Circus Darkrai- Rainier

I can't legs.
Download for the full picture and SEE AL MY MISTAKES

•Name: Rainier Augustin

•Age: 26

•Gender: Male

•Pokémon: Trevenant 

•Ability: Natural Cure

•Job: Illusionist/Escape artist

•Personality:

Guarded|Kind|Gut Wrenchingly Polite|Passive Aggressive|Submissive|Repressed|_{Secretly a Bit Impish}

While he's the picture of compassion and understanding, he's a little guarded about his own feelings. Should you catch him in one of the few times he lets his fear or sadness show, he will do everything in his power to change the subject, and resents those that try to help him, convincing himself that those kind of emotions should be kept out of sight. He's extremely measured when it comes to feelings of any kind really, always mindful of the appropriate and respectful reaction to any situation. Should emotions creep up on him unexpected, it sort of throws him for a loop, and this loss of control only serves to frustrate him.
His lessons as a serving boy have taught him to show nothing but a smile, say nothing but a compliment, be respectful, entertain. No one likes the sight of their servant weeping in the corner so these feelings should be clamped down as much as possible.
 
It goes without saying that he tends to cow to authority and finds it hard to say no, even to people he knows aren't above him in status. Take a stern voice with him and he'll do pretty much whatever you ask. He does have his breaking point of course, and he doesn't respond as well to people that use his nature cruelly against him or others, but it takes a lot to push him. He'll be polite even when he's telling someone to sod off. He might call you a wank and you'd never really guess it by the way he worded it.

Above all, he's as kind as they come, though whether this is his true nature or just a product of his training, it's difficult to say for sure.

•Wish: "I wish I could take his place! It should be me up there!" _{(I really hate the wording of this but I can't think of anything better dammit)}

This wasn't Rainier's wish, but it was the one that indentured him to Mr. Dark. When Denton forced her and Rainier to accompany him to the circus that night, in one of the few moments Ossane was away from them, she met the strange figure Mr. Dark. He saw the way Denton treated she and Rainier, and offered her a way out. A wish, anything she desired, he claimed he could grant it. Convinced there would be a catch, Osanne initially refused, saying she and Rainier and deal with Denton their own way. She never would have believed their 'own way' would consist of killing him.
After Rainier was taken off to be executed, Osanne fled back to the circus to find the strange ringmaster that offered her the lofty promise of a wish. She would never confess her love to the Trevenant but damned if she was going to let him die. She made her wish, almost demanding that he save Rainier, and Mr. Dark was all too happy to oblige.
A few moments before Rainier would have been strangled to death, she took his place at the end of the noose, saving Rainier but of course giving her life in the process. Not only did she die in place of him, but all accounts of Denton's murder pinned her as the murderer, Mr. Dark and Rainier being the only people that know the truth of what happened.

Now he's forced to wear the noose that nearly took his life. If he goes too far from the circus or tries to take it off, it constricts around his windpipe and chokes him. It's usually never enough to actually kill him, just enough to make him black out if he keeps trying to resist it.


•History: 

Born to an impoverished couple in the slums of a bustling city, Rainier's family was one of many that tried to rise above the crime and cruelty of their lot in life and prove they weren't low class criminals. He admired his parents for trying to exist on the 'good' path, but that didn't change the fact they were starving, lived in a rat infested hole, and were indebted to practically everyone in the city for one reason or another. Despite his parents' insistence he live an honest life, he turned to crime at a young age to help pay their way. He was too young to work afterall, and their money woes wouldn't wait until he was old enough to get a penny job in some factory where he was liable to get a finger cut off.
Things started small, pinched wallets, cut purses, a pocketed watch here and there. Being that he was a shiny, this made him easy to pick out of a crowd, and a noticeable thief makes for a famous thief, and a famous thief is no thief at all. When he made a name for himself in town and it became increasingly hard to pull off his minor jobs without drawing attention, he turned to jobs requiring stealth and tact. Where once he could walk in broad daylight and pick pocket his way through a crowd, now he took to sneaking along the shadows or on the rooftops, stealing into homes and businesses and taking only the most valuable items he could carry. He was quite good at it too, and at eluding the authorities. The few times he was picked up didn't last long as he easily slipped out of custody, you could say these early years thieving are what taught him many of the tricks he uses in his act, most prominently being the 'slipping out of cuffs before the constable notices you're squirming' trick.

