HL - Ezequiel Allende

I WANNA BE.... WHERE THE PEOPLE ARE

"I uh, I hope I didn't startle you! Or anything."

Name: Ezequiel “Ezel” Allende

       Age: 32 (30 debut)

       Gender: Male

       Pokemon: Armaldo (Eelektrik debut, Carvanha and Sharpedo prior)

       Height: 6"2

       Bodystyle: Gaunt and Agile

       Birthday: July 1st

       Home Island: Amusement Archipelago

       Personality:  Lonely nature, highly curious

(+Enthusiastic, +Resilient, =Compliant, =Careful, -Timid, -Guarded)

Ezequiel Allende is a rather subdued personality from a first impression, but his quiet disposition fades quickly, especially when he has your attention. The man that emerges is impassioned, grinning, eager to please. The Eelektrik seems to love approval, often to the point of willingly going along with someone he violently disagrees with. Some might call it cute… others might find it annoying. Ezequiel’s manner is deferential and agreeable, to the point of failing to voice his opinion even in dire situations if he doesn’t completely trust someone. He’s perfectly capable of having opinions, but due to his upbeat demeanor around strangers, it often seems like Ezequiel doesn’t have any legs to stand on by himself… metaphorical legs, of course. He’s a merman. He doesn’t have legs.

If one somehow succeeds in getting the eel to crack his shell around you, Ezel proves to be an avid fan of conversation, meaningless or otherwise. He’ll engage in conversations about science (which he knows some stuff about; he’s mostly into ecology) to  politics (which he knows very little about) to pop culture (which he knows absolutely nothing about) with enthusiasm to match the room. Incredibly swayed by the emotions of people around him, Ezel tends to trail off and facilitate horribly awkward silences if he senses disinterest among his peers… before suddenly deciding to say something “cool” and “interesting.”

Of course, “cool” and “interesting” to Ezequiel is most often either camera trivia or something about wildlife conservation. Photography and environmentalism seem to be two surefire ways to get the merman talking, even if he’ll refrain from making many non-objective statements. In general, he will express enthusiasm in the form of facts, and constantly reaffirm his conversation partners that  “It’s totally subjective, you know. There’s a lot of discourse around this issue,” while casually skirting around his own position.

Ezequiel’s need for approval is rivaled, and often times matched, by his need for novelty. New people, new knowledge, even new trinkets tossed on the sea floor - anything he hasn’t seen before is worth his attention, and he takes a good amount of time reveling in its unfamiliarity. Ezel spends a lot of energy thinking about small things; the shape of hermit crab shells, the way the light catches someone’s hair, the subtle characterizing features in someone’s smile. His attention to detail makes him appreciative of small things like a person’s laugh, but also comes across and blunt and straightforward (sometimes even creepy; he likes to ask people if he can take pictures of them… Which is met with mixed reactions).
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Ezequiel has been on the islands for... how long now? Almost two years? Less than that? It's hard to tell. Perhaps it's been good to him to be independent for a bit. Sure he remains generally isolated and cannot get through a social interaction without filling a silence with Fun Facts about Sea Urchins, but Ezel has found a new normal. He has opened up a bit, it's more willing to trust, less likely to assume that you're going to hurt him. However, he can't seem to escape the anxiety that comes with liking someone enough to keep them around. For all the progress he's made... he's sure everyone will hurt him eventually.
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Ezel has had a rough year. But finally it's looking up. 
Adjusting to his new life on land will be difficult, and there is an obvious awkwardness in Ezel's manner that is reminiscent of when he first moved to the islands. He is awkward on his legs and is constantly inside his own head, only really clear of mind when sitting down. This said... it is obvious he is happier like this. Preoccupied, maybe frustrated at the slow progress of his walking lessons, but he is happier. There is an obvious mirth in the way he greets strangers... once they get over the initial awkward conversation of having to explain why suddenly he has legs...

