Captain Clover McCarthy

Clover was born in Blackthorne to parents that were obviously not expecting a boy, but he was given the name they had picked out anyway. The act of spite was only one of the ways they showed their bitterness, but of course, the child was too young to understand it. They were extremely upset over the fact that their child wasn't what they wanted, and started neglecting to take care of him. One of the dragons that the parents owned, a Salamence, noticed what her trainer was doing and decided to take matters into her own claws. She grew attached to the baby, and then intimidated her own trainer to at least do the bare minimum of child rearing. Feeding, changing, and anything else that the large, quadrupedal dragon could not do was handled by his human parents, but any and all nurturing was handled by her. He knew that the humans were his actual parents, but the Salamence actually played with him and gave him affection, so he considered her "Mom."

When he was old enough to start playing with other children, he managed to adjust fairly well despite his strange upbringing. Though he did have to learn to not be as rough with other kids, and that some kids didn't like to play fight. He didn't realize why almost every kid gave him strange looks everytime he told them what his name was until one of the kids started making fun of it. He was initially confused about it, and his confusion only served to make the other kid spell out that Clover was a "girl's" name. He honestly had no idea why the other kid was finding this funny, and the other kid lost momentum with the insults when the target just didn't respond to them. Eventually, the kid just yelled at him one last time before running off, and Clover decided to ask his parents about it. They then informed him about how they had wanted a girl, but they got him instead. The harsh words hurt the child deeply, and he ran to the Salamence. The dragon was infuriated by the parent's words and actions, and she did her best to let him know that she loved him regardless. Her actions spoke loud enough for him to understand, and it cemented in his mind that the Salamence was a better parent than his biological ones.

The issue of his name and gender not matching up came up while at school many times, but no one could give him a good reason for why it was weird beyond gender constructs. It didn't make logical sense in his mind, so he normally disregarded it. Some of the kids didn't care after a while, but, of course, some wanted to make an issue of it. Eventually, he got tired of just ignoring it and decided to start messing with his antagonists. Each time that they tried teasing him, he started twisting their words or going along with it. If he was called girly, he would then act overtly feminine just to make them uncomfortable and to confuse them. Despite this, he did fairly well in school for the short time he attended.

As soon as he was old enough to leave on a journey, he packed up and sneaked out with the Salamence's pokeball. One of the dragon trainers that he had watched the adventurous boy grow gave him a Noibat to be his official starter, and he left his hometown and never looked back. The Noibat was named Highwind, after a reoccurring name in a series of games he liked playing. He quickly fell in love with the trainer lifestyle, and he wasn't sure which he loved more, battling or travelling. One would think that he would have focused on dragon given his hometown and the two pokemon he had, but he found he was just as interested in other pokemon types. As soon as he saw a Mareep, he wanted to hug one, and the first one that allowed him found the boy amusing and allowed him to catch him.

A few weeks after catching Glaedr, Clover was battling some other trainers his age on the edge of a town when an older boy caught his attention. He didn't think much on it then because there were several other trainers that he was wanting to battle before heading to the Pokemon Center for the night. When he went into town later that afternoon, he heard yelling, and wondering what was going on, he followed the angry voice. There he found the boy from earlier shouting at a cowering Ralts in front of several other trainers Clover's age. Clover didn't have to stand there long to find out what the boy was angry over; apparently the Ralts was having issues keeping up with the other Pokemon the boy owned. The boy had beaten the other trainers, but the Ralts hadn't been able to contribute at all and got knocked out quickly.

Deciding he didn't like this trainer's tone towards his pokemon, Clover challenged him to a battle with the Ralts as a prize if he won. The older boy thought the fight was going to be easy due to Clover's age, but Clover decided to bring out the Salamence. He normally never fought with her, for he felt like it would be cheating to bring out a Pokemon he didn't train, but he made an exception for this fight. Due to the amount of witnesses to the deal and battle, the boy couldn't back out of his agreement after thoroughly getting his ass kicked. Clover took the Ralts with him to the Pokemon Center, and after explaining what happened, the Nurse told him to keep the young Pokemon. He named the Ralts Shinryu, and the Ralts really couldn't believe his fortune. He never thought that anyone would care enough about him to take him away from the horrible trainer, and then give him a name.