As he grew older, he grew bolder, his confidence growing until he was a little too sure of himself and his abilities, and he started tackling the richer districts of the city. One job had him breaking into the home of an old Stoutland woman, but in his pride he slipped up and was seen by a maid that alerted the entire household to his presence. He was soon fleeing the house with empty hands and the police force on his tail. The chase lasted hours and he almost, almost escaped once or twice, zi zagging over rooftops and ducking through alleys to the chorus of baying hounds. When it looked like he was just about to elude them, he made another careless misstep and tripped up, giving the police just the edge they needed to catch him and haul him back to face justice. However, much to his surprise, the old woman didn't press charges. She went so far as to bribe the cops into letting him go. He was expecting some kind of punishment, or at least a lecture, maybe she was convinced she could talk him out of being a thief, but no. She spoke kindly to him and never once would you even guess he'd just tried to steal in her home. When his parents arrived to take him home, Rainier was sure the old woman would just let him go, hell, maybe she would even give his parents a little money if she knew about their troubles.
Instead, she offered to buy him.

At first they were reluctant, he was their child after all, but knew she could give him the life they just couldn't provide him. And the money Lady Cunning offered them was like offering an drink of water to a man drying out in the desert. With heavy hearts, they agreed, and left the young Phantump in the care of the wealthy old Stoutland.
It would be years before he really acclimated, and the bitterness at being left behind stuck with him for a long time. Eventually, through time and the patience Lady Cunning showed him, he grew to accept his role, and even began to enjoy it. He got to travel with her as she and her friends enjoyed him for his clever tongue and the occasional acrobatics Lady Cunning had him demonstrate, and she certainly enjoyed showing him off. He made friends with the staff, a close knit family that came to be closer to him than his real family, and though he still thought on his parents from time to time, he wasn't so heartbroken over the whole ordeal within a few years. Lady Cunning even became something of a mother figure to him, and he found himself among people he came to love.
There were hard times of course, he hated the people she associated with and he lived in rather cramped quarters with the others live in servants, but worse, worse than anything was Denton Cunning.
Lady Cunning's only son, he was a spoiled little Houndour (_{I don't go by egg groups those are stupid shut up}) that took far too much enjoyment out of torturing him, as he was one of the few servants near him in age. They started as juvenile pranks in his youth, he would call him names, threaten to cut off his branches, even went through the trouble of teaching his bird to speak and squawk insults at Rainier. He hated the little bastard, but was comforted by the knowledge Lady Cunning was always there. And later, in his teens, he met with Osanne, a Persian they recently hired to work the kitchen. Having grown up in similar poverty, they grew closer than any of the other staff members, as Rainier admired her for not going down the route of crime he had, though her circumstances in early childhood were the same. He saw a strength in that that he always admired in his parents. Osanne, in turn, thought of him like a big brother at first, a kind soul that taught her the ropes and spared her Denton's cruelty whenever he could. The two became fast friends, and Rainier would sneak down the kitchen every chance he got to talk, as the girl had a razor sharp wit and a sense of humor he appreciated, in delightful contrast to the stuffed shirts he hung out all day with.

For many years things were good for Rainier, he was content and even in spite of Denton's idiotic punishments and jokes that only grew harsher over time, he served Lady Cunning faithfully.
But she was old, frail, and already had one foot in the grave when he first met her. Her health got worse, her eyes went bad, and inevitably she took to a sickbed and never rose from it again. When she died, Rainier was heartbroken. He was close to the other servants, yes, but he was just sure he could count none of them as a confidant, and so bore his grief with no one but Osanne to turn to. Lady Cunning's death nearly ruined him, the life he had tried to hard to rebuild after he was sold simply vanished into thin air, but her death would soon be the least of his problems.

With no one to keep him in check, and suffering from his own grief over his mother's death, Denton went what could only be described as mad. Utterly, completely, mad. He always had a mean streak a mile long, but without his mother there to be his conscience, he started being physically abusive where before he had only tortured them emotionally, and let's not forget he started drinking heavily. Many in his service left before things really came to a head, but Rainier remained. He had no place to go, and in some strange way he felt like he owed his Lady this, that he should suffer her son because she loved him. He hoped to maybe quell the troubled youths sudden violent tendencies, but instead found himself the person Denton would lash out at the most as he was one of the few that stayed when Lady Cunning died and one of the few Denton felt truly powerful over.
In a weird way Denton thought of him like a friend, having had no friends growing up, and after the death of his mother he not only started being abusive, but started taking him to parties and out on the town, his reasons given being that he wanted to see what his mother saw in him that made her love him so damn much. He actually took Osanne (who he roped into his sad circle of friends) and Rainier to a carnival once, though the night pretty much consisted of them following him around and trying to keep him from drunkenly hurling in the cotton candy machines. It was a terrible night, and would only get worse once they left. There they had seen many acts, but apparently the one that stuck out the most for Denton was the one involving a performer doing tricks with a bullwhip, and joy of joys, he'd recently gotten a bullwhip imported from over seas. When they retired to the mansion for the night, Denton was even drunker than he had been as of late. Drunken and barbarous as ever, even to the one person he considered a friend. He started insisting that Rainier let him try a few tricks he'd seen, having no actual clue how to even hold a whip properly, let alone use it. Despite his protests, Denton, drunkenly hitching, started cracking the whip in the Trevenant's direction, apparently aiming for his sides or around him, but only succeeding in striking Rainier viciously across his chest and arms. Osanne tried to get him to stop when he began drawing blood, though it did no real good. When she finally managed to pry the whip from his hands, Denton, still giddy under alcohol's hold on him and the high of the carnival earlier that night, insisted they instead move onto throwing knives.