     

  History:

1: Young minds

No one ever saw much of Ludmi Soto. No one knew very much about her aside from her name, her prestige, and her beautiful pink hair. There were a few who did manage to catch the glimmering honor of her presence, her recognition. Her son Ezequiel Allende was one of them. Yet exalted as he was - a son of Ludmi Soto, a contender in the his circle of half-siblings as the heir to her reign of influence - he was never quite raised by his mother as most children are.

Ludmi was the only qualified survivor of the Soto clan, a powerful body of political energy set in the ocean-dwelling community outside Undella. Isolated from the drylands upshore, the merfolk in the Bay were written off as brutal; animalistic; unclean - there mere fact that Ludmi mothered children from five men without marrying once was proof enough! And perhaps there was some truth in the allegation that the merfolk were violent. History did not favor them. Especially not the Soto clan. Rumors of their violence towards other merfolk clans and their brutal exercise of political and economic authority shocked the drylanders. No one ever wanted to deal with a Soto, and even fewer wanted to deal with Ludmi herself.

Ezequiel did not know this when he was young. Raised in absence of his father and negligible presence of his mother, his education was mediated mostly by the clan professors, the brilliant underwater scientists and historians hired by Ludmi and previous Sotos. What Ezel learned from them would surprise none who knew how the wrong end of history loved to portray their information. The merfolk were brave and strong, repeatedly defeated the advances and maritime misgivings of the dryfolk, and eliminated the worst of the human’s traces on their land. How else could Ezequiel be living in a utopia quite like this?

Without his parents to actively engage him and care for Ezel’s more unsophisticated needs such as food and shelter, the young tynamo was sent to live with an assigned warden and his son. Hector was specially chosen for his upstanding behavior as a Soto underling, and Ezel loved him immensely. He loved the relicanth like his own father, and Hector's son Cecil like his own brother. But the time came when Hector realized that there was something in this young boy’s life that was lacking - his one-sided knowledge of the world, his incredibly skewed perception of the dryfolk. Such a sweet boy should not be tainted by bigotry! So he took matters into his own hands.

2. The Dry

Thus, Hector and Cecil took young Ezequiel to meet Cecil’s stepmother. Hector would frequent the shoreline to retrieve scraps for the market after Cecil's mother left him, and he was easily won over by Camila Carroll. Camila was a sweet lady, plump and stout, with a shrill laugh that carried for miles. Ezequiel was baffled by her disposition and manner. The dryfolk were supposed to be cruel and materialistic! Camila was sweet, and selfless, and a wonderful mother, even though her husband and child lived in the sea. Ezequiel would visit Camila with Cecil every so often, when he knew there was no risk of being caught by a higher-up Soto administrator. And what he saw fascinated him.

The Dry was more complex than painted in his history books - busy and thriving, filled with such a diversity of people. Natives, tourists, scientists, artists, young children who often gazed at him and Cecil from afar, gaping at the sight of a real-live merman. The Dry became a place of refuge for young Ezequiel. As the years crawled along, what he learned and what he saw became more and more disconnected. It was unnerving for him, to read through the text presented to him, and knowing that it was all wrong! Certain things were true, perhaps. The dryfolk had a horrid tendency to dump their waste into the ocean. But Ezequiel knew better - it wasn’t out of malice they did this, but ignorance. If they knew, perhaps they wouldn’t! Ezel spent more and more time on the shores of the Dry as he got older. The reality of the Undella shores comforted him, much more than his home did.

Marisol Moreno probably helped a bit.

3. Eelektrik, Eelektross

Marisol was the one that taught Ezequiel that many drylanders didn’t know how to swim. Cecil dared him to prank a drylander by splashing water into their belongings - he only was interested in Marisol because of the hellish shriek she let out when the water touched her skin.

Still, ignoring what is arguably the least strange of their interactions, Marisol Moreno and Ezequiel made quite a pair. The Morenos were a seafaring people, all except for the youngest daughter Marisol, who hated water with a passion. Her father, Señor Moreno, fancied himself an amateur scientist. He loved to take notes on the behavior of fish and sea creatures, and he welcomed his daughter’s friendship with a merman with open arms.

