D'Autry

D'Autry is Laurie Hitoki's Sandslash, and the first Pokémon they acquired on their journey.

Appearance

In his Pokemon form, D'Autry resembles a regular Sandslash, albeit one with a yellow straw cowboy hat and slightly rounder eyes- likely to give him a "cuter" and more friendly appearance.

In his human form (prospective name Kris Rogers), D'Autry is presented as a late-teens/early-twenties man with short brown hair and blue eyes. He wears a yellow shirt with a brown jacket over top of it and a yellow necklace with a gold circle on it, as well as long yellow jeans, long black socks, and brown and gold boots. Additionally, he keeps his cowboy hat from his Pokemon form, and is very often seen with a guitar (which, due to his new human form, he is now able to play).

Background

Prior to being given to Laurie for their tenth birthday, D'Autry lived in Driftveil City in the Unova region. His parents were a female Sandslash and a male Absol, from whom he got his Egg move Night Slash. From the very beginning, D'Autry was a bit different compared to his other Sandshrew siblings and even to his own mother. D'Autry and his siblings all lived near the Driftveil City Gym, meaning that most of them naturally wanted to train with their fellow Ground-type Pokemon in order to get stronger. His mother, in fact, naturally encouraged them to do so. D'Autry, however, was far more interested in the massive barn-shaped house that was located right next to it. Every day, he would try to go to the barnhouse in order to see what was inside, only to hear dozens upon dozens of voices singing their hearts out. He couldn't read, but his mother told him that she'd heard that the barnhouse was actually a massive music show known as the Grand Old Operetta; she had always known it as just the GOOprix or the GO2. Immediately intrigued, D'Autry wanted to go and investigate what was inside. One day, while his mother and siblings were out battling at the Gym, D'Autry went over to the GO2 and entered it. What he found inside stunned him to no end. The place was partially a museum, full of country music memorabilia, but the biggest attraction was the massive auditorium filled to the brim with hundreds of Trainers and Pokemon-- and, more importantly, the massive stage where country music artists would perform. That night, D'Autry attended his first ever performance of the GO2, and he ended up loving it so much that he went back home to his mother and father as soon as the show was over to ask them if they knew anything about country music. As it turned out, they knew a lot-- his father in particular had also gone to the GO2 back in the day when he was a kid, and loved every second of it. They taught him about artists such as The Carter Family, Roy Acuff, Johnny Cash, and so on, and D'Autry's interest in country music was instantly piqued. From then on, every Saturday he and his family would attend GO2 shows and attend the GO2 museum, where D'Autry would listen in on tour guides and learn everything he could about country music. His parents eventually taught him to learn to read, so that he could understand the museum's artifacts better.

A few years later, D'Autry found a list of GO2 members lying about on a piece of paper. Much to his shock, when he read it over, he found that names in country music such as The Carter Family (the original Carter Family, not the Carter Sisters), Jimmie Rodgers, Johnny Cash, The Bellamy Brothers, Alabama, and the like were not members of the GO2. He also found that Hank Williams, Jr. and DeFord Bailey had been banned from the GO2 years ago. He asked his mother and father what was going on, and they told him that for years the GO2 had been restrictive about the people and genres that could be shown on the show. Horrified by the unfairness of it all, D'Autry decided to start sending letters to the GO2. His parents taught him how to write, and eventually he wrote his first letter to the GO2, asking them to posthumously induct Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family into it as members (unlike the real Grand Ole Opry, the GO2 can do that, via the same process used to posthumously induct Hall of Famers). He expected no response, but to his complete surprise, a week later, he got a response from the GO2. What he saw, though, slightly disappointed him. While they did posthumously induct Jimmie Rodgers, they harshly turned down his suggestion to have the original Carter Family be members, despite the fact that the Carter Sisters were. Thus started D'Autry's rounds of letters to the GO2... but then something happened. D'Autry soon discovered Flogging Molly, after overhearing some music of theirs on a radio station in a Driftveil store. He looked into the music, and soon found that they were a Celtic rock band. At first, he thought it just sounded cool... until he realized that "Drunken Lullabies" sounded a bit familiar. The more he listened to Flogging Molly's music, the more he realized that they had more in common with country music than he initially would have thought. He eventually came to the conclusion that "Flogging Molly is just punk country", and soon became interested in rock as a genre, falling in love with artists that mixed rock and country in particular (such as Lynrd Skynrd, CCR, his future namesake, the Eagles, and so on). Once he realized that Hank III existed, metal promptly became one of his loves as well, and while he eventually grew to love all three genres equally, Flogging Molly would eventually rise above all the country artists to become his favorite band of all time.

At that point, something was happening with his opinion regarding the GO2: It was changing. While D'Autry still loved country music, he began to get a bit bored hearing the same songs over and over again, and longed to hear something different-- namely, rock music. His parents weren't so sure about this, but D'Autry had the perfect band to start the Opry off with-- Flogging Molly. That night, he promptly sent a letter asking the GO2 if they could invite Flogging Molly to perform. When he got his response, however, something strange immediately stuck out to him again. Once more, the GO2 sent him a letter telling him there was no way they'd invite a rock band to perform at the GO2. D'Autry had expected this, though-- he'd heard about what happened to the Byrds, another rock band, when they performed on the GO2 (they got booed and heckled off stage). It was what he saw on the back of the letter, though, that shocked him. Once again, there was a list of all of the GO2 members-- but this time he noticed that people were missing that hadn't been before. People such as Charlie Pride, Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, Garth Brooks, and the Carter Sisters. D'Autry was confused as to what was going on, but brushed it off as a mistake. Even then, he was disappointed that the GO2 wouldn't invite Flogging Molly onto their stage. However, he just assumed they had never actually listened to their music before and decided to write to the GO2 again and send them albums to listen to.