Rainier again pleaded with him to come to his senses, but the lordling had already set his sights on Osanne. He was preparing to blindly fling deadly sharp blades at the cook. Horrified, Rainier was at a loss until he threw the first knife and, thankfully, missed her, but he was winding up for the second throw, and Osanne was pinned against the wall. The next blade clipped her side and sunk deep into the wall behind her. Resolute to stop this when he saw blood seep through her shirt, he snatched up the fallen knife and buried it deep into Denton's shoulder.
The Houndoom shrieked, he fell backwards and clattered to the floor, howling obscenities, howling the brutal punishments he would inflict on them both. Something swelled terrifyingly in Rainier's chest that day, and he may never be sure what overcame him as he retrieved the knife from his lord's shoulder and stuck it deep into his chest. It was something awful. Made worse because he felt nothing when he looked down on the man that had caused him such hardship in the years before. The guilt would come later, it would be all consuming and weigh heavy in his chest, but in that moment he felt nothing.

He gave no resistance when the police hauled him off to jail for the first time in many years, and consequently what would be the last time. He accepted the fate he faced at the end of a hangman's noose. The other staff that came to see him didn't seem so ready to accept it, Osanne especially, who tried to convince the authorities that it was self defense. To no avail. They were hardly likely to believe a lowly servant's word above the screeching aristocracy that called for justice for the son of a prominent family. Rainier never really expected different.
On the day he walked the gallows, he offered an apologetic smile to the members of the staff that attended and cried his innocence. He knew he wasn't innocent. Though he also knew the bastard wouldn't be missed, even by the lords of the city that pretended to mourn him, his only regret was that he knew this would have broken Lady Cunning's heart.
That rope clung tight around his throat.

He didn't have the good fortune of breaking his neck on the way down. No, this would be the slow death by strangulation. It was slow as well, agonizingly slow, his head splitting as he was deprived oxygen. But in the last moment before he mercifully blacked out, he felt like the world turned by some strange force. Stars swam in the blurry edges of his vision but soon everything was dark.

He awoke on the hills of the gallows with a start who knows how many hours later, to his surprise, still very much alive though his neck felt ready to tear apart where the rope had bitten into his skin. At first he thought he had been cut down. As he looked up to face the gallows, he saw there was someone else hanging where he had been only moments ago. Osanne. Panicked, he clambered to his feet, about to climb the gallows when he felt a sharp tug around his neck again. Only now did he realize he still wore a noose around his shoulders, and someone was holding the other end of the rope like a leash. A lone Darkrai remained the only spectator to the execution.

"Young love," the stranger chuckled darkly, "Unrequited and tragic. So sad."

A thousand questions buzzed in Rainier's mind, he tried to give them voice. The Darkrai pulled the rope taut around his throat.

"All will be explained. Now come, you've a contract to fulfill."
 


TL;DR: *giant inhale*
Grew up on the streets, took to stealing, tried to steal from a rich lady, rich lady bought him and made him a servant, made friends with rich lady, made friends with a sassy cook, rich lady's son was ass, rich lady died, rich lady's son became a crazy drunk, tried to stab cook, Rainier killed him, went to jail, got executed, saved at the last moment by sassy cook making a deal with Mr. Dark to take his place, sassy cook got executed instead, sassy cook was actually in love with him, now has to work for circus
*exhale*


•Likes:
-Cleaning. Way, way too much.
-Entertaining (friends at least, he's a little resentful of performing for Mr. Dark)
-Nature
-Long walks on the beach how cliche
-Any excuse he can get to leave the circus grounds (without getting choked)

•Dislikes:
-Aggressive people, especially those in a position of authority
-Tight spaces/being cooped up
-Loud noises
-Cologne Cologne is an affront to his senses and he doesn't need it, he always smells like a god damn pine forest
-Any kind of manufactured, manmade smells really

•Move set:

Calm Mind

Confuse Ray

Astonish

Trick Room

•Extra: 
-His 'iris' moves between his eyes, so it can switch from his left side to the right and vice versa. Yes it is very creepy looking.

-He tends to get a little twitchy if he doesn't have something to keep him busy, so you might find him cleaning your room just because he neeeeeds to do soooooomething ;A;

-He gravitates to people with a good sense of humor, and may try to indulge in the occasional prank, but he's not very good at them. At his worst he'll switch two people's drinks and run off to giggle in the corner.