[attr="class","rostername"]@henry

[attr="class","rostersub"]a twenty five year old artist from Floraroama Town, Sinnoh

[attr="class","rostercat"]HENRY EDGAR PIPKIN

[attr="class","rostercat"]25

[attr="class","rostercat"]MALE

[attr="class","rostercat"]HOMOSEXUAL

[attr="class","rostercat"]COORDINATOR

[attr="class","rostercat"]BUG TYPE

[attr="class","rostercat2"]
On the surface, Henry appears to be a man of little passions. Aloof, and distant, the kind of hot that makes people intimidated, he tends to push people away by his mere presence in a room. It would be a lie to say Henry has not used this to his advantage, putting on his resting bitch face to avoid endless small talk or social niceties. His coldness never diminishes his presence, he's too tall for that, but it has been both a tool and a hindrance in his life.

But the reality is, the man has quite a few passions. Growing up he squashed them down for fear of judgement. His love of painting, for example. His admiration of the male physique. His love for bug types. Entranced by the iridescence of their wings and the grace of their bodies, Henry is a fervent fan of bug type pokemon, often times surprising people with his passionate defense of their virtues. Anyone attempting to whine about their uselessness or grossness can suddenly receive an earful from a blushing, furious Henry. A surprisingly well researched earful at that.

While he could hardly describe himself as bookish, Henry appreciates a quite moment online reading and discussing bug type pokemon on bug catcher forums. The internet, he found, was helpful in fueling his muse and confidence. It was also where he found his first of terrible boyfriends, but well, that's a story for another day.

Organized and neat, Henry can rarely be found with a hair out of place or wrinkled clothing. Although he dresses in a surprisingly simple, casual way, there is a certain level of self awareness in the ways he chooses to present himself. He simply can't stand sloppy technique whether that be painting, pokemon contests, or personal appearance. This can make him overbearing, and may cause friction with his team as he demands even simple moves be preformed with technical perfection and grace. Rigorous practice has never been something Henry has shied away from.

When speaking with Henry, even attempting to make friends or a romantic partner, he rarely ends up warming up in a traditional way. Small, calculated displays of affection, a gift here, a favor there, speak louder for him then soft words. He doesn't trust anyone who can speak with great emotion, especially if it is, in his mind, too soon.

Henry's life has been a calculated game of whats okay when, and as he has gotten older he has begun to shake off that thinking, though sometimes it still lingers. For him, moving to Inset is a new start, a metamorphosis of sorts. Pursuing contests in addition to painting, expanding his visual art forms is in many ways an attempt to open himself up and be vulnerable, something he absolutely hates doing. Raw emotion, he knows, is integral to making good art. So the things he hates: long uncomfortable conversations with boring strangers, breaks from routine, and being unashamedly himself are the key, he hopes, to breaking through his current art block. When he can no longer hide behind his work, but must become it, that will be the force to make him evolve into something greater. And if he can do it alongside beautiful bug types, then all the better.

[attr="class","rostercatsub2"]PERSONALITY

[attr="class","rostercat2"]tw: Henry as a character, and in this history, uses queer as a generalized identifier for the larger lgbtqa+ community

Henry had normal parents, loving parents even. Two good, straight people with their two kids and a poochyena. But growing up in Floraroama Town was different. It had small town charm, the type of little touristy destination that depended on appearances to keep strangers rolling in with their money every spring to buy flowers and gawk at the displays. Floraroama Town was not very forgiving to those who were different, at least not for Henry.

Also, despite where they lived, Henry grew up with certain manly expectations presented by his father, who would travel into the mountains to earn his living. But Henry did not care for dirt or trucks. He liked bugs, and painting, and sitting in the flower fields contemplating things. His father liked to call him moody on a good day. His mother called him sensitive. His sister called him a dork. It was all just growing up.

By the time Henry had reached his preteens, he came to the uncomfortable realization that his feelings towards a long-time friend weren't perfectly platonic. And then came the fear of being the gay one. Having never identified with the stereotypes playing on his tv, loud, colorful snarky men without specks of body hair, Henry came to dread what that could mean. As he got older he has come to realize much of that fear was the panicked imaginings of a scared thirteen year-old. But rather than accepting himself he repressed until he found online forums.

People talked about their interests, their lives. Bug enthusiasts and queer people and sometimes both welcomed him through screen names. Henry is hardly the type to get sentimental, but he knows what it meant to him, to know others that shared his realities. He learned there was all sorts of ways to be gay, a spectrum of very real people outside of personalities. He began to slip into a comfort in his skin.

He came out.

It went better than expected. He wasn't thrown out of his house. No one screamed. His mom hugged him, but there was a new tension between him and his father, the sort of small insidious comments that slipped out, every now and then, which threatened to choke Henry.

At the same time he met his first boyfriend, Augie, online when he was twenty. The two became official when Henry turned twenty-two, Henry becoming more and more despondent at living in his parent's home. Augie begged Henry to move to Jubilife, to stay with him for a while, experience things in the big city. So Henry did, and it was nice for a year or two. But there were fights, a lot of fights. Henry was clinging to his passion for art and painting, but money wasn't rolling in, forcing Augie to take care of him, breeding a resentment that created a toxic, dependent relationship where Henry, spurred by guilt tried to make up for it in other ways. When Augie increasingly demanded Henry find a job, a good job, Henry resisted. Augie didn't understand Henry's art, was frustrated by his boyfriend's clinging obsession to a money pit of a career. And Henry couldn't live without expressing himself in the only way he knew how. They clung together for a few more painful months before they ended it.

He rebounded, hard. Dated other men for a week or a month at a time, crashing at their place or on friend's couches. But it was draining, emotionally crushing, unsustainable. At that point Henry faced a choice. He could go back to Floraroama, to his parent's home. Or he could go somewhere new, try something new. After learning about the burgeoning new arts and coordinating scene in Inset, Henry saw a new start, potential to explore himself away from the preconceived notions of his home region. His mother supported him, slipped him enough cash to book his fare and keep him housed in crappy motels for a week or two. And that gesture was enough.

[attr="class","rostercatsub2"]HISTORY