The relationship between Ezel and Marisol began as a simple friendship, built on mutual curiosity. What was it like being a merman? What was it like being a drylander? But over the years, Ezel found that what he was feeling towards Marisol wasn’t a simple friendship, not simple at all! There had to be some explanation for how Mari’s beautiful grin or her impish laugh made him feel. Even her teasing nicknames and casual insults made him feel like he was special. And yet, it was simple in its own way. He was in love with her. So desperately in love that he found himself wanting less and less to be in the water. He wanted to share his beloved’s life on land.

Marisol happily accepted his proposal, and with Señor Moreno’s blessing, the Marisol the drylander Eelektross and Ezequiel the merman Eelektrik were married.

No one told Ludmi Soto.

4. Domestic

Married life was happy for a while.

Ezequiel was madly in love with his wife, and happily accepted all the provisions offered to him by Marisol and her father to help him stay on land. A wheelchair, a camera, some shirts and jackets, among some. Marisol’s freelance photography rubbed off on Ezequiel as well - he developed a love for capturing the minute beautiful things in the world on camera. Nothing seemed to be wrong for the longest time - but it didn’t last. Only a mere 18 hours of being out of the ocean had taken its toll - Ezel’s body would start convulsing and discharging electricity at random.

As difficult as it was for the new bride, her husband had to live in the sea. And as much as she disliked being so close to the water, she couldn’t move away. Ezel had grounded her in Undella. Only a small sacrifice for her beloved, though. Marisol was willing to put that behind her. She could learn to love the ocean that bore her husband, or at least tolerate it. Tolerate sleeping in different beds (one of them a coral bed, no less), tolerate the inability to separate him from the shore, tolerate having a house that stretched over the ocean and dropped the floor so they could live in the same house.

It didn’t take a genius or a marriage counselor to know that this wasn’t working the way they expected it to. For the longest time, the only one who held them together was Xiomara. The little child they both loved despite never knowing, their unborn daughter. Marisol and Ezequiel found a donor they liked to father Marisol's child, and the idea of being linked in such a profound way gave them hope. They never knew what the sex of the child truly was, but Marisol could tell it was a girl. Something in her heart drove her to it. It seemed that for a while after Mara was conceived that Ezequiel and Marisol were capable of putting aside their reservations and accepting their distance - they were connected in a profound, spiritual way. They didn’t need to share a bed.

This didn’t last. Marisol lost the baby in the second month. When the blood was noticed, Señor Moreno had to take his daughter to the hospital.

Ezequiel didn’t go - the hospital was far too inland.

In their grief, the eels stopped talking, their conversation becoming sparse and meager. Marisol began to spend less time taking commissions or taking photographs for fun, and began to spend more time in her twin bed, facing the wall and turning the pages of books without reading them. Ezequiel wanted to say something to her - tell her that it wasn't her fault that they lost their daughter, and it wasn’t her fault that Ezequiel couldn't come to the hospital. Ezequiel watched his wife slowly become destroyed by emotion. She lost her daughter, she gave up her ability to leave the shore, she fell in love with a man who could never sacrifice anything for her - a man who couldn’t even go to the hospital with her to hear that their child was dead.

It was Marisol’s idea to get the divorce. Ezequiel understood why she did it… But he really didn't want her to.

5. The Return

Ezequiel expected Hector and Cecil to welcome him back with sympathy and support, which they did. But he only expected them. What he ended up with was a whole procession of Soto underlings coming to comfort him, apologizing for his loss and offering their help, telling them that his mother was so sorry he was hurt like this, and that she was ready for him to come home.

This was the part he didn’t expect. Ludmi never made that big of a presence in his childhood… why now? But his suspicious were discarded upon seeing her, and accepting her embrace. There was comfort in his mother’s love that he didn’t think was worth questioning. He never felt his mother’s skin before. It felt safe, and comforting. And for a year or so, he stayed with her.

