raden

TL;DR

The new Gym Leader of the Goldenrod City Gym. Spends much of his time off the job engineering contraptions at his lab. He can be a very intense character, so people tend to be very 50/50 on their opinions of him. Everyone can agree, however, that he leaves quite the impression.

PERSONALITY

Raden wears his emotions on his sleeve- and also feels them very intensely. (get this man some mood stabilizers.) He has a solemn side, but usually tries not to focus too hard on his existential dread or any negative emotions, which he has much more of than he would like to admit. He is very outgoing and can navigate social situations pretty easily, but still tends to weird people out just a little bit. Or a lot bit. People are very torn on what to think of him- is he passionate and fun or loud and annoying?

HISTORY

Born in Freezington, the first 13 years of Raden's life were painfully uneventful. There isn't exactly much to do there, y'know. The most interesting part of his life up until that point had been an attempt at the Gym Challenge- while he didn't get too far, he did meet a boy by the name of Piers who he became fast friends with. That wasn't meant to last, however, as his parents decided to move to Goldenrod City soon after. His mother was from Johto, and the boringness and isolation of Freezington was beginning to drive her mad. Not to mention, she was interested in finding a career there.

Raden wasn't coping well with this development. He'd lost his very few friends in the move, and he was struggling to make new ones. Things only went further downhill when Raden had a confrontation with Team Rocket. His Pikachu was badly injured, and when it unleashed one last Thunder to try and save Raden, it electrocuted him in the process. Pikachu didn't make it, and it didn't even hit the grunts that had attacked him- so he felt like it had died for nothing.

Raden stopped battling after this, both too depressed to leave the house and too afraid that one of his other Pokemon would meet a similar fate. His parents had to basically force him out of the house to go to college. Raden was always gifted with engineering, and they didn't want his abilities to go to waste.

In college, Raden met someone (almost) just as weird as him- someone named Thorton, who he came to learn ran the Battle Factory in Sinnoh. Despite meeting when Raden got his hand stuck in a vending machine, the two hit it off and became extremely close very quickly. Thorton helped him to get over his fear of battling, mostly just by being so passionate about it in his presence that Raden couldn't help but get excited.

Right before he graduated, Raden was walking along the streets of Goldenrod City when he saw a girl with pink pigtails crying outside the Gym. When he stopped to ask if she was okay and comfort her, she instantly sprung on him an offer- "Do you want to take over the Gym?" Her reasoning was essentially just "Your Electivire looks strong!" Raden, not in any position to deny this, accepted the offer and became the new leader of the Goldenrod Gym by a stroke of absurd luck.

Nowadays, Raden splits his time pretty 50/50 between his Gym Leader duties and screwing around with high voltage electronics in his lab with Thorton. He sets himself on fire from time to time and generally has no regard for his personal safety, but hey, he's doing better than he was as a teenager.

TRIVIA

Since he was raised in Freezington, he has a scottish accent.
His birthday, July 10, is the same as Nikola Tesla's.
He is blind in his left eye. it's lighter and has a white pupil (cataracts)
He has a shit ton of nerve damage from the electrocution incident, so he can barely feel his left arm and fingers.
The scar on his face is called a lichtenberg figure, and it extends down his neck and left arm.