Details

• Met: Eterna City (given by Laurie's father)
• Birthday: November 28th
• Ability: Sand Veil
• Favorite Move: Rapid Spin
• Nature: Naive
• Characteristic: Good perseverance
• Likes: His Trainer; Cole; rock, metal, and country music; his friends; going to and listening to the Grand Ole Operetta/GOOprix/GO2; the band Flogging Molly; watching documentaries; music history; writing letters to the GO2; battling; the game shows Name That Tune, Only Connect, and Never Mind the Buzzcocks; repeatedly watching Ken Burns' country music documentary; the Grady Smith and Professor of Rock YouTube channels; CCR
• Dislikes: The fact that Cole is gone; seeing his Trainer sad; seeing his friends sad; anyone stifling his enthusiasm for getting Flogging Molly onto the GO2; anyone who mindlessly bashes country music, Flogging Molly, Daughtry, and/or the GO2; any negative responses from the GO2
• Nickname origin: From the band Daughtry (and their lead singer Chris Daughtry by proxy); along with the "singing cowboy" Gene Autry
• Favorite bands: Flogging Molly, Daughtry, and CCR
• Ball: Poke
• Hasslemon typing quirk: =8o All messages start with a shamr(o)ck, representing his l(o)ve (o)f Celtic rock music. All O's are surr(o)unded by parenthesis t(o) have them resemble a rec(o)rd, as well as the massive circle (o)f w(o)(o)d present at the G(O)2. All instances (o)f the letters G and (O) t(o)gether are capitalized, and all messages end with a guitar that s(o)metimes will say s(o)mething depending (o)n D'Autry's em(o)ti(o)ns (o)r th(o)ughts, with "THANKS" usually being the default message. ===(O)

A prospective fullbody D'Autry gijinka, as done by Goldenheart388.

Known Moves

• : Crush Claw, Defense Curl, Rapid Spin, Swift, Fury Swipes, Slash
• : Agility
• : Poison Sting
• : Rollout
• : Fury Cutter
• : Sand Attack, Bulldoze, Sand Tomb, Dig
• : Gyro Ball
• : Night Slash

Trivia

• D'Autry's nickname is derived from two different musicians. The first is Chris Daughtry, lead singer of his eponymous band (i.e. Daughtry; hence the pronunciation), and the second is the singing cowboy Gene Autry (hence the spelling). As such, D'Autry's birthday is neither of his two namesakes', but is instead November 28th, which is, fittingly, the day that the Grand Ole Opry first made its radio debut.
• According to Goldenheart388, D'Autry's Hasslemon handle is celticCatalyst (CC). This is a reference to the entire reasoning behind D'Autry wanting to get Flogging Molly- a Celtic punk band- on the GO2, namely that it will end up serving as a catalyst for more rock and metal artists getting onto the GO2.
• According to Goldenheart388, D'Autry's regular artist-matched character theme is "Long Live Rock and Roll" by Daughtry, his non artist-matched character theme is the Flogging Molly cover of "The Times They Are a-Changing" by Bob Dylan, and his Japanese character theme is "StaRt" by Mrs. GREEN APPLE. The first song relates to D'Autry's love of rock and metal music; the last two songs relate to D'Autry's desire for change within the GO2.
• D'Autry is the second character that Goldenheart388 has written for to have a Hasslemon handle abbreviation of CC, after Letina (classicalComprehension (CC)).
• Multiple other Hasslemon handles were considered for D'Autry before celticCatalyst (CC) won out. Among them were testingTradition (TT), oprixmisticOverhaul (OO), and celticCountry (CC). The latter option won, though it was changed to celticCatalyst (CC).
• Out of all the starter mons owned by one of Goldenheart388's characters, D'Autry has the most diverse moveset and knows the most amount of moves out of all of them.
• D'Autry's human name, Kris Rogers, is derived from the names of country/folk artist Kris Kristofferson and country legends Jimmie/Roy Rogers. "Kris" might also be derived from his namesake Chris Daughtry, though the spelling of said name matches Kristofferson's.
• According to Goldenheart388, D'Autry is also a fan of the 27 Club; his favorite artist amongst said club is Janis Joplin.
• The "THANKS" guitar seen as the suffix to D'Autry's typing quirk is a reference to Jimmie Rodgers' famous guitar, which had the word "THANKS" painted on the back. Rodgers would flash the back of his guitar to show his gratitude to the audience. Other messages that appear commonly on the back of the "guitar", according to Goldenheart388, include "YAY", "BOO", "YOU'RE WELCOME", and "HELP ME", along with single punctuation marks or emoticons such as "?" (whenever a question is asked), "^^;" (whenever D'Autry is particularly embarrassed), or "!" (for important info or to convey excitement). That being said, the front of the guitar is usually seen the most often.
• D'Autry's typing quirk used to have an A=^ replacement; however, the idea was ultimately scrapped after it was deemed that it would make D'Autry's quirk too difficult to read. The same reasoning applied for the deletion of a "7-7203" quirk (T=7; S=2; O=0; and 3=E).