After that, his journey through Johto was relatively uneventful, but he still enjoyed meeting new people and seeing new places. Eventually, he went over to Kanto to see what was over there, and he stopped in Vermillion City. While in this city, he explored the docks and started loving the idea of traveling on boats and seeing new regions. This lead to him asking around for jobs on boats, and he eventually got one on a cargo ship. For the next several years, he worked for and on various boats and saw the ports of various regions. He started at the bottom of the totem pole, and this allowed him to build up physical strength. However, he was able to climb up the ranks with his determination, quick wit, and personable nature, and this caught the eye of one of the captains he worked for. The captain took him under his wing eventually, and began to train him to be the captain of the ship. The old captain eventually retired and allowed Clover to take his place, and everything was good for a few years. Clover enjoyed his job, and life was good as far as he was concerned.

Then the world went to hell in the middle of a long distance cargo run. They had gotten some frantic radio calls, but most of them cut to static before much sense could be made. It wasn't until the ship was attacked by a rotting corpse of a Gyarados that they realized what the problem was. The Gyarados tore the ship apart and killed anything that it saw moving. Clover managed to save his Pokemon and told Shinryu to take his pokemon, see if he could find anyone else, and then Teleport away. He was going to try distracting the undead beast as well as he could, but Shinryu was not willing to lose his trainer. The Gardevoir instead grabbed Clover and teleported away instantly. When the teleport finished, they were on land, far away from the ship, and Clover was extremely angry over Shinryu's disobedience.

It wasn't so much that he was mad over the disobedience itself, but he was guilty and angry that he had abandoned the men, women, and Pokemon that might have still been on the ship. As the saying goes, a captain goes down with their ship. He was unable to confront the Gardevoir over the matter for a while, however, for infected and undead rampaged and survival became top priority. Later on, they found a universal communicator, and with the technology, Clover was finally able to hear Ryu's side of the story. The two eventually settled the matter as differences of opinion, and Clover decided not to hold ill will towards Ryu about it.

Clover decided to stay on the move, in the hopes that undead would leave him alone if he didn't stay in one place for too long. The fact that his streak of wanderlust was a mile wide helped with that decision, but he knew that he can't stay on the move forever. If he ran into other people, it might be a good idea to team up.

-Loud
   He's used to having to shout for many reasons, so his volume control is a little messed up. He sometimes has to be reminded to be quiet.
-Fun-loving
   Believes that life is too short to stay serious all the time.
-Loyal
   Sticks to his friends regardless of the circumstances. This is what causes some tension between him and Ryu since Clover is willing to stay with friends until death.
-Willing to give everyone a shot
   No matter what someone did in the past, what matters most is the here and now.
-Gets a primal thrill out of fighting
   He enjoys fighting. Pokemon battles, or actually getting involved himself. As terrifying as a zombie apocalypse is, the fact that he and his pokemon can fight back brings him a certain feeling of safety.
-Calm under pressure
   He was on the sea for enough time that thinking on his feet is second nature.
-Good secret keeper
   If something is said to him in confidence, it would take drastic circumstances to make him spill it.
-Loves trolling people
   He doesn't pull practical pranks, but he has a love of puns. Often pulls them out for a quick gag. Twists words and phrases to rile others up.
-Smarter than he lets on
   As a man of action, it isn't always obvious that he is intelligent. He's very good with coming up with battle strategies under pressure, and he can come up with clever ideas to get out of situations.
-Killing it now and asking questions later is either a problem or an asset depending on who is asking
-Vindictive Anger
   When he does get angry, it isn't pretty. If it happens in a fight, sometimes he'll get carried away when inflicting damage.
-Charming
   He tries to get along with others and is generally nice. Has a ready smile for almost anyone.
-Optimistic
   Sees the best of any situation. As long as he's alive, there's hope.
-Despite his optimism, he is aware of the danger he is in
   But he equates it to being a sailor. Sometimes the sea is a cruel mistress.
-Possessive
   His stuff is his, and he doesn't take kindly to others trying to steal from him. He knows that sometimes people are desperate, but stealing instantly sours his mood towards anyone who tries.
-Tries to combat this by being generous.