With some adjustments, of course. Ezequiel wasn’t just a clan member, he was a Soto by blood, a possible heir. And for some reason, Ludmi seemed to remember that about him only now. She raised Ezequiel with the morality and ideals that the eelektrik rejected when he was just a boy - under her teachings, the dryfolk  were cruel and merciless. How else could one explain Marisol’s selfishness? Ezel’s addiction with that ugly camera was all the proof one needed of his internalized subordination! Living with Ludmi for a while reminded Ezequiel that he didn’t want to be down here in the first place. As tied as he was to the water, he couldn’t accept being a part of the Soto clan, propagating their untruths, one day ruling over them with the same kind of impersonal determination that his mother did. The breaking point for the eel came when she told him that Hector and Cecil couldn’t spend time with him anymore. After all… They were just underlings.

Ludmi was furious when he told her. Leave? Here? After all the horrible things that drylanders did to him - force him to stay by the shore, fail to deliver his son, break his heart - how could he REALLY want to go back? The Alomomola refused to accept that her son - the only one with actual reason to despise the drylanders, wanted to swim back into their filthy, dusty arms. But Ezequiel’s mind was made up.

The Alomomola told him that he could go if he wanted to.

But he did not have her blessing.

6. Tirtouga Shores.

How many years had he been swimming from enclave to enclave, making use of families’ hospitality? Probably two. It felt like two years. It was a good thing that Ezequiel trusted the drylanders, because he ran into a good number of helpful ones who helped him set up camp. Among these makeshift landlords was a small, wiry man named Dr. Aston Fueller, the PI of a small research lab that was focused on underwater ecology. Ezel paid for Dr. Fueller’s hospitality in shiny trinkets fished from the seafloor… for a while. Fueller eventually realized Ezel’s penchant for photography, and asked that he help his lab collect figures and data of the tirtuoga living in the coral beds offshore in exchange for rent. As the only person Fueller knew who could breathe both underwater and on land, he was perfect for the job. He helped the researchers learn to Snorkel in order to maximize efficiency in Figure collecting, and happily took all the deep-sea photographs.

Some of the photographs were included in the paper. Fueller considered hiring Ezequiel for a full-time job, but couldn’t make himself do it. He was a small-time scientist, with little to pay, and little to give. Besides, the merman had such a skill with the camera… it was almost a shame to treat his art like they were best as figures in a journal. Ezequiel deserved to be an artist, first and foremost. He didn’t hesitate to tell him this.

Dr. Fueller gave Ezequiel a small sum of money and told him about a set of islands nearby that could use a good underwater photographer. It would take a few hours to get there by boat, but it was calm, beautiful, and worth the trip. It was the perfect place for someone like Ezel to start figuring out a small business, and warranted a trip to check the place out.

During the boat ride itself, it occurred to Ezel that he hadn’t really been anyone on his own until he started taking his photography seriously. Perhaps it would be good for him to learn whom he was when no one was there to define him. No boss, no wife, no mother. Ezel was alone for the first time… and it wasn't as scary as he thought.


7. The Deep End 


It has been almost a year. 

One would imagine that after a life of being manipulated and hurt that one would experience the same when moving forward; that it was a matter of attracting bad luck, that it was a matter of being the kind of person that was easy to hurt. 

But things have changed, and so has he. 

Ezequiel has learned to be alone. He has learned that he likes being alone. When you're alone, you don't become close to people who have the power to destroy you. But he was lucky. The people who chose him seem nice, He has good friends, rich experiences. The normal adult life that he wanted with Marisol, he is living by himself. He remains lonely, desperate for company, afraid to approach strangers for fear they will turn against him, but he has discovered that solitude is a friend he need not fear. For once he has the experience of not having anyone he is responsible to, no one who can hurt him....

...well, for the most part. It seems the eel has fallen for someone else, a captivating woman, a dream in his eyes. And she has all the power in the world to hurt him. 

But for the the most part, he's doing better. He can kind of stand up for himself now.


8. Abyss

Ezequiel has been discontent. 

