#⛅ ━ 𝗅𝖾𝗍'𝗌 𝗄𝖾𝖾𝗉 𝖺𝗂𝗆𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝗁𝗂𝗀𝗁𝖾𝗋! / falkner hc.

[zephyricd]

—Never the first, never the last.

hayato’s not the first one to take on the trials of lord articuno in this generation of people. no, some decade and a half ago, another yukihane was set to take on the trial and be the herald—yukihane yulan. a devoted and confident falconer, much like hayato himself when he is of age, her departure was his final sight of his beloved older sister. she did not survive the trek back from the mountains beyond mahogany town, where articuno resided for her trial. 

days of no response from her had sealed her fated—not all that took on articuno were guaranteed to succeed, a known risk to those who were deemed capable to train for such an endeavor. a young, five year old hayato simply did not understand, that is, until he’d discovered his fear of ghosts—when the sorrowful call of a froslass would be at the gates of the yukihane citadel. the young boy would find himself terrified, seeing the ghost and inevitably fleeing after slamming the gates shut. he has no idea if she followed, but her identity is lost on him.

legends speak of froslass as a reborn woman possessing an icicle, and perhaps, perhaps yulan would bleed and freeze clutching nevermeltice in her hands, sinking in the failure of her ambitions and the hope that her brother could overcome for the both of them, alone in the mountains as her lord peers over her before determining the trial is over. her corpse would feed the starving fauna and her soul would find it’s way back to violet city, only to be shunned and feared, with the snowfall on a clear night haunting her beloved brother. 

a certain figure would inevitably be summoned in order to dispel her presence, but instead, she’s fit to join the ensemble of ghost types—a stasis in being capable of watching over hayato despite her mortal departure. hayato does not know yulan is near ( and perhaps it’s safest that he never knows ). 

[zephyricd]

hayato is the go-to guy for rehabilitating birds, unsurprisingly. a violet city residents tend to seek him out if there's an injured bird that the pkmn center can't easily heal themselves—even then, his advice is usually sought out regardless. after word spread, however, youngsters would chase him down for something only a potion is needed for. however, seeing as he's happy seeing bright young would-be trainers picking flying types to be part of their teams ( or their first choice as a partner!! ), he doesn't shoo them off and instead carries a few potions on him at all times. it's the perfect opportunity to teach youngsters how to care for birds and what they should seek him out for.

[zephyricd]

yukihane hayato ( 雪羽 · ハヤト ), loosely translates to just snow feather / falcon. his family name very specifically refers to his family’s direct connection to the lord articuno, a family who dedicated themselves to maintaining their connection to their most revered since ancient times. his clan is one of the original families that settled into the region now known as violet city, originally a migratory tribe of falconers that settled permanently upon discovering the western roost of articuno, when the tides surrounding seafoam islands grew too high to remain in the depths of the cave systems. 

this is technically public information as far as central johto goes--especially those who live in violet city. articuno can often be seen flying overhead or even in violet city’s gym for those lucky ( or unlucky ) enough to be able to battle them. of course, this does require a great deal of care to be taken in order to prevent theft and needless injury, especially after the events of gsc/hgss. however, the bird is not stupid. articuno is the epitome of “do not cite the deep magic to me, witch. i was there when it was written.” much like their brethren. 

what is kept private, however, is the transfer of knowledge and preservation of articuno’s primal reversion, which is the real reason why articuno has thus stayed attached to the yukihane family for generations. the connection between the two entities is not bound by anything except for mutual trust. the yukihane family chooses to bind themselves to the honor and the duty for their revered.

[zephyricd]

temperature sensitivity—yato is accustomed to the cold after prlonged exposure training with articuno. it inadvertently raises his status as the Cool Awesome Guy as he's still in his short sleeves even during snowfall, but he doesn't particularly pay any mind to it. much of this is through sheer will, though, as his body is only human, and he certainly isn't immune to the effects of being in severe cold longer than a person should be. primal reversion still gives him frostbite on his extremities that take a few days to heal, so for better or for worse, he's come to expect the process.

on the other hand, high heat is not fun, and he has a tendency to be a little dramatic about it when teased. such is the downside to being aligned with the ice bird, but he'll survive if he has some water. ( sunyshore in the summer was hell )

[zephyricd]

actually falkner just has a terrible tendency of being picked up by flying types. he also just happens to be picked up by all of volkner's flying types. all two of them. ( it will be three ) drifblim has picked him up many times. all against his will. arti will just. grab him too.

[zephyricd]

yato has absolute garbage stereopsis after losing his eye--it was not an easy adjustment to make either, especially in the spring of coming of age. he’ll still misjudge where things are in his peripheral ( especially on his right ), sometimes even right in front of him. it’s a difficult handicap to notice as someone who quite skilled with auditory awareness, so yato tends to not turn his head much to compensate for his lack of sight, and this loss of judgment comes off more or less as simply being a bit of a klutz. anyone that knows why he’s impaired to begin with will know he’s struggling--he hates it, in all honesty, but he knows he can’t do anything about it.

additionally, in order to compensate for gauging distance, he tends to estimate based on units of time rather than units of length ( that is, how quickly does his bird fly to the destination or back from it ). once again---as a trained falconer, much like the rest of his family, this does not at all appear to an outsider like anything more than a display of skill. in reality, he just wants to know if something is a little away or a lot away.

[zephyricd]

sb: are you really gonna drop this without any lore yet? me: yeah.

tl;dr the ice bird tells u to grab it’s feather but doesn’t tell u it’s gonna fuckin’ claw your eye out and u were maybe like 12 at the oldest when u took on it’s trial.

[zephyricd]

falkner can't really hide anywhere. birds follow him no matter where he is. all one has to do is simply look upon the horizon. if speaking to him outside for, what, fifteen minutes tops, at least two birds will toddle by his feet or land on his shoulder. longer, and he becomes a mother duck. it's common to see a huddle of natu, pidgey, spearow, and murkow hop after him. even drifloon are attracted to him ( and it terrifies him ).

[zephyricd]

vernacular that's sort of...more or less unique to central johto:

"seven lights, seven feathers, seven graces": the oh geez equivalent

"seven hells": the gdi equivalent

"oh sweet lunar child": oh sweet summer child ( derogatory )

"red as rage": specifically referring to the shiny gyarados at the lake of rage. a description of someone who is probably very very mad.

"on wings of [snow/lightning/ember/gold/silver]": specific to the yukihane clan, a term of safe travels. it's typical to hear this from a resident of violet city.

[zephyricd]

tag dump.