has an affinity for them and feels physical pain if one is hurt around him.
his parents never found out what happened, only that he was caught in a fire. but afterwards he was obviously left traumatized, basically stopped talking. they decided it best to move in with Yan’s paternal grandma in Camphrier, so she could look after him.
once there, his powers began to truly manifest: he started seeing people’s auras/Stars and ghosts— mainly his grandpa's ghost roaming the house. but unlike what one might expect, he wasn’t a vengeful or lost soul, Yan could feel love emanating from him, even if he couldn't communicate with him. basically this man chose to stay by his wife’s side even in death.
Yan tried telling his family but his parents scolded him, thinking it was some sort of childish prank or a way to get attention. his grandma, however, fully believed him. his parents asked her to not mention what had happened back at Santalune, worried it would exacerbate this sort of attitudes.
(this is his earliest memory, while he's vaguely aware that chunks of his childhood are missing from his mind, he doesn’t know just how much of it he blocked)
despite that, his parents spent most of their time at their new jobs and his grandma was left in charge of homeschooling him until he recovered. but she would also incentivize him to explore those new powers and tell him about legends from their culture (his paternal family is originally from Geosenge, and i took inspiration from Breton culture for them). as she was an old lady, he took care of her as much as she took care of him, although in different ways.
around the time he turns 13, his grandma passed away. he sees her reunite with her husband before disappearing to the afterlife together and that experience cemented his relationship with his powers as positive. he doesn’t mind being a Hex and usually tries to use it for good, but (once he meets more people like him) realizes he’s way more emotionally affected than others with those same abilities. during his teens he also took a pseudo-scientific interest in his powers, trying to dig deeper into paranormal phenomena and spirits, doing little investigations in abandoned places and trying to catalog and help ghosts.
however his life is presently more haunted by the two relationships he had in adulthood. both lasted around two years and were A Mess, to put it lightly. they left him overly aware of how much he’s drawn to "broken" people, and terrified that his compulsion to help them makes him abusive.
first with Alan, the year he started college. they met at a party and Yan helped him get to his house cause he was too fucked up to drive.
it involved their friend group becoming the shittiest, most dysfunctional Mystery Inc knockoff (they called themselves Etganshe and made matching jackets), intermingled with regular parties with way too much drinking, mostly failed research field trips, emotional and physical abuse usually targeted at him, the erosion and buildup of resentment in all their friendships, and the spiraling obsession between Alan and him. it ended so badly Yan moved away to never see any of them again.
the second one with Gabbie, a couple months after he moved into the apartment neighbouring hers in Lumiose.
it involved a lot of drug use and enabling each other's worse behaviors, between Gabbie’s insistence that she was totally fine and her necessity to be completely self reliant was normal and healthy, Yan’s inability to set any boundaries, their avoidance of talking about their respective traumas and Yan seeing her sister's ghost; it led to some harsh but ultimately necessary conversations. it also ended badly but at least they managed to help each other in the last year they stayed together. they recently reconnected and are on better terms.
afterwards he moved around for a while. in the one month he spent back in Camphrier, he met his first pokemon, Ehre the Honedge.
he ended up in Laverre where he met the rest of the party for the campaign. we had our silly Arc1 adventures, Yan made some friends, caught some pokemon, we saved the world. and he met his current boyfriend, Ian, a startup musician (and npc). his Guardian Star/soul has the shape of an Alolan Vulpix, and he was the first relationship Yan had where he felt at peace.
they lived together for the first 6 months of the Intermission between arcs, until Ian left for his first tour in Unova. after a brief holiday in Johto to visit friends, Yan had to return to Camphrier for a year to finish college and unwillingly reconnected with people from his past. some of those worked out better than others. like Alan who basically stalked him trying to convince him to get back together and ran over a guy with his car who’s ghost is now following Yan; and Nadia who’s blackmailing him into helping her bring down the secret organization that watches the world from the shadows. while managing those weird nightmares he's been getting lately.
needless to say, he went into Arc2 of the campaign not feeling too great. but it’s still ongoing so we’ll see how it develops!
Ehre, the Doublade ♀ Adamant Nature — Yan found her in the vicinity of the Shabboneau Castle acting as a rabid creature but could tell she used to be a person. worked with her until she started regaining consciousness and memories, that she used to be a knight. Yan treats her more like a person than a pokemon, and they have a deal: she protects him, he acts as a tether to her humanity.
Lestibournes (Leti), the Gourgeist ♂ Gentle Nature — Ian caught him as a Pumpkaboo on the second day of the campaign and then gifted him to Yannick, which caused him to evolve. loves to hear Ian sing. very excitable and innocent. has the cognizance of barely more than a very smart dog yet they both treat him as a child.
Toussaint, the Sylveon ♂ Mild Nature — gifted to him as an Eevee by Yan’s current best friend, who owns the sister. Yan never imagined having a non-ghost type pokemon yet this little ball of fur was just too adorable. evolved during a friendly battle with its own dad. cuddling with him is one of the few things that helps Yan genuinely relax.
Aziraphale, the Swablu ♀ Relaxed Nature — newest teammate, so Yan hasn’t had time to really bond with her yet. but don’t let her nature deceive you, she’ll turn into a neurotic mess when things go wrong. isn’t too fond of battling.
Rotom ◌ ??? — wild card! technically Yan hasn’t caught them yet but they’re buzzing around and causing trouble.
ship with Alan tag - ship with Gabbie tag - ship with Ian tag
Etganshe tag