Lately he has been measuring his odds, attempting to reconcile his aquatic origins with the life he has come to love. Ezel has begun to feel haunted, his conversations with his devotedly aquatic sister becoming sparser, his motivations for staying on land fogging up now that Faith has asked serious questions about their future. How will they have children? How will they travel? Will they forever be tied to the shore? It has been a barrage of questions that have made the merman feel insecure... and weak. 

Thankfully a wise man's measured advice seemed to be a impetus for the eel to do something tangible.  A change would not be a cure-all by any means. But anything that could get him closer to feeling in control wouldn't hurt to try... 

9. Air

Ludmi, after years of collecting intel about her son's whereabouts, finally decided to find him. He had been wasting enough of her time, and for reasons she wasn't sure she wanted to divulge, she considered him a threat to her sovereignty. What she didn't account for was her weak grasp on her other children's loyalty - Her youngest daughter Isabel, won over initially by her own foolishness and Ludmi's promise of power, allied herself with Ezequiel shortly after finding him. The betrayal stung Ludmi greatly. But it made it all the more urgent for her to find him. 

And find him she did - she sent messengers to the carvanha to tell him where she was planning on meeting him, and he agreed to go. Having lost most of what he considered dear to him, Ezequiel had nothing left to lose by seeing her. What struck him, however, was Ludmi's unusual proposal. Instead of attacking him, she asked him to return home with him. 

He was never going to go, and he knew he was never going to go. But he didn't have to make the argument - Faith had followed him to the caves, and stood up to the Alomomola, reacting to the mermaid's violent grab at her son by poisoning her arm. Ludmi, enraged by her fear at Ezel's rebellion, her anger at this drylander who dared cross her, and her immense pain, she let out a vicious Whirlpool attack, aimed right at the scolipede. 

Ezel didn't think twice before jumping in to save her. At that moment, all that mattered was making she he found her in the murky depths, bringing her safely to dry land. And he did find her... but the trip back up was stressful. Physically, and emotionally. Ezel couldn't tell if he was swimming fast enough, if Faith had enough air to last her the whole way. The stress was enough to take a lasting toll on his body. 

When he and Faith washed up on the shore, coughing and wincing from their sore muscles, Ezequiel had evolved. And in doing so, he had grown legs.

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       Job: Business Owner

           Shop Name: Tirtouga Shores Snorkeling and Conservation Education Center

  Stock: Snorkeling, venues for grassroots ocean conservation activism - Ezequiel loves the beauty of the undersea flora and fauna, and he thought it fitting that he make his living in letting others understand it too... of course, he needs to start somewhere. So Snorkeling it is for now! He can also plug environmentalism whIle he's giving lessons.

      Talents:

• Ezel is an exceptional underwater photographer, as probably expected of one who does it so seriously. He has a good eye for composition and color, often impulsively taking pictures of a scene when he recognizes it somewhere.

• Ezel was always a good student, being intelligent, respectful, and deferential . But good lord, do not expect him to challenge the integrity what what you tell him! He might disagree if he feels safe with you, but public debate isn’t something he will engage in.

• Ezel can't walk really well, but he's still an amazing swimmer! Very fast. So fast.

• He can play at least one chord on the guitar! _{It’s Dm}

   Ability: Swift Swim

   Moveset

• Aqua Jet

• Brine

• AncientPower

• Protect

       Theme song: '10,000 Emerald Pools' - BØRNS
"All I need is you, you're all I need to breathe..."

       Funfacts:

• Loves rice balls.

• Can’t stay outside of the water for too long - if he does, he starts getting muscle spasms and spontaneously discharges electricity. Not fun. Ezequiel is now a full-fledged drylander~ 

• Upon moving to the land, Ezel's eyesight has gotten a bit worse, working best underwater and working best on land at the nighttime. He can get by without glasses, but he needs his more often now.
  

• Upon moving to the land, Faith bought Ezel a ton of shirts. And pants. So now Ezel actually has a wardrobe. He still prefers loose-fitting and comfortable clothing, but is trying to wear more business casual.

