Charizard

Charizard
Charizard is a jolly pokemon who, though often troubled with fears, worries and anxieties, tries his best to be a positive influence to those in his life. He loves showing affection to those he cares about, and can become uncharacteristically cold to those who he develops a grudge against. He was born in Johto, was captured near Saffron, ironically by a firefighter, and began to live with him in Saffron City before eventually moving with his trainer to Blackthorn City. Charizard had a short lived battling career after being captured. He hated being made to fight and was injured badly in the last battle his trainer took him to. After that his trainer had enough empathy to allow him to essentially live as a pet, without the pain and strife of fighting.

He is often quite lazy and has been very overweight most of his life. He is very self conscious about it, often struggling to feel okay with who he is, and failing at many attempts at dieting and exercise. Charizard distrusts trainers because he abhors pokemon battling, thinking it a cruel way for people to get entertainment, especially the lengths they go to the more they want to win. He himself is rather unfit and poor at defending himself or fighting, which has made some pokemon think of him cowardly for a charizard.

Charizard has a love of pokemon contests, particularly cute contests, which he does surprisingly well in despite his species. He has a collection of contest ribbons which he sees as one of his greatest accomplishments. Ever since he moved to Blackthorn city, he has not been as active in contests as he used to be.

= Family =

Charizard has two children, an adopted Croconaw, who is constantly making trouble, and a Rhydon, who is the epitome of the strong silent type, and is usually trying to look after his rather defenseless father. Charizard is also a godfather of sorts to Rhubarb, the child of one of his best friends who has now passed away. Charizard rather enjoys taking care of others and is happiest when he is both giving receiving affection and appreciation.

A shiny Charizard who was his first girlfriend had vanished one day without a trace, an event he still hasn't gotten over and is still greatly troubling to him. He has managed to meet other charizards since then, and it has helped him greatly to find other of his own kind he can love and be with. He has met another shiny charizard, Smoke, and has fallen in love with her. Charizard believes it to be destiny, for what are the odds of finding another shiny female charizard?

Parents
Charizard's mother, Caeligna, her name meaning "Fire in the Starry Sky" was born the daughter of the head shaman of a tribe of Charizard that lived far into the wilderness north of Johto. From a young age she was instructed in the animistic beliefs and lore of her people and of the effects of various substances that could be used for a variety of purposes, mostly medical and ritualistic.

Her cryptic and headstrong manner made her seem like the perfect fit for the role of a shaman, and she showed great enthusiasm for her teachings. However, when she reached adulthood, her curiosity was no longer being sated by just learning of her own people. She decided to travel to other tribes, communities, and villages of different pokemon and learn what she could about them. During these travels, she met Charizard's father.

Charizard was born wild, to a strong willed and rather strange mother and fierce and often distant father whom he had trouble getting along with for most of his life. Charizard and his mother were looked down upon by his father's family, a proud and very traditional clan of Charizards that didn't approve of their son being with a bizarre outsider. One day his father was killed by hunters while defending his family from them. His fathers family seemed to blame Charizard and his mother for leading their son into this situation. Young Charizard felt like this was mostly his fathers fault, for he was very hostile to any and all humans he came across. This feeling of loss and anger would stay with Charizard until many years later when he returned to his childhood home and experienced a rather vivid dream which ended with his father apologizing to him and his mother. Charizard was able to put his frustration and anger with his father behind him after that night.

= Notable Events =

Early Friends
While living in Saffron, Charizard made a great deal of new friends, and used to hang out with them in the Viridian City gym. Among them were Buizel, Croconaw, AwesomeAmpharos, Linoone, Illumise, and Houndour. This is also where he met and eventually adopted Croconaw. Although a couple of them have gone their separate ways, many of them remain his very closest friends.

The Birds
A less notable event happened when a gang of murkrow settled around the outskirts of Saffron threatened Charizard with violence if he did not give them his ribbon collection and valuables. An attempted mugging by them was thwarted by Charizard Junior, who evolved into a rhydon in order to save his father. Charizard told his mother about the harassment and after that, all of the murkrow left the following day. Charizard doesn't know what his mother did to get them to leave but it didn't remain on his mind long and he went back to his life.

Parental Troubles
One day his son left on his own, and when he returned, Charizard found out that he had taken a life in a fit of rage during a battle. For the first time ever, Junior became furious with his father for asking others for help when he had intended this to be private. They were able to forgive each other, and work it out.

Star and Ares
Charizard was approached by a shiny Floatzel named Star one day, and they grew to be fast friends. Though Star's mannerisms seem strange, he seems to love feeding Charizard as much as he can eat, which while likely bad for Charizard, he absolutely loves due to the food and attention.

Charizard has met a slew of other pokemon through Star, many of whom he feels inadequate compared to, though the more he gets to know them, the more that feeling fades. One of these such pokemon was a cloned charizard names Ares, who had an attitude and mannerisms that would normally be repulsive to Charizard, but for some reason he wanted to be friends with the tough charizard, mostly because he had not seen many others of his kind before.