Samson Blacksong

Samson Blacksong (formally Samson Whittaker) is an adventurer from the demi-plane of Jhoto. Formerly a member of Team Rocket, he has since severed ties with them and become a paladin who worships the Pokémon Arceus and is a general mercenary for hire from Sigil. Husband of Zaki Blacksong, the two live together in a small home in the wooded area just outside of the small town of Irning.

## Appearance

Samson is an above-average height human with a slim but toned physique. He has green eyes and long white hair that reaches the middle of his back. He typically wears his Team Rocket uniform, which is a black tank top adorned with a large red R that is the symbol of the organization, paired with matching dark grey pants and boots. Attached to the belt of these pants are six red and white balls, called a Poké Ball. Over his uniform, Samson wears the motif of his god. This takes the form of a high collared, long white coat with gold trimmings and matching white and gold gloves. The back of this coat has a small pair of golden arches in the center, that when the coat is worn, generate a larger holographic version that is attached to the back of the coat. Upon Samson's head is a headband with a pair of horns attached to it, with the top of the left one sliced off. While originally solid, over time the material became frayed resulting in a more fluffy, ear-like look. Samson is also always wear two rings on his right hand — a platinum one with spiraling patterns engraved on it on his index finger, and a gold wedding band on his ring finger.

## Personality

Samson is an extremely abrasive man. He is rarely without an insult at the ready and is just extremely rude in general. Thanks to his awoken paladin abilities, he is unable to feel fear, which has lead to a case of extreme overconfidence and recklessness that has done him harm in the past. This extends to his abilities as well, as he tends to believe himself invincible, despite being proven otherwise numerous times, and does not use his own powers to keep himself safe. However, he is extremely protective of the few things he actually cares about, and will do anything and everything in his power to keep them safe and sound. While extremely prideful, he is not above apologizing for misdeeds if it is something he truly didn't intend.

## Backstory

### Pre-Sigil

Samson grew up in Jhoto in Goldenrod City to a neglectful religious mother and abusive alcoholic father. As he grew up, he learned and inherited their traits, gaining his devoutness to Arceus from his mother and his cruelness from his father. As a result, as he grew up and went through school, he was a notorious bully with no friends to speak of. His dad died in a drunk driving accident when he was 14, and his mother of lung cancer when he was 19. He joined Team Rocket at age 20 because he ran out of whatever little money his parents has left him and he had no skills to get a job.

In his early years as a grunt, while notoriously terrible at actual Pokémon battling, he was exemplary at stealing Pokémon. He never bothered with trying to fight Pokémon to Pokémon, instead being incredibly ruthless and just beating up his victims himself — most of which were children — or after the higher ups took notice at how unstable he was, using lent Pokémon from Team Rocket's reserves. Around the age of 23, he was promoted to the rank of Executive, and the higher ups used his willingness to please and do anything to having him do all the crappy, menial office jobs no one wanted to do.

After five years in this new position, his time split between doing paperwork, data entry, and occasionally going out into the field, he grew disgruntled and asked to be able to return to the field permanently again. Team Rocket denied this request, but instead gave him a new project. He was the lead Admin on a new endeavor they were trying: the Arceus Project. After learning of the existence of different dimensions from both the existence of Hoopa and the Ultra Beasts, their goal was to travel to a dimension where Arceus had not yet created the universe and to do it themselves, creating the most powerful Pokémon to ever exist.

Samson, buring with the desire to be important and with the project's goal being to obtain similar power to the god he worshiped, agreed to the position. He gleefully took charge, enjoying the authority and power, though in reality he was just being manipulated once again and used as a fall guy should their operations under the Goldenrod Game Corner be discovered.

The project revolved around a Hoopa and shiny perfect IV Ditto, with the goal being to splice the ditto's DNA into one of Hoopa's hoops, allowing for cross-dimensional travel at will, instead of just spatial relocation. It took a while, but the experiment was a success. After two years, the correct DNA sequence turned the Hoopa's hoop into a copy of the 9th level spell Gate, which opened up a portal to Sigil. Samson, being the closest, was the target along with the Hoopa itself. The two were separated upon arrival, however, and upon awaking, Samson found himself in a strange city, where all sorts of weird creatures — even stranger than the ones he was used to — were walking around.

Scared and confused, he prayed to Arceus, and much to his surprise, he was suddenly filled with what he could only describe as holy power, as his connection to Arceus deepened like it never had before. No longer scared, he decided to test out this power and learn more about the world that he was now in, where he learned about the city of Sigil and all the adventurers in it. With his new powers and his Delcatty — which was the only Pokémon on him at the time — he traveled the city, practicing his abilities, absorbing as much knowledge as his could about this strange new world.

He even joined a guild in the city — one that promised him the friendship he never had growing up. He decided to try to turn over a new leaf in this new world — he had no friends or family to return to, so he would go straight and help people in this world where everyone was in need or services from people with extraordinary powers like his called adventurers.