• Ezel’s favorite color is green! Green like grass and like trees. Green like thriving and fertile shores. Green like matcha lattes. Apparently he really likes those.

  
  

  Things I Learned in RPs:

  - Ezel is a little scared of people with large fish totems, or large fish-eater totems

  - Ezel only really owns shirts because you need shirts to be taken seriously in drylander society. He only owns two at the moment; a work tee (the one in his app art) and a button down for formal events. He really dislikes the latter. 

  - Ezel will keep people around if they want him. The only things he hates more than being hurt is being abandoned.

  - Ezel’s favorite Pokémon are Staryu and Corsola! 

  - His least favorite Pokémon is Alomomola but that’s not particularly surprising 

  - Since Lucky works long days, he’s gotten into cooking so he can have meals ready for her when she gets off work... and he really likes cooking! And he’s not half bad.

  - This Boy is a gullible 

  - Ezel is very sensitive about his masculinity since he’s so physically unimpressive - his clan is used to an image of masculinity even more demanding that drylander’s, and is easily offended when his physical strength or constitution is called into question.

  - Ezel is weirdly blasé about his seizures. It upsets some people how casually he treats them. It’s unclear if this is a front or genuine acceptance of his condition.

  - Ezequiel likes to take up hobbies to distract himself from things that bother him.

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Dog/Cat Race: Purrloin

Dog/Cat’s name: Beaufort

Dog/Cat Personality: Beaufort is an amiable if not air-headed kitty, about two years old, and very fat and cuddly. He’s the embodiment of a attention-hog, and will go as far as he can to get Ezel’s - or anyone’s - attention, even if it means sitting on their face during their naps.

Beaufort is also probably THE WORST thief in existence. He seems virtually unable to correctly interpret the value of an object, despite his frequent wandering into the homes of strangers to swipe their goods. Beaufort regularly brings home such marvelous trinkets as bottles of aspirin, empty coffee cups, and socks with holes in them. Only those with holes. The plus side to this is that no one ever seems to notice or suspect the pilfering cat when their stuff goes missing. I doubt anyone really misses their ripped up socks.

Pets:

Leóna Allende || Starmie || F || A sweet, childlike creature, very affectionate and surprisingly expressive for a Pokémon without a face. Likes Friendly visits, hugs, stealing food, dad, and dad's girlfriend. Hates being yelled at, bicycles, and sharpedo (she has mixed feelings about dad's totem change...).

Salchicha || Barbacoa || M || a timid, unassuming fish who really just wants to hang out and not be bothered. Likes rainy days, normal store ambiance, and the occasional trip on land. Hates being touched and that stupid bear. 

Magdalena || Slowpoke || F || A stupid bear. Likes food and sitting down. Not entirely sure if she’s smart enough to hate anything 

Skittles || Mega Gyarados|| M || Mount || A brilliant and MASSIVE fish who mega evolved out of indignation at being ignored. He is very pleased that his sensible advice is being listened to now! Likes being read to, company, Ezel's friend Lark, and quiet evenings in. Hates action-hero stunts and being ignored. 

Pioppini || Pignite || M || A truly benevolent pig who is definitely looking out for you by doesn’t understand his own power. Likes swim time, The smell of flowers, and Being helpful. Hates burning down flowers, or anything else.

Ezelito || Eelektrik || M || A really cute baby lamprey!! Or, as cute as a lamprey can be. Likes spending time with dad, food, and being talked to. Hates being alone, when dad is sad, and mysterious noises.

COURTSHIP

  Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual 

  Status: Married to Faith Ben Shalev

Marriage Gift: A camera or polaroid album filled with cute pictures of him and his partner

Loved Gifts: underwater camera housing, personal photography   

Liked Gifts: Fish paraphernalia, nature films/photography

Disliked Gifts: things with too much metal, foods, actual fish

Hated Gifts: Alomomola paraphenalia, most plastic items, an

Pokemon and Carvanha belong to Nintendo.